Townships: Kirkby

A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1907.

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'Townships: Kirkby', in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3, ed. William Farrer, J Brownbill( London, 1907), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp52-56 [accessed 8 November 2024].

'Townships: Kirkby', in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3. Edited by William Farrer, J Brownbill( London, 1907), British History Online, accessed November 8, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp52-56.

"Townships: Kirkby". A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3. Ed. William Farrer, J Brownbill(London, 1907), , British History Online. Web. 8 November 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp52-56.

In this section

KIRKBY

Cherchebi, Dom. Bk.; Karkebi, 1176; Kirkeby, 1237.

This township has a length from east to west of 4½ miles, with an average breadth of a mile and a half. The area is 4,175 acres, (fn. 1) and in 1901 the population was 1,283. The country is open, generally flat, with a slight rise in the centre of the township of some 130 ft. above sea-level. The soil is mostly reclaimed 'moss,' portioned out into arable fields, divided by low hawthorn hedges. There is but little pasture. Potatoes, wheat, and oats are largely cultivated in a sandy and clayey soil. There are scattered farmsteads and isolated plantations of different kinds of trees, with undergrowths of rhododendrons. These plantations are strictly preserved, and afford cover to much game, chiefly hares and pheasants. There still exists in the east of the township a patch of original moss-land covered with birch-trees, heather, and cotton-sedge. Stacks of peat are to be seen piled up by the sides of deep ditches which intersect the moss. The roads are typical of this part of Lancashire, being made of roughly-laid sets. The quaint fences of flag-stones, clamped together with iron bands, are frequently seen in the neighbourhood. The geological formation of the entire township consists of pebble beds of the bunter series of the new red sandstone or trias. The Alt, which crosses the south-west corner, is joined by two brooks—one flowing from Simonswood past Kirkby church, the other westward, between this township and Knowsley.

Little Britain, so called from an inn, 'The Little Briton,' is a hamlet to the southeast of the village. Ingoe Lane runs north and south in the western part of the township.

Stanley, Earl of Derby. Argent, on a bend azure three stags' heads cabossed or.

The principal road is that from Liverpool to Ormskirk; branches from it run east to Knowsley and Simonswood. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's Liverpool and Manchester railway crosses the township, with a station at the village.

The township is governed by a parish council.

Parts Brow Cross at Three Lanes Ends has remaining a portion of the shaft in a stone pedestal. There was formerly another cross about half a mile east of the church. (fn. 2)

Peter Augustine Baines, O.S.B., Bishop of Siga and Vicar Apostolic of the Western district from 1829 to 1843, was born at Kirkby in 1787. He was a preacher and author of some note. (fn. 3)

MANOR

This was one of the manors held by Uctred the thegn in 1066, and then included Simonswood; the latter being no doubt the principal portion of the woodland appurtenant to Uctred's six manors, which measured two leagues square, or approximately 1,440 customary acres. It was rated as two ploughlands. (fn. 4) From the beginning of the twelfth century it formed a portion of the Widnes fee of the Constable of Chester, parcel of his barony of Halton, being held by the fifth part of a knight's fee. (fn. 5)

In 1176 Richard son of Roger of Woodplumpton held it, presumably in right of his wife Margaret, daughter and heir of Thurstan Banastre. (fn. 6) On his death it fell to the share of his daughter Margaret, wife of Hugh de Moreton. (fn. 7) With her husband's consent she gave the manor, the men dwelling there and all the appurtenances, together with her body, to Stanlaw Abbey, to hold in free alms; (fn. 8) but on her dying without issue, the gift became inoperative, her sisters and their heirs claiming it. In 1242 Robert de Stockport, Roger Gernet, and Thomas de Beetham, held it in right respectively of Maud, mother of Robert; Quenilda, wife of Roger; and Amuria, wife of Thomas. (fn. 9) Quenilda died childless in 1252, and Kirkby was afterwards held in moieties by Sir Robert de Stockport and Sir Ralph de Beetham. (fn. 10)

Byron of Clayton. Argent, three bendlets enhanced gules.

