Lancashire Gazetteer, Joseph Aston, 1808 - Preamble

THE
LANCASHIRE
GAZETTEER

an
ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED
ACCOUNT
of the
Hundreds, Market Towns, Boroughs, Parishes, Townships, Hamlets, Gentlemens' Seats, Rivers, Lakes, Mountains, Moors, Commons, Mosses, Antiquities, &c.
in the
County Palatine of Lancaster;

Together with
HISTORICAL DESCRIPTIONS
OF THE CHIEF PLACES,
with their
Fairs, Markets, Local and Metropolitan Distances, Charters, Church Livings, Patrons, &c

By JOSEPH ASTON, Author of "The Manchester Guide."
1808

Printed in Manchester by J. Aston;
And sold in London, by Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme;
and in the County of Lancaster, by all Booksellers.
Entered at Stationers' Hall

TO THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE
EDWARD SMITH STANLEY

EARL of DERBY,
LORD STANLEY, ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE
PRIVY COUNCIL,

THIS
LOCAL GAZETTEER,
DESCRIPTIVE OF THE COUNTY,
OF WHICH
HIS LORDSHIP
IS
LORD LIEUTENANT,

AND IN WHICH,
DERIVING FROM
AN
ILLUSTRIOUS ANCESTRY
HIS LORDSHIP,
HAS
SO GREAT
AN
INTEREST,
IS
MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,
BY
HIS LORDSHIP'S
OBEDIENT, HUMBLE SERVANT,

JOSEPH ASTON.

PREFACE

The hint of the utility of a "Lancashire Gazetteer," and a polite representation of the capability of the Author for the undertaking, were pointed out to him by a Gentleman, whose good opinion is an honor, and whose sanction is ample acquittal of any charge of temerity, for venturing on the task.

[Here Aston has placed a table of distances, which is too large to fit on a web page. Send an email to J.M.T. to obtain a copy.]

The suggestion was promptly adopted, and the work commenced. It is now submitted to the public, in the full hope, that the inhabitants of the county it describes, will overlook or pardon any accidental omission or erroneous statement, which the want of a complete local knowledge of every corner of the county, (which no individual can possess) has occasioned. The Author is sensible, that there must be errors in the following work, which would have required the united powers of an extensive literary association, in conjunction with the authorised functionaries of the county, to have rendered perfectly correct. Instead of these advantages, it grew under the hand of an individual, amidst the interruptions of the thousand imperious calls, to which a man of business is perpetually liable. He however trusts, that his labours will not be useless, nor overlooked by his Countrymen; and, that they will, at least, say, "Tho he has not done all that could have been wished, yet with his document, and in his situation, he has done all that could, reasonably, be expected.

It remains now to state, that Mr. Yates' large Map of Lancashire, drawn from actual survey, has furnished data for the relative situations and bearings - for the latitudes and longitudes - and, in those instances, where more accurate and minute information could not be obtained, for the distances, and the orthography of the various places described or mentioned. The author deeming it but candid, to place a reliance on the accuracy of the labours of a man like Mr. Yates, who traversed the county, in every direction, for the purpose of furnishing one of the largest and most accurate county maps, which the kingdom can boast.

With a view to greater perfection, in some future edition, (if the public reception of the present should sanction another) the Author respectfully solicits the corrections, or additions, of such of his readers, whose local, or official situations, may enable them to add to the stock of information contained in this little volume. Such information will be most gratefully received; but to prevent a multiplicity of letters, and to assure their interest, they must come to him free of postage.

[Here Aston has placed a table describing the County, which is too big to fit on a web page. Send an email to J.M.T. to obtain a copy.]

INTRODUCTION

Lancashire derives its name from Lancaster, the county town (the Alauna of the Romans) and was by the Saxons denominated Loncasterscyre. It is a maritime County; the second in point of consequence and population in the kingdom. It is the County immediately N. of Cheshire, by which it is bounded on the S. and SW; by Yorkshire on the E. and NE; by Westmorland on the N.; by Cumberland on the NW.; and by the Irish Sea on the W. Its greatest length, according to Mr. Yates's map, is 74 miles, and its greatest breadth 441/2 miles. Its circumference, crossing the mouth of the Ribble, is 342 miles; and it contains 1765 miles, and 1,129,600 acres, of which Mr. Yates calculated, there were, in 1786, not less than 26,500 acres of moss land; and 482,000 acres of moor, common, and marshe, lands; making, together, 508,500 acres, very much of which is capable of improvement. This quantity, (nearly one half of what the county contains,) of, comparatively, unprofitable land, is altogether astonishing, when the population of the county, exhibited on the table inserted in this work, is considered.

The Towns, Rivers, Parishes, &c. contained in the county, are described in the following Gazetteer. Other particulars will be found in the tables annexed, which the Author trusts will prove useful and amusing to his fellow countrymen - the Lancastrians.

Lancashire is divided into six Hundreds, viz. Amounderness, Blackburn, Leyland, Lonsdale, Salford and West Derby; particulars respecting which may be found under their respective heads, in the alphabetical arrangement of the Gazetteer.

The respective Hundreds are divided into the following independent^* townships of which further particulars may be learned by a reference to the main body of this work.

^*Many considerable villages, which on the division of the hundreds, were not of sufficient consequence to be denominated townships, but which are now governed by their own Constable, will be found marked as townships, in the Gazetteer; but the list of townships here introduced, contains only those which were originally recognized as such, and to which the high Constables on the hundreds issue precepts; the others being subordinate to their original townships.

AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED, contains the following Townships, viz.

BLACKBURN HUNDRED, contains the following Townships, viz.

LEYLAND HUNDRED, contains the following Townships, viz.

LONSDALE HUNDRED, contains the following Townships, viz.

SALFORD HUNDRED, contains the following Townships, viz.

WEST DERBY HUNDRED, contains the following Townships, viz.

E C C L E S I A S T I C A L   J U R I S D I C T I O N.

Lancashire is a part of the Province of York, in the Diocese of Chester, and in the Archdeaconries of Chester and Richmond; and is divided into Deanries and Parishes, in the following manner, viz.

ARCHDEACONRY OF CHESTER.

Deanry of Manchester, contains the following Parishes, viz.

Deanry of Warrington, contains the following Parishes, viz.

Deanry of Blackburn, contains the following Parishes, viz.

Deanry of Leyland, contains the following Parishes, viz.

ARCHDEACONRY OF RICHMOND.

Deanry of Amounderness, contains the following Parishes, viz.

Deanry of Furness and Cartmel, contains the following Parishes, viz.

Deanry of Kirkby Lonsdale, contains the following Parishes, viz.

Deanry of Richmond, contains the following Parishes, viz.

POPULATION OF THE COUNTY OF LANCASTER,

Ascertained by the Census of 1801.