Hello Joseph,
The answer largely depends on which village/town you're looking at. Generally speaking, most of the existing Catholic records for the Ormskirk area are on microfilm at the Lancashire Archives, but there is an interesting situation with Catholic records, because (unlike with the Church of England) Catholic parishes are not obliged to deposit their records at the regional record offices.
The earliest records that I know of for the Ormskirk area are for St. Anne's, Ormskirk (formerly St. Oswald's, baptisms from 1736 onwards). ODFHS also has a CD of christenings, marriages and deaths for St. Elizabeth's, Scarisbrick (christenings 1773-1824, marriages 1773-1856, deaths 1826-1856).
Before this period, it's a bit more complicated, as this was the period when the Catholic faith wasn't tolerated in Britain, so (understandably) people had to be more discreet. I think services were held at Lydiate Hall, Burscough Hall, Scarisbrick Hall etc (where the landowners were Catholic) but I have not found any written records from that time; probably because you were liable to be fined for recusancy at one time.
However, there a couple of other resources around, that may be worth a look. The Lancashire Archives (closed due to COVID-19 restrictions at present) holds lists of Lancashire Recusants (1678, 1679, 1682), and I know of at least one digitised book which include the names of convicted recusants (sometimes with notes on their parents or spouse, but not always).
Convicted Recusants in the reign of Charles II (c.1667) - try pages 90-140 for Ormskirk-area lists
archive.org/details/miscellaneav05cathuoft
Another thing you could try is the English Catholic Nonjurors (1715) - this mentions property held or leased by Catholics, often with notes on their wives or children (if they rented the land on a multi-life lease). This one is divided up by county:
archive.org/details/englishcatholicn00estcuoft
Hope that is some help,
Kate Hurst
ODFHS Chair/Magazine Editor
