CHAPTER X.

HALL-I’-TH’-WOOD—THE STORY OF SAMUEL CROMPTON, THE INVENTOR OF THE SPINNING MULE.

There is much truth in the remark that it is more in the lives of England’s worthies than in the lives of England’s warriors that we may discover the true secret of England’s greatness. Yet, of those master-spirits who by their inventive genius, their patient industry, and indomitable perseverance have been the greatest benefactors to their country, and who, on that account, deserve ever to be held in honoured remembrance, how many have had to battle with untoward fate, to

Wage with fortune an eternal war, Checked by the scoff of Pride, by Envy’s frown, And Poverty’s unconquered bar.

Of such men was Samuel Crompton, the inventor of the spinning mule, whose mechanical achievement may be said to have laid open the prospect of unbounded wealth to the industrious of his native shire, and to have wrought in Lancashire changes well-nigh as wondrous as any recorded in the fictions of Eastern romance.

Hall-in-the-Wood, or Hall-i’-th’-Wood, according to the vernacular, the ancient dwelling-place in which Crompton spent his toilsome days and thoughtful nights—the shrine to which our present pilgrimage is directed, and which deserves to be hallowed as one of our sacred temples—is situated in the midst of scenery strangely at variance with the associations the name calls forth; for though, with Firwood, the Lower Wood, the Oaks, and other places of similar designation immediately adjacent, it recalls the sylvan beauty of former days, so complete has been the disafforesting that, with the exception of the blighted and blackened relics of a sturdy oak or stately elm here and there dotting the landscape, scarce a remnant remains of the old forest that once formed its pleasant environment. Yet withal, if the surroundings have lost much of their picturesqueness and are not altogether lovely, they are under their present aspect far more suggestive of the manufacturing enterprise, the permanent utility, and the universal good which is the natural outcome of Crompton’s invention, than they would have been had they retained their pristine beauty. Nature has been effectually displaced by industry. From the steep cliff on which stands his ancient home a thousand tall chimneys may now be seen, filling the atmosphere with volumes of thick dun-coloured smoke that hang like a pall and drop down soot instead of fatness. The once fair and fertile country is absolutely covered with mighty factories and hives of busy industry, in which tens of thousands of the population find employment. On every hand the ear is assailed with the din and rattle of machinery, and wherever the eye can reach it encounters nothing but steam and smoke and the outward indications of active labour.

The Hall, which is located in the township of Tonge, and distant about a couple of miles from Bolton, is an interesting specimen of the old English mansion of the earlier Tudor period; and, though time has made sad havoc among its beauties and peculiarities, it has happily escaped the assaults of “improvers,” and even in its dilapidated and forlorn condition may, in an antiquarian sense, be said to retain its original features comparatively unimpaired. It stands near the edge of a bold rocky steep that rises abruptly from the Eagley Brook—a tributary of the Irwell, that separates the townships of Sharples and Tonge—and commands an extensive view of the surrounding country. It is an irregular pile—a house with many gables—and has evidently been erected at two distinct periods—the older part being in the black and white half-timbered style so frequently met with in the old manor houses of Lancashire and Cheshire; while the more modern portion, though also boasting considerable antiquity, is of stone, with a two-storeyed projecting porch of the same material, erected in 1648, as the date with the initials

N A A

over the doorway clearly indicates. The mansion does not, however, appear ever to have made any great pretensions to stateliness, though its possessors were a family boasting considerable ancestral dignity, and one of them, in his pride of lineage, placed his heraldic achievements in an elaborately ornamented panel in one of the rooms, in order that his friends might note his honourable descent. The earliest portion is said, with some show of authority, to date as far back as the year 1483. For some time it was owned by the Brownlows; and over the fireplace in one of the rooms may still be seen the initials of Lawrence Brownlow, with the date 1591, and it is said that an ancient oak bedstead which was removed many years ago from Hall-i’-th’-Wood to Huntroyde has the same initials carved upon it. This part of the house, as we have said, is of timber and plaster, or “post and petrel,” as it is locally designated; the walls being composed of a framework of massive timber, with the interstices filled with plaster, and worked in divers quatrefoil and diaper-like patterns. The main structure comprises a long and lofty oblong block, with a short bay projecting at right angles from the further end. The upper chambers overhang the lower, and these again have an overhanging roof springing from a coved cornice; another instance that the mediæval architects who planned and carried out these erections were by no means insensible to the advantage of a varied outline producing that picturesque irregularity which, without any unnecessary sacrifice of domestic comfort, is so favourable to external beauty, as well as to the effect produced by a judicious combination of light and shade—a style infinitely preferable to the dull, dreary uniformities of brick put up in the present day, and which, were it only revived in its original beauty, would enable us to dispense with those Italian forms that were only introduced to satisfy the craving for foreign importations.

Time wrought changes; with the increase of refinement came the necessity for increased accommodation, when, to give additional elbow-room and keep pace with the requirements of the age, the old house, instead of being demolished, as would be the case now-a-days, was added to, a more pretentious structure of stone, with mullioned windows and parapets with ball ornaments, being joined up to it, and from this portion the square porch, which exhibits the same architectural features, projects. The date and the initials show that it was erected by Alexander Norris, son and heir of Christopher Norris, of Tonge-with-Haulgh, whose daughter and heiress, Alice, in 1654, conveyed the place in marriage to John Starkie, of Huntroyde; their descendant in the sixth generation, Le Gendre Nicholas Starkie, of Huntroyde, Esq., being the present possessor. John Starkie must have been an old man when he married, for his death occurred eleven years later at the age of 77, when Alice Starkie, his widow, returned to Hall-i’-th’-Wood and spent the remainder of her days there, amid the scenes of her childhood.

After the death of Mrs. Starkie the mansion seems to have remained unoccupied, and subsequently to have been divided into small tenements and let to humble occupants, who attached small import either to its antiquity or the associations connected with it, content if only they could keep the roof over their heads; and, as may be anticipated, during those vicissitudes, it was suffered to fall into a state of decay, until the inroads of dilapidation became only too painfully visible both within and without.

The greater portion of the mansion is and has been for many years in the occupancy of a farmer, Mr. James Bromiley, but a part of the old black and white structure has been divided and subdivided into numerous tenements that are now let to small cottagers. The occasion of our visit was a pleasant autumn afternoon, and proceeding, as we had been previously advised, from the Oaks Station, a pleasant walk of a few minutes over the high ground brought us to the picturesque and interesting old relic. The request to view the interior was readily complied with, the good woman of the house cheerfully accompanying us through the wainscoted parlours and contracted passages, and thence, by a quaintly-carved black oak staircase, with massive and highly-decorated balusters and pendants, that leads to the upper chambers and the vacant lofts above, giving us every facility we could desire in examining the antiquated dwelling. The dining-hall, a well-proportioned room, is on the ground floor, but that which most attracts attention is the chamber above—the only one which seems to have been treated with any degree of respect—Crompton’s room, the one in which he worked, in which he had his rude bench and still ruder tools, where he matured his plans and constructed his primitive models, where for years he laboured on with anxious hope and enduring perseverance, and where at length—just one hundred years ago—he triumphed, giving to his country the invention which has so largely contributed to its wealth and prosperity. The room is now occupied as a sleeping apartment, but in other respects it is little changed since the great inventor’s day. It has been subjected to many whitewashings, but the old ornamental plaster cornice still remains; the old heraldic escutcheon of the Starkies may still be seen; and there too is the spacious window with its double row of leaded lights extending the entire width, out of which Crompton must so often have wistfully gazed. The attic storey possesses but comparatively little interest, and exhibits only a labyrinth of dark and intricate passages, with small chambers and secret hiding places leading off in every direction. It was here that Crompton, in 1779, on the very eve of the completion of his machine, concealed the various parts after he had taken it to pieces for safety against the dreaded attack of the machine-breaking rioters of Blackburn, who had driven poor Hargreaves, the inventor of the Jenny, from his home, destroyed nearly every machine within miles of Blackburn, and who, it was feared, would extend their riotous proceedings to Crompton’s invention before it had been even put in actual work. The principal entrance to the hall is on the south side, by an arched doorway, over which is a square panel with the initials and date already mentioned. Above this, and separated by a bold moulding, is a porch-chamber, lighted on three sides by square windows, mullioned and transomed, over one of which is a lozenge-shaped sun-dial. Evil days have unhappily fallen upon the building. Where repairs have been attempted they have been made by slovenly hands, and unseemly patches mar the effect of its general appearance; but even in its present condition of neglect and approaching ruin it exhibits much that is architecturally interesting. Apart, however, from such considerations, surely the associations that gather round make it a public duty to protect it from further injury, so that it may be preserved to future generations as a memorial of one of Lancashire’s worthiest sons and one of England’s greatest benefactors.

Crompton, though himself of humble parentage, could claim a long and respectable lineage, his progenitors, who derived their patronymic from the hamlet of Crompton in Prestwich parish, ranking among the better class of yeomen, and the parent line asserting its gentility by the use of armorial ensigns. His parents resided at Firwood, a farm in the same township, and distant about half a mile from Hall-i’-th’-Wood, that had been owned by their family for several generations, but which Crompton’s grandfather had mortgaged to the Starkies, and the father, unable to redeem, had finally alienated to them, continuing the occupancy, however, for some time as tenant, and combining with the business of farming that of carding, spinning, and weaving on a small scale whenever the intervals of farming and daily labour permitted. The couple were honest, hardworking, and religious, but fortune was unpropitious, and during the later years of the elder Crompton’s life they appear to have been going down in the world. It was at the farm at Firwood, on the 3rd of December, 1753, that Samuel Crompton first saw the light. Shortly after his birth his parents forsook the old home and took up their abode at a cottage near Lower Wood, in the immediate vicinity. Their stay there was but short, for three or four years after, they removed to the neighbouring mansion of Hall-in-the Wood, a part of which had been assigned to them by Mr. Starkie, who had become the possessor of Firwood, for the old mansion had, even at that date, been divided into separate holdings, and confided by its owner to the care of somewhat needy occupants.

George Crompton, the father, died shortly after, at the comparatively early age of thirty-seven, from, as is said, a cold taken while helping gratuitously in his over hours to build the organ-gallery in All Saints’ Church, Bolton, where he worshipped; and his widow, Betty Crompton, as she was familiarly called, was left to struggle for a livelihood for herself and three children—Samuel, who was then a child of five years, and two girls. She was a woman of superior attainments, industrious, managing, and, withal, strong-minded; energetic in her action, but possessing, with a good deal of outward austerity of manner, much innate goodness of heart. Her good management and business-like habits gained her the confidence and respect of her neighbours, who manifested their appreciation of her abilities by electing her to the office of overseer of the township, an appointment which, though perfectly legal, was of unusual occurrence in days when “Women’s Rights” were unthought of; one of the reasons which induced her to accept the office being the desire to compel her son to discharge the duties, which he disliked excessively. Mrs. Crompton abode at the hall after her husband’s death, and continued his business with energy and thrift, the produce of her dairy being held in high repute in the neighbourhood, whilst the bees in her old-fashioned garden supplied her with another marketable commodity, added to which she had acquired local fame for her excellent make of elderberry wine, a beverage she hospitably dispensed among her friends and visitors. As may be supposed, she ruled her household with a firm hand, and believing in the wisdom of the proverb that to “spare the rod” is to “spoil the child,” she manifested her fondness for her boy by a frequent application of the birch to the unappreciative youngster’s breech—as he was wont to say in after years, her practice was to chastise him, not for any particular fault, but because she loved him so well, a mode of training certainly not the best calculated to enable a lad of a naturally diffident and sensitive disposition to engage in the rough battle of life or to make his way successfully in the world. The widow Crompton, notwithstanding, had many good qualities. She did, as she believed, her duty to her fatherless child, and gave him the best education in her power. School boards and board schools were then only in the womb of time, but Lancashire had many excellent schoolmasters, and of the number was William Barlow,[49] who kept a school at the top of Little Bolton, a pedagogue who worthily upheld the value and dignity of the mathematical sciences, and, on that account, was reputed among his neighbours to be “a witch in figures.” Under his tuition young Crompton was placed, and, being of a meditative and retiring disposition, he took kindly to his studies, made satisfactory progress, and was accounted well educated for his station in life.

