254 L A N - L A N Lancashire at Liverpool and Manchester. The county has one court of quarter sessions, and is divided into twenty sessional divisions. The city of Manchester and the boroughs of Bolton, Liverpool, and Wigan have commissions of the peace and separate courts of quarter sessions; and the boroughs of Ashton-under- Lyne, Blackburn, Bromley, Lancaster, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, Salford, and Warrington have commissions of the peace. There are ten police divisions. Most of the municipal boroughs have their own police. The county is chiefly in the diocese of Manchester, formed in 1847; but the northern portion of Furness is in Carlisle, a portion formerly in Chester is now part of the newly formed diocese of Liverpool, and a small portion adjoining Yorkshire is in Ripon. The chancery of the duchy of Lancaster, still a crown office, was at one time a court of appeal for the chancery of the county palatine, but now even its jurisdiction in regard to the estates of the duchy is merely nominal. The chancery of the county palatine has con current jurisdiction with the High Court of Chancery in all matters of equity within the county palatine, and independent jurisdiction in regard to a variety of other matters.
History and Antiquities. – Before the Roman invasion Lancashire formed part of the extensive northern province of the Brigantes, of whose occupation a few names and earthworks are the chief remains. The Romans held the district for three centuries and a half, and erected various camps or stations at Manchester, Ribchester, Lancaster, Colne, &c. They also constructed various roads, one entering the county at Warrington, and passing almost north to Carlisle. Manchester appears to have been the chief centre of this district, as the roads branched out thence in every direction, – into Cheshire by Stockport, by Stretford, and by Warrington, to Yorkshire by Littleborough or by Overborough near Colne, by Ribchester to Lancaster, by Kirkham to the Wyre, and by Westhaughton and Blackrod to Preston. The Roman remains found within the country are thus summarized by Mr W. T. Watkin in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire for 1880, p. 89: –
"Excluding perhaps Northumberland, I doubt whether any English county has produced so many elaborate articles in the precious metals and in bronze of the Roman period. The silver arm from Littleborough, the gold bullæ from Manchester and Overborough, the gold rings from Standish, the silver cup from Emmott, the rich 'find' of silver articles from Walmersley, the bronze shield umbo from Kirkham, and the beautiful helmet from Ribchester, with the gold cup from the same place, form an almost unequalled collection of Britanno-Roman works of art."
After the departure of the Romans Lancashire was included in the
kingdom of Strathclyde, which for sometime retained its independ
ence; but, although King Arthur, according to some authorities,
fought several battles against them on the banks of the Douglas at
Wigan, the Saxons gradually occupied the whole county, and during
the Heptarchy it formed part of the kingdom of Northumbria. How
extensive was their occupation may be judged of from the Saxon
names of towns and villages remaining to the present day. Towards
the end of the 9th century, however, the Danes invaded and per
manently settled in the Furness district, and also in the south-west
coast of the county, and in the opposite peninsula of Wirral in
Cheshire, in all which places many Danish names of villages are
still found.
In Domesday the portion of Lancashire between the Ribble and the Mersey was included in Cheshire and the remainder in York shire. A great part of the lands between the Ribble and Mersey was granted by the Conqueror to Roger de Poictou of the family of Montgomery. It was then conferred by Henry I. on Stephen de Blois, afterwards king, on the decease of whose brother William it reverted to the crown, and was granted to one of the earls of Chester. That line becoming extinct in 1232, it passed to William de Ferrers, and after the second revolt of Robert de Ferrers, King Henry III. granted it to his younger son Edmund Crouchback, and with it the earldom of the county. (See LANCASTER, HOUSE OF.) In 1351 the county became a palatinate, and again, after sixteen years abeyance, in 1377. Henry IV., soon after ascending the throne, passed an Act declaring that the inheritance and titles of the duchy of Lancaster should remain to him and his heirs for ever a distinct and separate inheritance from the lands and possessions of the crown; and from the reign of Henry V. the sovereigns of England have held the duchy, as well out of as within the county palatine. At the Reformation most of the leading families of the county adhered to the Catholic faith, and a few, as the Blundels of Little Crosby and the Harringtons of Huyton, never left it. Dur ing the civil wars they were ardent supporters of the royalist cause, especially the Derby family, and the county was frequently the scene of sieges, as at Manchester, Liverpool, Warrington, Lathom House, &c., and of battles, as at Atherton Moor, Wigan, Preston, and Winwick.
