BOLTON-le-MOORS, a parish in the hundred of SALFORD,
county palatine of LANCASTER, comprising the
market-town of Bolton, the chapelries of Blackrod, Bradshaw,
Darcy-Lever, Rivington, and Turton, the townships
of Anglezarke, Breightmet, Edgworth, Entwissle,
Harwood, Little Lever, Longworth, Quarlton, Sharpies,
and Tonge with Haulgh, and the hamlet of Lostoclc,
and containing 50,197 inhabitants, of which number
31,295 are in the town of Bolton, 43 miles (S. S.B.)
from Lancaster, and 197 (N. W. by N.) from London.
This place, which derives the adjunct to its name from
being situated on the moors, was of little importance.
until about 1337, when the emigrant Flemings, who fixed
their residence here, introduced the manufacture .ot
woollen cloth, and laid the foundation of its future increase
as a manufacturing town; and after the revocation
of the edict of Nante, many of the French refugees,
attracted by the means of employment which
its trade at that time afforded, took up their abode in
the town. At the commencement of the civil war in
the reign of Charles I., the inhabitants espoused the
cause of the parliament, by whom the town was garrisoned,
and in whose possession it remained till 1644,
when Prince Rupert, advancing with ten thousand men
to the relief of Latham House, which was besieged by
a body of two thousand parliamentary troops, compelled
them to raise the siege, and retire into this town.
Having been joined by the Earl of Derby, the Prince
resolved to invest Bolton, and an attempt was made to
take it by storm; but the garrison, after sustaining
several assaults with desperate valour, finally repulsed
the assailants. The earl, placing himself at the head
of his Lancashire tenantry, made a second attempt
upon the town, which fell into his hands, and the parliamentary
governor escaped with the remnant of the
garrison into Yorkshire. After continuing for some
time in possession of the royalists, Bolton was given
up to the parliament; and after the disastrous battle of
Worcester, the gallant earl, who had come from the Isle
of Man to the assistance of Charles II., being taken
prisoner, was condemned by a military tribunal at Chester,
and sent under an escort to this place, where he
was beheaded.
The town, comprising the townships of Great and
Little Bolton, which are separated by the rivulet Croal,
has been greatly enlarged, under an act of parliament
obtained in 1792, for enclosing Bolton moor, of which
more than two hundred and fifty acres were divided
into allotments, a portion of which is occupied with
buildings. The powers of the commissioners appointed
under that act were extended by an act in 1817,
since which time three spacious squares, several ranges
of buildings, and a few public edifices, have been erected:
four hundred and twenty-eight houses in Great
Bolton, and one hundred and ninety-six in Little Bolton,
were built during the year 1823, and considerable
improvement has been made in the roads leading to the
town. The houses are handsomely built; the streets,
which are well paved, are lighted with gas by a company
incorporated in 1820, and the inhabitants are supplied
with excellent water, brought from a distance of
a mile and a half, by earthenware pipes, into a reservoir
which occupies a space of twenty-two acres,
whence it is conveyed by an iron main of thirteen
inches diameter to the various parts of the town:
the water, descending from an elevation of seven hundred
feet into the reservoir, rushes through the main
with' a pressure sufficient to raise it to the height of
eighty feet, and is thus rendered available, without the
assistance of an engine, to the prompt extinction of
fire in the loftiest buildings. This undertaking was
effected at an- expense of £40,000, subscribed in
shares of £ 50 each, by a company established by act
of parliament, in 1824, for whose use a handsome stone
building has been erected, in front of which is an
emblematical tablet, representing a Naiad seated by a
fountain, pouring water from a ewer to a thirsty child;
The theatre is regularly open during the season; and
a new assembly-room has been lately erected, in which
also concerts take place occasionally. There are three
public libraries; one of them, recently established, is
conducted on principles less restrictive than either of
the two former: it is held in the Exchange Buildings,
a neat stone edifice, with two Ionic columns at the
entrance, erected in 1825; the lower room, which
is of ample dimensions, is appropriated to the transaction
of general business, and fitted up as a newsroom;
the upper part contains the library and reading-
rooms. A mechanics' institution was established
in 1825.
The principal branch of manufacture, and to the introduction
of which Bolton owes its present extent and
importance, is that of cotton, in the improvement of
which, many ingenious and valuable discoveries originated
in this town. Sir Richard Arkwright, a resident
here, after he had established his works at Derby and
Nottingham, brought the spinning jenny and the waterframe
machines to perfection; and Samuel Crompton,
who was also an inhabitant of Bolton, invented a machine,
called the mule, combining the properties of
both, for which, after receiving two several donations
of £105 and £400, subscribed as acknowledgments
of his merit, he was ultimately remunerated by parliament
with a grant of £ 5000. Previously to the introduction
of the cotton trade, some weavers, who arrived
in this country from the palatinate of the Rhine,
had added to the manufacture of woollen  cloth that
of a fabric, partly composed of linen yarn, chiefly imported
from Germany, and partly of cotton. The chief
articles were fustian, jean, and thickset: velvet, entirely
of cotton', was first made here in 1756, and muslin, quilting,
and dimity, succeeded. After the introduction of the
improved machinery several factories were established,
but, being chiefly worked by water, they were consequently
on a small scale; the subsequent employment of steam
enabled the proprietors to enlarge their works, and the
adoption of power-looms contributed greatly to improve
and extend the trade: there are at present more than twenty
factories, worked by thirty-one steam engines, of the
aggregate power of seven hundred horses. The  bleaching
grounds are very extensive, and more than ten millions
of pieces of cloth are annually bleached in the parish:
among these are three large establishments, in each of
which, from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and
fifty thousand pieces are, on the average, bleached every
month. There are ten iron-foundries, some of them on
a very extensive scale, and one employing three hundred
persons, chiefly in the construction of steam-engines.
