IDfctoda Ibfstor^ of tbe
Counties of Enolanb
EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.
A HISTORY OF
LANCASHIRE
VOLUME III
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTIES
I OF ENGLAND
LANCASHIRE
LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE
AND COMPANY LIMITED
This History is issued to Subscribers only
By Archibald Constable & Company Limited
and printed by Eyre & Spottiswoode
H.M. Printers of London
INSCRIBED
TO THE MEMORY OF
HER LATE MAJESTY
QUEEN VICTORIA
WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE
THE TITLE TO AND
ACCEPTED THE
DEDICATION OF
THIS HISTORY
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTY OF
LANCASTER
EDITFi> BY-
WILLIAM FARRER J. BROU SBILU
VOLUMF TJIRfcK
LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE
AND COMPANY LIMITED
1907
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTY OF
LANCASTER
EDITED BY
WILLIAM FARRER AND J. BROWNBILL, M.A.
VOLUME THREE
LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE
AND COMPANY LIMITED
1907
DA
/.2.V6
v.3
CONTENTS OF VOLUME THREE
Dedication ............... v
Contents ............... ix
Index of Parishes, Townships and Manors .......... xi
List of Illustrations xiii
Editorial Note xv
Topography ..... General description and manorial descents by
WILLIAM FARRER and J. BROWNBILL, M.A.
Architectural descriptions by C. R. PEERS,
M.A., F.S.A. Heraldic drawings and blazon
by the Rev. E. E. DORLING, M.A.
West Derby Hundred—
Introduction ............. i
Walton on the Hill 5
Sefton 58
Childwall 102
Huyton 151
Halsall 183
Altcar 221
North Meols 226
Ormskirk 238
Aughton .............. 284
Warrington 3C4
Prescot 341
Leigh 4'4
INDEX OF PARISHES, TOWNSHIPS, AND MANORS
In the following list (m) indicates manor, (p) parish, and (t) township.
Aigburth (Garston), 125
Ainsdale (Formby), 50
Aintree, (t) 99, (m) 100
Allerton, (t) 128, (m) 129
Altcar, (p) 221, (m) 222
Alt Grange (Ince Blundell), 83
Appleton (Widnes), 388
Argar Meols (Birkdale), 237
Aspinwall (Scarisbrick), 274
Astley, (t) 445, (m) 445
Atherton, (t) 435, (m) 436
Aughton, (p) 284, (m) 295
Bank Hall (Kirkdale), 37
Banks (Tyldesley), 443
Barrow (Bold), 408
Barton (Downholland), 199
Bedford, (t) 43 1, (m) 43 1
Bedford Hall, 432
Bewsey (Burtonwood), 326
Bickerstaffe, (t) 276, (m) 276
Birkdale, (t) 236, (m) 237
Blackbrook (Parr), 381
Blythe (Lathom), 254
Bold, (t) 402, (m) 403
Boo tie, (t) 31, (m) 32
Bradley (Burtonwood), 327
Brettargh Holt (Little Woolton), 119
Brinsope (Bold), 408
Broad Oak (Parr), 381
Bruche (Poulton), 329
Burscough, (t) 258, (m) 258
Burscough Hall (Lathom), 257
Burtonhead (Button), 358
Burtonwood, (t) 324, (m) 325
Chaddock Hall (Tyldesley), 442
Childwall, (p) 102, (t) 108, (m) 109
Chowbent (Atherton), 437
Churchlee (Prescot), 354
Cleworth (Tyldesley), 443
Coran Hall (Bold), 408
Cranshaw (Bold), 408
Crouton, (t) 392, (m) 392
Crosby, Great, (t) 91, (m) 91
Crosby, Little, (t) 85, (m) 85
Cross Hall (Lathom), 255
Croxteth Hall (West Derby), i ;
Croxteth Park, (t) 182, (m) 182
Cuerdley, (t) 394, (m) 394
Cunscough (Melling), 213
Dam House (Huyton), 1 74
Dam House (Tyldesley), 443
Demon (Widnes), 388
Derby, West, (t) n, (m) 13
Ditchfield (Ditton), 400
Ditton, (t) 395, (m) 396
Downholland, 197
Eccleston, (t) 362, (m) 363
Eckersley (Bedford), 434
Edge (Sefton), 72
Eggergarth (Lydiate), 206
Eltonhead (Sutton), 359
Etherstone Hall (Pennington), 430
Everton, (t) 20, (m) 20
Farnworth (Widnes), 389
Fazakerley, (t) 28, (m) 29
Fearnhead (Poulton), 331
Ford, 99
Formby, (t) 45, (m) 46
Garrett, The (Tyldesley), 442
Garston, (t) 120, (m) 121
Gateacre (Woolton), 117
Gerard's Hall (Aughton), 303
Glazebrook (Rixton), 338
Glest (Eccleston), 366
Gorsuch (Scarisbrick), 272
Hale, (t) 140, (m) 141
Halewood, (t) 149, (m) 150
Halsall, (p) 183, (t) 191, (m) 191
Halsnead (Whiston), 351
Hardshaw (Windle), 373
Harleton (Scarisbrick), 270
Haskayne (Downholland), 199
Haysarm (Rainford), 383
Hazels, Red (Huyton), 174, 353
Higher Hall, (Westleigh), 422
Holbrook (Bold), 408
Holland (Downholland), 198
INDEX OF PARISHES,
Hollinfare (Rixton), 339
Hopecarr (Bedford), 433
Hutt (Halewood), 150
Huyton, (p) 151, (t) 1 68, (m) 169
Ince Blundell, (t) 78, (m) 79
Kirkby, (t) 52, (m) 53
Kirkdale, (t) 35, (m) 35
Knowsley, (t) 157, (m) 158
Laffog (Parr), 381
Lathom, (t) 247, (m) 248
Lathom Chapel, 256
Lee (Little Woolton), 1 20
Leigh, 414
Lightoaks (Bedford), 434
Linacre (Bootle), 33
Litherland (Sefton), (t) 95, (m) 95
Litherland (Aughton), 292
Little Hall (Aughton), 300
Lunt, 75
Lydiate, (t) 200, (m) 201
Maghull, (t) 215, (m) 215
Martin (Burscough), 260
Martinscroft (Woolston), 333
Melling, (t) 208, (m) 209
Meols, North, (p) 226, (t) 230, (m) 230
Mickering (Aughton), 304
Middlewood (Aughton), 302
Moor Hall (Aughton), 300
Morleys (Astley), 447
Mossborough (Rainford), 384
Mossock Hall (Bickerstaffe), 279
Netherton, 74
Newburgh (Lathom), 256
New Hall (Tyldesley), 443
New Hall (West Derby), 16
Newsham (Walton), 27
North End (Ince Blundell), 83
Oglet (Speke), 140
Old Hall (Westleigh), 424
Orford (Warrington), 322
Ormskirk, (p) 238, (t) 261, (m) 262
Orrell, 99
Otegrimele (N. Meols), 230
Parr, (t) 377, (m) 377
Peel (Pennington), 430
Peel Hall (Astley), 447
Penketh, (t) 410, (m) 411
Pennington, (t) 426, (m) 427
Poulton, (t) 328, (m) 328
Prescot, (p) 341, (t) 353. (m) 353
TOWNSHIPS, AND MANORS
Quick (Bold), 407
Rainford, (t) 382, (m) 382
Rainhill, (t) 368, (m) 368
Ravenhead (Sutton), 361, 362
Ravens Meols (Formby), 49
Renacres (Halsall), 196
Ridgate (Whiston), 350
Ritherope (Rainhill), 370
Rixton, (t) 334, (m) 334
Roby, (t) 175, (m) 175
St. Helens (Windle), 374
Sankey, Great, (t) 409, (m) 409
Sankey, Little (Warrington), 323
Scarisbrick, (t) 265, (m) 265
Scholes (Eccleston), 365
Seaforth (Litherland), 98
Sefton, (p) 58, (t) 66, (m) 67
Shakerley (Tyldesley), 444
Sherdley (Sutton), 361
Shuttleworth (Bedford), 434
Simonswood, (t) 56, (m) 56
Skelmersdale, (t) 282, (m) 283
Smithdown (Toxteth Park), 43
Snape (Halsall), 197, 275
Southport (N. Meols), 234
Speke, (t) 131, (m) 132
Spellow (Walton), 27
Stotfoldshaw (Bickerstaffe), 281
Sutton, (t) 354, (m) 355
Tarbock, (t) 176, (m) 177
Thingwall, (t) 1 1 2, (m) 113
Thornton, (t) 76, (m) 76
Toxteth Park, (t) 40, (m) 41
Tyldesley, (t) 439, (m) 439
Upton (Widnes), 388
Walsh Hall (Aughton), 299
Walton, (p) 5, (t) 22, (m) 23
Warrington, (p) 304, (t) 316, (m) 319
Waterloo (Litherland), 98
Wavertree, (t) 1 1 1, (m) 1 1 1
Westleigh, (t) 421, (m) 422
Whiston, (t) 348, (m) 348
Whitehead Hall (Astley), 448
Widnes, 386
Windle, (t) 371, (m) 371
Windleshaw (Windle), 373
Wolfall (Huyton), 172
Woodfall (Sutton), 360
Woolston, (t) 331, (m) 332
Woolton, Little, (t) 117, (m) 118
Woolton, Much, (t) 113, (m) 114
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
St. George's Hall, Liverpool. By WILLIAM HYDE frontispiece
Walton on the Hill Church }
Old School-house, Walton on the Hill 1 ' ^^ ^ fa""S
Tue Brook House, Larkhill \
Croxteth Hall: South-west View J faU-p*ge plate, factng „
Simonswood Hall .............. 56
Sefton Church : The Nave, looking East )
„ „ : Screen and Sefton Pew at east end of South Aisle \ ' **** >**> **"* 6°
Speke Hall : East Front and Bridge over Moat . . . . . „ „ „ 130
Speke Hall from the North-west . . . . . . . „ „ ,, 132
Plan of Speke Hall . „ „ „ 134
Speke Hall : The Chimney-piece in the Great Chamber \
„ : South Bay of the Hall J
Speke Hall : The Hall, Panelling at Upper End ) g
„ „ : The Hall, from the North-west Bay J
Hale Hall : The North Front \
r " • • 99 99 99 J 4-6
„ „ : Part of South Side of the Panelled Room >
The Old Hutt, Halewood : The Gatehouse )
r »> ,, „ 150
„ „ „ „ : Entrance Doorway I
Huyton Church, from the West )
Knowsley Hall : South End of East Wing I
Plan of Halsall Church 184
Halsall Church from the South-east . . . . . . . . . . .185
Halsall Church : Tomb Recess on North of Chancel |
„ „ : Door to North Vestry )
The Old Rectory, Halsall 188
Lydiate Hall from the East 207
Plan of Ormskirk Church 241
Ormskirk Church: Window on North of Chancel j _ ( ^.^ ^
„ „ : From the South
Lathom House : The Entrance Front ^
Lathom Chapel : The East End J
Plan of Lathom Chapel 256
Burscough Priory Church : Northern Piers of the Crossing 260
Harleton Hall : North Side of Hall 271
Harleton Hall : Ground Plan 272
Mossock Hall 281
Plan of Mossock Hall 282
Plan of Aughton Church 286
Plan of Moor Hall, Aughton 3°*
Warrington Church : Interior, looking East j full-page plate, facing 308
The Barley Mow Inn, Warrington
xiii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Block Plan of Site of Augustinian Friary, Warrington 313
Plan of Church of Augustinian Friary, Warrington 3 ' 5
The Old Fox Inn, Warrington 3 « 7
Barley Mow Inn, Warrington : Room on First Floor 3l8
Bank Hall, Warrington : now the Town Hall 3 *°
Bewsey Hall, Warrington
Bradley Hall: Outer Face of Gateway I futt-page plate, facing 328
„ „ : Inner Face of Gateway J
Farnworth Church : Interior, looking West \ ... 366
Scholes : Pillar and Niche in Garden
Wrought Iron Gates, Cronton Hall ) ....„„„ 394
Bold New Hall, pulled down 1899 I
Plan of Leigh Church » » +»6
LIST OF MAPS
Index Map to the Hundreds of Lancashire facing I
Hundred of West Derby , 3
„ „ Parish of Walton 5
„ „ „ Sefton » 58
Childwall i°2
„ „ „ „ Huyton „ '51
„ „ Parishes of Halsall and Altcar » 183
„ „ Parish of North Meols 226
„ „ „ Parishes of Ormskirk and Aughton „ 238
„ „ ,. Parish of Warrington 3°4
>( „ „ Prescot „ 341
Leigh „ 414
Topographical Map of Lancashire in six sections at end of volume
EDITORIAL NOTE
THE Editors desire to acknowledge the liberal assistance and information
given during the compilation of this volume by the Earl of Derby, the
Earl of Sefton, the Earl of Lathom, Lord Lilford, Mr. C. H. Bibby-
Hesketh, Mr. J. Bromley, Mr. F. W. Brown, Mr. W. T. Browne, Mr.
Robert Legh Crosse, Mr. J. Formby, Mr. R. Gladstone, junr., Mr.
W. E. Gregson, Mr. Strachan Holme, Mr. James Hornby, Mr. W. F.
Irvine, F.S.A., Mr. C. Madeley, Mr. A. S. Mellor, Mr. W. D. Pink,
Mr. R. D. Radcliffe, F.S.A., Mr. F. Stapleton-Bretherton, Mrs. Arthur
Cecil Tempest, and the Rev. James Wilson, Litt.D. ; also by Mr.
Harcourt Clare, clerk of the County Council, the town clerk of
St. Helens, and the town clerk of Widnes.
To Mr. R. T. Gunton, for taking notes of deeds among the Hatfield
MSS. by permission of the late Marquis of Salisbury, thanks are
also due.
They likewise wish to express their thanks to Mr. J. P. Rylands,
F.S.A., for revising the heraldry.
Their acknowledgements are further due to the Rev. A. H. Drys-
dale, D.D., and the Rev. J. Mellis, for information as to the Presbyterian
churches ; to the Rev. W. T. Whitley, LL.D., as to the Baptist churches ;
and to Mr. J. S. Hodgson and Mr. R. Muschamp as to the Society
of Friends.
It is desirable to note the place of deposit or ownership of the
following records, which are frequently quoted in this volume. The
Hale Charter Roll, an ancient transcript of charters, is at Hale Hall ;
of Kuerden's manuscript collections, vols. ii to vi are at the College of
Arms, and the large folio volume, alphabetically arranged, is in Chetham's
Library at Manchester ; the Moore deeds are in the Liverpool Museum ;
of Christopher Towneley's manuscript collections, vols. DD, HH, OO,
and the Blundell of Crosby evidences are in Mr. Farrer's possession at
Over Kellet, and vol. C 8-13, is in Chetham's Library.
Discrepancies will occasionally be found between the total area of
the parishes, here taken from the Ordnance Survey, and the returns of
the arable, pasture, and woodland supplied by the Board of Agriculture,
the calculations having been made upon different bases.
A HISTORY OF
LANCASHIRE
N D EX MAP
to the
HUNDREDS
OF
LANCASHIRE
••B^
I TOPOGRAPHY
THE HUNDRED OF WEST DERBY
CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF
WALTON HALSALL AUGHTON LIVERPOOL
SEFTON ALTCAR WARRINGTON WIGAN
CHILDWALL NORTH MEOLS PRESCOT WINWICK
HUYTON ORMSKIRK LEIGH
At the time of the Domesday Survey this hundred consisted of the three
hundreds of West Derby, Warrington, and Newton.1 At what date the last
two were united with West Derby to form the present hundred is not known,
but it occurred before the reign of Henry II, probably early in that of
Henry I. The hundred is bounded on the west by the Irish Sea and River
Mersey from the Snoter Stone at Hundred End on the Ribble estuary to
Hale Head ; thence on the south by the Mersey 2 to Glazebrook, from which
point, north-west to Arley Hall, it is bounded on the east by Salford hundred.
From Arley Hall it is for the most part divided from Leyland hundred on
the north by the River Douglas until near Ruffbrd Hall, whence the boundary
runs through Martin Mere (now drained) in a north-westerly direction to
the above-named Snoter Stone. The township of Aspull in Wigan lies in
the hundred of Salford.
Around the chief manor of West Derby with its castle, supposed to
have been built by Roger of Poitou, lay a number of manors belonging to
the demesne of the county. At the Conquest these included, in addition to
the chief manor of West Derby, six berewicks embracing the vills of
Thingwall, Liverpool, Great Crosby, Aintree with part of Walton, Everton,
Garston with Aigburth, and Hale with Halewood, the whole containing four
hides or twenty-four carucates of land.3 By the end of the twelfth century
this demesne had undergone some change by the inclusion of part of Walton,
Wavertree, part of Formby, Altcar, Raven Meols, Ainsdale, and Uplitherland,
which had been held by thegns before the date of the Domesday Survey ; and
by the grant of some portions of West Derby, Great Crosby, Walton,
Wavertree, Formby, Raven Meols, Ainsdale, and Uplitherland to be held by
1 See vol. i, 283-6. The parishes of Prescot, Warrington, and Leigh practically formed the Domesday
hundred of Warrington, and the parishes of Wigan and Winwick that of Newton.
8 In 1 896 the boundary of the county was extended to include the whole of the borough of Warrington,
the Latchford portion of which lay in Ches.
3 Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 25.
3 » '
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
serjeanty and at fee farm ; and Aintree, Garston, and Aigburth in thegnage
or free alms; whilst the preconquest thegnlands of Toxteth, Smithdown (or
Smeedon) and a portion of Knowsley, called Croxteth,1 were afforested and
put into the forest created by Roger of Poitou, or by Henry I.2 At the
same time the whole of the parishes of Childwall, Huyton, Walton, Sefton,
and Aughton, all Prescot parish except the vills of Penketh, Windle, and
Rainford, and all Halsall parish except the vills of Barton and Halsall, were
put within the metes of the forest.3
The demesne land and forest gave to the castle and manor of West
Derby an importance, as a centre of administration in Lancashire south
of the Ribble, equal to that held by Lancaster, the nominal caput of
the county and honour, in the northern part of the county. This
importance was increased by the proximity of the port of Liverpool, founded
by King John, and the intercourse with Cheshire by sea and by the passage
or ferry between Liverpool and Birkenhead. A court leet with view of
frankpledge for the hundred of West Derby, called the Wapentake Court>
was held every three weeks4 before the steward of the hundred, having
jurisdiction over the greater part of the hundred, the only exceptions being
the demesne lands of the barony of Warrington and lordship of Widnes.5
The proceedings consisted of the presentment of minor offences, the breach
of by-laws, small personal actions usual to a hundred court, and the recovery
of debts amounting to less than 40^. Halmote courts were also held for the
demesne manors of West Derby, Wavertree, and Great Crosby.6
The king, or the lord of the honour and county, had his own bailiff of
the king's bailiwick of West Derby, who accounted for the perquisites of
all county courts and sheriffs tourns held within the hundred, and for ward-
ships, reliefs, and other casual feudal issues. The office of bailiff of the
wapentake was quite distinct ; this bailiff was the principal officer of the
sheriff, and his duties were to guard the peace of the hundred, make attach-
ments, collect the socage and fee-farm rents of the hundred, castle-guard rents,
and perquisites of the wapentake courts, levy amercements and take distresses,
and render every year an account of the issues of his bailiwick.7 From the
1 Coucher of Whalley (Chet. Soc.), i, 372. ' Ibid.
' Duchy of Lane. Forest Proc. bdle. I, No. 17,111. 9.
4 In 5-6 Hen. VIII (1513-14) thirteen courts were held: the first on Tuesday after the feast of
St. Michael (4 Oct. 1513), the last on Tuesday in the feast of the Decollation of St. John (29 Aug. 1524) ;
Duchy of Lane. Court Rolls, bdle. 79, No. 1030.
5 Duchy of Lane. Court Rolls, bdle. 79, No. 1038. Court Rolls or the wapentake of West Derby
from 36 Hen. VIII to 16 Chas. I are preserved in the Muniment-room at Croxteth ; CC, bdle. iii.
6 Duchy of Lane. Court Rolls, bdle. 79, Nos. 1030-1. Several halmote rolls for 17 and
18 Edw. II are preserved in the P.R.O. Rentals and Surveys, No. 379, m. 7; Court Rolls, portf. 183, No. 14,
m. 3 ; printed by the Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. xlii, 96-107, 123-32.
7 Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 100, No. 1796, m. 7 ; Recs. Accts. 11987^0. 728 for 23 Ric. II
-I Hen. IV. The office of the king's bailiwick of West Derby was then worth £10, in farm of the
bailiwick, perquisites of county courts £9 4;., of tourns 42*. 8</. ; total £2 1 6s. 8</. The issues of the
bailiwick of the wapentake were £19 5;. 5^.; perquisites £20 i8/. 3^. ; estrays 6s. SJ. ; total £40 los. 4^.
The issues of the office of master forester of West Derby included for herbage, turbary, pannage, honey,
wax, stone, and brushwood sold in Croxteth, Toxteth, and Simonswood, £25 os. 6d. ; swainmotes and
woodmotes, 3i/. io<^. ; total, £26 I2/. \d.
The bailiffs seem to have been unfortunate in collecting the dues. William Gregory died in 1424-5 in
prison, owing over £80 arrears of his account, and his successors were frequently in trouble for a like cause.
Charges of extortion were from time to time made against them, as in the case of William del Burgh in 1343 ;
Assize R. 430, m. 28 d. The misdoings of Henry de Chatherton, who had been bailiff for twenty years, are
detailed in Coram Rege R. 454 (i 374), m. 1 3, &c. Among other acts of extortion and concealment of crime
2
INDEX MAP
' lo the
HUNDRED OF
WEST DERBY
Victoria niilory of Laauakirt Vol. S.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
reign of King Stephen to that of Henry IV the latter office was held by
the family of Walton of Walton-on-the-Hill by inheritance. In the fifteenth
century the master-forestership of West Derby became hereditary in the
Molyneuxes of Sefton, who also held the stewardship.1
In 1825 the hundred court leet continued to be held within a month of
Easter and Michaelmas ; it had jurisdiction, concurrently with the sessions,
in all criminal cases.2 The hundred court, held from three weeks to three
weeks, had jurisdiction in certain personal actions under 40^. in value. The
steward of the hundred, or his deputy, presided at these courts.3
Henry III on 18 October, 1229, granted all the land between Kibble
and Mersey, including the vill of West Derby with the wapentake and the
forest, the borough of Liverpool, the vill of Salford with the wapentake,
and the wapentake of Leyland, to Ranulf, earl of Chester and Lincoln, to
hold in fee by rendering yearly at Michaelmas a mewed goshawk or 40*.*
The assized rent of the demesne, with the service of the tenants holding in
thegnage and at fee farm, and sake fee of the military tenants within the
hundred, then amounted to £46 i6s. 2^.5 Upon the earl's death, in 1232,
without issue this fee descended to William de Ferrers, earl of Derby, in
right of Agnes his wife, one of the sisters and co-heirs of the earl of
Chester.6
In 1226 the earl of Derby had a warrant for an allowance of £100 a
year for keeping ward of the castles of Lancaster and West Derby, and of
the county.7 He appears to have assumed larger judicial powers between
Kibble and Mersey than the grant to the earl of Chester conveyed, and
also to have infringed the rights and liberties of the men of that region,
especially in respect of the forest ; in consequence he was temporarily
dispossessed of this fee.8 The earl died in 1 247,' having predeceased his
wife but a few weeks. That he was the builder of Liverpool Castle may be
he had exacted from < the commonalty of the wapentake ' at every writ of the king for knights' expenses at
Parliament loo/, beyond the sum rated and due. He was found guilty, and fined £100 ; Ibid. R. 455.
In 1732 the king leased to David Lawton of Prescot the profits of court of West Derby wapentake for
thirty-one years ; Duchy of Lane. Misc. Books, xxvii, 37^.
1 See e.g. Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 385.
1 Baines' Lanes. Directory, 1825, i, I 36 ; its powers were 'seldom called into exercise except to abate
nuisances and appoint the high and petty constables and other municipal officers. Its proceedings had two
singular characteristics — the entire absence of fees and lawyers.'
3 Ibid. p. 138; 'No suit can be removed by the defendant, before judgement, without bail to the
satisfaction of the court ; nor by the losing party, after judgement, without similar security in double the
amount of the judgement.'
4 Chart. R. 13 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 3 ; Cal. pp. 101-2.
6 Pipe R. 10 Hen. Ill, Lanes. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. xlviii, 135-7)- The earl had hvel7 bY
writ dated 19 Oct. 1229 ; Close R. 1227-31, p. 221.
6 Close R. 1 2 3 i -4, p. 1 69. By writ dated 2 2 Nov. ( 1 2 3 2) the castle and vill of West Derby and all the
late earl's lands between Ribble and Mersey were accorded to the earl of Derby in right of his wife.
7 Close R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 122^.
8 In 1241-2 the three wapentakes of West Derby, Salford, and Leyland were seized into the king s hand
owing to transgressions committed by the earl and his bailiffs, but were again restored on 4 February, 1242,
subject to the reservation to the king of all pleas of the crown, all cattle detained against pledge and surety,
and attachments belonging to pleas of the crown, with liberty to the sheriff and coroners to have entry to the
said wapentakes to make inquiry of all pleas pertaining to the crown and the peace. The earl on his part
consented for himself and his heirs to treat the men between Ribble and Mersey in pleas of the forest and
all other pleas as they were treated and used in the time of King John, and up to the time when the then
king gave the land between Ribble and Mersey to Ranulf, earl of Chester, and that they would have only the
liberties and customs in those wapentakes of the men and all others there which they who held those wapen-
takes before the grant to the earl of Lincoln had and used. Fine R. 26 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 10.
9 Close R. 31 Hen. Ill, m. 2.
3
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
inferred from writs of 19 January, 1235, for an aid to be made to him for the
strengthening of his castle of Liverpool,1 and of 10 November, 1247,
directed to the escheator beyond Trent to deliver to William de Ferrers the
lands which had been Agnes de Ferrers', and the castles of West Derby and
Liverpool.*
In 1251 the new earl had a charter of free warren in all his demesne
lands in the manors of Liverpool, West Derby, Everton, Great Crosby, and
Wavertree.3 The same year he applied for leave to hold pleas of the forest
in his forest between Kibble and Mersey,* but there is no evidence that this
was granted. In 1253 he was empleaded in the king's court by the men of
the hundred for illegally forcing upon them a gryth-serjeant of his own
election, whom they by custom ought to elect by the consent, and under
the advice, of the sheriff.6 Process was terminated by the earl's death in
1254. From this time, until Robert, his son and heir, attained his
majority, the land between Kibble and Mersey was committed to Edward
the king's son.8
In 1263 Robert de Ferrers took proceedings against a number of people
in this hundred for offences in his forest against the deer.7 He took an
active part in the Barons' rebellion, and was pardoned in 1265 after submis-
sion, but rebelled again, and was defeated at the battle of Chesterfield early
in 1266. Subsequently he was totally disinherited by Parliament, his lands
being taken into the king's hands,8 and granted to Edmund, the king's second
son, afterwards created earl of Lancaster.9 On 30 June, 1267, the king
granted to his said son the honour, county, castle and town of Lancaster, and
all the king's demesnes in the county, which gift included the hundred of
West Derby.10
From this date to the present day the hundred has followed the descent
of the honour of Lancaster, subsequently of the duchy of Lancaster, and is
now vested in His Majesty King Edward VII, as duke of Lancaster.
1 Cal. Pat. 1232-47, 89.
' ' De Castris de Westdereby et Liverpol eidem Willelmo . . . seisinam habere faciant ' ; Fine R.
32 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 14.
3 Cal. Chart. R. (Rolls Ser.), 373- 4 Close R. 35 Hen. Ill, m. 7 d.
' ' It had lately been proved in the king's court before the king himself by a jury taken between them by
consent of the parties, that the plaintiffs and their fellows of the hundred had always possessed such liberty
that they were accustomed and ought by consent and advice of the sheriff to elect and appoint Grytsergeanz
(plural) who should and ought to keep the peace of the lord king, and should answer for them if the peace
of the lord king were not well kept ;' Cur. Reg. R. 150, m. 3 ; I 5 I, m. \d. ; 152, m. 9. See also Abbrev.
Plac. (Rec. Com.), 142.
'Close R. 38 Hen. III. Baines, Hist, of Liverpool, 106. An account of the issues between Ribble
and Mersey for part of the years 1256-7 is preserved among the Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts, bdle. 1094,
ro. II, m. 12 (printed in Inq. and Extents, 205-10).
7 Assize R. 1196, m. 5, 5</.
8 By writ dated 22 May, 1266 ; Pat. R. 50 Hen. Ill, m. 15.
9 Ibid. m. 9 ; Chart R. 50 Hen. Ill, m. 4.
Eleanor, widow of Robert de Ferrers, in 1275 claimed dower in the vills of Liverpool, West Derby,
Crosby, &c., against Edmund, the king's brother ; Duchy of Lane. Misc. Books, i.
" Chart R. 52 Hen. Ill, m. 4 ; 13 Edw. I, m. 7.
/ 7/
\ \ .'-.. '. | West %^
* "T V-. -X A +:r V ^
— -r x^<, D\ e r
r iEverton^} \
b y
\\ Toxtet h^'X"" ^
P-K J ^
x WALTON ON THE HILL
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
WALTON ON THE HILL
WEST DERBY
EVERTON
WALTON
FAZAKERLEY
BOOTLE CUM LINACRE
KIRKDALE
TOXTETH PARK (EXTRA-PAR.)
FORM BY
KIRKBY
SIMONSWOOD (EXTRA-PAR.)
This extensive parish, occupying the south-western
corner of the hundred and county, has a total area of
29,615 acres,1 and a population in 1901 which
numbered 446,821 persons.' Anciently its area was
much larger. Childwall must have been detached
before the Norman Conquest, and Sefton before
1 200 ; Liverpool continued to form part of it until
1699. On the other hand, at some time earlier than
the Conquest it is probable that Kirkby and Simons-
wood had been drawn into it, just as in later times
Croxteth Park has been erroneously included in and
Altcar claimed for it.
Apart from the story of Liverpool, told subse-
quently, there is little to say of its general history.
The castle of West Derby endured less than two cen-
turies ; the camp of Prince Rupert at Everton in 1644
connects the parish with the Civil Wars, the effect
of which is chiefly illustrated by the confiscations
of the parliamentary authorities during their years
of power.
Jeremiah Horrocks, the astronomer, was perhaps
the most distinguished man who has sprung from it,
though many others have been connected with it by
their labours.
Formerly it was mainly agricultural. The de-
tached chapelry ofFormby had a seaport and fisheries.
Simonswood and Toxteth were royal parks. Everton
was one of the first portions to be affected by the
growing prosperity of Liverpool ; its elevated situa-
tion offered desirable sites for the suburban residences
of the merchants. Now a large part of the parish
has become urban ; but agriculture still claims the
inland portion of West Derby, Fazakerley, Kirkby, and
Simonswood ; Formby has a growing urban popula-
tion, but retains its agricultural character.
The following are the acreages at present occupied
by arable land, permanent grass, and woods and
plantations : —
Arable
Walton on the Hill
Walton . . .
Toxteth . . .
Bootle ....
West Derby (rur.)
Kirkdale .
For the county lay of 1624 the assessment, con-
sidered at that time a fair one, was that Walton
should pay a twelfth of the sum levied upon the
hundred. The townships were arranged so that each
group paid one-third, as follows :— I. Walton-cum-
Fazakerley, Kirkby, and Formby, each paying equally ;
2. West Derby ; 3. Liverpool, Kirkdale, Bootle and
Linacre, and Everton, Liverpool paying two-thirds
of the sum due from this group.3 The more ancient
fifteenth had by the seventeenth century become un-
fair ; out of a total of £106 <)s. 6d. due from the
hundred Walton paid £i J $>. 6$J. Kirkby
£1 161. tfd., Formby £i p., Raven Meols 12;.,
West Derby £2 8/., Liverpool £2 1 1/. I \d., Kirk-
dale ijs., Bootle 1 6s. 8J., Everton 14*., a total of
£12 iy.7W
The church of Our Lady is at the
CHURCH* present day of greater historical than
architectural interest. The site is an-
cient, and a church here is mentioned in Domesday,
but its chief claim to distinction lies in the fact that
it is the mother church of Liverpool, St. Nicholas's
Church having been a chapel of Walton till 1 699.
The later history of Walton church is as follows :
The nave was rebuilt in 1743, the chancel in 1810,
and the tower in 1828-31. In 1840 the north side
of the nave was remodelled, and the chancel rebuilt
for the second time in 1843. No part of the
structure, therefore, has any pretensions to antiquity.
In the chancel is a reading desk dated 1639, all other
fittings being quite modern. Near the vestry door is
an inscribed brass plate6 recording the establishment
(in 1601) of a charity by Thomas Berry. Ten
verses, beginning with letters of his name (Thomas
fieri), are followed by the couplet : —
Xij penie loaves to xii poore foulkes
Geve everie Sabothe day for aye.
The font is a relic of the ancient church, now
restored to use after many years of desecration, having
been turned out of the church in 1754, and used as
a mounting stone by the door of a neighbouring inn.
It has a circular bowl, on which are six arched panels
containing figure sculpture, the intervening spaces
having floral patterns. The figure-subjects are dam-
aged and indistinct, but one shows the temptation
of Adam and Eve — as on the font at Kirkby — and
another has been interpreted as the Flight into Egypt.
The bowl of the font only is ancient.7
The Registers begin in 1586."
The church had in 1066 an
ADVQWSON endowment of one ploughland in
Bootle ; 9 probably it had a further
endowment in Walton itself, where there is a con-
siderable acreage of glebe.10 Geoffrey the sheriff about
1 Including the extra-parochial districts
of Simonswood and Toxteth, together
6,224 acres.
8 Almost all within the boroughs of
Liverpool and Bootle.
8 M. Gregson, Fragment! (ed. Harland),
1 6.
•' Ibid. 1 8.
• Fora view (about 1816) see Gregson,
op. cit. 140.
• Thornely, Lanes. Brasses, 243.
7 Gregson, op. cit. 142 ; Trans. Hi,,.
S«. (New Ser.), xvii, 60.
8 A volume, 1586 to 1663, has been
printed by the Lanes. Parish Reg. Soc.
» Vol. I, p. 284*.
I" In 1639 the rector's lands in Walton
were estimated at 60 acres, long measure ;
Charley Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.) p. 53. At present the acreage in
Walton is said to be 90 statute acres and
17 in Fazakerley, with outlying lands in
Everton and West Derby; H2j acres
in all. The vicarial glebe amounts to
27i acres.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
1093 granted the church of St. Mary at Walton to the
monks of Shrewsbury, on the day of its dedication ; l
this was confirmed by Henry I some thirty years
later.' The right remained with the monastery
until 1470, being then purchased by Thomas
Molyneux of Sefton,3 and descended with this manor
until 1747, when Sir William Heathcote purchased
it.' It was again sold in 1810 to John Leigh, of
Sandhills in Kirkdale, whose descendant, Mr. J. C.
Gerard Leigh, a minor, is the patron.5
The vicarage was ordained in 1326, when Edward
II confirmed the grant of the church to the abbey.6
The rectory was not appropriated, and both rector and
vicar continued to be appointed down to 1890, when
the vicarage was suppressed, its revenues supplementing
those of the newly founded bishopric of Liverpool.7
Count Roger of Poitou gave the demesne tithes
of Walton to the abbey of St. Martin of Seez ; 8 a
composition was afterwards made between Stephen
de Walton and the prior of Lancaster.9 In 1291 the
revenue of the church was estimated at .£44.'° Fifty
The following is a list of the rectors : —
oc. 1192 Stephen"
c. 1 206 Robert de Walton '8 . . . .
William, son of Robert l9 . . .
years later the ninth of sheaves, wool, &c., was valued
at 54 marks, being £8 less ; but the borough of
Liverpool was separately taxed." In 1535 the gross
income was estimated at £77 $s. 6ii. ; various pay-
ments, including a pension of 201. to the abbot of
Shrewsbury, reduced this to £69 i6s. loJ. ; the
vicarage was valued at £6 1 3/. \d. "
The Commonwealth surveyors of 1650 recom-
mended the subdivision of the parish, leaving the
townships of Walton, Bootle, and Kirkdale to the old
church. There was a parsonage house worth
£4 2t. 4</. a year ; the tithes of the township they
valued at £6$ \^s. \d. The vicarage house, with its
yard, orchard and garden, was worth 3O/.13
Bishop Gastrell about 1720 found the rectory
worth £400 a year, and the vicarage £ l oo ; Liverpool
had then been cut off from the parish.14 The gross
value of the rectory is now stated as £1,400 ; " a large
part of the glebe has been covered with dwelling houses.
The rectory was divided by an Act of Parliament
passed in i843-16
Cause of Vacancy
King John
» Fairer, Land. Fife R. p. 269. The
words of the charter might imply that a
new dedication had been made; more prob-
ably they refer to the anniversary festival.
The gift was made for the benefactor, his
wife, and their little son Achard, whom he
had made a monk at Shrewsbury.
"Ibid. p. 271. There was a further
probably some compromise.
« The Molyneuxes not being entitled to
present, owing to their religion, usually
sold the next presentations. On 29 Sep-
tember, 1675, Caryll Viscount Molyneux
and William his son and heir granted the
next presentation to Silvester Richmond
8 Lanes. Fife R. p. 290. This grant had
a confirmation from Richard I ; p. 299.
9 Lane. Church (Chet. Soc.), i, 112;
Tame of'rTugh, bishop of Lichneld', proves.
There had been an earlier dispute, when
the demesne tithes of Walton had been
resigned to Shrewsbury in an arbitration
nons, earl of Chester, and by Henry II in
1155; ibid. 277, 284.
to the church, then vacant, Nicholas de la
Hose granted to the abbot his presentation
for that turn ; Assize R. 1341, m. 26 J.
Probably Nicholas, who had newly received
the manor, thought that the advowson of
the church belonged to it. In 1292-3 the
abbot was called upon by the king to show
his right to the advowson, King John
having presented in time of peace (Plac.
de quo Warr. p. 605). Later still, in
1350, the church being vacant, John of
Gaunt, on behalf of the king, claimed the
presentation (De Bane. R. 362, m. 153).
8 On I June,- 1470, the abbot and
convent granted to John Dutton and other
trustees the advowson of Walton church,
£80 being paid by Thomas Molyneux in
part payment. It being alleged that
Lord Stanley had a similar bargain
as to the advowson, it was expressly
declared that neither he nor any other man
had any promise or covenant about it,
'except such motions as the said Thomas
Lord Stanley had with our predecessor
that last deceased ; all which motions and
neuxes farmed considerable portions of
the Walton tithes, e.g. in 1639 they had
a lease of Sandfield Barn, West Derby
(Ibid. Bb, iii, 7).
Deeds relating to the sale to Sir William
Heathcote are enrolled in the Com. Pleas ;
Trin. and Mich. 21 Geo. II, R. 76, m.
48</. ; R. 82, m. 49; R. 83, m. 51.
» Raines' notes in Gastrell, Notitia
Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 222.
John Leigh was a well-known lawyer
of Liverpool ; he was born at Appleton
inscription in Walton church!" Two'
rector was a grandson. His eldest son,
John Shaw Leigh, settled at Luton, and
died in 1871 ; his son, John Gerard
Leigh, died four years later, having
granted the advowson to his wife, after-
wards Madame de Falbe. She died in
1899, and Captain Henry Gerard Leigh
succeeded, but died in the following year.
John Leigh married a sister of Dr. James
(son of Richard) Gerard, who was for a
time the owner of Rainhill manor-house.
From information kindly furnished by the
Rev. Canon Leigh, lately rector.
Fife R. p. 276).
i" Pof, Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), p. 249.
» Nonarum Inj. (Rec. Com.), p. 41.
The separate values were— West Derby,
£12 n,. 6J.; Walton, £6 121. 5</. ;
Kirkby, £6 12,. SJ. ; Formby with
Raven Meols and Ainsdale, £i 15.. ±d. ;
Everton, £z us. 8</. ; Kirkdale,
f3 6s. 8^.; Bootle with Linacre.
I IOJ. The glebe of the church was
worth 261. <)d. and small tithes and ob-
lations pertaining to the altarage £4.
" Yahr Ecd. (Rec. Com.), v, 221.
The lands, &c. brought in 361. lod. and
the tithes £75 8s. %d. The principal
charge was the fee of Thomas Mossock
the bailiff, £5. The vicar had the obla-
tions and small tithes. There is an
'extent' of the benefice made in 1561,
printed in Cb. Gds. (Chet. Soc.), p. 95 n.
« Commonwealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), p. 81.
« Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 221. A
paper at Croxteth of somewhat later date
estimates the parsonage house and 36
acres of glebe as worth £100 a year, and
the tithes £828. The curates of West
Derby, Formby, and Kirkby were paid
predecessor, were by his death void'
(Croxteth D. Bb, ii, 2-4).
A vacancy occurring in 1471 the abbot
of Shrewsbury proved his right to the pa-
tronage against the bishop of Lichfield and
Roger Walton (Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 38,
m. 20 ; Croxteth D. Bb, ii, 6). John Moly-
neux having been presented by the abbot,
the Stanleys put forward their claim, and
ii, 223-4. By this the rector nominated
the vicar, and the latter appointed the
curates of the several chapels ; but by
rectors. In 1715 the proportion of duty
to be performed by the rector and vicar
was settled. There was a second ordination
of the vicarage in the fifteenth century
(Lich. Epis. Reg. x, fol. 51).
« Liver fool Dioc. Cal.
16 By this private act (6 and 7 Viet. cap.
1 6) West Derby became an independent
rKu7,'anc. C*. i. 1 12; also Wballey Coucbir
(Chet. Soc.), i, 40.
18 Lanes. Fife R. 354 ; Croxteth D. X.
James Stanley, clerk, should resign his
claim to the rectory, and allow John
Molyneux to enjoy it peaceably (Ibid.
Genl. i, 58). As a James Stanley was
pool Bishopric Act the vicar's income is
paid to the Eccles. Com. who give a pro-
portion of the combined rector's and vicar's
incomes to the bishop.
6
Church, i, 120. It is known that a
William, son of Robert, one of the king's
clerks, was presented to Walton by King
John; Plac. de quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 605.
WALTON ON THE HILL CHURCH
(From an Old Drawing)
OLD SCHOOLHOUSE, WALTON ON THE HILL
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
oc. 1 240
oc. 1272
4 June, 1311
22 April, 1319
23 Dec. 1328
5 Mar. 1330-1
14 Oct. 1349
31 Dec. 1356
2 NOV. 1409
5 Jul7. H35
17 Dec. 1459
25 Sept. 1471
20 June, 1485
10 Aug. 1506
14 July, 1528
3 Jan. 1535-6
1543
— Sept. 1557
15 Oct. 1565
'In 1240 WbMcy Coucher, ii, 581
(see also i, 143, ii, 490) ; in 1246, Assize
R. 404, m. i d. ; Dods. MS. xxxix, fol.
138, n. 4. He was married, probably
before his appointment to the rectory, and
his son William known as William de
JCirkdale, became rector of Sefton about
1280 ; see the account of Kirkdale.
a Wballey Coucber, ii, 585. From the
dispute as to the patronage it appears there
was a vacancy in 1273.
» Lich. Epis. Reg. i, fol. 59 b. The new
William de Walton l . . .
Robert1
Mr. Thomas de Chorleton ' .
Mr. Ralph de Shrewsbury4 .
Simon de Clopton 5 . . .
Thomas de Clopton "...
John de Bulkington ' .
Mr. Richard de Winwick 8 .
Richard de Stanley 9 . . .
Ralph de Stanley 10 . . .
Thomas Fairclough, D.D. " .
John Molyneux, M.A. '" . .
James Stanley, D. Can. L. " .
Richard Dudley, D.D. " . .
Mr. Edward Molyneux 15 .
Richard Gwent, LL.D. lc . .
Anthony Molyneux, D.D.17 .
Anthony Molyneux 18 . . .
Alexander Molyneux I9
Presented by
Shrewsbury Abbey.
The bishop . . .
Shrewsbury Abbey
The king . . .
Shrewsbury Abbey.
T. and R. Molyneuj
Jas. Molyneux .
Sir W. Molyneux .
Sir R. Molyneux
WALTON
Cav.se of Vacancy
res. T. de Chorleton
res. R. de Shrewsbury
res. S. de Clopton
d. T. de Clopton
res. J. de Bulkington
d. R. de Winwick
res. R. de Stanley
d. R. de Stanley
d. T. Fairclough
d. J. Molyneux
res. J. Stanley
res. R. Dudley
d. E. Molyneux
(d. R. Gwent)
d. A. Molyneux
1408, and was buried in the cathedral, priest there, who died in 1498 ; Raines,
where a brass formerly commemorated Chantries (Chet. Soc.), ii, 176.
Desiderata Curiosa, viii, p. 22, n. 48. He also rector of Sefton and canon of Lich-
demised the rectory in 1368 for 1000 field ; he founded the chantry at Walton.
clerk. He was also warden of Manch. c'tc.,
and became bishop of Ely in 1 506. The
patrons were Thomas and Robert Moly-
neux, by grant of the abbot and convent
of Shrewsbury to them and others then
deceased. See Foster, Alumni Oxan.
14 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv. fol. 54 b ;
doubt acting as trustee. The Act Books
Liverpool ; De Bane. R. 450, m. 169 J.
In the Col. of Papal Letters are some
particulars concerning him. In 1350,
being in his twentieth year, he received
from Clement VI a dispensation to hold
the abbo't and convent of Shrewsbury were
not the true patrons.
In 1327, and subsequent years, he
bishop of Gap
elease of
patron; he was lord of the manor.
St. Mary Hall, Oxf. in^l soz^he" w^s
prebendary of London, Lincoln, and York ;
and died in 1536 ; Le Neve, Fasti, iii,
584, &c. ; Foster, Alumni.
15 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 636. He
was brother of the patron, and held Sefton
and other benefices ; on being instituted
to Walton he swore to pay the retiring
rector a pension of £80 a year, which
must have been nearly the full value.
" Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv. fol. 35. He
paid first-fruits 16 January; Lanes. andChei.
Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 407.
parishioners ; De Bane. R. 272, m. \t,d,
etc. At this time Dr. Thomas de Charl-
ton, canon of York, archdeacon of Wells
and Northumberland, and king's trea-
surer, was promoted by the pope to the
bishopric of Hereford ; Le Neve, Fasti, i,
461.
4 Croxteth D. Bb. ii, i, from the reg.
of Bp. Walter Langton. He presented
the vicar in 1327 ; Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol.
102. He was chancellor of the university
of Oxford in 1328, and became bishop of
Bath and Wells in the following year ;
Le Neve, Fasti, iii, 464 ; i, 137. There
it a notice of him in Diet. Nat. Biog.
* Lich. EpU. Reg. ii, fol. 104. He
was a « clerk,' and in the following Feb.
had licence to study for seven years ac-
cording to the canon ; Ibid. fol. 104*.
He became canon of Lichfield, and died
in 1349 ; Le Neve, Fasti, i, 619, 636.
• Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. io6A ; he ex-
changed with his predecessor, who became
rector of Ideshale (or Shifnal). See Eyton,
Shropshire, ii, 336. He also was a canon
of Lichfield until his death in 1349 ; Lc
Ne»e,F«rf,i, 589,602.
1 Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 124*; an
acolyte. His name appears as Bulketon on
presentation, and Bulkington later.
8 Croxteth D. Bb. ii, I ; he exchanged
the rectory of Nether Wallop with John
dc Bulkington. In January, 1356-7, a
dispensation for study was granted by the
bishop to Master Richard de Winwick,
rector of Walton, then a subdeacon ;
Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 1 5, 1 5* ; he was
ordained deacon four years afterwards ;
Ibid, v, fol. 82 b. He was brother and
executor of John de Winwick, rector of
Wigan, etc., and became canon of Lin-
coln about 1376 ; he died 12 December,
William Molyneux, clerk, a member of
his household, and Thomas de Eltonhead,
canon of Penkridge, who had been seized
and plundered in Vienne on their way
from the Roman court (then at Avignon),
William had been taken to the castle of
Sigoyer ; iv, 9. At the beginning of
1365 a safe conduct was granted them;
iv, 51.
« Lich. Epis. Reg.'vii, fol. 98A ; he was
collated by the bishop, the benefice having
been vacant nearly a year, and is de-
1418, when he presented a vicar, but
became rector of Winwick in 1423. He
was also archdeacon of Chest.
archdeacon of London, Huntingdon, and
Brecknock, and held other dignities ; and
died in London 1543 ; Wood, Atkenae ;
ii, I ; but Ralph Stanley was rector as
early as 1427, according to Kuerden, ii,
fol. 245*, n. 1348.
« Lich. Epis. Reg. xii, fol. 98; Henry VI
presented, the temporalities of the abbey
of Shrewsbury being in his hands.
On his appointment Dr. Fairclough com-
323, etc. His will is in P.C.C.
V He paid first-fruits 4 August, 1543.
He was also rector of Sefton. An account
of the ornaments of the church in 1552
which he found the church. In the
chancel the books, vestments, and other
ornaments were very defective, and in the
rectory house there were dilapidations,
rector. The bishop accordingly commis-
sioned Dr. Ralph Duckworth, vicar of
Prescot, and Edmund Farington, rector of
Halsall, to inquire into the matter, giving
them authority to sequestrate the goods
and revenues due to the late rector until
the preceding rector. An Anthony Moly-
neux was scholar of Corpus Christ! Coll.
Oxf. in 1555; B.A. 1558; Foster,
Alumni. From his refusal to appear at
the visitation in 1559 (Gee, Elizabethan
Clergy}, and his departure to beyond the
sea early in Elizabeth's reign it may per-
haps be inferred that he would not con-
form to the new religious order.
» Chest. Dioc. Reg. He paid first-
fruits I November, 1564-5. He was a
younger son of Sir Richard Molyneux, the
patron. As he held the rectory for sixty-six
125.
Thomas Fairclough 'Doctor in De-
crees,' was prayed for at Standish as a
benefactor of Robert Pilkington, chantry
his appointment. In 1591 he was
described as unlearned and not used to
Ktnvon MSS. p. 601. His wife Elizabeth
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Institution
i Feb. 1630-1
•?{-}•'»
c. 1645
13 Oct. 1655
5 Sept. 1660
9 Nov. 1671
10 April, 1690
6 April, 1722
25 Oct. 1768
8 Feb. 1803
14 June, 1847
23 Jan. 1868
3 June, 1884
27 April, 1906
Thomas Legh, D.D.1 .
Andrew Clare, D.D.1 .
Presented by
. . Sir P. Legh . . .
(Lord Molyneux .
• ' \Theking . . .
William Ward, M.A.S
Robert Eaton4 The Protector . .
John Heywood, D.D.5 . . .
Cause of Vacanc
d. A. Molyneux
Id. T. Legh
Earl and Countess of
Southampton
Countess of Southampton.
d. J. Heywood
Dr. S. Richmond . . .
d. T. Pawlet
Earl of Cardigan . . .
d. R. Richmond
Earl of Macclesfield . .
d. S. Richmond
Sir W. Heathcote . . .
d. H. Heathcote
Jn. Shaw Leigh . . .
d. S. Heathcote
„ ...
d. T. G. Leigh
Madame de Falbe . . .
d. R. Leigh
res. J. G. Leigh
Thomas Pawlet, B.D.6 . . .
Richard Richmond, M.A.7 . .
Silvester Richmond, M.A.8 . .
Henry Heathcote, M.A.9 . .
Samuel Heathcote, M.A.10 . .
Thomas Gerard Leigh, M.A.11 .
Richard Leigh, M.A.1' . . .
James Gerard Leigh, M.A.13 .
George Hardwicke Spooner, M.A.1'
The following have been vicars ; they have always been presented by the rect
Institution Name Presented by
3 May, 1327 John de Walton u
27 Dec. 1329 Thomas de Knigh ton 16 ....
10 Jan. 1348-9 John de Eccleshall "
was buried at Walton 26 Dec. 1614, and Walton ... and to officiate the cure This
he himself was buried there i Feb.
1630-1 ; a note by the vicar in the
of Vacancy
res. J. de Sutton
d. Thomas
Walton ... and to officiate the cure This rector, in conjunction with his
there'; Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. son as vicar, made strenuous efforts to
Lanes, and Ches.), i, i, 143. He signed increase the money value of the rectory by
that he 'gave to the poor the ' Harmonious Consent ' in 1648, and claiming tithes for agistment, potatoes, and
free school wages of Walton £20, and
his theology books to the vicar for his
I March, 1654-5, according to the registers.
diminishing. There are at Croxteth papers
life and to the rectors succeeding succes-
4 The rectory of Walton standing
concerning these claims.
for aye ' ; Waltm Reg. (Lanes. Par. Reg.
thereof,' His Highness nominated Mr.
at Queen's Coll. Oxf., M.A. 1799;
Soc.), i, 126.
Robert Eaton, who from that time acted
Foster, Alumni. He resided chiefly in
There occurs in 157? a presentation by
as rector ; Plund. Mini. Accts, ii, 93, 208.
Hants, and about 1 803 counsel's opinion
the queen to the rectory of Walton, in
He was of Cambridge, but created M.A.
was sought as to the obligation of resi-
consequence of which William Haworth,
'preacher of the word of God,' was insti-
at Oxford in 1653 ; Foster, Alumni. On
the Restoration Robert Eaton attempted
dence. It was stated : ' Since the pur-
chase by the Heathcote family, the
caused Rector Molyneux to make search in
being issued on i 3 August, 1660, appoint-
rectory have been considered as the
tion. Nothing appears to have resulted
He became chaplain to Lord Delamere
first Sir William gave it to one of hit
from Haworth's institution, for next year
and died in Manch. in 1701 ; Foster,
younger sons, and the present Sir William
queen's mandate is at Chest.
Lane:. Nonconf. iii, 218, 288.
6 The countess of Southampton, patron,
William when he gave the rectory to his
son, Mr. Samuel Heathcote, the now
given fromnth'eUinstitSution books, P.R.O.
was widow of Richard Lord Molyneux.
rector, had no idea that the duty of resi-
as printed in Lane:, and Ches. Antiq.
The new rector was educated at Corpus
dence was in any degree obligatory, and
Notes. There are good accounts of the
Christi Coll. Oxf. being elected fellow;
it would be extremely inconvenient, and
modern rectors, etc. in Baincs, Lanes, (ed.
Croston), v. 100-103.
For his pedigree see Dugdalc, Visit. (Chet.
enjoyments of the family were Mr.
Dr. Legh, who paid his first-fruits
Soc.), 140. A grant by the crown was
Samuel Heathcote obliged to reside at so
in Hampshire'; Walton papers in
Chester Dioc. Reg.
of Sefton ; Foster, Alumni Oxon. The
The Act Books at Chest, assign the same
11 A younger brother of the patron.
Leghs of Lyme descend from him.
reason for the vacancy ; they give the
Educated at Brasenose Coll. Oxf., M.A.
a He paid first-fruits 24 Sept. 1639.
reason of the minority of the patron,
6 One of this name was fellow of Trin.
previously rector of Halsall ; educated at
Viscount Molyneux. Dr. Clare was of
Coll. Camb. ;M.A. 1665.
Brasenose Coll. Oxf., M.A. 1835 ; Foster,
Alumni
M.A. 1624 ; rector of Ickenham, 1635 ;
Silvester Richmond, M.D. ; he was also
I* Madame de Falbe, wife of the
Foster, Alumni. Being a staunch royalist
rector of Sefton. Of Brasenose Coll.
Danish ambassador, presented as widow
he was expelled from his rectory by
Oxf. ; M.A., 1678 ; Foster, Alumni.
of John Gerard Leigh. Canon Leigh is
the Parl. and went abroad, John
Evelyn noting that he preached before
Fishwick, Hist, of Garstang (Chet. Soc.).
educated at Christ Church, Oxf., M.A.
Charles II in Sir Richard Brown's chapel
8 Lord Cardigan was patron for Lord
1871; vicar of Maghull, 1 869 ; hon. canon
in Paris on 12 November, 1651, 'the
Molyneux's life by purchase ; Gastrell,
of Liverpool, 1892; rector of Halsall.
first Sunday His Majesty came to chapel
after his escape' from Worcester. His
of the preceding, and had been vicar for
M.A. 1876; formerly vicar of Lither-
wife had an allowance of a fifth from the
two years. Of Brasenose Coll. Oxf., M.A.
land (1879) and rector of Woolton (1885).
rectory of Walton ; Commonwealth Ch.
Surv. 82, etc.
1719 ; Foster, Alumni.
» The earl of Macclesfield was patron
Hon. canon of Liverpool 1896; arch-
deacon of Warrington, 1906.
» He had been rector of Warrington
for a term of years. Henry Heath-
» Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 102. Probably
from 1621. On 18 March, 1644-5, the
cote was a brother-in-law and cousin,
the 'John de Sutton' named at the ap-
committee of the Assembly of Divines for
being son of Sir William Heathcote by
pointment of the next vicar.
" Ibid, ii, fol. 104*.
examine his fitness ' to have the seques-
was educated at Exeter Coll. Oxf., M.A.
ir ibid, ii, fol. 123.
tration of the rectory and church of
1759; Foster, Alumni.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Institution
1 6 April, 1350
23 Feb. i 350-1
2 April, 1364
oc. 1391-4 .
l Mar. 1404-5
3 Oct. 1418
Name
John de Barre'
Richard de Sutton 8
William del Hall J
Roger Winter4
John de Wollaton 6
John Ironmonger6
26 June, 1455
oc. 1472 . .
Thomas Blackburne
William Whittingham ' . . . .
William Bolton 8
6 Aug. 1511
2 May, 1528
— 1550 . .
Ralph Radcliffe •
Thomas Norris, B.A. 10 ....
Thomas Allen "
oc. 1562 . .
oc ic6c
John Finch"
Robert Halsall ls
Mar. 1571-2
2 Dec. 1586
9 May, 1624
30 July, 1654
29 Jan. 1662-3
7 Sept. 1665
i Aug. 1720
7 Nov. 1722
28 Aug. 1757
13 April, 1780
1 4 Nov. 1788
5 Sept. 1816
1 1 Mar. 1 844
21 Dec. 18^.7
William Hesketh "
Peter Hey 15
Nevill Kay, B.A."
Henry Finch l?
John Walton, M.A.18
Thomas Marsden, B.D.19 ....
Silvester Richmond, M.A.80 . . .
Thomas Brooke, M.A." ....
Richard Richmond, LL.B." . . .
Miles Atkinson, B.A."
Henry Heathcote, B.D.24 ....
Thomas Moss, M.A."
Thos. Gerard Leigh, M.A.'5 . . .
Thomas Hornbv. M.A." .
resented by
WALTON
Cause of Vacancy
res.J. de Eccleshall
res. J. de Barre
d. R. de Sutton
d. T. Blackburne
d. W. Bolton
d. R. Raddiffe
d. T. Marsden
res. S. Silvester
d. T. Brooke
d. Bp. Richmond
res. M. Atkinson
res. H. Heathcote
d. T. Moss
res. T. G. Leigh
The list of clergy calls for little comment ; some of that besides the pluralist rector, the vicar, and five
the pre-Reformation clergy, like Ralph de Shrewsbury, chantry priests — one at Walton and four at Liverpool —
were men of note ; of the later Dr. Clare seems the there were four others attached to the parish, two
most distinguished. being paid by the vicar, and probably serving Formby,
From the Clergy List of I54I28 it would appear Kirkby, and West Derby chapels, and two living
a priest.
'Ibid, ii, fol. 128; the vacancy was
and Formby. 0
" Chest. Dioc. Reg. \
f Sodor and Man in 1753, retaining
Valton. He was educated at St. John's
dean of Warrington in 1354; Assize R.
436.
« Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 8ii ; he was
presented by John de Ashton and William
son of Adam de Liverpool, proxies of
R. de Winwick, the rector.
4 He is mentioned as vicar in 1391 ;
begin with his appointment. \
" He was no doubt a Puritan, append- C
ing his name to the ' Harmonious Con- v
sent 'of 1 648. He was buried at Walton
15 June, 1654, as appears from the
registers.
" In Plund. Mim. Accts. ii, 208, the
iteresting account of him, chiefly from
V. Cole, in the Admissions to St. John's
allege (ed. Scott), iii, 120, 561-3, in
hich it is stated that he was an eloquent
eacher, and in 1764 published Party
rmons and Discourses. Cole says : ' His
ther was always necessitous. The son
as of St. John's College, but never
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle 3, m. 22.
ber, 1657 ; but in the registers it is stated
3 LL.D. degree, and lived in college in
Richard Jankinson of Little Woolton
1633, succeeded in 1654 ; Waltan Reg. i,
rrowing money of any one who had it
John Wolton, lately vicar of Walton ' ;
Moore D. n. 576.
« Lich. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 20. John
Ironmonger was still vicar of Walton in
1444 ; Croxteth D. Bb, i, 16.
7 Lich. Epis. Reg. xi, fol. 38*.
8 He occurs in 1472 in Harl. MS.
21 12, fol. 122, B. 210.
» Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 56*.
The Act Books at Chester give the date
« 21 July, 1511.
10 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 63i.
" He paid his first-fruits 3 July, 1550 ;
Land, and Ches. Rec. ii, 408. He ap-
peared at the visitation of 1554.
" He appeared at the visitations of
1562 and 1563 ; on the latter occasion he
•was ill. John Finch became rector of
Sefton in 1564.
of Birch Hall, and assisted Calamy with
his account of the ejected clergy. Diet.
Nat. Biag.
>8 Of Brasenose Col. Oxf., M.A. 1642 ;
Foster, Alumni.
» He was a correspondent of Roger
Kenyon's, and several of his letters are
printed in Kenyan MSS. (Hist.MSS.Com.) ;
he is also frequently mentioned in N.
Blundell's Diary. He was appointed one
of the king's preachers in 1 690. He was
educated at Brasenose Coll. Oxf. during
the Commonwealth regime ; M.A. 1661 ;
Foster, Alumni ; Wood, Athtnae, ii, 817 ;
M.A. at Camb. coaitiii regiis, 1690. I
80 Son of the rector, whom he succeeded a
in 1722.
»l Son of Sir Thomas Brooke, of Nor-
ton Priory ; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), e
reel in the Strand and (was) buried in
lat parish church, quite insolvent, as I
m informed.' See also Moore, Sodor and
an, 247-51.
*> Of Peterhouse, Camb., B.A. 1763.
e became vicar of Kippax, near Leeds,
st minister of St. Paul's Church, Leeds,
93, and lecturer at the parish church ;
died in ign. There is a portrait of
m in Whitaker, Loidis and Elmete, 69.
«* Son of the rector. Educated at Wad-
m Coll. Oxf., M.A. 1791 ; B.D. 1802 ;
oster, Alumni.
*• Of University Coll. Oxf., M.A. 1789.
oster, Alumni. He had been ' lecturer '
t St. John's, Liverpool.
26 Succeeded to the rectory.
V Son of Thomas Hornby of Kirkham ;
ducated at Christ Church, Oxford ; M.A.
828 • Foster, Alumni. He died 22 Dec.
1565. In his will, proved at Chester in
1 572, he is described as ' vicar of Walton ' ;
he bequeathed 401. to Walton church and
3
M.A. 1720. He was also rector of I
St. Mary's, Chest., from 1737 to 1744 ;
Earwaker, St. Mary's, 95. •
9
Sgo, the vicarage becoming extinct.
»» Printed by the Rec. Soc. of Lanes.
nd Ches. Mia. iii, 15.
2
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
de stipite. The visitation list of 1548 does not men-
tion the rector, but records the vicar and eleven
others, including the five cantarists and two of those
in the 1541 list. In 1554 the rector was absent,
three of the foregoing clergy were dead, one was absent,
another denied he was curate, and the vicar and four
others seem to have been in charge ; three had been
chantry priests at Walton and Liverpool, while the
other had migrated from Huyton. In 1562 the
rector appeared by proxy and the curate in person ;
another priest was absent, and the only other men-
tioned was the Formby chaplain. Thus it seems clear
that the services at Kirkby and West Derby were only
performed irregularly, as those at Liverpool would have
to be kept up by the curate of the parish church.
In the following year the rector was ' beyond the
sea,' the vicar was ill, but the curates at Liverpool
and Formby appeared. In 1565 again the rector
did not appear, the Liverpool curate's name is crossed
out, he having probably resigned, and the vicar seems
to have been in sole charge of this vast parish, with
its church and four chapels.1 In 1590 the only
'preacher' in the parish was at Liverpool, the rector
and vicar of Walton and minister at Kirkby not
being such.* About 1610 the rector seems to have
been non-resident, the vicar was ' no preacher ' and
the four chapels, including Liverpool, were ' supplied
with reading ministers.' 3
Under the Commonwealth an improvement was
manifest, the chapels-of-ease being attended to, and
the rector and vicar being 'godly, able ministers."
The effect of the Restoration was to bring back the
old order to some extent ; the existing rector's pre-
sentation was judged invalid, and he was displaced in
1 660 ; two years later the vicar was expelled for non-
conformity, and Liverpool, which had been made a
separate parish, was reunited with Walton until 1699.
During the last century the parish has been divided
into a large number of separate districts, each with it&
own church and clergy.
At Walton church there was only one regu-
larly endowed chantry ; it had been founded by
Mr. John Molyneux, rector from 1471 to 1485,
and part of the endowment was a charge of
1 3/. 4^. on the rectory ; various lands brought in
4O/. additional.5
Nothing further is known of the chapel of St. Pau-
linus mentioned in some thirteenth and fourteenth
century deeds.6
A grammar school was founded in or before 1613.
For the charities of the whole
CHARITIES parish there is no report later than
that of 1828; but official inquiries
were made in 1901 and 1903 for those portions not
included within the county boroughs of Liverpool and
Bootle.7 Walton township shared several charities
with adjoining parts of the parish ;" the principal is
that of Thomas Fazakerley, who in 1696 gave several
closes of land in West Derby for the benefit of the
poor of Walton, Fazakerley, and West Derby.9 There
are a number of endowments for the poor of Formby,
and some have been lost.10 Kirkby has some special
1 These facts are from the visit, lists in
the bishop's registry at Chest.
' Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 249, quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv. n. 4.
* Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.),
13. A 'reading minister' was a lay-
Evening Prayer. At the visit, of 1609
one Proudlove was a 'preacher' at
Fish Street, but out of the rent they were
to pay 54*. a year to the churchwardens of
Walton, 521. for the provision of white
bread for twelve poor persons each Sun-
day, and 2J. to the churchwardens for
their pains ; also a further 501. to ' two
but may soon be required for building.
Bread is still distributed weekly at Walton
church. About £12 a year is given to
each of the three participating townships
and distributed to the poor.
tltbCb.Sur-v.Zl.
' Vahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 221 ;
Robert Kirkby, priest. Raines, Chant.
(Chet. Soc.), 80 ; Robert Fazakerley,
priest. There was no plate. In Canon
Raines' notes is a detailed account of
the founder's funeral expenses.
The chantry lands were given by Queen
Mary to the 'Savoy Hospital, which she
refounded ; they were leased to the Ander-
tons of Lostock ; Anderton D. (C.
Stonor), ». 8, 10.
« Kuerden MSS. (Coll. of Arms), iii,
W 10, n. 13, I, 10 ; ranging from 1240
to 1325.
1 According to the 1828 report there
were no charities for Everton ; Kirkdale
and Bootle shared in some of the Walton
ones, as mentioned below.
8 Benefactions amounting to £100, left
between 1630 and 1735, had been lost
before 1828.
Ellen Johnson alias Jameson in 1775
left a charge of 201. on a house in Tithe-
barn Street, Liverpool, of which Walton
and Bootle were each to have 31., and
Kirkdale and Fazakerley 21. each. The
house was sold to the corporation for im-
provements, and the rent-charge was then
doubled, £i still being paid by the cor-
poration to the rector of Walton, who
distributes it according to the will.
Thomas Berry, by his will of 1601, left
the Red Cross tenement in Edward
street, Southwark, to the rector and
churchwardens of St. Mary Magdalen, Old
which 305. was to be spent on a dinner
every St. Thomas's day in his brother
James's then dwelling-house in Bootle,
for all the householders and married
people of the said town as should please
to come thither,' and 201. for a supper for
the young people. In 1828 £4 ICM. was
received by the vicar of Walton ; £2 7..
mainder was distributed in money doles to
poor persons in Bootle.
Edward Tarleton in 1698 left £50 for
the poor of Walton and Liverpool ; in
1828 the capital was in the hands of the
corporation of Liverpool, and 121. 6</. as
on and
1 749, which sums were used to defray the
debt on Formby church. The above
charities were lost in 1869, when church
rates were abolished, the interest having
been paid out of them. The township,
however, should have taken steps to rein-
itate the capital. Richard Marsh and
eys for the poor, which
the
„: W.,
1 given to the poor.
1 The closes were called Robert
v, Wheat hey, Rye hey, Ellin.
ere,
Cropps acre ; the present name is Stone-
crop farm. Out of the rent £i 2 was to
be paid for an annual sermon, a weekly
distribution of bread, and otherwise for
the benefit of the poor ' of the communion
of the Church of England ' alone. If the
tions were to be made. In 1828 the rent
was £35, and the whole, not merely the
£ 12, was paid to the officers of the three
vnships for separate distribution among
the
poor, after 52
had
deducted for the bread, 211. for the annual
sermon on St. Thomas's day, and 131. 6d.
for expenses. The money was given in
sums of 31. to 201. In 1873 a portion of
the land was taken for the West Derby
sewage farm, and is represented by £402
consols ; the remainder is let for £30,
IO
in 1828 produced £6 18.. a year. Part
of this was received from the poor rate,
and has not been paid for fifty years ; but
£3 a year, representing £50 lent to the
corporation of Liverpool, is still received
by the overseers, and divided among poor
women, mostly widows.
The Rev. Richard Formby in 1825 left
£85 for New Testaments, tracts, &c., to
be distributed in the neighbourhood ; the
Prayer-books as prizes in the girls'
school.
John Sutton in 1833 left a small sum
for a bread distribution at Formby church
to such of the Protestant poor as should
be most regular in attendance on public
worship. No interest has been drawn
since 1873 ; the Rev. Lonsdale Formby
advanced the 31. a
al dole, intending to
eimburse himself. He did not do so,
and since his death no distribution of
bread has taken place.
Margaret Goore Brown, widow, in
1848 left £500 for bread and clothing for
the poor, irrespective of religious denomi-
nation ; the interest has in recent time*
Mary Livesley in 1850 left £ 10 to the
is supposed to have
year for the annual
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
benefactions,1 and shares with West Derby in the
apprenticing funds of £167 a year arising from
donations of Eleanor Gleast and Thomas Aspe.2
West Derby itself has a few special endowments.3 In
connexion with the Old Toxteth chapel there was, in
1828, a sum of £2 a. year available for the poor.4
WEST DERBY
Derbei, Dom. Bk. West Derbi, 1 177.
This township extends over four miles from north
to south, and three and a half from east to west, having
3 total area of 6,203 acres.5 A portion of it was taken
within the municipal borough of Liverpool as early as
1835;' and the greater part of the remainder in
1895 ;r the rural division outside Liverpool contains
2,594 acres. The population of the whole in 1901
WALTON
was 1 32,669, only 2,1 19 belonging to the part outside
the city.
The portion absorbed by Liverpool in 1835 formed
a ward of the borough, known as West Derby Ward ;
this was in 1895 divided into three — Low Hill, Ken-
sington, and Edge Hill, while the portion then freshly
included was divided into two wards — Fairfield and
West Derby ; the division between them being the
railway from Edge Hill to the Bootle docks. The
rural portion of the township is governed by a parish
council.8
In the eighteenth century the township was divided
into four quarters : Woodside, on the east ; Town row,
embracing the village and the north-west portion ; Low
Hill, on the border of Liverpool ; and Ackers End, the
Old Swan district.9
The township lies on the edge of the open country,
where the smoke-laden air of the city is exchanged
incumbent and wardens of Formby Pro-
testant church for the benefit of the poor.
The fund, in charge of the late Rev.
Lonsdale Formby, was productive till
1892, when he became dangerously ill ;
the place of its deposit has not been
discovered.
The late Arthur Ashton gave £500, as
a memorial of his wife, for the poor
of St. Luke's ecclesiastical district ; and
suage and lands in West Derby, which in
1828 produced £25 a year, for the bind-
ing of a poor child apprentice, Kirkby
and West Derby sharing equally; the
Woodside quarter of the latter township
was that intended to be benefited. Eleanor
Gleast in 1699 devised land in Page
Moss, also a rent-charge of 401. out of
Henshaw's fields and Button's field, for
in 1894 by Henry Yates Thompson, then
owner, £ioS being invested in Govern-
ment stock ; the other rent-charge has
also been redeemed by the transfer of
£28 India Stock to the official trustees.
The income, £] us. 4^., is distributed
weekly at St. Mary's church in loaves to
four poor persons, members of the Church
of England. The rector of Walton pays
the £1 for Stone's charity, but the land
charged is not exactly known. It is dis-
accordingly.
1 A rent-charge of £10 on an estate
formerly belonging to Nehemiah Cowley at
Billinge, in 1 828 to his son Thomas Cow-
and township of West Derby. These
charities have always been administered
together, after the moiety of Aspe's be-
quest had been allowed for Kirkby. In
of Smarley's bequest is now given by the
rector in Bibles and Prayer-books to
children attending the Sunday-school.
incumbent, who gives £<) to the schools
and £i to the St. Thomas's day dole.
William Fleetwood left a charge of £2.
for the poor on his estate at Kirkby (be-
longing in 1828 to John Johnson).
Lawrence Pickup of Liverpool left £10
for poor people of Kirkby being Protes-
tants and attending the chapel of Kirkby.
The Rev. William Mount, incumbent,
left £20 for the poor of Kirkby and
unexpended balances, the income being
New arrangements were made between
1862 and 1864, separate bodies of trustees
for Kirkby and West Derby being ap-
pointed by the Charity Commissioners ;
the balance then amounted to £1,400.
A fresh scheme was made in 1903. The
Aspe estate consists of a messuage and
left £200 for the West Derby poor, but
only half of this sum was received, the
united with that derived from a bequest
by Adam Dugdale, of Dovecot House, who
in 1839 left £100 for the benefit of the
poor, being members of the Church of
England. The income is paid in food of
the value of 31. weekly, to four poor
widows.
Simonswood. These benefactions are
united as the St. Thomas's day dole.
house and land at Page Moss, let at £45
others for ' a preaching Protestant ortho-
dox minister' at the chapel included also
Lord Sefton, who pays the £2 rent-charge.
Sums of IOJ. and 201. for the other gifts
were paid out of the rates until 1849,
when payment ceased. From 1863 to
1897 payment from the constable rate was
resumed ; at present the voluntary church
rate is charged with them. Attendance
The £20 left by Mr. Mount was used for
roofing the chapel, and in 1828 the 201.
was paid out of the chapel rate.
Henshaw's field ; a rent-charge of 101.
out of Button's field, now divided into
numerous building plots; and £3,210
consols, producing £80 5,. ±d. The
income is still employed in apprenticing,
but the number of applications is decreas-
ing ; the candidates must be Protestants
is paid to the limitation of Aspe's bequest
to the Woodside quarter, partly because
the bounds are not accurately known.
£50 for poor housekeepers. In 1828 £2
was paid, as the interest of this, to a very
aged woman, mother of the chapel clerk.
5 The Census report of 1901 gives the
area in Liverpool as— West, 675 acres;
East, 2,936 acres, including 14 acres inland
water; that of the rural portion being 2,594
acres, including 8 of inland water ; total,
6,201; acres.
6 The boundaries were settled bv 1 1
Geo. IV and i Will. IV, cap. 15.
of a house and lands at Arkholme for the
West Derby chapel every Sunday. One
was in 1 860 adopted by the township— i.e.
except the portion which had been taken
and six of Simonswood. Their father
had died intestate, but he had intended to
make this gift. The rent-charge was
redeemed in 1883, and is represented by
£333 consols, producing £8 6s. 8</. a
year. Eliza Alice Cort in 1869 left £300
for fuel and clothing for the poor of
Kirkby and Simonswood ; this produces
£7 1 51. 8«/. a year.
Robert Dudgeon of Liverpool in 1858
left money for a coal fund and for alms-
houses. The bequests were void in law,
but the executor paid £8 a year to the
charged with £i a year to the poor of
West Derby. James Woods in 1678 left
money for four weekly loaves ; in 1828
17.. 4</. was received for this charity out
of Chapel croft. Elizabeth Smarley in
1780 left £60 for the provision of Bibles
and Common Prayer-books ; she also left
/? 51. a year for a schoolmistress at
West Derby, but this was void in law.
Andrew Mercer in 1689 charged land
with £3 a year for a bread charity, but
he probably revoked it, as nothing further
The local board became an urban dis-
trict council in 1894, which was in 1895
dissolved by the extension of Liverpool.
Among the works undertaken by the
local board was the sewage farm in Fazak-
erley.
» A valuation book compiled in 1750
shows that Croxteth Hall, Finch Lane, and
Ackers Hall were in Woodside ; Club
Moor, Tue Brook, and the Village in
Town Row ; Old Swan, Knotty Ash, and
Broad Green in Ackers End, as were
West Derby Mill and the Old Parsonage.
of £305, and his executors have since
continued it.
are now administered together. The
rent-charge on Thingwall was redeemed
II
lying between Old Swan and Broad Green,
now part of Highfield House estate.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
for the fresher breezes which blow over open fields
and through masses of foliage. True, there is hardly
a break in the long line of houses from the city to the
village of West Derby, but the larger houses set amidst
gardens and paddocks are separated by airy spaces and
are overshadowed by trees. The country is very flat,
and has, except in the far east, the unmistakable stamp
of suburbanism. In the easterly direction are the
plantations and grounds of Croxteth Hall ; in the
north is open land which was once mossland, a large
cemetery being a conspicuous object in the level
country. South and west are more crowded with
houses, where such suburban neighbourhoods as Knotty
Ash, Broad Green, and Old Swan are situated. The
old-fashioned village of West Derby still presents a
countrified aspect in spite of the advent of electric
cars, and clusters principally about the gates of Croxteth
Park. The open ground is chiefly pasture, but crops
of corn and potatoes are raised in a loamy soil.
The geological formation is mostly the new red
sandstone or trias, consisting of pebble beds of the
bunter series on the west and in the centre, alternating
with the upper mottled sandstone of the same series
between the centre and the west, recurring on the
eastern side, except where a small area of the coal
measures crops up in Croxteth Park. These alternat-
ing areas of different formation extend through the
township and beyond from north-west to south-east.
The map of 1768 ' shows how the town has grown
up. At that time the principal road out of Liverpool,
leading to Prescot and Warrington, ascended eastward,1
by Cheetham's Brow, to Low Hill, and went onward *
with fields on either side for about two miles to the
Old Swan Inn,4 which has since given name to the
hamlet around it.
At the ' Old Swan ' the road divided. The main
track, as Prescot Lane, went north-east, passing Knotty
Ash,6 a small hamlet, near which the Dovecote was
built.6 The other track, as Petticoat Lane,7 went
east to Broad Green, then a small hamlet round a
triangular space.
To the south of Prescot Road another led eastward
from Liverpool. At the foot of the hill it divided,
one road bending towards Low Hill,8 the other going
direct to the top of the hill, where was a large open
space called Greenfield.9 Here again the road divided,
Edge Lane10 running parallel to the Prescot Road, while
the other road " led to Wavertree, passing Wavertree
Hall " on the north side. Smithdown Lane " led south-
ward, near the Liverpool and Toxteth boundary, to-
wards Allerton.
To the north of the Prescot Road a third road ran
eastward ; it was then called Rake Lane,14 and formed
for some distance the boundary between this township
and Everton. After passing the Upper Breck,15 the
road, as Rocky Lane, descended the hill,16 and then
crossed Tue Brook,17 which here gives its name to the
neighbourhood. From the crossing Green Lane 18 led
away to the ' Old Swan.' The main road 19 led upward
to the Mill-house, near which had stood the ancient
Derby windmill, Lark Hill M lying to the north. As
Mill Lane the road then descended to the village with
its ancient chapel," being further prolonged, as Castle
Lane, in the direction of Croxteth Hall.
At the village cross-roads led south-east to Town Row,
from which Deys Lane " branched off; and north-west
1 Printed in Enfield's Liverpool. Some
notes have been added from Sherriff's map,
181 6, reprinted 1823.
2 This portion is now called Prescot
Street. In Harper Street at the top are
ticoat Lane was May Place, now a reform-
8 Now Fairclough Lane. This and the
neighbouring streets have now become a
crowded Jewish quarter.
" In and near are the old Local Board
offices, a pumping station for the Liver-
pool waterworks, a bathing place, a free
library (the gift of Mr. Andrew Carnegie),
a Council school and an electric general-
the cells, with chains, etc. still exist un-
derneath.
3 Now called Kensington and Prescot
Road. On the north side in 1816 stood
the house of Dr. Solomon, proprietor of a
then famous medicine called the ' Balm of
Gilead.' On the south side the corporation
of Liverpool have formed Jubilee Gar-
dens, a recreation ground. Further on,
at the north side of the road, is Newsham
Park ; the Yellow House (1617) formerly
district called Fairfield. Beyond Fairfield
is Stanley, where is the principal cattle
market for Liverpool ; it was formerly
owned by a private company, but has been
acquired by the corporation.
« Formerly the inn was called the 'Three
Swans.' A rival 'Swan' having been
closed and built upon, but a triangular
portion, presented to the corporation, forms
a recreation ground.
10 It is the lane near the edge or border
of the township. About the middle it
Edge Lane Hall, formerly the residence of
John Shaw Leigh, and now the property
of the corporation. The Exhibitions of
1886 and 1887 were held in the grounds.
» Now Wavertree Road.
" The house was originally built by John
Plumbe, afterwards lord of the manor of
Uplitherland, about 1715, and is frequently
mentioned in N. BlundeU's Diary. In
1823 it was the residence of Charles
Lawrence, a West India merchant, first
chairman of the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway. It was acquired by the corpora-
known as Stonycroft.
19 A house here has the inscription
'I 1615 M.' The initials probably stand
for John Mercer ; see Trans. Hi,t. Soc.
(New Ser.), xii, 186.
"0 Lark Hill was built by Jonathan
Blundell about 1777, and sold in 178+
to Richard Heywood, banker, whose de-
scendants still own it. For an account of
this branch of the Heywood family, de-
scended from Nathaniel Heywood, the non-
conforming vicar of Ormskirk ejected in
1662, see Trans. Hist. Soc. xxx, 163 ; and
Burke, Landed Gentry : Heywood Jones
of Badsworth Hall.
* A cross marks the position of the old
chapel. The court-house, built about 1663,
stands close by. The village pound, in
guished itself in 1824.. A 'street rail-
Two guns captured at Sebastopol stand at
has been converted into a garden, and an
Old Swan, as an experiment.
5 At Knotty Ash there is a well-known
brewery.
join and have an entrance from Edge Lane.
13 The name preserves the Esmedune of
Domesday Book. It was frequently spelled
the long and happy reign of Queen Victoria
and the Coronation of King Edward VII
this site of the ancient pound of the Dukes
Boulton's stood near, and Ackers mill and
hall, now a farmhouse.
^ In the angle between Petticoat Lane,
now Broadgreen Road, and Prescot Lane
was Oakhill, built in 1773 by Richard
Watt, afterwards of Speke. Further to
the east is Highfield, earlier called Stap-
lands ; this was built about 1763, and was
in 1775 and later the residence of Char-
lotte, Dowager Duchess of Athole and
heiress of Man. On the south side of Pet-
Spekelands, the residence of Thomas Earle
in 1823 ; see the account of Allerton.
" Now West Derby Road. Here from
1833 were the Zoological Gardens.
15 The house stood in the present Sheil
Park.
"This portion is mostly in Walton
township. Newsham Park, with the Sea-
man's Orphanage, lies on the south side.
» This brook flows north to join the
Alt.
of West Derby was enclosed and planted
and the VilUgc Stocks set herein, Easter,
1904.'
M Deysbrook Lane. In it is Summer
Vale, now Deysbrook, in 1833 the resi-
dence of Henry Blundell Hollinshead,
and late the property of his descendant
Col.HenryBlundell-Hollinshead-Blundell,
C.B. The name of John le Deye occurs
at West Derby in 1332; Exch. Lay
S**,. p. 9.
TUE BROOK HOUSE, LARKHILL
CROXTETH HALL : SOUTH-WEST VIEW
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
past New Hall in Carr Lane to Walton village. Carr
Lane was a continuation of a road from Liverpool
which crossed the Tue Brook at Club Moor,1 and went
deviously onward to Kirkby. In this part of the
township are now the hamlet of Dog and Gun, with
the West Derby Cemetery, opened 1884, to the west,
and the district called Gill Moss. From Derby mill
mentioned above a lane led south past Blackmoor
Moss.' A little to the east stood the Round House,
otherwise known as Sandfield.3
The roads above described continue to be the main
thoroughfares. Most of them are traversed by the
Liverpool tramway system, which facilitates access to
the village, as also to Old Swan and Knotty Ash,
where there is a junction with the South-west Lanca-
shire tramway system. The London and North-
Western Company's line outward from Liverpool
passes through the township, the important station of
Edge Hill being situated within it ; the original
terminus (1830) of the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway was a little distance away, in Crown Street.
The same company's branch line from Edge Hill to
Bootle, formed about 1866, has stations at Edge Lane,
Stanley, Tue Brook, and Breck Road, opened in 1870.
The Cheshire Lines Committee's Southport Railway
also passes through, more to the east, with stations at
Knotty Ash and West Derby, opened in 1884.
WEST DERBY was the capital manor
MANOR of the hundred, to which it gave name.
As a royal manor it stands first in
Domesday Book in the description of the land
'Between Ribble and Mersey,' and with its six
berewicks was assessed at four hides ; there was land
for fifteen ploughs ; and a forest two leagues long and
one broad, with an aery of hawks. King Edward
held it in 1066, and by the Conqueror it was given
WALTON
to Roger of Poitou who had temporarily lost his
fief before 1086 ; 4 but in 1094 Count Roger gave the
tithe of his demesne in this vill to the abbey of St.
Martin of Seez.5 It is possible that he built the
castle here. After his banishment in 1102 West
Derby with his other manors escheated to the
crown, and was about 1115 granted to Stephen of
Blois as part of the honour of Lancaster.6
West Derby is next mentioned in 1 1 69, when it
.and the other members of the demesne in the hun-
dred were tallaged at £i I 3*. 4^.' The castle was
repaired in 1197 at a cost of loo/.,8 and after the
death of King Richard a garrison was stationed in it
to preserve the peace of the county ; 9 three years
later considerable additions and repairs were carried
out.10 During his struggle with the barons King John
kept a sufficient garrison here,11 and for some years
the castle seems to have been occupied ;" by 1297,
however, it had ceased to exist, for it was returned
that ' in the town fields of Derby there was a certain
site of an old castle, where the capital messuage used
to be, with the circuit of the ditches.' 13
At the beginning of the thirteenth century the vill
was farmed by the king's bondmen or villeins at an
ancient assized rent of £6, which the king had aug-
mented by £2 since Easter, 1201." A considerable
number of the people were removed to Liverpool in
1208 to form the new borough, and the sheriff had
an allowance of the farm of the hundred, probably to
make up for his loss on this account.15 There was
anciently a considerable area of woodland, extending
to 2,880 customary acres at the date of Domesday.
In 1228 the boundaries of this were described by the
knights who made the perambulation of the forest.16
The clearing and improvement of the land went on
rapidly," and in 1 296 there were 30^ burgages held
1 A considerable village has now grown
up at this place.
» The name occurs in the Forest Pleas
Roll of 1334. The old parsonage, close
by, s still standing.
9 It is a late seventeenth-century build-
ing, and was the property of William
Molyneuxini823.
< V.C.H. Lanes, i, 278. The six bere-
rising of the ground to the north-east of
the village, marks the site.
14 Lanes. Pipe R. ,31; 220-1. The
assized rent was reduced to /j ,2,. 6d.
after the separation of Liverpool from the
lage of' £4 ,71. SJ. was made in 1226 ;
ibid. IJ5?
15 Lanes. Fife R. 220. Two officials
substantiated his claim to housebote,
haybote, and other liberties for his houses
in Blackmoor and Derby, in virtue of the
Ferrers grant ; Add. MS. 32,05, fol. 89*.
Others occur who were obviously im-
portant officials. For instance : Master
Simon de Derby, c. 1200; ibid, i, 288.
Master Roger dc Derby, c. ,230 ; ibid, i,
60 ; Inj. and Extents, , 30 (clerk) ; Final
Everton, Great Crosby, part of Walton,
and perhaps Thingwall and Aintree.
' Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 290.
« V.C.H. Lanes, i, 292.
Richard, the reeve of Derby, was charged
J mark in the Ullage of ,202; ibid.
151; and in ,2,2 he held two oxgangs of
land by serjeanty of being reeve of the
5511. He was ancestor of the Formby
family. Master Robert de Derby, c.
,240 ; Wholly Coucher, ii, 503. Jordan
de Derby; ibid, ii, 503. Jordan de Derby
contributed by West Derby separately
in,, 77 i Ibid. 35-
» Ibid. 97.
Inj. and Extents, 26. Richard gave to
Cockersand Abbey land at Scales in West
Walton suit in ,276; Assize R. 405,
m. , d. S(imon) son of Elwina dc Derby ;
Wholly Coucher, iii, 853.
provisions for the knights and men
fee, between Blackmoor and the Dale ;
which they decided to belong to the
>» Ibid. ,47 ; Henry Travers and Henry
de Walton were in charge of the works,
which cost £6 9». 7J.
11 Ibid. 250 ; there were ,40 footmen,
fj i e». was paid for the repair of the
castle. See also Clou R. (Rec. Com.),
477*-
13 Between ,2,8 and ,225 considerable
sums were laid out upon the castle ;
Pipe R. 2-9 Hen. III. Ir» ,227 the
sum of £4 ,1,. tJ. was spent on im-
lands here and in Lancaster ; Cockersand
Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 562, 563.
Adam son of Gille, also called Adam
Gerard, also held two oxgangs of land,
worth 4,., to be Serjeant under Henry de
Walton, master-serjeant of the wapen-
take ; Inq. and Extents, 26, , 1 6.
In 1237 William de Ferrers confirmed
to Luke de Derby, the reeve, and Geoffrey
the clerk, the sons of the above-named
Richard (who was son of Roger, son of
Camel, son of Bruning), two oxgangs of
Derby ' ; its bounds began at the broad
the middle of the carr to' Hasellen hurst
where the footpath comes out of the
grove (nemus) to beyond Longlee, which
stretches from Derby towards Kirkby ;
beyond Longlee and Muke brooks, ascend-
ing these to Thrumthorndale brook, and
going up by this to the open ground of
Thingwall acres. It is further stated that
'the neighbouring vills had common of
herbage and other things in this wood ; and
the castle ; Pipe R. 2 Hen. Ill, ro. ,.
13 Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 284. The erection
of Liverpool Castle probably accounts for
the neglect and ruin of that at West
Derby. The Castle field, with a slight
King William ; ibid. 26 n. The accounts
of Luke the reeve for ,256 are printed
ibid. 208, 209. Geoffrey de Derby,
clerk, attested a charter about 1250;
Wholly Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 523.
Robert de Derby the reeve, in ,336,
17 Successive lords of Lancaster made
numerous grants of land at a rate which
advanced from ±d. an acre in the reign of
Henry III to ,2</. in that of Edward III.
In 1297 the tenants of Derby held of
the approvement of the wastes 25, J acres
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
by the tenants ; two mills were in operation — a
windmill and a horse-mill.1 During the thirteenth
century the descent of the manor followed that of the
wapentake and land between
Kibble and Mersey, but in _^__^__^__H
1316 Thomas, earl of Lancaster,
gave the manor, with 300 acres
of wood, to Robert de Holand,1
and about four years later con-
firmed the grant with large
additions, viz., the manor of
West Derby, ' nigh Liverpool,'
with its demesnes of the Hay of
Croxteth, the manors of Tor- H
risholme and Nether Kellet, HOLLAND. Azure, semte
the keepership of the forest in de Us, a lion rampant
the earl's lands and forests, and pedant argent.
the bailiwick of the serjeanty of
Lonsdale, Furness, and Cartmel, land in the Hope
nigh Manchester, with the bailiwick of the serjeanty
of Salfordshire, and manors and lands in many other
counties.3 In 1322 the manor fell into the king's
hands upon the earl's attainder, but upon the restora-
tion of the honour to his brother Henry of Lancaster
passed again into the earl's demesne and descended in
his line. It was completely surveyed in 1323, when it
was found that Thomas de Hale and thirteen other
free tenants held 250 acres of land and i\ burgages ;
Hugh the reeve held two oxgangs by serjeanty ; sixty-
nine men held thirty-one burgages and twenty
oxgangs of land; and 433 others held 1,816 acres
and many houses, the total return being about £74.*
In 1348 the issues of the manor amounted to £125.'
The office of bailiff of the manor appears to have
been united with that of bailiff of the vill (not
borough) of Liverpool.6 In the sixteenth century
the Molyneuxes of Sefton were stewards of the
manor.7
Some grants of annuities from the issues of the
manor are on record.8
The Act of 1609 relating to the creation and con-
firmation of copyhold lands in Lancashire had special
application to West Derby.9
From 1327 downwards the manor was held by
the house of Lancaster and by the kings as dukes of
Lancaster; but in 1628 Charles I sold it to certain
citizens of London, together with all lands and tene-
ments within the same, and in Everton and Waver-
tree.10 An amended grant was made in November,
1638 ;" and in the following year the manor was
transferred to James, Lord Stanley and Strange, after-
wards seventh earl of Derby.12 It remained with his
(by the long hundred) and \ perch of
land, rendering yearly £4. 17,. ajrf. (or
4</. per acre) ; 234 acres (by the short
hundred) and | rood, rendering^ i/j. id.
(i.e. 6d. per acre) ; and 200 acres (long
hundred) less J acre, rendering £7 I9s. U.
for having acquired the manor and wood
in fee without licence.
• Ibid. 1317-21, p. 431.
In 1330 Maud de Holand, Sir Robert's
widow, claimed dower in the manors of
West Derby and Liverpool ; De Bane. R.
For a reference to a survey made in 1625
see Lanes, and Ctes. Rec. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 311.
Later another private Act was passed
(29 & 30 Chas. II, c. i) 'to establish
the interest of the lord and copyholders
in West Derby and Wavertree in rela-
which Rose held. The perquisites of
p.m. i Edw. Ill, No. 88.
Extents, 285, 286.
Robert de Ferrers, earl of Derby,
granted 20 acres, by the perch of 24$ ft.,
In 1312-13 Thomas, earl of Lancaster,
had given 40 acres of land within the
wood of West Derby to Thomas de Hale,
Gregson, Fragments, 146-9.
The letters patent (4 Chas. I, pt. 35)
bore date 14 June, 1628. The grantees
a rent of 1 55. yearly ; Croxteth D. Cc.
ii, i. An earlier grant by William de
Ferrers to the same William de Sileby,
his bailiff, was the subject of a dispute in
1276 ; Assize R. 405, m. 4.
The ancient ' customs of the manor of
West Derby and Wavertree,1 as recorded
in a document of Henry IV's time (?)
are printed in Syers' Everton, 387.
1 Inf. and Extents, 284-5. Tne
'field called Harhum' is mentioned.
The arable land of the demesne seems to
have been let at farm at $d. to i id. an
acre, and the meadow at 31. an acre.
The men of the vill held 20 oxgangs,
paying 401. a year, and also 261. U. a
Dods. MSS. cxlix, fol. 121*. The same
messuage and 40 acres, having escheated,
were in 1354 granted by Henry duke
of Lancaster to John Barret, at a rent of
20J. Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland),
H5« Duchy of Lanes. Accts. 32/17,
fol. 4*. The rents of the free tenants
amounted to £7 gs. 8|</. ; of the tenants
of 31 J burgages, 325. bd. ; of customary
tenants holding 2oJ oxgangs, 4u. ; also
for <a custom called scotz,'— the sheriff's
scot ; see Par!. R. ii, 4014—271. $d. ; of
cottars, 6s. 1 1 \d. ; of John de Derby, the
reeve, for two oxgangs held by serjeanty,
nil ; and of the rents of divers tenants,
£iiZ2,.6J.
6 The bailiff of the -vill had no juris-
diction beyond collecting the rents due
from burgesses for lands improved. In
1360 Thomas de Fazakerley was ap-
pointed to the office for life, at zd. a day
wages ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App.
341. Henry, son of Robert le Norreys
of Sutton was appointed bailiff of the
manor of West Derby and of the vill of
Liverpool during the king's pleasure ;
Towneley MS. CC (Chet. Lib.), n. 518,
7 Several court rolls of this time are
preserved at Croxteth ; West Derby,
Wavertree, and Great Crosby were all
included in the one stewardship. Rolls
of 1323-4 are printed in Lanes. Court R.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 90-107,
»Dep. Keeper's Rep. xaxii, App. 338,
342-
• Private Act 7 Jas. I, c. 3 ; also
Duchy of Lane. div. xxvi, bdle. 2, No. 9.
'4
Humphrey Clarke, and Francis Mosse.
The manor was to be held as of the
manor of Enfield in Middlesex, at the
yearly rent of £145 6s. 7d.
11 Pat. 14 Chas. I, pt. xxii. This amend-
ment wasnccessitated by the omission of an
express mention of the manors of Everton
and Wavertree in the original patent.
pay rent or do suit and service at the court
at West Derby : and the consequent law-
suits continued several years ; Gregson,
13 A court-baron on behalf of Lord
Strange was held in 1641 for the manor
and for the vills of Everton anil Waver-
tree, under the direction of Lord
Molyncux, steward ; Ct. R. at Croxteth.
On the creation of the earldom by
Henry VII a rent of £20 had been
granted to Thomas, Lord Stanley, charged
on manors in the counties of Nottingham
and Derby ; this was resigned and a grant
of £40 substituted chargeable on the
manor of West Derby, by letters patent
dated 22 Feb. 4 Hen. VII.
The manor, like other of the earl's
estates, was sold by the Parliamentary
authorities to Colonel Thomas Birch in
1651, but appears to have been repur-
chased ; Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 163. In Sept.
