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A HISTORY

OF

BLACKBURN PARISH.

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JPatisij of Blackburn, Counts of iancastet

HISTORY

OF

BLACKBURN,

BY

WM. ALEXANDER ABRAM,

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE HISTORIC SOCIETY OF LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE.

"Out of the old fieides, as men saithe, Cometh al this new come fro yere to yere, And out of old bookcs, in good faithe, Cometh al this new science that men iere." — Chaucer.

BLACKBURN :

J. G. & J. TOULMIN, 7'J/£ TIMES OFFICE,

CORPORATION STREET.

1877.

BLACKBURN: ]. G. AND J. TOULMIN, I, CORPORATION STREET,

TO THE LIVING

AUTHOR-ANTIQUARIES OF LANCASHIRE,

WHOSE COMBINED LABOURS

HAVE RECOVERED SO MUCH LOST TREASURE

FROM THE BURIED HOARDS OF TIME, —

AND TO THE CONSTANT

PATRONS OF COUNTY HISTORICAL LITERATURE,

WHOSE SUPPORT

HAS CONTRIBUTED TO MAKE ACCESSIBLE IN BOOKS

THE RICHES OF ANTIQUE LORE

WHICH LAY HID IN OBSCURE MUNIMENTS

AND REMOTE ARCHIVES, —

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

801818

viii PREFACE.

while the price of the book has not been raised, I do not grudge in the least, so long as I can indulge in the belief that the credit of thorough- ness will be accorded me by discriminating readers, and by experienced antiquaries who know what a Parish History ought to be and to comprehend.

I have bestowed much space and expended an unusual amount of work upon the accounts of old native families of inferior social rank to the Manorial Lords, namely, to the smaller Freeholders, lesser Gentry and Yeomen, as well as to those of the Merchant class who have attained to local repute within the last century or so. My reason for inserting such sketches of families of our old yeomen and lesser gentry as can be made out by parish registers and public records, in conjunction with family papers and title-deeds, is the fact that the history of families is the history of estates in the case of the smaller as of the larger properties ; and to ignore the succession to the minor freeholds is to leave the memorials of many a rural township practically unretrieved. The total number of families and distinct branches of families genealo- gically noticed in this History is nearly 300. Of necessity, some of the more obscure descents have not been traced to the last survivor or in much detail ; but even in the slightest outline of a family story, clues may be afforded to readers, now or hereafter, who may have a personal interest in pursuing the traces of ancestral alliance, estate, and domicile. Ampler and more minute genealogies have been carefully worked out of all the more important and long-standing territorial families, who are both many and honourable in the history of this Parish.

My final and very conscious obligation is to acknowledge the in- valuable help which I have received from some of the highest authorities in archaeology, genealogy, and general antiquities, and to offer my grateful thanks to those literary friends, generous as learned, who havethusgivenme the benefitof their extensive knowledge and large experience inauthorship. To William Langton, Esq., a veteran genealogist whose sheaved and garnered harvests of research have enriched so many publications of the Chetham Society, I am deeply beholden for the freest communication of exclusive information respecting the intricate descents of the important ancient families of Banastre, Langton, Hoghton, Cliderhou, Talbot, Os- baldeston, Shuttleworth, Holland, Southworth, and otheis. Mr. Lang- ton's name is the assurance of severe and scrupulous accuracy among antiquaries, and I am fortunate to have enlisted his most kindly interest in my work. From the Rev. Canon Raines, M.A., F.S.A. — both in references to his published works and in private communications of notes from his noble collection of Lancashire MSS. — I have derived an unreckoned number of interesting and authentic items bearing upon the ecclesiastical and civil annals of this parish. Mr. W. Angelo Wad-

PREFACE. IK

dington, of Burnley, besides various other kindnesses, has made specially for me a very pretty drawing of the old Manor-House of Martholme, after which the engraving was executed which is inserted in the volume. ^Vm. Haworth, Esq., of Fence-in-Pendle, has supplied a mass of interest- ing particulars respecting the several families of Haworth seated in this parish, and other allied families. To J. E. Bailey, Esq., F.S.A., of Stretford ; J. P. Earwaker, Esq., F.S.A., of Withington ; Wm. Dobson, Esq., F.S. A., of Fuhvood ; Lt.-Col. Fishwick, F.S.A., of Carr Hill, Roch- dale ; and Wm. Gourlay, Esq., of Blackburn, I owe the gift of valuable items scattered through the work. My friend, AVm. Thomas Ashton, P^sq., of Ashdale, Darwen, has helped me heartily and liberally in the preparation of my account of that important town and township. Froim John Walmesley, Esq., of Totnes ; Edgar S. Holland, Esq., of i.iverpool ; Rev. C. B. Norcliffe, of York ; Rev. M. Hedley, M.A., Vicar of Langho ; Thomas Woodcock, F^sq., of Haslingden ; Robert Hubberstey, Esq., of Samlesbury ; Mr. D. Geddes, Librarian of Blackburn Free Library ; and Mr. H. Stevenson, junr., of Haslingden, I have had sundry communica- tions which have been utilised in the accounts of families, churches, &c., in the different townships, and hereby express my thanks for the same.

No small proportion of the original materials employed in the com- ])osition of this history has been secured to me by the favour of the Vicar of Blackburn, the Venerable Archdeacon Birch, who from the first has given me the utmost facilities for repeated reference to the Parish Registers, and for the transcription of a large number of docu- ments relating to the history of the Parish Church of Blackburn with its dependent Chapels, and of the Rectory and Vicarage of Blackburn. But for this enlightened liberality of Archdeacon Birch, an indispensable branch of Parish History must have been left comparatively imperfect, which I have thereby been enabled to fill from those voluminous sources — the Coucher Books at the Vicarage. In the annals of the Blackburn Grammar School, I have in like manner been obliged by A. L Robinson, Esq., Clerk to the Governors, with the free use of the Manuscript Records of the Foundation, covering three centuries, hitherto entirely unnoticed.

My learned neighbour, whom I esteem it a privilege to call my firiend, the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart, LL.D., has with characteristic generosity given me the use of his fine library of the old literature and the benefit of his literary counsel and practical aid in the preparation of my pages.

From William Harrison, Esq., F.S. A., of Samlesbury Hall, I have received many valuable suggestions, and materials from the muniment- chest of the Samlesbury manor-estate ; and have to thank that gentleman

X PREFACE.

also for the use of his papers concerning the Samlesbury Charities, and of the engraved blocks of Samlesbury Church and Lower Hall, &c.; and for his permission to copy by autot)rpe the beautiful plate of the exterior of Samlesbury Hall prepared for the folio History of Samlesbury Hall privately printed for Mr. Harrison. Jonathan Peel, Esq., of Knowlmere Manor, has favoured me with notes from his extensive manuscript collec- tions for the family history of the Peels which has just been printed privately in a neat volume. Colonel Butler-Bowdon, of Pleasington Hall, courteously lent me two large MS. volumes in his possession re- lating to the descents of the families of Butler and Bowdon and to the manor-estate of Pleasington. Alderman John Pickop, of Blackburn, placed at my use a large and useful series of deeds of his family estate in Livesey and Tockholes. Messrs. Edward and Joseph Dugdale kindly allowed me to make extracts from the deeds of their estates of Oxen- dale and Studlehurst in Osbaldeston.

I have cause to lament the decease, before my work had reached its close, of several gentlemen who had manifested a friendly interest in its progress. The late Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart., gave me the kindest encouragement and assistance in various ways, and com- mended my work in influential quarters. Sir Henry de Hoghton, Bart., of Hoghton Tower, who died in December last, had honoured me by the expression of his desire to see this History, in which the ancient family of Hoghton occupies an eminent place, and of his confidence that the work would be competently done. My familiar friend the late Alderman T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S., of Burnley, died soon after the work of printing this volume had begun, the preparation of which he had often urged me to undertake, and by his decease I am deprived of the pleasure of placing the result of my toil in the hands of an able and experienced Lancashire antiquary — a native of this Parish.

I cannot refrain from placing on record my indebtedness to George Toulmin, Esq., proprietor of The Preston Guardian, whose friendly promptings did much in the outset to stimulate my adventure upon the somewhat formidable undertaking of producing this volume, and whose buisness sagacity and technical knowledge have been brought to bear in the printing of the work. Mr. Toulmin's sustained and liberal efforts to promote the illustration of local history in the columns of The Guardian have received due recognition by men of learning and research in Lanca- shire.

In conclusion, whilst bespeaking, as I trust I may, a not ungenerous reception of my book by those whose judgment will be held authorita- tive, let me confess I cannot suppose that much of its subject-matter will appear of great import to readers who have no personal nor family

PREFACE. xi

association with this part of the country. He who writes local histor)- is aware that on the wide field of a nation's historical literature his work must occupy an obscure nook ; and that details which may give it a special interest on the spot, will be passed by as paltry and tedious by distant critics. Except, perhaps, in certain particulars of the archseolog)- of the district ; in the narrative of local transactions of the great Civil War, including important battles ; in memorials of men of public fame sprung from the Parish ; and in illustrations of early domestic architec- ture in several of our fine old halls and mansions, I do not claim a more than provincial usefulness for the product of my labour. Albeit it has been settled by a consensus of high literary authorities that full and careful Parish Histories should be written, as tributary streams to the main current of the national history. If, then, this volume should be accepted as a fair type of the needful local record, my expectation will be fully satisfied.

WM. ALEXANDER ABRAM. Blackburn, August, 1877.

CORRECTIONS.

Page.

44 line 2 : for "Narman" read "Norman." 158 line 19 : for "disotdered" read "disordered."

200 line 16 : the initials " W H M " stand for " William and Mary Harwootl. " 213 line 4 from bottom : for " 1698" read " 1693." 261 line 14 from bottom : add that Myles Aspinall, gent., who married in 1763, died,

aged 80, Sept. 11, 1799, and was father of John Aspinall, born in 1757, died

Feb. 27, 1833, whose son, Lawrence Aspinall, born in 1791, died May 11, 1840. 269 line 13 from bottom : for "Nov. 9, 1645," read "1615." 292 bottom line (note) : for " Little Harwood " read " Mellor. " 335 line 13 : for "Lang " read "Lacy."

349 line 5 ; for " 1791, ceased 1787" read " 1787, ceased 1791." 362 line 5 : for "June i8th " read "June 25th." 369 line 9 : for " 1865 " read " 1875."

374 line 12 from bottom : for "Feb. Sth, 1875 " read " 1874."

376 line 6 from bottom, col. 2 : for " John Dean, Esq.," read "T. H. Pickup, Esq." 382 line 21 : for " Markland " read " Martland." 392 line 15 from bottom : after " Rev. W. Higgin " add "D.D., afterwards Bishop

of Derry." 397 line 19 : Peter Haworth, second son of Thomas, had issue, Thomas, of London,

apothecary ; John, of Bristol ; Hugh ; and Richard of Chancery Lane, London,

apothecary.

403 line 4 : after "Richard " add "bapt. Dec. 29, 1767."

404 line 1 1 from bottom : Alice Sudell, who married Joseph Hankinson, was daughter of John Sudell who died in 1733, not of the John who died in 1785.

406 Note: in this epitaph for "Pretate" read "Pietate," for "prascipise" read

"prascipue," and for "indentus" read "intentus. " 411 line 9 from bottom : for " 565-6" read " 365-6." 433 line 26 : for " died before 1570 " read " was buried Sept. 9, 1564." 433 line 33 : for "before 1586" read "Oct. 23, 1580."

447 line 8 from bottom : after " Cunliffe " add " He was buried Nov. 2, 1594." 469 line 18 : after " Ryvington " add " His son and heir, John Bradshaw, was aged

22 years. " 469 line 15 from bottom: after "rent" add "derived from his mother, Anne,

daughter and heir of John de Ardern, lord of Nether Darwen." 479 line 19 from bottom : for " Thomas" read "John." 482 line 12 from bottom: for "no" read "not." 510 line 12 : for " 1832 " read " 1852."

5 10 line 3 from bottom : for "died about the year 1627 " read " buried April 18, 1628. " 538 line 9 : for " the land meadow " read " the low meadow." 572 line II from bottom : for "All Soulue " read "All Soulne." 576 line 15 : for " 1693-4" read " 1694." 722 line 3 from bottom : for " with rental " read " with a rental."

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Preface ----- -•.... vii-xi

List of Illustrations ------- xv-xvi

BOOK I.— GENERAL HISTORY.

Chapter I. Roman and Saxon Periods . - - 1-43

II. Medi/Eval Period 44-59

III. Tudor Period 60-83

IV. Stuart Period 84-190

V. Modern Period - 191-244

BOOK II.— TOWNSHIP HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY.

Chapter I. Township and Town of Blackburn - - 245-412

11. Township of Balderstone - - - - 413-424

III. Township of Billington - - - - 425-456

IV. Township of Clayton-in-le-Dale - - 457-461 V. Township of Cuerdale - . . . 462-465

VI. Towi^sHip of Nether Darwen - -' - 466-487

VII. Township of Over Darwen - - - 488-528

xiv CONTENTS.

Chap. YIII. Township of Great Harwood - - - 529-555

IX. Township of Little Harwood - - - 556-563

X. Township of Livesey ----- 564-586

XI. Townships of Mellor-cum-Eccleshbll - 587-599

XII. Township of Osbaldeston - - - - 600-611

XIII. Township of Pleasington - - - - 612-626

XIV. Township of Ramsgreave - - - - 627-630 XV. Township of Rishton ----- 631-643

XVI. Township of Salesbury . - . - 644-656

XVII. Township of Samlesbury - - - - 657-680

XVIII. Township of Tockholes - - - - 681-704

XIX. Township of Walton-in-le-Dale- - - 705-744

XX. Townships of Wilpshire-cum-Dinkley - 745-754

XXI. Township of Witton 755-760

XXII. Township of Yate-cum-Pickup-Bank - - 761-765

Appendix - 766-772

Indfjc ----------- 773-784

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Portrait OF Rev. Robert Bolton, B.D., - - to face title-page

Engraved on steel by Mr. W. J. Alais from the old plate-portrait in the last Work of Bolton (1632). (See the Memoir, page 265.)

Roman Sepulchral Sculptured Slab, found near

Ribchester ------- to face page ig

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from Photographs by Mr. John Geddes.

Romano-British Cinerary Urn and Incense-Cup,

found at Darwen ------ to face page 24

Saxon Ring and Armlets, found at Cuerdale - - to face page 40

Peel Fold, ancient seat of the Peel Family - - to face page 221

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Frankland.

Blackburn Old Parish Church - . . to face page 301

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Drawing by the late Rev. S. J. Allen.

Blackburn Town Hall - - . - to face page 377

Blackburn Corporation Park - - - - to face page 318

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Drawing by Mr. Langton.

Blackburn Free Library and Museum - - to face page 380 Hacking Hall, Billington ----- to face page 43J

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Frankland.

Ancient Sculptured Corbel at Elkar, Billington - to face page 446

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph taken for Rev. M. Medley, M.A., Vicar of Langho. (The arms on the shield are those of Abbot John Paslew.)

Langho Parochial Chapel, Billington - - to face page 448

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Geddes.

Highercroft House, Lower Danven - - - to face page 473

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Frankland.

Paper Works of Messrs. Hilton at Darwen in 1843 to face page 4g2

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from an Engraving in " Bradshaw's Journal " (1842).

Xn LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Belgrave Congregational Meeting-House, Danven to face page S^S

Engraving lent by Rev. James Macdougall.

Martholme, Manor-house of Great Harwood - to face page s 3^

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Drawing made specially for this Work by Mr. William Angelo Waddington.

Great Harwood Church ----- to face page 55 r

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph.

Sir Edward Osbaldeston, Knt. - - - - to face page 604

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from an Engra\-ing in Pennant's " Tour from Downing to

Alston Moor."

Inscribed Lintel at Osbaldeston Hall - - - - page 608 Pleasington Old Hall ----- to face page 621

Engraved by Mr Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Erankland.

Samlesbury Old Hall ----- to face page 664

Reduced by autotype from the Engraving in the " History of Saiwlesbury Hall" (folio).

Lower Hall, Samlesbury ----- to face page dyr

Engraving from the " History of Samlesbury Hall," lent by Wm. Harrison, Esq., F.S.A.

Samlesbury Parochial Chapel - - - - to face page 676

Engraving from the " History of Samlesbury Hall," lent by Wm. Harrison, Esq., F.S.A.

SouthWorth Arms and Crest in Samlesbury Cliapel to face page 676

Engraving from the " History of Samlesbury Hall," lent by Wm. Harrison,. E.'.q., F.S.A.

Old Nonconformist Meeting-House, Tockholes to face page 704

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Frankland.

Western Gateway, Hoghton Tower - - - to face page 723

Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Geddes.

Dinkley Hall ------- to face page 746

Engraved by Mr. Robert La-ngton from a Photograph by Mr. John Gedde*.

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

To THE Large-paper Impression. (Arranged Alphabeiically.)

Abraham, John, Esq., Grassendale Fark,

Liverpool. Abram, George G., Esq. Wilpshire. Abram, Masters Edmund William and

Gilbert Percy, Blackburn Ainsworth, Thomas, Esq., Revidge Fold,

Blackburn (three copies) Ainsworth, T. S., Esq., Showley Fold,

Clayton-in-le-Dale Ainsworth, Thomas, Esq. , M. A. , Blackburn

Grammar School. Ainsworth, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn Ainsworth, Wm., Esq., Blackburn Akeroyd, James, Esq., Preston Almond, James, Esq., Blackburn Almond, John, Esq., Blackburn Almond, Wm., Esq., Blackburn Amos, Francis, Esq. , Burnley Armistead, James Fisher, Esq., J. P., Cob

Wall House, Blackburn Arthur, James, E., Esq., Blackburn Ashburn, William, Esq., Blackburn Ashton, Wm. Thomas, Esq., Ashdale, Dar-

wen (three copies and three small paper) Ashworth, Edmund, Esq., J. P., Egerton

Hall, near Bolton Aspden, Richard, Esq., Blackburn Aspden, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn

Backhouse, T. J., Esq., York Cliff, Billington Bacup Co-operative Society's Library Barker, H. H., Esq., Blackburn Baron, Wm., Esq., Blackburn Baron, Thomas, Esq. , Blackburn Beads, James, Esq., Blackburn Beardsell, Rev. George,_ Preston Beardsworth, James, Esq. , Blackburn Bertwistle, James, Esq. , Wilpshire Birch, Ven. Edward, M.A., Archdeacon and Vicar of Blackburn

Birch, Herbert, Esq., Blackburn Birtwistle, Bradshaw, Esq., Accrington Blackburn Free Public Library (two copies) Bland, John, Esq., Blackburn Bleasdell, Rev. John, B.A., Ashton-under-

Lyne Bolton, John, Esq., Blackburn Bone, J. W., Esq., B.A., F.S. A., London Bowker, Henry S., Esq., Blackburn Bowker, J., Esq., Preston Boyle, John, Esq., Blackburn Brennand, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn Bretherick, J. W., Esq., Darwen Bretherton, William, Esq., J.P., Runshaw

Hall, Leyland Brierley, Joseph, Esq., C.E., Blackburn Briggs, James, Esq., J. P., Beardwood Briggs, Wm. Edward, Esq., M. P., Harrow Brogden, James, Esq. , Blackburn Buckley, R.B., Esq., Blackburn Burton, Alfred, Esq., Manchester Bury, A. S., Esq., J. P., Blackburn Bury, Thomas, Esq., J. P., Blackburn (Mayor

of Blackburn, 1871-2) Bury, John Thomas, Esq., Blackburn Bury, Thomis, Esq., Blackburn Butler- Bowdon, Lt.-Col., J. P., Pleasington

Hall Butterfield, Wm., Esq., Blackburn

Campbell, David, Esq., Blackburn Cartrtiell, William, Esq., Blackburn Catterall, John, Esq., Blackburn Cavendish, Hon. Lord Edward, Devonshire

House, London Chew, Thomas H., Esq., Manchester Chew, W. L., Esq., Manchester Clough, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn Clough, John, Esq., Blackburn

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.

Cocks, Rev. Horrocks, London Coddington, William, Esq., J. P., Wycoller,

Blackburn (Mayor of Blackburn 1874-5)

(two copies)

Coddington, Richard Dudley, Esq., Black- burn

Coddington, Albert, Esq., Blackburn Coddington, Frank, Esq., Blackburn CoUinson, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn Cornish, J. E., Esq., Manchester Counsell, William, Esq., Borough Treasurer,

Blackburn Crankshaw, Samuel, Esq., Manchester Craven, Richard, Esq., Blackburn Crossley, Richard, Esq,, Blackburn

Darley, Charles, Esq., Blackburn

Darwen Free Library (per gift of Wm. Snape,

Esq., J. P.) Denham, Robert, Esq., Blackburn Derby, Rt. Hon. the Earl of, Knowsley Dickinson, James, Esq., J. P., Blackburn Dickinson, Aspin P., Esq., Blackburn Ditchfield, William, Esq., Blackburn Dobson, William, Esq., F.S.A., Fulwood Dodgson, R. B. Esq., J. P., Beardwood Downing, William, Esq., Birmingham Duckworth, Nicholas, Esq., Accrington Dugdale, Adam, Esq., J. P., Griffin Lodge,

Witton

Dugdale, Edward, Esq., J. P., Blackburn Dugdale, Joseph, Esq., Blackburn Dugdale, Richard S., Esq., Halifax Dunbar, Robert, Esq., M.D., Blackburn

Earwaker, J. P., Esq., M. A., F.S.A., With-

ington Eastwood, James, Esq., Blackburn Eatough, Joseph, Esq., Blackburn Eccles, J., Esq., B. A., Kensington, London Eccles, James, Esq., Blackburn Embley, John, Esq., Blackburn Evans, Howard, Esq., Barrow-in-Furness Entwistle, R. S , Esq., Darwen

Falconer, His Honour the Judge, Usk,

Monmouthshire Earn worth, R. D., Esq., Blackburn Famworth, Wm., Esq., Blackburn Fish, John, Esq., J. P., Livesey House,

Livesey Fish, Miss Marian, Darwen Fishwick, Lt.-CoI. H., J.P., F.S.A., Carr

Hill, Rochdale

Fletcher, Thomas, Esq., Preston Foster, Joseph, Esq., London Fowler, Messrs. E. and F., Blackburn Frankland, John, Esq., Blackburn Eraser, Rt. Rev. James, D.D., Lord Bishop of Manchester

Gaine, W. E. L., Esq., Town Clerk of

Blackburn Geddes, David, Esq. , Blackburn Free Library Gent, George, Esq., Blackburn Gibson, J. Harris, Esq., Liverpool Gourlay, William, Esq., Blackburn (and one

small paper) Graham, H. G. Esq., Blackburn Green, George, Esq., Blackburn Greenhalgh, J. D., Esq., Bolton Gregson, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn Gregson, William, Esq., Tockholes Grime, Dr. H. A., J. P., Blackburn Grosart, Rev. A. B. , LL. D. , Blackburn

Hamer, Edwin, Esq., Blackburn Hand, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn Hargreaves, John, Esq., Rock Ferry,

Cheshire Harrison, Joseph, Esq., J. P., Galligreaves

House, Blackburn Harrison, William, Esq., J. P., F.S.A.,

Samlesbury Hall Harrison, Henry, Esq., Stanley House,

Blackburn Harrison, James, Esq., Blackburn Harrison, S. J., Esq., Blackburn Hartington, Most Hon. the Marquis of,

M. P., Devonshire House, London Harwood, John, Esq., Blackburn Hasler, John, Esq., Chorley Hasler, Wm., Esq., Barrow-in-Fumess Haworth, William, Esq., Fence-in-Pendle

(two copies) Haworth, John, Esq., Blackburn Haydock, James, Esq., Blackburn Hayhurst, William, Esq., Blackburn Haythornethwaite, Wm., Esq., Cherry Tree,

Livesey Hedley, Rev. M., M.A., the Vicarage,

Langho Heginbotham, Henry, Esq., M,D., Millgate

House, Stockport Hermon, Edward, Esq., M.P., Preston Hey worth, Eli, Esq., J. P., Blackburn Hick, John, Esq., M.P., Mitton Hall Higham, Eli, Esq., Accrington Higson, Thomas, Esq., J. P., Blackburn

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.

