good man admonished his people to obey the new queen, who had succeeded Mary, the late one, and besought them to love God above all things, and their neighbours as themselves." It is said that after vacating his cure at Bispham, the Rev. Jerome Allen, retired to Lambspring, in Germany, where he spent the remainder of his life in the strictest religious observances enjoined by his creed. In 1650 the following remarks concerning Bispham were recorded by the ecclesiastical commissioners of the Commonwealth:—"Bispham hath formerly been a parish church, containing two townships, Bispham-cum-Norbreck and Layton-cum-Warbreck, and consisting of three hundred families; the inhabitants of the said towns desire that they may be made a parish." In the survey of the Right Rev. Francis Gastrell, D.D., bishop of Chester, the annexed notice occurs:—"Bispham. Certif. £8 0s. 0d., viz., a parcell of ground, given by Mr. R. Fleetwood, worth, taxes deducted, £5 per year; Easter Reckonings, £3. Richard Fleetwood, esq., of Rossall Hall, settled upon the church in 1687 a Rent Charge of £10 per ann. for ever. Bispham-cum-Norbreck, and Layton-cum Warbreck, for which places serve four Churchwardens, two chosen by the ministers and two by the parish." In 1725 Edward Veale, of Whinney Heys, gave £200 to augment the living, and a similar amount was granted from Queen Anne's Bounty for a like purpose. Three years later £400 more were acquired, half from the fund just named, and half from Mr. S. Walter. The parish registers commence in 1599.
William le Botiler, or Butler, held the manors of Layton, Bispham, and Warbreck, according to the Duchy Feordary, in the early part of the fourteenth century, and in 1365 his son, Sir John Botiler, granted the manors of Great and Little Layton and Bispham, to Henry de Bispham and Richard de Carleton, chaplains. Great Bispham probably remained in the possession of the church until the dissolution of the monasteries. Norbreck and Little Bispham appear to have belonged to the convent of Salop, and were leased by William, abbot of that house, together with certain tithes in Layton, to the abbot and convent of Deulacres, by an undated deed, for eight marks per annum, due at Martinmas.[1] In 1539 the brotherhood of Deulacres paid rent for lands
- ↑ Dugd. Monast. vol. v. p. 630.
