History of Lancashire - Early History

Early History

In the Domesday Book, some of its lands had been treated as part of Yorkshire. The area in between the Mersey and Ribble (referred to in the Domesday Book as "Inter Ripam et Mersam") formed part of the returns for Cheshire. Although some have taken this to mean that, at this time, south Lancashire was part of Cheshire, it is not clear that this was the case, and more recent research indicates that the boundary between Cheshire and what was to become Lancashire remained the river Mersey. Once its initial boundaries were established, it bordered Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire.

Lancashire takes its name from the city of Lancaster, which itself is means 'Roman fort on the River Lune', combining the name of the river with the Old English cæster, which referred to a Roman fort or camp. The county was established some time after the Norman conquest when William the Conqueror gave the land between the Ribble and the Mersey, together with Amounderness, to Roger de Poitou. In the early 1090s Lonsdale, Cartmel and Furness were added to Roger's estates to facilitate the defence of the area south of Morecambe Bay from Scottish raiding parties, which travelled round the Cumberland coast and across the bay at low water, rather than through the mountainous regions of the Lake District. The area also served as family seat of the Norman originated House of Tarbock (later Tarbox), at the Burscough-Latham area. The family arrived in 1066 with the establishment of the Norman hierarchy in England from the town Saint-Ouen-de-Thouberville. The family survived through the years of both peace and turmoil, changing their surname to Tarbox upon the fall of Norman England, and migrating to the British colonies in 1631, incorporating the city of Lynn, Massachusetts

The county was divided into the six hundreds of Amounderness, Blackburn, Leyland, Lonsdale, Salford and West Derby. Lonsdale was further partitioned into Lonsdale North, which was the detached part north of Morecambe Bay (also known as Furness), and Lonsdale South. Each hundred was sub-divided into parishes. As the parishes covered relatively large areas, they were further divided into sub-parishes (not shown on map) that were more similar in size to parishes in counties in the south of England. Outside of the administration of the hundreds were the boroughs. Prior to the Municipal Corporations Act there were relatively few boroughs in the county. But following the act, 22 towns were incorporated up to 1862 as the county became more populous due to the continuing industrial revolution.