Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/399

 This tower was embattled with a short pinnacle at each corner, and stood about sixty feet high; on a stone in one of the buttresses were carved the arms and name of Cuthbert Clifton. In the inside wall of the present tower there is fixed a stone bearing traces of an inscription, and it is probable, from the remnant of a name still discernible upon it, that this is the stone here referred to.

From the records of the "Thirty-men" are learnt several things of interest with regard to the church, and amongst them, that during the seventeenth century the edifice was used occasionally for scholastic purposes, thus:—

"1653-54.

"6 Jan. It was agreed (by the "Thirty-men") that no scriffener be suffered to teach in the church, unless he procure some honest townsmen of Kirkham to pass their word that whatsoever his scholars do, either in breaking glass or in abusing men's seats—and that they meddle not with the bells—he shall make good what they abuse."

In 1662 a font was erected at a cost of £2 5s. 4d., and most likely is the one now stationed in the tower entrance to the church. A bone house was built in 1679 in the recess or corner formed by the west wall of the north aisle and the north side of the tower, in obedience to the order of the bishop of the diocese. In 1724 gates were placed at the entrance to the churchyard, and in 1799 the old tithe barn which formed the westerly boundary of this plot of ground was blown down and destroyed; the stone for the gate pillars was obtained from Ribchester. The following lists of persons buried in the Clifton and Westby chapels, or quyres, as they were called, were given in an old document which was copied in 1790 by Mr. W. Langton, who described it as "much defaced and torn:"—

"In the Clifton Quire

"1597, sir Geo Cowbrone and Mr. Cuthbert Clifton; 1598, Henry Colbron of Frekleton; 1601, Mr. Skillicorne; 1604, ould Dorothie Skillicorne, Mr. Skillicorne's daughter; 1602, Mr. Skillicorne, his wiff, Mr. Skillicorne, his son, and Henry Brown of Scales; 1604, Lawrence Cowbrone, eldest son of above; 1616, Henry Porter of Treales; 1621, Mrs. Jane Anderton, died at Westby; 1625, Mr. John Sharples, of Frekleton; 1630, uxor Arthur Sharples, and Matthew Colbron of Frekleton."

"In the Westby Quyre.

"1605, Mr. Westby and Mr. John Westby (Mr. Thos. eldest brother); 1622, ould Mr. Hesketh; 1623, Mr. Hesketh of Maines."

In a note we are told that when Mr. Skillicorne died in 1601,