Hindle, Dr., Darwen

Hindle, F. J., Esq., Darwen

Hindle, John, Esq., Blackburn

Hoghton, Sir Heniy De (the late), Bart.,

Hoghton Tower {two copies) Holland, Edgar S., Esq., Liverpool (and

live small paper copies) Holt, James Maden, Esq., M.P., Stubby

Lee, Bacup Holt, Robert, Esq., Manchester (two copies) Hoole, William, Esq., J.P., HoUoway,

London (Mayor of Blackburn, 1855-6) Hope, Mrs. J. C, Lower Broughton Hopwood, William, Esq., Blackburn Hornby, Wm. Henry, Esq., Junr., Mayor of

Blackburn, 1876-7 (three copies) Hubberstey, Robert, Esq., Samlesbury Hulton, VV. A., Esq., J. P., Hurst Grange,

Penwortham Huntington, James, Esq., J. P., Astley Bank,

Darwen Hutchinson, Robt. Hopwood, Esq., J. P.,

Tenter House, Rochdale (Mayor of

Blackburn, 1861-2) Ingham, John, Esq., Whalley

Jackson, R. Raynsford, Esq., J. P., The

Grange, Clayton-in-le-Dale Jepson, Jabez, Esq., Darwen Jepson, M. T., Esq., Darwen Johnson, J. C, Esq., Blackburn Johnston, Thomas, Esq. (the late), Houghton

near Carlisle

Kay, James, Esq. , Blackburn Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir James P., Bart, (the

late), Barbon Manor Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir Ughtred James, Bart.,

Gawthorpe Hall Kenyon, James, Esq., Blackburn Kitcher, Henry, Esq., Blackburn

Langton, William, Esq. , Docklands, Ingate-

stone, Essex (and one small paper) Leaver, James, Esq., junior, Blackburn Lewis, James, Esq., J. P., Blackburn Lewis, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn Leyland, John, Esq., The Grange, Hindley Liverpool Library, Lyceum Liverpool Public Free Library Livesey, William, Esq., Blackburn Longworth, Solomon, Esq., Clerl^ Hill, Whalley

Macdougall, Rev. James, Darwen

Manchester Public Free Library Marton, Captain G.B., J. P., Capemwray Meadows, Thomas, Esq., Mill Hill, Livesey McCave, W. H., Esq., Blackburn McOwen, William, Esq., Blackburn Meller, W. C, Esq., Blackburn

Monk, Esq., Blackburn

Moore, James, Esq., Darwen Neilson, Jonathan, Esq., Blackburn Nichols, S. A., Esq., Darwen

Osbaldeston, John, Esq., Fam worth

Parkinson, J. R., Esq., Blackburn Parkinson, Wm., Esq., Mill Hill, Livesey Parkinson, P. R., Esq., Blackburn Peel, Jonathan, Esq., J. P., Knowlmere

Manor Pickop, John, Esq. , J. P. , Blackburn (Mayor

of Blackburn, 1873-4) Pilkington, James, Esq., J. P., Swinithwaite

Hall, Bedale Pilling, R. C, Esq., Blackburn Platts, H. G., Esq., Blackburn Pomfret, Thomas, Esq. , Blackburn Porter, James, Esq., Blackburn Purbrick, Rev. E., S.J., Stonyhurst College

Richards, John, Esq. , Blackburn

Rigby, John, Esq. , Kirkham

Riley, George, Esq., Magistrates' Clerk,

Blackburn Roberts, William, Esq., Hey wood Hall Robinson, Arthur Ingram, Esq., Blackburn Rochdale Public Free Library Rylands, J. Paul, Esq., F.S.A., Highfields,

Thelwall, near Warrington Rylands, W. H., Esq., Highfields, Thelwall

Salford Public Free Library Savage, Tobias, Esq., Blackburn Scott, T. Livesey, Esq., Hey wood Shackleton, Richard, Esq., J. P., Withnell

Hall Sefton, James, Esq., Blackburn Sharpies, Henry, Esq., Blackburn Shaw, Henry, Esq., J. P., Buxton Shorrock, Eccles, Esq., J. P., Low Hill

House, Darwen Shorrock, Christopher, Esq. , Lower Darwen Shott, Wm., Esq., Manchester (two copies) Siddall, Samuel, Esq., Blackburn Skaife, John, Esq., M.D., Blackburn

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.

Slater, Jesse, Esq., Blackburn

Slater, Thomas, Esq., Mill Hill, Livesey

Smith, John, Esq., Bank House, Blackburn

(Mayor of Blackburn 1867-9) Smith, J. Stores, Esq., Chesterfield Snape, Wm. Esq., J. P., Lynwood, Lower

Darwen Spedding, WilUiam, Esq., Chorley Spenser, John, Esq., Blackburn Starkie, Major Le Gendre Nicholas, J. P.,

Huntroyd Stephen, James, Esq., Blackburn (and one

small paper) Stephenson, Wm. H., Esq., M.D., Blackburn Stirrup, William, Esq., Blackburn Stott, Rev. J. McEwan, M.A., Blackburn

Tattersall, John, Esq., Billinge View, Black- bum Taylor, William, Esq., Blackburn Thompson, John, Esq., Blackburn Thwaites, Daniel, Esq., M.P., Billinge Scar Tiplady, W.C, Esq., Blackburn Tomlinson, John, Esq. , Blackburn Tomlinson, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn Toulmin, George, Esq., The Colonade,

Preston Toulmin, John, Esq., Bushell Place, Preston Townend, John, Esq., Shadsworth Hall, Blackburn (two copies)

Varley, W. S., Esq., Blackburn

Veevers, Richard, Esq., Preston

Waddington, Wm. Angelo, Esq., Burnley

Walker, John, Esq., Blackburn

Walmsley, Captain, Hoghton

Walmsley, L. S., Esq., Blackburn

Walsh, Jabez, Esq., Blackburn

Walsh, William, Esq., Blackburn

Ward, Henry, Esq., The Oaks, Clayton-in-

le-Dale Watson, Joseph, Esq., Blackburn Weild, George, Esq., Lower Bank Academy,

Blackburn Westall, Robert, Esq., Shadsworth, Black- bum Whalley, C. W., Esq., Blackburn Whalley, John, Esq., Blackburn Whalley, Richard, Esq., Cherry Tree,

Livesey Whewell, J., Esq., Darwen Whittaker, Robert, Esq., Blackburn Wilding, Richard, Esq., Blackburn Wilkinson, William, Esq., Dunnow, Slaid-

bum Wolstenholme, R., Esq., Blackburn Wood, Richard, Esq., Whalley Range,

Manchester Woodcock, Thomas, Esq., Haslingden (two

copies) Woodcock,' James, Esq., Blackburn

Yates, Thomas, Esq., Burnley

HISTORY OF BLACKBURN,

BOOK I.— GENERAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.— ROMAN AND SAXON PERIODS.

Name — Physical Features — Aboriginal Condition — Roman Conquest and Occupation — Roman Roads and Stations— Ribchester—Walton-in-ie-Dale — Romano-British Tumulus at Whitehall, Over Darwen — Withdrawal of Roman Garrisons— Advent of Saxons — Saxon Wars — Battle of Billan- gahoh — Conflicts of Saxons and Danes — Battle of Brunanburh — Danish Treasure discovered at Cuerdale — Saxon Settlements in the Parish, and local Nomenclature.

BLACKBURN is the name borne since Saxon times by one of the chief territorial divisions of Lancashire, as well as by a parochial subdivision of that division and by a town or township within the parish so named. It has been matter for curious but fruitless speculation how the descriptive designation of one of the smallest of the streams that water this extensive tract^the Blake-bume — should have come to be adopted originally as the appellation of a shire — i.e. Blakebumeshyre, — afterwards of the Hundred, in addition to its appropriation as the name of a large parish of many townships constituted within the Hundred, and naturally as that of the particular township through which the stream runs in its short course of two or three miles. Had the town of Black- bum been anciently a central fortified place of Blackbumshire, — the seat of the chief lord of the district, — the comprehensive use of the name would be more explicable ; but this is not the case. Blackburn was not primitively either the civil or ecclesiastical centre of the Hundred ; it was not even a corporate town, as Clitheroe, the focus of

I

2 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

Norman authority in East-Lancashire, or Preston, the capital of Amoun- demess ; and it was not until a very modem date and through the esta- blishment of manufactures within it, that the town of Blackburn became distinguished in the district by its populousness and commercial supre- macy.

It is intended to limit the present historical survey to that portion of Blackburn Hundred forming the ancient Parish of Blackburn. This Parish, at an early period not exactly ascertained, was separated from the older parish of Whalley, as is mentioned in an ancient document hereafter to be referred to.

The Parish of Blackburn is estimated to contain 43,569 statute acres. Its physical geography is comprised chiefly in the northern slopes of two ranges of hills which trend N.E. and S.W. across this portion of Lancashire, and the valley Ijdng between these ranges. The series of hills occupying the mid-portion of the parish is that which commences with the rock of Hoghton and continues in the successive ridges of Billinge Hill, Revidge Heights, Wilpshire Moor, and Billington Moor. Mellor Moor and Ramsgreave Heights form a spur of the range. South- ward of the Parish, forming its bound and the water-shed of Mid- Lancashire, extend lofty moorlands, the largest masses of which are Tockholes Moor, Darwen Moor, and Cranberry Moss. Cartridge Hill, the westerly summit of these moors, rises 1,316 feet above the sea-level. Projecting northwards from this range are the hills of lower altitude between the townships of Over Darwen, Livesey and Tockholes, and, more to the east, a ridge descending gradually from Blacksnape Heights through Hoddlesden to Lower Darvven and Blackburn. These hills surround the upper portion of the valley of the Darwen. The Ribble is the boundary of the Parish on the north side, from end to end ; and the Calder, a main affluent of the Ribble, is with its tributary the Hyndburn the parish limit on the east. The river Dar^ven may be said to belong to the parish through its entire course. Its source is among the swampy wastes of Cranberry Moss, on the line of the division between Salford and Blackburn Hundreds. It descends rapidly through the town of Over Darwen, is joined at Dob Meadows by the Sunnyhurst brook, passes through Lower, Darwen township, and thus reaches the township of Blackburn, of which it is the boundary to the west. At Feniscliffe bridge, in Witton Park, the Darwen is replenished by the Blakewater, a stream which descends from the hills of Oswaldtwistle, combines to the east of Blackburn with the Little Harwood brook, and flows through the midst of the townships of Blackburn and Witton until it merges into the Darwen. Another subsidiary stream is the Roddlesworth, which springs on the high ground above HoUinshead Hall, flows northward between

ABORIGINAL CONDITION. 3

the townships of Tockholes and Wheelton, and, until it mingles with the Darwen, divides the Hundreds of Blackburn and Leyland. Its point of junction is the grounds of Feniscowles Hall. Flowing onwards through the ravine beneath Hoghton Tower, the Darwen is the boundary of the Parish until the line branches off to embrace the township of Walton- le-Dale on the left bank of the Darwen, which discharges itself into the Ribble near Walton bridge.

No historic account of this or any other part of Britain exists of an older date than the first Roman invasion. Accordingly, obscurity rests upon the movements and settlements of the native races prior to that period. The Romans, on their advent, found the northern provinces of the country peopled by various tribes of Celtic extraction ; and of these the great tribe of the Brigantes was reputed to be the most powerful. The realm of the Brigantes was then, and had probably been for some centuries, the belt of territory now embraced in the counties of Lanca- shire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmoreland and Durham. The Roman historians, in chronicling the spread of the Roman power in Britain, became also the earliest annalists of a land destined one day to eclipse their own in all the elements of national greatness.

When the civilisation of Greece was passing into senility, and even that of Rome had attained its zenith, our island was still the hunting-ground of savages. The face of the land was for the most part covered with morass and forest, through which wandered naked men, who abhorred the settled habits of systematic husbandry. The personal aspect of the Brigantes and the British tribes generally is described by Strabo and Tacitus. The Teutonic and Scandinavian types were found in the natives of Southern England and Eastern Scotland ; but in the North of England the inhabitants had the swarthy visage and black curly hair of the Celtic variety of mankind. In stature, Strabo says, the Britons were taller than the Gauls, but their limbs hung loosely, and their bodies were not so symmetrically formed. The stalwart Brigantes of Lancashire, and the intrepid Silures and Ordovices of Wales, were among the best types of the nomadic races which filled the borders of Britain at the epoch when our country emerges from the Cimmerian shadow oi a. terra incognita, and first begins to figure in the written story of human development.

Dwelling, as they did, in rude and temporary habitations, and having no towns of any note, it is not strange that the aborigines of this country should have left few enduring marks behind them. The sole vestiges of that period of British antiquity that Time still spares are the ranges of massive stones which constituted their temples, and the earth- mounds of their burial places.

Very slight traces of the ancient language of Britain survive in this

4 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

locality. The geographical nomenclature of East Lancashire is almost wholly Saxon. In the names of two or three of our hills and streams the Celtic element is, however, recognised, as in that of our highest moun- tain, Pendle (formerly Penhull), in which the first syllable is Celtic. Ribble, Calder, Darwen, Irwell, the appellations of our principal rivers, possibly are of British origin. Rigodumim, the ancient name of Ribchester, is said also to be British, — that being one of the few urban settlements or permanent fortresses of the Brigantes before the Roman appropriation which raised it to the celebrity of a chief Roman station and city.

The first invasion of England, by Julius Cssar, took place 55 years before Christ; but it was not until A.D. 78, that the Lancashire aborigines were made effectually to feel the force of martial Rome. In that year Agricola, the ablest general that ever commanded the Roman army of occupation in Britain, was despatched hither. Having pacified Wales during the winter, Agricola, in the spring of the year 79, made preparations to consummate the conquest of the country lying beyond the Mersey and the Humber. He concentrated at Deva (Chester) the largest Roman force that had ever operated in Britain, numbering, it is said, about 30,000 foot and 6,000 cavalry. He made a preliminary survey of the country he now proposed to occupy, and then, passing the Mersey, marched his army across the plains and mountains of South and East Lancashire, into Yorkshire. The native warriors offered what resistance they might in their desultory mode of fighting, but they could make no stand against the disciplined legionaries of Agricola, who at the end of a single year was master of all the fastnesses of the Brigantes.

ROMAN ROADS AND STATIONS.

The slender testimony of history regarding the victories of the Romans and the acts of their generals, is to some extent supplemented by the mute but honest evidence afforded by the remains of the engineering works they undertook, and of the military camps and civil colonies they established. The Roman Roads of Britain exist to this day, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, as proofs of the thoroughness of the Roman conquest of the island. Lancashire presents abundant remains of these wonderful roads, and the Parish of Blackburn contains many interesting vestiges. Three of the four principal roads constructed by the Romans in Lancashire traversed some portion of the Parish : — I. The lower road from the south to Carlisle, intersected the township of Walton-in-le-Dale. 2. The road from Manchester to Overborough crossed the Parish at its broadest part. 3. The road from the sea to the interior, which formed the conmiunication between the " Sistuntian Port"

ROMAN ROADS. 5

(on the Wyre) and Ribchester, Ilkley-in-Wharfedale, Aldborough and York, enters Blackburn Parish at Ribchester, by a ford over the Ribble, and after traversing the townships of Salesbury, Dinkley, and Billington, crosses the Calder at Potter Ford, a Httle below Whalley Abbey. Besides the broad and solid Romans roads forming the great military routes, a number of vicinal or branch roads, of much simpler construc- tion, were used for communication between stations situated on parallel lines of main road. In Blackburn district some of these vicinal ways have been traced out. One such by-road proceeded along the vale of Calder by Whalley to Burnley, and through Cliviger over the mountains to Cambodunum (Slack). The late Rev. E. Sibson, in a paper on the Roman Roads of the Wigan district, speaks of a road of this kind which branched off eastward from Blackrod, "Street-fold and Water-street, near Rivington, and by White Hough, in Tockholes, to the small Roman station at Blackburn, near the new road to Preston." "This road is traced in the fields near Anglezark, and a tradition is still preserved among the inhabitants of that district, that this was the old road to Blackburn." '

The Roman military roads — the few great lines first constructed in a newly-entered territory, to quicken the march of the cohorts and the transport of material — were the most massive of their works in road- making. The plan of their construction was as follows : — Two deep furrows were cut parallel to each other, about twenty-one feet apart, and the subsoil between them was dug out until a solid surface was reached. This hollow was filled up with layers of small stones and gravel, in some instances mingled with lime, and hammered down to a state of great hardness. Upon the surface the road was paved with large pebbles brought from the beds of streams, or with squared flagstones carefully adjusted. The same road at different places is paved either with pebbles or flag-stones, whichever lay convenient. The public roads, built when the military roads were no longer equal to the commercial requirements of the Roman colonists, were usually about fourteen feet in width, and unpaved. The broad military roads were constructed with rigid geome- trical accuracy, being carried forward in straight lines, regardless of obstacles in the shape of bog-lands, steep gradients, or rough water- courses. No deviation from the line was permitted, except an angle might be struck at the summit of a hill, in order to preserve the high ground through the remainder of the route. In the inferior roads the straight line is less strictly kept, and the low courses of valleys are some- times followed. These characteristics enable us generally to determine to which of the varieties of construction any Roman road belongs.

1 Hist. Lane, first edn., v. iii, p. 585.

6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

The Roman road from Manchester to Ribchester which bisected the Parish of Blackburn had apparently been a military road of the first importance. It was solidly underlaid with gravel and carefully paved ; it preserves the straight line throughout, and it keeps the high ground, commanding the country on either hand. Some Lancashire antiquaries insist that this was the veritable Tenth Iter of Antoninus ; others, influenced by the fact that Ribchester (Rigodunum) is not specified as upon that Iter, pronounce the road through Wigan and Walton to be the Tenth Iter — a road, judged by its existing remains, of inferior construction to the higher road. However this may be, the road which went through Blackburn parish and town was certainly one of the most useful of the military ways of the Romans in the North of England. It directly connected the two most renowned Roman stations in Western Brigantia, namely, Mamucium (Manchester) and Rigodunum (Ribchester). It enabled the Roman generals to penetrate the interior of the country, and to overawe the sullen barbarians who made the vast woods of East Lancashire their covert. It might well be that the construction of this indispensable road was one of the chief works of the indomitable Agricola in his second campaign (a.d. 79) ; and that throughout the summer thousands of hardy Roman warriors swarmed upon this moun- tain-track, some keeping guard on its highest summits, while the rest diligently laid the road under the direction of the imperial engineers.

This road left Manchester at or near the line of the modern street called " Strangeways," and continued for some miles along the ground now traversed by the New Bury-road.' In the neighbourhood of Man- chester every trace of the ancient pavement has been obliterated, but its tradition is preserved in the name of a back-street upon the line in Higher Broughton. The route passes through the village of Prestwich, crosses the Irwell near Radcliffe Bridge, and proceeds about two miles to the west of Bury, where it abuts upon a lane which still bears the name of " Blackburn-street." Afterwards it runs by Tottington, Turton, and Edgeworth, over the highest part of a hill called Offiside, and enters the Parish of Blackburn a short distance to the south of the village of Blacksnape. The writer has at various times examined the line of the road from Blacksnape to Ribchester. Standing on the top of Black- snape Heights, where the weather-beaten cottages of the coal-miners straggle over the bare hill, a long stretch of the Roman route is visible both southwards and northwards. The present highway from Bury to Blackburn keeps very near to the ancient road for some miles until it approaches Blackburn. In the valleys the modern road breaks away

1 See .in account of the road, with sketch-map of route, by John Just, in Memoirs of Manch. Lit. and Phil. Soc, v. vii (N.S). pp-1-21.

ROMAN ROADS. y

here and there from the straight line, to ease the descent and ascent, but rejoins the Roman work where it approaches the summit of a ridge. Looking south from Blacksnape the road is seen running boldly over the brow of Offiside ; and in the opposite direction it pursues the high ground of Lower Darwen township, descends the Whinny Heights into the valley of the Blakewater, and again strikes the line on the tops of Revidge, of Ramsgreave, and of Longridge Fell in the far distance. The ordnance surveyors found that this road never swerved from the direct line, except by a slight angle at Blacksnape. The remains of the road itself are not easy of detection for a great portion of the distance. Wherever the modem road stands on the old military agger it is impossible that after the wear and tear and repairs of so many centuries any external traces of the original pavement should present themselves. In the neighbourhood of large populations, also, the constant disturbances of the surface have effaced such remains ; and, again, in parts of the route where the land has been repeatedly ploughed and drained, the pavements laid by Agricola's legionaries have been torn up and carted away by the farmer, with whom the interests of archaeology are naught to the effectual clearance of the land from stones. Accordingly, as a rule, the only spots at which complete and continuous portions of the Roman roads can now be distinguished are where their firm, rigid tracks cross unfrequented moorlands, and now and then on the surface of unbroken pasture-land, or where the old road has been utilised as an occupation-road upon the farms. In its descent from Blacksnape in the direction of Blackburn, the Roman line is identical with that of the highway for about half-a-mile, when the modem road bears a little to the left where it is intersected by the old bye-road from Hoddlesden to Darwen. At this point, under the wall at the comer at which the Roman road enters the field, are some signs of a hard pavement, but through the fields beyond a close inspection failed to detect any certain indication until the minous tenements at Harwood Fold are reached. There, at the comer of the field, remains on the exact line of the agger are exposed. On the descent of the hill towards the coal-pit the footway down the fields, precisely on the Roman line, is paved for some distance with thick flag- stones. The ground hereabouts, if carefully examined, could hardly fail to disclose evidences of Roman work. Passing the coal-pit on the left, the Roman road rejoins the present road, at the point known as the " Flash, " and thence it proceeds on nearly the same line, crossing the Eccleshill Brook a little to the right of the bridge, through the village of Blackamoor ; beyond it the present road once more bends to the left for its descent into Blackburn. The Roman road still kept its undeviating way, its direction being indicated by a tree standing in the middle of a

8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

field at Whinny Heights, a short distance to the west of the Union Workhouse. Crossing the Belthom road at Brandy House Brow, the Roman road drops over the scarp of the stone-quarry. No remains of the road have been noted where it crosses the town of Blackburn, but the direct course it took would lie over the hill of Lower Audley to Cicely Bridge, past the east end of the Railway Station, over the site of Button's Brewery, across the thoroughfares of Salford, Penny Street, and James Street. Thence, through the Brookhouse Fields, it ascended the hill, and rejoined the modem road at the Hole i'th' Wall Inn, Shire Brow. The Roman road then runs through the meadow on the left of the highway to Lane Ends, over the site of the School. Here the heights of Ramsgreave come in view, and the line of the Roman road is hit by a farm-house on the top of that hill. It crossed the intervening valley a little to the left of the farm-house of Higher Waves. In these fields the traces of the road are slight and unsatisfactory. But when the summit of Ramsgreave is passed, an interesting section of the agger is presented. A well-paved farm-road goes down from the farm-yard into the fields. From the top of this road, standing strictly on the line of the Roman way, the Ribble valley is seen spreading itself finely before the spectator. A little to the west, on the summit of Mellor Moor, are still to be seen the fosse and vallum of a small Roman camp of observa- tion. Ribchester, once the centre of Roman power in these parts, is well in view at the bottom of the extended valley, and lines of fences mark out the track of the road from where we stand to the Ribble bank opposite the station. As the background to Ribchester rises Longridge Fell, and the plain appearance of a lighter strip running across the dark sward of the Fell shows the continuation of this great road to the top of Longridge. The lane to which we have referred ends in a footpath, following which for about three hundred yards is come upon a palpable specimen of Roman road. For several yards the pavement lies bare and regular in the midst of the pasture, every stone lying where the Roman road-maker set it in the first century of the Christian era. The pebbles or boulders of which this pavement is composed are very similar in size to those which were used for the streets of our English towns before the general substitution of squared " setts." Beneath the paved surface is a hard bed of gravel, the depth of which could only be ascertained by hacking up a portion of the road. A little further on in these fields, before reaching the cottages, a second portion of the agger appears distinct above the ground. Again, near the gate at the end of the occupation road which runs forward from Midge Hall, another perfect example of the road is exposed to view. On reaching the farm-house called Har^vood Fold (the second homestead of that

kdMAN kOADS. 5

name which stands upon the road in this parish), once more appears an obvious specimen of the pavement at the margin of the meadow, just beyond the farm-yard. The vestiges here mentioned are but the results of superficial examinations ; — if arrangements could be made to cut across a segment of the road in the vicinity of these remains, useful information as to the dimensions and substratum of the road might be supplied. After leaving Harwood Fold, the agger crosses the Preston and Whalley turnpike some hundreds of yards to the east of the Royal Oak Inn, advances across the fields past Stubby-Lee House, and down the occupation-road towards Ribchester. On reaching the high bank of the Ribble, the road is for the first time diverted by a sharp angle and carried down to the ford of the river below Ribchester Bridge.

