Contents of the fikst volume
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inquisition of 1311. only 27 3- carucates, and half an oxgang; which, however, at the same average rate per oxgang, will prove the former conjecture to have approached very nearly to the truth ; as, instead of 3,840, it will leave 3,520 acres for the real extent of our ancient freehold lands within the parish during the Saxon and early Norman times, a coincidence, notwithstanding the actual difference of numbers, scarcely to be expected in two records so independent and so remote from each other.
those ages ; for if, excluding the forest of Rowland, we take the present parish of Whalley as a square of 161 miles, from this sum at least 70 miles, or 27,657 acres, must be deducted for the four forests or chaces of Rlackburnshire, which belonged to no township or manor, but were at that time mere derelicts, and therefore claimed, as heretofore unappropriate, by the first Norman lords. There will therefore remain, for the different manors and 1 For this information I am indebted to Thomas Astle, Esq. BOOK III. CHAP. I.] ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PROPERTY. 233
townships, 36,000 acres, or thereabouts, of which 3,520, or not quite a tenth part, was in a state of cultivation, while the vast residuum stretched far and wide, like an ocean of waste interspersed with a few inhabited islands. But these latter wastes differed essentially from the forests, in having been denned and appropriated to their several townships from the very origin of property, by permanent natural boundaries ; J such as the brook in the valley, the sike 1 or dough 1 on the mountain-side, or the deal of heaven water 1 upon the summit. Such were our primitive vills and townships ; that is, little more than points of property and culture, about which successive inclosures have been extended in concentric circles, till their circumferences nearly touch each other ; and the country has so totally lost its ancient character and aspect that it is not easy for a mind familiarised to its present state to conceive of the other, even in imagination.
back, and, ranging the summit of Penclle, survey the forked vale of Calder on one side, and the bolder margins of Ribble and Hodder on the other, instead of populous towns and villages, the castle, the old tower-built house, the elegant modern mansion, the artificial plantation, the park and pleasure-ground, or instead of uninterrupted inclosures, which have driven sterility almost to the summit of the fells, how great must then have been the contrast when, ranging either at a distance or immediately beneath, his eye must have caught vast tracts of forest ground stagnating with bog or darkened by native woods, where the wild ox, the roe, the stag, and the wolf had scarcely learned the supremacy of man ; when, directing his view to the intermediate spaces, to the windings of the valleys, or the expanse of plain beneath, he could only have distinguished a few insulated patches of culture, each encircling a village of wretched cabins, among which would still be remarked one rude mansion of wood, scarcely equal in comfort to a modern cottage, yet then rising proudly eminent above the rest, where the Saxon lord, surrounded by his faithful cotarii, enjoyed a rude and solitary independence, owning no superior but his sovereign. This was undoubtedly a state of great simplicity and freedom, such as the admirers of uncultivated nature may affect to applaud. But, though revolutions in civil society seldom produce anything better than a change of vices, yet surely no wise or good man can lament the subversion of Saxon polity for that which followed. Their laws were contemptible for imbecility, 2 their habits odious for intemperance. And, if we can for a moment persuade
tion. Hence, the very idea of guilt would gradually be lost, and the laws would be understood not so much to punish crimes as to advertise licences for the perpetration of them upon certain terms. Strictly speaking, bodily sufferings, judicially inflicted, alone are punishments: of these, the exact proportion will be adjusted by every legislator according to his views of justice or mercy. But there is one offence commuted in this code for money, which no Christian law- giver can, consistently with the obedience he owes to an higher law, avoid punishing with death. See Gen. ix. 6, which is a Noachian precept, and therefore of universal obligation. Thus much, however, must be allowed, that, while systems of legislation excessively severe defeat their own end, because human nature revolts at the execution of them, the Saxon, like all other mercenary laws, were for an obvious reason pretty sure of being enforced.
