WOOD PLUMPTON. In the Domesday Book Pluntun is entered as comprising two carucates of arable land. Robert de Stokeport died possessed of the manor in 1248, and his daughter and heiress married Nicholas de Eton as her first husband, and John de Arderne as her second. Robert de Eton, a descendant of her first marriage, obtained Wood Plumpton in 1340. Cecily de Stokeport, heiress of the Etons, conveyed the manor to Sir Edward Warren, of Poynton, in which family it remained until transferred, in 1777, to Viscount Thomas James Bulkeley on his marriage with Elizabeth Harriet, only child of Sir George Warren. The Bulkeley property ultimately passed to the Fleming-Leycesters, whence Lord de Tabley obtained the lordship. Charles Birley, esq., of Bartle Hall, is the present possessor of the manor. Wood Plumpton Hall was anciently the seat of the Warrens, whilst Ambrose Hall was occupied by a family of the same name, from which descended the Rev. Isaac Ambrose, who was ejected from Garstang by the Act of Uniformity. Richard Ambrose, of Ambrose Hall, left a son and heir, William, who married the daughter of Curwen of Lancaster, and had issue a son, Nicholas. Nicholas Ambrose espoused Jane, daughter of John Singleton, of Gingle Hall, Lancashire, and left six sons and a daughter, the eldest of whom, William, resided at Ambrose Hall in 1567, and was twice married, first to Anne, widow of Lawrence Cotham, of St. Michael's-on-Wyre, and after her decease to Margaret, widow of Sir Richard Houghton. Flower's heraldic visitation, from which the foregoing is extracted, was made in in 1567, and consequently the pedigree cannot be traced further. The church of Wood Plumpton is very ancient, being probably in existence during the earlier years of the 14th century. It was rebuilt in 1630, and has subsequently undergone numerous alterations, consisting now of nave, chancel, and two aisles. The communion table has the date and initials "W. A. 1635" upon it, and a beam in the roof is carved with the year "1639.” An organ was obtained in 1849. The principal window, the gift of R. Waterworth, esq., of Preston, is beautifully emblazoned, in addition to which there are several other richly stained windows. A handsome monument of marble, representing a sailor mourning, is situated in the north aisle, and was erected in memory of Henry Foster, R.N., F.R.S., son of a former incumbent who was The drowned in 1831, in the river Chagres, Gulf of Mexico. church is dedicated to St. Anne, and the Rev. Isaac Mossop is the present vicar. There is a Roman Catholic chapel at Cottam, erected in 1793, The date of the original one is unknown, but in 1768 it was almost completely destroyed by an election mob. A Wesleyan chapel was built in 1815, and another for the Primitive Methodists about 1819. The township contains an auxiliary workhouse, connected with the Preston Union, which was erected in 1823. Annual courts are held for the manor of Wood Plumpton, which includes the hamlets of Catforth, Eaves, Bartle, and Wood Plumpton. The school at Catforth was established by Alice Nicholson, of Bartle, who gave in 1661 the sum of £100 in trust for the maintenance of a free school within the manor of Wood Plumpton. Subsequent benefactions have been received as follows:-The same Alice Nicholson 10 by will, in 1664; John Hudson, of Lea, £20 by will, in 1676; John Hall, of Catforth, £20 by deed, in 1732; James Hall, of Catforth, 10 by will, in 1741; Richard Eccles, 100 by will, in 1762; Elizabeth Bell, £100 by deed, in 1813; Richard Threlfall, £20 by deed in 1813; and Ann Robinson, £90 by will in 1817. The total endowment up to 1813, amounting to £380, was invested on the 21st of April in that year, in the navy five per cents., in the name of the trustees. The further bequest of £90 was placed out at interest. In 1817, Ann Robinson, the benefactress just mentioned, also left £90 in trust, the interest to be given to the master teaching the Sunday school at Wood Plumpton church. Thomas Houghton gave, in 1649, the fourth part of the rental of an estate in Wood Plumpton to the poor of that township. It is recited in an indenture, dated 9th January, 1709, that George Nicholson bequeathed the rents of several closes of land, which he stood possessed of for a certain term of years, in trust, for the poor of Wood Plumpton, and also left for the same charitable object, the sum of £200, to be retained by his executors, and the interest only distributed, until the expiration of the above term, when the sum should be paid to the churchwardens and overseers, and used as heretofore. The indenture further recites that on the death of George Nicholson in 1672, a Chancery suit arose out of the will, the result being that the poor were awarded £210 as a settlement of their legal claims upon the property of the deceased. The money was ordered to be invested, and the annual income bestowed as directed by the testator. POPULATION OF WOOD PLUMPTON. 1871. 