1655, a fine was made regarding the
manor of West Derby, with Wavertree
and Everton, 200 messuages, 2 wind-
mills, 1,200 acres, &c.; hallmote, &c.;
James Wainwright was plaintiff, John
Parker and Margaret his wife being de-
forciants ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
157, m. 121.
paid \id. for a way through the meadow,
and 2i. for having entry to the 'Worme-
stall' with their cattle, within the forest ;
also 21. to have estover of cutting down
holly in winter for the sustenance of their
The prior of Birkenhead had 1 5 acres,
paying 55. a year. It may be added that
in 1337 Henry, earl of Lancaster granted
the prior 26 acres of waste near Smith-
down and ten acres near Wavertree
which William the Clerk of Liverpool
had held, in exchange for the release
the earl's waste between Tunbrook and
Stanbrook, and Tunbrook and White
Moss, but saving to the prior and his
successors estovers of reasonable turbary
in Smithdown Moss for their manor of
Moss Grange; Duchy of Lane. Great
Cowcher, i, fol. 66.
a Cal. Pat. 1313-17, p. 476. Holand
obtained the royal pardon, 18 June, 1316,
WEST DERBY HUNDRED WALTON
descendants till 1 7 1 7, when it was sold, with other family acquired it in Henry VI's reign, when Sir
Derby manors, to Isaac Greene,1 and has de:
like Childwall to the marquis
of Salisbury, the present lord
of the manor.' Courts are
held.
A body of commissioners for
the management of the lands
formerly waste has long been
in existence.3
The sites of four ancient
mills are known : A water-mill
by the castle, below the church ;
a horse-mill at the castle ; a
windmill in Mill Lane ; and
Ackers Mill, in the eastern
corner of the township.4
Croxteth Hall, formerly
called Barret's Hall, the chief
seat of the earl of Sefton,
ended Richard Molyneux was steward of the manor,5 and
about 1540 was one of the chief residences of the
Molyneux family.6 The deeds at Croxteth show
various acquisitions of land in West Derby, beginning
in 1545.'
The oldest part of the existing building is the
western half of the south wing, now much hidden
by kitchens built in front of it in 1874. ^ 's °f
brick with stone dressings and mullioned windows,
and has two bays projecting southward. Its date
is c. 1575-1600, the details being plain, and it
GASCOYNE-CICIL, is Probable tiiat the house of which it is the only
uess of Salisbury! surviving portion was neither large nor elaborate.
Barry of ,
able, each
rgent and The south front may originally have had a third pre
all six escut- jecting bay to the west, destroyed by the building of
TrreT-witha l^e west W'n8> ant^ perhaps a courtyard on the north,
of the first, a but of this there is no trace.
The west wing is the finest part of the building
and was added, as dates upon it show, between 1702
situated in this township on the borders of Croxteth and 1714. It has a raised terrace on the west, and
Park, from which it takes its name. The Molyneux contains a fine set of lofty panelled rooms opening
1 By indenture dated 24 Oct. 1717,
between John, Lord Ashburnham, and
Lady Henrietta Maria his wife— daughter
and heir of William, earl of Derby, and
sister and heir of Lady Elizabeth Stanley,
deceased, the other daughter and co-heir —
and others, of the first part ; Francis
Brace and others, of the second part ; and
near Smeatham (Smithdown) Lane lately
(and wrongly) enclosed by John Smarley,
deceased. Notice of further enclosures
was to be posted up at the Exchange in
Liverpool, and on the south door of the
chapel at West Derby, as also notices of
the meetings of the trustees, which might
also be announced in the chapel, at least
4 See the accounts of Croxteth Park
and Sefton.
^ In this year Sir William Molyneux
acquired from Thomas Gorsuch of Scaris-
brick a close called Townrowhey ; Crox-
teth D. Cc. i, 2, 3. These lands had
been purchased by William Gorsuch from
Richard Kekewich, whose son John in
Huyton, of the third part ; the manors,
&c. of West Derby, Wavertree, and
Everton, and all messuages, lands, &c.
among the freeholders or copyholders of
chaser; ibid. Cc. i, 1 4. In the fol-
lowing year Richard, son and heir of
John Kekewich of Lathom enfeoffed
Lady Ashburnham, including two wind-
to be paid for leases, but the best yearly
his lands in West Derby, called Kekewich
and Wavertree Mill, were sold to Jonathan
Case, who, as appears fiom another deed,
was acting as the trustee for Isaac Greene ;
of the waste might be sold to copyholders
or freeholders having lands adjoining, but
a ground-rent was to be reserved in such
' The Kekewich family appear early in
the township. Gilbert de Kekewich in
10. The price named is £3,611 51. }</.
The second deed is enrolled in King's
Bench, Easter Term, 1 2 Geo. I.
» See the account of Childwall.
8 By an agreement of i Dec. 1718, a
the payment of lays and taxes or other-
wise for the public benefit. The above
details are taken from a pamphlet printed
in Liverpool in 1859, giving the deeds
constituting the West Derby Waste
Lands Commissioners.
Gernet's ; Inq. and Extents, 285. It was
his son Richard apparently who in 1333
had a messuage and thirty acres here
from Gilbert de Kekewich and Ellen his
wife ; Final Cone, ii, 91 ; see also i, 208.
In a claim by Richard Kekewich
special reference to the Breck ; part was
to be devoted to the general benefit of
the township, chapel, school, and relief of
the poor.
A further agreement was made on
12 Mar. 1723, between Isaac Greene as
lord of the manor, and the surviving com-
missioners, part of the Breck, north of
the highway from Rake Lane to New-
sham Land, having been sold to Everton
for £200. Liberty was given to Isaac
found in the End. Char. Ref. (Fazakerley,
&c.)of 1904, pp. 30-40.
< See Trans. Hist. See. (new ser.), xii,
59-64.
* The grants to John Barret for life by
Henry, duke of Lancaster in 13 59 will be
found in Def. Keeper's Ref. xxxi, App.
32; confirmed by the king, Cal. Rot.
Pat. 1 70*. The same estate was in 1 3 7 5
granted to John le Boteler for life ; Duchy
of Lane. Misc. Books, xiii, 1 1 1. From an
adduced his pedigree thus : John de Keke-
wick -s John (to whom the land had been
granted in the time of Richard II.) -s.
Richard -s. Edmund -s. John -s. Richard!
-s. John-s. Edward -s. Richard (plain-
tiff) ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 307, m.
2T,d. For the first three generations
seeLfl™./n?./,.m.(Chet. Soc.),i,io, ....
Sir Richard Molyneux in 1562 pur-
chased from Henry Acres of Chilvers
Coton a capital messuage known as
measure on the borders of West Derby
and Liverpool ; eight acres of waste in
Low Hill and Cheetham's Brow ; also
pits and ponds at Club Moor, leaving
enough water for cattle. The curates of
West Derby were to have the messuage,
&c. lately constructed at the expense of
the township near Blackmoor Moss, at a
rent of 6d.
by the rolls of Derby court of 6 Henry VI
that John Barret, who formerly held
Barret's Hall and forty acres of land, was
dead ; and the master-foresters having
since held them and paid no fine, there-
fore Thomas Lathom came and offered
forty shillings fine to be admitted.' (It
seems likely that he was in trust for
Sir Richard Molyneux.) < 39 Henry VI,
by Henrv Fletcher, William Litherland,
and Richard Acres ; the price was £240 ;
ibid. Cc. i, 4. Caryll Lord Molyneux in
1674 bought a messuage in the Woodside
from Robert Williamson ; ibid. Cc. i, 24.
See Lanes. Inj. p. m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iii, 390.
The lands between West Derby church
and Croxteth Hall were acquired at
pointed. Mary Greene, as daughter and
co-heir of Isaac, was lady of the manor,
and was to enjoy the enclosures made
under the last agreement ; and the com-
missioners were to have the commons or
wastes in West Derby on or near Low
Hill, Breck, Club Moor, Blackmoor Moss,
Page Moss, and Gill Moss; also land
knight, was admitted to Barret's Hall and
other lands his late father's, to hold to
him and the heirs male of his body ; re-
mainder to the heirs male of Sir Richard
Molyneux, his grandfather.'
The adjacent township of Croxteth
Park was afterwards acquired from the
leased for twenty-one years to Sir Richard!
Molyneux a windmill and horse-mill,
twenty acres of meadow in Earl's meadow,
and the herbage of the castle ditch, con-
taining three acres, called Mere Meadow ;
the consideration being £16 paid and a
rent of £4 41. ; the lease was renewed by
James I in 1613, at a reduced rent of
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
one from another, the grand staircase being at its
north-east angle. Sefton Hall, the old house of the
Molyneux family, was dismantled in 1720, and this
wing doubtless marks the date at which its abandon-
ment in favour of Croxteth was finally decided on.
Work had been going on at a somewhat earlier time,
as a date of 1693 and the initials of William Moly-
neux on a spout-head behind the tower on the west
front go to prove. The stables also had been re-
built before this time by Caryll Molyneux in 1678,
and were added to in 1706.
A north wing was added about 1790, but has
recently (1902-4) been rebuilt to harmonize with the
west front, the old brewhouse and bakehouse, which
had been incorporated with the work of 1790, being
destroyed in the process. In 1874-7 an east front
was built and the south front lengthened to join it,
while the dining-room at the south end of the west
wing was lengthened southwards and the grand stair-
case renewed.
The present house, therefore, is built round a quad-
rangle, and its greatest dimensions are 205 ft. by 135.
Its chief merit lies in the early eighteenth-century
work, the details of the panelling being very good,
but of the fittings of the old house little remains
except a small oak door, nail-studded like those at
Pool Hall (1576), Moor Hall (1566), and Hale Hall
(c. 1600), and looking as if it were not now in its
original position. Its Y~snaPed iron knocker is in a
curious position near the upper hinge, and the door
may be part of a larger one cut down.
New Hall, on the borders of Fazakerley and Walton,
became the property of the family of Molyneux of
Alt Grange about the end of the sixteenth century,
and early in the eighteenth seems to have become
their chief residence.1 It is a
plain specimen of the H"snaPei^
type, and bears the date 1660.
It passed, with Huyton, to the
Unsworths, and was by Thomas
Molyneux-Seel sold to Arthur
Hey wood, banker, of Liverpool.*
The Norris family had an
estate here in the fourteenth
century, acquired by William, a
younger son of John le Norreys
of Speke.* It descended in the
fifteenth century to Thomas
XT • « i J . . . second and third quarters
Norris, whose daughter and a rrtt or on a fess axure
heir Lettice married her dis- three mullets of the third.
tant cousin Thomas Norris of
Speke, and so carried the estate back to the parent
stock. One of their grandsons, William Norris,
was settled here, his estate remaining with his
descendants to the end of the seventeenth century.*
The family remained constant to the Roman Church
and had to face loss and suffering in consequence,
especially during the Commonwealth ; 6 thus the
NORRIS or WIST
DERBY. Quarterly ar-
gent and gules, in the
nd and third quarte
321. 4</. for the lives of Sir Richard and
his sons Vivian and Gilbert ; and in 171 1
William Lord Molyneux, upon the grant
of William le Norrey», 10 Aug. 1349,
his son Thomas entered and continued to
hold them without doing any service until
1401, the inquisition after his death
(2 Hen. IV) showing that he had held
lands in West Derby and three oxgangs
to a parcel of waste land fronting Crox-
teth Hall, lying between Abraham's gar-
den and the gate leading from the hall to
Derby chapel, at the yearly rent $d. ;
Croxteth D. i, 22, 23, 25.
At the West Derby Court in 1727 was
a surrender and recovery of Croxteth
Hall and other copyhold estates by Lord
Molyneux ; ibid. iv. There was a similar
surrender in 1775 j ibid.
1 An account of this family will be
L.T. R. Mem. R. 132, m. xiiij. They
were afterwards delivered to Thomas le
Norreys, who had to pay £24 ; and by
i 369 he was quit ; Pipe R. 43 Edw. Ill, de
oblaris, r. xl. See also Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 2 (2), m. v. ; Assize R. 435, m.
30 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 345.
William le Norreys had land in West
Derby as early as 1325 ; Assize R. 426,
m. ^d.
William, son of John le Norreys, had
in 1346 claimed certain land in Hale
caster, by knight's service ; Towneley
MS. DD. n. 1447 ; Inj. f. m. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, ii.
Thomas, his son and heir, was then
only six months old ; he gave proof of
age in 1422, having been in the wardship
of Isabel his mother ; Dep. Keeper's Rep.
xxxiii, App. 23. The covenant of mar-
riage of his daughter Lettice with Thomas
Norris of Speke is dated 1446 ; Raines,
Lanes. Chant. (Chet. Soc.), i, 98 n.
5 A pedigree was recorded at the Visit.
them 'of New Hall;' Dugdale, Visit.
.(Chet. Soc.), 203.
John Molyneux of Croxteth purchased
from Edward Hey in i 579 land called the
Acres Field, and a dwelling called Town
Row House ; Croxteth D. Cc. i, 12. An
old rental of the township (1750) shows
that New Hall was in Town Row quarter.
The Acres field had been the inheritance of
Alice, daughter of Thomas Eyves of
Liverpool, and wife of Roger Lancelyn of
Poulton Lancelyn ; their son William in
1 544 sold it to Richard Hey, the tenant,
father of Edward Hey ; Croxteth D. Cc.
i, 6-io. In 1721 John Molyneux of
West Derby and Elizabeth his grand-
mother sold ten acres of the New Hall pro-
perty called Acresfields ; Thomas Barren
and Isaac Greene of Liverpool were the
purchasers or their agents ; Piccope MSS.
(Chet. Lib.), iii, 214; from 6 roll of
Geo. I at Preston.
» Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iv, 47.
8 As William son of John le Norreys
and ; and the suit was continued by his
son Thomas in 1355 ; De Bane. R. 348,
m. 390 d. ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4,
m. 5. Thomas le Norreys of Derby,
and Margaret the widow of William were
charged with withholding 1 35. 4*/. from
Joan, widow of Richard de Yorton,
clerk ; from this suit it would seem that
the grant in West Derby by Robert de
Holand was to John le Norreys, who
transferred it to his son William ; Duchy
of Lane. Assize R. 3, m. iiij (Easter).
Thomas le Norreys and Hugh his brother
were sureties in 1359 ; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 7, m. 7.
Joan, late wife of Thomas le Norreys,
and Ellen, late wife of Hugh le Norreys
and guardian of William the next of kin
and heir of the said Thomas, came to an
agreement as to Joan's dower in West
Derby, Formby, and Hale, in 1370;
Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F 14. Probably
therefore William was son (or grandson)
of Hugh le Norreys.
William Norris of West Derby had two
sons, Henry and John, both living in 1 566,
and named in a settlement by Sir William
Norris ; Norris D. (B.M.).
Richard, the son and heir apparent of
Henry, was as early as 1544 married to
Ellen a daughter and co-heir of John
Toxteth of Aigburth, who was then
under fourteen years of age ; Norris D.
(B.M.), n. 24. This was apparently
the Richard who heads the recorded
pedigree. A fine concerning a settlement
of his estates, in 1589, is in Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F.bdle. 51, m. 99.
His son Andrew appears in the list of
freeholders in 1600; Misc. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 241 ; from one of
the Clowes deeds (n. 40 ; 1 589) it appears
that he was illegitimate. Andrew Norris
as a convicted recusant paid double to
the subsidy of 1628; Norris D. (B.M.).
He died about ten years later, his will
being proved in 1639 at Chest. He
had a numerous family; Henry, the
his elder brother Alan in 1334; Nor-
ris D. (B.M.), n. 51. It appears that
Robert de Holand in the time of
Edward II alienated to William le Nor-
reys a messuage and forty acres in West
Derby, without licence ; and on the death
and heir of the preceding, Thomas, came
of age in 1389, the king on 10 July
issuing a writ concerning his proof of
age and livery ; he had been born and
baptized at Heswall ; Norris D. (B.M.),
n. 592. He died at the beginning of
16
8 Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iv, 219-23; petitions from
the younger sons and daughters of Andrew
Norris, deceased, claiming annuities,
&c. It was found that the sons were
recusants, and a third of their annuities
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
threat of a fresh outbreak of persecution as a result of
the Gates plot appears to have broken the resolution
of ' Mr. Norris of Derby,' who conformed to the
legally established religion in 1 68 1.1 Norris Green
is supposed to indicate the site of their estate.
The Moores2 and Crosses' of Liverpool had lands
here about 1600. The Dwerryhouse family also
occur.4 In 1631 Robert Fazakerley5 and Robert
Mercer6 of West Derby paid £10 each on declining
knighthood. About the same time George Standish
had an estate here, which the Parliamentary authori-
ties sequestered for recusancy ; he died in 1653, and
his son and heir James, who was ' no recusant ' and
very poor, petitioned for a restoration, which was at
last granted.7
The freeholders of 1600, in addition to families
already mentioned, were Robert Longworth and
Robert Bower.8 The landowners of 1628 contribut-
ing to the subsidy were Robert Fazakerley, Andrew
Norris, Hugh Rose, Ralph Mercer, and Hugh Riding.9
Some other names occur among the sequestrations of
the Commonwealth period.10
WALTON
The hearth tax of 1662 shows a number of
residents styled ' Mr.' viz : Richard Molyneux, Robert
Mercer, James Standish, Richard Lathom, Hugh
Rose, William Holme, and Joshua Ambrose the
curate. John Lyon and Alice Rycroft had houses of
five and four hearths respectively."
Among the ' papists ' who registered estates in 1717
were the following connected with this township :
William Lancaster of Ormskirk, Richard Whittle,
Margaret Pye, and Robert Chantrell."
The first distinct allusion to the chapel
CHURCH of West Derby occurs in the middle
of the fourteenth century.13 About a
century later there is mention of its reparation,14 and
in 1494 Henry VII allowed five marks out of the
issues of the manor towards the maintenance of a
chapel for the celebration of divine service within the
lordship.15 The next time it occurs is in connexion
with the spoliations of the Reformation period.16
During the succeeding century its history is obscure ;
probably the new services were maintained more or
less regularly, a ' reading minister ' being supplied, as
was allowed ; the daughters were also
recusants. Their father's grant was
made in 1634, and he died about 1640.
Anne, one of the daughters, was in 1651
the wife of Richard Worthington. The
estates of Henry Norris, the eldest
brother, were under sequestration for
recusancy; they lay in Leigh, Pennington,
Worsley, Newton, West Derby, Liverpool,
and Litherland.
John Norris, a brother of Henry,
married Eleanor Beaufoy, and three sons,
Charles, Richard, and Andrew, became
Jesuits. The last-named on entering the
English College, Rome, in 1673, stated
that he was born at Speke, educated in
Lancashire until fourteen or fifteen, and
then sent to St. Omer's; 'my parents and
relatives,' he said, < are of the higher class
and are all Catholics. I have three
brothers but no sister. My father and
friends suffered much for religion'; Foley,
Rec. S. J. vi, 422 ; vii, 549-51, &c.
1 This was probably Richard, son of
of three meadows belonging to John
Moore, who through one of them had his
way to the Wythers wates. Richard
Hey, the father of Edward and Ralph,
had had a controversy in Henry VIII's
time with William Moore ; Ducatus Lane.
iii, 23.
a Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc.), ii, 136 ;
a messuage and ten acres held of the king
by ^d. rent. See Crosse D. in Trans. Hist.
Soc. (New Ser.), vi-ix, n. 161, 209, 224.
The land was called Snodam or Snodon,
and was acquired in 1498 from Nicholas
Fazakerley ; in 1566 it was in the tenure
of Robert Fletcher.
"William Dwerryhouse, 'yeoman,' of
West Derby, had in 1632 a demise of
lands in Kirkdale from John Moore ; in
1659 Anne Dwerryhouse, widow, was
one of the executors of William Dwerry-
house, 'gentleman,' deceased ; Moore
D. «. 6 1 6, 620. Anne Dwerryhouse,
by her will in 1672, devised lands for the
benefit of the school at West Derby.
1 Col. Com. for Comp. iv, 3151. In
1519 Richard Standish of West Derby
granted Sir William Molyneux a rent of
31. charged on his lands ; Croxteth D. Cc.
i, la. Edward Standish of Derby was a
freeholder in 1600; Misc. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 239. Their estate
seems to have been at Sandfield, for an
1635
old barn there is inscribed o. s. A.S.
George Standish married Anne Aymount
of West Derby at Walton in April, 1628 ;
Registers.
For Sandfield see Lams, and Ches. Rec.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 243—
between Mercer and Hallwood and other.
8 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
240, 241.
9 Norris D. (B.M.).
l» These seem to have been chiefly for
recusancy. Thus Richard Woods, ' always
well affected,' took the oath of abjuration ;
Cal. Com. for Comp. iv, 27 1 2. See ibid.
Thomas Marsden, vicar of Walton, wrote
in 1 68 1 asking favour for him, as he
was 'not yet cleared in the Exchequer
for his recusancy and had heard his name
was in the list of such as should have £20
a month levied upon their heads.' Under
these circumstances Mr. Norris's con-
formity ' to our church ' was ' as full as it
i, 213. As a convicted recusant he paid
double to the subsidy in 1628 ; Norris D.
(B.M.).
'Misc. 1. c. William Mercer of Tue
Brook was a juror of West Derby in
1557. A pedigree was recorded in 1 664 ;
Dugdale, Visit, p. 197.
The Mercers seem to have been, in
" Tram. His,. Soc. (New Ser.), xvi, 135.
A bond (1587) by William Rose of Low
in West Derby is in Towneley MS. GG.
n. 2,420.
"Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cat/,.
Nonjarors, pp. no, 120, 122, 148.
William Lancaster, a doctor, was the
founder of the present Ormskirk mission.
Com.), 126. His act does not seem to
named Fletcher. In 1568 Thomas
18 It occurs thus : 'John del Brakes
appear from notice, and much or alt of
the property is held by the representatives
of John Pemberton Heywood, banker, of
Liverpool.
8 Lanes. Intj. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 14; William Moore held
land of the king by £3 rent.
In 1557 at West Derby Court Ralph
Hey, who had died since the previous
court holding a messuage and lands called
Sandcland, &c., was succeeded by his
brother Edward ; and at a court next year
Thomas Bolton leased to James Bolton
tenements, including land in Sandeland,
daughter of John Fletcher (who was the
great-grandfather of Thomas), two closes
in West Derby called the Black net Leys ;
Croxteth D. Cc. i, 19. This land, held in
1586 by Henry Mercer and the aforesaid
Ellen his wife (in her right), and by
Robert Boulton, was sold to Sir Richard
Molyneux ; ibid. Cc. i, 20, 21. Thomas
Fletcher died 28 February, 1584-5, hold-
ing a messuage and lands in West Derby,
by the twentieth part of a knight's fee ;
his son John was then a minor, but had
livery in February, 1588-9 ; ibid. Cc. ii, 9.
John, son and heir of Thomas Fletcher,
in the chapel of Derby on Sunday next
after the feast of the Ascension, 1360' ;
Assize R. 451, n. 3.
»< Okill, iv, 294 ; in the accounts of
Thomas Lord Stanley, as receiver for the
county, is an item of 13). ^d. for the
repair of the chapel within the manor of
Derby. In the reign of Edward IV, under
the sign-manual of Richard, duke of
Gloucester, the bailiff of the manor had
£3 6s. U. allowed for the repairs, because
the king, as lord of the manor, held his
courts in the chapel ; Mins. Accts.
» Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 170. A later
John Moore; Moore D. n. 600, 604.
In 1570 depositions were taken in a dis-
pute between John Moore and Edward
Hey of West Derby. Lawrence Breres
of Walton, aged 54, said that Ralph Hey,
elder brother of defendant, had told him
to Sir Richard Molyneux in 1586;
Croxteth D. Cc. i, 16 ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 48, n. 235. Thomas
Fletcher appears in the recusant roll of
1641; Trans. His,. Soc. (New Ser.),
xiv, 237.
xxii, p. 228 d.
" Ch. Gds. 1552 (Chet. Soc.), p. 99 ;
the chapel seems to have been but poorly
furnished. Also Raines, Chant. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 277. Robert Bolton was curate
1548, 1554; Visit, lists at Chest.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
was the case about 1612.' An improvement after-
wards took place, and under the Commonwealth a
serious attempt was made here, as in other places, to
minister to the religious needs of the people in the
sense of those in authority, so that in 1650 the
surveyors found 'a godly minister,' Mr. Norcott,
supplying the cure.* After the Restoration the older
order probably returned. Bishop Gastrell, about
1720, found that the curate's stipend was £43 2s. 8</.,
which included .£15 from the inhabitants, and that in
1719 leave had been given to build an aisle on each
side of the chapel. There was a resident curate, for
the ' house and ground ' is mentioned,* and about
this time the township built a house called the
' Parsonage ' for the curate.4 A new service of
communion plate was provided in 1760.* In 1793
it appears that ' Sacrament Day ' came five times a
year.
The ancient structure 6 was pulled down after the
building of the new church, 1853-6. It seems to
have undergone much rebuilding in the eighteenth
century, but at its destruction part of an ancient gable
was discovered in the west wall, so that something at
least of the old work remained till the last. The
chief records of its later history are to be found in
the earliest West Derby Vestry Book, begun in 1744.
In 1745 the stone pillars under the steeple and the
steeple itself were taken down and rebuilt, and in
1747 the chapel was 'uniformed down on both sides
to the west end of the steeple.'
In 1786 the chancel and other ruinous parts were
taken down and rebuilt and the chapel enlarged.
Other records state that the chapel was repaired in
1680 and rebuilt in 1792.
Views taken shortly before its destruction show a
building with two east gables and windows of gothic
style in them, a large south aisle with two tiers of
classical windows, the upper tier to light a gallery,
and at the west end of the church a small bell
turret and flagstaff. The new church was designed
by Sir G. G. Scott, and is a very good specimen of
his work, cruciform, with a pinnacled central tower.7
The following have been curates 8 and rectors :
oc. 1592 Thomas Wainwright 9
oc. 1609 Edward Dowell 10
oc. 1648 William Norcott"
oc. 1662 Joshua Ambrose "
1676 Thomas Hall "
1688 William Atherton 14
oc. 1723 John Worthington 14
1733 Edward Davies, B.A.16
1756 Thomas Mallory, LL.B. (Trin. Coll.
Camb.)
1765 Henry Tatlock
1796 Thomas Myddelton
1798 Richard Blacow, M.A.'7
c. 1840 William Moriarty, M.A.
1846 John Stewart, M.A. (St. John's Coll.
Camb.)
1 889 Percy Stewart, M.A. (Trin. Coll. Camb.)|
A mission room has been opened at Club Moor.
The church of the Good Shepherd in Carr Lane
was consecrated as a chapel of ease in 1903.
The Established Church has now fifteen other places
of worship in the township. St. Mary's, Edge Hill,
was erected in 1813; a small burial ground surrounds
it. The incumbents are presented by trustees.18
St. Jude's, Hardwick Street, was built by subscrip-
tion in 1 83 1.19 St. Anne's, Stanley, built at the same
time, was entirely rebuilt in 1890 by Mr. Fenwick
Harrison as a memorial of his father.'0 At Knotty
Ash St. John the Evangelist's was built in 1835."
St. Stephen the Martyr's, Crown Street, was built in
1851. In consequence of the opening of the
railway tunnel from Lime Street to Edge Hill
it was taken down and rebuilt in 1882 on an adjacent
site just within the boundary of Liverpool." The
incumbents of these four churches are presented by
the rectors of West Derby.83
St. John's the Divine in Fairfield was built in
1852; the Hyndman trustees are patrons.24 St. An-
drew's, Edge Lane, was licensed as a chapel of ease in
1904.
In Mill Lane, West Derby, St. James's Church
was built in 1846 and enlarged in 1879 ; the repre-
sentatives of the late Mrs. Mary Thornton are
patrons. St. Catherine's, Edge Hill, was erected in
1863. St. Nathaniel's, Windsor, obscurely situated
in the midst of a poor and crowded district, was
built in 1869. It was burnt down in 1904 and
rebuilt.'6 The beautiful church of St. John the Bap-
1 Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.),
p. 13. The Visitation record for 1601
at Chester shows that ' Abbott, reader
was sold to Alderman John Stewart of
Arthur J. Stewart.
17 He is described as perpetual curate.
He was also minister of St. Mark's,
Liverpool.
18 One of the incumbents, the Rev.
once a quarter ; the chapel was out of
repair, and there was no pulpit.
« Commonwealth Ch. S«r«. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), p. 83 ; they recom-
mended that it should be made a parish
church, and that a second church should
Dine. Gaa. Sept. 1903.
8 < Sir William Forster, clerk, of Derby,'
was witness in a dispute in 1 570, and
aged 52 ; it is not known whether he was
in charge of the chapel.
• Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x, 192 ;
Frederick Barker, became bishop of Sydney
185410 1884.
» It was made a chapelry in 1876,
and afterwards endowed with £200 a
year. Land. Gax. 27 Oct. 1876 ; 2 Aug.
1878.
*> There is a small burial ground.
people there being two miles distant from
any church or chapel. A stipend of
£10 6s. 8</. is mentioned as payable to
the minister out of the manor ; Royalist
Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
ii. 164.
» Gastrell, Natitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.),
ii, 226. The contribution of the duchy,
£3 6s. grf, as granted by Henry VII, was
still paid.
4 See a former note.
6 Vestry Book.
• Having been made a parish church in
1844 by a private Act of Parliament.
The advowson of the newly created rectory
"Visit, list. Also in 1622; Misc.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i. 65.
11 He signed the Harmonious Consent of
1648 as minister of this chapel.
la He became vicar of Childwall in
1664. At the bishop's visitation in 1665
Christopher Fisher, ' pretended curate ' at
West Derby, was presented.
l» Became vicar of Eccles.
14 Also curate of Liverpool.
granted in 1732.
1* From this time the licences to the
curacy are to be found in the Act Books at
Chester. The stipend was £20 i6j.
18
is a fine lych gate made of oak taken from
the old house called Boulton's.
» A district was assigned in 1852, and
twelve years later an endowment of ,£132
granted; Land. Cav, 26 March, 1852;
12 July, 1864. For the removal, see ibid.
16 March, 1883.
28 For St. Stephen's, the vicars of St.
Jude's and St. Mary's, Edge Hill, share
the patronage with the rector.
» For district see Land. Gax. 24 March,
.854.
45 See Land. Gaz. i Aug. 1871, for dis-
trict assigned. Canon Richard Hobson, the
first vicar (1869-1901), deserves mention.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
list, Tue Brook, was built in 1871.' Christ Church,
Kensington, was opened in 1 870.* All Saints', Stony-
croft, was built in 1875. The patronage of these five
churches is vested in different bodies of trustees.
St. Cyprian's, Edge Lane, was erected in 1881 ;
Simeon's trustees have the patronage.3
On the Spekeland Estate being sold for building
purposes the Earle family reserved a plot of ground
and built thereon a memorial church, St. Dunstan's,
Earle Road, opened in 1 899 ; the Earle trustees are
the patrons. The church of St. Philip, Shell Road,
opened in 1885, has replaced the old church of the
same title in Liverpool,4 sold in 1882 ; the patronage
is in the hands of trustees.
The adherents of the Reformed Church of England
for many years conducted services at Tue Brook, as a
protest against what they considered the ' ritualism '
at St. John the Baptist's. About 1893 they erected
a small chapel.
The Wesleyan Methodists have churches as follows :
Brunswick chapel, Moss Street, built in 1 8 1 o ; it is
one of the centres of Liverpool Methodism, and the
Conference has been held there. There are two
mission halls in connexion with it. Cardwell Street
chapel, Edge Hill, was built in 1880, and Aigburth
Street in 1896; Fairfield chapel in 1867; Tue
Brook chapel in 1886. The last-named building
was formerly a Presbyterian chapel in Bootle ; it was
taken down and rebuilt on this site ; there are two
mission rooms connected with it. St. Paul's, Stony-
croft, was built in 1865 ; and the Birch memorial
chapel in Edge Lane in 1884. At West Derby
village there is a chapel in Crosby Green, built about
1840. At Plimsoll Street, Edge Hill, is a Welsh
Wesleyan chapel. The United Methodist Free
Church have a place of worship in Burning Road,
built in 1877. The Primitive Methodists have
churches in Edge Hill, Kensington, and Tue
Brook.
The Baptists have several churches. Pembroke
chapel, built in 1839, was the scene of the ministra-
tions of the Rev. Charles M. Birrell,* who died in
1880 ; the present minister is the Rev. Charles F.
Aked. Empire Street chapel was built in 1886.
Kensington chapel, 1889, represents the old Soho
Street chapel, built in 1837. Cottenham Street and
Tue Brook chapels were built in 1876. A Welsh
Baptist chapel in Edge Lane, 1887, represents a
migration from Juno Street, where a chapel was built
in 1858.
The Congregationalist churches are Green Lane,
Stanley, built in 1865 ; Norwood, near Sheil
Park, in 1870; and Edge Hill, 1877.' A Welsh
WALTON
Kensington was built in
; chapel at Edge
Congregational chapel
Ittl.'
The United Free Gospellers ha
Hill, called Mount Zion.8
The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have churches in
Edge Lane, Newsham Park, and Webster Road.
The Presbyterian Church of England has places
of worship at Fairfield, built in 1864; Earle Road,
1882; Tue Brook, founded in i8o6.9 The Re-
formed Presbyterians have a chapel in Hall Lane.10
Olive hall, West Derby village, built about 1860, has
been used by various Christian evangelists.
The adherents of the Roman Catholic Church in
the township long remained relatively numerous ; "
they were able probably to hear mass from time to
time at Croxteth or some other of the larger houses,
but no records are available until the middle of the
seventeenth century, after which the story of the Crox-
teth chaplaincy is fairly continuous. It was long served
by the Jesuits and then by the Benedictines. On
the first earl of Sefton conforming to the Established
religion in 1769, the priest in charge turned some
rooms at a house in Gill Moss into a chapel, which
remained in use until 1824, when the adjoining
church of St. Swithin was opened. It has a chalice
and some paintings brought from the old chapel in
the hall. This church was served by the Jesuits till
1887, when it was handed over to the secular clergy.
There is a small graveyard. The baptismal register
dates from 1757." No other mission was begun until
1839, when some stables at Old Swan were used,
pending the erection of St. Oswald's, opened in 1 842.
This is a pleasing building, designed by A. W. Pugin."
St. Anne's, Edge Hill, begun in 1843 as an offshoot
of St. Peter's, Seel Street, is served by the English
Benedictines ; mass was at first said in a room in the
priest's house, but in 1 846 the church was opened.14
The Sacred Heart mission, Mount Vernon, was
established in 1857 ; the chapel of St. Ethelburga's
convent was used until, in 1886, the new church was
opened. St. Paul's, West Derby, a school chapel, was
opened in 1880 ; Yew Tree Cemetery is served from
it. The mission of St. Sebastian, Fairfield, was
opened in 1 904 in a room of the convent of Adora-
ration and Reparation.15 St. Cecilia's, Tue Brook,
was begun in 1905. St. Ethelburga's Convent for
the sisters of Mercy, already mentioned, was opened
in 1843. The Blind Asylum in Brunswick Road is
managed by sisters of Charity, who also conduct the
Poor Law schools at Leyfield, West Derby village.
The Jews have burial grounds in Deane Road, and
at Tue Brook.
A free school existed in the village in 1677.
1 Land. Gaz. 6 Feb. 1872, for district.
In connexion with it a mission church of
the Advent was opened about 1890.
a Ibid. 23 April, 1872, for district.
8 For the district assigned, see Land.
Gaz. 2 Sept. 1881.
4 The organ, pulpit, lectern, and altar
were brought from the old church.
* He was one of the most influential
ministers in Liverpool ; father of Mr.
Augustine Birrell.
6 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 187,
212 ; Green Lane is the result of cot-
tage preaching started in 1853 ; Nor-
wood is an outcome of the Bicentenary
Celebration of 1862 ; work at Edge Hill
commenced with a Sunday school in 1857,
and the chapel in Chatham Place was used
from 1868 to 1877.
^ Owing to a dispute at Grove Street
chapel, part of the congregation separated
in 1878 ; Kensington church is the result ;
ibid, i, 232.
8 It was built for the Methodist New
Connexion in 1861, and used by the
Congregationalists for ten years, as stated
above.
» The Earle Road church originated in
a temporary building in 1862.
10 This congregation represents those
connected with the Shaw Street church,
who, in 1876, refused to join in the
general union of the English Presbyterian
bodies. It is affiliated to the Reformed
Presbyterians of Ireland.
« See list of 1641 in Tram. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), xiv, 237.
19
« Jos. Gillow, in Tram. Hist. Soc. (New
Ser.), xiii, 150, where is printed a de-
scription of the chapel plate in 1709, as
given by the informer, Richard Hitch-
mough. In 1728 Bishop Williams con-
firmed 207 persons at Croxteth, and in
1774 Bishop Walton confirmed 200 at
Gill Moss.
is This and other information is chiefly
drawn from the Liverpool Catb. Ann.
1901. Bishop Brown, first bishop of
Liverpool of the restored hierarchy, is
buried at St. Oswald's.
"In 1888 it was greatly enlarged by
the addition of new chancel, chapels, and
transepts. A baptistery was added in 1893.
15 Adoration Rcfaratrice, one of the
French orders in exile.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
EVERTON
Evreton, 1094; Euerton, 1201 ; Erton, 1380;
Everton, usual from xiii cent.
This township lies on the hill to the north-east of
Liverpool, the highest point being at St. George's
Church. From that point there is a very rapid slope to
the north and to the west, the elevated ridge continuing
southward to Low Hill and Edge Hill. The height
allows an extensive panorama of the city of Liverpool,
including a distant view of the Cheshire side of the
River Mersey. At sunset the windows of the houses on
Everton Brow flash back the glowing radiance, show-
ing that nothing impedes the wide prospect westwards.
The foot of this ridge is the western boundary. The
area is 693 acres, the township being about a mile
and a quarter from north to south, and less than a
mile across. The population in 1901 was 121,469.
The geological formation is triassic, the lower ground
on the eastern side consisting of the basement beds of
the keuper series, which have been thrown down by a
deep fault running north and south ; the remainder
of the township, including all the higher ground,
consists of the pebble beds of the bunter series.
Formerly the approach to it was by a road leading
eastward from Liverpool.1 The old village ! stood at
the top of the ascent in what is now Village Street,
above the old roundhouse or bridewell,3 which still
remains. About half way up the slope Netherfield
Lane turned away to the north, with a branch leading
up the hill. From the top of the village the road
led — north tc the summit where the Beacon stood,
destroyed by a gale in 1803, and then dividing, down
the hill to Kirkdale and to Anfield ; * and south to
Low Hill; this road remains one of the main thorough-
fares of Everton, as Heyworth Street and Everton
Road. The road from Liverpool after passing through
the village divided, the more northerly branch, Breck
Lane,5 leading to Walton Breck, and the other, which
also divided, to Newsham and West Derby.6 The
mere, afterwards called St. Domingo Pit, was below
the Beacon, to the east ; Mere Lane led down to it.
The commanding situation of the village occasioned
its earliest prominent connexion with the general his-
tory of the county, for here Prince Rupert fixed his
head quarters when attacking Liverpool in 1 644.' In
more peaceful times the wealthier merchants of Liver-
pool chose it for their country mansions, and in 1824
it was thus described : ' This village has become a very
favourite residence of the gentry of Liverpool, and for
the salubrity of its air and its vicinity to the sea, may
not inaptly be called the Montpellier of the county.'8
The roads were shaded with fine trees, and a walk to
the top of the hill was a pleasant exercise for dwellers
in the town. The growth of Liverpool northwards,
with the erection of chemical works and other factories
by the riverside, destroyed the amenities of the
situation, and within the last fifty years the great
houses in their spacious grounds have been replaced
by closely packed streets of small dwellings. The
roads above described remain the principal ones,
having been widened and improved. The Liverpool
electric tramways serve the district.
There was a large sandstone quarry on the northern
slope of the hill.
Until 1820 the shaft ot the market-cross stood
upon a flight of stone steps in the open space of the
village ; a sundial had been fixed upon it.' There
was formerly a holy well here, but the site has been
lost.10 The Beacon, already mentioned, was a plain
rectangular tower of two stories, about 1 8 ft. square
and 25 ft. high, built of local red sandstone.11
The little open green by the roundhouse is main-
tained by the corporation of Liverpool, and has been
slightly extended by the demolition of some cottages
on the north side of it, among them being the Old
Toffee shop." In 1825 the Necropolis was enclosed
as a burial place for Nonconformists.13 It is now a
public garden maintained by the corporation. Shaw
Street, the principal street on the Liverpool side of
Everton, was formed in 1828 by Thomas Shaw, a
councillor of Liverpool.1* On its eastern side is a
triangular piece of rocky ground called Whitley Gardens
maintained by the corporation.14
EfERTON was one of the six bere-
M4NOR wicks dependent on the royal manor
of West Derby in 1066 ; its separate
assessment was three plough-lands.16 Subsequently
it formed part of the demesne of Roger of Poitou,
who gave its tithes to the abbey of St. Martin at
> It is now called Everton Brow ; the
old name was Causeway Lane — ' a deep,
sandy lane, the cops or hedges on each
and Breck Lane, on the Walton boundary,
between Breck Lane and the freehold
enclosures of 1 667, and in the Rake. The
• Syers, Hist, of Everton, 70. The
pound originally stood near it, and the
smithy also.
10 Lanes, and Cbes. Antiq, Soc. xix, 196.
was a small ale-house in it called ' The
Loggerheads,' which gave an alternative
name to the road ; Robert Syers, Hist, of
Everton, 1830, p. 236.
« In Syers' , Hist. of Ever ton there is a very
interesting map, said to have been drafted
in 1790, from which the separate areas of
copyhold, leasehold, and freehold land may
be calculated. The dwelling-houses stood
in the centre of the copyhold land, repre-
sented by 24 oxgangs, the area being
measure, somewhat more than the 693
acre, statute measure allowed by the
Ordnance Survey.
» Built in 1787 ; Syers, His,. of Ever-
">", 354-
* Here were fields called Sleepers. In
the fork between the roads stands St.
Domingo House.
5 Now Breck Road. A dwelling called
the Odd House stood in this road.
6 See the plan in Enfield's Liverpool,
drawn in 1768.
On the common near the Beacon a ' headles.
cross ' is supposed to have stood, from the
description on old maps; Syers, op.cit. 71.
» Ibid. pp. 56-61, where there is an
engraving. There is also a small drawing
of it in Gregson, Fragments, 143.
>« Molly Bushell's original manufactory
of the sweet to which Everton has given
a name was in Village Street; Syers,
68. She was living in 1759.
1» Syers, Hist, of Everton, 2 1 p.
58 acres of freehold land on the southern
and south-western borders of the town-
»hip appears to represent the 'lands im-
proved upon the waste ' mentioned in
1297, with more recent enclosures. The
'60 acres' enclosed in 1667 in Anfield
and Netherfield are described as freehold
also, the areas being 37 J, izj, and n
acres ; while the '115 acres ' enclosed in
1716 are called leasehold, and measure
113 acres, lying upon Hillside, by the
Beacon, by the mere, between Walton Cop
1 Rupert's Lane and Prince Rupert's
house (standing in 1830) commemorate
this visit of royalty. The militia barracks
adjoin it. Rupert's camp is supposed to
have been to the north ; Gregson, Frag-
ment, (ed. Harland), p. 149. See also
Trans. Hist. Sac. iv, 71-3. In 1803
Prince William, son of the duke of
Gloucester, resided at St. Domingo House
as commander-in-chief of the district ;
Syers, 371. His father visited him there.
8 Baines, Lanes. Dir. ii, 711.
20
he was the son and heir of John
Shaw, who had acquired lands in
Everton by the gift of his wife, who in
turn had had them by gift of her first
husband, named Halsall ; 204-5. Il
appears that Mr. Halsall died between
1764 and 1775 ; 418. See also Picton,
Liverpool, ii, 341, 351.
« This takes its name from the late
Edward Whitley, M.P. for the Everton
Division, who died in 1892.
" V. C. H. Lanes, i, 283
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Seez in 1094.' During the twelfth century an
assized rent of £4 from this vill was accounted for
in the corpus comitatus or total sum rendered yearly
as farm of the honour, but in 1201 it was increased
to £4 l6s.' the increment perhaps representing the
sheriff-scot or fee for the sheriff as farmer of the
demesne manors.3 The manorial history of Everton
is the same as that of West Derby.4 In 1315 Sir
Robert de Holand entered into the manor by the
favour of Thomas of Lancaster and held it until the
earl's attainder in 1 322." Thirty years later it was
given to John Barret in fee, but he appears to have
died without issue, and this grant also failed.6
Being granted by the crown in 16*29 as an appen-
dage of the manor of West Derby,' the tenants of
Everton refused suit and service at the patentees'
court, asserting that their manor was distinct and
separate from that of West Derby. After legal dis-
putes the patentees thought it best to obtain new
letters patent in 1639, in which the vill of Everton
and the rents and services of the tenants were named.
The manors of West Derby, Everton, and Wavertree
were then sold to James, Lord Strange, and in 1717
were purchased by Isaac Greene of Liverpool, whose
descendant,8 the marquis of Salisbury, is the present
lord of the manor. Some land is still held as copy-
hold of the manor of West Derby.
The Everton tenants had successfully asserted the
rights of their vill in 1620. In this year the copy-
holders of West Derby and Wavertree, having obtained
a commission confirming to them their copyhold
estates and for granting the wastes and commons by
copy of court roll, surveyed and proposed an allotment
not only of the wastes of West Derby and Wavertree,
but also of Everton, to be allotted among the copy-
holders of the three vills. The people of Everton,
however, insisted that theirs was a distinct vill,9 with
known bounds; that the benefit of the wastes had
from time beyond memory been taken and enjoyed by
the inhabitants ; that the tenants of Kirkdale paid
Everton 6s. Set. a year for liberty of common in part
WALTON
of the wastes, and that the inhabitants of Wavertree
and West Derby had no rights in them.10
In 1642 it was found that the people of Everton
paid £$ us. $\J. for their enclosed lands and 1 3/. 4</.
for their commons — Hongfield (Anfield), Whitefield
and Netherfield ; this last payment was known as
Breck silver, the commons lying on the Breck or slope
of the hill.11 An agreement was made in 1667
between the tenants and the earl of Derby, as lord ot
the manor, for enclosing a third of the commons,
which then extended to 1 80 acres large measurement ;
they were afterwards leased to the tenants." Then in
1716 Lady Ashburnham granted to the copyholders a
lease for a thousand years of 1 1 5 acres of the 1 20 acres
unenclosed, for £115 paid and a rent of £5 15*. a
year.13
Everton was incorporated in the borough ot
Liverpool in 1835. It formed a single ward until
1895, when it was divided into four — Everton,
Netherfield, St. Domingo, and Brockfield wards, each
with its aldermen and three councillors.
The first place of worship erected in the township in
connexion with the Church of England was St. George's,
on the summit of the hill. It was planned in 1812
somewhat as a commercial speculation, the land being
given by James Atherton, and the money raised in
shares of £100 each, any profits to be divided among
the proprietors. It was opened in 1814." The
incumbents, now called vicars, were the chaplains of
the proprietors until 1879, when, the conditions
having totally changed and any ' profit ' ceased with
the migration of the wealthier inhabitants many years
before, the proprietors made the church over to the
district.15 The next, St. Augustine's, Shaw Street, was
built in 1830, shares being subscribed and Thomas
Shaw giving the land.16 Christ Church, Great Homer
Street, was built in 1848 by the family as a memorial
of Charles Horsfall, mayor in 1832-3. St. Peter's,
Sackville Street, followed in 1 849. St. Chrysostom's
in 1853 replaced a chapel of ease in Mill Road,
which had been built in i837-17 The preceding
1 Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 290, 299.
9 In 1 226 the total payable was £4. 161. ;
Lanes, [no. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 136. The increment of 161.
a year first appears in the Pipe Roll ac-
counts of 1 200- 1 ; Lanes. Fife R. 131.
5 Inq. p.m. I Edw. Ill, n. 88. No
Holand. There is a rental of I 323 giving
particulars of the holdings. William the
reeve and his sons John and Robert con-
tributed half the sum of 131. 4^. collected
in Everton village bore the initials and
7°- ' 1688 M 1 'A 8ettlement " to di>-
putcd land at the Breck, on the border
of West Derby, was effected in 1723 ;
681. 4</.(ibid. 202) ; and in 1227 at 701.;
Inj. and Extents, 135.
4 As in the case of other adjoining
demesne manors the villeins of Everton
had a prescriptive right to obtain timber
in the underwoods of West Derby for
building or repairing their houses and
enclosing their arable lands. In or before
1225 this right had been contested, prob-
ably by the forester, but upon the com-
plaint of the 'king's men of Everton'
have their right of taking estovers, as they
Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 5.
8 Grcgson, Fragments, 145. It was
confirmed by the king ; Pat. 33 Edw. Ill
1 See the account of West Derby ; and
Grcgson, 146-8.
8 Syers, Hist, of E-verton, 34, 35 ; see
also the account of Childwall.
9 Everton is called a manor in 1340 ;
De Bane. R. 322, m. 279.
10 Syers, Hist, of Everton 21-3.
11 Ibid. 28.
The 'lord's rent' of £5 I5»., as al»o
the ancient ' Breck silver,' 1 3*. 4</. was
in 1830 raised and paid out of the rent
of a cottage built, together with a new
pinfold, on a waste spot by the mere
or public watering-place; ibid. 113,
171. It had been agreed, as early as
1759, to pay these charges out of the
town's lay ; ibid. 417.
« An abstract of the Act of Parliament
obtained in 1813 is printed in Syers' Hist.
of E-verton, 422. The patronage is now
exerc sed by a body of trustees, of whom
customs than they had been used to per-
form before that time ; Close R. 1225-7,
p. 64*. In 1252 William de Ferrers,
the principal tenant.
1* Ibid. 32. The names of the copy-
holders who shared the improved lands,
ing was called an ' iron church,' the metal
being largely used in the construction.
1* These particulars are mostly taken
earl of Derby, had a grant of free warren
here ; Chart. R. 36 Hen. III. m. 24.
Upon the death of Edmund, earl of
Lancaster, in 1296 it was found that the
men of Everton held 24 oxgangs, for which
they rendered £4 161. a year, and 34$
acres and a rood and a half of improve-
ment from the wastes for 171. c\d. ;
Inj. and Extents, 286.
also the field names, will be found on
400-3. It appears that each copy-
holder doubled his holding ; thus Henry
Halsall, who held 2;J acres of old land,
received 26 acres of new. The other
George3 Hey«, William Williamson)
Samuel Plumpton, John Johnson, William
Rice, and John Rose. The Heyes' house
21
from a pamphlet issued in 1896, which
also contained portraits of the different
incumbents. The district was formally
assigned in 1881 ; Land. Gaa. 26 June.
The churchyard was closed in 1854.
1« A district was assigned in 1873;
Lond. Gax. 27 June.
17 A district was assigned in iSSS j
Lond. Gaz. 6 April.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
benefices are in the gift of various bodies of trustees.
Emmanuel Church, West Derby Road, erected in
1867, is in the gift of Mr. R. D. Anderson.1 St.
Saviour's, Breckfield Road, 1870, originated in an iron
church erected in 1867 ;' the incumbents are pre- Everton chapel,
sented by trustees. St. Timothy's, near Everton
Brow, was built in 1862 ; a mission room has been
acquired.3 St. Chad's, Everton Valley, was opened
The Congregational church in Everton Crescent is
the result of a separation from the Establishment in
1 800 ; Bethesda Chapel in Hotham Street was then
erected, but in 1837 the congregation moved to the
The church has maintained several
mission stations. The Chadwick Mount Church was
built in 1866-70. For Welsh-speaking Congrega-
tionalists there is a church in Netherfield Road,
as "a school-church in 1 88 1, the permanent building opened in 1868, being a transplantation of the old
soon following. The bishop of Liverpool is patron Tabernacle in Great Crosshall Street, Liverpool.8
of both churches. St. Ambrose Ch '
1871.' St. Benedict's, erected in
to an
patronage of these churches is vested in bodies of
trustees. St. Cuthbert's, on the Anfield side, was
built in 1877 ; the Simeon trustees have the patron-
age.5 St. Polycarp's, Netherfield Road, was erected
as built in The Calvinistic Methodists have three places ot
worship where service is conducted in Welsh, and two
in succe
hurch, stands near the old village. The others for English-speaking adherents. The United
Free Gospellers 'have two churches. The Presby-
terians have two churches.9 There is a Church of
Christ in Thirlmere Road. The Salvation Army
has a barracks. The Unitarians have a church in
[886. St. John the Evangelist's, Breck Road, was Hamilton Road.
built in 1890 as a memorial to Charles Groves, a
well-known Liverpool churchman. The patronage of
both churches is vested in trustees.
Everton is considered an extremely Protestant
district, but the Roman Catholics have several churches
within it. The earliest is St. Francis Xavier's. The
A Free Church of England has been established in Jesuits, who had served Liverpool during the times of
Everton ; its minister is the bishop of the northern persecution, were able to return in 1840, when land
diocese.
Liverpool College, Shaw Street, was established in
1841.
The Wesleyan Methodists have several churches —
Great Homer Street Chapel, built in 1 840," and
Whitefield Road, 1 866 ; also a mission chapel and a
preaching room. There is a large Welsh-speaking
population, and two chapels are devoted to them by
the Wesleyans. The Primitive Methodists have two
churches ; the Methodist New Connexion one ; and
the United Free Methodists two.
Fabius Chapel, Everton Road, built by the Baptists
in 1 868, represents the first place of religious worship
known to have existed in the township. Dr. Fabius,
a well-known physician, who lived close by, built a
chapel about the year 1707 ; a yard attached was
used as a burial ground.7 The congregation increased,
but secured a meeting-place in Liverpool in 1722,
and the Everton chapel was abandoned. The burial
ground, however, remained in possession of the
denomination ; and upon it stands the present
was secured on the border of the rapidly-growing
town. Two years later they opened a school in Soho
Street, and in 1 845 the church was built. A large
educational work has been gradually established.10 St.
Mary Immaculate's, on the northern slope of Everton
Hill, was erected in 1856 as the Lady Chapel of a
proposed cathedral, and was enlarged in 1885. The
bishop's house and St. Edward's College occupy the
adjacent St. Domingo House, perhaps the only one of
the great Everton mansions still remaining." St.
Michael's, West Derby Road, was erected in 1861 to
1865, and has since been practically rebuilt. St.
George's Industrial School adjoins it.1'
The Mohammedans have a mosque in Brougham
Terrace.
WALTON
Waleton, Dom. Bk. ; Walton, 1246.
This township, having a wedge-like form, lies on
the west and north-west of West Derby and Fazaker-
building. The same denomination have churches in ley ; it has a length of over 4 miles and an area of
Shaw Street, built in 1 847, and in Breck Road, called
Richmond Chapel, built in 1864. The Welsh
1,944 acres.'1 At the extreme north is Warbreck on
the border of Aintree ; the Gildhouses were also at
Baptist Chapel, built in 1869, in Village Street, is a the north end, and along the southern border from
migration from Ormond Street, Liverpool, where a north-west to south-east are the districts called
congregation had gathered as early as 1 799. Spellow, Anfield, Walton Breck, and Newsham ;
1 Lund. Gaz. 6 Aug. 1867, for district.
* Ibid. 8 Feb. 1870.
» Ibid. 4 Aug. 1868, for assignment of
district.
« LonJ. Ga«. 13 Aug. 1872.
that in Queen's Road, in 1861-3, bX 'he
United Presbyterians. Both now belong
to the Presbyterian Ch. of Engl.
w Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1901, and
Xavcrian, the monthly church mazagine.
them to sell the estate, in spite of his
care to preserve it in his family. William
Ewart bought it in 1811, and next year
sold it to the Government for barracks,
to the great annoyance of the residents
is a mission - hall worked from this
Lady Chapel in 1888.
soon afterwards sold in lots by the Barracks
6 This represents an older chapel in
Leeds Street, Liverpool.
1 For particulars as to Dr. Fabius and his
wife Hannah, see Syers, Hist, of Everton,
217, 232, 402, 413. They are referred
to in N. Blundell's Diary. Their house
at the top of Brunswick Road was after-
wards occupied by John and William
Gregsoa in succession. A well by their
garden wall is commemorated in the name
of a public-house.
« Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 164-
169 ; 179, 224-227.
» That in Shaw Street was built, in
1 860, by the Reformed Presbyterians, and
Syers, Hist, of E-verton a detailed history of
the estate is given. From this it appears
that the site belonged to Henry Halsall,
one of the i, coo-years' leaseholders of
1716. George Campbell, a Liverpool
merchant, in 1758 bought the land and
built the first St. Domingo House. On
his death, John Crosbie, another merchant,
bought it for £3,800. After his bank-
ruptcy it was purchased by John Sparling,
a merchant ; he built the great house,
still existing, in 1793. At the summit of
the hill the prospect is extensive, and
formerly was beautiful. He died in 1 800,
and his heirs procured an Act enabling
22
acquired the house, which for some time
was used as a school ; ibid. 1 67. In
1841 it was purchased by Bishop Brown,
vicar-apostolic of the Lanes, district,
and opened as St. Edward's Coll. in the
following year. A new wing was built
in 1874-5. An observatory was formed
in 1886. The college is for training
candidates for the priesthood.
11 Catb. Ann.
is Including 1 1 acres of inland water ;
Census Rep. of 1901. A small part of
the township, around Newsham House,
was transferred to the West Derby local
board district in 1868.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
these are often regarded and named as Anfield. The
natural features of the township have long since been
obscured or entirely swept away by bricks and
mortar, and thronged streets of small houses and busy
shops and electric-car standards occupy the site
of country lanes, gardens, and trees. The geological
formation is the new red sandstone or trias, the
ridge of higher land on the west, reaching the 175 ft.
level, consists of the pebble beds, and the eastern
slope towards the Fazakerley brook of the upper
mottled sandstones of the bunter series of that
formation. The population in 1901 was 54,615.
The principal road is that from Liverpool to
Ormskirk,1 passing close by the parish church on the
higher ground ; descending the hill it is called Rice
Lane.' The Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's
line from Liverpool to Preston passes through the
township, having a station at Walton Junction ; here
the line to Bury and Manchester branches off to the
east, with an adjacent station called Preston Road.
The branch to the docks also goes through the town-
ship. The London and North-western Company's
branch line from Edge Hill to the docks crosses the
southern end of Walton, with stations called Walton
and Spellow. The Cheshire Lines Committee's rail-
way from Manchester and Liverpool to Southport
crosses Warbreck, and has one branch turning south-
west to the docks and another with a station at
Walton village.
The old village3 lay near the church, in a street
bending round its northern side. The workhouse of
the West Derby Union lies about a mile to the north ;
close by is a cemetery belonging to the parish of
Liverpool. Farther north still is the county prison ;
here executions take place. The cemetery for Kirk-
dale lies near the Fazakerley border. Greenwich
Park Athletic Grounds are near it.
The principal road, already mentioned, at its
entrance into the township from Kirkdale, passes
through Spellow. The grounds of Spellow House,
used as a nursery garden till about twenty years
ago, have been covered with streets of cottage
houses ; the district is now urban all along this road
until Aintree is reached. On the west side of the
road Clayfield Lane, now Breeze Hill, led from the
church to Bootle ; in it there is now a reservoir of
the Liverpool Water Works.
From Spellow a road led east through Mere Green
and thence north to the village. Stanley Park and
WALTON
Anfield Cemetery now skirt the right side of it ; on
the left is the Everton football ground.4 On reaching
the village, the road or lane was prolonged north-
wards to pass Walton Hall and demesne on the lower
ground near the Fazakerley border ; while another
road, Rake Lane or Cherry Lane, ran eastward to
West Derby. Near the Everton border two roads
led south-eastward to Newsham ; between these
Stanley Park now lies, with the Liverpool football
ground near it.5 Further to the south-east the two
roads are crossed by that leading through Everton to
Kirkby, called Breck Road and Townsend Lane ;
' Cabbage Hall,' an old-established inn,6 has given a
name to the surrounding district, which is also called
Walton Breck. Here there is a disused stone quarry.
At the extreme south-east, the projecting part of the
township is crossed by the main road from Liverpool
to West Derby, known here as Rocky Lane. News-
ham House, in the modern park, is on the southern
side of it. In the neighbourhood are the test house
of the West Derby Guardians and a house of the
Little Sisters of the Poor. This part of the township
has long been urban.
At the death of Edward the Confessor
M4NOR Winestan held the manor of WJLTON ;
it was assessed as two ploughlands and three
oxgangs of land, and its value beyond the customary
rent was 8/.7 After the Conquest it is supposed
that Roger of Poitou included Walton in a large
estate which he gave to Godfrey, his sheriff, by whom
it was held at the date of the compilation of the
Domesday Survey.8 Possibly Godfrey resigned his
lands to Count Roger, who in 1094 granted the
tithe of his demesne to the abbey of St. Martin of
Seez.9
After Count Roger's forfeiture Walton passed
with the demesne of the honour of Lancaster until
William, son of King Stephen, granted or confirmed
fourteen oxgangs of land in Walton, Wavertree, and
Newsham, to his servant Waldeve, with the office of
master-serjeant or bailiff" of the wapentake of West
Derby.10 The estate, with its accompanying grand
serjeanty, continued in Waldeve's descendants for
many generations.
His son and successor, Gilbert, was outlawed after
the barons' rebellion of 1 173-4," but 'n J '7^ made
his peace, proffering the enormous sum of £400 to
obtain remission of the sentence.12 Between 1189
and 1 194, John, count of Mortain, confirmed this estate
1 The Liverpool end is now called
County Road.
»At the west side formerly stood a
house called Sounds.
• For a curious inn sign at Walton see
Lanes, and Ches. Hist, and Gen. Notes, ii,
4 Known as Goodison Park, from the
5 SherrirFs map of 1823 shows a wind-
mill in Anfield Road at the corner of what
is still called Mill Lane. Breck House is
marked on a map of about 1850 as stand-
Henry, son of Gilbert, son of Waldeve,
and his heirs, six oxgangs of land in
Walton, four oxgangs in Wavertree, and
four oxgangs in Newsham, and the master-
serjeanty of the wapentake, free and quit
by the service of serjeanty for all service
and custom, in fee and inheritance, to
hold of us and our heirs, &c., as Waldeve
his grandfather wholly held the same lands
and the said serjeanty in the time of
William, count of Boulogne, Warren and
Mortain, and of King Henry our father,
and as we whilst we were count of Mor-
at Chesterton, and 'took up his lodg-
ings in the house of Waldeve de Walton.
The house was burnt — probably owing
to the carelessness or insobriety of some
of the king's attendants. The king re-
compensed his host munificently. He gave
him by charter thirty solidates of land in
Hen. II (ed. Hunter), 156; Stajjs.Hist.
Coll. ii, 81, 87 ; and Lanes. Pipe R. in.
The master Serjeant, in addition to the
estates held with the office, received a
profit called 'foldage' from cattle im-
pounded in execution at the rate of \d.
for each night in winter and \d. in sum-
mer. The office was worth £9 1 31. 4</.
a year in 1321; Inq. p. m. 15 Edw. II,
'in' 1 1 66-7 Walton paid 3$ marks to
the aid of an eipedition to Normandy.
Lanes. Pipe R. 35. "Ibid. 31, 33.
12 Ibid. 31-49 passim; the last instal-
ment was paid by 1183.
Road.
« It is marked on SherrirTs map.
* V.C.H. Lanes, i, 2843. This ' value ' is
that usually attributed to manors of half a
hide or three ploughlands.
8 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 279.
9 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 290.
I" By charter dated at Chinon 23 Sep-
tember, 1199, King John confirmed 'to
and the said serjeanty to Gilbert father of
the said Henry ' ; Chart. R. (Rec. Com.),
23. The six oxgangs were probably in
Gildhouses, at the north end of the town-
ship.
Waldeve, or Waltheof, is the subject of
an interesting notice in the Pipe R. of
Worces. and Staffs. Henry II, jour-
neying through Staffs, in 1157, halted
23
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
and serjeanty to Gilbert, to hold by the yearly service
of 2 marks.1 Gilbert had two sons, Henry and
Richard. To the former in 1199 King John con-
firmed the fourteen oxgangs;'
to the latter, known as Richard
de Meath, he gave in 1 200
' the whole town of Walton with
all its appurtenances,' which
used to render 4.0*. farm, for
the increased rent of 6o/.3
Richard de Meath soon after-
wards gave four oxgangs here to
Richard son of Robert de Wal-
ton to be held by a rent of
5/. 6</., which gift was con-
firmed in 1 204 by the king.4
For some reason not known
Walton was resumed by the crown, so that the grant
to Richard de Meath does not appear in the survey
of 1 2 1 2, which recites the minor holding of Henry de
Walton, who had made grants in alms to the priory of
Birkenhead and to the hospital of St. John at Chester ;
Hugh son of Gilbert held one oxgang for half a
pound of pepper.5
In 1215, however, Richard de Meath proffered
four palfreys for seisin of his land of Walton, Formby,
and Hale, and the offer being accepted the sheriff of
Lancaster was directed to take security for the pay-
ment.' This was confirmed by Henry III in 1227.
The succession to Richard de Meath's lands is stated
more fully under Hale, which passed to his natural
children. Walton was given by him to his brother
Henry, whom he made his heir.7 Henry de Walton,
who thus became lord of the whole manor, died in
1241, when his widow Juliana received dower in his
lands from his son William;8 she failed in a claim
against Richard son of Henry in 1246,' but partly
succeeded in another against William de Walton for
an oxgang and 20 acres of land and %d. rent in
Walton.10
William gave lands in the Breck to Burscough
Priory,11 and was still living in 1 26 1.11 Some of his
grants have been preserved, including one for the
maintenance of a chaplain in Walton church.13 He
died before 1 266, for Robert de Ferrers, earl of
Derby, gave the wardship of the heir, Richard, son of
William, son of William de Walton, to Nicholas de la
Hose, who assigned it to Robert de Holand.11 The
latter was afterwards charged with having permitted
waste.15 Richard died early, between 1295 and
1298, leaving as heir a son William, a minor."
Subsequently Thomas, earl of Lancaster, granted
1 Lanei. Fife R. 106. Gilbert in 1 194
her dower before Robert de Lexington ;
ment of 1 2</. towards the maintenance of
good will after having participated in the
rebellion of Count John ; ibid. 78. He
dower agreed upon was four oxgangs in
Newsham— two in demesne and two in
the chapel of St. Paulinus of Walton, for
the health of the soul of Henry III etc. ;
shire also ; Pipe R. i Ric. I (ed. Hunter),
121.
ting place ; saving to her the dower she
Richard son of William the smith of
11 Gilbert died in I 196, in which year
previously had.
West Derby ; one of the witnesses was
his son Henry owed 405. for livery of the
» Assize R. 404, m. 5. This was a
Master William de Walton (i.e. the
lands ; Lanci. Fife R. 94.
Wavertree, and was defeated by Richard's
The Gildhouses, reckoned as seven
King John's charter of 1199 has been
appeal to the record of the previous
oxgangs, had to provide a horseman and
C:n in a previous note. For it Henry
settlement.
two grooms for the bailiwick of the
proffered a palfrey or £$ ; ibid.
106.
i" Ibid. m. 8 d. ; she recovered the ox-
wapentake ; Assize R. 430, m. 28 d.
» Plac. de quo Warr. (Rec. Com.)
tion of his serjeanty, which had been seized
Meadow and Derby Brook, and zo acres
Walton had been summoned to show by
what warrant he claimed to be the king's
into the king's hands in consequence of
between Wood mill and Kirkby ; Final
bailiff of the wapentakes of West Derby
an inquiry ordered concerning serjeanties
Cone, i, 10 1. In ! 244 Juliana had
and Makerfield and the boroughs of
of the honour alienated from the honour
demanded from William de Walton her
Liverpool and Wigan. He replied by
of Lane. ; Close (Rec. Com.), 55. See also
younger son Robert, whom he had taken
proffering the charters of William, Count
Lane,. Pi ft R. 1 06.
from her custody, and three oxgangs which
of Boulogne to Walter (Waldeve) and of
» Chart. R. 74 ; the increase of the
she had purchased for his maintenance ;
King John to Henry son of Gilbert, and
rent had only just been made ; Lanes.
Cur. Reg. R. 132, m. 4.
these were considered sufficient ; ibid.
Fife R. 113.
11 Burscough Reg. fol. 46 ; a plat 28
382.
" Chart. R. 141 ; the king received a
perches long by 8 wide in the townfields,
15 Assize R. 408, m. 69 ; a chamber
palfrey or 5 marks for the confirmation •,
with pasture for 100 sheep with the
worth 401. had been thrown down, as
Lanes. Pipe R. 1 80.
lambs of two years old, and two oxen,
well as a grange worth 401. ; and land
5 Lanes. lay. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
with housebote and heybote in the under-
had been marled and marl sold to the
and Ches.), 23, 26 ; see also 116. The
wood of Walton for enclosing the land
heir's loss.
three acres given to Birkenhead were prob-
with hedges and making their buildings.
As Richard, lord of Walton, he granted
ably in Newsham, where at the disso-
The gift was for the souls of himself and
to Patrick Taylor land within the dyke,
lution the priory had a fee-farm rent of
his wife Agnes.
one of the boundaries being the ' Huth-
1 5*. ,• ibid. p. 26, quoting Minis. Accts.
18 At Michaelmas in that year he with-
lone' leading to Derby wood ; Crosse D.
28 Hen. VIII. On the accession of
drew a plea against Henry de Hale ; Cur.
(Tram. His,. S«.), n. 4.
Henry III the serjeanty was seized
Reg. R. 132, m. 4 ; R. 171, m. 32 d.
The homage and service of Richard de
into the king's hands, but restored a year
13 He enfeoffed William son of Alan de
Walton and his heirs 'lately recovered
later; Close (Rec. Com.), 333.
Lente of two oxgangs in Walton, which
from Robert de Holand,' were in 1295
'Lane,. Fife R. 252, 257. The
Alan had held, with pasture for his swine
granted to Edmund, Earl of Lane. ; Chart.
woods and the tallage of villeins were re-
as well at Fazakerley as in the under-
R. 88, (23 Edw. I), m. i, n. 5, see Cat.
served to the king, and Richard was not
woods of Walton, for his homage and
Pat. 1292-1301, p. 148.
to levy any distress upon that land nor upon
the villeins ; Fine R. 17 John, m. 7.
service of 31. ; he also granted 4 acres
to Henry son of Stephen Bullock ; Crox-
16 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, p. 288 ;
'William, son and heir of Richard de
' His charter is printed in Final Cone.
teth D. BB, iv, I, 2.
Walton, who is under age and in
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 138. It
To John the chaplain of Walton he
ward to the king, ought to be bailiff
was confirmed by Hen. Ill in 1227 to
gave land below the hedge of Gildhouses,
of fee of the Crown and master
Henry de Walton, who gave the king a
within bounds beginning at Small Cross
Serjeant of the whole wapentake of West
palfrey for it ; Orig. R. 1 1 Hen. III.
and going down below Gildhouses in a
Derby. He ought also to have one horse
» The date is fixed by the pleadings in
straight line to Wolgarford, saving mills,
bailiff, either himself or another, and two
the suit against Richard son of Henry, in
mines, hawks, and honey outside these
under bailiffs on foot to execute the said
which it is stated that she had sued for
bounds ; John was to hold it by a pay-
office.'
24
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
the lordship of the manor of Walton, with the
homage and service of William de Walton, to Sir
Robert de Holand.1
William de Walton in 1312 made a settlement of
the manor of Walton, except seven oxgangs, with
remainder to his son Simon.8 Three years later he
was one of the supervisors of the assize of arms and
array in the county, and next year and in 1319 was
returned to Parliament as one of the knights of the
shire.* He died I June, 1321, holding fourteen
oxgangs and the serjeanty ; also the manor of
Walton by the free service of 6cv. a year. His
mother Alice was still living and in possession of
her dower lands ; Simon, his son and heir, who was
nearly seventeen years of age, had been married six
years before.4
Simon de Walton proved his age in 1326 and had
livery of his estates and office.5 Between 1339 and
1 343 he enfeoffed Gilbert and William de Haydock
of lands worth £20 a year, which Gilbert de Haydock
in 1357 recovered with damages against Simon de
Walton and Eleanor his wife.6 Already, however,
Robert son of William de Walton7 had in 1355
sued several persons for lands in Walton which he
claimed against Emma, wife of Richard de Halsall,
bastard ; she and her husband having, as he alleged,
no entry except by Simon de Walton, who had
WALTON
disseised Robert's father.8 He afterwards succeeded
to the manor and bailiwick, and lived until the
beginning of 1400 ; John de Walton, his son and
heir, being then sixteen years of age.9
The heir's claim was impugned by Robert de
Fazakerley and Ellen his wife, eldest daughter of
Robert de Walton, who alleged bastardy. In
August, 1412, Robert with a hundred others came in
warlike array to the manor of Walton and dispossessed
John de Walton, his wife and children, taking away
all the goods and chattels there.10 Sir Thomas
Gerard and others were commissioned to expel the
evildoers and make inquiry," and in 1418 the sheriff
was directed to make proclamation that Sir John de
Stanley, Robert de Fazakerley and others, under
penalty of £100, should, by authority of Parliament,
suffer John de Walton to occupy peacefully his manor
of Walton.12 The dispute was not settled until
1426-7, when a third part of the manor was awarded
to Robert de Fazakerley and Ellen his wife in lieu
of her marriage portion.13 Thomas de Walton suc-
ceeded his father John about 1450—1, and his son,
Roger de Walton, was the last of the name to possess
the manor."
Roger had issue two daughters — Elizabeth, who
married Richard Crosse of Liverpool, and Margaret,
who married William Chorley, of Chorley ; they
1 See the inquest of William de Walton,
below ; and Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 35 ;
There are charters by Simon de Walton
from 1326 to 1344 in Kuerden, iii, W
John de Walton proved his age
and had livery by writ dated 16 Mar.
Maud, Lady Lovell, held it of the king in
1423 by fealty only ; Lanes. Inij. f.m.
(Chet. Soc.), ii, i. Here, as elsewhere,
the carls of Derby succeeded the Lovells,
and their superior lordship was still recog-
he granted to Alan, son of John le
Norreys, senior, land in the Breck ; and
ten years later he confirmed to the same
Alan land which he had acquired from
Robert del Edge, the latter holding it by
had been granted to Robert de Heath-
cote; Pal. of Lane. Warrants, I Hen. IV,
10 Early Chancery Proc. bdle. 6, n.
48 ; Ellen de Fazakerley claimed by
Lancs.'and c'he's.)" u^ &
« Final Cone, ii, 14.
» Palgrave, Part. Writ,, ii (3), 1576;
Pink and Beavan, Part. Rep. of Lanes.
17, 19.
* Writ of Diem el. extr. 7 June,
1321 ; Chanc. Inq. p.m. 15 Edw. II,
n. 31 ; Escheator's Accts, 3/25. The
manor of Walton was held of the king
in chief, by reason of the lands of Robert
Walton, in 1314-15 ; Norris D. (B.M.)
n. 50-56.
6 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 5, m. 4 ;
many others of Walton, Fazakerley,
West Derby, and Liverpool, were joined
as defendants ; the damages were fixed at
^35913.. 4^. Eleanor was the daughter
of Matthew de Haydock; see Raines
MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxxviii, 253.
7 Robert's father was probably brother
by her father before John's birth ; the
Henry de Walton, and Margaret, bastard'
daughter of Robert de Walton and after-
wards wife of Henry le Norreys.
For earlier proceedings between the
parties in 1406 see Dep. Keeper', Rep.
xxxii, App. ;, 7.
"Towneley MS. CC. (Chet. Lib.),
n. 76.
worth nothing beyond reprises. There
were 88 acres of land in demesne, worth
£4 51. 4</. ; 12 acres of demesne meadow,
son of William de Walton was one of a
number of defendants in a plea concerning
land in Walton ; Duchy of Lane. Assize
In 1423 it was found that John de
Walton held the manor of Lady Lovell
by the service of 401. yearly ; Lanes. Inq.
ture, worth \kd. ; a windmill and a
watermill, worth 401. ; 4 messuages and
Nicholas son of William de Walton
two-thirds of the full amount due from
Walton.
5 acres of land demised to divers tenants
for terms of years, worth 55. ; of free
rents of divers free tenants, 44*. io^</. ;
and the render of one barbed arrow and
two roses yearly.
The widow is called Anilla in Cal. of
Close, 1318-23, p. 468.
8 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4, m. 17 ;
Dip. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 335.
The jury called to try the plea was dis-
charged because the wife of William de
Liverpool (who was the sheriff's clerk
and had arraigned the panel) was a kins-
woman of Robert de Walton ; Duchy of
Ches.), 36. In 1429 John de Walton of
Walton, 'yeoman,' and his sons Thomas,
Nicholas, and James, with other yeomen
and knaves of Walton, were indicted
by Thomas Bridges, of Fazakerley, for
waylaying him at Fazakerley with in-
tent to kill him, and for wounding
.erjeanty of the wapentake, except dower,
« Towneley MS. DD (in the posses-
Plea R. 2, m. 9; Kuerden MSS iii,
•who was to render yearly to the ex-
20 marks.
» Cal. of Clou, 1323-27, p. 456. He
held the manor of Walton, except 6 ox-
gang., by the yearly service of 601.;
Rentals and Surv. n. 379, m. 12. An
extent made in 1324 states that 'Simon
•on of William de Walton had six oxgangs
in Gildhouses in Walton, and four in
Great Crosby by the service of grand
serjeanty, to wit, by being master bailiff
in the wapentake of West Derby ' ; Dods.
MS. cxxxi, fol. 35*.
3
found that he held the manor of Wal-
ton of the king in chief (the Holland
intermediate manor being ignored) ; three
oxgangs in Thingwall, four oxgangs in
Walton and Newsham ; also 20 acres in
Woolton of the prior of St. John by a
service of 6s. »a. yearly ; he died 8 Mar.
1399-1400.
The writ to the chancellor to take the
oath of Emma, widow of Robert de
Walton, that she would not marry with-
out licence, and to deliver her her dower,
was dated 8 Jan. 1401-2; Add. MS.
32108, n. 1493.
25
11 Chorley Surv. p. 37. A Thomas de
Walton alias Thomas Crosse, son and
heir of John de Walton of Eccleston,
granted to Sir Richard de Molyneux of
Sefton all his lands, &c., in Walton in
1434; Croxteth D. Bb. i, 13.
Roger Walton of Walton, Elizabeth
widow of Thomas Walton, and Roger
Fazakerley, late of West Derby, were de-
fendants in a suit respecting damage to
the turbary at Aintree brought about 1460
by Sir Thomas Harrington ; Pal. of Lane.
PleaR. 21, m. 1 1 d.
4
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
divided their two-thirds of the manor equally, so that
the lords became Crosse, Chorley, and Fazakerley.1
Richard Crosse left a son Roger,
who died in 1530, holding
lands in Walton of the king, as
well as other estates.* Roger
and his brothers all dying with-
out issue, their mother's third
of the manor was divided be-
tween their sisters Blanche and
Margaret. The latter married
George Garston of Walton,'
and dying childless, the other
sister and her heirs had the
whole share.
Blanche Crosse married Roger
Breres.4 Their son is said to
have been Lawrence Breres, who in giving evidence
at West Derby in 1570 described himself as fifty-
four years of age.5 He died in 1584, holding
various lands in Walton and Fazakerley of the queen
by a rent of 2O/., i.e. a third of that due from the
whole of Walton. Roger, his son and heir, was forty-
nine years of age.6 This son survived his father only
about nine years, his heir being his son Lawrence, ten
years old.7 Lawrence Breres also was short-lived,
dying in 1612, and leaving a son and heir Roger, aged
nine years.8
The family adhered in the main to the Roman Catho-
lic faith, and Roger Breres, as a convicted recusant, paid
CROSS* or LIVERPOOL.
Quarterly gules and or,
in the Jint and fourth
quarters a crest potent
argent.
double to the subsidy in 1628 ;s he appears, never-
theless, to have escaped the attentions of the Common-
wealth authorities, and was still living in 1665, when
a pedigree was recorded at the visitation. His eldest
son Lawrence was then dead without issue, the heir
being a younger son Robert, who had married a
daughter of John Molyneux of New Hall in West
Derby.10 Robert Breres was reckoned among the
gentry of the parish in 1688," but in his will dated
April, 1708, is described as 'of
Wigan.' " In this he mentions
Roger his son and heir, whose
wife's name was Bridget, and
who had two children, Law-
rence and Catherine. These
last, in 1730, mortgaged Wal-
ton Old Hall to Thomas Moss
of Liverpool, and subsequently
to Nicholas Fazakerley, who in
1 746 purchased it," no doubt
as agent for John Atherton.14
John's grandson, John Joseph
Atherton, sold it about 1804
to Thomas Leyland, banker, of Liverpool.15 It
descended like the other Leyland properties.16 The
hall has lately been pulled down.
The Chorleys' third part of the manor descended
with the Chorley estate until 1715, when, being for-
feited for Richard Chorley's participation in the re-
bellion it was sold to Abraham Crompton,17 whose
1 See the pedigrees in the Visit, of
lands in Adlington, Ditton, Knowsley,
Roger's only daughter, mortgaged the Old
ley, 72 ; and Chorley Sur-v. I.e., where
it is stated that the deed of partition wat
dated 4 July, 1494.
» Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. vi, n. 18.
In 1509 Roger, son and heir of Richard
Breres, dated 14 Aug. 1584, was proved
on the 2/th ; in it he mentions Margaret
his wife, who was widow of Richard Sandi-
ford ; her will was proved in 1594.
7 Ibid, xvii, n. 34.
roll of George II). On 31 Oct. 1730,
Lawrence Breres of Walton, gent, leased
the Old Hall to Thomas Cotham ; it it
described as ' late in the tenure of Roger
Briers, deceased, father of the said Law-
etc., in Walton and Adlington received
from his mother Elizabeth, one of the
daughters and co-heirs of Roger Walton,
Chcs.}, i, 23 I ; the two oxgangs, one-third
of the ancient six, are duly mentioned.
His will is recited in full ; in failure of
was another mortgage, to Nicholas Faza-
kerley (5th roll of George II) ; and an-
other in 1740 (ijth roll) ; then sale in
Crosse, chaplain, his brother, for life, and
then to Robert, William, and Richard,
other brothers ; Crosse D. (Trans. Hist.
Soc.),n. 171.
3 Ibid. n. 179, 1 80. In the pedigrees
in the Vita, of 1613 the facts are confused
(Chet. Soc.), 93, 95.
4 In 1515 an agreement was made be-
tween Richard Crosse and Roger Breres,
'yeoman and draper,' concerning the
latter's marriage with Richard's daughter
his brothers Edward and Robert. He died
at Orrell near Wigan, 4 Nov. 1612.
9 Norris D. (B.M.).
I" Dugdale, Vitit. (Chet. Soc.), 59.
» Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.),
194, 195. A lease of land by him is in
Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 172.
« Payne, Rec. of Engl. Catholics, 136.
Robert's wife at this time was named
Elizabeth.
In 1716, Lawrence Breres, a priest, had
an annuity of £20 out of the Walton Hall
14 Enfield, Liverpool, 113; Gregson,
Fragments, 142. The will of John
Atherton was proved in 1768, and that of
his son John in 1789.
The younger John Atherton entered
St. John's Coll. Camb. as a fellow-com-
monerin 1756, aged eighteen ; Admissions
(ed. R. F. Scott), iii, 150. He was high
sheriff in 1780; P.R.O. List, 74. See
also Picton, Liverpool, ii, 154.
« Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1870), ii, 285.
Thomas Leyland, the founder of Leyland
surname has many spellings ; Bryers is
common. Then in 1533 an agreement
was made between James Crosse, the half-
brother of Roger and John Crosse, and
the English monastery at Gravelines, also
had an annuity from it; ibid. 121.
Lawrence and Roger Breres are named in
the will of Jane Johnson of Great Crosby,
Liverpool, died in 1827, and has a monu-
ment in Walton church ; ibid. For an
account of him see Picton, Liverpool, ii,
141-3.
and Roger Breres and Blanche his wife, to
Breres her nieces (ibid. 151), they must
and Naylors ; see the account of Leyland
lands in dispute; ibid. n. 179.
6 Moore D. n. 635(1. The pedigree
in Dugdale, Vmt. (Chet. Soc.), 59, has
been followed rather than that of 1613
(p. 93), as agreeing better with the
facts as known. The parentage of Law-
rence Breres is not determined. He was
described as 'of Up-Walton ' in 1563;
Crosse D. n. 191.
his first marriage with her sister Mary ;
Dugdale, Vmt. 203.
The children of Robert and Elizabeth
Breres seem to have been — Thomas, born
1692; Bridget, 1693 ; Mary, 1696; and
Margery, 1698 ; Payne, op. cit. Bridget
Breres of Wigan, spinster, registered an
annuity of £10 in 1717 ; Engl. Catb. Non-
jurors, 152.
"Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1870), ii, 452 ;
the price paid was ,£5,550.
The Charley Sur-v. already quoted, gives
details of the Chorleys' estate in Walton
as it was about 1650, 33-55. Their
house was the Breck House, and particulars
are given of their dealings with it and the
demesne lands from 1494, as also of the
other tenements, though a portion is miss-
The Walton holding was described as five
messuages, four cottages, twelve gardens,
100 acres of land, 40 of meadow, 100 of
pasture, 200 of moor, moss, and turbary,
and 2ij</. of free rents. There were other
352) gives various particulars from the
deeds enrolled at Preston :
On 25 Sept. 1730, Lawrence Breres,
only son and heir of Roger Breres, de-
ceased, and Catherine Briers of Liverpool,
26
50-52 ; these were paid by Robert Mercer
of Rice Lane, on behalf of Lord Moly-
neux, qd. ; by Mr. Fazakerley of Spellow,
for Longworth's land, lod. ; by Thomas
Blackmore of Kirkdale, for Eyres' and
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
descendant Abraham Crompton died at Skerton in
1822, having dispersed most of the Walton estate.1
The Fazakerleys' third part
descended in that family until ____^_— — ,
the eighteenth century, when
it was sold to James, tenth earl
of Derby, and has since de-
scended with the earldom.8
In 1328 Richard de North-
brook granted his capital mes-
suage at Northbrook in Walton
to Thomas, son of Richard de
Molyneux of Sefton,3 and in
1382 Hugh de Ince of Wigan Argenti
released all his claim in the between thre
same place to Thomas de
Molyneux of Cuerdale." This
and other lands granted to younger branches of the
Sefton family 5 appear to have been purchased by
the head of the family, and were acquired in the fif-
teenth century by Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton,
with other small holdings in Walton.6 These were
afterwards reputed a manor.7
NEW SHAM with its fouroxgangs of land, was part
of the original grant to Waldeve de Walton, as already
CHORLEYOF CHORLEY.
ree cornflowers
slipped proper.
WALTON
stated.8 In the inquest taken after the death of John
Bolton of Newsham in 1 6 1 3 , it was found that he held
a messuage, with 30 acres of land, &c., of the
king in socage, and that Robert Bolton his son
was his next heir.9 Robert Bolton died 1 8 October,
1630, his son and heir John being only sixteen years of
age.10 The family appear to have adhered to the Roman
church or reverted to it, for in 1717 John Bolton
of Newsham within Walton, registered his entailed
estate as a ' Papist.' " Ten years later it is men-
tioned that his daughter had married a Mr. Moly-
neux." It was, perhaps, in this way that the estate
came into the possession of a family named Moly-
neux, one of whom, Thomas Molyneux, held it
a century ago and built the present Newsham house.
' In 1 846, owing to commercial reverses, the estate
was offered for sale and purchased by the Corpora-
tion of Liverpool for the sum of £80,000 ' ; 13 an
adjacent estate was also acquired, and eventually
both were laid out as public parks, Newsham House
being fitted up as a residence for the judges. Queen
Victoria resided there during her visit to Liverpool
in 1886.
SPELLOW gave its name to the family who re-
sided there in the fourteenth century ; u afterwards
Bootle's lands, 2d. ; and by Thomas
lands in the Huddefield to Henry de
Sir Richard de Molyneux ; ibid. B. iv, 29,
Meadow of Walton, for Wiswall's land \d.
Stonebridgeley and John the carpenter ;
34 i i, 17, 1 8.
An estimate of the enclosed lands and
ibid. Bb. iv, 21, 22.
The lands of Robert del Edge occur in
commons made in 1639 is also given, with
Nicholas del Sand of Crosby in 1348
1306, and of Alan del Edge in 1328;
'Near to Walton,' 555 acres in all;
from the high road in the east to the
Ches.), iii, 389 ; the jury could not state
'Near to Walton Breck,' 162 acres;
greens on the west ; this in the follow-
the tenure.
'Townfields,' 138 acres; 'Warbreck
ing year Alexander sold to Thomas de
" See note above. The ancient spelling
Fazakerley,' 365 acres— 1,304 acres in
6,7.
seventeenth centuries the initial was often
all. Of this Richard Chorley's share was
6 Ibid. Bb. i, 11-18, dated from 1429
dropped and the word became Ewzam,
328 acres, Robert Fazakerley's 179 acres,
to 1450 ; the lands had belonged to the
Ewsome, &c.
and Roger Breres' 162 acres. The rector
Bootle, Bullock, and Walhill families and
» Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
of Walton had 60 (for 62) , Lord Moly-
others.
and Ches.), i, 245. The land was held
neux 112, Richard Crosse 60, and fifteen
John son of William de Bootle ac-
' of the manor of East Greenwich,' so that
others smaller quantities. The commons
quired land here in 1363, and in 1406
it may have been in part the former hold-
included 50 acres in the Breck, 50 in War-
Joan widow of William de Bootle granted
ing of Birkenhead Priory. The priory's
Spellow, 4 in the Rakes at Walton town's
1443, Hugh son of John de Bootle of the
Pat. 4 & ; Phil, and Mary, pt. xii.
end, and i in the Laws in Walton ; also
Rice released all his claim in his father's
Robert Bolton of Newsham was buried
100 acres in Warbreck Moor and Faza-
lands to Sir Richard de Molyneux ; ibid.
at Walton, 18 Dec. 1593.
kerley ; excluding encroachments. The
Bb. iv, 25, 31; i, 15.
Catherine, daughter of Richard Moly-
of long measure, or about 3,340 statute
of the thirteenth century, when Henry, son
measure, as compared with 3,653, the
of Stephen Bullock, had a grant from the
Ralph Mercer of West Derby married
acreage of the two townships.
lord ; ibid, iv, 2. In 1 304 Robert son of
Robert Bolton of Newsham ; Dugdale,
1 Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1870), ii, 285.
» Enfield, Liverpool, 113.
Henry Bullock had a grant in the waste,
lately approved, from William, son of
Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 203, 197.
1° Towneley MS. C. 8, 13 (Chet. Lib.),
» Croxteth D. Bb. i, i. The reversion
Richard de Walton ; the boundaries men-
56. This John Bolton of Newsham is
of the dower of his mother Emmotta was
tion the old field of Elias Bullock by the
mentioned in the Charity Sur-v. of 1639,
included. Anilla, widow of William de
Outlane of the Overenesse and Quenilda's
p. 53, as holding 40 acres in Walton.
Walton, released all her claim in the same ;
croft ; the service was to be I2<J. a year ;
11 Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, p. 125; the
ibid. n. 2.
ibid. n. 3. A few months later, Roger de
value was £7° 5'-
« Ibid. Bb. i, 10.
Harbergh (? Harbreck) granted a parcel of
" N. Blundell's Diary, p. 229.
5 Simon son of William de Walton in
his land to Robert Bullock ; n. 4. William,
13 Picton, Liverpool, ii, 430.
1331 granted to Henry son of Richard de
son of Robert Bullock in 1321 granted to
14 Before 1 300, Richard, lord of Walton,
Walton, Margery his wife, and their heirs,
land called Huddefield ; ibid. Bb. iv, 14.
his father the lands received from William
de Walton ; n. 8. Three years later,. the
enfeoffed Richard son of Robert of 4 ox-
gangs of land called Spellow field, lying
Three years later, Walter de Sherualakes
same grantor gave lands to his brother
between Kunsacre and the ditch of Coles-
confirmed to Thomas de Penrith two
Richard and Margery his wife ; n. 10,11.
grave on the east and north, and the
messuages and a field called Huddefield,
Richard son of Robert Bullock also occurs
boundaries of Kirkdale and Bootle, with
and other lands, with housebotc, heybote,
&c., paying I d. rent to the chief lord, n. 1 6.
in 1334 ; n. 15. John Bullock, who had
children named Richard, Thomas, and
acquittance of pannage of his own and his
tenants' swine in the underwoods of
Simon de Walton confirmed this, n. 17.
In 1342 Thomas de Penrith and Richard
Margaret, appears in 1393-4 ; and it was
probably the last named Richard Bullock
Walton and of the multure of his house
in the mill of Walton ; Kuerden, ii, fol.
del Riding made a grant in Walton to
whose lands were sold in 1431 to Sir
243. The grantee is probably the Richard
Richard, son of Richard de Molyneux of
Richard de Molyneux ; ibid. K.. 5 ; B. i,
de Spellow who attested several local
deeds, one being dated 1284; Moore D.
Tfeom**, Peter, »nd Simon, the brothers
William de Walhill had lands in 1391,
n. 513, &c. William de Spellow, his son,
of Richard ; and Isabel, widow of Simon
de Walton released her claim to dower in
and Margery del Edge, his widow, sold
her lands in the Rice, by Small Breck
followed him, 1306; ibid. n. 511, &c. ;
Final Cone, i, 208 ; Assize R. 1 321, m. 8 d.
the same ; ibid. Bb. i, 3-5. Later in the
Moor, to William, son of John Rose, in
A John de Spellow occurs in 13615
same year Gilbert de Haydock leased
1439 ; and in 1450 William Rose sold to
Croxteth D. Bb. iv, 24.
27
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
escheating to the lord of Walton,1 it was acquired by
the Fazakerley family,2 and descended with their share
of the manor until 1728-9, becoming the property of
James, tenth earl of Derby.3
Among the earlier families may be named those ot
Hauerbergh, Quicke or Whike,4 Rice and Halsall.5
Thomas Harrison, of Walton, as a ' papist ' registered
an estate in lyiy.6 The land tax returns of 1785
show that there were then a large number of pro-
prietors ; the chief were the rector, John Atherton,
Abraham Crompton, Lord Derby, Howard,
and S. H. Fazakerley.
One of the notabilities of the village was John
Holt,7 schoolmaster, parish clerk, and antiquary, who
died in 1801.
An enclosure award for Walton-on-the-Hill and
Fazakerley was made in 1763.*
A local board was formed in 1863 9 and a school
board in i883.10 The township was incorporated
within the borough of Liverpool in 1895, when
three wards were assigned to it, each with an alder-
man and three councillors.
The parish church has been described already ; a
mission room in Rice Lane was opened in 1890. A
number of churches have been built in recent times
for the worship of the Established Church. These
are as follows :— Holy Trinity, Walton Breck, built
in 1847; patron, Mr. J. H. Stock. The old St.
Peter's, Aintree, at one time the Aintree cockpit, was
opened for service as an Episcopal chapel in 1 848, but
never consecrated. The present church was built in
1877 ; the rector of Sefton is patron, the marquis de
Rothwell having given a large contribution to the
building fund on that condition."
St. John the Evangelist's, Warbreck, was built in
1 88 1, an iron church having been used for ten
years.12 Emmanuel is a chapel of ease. The patronage
is in the hands of official trustees — the bishop and
archdeacon of Liverpool and the rector of Walton.
St. Margaret's, Belmont Road, a large and dignified
church of brick, was erected in 1873 ; the patronage
is vested in the Preston trustees.13 St. Luke the Evan-
gelist's, Spellow, dates from 1882, a temporary
building giving place to a permanent one in 1892;
the bishop of Liverpool collates. St. Simon and St.
Jude's, Anfield, is the result of work begun in a room
in Anfield House, since demolished, in 1883 ; an iron
church followed in 1884, and on the demolition of
St. Barnabas', Toxteth, the money received was
applied to the building of the church, which was con-
secrated in 1896. The patronage is vested in trustees.
The Wesleyan Methodists have several churches.
Kirkdale Chapel, in County Road, dates from 1880 ;
Anfield Chapel, in Oakfield Road, from 1885; and
Walton Chapel, in Rice Lane, from 1890. There are
others at Warbreck Moor, 1 899, and Cowley Road,
1903. In Anglesea Road is a preaching room. The
United Methodist Free Church has a school chapel,
built in 1890. The Primitive Methodists have
churches in Walton and Warbreck.
The Baptist church in Carisbrooke Road was
opened in 1879 ; that in Rice Lane in 1888.
In 1870 the Congregationalists began to conduct
services in an uninhabited house in Walton Park ; a
school chapel was opened in the following year, which
was enlarged in 1875. Services were also commenced
in a mission hall in Rice Lane in 1890."
In Walton Park the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists
have a church. For their English-speaking members
there are chapels in Spellow Lane and Breeze Hill.
The Presbyterian Church of England has Trinity
Church in Rice Lane, built in 1 898, the congregation
having been formed in 1881.
The provision possible after the Reformation for
Roman Catholics is unknown ; but as the three
squires, down to 1715 at least, and many of the
inhabitants 15 were numbered among them it is prob-
able that missionary priests were able to minister here
at intervals. A mission at Fazakerley was served from
Lydiate till the end of the eighteenth century. The
existing churches, however, are of recent foundation.
That of the Blessed Sacrament, Warbreck, originated
in 1872 in the saying of mass in a barn, generously
lent by a Protestant ; the church was opened on
Trinity Sunday, 1878. Work at St. Francis of
Sales' in Hale Road had an equally humble beginning,
a stable being used from 1883 to 1887, when a
school chapel was erected. All Saints', Walton Breck,
also a school chapel, was opened in iSSg.16
FAZAKERLEY
Fazakerley, 1321 ; Phesacrelegh, 1333.
In the thirteenth century Fazakerley was one of
the Walton town fields, adjoining which, as the wood-
lands were cleared, there grew up a hamlet and ulti-
mately a township. Extending about two miles in
each direction, this township has an area of 1,709
acres." It is separated from Walton by the brook
called Fazakerley or Tue Brook, and from West Derby
partly by Sugar Brook up to the point where it is
spanned by Stone bridge. At the junction of these
brooks on the border of Kirkby in the north-east the
1 In 1340 a messuage and ploughland
in Walton were in the king's hands, ow-
ing to the outlawry for felony of Thomas
de Spellow, who had held them of Simon
de Walton. After a year and a day had
elapsed Simon was put in seisin of the
same by the sheriff; Cal. of Close, 1339-
41, p. 552.
a It appears to have been part of the
third share of the manor given to Ellen,
wife of Robert de Fazakerley.
» Deed of sale by Robert Fazakerley
and others ; Knowsley muniments. The
property included Spellow House with
40 acres of land in Walton, and land in
Rosemary or Fazakerley Street and neigh-
bourhood in Liverpool. The name is
preserved by Spellow Lane, part of the
boundary between Kirkdale and Walton,
and by the railway station.