The second road carried through a portion of the Parish by the Romans during their occupancy of the island, is that which extends from the Sistuntian Port to York. Near Ribchester this road crossed to the south bank of Ribble, and passed a short distance above Salesbury Hall. Mr. Just, who carefully surveyed the road, observes^ : —

Fine continuous remains hence mark the course of the road, and the investigator can see the line before him now in bold elevations across the fields, or, still more marked, near farm houses and outbuildings, and not unfrequently in occupation roads, from such continuing along the Roman line for early and present advantage.

From Salesbury the road advances into Dinkley, and then crosses Dink- ley Brook below Langho Chapel. It proceeds in a direct line behind Brockhole to Hacking, where it runs in the rear of the Hall, and had its ford over the Calder below the modem crossing-place at Potter's Ford. What seems to be a section of the agger is a very evident rib crossing the large field immediately to the south of Crow Wood, exactly on the line of road as marked by the ordnance surveyors. Beyond the Calder the route is through the Parish of Whalley to the Yorkshire border.

The other Roman road to the North, through Wigan, Preston, and Lancaster, at Walton-in-le-Dale crosses an extremity of the Parish. Mr. Hardwick, who has made diligent search for Roman remains in Walton township, and was the first to demonstrate the existence there of a considerable Roman station, asserts that a " broad agger is still trace- able " southward from the Ribble through Walton village ; that " during the erection of Mr. Calvert's shed, which crosses its line," the workmen " came upon a compact mass of road material, so hard that a jjickaxe could scarcely penetrate it ;" and that " near Brownedge Chapel there appears still to exist a large fragment of the Roman highway, now used as a private road, but marked on the ordnance map as 'Mainway gate.""

I Hist. Soc. Lane, and Ches. Papers, v. iii, p. 6. 2 lb. v. viii, p. 13B. 2

lo HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

Other traces of the causeway, both to the north of Ribble and to the south of Walton, authenticate this hne of road, and prove that the Romans possessed duphcate Hnes of road and stations throughout the length of the county. Whether the two great parallel roads were constructed simultaneously ; or, if not, which of the twain was first undertaken, is unknown ; but it has been suggested that the difficulties of the more elevated route over Blacksnape, Longridge, and Croasdale caused it, as the country became pacified, to be neglected for the level and less-exposed road through the plains of West Lancashire. The cross-road from Ribchester to Preston would supply a roundabout communication with Manchester, Lancaster, and the other Lancashire stations. In summer the highland road would be practicable and even pleasant, but during the gales and snows of winter even the inured Roman soldiery might be fain to seek a more sheltered path.

It is not necessary here to extend the retrospect of the long period of the Roman occupation of Britain. That occupation endured, so far as this part of the island is concerned, for about 369 years, from the advance of Agricola, a.d. 79, to the final withdrawal of the Roman garrisons, about the year 448. The tranquillity of subjection established by the considerate policy of Agricola lasted, with occasional interruptions, for more than a century ; and the prosperity of the empire of Rome, in which its British colonies shared, culminated in the reign of Antoninus Pius, who acceded in the year 138. In the preceding reign the Emperor Adrian conducted in person a series of military operations against the tribes of North Britain, and built the celebrated wall which bears his name from Solway to Wallsend on the Tyne. From the middle of the second century the degeneracy of the Roman government and people was rapid, and the anarchy of the home provinces influenced for ill the condition of the distant dependencies of Rome. In the year 208 Britain received another imperial visitor, the Emperor Severus, who, hearing that the colony was overrun by marauders out of Caledonia, hastened hither to restore order and to reduce these northern tribes. Severus established his court at Eboracum (York), where, in the year 211, he died. Again, a.d. 306, Constantine, who had been declared Emperor of the western half of the partitioned empire, sojourned in Britain, and also died at York, when his son, Constantine the Great, was proclaimed emperor in that city. The garrisons of the Romans in Britain consisted, for many generations after the conquest, of three legions — the Second, spread over the southern provinces of the country ; the Sixth, whose head quarters were at York ; and the Twentieth, which was quartered at Chester, with detachments at various stations in the north- western territory.

Roman stations— ribchester. it

ROMAN RIBCHESTER.

Of the numerous stations occupied by the Romans in Lancashire, those of Rigodunum (Ribchester), and Coccium (Walton), were situate in the lower portion of the Vale of Ribble. Ribchester was a station of the first importance. Rigodunum was the name by which it was kno^vn to Ptolemy as a British post. The ancient name of its beautiful river was Belisama. The Roman nomenclature of the place is not yet satisfactorily settled. It stands as Coccium on the Tenth Iter of Antoninus, if we accept for that Iter the great road from Manchester to Overborough ; and a local antiquary made an ingenious attempt to find the etymology of Coccium in Rigodunum. But subsequent researches in the perplexed subject of the Roman topography of Lancashire have led to the fixing of Coccium at Walton-in-le-Dale.

The position of Ribchester, lying in the centre of the Lancashire portion of the valley of the Ribble, was, in a military point of view, at once commanding and secure. Across Ribchester, the valley shows its greatest expanse, and one of the few fords of the river is hard by. The station stood, like the modem village, on the north side of the Ribble, protected in front by the steepness of the other bank and by the deej) pools of the river ; and having to the east a natural defence in the brook which there descends into the Ribble. The western wall was washed by a small canal connected with the river below Anchor Hill. In the rear the ground is sufficiently open to permit of effectual precaution against surprise. Moreover, the station occupied the intersection of two principal roads of the Romans in the north-west of England, which supplied the city with four grand routes, answering to the four points of the compass, affording direct communication with every portion of the British colony. The foundation of the Roman station here is supposed to date from the latter years of the first century. The notion that Ribchester was a Roman seaport, occasioned by the discovery there of small anchors, mooring rings, and other nautical implements, has been exploded. The Ribble could never have been a tidal and navigable water up to Ribchester since the geologic epoch, incomputably remote, when the marshy lands of West Lancashire emerged from the sea, for those districts lie considerably below the level of Ribchester ; and as we know that the Romans had both stations and roads in the Fylde country, it is obvious that Roman shipping could at no time have been floated on the tides of Ribble so far inland. The anchors and rings seen at Ribchester must have belonged to barges employed to ferry men and stores across the river opposite to " Anchor Hill." The area of the Roman circumvallation at Ribchester is ascertained to have been about

12 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

ten statute acres. The length of the rectangle of the fortifications was 300 yards, and its breadth from 130 to 140 yards. Over a considerable portion of this area the current of the Ribble now flows. The river, after running due west until it reaches Ribchester, bends quickly to the south opposite the village, the situation of which, being at the outer edge of the curve, is exposed to the inroads of the current. The Ribble is subject to heavy floods after continued rains, being fed by many streams coming down from the fells, and on these occasions large portions of the north bank are frequently torn away by the impetuous torrent, in spite of recent attempts to break its force by facing the bank with massive stones. This process of encroachment, going on without intermission for 1,800 years since the Roman ramparts were reared, has shifted the bed of the river at this point to an extent more than equal to the width of the stream ; and has submerged about one-third of the site of the ancient station. The eastern angle of the Roman camp now lies separated from the rest of the area on the south side of the Ribble, and within the township of Clayton-in-le-Dale in Blackburn Parish.

The limited dimensions of the walled enclosure at Ribchester may hardly be consonant with the conception of a populous and spacious city ; but it should be considered that these lines only covered the camp of the Roman garrison. According to the Roman castrametal system, even such an area as that of Ribchester was capable of holding in an emergency one entire legion with its auxiliaries, about 9,000 men. The villas of the affluent and the huts of the indigent civilians of ancient Ribchester might, at the period of its highest prosperity, surround for some distance the military enclosure. The garrison of Ribchester con- sisted, as appears from inscriptions found there, of detachments of the Sixth Legion from Eboracum, of the Twentieth Legion from Deim, and of wings of the Sarmatian horse and of the Astures — auxiliaries brought from distant subject territories of the empire. The Sarmatians, who were of the same race with the Cossack horsemen of the modern Russian armies, are believed to have constituted the ordinary garrison of this station.

A brief summary of the numerous discoveries of antiquities which have been made at this famous spot may not be out of place in these pages. The earliest note of the remains here is made by Leland, anti- quary to Henry VIIL, who made his itineration of the kingdom within the years 1544-50. He leaves of the Ribchester of his day this short but expressive record : — " Ribchestre is a vii. miles above Preston, on the farther Ripe of Ribyl as Prestun is. Ribchestre is now a poore thing ; it hath been an aunciente towne. Great squarid stones, voultes, and antique coynes be founde ther ; and ther is a place wher the

ROMAN STATIONS— RIBCHESTER. 13

people fable that the Jues had a temple [the common folk attributed Roman remains to the Jews]. Whaulley Abbay a 4 miles above Ribchestre on the same Ripe. Sawley Abbay a — miles above that, but it stondith ripa citeriori. There is no Bridge on Rible betwixt Prestun and the Se. It flouith and ebbith in Ribyl most communely more then half way up betwixt Prestun and Ribchestre, and at ragis of Spring Tydes farther.'"

Camden, who was at Ribchester twice, in 1582 and 1603, published a description of the visible vestiges of the Roman city, and offered deci- pherings of the inscriptions, some of which have been corrected by subsequent writers. In the account of his first visit Camden writes : — " Here the Ribell, presently turning west, gives its name to a village at present called Riblechester, where so many remains of Roman antiquities, statues, coins, columns, capitals, bases of columns, altars, marbles, and inscriptions are continually dug up, that the inhabitants seem not much mistaken in their lame rhyming proverb : —

It is written upon a wall in Rome,

Ribchester was as rich as any town in Christendom.^

More than a century later (1725) an able antiquary. Dr. Stukeley, examined the spot, and his observations are printed in the Jtinerarium Curiosum." His narrative of the aspect of the place and the inroads of the river is graphic, and well worthy of quotation : —

The River Ribble is very broad at this place, rapid and sonorous, running over the pebbles, and, what is much to be lamented, over innumerable Roman antiquities ; for in this long tract of time it has eaten away a third part of the city. I traced round the old ground plot, and where the wall and ditch went round it, it lay in length east and west along the north side of the river, upon its brink, eight hundred feet long and five hundred feet broad. . . Originally, I apprehend, two streets ran along its length, and three crossed them at its breadth. By symmetry I find the whole channel of the river lies at present within the precinct of the old city, the original channel on the other side being filled up with the city walls and rubbish, for it bends with a great elbow towards the city. The eastern limit of the city, or that upward of the river, lies against a brook, there falling in ; and the two streams playing against that angle, have carried it away, and still threaten it. At the western end of the city, or down the stream, a whole road, and some houses too, by a bam, are absorbed, and a great quantity of ashler, the remains of the wall, has been carried off for building. Much remains in the ground, and on the edge of the stream. Further up the land and all along the west side of the church wall the ditch is perfect, and the rampart where the wall stood pretty high, and the foundation of the wall a little apparent. They tell me the ashler stone still lies its whole length.

Dr. Stukeley further describes that a subterraneous canal or sewer, paved at the bottom, and high enough for a man to walk upright in it, entered the river just below the Red Lion Inn. The current there was so strong at times that " two or three bridges had in modem times

1 Hearne's Leland, v. iv, pp. 22-3. 2 Cough's Camden, v. iii, p. 378. 3 V. ii, pp. 36-38.

14

HISTORY OF BLACKBURN,

been swept away by floods." The hostelry referred to had been partially built out of the Roman ruins ; its doorway was " the base of a pillar, and a most noble shaft, seven feet long, handsomely turned, which was fished up out of the river;" and "one corner of the house had a Roman partition wall." As an example of the aggression of the river upon the bank, Stukeley relates that "within memory a great many houses (and among them the chief inn of the town) were washed away"; and " further on do^vn the river a great part of an orchard fell down last year (1724)." This writer enumerates a great quantity of minor relics which had recently been picked up at the time of his visit, such as frag- ments of pottery, two intaglios of Mercury, gold and brazen fingers broken from images, &c.

John Horsley, who published in 1733 \\i^ Britannia Romaiia, 01; Roman Antiquities of Britain, supplies additional particulars in regard to the altars exhumed at Ribchester, with amended readings of their inscriptions. He also gives representations of inscriptions found on isolated stones about the place. Of one of these inscribed slabs, "lying at the door of a dwelling house," he remarks that " it has probably been an honorary monument to Severus and Caracalla, for the other inscrip- tions to these Emperors begin much after the same manner. It has been erected by a vexillation of one of the legions, but which of them is not so certain. The place lies most in the way of the Twentieth Legion, quartered at Chester." The inscription in question is rendered thus : — " Imperatori Ccesari. Imperatori Ccesari. Vexillatio Legionis. Sub. Sextis." Of a second fragmentary inscription noted by Horsley — and deciphered as " Imperatori Ccesari. Marco Aurelio. Consul Pontifici Maximo. Tribicnitia Fotestaie" — that author says : — " The form of this looks somewhat like a miliary pillar. It was lying in a garden at the west end of the town, and near the river. So much of the inscription is quite effaced as makes it hard to guess at the meaning of the whole."^

A remarkable batch of relics of the Roman period was accidentally turned up at Ribchester in the year 1796. In a hole which had been made in some waste land near the bend of the Ribble, in front of the village, a youth named Walton discovered, about nine feet below the surface, a group of articles of Roman manufacture, which had apparently been secreted at the spot, and surrounded by a quantity of sand. The most striking of these objects was a beautiful bronze helmet, richly ornamented with embossed figures. Along with this was a small Sphinx of the same metal, which had probably fonned the crest of the helmet ; also a bust of Minerva, three inches in diameter ; the remains

1 Brit. Rom., p. 302.

ROMAN STATIONS— RIBCHESTER.

*S

of vases, a number of circular brazen plates with mouldings, a circular plate with hinges for four buckles, carved and gilt ; a number of paterae ; portions of a candelabrum ; and, besides some smaller articles, a circular basin of earthenware, with the words inscribed upon it "Boriedi qfficina" supposed to be the name of the maker. The material of most of these remains was bronze. There were also found at the same time the tusk of a boar, and fragments of wood implements. The whole collection was purchased by Mr. Charles To^vnley, of Townley Hall, by whom a description thereof was given in a letter to the Society of Antiquaries. The helmet is now to be seen at the British Museum, and several engravings of this fine work of Roman metallurgy have been published. Describing the workmanship of this handsome relic Mr. Townley writes : —

The helmet deserves the particular attention of the curious as the remains of remote ages ; very few ancient ones, decorated with embossed figures, have as yet appeared. The three or four which are preserved in the Museum at Portici are esteemed to be the most richly ornamented, and the best as to state of workmanship ; but when this helmet was in its proper state, it must have been equal, at least, to those in point of decoration, and in respect to its having a visor imitating so exactly the human features, I believe it to be the only ancient example of the kind that has yet been discovered. This singularity may excite a doubt whether such a helmet was destined for real combat, or only for the enrichment of occasional trophies which were erected in the celebration of military festivals, or carried in procession amongst the Greeks and Romans. Trophies of this sort are seen on various medals, with the names of the people whose subjugation such trophies are meant to record inserted upon them, as, for example, De .Sarmatis — De Germanis, on the medals of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. The superior style of workmanship of the mask to the headpiece is also remarkable ; in the former, the beauty of the features, the excellent work of the figures in relief, and more particularly the sharp edges and lines with which the eyebrows, eyelids and lips are marked, after the manner of the Grecian art preceding the Coesars, denote it to have been executed some ages before the head- piece, the coarse and heavy work of which corresponds with that of the artists employed in the reign of Septimus Severus, and particularly with the sculpture upon the arch of that Emperor, situated near the Capitol Hill of Rome.'

Dr. T. D. Whitaker paid much attention to the Roman remains at Ribchester, and brought his classic knowledge to bear upon their elucidation. Whitaker revised the readings of partially-destroyed inscriptions suggested by Camden, Leigh and Horsley. Amongst the inscribed stones mentioned by Camden, Whitaker states that a votive stone was in his time remaining in a garden wall in the village ; and another stone with the inscription, "Legio XX. Valerian vidricis fecit," which the doctor thinks had been the comer-stone of a building, was still to be seen in an outhouse by the church. The latter stone, he says. had then " two sides exposed, and on the second was a rude figure

1 Vetusta Monumenta, v. iv, pp. 1-12.

l6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

of a boar, the well-known cognisance of the Twentieth Legion." This stone is stated to be now at the mansion of the Whitakers, The Holme. Dr. Whitaker remarks, further, that " besides inscriptions, the smaller antiquities discovered here are innumerable ; the coins, of which many are found of the large brass, are generally so much corroded as to be scarcely legible. Denarii of the upper empire are not uncommon. A very pretty intaglio in a ruby is engraved by Leigh ; and I have a gold ring, found here some years since, set with a cornelian of many faces, with a dove in the centre, and round it the words ' Ave mea vita,' the present, as it should seem, of a lover to his mistress. Tradition also records a singular discovery at Ribchester, viz., the skull of an ox, covered with some remains of leather, and studded with gold." Both Camden and Horsley had noted certain stones of Roman character built in the structure of Salesbury Hall, at a short distance from Ribchester, and Whitaker was enabled to give a stricter description, the stone being removed from the wall in his presence, in 1815 : —

I had long suspected that if ever the stone containing the sculpture of Apollo, which stood as a comer-stone at Salesbury, were removed, one of the two concealed sides would exhibit Camden's inscription ; and when, by the favour of Lord Bulkeley, the stone had been detached from the situation it had occupied during two centuries, I beheld the original, which had been so strangely misrepresented. The connection between the sculpture and the inscription now became obvious. On the front side is a basso-relievo of Apollo, reposing upon his lyre, better designed than any work of a Romano-British artist I have ever seen. On the second are the figures of two pnests in long robes holding the head of some horned animal between them ; on the third is the inscription ; the fourth is rough — had been originally attached to a wall. It now turns out to be a dedication to Apollo Aponus, or the indolent Apollo (or, as it may be read, Apollo the Healer), the god of medicine, who restores health by relaxation or repose, on behalf of an emperor who unfortunately is not mentioned. This accounts for the reposing attitude of the principal figure.'

This altar became the property of Dr. Whitaker, and, with other antiquities, was bequeathed by him to St. John's College, Cambridge. A rude figure of Hercules is noticed by Whitaker as being, in like manner, built into the wall of Osbaldeston Hall ; this, too, was sub- sequently removed to Tabley Old Hall, in Cheshire. Other remains were brought to light during the lifetime of this historian, and received the benefit of his exhaustive commentary. In the year 181 1 were exposed the foundations of an extensive Roman temple at Ribchester. Some workmen were employed on the bank of the Ribble, opposite the Church, to stop the encroachments of the current, when they came upon the bases of two strong and well-cemented walls, standing nearly north and south, and parallel with each other at the distance of about

I Hist. Whalley, new edn. . v. i, pp. 23-24.

ROMArJ STATIONS— RlBCttESTER. tf

'j2 feet. Portions of the floor of the edifice were found within the included space, and close to the southern end lay a large inscribed slab, which unluckily was shattered by the workmen. On the fragments being adjusted, however, the complete inscription was presented, which was deciphered by Whitaker as follows : — " Dea MinervcB — Pro salute Imperaioris Akxandri Augusti, et yulia, matris Domini Nostri, et castrorum suorum, et Valerii, Crescentis Fulviani legaii, Provimim Fresidisj proprcetore, Natalis legatus Frcepoienti et Regime iemplum a solo restituit et dedicavit." (To the Goddess Minerva, — for the safety of the Emperor Alexander Augustus, and of Julia, mother of our lord and of his camps, and of Valerius Crescens Fulvianus his lieutenant, governor of the province, the proprietor, Natalis the lieutenant, restored this temple and dedicated it to the most powerful goddess and queen). The historic value of this inscription is considerable ; it proves the existence of a temple, formerly desolated and then restored, and dedicated to the Goddess Minerva, to an image of whom the helmet to which we have made reference may have belonged ; and it adds new names to the previously-known list of Roman legates in Britain. The interest aroused by this discovery was great, and two years afterwards, in the summer of 1813, renewed investigations were made on the spot, with successful results, recorded fully in the History of Richmondshir^: —

Leave having been obtained to dig in the adjoining gardens, between the river and the churchyard, the first appearances, at the depth of about three feet, were a stratum of charcoal, evidently formed by the conflagration of the roof, and nearly in the centre a cavity in the earth had been made, by the uniting of the ends of the beams at their fall, large enough to contain a man sitting. Beneath this was a confused mass of large amphorae, some almost entire at first, and many beautiful remnants of paterae in the red Samian ware, mingled with which lay several human skeletons, all of the largest size, in every direction. Every appearance about the place indicated that it had been taken by storm, and that the defenders had been buried in the ruins of the roof ; but the absence of tiles or slates seemed to prove that the outer covering of the building had been previously stripped by the assailants. Herej too, was found a very curious Roman statera or steelyard, very exactly graduated, and a singular bodkin of polished stone. The progress of discovery was once more suspended, till the sexton, digging a grave where no interment had taken place before, on the left hand of the entrance of the churchyard, found the base of a column and an anta or square moulded comer of the naoi itself, upright and in their original situations. Measurements were now accurately made from the place where the inscrip- tion was found (which must have been the front of the building) to the base of the column. This gave the entire length, excepting one intercolumniation, for the whole had evidently had a peristyle. The distance of the anta from the column, by the rules of architecture, gave the distance also between column and column ; by which data, with the help of a very conspicuous line of mortar about 45 feet westward in the church.yard, the site of the west wall was ascertained ; a ground plan of the building

I v. ii. p. 464.

