No. II.
THE CATHOLIC REGISTERS OF ST. MARY'S, SAMLESBURY, LANCASHIRE, 1753-1837. HISTORICAL NOTES BY DOM JOSEPH EDWARD SMITH , O.S.B. Samlesbury, a rural township within the Parish of Blackburn, lies in Lower Ribblesdale , and extends from that river ( which bounds to the west, and also to the north for some distance ) over undulating ground into the valley of the Darwen and upwards as far as Arley Brook in Woodford Park, a distance of three miles . From that point the eastern boundary extends over the slope of Hoolster Hill , the highest ground in the township, to the village of Mellor Brook. To the south the river Darwen and its tributary, the Beasting Brook, form the boundary until the hundred of Leyland is touched. Samlesbury covers an area of 4,379 acres. Needless to say, the Mission of this name, with whose history we are now concerned , must not be regarded as confined within such nicely defined boundaries as the above , which are civil and of comparatively modern date. In the second half of the twelfth century, Gospatric , lord of Samlesbury, built a chapel dedicated to St. Leonard for the use of his dependents , on the site occupied to this day by what has now become the parish church, though it is no longer Catholic. A mere chapel-ofease to Lawe (Walton ) , at that time a dependent of Blackburn, St. Leonard's had no burial ground of its own till some time between 1185-1191, when Gospatric induced two Irish bishops , his guests of the moment, to consecrate a cemetery for him, with the consent indeed of Henry , rector of Blackburn, but unknown to the Bishop of Lichfield in whose diocese the parish was then situated. Hugh de Nonant, the local Ordinary, resenting this invasion of his rights, declared the consecration null ; but , having had the local difficulties represented to him, he eventually gave way and allowed burial there (Whalley Coucher, Chet . Soc., i , 90) . In 1238 John de Lacy made a grant (ib. 74) , confirmed by the Bishop of Lichfield in 1239 and again in 1267 (ib. 70) , conveying Samlesbury chapel together with the rectory of Blackburn, to Stanlaw Abbey, and after the removal of the Stanlaw community to Whalley in 1296 it continued to be served by the Cistercians until the dissolution of that Abbey in 1537. Traces of the monks may, perhaps , be discerned in " Monk's Lane ," " pack and Prime ( divine office) road or " Egg (abstinence ) road , by all of " " which names the lower lane from Samlesburytowards Whalley was 1875 suggest stage known , and which the early still in of the return journey to the monastery after a supply " at Samlesbury . The history of religion at Samlesbury throughout the whole of this period is so intimately bound up with that of the lords of the manor, that some slight sketch of the ruling families must now be given. Sir William de Samlesbury , grandson of Gospatric, had issue by his wife Avine, daughter and heir of William de Notton, three daughters,
it
* Consecrated Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1186, died March 27,
1199.