4 In 1292 Henry son of John de la
Wyke unsuccessfully claimed certain land
against Richard son of William, son of
William de Walton, asserting the defen-
dant entered into the land not through
John Gernet but through his grandfather ;
Assize R. 408, m. 31.
5 No detailed accounts can be given of
these families, but a few particulars may
be gained from the notes. For a case in
1334 involving many members of the Rice
family see Coram Reg. R. 297, m. 3 d.
6 Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, III.
7 A biography with portrait is given in
Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 57.
8 Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 47. The Act was passed
in 1759.
• Land. Gaz. 10 March, 1863.
10 Ibid. 2 Jan. 1883.
28
11 Information of Rev. W. Warburton,
formerly incumbent.
" For district see LonJ. Ga*. 2 Sept.
1 88 1 ; and for endowment 1 1 Aug. 1882,
and 8 June, ,883.
18 Ibid. 20 Oct. 1874; endowment,
12 Nov. 1875, and 18 Feb. 1881. The
first incumbent, the Rev. John Sheep-
shanks, was appointed bishop of Norwich,
1893.
14 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 216.
u For a list of recusants in 1641 see
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 237,
and for the numbers in 1717 and 1767
ibid, icviii, 215. Spellow House had a
chapel and was ' full of hiding-places ' ;
Gillow, Bihl. Diet, of Engl. Caths. ii, 233.
" Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1901.
» 1,7 10, including four of inland water,
Census Report, 1901.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
lowest level, about 50 ft. above the Ordnance datum,
is reached ; the greatest height is about looft., on the
south side of the township. The country is extremely
flat and treeless, with nothing to recommend it to the
passer-by, for it seems to be a district of straight
lines, devoid of any beauty. Rather bare fields on the
south and east under mixed cultivation give some
variety to the pasture land. The geological forma-
tion is triassic, the southern part of the township con-
sisting of pebble beds, and the northern part of the
upper mottled sandstone of the bunter series. The
population in 1901 numbered 1,887.
Agriculture is the chief occupation, but the jam
works established here have attained considerable mag-
nitude, and on the Aintree border have given name to
a little town known as Hartley's Village.
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's railway
from Liverpool to Manchester crosses the township with
WALTON
The cottage homes for the children of the West
Derby Union are situated near the station. Harbreck
House has been transformed into an infectious diseases
hospital by the Liverpool Corporation. The Everton
Burial Board have a cemetery,
and the Jewish connexion have
a small burial-ground on the
Walton border. The West
Derby sewage farm occupies the
eastern edge of the township.
The township was included in
the City of Liverpool in 1905.
The early history
M4NOR of the manor is
obscure, Henry and
Richard de Fazakerley, the first
of the local family on record,
appearing towards the end of
a station called Fazakerley, near which is a junction the thirteenth century.1 Richard had thr
ith the branch line to the Liverpool docks. Here are
the company's signal works. The Cheshire Lines Com-
Henry, Richard, and Robert ; * and Henry's son
Robert de Fazakerley was lord of the manor for
littee's railways from Liverpool to Southport and to about forty years.3 After his death
the Mersey docks also pass, through the township. is again uncert;
1 Henry de Fazakerley in 1276 re- from Ellen daughter of William, son of
covered possession of half a messuage, Richard de Fazakerley, of land called
a horse-mill, and 15 acres of land the Twafalward, lying by the field of
in Walton ; Assize R. 405, m. 3 d. Henry Bullock and touching the brook ;
un. Robert de Fazakerley, who
ibid. R. 6, m. yd. In this indecisive
state of the evidence it can only be re-
marked that Hugh de Fazakerley seems
to be the next important member of the
Assize R. 408, m. 61 </, 23. Richard
sons of Gilbert, son of Robert de Faza-
to 1359; Dep. Keeper* Rep. xxxii, App.
PP- 336> 339- In '3°° he was de-
Walton, to Robert Cawdran of land in
Henry de Fazakerley, of other deeds ;
n. 19, 2J.
in Walton brought by John son of John
del Bridge ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 8,
ness to a grant by his son Henry to
Robert his brother, with various easements
in 'the vill of Walton ' ; ibid. fol. i 58*.
3 Henry made grants to his brothers.
To Richard he gave land adjoining the
field of Fazakerley and with housebote
and heybote and quittance of pannage in
the wood of Walton ; Harl. MS. 2042,
fol. 154*. To Robert he made two
grants ; one of these was in Fazakerley
in the Little Ley, from the lane to the
ditch of the Bancroft, with easements in
Walton; ibid. fol. 155, 155*; see also
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 243.
while as early as 1315 he gave a portion
of meadow to Richard son of John son
of Margery ; Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 154*.
In 1323 a deed by him mentions his son
Richard, who was himself a grantor in
1329; fol. 156, 1 55i. A son Henry also
occurs in 1329; fol. 156. Another of
John de Taylor and Henry de Fazakerley,
2491. She was perhaps the Isabel,
widow of John de Toxteth, who in 1419
was bound to Robert and John de Faza-
kerley ; ibid. n. 2831.
In 1 376 Thomas de Fazakerley acquired
One of Henry son of Robert's grants,
made in 1339, is printed in Crosse D.
(Tram. Hist. Soc.}, n. 50.
In 1 344 John son of Richard de Thing-
which Roger dc Fazakerley was one
plaintiff, a messuage and 80 acres of land
and wood in Walton were secured to
Nicholas de Farington and Katherinc his
Margery de Fazakerley ; Harl. MS. 2042,
Fazakerley was a plaintiff concerning land
kerley purchased lands in Walton in
granted to John son of Margery, Allys-
croft in Fazakerley, one end of it touch-
ing the lane ; fol. 156. To John son of
Richard de Fazakerley, Richard son of
Assize R. 2, m. j d. In another case at '
the same time Richard son of Henry, son
of Robert de Fazakerley, was plaintiff;
ibid. m. iij. Three years later Robert de
cerned in 1384 in a fine concerning the
lands of Richard de Halsall and Emma hi>
wife ; ibid. bdle. l, m. 21. Thomas de
Fazakerley had licence for an oratory
John had several sons. Richard was the
principal ; he gave to his son John in
1339 land between the North brook and
the land of another son, William ; fol. 1 54.
Alan son of John, son of Margery, had
grants from Richard Cordcwan and Robert
son of John in 1325; fol. 155*. In
1349 John son of Richard gave all his
hereditary lands in the vill of Fazakerley,
with liberties in the vill of Walton, to
Henry son of John de Acres ; fol. 1 54.
These charters contain a number of local
names ; e.g. Fernicroft, Woodflat, Rayde-
gate, Fcdiwell, the Aldherth, Henheyde,
Old Orchard ; also names of other ten-
ants— Harebergh, Kekewich, Thornton,
and others. A charter of this branch
(1325) is printed in Tram. Hi,t. Soc. (New
Ser.), i, 161.
Henry son of Margery had a grant
Richard son of John was one of the de-
fendants ; ibid. R. 4, m. 20. Henry son
of Robert took action against the same
defendant in the following year ; ibid. R. 5,
m. I ; and at the same time another Henry,
the son of Richard, was plaintiff against
John son of Richard, son of John ; ibid.
R. 5, m. 14 d.
Next appears Hugh de Fazakerley (or
several of the name). In the year just
named, 1356, Hugh son of Robert, son
of Henry de Fazakerley, brought a suit
against Robert son of William de Walton ;
ibid. R. 5, m. 21. In the next year Hugh
son and heir of Richard, son and heir of
Robert was plaintiff; ibid. R. 6, m. 2 ;
and Henry (? Hugh) son of Richard, the
son and heir of Robert de Fazakerley,
made a claim upon Dionysia the daughter
of William son of Richard de Fazakerley;
Lich. Reg. v, fol. 35*. The same or *
later Thomas was godfather to Thomas,
le Norreys of West Derby in 1402 ;,
Lanes. Inf. p. m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 1 1. The
Richard de Halsall just named had a son.
Gilbert mentioned in local deeds.
A prominent member of the family is
Roger de Fazakerley, to whom and to
Joan his wife letters of protection were
granted by the duke of Lane, in 1382 ;
Dep. Keeper t Rep. xl, App. p. 521.
In the same year the bishop of Lichfield
allowed him to have divine service in
every oratory within his manors in the
diocese; Lich. Reg. v, fol. 356. This
Roger and Joan occur discreditably in the
story of the Lathoms ; see Lanes. Inf. p. «..
(Chet. Soc.), i, 18-20. Thomas de Faza-
kerley was one of Roger's sureties ia
1384; ibid, i, 21.
29
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
married Ellen de Walton and claimed her father's
manor, obtaining a third part, emerges in the first
quarter of the fifteenth century ; l and later, Thomas
son and heir of Roger.8 The visitations of 1613 and
1664 place on record a few generations.3 The family
adhered to the Roman Catholic faith at the Reforma-
tion,* and to the king's side in the civil war, Nicholas
Fazakerley losing his life in the cause at Liverpool in
1 643.* The family estates were sold by the Parlia-
ment,' though probably much was recovered. Spellow
and the third part of Walton manor were alienated
about 1726.' Fazakerley, however, was retained or
recovered, and in the eighteenth century the family is
stated to have conformed to the Established Church.
The estates passed to John Hawarden, who took
the name of Fazakerley,8 and afterwards to Henry
Gillibrand, of Chorley, who took the name of
Hawarden Fazakerley ; his son Henry dying childless,
the daughters succeeded. The eldest, Matilda, married
in 1863 Jocelyn Tate Westby, of Mowbreck, who as-
sumed the name of Fazakerley-Westby.9 The manor
of Fazakerley, however, had been sold about 1820. In
1825 the hall was the residence of Richard Bullin,
nephew of Thomas Leyland, of the adjacent Walton
Hall ; 10 these properties have since descended together.
The Molyneux family of Sefton " claimed a manor
here in virtue of their holding ; other families of the
fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries which may be
1 See the account of Walton. Robert
de Fazakerley occurs as a witness to local
charters. In 1411, when Thomas de
Fazakerley made a feoffment of certain
lands in the township both Robert and
John de Fazakerley attested ; Harl. MS.
2042, fol. 159.
In a suit of 1593 the descent is thus
given : Roger Fazakerley, son and heir of
Ellen, daughter of Robert de Walton— s.
Thomas — s. Nicholas — s. Roger — s. Ro-
at the Harkirk in 1665 ; Foley, Rec. S. J.
vi, 302,320.
* This statement is quoted by Bishop
Challoner and Mr. Gillow from Lord
Castlemain's Cath. Apology. Liverpool
were concerned in deeds regarding the
father's lands ; Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.),
iii, 222, 196, 232, quoting 8th and 9th
Rolls of Geo. I, and 1st and 2nd of Geo. II
at Preston.
about the end of April or beginning of
May, 1643 (Picton, Memorials, i, 90);
and it will be seen from the dates given
at the visit, that Robert Fazakerley died
before this date, and Nicholas after it.
his will dated i Oct. 1730, left the estates
to John, eldest son of Bryan Hawarden,
late of Liverpool, mariner, deceased, and
his heirs male ; with remainders to William
Hawarden, brother of John ; to the heirs
»'ln'i47'6, Thomas son and heir of the
late Roger Fazakerley of West Derby re-
leased to William son of John Lightwood
of Tattenhall all his right to the lands
of John Cropper within the lordship of
Fazakerley ; Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 159.
Nicholas Fazakerley was reckoned
among the gentry of the hundred in 1512.
8 Printed by the Chet. Soc. ; Vis. of
1613, p. 78; Vis. of 1664-5, p. 108.
The succession given is : Roger, Robert,
Nicholas, Robert (died 5 April, 1643),
Nicholas (aged 1 1 in 1613, and died Oct.
1643), Nicholas (aged 28 in 1664), who
married Winefride, daughter of Edward
Tarleton of Aigburth.
The only inquisition remaining is that
concerning Robert, the second in this
descent. He died 13 Feb. 1589-90, his
treason by the Act of 1652 ; Index of
Royalists (Index Soc.), 42.
Petitions were made on behalf of
Nicholas Fazakerley, the heir, described as
of Spellow House, being then about sixteen
years of age ; as also on behalf of Cathe-
rine his mother, Anne the widow of
Robert his grandfather, and Margaret, an
unmarried sister of Robert. Roger Breres
of Walton, who had married a daughter of
Robert Fazakerley, deposed that Nicholas
and his brothers Robert and Richard were
all dead ; Robert the father had died at
Chester about 1643, Nicholas at Liverpool
within a year after, Robert the younger in
the Indies, and Richard in Ireland about
1 642. A settlement of December, 1638,
in relation to the marriage of Nicholas
son of Robert was made of the capital
of Nicholas Fazakerley, deceased ; and to
of Nicholas Fazakerley. John Hawarden
was to take the name of Fazakerley ;
Piccope MSS. ii, 3 ; iii, ,96, 242, 240,
quoting from Roman Catholic deeds en-
rolled at Preston.
From the Ormskirk Registers it appears
that John Hawarden Fazakerley, gent, in
Sept. 1748, married Anne Parr of Orms-
kirk, by licence ; a son Robert was buried
I June, 1751. The curious marriage
covenant is in Piccope MSS. iii, 354.
In Ormskirk church is a laudatory
epitaph commemorating Anne, widow of
John Hawarden Fazakerley, erected in
1800 by her son Samuel Hawarden Faza-
kerley of Fazakerley.
» Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Engl. Cath. ii,
232. 233-
These Gillibrands were of the same
family, Thomas Hawarden, who died in
1 787, having taken the surname of Gilli-
brand. His grandson Henry took the
seven years of age. The manor of Walton
and Fazakerley was held of Henry earl of
Derby in free socage ; viz. by fealty and
the yearly rent of 2OJ. ; thus Fazakerley
Spellow House, and all the manors and
lands of Robert Fazakerley in Fazakerley,
Walton, Liverpool, and Wigan, including
Spellow mill ; a considerable number of
rent is the due proportion of the old
thanage rent of Walton. There were also
lands in West Derby, the family being
sometimes called ' of West Derby,' held
Bedford, Pemberton, Wigan, and Liver-
Seizure of Convicted Recusants were pro-
duced, and showed that Robert Fazaker-
ley's estates were under sequestration
the will of Samuel Hawarden Fazakerley;
Piccope MSS. Pedigrees, ii, 339.
Some deeds of a minor family are given
by Kuerden, ii, fol. 228*. In 1513
Richard, son and heir of Peter Fazakerley
third of her husband's estate, which had
his laXnds , at the nme time he seems to
settlement of his estates in 1595 ; Pal. of
virtue of a deed of 1609, had a right to
Rose of West Derby. He left five daugh-
was buried at Walton l9March, 1611-12.
A settlement of Robert Fazakerley' s
estate, but being a popish recusant it was
ordered that she should only have a third
Stockley and lands in Fazakerley ; they
were : Ellen, wife of Richard Longworth ;
made by fine in 1632 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet
of F. bdle. 119, m. 39.
4 Nicholas Fazakerley, under the alias
of Ashton, was admitted to the English
College at Rome in 1623, giving his age
posed of for the public use. The docu-
ments are given in Royalist Camp. P. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 295-313.
^ In 1717 Robert Fazakerley of Wal-
ton registered an estate at Liverpool,
Margaret, wife of William Wolfall ; and'
Grace, wife of Richard Stockley.
There was also a family known as
'Fazakerley of the Clock house,' from
their residence on the border of Croxteth
His brother Thomas, who
1629, aged 1 8, under the same aliai,
stated that he was ' born and brought up
in Lancashire, his parents were of high
family and always Catholics. His friends
were likewise of the upper class, some
being Catholics and some heretics. He
had made his humanities at St. Omer's
for five years.' He was made priest and
returned to England in 1636, being buried
£,87 io,.ioi4, charged with six guineas
to his sister Anne ; Estcourt and Payne,
Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 112.
At the beginning of 1723 Robert Faza-
kerley of Liverpool, and Robert Fazakerley,
merchant, his son and heir-apparent, mort-
gaged Spellow House and lands for £800
to Mary Richmond, widow; and in 1726
and 1727 Robert, the son, and Sarah, the
widow, of the elder Robert Fazakerley,
30
West Derby.
10 Baines, Lanes. Dir. ii, 713.
" See the account of Walton. The
Molyneux holding was obtained chiefly by
purchase from the Bullock family. In
1321 Robert Bullock granted all his lands
in Walton and Fazakerley to William his
son ; another son Richard is mentioned ;
Croxteth O.K.. i. Alan de Whike granted
in 1323 part of his land in Hey in Faza-
WEST DERBY HUNDRED WALTON
This township has a frontage to the Mersey of
nearly a mile and a half in length and extends
landward about two miles. The area is 1,207
acres.9 The land rises from the river eastward,
until near Walton an elevation of 150 ft. is reached!
The population in 1901 was 58,556. There is
scarcely a square yard of ground left that is not
covered with crowded streets, railways, timber-yards,
canal wharfs, and, last but not least, extensive docks
and quays. A forest of masts and funnels takes
the place of green trees, and solid stone walls re-
flect themselves in the River Mersey instead of
Emmanuel church was in 1902 licensed for service grassy slopes. Huge warehouses rise up on every
under the rector of Walton. side. The hum of machinery mingles with the
D^^TT T? cries of flocks °f seagulls and the rush of passing and
iJUUlivlL repassing vessels of all descriptions. The North Wall
Boltelai, Dom. Bk. ; Bode, 1212, 1237; Botull, lighthouse and the battery are conspicuous objects
1306; Bothull, 1332 ; Bothell, 1348. along the river wall.
named were the Bridges,1 Tarletons,8 Stananoughts,3
and Whitfields.1 The ancient family of Stonebridgeley
appears to have died out,5 but the place of this name
was known in i639-6 Edward Fazakerley of Mag-
hull, and Robert Turner of Fazakerley, were among
the church surveyors of 1650.' As 'papists' Percival
and Thomas Rice of Liverpool, and William Harrison
of Rainford, registered estates here in 1 7 1 7.'
Samuel Hawarden Fazakerley, John Fazakerley.
John Atherton, and Richard Higginson were the chief
contributors to the land tax of 1785.
A ichoolhouse was built in 1725 by Samuel Turner.
kerley to Henry son of William Bullock,
at a yearly rent of zd. ; with remainders
to Thomas and Richard, brothers of
Henry ; ibid. K, 2.
John Bullock in 1394 made grants of
his lands in Walton and Fazakerley to hi.
may have been more than one person.
More than fifty years elapses, and then in
1485 Robert Bridge arranged for the suc-
cession of his lands to his son John and
his grandson Robert ; ». 32, 33. Richard
and Roger, sons of Robert Bridge, occur
Tarleton, who died 6 March, 1631-2,
held a messuage and lands in Walton and
Fazakerley of Robert Fazakerley ; also a
messuage and land in Hardshaw of
Richard Egerton ; Richard Tarleton, his
son and heir, was 41 years of age ;
Towneley MS. C 8, 13, p. 1181.
The Tarletons of Aigburth had lands
in Fazakerley ; Charley Sur-v. 53.
• Thomas Stananought, who died
16 March, 1634-5, held a messuage and
lands in Fazakerley of Robert Fazakerley;
K., 4, 5. John Bullock, perhaps the same
person, enfeoffed William del Heath of
all his lands in Fazakerley within the vill
of Walton in 1420; these were sold in
family living at that time was Henry
Bridge, who had married Joan, widow of
Richard Makin of Litherland, n. 36, 39.
Joan, Margery, and Cecily, daughters
Bullock releasing all his right in the same ;
ibid. K, 10-14. Previously Robert the
Hunt and Emmota his wife, daughter of
Richard Bullock, had sold to Sir Richard
Walton and Fazakerley in 1602 from
Anne, their father's widow. It appeared
that Robert Bridge had in the time of
Hen. VIII settled them on his son and
years ; Towneley MS. C 8. 13, p. .075.
Thomas Stananought, as a convicted re-
cusant, paid double to the subsidy in I 628 ;
Norris D. (B. M.}. Henry Stananought of
Walton, which had descended to her from
her father ; ibid. K, 8 and 9, dated 1423
and 1433. Roger Norris and Alice his wife,
probably another daughter, in 1436 sold
lands formerly Richard Bullock's to the
thus :— s. Henry— s. Richard— s. Henry,
plaintiffs' father ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R.
290, m. 15.
In 1354 Hawise, widow of John del
Bridge, claimed dower in lands held by
lands which had been sequestered for re-
cusancy ; Col. of Com. for Comf. iv, 2861.
4 Ralph Whitfield and Catherine his
wife, with David their son and Ellen his
wife, joined in a sale of land in Faza-
In 1446 Sir Richard assigned lands in
Great Sankey, Fazakerley, and Walton, to
trustees for the benefit of Katherinc
Aughton; ibid. K, 16-18.
In the inquisition taken after the death
of Sir Richard Molyneux in 1623, the
manor of Walton and Fazakerley is named
among his possessions ; Lanes. Inq. f. m.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 389.
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 3, m. iij. John
son of John del Bridge appears as plaintiff
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 5 1, m. 4. John
Whitfield of the Diglake occurs in 1639 ;
Edward Bridge, described as 'gentle-
man,' died 20 Dec. 1626, holding a mes-
suage and land of Robert Fazakerley ; his
son and heir Richard was 26 years of
age ; Towneley MS. C 8, 1 3 (Chet. Lib.),
p. 54. Anne Bridge, widow, appears on the
of Roby was the guardian of Nicholas Faza-
kerley in 1652 ; Royalist Camp. P. ii, 298.
It appears from fines and inquisitions
that the Longworths, Roses of Walton,
and Molyneuxes of Melling, had lands
here ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 41,
no connected account can be given of
them ; they probably took their name
from the bridge over the Alt just at the
border of Fazakerley and West Derby.
Kuerden has preserved a number of
their charters (vol. iii, W, 10, n), and
among them the following : (i) William
son of Richard de Walton about 1300
(New Ser.), xiv, 237. Richard Bridge of
Fazakerley held 8 acres there in 1639;
Charley Sur-v. 53.
» Henry de Tarleton held land here in
1413, when he made a grant to Richard
Bullock ; and in 1417 when he exchanged
an acre with the same Richard ; Croxteth
D. K, 6, 7. From a release of John Bui-
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 43 ; these
last were perhaps the same as Ralph
Pooley's estate in 1594 ; Duchy of Lane.
Inq. p.m. xvi, ». 19.
5 Thomas and William de Stone-
bridgeley occur among witnesses to local
deeds about 1300, and Henry in 1342.
Thomas de Stonebridgeley had a suit con-
exchange for those lands which William
son of Henry de Walton had given to
John the chaplain, reserving a fee for the
chaplain of St. Paulinus. (9) In 1308
he gave to John del Bridge and Hawisc
his wife some land newly approved,
(to) This John in I 325-6 granted certain
had before assigned to'his brother William.
(14) John the elder, son of John del
Bridge, in 1 3 27 gave to John the younger,
his brother, lands in Fazakerley already
granted by their father to John and
William, brothers of the grantor. (20)
John del Bridge and Juliana his wife were
enfeoffed of certain lands in 1 340, with
remainder to their son Adam ; see (24).
(25) Thomas son of William del Bridge
next appears, in 1385. The name occurs
down to 1431, n. 27, 29, 31, but there
acquired part of the holding of Richard
Bullock ; ibid. K., 27.
Roger, son and heir of Henry Tarleton
of Fazakerley, in 1504-5 granted to his
mother Elizabeth all the lands in Faza-
kerley and Rainford he had by her grant
for her life, and then to Thomasine,
daughter of Robert Parr of Rainford, for
her life ; Kuerden MSS. iii, W. 1 1, «. 34.
A later Henry Tarleton occurs in 1536 ;
ibid. m. 38.
Richard Tarleton died about 1558,
William of the same in 1356 ; Duchy of
Lane. Assize R. 5, m. 14 d.
* 'Stoneberley' 20 acres of land 'in
or near to Fazakerley' ; Charley Surv. 53.
7 Common-wealth Church Sur-v. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 80.
8 Engl. Catb. Nan-jurors, 136, 150.
Percival Rice, described as 'Doctor of
Physic' or as 'of the city of London,
apothecary,' with his brother Thomas, is
described as holding Fazakerley Hall and
estate in fee, the value being £82 i y. 60.
&c.; the wardship of William, his son and
heir, was given to William Lathom ;
Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. xxiii, 216.
William Tarleton in 1593 purchased
lands in Walton and Fazakerley from
Ralph Mercer and Ellen his wife ; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 55, m. 12. William
ibid. 122. Their ' hall ' was afterwards
sold ; Piccope MSS. iii.
'The Census Report of 1901 gives
I)576 acres, including 1 1 1 of inland water.
The difference is due to dock extension.
There are also 392 acres of tidal water
and 8 of foreshore.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The soil where still exposed in the north is stiff
clay with a mixture of sand. The geological forma-
tion is triassic, comprising the upper mottled sand-
stones of the hunter series lying upon the pebble beds
of the series, with a small area of the basement beds
of the keuper series thrown down by a fault.
Bootle is traversed by the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway from Liverpool to Southport and from the
docks to Aintree, with two stations on the former, called
Bootle and Marsh Lane ; by the London and North
Western Company's line from the docks to Edgehill,
with stations at Balliol Road and Alexandra Dock ;
and by the Midland Company's line to the docks.
The Liverpool Overhead Railway, opened in 1893,
runs by the docks, having its terminus at Seaforth.
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes through the
township.
The place was thus described in 1774: 'Bootle
cum Linacre lies near the sea on a very sandy soil
and contains some well-built houses. A very copious
spring of fine, soft, pure water rises near it, which about
half a mile below turns a mill and soon after falls into
the sea at Bootle Bay. . . . Linacre, a pretty rural
village, is a distinct township, but a member of the
manor of Bootle. It lies adjacent to the sea, on the
west." '
The map prepared in 1768 * shows the village ot
Bootle situated almost in the centre of the combined
township, where Litherland Road now meets Merton
Road. On the south side was a large open space ;
somewhat to the north was the famous spring, now
marked by the pumping station. The mills* — there
was a windmill as well as a watermill — were to the
north-east of St. Mary's Church. From the village
various roads spread out. One, now Merton Road,
led to the shore just to the north of one of the Bootle
landmarks, which were curiously-shaped signal posts
for the guidance of ships entering the Mersey.4
Clayfield Lane, now Breeze Hill, led to Walton
church and village. The second of the old Bootle
landmarks stood beside this road on the high ground
near the Walton boundary. Field Lane, now Haw-
thorne Road, led to Kirkdale. Trinity Road and
Derby Road seem more or less to represent the road
to the lord's manor-house at Bank Hall ; to the side
of this road towards the river was Bootle Marsh.
Gravehouse Lane led from near the spring, first east
and then north, to join the present Linacre Lane
at the Orrell boundary.
Linacre village was situated on the present Linacre
Road, between the point at which this road is joined
by Linacre Lane and the Litherland boundary. The
shoreward portion of the township was called Linacre
Marsh ; Marsh Lane led down to it. The northern
boundary was Rimrose Brook ; the southern was
another brook rising in Bootle and flowing to the
river parallel to the mill stream.6
At the beginning of last century Bootle was a
' pleasant marine village . . . much resorted to in
the summer season as a sea bathing place.' 6 ' The
ride along the beach was, in the summer, remarkably
pleasant and much frequented. The sands were
hard and smooth, and the wind, especially if westerly,
cool and refreshing.' ' The spring had then become
one of the chief sources of the Liverpool water
supply.8
Within the last fifty years the growth ot Liverpool
trade has turned the seaside summer resort into a
busy town. The sandy shore has been reclaimed for
the largest of the Mersey Docks, namely the Brockle-
bank ; Langton, opened in 1881 ; Alexandra, with
three branches, 1881 ; and Hornby. To the north
of the latter is a large open space, in the north-
west corner of which is the Seaforth Battery.
On the river wall at the Hornby dock gate is a
lighthouse.
There was a sandstone quarry in Breeze Hill.
There are large dye works, corn mills, and jute works,
but the occupations of the inhabitants are principally
connected with docks and railways, the timber-yards
and grain stores.
An outbreak of plague occurred in 1652.
There were in BOOTLE before the
MJNOR Conquest four manors which four thegns
held, the assessment being two plough-
lands and the value 64^. ; the priest of Walton had
the third plough-land in right of
his church.9 The first known _
lord after the Conquest was
Roger son of Ravenkil, who in
1129-30 was one of the men
of the count of Mortain be-
tween Ribble and Mersey.10 His
son Richard, lord of Wood-
plumpton in Amounderness, the
founder of Lytham Priory, was
succeeded by one of his daughters
and coheirs, Amuria, the wife of
Thomas de Beetham." This
Thomas in 1212 held two bendlet gules.
plough-lands in Bootle in thegn-
age for 8/. Sd. yearly service ; " and as another daughter,
Quenilda, was in 1252 found to have held a plough-
land of Walton church by the yearly service oi
y. 4</.,13 it seems clear that the father had held the
whole vill.
Upon Quenilda's death without issue a fresh par-
tition appears to have been made, for Sir Ralph de
1 Enficld, Liverpool, 1 1 z.
» In the work just quoted. SherrifTs
map of 1823 shows comparatively little
change.
* Baines, Lanes. Dir. ii, 712.
^ Stranger in Liverpool (ed. 1812), 195.
At Bootle Mills two good houses had been
provided for the accommodation of visitors.
" See further in the accounts of Formby
and Kirkby.
19 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 22. In 1 246 Thomas de
only ; one near the spring and one by the
shore.
* These landmarks, figured on Enfield's
map of the entrance to the port, remained
valids and others ' visited Bootle in the
summer for the bathing ; 229.
8 A company was formed in 1799 to
utilize this supply ; see Gregson, Frag-
against William son of Henry de Walton
and others respecting a tenement here ;
Assize R. 404, m. 9 d.
" Inq. and Extents, 191 ; « in the vill of
or obelisks, looft. high, were erected on
the shore in substitution.
5 The Midland Railway line nearly re-
presents it. It will be found from this
that Linacre was somewhat smaller than
Xnowslcy ward.
» V.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*.
10 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. I ; he owed
30 marks for a concord between him-
self and the count. For the father see
ibid. 290, 296. Roger gave one of the
plough-lands to the Hospitallers; see
Linacre.
with the appurtenances in chief of the
church of St. Mary of Walton, by the
service of 40^. yearly at the feast days of
St. Mary and the Annunciation; the
residue is worth 331. 4^. in all issues
of land to her own use, saving the
said 40</.'
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
0.0
Beetham, who died in 1254, held the two plough-
lands in which he succeeded his father, and half the
plough-land belonging to Wal-
ton church.1 The Stockport
family held the other half, and
appear to have secured a share
of the thegnage plough-lands.8
The Beetham share descended
in that family till the beginning
of Henry VII's reign, when it
was forfeited after the battle of
Bosworth and granted to the
earl of Derby.3 A successful
claim was, however, made by
the Middletons,4 and Gervase
Middleton died in 1548, seised
of land in Bootle held of the king by fealty and
the service of 8/. yearly.5 His son and heir, George
Middleton, in 1566 sold the manor and lordship of
Bootle to John Moore of Bank House for £5 70."
The manor continued to descend in this family until
1724-5, when Sir Cleave Moore sold it to James,
tenth earl of Derby,7 from whom it has descended
with the family estate of Knowsley to the present earl.
The Stockport share was transferred before 1292
to Robert de Byron.8 In 1357, Robert de Byron,
lord of the sixth part of the manor and vill of
unges or.
WALTON
Bootle, granted it to Adam de Ainsargh of Liverpool,'
Robert's daughter Maud joining in the transfer by
granting her lands in Bootle to Richard son of
Adam de Ainsargh.10 In 1395 it had descended to
Alice and Margery, the daughters and heirs of
Richard de Ainsargh, of whom the former was the
wife of Roger de Ditton.11 Eventually it appears to
have been acquired by the
Moores and reunited with the
rest of the manor.11
The record of the Bootle
court-baron of 1612 has been
printed ; the two free tenants
recorded were John Burton and
Anne Harvey, widow.13
Roger son of Ravenkil gave
one plough-land in LIN4CRE
to the Hospital of Jerusalem in MIDDLE-TON or LEIGH-
alms." It was attached to the TON' ., fW •."***
-- ... . mgrautd sable, in feis
Hospitallers manor or camera pfint a mullet for diger-
of Woolton, under whom it ence of the last.
was held by a number of
different tenants.15
A family bearing the local name long flourished
here. Before 1290 Hugh de Linacre granted half
an oxgang of land to Robert de Kirkdale,16 and
other members of the family occur in this and
1 Inq. and Extents, 195 ; 'in the vill of
Bootle he held two plough-lands in chief
of the earl of Ferrers by the service of
$s. 8</., worth 191. 4</. yearly, saving the
earl's farm. He also held four oxgangs of
the church of St. Mary of Walton by the
service of zod., worth 41. 4^. yearly,
saving the said farm. His demesne in the
same vill was worth 21. oj</. yearly ; and
worth five marks ; the tallage of the
In 1593 the Moores had a dispute with
Sir Richard Molyneux as to the boundaries
between Bootle and Litherland ; Ibid.
n. 6375 Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii,
306.
7 See the account of Kirkdale.
8 In that year William, son and heir of
Robert de Stockport, demanded from Ro-
bert de Byron the 4 oxgangs, but without
success ; Assize R. 408, m. 67.
Robert de Byron afterwards gave the
Bootle, worth izd., and of 100 acres of
pasture there, which premises were held
in chief of the rector of Walton in socage
by the yearly service of izd. Richard
Mun granted them, with tenements in
Liverpool, to Thomas son of Richard de
Ainsargh and his heirs. Richard died in
1393, and then Alice and Margery came
into possession. The heir was said to be
Thomas son of Nichola (sister of Richard)
by John the Mercer of Liverpool ; Lanes.
p. 203, where the values are much higher.
part of the water-mill, to his daughter
Maud, to hold in fee by id. at Christmas
and by rendering the service due to Walton
church ; Moore D. n. 624.
In 1334 William Ballard of Linacre
complained that he had been deprived of
his free common in 160 acres of moor and
pasture by the action of Sir Thurstan de
Northtegh and Margery his wife, Sir Ralph
de Beetham, William Gerard and Maud
his wife, William son of William Gerard,
and Maud widow of Sir Robert de Byron ;
a verdict was returned against Sir Thur-
stan and the younger William Gerard ;
Coram Reg. R. 297, m. 1 15 d.
" Moore D. n. 627. Green house, Allow-
field, and Lolligreves are named. The
« Many of the Mercer deeds are among
the Moore evidences, so that the family
inheritance was no doubt acquired by the
Moores.
18 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iii,
167.
For the curious bequest of Thomas
Berry in 1603 see the account of the
Walton charities.
14 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 22. Linacre is
named among the Hospitallers' lands in
1292; Plac. de quo ffarr. (Rec. Com.),
15 Proceedings relating to Linacre in
the Hallmote of Much Woolton, between
1584 and 1604, are in Moore D. „.
The rental compiled about 1540 gives
the following particulars :— Sir William
Molyneux, for Townfield, 6d. ; William
Moore, for I messuage, 6d. ; John Os-
baldeston, for i messuage, is. %d. ; Thomas
Barton and Anne his wife, for i messuage,
zs. ; Thomas Johnson, for 2 messuages,
izd. ; Richard Mercer, for i messuage,
i zd. ; and Ralph Longworth, for I mes-
suage, i6d. ; Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84.
The total rent, 81., is at the rate of u.
per oxgang.
16 Before 1290 Hugh de Linacre gave
half an oxgang here to Robert de Kirk-
dale to hold by the service of T,d. yearly ;
Gilbert and Geoffrey de Linacre were
witnesses ; Norris D. (B.M.), .. 9. In
1 347, John son of Richard, son of Geof-
frey de Linacre, was a defendant; De
Bane. R. 281, m. ix.
In 1330 Stephen de Linacre contributed
to the subsidy ; Excb. Lay Subs. 130/5.
5
Stockport, claimed against Roger de Stock-
port dower in a messuage, six oxgangs of
land, 60 acres of meadow, &c., in Bootle ;
De Bane. R. 10, m. 71 d. The sixth part
of the water-mill, excepted in Sir Ralph de
Beetham's inquisition, was held by this
family, whose share was afterwards de-
scribed as a sixth of the whole vill.
8 References are given under Formby
and Kirkby.
In 1284-6 Eularia, daughter of Roger
de Burton, of Burton in Kendal, claimed a
Robert de Beetham ; Assize R. 1265,
m. 21 ; R. 1271, m. lid.
Ralph de Beetham held Bootle in thegn-
age in 1324 by a service of 6s. %d. ; Dods.
MSS. cxxxi, fol. 34.
the sea called Coppoke stone, along the
division between Kirkdale and Bootle to
Close R. 19 Edw. IV, m. I ; 20 Edw. IV,
In 1521 Thomas second earl of Derby
died seised of this manor, held of the king
as duke of Lancaster by the ancient thegn-
age rent of 81. Bd. ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
p. m. v. ». 68.
4 Agnes, daughter of Edward Beetham
and niece of Richard Beetham, who for-
feited the manors, married Robert Middle-
ton, grandfather of Gervase ; Lanes. Inq.
p. m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 102.
5 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. ix, n. 1 1.
6 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 28,
m. 272. Besides the manor of Bootle there
were 12 messuages, &c., a water-mill,
200 acres of land, &c. See also Moore
0.^.632,633.
3
cross between Bootle and Walton, thence
to the western corner of Whitefield, and
so to a plot called Funkdenbed [which
remained a mere in 1595] i westward
from the moor to Mirepool and to the
brook between Bootle and Litherland;
along this brook to the Rimrose, and so to
a stone in the sea called Brimstone.
10 Ibid. n. 625.
n An inquest taken in 1395 records that
Richard Mun, chaplain, was seised inter
alia of 3 messuages and 3 oxgangs of land
in Bootle, worth 1 8*. i od. yearly ; the
sixth part of a parcel of land called the
Greenhouse, worth zs. Sd. ; the sixth part
of Alyffield, worth I id. ; the sixth part of
the water-mill of Bootle, worth 6s. %d. ;
the sixth part of 10 acres of the wood of
33
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
neighbouring townships. The Molyneux family of
Sefton ' and Moores of Bank Hall were also tenants.*
Deeds relating to other holdings have been preserved.*
In 1667 Isaac Legay of London, merchant, sold
the manor or reputed manor of Linacre to Edward
Moore of Bankhall,4 and with Bootle it was afterwards
sold to the earl of Derby, and has since descended.
Bootle-cum-Linacre 4 was incorpo-
BOROUGH rated by charter dated 30 December,
1868, and became a county borough
under the Local Government Act, i888.6 There
are three wards — Derby, Stan-
ley, and Knowsley — in the
north-east, south-west and north-
west respectively. Derby Ward
includes the ancient village.
Each ward has two aldermen
and six councillors. A separate
commission of the peace was
granted in 1876, and a borough
police force established in 1887.
Water is supplied by the Liver- BOROUGH
pool Corporation, and gas by Argent, on a chevron
the Liverpool company, which between three feurs de
has works near Linacre. The ^SteAHtUv t'm'm
electric tramways are worked chiej- sahlt ,hree mural
in connexion with the Liverpool crowns of the first.
system.
The town hall and public offices, built in 1882,
are situated in Balliol Road. Baths and a public library
are provided. There are two hospitals.7 A school
board was formed in 1870. Derby Park is situated
in the eastern portion of the borough ; two open
spaces, called North Park and South Park, are in Lin-
acre and in Hawthorne Road.
The earliest church in Bootle was St. Mary's, in
connexion with the Establishment, consecrated in
1827. The advowson, like that of Walton, was
afterwards acquired by the Leigh family. Christ
Church was built in 1866," and St. John's Church,
Balliol Road, about the same time ; 9 St. Leonard's,
Linacre, was built in 1889 ; and St. Matthew's, also
in Linacre, in 1887. The patronage of these
churches is vested in different bodies of trustees.
The Wesleyan Methodists have several places of
worship. The church in Balliol Road was built in
1864, that in Linacre Road in 1900, and that in
Marsh Lane in 1903 ; they have also Wesley Hall,
in Sheridan Place. For Welsh-speaking members
there are churches in Trinity Road, built in 1877,
and in Knowsley Road. The Primitive Methodists
have a church in Queen's Road.
The Baptist church in Stanley Road was built in
1 846. The Welsh church in Brasenose Road was
built in 1871, the work having begun in 1863,
that in Rhyl Street dates from 1884 ; and that in
Knowsley Road is the result of an effort made in
Seaforth in 1882.
Emmanuel Congregational church, Balliol Road,
opened in 1876, represents a missionary work begun
in 1 87 1 in the Assembly Room.10 For Welsh-speaking
Congregationalists there are two churches ; one re-
presents a movement by members of the Kirkdale
church in 1878-83, and the other is the result
The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have two places
of worship.
Trinity Presbyterian church, built in 1887, is a
migration from Derby Road, Kirkdale, where a start
was made in 1855. Another church in Linacre was
erected in 1896, work having begun in 1883.
There are a Church of Christ, near Bootle water-
works, and some other meeting-places.
For Roman Catholics there are two churches. The
» Richard de Molyneux of Sefton in
1342 acquired land from Robert Boorde,
nephew and heir of Robert de Denton ;
Croxteth D. G. i, 1 1. Two yea
was at the special request of Sir Alexande
Osbaldeston ; ibid. n. 685.
The Moores afterwards acquired othe
parcels, but in 1604 the tenure was stil
sold to Robert Blundell of Ince and his
son John the lands in Linacre then held
by Brian Burton, but previously the in-
heritance of ohn Longworth, deceased.
De Bane. R. 349, m. 67 d. Further lands
were acquired in 1360 from Thomas Bud-
wood ; Croxteth D. G. i, 3.
In 1 548 Sir William Molyneux held
here a messuage, 58 acres of land, mea-
solved monastery of St. John of Jerusalem
in England, in free socage, by fealty and
6d. yearly rent ' ; Lanes. Inq. />. m. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 14.
» The Moore deeds contain grants by-
created about 1574 by William Longworth
and Ralph his son and heir, in favour of
Bryan Burton and Alice his wife ; ibid.
n. 686. John Burton in 1624 died seised
of a messuage in Linacre held of William,
earl of Derby, as of the dissolved hospital,
I2</. yearly; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m.
'» The Moore holding appears to have
been the half oxgang granted by Robert,
son of Adam de Linacre about 1275 to
Adam son of William son of Godith ;
Adam, father of the grantor, had formerly
held it of Jordan de Linacre ; Moore D.
Walton early in the fourteenth century ;
n. 674, 676-7. The first of these men-
tions the high road from Bootle to Lither-
land.
In 1399 the feoffees granted to Henry
son of Ralph de Linacre land in Aliscar
and Soonde croft ; two years later John de
Linacre gave to Henry Diconson of Lin-
452. His son and heir was Robert Bur-
ton, aged 14. In 1659 Ellen Burton,
widow of Robert Burton of Linacre, and
John Burton, her son, conveyed to John
Bryanson of Sefton, a messuage and lands
in Linacre and Litherland ; Moore D.
n. 687. John Burton of Linacre claimed the
two-thirds of the estate of Henry Blundell,
head, granted his brother William I ox-
gang, probably the same land, with the
houses, &c., belonging to it ; ibid. n. 673.
Richard Dikemonson in 1343 transferred
his half oxgang to William, son of Adam,
«on of William de Liverpool, with partici-
pation in the wastes, &c., as for a sixteenth
part of the hamlet of Linacre ; ibid. n. 67 8.
In 1375 this William de Liverpool re-
This latter Henry in 1415 made an ex-
change with Matthew Longworth, receiv-
ing lands in the Furdefylde, Wro, Pulford-
long, Fyntis, Feloteroyste, Crofts and
Robcroft in Linacre, for other lands in
Litherland. John Osbaldeston is named
as one of the tenants ; ibid. n. 682.
Richard, son of Thomas Linacre, in
1472, released to Roger Mercer of Walton,
Burton, which estate should after her death
have reverted to the claimant as heir of
his father and grandfather ; Col. Com. for
Comp.iv, 3168.
4 Moore D. n. 688. The consideration
being only it. the 'sale' perhaps repre-
sents the release of a trust.
6 The official name has more recently
been shortened to Bootle.
in the sixteenth part of the hamlet, and
his widow in 1385 released hers; ibid.
n. 628, 679. The next steps are not clear ;
but in 1536 Richard Osbaldeston of
Chadlington in Oxfordshire granted his
tenement in Linacre to William Moore of
Bank Hall, at an annual rent of 8s. ; this
Linacre, and ten years later Roger Mercer
granted his son William an annual rent of
8.. from all his property in Linacre ; ibid.
n. 629, 684.
The Longworth holding has been shown
to have existed in 1415. In 1641 Edward
Alcock and James Burton of Liverpool
34
1905.
' The Borough Hospital was founded
in 1870.
8 Lond. Gax. 27 July, 1866, for district.
• Ibid. 20 Feb. 1866, for district.
10 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 217.
" Ibid, vi, 232-3.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
foundation of the mission at St. James's, Marsh Lane,
was made in 1845, when a room on the canal bank
was hired for worship. In the following year a
school chapel was built in Marsh Lane and enlarged
in 1868. In 1884 the whole of the buildings and
site were purchased by the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway Company, but a new church, on an adjacent
site, was opened early in 1886.' St. Winefride's,
Derby Road, was opened in 1895.'
KIRKDALE
Chirchedele, Dom. Bk. ; Kirkedale, 1185 ; Kierke-
dale, 1 200.
With a frontage to the Mersey of a mile in length,
Kirkdale extends inland about a mile and a half, the
area being 841 acres.3 It occupies the level ground
between Everton and the river, a large part of which
was formerly sandhills, and the village4 lay at the
foot of the hill, on the north-west side of the road
from Liverpool to Walton. To the north rose a
brook which ran down to the river by Bank Hall.5
From the village a road led to the river side at Sand-
hills ; 6 another road, Field Lane, afterwards Bootle
Lane and now Westminster Road, ran to Bootle.
On the eastern side towards the border of Walton7
the land rises a little, attaining 150 ft. above the
Ordnance datum. Like other townships absorbed by
the growth of Liverpool, Kirkdale is a mass of build-
ings, chiefly small cottage property, the dwellings of
the working classes, mixed up with factories and ware-
houses, railways, and shops. There are no natural
features left, scarcely a green tree to relieve the
monotony of ugly buildings and gloomy surroundings,
save in some old enclosure that was once a garden.
The geological formation is triassic, consisting of
the upper mottled sandstone of the bunter series
resting upon the pebble beds of that series, which
crop up on the higher ground, with a narrow strip of
the basement beds of the keuper series resting upon
them.
The old road from Liverpool to Walton and Orms-
kirk remains the principal thoroughfare. The Lan-
cashire and Yorkshire Company's railway from Liver-
pool to Preston has stations called Sandhills and
Kirkdale, and the Southport line, which branches
off at Sandhills, has another station at Bank Hall.
The London and North-Western Railway's branch
from Edge Hill to the docks has a station at Canada
Dock, and the Cheshire Lines Committee have one
at Huskisson Dock. The Overhead Railway runs
along the line of docks, with several stopping places ;
and the Liverpool tramway system has many lines in
WALTON
and out of the city and across. A large part of the
shore side of the township is occupied with railway
sidings and stations in connexion with the dock
traffic. The portion of the dock system within the
township limits includes Sandon Dock, with its large
graving docks; Huskisson Dock, with two long branches,
and Canada Dock with its branch. For many years,
from about 1 860, Canada Dock has been the centre of
the timber trade, but the discharging ground has been
moved further north.
Kirkdale Gaol,8 where executions formerly took
place, stood near Kirkdale railway station ; part of
the site has since 1897 been utilized as a recreation
ground. Close by are the industrial schools of the
Liverpool Select Vestry.9
Stanley Hospital was founded in 1867.
St. Mary's proprietary cemetery10 was opened in
1905 as a public garden in charge of the corporation.
It is known as Lester Gardens.
Colonel John Moore, a regicide, was lord of the
manor. In recent times Canon Thomas Major
Lester, incumbent of St. Mary's for nearly fifty years,
has been the most notable resident ;" his life was given
up to various public services in connexion with
education and philanthropy, large industrial schools
being founded and maintained by his efforts.
Kirkdale was included within the borough of
Liverpool in 1835, being a ward by itself; in 1895
it was divided into three wards, each with an alder-
man and three councillors.
In 1066 Uctred held KIRKD4LE,
MJNOR which was assessed at half a hide, and
worth jo/, beyond the customary rent,
and free from all custom except geld of the plough-
lands and forfeitures for breach of the peace, ambush,
&c.12 It is probable this was the half hide held
in 1086 by Warin, one of Roger of Poitou's knights,
who may be identified with Warin Bussel, ancestor
of the barons of Penwortham. This barony, pro-
bably incorporated by Stephen early in his reign,
included Kirkdale, which rendered the service of
three-tenths of a knight's fee to the quota due from
the barony."
Warin Bussel II gave the vill to one Norman, to
hold by knight's service.1* Roger de Kirkdale held
the manor in the latter half of the twelfth century,
and dying in 1 20 1 "left a daughter Quenilda as heir."
She married Richard son of Roger, who assumed the
local surname, and died before 1226, when Quenilda's
marriage was in the king's gift by reason of her tene-
ment in Formby." Her elder daughter Ellen
married William de Walton, at one time rector
of the church, and their son William, known as
1 Liverpool Cat/>. Ann.
township and Liverpool ; it wat called
a Ibid. The building was previously a
Beacon Gutter.
Baptist chapel.
» 921 acres, including 68 of inland
7 In 1823 Springfield Mill stood near
Spellow by the Walton Road. It still
water; Census Rep. of 1901. The apparent
increase is due to dock extensions. There
exists unused.
8 It was built as a county prison and
are also 198 acres of tidal water and 3 of
lessions house in 1819, transferred to the
foreshore.
borough of Liverpool about 1855, and
* Morley Street is about the centre of
demolished in 1895.
the old village.
9 Built in 1843.
1» It was opened in 1837.
Sherriffs map of 1823. To the north of
11 Of Christ's Coll. Camb. ; M.A. 1866.
Bank Hall was Kirkdale Marsh.
His incumbency lasted from 1855 till his
6 This road is now represented by
death in 1903, and he was made hon.
Latham Street and Sandhills Lane. On
canon of Liverpool in 1884.
the north side of it stood Blackfield House.
« V.C.H. Lanes, i, 2840. 18 Ibid. 335.
To the south a small brook ran into the
M Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Mersey, forming the division between this
Lanes, and Ches.), 35. Nothing is
35
known of Norman ; he is supposed to be
the father of William son of Norman, to
whom Roger de Kirkdale gave his share
of Formby.
" In this year his widow Godith gave
half a mark to sue for her dower before
the justices at Westminster; Rot. de
OUatii (Rec. Com.), 128 ; Farrer, Lane,.
Pipe R. 132. lfi Intj. and Extent!, 1. c.
"Ibid. 131. She in her widowhood
granted to Cockersand Abbey the service
of two oxgangs in Kirkdale, held of her
by Henry de Walton ; also a place by the
Mersey where the canons could make a
fishery, viz. between the fishery of Thomas
the chaplain and the sea; Cockcnand
Cbartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 564.
She had two daughters, Ellen and Emma,
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
William de Kirkdale, was in 1241 returned as hold-
ing the third part of a knight's fee in Kirkdale, of
the earl of Lincoln, then lord of Penwortham.1
William's son, Robert de Kirkdale, was in possession
before 1288," and in 1320
agreed to sell the manor to
Robert de Ireland ; 3 the trans-
fer was completed in the fol-
lowing year,4 and the purchaser
was returned as tenant in
1323.* Adam de Ireland of
Hale, father of Robert, held
lands here and was in 1322
stated to hold the three plough-
lands.6
Robert de Kirkdale retained
a small estate, which passed to
his son Henry before 1332.'
Henry de Kirkdale died without issue before 1353,
when he was succeeded by his sister's children.8
The new lord, Robert de Ireland, answered in
IRELAND or HALE.
Gulet, a* fleurs de Us,
1355 for the third part of a knight's fee held of
the duke of Lancaster.9 In 1361 John de Ireland,
probably his son, was in possession,10 and in 1378
another Robert de Ireland contributed to the aid
granted to John, duke of Lancaster, in respect of this
manor." Robert married Lora, afterwards the wife of
John de Legh of Macclesfield. He died in 1 38 1," leav-
ing a son and heir Robert, who was perhaps a minor.
The younger Robert in 1399 released to John, son of
Robert de Legh, the messuages and lands in Hale and
Kirkdale then held by John and Lora his wife.13 In
1404 he was outlawed, at the suit of John de Legh,
for non-payment of a debt of 1 2 marks.14 Four years
later he released to William de la Moore of Liverpool
his right in various tenements in Kirkdale and Liver-
pool,15 and by another deed granted to the same
William the manor of Kirkdale and eight acres in
Liverpool.16 Peter and Robert de Legh, sons of John
and Lora, also disposed of their lands here to the
Moores," who thus became undisputed lords of the
manor and holders of a considerable estate.
oxgangs in Kirkdale, which Emma re-
leased to her elder sister ; Final Cane.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 84.
Robert, son of Emma, daughter of
Quenilda de Kirkdale, in 1292 quit-
claimed to Robert son of Master William
who, for consideration of 10 marks,
was to enfeoff Robert de Kirkdale of the
manor for life ; charter in possession of
Mr. Hargreaves.
Another charter of the same date con-
firmed to Robert de Ireland the whole
Sankey, Henry de Acres, and Hugh de
Wiswall ; see Moore D. and Exch. Lay
Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 24.
In 1 340 Alice, relict of Robert de Kirk-
dale, demised a windmill to Robert de
Ireland ; Moore D. n. 539.
two oxgangs, and in the quarter of the
demesne of the manor ; Moore D. ». 5 1 5.
1 Ina. and Extents, 149.
In a charter made between 1273 and
1284, 'William, son of William formerly
parson of Walton,' granted to his son
Robert the manor of Kirkdale, viz. three
plough-lands with the demesne, homages,
wardships, and reliefs which the grantor
had by the gift of Ellen, his mother, to
hold by rendering a pair of white gloves at
Easter and g</. yearly to Robert de Sankey
and his heirs for lands in the manor pur-
chased from Henry, brother and heir of
Robert de Sankey ; charter in possession
of Mr. J. Hargreaves, of Rock Ferry,
Robert de Kirkdale had received by the
gift of Richard de Fazakerley in free
marriage with Alice his wife ; ibid. n. 269.
< Final Cone, ii, 43.
6 Rentals and Surv. 379, m. 8 ; ' Robert
de Ireland holds the manor of Kirkdale
and pays yearly 6s.' The later extent of
I 324 says more fully : * Robert de Ireland
holds the manor of Kirkdale for three
plough-lands of Alice, daughter and heir of
the earl of Lincoln, as of the lordship
of Penwortham by the service of 31. yearly
for ward of Lancaster Castle at the Nativity
of St. John Baptist and 31. for sake fee ' 5
Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 35.
« Duchy of Lane. Knights' fees, 1/3.
son of Juliana ; Matthew de Kirkdale and
his wife Cecily, daughter of Joan ; and
Simon the Carter and Averia his wife,
daughter of Ellen ; the said Juliana, Joan,
and Ellen being sisters of Henry de Kirk-
dale ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4, m.
I 8 </.; cf. Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 342.
• Feud. Aids, iii, 86. He is also men-
tioned in one of the Moore D. of 1355
(n. 546).
1(1 Inq. p. m. 35 Edw. Ill pt. i, n. 122.
" Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 75. In 1366
the lands of an Adam de Ireland are
mentioned in Kirkdale; see Moore D.
n. 549.
« Writ of Diem dausit extremum issued;
have been made in view of the father's
appointment to Sefton rectory.
Robert, son of Roger de Sankey, brought
a plea of assize of mart £ ancestor in 1270
against Edith, daughter of William, rector
of Walton, touching five oxgangs and an
acre in Kirkdale, of which Henry, brother
of the said Roger, died seised. Edith
called Roger de Sankey to warrant her ;
Cur. Reg. R. 200, m. 3 5 d.
In 1288 Roger, son of Robert de
Sankey, sued Master William de Kirk-
dale, rector of Sefton, and Robert, his son,
for the third part of four oxgangs ; and
again in 1290 he claimed two oxgangs,
which Robert, son of Master William,
then held. Robert de Kirkdale, in reply,
stated that Henry, son of Roger de Sankey,
long before his death, had enfcoffed Master
By his charter Adam de Ireland granted
to Robert his son an oxgang of land in
Kirkdale which he had had from Cecily,
formerly wife of John de Wolfall, with all
the usual easements, including fishery 'in
all salt waters and sweet ' ; Moore D.
n. 5o8.
Possibly Adam held the manor for a
time as trustee, for in 1322 he and his
eldest son John were defendants in a plea
of novel disseisin in which Robert, the
younger son, recovered lands in Kirkdale
and Hale described as 12 messuages, an
oxgang and 40 acres of land, an acre of
meadow, a mill, and two-thirds of the
manor of Kirkdale; County Placita,
Chancery Lane. n. 4.
"Add. MS. 32106, n. 452. Robert,
lord of Kirkdale, in 1 309 granted to Alice,
'» Moore D. n. 560. Early in 1402
Thomas de la Moore, escheator and col-
lector of the aid granted that year,
answered for 6s. 8</. of the heirs of Robert
de Ireland for the manor of Kirkdale ;
Duchy of Lane. Knights' Fees, 1/20, fol. 8.
" He afterwards received the king'i
pardon; Add. MS. 32108, n. 15555
Towneley MS. CC (Chet. Lib.), n. 430 ;
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 175.
15 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 9.
From a deed quoted in a later note it
seems possible that William was com-
pleting a bargain entered into by his
father Thomas.
« Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxiciii, App. 9. In
1400 Thomas Touchet, rector of Mai-
worth, released to Robert de Ireland the
son, lord of Yeldersley in Derbyshire, all
the plaintiff was non-suited. Assize R.
1277, m. 31 ; R. 408, m. 20 d.
8 See the preceding note. A feodary
of Thomas earl of Lancaster made be-
tween 1311 and 1318, records only that
the heir of William de Walton held Kirk-
dale i Duchy of Lane. Knights' fees, i/i i,
fol. 27.
" On 6 May, 1320, a bond for £40
was entrusted to Henry de Lee, rector of
Halsall, as security for the due perform-
ance of an agreement made between
Robert de Kirkdale and Robert de Ireland
field and the road from Walton to Kirk-
dale ; note of Mr. R. Gladstone, junr. In
1320 Robert, lord of Kirkdale, granted to
Henry his son a messuage and selion which
William the Fisher formerly held, and
lands in Parsonfold, Oselfield, and Black-
mould ; Moore D. n. 527. About the
same time Henry quitclaimed to Robert
de Ireland all his right in the lands which
his father was selling ; ibid. n. 5300.
The most important tenants of the
manor about 1330 were Henry, son and
heir of Robert de Kirkdale, William the
36
dale by the feoffment of Robert de Ireland
the father ; Moore D. n. 561.
V In 1407 Peter, son of John de Legh,
released to his brother, Robert de Legh,
all his right to lands in Kirkdale which
had belonged to their father ; Moore D.
n. 563, 564. Shortly afterwards, Robert
de Legh leased them for two years to
Thomas del Moore, as the dower of Lora
in right of her first marriage to Robert de
Ireland ; and in the following year he sold
all his lands in Kirkdale to William de la
Moore, of Liverpool ; ibid. n. 565, 567.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The first on record of the Moore family is Randle
de la Moore, who as reeve of Liverpool appeared at
the sessions of the justices in eyre at Lancaster in
1 246. ! His name frequently occurs in documents of
the time of Henry III and Edward I.' His eldest
son, John de la Moore, sen., also attested many charters
of the time of the first Edwards ;
he was one of the three attor-
neys found by the borough of
Liverpool in a plea of quo war-
ranto at •; Lancaster in 1292,'
and he and his brother Richard
were returned to the Parliament
at Carlisle in January, 1307,
as burgesses for Liverpool.4
John de la Moore, junior,
son of the last named John,
occurs as holding land in Liver-
pool in 1323,* and as a wit- °oilarcd or.
ness to Liverpool charters down
to 1337, about which time probably he was succeeded
by Roger his son and heir, who held eight burgages
in Liverpool in I346.6 He died about three years
later, leaving a son William, a minor,7 who died
before 1 3 74 without issue, when his tenements passed
to his kinsman Thomas,8 grandson of William, appa-
rently a younger brother of John de la Moore, jun.
William was the father of John de la Moore, who
MOORE or BANK
HALL. Argent, three
greyhounds courant sable
WALTON
was mayor of Liverpool in 1 353, and had considerable
property there.9 Dying about 1361 John was suc-
ceeded by his son, the above-named Thomas, who
had received a grant of lands in Kirkdale from his
father in I36o.10 Thomas was frequently mayor of
Liverpool between 1383 and 1407."
It was his son William who, as already stated, pur-
chased the manor of Kirkdale in 1408. He died
I August, 1409, a week after the birth of his only
child, John Moore.18 In 1431 it was found that
John Moore, gentleman, held the manor of Kirkdale
by the service of the fourth part of a knight's fee.11
He appears to have died without issue.14
Robert de la Moore, son of Thomas and uncle of
John, then became the leading member of the family.
In 1389 he had a grant of lands in Kirkdale from his
father,15 and was put in seisin in I4o8.16 In 1417 he
witnessed a Kirkdale charter in which Bank House is
named.17 Seventeen years later he was himself the
possessor of land at Bank House, which was probably the
site of Bank Hall, the future mansion of the family.1*
Robert had a son of the same name, who had a son
William, with whom more plentiful documentary
evidence begins again.19
William Moore died on 30 July, 1541, seised of
the manors of Kirkdale, Bootle, and Eccleshill, and of
various other lands, burgages, and properties. His
heir was his son John, then thirty-seven years of age.20
» Assize R. 404, m. 16. Accounts of
the Moore D. are given in Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), ii, 149, and Hist. MSS. Com.
Rep. x, App. iv ; the corporation of Liver-
pool purchased a large number, which may
be seen in the museum.
2 e.g. Final Cone, i, 157-60.
» Plac. de quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 381.
See Towneley MS. GG, n. 2484, 2730,
2517.
« Lanes. Ina. p. m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 93 ;
a month before his death he had made a
feoffment of his lands in Kirkdale, Eccles-
hill, Liverpool, Walton, West Derby, and
Turton. The lands in Eccleshill and
Turton are said to have been the portion
of his mother Cecily, daughter and heir
of Nicholas de Turton, of Eccleshill ;
Visit, of 1567 (Chet. Soc.), 92.
13 Feud. Aids, iii, 94. He was living
pool to Bootle on the other. The Bank
Houses are mentioned in 1371 in a grant
by Richard del Bank, of Liverpool, to his
elder brother of the same name ; with
remainder to the grantor's son John ;
ibid. 11.551. See also n. 554, 655.
Robert del Moore was witness to another
grant to Richard Wilkinson in 1432 ;
ibid. ». 573.
18 Ibid. n. 574 ; ' all the messuages,
179. John and Richard de la Moore
attested many charters together ; in 1320
they are described as 'then bailiffs' (of
Liverpool); Moore D. „. 334 (74).
* Rentals and Surv. 379, m. II ; he
held 4i acres in Liverpool for «. jrf,
probably belonging to 2J burgages. He
also contributed to the subsidy of 1332 ;
Exck. Lay Suhs. 2.
6 Add. MS. 32103, fol. 140*; for
these he paid 8s.
wall of Kirkdale, released to John, son
and heir of William de la Moore, late of
Liverpool, all right in the lands which his
father had by the feoffment of John's
father; Moore D. „. 575.
14 On 12 Feb. 1467-8, John Crosse, of
Liverpool, and Geoffrey Whalley, vicar of
Childwall, re-granted to John Moore, of
Liverpool, and Beatrice, his wife, all the
lands, &c., which they had had in Eccles-
hill by the grant of the said John Moore ;
in the Bank House.'
In 1465 Thomas Molyneux, of Sefton,
was the purchaser from Henry Robinson of
messuages and lands in the Bank Houses ;
ibid. n. 579.
" Robert Moore was the first witness to
a Kirkdale deed in 1457 ; ibid. n. 578.
Robert Moore and William Moore attested
one of 1492; ibid. ». 580. For Robert, son
and heir of Robert Moore, of Bank House,
and cousin and heir of John Moore, in
•essed 27*. worth of movable goods within
the borough, chargeable to the ninth ;
Robert de la Moore, perhaps a brother,
had a similar amount ; Exch. Lay Subs.
130/15.
He is called son of John de la Moore in
Moore D. n. 108. ' 7 Ibid. n. 194.
to Robert, son of Robert Moore, of Bank
Houses, and his heirs male ; and in default
to Edmund and William, brothers of
Robert, and then to William Norris ;
Moore D. n. 772.
Among the Norris D. (B.M.) are
several of the year 1459, by which John
An indenture by Robert Moore, undated,
bears witness that he had enfcoffed John
Hawarden, of Chester, and others of all
his lands ; they were to hold them until
his son William arrived at the age of
twenty-four years, duly providing for his
William, son of Roger de la Moore ;
ibid. n. 231 ; and son of John de la Moore,
«• 237, 238-
» The father may be the William de la
Moore who with Alice his wife had an
indulgence from Burton Lazars in 1340;
Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 53.
John de la Moore had the toll, stallage
of markets and fairs of Liverpool, ferry or
passage boat, one horse-mill and two
water-mills at farm for £20 yearly, and
also held $f burgages in Liverpool for
5>. \\d. ; Add. MS. 32103, fol. 140.
"Moore D. n. 1 8 1.
11 In 1408 Margery, widow of Thomas
de la Moore, released her claim to dower
to William, the son and heir of Thomas,
>nd to Robert his brother ; Norris D.
(B.M.), n. 109.
made arrangements with Robert Moore,
senior, son of Thomas, as to an annuity of
lands in Kirkdale, Liverpool, and Faza-
kerley. Beatrice, the wife of John, was
joined with him ; she is said to have been
a daughter of William Norris, of Speke,
which explains the Norris remainders and
the presence of these deeds among the
15 Moore D. n. $'56. 16 Ibid. n. 566.
" Ibid. n. 570. By this, John del Bank,
of Bank House, senior, gave to Richard
Wilkinson, of Kirkdale, and Joan, the
grantor's daughter, certain land in the
Bank House, between lands of Thomas
del Moore and John del Acres, and
stretching from the common pasture on
one side to the road leading from Liver-
In a rental of William Moore's Chester
property, made about I 540, is mention of
'a stone place which was some time Roger
Derby, my grandsire's — which was my
mother's father— in Bridge Street, near
St. Bride's.' Rentals of William, son of
Robert Moore, exist among the Moore D.
A pedigree was recorded in 1567; yisit.
(Chet. Soc.), 92.
*> Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. viii, n. 12.
The manor of Kirkdale and the lands
there were said to be held of the king as
of his duchy of Lancaster by the twenty-
fourth part of a knight's fee ; there were
8 messuages, 200 acres of land, etc.,
81. loJ. free rent, and a free fishery. His
will, dated 30 Oct. 1536, and proved
3 Sept. 1541, is printed at length in
Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iv, igo.
37
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
John Moore had a good position in the county, and
being at Lathom in 1554 did his best to convince
George Marsh of error by lending him Fr. A. de
Castro's book on heresies.1 He died in October, 1575,'
and was succeeded by his son William Moore, then
thirty-seven years of age, who died in 1602.*
John Moore, his son and heir, aged thirty- eight in
1604, left several daughters as co-heirs,4 but Bank
Hall, with the manors of Kirkdale and Bootle, by
William Moore's settlement, went to the younger son
Edward.5 This latter, almost the only Protestant
among the gentry of the district, distinguished himself
by his zeal against recusants,6 who were inclined to
consider his sudden death in 1632 as a divine
judgement.7 His son, Colonel John Moore, played a
prominent part in the Civil War and signed Charles I's
death warrant. His personal character does not seem
to have been of the consistently moral type associated
with the designation of Puritan.8 He died of the
plague in Ireland in 1650.
Edward Moore, his son and successor, was em-
barrassed by his father's debts.9 His conduct after
the death of Cromwell seems to have been purely
selfish, and at the Restoration the influence of his
wife and her family, zealous Royalists, saved him from
the consequences of his father's actions.10 In 1675 he
was made a baronet.11 He had many quarrels with
the corporation of Liverpool, and in his Rental gave
free expression to his opinion of the people of the
town." He died in l678,13 and was succeeded by
his only surviving son Cleave, fifteen years of age.
He is known chiefly for his scheme for supplying
Liverpool with water from the springs at Bootle."
His debts, however, finally overwhelmed him, and the
whole of the family estates in the Liverpool district
were sold, the manor of Kirkdale and all or most of
the lands there being purchased in 1724-5 by the earl
of Derby.15 Like Bootle, it has since descended, with
Knowsley, to the present earl, who is lord of the manor.
The old hall was demolished about I76o.16
1 Foxe, Acts and Monuments (ed. Cattley),
months before the inquisition already
prayed for* ; she wished that her son
vii, 43-4. A papal dispensation for the
cited, according to which it might be sup-
Cleave should not ' go beyond sea ' ;
marriage of John Moore and Anne
posed he was still living. There seems to
Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ut sup. 121 ; seethe
Hawarden was granted 27 Sept. 153-;
have been some difficulty in obtaining
pleading on 123.
Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iv, 60.
possession, livery having been sued on
An attempt was made to induce the
> Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. xii, n. 6.
behalf of John Moore, and the fine in
father to have the two surviving children
The annual value of Kirkdale was said to
May, 1 605, being found to be £25 171. 7 J.;
brought up in the mother's religion ;
be £13 6s. %d.
then 'the heir being now dead,' the
T. E. Gibson in Liverpool Cath. Ann.
8 Lanes. Inq. p. m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
direction ran : ' Let Edward Moore sue
1887, p. 108. Fenwick Street in Liverpool
Ches.), i, 12-14. The date of his death
livery in the name of John Moore, and
commemorates her.
was wrongly given, viz. 1601 for 1602.
take the oath and covenant as the heir
11 Burke, Extinct Baronetcies.
&c., enumerated.
from the heir to Edward Moore ' ; Moore
see Mr. Fergusson Irvine's Liverpool in
the Reirn of Chas. II xvii-xxix in which
comers to church, but not communicants ' ;
5 On 14 Sept. 1602, Richard Moore, of
volume the Rental is printed in full ; it
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 245, quoting S. P.
Bank House, released to his brother
had been partially edited for the Chet. Soc.
Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4.
Edward all interest in the manors of Bootle
in 1846 by Thomas Heywood.
At a court of the manor of Kirkdale
and Kirkdale ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. l.s.c.
18 The will of Edward Moore, made in
were placed on record by the jurors :
married the daughter of John Hockenhull,
entailed estates to Fenwick Moore, with
i. Every tenant of the manor should put
of Prenton, a convicted recusant who died
remainder to Cleave Moore, his other son ;
his hedges and ditches in proper state ;
in prison after many years' confinement.
and then to Robert, son of Robert Moore,
ii. Every tenant putting his beasts or cattle
Edward Moore was sheriff of the county
of Liverpool, his uncle ; and in default of
should pay for each horse, ox, or cow, J,/.,
He also made provision for his brother
and for eight sheep \d., to the use of the
for Liverpool in 1625 ; Pink and Beavan,
Thomas, for servants, and others ; to the
burleymen. iii. Any man taking 'lesow-
ing,' or tethering any beast or cattle in
op. cit. 1 86.
7 Cavalier's Note-book, 21 1. The certi-
poor of Liverpool he left £10, and of
Bootle and West Derby £20. For his son
other men's grass, must pay to the lord
ficate taken by Randle Holme in 1638 is
Cleave Moore he made provision by a gift
6d. each time ; and any not ringing his
printed in Lanes. Fun. Certs. (Chet. Soc.),
of Finch House in West Derby for his
•wine when warned by the burleymen
56.
life ; Knowsley D. 471/165.
must pay 4^. ; for not making his fronts
8 Many details of his career will be
14 A private Act was obtained in 1709
sufficient, zJ. ; for making of every gate,
found in Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.).
(8 Anne, c. 25), but the scheme was never
4</.; for cutting wood of another man's, 2d.;
He sat in the Long Parliament for Liver-
carried through. 'Sir Cleave Moore's
for growing grass, zJ. iv. No man should
pool ; Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 188.
waterworks ' are mentioned in N. Blun-
feed any manner of cattle or beast in any
There is an account of his papers in the
dell's Diary, e.g. 76.
of the ways within the townfield until the
Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. already cited, x,
"In 1690 Sir Cleave's Lanes, estate
field be put abroad, under penalty of 6d.
each time. Two assessors of the lord
App. iv, 63-99. Adam Martindale de-
scribed his household as a 'hell upon
had been mortgaged for £12,650; Hist.
MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iv, 137 ; see also
called 'henlayers' and two burleymen
('berlimen') were appointed; Moore D.
earth' ; Autobiog. (Chet. Soc.), 36. His
will is among the Liverpool Corp. muni-
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 453, m. 12.
In August, 1724, was a recovery of the
n. 610.
ments.
manors of Kirkdale and Bootle, Sir Cleave
In 1599, as appears by the inquisition,
William Moore enfeoffed Richard Bold and
» He was serving in Ireland as Captain
Edward Moore, but procured leave of
Moore and John Wallis being called to
vouch; ibid. R. 521, m. 4</.
others of his manors of Kirkdale and
absence to visit England 'to look after his
Lord Derby bought Bank Hall in
Bootle and other lands to the use of him-
occasions'; Hist. MSS. Cam. Rep. x,
January, 1724-5. The purchase included
self during life, and then to his younger
App. iv, 99, where may also be seen
the manors of Kirkdale, Bootle, and
sons, Edward and Richard, by his second
several of his requests for arrears of his
Linacre, and all Sir Cleave Moore's estates
wife. The reason for passing over the
father's pay, and for 'some delinquent's
in Kirkby, West Derby, Fazakerley,
eldest son is perhaps disclosed in the later
estate' to repair the losses incurred in the
Litherland, Little Crosby, Ellel, Horsam,
endorsement of an acquittance given in
Parliament's service.
Walton, and Liverpool ; Knowsley Muni-
1586 by John Moore to his father; 'an
" Ibid. 1 10. The Moore manors were
ments. There are references to Lord
acquittance under John Moore's hand,
granted to the earl of Meath and Thomas
Derby at Bank Hall in N. Blundell's
which was the unthrift who sold £10 per
annum of copyhold land before his father,
Gascoigne in 1662; Pat. 14 Chas. II,
pt. xii, n. 9. Edward Moore's wife, like
Diary, 219, 222.
16 The following is Enfield's description
William Moore, esquire, died ' ; Hist.
her family, adhered to the Roman Church
and in her last letter to her husband
of it: 'It was a curious model of the
* John Moore is said to have died in
desired him to give her church stuff 'to
[IK] years ago, and doubtless in those days
the Counter Prison in April, 1604, seven
the church so that her soul might be
was esteemed a very grand structure. The
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The Molyneux family of Sefton began to acquire
lands here about the middle of the fifteenth century,
for which the status of a manor was afterwards
claimed.1 Early landowners were various members of
the Kirkdale family,' the Waltons,' Booties," Wiswalls,5
Rixtons,6 and others.7 Edward Moore was the only
landowner in 1628 contributing to the subsidy.8
The land tax return of 1785 shows that Lord Derby,
Thomas Fleetwood, and the executors of John Fletcher,
were the chief proprietors. John Leigh, a prominent
, WALTON
Liverpool solicitor, leased the estate called Sand Hills'
and died there in 1823.
Before the middle of last century the population
had so greatly increased that various places of worship
were built. In connexion with the Established
Church, St. Mary's, at the north end of the old
village, was built in 1835.'° St- Lawrence's, erected
in 1 88 1, is a chapel of ease. St. Paul's, North Shore,
close to the site of Bank Hall, was founded as an
Episcopal chapel in 1859 ; it became a parish in
front of it was moated with water, over
which was a passage by a bridge, between
two obelisks, to the gateway, whereon was
a tower, on which were many shields of
arms carved in stone ; of which the most
remarkable was that within the court,
being undoubtedly the achievement of the
founder, viz. : 1st. Ten trefoils, 4, 3, 2, i.
2nd. Three greyhounds current, in pale ;
part). William, the son and heir was then a
minor, and died in 1551, leaving a daugh-
bounded in part by the Tothe Syke and
Holdeyr Reyndys to John son of Henry
(ibid. ix, n. i), who was at once married
to Randle son of Ralph Green (according
to the pedigree in Helsby's Ormerod, Ches.
ii, 444). The Croxteth D. above quoted,'
however, gives Lancelot as the surname,
4 Henry de Bootle granted land, to
Henry his son in 1337; and in 1376
Margery, widow of William Masson, gave
lands in Kirkdale and Liverpool to Henry,
son of Henry de Bootle ; while John de
cock volant. Date 1282 [?i 582]. The
great hall was a curious piece of antiquity,
much ornamented with carvings, busts,
and shields. It had no ceiling, but was
open quite up to the roof, with various
projections of the carved parts, whereon
trophies of war and military habiliments
were formerly suspended. On a wall
between the court and garden was a grand
arrangement of all the armorial acqui-
.itions of the family. The shields were
carved on circular stones, elevated and
placed at equal distances like an embattle-
ment. But this venerable pile has lately
been demolished, and will probably soon
be forgotten '; Liverpool, 113. There is
a view in Gregson, Fragment!, 153.
» Henry de Riding in 1348 granted
to William, son of Henry son of Robert
de Kirkdale, land in Hongircroft, Turner-
of John de Bootle), of his lands : Crox-
teth D. Q. ii, 5, 8-10, ii.
Roger, son of Ellis de Bootle, and
Annota daughter of Adam, son of Robert
de Derby, were in I 376 refeoffed of Roger's
D.Q.ii,6.
There appear about 1300 to have been
two contemporaries named Robert de
Kirkdale; William son of Ralph de
Ireland granted to Robert son of Robert
de Kirkdale certain lands, and Robert de
Kirkdale granted others to the same, but
does not call him 'son'; Moore D.
n. 509, 510. Adam son of Robert dc
Kirkdale occurs in 1317 ; ibid. n. 523.
In 1316 Robert de Kirkdale made a
grant to Matthew son of Matthew de
Bootle were witnesses ; Moore D. n. 552.
An exchange of lands was made by
William Moore and Thomas Bootle in
1507; ibid. n. 583.
s Roger son of Robert de Kirkdale
married Maud daughter of Hugh de Wis-
wall, and a settlement of his lands wa.
made in 1348 ; her father was a witness ;
Moore D. n. 548. The same Maud in
1368 received lands from Robert Fox, who
had them in 1366 from John the Cook of
Hale by a charter to which William de
the corner of Bankhall Lane and Bankhall
Street.
1 Sir William Molyneux (Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p.m. ix, n. 2, 1548) held
his lands in Kirkdale partly of the king,
as of his barony of Penwortham by &
of a knight's fee, and partly of the Hos-
pital of St. John, Chester. See also
Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Che..), iii, 390.
The deeds at Croxteth show purchases
as follows : By Richard Molyneux from
William Sheppard in 1457 ; by William
Molyneux from Roger Wiswall in 1501 ;
and by Sir Richard Molyneux and William
his son and heir in 1565 from Thomas
the Greengate, in the Breckfield next
lands of Godith de Kirkdale, in the
Ballydfield, and by the Boritte Rake ; ibid.
n. 522.
William de Walton in 1307 granted to
Matthew son of Matthew de Kirkdale
and his assigns (except Robert de Kirk-
dale and Adam de Ireland of Hale), a man
to dig turf in William's turbaries on
Qualebreth (?Warbreck) moor, and an-
other man to help, and leave to carry the
turf away to Kirkdale ; Croxteth D. Bb,
iv, 6.
Robert de Ireland acquired lands from
Stephen de Kirkdale and Margaret his
wife in 1317, and from Richard son of
Robert son and heir of Ralph de Wiswall
in 1445 released to John del Moore all
his right in the lands sold by his father ;
and in 1457 exchanged with John Thomp-
son lands in the Blakefield and Baldfield
for others; ibid. ». 575, 578.
John son of Richard Wiswall occurs in
1492 ; ibid. n. 580 ; and William Moore
acquired lands from Roger Wiswall in the
Conery and Chollolfield, in exchange for
others in Efurlong, &c. in 1508, and from
Robert Wiswall in Whitfield and Barrow-
field in 1525; ibid. ». 584, 592.
Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Ralph
Wiswall of Kirkdale, married Robert Lee,
and in 1524 sold her lands in Walton,
prising the inheritance of William Lance-
lot, tenanted by Ralph Bolton and thirteen
others ; Q. i, 1-3.
1325, the latter including a ridge held as
dower by Alice, mother of Richard.
Moore D. «. 521, 534. Robert son of
Molyneux, rector of Sefton; Croxteth
D. Bb, iii, i.
1 304 ; from Henry, son of Robert lord
made a grant to Alice his daughter in
larly released her claim in the lands sold
by her son Thomas; Moore D. n. 538,
540.
7 The Hulmesof Maghull had lands in
Kirkdale ; Edmund Hulme is mentioned
in 1 525, ibid. B. 592 ; and Richard Hulme
died in 1615 seised of a messuage, &c.
held of the king ; Lanes. Inq. p. m. (Rec.
Soc.), ii, 19.
Richard Crosse of Liverpool also had
lands here; ibid, ii, 136. Among the
Crosse D. (Trent. Hist. Soc.) is only one
referring to this township, n. 100 (dated
1405).
8 Norris D. (B. M.).
' Near the present railway station ao
named. The family is noticed in the
account of Walton church.
'0 A district was first assigned in 1844 ;
Land. Gax. 14 Sept.
Walton, and to Richard son of Henry de
Orrell in 1316 ; and from Simon de Kirk-
dale to Matthew son of Richard de
1 Lisnetarki ' of half an oxgang at a rent
of u. 3</. and a pound of cummin ; Crox-
teth, D. Q. ii. 3, I, 4, 2. This last was
probably the foundation of the claim of a
manor, and no doubt descended to the
Lancelyns of Poulton near Bebington, in
virtue of the marriage of Alice, daughter
and heir of Thomas Ewes, to Roger
Lancelyn, for Roger died in 1526, seised
of lands here held of the king as of his
barony of Penwortham, by the twentieth
part of a knight's fee and a rent of zj. ;
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. vi, n. 23 ;
Moore D. n. 598 b (where the service is
called the fourth part and the twentieth
Kirkdale and Cecily his wife gave land in
the Oldhearth to Richard de Ainsargh in
1355 ; ibid. n. 541, 546.
* Henry de Walton granted to John the
Goldsmith of Chest, an oxgang of land
in Kirkdale by knight's service where ten
plough-lands made a fee, and by a gift of
spurs ; Richard de Meath was a witness ;
Moore D. n. 502.
Richard son of Henry de Walton
granted his son William the oxgang which
Stephen Bullock formerly held, and lands
in the Fenny Acres, the Crakefield, &c.,
with easements and liberties belonging to
the vills of Walton and Kirkdale, to be
held as the last grant ; ibid. n. 501, also
n. 503.
In 1321 Jordan de Rixton gave lands
39
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
1 868, when the church was built.1 The incumbents
of the preceding churches are presented by trustees.
St. Aidan's, near the Liverpool boundary, was first
built in 1 86 1, but removed to its present site in
1875, tne °ld one being required for dock purposes.
The bishop of Liverpool and the rectors of Liverpool
and Walton present.2 St. Athanasius's, built in
1 88 1-2, is in the gift of the Simeon trustees.3 For
Welsh-speaking Anglicans St. Asaph's, Westminster
Road, has been licensed as a chapel of ease to St.
David's, Liverpool.
A Free Church of England existed in Kirkdale
from 1868 to 1871.
The Wesleyan Methodists have a church in
Rosalind Street, built in 1877; also two in Boundary
Street East, one for Welsh-speaking members. The
Methodist New Connexion have a mission hall.
The United Free Methodists have also a place of
worship.
For the Baptists the Tabernacle was built in 1892.
Other chapels are in Stanley Road and near Stanley
Park; the latter was built in 1875. For Welsh-
speaking Baptists Seion Chapel, built in 1876,
originated in Great Howard Street, Liverpool, in
1835 to 1840.
There is a United Free Gospel Chapel in Tetlow
Street, begun in 1860 and enlarged in 1877.
The Congregationalists have a church in West-
minster Road. A chapel was erected in Claremont
Grove in 1829. In 1872 the congregation removed
to the present building. The Welsh Chapel in Great
Mersey Street originated in 1858, springing from the
Liverpool Tabernacle.4
The Presbyterians have churches in Everton Valley,
founded in 1862, and in Fountains Road (Union
Chapel), 1878. That formerly in Derby Road was
removed to Bootle in 1887.
The Salvation Army has barracks in Walton Road
and Barlow Street.
The Roman Catholic faith probably died out soon
after the Reformation, the Moores becoming Protestants
about 1 600, and there being no other resident able to
afford the missionary priest a shelter.5 A fresh
beginning was made in 1848. Thousands of poor
Irish labourers, driven from home by the great famine,
came to Liverpool to work at the docks. To minister
to them St. Alban's, Athol Street, was opened in
I 849 ; it was gradually completed and beautified, and
was consecrated in 1894. Our Lady of Reconciliation,
Eldon Street, has sprung from a mission begun in a
shed in 1854 ; the church, designed by Wei by Pugin,
was opened in 1860. St. Alexander's, on the borders
of Bootle, was founded in 1862, mass being said in a
hayloft for some years; in 1867 'he church was
opened, and enlarged in i884-6 From 1878 till 1884
a chapel of ease — known as Our Lady ot Perpetual
Succour — was used. In 1870 the Congregational
chapel in Claremont Grove (now Fountains Road)
was purchased and opened as St. John the Evangelist's ;
a permanent church replaced it in 1885. St.
Alphonsus' Mission was founded in 1878, a building
in Kirkdale Road, formerly a masonic hall, being
utilized.7
The Jews have a synagogue in Fountains Road.
TOXTETH PARK
Stochestede, Dom. Bk. ; 8 Tokestat, 1207; Toxstake,
1228 ; Tokstad, 1257 ; Toxstath, 1297 ; Toxsteth,
1447.
This township, which comprises the ancient vill of
Smeedon or Smithdown, having been included in the
forest, became extra-parochial.9 It has from north to
south a frontage of 3 miles to the River Mersey, and
stretches inland for 2 miles. The ground in the
northerly half rises somewhat steeply from the river ;
inland there are several undulations, the highest point,
at the corner of Smithdown Lane and Lodge Lane,
being about 190 ft. The total area is 3,598 acres 10of
which about half, 1,737 acres> was taken within the
borough of Liverpool in 1835, and with the exception
of Prince's Park is now quite covered with streets of
dwelling houses ; the outer half, with the exception of
Sefton Park, containing 387 acres, has, within recent
years, fallen largely into the hands of the builder. This
portion also was included within the borough of
Liverpool in 1895.
The northern half of the township is densely popu-
lated and there are docks and quays along the river
front with the severe buildings of numerous factories
reared in the background. In the southern half the
character of the district changes abruptly, green fields
and trees sloping down to the water's edge instead of
stone quays and dock gates, and the neighbourhood
becomes an important residential suburb, with larger
houses set in private grounds.
The geological formation consists of the new red
sandstone or trias, the pebble beds of the bunter
series occurring in the centre from the river to
Windsor, and again towards Aigburth, with upper
mottled sandstones of the same series between, again
occurring above the docks, where they intervene
between areas of the basement beds of the keuper
series. The soil is clay and sand.
Formerly a brook u rose in the eastern side of
Parliament Fields, at the north end of the township,
and ran down to the river near the boundary in
Parliament Street, being used to turn a water-mill
just before it fell into the river. About the middle
of the river frontage is a creek called Knot's Hole,
and a little farther to the south another creek once
received a brook which rose near the centre of the
township ; 12 the Dingle lies around the former creek,
1 Land. Gay. 15 Sept. 1868.
> Ibid. 5 Feb. 1 86 1 ; for endowment
28 July, ,863.
8 Ibid, ii Jan. 1881 ; for endowment
2 June, 1882, 31 March, 1882.
« Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 176,
226.
6 The recusant roll of 1626 records only
two names in Kirkdale ; Lanes. Lay Sub-
sidies, 131/318.
6 Among the church plate is a six-
teenth-century chalice formerly owned by
Caryll Lord Molyneux ; Tram. Hist. Sue.
(New Ser.), v, 205.
1 Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1901.
8 The initial S does not recur, except
very rarely ; Stokkestoffe is the spelling
in a grant of 1524: Duchy of Lane.
Misc. Bks. xxii, 74.
9 It appears that about 1650 the rector
of Walton had certain dues in Toxteth ;
Plund. Mini. Aects. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Che,.), i, I.
Toxteth Park paid neither church tax nor
county rate ; it had a constable and over-
seer and went by house row, but was not
returned by any court but the court-baron
of the lord of the manor ; Croxteth D.
10 2,375, including 774 of inland
water ; Census. Rep. of 1901. There are
993 acres of tidal water and 263 of fore-
shore.
11 Probably the ancient Oskell's brook.
It is shown in the 1768 map in Enfield'$
Liverpool, and the upper portion appears
also on SherrifTs map of 1823.
111 This brook passed the east end of
St. Michael's Church. The creek, called
Dickenson's Dingle in 1823, has been
filled up.
40
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
and round the latter the district is named St. Michael's
Hamlet, from the church. Just beyond the southern
boundary is the creek called Otterspool, receiving a
brook, known as the Jordan, which rose near Fairfield,
formed the boundary between Wavertree and West
Derby, and then flowed south to the Mersey ; it was
joined by another brook, rising in Wavertree and
flowing south and west past Green Bank.1 Por-
tions of them are still visible in Sefton Park, part of
the course having been formed into a lake there.
The principal road has always been that from
Liverpool parallel to the river, formerly known as
Park Lane, now as Park Place, Park Road, and (beyond
the former municipal boundary) Aigburth Road.
Park Road rises quickly to the summit, 1 80 ft., where
the Park Coffee House formerly stood,8 and then
descends still more rapidly to the Dingle ; near the
bottom on the left is the old Toxteth Chapel.
The foot of the hill was in 1835 the municipal
boundary ; Ullet Road thence goes eastward to the
old lodge of the Park, situated almost at the centre of
the township, where is now the principal entrance to
Sefton Park. The main road, as Aigburth Road,3
pursues its way to Otterspool, having the Dingle
and St. Michael's on the right and Sefton Park on the
left.'
Smithdown Road, formerly Smithdown Lane,
forms on the east or inland side for some distance
the boundary between the township and West Derby ;
by it are the Toxteth cemetery and the workhouse.
It is joined at its northern and southern ends respec-
tively by two ancient roads, called Lodge Lane from
the old Lodge, and Ullet Road already named.
Modern necessities have covered the district with a
vast number of streets, of which only a few can be
named. Parliament Street follows the northern
boundary line from the river to Smithdown Lane,
at which point the district is popularly termed
Windsor. Prince's Road runs from the centre of
Parliament Street to the entrance to Prince's Park,
round which are roads ending in Ullet Road. Mill
Street lies between Park Road and the river.
The Liverpool tramway system provides liberally
for locomotion. The Overhead Railway has a terminus
at the Dingle, and runs by the dock side, with a
number of stations. The Cheshire Lines Committee's
Railway from Liverpool to Manchester has stations at
St. James's, St. Michael's, and Otterspool, with a
goods station, formerly the passenger terminus also, at
Brunswick Dock. The London and North-Western
Company's Liverpool to London line passes through
the south-eastern corner of the township, with a
station called Sefton Park, opened about ten years
since.
The following docks of the Liverpool system are in
WALTON
this township : Queen's, formed 1 796, and recently
modernized ; Coburg ; Brunswick, 1 8 1 1, formerly the
seat of the timber trade ; the old discharging ground
has been utilized as the site of a carriers' dock ;
Toxteth, Harrington, and Herculaneum. To the south
of the last are graving docks, and then the petro-
leum stores.
The Mersey forge stood near the Toxteth dock.
The flour mills are further inland. The Herculaneum
dock takes its name from a pottery established there
in 1 796 on the site of a former copper works ; it
was given up in 1841.* On the river side of the
Queen's dock were formerly considerable shipbuilding
yards. Near them a ferry was in operation for some
years.
The principal park is Sefton Park, formed by the
corporation of Liverpool in 1872 ; a palm house and
aviary have since been presented. A statue of
William Rathbone, unveiled in 1877, stands in it.
Prince's Park, purchased about 1 840 by Richard
Vaughan Yates, with the intention of preserving it
as an open space, is now public property.
An improvement Act was passed in 1842^ and a
local board was constituted in 1856 ;' its operations
were restricted to the extra-municipal portion in
1859.'
The former wards within the borough of Liverpool,
down to 1895, were called North and South Toxteth.
On the inclusion of the rest of the township in 1895
an entirely new arrangement of wards was made ; five
wards, since increased to six, having been formed, each
having an alderman and three councillors.
The Royal Southern Hospital was founded in
1841 ; the first building was in Parliament Street,
close to the docks. The present buildings in Grafton
Street were opened in 1872. Not far from them is
the City Hospital, under the management of the
corporation ; at Parkhill, Dingle, is the Infectious
Diseases Hospital.
The new buildings of Liverpool College in Lodge
Lane accommodate the principal school.
The industrial schools founded by the late Canon
Henry Postance,9 the school for the deaf and dumb,
and the Turner Memorial Home at the Dingle for
incurables, 1882, are among the charitable institu-
tions.
Reports upon the wasting of the shore caused by
the Mersey were made by Edward Eyes on behalf of
the Duchy in 1828 and subsequent years.10
Before the Conquest, TOXTETH
Mj4NOR was divided equally into two manors,
each assessed at ' a virgate and a half of a
plough-land,' otherwise two plough-lands ; one was
held by Bernulf, the other by Stainulf." After the
Conquest it was probably taken into the demesne of
1 This house has for a century been the
of antiquities. About forty years later
7 18 & 19 Vic. cap. 12?.
residence of the Rathbone family, who
have made an honourable name in the
the Dingle estate was purchased by the
Rev. John Yates, minister of the Unitarian
8 21 & 22 Vic. cap. 10.
9 Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Par-
history of Liverpool.
Chapel in Paradise Street; and in 1823
liament Street, from 1858 till his death in
" In 1768 there were but a few scat-
he was residing in the house. The Dingle
1893.
tered residences along this road from
Liverpool to Aigburth. In 1823 Northum-
berland Street was the limit of the streets,
though others were being formed. On
was formerly opened to the public one or
two afternoons in the week.
« At the further end stands the house
once called the New House or 'Three
" Trans. Hist. Soc. xxn, 228-35. There
were fishyards at Jericho from 1770 to
1830; John Leigh, as farmer of the
rectory of Walton, claimed tithe of the
the east side of the road near the Coffee
House was Fairview, then the residence of
Sixes,' with the date 1666 on it ; off the
road is the residential district called
fish in 1826.
11 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 283*. The whole
Charles Turner. Fairview Place preserves
8 At the corner, where there is a sharp
Fullwood Park, in which, on the edge of
Otterspool, was the Lower Lodge of the
park.
therefore appears to have been rated as half
a hide and a plough-land, perhaps pointing
to a different and unequal division of the
turn from Park Road, there stood in 1768
Dr. Kenion's house. He was a collector
' Tram. Hht. Soc. vii, 202-7.
« 5 & 6 Vic. cap. 105.
vill in the past. One manor 'used to
render ' 41. while the other ' was worth ' 41.
3
41
6
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
West Derby, but part at least seems to have been
granted by Count Roger of Poitou to the ancestor
of Molyneux of Sefton, being soon exchanged for a
moiety of Litherland.1 The whole vill was then
afforested, and until 1604 continued to form part of
the forest of West Derby, being described as a ' Hay '
in the earlier records, and as a
park from the time of Edward I. _
A separate keeper or parker was
appointed for it.' The boun-
daries, somewhat within the
present ones, are described in
the perambulation of 1228.*
In 1257 the yearly issues
of Toxteth amounted to
^7 1 4/. 6-^., arising from per-
quisites, agistment, and wood
sold.4 At the death of Edmund,
earl of Lancaster, in 1296,
the issues of Toxteth, Croxteth,
and Simonswood amounted to
£8 3;. \od. per annum.5 His son and successor,
Thomas, in 1316, while a guest of the monks of
Whalley, then but recently translated from Stanlaw
in Cheshire, gave them Toxteth and Smithdown ;
they being dissatisfied with Whalley owing to the
lack of timber there for building.6 However, they
decided to stay at Whalley, and the grant of Toxteth
was revoked, Sir Robert de Holand being put in
possession of this and other manors in the hundred,
STANLEY OF LATHOM.
Argent, on a bend azure
three stags' heads cabossed
which he held till the earl's attainder in 1 322.'
Five years later Toxteth, with the other parks, was
granted to Henry, brother of Thomas of Lancaster,
on being allowed to succeed to the earldom and
estates.8
By this time the profits of the park from the sale of
fuel, &c., had become more important than the
preservation of deer for the chase, and various leases
and grants were made.9 The custody of the park,
after various changes,10 was in 1447 granted in fee to
Sir Thomas Stanley, controller of the household, at a
rent of us. l\d. yearly, with a lease also of the
turbary.11 This office descended
in the Stanley family until I 596, r_^_^_«.^B^
when William, earl of Derby,
sold the park with all his lands
and tenements there and in
Smithdown to Edmund Smolte
and Edward Aspinwall,1' who
subsequently made a number of
grants to kinsmen and others.
Eight years later the earl agreed
to sell the same to Sir Richard
Molyneux of Sefton,13 and after
various intermediate arrange-
ments " the transfer was com-
pleted in 1 605," from which time the estate hai
descended in the Molyneux family to the present earl
of Sefton. The disparking occurred about I 592."
No courts have been held from about 1770, and
MOLYNEUX, Earl of
Sefton. Azure, a cross
moline or.
1 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 14.
contained by estimation 5 leagues in cir-
cuit ; the herbage was worth £173 year ;
Harebrown, for seven years at 431. ^d.
a year.
481. \d. as tithes of Toxteth and Croxteth ;
Lane. Church (Chet. Soc.), ii, 459. This
valued; Add. MS. 32103, fol. 140. A
certain pasture called Smithdown yielded
hands owing to the minority of Edward
earl of Derby, a stag of season was ordered
demesne tithes by Roger of Poitou;
Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 289.