[Note 49: The author is informed by Dr. Crompton, the grandson of the Inventor of the Mule, that Barlow engraved the plate for Arkwright’s bill-heads. The plate itself was found a few years ago amongst a heap of old brass at Messrs. Peel’s foundry in Ancoats, and some impressions were then taken from it.]

Of his two sisters little or nothing is known, but residing under the same roof was a lame old uncle, his father’s brother, Alexander Crompton; a character in his way, whose peculiarities could hardly fail to have an influence on the mind of the nephew. Like the rest of the family, Uncle Alexander was strict in his religious observances, but being afflicted with lameness was unable to leave his room, in which, in fact, he lived and worked and slept, to attend the services of the sanctuary, and so he compensated himself for the deprivation in a manner that was as original as it was humble and respectful:—

On each succeeding Sunday [says Crompton’s faithful biographer, Mr. French], when all the rest of the family had gone to service at All Saints’ Chapel, Uncle Alexander sat in his solitary room listening for the first sound of the bells of Bolton Parish Church. Before they ceased ringing, he took off his ordinary working-day coat and put on that which was reserved for Sundays. This done, he slowly read to himself the whole of the Morning Service and a sermon, concluding about the same time that the dismissal bell commenced ringing, when his Sunday coat was carefully put aside,—to be resumed again, however, when the bells took up their burthen for the evening service, which he read through with the same solitary solemnity.

Such was the household then occupying one of the wings of the rambling old mansion. Mrs. Crompton found no happiness in repose; ever doing and ever having much to do was her manner, and that was assuredly the fate of her son. From his earliest childhood the hours that should have been spent in harmless pastime were occupied in rendering such assistance as he could on the farm, or in the humble manufacturing operations carried on in the house, whilst his mother was bargaining and fighting with the outer world. He was put to the loom almost as soon as his legs were “long enough to touch the treddles,” and when his day’s task was done he was sent to a night school in Bolton to improve his knowledge of algebra, mathematics, and trigonometry. The poor weaver-lad had no playmates or associations with the outer world; he lived a life of seclusion, and his only companion in his brief moments of leisure was his fiddle. His father had been enthusiastically fond of music, and at the time of his death had begun the construction of an organ, leaving behind him a few oak pipes and the few simple tools with which he had made them. The amateur organ-builder’s son inherited the father’s taste, and made himself a fiddle—the first achievement of his mechanical genius. This was the companion of his solitude, and in after life his solace in many a bitter disappointment.

With this musical friend [says French] he on winter nights practised the homely tunes of the time by the dim light of his mother’s kitchen fire or thrifty lamp; and in many a summer twilight he wandered contemplatively among the green lanes or by the margin of the pleasant brook that swept round her romantic old residence.

And so passed the years of his adolescence—a virtuous, reserved, and industrious youth. The help and stay of a widowed mother—who, if a strict disciplinarian, yet devoted her best energies to the well-being of her family—shunning society, having no companions, and working diligently at his solitary loom, Crompton, if he found little leisure for amusement had at least abundance of time to think, and a thinker he became to his country’s advantage.

While young Crompton was assiduously assisting his widowed mother, labouring at his loom by day and amusing himself with his fiddle by night, some of the artisans of his own county were exercising their inventive faculties on the rude appliances of their handicraft, for up to that time there had been little or no improvement on the art of Penelope in spinning and weaving—the distaff was still in common use, every thread being spun singly by the fingers of the spinner, and the machinery in vogue, if by such a name it could be called, was as primitive as that used by the Hindoo. Practical observation enabled them to elaborate their mechanical contrivances step by step, and so a series of progressive inventions followed each other. The invention of the fly-shuttle by Kay, of Bury, and the spinning jenny by Hargreaves, of Blackburn, gave a great impetus to the cotton manufacture, for by the former the productive power of the loom was greatly increased, whilst by the latter the supply of weft kept pace with the requirements of the weaver, but the mule was the real pivot on which its subsequent prosperity turned.

The spinning jenny of Hargreaves is believed to have been invented in the year 1764. It was kept a secret for some time, but before the close of the decade it had got into pretty general use in Lancashire, and was at that time so far perfected that a child could work with it eight spindles at one time. In 1769, Crompton, who was then a lad of sixteen years, spun on one of Hargreaves’s machines the yarn which he afterwards wove into quilting, but the machine had many palpable imperfections; the yarn which it turned off had less tenacity than that produced by the old-fashioned single-thread wheel, and much time was lost in piecing the ever-breaking thread; but in Crompton’s case the appointed task had to be got through, whatever difficulties might arise, for Mrs. Crompton was inexorable, and to avoid the maternal reproaches much time had to be given to the loom that might otherwise have been spent in pleasant companionship with the fiddle. For five long years the poor weaver lad led this lonesome, uneventful, all work and no play sort of life; no wonder, then, that he became reserved, shy and uncompanionable. For five long years he struggled on, following the dull, unremitting round of labour on his wearisome treadmill, without one single ray of cheering hope to brighten the gloom of his monotonous existence, when his ingenuity was driven to make such improvements in the spinning machine as would ultimately relieve him of the annoyances he was subjected to.

The time was not propitious for inventors. Hargreaves had been persecuted and ruined by the populace, and Arkwright had to remove to Nottingham to escape the popular animosity. Manufacturers were jealous lest their craft should be endangered, and workmen, in their ignorant prejudice against the introduction of new machines, resolved upon their destruction, while, by the common people, those who effected improvements were accounted “conjurors,” a name of reproach given to those who were supposed to possess unnatural skill, and to hold commerce with the powers of darkness.

It was in 1774, when he was in his twenty-first year, that the first faint conception of the mule floated through Crompton’s brain. The yarn spun by Hargreaves’s jenny could only be used for “weft,” by reason of its lacking the firmness and tenacity required in the long threads or “warp,” while that produced from Arkwright’s water frame was too coarse for the manufacture of muslins and other delicate fabrics in imitation of those imported from India. Crompton proceeded silently with the task he had set himself, even the members of the household having little idea of the way in which he occupied his time in the hours stolen from sleep when his day’s work was done. Indeed, it was the system of night work that first drew the attention of his family and neighbours to his proceedings. “Strange and unaccountable sounds,” says the authority we have previously quoted, “were heard in the Old Hall at most untimely hours, lights were seen in unusual places, and a rumour became current that the place was haunted.” On investigation the young mechanical genius was found to be the ghost that had caused so much trouble and alarm to the good people of the locality.

Crompton’s difficulty was increased by the fewness of his tools—those he possessed being such as his father had used in his rude attempts at organ building, supplemented by a clasp knife, which is said to have done excellent service; some others he purchased with such cash as he could spare from his slender earnings, and the money he received for his services at the Bolton Theatre, where, during the season, he was content to fiddle for the scanty pittance of eighteenpence a night. Five years of silent, secret, unremitting labour were spent in the realisation of his idea. Wanting in mechanical knowledge, destitute of proper tools, and having to learn the use of the imperfect ones he could procure, it is matter for surprise that in five years he succeeded in making his machine practically useful. His experiences at this time he thus relates in a MS. document he circulated about seventy years ago:

The next five years had this addition added to my labour as a weaver, occasioned by the imperfect state of cotton spinning, viz., a continual endeavour to realise a more perfect principle of spinning; and though often baffled, I as often renewed the attempt, and at length succeeded to my utmost desire at the expense of every shilling I had in the world.

Neither poverty nor want of mechanical skill was permitted to hinder him. After much trembling and fretting from impecuniousness on the one hand, and the inquisitiveness of interlopers on the other; after matchless patience and unflinching perseverance; after many failures and disappointments, success at length crowned his efforts; his dream had become a reality, the mule[50] was an accomplished fact. In that same year, 1779, just as he was about to test its merits by putting it into actual work, an outbreak occurred among the Lancashire spinners and weavers; the riotous proceedings which had driven Hargreaves from his home were renewed, and while the storm was raging Crompton, fearing the mob might wreak their vengeance upon his wheel, prudently took it to pieces and hid the parts away in the cocklofts of the old hall. The incident is thus described by a recent writer:—

Crompton was well aware that his infant invention would be still more obnoxious to the rioters than Hargreaves’s jenny, and appears to have taken careful measures for its protection or concealment should they have paid a domiciliary visit to the Hall-in-the-Wood. The ceiling of the room in which he worked is cut through, as well as a corresponding part of the clay floor of the room above, the aperture being covered by replacing the part cut away. This opening was recently detected by two visitors, who were investigating the mysteries of the old mansion; but they could not imagine any use for a secret trap-door until, on pointing it out to Mr. Bromiley, the present tenant, he recalled to his memory a conversation he had had with Samuel Crompton during one of his latest visits to the Hall many years ago. Mr. Crompton informed Mr. Bromiley that once, when he was at work on the mule, he heard the rioters shouting at the destruction of a building at “Folds” (an adjoining hamlet), where there was a carding engine. Fearing that they would come to the Hall-in-the-Wood and destroy his mule, he took it to pieces and put it into a skip which he hoisted through the ceiling into the attic by the trap-door, which had, doubtless, been prepared in anticipation of such a visit, and which now offers a curious evidence of the insecurity of manufacturing inventions in their early infancy. The various parts were concealed in a loft or garret near the clock, and there they remained hid for many weeks ere he dared to put them together again. But in the course of the same year the Hall-in-the-Wood wheel was completed and the yarn spun upon it used for the manufacture of muslins of an extremely fine and delicate texture.

[Note 50: The machine was at first, from the place of its birth, called the “Hall-i’-th’-Wood Wheel,” and sometimes, from the fineness of the yarn it produced, the “Muslin Wheel,” but subsequently it became more generally known as the “Mule,” from the circumstance of its combining the principles of the two inventions of Hargreaves and Arkwright to produce a third much more efficient than either.]

Having succeeded to his utmost desire in solving the problem on which during five eventful years of his life his mind had been absorbed, Crompton had leisure to turn his thoughts in another direction, and the first thing he did was to take to himself a wife. He had made the acquaintance of an amiable and excellent woman, Mary Pimlott, the daughter of a quondam West India merchant, who had come down in the world and, as was said, had died of a broken heart; and on the 16th of February, 1780, the young couple were married in the old church at Bolton. Mary Pimlott is described as being a handsome dark-haired woman of middle age and erect carriage, and possessed of remarkable power in the perception of individual character. She was, moreover, a “spinster” in the true sense of the word. On her father’s death she had gone to reside with friends at Turton, near Bolton, where ample and profitable employment could be obtained in spinning, and it is said that her expertness in the art first attracted young Crompton’s attention.

