ASTLEY, a chapelry in the parish of LEIGH, hundred
of WEST-DERBY, county palatine of LANCASTER,
3 miles (E.) from Leigh, containing 1882 inhabitants.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry'
and diocese of Chester, endowed with £200 private
benefaction, and £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage
of the Vicar of Leigh. The chapel, dedicated to
St. Stephen, was founded by Adam Mort, gent., in the
early part of the seventeenth century, and endowed by
him with property of the value of £18 per annum.
In 1760, the old edifice was taken down, and a new one
erected upon a more enlarged plan, by the landowners
of the chapelry, the income at that time having been
considerably augmented. For a long period the right
of appointing the minister was a subject of dispute,
and various contests took place at the time of elections;
but the matter was ultimately determined by
the judges of the court of King's Bench, in 1S24, in
favour of the present patron. There is a place of worship
for Wesleyan Methodists. The manufacture of fustian
is extensively carried on in the chapelry. A school
is endowed with £25. 14. 8. per annum, for the education
of poor children; and, in 1630, Adam Mort
bequeathed land, producing about £24 per annum,
for the instruction of poor children here, and in the
townships of Great Bolton, Little Hulton, Bedford,
and Tyldesley.