CHAPTER III.

RIVINGTON AND THE LORDS WILLOUGHBY—THE PILKINGTONS—THE STORY OF A LANCASHIRE BISHOP.

"No, sir, hardly a vestige of the old house remains, and even the Willoughby coat of arms with the supporters, the ivy-wreathed savage and the horseshoe-eating ostrich, that once adorned and gave dignity to the outbuilding, has been taken away by sacrilegious hands, and now only a blank space remains to show where once it was." Such was the remark of a friend at whose hospitable abode in Heath-Charnock we were spending a few days, a year or two ago, in reply to our inquiries as to the present condition of Shaw Place, an ancient habitation on the confines of Rivington, once the home of the Lords Willoughby of Parham.

But Rivington and its vicinity have other associations to claim attention not less interesting than the fading memories of the extinct Willoughbys. The tower-crowned summit of the Pike, rising to the height of 1,545 feet above the sea level, calls to remembrance the stirring times of the Armada, and the scarcely less anxious days of nearly a century ago when our grandfathers were in daily dread of invasion, and constant watch was kept in order that the beacon fire might flash the signal of danger from hill to hill should their fears be realised; and the "Two-lads," a double pile of stones on the further side, has its tale of disaster to beguile the time if we care to listen to it. Those bleak mountain ridges that stretch away towards the south were once included within the limits of the great forest of Horwich, "a place of great sport," as the old chroniclers have it, with its aëries of eagles, of hawks, and of herons. Rivington was for centuries the home of the Pilkingtons, "gentlemen of repute in their shire before the Conquest," as old Fuller tells us; if tradition is to be relied on, the chief of them bore himself bravely upon the red field of Hastings, and when sought for by the victors for espousing the cause of the defeated Harold, to avoid discovery, disguised himself as a mower, in commemoration of which circumstance his descendants have ever since borne the man and scythe for their crest. A scion of this ancient house, Richard Pilkington, in the days of the Eighth Harry or shortly after, founded the church of Rivington, and his son, James Pilkington, who had suffered exile for the reformed faith in the time of the Marian persecutions, was nominated by Queen Elizabeth first Protestant bishop of the palatinate see of Durham, and was also founder of the Grammar School at Rivington, an institution that to this day perpetuates his name.

Our host having suggested a walk as far, we were nothing loth to act upon his advice and renew acquaintance with a locality familiar to us in earlier years. It was not the most favourable day for a pedestrian ramble, for, though the rays of the February sun had made some feeble attempts to wake the firstlings of the year from their long winter sleep, the indications of spring had proved delusive, and King Frost still held the vegetable world fast bound in his icy fetters. Of a verity it might be said that the lingering winter chilled the lap of spring, for though we had entered upon the month of March the crocus, which, according to the old saw—

had not yet ventured forth as the harbinger of returning animation, and even the tiny snowdrop, forerunner of the glorious train of summer flowers, hid its drooping head beneath the fleecy robe of nature's weaving from which it takes its name. Winter had returned upon us with old-fashioned severity, and his keen breath had again begun—

The snow, which had fallen heavily during the night, enfolding the earth in a downy mantle, had nearly ceased, and only a few stray feathery flakes descended; the broad breezy moors that stretched their length across the landscape were thickly covered, and it lay deep in the cloughs and dingles that the storms of ages had channelled down their sides. The hedgerows in their fleecy garniture assumed quaint and indefinite shapes, and chequered the cold snow with their fantastic shadows, and the few trees bordering the wayside stretched their naked boles across the path, looking weird and gaunt and grim; but there was neither colour nor savagery enough to make a picture—nothing but a dull leaden gloom that left a saddening and depressing influence upon the senses, instead of making glad the heart of the beholder. The eddying wind that blew from the west broke in fitful gusts, and drove the dark leaden cloud-rack and drifted sea-fog swiftly athwart the sky, betokening a coming change; there was a rawness, too, in the atmosphere that sent a chill through your veins, and everything seemed cold and comfortless; while the few wayfarers you met looked sad and woe-begone, and as sullen and ungenial as the weather. We missed the cheery sunshine, and the sharp, crisp, nipping air of a clear, frosty day; but for all that we trudged along with light heart and steady step, though the roads were heavy, for the snow had melted in places, and now and then we plunged ankle-deep in thick icy sludge that oozed through the sodden ground.

The rounded summit of Rivington Pike—Riven Pike, as it was anciently written—stands out boldly against the dull background of mist and murkiness, and the little square tower that crowns its highest point looks as if it had suddenly thrust its dark form up through the surrounding whiteness. As we mount the higher ground the prospect widens, and looking round the eye takes in a broad expanse of country. In front, in addition to the "Pike," are the bleak moors of Rivington and Anglezark; below, half hidden by the leafless woods, we get occasional glimpses of the long lake-like reservoirs of the Liverpool Corporation Waterworks. Northwards, where the smoke hangs like a pall, is Chorley; and further on, had the day been clear, we might have seen the tall chimneys of Preston and the gleaming waters of the Ribble estuary. Duxbury, for centuries the home of the Standishes, reminds us of the Puritan captain, Miles Standish, whom Longfellow has immortalised:—

He was a gentleman born, could trace his pedigree plainly
Back to Hugh Standish, of Duxbury Hall, in Lancashire, England,
Who was the son of Ralph, and grandson of Thurstan de Standish—
Heir unto vast estates, of which he was basely defrauded;
Still bore the family arms, and had for his crest a cock, argent—
Combed and wattled gules, and all the rest of the blazon.

