Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/391



Court.
 * firmed by the Chancelour, and that will be some foundation ffor a petition to that

"But if all the Burgesses are dead I can see no Remedy whatsoever but by obtaining a new Charter, which will be very Difficult if not Impracticable."

A statement as to manorial extent of Kirkham at the latter part of the seventeenth century is preserved amongst the records of a court, further reference to which will be made anon, and reads as here given:—"The lands lying within the manor of Kirkham, belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, in Oxford, and to the burgesses inhabitants of the borough of Kirkham, are bounded east by the lands of Edward Robinson and George Brown, lying within Newton and Scales; westward by the lands of Sir Thomas Clifton, within Westby, and the lands of Christopher Parker, esq., lying in Ribby with Wrea; northwards by the lands of Mrs. Dor^{y.} Westby, of Mowbreck, and the lands of Mr. Edward Fleetwood, of Wesham; and southwards by the lands of Mr. George Sharples, of Freckleton."

It has already been shown that the manor was conveyed by the authorities at Oxford to Thomas Fleetwood as fee-famer in 1601, and that the lease was subsequently renewed or confirmed to his son and heir Sir Richard Fleetwood. Before 1700, however, probably about 1650, from the contents of a petition presented by the inhabitants to the dean and chapter in 1705, the Cliftons, of Lytham, had the manor in a tenure similar to that of their predecessors, and held each year, in the month of June, a court leet, at which the two bailiffs were elected. The late Thomas Langton Birley, esq., of Carr Hill, Kirkham, acquired the lordship by purchase a short time previous to his death in 1874, when it descended to his son and heir, Henry Langton Birley, esq. Bailiffs still continue to be annually appointed, and have in their hands several charitable bequests, the interest arising therefrom being devoted to the service of the poor of the township, either in the form of alms, or in maintaining some useful convenience, as the parish pump, for their benefit. The property at present belonging to the bailiffs consists of one meadow, situated behind the Roman Catholic church; a garden in front of the same edifice; a plot in the field called the "Iron Latch"; and a pew in the parish church of Kirkham. In 1676 the bishop of Chester acceded to a petition from the minister and churchwardens that a wainscot