Chapter 4 - The Chorleys in the 17th Century

Chapter 4 - The Chorleys in the 17th Century

On the accession to the throne in 1603 of James I an address of loyalty to that monarch was specially presented by seventy-nine of the Lancashire gentry. Among the signatures headed by that of John Ireland Esq., Hugh Sheriff of Lancaster, Sir Richard Mollineux, Sir Richard Hoghton, Sir Cuthbert Halsall, Sir Edward Warren, and Sir John Radcliffe, the name of William Chorley appears.

When King James made his famous visit to Hoghton Towers in August 1617 it is known that Sir Richard Mollineux invited all the leading gentleman, the “armigers” of the County Palatine, to help in serving and suitably entertaining His Majesty. It is likely therefore that William Chorley or his son Richard was present at the knighting of the Baron of Beef, as they were friends of Sir Richard and near neighbours.

A commission was given to Richardson, a tailor of Preston, to make the necessary garments and apparel and for this banquet the gentry honoured the Host by wearing the Hoghton livery and acting as servants at the royal table.

William Chorley, the fifth of that name in direct line was buried at Chorley on January 20^th 1643-4 when all England was in the throes of civil war.

His brother Alexander Chorley who, like his Uncle Leonard had chosen the legal profession and was a bencher in Furnivalls Inn, was the first Protestant in the line. He married Anne daughter of Thomas Paris of London and had sixteen children. One John Chorley was the founder of the Chorleys of Rainhill, who were members of the Society of Friends.

William Chorley of Chorley was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Richard who appears to have been entrusted by William with the management of the estates before his demise. In 1623 at the age of 29 we find Richard acting as juror at an Inquisitionem Post Mortem held at Chorley on Robert Hesketh of Rufford. This Richard’s signature appears in the first volume of the Chorley Parish Registers.

In the List of Recusants in Leyland Hundred 1628, the names of Richard Chorley gent and Margarett, his wife are mentioned. Also in 1631 in the list of esquires and gentlemen in Cheshire and Lancashire who refused the order of knighthood at the coronation of King Charles I the name of Richard Chorley of Chorley appears. It seems that no Chorley died of the plague which was rampant in England during 1631. In 1634 Richard’s signature is affixed to the formal record of the foundation of Chorley Grammar School.

When the strife began between King Charles I and his Puritan Parliament Richard Chorley like most of his fellow co-religionists joined his monarch in the field and did his utmost for the royal cause thereby earning the resentment of the Puritans, who have previously disliked him as a “papist.”

The following is taken from a tract entitled “A true and perfect Diurnall of all the Chiefe Passages in Lancashire sent to five shopkeepers in London from a friend dated July 9^th 1642.”

“Wednesday July 6, as I returned from Manchester to Preston, in Walton I overtook Mr. Kirbie, the Knight of our Shire, and there was in his company one Chorley of Chorley, (a seducing papiste, a fit companion for so lukewarm a Protestant) and these two were very familiar together." Chorley was the place where the Royalist force raised by Lord Molyneux had arrived in 1643 on its way to Manchester, then a Puritan stronghold, when it was summoned by King Charles to join the main body of his army at Oxford.

Whether Richard Charley took up arms then or immediately afterwards is not known. Chorley, like many other places in the country, found the leading families taking opposite sides in the great struggle. Whilst Standish of Standish, Chorley of Chorley, Charnock of Astley and Rigby of Burgh were loyal to their King, Richard Standish of Duxbury was on the side of Parliament, but his son and heir Thomas was a captain in the King's forces and as such was killed at Manchester.

In the Report of the Lancashire Church survey made in 1650, after the temporary overthrow of the established church, it is said that "Mr. Henry Welch doth supply the curé there (Chorley) and is a godly, painfull preaching minister.” He remained the curé at Chorley until the coming of the day known by his confrères as “Black Batholomew” when he and his brethren, who refused to comply with the Act of Uniformity, were expelled from the Anglican fold, just as loyal members of the clergy had years before been turned out by the Puritan victors.