3

l8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

was laid down ; after which, by the known proportions of Doric architecture, a complete elevation was obtained. . . Let all these circumstances be laid together, and it will scarcely be doubted that this was a temple of Minerva, restored by command of Caracalla ; that the temple had been stormed and burned in some eruption of the Caledonians, during the last period of Roman power in Britain ; and that the precious object of worship itself had been carefully deposited in the earth, on the approach of the threatened danger. Within a few yards of the east wall of the temple was disclosed the statue of a lion, of tolerable workmanship, which, from the roughness of one side, must have been an architectural ornament.

The dimensions of the temple, deduced by architectural rules from the above data, were — length, 112 feet; breadth, about 72 feet; with sixteen columns in the front. The last of Whitaker's discoveries was that of the lower part of an altar among the stonework of a dilapi- dated chimney in a house in Ribchester. The inscription upon it was almost effaced. In the year 1819, the Rev. S. J. Allen, of Salesbury, reported that another altar was found in the basement of the White Bull Inn. In 1829, again, some Roman coins were dug up at Anchor Hill, along with pieces of a Saxon cross and other Saxon relics. In 1833, another notable discovery was recorded. This was a fine altar which was taken out of the churchyard. This altar stood for years in the lobby of the Vicarage, but it has recently been sold to the Marquis of Rothwell. The altar is two feet six inches in height, one foot ten inches in breadth, and one foot seven inches in depth. Its sides are ornamented with vine- branches, and on its front is an inscription, very clearly chiselled, but mutilated on the lower left-hand comer by the breaking of the altar block. The legible lines read thus : — " Pro salute et vidorix invicti Imperatoris Marci Aurelii Severi Antonini Fit, felicis Augusti, et Julice AugustcB, mairi Domini et castrorum." (For the health and victory of the unconquered Emperor Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius, the fortunate Augustus, and Julia Augusta, mother of the Emperor and of the camps.) The emperor in whose behalf this altar was reared, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, reigned from a.d. 161 to 180, within which period the work must have been executed and dedicated. When found it bore marks of the action of fire, and with it were secured a fibula, or brooch, a ring of brass, a bulla, inscribed with some illegible characters, and three coins, one of Trajan, another of Valerian, the third with its superscription obliterated.

Numberless small matters have been found at intervals during the last forty years, both at Ribchester itself and at places adjacent. Many coins of gold and silver have fallen into the hands of various persons from time to time. In the year 1837, workmen digging in the garden of the late Mr. Patchett, surgeon, reached the paved floor of what was suggested to be a Roman bath, but might as probably be a Roman villa.

1 « » *

SErui.cUKAi. Slab with Roman Sculi'TURk in relief, taki;n out

01' THE RlBBLE, OPPOSITE RlBCHESTER, Al'RIL 8Ti[, 1876.

.SV*- .tjifJi'U'ti.v.

ROMAN STATIONS— RIBCHESTER. 19

The dimensions of the discovered apartment were ascertained to be thirty feet by fifteen feet. The walls of it still stood four feet above the floor, and were three feet thick. Some stone pillars, about a foot in height, were taken out in the excavation. Many of the tiles of the floor were removed, and underneath was found a layer of cement, upon a course of boulder-pavement similar to that of the Roman causeways. At Hanvood Fold, in the township of Clayton-le-Dale, by which passed the Roman road from Manchester to Ribchester, there was found, in 1834, a perfect and finely-wrought fibula of bronze ; this passed into the possession of Mr. John Eccles, of Leyland. The figure of a Roman standard-bearer, at Standen Hall, near Clitheroe, may have been brought from Ribchester.

The latest systematic scrutiny of the vestiges of Roman Ribchester took place August 20th, 1850, on the occasion of the visit of the Archaeological Association. For this Congress extensive excavations were authorised, and numerous articles were found in the trenches dug, both near the western wall and in the gardens at the eastern comer of the station. A statement of the discoveries here was prepared for the Association by the late Mr. Harland and Mr. Just. The excavations of 1850 "laid bare the outer wall to its foundation on the western side. It consists of loose stones without mortar, or the cement grouting common to such foundations. On the opposide side, in the angle between the river and the junction of the brook, a large quantity of Roman pottery was found, consisting of numerous fragments of Samian ware, chiefly of paterae, many marked with the potter's name ; one ampulla, with both handles perfect, and others broken ; fragments of glass, of common pottery, nails, bones of animals, in which were tusks of boars and swine, five Roman coins, three of which are silver, but are much corroded ; two of the coins appear to be coins of Vespasian and Titus, the third of Vitelius; two of copper, much corroded, but apparently of the same period.'" Similar specimens of pottery, of various descriptions, including the Samian ware, are still continually turning up ; the writer has himself found a number of interesting remains of this character.

The coins recovered here embrace within their dates more than three centuries of the epoch of the Roman occupation of Britain. They begin with coins of Augustus, B.C. 29 to 14; and include coins of Titus Vespasian, 79 to 81, a.d. ; of Nerva, 96 to 98 ; of Trajan, 98 to 117 ; of Hadrian, 117 to 138 j of Commodus, 180 to 192; of Septimus Severus, 193 to 211; of Caracalla, 211 to 217; of Dioclesian, the persecutor of the Christians, 284 to 305 a.d. ; and one of a Christian

I Journal Brit. Archseol. Assn., v. vi, p. 249.

20 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

emperor, bearing the cross and the motto of Constantino, " in hoc stgno vinces}"

Could the whole of the objects of Roman work disinterred at Ribchester be brought together, they would display a collection as varied and as rich as have been procured from any single station of the Romans in Britain. But they are now irrecoverably scattered, and are chiefly hidden from public view in the cabinets of private collectors. The resident student in Roman archaeology must therefore content himself with such acquaintance with these remains as he can make through the medium of written descriptions by those who had the good fortune to inspect them on their discovery.

The recent extension of the churchyard at Ribchester on the west side of the Roman site may lead to further disclosures of buried remains in the course of time. In the excavation of graves in the new ground, the Roman level is reached at a depth of three or four feet, defined by charred portions of oaken beams, and a layer of charcoal in which are contained fragments of Roman pottery, human bones, and other sugges- tive relics. The most interesting object yet secured in the new cemetery is a staiera (the Roman steelyard), found in the spring of 1874 by the sexton when digging a grave. This instrument is perfect in its parts ; the lever is of brass, with distinct graduation and numeral letters ; the suspenders and hooks of brass ; and the two weights of lead, conical- shaped. The steelyard lay embedded in the ashes of burnt timber.

THE ROMAN STATION AT WALTON.

The claim of a Roman foundation has been advanced on behalf of Walton-in-le-dale in this parish. It is but recently that evidences of the existence of a Roman station at Walton have been disclosed, although the probability of such a station on the Ribble, in the neighbourhood of Preston, had been previously recognised. This belief was the sequence to the fact that a Roman military road traversed the west side of the County, and crossed the Ribble in that vicinity. It was not to be supposed that the Romans would leave so critical a point as the ford of a large river unguarded by camp or fort, or permanent garrison. Mr. Sibson, in a lengthy contribution on the Roman ways of West Lanca- shire, about forty years ago remarked that at Walton " it was probable there had been a fortified camp to protect the pass of the Ribble." Some writers thought that the station might have stood a short distance to the north of the river, to reconcile the distances from station to station given in the Iter of Antoninus, if this route were accepted as the Tenth Iter, and the station of Coccium were placed near the Ribble on this

1 T. Baines, Lane, and Ches., v. i, p. 277.

ROMAN STATIONS-WALTON. ai

line of road. Proof that Walton was the site of a Roman camp was at length produced by Mr. C. Hardwick. The circumstances that led to the disclosure were accidental. Mr. Hardwick, in the year 1855, was in quest of vestiges of the battle of Cromwell with the Scottish army in 1648, when the traces of Roman occupation manifested themselves. The workmen of the Preston Corporation were then digging for stones and gravel on the Walton bank of the Ribble, and among the excavated material were some coins of brass, one of which was sufficiently legible to be pronounced a Roman coin of the reign of Domitian. The spot at which these remains appeared was the space on the left of the river, between the bridge and the confluence of the Danven. The Ribble makes a quick turn just before passing beneath the bridge, and proceeds at a right angle to its former course until the Darwen joins it, and thus the site is protected wholly on three of its sides by the two rivers. At present the channel of the Darwen before its junction is nearly straight, but it formerly made a great bend here, almost doubling upon itself, and so covered the Roman site on the greater part of the fourth side. The strength of the position as a military post, at least against such enemies as the Romans had to contend with, is obvious. The supposed track of the Roman road from Warrington to Lancaster crosses the parallelo- gram near its eastern limit. Stimulated by the indications of Roman tenure upon which he had stumbled, Mr. Hardwick prosecuted his inves- tigation with diligence, and made such further discoveries as to leave no wova for doubt that a Roman fort had occupied this ground.

The Roman antiquities dug up at Walton embrace the usual varieties of pottery found at the imperial stations. There are some fragmentary specimens of the Samian bowls, with their fine grain and durable glaze, bright red colour, and beautiful embossed designs, which are figured by Mr. Hardwick. Two portions of the large vases of the common red clay, called amphorae, are mentioned, consisting of the neck and handle of those vessels. A piece of the rough unglazed earthenware, marked after turning with dots and figures by the hand of the potter, was also got. A great number of pieces of the coarse blue-black pottery, manufactured in urns and dishes for ordinary domestic use, have been picked up in the station. All the above are similar in make to the varieties of Roman pottery occasionally laid bare at Ribchester. In coins, four or five brass ones, of the reigns of Titus Vespasian, Domitian, and Antoninus, are all that have yet been secured at Walton. Of per- sonal ornaments, a brass fibula (the Roman brooch) and the button of another in bronze, are mentioned. The fibula, which is three and a half inches long, " is of fine brass, ornamented in the centre with a circular figure in bright red enamel, resembling the stone setting of a

at HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

modem finger ring.'" A number of large iron nails, fragments of lead and copper, and of vessels in pewter, were got during the search, along with a large portion of the lower stone of a quern, or hand com mill ; fragments of " riders," or upper quern stones ; a small wheel or spindle head, about an inch and a half in diameter, formed of a fine bluish stone ; portions of the jaw of a horse or ox, with other bones ; and " the core of a hom of one of the extinct species of oxen, the Bos longifromr Some additional fragments of pottery and a few coins have since been found on the site. The above constitute the greater part of the antiquities of the Roman period which have been revealed at Walton. They are not very extensive in quantity, or remarkable in their character ; but they suffice to attest the presence and prolonged occu- pancy of the first subjugators of Britain. Probably this was a strictly military post, without a civil settlement superadded. The space of the plot is too restricted for erections on any great scale, and the situation too low and damp to be chosen as a residence by a civilian population. Mr. Hardwick is led by certain indications to the opinion that the native British had a fort here anterior to the Roman advent } and it is hardly likely they would neglect to occupy such a point for the command of the passage of the river. The identification of Walton as a Roman station sheds light upon the Roman system of fortified places in Lancashire, if it does not altogether clear up the ambiguities of the old Itineraries.

The vestiges of an ancient fort on the summit of Mellor Moor, are assumed to belong to a minor post in the chain of Roman military star tions in Ribblesdale. This camp is a rectangular entrenchment, about loo feet by 75 feet. The surrounding fosse has partially filled up, but its depression is still marked. The position overlooks Ribchester, some three miles off, northward, in the recess of the valley ; at the same time that it commands the lower station at Walton, and the estuary of Ribble from Preston to Lytham, at some point on which, probably near Freckleton, was the Roman harbour. Mellor Moor was therefore well chosen for a speculum or a signalling-station to Ribchester and other stations seaward, that could communicate immediately by means of a semaphore worked from this conspicuous outpost. To the south, also, the sentinel on Mellor Moor covered with his observation the dozen miles of Roman Road from Blacksnape to Longridge, excepting a short length of it down in the Blackburn valley.

ROMANO-BRITISH REMAINS AT WHITE-HALL, DARWEN.

Before we quit the period of Roman dominion in Britain, it will be needful to refer to sepulchral remains, attributed to that era, which have

i Hist, of Preston, p. 42*

ROMANO-BRITISH TUMULUS AT DARWEN. 35

been disclosed in this parish. The presence here of the Romans, as the governing race, for more than three centuries, influenced to a large extent the manners of the subject aborigines. The Latin language, in corrupted forms, was in use among the conquered peoples; the Roman toga became the fashionable garment of the British youth, and the Roman paganism supplanted the rites of native Druidism. Among domestic arts, the Celtic-British acquired from the Romans the manufacture of pottery, and in ruder forms reproduced the bowls, urns, and jars of the Roman earthenware. About the reign of Sylla the Roman people began generally to practice the burning of the dead, and the enclosure of the ashes in the funeral urn for deposition in the tomb. Following the example, the Celtic inhabitants of Britain partially abandoned their former mode of burying the bodies of their dead entire for the method of cremation. Within the century many tumuli, or burial mounds, have been opened in this country which have been found to contain earthen- ware urns and small cup-like vessels filled with the ashes of human bones, a circumstance which marks a distinction between the sepulchral mounds of the Romano-British epoch, and the barrows erected by Saxon and Dane in a later age. In some districts of the country, however, the system of cremation survived until Saxon times. The pottery found in the Saxon graves is more finely moulded and artistically wrought than the British cinerary urns.

An interesting discovery of Sepulchral remains, apparently of the Roman-British period, was made in Blackburn Parish in the month of October, 1864. Excavations were in progress to prepare the founda- tions of a villa at White Hall, Over Darwen, on the estate of William Shorrock Ashton, Esq., when the workmen fell in with extensive relics of an ancient place of sepulture. The situation of these remains was a mound upon the top of the knoll which rises to the right of the road to Bolton, a short distance beyond the Bowling Green Mill, in Darwen. Upon the spot now stands the villa of Ashleigh. The Roman Road from Manchester to Ribchester passes over Blacksnape a mile or so to the eastward. Upon the communication of this important discovery to Mr. Ashton, that gentleman took steps to preserve the whole series of remains. Subsequently, Mr. Ashton supplied particulars of these to Mr. Llewellynn Jewett, F.S.A., who published a paper on the subject in The Reliquary} Mr. Jewett describes the barrow and its contents as follows : —

The barrow overlooked the Darwen valley on the east, but was sheltered by the high hills which separate that river from the Roddlesworth on the west. It was within the grounds of White Hall, and near to Low Hill House, the seat of Eccles

J V. vi, pp. 137-8.

«4 rilStORY OF BLACKBURN;

Shorrock, Esq. It was formed on the summit of a natural mound, and is about thirtji' yards in diameter ; its height from the natural surface of the hill varying from one to ten or twelve feet. The centre of the barrow was, to the extent of about six feet in diameter, sunk in its centre. Some half century ago the barrow was planted with trees, and it is only recently that the site — a most charming one for a villa residence — has been determined to be appropriated to building purposes. The trees were felled in the autumn of 1864, and it was during the course of the excavations for the founda- tions of the house that the real nature of the mound was discovered. A careful examination of the place was made by Mr. Ashton, and the result was the bringing to light of no less than ten distinct interments. One of these was simply a heap of burnt bones without any cist or urn ; and others were enclosed in urns, only one of which was found in an inverted position. On the top of each of the cinerary urns was a rough flat stone, and they were each surrounded and covered by small stones carefully piled up. Two of the cinerary urns were found in a tolerably perfect state ; the others were very much broken.

Two small vessels, usually called "incense cups," were found within the urns. The most perfect of the urns is twelve inches in height, and ten inches in diameter at the top. It is circular in form ; the lower portion somewhat resembles a common flower-pot, narrowing quickly to its base ; at the central and widest part the sides of the vessel are vertical for three or four inches; above is a deep rim or collar. The ornamentation consists of a number of dotted indentations, produced by the point of a stick while the clay was unbaked. This urn was found filled with burnt bones, on the top of which lay the incense cup, also containing human ashes. The dimensions of the minor vessel were one and three- quarter inches in height, two and a half inches in diameter at the mouth, and four inches in diameter at the middle. This vessel is void of ornament. The second urn figured in the woodcut is considerably smaller than the one already described, being but seven and a half inches in height, and seven inches in diameter. The shape when complete (it is materially mutilated) was substantially similar to the other. Instead of the rows of indentations on the upper exterior of the larger urn, this vessel, upon its middle part and collar, is " elaborately covered with a reticulated ornament, produced in the usual manner by pressing a twisted thong into the pliant clay." The contents of this urn, too, were charred bone fragments and an incense cup of the same make with the former smaller vessel. The other seven urns had been reduced to fragments. Some were more ornamental in their reticulations than either of the examples described. One fragment of the collar of an urn is of the " herring-bone " pattern, produced with the twisted thong indented into the soft clay. The vessels and other sepulchral relics collected on this' discovery were presented by Mr. Ashton to the Museum of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, and are now exhibited in the Public Free Museum at Liverpool.

CINERARY URN AND INCEXSE-CUF, FOUND AT

WHITE-HALL, OVER UARWEN. [Page 24.

: ?

THE ROMAN DEPARTURE. 25

The story of the Roman occupation in Britain closes upon a scene of national helplessness and desolation. The conquest of the country by the Roman generals was marked by many acts of ruthless repression ; but the decay of the Roman power was a worse misfortune to the British than the former triumph. Relying upon the amis of their martial masters, the native people had long neglected the art of war ; and when their protectors had gone they became the prey of fierce hordes, that rushed into the gap left by the Romans from every adjacent territory. Over the greater part of this northern region bands of Pictish robbers prowled unchecked, preying upon the inhabitants of the Romano- British towns from which the garrisons had departed, and obliterating with barbarous avidity every remnant of civilisation. In the year 418 the Romans " collected all the treasures that were in Britain, and some they hid in the earth, so that no one has since been able to find them ; and some they carried with them to Gaul.'" The ruins of Roman Ribchester jeveal tokens that the city had been carried by sudden assault, its temples and shrines consumed by fire, and its feeble defenders buried in ruins. The fate of Ribchester was but the general doom of the fifty beautiful walled towns the Romans left behind them in Britain on their final migration. Three hundred years of contact with the foremost race in the then-civilised world had given the Britons a glimpse of the blessings of a cultured state of society ; — but now, for a melancholy space, the land was to lapse into the miseries of a worse than the original barbarism ; and the dark disc of Gothic Paganism was to eclipse the genial orb of Christianity, newly risen upon Britain's horizon.

It is probable that before the relinquishment of the land by the Romans, the Christian religion had made its way to our shores, and had been embraced by no small proportion of the native populations. But the appearance of the Saxons and Angles, pagans of the most ferocious type, extinguished the nascent faith in those districts of the country over which their power extended. In the time of King Edwin, a fresh move- ment took place for the evangelization of Britain. Pope Gregory the Great, on his accession, sent to England forty missionaries, under the charge of Augustine. Edwin, king of Northumbria, having espoused Edilberga, daughter of Ethelbert the Kentish king, a Christian princess, embraced the same faith, and when his queen set out for the Northum- brian court she was accompanied by Paulinus, a zealous missionary of the Roman Church. A.D. 627 Paulinus was consecrated archbishop of Northumbria, and Christianity became the State religion of the northern Angles. The king, with all his nobles, was baptised at York on Easter Sunday, 627, and the common people of the Anglian race,

1 Saxon Chron., Bohn's edn., p. 308.

4

2-6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

following the royal example, adopted the Christian name in great numbers. It is recorded that no fewer than 10,000 converts were baptised at one time by Paulinus. The inhabitants of Lancashire listened to the preaching of Paulinus, and accepted the new faith. Churches were planted in various parts of our county. In the Hundred of Blackburn, Paulinus prosecuted his propaganda with great success, and the mother-church of the district was founded by him at Whalley, about the year 625. In the churchyard at Whalley are seen interesting monuments of the memorable event of the introduction of Chris- tianity here, in the three antique crosses which are believed to have been erected in the time of Paulinus, and probably by his direction. There is a tradition that twelve Saxon castles were reared in the part of Lanca- shire south of the Ribble during Edwin's reign. The sites of these castles are placed at Whalley and Walton (in this district), at Childwall, Winwick, Blackstone, Sephton, Standish, Penwortham, Wigan, Rochdale, Middleton and Bury. Edwin, first Christian king of Northumbria, was killed in battle, a.d. 633, and his kingdom spoiled. Paulinus died in the year 644.

It would be tedious to pursue step by step the history of the Saxon dominion in the North of England. It is the story of a succession of civil wars and usurpations, of the rise and fall of petty dynasties, undiversified by the record of local transactions of interest. Towards the close of the eighth century, however, an event of national import- ance transpired in the valley of the Ribble. At this period the nation of the Northumbrian Angles was distressed by the quarrels of internal factions. At Easter-tide, in the year 774, says the Saxon Chronicle, " the Northumbrians drove their King Alcred from York, and took Ethelred, the son of Moll, to be their lord ; he reigned four years." In 778 the opposite party had its turn of triumph. "Ethelbald and Herbert slew three high reeves, and then Athwold obtained the kingdom [of Northumbria] and drove Ethelred out of the country ; and he reigned ten years." A.D. 789 saw the downfall and death of Athwold, who was slain by Siga in October, and Osred, the son of Alcred, then succeeded. In the subsequent year Osred, too, was betrayed and banished, and Ethelred regained the kingdom. These brief chronicles show into what a state of confusion the regal succession had at this time fallen in Northumbria. To increase its wretchedness, the kingdom was afflicted by a severe famine in the year 793, and the Northmen had now begun to harass the dwellers on its coasts. In the same year " dire forewamings came over the land of the Northumbrians, and miserably terrified the people ; there were excessive whirlwinds and lightnings ;

BATTLE IN BILLINGTON.

27

and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air." Ethelred, like his predecessors, was deposed and killed by his own people in May, 794, and, after many months of anarchy, Eardulf succeeded to the perilous and unstable dignity of the Northumbrian crown.