234 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK III. CHAP. I. ourselves that their language has any charms, it is less perhaps from anything harmonious and expressive in itself, or anything valuable in the information which it conveys, than that it is of rare and not very easy attainment ; l that it forms the rugged basis of our own tongue ; and, above all, that we hear it loudly echoed in the dialect of our own vulgar. Indeed, the manners as well as the language of a Lancashire clown * often suggest the idea of a Saxon peasant ; and prove, with respect to remote tracts like these, little affected by foreign admixtures, how strong is the power of traduction, how faithfully character and propensities may be transmitted through more than twenty generations. Prom a people occupied, like the Saxons, in rearing and devouring the produce of their own lands, posterity had little to expect ; and, accordingly, the subject of this history can- not boast one Saxon charter, one remnant of Saxon architecture, 3 properly so called ; and, independently of general history, we have no remaining evidence, but that of language, that such a race of men ever existed amongst us. I do not even recollect that a Saxon penny or a Northumbrian styca has ever been turned up within the parish. 4 The Normans were a more abstemious and polished people : their lawyers, with more chicane, had infinitely more knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence : their ecclesi- astics, though more devoted to the Court of Rome, had a greater share both of piety and learning ; their princes alone, haughty, unjust, and cruel, gave a conquered people reason to look back with regret on the mild, though unskilful, sway of their native monarchs. 5
greatly indebted ; for our only castle, our oldest remaining churches, our most curious and valuable records, are all early Norman.
the subject of the next chapter, became possessed of Blackburnshire. But, before we go on to that part of the subject, it may be proper to consider the effects which this great revo- lution produced upon the state of property in this extensive district. The simplicity, there- 1 I do not mean to say that a little knowledge of the Saxon language is not of easy attainment, but that any further progress in it is to an Englishman attended with that peculiar difficulty, whatever it may be, which is always experienced in making ourselves masters of a dialect akin to our vernacular language, yet abounding in other idioms.
praise of having drawn a most faithful and diverting picture of rustic manners, while he supposed himself to be doing little more than transcribing the modern jargon of his own parish, was in reality perpetuating words and forms of speech which had subsisted before the Conquest. His glossary proves that he had sometimes a glimpse of this fact: but his knowledge of the Saxon language was too confined to show him, in its full extent, what would have delighted him beyond measure, the merit and importance of his own achievement. si sic omnia ! 8 I should ascribe the remains of very early architecture in the churches of Clitheroe and Colne, by far the oldest in the parish, to an sera somewhat but not much posterior to the Conquest. There is no evidence that either of those churches was founded before that event : we know that they existed soon after. [ 4 See, however, in p. 37, the notice of the styca of Keanred, found at Anchor Hill, Ribchester, in 1829.] * I am not displeased to find that Mr. Gibbon is of the same opinion. " England," says he, " was assuredly a gainer by the Conquest." Chap. Ivi. note 28. He refers also to William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Anglorum, 1. 8, p. 101102. BOOK III. CHAP. I.] ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PROPERTY. 235
fore, and independence of Saxon tenures, was completely destroyed ; a tract of country which had been parcelled out among twenty-eight lords now became subject to one, and all the intricacies of feodal dependence, and all the rigours of feodal exaction, wardships, reliefs, escheats, &c., were introduced at once. Yet, perhaps, the rights thus acquired were seldom exercised in their utmost extent. The Saxon lords, though reduced to a state of galling dependence, do not appear, in general, to have been actually stripped of their fees ; and we have one instance in which the old possessor of a manor before the Conquest alienates, after that event, in his own name. What a man, in such circumstances, is per- mitted to transfer, he has been previously allowed to retain. l
gradually merged in the superior fee, 2 where, perhaps, the greater part of them still remain ; but others were successively re-granted in military service or frank almoigne : subordinate freehold properties were also cantoned out in socage ; tenures in villenage, which had commenced, as we have seen, s immediately after the Conquest, were extended and encou- raged ; and thus, by successive steps, the origin of all landed property within the hundred, some later copyholds alone excepted, is to be traced to voluntary concessions of the Lacies, or their successors of the house of Lancaster. Yet we are not to consider these grants as acts of pure beneficence ; for, beside the personal service which they required, they were frequently charged with pecuniary pay- ments nearly equivalent, at first, to rack-rents ; but their real value, which is great indeed at present, grew out of the operation of causes little understood at the time, cither by lord or vassal, namely, the certainty of the render, the diminishing value of money, and the perpetuity of the title. 1 Vide Downham. 2 The existence of a race of mesne lords, and their gradual extinction long after the Conquest, is no chimerical hypothesis. An instance will occur under the manor of Worsthorn, in which one of these (about the time of Henry II. as appears from the attestations,) granted lands to be held of himself and his heirs. Yet, in the reign of Edward I. the manor had reverted to the chief lord of the fee, and was by him granted out again. 3 The progress of these, during a period of more than two centuries, will be accurately traced under every town- ship, by lights borrowed from the great Inquisition of 1311. 2H2
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CHAPTER THE SECOND. LOEDS OP THE HONOR OP CLITHEEOE. JAESPECT only to general opinion, and to the authority of Dugdale, which has been held decisive, induces me to place at the head of this catalogue
ferred the great fee of Pontefract; but, as he is unnoticed under the survey of Blackburnshire by the authentic record of Domesday, which was completed in the last years of the first William, and died early in the reign of llufus, there is no evidence to prove that he was ever connected with the subject of this history. Ilbert, however, left a son,
sible to discover by what means he became possessed of it. 2 As, however, the Hundred of Blackburn at the time of Domesday constituted a part of those vast possessions which the Conqueror granted to Roger de Busli and Albert de Greslet, the probability is that Lacy acquired this fee from them, and held it under them. This opinion is strengthened by a charter of Henry I. 3 granting Boeland to this Robert, son of Ilbert, to be held of the Crown in capile, as it had heretofore been of Roger de Poitou.
