In the Domesday Book no less than three Rawcliffes are mentioned, and have been identified, respectively, with Upper, Middle, and Out Rawcliffes, the last being stated to contain three carucates, and the others two carucates each. In the Testa de Nevill it is entered that the grandfather of Theobald Walter gave four carucates of land in (Upper) Rawcliffe, Thistleton, and Greenhalgh, to his daughter Alice, on her marriage with Orm Magnus. William de Lancaster held Upper Rawcliffe at the time of his death in 1240; and in 1248 Theobald Walter, or le Botiler, had lands in Upper Rawcliffe and Mid Rawcliffe, as well as the manor of Out Rawcliffe, the principal portion of which had doubtless descended to him from his ancestor alluded to above.[215] An inquiry was instituted in 1322, during the reign of Edward II., concerning the possessions in land and mills of John de Rigmayden in Upper Rawcliffe, Wyresdale, and Garstang; and a similar inquisition, with the exception of Garstang, was made, three years later, in the case of widow Christiana de Coucy de Guynes.[216] In the succeeding few years Joan, the daughter and heiress of John de Rigmayden, and John de Coupland held Upper Rawcliffe between them. John de Coupland had married the widow of Sir William de Goucy, and was the gallant soldier who captured David II., king of Scotland, on the battle field at Durham, and was rewarded for his bravery by Edward III., with the rank of knight-banneret and a grant of land. Joan de Rigmayden, the heiress, probably married William Southworth, as he is described as lord of Upper Rawcliffe a little later; Ellen, the sole child and heiress of William Southworth, became the wife of Robert Urswick, of Urswick, and their second son, Thomas, who succeeded to the estates of Rawcliffe, etc., and was knighted, left at his decease a daughter, who espoused, about 1430, John, the third son of Sir Richard Kirkby, of Kirkby. John Kirkby resided at Upper Rawcliffe Hall,[217] or White Hall, as it was subsequently designated, and was succeeded by his eldest son, William, who in his turn left the lands and mansion to his heir and offspring John Kirkby. The eldest son of the last gentleman, by his wife, the daughter of—Broughton, was William Kirkby; and he, in course of time, inherited the property, and married, in 1507, Elizabeth, the daughter of William Thornborough, of Hampsfield, by whom he had issue John, George, William, Richard, Henry, Anne, Elizabeth, and Jane. John Kirkby, the heir, was living in 1567, but died without offspring, as also did his brother George, so that Upper Rawcliffe Hall and estate passed to the third son, William Kirkby, who married Isabell, the daughter of John Butler, of Kirkland.[218] The Kirkbys continued in sole possession of the township until 1631, when Thomas Westby, of Mowbreck, purchased from them Upper Rawcliffe Hall and the estate attached, both of which he settled upon Major George Westby, the eldest son of his second marriage with Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Preston, of Holkar, and widow of Thomas Lathom, of Parbold. George Westby resided at White Hall, as the manor house was now called, and was twice married, being succeeded by John, the only child by his first wife, Margaret, the daughter of Thomas Hesketh, of Mains. Both George Westby and his third brother, Bernard, were royalist officers. John Westby, of Upper Rawcliffe, espoused, in 1684, Jane, the daughter of Thomas Bleasdale, of Alston, and had issue John, Joseph, James, and Alice, who became the wife of Thomas Gilibrand, of Dunken Hall, near Chorley. John Westby the eldest son, inherited the mansion and land on the death of his father in 1708, and married, in the following year, Mary, the daughter of Thomas Hawett, of Ormskirk, by whom he had Thomas; George, who died in 1776, leaving several children by his wife Mary, the daughter of ⸺ Field; John, died unmarried; Cuthbert, died childless; and Jane. Thomas Westby came into the estate in 1745, when his father was accidentally killed, and espoused Margaret, the daughter and heiress of William Shuttleworth, of Turnover Hall, and Bridget, his wife, who was one of four daughters, the sole offspring of John Westby, of Mowbreck. The children of Thomas Westby, of White Hall, and, ultimately, of one fourth of Mowbreck, were John, who died unmarried in 1811; William, died unmarried in 1811, just before his brother; Joseph, died young; Robert, died childless in 1800; Thomas; Bridget, an abbess at Liege; and two Marys, one of whom died in infancy. Thomas, the fifth son, held Mowbreck, White, and Turnover Halls and estates, on the decease of his eldest brother, and at his own death in 1829, without issue, was succeeded, in Turnover, by Thomas the only surviving son of his uncle, George Westby, whose death occurred in 1776; whilst he bequeathed Mowbreck and White Hall to George, the eldest son of this Thomas Westby, by his wife Anne, the daughter of John Ashley, of London. The Westbys, of White Hall and Mowbreck, sold their property at the former place in recent years to the late John Stevenson, esq., of Preston and Lytham. Reverting to the earlier Westbys, we find that the active parts played by George and Bernard Westby in the Civil Wars resulted in the confiscation of the White Hall estate by Parliament; and in 1653 it was sold by the Commissioners of State, being purchased for the Westbys again by, and in the names of, some of their Protestant friends.