Hall-o'-th'-Hill was the dwelling place of the Asshawes, who were also lords of Flixton; one of them—Sir Ralph—Mr. M'Dougall has made the subject of the most pathetic of his legendary ballads; while another—Ann—was the wife of that Richard Pilkington who built Rivington Church, and the mother of James, the Puritan prelate, who founded the school. Adlington lies below us; and beyond the view takes in the great plain that stretches away to the Fylde, dotted over with collieries and mills and loomsheds, that bear testimony to the active industry of the people. Westwards, crowning a rocky ridge that rises abruptly from the banks of the Douglas, we see the village of Blackrod, with the battlemented tower of its ancient church rising above the lowly habitations that gather round. The remains of a Roman causeway, it is said, may still be traced along the summit, and learned antiquaries confidently assure us that here the subjects of the Cæsars had a military station—the Coccium of Antoninus, and the Rigodunum of Ptolemy; though other antiquaries, equally learned, with no less confidence and much more show of reason, tell us that the old Roman station was not at Blackrod, but further north, at Walton, on the Ribble. Whether the masters of the ancient world bore the imperial eagles along those heights, and awoke the echoes with the cry of "Ave! Cæsar Imperator!" we will not stay to inquire, but leave others to determine. The snow lies like a great white carpet upon the scene, spreading over moss and moor, and field and fell—a wide wilderness of unsullied purity, broken only where the lanes wander and the hedgerows cross and recross each other, or where a wooded bluff, a solitary homestead, or some manufacturing hamlet stands out in bold relief. Occasionally a faint gleam steals through a rift in the shifting clouds, lighting up and beautifying some distant spot upon the landscape; but the brightness is only transient, and the scene soon resumes its cold grey monotonous gloom.

Presently the road bends to the right, and in a few minutes we reach the entrance to a long straight avenue of beeches that leads down to where the home of the Willoughbys once stood. Tall patrician trees they are that border the way, and meet almost in a canopy overhead, very patriarchs of their kind, that have withstood the winter's blast and summer's sunshine, and budded and blossomed and shed their leaves through long ages; but what time has failed to do sulphurous fumes from a neighbouring tile kiln have effectually accomplished, and now they present only the scathed and blighted semblance of their former glory. At the end of the gravelled walk may still be seen the two tall gate-posts that once flanked the entrance to the garden court; they are massive in character, rusticated at the joints, and surmounted by ball ornaments of ponderous size. To the right is a long range of outbuilding, with a tablet high up on the gable bearing the inscription

W
H H

and the date 1705, from which we gather that it was erected by Hugh, the twelfth Lord Willoughby, and the Lady Honora, his wife, in the earlier years of Queen Anne's reign. On the side is a square panel that was formerly adorned with the armorial ensigns of the house, but the carved stone-work was taken away some few years ago, and, as we were told, when last heard of was waiting for a claimant at a remote railway station. The house itself has been rebuilt, and is now tenanted by a farmer, a fragment of masonry on one side being the only portion of the original mansion remaining.

The connection of the Willoughbys with this part of Lancashire dates from about the middle of the seventeenth century, when Thomas Willoughby acquired lands in the neighbourhood by his marriage with Eleanor, daughter of Hugh Whittal, or Whittle, of Horwich, the representative of an old Puritan family, ranking as substantial yeomen, and a descendant, in all likelihood, of that Ralph Whittal of whom Oliver Heywood makes mention when, alluding to his boyish experiences, he says:—"Many days of prayer have I known my father keep among God's people; yea, I remember a whole night wherein he, Dr. Bradshaw, Adam Fearniside, Thomas Crompton, and several more did pray all night in a parlour at Ralph Whittal's, upon occasion of King Charles demanding the five members of the House of Commons.[11] Such a night of prayers, tears, and groans I was never present at in all my life. The case was extraordinary and the work extraordinary."[12]

The Willoughbys were a family of ancient and illustrious lineage, deriving their patronymic from the manor of the same name in Lincolnshire, where the parent stock had been seated almost from the time of Duke William of Normandy. One of them, Sir William Willoughby, in the reign of Henry III., signed the cross—in those days the highest object of human ambition—and accompanied the young Prince Edward in the expedition to Palestine to recover the holy places from the Moslem, and, in allusion to some now long forgotten exploit there, adopted a Saracen's head for his crest, which, on the Darwinian principle, has since developed into the "Black Lad," the sign, at the present day, of the village hostlery at Rivington. His warlike spirit was inherited by his descendants, who shared in the glories of Crescy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, and on many a well-fought field besides; bore their part in the sanguinary struggle between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, and were present at the final fight on Bosworth field—which alike put an end to feudalism and the power of the barons—when the victorious Richmond ascended the throne and terminated the fratricidal strife by twining the white rose with the red. In acknowledgment of their valorous deeds, they were at different times ennobled by the titles of Lords Willoughby of Eresby, of Broke, of Parham, and of Monblay and Beaumesguil.