* In 1207 when William Gernct had
livery of the master forestership in suc-
cession to his father Benedict, the covert
Two years later a more detailed ac-
and winter as worth £10 izs. 3</. ; pan-
nage of swine, 1 35. \d. ; turbary of Smith-
down, 43*. c,d. ; turbary outside the park
Devon. Croxteth D. Aa, I.
« Croxteth D. Aa, 2 ; £1,100 was the
Edward Aspinwall was one of the
founders of Toxteth chapel; he wai
to the underwood of the forest— probably
in the vill of West Derby— were excepted,
park, 6s. SJ. ; turbary outside the park,
nigh Liverpool, windfallen wood, bracken,
His son married the sister of Sir Gilbert
Ireland of Hale. Nightingale, Lanes. Nan-
separate custodians ; ibid. 217.
8 Ibid. 421. The bounds are thus
described: 'Where Oskell's brook falls
into the Mersey ; up this brook to
Haghou meadow, from this to Brummesho,
following the syke to Brumlausie, and
across by the old' turbaries upon two meres
Duchy of Lane. Var. Accts. 32/17, fol. ^b.
9 In 1338, Adam son of William de
Liverpool had a grant in fee from the
earl of one acre of turbary in Toxteth,
adjoining the park pale, for 6d. yearly ;
Add. MS. 32105, n. 104.
In 1385 William de Liverpool had
13 Croxteth D. Aa, la ; £1,100 was
again the price, of which £200 had been
paid. It is not known whether Smolte
and Aspinwall had been acting for them-
selves or for Sir Richard Molyneux in the
previous transfer. The sale in 1604 was
made subject to a proviso that the earl
going down to the " waterfall " of the head
of Otter pool, and down this pool into
the Mersey.'
4 Lanes. Inj. and Extents, 210.
<• Ibid. 287 ; this, however, included
take two cartloads of gorse weekly from
the park for \^d, a year rent; Dep.
Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 339.
Another source of profit was indicated
in 1392 in a grant to Robert Baxter and
expectant upon an estate tail granted to
the earl's father by Queen Elizabeth.
"In July, 1604, Thomas Ireland
covenanted with Sir Richard Molyneux to
obtain from the king the reversion in fee of
Derby.
« Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii,
527-31. It appears from these charters
that part of Toxteth lay within an en-
closure of pales (clautura) and part of it
outside, and that Smithdown had for some
time past ceased to be within the fenced
park.
1 See the account of West Derby.
quarry within the park ; Kuerden MSS.
ii, fol. 157.
10 A grant to Baxter and Bolton, men-
tioned in the last note, had been made in
1383, of the custody of the herbage
within the park, the old turbary, &c., to
endure for twenty years at a rent of
24 marks ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xl, App.
526. In 1394 they resigned the lease,
payment of £500 ; and this was granted in
October, by letters patent, to Randle
Wolley and Thomas Dodd, citizens of
London, at the nomination of Sir Henry
Bromley, who afterwards transferred to Sir
Richard; ibid. ». 12, 14; Pat. 2 Jas. I,
pt. xxi. The yearly rent of i is. j\d. was
still to be paid to the crown.
In the meantime Smolte and Aspinwall,
issues of Toxteth for summer herbage
were then worth £11 a year.
In a valuation made in 1331 the forest
of Toxteth, with Croxteth and Simons-
wood, was returned as worth £13 3.. itf.
According to the extent of 1346, after
the death of Earl Henry, Toxteth Park
ibid. In 1403, this being resigned or
lost, a six years' lease was granted to
John Stonyhurst and Thomas Ashton at
a rent of 40 marks, with a proviso that
they should not sell turf within the town-
ship of Liverpool : ibid. 531.
11 Ibid. 539 ; the lease of the turbary
was to Sir Thomas Stanley and James
the tenants and farmers of the park, on
whose behalf and their own they had pur-
chased it, conveyed their interest to Sir
Richard. Croxteth D. Aa, n. 13.
15 Ibid. n. 15; a fine concerning 24
messuages, 10 cottages, 2 mills, &c., in
16 Duchy of Lane. Spec. Com. n. 671.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
no perambulations of boundaries made. Lord Sefton
has claimed wreck.1
The offices of forester and keeper of Toxteth park
and of the park of Croxteth and chase of Simonswood
were of some importance. They were usually held
for life, the wages of the former being £2 per annum
with some small perquisites. Robert de Sankey, the
Terderer, was incapacitated in 1330;' Roger de
Moreton was succeeded in 1360 by Roger de
Ditton ;3 Sir John le Boteler was master forester in
'379-* James Harebrown and Sir Thomas Stanley
had a grant of the office of parker in 1440, to be
held for their lives or in survivorship.5 The master
forestership of West Derbyshire had four years earlier
been conferred on Sir Richard Molyneux,6 but this
grant, though confirmed in 1461 and 1483,' was
revoked by Henry VII, who appointed Thomas
Scarisbrick, servant of Sir Edward Stanley, to the
office.8 In 1505, however, the former grant was
revived,9 which confirmation was enrolled in 1706 in
the office of the auditor of the duchy.10
SMITHDOWN " has been merged in Toxteth Park
for 700 years. The area is not definitely known, though
the name continued in use down to the sixteenth
century or later, but it is believed to have extended
from Lodge Lane eastwards to the boundary." Ethel-
mund held it as a separate manor in 1066, when it
was assessed as one plough-land, and its value, beyond
the customary rent, was the normal 32<^.13 King John,
desiring to add it to the park of Toxteth, took it from
its owner, a poor man, and gave him Thingwall for it.
The perambulators of the forest in 1228 seem to have
considered the exchange equitable, for they conclude
their reference to Smithdown with the words :
'Therefore let the king do his will therewith."4
From that time onward the vill was involved with
Toxteth, but a strip on the side of Liverpool, after-
wards known as Smithdown Moss, was granted at
various times in parcels for turbary.15
The prior of St. John's Hospital, Chester, at one
WALTON
time held 26 acres of waste in the hills by Smithdown
by the grant of Henry, earl of Lancaster.16
In consequence of the change to a thickly populated
urban district, there have been erected in recent times
a large number of places of worship. The earliest
in connexion with the Established Church was
St. James's, on the border of Liverpool, built in 1774
under an Act of Parliament ; the money was raised
by shares, Lord Sefton giving the land.17 A burial
ground surrounds it. A district was assigned in
1 844-18 The rector of Walton presents to the per-
petual curacy. St. Michael's was built in 1817, from
Rickman's designs, being one of the iron churches of
the time. There is a monument to commemorate
Jeremiah Horrocks. The present patron is Mrs. W.
Jones.19 The more recent churches, with the dates of
erection, are as follows : St. John the Baptist's, near
the top of the hill, 1832 ;20 St. Paul's, Prince's Park,
1 848 ;" St. Thomas's, near the docks, 1 840 ;22 St. Barna-
bas's was built in 1841, and demolished in 1893 ;**
St. Clement's, Windsor, 1841 ; St. Matthew's, Hill
Street, 1847 ;84 St. Silas's, High Park Street, 1865 ;"
Holy Trinity, Parliament Street, 1858;" St. Mar-
garet's, Prince's Road, 1869 ;"' St. Cleopas's, 1866 ;"
Christ Church, Sefton Park, 1870 ;>9 St. Philemon's,
Windsor Street, 1874 ;M All Saints', Prince's Park
entrance, i884;31 St. Gabriel's, 1884; St. Bede's,
Hartington Road, 1886 ; St. Agnes's, Ullet Road,
1884 ;3J and St. Andrew's, Aigburth Road, l893.M
The patronage is vested in various bodies of trustees,
except where otherwise stated in the notes. St.
Deniol's, Windsor, was built as a place of worship for
Welsh-speaking Anglicans. After difficulties which
kept it closed for some years it was licensed for service
in 1 90 1.3*
The Wesleyan Methodists have many churches in
Toxteth. The earliest is Wesley chapel, Stanhope
Street, built in 1827. St. John's, Prince's Park, was
built in 1862 ; St. Peter's, High Park Street, in
1878; and Wesley, Lodge Lane, in 1883. Smith-
1 Tram. Hi,,. Soc. xxii, 229, 230.
" Cal. of Clou, 1330-34, 74.
13 y.C.H. Lana. i, 2842.
14 Lanes. Fife R. 421. Richard son of
M It was built by Sir John Gladstone ;
the Rev. Stephen Gladstone is patron.
Roger de Ditton also had permission to
construct a fish stall in the Mersey ad-
change for his inheritance in Smithdown,
which the king had put in his forest ;
street. The proceeds of the sale of build-
rock called Skeryard, in the tidal water.
« Memoranda of Exch. of John, duke
of Lane. Hilary Term, 3 Regality, R. 6 ;
Lane. Church (Chet. Soc.), 459 ; an ac-
count of Sir John le Boteler, master
forester of Derbyshire, for the sixth year,
showing that the barons of the Exch.
allowed him to ease his account of 481. 4^.
Smithdown he had paid 61. 8</. to the
scutage and 31. for some office in 1202 ;
Lanes. Pipe R. 153, 154; also '/S,
Earlier than this, in 1185, a fishery
hard by the pales of Toxteth Park had
been farmed by Richard and Adam de
Ltnd. Gaz. 7 May.
" For district, ibid. 6 Aug. 1867.
* Ibid. 25 March, 1862, for assignment
of a district.
V It was built by Mr. Horsfall in 1869,
in order that sympathizers with the
modern High Church movement might
of the herbage, turbary, honey, wax,
heath, and gorse of Croxteth and Tox-
5 Duchy of Lane. Chan. R. 8, § 48.
6 The grant is printed in full in Baines'
Lanes, (ed. 1870), ii, 383. It was ex-
cepted from the resumption in 1455 ;Parl.
*.v, 3,6.
7 Croxteth D. W. 5 and 8.
» Part. R. vi, 363.
9 Croxteth D. W. 9.
"Ibid. ». 12.
"Esmedune, D.B. ; Smededon, 1185;
Smeddon, 1212; Smethesdune, 1228;
Smethedon, 1348: Smethdon, 1447;
Smethden, 1636.
12 Compare the boundaries of Toxteth
as given in the Perambulation of 1228,
and the map of 1768 in Enfield's Liver-
tool.
interference with the king's deer, Richard
and Adam proffered a mark that it might
stand, and the order was rescinded ; ibid.
56.
is See an earlier note.
"Add. MS. 32103, fol. 142.
Benson, a Liverpool benefactor.
«ZW. Gaz. 14 Sept. 1844.
" There is a view in Gregson, Frag-
ments (ed. Harland), I 54.
«° For district see Land. Can. 25 Sept.
' '/The church was built for Hugh
MacNeile, D.D. afterwards dean of Ripon,
for thirty years one of the most in-
fluential men in Liverpool. For the
assignment of a district see Land. Ga*.
13 June, ,854.
fierce lawsuits have been waged around
it, and the vicar (the Rev. James Bell
Cox) was at one time imprisoned for
nonconformity.
28 For district see Lund. Gaz. i March,
1867. There is a mission church.
»»A district was assigned in 1872;
Land. Gaa. 23 April. Messrs. W. H.
and G. Horsfall are patrons.
*> Ibid. 15 Dec. 1874, for district.
81 The bishop of Liverpool is patron.
»3 Mr. Henry Douglas Horsfall, the
founder, is patron. St. Pancras is a licensed
chapel of ease.
88 This church was built by the Ches.
Lines Com. in lieu of the old St. An-
drew's in Renshaw Street, Liverpool,
which they acquired for an extension of
Central Station.
" It is in the hands of trustees.
43
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
down Road chapel dates from 1 897. There is another
in Lark Lane. Mission halls are Templar Hall and
Hutchinson Hall. Mount Zion in Prince's Avenue
is for Welsh-speaking Methodists ; a previous chapel
was in Chester Street. The New Connexion have a
church in Park Place. The United Free Methodists
have two places of worship.
The Baptists have three churches : the Tabernacle
in Park Road, built in 1871; Prince's Gate chapel,
1 88 1 ; and Windsor Street Welsh chapel. This last,
built in 1872, represents a congregation formed in
Gore Street in 1827.
The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have churches in
Prince's Road and David Street. They had a
chapel called Ebenezer in Bedford or Beaufort Street,
Toxteth, as early as 1805.'
As a result of a ' tent mission ' begun in the year
1823, a Congregational church was formed in 1827.
now represented by the Berkley Street church.8 The
same body opened Toxteth chapel in 1831; this
building was replaced in 1872 by that at the corner
of Aigburth Road. In 1881-5 a school chapel was
built in Hartington Road.3 In Park Road is a chapel
for Welsh-speaking Congregationalists.*
There is a Church of Christ in Windsor Street.
The Presbyterians have four churches. The senior
is that in Belvedere Road, known as Trinity, erected
in 1857. The important church by the Sefton Park
gates, where Dr. John Watson (Ian Maclaren) was
minister, was built in 1879. In the same year a
church was built in Prince's Road, replacing a tem-
porary one founded by the United Presbyterians in
1864. St. Columba's, Smithdown Road, was opened
in 1897.
The ' ancient chapel ' of Toxteth Park is supposed
to have been built about the commencement of the
seventeenth century by the tenants and farmers of the
park.5 It was probably never consecrated, and it is
not known whether the Anglican services were ever
used in it. The commissioners of 1650 noticed it,
and recommended that it should have a parish assigned
to it.6 In 1718 Bishop Gastrell recorded that it was
uncertain whether the Park was extra-parochial or in
the parish of Lancaster ; that the chapel was held by
the Dissenters under a lease from Lord Molyneux,
whose agents returned it as a house belonging to his
lordship when as a 'papist' his estates were regis-
tered.7 A similar statement had been made in
1671-2, on the Declaration of Indulgence, the chapel
being then licensed for worship.8 At that time it was
said that ' there was neither a Churchman nor a
Catholic' here.9 About 1716 a sum of .£300 was
bequeathed to the township by John Burgess and others,
of which the interest on .£260 was considered to
belong to the 'orthodox minister' and the rest to the
poor.10
Richard Mather, the first minister, is said to have
settled in Toxteth as a schoolmaster about 1612;
showing aptitude he was sent up to Brasenose College,
Oxford ; afterwards he was minister at Toxteth and
Prescot, until silenced in 1633 by the archbishop of
York for his nonconformity. In 1635 he emigrated
to New England.11 From his departure until 1646
nothing is known of the chapel's history ; in the
latter year Robert Port was minister ; ls Thomas Hig-
gins in 1650;" and Thomas Crompton in 1657."
No doubt regular public services had to be discon-
tinued for a time after 1662. Michael Briscoe,
ejected from Walmsley, was minister at Toxteth at
his death in 1685," and was followed by Christopher
Richardson, ejected at Kirkheaton.16 About a hundred
years afterwards the minister and most of the congre-
gation, like the English Presbyterians in general, had
adopted Unitarian tenets,17 and the building continues
to be used as a Unitarian place of worship. Another
Unitarian church has been built in Ullet Road ;18 and
there is a mission in Mill Street.
The Society of Friends have a burial-ground in
Smithdown Road.
The first Roman Catholic church erected in Tox-
teth was St. Patrick's, Park Place, begun in 1821 and
opened in l827.19 Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
1 See Trans. Hist. Soe. v, 50.
6 Commonwealth Church Surv. (Rec.
when the latter retired. In 1665 and 1670
place of meeting. Three years later a
removal was made to Hanover Chapel, at
the corner of Mill Street and Warwick
Street. The work did not progress, and
in 1839 the chapel was closed for a time.
trict is called 'Toxteth Park cum Smith-
down.' The minister had its tithes
allowed him, and £10 from the rector of
Walton.
7 Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 171-2.
(and in the former year Nehemiah Am-
brose) had a conventicle at Toxteth ;
Visit. Records at Chest.
16 Nightingale, op. cit. 83-9, with
portraits.
in use until 1856, when it was burnt
down. The congregation then built the
chapel in Berkley Street. It has had
varied fortunes. Nightingale, Lanes. Non-
conf. vi, 173-6. 8 Ibid.
4 The congregation was first gathered
in a room over a stable in Watkinson
Street, in 1827 ; then a yard in Green-
land Street was roofed over, and here in
249 persons, of whom 24 possessed county
votes ; O. Heywood, Diaries, iv, 316.
8 Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1870), ii, 385.
9 Halley, op. cit. ii, 456, quoting from
Dr. Raffles' Collections.
10 Char. Com. Rep. xx.
11 Diet. Nat. Biog. He conformed so far
to the legally established discipline as to
be ordained by the bishop of Chester ; but
1775, when the following description was
given : ' A pleasing situation and an agree-
able neighbourhood, but a people rather
stiff in their sentiments. I freely own,
Sir, that some of the peculiar doctrines of
Calvinism are too hard for my digestion ;'
ibid. 98. The change took place in the
ministry of Hugh Anderson, 1776-1832.
At his appointment a number of the con-
sites were on the Liverpool side of the
border. Nine years later Bethel was
built in Bedford (now Beaufort) Street.
About 1870 a new chapel was built in a
more suitable position in Park Road.
Ibid, vi, 227-9.
faction.
" Nightingale, op. cit. vi, 81 ; Robert
Port was a member of the fifth classis.
13 Common-wealth Church Surv. loc. cit.
" Crompton was not 'ejected' in 1662
for nonconformity, for the Act of Uniform-
gational Church in Newington, Liverpool ;
and by 1825 the Toxteth congregation
had been reduced to the officials ; ibid.
103, 104.
18 This represents a removal from
Renshaw Street, Liverpool.
printed an Account of the Ancient Chapel
of Toxteth Park ; there is also a full
account in Nightingale, op. cit. vi, 66-
no, and references in Halley, Lanes.
Puritanism.
The chapel was rebuilt in 1774 ; it has
a bell dated 1751, and some fittings of
the older building ; Nightingale, op. cit.
95. 96-
of the tenure of the building ; Nightin-
gale, loc. cit. He is probably the ' Mr.
Crompton' who married one of Sir
Gilbert Ireland's sisters. He was at
Toxteth in 1672, but retired and died
at Manch. in 1699 ; Halley, op. cit. ii, 1 56.
i* Nightingale, op. cit. vi, 83. He was
an Independent, but worked with Cromp-
ton, a Presbyterian, having sole charge
the Irish famine had driven great numbers
of the poor peasants to overcrowded parts
of Liverpool, four priests were struck
down by typhus, only one (Bernard
O'Reilly, afterwards bishop) recovering.
In the churchyard there is a cross as a
monument to the three victims and seven
other priests who died in the same way
in that outbreak.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
suitably placed at the top of the hill, was begun in
1865 ; the present church was opened in 1878.
St. Bernard's school church was built in 1884 ; it was
in 1901 replaced by the new church of Our Lady of
Lourdes and St. Bernard. St. Clare's, near Sefton
Park, was consecrated in 1890. St. Charles Borro-
meo's in Aigburth Road, begun in 1892 in a tem-
porary iron building, was opened in 1900.'
The Orthodox or Greek church at the corner of
Prince's Road, in the Byzantine style, was built in
1870 for the accommodation of the numerous Greek
merchants and others resident in Liverpool.
The Jewish synagogue in Prince's Road was built
about 1878 to replace the older one in Seel Street,
Liverpool.
FORMBY
Fornebei, Dom. Bk. ; Fornebi, 1177; Forneby,
common till 1500 ; Formby, 1338, became common
in the sixteenth century.
This township or chapelry forms a detached por-
tion of the parish of Walton, and including the
manors and hamlets of Raven Meols on the south-
west and Ainsdale on the north, has an area of 6,619
acres, 4,502 being the acreage of Formby proper.8
Ainsdale has since 1894 been an independent town-
ship.* In 1901 the separate population of Formby
was 5,642, and of Ainsdale 1,314.
Formby is bounded on the west by the sea, the
shore being protected by extensive and somewhat
lofty sandhills, covered with a luxuriant growth of
creeping willows and star grass, the latter being
systematically planted to keep the sand from drifting
away. Game abounds on these hills, wherefore the
land is strictly preserved, and only a few footpaths
across the forbidden ground are open to the public.
The sandhills afford shelter from the sea winds to the
three villages of Formby, Formby-by-the-Sea, and
Freshfield, which form practically one town, situated
on flat, sandy land, surrounded by fields intersected
by ditches, where rye, wheat, potatoes * and a variety
of market produce flourish, including fields of
asparagus, a specialty in the district. Fishing for
shrimps and raking the sands for cockles affords
employment to some of the inhabitants. Formby
sandhills are famous to local botanists as the habitat
of several uncommon and characteristic wild plants,
among which may be mentioned the Wintergreen,
Pyrola rotundifo/la, var. maritima. Towards the sea
the soil and subsoil consist of blown sand, with fluvia-
WALTON
tile sand or loam towards the neighbourhood of the
Alt ; on the landward side the soil is peaty ; to the east
of Formby Hall a small area of keuper marls occurs.
The principal road is that from Liverpool to
Southport, from Alt Bridge northwards through
Formby and Ainsdale. The village is large and
scattered over the central portion of the area ; in
recent years residential districts have grown up by the
sea. This is largely due to the railway facilities, the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's line from
Liverpool to Southport having stations called Formby
and Freshfield.
Formerly the township must have been much
larger. As it is, Formby Point is a prominent feature
of the coast-line ; but the greater part of Raven Meols
was long ago destroyed by the sea.5 About the
beginning of the eighteenth century sand gradually
overwhelmed the lands by the shore, changing the
coast-line.6 The dark tilled soil of the ancient surface
and the natural furrows made by the plough are
occasionally found when clearing the ground of blown
sand. From 1710 Formby leases contained a clause
providing for the planting of star-grass, which became
part of the service due to the lords of the manors ;
afterwards an Act was passed, making the planting
compulsory.
There are many curious place-names in Formby.
The Wicky Dales and Clovenly Dales are near the
Ainsdale boundary. The banks forming the fences of
the fields are called ' cops.' Dangus Lane, on the
east side of the village, is sometimes called Danesgate
Land, being connected by local traditions with an in-
cursion of the Danes. The Whams is an open space
to the west of Formby Hall. Watchut or Watchyard
Lane may be derived from wet-shod. Stingman's or
Steeman's hook, by the moss on the east, is supposed
to be derived from the vipers which formally infested
the place. Brank Farm was so called from brank or
buckwheat, which will grow on very poor land.
There are traditions that troops for the suppression
of the rebellion of 1715 were embarked at Formby
for Scotland, and that early in the eighteenth century
a proposal was made that docks should be constructed
here rather than at Liverpool.
The old roundhouse was pulled down about 1893,
but remains of the stocks may still be seen. A stone
cross with steps was erected in 1879 on the village
green, which was then enclosed ; the old cross and
steps were re-erected in St. Luke's churchyard. The
pedestal of another, called the Cop Cross, formerly
stood west of the village.7
1 Liverpool Catb. Ann. 1901.
of large quantities of land in the vicinity
during last century ; see the map of en-
acres, including six of inland water. The
foreshore of Formby alone measures 1,562
acres, and of Ainsdale 620.
» Loc. Gov. Bd. Order 31626.
* Potatoes are said to have been intro-
duced into England by the wrecking of a
edge of the shore, and about the lifeboat
house, which when erected thirty-five
years ago stood loo yards inland, but now
projects about 300 yards before the hills
and line of high water ; in this period also
at least 300 yards have been taken from
but the course of the Alt does not seem to
have changed since the date of this map,
In the north, near the boundary of
Ainsdale, is a large sandhill covering the
spot where once stood a cottage known as
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 203 ; Jeno-
way, Antiq. Notes (Edin. 1823), p. 207.
5 See Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x,
48 ; xiii, 93.
To the entry of Raven Meols in the
ancient rating book of the county is added
the note : — ' All or the most part whereof
is drowned in the sea.'
In a report prepared in 1839 the action
of the winds and tides was noted. The
effects were ' perceptible in the destruction
xxii, 246. The appended note gives a
more moderate estimate of the change.
The landmark mentioned was a tower
on Formby Point ; a corresponding tower
was erected in Ince Blundell to assist
navigators in entering the Mersey by
Formby Channel. See the plan in En-
fold' t Liverpool, 1771.
• The land on the seaward side of the
Alt, where is now the Altcar rifle range
(in Little Crosby township), was reclaimed
45
' In old days the leases used to include
the right to fish on a given part of the
shore, which was called a "stall," and
was treated as one of the fields of the farm;
but when the great changes took place on
the coast about this time (1700), this
custom fell into disuse .... The last
fishery lease that I have seen is dated
1711'; information of Mr. John Formby.
^ Lanes, and Ches. Antij. Soc. xix, 187-
9 ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 239.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Camden notices the use of turf here for fire
and candle light, and the oily matter coming
from it.1
The area of Raven Meols * extends to 658 acres
exclusive of foreshore.
Camden states that there was a small village named
Alt Mouth near Formby,3 but it has disappeared, so
that it is uncertain whether it
was on the Raven Meols side of
the river, or in Ince Blundell.4
In 1835 there was no dwelling
here but a farmhouse ; a rabbit
warren adjoined.5
The hamlet of Ainsdale,6
now a township, was formerly
estimated to contain 1,459 seres,
but according to the census of
1901 has 1,617 acres of land
and inland water and 620 acres
of foreshore. Two of the rail-
ways running into Southport
have stations here ; the Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire Company one at Ainsdale ; and
the Southport and Cheshire Extension two— Wood-
vale and Seaside.
Flat sandy fields lie inland, cultivated for the most
part, and extensively drained by deep, wide ditches.
The principal crops are potatoes and corn, whilst
field-peas and cabbages make a variety here and there.
Trees are small, and only appear in the vicinity of the
village of Ainsdale and around a few scattered farm-
houses.
EATON <
eauatrettapJ,
In 1066 there were in FORMBT
MANORS proper three manors, held by three
thegns, the land being assessed as four
plough-lands and said to be worth los. beyond the
customary rent.7 A quarter of Formby, or one
plough-land, was after the Conquest granted to or
retained by a family of thegns who also held Bootle
and Woodplumpton.8 Richard, son of Roger, son of
Ravenkil, died in 1200, when his lands were divided
between his four daughters. One of these, Quenilda,
wife of Jordan de Thornhill, was tenant in 1212.'
The remainder was probably taken into the
demesne of West Derby ; I0 but a second of the four
ploughlands was granted by Henry I, or perhaps by
Stephen, when count of Mortain, as a serjeanty to
be held by the service of escorting or conducting the
king's treasury from the southern
confines of the county as far as
Blackbrook ; it was held in 1212
by Quenilda de Kirkdale as heir
of her father Roger. Roger had
enfeoffed William son of Nor-
man of this plough-land, and
William in turn had granted it
to Quenilda, wife of Jordan de
Thornhill ; " she was thus in
possession of half the vill though
by different tenures. It de-
scended like her other lands
to the Stockport and Beetham
WARREN or POYNTON.
Chequy or and azure,
rampant argent.
families ; ls the one moiety descending through the
Eatons to the Warrens,13 and the other by confiscation
1 Britannia (ed. 1695), 748 : 'In the
moist and mossy soil turves are digged up
which serve the inhabitants for fuel and
candle light. Under the said turf there is
a certain dead and blackish water, upon
which there swimmeth I know not what
fishes that are caught by the diggers of
turf.' William Blundell of Crosby, writing
about 1 680, knew nothing about the fishes,
of 21. to Quenilda de Kirkdale, and this
was granted by her to Cockersand Abbey
for the welfare of the soul of King Henry ;
Cockersand Cbartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 564.
u Jordan de Thornhill died without
issue, and his widow Quenilda was by
Randle, earl of Chester, married about
1222 to Roger Gernet, chief forester.
She died in 1 2 5 2 seised of two plough-lands
held in chief of William, Earl Ferrers, by
Eaton and Margaret his wife [for Joan],
a similar tenement for the same service ;
Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 36. In 1 346 Ralph
de Beetham and John de Davenport were
returned similarly ; the latter's right was
as father-in-law and guardian of Richard
de Eaton, son of Robert and grandson of
Nicholas, who was married to his daughter
Isabel ; Survey of 1346 (Chet. Soc.), 32.
Sometime between this date and 1378,
the turf extracted 'an oil extraordinary
sovereign for paralytic distempers' ; Gib-
son, Cavalier's Note Book, 298.
2 Mele, D. B. ; Ravenesmoles, 1199;
Stockport and Ralph de Beetham were
her heirs ; Inj. and Extents, 1 16, 191.
She had enfeoffed William de Samles-
bury of her moiety of the manor, and his
socage to knight's service, viz., the sixth
part of a fee ; Aid of 2 Ric. II ; Dods.
MSS. cxxxi, fol. 175*.
In 1369 Isabel de Stockport or de
meales, 1580.
8 Britannia, 748.
4 Tunnicliffe's map of 1789 shows it ;
Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 173.
* Baines, Lane,, (ed. 1836), iv, 54.
6 Einuluesdel, D. B. ; Annovesdala,
ibid. 191. She afterwards married Robert
de Hampton, but Formby appears to have
been given to her younger sister Cecily,
wife of John d'Evyas, and about 1280
Richard d'Evyas, probably their son, was
lord of a moiety of Formby ; Norris D.
the Richard last named, died without issue;
whereupon her next heir was found to be
Sir John Warren, son of Sir Edward War-
ren, the second husband of Cecily de
Eaton, sister of the above Robert de
Eaton ; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), iii,
794, where the subsequent descents may
dale, 1506; Aynsdale, 1568.
7 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*. It is possible
that the 'three thegns' were identical
with the ' three thegns ' of Ainsdale and
the ' three thegns ' of Raven Meols.
8 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 43, 44. A
twelfth-century rental in the Pipe R. of
10 Hen. Ill has the entry : 'Of Richard
son of Roger, of thegnage in Formby and
Bootle, 1 31. 4</.' ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 136.
» The service was a rent of 4*. 8</. ;
ibid. 23.
10 Formby occurs in 1176, along with
other portions of the demesne of the
honour, as contributing 361. %a. to the aid;
Lanes. Pipe R. 35. The assized rent of
285. was in 1202 increased by 61. id. ;
ibid. 164, Inq. and Extents, 137.
11 Inq. and Extents, 27, I 3 I . Blackbrook
has not been identified. There is a stream
of the name in Astley. Jordan paid a rent
some part of this fee ; Kuerden, ii, fol.
260.
In 1259 Sir Robert de Stockport and
Robert de Beetham were suing Robert de
Hampton and Margery his wife for sixteen
oxgangs in Formby; Cur. Reg. R. 162,
m. \<)d.
18 The Stockport moiety descended to
Sir Richard, son of the above-mentioned
Sir Robert, who died in 1292, leaving issue
two daughters. The elder, Joan, but two
and a half years of age at her father's
death, married Sir Nicholas de Eaton and
afterwards Sir John Ardern ; and in 1 340
Sir John Ardern released her lands in
Formby and Woodplumpton to Robert
son of Nicholas de Eaton; Watson,
Memoirs of the Earls of Warren, ii, 234.
In the extent of 1324 Ralph de Beet-
ham was returned as holding 8 oxgangs in
Formby for 2s. $d. yearly, and Nicholas de
46
John Warren died in 1480 seised of 6
messuages, 40 acres of land, &c., in Form-
by, which he had in 1445 demised to
Isabel, daughter of Robert Legh of Adling-
ton ; she still held them in i 506. They
were held of the king by the twentieth
part of a knight's fee, and were worth 201.
per annum clear ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
p. m. iii, n. 86.
His grandson, Sir John Warren, was
the heir in 1 506, being then aged thirty-
six years. He died in 1518 seised of a
fourth part of the vill, 30 messuages, &c.,
held by the fifth part of a knight's fee ;
Lawrence Warren, aged thirty-three years,
was his son and heir ; ibid, iv, n. 89.
Sir Edward Warren, son and heir of
Lawrence, died in 1 5 5 8 seised of the same ;
the rent of 21. $d. payable to the crown ii
mentioned in the inquisition; ibid, xi,
n.86.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
in 1487 came into possession of the earls of Derby.1
John Warren in 1561 by fine released his fourth
part of the manor to Henry Halsall of Halsall,' and
two years later Edward, earl
of Derby, sold his fourth share
to the same Henry Halsall.8
The other moiety of Formby
was granted by John, count of
Mortain, to Richard son of
Roger, thegn of Woodplump-
ton, who held it until the
rebellion of 1193-4, when he
was dispossessed for adhering
to the cause of his chief lord.4
Formby was expressly excluded
when Richard's daughters and
coheirs obtained a confirma-
tion of their father's lands in
Amounderness,5 and in 1203 was granted to Richard
de Meath, one of the king's clerks, son of Gilbert de
Walton.6 Three years later it was taken into the
king's hands,7 and in 1208 granted to Hugh de
Moreton, who had married Margaret, one of the
daughters of Richard son of Roger.8 Taking part
against the king, Hugh was dispossessed, and in
August, 1215, Richard de Meath was again put into
possession.9 A year later Hugh de Moreton, who
had made his peace with the king, was reinstated,10
WALTON
but in 1 22 1 Richard de Meath succeeded in obtain-
ing Henry Ill's mandate to the sheriff to put him
in seisin of this and other manors granted to him by
King John.11 Richard granted it to his brother
Henry de Walton for life, with a provision, which
took effect, that should Henry
survive him, the estate should
descend to Henry's heirs ; this
arrangement was confirmed by
the king in 1227."
The lordship of this moiety
descended with Walton until
1 489, when Roger Walton died,
leaving daughters as heirs ; after
which it does not seem trace-
able.13 It had, however, been
early granted out to several
tenants ; partly to the Blundells
three swans argen
hose share was given to the
Morrises,14 descending with the West Derby and
Speke branches until 1543, when Sir William Norris
exchanged it for other lands of Sir William Molyneux
of Sefton,15 the latter's son in 1561 selling it to
Henry Halsall ; 16 partly to a local family, who
assumed Formby as a surname, and have retained
their share of the manor, now called a quarter, to the
present day ; and partly to others whose holdings
cannot be clearly traced.17
1 This quarter of the manor was in
customed farm of 281. and 6s. 8</. yearly
About the same time a division of lands
whom it descended to his son and heir,
vill was tallaged at 171. with the other
demesne manors ; Lanes. Fife R. 202.
7 Ibid. 206, Close (Rec. Com.), 1199-
1224, p. 55 ; Inq. and Extents, i.
8 Lanes. Pipe R. 220, 221. For this
Beetham and John le Norreys ; Dods. MS.
cxlix, fol. 143. In 1334 William le Nor-
reys stated that he, Robert de Shireburne,
Ralph de Beetham, and Adam de Formby
were lords of the manor, but Roger le
1472, had settled his estates on his three
brothers, Roger, William, and Richard ;
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 9, m. 18 b ; Lanes.
p.m. 12 Edw. IV, a. 20. Roger and
William dying without male issue, Richard
came into possession and was living in
1484 ; Duchy of Lane. Misc. vol. cxxx,
hawk and a brachet ; ibid. 224.
' Rot. de Finibus (Rec. Com.), 560.
1° Close (Rec. Com.), 1199-1224, p.
289*. The sheriff was ordered to rein-
also; Coram Rege R. 297, m. 58. In
1338 Ralph de Beetham made a grant to
Alan, son of John le Norreys ; Norris D.
(B.M.), ». 4*5-
The estates of the family appear to have
been forfeited for adherence to the House
ginning of the war for being then with
at West Derby, for in 1401 it was found
that William Norris had been seised of
to the earl of Derby. Roger Beetham,
brother of Sir Edward, had a daughter
Agnes, who married Robert Middleton of
Leighton (Chan. Inq. p.m.), and their son
and heir Thomas Middleton contested the
earl of Chester. " Ibid. 477*.
the king as of the duchy of Lancaster by
Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 138.
William son of Henry de Walton
Towneley MS. DD. n. 1447.
With Lettice, daughter and heir of
Thomas, son of William Norris, this part
of Formby returned to the Speke line, she
marrying Thomas Norris. In 145 3-4 the
ments, each of half an oxgang, held by
Thomas Ainsdale, John Formby and
others, for rents amounting to 405. 6d.,
and thirteen smaller holdings, rented at
in. io</, in all; Norris D. (B.M.),
Rental.
15 Appended to the Norris Rental quoted
in the last note is a memorandum in the
had no more than a life interest; see
Ancient D. D. 477. In the result the
of Gilbert de Formby, and his issue ;
Dieulacres Reg. fol. 17.
" In 1346 Simon de Walton held two
plough-lands in Formby; Survey of 1346
(Chet. Soc.), 32. In the Feodary com-
piled in 1430 it is recorded that the heirs
of Robert de Walton held here by the
gift of King John two plough-lands in
socage for 341. 8<£, paying double rent for
relief, and attending with the bailiff of the
most of the others, and the second earl,
in the inquest taken after his death, was
found to have been seised of Bootle and
Kirkby; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. v,
n. 68; on the other hand Thomas Middle-
ton was in i 5 1 4 described as ' of Beetham' ;
L. and P. Hen. VIII, i, 4767 ; and his son
manors of Kirkby and Bootle ; Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p.m. ix, n. n, and ante 333.
8 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 23,
Dods. MSS. Ixxxvii, fol. 57.
" William Blundell, no doubt the lord
of Ince, held a messuage and 3 oxgangs
of land, which he gave to Alan, son of
he had made an exchange with Sir William
Molyneux ; the lands received were in
Lydiate and Maghull. See Croxteth D.
Gen. i, 79 ; ii, i.
scribed as part of the manor of Formby,
and the fourth part of 28 messuages, &c.,
windmill, 1,000 acres of land, &c., in
Formby.
8 Ibid. bdle. 25, m. 55 ; the fourth part
of the manor and 600 acres of moor, moss,
and heath. « Lanes. Fife R. 90.
« Charter R. (Rec. Com.), 90* i Inq.
and Extents, 40.
• Rot. de OUatis (Rec. Com.), 191 ; to
be held in fee and inheritance by the ac-
Upon the death of Patrick le Norreys,
grandson of Alan and Margery, about
1 3 14 without issue, Alan son of Henry
le Norreys claimed this tenement as kins-
man and heir of Patrick. John le Norreys
of Speke, uncle of the claimant, had come
into possession by a grant from his father,
and his right was affirmed by the jury, the
grant to Alan son of Hugh having been
in fee, and not in tail, to the issue of Alan
and Margery ; De Bane. R. 238, m. 191.
47
17 In' the rental of the wapentake of
West Derby for 1514 the service due is
thus recorded : ' Of the heirs of the vill of
Formby, 391. 4</.' being the 41. 8rf. due
from Quenilda dc Thornhill's half, and
the 341. So1, from the Walton half. The
details of the latter half are as follows s—
Norris, 101. ; Formby, 151.; Gerard of
Aughton, 41. 4</. ; earl of Derby, 41. 4^.
(in addition to the 2s. $d. he paid for the
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Thus by the year 1564 three parts of the manor
had come into the possession of Henry Halsall, from
whom the estate descended to Sir Cuthbert Halsall ;
he in 1631 sold it to Robert Blundell,1 in whose
descendants it has descended, in the same manner as
Ince Blundell, to Mr. Charles Weld-Blundell, the
present lord of this share.
The remaining portion, traditionally seven oxgangs
out of the thirty-two, was the share of the Formby
family. It appears that Master Roger de Derby held
seven oxgangs in Formby, five of Henry de Walton,
and two of William de Lee, the latter in turn prob-
ably holding of the same Henry. To Hugh de
Corona, son of Master Roger, Henry de Nottingham
granted these seven oxgangs, with the principal
messuage and all his men, as well free as others, at a
rent of 1 5/. id. a year and a pair of white gloves.'
This Hugh de Corona is no doubt the Hugh
de Formby s whose son Adam de Formby held seven
oxgangs here in 1327.* From that time only frag-
mentary notices are obtainable of the family,5 except
in the sixteenth century,6 until the eighteenth century
Beetham quarter), and Aughton of North
Meols (who held of Bold of Bold), u. ;
Simon le Waleys, son of Henry, rector of
Standish, to Robert Dudley and Margery
granted a portion of land to John Vause
and Joan his wife, daughter of William de
As to the Gerard share, in 1513 Joan,
formerly the wife of Nicholas Fazakerley,
released to Peter Gerard, clerk, what she
had in Formby (Kuerden MSS. ii, 268*,
n. 42) ; and in 1640 Thomas Gerard of
Aughton made a feoffment of the ' lord-
ship of Formby ' and various lands. Ibid.
269, n. 7. The rent of 45. 4</. was paid
m 1617 ; Lanes. Inq. f.m. (Rec. Soc.
the house thereon, to be held of the chief
lords by services due, viz. to Adam de
Formby yearly iJ., for so much of that
land as belongs to 7 oxgangs. Adam de
Formby and William his brother were
Two of Adam's grants are extant.
In 1328 he gave to Adam son of Richard
de Ainsdale part of Dykesland stole ;
and Norris, and extending from the high-
way between Old Formby and Altcar, to a
dyke on the west ; Formby Chart, n. 4-6.
Ralph Formby was the heir of William,
but the relationship is not stated ; he wai
in possession in the time of Edw. IV
(1463, 1474); ibid. n. 8, 9, 14. He
agreed to enfeoff Richard Sutton of Form-
by in a parcel of land called the Turnacres,
The Aughton share descended to Bar-
to Nicholas le Norreys, probably as trus-
William Formby, of Formby, esquire,
27-
In 1446 the four lords of Formby were
John Warren, Thomas Beetham, Thomas
except the oxgang held by Ameria, daughter
of Robert de Hesketh, by the grantor's
gift, and the messuage of the rector of
1 6 ; William Formby, no doubt the same,
was the first witness to a grant of lands
made in 1493 by William Ainsdale of
Formby to Nicholas Reynold ; the Long-
were Sir Edward Warren, Edward earl of
Derby, Sir Richard Molyneux, and William
Formby ; Duchy of Lane. Depos. Ph. and
Mary, Uiv, H. 2.
1 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 119,
(B.M.), n. 427.
Besides the William just mentioned as
Adam's brother, Hugh de Formby seems
to have had other children. Thus Roger
son of Hugh de Formby granted land for-
in it ; ibid. n. 22. Robert was the son
and heir of Nicholas Reynold in 1510;
ibid. n. 23.
• William Formby, who may be identical
with the William of the last note, held
advowson of the church at Formby.
» Formby Chart, n. i. Henry de Not-
tingham was no doubt a trustee. The
William son of Robert the reeve ; this
lay between lands of Beetham on one side
and Stockport on the other ; Norris D.
151. ; he made feoffments in 1521 and in
i 523 in favour of Maud, widow of his son
Richard, his own sons Ellis and Gilbert,
A confirmatory charter from Avice,
daughter of Roger de Derby, to the same
Hugh, describes him as son of Anilia de
Corona ; ibid. n. 2. Probably therefore
Master Roger had been twice married,
charter in 1 303 ; Whallcy Coucher, ii,
518.
Richard, son of Hugh de Formby, was
plaintiff in I 304 ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 204. Possibly it was
of the said Richard. He died 29 March,
1523, when William, the grandson, wai
aged twelve years or more; Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 54. For Ellis Formby,
see Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
he was at first known by his mother's
quence in Cheshire ; see Ormerod, Chts.
(ed. Helsby), iii, 654.
Hugh de Corona and Nicholas his
brother were the principal witnesses to
Avice' s grant.
8 Hugh de Formby gave to William de
Dudley a ridge lying in the Scalelands,
between lands of Richard d'Evyas, then
son of John le Norreys of Speke ; Norris
D. (B.M.), n. 7.
There were, however, other families
using the local surname, e.g. William, son
of William de Formby, and Margery his
wife, at Ince in 1301 ; Final COM. i, 195.
A Margery, widow of William de Formby,
was living in 1370; Moore D. n. 219.
Richard son of Maud de Formby had a
grant here; Norris D. (B.M.), ». 4".
defendants to a complaint by Henry Hal-
sall in i 553, concerning trespass on Down-
holland Moss ; he described himself as
lord of the fourth part of the manor of
Formby, by descent from his grandfather,
William Formby ; Duchy of Lane. Depos.
Ph. and Mary, Ixiv, H. 2. He made a
grant in the ' Dereles ' in 1533 ; Formby
Chart, n. 36. Two years later he was en-
gaged to marry Anne, daughter of Margery
highway at one end. 'The Priest's'
being also called the Forester, was a wit-
in 1565, holding the same estate as above,
clirdng in^thVanro'tner chapters. NoHs
Two other grants concerning Rikounis-
field may be added ; one from Stephen del
this may be compared with the services
due from Hugh de Corona. The heir
de Dudley Alan, son of Alan le Norreys,
granted half an oxgang ; Hugh de Formby
was one of the witnesses ; ibid. n. 419.
as between the land formerly Dame Mar-
gery de Samlesbury's and the great pit on
the north ; the other from Richard, son of
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xi, n. 35.
The son may have been the Richard
Formby whose arrest caused a riot in
former plot to his son Robert ; ibid. n. 5.
Hugh, son of Master Robert de Derby
granted to Robert, son of Richard de
Formby, the son of Albinus the priest, a
selion in the Wray, stretching from the
garden of Alan le Norreys to Hang Lane ;
also the garden which the grantor had in
Rysin Bridge and the messuage which
Roger de Argarmeols held; Formby
Chart, n. 3.
Hugyn, son of Master Robert de Derby,
1246; Assize R. 404, m. 19.
« Norris D. (B.M.), n. 423 ; a grant by
D. (B.M.), „. 3, 417.
A John, son of Adam de Formby, held
a burgage in Liverpool in 1331 ; Moore
D. n. 173. His son John held one in
1346.
Thomas, son of John de Formby,
married Eleanor, a daughter and co-heir
of Richard le Waleys of Uplitherland ;
Final Cone, ii, 183.
6 Hugh and Roger de Formby appear in
the poll-tax list of 1 3 8 1 ; Lay Subs. Lanes.
130/24.
William de Formby made a feoffment
of his lands in 1428, and the feoffees
48
Formby was the only freeholder recorded
in Formby in 1600; Misc. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 239.
The family adhered to the Roman Church,
which may be one reason for the obscurity
in which for more than a century they are
involved. Richard Formby and Joan his
wife were presented in 1598 for absenting
themselves from service ; Visitation Lists :
' Richard Formby of Formby, gent., was
fined for recusancy in the beginning of
James I's reign, and the family continued
regularly on the recusant rolls until the end
of Charles H's reign. Richard Formby
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
when Richard Formby ' was lord of this part of
Formby and also curate of the chapel. He died in
1832, and was succeeded by his son John Formby
of Maghull Hall,2 whose son
the Rev. Lonsdale Formby was, .
like his grandfather, lord of the
manor and incumbent of the
chapel. Mr. John Formby, his
only son, is the present lord of
this portion of the manor.
In 1717 as' papists' John
Poole of Great Crosby, Richard
Rimmer, and Nicholas Summer
registered estates here.3
Before the Conquest there
were in R4YEN MEOLS three
manors held by as many thegns ;
the assessment was half a hide,
and the value beyond the customary rent the
normal 8/.* The whole was afterwards put into
the demesne of West Derby, and in 1094 Roger
of Poitou gave the tithes of Meols, as of his other
demesne manors, to St. Martin of Seez.5 Sixty years
later Henry II gave this vill, with Ainsdale and other
more important estates, to his falconer, Warin de
Lancaster, to hold by grand serjeanty, and John
count of Mortain confirmed the gift to Henry de
Lea, son of Warin, between 1189 and Ii94,6and
again in 1199 after becoming king.7 In 1207 the
tenure of Raven Meols and Ainsdale was changed to
socage and a yearly service of zos. ; five-sixths of
which was due from this vill.s The subsequent
WALTON
descent of the mesne lordship is the same as that of
Lea and the other manors of Henry son of Warin.*
Between 1205 and 1211 Henry de Lea granted
licence to William Blundell of Ince to erect a mill on
the Raven Meols side of the Alt, with the right to
take eels at the sluice ; the mill was given to the
monks of Whalley, who in 1329 agreed with Sir
Richard de Hoghton and his wife Sibyl to pay a rent
of a gilt spur, or 4^., and reserve the eel fishery to
the lord of Raven Meols.10
The survey of 1212 shows that thirteen of the
twenty-four oxgangs had been granted to eight tenants.
The details are : Robert son of Osbert (de Ainsdale),
two oxgangs by serving the office of reeve ; Alan le
Brun, two oxgangs by a rent of 6s., these feoffments
were ' of ancient time ' ; Richard son of Henry, two
oxgangs for 6s. by grant of Warin de Lancaster ; and
the following held by gift of Henry de Lea ; Denise,
daughter of Thurstan, two oxgangs by 5/. rent ;
William, brother of the grantor, an oxgang by a
pound of pepper ; Edwin, two oxgangs by t>s. ;
Robert, one oxgang by $s. ; Thomas, son of Sigge,
the same." In the inquest after the death of Henry
de Lea in 1289, it was stated that he held seven
oxgangs in demesne and five in service ; from which
it would appear that half the manor had been already
lost, probably by incursions of the sea."
Some of these infeudations can be traced later.
The lands of Denise daughter of Thurstan descended
to Ellen, her daughter by William de Stanton ; 13 and
subsequently to the Banastres of Bank, who held them
for many generations." William de Lancaster, baron
born at Formby, 23 April, 1701, tool
the college oath at Douay in 1720'
Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Etigl. Cath. ii, 309.
Sir Cuthbert Halsall and Richard Form
by were the freeholders here in 1628, th
aying double as a convicted re
; a recusant at Formby, and his son Thomas
registered his estate as a Catholic nonjuror
- in 1717'; Gillow, loc. cit. ; Engl. Cath.
e Nonjunrs, 155. This estate was at Altcar.
1 As son of John Formby of Walton,
Richard de Hoghton and Sibyl [de Lea]
his wife held the manor of Raven Meols
by a service of 161. tf. for all service.
without puture, bode, or witness; Dods.
MS. cxxxi, fol. 36*. Richard and Sibyl
township appears to have held to the same
aged seventeen, and graduated B.C.L.
demesne lands here, with pasture and
Trans'. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), xiv, 238.'
Formby, esquire, was proved at Chester
Richard his son ; Add. MS. 32106, n. 734.
Sir Adam de Hoghton contributed 10..
made by Edward Ireland of Lydiate ;
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 37.
About four years later Richard Formby
enfeoffed Edward Ireland and Peter Stanley
of his lands in Formby ; Kuerden, ii, fol.
from Foster's Lanes. Pedigrees.
John Formby's brother, Henry Green-
halgh Formby, had a son Henry, born in
1816 and educated at Brasenose Coll.
Oxf. ; M.A. 1841. Following the Oxford
tenth part of a knight's fee in Raven
Meols and Ainsdale with the members ;
Harl. MS. 2085, fol. 421*.
In 1386, by a deed given at Raven
Meols Sir Richard de Hoghton gave the
manor to Henry his brother, son of Sir
pedigree to have married a daughter of
Edward Stanley of Moor Hall, at this
time.
munion with the Roman Church in 1846,
and was ordained priest. He was the
author of a large number of theological
Adam's widow Ellen; Add. MS. 32106,
«. 26.
In the Feodary of 1489 Alexander de
North Meols roads were properly kept, and
report to the Quarter Sessions ; Kenyan
MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 195.
Richard Formby, esquire, was in 1709
one of the trustees of the school ; Gastrell,
Notitia, ii, 228. Mr. Formby of Formby
lishing works profusely illustrated with
instructive pictures.' He died in 1884.
See Gillow, op. cit.
OEngl. Cath. Nonjuror,, no, n8, I55.
John Poole's estate seems to have been
subsequent inq. p. m. the tenure of these
manors is described as the tenth part
of a knight's fee.
10 Wholly Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 497,
495,515. William Blundell had already
Diary about 1720. In 1721 the bishop of
Chester appointed him on a commission
to inquire into the patronage of the rectory
of Walton. He died 22 Dec. 1737, his
will being proved at Chester, leaving a
widow Mary, and a son John, fifteen years
of age ; also daughters, Elizabeth, who
married Robert Hesketh of Barton, Mary,
Dorothy, Catherine, and Alice as appears
by a deed of 1739 enrolled at Preston
(13 R. Geo. II) ; Piccope MSS. iii, 266.
The son John is in the printed pedigree
stated to have graduated from Clare Hall,
Cambridge ; but this it an error.
3
Robert Blundell of Ince.
4 V.C.H. Lanes. \, 2843.
*> Lanes. Pi ft R. 290. There was a dis-
pute in n93 between the rector of Walton
and the prior of Lancaster touching these
tithes ; Lane. Church (Chet. Soc.), 112.
6 Lanes. Fife R. 432.
1 Chart. R. (Rec. Com.), 26.
8 Ibid. 171*. Henry de Lea gave
various lands in Raven Meols to Cocker-
sand Abbey; Cockersand Chartul. ii,
565-6.
9 See the accounts of Lea and Hoghton.
Free warren wa. granted in 1284 ; Chart.
49
to Cockersand Abbey ; Chartul. ii, 568.
" Lana. Inq. and Extents, 22. From
what follows it will be seen that the
rector of Walton had an oxgang here, no
doubt appropriated to the curate of
12 Inq. p.m. 17 Edw. I, n. 2 ; the yearly
service payable to the earl of Lancaster
remained unaltered at 161. 8</.
13 Dods. MSS. cxlii. fol. 69.
14 In 1292 three oxgangs were held by
the Banastre family, for Avice widow of
Nicholas de Lea claimed dower in two
messuages and one oxgang held by Richard
7
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
of Kendal, who died in 1 246, held three oxgangs by
the feoffment of Nicholas, son of William de Lea,
for 4/. yearly, with common of pasture in Formby
belonging to one oxgang, and the homage of William,
rector of Walton, and his service of one oxgang.
These lands were granted to Robert the Taylor,1
whose widow, Hilda, in 1254 demanded her dower
in two oxgangs.1 The share of Alan le Brun can
also be traced for some time.3 Robert, son of Edwin,
was a benefactor to Cockersand Abbey.4 Nicholas
Blundell, the heir of Robert son of Osbert, was in
possession of his two oxgangs in 1328.*
The Molyneux family of Melling had lands here
in the first part of the seventeenth century ;6 and in
1 744 William Molyneux of Mossborough in Rainford
named his ' manor of Ravensmeols ' in his will ; 7
in 1757 it was purchased from his daughter, Lady
Blount, by John Formby of Formby, and has since
descended with Formby.8
At the death of Edward the Confessor, 41NSDALE
was held by three thegns as three manors, in which
there were two plough-lands valued beyond the cus-
tomary rent at 64^., the usual rate.9 It was given by
Henry II, with Raven Meols and other manors, to
Warin de Lancaster,10 and has since descended like
Raven Meols. Henry de Lea, son of Warin, held it in
1 21 2 ;" and in 1327 it was held by Sir Richard de
Hoghton in the right of his wife, Sibyl de Lea, by
fealty only, without other service."
It was probably Warin de Lancaster who enfeoffed
Osbert of this manor, which
Robert son of Osbert, also known
as Robert de Ainsdale, held of
Henry de Lea in 1212, paying
IO/.13 Robert and his family
were benefactors to the abbey
of Cockersand.14 They acquired
lands in Great and Little Crosby,
and adopted Blundell as their
surname.14 There is little to
show their connexion with Ains-
dale, apart from a claim of 'wreck
of the sea,' which after trial in
1292 was rejected.16 In 1328
Nicholas, son of David Blundell, granted his manor
of Ainsdale to Gilbert de Halsall in fee : I7 and the
DDDD
ODD
DO
BLUNDELL or CROSBY.
Sable, tea billet,, four,
three, two and one ar-
Banastre, and in two oxgangs held bv
Robert Banastre, and her claim was
allowed ; Assize R. 408, m. 23. In 1 3 27
the abbot of Whalley complained that Sir
Richard de Hoghton, Robert son of Adam
Banastre of the Bank, Robert son of
Richard the reeve of Raven Meols, and
Henry his brother, had destroyed the
.luices of his mill ; Cat. of Pat. 1327-30,
10 It is possible that Henry II was
lands ; but nothing is known apart from
this charter; Lanes. Pipe R. 432. For
further details sec the account of Raven
Meols.
" Lanes. Inj. and Extents, 21.
" Dods. MSS. cxxxi, 36*. The Hoghton
family had a yearly rent of 3,. from this
which the earl of Chester arrived at Jeru-
salem'; ibid. 589-92. Robert, son of
this Adam also gave confirmation ; ibid.
592> 594-
Adam son of Godfrey gave two oxgang»
of land and other parcels ; Atefield and
Sheep how are named in his charter! ;
ibid. 568-570.
John, son of Thomas de Ainsdale, about
the fifteenth were Adam Banastre, Richard
and William de Dudley, and Robert and
Adam de Ainsdale ; Exch. Lay Subs.
l» Inq. and Extents, 22; the enfcoffment
is described as < of ancient time.'
« Robert son of Osbert de Ainsdale
granted to Cockersand an oxgang of his
they enfeoffed Robert son of Thomas of
part of it ; ibid. 594. Lawrence eon of
Thomas and Emma his wife gave three
oxgangs and other lands, partly at a rent
1 Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 77.
"Cur. Reg. R. 154,111. 10 ; the defen-
dants were Agnes, widow of William
de Lane., and William of the Spring
(de Fonte], the latter holding the two
oxgangs in Raven Meols.
held of him ; an acre and sheepfold by
the western head of Winscarth lithe ; the
' land ' in front of the canons' barn, with
the toft in which Orm Dragun dwelt, and
meadow to the midstream of Hangelan,
&c. ; and confirmed the grants made by
their part of the marsh, from Siward'i
croft to Blake moor, as much as the
canons could acquire, bringing the sand!
into use; ibid. 587-9. Lawrence is
later described as 'the clerk of Ainsdale ' ;
his son Robert confirmed his parenti*
Ughtred de Ravensmeols, whose son and
heir William granted lands here to
Godfrey; Cockersand Chartul. ii, 571-4.
His brother Richard, son of Osbert,
of silver, and every year of his life an old
cloak ; ibid. 593.
his wife Agnes, daughter of Ughtred and
Amabel ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 76b. He
may be the Alan son of William de
Ravensmeols, who gave to Cockersand
Abbey the croft next the house of Thomas,
land' under Gripknots, a ridge in the
Wray, and 'land' next to the canons'
' land ' in Birkdene ; others on Fald-
worthings, on the cast of Halstead how,
and in Tungland ; a scaling or shieling in
Soc.) show that the Halsalls of Halsall in
the fifteenth century held the possession!
of that house, with the fishery in Formby
and Ainsdale, at a fee farm rent of 201.
14 See the accounts of those townships.
567.
In 1246 William, son of Uctred, re-
covered from Alan de Crawehal and Goda
Melkener how; two 'lands' in the
western part of Little Oddishargh, two in
Ditchfield near Slidryhow, another called
Blundell demised all his lands here to hit
son Nicholas, he reserved to himself
' wreck of the sea ' ; Blundell of Crosby
had demised them while of unsound
mind; Assize R. 404, m. 10.
Margery daughter of Robert the clerk
of Raven Meols granted land called Hewet-
land to John de Lea before 1250 ; and a
quitclaim to the lands of Robert the
chaplain, perhaps Margery's father, was
also given by Hugh Hommouth ; Kuer-
den MSS. iv, R. 6, 586, 652.
4 Cockersand Chartul. ii, 567.
« Blundell of Crosby D., K.. 156.
« Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
seems to have been two oxgangs. He
desired his body to be buried in the
churchyard of St. Mary at Cockersand.
Greendale, Birchbotham, Butterclining,
Sete Knots, the Warrigate, Whitemeol-
dale and other place-names occur ; ibid.
574-86.
Warin the son of Richard added a
little to his father's gifts in Whitemeol-
dale and Wetefield ; ibid. 570-1.
Adam, son of Robert de Ainsdale,
dell pleaded that he and his ancestor!
time out of mind had held this manor and
likewise wreck of the sea. For the king
it was urged that this privilege required
an express grant, which could not in this
instance be shown. The jurors found
that Henry III had once given a wrecked
vessel to the father of Nicholas, apart
from which neither Nicholas nor any of
his ancestors had taken wreck there. Such
disasters were not frequent, none having
happened since Nicholas had succeeded to
described as a manor.
his demesne and one which had been
years or more ; Plac. lie quo War.
1 8th roll of Geo. II at Preston. See also
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 582 (6).
» Ex inform. Mr. John Formby.
• V.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*.
he also confirmed the numerous grants
made by his father, uncle, &c., and ' all the
parcels of land of which they had seisin
at the Nativity of St. Mary in the year in
50
!7 Blundell of Crosby D. K. 183. Thii
Nicholas Blundell was grandson and heir
of the last-mentioned Nicholas. It ii
supposed that Gilbert de Halsall had
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
manor descended in the latter family for about sixty
years,1 passing to the Hulmes of Maghull.*
David de Hulme died in 1418 seised of lands
called Ainsdale, worth 40;. yearly, which he held of
the king, as duke of Lancaster, in socage." In
1483 lands and fishings here were settled upon
Lawrence Hulme for life, and descended to his great-
grandson Richard, who died in 1539 seised of four
messuages, &c.4 Edmund, his son and heir, was in
1555 defendant in a suit brought by Henry Halsall
for trespass in Meandale within the manor of Birkdale.
The former alleged that he was lord of the manor of
Ainsdale and had certain fishyards and lands adjacent
to Birkdale. The plaintiff denied that there was any
manor of Ainsdale; he had
heard that a township so named
had once existed, but it had
been overflowed by the sea, and
no trace of it was left.5 In
July, 1555, Edmund Hulme
released to Henry Halsall all
his right to the manors of
Halsall and Ainsdale, various
lands there, and a fishery.6
The Halsalls thus regained Ains-
dale ; but in 1630 the manors
of Birkdale, Meandale, and Ains-
dale were sold by Sir Cuthbert
Halsall to Robert Blundell of
Ince Blundell,7 and they have since descended like
Ince.8
The parochial chapel appears to
CHURCH have stood originally in Raven Meols,9
but the site of the modern St. Luke's
Church, with its ancient burial ground,10 is now
within the limits of Formby. Little is known of its
history. In 1334 a settlement was made of a dispute
as to the tithes of the fishery at Raven Meols between
WALTON
the rectors of Walton and Sefton.11 The patronage
is attributed to the Halsalls " in the sixteenth century,
and the Formbys in the next.13 The rector of Walton
has, however, from 1723 presented the curate in
charge, as he does the vicars now.
Its fate after the Reformation is not known. As it
was far distant from the parish church and the people
adhered to the old religion, it is probable that
services were not very regularly held ; in I 590 it was
not mentioned, while about 1612 it was reported
that only <a reading minister ' served this chapel."
The Commonwealth Surveyors of 1650 described the
chapel as ancient and parochial, and recommended
that the township be formed into one independent
parish.15
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the
chief resident family having conformed to the Estab-
lished religion, and the old chapel having become
almost overwhelmed by the sand and otherwise unfit
for service,16 the church of St. Peter was in 1736
erected upon a piece of waste land in a central posi-
tion," some of the material of the old chapel being
used. This church, enlarged in 1830, is a plain
brick building, with a campanile containing one bell ;
the chancel was enlarged and a side chapel built in
1873-
The following have been among the curates and
vicars : —
1558-63 Thomas Wolfall 18
1604 Henry Hammond "
1622 Thomas Lydiate M
1626 Roger Wright
1650 John Wai ton31
1657 Peter Aspinwall "
101662 William Aspinwall *
oc. 1665 Edward Birchall "4
101698 George Birchall *5
to 1702 — Coulborn
married a Blundell. In a suit of 1323
respecting novel disseisin in Ainsdale
In 1340 William de Adbaston, paro-
chial chaplain (capellanus paroch') of
cumbent at that time, he giving £10 a
year to the wife of Dr. Clare, late rector
Gilbert de Halsall was defendant, the
Raven Meols, was a trustee ; Moore D.
of Walton.
plaintiffs being the abbot of Cockersand,
»• 54°, 545-
» Bishop Gastrell in 1718 found the
Nicholas, son of David Blundell, and
1° An ancient stone coffin was found in
income of the curate to be £23 41., of
Henry de Walton and Margery his wife ;
it some years ago, but reburied. For the
which £20 was paid by the rector of
Assize R, 425, m. i.
font see Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvii,
Walton, the rest being fees. There were
i In 1368 John de Ince and Emma his
62.
two wardens ; Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.),
wife, widow of Gilbert de Halsall, sued
'The old Catholic families in the place
ii, 227.
Otes de Halsall for Emma's dower in six
who have graves here have always been
17 A brief was obtained in 1742 and
messuages, 200 acres of land, &c. in
accustomed to bury in the old churchyard.'
£1,154 was raised ; ibid. 228. This was
Ainsdale ; Otes called upon Richard son
Ex inform. Mr. John Formby.
no doubt to pay the debt, which was
of Gilbert to warrant him ; De Bane. R.
It appears from a suit in 1557 that
cleared off in 1746 ; the sentence of con-
431, m. 3454 4i2</.
» See the account of Maghull.
Duchy Plead, iii, 232.
secration of the new chapel is dated
19 July, 1747.
» Lana. Inq. p. m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 135.
11 Lich. Epis. Reg. iii, fol. 72. Roger,
18 Duchy Plead, iii, 256 ; Visit. List
bishop of Lichfield, decreed that the tithe of
of 1563 at Chest. He did not appear
4 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, «., 9.
the fish caught by the parishioners of Sef-
in .565.
» Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
ton in the fishery of ' Moeles ' should be
" Visit. He was presented for neg-
Ches.), iii, 218.
• Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 16, m.
divided between the two rectors ; while
the tithe of the catch made by the
lecting to catechize and for marrying
divers persons without licence. The
134.
parishioners of Walton should belong
curacy was vacant in 1609 ; Visit. List.
7 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 90 ; see also
entirely to the rector of the latter
John Burrowes was 'reader' in 1610 ;
the accounts of Halsall and North
parish.
Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 74.
Meols.
w See a preceding note.
80 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Che«.), i,
8 See the account of Ince Blundell. In
18 Richard Formby's ' manor and chapel
65.
certain depositions of 1662, in a suit be-
of Formby ' were mentioned in his mar-
"1 Commoniv. Ch. Sur-v. 82.
tween Gerard and Blundell, an account is
riage settlement ; quoted on the pedigree
M Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
given of a sturgeon being cast up at Ains-
in Foster, Lana. Pedigrees.
and Ches.), ii, 206. He was nominated
dale ; Lydiate Hall, I 21.
• The oxgang held by the rector of
Walton has been mentioned in a previous
" Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 13.
Robert Halsall, vicar of Walton, be-
queathed 61. %d. to this chapel in 1598 ;
by the inhabitants.
» Supposed to have been silenced by
the Uniformity Act in 1 662. ' William '
may be an error for ' Peter.'
Albin the priest and Robert the chap-
and Ches.), 82. The tithes of the town-
as to his ordination.
lain are also mentioned in charters
quoted.
ship, valued at £70 a year and the rent
of a cottage, I2</. were paid to the in-
»* Will proved at Chester, 1698 -, not
named in the Visit. List of 1691.
51
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
1702 Timothy Ellison '
,723 - Clayton'
1735 Thomas Mercer *
to 1772 James Mount, B.A.
1772 Lancelot Graham
1793 Robert Cort4
1794 Richard Formby, LL.B. (Brasenose
Coll. Oxf.) s
1832 Isaac Bowman
1 847 Lonsdale Formby, B.A. (St. Catharine's
Coll. Camb.) "
1894 Thomas Bishop, M.A. (St. Catharine's
Coll. Camb.)
St. Luke's Church was built in 1852-5 near the
site of the ancient chapel ; ' a district was formed for
it in 1888. Holy Trinity Church was erected in
1890, and a district was assigned in 1893.' At
Ainsdale, St. John's has been licensed for services
since 1887."
A school was erected on the waste in 1659 by the
inhabitants ; an endowment was given in 1703 by
Richard Marsh.10
The Church of England Victoria Home for Waifs
and Strays was opened in 1897.
Protestant Nonconformity appears to have been un-
known in Formby until 1 8 1 6, when the Rev. George
Greatbatch, a Congregationalist minister of Southport,
preached here. No regular services were held by this
denomination until 1881, when the Assembly Room
was used ; a school chapel was opened two years
later." The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in
1877 ; they have also a mission room.
The Wesleyan Methodists and the Congregationa-
lists also have places of worship at Ainsdale, the latter
an offshoot of the Southport churches, 1877-9."
As already stated, the greater part of the population
adhered to the Roman Church at the Reformation, and
so late as 1718 Bishop Gastrell found that a quarter
of the inhabitants were still faithful.13 In 1767 the
number of * papists ' had increased to 363.14 The
names of the priests have not been recorded before
1701, when Fr. Richard Foster, S.J., was here, his
stipend being £16, of which £10 was given by the
people." The Jesuits had charge of the chapel down
to 1779, Dut secular priests also visited the place.
After a short interval one of the latter, the Jesuit
order having been suppressed, received charge here in
1784, and the succession is continuous from that time.
A new chapel was built in 1798 on the old site.1*
The church of Our Lady of Compassion was erected
in 1864 at some distance from the old one.17
The church of St. Anne, Freshfield, erected in
1886, is connected with a girls' industrial school in
charge of the Sisters of Charity, formerly carried on
in Mason Street, Liverpool. It is served from Formby.
At Freshfield also is St. Peter's school for Foreign
Missions, begun in 1884, associated with the Mill
Hill College founded by the late Cardinal Vaughan.1'
KIRKBY
Cherchebi, Dom. Bk. ; Karkebi, 1176 ; Kirkeby,
1237-
This township has a length from east to west of
4^ miles, with an average breadth of a mile and a half.
The area is 4,175 acres,19 and in 1901 the population
was 1,283. The country is open, generally flat, with
a slight rise in the centre of the township of some
1 30 ft. above sea-level. The soil is mostly reclaimed
' moss,' portioned out into arable fields, divided by
low hawthorn hedges. There is but little pasture.
Potatoes, wheat, and oats are largely cultivated in a
sandy and clayey soil. There are scattered farmsteads
and isolated plantations of different kinds of trees, with
undergrowths of rhododendrons. These plantations
are strictly preserved, and afford cover to much game,
chiefly hares and pheasants. There still exists in the
east of the township a patch of original moss-land
covered with birch-trees, heather, and cotton-sedge.
Stacks of peat are to be seen piled up by the sides of
deep ditches which intersect the moss. The roads
are typical of this part of Lancashire, being made of
roughly-laid sets. The quaint fences of flag-stones,
clamped together with iron bands, are frequently seen
in the neighbourhood. The geological formation of
iThe inhabitants 'consented to re-
M Ibid.
R. Formby], and the ground will clear the
ciated at Formby in the forenoon and at
14 Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.),xviii, 215.
most agreeable young man, and will do
He laid an information in 1708 against
Henry Blundell, one of the lords of the
manor, as a recusant ; N. Blundell, Diary,
16 A letter printed in Gillow, Haydock
Paper,, 210-12, gives a graphic account of
the mission as it was about 1800. The
After mentioning the priests in the neigh-
bourhood the writer gives an estimate of
the income, £59, derived as to £24 from
a These and later presentations are
from records in Ches. Dioc. Reg.
» Described as ' of West Derby.'
4 Went to K-irkby.
6 Also lord of the manor. Nominated
by the rector of Walton 31 Jan. ,794.
In the same year he became incumbent of
Holy Trinity Church, Liverpool, Formby
being served by his curate. He died in
1832, and there is a monument to him in
the church.
« Also lord of the manor.
Richard Formby, esquire to the king, who
Formby it would do very well if you wish
to farm and to be among a set of humble,
well-meaning people. The congregation
at Easter is about 250 ; great numbers of
children, but not employed in any manu-
factory, so that any day or hour they come
for instructions. I had 80 at catechism
every Sunday, and about i 5 of the oldest
every Wednesday and Friday evening at
my house for instructions. The people
are a blunt, honest people, and, as old
Bordley [Aughton] calls them, "a loving
people " ; but you must lord it over them,
or at least keep a high hand, and not be
interest and rent, and £8 as alms. He
proceeds : ' The rent of your house and
ground is £24, or as I had it £8 for the
house alone without any land ; but if you
have the ground it will, I think, bring you
in free. The bench money is paid very
regular, quarterly, all the other yearly,
sent without any trouble. . . . Your con-
gregation will lie very compactly about
you ; there is no need at all of a horse,
unless for your own private satisfaction, a
mile and a half being the farthest you have
any off. The house is, or at least was,
entirely furnished, so that I had not a
York Minster and placed here.
The patronage is vested in Mrs. C.
Formby and Mr. J. Formby.
8 Trustees hold the patronage.
• It is a chapel of ease to St. Peter's.
1° End. Char. Ref. (Formby), 1901, p. 5.
» Nightingale, Lana. Nonconf. vi, 45,
48.
ters of you. They are a people, if they
see you wish their good, you may mould
as you please. I was happy in the ex-
treme, had the congregation been about
100 fewer. There are no rich people, and
none very poor like what we find in the
weaving countries. The house and ground
is rented of a Protestant clergyman [Rev.
52
a great object for a beginner.' The old
house in Priesthouse Lane has a carved
wooden awmbry.
"Ibid. 213-6; Liverpool Cath. Ann.
1901.
18 Ibid.
« 4,180, including 10 of inland water ;
Census Rep. of 1901.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
the entire township consists of pebble beds of the
bunter series of the new red sandstone or trias. The
Alt, which crosses the south-west corner, is joined by
two brooks — one flowing from Simonswood past
Kirkby church, the other westward, between this
township and Knowsley.
Little Britain, so called from an inn, ' The Little
Briton,' is a hamlet to the south-
east of the village. Ingoe Lane
runs north and south in the
western part of the township.
The principal road is that
from Liverpool to Ormskirk ;
branches from it run east to
Knowsley and Simonswood.
The Lancashire and Yorkshire
Company's Liverpool and Man-
chester railway crosses the town-
ship, with a station at the village.
The township i
by a parish council.
Parts Brow Cross at Three Lanes Ends has remain-
ing a portion of the shaft in a stone pedestal. There
mile east of
STA
Derby
bend a
governed heads t
WALTON
In 1 176 Richard son of Roger of Woodplumpton
held it, presumably in right of his wife Margaret,
daughter and heir of Thurstan Banastre.5 On his
death it fell to the share of his daughter Margaret,
wife of Hugh de Moreton.6 With her husband's
consent she gave the manor, the men dwelling there
and all the appurtenances, together with her body, to
Stanlaw Abbey, to hold in free alms ; ' but on her dying
without issue, the gift became inoperative, her sisters
and their heirs claiming it. In 1 242 Robert de
Stockport, Roger Gernet, and Thomas de Beetham,
held it in right respectively of Maud, mother of
Robert ; Quenilda, wife of Roger ; and Amuria, wife
of Thomas.8 Quenilda died
childless in 1252, and Kirkby ^.«___^_
was afterwards held in moieties
by Sir Robert de Stockport and
Sir Ralph de Beetham.9
The share of the latter, known
as Kirkby Beetham, descended
like Bootle and part of Formby,10
was forfeited to the crown after
the battle of Bosworth, and like
then
was formerly another cross about half
the church.1
Peter Augustine Baines, O.S.B., Bishop of Siga and
Vicar Apostolic of the Western district from 1 829 to
1843, was born at Kirkby in 1787. He was a
preacher and author of some note.*
This was one of the manors held by
M4NOR Uctred the thegn in 1066, and then
included Simonswood ; the latter being
no doubt the principal portion of the woodland appur- de Byron, and Emma, widow of Robert de Beetham,
tenant to Uctred's six manors, which measured two were suing Alan de Burnhull " and William de Wai-
leagues square, or approximately 1,440 customary acres. ton,15 for lands which the defendants alleged to be
It was rated as two ploughlands.3 From the beginning in Windle and Walton respectively. With Robert
of the twelfth century it formed a portion of the Widnes de Byron's daughter Maud, wife of William Gerard
fee of the Constable of Chester, parcel of his barony of of Kingsley in Cheshire,16 this moiety of Kirkby came
Halton, being held by the fifth part of a knight's fee.4 into possession of the latter family and descended
granted to the earl of
Derby at the beginning of Henry A?™ l,,^,
VII's reign." enhanced gu/is.
The share of the former,
afterwards generally known as Kirkby Gerard, did
not long remain with the Stockports, being granted
by Robert de Stockport to Richard de Byron.1' In
1292 Robert de Byron seems to have been in
possession.13 In 1301 Thomas de Beetham, Robert
H. Taylor in Lanes, and Ches. Antij.
1311 it was found that Sir Thomas de
Beetham held the vill of Kirkby of him by
tenement from the plaintiff William del
Quick, and had afterwards enfeoffed Henry
» Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Engl. Cath. i,
the sixteenth (? tenth) part of a fee, ren-
de Byron, father of John ; Assize R. 424,
105-10.
» f.C.H. Lanes, i, 283*.
4 Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 42. It is here called
the sixth part of a knight's fee, but in
other cases the fifth part ; ibid. 149.
' Farrer, Lanes. Fife. R. 3 1 ; Richard
paid 5 marks that the justices might in-
quire into the truth as to Kirkby, which
he held of the Constable of Chester.
Possibly there was some dispute as to the
boundaries of Simonswood, which Henry II
had taken into the forest. Four years
later all Richard's manors were taken into
the king's hands because he had married
his daughter Maud to Robert de Stock-
port. He had to pay £100 fine for this ;
De Lay Inq. (Chet. Soc.), 24. There is
no mention of the other moiety. See
also Lanes. Inq. f. m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 102.
" See the accounts of Bootle and Form-
by. It is supposed that Richard Beetham,
living in 1484, forfeited the family estates ;
but his niece Agnes, who married Robert
Middleton of Leighton, had a son Thomas,
ibid. ; and he, alleging that Richard
Beetham had only a life interest, appears
to have recovered part. His son and heir
Gervase died in 1548 seised of the manor
of Kirkby ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. ix,
n. ii. George Middleton, his son, and
Margaret his wife, in 1576 conveyed their
In the Feodary of Halton made about
1323 it is recorded that Sir Richard de
Byron (misprinted Burton, for Buron) held
one half of Kirkby for i plough-land,
giving for relief 101. while Ralph de
Beetham held the other half ; Ormerod,
Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 708; Add. MS.
32107, fol. 305*. In 1328 also Robert
de Byron and Ralph de Beetham similarly
held Kirkby under Halton ; Inq. p. m.
2 Edw. Ill, ist Nos. n. 6 1. Richard de
Byron was the lord of Clayton, succeeding
his father, Sir John, between 1316 and
1318, and was probably acting as guardian
of the heirs of Robert de Byron.
» Assize R. 420, m. 4 ; the jury divided
ibid. 42, 46, &c.
• The marriage took place in 1205-6 ;
Henry, earl of Derby, whose title was
wibtr.^"!;11**'
ibid. 203. At the survey of 1212 Hugh
was found to hold 2 plough-lands of the
constable of Chester ; Inq. and Extents, 42.
7 IThalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.), iii, 828.
• hj. and Extents, 149. For the pedi-
gree see ibid. 40.
•Ibid. 191.
1° Sir Ralph de Beetham died in 1254,
holding i plough-land in Kirkby of the
earl of Lincoln by knight's service, worth
lot. yearly ; the moiety of a mill, worth
1 2j., and the tallage of the rustics, worth 51.
yearly ; ibid. 195, 201.
After the death of Henry de Lacy in
thus secured j Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 38, m. 92.
12 This was stated in a claim by Richard
de Byron, grandson of the grantee, in
1335 ; De Bane. R. 303, m. 205.
13 He was non-suited in a plea against
Gilbert de Clifton touching a tenement
here : Assize R. 408, m. 57.
From the record of a plea concerning
land in Walton unsuccessfully brought in
1313 against John son of Henry de Byron,
Henry de Lacy of Rochdale, Richard de
Didsbury, and Jordan de Holden, it appears
that Robert de Byron had obtained the
53
Bootle of Melling brought concerning a
mill-dam in Kirkby, the erection of which
had caused the adjacent lands to be
flooded, the defendants were William
Gerard and Maud his wife, Joan widow of
Robert de Byron, Ralph de Beetham,
William de Tours and Emma his wife,
John son of Peter de Aghtynthwayt and
Margaret his wife, and William Baude-
knave ; Assize R. 425, m. i. The jury
ordered the mill-dam to be thrown down,
William Baudeknave and Joan de Byron
being declared guilty.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
with the other Gerard lands until the sixteenth
Ceninryi'565 Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn sold his
moiety to Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton ; * and the
latter's grandson, Sir Richard, purchased the other
moiety in 1596 from Thomas Stanley alias Halsall,
upon whom it had been conferred by his father,
Henry, earl of Derby.* The Molyneux family thus
acquired the whole of the manor, and it has since
descended in the same way as Sefton, the earl of
Sefton being the present lord.4
Ingew.iith gave a surname to a resident family,
of which few particulars can be given.4 A branch
of the Norris family settled here in the fifteenth
century ; 6 as also a branch of the Torbocks.'
William Fazakerley was a freeholder in l6oo,8 and
his grandson William in 1628 contributed to the
subsidy.9 The Tatlocks of Kirkby appear on the
recusant roll of 1 64 1.10 Thomas Barker had his
lands sequestered for recusancy by the Common-
wealth." In 1717 James Harrison of Grange,
Thomas Tatlock, and William Sheppard as ' papists '
In the following year William Gerard
and Maud his wife demanded, against
Henry de Bootle and others, the moiety
1332 ; Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 22. In 1 305 Robert de Byron,
Richard de Ingewaith, and Robert and
1620, and a grandson William, who died
in 1654. He had several children;
Nicholas, the eldest, was 44 years of age
in Kirkby, as the right of Isabel wife of
Robert de Nevill, which John de Byron
gave to Robert de Byron and the heirs of
his body, and which after Robert's death
ought to descend to the said Maud and
Isabel, daughters and heirs of the said
Robert; De Bane R. 251, m. 160. It
does not appear that the Nevills shared
Robert de Byron's lands in Kirkby as they
did in Melling.
The pedigree of the Gerards in Helsby's
Ormerod, Cbes. ii, 131, needs correction
1 To the aid 1 346-5 5 Maud Gerard and
Ralph de Beetham contributed for the
fifth part of a fee in Kirkby ; feud. Aids,
others were summoned to answer William
de Walton respecting certain oaks and
other trees which they had cut down and
damage' done. Richard de Ingewaith
replied that there was a wood lying between
Kirkby and Walton in which he should
have housebote and heybote, and that he
had done no trespass; Cur. Reg. R. igi,
"John Norris had lands in Garston,
which John Norris of Kirkby, his son,
sold in 1451 to Thomas Lathom of
Knowsley ; Norris D. (B. M.), n.
903-8.
Robert Norris, yeoman, in 1651, peti-
children, the heir being his nephew
William, son of Thomas, aged 6 year*
at the Visit., and living in 1677 ; Dug-
dale, Vitit. (Chet. Soc.), 109 ; will of
N. Fazakerley at Chest., dated 1677,
proved 1680. The remainders were to
his brother Edward's sons, Nicholas,
Thomas, Edward, and then to his brother
Henry's. In the will of his widow, Eliza-
beth (dated 1697), this nephew is called
'of Altcar'— a branch of the family re-
sided at Hill House in Altcar about thii
time— and William Fazakerley as 'of
Prescot, gent.'
This may indicate the parentage of
Nicholas Fazakerley of Prescot, a noted
duke of Lancaster's death in 1361;
Inq. p.m. 35 Edw. Ill, ist Nos. n.
Sir Thomas Gerard, who died in 1416,
held a moiety of Kirkby by knight's ser-
of his estate, which had been sequestered
because he had joined the king's forces in
the first war. He took the National
Covenant and Negative Oath, and was
restored; Royalist Comf. P. (Rec. Soc.
eighteenth century, whose father's name
six Parliaments between 1732 and hit
death in 1767 ; Pink and Beavan,
Par], Rep. of Lanes. 163-4; Diet. Nat.
2O marks ; Lanes. Inq. p. m. (Chet. Soc.),
i, 123.
In 1430 John Gerard and Thomas de
Beetham held the fifth part of a fee here ;
Dods. MSS. Ixxxvii, fol. 58*.
Sir Peter Gerard, who died in 1447,
held lands in Kirkby ; Towneley MS. DD,
n. 1465.
» Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 27, m. 77,
the premises are described as 40 messuages,
^ The following deeds relating to this
property are now in the possession of
Mr. Robert Gladstone, jun., of Woolton :
(a) Grant by Robert de Byron to Simon
son of Alan, of land in Buteriscroft and
Bredlendshead, which Roger son of the
chaplain formerly held ; (i) Refeoffment
by John Fleetwood, with remainder to his
daughter Agnes, 1438 ; (c) Quitclaim by
Agnes, daughter of John Fleetwood of
His great-grandson, John Nicholat
Fazakerley, ' of Prescot,' was member for
Lincoln in 1812 and later years ; Member,
of Par. (Blue Book), ii, 261, &c. He wat
the son of John Fazakerley of Wasing,
Berks, and entered Christ Church, Ox-
ford, in 1805, aged seventeen; Foster,
Alumni Oxon. According to Burke, Landed
Gentry (4th ed. 1 868), he was a grandson
of Alexander Radcliffe of Leigh, who
&c. in Kirkby and Me
of the manor of Kirkby.
» This moiety of Kirkby, with other
estates, had been settled upon Joan Hal-
sail, daughter of Robert Halsall, until her
son Thomas should attain 24 years of age,
when he should come into possession, with
remainder to his heirs male ; Croxteth
D. P. iii, I. The sale to Sir Richard
Molyneux was made in consideration of
£1,160 paid; ibid. P. iii, 2, 3.
4 The Molyneux family were already
landowners in Kirkby. In 1501 they
purchased from William Leyland, son and
heir of John Leyland, land in Avanes-
sergh, which had descended to the vendor
from William de Leyland, who had mar-
ried Margery, daughter of Adam de Snels-
ton by his wife Margery, in the time of
Edward II ; ibid, ii, 2. In 1548 Sir Wil-
liam Molyneux's estate, described as
3 messuages, 50 acres of land, &c., was
said to be held of the heirs of Adam
Snelston in socage by the service of one
barbed arrow ; it was worth 471. $d. per
annum clear ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m.
ix, n. 2.
In 1623 the manor was said to be held
by the tenth part of a knight's fee ; Lanes.
Inq. f. m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
iii, 390.
« Robert de Ingewaith was one of the
principal contributors to the subsidy in
of all her rights in the same lands, which
Thomas had by her father's grant, 1439 ;
(d) Grant by the feoffees to Thomas Tor-
bock, son of John, and Ellen his wife,
1537 ; (e) Surrender by Ellen, widow of
Thomas Torbock of Halsall, of her life
Ji!?
Fine between Anthony Maghull, plaint
and Richard Worsley and Alice his wife,
and John Worsley and Anne his wife,
deforciants, regarding lands at Kirkby,
1591.
Isabel daughter and heir of John
Heath, and widow of John Fleetwood
of Kirkby, occurs temp. Hen. VIII;
Croxteth D.
8 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
Nicholas Fazakerley, son and heir of
William Fazakerley and Elizabeth his
wife, sold a burgage in Dale Street, Liver-
pool, to John Crosse in 1473 ; Nicholas
was living in 1491 ; Crosse D. (Trans.
Hist. Soc.}, n. 153-5, 161.
9 Norris D. (B.M.). William Faza-
kerley of Kirkby held 28 acres in Walton
in 1639 ; Charley Sur-v. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 53.
The family recorded a pedigree at the
Visit, of 1664, beginning with the Wil-
liam Fazakerley of 1 600 ; he was fol-
lowed by a son Nicholas who died about
54
For the Radcliffe-Fazakerley
see Dugdale, Visit, p. 238.
Gregson says : 'John Nicholas Fazaker-
ley, M.P. for the city of Lincoln,
descended from Counsellor Fazakerley
(contemporary with the late Sir Thomat
Bootle of Lathom House), is of this family,
and until lately had many estates in the
hundred of West Derby and other parts of
the county ' ; Fragments (ed. Harland),
141. A deed of 1808 relating to his
estates is enrolled in the Common Pleas,
Trinity, 48 Geo. Ill, R. 94.
>0 trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 238.
There are but few names for this town-
ship, but they include Ellen Fazakerley,
widow ; Anne Norris, widow, and Dorothy
Norris.
" In 1651, Margery Barker, his widow,
petitioned for the removal of the seques-
tration of the two-thirds of the tenement,
which was leasehold under Lord Molyneux.
Margery and her two children were ' con-
ton certified that Thomas Barker, recusant,
had been buried at Walton in the family
grave, ' in the evening, as Papists used to
do ' ; Royalist Comf. P. i, 1 34-7.
The estates of Edward Torbock and
Lawrence Stananought of Kirkby were
confiscated and sold by the Parliament
in 1652; Index of Royalists (Index Soc.),
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
registered estates here.1 Lord Sefton, Edward Stan-
dish, and Thomas Tatlock were the principal land-
owners in 1785.*
The church of St. Chad succeeds an
CHURCH ancient parochial chapel of unknown
origin. The name of the township *
and the invocation of the chapel indicate the existence
of a church here anterior to the
Conquest. The ancient build-
ing was replaced in 1766 by a
plain red brick structure ;4 the
present church was begun in
1869, and consecrated 4 Octo-
ber, 1 87 1.4 This is in the
Transition style, and consists of
chancel, nave with side aisles,
and north and south porches ;
it has a central tower, with
saddle-back roof, containing two
bells. The only relic of anti-
quity belonging to it is the
circular red sandstone font,6 which dates from the
twelfth century, and has on the bowl an arcade of ten
round ' arches ' enclosing standing figures. The only
certain subject is the Temptation of Adam and Eve.
Below the bowl is a cable moulding formed of three en-
twined serpents, and the base has a similar but larger
moulding. The shaft is modern. In the churchyard
is a cross erected in 1875. The registers date from
1678. The later earls of Sefton have been buried here.
Practically nothing is known of this chapel previous
to the Reformation.7 Subsequently the services were
probably not kept up regularly, and in 1566 the
people seem to have refused to pay the vicar of
Walton his dues ; in consequence a decree was made,
ordering the vicar to have certain services once on
every Sunday at least.8 In 1590 and 1612 there
were only ' reading ministers ' serving the place.9 In
WALTON
1650 the Parliamentary commissioners found that
there were belonging to the chapel, a chapelyard, a little
house and orchard, and a croft of
3 roods; they recommended that
it should be made a parish church,
with Kirkby and Simonswood as
its district.10 This recommenda-
tion was repeated in 1657, and
though confirmed ceased to be
effective at the Restoration."
In 1719 the value of the
curacy was £24," but within
fifteen years after this had been
augmented to £90." In '850
the then earl of Sefton endowed
it with £1 60 a year. The bene-
fice is now a vicarage, in the gift of the earl of Sefton.
The following have been curates and incumbents :
1607 James Hartley"
1 609 Robert Hole 15
1650 — Pickering16
1656 William Williamson "
1662 — Ambrose18
1678 John Barton19
oc. 1686 William Atherton"
oc. 1689 Ralfe Reeve"
1696 Peter Becket"
1723 William Mount, B.A.'3 (St. Edmund
Hall, Oxf.)
1764 Thomas Wilkinson **
1786 John Rigby Gill, B.A." (Brasenose Coll.
Oxf.)
1793 Robert Cort K
1850 Robert Henry Gray, M.A." (Christ
Church, Oxf.)
1877 James Butler Kelly, D.D.'8 (Clare Coll.
Camb.)
1 88 1 John Leach, M.A.'9 (Caius Coll. Camb.)
1 Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, ill, 1 20, 1 2 1.
the Litany, Epistle, and Gospel of the day,
in Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 49. One parcel
Thomas ; his son by his wife Ellen Faza-
kerley was Henry Tatlock, S.J. ; Foley,
Rec. S.J. vii, 764 ; Gibson, LyJiate Hall,
289-91. ' Tatlock' s House' stands to
the north-west of the village.
a Land tax returns of 1785 ; the three
contributed £29 out of £100 raised.
8 The only other Kirkby in England
which is a chapelry is Kirkby Muxloe in
Leicestershire, in the parish of Glenfield.
It is legitimate, therefore, to suggest that
Kirkby may formerly have been indepen-
dent of Walton.
4 A brief was issued by which £1,043
was collected ; Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836),
a convenient hour before noon ; if required,
they should administer the sacrament of
also, when required, solemnize matrimony,
baptize infants, purify women, visit the
sick, and bury the bodies of the dead,
according to the custom of the curates of
the adjoining parishes. The inhabitants,
t°heir farmers' o7 proctors, all tithes, obla-
tions, obventions, and all other ecclesias-
tical dues ; and pay to the repair of the
mother church of Walton as in time past.
In a paper at Croxteth is a list of the
Easter offerings from Kirkby in the
Croft. An addition to the stipend was
granted by Queen Anne's bounty in 1768.
14 Will proved at Chester, 1607.
15 Visit. List.
16 Common™. Ch. Surv. 8 1. He had just
resigned in 1650 and the cure was vacant.
W Plund. Mins. Accts. ii, 135.
" Said to have been expelled in 1662.
"Will proved at Chester, 1678.
2« Probably the same who was in 1688
made curate of Liverpool and West Derby.
His name is signed on the first terrier.
»l Not in the Visit, list of 1691, when
the rector and vicar.
22 From this time there are preserved
vi, 53. It was enlarged in 1812, and a
gallery was afterwards added. A view of
the old parsonage is given in the same
»A district chapelry was formed in
1872 ; Land. Gaz. 13 Aug.
« Tram. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), xvii, 6;.
An account appeared in the Gent. Mag. of
1845 ; also Tram. Hist. Soc. vi, 85, with
plates.
7 For the ornaments of the chapel in
1552 see Church Gds. (Chet. Soc.), 100 ;
and for other particulars Raines' Chantries
(Chet. Soc.), ii, 268, 276-7. For the
ancient « Priest Rent ' see the account of
Simonswood.
8 Croxteth D. P. iv, I. The vicar
and his successors by themselves or other
fit curate at their own charge should say
swarm of bees 3</., a windmill 2s., a
water-mill, 45., &c.
» Gibson, LyJiate Hall, 249 ; ' no
preacher.' Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS.
Com.), 13.
10 Commoniv. Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 81.
" Plund. Mins. Aeea. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), ii, 169, 178, 21 1 ; Croxteth
D. P. iv, 2.
" Gastrell, Natitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.),
ii, 229. The rector of Walton paid
/22 1 01. 'No dwelling house but an old
bay of building, never inhabited, in which
a school is kept for children.' The curate
also had a payment of £5 101. from the
town stock ; forty years previously this
payment had been £9 lot.
18 Terriers of :686and 1733 are printed
55
Chester.
s» The curacy was 'vacant by the in-
sufficiency and removal of Mr. Becket.'
William Mount was buried at St. Nicho-
las's, Liverpool, 1765. He built the par-
sonage house, gave communion plate, and
left money for the poor.
»* Buried at Kirkby. He invented a
gold balance, &c.
*5 Grandson of Robert Gill of Hale,
proprietor of the Dungeon Salt Works,
as Buried at Kirkby, 1852 ; aged about
ninety-five. An account of him will be
found in Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 52.
« Rector of Wolsingham, Durham,
1877; died, 1885.
» Sometime coadjutor bishop of New-
foundland.
» Vicar of Pemberton, 1874-81.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
There was an ancient school in Kirkby, built on
the glebe, but it was burnt down. The children
were afterwards taught in the vestry, until Lord
Sefton erected a school on his own land.1
Mass is occasionally said on Sundays at a mission
room which is served from Maghull.*
SIMONSWOOD
Simundeswude, 1207; Simundeswod, 1*97 ;
Symondeswode, 1391.* The i is short.
This township, placed within the forest, and so
becoming extra-parochial,4 measures about three miles
by one and a half, with an area of 2,626 acres.5 It is
a flat open agricultural country, consisting chiefly of
through the township westwards towards the River Alt.
The geological formation is triassic, similar to that found
in Kirkby, with a small area of the middle coal mea-
sures extending across the north-eastern portion of the
moss. The population was 358 in 1901. The
Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's railway from
Liverpool to Wigan crosses the township.
There is a parish council.
Simonswood was taken into the forest
M4NOR after the first coronation of Henry II, and
therefore the knights who made the per-
ambulation of the forest in 1228 declared that it
ought to be disafforested and restored to the heirs of
Richard son of Roger, lords of the vill of Kirkby.6
Hugh de Moreton, who had married Margaret,
daughter and coheir of that Richard, had in 1 207
SIMONSWOOD HALL
arable fields, with but few plantations. The soil is
partly sandy and partly peaty, with traces of old
mossland. A large patch of moss still exists in the
east of the township, with the characteristic vegetation
of white-stemmed birch-trees waving above bracken,
sedges, and rushes. Peat is dug, dried and stacked
ready for fuel, the grounds thus cleared being con-
verted into valuable arable fields, where potatoes and
other root crops, cabbages and some corn grow
luxuriantly. Copses and plantations afford cover for
much game. The district is very sparsely populated,
the farm-houses and cottages being too scattered to
be described as a village.
The Simonswood brook and another of equally
insignificant size, rising in mossland to the east, flow
proffered a palfrey for the pasture of Simonswood,
which ought to belong to his wife's manor of Kirkby ;
but though he undertook to cause no injury to the
forest, his offer was at length declined.7
The wood was not disafforested, and until the
beginning of the sixteenth century remained parcel
of the forest and demesne of West Derby. It was
placed under the care of a forester, who permitted
pasturage and the taking of estovers by the people of
Kirkby, and safeguarded the vert and venison. The
yearly issues probably no more than covered the
wages of the forester and his bailiff; in 1257 the
issues from hay sold, turbary and perquisites amounted
to \6s. T.d. ; 8 in 1327 the gross income was
£3 6s. %d. ;a and in 1348 had risen to £4 $s. 6<t.w
> End. Char. Rep. 1903.
» Liverpool Cath. Annual. There are
ownship and the adjoining Fazakerley in
this, like some other portions of the
finding, is not found in the enrolment of
the Perambulation in the Close R. of 12
Hen. Ill ; Col. of Close, 1227-31, p. 100.
For the verderer tee Col. Close R.
<33°-3> 74-
• Inq. p.m. I Edw. Ill, n. 88.
10 Duchy of Lane. Var. Accts. bdle. 32,
he nineteenth ; see Gibson, Lydiate Hall,
9°The origin of the name is traditionally
eferred to one Simon, who defeated in a
ace a famous runner of King John's,
and in consequence received the custody
of 2j marks in lieu of the palfrey was
cancelled in 1211, the record stating in
explanation that Hugh had not, nor could
have, the pasture for which he had bar-
gained. Ibid. 240.
8 Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
given :— Of the herbage, winter and sum-
mer, £ 4 ; of wood blown down by the
wind, 51. 6d. ; of the pannage of swine,
perquisites of the wood-motes, farm of a
smithy, honey and woodland wax, alders,
dead wood, crop (twigs), bark, sparrow-
hawks, escapes and waifs, nil.
parish of Lancaster like other forest land.
