SHIRBURNS of Stoneyhurst.pdf - Ingilby History

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Longridge, which was possibly also situated at Hurst Green. There is good evidence that he intended to formalise these arrangements and to build a permanent hostel, circumventing the normal operation of the Poor Law entirely and rendering the Shireburnes the most significant - and generous - local dispensers of charity and outdoor relief to the poor and dispossessed 18 . However, the sudden, spectacular, and entirely unforeseen collapse of James II's regime, in the winter of 1688-89, brought a dramatic halt to all of these schemes and to the family's bid for regional predominance. Indeed their strength and loyalty to the King, when combined with the proximity of their lands to a possible invasion route from Ireland, and Sir Nicholas’ firm contacts with Talbot and the Gaelic Irish, marked the Shireburnes out – in the eyes of the Northern Whigs - as being a particularly dangerous and malignant clan. It is notable that a curious paralysis seems to have taken hold of the family in the closing months of 1688, for they made no attempt to muster troops or to hold Chester for James II. However, in the summer of 1689, when Jacobite agents landed at Cockerham Sands, they brought with them declarations to raise Lancashire in the name of the fallen Stuart King and a commission explicitly empowering the elder Richard Shireburne to raise a regiment of horse in order to fight in the expected civil conflict. Though significant quantities of powder and coin were stockpiled at Stonyhurst, and the family took possession of a share of the “great Quantity of Arms and Warlike Equipage … Kettle Drums, Trumpets, Jack Boots and … Saddles” landed in order to facilitate a rising, there is little evidence to suggest that Richard and his sons were either natural or particularly willing soldiers, and plans for a great rebellion in the North- 18 DDSt Box 94, item 2. DDSt. 5, “Mr. Kemp’s Disbursements from the 1 st Jan. 1712-1713 to the 25 th March 1713-14, being a yeare and 3 months”, fols.1-2. See also: N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Lancashire: Vol.II, The Rural North, (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1969), p.239.
West were quickly and quietly abandoned by them 19 . Unfortunately, this was not enough to prevent Squire Richard's identification as a potential Jacobite plotter. Seized by the local militia, he was brought to Preston under guard, before being transferred to Manchester on 25 June 1689. There he was kept under house arrest, in the relatively comfortable surroundings of the Bull's Head Inn, but was not allowed to “conferre or discourse” with any of his co-religionists. Whether through the shock of his arrest, or the rigours of his hasty and disagreeable journey south, his health collapsed and he died at the Inn, still under the watch of the militiamen, on 8 August 1689 20 . In a double blow to the dynasty, he was followed to the grave only a few months later by his heir apparent, leaving his widow and younger son to attempt to rebuild the family's shattered local influence 21 . Consequently, a recourse to active Jacobitism appeared to be a natural path for Sir Nicholas, offering him the prospect of a return to power and influence in the event of a second Restoration. Given the frailty of William III's hold on power, in the early 1690s, such a course of action certainly seemed to be worth the risk of an attainder for treason and the Shireburnes busied themselves, advancing money to the exiled court at St. Germain and maintaining a regular correspondence with their absent sovereign, and his servants. Unsurprisingly, by May 1693, Sir Nicholas was once more in trouble with the authorities. Evidence was presented that, in late 1687 or early 1688, he had ceded his lands in Chipping, Lancashire, to Bishop John Leyburn, Vicar Apostolic, “for the maintenance 19 W. Beamont (ed), The Jacobite Trials at Manchester in 1694, (Manchester, 1853), pp.16, 30 & 37. HMC, op.cit. pp.293 & 302. 20 HMC, op.cit. pp.313-14. Lancashire Record Office, Preston, PR 3031/1/1-4: Mitton Registers 1655-1699, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials. Richard’s date of death is recorded here as being 8 August 1689. This date is at odds with that given in the inscription given upon his tomb. This is given as 16 th August, but the dates given on all of the Shireburne tombs are unreliable in the extreme, with little attention paid by the mason’s to the texts provided by the family. Squire Richard was buried at Great Mitton after the 25 th August, but before 1 st September 1689. The exact date, though entered, is now lost in the very worn register. Fortunately, … had examined the parish registers in … and copied the date of burial as being 27 August 1689. See also: Gerard, Centenary Record, op.cit. p.67. 21 PR 3031/1/1-4: Mitton Registers 1655-1699. The younger Richard, described as being “of Stonyhurst, Esq.”, died on 6 April 1690 and was buried at Great Mitton on 15 April 1690.
Page 1 and 2: The last of the Shireburnes: the ar
Page 3 and 4: Shireburnes had been the exemplars
Page 5 and 6: for redress, Felgate was unable to
Page 7 and 8: College at St.Omers, he compounded
Page 9: agents in Ireland, liased with Talb
Page 13 and 14: and to ultimately convict their tro
Page 15 and 16: only one of the group not to be sho
Page 17 and 18: Spelling and grammar books, togethe
Page 19 and 20: patrimonies, Sir Nicholas had place
Page 21 and 22: schemes, Sir Nicholas made over one
Page 23 and 24: Even though they had systematically
Page 25 and 26: opened up in the name of the King.
Page 27 and 28: one of active assistance in the pre
Page 29 and 30: the North and the manors owned by t
Page 31 and 32: “marriage” to Widdrington nulli
Page 33 and 34: through the blind operation of fate

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