account of this family, Baronage, vol. i. p. 98, et seqq. is singularly inaccurate. He seems to have been principally misled by a MS. in Bibl. Bod. (G. 9, Cant.) f. 77 b. which is little better than a collection of traditionary tales. Where I shall have occasion to differ from him, I shall do it on the authority of original charters, and assign my reasons. [The name is probably derived from a place now called Lassi, in the department of Calvados in Normandy. "Among the families who became seated in England at the time of the Conquest, none obtained more extensive possessions or attained to higher dignities than the Lacis. The first settler was an Ilbert de Laci. The account of his lands in Yorkshire fills seven pages of Domesday Book, and he had other lands in other counties. His Yorkshire lands form what in later times has been called the Honor of Pontefract. ..... I am unwilling to dwell upon what has already
Nolilitie of Sir John Feme, to the Baronage of Sir William Dugdale, to the Antiquities of Cheshire by Sir Peter Leycester, who has corrected many errors committed by the author of the Baronage, and, last of all, to the beautiful history of this house incorporated by Dr. Whitaker in his History of Whalley." Joseph Hunter, South Yorkshire, vol. ii. pp. 200, 201.]
assertion that the Conqueror gave the whole Wapentake, with all its franchises, to Ilbert Lascy.] 3 Dugdale, ubi supra. BOOK III. CHAP. II.] LOKDS OF THE HONOR OF CLITHEROE. 237
That he was possessed, however, of this fee, hy whatever means he acquired it, there can be no douht, as he confirmed the original charter of Merlay, granted hy Ilbert his son to Jordan le Rous. 1
having espoused the better cause of Eobert Curthose, he was dispossessed of all his lands by that monarch, and is stated by Dugdale to have gone twice into banishment, from which he did not return a second time. After the second banishment of Robert we are told by the same writer that the fee of Pontefract (including that of Clitheroe) was granted first to [William] Travers," and secondly to Hugh de la Val. The latter fact is certain ; but it appears equally certain that Robert actually returned, and was restored, for we find him confirming several grants of churches made by Delaval during his temporary possession to the priory of Nostcl, which was of his or perhaps his father's foundation. 3 With equal certainty and on similar authority it may be proved against Dugdale that this Robert the First 4 founded the castle of Clitheroe, for it did not exist at the time of 1 Vide Merlay. 2 [Dr. Whitaker (following Dugdale in this error) gave this name as Henry Travers ; but the words of Dugdale's authority are : "Ea tempestate (A.D. 1135) Willielmus cognomento Transversus, qui honorem Fracti pontis (sic enim quoddam oppidum nominator) ex dono Henrici regis habuerat, a quodam milite homiue suo Pagan o nomine apuJ ipsimi oppidum letali vulnere percussus, post triduum in habitu monachal! mortuus est. Et quern patri suo Roberto de Lesci rex Henricus abstulerat, Ilbertus de Lesceio filius ejus mox eundem honorem recuperavit." Richard of Ilexham (edit. Twysden) 310; not Simeon of Durham, as Hunter, ii. 201. And see also John of Ilexham, ibid. col. 2G2.] 3 The following are instances extracted from Burton's Mon. Ebor. of several alternate grants and confirmations between these parties : CHURCHES. Batley
Featherstone Huthersfield Rothwell . Warmfield .