« The Census Rep. of 1901 gives 2,645
acres. A small detached portion of
Welling was added to Simonswood in
1877 ; Loc. Gov. Bd. order 7,218.
« Wholly Coucber (Chet. Soc.), ii, 372 ;
Thomas, earl of Lancaster, gave this
with other demesne lands of the hundred
to Sir Robert de Holand, but these after
the forfeiture were not restored to him ;
Parl. R. ii, 29*.
56
shown by the pardon granted in 1391 to
Sir Richard de Clifton ; he had entered
the duke's chase of Simonswood in
August, 1386, with his harriers and taken
a hind of the duke's beasts of the forest ;
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 174.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The office of keeper of this chase was united with
that of keeper of Toxteth Park.1 In 1 507 the king
granted ' a waste ground ' called Simonswood to
William Molyneux,' one of the
esquires of his body, at a yearly f^mf^^ — __ _^ ^
rent, according to the custom
of the manor of West Derby.3
The township has since con-
tinued in the possession of the
Molyneux family.'
It appears to have been cus-
tomary for the landowners of
the district to obtain wood here
for fencing their properties.
Edward Moore of Bankhall
describes how his great-grand-
father in the time of Elizabeth
used to keep two strong ox teams, with two men and
two boys, employed during the greater part of the
winter carrying hedging wood from Simonswood for
^ ^
MOLYNEUX,
Sefton. Azu,
moline or.
WALTON
the fencing of his demesne lands.5 Some idea of the
recent progress of agriculture may be gathered from
the scanty amount of ' corn rent ' or tithe due to the
rector or farmer of the tithes of Walton in 1658 ; the
total was £2 js. 6d,6
William Johnson of West Derby, and William
Fleetwood 'as papists' registered estates in Simons-
wood in 1717.'
In 1571 there was a dispute as to the boundary
between Simonswood and Cunscough in Melling.8
There was an ancient rent called the Priest Rent,
paid by fourteen messuages in Simonswood to the
curate of Kirkby; it amounted only to 8/. 44'. in all.9
In the eighteenth century the justices began to
appoint overseers of the poor instead of the inhabi-
tants, who had formerly appointed them. There were
no churchwardens (or church tax), constable, or high-
way surveyor. Collectors of the land tax were ap-
pointed as elsewhere, and the assessor of this tax also
the poor-rate.10
1 See the account of Toxteth.
" Hereditary master forester of the
hundred ; Croxteth D. W. 2.
» Ibid. F. 2. Croxteth Park was
joined in the grant. The rent payable
for both was £16, of which £6 and £2
represented the old farms of Croxteth and
Simonswood, and £8 the new yearly in-
Simonswood was reported as overgrown
with wood, in those parts of little or no
being then at London and searching ac-
cordingly, the Act of Parliament above
mentioned was then discovered, and Dr.
Kingston gave up his pretensions.' The
insecurity of the tenure as forester wa,
due to Lord Molyneux's recusancy ; he
had already been deprived of the Con-
stableship of Liverpool Castle for this
reason ; see the hint in Norris Pafers
(Chet. Soc.), 1 60.
« Moore Rental (Chet. Soc.), 125.
2. Nicholas Stopard and Anne
Barnes ; Barrow heys, Crich croft ;
3. Jane Wareing ; Rice or Rye hey,
Crumberry hey, 520.
4. Thomas Basford, ' Cots Bobs ' ;
and Jonathan Mallinson (made
two tenements barely within
memory) ; 36*.
5. Edward Stockley, « Fairclough's '
or ' Plait's house ' ; i8a.
6. Edward Stockley, ' Balls ' ; 43 Ja.
upon it. The grants were next year en-
rolled on the court rolls of the manor of
West Derby ; ibid. F. 3-5.
4 See the account of Sefton. From an
abstract of title preserved at Croxteth it
appears that the tenure of Simonswood
8 Croxteth D. Richard Leyland of
Great Crosby, aged 60, deposed that the
bounds were the White Syke and the Rail
Ditch. The inheritors of Cunscough had
had the right to cut wood in Simonswood
to make staff and rails, upon the Rail
7. William and Joshua Cropper ;
hemp yard, workhouse hey, burnt
ale, bathing pit hey ; 284.
8. Richard Fleetwood, ' Salthouse ' ;
house of correction ; the an-
cient messuage had been burnt
down, and a new one built on
garded as freehold, but more usually as
copyhold, down to the beginning of the
eighteenth century. Counsel's opinion,
obtained in 1834, was that they had be-
come enfranchised, even if they had ever
been copyhold ; nothing was then known
as to the payment of the £16 rent.
According to the abstract the act of 7
Tames I, regarding copyholds of West
Derby, etc., applied to these manors ; and
upon the disputed ground as in the rest
of Simonswood ; and a beast gate was
paid for at $d. a year, to Richard Fleet-
wood for Sir Richard Molyneux his master.
He knew the North Brook, but it was
never the boundary. He knew Thorpe's
Brook, a continuation of the North Brook,
lying anends certain ground called Thorpe's
Fields. Peter Fleetwood and his father
before him, with tenants in Simonswood,
1 00.
9. William Woods ; 233. Said to
have been anciently part of the
last 5 z^a.
10. Thomas Rawlinson, sen. 'Yate
house ' j hemp yard, pinfold heys,
ii. Thomas Rawlinson, sen. 'Shep-
herd's ' ; hemp yard, pingate ;
iga.
the family seemed to know nothing to the
contrary but that they held the said forest
lands either by the said admittance from
the duke of Gloucester within the time
of memory, or by virtue of their office of
them but a precarious tenure ; and it
some way coming out as if they had been
•o held, one Dr. Kingston obtained a
grant from the crown, came down into
the country, and claimed these lands, and
in Simonswood. Whereupon the family
being much alarmed, John Case, being an
old gentleman in the neighbourhood, ad-
vised the then Lord Molyneux to search
the Parliament rolls ; one Mr. Lawton,
who was then concerned for the family,
Cunscough. The White Syke lay between
Ormskirk and Halsall parishes, and
Simonswood within the parish of Lan-
caster ; Simonswood Brook ran into the
White Syke. Simonswood Lane was near
this brook, going to Simonswood Moss.
'Dirty Alt' ran between Aughton and
Cunscough.
9 From the Croxteth D. The list
was prepared in view of fresh claims
for tithe by the rector of Walton.
The 'fourteen ancient tenements' in
1769, with some of the field names,
were as follows :
I. William Tatlock, ' South Heads;'
Brick kiln hey, Chorley mounts ;
42*.
heys; nja.
13. Edward Woods, 'RigbyV ; hemp
yard; loja.
14. John Bullens ; Great and Little
Mount; 17*. The ancient mease
had been taken down and a new
one built on or near the old foun-
dation. 'These fourteen tene-
ments pay 8f. per annum " Priest's
money " to the curate of Kirkby
chapel, which is supposed to be a
modus in lieu of all small tithes
except Easter dues.' A later
list shows a 'flax meadow' in
No. 9.
l» Croxteth D.
57
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
SEFTON
SEFTON
NETHERTON
LUNT
THORNTON
INCE BLUNDELL
LITTLE CROSBY
GREAT CROSBY
LITHERLAND
ORRELL AND FORD
AINTREE
This parish, lying on the coast near the entrance of
the Mersey and bounded on the east and north by the
River Alt, has an area of 1 2,68 7 £ acres. The surface
is level and lies very low, so that in rainy seasons the
Alt floods a considerable extent of land ; the greatest
height is attained in the south, part of Orrell being
125 ft. above sea level.
Anciently the townships were arranged in four
quarters as follows : i, Sefton, with Netherton and
Lunt ; ii, Ince Blundell, Little Crosby ; iii, Thorn-
ton, Great Crosby ; iv, Down Litherland with Orrell
and Ford, Aintree. Each quarter paid equally to the
county lay.1 Within recent years the seaside town-
ships of Waterloo and Seaforth, governed in combina-
tion, have been formed from Great Crosby and
Litherland respectively. In these a large urban
population has grown up, but the greater part of the
area is still rural. The agricultural land of the
parish is mainly arable, viz. 7,356 acres; while
1,869 acres are in permanent grass, and 240 in woods
and plantations. The population in 1901 was
45,846.
The parish has but little connexion with the general
history of the country. At Flodden Sir William
Molyneux of Sefton greatly distinguished himself, and
Henry Blundell of Little Crosby fell in the battle.
The change of religion made by Elizabeth was
most distasteful to the people. In 1624 and 1626
' riots and rescues,' occasioned by the unwelcome
visits of the sheriffs officers to seize the cattle of the
recusant William Blundell of Little Crosby, became a
Star Chamber matter, resulting in the imposition of a
heavy fine upon the perpetrators.8 As was to be ex-
pected, in the Civil War the gentry took the king's
side, and their possessions were consequently seques-
trated by the Parliament. The smaller people also
suffered.3 The Lancashire Plot of 1694 brought
more trouble on the district,4 but the risings of 1 7 1 5
and 1745 do not appear to have drawn any support
from Sefton.
The principal landowners of the parish have long
been the lords of Sefton, Ince Blundell, and Little
Crosby. In 1792 the earl of Sefton, Henry Blundell,
and Nicholas Blundell contributed ^192 to the land
tax out of £48 1 charged upon the parish.5
The life of the district in the first part of the
eighteenth century is well illustrated in Nicholas
Blundell's Diary. In the way of sports there were
hunting, coursing — the Liverpool hounds sometimes
going so far out as Little Crosby — horse-racing at
various places in the neighbourhood, as Great Crosby
and Aughton, cock-fighting, bull-baiting, and bowling
matches on the various greens. Visits were made
to Ormskirk — then relatively more important than at
present — to Lathom Spa, and to Liverpool ; the latter
place might be reached by road in the coach or over
the sands on horseback. Nicholas Blundell fulfilled
the usual duties of a landlord, as when he fixed ' the
boundaries between Great Crosby and the Moorhouses
that each town might know their liberty to fish in ' ;*
and there were discussions about drainage, enclosures,
and other improvements, the Foremoss Pool gutter
being mentioned several times. Lord Molyneux
desired that 'the River Alt might be scoured as
usual,' and the setting and cutting of the star grass on
the sandhills had to be regulated. Smuggling was
also carried on : ' This night (says Squire Blundell) I
had a cargo of sixteen large ones brought to White
hall .... W.Ca. covered the cargo very well with
straw.' 7
Every now and again, especially in winter, there
would be a ' merry night ' at the hall, when the
squire's sword dance might be performed or his tricks
of legerdemain exhibited to divert the company.
Companies of players seem to have visited the district
occasionally, performing here and there as they found
patronage and accommodation. Of local customs he
particularly notices the throwing at the cock on
Shrove Tuesday, and the dressing of the crosses at
Great Crosby and Ince Blundell on Midsummer Day.
The Goose Feast at Great Crosby was regularly
celebrated in the middle of October with great
1 The assessment was not equally
shared by the townships in each quarter j
thus Great Crosby paid u. 6J. and
Thornton is. towards a levy of 21. t>d. ;
Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 16.
The levies for the ancient fifteenth were
as follows : Sefton, £i 191. i&d. ; Thorn-
ton, i8s. %d. ; Ince Blundell, £i is. 9J</. ;
Little Crosby, £ I 6s, SJ. ; Great Crosby,
£l a. t>\d. ; Litherland, 161. 4^. ; Ain-
tree, us. 8</., making £7 151. when the
hundred paid /io6 91. 6d. ; ibid. 18.
•Cr«4*«. (diet Soc.), 35-44-
8 Elizabeth Abraham of Thornton, a
widow, took the oath of abjuration in
cate him in popery, but finding they could
not prevail with him therein, turned him
out of doors' ; the authorities had seques-
tered his father's small estate at Holmore
Green in Thornton for recusancy, and
William would be ruined unless this
could be restored to him, now that his
father was dead ; ibid, i, 210-13, tndtx of
Royalists (Index Soc.), 42. The committee
did not altogether believe this story ; S.P.
Col. of Com. for Comf. iv, 2844.
Other humble ' delinquents ' were Law-
rence Johnson and George Leyland of
Crosby, Ellen Maghull of Aintree, and
Edmund Raphson of Ince Blundell;
Royalist Comf. P. iv, 33, 93, 112, 172.
See also the case of Humphrey Blundell ;
ibid, i, 197. William Arnold, James
Rice, and Edward Rice of Crosby had
their estates sold under the Act of 1652 ;
Index of Royalists, 41, 43, 44.
Edmund Ralphson of Ince Blundell
58
complained that his discharge was re-
fused, though he was always a Protestant
and frequented the parish church ; he was
suffering through a confusion with another
of the same name and place; Cal. of Com.
for Comf. iv, 2627. His discharge wa«
granted.
Thomas Rothwell of Great Crosby was
a victim of the other side ; he was arrested
by the Royalists while for a short time
they held the castle of Liverpool, and
charged with having enlisted under
Colonel Moore, which, as he was warned,
was enough to hang him ; Royalist Comf,
P. i, 43, 44.
« Kenyan AfSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 311,
319, 362, 369, 385.
5 Land tax returns at Preston.
6 N. Blundell, Diary, 153.
1 Ibid. 173. The goods appear to
have been casks of claret for Charles
Howard.
of land ; Royalist Comf. P. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches. ), i, 7-9.
William Bootle alleged that 'his
father and mother were Catholics and by
threats and hard usage had endeavoured
to keep him from his church and to edu-
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
festivity ; a maypole and morris-dancing are men-
tioned at Little Crosby, nor is the tossing of pancakes
forgotten. On 2 November, 1717, 'we dealt soul
loaves to the poor, it being the first time any soul
loaves were given here, as I remember.' At Easter
he gave the parish clerk ' 2d. instead of twelve paist
eggs.' On 31 December, 1723, 'there was a riding
for Anne Norris, who had beaten her husband.' He
records that on 6 October, 1717, 'it being near full
moon I cut my wife's hair off.'
When his new marl-pit was dug it was ' flowered,'
and the occasion was quite a festal one. A procession
was formed, ' the fourteen marlers had a particular
dress on their heads, and each of them carried a
musket or gun ; the six garlands, &c., were carried by
young women in procession ; the eight sword-dancers
went with them to the marl-pit, where they danced' ;
and a week later a large bull was baited, ' to admira-
tion,' at the bottom of the new pit. Again, a week
later the marling was finished with feasting and
dancing.1 Incidentally the diarist mentions the spin-
ning of wool and the ' breaking ' of flax.* The
preceding process of 'reeling' or retting flax is noticed
in an earlier document.3 A peculiar word he uses is
' songoars,' for gleaners.
At the present time the stories of ' M. E. Francis,'
such as In a North Country Village, have made the life
of the rural portion of the district familiar.
The regulation of the Alt, effected by an Act
passed in 1779,* was of great importance to the
whole district. Its provisions may be summarized
thus : Nearly 5,000 acres of low-lying lands along
the banks of this stream in the parishes of Altcar,
Sefton, Halsall, and Walton were rendered almost
valueless by the overflowing of the water ; certain
commissioners 5 were therefore empowered to change
and clear the course of the river below Bull Bridge in
Aintree and Melling, and to make a new channel in
Altcar, Formby, and Ravensmeols down to low-water
mark ; to clear and change the course of several
tributary brooks, but without damage to the water
for Sefton mills ; to plant star grass on the sandhills ;
to take evidence as to damage and compensation,
appoint officers, raise money for the needful works
and salaries, and prosecute offenders.6 The first
meeting of the commissioners was fixed for 1 8 May,
1779, in Sefton church. The expenses were to be
paid by an annual tax upon the owners or occupiers
of the low lands to be improved, assessed by an acre
rate according to the improvement effected ; copies of
estimates, &c., were to be kept in the vestry of Sefton
church.
A detailed report on the state of the coast a
century ago has been printed.7
The church of St. Helen has a chancel
CHURCH* 21 ft. by 44 ft., with an eastern vestry,
and north and south chapels 17 ft. by
25 ft., nave 21 ft. by 60 ft. with north and south
SEFTON
aisles 17 ft. wide, south porch, and west tower
1 2 ft. square with a tall stone spire. All measure-
ments are internal. There is no structural division
between the nave and chancel, the nave taking up
the first four bays of the arcade from the west,
and the quire seats occupying the fifth. The fifth
and sixth bays are enclosed with screens on north
and south, and a line of screens runs across the church
at the west of the fifth bay. The eastern bay of the
chancel projects 1 8 ft. eastward from the line of the
chapels, and is lighted by an east window of five
lights, the mullions and tracery being modern, and
north and south windows of four lights, with un-
cusped tracery and two transoms.
The architectural history of the church is not a
long one, as the greater part was rebuilt in the six-
teenth century, leaving too little older work standing
to give much clue to its earlier form.9
The east bay of the north chapel belongs to the
first half of the fourteenth century, and the west
tower is .nearly contemporary with it. There was
formerly a north aisle of this date, part of its west
wall with the jamb of a west window still remain-
ing. If this window was centrally placed the aisle
would have been narrower than at present ; the north
arcade also was 1 5 in. further to the north than that
which now exists. There was at this time no south
aisle to the nave, as may be seen from the details of
the south-east buttress of the tower. In the early
part of the fifteenth century the north chapel seems
to have been lengthened westward, and at a later date
in the same century the north aisle was rebuilt and
made equal in width to the chapel. At some time in
the first half of the sixteenth century the chancel, the
south aisle and both arcades of the nave were rebuilt,
destroying all traces of former work except such as
have already been mentioned. A vestry east of the
chancel and a south porch also belong to this time.
There is some difficulty about the exact date. The
rebuilding has been attributed to Anthony Molyneux,
rector 1535-57, apparently on the strength of a pass-
age in his will which mentions that he has ' made
so greatt costes of ye chauncell and revestrie.' If this
may be taken to mean a rebuilding of those parts of
the church for whose maintenance he as rector was
liable, the rest of the sixteenth-century work, being
of like detail and design, may well have been under-
taken about the same time. But it is unlikely that
the rector did more than his particular share of the
work, and the few remains of inscriptions on glass
point to gifts of windows, at any rate, by other bene-
factors : Sir William Molyneux I 542, William Bulkeley
1543, and [Lawrence] Ireland 1540. These dates all
point to 1535-40 as the probable date of the rebuild-
ing. It must, however, be noted that the quire stalls
bear the initials i M, which may refer to James
Molyneux, rector 1489-1509. These initials also
occur on the screen west of the stalls, but are
1 N. Blundell, Diary, 103-5. Scc a"
article by the Rev. T. E. Gibson in
Tram. Hist. Soc. xxxiii, 1-22.
« Diary, 102, 109, 32, 128.
« Crosby Rec. 37.
« 19 Geo. HI, cap. 33.
s Their names were Thomas Stanley
of Cross Hall, Robert Moss of Sand Hills,
John Atherton of Walton, Rev. Henry
Heathcotc (rector of Walton), Henry Gill
of Ormskirk, William Halladay of the
Roger Ryding of Croston, Rev. Richard
Prescott of Upholland, and William
Gregson of Liverpool.
« The names of the lands affected are
given, 'moss,' 'marsh,' and 'carr' being
frequent, while ' summer-worked Hey '
(in Melling) shows that the field wa»
available for only a short time in the year.
^ Trans. Hist. Soc. xxii, 241-5. The
names of owners of land fronting the sea
T. Ashcroft, Sefton Ch.; R. Bridgens,
Sefton Ch., with plates; Sir S. Glynne,
Lanes. Ch. (Chet. Soc.), 34 ; Gent. Mag.
(1814), ii, 521, 522; Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), xi, 37.; CarOe and Gordon,
Sefton. For the font see Tram. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), xvii, 61.
9 A late twelfth-century capital was
found in pulling down an old schoolhouse
which stood close to the churchyard wall
on the north-west, and may have be-
Brctherton, James Waring of Knowsley,
Tour to Alston Moor, 28, with plates;
59
other remains exist.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
accompanied with ornament of distinct Renaissance
type, and it is extremely doubtful if this can be of so
early a date as the first decade of the sixteenth cen-
tury. A displayed eagle also occurs on the stalls,
perhaps in reference to the arms of Cotton, to which
family Anthony's mother belonged.1
The present east window of the chancel is filled
with modern tracery, inserted about 1870, and re-
placing a tracery window of five lights with three
transoms, all openings being without cusps, and the
heads under the transoms rounded. The side win-
dows are still of this type, as are those lighting the
south chapel and aisle, and would fit very well to the
probable date 1535-40. East of the chancel is a
low building, contemporary with it, and entered
from the west by a door on the south of the altar,
which is the ' revestre ' built by Anthony Molyneux,
and still used for its original purpose.
The nave arcades are of six bays with coarsely moulded
arches and piers, with four engaged shafts and moulded
capitals and bases. The clearstory has four-light windows
with uncusped tracery, the mullions crossing in the
head, and all the nave roofs are of flat pitch and
modern. The weathering of a former high-pitched
roof remains on the east wall of the west tower.
The north chapel has a tall three-light east window
of early fourteenth-century style," and the contem-
porary north window is flat-headed, of three tre-
foiled lights with reticulated tracery. Below it is
an arched recess, now containing a late thirteenth-
century effigy, while a somewhat later one lies near
by. The second window from the east has three
cinquefoiled lights under a segmental head, and the two
others to the west of it three cinquefoiled lights with
tracery over. The north doorway is small and plain,
the principal entrance to the church being by the
south porch, which has a four-centred outer arch
with a shield and I H s at the apex, and an upper
story lighted on the south by a four-light square-
headed window. Above it is a canopied niche, and
the porch, like the rest of the aisles and the clear-
story, is finished with an embattled parapet and
short angle pinnacles. It retains its original flat
ceiling with heavy moulded oak beams, and the
Molyneux arms occur on the buttresses and the labels
of the outer arch.
The west tower is of three stages with diagonal
buttresses at the western angles and a vice in the
south-west angle. The west window of the ground
story is of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over,
and the four belfry windows are of the same type.
In the intermediate stage are small single trefoiled
lights. The tall stone spire is quite plain, and rises
from a plain parapet with four low conical angle
turrets. It is to be noted that a plinth of the same
section as that on the tower is continued round the
later part of the north aisle, suggesting that it may
be re-used material from the former north aisle, which
seems to have been contemporary with the tower.*
The great interest of the church lies in its wood-
work and monuments.
The rood screen, though damaged by repairs in
1820 and 1843, is a very fine example, with project-
ing canopies on either side. These are unfortunately
not in their original condition, the eastern canopy
» W. D. CarBe, Sefton, 64.
> Each member has a plain sunk chamfer.
8 Mr. Car8e notes that the north door seems to be cut through
such a plinth. Sefton, 8.
having been formerly a canted tester with a panelled
soffit, and a brattishing of nine hanging cusped arches.
No other part of the rood loft remains, and the posi-
tion of the stair which led to it is doubtful.
The screen has five openings, each with two cinque-
foiled arches in the head divided by a pendant, and
in the central opening are double doors, unfortunately
not the original ones, which were destroyed at one or
other of the dates mentioned above. The bands of
ornament on the rails and cornice are richly wrought,
and show a mixture of the Gothic vine-trail with
Renaissance detail, as already noted. The pendants of
the western canopies are finished with angels holding
shields with Molyneux bearings or the emblems of
the Passion. The openings of the screen, as well as
of the side screens of the chancel, are filled in with
iron stanchions ending in fleurs de lys ; these side
screens have good carved cornices and cresting, and
pierced tracery in the heads, but show no Italian
detail, and their lower panels are solid, with cinque-
foiled heads. They appear to have had canopies at
one time, and to have lost them in some repair. In
the west bay of the chancel are fourteen stalls, three
being returned on each side of the chancel door, their
floor level being two steps above that of the pavement,
and the desks are set on a stone base with quatrefoiled
openings to the area below the floor of the stalls.
The standards at the ends of the desks are carved with
a variety of devices, the lower part being in all a
conventional pineapple, while above are deer, a lion,
a unicorn, a griffin, an owl mobbed by small birds,
an eagle, an antelope, &c. The letters I M occur
here as before noted. The screen across the north
aisle, at the west of the Blundell chapel, is somewhat
plainer than the rest, but has a good carved cornice
and pierced tracery in the head of each opening, and
on the lower panels a plain fluted linen pattern show-
ing classic influence. Against the north wall of the
chapel is an early seventeenth-century seat with
panelled back and return benches on east and west,
and corresponding desks in front, having on the upper
part of one of the standards a seated squirrel, the
Blundell crest.
At the east end of the south aisle is another late
Gothic screen of very rich detail with elaborately
carved uprights and solid lower panels with ornament
derived from the linen pattern, and on the top a
canopy projecting east and west, the east side being
canted like the former east canopy of the wood
screen, and the west side coved. Both have ribs and
a carved cornice with pendants, but the south end of
the screen has been damaged by galleries, and is now
partly hidden by the Sefton pew, which was formerly
on the north side of the nave, and is of the same
date and detail as the screen at the west of the
Blundell chapel.
Both blocks of seats in the nave, twelve on each
side, belong probably to the second quarter of the
sixteenth century, and have good poppy heads and a
most interesting set of carved bench ends. Those in
the north block have crowned fleurs de lys on the four
corner bench ends, and the rest have, for the most
part, various conventional floral patterns. In the
south block the corner seats have the Molyneux cross,
while the rest have an alphabet, complete except for
x, y and z, one letter to each bench end. At first
sight they suggest some method of marking the seats
analogous to modern numbering, but the absence of
any such arrangement in the north block goes
60
SEFTON CHURCH : THE NAVE, LOOKING EAST
SEFTON CHURCH : SCREEN AND SEFTON PEW AT EAST END OF SOUTH AISLE
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
to show that the letters are merely ornamental. It
must also be noted that the floor beneath the benches
is modern, so that they may not be in their original
positions. In various places the emblems of the
Passion occur, and several devices whose meaning is
obscure, and at the west end of the south aisle is a
churchwardens' pew containing work of the same
period, with a linen-pattern panelled front.
At the west end of the north aisle are the seats
once occupied by the members of the mock cor-
poration of Sefton, the mayor's seat being in front of
the west respond of the north arcade.
The pulpit, which formerly stood against the middle
pier of the north arcade of the nave, is now set
against the rood screen on the north side of the en-
trance to the chancel, displacing the Sefton pew, now
in the south aisle. It is octagonal, with pilasters at
the angles and two tiers of moulded panels, the
whole surface being worked with arabesques in low
relief. It stands on a tall octagonal stem and has
over it an octagonal tester with pendants at the angles
and a panelled soffit. It is dated 1635, and has two
inscriptions, one round the tester : —
My sonne feare thou the Lorde and the Kinge and medle
not with them that are given to change,
and another round the cornice of the body of the
pulpit : —
He that covereth his sinne shall not prosper, but whoso
confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercie ; happy
i,them[an]-
the end of the inscription being lost.
There are a few pieces of old stained glass. In the
east window of the south aisle are several symbols of
the Passion, and part of a rood, with an inscription
recording the gift of a window by Sir William
Molyneux, 1542. In the window near Margaret
Bulkeley's brass in the south aisle, is a partly modern
inscription recording the making of a window in her
memory in 1543, and in the next window is a third
inscription naming ' William ' Ireland of Lydiate and
Ellen his wife, 1540. The word William is a
modern insertion ; the original was Lawrence.
The traces of ritual arrangements, apart from those
already described, are not many. There are three
sediliaon the south side of the chancel, and a recess for
a piscina to the east of them, while in the north wall
of the chancel is a large arched recess with an ogee
head, now fitted with a door. It may be modern,
but the position is a normal one.
The north chapel as already noted belongs to the
early part of the fourteenth century, and the tomb
recess in its north wall is contemporary. In the east
wall, near the south end, is a double piscina of
c. 1330, with a flowing quatrefoil in the head over
two trefoiled arches. It may have been moved to its
present position at the building of the arcades in the
sixteenth century.
The font stands under the west tower, and is of
red sandstone, octagonal, with blank shields in sixfoils
on each face and raised fillets on the angles of bowl,
stem and base. It probably belongs to the end of
the fifteenth century, and has a pyramidal oak cover
inscribed RR : HM : cw. 1688. In the north, south,
and west walls of the tower are rectangular recesses,
those on the north and south extending eastward
beyond the line of their openings in the thickness of
the wall, and bearing marks of the fitting of shelves.
One such recess in this position would serve as a font-
SEFTON
locker to keep the chrismatory, &c., but the presence
of three points to some additional use, and this part
of the church may have been used as a vestry.
When the whitewash was taken off the arcades in
1891, black-letter texts of Jacobean date were found
in the spandrels of the arches. The panelling on
the east wall of the chancel was given by will by
Mrs. Anne Molyneux, c. 1730,' and the three brass
chandeliers hanging in the church were given in 1773.
There are six bells, the first four by Henry Old-
field of Nottingham, and the fifth and tenor of 1 8 1 5
by Dobson of Downham. The inscriptions on the
first four are : —
Treble.— God bles the founder heareof. 1601.
Second. — Nos sumus construct! ad laudum (sic) Domini.
1601.
Third.— Hec campana beata Trinitate sacra fiat. Fere
God. Henri Oldfelde made thys Beyl.
Fourth as Third, omitting the word ' beata.'
The Latin inscriptions on the third and fourth
bells are a version of the mediaeval hexameter,
Trinita
ipana beata,
and one or both of the bells may have been so
inscribed before their recasting by Oldfield.
The very interesting series of monuments begins
with the mailed effigy in the recess on the north of
the north-east chapel. The figure has knee-caps
which may be of leather, but is otherwise entirely in
mail, and wears a short surcoat and a sword-belt,
from which hangs a sword which he is drawing from
its sheath. On the left arm is a shield with the cross
moline of Molyneux. The date of the effigy is
f. 1280-1300, and it may represent William de
Molyneux, who died c. 1289. Near it is a second
effigy wearing a peaked bascinet with raised vizor, a
mail hauberk and short surcoat, and plate (or leather)
knee-caps and jambes, the feet being in mail. He is
bearded, and has a blank shield on the left arm, and
draws his sword like the other effigy. The date is
c. 1330, but there is nothing to show who is the
person represented. A curious detail is the crouching
human figure in a long gown on whom the feet of
the effigy rest. In the same chapel is a panelled altar
tomb with an alabaster slab and a damaged inscription
to Lady Joan Molyneux, 1440.
In the south aisle, and now enclosed by the Sefton
pew, is the fine brass of Margaret Bulkeley, 1528,
with a figure under a double canopy between four
shields, bearing the arms of Molyneux, Bulkeley,
Button, and Molyneux. At the feet is a long in-
scription recording her foundation of a chantry in
the church.
On the south side of the chancel is a floor-slab
with the brass figures of Sir William Molyneux and
his two wives, Jane (Rudge) and Elizabeth (Clifton),
1548. The inscription records his feat of capturing
two standards at Flodden, and over his head is the
Molyneux shield with the standards above it — only
one being now perfect, that of Huntly, with its
motto or cry ' Clanc tout.' Above each of the wives
was a lozenge with heraldry, one only being now left,
and below the inscription a shield with Molyneux
with ten alliances, and the motto ' En droit devant.'
The figure of Sir William is in armour of the time,
with the curious exception that the head is covered
with a coif of mail, and the lower part of a hauberk
1 Trans. Hist. S«. (New Ser.), xi, 83.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
shows above the knees. It is possible, as has been
already suggested elsewhere, that the figure represents
his actual appearance at Flodden, in old armour
hastily chosen from among the suits at Sefton on the
sudden alarm of war.
On an altar tomb just south of this slab, and
balancing the tomb of Lady Joan Molyneux on the
other side of the chancel, are the brass figures of Sir
Richard Molyneux, 1558, and his two wives, Eleanor
(Radcliffe) and Eleanor (Maghull). Below is a
rhyming inscription in eight lines and a group of five
sons and eight daughters. Of the marginal inscrip-
tion there only remains enough to identify the tomb.
In the south-east chapel are later monuments, one
of white marble to Caryll Molyneux, third viscount,
1 700, and others to his wife and daughter-in-law.
The most notable of the modern monuments is
that of Henry Blundell of Ince, who died in 1810 ;
it was designed by John Gibson and represents the
deceased relieving Genius and Poverty.1
The church plate consists of a chalice with the
letters E if M an<^ trie inscription ' The gift
of Mrs. Alice Morton to the church of Sephton,
1695 ' ; a flagon, inscribed 'The gift of Mrs. Anne
Jackson of Sephton, 1715' ; another chalice, with
' The gift of Mrs. Ann Molyneux to the parish church
of Sephton, 1729,' and among the plate marks B.B.
for Benjamin Branker, a Liverpool silversmith ; a
cylindrical cup with handle, engraved with a crest
of three arrows, tied with ribbon, and the points
resting on a wreath ; and a silver paten, which fits
an old silver chalice now at St. Luke's, Great
Crosby.
The churchwardens' accounts begin in 1 746.'
The registers begin in 1597, but were not regu-
larly kept until 1615, from which time they are
continuous.8
From its position the parish of
ADVQWSON Sefton appears to have been taken
from that of Walton. The earliest
record of its independent existence is in 1203, when
the abbot of Combermere and others, by virtue of a
commission from Innocent III, adjudicated in a dis-
pute as to certain tithes in Crosby between the prior
of Lancaster and the rector of Sefton.4 In 1291
the value of the benefice was £26 13*. 4</.,6 and in
1 340 it was assessed at 40 marks for the ninth of
sheaves, lambs, and wool.6 The net value in 1535,
including the rectory house, was £30 is. &J.' By
1718 this had increased to £300," and now the gross
value is said to be £1,300.'
The Molyneux family, as lords of Sefton, were the
patrons,10 until after the Revolution, when Caryll,
Lord Molyneux, being disqualified by his religion
from presenting, sold the advowson to a connexion,
George, earl of Cardigan.11 It is found in a list of
the Molyneux properties made in 1770, but had been
finally disposed of in 1 747 to the Rev. James Roth-
well, vicar of Deane," whose representatives, the trustees
of the late marquis de Rothwell, of Sharpies Hall,
are the present patrons.13
The following is a list of the rectors : —
Instituted
oc. 1203 .
oc. 1288 . .
c. 1310 . .
9 May, 1339
Richard14. ...
William de Kirkdale 15
Richard de Molyneux '
Gilbert de Legh " .
Ric. de Molyneux .
Cause of Vacancy
d. of Richard
1 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 56,
65, 74, 99 i see also Thornely, Lanci.
Brasm, 187, 209-41 ; and for heraldic
notes made in the i6th and i/th centuries
see Tram. Hut. Soc. (New Ser.), vi, 261 ;
a'lbid. 96.
« Ibid. 92.
< Lane. Cb. (Chet. Soc.), i, 66, 67.
Roger of Poitou had given tithes from
his demesne lands, including Great Crosby,
ton, 4j marks ; Little Crosby, the same ;
Ince Blundell, 461. SJ.
''Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 223.
The tithes were valued at £25 71. 8</. ;
oblations and Easter roll at £5 2s. SJ. ;
151. 4</. was payable to the archdeacon as
synodals and procurations.
8 Notitia Ctstr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 216-20.
There had been forty acres of glebe, but
almost all had been annexed by the lords
Merivale, in exchange for the manor o
Altcar ; Tram. Hist. Soc. xxxiv, 125.
11 Gastrell, Notitia, ii, 216.
« Com. Pleas, deeds enr. vol. 147
(Mich.z,Geo.II),325,327.
18 Liverpool Dioc. Cal.
" Lane. Ch. (Chet. Soc.), i, 66 ; alsc
Cttckeriand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 752
He was witness to the charter concerning
Hagencroft in Sefton. ' Robert the priesl
of Sefton ' was witness to a Lytharr
con6rmed by John when count of Mortain ;
ibid. 8, 15. In 1193 the bishop of
Coventry confirmed Count John's grant,
and about the same time Stephen (rector)
of Walton made a composition with the
prior of Lane, as to various tithes,
including those of Crosby ; ibid. 1 1 1,
^100, were leased to Lord Molyneux for
£4. A new rectory was built in 1723.
There were two churchwardens, chosen
by the townships in turn.
Among the deeds at Croxteth is a
lease, dated 1739, from Rector Egerton
to Lord Molyneux of the tithes of Sefton,
Ebor, a. 3.
15 Blundell of Crosby D. K. 237. H(
was rector in 1288 ; Assize R. 1277.
" He was a younger son of Richard d,
Molyneux of Sefton. For his disput.
with the rector of Walton see the accoun
had not then been taken out of Wai-
In 1781 the rector observed that no
Thomas, to whom between 1323 anc
1336 he made a grant of 14 acres o
two sheaves from two plough-lands in
Crosby ; Richard, the rector, and his
vicar, Robert de Walton, were allowed to
have them for life, paying is. a year, and
afterwards the prior was to have the
sheaves.
tPofc Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), p.
249.
6 ln<j. Non. (Rec. Com.), 40. The
amount was made up as follows : Sefton,
1 1 marks ; Aintree, 331. 4rf. ; Litherland,
6 marks ; Great Crosby, 8 marks ; Thorn-
tivated lands, and that by ancient custom
'such kind of land is tithe free for the
term of seven years after the first break-
ing upon or ploughing thereof.1 The
result was that the tenants often ploughed
it for seven years, thereby exhausting it,
and then left it.
• Liverpool Dioc. Cat.
10 This will be seen from the list of
rectors. In the fifteenth century there
seems to have been an intention to
appropriate the rectory to the abbey of
62
i, 23 ; the mother was apparently Joan,
daughter of William le Boteler ; ibid.
n. 20. In 1339 Thomas de Molyneux,
son of Joan le Boteler, was pardoned, or
account of his service in the wars, fo
participation in the murder of SirWillian
le Blount, sheriff, at Liverpool; Cal. o/
Pat. 1338-40, p. 229.
WLichficld Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 113.
Gilbert was a priest. As Gilbert d.
Lcgh, chaplain, he occurs in 1330 ; Tran..
Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iii, 60.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
27 Nov. 1339 .
Name
John de Massey '
Patron
Ric. de Molyneux
— (July), 1364 .
Mr. Jordan de Holme ' . . .
Duke of Lancaster .
3 Nov. 1376
William de Oke s
19 May, 1378 .
Simon de Melburn 4 . . . .
•
31 Aug. 1404 .
Roger Hawkshaw 5
. Mr. Ric'.' de Winwi
oc. 1416-24 . .
oc. 1427 . . .
John Totty 6
Richard de Haydock 7 . . . .
IO Feb. 1432-3 .
Nicholas de Haydock " . . .
'. Will, de Heth, &c.
27 Oct. 1433 .
Richard del Kar9
n ,
30 May, 1462 .
John Molyneux, M.A. 10 . . .
Rob. Molyneux, &c
12 July, 1485 .
Henry Molyneux, M.A. "
James Stanley, &c.
27 March, 1489.
James Molyneux "
Ric. Molyneux, &e
I5 Oct. 1509 .
Edward Molyneux " . . . .
. Will. Molyneux .
i? Jan- 1535-6 .
Anthony Molyneux, D.D. " .
. Sir W. Molyneux .
2 Sept. 1557 .
Robert Ballard 15
. Sir R. Molyneux .
29 Oct. 1564
John Finch ls
„
4 Feb. 1567-8.
John Nutter, B.D.17 . . . .
»
17 July, 1602 .
Gregory Turner, M.A. I8 . . .
„
1633 .
Thomas Legh, D.D.19 ....
.
SEFTON
Cause of Vacancy
d. Gilbert
exchange
d. Jordan de Holme
res. W. de Oke
d. of S. de Melburn
d. R. de Haydock
d. N. de Haydock
d. R. Kar
d. J. Molyneux
d. H. Molyneux
d. J. Molyneux
d. E. Molyneux
d. last rector
d. R. Ballard
d. J. Finch
d. J. Nutter
d. G. Turner
iLich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 113*. He
was described as 'clerk.' He probably
belonged to the family of Massey of Sale,
and seems to have been rector of a mediety
of Lymm also ; Ormerod, Ches. (ed.
Helsby), i, 593 ; see also Dtp. Keeper's Rep.
xxxvi, App. 328, &c.
> Ormerod, Cht:. (cd. Helsby), iii, 799.
Jordan de Holme had been appointed to
Stockport in the previous January, and
his successor, John de Massey, held it till
7 Richard de Haydock, rector of Sefton,
was the feoffee of Robert de Parr in 1427 ;
Ct. of Wards and Liveries, box 1 3 A, n.
FDi4.
8 Lichfield Epis. Reg. ix, fol. 121.
The patrons were William de Heth, rec-
tor of Grappenhall, Richard de Balders-
ton, and Thomas de Urswick.
» Ibid, ix, fol. 122. He had been
vicar of Huyton.
"Ibid, xii, fol. I ooi. The patrons
Walton and prebendary of Salisbury ; he
founded the Molyneux chantry at Sefton.
He was the youngest son of Sir Thomas
Molyneux, and apparently his mother's
favourite ; a large part of his time was
» Ibid. 35. ' He was also rector of
Walton. He built or restored the rcvestry
and chancel. He was a younger son of
Thomas Molyneux of Hawton, and edu-
cated at Oxford ; the garden wall of Mag-
rector of Ashton-on-Mersey, which he
resigned at the same time as Stockport,
in favour of another John de Massey of
Sale (ibid, i, 561), who was ordained
priest in June 1365; Lichfield Epis. Reg. v,
Richard Law, priest, feoffees of Sir
Richard Molyneux, deceased. In 1471
John Molyneux became rector of Walton
also, and prebendary of Lichfield ten years
later ; Le Neve, Fasti. He founded a
him. His will is printed by Picrope—
milt (Chet. Soc.), ii, 263 ; in it he men-
tions his books of divinity, and the ser-
mons, both Latin and English, written
in his own hand ; he would have ' no
Chester ; Ormerod, Cha. i, 309. Jordan
died 14 Oct. 1376 ; he had leave to ab-
sent himself for one year in Sept. 1364,
and for two years in Sept. 1369, and to
let his church to farm ; Lichfield Epis.
Reg. v, fol. 9, 22.
8 Ibid, iv, fol. 88. John of Gaunt prc-
•ented, as guardian of Richard, heir of
Sir William de Molyneux, deceased. Oke
« Ibid, iv, fol. 89. He was probably of
illegitimate birth, requiring a dispensation ;
he was made subdeacon in Sept. 1378,
deacon in the following Dec., and re-
ceived letters dimissory for the priesthood
in Feb. 1378-9; ibid, vii, fol. 122*; v,
fol. H9A, i2oA, 32 ; also vii, fol. 174 for
an ordinance as to Sefton. In April
1392, he had leave of absence, 'in locis
honestis,' for a year, and in Feb. 1393-4
a similar leave, ' provided the cure be not
neglected and the rectory buildings be
Litherland, who died in 1465, by his will
desired to be buried in the cemetery of
St. Helen's, Sefton ; from the inventory
of his good, it appears that he owed
2i. to St. Mary of the church of Sef-
ton (See. Marie ecclesie de Sefton) ;
Moore D. n. 703. This may refer to
the altar of Our Lady of Pity, at which
the Bulkeley chantry was afterwards
founded.
11 Lich. Reg. xii, fol. 1 1 9*. The patrons
—James Stanley, clerk, Sir Christopher
Southworth, Richard Clifton, and Reynold
Dyo, clerk— had a grant from Sir Thomas
Molyneux of Sefton, deceased. There
was a dispute as to the right, Henry
Molyneux and Robert Mercer being pre-
sented ; they appeared before the bishop
at Eccleshall in July, and he decided
in favour of Henry's claim; Robert
Mercer, however, was to be paid £12,
and have £7 yearly for seven years,
feasting then customary. For his Ox-
ford career see Caroe and Gordon, Sef-
ton, 65, &c. He is said to have built
schools by the church ; these were
turned into cottages and later demolished ;
ibid. 54.
1* Act Books at Chest. ; Raines MSS.
(Chet. Lib.), xxii, 36. He refused to appear
at the visit, of 1559 ; Gee, Elizabethan
Clergy.
« Paid first-fruits 23 Nov. 1564 ; Lanes,
and Ches. Recs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 409, from which volume other
references to these payments are taken.
He had been vicar of Walton.
" Paid first-fruits 21 Feb. 1567-8.
He was also rector of Aughton, 1577, and
of Bebington, 1579; ibid, ii, 409. He
had appointments in Chest. Cath., of
which he became dean in 1589. He
died at Sefton, suddenly. After his death
there were disputes as to his property
6 Ibid, vii, fol. 92. The patrons were
Master Richard Winwick, canon of Lin-
coln, James de Langton, Roger Winter,
and John Totty, as feoffees of Richard de
Molyneux, who died in 1397 ; Lanes. Inj.
p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 70. Roger Hawk-
»haw was ' cousin ' of Richard Winwick ;
dying 2 Feb. 1414-15, he was buried in
Lincoln Cathedral, where there used to
be a memorial brass; Peck, Desiderata
Curiosa, bk. viii, 24.
6 John Totty, mentioned in the last
note, had long been a chaplain at Sefton ;
in H^NorririX (B.MO,' ^"(Soof to
which his seal is appended ; and Blundell
of Crosby D. K. 28.
Sir Thomas Molyneux and the late
rector; ibid. fol. 157. A Henry Moly-
neux, canon of Exeter, made his will
4 March, 1489-90, and it was proved
6 July, 1491 ; Gisborne Molineux,
Molyneux Family, 126. Another Henry
Molyneux, priest, founded a chantry at
Halsall.
u Lich. Epis. Reg. xii, fol. 122*. The
patrons were Richard Molyneux, the son
and heir of Sir Thomas, a minor, Richard
Clifton, esquire, and Reynold Dyo, priest.
James Molyneux had been rector of
Grafton, Notts, in 1484 ; Cal. of Pat.
1476-85, p. 445.
l» Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 56. He
his money ; ibid, ii, 336. Anthony
Nutter of Goldshaw Booths in 1602 gave
Sir R. Molyneux a receipt for £40, his
share (and his wife's) of the dean's pro-
perty ; Croxteth D. See also Ches.
Sheaf (ser. 3), v. 95. He seems to have
been curate of Eccles in ^63 ; ibid, i,
34-
18 Act books at Chest. He paid first-
fruits 15 Oct. 1602. Previously school-
master at Wigan; Bridgeman, Wiga*
(Chet. Soc.), 235. He it was who for
some years refused to allow ' popish re-
cusants' to be buried at Sefton ; see the
account of Little Crosby,
n Paid first-fruits II Nov. 1633. He
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Instituted
21 June, 1639
3 April, 1640
21 June, 1640
c. 1646 . .
1660
8 Sept. 1675
23 Aug. 1678
30 Aug. 1684
26 Dec. 1721
13 April, 1722
12 Jan. 1763
3 May, 1802
1 July, 1863
10 Feb. 1871
10 Aug. 1883
2 Dec. 1890
Edward Moreton, D.D. ' . . . .
Joseph Thomson '
Edward Moreton
John Bradford, D.D. s
Jonathan Brideoak, B.D. 4 . . ,
Richard Richmond, M.A. 5 . . ,
Richard Hartley6
Thomas Egerton, M.A. * . . .
Richard Rothwell, M.A. 8 . .
Richard Rainshaw Rothwell, M.A9
J Roger Dawson Dawson-Duffield.
(LL.D.,10 Count Dawson-Duffield
Englebert Horley, M.A.11 . .
Edward Horley, M.A. " . . .
George William Wall, M.A. ls . ,
Patron
(The king . .
•I Lord Molyneux.
(.The king . .
(The king . . .
(Anne Mosley . .
Lord Molyneux
Ric. Legh of Lyme
John Clayton . .
Lord Cardigan .
James Rothwell
The bishop . . .
I Marquis de Rothwell
\d. T. Legh
exp. E. Moreton
reinstated
Id. E. Moreton
res. J. Bradford
d. J. Brideoak
)d. R. Richmond
d. T. Egerton
d. R. Rothwell
d. R. R. Rothwell
fd. R. D. Dawson-
[ Duffield
d. E. Horley
d. E. Horley
Of the earlier rectors little is known ; Dr. Anthony spectively by the rector and Sir William Molyneux,1'
Molyneux, 1536-57, was the most distinguished. I
1541, in addition to the rector and two chantry
but eight clergy appeared at the visitation in 1548.
Besides the parish church there was the chapel at
priests there were only two others
parish, Hugh Whitfield and Robert
1 He was instituted thrice, and twice
recorded in the Great Crosby to
Ballard, paid re- paratively little
chaplain in ordinary' ; Pat. 27 Chas. II,
be served. Even in 1554 corn-
change was shown, the rector,
and Mr. Hartley of Ireland having been
this time are given from the books,
P.R.O. in Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Notes,
i, ii. The king claimed the patronage,
the bishop on behalf of Anne Elcock, of
Fulford near York, widow of Anthony
Elcock, D.D.
Sefton church on 7 March, 1721-2,
the jury, and the decision was in favour of
of age about 1640, seems also to have
claimed it ; at Croxteth are three sepa-
rate presentations — Samuel Hyde on 25
June, 1639 ; David Lloyd, 5 Nov. ; and
Edward Moreton, 8 Nov. ; Croxteth D.
Bexhill. Jonathan Brideoak was also
rector of Mobberley in Cheshire, where
the register has the following entry: —
'Mr. Jonathan Brideoak, B.D., and a
long time fellow and also Junior Bursar
of St. John's College in the University of
and N. Blundell, Diary, 184.
1 Rector of Warrington till 1723, when
he was appointed to Cheadle, holding this
with Sefton until his death ; from 1746
a curate represented him at Sefton.
9 Son of the patron. He died 18 Sept.
1660, immediately after the Restoration.
He was a son of William Moreton, of
Moreton near Congleton, and a fellow
and after the death of Mr. James Stanley,
late rector of this parish of Mobberley
(who died April the 8th, 1 674), he married
'Son of the previous rector. For
for eight months, when the bishop col-
hall, and prebendary of Chester ; ' not
evenly sharing good fortune and bad,'
says his epitaph in the church, ' but
to either equal.' His son William be-
came bishop of Kildare and Meath.
gent : (July the 16, 1674) of the Old
Hall of Mobberley. By which said Mary
his wife the said Mr. Jonathan Bridecake
had the presentation of this church of Mob-
berley as true and undoubted Patroness,
the patron. He was of Brasenose Coll.,
Oxf. He died suddenly on Easter Sun-
day (5 April), 1863, aged ninety-two.
He was celebrated as a reader of the
Church service ; a memoir with portrait
the rectory had fourteen hearths in 1666 ;
Lay Subs. Lane. 2$°.
3 His name should probably be expunged
title. He was described by the commis-
said Mr. Jon. Bridecake made an ex-
change of the living of Bexill in Sussex
(which was at that time given him by his
brother Dr. Ralph Brideoak, late dd.,
Bishop of Chichester) with Dr. Bradford
&c. Among other things this account
states that about 1830 'it was customary
for the two daughter churches in the
parish to be closed at the three festivals
Easter, Whitsunday, and Christmas Day,
•wealth Ch. Sur-v. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 85. He had been previously
stationed at Liverpool, and was a friend
of the Moores of Bank Hall. Calamy
describes him as an Oxf. man, but it
may be noted that a Joseph Thomson
of LangtreenearWigan, a relative of the
berley the 6th of April, 1684, being Low
Sunday. So that it appears he was Rector
of Mobberley nine years and about 3 quar-
ters and of Sephton five years and a halfe. .
He was buried the ninth day of April,
1684, in the Coll. Ch. of Manch. in
the Procession way over against the
10 He was educated at Corpus Chruti
and Downing Coll., Camb.; M.A. 1841,
LL.D. 1 862 ; kt. of the order of St.
Charles ; count of Monaco ; author of
Remarks on Foreign Titles, &c. He held
the sinecure rectory of Calcethorpe, and
Coll., Camb., in 1622 ; Kenyan MSS.
(Hist. MSS. Com.), 26, 30, 55. After
1660 he appears to have continued
as curate at Sefton, for he signed the
minutes down to 1669 ; Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New. Ser.), xi, 95. He afterwards lived
at Ormskirk, using, so it is related, his
private means liberally for the relief of
ejected Nonconformists ; Halley, Lanes.
Puritanism, ii, 190, 135. He was buried
ar Ormskirk in 1671.
'There was in this case a double
family, from Chetham Hill, near Man-
chester in Lancashire.'
5 Also rector of Walton. The patron
presented by grant from Caryll, Lord
Molyneux. In the Chest. Act Book
Lord Molyneux only is named. A com-
the right of patronage, the University
of Camb. having presented William Need-
ham, M.A., Emmanuel Coll. ; there are
MSS. xxxviii, 475, &c.
"Died 21 May, 1883. He was of
Queen's Coll., Oxf. ; M.A. 1 860 ; vicar
of Lever Bridge, Bolton, from 1867 to
1871. He edited the records of the Mock
Corporation of Sefton.
"Of Emmanuel Coll., Camb.; M.A.
1851. Incumbent of St. Chad's, Stafford,
1855; vicar of Eaton Socon, 1861.
" Previously vicar of Bickerstaffe ; edu-
cated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxf. ; M.A.
1869; author of The Students' Prayer
Book, &c. He died in 1906.
claimed by lapse, Bradford is called ' ex-
patronage, Mr. Egerton of Warrington
64
Lanes, and Ches.), 16.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Anthony Molyneux, his curate, and four others
appearing. In 1562 Master Robert Ballard, the
rector, an opponent of the Elizabethan changes,
appeared by proxy, his curate coming in person ;
three others, nominally attached to the parish, were
absent. Next year the rector was described as de-
crepit, but his curate appeared ; the names of the
other three, entered from an old list by the registrar's
clerk, have been crossed out. In 1565, no one was
recorded but the rector, John Finch, whose name is
written over that of Robert Ballard.1 John Finch
died or resigned shortly afterwards, and in 1568
John Nutter, afterwards dean of Chester, succeeded.
Though ' a preacher,' he seems to have been but a
money-seeking pluralist, who went with the times
and joined, perhaps rather to procure favour than
out of zeal, in the persecution of his recusant
parishioners.2 He had in 1590 an assistant, who
was 'no preacher." About 1610 the conditions
remained unaltered ; the incumbent, Mr. Turner,
was a preacher, but the curate of Great Crosby was
not.*
The Parliamentary Commissioners in 1650 were
satisfied with the two ministers they found in the
parish, but recommended that two more churches
should be erected, one at Ince Blundell and the
other at Litherland, ' both places being well situated
for conveniency of many inhabitants and distant from
any church or chapel two miles and upwards, the want
of such churches being the cause of loitering and
much ignorance and popery.' 4 No steps, however,
seem to have been taken to build them. Bishop
Gastrell found that there were 310 families in the
parish in 1718, and 156 'Papists,' with two
chapels ; there was only one dissenting family.' The
return of 1767 allows 603 'Papists' to Sefton and
154 to Crosby.7 The growth of the seaside towns
during the last century has totally altered the con-
ditions ; the Nonconformists, for instance, formerly
SEFTON
unknown, have now many churches and meeting-
places.
There were only two endowed chantries in Sefton
church at the time of the confiscation in 1548, and
those were of recent establishment. By her will of
1528 Margaret Bulkeley, widow, gave various lands
to Sir William Leyland and other feoffees, to find
' an able and honest priest to say and celebrate mass
and other divine service ... at the altar of our
Blessed Lady of Pity,' for her soul and the souls of
John Button and William Bulkeley, formerly her
husbands, and for others.8 This chantry was in the
south chapel. Robert Parkinson, one of the feoffees,
was the only cantarist of the foundation ; he died in
or before 1554. The endowments, which included
the mill at Thornton, were valued at £4 14*. a year.*
The second chantry, in the north chapel, was founded
in 1535 by Edward Molyneux, rector.10 The only
priest was Thomas Kirkby, probably he whose pre-
sentation to Aughton caused much dispute." The
amount of the endowment was £$ i8/. 3</."
In 1718 Bishop Gastrell found
CHARITIES about £400 had been given by
various persons to charities in the
parish, apart from Great Crosby School ; ' all these
sums,' he says, ' are in good hands and the interest
duly paid."3 The charity commissioners of 1828
found various « poor's stocks ' in existence, the origin
of which was unknown." There was then only one
charity for the whole parish, and in 1898 it was
found to have been ' discontinued before living
memory.' 15
For Sefton quarter the poor's stock was £84 in
1828, but it had been lost before iSgS.16 On the
other hand, a benefaction by Anne Molyneux in
1728 had been increased by several donations, and
the net income of £6 \s. was in 1898 distributed by
the rector to six widows.17 The Netherton poor's
stock of £120 in 1828 is supposed to have included
1 These particulars are from the Chest,
visit, lists for the years named. For the
ornaments of the church in 1552 see Ch.
Commendation, and Mass of Requiem, with
all suffrages and services pertaining; at
the anniversary of her death, or within
to rescue the intended endowment from
the king's hands.
" See the account of Aughton.
* Crosby Rec. (Chet. Soc.), 23. He
nesday, and Friday, but on other days as
derived from a number of scattered pai-
action, for he was delated to the Govern-
ment as showing great favour to ' papists ' ;
Lydiate Hall, 260, quoting S.P. Dom.
Eliz. ccxv.
•Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 249 (quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4).
In 1592 the only presentation made
was against Ralph Williamson, who had
'had a child christened and his wife
churched ; not known where,' and who
De ProfunJis at the further lavatory ; on
Fridays once a quarter mass of the Name
of Jesus, and five times in the year mass
of the Five Wounds, for the souls of her-
self and others ; also mass on St. Mar-
garet's Day, before the image of this saint in
the church ; and on the five principal feasts
of Our Lady and on the Visitation, and
within their octaves, three masses of the
feast, with the collect, ' Deus, firma spes.'
i» Notitia Cestr. ii, 219,221. Some
of the benefactions were appropriated to
particular townships.
"The accounts of the charities are
derived from the End. Char. Rep. for
the parish of Sefton, issued in 1899;
this includes a reprint of the report of
1828.
"End. Char. Rep. I, 8. Samuel
Thomas left £$, the interest of which
(NewSer.),x, 190.
* Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 13.
At the bishop's visitation in 1609 there
masters, and a ' reader ' at Great Crosby ;
Raines MSS. xxii, 298.
& Common-wealth Ch, Sur-v. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 85. The minister was
paying to Mrs. Moreton, wife of the
ejected rector, 'a delinquent,' a fifth part
of the profits, according to an order by
the committee. See Plund. Mini. Acctt.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 4, 7, 54.
•Notitia Cestr. ii, 216.
1 Return in the Chest. Dice. Reg.
honest priest and learned to sing his plain-
song and to help to sing in the choir at
matins, mass, evensong, and other divine
service in the said church of Sefton on
festival days.' In addition, he was to
manage the properties assigned for the
foundation.
9 Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), 109.
This chantry had a chalice, two old vest-
ments and a missal. The lands were in
Cuerdale and Thornton. See also Valor
Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 223.
The lands were granted by James I to
William Blake and others ; Pat. 4 Jas. I,
pt. xiii.
sixty penny loaves ; these were set
'on the parish bier, which was placed
for that purpose on the grave of the
°l«°0p. cit. I, 8. Of the £84 £30 had
been invested in the Ormskirk Work-
house and was 'lost' by the dissolution
of the old union in 1834 ; the remainder
was lent to the highway surveyors, and
interest seems to have been paid down to
1879.
17 Anne Molyneux's gift was for bread
to be given to the poor on Sundays.
The augmentations came from William
Thompson of Litherland, 1829, who left
gave particular directions as to the ser-
vices to be performed. Once a quarter
the priest was to say 'Placebo,' ' Dirige,'
3
Com.), v, 224. It would seem from
one of the deeds preserved at Croxteth
(Genl. i, 84) that the family were able
65
ve a claim — Robert Davenport of
Sefton, coachman, £5 in 1845, and an
unknown donor £3.
9
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Peter Halewood's gift of £100 in 1815, afterwards
augmented by £200 bequeathed by his daughter
Margaret ; the interest, £10 ijs. 6J. net, is distri-
buted by trustees appointed by the parish council.1
James Holland Lancaster desired £100 to be given as
a prize for St. Philip's National School, Litherland ;
and in 1886 his representatives carried out his wish.2
For Great Crosby the £10 left by John Lurting
and James Rice had been gradually augmented, and
in 1 898 was supposed to be represented by £44 ;
formerly the interest was applied to apprenticing poor
boys, but now is handed to the vicar of Great Crosby
to be used for the poor at his discretion.1 Over
£1,000 has in more recent times been given by the
brothers John and Samuel Bradshaw.4 Thomas
Fowler's bequest of £20 for binding poor children to
trades appears to have been lost,5 but the interest on
Anne Molyneux's £10 provides a junior prize in
divinity for Merchant Taylors' School.8 George
Blinkhorn of Great Crosby, by his will dated 1820,
charged his lands with £4 a year for the benefit of
the poor ; this continues in force.7
At Little Crosby in 1828 the poor received
£2 is. 6d. a year, and a small portion of this is still
paid, a voluntary rate being levied.8 Various sums
have been given for the school at Ince Blundell,9 and
£$ los. is still paid to the priest in charge of the
mission there for the benefit of the poor ; but as the
' constable's levy ' can no longer be enforced, various
sums charged upon it for the poor have ceased to be
paid.10 Edward Holme in 1695 left the residue of
his estate as a poor's stock for Thornton ; it realized
£100, now said to be represented by a field in
Holmer Green, let at los. a year. The parish
council has charge of this charity.11
SEFTON
Sextone, Dom. Bk. ; Ceffton, 1242 ; Sefton, 1292,
and afterwards general; but Shefton (1300) appears
at times. Sephton became a common spelling in the
xvii cent.
This township has an area of 1,233$ acres," with
a population of 343 in 1901. The eastern boundary
is formed by the River Alt, except where the present
course of the stream has been restricted to the centre
of Sefton meadows, the whole of these lying within
the township. In time of frost they are flooded for
the amusement of skaters. The church and the mill
stand at the western edge. A few dwellings amid a
clump of trees cluster round the church ; there are
also hamlets called Sefton Town, Buckley Hill, and
Windle's Green. The moated site of the ancient
house of the Molyneux family 13 lies to the south-east
of the church, but nothing remains above the ground
of the buildings finally dismantled in 1720. Part of
it was standing till 1817. Close to the site, on the
south, is a farmhouse, known as The Grange, retaining
some seventeenth-century details, and a barn of late
sixteenth-century date, though much patched with
later work. The mill over the Alt is said to have
been built in 1595, and has a four-centred doorway
and chimney-piece which may well be of that
date.
The geological formation consists of the lower
keuper sandstone of the new red sandstone or
trias, overlaid by sand and thick boulder clay and by
alluvial deposit between the village and the River
Alt. The soil varies ; the subsoil is sand and clay.
Wheat, barley, oats, and rye are grown, as well as
potatoes ; but cabbages are now the chief crop.
The principal road is that from Liverpool to
Ormskirk ; at Sefton Town the road to Thornton
and Great Crosby branches off". The Leeds and
Liverpool Canal crosses the southern part of the
township.
Thomas Pennant, who visited the place in 1773,
appears to have been pleased with its aspect, ' placed
on a vast range of fine meadows, that reach almost to
the sea and in a great measure supply Liverpool with
hay. It is watered by the Alt, a small trout stream ;
but after the first winter flood is covered with water
the whole season, by reason of want of fall to carry it
away.' "
to the other £io existing in 1828.
« Op. cit. 10.
» Op. cit. 4, 24. The benefaction of
Lurting and Rice is mentioned by Bishop
Gastrell (Natitia, ii, 221) ; it was for the
poor generally, and was increased by £15
left by George Williamson in 1750. In
1828 £38 in the hands of the curate was
supposed to represent this sum, which
was in some way confused or inter-
changed with Fowler's benefaction.
« Report, 24, 25. John Bradshaw of
Great Crosby in 1867 bequeathed £100,
and Samuel Bradshaw in 1879 gave £550
and an eighth of the residue of his
personal estate, £368 91. 4</. A portion
of the interest, according to the will of
the donors, is devoted to the poor, in
conjunction with the last named charity ;
the remainder is given to several Ch. of
Engl. schools.
« Op. cit. 3, 24. The money was
given before 1733, and in 1787, when it
amounted to £30, it was paid, with £9
held by the town for the poor, towards
making a stone drain at Thornback Pool ;
£i 191. as interest was in 1828 paid to
the curate of Great Crosby for the benefit
the interest to be 'laid out yearly in
Church Catechisms and other good books
the inhabitants of the township and
repaired by them. The township authori-
Crosby School.'
' Op. cit. 24. The charity did not
become operative until 1846, when John
Blinkhorn, the testator's father, died.
The property, consisting of a field in
Thorpe Lane, &c., was sold before
stated that the present school, built in
1 843, has an endowment of £1,693, of un-
known origin. This capital stock was in
1 887 in the hands of the Roman Catholic
bishop of Liverpool ; interest at the rate
of 4 per cent, is paid to the manager ot
the school.
Little Crosby left £40 to the lay-layers
and other officers, the capital to be spent
on the highways or other public work,
while of the interest half should be paid
to the officiating priest of Little Crosby
chapel, and the other half among poor
housekeepers. In addition £1 21. 6d.
had from 1762 been paid to the poor as
interest on the poor's stock of the town,
and 51. for bread had been paid by the
overseers since 1783, the donors being
unknown. The report of 1898 states
that the payments from the rates cannot
now be enforced, the • constable ' having
ceased to be a parish officer since 1872.
The payment to the priest had been made
down to 1893 ; and the payment to the
£i 3 V 6d. was paid by the township to the
poor; this included the interest of £100 left
by Mrs. Elizabeth Prevarius in 1759, and
of £5 left by Richard Tristram in 1727.
Mrs. Prevarius was probably the house-
keeper at Ince Blundell Hall of that
name; the capital had by 1828 been
doubled. In this year £14 14.. 6J. in
all was distributed. The £5 101. nov,
paid is the interest on the Prevarim
fund.
» Op. cit. 6, 29. There is no recorc
of the conversion of the £100— which
had been increased to £110 by 1774-
into the present property.
12 The census of 1901 gives 1,231 acres,
including 9 of inland water.
no payment having been made out of the
rates * within living memory.'
£i. No bread is given.
• Op. cit. 5, 27. In 1828 there was
66
Lay Subs. Lanes. 250-9.
» Downing to Alston Moor, 27.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
John Sadler of Liverpool, the inventor of a process
of transferring patterns to earthenware, was buried
here.1
The flail was till recently used in threshing.8
The township is governed by a parish council.
The churchyard cross has disappeared, but there are
pedestals of others. The pinfold stood in Brickwall
Lane ; the stocks were renewed in 1725 and 1791 ;
the ducking-stool is mentioned in 1 728.*
About 1 760 Sefton became the head quarters of a
social club calling itself the Ancient and Loyal Cor-
poration of Sefton. The members were in the main
merchants and tradesmen of Liverpool, who assembled
at the Punch Bowl Inn at Sefton every Sunday and
regulated their proceedings after the customs of the
borough corporation, the chairman being called the
mayor and elected in October for a year, other officers
being called bailiffs, recorder, town clerk, &c., while
there were aldermen, common council men, and free
burgesses. For a number of the members mock offices
were provided, as: An African Committee Man, Gover-
nor of the Tantum Quarry on the Gold Coast, Prince
of Anamaboe or Palaver Settler, Poet Laureate, Butter
Weigher, and Contractor for Gunpowder. A lady
patroness was also duly elected. They had their regalia,
long preserved at the Punch Bowl Inn, consisting of
two large maces and two small ones, a sword, wands,
cocked hats, and gowns, and at one time a silver oar ;
the earliest mace bears the inscription, ' The gift of
F. Cust, Esq., 1764.' They are now in the Liverpool
Museum.4
SEFTON
At the death of Edward the Con-
M4NOR fessor five thegns held SEFTON, which
was assessed at one hide, and was
worth 1 61. beyond the customary rent.5 It appears to
have been granted about I loo by Roger of Poitou to
the ancestor of Richard de Molyneux (living in 1 2 1 2),
and was the chief place of a fee consisting of ten and
a half ploughlands held by this family by the service of
half a knight.6 The family of Molyneux, the head
of which may perhaps be considered to have been
one of the ' barones comitatus,' have continued to hold
the manor without interruption to the present day,
and from it are derived the titles
of Earl of Sefton and Baron Sef-
ton borne by the head of the
family.
The ancestor mentioned was
probably Robert de Molyneux,
to whom about 1125 Stephen,
count of Boulogne and Mortain,
granted land in Down Lither-
land/ In the latter half of the
century Richard de Molyneux,8
sometimes called Richard son of
Robert, held the estates ; from
him the descent of the manor
is clearly established.9
His son and successor was Adam, who held the
manors for about thirty-five years, and appears to have
been one of the most prominent men in the district
in his time.10 He is sometimes described as a knight."
1 See Trans. Hist. Soc. vii, 184-8;
Gillow, Bib!. Diet, of Engl. Catholics, v,
a CarBe and Gordon, Sefton, 52.
• Ibid. 120-3, quoting the churchwar-
dens' accounts. On the remains of the
crosses see H. Taylor in Trans. Lanes, and
Cbes. Antij. Soc. xix, 184-5.
< Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxiii, 223 ; xxxiv,
25 ; and CarBe and Gordon, Sefton, 132-
486. The members assembled at Sefton
Sefton, 6 ; Thornton, I ; half Down
Litherland, ij ; Cuerden, 2.
1 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 427 ; see also
the account of Litherland.
Robert received a plough-land in Thorn-
ton from Pain de Vilers, lord of War-
rington ; Inq. and Extents, 7.
The surname is derived from Mouli-
neaux (Molinelli) in the department of
the Seine Inferieure ; see Rot. Narmanniae
(Rec. Com.) i, passim. It has shown a
great variety of spellings, e.g. Mulineals,
Richard de Molyneux appears in the
Pipe Roll of 1181-2 as ottering 201. for
leave to agree with the men of Singleton ;
Lanes. Pipe R. 46. Shortly afterwards he
attested a charter by Albert Bussel ; ibid.
377. In 1194 he rendered account of
loos, for securing the king's good will
after implication in the rebellion of Count
John; ibid. 77. From this time his
name occurs frequently as contributing to
scutages, &c. ; ibid. 133 et seq.
He granted land in Larbreck to Cocker-
where they had a special pew at the west
end with three rows of seats for the bur-
ge^ses and a separate square box for the
mayor. Then they had an early dinner
in a room called the Mansion House, part
of the old Church Inn, attended the after-
noon service, and spent the rest of the
time in amusing themselves, or as they
expressed it, ' spending the afternoon with
the usual festivity and closing the day
with the utmost harmony.' Politics were
de Mulinellis, 1226 ; Mulyneus, 1242 ;
Molyneaus, 1249 ; Molyneus, 1256 ;
Molyneux, 1337. The more ancient
Molyneux, but by the fourteenth century
Me' Molyneux had become usual.
8 Perhaps there were two Richards in
succession, the earlier appearing in 1164 ;
Lanes. Pipe R. 375.
9 Robert, the father of the Richard of
1212, made several grants recorded in the
Ham Blundell of I nee ; Coekersand Char-
tul. (Chet. Soc.), i, 185 ; Whallty Coucher
(Chet. Soc.), ii, 498.
Richard de Molyneux married, it is
supposed, a daughter of one of the Gernets,
for Roger Gernet, master forester from
about 1140 to 1170, gave him Speke in
marriage, and Adam, Roger, and Vivian
soon appear among the Molyneux names ;
Inq. and Extents, 43.
1784) a halter was voted to Charles James
Fox, and the freedom of the corporation
to William Pitt. The heroes of the time
were toasted and much loyalty was exhi-
bited, as, for instance, on the king's re-
by his nephews ; and Richard himself had
also made some grants ; Inq. and Extents
12-14. One of these was to Simon his
brother of land called Hagenecroft in
Sefton ; the bounds are of interest : In
a Furness charter in the last years of
the twelfth century ; Cal. Doc. Scotland,
10 On 24 November, 1213, Adam de
Molyneux made fine with the king for
year resolutions were passed * to show the
corporation's indignant sense of the ridicu-
lous motion for abolishing the slave trade
proposed by Fanatic Wilberforce.' The
meetings continued till about 1810, but
in the later years were in the winter
held at the Coffee House, Bootle— Sefton
being probably difficult of access at that
s V. C. H. Lanes, i, 2843. It should be
observed that in later times Sefton was
rated as five plough-lands only.
6 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lane, and Ches.), 1 2. The loj plough-
lands seem to have been made up thus :
the syke nearest Hagenecroft at the road
from Sefton to Thornton ; and in breadth
from Pepper-field to the next road, which
goes from Crosby towards the church.
The rent was to be 2s. a year. At the
end of the witnesses are the names Vivian
de Molyneux and Robert his brother, prob-
ably sons of the grantor. The charter is
at Croxteth, but the seal is missing ;
Croxteth D. X, bdle. iv, it. 2. This land
appears to have reverted to the lord, for in
1249 William de Molyneux gave half or
the whole of it to Robert de Molyneux of
Thornton ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Che,.), i, no.
lands ; Lanes. Pipe R. 246.
Adam paid 61. sakefee in 1226, and
was still holding the Sefton fee in 1242 ;
Inq. and Extents, 137, 147. He died be-
tween Oct. 1 246 and Feb. 1 249 ; Final
Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
104, 109. In 1228 he was one of those
commissioned to decide what parts of the
forest in Lanes, should be disforested ;
Lanes. Pipe R. 420.
11 The title ' Dominus ' is prefixed in
Whalhy Coueher, ii, 497 et seq.
An Edwin de Molyneux occurs about
1230; ibid, ii, 527.
67
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
William his son followed ; a number of his grants
have been preserved,1 and his name occurs as a wit-
ness down to 1275 ;' some traditional verses say that
he was made a banneret in Gascony and died in
1289.' He certainly died before 1292, when his
son Richard was in possession of Sefton, and
concerned in various suits.4 Richard died about
1 3 20, having shortly before made a number of grants
to his younger children by Emma, who was perhaps
a second wife.5
William, the eldest son, succeeded.6 In 1327 he
was one of those charged to engage men in this
hundred to serve in the Scottish war.7 He died
before 29 June, 1336, when the manor of Sefton was
released to his son Richard,8 who held it for nearly
thirty years, dying on 6 April, 1363,' his son William
having predeceased him in I358.10 The new lord of
Sefton was William's son William, aged about eighteen
years at his grandfather's death.11 His tenure, how-
ever, was but short, for he died in 1372 after distin-
guishing himself in the wars in France and Spain."
There was again a minority, this time a long one, the
1 As William de Molyneux, son of
Adam, he granted to Henry, son of Tho-
• In July, 1320, William son of Richard
de Molyneux inspected various charters of
William de Molyneux, and Agatha his
wife, and their sons William, Richard, and
of Sefton ; and to Richard Fox and his
heirs several portions of land in territory
of the vill ; to William, son of Simon de
Gragnethe, he gave a part of the demesne
lands upon the Gorsthill and a messuage
Molyneux, and confirmed them ; Croxteth
D. Genl. i, 16-19. In 1321 he demanded
from Emma, his father's widow, and from
Peter and Thomas, three charters and
three bonds ; De Bane. R. 238, m. 53.
de Scarisbrick Richard granted a rent of
40 marks for the life of .Agatha his wife ;
Croxteth D. G. i, 8 ; Ee, 19.
In October, 1361, the feoffees gave to
Richard de Molyneux and Isabel his wife
the lands and tenements in Sefton, Thorn-
another grant upon the Gorsthill ; Crox-
teth D. Ee, I ; Ee, 3, 4, 6 ; Ee, 5 ; Genl.
i, 2. Speke he granted to his daughter
Joan on her marriage with Robert Erneys of
Chester ; Norris D. (B. M.), a. 480 *.
He had a brother Richard to whom he
was heir; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. I2,m.
27*.
» Blundell of Crosby D. K. 278.
lying on the Moiedge in Sefton, towards
Great Crosby ; ibid. X, i, 4.
Beside his heir he seems to have had a
son Robert and a daughter Emma ; Duchy
of Lane. Assize, R. 4, m. II ; De Bane.
R. 274, m. i6</.
In 1324 Richard de Molyneux is given
as holding Sefton by the service of half a
knight's fee, 6j. sakefee, and 51. castle
Richard. At the beginning of the follow-
ing year Richard de Molyneux enfeoffed
Thomas del Hall and others of his manor
of Sefton and the advowson of the church,
and Thomas, son of Richard, released all
his right in the same ; ibid. Genl. i, 35,
31-3. At the same time the father
released all his right in the same to his
son Richard ; ibid. 34.
Molintux Family, 3 . No reference is given,
but it it possible that these lines were
once inscribed on a tomb in Sefton church.
* Assize R. 408, m. 36 d. icW. In
the former of these suits Margery, widow
of Robert de Molyneux, unsuccessfully
claimed certain tenements in Sefton. In
the latter Richard himself was plaintiffin
conjunction with William de Walton, they
alleging that William de Aintree and
others had carried away a cross from a
place called Hosyere Cross between Sefton
and Walton, probably obscuring the boun-
probably refers to William's father, in
-• Rot. Scotiae (Rec. Com.), 218.
8 Croxteth D. Genl. i, 26 ; by this
Richard de Molyneux, rector of Sefton,
appointed Richard del Lund, clerk, to
deliver to Richard, the son of William de
Molyneux, deceased, the manor of Sefton
with the appurtenances, and the homage
and service of the free tenants, &c. This
Richard seems to have immediately re-
fcoffed the rector ; ibid, i, 27.
In 1332 he was defendant in a suit
tioned in charters of 1365 and 1369;
ibid. Y. i, 8 and Genl. i, 37. In 1368
she, as widow of Richard, made a claim
against William de Molyneux for a third
part of the manor of Sefton. In the
pleadings it is stated that William was
son of William the son of Richard by his
first wife Agatha; De Bane. R. 431,
1° Inq. p.m. 33 Edw. Ill, a. 99 (2nd
Nos.) ; on his marriage with Joan, daugh-
ter and heir of Robert de Holland of
Euxton and Ellel, William had received
placed. An arbitration in 1300 respect-
ing the bounds of Aintree and Sefton was
perhaps a result of this litigation ; Crox-
teth D. Genl. i, 4.
6 One of the most notable of his grants
brought by William son of Hugh de
Standish ; and plaintiff in another case ;
De Bane. R. 291, m. 185 ; 292, m. 554</.
» Inq. p. m. 42 Edw. Ill, n. 40 (ist
Nos.) ; he had held the manor of Sefton
He died on i October, 1358, at Chateau
Neuf en Thimerais, a district to the north-
west of Chartres, his son William being
then stated to be twelve years of age.
A latei inquisition (Inq. p. m. 36
being a quitclaim of all his right in Little
Salton and other lands in the Lothians
remainder to his son William and heirs
male, of the duke of Lancaster, by homage
statement, but he was about two years
older.
Molyneux, ' whose heir I (Richard) am' ;
Lanes. Pipe R. 428, from Dods. MSS. Ixi,
three weeks to three weeks. The value
was about £55 a year, made up, £20
the wardship and marriage of William son
of William son of Richard de Molyneux,
Molyneux, who has been mentioned in a
previous note as living about 1200, was
an elder brother of Adam, who succeeded
to Sefton in 1213.
To Peter his son Richard de Molyneux
the rest from the estimated worth of
the capital messuage and its appur-
tenances, 140 acres of arable land at is.
an acre, and 80 acre, of meadow at
51. an acre. He had also held the manors
neux, and John de Winwick, rector of
Wigan : the right of wardship was in
dispute, the king claiming it ; Dcf.
Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. p. 346.
"He did homage to the duke of
lying in the Little Hesteholm ; and four
years later to Thomas his son, with re-
mainder to Peter, Richard granted land in
Sefton lying between Sefton and Thorn-
In 1346 he was found to hold five
plough-lands in Sefton, one in Thornton,
and two in Cucrden by the service of half
a knight', fee and by paying yearly ii,.
of his lands ; Inq. p. m. of his grand-
father Richard.
" He is called a knight in the inquisi-
tion after his son's death. The tradition
acres in the Hesteholm— now Estham in
Sefton meadows ; Croxteth D. Genl. i,
6,7.
At the end of 1318 and beginning of
1319 there were a number of grants and
re-grants between the father on one side
and Peter and Thomas on the other ;
ibid. Genl. i, 8-14. Emma, it appears
from them, was the mother of these sons,
if not of the heir. Emma was still living
in 1336; ibid. Genl. i, 22. In a claim
by her for dower will be found the names
of a number of the tenants ; De Bane.
R. 240, m. 394 b.
doing suit to county and wapentake by
his tenant Thomas the Demand ; Survey
of 1346 (Chet. Soc.), 32. Litherland is
given separately, and said to be held in
tocage.
He was twice married— to Agatha and
to Isabel— and nine sons and daughters
are mentioned, viz. William, Richard,
John (who had sons Thomas and Nicholas),
Robert, Thomas, Peter, Simon, Ellen and
Joan ; see Croxteth D. Bb, i, 3, and Def.
Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. p. 346.
In 1337 the manor of Down Lither-
land was settled on Richard, son of
68
after the battle of Navarette, but there is
no confirmation to be found in the Chroni-
cles. He is further stated to have been
buried in Canterbury Cathedral, on his
return from abroad, but Weever, who
gives the inscription from a document at
Croxteth, states that there was no sign
left of the tomb. The inscription, stat-
ing that the deceased had been loved by
Edward as a friend, and that he had
fought in France and Navarre, gives the
date of his death as 1372, which seems
(cd. 1631), 234 ; and Fuller,' Worthies.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
son and heir Richard being in 1388 still a minor,1
whose wardship was granted to a relative, Thomas de
Molyneux of Cuerdale.*
Again there was a short tenure of the manors and
a long minority, for Richard died 27 December,
1397, leaving a son and heir Richard, not quite fifteen
months old.1 The latter fought under Henry V in
the French wars and was made a knight ;* in 1424
occurred his quarrel with the Stanleys, which
threatened to become a private war.5 Henry VI,
for services rendered and expected, granted him and
his heirs the offices of master forester of the forest
and parks of West Derbyshire, steward of this wapen-
take and of Salfordshire, and constable of the castle
of Liverpool.6 By his first wife, Joan, daughter and
heir of Sir Gilbert Haydock,7 he had several sons.8
Richard, the eldest son and heir, notwithstanding
the feud with Stanley, had been married before 1432
to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Stanley,9 by
whom he had several children.10 He is stated to have
been killed at the battle of Blore Heath, 23 Septem-
SEFTON
ber, 1459, fighting on the Lancastrian side," and was
succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, who married
Anne, a daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Dutton
of Dutton, another of those who fell at Blore Heath.11
Thomas Molyneux was sheriff in 1473 and later
years,13 and in 1475 accompanied Edward IV on his
expedition to France;14 in 1481 he received from
the king a grant of the manor of Ulnes Walton,
moieties of Eccleston, Leyland, Heskin and Kellamergh,
and various other lands and rents in Lancashire for
the service of one knight's fee and £100 rent.15 He
also purchased the advowson of Walton.16 In 1482
he joined the expedition to Scotland, and was
knighted at the recovery of Berwick.17 He died
12 July, 1483, leaving as his heir his son Richard,
then five years of age,18 and other children.
There was once more a long minority, during
which, as the Croxteth Deeds show, the widow, Dame
Anne Molyneux, was a vigilant guardian, bent on in-
creasing the family possessions.19 William, a younger
brother of Richard, became heir on the latter's death,
His widow Agnes received her dower
on 7 March, 1372-3, from the manor of
Sefton, a moiety of the manor of Lither-
land, rents of the free tenants of Thorn-
a moiety of the* manor of Larbreck, a
third part of the manor of Ellel, and
lands in Newsham ; Croxteth D. Genl.
i, 38. She afterwards married Sir Rich-
ard de Balderston; Abram, Blackburn,
414.
1 Lanes. Inq. p. m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 29 ;
no; Wore. Epis. Reg. Jo. Carpenter,
fol. 58 ; also with the Robert who
married the daughter and heir of Sir
Baldwin Lestrange ; see Cal. Inq. p.m.
(Rec. Com.) ; and thirdly, with the Robert
who was brother and heir of Adam
Moleyns or Molyneux, bishop of Chiches-
ter from 1445 to 1450. For Sir Richard
and Adam see the Diet. Nat. Biog. The
D. EC. 30. For descendants see G.E.C.
9 Croxteth D. Genl. i, 51. Richard
Molyneux began to acquire lands in Sef-
ton before his father's death ; ibid. X. i,
28-31.
lu Thomas, James, and Margaret occur.
James became rector of Sefton. Mar-
garet married John, son and heir of Sir
« See Dtp. Keeper', Rep. xli, pp. 711,
Bulkeley of Eaton near Davenham ; she
founded a chantry in Sefton church ; see
1389, when he became surety for Matthew
de Cantsfield ; ibid. i. 16.
not named in Sir H. Nicolas's Agin-
family tradition : it is borne out to some
extent by the date of the writ Diem
of Hugh de Warburton, granted the Sef-
received from the feoffees the manors of
xxxvii, App. p. 176. He is described as
enfeoffed by William, son of Matthew de
Genl. i, 47 ; Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii,
Diet. Nat. Biog.
13 The marriage dispensation was granted
II July, 1463 ; Lich. Epis. Reg. x, 160*,
quoted in Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby),
i, 649. For the settlement of the in-
heritance see Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxix,
App. p. 197.
18 P.R.O. List, p. 72.
« On this occasion he made a will
Molyneux ; Croxteth D. X. i, 19.
Livery of his lands was granted to
Richard, son and heir of Sir William
Molyneux on 3 Feb. 1389-90; Pal. of
Lane. Warrants (Privy Seals), n. 33.
8 For Thomas see the account of Edge
below. The wardship of Richard de
5 See the account of Liverpool,
by the king to Sir Richard ; Croxteth D.
' « Croxteth D. W. 2, 3, 4. These grants
were made 28 July, 1446, upon Sir
Richard surrendering previous patents.
1372, 400 marks being paid ; Duchy of
Lane. Misc. Bks. xiii, m. 79*. In 1378
Thomas sold to Edmund Lawrence all
his right in the marriage of Richard,
v, 1943, 315*. Sir Richard Molyneux
probably died between these years, as he
Soc. xxxiv, 138.
15 By letters patent dated 22 May,
1481 ; the rent of £100 was remitted by
latter ' Richard Molyneux, esquire, one of
D. The earliest grant of Croxteth Park
Croxteth.
» Lane,. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 70.
This states that Richard had in 1394
enfeoffed Master Richard de Winwick
and others of his manor of Sefton and
He was appointed sheriff at the begin-
ning of 1397; Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xliii,
App. 367 ; and was knight of the shire
in 1396-7 ; Pink and Beavan, Parl. Rep.
of Lane,. 44.
He married Ellen de Urswick, after-
wards wife of Sir James de Harrington
the privileged person. Sir Richard in
1431 exchanged lands in the Mysthacre
in Sefton for the mill pool and other
lands with a road, belonging to Robert
del Riding ; Croxteth D. X. i, 26. The
constableship of the castle of Liverpool
was by a conviction for recusancy lost at
the end of the seventeenth century ; the
stewardship of Salford hundred is held
by the present earl of Sefton as heir
male of Sir Richard.
^ Her tomb is in Sefton church ; she
died 17 January, 1439-40.
ibid. F. i.
16 The acquisition is mentioned in the
will already cited. See also Croxteth D.
Genl. i, 6 1.
V Metcalfc, Sit. of Knights, 7. It is
said that his uncle, Thomas Molyneux of
Hawton, was also made a knight at the
same time by Richard, duke of Glouces-
ter ; Gisborne Molineux, op. cit. 32. A
note of Dods. (MSS. 1. 98) appears to
state that Lord Stanley made Thomas
™ Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 117.
(ed. Helsby), i, 712 ; Croxteth D. Genl.
i, 51. Besides the heir he had another
•on, Robert, who in 1440 was tenant
of Altcar under the abbot of Meri-
West Derby in 1444, and is mentioned
in 1453 ; Croxteth D. W. I ; Blundell
of Crosby D. K. 58. John and Henry
became rectors of Sefton. Thomas
" Dame Anne Molyneux died 22 Oc-
tober, !52o; Sir William is called forty-
two years of age, which would make him
older than Richard, if the latter had bee.
«on is sometimes identified with the Robert
Hawton, Notts. ; a deed of his concern-
ing the chantry founded at Walton by
his brother John is at Croxteth ; Visit,
of Notts (Harl. Soc.), p. 72 ; Croxteth
69
xxxix, App. p. 197 ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
p.m. v, n. 39. Her will has been
printed in Lanes, and Ches. mils (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, ind Ches.), 162.
Turks an indulgence was offered in 1448 ;
see Raines, Lane,. Chantries (Chet. Soc.),
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
attaining his majority about 1502.' He took part in
three expeditions to Scotland, capturing two banners
at Flodden, and receiving a letter of thanks from
Henry VIII.* It was perhaps in his time that
Croxteth became the principal residence of the
family, as Leyland found it in 1535:' Mr. Moly-
neux, a knight of great lands, two miles from Prescot,
dwelleth at a place called Croxteth." In 1545
William Molyneux assigned certain lands to his son
Richard to enable the latter to maintain hospitality
within the manor place of Sefton.4 He died in
1548.'
His son and heir Richard had special livery of
his lands on 1 3 June in that year.8 He was made
a knight at the coronation of Queen Mary in
1553,' and was sheriff of Lancashire in 1566.*
Before his death on 3 January, 1568-9,° having ap-
parently shown some conformity to the established
religion, ' he received absolution and did vow that he
would take the pope to be supreme head of the
Church.' '•
The heir was his grandson Richard, son of William
Molyneux, only ten years of age." He was given
into the guardianship of Sir Gilbert Gerard, Master
of the Rolls, one of the stricter Protestants of the
time, and eventually married his guardian's eldest
daughter.18 He was made a knight in 1586," twice
served as sheriff,14 became receiver of the duchy," and
in 1611 was created a baronet, the second to hold
the new dignity.16 Although, as might be expected
from his training, he remained outwardly a Protestant,
and joined in the persecution of the Blundells of
Crosby,17 it was in 1590 reported that while he
' made show of good conformity,' many of his com-
pany were ' of evil note ' in religion.18 Consequently
it is not surprising to find that his descendants in the
freer time of the Stuarts reverted openly to the Roman
Catholic faith.19 He died 24 February, 1622-3,*° an<^
was succeeded by his eldest son, Richard, who five
years later was raised to the peerage of Ireland as
Viscount Molyneux of Maryborough.'1 He did not
long enjoy his new honour, dying 8 May, 1636, at
Croxteth, holding the hereditary offices of forester of
West Derbyshire, steward within the wapentakes of Sal-
ford and West Derby, and constable of the castle of Liver-
pool; and possessed of the manors of Sefton, Netherton,
and Lunt, with many other manors and lands." His
son and heir, Richard, seventeen years of age, was
1 Richard Molyneux was pat
Sefton in 1489.
the queen as of her duchy of Lane, for
the twelfth part of a knight's fee, the
73. He represented the county in Parlia-
ment in 1586, 1592, and 1603; Pink
described as 'son and heir' of Sir
Thomas, showing that Richard had died
in his minority ; Croxteth D. N. 5. On
24 September, 1 502, the representative
of his father's feoffees granted various
premises to William Molyneux ; Duchy
of Lane. Inq. p.m. v. n. 39.
Sefton church. The letter is at Croxteth,
as are the summonses to be ready in 1536
to join the earl of Shrewsbury (no doubt
against the Pilgrimage of Grace), and in
1542 to advance against the Scots;
Croxteth D. Genl. i, 73, 75, 76, 78.
For a fuller account of him see Diet.
Nat. Biog. and Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Engl.
Catb.v, 71.
The printed Visits, begin at this time
(Chet. Soc.) ; the Molyneux of Sefton
pedigrees will be found as follows : 1533,
P- '35 i '507, P- i°3i '613. P- 131 i
« Croxteth D. Genl. i, 80.
• Brass at Sefton church. His will,
dated i 547, is among the Croxteth Deeds ;
Genl. i, 81. The inquisition preserved
says nothing of his Sefton lands ; it con-
cerns only the Clifton estates which he
held in right of his second wife, and
which descended to his son by her,
Thomas Molyneux, then over twenty-one
years of age ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m.
YJi, ». 6. Thomas dying without issue
they went to his sister Anne, wife of
Henry Halsall of Halsall ; Viat. of 1533,
p. 135.
6 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App. p. 557.
7 Metcalfe, Bk. of Knights, 109 ; the
second quarter of the arms recorded is
peculiar.
8 P.R.O. Li*, 73-
9 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii, n. 35.
This states that he held the manor of
Sefton and the patronage of the church
there, and various lands in Sefton,
Netherton, and Lunt of the queen as of
her manor of West Derby in socage, by
fealty and doing suit at the wapentake of
West Derby from three weeks to three
weeks ; it was worth £50 31. 6j</. Also
he held five plough-lands in Sefton of
repeated in later inquisitions, e.g. Lanes.
Inj. f.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.},
iii, 389 ; but there is nothing to show
how the ' manor ' of Sefton came to be
separated from the ' five plough-lands ' (in-
stead of the six of Domesday Book) and
the two portions to be held in socage and
by knight's service respectively.
Sir Richard had acquired Altcar and
various other lands.
His brass is in Sefton church. By his
first wife he had a numerous offspring.
The inquisition states that he married his
second wife, Eleanor Eyves, widow, on
30 September, 1565, and that five unmar-
ried daughters were living at Croxteth—
Alice, Anne, Ellen, Mary, and Eleanor.
Eleanor was still living in 1602 ; Ducatus
Lane, iii, 468.
The eldest son William died before his
father, on n June, 1567, and was buried
at Standish ; Dods. MSS. v, fol. 61. The
other sons were Richard, of Cunscough
in Melling; John, of Alt Grange and New
Hall in West Derby ; Anthony, and
« Cal. S. P. Dom. 1603-10, p. 364.
18 G. E. C. Complete Baronetage, i, 3.
" Crosby Rec. (Chet. Soc.), 23.
18 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 243 (quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4).
« The most distinguished of his sons
was Sir Vivian Molyneux, for whom see
Wood's Athenae, and Gillow, op. cit. v,
70. Both Richard, the eldest, and Vivian
were sent up to Oxf. ; Foster, Alumni.
» Lanes. Inq.p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 383-91. The manor of Tar-
bock was a fresh acquisition. The son
and heir, Richard, was then aged twenty-
kept at Walton ; Assheton, Journ. (Chet.
Soc.), 79.
Sir Richard's will is printed in Gisborne
Molineux, op. cit. 142.
21 G. E. C. Complete Peerage, v, 326. He
had been made a knight in 1603 (Met-
cz\h,Bk. of Knights, 164); and had served
as knight of the shire in 1625 and 1628 ;
Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 70. During
his father's lifetime in 1614 he had sat
for Wigan ; ibid. 224.
Anthony being shipped off to the West
Indies in 1586 for his recusancy (Gillow,
Bibl. Diet, of Engl. Catholics, v, 72 ; will
in Gisborne Molineux, op. cit. 142) ; but
Alexander embraced the new order and
became rector of Walton.
"Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 211 (quoting
S.P.Dom. Eliz. xlviii, n. 3 5). Sir Richard's
son John, and his daughters Anne, Joan,
11 Inq. p.m. above cited. The marriage
covenant of William, son and heir ap-
parent of Sir Richard Molyneux, and
Bridget, daughter of John Caryll and
sister of Thomas Caryll, is dated 2 June,
1558 ; Croxteth D. Genl. i, 85. A fur-
ibid, ii, i.
12 The Visit.at 15 67 gives him a daughter
of Lord Strange as bride ; p. 104.
18 Metcalfe, B*. of Knights, 136. In 1589
he purchased Edge and other Osbaldeston
lands in the parish of Sefton; Croxteth
D. X. iii, 4.
14 In 1588 and 1596 ; P. R. O. List,
59; Croxteth D. Genl. iii, 10. The
estates of the family had by this time at-
tained their greatest extent, and the fol-
lowing brief view may be given : The
manors of Sefton, Netherton, and Lunt,
the 'five plough-lands' being described as
a twelfth part of a knight's fee ; various
lands in the same ; the manors of Thorn-
ton, Hulmore, and Ince Blundell, and
lands there ; the manor of Down Lither-
land, with lands there and in Linacre,
Ford, and Orrell ; the manor of Little
Crosby, Moorhouses and Great Crosby —
the manor of Great Crosby itself, re-
cently granted, is not meant by this ; the
manor of Aintree and lands there ; the
manors of Walton and Fazakerley and
the advowson of the church of Walton ;
various tenements in Kirkdale ; three-
quarters of the manor of Maghull ; the
manors (or parts) of Melling, Aughton,
Eccleston and Heskin, Euxton (with lands
there and in Cuerden, Whittle-le-Woods,
Farington, and Leyland), Lydiate, Fishwick
(and lands, &c. in Fishwick, Ribbleton and
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
entrusted to the guardianship of James, Lord Strange,
his father-in-law.1 Lord Molyneux, with his brother
Caryll, zealously espoused the king's side on the out-
break of the Civil War, taking part in the siege of
Manchester in 1642, the capture of Lancaster and
Preston, the battle of Newbury in the following year,
and that of Ormskirk in August, 1644,' when he and
Lord Byron, being forced to forsake their horses, hid
themselves in the cornfields.3 In May 1646, after the
surrender of Ludlow, he came in, sent his petition to
the Parliament, and took the National Covenant and
Negative Oath on 20 August.4 His estates were of
course under sequestration, and from this time he
appears to have lived at the mercy of the Parliament,
with but a scanty allowance. He died early in July
1654, without issue.5
His brother Caryll succeeded as third viscount. By
James II he was made lord lieutenant of Lancashire
and admiral of the high seas, a grant which, on reli-
gious grounds, gave great offence and had to be
revoked.6 At the Revolution he was faithful to the
king, seizing Chester Castle on his behalf;7 in 1694 he
was put on trial for participation in the ' Lancashire
Plot.'8 He died 2 February, 1699-1700, and was
SEFTON
buried at Sefton.9 He was succeeded by his third son,
William, who in 1717, shortly before his death, as a
' Papist ' registered his estate in the manors of Sefton,
&c. as worth ,£2,352 a year.10 He does not seem to
have had any share in the rising of 1715." His
eldest son, Richard, succeeded and, leaving only two
daughters," was at his death in 1738 followed in turn
by his brothers Caryll " and William. The latter,
being a priest and a Jesuit, in charge of the mission
at Scholes, near Prescot, on succeeding in 1745, re-
signed to his younger brother Thomas all his estates,
the reason put forward being that he was ' old and
had no intention to marry.' " It is said that on
Thomas's death in 1756 Lord Molyneux was ordered
to ' cease parish duty and appear in his own rank,'
and that he accordingly did so until his death in
1759."
