Thomas Knowles, gent., left £2 10s., and John Hudson, gent., £2 a-year to the poor of the same township.

The Terleway’s Lands were given by some one unknown at a very early date “for the use of the parish, as the vicar and vestry shall direct,” and consist of lands in Claughton and a garden in Upper Rawcliffe-with-Tarnacre.[228]

POPULATION OF UPPER RAWCLIFFE-WITH-TARNACRE.

1801.1811.1821.1831.1841.1851.1861.1871.
494617643665671697682700

The area of the township embraces 3,743 statute acres.

Great Eccleston. Great Eccleston was anciently held by William de Lancaster as an appendage of the fee of Wyresdale. William de Lancaster died without issue, and Wyresdale, with its dependency Great Eccleston, passed to Walter de Lindsay, the eldest son of his second sister, Alice. The Lindsay line terminated in the heiress Christiana de Lindsay, living in 1300, who married Ingelram de Guynes, Lord of Coucy, in France, whose eldest son was created earl of Bedford in 1336, and whose second and third sons, Sir William de Coucy and Robert de Coucy, held Great Eccleston as part of Wyresdale, their inheritance, in 1346. The widow of Sir William de Coucy conveyed her portion of Great Eccleston in marriage to Sir John de Coupland, and the remainder was then held by Baldwin de Guynes and Joan, the heiress of John de Rigmayden. The whole of the township, with the exception of certain lands rented by the convent of Deulacres,[229] descended in the manner above described from William de Lancaster, through the Lindsays and Guynes or Coucys, to Coupland, Baldwin de Guynes, and Joan Rigmayden, and subsequently to their heirs. Amongst the Familiæ Lancastrienses there are two families of Ecclestons, one of which is described as of Eccleston, near Preston, and the other of Eccleston simply, the latter doubtless being the Ecclestons who were seated at Great Eccleston Hall anterior to the Stanleys, the occupants in the seventeenth century, whose pedigree will be found, with others, in a former chapter of this volume. The Ecclestons, of Eccleston, near Preston, would belong to the place of that name in the Hundred of Leyland. Thomas Stanley, an illegitimate son of the fourth earl of Derby, settled, about 1600, at Great Eccleston Hall, which, together with the estate, was probably purchased; his descendants remained there until the death of Richard Stanley, in 1714, when Thomas Westby, of Upper Rawcliffe, obtained possession of the land and mansion, both of which have since descended in his line.

An Episcopal chapel was erected, in 1723, on the summit of a hill at Copp, almost a mile from the village of Great Eccleston, and near to Elswick chapel, “which,” says Bishop Gastrell, “being never consecrated and in the possession of the Dissenters, it was thought more proper to build a new one there than to seize upon that.” Subjoined is a letter from John ffrance, of Little Eccleston Hall, to William Stafford, Commissary of Richmond, and Secretary to Bishop Gastrell, called forth by sundry matters in connection with the newly completed place of worship:—

“Eccleston parva, Aug. 3, 1724.

“Upon some discourse with Mr. Dixon (vicar of Kirkham) about Cop Chapell I will give you the trouble of this. When Subscriptions were desired towards building the said Chapell it was proposed and intended to be not only for the use of the Inhabitants of St. Michael’s, but likewise for the use of several townships, which lye in the Parish of Kirkham, remote from their Parish Church; and the Inhabitants of this township (Little Eccleston-with-Larbrick) have contributed more towards the Building than those of St. Michael’s, and would have erected it within Kirkham Parish, if the situation had been thought equally convenient. And likewise the person, who promised to pay the hundred pounds towards the Queen’s Bounty, gave a note touching the same, with conditions in favour of Kirkham Parish.