Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/421

 a school, free to all denominations, was established by Thomas Clifton, esq., of Lytham, but there seems to have been such an institution existing before, as Ann Moor, of Westby, bequeathed, in 1805, £40 to Plumpton school, and the interest of £20 to the poor of Great Plumpton.

POPULATION OF WESTBY-WITH-PLUMPTONS.

1801. 1811.  1821.  1831.  1841.  1851.  1861.  1871. 623    692    771    686    643    707    601    535

The area of the township is 3,426 statute acres.

On the arrival of the Normans Weeton contained 300 acres of arable land. In the 9th year of King John, Matilda, wife of Theobald Walter, obtained certain inheritances in Weeton, Treales, and Rawcliffe. Theobald le Botiler, or Butler, held Weeton in 1249; and in 1339, James, son of Edmund le Botiler, earl of Ormond, had possession of it, together with Treales, Little Marton, and Out Rawcliffe. The manor descended in the same family until 1673, when it passed to the 9th earl of Derby on his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Butler, the Lord Ossory. The present earl of Derby is now the lord of the soil, and holds a court baron by deputy. There is a fair for cattle and small wares on the first Tuesday after Trinity Sunday.

Preese is the Pres of Domesday Book, and comprised at that time two carucates. Henry, duke of Lancaster, held Preese at his death in 1361. In the reign of Henry VIII. the manor was in the hands of the Skilicornes, who for many generations were the coroners of Amounderness. Preese Hall, the ancient seat of this family, was much damaged by a fire in 1732, which destroyed the private chapel. In 1864 that portion of the mansion, which had survived the conflagration and been repaired, was pulled down. The site is now occupied by a farm-house, belonging to T. H. Miller, esq., of Singleton, who owns a large amount of the land.

The church of Weeton is dedicated to St. Michael, and was built in 1843 by subscription, to which the late earl of Derby contributed generously. In 1852 the edifice was enlarged, and in 1861 the township of Weeton-with-Preese was united with the Plumptons and Greenhalgh, to form an ecclesiastical parish. The Rev. William Sutcliffe, when curate at Kirkham, performed the duties at Weeton church, and was appointed incumbent there in