Of this illustrious stock was one of whom we know just enough to make us wish to know more—the brave Sir Hugh Willoughby, who defended Lauder Castle in Berwickshire against both the French and Scots; and, though suffering the severest privations, with a mere handful of men, held it until peace was proclaimed; and who, as we are told, "by reason of his goodly personage, as also for his singular skill in war," was in 1553 chosen by "The Mystery, Company, and Fellowship of Merchant Adventurers," to command the first Arctic expedition that ever left the English shores—an expedition that was fated never to return, for before a year had passed Sir Hugh, with the crews of two of his ships, in all about 70 men, were frozen to death in the North Sea, about the very time that his grand-niece, the Lady Jane Grey, and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, perished upon the scaffold.

Scarcely had the solemn sound heard from the bell-towers of England, announcing the decease of King Henry the Eighth, died away, when Sir William Willoughby—descended through a younger line from William, fifth Lord Willoughby de Eresby—was raised to the dignity of Baron Willoughby of Parham, in Suffolk, the patent of his nobility bearing date February 16, 1547, the very day on which the remains of the defunct king were committed to the dust at Windsor. This Lord William, from whom the future owners of Shaw Place derived their descent, lived to a ripe old age, and died in 1574, leaving a son Charles, who succeeded to the barony, and who was then married to the Lady Margaret Clinton, a daughter of Queen Elizabeth's Lord High Admiral, Edward Clinton, first Earl of Lincoln. By her he had several sons, among them William, the eldest, who died in the lifetime of his father; Sir Ambrose; and Thomas, whose descendants we shall have occasion to refer to hereafter. Charles Lord Willoughby died in 1603, and was succeeded in the honours of his house by his grandson William, who had espoused the Lady Francis Manners, daughter of John, fourth Earl of Rutland, by whom he had three sons, Henry, Francis, and William, who successively became fourth, fifth, and sixth Lords Willoughby. Henry enjoyed the title only for a short time, and died before attaining his majority. Francis, who succeeded, married Elizabeth Cecil, a great granddaughter of the famous Lord Treasurer, William Cecil, Lord Burghley. On the breaking out of the great Civil War, he took sides against the King, and had a command in the Parliament's army, but did not achieve any great distinction; indeed he seems rather to have lacked the qualities that generals are made of. Early in the summer of 1643 he seized Gainsborough, and held it for the Parliament; but on the news reaching the Marquis of Newcastle, he despatched a force out of Yorkshire under General Cavendish, who laid siege to the town, whereupon, Cromwell, who had just taken Burleigh House, the seat of the Cecils, hastened with his Huntingdonshire troopers, and a few regiments of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire horse to the relief of the beleaguered garrison, and attacked and defeated the Royalist forces, Cavendish being killed in the encounter.

In connection with Lord Willoughby's occupation of Gainsborough an incident occurred which is worth recording. On the capture of the town several persons of rank were made prisoners, including Robert Pierrepoint, Earl of Kingston, surnamed the "Good." When it was known that the Royalists were advancing, Willoughby, to prevent the Earl's escape, had him placed in a pinnace and conveyed to Hull. While on the voyage Cavendish, in ignorance that so distinguished a companion in arms was on board, ordered his men to fire upon the vessel, and an unlucky shot struck his lordship and killed him on the spot. Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson, in her "Memoirs" of her husband, gives the popular version of the story, from which it appears that when Kingston was first invited to join the Royalists, "he made a serious imprecation on himself: 'When,' said he, 'I take arms with the King against the Parliament, or with the Parliament against the King, let a cannon bullet divide me between them,'" "which God," she says, "was pleased to bring to pass a few months after; for he, going into Gainsborough, and there taking up arms for the King, was surprised by my Lord Willoughby, and, after a handsome defence of himself, yielded, and was put prisoner into a pinnace, and sent down the river to Hull, when my Lord Newcastle's army, marching along the shore, shot at the pinnace, and, being in danger, the Earl of Kingston went up upon the deck to show himself, and to prevail on them to forbear shooting; but as soon as he appeared a cannon bullet flew from the King's army and divided him in the middle, being then in the Parliament's pinnace; who thus perished according to his own unhappy imprecation."

