Freemasonry In The Seventeenth Century: Warrington, 1646.

John Rivers , who was serving there in 1678 and again in 1693 , and was for six years confined in Lancaster gaol for high treason , under the act of 27 th Elizabeth . He appeal's also to have been at one time a soldier in the French army . " On entering the English College at Romein 1652 he gave the following

, , account of himself * : — "My name is John Penketh , alias Rivers . I am son of Richard Penketh of Penketh , in the County of Lancaster , Esquire , who married the daughter of Thomas Patrick , of Bisham , in the same county , gentleman . I was born and bred up in my father ' s house , and am now twenty-one years of age . My father , before his death , had spent nearly all his fortune , and left very little to my mother . My relatives are of good families , hut reduced to

poverty in these evil times . I am the youngest of thirteen children , and have only two brothers and one sister out of the thirteen living . My relatives are entirely Protestant , but my father , with all his family , one brother excepted , was always Catholic , " & c . Father Penketh died on the 1 st August , 1707 , aged 71 . " In 1641 the House of Commonson the motion of Mr . Pymf having

, , , resolved on a protestation to defend the privileges of both Houses , and the performance of those duties to God and the King to which they Avere obliged as good Christians and good subjects , HerleJ ( "Clarendon ' s History of the Rebell . " iii . 181 ) and his curates , Nicholson , Gee , aud Norman , his three men servants , ancl a number of his parishioners signed the required protestion . " Amongst a long list of names is entered that of a Richard Penketh . § Mr .

Beamont writes : | 1 " When the list of seats in Warrington Church was made in 1628 , Richard Penketh's name does not appear among the Parishoners ; but in January , 1642 , when the protestation was signed to maintain the Protestant Relig ion , & c , & c , Richard Penketh was one of those Avho snbscribed to it and we hear of him again in the entry in Ashmole ' s Diary , & c . " It is difficult to reconcile this Avith the statement of Father Penketh , that his father " was always a Catholic , " and I am inclined to believe that this was not the Richard Penketh , of Penketh , Freemason .

Father Penketh states that his father had spent nearly all his fortune before his death , ancl Mr . Beamont Avrites ^" : — " Penketh Hall , the ancient seat of the Penkeths , seems to have changed OAvners much about the same time that Bewsey , the time-honoured residence of the Butler ' s [ Bewsey Hall , near Warrington ] , passed into the hands of strangers ; for , in the year 1624 , we find Sir Thomas Ireland exchanging with Thomas Ashton the hall and demesnes of Penkethlate the inheritance of Richard Penketh" & c .

, , From this it AVOUM appear that Mr . Richard Penketh , Freemason , Avas the last of his race who held the family property , and that Avith him also commenced the downfall of the family . One more member of his lineage , although not hearing on the subject , deserves a note . This was the celebrated Thomas Penketh , who ivas a monk of

the Hermit Friars of St . Augustine , at Warrington , evidently descended from the family of his name . ** The name remained in or near Warrington , and in the Appendix I print an abstract of the will of a RICHARD PENKETH dated 1705 . -No -will or administration of Richard Penketh , the Freemason , dead before 1652 , is on record now at Chester or London . The next on Ashmole ' s list of the gentry present was Mr . James Collier . I regret that I have but little to record in tins instance , but perhaps it may be