This article was written by Richard Ainsworth and published in The Accrington Observer on 21 July 1928. It is reproduced here by kind permission of The Accrington Observer.

The Story of the Britcliffe Family

The present article and the one succeeding it are an interesting contribution to the study of the history and genealogy of an old local family, the Britcliffe's of Accrington, who for upwards of two hundred years have played their part, and still worthily continue to do so, in the life of our district.

The present article is based for the most part on the paper " The Briercliffe's of Briercliffe," by Mr. T. H. Briercliffe and Mr. Ernest Axon, in the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society Transactions for 1917.

The Britcliffe's are in direct descent from the Briercliffe's. The old Badge Book gives some connecting links, and I am greatly indebted to Mr. A. E. Britcliffe for the loan of documents and for invaluable information, and also to Mr. Patterson. Early Ancestry.

This old Accrington family originated from Briercliffe, near Burnley, one of the bleakest parts of Lancashire, at a period when a large part of the land was waste or moorland. The cultivated or occupied parts of the land were gradually intaken or acquired by enclosure. But at all times the riches of the sturdy yeomen families must have consisted in the fewness of their wants for the productive qualities of the soil were never great, and that only rung from it by hard toil and labour.

The freehold estate of the family came to be known as Burwains, but that name does not occur in the early records. The family name, Brerecliffe, has, like the name of the township, become in more modern times Briercliffe. The Accrington branch of the family spelt it Britcliffe, a spelling based on an old pronunciation.

In the days before surnames were permanent there are several persons described as "of Brercliffe" who may or may not be one of the family. The earliest of the line was Robert of Brercliffe, of whom nothing is known save that he lived and had land in Briercliffe, and had a son. The earliest date is 1284, when there was an action at law, in which his married great grandchild was plaintiff and the property in dispute had belonged to Robert, the great grandfather. From this we can safely say that Robert of Briercliffe was owner in the early part of the 13th. century.

The name of Michael, the son of Robert, occurs in 1258 as holding land in Briercliffe and the freehold estate of Burwains. Briercliffe is in a district where most of the land was copyhold, but the land that Michael Brerecliffe held was in fee, that is, freehold.

Briercliffe's of Briercliffe.
These freeholds were created because it was inconvenient to have only bondmen or villeins, that is, men of servile status, upon these demesne manors, and it is suggested by the late Dr. Farrer that some of the freeholders were descended from Thegns who had been in possession previous to the Norman conquest.

Coming down to the 16th. century we find that Robert Brerecliffe shared in the distribution of the wastes and commons which were allotted to all the freeholders and copyholders in 1594. This Robert is the first of the family concerning whom the usual sources of information, registers,and wills are available, so that the Briecliffe's had had twelve recorded generations before the beginning of Parish Registers, the source of most of our genealogy.

Robert Briercliffe had two sons, Lawrence of Burwains and Robert of Hollingreave. The former lived almost throughout the 17th century, dying at the great age of 95 in 1699. He it was who rebuilt Burwains and placed theron a date stone with his initials in 1642. Besides property at Earby and Thornton, he owned a fulling mill at Burnley. His grandson, Robert, is the only Briercliffe of Burwains to be described as a gentleman. Previously they had all been yeomen, a class who were the backbone of England for centuries. Robert Briercliffe became the spendthrift of the race and died at Lancaster.

His son, also named Robert, succeeded to an encumbered estate, and soon after he came of age sold all the ancestral lands at Briercliffe, both freehold and copyhold, and went to reside in Yorkshire, and was killed on the first of December, 1763, in Lancashire. His descendants lived in Yorkshire for several generations. Burwains.

Burwains, the old ancestral home of the family, is a large house for the period 1642, when it was rebuilt. It is surrounded by a wall and is some distance from the farm buildings. There are several yew trees in the enclosure. In the north-west angle is a small room which is claimed to have been the private chapel.

