influence on the place is likely to experience any diminution. Indeed it may with reason be anticipated that when passenger traffic is more thoroughly established along the coast line from Preston to Blackpool, the demand for residential accommodation will be still greater than that which supplies abundant occupation to the builders to-day.

The original endowment of Lytham Free School was derived from the following sources :-In 1702, the Rev. James Threlfall, of St. Cuthbert's church, gave £5; and somewhere about the same time, William Elston, who died in 1704, presented £3 3s. od., for the use of the parish. Subsequently these sums of money were supplemented by a grant of £10 from John Shepherd, of Mythorp, and the whole invested, the interest being applied to local charitable purposes. The benefaction of John Shepherd was bestowed in trust upon Thomas Shepherd and his heirs, to the intent that the interest should be applied to the use of such poor children's schooling, as they, with two or three of the most substantial men of the parish, whom they chose to consult, should think fit;" but it is doubtful how it was deposed of until 1720, when the three separate sums mentioned were incorporated, for a motive stated directly, with a collection made in aid of those who had suffered damage from a serious inundation in that year. The inhabitants were unable to agree upon an equable distribution of the collection specified, and decided, by way of settling the affair, to "make a free school," with it and the other sums. The total capital thus acquired amounted to more than £100. In 1728 £60 was derived from the residue of John Harrison's estate, by the direction of his will. William Gaulter gave to Lytham school in 1745 several securities for money, amounting in all to £99, and three years later bequeathed the residue of his personal estate, except 20s., to the same object, making a total benefaction of £335. The whole of the endowment fund has been invested in land, and the school has always been in the hands of trustees, who have control over the teachers and all matters affecting its interest and government.

Cookson's Charity is the interest of £10 bequeathed by Thomas Cookson at an unknown date before 1776, to purchase books for the poor children of the parish.

Leyland's Charity represents the sum of £60 left by Elizabeth Leyland to trustees, in 1734, in order that it might be laid out, and the annual revenue therefrom devoted to the assistance of the poor, either in relieving the elderly, or providing instruction for the young.

ST. ANNES-ON-THE-SEA. The locality in which the new watering-place is rapidly developing was indicated in the foundation charter of the Lytham Benedictine Cell as Kilgrimol. It has been suggested that the peculiar orthography of the word Kilgrimol points to there having been at some era a religious settlement, presided over by Culdees, the priests of Columba,1 but it is more probable that the name is derived from the two British words kilgury, a corner, and mul or meol, a sand-hill. At a later epoch the district was known as Cross or Churchyard Slack, and tradition records that an oratory existed there until such time as it was swallowed up by an earthquake, long years ago. Mr. Thornber, in discussing the statement, advances the following fact as some evidence in favour of its veracity:-" Churchyard Slack is situated in a hollow, having on the north side a rising ground called Stony-hill, and at the distance of three-quarters of a mile a similar elevation, though not so marked. On these ridges are found innumerable small boulders of grey granite, having apparently been acted upon by fire; but it is particularly remarkable that not one can be found amongst them entirely whole. Similar stones in less quantities are discovered in the intervening space, all more or less broken."

On the immediate outskirts of the embryo town is the small hamlet of Heyhouses, at which a school was established in 1821, and enlarged in 1853; and it was there that Lady Eleanor Cecily Clifton erected a church, in memory of the late James Fair, esq., of Lytham, on a site presented by her husband, the lord of the manor. The foundation stone of the edifice was laid in June, 1872, and on Wednesday, the 6th of August, in the ensuing year, the church and burial ground, occupying jointly 2 acres, were consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Manchester. The interior contains accommodation for 300 persons, 145 seats being appropriated, and 155 free. The roof is of red tiles instead of slates.

1. See pages 15 and 16,

The building is at present a chapel of ease to St. Cuthbert's, Lytham, but will, when occasion requires, have a separate ecclesiastical parish of its own.