Three years after\vards a rival faction had gathered head, and was prepared to contest with Eardulf the government of the kingdom. The decisive battle between the King and the abettors of this revolt took place at Langho, near Whalley, in this parish. In the year 798, Eardulf was compelled to take the field against the leaders of a formidable revolt in the western parts of Northumbria. The chiefs of the conspiracy were Wada and with him Alric, both implicated in a former rebellion, that had ended in the deposition and death of the previous king, Ethelred. Eardulf encountered the insurgent army on the frontier of his kingdom (for the country south of Ribble was then a part, not of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, but of that of Mercia). Wada and his army had probably been driven upon neutral territory before the decisive battle took place. At all events, it was here that the rebellion of Wada was crushed. The account of the battle, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, is rendered: — "a.d. 798. This year there was a great fight at Whalley (Whaellsege), in the land of the Northumbrians, during Lent, on the 4th before the Nones of April ; and there Alric, the son of Herbert, was slain, and many with him." Another chronicler, Simeon of Durham, not only mentions Whalley as near the place of conflict, but more closely indicates the spot. His account is as follows: — "A con- federacy was made by the murderers of King Ethelred ; Wada, chief in that conspiracy, with his force went against Eardulf, in a place called by the English Billangahoh, near Walalege, and on either side many were slain ; Wada, the chief, with his men, was put to flight, and King Eardulf regally achieved victory over the enemies." The name Billangalioh, here assigned to the place of battle, may be taken to refer to the line of low hills near to the Ribble bank, between Hacking and Braddyll. The present name of Langho, given to the inner side of this elevated ground, apparently is a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon Billangahoh. The historian of Whalley endeavoured to elucidate the position of the battle, the written record of which he found confirmed by an oral tradition of some ancient battle on the lower ground of Billington. On the right bank of the Ribble, opposite Hacking Hall, are two large tumular mounds, rising from the level ground on the inner side of the bend of the river at this point. The mounds are plainly artificial in structure, and probably monumental in intent. The tumulus nearest to the river is a prominent object, and bears the name of the " Lowe." Into this mound Whitaker had some excavation

j8 history of BLACKBURN.

made about the year 1815, but found the work heavy, and gave it up without reaching the centre of the tumulus, where the reUcs of sepulture should lie. Nearly forty years since, a discovery, apparently connected with the battle of Billangahoh, was made on the Billington side of the Ribble, in the flat ground called Brockhole Eses, near the river. Raines has a note of this disclosure : — "In the year 1836, as Thomas Hubbersty, the farmer at Brockhole, was removing a large mound of earth in Brockhole Eases, about 500 yards from the bank of the Ribble, on the left of the road leading from the house, he discovered a Kist-vaen, formed of rude stones, containing some large human bones and the rusty remains of some spear heads of iron. The whole crumbled to dust on exposure to the air.'" The occupation-road from Brockhole farm-house passes close by the site of the mound in the direction of the river to the ford at this place, the only one across the Ribble for some miles up and down the river. The tumulus was so completely cleared away at the time of the finding of the central Kist- vaen, that no trace of it remains ; but its position has been indicated on the large ordnance map. This mound must have been smaller in bulk than the great mounds across the river opposite Hacking, or the farmer would not have undertaken to level it. If, therefore, the larger mounds be also sepulchral, and date from the same event, they may be supposed to contain more important relics than the Brockhole tumulus. This battle, by which the fate of a kingdom was decided, and in which a king was in command on one side, was no insignificant conflict ; the combatants would probably number some thousands ; and the battle- field might extend not only to Hacking but over the whole plain of lower Billington on the west side of the Calder ; — may indeed have begun on the Whalley side of that river ; have attained its deadliest fierceness about Hacking ; and have closed on the slope between Brockhole and Braddyll, where the fugitives of Wada's broken army would be driven in hurried flight to the ford of the Ribble. The memorial of this important battle, fought nearly eleven hundred years ago, inscribes the names of Billington and Whalley for the first time upon the page of written English history. King EardulPs victory here- abouts did not prevent the formation of fresh combinations against him, which brought about his overthrow and banishment eight years afterwards, in a.d. 806.

Throughout the ninth and tenth centuries, a period marked by the desperate conflict of the Saxons and Angles with the Danes and North- men for possession of the soil of England, in which the Saxon King Alfred appears as the most noble and heroic actor, no event of historic

1 Notit. Cestr., v. ii, pt. ii, p. 386.

BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH. 29

significance is known to have had these eastern parts of Lancashire for its theatre, unless the hypothesis of recent origin be accepted, which places the site of the famed battle of Brunanburh (a.d. 937), upon the hills near the border of the county about Burnley. The battle was the decisive close of the campaign between the Anglo-Saxon army under the command of King Athelstan, and the forces of a Dano-Scottish con- federacy led by Anlaf the Dane, and Constantine King of the Scots, wherein the latter were routed with great slaughter. Much difficulty has been found in determining the spot on which this battle took place, and several sites have been suggested by historians and antiquaries, on trifling grounds, in Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Cheshire. Mr. T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S., has, however, presented a series of circumstances tending to his assumption that the veritable battle-field of Brunanburh is in the vicinity of Burnley.' The main grounds of this conclusion are, that the meaning of the Saxon name Brunanburh is, in modem English, the fortified place by the Brun ; that on the slopes of the hills on the right bank of the river Brun by Burnley are found abundant traces of extensive military earthworks, attributed to Saxon and Roman times ; that local tradition and the existing nomen- clature of the neighbourhood indicate the occurrence of some ancient battle there ; and that the probabilities point to the west rather than to the east coast of the Northumbrian Saxon Kingdom as the scene of the advance, defeat, and retreat of Anlaf s expedition, which was organised in Ireland, and the remnants of which, according to the Saxon chronicles, retired in their ships to Dublin after this signal discomfiture. The proofs of Mr. Wilkinson, if not absolute, are strong enough to demand attention, if not to justify the introduction of the victory of Athelstan, in the year 937, as a prominent feature of the archaeologic record of the district.

DISCOVERY OF A GREAT DANISH HOARD AT CUERDALE.

A highly important disclosure bearing upon the Danish occupation of England, reported upon about thirty-five years ago in this parish, seems to require the association of some such transaction as the Brunanburh battle for its explanation. I refer to the extraordinary discovery of coins and other treasure of the Saxon and Danish period, made in the township of Cuerdale, in Ribblesdale, at the western comer of the Parish of Blackburn. If the army of Anlaf the Dane was vanquished by Athelstan near Burnley, in the campaign decided at Brunanburh, its best line of retreat to the sea-coast would be the valley

I Hist. Soc. L. and C, Trans, v. ix, pp. 21-42.

30 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

of the Calder to its confluence with the Ribble, and thence the valley of the Ribble to the estuary, where the Danish ships might have been anchored. It will be seen in the remarks which follow how the depo- sition of the mass of Danish treasure on the Ribble bank at Cuerdale appears to synchronise with and confirm the conception of the local determination of a memorable tenth-century war.

The discovery of the celebrated collection of ancient coins and valuables at Cuerdale happened on the isth of May, 1840. Floods in the Ribble had inflicted damage upon its banks, displacing the earth which supported a wall constructed to preserve the channel and to prevent encroachments upon the land ; and workmen were employed in carrying earth to repair the mischief. While delving for material they lighted upon an enormous hoard of treasure, a little below the surface of the ground, at a distance of about forty yards from the Ribble. The hoard had originally been deposited in a leaden chest, enclosed in a wooden one, but both of these receptacles had become much decom- posed. The treasure consisted largely of silver coins, and also of a number of ingots or lumps of silver, silver armlets, brooches, rings, and other ornaments. The discovery is said to be the most remarkable and extensive of the kind ever made in this country. The coins were the most important portion of the collection ; their exact number, how- ever, cannot be stated ; for although, on the discovery being made known, the treasure was promptly claimed on behalf of the Crown, a considerable number of the articles had been secreted or disposed of by the finders before the claim was enforced, and fell into the hands of private collectors. On the 22nd August following an inquisition was held at Preston concerning the treasure, at which it was found that the coins secured to the Crown numbered about 6,800, weighing 304 ounces troy; and that the silver ingots included sixteen large bars, weighing 132 ounces. The bulk of the treasure which accrued to the Crown was distributed to the British Museum and other public collections, including the University Museums of Oxford, Cambridge, and Glasgow. A selection of coins and ornaments was presented to Mr. Assheton, lord of the manor of Cuerdale. Specimens were also sent to the Bibliotheque de Roi, Paris, and to the Danish Museum at Copenhagen. A discovery so extensive and unique drew the attention of many distinguished archaeologists and numismatists, British and foreign ; and, before the distribution of the treasure, opportunity was afforded to competent authorities for a minute inspection of the coins and ornaments. The late Mr. Edward Hawkins, of the British Museum and the Numismatic Society, published the results of his scrutiny in several elaborate papers, — those devoted to a description

DANISH TREASURE FOUND AT CUERDALE. 31

of the coins appearing in the Numismatic Chronicle^ and the remarks upon the ingots, armlets, and other ornaments in the Journal of the Archceological I/istitute.* Mr. Lindsay, author of a work on the Coinage of the Heptarchy, also gave a synopsis of these coins ; and the eminent Danish archaeologist Worsaae, after careful investigations, reviewed the collection in his work on The Danes and Norwegians in England} Dr. Skaife, of Blackburn, an experienced numismatist, contributed a letter to the journals upon the subject. A summary of the descriptions given of the contents of the treasure chest is subjoined.

" The coins consisted of Anglo-Saxon pennies, pieces of the second race of the French kings, a few oriental coins, and some which partially resemble both the Saxon and French series, which certainly do not belong to the dynasty of any country, but were probably struck by some of those piratical northern chiefs who obtained at different times a temporary authority both in England and France." The dates of the various reigns of English and foreign princes whose coins are exampled, extend from about the year 860 to 930. This latter date must therefore indicate approximately the period at which the secretion of the treasure took place. The date of the battle of Brunanburh being within seven years of the date of the latest coinage found at Cuerdale, it is easy to conjecture that the campaign of Anlaf, of which Brunanburh was the catastrophe, was, if fought in Lancashire, the occasion of the deposit of this immense collection of coins and bullion at Cuerdale. The deposit was evidently made by the Danish party during their temporary tenure of West Lancashire. It has been suggested that the hoard might be a Saxon one ; but it is hard to understand why, if the Saxon authori- ties had ever been under the necessity thus to secrete their military chest, they should not have taken steps for its recovery after the district had been cleared of its invaders. The wealth here forsaken was too great to have been forgotten by its depositors, or intentionally suffered to remain in the earth. But if the Danes after their defeat, unable to carry off their chest, buried it at Cuerdale, they probably did not return to the immediate neighbourhood at any future time, at least within the same generation, and might thus have no chance of regaining the treasure. Other Danish invasions did, indeed, afterwards occur, but they took different directions. There are, moreover, intrinsic grounds for the conviction that the secretion of the treasure was the act of the Danes. The singular admixture in the hoard of Scandinavian, French, and other continental coins, with a number of Anglo-Saxon coins, strengthens this presumption. The roving chiefs of the Danes and Northmen would gather quantities of the coinage of France and other

1 VoL V, p. 104 et seq. 2 Vol. iv, pp. 111-130. 3 Page 49 et seq.

32

HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

European States which they overran about this time, and their military treasury would be replenished from these sources. To the mixed moneys of foreign mintage Anlaf and his allies brought with them on their invasion of England would be added collections of Saxon coin taken from the Saxon inhabitants of England during their occupation of portions of the country ; and so we can account for the curious conglomeration of native and foreign coins displayed in the Cuerdale treasure. Had the hoard been the property of Saxon chiefs, one can hardly suppose that it should have presented such a variety of coinage, and the Saxon element would have predominated over the Scandinavian, which it does not, there being, as Worsaae remarks, nearly three thousand Scandinavian and one thousand French coins, with other foreign examples, to two thousand seven hundred Anglo-Saxon coins in that portion of the Cuerdale collection preserved for the Crown. The following synopsis of the coins is supplied by Mr. Hawkins : — Anglo-Saxon Coins. a.d. a.d.

2 Ethelred (East Anglia) about 860

23 Ethelstan 87010890

2 Ciolwlf (Mercia) 874

867 Alfred 872 901

45 Edward 90: 925

1770 St. Eadmund — —

1 Archbishop Ceolnoth 830 870

59 Archbishop Phlegmund 881 923

2 Sitric (? Danish) — —

French Coins.

34 Louis 81410929

727 Carolus 840 923

7 Carloman 879 884

197 Eudes, orOdo 888 898

II Lambert 894 898

13 Berengarius 883 924

Uncertain (? Scandinavian).

304 Sigfred.

486 Ebraice, or Evreux.

23 Quentovici, or Quanage.

1S60 Cunnetti.

I Avaldus.

315 Various.

Oriental Coins. — 27.

Mr. Hawkins's exhaustive series of papers elucidatory of these coins fill the greater portion of one volume of the Numismatic Chronicle, and are illustrated by 140 engraved examples of the coins. A few sentences from his comments upon the principal types in the series of English coins discovered, are all that can be cited here. The first of these, in

DANISH TREASURE FOUND AT CUERDALE. 33

chronological order, are two coins of Ethdred. Hawkins remarks thereon : " All that can be said with strong probability is, that the Ethelred who struck these coins was a contemporary of Eadward, and that he held dominion in East Anglia. The style of the coin and the name of the moneyer on the Museum coin, form the grounds of this opinion. The name of Headmod upon the Cuerdale coins does not appear upon any piece at present known, and therefore contributes nothing to shake or confirm this opinion." Coins of Ethelstan : — " Twenty-three are of a king whom I suppose to be Ethelstan, though upon most of them it is difficult to recognise the name ; it is, then, to be considered to which of the kings so named these pieces belong — to Athelstan, the sole monarch and the immediate successor of Eadward, or to Ethelstan, King of the East Angles ; and there is not much hesitation in assigning them to the latter of these personages. This king was strictly contemporary with Alfred, by treaty with whom he was established in his kingdom, and with whom he was in close alliance during almost the whole of his reign, which terminated in 890, about eleven years before that of Alfred. The types of these coins exactly resemble those of Alfred, and of eleven moneyers named upon them, six, probably seven, are those of Alfred." Coin of Ciolwlf: — "The only Mercian coin found in this large collection." " This coin is in most perfect preservation, and is one of the most interesting of the whole Saxon series." " The type is very remarkable ; the diadem and dress of the king are, like those of many other Saxon kings, copied from those of the later Roman emperors." Coins of Alfred : — These numbered 867 examples, and are "the first of those in general circula- tion at the time of the deposit." " Amongst them are some types hitherto unknown, and half-pence of which the existence was rather surmised than ascertained." Among other coinages are twenty-three specimens of coins with the London monogram ; twenty-four coins of the Oxford type ; and about no pieces of the Canterbury type. The Alfred half-pennies include one of Oxford mint ; three of the Canterbury type, and seven of the ordinary type like the pennies. Coins of Eadweard. — These are forty-five in number, " six only of the type which bears his bust, and thirty-eight of his more common type, having his name and title on the obverse as a legend, with a small cross in the centre of the type." There is but one specimen of the half-pennies of this reign. Coins of St. Eadmund. — These are by far the most numerous of the Saxon collection found at Cuerdale, there being 1,770 specimens. " The type consists of the letter A on the obverse, with the name of the sainted king as legend ; on the reverse is a small cross, with the name of the moneyer." " It has generally been supposed that

5

34 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

the coins of St. Eadmund were struck at the mint of the abbots of St. Edmundsbury, the earhest notice of which is a grant made to them by Edward the Confessor, in 1066. The name of the place does not occur upon the coins, but has been supposed to be intimated by the name of the mint. If such be the case, it would appear that the privilege of a mint must have been granted at the time of the canonisation of St. Edmund, all the circumstances of which are involved in much obscurity, but which it is now quite clear must have taken place very soon after his murder, in 870. The discovery of about 1,800 coins, mixed with those of a large number of Alfred, would be strong presumptive evidence that they were contemporary, but the fact is proved by four coins which are found in this hoard, bearing on one side the name of Alfred, and on the other that of Eadmund, with his saintly title." " Eadmund was murdered in 870 ; he was succeeded by Guthrum, the Dane, who subse- quently acquired the friendship of Alfred, and was converted to Christi- anity in 878 ; it is, therefore, somewhat probable that these coins, which give the name of Saint to Eadmund, were struck about this period ; that there is some connection between the conversion of Guthrum, the canonisation of Eadmund, and the striking of the coins which commemo- rate the event ; and that all the circumstances occurred under the sanction of Alfred." Com of Ceolnoih. — " Of the coins struck by Arch- bishops of Canterbury there is found here not one prior to Ceolnoth, and of his only one." " Of his successor, Ethered, who occupied the see from 871 to 891, not a piece was found ;" but there are fifty-nine coins of his successor Phlegmund ; among them several varying in some peculiarities from any previously known.

Mr. Hawkins attempts to determine the probable date, and to guess at the possible occasion of the deposit. His first surmise is that the collection may have " belonged to a worker or dealer in silver, who had been suddenly interrupted by some alarm in the midst of his opera- tions for reducing his stock into ingots, preparatory to the further processes of his peculiar trade /' but later he concludes that the mass of treasure must have been brought from a distance, by parties of strangers ; and as the only parties of strangers likely to visit Lanca- shire at this period were warlike parties, the opinion is a corroboration of the view that the hoard was the military treasury of some invading Danish leaders. This authority observes : — " It may be remarked that these coins were probably collected within a limited district, for there is but one coin of any Mercian King, not one of the usual Mercian type, even of Alfred himself" " It must be observed that there is not amongst these coins any of either an Archbishop of York, or a King of Northumbria, which may be accounted for by the circumstance that

DANISH TREASURE FOUND AT CUERDALE.

35

the treasure consisted entirely of silver, and that no coins of that metal were current in Northumbria before the time of Regnald, who com- menced his reign in 912." "There is every appearance of this treasure having been collected in the South, and transferred in one mass to the place of its deposit. It may be supposed, then, that the Cuerdale treasure was deposited iinmediately upon the arrival in this neighbourhood of tlie party or parties 7vho brought it from a distance." Now, if these parties had been peaceable, coming in peaceable times, the hiding of the treasure was needless ; but if the owners of it were invaders of the land, its secretion, either just before a great battle or after a severe defeat, is quite accountable. As to the question of date, Mr. Hawkins's opinion is expressed as follows : — " Looking at the list of personages who may be considered to have struck the coins comprising the English portion of the Cuerdale treasure, it appears that the far greater number bear the name of Alfred or St. Eadmund ; it is clear, therefore, that these were strictly contemporary pieces, and that the deposit was made very soon after the death of Alfred, before his coins had been displaced by those of his successor. Archbishop Phlegmund occupied the see of Canterbury for eleven years before the death of Alfred, and survived him twenty-three years ; of his coins there are here fifty-nine specimens. He was the last prelate of Canterbury who struck coins in his own name, and it is not improbable that he may have discontinued the practice some years before his death ; indeed, while the occurrence of the name ,of Alfred upon one of Phlegmund's coins proves that some of his coins were struck during that King's reign, there is not any evidence that he struck coins after the King's death, and it is probable that all his coins here found may have been struck during the life of Alfred. There are, however, forty-five coins of Edward, the successor of Alfred ; he died in 924, and this is the very latest year in which any of the coins here discovered could have been struck. While, then, these coins prove that the inter- ment must have taken place after the death of Alfred, the smallness of the number — forty-five — leads to the presumption that it took place very soon after his death, probably not later than the year 910." In this supposition the writer may have affixed too early a date to the deposit. It must be borne in mind that Hawkins wrote in ignorance of the evidence which seems to connect Athelstan's defeat of Anlaf with this part of Lancashire. While, too, the year 924 is the last date on which any of the Saxon coins could have been minted, the year 928 is given by Hawkins himself as the latest possible date of one of the French types represented here ; and some of the Scandinavian series were of the same period. As the treasure most probably belonged to an army of the Danes, the coins would not be likely to include the

36 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

last Saxon coins in circulation on their arrival in Lancashire. Thus the treasure may as well have belonged to the chiefs who invaded England in the years 934-7 as to predatory bands of the same race that might have infested the Lancashire coasts some twenty years earlier.

The articles of Mr. Hawkins on this treasure were supplemented by communications to the Numismatic Chronicle from Mr. Daniel H. Haigh, an accomplished Manchester numismatist, and from M. Adrien de Longperier, of Paris. Mr. J. Yonge Akerman comments upon several of the English coins embraced in the foregoing enumeration of the Cuerdale examples. The third sovereign here represented is Ciolwlf, King of Mercia, of whose mint there are two coins. Akerman says : " Of the pennies of Ciolwlf, who seized the kingdom on the deposition of Burgred (a.d. 874), there are several varieties which are rare. Some of them were struck at Canterbury, and have Dorobernia Cibiias on the reverse.'" Of the coins of Alfred the same authority remarks : " Many of the coins of Aelfred (Alfred) found with the large hoard at Cuerdale, in Lancashire, a short time since, have the portrait with a monogram on the reverse /" and he figures an example " which, instead of the name Aelfred, as usual around that bust, has the word Heribert." "There were half-pennies of Aelfred discovered at Cuerdale." Two examples are given — "one bearing the name of the place of mintage, Orsnaforda ; the other with an unintelligible inscription. Barbarous imitations of pennies of the London type also occurred in the Cuerdale find, and among them the examples engraved." " There was also a type of Alfred, the florid ornaments of which seem to have been suggested by the devices of one of the coins of Offa.'" It has been noted that there are no fewer than 867 coins of King Alfred in the Cuerdale list. Forty-five coins are counted of the succeeding prince, Eadweard, on which Akerman WTites : " The pennies of Eadweard the Elder are interesting, though of rude execution. There are many varieties. Some have the representation of a building ; others, a flower in a compartment of the reverse ; and the hand of Providence, a type derived from the Byzantine artists, appears on a third variety. But two specimens of his half-pennies are known.'" The coins of the next Saxon monarch, the martyred and canonised St. Eadmund, King of the East Angles, are 1770 in number, the most numerous of any English mint represented in the Cuerdale hoard. Following these are a few coins of the ecclesiastics, Archbishops Ceolnoth and Fhlegmund.

The observations of Worsaae, the Danish antiquary, upon the Scandinavian, French, and other foreign coins, in the collection, are learned and valuable : —

] Anc. and Mod. Coins, p. 113. 2 lb. p. 117. 3 lb. p. 119. 4 lb. p. 119.

DANISH TREASURE FOUND AT CUERDALE. 37

Among the coins, besides a single Byzantine piece, were found several Arabic or Kufic, some of north Italy, about a thousand French, and two thousand eight hundred Anglo-Saxon pieces, of which only eight hundred were of Alfred the Great. But the chief mass, namely, three thousand pieces, consisted of peculiar coins, with the inscriptions " Siefredus Rex," " Sievert Rex," "Cnut Rex," "AlfdenRex," and "Sitric Comes" (jarl) ; and which, therefore, merely from their preponderating number, may be supposed to be the most common coins at that time, and in that part of north England where the treasure had been concealed. Cnut's coins were the most numerous, as they amounted to about two thousand pieces, of different dies ; which proves a considerable and long-continued coining. Not only are the names of Sitric (Sigtryg), Alfden (Halvdan), Cnut (Knud), Sievert (Sivard), and Siefred (Sigfred) visibly of Scandinavian origin, but they also appear in ancient chronicles as the names of mighty Scandinavian chiefs, who in the ninth and tenth centuries ravaged the western lands. Sitric Comes is certainly that Sitric Jarl, who fell in a battle in England about the year 900. Alfden is undoubtedly the same King " Halfden" who at the close of the ninth century so often harried South England — where he even besieged London, till he fell in the battle of Wednesfield, in 910. Cnut, whose name is found inscribed on the coins in such a manner that one letter stands on each of the four arms of a cross, while the inscription REX (Rex) is enclosed between them, is probably he whom the Danes called "Knud Daneast " (or Danes' Joy), a son of the first Danish monarch, Gorm the Old ; as it is truly related of him that he perished in Vesterviking (the Western lands). Sigfrid must either have been the celebrated viking, for whose adventurous expedition France, and its capital, Paris, in particular, had to pay dearly ; or that Sigefert, or Sigfred, who, in the year 897, ravaged the English coasts with an army of Danes from Northumberland. The steady connection which the vikings in England maintained with France, affords a material explanation why their coins were imitations both of contemporary English, or Anglo-Saxon, and of French coins. Thus on the reverse of Cnut's coins just mentioned, we sometimes find the inscription " Elfred Rex," which is purely Anglo-Saxon ; and sometimes the particular mark for Carolus, or Charles (Karl), which otherwise is only found on the French Carlovingian coins. A very frequent inscription on the Scandinavian coins here alluded to is " Ebraice Civita," or "The City of York," whose ancient name " Eadhroig, " and in the barbarous Latin of the time "Eboracum," was converted into "Ebraice." On other contemporary coins struck at York, namely, on some of what is called St. Peter's money, York is also called ' ' Ebraice " and ' ' Ebraicit. " For the Cuerdale coins, in order to express the name "Ebraice," coins of French kings of the city of "Ebroicas," or Evreux, in Normandy, seem to have been particularly chosen as patterns ; for, by a slight change of a few letters, this Ebroicas could be converted into Ebraice, which was the easier process at a time when the art of stamping coins was not much practised. An additional proof that these coins were really minted by Scandinavian kings in Northumbria, and in the city of York, is, that none such have been found in any other part of England ; whilst, on the contrary, one of Canute's coins, which have been so frequently mentioned, was dug up, together with English and French coins of the same kind as those found at Cuerdale, at Harkirke, near Crosby, also in Lancashire ; and consequently at places whose names ending in kirke (church), and by (town), bear witness no less than that of Cuerdale (from dal, a valley), to the dominion of the Northmen in these parts. Should any doubt still exist that, so early as the ninth century, Danish-Norwegian Kings and Jarls minted a considerable number of coins in York, in imitation of contemporary Anglo-Saxon and French coins, it is at all events certain that the Northumbrian

40 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

A^ an exposition of the degree of skill attained in the manufacture of jewelry and other silversmith's work at the period of the deposit, the Cuerdale treasure is exceedingly useful.

