“Our ship, Employment, met with a French ship of some force, bound to Newfoundland, who made a prize of her. The French were determined to send her directly to St. Malo; when John Gardner, the master, treated to ransome her, and agreed with the captors for £1,000 sterling. The French did strip the sailors of most of their clothes and provisions; and coming out of a hot climate to cold, before they got home they were so weak that they were scarce able to work the ship, and the mate being not an experienced pilot, spent time in making the land, and was embayed on the coast of Wales, but with difficulty got off, and then made the Isle of Man, and stood for Peel Fouldrey, but missed his course, so that he made Rossall Mill for Walna Mill, and run in that mistake till he was embayed under the Red Banks, behind Rossall, so as he could not get off; and it blowing hard, and fearing she would beat, they endeavoured to launch their boat; but were so weak that they could not do it, but came to an anchor. She struck off her rudder, and at the high water mark she slipped her cables and run on shore, in a very foul strong place, where she beat till she was full of water, but the men got well to land. But it was believed if they had been able to launch the boat and attempted to land in her, the sea was so high and the shore so foul, that they might have all perished. This happened on the 8th month, 1702, and we had early notice of it to Lancaster, and got horses and carts with empty casks to put the damaged sugars in, and to get on shore what could be saved, which was done with much expedition. We got the sugar into Esquire Fleetwood’s barn, at Rossall, and the cotton wool into Bispham chapel, and in the neap tides got the carpenters at work, but a storm came with the rising tides and beat the ship to pieces. The cotton wool was sent to Manchester and sold for £200.”

In the early years of this century Bispham contained a manufactory for the production of linsey-woolsey. The building was three stories in height, and employed a considerable number of hands. Subsequently it was converted into a ladies’ school, and afterwards pulled down. Two or three residences in the township near the site of the old manufactory still retain the names of ‘factory houses,’ from their association with it. There is a small Nonconformist place of worship in the village, surrounded by a wall, being partially covered with ivy and overshadowed by trees. This edifice is called Bethel Chapel, and a date over the doorway fixes its origin at 1834. In 1868 a Temperance Hall, comprising a reading room, library, and spacious lecture and assembly room, was erected here by subscription, and forms one of the most striking objects in the village. The Sunday school connected with the parish church, and situated by its side, was erected also by subscription, in 1840, and rebuilt on a larger scale in 1873.

The hamlet of Norbreck is situated on the edge of the cliffs overhanging the shore of the Irish Sea, and consists of several elegant residences tenanted by Messrs. Swain, Burton, Harrison, Wilson, and Richards. None of the houses present any features calling for special comment, but appear, like others at no great distance, as Bispham Lodge, the seat of Frederick Kemp, esq., J.P., to have been built within comparatively recent years as marine retreats for the gentry of neighbouring towns, or others more intimately associated with the locality.

POPULATION OF BISPHAM-WITH-NORBRECK.

1801.1811.1821.1831.1841.1851.1861.1871.
254297323313371394437556

The area of the township includes 2,624 statute acres.

The Free Grammar School was established in 1659, when Richard Higginson, of St. Faith’s, London, bequeathed unto the parish of Bispham sundry annual gifts in perpetuity, and especially the yearly payment of £30 for and towards the support of a school-master and usher at the school of Bispham, lately erected by him. From a subsequent deed it appears that the annual sums were made chargeable on two messuages in Paternoster Row, London, belonging to the dean and chapter of St. Pauls, but as the interest Higginson possessed in such property was acquired at the sale of the dean and chapter lands during the Commonwealth, it followed that on the restoration of Charles II., the rentals forming his bequest were not forthcoming. Further, the document recites that John Amburst, of Gray’s-inn, esq., and Elizabeth, his wife, who was the widow and sole executrix of Richard Higginson, being desirous that the object of the founder should be carried out, paid to John Bonny and others in trust £200, to be invested in land and the annual income thereof devoted to the maintenance of an able and learned schoolmaster at the before-mentioned school of Bispham. The costs of a chancery suit in 1686 reduced the donation to £180, but the trustees made up the sum to the original amount and reimbursed themselves by deducting £5 per annum from the salary of the master for four years. In 1687, Henry Warbreck conveyed in consideration of £200, to James Bailey and five other trustees of the charity, elected by a majority of the inhabitants, the closes known as the Two Tormer Carrs, the Two New Heys, the Great Hey, the Pasture, the Boon Low Side, the Little Field, and 35 falls of ground on the west of the Meadow Shoot close, amounting to about 14 acres, and situated in Layton, “for the above-named pious use; and it was agreed, that when any three of the five trustees, or six of any eight which should hereafter be chosen, should happen to die, the survivors should convey the premises to eight new trustees to be chosen, two out of each of the respective townships of Layton, Warbreck, Bispham, and Norbreck, by the consent of the major part of the inhabitants of those townships, and that the said trustees should from time to time employ the rents for and towards the maintenance and benefit of an able and learned schoolmaster, to teach at the school at Bispham.”[124] In 1817, Thomas Elston, and George Hodgson, of Layton, Robert Bonny, and William Bonny, of Warbreck, William Butcher, junior, and James Tinkler, of Bispham, and Thomas Wilson, and Joseph Hornby, of Norbreck, were appointed trustees at a public meeting convened by William Bamber and William Butcher, the two surviving trustees. The newly elected governors were directed “to permit the dwelling-house and school to be used as a residence for the schoolmaster and a public school for the instruction of the children of the parish of Bispham-with-Norbreck, in reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, and the principles of the English religion, gratuitously, as had been heretofore done, and to hold the residue of the premises upon the trust mentioned in the last deed.”[125] The commissioner who visited the school in 1868 remarked:—“The building is an old house, through whose thatched roof the rain penetrates in winter, dropping all over the desks, and gathering in pools upon the floor; the room is very small, 30½ by 14½ feet and 7½ feet high to the spring of the roof, and the air being so foul that I was obliged to keep the door open while examining the children.” The use of the dilapidated structure here alluded to has been discontinued, and the scholars assemble in a room in the Temperance Hall until a fresh school-house has been erected.

