Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/431

 The Rev. Cuthbert Harrison was the son of Richard Harrison, of Newton, in Kirkham parish, and appears to have been the progenitor of the Harrisons, of Bankfield, being the first of the name on record as holder of that property. It is doubtful whether this minister was ejected from Singleton, as generally believed, or not, for in 1662, the date of the Act of Uniformity which drove so many of the clergy from their cures, he was in Ireland, holding the office of minister at Shankel, near Lurgan; so that if his ejection ever did take place from Singleton it must have been anterior to, and consequently unconnected with, the obnoxious Act. According to a letter from his son, however, he was ejected from Shankel, and it is probably that circumstance which has given rise to the supposition and assertion that he was one of those who suffered in the Fylde for conscience's sake in 1662. After leaving Ireland he opened a meeting-house at Elswick in 1672 by royal license, for the use "of such as do not conform to the Church of England and are of the persuasion commonly called Congregational." This place of worship was closed shortly afterwards by a decree of parliament, and Cuthbert Harrison, to escape persecution, was compelled to hold his services "very privately in the night" in his own house, or in one belonging to some member of his congregation. "He practysed physic," says his son, "with good success, and by it supported his family and gained the favour of the neighbouring gentry. He baptized his own children, with many others."

Vicar Clegg, of Kirkham, seems to have grown very wrathful at what he doubtless regarded as the presumption of Cuthbert Harrison, in taking upon himself the right to baptize children and solemnize matrimony, and presented him before the ecclesiastical court on a charge of "marrying one James Benson, of Warles, and baptizing a child of his." The inquiry resulted in both Harrison and Benson being excommunicated; but the former was not deterred by this ban from repairing to the church of Kirkham, much to the indignation of Mr. Clegg, who on one occasion was so much disturbed on seeing the irrepressible excommunicant in the chancel, whilst he engaged with the sermon, that he lost the thread of his discourse, and being unable to find the place amongst his notes, "was silent for some time." Smarting under the additional annoyance the vicar ordered the churchwardens to