The house has some 17th century plaster mouldings, including two coats of arms. Among other items of interest are a stone 15th century mortar, and holy water stoup formerly in use in the chapel.

Mr. T. H. Briercliffe, now of Rhos on Sea, has the Burwain charm or witchstone, which has been in the possession of the family since time beyond memory, also the Brerecliffe sword, a rapier made at Solingen by Stetius Keuller, and an old horizontal stone sundial, which I have had the pleasure of inspecting. The Family of Gisburn and Accrington.

The younger brother of the rebuilder of Burwains was the founder of a branch of the family that has endured to the present time here in the Accrington and Bolton districts. This brother was Robert Briercliffe, of Bendhill and Hollingreave in Briercliffe. He died in 1663, and Hollingreave, a copyhold of thirteen and a half acres, passed to his son Robert, who died in 1709.

His son Lawrence inherited Hollingreave. He was baptised at Colne on Novenber 28th, 1694, and succeeded to the family estate in 1723. In 1736 he had settled at Midhope in the parish of Gisburn, and soon afterwards sold Hollingreave estate. He married Mary Whittaker of the Castle Parish of Clitheroe, at Whalley, 13th August, 1719. She died at Gisburn, and was interred there on19th July,1778. He died in 1782 and was interred at Gisburn on the 17th June.

Their son William Briercliffe, yeoman and grazier, was the residuary legatee of his father, and he died in 1804. Two of the sons, Robert and Thomas, emigrated to Jamaicaans acquired sugar plantations there; both of these died unmarried.

The founder of the direct Accrington branch of the family was another son, John Briercliffe, who was baptised at Burnley, 4th July, 1733, but the old and common pronunciation of the name Britcliffe was used by him, and continued with all the descendants.

John Britcliffe was married at Altham church on the 28th May, 1760, to Jane Wittington of Accrington, settling in Accrington. The long association of the family was thus commenced. Evidently Jane Britcliffe was a widow in 1789. The old Badge Book of Henry Ratcliffe in Accrington gives the accounts for Widow Britcliffe. One item reads:- 1789: February 21st.- Received of Widow Gudgeon six shillings.

Whalley Way in Olden Times.

One of her sons, John Britcliffe, a block-printer, hired a horse at a cost of two shillings to "Wholy" (which apparently means Whalley), on March 18th, 1792. At that date the new turnpike road from Whalley to Accrington had not been completed (which was not until 1794 ), so that in order to reach Whalley, John Britcliffe would travel by the ancient line of road by Milnshaw lane, and Laneside to Dykenook, then to the crest of Whinney Hill, from there by a lane that still exists in part opening on to the Padiham and Burnleyroad, beyond the Clayton - le - Moors recreation ground. The continuation of the road to Sparth is well descriped in Major R. Trappes - Lomax's history of Clayton - le - Moors.

"1797. After various provisions for the making and fencing of certain public and private roads, it is noted that the road formerly used over the common from Huncote lane end passing near Henfield Cross to Sparth lane end, had become useless and unnecessary in consequence of the formation of the new turnpike road, and so it is orderedthat this old road shall be discontinued. The road thus abandoned can be traced in the fields on the east side of Whalley road near Sparth House. If one stands at the junction of Whalley Road andFields Bottoms footpath, which continues eastwards from Sparth road end towards Altham road near the Roman Catholic Church, and facing south, the old road may be discerned diverging eastwards from the present road, along and west of the hedge which seperates Fields Bottoms meadow from the adjoining pasture. It continues in astraight line over the highest part of Henfield to Whinney Hill. In the hot and dry summer of 1921 it was specially noticeable, some of the stones remaining in situation."

The present year has witnessed the passing of Sparth Toll - Bar House, a link with the days of the turnpike roads that were an innovation of the latter part of the 18th century. The Whalley road continued by Hindburn Bridge and Gamblesgate to Cock Bridge, passing behind Cob Hall on the way, then to Portfield lane end for Whalley.

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