The share of the latter, known as Kirkby Beetham, descended like Bootle and part of Formby, (fn. 11) was forfeited to the crown after the battle of Bosworth, and like them was granted to the earl of Derby at the beginning of Henry VII's reign. (fn. 12)

The share of the former, afterwards generally known as Kirkby Gerard, did not long remain with the Stockports, being granted by Robert de Stockport to Richard de Byron. (fn. 13) In 1292 Robert de Byron seems to have been in possession. (fn. 14) In 1301 Thomas de Beetham, Robert de Byron, and Emma, widow of Robert de Beetham, were suing Alan de Burnhull (fn. 15) and William de Walton, (fn. 16) for lands which the defendants alleged to be in Windle and Walton respectively. With Robert de Byron's daughter Maud, wife of William Gerard of Kingsley in Cheshire, (fn. 17) this moiety of Kirkby came into possession of the latter family and descended with the other Gerard lands until the sixteenth century. (fn. 18)

In 1565 Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn sold his moiety to Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton; (fn. 19) and the latter's grandson, Sir Richard, purchased the other moiety in 1596 from Thomas Stanley alias Halsall, upon whom it had been conferred by his father, Henry, earl of Derby. (fn. 20) The Molyneux family thus acquired the whole of the manor, and it has since descended in the same way as Sefton, the earl of Sefton being the present lord. (fn. 21)

Ingewaith gave a surname to a resident family, of which few particulars can be given. (fn. 22) A branch of the Norris family settled here in the fifteenth century; (fn. 23) as also a branch of the Torbocks. (fn. 24) William Fazakerley was a freeholder in 1600, (fn. 25) and his grandson William in 1628 contributed to the subsidy. (fn. 26) The Tatlocks of Kirkby appear on the recusant roll of 1641. (fn. 27) Thomas Barker had his lands sequestered for recusancy by the Commonwealth. (fn. 28) In 1717 James Harrison of Grange, Thomas Tatlock, and William Sheppard as 'papists' registered estates here. (fn. 29) Lord Sefton, Edward Standish, and Thomas Tatlock were the principal landowners in 1785. (fn. 30)

CHURCH

The church of St. Chad succeeds an ancient parochial chapel of unknown origin. The name of the township (fn. 31) and the invocation of the chapel indicate the existence of a church here anterior to the Conquest. The ancient building was replaced in 1766 by a plain red brick structure; (fn. 32) the present church was begun in 1869, and consecrated 4 October, 1871. (fn. 33) This is in the Transition style, and consists of chancel, nave with side aisles, and north and south porches; it has a central tower, with saddle-back roof, containing two bells. The only relic of antiquity belonging to it is the circular red sandstone font, (fn. 34) which dates from the twelfth century, and has on the bowl an arcade of ten round 'arches' enclosing standing figures. The only certain subject is the Temptation of Adam and Eve. Below the bowl is a cable moulding formed of three entwined serpents, and the base has a similar but larger moulding. The shaft is modern. In the churchyard is a cross erected in 1875. The registers date from 1678. The later earls of Sefton have been buried here.

Gerard of Kingsley. Azure, a lion rampant argent, over all a bend gules.

Practically nothing is known of this chapel previous to the Reformation. (fn. 35) Subsequently the services were probably not kept up regularly, and in 1566 the people seem to have refused to pay the vicar of Walton his dues; in consequence a decree was made, ordering the vicar to have certain services once on every Sunday at least. (fn. 36) In 1590 and 1612 there were only 'reading ministers' serving the place. (fn. 37) In 1650 the Parliamentary commissioners found that there were belonging to the chapel, a chapelyard, a little house and orchard, and a croft of 3 roods; they recommended that it should be made a parish church, with Kirkby and Simonswood as its district. (fn. 38) This recommendation was repeated in 1657, and though confirmed ceased to be effective at the Restoration. (fn. 39)

Molyneux, Earl of Sefton. Azure, a cross moline or.

In 1719 the value of the curacy was £24, (fn. 40) but within fifteen years after this had been augmented to £90. (fn. 41) In 1850 the then earl of Sefton endowed it with £160 a year. The benefice is now a vicarage, in the gift of the earl of Sefton.