Expelled from the Parish Church Harry Welch, it is said, like so many others of his brethren, opened a meeting house somewhere in the town. Some say it was on the site of the present Unitarian Chapel.

But to return to Richard, in the siege and capture of Liverpool by the Royalists under Prince Rupert, Richard Chorley was an active participant. After that important seaport was occupied by the King’s forces in June 1644 no more is heard of him as a soldier. It can only be conjectured what sorrow and chagrin filled the breast of this staunch Cavalier at Chorley Old Hall when at Chorley Market Cross at one o’clock on February 6^th a few days after the execution of King Charles, the proclamation was read prohibiting any other person being styled as King of England. Another trouble of a more personal nature awaited him and his Catholic compatriots. On May 7^th 1649 by a Parliamentary Committee it was resolved “That £10,000 be allotted for the satisfaction of the town of Liverpool because of their losses out of Sir William Gerard of the Bryn, Mr. Blundell of Ince, Mr. Chorley of Chorley, etc. Papists in arms and whose estates are not otherwise disposed of and were at Liverpool at taking of it and were commissioners of array and captains of the King.”

In 1652 the estates of Chorley of Chorley were sequestrated along with those of William Melling, Thomas Gillibrand, John Tootle and other Chorley Royalists. The Chorley estates were sold to an Edward Robinson. When in August 1653, an act of Parliament was passed ordering that all marriages were to be celebrated before a Justice of the Peace, Edward Robinson of Buckshawe and Richard Standish of Duxbury were two of the magistrates who officiated in that new office.

The downfall of the King brought disaster to other members of the Chorley family as well. In the Royalist Composition Papers of 1651 we find Bridgett Chorley, spinster, the sister of Richard, presenting a petition to the Committee for Compoundings for the County of Lancaster shewing that her brother Richard by a deed dated August 27^th 1626 granted her an annuity of £20 for her life, which had been paid until four years previously, when two thirds thereof became sequestrated for petitioners recusancy.

On May 5^th 1652 she petitioned again desiring that a report be made in a short time so that she “should be allowed according to Justice, she having noe other estate for her livelihood.” It appears that when her brother’s estates were seized she was deprived of her annuity altogether. In answer to this lady’s plea a third part of her annuity was allowed her.

Another Bridgett Chorley, a widow, figures in the Royalist Composition Papers. In her petition she states that although she had never done anything against the cause of the Parliament her whole estate had been sequestrated. She prayed that she may have a third part of it for the maintenance of her children. Her request was granted.

To return to Richard Chorley. The contract for the purchase of his estates by Edward Robinson is dated March 23^rd, 1652-3. They are described as being in the townships of Chorley, Heley, Walton, Charnock Richard, and Walton-le-Dale. Richard’s wife Margaret petitioned for a fifth of her husband’s rents but it was not recorded that it was granted.

A Prayer-book actually used by Richard Chorley and bearing his signature is in existence in the library of the Presbytery at Ulveston, Lancs. The book is a collection of prayers in latin selected by the compiler whose name was Verepeum. It was printed in Antwerp in 1603 by the widow and heirs of John Belleri at the sign of the Golden Eagle.

The book was a favourite one with the educated Catholics in penal times. It is a stout little book an inch and a half thick. Bound in leather, only one half of the original back remains with the hinges of two brass clasps. It is most interesting that the portion of the book most used is the one dealing with the Lord’s Prayer. The book contains two letters written to Richard Chorley and also a fragment of a legal document fastened inside its cover. To make them fit into the book the edges of the letters have been cut away. The paper on which the letter is written bears a water mark, a pitcher or vase with one handle surmounted by a crown. It was addressed “to my well worthie friend and cousin Richard Chorley of Chorley.”