The ornaments accompanying are of various kinds, but the silver armlets and portions of armlets are the most numerous. They exhibit many diversities of shape, workmanship, and embellishment. Upwards of forty of these armlets and parts of armlets are engraved by Hawkins. Some of them are almost beautiful in design ; others are little more than thin bands of silver narrowing to the ends, where the circle is formed by the twisting of the wires. The following may be taken as a type of the ruder forms : — " A small armlet, probably not quite finished, having been merely hammered into form, the edges and sides still rough and sharp, and retaining traces of the hammer ; it is almost entirely without ornament. It is perfectly flat, broad at the middle, becoming gradually narrower towards the extremities, where it terminates in blunt round ends. Armlets of this description vary in breadth at the middle from )^ of an inch to i }{, and perhaps more ; it is probable that they did not quite encircle the arm, the ends being, when worn, at some distance from each other. Sometimes the ends were elongated, and rounded into the form of a thick wire, and twisted together into various forms." The ornamentation consists for the most part of parallel indented lines, producing a ribbed appearance, zigzags or lozenges punched into the metal ; in some examples the punches are mere dots or small rings ; in others the form of the stamp is more artistic. " The patterns are numerous, but the fomis of the punches are very few, the variations being produced by combining the forms of more punches than one, or by placing the same or differently formed punches at a greater or less distance from each other, or by varying their direction. Patterns of the period and localities to which these ornaments belong are scarcely ever found finished by casting or chasing ; it would appear also that the use of solder, to unite the various parts of objects, was either little known or little practised, for the ends of these ornaments are tied together, and upon other occasions, where union is necessary, rivets are employed." The punches, besides the blunt chisel punch and the zigzag, are annular, heart-shaped, egg-shaped, triangular, crescent, quatrefoil, conical, &c., and although the tool is in all cases more os less rude, the varieties of pattern produced by them on the outer surfaces of these primitive jewels are very considerable.

SAXON SETTLEMENTS AND NOMENCLATURE.

During an occupancy of some five centuries as the dominant race, from the period of their advent in the beginning of the si.xth century to

SAXON SILVER KING AND ARMLETS, .FOUND AT

CUERDALE. [Page 40

i ^ J • *♦ • i

SAXON SETTLEMENTS AND NOMENCLATURE. 41

the Norman Conquest in the eleventh, the Anglo-Saxon colonists in Lancashire had settled to the pursuit of husbandry upon the patches of land they had reclaimed from the natural wilderness. Evidence of the Saxon appropriation of lands in the district is supplied in the existing nomenclature of townships and smaller territorial divisions, which is essentially Anglo-Saxon. If, which must be supposed, the population of the preceding Romano-British epoch had made some impression upon the soil in the way of cultivation, and had established fixed dwellings upon, and proprietory rights in, the restricted portions of the land then cleared from the forest, the Saxons and Angles, when seizing upon these lands as the victor's perquisite, not only dispossessed the British settler but discarded or ignored the name given to the British settlement, and substituted a new series of names of localities based upon the language of the intruding races. Thus, with rare exceptions, the Roman and British names of places in use for ages before the Saxon Conquest were dropped and forgotten, and the fresh terms of topographical description were invented, which in modified forms have survived to this day, and, being stereotyped in popular use, must now endure to the end of England's record.

Unless in the names of the two local rivers, Darwen and Calder, and the range of hills to portions of which the name of Billinge is given, it would be difficult to discover the most faint traces of the aboriginal nomenclature in the modern names of places within this parish. Darwen is thought to be derived from the British terms Dwr-giuyn, meaning, the Clear Water ; and Calder from Col-dwr, Narrow Water. Billinge is also imagined to be British, but the root of the word is not suggested. The Saxons did not attempt to change the name of the river Darwen, but in the Saxonised form of DernvetU retained it and applied it to two of their settlements upon the banks of that stream, Over Derwent and Nether Derwent. The other names of the ancient manors, or landed occu- pancies, in Blackburn Parish have a Saxon root-meaning more or less distinct. The central town of Blackburn is named from A.S. Blac-burne, meaning Dark (or opaque) Brook — descriptive of its stream. In the same township occurs Audley, apparently from the Saxon words ^Eld-ley, Old Field (or place); Whitebirk, from Hwite-byrc, the White (or silver) Birch ; Beardwood, probably from Beorh-wuda, the Wood on the Hill. The Anglo-Saxon word Tun, a residence, or homestead, modernised to Town, was frequently used in the naming of places, with some distinguish- ing prefix ; and several of the townships in Blackburn Parish thus obtained their nomenclature, namely, Billington, the town on Billinge ; Osbaldeston, the settlement of Osbald or Oswald ; Balderstone, an altered form of Osbaldeston ; Pleasington, the seat or homestead of Plesyng ;

6

42 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

Witton, the place of one Wyta, it may be ; Clayton, perhaps named from the character of its subsoil, CliBg-tun, the clayey place ; and Walton, which may have been composed of the two words, WeaH-iitn, the walled settlement, indicating that it was held as a fortified post in the Saxon as well as in the Roman colonisation. Rishton may be taken to have been compound oi Rise, A.S. a rush, and tun, that is, the place of rushes, — a description still accurate of the partially-recovered bog-land of Rishton Moor. The Saxon termination of bury (byri, a city or burgh), implying a settlement made strong for defence, is exampled locally in Salesbury and Samlesbury, townships in the Ribble Valley. Harwood, the name of two townships in the parish (Great and Little), is deducible from Hara- wuda, the wood or covert of hares ; doubtless a part of that extensive woodland which is recorded to have covered the hills in the centre of the parish at the date of the Conquest. Ramsgreave, the next township to the west of Little Harwood, receives its name, probably, from Romms, a Saxon family name, and grcef, a grove, and implying, the grove or greave of Romms or Romes. Wilpshire, a township on the hill south of Billington, was anciently spelt Wilipscyre or Wilpshire, and may mean the share of Wilip, from the Saxon Scyre, a shire or share. In the names of Dinkley and Eccleshill townships appear the Saxon affixes ley, a field, and hull, a hill, and the first part of both names may enshrine those of the ancient settlers in these places. The derivation of the names of three other townships in the parish, namely, those of Livesey, Tockholes, and Mellor, is not so evident. Livesey and Tockholes sound like Saxon words, but Mellor has a hint of Danish, and the heights of Mellor may at one period have been held by the Danes of West Lancashire as an out- post of their fortified places in Lower Ribblesdale.' The word dale is Danish, the Saxon equivalent being deen, as in Hoddlesden, Haslingden, and Baxenden more to the east ; and a reminiscence of Scandinavian tenure on the west side of the parish is therefore found in the names of Clayton-in-le-Dale, Oxendale, Cuerdale, and Walton-in-le-Dale ; as well as in the name of the Ribbleside estate of Sunderland in Osbaldeston. The mixed Saxon and Danish nomenclature of the valley of the Ribble between Salesbury and Penwortham points to the inference that this was for a period contested ground by the Saxons of the hill district of East Lancashire and the Danes of the coastward plains of Leyland and Amoundemess.

In the names of numerous places of early settlement within townships the Saxon element is visible, ex. gr. : — Revidge, Royshaw, Oosebooth,

I Respecting the derivation of the names of Mellor and Harwood, Mr. T. T. Wilkinson, a good authority in Lancashire etymology, suggests ; — " I should derive Mellor from the Keltic moel-ar the place or speculum {ar) upon (moel) the round hill. Harwood might also come from hlgher-wooA, or liar (gray) wood : as well as from the words given in the text."

SAXON NOMENCLATURE.

43

and Peel in Blackburn township ; Langho, Cunliffe, Braddyll, Brockhole, Hacking, Elcar, Nabbe, and Snodworth in Billington ; Showley, in Clay- ton-le-Dale; Green Lowe, Astley, Tumcroft, and Sunnihurst in Over Darwen ; Th'Hurcroft, Oakenhurst, and Feamhurst in Lower Darwen ; Martholme, Overton, and Netherton in Great Harwood ; Bankhey in Little Harwood ; Feniscliffe, Whithalgh, Moorgate, and Ewood (Hey- wood), in Livesey ; Arleys and Stanley in Mellor ; Stidlehurst in Osbal- deston ; Feniscowles in Pleasington ; Tottlevvorth, the Holt, Mickle Heys, and Sidebight in Rishton ; Loveley, in Salesbury ; Huntley, and Sower- butts, in Samlesbury ; Lowe, and Red Lee, in Tockholes ; Brownedge in Walton ; Pyethome in Wilpshire ; and in the names of the united town- ship of Yate and Pickop Bank.

44 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

CHAPTER II.— MEDIEVAL PERIOD.

Lancashire in the time of Edward the Confessor — The Norman Invasion and Conquest — March of the Norman Army across the County— The Domesday Survey — Lordship of De Lacy in Blackburn- shire — Ancient Ecclesiastical record of the district — Landed tenures in the reign of Henry IL — Foundation of Whalley Abbey — The Great De Lacy Inquisition — Tenants of the First Duke of Lancaster — John of Gaunt's estate in Blackburnshire — Wars of the Roses — Capture of Henry VI. near Clitheroe — Rewards to his captors — Fall of Richard III, at Bosworth Field.

\ T the commencement of the eleventh century the Lancashire terri- /~\ tories were under the sway of two powerful nobles. The northern half of the county, to the line of the Ribble, was portion of the Danish earldom of Northumbria. The part to the south of the Ribble, des- cribed as "Terra inter Ripam et Mershatn" (the land between Ribble and Mersey), was attached to the earldom of Mercia or Chester. Wol- fric. Earl of Chester, by his will, dated a.d. 1004, devised his lands between the Ribble and the Mersey to his sons Elfhelme and Walfarge, subject to a payment by each of 3,000 sceattas. But in the reign of Edward the Confessor the territories between Ribble and Mersey had passed into royal possession ; they had, in fact, been sequestrated by Canute. The position of King Edward in relation to the bulk of these lands was that of superior lord, but certain particular estates were in immediate tenure of the Crown. In Blackburnshire this Saxon King had several estates under his direct control, and of which he drew the revenues. Ecclesiastically, the region of South Lancashire was a part of the diocese of Lichfield, and remained so until the Reformation, when the diocese of Chester was constituted.

In 1 05 1, William, Duke of Normandy, came to England on a state visit to Edward, accompanied by a great array of Norman followers. Edward received him with profuse honours and hospitalities. William found the country swarming with Normans, occupying every post of

THE NORMAN APPROPRIATION.

45

authority and trust, and everything apparently favourable to the usurpa- tion he had then resolved upon. Edward had before this entered into a secret engagement with William that the latter should succeed him upon the throne of England. This compact was viewed with aversion by many of his subjects, who rallied to the leadership of Harold, son of Godwin, Saxon Earl of Wessex. Edward the Confessor died in Feb- ruary, 1066, and the popular voice promptly declared Harold should be King. On hearing of this, Duke William immediately began his prepa- rations for the invasion of England. The army of invasion was consti- tuted, not of Normans alone, but of " all the professional adventurers and all the military vagabonds of Western Europe." The Norman army of 60,000 men landed at Pevensey Bay, near Hastings, and on the 13th of October, 1066, the battle of Hastings was fought. By the superior tactics of the Normans, the English were defeated. Harold and his brothers fell in the thickest of the battle, and in the space of one brief autumn day the domain of England passed into the hands of a new race, to whom the native English were doomed to pay the duty of perpetual servitude. William was crowned by his Nonnans King of England in Westminster Abbey, on Christmas Day of that same year. William and his barons now proceeded with the work of partitioning the lands of the English amongst themselves. Royal Commissioners traversed the country in every direction, and made careful inventories of every kind of property. To enforce a sweeping sequestration, the Conqueror's troops ravaged the kingdom with atrocious severity.

Lancashire was among the last of English territories to feel the scourge of the Norman visitation. Many, indeed, of its bravest men must have participated and perished in the final bitter conflict for national existence ; but the western parts of Northumbria and Mercia were out of the direct track of conquest. Not until the year 1070 was the county entered by a Norman force. It was the followers of the banner of De Lacy, to whom the earldom of Pontefract had fallen, that were the first to penetrate our mountain barrier, and to seize upon some portion of land in East Lancashire. " The great domain of Pontefract," writes Thierry, " the spot where the Norman troops had forded the river Aire, was the share of Gilbert de Lacy, who, following the example of nearly all the other Norman captains, built a strong castle there. It appears that this Gilbert was the first who with his troops passed the mountains west of York and invaded the adjoining county of Lancaster, which then formed part of Cheshire. He appropriated to himself in this county an immense territory, the chief town of which was Black- bum, and which extended south and east to the borders of Yorkshire. To form this great domain, he expelled, according to an ancient tradition,

46 HISTORY OF BLACKBURX.

all the English proprietors from Blackburn, Rochdale, Tottington and the vicinity. Before the conquest, says the tradition, all these pro- prietors were free, equal in rights, and independent of each other ; but after the Norman invasion, there was in the whole county but one lord.'" Soon aftenvards, William himself, having finished the work of subjugation in the east of Northumbria, resolved upon the capture of Chester, the sole remaining city of any note which had not yet received a Norman garrison. As the King was preparing to start from York on this expedi- tion, he learned that a feeling of strong repugnance to the enterprise pervaded his soldiery. According to Ordericus Vitalis, the Norman army had been alarmed by exaggerated accounts of the difficulties of the country between York and Chester, and of the "terrible fierceness of the enemy" in this region. Having overcome this opposition by lavish promises of rewards in lands and other property to those who assisted in this new conquest, William marched over the Pennine mountains to the city on the Dee. It is natural to suppose that the main body of the Norman army, following in the footsteps of De Lac/s men, would take the route through Craven into Ribblesdale, the most open of the passes through the hill ranges of the eastern border of Lancashire ; and it is something more than a vague conjecture that the great Conqueror himself rode, at the head of his martial array, through the length of our Hundred while upon this journey. Ordericus Vitalis writes that in this march the Norman leader made his way with unwearied vigour "through roads never before travelled by horses, across lofty mountains and deep valleys, rivers, and rapid streams, and danger- ous quagmires in the hollows of the hills. Pursuing their track, they were often distressed by torrents of rain, sometimes mingled with hail. At times they were reduced to feed on the flesh of horses which perished in the bogs. The King often led the way on foot with great agility, and lent a ready hand to assist others in their difficulties." The result of this laborious march was the immediate occupation of Chester and of all the Mercian country on both sides of the river Mersey.

From the statement above it would appear that the first Norman possessor of Blackbumshire was Gilbert, or Ilbert, de Lacy, whose major acquisition was the lordship of Pontefract in Yorkshire. Other early records, however, state that Blackburn Hundred, with the rest of Lancashire, was in the first instance conferred upon the Norman Earl Roger dfr Montgomery, better known in English annals as Roger de Poictou. The grant is believed to have been made about the year 1068. This Roger of Poictou was the third son of Roger, Viscount of Mont- gomery. His services to the Conqueror were recompensed by the

1 Conq. of £ngl.. trans, by Hazlict. v, i, p. 229.

; UOMESDAY SURVEY. 47

earldom of Lancashire, the superior lordship of almost the whole county, and near 200 manors in other parts of the country. Apparently, Ilbert de Lacy, although a baron in Yorkshire, held his estates in East Lancashire, at the first, under Roger de Poictou as superior lord. This, at least, is the simplest explanation that suggests itself of the discrepancy noted.

The memorable survey of landed tenures in England, undertaken by order of William the Conqueror, the record of which is contained in Z'^/««(/(y .5(7,?/', was begun about the year 1080, and finished in 1086. The passage relating to the Hundred of Blackburn is found in the survey of lands between the Mersey and Ribble. The " King Edward" alluded to is Edward the Confessor, the last Saxon King of England according to the Normans, who refused to recognise the brief sovereignty of Harold. The following is an English version of the entry relating to the district : —

King Edward held Blachebunie. There are two hides and two carucates of land. Of this land the church had two carucates of land ; and the Church of St. Mary in Whalleij two c-irucates, both of them free of all customs. In the same manor there is a woo<l one league long and the same broad, and there was an aery of hawks. To this manor or hundred were attached twenty-eight freemen, holding five hides and a half and forty carucates of land for twenty-eight manors. There is a wood there six leagues long and four broad, and the manors were all subject to the above customs. In the same hundretl King Edward had Ilimicot (Huncoat), two carucates of land, and Wale- #Mnc(\Valton-in-le-Dale)two carucates, and rcHi7<«««(Pendleton)half ahide. Thewhole manor, with the hundred, yielded the king a farm rent of thirty two pounds and two shillings. Roger de Poictou gave all this land to Roger de Busli and Albert Greslet, and there are so many men who have eleven carucates and a half ; to whom they have granted freedom (from all customs) for three years, wherefore it is not now valued.

Unfortunately for the precision of our knowledge bf the topography of the district in the eleventh century, the Norman surveyors made a much less particular report on the Hundred of Blackburn than was usual with them in describing other districts. Of twenty-eight manors in the Hundred held by freemen at the Concjuest none are named in the survey. Only the names of the four Royal manorial estates of Blackburn, Hun- coat, Walton and Pendleton are sijecified. The names of the Saxon freeholders under the last of the Saxon Kings are unrecorded, and the territorial nomenclature of the period is left to be doubtfully gathered from later historical references. In the Parish of Blackburn, Blackburn and Walton-in-le-Dale are entered as Royal Manors under Saxon rule. How many of the twenty-eight other manors of the Hundred were con- tained within the Parish of Blackburn cannot be exactly made out ; but we know from other sources that the larger townships of Billington, Sales- bury, Clayton-in-le-Uale, Osbaldeston, Samlesbury and Pleasington, and

48. HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

probably Harwood, Rishton and Livesey, have embraced manors in fee under the chief lords of the Honor from the beginning of the Norman appropriation, and it may be inferred that the Saxon manors within the parish were generally identical with the Norman manorial tenures that succeeded.

Some explanation of obsolete terms employed in Domesday Book may be useful to the general reader. The hide of land was originally a Saxon measure, and signified as much arable land as would suffice to support one family. Obviously the extent of the hide must have varied according to the quality and situation of the land, and thus it has been found impossible to fix any measure as the uniform equivalent of the Saxon hide. The cariicaie in South Lancashire was equal to the sixth part of a hide, in other parts of England it was but one-twelfth. The meaning of the term is, as much land as could be tilled by one plough, from the Latin cariica, a plough. Dr. Whitaker says that in Blackburn Hundred the manors averaged about one and a half carucates each ; that the "oxgang" was sixteen acres, and the carucate 128 acres, or eight oxgangs. This gives an average area of the twenty-eight private manors of Blackburnshire of 192 acres each.

The tenure of the earldom of Lancaster, with its valuable appurte- nances, was not long retained by Roger de Poictou. In the year 1074, during the King's absence in Normandy, a conspiracy was formed to dethrone him, and to separate England into three kingdoms — those of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. The three principal agents in this sedition were Roger de Poictou, Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland (an English noble who had made his peace with the Norman), and Adolphus, Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk. Between these it was intended that the country should be divided. William's prompt return to England discon- certed the conspiracy, and the foiled plotters paid the penalty of their ambition, Waltheof with his life, and Roger de Poictou by the forfeiture of his English estates and banishment from the country. The Norman monarch himself assumed the proprietorship of the Lancashire lands of which his rebellious noble had been deprived, and they were kept as royalties until the King's death in 1087.

The rise of the town and fortress of Clitheroe dates from the first years of the Norman tenure of East Lancashire. It was then that Clitheroe became the seat of local authority, and gave its designation to the " Honor of Clitheroe," which embraced the older division of Black- burnshire, along with portions of other Hundreds in Lancashire and Yorkshire. The Norman fortress at Clitheroe was built either by Ilbert de Lacy in the reign of William I., or by his son Robert in the reign of William Rufus. The De Lacy family, whose representatives figure con-

ORIGINAL CHURCH FOUNDATIONS. 45

spicuously in the local history of the next two centuries, came from the Department of Calvadas, in Normandy ; and their name, originally spelt De Lascy, was derived from a place called Lassi, in the French province. The history of the Honor of Clitheroe, — which passed from the Lacies by marriage of an heiress to Henry Earl of Lancaster, and remained an appanage of the Earldom and Dukedom of Lancaster and of the Crown on the addition of the duchy to the titular dignities of the Monarch, until it was granted to General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, by Charles the Second, — has been written circumstantially by the historian Whitaker, and therefore need not be repeated in these pages. With the Honor of Clitheroe was associated the judicatory rights of the Wapentake of Blackburn, whose ancient court has but recently been abolished.