His nephew, Charles William, son of the Thomas
Molyneux just named, succeeded as eighth viscount.
He was then only ten years of age. He conformed
to the established religion on 5 March, 1769,"
probably under the influence of his wife, Isabella,
daughter of the earl of Harrington, a step which was
rewarded by the grant of an earldom in the peerage
Brockholes), Tarbock, Northcnd [in
Ince Blundell], and K.irkby; also various
212 ; among other acts Lord Molyneux
appointed some of the gentry to be
of Richard, Lord Viscount Molyneur,
for raising money to discharge his father's
Richard, West Derby, Ashton in Maker-
field, Preston, Toxteth and Smithdown,
Gorchouses in Altcar, Heath Charnock,
Whiston, Heapey, and Cronton ; and a
rent of fj 191. from Hulme Walfield in
Cheshire ; with fisheries, views of frank-
pledge, free warren, &c.
He had in 1628-9 procured an Act of
Parliament for altering the settlement of
the manor of Tarbock; Croxteth D.
Genl. iii, 7.
There are notices of the first three
viscounts in the Diet. Nat, Biog.
self, convicted recusants. The lieu-
tenancy was restored to Lord Derby
in Sept. 1688; ibid. 198. A private
Act was passed after the Restoration
(15 Chas. II, c. 7) voiding conveyances
by Caryll, Lord Molyneux 'in the late
1 Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 248.
8 Kenyan MSS. 293 seq; Jacobite Trials
(Chet. Soc.), 44, 62.
9 Sefton Reg ; Gillow, op. cit. v, 57.
The marriage contract of his eldest
son Richard with Mary Herbert, eldest
making provision for his brothers and
sisters, and for the payment of his own
debts. In accordance with this Eccleston
in Leyland and other manors, which had
in 1705 been settled on the marriage of
Richard with Mary, daughter of Lord
Brudenell, were sold to discharge the
various liabilities detailed in the Act. Lord
Molyneux's own debts are set down as
£7,440, but this includes a mortgage of
£3,000 on Woolton. Nine years later
an Act was passed for explaining and
164.0, p. 200 ; also R. D. Radcliffe's full
account of the second viscount and his
child-marriage to Henrietta Maria,
daughter of Lord Strange, in Tram. Hist.
Soc. (New Ser.), vii-viii, 245. This mar-
riaje was never completed, Lord Strange
apparently objecting. Lord Molyneux,
on 28 October, 1652, married Lady
Frances Seymour, eldest daughter of Wil-
liam, marquis of Hertford, afterwards
duke of Somerset ; Croxteth D. Genl. iv,
2 ; but Henrietta Maria did not marry
until after her affianced husband's death,
dated 29 January, 1671-2 ; Croxteth D.
Genl. v, 5. Richard was buried at Sefton,
22 May, 1672.
10 Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Catb. Non-
jurors, 113, where a copy of the certificate
of his marriage to his second wife, Mary
Skelton, is given. This took place at
Warrington, 22 July, 1716, before a
Dominican priest, Thomas Worthington.
She died in London in 1765.
He made a vigorous effort to recover
the constableship of Liverpool Castle and
its valuable appurtenances, but failed ;
marriage of Richard, Lord Molyneux ;
II Geo. II, cap. 5.
The will of Richard, Lord Molyneux,
dated 28 July, 1738, is enrolled at Preston ;
twelfth roll of Geo. II.
" His will, dated 19 July, 1744, is en-
rolled at Preston ; twenty-first roll of
Geo. II.
" Foley, Rec. S. ]. vii, 514-16. Here
is corrected the error in the ordinary
pedigrees, by which Caryll the fifth vis-
count is made the father of Richard (who
has been doubled), William and Thomas
G. E. C. Complete Peerage, vii, 264.
There is a notice of the second viscount
in Gillow, op. cit. v, 64.
11 Perhaps his age prevented it, he being
then sixty. His son Caryll died in 1745.
None of the family seem to have been
brother of Richard and the elder brother
of the others. The descent is given rightly
in G. E. C. Complete Peerage.
Lord Strange does not seem to have found
111 Richard had in 1717 registered an
Sefton Abstract of Title, p. 7, in the
(Chet. Soc.), Ill, iii, B. 8.
* Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 204.
There is a notice of Lord Molyneux's
part in the campaign in the Land. War
(Chet. Soc.), 37-9.
« Royalist Comf. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iv, 149, &c. ; the houses at
Croxteth and Sefton had been plundered
Woolton; Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 151.
His son William died during his father's
lifetime, in 1707 ; he is described as
'papist' in the Sefton register. The
daughters were Mary, who died in 1752,
and Dorothy, who was living in 1740.
The former married Thomas Clifton of
Lytham, and had issue ; afterwards she
cerning the marriage between Thomas
Molyneux and Maria, widow of John
Errington.
"Foley, op. cit. vii, 516. His will,
and that of his sister Bridget, who kept
house at the Scholes, are at Stony-
hurst ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iv,
190-1.
dences, as the counterparts of leases, had
been taken away or destroyed ; p. 161. It
•hould be noticed that this Lord Moly-
neux is not described as a recusant,
though his brother Caryll was one.
• Ibid. 165. Provision for the widow's
being buried at Sefton as his widow in
1753 ; there is also a statement that she
married Nicholas Tempest of Tong Hall
(Gent. Mag. 1737), but it appears to be a
mistake. Dorothy married John Baptist
Caryll (who died in 1788), of West
had been educated at St. Omers ; Gillow,
op. cit. v, 61. His guardians were his
mother, the duke of Beaufort (and after
his death the earl of Lichfield), and Wil-
liam Prujean of Gray's Inn. His mother
survived him, dying 14 August, 1795.
teth D. Genl. iv, 6.
• Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 187,
In 1729 an Act was passed (2 Geo. II,
cap. 9) for selling part of the settled estate
the guardians to lease ; Abstract ,/ Title,
71
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
of Ireland in 1771.' His son, William Philip, suc-
ceeded in 1 794. He took an active part in politics
on the Whig or popular side, and though unsuccessful
at Liverpool was returned as member for Droitwich
in 1816. Retaining his seat until 1831 he was by
William IV created a baron of the United Kingdom,
as Lord Sefton of Croxteth.' He died in 1838.'
His son Charles William, who died in 1 855,'
succeeded, and was followed by his eldest son Wil-
liam Philip (died 1897),' who in turn was succeeded
by his eldest son Charles William Hylton (died 1901),
and by his second son Sir Osbert Cecil Molyneux, the
sixth earl, and present lord of the manor of Sefton.6
See Pedigree next page.
No manorial courts are now held. Several fifteenth-
century court rolls are preserved at Croxteth ; the
officers appointed were the constables, ' birelagh ' men,
ale-tasters, afferers, and layers of the mise. A ' view of
the houses' taken in December, 1411, has also been
preserved, recording the various dilapidations which
had to be made good under penalties set forth.
The Pepperfield in Sefton, comprising 6 acres of
land lying next to the Hanecroft, was in 1 294 given
by Richard de Molyneux to his son Peter.7 By Peter
it was granted to Richard the Judge or Doomsman
of Down Litherland in 1335 ;8 and from Richard
' the Demand ' of Ince — no doubt the same person —
it passed by charter in 1344 to Robert his son and
heir and Emma his wife.' The next step is un-
known ; but in I 395-6 Richard de Eves of Thornton
gave to Henry Boys the 6 acres called Pepperfield,1'
and about fourteen years afterwards Richard de Eves
and Maud his wife sold it to Nicholas Blundell of
Little Crosby, Henry Boys, son of William Highson,
releasing all his right therein.11 Next Henry Blundell
gave to Robert, son of John Molyneux of Melling, in
1454-5 a pound of pepper with the field called
Pepperfield.1'
The EDGE in Sefton is in one charter called a
manor.11 An estate here was granted in 1315 by
Richard de Molyneux to his
son Thomas,14 whose mother
Emma in 1334 inade him
steward of all her lands and
commanded her tenants to
render account of all matters
to him ; ls two years later he
released to her all his right to
the marsh of Sefton and the
heys and meadows there.16 He
died shortly after, for at the
beginning "of ,337, Cecily, J^^".^
widow of Thomas de Molyneux, moline or ; in dexter
acquired a lease of lands in Great Mefafieur de Us argent
Crosby.17 His son Thomas ap-
pears to have acquired the manor of Cuerdale, and
took his distinguishing title from it ; 18 his widow
Joan was at the beginning of 1388 put in posses-
sion of various lands of his, including the Edge in
Sefton.1* After her death his lands descended in
26 Nov. 1768, Lord Molyneux being then
twenty years of age.
A step in the peerage appears to have
been considered the proper reward for
0 In politics a Liberal, becoming a
Unionist in 1886. He was appointed
lord-lieutenant of Lanes, in 1858.
« The peerages give information as to
the other descendants of the second and
Several of Thomas's children are known :
Thomas, Richard, Henry, and Emma.
Richard's wife was named Lettice ; it
appears that she was the widow of John
de Rigmaiden of Wyrcsdale ; Final Cone.
Lords Fauconberg and Waldcgrave. In
Lord Sefton's case it had been determined
on as early as May, 1770 ; though the
patent is dated 30 Nov. 1771 ; Cal. Home
Off. P. 1770-2, pp. 35, 404; G.E.C.
Complete Peerage, vii, IOI.
Lord Sefton showed no antipathy to
the religion he had renounced, granting
•< Blundell of Crosby D. K. 30.
» Ibid. K. 41.
» Ibid. K.. 24. It is here described as
'six acres in Sefton, viz. Pepperfield.'
10 Ibid. K. 44.
11 Ibid. K.. 40, K. 39. Other lands be-
sides ' Pepperfield next Hanecroft ' seem
to have been included in this sale. The
Lettice was living at the Edge in 1376^
and claimed damages from Thomas le
Boteler of Marlon for breaking into her
close ; he was a creditor ; De Bane. R.
457, m. i86</., &c. Lettice was also
defendant in a Chesh. suit in 1369;
Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 45 1 note.
There was a son Thomas, who had a
had been served from Croxteth and
Sefton.
He represented the county in Parlia-
ment for a few years (1771-4) ™ * Whig;
Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 85.
In 1772 Lord Sefton came to an agree-
ment with Henry Blundell of Ince con-
cerning an exchange of some of the latter's
lands in Aughton, Maghull, and Lydiate
for lands of equal value in Ince Blundell
belonging to the former ; this was con-
firmed by an Act of 12 Geo. Ill ; Abstract
of Title, 15-18.
a G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 101.
• So far as the estates were concerned
K.45-
"Ibid. K. 42. It may be noted that
Richard de Molyneux, living in 1212,
had granted to Richard de Thornton a
' cultura '—whether in Sefton or not is
unrecorded — for i Ib. of pepper by the
year ; Inq. and Extents, 1 4.
The payment in the text seems to be
the result of the grant of a pound of pep-
per and 21. rent from the Pepperfield,
made by William de Molyneux in 1249
to his relative Robert de Molyneux of
Thornton; Final Cone, i, no.
« It may be the ' alia Sefton ' of the
Fifteenth roll.
"Croxteth D. Genl. i, 7, quoted
1381-2, and who is named in the will of
his uncle Thomas de Molyneux of Cuer-
dale ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 257, 256*,
and Final Cone, ii, 136.
Richard was dead in 1368 ; his widow
was living in 1378; ibid. fol. 149,
257*.
Emma was in 1 340 contracted to marry
Richard, son of Nicholas Blundell of Little
Crosby ; the agreement between Nicholas
and Cecily provides that the former shall
sustain his son and his betrothed, and
that part of Great Crosby shall be her
portion ; ibid. fol. 257.
18 Thomas de Molyneux of Cuerdale
was killed at the battle of Radcote Bridge,
of 1798, by which the manors of Great
Crosby, Melling, Maghull, Lydiate, and
Aughton were disposed of, also a great
amount of land, in order to pay off mort-
gages and make provision for various
claims ; Abstract of Title, 36.
In addition to his political fame the
known as ' of Sefton ' or « of the Edge,'
indifferently.
The grant did not include the whole of
the Edge, Tor in 1338 Robert de Riding's
share of 3 acres here was exchanged for
land belonging to William de Hokelaw
in Thornton ; ibid. Y. iii, 14.
the Edge were said to be of the clear
annual value of looj. ; Lanes. Inq. p.m.
(Chet. Soc.), i, 29. A fuller account of
him will be given under Cuerdale. He
was called Thomas de Molyneux del
Edge in 1349; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol.
256.
and sportsman ; Ross, House of Sefton, 8- 1 o ;
also the note in G.E.C.
"Ross, lo-n. He also was a Whig,
and represented South Lanes, from 1832
to 1834; Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 95.
He was appointed lord-lieutenant of the
county in 1851.
family name is unknown ; the seal ap-
pended to this grant shows ' Per bend two
roundels counterchanged.'
16 Ibid, i, 22.
"Ibid. D. i, i. Cecily appears to
have been living in 1348; Kuerden
MSS. iv, K. 13.
72
later Henry Blundell and others certified
that Thomas de Molyneux of Cuerdale
had enfeoffed Gilbert de Halsall and
others of 'the manor of Edge' and other
lands in Sefton ; ibid, i, 42-43. Joan
made a feoffment of her lands in 1401 ;
ibid, i, 46.
MOLYNEUX OF SEFTON
Robert dc Molyneur (occ. c. 1125) = . .
Richard (i 164) * Robert = . . . . Gilbert de '
Richard (d. 1213) = ....(? Gernet) Simon Robert
Robert de M. (of Thornton)
289) = Roger de M. (of Little Crosby, <.'.•<:.)
I *
Richard (d. c. 1320) = Emma (? 2nd wife)
I
'illiam (d. c. 1335) = .... Richard (rector of Sefton) Thomas = . . . .
Iiabel (ii) = « Richard (d. 1363) = (i) Agatha Thomas de M.
[ (of Cuerdale)
William (d. 1358) = Joan de Holland (of Euiton)
* Sir William (d. 1372) = Agnes = Sir Richard de Balderston
_|
• Richard (b. c. 1368 ; d. 1397) = Ellen de Urawick = Sir John Savage
= • Sir Richard (b. 1396 ; d. e. 1454) = Joan Haydock (d. 1440)
-* - - 1
• Sir Richard (d. 1459) = Elizabeth Stanley John Thomas M. (of Hawton)
» Sir Thomas (d. 1483) = Anne Dutton (d. 1520) James
Thomas * Richard Elizabeth Clifton = » Sir William (b. c. 1481 ; d. 1548) = Joan Rudge Edward
John (d. a minor) _ A _ _J
Eleanor Maghull = * Sir Richard (d. 1569) = Eleanor Radcliffe
* _ L_ _
William (d. 1567) = Bridget Caryll John (New Hall)
* Sir Richard (b. 1557 ; cr. bart. 1611 ; d. 1623) = Frances Gerard (d. 1621)
Mary Caryll = « Sir Richard (b. 1593 ; cr. Visct. M., 1628 ; d. 1636) = Fleetwood Barton Sir Vivian (d. 1666)
• Sir Richard (2nd Visct. ; b. 1619 ; d. 165+) * Sir Caryll (3rd Visct. ; d. 1700) = Mary Barlow
Richard (d. 1672) = Lady Mary Herbert * Sir William (4th Visct., d. 1718) = Bridget Lucy
•Sir Richard (;th = Hon. Mary » Sir Caryll (6th Visct., d. 1745) Thomas Joseph = Maria Lcvery
Visct. ; d. 1738) I Brudenell « Sir William, S. J.(7th Visct., d. 1759) (d. 1756) I (wid. of John
| Errington)
I 1 | (d- '795)
Mary = Thomas Clifton Dorothy = John Caryll » Sir Charles William (b. 1 748 ; 8th Visct. = Lady Isabella
cr. Earl of Sefton, 1771; d. 1794 I Stanhope (d. 1819)
Sir William Philip (2nd Earl ; cr. Baron Sefton, 1831 ; d. 1838) = Hon. Maria Margaretta Crav
| (d. 1851)
* Sir Charles William (jrd Earl ; d. 1855) = Mary Augusta Gregge-Hopwood
I (d. 1906)
» Sir William Philip (4th Earl ; K..G. 1885 ; d. 1897) = Hon. Cecil Emily Hylton Joliffe
| (d. 1899)
• Sir Charles William Hylton • Sir Osbert Cecil = Lady Helena Mary Bridgeman Richard Frederick
f 5th Earl ; d. 1901) (6th Earl ; b. 1871) I (b. 1873)
Hugh William Osbert (Visct. Molyneuz ; b. 1898)
(The • denotes lord, of the manor.)
3 73 I0
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the Osbaldestons of Osbaldeston,' until in 1589 the
Edge and others were sold by Edward Osbaldeston
and John his son to Sir Richard Molyneux,1 since
which time they have formed part of the Sefton
estate of the Molyneux family.
In the seventeenth century a family named Baron
held it of them. Lawrence Baron in 1652 peti-
tioned for the restoration to him of a portion of the
tenement, two-thirds of his late grandfather's estate
having been sequestered for recusancy." ' Mr. Baron
of the Edge ' is mentioned several times in Nicholas
Blundell's Diary of the early part of the following
century.4
Gorsthill and the family named from it have been
mentioned ; like the Edge it became the property of
Thomas de Molyneux of Cuerdale.4
Some of the inhabitants seem to have taken Sefton
as a surname ; 6 but this was perhaps more commonly
applied after they had left the township.7
Besides Lord Molyneux two other ' Papists ' regis-
tered estates here in 1717, viz. Robert Shepherd, a
leaseholder, and Mary Cornwallis of St. Giles in the
Fields, London, daughter of Francis Cornwallis, who
had an annuity of loo/, purchased from Caryll, Lord
Molyneux.8
The parish church has already been described.
After the Reformation there are no records of the
existence of the Roman Catholic worship in the town-
ship until the middle of the seventeenth century, when
a chapel in the old hall was served by Benedictines or
Carmelites down to 1792. In this year Dom Vincent
Gregson, who had been there for nearly forty years,
persuaded the earl of Sefton to grant him land at
Netherton for a chapel and presbytery ; the chapel,
St. Bennet's, was opened in the following year, and is
still served by a Benedictine father.9
NETHERTON
There is no variation in the spelling ; the definite
article was formerly prefixed.
This township was originally a hamlet of Sefton, but
appears to have been recognized as a distinct township
as early as 1624, when the county lay was fixed.10 It
lies to the south-east of Sefton, and has an area of 1,1 26
acres." The population numbered 589 in 1901.
It is in the heart of flat, agricultural country.
The land is principally arable, producing crops of
potatoes, wheat, barley, oats, and rye, in a soil which
is a mixture of clay and sand. The country is not
interesting, for there is nothing picturesque about the
scattered farmsteads, and the trees are only large
enough to give a slight protection to the buildings
around which they cluster. The greater part of the
township lies upon the lower keuper sandstone of the
new red sandstone or trias, but on the south-eastern
side the waterstones of the keuper series occur near
the boundary of Aintree. The strata are obscured by
sand and thick boulder clay and by alluvial deposits.
The principal road is that from Aintree village to
Sefton Town. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes
through the township, and upon it is the village, about
f mile south of Sefton church. The green is enclosed
with railings.
The southern corner is crossed by two lines of rail-
way, and contains the Aintree stations of the Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire Company and the Cheshire Lines
Committee.
Mn Oct. 1461 Geoffrey Osbaldeston
granted to his son John and Elizabeth his
wife ' a messuage with the meadows, feed-
subsidy was Peter Hurdes ; Norris D.
(B.M.) ; but in 1641 is a long list of re-
cusants in the township, headed by Law-
the Edge in Sefton,' and all his other lands,
&c.,inSefton,Walton, Thornton, and Ince,
and tenements elsewhere ; Croxteth D. X.
iii, 2.
» Ibid. X, iii, 3, 4 ; also Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 51, m. 39.
s Royalist Comf. P. i, 145. From the
documents here printed it appears that the
grandfather's name was Lawrence also ;
he had a lease of the Edge in 1620 from
Sir Richard Molyneux, for the lives of
Lawrence himself, William his eldest son
of Richard Tatlock. The house was di-
and his wife Ellen, and the other to Wil-
liam and his wife.
A detailed description of the house fol-
lows, with its upper and lower floors,
garrets, and farm buildings ; and several
field names, including the Coningre or
Warren and the Hemp-yard. The ' Edge
Hest holm at the South side' repeats
words in the grant by Richard de Moly-
neux in 1315.
Lawrence Baron the grandfather died
in Sept. 1652 ; two-thirds of his estate
had been sequestrated for recusancy in
1643. The son William's death is not
mentioned; Alice his wife appears to
have married again, as she is called Alice
Allison.
From the Crosby Rec. (Chet. Soc.) it
appears that the above-named Ellen Baron,
wife of the grandfather, ' together with
divers other Catholics . . . were
committed to prison in the Castle of
Chester' in 1598; p. 23. The only re-
cusant in 1628 who paid double to the
(New Ser.), xiv, 236. A
the younger Lawrence's religion is made
in 1653 it is probable that he had become
a Protestant. The sequestration was re-
moved and arrears allowed ; Cat. Com. for
Comf. iv, 3060. In 1666 Lawrence Baron
and Alice his mother paid for six hearths ;
The elder Lawrence had another son,
John, who became a Jesuit. His account
of himself, given on entering the English
College at Rome in 1625, is of much in-
nty-second year. My
of the jurors inquiring into the Altcar
riot of 1682 ; Kenyan MSS. 137.
s The earliest mention of the place is
in an undated deed by which Roger, son
of Adam son of Beatrice of Sefton, granted
to Adam his father half his land on the
Gorst hill ; Croxteth D. X. iv, i.
In 1375 Adam Hodgson and Emma
his wife sold the latter's life interest in a
messuage and twelve acres in the Gorst
hill to Thomas de Molyneux and Lettice,
widow of Richard de Molyneux ; it was
the inheritance of Thomas del Gorsthill,
Emma's former husband ; ibid. X. i, 17.
Ten years later Alan del Gorsthill sold
all his lands in that place, together with
Hodgson and Emmota his wife, to Tho-
an only brother and one sister, who, with
my parents, are Catholics. I made my
er a Je
noble
never more than forty miles from my
father's house before I took my journey
6 Richard de Molyneux in 1343 leased
land in Sefton to Henry of Sefton and
Alice his wife ; ibid. Ee. 17.
? There were Seftons at Liverpool from
an early time ; see Lanes. Ct. R. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 80. In 1354-7
Richard de Sefton of Liverpool acted as
the feoffee of Richard de Holland in a
word ' nobleman ' does not imply a title ;
the school referred to was perhaps that
at Scarisbrick, where a priest was sta-
tioned before 1620. John Baron, known
as Burton, was ordained, and in 1632
sent on the English mission to 'a country
place among poor Catholics '—possibly
Sefton. After a short time he was re-
called to the Continent and died at Watten
in 1638; Foley, op. cit. vi, 307; vii,
33.
There was at Over Darwen a family
named Baron, tenants of the Osbaldes-
tons ; Abram, Blackburn, 501.
* Diary, 135, 147, 161 : 'Lawrence
Baron of Sefton, gentleman,' was one
74
settlement of the latter's estate in Sefton ;
the remainders were to John, Joan, and
Agnes, children of Richard de Holland ;
Croxteth D. X. iv, 8, 9.
8 Engl. Cat/,. Non-Jurors, 108, 98. The
will of Mary Cornwallis, dated 1727, was
proved in 1730; Payne, Rec. cf Engl.
Cat*. 25.
» These details are from a paper n
Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.J.xiii, 146, 147.
It is there stated that 200 persons were
in 1774 confirmed by Bishop Wilson at
Sefton.
10 Gregson, Fragments, 16.
» 1,124 in census of 1901 ; this in-
eludes 14 acres of inland water.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The township is governed by a parish council.
Before 1212 Richard de Molyneux had given to
his son Robert three oxgangs of land, to be held by
knight's service,1 which, no doubt, constitute the parcel
called Arland, afterwards held by the Thornton
family.' Though described as ' in the vill of Sefton '
it was in Netherton, but the earliest mention of this
place by name is in a charter of Richard de Molyneux
of Sefton in 1318, granting his younger son Peter
certain lands, together with the water-mill in ' the
Netherton.' * A junior branch of the Sefton family
appears to have settled here, for Simon de Molyneux
of Netherton is mentioned in 1373.* In 1433-4
William Fairfellow and Agnes his wife released their
lands here to Sir Richard Molyneux, Agnes making
oath that she had made no feoffment of her lands
in Sefton, except to a daughter of Simon de Moly-
neux, named Emmote, who had died at the age of
fourteen.4
The township does not seem to have formed a dis-
tinct manor, but was included in Sefton.8 A park
called the Stand or New Park was formed here early
in the seventeenth century,7 but discontinued about
1800. Stand House preserves the name.8
The story of St. Bennet's Church has been given in
the account of Sefton.
LUNT
Lund, 1295 ; Lont, 1302 ; Lond, 1349 5 Lount,
1350 ; Lunt, 1396 ; the definite article was prefixed
down to the xvii cent.
SEFTON
Lunt is situated in the flattest fen district drained
by the River Alt, which also forms its north-eastern
boundary. The marshy pastures are liable to floods
during winter and in wet seasons. In the southern
portion there are cultivated fields where cereals and
root-crops thrive in a soil consisting of a mixture of
sand and clay. Hedges are scanty and trees few and
far between. The geological formation is the same
as in Sefton.
It was formerly a hamlet of Sefton, but its separa-
tion seems to have been accomplished before 1624.'
It has an area of 477 acres,10 and the population in
1901 was 80. The road from Sefton to Ince Blun-
dell passes through it.
St. Helen's well, close to Sefton church, is a wish-
ing well ; a pin had to be thrown in, and if it could
be seen at the bottom of the well the omen was
favourable."
The township is governed by a parish council.
Manorially Lunt seems to have been a member of
Sefton, but land in it is on one occasion said to have
been held of the lord of Warrington," suggesting a
territorial connexion with the adjoining township of
Thornton.
Richard de Molyneux, some time before 1212, gave
to Richard Branch and to Robert half a plough-land
to be held by knight's service and a rent of 6s." In
1295 Robert son of Robert Branch granted to
Richard de Molyneux an oxgang of land in Lunt."
A family which took surname from the place may
have descended from Richard Branch.15 Other families
1 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), I 3.
"Arland in the vill of Sefton' was
held in 1398 by the heirs of Robert Moly-
neux of Thornton ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet.
Soc.), i, 70. The charter quoted in the
following note shows that it lay on the
border of Aintree. In 1779 fields in
Netherton were called Old and Little
his lands in Netherton and Sefton to feof-
fees ; ibid. V. i, i.
But few particulars concerning Nether-
ton have been preserved. In 1415
Richard Wilson and Emmota his wife
released to Thomas de Osbaldeston and
his heirs all their right in the vill and
territory of Netherton ; Dods. MSS. cxlix.
In 1467 Roger Wright granted to Thomas
Lunt Green to Robert son of Richard the
clerk of Thornton, at a rent of T,d., about
1260; Croxteth D. Ee. 2.
" Ibid. X. i, I.
16 The most prominent member of this
family was Richard de Lunt, clerk, who
in the fourteenth century was feoffee in
numerous instances for local families. In
1337 he granted to his son Henry a mes-
» Croxteth D. Genl. i, 10, 14. The
boundaries began at the water-mill, fol-
lowing the 'fleam' of the mill stream to
the Croft ditch, and thence in a straight
line through the carr to the Alt ; up this
river as far as the Strindes, and thence to
the land of Robert de Molyneux called
Arland ; following the ditch of Arland to
tethD.V. i, 4, 5.
In 1691 John Molyneux of Copy in
Netherton and George Bradley of Melling
and Ellen his wife (only daughter of
William Molyneux, late of Netherton),
sold Copy to the Hon. William Molyneux
of Croxteth ; draft deed at Croxteth.
6 The Halmote of Sefton took cogniz-
from Agnes his mother ; and twelve
years later Henry transferred them to
Robert le Breton ; ibid. X. iv, 6-7.
Robert son of Roger dc Lunt granted
to his son John in 1309 a house and cur-
tilage in Lunt ; ibid. X. iv, 4.
Adam, son of Margery de Lunt, in
1302 granted to Peter, son of Richard
house of Adam Leanothewind and to the
cross on the Aintree boundary ; thence
roll of 5 Hen. IV, preserved at Croxteth.
7 A grant of free warren, made by
Sefton, lying in the Lunt, at a rent of
id.
land, the moss, and a ditch by Sefton field
to the mill pool and mill.
4 He wai one of the feoffees of John
Blundell of Ince ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 97.
He may be the Simon de Molyneux
who fifteen to twenty years earlier was
plaintiff in a case concerning a house
and land in Sefton. This Simon was the
son of William (who had a brother Henry),
and the park there ' among the Molyneux
manors to which it applies; Pat. 13
Jas. I, pt. x-xiii. So also does another
grant of 1637; Croxteth D. L.
Blundell's Diary (e.g. p. 221) in the first
quarter of the eighteenth century. It is
marked Stand Park on Teesdale's map of
1830, but had 'gone to decay' even in
gave a part of his land to his son Robert,
a rent of id. being payable to the
chief lord; and in 1342 Robert son of
Robert son of John de Lunt sold land
in Lunt, called the Cole Yard, to Richard
de Molyneux ; ibid. X, i, 9-10.
On the other hand Richard de Moly-
neux in .336 demised to Margery
daughter of Simon de Lunt and Richard
the property in the time of Edward I ;
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4, m. 25.
The case is also mentioned in Rolls 3, 5,
and 6, m. 5. The defendant was Henry
de Aintree ; and the doubtful point was
the soundness of mind of the claimant's
grandfather at the time he granted them
to his son Henry.
William de Molyneux of Netherton,
clerk, occurs in 1419 ; Kuerden fol. MS.
315, n. 458.
' Croxteth D. V. i, 2, 3. Their pro-
perty seems to have been derived from a
certain John del Dam, who in 1387 gave
9 Gregson, Fragments, 1 6.
w 478, including 3 of inland water ;
Census Rep. 1901.
n Caroe and Gordon, Sefton, 54.
1" Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
1 6, where John Lunt of Lunt is stated to
have done homage at Warrington in i 505
for lands in Lunt. This is the only in-
stance of the kind, and may have been
an error ; the following entry concerns
John Lunt of Thornton.
18 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 13. William de Moly-
neux, son of Adam, granted land on the
messuage and curtilage in Sefton in the
Lunt ; ibid. Ee. 18.
The Henry just named was probably
the son of Simon, who in 1 344 granted to
Richard de Molyneux and his heirs all his
lands, &c., ' as well in demesne as in re-
version, in the vill of Sefton in a certain
hamlet called the Lunt ' ; and four years
later Henry son of William son of Simon
de Lunt quitclaimed all his interest in these
lands; ibid. X. i, 11-12.
A William, son of Robert de Lunt, was
a contemporary ; as also a William, son
of Simon de Lunt ; ibid. X. i, 8 ; Y. i, 3.
75
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
named Derleigh ' and Fowler * also held land here in
the fourteenth century.
Richard Johnson of Lunt was returned among the
freeholders in 1600.*
John Lunt as a ' Papist ' registered a leasehold
estate here in 1717.*
THORNTON
Torentun, Dom. Bk. ; Thorinton, 1212; Thorinton,
Thornton, and Thorneton, 1292.
This township has an area of 773 £ acres;* the
population in 1901 was 265. It is situated in flat
country consisting of pastures and cultivated fields.
The soil is loamy, producing crops of potatoes, turnips,
and corn. The pastures near the Alt lie very low
and are often flooded in winter-time and wet seasons.
Trees are not a prominent feature of the open land-
scape. The geological formation is the same as in
Sefton. In the summer the village is much resorted
to by pleasure parties. The road from Sefton to
Great Crosby passes through it. To the north-east
is a hamlet now called Homer Green, formerly
Hulmore.
There is the pedestal of a cross called Broom's Cross.
An ancient sundial on a stone pillar stands on Thorn-
ton Green ; close to it are the stocks.6
The wakes are held a fortnight after the Great
Crosby wakes. It was formerly the custom for a
painter to be brought from Liverpool on this day to
paint the sundial pillar white with a black diaper
pattern over it.
The old oak chest, containing overseers' books and
the parish mace, has on it the letters GC. TC. 1 7 .
Dialect words in colloquial use which may be
noticed here are ' neave ' for fist, ' narky ' for fractious,
and ' coi ammered ' or ' cain ammered ' for testy or
contentious.
One of the fields is named Mass Field ; among
others are Windpool, Crane Greave, Tush Hey,
Bretlands, School Croft, and Little Eyes.
The township is governed by a parish council.
In 1066 THORNTON was held by
M4NOR Ascha, its half-hide being worth beyond
the customary rent the normal 8s.' After
the Conquest it was divided, two plough-lands being
annexed, with Ince Blundell, to the barony of War-
rington and the third to the Sefton fee.8 Subse-
quently Pain de Vilers, lord of Warrington, granted
one of these plough-lands to Robert de Molyneux of
Sefton and the other to Eawin.9 There were thus
three manors there.
The portion held by the lord of Sefton in chief
was granted by Robert de Molyneux, father of the
Richard living in 1212, to his brother Gilbert to be
held by knight's service ; Richard son of Gilbert
held it at the date named.10 This tenant appears to
have assumed the local surname, and both Richard
son of Richard de Thornton and Simon son of
Richard de Thornton occur during the first half ot
the thirteenth century." Simon died before 1246,
leaving a son Amery, a minor, whose story will
follow."
In the Warrington fee the plough-land granted to
Eawin was held by his son Gilbert in 1212." This
family also assumed Thornton as a surname. Gilbert
was succeeded by his son Robert, who made a grant
to Cockersand," and Robert by his son, another
Robert, who was in possession in 1243." The
younger Robert, known as the ' Priestsmock,' had
several sons, but the eldest, Adam, surrendered all
his right in Thornton to the chief lord, William le
Boteler, who thereupon granted it to the above-
named Amery de Thornton in exchange for the latter's
possessions in Great Marlon.16 Thus Amery came
to hold two of the three plough-lands, one from
1 Adam son of Vivian granted his
daughter Ameria certain land in Sefton ;
and Ameria, as widow of William de
Liverpool, gave to her daughter Margery
on her marriage to William de Derleigh,
'Lanes. Ina. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 7, 8, 13.
» Ibid. 7, 8.
10 Ibid. 13.
In 1246, Maud widow of Richard son
of Gilbert brought a suit of dower against
Robert son of Robert and others concern-
ing lands which her husband had given
her in Thornton, but withdrew before
house built thereon, which she had had
from her father ; Croxteth D. X. iv, 3, 5.
Twenty years later Derleigh granted the
same to his daughter Emma, with re-
mainder to William, son of Richard de
Molyneux ; ibid. X. i, 14.
A John de Derleigh occurs in Garston
in the time of Edward II.
made before 1250; Whalley Cwchcr (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 524. He had land in Aigburth ;
ibid. 561. Richard de Thornton and
Simon his son attested another charter
before 1242; ibid. 525.
It appears to have been Alice, the
widow of this Simon, who in 1295 re-
leased all her right in her husband's
16 Croxteth D. Y. iii, 3. In this char-
ter William le Boteler recites that Adam
son of Robert the Priestsmock had sur-
rendered his land in Thornton, and grants
the same to Amery son of Simon to-
gether with the homage and service of
Simon son of Adam for half an oxgang,
but saving to the grantor the homage and
changed his house in the Lunt for land at
Lewen Green granted by Richard dc
Molyneux ; ibid. X. i, 7-8.
Two other families may be mentioned ;
Richard son of William Goldenough, in
law ; ibid. 586.
Henry de Thornton, witness to several
Ince and Aigburth charters of the first
half of the century, may have been of
this family; ibid, ii, 496, 560.
Blundell, and of Thomas and John sons
of the said Robert the Priestsmock ;
further he quitclaims to Amery and his
heirs the suit of court at his barony of
Warrington which Adam used to do for
the vill of Sefton to Richard de Moly-
neux ; and Henry Robinson and Ellen
his wife in 1463 gave their son Thomas
lands in the Lunt within the lordship of
Sefton; ibid. X. i, 25; iv, n.
3 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
241. John Richardson, otherwise John-
son, made a settlement of his lands in
Lunt, Sefton, and Ince Blundell in 1593 ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 55, m. 215.
4 Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 107 ; his son
5 The Census of 1901 gives 774 acres,
which include 2 of inland water.
' Lanes, and Ches. Antij, Sac. xix, 1 84 ;
also Trans. Hist. Soc. K\, 255.
7 V. C. H. Lanes, i, 2844.
cerning land in Amounderness, held by
Richard le Boteler as guardian of Amery,
son of Simon de Thornton.
" Inj. and Extents, 8.
14 Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
554 ; a messuage with toft and croft be-
tween crofts of Randle the Rim and
Simon son of Gilbert.
Nicholas de Farington was tenant of
Jordan, abbot of Cockersand, in 1327 ;
he agreed to build a house and to pay
half a mark at death ; Blundell of Crosby
D. K. 29.
15 Adam de Molyneux and Robert son
of Robert held the two Warrington
plough-lands in that year ; Inj. and Ex-
tents, 147.
payable.
Adam son of Robert de Thornton was
living in 1292, when he claimed debts
from William son of Jordan de Hulton
and from William de Lea ; Assize R.4O8,
m. 95, 98, 99</.
Of the undertenants who thus came to
hold directly of the lords of Warrington,
but little is known :
(i) In a grant from Vivian .on ot
Robert de Orsau, or Orshaw, to John son
of Gerard de Hoton, it is stated that the
land he held from the Hospital of St. John
of Chester lay between the land of Alan
le Norreys and that of Amery son of
Simon ; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 225.
In 1331 Richard de Yorton, who had
WEST DERBY HUNDRED SEFTON
the lord of Sefton and the other from the lord of Afterwards this portion seems to have been divided,
Warrington.1
He had a son Simon, who seer
without issue,* and a daughter
married William de Hokelaw, and
as a widow, enfeoffed Richard de I
of the manor of Thornton.4
married the widow of Alan le Norreys,
gave a three years' lease of his lands in
Thornton to Thomas de Molyneux ;
Croiteth D. Y. i, 2.
(ii) William son of William Blundell,
and at the beginning of the sixteenth century portions
ns to have died were held by the families of Ince, Tarleton,6 Lunt,6
Margery,8 who and others.7 Portions appear to have been pur-
in June, 1355, chased from time to time by the lords of Sefton.8
,unt of one-third In 1597 the lord of Warrington sold his right in the
manor to Sir Richard Molyneux.9
in the Aldfield to Robert de Riding. In Crosby D. K. 223, K. 40, K. 35, K. 34,
131 1 he gave to Hugh Drury land in the K. 37.
Masefield next to the Little Holgate, Then in 1489 Richard Tarleton gave
field ; ibid. Ee. 1 1 ; Y. iii, 7 8.
Derlogs in Thornton to Robert Ince in
Thornton, held of William le Boteler, to
Peter son of Richard de Molyneux, with
remainders to Thomas and Joan, brother
and sister of Peter; ibid. Y. i, i. In
1331 Agnes widow of William Blundell
of Ince sought dower from Peter de
Molyneux in four messuages and an oxgang
in Thornton ; De Bane. R. 287, m. 178 d.
(iii) Thomas son of Robert de Thorn-
ton gave his brother John a messuage
Sefton and Thornton from 1307 onwards ;
ibid. Ee. 13, 14, 16; while Robert son
of Hugh Drury appears in 1311, and in
1328 Hugh Drury made a grant to hi.
son John; ibid. Y. iii, 10, n.
In 1368 Isabel widow of Richard de
Molyneux claimed the custody of certain
land in Thornton held by Simon Baron,
as next of kin and heir of Margery
daughter of Simon de Thornton ; De
D. Y. iii, 29.
At the beginning of 1515 Richard de
Ince did homage and service at Bewsey
for his lands in Thornton held of Thoma.
Butler by knight's service ; Misc. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 30. In 1505
Richard Tarleton had done similar hom-
age ; ibid, i, 1 6. There is, however,
nothing to show the origin or descent of
Tarleton's share of the manor. Gilbert
value j</.; Croxteth D. Y. iii, 2.
Thomas had a son Richard, who had sons
Adam and William ; Adam had a daugh-
ter and heir Margery, who married John
son of Adam de Orshaw and had five
daughters, who divided the inheritance
among them.
This appears from a grant in 1327
by the feoffee, Robert son of Adam de
Molyneux, of Sefton, to John de Orshaw
and Margery his wife, on their marriage,
with remainder to Margery's uncle
William ; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 272.
Also from a grant by Maud daughter of
John de Orshaw to 'Robert son of John
de Tarleton in 1356 ; this comprised her
' Daughter ' may be an error for sister.
8 To Margery his daughter Amery
granted land in the territory of Thornton
called Soraniscroft, as well as an acre in
the Newfield towards Sefton, a rent of
\d. being payable to the chief lord ; Crox-
teth D. Y. iii, i.
William de Hokelaw and Margery his
wife and Margaret widow of Simon dc
Thornton were in 1325 convicted of
having disseised Robert son of Thomas
Burgeys of his free tenement in Thorn-
ton ; Assize R. 426, m. 6.
William de Hokelaw in 1331 procured
land in Thornton, abutting on the green,
from William son of Simon de Lund ; and
subsidy here in 1332; Exch. Lay Subs.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 19.
John de Tarleton of Thornton occurs
in the poll-tax list of 1381 ; Lay Subs.
Lanes. 130-24. William de Tarleton
attested a Thornton charter in 1427-8 ;
Cecily widow of William de Tarleton had
in 1440 lands in Litherland, Scarisbrick,
Lydiate, Ormskirk, and Thornton ; and
Richard Tarleton of Thornton was wit-
ness in 1421-2 and 1456-7. Blundell of
Crosby D. K. 34, K. 36, K. 27, K. 33.
The following were the services due to
the Butlers from Thornton in 1548 :
From Richard Molyneux of Sefton, 2jrf.
and a pound of pepper, and 6d. ; from
John Molyneux, zo</. ; from William
Tarleton, I J</. ; from Robert Bootle and
Elizabeth his wife, in her right, I&J.;
from Bryan Lunt, J</. Pal. of Lane.
and Little Crosby ; Croxteth D. Y. iiij
17. Maud's sisters, Agnes, Ellen, Emma,
with Robert son of Richard de Riding ;
Croxteth D. Y. iii, 13, 14.
In the following year Margery, as his
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. I, m. ij.
Very soon afterwards, in 1359, Robert
de Tarleton transferred his acquisition to
Richard de Molyneux of Sefton ; Crox-
teth D. Y. i, 6.
John de Orshaw of Thornton contri-
buted to the subsidy of 1332 ; Exch. Lay
Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 19.
1 Amcry de Thornton frequently occurs
in the latter part of Edward I's reign as
witness to charters ; e.g. Whattty Coucher,
ii, 431 (dated 1292), 503, &c.
Thornton from Richard de Molyneux,
but was non-suited ; Assize R. 408, m.
58 d. At the same time he was defendant
in another suit ; ibid. m. 68 d. ; while
three years later he was once more a
plaintiff; Assize R. 1306, m.igj.
Some grants by him have been pre-
served. By one, dated 1 296, he gave part
of his plough-land, viz. an acre near his
mill in Thornton, to Richard son of
Thomas of Little Crosby ; to be held of
the chief lord, Richard de Molyneux, by a
rent of J</.; Blundell of Crosby D. K.. 18.
He gave Richard son of Robert de Riding
a house and croft in Thornton, adding an
oxgang of land, to wit, the eighth part of
a plough-land, in 1295 ; in the following
year he granted an acre in the Meadow-
butts to John del Lunt ; the oxgang and
the acre were also to be held of Richard
de Molyneux as chief lord ; Croxteth D.
Y. iii, 4-6.
a Amery probably died before 1 300, for
in 1302 his son Simon had lands called
Witesike and Swartmoor from Richard
de Molyneux, and himself made a grant
Thornton the acre in the Newfield, and
the other in Soraniscroft above men-
tioned ; ibid. Y. iii, 15. She made a
grant to John de Molyneux in 1 346 ;
ibid. Y. 1,4.
« Ibid. Y. i, 4 ; iii, 16. In the same
year, however, Richard de Molyneux of
Sefton and the heirs of Margery de
Hokelaw were returned as holding the
Warrington part of Thornton which
Adam de Molyneux and Robert son of
Robert had formerly held ; Feud. Aids,
iii, 90.
* What is known of these is stated in
the previous note.
6 The Lunt family or families long had
a holding here, and that part at least was
held of the barony of Warrington is proved
by the homage roll cited in a previous
note ; for in 1505 John Lunt of Thorn-
ton did homage for lands in Thornton ;
Misc. i, 1 8.
The earliest grant is one dated 1305,
when Robert de Molyneux of Thornton
and Simon son of Amery de Thornton to-
gether granted a small piece of land to
appear, but the following deeds may
relate to this portion of the manor : —
rose to the chief lord ; Croxteth D. Ee. 1 2.
At the beginning of 1342 William son
the Thornton lands, lordships, reliefs, &c.,
which he had had from Simon son of
Robert Waron, to Robert son of Robert
de Ince, with remainder to Emmota
daughter of Robert Waron, and to the
right heirs of Margery Hokelaw ; Crox-
teth D. Y. iii, 1 8.
At Pentecost, 1398, John de Mytton,
as feoffee of William son of Walter de
Thornton, granted to the said William
and Emmota his wife all their lands in
Thornton, with remainder to Emmota
daughter of William and to Robert son of
Robert dc Ince ; ibid. Y. iii, 21.
Robert son of Robert de Ince in 1409
new approvement to Richard de Moly-
neux ; ibid. Y. i, 3. Henry son of
William made a settlement of his lands
in 1354; he had had some from his
uncle Henry son of Simon del Lunt ;
ibid, Y. i, 5 ; Ee. 23 ; Y. i, 8.
Joan daughter of Robert del Lunt
appears in 1384, making a feoffment of
the lands in Thornton she had received
from Robert son of Richard del Riding ;
ibid, Y. iii, 19, 20 ; she made a further
one in 1388; ibid. Y. i, 9 ; Ee. 27.
^ In the Croxteth D. are a few referring
to Hulmore in Thornton; it appears that
Richard Fowler sold to Dame Anne
Molyneux in 1488 a messuage and land
he had in 1476 received from Ralph
Bette and Ellen his wife ; N. 1-4 5 see
also N. 6.
8 This is clear from the references to
the Croxteth D. in previous notes.
•Ibid. Y. i, 12.
messuages and lands formerly held by
William Geoffreyson ; ibid. Y. iii, 22.
Robert de Ince occurs as a witness to
charters from 1382 to 1409, and Simon
de Ince from 1414 to 1427 ; Amery and
Nicholas occur in 1418. Blundell of
77
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The third plough-land, held of the lords of
Warrington by Molyneux of Sefton,1 was by Richard
de Molyneux granted to his son Robert, who held it
in I z 12, and was the ancestor of the long line of
Molyneux of Thornton, Melling, and finally of
Mossborough in Rainford.* In 1246 Robert de
Molyneux called upon Adam de Molyneux of Sefton
as mesne tenant to acquit him of the service which
William le Boteler claimed in respect of the plough-
land in Thornton, Robert complaining that he was
distrained to do suit to the court of Warrington
every three weeks.5 Adam agreed to discharge the
service, but his son William, on succeeding, neglected
the obligation, and three years later Robert had again
to complain that he was summoned to do ' bode and
witness' at the Warrington court, and to entertain
William le Boteler's beadles whenever they came to
Thornton.4
In this trial Robert was represented by his son
Robert, who appears to have succeeded him, and was
about 1 290 followed by his son, also named Robert,5
who died perhaps about 1336, when his eldest son
Robert succeeded. This Robert died without issue,
his heir being a nephew, Robert, son of Simon de Moly-
neux, then a minor. In 1358 Richard de Molyneux
of Sefton had a contest with William le Boteler of
Warrington as to the profits of the wardship.6 In
1356 he had complained that Robert le Norreys of
Melling, and Joan his wife, with John de Lancaster
and Mabel his wife, had abducted the heir, who was
by right his ward.7 Robert Molyneux's wife, Alice, is
said to have been a daughter of Robert le Norreys.8
Their son Robert settled in Melling,9 and the story of his
descendants will be found in the account of that town-
ship. Their manor of Thornton regularly descended
to Dame Frances Blount, from whose trustees it was
purchased in 1773 by the first earl of Sefton,10 who
thus became possessed of all the manors in this place,
either by descent or purchase. This complete lord-
ship has descended to the present earl.
The Hospitallers had land here, which about
1540 was held by Henry Blundell at a rent
of 5K"
The windmill of Thornton was in 1368 in the
possession of Richard de Aughton ; " it was afterwards
assigned by Margaret Bulkeley to the sustentation of
her chantry in Sefton church, and the chantry priest
was tenant in I 548. 13
There do not appear to have been any resident free-
holders here in 1600. To the subsidy of 1628
Robert Bootle, as a convicted recusant, paid double ; M
he and his wife Jane, with a number of others, appear
in the recusant roll of 1641." Sarah Sumner, widow,
as a ' Papist,' registered an estate here and in Little
Crosby in 1 7 1 -j.K
INCE BLUNDELL
Hinne, Dom. Bk.; Ines, 1212 — the common spell-
ing to 1350 ; Hynis, 1242 ; Ince, -1360.
Ince Blundell embraces a considerable area of flat,
fen country laid out in pastures and cultivated fields,
where corn, root crops, and clover-hay are produced
in a rich alluvial soil. The River Alt forms a tortuous
boundary along its north-eastern, northern, and western
edges. The low-lying fields are mostly separated by
deep ditches, which serve for division and drainage.
Near the sea coast, and near the mouth of the Alt,
there is a narrow band of sandhills. The trees clus-
tering about Ince Blundell Hall and village emphasize
the scarcity of timber in the district, for they stand
out as an abrupt mass in the bare landscape. Solitary
trees here and there incline to the south-east, showing
the direction of the prevailing winds. The lower
keuper sandstone of the new red sandstone or trias
is here entirely obscured by sand, deep boulder clay,
and alluvial deposit. Beneath the alluvium, which
covers an increasing extent of ground as the River
Alt approaches the sea, are found the beds of grey
clays belonging to the glacial drift series. The brook
called Twine Pool and Hynts Brook divides Ince from
in preceding notes. Richard dc Molyneux
of Sefton held it in 1324 by the eighth
part of a knight's fee ; Dods. MSS. cxxxi,
fol. 34.
In 1368 it was found that Richard de
Molyneux of Sefton had held the manor
of Thornton of Sir William le Boteler by
the service of 2s. and performing suit at
to Robert the Tasker land in the
southern part of the vill, next to land
of Hugh Drury's; Blundell of Crosby
D. K. 23.
« Assize R. 438, m. 6 d. William le
Boteler claimed as capital lord of Robert's
land ; but it will be seen by the statement
in the text that Richard de Molyneux of
Sefton was the mesne tenant. Hence
John Page of Thornton a portion of the
lands here he had had from Alice hi.
mother in exchange for another piece on
the Broadlake ; Blundell of Crosby D.
K. 25, K. 28.
It was probably the younger Robert's
grandson Robert who in 1456-7 enfeoffed
Thomas Stanley and Thomas Molyneux,
son of Sir Richard Molyneux, late of
Edw. Ill, «. 40 (ist Nos.). In 1623
the jurors could not learn what the tenure
was ; Lana. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iii, 389.
« Lanes. Inj. and Extents, 7. The name
Robert de Molyneux appears frequently
the succession of a number of Roberts
makes it almost impossible to distinguish
the different bearers of the name.
"Final Cane. (Rec. Soc. Lane., and
Ches.), i, 104 ; Assize R. 404, m. 3 d.
4 Final Cone, i, 109.
5 Possibly another generation should be
inserted.
Robert son of Robert de Molyneux
appear, in suit, relating to Melling in
1292 and 1305, his mother Margery being
alive 5 Assize R. 408, m. 32 d. 34^. 68,
36 ; R. 420, m. 4</. Margery widow of
statement was that Robert's manor of
Thornton was held by homage and fealty,
payment of loj. to a scutage of 405.,
doing suit from three weeks to three
weeks, and a yearly service of lid. He
claimed £20 damages.
^ Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 5, m. 1 5.
Norreys seems to have replied with a claim
for trespass ; ibid. m. 22 d.
Joan, as widow of Simon de Molyneux,
was a plaintiff in 1 346 ; De Bane. R.
347, m. 226.
Robert came of age early in 1356, for
at Easter he brought a suit against Richard
de Molyneux for waste, sale, and destruc-
tion of lands, &c., in Thornton during
his guardianship ; Duchy of Lane. Assize
R. 5, m. 26.
*Vhit. ofi567(Chet. Soc.), 99.
» Thus Alice, widow of Robert de Moly-
his lands in Thornton and Sefton ; ibid.
K. 33-
10 Croxteth D. Y. ii— deeds of 2 March,
1756, and 8-9 June, 1773.
11 Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84.
18 Croxteth D. O. ii, 14.
« Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), ill.
" Norris D. (B.M.). Robert's father,
William Bootle, described a. 'gentle-
man,' died in 1595, holding five mes-
suages and lands in Thornton of Sir
Richard Molyneux ; but the inquest wa«
not taken till 1628, when Robert was
thirty-five years of age ; his mother Anne
Stephenson was still living ; Towneley
MS. C. 8, 13 (Chet. Lib.), 56.
Robert's son William was of another
mind ; see the introduction to the parish,
and Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lane., and
Ches.), i, 210.
1316. Robert son of Robert de Moly-
neux of Thornton in 1310-11 granted
place to Robert her son ; while Robert
de Molyneux of Melling in 1399 gave
78
236.
u Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 147.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Thornton. The township is nearly 3^ miles long,
the area being 2,315$ acres.1 The population num-
bered 392 in 1901. The village is situated near the
middle of the township. There are hamlets called
Carr Houses and Lady Green ; North End includes
Alt Grange.
The greens have been enclosed. There are crosses
upon ancient bases in the village. The ' flowering '
of the cross used to take place on Midsummer Day.*
There is a sundial, dated 1 744, at the hall.
Roads from Lunt and Thornton meet at the village
and lead to Alt Bridge, where the road from Liverpool
to Southport, which here crosses the township, joins
them. The Liverpool and Southport branch of the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway also crosses the
northern end of the township, and has a station for
the use of volunteers and others using the Altcar rifle
range. An old lighthouse stands near this point.
A number of minor names are given in the Alt
Drainage Act of 1 779 ; they include Shire Lane Moss,
Orrell Hill, Scaffold Lane, Hallops Hey, and Logers
Field.
The township is governed by a parish council.
In 1066 three thegns held 1NCE for
MANOR three manors ; it was assessed at half a
hide and worth beyond the customary
rent the usual 8/.1 Early in the twelfth century it
was included in the barony of Warrington, and by
Pain de Vilers was given to Roger de Stainsby, to-
gether with half a plough-land in Barton.4 Later,
probably on the death of Roger,5 the manor appears
to have reverted to the chief lord, of whom Richard
Blundell, or possibly his father, subsequently held it
either by re-grant or subinfeudation made by the
former tenant.
SEFTON
Richard Blundell appears late in the twelfth cen-
tury as a witness to local charters,6 and was succeeded
by his son William, who in 1212 held Ince and the
moiety of Barton of the lord of Warrington by
knight's service, as the third part of a fee.7 William
made an agreement with the lord of Ravensmeols, on
the other side of the Alt, as to the formation of a
mill-pool.8 To William Blundell juvenis he granted four
oxgangs of land in Ince, with the three villeins who
occupied them.9 He was a benefactor to the monks
of Stanlaw, giving them his mill upon the Alt,10 and
his land called Scholes." He appears to have received
the order of knighthood.12
His son, Richard Blundell, was in possession in
1242." He confirmed his father's donations to the
monks of Stanlaw and added to
them half the land of Alt marsh
which Robert, citizen of York,
had drained by dykes." This
land was in 1240-1 exchanged
for another piece nearer the land
already held by the abbey ; the
residue of the marsh between
Ince and Scholes was to remain
unfilled for ever, as common
pasture.15 The half of the
marsh was given to his daughter
Amarica on her marriage with
Gervase de Pencebech.16 Be-
tween 1257 and 1259 Richard
Blundell granted to Henry de
Lea and his heirs a messuage and toft at the
Morhulles, with right of turbary," and in 1259,
to Henry de Sefton, clerk, all his lands at the
Moorhouses.18
billet!, 4, 3)
1 2,318 acres according to the census
of 1901 ; 24 of inland water being in-
cluded. In addition an acre of tidal water
Lancaster, which may be dated about
1 210, allows William Blundell to use
land on the right bank of the river,
to pasture in Sudmore ; ibid. 500. Some
of these charters are now at Croxteth.
Js Ibid, ii, 502 ; Robert of York was a
boundary.
• Lane,, and Ches. Antij. Soc. xix,
176-8. * f.C.H. Lane,, i, 2840.
« Lane,. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 7. The superior lord-
ship remained in the barons of Warring-
ton, though the tenure was changed in
1597, as stated in the text. In 1548 a
rent of 6». was due from Robert Blundell
rent of gilded spurs, or ^d. The privi-
lege afterwards (1328) led to a dispute
between Sir Richard de Hoghton and the
abbot of Whalley ; Croxteth D. O. ii, 7.
» Whalley Coucher, ii, 525. The four
oxgangs of land were to be held by knight's
service where gj plough-lands made one
fee.
10 Ibid, ii, 489-90. The grantor de-
some of his villeins to the monks ; ibid,
ii, 522-4. One villein who had been
transferred by Richard's father gave 201.
sterling for a confirmation of the gift, in-
dicating how advantageous it then was to
serTe a religious house, as compared with
a secular lord.
" Blundell of Crosby D. K.. 291. Pas-
ture as for two oxgangs was allowed.
13, m. 142.
'Nothing appears to be known of
Roger, but probably he held the manor
of Stainsby in Derbyshire, parcel of the
Domesday fief of Count Roger of Poitou ;
this had escheated to the lord of the
Blundell ; the charters gave the mill with
all its appurtenances, as well in corn as in
fish, and forbade his heirs to make any
pool or device for catching fish which
might injure the rights of the monks.
The latter might remove the mill to a
and the ' citizen of York ' is called Robert
de Preston. If Gervase de Pencebech
were the same as Gervase de Ince, the
daughter Amarica must be the Amabil of
the Whalley Coucher.
» Add. MS. 32106, n. 577 ; Gilbert the
Com.), I7b ; Farrer, Lane,. Fife R. 20-21.
« Ibid. 377 ; Tram. tfirf. S«. xxxii, 183.
7 hij. and Extents, j ; strictly the ser-
yice was the proportion due from 3^
plough-lands where ten constituted a fee ;
but it was more conveniently called the
third part ; ibid. 147.
land for the mill-pool. In return they
were to pray for the souls of himself, his
wife Agnes, and his ancestors and suc-
cessors. The grants were confirmed by
William le Boteler ; ibid, ii, 494.
11 Ibid, ii, 490, 492. This land lay
within the ditch of Little Crosby on the
south, following it northward to the pool
and common of pasture were included.
18 T. E. Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 91,
quoting an Ince Blundell charter. The
author had access to these charters, of
which a few have been printed in Trans..
Hist. Soc. ixxii-iv. By one of them
Richard Blundell granted to Hugh son of
Alan de Ainsdale a messuage on the Alt ;
in Amounderness of the baron of Kendal ;
probably in right of his mother ; ibid. 3 ;
Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 526.
Alt, and following the Alt to the sea — i.e.
the tract within which Alt Grange ii
situated— with common of pasture of the
an oxgang of land in Ince to Benedict son
of Simon; ibid, xzxii, 190, 189.
Rose, as widow of Richard Blundell,
1212 and 1237 ; Inq. and Extents, 2 j
Lanes. Pipe R. 420 ; Lana. Lay Subs. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 12,40,41,49 ; in
the last case his name is struck through,
and Adam de Bury substituted.
<> Wholly Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 497 ;
this charter of Henry, son of Warin de
cows, and rights of turbary and housebote.
" Ibid, ii, 527.
18 Inq. and Extents, 147. His name
occurs as witnessing charters ; e.g. ibid. 20.
" Whalley Coucher, ii, 494, 498. At
the same time he enlarged the monks-
right of pasturage and gave up his right
right in the lands he had given them, as
also in the land and pasture which he had,
given to his daughter Amarica on her mar-
riage with Gervase dc Ince ; they were to
pay her a mark of silver yearly, half at
Christmas and half at Halton fair j
Whalley Coucber, ii, 501.
79
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
He died before 1265, and was succeeded by his
grandson William son of John Blundell, a minor, as
to whose custody there was a dispute between Sir
William le Boteler and Robert de Ferrers, earl
of Derby.1 John had a brother Robert, called
<Goch."
William Blundell confirmed his ancestors' grants to
Stanlaw, and added something on his own account ;s
and at the same time came to an agreement with the
monks as to certain approvements within the common
pasture, where their rights had been restricted, and
allowed them convenient access to the carr adjoining
Thornton.4 On the other hand he gave them serious
cause of complaint by erecting a windmill to which
he caused his tenants to take their corn to be ground,
to the loss of the abbey's mill ; the monks accordingly
summoned the tenants, and secured an acknowledge-
ment of suit to their mill for all corn to the sixteenth
measure. William Blundell made amends by grant-
ing the windmill to the monks, and allowing them to
enlarge and improve the site.5 He died in or before
1293.'
He was succeeded by his son William, who died
about the end of the reign of Edward II, his widow
Agnes appearing as plaintiff in 1331'; and a little later
she and her son William exchanged certain lands in
Ince.8 It is difficult to decide if the younger William
here mentioned was the husband of Joan de Haydock.9
Probably he was ; if so, he was succeeded by his
brothers Henry and John.10 In the latter's time the
1 T. E. Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 93 ;
Jordan de Derby, on behalf of the earl,
afterwards resigned his right in the ward-
ship of the heirs of John Blundell of
Ince to William le Boteler ; Trans. Hist.
Sac. xxxiii, 266. As the earl's estates
were forfeited in 1266 through his parti-
cipation in the rebellion of Simon de
Montfort, a limit is afforded for this claim
of wardship.
> Richard Blundell granted to his son
Robert one plough-land at a rent of 51. ;
Croxteth D. O. ii, I. Robert Goch
quitclaimed to the monks of Stanlaw all
the land which his father Richard had
giving four marks and the above piece of
meadow.
'Ibid, ii, 509-11. William retained
the liberty of grinding his own corn either
at the windmill or the water-mill ; the
monks gave him 10 marks of silver.
Another of his charters, to William
son of Wmyr of the Moorhouses, is in
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 253. Two
others, to Matthew de Molyneux and to
Richard Flock, are printed in Trans. Hiit.
Sac. xxxiii, 267.
From Margery widow of Gilbert de
Greenoll he received a grant of four acres ;
ibid.
Agnes late wife of William Blundell of
Ince, and others, who brought an assize
of novel disseisin against Robert dc
Bebington and Beatrix his wife, did not
prosecute ; Assize R. 1424, m. II.
• William Blundell in 1344 enfeoffed
Henry de Solihull, chaplain, of his manor
of Ince, and was re-enfeoffed the follow-
ing year, having married Joan, daughter
of Matthew de Haydock ; Gibson, Lydiate
Hall, 96. In 1343 a lease had been
granted to Henry, son of William Blun-
dell of Ince, with remainder to John, the
brother of Henry, and to Emma, Almeria,
and Joan, their sisters ; ibid. The pedi-
Cauchtr, ii, 503. Jordan de Derby was a
witness to this charter.
As Robert son of Richard Blundell he
quitclaimed to William Blundell, 'my
lord and lord of Ince,' all his right in
lands near the Cow Holme ; Tram. Hist.
Sac. xxxiii, 266. Margaret widow of
Robert Blundell was a plaintiff in 1283;
De Bane. R. 51, m. 72.
appeared in support of the abbot of Stan-
law, from whom certain land in Ince was
claimed by Adam son of Robert de
Thornton, Adam asserting that his grand-
father, Robert son of Gilbert de Thorn-
ton, had been disseised by a former William
Blundell ; this claim was adjudged false ;
Assize R. 408, m. 27 d. William Blun-
dell was at the same time a plaintiff
deeds, gives as father of the William who
married Joan, William whose wife was
Ellen ; this is probably a confusion with
the William and Ellen recorded above ;
Visit, of 1613 (Chcs. Soc.), 76.
William Blundell and Joan his wife
were defendants in 1 35 1, 1352, and i 355 ;
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. I, m. ij (Ut) ;
R. 2, m. iij ; R. 4, m. 116. William
married John de Meols, and was living a
widow in 1 3 1 1 . John son of William de
Meols and Margery his wife claimed lands
in Ince in 1292 from Henry Blundell and
Henry de Greenoll ; Assize R. 408, m.
60 d. For notices of deeds by John and
Margery, see Lydiate Hall, 95. In 1318
Peter son of Richard de Molyneux of
Sefton purchased from her an oxgang and
land in Ince ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 31.
In the following year 'his widow Ellen,
in conjunction with Richard de Molyneux
of Sefton and another, covenanted to hold
Sir William le Boteler harmless for
damages or losses in regard to wardship,
&c.' ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 95.
7 William Blundell was witness to an
agreement as to Eggergarth Mill in 1298 ;
ibid. 44.
In 1315 William Blundell enfeoffed
Adam dc Ruycroft, vicar of Huyton, of
claims for money due made by Sir John
de Molyneux in 1357 and 1358 ; ibid.
R. 6, m. 6 ; Assize R. 438, m. 18. In
1350 a violent assault with intent to
murder was made upon him in Sefton ;
Assize R. 443, m. 7. He was witness to
a charter made in 1361 ; Blundell of
Crosby D. K. 266.
10 John de Kenyon, chaplain, in 1366
granted to Joan widow of William Blun-
dell the manor of Ince, with houses,
gardens, orchards, the holt adjoining the
Hugh land in the Moorhouses in Ince,
and his daughters Emma, Maud, and
to Henry Blundell, brother and heir of
father bought from Richard Blundell,
then lord of Ince ' 5 and William son of
Hugh de Meols received the same lands
a squirrel munching, with the legend
hisWcharters°Vibid.L' '
of Wiiliam son of Adam de Liverpool ;
Trans. Hist. Sac. xxxii, 194; see also
Kuerden, iii, i, n. 312. William Blun-
Ince; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 202,
K.. 293-
The Goch plough-land probably came
into the hands of the Ballard family.
» Wballey Caucber, ii, 503-4. Here
he describes himself as son of John
Blundell, and speaks of his grandfather
Richard Blundell, son of Sir William.
His own gift was a piece of meadow in
Ince Marsh, around which Roger de
Upton, formerly granger of the abbey,
had made a ditch ; it was confirmed by
the superior lord, William le Boteler;
ibid. 505. Confirmations were in 1283
secured from the king, who was at
Aberconway in Snowdon, and from his
brother Edmund, earl of Lancaster ; ibid.
dell, in 1331 claimed dower in lands held
by John the Harper, Gilbert del Wolfall,
and Peter de Molyneux ; her claim was
prosecuted in the next year against the
two former defendants, and as they did
not appear, she succeeded ; De Bane. R.
287, m. 178 </. ; 292, m. 66 d.
In the same year (1331) William son
of William Blundell was defendant in a
case concerning lands in Ince ; Assize R.
1404, m. 27.
8 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 96 ; details are
given.
In the same year he allowed turbary on
any common moss of Ince to William,
son of Simon, son of Henry ; and in
1337 he granted to John de Derbyshire
charter in 1351 granting land to William
de Liverpool, clerk ; Blundell of Crosby
D. K.. 157.
Henry Blundell held the manor for but
a few years, dying in or before 1370,
John de Haydock and Henry de Chather-
ton, no doubt concerning the marriage of
[Catherine, the widow, with John de
Chatherton, or Chaderton ; the deeds of
1315, 1344, and 1 345, already mentioned,
touching the succession and marriage of
William Blundell, are recited in it;
Croxteth D. O. ii, 17.
He was succeeded by his brother John,
who early in 1374 made an enfeoffment
of Ince ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 97.
* Ibid, ii, 507. The monks had begun
an action, but friends intervening an
agreement was made, William Blundell
son of William Bimmeson, with his lands
in Ince ; ibid.
In 1337 also William Blundell of Ince,
ness to a charter; Blundell of Crosby
D. K. 292. The next year he settled
£10 a year on John son of Henry de
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
township became known as Ince ' Blundell ' to dis-
tinguish it from Ince near Wigan.
John Blundell was still living in 1400.' His son
William about 1387 married Isabel daughter of
William de Beconsaw ; ' and William, their son, was
contracted in marriage, as early as 1389-90, with
Alice, daughter of Nicholas Blundell of Little Crosby; '
further settlements appear to have been made in
1402.' The younger William died about 1450,
and was succeeded by his son, another William,5 who
had a son and heir Robert. In 1463 a contest arose
between William Blundell and Richard Ballard, one
of the free tenants of Ince, concerning the division of
the waste. The latter's supporters invaded the dis-
puted land and carried off Blundell's cattle which they
found there ; and though an arbitration resulted in
favour of Blundell, the other side gave trouble for
some years.6
At the beginning of 1479 it was agreed between
Thomas Molyneux of Sefton and William, son and
heir of Robert Blundell, that the former should not
enclose Ince Marsh, nor any part of it, until the death
of William Blundell, father of Robert ; and that then
SEFTON
the two parties should show their evidence to counsel,
and abide by their decision.7 William Blundell the son
of Robert, in December, 1504, paid 33/. \d. as relief
to the lord of Warrington and promised to do homage,
but died before this engagement 8 could be fulfilled.
On 12 August, 1505, his son and heir Robert did
homage at Warrington in the Friars' house, and in
the following May paid his relief.9 On his death,
six years later,10 the Butlers took vigorous action to
secure their right of wardship over his son and heir
James, who was seized by William Molyneux of Sefton
and detained, in defiance of the jury's finding, for
some years, until, in fact, a writ was issued at Lan-
caster for the arrest of William Molyneux, with a
threat of outlawry. Then James was surrendered to
Sir Peter Legh, knight and priest, and by him de-
livered to Sir Thomas Butler at Bewsey in February,
James Blundell lived till about 1541 ;" his eldest
son William succeeded him and survived about six
years, when, dying childless, his brother Robert, then
a minor, followed.11 Robert, having seen all the
changes of the time, was living in 1585, in which
Chatherton, and Katherine his wife ; this
arrangement was completed in 1379 ;
Lydiatc Hall, 97 ; Final Cone, ii, 1 88.
Henry de Chatherton, bailiff of the
wapentake, was in 1374 charged with a
multitude of offences; among others,
that he had endeavoured to disinherit
John Blundell. He had purchased the
reversionary rights of John's sister Emma
(who was married and had a son Richard) ;
and his explanation that he had done so
in order to secure his daughter-in-law's
income not being accepted, he was found
guilty ; Coram Rege R. 454, m. 1 3.
1 John Blundell is mentioned in various
ways down to 1401-2; Lydiate Hall,
John lived till 1401, it seems unlikely
that his son William lived till 1450;
more probably this was his grandson, who
was born before 1390.
William Blundell in 1445 enfeoffed Sir
Thomas Stanley and Henry Blundell (of
Crosby) of his manor of Ince ; Croxteth
D. 0. ii, 21.
made by which Robert son of William
Blundell was to marry Elizabeth, sister of
Thomas and Henry Dawn ; William
Blundell, grandfather of Robert, was a
party to this ; Tram. Hist. Soc. xxxiv, 135.
The elder William died before 1451,
when William Blundell of Ince conveyed
heir, and thirty-four years of age ; Duchy
of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, n. 65. He had also
a burgage in Liverpool ; Gibson, Lydiatc
Hall, 102.
•Af/K. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 16.
In the same year he made a settlement
in favour of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter
of Roger Molyneux ; others followed in
1508 and 1511 ; Gibson, op. cit. 103-4.
He also granted lands to his brother
Thomas for life, in 1509; ibid. 103.
This Thomas married a Ballard, showing
probably some appeasement of the family
quarrels, and became ancestor of the
Blundells of Cardington, one of whom
Kuerden MSS. iii. i, nn. 319, 673.
In 1375 the sheriff was ordered to
arrest and imprison John Blundell of
Ince until he paid a debt of £200 due to
Thomas de Molyneux of Cuerdale, John,
however, was not to be found within the
county and therefore his property was
seized, a full description being recorded.
He had the manor and manor-house, with
chapel, barns, &c. ; orchards, arable land,
meadow, and pasture (in Flick Moor),
cattle and sheep, rents of the tenants and
tenants at will, &c. .The outgoings
his wife, various lands at Ince ; Gibson,
Lydiate Hall, 99. Two years after this
an award was made between William
Blundell and Katherine, widow of his
father William, the arbitrator being Sir
Thomas Stanley ; Trans. Hist. Sue. xxxiv,
140.
In 1461, Roger Sherdes and his wife
Alice, daughter of William Blundell,
released to William Blundell and his wife
Agnes all claims ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall,
100. Early in the following year a
marriage was arranged by Robert Blundell
1613 (Chet. Soc.), 77; yu\t. of Beds.
(Harl. Soc.), 161 ; G.E.C. Complete
Peerage, i, 365 ; G.E.C. Complete Baronet-
age, i, 224.
1° Robert Blundell died 28 Dec. 1511,
James, his son and heir, being eight years
of age in Sept. 1517; Duchy of Lane.
Inq. p.m. iv, n, 17.
The inquisition recites the feoffment
of 1511, which was made for the purposes
of his will, directing dower to be given to
Elizabeth his wife, lands of 401. a year
value to his younger son William for life;
chief lord for the manor, £10 a year
to John de Chatherton and Katherine
his wife ; 2 marks a year to Henry Blun-
dell of Crosby, &c. The sheriff delivered
the lands, &c. to Thomas de Molyneux ;
De Bane. R. 460, m. 323.
There followed some suits by Thomas ;
De Bane. R. 461, m. 41, &c.
1 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 98.
3 The feoffees, who included John de
Beconsaw, granted to John Blundell of
Ince all the lands they had had by his
gift, with remainder to William his son
and his heirs by Isabel his wife, and to
William, son and heir of the said William,
and Alice, daughter of Nicholas Blundell ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 143.
4 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 98 ; the
feoffees named are the same as those in
the deed last cited.
* A step in the pedigree has been
dell and Joan Asshaw, their children ;
William Blundell, the father of Robert,
is also mentioned ; Trans. Hist. Soc.
X*« Gibson, Lydiate Ha/1, p. 100.
7 Croxteth D. O. i, 8 ; it would appear
from this that William Blundell was very
old, and incapable of business, and that
Robert Blundell was dead.
In 1484 William Blundell arranged for
the dower of Agnes, his grandfather's
widow ; four years later he arranged for
the marriage of his daughter Mary with
Thomas, son and heir of John, son of
Richard Singleton of Inglewhite ; Gibson,
Lydiate Hall, 101.
*Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 16.
William Blundell died 18 June, 1505,
holding Ince Blundell of Sir Thomas
Boteler by knight's service, viz. by the
— Jane, Margery, Grace, and Ellen ; his
11 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 30-2 ; also Gibson, op. cit. 104.
i2 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. viii, n. 18 ;
no change is shown in the estates ; Wil-
liam, the son and heir, was thirteen years
of age.
The inventory is printed in Lydiate
Hall, 105-6 ; the manor-house had a hall,
a parlour, a little parlour (both used as
bedrooms), a higher chamber, a new
chamber, and perhaps other rooms not
13 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. ix, n. ^9 ;
Robert Blundell, brother and heir, was
over eighteen years of age in 1 547. The
heir, on I 5 Jan. 1 549 -50, i.e. soon after
he came of age, was called upon to fulfil
covenants made by his father for the
marriage of William Blundell and Eliza-
Williams, instead of the two in the pedi-
gree in Lydiate Halt, 84. As John
Blundell's father died about 1330 and
3
with lid. for suit at court; the clear
value was £10. He also held land in
Lydiate; Robert Blundell was his next
8l
Molyneux, who had taken a second
husband, Edward Holme ; Croxteth D. O.
ii, 28. In 1550 a settlement was made
II
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
year he was required, as a recusant, to provide a
horseman equipped for the queen's service or pay .£24
as an alternative.1 His son, another Robert, was a
temporizer, sheltering the missionary priests, and yet
attending the statutory services in order to escape the
heavy penalties by which they were made effective.'
His wife was a convicted recusant." He in 1596-7
secured a commutation of the tenure of the manor
from knight's service to free socage, paying id. yearly
as acknowledgement and doing fealty to the lord of
Warrington.4 He died at Preston, 22 March,
1615-6, leaving a son and heir, Robert, aged forty
years.6
This Robert, a lawyer of some eminence in
London, had been a Protestant,8 but returned to the
Roman Catholic faith, and like other recusants took
the royal side in the Civil War, his sons being in arms
at Preston. Consequently his lands were raided and
seized by the Parliament, his wife being left without
support for herself and children.' At last he was able
to obtain a lease of his estate and afterwards to
repurchase it.8 In his more prosperous days he had
greatly added to the family estates, purchasing the
manors of Birkdale, Meandale, and Ainsdale, and
Renacres in Halsall ; purchases which in the latter
half of the seventeenth century gave rise to a long
dispute between the Blundell and Gerard families.9
He died in January, 1656-7, and was succeeded by
his son Henry, who as a known recusant thought it well
to retire to Ireland during the excitement roused by
Titus Gates ; his tenants took advantage of the diffi-
culty by withholding rents and other dues.10 He died
in 1687, being followed by his son, another Henry,
frequently mentioned in the diary of Nicholas Blun-
dell of Little Crosby." His son and heir Robert
married Catherine daughter of Sir Rowland Stanley of
Hooton ; from which marriage resulted the possession
of this manor by the present lord, who is the great-
grandson of Thomas Weld of Lulworth, by his wife
Mary Stanley, a grandniece of Catherine." Like his
father, Robert Blundell was threatened with a prose-
cution for recusancy, the effect, it would seem, of
personal ill-will.13 He obtained possession of the
Lydiate estate in 1760," and soon afterwards retired
to Liverpool, where he died in 1773."
He had given Ince to his son Henry as a residence.
This son distinguished himself as a philanthropist and
connoisseur.16 His life was embittered by a quarrel
with his son, largely owing to the latter's refusal to
marry. Henry Blundell thereupon endowed his
daughters with a liberal portion of his estates.17 The
son, Charles Robert, resenting this action, bequeathed
the manors of Ince, Lydiate, Birkdale, and Ainsdale,
and other estates to a relative by his grandmother, as
already stated. He chose as his heir Thomas, the
second son of Joseph Weld, who was the son of
by fine ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
living and lands;' ibid. p. in (quoting
of Comp. iv, 3047. The manor and
14, m. 324.
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxv). Many of those
lands were repurchased through William
Accounts of various settlements are
who conformed outwardly under the Eliza-
West, the lawyer of Robert Blundell ;
given in Lydiate Hall, 107 ; where also
bethan persecution refused in the somewhat
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 119-20. The sale
may be seen the account of his killing, in
milder Stuart times, but this does not
took place under the Act of 1652 for the
his own defence, one Richard Buck of
seem to have been the case with Robert
benefit of the navy ; Index of Royalists
Sefton, for which he obtained the royal
Blundell, for in his will he directed that
(Index Soc.), 30.
pardon; 108-9.
he should be buried at Sefton 'in the
'See Lydiau Hall, 114-16; also the
Pedigrees are recorded in 1567, 1613,
usual place where my ancestors have been
accounts of Halsall and Birkdale.
and 1664; they are printed in the
buried, that is to say, under or near the
10 Ibid. p. 125.
Chetham Society's editions of the Visita-
form where I usually do sit, standing in
Henry Blundell in 1666 paid the tax
tions— 1567, p. 114; 1613, pp. 76, 77 ;
the north aisle of the said church' ; ibid.
for sixteen hearths ; Lay Subs. Lane..
and 1664, pp. 38, 39 ; also Misc. Gen.
IIJ.
250/9. He and John Leathwaite of Ince
and Her. \, 66 (1613).
Robert Blundell was plaintiff or de-
Blundell were indicted as recusants in
The change of arms in 1613 should
fendant in numerous suits in the latter
1678 ; Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.).
be noticed ; Tram. Hist. Soc, (New Sen),
part of Elizabeth's reign ; Ducatus Lane.
110.
vi, 363 ; Pal. Note Book, \, 57, 109 ;
iv, 26.
(Rec. Com.), iii, 184, &c.
3 Ibid. 247 (quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz.
11 Lyd. Hall, 127. N. Blundell records :
1 6 May, 1708— 'Mr. Plumbe sent an
1 Lydiate Hall 109, 231 (S.P. Dom.
ccxxxv, n. 4).
Eliz. clxxxiii,n. 61), 227 (ibid, clxxv, n. 21).
<Ibid. in.
information made against Mr. mun'dello"
He gave shelter to B. Lawrence Johnson,
and sent one of his sons to Douay ;
' Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 27. This shows the change of
Ince, by Parson Ellison [of Formby]. 1
went to Ince to acquaint Mr. Blundel
Gillow, Bibl. Diet. Engl. Cath. iii, 637.
tenure, as stated in the text. Besides the
therewith ; ' and on 26 July : ' I went t(
"In 1590 he was classed with those
manor of Ince and lands in Liverpool and
Ormskirk sessions, where Mr. Molyneuj
' in some degree of conformity, yet in
Little Crosby he had had lands in Broughton,
of Bold, Mr. Trafford, Mr. Harrington,
general note of evil affection in religion,
in Amounderness and Preston ; also, per-
I, &c. compounded to prevent conviction
non-communicants' ; Gibson, op. cit., 245
haps as trustee for his daughter, the manor
We appeared in court before Sir Thoma:
(quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4).
called The Hall of Garrett in Tyldesley.
Stanley, Dr. Norris, and Mr. Case, al
In the following year Thomas Blundell
released to Robert, son and heir of Robert
Blundell of Ince, his cottage, hempyard,
8 This is stated by John Blundell, who
for about a year studied at the English
College in Rome, after being educated at
justices of the peace. We Catholics tha-
got off our convictions dined all togethe
at Richard Wood's ... and [later
and land for a term of loo years for a
home and at St. Omer's : ' I was baptized
drank punch with Sir Thomas Stanley ;
a paper reciting that the grant was meant
for the father, although the son's name
. . . my parents and relations . . . have
suffered great losses on account of their
^airi\6Md'. ^'^
1" Ormerod, Chet. (ed. Helsby), ii, 416 :
was used ; and should the queen seize
professing the Catholic .faith. They were
Foster, Lanes. Pedigrees.
two-thirds of the rent Thomas Blundell
formerly Protestants, but since their con-
is Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 130.
would indemnify Robert— an evasion of
version have been constant in the faith.
14 Ibid. 171 ; see also the account o'
the statute of 1587, by which two-thirds
I have brothers and sisters, and was always
Lydiate.
of a recusant's property was sequestrated ;
p. no. In 1592 George Dingley, a priest
a Catholic ; ' Foley, Rec. S.J. i, 246 ;
vi, 397-
"Ibid. 133. For a recovery of the
manors of Ince Blundell, Formby, Aim
who had become a government informer,
1 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 118; Civil
dale, and Birkdale by Henry Blundell, the-
stated that Robert Blundell of Ince ' kept
War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 75! Royalist
son, see Com. Pleas Recov. R. Trin. 3 -,
sundry years a recusant schoolmaster, that
is a seminary priest named Gardiner' ; and
Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 199-200.
& 34 Geo. 11, m. 45.
16 See Diet. Nat. Bhg. He died 28 Auf .
had 'lodged in his house and relieved since
His house at Preston seems to have
1810. An engraving of his monument
the last statute of 27 (Eliz.) ' not only
been utilized as a prison by the Parlia-
in Sefton church is given in Gregsor,
James Gardiner but the informant him-
•elf ; he adds the significant hint : ' This
mentarians in 1644; Lana. War (Chet.
Soc.), 49.
Fragments (ed. Harland), 222.
V Gibson, op. cit. 134. TheAnderton
Blundell ii of good wealth and competent
8 Royalist Comp. P. i, 201; Col. Com.
and Heaton estates were those alienated.
82
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Thomas Weld and Mary his wife ; a lawsuit followed,
owing to his custom of calling Joseph Weld, Edward.1
This error appeared in the will, but the intention
being clear Thomas Weld obtained possession of the
estates, assuming the additional surname of Blundell.
Dying in 1887 he was succeeded by his son Mr.
Charles Joseph Weld-Blundell, the present lord of the
manor.
Two early lists of the free tenants have been pre-
served.1 The principal tenants were the Ballards,'
who in the end established their claim to a third of
the manor.4 The inheritance had about 1560 come
to two daughters of Richard Ballard, named Cecily and
Dorothy, who had married respectively Richard
SEFTON
Thome and Thomas Massingberd. Cecily sold
her moiety to Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton,4 and
Dorothy hers to William Blundell,6 whose son
Thomas sold to Sir Richard Molyneux, grandson of
the last-named Sir Richard.7
The Molyneux family had already possessed an
interest in the township,8 and on the suppression
of Whalley Abbey9 and the confiscation of its lands in
1537, Richard Molyneux purchased ALT GRANGE
from Thomas Holt, to whom it had been granted by
Henry VIII.10 This portion of Ince still remains in
the possession of the earl of Sefton. With regard to
other lands an exchange was effected with Henry
Blundell in 1772."
1 Gibson, op. cit. 136-44, where the
together with his lands and mill in Thorn-
A certain John Molyneux and Katherine
of the subsequent disputes.
ard ; ibid. 0. ii, 14-16. In 1417 Tho-
Downholland, Lydiate, Ince Blundell and
that leases should be given of their hold-
ings at half the current rent ; but his
John Totty and another of his lands;
ibid. 0. ii, 20. There does not seem to
ibid. Genl. i, 53, 54.
The lands of Sir William Molyneux in
1548 were stated to be held of the heirs
ibid, xxviii.
"In 1283 they were William Knott,
Aughtons, but their lands, as will be seen,
were acquired by Molyneux of Sefton.
of James Blundell in socage by a rent of
2J. 9</.; twenty years later they had
Peter de Leylandshire, Robert de Pekko,
Robert the Chanon, Alan his brother, and
from William Blundell and Joan his wife ;
the agreement stated that Thomas Ballard
the Blundells, though no rent was pay-
able ; in 1623 the tenure was unknown ;
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. ix, n. 2 ; xiii,
ii, 51 1. Some of these occur in adjacent
townships ; the last-named was Simon, son
of Adam de Lunt, defendant in a fishery
case in 1292 ; Assize R. 408, m. 43.
For 1344 a fuller list has been pre-
•erved ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 96.
» This name occurs also in Litherland
and Little Crosby. Robert Ballardson
contributed to the subsidy of 1332 ; Excb.
Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.},
8. In the previous year Maud, widow of
William Ballard, had been plaintiff in an
Ince Blundell suit ; Assize R. 1404, m.
27. In a similar suit Robert Ballard was
a plaintiff in 1337 ; Assize R. 1424, m.
wagons, and give services with plough and
harrow like William Blundell's other
tenants ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4,m.
1 6. Thomas and William Ballard paid
to the poll tax of 1381 ; Lay Subs. Lanes.
130/24.
Robert, son and heir of Thomas Bal-
lard of Ince, quitclaimed to Sir John de
Bold in 1409-10 all rights to the land in
Bold he had by his father and his mother
Emma ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 2O2«, n. 67.
The dispute between the Ballards and
Blundells which began in 1463 has been
mentioned in the text.
4 In 1 505 Robert Ballard secured a right
and Ches.), iii, 389.
» The monks' official in charge was
called the 'Granger of Alt' in 1283;
Wbattcy Coucber, ii, 505. The mill was
held by a miller whose right descended to
his sons ; Alexander, the miller of Alt,
gave his son Thomas certain property, in-
cluding a third part of the mill, some-
time before 1250 ; Simon, son of Alexan-
der, released to the monks his third part
of the mill held by his father by hereditary
right, the monks having paid him 100,.;
and for 201. they purchased from the
widow her dower right ; ibid, ii, 495-7.
But little occurs to show the con-
I96A, n. 33.
In 1351 Emma, widow of Robert Bal-
neux of Sefton ; Croxteth D. O. i, 1-3.
6 In 1562 Richard Thorne and Cecily
William Blundell of Ince and others for
money owing; De Bane. R. 352, m.
Lawrence Nowell and [Catherine his wife
in a plea of novel disseisin brought against
William Blundell touching tenements in
Ince. The plaintiffs did not prosecute
«nd were non-suited, their pledges being
John and William Ballard ; Duchy of
Lane. Assize R. I, m. ij. Richard de
manor of Ince Blundell, with lands, mills,
&c., there and in the Moorhouses, North
End, Melling, the Old Marsh, the Low
Marsh, the Elcom acre, and Black carr ;
ibid. O. i, 4, 5, 7 ; also Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 24, m. 191.
« Thomas Massingberd and Dorothy
standing the liberty of Henry, earl of
Lancaster ; Henry Blundell and John his
ibid. R. 364, m. 91.
In 1366 JohnAmerison was charged
by the abbot with waste of lands in Ince ;
De Bane. R. 424, m. 279.
of John de Clough, in 1357 sold their
lands to Richard de Sefton ; and shortly
afterwards Lawrence Nowell and Kather-
ine his wife (perhaps another daughter)
•old to the same purchaser all the lands
descending to Katherine on the death of
ard Ballard, in 1569 sold this half; Crox-
teth D. O. i, 9 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 33, m. 138.
7 Thomas, son and heir of William
Blundell, sold to Sir Richard Molyneux
in 1579 i and at tne same time an agree-
Blundell proceeded against John, abbot of
Whalley, for damage in Little Crosby and
Ince caused by a flood, which he alleged
to be due to the abbot's neglect to repair
a ditch ; the abbot replied that the water
running by the ditch was the Alt flowing
Three years later William Blundell of
Ince released all his right in the lands
formerly held of him by John de Clough
by knight's service and a rent of 21. gd.,
and 7Jrf. for relief; the new possessor
was Richard de Aughton ; ibid. O. ii, 12.
There are other notices of these transac-
tions in Final Cone, ii, 155; Dcf.
Keeper'! Rep. xxxii, App. 337 ; Duchy of
Lane. Assize R. 6, m. 3.
Thomas Ballard in 1344 bought land
of Robert son of Collt of Ince ; and this
he sold, as bought of Robert Floke.tothe
tame Richard de Aughton in 1364;
Croxteth D. O. ii, 8,13. A few years
later Richard de Aughton made a settle-
ment of the lands he had acquired in Ince,
tween Sir Richard and Robert Blundell
of Ince; ibid. O. i, n, 10.
This appears to be the ' manor of North
End ' named in the later Molyneux in-
quisitions, &c.
8 By a charter of about 1260 William
de Molyneux, son of Adam, granted to
Richard Flock a messuage and lands in
Ince Marsh, which had descended to the
grantor after the death of Richard his
brother; Tram. Hist. Soc. xxxiii, 266.
This charter is similar to that given in
the Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 1 2, m. 27 b,
quoted below.
Lands in Ince are mentioned among
the possessions of Richard de Molyneux
in 1361 ; Croxteth D. Genl. i, 35.
83
that he was under no special obligation to
repair it; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 3,
m. 20*.
The abbot made a claim for common
of pasture about 1 500 ; Ducatus Lane.
(Rec. Com.), i, 124.
10 The grant of Alt Grange to Thomas
Holt was by letters patent dated i Aug.
1543, a rent of £4 10.. oj^. being
reserved to the crown, and he sold it in
the following November to Richard, son
and heir apparent of Sir William Moly-
neux ; Croxteth D. X. ii, I, 2, 5 ; Pat.
35 Hen. VIII, pt. iv. The tenant's
name was Moorcroft.
" The list of the lands exchanged ii
printed in the Sefton Attract of Titlt.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Alt Grange became the seat of a younger branch of
the Molyneux family, who also had a house in West
Derby, known as the New Hall, and eventually
succeeded to the manor of Huyton ; they are now
SKL. Perfess potent
azure, three •wolves' headt
erased counterchanged.
represented by Mr. Edward Richard Thomas Moly-
neux-Seel. The first of them was John, a younger
son of Sir Richard Molyneux, the purchaser ; l he
was succeeded by his son Richard* and his grand-
son John. The latter's estates were sequestered by
the Parliament for his recusancy and delinquency,
and though he died early in 1649* his widow was
still petitioning in 1655.* The eldest son Richard1
married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Harrington oi
Huyton Hey, and was in turn succeeded by his son '
and grandson, each named Richard ; the last-named :
succeeded to Huyton in right of his grandmother
Elizabeth, on the death of her nephew Charles
Harrington in 1720.* This Richard, buried at
Sefton early in 1735,' had a son Richard, who dice
a fortnight after his father,10 and a daughter Frances,
whose marriage with Thomas Seel carried th«
estates to this family.11 The connexion with All
Grange seems to have ceased before her brother'.'
death."
Of the other free tenants the most notable wen
the Blanchards.1* Part of the property of the Moor-
houses seems to have been sold to Henry Blundell o
Little Crosby.14 In 1 444 there was a contest betweer
John Coldokes and Ellen his wife and Richard John
son of Little Crosby concerning land in Ince, whicl
has points of interest."
if,«/. of 1567 (Chet. Soc.), 104;
and Visit, of 1664. (Chet. Soc.), 203—
Molyneux of New Hall.
'' Mentioned Royalist Comp. P. iv, 147.
In a deed of 1632 he is described as of
Alt Grange, brother and heir of John
Molyneux, deceased.
»Ibid. 145-8. He had in 1634 a
lease of Alt Grange from Lord Molyneux,
at a rent of £4 71. id. He and his wife,
with many others, appear in the Recusant
Roll of 1641 in Ince Blundell; Tram.
Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 237. The
succeeded him, was buried at Sefton,
29 Jan. 1712-13 ; see N. Blundell, Diary,
1 10.
7 He registered his leasehold estate
in Ince as a 'Papist' in 1717; Engl.
Cat/i. Non-jurors, 1 54. He had an elder
brother John living in 1719, who in a
deed of this date mentioned him and his
sisters Mary and Elizabeth, also Mrs.
Elizabeth Molyneux, widow; Piccope
MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 192, from Roll 7
of Geo. I at Preston.
In 1722 John Molyneux, of Alt Grange
Act of 1652; Index of Royalists (Index
Soc.), p. 43. He was buried at Sefton
3 March, 1648-9.
* Royalist Comp. P. loc. cit. ; Cal. Com.
for Comp. iv, 3171-2; the estate had
been discharged in April, 1654, on pay-
ment of a fine of £20.
The house in 1666 had five hearths
taxed ; Lay Subs. Lanes. 250-9.
s He joined with his mother in the
petition concerning the sequestration.
For his age and marriage see ritit. of
1664, p. 203.
His brother, Edward, a secular priest,
daughter of Richard Moore of Heskin ;
ibid, iii, 214, quoting second 5th Roll of
Geo. I.
8 See the account of Huyton.
9 He died at New Hall in West Derby,
and was buried at Sefton 23 Feb.
'734-5-
10 He was buried at Sefton 3 March,
1734-5 ; his will, enrolled at Preston
(second 5th Roll of Geo. II), mentions his
wife Margaret, his mother-in-law Mary
.Hawarden, his brother-in-law Bryan
Hawarden, his uncle Edward, and his
daughter Frances ; Piccope MSS. (Chet.
Lib.), iii, 256.
Towneley 1
Joseph
Diary, 109
Families
occur durin
centuries ;
For othei
bdle. I, m.
"In 13
Moorhouse;
John de A
m. 195 ; ]
Henry Blur
he was found dead on the sands, 28 April,
1704, and was buried in the Harkirk
ground at Little Crosby; N. Blundell,
Diary, p. 2, ; Crosby Rec. (Chet. Soc.),
pp. xxi, 81.
Thomas Molyneux or Wilkinson, S.J.,
is supposed to have been of this family ;
perhaps a brother of Edward. He was a
victim of the Gates persecution, dying in
Morpeth gaol, of poison given by the
physician as it is believed, though it was
given out that he committed suicide ;
Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Engl. Car*, v, 69 ;
Foley, Rec. S.?. v, 657.
Richard Molyneux was buried at Sefton
7 May, 1686.
« An elder son John, born in 1660 and
baptized by Mr. Parr, a secular priest,
after studying at St. Omer's, entered the
English College at Rome in 1679; <he
was always a Catholic and suffered for
his faith ' ; he went by his mother's name
of Harrington ; Foley, Rec. S.J. vi, 429.
He was buried at Sefton 28 Jan. 1692-3,
as 'John Molyneux of West Derby,
gentleman.' His brother Richard, who
relating to this family see Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), xi, 99, 100.
11 See the account of Huyton.
12 Richard Lord Molyneux leased Alt
in 1726; Richard Molyneux of Alt
Grange is mentioned ; also his uncle
Edward and his deceased brother John,
and Margaret his wife; Piccope MSS.
iii, 244 (from a roll of Geo. II at
Preston.)
is Richard Blundell between 1249 and
1266 granted to William, son of Swain
Blanchard, two fields in his vill of Ince,
at a rent of I2</.; Blundell of Crosby D.
K. 247.
Gilbert Blanchard occurs in the list of
note. Cnin \ 304' Richfrdrson" of WUUam
Blanchard, complained that Robert, son
of Gilbert Blanchard, William, son of
William Blanchard, and Richard Blundell
had disseised him of his messuage and
land in Ince ; but he failed, as Robert
showed that he entered on one portion,
as heir, after the death of William his
grandfather, and William, son of Willian
Blanchard, by his father's gift ; Assize R
419, m. nd.
Richard Blanchard paid to the subsidy
in 1332; Exch. Lay Subs. 8. Robert,
son of Richard Blanchard, was one of th.
free tenants of 1344; Gibson, Lydiat
Hall, 97. Adam Blanchard was a jure
in 1375; De Bane. R. 460, m. 323.
Robert and Adam Blanchard contribute-
to the poll-tax of 1381 ; Lay Subs. Lanes
130/24.
Huan Blanchard, son and heir of John.
Ince Blundell in 1518 .
ley MS. CC. (Chet. Lib.), «. 807.
