messuages already belonging to the abbey, to the abbot, in exchange for messuages and an acre of ground in the vicinity of Stanlawe abbey in Cheshire.[1] Stanlawe abbey itself had sundry possessions in Carleton shortly after its foundation in 1175,[2] all of which were conveyed to the abbey of Whalley in 1296, when the two monastic houses were united, and thus it happened that this township was included amongst the localities in which Whalley abbey held lands at the time of its dissolution.
Sometime during the reign of Henry VIII. the Sherburnes, of Stonyhurst, Hambledon, etc., became holders of soil in Carleton, and at a later period had acquired the manorial rights and privileges. In 1717 Sir Nicholas Sherburne, bart., bequeathed the manor of Carleton, amongst numerous other estates, to his only child and heiress, Maria Winifreda Francisca, the duchess of Norfolk, and two years later the duke of Norfolk had obtained a settlement by which he held a life interest in Carleton, Stonyhurst, and other places, the duchess, however, having reserved to herself the power to dispose of the reversion or inheritance by will or deed, executed in the duke's lifetime. The duchess of Norfolk bequeathed her real estate, including Carleton, on her death in 1745, to her cousin Edward Weld, esq., grandson of Sir John Weld, of Lulworth Castle, Dorsetshire, whose descendant Edward Joseph Weld, esq., has disposed of most of his inheritance in the township to various purchasers, chiefly amongst the local yeomanry and gentry.
The Bambers, of the Moor, in Carleton, were people of position in the township. Richard Bamber, during the latter half of the sixteenth century, married Anne, the daughter of Thomas Singleton, of Staining Hall, and consequently was the brother-in-law of John Leckonby, of Leckonby House, Great Eccleston, who had espoused Alice, another daughter of the same gentleman. It is impossible to affirm with certainty what children sprang from the union of Richard Bamber and Ann Singleton, but of one of them, Edward, who entered the Romish priesthood, we subjoin an interesting and tragic account, extracted from the "Memoirs of Missionary Priests, by the Right Rev. Richard Challoner, D.D.":—
"Edward Bamber, commonly known upon the commission by the name of
Reding, was the son of Mr. Richard Bamber, and born at a place called the Moor,
