$ NOTES ON THE PARISH OF GRESSINGHAM, BY T. CANN HUGHES, M.A. (LOCAL MEMBER OF COUNCIL FOR LANCASHIRE). (Read May 18th, 1898.) HE village which is the subject of this paper is situated about seven miles from the old county town of Lancaster. It is reached from that town by the Midland Railway. From the Green Ayre station a good view is obtained of the group composed of the ancient castle of Lancaster and the adjoining parish church of St. Mary. At the first station from Lancaster the village of Halton is reached. Here is a church whose foundation is even earlier than that of the church of Lancaster. In the churchyard may be seen the handsome cross which has received such ample elucidation in our Journal and elsewhere at the capable hands of the Bishop of Bristol, Mr. Romilly Allen, Mr. Holme Nicholson, Dr. ColleyMarch, and other antiquaries. Adjoining the church is the castle mound of Halton, and on the opposite side of the road the ancient building known as Halton Hall, where is preserved one of the finest Roman altars found in this neighbourhood. On the moor above Halton was found the silver drinking-cup which is now preserved in the British Museum, and which has received full attention in the pages of Archæologia. The train pursues its way up the valley of the Lune, which, between Halton and the next stopping-place at Caton, passes the beautiful Crook of Lune. Just beyond Caton station, on the right-hand side, may be observed in the distance the church of Brookhouse, restored some years ago by Messrs. Paley and Austin, Embedded the well-known Lancaster church architects. in the external west wall of the north aisle are several fragments of monuments from the older church, and on one of these is an inscription which has, for many years past, been a puzzle to antiquaries. It was well treated some few years ago by my co-representative from Lancashire on the Association Council (Mr. W. O. Roper, F.S.A.), in his paper published in the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society. At some further distance beyond Caton may be observed, again on the right-hand side of the line, the ancient hall of Claughton with its adjacent church, in the belfry of which is preserved the oldest dated bell known in England. This has been illustrated and fully described in the Palatine Notebook, by Mr. Robert Langton, F.R.H.S. The credit of its discovery is due to that courteous antiquary, the Rev. W. B. Grenside, the vicar of Melling. We alight from the train at the station of Hornby, within sight of the fine castellated mansion of Colonel Foster, the member for the Lancaster division. Immediately after leaving the station may be found, on the left-hand side, one of those curious ancient door-lintels so prevalent in North Lancashire. Passing on through the village and crossing the Lune by Hornby Bridge, and passing the main entrance to the castle, we arrive, at the righthand side, at the parish church of Hornby, with its octagonal tower so intimately associated with the Stanley family. In the churchyard is a curious four-square stone, about 5 ft. high, on each face of which is sculptured a circular arch. It appears that at one time it was surmounted with a sun-dial, but the base itself is considerably older than such a use would imply. Just outside the church is the base of what has been an ancient cross. A similar base exists in the adjacent parish of Claughton. Leaving the church we pass onwards, noticing on the left Hornby Hall, the residence of F. A. Darwin, Esq., the clerk to the West Riding County Council. Some mile further on may be observed, on the right-hand side, just before we cross the Lune by the Gressingham or Loyne Bridge, the ancient Gressingham Mound, particulars of which will be found in a recent volume of the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, from the pen of Mr. J. S. Slinger. Directly we cross the bridge, a good view may be obtained of the border hills near Kirkby Lonsdale, dividing Lancashire from Westmoreland and Yorkshire, and of the ancient parish church of Melling. Continuing some half mile further, we arrive at the village of Gressingham. No fewer than six forms of spelling this word have been observed in the course of my researches in preparation for this paper, i.e., Gressingham, Grysingham, Girsyngham, Gersingham, Grassingham and Grissingham. The township appears as Gersictone in the Domesday Survey. There are frequent references to it in the Testa de Nevill. In Domesday, it was estimated to contain two carucates, and was part of the Saxon manor of Witetune, belonging to Earl Tosti. Alice, daughter of Geoffrey de Gersingham, being in the donation of the Crown, was married by King John to Thomas of Gressingham. They held five carucates for tending the King's hawks in Lunesdale till they became strong, when they were handed over to the Sheriff of Lancashire. Roger de Montbegon in the following charter, extracted from Mr. Roper's Materials for the History of the Church of Lancaster, says: "To all the sons of the Holy Mother Church, to whom the present writing shall come Roger de Montbegon greeting in the Lord. Let all of you know that I have quit claimed to the Church of St. Martin of Sees and to the Church of St. Mary of Lancaster and to the Monks serving God there the whole right and claim from me and my heirs for ever which I had in the Chapel of Gressingham if I had any right; and if any of mine or of my heirs shall move a question against the aforesaid Churches and monks concerning the aforesaid Chapel I and my heirs will stand faithfully with the said monks against him and will defend their right to the best of our power. I have also granted that whosoever shall hold the Church of Melling by my presentation or that of my heirs shall execute a juratory obligation to the said monks that he will pay annually in charity to the Church of St. Mary of Lancaster for lighting two shillings at Easter for the welfare of my soul and the souls of my ancestors. The presentee also shall swear at the said Church that he will never move any question concerning the above written Chapel against the aforesaid Monks. And the aforesaid Monks shall exact nothing more from him or from the same Church than the said two shillings. These being witnesses-G. fitz Reinfrid, H. the Seneschal, Gilbert de North, Roger of Burton, Robert of Bury, Richard of Wyresdale, Adam son of Orm, Helyas of Wemth, Walter of Parles, John of Torrisholmw, Peter of Hull, Orm son of Adam of Kellet, Patrick of Borwick, and others." From this time (1225) to the present the presentation to the living has remained in the hands of the vicar of the parish church of St. Mary of Lancaster. There is a curious local belief that for many centuries the wax candle-ends from the mother church of Lancaster were the perquisite of the incumbent of her daughter church of Gressingham. The charters set forth in detail with such care by Mr. Roper, in his Materials, contain many references to the church of Gressingham. In particular, the charter of Archdeacon John Romanous and that of Henry of Newark, and the confirmations of the Archbishop, and Dean and Chapter of York are full of such references. Again we find Gressingham mentioned in the charters of Geoffrey of Gersingham. Benedict de Gersingham (whose family name was possibly Garnett, or Gernet), is a witness to several of these charters. Further references in the fourteenth century are found in the Birch Feodary, printed by Matthew Gregson in his "Portfolio of Fragments"; in the Exchequer Lay Subsidy, 1332, printed by the Record Society; and in the "Survey" of 1320 to 1346, published by the Chetham Society, under the editorship of John Harland, in his Three Lancashire Documents. The same Society have published some interesting references to Gressingham in the particulars of an aid granted to John O'Gaunt on the occasion of the marriage of his eldest daughter, forming part of the Coucher Book of Furness Abbey. We now come to the sixteenth century. In 1523 we find a reference to Gressingham in a description in the Chetham Society's publication on "Lancashire Chantries", in the account of the Hospital or Bede-house in Hornby, in the parish of Melling. Again, in 1553, we find that two soldiers were sent from Gressingham as part of the military muster of the county, as detailed in the Lancashire Lieutenancy Papers. In 1560 the manor of Gressingham passed to Lord Monteagle, himself a member of the Stanley family. In 1646 the Manchester Presbyterian Classes records on its minutes that the eights classes was to contain Lancaster parish, and that Mr. John Sill, of Gressingham, was a fit minister for the classes. Other references occur in the "Plundered Ministers' Accounts", published by the Record Society. In 1650 the church was in the hands of the said Mr. Sill, and the people petitioned that they might be made into a separate parish church, and that the inhabitants |