THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CXXH --LANCASHIRE :-.-GENERAL HISTORY SINCE TEE NORMAN CONQUEST.
LANCASHIRE was one of the districts from which Earls Morkare and Eadwine raised forces in their first rising against the Norman Conqueror, forming part of the possessions of those Saxon Earls. On its suppression he allowed the two Earls to retain their estates in Lancashire, but confiscated those of many of their followers. Castles were erected in the early part of his reign at Lancaster on the Lune, and perhaps Liver- pool on the Mersey, by Roger de Poictou, who became the principal landed proprietor in Lancashire. The men of Lancashire again rose in arms in the insurrection of Earls Waltheof and Grospatdc, in the name of Edgar the Atheling, and with the co- operation of forces from Denmark. After the termination of this second rising, and the downfall of Earls Morkare and Eadwine, Lucia, sister of the Earls, was, it is said, given by William in mar- riage to Ivo Talbois, or Taillgebosc, to whom, it is said, he granted the barony of Kendal, and the greater part of Lancashire adjacent to Westmoreland. Of this, however, we do not feel quite satis- fied. From the returns in Domesday Survey it would seem that King William's ravages were less merciless between the Mersey and the Duddon than between the Thtmber and the Tees. "In the north of Lancashire, included within the ancient limits of Rich- mondshire, however, several vacancies are found, and in the south-eastern part of the district between the Ribble and the Mersey, the scanty return of names may be accounted from the vicinity of that part of Salfordshire to the devoted county of York, on which the fury of the Conqueror was chiefly expended. In Amounderness, however, we find the return made in the Survey that "sixteen villages in this hundred have few inhabitants (how many is not known), and the rest are waste."
In the first distributions of the lands of Lancashire among the Norman followers of the Conqueror, we find from Domesday Survey that Roger de Poictou held of the King the six hundreds between the Ribble and the Mersey, comprising one hundred and eighty- eight manors, which, however, the Crown held at the time of the Survey. Baines observes in his history of Lancashire that the value of these manors when Roger received them from the King was scarcely equal to that of a small estate in our times, and he has drawn the following estimate of their comparative value "when the danegelt tax was enforced in 1086, and the time when the property tax existed, in 1814. Allowing for the difference in the value of money at the two periods, the statement will stand thus :—
Annual value in 1086 £120 x 110 = .£13,200
in 1811 £2,567,761
Increased value £2,556,561"
And we need hardly say that the value of the lands has greatly increased since 1814.
This Roger de Poictou was third son of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury, and was called "de Poictou" (Pietaviensis) because he had married a Poictevin woman. His Lancashire lands and those in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire appear to have been in the King's hands at the time of the Survey. In Norfolk they are styled "the lands which were of Roger of Poictou." On the other hand, his lands in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Essex, and Suffolk are entered as if he had them then in actual possession. Of the ousted Saxon and Danish properties in Derby hundred we find the names of Uctred, Dot, Bernulf, Stainulf, Winestan, Elmaer, Ascha, Edelmund (who held Esmedune, on the site of Liverpool), Leuing, Ulbort, Wibert, Godeve, Teos, and Chetel. Of these thanes, Uctred appears to have been by far the greatest landowner. By grant of Roger de Poictou, the following sub- tenants held at the time of the Survey the lands of his hundred of Derby. Goisfrid (Geoffrey), Roger, William, WarM, Tetbald, Robert, and Gislebert (Gilbert). These had 4 carucates in demesne, and 46 villeins, 1 radman, 62 bordars, 2 bondmen, and 2 bond- women. On the land in this hundred at the time of the Survey, reserved in demesne, were 6 bordars, 1 radman, and 7 villeins. Newton Manor was held in the Confessor's time, besides the demesne lands of the King and the Church, by 15 men called Drench& These Sir Henry Spelman considers to have been military vassals. At the time of the burvey there were 6 drenghs, 12 Otani, and 6 bordarii. In Warrington there were, in King Edward's time, 34 drenyles. After the Conquest we find the names of Roger, Warin, Tetbald, Radulf, William, Adelard, and Osmund as sub-tenants. On the manor of Blackburn, in King Edward's time, there were 28 freemen. Roger de Poictou gave all the hundred of that name to Roger de Bush i and Albert Greslet. In Salford hundred, in the time of King Edward, 21 manors were held by 21 thanes, one of whom was called Gamel (who had land in Recedham,—Rochdale). At the time of the Survey there were on the demesne lands of this hundred 8 slaves and 2 villeins. Roger de Poictou under-granted lands in this hundred to Nigel, Warin, Goisfrid, and Gamel, and on the lands there were 3 thanes, 30 villeins, 9 borders, 1 priest, and 10 slaves. In Leyland hundred, in King Edward's time, 12 freemen held 12 manors. The sub- tenants, at the time of the Survey were Girard, Robert, Radulf, Roger, and Walter. There were on the lands 4 radmans, a priest, 14 villeins, 6 bordarii, and 2 bovarii. At Peneverdant (Pen- wortham), in this hundred, there were, at the time of the Survey, a castle, 6 burgesses, 3 rodmen, 8 villani, and 4 slaves. In Amounderness all the villages appertaining to Prestune (Preston) were granted to Roger de Poictou. The " honour " of Lancaster is said to have been restored to that great proprietor in the time of William Rufus, but finally alienated on his banishment in the 2nd of Henry I. From that time it remained in the Crown till it was bestowed on Ranulf de Bricasard, 3rd Earl of Chester. Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester, had, in the 13th of Henry III., a confirmation of the lands between Ribble and Mersey, and was made chief lord under the King of the whole county of Lancaster. He died without issue in 1232, and his possessions were partitioned among his four sisters. Agnes, the third sister (married to William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby), had among other property the manor of West Derby, and all Earl Ranulf's lands between the Ribble and the Mersey. In the 8th of Henry Ill., Earl William de Ferrers was made governor of the castle and manor of Lancaster, and next year sheriff of the county. He died 20th September, 1247, and his countess survived him only a month. Their son William, who succeeded to their honours, dying in 1254, was succeeded by his son Robert, who engaging with Simon de Mont- fort, was in 1266 deprived of all his possession, and among others of the lands between Ribble and Mersey, which were united by Henry III. to the honour of Lancaster, and conferred on his second son, Edmund Crouchback, created by him Earl of Lancaster. The honour was forfeited by Earl Edmund's son Thomas, but restored to his second son, Henry, who was succeeded in the earldom, in 1345, by his son Henry. This noble- man was in 1351 created Duke of Lancaster with palatine juris- diction for life within the county ; and the title was renewed to John of Gaunt, the husband of his daughter Blanche, in 1362. On the succession of his son to the throne the Duchy Palatine of Lancaster became attached to the Crown, with which (with the exception of one grant to Henry V., when Prince of Wales) it has since remained. By the grant to Prince Henry, however, it was ordained that neither the inheritance of the Duchy of Lancaster nor its liberties should be changed, transferred, or diminished through his assumption of the royal dignity, but that they should retain their distinctive character and privileges, and be governed in like manner as if he had never attained the royal dignity. A Court, called the Duchy Court, was also established, in which all questions of revenue and council affecting the Duchy posses- sions might be decided. This Court is now held in the Duchy Office in Westminster. This is also a Court of Appeal from the Chancery of the County Palatine of Lancaster, which is a court of equity for matters of equity arising within the county of Lancaster, and is held (by the Vice-Chancellor) at Preston. Edward IV. declared the Duchy forfeited to the Crown, and it was ordained that it should thenceforth remain inseparably united with the same. In the Duchy Court the King is presumed to be not only present, but personally acting through his Chancellor and inferior officers. A. Star Chamber sprang up in the Duchy, as well as for the rest of the kingdom of England, but was abolished by the Long Parliament from the 1st of August, 1641.
In 1323, the northern part of the county was ravaged by the Scots under Robert Bruce, who advanced as far as Preston, part of which he burned. In the reign of Henry VII., the Earl of Lincoln and Lord Lovel, with 2,000 German soldiers under Martin Swart, and a number of Irish under Lord Geraldine, lauded in Furness to support the pretensions of Lambert Simnel, the soi-disant Earl of Warwick. In the Civil Wars of Charles I. the county, in which the Presbyterians had a preponderating influence, was the scene of several severe struggles between the contending parties. Manchester was unsuccessfully attacked by the Earl of Derby in 1642, it being defended by the county militia. Preston and Lancaster were taken by the Parliamentarians, and retaken by the Royalists, and again retaken by the Parliament- arians. Our readers need only a reference to the sieges of Lathom House, and the fortunes of the Earl of Derby in connection with the county, ending with his defeat at Wigan by Colonel Lilburne in 1651. Nor need we more than mention the storming and slaughter of Bolton by Prince Rupert in 1644, and the battles at Preston and Warrington in 1648, in which the Duke of Hamilton's expedition was crushed by Cromwell. Lancaster Castle was meanwhile fruitlessly besieged by the Royalists. In 1715 the forces of the Old Chevalier were compelled to surrender at Preston to Generals Wills and Carpenter.
Lancashire was included in the diocese of Chester from its creation in 1541 by Henry viii: until the year 1847, when the whole of the county, except the deaneries of Furness and Cartmel, which were added to the diocese of Carlisle, were formed into the diocese of Manchester. The parishes are very extensive.
The castellated remains of Lancashire are few in number. We shall have to refer to the keep of Lancaster Castle in connection with that town. Besides this, there are the keep of Dalton Castle, the ruins of the castle on the island of Pile, of Fouldry and Hornby castles, and Gleastom Castle, in Furness, about two miles east of Furness Abbey. Thurland Castle, near Hornby, stood a siege in the time of Charles I. The ruins of Greenhaugh Castle are a mile from Garstang. Of the monastic buildings, Cockersand Abbey is about six miles south-west from Lancaster, on a point of land at the mouth of the Lune. Furness Abbey is near Dalton, in Furness. It was founded in 1127 by Stephen, then Earl of Bloretain, before his accession to the throne of England, for Cistercian monks. "The ruins of the Abbey are still magnificent, and from the picturesque beauty of the surrounding scenery are among the most striking of our monastic remains. They are of Norman and Early English character. The whole length of the church is said to be 287 feet, the nave is 70 feet broad, and the walls are in some places 54 feet high and five feet thick. The windows and arches are upon a scale of unusual loftiness. There are ruins of the chapter-house and cloisters, and of the school-house, a large building detached from all the rest. The immediate precincts of the abbey, said to comprehend 65 acres, are enclosed by a stone wall, on which appear the ruins of small buildings, the offices of the abbey, and entered by a gateway, a beautiful pointed arch. The ruins are built of a pale redstone, dug in the neighbourhood, and changed by time and weather to a dusky-brown tint. They are everywhere embowered by climbing or parasitic plants." Besides these ruins, we may mention Whalley Abbey and the priory church of Cartmel.
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