A Latin manuscript, supposed to have been written about the year 1347 by John Lyndelay, one of the Abbots of Whalley, contains a curious account, compiled probably from local traditions extant at the time, of the primitive circumstances of the district, both as respects its ecclesias- tical and its civil settlements. This ancient document, which Whitaker styles De Statu Blagborneshire — " Concerning the State of Blackburn- shire" — was translated by the late Mr. Harland for the new edition of the History of La7washire} All that need be recited here are passages refer- ring to the first Christian foundations in the district and to the local manors of the Saxon period : —

Be it remembered, that in. the time of Ethelbert, King of the English, who began to reign A. D. 596, the blessed Augustine, the Apostle of the English, sent by the blessed Pope Gregory, in the third year of his papacy, at the instance and request of the said Kmg, preached in England, and taught the Christian faith. There was at Whalley in Blackbomeshire a certain parish church built in honour of all saints, in the cemetery of which church were certain stone crosses then erected and called by the people the crosses of the blessed Augustine, which under the same name exist there to this day ; and the above-named church was called, at that time, " The White Church under the Legh. " Within the bounds and limits of the said parish church were com- prised, at the time, all Blagborneshire and all Boland, and so it endured for many years. After these things, the devotion of the faithful increasing, and the number of believers in those parts being augmented, there were built other three churches in Blagborneshire, — ramely, the Church of Blagbome, the Church of Chepen, and the Church of Ribchester, — the parishes of these churches being distinct, and marked out in certain limits on all sides, as they have continued to be to the present time, and are well known to all in those parts. In those times, while the said churches had thus been built, there was not, in Blackbomeshire, at Cliderhowe, or elsewhere, a castle built, nor any chapel whatever besides the above-named churches, nor any lord who had ever claimed the patronage of the said churches, or of any of them ; but each rector held and possessed the land and vill in which his church was situated, as the endowment of his church ; and governed his church, so endowed, as if it were his own patrimony and inheritance ; and freely appointed his successor from among his sons or

I Vol. 2, pp. 1-3.

so HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

friends, acceptance or institution by the Bishop of Lichfield then taking place ; and, for a long time, the Rectors of Whalley and of Blagborne were for the most part mar- ried men, and the lords of vills. And those of Whalley were called deans, not parsons — the cause of which is thought likely to be, that at the time of the founding of this church, and through times long subsequent, the people of those parts were so sparse, and so untamed and wild, and moreover, there was such a multitude of foxes and hurt- fill beasts, and the place also seemed so inaccessible to men, that alike the Bishops for the time being, and their officials, left and continually committed the whole jurisdiction (pertaining to the office of common deans) over the ordinaries of these parishes, to the aforesaid rectors, on account of the inconvenience specified ; the more difficult and weighty causes, indeed, being reserved for the Bishop. Who held this lordship of Blagbomeshire before the time of the said King William is not stated with certainty in the chronicles. Common opinion holds and asserts, that as many as were the vills or mansions, or the manors of men, so many were the lords, not only in Blagbomeshire, but also Rachdale, Tottington, and Boland, and all the adjacent neighbourhood, of which none was held from another, but all in chief from the lord King himself.

In the reign of Henry II., and about a century after the Conquest, the names of several townships in Blackburn Parish appear in existing documents. For example, Gospatric, lord of Samlesbury, founded the Chapel of Samlesbury about the year 1190. In the twelfth century, the name of Rishton is found as the seat of a branch of the family of De Blackbums, the members of which changed the family name on their change of residence to De Rishton. The manor of Great Harwood is mentioned early in the same century as the gift of Henry de Lacy to Richard de Fitton, Justice of Chester. In the reign of Henry II., who died in 1 1 89, the two Darewents (Upper and Nether Darwen), Melver (Mellor), Heccleshall (Eccleshill), and Harawuda (Harwood), are given in documents as members of the Knight's Fee of Walton, granted by Henry II. to Robert Banastre, founder of the great house of Banastre of Walton. Billington township is named so early as the reign of Stephen, who died in 1 154. Osbaldeston is named in deeds of the reign of Henry II. ; and the townships of Wilpshire, Dinkley, Cuerdale, Salesbury, Tock- holes, Pleasington, and Witton not much later. So that the settled lands of the Parish soon after the Norman occupation may be generally identi- fied with the modem townships, and their anterior definition and appor- tionment may be assumed, the silence of Domesday notwithstanding.

The following extracts from the Liber Feodorum (Book of Fees), compiled by Ralph de Nevill in the reign of Henry III., have reference to the landed tenures in this parish : —

FEES OF THE HEIR OF ROBERT BANASTRE.

The same heir holds in the lord's chief manor one knight's fee in Waleton and Blakebumscire of the fe e of the Earl of Lincoln, and he in chief of the lord the king ; the land hitherto is in custody and belongs to the dower of the Countess of Lincoln.

FOUNDATION OF WHALLEY ABBEY.

5»

Pees of the heir of the earl of Lincoln in blakeburnscire.

Inquisitors of the Wapentake of Blakeburnscire : — Simon le Harris, Adam de Blakebum, Adam Noel, Henry de Cleyton, Adam de Billinton, William de Calde- cotes, John de Wynketley, and Richard de Katlauhe.

LiVESEY, Acton, and Merley. — Ralph de Mitton holds the fourth part of a knight's fee in Acton, Merley, and Liveshey, of the demesne fee, and it belongs to the dower of the Countess.

RiSHTON. — Gilbert, the son of Henry, holds the tenth part of a knight's fee in Ruston of the demesne fee, and it belongs to the dower of the Countess. Adam de Billinton holds half a knight's fee in the same of the demesne fee, and it belongs to the dower of the Countess. The heir of Hugh de Alvetham holds the eighth part of a knight's fee in the same of the demesne fee, and it belongs to the dower of the Countess.

Harwood. — Hugh Fiton holds the fourth part of a knight's fee in Harwood of the demesne fee. Henry de Cleyton holds the eighth part of a knight's fee in the same of the demesne fee.

Under the head of Inquisition of the Earldom of Lancaster, I find the following : — m

Roger de Laci holds five knight's fees of the fee of Cliderhow, which was in the hand of the lord the King.

Under the head of Drengages are these entries : —

Harwood. — Roger de Samelisbury and Alexander [de Harwood] hold six carucates in Harewood of the aforesaid [Robert Greslet's] knight's fee. . . . Roger de Samelisburi and Alexander de Harewood hold one oxgang of land in Chappels [Sharpies] by [a rent of] 8s., of Robert Gredle [Greslet].

Edmund de Lacy, Lord of Clitheroe Honor, who died in 1258, was found by escheat to have possessed, among his many estates in Lancashire and Yorkshire, the manor and lands in Blackburn Parish that follow: — Rishton manor, lands in Salesbuyre, Livysay, Samlesburye, Osbaldeston, Clayton, Dinkedley and Wolipshire.

FOUNDATION OF WHALLEY ABBEY.

By much the most notable event in the local history during the thirteenth century, was the foundation of the Monastery at Whalley by the Fraternity of Cistercian Monks previously domiciled at Stanlaw, in Cheshire. With the history of that Monastery, from its erection until its dissolution, a period of about two centuries and a half, the ecclesias- tical affairs of Blackburn Parish are intimately associated ; while the endowments of Whalley Abbey included extensive territorial properties and rights of lordship within the parish. Prior to the translation from Stanlaw to Whalley, the Church of Blackburn and its dependent Chapels, with ample glebe and other lands in Blackburn, had been bestowed upon the Abbot and Monks of this fraternity by members of the De Lacy family, founders and chief patrons of the Monastery. Particulars

52 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

of these endowments will be hereafter furnished in the accounts to be inserted of the Parish Church and ancient dependent Chapels of the parish. In the year 1283, Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, finding that the original house of the Fraternity at Stanlaw had suffered greatly by its exposed situation on the estuary of the Mersey, and was threatened with total destruction, resolved upon the removal of the foundation to Whalley, and to facilitate the transfer, granted to the Monastery the advowson of Whalley Church. In 1289, in answer to a petition of the Abbot and Monks, Pope Nicholas IV. by his bull authorised the proposed translation. Boniface VIIL, the succeeding Pope, first revoked, but eventually confirmed the permission of his predecessor. Before, however, the Abbot and Monks of Stanlaw could enter into possession of the benefice and patronage of Whalley, the death of the holder of the rectory, Peter de Cestria, had to take place. This event occurred in the year 1294, and shortly after the Abbot of Stanlaw removed his quarters to Whalley, bringing with him the majority of the Monks. Stanlaw was retained as a cell to Whalley. On the site selected for the new Abbey, on the right bank of the Calder immediately to the west of the Parish Church of Whalley, Henry de Lacy laid the foundation of the Abbey, June 12th, 1296. The first-completed portions of the buildings were consecrated in 1306, but the process of extension continued for two centuries, and until within a few years of the dismantlement on the dissolution of Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIIL Ample annals of this great Cistercian Abbey have been published by Whitaker and others, and it is not within the design of this history to describe the Abbey fabrics or to rehearse the history of the Monastery. Such of its territorial possessions as were contained in the townships of Blackburn Parish will be named in the several township histories ; but it may be here stated that they included, besides the Rectorial and Vicarial Glebes of Blackburn, the lordship of the Manor of Billington with appurtenant estates, amounting to the greater part of the area of that township ; and considerable lands, with bams, mills and messuages in the townships of Pleasington, Mellor, Eccleshill, Witton, Livesey, Walton-in-le-Dale, Samlesbury, Balderstone, Salesbury, Over Darwen, Wilpshire, Little Harwood, and Ramsgreave. Thus, for an extended period, the Abbots of Whalley were the largest landlords in Blackburn Parish, and their domains in Whalley Parish and in other parts of Lancashire were still more vast and valuable.

THE GREAT DE LACY INQUISITION.

On the 1 6th of February, 13 11, inquisition was taken, by order of the Crown, of the situation, extent and value of the estates in

THE DOMAIN OF HENRY DE LACY.

53

Lancashire, of which Henry de Lacy, Lord of Clitheroe, deceased a year before (February 5th, 1310), had died possessed. Of this account Whitaker says that " after the death of the last Earl of Lincoln (De Lacy), leaving only a daughter, on whose demise without male issue the vast estates were settled upon the Crown, it was thought necessary to make a strict and accurate survey." The original Latin copy of this Inquisition is not now extant, but an official copy of it, translated into English, is contained in an ancient MS. volume among the records of the Honor of Clitheroe in the custody of Mr. Dixon Robinson, of Clitheroe Castle. The Inquisition has been printed from this copy, edited by the late Mr. Harland, in the 74th volume of the Chetham Society's series. I cite of this return only such portions as relate to estates of De Lacy in the Parish of Blackburn, and to his superior lordship over the parish as parcel of Clitheroe Honor. The record is headed : —

Inquisition taken after the Render of Henry de Lacy, late Earl of Lincoln, of Lands, Tenements, &c., held of the King, in the County of Lancaster, the i6th February, 4TH Edward II.

The Jury say that Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, had no lands or tenements in fee in chief of the King, but that he held all his lands and tenements in the County of Lancaster, immediately of the King by the service of fourteen Knights' fees and the third part of a Knight's fee, and by the rent of 1055. 8d., payable yearly to the Castle Guard of Lancaster, and a certain fee called sak fee, and doing suit to the Court held at Tom every six weeks. That King Edward I. granted to the said Earl of Lincoln and the heirs of his body all the lands and tenements hereinafter mentioned, remainder to Thomas, son of Edmond the King's brother, and to Alice his wife, and the heirs of their bodies, remainder to the right heirs of the said Thomas.

Clitheroe. — That he was seised of the Castle of Clyderhowe with the moat and ditches, nothing worth above the reprises. Also of an Orchard under the Castle, with a Croft, the herbage of which is yearly worth 2d. There are also 20 acres of demean lands demised to several tenants-at-will, each acre yearly worth 4d., — somm 6s. 8d. Four and a half acres of Meadow, yearly worth 3s. A Watermill, yearly worth £6 1 3s. 4d. A Fair on St. Mary Magdalene's day, the toll and profits thereof are yearly worth 6s. 8d. The Toll of Clyderhow, Blakebum, and Bowland, yearly worth £4 13s. 4d.

The subjoined paragraphs refer to townships in this parish : —

Rishton and Magna Harwood. — ^Johanna, late the wife of Edmund Talbot, held two carucates of land in Risseton, by the fourth of a knight's fee, or the yearly rent of IS. and suit of the Court of Clyderhou. William de Haskayth held two carucates of land by the service of a knight's fee and the yearly rent of 2s. 6d. and suit of the Court aforesaid.

Blackburn. — ^John Hilton held a carucate and a half in Blackburn freely by homage.

Li VESEY. — Sir Henry de Bury held Levesay in thanage and paid yearly 29s. at the Feast of St. Gyles, and did suit of the Court aforesaid.

54 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

TOCKHOLES. — ^John de Plesyngton and Adam de Tockholes held Tockholes in thanage, and did one suit to the aforesaid Court.

Over Darwen. — The heirs of Samlesbury and of Keuersdale held one carucate in On Der^vent, by the service of the eighth of a knight's fee and suit of the Court of Clyderhou.-f

Lower Darwen. — Sir Adam Banestre held two carucates of land in Nether Derwent, and paid yearly 2s. lod.

Walton-in-le-Dale. — Sir John de Langeton held two carucates of land by the service of 4s. a year at Midsummer and suit to the Court aforesaid.

CuERDALE. — Adam de Keuresdale held a carucate in Keuresdale by the service of 9s. a year at the Feast of St. Gyles.

Samlesbury. — Lady Cecill de Evyhus and Lady Elizabeth de Holland held one carucate in Samlesbury in thanage, and paid yearly 1 2s.

Mellor. — Nicholas de Evyas held half a carucate of land in Melore by the service of the sixteenth of a knight's fee and paid yearly 8d.

Clayton-in-le-Dale and Billington. — Sir Adam de Huddelston held Clayton and Billington by the service of los. yearly at the Feast of St. Gyles and 3d. at Midsummer, and suit to the Court aforesaid.

WiTTON. — Richard, son of Geffery de Chaterton, held one carucate in Witton by the service of the eighth of a knight's fee and the rent of 2s. per annum at Midsummer. Adam de Haldeley held an assart and paid yearly id. and suit to the aforesaid Court.

Salesbury. — Hugh de [Clyderhow] held Salesbury and Little Penhilton in thanage, and paid yearly 235. lod. at St. Gyles's Feast and suit of the Court aforesaid. Richard de Tyndiheved held n acres in Salesbury, paying yearly id. Richard le Sorris held freely a Watermill, paying yearly 6s. 8d.

DlNKLEY. — Roger de Clyderhow held an oxgang and a third of land in Dynkeley in thanage, and paid 2s. and suit of Court.

Wilpshire. — Bernard de Hackyng held in Whelipshire half an oxgang of land in thanage, and paid yearly iid. and suit of Court. Henry de Bradhill held half an oxgang of land and a third there in thanage, by the rent of is. per armum and suit of Court. Henry de Boulton held one oxgang in thanage by the rent of is. per annum and suit of Court. John, son of Walter de Bradhill, held there two oxgangs of land in thanage, and paid yearly Is. and suit of Court.

Fishery in the Ribble. — The said Earl had a separate Fishery in Ribblewater in Samewell and Salewell [Sale Wheel] yearly worth 1 2d. Thomas Soroys paid yearly to the Earl, by attachments of the Pool at Mitton Mill, 4s.

The following held their tenements as part of the Dower of the Lady Alice de Lacy, but did suit to the three weeks' Court at Cliderhou, viz : —

OsBALDESTON AND Balderstone. — Thomas de Osbaldestone for his tenements in Osbaldestone and Balwestone.

To the above may be added the agistment and winter herbage of Hoddlesden Forest and Ramsgreave Chase, reckoned together with those of Trawden, Rossendale, and Pendle Forests, as worth yearly in total 40s.

The particulars of the Inquisition are of use in the authentic state- ment they embody of the territorial tenures of the parish at that period.

TENANTS OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER. 55

with the names of the free tenants holding under the last of the De Lacys as lords of manors by knight's fee and also in thanage. From this time the tenure of most of the chief local landed estates may be defined and their passage traced down to present possessors.

The Honor of Clitheroe or domain of Blackbumshire was the possession, in the fourteenth century, of the Earls and Dukes of Lan- caster in succession, beginning with Earl Thomas, husband of Alice de Lacy, and Henry his brother, father of Henry, first Duke of Lancaster. A manuscript printed by Gregson in the Fortfolio of Fragments^ supplies a category of tenants of the Duchy of Lancaster in Blackbumshire at the period of the tenure of Henry, the first Duke (created a.d. 1352), in which the feudal tenants in Blackburn Parish are named as under : —

Walton-in-le-Dale. — Robert de Langton, knight, holds one knight's fee of the Duke of Lancaster in Walton-in-le-Dale, in Blackbumshire, that Robert Banester once held of the fee of the Earl Lacy of Lincoln.

AlGHTON, Mearley, AND LiVESEY. — ^John de Harington, Knight, Thomas de Ardem, Adam de Hoghton, Richard de Nevill, and John Bayley hold the fourth part of a knight's fee in Aghton, Merley, and Levissay, which Ralph de Mitton once held of the fee.

RisHTON. — ^John de Radcliffe holds of the said duke the tenth part of a knight's . fee in Rysheton, which Gilbert, son of Henry, once held.

BiLLlNGTON. — The Abbot of Whalley holds half a knight's fee in Billington, of the demesne of the duke, which Adam de Billington once held.

Harwood. — William de Hesketh, knight, holds four parts of a knight's fee in Harewood of the said duke, which Hugh Fyton once held.

Salesbury. — The heirs of Richard Clidrowe hold the manor of Salebury of the Duke of Lancaster in socage [obligation to plough, &c., the lord's lands], and for the service of 38s. 8d. per annum at the Feast of St. Gyles.

.Samlesbury. — William Lord Lovell, Burnell and de Holand and Richard Soth- worth hold of the said duke the manor of Samlesbury in socage for the service of 12s. per annum.

Tockholes, &c. — Richard, son of John de Radcliffe, holds the manor of Urde- sale ; a hundred acres in a place called HoUinhed and in Tockholes ; forty acres in Salford, &c., all held of the King in chief by knight service for 2s. [per annum.]

John of Gaunt (Ghent), fourth son of Edward IH., married Blanche, second daughter of Henry Duke of Lancaster, who had no male heir ; and on the death, in 1362, of Matilda, eldest daughter of Duke Henry (who died in 1361), the whole of the estates attached to the Duchy of Lancaster and Earldom of Leicester passed to the Lady Blanche, as sole heiress of the deceased Duke. Thereupon, her Royal spouse, John of Gaunt, was created Duke of Lancaster, and the title was thus perpetuated. The wife of Duke John, the Lady Blanche, bore him a son, named Henry of Bolingbroke, afterwards crowned as Henry IV., and founder of the dynastic House of Lancaster. . Duke John of Gaunt had before

1 Edn. of 1824, App. pp. lix'lx.

56 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

received, on his marriage with Blanche, daughter of Duke Henry, as her marriage portion, with other estates, " the Wapentake of Clyderhow, with the demesne lands there, the royal bailiwick of Blackburnshire, the manors of Tottington and Rochdale, the lordship of Bowland, the vac- cary of Bowland and Blackburnshire, the forest of Blackburnshire, and park of Ightenhill, with the appurtenances in Blackburnshire.'" Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, died in the year 1369 ; Duke John of Gaunt, in 1398.

Henry of Bolingbroke, who succeeded to the Dukedom, was in exile at the date of his sire's demise, having been banished by Richard II., and his inheritance sequestrated. But returning to England, and placing himself at the head of a powerful disaffected party, Henry easily deposed the last of the Plantagenets, and was proclaimed King, with the title of Henry IV., on September 29th, 1399. By this elevation, the estates of the Duchy of Lancaster, among them the lordship of Blackburnshire, became appurtenant to the English Monarchy.

In that vindictive and ensanguined civil conflict which arose out of rival claims of the Dukes of York and of Lancaster — as representatives of the elder and younger branches of the stock of Plantagenet — to the Crown of England, the men of Lancashire, knights, gentry, and re- tainers, strenuously bore their part on one side or the other, and profited or suffered by the various events that alternately lifted and sunk the for- tunes of the White and the Red Roses. But no significant military pas- sage of that long intermittent war, which covered a period of about three quarters of a century, had for its scene these hilly parts of North-East Lancashire, nor demand, therefore, the notice of the local annalist. The great battles of the Wars of the Roses were those of St. Albans (a.d. 1454), Blore Heath (1459), Northampton (1460), Wakefield (1460), Mortimer's Cross (1461), Towton (1461), Hexham (1464), Bamet(i 471), Tewkesbury (1471), and Bosworth Field (1485), some of which were among the bloodiest ever fought on English ground. Before the battle of Blore Heath, fought on the Staffordshire border in 1459, the Yorkist army, which had been mustered by the Duke of York at Middleham Castle in Yorkshire, was marched through Craven, and therefore through Ribblesdale, traversing a portion of the Parish of Blackburn, and passing on through West Lancashire into Cheshire and Shropshire. The Yorkist nobles were joined in the campaign by Sir Thomas Har- rington, of Hornby Castle, Sir Richard Molyneux, of Sefton, and other Lancashire notables. In the course of these wars, several of the princi- pal landowners in this parish, to be named hereafter, forfeited life or lands by adherence to the losing interest.

X Hist, of Whalley, New Edn., v. i, p, 262.

BETRAYAL OF HENRY THE SIXTH. ^f

One remarkable and melancholy incident in the career of the unfortunate King, Henry the Sixth, is associated with Ribblesdale, and with members of two local families, — I refer to the capture of Henry near Clitheroe in the year 1464, by partizans of Edward IV., the Yorkist Prince, who had then forcibly possessed the throne. After the loss of the battle of Hexham, Henry was a fugitive, and sojourned for a time in hiding and disguise with faithful supporters among the gentry of West Yorkshire. Henry's first retreat was to Bolton Hall, in Craven, the mansion of his friend, Sir Ralph Pudsay. There he dwelt in conceal- ment for some months. He is said to have been a visitant at Whalley Abbey during this period. Sir Ralph Pudsay, of Bolton Hall, had married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Tunstall, who attended Henry as his body esquire. At Bolton Hall Henry left memorials of his sojourn, consisting of his boots, gloves, and a spoon ; these interesting relics are still in preservation. In the garden of Bolton Hall is a well, called King Henry's Well, of which it is a tradition that the spring was discovered by Henry himself, and the well walled about during his residence there. After his departure from Bolton Hall, Henry was entertained a brief space at Waddington Hall, in the parish of Mitton, then the residence of another gentleman who had supported the King's interest — Sir John Tempest. Waddington Hall is situated a short distance from the Ribble, on the Yorkshire side. It is a strongly-built, moderate-sized house, most of the original features of which have disappeared. It has yet a room which is known as the King's Chamber ; and a field between the hall and the river bears the name of King Henry's Meadow. Henry's presence in these parts was known to the Harringtons and the Talbot.s, as well as to Tempest and Pudsay. Induced by the promise of advantage from Edward the Fourth, these parties, with the honourable exception of Sir Ralph Pudsay, entered into a plot to take Henry captive for the purpose of handing him over to his arch-enemy. The chief agents in this cruel act of treachery were Sir James Harrington, of Hornby, and John Talbot, of Sales- bury Hall. They set a watch upon the ex-King's movements at Wad- dington, and when he was known to be within, they and their m)nrmidons approached the house to seize Henry. Their victim is said to have escaped by a back window, and fled in the direction of the Ribble. He reached the ford of the river anciently known as Brungerley Hipping- stones, close to the site of the modem bridge over the Ribble at Brun- gerley ; crossed the river, and reached the Lancashire shore, where he was overtaken and secured by his pursuers. This capture is recorded in the Annals of England by John Stow, and in almost identical terms in the Chronicle of Warkworth, as follows : — "Also, the same yere [1464],

8

58 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

Kynge Henry was takene bysyde a howse of religione [Whalley], in Lancaschyre, by the mene of a blacke monke of Abyngtone, in a wode called Cletherwode [Clitheroe Wood], besyde Bungerly hyppyng- stones, by Thomas Talbott, sonne and heyre to Sere Edmunde Talbot, of Basshalle, and Jhon Talbott, his cosyne, of Colebry [Salesbury], withe other moo ; whiche disseyvide [him] beynge at his dynere at Wadyngtone halle ; and [he was] caryed to Londone on horsebake, and his lege bownd to the styrope, and so brought thrugh Londone to the Toure, where he was kepte longe tyme.'" The black monk who was instrumental in the betrayal was William Cantlow. At Waddington Hall Henry left on his abduction a handsome leather penner ornamented with the heraldic rose and crown, and other insignia, in relief

The betrayers of Henry were suitably rewarded by Edward IV. Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall received a gift of ;^ioo, and Sir John Tempest and Sir James Harrington the sum of loo marks each, from the Royal exchequer ; while to Sir John Harrington King Edward made a large territorial grant for his share in this transaction. Both the Talbots who aided in the capture of the inoffensive King were consider- able landlords in Blackburn Parish. Talbot of Bashall was lord of the manor of Holt in Rishton township, and his relative, John Talbot, was seated at Salesbury Hall and lord of Salesbury manor. In the accounts of these two families of Talbots which will occur in the histories of Rishton and Salesbury townships, some references to the members implicated in this business will be found. John Livesey, of this parish, a connexion of the Talbots of Holt and Bashall, assisted in the abduc- tion of King Henry, for which he received a reward of ^^20 from Edward IV. John Talbot of Salesbury received likewise from King Edward the Fourth a grant of lands and houses to the value of twenty marks per annum (^13 6s. 8d.) This grant was confirmed to his son by a deed of Richard III., brother of Edward IV., in the year 1484, in terms translated thus : — •

Richard by the grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, to al! to whom the present writing shall come, greeting. Whereas the Lord Edward, late King of England, our brother, in consideration of the good and faithful service of John Talbot, late of Salebury, Armiger, now deceased, in the capture of his great adversary, Heniy, late in fact but not of right King of England, by his letters patent granted to the same John a certain annuity or annual fee of twenty marks, to have and to receive by the same John and his heirs so long as to him lands and tenements to the value of the foresaid annuity might be awarded by the lord the King or his heirs ; We, also, in consideration of the above-stated, and for the good and faithful service that our well-beloved John Talbot, of Salebury, Kt., son and heir of the aforesaid John, expends, and in time to come faithfully may expend, of our special favour concede, and by these presents grant to the same John the annuity or X Camden Soc. Series, v. x. p. 5..