The "notable victory," as he phrased it, gained by the embryo Lord Protector at Gainsborough, though it proved insufficient in raising the siege, yet afforded an early example of that decision, energy, and valour for which Cromwell subsequently became so famous. Whitelocke, in his "Memorials," says that this gallant encounter with Newcastle's forces was "the beginning of Cromwell's great fortunes, and he now began to appear in the world." If it made the name of the Lord of the Fens, as he had been previously designated, a familiar word throughout England, it did not add much lustre to that of Lord Willoughby. He was obliged to surrender Gainsborough; and Lincoln, whither he had retreated, had also to be given up to the victorious Royalists. In a desponding letter to Cromwell, written from Boston, August 5th, 1643, he says:—"Since the business of Gainsborough the hearts of our men have been so deaded that we have lost most of them, by running away, so that we were forced to leave Lincoln upon a sudden; and if I had not done it then I should have been left alone." His position even at Boston seems to have been very precarious, for he adds, "If you will endeavour to stop my Lord of Newcastle, you must presently draw them (the Parliamentarian forces) to him and fight him, for without we be masters of the field we shall be pulled out by the ears one after the other." In the same letter he pathetically remarks, "You see by this how sadly your affairs stand. It's no longer disputing, but out instantly all you can; raise all your bands, send them to Huntingdon; get up what volunteers you can; hasten your horses; send these letters to Norfolk, Sussex, and Essex, without delay. I beseech you spare not, but be expeditious and industrious. Almost all our foot have left Stamford; there is nothing to interrupt the enemy but our horse. You must act lively; do it without distraction. Neglect no means." Willoughby was evidently not the kind of general that a soldier of Cromwell's daring and resource could patiently act under, and that worthy was not long in expressing his opinion to the Parliament, for we find him a few months later in the House of Commons complaining of "my Lord Willoughby's backwardness as a general." He who could not "hold out" at Gainsborough and Lincoln, and who wrote from Boston expecting himself and his men to be "pulled out by the ears one after the other," was certainly not the right man in the right place according to the Ironside standard; and it was not long, therefore, before he was, on Cromwell's suggestion, removed from his command and the Earl of Manchester appointed in his stead.

Though as a general Lord Willoughby might not come up to Cromwell's standard, he nevertheless did "very considerable service for the Parliament in Lincolnshire," as Whitelocke affirms, "and manifested as much courage and gallantry as any man in the service," and it is evident that, for some time at least, he retained the confidence and esteem of the ruling powers, for in December, 1645, on the close of the first war, his name appears among those who were to have dignities and honours conferred upon them, an earldom being assigned to him; and about the same time, in the overtures for pacification, he was named one of the commissioners to the Scots' army, then lying before Newark, an appointment that gave great umbrage to the war party. Willoughby was a staunch Presbyterian, determinedly opposed to kingly prerogative, a devoted admirer of the Parliament, and possessed withal of much real zeal for the liberties of his country, but he was not altogether destitute of loyal feeling or prepared to

Dissension had sprung up in the ranks of the two great rebel factions, resulting in a general confusion of political principles in the dread of political supremacy. Fearing for the safety of the Constitution, and believing that his associates were proceeding to too great lengths, he went over to the side of the King, a procedure that aroused the hatred of the Parliament party, who became as eager to effect his overthrow as they had previously been to compass the death of Strafford. On the 8th of September, 1647, he was impeached of high treason by the Commons, but, the impeachment for some cause or other not being proceeded with, he appealed to the Lords, on the 17th January following, to be set at liberty. His request was complied with, and on regaining his freedom he immediately sought refuge in Holland, the House subsequently, "being in a good humour," as we are told, discharging the impeachment. Whitelocke says:—

He was in the beginning of the troubles very hearty and strong for the Parliament, and manifested great personal courage, honour, and military as well as civil abilities, as appears by his actions and letters, whilst he was in the service of the Parliament. In whose favour and esteem he was so high that they voted him to be general of the horse under the Earl of Essex, and afterwards to be an Earl. But having taken a disgust of the Parliament's declining of a personal treaty with the King, and being jealous that monarchy, and consequently degrees and titles and honour, were in danger to be wholly abolished, he was too forward in countenancing and assisting the late tumults in the city, when the members of Parliament were driven away from Westminster to the army. Upon the return of the members he was, with other lords, impeached of high treason for that action, and rather than appear and stand a trial for it he left his country and revolted to the King, and was now with the Prince in his navy, for which the Commons voted his estates to be secured.

Rupert was at the time carrying on privateering hostilities against the Parliament with such energy that, as was said, a packet-boat could hardly sail from Dover without being pillaged, unless it had a convoy. Willoughby accepted a commission, and became admiral of the Prince's fleet, and in the month of August, 1648, while in the Downs, was fortunate enough to intercept and capture a vessel returning from Guiana with a cargo of merchandise and £20,000 in gold.

The year following the execution of the King he went out to Barbadoes, established himself as governor, and proclaimed Charles II. king. On hearing of this exploit, Cromwell's government despatched Sir George Ascue with a fleet to effect the reduction of the place; after several ineffectual attempts to obtain submission he landed a force and stormed the fortress, when Lord Willoughby, fearing a revolt of the garrison, yielded on honourable terms, which included protection for the enjoyment of his estates. He then returned to England, but the Republicans, being doubtful of his loyalty to the Commonwealth, caused him to be committed to the Tower (June, 1655) on the charge of high treason. He must have remained in confinement for a considerable period, for two years later we find him petitioning Cromwell for permission to go into the country to despatch some necessary business in relation to his estates, and promising to return to prison—a request that was complied with. He subsequently obtained his release, and, after the death of Cromwell, appears to have co-operated with Monk in effecting the dissolution of the Commonwealth and the recall of the exiled Stuarts.

The year which followed the Restoration was to Lord Willoughby a year of sorrow, and the joy with which he had greeted that event was quickly overshadowed by a great domestic affliction. Ere a year had rolled round from the time when Charles landed at Dover he lost, within the short space of a few days, both his eldest son and his wife. Samuel Hartleb, in two of his letters written at the time to his friend Dr. Worthington,[13] alludes to these painful events. Writing on March 26, 1661, he says: "My Lord Willoughby's eldest son is dead. My Lady Willoughby is also dangerously sick, which is all I have to add;" and a week later he writes: "His (Mr. Brereton's)[14] mother-in-law (Lady Willoughby) is dead also."

