Express and Advertiser
March 14, 1914
Literary & Antiquarian Corner Notes and Comments
Burwains, Briercliffe
A correspondent writes to ask if I can give any particulars concerning this ancient homestead. I regret that the information at my command is very incomplete, and I suffer from the further disability that I have never seen the house. It is an old yeoman's house, and presumably of the same type and built about the same time as so many of the old yeomanry houses which have dotted the hills in this neighbourhood, viz., in the close of the 16th or beginning of the 17th centuries. It was occupied at that time by a family of the name of Briercliffe or Brearcliffe, nad it is probable was built by one of the family. Dr. Whitaker conjectures that the name Burwains is a corruption of "Burghwains," and he hints that it might have some relationship to the Roman camps which were scattered on the hills. I hardly care to hazard a conjecture as to the derivation of the name. "Bur" or burh meant, among other things, a farmhouse, and a "wain" meant a wagon, but that does not seem to help one. I may say, however, that I find the same word, or one very like it, both at Colne and at Foulridge. One thing needs to be said, and that is that the word locally is pronounced "Burrons," and that that is so spelt in the old records, and in some cases as "Burrows," and also as "Burwins."
The Briercliffes The surname of Briercliffe, no doubt so called from the township, appears in old charters relating to Briercliffe, so far back as any deeds exist. In 1258 a Michael de Briercliffe held three ox gangs and twelve acres and paid twenty-one shillings a year, and at the same time Peter de Briercliffe held five acres, so that so far back the family appear to have been substantial yeomen. In 1311 Robert de Briercliffe held 58 acres in the township, and from that time onward for some centuries there were in the township yeomen of the name who held land. When they settled at Burwains I do not know, but in 1559 "Robert Brereclyff of Burwyns" is mentioned in the Court Rolls, so it is certain they were there at that time. In 1527 Robert Brereclyf held lands of the yearly copyhold rent of 9s. 10d., and was, save two, the largest copyholder in the township. In 1589 Robert Brerecliffe held 23.5 acres of freehold, and 17 acres of copyhold in Briercliffe. In 1617 Lawrence Briercliffe held the same 17 acres of copyhold land, of which ten acres were arable, one acre meadow, and six acres pasture. This gentleman was pretty certainly of Burwains, for in 1631 there is in the St. Peter's registers the entry of the baptism of JOhn, son of Lawrence Briercliffe of Burwins; in 1639 another entry of the interment of his daughter, and in 1644 the record of the interment of his wife. Prior to that Burwains was held by his father, Robert, who died in 1617, eaving his son Lwarence, being then eleven years of age, to inherit his estate. In the allocation of seats in St. Peter's Church in the year 1634 Lawrence Briercliffe was given half a pew in the ninth seat on the north side of the middle alley, a position which indicates that, without being one of the principal landowners of the district, he was a 'man of some standing. He was a churchwarden the following year. It seems not improbable that it was this Lawrence Briercliffe who built Burwains, though of that I have no record.
An Old Cliviger Tragedy In the year 1741 there was living in Cliviger a young farmer named Lawrence Britcliffe, or Briercliffe. He was a staunch Baptist, like his fathers before him, and he used to weekly cross the hills to Bacup to attend the services held by Mr. David Crossley, one of the Baptist pioneer preachers of Rossendale. Lawrence Britcliffe was married to a respectable young woman, who was a strong adherent of the Church. constant disputes rose between them on the subject, and the end was the husband took to drinking, and became a quarrelsome drunkard of the worst type. In the year 1741 he attended Holme Wakes, and while drunk quarrelled with a man in very similar condition. Britcliffe, mad with drink, seized a churn staff and struck his adversary dead. He was promptly seized, but managed to escape, and fled. He made his way to Plymouth, where he entered as a sailor on board the Victory, afterwards Nelson's famous flagship. It was then the flagship of Sir John norris. The fleet in due course put to sea, but was driven back by a storm. A second attempt to sail was followed by a like result, and Britcliffe, imaging himself a second Jonah, left the vessel and returned to his native place. At Holme he lay for a considerable time hidden in a cave. not far from the present railway station, and there he was supplied by one of his old servants. Finally, thinking he might be acquitted, he gave himself up, and in 1742 was tried at Lancaster, found guilty, and executed. While awaiting his execution he was attended by his old pastor, Mr. Crossley, who walked from Bacup to Lancaster for that purpose. Mr. Crossley preached the funeral sermon at Bacup on May 23rd, 1742, in the open air to an audience of 4,000 people, the title of the sermon being, "The triumph of sovereign grace, or a brand plucked from the fire," etc. I do not know that this Lawrence Briercliffe was a member of the family from Burwains, but it seems no improbable. Under any circumstances, he was undoubtedly a member of the family of Briercliffe which had lived in the neighbouhood for some centuries. Referring to the execution of this Lawrence Briercliffe, Mr. James Crossley, in his preface to the Chetham Society's reprint of Potts' "Discovery of Witchcraft," remarks that the Briercliffes "would appear tp have been one of those gloomy and fated races, dogged by some unassuageable nemesis, in which crime and horror are transmitted from generation to generation." How far this can be taken as characterising the family, or on what grounds the accusation is levelled against the race, I have no means of judging.
The Robertshaws When or under what circumstances the possession of Burwains passed from the Briercliffes I do not know. I have an idea that at some time and somewhere I have gathered that the last Briercliffe of Burwains was named Robert, and that he left the farm towards the close of the 18th century, but I have no certain information of the fact. We next come to the association of the farmhouse with religious activity in its connection with the Scotch Baptists. That religious body was introduced into Briercliffe about the year 1760, and at first they held services at Burwains, continuing until Haggate Baptist Chapel was built in 1767. Having mind the statement previously made, that the Holmes Chapel murderer, Lawrence Briercliffe, was connected with the Baptists, it seems not improbable, first, that he was a scion of the Burwains family, and, secondly, that the Briercliffes still held the farm at the time, and were among the earliest supporters of the Calvinistic Baptists. Later the farm passed to the family of Robertshaw, to whom, I understand, it still belongs. When or how they came into possession I do not know. Mr. Alfred Strange, in a paper read before the Literary and Scientific Club in 1894, on an old account book of the Rev. Benjamin Robertshaw, headmaster of the Burnley Grammar School from 1698 to 1728, suggests that the family occupied the farm before 1637. That cannot possibly be correct, as the extracts from the Court Rolls given above clearly show that the Briercliffes held it long after that. I have one or two further notes, but for want of space, they must be held over for another week. In the meantime, if any reader can give additional information I shall be glad to receive it.
_________________ Mel
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