Somewhere before the commencement of the eighteenth century, the estate of Bankfield was separated from the Grange, which, during the latter portion, at least, of the lifetime of Dr. Leigh, who died shortly after the publication of his "Natural History," was held by a person named Joseph Green. In 1701 the executors of Joseph Green sold a portion of Singleton Grange to Richard Harrison, of Bankfield, yeoman. The remainder of the Grange land was held by widow Green until her death, when it passed by her will, dated 1716, to her two sons, Richard and Paul Green.[1]
Richard Harrison, of Bankfield, obtained the whole of Singleton Grange in 1738, and left it on his decease to his son Richard, from whom it descended about 1836 to his only surviving child, Agnes Elizabeth, the wife of Edwards Atkinson, of Fleetwood, justice of the peace for the county of Lancaster. Mrs. Atkinson died childless in 1850, and bequeathed Singleton Grange to her husband, who in his turn entailed the estate upon his eldest son, Charles Edward Dyson Atkinson, still a minor, the offspring of a second marriage, with Anne, daughter of Christopher Thornton Clark, of Cross Hall, Lancashire, by whom he had issue two sons and a daughter,—Ann Elizabeth Ynocensia, John Henry Gladstone, and the present heir. The old Hall of Singleton Grange has been modernised and converted into a farm-house.
It is very probable that there was a chapel in Singleton during the earlier years of the fourteenth century, for in 1358-59, Henry, duke of Lancaster, granted to John de Estwitton, hermit, the custody of the chapel of St. Mary, in Singleton; and in 1440 a license was granted to celebrate mass to the inhabitants of Singleton in the chapel at the same place for one year. Twelve years afterwards another license was granted by the archdeacon of Richmond for an oratory to be established in the chapel for the use of the people of the township; and in 1456 the license was renewed by archdeacon Laurence Bothe to John Skilicorne, of Kirkham. The chapel, with all its appurtenances, passed to the Crown at the Reformation; and in the report of the Commissioners of Edward VI., it is stated that "A Stipendarye is founded in the Chapelle of
- ↑ Title Deeds.