1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1,197 1,397 1,635 1,719 1,688 1,574 1,462 1,290 The township comprises 4,722 statute acres. INSKIP-WITH-SOWERBY. In the Domesday volume this township appears as containing three carucates of arable soil. Richard Butler, of Rawcliffe Hall, obtained the manor of Inskip in 1281 as the dowry of his bride Alicia, daughter of William de Carleton. Inskip was held by Cuthbert Clifton, of Clifton, in 1512, from whom it descended to Sir W. Molyneux, of Larbrick and Sefton, who had espoused his sole child and heiress. In 1554-68 it was in the possession of Henry Kighley, and afterwards passed to William Cavendish, earl of Devonshire, on his marriage with the daughter and co-heiress of that gentleman. The fishery of " Saureby Mere" belonged to William Hoghton in 1519, at which epoch Thomas Rigmayden and the earl of Derby had lands in Sowerby. The Stanleys have for long been lords of Sowerby and continue to hold a court-baron there. In Inskip also a court-baron takes place each year in June. A church, dedicated to St. Peter, was erected in 1848 at the joint expense of the earl of Derby and the Ven. Archdeacon Hornby, vicar of St. Michael's-on-Wyre. The living, now a vicarage, is endowed with £100 per annum out of the corn rents. The Rev. A. Sharples, B.A., appointed shortly after the church was built, is the present vicar. One-fourth of the rentals from certain lands in Goosnargh and Chipping was given by Thomas Knowles in 1686 to the poor of Inskip. In 1750 John Jolly bequeathed the residue of his estate in trust, for the use of such poor housekeepers of Inskip-withSowerby as received no parochial relief. POPULATION OF INSKIP-WITH-SOWERBY. 1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 647 739 798 735 1851. 1861. 1871. 593 635 The area of the township in statute acres amounts to 2,888. CHAPTER XVI. PAUPERISM AND THE FYLDE UNION. N the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it was not customary to recognise the pauper as a person whose misfortunes, however brought about, called for charitable aid, but all legislature was directed against his class under the common title of vagabonds. A statute of 1384 decreed that all vagrants should be arrested and either placed in the stocks, or imprisoned until the visit of the justices, who would do with them whatever seemed best by law; and in 1496 the punishment of incarceration was abolished, but the stocks were retained. The sixteenth century initiated a little more considerate state of things, and justices of the peace were authorised in 1531 to grant begging licenses to any necessitous persons in their districts unable to work for a livelihood. An act of 1547 ordained that any vagabond, not incapacitated by old age or illness, loitering and not seeking work for three days should be brought before a magistrate, who was directed to adjudge such vagrant to be, for two years, the slave of the person by whom he had been apprehended, in addition to which he had to be branded with the letter V on the breast. In case he ran away the law ordered that a further branding of the sign S should be inflicted, this time on his forehead or the ball of his cheek, and that slavery should be his perpetual portion. A third escape entailed death when re-captured. This enactment was never really enforced as popular indignation at its extreme severity was aroused at once, and after lingering two years it was repealed in favour of the stocks-legislature. In 1551 it was decreed that a register of destitute persons should be kept in each parish, and that alms should be collected in Whit-week, whilst on the Sunday following, during divine service at church, "the collectors should gently ask and demand of every man and woman what they of their charity would give weekly towards the relief of the poor." The funds so obtained were to be distributed amongst the poor "after such sort that the more impotent might have the more help, and such as could get part of their living the less." Eleven years later a statute ordained that if any person refused to contribute alms when called upon he should be summoned before a justice, who would determine the amount he had to pay, and commit him to gaol in case of further refusal. The legislative body of Queen Elizabeth passed "An Act for the punishment of vagabonds and the relief of the poor and impotent," by which justices of the peace were instructed to register the names of all the impotent poor who had been born within their several districts, or been existing there on alms within the three preceding years; to assign to them convenient places for dwellings or lodgings, in case the parish had not already undertaken that duty of its own free will; to assess the inhabitants to a weekly charge; and to appoint overseers of the poor, having authority to exact a certain amount of work from those candidates for relief who were not entirely disabled from labour by age, sickness, or deformity. In 1575-6 it was ordered that a stock of wool or hemp should be provided in the different parishes for the purpose of "setting the poor at work," and that "Houses of Correction" should be established, in which vagrants or tramps were to be detained, the able-bodied being furnished with employment until a service was found for them, and the infirm transferred to an alms-house as soon as practicable. The "Houses of Correction," the origin of our workhouses, were directed to be built in large cities, or in the central towns of wide districts, thus the one for the Fylde was situated at Preston, an old college of Grey Friars lying to the south of Marsh Lane being converted to that use. Dr. Kuerden described this building more than two centuries ago as the "old Friary, now only reserved for the reforming of vagabonds, sturdy beggars, and petty larcenary thieves, and other people wanting good behaviour; it is the country prison to entertain such persons |