MICHAEL (ST.), a parish in the hundred of AMOUNDERNESS, county palatine of LANCASTER, 3 miles (S. W. by S.) from Garstang, comprising the chapelry of Wood-Plumpton, and the townships of Great Eccleston, Elswick, Inskip with Sowerby, Out Rawcliffe and Upper Rawcliffe with Tarnicar, and containing 4553 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Richmond, and diocese of Chester, rated in the king's books at £10. 17. 6. Joseph Hornby, Esq. was patron in 1825. The church, which was superseded by the present small structure, built in the time of Henry VIII., was one of three erected in this district soon after Christianity was introduced into the north of England. The parish is situated upon the navigable river Wyre, the mouth of which forms a fine harbour, noted for its security. Here, in 1651, the Earl of Derby disembarked from the Isle of Man, with three hundred other adherents to the House of Stuart. Joseph Fielding, in 1808, conveyed £ 60, and Elizabeth Cromleholme, in 1813, A 200, towards a school, in which about fifty children are educated.