James Anderton

An English Catholic, b. 1557; d. 1618. He belonged to the well-known Catholic family of Lostock Hall, Lancashire, and inherited extensive estates there from his parents, Christopher and Dorothy Anderton. In 1582 he married Margaret, daughter of Edward Tyldesley of Tyldesley and Morleys, and, following his father’s profession of the law, succeeded him in 1592 as Prothonotary of the Duchy Court at Lancaster. Both his mother and wife remained faithful to the Church, but James himself seems to have followed his father’s example, and temporized so far as to attach his name to an address (1618) for the “disarming of recusants” and to perform other official duties repugnant to a true Catholic. He died about 1618. Father John Clark, rector of Liège College, in his eulogy of Father Henry Holland, S.J., makes the erroneous statement that James Anderton, under the pseudonym “John Brereley, priest,” was the author of a valuable work entitled “The Protestant’s Apologie,” an assertion that has been accepted generally. It has been shown, however, that the works of “John Brereley, priest,” were from the pen of Father Lawrence Anderton, S.J., a nephew of James, who, however, is thought to have sheltered the press with which the work was printed.