The following have been curates and incumbents:

1607 James Hartley (fn. 42)
1609 Robert Hole (fn. 43)
1650 — Pickering (fn. 44)
1656 William Williamson (fn. 45)
1662 — Ambrose (fn. 46)
1678 John Barton (fn. 47)
oc. 1686 William Atherton (fn. 48)
oc. 1689 Ralfe Reeve (fn. 49)
1696 Peter Becket (fn. 50)
1723 William Mount, B.A. (fn. 51) (St. Edmund Hall, Oxf.)
1764 Thomas Wilkinson (fn. 52)
1786 John Rigby Gill, B.A. (fn. 53) (Brasenose Coll. Oxf.)
1793 Robert Cort (fn. 54)
1850 Robert Henry Gray, M.A. (fn. 55) (Christ Church, Oxf.)
1877 James Butler Kelly, D.D. (fn. 56) (Clare Coll. Camb.)
1881 John Leach, M.A. (fn. 57) (Caius Coll. Camb.)

There was an ancient school in Kirkby, built on the glebe, but it was burnt down. The children were afterwards taught in the vestry, until Lord Sefton erected a school on his own land. (fn. 58)

Mass is occasionally said on Sundays at a mission room which is served from Maghull. (fn. 59)

Footnotes

  • 1. 4,180, including 10 of inland water; Census Rep. of 1901.
  • 2. H. Taylor in Lancs. and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 173.
  • 3. Gillow, Bibl. Dict. of Engl. Cath. i, 105–10.
  • 4. V.C.H. Lancs. i, 283a.
  • 5. Lancs. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 42. It is here called the sixth part of a knight's fee, but in other cases the fifth part; ibid. 149.
  • 6. Farrer, Lancs. Pipe. R. 31; Richard paid 5 marks that the justices might inquire into the truth as to Kirkby, which he held of the Constable of Chester. Possibly there was some dispute as to the boundaries of Simonswood, which Henry II had taken into the forest. Four years later all Richard's manors were taken into the king's hands because he had married his daughter Maud to Robert de Stockport. He had to pay £100 fine for this; ibid. 42, 46, &c.
  • 7. The marriage took place in 1205–6; ibid. 203. At the survey of 1212 Hugh was found to hold 2 plough-lands of the constable of Chester; Inq. and Extents, 42.
  • 8. Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.), iii, 828.
  • 9. Inq. and Extents, 149. For the pedigree see ibid. 40.
  • 10. Ibid. 191.
  • 11. Sir Ralph de Beetham died in 1254, holding 1 plough-land in Kirkby of the earl of Lincoln by knight's service, worth 20s. yearly; the moiety of a mill, worth 12s., and the tallage of the rustics, worth 5s. yearly; ibid. 195, 201. After the death of Henry de Lacy in 1311 it was found that Sir Thomas de Beetham held the vill of Kirkby of him by the sixteenth (? tenth) part of a fee, rendering 21d. yearly for sake fee, and doing suit to the three weeks' court at Widnes; De Lacy Inq. (Chet. Soc.), 24. There is no mention of the other moiety. See also Lancs. Inq. p. m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 102.
  • 12. See the accounts of Bootle and Formby. It is supposed that Richard Beetham, living in 1484, forfeited the family estates; but his niece Agnes, who married Robert Middleton of Leighton, had a son Thomas, ibid.; and he, alleging that Richard Beetham had only a life interest, appears to have recovered part. His son and heir Gervase died in 1548 seised of the manor of Kirkby; Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p. m. ix, n. 11. George Middleton, his son, and Margaret his wife, in 1576 conveyed their moiety of the manor to the agents of Henry, earl of Derby, whose title was thus secured; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 38, m. 92.
  • 13. This was stated in a claim by Richard de Byron, grandson of the grantee, in 1335; De Banc. R. 303, m. 205.
  • 14. He was non-suited in a plea against Gilbert de Clifton touching a tenement here: Assize R. 408, m. 57. From the record of a plea concerning land in Walton unsuccessfully brought in 1313 against John son of Henry de Byron, Henry de Lacy of Rochdale, Richard de Didsbury, and Jordan de Holden, it appears that Robert de Byron had obtained the tenement from the plaintiff William del Quick, and had afterwards enfeoffed Henry de Byron, father of John; Assize R. 424, m. 7. In the Feodary of Halton made about 1323 it is recorded that Sir Richard de Byron (misprinted Burton, for Buron) held one half of Kirkby for 1 plough-land, giving for relief 10s. while Ralph de Beetham held the other half; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 708; Add. MS. 32107, fol. 305b. In 1328 also Robert de Byron and Ralph de Beetham similarly held Kirkby under Halton; Inq. p. m. 2 Edw. III, 1st Nos. n. 61. Richard de Byron was the lord of Clayton, succeeding his father, Sir John, between 1316 and 1318, and was probably acting as guardian of the heirs of Robert de Byron.
