In 1864 an Independent Day and Sunday school was built by Benjamin Whitworth, esq., M.P., of London, on land given by R. C. Richards, esq., J.P., of Kirkham, and presented to the trustees of the chapel belonging to that sect at Kirkham. The railway station and several weaving sheds and cotton mills are situated in this township.

POPULATION OF MEDLAR-WITH-WESHAM.

1801.1811.1821.1831.1841.1851.1861.1871.
216230215242209170563860

Greenhalgh-with-Thistleton. Greenhalgh is stated in the Domesday Book to contain three carucates of soil. The township was held by the Butlers of the Fylde at an early epoch, and retained until 1626 at least, when Henry Butler, of Rawcliffe, was lord of Greenhalgh and Thistleton. During the sovereignty of Edward I. the abbot of Cockersand had certain rights there, including assize of bread and beer.

Henry Colbourne, of London, bequeathed, in 1655, £5 10s. to establish a school at Esprick in this township, but his wishes were not properly carried out before 1679, at which date his legacy was supplemented by gifts from 41 yeomen in the neighbourhood, and a school erected to provide free education to the children of Greenhalgh and Thistleton. Further endowments of £60 in 1766 from John Cooper, and £80 a little later by subscription, were given to the institution; and in 1805 Mary Hankinson left £200, and Richard Burch, of Greenhalgh, £200, to the same object. The original school-house, formed of clay and thatched with straw, has been pulled down, and a fresh one built. Subsequent donations have been received under the wills of the Misses Ellen and Hannah Dewhirst, the former of whom left £200, in addition to a gift of £100 during her lifetime, and the latter the residue of her estate.

The interest of £20, bequeathed for that purpose by a person named Lawrenson, is distributed annually to the poor of Greenhalgh.

POPULATION OF GREENHALGH-WITH-THISTLETON.

1801.1811.1821.1831.1841.1851.1861.1871.
378403409408371362383365

The township embraces 1,821 statute acres.

Great and Little Singletons. At the Domesday Survey, Singletun contained six carucates of arable land, the lord of the manor being Roger de Poictou, who gave the tithes at the close of the eleventh century to the priory of St. Mary’s, Lancaster; this grant was subsequently confirmed by John, earl of Moreton.[185] During the reigns of kings John and Henry III., Alan de Singleton held a carucate of land in the township by serjeanty of the wapentake of Amounderness.[186] In 20 Edward I. (1292) Thomas de Singleton, a descendant of Alan, proved to the satisfaction of a jury, when his right to certain offices was called in question, that the manor of Little Singleton had belonged to his family from time immemorial, and that the serjeanty of Amounderness with its privileges and duties, was annexed and appurtenant to that manor. Thomas de Singleton admitted, however, when called upon by the king’s attorney to show by what title he held the manors of Singleton, Thornton, and Brughton, the same having been amongst the possessions of Richard I. at his death, that he did not hold the whole of Singleton, as Thomas de Clifton and Caterina his wife had one third of two bovates there; and urged this fact as a plea why he could not be summoned to answer the demand as made on behalf of Edward I. His objection was allowed.[187] In 1297 Edmund, earl of Lancaster received annually £21 from Singleton and 20s. from Singleton Grange. At the opening of the fourteenth century Little Singleton had passed into the hands of the Banastres, for the “hamlet of Singleton Parva” was one of the estates of William Banastre at his death in 17 Edward II. (1323-24).[188] Towards the end of the reign of Edward II. Thomas, the son of the notorious Sir Adam Banastre, held little Singleton and the serjeanty of Amounderness, and by the latter of these had a right to the services of two bailiffs and a boy to levy executions within the wapentake.[189]