Shortly afterwards Lord Willoughby was appointed to the governorship of Barbadoes, a post he continued to hold until 1656, when he was unfortunately drowned during a hurricane that swept over the island, an occurrence that Pepys thus alludes to in his "Diary:"—

November 29th (1666). I late at the office, and all the news I hear I put into a letter this night to my Lord Brouncker at Chatham, thus—"I doubt not of your lordship's hearing of Sir Thomas Clifford's succeeding Sir H. Pollard in the Controllership of the King's house; but perhaps our ill (but confirmed) tidings from the Barbadoes may not have reached you yet, it coming but yesterday; viz., that about eleven ships (whereof two of the King's, the Hope and Coventry), going thence to attack St. Christopher's, were seized by a violent hurricane and all sank, two only of thirteen escaping, and these with loss of masts, &c. My Lord Willoughby himself is involved in the disaster, and I think two ships thrown upon an island of the French, and so all the men (500) became prisoners."

Lord Willoughby having no surviving male issue, the titles and estates devolved upon his younger brother, William, who, in 1672, was also appointed Governor of Barbadoes, and to whom Evelyn, in his diary, thus refers:—

April 16th (1672). Sat in Council preparing Lord Willoughby's Commission and instructions as Governor of Barbadoes and the Caribbé Islands.

He died at Barbadoes, April 10th, 1673, having held the post barely a year. His lordship married Ann, one of the daughters of Sir Philip Carey, of Stanwell, county Middlesex, who bore him with other issue, three sons—George, his heir, and John and Charles, who eventually through failure of direct descent successively inherited the honours of the house.

George, the eldest son, who succeeded, died in the following year, leaving by his wife Elizabeth, eldest daughter and co-heir of Henry Fynes-Clinton, of Kirkstead, in Lincolnshire, grandson of Henry, second Earl of Lincoln, a son, John Willoughby, who succeeded, but he dying issueless in 1678, the barony reverted to his uncle, John, son of George, the seventh lord. This nobleman died before the close of the year, and, having no surviving male issue, the title and estates passed to his younger brother, Charles, who succeeded as tenth baron, and who was then married to Mary, daughter of Sir Beaumont Dixie. He did not, however, long enjoy the honours, his death occurring in the following year, and being, like so many of his predecessors, childless, the barony remained for a time in abeyance; the vast estates in Lincolnshire passing meanwhile, in accordance with the provisions of his will, to his niece Elizabeth, only daughter of George, seventh Lord Willoughby, and then wife of the Hon. James Bertie, eventually second Earl of Lincoln.

On the failure of the elder line by the death of Lord Charles without issue, the barony should by right have reverted to the heir of Sir Ambrose, second son of Charles, the second Lord Willoughby; but Sir Ambrose's grandson, Henry Willoughby, being then settled in Virginia, whither the "Pilgrim Fathers," who, "well weaned from the delicate milk of their mother-country," had gone some years before, and having no knowledge of the failure, took no steps to establish his claim. Under these circumstances, and in the belief that the line of Sir Ambrose was extinct, the barony was erroneously adjudged to Sir Thomas Willoughby, son and heir of Sir Thomas, the fifth and youngest son of Charles, the second lord, who, as previously stated, was then settled in Lancashire, having married Eleanor, daughter of Hugh Whittle, of Horwich, the representative of a noted Puritan family, whose religious opinions he had embraced.

The broad lands of the oldest line of the Willoughbys, as we have seen, passed by distaff to the Earls of Abingdon; the representative of the younger stock, who had summons to Parliament 19th May, 1685, being left the while to support the title with an estate of very modest proportions—the fortune his father had acquired in marriage with a yeoman's daughter. Sir Thomas Willoughby had attained to the ripe old age of 82 when he succeeded to the barony, and he lived to enjoy it for a period of nearly seven years, his death occurring in February, 1691-2. Born in the last year of Elizabeth's golden reign, he had witnessed the accession of James, and lived through the eventful reigns of the Stuart sovereigns. He had passed the meridian of life when Charles was brought to the block; had experienced Republicanism under Cromwell; had seen the restoration of Monarchy in the person of Charles's son; the re-establishment of Episcopacy, and the "Black Bartholomew," as the Dissenters love to designate the day on which the Nonconforming divines, preferring conscience to emolument, withdrew from the Church; and had lived long enough to see the feudal supremacy of the Crown, which had lasted for nearly six hundred years, abolished, when the second James was sent by his betrayed subjects to expiate his offences in exile, and the "bloodless revolution" set the Prince of Orange upon the throne, and paved the way for the succession of the House of Brunswick. Lord Willoughby's wife, Eleanor Whittle, who died in 1665, bore him, with other issue, two sons—Hugh, who succeeded as his heir, and Francis, who married Eleanor Rothwell, of Haigh, and by her had three sons, Thomas, who died unmarried, and Edward and Charles, who, on the death of their uncle, succeeded in turn to the title and estates.