The newly-married pair began housekeeping in a small cottage attached to the old hall, Crompton at the same time retaining one or more workrooms in the mansion where he and his young wife pursued their humble occupation, producing from the new wheel a yarn which both for fineness and firmness astonished the manufacturing community. It does not seem ever to have entered the mind of the young inventor to patent his machine. Accustomed to a quiet, secluded life, without any expensive habits or enjoyments, his highest ambition appears to have been to keep his invention to himself and to work on in his own simple way in his own home after the fashion of the time, for it was then the idyllic period of cotton manufacturing, organised labour in huge factories being virtually unknown. But the fame of Crompton’s yarn spread; the new wheel was an unmistakable success, and gave promise of realising for its inventor an ample fortune. It was at once seen that the much-admired muslins that had been imported from India, and for which extravagant prices were paid, could now be produced by the English manufacturer, and at a greatly diminished cost. Crompton had his own price, and orders for the wonderful yarn poured in upon him; the demand was urgent and pressing, and his house was literally besieged with manufacturers anxious to obtain supplies of the much-coveted material, and still more anxious to penetrate the secret of its production, for it soon became noised abroad that he had discovered some novel mode of spinning. People from miles round gathered about his house, anxious to solve the mystery; all kinds of stratagems were practised to obtain admission to his workroom; and when denied, some actually obtained ladders, clambered up to the window of his chamber, and peeped in to satisfy their curiosity. To protect himself from this kind of observation Crompton set up a screen, and then an inquisitive individual, more adventurous than the rest, secreted himself in one of the cocklofts of the hall, and remained there for days watching the operations going on through a gimlet hole he had bored in the ceiling.

There is a well-authenticated tradition that at this time Arkwright, who a few years before had erected a cotton mill at Cromford, in Derbyshire, the nursing place, as it has been called, of the factory opulence and power of Great Britain, made his way to the Hall-in-the-Wood, and contrived to gain access to the house with the object of inspecting the machine of which such wonderful tales were told while the inventor was away collecting rates for his mother, who, as we have said, filled the office of overseer for the township. Arkwright was then in the full tide of his success, and it was an unfortunate circumstance for Crompton that they did not meet. If they had it would probably have led to an arrangement whereby the simple, guileless inventor might have reaped the reward of many years of patient toil and personal sacrifice.

Had Crompton possessed a tithe of the energy and resources of the average Lancashire man he would have triumphed, but, unhappily for himself, these were just the qualities he lacked, and his diffidence and childlike simplicity made him an easy victim in the hands of unscrupulous and crafty traders. Had he bestirred himself there is no reason to doubt but that some capitalist would have been ready to advance the means to patent his invention, but his shyness and morbid sense of independence forbade him to ask for help or co-operation. What Arkwright and Peel did he might have accomplished; but, instead of his succeeding to opulence, he allowed others to reap where he had sown. His very success was the cause of his misfortunes. He was unable to carry on his work in undisturbed privacy, and his moody and sensitive nature could not bear the annoyance to which he was perpetually subjected by prying intruders. It was the crisis in his life. Tormented, worried, driven almost to distraction, he, in a weak moment, yielded to the advice of a well-intentioned but unwise counsellor, and surrendered his invention to an ungrateful community. When relating the story to Mr. G. A. Lee, and Mr. John Kennedy, of Manchester, some years afterwards, Mr. Lee having remarked that “it was a pity he had not kept the secret to himself,” he replied “that a man had a very insecure tenure of property which another could carry away with his eyes.” He says in the MS. before referred to:—

During this time I married, and commenced spinning altogether. But a few months reduced me to the cruel necessity either of destroying my machine altogether or giving it up to the public. To destroy it I could not think of; to give up that for which I had laboured so long was cruel. I had no patent nor the means of purchasing one. In preference to destroying it I gave it to the public.

He says he “gave it to the public,” and virtually he did; for, though it was professedly for a consideration, he derived little or no benefit, and only found that he had been made the victim of the greed, and meanness, and sordid treachery of those whom, in his simplicity, he had trusted. Yielding to the deceitful promises of his townsmen and others, he was induced to surrender his much coveted secret on the faith of an agreement that, as it turned out, had no validity in law, and which some of the signatories were base enough to repudiate. The following are the terms in which it was drawn up:—

Bolton, November 20th, 1780.

We whose names are hereunto subscribed have agreed to give and do hereby promise to pay unto Samuel Crompton, at the Hall-in-the-Wood, near Bolton, the several sums opposite to our names as a reward for his improvement in Spinning. Several of the principal Tradesmen in Manchester, Bolton, &c., having seen his Machine approve of it, and are of opinion that it would be of the greatest utility to make it generally known, to which end a contribution is desired from every wellwisher of trade.

The total sum subscribed was £67 6s. 6d., but even of this miserable amount only about £50 was actually paid, “as much by subscription,” says Crompton, “as built me a new machine with only four spindles more than the one I had given up [for he had not only surrendered his secret but the original machine with it]—the old one having forty-eight, the new one fifty-two spindles.” Never, certainly, was so much got for so little, and a touch of infamy was added to the merciless transaction by a fact which Crompton thus records:—

Many subscribers would not pay the sums they had set opposite their names. When I applied for them I got nothing but abusive language to drive me from them, which was easily done; for I never till then could think it possible that any man could pretend one thing and act the direct opposite. I then found it was possible, having had proof positive.

These men, as has been truly said, saved their miserable guineas at the expense of their honesty and honour. The treatment to which he was subjected made a lasting impression on his mind. His very integrity increased his mortification at the dishonesty of those he had so generously trusted; his disposition—never a buoyant or cheerful one—was soured, and during the remainder of his life he was moody and mistrustful. While hundreds of manufacturers were accumulating colossal fortunes out of the results of Crompton’s skill and ingenuity, the man himself, while so abundantly enriching them, was not able to gather even the smallest grains of the golden harvest, and, but for his energy and frugality, might have lapsed into absolute poverty, a martyr of mechanical invention and another illustration of the scriptural paradox, “Poor, yet making many rich.”

It was a bitter disappointment to Crompton to find that the promises so pleasant to the ear were broken to the hope, that he had, in fact, been tricked into giving up the invention that had cost him so many years of anxious thought and toil to a host of selfish manufacturers who were making fortunes out of his simple trust. He became moody, suspicious, and distrustful of everything and everybody; but if he doubted the world he never lost heart in himself. Deprived of his just reward, he removed from the Hall-in-the-Wood to Oldhams, a small cottage across the valley near Astley Bridge, in Sharples, and distant about a mile and a half from Bolton. Here he farmed a few acres, kept three or four cows, and, still adhering to the common Lancashire custom, combined the business of a farmer with that of a manufacturer, and in one of the upper chambers of his house erected his newly-constructed machine. Familiar with the principles of his mule, he was naturally more skilful in the working of it than others; his wife, too, was an expert in spinning, and the yarn they spun was the best and finest in the market, and brought the highest prices; it was supposed, therefore, that he must have made some improvements in his machine, and, as a consequence, he was again pestered with inquisitive visitors anxious to discover the secret of his success, when, to protect himself from the unwelcome intrusion, he is said to have contrived a secret fastening to the door in the upper storey where he worked at the mule.

About this time Crompton invented a new carding-engine, and, anxious to extend his operations, he set up as an employer of labour, but the result was not satisfactory, for the people he engaged to spin under him were continually being bribed to enter the service of other masters, who hoped in this way to gain a knowledge of his secrets, so that eventually he was obliged to fall back upon the labours of his own household, and broke up the carding-engine, remarking that “the devils should not have that.” He says:—

I pushed on, intending to have a good share in the spinning line, yet I found there was an evil which I had not foreseen and of much greater magnitude than giving up the machine, viz., that I must be always teaching green hands, employ none, or quit the country; it being believed that if I taught them they knew the business well, so that for years I had no choice but to give up spinning or quit my native land. I cut up my spinning machines for other purposes.

Whilst residing at Oldhams, Crompton received a visit from Sir (then Mr.) Robert Peel, the first baronet, his object being to offer the inventor a lucrative appointment in his own manufactory, with the prospect of a future partnership, but Crompton’s natural infirmity of temper and his quickness to take offence opposed a barrier to his own advancement. He had a prejudice against Peel on account of some imaginary affront,[51] and so the offer that might have led to his lasting comfort and prosperity was declined.

[Note 51: Peel had bought one of the machines with the intention of causing drawings of it to be made. The affront was that on the occasion of his (Peel’s) visit to Crompton’s house, he had tendered the Inventor sixpence in consideration of his trouble in showing him the machine.]

By this time the mule had become the machine chiefly employed for fine spinning, not only round Bolton but in the manufacturing districts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and its general appropriation soon changed the neighbourhood of which Manchester was the centre from a country of small farmers to one of small manufacturers. Houses on the banks of streams whose currents would drive a wheel and shaft were eagerly seized upon; sheds were run up in similar situations; the clank of wheels and the buzz of spindles were heard in once solitary places in the valleys running off from the Irwell and upon the small streams that flowed down from the barren hills. Crompton’s mules, worked by hand, “were erected in garrets or lofts, and many a dilapidated barn or cowshed was patched up in the walls, repaired in the roof, and provided with windows to serve as lodging room for the new muslin wheels,” as they were called.

So great was the impetus given to manufacture by the invention of the mule that, within less than six years of its introduction, the number of inhabitants in Bolton had doubled; whilst in the neighbouring town of Bury, which had “its cotton manufacture originally brought from Bolton,” the increase was even more rapid. In order to provide for his increasing family, and, as is said, to escape the annoyance of his being re-elected overseer, Crompton, in 1791, removed from his pleasant little farm at Oldhams to a house in King Street, Bolton, where he enlarged his spinning operations, filling the attics over his own dwelling and those of the two adjoining houses with additional mules and machinery for manufacturing purposes—his elder boys being now able to assist him in his handicraft.

Five years later he had the misfortune to lose the loving and faithful partner of his joys and sorrows. She had been long ailing, and on the 29th of May, 1796, he followed her remains to their last resting place in the old churchyard at Bolton. It is stated that when he returned from the funeral he sat down broken-hearted and in utter despair; it must have been a sorrowful day for him, for she left him with a family of eight young children. Two of them were lying sick at the time in their cradles, and one died a short time after. The death of his wife made a deep impression on his mind and character. From his childhood he had been imbued with strong religious sentiments, and being of a naturally thoughtful and dreamy disposition, his religion was of a somewhat mystical kind; hence it is not surprising that he should have been led to withdraw from the communion of the Church of England and embrace the tenets of that amiable and philosophic teacher, Emanuel Swedenborg, who at that time had many followers in the town of Bolton. Crompton became a zealous member of the New Jerusalem Church, “taking entire charge of the psalmody,” and occupying his leisure hours in composing hymn-tunes for the choir, which was wont to assemble on Sunday evenings at his house to practise.

He struggled manfully to maintain his young family in comfort and respectability, but he was comparatively helpless in the conduct of business, and altogether unfitted to deal with the practical affairs of life. He wrote on one occasion:—

“I found to my sorrow I was not calculated to contend with men of the world; neither did I know there was such a thing as protection for me on earth! I found I was as unfit for the task that was before me as a child of two years old to contend with a disciplined army.”