  • 15. Assize R. 420, m. 4; the jury divided the lands in dispute.
  • 16. Ibid. m. 1.
  • 17. In a plea in 1323 which Henry de Bootle of Melling brought concerning a mill-dam in Kirkby, the erection of which had caused the adjacent lands to be flooded, the defendants were William Gerard and Maud his wife, Joan widow of Robert de Byron, Ralph de Beetham, William de Tours and Emma his wife, John son of Peter de Aghtynthwayt and Margaret his wife, and William Baudeknave; Assize R. 425, m. 1. The jury ordered the mill-dam to be thrown down, William Baudeknave and Joan de Byron being declared guilty. In the following year William Gerard and Maud his wife demanded, against Henry de Bootle and others, the moiety of 3 messuages, 4 oxgangs of land, &c., in Kirkby, as the right of Isabel wife of Robert de Nevill, which John de Byron gave to Robert de Byron and the heirs of his body, and which after Robert's death ought to descend to the said Maud and Isabel, daughters and heirs of the said Robert; De Banc R. 251, m. 160. It does not appear that the Nevills shared Robert de Byron's lands in Kirkby as they did in Melling. The pedigree of the Gerards in Helsby's Ormerod, Ches. ii, 131, needs correction at this point.
  • 18. To the aid 1346–55 Maud Gerard and Ralph de Beetham contributed for the fifth part of a fee in Kirkby; Feud. Aids, iii, 86. They were still holding it at the duke of Lancaster's death in 1361; Inq. p.m. 35 Edw. III, 1st Nos. n. 122. Sir Thomas Gerard, who died in 1416, held a moiety of Kirkby by knight's service and 20½d. a year; it was then worth 20 marks; Lancs. Inq. p. m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 123. In 1430 John Gerard and Thomas de Beetham held the fifth part of a fee here; Dods. MSS. lxxxvii, fol. 58b. Sir Peter Gerard, who died in 1447, held lands in Kirkby; Towneley MS. DD, n. 1465.
  • 19. Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 27, m. 77, the premises are described as 40 messuages, &c., a mill, a dovecote, 1,000 acres of land, &c. in Kirkby and Melling, and a moiety of the manor of Kirkby.
  • 20. This moiety of Kirkby, with other estates, had been settled upon Joan Halsall, daughter of Robert Halsall, until her son Thomas should attain 24 years of age, when he should come into possession, with remainder to his heirs male; Croxteth D. P. iii, 1. The sale to Sir Richard Molyneux was made in consideration of £1,160 paid; ibid. P. iii, 2, 3.
  • 21. The Molyneux family were already landowners in Kirkby. In 1501 they purchased from William Leyland, son and heir of John Leyland, land in Avanessergh, which had descended to the vendor from William de Leyland, who had married Margery, daughter of Adam de Snelston by his wife Margery, in the time of Edward II; ibid. ii, 2. In 1548 Sir William Molyneux's estate, described as 3 messuages, 50 acres of land, &c., was said to be held of the heirs of Adam Snelston in socage by the service of one barbed arrow; it was worth 47s. 4d. per annum clear; Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p. m. ix, n. 2. In 1623 the manor was said to be held by the tenth part of a knight's fee; Lancs. Inq. p. m. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), iii, 390.
  • 22. Robert de Ingewaith was one of the principal contributors to the subsidy in 1332; Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 22. In 1305 Robert de Byron, Richard de Ingewaith, and Robert and William his sons, and a large number of others were summoned to answer William de Walton respecting certain oaks and other trees which they had cut down and carried away, and other 'enormous damage' done. Richard de Ingewaith replied that there was a wood lying between Kirkby and Walton in which he should have housebote and heybote, and that he had done no trespass; Cur. Reg. R. 181, m. 20d.
  • 23. John Norris had lands in Garston, which John Norris of Kirkby, his son, sold in 1451 to Thomas Lathom of Knowsley; Norris D. (B. M.), n. 903–8. Robert Norris, yeoman, in 1651, petitioned the Parliament for the restoration of his estate, which had been sequestered because he had joined the king's forces in the first war. He took the National Covenant and Negative Oath, and was restored; Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), iv, 225.