Hugh Willoughby, who, on the death of his father in 1691-2, succeeded as twelfth baron, was then 65 years of age, having been born in 1627. He had married in early life Anne, daughter of Lawrence Halliwell, of Tockholes, in Blackburn parish, and by her had a son, Thomas, who died in infancy; she died in 1690, at the age of 52, and shortly after his accession to the barony he again entered the marriage state, taking for his second wife the youthful widow of Sir William Egerton, K.B., of Worsley, brother of John, third Earl of Bridgewater—the Lady Honora, daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh, son and heir of Thomas Lord Leigh, of Stoneleigh, and the great-granddaughter of Sir Thomas Egerton, the renowned Lord Chancellor—the lady numbering 19 summers, while Lord Willoughby had attained the mature age of 55. His lordship was an uncompromising, and, it is to be feared, not over scrupulous Presbyterian. Sir Henry Ashurst, in a Dedication of the Life of Nathaniel Heywood, the Puritan Vicar of Ormskirk, written by his brother Oliver, to this Lord Hugh, speaks of his "exemplary piety and zeal for our holy religion in such a degenerate and licentious age, and the countenance he gave to serious piety, wherever he found it, among all the different parties into which we are so unhappily broken," but the occasional references to him in Henry Newcome's autobiography, leads us to doubt the justness of the Presbyterian writer's panegyric. Under date Thursday, September 7, 1693, Newcome writes:—

We went with several others to welcome the Lord Willoughby to house, and stayed till after eight, in much freedom; and parted with a psalm and prayer.

The occasion would probably be that of his lordship's first coming to his wife's house—the old hall of Worsley, in Eccles parish, where he spent a good deal of his time—but it was not long before the old Puritan divine had occasion to speak in a less cheerful tone. Thus, he writes:—

May 5 (1694). The Lord Willoughby was with me, and the Lord helped me, to deal plainly with him, and he took it as I could desire.

And a few months later:—

Aug. 4. I was troubled about Lord Willoughby and went out to have spoken with him, but though he was not at home, he called on me on his return, and I eased myself by speaking freely to him; and he seemed to take it well, and I hope it may do him good. This greatly revived me.

Lord Willoughby busied himself greatly in the religious affairs of the county, and was not unfrequently a cause of disquiet to Episcopal dignitaries from his confused ideas of meum and tuum in regard to ecclesiastical funds. The parson of Horwich found him an exceedingly unpleasant neighbour, and poor James Rothwell, the vicar of Dean, complained bitterly to the bishop of his wrong doing. Rothwell's predecessor, Richard Hatton, had not renounced the Covenant; but had, nevertheless been inducted into the vicarage by a kind of dispensing power. One illegal appointment led to another. The Nonconforming vicar of the church appointed a Nonconforming preacher to the Episcopal chapel. The Dissenters having thus got the chapel into their hands through the "contrivance" of Lord Willoughby, held possession for many years, and were only induced in the long run to surrender to the ecclesiastical authorities to escape a costly litigation. When Rothwell had got rid of the intruders, and recovered possession of the chapel, he found that he could not get possession of the endowment, as the trustees, who were Presbyterians, were appropriating it to the support of a minister of their own persuasion, and, "against justice and honesty," were going to "build a meeting house with part of the money, and apply the remaining part towards supporting a Presbyterian teacher." He had complained to the bishop, but failing, as it would seem, to obtain redress, addressed the following letter to Dr. Wroe—"Silver-tongued Wroe"—the warden of Manchester, urging his intercession:—

Bolton Sep. 21, 1717.

Revd Sr.—I thought it necessary to send you ye following account of Horwich Chappel, wch I desire you to transmit to my Lord Bishop of Chester. This Chappel is three miles distant from ye Parish Church, & ye revenue belonging to it is commonly said to be about 9 or 10li. p. ann. being ye Interest of about 200li. belonging to it, & for a more full proof of ys, I here give my following Testimony.

But in ye first place it may be convenient to acquaint you yt ys Chappel has for above ys 20 years last past been in ye hands of ye Dissenters through ye contrivance of ye late Lord Willoughby, and ye connivance of my Predecessour (Richard Hatton.) But wn my Lord Bp. of Chester was upon his visitation at Manchester, I acquainted his Lordship wth ys matter, & his Lordship commanded me to give Mr. Walker ye Dissenting Teacher notice to desist, wch accordingly I did, & he submitted to his Lordship's commands. Immediately after ys I put into ye Chappel a Conformable clergyman, who has supplied ye Cure ever since, wch is above one whole year; and tho' I gave him ye Surplice Dues of ye Chappelray wch is all yt belongs to me in yt part of ye Parish, & two pounds p. ann. besides, yet ys wth his contributions, wch is all yt he has had to subsist on thus far, has not exceeded 14li. And when he demanded ye Interest of ye Chappel Stock during ye time of his Incumbency, ye Trustees for ys money being Dissenters, tell me they will not pay it, till they be forced to do it. Now one of these Trustees has told me, & several others, yt ye Chappel Stock is one hundred & ninety pounds; & about two months ago he showed Some bonds yt was made unto him upon ye account, to ye Sum of about 80li. And there are now several living witnesses, yt can & do testify, yt ye Interest of ye said Chappel Stock was paid to Episcopal conforming clergy men, yt officiated at Horwich Chappel during ye Reigns of King Charles ye 2nd: King James ye 2nd: And till some time after ye Revolution; and tho' ys money as it is said was given to all intents & purposes towards mentaining a Curate yt should supply ye sd Chappel, yet both against justice and honesty these Trustees have sent me word, yt they will build a meeting house wth part of ys money, & apply ye remaining part towards Supporting a Presbyterian Teacher; wt now is to be done in ys affair, I humbly desire my Lord Bp. of Chester's opinion & direction with your own,

Who am your most Humble & most obedient Servt: JA: ROTHWELL
For The Reverend Dr. Wroe, Warden of Manchester.