When he did attempt to transact business, to such an extent was this weakness of character manifested that, as is said by his biographer—

“When he attended the Manchester Exchange to sell his yarns and muslins, and any rough-and-ready manufacturer ventured to offer him a less price than he had asked, he would invariably wrap up his samples, put them into his pocket, and quietly walk away.”

His countenance was not sufficiently bronzed to enable him to contend successfully with the chafferers on ’Change. Like Watt, who declared he would rather face a loaded cannon than settle an account or make a bargain, he hated that jostling with the world inseparable from the conduct of extensive industrial or commercial operations; but, unlike Watt, he was not fortunate enough in the great crisis of his life to have met with a Boulton who had the quickness of perception to determine when to act and the energy of purpose to carry out the measures which his judgment approved.

It was not until 1800, twenty years after the invention of the mule, that any real attempt was made to recompense him for the sacrifices he had made, and for the inestimable benefits he had conferred upon the community in general and the district in which he laboured in particular. To Manchester belongs the credit of originating the movement. Two manufacturers there, Mr. John Kennedy, one of the founders of the great cotton-spinning firm of M’Connel and Kennedy, and Mr. George Lee, of the firm of Philips and Lee, appreciating the talents of the struggling inventor, started a subscription for the purpose of providing a comfortable competence for him in his declining years. The time was not opportune, and their efforts were in consequence only partially successful. It was the year in which Napoleon’s overtures for peace were haughtily and offensively rejected by Lord Grenville; the war with France had imposed additional burdens upon the people, who were already suffering from a prolonged depression of trade; the scarcity caused by a deficiency in the harvest was commonly regarded as a consequence of the war; the country was on the brink of famine; mobs paraded the streets, and the Habeas Corpus Act had to be suspended to avoid the social danger to which a continuance of the rioting must of necessity lead. Comparatively few subscriptions were received; the kindly effort stuck fast, and eventually it had to be abandoned.[52] Between four and five hundred pounds was all that could be realised, and that was handed to Crompton, who sunk it in his little manufacturing establishment for spinning and weaving. His biographer says—

As a consequence of this additional capital, he soon after rented the top storey of a neighbouring factory, one of the oldest in Bolton, in which he had two mules—one of 360 spindles, the other of 220—with the necessary preparatory machinery. The power to turn the machinery was rented with the premises. Here also he was assisted by the elder branches of his family, and it is our duty, though a melancholy one, to record that the system of seducing his servants from his employment was still persisted in, and that one at least of his own sons was not able to withstand the specious and flattering inducements held out by wealthy opponents to leave his father’s service and accept extravagant payment for a few weeks, during which he was expected to divulge his father’s supposed secrets and his system of manipulating upon the machine.

[Note 52: It is pleasant to note that while so many of those in his own locality who had so largely profited by Crompton’s labour either refused to help or gave only very grudgingly, the one who had suffered most by the success of the mule, Richard Arkwright, of Cromford (the second of the name), whose water frame had in a great measure been superseded by it, contributed £30, at the same time generously acknowledging the merits of the invention.]

Aided by the mule the cotton manufacture prodigiously developed itself. The tiny rill which issued from the Hall-i’-th’-Wood had become swollen into a mighty river, carrying wealth and prosperity along its course; and he who had started the stream looked not unreasonably to obtain some small share of the riches that were borne upon its bosom. With this hope, he was induced in 1807 to address a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, the then president of the Royal Society, in which he modestly set forth his grievances, and, describing himself as “a retired man in the country, and unacquainted with public matters,” requested the society’s advice “to enable him to procure from Government or elsewhere a proper recompense for his invention.” There had been some mistake in the address of the letter. It, however, eventually found its way to the Society of Arts, where the application was discussed; but, to Crompton’s great disappointment, nothing more came of it.

Four years later he made a survey of all the cotton districts in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and obtained an estimate of the number of spindles then at work on his principle. On his return he laid the results of his inquiries before his friends, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Lee, with the suggestion that Parliament might “grant him something.” It was proved that 4,600,000 spindles were at work upon his mules, using upwards of 40,000,000 pounds of cotton annually; that 70,000 persons were engaged in the spinning, and 150,000 more in weaving the yarn so spun, and that a population of full half a million derived their daily bread from the machinery his skill had devised. This statement, as was afterwards found, fell far short of the actual facts, for it did not include any of the numerous mules used in the manufacture of woollen yarn. The claim was indisputable. With the data before him Mr. Lee entered fully into the case. A Manchester solicitor, Mr. George Duckworth, of Duckworth and Chippindall, Princess Street, offered his gratuitous help, and drew up a memorial to Parliament on his behalf which was signed by most of the principal manufacturers in the kingdom who were acquainted with his merits. In February, 1812, Crompton proceeded to London with this memorial, and obtained an interview with one of the Lancashire members; and, through the influence of powerful friends who appreciated his merits and sympathised with his misfortunes, he was enabled to place his memorial before Mr. Spencer Perceval, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who appears to have taken a favourable view of his claim. The matter was referred to a select committee, of which Lord Stanley, the great-grandfather of the present Earl of Derby, was chairman. Evidence was given in favour of the inventor, and, among other information given, it was stated by Mr. Lee that at that time the duty paid upon cotton imported to be spun by the mule amounted to not less than £350,000 a year. The committee reported favourably, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer was ready to propose a vote of £20,000, when Crompton’s usual ill-luck intervened in a very shocking manner. It was the afternoon of the 11th May, 1812, and Crompton was standing in the lobby of the House of Commons, conversing with Sir Robert Peel and Mr. John Blackburne, one of the members for Lancashire, when one of them observed, “Here comes Mr. Perceval.” The group was instantly joined by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who addressed them with the remark, “You will be glad to know I mean to propose £20,000 for Crompton. Do you think it will be satisfactory?” Hearing this, Crompton moved off from motives of delicacy, and did not hear the reply. He was scarcely out of sight when there was a great rush of people—Perceval had been shot dead by the madman Bellingham. The frightful catastrophe had in an instant deprived the country of a valuable minister, and lost to Crompton a patron and £15,000. When the new Government had been formed the matter was again brought before the House, and on the 26th of June, on the motion of Lord Stanley, it awarded him £5,000, a sum altogether inadequate for the services he had rendered, as well as out of all proportion to the rewards which Parliament had previously given to other inventors. In an article which appeared some years afterwards in the _Edinburgh Review_[53], the paltriness of the award was severely commented upon. The reviewer said:—

To make a lengthened commentary on such a proceeding would be superfluous. Had the House of Commons refused to recognise Mr. Crompton’s claim for remuneration they would, whatever might have been thought of their proceedings, have at least acted consistently. But to admit the principle of the claim, to enter into an elaborate investigation with respect to the merit and extensive application of the invention, and then to vote so contemptible a pittance to the inventor, are proceedings which evince the most extraordinary niggardliness on the part of those who have never been particularly celebrated for their parsimonious disposition towards individuals whose genius and inventions have alone enabled Parliament to meet the immense expenses the country has had to sustain.

[Note 53: Vol. xlvi., p. 16, 1827.]

With the £5,000, or rather with such portion of it as he received—for there were considerable deductions for fees and other charges—Crompton entered into various commercial speculations; but the fickle goddess did not smile on any of them. Anxious to place his sons in some business, he fixed on that of bleaching, and rented a works at Over Darwen; his eldest and youngest sons, George and James, being admitted as partners. But the unfavourable state of the times, the inexperience and mismanagement of his eldest son, a bad situation, and a tedious and expensive lawsuit with the landlord conspired in a very short time to put an end to this establishment. He was also engaged in cotton spinning and manufacturing, in connection with his sons Samuel and John; but they disagreed, Samuel withdrawing from the concern and going to Ireland, leaving his father to carry it on with such help as John could give him. The only business in which he may be said to have been at all successful was that of a cotton merchant, which he carried on in conjunction with his favourite son, William, and a Mr. Wylde. The firm eventually extended its operations to cotton spinning; but young Crompton disliking this branch of the business, the partnership was dissolved, the father and son retiring. The latter afterwards began business on his own account in Oldham, but the fate of the family followed him. He was unsuccessful; a fire consumed his stock, a lawsuit grew out of the fire; and finally, in 1832, he was carried off by an attack of cholera.

Left almost alone in the world, with old age creeping upon him, his sons dead or dispersed, and his only daughter—then a widow—for his housekeeper, Crompton carried on his small original business without assistance, “spending much of his time in devising the mechanism proper for weaving new patterns in fancy muslins.” But his lack of business capacity and inability to cope with the common-place incidents of ordinary life destroyed his chances of success, and that unhappy fatality which had accompanied him through life still dogged his steps. To use his own words, he was “hunted and watched with as much never-ceasing care as if he was the most notorious villain that ever disgraced the human form; and if he were to go to a smithy to get a common nail made, if opportunity offered to the bystanders, they would examine it most minutely to see if it was anything but a nail.” His patterns were pirated by his neighbours, who reproduced them in fabrics of inferior quality, and thus they were enabled to undersell and beat him out of the market. As he advanced in years his means became more and more straitened, and he was beginning gradually to drift into a state of poverty when, in 1824, Messrs. Hicks & Rothwell, of Bolton, his old friend, Mr. Kennedy, of Manchester, and some other sympathisers, unasked and unknown to Crompton, who had then reached his 72nd year, made a second subscription to purchase a life annuity, and the sum raised yielded a payment of £63 a year. He did not, however, live long to enjoy it. Wearied and worn out with cares and disappointments, but to the last retaining the esteem of his friends and the respect of all who knew him, he died by the gradual decay of nature at his house in King-street, Great Bolton, on the 26th June, 1827, at the age of seventy-three, and a few days later his body, followed by many voluntary mourners, was committed to the dust in the churchyard of Bolton, where a modest flagstone thus perpetuates his name:—

Beneath this stone are interred the mortal remains of Samuel Crompton, of Bolton, late of Hall-i’-th’-Wood, in the township of Tonge, inventor of the spinning machine called the Mule; who departed this life the 26th day of June, 1827, aged 72 years.[54]

[Note 54: The age recorded on his gravestone is clearly an error, Crompton having been born on the 3rd December, 1753, so that he must have been in his 74th year.]

Such is the sad and simple story of the inventor of the spinning mule. Though his life was passed in comparative obscurity and neglect, and he was allowed to end his days in poverty, the name of Samuel Crompton will be held in honoured remembrance so long as the cotton trade endures, for it is to Crompton’s mule more than to any other invention we owe that vast Lancashire industrialism which has been the source of untold benefits to his native shire, and has so greatly increased the power and wealth of the nation at large. Looking at the splendid results which his genius accomplished, it must ever be a cause of regret that Lancashire men did so little for him who did so much for them. In the various relations of life Crompton was in all things upright and honourable; he had his failings like other men, but they were those which arose from his simple and unsuspecting nature, and such as should excite commiseration rather than condemnation. The weak point in his character, and that from which nearly all his troubles and misfortunes arose, was the absence of those faculties which enable a man to hold equal intercourse with his fellows. His morbid sense of independence made him averse to the very appearance of favour or patronage, and to ask for even that which was his due was always at the cost of acute pain. His manners and actions were at all times guided by a natural politeness and grace, as far from servility as rudeness. By those who knew him in the strength and fulness of his manhood he is described as having been handsome and singularly prepossessing in appearance, and this description is borne out by his portrait, which displays the lineaments of a well-formed head and face that strongly suggests the idea of the thoughtful philosopher and the true gentleman.

