Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/404

 1600-1601    1700-1701     1800-1801

Baptisms    91  103       106 100       149 139 Marriages   20   19        15  25        40  45 Burials     69   44       103  86       157 112

Respecting Kirkham's less antiquated days it may be stated that Messrs. Thomas Shepherd, John Birley, and John Langton were the earliest to commence manufacturing on any large scale there, which they accomplished during the first half of the eighteenth century by establishing conjointly the flax spinning mill still existing, but with many additions, as the firm of John Birley and Sons. John Langton was descended from John Langton, of Broughton Tower, through his fourth son, John, who resided at Preston, and of whom Cornelius Langton, of Kirkham, was the third son. On the 31st of March, 1696, Cornelius Langton paid 30s. for his trade freedom in Kirkham, where he married Elizabeth, daughter of Zachary Taylor, M.A, head-master of the Grammar School, by whom he had issue John, Abigail, Zachary, and Roger. Abigail died in 1776; Zachary entered the church, and espoused the daughter of Alexander Butler, of Kirkland; Roger died in 1727; and John, the eldest, opened, in conjunction with the two gentlemen just named, a mercantile house in Kirkham, and left issue by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Brown, of Ashtree Hall, Kirkham,—Anne, Sarah, Cornelius, Thomas, of Kirkham, and five other children. The children of Thomas Langton, by his wife Jane, the eldest daughter of William Leyland, of Blackburn, were Elizabeth, Leyland, Cornelius, Zachary, Cicely, and William, of Kirkham, born 1758, died 1814. John Birley was the son of John Birley of Skippool, and the ancestor of the large families of Birley, at Kirkham, Manchester, etc. The mills at present standing in the neighbourhood of Kirkham are the flax mill of Messrs. John Birley and Sons, employing about 1,600 hands; the weaving shed of Messrs. Walker and Barrett, 400 hands; the cotton mill of Messrs. Harrison and Company, 150 hands; the cotton mill of Messrs. Richards and Parker, 180 hands; the weaving shed of Messrs. Richards Brothers, 84 hands; and the Fylde Manufacturing Company in Orders Lane, a newly-established concern. John Langton, who started in business at Kirkham as a flax spinner, purchased, in company with Ann