GRANTORS. Robert de Lacy Guy (sic) de la Val Hugh de la Val . Hugh de la Val Hugh de la Val . Hugh de la Val CONFIRMATIONS. Hugh De hi Val, Henry I. Alexander III. Robert de Lacy. Robert de Lacy, King Stephen, Alexander III. Robert de Lacy, Alexander III. Robert de Lacy, Alexander III. Robert de Lacy, Alexander III. We now see the reason why the monks of Pontefract failed in 'their claim upon the Church of Whalley, under Delaval's grant (see before, p. 77): it was never confirmed, and all alienations made under an attainder, tinlcss confirmed by the party attainted after his restoration, are held pro infectis. 4 I now find that I had overlooked another hypothesis with respect to the foundation of this castle, which will assign to it a still higher antiquity, namely, that it was the work of Roger of Poictou himself. For it appears from Domesday, under Bernulfswic, that Berenger de Todeni had held xn car. of land in that place, sed modo est in Castellatu Rog. Pictaviensis. We know that it was a disputable point much later whether Bernoldswic was or was not in Black- burnshire; and what can be meant by Castellatus if there was now no castle at Clitheroe ? It may be answered that the word refers to Roger's great fee of Lancaster ; but this is impossible, for. at the time of the Domesday Survey, Longcaster and Chercalongcastre were surveyed inter terras regis in Amunderness not yet granted out, and were so far from having a castle or being yet at the head of an Honor, much less a County, that they are taken as vills or berewicks appertaining to the manor of Halton. All is darkness and confusion with respect to the foundation of the Castle and Honor of Lancaster, and particularly with respect to Roger of Poictou, of which name there must have been two persons, for how could it be supposed that a follower of the Conqueror should forfeit under Stephen ?
238 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK III. CHAP. IL the Domesday Survey ; and in the interval of Delaval's possession, during the banishment of Lacy, we find the former expressly granting, under the dependencies of the church of Whalley, capellam Sci. Michaelis in Castro de Ctyderhow.
now united into one Honor, should not have remained two generations longer without a common centre: a temporary residence at least was required for the lord, a court-house for the transaction of his business, and a fortress for the defence of his lands. In a country not abounding with strong positions an insulated conical rock of limestone rising out of the fertile plain between Penhull and Ribble would naturally attract his attention, and here, therefore, the first Lacy of Blackburnshire and second of Pontefract fixed the castle of Clitheroe, the seat of his barony, to which a numerous train of dependents during a period of seven succeeding centuries have owed homage and service. Robert de Lacy also founded the Cluniac priory of St. John in Pontefract, to which, however, he refused a confirmation of the church of Whalley, granted by his disturber Delaval, and, dying, left two sons, Ilbert and Henry. 1 ILBEUT DE LACY, the oldest son. of Robert and the companion of his exile, was distinguished by his fidelity to King Stephen, and by his valour in the Battle of the Standard, fought near Northallerton ; and, having married Alice, daughter of Gilbert de Gaunt [afterwards remarried to Robert de Mowbray 2 ], died without issue. He was there- fore succeeded by his brother
times, A.D. 1117, founded a Cistertian abbey at Barnoldswick, and afterwards translated it to the more genial climate of Kirkstall. He is remembered as lord of Blackburnshire by having granted out the manor of Alvetham, with Clayton and Accrington, to H. son of Leofwine, which was the second alienation of that kind after the accession of his family to the Honor of Clitheroe. Of the successive restitutions of these brothers by Stephen and Henry II. to the estates of their family, related by Dugdale in a narrative inextricably confused, after the decisive evidence before adduced that the restoration really took place under Robert their father, it is now become superfluous to speak ; suffice it therefore to say, that Henry, of whose marriage however nothing is recorded, 3 left a son ROBERT DE LACY the second, of whom it is very confidently told by Dugdale, on the authority of his MS. 4 , that he founded the castle of Clitheroe and the chapel of St. Michael, with the consent of Geoffry dean of Whalley. The falsehood, however, of this story has
his brother. Lands quitcl. here by John son of Hugh de Lacy, of Gateford. Burton's Mon. Ebor. p. 395. 2 [Addit. MS. 26,741, f. 2G2.] % 3 [His wife is omitted by Dugdale ; but elsewhere she is thus mentioned : " Iste Henricus duxit in uxorem sororem Willielmi Vesci rectoris de Berwic, et genuit ex ea Robertum. Nescitur ubi sepultus fuit ; creditur quod ipse in Terra Sancta obiit vij kalendas Octobris." Historia Laceiorum, in the Monasticon, under Kirkstall. Further, her name was Albreda, as appears by a charter of her son Robert de Lacy to the Abbey of Kirkstall quoted in Brooke's Discovery of Errours, 1594, p. 63, also in Addit. MS. 26,741, f. 262 b.]
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