  • 24. The following deeds relating to this property are now in the possession of Mr. Robert Gladstone, jun., of Woolton: (a) Grant by Robert de Byron to Simon son of Alan, of land in Buteriscroft and Bredlendshead, which Roger son of the chaplain formerly held; (b) Refeoffment by John Fleetwood, with remainder to his daughter Agnes, 1438; (c) Quitclaim by Agnes, daughter of John Fleetwood of Kirkby, to Thomas Torbock of Kirkby, of all her rights in the same lands, which Thomas had by her father's grant, 1439; Sir William Torbock was a witness; (d) Grant by the feoffees to Thomas Torbock, son of John, and Ellen his wife, 1537; (e) Surrender by Ellen, widow of Thomas Torbock of Halsall, of her life interest to her son George, 1546; (f) Fine between Anthony Maghull, plaintiff, and Richard Worsley and Alice his wife, and John Worsley and Anne his wife, deforciants, regarding lands at Kirkby, 1591. Isabel daughter and heir of John Heath, and widow of John Fleetwood of Kirkby, occurs temp. Hen. VIII; Croxteth D.
  • 25. Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 242. Nicholas Fazakerley, son and heir of William Fazakerley and Elizabeth his wife, sold a burgage in Dale Street, Liverpool, to John Crosse in 1473; Nicholas was living in 1491; Crosse D. (Trans. Hist. Soc.), n. 153–5, 161.
  • 26. Norris D. (B.M.). William Fazakerley of Kirkby held 28 acres in Walton in 1639; Chorley Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 53. The family recorded a pedigree at the Visit. of 1664, beginning with the William Fazakerley of 1600; he was followed by a son Nicholas who died about 1620, and a grandson William, who died in 1654. He had several children; Nicholas, the eldest, was 44 years of age in 1664, and appears to have had no children, the heir being his nephew William, son of Thomas, aged 6 years at the Visit., and living in 1677; Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 109; will of N. Fazakerley at Chest., dated 1677, proved 1680. The remainders were to his brother Edward's sons, Nicholas, Thomas, Edward, and then to his brother Henry's. In the will of his widow, Elizabeth (dated 1697), this nephew is called 'of Altcar'—a branch of the family resided at Hill House in Altcar about this time—and William Fazakerley as 'of Prescot, gent.' This may indicate the parentage of Nicholas Fazakerley of Prescot, a noted local conveyancer of the first part of the eighteenth century, whose father's name was Henry. He represented Preston in six Parliaments between 1732 and his death in 1767; Pink and Beavan, Parl. Rep. of Lancs. 163–4; Dict. Nat. Biog. His great-grandson, John Nicholas Fazakerley, 'of Prescot,' was member for Lincoln in 1812 and later years; Members of Par. (Blue Book), ii, 261, &c. He was the son of John Fazakerley of Wasing, Berks. and entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1805, aged seventeen; Foster, Alumni Oxon. According to Burke, Landed Gentry (4th ed. 1868), he was a grandson of Alexander Radcliffe of Leigh, who assumed the surname of Fazakerley. For the Radcliffe-Fazakerley connexion see Dugdale, Visit. p. 238. Gregson says: 'John Nicholas Fazakerley, M.P. for the city of Lincoln, descended from Counsellor Fazakerley (contemporary with the late Sir Thomas Bootle of Lathom House), is of this family, and until lately had many estates in the hundred of West Derby and other parts of the county'; Fragments (ed. Harland), 141. A deed of 1808 relating to his estates is enrolled in the Common Pleas, Trinity, 48 Geo. III, R. 94.
  • 27. Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 238. There are but few names for this township, but they include Ellen Fazakerley, widow; Anne Norris, widow, and Dorothy Norris.
  • 28. In 1651, Margery Barker, his widow, petitioned for the removal of the sequestration of the two-thirds of the tenement, which was leasehold under Lord Molyneux. Margery and her two children were 'conformable Protestants.' The vicar of Walton certified that Thomas Barker, recusant, had been buried at Walton in the family grave, 'in the evening, as Papists used to do'; Royalist Comp. P. i, 134–7. The estates of Edward Torbock and Lawrence Stananought of Kirkby were confiscated and sold by the Parliament in 1652; Index of Royalists (Index Soc.), 44.
  • 29. Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, 111, 120, 121. Thomas Tatlock was the son of a previous Thomas; his son by his wife Ellen Fazakerley was Henry Tatlock, S.J.; Foley, Rec. S. J. vii, 764; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 289–91. 'Tatlock's House' stands to the north-west of the village.
