In the reign of James I., Lisburn, which was then known as Lisnegarvy (Gambler’s Fort), was an inconsiderable village, but in 1627 it was granted by Charles I. to Viscount Conway, who erected the castle for his residence, and laid the foundation of the prosperity of the town by the introduction of English and Welsh settlers. In November 1641 the town was taken by the insurgents, who on the approach of superior numbers set fire to it. The troops of Cromwell gained a victory near the town in 1648, and the castle surrendered to them in 1650. The church was constituted a cathedral in 1662 by Charles II., from whom the town received the privilege of returning two members to parliament, but after the Union it returned only one and in 1885 ceased to be a parliamentary borough. Lisburn gives the titles of earl and viscount to the family of Vaughan.
LISIEUX, a town of north-western France, capital of an
arrondissement in the department of Calvados, 30 m. E. of
Caen by rail. Pop. (1906) 15,194. Lisieux is prettily situated in
the valley of the Touques at its confluence with the Orbiquet.
Towers of the 16th century, relics of the old fortifications, remain,
and some of the streets, bordered throughout by houses of the
14th, 15th and 16th centuries, retain their medieval aspect.
The church of St Peter, formerly a cathedral, is reputed to be
the first Gothic church built in Normandy. Begun in the
latter half of the 12th century it was completed in the 13th and
16th centuries. There is a lantern-tower over the crossing and
two towers surmount the west façade, one only of which has
a spire, added towards the end of the 16th century. In the
interior there is a Lady-Chapel, restored in the 15th century
by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, one of the judges of Joan of Arc.
The church of St Jacques (late 15th century) contains beautiful
glass of the Renaissance, some remarkable stalls and old frescoes,
and a curious picture on wood, restored in 1681. The church of
St Désir (18th century) once belonged to a Benedictine abbey.
The old episcopal palace near the cathedral is now used as a
court-house, museum, library and prison, and contains a beautiful
hall called the salle dorée. Lisieux is the seat of a sub-prefect,
and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber
of arts and manufactures, a board of trade arbitrators and a
communal college. Its manufactures of woollens are important,
and bleaching, wool and flax-spinning, tanning, brewing, timber-sawing,
metal-founding, and the manufacture of machinery,
hosiery and boots and shoes are carried on; there is trade
in grain, cattle and cheese.
In the time of Caesar, Lisieux, under the name of Noviomagus, was the capital of the Lexovii. Though destroyed by the barbarians, by the 6th century it had become one of the most important towns of Neustria. Its bishopric, suppressed in 1802, dates from that period. In 877 it was pillaged by the Normans; and in 911 was included in the duchy of Normandy by the treaty of St Clair-sur-Epte. Civil authority was exercised by the bishop as count of the town. In 1136 Geoffrey Plantagenet laid siege to Lisieux, which had taken the side of Stephen of Blois. The town was not reduced till 1141, by which time both it and the neighbourhood had been brought to the direst extremities of famine. In 1152 the marriage of Henry II. of England to Eleanor of Guienne, which added so largely to his dominions, was celebrated in the cathedral. Thomas à Becket took refuge here, and some vestments used by him are shown in the hospital chapel. Taken by Philip Augustus and reunited to France in 1203, the town was a frequent subject of dispute between the contending parties during the Hundred Years’ War, the religious wars, and those of the League.
LISKEARD, a market town and municipal borough in the
Bodmin parliamentary division of Cornwall, England, 15 m.
W.N.W. of Plymouth, on the Great Western and the Liskeard
and Looe railways. Pop. (1901) 4010. It lies high, above
two small valleys opening to that of the Looe river, in a hilly,
picturesque district. The Perpendicular church of St Martin,
with a tower of earlier date, having a Norman arch, is one of
the largest ecclesiastical buildings in the county. The site of
a castle built by Richard, brother of Henry III. and earl of
Cornwall, is occupied by public gardens. At the grammar school,
which formerly occupied a building in those gardens, Dr John
Wolcot, otherwise known as Peter Pindar, was educated.
Liskeard was formerly an important mining centre. Its manufactures
include leather and woollen goods, and there are iron
foundries. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and
12 councillors. Area, 2704 acres.
Liskeard (Liscarret) was at the time of the Domesday Survey an important manor with a mill rendering 12d. yearly and a market rendering 4s. By the Conqueror it had been given to the count of Mortain by whom it was held in demesne. Ever since that time it has passed with the earldom or duchy of Cornwall. The fertility of its soil and the river Looe probably led to early settlement at Liskeard. Richard, king of the Romans, recognized its natural advantages and built the manor house or castle and resided there occasionally. In 1240 he constituted Liskeard a free borough and its burgesses freemen with all the liberties enjoyed by the burgesses of Launceston and Helston. In 1266 he granted fairs at the Feasts of the Assumption and St Matthew. His son Edmund earl of Cornwall in 1275 granted to the burgesses for a yearly rent of £18 (sold by William III. to Lord Somers) the borough in fee farm with its mills, tolls, fines and pleas, pleas of the crown excepted. Liskeard was made a coinage town for tin in 1304. Edward the Black Prince secured to the burgesses in 1355 immunity from pleas outside their franchise for trespass done within the borough. Queen Elizabeth granted a charter of incorporation in 1580 under which there were to be a mayor, recorder and eight councillors. This charter was surrendered to Charles II. in 1680 and a new one granted by his brother under which the corporation became a self-elected body. From 1295 to 1832 Liskeard sent two members to the House of Commons. The parliamentary franchise, at first exercised by the burgesses, was vested by James’ charter in the corporation and freemen. By determining to admit no new freemen the voters became reduced to between 30 and 60. Sir Edward Coke was returned for this borough in 1620, and Edward Gibbon the historian in 1774. In 1832 Liskeard was deprived of one of its members and in 1885 it became merged in the county.
Besides the fairs already mentioned a third was added by Elizabeth’s charter to be held on Ascension Day. These are still among the most considerable cattle fairs in the county. The same charter ratified a market on Mondays and provided for another on Saturdays. The latter is now held weekly, the former twice a month. The flour mill at Lamellion mentioned in the charter of 1275, and probably identical with the mill of the Domesday Survey, is still driven by water.
LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614–1685), commonly known as Lady Alice Lisle, was born about 1614. Her father, Sir White Beckenshaw, was descended from an old Hampshire family; her husband, John Lisle (d. 1664), had been one of the judges at the trial of Charles I., and was subsequently a member of Cromwell’s House of Lords—hence his wife’s courtesy title. Lady Lisle seems to have leaned to Royalism, but with this attitude she combined a decided sympathy with religious dissent. On the 20th of July 1685, a fortnight after the battle of Sedgemoor, the old lady consented to shelter John Hickes, a well-known Nonconformist minister, at her residence, Moyles Court, near Ringwood. Hickes, who was a fugitive from Monmouth’s army, brought with him Richard Nelthorpe, also a partizan of Monmouth, and under sentence of outlawry. The two men passed the night at Moyles Court, and on the following morning were arrested, and their hostess, who had denied their presence in the house, was charged with harbouring traitors. Her case was tried by Judge Jeffreys at the opening of the “Bloody Assizes” at Winchester. She pleaded that she had no knowledge that Hickes’s offence was anything more serious than illegal preaching, that she had known nothing previously of Nelthorpe (whose name was not included in the indictment, but was, nevertheless, mentioned to strengthen the case for the Crown), and that she had no sympathy with the rebellion. The jury reluctantly found her guilty, and, the law recognizing no distinction between principals and accessories in treason, she was sentenced to be burned. Jeffreys ordered that the sentence