The Cistercian abbey of Furness is perhaps one of the finest and most extensive ecclesiastical ruins in England. Whalley abbey, first founded at Stanlawe in Cheshire in 1178, and removed in 1296, belonged to the same order. There was a priory of Black Canons at Burscough, founded in the time of Richard I., one at Conishead dating from Henry II.'s reign, and one at Lancaster. A convent of Augustinian friars was founded at Cartmel in 1188, and one at War
rington about 1280. There are some remains of the Benedictine priory of Upholland, changed from a college of secular priests in 1318; and the same order had a priory at Lancaster founded in 1094, a cell at Lytham, of the reign of Richard I., and a priory at Penwortham, founded shortly after the time of the Conqueror. The Premonstratensians had Cockersand Abbey, changed in 1190 from a hospital founded in the reign of Henry II., of which the chapter-house remains. At Kersal, near Manchester, there was a cell of Cluniac monks founded in the reign of John, while at Lan caster there were convents of Dominicans and Franciscans, and at Preston a priory of Grey Friars built by Edmund, earl of Lancaster, son of Henry III.
Besides the churches mentioned under the several towns, the more interesting are those of Aldingham, Norman doorway; Aughton; Cartmel priory church, with choir and transepts of the Transition between Norman and Early English, south chapel Decorated, and nave and windows Perpendicular; Hawkshead; Heysham, Norman with traces of Saxon; Hoole; Huyton; Kirk- by, rebuilt, with very ancient font; Kirkby Ireleth, late Perpen dicular, with Norman doorway; Leyland; Moiling (in Lonsdale), Perpendicular, with stained glass windows; Middleton, rebuilt in 1524, but containing part of the old Norman church and several monuments; Ormskirk, Perpendicular with traces of Norman, hav ing two towers one of which is detached and surmounted by a spire; Orerton, -with Norman doorway; Radcliffe, Norman; Sefton, Perpendicular, with fine brass and recumbent figures of the Moly- neux family, also a screen exquisitely carved; Stidd, near Rib chester, Norman arch and old monuments; Tunstall, late Perpen dicular; Upholland priory church, Early English, with low massy tower; Urswick, Norman, with embattled tower and several old monuments; Walton, anciently the parish church of Liverpool; Walton-le-Dale; Warton, with old font; Whalley abbey church, Decorated and Perpendicular, with Runic stone monuments. The principal old castles are those of Lancaster, noticed below; Dalton, a small rude tower occupying the site of an older building; two towers of Gleaston Castle, built by the lords of Aldingham in the 14th century; the ruins of Greenhalgh Castle, built by the first earl of Derby, and demolished after a siege by order of parliament in 1649; the ruins of Fouldrey in Peel Island near the entrance to Barrow, erected in the reign of Edward III., now a most dilapi dated ruin, but "massive, great, and impressively solemn." There are many old timber houses and mansions of special interest, as well as numerous modern seats.
The principal histories of Lancashire are those by Edward Baines (1824, 2d ed. 1836, edited by Harland, 1868-70) and by Thomas Baines (1868-70). Many interesting papers on special subjects will be found in the 110 volumes issued by the Chetham Society, instituted at Manchester in 1843, and in the 32 volumes of Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society; also in the Palatine Note-Book for 1881. For a fuller list of the bibliography of the county and its several towns see Fishwick, Lancashire Library, 1877; Sutton, Lancashire Authors, 1876; and Anderson, Topography of the United Kingdom, 1881.
LANCASTER, a municipal borough and seaport town,
the capital of Lancashire, England, is situated on the
left bank of the river Lune, about 7 miles from its mouth,
and on the London and North-Western Railway, 52 miles
north-west of Manchester. It is built on the slope of an
eminence crowned by the old castle and church, and com
manding fine views of the river and surrounding country.
The older portion of the town is irregularly built, but of
late years it has been much improved by the formation of
new streets; and the sanitary and other arrangements are
complete and satisfactory. The Lune is crossed by a
bridge of five arches erected in 1788, and to the north of
the town the Lancaster Canal is conveyed over the river
by a handsome aqueduct. The ancient castle occupies the
site of a Roman castrum. The Saxon foundations of a
yet older structure still remain, and the tower at the
south-west corner is supposed to have been erected during
the reign of the emperor Hadrian. The Dungeon Tower,
also supposed to be of Roman origin, was taken down in
1818. The greater part of the old portion of the present
structure was built by Roger de Poictou, who, however,
utilized some of the old Roman towers and the old walls
in its erection. In 1322 much damage was done to the
castle by Robert Bruce, whose attack it successfully resisted,
but it was restored and strengthened by John of Gaunt,
who added the greater part of the Gateway Tower as well
as turrets to the Lungess Tower, which on that account has
been named "John o'Gaunt's Chair." During the wars of
the Commonwealth the castle was captured by Cromwell.
Shortly afterwards it was converted into the county jail,