  • 30. Land tax returns of 1785; the three contributed £29 out of £100 raised.
  • 31. The only other Kirkby in England which is a chapelry is Kirkby Muxloe in Leicestershire, in the parish of Glenfield. It is legitimate, therefore, to suggest that Kirkby may formerly have been independent of Walton.
  • 32. A brief was issued by which £1,043 was collected; Baines, Lancs. (ed. 1836), iv, 52. A view is given in a paper by the Rev. T. Moore in Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 53. It was enlarged in 1812, and a gallery was afterwards added. A view of the old parsonage is given in the same essay.
  • 33. A district chapelry was formed in 1872; Lond. Gaz. 13 Aug.
  • 34. Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvii, 65. An account appeared in the Gent. Mag. of 1845; also Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 85, with plates.
  • 35. For the ornaments of the chapel in 1552 see Church Gds. (Chet. Soc.), 100; and for other particulars Raines' Chantries (Chet. Soc.), ii, 268, 276–7. For the ancient 'Priest Rent' see the account of Simonswood.
  • 36. Croxteth D. P. iv, 1. The vicar and his successors by themselves or other fit curate at their own charge should say the Litany, Epistle, and Gospel of the day, with the collects and creeds every Sunday, at a convenient hour before noon; if required, they should administer the sacrament of communion to the inhabitants there, and also, when required, solemnize matrimony, baptize infants, purify women, visit the sick, and bury the bodies of the dead, according to the custom of the curates of the adjoining parishes. The inhabitants, on their part, were to pay to the vicars or their farmers or proctors, all tithes, oblations, obventions, and all other ecclesiastical dues; and pay to the repair of the mother church of Walton as in time past. In a paper at Croxteth is a list of the Easter offerings from Kirkby in the eighteenth century. A man and wife paid 3d., five cows and calves, 2s. 6d., a swarm of bees 3d., a windmill 2s., a water-mill, 4s., &c.
  • 37. Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 249; 'no preacher.' Kenyon MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 13.
  • 38. Commonw. Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 81.
  • 39. Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), ii, 169, 178, 211; Croxteth D. P. iv, 2.
  • 40. Gastrell, Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 229. The rector of Walton paid £22 10s. 'No dwelling house but an old bay of building, never inhabited, in which a school is kept for children.' The curate also had a payment of £5 10s. from the town stock; forty years previously this payment had been £9 10s.
  • 41. Terriers of 1686 and 1733 are printed in Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 49. One parcel was called Chadcroft and another Priest's Croft. An addition to the stipend was granted by Queen Anne's bounty in 1768.
  • 42. Will proved at Chester, 1607.
  • 43. Visit. List.
  • 44. Commonw. Ch. Surv. 81. He had just resigned in 1650 and the cure was vacant.
  • 45. Plund. Mins. Accts. ii, 135.
  • 46. Said to have been expelled in 1662.
  • 47. Will proved at Chester, 1678.
  • 48. Probably the same who was in 1688 made curate of Liverpool and West Derby. His name is signed on the first terrier.
  • 49. Not in the Visit. list of 1691, when there was apparently no curate assisting the rector and vicar.
  • 50. From this time there are preserved licences of curates in the Dioc. Reg. Chester.
  • 51. The curacy was 'vacant by the insufficiency and removal of Mr. Becket.' William Mount was buried at St. Nicholas's, Liverpool, 1765. He built the parsonage house, gave communion plate, and left money for the poor.
  • 52. Buried at Kirkby. He invented a gold balance, &fsc.
  • 53. Grandson of Robert Gill of Hale, proprietor of the Dungeon Salt Works.
  • 54. Buried at Kirkby, 1852; aged about ninety-five. An account of him will be found in Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 52.
  • 55. Rector of Wolsingham, Durham, 1877; died, 1885.
  • 56. Sometime coadjutor bishop of Newfoundland.
  • 57. Vicar of Pemberton, 1874–81.
  • 58. End. Char. Rep. 1903.
  • 59. Liverpool Cath. Annual. There are some traces of a regular mission for this township and the adjoining Fazakerley in the eighteenth century and early part of the nineteenth; see Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 290.
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