Richard Chorley did not live long after the execution of his ill-fated monarch and the sequestration of his own estates by the victorious Puritans. He was buried in the family vaults in Chorley church, February 18^th, 1654-5. By his wife Margaret (they were married 40 years) he had issue William who succeeded him. Among other children – his family was ten sons and three daughters, was a daughter Elizabeth who married John Gillibrand. Two of Elizabeth’s sons became members of the Society of Jesus and her only daughter Agatha a Benedictine nun. She was Prioress of her convent in Paris and died in 1726.

William Chorley who now came into possession of the ancestral estates of which his father had been deprived for the term of his life, was one of those married under the new order of things introduced by the Little Parliament summoned by Cromwell in 1653 and commonly called “Barebone’s Parliament.” By an Act of Parliament of 1653 the ancient ceremonies of marriage were abolished, people were no longer to be united in matrimony by priest or minister, but by a Justice of the Peace in the presence of two witnesses, after the banns of marriage had been published three several market days in the market place or three sabbath days in the church. In the Chorley marriage registers, “William Chorley of Chorley and Kathrin Culcheth of Hindly” appears.

William left two sons Richard, baptized at Chorley January 27^th, 1659-60 and John baptized February 5^th, 1660 who died young. So this Richard became the Chorley of Chorley at the early age of two. During his minority his kinsman Robert Holden of Holden granted leases in conjunction with his mother Catherine. Richard married very young. In the second volume of the Chorley registers is the following entry written in very minute characters, “Richard Chorley of Chorley generosus et Katherina Walmesley de Buckshaw matrimonio conjuncti, 23 September 1676.” Richard and Catherine Chorley had a large family. The first child William was born on December 23^rd, 1677. The second child, Catherine, born September 4^th, 1679 was buried March 19, 1698-9. The third, John Edward became a member of the order of St. Benedict. In the list of students at the College at St. Gregory’s Monastery, Douai, his name is mentioned as professed in 1698. Ordained in 1704, he was rapidly promoted to the highest posts in the Order. Subsequently he retired to England and died in 1718. His name occurs with that of his father among the foreign burgesses at the Preston Guild of 1682. The fourth child Anne did not marry. She was the last to be interred in the family vault at Chorley Church in 1721. On January 30^th, 1684-85, the anniversary of the execution of Charles I, the fifth child was born and was given, not undesignedly, the name of Charles. Baptised on the 22^nd of February he lived to take part in the ill-fated rising of 1715. After his capture at Preston he died of fever contracted in prison in Liverpool.

All the accounts that remain seem to point out that he was a young man of good talents, generous disposition and much esteemed. He was educated at the English College at Douai where owing to the cruel penal laws in force, the Catholics were forced to resort for learning. He is mentioned in the College Diary for 1705 as being in the highest class of humanities, “rhetores.” This gives us a sure indication that his abilities were of no mean order. At certain times of the year it was the custom of the authorities of the various colleges attached to the university to select the most promising students to defend publicly in the Aula Maxima of the university philosophical and theological theses, and answer objections propounded by the most learned professors and theologians. It is recorded that in 1705 Charles Chorley acquitted himself brilliantly. Other sons were Thomas, Richard, and William; a daughter named Bridget died young. Later twins were born named James and Edward. Robert died in infancy. There was another daughter named Mary who became a nun at Cambrai. Several other children were born but died in infancy.

The year 1688 saw the downfall of James II. From this date the Chorley records contain little of interest.

In the year 1700 Richard and his wife were the recipients of a gift which is now in the Chorley Free Library. It is a folio bible bound in leather with gilt edges, its title-page read “The Holy Bible, By His Majestie’s Special Command, Appointed to be read in Churches.” On the fly-leaf appear the following names and dates:

Robert Hawkshead 1810

Ellen Hawkshead 1813

It is thought that this gift was made to Richard to point out to him the errors of the Catholic church. Whatever the donors’ intentions, the book failed to move the firm faith of Richard and Catherine in the church of their fathers. The Hawksheads were a well-known Church of England family in the district.

The following additional facts were given to the writer by Mr. William H. Hall of Chorley, a local historian interested in the family.