Though Crompton’s memory remained long neglected, a succeeding generation has happily done something to remove the stain of ingratitude, and to atone in some measure for the shortcomings of his contemporaries. The late Mr. Gilbert James French, a man of energy, intelligence, and culture, first aroused his fellow townsmen to a better appreciation of the value of Crompton’s achievements. In two lectures he delivered to the members of the Bolton Mechanics’ Institute, and in the handsome volume subsequently issued—“The Life and Times of Samuel Crompton”—a work to which we are indebted for some of the facts here recorded, Mr. French gave a very circumstantial account of the great inventor’s career; not content with this tribute to his memory, he set about obtaining subscriptions for the purpose of doing honour to Crompton’s name. A sum of £2,000 was raised, and on the 24th Sept., 1862, a bronze statue of the inventor of the mule by Calder Marshall, with bas reliefs of Hall-i’-th’-Wood, and Crompton at work upon his machine, was presented with much pomp and circumstance and many outward manifestations of rejoicing to the Corporation of Bolton. In this tardy recognition of his services Bolton has done something to efface the reproach which the ingratitude of a former generation had stamped upon the town. But Crompton has a more fitting as well as a more enduring monument in those outward indications of active industry which now surround his humble dwelling-place, and borrowing the oft-repeated line from Wren’s monument in St. Paul’s, it may be said—_Si monumentum requiris—circumspice_.

The old dilapidated mansion in which his earlier years were passed still remains. His name has given it an historic importance it never before possessed. To Lancashire men it should be as a very Mecca, and it can never be looked upon with feelings other than those of the deepest interest, for it may be truly said that here the prosperity of the nation hung in suspense as the thoughts and expedients of Crompton’s mind came and went, trembled, grew firm, and finally triumphed; and assuredly in no corner of England is the memorable couplet more strongly emphasised than in this now forlorn and weather-beaten abode:—

Peace hath her victories Not less renowned than war.

INDEX.

