LATHOM, a township in the parish of ORMSKIRK,
hundred of WEST-DERBY, county palatine of LANCASTER,
3 miles (N. E. by E.) from Ormskirk, containing
2997 inhabitants. The free grammar school at Newburgh,
in this township, was erected, in 1714, by the
Rev. Thomas Crane, who endowed it with an estate at
Dalton, to which Richard Okell, the schoolmaster, in
1761, added another, producing, together with an additional
bequest of about £ 9 per annum, by Jonathan
Lucas, in 1793, a total income of £ 52 per annum: there
are one hundred scholars, of which number, forty poor
children of Latham and Newburgh are instructed gratuitously.
At Latham park is an ancient almshouse
consisting of several tenements, with a chapel. There is
a domestic chapel connected with the mansion of Lord
Skelmersdale, by whom the officiating minister is appointed;
his lordship has lately ornamented the chapel,
at an expense of £1200, and has likewise erected a
school-room, in which the children are educated at his
own charge. Lathom house, once "the chief seat of the
Stanleys," was originally built by the De Lathoms;
during the great civil war it sustained repeated sieges
from the parliamentary forces, its owner, the Earl of
Derby, being one of the most staunch supporters of the
royal cause. On the 28th of February, 1644, it was
besieged by General Sir Thomas Fairfax, with a force
of three thousand troops, but was most gallantly defended
by the Countess of Derby, with only a small
band of three hundred men, who, iu several destructive
sallies, slew five hundred of the enemy, wounded one
hundred and forty, and repeatedly destroyed their
works: on the 26th of May, the assailants were obliged
to raise the siege, on the arrival of the royalists under
Prince Rupert. In the following year it was again besieged,
by General Egerton, at the head of four thousand
men, to whom, after an obstinate defence, it was
surrendered, for want of ammunition, when it was
plundered and the fortifications destroyed: the fine seat
of the Wilbraham family now stands on its site. A market
and a fair, to be held,at this place, were granted to
Robert de Lathbm, in the 32nd of Edward I. Here is a
saline chalybeate spring, which also contains some portion
of natron.