ATHERTON, or CHOWBENT  , an urban district in the Leigh parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 13 M . W.N.W. of Manchester on the London & North-Western and Lancashire & Yorkshire railways . Pop . (1901) 16,211 . The cotton factories are the principal source of industry; there are also ironworks and collieries . The manor was held by the local family of Atherton from John's reign to 1738, when it passed by marriage to Robert Gwillym, who assumed that name . In 1797 his eldest daughter and co-heiress married Thomas Powys, after-wards the second Lord Lilford . Up to 1891 the lord of the manor held a court-leet and court-baron annually in November, but in that year Lord Lilford sold to the local board the market tolls, stallages and pickages, and since this sale the courts have lapsed . The earliest manufactures were iron and cotton . Silk-weaving, formerly an extensive industry, has now almost entirely decayed . The first chapel or church was built in 1645 . James Wood, who became Nonconformist minister in the chapel at Atherton in 1691, earned fame and the familiar title of " General " by raising a force from his congregation, uncouthly armed, to fight against the troops of the Pretender (1715) .