In 1664 John Chorley of Ormskirk married Ellen, daughter of William Hale of Little Woolton.

In 1666 their son William Chorley was born.

In 1678 John Chorley was Mayor of Liverpool, and there is a Chorley St. in that City.

 

Chapter 3 - The Chorleys in the 16th Century

Chapter 3

The Chorleys in the 16^th Century

William Chorley, the son and heir of William and Margaret married Elizabeth the daughter of William Charnock of Charnock, armiger.

A son William was born in 1503. He married Alice the daughter of James Anderton of Euxton Hall and in 1528 a son William was born. He apparently was a keen business man as there was much exchanging of property at this time. In 1562 William Charnock acquired some property in Charnock which had belonged to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. In 1563 Sir Roger Chorley was instituted to Preston vicarage on the presentation of Thomas Parkes. He was followed by Sir Leonard Chorley on the presentation of William Chorley of Chorley, but resigned in 1572. The above Sir Roger was stipendary chaplain of Thomas Gerrard. The title “Sir” was given to a priest without a degree. It should be remembered that all Roman Catholics were debarred from the universities and therefore could not graduate. Sir Roger was among those alleged to have taken part in a confederacy in 1534-5, unlawfully assembling at Ormskirk in warlike array and threatening the Kings Commission. A William Chorley of Chlorey was also among them.

Sir Roger died in 1566 when Vicar of Preston.

At The General Levy of Arms, Armour and Horses in Lancashire in 1574 William Chorley was ordered to furnish one light horse(man), one harquebut, one longe bowe, one sheffe of arrows and one scull (steel cap). His will is a most interesting document dated 1585. “I William Chorley of Chorley in the Countie of Lancaster, Gent, holle in Bodie etc. To be buryed within the Church of Chorley in the chancel under a stone where my grandfather was buried. I give to William Chorley sonn to my sonn William C. latelie deceased, my clocke chime and bells and all my harness perteynynge to the wars. I doe devise all my oulde ancient rents of all my tenants in Walton nere Lyrpoule, the cheffe rent payed yearlie to the Queenès maiestie wich is xxs only except, ffrom the daye of my decease for the tearms of five years to Alexander Chorley, Marie C. and Alis. C younger children of my sonn William C. latelie deceased. Whereas I have a lease for certen years of Olivere Garrard of Brindell of ground called Denham Banke and alsoe a lease of certen parcells of ground in Adlington called Famer of George Ashall the revercion of wiche said leases I doe give to the said Alexander C. Marie C. and Alis. C. Alsoe my especiall desire and requeste is that my said executors doe fullfyll my sonn William C. his laste will and testament according to the trust he reposed in me and alsoe where it is sette downe in my said Sonn William his will that I should haue the ordering of all his tymbre and stone wherefor and for that I haue well recompensed not onlie Brigett C. my daughter-in-law with certen lands during her life but alsoe haue recompensed the said Alexander, Marie and Alis. C. wherefore William C. eldest sonn of my said sonn William C. shall haue the said tymbre and ston. And whereas I haue a lease of Richard Whittell of certen ground in Chorley called the Lee the revertion of wiche I doe give to Mawde Chorley nowe my servant. All my goods and cattels shalbe devided into three equall parts whereof Alis, nowe my wife to haue one parte according as of right she ought to haue, the second parte I geve to Leonard C. my sonn desyringe and praying him not onlie for Godes cause but alsoe for my sake and at this my requeste that he would be contented to lett William my basterd sonn to haue the  half of his second parte with him considering all my gyftes and benefits heretofor bestowed upon  him, and the last and third parte I reser to myself for that after my debts etc payed Alis now my wife and all the children of Roger Gelibrond my son-in-lawe shall haue all my said third parte to be equallie devided amongst them.

I make Alis my wyffe, Leonard C. my sonn, Roger Gelibrone my sonn-in-lawe and Hugh Rigby my executors and my cosin James Anderton of Clayton supervisor of this my last will."