FALL OF RICHARD IIL AT BOSWORTH. 59

annual fee of twenty marks, to have and to receive by the same John and his heirs, so long as to him and his heirs lands and tenements of the annual value of the foresaid annuity by us or by our heirs shall be bestowed ; receiving the same annuity annually out of the issues and revenues of our County Palatine of Lancaster, by the hand of our Receiver of the foresaid County Palatine of Lancaster for the time being. In attestation of which thing we have caused to be executed these our letters patent. Given under our seal of our Duchy of Lancaster, at the city of York, the 26th day of June, in the second year of our reign ( 1484).

Edward IV. granted by letters patent to his younger brother- Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in the year 1469, "the honour, castell, lord, ship, manor, and hundred of Clytherough [Clitheroe] ; the forests of Blackbumshire and Bowland ; the manors of Penwortham, Blaes, Wal- ton, Padyngton, Colne, Penhulton, Werston, Chatburn, Acryngton, and Haselyngdon, in our countie of Lancaster ; the manors of Skerton, Overton, Sl)mes, Rygby and Wira, West Derby, Crosby ; the castell and towne of Lytherpole ; forests of Quemmoor, Amoundemesse, West Darbishire ; Blesdale, Wyresdale, Penhull, Rossendale and Myrescogh ; Toxtath, and Croxtath, in our said countie ; the castell, manor, and lordship of Hulton ; and the farmes of Runcorn, More, Wydnesse, Whitlegh, Congleton, in the countie of Chester."

The complete overthrow and death of Richard the Third by Henry, Earl of Richmond, at the battle of Bosworth, in 1485, ended the domination of the House of York, and closed the disastrous epoch of anarchy and confusion created by the conflicting pretensions to the throne of the several descendants of Edward Plantagenet. Henry Tudor, by his alliance with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., secured the interest of York, and gave to his heirs a stronger title to the sovereignty than he was able to exhibit in his own lineage.

6q history of BLACKBURN.

CHAPTER III.— THE TUDOR PERIOD.

Sequestrations by Henry VII. — The Lancashire Contingent at Flodden — Subsidy Assessment in 1523 — Ecclesiastical Valuation in 1534 — " Pilgrimage of Grace," and Suppression of Whalley Monastery — Passage of the Abbey Estates — Military Levies in the Reigns of Mary and Elizabeth — ProsecU' tion of Recusants — Loyal Declaration of Gentry — Free Tenants in 1600.

NOTHING of significance marks the record of this Parish in the reign of the first Tudor, Henry VII., beyond the act of confiscation which deprived the chief members of the vanquished party in Lancashire of their territorial possessions, — the Harringtons and the Lord Lovel, who owned manors in Blackburn Parish, being conspicuous sufferers by that enactment. Henry VII. paid a state visit to Lancashire in the year 1494, but did not proceed further northward in the county than Lathom, the seat of the Stanley family.

A Subsidy for the King was assessed upon Lancashire in 1496, and of the Commissioners appointed to collect the subsidy two were lords of manors in the Parish, viz.. Sir John Talbot, Knt., lord of Salesbury, and Thomas Hesketh, Esq., lord of Great Harwood.

Henry Tudor died, and was succeeded by his son, as Henry the Eighth, in the year 1509. September 9th, 1513, the battle of Flodden Field was fought, in which the invading army of James the IV. of Scot- land was routed by the English host under the Earl of Surrey. In this •battle, the left wing of the English army was composed of a strong con- tingent of Lancashire men, marshalled by Sir Marmaduke Constable and Sir Edward Stanley. All the towns and parishes of the County were represented in this gallant array, and the steadiness and valour of the Lancashire fighting-men are specially commemorated in a quaint con-

SUBSIDY ASSESSMENTS IN THE PARISH.

6i

temporary ballad-description of the campaign. These lines, often cited from the Ballad of Flodden, pourtray the characteristics of the bowmen and billmen drawn from the hills and plains of East and North Lanca- shire : —

From Waddecar to Waddington,

From Ribchester unto Rochdale,

From Poulton to Preston with pikes,

They with the Standley howte forth went.

From Pemberton and Pillin Dykes,

For Battell Bilmen bould were bent.

With fellows fearce and fresh for feight

Which Halton fields did turn in foores,

With lustie ladds, liver and light, r

From Blackbome and Bolton in the Moores.

From a Subsidy Roll in the Public Record Office I copy the parti- culars of an assessment upon that portion of Blackburn Hundred con- tained in Blackburn Parish, made in the years 1523-4. The MS. is headed :—

Assessment of First Payment of Subsidy granted isth Henry viii. on Inhabitants within the Hundred of Blackburn. [In Blackburn Parish.] Blakeborne —

Robert SharpuUs, in goodes

Roger Walley, in goodes

William Haworth, in goodes

Richard Haworth, in goodes

Henry Lyvesey, in goodes

Thomas Haspynhalgh, in goodes

James Catterall, in goodes

William Bolton, in goodes

Lawrence .Sharpulls, in goodes...

James Harwood, in goodes

John Karvart, in goodes

Henry Whythalgh, in goodes

Mellor-cum-Eckells[hill] —

James Whythalgh, in landes

John Ward, in landes

Uxor Christopher Walley, in goodes ...

George Sharpulls, in goodes

Derwynd Superior —

Rychard Crosse, in landes

William Eerre, in landes

Rauf Hey, in goodes

Derwynd Inferior —

James Lyvesey, in landes

William Mersden, in landes

Rauf Waddington, in goodes

Edmond Haworth, in goodes

Value	Levy
£^	2S.
£^	2S.
£i	2S.
£a	2S.
£a	2S.
£1,	2S.
£A:	2S.
£a	2S.
£a	2S.
£\	2S.
£\	2S.
£\	2S.
£4	4s.
40s.	2S.
40s.	I2d.
40s.	1 2d.
40s.	2S.
20s.	12d.
£4	2S.
£3	3s-
20s.	1 2d.
£4	2S.
£4	2S,

62 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

Derwynd Inferior —

Peter Ha worth, in goodes

Edmond Harwood, in goodes

Richard Haworth, in goodes

Lyvesey-cum-Tockholes —

Geoi^e Esteley, in landes

Rauf Crycheley, in goodes

William Walmesley, in landes ...

William Holden, in landes

John Blaklach, in goodes

Thomas Lyvesey, in goodes

Hugh Marsden, in goodes

Marsden's Widdow, in goodes

Parva Harwod —

John Ryshton, in landes

Roger Bolton, in goodes

Plesyngton —

Lawrence Anysworth, in landes

William Issherwod, in landes ...

Richard Aspden, in landes

Myles Mersden, in goodes

Barthylmew SharpuUs, in goodes

Ryshton —

Uxor Nicholas Ryshton, in landes

Nicholas iTelden, in goodes

George Lyvesey, in goodes George Abbot, in goodes

Xpofer Whalley, in goodes

Rychard ffelden, in goodes

William Hogeson, in goodes

Wytton —

George Cowbron, in landes

James Holdyn, in landes

John Hilliswyke, in landes

Magna Harwod —

Lynel ffole, in landes

Roger Cokshot, in landes

Robert Haytalgh, in goodes

Edmond Merser, in goodes

Hugh Stanworth, in goodes

Xpofer Butlyff, in goodes

Byllyngton —

John Deyne, in landes ...

John Braddyll, in landes

Hughtride Morley, in landes

Edward Braddyll, in goodes

Jamys fforster, in goodes

Uxor William Choo, in goodes

Jamys Broughton, in goodes

John Cedem, in goodes

Edmond Wod, in goodes

William Pollart, in goodes

Value	Levy
£a	2S.
40s.	1 2d.
40s.	1 2d.
40s.	2S.
Ca,	2S.
40s.	2S.
20s.	1 2d.
£^	2S.
£A:	2S.
£4,	2S.
£a,	2S.
20s.	1 2d.
40s.	1 2d.
£S	Ss.
40s.	2S.
40S.	2S.
40s.	1 2d.
40s.	I2d.
£i	3»-
£^	2S.
£4	2S.
£4	2S.
40s.	1 2d.
40s.	1 2d.
£3	i8d.
20s.	I2d.
20s.	1 2d.
20s.	1 2d.
40s.	2S.
20s.	1 2d.
40s.	1 2d.
£4	2S.
40s.	I2d.
£4	2S.
40s.	2S.
40s.	2S.
40s.	2S.
£4	2S.
£3	i8d.
40s.	1 2d.
40s.	1 2d.
£3	i8d.
40s.	1 2d.
4DS.	1 2d.

SUBSIDY ASSESSMENTS IN THE PARISH.

63

Wyllipshyre-cum-Dynkley—	Value	Le\7
Nycholas Talbot, in landes	... 40s.	2S.
William Dewirst, in landes	... 40s.	2S.
Olyver Dewirst, in goodes	... 40s.	I2d.
Clayton-cum-Sholey—
Thomas Walmysley, in goodes	. ... £^	2S.
Rychard Hawkyshey, in goodes	■ - £3	i8d.
John Mores, in goodes	. . . 40s.	I2d.
OSBOLDESTON—
Robert Osboldeston, in landes	... 20s.	I2d.
Walton-in-le-Dale —
George Banester, in landes	£i	3S-
Robert Hey ton, in goodes	£4	2S.
Edmond Dansey, in goodes	£3	i8d.
Edmond Sergeant, in goodes	£4	2S.
Edward Dansey, in goodes	£3	i8d.
John Brerys, in goodes ...	... 40s.	I2d.
Rauf Sergeant, in goodes	£4	2S.
Balderstone —
Roger Smalley, in landes	... 20S.	I2d.
Thomas Clyflf, in goodes	i4	2S.
Barnard Bolton, in goodes *	£3	l8d.
Jamys Radclyff, in goodes	4DS.	I2d.
Salebery —
John Talbot, in landes	£^0	lOS.
John Bolton, in landes ...	... 20s.	12d.
Xpofer Bolton, in landes	. . . 40s.	2S.
Samysbere—
Hugh Walshman, in goodes	£4	2S.
Richard Chemeley, in landes ...	40s.	2S.
Xpofer Sede, in goodes...	£5	2S. 6d.
Hugh Michell, in goodes	... 40s.	I2d.
HODILSDEN —
William Yate, in goodes	. ... ;^3	iSd.
Robert Fyshe, in goodes	. . . 40s.	1 2d.
Robert Baron, in goodes	... 40s.	12d.

At the foot of the Roll appear the autographs of the Subsidy Commissioners for Blackburn Hundred, being the four principal personages in the Hundred : — "P. me John Townley, Knyght; p. me Aleysander Osbalston, Knyght; p. meTHOM. SoTHWORTHE, Knyght ; p. me Thomas Langton, Esquier."

The preceding Subsidy Roll furnishes a useful list of the resident gentry and freeholders of the Parish at the beginning of the sixteenth eentury. It exhibits the division of lands in the townships, show- ing that Blackburn, Billington, Walton-in-le-Dale, Rishton, Livesey-cum- Tockholes, Lower Darwen, Great Harwood, and Pleasington, then contained the largest number of families of sufficient estate to be assessed to the public taxation. Several of the lords of local manors, being resi- dent elsewhere, are not named in the return ; ex. gr. Barton of Smithells,

64 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

lord of Blackburn ; Radcliffe of Ordsall, lord of Tockholes ; Earl of Derby, lord of a moiety of Samlesbury ; Hesketh of Rufford, lord of Great Harwood ; Talbot of Bashall, lord of Rishton and Lower Dar- wen ; and the Abbot of Whalley, lord of Billington. The names on the Roll of the assessment for the second payment of the same Subsidy do not vary from the list for the first payment.

THE VALOR ECCLESIASTICUS OF HENRY THE EIGHTH.

In the 26th year of Henry VIII. (a.d. 1534) an Act of Parliament was passed authorising a survey and valuation of the ecclesiastical pro- perty and of the benefices of the kingdom, and Royal Commissioners were appointed to conduct the inquiry. The returns thus procured, known as the Valor Ecdesiaslicus, or Ecclesiastical Survey, of England, were made to a new state office, then instituted, called " His Majesty's Court of First Fruits and Tenths." The King had resolved to direct into his own exchequer the Decimce Dedmorum, or Tenths of the Tenths, which had up to that time been the perquisite of the Roman Pontiff, and it was necessary to ascertain what the tenths of these eccle- siastical revenues amounted to. The reports of the Commission are pre- served in a celebrated MS. record, called the Liber Regis, said to have been transcribed by a monk of Westminster, for the Royal Library. I have translated the portion of the Valor which relates to the Parish and Deanery of Blackburn : —

DEANERY OF BLAKEBOURNE.

Worth of the Foresaid Deanery of Blakebourne in the hands of William Knight, Archdeacon. — It is worth in proofs of Wills and other casual farm-leases to Gilbert Haydock, clerk, per annum, 20s. Also in Pence annually received from divers churches within the Deanery aforesaid, for Synodals and Procura- tions, 66s. ; total £^ 6s. ; the tenth thereout, 8s. 7d.

Whalley Monastery. — Values, as well spiritual as temporal, belonging to the Monastery of White Monks of Whalley, within the foresaid Deanery, — John Passe- lewe, Abbot there. — Temporals belonging to the foresaid Monastery, in the coimty of Lancaster : — Whalley — Rents of demesne lands in the hands of the said Abbot,

lying in the parish of Whalley, per annum ;,f20. WiswALL. — Rents of assize in

Wiswall, per annum, £6. Penhulton. — Rents of assize in Penhulton, per annum,

36s. 8d. Reade. — Rent of one parcel of land there, per aimum, 32s.

Clytherhowe. — Rents of assize of lands and tenements, per annum, ;^io.

Eddesforthe. — Rents of assize and tenements there, per annum, 40s.

Downham. — Rents of lands there, per annum, 15s. Chatborne. — Rents of

assize of two tenements there, per annum, 13s. 4d. WoRSTON. — Rent of one cot- tage there, per annum, 2s. Parva M'ii ton. — Rents of divers tenements, called

Caldcotes, in the foresaid vill, per annum, £^ is. 4d. Burneley. — Rents of three

tenements there, per annum, 34s. 8d. Clyderhowe. — Rent of one tenement

within the lordship foresaid, called Baldwyn Hills, per annum, 26s. 8d. Rents of two tenements near the foresaid vill, called Standen, per annum, ^4 13s. 4d. Bylung-

ECCLESIASTICAL VALUATION IN 1534. 65

TON. — Rents of assize there, within the parish of Blackbome, per annum, ^30.

Harwood. — Rents of three tenements there, per annum, 68s. 8d. Wytton. —

Rents of two tenements there, per annum, 53s. 4d. Romesgreve. — Rents of cer- tain tenements there, per annum, £(>. — —[Rents of lands and tenements in divers townships in West and South Lancashire, of the collective value of ;f 132 13s. lod.

per annum.] Rybchester. — Rent of one parcel of land there, per annum 2s.

DuTTON. — Rents of free tenants there, per annum 4s. Rents of one tenement there,

per annum 13s. 4d. Preston. — Rent of one parcel of land there, per annum, 2s.

— Chaterton. — Rent of one parcel of land there, per annum, 6d. Rossendale.

— Rent of one mill, with a parcel of land there, 25s. Rent of one tenement there,

per annum, 2Is. Acryngton. — Rent of one parcel of land called Calfehey, 13s.

4d. Temporals belonging to the aforesaid Monastery in the County of Chester [in

the city of Chester and six townships, total value per annum ^45 3s. lod.] In

Waddington [Co. York.] — Rent of one parcel of land there, per annum, 2s.

Spirituals belonging to the aforesaid Monastery, in the said county of Lancaster : — Whalley Rectory, appropriated to the foresaid Monastery ; it is worth, in Rents of Land called Glebelande, per annum £^ ; in tithes of grain with hay, by estima- tion, annually ;^44 13s. 4d. ; in tithe of lambs and wool, by estimation, annually /'17 ; in oblations with secret tithes, and other privy tithes, with Easter Roll, per annum

^22 13s. 4d. ; altogether .1^9 1 6s. 6d. Blakebourne Rectory is worth in Rents

of Glebe Lands per annum ^10 ; in tithes of grain with hay, annually, by estimation, .jf 44 ; in tithes of lambs with wool, per annum £^ ; in oblations with other small tithes, with Easter Roll, perannum.)f 16 6s. 8d. ; total .1^74 6s. 8d. [Eccles Rectory — total value ;f57 2s. ; Rachedale Rectory — total value ^49 13s. 4d.] Sum total of clear values of Spirituals and Temporals belonging to the foresaid Monastery — ;^55i 4s. 6d. — whereof Reprises : — Repaid Rents — that is to say, in rents repaid to the lord the King for lands in Edisworth, per annum 3s. ; to the same the lord the King for lands in Romesgreve, per annum 66s. 8d. ; rents repaid to the foresaid lord the King for lands in Baldwyn-hills, per annum 20s. 3d. ; to the same lord the King for lands in Wythworth, per annum 12s. 8d. ; to the same lord the King for lands in the lordship of Mawnton, per annum 6s. ; to the same for lands in Ludworth, per annum 3d. ; to the same for lands in Burnley, per annum 7s. 2^d. ; to the same for lands in Spotlande, 14s. id. ; to the same for lands in Clyderhowe, per annum ^4; to the same for lands in Downham, per annum 6s. 8d. ; to the same for lands in Chatboume, 3s. 4d. ; to the same for lands in Acryngton, 7s. 7d. ; to the same for a mill in Rossen- dale, 26s. 8d. ; to the same for lands in Penhulton, 20s. ; to the lord of Worsley for lands in Swynton, 7s. i id. ; to the lord of Barton for the foresaid lands in Swynton, 1 id. ; to Robert Holt, Esquire, for lands in Castleton, 3s. ; to the Prioress of HampuU for lands in Whytworth, per annum I2s. ; to the Prioress of Chester, per annum los. ; to the Abbot of Chester per annum, for lands in Staney, 9s. ; to the Castel of Lyver- pole, per annum, 2s. ; to Thomas Langton, Kt., for lands in Harwood, 4s. — .Sum of

Repaid Rents, ^i6 3s. 2d. Pensions. — Pension annually paid to Robert Parryshe,

Vicar of Whalley, ;^I2 ; pension annually paid to Henry Salley, Vicar of Blake- bourne, £\o 13s. 4d. ; pension annually paid to the Vicar of Eccles, by composition, ;^lo 13s. 4d. ; pension annually paid to Gilbert Heydoke, Vicar of Rachdale, by com- position, £% ; and in pension annually paid to the College of St. Bernard in Oxon, 43s. 4d. — Sum of pensions paid, ^^43 ids. — —Fees. — Fees of the Most Noble Ed- ward Staneley, Earl of Derby, chief seneschall of the said Monastery, per annum io6s. 8d. ; fees of Alexander Nowell and Richard Cromboke, sub-seneschalls of the said Monastery, per annum loos. ; fees of Lawrence Forest, receiver of the Rectory of

9

66 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN.

Whalley, per annum ;^ 6 6s. 8d. ; fees of Ralph Lynney, receiver of the Rectory of Blakeboume, per annum loos. ; fees of Robert Parryshe, receiver of the Rectory of Eccles, per annum £,^ ; fees of William Heydock, receiver of the Rectory of Rach- dale, per annum 66s. 8d. ; fees of Lionel! FuUe, receiver of the lordship of Croynton, Garston, and Akeberth, per annum 54s. 6d. ; fees of William Whithowe, bailiff of Stanney, per annum 20s. ; fees of Hiinbabyn, bailiff of Acton, per annum 20s. ; fees of Christopher Smyth, Bailiff of Aston, per annum 20s. ; fees of Robert FuUe, bailiff of Byllington, per annum 40s. ; fees of Oto Holland, bailiff of Maunton, per annum, and of Swynton 40s. ; fees of Robert Borman, bailiff of Wolden, per annum 20s. ; fees of James Gartside, bailiff of Merland, Castleton and Spotlande, 60s. ; fees of Ralph Holland, bailiff of the Grange of Whytworthe, per annum los. ; fees of John Cromboke, bailiff of Roclyff and Brendwood, per annum 20s. ; fees of Giles Parker, bailiff of Clyderowe, per annum 40s. ; fees of Ralph Morton, bailiff of the Grange of

Stanyngs, per annum 40s. Alms. — Alms annually distributed among the poor, viz.,

at the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord, in the price of 200 yards of woollen cloth, on the said day annually distributed by the foundation, icxjs. ; alms annually distributed to all the poor persons coming to the foresaid Monastery, according to the foundation of John Lacy, on the day of the Lord's Supper, namely, in the price of 1,200 quar- ters of corn made into bread, ^7 4s. ; of wheat, 12s. ; of eight quarters brewed into ale, of the price per quarter 6s., — 48s. ; of six "maise" of red and white allecar, of the price per "mais" 6s., — 36s. ; and annually distributed on the said day to the poor and the clerks, after the washing of their feet, 20s. in pence ; and also distributed to thirteen of the elder poor on the said day, to as many of them as take it, 2d., and one pair of shoes price 8d., — los. 'lod. ; altogether, as appears by the foundation of the said Monastery, when examined in the presence of the Com- missioners of the lord the King, £,\2 i8s. lod. ; for Pence applied to the support of twenty-four poor and infirm persons, annually supported within the said Monastery, according to the ordination of the lord John Lacye, that is to say, to each poor person weekly 8d., — 5^41 12s., as appears by the foresaid foundation, in the presence of the said Commissioners exhibited and examined, and remaining in possession of the Abbot and Convent there ; alms annually distributed to the poor coming to the said Monas- tery in bread, namely, weekly two quarters of corn, price per quarter 12s., for the souls of the founders, as appears by the foundation of the said Monastery — ^^62 8s. ; total ;f 104. Sum of all Reprises £,22<) 15s. 4>^d. ; and there remains clear ^£'321 9s. id. ; the tenth part thereof ^32 2s. ild.