Joseph Blanchard, of Lady Green,
713, and Richard Blanchar
holder in 1834; N. Blunder,
Gibson, op. cit. 139.
named Orshaw and Dey als .
during the fourteenth and fifteenth
; Croxteth D. O. ii, 18, 22-2^
Pal. of Lane. Feet of I .
dle. 3, m. 9.
dam, son of Robert d<
med certain land fron
John de Ashhurst ; De Bane. R. 45* ,
457, m. md. But fou
he defendant had given t >
l all the lands, &c., he ha i
by the grant of Richard, son of Williai i
del Moorhouses ; and in 1406-7 Isabe »
as widow of John de Ashhurst, released a '.
her right in her husband's land t,
Nicholas Blundell of Crosby ; Jtuerde .
fol. MS. 38, n. 436, 432.
"The plaintiffs adduced a chart, r
granted by William de Molyneux (1250
80) to Henry, son of William d I
Moorhouses, of land called Ruholme i i
Ince, which William de Sileby former
held of the gift of Richard Blundell, ar 1
which descended to the grantor after tl •_•
death of Richard his brother, who h; .1
had the same by the gift of Sir Willia. i
le Boteler. Henry, also known as Hen. /
son of Bimme, had issue Thomas ar 1
Simon ; the former had a son Roger ar 1
grandson Alan, whose daughter and he r
was Ellen, wife of John Coldokes.
On the other side was adduced a cha -
ter by Henry, dated 1302, granting h <
son Simon a moiety of his lands he .i
according to 'the ancient charters' f
William, son of John Blundell ; for th s
gift his sons Simon and Thomas were :o
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The following registered estates as ' Papists ' in
1717 : William Brown of Lostock ; William Davy,
here and at Great Crosby ; Thomas Gore ; Thomas
Rigmaiden ; and Richard Tickle, here and at Altcar.1
Richard Blundell, of Carr-side, registered a leasehold
house at Altcar.8
It is probable that the Roman Catholic worship was
maintained here all through the seventeenth century,3
either at Ince Blundell Hall or at Alt Grange, or both,
but there seems to be no evidence of it until the end
of that period. During the eighteenth century the
Jesuits were in charge.4 The church of the Holy
Family, built in 1858, is attached to the hall; the
baptismal register dates from 1775.*
LITTLE CROSBY
Crosebi, Dom. Bk. ; Little Crosseby, xiii and xiv
cent. ; Little Crosby, 1405.
This township lies to the north of Great Crosby,
Thornback Pool being the boundary on that side.
Extending along the coast, a wide belt of sand-hills, in
which are rabbit warrens, forms an efficient protection
to the low-lying land from the inroads of the sea.
Some of the inhabitants are fishermen, who reap a
harvest of shrimps, flukes, and cockles from the sea
and broad firm sands.
Excepting those which cluster about Crosby Hall,
there are but few trees or hedges, fields being princi-
pally divided by ditches. The alluvial soil produces
good crops of potatoes and corn, whilst there are also
meadows and pastures. The lower keuper sandstones,
which here represent the geological formation, under-
lie the entire township, but, as elsewhere in the neigh-
bourhood, are obscured by sand and deep boulder
clay, and along the coast by blown sand which
obscures the grey clays of the glacial drift series.
The acreage is 1,81 1.6 The village, hall and park
are at the southern end of the township ; to the
north are Moorhouse and Hightown, a modern
SEFTON
hamlet ; on the shore near the last-named is a light-
house, built in 1839. The population in 1901
was 563.'
The Liverpool and Southport road passes diagonally
through the township from south to north, roads to
Thornton and Hightown branching off to the east
and north-west. The Lancashire and Yorkshire
Company's line from Liverpool to Southport also
crosses it, with a station at Hightown.
The place was noted for the abundance of fine
laurels.8
There are six crosses, one being in the village.'
At Harkirk, now within the park, a number of
Anglo-Saxon coins were found in 161 1.10
The village well having become dry about thirty
years ago has been closed up.
Narrs Croft and Wildings Croft occur among the
field names in 1779.
A local board was formed in 1870 ;" this in 1894.
became an urban district council of six members.
LITTLE CROSBr was in 1066
M4NOR part of the holding of Uctred, and
rated as half a hide." Afterwards it
became part of the Widnes fee, and following the
descent of that lordship passed eventually to the
crown.13 A subordinate manor was early created
here, held in 1212 by Richard de Molyneux of
Sefton ; l4 and subsequently it was granted as a depen-
dent manor to a junior branch of the family.
The first of this line was Roger de Molyneux, son
of Adam and grandson of the above-named Richard."
About 1266 Robert Blundell demanded from this
Roger an acquittance of the services which Alice de
Lacy, lady of Halton, in right of her dower required
from him, which Roger as mesne lord ought to
perform.16
About 1287 Roger was succeeded by his son
Richard, who held Little Crosby, Speke, an da moiety
of Rainhill for nearly forty years." He married
Beatrice, apparently daughter and heir of Adam de
keep him in food and clothing for the
dictine was in charge from ,826 to ,865 ;
Soc.), p. 24, Richard de Molyneux of
ingly descended to his son William and
grandson Thomas, and so to Emma, wife
according to the Census of 1901. In
to the court at Widnes.
of Richard Johnson of Little Crosby,
addition there are n acres of tidal water,
In addition to the mesne lordship the
whose son John was joined as defendant ;
and 1,322 of foreshore.
Molyneuxes of Sefton formerly held land
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 6, m. 26 ; R. 12,
7 There were 20 officials and 114 boys
in Little Crosby. Part had been acquired
m. 27 b.
in the truant school at Hightown, belong-
in various ways from William son of
A Thomas Coldoke was living here in
ing to the Liverpool education authority.
Adam de Crosby and Ellen, Adam's wife ;
1595 ; Ducatus Lane, iii, 332.
8 Gregson, Fragment! (ed. Harland), 224.
Croxteth D. E. i, i ; ii, 4 ; and another
William, son of Richard Bimmeson,
» Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Sac. xix, 180-3
part by Dame Anne Molyneux in 1489
claimed lands in Ince in 1342; Assize
and 178. Some of them arc funeral
from Gilbert Thomasson ; ibid. E. i, 2.
R. 1435, m. 48.
crosses.
15 Roger was brother of William son
1 Eng. Cath. Non-jurors, 108, 122, 126,
148. One of Richard Tickle's daughters
10 An impression of the plate showing
these coins, engraved for Spelman's Life
of Adam de Molyneux ; Croxteth D.
Genl. n. 2 ; Norris D. (B. M.) n. 480*.
had married Richard Molyneux of Alt
of Alfred, may be seen in Crosby Rec.
He had half of Speke, and in 1256 in
Grange, and their sons John and Richard
(Chet. Soc. New Sen), and Trans. Lanes.
right of his wife Agnes half of Rainhill ;
are mentioned.
and Ches. Antiq. Soc. v, 219.
see Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
3 Ibid. 1 12. The Blundells of Carr-
side were a junior branch of the Ince
11 Land. Gaz. 26 July, 1870.
" f.C.H. Lanes, i, 283/1. Kirkdale and
Ches.), i, 125. Additional particulars
of his family may be seen in the accounts
family ; 'their names appear in the re-
Crosby together were one hide, of which
of these townships.
cusant rolls throughout the whole period
of persecution ' ; Gillow, Haydock Papers,
Kirkdale was half.
18 Ibid. The three plough-lands, ' where
16 Cur. Reg. R. 180, m. 18.
a" Roger was living in 1287, when he
215, where particulars are given.
ten plough-lands make a knight's fee,'
granted land in Little Crosby to Richard,
3 The first missioners certainly known
were described as the quarter and twen-
son of Thomas de Aykescho ; Blundell of
are Edward Molyneux, already mentioned,
tieth of a fee.
Crosby D. (Towneley MS. in posses-
and Henry Tasburgh, S.J. ; both in the
14 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
sion of W. Farrer), K.. 300. Richard
neighbourhood from about 1670.
Lanes, and Ches.), 42. The relationship
Molyneux of Little Crosby was witness to
4 Foley, Rec. S.7. v, 320, 362 ; the
of Little Crosby to Sefton is usually
a charter of 1 294 ; ibid. K.. 30. The seal
priest's residence for some time was the
stated in the feodaries, &c. ; e.g. the
to a grant by Richard, son of Roger de
New House in the Carr Houses, built in
Halton Feodary in Ormerod's Ches. (ed.
Molyneux, shows a lion rampant ; Knows-
1701; and see Crosby Rec. (Chet. Soc.),
Helsby), i, 709, states it to be held
ley D. bdle. 1402, B. I.
81-2; N. Blundell, Diary, 2; Haydock
by Richard de Molyneux of Sefton for
It may be added that there is a large
Papers, 213-14.
three plough-lands and a relief of £i 101. ;
collection of Little Crosby deeds in Kuer-
6 Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1901. A Bene-
and at the De Lacy Inquest of 1311 (Chet.
den's folio MS. in the Chetham Library.
85
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Hindley,1 and in 1312 was chosen a knight of the
shire.' An elaborate settlement of the manor was
made about the same time,3 providing for its descent
to Richard's son John and his heirs, with reversion to
daughters Maud, Margaret, Agnes, Elizabeth, and
Margery.4
In accordance with this settlement the son,
Sir John Molyneux , about 1325 succeeded to Little
Crosby.4 A prominent man in the county in his
time,6 he was twice married and had several children,7
who appear to have died before him ; consequently on
his death in or about 1 362" Little Crosby became
the portion of his sister Agnes, who had married
David Blundell of Great Crosby. The descendants
of Agnes and David still possess the manor.
The origin of the Blundells' interest is unknown,
but, as already shown, Robert Blundell was one of
the free tenants in 1266. The earliest of the family
to appear is Osbert de Ainsdale, living about 1 1 60.*
He had several sons, the eldest being Robert, who
succeeded to Ainsdale, and had in 1190 a grant of
Great Crosby from John, count of Mortain, confirmed
when John became king ; he is here described as
John's forester.10 He died in 1214, and was followed
by his son Roger," who within five years was in turn
succeeded by a younger brother Adam, also known as ' de
Ainsdale.' ll This Adam occurs as witness to charters
and in other ways down to about 1250. His wife
was named Emma," and their son Robert, afterwards a
knight, and called ' de Crosby ' as well as ' de Ains-
dale,' adopted the surname Blundell, which has since
been borne by his descendants."
1 See the accounts of Hindley and
Culcheth. Beatrice afterwards married
Robert de Bebington, and was living in
1549; De Bane. R. 173, m. 128; R.
286, m. 340 ; also R. 355, m. 109. The
former actions arose out of a lease of the
manor granted in 1326 by Beatrice to
Stephen de Hamerton ; Kuerden's fol.
MS. n. 399.
2 Pink and Beavan, Par!. Ref. of Lanes.
8 Richard de Molyneux, rector of Sefton,
as feoffee, gave to Richard son of Roger
de Molyneux and Beatrice his wife, all
his manor of Little Crosby in its entirety,
with remainders as stated; Blundell of
Crosby D. K. 229. A copy of this
charter seems to have been made for each
of those in the remainder, two of the series
being now at Little Crosby Hall.
The names of the homagers are thus
given : Nicholas Blundell, William son of
Adam, Richard son of Thomas, elsewhere
surnamed ' de Aykescho,' Richard Boly-
mer, Randle Wolvesegh, and William
Ballard.
Of these tenants William son of Adam
was the most important after the Blun-
dells ; Adam being son of Gilbert of Little
Crosby, originally one of the chief land-
holders in the township ; see Assize R.
408, m. 4. Adam by his wife Ellen had
a son William (occurring down to 1322),
Hugh son of William de Liverpool re-
leased to Henry, son of Nicholas Blundell,
half the manor of Little Crosby and one
oxgang, which Agnes widow of Richard
son of William of Little Crosby formerly
held.
William son of Adam of Little Crosby
gave one oxgang — a twenty-fourth part of
the vill— to his daughter Aline, who
married John de Hindley ; and another
oxgang to his daughter Sibyl. Richard,
son of William, unsuccessfully laid claim
to this part of his father's estate in 1334 ;
later, however, Richard recovered certain
lands and pasture rights which he had
temporarily lost through his father having
given a moiety of his lands (for his life)
to his two daughters, Sibyl wife of Alex-
ander de Whalley, and Alice (as she is
now called) wife of Roger son of Hugh
of Great Crosby, who seem to be the
Sciletia and Alice of the charters above
quoted ; Assize R. 1444, m. B.
4 The Molyneux settlement was in 1 3 \ 4
confirmed by a fine relating to a mes-
suage, five oxgangs, &c. and the manor of
Little Crosby, Richard and Beatrice being
plaintiffs, and Roger, son of Robert dc
Molyneux of Rainhill, the deforciant.
There is a variation in the statement of
the remainders which afterwards led to
lawsuits, the daughter Agnes being omitted
altogether, and Margery, then wife of John
Crosby D. K. 195. The original It at
Little Crosby.
In 1 345 he granted Adam son of
Thomas son of Wilcot half an oxgang in
Little Crosby, with the meadow which
Adam formerly held from Beatrice, the
grantor's mother ; ibid. K. 308. At the
beginning of 1349 he enfeoffed Robert,
son of William de Crosby, of his manors
of Little Crosby, Speke, and Scholes, and
all his lands in Rainhill and Appleton ;
ibid. K. 258 (original at Little Crosby).
In December, 1350, he gave to William
part of the manor of Little Crosby, of
which one oxgang was held for her life by
Agnes, widow of Richard son of William
of Little Crosby ; ibid. K. 222 (original
at Little Crosby).
6 Rot. Scot. (Rec. Com.), 307, 421, &c.
1 Sir John's first wife was named
Agnes ; Norris D. (B.M.), ». 494, dated
1314. His second wife was Clemency,
daughter and co-heir of Roger de Cheadle,
and widow of William de Baguley ; Ear-
waker, East Ches. i, 170; Staff. Hiit.
Coll. (Salt Soc.), xvi, 5, 6, from a Chest.
Plea Roll of 1336; Genial. (New Ser.),
in the descent.
Richard son of Sir John de Molyneux
and Isabel his wife were defendants in a
plea of 1342; Assize R. 1435, m. 47</.
de Orrell, and then Pat
Her second husband seem
voured to secure his wife's estate for the
Molyneuxes of Little Crosby, though by
her former husband she had had a daughter
and heir, Margery wife of Simon de
Lydiate ; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 122,
K. 276, K. 304, K. 216, K. 184, K. 256.
The Lydiates claimed the manor of Little
Crosby in 1342 ; Kuerden's fol. MS. n.
495-
William son of Adam granted to
Richard son of Roger de Molyneux all
his lands, including half a plough-land in
Little Crosby, with the homage of
Nicholas Blundell, and 6d. rent from the
Moorhouses, exception being made of an
oxgang held by his sister Alice and Adam
ton of Thomas ; another oxgang held by
Richard de Walton by the service of \d.,
and a third by Patrick de Prescot by a
barbed arrow ; Blundell of Crosby D. K.
251. He had several children— Richard
(occurring down to 1345) who had a
son William, whose wife was named
Margery ; Thomas, who had a son Adam ;
Robert ; Sciletia ; and Alice who married
Hugh the Tunwright of Huyton, and had
a son Robert ; see Blundell of Crosby D.
K. 255, K. 258 ; also Kuerden fol. MS, n.
3 9 3, 4 > i , 49*- B7 thi» '"'> dated 1 3 8 2-3,
:; Final Cone, ii, 19.
bably the death of the eldest son Thomas
without male issue, though by his wife
Margery de Charnock he left a daughter
Agnes, afterwards the wife of Henry de
Atherton ; see Final Cone, ii, 18 ; De
Bane. R. 344, m. 442, and R. 347,
m. 148</. Norris D. (B.M.) n. 944 is
the marriage agreement, dated 1304, by
which Thomas son and heir of Richard
de Molyneux was to marry Margery
daughter of Henry de Charnock, while
the latter', son Adam was to marry
Richard's daughter Joan.
Henry, son of Henry de Atherton of
Hindley, and Agnes his wife, released in
1 343 their right in the manors of Little
Crosby and the Scholes in Eccleston to
Beatrice, formerly wife of Richard de
Molyneux of Crosby, and Sir John de
Molyneux; Blundell of Crosby D. K.
5 Richard de Molyneux held the manor
in 1324; Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 33*.
Sir John de Molyneux in April, 1328,
gave his mother Beatrice for her life all
his right in the vill and manor of Little
Crosby, excepting 5 marks of yearly rent
which he had of her gift ; Blundell of
86
from Roger son of Adam son of William
de Crosby, his father (Sir John) being a
witness; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 127,
259. Five years later he was plaintiff in
a case of trespass ; De Bane. R. 352, m.
8 Sir John de Molyneux was living in
1362; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 572.
9 CockersandChartul.(C\xl. Soc.), ii, 568
to 595, and notes.
1° Kucrden MSS. v, fol. 124, mi. 172,
173. See also the account of Great
Crosby.
In 1199 Robert de Ainsdale, son of
Osbert, had a protection from King John ;
it was dated at Bourg-le-Roi in Maine ;
Rot. Cart. (Rec. Com.), 18.
11 Farrcr, Lanes. Fife R. 247.'
18 Cockersand Cbartul. ii, 590, 591 ;
Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 117.
" Blundell of Crosby D. K. 203.
14 He is described as a knight in the
deed last referred to. ' Robert de Crosby,
son of Adam de Ainsdale,' confirmed hi.
father's grants in Garston to the monks
of Stanlaw ; Wholly Coucher (Chet. Soc.),
' As Robert de Crosby, knight, he gave
to Ralph de Greenhol and Anabel hi.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Robert had before 1249 married Maud, daughter
of Agnes de Bolers of Walcot near Chirbury by her
first husband, Peter de Montgomery, clerk ; a series
of lawsuits was necessary to recover the wife's Shrop-
shire inheritance.1 Robert is said to have accompanied
Edward I on his expedition against the Welsh in
1277,* and to the following year belongs the latest
document in which his name occurs — a grant of lands
to his son Nicholas.3
This son succeeded him, and his name occurs down
to 1319.* He was twice married.* His eldest son
David, who married Agnes de Molyneux, having died
SEFTON
before him,6 the heir was his grandson Nicholas
Blundell.7 The latter had already been contracted
in marriage with Aline, apparently the daughter of
Richard de Holland,8 and dying some time before
1 35 19 left a son and heir John, a minor, whose
wardship and marriage fell to Sir John de Moly-
neux, in virtue of the Blundells' holding in Little
Crosby.10 John Blundell seems to have died about
1 37 1,11 without surviving issue, and Little Crosby
descended to his brother Henry, whose tenure endured
for some thirty-five years."
His son, another Nicholas, succeeded. He was
lister, Ralph's wife, an oxgang in Little
Crosby which Robert son of Thomas de
Ince formerly held, ' until the grantor or
his heirs should enfeoff Ralph of an ox-
gang in Much Woolton,' then held by
Robert the Heir ; Blundell of Crosby D.
K.. 270, K.. 161. The original is at
Knowsley ; bdle. 1402, n. 9.
» Blundell of Crosby D. K. 165,
K. 305 ; Eyton, Sbrops. xi, 162, 163.
Eyton does not seem to have known
Agnes's family name, which is of in-
lords of Montgomery; op. cit. 120.
The charter K. 305 was executed in
the castle of Montgomery, among the wit-
nesses being Sir Adam de Montgomery,
Baldwin and Stephen de Bolers.
« T. E. Gibson, Cavalier's Note Book, 6.
» Blundell of Crosby D. K. 164; the
teal shows the lion rampant. The estate
included all the land Sir Robert had in
Ainsdale (wreck of the sea being reserved
to him), in Bold, Woolton, Crooks and the
and Liverpool. Nicholas was to render
for Ainsdale, &c., 6 marks, and for Little
Crosby 2 marks. The penalty is notice-
able : ' Should he fail in making these
payments he shall give to the fabric of
the King's new work at Royland
[Rhuddlan] 5 marks for each term.'
The witnesses indicate that it was
executed in Shropshire ; they include
Masters Ralph de Freningham, Roger de
Seyton, and Ralph de Hengham, justices ;
Sir Peter Corbet, Sir Ralph Corbet, and
others. A similar grant, ibid. K. 203,
has on the seal the billety coat now borne
by the Blundells. Charles's Roll, edited
by Sir George J. Armytage in 1869, gives
is the arms of Robert Blundell (n. 331) :
Azure, ten billets or, four, three, two, and
one ; on a canton or a raven sable. In
the same Roll (n. 466) Baldwin de
Boulers (?) has : Sable, a bend between
twelve billets argent.
4 He was a collector of various sub-
•idies in 1295, 1301, and 1302; Parl.
Writs ; Lanes. Lay Sub*. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 188, 236, 238.
Several of his grants are known. By
one he gave an acre in Little Crosby ' in
the Sand ' to Nicholas son of Thomas de
Aykescho ; and to Adam son of the said
Thomas he gave half an oxgang which he
had bought from William son of Ralph dc
Greenhol; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 299,
K. 254. From William son of Adam of
Little Crosby he made purchases in the
Branderth and elsewhere ; ibid. K. 148,
K.. 307.
5 His first wife was named Eleanor ;
by her he had three sons — David, William,
and Nicholas. Sir Robert, the father,
gave to his son Nicholas and Eleanor his
wife, on their marriage about 1270, all
his right in Great and Little Crosby and
Moorhouses ; ibid. K. 174. William,
one of the younger sons of this marriage,
was contracted in 1298 to Joan daughter
of Griffith de la Lee, probably a Shropshire
man, and had all his grandmother's pro-
perty in Walcot, Chirbury, Lydbury,
Bishop's Castle, &c., settled upon him, so
that it appears no more in the Little
Crosby evidences; ibid. K.. 154, K.. 185,
K. 187. The Blundens of Shropshire,
who recorded a pedigree in 1623, claimed
descent from the couple ; Sbrof. Vhit.
(Harl. Soc.), 48.
Nicholas son of Nicholas Blundell had
in 1313-14 a grant of land in Wedholme
from Alan le Norreys, at an annual rent
age, suitable marriage, &c. the said John,
rejecting that marriage, and without
satisfying the said John de Molyneux
respecting his marriage, intruded into his
lands and tenements.' It thus appears
that by July, 1351, John Blundell had
attained his majority and taken possession
of his father's lands. The result of the
suit is not given. In 1358 Sir John
de Molyneux, John son of Nicholas
Blundell and Ellen his wife, John Anyon
and Joan his wife, Margery widow of
Nicholas Blundell, and Emma widow of
Richard Blundell did not prosecute a
describes the younger Nicholas as his
'next of kin and heir,' but the relation-
ship is otherwise unknown; Kuerden
fol. MS. 73, n. 630.
The elder Nicholas married a Margery
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 186. She
viving until about 133; ; K. 240.
David died in or before ijn,
they made against William Blundell
of Ince ; Assize R. 438, m. 18. In the
following years also John Blundell appear!
as plaintiff; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 7,
m. 2, 3, 4, 4</. ; Assize R. 438, m. 7 ;
R.44I, m. I, id,sd.
In one of the pleas against John de
Liverpool is a pedigree of the Blundell
family ; it concerned an acre in Little
Crosby which Sir Robert Blundell had
given to Nicholas Blundell and Aline his
wife and their heirs, and which therefore
descended, through David their son, to
of Sefton, refeoffed Nicholas Blundell and
Margery his wife of lands between Ribble
and Mersey, including a windmill at Little
claimant as son of Nicholas ; Assize R. 7,
m. 1 8.
In 1364 John Blundell was called upon
Margery was to hold a moiety for her life,
paying 61. 8</. a year to Nicholas son of
David Blundell, who was to have the
other half; Blundell of Crosby D. K. I 8 1,
K. 273.
ried Richard de Holland of Sutton, and
tvas living, the second time a widow, in
1335; ibid. K. 176 and K. 208.
John
caster of Rainhill. The difference between
the charter of Richard de Molyneux,
rector of Sefton, and the later fine, in
which the name of Agnes de Molyneux
was omitted, has been pointed out. Under
John Blundell established the validity of
the earlier charter by which he as son of
Nicholas son of Agnes succeeded to Little
Nicholas son of David Blundell to Adam
son of his uncle Nicholas for a rent of «</.
is in the Blundell of Crosby D. K.. 303.
Abstracts of other grants by him are con-
tained in the same volume, including the
grant of a third of Little Crosby to his
son Richard on his marriage with Emma
in 1336 ; ibid. K. 240. The wife was a
daughter of Thomas de Molyneux of
Sefton, and lands in Great Crosby also
were given ; ibid. K. 121. There do not
seem to have been any children by this
marriage.
8 Ibid. K. 262 ; the original is at Little
Crosby. Nicholas Blundell, senior, agreed
to sustain Nicholas son of David in
Molyneux without heirs ; De Bane. R.
418, m. 345; R. 425, m. ^i^d. It
appeared that John de Molyneux was
11 William son of Adam de Liverpool
in 1361 granted to John Blundell a mes-
suage and land in Little Crosby; and
three years later Richard son of Richard
de Molyneux of Little Crosby granted him
all the lands there he had received from
Richard his father ; Blundell of Crosby D.
K. 266, K. 302. John was witness to
grants made by and to Henry Blundell of
K. 1 5 8. Some misdeeds of John and
brother Henry, described in 1350
saries, Richard de Holland doing the same
for Aline, assisted by a contribution of
i mark a year from Nicholas senior.
9 In 1328 he granted to Gilbert de
ibid. K. 1X3. He was witness to charters
made in 1342 ; ibid. K. 32, K. 211.
10 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. i, m. j d.
The plaintiff, Sir John, stated that
though he had 'often offered to John
son of Nicholas, whilst he was under
R. 452, m. i.
12 In 1361 Henry attested the grant to
John Blundell by William de Liverpool,
cited in the last note. In a similar
manner he occurs down to 1404 ; Blun-
dell of Crosby D. K. 13. In 1377 a
presentment was made against him for
trespass of cattle and fishing in the
Mersey ; Liverpool Corp. D.
Although it would appear that Henry
Blundell of Crosby was the Henry ion of
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
knight of the shire in 1413-14, and otherwise appear
to have held an honourable position in the district.
He died about 1421, his heir
being his eldest son Henry,
who, by marriage with Joan,
daughter and co-heir of Henry
de Rixton, added a portion of
Ditton and other lands to the
family inheritance.* On his
death, about 1456, he was suc-
ceeded by his son Nicholas,*
and the latter in turn by his
son, another Nicholas, about
1476.
The younger Nicholas, when
quite a child, was married to
Margery daughter of Henry Scarisbrick ; 4 they lived
happily together for sixty years and ' never noder
cold find fote noder with oder,' but their latter
years were greatly embittered by a long strife with the
family of Molyneux of Sefton.5 In some way Nicho-
DDDD
D D D
DD
D
Ho*
BLUNDKLL or LITTLI
CKOSBY. Sable, ten billet,,
4, 3, Z, and I argent.
las Blundell incurred the resentment of Dame Anne
Molyneux, who, as guardian of her young sons, ap-
pears to have pushed to the uttermost the superior
manorial rights of Sefton, and as a result in 1507-8
Nicholas Blundell granted to her and her son Edward
for the grantor's life, the hall of Crosby, with the build-
ings, lands, windmill, and appurtenances, and the
moiety of the rents in Crosby, at a rent of 20 marks.'
In 1509 there was a settlement as to the homage re-
quired of him,7 and in 1514 the manor was restored
to him by Edward Molyneux.8 The case had, of
course, been taken into the courts, but Nicholas, who
died about 1520, did not see the end of it, the final
decree recognizing the rights of the Blundells being
given in 1526."
A more peaceful time followed. Nicholas's eldest
son Henry having predeceased his father,10 Nicholas
was succeeded by his grandson James, who was of age
in 1514, and died in May, 1527," leaving as heir his
son Henry, then only eleven years of age. Henry
was succeeded by his son Richard," in whose time the
grant by a feoffee was made in 1381-2, a
Henry son of John Blundell of Crosby
attested a Walton deed in 1368 ; Crox-
teth D. Bb. iv, 26. 'Son' may be a slip
for ' brother.'
In 1398, after the death of Richard de
Molyneux of Sefton, it was found that
Henry Blundell held land in Little Crosby
of him by knight's service, paying a rent
of 4</. ; Lanct. Inj. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 70.
This rent continued to be paid down to
1798, when at the Sefton sale it was
purchased for William Blundell, then lord
of Little Crosby. Nicholas Blundell re-
cords that on 3 May, 1710, he paid 'two
groat«' to Lord Molyneux' s bailiff for
two years' customary rent ; Diary, 85.
Licence for an oratory for two years at
Little Crosby was granted him in Nov.
1387, by the bishop of Lichfield, and
extended in May, 1389; Lich. Epis.
Reg. vi, fol. 123*, 125*.
In 1381-2 Nicholas son of William de
Liverpool released his right in certain
lands which Henry Blundell had had from
Hugh brother of Nicholas ; Blundell of
Crosby D. K.. 14, K. 15.
The writ Diem clausit extr. was issued
in 1406-7 ; Dep. keeper', Rep. xxxiii,
PThe'seal of this Henry Blundell shows
a cross moline pierced ; no doubt adopted
from Molyneux of Little Crosby ; Crox-
teth D. Z. i, 1 8.
1 Pink and Beavan, Lanes. Par!. Repre-
sentation, 49.
Beatrice daughter of Hugh de Stanulf
and Agnes her sister, daughters and heirs
of Joan, the daughter of William Blundell
of Ince, in .388-9 granted to Henry
Blundell of Crosby and Nicholas his son,
land on the Sand ; Blundell of Crosby D.
K. 1 52. See also ibid. K. 39 and K. 1 29.
In 1396 Richard son of Henry de
Kighley acquired by fine the manor of
Lightshaw from Nicholas, son of Henry
Henry Blundell went to France in the
king's retinue in May, 1415; Dep.
Keeper's Rep. xliv, App. 564.
Henry had two brothers— John and
Robert. For John his father purchased
lands in Lydiate ; he had a son Thomas,
vicar of Brackley in Northamptonshire ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 5, m. 15 j
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 101. Robert was
rector of Aldford in Cheshire from 1421
charters of Henry VI's reign ; Ormerod,
Cbes. (ed. Helsby), ii, 759 ; Blundell of
Crosby D. K.. 15, K. 31, K. 36. For all
three brothers, ibid. K, 47.
Henry Blundell was witness to charters
as late as 1456 ; ibid. K. 58, K.. 33.
« Nicholas Blundell married Ellen
daughter of John Page of Thornton ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K.. 27.
* Scarisbrick charters, n. I 66 (in Trans.
Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), xiii) ; P.R.O. Anct.
D., A. 12603.
In .479 as Nicholas, son and heir of
Nicholas Blundell, he granted to Thomas
Blundell, vicar of Brackley, Master Boni-
face Blundell, and others, his manor of
Little Crosby.
5 Gibson, Cavalier's Note Book, 10. The
Ducatiu Lane. (Rec. Com.). In 1517 Ni-
cholas Blundell complained that whereat
he had in 1512 let his manor of Crosby
to George Blundell, Edward Molyneux,
clerk, rector of Sefton, disregarding a de-
cree made in the duchy of Lane., had
expelled George from the manor. Edward
Molyneux replied that he and another re-
covered the manor against Nicholas to
certain uses, and their tenant had been
ejected by George; Duchy of Lane.
Depos. xi, B. 5, ea, 6.
The dispute also came before the Star
Chamber, which decreed that Edward
Molyneux should pay the debts of Nicho-
las Blundell out of the profits of the
manor of Little Crosby ; the jointure of
Agnes, widow of Henry Blundell, is men-
tioned ; Star Chamb. Proc. Hen. VIII,
There is extant a grant by George
Blundell to his brother Henry, son and
heir-apparent of Nicholas Blundell, of all
the manor of Little Crosby and all the
messuages, &c., including courts-leet and
liberties, which George had received from
Nicholas ; this is dated i June, 1513.
10 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. iv, n. 74.
He died on Friday, 9 Sept. 1513, which
family troubles is taken is printed more
at Flodden ; James, his son and heir, was
from the original at Little Crosby. It ap-
pears to have been drawn up by George
Blundell, a younger son of Nicholas, and
complains that the Molyneuxes had taken
away the Blundells' rights to waifs, strays,
and wreck j also their sporting rights and
rabbit warrens ; their chapel on the north
side of Sefton church ; 20 marks rent ;
sition recites the provision made in i 502
and 1503 for his second wife Agnes,
daughter of Sir Henry, and sister of
Richard Bold, including Ditton, Great
Crosby and other lands. His first wife,
espoused in 1488-9, was Katherine,
daughter of William Heaton, of Heaton
under Horwich ; Kuerden, fol. MS. 248.
prison at Lane, for 14 weeks, denied
George's right to the guardianship of his
brother's heir; and finally 'daily lay in
wait to kill and murder them.'
6 Kuerden fol. MS, 261, n. 490.
11 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. vi, n. id,
68. He had held the manor of Little
Crosby of William Molyneux by knight's
service and a rent of 4</., and lands in
Great Crosby (by a rent of ,<«.), Ditton,
Ince Blundell, Bold, Hindley, Liverpool,
Orrell, and Warrington.
13 Little seems to be known of Henry
Blundell ; he was living in 1545 ; Ducatut
Lane. (Rec. Com.), i, 181. Three years
later he sold a house to Richard Moly-
neux ; Croxteth D. E. i, 3 : and made a
settlement of his manors and lands in
August the same year, the remainder
being to his son Richard ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 56.
In 1562, the will of Thomas Leyland
the last-named was daughter and heir of
Nicholas de Tyldesley of Tyldesley ; Pal.
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 3, m. 3 ; and
Pal. of Lane. Chanc. Misc. bdle. i, file 9,
' The writ of Diem clausit extr. on his
death was issued 12 March, 1422-3 ; Dep.
Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 24.
a See the account of Ditton. In I42Z
Henry made several grants to John, son
and heir of Thomas Renacres of Bicker-
Brandearth, Corscroft, Hayrkirk, Bergh,
Dobhey, Dalton, Ragh Winter Hey and
Wodeam.
-' Liverpool Corp. D. An endorse-
ment dated 1672 says, 'I think that the
heirs of William Molyneux have nothing
to do with Halton, and now I know no
homage that is due unto them.'
8 Deed in Blundell evidences, 19 Aug.
» Cavalier's Note Book, 10-11. There are
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
family troubles recommenced. Adhering unflinch-
ingly to the ancient faith, he incurred the penalties
imposed by the laws, and died in Lancaster Castle,
19 March, 1591-2, having been convicted of har-
bouring a seminary priest.1 His son and heir William,
who was sharing the same imprisonment, was after-
wards released, only to be arrested again and imprisoned
in London for two years. After his return to Crosby
the hall was again searched, but he escaped by flight ;
his wife, however, was taken and imprisoned at
Chester for some time. The old Lancaster indict-
ment was revived, and husband and wife lived in
hiding until the accession of James I, when a full
pardon was obtained.1 Afterwards he incurred a
heavy fine on account of a rescue from the sheriff and
the Harkirk burial ground. He died at Little Crosby,
2 July, 1638.'
His grandson William, son of Nicholas, succeeded.
He attained his majority just about the outbreak of
the Civil War.4 Zealously espousing the king's side,
he obtained a captain's commission in Sir Thomas
Tyldesley's dragoons in December, 1642, and raised
SEFTON
a troop of men ; but being wounded at Lancaster in
the following March and lamed for life, had to retire
from active participation in hostilities.5 He was four
times imprisoned by the Parliamentarians, and his
lands were sequestered for seven years, after which he
was able to repurchase them through the intervention
of Protestant friends.6 After this he went abroad,
ultimately returning to England in the same ship with
Charles II. In the reign of James II he drew up a
petition for compensation for various losses sustained
by his loyalty and religion, but it was never presented ;
in it he described Little Crosby as a ' small lordship
or manor, consisting of forty houses or thereabouts,"
and for many years remarkable ' that it had not a
beggar ; that it had not an alehouse ; that it had not
a Protestant in it.' ' The last statement seems justi-
fied by the recusant roll of 1 64 1.8 In 1689 he was
imprisoned at Manchester for some weeks on the
order of the lord-lieutenant, and was accused of
complicity in the ' plot ' of 1 694.' He died
24 May, 1698, and was buried in the Blundell
chapel in Sefton church. His son William, who in
of Morleys mentions ' Anne Blundell, my
sister, widow,' so that Henry Blundell
had died before this ; Piccope, Wills
(Chet. Soc.), i, 162; Richard Blun-
dell was in possession early in 1561 ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 23,
Fro
I this time the pedigrees recorded
at the Visits, of 1567 and 1664, printed
by the Chet. Soc., can be used.
dell's cattle, but they were rescued ;
* whereupon he caused a privy sessions
and indicted a great many — to the number
of seventy persons — intending to make a
Star Chamber matter of it — but in the
meantime he was proved to exceed his
commission and take bribes, and thereby
was driven the country'; ibid. 31-3.
Little Crosby Hall 'was once for four-
teen days together [beset by pursuivants]
upon the report of a wicked priest
that fell and became a minister, discover-
garet, Anne, Winifred, and Frances.
Jane the widow of Nicholas was still
living in 1638. Nicholas Blundell seems
to have lixed at Ditton, paying double to
sant ; Norris D. (B. M.).
Richard Blundell, after studying at St.
Omer's, went to the English College,
Rome, where he died 22 July, 1649,
having previously been received into the
Society of Jesus; Foley, Rec. S. J. i,
years of age. The father ' was in gaol
for recepting of a seminary' in 1590;
Lydiate Hall, 245 (quoting S. P. Dom.
Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4). As early as 1568 he
ing what he knew of Catholics ' ; Chron.
of St. Monica's, Louvain (ed. Hamilton);
'' The grant of John Gille was dated
4 According to the inquisition last
quoted he was born on or about 1 8 July,
1620.
SA full account of his life will be
be the supreme head of the Church ' ;
ibid. in. See Crosby Rec. (Chet. Soc.
New Ser.), 21-2 ; also Stanley P. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 81, 89, 113; Gillow, Bit!.
Diet, of Engl. Cath. i, 247.
2 See Gillow, op. cit. i, 248. Crosby
Rec. 21-40, contains an account of his
and Edward Thurleston, 27 July, 1607 ;
issued touching his lands in 1601 (n. 1220);
Lanes, and Cbes. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 344-
8 Crosby Rec. 35-45. The immediate
occasion of the Star Chamb. proceed-
ings was the rescue in 1624 described
Book, 19-80; a fac-simile of the com-
mission signed by Tho. Tyldesley forms
the frontispiece. See also Gillow, op.
cit. i, 249. His history of the Isle of
Man has been printed by the Manx
Soc.
6 Royalist Comf. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 203-7, contains the petition
himself by writing ' ballads,' which he set
to music ; three of them are given,
This ground had been in use since 161 1,
when, 'having heard that Catholic recu-
Gilbert Crouch in 1653. In the Cat.
of Conminee for Comf. iv, 2692, are
sequestered for recusancy, had been
granted to ' one Lever'; in 1594, when
he was in prison in London, John Gille
obtained a grant of the two-thirds ; after-
wards a division was made, and a lease
granted to William Norris, whose sister
married William Blundell ; then Charles
Grimston obtained a new grant ; Thomas
Heaton and Gervase Travis followed, and
then two of Queen Elizabeth's cooks —
« two of the black guard '—begged all his
lands as a fugitive, for at this time pro-
parish church,' William Blundell 'caused
a little piece of ground to be enclosed
within his own demesne land in a place
called of old time, as it is now also, the
Harkirk.' Harkirk was used occasion-
ally for burial down to 1753; ibid.
69-85. The Star Chamb. imposed a
fine of £2,000, afterwards reduced to
£500 ; Cavalier's Note Book, p. 18 (quoting
Rushworth, Hist. Coll. ii, 21).
As a convicted recusant he paid double
to the subsidy in 1628; Norris D.
dell was obliged to pay not only for his
estates, but also the sums unpaid since
1596 by John Gille and other grantees of
the sequestered two-thirds; details are
given in Crosby Rec. 89-104, the final
settlement being made in 1658. The
estate had been sold under the third Act
of 1652; Index of Royalists (Index Soc.),
42. The payment for the estate, in
which he had only a life interest, was
£1,340, and for the arrears £1,167 i
Cavalier's Note Book, 29. A settlement
market according to the statute of fugi-
tives, it being supposed that he had left
the country. By the pardon from
James I he recovered his lands, John
Gille having been the only one of the
grantees who had secured any profit by
the sequestrations. Further grants of the
sequestered two-thirds were made by
James I between 1607 and 1610, but
nothing seems to have come of them ;
for instance, in 1610 Ambrose Astell,
pretending a grant from Bowes and
Beeston, seized some of William Blun-
3
Two of the court rolls of Little Crosby
of 1628 and 1634, with lists of the free-
holders, are printed in Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), vii-viii, 113-22. Officers
peculiar to the manors on the coast were
the ' surveyors of the sandy copps.'
The inquisition taken after William
Blundell's death— Duchy of Lane. Inq.
p. m. xxviii, n. 54— shows little change
in the lands held by him ; it recites the
provision made by him in 1631 for the
younger children of his son Nicholas
Blundell, deceased— Richard, Emily, Mar-
89
Blundell early in 1662; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle 168, m. n. In 1666 the
hall at Crosby had fifteen hearths liable
to the tax ; Lay Subs. 250-9.
7 Cavalier's Note Book, 52-54. He and
his son William had been marked out for
banishment in 1680 ; ibid. 166-7.
« Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv,
236.
• For the charge and arrest see Ktnyon
MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 307, 319,
362. His defence in 1694 may be read
in Jacobite Trials (Chet. Soc.), 100.
12
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
1694 had been imprisoned and tried in his father's
place, succeeded and lived for about eight years,1
when he was followed by his son
Nicholas Blundell, the last of the male line.* He
does not appear to have taken much interest in the
politics of the time, but his house was searched in
1715, and he had to use the hiding place, 'a strait
place for a fat man ' ; 3 and found it convenient to go
abroad for a year or two. On his return he regis-
tered his estate as a ' Papist,' its annual value being
.£482 izs. zW.4 He died 21 April, 1737, leaving
two daughters, the younger of whom, Frances, even-
tually sole heiress, married Henry Peppard, a wealthy
Liverpool merchant of Irish descent.5 Their son
Nicholas in 1772 took Blundell as his surname ;" and
was in turn followed by his son William,7 his grand-
son Nicholas,8 and his great-grandson William Joseph,
the present lord of the manor.
An oxgang of land granted about 1270 by Sir
Robert de Crosby to his sister Anabel and her hus-
band Ralph de Greenhol9 appears to have descended to
the Anyon family,10 and was eventually sold in 1501
to William Moore of Kirkdale,11 with whose descen-
dants it remained for over two hundred years, being
described as the twenty-fourth
part of the manor.18 On the
sale of the Moore estates it
was purchased by the earl of
Derby,13 but has since been sold
to the Blundells of Crosby.
Other families here were
surnamed Moorhouses,14 Light-
foot,15 Langback,16 and Liver-
pool."
The hospital of St. John at
Chester also had a small piece
of land here.18
A number of ' Papists ' regis-
tered estates in I7I7-19
The lord of the manor and most of the people
having adhered to the Roman Catholic faith, mass has
probably been said here almost continuously in spite
MOORE or K.IRKDAL*.
Argent, three greyhounds
courant in pale table
collared or.
i He died 2 August, 1702 ; N. Blundell,
Diary, 2. The son records: 'As his life was
virtuous and edifying so was his death.'
His eldest brother Nicholas renounced
the inheritance on entering the Society of
Jesus in 1663 ; he was charged by Titus
Dates with an intention to burn the city
of London, but was released after a brief
imprisonment; Gillow, op. cit. i, 245;
ments, 223 ; Burke, Commoners, ii, 529,
and Landed Gentry.
« Cal. Home Office Papers, 1 770-2, p. 634.
^ He purchased the manor of Great
Crosby in 1798.
8 A biography with portrait appeared
in the Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1895.
» This charter has been recited in a
previous note. Ralph had a son William,
Lightfoot, in free marriage with his
daughter Ellen, lands which he had pro-
cured from Nicholas, son of David Blun-
dell, in the Moorlands ; Blundell of
Crosby D. K. 285. Ten years later
Roger son of Adam of Little Crosby
granted land to the same Adam Lightfoot ;
ibid. K. 288.
« Nicholas Blundell in 1333 granted
Thomas Blundell, a younger brother, was
also a Jesuit; Gillow, i, 247; Foley, vii, 67.
1 See Gillow, op. cit. i, 246. One
brother, Joseph, was a Jesuit ; Foley, op.
cit. v, 342 ; vii, 66 ; his will is at Stony-
hurst ; Hht. MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iv,
183-4. The other, Richard, died in Mary-
land in 1704; Diary, 32.
Extracts from Nicholas's Diary were
published at Liverpool in 1895, giving a
multitude of interesting details as to
persons and customs. The following
topographical notes may be given as
specimens : ' Mr. Richard Molyneux of
appear to have sold half the oxgang to
Nicholas Blundell ; Blundell of Crosby D.
K. 283, K. 238. It was afterwards given
to Adam, son of Thomas de Aykesco ;
ibid. K. 254.
1° The descent is by inference merely.
John Anyon and Joan his wife and
John their son in 1367 received from
John Blundell a lease of land. It ap-
pears that Joan inherited from her
an oxgang in Little Crosby, mentioned
in exchanges between Joan and Henry
Blundell in 1385 and 1386. Richard
mon of pasture for all animals in Little
Crosby; ibid. K. 130. William's sons
Richard, John, and Thomas, in 1356 re-
granted to their father the lands they
had received from him ; ibid. K. 1 32.
A grant to the son Thomas, made in
1355, is at Knowsley ; bdle. 1402, n. 13.
17 The Liverpool family several times
appear in the Blundell D. as feoffees or
owners of land. At Knowsley is a grant,
dated 1 349, from Richard son of William
son of Ralph de Liverpool to John Diccon-
son of Liverpool, son of Maud del
Meles, concerning lands in Little Crosby
the boundary between his coney warren
and mine ; it was set about halfway be-
1405. The deeds are at Knowsl'ey,
death of his brother Master Robert de
Liverpool, as contained in the charter o
lane end, upon a hill called Tenpenny
11 Thomas Anyon of Brackley was the
Master Robert; Roger dc la Moore o
stones at each end of Blanchard's lane '
(p. 5) ; 'The jury met in the Town-field
discoursed about the Doostone that's set
in Richard Harrison's butt' (p. 54) ; 'I
removed the great stone as has time out
of mind stood near the Lower Bark gate
and fixed it at the turning of the causey
in the west lane' (p. 163). The frontis-
piece is a view of Crosby Hall in 1735.
•Diary, ,38-
« Ibid. 145 ; Eng. Cath. Nonjuron, i 50.
40 marks. About a century later there
tween William Moore and William Blun-
dell ; ibid. n. 29.
ia It so appears in the Moore inquisi-
tions ; e.g. Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 14.
13 The Knowsley deeds referred to are
described as 'relating to former posses-
sions of the earl of Derby.'
The Moores had other lands in the
Moorhouses, Little Crosby, and Ince
Liverpool were among the witnesses .
bdle. 1402, n. ii.
18 Richard son of Hugh the Little re
signed to Adam »on of Robert de Ains
dale his right in an acre in Little Crosb'
held of the house of St. John of Chester ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 306. A certain
Roger in 1316-17 gave to William son of
William de Formby land held from th-
same hospital ; ibid. K. 133. Six year;
later William son of Bimme of the
Moorhouses granted to Robert his son an i
17 Oct. 1720 (p. 170) ; Foley, Rec. S.J.
v, 365, where the name is given as Pip-
pard. He is said to have been a grand-
son of Thomas Peppard, alderman and
merchant of Drogheda, who represented
the town in the Irish Parliament from
1634 till his death in 1640; Names of
Members (Blue Bk. 1878), ii, 614. A
Colonel Peppard commanded Walsh's
regiment in the Irish Brigade in 1736 ;
Foley, op. cit. v, 399. Henry Pippard
and Frances his wife made a settlement
of the manor in 1735; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 313, m. 12.
The later stages of the Blundell pedi-
gree have been taken from Gregson, Frag-
Mercer of Walton from Thomas Lin-
acre, to whom they had descended from
Thomas Wilson his grandfather ; Moore
D. n. 74910 751.
" Settlements of his estate at the
Sand, &c., made between 1361 and 1388
by William, son of William Dyken of
the Moorhouses, show that he had a son
John, and daughters, Margaret, Ellen, and
Clemency ; his wife's name was Quenilda ;
Knowsley D. bdle. 1402, n. 14, 21-22.
There are many deeds relating to the
family or families thus named in the
Blundell of Crosby D.
15 In 1332 Henry the Shepherd (Ber-
cator) of the Moorhouses gave to Adam
90
held of the chief lord of the fee, zd. 3
year being payable to the hospital ; Kuei
den, ii, fol. 254, n. 200. This land Robci t
in 1342 gave to Richard son of John d-
Langback; Blundell of Crosby D. K. I4c .
i» Margaret Sheppard, Thomas Marrov,
Margery Blundell, Richard Ainswortli,
William Weedow, John Blundell, William
Grey, Thomas Blanchard, Edward Hov.
ard, Walter Thelwall, John Tickl ,
Thomas Mather, William Harrison, Brytu
Lea, Thomas Farrer, Richard Jackson,
William Wignall (also at Scarisbrick ,
James Dary, John Molyneux, and Willia:,i
Marrow ; Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, I47-S,
•54-5-
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
of the Elizabethan legislation.1 But few notices of
the priests who found a refuge here have been pre-
served ! until the Jesuits were placed in charge of the
mission about 1652, remaining there from that time
until 1786.* The Benedictines succeeded them, and
except for five years, continued until 1860.* Secular
priests have since done service. In 1708 Fr. Aldred,
then resident, left the hall to live in the village, an
upper room in his cottage serving as a chapel ;* in
1720 he removed to West Lane.6 The present
church of St. Mary, designed by A. W. Pugin, and
built and endowed by William Blundell, grandfather
of the present lord of the manor, was consecrated in
1847. There is a burial ground attached.
GREAT CROSBY
Crossebi, 1 176 ; Major Grosseby, 121 1 ; Crosseby,
1212; Micle Crosseby, 1292 ; Much and Great
Crosby were both used in the sixteenth century.
The ancient township of Great Crosby, which in-
cludes Waterloo, lies on the northern shore of the
estuary of the Mersey, with a level sandy beach ex-
tending over three miles from north-west to south-
east ; it stretches inland some two miles, and has an
area of 2,168 acres,7 of which 1,907 acres belong to
the present diminished township. The population in
1901 was 7,555, and that of Waterloo 9,839.
The country is flat and sandy, being in places still
very marshy, so that deep ditches, especially in the
north, are required to drain the fields and meadows.
The crops grown are principally oats, rye, and pota-
toes. At Hall Road there are golf-links on both
sides of the railway, and a broad stretch of sandhills,
yet unbuilt upon, extends along the northern half of
the sea coast. The geological formation consists of
the keuper series of the new red sandstone or trias,
being represented almost entirely by lower keuper
sandstones, but in the southern part of the township
the waterstone is found overlying the former. From
the shore inland for three-quarters of a mile the
underlying formation is obscured by blown sand.
The village, which lies more than a mile inland, is
becoming modernized and growing quickly, especially
along the principal road, that from Liverpool to
Southport, which crosses the township in a northerly
direction, with roads branching off to the shore and
to Thornton. The Liverpool and Southport line of
SEFTON
the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, opened in 1 848,
with stations at Waterloo and Blundellsands, also
passes through the township. An electric tramway
connects Great Crosby with the Seaforth terminus of
the Liverpool Overhead Railway.
The township of Waterloo has been carved out of
the southern part of Great Crosby. To the north of
it are Brighton le Sands and Blundellsands ; these
places consist principally of modern residences, which
afford Liverpool people convenient dwellings at the
seaside. In 1889 Colonel Nicholas Blundell gave
3^ acres to the local board for a recreation ground.8
Crosby Channel forms the principal entrance to
the Mersey ; it is about three-quarters of a mile
wide. By constant dredging a sufficient depth of
water for the passage of the great liners is maintained.
There is a lightship in the channel.
A copper token was struck in 1667 by a Crosby
man.* A view of the place in 1715 is extant.10
The village festival, known as the Goose Feast, was
kept in October.11
The Crosby races used to be held once or twice a
year — the first week of August was the proper time —
on a course on the shore side of Great and Little
Crosby, which had been ' stooped out ' by William
Blundell in 1654 at the request of Lord Molyneux.
The date is noticeable."
The little triangular green of the village is now
paved. Here is the ancient St. Michael's Well, which
has been covered in, and is surmounted with steps and
a wooden cross.13 There are sundials dated 1766
and 1795 at the Mulberries and Crosby House.
The ' submerged forest ' off the coast of Great and
Little Crosby was described as visible in 1 796."
A great boulder stone, found close by, is placed in
the village, protected by an iron railing.
Lawrence Johnson, educated at Oxford and Douay,
executed in 1582 and declared ' Blessed ' by Leo XIII
in 1 886, was son of Richard Johnson of Great Crosby,
and laboured for a short time in Lancashire.15
A local board for the part not included in Water-
loo-with-Seaforth was formed in 1863 ; 16 this in 1894
became an urban district council with nine members.
GREAT CROSBY is not men-
M4NOR tioned by name in Domesday Book,
being in 1 066 one of the six berevvicks
dependent on the royal manor of West Derby." This
dependency continued after the Conquest, the manor,
I 'To the Blundells of Crosby the
Catholics of the south-west of Lanes.
were long indebted ; for their domestic
chapel and the priest who served it were
< Gillow, loc. cit., where a list will be
found.
* N. Blundell, Diary, 63. There is a
view of it opposite p. 72.
St. Luke's, as the nearest remaining festi-
val in the calendar, would probably be
chosen after the Reformation.
12 Cavalier's Nate Book, 222-4, *53-
help in penal times'; Jos. Gillow in
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),xiii, 163-4.
"In 1568 there were 'two priests at
the hall of Crosby,' who said mass com-
monly ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 211 (quot-
ing S. P. Dom. Eliz. xlviii, ». 34). Chris-
topher Small, sometime fellow of Exeter
sions to the 'chapel' and services in the
volume just quoted. On I July, 1721,
Bishop Witham confirmed 284 persons ;
p. 178.
1 Including 7 acres of inland water, in
Census Rep. of 1901 — Waterloo and part
of Brighton le Sands being excluded ;
of the races, as fixed in 1682, are printed
in the work cited, pp. 267-70.
The races are often mentioned in the
Diary of Nicholas Blundell, who was also
a frequenter of the bowling green at
Crosby.
™ Lanes, and Ches.Antiq. Soc. xix, 178-
years ; see the account of Lydiate.
In 1586 the curate of Sefton reported
that James Darwen, a seminary priest,
was received by Richard Blundell of
Crosby; Lydiate Hall, 240 (from Harl.
MS. 360, fol. 7i). It was for harbour-
ing one Woodruff, a seminary priest,
that Richard was imprisoned in 1590;
Crosby Rec. 21. James Forde, another
«eminarist, waa there in 1592; Gillow,
and 807 foreshore. The area of Great
Crosby and Litherland combined shows
corded on the Ordnance maps of 1848.
8 End. Char. Rep. Sefton, l 899, p. 27.
' Lanes, and Ches. Antij. Sac. v, 77 ;
there It a specimen in Warrington
™ Trans. Hist. Soc. vii, 179.
11 Goose Feast Sunday was the nearest
» Gent. Mag. Lit. Topog. vi, 260 ; from
the GM. of 1796, where a plate was
S>V'' Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Engl. Cath. Hi,
635, where a number of references are
given. Foster, in Alumni Oxon., calls him
fellow of Brasenose, and refers to Oxf.
Hist. Soc. xii, 1 8.
16 Land. Ga*. 24 April and 2 June,
1863. For Waterloo see below in the
8 Foley, Rec. S. J. v, 340—5.
day were St. Michael's on 16 October,
91
17 Sec V.C.H. Lanes, i, 2833.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
assessed as four plough-lands, forming part of the
demesne of the honour of Lancaster ' attached to
West Derby, until it was sold by Charles I in 1625
to Lord Mandeville and others.1
From this time it descended
with Sefton until in 1798 it
was sold, the purchaser being a
trustee of the Blundells of Little
Crosby.1 The present lord of
the manor is Mr. William Joseph
Blundell.4
This family's connexion with
the place began in the twelfth
century, John, count of Mortain,
having granted it between 1 1 89
and 1 1 94 to his forester, Robert
de Ainsdale, at a yearly rent ol
loo/.* This grant was probably revoked after John's
rebellion in H94,6foron coming to the throne he
confirmed it.7 It was, however, very soon resigned
or forfeited, for in 1212 it was found that Robert
de Ainsdale held only an eighth part of the manor,
that is four oxgangs of land, and that by the service
of being steward ; 8 the tenure was converted during
the reign of Henry III into fee farm, for IO/. yearly.9
ID ODD
D D D
DD
D,
„ , LITTLE
CROSBY. Sable, ten bil-
lets, 4, 3, 2 and ., ar-
gent.
This portion remained with Robert's descendants,'*
whose history is given in the account of the adjacent
manor of Little Crosby.
Another eighth portion or the manor was in 1212
held by Simon de Crosby." He was followed about
1225 by Robert de Crosby;11 Richard de Crosby '*
and others bearing the local name " occur later ; but
during the thirteenth century one Sturmi de Crosby
succeeded, and sold it to William son of Henry de
Walton.14 This William was followed by his son
Simon" and grandson Henry, the latter being re-
turned as holding half a plough-land here in 1323-4."
Yet it would seem clear that before this date Simon
de Walton had sold his lands to Nicholas Blundell,1"
for they were settled as dower upon Agnes,19 the
widow of Nicholas's son David ; and were after-
wards granted to his grandson Richard, who married
Emma daughter of Thomas de Molyneux of Sefton.**
They were in I 346 held by Emma's brother Thomas
de Molyneux, perhaps as trustee.81 There were no
children by the marriage, and in 1352 William, as
son and heir of Nicholas Blundell, a brother of David,
claimed from Thomas son of Thomas de Molyneux
two oxgangs of land in Great Crosby which he alleged
should have descended to him." It does not appear
1 See the account of West Derby ; also
Lanes. Inq. and Extent! (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.) 20, 23. In 1176-7 Crosby
paid 361. 8</. to the aid levied on the
honour of Lane. ; Farrer, Lanes. Pipe
though the word is not used ; it included
the land with all its appurtenances in
wood and open country, &c. ; and all
liberties and free customs.
6 In 1194, Robert son of Osbert owed
disseised Sturmi; Assize R. 408, m. 35.
In another plea the plaintiff is described
as Richard, son of Simon son of Wyon ;
ibid. m. 29. He was non-suited.
Simon de Walton was holding in 1298 ;
annual entry in the sheriff's accounts of
' 30*. of increment from Crosby ' ; ibid.
113, &c.
" Pat. i Chas. I, pt. ii, 24 May ; Crox-
teth D. D. ii. The patent recites that
the king, performing his father's inten-
tions, granted to Robert Dixon and Wil-
liam Walley the manor of Great Crosby,
in consideration of £12,500 paid by
Henry, Viscount Mandeville. The sale
included the rents, &c, of free as of bond
and customary tenants, court-baron and
fines, &c., in all valued at £13 18.. of,/.,
king ; implying that he had shared in the
rebellion, or at least in its consequences ;
Lanes. Pipe R. 78.
- Kuerden MSS. loc. cit. n. 173 ; Rot.
Cart. (Rec. Com.), xli. This was granted at
as the original'. At' the same time
Robert engaged to pay 10 marks and a
chaseur for the confirmation ; Lanes. Pipe
R. 106, 114, 127.
*I,,j. and Extents, *1.
» Kuerden MSS. ii. fol. 254, n. 192.
The grant altering the tenure was made
granted to Richard son of Roger son of
Abraham, half an oxgang in Great Cros-
by ; Croxteth D. D. v, 2.
i? Henry de Walton was holding in
i 124 ; Rentals and Surv. 379, m. 3.
18 Blundell of Crosby D. K. 119; by
this charter Simon granted Nicholas all
his lands in the vill, with his house and
appurtenances, homages, services, &c. It
is dated in April 1290. Another charter
has been preserved (ibid. K. 23 1) by which
Robert de Molyneux granted to Nicholas
Blundell a windmill in Great Crosby, and
On 13 March, 1625-6, Dixon and
Walley transferred the grant to Sir Tho-
mas Walmcsley, William Fazakerley,
John Nutter, and Edward Holt; Crox-
teth D. ibid. These four were no doubt
Derby, to Adam de Ainsdale, and may
therefore be placed between 1232 and
1248.
10 Inq. and Extents, 117, 286. See for
a later instance the inquisition after the
death of Henry Blundell, taken in 1516,
the mill, formerly belonging to Simon de
Walton and William de Aintree.
In 1414 Edward Blundell, probably a
trustee, granted to Nicholas Blundell two
messuages and two oxgangs in Mickle
Crosby which had belonged to Simon dc
first viscount, as in the case of Liverpool;
»ee Cal. of S.P. Dom. 1640, p. 200. This
lands in Great Crosby from the king as
duke of Lane, in socage, by a rent of 101. ;
i» She had the four oxgangs as dower, but
they are not said to have been Simon's ;
inquisition taken after his death in 1636;
but in 1646 the parliamentary commis-
sioners reported that his son, the second
viscount, had an estate in the manors of
Great Crosby and Liverpool, and that
there was a fee-farm rent payable out of
the same of £13 181. o|</. ; the estate
was worth over and above this rent, £30 ;
Royalist Comf. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
11 Inq. and Extents, 20. The service
" Pipe R. 10 Hen. Ill, n. 70, m. 9.
Robert de Crosby was holding in 1226 ;
Ina. and Extents, 136.
i» Richard de Crosby attested local
charters of Edw. I and Edw. II's time ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 23 1, K. 1 1 9, &c.
11 Dicket of Great Crosby and Amabel
Agnes, widow of Richard de Holland of
Sutton, enfeoffed Richard de Lund, clerk,
of all her lands in Great Crosby, viz.
one-eighth part of the manor ; ibid. K.
208, K. 206.
80 In 1336 Richard de Lund gave them
to Richard son of Nicholas Blundell, and
Emma daughter of Thomas de Molyneux
of Sefton and their heirs ; the whole or part
8 Thomas Ryan was the purchaser for
the Blundells. A deed of 9 Feb., 1799,
completed the transfer. After the death
of T. Ryan in 1802 his trustees or execu-
tors conveyed the estate to Clementina
Blundell, widow of the late lord of Little
from Adam son of Gilbert Midia of Great
Crosby, and Roger son of Silvester of
Great Crosby ; Kuerden, fol. MS. 260,
«• 575. 574-
1* Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 254, n. 193.
The four oxgangs are named ; William de
Walton's ' ; the reversion was to Nicholas
Blundell; ibid. K. 121.
'"•Survey of 1346 (Chet. Soc.), 32;
Thomas de Molyneux at the same time
had four oxgangs and Richard Blundell
four.
veyed to their son and heir William
Blundell; information of Mr. W. E.
Gregson.
4 See the descent in the account of
Little Crosby.
5 Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 124*, n. 172.
The grant seems to be that of a manor,
4</. As Adam de Molyneux and Adam
de Ainsdale were witnesses, the charter
must be dated before 1250.
"In 1292 Richard son of Simon
Sturmi complained that Simon son of
William de Walton held half an oxgang
in Great Crosby, of which William had
m. iv ; also De Bane. R. 360, m. 106 ;
R. 362, m. 128. The defendant stated
that the charters alleged had been mis-
understood. At the first trial the panels
were quashed, because Henry de Chader-
ton, the duke's bailiff, was related to the
defendant, the sheriff's wife Rose being
92
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
whether this estate reverted to the Blundells of Crosby
or passed to the heirs of Thomas.1
Another portion, also originally an eighth, was
held in 1212 by Roger Mallot or Malice," and de-
scended soon afterwards to Robert Mallot.3 Thomas
Banastre held it by charter in 1298;' while in 1323-4
John and William sons of Roger had the same portion.6
A sub-division followed, and in 1346 the tenants of
each of the three oxgangs of land which composed the
tenement were separately recorded thus : Richard de
Wall, paying is. 6d. ; Robert de Wyresdale, Roger
Bolymer, and Margery daughter of Thomas Jordan-
son, y. ; and William Rogerson with John del Dale,
half; and Henry Woodward, half, 3/.6 Some frag-
ments can be traced further, and appear to have been
acquired by Molyneux of Sefton.7
The greater part of the land of the manor was held
in villeinage, and in the extent of 1323-4 already
quoted is a list of the twenty-four holdings, the tene-
ments ranging from a quarter of an oxgang to three
and a half oxgangs, with a note appended that the
oxgang of land contained 5 acres, the assized rent
being at the rate of \s. 6d. for each oxgang of land.
It is further stated that 'the commonalty of the town
of Crosby holds a certain field called the Ford, and
pays los. yearly at Michaelmas.'8 The extent of
1346 enters much more minutely into the customs
SEFTON
and conditions of the township.9 The free tenants
remained as formerly, but William de Liverpool,
clerk, and Nichola his wife, had acquired 6 acres next
Balifield by charter of the lord's father. 10
In 1246 the town of Great Crosby was amerced
4cu. for wreckage found on the shore, because the
booty was taken without warrant and hidden."
In the reign of Henry VI there was a dispute
between Henry Blundell, lord of Little Crosby, and
the king's tenants of Great Crosby about the bounda-
ries. By the assent of Sir Richard Molyneux, steward
of the latter place, Thomas Lathom, then escheator,
was made arbitrator, and taking sixteen of the tenants
he rode with them himself to survey the boundary, set-
ting up the meres then and there, after which Henry
Blundell made a ditch along the boundary so marked
out."
It was an established rule that no man should
build any house except within the precincts of the
town, wherefore the king's tenants in 1532 com-
plained that a certain Nicholas Johnson, supported by
James Blundell of Ince and about forty companions,
had built a house on a new site, in defiance of the
other tenants and the constables of the town. More-
over ' the said Nicholas, with eight others, for about
three weeks after the said house was built, armed
with bows, arrows, bucklers, &c., kept watch by
also a relative. At the adjournment
'Rentals and Surv. 379, m. 3. The
The villeins were liable for the reap-
William Blundell did not appear and was
father, Roger, may have been the son of
ing of the lord's meadows at Derby, and
non-suited.
Silvester mentioned in a previous note ;
for carrying firewood during the lord'ft
The charters appear to be some pre-
served by Kuerden. Nicholas Blundell,
field names. In 1292, however, Margery,
timber for building the houses of the
Molyneux, rector of Sefton, of his lands,
that John son of Roger dc Crosby, and
at u. 9f</. yearly for an oxgang in addition
and exchanged them for those which had
Roger son of Quenilda de Crosby, were
to the rent of 41. 6J. above mentioned.
belonged to Simon de Walton ; Blundell
detaining a charter from her; Assize
The villein was bound to come to the
of Crosby D. K.. 159. Soon afterwards
R. 408, m. ii.
lord's hallmote whenever summoned, could
the rector granted to Nicholas and his wife
6 Survey of 1346 (Chet. Soc.), 32.
not marry his daughter nor allow his son
Margery the lands in Crosby which had
?In 1393 it was found that Robert
to be coroner without payment for re-
then to Richard son of David Blundell
as son and heir. This Roger had a
make satisfaction for the holding, as well
K. 122, and Kucrden fol. MS. 261, ».
ginson, but she and her nine sons all
the widow's right to a third would be
487.
died before her husband. This husband
allowed by a separate agreement ; the
Margery, as wife of Thomas Penreth,
married again, and had a son Thomas
chattels belonged to the lord wholly, after
in 1335 demised to Cecily, widow of
Thomas de Molyneux, her life interest in
as William Tue son of Agnes daughter of
payment of the dues of the church and
the debts of the deceased, one-third being
the lands at Great Crosby ; Croxteth D.
Margery daughter of Simon the Porter,
retained by him, and two-thirds returned
D. i, ..
brother of Roger Robinson, was the heir,
to the widow and the children or next
1 On the one hand it appears that
although Margery's sister Alice had re-
heirs. A list of the tenants at will fol-
Richard son of Nicholas Blundell, and
leased her right to William Higginson ;
lows, one of them did the ' services of
husband of Emma, had in 1345 granted
Croxteth D. D. v, 6.
the Forland'; and also those of the
all his lands in Great Crosby to Richard
William Tue granted his inheritance in
riddings, the latter being rented at is. ark
son of Sir John de Molyneux of Little
1432 to John the Cook ; he about eighteen
acre.
Crosby ; and four years later Nicholas,
months afterwards sold it to John son of
It appears further that Thomas de-
father of Richard, gave to his son Henry
John of Great Crosby— i.e. John Johnson
Molyneux was then bailiff of the wapen-
the reversion of all the lands which had
— who shortly afterwards settled it on
take. William Rogerson, a native, had
been held by his mother Agnes, and then
himself and his wife Margaret for life,
part of an oxgang of the lord's escheat, as
by Emma widow of Richard ; Blundell of
and then to their son Robert and his sons
of the free holding of Emma daughter of
Crosby D. K.. 207, K.. 205.
Thomas and Nicholas ; ibid. D. v, 7-12.
Alan son of Simon, late his wife, and
On the other hand Thomas dc Moly-
Richard, son of John the Cook, also granted
owed yd, to the free rent of the wapcn-
neux, as already shown, was the tenant in
half an oxgang to John son of John de
take ; Roger son of Hugh, also a native
1346; and his heirs, the Osbaldestons,
Crosby in 1429 ; ibid. D. v, 5.
by blood, had free land of the inheritance.
held lands in Great Crosby as part of their
Other Croxteth deeds concern lands of
of Almar his wife.
manor of Edge in Sefton ; Duchy of Lane.
the Ncwhouses family. In 1392 Henry
"Knowsley D. bdle. 1402, n. 10; dated,
Inq. p.m. xii, n. 28. The rent payable to
son of Robert del Newhouses settled his
at K-nowsley, 8 July, 1343, and granting
the duchy by the Blundells remained at
hereditary lands on himself and his wife
6 acres of waste in the marsh of Great
los. instead of being increased to 201.
Alice, with remainders to their children
Crosby, adjoining a place called the Bail-.
* Inq. and Extent:, 20 ; two of the four
John and Catherine, and then to Robert
liffeld, between the bounds of Crosby and
oxgangs had been forfeited because * his
and William sons of Richard del New-
Litherland, at a rent of 35. ; also granting
ancestors put them to farm to the king's
houses ; ibid. D. v, 3-4.
an acre and a rood in Liverpool.
rustics.'
Richard Newhouse was a reeve of the
"Assize R. 404, m. 19.
8 Ibid. 1 36 ; Robert was paying 71. 6d.,
chapel in 1552; Ch. Goods (Chet. Soc.),
"Lansd. MS. 559, fol. 74*. Nicholas.
showing that one of the forfeited oxgangs
104.
Lurting was one of the tenants. Thomas .
had been restored.
8 Rentals and Surv. 379.
de Lathom was escheator in various years.
<Ibid. 287.
'Add. MS. 32103, fol. 143*.
from 1431 to 1459.
93
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
night, so that the said tenants durst not walk out in
the evening as they had been accustomed to do, and
see their goods.' Further, on the Eve of St. Michael
in Monte Tumba he had gone into the chapel and
kept the door shut, so that neither ' strange pilgrims '
nor the townspeople could enter to pray or make
their offerings.1
Queen Elizabeth in 1602 enclosed 200 acres of
the common or waste lands of the manor, to be en-
joyed by the tenants in severalty by copy of court
roll according to the custom of the manor, paying
Afd. for every acre improved, and to be subject to the
usual fines."
The Johnson family appear to have been among
the principal tenants in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, but it is difficult to trace the family back
with certainty owing to the use of the Christian name
as surname in the precise sense, as ' son of John,' so
that the surname varied from generation to generation.3
A number of ' Papists ' registered their estates here
in 1717 — Henry Aspinwall of Croxteth, Richard
Cartwright, Edward Hatton, John Hunt, John
Johnson, Robert Johnson, John Lurting, Thomas
Syers and Mary his wife, Thomas Thelwall, and
Richard Westhead.4
The court rolls of the manor, dating from the
time of Henry VIII, are kept in a box in St. Luke's
church gallery. A few earlier ones are at Croxteth.5
Great Crosby Marsh was enclosed in 1 8 1 6.6 The
old bull-croft, belonging to the township, stood in
Marsh Lane ; the assembly rooms are built upon a
portion of it.7
Although from its name it may be
CHURCH supposed that there had been a chapel
at Great Crosby from an early time, the
first direct reference hitherto noticed is that quoted
above, in 1532. From this it will be seen that it
was a place of pilgrimage, and it may further be
gathered that the feast day was St. Michael in Monte
Tumba, 16 October.8
The Parliamentary Commissioners of 1 650 described
it as 'an ancient chapel well situated, the present
incumbent being Mr. John Kidd, an able minister,
who hath for his salary the tithes of the said place,
being worth £30 per annum,' and they considered
that it might be made an independent parish
church.9
The old chapel of St. Michael was replaced in
1774 by a brick building with a tower.10 This was
pulled down in 1864, though the tower continued to
stand until 1880. The present church of St. Luke,
on the main road, some quarter of a mile from the old
one, was built in 1854. There is a graveyard.
The church plate includes a paten (date 1724)
given by Mrs. Elizabeth Martin in 1 766 ; and a
chalice (initials I.L.) of Elizabethan style, but ap-
parently of eighteenth-century manufacture, the cor-
responding paten of which is among the Sefton church
plate. There is a sundial (date 1752) in the church-
yard.
The following is an imperfect list of curates-in-
charge and incumbents since the beginning of the
seventeenth century n ; several of them were also
masters
Bef.
f the
chool : —
e gra
1650 John Kidd, M.A.
1680 John Wareing, B.A. (? Emmanuel Coll.
Camb.)
1711 Gerard Wareing, B.A.
1733 Robert Bellis
1733 Anthony Halsall
1756 Edward Owen, M.A. (Jesus Coll. Oxf.)
1758 Wilfred Troutbeck
1 Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 4. Nicholas Johnson was the
husband of Margaret Blundell, sister of
James ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 85.
2 Croxteth D. D. ii, I.
» Some mention of them has been
made above, with examples of the change
of surname. It is noticeable that B.
Richard Johnson and William Holt were
sworn before William Blundell of Ince
and Robin Holt of the same to claim one
half each and no more; and Thomas
Linacre was to make no alienation.
FeorTments by Richard Johnson of
Little Crosby in 1447-8 mention lands
there and in Ince Blundell ; part he held
Richardson, his father being Richard.
'The family was of considerable an-
tiquity, and suffered greatly for its re-
ligion. . . . About the middle of the
seventeenth century John Johnson of
Great Crosby, the representative of the
family, married Jane daughter of John
Molyneux of New Hall. She was a widow
in 1667, and was then paying her fines
for recusancy ; ' Gillow, l.s.c.
In 1459 Nicholas son of Jenkyn John-
son and Joan his wife and John son of
the said Nicholas entered upon a mes-
suage and half an oxgang by demise of
John Golding ; and in 1474 Henry
Nicholason sought entry into a messuage
and oxgang by demise of Alice widow
of Nicholas Jankinson; Court R. at
Croxteth.
Moore charters (n. 744) is a record of the
descent of the property of Tomlin Wilson,
who in the presence of Nicholas Blundell,
the father of Harry Blundell lately de-
ceased, had declared that his heirs were
his daughter, the wife of Richard Johnson,
and his grandson Thomas Linacre, son of
another daughter. The former had a son,
John Richardson, and the latter a daugh-
ter married to Wilkin Holt, and in 1470
daughter of Thomas Wilson of Ince;
Kuerden MSS. iii, C. 34, n. 437, 439.
His son was John ; ibid. n. 438.
Nicholas Johnson of Crosby, aged
sixty-six, gave evidence in a Downholland
dispute in 1558 ; Duchy of Lane. Depos.
Phil, and Mary, Ixxv, H. 3.
The will of Nicholas Johnson, dated
24 April, 1610, and proved at Chester
the same year, mentions his wife Eliza-
beth, his eldest son John, and other
children— Richard, Nicholas, and Margery;
also his grandchild Nicholas Johnson.
This inventory, made 1 1 May, shows
goods of the value of £234.
The will of Jane Johnson, of the
Moorside within Great Crosby, widow,
dated 1 6 March, 1702-3, names her
brother and sister Edward and Margaret
Molyneux and other relations and friends,
including Robert Breres of Walton Hall.
She was a daughter of John Molyneux of
Alt Grange. Her executors were to dis-
pose of the residue of her estate according
to a schedule annexed to the will. She
devised £300 towards the maintenance of
two youths, Edward son of Edward
Molyneux of Altcar and Richard Smith
son of Margaret Smith (who married a
second husband, Thomas Widdowton of
94
Bootle), and in 1716 this money was
'being paid to some Popish College be-
yond seas to make the said youths priests' ;
Payne, Rec. of Engl. Catb. 151, 126;
Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 203. Her
house, still standing, was in 1666 the
largest in Crosby, yet it had only four
hearths ; Lay Subs. Lanes. =£ °.
* Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Catb. Non-
jurors, 1 10, &c. For a son of Edward
Hatton see Gillow, Bill. Diet, iii, 163.
5 In one of the Croxteth R. dated
1538, the officers are named as reeve,
(4), and supervisors of wreck of the sea
(2). The later rolls give bierlawmen,
supervisors of waifs, estrays, and wreck
of the sea, and chapel reeves.
8 The Act was passed 28 Feb. 1812;
and the award made four years later at
the Ship Inn, Great Crosby. There it a
copy with plan at the County Council
Offices, Preston.
^ End. Char. Rep. 1899 (Sefton), 26.
8 For other notes, list of church orna-
ments, &c., see Raines, Chantries (Chet
Soc.), ii, 268, 276, 277, where the chapel
itself is valued at 301. ; and Ch. Goods
(Chet. Soc.), 103.
• Commmia. Cb. Sur-v. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 85. See also Plund. Mini.
Accts. (same Soc.), i, 7.
«• The church is called St. Luke's in
1836 in Baines's Lanes, (ist ed.), iv, 217.
On the 6-inch Ordnance map, however,
it is named St. Michael's, and so in Gore,
Liver fool Dir. 1853.
11 Compiled chiefly from the Bishopi'
Visit. Books.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
1783 Nicholas Rigbye Baldwin, M.A. (fellow
of Peterhouse, Camb.)
1817 Jacob Hodgson
1840 Edmund Boteler Chalmer, M.A.
(T.C.D.)
1844 Richard Walker
1855 Joseph Clark
1870 Robert Love, M.A. (T.C.D.)
1902 Frederic Arthur Bartlett, M.A. (Pem-
broke Coll. Oxf.)
Modern churches connected with the Establish-
ment are those of St. Nicholas, Blundellsands, and
St. Faith, Great Crosby. The former was built in
1874,' the latter in 1900. The incumbents are pre-
sented by bodies of trustees.
The Presbyterian Church ot England built a chapel
at Blundellsands in 1898. There is a Wesleyan
Methodist church at Blundellsands, built in 1891 ; it
has a tall and graceful spire. The Congregationalists
have a school church near the village, built in 1884. *
The Roman Catholic church of SS. Peter and
Paul, Great Crosby, was opened in 1894. The
mission was inaugurated in 1825. There are con-
vents of the Sisters of Nazareth and the Sisters of
St. Paul, the former occupying Crosby House. At
Blundellsands the church of St. Joseph was opened in
i886.3
The grammar school was founded in 1619 by the
will of John Harrison, citizen and merchant tailor of
London, whose father had been born in Great Crosby.4
Another school, at first called the Mistress's School,
was founded by the will of Catherine Halsall, 1758.*
LITHERLAND
Liderlant, Dom. Bk. ; Litherland, 1212. Generally
Down Litherland.
Litherland forms an uninteresting link between
the busy environs of Bootle and the more open
country towards Sefton township, since there are both
dwelling-houses and warehouses, streets, and shops, as
well as open spaces. It lies on a slightly higher level
than its seaward neighbour, Seaforth. The soil is for
the most part sandy, with a subsoil of clay. The
geological formation of the north-eastern half of the
township consists of lower keuper sandstones of the
new red sandstone or triassic formation ; that of
the south-western of the waterstones of the same
series. The strata are concealed by alluvial deposits
along the course of the Rimrose Brook, and by a
broad stretch of blown sand adjoining the coast.
SEFTON
The ancient township, from which Seaforth has now
been carved out, contains 1,205 acres.6 It was formerly
called Down Litherland to distinguish it from the
hamlet of Up-Litherland in Aughton. The roads
from Liverpool to Southport, and to Sefton and
Ormskirk, were the principal ones, but the township
has become a residential district with numerous roads
and streets. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Company has a station at Seaforth on its Southport
line, and the Fazakerley branch of the same company
passes through the township. The Leeds and Liver-
pool Canal also passes through it.
The population in 1901 numbered 10,592, while
that of Seaforth was 13,263.
The Diamond Match Factory is the most promi-
nent industry in Litherland.
The field names in a map of 1769' show that the
Marsh was the district between Rimrose Brook and
the shore ; the Bullcroft was here. East of the
present Seaforth Station was the Holme, and to the
north Such Field and Whabs. The moss occupied
the north-eastern part of the township ; the moor
adjoined it on the borders of Orrell. The Church
Field was north of the old village, on the borders of
Ford ; the reason for this name, an ancient one, is
unknown. Aynard Hey was a strip lying between
the village and Church Field.
A local board was formed in 1863 for the part not
in the Waterloo-with-Seaforth district8; in 1894
this part was constituted the township of Litherland ;
it is governed by an urban district council of twelve
members.
At the death of Edward the Confessor
M4NOR Elmaer held LITHERLAND for a manor
assessed at half a hide, or three plough-lands,
and its value beyond the customary rent was the nor-
mal 8/.9 Within sixty years the whole had come into
the possession of the Molyneux family, and has since
descended with Sefton. It was, however, acquired in
moieties by different titles. One moiety is supposed
to have been part of the original Sefton fee ; the
other was granted in exchange for Toxteth, and for
this part a thegnage rent of 2Os. was paid, the under-
tenants in 12 1 2 being Robert de Walton and Richard
son of Siward, each holding one-half.10 About the
year 1125 Stephen, count of Boulogne and Mortain,
had assured to Robert de Molyneux and his heir his
land in Litherland for i^s. a year — apparently the
thegnage moiety." In 1324 the two portions are
clearly distinguished, Richard de Molyneux holding
one half by the service of 2O/., and the other half in
conjunction with Sefton.12
1 A school chapel, called St. Barnabas' s,
licensed in 1864, now the day school, was
the origin of this church and parish.
» Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 223.
The congregation works and maintains a
mission at Sandhills, Liverpool.
8 Liver fool Catb. Ann. 1901 ; Gillow,
Haydock Papers, 132.
For the list of recusants in 1641 see
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 237.
* In 1 570 Thomas Harrison and other
inhabitants of Great Crosby had a dispute
with the people of Litherland as to pasture
of Great Crosby Marsh ; Ducatus Lane.
(Rec.Com.), iii, 393.
6 See the End. Char. Ref. for Sef-
ton, 1899, and the Educational Section
of this work for these schools ; also
Tram. Hist. Sec. (New Ser.), xviii, 131-
7*-
6 857 acres, including 9 of inland
water ; Census Rep. of 1901.
7 Preserved at Croxteth.
8 Land Gax. 24 April and 16 June,
1863. • y.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*.
10 Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 12, 14. The exchange is
also mentioned in the Red Book of the
Excheq. (Rolls Ser.), 572.
11 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 427. Although
the land is called 'his (Robert's) land,'
the word used is concede, as if it were a
fresh grant. The service of 141. does not
appear again, so that it was soon raised to
l» Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 34. The por-
tion held with Sefton is not usually men-
seems in the end to have been regarded
as due for the whole of Litherland.
95
In 1226 Adam de Molyneux paid 201.
of thegnage in Litherland; and in 1297
Richard de Molyneux rendered zo,. for
Down Litherland, and two tenants did
suit ; Inq. and Extents, 136, 288. These
tenants in 1324 were named as Adam
and William the Demands ; they did the
suit to county and wapentake.
The fusion or confusion of the two
moieties was complete by 1346, when
Richard de Molyneux held 'three plough-
lands' here, paying 20*. ; Survey of 1346
(Chet. Soc.), 34.
Richard de Molyneux, who died in
1363, was found to have held the manor
of Down Litherland of the duke of Lan-
caster, by homage and the service of 201.
yearly, and performing suit at the wapen-
take of West Derby; it had a capital
messuage, 30 acres of land each worth I zd.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
It thus appears that from
•was divided into a half and two quarters ; and this is
perhaps the origin of the modern
division into Litherland, Orrell,
and Ford.
One of the two quarters at
least was probably held by a
' Demand,' a doom-man or
judge, so called from the here-
ditary service discharged in the
wapentake court as the repre-
sentative of the lord of Sefton.
There were two families bear-
ing the surname Demand, one
of which was certainly connected
very closely with Orrell. The quarter of the manor
held by the latter family cannot be traced with clear-
ness, but appears to have been held by one Siward
about izoo1 and to have descended to the Demand
family,1 being sold in 1335 by Richard the Demand
rly time Litherland to Peter, a younger
af Richard de Molyneux of
LKA OF FRINCH LIA.
Sable, three bars argent.
Sefton.3 With the latter's daughter it went to John
Dandyson of Ditton,4 and was purchased from
Richard and Peter de Ditton by Sir Richard Molyneux
and his son in the latter part
of Henry VI's reign.5
The other quarter came into
possession of the Lea or Lee
family,6 and descended with
other of their lands to the
Ashtons of Croston,7 until
alienated in 1596 by Thomas
Ashton, who sold his fourth
part of the manor, with all his
lands in Litherland, Orrell,
and Ford, to Sir Richard
Molyneux.8 There was another
family named Lee in the town-
ship whose property also came to Molyneux.9
Richard de Molyneux had before I z 1 z gii
ASHTON OF CROSTON.
rgent, a chevron be-
veen three chaplets gules.
a year, and 301. rents of free tenants ; Inq.
p.m. 42Edw. Ill, ».4o(i.tNo..).
The later inquisitions give the same
testimony ; e.g. Sir William Molyneux,
•who died in 1548, held the manor of
Peter dc Molyneux also acquired land
in Orrell from Emma widow of William
Page ; Croxteth D. G. i, 7.
« In 1349 William son of Peter de
Molyneux and Margery, Anabel, Agnes,
the boundaries ; Moore D. n. 692. In
1 299 Richard, son of William dc Ince,
who lived in Orrell, gave 3 roods in
this croft to William, son of Richard de
Ince, of Thornton ; they extended from
30 acres of land, &c. by the same rent of
20j. and the service of doing suit at the
wapentake every three weeks ; the clear
regranted to their' father the lands they
had had from him in the vills of Lither-
land and Orrell ; ibid. Gen. i. 30.
service of z J</. was payable, part to Henry
de Lea and part to Adam the Judge,
apparently the Judex Major named in the
^"to* »'«£«* »or, <TanCeMr
was summoned between Agnes daughter
of Robert, plaintiff, and Richard, Andrew,
events that Joan was her father's heir, for
in 1355 John son of John Dandyson of
Ditton and Joan his wife claimed from
Richard de Molyneux of Sefton the manor
Henry de Lea in 1305 claimed a mes-
suage and land here from Richard de Ince
and others; De Bane. R. 156, m. 127.
William, son of Sir William de Lea, in
three oxgangs in Litherland. Agnes re-
leased her right to the tenants, and
lands there and in Sefton, as Joan's right ;
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4, m. 5, m. 24 d.
de Molyneux of Sefton and others, ap-
parently concerning Litherland ; Assize
which had been Efward's and a mark of
silver also ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, n. This referred to half
only of the quarter (6 oxgangs), and in
land charter in 1361 ; Moore D. n. 721.
He took part in the Irish expedition of
Sir John de Stanley in 1386 ; Cal. of Pat.
1 385-9> P- IS6- I" '39* Robert the
7 The fourth part of the manor of
Litherland was included in a fine con-
cerning the estates of William de Lea
and Isolda his wife in 1372 ; Final Cone.
sole or responsible tenant, paying loj. a
year to Richard de Molyneux of Sefton.
a The evidence connecting a Demand
with Orrell is as follows :—
Adam the Judge, son of William the
Judge, granted to Henry Ballard a selion in
Ditton and Joan his wife of the fourth
part of the manor of Litherland, and
various lands he had had from Peter;
Croxteth D. G. ii, 27.
Richard their son is mentioned in 1401,
and in 1420 he regranted to Peter his
A settlement was made in 1392 of a
fourth part of the manor of Down Lither-
land between Master William de Ashton,
John de Ashton, and John de Wolleton,
chaplain, plaintiffs, and Robert de Standish
and Isolda his wife, deforciants ; Pal. of
—gave William Ballard land in the Nether
Bradmore in Litherland ; and this grantee
received from his feoffees all his lands,
&c. in Litherland and Orrell, and imme-
had a life interest.
Thomas Ashton of Croston was claimant
Judge made a grant in Hogh Orrell and
in Mossfield to Henry son of Robert de
Linacre, a rent of ±d. being payable to the
.chief lord ; and in the next year, as son
of William the Demand, he granted two
•'lands' in Orrell to Henry son of Robert
-de Kirkdale ; ibid. G. ii, 10, 1 1. In
1 309 he made a grant to Roger de Roby
and Agnes his wife ; the latter may have
been his daughter ; Moore D. n. 694.
8 Richard the Demand in 1309 allowed
.turbary in Litherland Moss to Richard
«on of Hugh de Linacre; Moore D.
«. 695. In 1327 Richard son of Adam
the Judge and heir of William the Judge
.quitclaimed to Peter de Molyneux his
right in one oxgang in the vill of Lither-
land ; and eight years later, as Richard
the Demand, he granted to Peter son of
willing to hold them after this term, then
the rent should be 261. 8</.; ibid. G. i, 17,
18, 23. Soon after the ten years had
expired, at the beginning of 1443, he sold
the whole to Sir Richard ; while in 1455
his son Peter released all his right therein
to Richard Molyneux the son of Sir
Richard; ibid. G. i, 19, 20, 24.
« Of Lea near Preston ; lords of Ravens-
meols, &c. If the suggestion in the text
be correct the Leas' quarter was that held
in 1 212 by Robert de Walton by a rent
of ICM. Nothing further is known of this
tenant or his successors, but a Robert de
Walton was about that time vicar of the
rector of Sefton ; Lane. Ch. (Chet. Soc.),
i, 66.
Henry de Lea granted an oxgang of
land in the vill of Litherland to Adam,
held lands in Litherland of [William]
Molyneux, but the jury did not know by
what service ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m.
iii, «. 93.
Richard Ashton appears in 1558 5 Pal.
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 18, m. 41.
8 Croxteth D. G. i, 50 ; also Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 59, m. 109.
'William and Henry, sons of Roger
del Lee, were defendants in a case of
1346; De Bane. R. 345, m. 393.
William de Moston in 1409 granted
land in a field called Nether Bradmoor in
Orrell to Richard de Lee ; Croxteth D. G.
ii, 29. In 1468 Richard Formby granted
land in the same field, now said to be in
the vill of Litherland, to Roger de Lee,
with remainders to his brother Richard,
and to the heirs of their father Richard;
manor ; Croxteth D. G. i, 5, 6. Also in
1335 Philip de Molyneux conveyed land
in Ince Blundell to Richard, formerly
judge of Down Litherland, and Margery
Jilt wife ; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 131.
teth D. G. ii, i.
Henry son of Henry de Lea gave to
William son of Agnes de Thornton a rood
of land by the Pikemanscroft, Orrel Syke
and Wellfield Siche being mentioned in
96
by Roger to his son Henry in 1486, and
soon afterwards sold by Henry to John,
son of Nicholas Johnson, who at once
transferred to Dame Anne Molyneux;
ibid. G. i, 35-40.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
oxgangs of land to Randle de Litherland by knight's Ballard,3 Gorstihill,4
service and a rent of 5/.1 A family bearing the local Tristram,8 and Witla
name appears from ti
SEFTON
Linacre,5 Makin,6 Mercer,'
The Moores of Bank Hall
ervce an a rent o 5/. amy earng te oca rstram, an taw. e oores o an a
ame appears from time to time.2 acquired a considerable holding in the township,
Among the other holders of land in the fifteenth chiefly, it would seem, by purchase from some of the
entury and earlier may be named the families of earlier owners just named.10 In 1628 the only free-
1 Inq. and Extent!, 13.
" It is possible that the)
i possible that they were also called
Demand, acting for the Sefton moiety of
the vill.
Alan de Litherland gave two selions
here to Roger son of William de Moly-
neux at id. rent ; Croxteth D. G. i, 2.
Adam de Litherland granted a selion to
William son of Gilbert de Linacre ; ibid.
G. ii, 6.
Sir Henry de Lea about 1280 granted
to Richard, son of William de Litherland,
a messuage and garden in Orrell ; and
Adam, son of William the Demand,
granted him free turbary ; Moore D.
n. 689-90. The grantee may be the
Richard son of William the Judge of
other charters.
Richard de Molyneux granted part of
his land in the vill to Richard, son of
Alice de Litherland ; Croxteth D. Ee. 7.
Then in 1313 William the Demand, son
of Adam, gave to Henry de Lea the
homage of Richard son of Richard, son
of Alice de Down Litherland ; this was
confirmed by fine, Richard doing homage
and fealty to Henry in court ; ibid. G.
ii, 13, and Final Cone, ii, 28. There
In 1313 Adam son of William Ballard
released to his son Richard all his right
in certain lands in Litherland near the
Wall Syke, in the Long Nares, Gorsti-
croft and Nether Brademoor ; Croxteth
D. G. ii, 12. Richard Ballard's land is
mentioned in a charter of 1336 ; Moore
D. ». 696.
Adam son of Henry Ballard granted
land in Orrell to John de Gorsthill in
1343 ; Croxteth D. G. ii, 21.
ippeu
• : ecu
ntxral
i later ; Assize R. 425, m. 2.
William the Deemer and Margery
Down Litherland were in the same ye
charged with depriving the latter's sist
of Adam the Judge leased half his land
in the fields of Orrell, and a halland in
Over Brademoor; and in 1320 Henry
granted his Litherland estate to his son
John ; Croxteth D. G. ii, 5, 17.
John de Gorsthill had further grants
from Richard the Demand in 1328 ; and
from Peter de Molyneux in 1348, Agnes
his wife and Hugh their son being named
in the charter; and he in 1356 gave all
his lands in Orrell to his son Thomas,
who was marrying Elizabeth daughter of
Richard de Riding ; ibid. G. ii, 19 ; Ee.
21 ; G. ii, 24. William de Gorsthill
attested a charter in 1401 ; and John
Bootle of Litherland gave to William de
Gorsthill of Linacre three selions in the
Broadmoor in 1437 ; Moore D. ». 699,
722.
5 John son of Richard, son of Geoffrey
8 In 1361 John son of GilbeU de
Aughton re-enfeoffed John son of William
Pynnuesson of Litherland of his messuage
there, the remainders being to Richard
son of Margery daughter of Richard
Robinson del Edge, and to Tristram, John,
Alice, Margaret and other children of
Margery ; ibid. ». 721.
In 1469 Robert Tristram of Litherland
gave to trustees lands in the Gorsticroft,
Commongrene, and Marsh ; and John
Tristram in 1505-6 granted certain lands
to his son and heir Thomas, who married
Margery daughter of John Rignold of
Great Crosby ; ibid. «. 704, 708.
About 1650 there was an exchange of
lands between Robert Tristram alia!
Syme and others, including a ' forsyde '
for a ' hurlinghold ' on Anome halland ;
the inventory of Robert Tristram, dated
1654, is also preserved; ibid. n. 7264,
726.
John Taylor of Ormskirk in 1662 sold
to Edward Moore of Bank Hall the lands
in Litherland which he had had in right
of his wife Margaret, daughter of Robert
Tristram ; they were charged with £60
for his youngest daughter (Catherine, wife
of Thomas Harker of Barton. The de-
livery of seisin is interesting : ' John Taylor
in his own proper person did go into the
hempyard and did there cast up a sod of
oxgangs of land ; both sisters claimed by
a grant of Adam son of Adam, son of
Gilbert, but Maud failed in her suit;
Assize R. 424, m. 2.
In 1328 the same Margery claimed
from Richard son of Richard de la Moor
and others a messuage and two oxgangs
of land. It appears that she had had them
by gift of William the Demand when he
married a certain Ellen, who as his
widow was one of the defendants. The
other defendants included Richard, son of
Margery de Down Litherland, and Adam
the Little Demand. (Adam the Little
Judge was witness to a grant by Richard
son of William the Judge of Litherland,
to Richard son of Hugh the Reeve of
Walton ; Moore D. n. 691. A charter
by Adam the Great Judge has been
quoted already.) Richard de la Moor
was the heir of William the Demand, but
the charter of Margery was upheld by the
jury ; Assize R. 1400, m. 234.
grant to Henry de Bootle ; Hugh son of
Richard de Linacre in 1381-2 ; and John
de Linacre in 1401 in a grant to Henry
Dicconson de Linacre ; Croxteth D. G.
ii, 25 ; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 10 ;
Moore D. n. 699. In 1415 Margery,
daughter of John Johnson of Hale, and
Alice her sister, released to John Robinson
de Linacre all their right in the lands of
Emma, daughter of John son of Richard
de Linacre ; ibid. n. 702.
6 In I 378 the feoffees granted to Richard
Makin and Agnes his wife Richard's
lands in Litherland ; Moore D. n. 697.
1450-1 granted to Henry he
all he
lands in Down Litherland lately belong-
ing to John Dicconson of Crosby ; with
Makin 5 Kuerden MSS. iii, W. *o» «. 30.
In 1505-6 Thomas Makin of Litherland,
and John his son and heir granted a selion
which was part of the wall of the house,
and did all the same deliver as seisin ' ;
ibid. n. 728.
Eleven years later Edward Mooregranted
a lease of premises in Litherland to Anne
Tristram, widow of Henry, their daughters
Alice and Anne being named, at a rent of
305. payable at ' the compass window of
Bank Hall ' ; the lessee was to grind at
Moore's Mill, and to set a hundred quick-
sets every year ; and though ' many of the
tenants within the lordship of Litherland
have usually been accustomed to do boons
and services by cart and hand labour,'
making a bad name for Edward Moore,
this lessee was to pay £12 in lieu of such
services; ibid. B. 732.
'The name is spelt in many ways.
In 1424 Richard, son and heir of Peter
de Ditton, granted to William, son and
heir of Thomas Wetlache, land in the
Overmoor ; Croxteth D. G. ii, 3 1 .
Thurstan Whitlegh granted a messuage
occurs in 1329 ; Assize R. 427, m. 3 d.