Upper Rawcliffe Hall was rebuilt about the time of its purchase by the Westbys, who conferred upon it the new title of White Hall. This mansion stood by the side of the river Wyre, and was approached through a noble gateway. The windows were mullioned, and two bays projected from the north-west front; within were secret chambers and a private chapel. The Hall is now a farm house. Turnover Hall, the ancient seat of the Shuttleworths, and afterwards one of the mansions of the Westbys, as already shown, presents nothing of special interest to our notice. St. Michael’s Hall, the residence of the Longworths[219] during the seventeenth century, and probably of the Kirkbys before them, has since been rebuilt in an antique style, and converted into a farm house.
Tarnacre was claimed, amongst other places, by the abbot of Cockersand in 1292, during the reign of Edward I., and was, with Upper Rawcliffe, in early days, a feudal appendage of Garstang.
The township of Upper Rawcliffe-with-Tarnacre contains the ancient parish church of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre, which occupies a prominent and picturesque station on the banks of the narrowed Bleasdale stream, in the midst of the rural village, to which its title has been extended. St. Michael’s church, or Michelescherche, as it appears in the Survey of William the Conqueror, was obviously standing on the arrival of that warrior in 1066, being, with the exception of a similar structure at Kirkham, the only edifice of its kind existing in the Fylde at that time. There are no records amongst the meagre annals of Amounderness during the Saxon era, to assist us in establishing beyond question the antiquity of this church, but it may reasonably be supposed that its erection took place at no long interval after the year 627, when Paulinus was appointed bishop of the province of Northumbria, in which St. Michael’s was situated. The zeal and piety displayed by Paulinus are said to have exercised an important influence in overcoming the pagan tendencies of the inhabitants of Lancashire, and although it is far from probable that the whole of the people of the Fylde at once became converts to Christianity, and renounced their heathenish and superstitious ritual, still it would be idle to deny that the ministrations of so earnest a prelate as Paulinus were fruitful to a considerable degree in our district, more especially when history proclaims the success of his efforts in other portions of his diocese. The small band of professed Christians would gradually extend their circle, and at no remote date a building would become necessary where divine worship could be conducted in a decent and orderly manner, according to the direction of the newly-adopted creed; and it was, we opine, at such an epoch that the church of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre was first called into being. After the Norman Conquest the church formed an item of the princely estate of Roger de Poictou, acquired through the partial munificence of William I.; and possibly in 1094, or thereabouts, was conferred by him upon the priory of St. Mary’s, at Lancaster, in like manner to similar ecclesiastical possessions which he held in Kirkham and Poulton. However that may be, it is learnt from the Testa de Nevill that rather more than a century after the foundation of the monastic house in the year just named, the advowson of St. Michael’s was vested in King John, who presented Master Macy to the living,[220] then valued at £66 13s. 4d. per annum. In 1326, William de Walderston, rector of the church of St. Michael’s, and the prior of Lancaster, were engaged in a controversy before the authorities of Richmond, respecting the forest and other tithes of Myerscough, and those of a place called Migchalgh, the suit being decided at Lancaster on the 13th of October against the rector.[221] Nineteen years later, Henry, earl of Lancaster, was patron of the living, and in 1411 Henry IV., duke of Lancaster, who had claimed and obtained the crown resigned by Richard II., conveyed St. Michael’s church to the Master and Brethren of the College or Chantry of the Blessed Mary Magdalen, at Battlefield, near Shrewsbury, nominally established by himself.[222] The letters-patent by which the transfer was effected, bore the Duchy seal, and stipulated that Roger Yve, of Leeton, Keeper and Master of the College concerned (really its founder), and his successors, should, in return for the grant, make the following provision for the maintenance of a vicar at the church of St. Michael’s:—
“The Vicar and his Successors to receive, have, and possess, the offerings and revenues which are and belong to the church of Michaelskirk, together with the fruits and offerings arising from Hay and Revenues; the Tenth of Gardens dug with the foot, of Lambs, Calves, Young Foals, Poultry, Young Pigs, Geese, Eggs, Milk, Wool, Flax, Hemp, Mills, Apples, Garlick, Onions, Fishes, and Pigeons; the first fruits of the Dead, otherwise called Mortuaries, whether they consist of Animals, Clothes, or any other thing whatsoever, together with our Pool and Mill, and also the Pool upon Wyre near the Rectory of Michaelskirk; and further, the same Vicar and his Successors to have for their Dwelling the straw-thatched Porch below the Rectory, and the Door and House adjoining, with the Dovecote and Orchard near the Porch, and the Fishponds and Moats.”