Bishop Gastrell, in his "Notitia," describes the chapel as "ancient" and "consecrated." It certainly was in existence in 1565, for in that year it was visited by the commissioners for removing superstitious ornaments. The money which through the "contrivance" of Lord Willoughby and the Dissenting trustees was being thus misapplied is said to have been recovered (that is, so much of it as was not lost in expensive litigation) in 1724. On another occasion, at Coppul, a neighbouring township, we find Lord Willoughby busying himself in church affairs, and joining with others in open resistance to constituted authority; breaking open the doors of the Episcopal Chapel, and defying the bishop when he sought to remove an unlicensed curate, Mr. Ingham, who had given offence by his immoral life and the solemnisation of clandestine marriages. Ellenbrook, also an Episcopal Chapel, in close proximity to Lady Willoughby's house at Worsley, had also unpleasant experience of his lordship's active but mistaken zeal, for Bishop Gastrell, in his "Notitia Cestriensis," remarks:—"There was a Suit depending about this Chap.(el) an.(no) 1693, bet.(ween) the Bp. and Ld. Willoughby of Parham. V.(ide) Mr. Kenyon's Letters." The chapel had been endowed in 1581 by Dorothy, daughter of Sir Richard Egerton, of Ridley, and wife of Sir Richard Brereton, of Worsley, who in her widowhood married Sir Peter Legh, of Lyme, Knt., and her endowment would appear to have fallen into the hands of Nonconformists during the period of the Usurpation.

Lord Willoughby died in June, 1712, at the age of 75; his wife the Lady Honora, survived him and maintained her widowhood for the long period of 38 years, dying in 1750, at the age of 77. Having no surviving issue, the title and estates devolved upon his nephew, Edward—the eldest surviving son of Francis, second son of Thomas, the eleventh in succession in the barony, and his wife, Eleanor Rothwell, of Haigh—who was at the time serving as a private soldier in the confederate army in Flanders. He enjoyed the title only for a few months, his death occurring in April of the following year. Being childless, the family honours and possessions reverted to his younger brother, Charles, who married Hester, daughter of Henry Davenport, of Darcy Lever, an offshoot of the old Cheshire family of that name, and by her had issue, in addition to a son Hugh, his heir, two daughters, Helena and Elizabeth.

Hugh, who succeeded as fifteenth Lord Willoughby, was an infant at the time of his father's decease (July 12, 1715). He was brought up in the Presbyterian faith, but appears to have been less demonstrative in the assertion of it than some of his progenitors; at all events his neighbours found him much less troublesome in that respect than his grandfather had been. Cole, the Cambridge antiquary, describes him as a Presbyterian "of the most rigid class," and remarks that he had heard "Mr. Coventry, of Magdalen College, Cambridge, declare that his conscience was so nice that he could not bring himself to receive the sacrament in the Church of England on his knees without scruple and thought it idolatry." He resided for the most part in London, but when at Shaw Place he usually attended the Nonconformist chapel at Rivington. It is said, though apparently on slender foundation, that when in London he professed himself a strict Churchman, and that some of his friends there, hearing that he was in the habit of worshipping with the Nonconformists when at Rivington, took him to task, whereupon he forsook the chapel and became a worshipper at Horwich Church. The accuracy of the story may very well be doubted. His lordship lived and died in the faith of his fathers; the canopied pew he was wont to occupy in Rivington chapel may still be seen, though the glories of its decoration have become somewhat faded; and at his death he bequeathed £100, the interest of which helps to pay its minister's stipend at the present day. He was more of a philosopher than a polemic, and a liberal patron of literature and art. In 1752 he succeeded Martin Foulkes as Vice-president of the Royal Society, and two years later he was elected to the honourable position of President of the Society of Antiquaries. It was in this latter capacity that John Byrom, of Manchester, addressed to him his famous poetical letter "On the Patron of England," and facetiously started the question whether Georgius was not a mistake for Gregorius, contending for the non-existence of St. George of Cappadocia or any other George as patron saint of England, and calling upon the society to say whether England's patron was a knight or a pope. The jeu d'esprit startled the sedate president, and drew forth a serious rejoinder from the learned Dr. Pegge in his "Observations on the History of St. George."[15] Lord Willoughby filled the office of Chairman of Committees of the House of Lords for a considerable period; he was also a Trustee of the British Museum, one of the Commissioners of Longitude, and Vice-president of the Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts. When the Dissenting Academy, at Warrington, was founded in the latter half of the last century, his lordship was chosen to be the first president, the Presbyterians, as Dr. Halley says, being "with pardonable vanity in their declension fond of exhibiting the relics of their former glory." He died unmarried, at his residence in London, February 9, 1765, at the age of 54, and, in accordance with his expressed desire, was buried in the family vault at Horwich Church. When some years ago the present fabric was erected on a site a few yards distant from the old structure, his remains were, at the expense of his grand-nephew, Mr. Charles Leigh, of Wigan, removed from their resting place in front of the communion rails, and placed in a vault in the churchyard, over which a stone bearing the family arms and the following inscription was placed:—

In memory of the Right Hon. Hugh, 15th Baron Willoughby, of Parham, who resided at Shaw Place, in this county, and who died on the 21st of January, 1765, at his house in London, unmarried, aged 54 years. Also of Eleanor, daughter of William Wood, of Aspull, Esq., and wife of Charles Leigh, grand-nephew of the above Hugh. She died 21st of January, 1858, in the 57th year of her age.