Machinery of all kinds, and mills of every description,
are made to a great extent. The neighbourhood
abounds with coal, which is brought into the town at
a moderate expense, by means of a rail-road communicating
with the Leeds and Liverpool canal at Leigh,
eight miles distant: this work was begun under an act
of parliament, in 1825, and completed at an expense of
£80,000, subscribed in shares of £100 each. The canal
from Manchester to Bolton was constructed in 1791;
a branch to Bury diverges from it at Little Lever, in this
parish. Veins of lead-ore and of calamine have been
worked at Rivington, but they have not been found productive.
The market days are Monday and Saturday:
the fairs are on July 30th and 31 st, and October 13th and
14th, for horned cattle,horses, pigs, and pedlary; a fair for
lean cattle is also held every alternate Wednesday, from
January 5th to May 12th. The market is held in the
area of the new square, in the centre of which is a
handsome cast-iron column, thirty feet high, rising from a
pedestal in the form of a vase, and supporting a lantern
which is lighted with gas.
The town is within the jurisdiction of the county
magistrates, one of whom attends every Monday, and a
petty session is held for the division every Monday and
Friday. Aboroughreeve, two constables, and a deputy
constable, are chosen for each of the townships of Great
and Little Bolton, at the court leet of the lord of the
manor; under whom also a court for the recovery of
debts under 40s. was held till the 6th of George III.,
when it was discontinued. A town-hall, a neat and
commodious edifice, has been recently erected at
Little Bolton, at an expense of £2000; and it is in contemplation
to erect a similar structure in Great Bolton,
more adapted to the use, and more suited to the importance,
of the town than the present rooms in which
the public business is transacted. The living is a discharged
vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of
Chester, rated in the king's books at £10. 3. 1., endowed
with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal
bounty, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Chester.
The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is a spacious structure,
principally in the later style of English architecture,
and there are some interesting monuments in the
chancel. A church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was
erected in 1825, at an expense of £13,412. 13., part of
which was defrayed by grant from the parliamentary
commissioners: it is a handsome structure in the later
style of English architecture, with a tower, and contains
nine hundred and twenty free sittings: the livingis
a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of
Bolton. The church, dedicated to St. George, in Little
Bolton, was erected by subscription, in 1796: the living
is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Trustees.
The chapel, dedicated to All Saints, in Little Bolton, has
been recently rebuilt: the living is a perpetual curacy,
endowed with £200 private benefaction, £200 royal
bounty, and £2200 parliamentary grant, and in the
patronage of. the lord of the manor. There are two
places of worship each for Baptists, Independents, and
Unitarians, one each for the Society of Friends and
Swedenborgians, seven for the various denominations
of Methodists, and a Roman Catholic chapel. The free
grammar school was founded by Robert Lever, Esq.,
citizen of London, who, in 1641, bequeathed estates now
producing about £400 per annum, with which the revenue
of a school previously existing has been united,
amounting in the whole to £485 per annum: it is
under the direction of governors incorporated in 1784,
who appoint a head-master, with a salary of £160 per
annum; a second master, with a salary of £100; and
a writing-master, with a salary of £ 75: there is a
small exhibition to either of the Universities. Robert
Ainsworth, the compiler of the Latin Dictionary, and
Dr. Lempriere, the compiler of the Classical Dictionary,
were masters of this school j and the former was educated
here. A charity school was founded and endowed,
in 1693, by Mr. Nathaniel Hulton, for the instruction
of thirty boys and thirty girls; the income is £277 per
annum: the school is under the management of trustees,
who appoint a master and a mistress, the former
with a salary of £45, and the latter with a salary of
£25, per annum. A school for the clothing and education
of poor children was founded, in 1714, by Thomas
Marsden, Esq., who endowed it with £ 150, now producing
£ 14. 10. per annum, of which the master receives
£10. 10., and the remainder is expended in repairs.
There are Sunday schools in connexion with the
established church and the numerous dissenting congregations,
in which more than seven thousand children are
instructed. The school-room in connexion with the p^
rish church is a large and handsome building of freestone,
in the later style of English architecture, erected
by subscription, in 1819, at an expense of £1800; it
contains a good organ. A dispensary was established
in 1814, and is liberally supported by subscription: tlie
building, which is of a neat and appropriate character,
was erected at an expense of £1700. A clothing society
is supported chiefly by ladies, and a society for the
relief of poor women during childbirth was established
hi 1798. John Bradshaw, president of the court which
sentenced Charles I. to the scaffold, is said to have been
born near this town.