The whole of the land of St. Annes-on-the-Sea was leased to a company of gentlemen for a term of 1,100 years by John Talbot Clifton, esq., and on the 31st of March, 1875, the formality of laying the first stone of the future watering-place was gone through by Master John T. Clifton, the eldest son of T. H. Clifton, esq., M.P. The ceremony was accomplished amidst a large concourse of people, and was in fact the commencement of the handsome and commodious hotel near to the railway station, which has since been completed. The estate has been judiciously and tastefully arranged by Messrs. Maxwell and Tuke, architects, of Bury, and is intersected by broad streets with gentle curves. The houses are intended to be built either singly or in pairs with few exceptions, but in no case will any group comprise more than six; gardens in each instance are to front the dwellings. A promenade, 3,000 feet in length and 180 feet in width, has been formed with asphalt along the marine aspect, and already between twenty and thirty villas have been raised on the sides of the recently made thoroughfares. A public garden with conservatories is also in course of formation, as well as efficient gas-works and other requisites.

CHAPTER XV.

PARISH OF ST. MICHAEL'S-ON-WYRE.

UPPER RAWCLIFFE-WITH-TARNACRE.

N the Domesday Book no less than three Rawcliffes. are mentioned, and have been identified, respectively, with Upper, Middle, and Out Rawcliffes, the last being stated to contain three carucates, and the others two carucates each. In the Testa de Nevill it is entered that the grandfather of Theobald Walter gave four carucates of land in (Upper) Rawcliffe, Thistleton, and Greenhalgh, to his daughter Alice, on her marriage with Orm Magnus. William de Lancaster held Upper Rawcliffe at the time of his death in 1240; and in 1248 Theobald Walter, or le Botiler, had lands in Upper Rawcliffe and Mid Rawcliffe, as well as the manor of Out Rawcliffe, the principal portion of which had doubtless descended to him from his ancestor alluded to above. An inquiry was instituted in 1322, during the reign of Edward II., concerning the possessions in land and mills of John de Rigmayden in Upper Rawcliffe, Wyresdale, and Garstang; and a similar inquisition, with the exception of Garstang, was made, three years later, in the case of widow Christiana de Coucy de Guynes. In the succeeding few years Joan, the daughter and heiress of John de Rigmayden, and John de Coupland held Upper Rawcliffe between them. John de Coupland had married the widow of Sir William de Goucy, and was the gallant soldier who captured David II., king of Scotland,

I. Escaet. 33 Hen. III. n. 49. 2. Inq. ad Quod. Damnum, 16 & 19 Edward II.

on the battle field at Durham, and was rewarded for his bravery by Edward III., with the rank of knight-banneret and a grant of land. Joan de Rigmayden, the heiress, probably married William Southworth, as he is described as lord of Upper Rawcliffe a little later; Ellen, the sole child and heiress of William Southworth, became the wife of Robert Urswick, of Urswick, and their second son, Thomas, who succeeded to the estates of Rawcliffe, etc., and was knighted, left at his decease a daughter, who espoused, about 1430, John, the third son of Sir Richard Kirkby, of Kirkby. John Kirkby resided at Upper Rawcliffe Hall,' or White Hall, as it was subsequently designated, and was succeeded by his eldest son, William, who in his turn left the lands and mansion to his heir and offspring John Kirkby. The eldest son of the last gentleman, by his wife, the daughter of - Broughton, was William Kirkby; and he, in course of time, inherited the property, and married, in 1507, Elizabeth, the daughter of William Thornborough, of Hampsfield, by whom he had issue John, George, William, Richard, Henry, Anne, Elizabeth, and Jane. John Kirkby, the heir, was living in 1567, but died without offspring, as also did his brother George, so that Upper Rawcliffe Hall and estate passed to the third son, William Kirkby, who married Isabell, the daughter of John Butler, of Kirkland." The Kirkbys continued in sole possession of the township until 1631, when Thomas Westby, of Mowbreck, purchased from them Upper Rawcliffe Hall and the estate attached, both of which he settled upon Major George Westby, the eldest son of his second marriage with Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Preston, of Holkar, and widow of Thomas Lathom, of Parbold. George Westby resided at White Hall, as the manor house was now called, and was twice married, being succeeded by John, the only child by his first wife, Margaret, the daughter of Thomas Hesketh, of Mains. Both George Westby and his third brother, Bernard, were royalist officers. John Westby, of Upper Rawcliffe, espoused, in 1684, Jane, the daughter of Thomas Bleasdale, of Alston, and had issue John, Joseph, James, and Alice, who became the wife of Thomas Gilibrand, of Dunken Hall, near Chorley. John Westby

1. St. Michael's Hall also belonged to the Kirkbys, and it is probable that one of the junior branches resided there before the Longworths of St. Michael's. 2. Flower's Visitation.