Layton-with-Warbreck is the second of the two townships comprised in the ancient parish of Biscopham or Bispham. The Butlers, barons of Warrington, were the earliest lords of Layton. In 1251, Robert Botiler, or Butler, obtained a charter for a market and fair to be held in “his manor of Latton.” The estate descended in the same family with some interruptions, until the reign of Henry VIII., when it was sold by Sir Thomas Butler to John Brown, of London, who on his part disposed of it, in 1553, to Thomas Fleetwood. The manor was retained by the Fleetwoods up to the time of the late Sir. P. Hesketh Fleetwood, of Rossall, by whom it was conveyed, through purchase, to the Cliftons, of Lytham. The following abstract from the title deed touching the transfer of the property from John Brown to Thomas Fleetwood will not be without interest to the reader:—

“By Letters Patent under the Great Seal of England, bearing date the 19th day of March, in the first year of the reign of Queen Mary. After reciting that Sir Thomas Butler, Knight, was seized in fee of the Mannour of Layton, otherwise Great Layton, with the Appurtenances, in the county of Lancaster, and that his estate, title, and interest therein by due course of Law, came to King Henry the Eighth, who entered thereon and was seized in fee thereof, and being so seized did by his letters patents under the seal of his Duchy at Lancaster, bearing date the 5th day of April, in the thirty-fourth year of his Reign, (amongst other things) give, grant, and restore unto the said Sir Thomas Butler, his heirs, and Assigns, the said Mannour and its Appurtenances, by virtue whereof the said Sir Thomas Butler entered and was seized in fee thereof, and granted the same to John Brown, Citizen and Mercer of London, his heirs and assigns, and that Brown entered and was seized thereof in fee, and granted and sold the same to Thomas Fleetwood, Esq., his heirs and Assigns, and that the said Thomas Fleetwood entered thereon and was at that time seized in fee thereof. And further reciting that the said Sir Thomas Butler held and enjoyed the said Mannour, with its Appurtenances, from the time of making said Grant until he sold and conveyed the same to the said Brown without disturbance, and that the said Brown held the same until he sold and conveyed to the said Thomas Fleetwood without disturbance, and that the said Thomas Fleetwood had held and enjoyed the same for near four years without disturbance, and was then seized in fee thereof. But because it had been doubted whether the said Letters Patent and Grant made by King Henry the Eighth to Sir Thomas Butler were good and valid in the Law, because they were under the Seal of the Duchy of Lancaster, and not under the Great Seal, and because it appeared unto her said Majesty, that the said King Henry the Eighth, her Father, had promised that the said Sir Thomas Butler, should have the said Grant either under the Great Seal or the seal of the Duchy of Lancaster, She willing to perform her Father’s promise and to remove all doubts, and for greater security of the said Mannour, unto the said Thomas Fleetwood and his heirs, and in consideration of the faithful services done by the said Thomas Fleetwood to her said Father, and to her Brother King Edward the Sixth, and to her, did give, grant, and confirm unto the said Thomas Fleetwood, his heirs and assigns, the Mannour of Layton, otherwise Great Layton, with its rights, members, and Appurtenances, in the said county of Lancaster, and all and singular the Messuages, Houses, Buildings, Tofts, Cottages, Lands, Tenements, Meadows, Feedings, Pastures, &c. &c. &c., Fishing, Wrecks of the Sea, Woods, Underwoods, &c. &c. &c., commodities, emoluments and Hereditaments whatsoever, with their Appurtenances, situate, lying, and being in the Vill, Fields, or Hamlets of Layton, otherwise Great Layton, aforesaid, which were of the said Thomas Butler, and which the said John Brown afterwards sold to the said Thomas Fleetwood as aforesaid, To hold the same unto the said Thomas Fleetwood his heirs and assigns for ever.”

Reverting to the market and fair above-mentioned we find that in 1292 Sir William le Botiler was called upon to show upon what right he laid claim to free warren in Layton, and two other places. In proving his case, the knight stated that his privileges extended to markets, fairs, and assize of bread and beer, in addition to which he affirmed that wreck of the sea had been the hereditary rights of his ancestors from the accession of William the Conqueror. The jury acknowledged the title of Sir William in each instance, ordaining that the same markets, fairs, etc., should continue to be held or exercised as aforetime. It would appear that the market took place each week on Wednesday, the chief merchandise offered for sale being most likely cattle and smallware. There are now no remnants of the market, which must at one era have been an assembly of no mean importance, beyond the names of the market-house and the market-field. The cross and stocks have also succumbed to the lapse of years, the latter being a matter of tradition only, with all, even to the oldest inhabitant.