NEWTON-in-MACKERFIELD,
a borough (formerly
a market-town) and
chapelry, in the parish of
WINWICK, hundred of WEST-DERBY, county palatine of
LANCASTER, 47 miles (S. by
E.) from Lancaster, and 192
(N.W. by N.) from London,
containing 1643 inhabitants.
During the parliamentary
war, and about the month of ?
some
landers having been defeated and made prisoners by
the parliamentary forces, at Red Bank, near this place,
were hanged in an adjacent field, which still retains the
appellation of Gallows Cross. The town consists chiefly
of one broad street; and there are an ancient courthouse,
and a handsome assembly-room. The. manufacture
of fustians is the principal branch of business.
and spinning and dyeing cotton is also carried on.
The market has long b'een discontinued, but the cross
is standing. Fairs are held on May 17th and August
llth, for horned cattle; and on May 18th and August
12th, for horses. Newton, anciently the head of a barony,
is a borough by prescription, and has returned two
members to parliament ever since the first year of the
reign of Elizabeth; the right of election is in the freeholders
to the value of forty shillings and upwards;
the number of voters is about sixty; the steward of the
borough, and the bailiff of the manor, are the returning
officers; and the influence of Thomas Legh, Esq., is
predominant. Courts leet and baron are held three times
a year, at which small debts are recoverable. The living
isa perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Chester, endowed with £200 private benefaction, £400
royal bounty, and £600 parliamentary grant, and in the
patronage of Thomas Legh, Esq. The chapel, which is
parochial, and dedicated to St. Peter, was built in 1682,
by Richard Legh, Esq.; the burial-ground has been
recently enlarged, and enclosed with a stone wall and
palisades, by the patron. A free school is kept in the
court-house for the instruction of poor children; the
average number is from seventy to one hundred; the
master receives about £55 per annum, arising from the
proceeds of certain enclosures of Leyland common, and
the rental of a messuage called Dean school. Upwards
of four hundred children are instructed in the Sunday
schools, which were established in 1823. About half a
mile northward of the town are the remains of an ancient
barrow, called Castle Hill, the sides and summit of
which are crowned with venerable oaksj it is from eight
to nine yards high, and twenty-five in diameter. A
whetstone, encased in wood, was discovered in sinking a
coal-pit in this neighbourhood, in 1822, about thirty
yards below the surface of the earth.