_Abbott Hall_, 83-4

Adderley, Charles, 128, 145-6

_Adlington_, 283-360

Agarde, Francis, 123

_Agecroft Hall_, 2

Agincourt, Battle of, 90, 305

_Alderley_, 218

_Alderley Edge_, 287

Aldford, Lucy, 112

" Richard, 112

Allen, Dorothy, 370-1

" Isaac, 270

" John, 370, 389

_Allithwaite_, 83-4, 88, 91

Anjou, Margaret of, 92, 235

Arderne, John, 297

" Matilda, 297

" Ralph, 31

Arkwright, Richard, 424, 427, 435

_Arnside Knot_, 85

Armstrong, Thomas, 64

Arragon, Katharine of, 312

Arram, William, 363

Arthur, Prince, 220

Arundell and Wardour, Lady, 275

" " Lord, 275

Ashley, Hamo, 310

Ashmole, Elias, 144

Ashton, Mr., 373

" Major-General, 264

Aspinall, John, 252

" Ralph John, 252

_Astley Bridge_, 431

Aston Thomas, 330

Atheling, Edgar, 293

Atherton, Eleanor, 372, 405-6

" Henry, 406

Attercroft, Elizabeth, 71

" Thomas, 71

Audley, James, 227

" Lord, 119

Baggaley, William, 290, 291

Bagnall, Henry, 321

Bailey, J. Eglington, 170, 176-7, 187

Baliol, John, 224

Baltimore, Lord, 398

Bamville, Amabella, 290

" Hugh, 290

" Thomas, 290

Bancroft, Elizabeth, 7, 70-1, 75

" Thomas, 70-71

Banks, Mr., 376

" Joseph, 436

Barber, Dr., 96

" Robert, 204

Bardolf, Lord, 204

Barlow, William, 420

Barratt, James, 125

Barrit, Thomas, 402

_Barrow_, 87

Barrow, Sir John, 87

Baxter, Richard, 147

Bayley, Dr., 173

Baynton, Master, 189

_Beaumaris Castle_, 234

Bechton, Elizabeth, 295

" Ellen, 295

" Margaret, 295

" Philip, 295

Becke, Isabel, 364

" Mary, 364

" Robert, 364

" Thomas, 364

Bedingfield, Thomas, 43

_Beeston Brook_, 216

" _Castle_, 107, 213-241

Beeston, George, 236

" Thomas, 233

Beever, John F., 35

Belgrave, Elizabeth, 302

" Isabel, 298

" Thomas, 298, 303, 318

Bellairs, Henry, 71

" Mary Ellen, 71

Bellingham, Edward, 437

Bennett, Mr., 37

Bennett, Robert, 187

Bennison, Thomas, 350

Bentley, Joanna, 376-7

" Richard, 376-7, 384

_Berkeley Castle_, 230

Bexwyke, Hugh, 364

" Joan, 364

" Richard, 364-5

" Roger, 365

_Billinge Hill_, 251

Birch, George, 193

" Robert, 193

" William, 193

Birches, Robert, 303

_Blackburn_, 4, 242

Blackburn, John, 437

_Black Comb_, 87

Blackmore, Dr., 405

Black Prince, The, 231, 233, 286, 296-7

Bland, Lady, 381-2, 387

_Bleasdale Moor_, 251

Blois, Earl of, 293

Bloreheath, Battle of, 119

Blount, John, 290-1

Blundell, Henry Robert, 40

Blundeville, Randle, 150, 213, 220, 223, 228

Bohemia, King of, 181, 183

Bohun, Humphrey, 227

Bold, Richard, 254-5

Bolingbroke, Henry, 115, 116, 234, 299, 300

Bolingbroke, Lord, 133

Bolle, John, 325

Bolles, Mary, 335, 337

" Thomas, 335

_Bollin River_, 285

_Bolton_, 164, 433, 440

Bond, Mr., 33

_Bonishall_, 287

Bonner, Bishop, 170, 187, 192

Bononcini, 386-7

Bonville, Lord, 92

Booth, Ellen, 307

" George, 60, 205, 334, 336

" James, 300

" John, 334

" John Gore, 404

" Robert, 307

Bostock, Adam, 233

" William, 297

Bosworth, Battle of, 236, 309-10

Bowdon, George, 31

" Anne, 31

_Bowfell_, 87

_Bowland Forest_, 244, 251, 280

Brabazon, Lady, 123

Brabin, Elizabeth, 71

" Henry, 71

Bradford, John, 164, 365

" Margaret, 365

Bradshaw, Barbour, 35

" Catherine, 35

" Elizabeth, 70

" Frances, 35

" George, 25

" Godfrey, 35

" Henry, 21, 27, 30-6, 77

" J., 394

" John, 21, 26-7, 37, 67, 69, 70

" Joseph, 35

" Mr., 147

" Mary, 64, 70

" Rachel, 35

" Richard, 69

" Sarah, 67

" Thomas, 70

" William, 25, 27

Bradshawe-Isherwood, Arthur Salusbury, 72

Bradshawe-Isherwood, Henry, 71

" " John, 71

" " John Henry, 72

" " Thomas, 71

Brandon, Lord, 128-129

Brearcliffe, Sarah, 375, 395

Brereton, Andrew, 120

" Ellen, 120

" Lord, 126

" Mrs.,

" John, 128

" Peter, 64

" Sybil, 320, 322

" Thomas, 338

" Urian, 315, 318, 320, 322, 338

" William, 33, 43, 237, 240, 330-1

Brett, Ann, 131

" Colonel, 131

Brettargh, Mr., 382

" William, 400

Bridge, Major-General, 57

Bridgeman, Bishop, 41-2

" Orlando, 33

Brofield, Mr., 191

Brogden, Alexander, 78

Bromiley, James, 414, 425

Brooke, Charles, 267

Brooks, William, 187

Broster, Richard, 344

Brownlow, Lawrence, 412

Brownswerd, John, 39

_Broxton Hills_, 220

Bruce, Robert, 224

Bruerton, Mrs., 123

_Brungerley Hipping Stones_, 244

Brunlees, 78

Buckingham, Duke of, 103

Buckler, C. A., 277

_Bunbury_, 236

Burghall, Edward, 39, 238, 240

Buron, Hugh, 370

_Butley Hall_, 350

Byrom, Adam, 363-6

" Ann, 401, 406

" Dorothy, 398

" Edward, 361, 366-378, 387, 389, 401, 405-6

" Eleanor, 405

" Elizabeth, 380, 382, 384-5, 393-4, 396, 399, 401-2, 405

" Ellen, 381, 385

" George, 364

" Henry, 364-5

" Lawrence, 365-7

" Margaret, 202, 364

" Martin, 362

" John, 151-2, 368, 370, 372-401

" Joseph, 369

" Phœbe, 372, 378, 392, 402

" Ralph, 193, 362, 364-6

" Robert, 365

" Samuel, 361, 369

" Thomas, 193

" William, 368

_Byrom Hall_, 361

Byrom, Sedgewick, Allen and Place, 406

Byron, John, 200-1

" Lord, 238

Cadiz, Siege of, 323

_Caernarvon Castle_, 234

_Calder River_, 250-2

" _Valley_, 280

Calveley, George, 319

Camden, William, 205, 208

Campbell, James, 388

Canterbury, Archbishop of, 187-8

_Cark_, 86

Carlisle, Bishop of, 78

Carmichael, Captain, 71

_Carnforth_, 78

Carnwath, Earl, 341

Caroline, Queen, 132

Carpenter, General, 342-3

Carter, Dorothy, 94

" John, 94, 311

" Oliver, 189, 194, 202-3

Cartleche, John, 231

_Cartmel_, 76-8, 83

_Cartmel Fells_, 82

" _Priory_, 91, 101

Caryl, 45

Castlemaine, Lady, 129

_Cat and Fiddle_, 104

Cattel, Mr., 382, 395

Catterall, Thos., 252

Cavendish, Henry, 67

" Mr., 186

" William, 67, 258

Caxton, John, 113-14, 117

Cecil, Secretary, 169

Chadderton, Dr., 188, 192, 203

Chaddock, Tom, 394

Chadwick, J. Oldfield, 348

Challener, John, 123

" Mrs., 123

_Chapel Island_, 87

_Chapeltown_, 3

Charles I., 44-45, 48, 218, 240

Charles Edward, Prince, 344, 394, 396-7, 399

Charleton, Edward, 258

_Chartley Castle_, 222

Cheanie, Alan, 231

_Chester_, 237, 239-40

Chester, Bishop of, 255, 388

_Chester Cathedral_, 218

Chester, Earl of, 150, 213

Chesterfield, Lord, 383

Chetham, Edmund, 206

" Humphrey, 160, 194, 366

" Mr., 382

Chisnall, Colonel, 133

_Chipping_, 242

Cholmondeley, Earl, 342

" Hugh, 319

" Thomas, 233

Cibber, Colley, 131

Clarke, Peter, 341

Clayton, Mr., 387, 395, 397

Clifford, George Lambert, 267

" Lady Ann, 190

" Margaret, 167

" Matilda, 92

" Roger, 229

" Rosamond, 231

" The Black-faced, 92, 236

_Clitheroe Castle_, 5, 244, 251

_Cloud End_, 104

Clowes, Mr., 384, 387

Clyderhow, Thomas, 263

" Richard, 303

Clyve, Mr., 65

" William, 318

Cobham, Lord, 187

_Cockersand Abbey_, 253

Cogan, Dr., 205

Cole, Lettice, 126

Colydon, Mrs., 132

Compton, Captain, 68

_Conishead_, 87

_Coniston Old Man_, 87, 100

Constable, Mr., 145

_Conway Castle_, 234

Conway, Lady, 152

_Conway, River_, 222

Cook, Mr., 60

_Cooper’s Hill_, 221

Cope, John, 398

_Cophurst_, 104

Coppock, James, 396

Corona, Agnes, 292

" Ellen, 291, 295

" Hugh, 290-1

" Isabel, 291

" John, 291

" Lucy, 290-1

" Margaret, 291

" Sarah, 290

" Thomas, 291, 295

Cottington, Lord, 52, 66

Cotterel, P., 394

Cotton, George, 319

" Richard, 319

Coventry, Bishop of, 306

_Coventry, Grey Friars Abbey_, 222

Cowper, Edward, 182

" Lady Mary, 152

" William, 404

_Crewe_, 218

" _Hall_, 238, 330

Crocker, John, 205

_Cromford_, 427

Crompton, Alexander, 420

" Betty, 419

" Dr., 420

" Ellen, 369

" George, 419, 438

" James, 438

" John, 369, 438-9

" Samuel, 408-442

Cromwell, Oliver, 44, 53-58, 60, 63, 218, 264-5

" Richard, 58

" Thomas, 316

Crosse, Richard, 351

" Richard Townley, 351

Croxton, Mr., 394

Cumberland, Countess of, 190

" Denison, 377

" Duke of, 396

" Richard, 377

Cyveliock, Hugh, 220

Daa, Alina, 297

" Reginald, 298

" Robert, 298

Dalston, Sir William, 338

Daniel, Samuel, 343

Danyers, Thomas, 286, 296

Darnel, Sargeant, 388

_Darwen_, 4

_Darwen, Over_, 438

" _River_, 265

Davenport, Amabella, 293

" Christopher, 119

" Elizabeth, 343

" Hugh, 119

" John, 119, 295

" Nicholas, 310-11

" Peter, 343, 350

" Ralph, 333

" Richard, 293

" Thomas, 297

Dawson, Dr., 390-1

" James, 396

Deacon, Christopher, 398-400

" Christopher Clemens, 400

" Dr., 387, 395-8

" Robert Renatus, 400

" Thomas, 394, 400