From that portion of the will which mentions timber and stone it would appear that following the example of their neighbour Robert Charnock of Astley for instance, the Chorleys rebuilt their ancient Hall. Tootell, Standish, Pilkington, Anderton and local names and each family had an ancestral Hall in the district.

Leonard Chorley, the second son of William Chorley the elder and Alice, was the first recorded lawyer of the family. A student of Grays Inn he attained to the honourable position of Recorder of Liverpool, a town then rapidly making its way towards that eminence amongst our English seaports it has now so long enjoyed. He married Emma daughter of Robert Blundell of Green Co. Lancaster. In the second year of James I 1603 we find her in the List of Recusants. He died in 1608.

Leonard and Emma were married about the year 1594. That fact was ascertained from an indenture dated April 1594 made between Leonard Chorley, on the one part, and Robert Blundell of Ince Blundell and Edmund Mollineux of Melling on the other, by which "in consideration of a marriage then lately solemnised between Leonard Chorley and Emma his wife three messuages in Whittingham, twenty three acres of land in Whittingham and Haighton, and an eighth part of a windmill in Whittingham became the property of the said couple."

William Chorley of Chorley born in 1565 who succeeded his grandfather in 1586 married Elizabeth the daughter of John Crosse of Crosse Hall, Liverpool and Crosse Hall, Chorley, an old friend and neighbour. It is highly probably that William Chorley carried out the design of his father and either re-built or so completely altered Chorley Hall, that it had all the appearance of a new building. The kitchen premises, stables, barn-walls etc. were still standing after World War II and were built of well burnt bricks, two inches thick, and as hard as iron. (The whole estate was demolished by degrees, ending in 1964.)all, that it had all the appearance of a new building. The kitchen prem

Approaching Chorley by the main road from the north at a point where the Preston and Park roads unite, there stood a little to the right a farmhouse bearing the name of Chorley Old Hall. This was all that remained of the ancestral home of the Chorleys. Chorley Hall was demolished by Sir Henry Houghton of Astley Hall in 1817 the local explanation being that it obstructed the view from Astley Hall, his mansion, now a museum owned by the local authority. The farm building did not give the impression that formerly the house stood in a large and extensive park of 90 acres. The site of Chorley Hall is now a grass grown piece of land bearing the forest trees planted after the Hall was destroyed. There are persons living who can remember the fish pond which was situated between the Hall and the Preston Road leading to the Hall and Euxton lane. Of the mansion  nothing remains except three stones, the largest 5ft long and 2ft in depth and breadth, and two others are near the gate. From the kitchen premises nine stone steps led on to the terrace before the Hall looking towards the fish pond. The old tithe barn is however of special mention. It was a magnificent example of a timbered structure, the roof being as beautiful as many found in a country church. The original Hall has been described as a fine stone gabled edifice. The main entrance to the Hall was probably by a gateway in a field off the present Park Road and close to Astley Hall estate. Few spots could have been chosen more happily for a home. From the upper windows of the Hall a lovely stretch of country could be seen for miles around, beyond Winter Edge and the Beacon on to Rivington Pyke, beyond the little Church of St Lawrence and the houses of the town of Chorley. On the west the fertile Fylde district and the sea in the far distance.

The author has visited this spot and was taken round the farm by the then tenant farmer. He was proud to tell her the story which he said is taught in the Chorley schools. He recounted with all seriousness how Elizabeth Chorley was buried in the Tithe Barn, she had been murdered. Later her body was buried under the pear trees where he has seen her flitting from tree to tree in a long flowing grey gown. When the author’s cousin Mrs. William Miller visited the spot with her mother Mrs. Maud Holt of Preston, whose mother was a Longhope Charley, the farmer gave her a silver spoon engraved E.C. which was found behind the pump trough.

In 1964 the author again visited the spot but the tithe Barn had only a few months previously been demolished to make room for a housing estate. The massive brick foundations were visible and Richard Miller found her a brick which corresponds to the description give above.