It may be here noticed that Edmund Dudley, so notorious in English history as the infamous agent of Henry VII. in the wholesale and scandalous extortions that monarch practised upon his subjects, held many and large territorial possessions in the county of Lancashire, the reward in all probability of his unscrupulous services to the king. After the death of his royal patron a loud outcry for the punishment of Dudley was raised by the nation, and in the first year of Henry VIII. a proclamation was issued inviting those subjects who had been injured by Dudley and his fellow commissioner, Sir Richard Empson, to come forward and state their complaints; the number of complainants who appeared was so great that it was found impossible to examine all their claims, so in order to pacify the universal indignation, the two obnoxious agents were thrown into prison on a charge of treason. From the Inquisition for the Escheat of the Duchy of Lancaster taken on the attainder of Edmund Dudley, in 1509, it is discovered that amongst his numerous estates, were lands in Elswick, Hambleton, Freckleton, Thornton, Little Singleton, Wood Plumpton, Whittingham, Goosnargh, and Claughton. Stow, writing about the circumstances alluded to, says:—“Thereupon was Sir Richard Empson, Knight, and Edmund Dudley, Esquire, by a politicke mean brought into the Tower, where they were accused of treason, and so remained there prisoners, thereby to quiet men’s minds, that made such suit to have their money restored. On the seventeenth of July Edmund Dudley was arraigned in the Guildhall of London, where he was condemned, and had judgement to be drawn, hanged, and quartered.... Henry VIII. sent commandment to the Constable of the Tower, charging him that Empson and Dudley should shortly after be put to execution. The Sheriffs of London were commanded by a special writ to see the said execution performed and done, whereupon they went to the Tower and received the prisoners on the 17th of August, 1510, and from thence brought them unto the scaffold on Tower Hill, where their heads were stricken off.”
The most conspicuous event which happened during the sovereignty of Henry VIII. was the Protestant Reformation. Henry, having quarrelled with the Supreme Head of the Church at Rome, determined to suppress all religious houses in his kingdom whose incomes amounted to less than £200 per annum. Doctors Thomas Leigh and Thomas Layton were appointed to inspect and report on those in Lancashire; and amongst the number condemned on their visit was a small Benedictine Cell at Lytham. This Cell owed its origin to Richard Fitz Roger, who towards the latter part of the reign of Richard I. granted lands at Lytham to the Durham Church, in order that a prior and Benedictine monks might be established there to the honour of St. Mary and St. Cuthbert. Its yearly revenue at the time of suppression was only £55. A little later, in 1540, the larger monastic institutions suffered the fate of the smaller ones; and amongst the chantries closed were two at St. Michael’s-on-Wyre. All Catholic places of worship were closed by a proclamation, bearing the date September 23rd, 1548, and issued by the lord protector Somerset on behalf of the young king Edward VI. On the death of that monarch in 1553 the crown descended to his sister Mary, only daughter of Catherine of Arragon; and one of her first acts was to re-establish the old faith and re-open the churches and chantries which her predecessors had closed. Mass was again celebrated in the churches of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre, Kirkham, and Singleton, as in former days, the officiating priests being:—
| Kirkham | Thomas Primbet, | annual fee | £2 | 10s. | 0d. |
| Singleton | Richard Goodson, | ” ” | £2 | 9s. | 0d. |
| St. Michael’s-on-Wyre, | Thomas Cross | ” ” | £4 | 13s. | 10d. |
In the early part of this reign a grand military muster was ordered to be made in the county palatine of Lancaster, and towards the 300 men raised in the Hundred of Amounderness the Fylde townships contributed as follows:—
The commanders of the regiment were—Sir Thomas Hesketh, Sir Richard Houghton, George Browne, John Kitchen, Richard Barton, William Westby (of Mowbreck), and William Barton, Esquires.
Dodsworth, who lived in the latter part of the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries, informs us that sometime during the year 1555 “a sudden irruption of the sea” took place near Rossall grange, and a whole village, called Singleton Thorp, was washed away by the fury of the waves. “The inhabitants were driven out of their ancient home, and erected their tents at a place called Singleton to this day.” It has been surmised that Singleton Thorp was the residence of Thomas de Singleton, who opposed Edward I. in a suit to recover from that king the manors of Singleton, Thornton, and Brughton. The site formerly occupied by the ancient village is now called Singleton Skeer. Dodsworth also declares that the Horse-bank lying off the shores of Lytham was, in 1612, during the reign of James I., a pasture for cattle, and that, in 1601, a village called Waddum Thorp existed between it and the present main-land.
In January, 1559, about two months after the accession of Elizabeth, another muster took place throughout the several counties of the kingdom, and subjoined are enumerated the bodies of soldiers furnished by the different Hundreds of Lancashire:—