The vicar on his part was required to pledge himself to pay all ordinary taxes and expenses incumbent upon the church, excepting “the covering of the chancel of the church, the payment of 40s. to the Archdeacon of Richmond, and the Tenths payable to the King for ever,” for which the Master of the College agreed on behalf of himself and his successors to be answerable.[223] The foregoing grant and regulations were confirmed in 1425 and 1485 by Henry VI. and Henry VII. respectively. After the Dissolution the right of presentation was exercised by King Charles in 1629, who appointed Nicholas Bray to the vicarage. Subsequently the patronage of the living has descended through several private individuals, and is now centred in the present vicar, the Venerable Archdeacon Hornby.
The parish church of St. Michael’s contained two chantries, one of which, dedicated to St. Katherine, occupied the chapel still existing in the north aisle. This chantry was founded some time about the middle of the fifteenth century by John Botiler, or Butler, lord of the manor of Out Rawcliffe. Canon Raines says that a portion of the body armour either of him or one of his immediate descendants remained suspended in the chapel until long after 1700.
Alice Butler, the daughter of Sir Thomas Radcliffe, and widow of Nicholas Butler, the eldest son of the founder, bequeathed by will, dated the 20th of November, 1504, “her sowll to God and hys Blessyd Mother and all the holye Cumpanie of heven, and her bodye to be beryd in Christian wyse in Saynt Katrine’s chapel, where her husband laye;” also “to the lyght brenning there 20d; to Thomas Walton, or some wel dysposed priest to synge for my sowll for one yeare £1 13s. 4d., solemn mass of requiem, and other obsequies to be done as becometh one of my degree, but not too moche expendsive so that my executors let not (hinder not) my dowters advancement in marryage; and to Sʳ John Butler, Clerk, 40s. a yeare togider with meate and drynke whiles he is on lyfe.”[224] In the reign of Henry VIII., William Harrison was the officiating priest of this chantry, and at that time its tenants, possessions, and annual rentals were, one tenement lying in Esprick, held by Thomas Dawson at 20s. per annum; another tenement in the same place held by William Hall at 19s.; a windmill in Stainall at 26s. 8d., and several parcels of ground amounting to about an acre at 2s., held by Ralph Hull; one tenement in Stainall with appurtenances held by Ralph Hodgeson at 12s.; an acre of ground lying in a field at Stainall held by William Hull at 2s. 8d.; two roods of land in Stainall held by the wife of Christopher Hull at 12d.; divers plots of ground estimated to comprise four acres in the same township held by William Hull, the elder, at 19s.; one tenement with appurtenances in Great Eccleston held by the wife of William Stiholme at 13s. 4d.; and one tenement in Little Eccleston held by Henry Wilkinson, at 20s. Hence it seems that the gross rentals amounted to £5 15s. 8d., out of which 5s. per annum was paid to the wife of Robert Stannall for her jointure, leaving £5 10s. 8d. the actual yearly revenue of the chantry from its endowment.[225] At the accession of Edward VI., Henry Harrison was the “Priest Incumbent at St. Katherine’s Altar, being 54 years old, and he taught a Grammar School according to his foundation.” When chantries were suppressed the educational institution here alluded to was probably abandoned for want of funds and a master; in any case it ceased to exist about that time. On the 29th of November, 1606, James I. granted to Henry Butler, of Rawcliffe Hall, “all that Late Chantrie of the ffoundation of John Butler, at the Aulter of the Blessed Katherine within the Parishe Churche of St. Michaell-upon-Wyre, in the Countye of Lancaster, lately dissolved, and all the lands appertaining thereto.”
The second chantry in St. Michael’s church was founded sometime during the fifteenth century by one of the earlier Kirkbys, of Upper Rawcliffe, and in the reign of Edward VI. its annual income from endowment property was £4 13s. 10d., Thomas Crosse, of the age of 40 years, being the priest who celebrated there and “assisted the Curate.” Nothing more precise concerning the origin of this chantry can be ascertained, and even the situation it occupied in the church is unknown. In 1553 Thomas Crosse received a pension of £4 13s. 10d. a year.[226]