Other Events:

• Baptism: 12 Oct 1851, St John the Baptist, Burscough

Notes:

A report headed 'Inquest at Burscough' in the Preston Chronicle, 14.5.1853, read: 'On Tuesday last an inquest was held at the house of Mr Richard Spencer, The Farmers Arms Inn, Burscough, before C E Driffield Esq, Coroner, and a respectable jury, touching the death of Thomas Smith, aged 18 months, son of William Smith of Burscough, boatman. It appeared from the evidence that on the preceding Friday night the child was playing about his father's door, and had not been more than 10 minutes out of his mother's sight when she found him drowned in a brook a few yards off. The brook skirts the common highway and, as there is no fence, the child it is supposed had fallen in.' Verdict: Accidental Death.