The area in statute acres of Out Rawcliffe is 4,340.

Elswick. From the Testa de Nevill it appears that about 1400 Warin de Wytingham and Alin de Singilton held respectively the eighth and sixteenth parts of a knight’s fee in Elswick from the Earl of Lincoln. Edmund Dudley had the manor until his attainder at the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII.; and in 1521, Thomas, earl of Derby, held it of that monarch. The soil is now in the possession of several landowners.

In 1650 the Parliamentary Commissioners of the Commonwealth reported that the inhabitants, “being fifty families, and five miles from their parish church, had lately, with the voluntary and free assistance of some neighbouring towns, erected a chapel.” The Rev. Cuthbert Harrison, who had been ejected from his benefice in Ireland for refusing the oath of Uniformity, procured a license from Charles II. in 1672 for the same chapel, “for the use of such as did not conform to the Church of England, commonly called Congregational.” Parliament, however, decreed that the King’s authority was insufficient, and forbade divine service to be held there a short time later. In 1702 the chapel seems to have been again opened, and continued in use amongst the Independents until 1753, when it was superseded by a new one, enlarged in 1838. The memorial stone of the present chapel, erected to commemorate the persecutions under the Five Mile Act of two centuries ago, was laid by Sir James Watts, of Manchester, on the 30th of July, 1873, and the building completed with all expedition. The chapel stands on a plot of ground presented by Mrs. Harrison, of Bankfield, adjoining the site of the former edifice, and is a handsome stone Gothic structure. The mortuary, with tower and spire, was given by R. C. Richards, esq., J.P., of Clifton Lodge, in memory of certain members of his family.

Elizabeth Hoole, by will dated 26th of April, 1727, charged a meadow in Elswick, which she gave to the Roman Catholic chapel of Great Eccleston, with the annual payment of £3 to the poor of Elswick.

POPULATION OF ELSWICK.

1801.1811.1821.1831.1841.1851.1861.1871.
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The area of the township includes 1,009 statute acres.

Wood Plumpton. In the Domesday Book Pluntun is entered as comprising two carucates of arable land. Robert de Stokeport died possessed of the manor in 1248, and his daughter and heiress married Nicholas de Eton as her first husband, and John de Arderne as her second. Robert de Eton, a descendant of her first marriage, obtained Wood Plumpton in 1340. Cecily de Stokeport, heiress of the Etons, conveyed the manor to Sir Edward Warren, of Poynton, in which family it remained until transferred, in 1777, to Viscount Thomas James Bulkeley on his marriage with Elizabeth Harriet, only child of Sir George Warren. The Bulkeley property ultimately passed to the Fleming-Leycesters, whence Lord de Tabley obtained the lordship. Charles Birley, esq., of Bartle Hall, is the present possessor of the manor. Wood Plumpton Hall was anciently the seat of the Warrens, whilst Ambrose Hall was occupied by a family of the same name, from which descended the Rev. Isaac Ambrose, who was ejected from Garstang by the Act of Uniformity. Richard Ambrose, of Ambrose Hall, left a son and heir, William, who married the daughter of ⸺ Curwen of Lancaster, and had issue a son, Nicholas. Nicholas Ambrose espoused Jane, daughter of John Singleton, of Gingle Hall, Lancashire, and left six sons and a daughter, the eldest of whom, William, resided at Ambrose Hall in 1567, and was twice married, first to Anne, widow of Lawrence Cotham, of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre, and after her decease to Margaret, widow of Sir Richard Houghton. Flower’s heraldic visitation, from which the foregoing is extracted, was made in 1567, and consequently the pedigree cannot be traced further.