" Thomas Theodorus, 400

Dee, Arthur, 204, 208

" Jane, 176, 184, 187

" John, 157-210, 326, 364

" Katharine, 176

" Michael, 208

_Dee, River_, 218

Dee, Rowland, 167, 208

_Deganwy Castle_, 222

_Delamere Forest_, 217

Delves, Lady, 152

" Thomas, 350

Denbigh, Lord of, 229

_Dent Fells_, 80

Derby, Countess of, 333

" Earl of, 32, 33, 35, 51, 158, 167, 255, 256, 260, 437

Derwentwater, Earl of, 260, 341

Desborough, 56

Despenser, Hugh, 300

Devereux, Robert, 191, 325

Devonshire, Duke of, 383

Dicconson, Richard, 94

Dickinson, Mr., 394

Dickson, Sergeant, 394

_Dieu-la-cresse Abbey_, 224

Digby, Kenelm, 179

Disraeli, Isaac, 175

Dodd, Dr., 141

_Doddington Hall_, 238, 330

Dokenfield, Robert, 117

Done, John, 219, 323

" Lady, 219

_Dorfold Hall_, 238

Dounes, Reginald, 297

" William, 297

Downes, Edward, 341

" Roger, 33, 311

Downham, Bishop, 194

Drake, Madam, 381

Drayton, Michael, 93, 226

Dublin, Archbishop of, 123

Duckworth, George, 437

Duckworth and Chippindall, 437

Dudley, Robert, 171

Dugdale, Elizabeth, 144

" William, 144

Dukinfield, Colonel, 31-2, 330, 336, 352

Duncalf, William, 326

Dunsany, Lord, 70

Dunstan, Mr., 373

Dutton, Hugh, 223, 295

" Margaret, 295

" Thomas, 295

Dytton, Mr., 123

" Mrs., 123

_Eagley Brook_, 411

Earwaker, John P., 42, 170, 308

_Eddisbury_, 218

Edge, Oliver, 32

Edward III., 228-231, 286

Edward IV., 307, 309

Edward VI., 170

Edwards, Mr., 47, 65

" Messrs., 65

Egerton, Lady, 317

" Mary, 321

" Ralph, 123

" Richard, 317

" Thomas, 190, 317

Elcho, Lord, 396

Eleanor, Queen, 230

Elizabeth, Princess, 170

" Queen, 172-5, 177, 183-8, 190, 256

Ellenborough, 78

Ellis, Mr., 23

Ely, Bishop of, 93, 314-5

Erskine, Lord, 287, 351

Espinasse, Mr., 389

Essex, Earl of, 191, 323, 325

Evans, John, 403

Evelyn, Lindon, 70

" Mr., 54

Evesham, Battle of, 227

Exton, Piers, 116, 235

Fairfax, General, 239, 330

" Lady, 48

_Fairies’ Cave_, 95, 100

Fair Rosamond, 231

Fauconberg, Mr., 68

Fauconbridge, Mr., 68

Fell, Thomas, 58, 77

Ferrers, Earl, 220

Fiennes, Nathaniel, 127

Finney, John, 342-3

" Samuel, 342

_Firwood_, 411, 418

Fishwick, Colonel, 335

Fitton, Alexander, 128-30

" Ann, 125, 126, 128

" Colonel, 127

" Edmund, 112

" Edward, 110-11, 119-30, 142, 145, 150, 255

" Felicia, 142, 145

" Frances, 128

" Francis, 123, 125

" Jane, 128

" John, 120

" Lady, 123, 125

" Laurence, 114, 116-119

" Margaret, 126

" Mary, 110-11, 121

" Penelope, 128

" Richard, 119, 123

" Thomas, 112-13, 117-19, 150, 295

" William, 128

Fitzherbert, Mrs., 261

" Thomas, 261

Fitz Ivon, Maud, 293

" Wlofaith, 293

Flame, Lord, 191, 151, 153

Fletcher, Mr., 394-5

_Flint Castle_, 229, 231, 234

_Flookborough_, 83, 86

Flower, William, 347

Folkes, Mr., 397-8

_Fonthill_, 60

_Forest Chapel_, 104

Foster, General, 260, 341

Fountain, Serjeant, 59

Fox, Edward, 407

" George, 77, 245-6

Frank, Ann, 186

French, Gilbert J., 420, 441

_Frodsham_, 218

Fromonds, Bartholomew, 176

" Nicholas, 184

Fulden, Mr., 394

_Furness_, 76-7, 83

" _Abbey_, 77, 83

Gaunt, John o’, 115, 298

_Gawsworth_, 102-154

Gawsworth, Lord, 130

Gerard, Charles, 126, 130-1

" Christopher, 128

" Elizabeth, 133, 201

" Fitton, 122

" Lord, 129-131, 133

" Mr., 203

Gibbons, Grinling, 357

Glendower, Owen, 116, 301

Gloucester, Duke of, 232

Gobert, John, 329

" Lucy, 329

Godiva, Lady, 288

Goodgroom, 58

Goodier, Mr., 189

_Goyt, Valley of_, 22

_Grange_, 82-3, 85

Granger, Abraham, 129

Gray, Thomas, 78

Grenville, Lord, 435

Griffith, Ann, 135

" Elizabeth, 135

Grindon, Leo H., 405

" John, 112

Grosvenor, Gilbert, 293

" John, 318-9

" Mary, 316-8

" Richard, 316, 319

" Robert, 298, 316

" Thomas, 303-4, 318

Gwinne, Peter, 183

Haddon, John, 381

Hall, Francis, 400

" Mr., 400

" Richard Edward, 400-1

_Hall-i’-th’-Wood_, 408-442

Halley, Dr., 146, 333, 391

Halliwell, J. Orchard, 175

_Halton_, 218

Halton, Baron of, 233, 293

Halstead, Dumville, 401

" Eleanor, 401-2, 405

" William, 401

Hamilton, Charles, 133

" Colonel, 134

" Duke of, 109, 132-5, 264

Hammond, Colonel, 265

" Dr., 374

Hancock, Joseph, 182

Handel, Geo. F., 284, 348-9, 386-7

Harbottle, Guiscard, 111, 120, 150

" Mary, 111, 150

Hardwicke, Bess of, 67

Hardy, Henry, 195

_Harfleur_, 304-5

Hargreaves, 417, 422-5

Harland, John, 185

Harper, Francis, 373

Harrington, Ann, 94

" Elizabeth, 94

" James, 93

" John, 91-2

" Lord, 135-6, 397-8

" Matilda, 94

" Michael, 91

" Robert, 91, 94

" Thomas, 91-2

" William, 90-2

Harrison, John, 94

" Major-General, 33, 35

Hartington, Lord, 383

Hartley, John, 202, 364

Hastings, Henry, 227

Hatton, Christopher, 190, 236

_Hawarden Castle_, 229

Hawghton, Master, 201

Hawkshee, Mr., 384

Hazlewood, Katharine, 189

Hemans, Mr., 81

Henedge, Thomas, 188

Henry III., 221, 224-5, 290

" V., 117, 304-5

" VI., 117, 244, 305

" VII., 310, 312

" VIII., 95, 250, 309, 312

Hereford, Countess of, 205

" Duke of, 115

Hesketh, Agnes, 114, 117

Heton, Isold de, 250

Hexham, Battle of, 244

Heyricke, Richard, 367

_Heysham_, 86

Hibbert, Dr., 193

" Elizabeth, 26

" Henry, 25

" John, 2

" Thomas, 25-6

Hick, John, 252

Hickman, Bartholomew, 204, 207

Hicks & Rothwell, 439

Hill, Edward, 43

_Hood, The_, 87

_Hodder Place_, 265, 279

" _River_, 244, 251, 263, 265

Hodgson, Captain, 264

Hoghton, Richard, 18

Holcroft, Alice, 125

" John, 125

_Holker_, 86, 100

" _Hall_, 77

Holland, Mr., 47

" Ralph, 31

" Richard, 203

" Robert, 231, 235

_Hollin Old Hall_, 344

Hollinshed, Raphael, 104, 122

Hollinworth, Richard, 146-7, 159, 169

_Hollinworth, Smithy_, 348

_Holme Island_, 85

Holt, Alice, 252

" James, 303

_Holy Well_, 96

Honford, Henry, 295, 297

" Isabella, 295

" John, 305

" Katharine, 297

" Margaret, 315, 320

" William, 305, 307, 311, 315, 320

Hooper, Francis

" Mr., 381, 384, 387

Hotspur, 116, 301

Houghton, Thomas, 256, 276

" Ralph, 193, 365

Howard, Lady, 186

Howitt, William, 260

_Hulme Hall_, 381

Hulme, Ralph, 364

" William, 196

_Humphrey Head_, 82, 86, 96-101

Hunte, Richard, 365

Hunter, Mr., 381

Hurleston, Richard, 319

_Hurst Green_, 257, 267

Hurst, James, 316

_Hyde Park_, 109

Hyde, Edward, 31

" Robert, 117, 305

Iken, Anne Mary, 351

" Thomas Bright, 351

Ingleby, Isabel, 257

" John, 257

Ireton, Colonel, 63

_Irwell Valley_, 433

Isherwood, Nathaniel, 71

" Thomas, 71

James I., 206, 219

Jefferson, Mr., 384

Jeffries, Judge, 339

Jermyn, Serjeant, 44

John, King, 220-1

Johnson, Samuel, 108, 151, 153-4

Jones, Thomas, 164

Kay, 423

Kelly, Edward, 117-182

" Mistress, 182

_Kemple End_, 251

Kennedy, John, 427, 435-6, 439

_Kent Estuary_, 78

Kent, Fair Maid of, 232, 297

_Kent’s Bank_, 84-5

Kenyon, Ralph, 369

_Kerridge_, 107, 287

_Kersall Cell_, 369, 376, 385

Kighley, Ann, 256

Kinderton, Baron of, 291, 293

_Kirkhead_, 84, 87, 100

Lacy, Roger, 223

Lambert, Colonel, 55, 60

" General, 264

_Lancaster_, 86

Lancaster, Earl of, 231, 235

Langdale, Marmaduke, 264

_Langdale Pikes_, 87

Langley, Mr., 203, 204

Larke, Joan, 313

" Peter, 313

" Thomas, 313

Lasque, Albert, 179-81, 184

Latimer, Lord, 125

Lauderdale, Lord, 32

Launcelyn, William, 299

Laurenson, Mrs., 380

Law, Edmund, 78

La Warre, Thomas, 158

Laurence, Elizabeth, 135

" Thomas, 135

Lee, Clegg, 343

" G. A., 427-8, 435-7

" Hester, 343, 352

" Robert, 343

Legh, Agnes, 291, 295, 401

" Anne, 340

" Charles, 203, 205, 284, 313, 330, 336, 343, 345-50

" Charles Richard Banastre, 351

" Dulcia, 308

" Edward, 321, 326, 338

" Elizabeth, 70, 343, 350

" Elizabeth Hester, 352

" Elizabeth Rowlls, 351

" Ellen, 119, 291

" George, 313-15, 318

" Henry, 336

" Hester, 352

" Isabel, 303

" John, 117, 233, 291-2, 296-300, 308, 311, 330, 335-6, 340, 342-3, 350, 354

" Katharine, 297, 313

" Lucy, 334

" Lucy Frances, 343, 350

" Margaret, 113, 335

" Margery, 297

" Maria, 321

" Mary, 357

" Matilda, 297

" Maud, 296

" Mr., 201

" Peter, 113, 117, 119, 295-300, 336, 347

" Piers, 233, 286, 296, 309

" Ralph, 326

" Reginald, 302

" Richard, 70, 295, 338

" Richard Crosse, 340

" Robert, 203, 295-308, 318, 351

" Sybil, 327

" Thomas, 309-13, 316, 318-22, 326-7, 329-32, 334-6, 338-40, 346-7, 351-2, 355, 357

