PENWORTHAM, a parish in the hundred of LEYLAND,
county palatine of LANCASTER, comprising the
chapelry of Longtbn, and the townships of Farrington,
Howiclc, Button, and Penwortham, and containing 4554
inhabitants, of which number, 1501 are in the township
of Penwortham, 1 mile (S.W.) from Preston. The
living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and
diocese of Chester, endowed with £1600 parliamentary
grant, and in the patronage of L. Rawstorne, Esq. The
church is dedicated to St. Mary. A free grammar school
was founded at Hutton, in 1552, by Christopher Walton,
who endowed it with houses and lands now producing
an annual income of about £675, for which a few boys
are instructed in the rudiments of Latin, and about one
hundred and forty children of both sexes are educated
on the National system. The petty sessions for the
hundred of Leyland are held here on Mondays, once in
five weeks, alternately with Chorley, Cuerdon, Leyland,
and Rufford. A Benedictine priory, in honour of the
Virgin Mary, was founded here, on lands granted byWarine
Bussel to the abbey of Evesham, in the time of the
Conqueror, and several monks of that establishment
placed therein, whose revenue at the dissolution was
valued at £114. 16. 9.