Of the two sisters of Lord Willoughby, Helena, the eldest, became the wife of Baxter Roscoe, by whom she had two daughters and a son, Ebenezer Roscoe, who married his cousin Hannah, daughter of John Shaw, and dying in January, 1766, left an only daughter, Helena, who died at the age of 19 in 1794. The eldest of the two daughters married Mr. Fisher, and the younger became the wife of Mr. Leigh, from whom Mr. Charles Leigh, mentioned in the inscription just cited, claimed descent. Elizabeth, the younger sister of Lord Willoughby, became the wife of John Shaw, of Rivington, and had by him a son, named after his father, and a daughter Hannah, who, as already stated, married her cousin, Ebenezer Roscoe. Surviving him, she again entered the marriage state, her second husband being the Rev. William Heaton, incumbent of Rivington, and Head Master of Bishop Pilkington's Grammar School.

On the death of Lord Willoughby the barony again fell into abeyance. For a period of 80 years, that is from 1685, when Sir Thomas Willoughby had summons to Parliament, to the decease of Hugh, Lord Willoughby, in 1765, the bearers of the title had been only suppositious lords. As previously stated, the honours should of right have reverted to the descendants of Sir Ambrose, the second son of Charles, the second baron, but they, having settled in America and remaining in ignorance of the default, did not put forward their claim, and hence the barony was erroneously adjudged. Henry Willoughby, the grandson of Sir Ambrose, who settled in Virginia, died there in 1685, leaving a son of the same name, who married Elizabeth, daughter of William Pidgeon, of Stepney, near London, and by her had, with other issue, two sons, Henry and Fortune. This Henry, when the barony fell into abeyance in 1765, claimed to be the representative of Sir Ambrose, and in 1767 his right was established by a decree of the House of Lords as the great-grandson and heir male of the body of Sir Ambrose, and consequently heir male of Sir William Willoughby, who was elevated to the dignity of a baron by the title of Lord Willoughby of Parham in 1547. Mr. Henry Willoughby thereupon became sixteenth lord, and took his seat in the Upper House on April 25th, 1767. He died January 29th, 1775, leaving by his wife Susannah, daughter of Robert Gresswell, an only daughter, Elizabeth, who married (first) John Halsey, of Tower Hill, London, and (second) Edward Argles. His lordship having no male heir, the title devolved upon his nephew George, son of Fortune Willoughby by his wife Hannah, daughter of Thomas Barrow, and widow of Cooke Pollitt, of Swanscombe, who succeeded as seventeenth baron, but dying issueless in 1779 the barony, which had been in existence from the first year of Edward the Sixth's reign, became extinct.

After a brief inspection of the modernised home of the Willoughbys and the ancient outbuilding adjacent, which happily still remains—"standing," as has been well said, "like a faded, tarnished court-train wearing out in the service of the descendants of its original proprietor's lady's maid"—we bent our steps in the direction of the old chapel at Rivington, where the family worshipped, and where many of their kin sleep their long sleep.

Descending into the valley, we pass through a plantation that has been formed by the side of one of the large reservoirs of the Liverpool Corporation Waterworks. The tall trees stand out in all their nakedness against the background of snow, looking black, and grim, and spectral like, though relieved in some measure by the bright-hued holly bushes, the glossy-leaved laurels, and the other hardy shrubs, that try to look cheery and make a pretty show. Below, where, in summer time, the far-spreading water reflects the surrounding beauty and flashes and glitters in the mellow sunlight, there is now only a dull leaden glaze, for the returning spring has not yet thawed the mantle of ice in which the hard hand of winter has enfolded it. Across the valley the smoke curls upwards from some unseen habitation, else we might fancy the inhabitants had fled, for neither flocks nor herds are to be seen in the fields; even the rook as he sails listlessly overhead looks dull and dejected, and the fieldfares huddle themselves up in the leafless branches as if they had lost heart; all around is still and cold and lifeless, save that now and then the hedge sparrows set up a twittering as unmusical as the grating of a knife-grinder's wheel, and that sprightly little fellow, the red-breasted robin, trills out his song from the naked hawthorn spray where the tiny buds are striving to break forth. Presently we come to a little lodge, and then, turning to the left, cross the embankment that separates the lower from the upper and larger Rivington lake. At the other end a short length of road straggles upwards towards the village—rough and stony withal, and fenced in places with patches of broken wall, built up of loose stones that time has softened into beauty and decked with moss and lichen and a wealth of clingy ivy.