" Thomas Crosse, 351

" Urian, 205, 321-3, 325-8, 332, 334, 357

" William, 295

Leicester, Earl of, 171, 173, 179-80, 225

Leigh, Katharine, 65

" John, 35

" Robert, 365

Leland, John, 194, 199

Lenthall, William, 60

Leofric, Earl, 288

_Leven Estuary_, 78

" _Sands_, 87

Lever, Mr., 196

Leveson, Richard, 325

Ley, Mr., 141

Leycester, Peter, 334

" Mr., 381, 383, 387

Lichfield, Earl of, 239

Lilburn, Colonel, 62

Lilly, 177, 181-2

Lincoln, Bishop of, 311

_Lindale_, 78

Lichfield and Coventry, Bishop of, 311

Llewellyn, Prince, 223, 225, 228-9

_London, Tower of_, 234

_Longridge Fell_, 5, 6, 250-1

_Lower Wood_, 411, 418

Luce, Elizabeth, 72

" Thomas, 72

_Ludgate_, 68

Ludlow, 61

Lupus, Hugh, 289, 292-3

_Lyme Hall_, 286

" _Chapel_, 233

Lymme, Richard, 295

Lynch, Mr., 139

Macartney, General, 133-5

_Macclesfield_, 105-287

Macclesfield, Countess of, 131, 132

_Macclesfield Church_, 233

Macclesfield, Earl of, 132-133

_Macclesfield Forest_, 107, 286

Macclesfield, Roger, 112

Macguire, Lord, 41

Machin, John, 146

Mackenzie, Peter, 71

Macmahon, Lord, 41

Macworth, Humphrey, 52

Madan, Mrs., 152

Mainwaring, Charlotte, 132

" Colonel, 237

" Dr., 387

" Elizabeth, 141

" Ellen, 118

" Henry, 128, 319

" Lady, 144

" Peter, 141, 144, 381

" Randle, 118

" Roger, 143

" Thomas, 144

Malpas, Lady, 152

Malyn, Dr., 381-2

" Massey, 381

" Mrs., 381

" Robert, 381

Manners, John, 25

Marbury, Mary, 61

" Thomas, 61

March, Earl of, 301

Maresha, William, 91

Marlborough, Duke of, 133

_Marple Hall_, 21-75

Marsh, George, 255

Marshall, 45

" Calder, 441

" Henry, 299

Martindale, Adam, 60, 159

Martyn, Thomas, 171

Massey, Hamnet, 311

" John, 299

" Richard, 193

" Robert, 305

Massie, William, 327

Maurice, Prince, 239

Maximilian, Emperor, 172

Mayer, Mr., 111, 136

Maynard, Johanna, 338

" John, 338-9

McConnell and Kennedy, 435

Methe, Bishop of, 123

Meeke, Mr., 147

Melling, Mr., 374

Merbury, Lawrence, 303

Mercia, Earl of, 288-9, 292

Mere, Matthew, 115

_Mersey, River_, 218, 285

de Meschines, Randle, 112

_Middlewich_, 239, 330

Milbey, Mr., 68

Mildmay, Henry, 47

_Milne House_, 326, 332, 334, 340

_Milnthorpe Sands_, 81, 85, 96

Milton, John, 26, 50, 62, 66

Minshull, Thomas, 128, 382

_Mitton_, 242, 250-2, 267

" _Church_, 252-263

" _Little_, 244, 252

Modburly, John, 230

_Moel Fammau_, 108, 218

Mohun, Lady, 135

" Lord, 109, 132-5

Molyneux, Richard, 201

Monk, Bishop, 377

" Colonel, 239

Monmouth, Duke of, 129, 339-40

Montford, Guy, 227

" Henry, 227

" Simon, 225-7

_Moorfields_, 68

_Morecambe Bay_, 76, 83, 85

Moreland, Mr., 68

Mortimer, 114

" Edward, 229

_Mortlake_, 207

Morton, Lord, 389

" Edward, 144

Mosley, Edward, 330

" Nicholas, 211

" Oswald, 388

Mostyn, Thomas, 237

Mountague, Duke of, 397

Mounteagle, Lord, 94, 96, 178, 315

Mountford, William, 134

Nairne, Lord, 441

Nanny, Mr., 399

_Nantwich_, 234, 237, 239, 330

Nelson, Mrs., 48

Neville, Margaret, 91

" Robert, 91

Newby, 100

Newby-Wilson, Thomas, 96

Newcastle, Duke of, 258

Newcome, Henry, 140-151, 369

" Robert, 140

" Stephen, 140

Newdegate, Mr., 41

_Newgate_, 69

Newnham, George Lewis, 351

" Louisa, 351

Newton, Alice, 327

" Dorothy, 64

" Isaac, 384

" Peter, 64

" Thomas, 39, 327

Nichols, Serjeant, 46

Nithsdale, Lord, 341

Norfolk, Duchess Dowager of, 258-9, 261, 266

" Duke of, 258, 261, 300

Norley, Adam, 296

Norris, Alexander, 413

" Alice, 413

" Christopher, 413

Northumberland, Countess Dowager of, 125

" Duke of, 234

" Earl of, 288, 301

Northumbria, King of, 243

Nottingham, Earl of, 299, 301

Nowell, Dean, 164

" Roger, 367

Nugent, Richard, 193

Nuthall, John, 319

_Oaks, The_, 411

_Offerton Hall_, 27

Okey, 58

_Oldham_, 439

Oldham, Hugh, 200, 364

_Oldhams_, 431-2

O’Neill, Hugh, 321

" Shane, 121

Ord, Robert, 384

Orreby, Fulco, 225

" Isabel, 112

" Thomas, 112

Orrell, Mary, 71

" Thomas, 71

_Oswestry Castle_, 300

_Over Darwen_, 438

Owen, Joseph, 391

Oxford, Lord, 152

Paris, Matthew, 225

Parker, Dorothy, 71

" Robert, 351

Parkinson, Canon, 366

Parnell, Thomas, 64

Parr, Mr., 65

Paslew, John, 262

Paulet, George, 316

Paulinus, 243

_Peak of Derbyshire_, 218, 285

_Peckforton_, 108

" _Castle_, 220

Pedder, William, 97

Peel, Messrs., 420

" Robert, 427, 432, 437

Pelton, Robert, 371

Pembroke, Earl, 92

Pembroke and Montgomery, Countess of, 190

_Pendle Hill_, 5, 244-6, 251, 280

_Pendleton_, 2

Pendleton, Henry, 364

Pennant, Thomas, 219

Pepys, Roger, 130

Perceval, Spencer, 437

Percy, Henry, 116

Peters, Hugh, 45

Petersham, Lord, 112, 136

Phillips, Richard, 311

Phillips and Lee, 435

_Phœnix Tower_, 239-40

Pilgrimage of Grace, 246

Pimlott, Mary, 70-1, 425

" William, 70-1

Plantagenet, Constance, 220

" Geoffrey, 220

" Richard, 93

Plunkett, John, 123

" Randal, 70

_Pontefract Castle_, 235

Pope, Alexander, 383

Potts, Master, 245

_Poulton Abbey_, 222

Powell, William, 348

_Prestwich Church_, 2

Prestwich, Edmund, 193, 208

" Isabella, 208

" Mr., 158

Prince, John C., 76

Prydyn, William, 299

Prynne, 41

Pygot, John, 305

Radcliffe, Alexander, 158, 363

" John, 255

" Richard, 368

" William, 365

Raines, Canon, 256

Raleigh, Walter, 180, 191

Ratcliffe, John, 59

_Ravenspurg_, 232-3

Renaud, Dr., 303

Reynolds, Frances, 347

" Mary, 347

" Thomas, 347

_Rhuddlan Castle_, 223, 229, 231

_Ribblesdale_, 5, 280

_Ribchester_, 4, 9-18, 242-3

" _Bridge_, 6-9

_Ribble River_, 244, 251-2, 265

Rich, Robert, 135

Richard I., 220-1

" II., 115-6, 231-2, 286, 299-300

" III., 309

Rivers, Earl, 131

Richmond, Duchess of, 398

" Duke of, 398

" Earl of, 236, 244

_Ridley Hall_, 239

Rigby, Alexander, 33, 332-5

" John, 376

Robartes, Isabella, 340, 354

" Robert, 340

Roberts, Mr., 378

_Rochdale_, 242

Rochford, Countess of, 132

Roe, Samuel, 65

Rokeley, Robert, 311

Rosenberg, Count, 181

Rosworm, John, 51, 367-8

Row, Mr., 61

Rowlls, John, 343, 350

_Rowton Moor_, 218, 239

_Runnymede_, 221

Rupert, Prince, 127, 239

Russell, Lady, 190

Rutland, Earl of, 93, 236

Rydings, Francis, 371

_Salesbury Hall_, 5

Salghall, Roger, 304

Salisbury, Bishop of, 383

" Earl of, 207

Sanford, Captain, 238-9, 241

Savage, Catharine, 313, 355

" Edmund, 315

" Isabella, 307

" John, 117, 305, 307, 309-10

" Richard, 131

" Thomas, 309

Savill, Harry, 201

_Sawrey Pass_, 100

Saxton, Christopher, 201

Schoelcher, Victor, 386

Scoles, Mr., 271

Scot, John, 224, 290

" Margaret, 224

Scotland, James III. of, 307

Scott, Sir Gilbert, 149

Sedgewick, Allen and Place, 406

Serleby, John de, 230

Shallcross, Edmund, 42-3

Shaw, John, 392

Sherburn, Dorothy, 252

" Elizabeth, 260

" Hugh, 273

" Katharine, 256-7

" Lady, 259, 266

" Maud, 254

" Nicholas, 258-61, 266, 268, 272

" Richard, 252, 254-8

" Richard Francis, 260

" Robert, 252

" Thomas, 255

Sherd, William, 340

Shore, William, 298-9

Shrewsbury, Battle of, 301

" Mayor of, 147

Shrigley, Mr., 395

_Shutling’s Low_, 104

Siddal, George, 369

" Richard, 369

Siddington, Emmota, 119

" Robert, 119

Sidney, Henry, 122

" Philip, 191

Simnel, Lambert, 309

Sinclair, James, 132

_Skiddaw_, 87

Slaidburn, 242

Sloane, Hans, 384

Smith, John, 132

" Mary, 132

" Madam, 131

" Mr., 383

" Richard, 132

Smyth, Mary Ann, 261

" Thomas, 297

" William, 261

Sneyd, Felicia, 126

" Ralph, 126

Sorrocold, John, 189

" Katharine, 189, 190

" Ralph, 189

Southwell, Thomas, 182

Spanish Armada, 236

Spenser, Edmund, 192, 322

St. Albans, Earl of, 52

St. George, Chevalier de, 341, 360

St. John, Mr. Solicitor, 44

St. Pierre, Urian, 227

St. Werburg’s, Abbot of, 237

Stamford, William, 253

Stanhope, Charles Augustus, 136

" Christopher, 397-8

" William, 135

Stanley, 437-8

" Edward, 25, 93-4, 314, 389

" Margaret, 25

" John, 93, 300, 314-16

" Thomas, 93, 125, 314

" William, 307

_Stanmore Church_, 348

_Stanner Nab_, 220

Stansfield, John, 375, 380

Starke, Alice, 317

Starkey, Mr., 396

" Nicholas, 202, 364

Starkie, Alice, 413, 414

" Le Gendre Nicholas, 413

" John, 413, 418

Steel, Mr., 46

" Captain, 238, 241

Stern, Bishop, 123

Stockdale, Mr., 83

Stockport, Margaret, 25

" Robert, 25

Stokefield, Battle of, 309

_Stormy Point_, 287

_Stonyhurst_, 5, 251, 256, 261, 264-80

Stourton, Lord, 256

Strafford, Earl of, 71

Strange, Lord, 367

Stringer, Hugh, 292

Strong, Mr., 65

_Sunderland Point_, 86

Sutton, 104

" Richard, 104

_Swarthmoor_, 77

" _Hall_, 77

Swedenborg, Emanuel, 434

Syddal, Tom, 341, 394, 396, 400

Sydenham, Colonel, 61

Sydney, Lady, 172

Tabley, William de, 291

Talbot, Lord, 32

" Thomas, 244, 299

Tanai, Lucas de, 227

Tankerville, Count de, 296

Tatton, Mr., 330

" William, 121

Taylor, John, 190, 327, 403

_Teg’s Nose_, 104

_Thorncliffe_, 22

Thurloe, Secretary, 68

Thyer, Robert, 387

Tilsey, Mr., 204

Timbs, John, 59

_Tiverton_, 237

Tollemache, Lord, 220

Tounley, Robert de, 115

Townley, Colonel, 393, 395-6

Townshend, Edward, 350

" Lady, 398

Trafford, Edmund, 327

" Mary, 327

Treasurer, Lord, 174-5, 187

Trevor, Jane, 126

" John, 126

Tryket, John, 115

_Turton_, 426

" _Tower_, 3

Tyldesley, Thomas, 260

Tyrconnell, Lord, 132

Tyrrel, Serjeant, 59

Ulster King of Arms, 123-4

_Ulverston_, 78, 87

" _Sands_, 81, 96

_Utkinton_, 219

Valet, Captain, 240

Varley, John, 178

Venables, Gilbert, 293, 346

" Hugh, 118

" John, 291, 295

" Margery, 118

" Thomas, 293-4

" William, 291, 295

Vernon, Dorothy, 25

" George, 25

" William, 25

Vigor, Mr., 393

Voil, Thomas, 299

" William, 299

_Waddington Fell_, 251

" _Hall_, 244

Wainwright, John, 403

Wakefield, Battle of, 235

" Edward Gibbon, 286

Wales, Prince of, 152, 225-7, 235, 261, 309, 312

Waller, James, 344

Walls, Robert, 311

_Walney_, 87

Walpole, Horace, 357, 383

" Lord, 152

Walsingham, Francis, 173, 191

Wandesford, Rowland, 33

Warbeck, Perkin, 311

Warburton, Anne, 121, 124

" Eleanor, 61

" Harriet, 350

" Peter, 61, 121, 124, 350

Ward, Joseph, 345

Wareing, Paul, 178

Warren, Edward, 35

" John, 311

" Mr., 189

Warwick, Countess of, 185, 190

" Earl of, 308

Waterpark, Lord, 67

Watt, James, 434

Waugh, Edwin, 81

Weever, 177

Weld, Edmund, 261, 266

" John, 261

" Thomas, 262, 266-7

" William, 261

Wells, Bernard, 30

" Mary, 30

Welshman, Robert, 205

Werden, Joseph, 160

Weston, James, 384

_Whalley_, 243

" _Abbey_, 247-250, 254

" _Church_, 246

" _Nab_, 251

Whitaker, Dr., 90-92, 157, 252, 257, 266

" John, 164

Whitby, Dr., 374

_White Nancy_, 287

_Whiteley Green_, 306

" _Hay_, 306, 309

Whitelock, 44-5, 47, 51, 61

_Whitewell_, 251

Whitfield, George, 385

Whitgift, Archbishop, 187

Whitmore, William, 236

Whitworth, Mr., 133, 387

Widderington, Edward, 258

" Peregrine, 259-61

" Lord, 260, 341

Widdrington, 46

Wigan, Mr., 159-60

Wilbraham, Thomas, 219

_Wildboarclough_, 104

Wilkinson, T. T., 188, 401

Willemots, Master, 189

Willes, General, 260, 342-3

William III., 339

Williamson, Mr., 203

" Thomas, 194

Willoughby, Baldwin, 369

" Lord, 403

_Wilpshire_, 4

Wilson, “Alick,” 162

Wilson, N., 65

Winchester, Marquis of, 316

Winnington, Catherine, 26

" _Bridge_, 60

Wintoun, Lord, 341

_Wiswall_, 251

" _Hall_, 246

Wolsey, Cardinal, 314

_Wolfscote_, 104

Wood, Anthony à, 238

Woodstock, Thomas of, 231

Worcester, Dean of, 170

Worsley, Ellen, 368

" Major-General, 55, 337, 366, 368

" Mr., 374

" Thomas, 366

Wordsworth, William, 81

Wortley, Mr., 205

_Wraysholme Tower_, 82, 86, 88

Wright, Mrs., 131

_Wyberslegh_, 25, 30

_Wyke, The_, 86

Wylde, Mr., 439

_Wythenshawe_, 31, 330

Yates & Dawson, 390

Yates, Joseph, 390

_Yewbarrow_, 81

York, Archbishop of, 301, 309, 383

" Duke of, 93, 236

JOHN HEYWOOD, Excelsior Steam Printing and Bookbinding Works, Hulme Hall Road, Manchester.

Transcriber's notes:

In the text version, italics are represented by _underscores_, and bold and black letter text by =equals= symbols.

Missing or incorrect punctuation has been repaired. Inconsistant spelling and hyphenation have been left.

The following mistakes have been noted:

p. xi to p. xxiii. The Lists of Booksellers and Subscribers have some entries which are not in alphabetical order. The number of copies ordered is not always in italics.

p. xvii. Marsden, The Kev changed to Rev.

p. xviii. CHORLTON, THOMAS has 2 entries, one for 32 Brasenose Street and one for 32 Brazenose Street.

p. xx. Warnirgton changed to Warrington.

p. 26. text reads "dated 7th July, 4", the 4 seems incorrect but has been left.

p. 40. "13 Car. I., June 7. "Appointment of John Bradshawe, the extra opening quote has been removed.

p. 42. bran new pulpit changed to brand new pulpit.

p. 51. salutory changed to salutary.

p. 65. thanfull acknowledgement, has been left as it appears to be a quote.

p. 104. Wildboa. Clough changed to Wildboar Clough.

p. 108. Enjoy the sunny world, so fresh and fair, added closing quote.

p. 123. "The order, added the opening quote.

p. 141. Batchelor in Arts, left.

p. 169. £2 000 changed to £2,000.

p. 222. pa sed, corrected to passed.

p. 238. He confessed all his sins, opening quote added.

p. 240. suurrender changed to surrender.

p. 258. Maria Winifred Francesca is spelt Maria Winnifred Francesca on p. 261.

p. 259. alloted changed to allotted.

p. 274. tranferred changed to transferred.

p. 301. Thursday then next, then changed to the.

p. 325. a n heirloom changed to an heirloom.

Index

p. 444. Bradshawe-Isherwood, Arthur Salusbury, 71 changed to 72 and Bradshawe-Isherwood, John, 72 changed to 71.

Brereton, Mrs. is missing a page number. Several Brereton wifes are mentioned in the text and it is not clear which one referenced.

p. 445. Chetham, Mr., 582 changed to p. 382.

p. 447. Dieulacresse Abbey changed to Dieu-la-cresse to match text.

p. 449. Hooper, Francis is missing a page number. Several Hoopers are mentioned but no Francis Hooper, though there is a Francis Harper on p. 373.

p. 449. Jeffreys, Judge, changed to Jeffries.

p. 450. Lenthal, William, changed to Lenthall.

p. 450. Mareschall, William, changed Mareshal.

p. 451. Meath, Bishop of, changed to Methe.

p. 451. Meschines, Rundle, changed to Randle de Meschines

p. 451. Molyneux, Richard, is spelt Molynox in the text, but this is in a quote from an older document and has been left.

p. 452. Rosenburg, Count, changed to Rosenberg.

p. 453. Schoelscher, Victor, changed to Schoelcher.

p. 453. Shutlings Low, 107, is on p. 104 and the index entry has been changed.

p. 454. Tyrconnel, Lord, changed to Tyrconnell.

p. 478. Tilsley, Mr., changed to Tilsey.

p. 478. Townshead, Edward,changed to Townsend.