The Mystery of Dobbsfont in Culcheth

A Second Catholic Chapel in Culcheth

​It has long been known that Catholics in Culcheth worshipped at Culcheth Hall prior to St.Lewis' Church being built in Croft in 1827. However, recent material that has resurfaced shows that this closed for worship in 1751 and a new chapel built at a place simply known as 'Dobbsfont' and described as 'in the vicinity of' Culcheth Hall.

An old map of Culcheth Hall, but where is Dobbsfont?

Extracts from:
​THE CATHOLIC REGISTERS OF CULCHETH,
LANCASHIRE, 1791-1825
CONTRIBUTED BY THE REV. JOHN DONOHOE
HISTORICAL NOTES BY JOSEPH GILLOW

​​The book in which these registers are inscribed is a small quarto volume.
It is well bound in parchment, and its covers are ruled on each side towards
the edges. The volume is in a good state of preservation, and is kept in
the archives of the Mission of St. Lewis's, Croft, Warrington.
 
 HISTORY OF CULCHETH CHAPLAINCY

Culcheth, in the parish of Winwick, has been assigned as the site of
many synods of the Anglo-Saxon Church, many charters were dated thence,
and an ancient farmstead, moated round, and called the " Old Abbey,"
points to some ecclesiastical building of remote antiquity. The manor
descended in the family bearing the name until the death of Thomas
Culcheth, of Culcheth Hall, in 1747, when the estate passed to his cousin
Thomas Stanley, of Great Eccleston Hall, in the Fylde, whose mother
was aunt to Thomas Culcheth. Two years later Thomas Stanley died,
and his brother, Fr. Henry Stanley, became heir to the estate. The chapel
in the hall was then closed, and Fr. Stanley opened a small chapel in the
vicinity, at Dobbsfont, which so continued till the opening of the chapel
at Croft in 1827.

Thomas Stanley left an only daughter and heiress,
Meliora, who became the wife of William Dicconson, 4th son of Edward
Dicconson, of Wrightington Hall, Esq., and upon her death, June 29, 1794,
Culcheth passed to John Trafford, of Trafford and Croston, Esq., whose
grandfather John Trafford, of Croston Hall, had married Catherine, sister
to Mrs. Stanley and daughter of Thomas Culcheth, of Culcheth Hall. By
the Traffords the estate was sold to Peter Withington, Esq., and thus
Culcheth, which had ever been in Catholic hands, ceased to be a centre
of Catholicity.

The Culcheths had always remained staunch to the Faith,
and many of them were Jesuits and nuns. They intermarried with the
leading Catholic families of the county, and one of them in the reign of
Henry VIII married a daughter of Sir Thomas Southworth, of Samlesbury
Hall and Southworth Hall, high sheriff of Lancashire in 1541, and sister of
the famous confessor of the faith, Sir John Southworth.

Fr. Henry Stanley alias Culcheth, S.J.(Society of Jesus), born Sept. 11, 1688, son of Richard Stanley, of Great Eccleston Hall, in the Fylde, Esq., and his
wife Anne, daughter of Thomas Culcheth, of Culcheth Hall, Esq. He
entered the Society at Watten in 1706, and in 1716-18 was professor of
philosophy at Liege College. About this time he was sent to the mission
in the Oxford district, of which he was superior from February 1728-9 till 1743,
and seems to have been chaplain to the Curzons at Waterperry.

Upon the death of his mother's nephew, Thomas Culcheth, Esq., in Oct. 1747, the Culcheth estates passed to her son Thomas Stanley, who took possession
of the hall, but died within two years and was buried at Winwick, July 21,
1749. Fr. Henry then became heir to the estates, and came to reside
at Culcheth, not at the hall, but at a place called Dobbsfont, where he
established a chapel and priest's house.

In 1751 he had a socius given him in the person of Fr. Henry Smith, and in Nov. of that year he made his will (now at Stonyhurst), leaving his personal estate to the Society.
(Latin SOCIUS meaning to be made an associate/allowed to join, here I assume to the Society of Jesus)
He died Nov. 27, 1753, aged 65, and was buried at Winwick.

Further Information on Father Henry Stanley

​From the list of Culcheth family burials at Winwick –
1753. Nov. 30—Mr. Henry Stanley of Culcheth. Priest.

As mentioned above, the will is mentioned in a list of original manuscripts at Stonyhurst -

STANLEY, Henry (Rev.) of Dobbsfont, Parish of Wynnick, Co. of Lanc.
Sole devisee and executor, Joseph Beaumont of Cowley Hill, parish of Prescot, Co. of Lanc.
16 Nov 1751. Signed and Sealed.

STANLEY, Henry (Rev.) of Culcheth, Parish of Wynnick, Co. of Lanc.
Sole devisee and executor, Henry Smith of Culcheth.
19 Nov 1751. Signed and Sealed.

The Stanley family papers don’t mention Dobbsfont at all, and the only other archives that mention it are copies of the above extract. I can’t find it on any map, though I am still searching the handwritten tithe listings for any clue.

Warrington Archives have nothing relating to it and the only other document I found, at Bolton archives, was again another copy of the above.

​Can anybody help? The search continues.

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