* By fine in 1256 an oxgang of land
was granted by Richard de Birches and
Margery his wife, of whose right it was,
to Robert, son of Adam Ballard, on his
marriage with their daughter Emma ;
Final Cone, i, 119.
William son of Adam de Molyneux
about 1270 gave to Henry son of Adam,
son of Andrew de Litherland, certain
lands at a rent of 6d. About the same
time Adam the Demand, son of Robert de
Litherland, gave two selions to Henry son
of Adam Ballard, perhaps the same Henry ;
and Alan son of Richard formerly of
Litherland gave him the Clayland lying
next to land of Robert Ballard's, and
extending from the road called Bridgate
to the road from the vill of Litherland
to Sefton church ; Blundell of Crosby
D. K. 4, K. 3, K.. I.
3
Thomas Makin in 1477 released to
Thomas Molyneux of Sefton all his right
in the dower lands of Ellen his mother,
and in 1505 gave land in the Moorfield
and by the shore to Edward Molyneux
son of Sir Thomas, following this with
further grants which preserve some field
names ; Sperthe in the Longchurchfield,
Elringhawes, Cockheys, Tongsharps in
the townfield, Croft Agram, and Croft
Colke, this last being in the Ford ; Crox-
teth D. G. i. 30, 43, 44. Soon after-
wards Thomas Makin and John his son
ibid. G. ii, 32-3 ; Moore D. n. 711-12. '
^ Roger Mercer of Walton, who had
sons, Gilbert and William, made pur-
chases in 1482, and William Mercer in
1519 ; Moore D.n. 705-6, 716. Crook-
field and Pulverlong occur in this last
deed.
97
i 535, which was confirmed six years later
by John Witlak, as son and heir of
Thurstan ; and Thomas Collins sold the
same to Richard Molyneux in 1549 (here
the name is written Quitlagh) ; ibid. G. i,
45-7. In 1555 Thomas Whytlage and
Alice his wife sold lands in Litherland
and Upholland to Sir Richard Molyneux ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 16, m.
l« This will be clear from the references
to the Moore D. In addition the Moores
secured the lands of the Corker family.
Emmot, wife of William the Corker,
in 1385 received the lands of her husband
in Litherland and the vill of Orrell, from
the feoffee, the remainders being to his
sons Richard and John, and others ; and
in 1408 Peter de Ditton leased to Richard
son of William the Corker a house and
land in the Ford ; while another Richard
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
holders mentioned were the heirs of Richard Davy.1
The recusant roll of 1641 groups the three Lither-
land townships with Aintree, and records only six
names ; Henry Bootle was probably of this town-
ship.* In 1 769 besides Lord Molyneux, the earl
of Derby, William Bolton, Richard Tristram, John
Wainwright, and others held small portions of the
land.'
For members of the Established Church St. Philip's
was built in 1863.* Trustees have the patronage.
St. Mark's is a chapel of ease. St. Andrew's, origi-
nating in the same way, has now an independent
district ; the bishop of Liverpool is patron.
There is a Wesleyan chapel in Litherland village.
WATERLOO stands on the margin of the Mersey
estuary, healthily situated, with a wide breezy pros-
pect, although the surface of the land could scarcely
be flatter. In this respect it is precisely like its
neighbours north and south. Nearly one-half of the
township is covered by the sea at high-water, for the
boundaries extend far into the estuary, whilst at
low tide there is a broad stretch of firm sands beyond
the houses and terraces which face the sea. The rest
of the land is occupied by the town of Waterloo,
which may be looked upon as an important residential
suburb of Liverpool, reached in a few minutes by the
electric railway.
The hamlet of Crosby Sea-bank grew at the be-
ginning of last century into a ' flourishing sea-bath-
ing place.' 5 The Waterloo Hotel, traditionally said
to have been commenced on the day the famous battle
was fought, gave a distinctive name to the place.6
The first railway was that from Southport, opened in
I 848, the terminus being for a time at Waterloo ;
passengers were carried by coach to and from Liver-
pool.7 The local government district of Waterloo-
with-Seaforth was formed out of Litherland in 1863,"
and in 1874 extended to include part of Great
Crosby.9 In 1 894 the separate townships of Waterloo
and Seaforth were created and joined to make the
urban district of Waterloo-with-Seaforth.10 The coun-
cil has eighteen members. The Town Hall was built
in 1862.
In connexion with the Established Church there
are Christ Church in the Litherland portion, built in
1839, several times enlarged, and rebuilt in 1892 ; "
St. John's Church in the Great Crosby portion, built
in 1865 ;" and St. Mary's Church, built in 1877, and
state probably repre
consecrated in 1886. The patronage of these churches
is vested in different bodies of trustees.
The English Presbyterian church of St. Andrew
was built in 1876, a congregation having been
gathered about three years earlier. There are a
Wesleyan church and a temporary Baptist chapel.
The Congregational church, opened in 1 866, is the
result of services begun in 1 8 5 5 by the Rev. T. Sleigh,
formerly of Wavertree." The Salvation Army has
barracks in East Street.
The Roman Catholic church of St. Thomas of
Canterbury, on the Litherland side of the boundary,
was opened in August 1877 ; a temporary chapel
had been used from 1 868.u
SE4FORTH township was formed in 1894 from
Litherland, and joined with Waterloo to form an
urban district.15 The two occupy the whole river
frontage of Litherland and part of that of Great
Crosby. The name is derived from Seaforth House,
which Sir John Gladstone built about 1815. When
the tide is low a broad stretch of sands is uncovered
and forms a favourite recreation ground of the inhabi-
tants of Liverpool, since these sands are on the north
side the nearest to the city, approached easily by the
overhead electric railway. The rest of the township
is thickly populated. The streets are level on a
sandy soil, the town being built upon land once occu-
pied by sandhills.
There are large barracks at Seaforth.
The shore has been secured by the Mersey Dock
Board.
The Established Church had the first place of wor-
ship here, St. Thomas's, built in 1815 by Sir John
Gladstone, and recently enlarged. The Rev. S. E.
Gladstone is patron.
The Congregationalists have a school-chapel, built
in 1 88 1 on a portion of the Seaforth House site;
the mission owes its origin to the Congregational
church at Waterloo, having been commenced in
i878.16
The Roman Catholic church of Our Lady Star of
the Sea was opened in 1901 ; the mission was founded
in 1884, a stable being converted into a chapel; a
school-chapel was opened in 1890. Seafield House,
originally intended for a hydropathic establishment,
became a convent of the sisters of the Sacred Heart of
Mary, and was used for training pupil teachers." It
has now been purchased by the Dock Board.
Corker, son of Hugh, had land here in
1 506 ; Moore D. n. 698, 700, 709,
In the following year he sold his lands
to William Moore ; they included parts
of Orgreaves, South Holmes, Crosby Styes,
'a broddoll of meadow' in the Broad
Mead, and others; ibid. n. 713, 715.
The latter deed names William Corker
of Woolton.
About the same time (i 507-8) William
Moore purchased a ' Koktreland,' the Er-
ling Hawes, and other plots from William
Rose ; ibid. n. 714. Edward Moore in
1627 purchased from Edward Alcock of
Great Crosby the former inheritance of
John Johnson ; ibid. n. 724.
iNorris D. (B.M.) In 1506 Wil-
liam Davy enfeoffed Richard Crosse and
Hugh Rainford of all his tenements in
Litherland and Ford ; Crosse D. n.
Mo
4 A district was a
Land. Ga*. 4 July.
5 Baines, Dir. 1825, ii, 710. The
place is not called Waterloo in Lewis'
Gas. of 1 844 ; but this name had become
established by 1830, when a short descrip-
tion was printed in Whittle's Marina,
"Waterloo Hotel' is marked on
Greenwood's map of 1818. It is now
called the Royal Hotel. In 1824 there
was a coach from this hotel to Liverpool
in the evening, and the' Lancashire Witch
packet plied thrice a day, by the Leeds
Canal, between Crosby and Liverpool.
The hotel stands on the shore at the
169.
»Tr,
u. Hist. Soc. (New Set-.),
'Map at Croxteth. Lord Derby's
the hamlet which has
Great Crosby and partly
" Bland, Soutifort, 109.
8 Land. Gaz. 24 April, 1863.
that of the » 37 & 38 Viet. cap. 19.
10 Loc. Gov. Bd. Order, 31614. The
ligned to it in 1871; township of Waterloo is that part of
Waterloo-with-Seaforth in Great Crosby.
The area for the census of 1901 was 546
acres including two of inland water ; but
this included part of Brighton le Sands.
The foreshore is 265 acres.
11 The Ven. John Jones, M.A, arch-
deacon of Liverpool, was incumbent from
1850 to 1889; he had previously, from
1815 to 1850, been incumbent of St
Andrew's, Liverpool.
« Land. Gaz. 26 Oct. 1877, for dis
trict.
13 Nightingale, Lanes. Nanconf. vi, 219
14 Liverpool Catb. Ann. 1901.
15 Loc. Gov. Bd. Order, 31614. Sea
forth is the portion of Waterloo-with
)f Crosby, and Seaforth lying within Litherland. Th<
own into the area is 406 acres according to the Censu
was partly in Rep. 1901 ; in addition there arc 291
Litherland . acres of foreshore.
18 Lana. Nonconf. vi, 220.
J' Liver foal Catb. Ann. 1901.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
ORRELL AND FORD
Orhull, 1280, 1360; Orrell, or Orell, 1350
onwards.
Ford, 1 300 onwards ; Forde and Forth occur.
This township is formed of two detached portions,
Orrell to the south and Ford to the north ; their
combined area is 727 acres.1 The population in
1901 was 2,104.
It has not been ascertained when Orrell and Ford
were separated from Litherland to form a distinct
township ; they are not recognized in the county lay,
which was settled in 1624.*
ORRELL lies on the border of Walton. It con-
tains the highest land in the parish of Sefton, about
125 ft. above the sea. Its area is 370 acres. The
Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's railway from
Liverpool to Ormskirk runs along the southern
border, the tunnel being now almost completely
opened, and the Mersey and Fazakerley branch passes
through Orrell. A pedestal of an ancient cross still
exists, and there is a sundial at Springwell House.3
Orrell occurs comparatively early as a well-defined
part of Litherland, as may be seen from the numerous
references already given in the account of the manor
of Litherland ; it is, for example, called a ' vill ' as
early as 1310,' and its 'fields' are mentioned ;5 but
there is nothing to show that it was ever a distinct
manor. It is described as a hamlet of Litherland in
!345-6
One branch of the Demand family appears to have
taken the surname of Fox, and John son of Richard
Fox of Orrell occurs.7 Another family of which
there is some mention took its surname from the
place.8
SEFTON
From 1 894 the township had a parish council,
but Orrell was in 1905 taken into the borough of
Bootle.
FORD occupies a corner between Litherland,
Great Crosby, and Sefton. It touches upon the open
country and shares the refreshing sea-breezes which
come from the west. The road from Litherland to
Sefton passes through it, as also the Leeds and Liver-
pool Canal. The separate area is 357 acres. The
ford from which the place takes its name was perhaps
one over the Rimrose Brook, which divides it from
Great Crosby.9
Ford is mentioned only casually in mediaeval
deeds, but appears to have given a surname to a
resident family.10
Early in the eighteenth century Thomas Syers of
the Ford appears to have been the principal resident.11
A Roman Catholic cemetery of 2 1 acres was opened
in 1855, and has the church of the Holy Sepulchre
adjoining it, built in 1861. There is also a convent
of nuns of the Good Shepherd who have an asylum
for penitent women, established in Everton in 1858
and removed to Ford in 1867 ; their church of the
Sacred Heart, built in 1887, is open to the public."
AINTREE
Aintree, 1226 ; Ayntre, 1292 — the usual mediae-
val spelling ; Eyntre occurs ; Ayntree and Ayntrie,
xvi cent.
This triangular township forms the south-eastern
corner of the parish ; its area is 850 acres ;13 the
population in 1901 was 261.
The county is extremely flat, and in the northern
1 The census of 1901 gives 727 acres ;
this includes 8 of inland water.
* Gregson, Fragments, 1 6.
» Land, and Ches. Antiq. Sue. xix, 185.
* Croxteth D. G. ii, 2, quoted above.
There is no date, but the grantor was
Adam the Judge, son of William. An
earlier deed is that by which William de
Scaifreschage released to William de
These lands are mentioned in a charter
of 1318 ; ibid. Gen. i, 8.
In 1332 Richard the Demand and
William Fox of Litherland paid 2s. each
to the subsidy; Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 17 ; and in 1339
Richard Fox made a grant of lands in
Litherland to Richard de Molyneux of
Sefton ; Croxteth D. G. i, 9.
Sefton boundary, which may have given
the name to this part of Litherland.
Richard de Molyneux, rector of Sefton,
in 1328 granted his brother Thomas a
portion of the waste of Litherland, the
bounds of which are thus described :
' Beginning at the bridge of the Stany-
brigg and following the boundary of
Sefton as far as the Ford, and following
Orrell ; ibid. G. i, I.
In 1366 Margery, daughter of Robert
Knot, gave her husband, Matthew del
Plat, all her lands in the vill of Orrell ;
ibid. G. ii, 26. These lands descended to
Margery's son John del Plat, who in 1430
sold them to John de Bawdon ; Kuerden
fol. MS. 315, n. 458-60.
* Croxteth D. G. ii, 5, quoted above ;
and G. ii, 1 1, the ' field ' of Orrell.
•Ibid. G. i, 13. In the inquisition
after the death of Sir Richard Molyneux
in 1623 the list of manors runs— 'Down
Litherland alias Litherland, Orrell, Ford,'
&c.; but when the tenures are described
it is 'the manor of Down Litherland and
other the premises in Down Litherland,
Linacre, Ford and Orrell ' ; Lanes. Inq.f.m.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 383, 389.
7 Richard Fox son of William the
Demand quitclaimed to Richard de
Molyneux of Little Crosby his interest in
lands purchased from Margery de Orrell ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 197. Perhaps
,35. and ,352 made claims against
Roger Hurdys of Orrell and Emma his
wife, and John Bayn of Orrell, concerning
small portions of land in Litherland ;
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. i (Lent), m.
iij ; R. 2 (July), m. iiij.
8 Adam de Orrell was a plaintiff in
1346 and 1347; De Bane. R. 345, m.
393; R. 350, m. 3H</; this suit con-
cerned lands given by Henry de Orrell to
Richard de Orrell and Ellen his wife,
parents of the claimant, in the time of
Edward II.
William, son of Richard, son of William
de Orrell (living at the end of the thir-
lands held by Richard de Ince of Orrell
and Agnes his wife, in virtue of a grant
by Emma daughter of William de Orrell
to a former Richard de Ince ; Duchy of
Lane. Assize R. 5, m. 9 ; R. 6, m. 7 d. ;
Assize R. 438, m. 6.
Some grants by and to William son of
Simon de Ince of Orrell may be seen in
and along this ditch to the Ford field and
then in a line to the road from the vill of
Litherland to the Stanybrigg, and along
this road to the ditch of the Stanybrigg,
and following this ditch to the first-named
boundary.' He added another part of the
land, and other easements ; all to be held
from the chief lords by the gift of a rose
on St. John Baptist's day ; Dods. MSS.
liii, fol. 76*. The Stanybrigg and its
ditch, on the road between Litherland
and Sefton, are mentioned in another
charter, granting land in Sefton to the
same Thomas ; ibid. fol. 75*.
"> John del Ford granted land in Lither-
land to the rector of Sefton, who in 1310
gave it to Roger de Roby and Agnes his
wife ; Croxteth D. G. ii, 7 ; Ee. 15.
Roger del Ford occurs in 1332 ; Excb.
Lay Subs. 1 7.
Alice de Ford granted land in the
Nether Broadmoor to Ralph de Molyneux
in 1381-2 ; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 6.
11 N. Blundell'i Diary, 131, 145. The
acres in Litherland to Agnes, daughter of
Christian of Great Crosby and Richard
their son ; Croxteth D. G. ii, 8. Earlier
probably than these deeds were the grants
of lands in Sefton to a Richard Fox made
by William de Molyneux ; ibid. Ee. 3,4, 6.
Here is also a release by Henry son of
Richard son of Adam de Orrell in 1368 ;
ibid. n. 72.
» There was a Ford field in Great
Cro.by. The following grant, however,
shows that there was another ford on the
will of Philip Syers of Down Litherland
was enrolled in the Common Pleas in
1778; R. 323, m. 282.
12 Li-verpoal Caib. Ann. 1901.
» 853 acres, including 12 of inland
water ; Census Rep. of 1901.
99
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
portion of the township the level of the landscape is
scarcely broken by even the smallest trees, and the
hedges are but scanty. The surface, occupied by
cultivated fields, where corn and potatoes find a
congenial soil, is a mixture of clay and sand. A few
farms are dotted about the district. A patch or two
of undrained mossland near one of the railways
discloses the nature of the surface before the time
of reclamation. The geological formation consists
entirely of the waterstones of the keuper series of the
new red sandstone or trias, with alluvial deposits ob-
scuring the strata by the River Alt.
The main road from Liverpool to Ormskirk passes
through it. The Mersey branch of the Lancashire
and Yorkshire Railway joins the Liverpool and Wigan
line at the south-eastern corner. There are two rail-
way stations called Aintree, but actually situated in
Netherton, close to the great racecourse, which was
opened 8 July, 1829.
The old village is in the centre of the township,
about two miles south-east of Sefton church ; but
houses are multiplying on the Walton border, owing
to the growth of Liverpool and the rise of industries
in the neighbourhood.
The Alt Drainage Act of 1779 mentions Bull
Bridge, and gives some field names, e.g. The Chew,
Further Feirock, and Nearer Knots Field.
Aintree is governed by a parish council.
4INTREE is not separately men-
MJNOR tioned in Domesday Book ; from later
notices its assessment is found to have
been one plough-land.1 At the beginning of the
NEVILL OF HORNBY.
Argent, a saltire gules.
thirteenth century it was held in thegnage by Henry
de Holland of Downholland in Halsall, and most of
it had already been granted out,
Alan de Holland, Robert de
Molyneux, Henry son of Gil-
bert, Hawise daughter of Ric-
hard, and Cockersand Abbey
holding in 1212.*
Mr. Irvine in his book on
the Hollands, states that ' there
is no evidence of any blood
relation between the two fami-
lies (of Holland of Down-
holland, who never rose to
any important position in the
county, and the Hollands of Upholland), and the
strong probability is that they were not in any way
connected.'
The Molyneux share, one oxgang of land, was
granted in free marriage with Alice de Molyneux to
the son of Richard Baret ;3 it descended to the
Ridgate or Rudgate family,4 by whom it was sold in
1 490 to Lawrence son of Henry Molyneux.5
The remainder, or the greater part of it, seems
to have been quickly reunited into the hands
of a family who adopted the local name ; for in
1296 William de Aintree's possession was 6J- ox-
gangs of land and half of the mill.6 The descent
is far from clear. Part at least — probably including
the lordship — descended to Emma, daughter of
Henry and Agnes de Aintree, and wife of Henry
son of Hugh de Atherton,7 and part to William
1 It is supposed to have been part of
the demesne of West Derby in 1066.
Though the adjacent manor of Sefton
appears to have lost a plough-land, being
rated later as five instead of the six
plough-lands of 1066, there is nothing to
indicate that Aintree formed the missing
and one oxgang in Aintree, it was stated
that Alice, daughter of Robert de Moly-
neux, grandmother of the former plaintiff,
was seised of them. A certain Richard
Baret rendered them to Robert de Moly-
neux, his chief lord, who thereupon gave
them, with his daughter Alice, to Richard's
same, was in possession of one oxgang,
5 acres, and half an oxgang, about which
the suit had been contested a century
before ; Croxteth D. B. vi, 3 ; [,4.
Robert's son William, whose wife was
named Margery, in 1479 gave all his
hereditary lands to his brother Richard,
» Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 49. Aintree is not
two sons, Adam and William, fathers of
plaintiff and defendant. William son of
Adam recovered ; Assize R.4o8, m. izd.
' Ibid. B. i, 7-9.
« Final Cone. \, 179 ; William de Ain-
tree actually held 5| oxgangs, 221 acres
that those named held in this place;
Hawise daughter of Richard, however, is
doubtful. The service was 81. ^d. in all.
The whole of Henry de Holland's hold-
ing being jj plough-lands, and Down-
holland with Barton being i j, and Rib-
the Barets held land by grant of Matthew
de Haydock, who had ij oxgangs in
Aintree, and gave halt of this to William
Baret for life ; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.),
xxxviii, 236.
4 William Baret dying without issue,
the mill, and on the death of Alice, widow
of Henry de Aintree, there would revert
to him another oxgang, an acre of land,
iza. rent, and a quarter of the mill. The
succession was settled upon Henry de
Aintree and his brothers Gilbert and
plough-land.
The Cockersand grant was known as
St. Marysteau ; Henry son of Alan de
Holland granted it in pure alms for the
health of his soul and the souls of his
wife and his father. The bounds were
from the Akenhead Brook, along the
bounds of Efward to the Alt as far as
Southfield Brook, from this following the
Meneway which crosses the brook as far
as Stonyford in the Alt ; in breadth from
Lunddel Meneway to the Alt ; Cockersand
Rudgate, or Ridgate, perhaps of Whiston ;
their son William had a son Richard de
Ridgate, who in 1351 had to defend his
right against Gilbert de Haydock ; the
moiety of an oxgang had been added by
this time ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R.
, (Lent), m. iij d. ; R. 2 (July), m. j d. ;
R. 3, m. ix ; R. 5, m. 26 d. The claim
by Gilbert de Haydock was defeated;
but lands in Aintree were held by him as
early as 1332; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 82. The writ con-
sons, as a Henry, son of William de Ain-
tree, occurs in 1292 ; Assize R. 408, m.
54. William de Aintree was son of a
Henry de Aintree, as appears by a suit
against him and Robert de Molyneux
brought in 1276 by William son of Adam
the Demand ; De Bane. R. 13, m. 37,
&c. He was living in 1298; Inq. and
Extents, 284. William de Aintree in
1295 granted part of his land to William
son of Thomas de Nateby ; Croxteth D.
B. vi, 2. Earlier was Richard de Ain-
described as 'a culture' in I2IZ. It
wa, held by the Wards of Maghull
in 1357 ; by Thurstan Maghull in 1451;
by John, the chaplain of Maghull, in
1461, at a rent of I2,/. ; and by Matthew
6J oxgangs, &c.,' probably refers to this
suit ; Dep. Keeper', Rep. xxxii, App. p.
Some later notices of this family occur.
In 1381 Gilbert de Ridgate contributed
It appears from a Melting suit that
Henry, Gilbert, and Robert died without
issue before 1 305 ; Assize R. 420, m. 3 d.
7 Henry de Aintree married Agnes,
1244-5 i Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4,
m. ii. On the suppression it was granted
to Thomas Holt ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
p. m. xi, n. 46.
8 In a suit between William son of
John del Ridgate of Aintree received the
royal protection on proceeding to Ireland
in 1386 in the company of Sir John de
Stanley ; Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 156.
Robert de Ridgate in 1426 granted
ton, and her daughter Emma was defen-
dant in various suits in 1301. Gilbert
son of William de Aintree brought a writ
of novel disseisin against her, but did not
prosecute it ; Assize R. 419, m. 3 ; also
Baret, in 1292, concerning a messuage
in 1454 Robert del Ridgate, perhaps the
100
Then Alice, widow of Henry de Ain-
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
de Aintree's daughters, Margery de Wedacre and
Alice.1
Some minor grants occur.8
In 1387 it was found that
Sir Thomas Nevill, son of Sir
Robert Nevill of Hornby, held
the manor of Aintree " of the
lord of Downholland by knight's
service and a rent of 8/. id. ;
that Sir Thomas was dead,
and his heir was his daughter
Margaret, then four years of
age.' As she died without issue
the descendants of Sir Thomas's
sisters became his heirs. Thus
Aintree came to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John
SEFTON
Harrington, who married John Stanley, whose heirs
— Anne, wife of John Swift ; Joan, wife of
Thomas Halsall and afterwards of John Osbaldeston ;
and Thomas Grimshaw of Clayton-le-Moors— and
their descendants quickly divided and sold the inheri-
tance.6 A rent of £12 from Aintree descended from
another of Sir Thomas's sisters to Sir Christopher
Danby.6 The Molyneux family of Sefton purchased
all or the greater part ; and the manor of Aintree
has from the sixteenth century descended with
Sefton.7
John Bower, a freeholder, contributed to the sub-
sidy of l6z8.8 Richard Lathom, gentleman, of
Aintree, was indicted as a recusant in 1678.' Among
the ' Papists ' who registered estates in 1717 were
Thomas Fleetwood and John Boyer of Aintree.10
tree, claimed dower in certain lands held
by Emma ; Richard de Molyneux, her
grandfather, Simon de Balderston, and
Emma widow of William de Aintree
being joined as defendants, the grand-
acre and Margery his wife claimed mes-
suages and lands in Aintree as of the
wife's right ; De Bane. R. 280, m. 115 j
R. 282, m. 13 ; R. 288, m. ^d.
In one of the Randle Holme pedigrees
wife of Richard Beaumont and previously
of John Stanley, demised all their part of
the manors, lands, mills, &c., in Aintree
and Melling to Edward Molyneux, rector
of Sefton, for his life at a rent of 5 marks ;
who was a minor; Assize R. 419, m. 6 d.
In one statement of defence it was alleged
that William de Aintree held the parcel
in dispute for life, by grant of Henry ;
ibid. m. 7 d.
In 1323 Henry son of Hugh de Ather-
ton and Emma his wife complained that
Richard de Maghull. This family had
land in Aintree from about 1 300, for in
1301 Richard de Maghull and his wife
Alice warranted to his son Richard and
his wife certain lands in Aintree and
Melling ; Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 46. The
Maghull family continued to hold land
of the same, Sir William Molyneux being
joined with his brother the rector in the
recoveries ; Croxteth D. B. ii, i, 2, 3, 8 ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. II, m.
200.
Thomas Grimshaw married Margaret,
another daughter of John Stanley ; Whit-
had disseised them of part of their tene-
ment in Aintree ; Assize R. 425, m. 6.
Two years later he proceeded against
William the Demand of Netherton and
others, for cutting his turf ; De Bane. R.
Croxteth D. B. v, i.
« John, son of Robert, son of Hiche of
Sefton in 1 3 2 1 enfeoffed Richard de Lunt,
clerk, of all the lands in Aintree which
had belonged to his father ; Harl. MS.
In 1552 a partition was made between
Richard Grimshaw, John Osbaldeston and
Joan his wife, and Richard Molyneux, by
which the last-named, who held one-third
by his purchase from the Swifts, secured
Henry de Atherton contributed to the
subsidy of 1332; Exch. Lay Subs. 27.
William, son of John del Brooks, in
ances, closes called the Great and Little
John, son of William de Cowdrey,
Otes de Halsall, and Alan, son of Alan de
Cowdrey, were accused of taking Emma,
and in 1524 Thomas, son and heir of
Lawrence Hareflynch, and Margery his
and others, a rent of jrf. from the lands
of Thomas Maghull, id. from the heirs
from Sefton church on 10 November,
'3435 they were acquitted; Assize R.
43°. m- I 3- There appears to have been
a daughter and heir Joan, who married
Robert de Nevill of Hornby. The latter
in 1346 is found claiming various lands
as the right of his wife, daughter of
Henry, and granddaughter and heir of
Hugh de Atherton of Hindley ; De Bane.
R. 346, m. 349.
In 1356 Joan, widow of Adam de Ain-
tree sought dower from Henry, son of
Simon de Bickersteth and Agnes his wife ;
Brooks, granted lands here to Edward
Molyneux, rector of Sefton ; Croxteth D.
» Probably in his mother's right ; see
* Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 28 ;
though his father was living, his sisters
proved to be his heirs. Not long before,
in 1374, Adam de Hoghton held the
manor of Roger de Holland by a service
of 8». jrf. yearly ; Coram Reg. R. 454
There is a brief note of a fine between
Robert Hey, zd. from John Abbe, jrf.
from John Hesketh, and certain mes-
suages, &c., in Liverpool ; Croxteth D.
B. v, I. See also Pal. of Lane. Feet of
F. bdle. 15, m. 113.
6 Croxteth D. B. iv, 2. This rent of
£ 12 issuing from Aintree and Melling is
described as formerly paid to Sir Robert
Nevill. Sir Christopher Danby in 1536
took lands in Holtby, Heworth, and
Clifton near York, in exchange.
7 In 1623 the manor of Aintree was
found to have been held by Sir Richard
1 Margery and Alice, daughters of Wil-
liam de Aintree, were plaintiffs in 1305
respecting land in Aintree which should
have descended to them after the death
of Gilbert their brother ; Assize R. 420,
m. 5. In 1307 they claimed lands from
the above-named Emma, daughter of
Henry de Aintree ; De Bane. R. 164, m.
142.
Twenty-five years later Roger de Wed-
in Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 59.
5 Sir Thomas's sisters were Margaret,
who married Sir William Harrington, and
Joan, who married Sir John Langton ;
Whitaker, Craven, n. For their descen-
dants see Whitaker, Whallcy, ii, 509, and
Craven, 234 ; Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 330.
In 1520 John Swift and Anne his wife,
a daughter and coheir of Elizabeth, lately
fee ; the clear value was £ 10 2s. ; Lanes.
Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
iii, 389.
8 Norris D. (B.M.).
* Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.).
109; see also N. Blundell, Diary, 91,
Probably Richard Lathom of Liverpool,
surgeon, 1686.
1° Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, 93 ; some
particulars of their families are given.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
CHILDWALL
CHILDWALL
WAVERTREE
THINGWALL
MUCH WOOLTON
LITTLE WOOLTON
GARSTON
ALLERTON
SPEKE
HALE
HALEWOOD
The ancient parish of Childwall has an area of
16,043 acres, to which 3,252 acres tidal water must
be added and about 4,500 acres of foreshore. The
principal physical feature is the central ridge, which
rises at one point to nearly 300 ft. Thus there is a
general slope to Childwall Vale to the north-east, and
to the Mersey on the south-west and to the south-
east. Childwall Heath formerly extended along the
boundary between Wavertree and Childwall into
Little Woolton.
The parish comprises ten townships, anciently
arranged in four 'quarters' thus : (l) Childwall ; (2)
Wavertree, Thingwall,1 Much Woolton, Little Wool-
ton ; (3) Garston, Allerton, Speke ; (4) Hale, Hale-
wood. To the ' fifteenth ' the parish paid £8 I it. <}\d.
out of an assessment of £106 y. 6d. for the hundred,1
while to the county lay it contributed a sixteenth part
of the hundred levy, so distributed that when this
amounted to £100 the ' quarters ' of Childwall paid
as follows :— Childwall, y. ; Hale, I y. 4^., Hale-
wood, 261. %d. — £2 ; Much Woolton, Little
Woolton, Wavertree, l$s. ±d. each — £2 ; Speke, 201.,
Garston, 1 5/., Allerton, 5/. — £2; the total being
£,(> 5'-'
Henry earl of Derby in 1591 gave his decision in
the dispute between the parishioners of Childwall in
general and those who lived in the chapelry of Hale,
touching the repairs of the parish church. On the
Hale side it was urged that they were practically
separate for worship and the sacraments, and had
never paid to the repair of Childwall church or
churchyard. The other side said it was notorious
that Hale was part of the parish, and the tithes were
collected thence as from other parts of it ; further, the
vicar of Childwall allowed £4 a year towards the
stipend of the curate of Hale ; it was proved also that
within the previous twenty years a lay had been im-
posed on the parish for church repairs and that Hale
had contributed its share, a third. Accordingly the
earl decided that Hale must pay its due proportion.4
Though the market and fair at Hale and the ford
across the Mersey at that place must have brought
some traffic into the district, the record of the parish
has few striking events. The freeholders in 1600
were John Ireland of the Hutt, Edward Norris of
Speke, Evan Haughton of Wavertree, William Wood-
ward and Thomas Orme of Woolton, William Brettargh
of Aigburth, Hugh Leike of Childwall, Edward
Molyneux, David Ford, and William Whitefield of
Speke.5
The ecclesiastical changes made by Elizabeth were
received with as little favour here as elsewhere in
Lancashire. The chapel at Garston had ceased to be
used for service and fell into ruin. In 1590 Edward
Norris of Speke and George Ireland of the Hutt, both
esquires 'of fair and ancient living,' were classed among
those ' of some degree of conformity, yet in general note
of evil affection in religion, non-communicants ' ; and
the wife of the former was ' a recusant and indicted
thereof.' Thomas Molyneux of Speke, one ' of the
gentlemen of the better sort,' was a ' comer to church
but no communicant.'6 One of the Brettarghs of the
Holt became a Puritan, and suffered some persecution
from his neighbours in consequence. The quarrel
between Sir William Norris and Edward Moore indi-
cates the bitterness engendered by the attempts to en-
force conformity to the new order. The parish
afforded a victim to the laws in the person of John
Almond of Speke, executed for his priesthood in 1612.
Other indications of the condition of the parish are
afforded by the records of the bishop's visitations. In
1592 two men were excommunicated for piping upon
the Sabbath day in the churchyard ; others suffered
for standing in the churchyard and talking at service
and sermon time ; William Lathom of Allerton and
Thomas Greaves of Wavertree for talking in the church
itself at sermon time, but the latter on appearing was
excused on making a public confession of his fault ;
another was sentenced because his children did not
come to be catechized.7 In 1635 {he churchwardens
prosecuted certain persons as absenting themselves from
church and others as recusants, others for ' usually
sleeping ' in church during the service. Thomas
Mackey of Speke was charged with having 'an ale1
and tippling, revelling, and dancing at his house upon
the Sunday ; and Mary Norris, a widow, for a similar
offence.6 Next year the churchwardens had to describe
the ' uncivil and barbarous manner ' in which one
Sunday the vicar (Mr. Lewis) had been attached and
apprehended ; and this at the instigation of one of the
chapel wardens of Hale.9
In 1628 the landowners in the parish paying the
subsidy were John Pearson in Much Woolton, Nehe-
miah Brettargh in Little Woolton and Aigburth, Sir
William Norris and Edward Tarleton in Speke and
Garston, and John Ireland in Hale.10
In the Civil War the two chief families took opposite
sides, but while Gilbert Ireland was a vigorous sup-
porter of the Parliamentary cause, the Norrises, except
Edward Norris, who died in the midst of the struggle,
sidered
erly part of
the Inuisitio
1 Thingwall, in recent tii
extra-parochial, was fo
Childwall, as appears by
Nonarum.
" The details are : Childwall, 6s. 8</. ;
Wavertree, loj. ; Much Woolton, i 51. 8</.;
Little Woolton, 1 41. «</. ; Speke, £ I i js. ±J. ;
Garston, ^i is. ^. ; Allerton, 61. <)\d. ;
^d. ; Gregson's Fragments
Hale, £2 19*. 4</.
(ed. Harland), 18.
s D. (B.M.).
(Rec. Soc. Lan
, and Ches.), i,
Ibid.
6 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 227, 244, 246,
247, quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv,n. 4,
7 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x, 184-5.
8 Local Gleanings, Lanes, and Ches. ii,
9 Ches. Consistory Papers. The vicar
also made his complaint, and further
accused this chapelwarden of not present-
ing that the wife of George Ireland, of
Hale, and Henry Wainwright, of the Hale
Bank, were reputed to live together in
adultery. It appeared that the man had
confessed his fault before the bishop's
chancellor ; but the woman denied the fact,
and purged herself by insufficient com-
purgators, there having been no publication
beforehand in the parish church.
10 Norris D. (B.M.).
..
Wavertree.N +
\ .
..:••" "V5..., ..••"•" Little Wodlton
v CHILDWALL
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
remained inactive. The parliamentary commissioners
found much work in the parish in connexion with the
forfeited or sequestered estates of Royalists' and
recusants.1
After the Restoration the lists of contributors to the
hearth tax provide a basis for judging the condition of
the inhabitants.3 In Childwall in 1666 only three
houses had three hearths or more liable, Gilbert
Tarleton's having seven and the vicarage five. In
Wavertree William Ellison's of Greenside was the
largest, with five hearths. In Much Woolton only two
houses had as many as three hearths, but in little Wool-
ton there were nine, including Brettargh Holt with
nine hearths. Speke Hall had twenty-one hearths, and
Allerton Hall eight. In Garston there were only four
houses with three hearths at least. In Hale the great
houses of Sir Gilbert Ireland, with seventeen hearths at
Hale and twenty-two at the Hutt are prominent.
The growth of Liverpool in more recent times has
had its inevitable effect on a large portion of the parish.
Wavertree and Garston have become populous urban
districts, and were incorporated in the borough of
Liverpool in 1895 and 1903 respectively; Child-
wall, the Wooltons, and Allerton, have also a suburban
character, while Speke, Hale, and Halewood still re-
main agricultural.
The agricultural land in the parish is occupied as
follows : — Arable land, 8,934 acres ; permanent grass,
2,838 ; woods and plantations, 337.'
There were races held at Childwall early in the
eighteenth century.5
A report on the wasting of the lands by the Mersey
was made in i SaS.6
In 1804 a company of volunteers was formed from
Hale, Halewood, and Garston, under the commander-
CHILDWALL
ship of John Blackburne of Hale, and with Richard
Weston as captain.7
The church of All Saints 8 is situated
CHURCH on the north-eastward slope of the hill
about half-way up. The building has
has but little ancient work to show. It consists of
chancel with north chapel and vestry, nave with
north and south aisles, south chapel and south
porch, and west tower and spire.
A few twelfth-century stones have been found in the
course of repairs, but nothing in the building appears
to be older than the fourteenth century. The north
arcade and aisle were rebuilt early in the nineteenth
century, and are now again (1906) in process of
complete rebuilding. The chancel 9 has on the south
side a square-headed two-light window which may be
of fourteenth-century date, while the east window and
a north window like that on the south are modern, of
fourteenth-century style. The chancel arch of two
chamfered orders dies into the walls at the springing.
The south arcade of the nave is of fifteenth-century
date, with octagonal columns and moulded capitals, and
pointed arches of two orders. Originally of five bays,
one of its columns has been removed and two of the
arches thrown into one, in order to improve the view
of the nave from the south nave chapel (the Salisbury
chapel), which is an eighteenth-century building with
a large round-headed south window.
The south aisle has several fifteenth-century two-
light windows, and the embattled south porch is of the
same date, while the clearstory over the south arcade
has square-headed windows which may be of the
sixteenth century. In the south aisle are two arched
recesses in the wall, probably sepulchral, and in the
same place are preserved the figures of a man in plate
1 The Royalists included James, earl of
Derby, lord of Childwall, Woolton, and
Halewood ; Royalist Camp. Papers (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 225, &c.
tithes of Childwall ; ibid, i, 75-80.
William Norris, of Speke, and his son
were disaffected, while the late Edward
Norris (eldest son) had fought against
the Parliament ; ibid, iv, 219, 227 ; i, 175.
Edward Norris's lands had been secured
on a lease, though ' at the highest rate,' by
George Ireland, of Hale, who was 'ever
desirous to advance the public benefit ' ;
•which lease he in 1653 desired to have
confirmed that he might recoup the heavy
charge he had been subject to, both for
lays and other taxes and for draining and
improving the property, it being ' subject
to the overflowing of salt water,' and
otherwise in decay ; ibid, iv, 14.
Humbler people suffered. Richard Rose
and a number of others describing them-
•elves as labourers, living in Hale and
Garston and Speke, complained that their
property had been sequestered, not for their
own fault, but through the * delinquency '
of others, and they were too poor to take
witnesses to London to prove their titles ;
ibid, iv, 47, 53. The editor says : 'Most
of the cases seem to have been disposed of
by a marginal note, " Petitioner to enjoy it
if not a recusant." '
'William Ballard, a leaseholder in
Speke, had had two-thirds of his estate
sequestered for recusancy ; Robert Holme,
similarly treated, was supposed to be a
•delinquent' also, but this seems not
to have been proved; ibid, i, 119; iii,
306.
Thomat Molyneux, of Speke, and
Thomas Plumb, of Garston, had less rigid
sequestered' they took the oath of ab-
juration, but the officers of the Pipe were
tioners had for the last three years at least
(i.e. 1648-51) been conformable to the
doctrine of the Church of England, attend-
ing their parish church on Lord's days and
had
tered for moi
C*mp. Papers,
I l.i
lancy it had been seques-
than ten years ; Royalist
of Ha
i freely contributed to the Parlia-
ment's service ; Royalist Comp. Papers
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iv, 97-100,
Richard Quick, of Much Woolton, was
(Index Soc.), 43 ; Cal. of Com. for Comp.
v, 3201.
3 Lay Subsidies Lane. 250/9 ; for a brief
til,/ i
had had the two-thirds of her estate
sequestered for recusancy, and on her death
her grandson, Thomas (son of William)
Harrison, applied for the removal of the
sequestration ; there was evidence that he
was a good Protestant, 'for he was a
constant hearer of the Word of God at the
chapel of Hale' ; ibid, iii, 165. Thomas
Harrison, of Oglet, who was a Protestant
and 'ever had been a friend of the Parlia-
ment,' prayed for the restitution of the
land of his late mother Elizabeth, widow
of Richard Harrison, sequestered many
years before for her recusancy ; ibid, iii,
had two-thirds of his leasehold estate
sequestered for recusancy ; but as he died
in 1654, and the lease had expired with
him, there was no further cause for the
sequestration ; ibid, iv, 70-1. Elizabeth
Fazakerley's estates, similarly sequestered,
were likewise released by her death in
1 6 5 5 ; Cal. of Com. for Comp. v, 3 2 3 8.
In Woolton a mistake seems to have
been made. Cliffe House, in Woolton,
which had been sequestered for recusancy,
was restored on evidence that the peti-
103
Hi,,. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 33-5.
4 The following are details :—
Arable Grass Wood,
ac. ac. &c.
Childwall . 2378 . 1752 . 49
Garston . . 489 . 302 . 7
Speke and
Hale . . 3165 . 493 . 218
Halewood . 2902 . 291 . 63
5 N. Blundell's Diary, 32, 35.
6 Trans. Hist. Soc. xxii, 220-8.
7 Local Gleanings Lanes, and Cbes. ii,
206-7.
8 In one of the Norris Deeds (B.M.
n. 189) the final remainder is to the work
(opus] of St. Peter of Childwall. This was
in 1354.
There is a view of the building, drawn
in 1775, in Gregson's Fragments (ed. Har-
land), 1 88, and a description in Glynne'.
Lar.cs. Churches (Chet. Soc.), 113.
The list of pewholders in 1609 is
printed in Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),
vii-viii, 327.
9 Sir S. Glynne (op. et. loc. cit.) notes
that the chancel has been shortened.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
armour and a lady, said on the authority of a much
more modern inscription to be those of Henry Norris
of Speke, 1524, and Clemence his wife. The tower,
which was rebuilt in 1810 on the old foundations,
except that the east wall was set further west, is of
little architectural merit. The jambs of the old east
arch of the tower remain in a damaged condition,
apparently the result of a fire. The font, of red
sandstone, is ancient, but completely rechiselled, and
appears to have been altered from an octagon to a
round.
The registers begin in 1557, the earlier entries
having been copied on parchment about 1597. The
first volume contains baptisms, marriages, and burials
up to 1613 or 1614, with a few odd entries up to
1650. The next volume begins in 1653,50 that there
is a break of about forty years ; from this time the
series appears to be complete. There is a rude draw-
ing of the church on the cover of the second volume.
The churchwardens' accounts begin a little before
1600. The tithe award and maps are in the
vestry.
The silver communion plate includes a flagon, two
chalices, and two patens, 1779.'
In the church besides the Norris brass,1 now hung
Allerton, who died in 1 700, Theophilus Kelsall, for-
merly vicar, and others.
There is a ring of six bells, dating from 1720.
The priest of the place is men-
ADyQWSQN tioned in Domesday Book as having
half a plough-land in alms.3 About
1094 Roger of Poitou granted the church of Child-
wall, among others, to the abbey of St. Martin at
Seez, and thus for a time it became attached to the
priory of Lancaster. This grant appears to have been
revoked by Henry I on the forfeiture of Roger's
possessions, but was confirmed in a charter by John
count of Mortain.4 The priory received an annual
pension of 201. from the holder of the benefice,
through a compromise arranged by the abbots of
Chester and Stanlaw and the prior of Birkenhead as
papal delegates, and confirmed by Geoffrey the bishop
of Coventry about I2O5.5
The manor having been granted to the baron of
Manchester, he also claimed the patronage of the
church, and in 1232 this right was in dispute between
Thomas Grelley and the prior of Lancaster.' The
former was successful, and a Grelley is found among
the rectors soon afterwards, while in 1293 and 1299
the king presented to Childwall, because of the
minority of Thomas son of Robert Grelley the patron.7
The rector being a non-resident pluralist, the bishop
appears to have thought it proper to establish a vicar-
age at Childwall. Accordingly in December, 1307,3
vicar was instituted on the presentation of the rector.
He was to receive for the maintenance of himself
and the ecclesiastical organization of the parish — three
chaplains and a deacon are named — all oblations
and tenths, Easter dues, tithes of linen, cheese and
milk, &c. He (or they) were to have a dwelling
place on the land of the church called ' Green land,'
near the church, and to satisfy all the ordinary
charges.8
Only two years after this Sir Robert de Holand
presented to the rectory and then assigned it to his
college of priests at Upholland.9 In 1311 the rector
was presented by the dean of this college. Licence
for the alienation had been granted by Edward II in
June, 1310, after the usual inquiry.10 On the trans-
ference of the college to a monastery of Benedictines in
1319, the advowson of Childwall was transferred also,
with a reservation of the usual ecclesiastical rights and
a pension of 40*. a year to the cathedral church of
Lichfield. This pension continued to be paid down
to the dissolution." The rectory was appropriated,
the monks presenting to the vicarage until the sup-
pression.
The rectory with the patronage was granted to
augment the endowment of the new see of Chester by
Philip and Mary in 1557-8," and this, after confisca-
tion, was renewed by Elizabeth in 1 56 1,13 and the
later presentations were made by the bishops of
Chester until the see of Liverpool was created by Act
of Parliament in 1880, when the patronage was trans-
ferred to its bishop.
The tithes were farmed out " in Elizabeth's reign '•'
and later to the Anderton family,16 so the Common-
wealth surveyors found. Bishop Bridgeman had in
1632 leased the tithes to John Poole and others for
three lives for a yearly rent of £57 14*. 4</.,17 and the
lease was 'lately in the possession of James Anderton,
a Papist, and now under sequestration for his de-
linquency.' The actual value of the tithes was aboul
1 Lanes. Churches, 115.
' Thornely, Brasses, 153.
8 In 1 389-90 the prior of Upholland
had one oxgang and 10 ac. of glebe in
Childwall, Hale, and Garston, belonging
to 'the rectory ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol.
173*.
« Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 289-93 ™A
298.
* Lane. Church (Chet. Soc.), i, 119-
21.
• Cal. Pat. 1225-32, p. 512. In the
Close Roll of the same year is a royal
mandate to the bishop of Lichfield relating
1 262 Thomas Grelley granted the church
of Childwall with the chapels of Hale and
Garston to his son Peter, but the gift wai
held to be invalid ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New
Ser.), xvii, 54.
» Lich. Epis. Reg. i, fol. 28.
9 Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 233.
10 Ibid. ; Cal. Inj. a.j.d. (Rec. Com.),
"AfoB. Angl. iv, 410-11. Another
pension of £1 61. 8</. was payable from
Upholland Priory to the Carthusians of
Shene, but nothing is said as to the 203.
due to the priory of Lancaster, the
under a grant to John Chatterton frorr
Henry VIII (,537) for thirty-one years
and he complained that Sir Williarr
Norris, knt. and others had by force taker
possession of tithe corn in Garston, Oglei
and Siche, and Little Woolton. Si;
William replied that John Chatterton ha<
demised them to Sir William Leyland.
who in turn granted them to the defen
dant. Being reminded that there was :
condition attached that £12 a yearshouh
be paid to Chatterton at the font stone it
St. Paul's Church in London, he replie.
that his servant Thomas Molyneux waitcc
Robert de Lathom as lord of the subordi-
nate manor endeavoured to secure the
advowson of the church from Thomas
Grelley ; Cur. Reg. R. 171, m. gj., 81 d.
The attempt was renewed in 1302-7
against Thomas, great-grandson of that
Thomas Grelley. Tear Book, 32 Edw. I,
4; DeBanc. R. 144, m. 184^.; 153, m.
^ Cal. Pat. 1292-1301, pp. 7, 429 ; De
Bane. R. 100, m. 2. Before his death in
transferred to Sion Monastery.
18 Pat. Phil, and Mary, pt. xii, m. 14.
18 Duchy of Lane. Rec. class 12, bdle.
19 (Privy Seals Eliz.). An annual rent
of£n 155. 5J,/. was now asked. The
grant was confirmed by Tames I in
1608-9 ; it included Prior's keys in Hale
and Garston Hall ; Pat. 6 Jas. I, pt.
xxiii, m. 5.
"In 1556-7 Andrew Vavasor was
farmer of the parsonage of Childwall,
three o'clock till sunset, but no one eve
came to receive the money. Duct
Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii.
224-31.
15 Norris D. (B.M.).
"Afterwards and down to 1854 the-
were leased to the Gerards of Brynn
Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1870), ii, 258.
V A lease at this rent was granted ir
1772 to Alexander Osbaldeston of Osbal
deston, and Nicholas Starkie of Preston.
104
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
£400. There was no parsonage house certainly
known, but the parish had lately bought from the of the vicarage £58 31.
earl of Derby a house for the vicar as well as two
acres of land supposed to have belonged to the par-
sonage.1
In 1291 the rectory was valued at £40,' and in
1535 at £38 I3/. \d., out of which certain fees and
pensions had to be paid, the vicarage being worth to the bishop of Liverpool.
CHILDWALL
Bishop Gastrell about 1720 found the value
At present the gross
lue is given as £440, with a vicarage house opposite
the church. ^4 is paid to Hale chapel.
The vicar of Childwall formerly presented to
various churches within the old parish, Wavertree,
Woolton, &c., but this patronage has been transferred
The followir
list of the rectors and vicars : —
Instituted
oc. 1177-8 . .
c. 1190 . . . .
Robert5
Robert Fukes6 ....
H (and R ) 7
Presented by
. . . Richard de Lathom
c. 1205
c. 1232-46 . .
1 260 and after .
15 Mar. 1292-3
JohnCotty8 ....
Herbert Grelley 9 . . .
John de Droxford 10 . .
. The King . .
Sir Robert de Holani
9 -N°v' 1 3°9
1 8 Mar. 1310-11
Henry de Leicester " . .
. . . Dean of Holland .
Cause of Vacancy
res. of J. de Droxford
res. of A. de Preston
1 7 Dec. 1307. . Henry de Wavertree 13 .... The Rector ....
20 Dec. 1338. . Richard de Barnby " Holland Priory. . . . d. of H. de Wavertree
3 July, i 349. . Nicholas de Thome li „ .... d. of Ric. last vicar
i There were three tithe barns— at Gar- « De Banco R. 144, m. iS^J. ; pre- Childwall by the king in July, 1299, but
tton, Lea and Woolton ; a house and acre sented in the time of Richard I, according for some reason or other the presentation
of glebe at Garston brought in a rent of to the plaintiff. does not seem to have taken effect. John
i 31. 4</., and a close in Hale, called Prior's " At the time of the composition with remained rector, and on I March, 1 308,
heys, is. i id. The vicar had all the the prior of Lancaster ' H. the clerk of a further dispensation from Clement V
small tithes except such as paid a com- Childwall' was liable for the pension of directed him to resign two of his benefices
of Allerton, 101. for tithe of hemp and
flax of Allerton and Garston ; Mr. Norris
of Speke, i6s. for tithe of pig, goose,
hemp and flax in Speke and the Wool-
rector. Among the witnesses is ' R.
the clerk of Childwall ' ; Lane. Church,
121.
8 Wballey Coucher, 558, 809.
he being then only a deacon ; ibid, ii, 39.
He therefore retained Childwall, probably
without visiting it, until the day of his
consecration as bishop of Bath and Wells
Mr. Ireland of the Hutt, £1 51. for the
tithe of pig, goose, hemp and flax in Hale
and Halewood (except a few houses),
Childwall and Wiv.rtree, also pig and
goose in Allerton. The profit of the
vicarage was estimated to be about £30 a
year, including the small tithes and Easter
roll. Common-w. Church Surv. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 194-5.
* Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 249. In
1341 the true value of the ninth of the
corn, wool and lambs was found to be
£40, made up thus : Hale £20, Speke
£4 I 5;., Wavertree £4 I 31. 4^., Aller-
ton £i 45., Woolton /3 6j. 8</., Much
Cur. Reg. R. 171, m. T,zd. and is prob-
ably the same as the 'Herbert Grelle
quondam rector ' of Kuerden ; Final Cone.
i, 140 n. See also Dep. Keeper's Rep. xliv,
App. 113, for mention of him in 1275.
Herbert, rector of Childwall, was in 1288
guardian of Richard, son and heir of
Geoffrey de Casterton ; De Banco R. 73,
m. 1 3. He seems to have been rector
till about 1290, but 'Richard Chaplain of
Childwall ' is witness to charters of that
period; Norris D. (B.M.), ». 711, 725;
also Bold D. Warrington, G. 44.
10 John de Droxford (or Drochenesford)
is the most distinguished incumbent of
twenty years.
Roger de Droxford's presentation to
Childwall may have been refused by the
bishop of Lichfield, for in November,
1299, his brother the papal chaplain ob-
tained from Boniface VIII permission for
Roger to hold one benefice in addition to
Freshwater, although he was not a priest,
and between eighteen and twenty-five
years of age ; ibid, i, 584.
11 Lich. Epis. Reg. i, 57* ; he is described
as 'son of Hugh de Preston.' Adam de
Preston forfeited lands by adhering to
Thomas earl of Lancaster, and recovered
them in 1327 on petition to Edward III ;
Childwall 175. 4</., and Thingwall 7;.;
Nonarum 7«?. (Rec. Com.), 40.
8 Valor Keel. (Rec. Com.), v, 222.
After the dissolution the value was found
to be £56 161. 4^. This included the
tithes of four mills : Halewood, Allerton,
Wavertree and Bushel's Mill ; Duchy of
Lane. Rentals, &c. 5/12.
4 Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 164.
A list of benefactions between 1680 and
1705 included a grant of 101. a year for a
preaching minister.
A terrier of 1778 among the church
papers states that the vicar then had the
tithes of cow and calf, &c., ' for every
smoke id., for every tradesman 4^. ' ; i6j.
and 255. were paid for the demesnes of
Speke and Hale respectively ; ioi. came
rom an estate in Widnes, ' Lyon's of the
Fold'; and IDJ. from Hancock's New
House in Halewood. The latter rent
charges are still paid ; see End. Char.
Rep. (Childwall), 1904.
5 'Robert the priest of Childwall' in
1177-8 was fined a mark for some breach
of the forest laws ; Lanes. Pipe R. 38.
3
in Diet. Nat. Biog. He was one of the
king's clerks and keeper of the wardrobe
to Edward I. In 1290 he was presented
by the king to the church of Monewden
(dio. Norwich), and on 15 March, 1293,
to Childwall, with all its chapels and
appurtenances, followed by Kingsclere in
1296; Cal. Pat. The king presented to
Childwall by reason of the minority of
Robert Grelley.
On 27 Sept. 1298, Boniface VIII
granted him at the king's request a dis-
pensation for having while under age
obtained first the church of Childwall,
then successively those of Hemingburgh,
&c., and various canonries and prebends,
with leave to retain all those successively
held— except Childwall and another, which
must be resigned — the cure of souls not
being neglected, and a portion of the fruits
received being applied to the benefices ;
Cal. of Pap. Letters, \, 577. The pope at
the same time made him one of his
chaplains.
In accordance with this, Roger de
Droxford, his brother, was appointed to
105
probably the Adam de Preston mentioned
in a Holland family settlement of 1 32 1-2 ;
ibid, vi, 254.
12 Lich. Epis. Reg. i, 59. A Henry de
Leicester was one of the king's clerks in
1307 ; Cal.Pat. 1307-13^. 8. The rector
of Childwall was probably the cofferer to
Thomas earl of Lancaster in 1322, whose
misfortune is described in Beamont's
Halton, 38. He seems to have been ap-
pointed rector of Almondsbury by the
archbishop of York in 1 3 1 3, on the depri-
vation of Boniface di Saluzzo ; Cal. of Pap.
Letters, ii, 122, 1 68. It seems clear that
the last two rectors were presented merely
to hold the rectory until arrangements
could be made for its transference to
Upholland Priory.
18 Lich. Epis. Reg. i, 28. Dean of War-
rington in 1319 ; see the account of Mel-
ling. In 1336 it was reported to the bishop
that he was old and weak, and therefore
John del Femes was appointed as hit
assistant; ibid, ii, fol. noi.
" Ibid. fol. 112*.
15 Ibid. fol. 123*.
14
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
26 Jan. 1353-4 .
John Dibbleda l
Roger de Poghden '
6 Mar. 1386-7.
Richard de Moston '
oc. 1421
Thomas Caton 4
16 Aug. 1426
William Walton *
oc. 1430-35 . .
William Mercer6
24 Jan. 1443-4 .
Christopher Lee 7
oc. 1464 . . .
Geoffrey Whalley9
16 May, 1473 .
.'Richard Dey, LL.B.» . . . .
1 1 Nov. 1496
John Merton 10
17 Oct. 1514. .
Robert Greves "
10 July, 1546 .
John Ainsdale "
oc. 1562 . .
William Crosse
I 2 Tan i c6o— 70
David Catton ls
i L jail, i ^uy /u.
24 Oct. 1588. .
Lawrence Blackborne " ....
1 8 Jan. 1588-9 .
Thomas Williamson, M.A. "...
28 June, 1589 .
Edmund Hopwood l6
oc. 1616 . . .
William Knowles "
17 April, 1617 .
Henry Taylor 18
10 Aug. 1624
James Hyett, B.D. "
20 May, 1625 .
James Critchley
7 Dec. 1632 ..
William Lewis, M.A. *>....
c. 1645 . . .
David Ellison "
18 Dec. 1657. .
2 Mar. 1 66 1-2.
Hohn Litherland a
5 Mar. 1663-4.
William Thompson "
15 Oct. 1664. .
Joshua Ambrose, M.A. **....
1 8 Feb. 1686-7 •
Thomas West, M.A. 25 ....
Holland Priory .
Holland Priory .
Holland Priory .
W. J. &'*R. Ainsdale
Bishop of Chester .
Bishop of Chester .
Bishop of Chester .
Com. of the County
/Lord Protector .
( Bishop of Chester
Cause of Vacancy
pro. J. Dibbleda
d. of R. de Poghder
d. of T. Caton
res. G. Whalley
d. of Richard Dey
res. last, incum.
d. of R. Graves
res. W. Crosse
[d. D. Catton]
dep. or cession of H.
Taylor
res. Jas. Hyett
res. J. Ambrose
1 He was made rector of Heysham ;
Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 131.
» Ibid. fol. 131. Roger de Poghden (or
Pokeden) is frequently mentioned in local
deeds.
In 1386 the cemetery of Childwall was
suspended at the visitation held at Prescot,
tain Adam de Mossley ; the suspension
» Act Books at Chest. David Catton
was one of the old clergy ; ordained priest
in 1542. He remained at Childwall till
his death, being buried there 25 May,
,588.
" Act books at Chest.
" Ibid. Thomas Williamson became
vicar of Eccles and fellow of Manch.
16 Ibid. Edmund Hopwood, literate,
91 David Ellison was described by the
Parl. Com. in 1650 as 'a painful godly
preaching minister, observing the Lord's
days, fast days, and days of humiliation
appointed ' ; Commonwealth Church Sur-u.
(Rec. Soc.), 67. It was ordered in
Aug. 1645, that £50 should be paid him
out of the profits of the rectory, seques-
tered from James Anderton, recusant con-
assistant bishop of Lichfield on the repre-
sentation of the Hospitallers, whose privi-
Norris D. (B.M.), ". 966.
borough in June, 1576 ; he was described
as 'no preacher* in 1590, but had become
one in 1607. He was in 1615 presented
by the earl of Derby to Holy Trinity,
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 9, 50, 247.
m John Litherland was admitted on
1 8 Dec. 1657, to the parish of Childwall
on a presentation from the Lord Protector
Moston's name occurs in various deeds
down to 1413; see Norris D. (B.M.),
Moore charters (n. 74.2), Kuerden MSS. ii,
fol. 230.
< He occurs as vicar in Jan. 1420-1 ;
Norris D. (B.M.), n. 892.
° Lich. Epis. Reg. ix, fol. 116.
6 William Mercer, who had been chap-
See Pennant's Acct. Book (MS.) ; Gibson,
Lydiate Hall, 249 ; Kenyan MSS. (Hist.
MSS. Com.), 12; Ormerod, Ches. (ed.
Helsby), i, 332.
17 Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 74.
See the account of Ormskirk church.
19 Act Books at Chest. The institu-
not stated, but it was probably the death
of the previous incumbent, who does not
occur in later lists ; Plund. Mini. Acca.
ii, 209, 300. Litherland was instituted
again on the restoration of episcopacy ;
the Act Books at Chest, give 26 Nov.
1 66 1 as the date of collation.
28 Inst. Books, P.R.O.
wall in 1429-30 and in Aug. 1435 ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 168 ; Norris D.
P.R.O.
19 Hyett was promoted to Croston.
Harvard, New England, and was incorpo-
rated at Pembroke Coll. Oxf. 1655, be-
7 Lich. Epis. Reg. ix, fol. 126*. No
reason is assigned for the vacancy.
8 Geoffrey Whalley was vicar in 1464 ;
Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F.a.
» Lich. Epis Reg. xii, fol. io6i. The
registrar has omitted the name of the clerk
presented ; probably it was Richard Dey,
the next vicar known,
'o Ibid, xii, fol. 230*.
11 Ibid, xiii-xiv, fol. 58*.
la Act Books at Chest. ; John Porte,
prior, and the convent of Upholland had
in 1531 granted the next presentation to
Robert Brerewood, Richard Johnson, and
Thomas Brerewood (probably of the Ches-
to be 'very diligent in his calling' ; Con-
frit, from Clergy (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 94, 1 10 ; but ejected on the out-
break of the Civil War. He was dean of
Warrington in 1640. William Lewis,
minister, residing at Little Woolton, was
buried at Childwall 6 Jan. 1659-60.
In 1640 he had trouble with some of
his parishioners over a question of pews.
He had ' enlarged ' the pulpit, which had
before been indecent and unseemly, and
Ellison and his mother had been removed
altogether. In 1636 the bishop had issued
a commission 'for the uniforming the
is probably the same as this vicar of Child-
wall, who had before the Restoration been
Oxon. ; Baines, Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 42,
quoting Calamy's Noncanf. Memorial, ii, 3.
by Bishop Cartwright : 'The parishioners
of Childwall brought me Mr. Ambrose his
new vicar 'before Christmas, and wrote
word to my cousin Peter Whalley that I
would give it to my cousin Thomas West,'
who was accordingly instituted and made
a chaplain to the bishop. He resigned
at the Revolution, being reckoned as a
their right to William, John, and Richard
Ainsdale of Wallasey. Ainsdale paid
first-fruits 15 July, 1546 ; Lanes, and Ches.
Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and dies.), ii, 408.
parishioners therein according to their
rank and estates ' ; and it was thought
the matter had been settled ; Con. Court
Rec. at Chest.
1 06
of Northampton, of Merton College, Ox-
ford, took the M.A. degree in 1684 ; see
Cartwright' s Diary (Camd. Soc.), 16, 33 ;
Foster's Alumni ; Pal. Note Book, ii, 239.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED CHILDWALL
Instituted Name Presented by Cause of Vacancy
1 9 June, 1690 . Ralph Markland, M.A. • .... Bishop of Chester . . . res. T. West
12 Jan. 1721-2 . Theophilus Kelsall, B.A. a .... „ ... d. of R. Markland
6 Mar. 1734-5. Roger Barnston, M.A. 3 „ ... d. T. Kelsall
25 July, 1737 . William Ward, B.A. 4 „ ... res. R. Barnston
1 8 Sept. 1740 . Robert Whiston 6 „ ... d. W.Ward
29 Jan. 1741-2 . Abel Ward, M.A. 6 „ ... res. R. Whiston
13 Jan. 1745-6 . Thomas Tonman, M.A. 7 „ ... res. Abel Ward
i o Sept. 1778 . Matthew Worthington 8 „ ... res. T. Tonman
24 April, 1797 . William Bowe9 „ ... d. M. Worthington
10 Feb. 1818 . James Thomas Law, M.A.'" .... „ ... res. W. Bowe
1 5 Oct. 1821 . Henry Law, M.A." „ ... res. J. T. Law
!jNov?i88294 ;} Augustus Campbell, M.A." . ... „ ... re, H. Law
20 Sept. 1870 . George Winter Warr, M.A. 13 ... „ ... d. of A. Campbell
1 4 Jan. 1896 . Peter Sorensen Royston, D.D. 14 . . Bishop of Liverpool . . d. G. W. Warr
1 6 Oct. 1903 . Richard Montague Ainslie, M.A. Is . . „ ... res. P. S. Royston
Robert Greves was vicar during the greater part of
Henry VIII's reign. In 1541 he paid an assistant
named Richard Greves ; there were three other
priests,16 probably serving the chapels at Hale and
Garston, and the chantry priest, so that the staff
numbered five or six. At the visitation of 1 548 the
clergy remained the same in number, but at the
visitation in 1554, when the Edwardian changes had
had effect and the temporary reaction was only be-
ginning, the clergy had been reduced to three.17 The
services at Garston chapel had probably been discon-
tinued. The vicar had held his place through several
changes ; it is not known whether he died or resigned
before the next, but in January, 1557-8 Bishop Scott
gave him leave to agree with Richard Norris, priest,
as to his retirement, Norris to pay him a suitable
pension.18
William Crosse, the next vicar, was ordained deacon
at Chester in I555,19 and as he answered as vicar at
the visitations of i 562 and 1565 must be considered
a conformist — for the time at least ; in 1563 he was
absent, 'excused by the bishop,' and in 1569 he
resigned. He was the only clergyman who repre-
sented Childwall in I 562-3. 80
The chantry at the altar of St. Thomas the
Martyr was founded in 1484 by Thomas Norris
Camb. (M.A. 1682), was son of Ralph
Markland of Wigan ; information of
Dr. Morgan, master of the coll. For his
family see Dugdale's Vint. (Chet. Soc.),
193. He was the father of Jeremiah
Markland. •
1 Theophilus Kelsall, previously curate
of St. Helens, was educated at Camb. ;
B.A. 1710. He died Feb. 1 734-5 ; monu-
aged 64 ; there are monuments to him
and his wife Dorothy (daughter of Dr.
Samuel Peploe) in the Lady Chapel in
Chest. Cath. ; Foster, Alumni ; Ormerod,
Ckes. i, 296.
8 Matthew Worthington had been
curate of Wood Plumpton near Preston
for forty-two years. With but a scanty
income to supply the wants of a large
this a mediety of the rectory of Liverpool
was added in 1829 (he afterwards became
sole rector) ; this accounts for the double
institution at Childwall. He held both
preferments till his death at Childwall on
1 5 May, 1870, in the eighty-fifth year of
his age. There is in the church a monu-
ment to his son Major P. Campbell, who
was wounded at the Alma and afterwards
8 Roger Barnston was the second son
of Roger Barnston of Churton near
bishop (Beilby Porteous), stating his case,
and asking if his lordship could use any
18 George Winter Warr had been the
incumbent of St. Saviour's, Liverpool.
Coll. Camb. (M.A. 1734), and became
rector of Condover in Shropshire and a
canon of Chester. He was twice married,
but died childless in 1782, and was
buried at Farndon ; Ormerod, Cha. (ed.
Helsby), ii, 747.
4 William Ward, son of Francis Ward
of Shervill in Devon, was educated at
Exeter Coll. Oxf. but graduated from
Edmund Hall (B.A. 1728) ; Foster,
* A Robert Whiston of Shropshire was
of Magdalen Hall, Oxf. graduating in
1739 ; Foster, Alumni.
6 Abel Ward was a Staffordshire man.
He entered Queens' Coll. Camb. as a
lizar in 1736, and was elected fellow in
1740 soon after taking his B.A. degree ;
M.A. 1744. He held his fellowship dur-
ing his vicariate, vacating it by his pro-
motion to a prebendal stall at Chester in
assistance. The bishop, struck by the
letter, raised by subscription a sum of
money for the writer, and when Child-
wall fell vacant promoted him to it.
See the letter in Baines, Lanes, (ed.
Croston), v, 44. Joseph Sharpe, minister
(curate) of Childwall, published sermons
preached there; Local Gleanings, i, 187,
192.
9 William Bowe was master of the
grammar school at Scorton, in the North
Riding, and had licence to reside out of
the parish.
10 James Thomas Law, eldest son of the
then bishop, was a fellow of Christ's
Coll. Camb.; M.A. 1815; and became
master of St. John's Hospital, Lich-
field, and chancellor of the diocese of
Lichfield. He died 22 Feb. 1876 ; Diet.
Nat. Biog.
11 Henry Law was' another son of the
from 1870 to 1880, when he had the
same dignity at Liverpool.
14 Peter Sorensen Royston graduated
at Camb. from Trinity Coll. ; M.A.
1861, D.D. 1873. He was appointed
bishop of the Mauritius in 1872, and
after his resignation became assistant to
Bishop Ryle of Liverpool, who presented
him to Childwall.
« Richard Montague Ainslie, M.A.
Cambridge (1885, Pembroke Coll.), was
previously incumbent of St. Saviour's,
Liverpool.
M Clergy Lh, of .541-2 (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 16.
17 John Ainsdale the vicar, Thomas
Plombe (chantry priest — his occupation
gone), marked 'decrepitus,' and James
Whitford of Hale.
W Norris D. (B.M.). For the orna-
ments in 1552, after some had disappeared,
resigning Childwall for St. Ann's, Man-
chester. He died at Neston in 1785. See
inscription in Chest. Cath.; Ormerod, Cha.
St. John's Coll. Camb.; M.A. 1823.
Following his father to the diocese of
Bath and Wells, he became canon and
1517 three new bells were made for the
church by Richard Seliock of Notting-
ham ; the great bell 518 lb., the less
President of Queens' Coll.
7 Thomas Tonman was the son of
Roger Tonman of New Radnor ; educated
at Jesus Coll. Oxf. ; he graduated M.A.
in 1 744. He was vicar of Little Bud-
(1862) dean of Gloucester, dying in Nov.
1884; Diet. Nat. Biog.
u Augustus Campbell was of Trinity
Coll. Camb.; M.A. 1812. He was
made rector of Wallasey in 1814, and
107
Norris D. (B.M.).
18 Ordination Book (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 86.
*> The above particulars are from the
visitation lists at Chester.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
of Speke to celebrate for the souls of himself and
his ancestors.1
The church, according to an old rhyme, was
famous for ' ringing and singing.' '
CHILDWALL
Cildeuuelle.Dm.BL; Childwall,i26i ; Childewelle,
1291 ; Childewalle, 1212, 1332 ; Childewall, 1354
and onwards (common form) ; also Chaldewall, 1238;
Chaldewal, 1 305. The terminations ' wall ' and 'well '
appear indifferently. Childow is the local pronuncia-
As to the charities of the parish,
CHARITIES Bishop Gastrell was in 1718 able to
report little in addition to the schools The township of Childwall, containing 831 acres,10 is
at Much Woolton and Hale.s The commissioners of principally situated on the slope of a low hill, the highest
28 gave a much longer list,4 but even in 1903 the
amount for the parish as a whole was very small ; 5
Hale 6 and Halewood ' had some considerable bequests,
but the charity founded recently by Mrs. Mary Jane
Cross for the relief of poor residents of Much and
Little Woolton suffering from accidents and non-
infectious diseases is the most important from its
pont of which is 223 ft. above sea -level, commanding
an extensive panorama of a wide, flat plain lying to
the east. The district has an agreeable park-like
appearance, with plantations and pastures, diversified
with cultivated fields, where crops of corn, turnips,
and potatoes are raised. There are but few dwellings,
besides the hall and the houses which cluster about
funds of the kind.9
The other townships have little or no the church. The geological formation consists of the
1 By charters dated 16 Dec. 1484,
Thomas Norris of Speke and John his
brother gave to Richard Norris and others
lands in Halewood, Much Woolton, and
Garston ; the income arising therefrom to
be paid yearly to Humphrey Norris, clerk,
to celebrate in the chapel of St. Thomas
the Martyr of Childwall, and after his
4 The following notes are from the
reports of the Char. Com. of 1828 (xx.
83, &c.) and the End. Char. Report for
Childwall issued in 1904. This latter
concerns only that portion of the parish
outside Liverpool in 1903.
6 The total sum available in 1903
was £504 a year, but more than half of
poor's stock of £13, an annual charge
of 13*. being paid from the rates on
account of it. This has long been dis-
continued.
7 Though some benefactions had been
lost to Halewood by 1828 three old dona-
charge of 2oj. on John Lyon's estate in
Thomas Norris or his heirs for ever. The
chapel itself was therefore more ancient
than the Norris chantry. In Nov. 1532,
chapel, and £148 of the remainder was
Mrs. Cross's newly-founded charity.
Henry Watmough by will in 1746
Peacock's farm in Halewood, founded by
Jane Hey or William Carter, and 101.
interest on £20 bequeathed in 1778 bjr
new feoffment, and they accordingly did
so; Norris D. (B. M.), ». 2:9, 223.
'John the chaplain' seems to have
been cantarist in 1499 i ibid- »• 29- J°hn
Day was priest in 1494.
Canon Raines gives the names of three
others :— Hulme, Henry Hill (instituted
on 2 May, 1 504), and the above-named
Thomas Plombe, who was in charge at
the suppression, being then sixty years of
age. He had a pension of £3 61. in
1 5 5 3, which was about the rental (671. jd.)
Sunday to the poor of the parish. This
was in force until 1869, when the land
was sold. The purchaser refused to pay,
on the ground that the rent-charge was
known whether the vendors were called
upon to provide for the continuance of
the benefaction. Edward Almond of
Much Woolton about 1836 left a similar
charge, void in law, for the same purpose.
The devisee of the field paid the charge
voluntarily, but his executors refused to
of his estate (£850) for the maintenance
of the churchyard ; and Catherine Hen-
rietta Law French, widow, left £500 for
the church bells and other money for the
school.
8 The bequest was by her will of 1894,
proved in 1902. The net residuary estate
was £4,177. The trustees have decided
to purchase a house at Woolton for a
nurses' home, in connexion with the
Convalescent Institution, at a cost of
£1,500.
income had been derived from houses and
lands in Great Woolton (265. 8</.), Gar-
ston (i 6..), Halewood (22,. 7d.\ and
extinct. A sum of £20 having been paid
to Rector Campbell in 1848 — supposed to
represent moneys given early in the eigh-
Gateacre Chapel, left in 1740 a rent-
charge of 20j. for a bread charity and
teaching poor children.
priest celebrating with the ornaments of
the parish church. See Raines, Chantries
(Chet. Soc.), 98.
A lease of the chantry lands for twenty
years was made to Edward Norris in
other money partly contributed by him-
self £120 railway stock, now yielding
£4 161. id. yearly ; this is divided accord-
ing to his instructions, the chief part going
to the poor.
Hey in 1722 bequeathed a rent of 161.
charged on the New House in Halewood
—it is now known as Peacock's— to be
distributed to the poor on Good Friday.
In 1828 it was found to be the practice
annually £3 71. }d. to the crown ; and in
1608 Sir William Norris secured a grant
of them made by the king two years be-
fore, the same annual rent to be paid ;
Pat.4jas. I, pt. xxiii ; Norris D. (B.M.).
The inscriptions on the chantry win-
dows are recorded in the Norris Deeds ;
the account by Ormerod (in the Pann-
talia) is imperfect. Three others asked
prayers for Edmund Crosse and his family;
for Thomas Norris of Speke and John his
brother, and also for 'Sir John Lathom,
formerly lord of Aldford,' who built and
founded the chantry ; and for William
Norris, vicar of some church unnamed,
who died 18 Aug. 1460, and Richard his
brother. There is an error in the above.
Sir John Stanley was lord of Aldford 2 to
1 6 Edw. IV; John Lathom was rector
there 1461-84; Ormerod, Cbei. (ed.
Helsby), ii, 757, 759-
» Pal. Note Book, ii, 279.
• Notitia Ctstr. ii, 168, 171.
1753 left £100 to found a bread charity
at Hale chapel, and another £ 100 for
money or clothes for poor housekeepers
and widows. Ellen Halsall by her will
of 1734 left a rent-charge of 201. on a
house in Tithebarn Street, Liverpool, to
provide ' the most easy, choice, valuable,
authentic, approved, and elaborate trea-
tises' on arithmetic and mathematics to
be given to boys. These charities are
intact, but the bread distribution has been
discontinued and the money is otherwise
employed, under the authority of the
Charity Commissioners. The house in
Tithebarn Street having been pulled down
for town improvements, the 201. from it is
paid by the corporation of Liverpool,
though books have not been provided out
of it. Mary Leigh by will in 1856
(proved 1872) left £700 for the repairs
of a certain tomb, and then for a distri-
bution to the poor on the anniversary of
her death. In 1828 there was an old
108
corrected, and it is now given to the poor.
William Carter left sums of money for
£49 ; all' had been lost before 1828. For
a long time down to 1864 a payment of
35. 4rf, of unknown origin, was made by
the owner of Abbey Heys in Little
Woolton and applied to parish purposes.
Nothing is now known of it.
ing to £50 for the benefit of poor house-
keepers were in 1790 invested in a cottage
and garden, producing a rent of 501. In
1820 two new cottages were built on the
old site, and out of the rent 501. con-
tinued in 1828 to be given to the poor in
cloth, the remainder of the rent being
devoted to paying the cost and interest
incurred in building the cottages.
For Wavertree, Allerton, and Speke no
special charities are recorded.
10 The census of 1901 gives 830 acres,
including 2 acres of inland water.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
the pebble beds to the south-west of the Cheshire
Lines Railway and the upper mottled sandstones to the
north-east. The soil is loamy.
An interesting road is that through the centre of
the township from Liverpool through the Old Swan
to Gateacre and Hale.1 It is joined at the church by
a cross road from Wavertree ; another road from Old
Swan to Huyton runs along part of the northern
boundary. The Cheshire Lines Committee's Railway
from Manchester to Southport passes through the
centre of the township, and there is a station in Well
Lane, about a quarter of a mile east of the church.
The population in 1901 numbered 219.
Jeremiah Markland, a celebrated classical scholar,
was born here in 1693, son of the vicar of Childwall.*
' The roads from Liverpool," wrote Samuel Derrick
in 1760, 'are deep and sandy; consequently rather
unpleasant ; but the views are rather extensive, par-
ticularly from a summerhouse on Childwall Hill,
about three miles distant, where you have a prospect
of fifteen counties and a good view of the sea. In
the skirts of this hill are several small villages with
gentlemen's seats scattered about, well covered and
for the most part delightfully situated.' 3 Gregson
also says : 'The views from the neighbourhood of the
church, from the hall, Gateacre, and as far as Woolton
Hall ... are extensive and particularly fine. On
the west are seen with more distant eminences,
Aughton Hills, near Ormskirk, traversing a line of
country to the north-east. The prospect from Prescot
to Farnworth terminates on the south-east with a
distant view of the ruins of Halton Castle — now fast
mouldering away — a range of hills beyond, and
Norton Priory ... A large portion of the Mersey
water forms one of the features of this scene, and gives
great interest to a landscape that extends nearly
fifteen miles. . . This highly cultivated vale is inter-
spersed with more churches than are usually seen at
one view in Lancashire.' *
A cross formerly stood on the roadside near Well
Lane ; the base is still there.5 Another cross stood
on the boundary of the township, near the entrance
lodge of the hall ; on the opposite side of the road
are a number of ' seats ' cut in the rock.
Well Acre is the name of a field in Well Lane just
below the church. Another well or pool at the
bottom of the slope to the north-east of the church
was known as Monk's Bath ; it was well protected by
an interior four-sided wall of masonry, and a stream
from it used to flow into the Childwall Brook a
short distance away.6 Ashfield is the name of the
land round this well ; Mire Lake and Coneygrey
GKELLKY, Lord of
Manchester. G u 1 is,
CHILDWALL
are fields near the railway and the Little Woolton
boundary.
A local board was formed in 1867 ;' since 1894
the township has been governed by an urban district
council of five members.
Four Radmans held CHILDW4LL in
M4NOR 1 066 for four manors ; it was assessed at half
a hide, and its value beyond the customary
rent was 8/.8 The place is mentioned again in 1094,
when Roger of Poitou gave the church to St. Martin
of Seez.9 Afterwards Child-
wall, with the adjoining Aller- ______
ton, was given to Albert Grelley,
baron of Manchester, and in
his successors the superior lord-
ship of the manor continued
to be vested. It is recorded
among the members of the
barony down to 1473.'°
Under the lords of Man-
chester a subordinate fee of
6£ plough-lands was created, of
which a portion was Child-
wall, being held in 1212 by "••
Richard son of Robert (de
Lathom)." In 1282 and later the regular statement
is that the Lathoms held half a fee in Childwall."
In 1473 Thomas Lord Stanley, heir of the Lathoms,
held Childwall for half a knight's
fee, paying yearly for ' sake fee '
4*. 6J. and for ward of the
castle 5*.13 Later it appears to
have been consolidated with
Rainford and Anglezark, and
these were held together of
Lord la Warre by Thomas
second earl of Derby, who died
in 1521, by fealty and a rent
of 3/., the value being estimated LATHOM or LATHOM.
as £44 IJS. 6J.U A Similar Or, on a chief indeed
statement is made in the in- axure thr" *«<"'"•
quisition after the death of
Ferdinando, fifth earl, who died in 1594, but the
value had declined to ^o.15
In 1596 Childwall formed part of the lands settled
on Thomas Stanley,16 but reverted to the earl of Derby
in 1614." During the Civil War the earl's estates were
sequestered by the Parliament. The manor was con-
tracted for sale in 1653 to Henry Nevill and Arthur
Samwell ; the mill, then in the occupation of Isabel
Broughton, to George Hurd and George Leaf, and other
land there to John Broughton.18 From another case
ooo
1 At present the portion to the north
of the church is available for foot passen-
ger* only ; from its direction and con-
former'times the principal roadway.
» He was educated at Christ's Hospital
and at Peterhouse, Camb. ; he is still
counted among the illustrious scholars of
his university. He died at Milton, near
Dorking, in 1776. There is an account
of him in Diet. Nat. Biog.
8 Letters from Leijerpaale, i, 29, quoted
in Baines' Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 39.
' Fragments (ed. Harland), 189 ; written
about 1815.
' Trans. His,. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 237 ;
Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 198.
6 The pool has now become dry, prob-
ably owing to the pumping carried on for
filled up. The tithe map shows a path
leading down it, but this has now been
closed and added to the field.
I Land. Ga*. 28 June, 1867.
8 See V.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*.
» Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 290, 298.
10 See, for example, Lanes. Inq. and
Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
54, 154; Survey of 1346 (Chet. Soc.)
42; Mamecestrc (Chet. Soc.), 379, 514,
479-
II Inq. and Extents, l.s.c. ; Feud. Aids,
iii, 81.
" Inq. and Extents, 250. In 1 322 Robert
deLathom held it, and in 1482 Lord
Stanley for half a fee owed homage and
fealty ; Mameeestre, 479. The lord of
Childwall had to provide a judge ordooms-
375-
is Ibid. 514; see also Feud. Aids,
iii, 94.
14 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 68.
« Add. MS. 32104, fol. 425*.
16 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
59, m. 214. See also Pat. 44 Eliz.
pt. ii.
17 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 85,
18 Royalist Comf. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
and Ches.), ii, 147-56, 166-72, 237-8.
It was found that Childwall, among other
manors, had been assigned in 1637 as
security for the payment of £600 to
Elizabeth Lady Stanley (widow of Sir
Robert Stanley) and her sons, and this was
allowed to her in 1646 (she having be-
come the countess of Lincoln), and appears
of the earl in 1651.
109
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
before the parliamentary commissioners it appears that
Childwall House had been leased to Hugh Houghton,
deceased, but the lease had expired.1 The succeeding
earl of Derby was able to repurchase Childwall among
other lands;* and in 1657 he obtained an Act of
Parliament to enable him to sell several manors and
chief rents at Childwall, Little Wool ton, part of
Dalton, and all Upholland, &c., whereby he raised a
sum sufficient to free his estates from certain charges.3
The manors of Knowsley, Much Woolton, Little
Woolton, and Childwall, with lands there, and the
manor house of Childwall, lately occupied by Isabel
Houghton, were in August, 1657, sold or rather
mortgaged to Dame Elizabeth Finch and Edward
Bagnell.4 A year later, on 14 October, 1658, the
purchasers, in conjunction with the earl and countess
of Derby, for £4,700 transferred to Peter Legay the
younger and Isaac Legay, who are described as ' of
London, Merchants,' their right in the manors of
Much and Little Woolton and Childwall, with the
lands and mansion house,5 and in the following
February Peter Legay released his right in them to
Isaac.'
From this Isaac Legay, who died in 1690, aged
sixty-five, and was buried at West Stoke in Sussex,'
the estates descended to his son Samuel, who appears
to have resided at Childwall House, and died at
Warrington in 1700, being buried at Childwall on
23 July in that year.8 The heirs were his two sisters,
one of whom, Hannah, was married to Thomas Hollis,
and the other, Martha, to Nicholas Solly. These
ened in 1718 in the actual sale to Isaac Greene of
escot, an attorney practising in Liverpool,9 of all
three manors and the house known as the hall of
Childwall or Childwall House, together with lands in
Much and Little Woolton and Childwall.10
Isaac Greene " married Mary, surviving daughter
and heir of Edward Aspinall of Hale, and thus became
lord of Hale as well as of the manors of Childwall,
Wavertree, Much and Little Woolton, and West Derby.
He built a new Childwall Hall, but it was demolished
by his grandson, and a castellated building from
the designs of John Nash, the popular architect,
substituted for it.12 Of the three daughters of
Isaac Greene the eldest did not marry, and the
inheritance was divided between her sisters, the elder
(Ireland) having Hale and the younger (Mary) Child-
wall and the other Derby manors. The latter married
Bamber, son of Sir Crisp Gascoyne.13 Her eldest
son Bamber Gascoyne, who was member of Parlia-
ment for Liverpool (1780—96)" had an only
child Mary Frances, who married the second marquis
of Salisbury. Her grandson, the present marquis,
is now lord of Childwall and the other manors.
Mr. Hugh Schintz is the present tenant of Child-
wall Hall.
Land in Childwall was early granted to Stanlaw
Abbey." Richard son of Robert de Lathom gave a
' culture ' in Deepdale to Burscough Priory.1' An
early charter by Robert de Grenol granted to Robert "
son of Simon, son of Orm land in the Dale, and Henry
son of Richard of the Dale transferred it to Nicholas
son of Sir Robert Blundell of Crosby. Stephen son
of Adam de Ditton released land in the Dale, perhaps
the same portion, to the above Nicholas Blundell in
izgS.18
Childwall does not appear frequently on the Plea
Rolls, but a dispute between Robert son of Robert del
Moss and John the priest's brother continued several
years in Edward Ill's reign." Later it was found
that ^s. of issue of a messuage and ^ \ acres in Child-
wall remained in the king's hands by reason of an
appropriation made by the prior of Upholland from
John the priest's brother.80 Childwall Lodge, a very
quaint old building, is the residence of Mr. A. Earle
member of an old Liverpool family.
i Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iii, 267-8.
» Cal. S.P. Don. 1653-4, pp. 368-9.
• Scacome, House of Stanley (ed. 1793),
403 ; Commons Jour, vii, 47 I, 496, 5 1 3.
< Hatfield D. 656/12. This deed and
the next referred to were enrolled in
Chancery. See also Pal. of Lane. Feet of
F. bdle. 162, m. 122.
* Hatfield 0.649/3 1. 6 Ibid. 649/10.
^ He was lord of this manor ; see Dalla-
way, Wea Sussex, i, no, ill.
8 Childwall Reg. Samuel Legay assisted
in augmenting the endowment of the
vicarage in 1693; Notitia Cestr. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 1 66*.
9 Isaac Greene calls Madame Legay —
Katherine, the mother of Hannah and
Martha — his aunt ; she died in 1718, aged
eighty-five, just before the sale ; Norris
Paper, (Chet. Soc.), 29; Dallaway, op. cit.
I" Hatfield D. 665/2 (enrolled in the
King's Bench) and 665/9. A recovery
had been suffered at the assizes in which
Jonathan Case, on behalf of Isaac Greene,
had been demandant, and John, Lord
Ashburnham, and Henrietta Maria, his
wife, vouchees ; the latter called James,
earl of Derby, to vouch, and he in turn
summoned the Hollises and Richard Solly.
Thus all possible claimants — whether
See also Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 28ij
" His parentage is unknown. It was a
saying attributed to him ' that, if he had
his days over again, he would have all
Lancashire in his hands ' ; Norrh P. (Chet.
Soc.), 29.
18 Gregson, F ragmcnts, 1 90. The house
seems to have been known as 'The
Abbey ' for a time, leading to the popular
error that there was once an abbey at
Childwall.
l» For the Gascoynes see the Diet. Nat.
Biog. also the Gent. Mag. 1749, p. 380
(I.Greene); ,79,, p. ,066 (B. Gascoyne,
sen.); 1 8 24, p. 184 (B. Gascoyne, jun.). A
deed of July, 1799, between Bamber
Gascoyne and Sarah Bridget Frances, his
wife, of the first part, John Leigh of the
second part, &c., relating to the manors of
Great or Much Woolton, Little Woolton,
Childwall, Wavertree, and West Derby
and lands, &c., there and in Sutton,
Everton, and Hardshaw, was enrolled in
the Common Pleas, Mich. 40 Geo. Ill,
R. 31, m. 138 d.
14 Pink and Beavan, Parly. Rep. of
Lanes., 201. The 'bull beef and cabbage
stalks' of Childwall, an electioneering
taunt directed against the Gascoynes,
arose from the failure of an entertainment
offered by Bamber Gascoyne, senior, to the
freemen on the occasion of his son's success
in 1 780 ; Brooke, Liverpool as it was, 370.
15 tThallty Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii,
549-58. Robert son of Henry [de
Lathom] gave to Richard le Waleys half
a plough-land there, together with Dolfyn,
brother of Edwin, the service being the
twelfth part of a knight's fee. John, the
son of Richard le Waleys, quitclaimed the
same to Stanlaw, his father having so be-
110
queathed it in his testament, and Si
Robert de Lathom (grandson of the above
Robert) confirmed it. Alan son of Adan;
sold to Roger de Ireland an oxgang whicl
he had received from his lord Roger d.-
Warburton, the rent to be two whit
gloves, and Roger gave it to Stanlaw ii
perpetual alms for the same rent, Mauc
de Childwall resigning all her claim fo-
llower. Adam son of Robert de Ainsdale.
ancestor of the Blundells of Crosby, gav •
to John Cotty, rector of Childwall, a sixt.
part of Deepdale culture, for a rent of %d ,
and a relief of 8</. to be paid at John' -
death.
18 Burscough Reg. fol. 45. The bounc i
touched the ford at one part, and s:
another the road from Childwall to Walto. .
This road crossed the ford.
W Perhaps an error of transcription ft r
Richard. Margery, relict of Simon de 1 1
Dale, released all her right in lands in tr ^
Dale and Childwall to her son Richard ;
and Cecily daughter of Simon also re -
leased her right to ' Richard son of Simoi ,
son of Orm' of Childwall; Kuerdt i
fol. MS. p. 96, n. 604-5.
" Blundell of Crosby evidences (Town -
ley), K. 199, 242, 234 ; see also the aboi e
note from the Whallcy Coucher.
19 De Bane. R. 279, m. 190; 29 ,
m. 87 d. John, son of Richard de Wave -
tree, is named in the remainders to tl e
property of Henry de Wavertree, vicar ->f
Childwall ; Morris D. (B. M.), n. 329. j
*> Escheator's Accts. 17/45, 3610 <;$
Edw. III.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
An enclosure act for Childwall and Great and
Little Wool ton was passed in 1805.'
WAVERTREE
Wauretreu, Dom. Bk. ; Wauertrea, 1 167 ; Wauertre
or Wavertre is the most usual form from I zoo, with
Wauertrie as a variant. Wartre occurs in 1381, and
becomes common later ; it gives the old local pronun-
ciation, Wautry.
This township has an area of 1,838 acres.1 The
highest land is in the centre and north, rising to an
elevation of over 200 ft. : the surface slopes away in the
other directions, especially on the Liverpool side. The
old village stood on the higher part of this westward
slope, beside the road from Liverpool to Woolton, here
called High Street ; it has now grown into a town.
The eastern half of the township still retains a rural
or suburban character. The population in 1901 was
25»3°3-
The soil is sandy and loamy ; the geological forma-
tion consists of pebble beds of the bunter series of
the new red sandstone or trias. Wheat, oats, and
potatoes are grown.
The principal roads are those from Liverpool to
Woolton, with numerous cross roads. Portions of an
old pack-horse track exist. The London and North-
Western Company's Liverpool and Manchester line
passes along the northern boundary, where is the deep
Olive Mount cutting, celebrated in the earlier days
of railway engineering. The same company's railway
to the Bootle Docks branches off to the north, while
its principal line from Liverpool to London goes
through the western portion, where there is a station.
The Liverpool tramway system extends to the top of
the High street.
Near the terminus is a small green with a pond,
and close by is Monks' well, a pin well, on which it
is said there was this inscription : —
QUI NON DAT QUOD H
DAEMON INFRA RIDET.
HI4.
reproduced on the modern covering of the well.3
Close by is a clock tower commemorating Sir James
Picton, the Liverpool architect and antiquary, who
lived in Olive Mount. To the east is a piece of
ground which by the terms of the enclosure award
must remain an open space for ever. Near it is the
old windmill.' Lower down, towards the railway, is
the fine children's playground presented to Liverpool
by an anonymous benefactor.5 Wavertree Nook is in
the north-eastern corner of the township.
Mrs. Hemans lived in the High Street for some
time.6
CHILDWALL
A prehistoric cemetery has been discovered here.7
Gregson thus describes the place as it was in 1817:
' Wavertree is a pleasant village and has increased
with Liverpool, within these few years, in a rapid
manner. . . . The salubrity of the air is highly and
very deservedly spoken of. ... In 1731 the town-
ship contained fifty houses,8 of which only three were
untenanted.'
The township was constituted a local government
district in 185 I,9 and a town hall in the classical style
was built in 1872 in the High Street. In 1894 it
became an urban district, and in November, 1895,
was incorporated in Liverpool.
At the death of Edward the Confessor
MJNOR WAVER.TTt.EE was in the possession of
Leving, assessed at 2 plough-lands and
valued beyond the customary rent at the normal 64</.10
After the Conquest it was added to the demesne of
the honour, and in consequence its manorial history
is identical with that of West Derby. In the Pipe Roll
of 1 176-7 is a record of the payment of I mark from
Wavertree to the tallage levied that year."
The Walton family, who held the master-serjeanty
of the wapentake, had 4 oxgangs of land in Waver-
tree by reason of this office." It would appear that
the remaining 12 oxgangs in Wavertree had been
given to Gilbert de Walton by King John when
count of Mortain — and perhaps forfeited on the
count's rebellion — for in 1198-9 Gilbert's son,
Henry de Walton, rendered account of a palfrey
and loos, due for having this land. He would thus
have the whole manor, though by different titles, the
service for the 1 2 oxgangs being a rent of 2 marks.13
The old rent payable from Wavertree to the sheriff
of the county was 20^. ; this was increased half a mark
in 1 199,'* and the increased payment continued to be
made in later years ; as, for instance, in 1323, when
the stewardship of the manor came into the king's
hands by the forfeiture of Robert de Holand.16
Occasional escheats reveal something of the value
of the place. In 1205-6 the sheriff had 70*. from
corn from Wavertree and other lands of Henry de
Walton, whose estates were then in the king's hands.16
In the inquisition taken in 1298, after the death of
Edmund earl of Lancaster, it was found that I ox-
gang of land was held by Roger de Thingwall for a
rent of \d., and the other fifteen by various customary
tenants at the rate of 3/. an oxgang ; there were also
131 acres \\ roods of land improved from the waste
rented at \d. the acre, the total amounting to
£4 9/. i^d." Again, after the forfeiture of Thomas
of Lancaster in 1322, when a detailed extent was
made of lands held by him, Wavertree, as part of the
demesne of the honour, was included.18 In 1346, in
1 The award, with plan, may be seen at
^ V.C.H. Lanes, i, 239 ; Trans. Hist.
is L. T. R. Enrolled Accts. Misc. n. 14,
a The Census Report gives 1,837, in-
cluding 10 acres inland water.
8 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Sue. xix, 197.
There ia said to have been a cross above
the well. A view is given in Gregson,
Fragment! (ed. Harland), 191.
» Lon. Gax. 27 June, 1851.
1° Y.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*.
» Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 35.
« Confirmed by a charter of King
John ; Rat. Cartarum, 28. See the ac-
count of Walton.
Maud, widow of Sir Robert, claimed dower
in Wavertree ; De Bane. R. 281, m. 240 ;
287, m. 179 ; 292, m. 503 d.
1« Lanes. Fife. R. 206.
17 Lanes. Inq. and Extents. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 286.
,ee Tram. His,. Sot. (New Ser.), *ii, 56-9.
widow of Henry de Walton, in 1246 sued
held one oxgang and paid 4</. are not
(R. ii, 2, 5, 15). It was described as the
mill 'newly constructed' in 30 Hen. VI,
when it was demised to Edmund Crosse ;
Mins. Accts. Manor of Derby.
5 Mr. Philip Holt is said to be the donor.
« Tram. Hiit. Soc. (New Ser.), «i, 132.
4 in Kirkdale ; Assize R. 404, m. 5.
14 Lanes. Pipe R. 113, 126, &c. In
addition scutage and other subsidies were
payable. In 1205-6, to the scutage as-
sessed by Robert de Vipont 131. was
received from Wavertree ; ibid. 202.
were divided among eighteen tenants at
will, of whom Richard son of Alan de
Wavertree had two oxgangs, Elias de
Wavertree, William son of Malin ijeach,
Matthew de Wavertree, Ralph de Aldwin-
scales, William Hawkeshegh, and Nicholas
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the extent of the lands of Henry, earl of Lancaster,
the turbary had increased in value to £6 i y. 4^.,
while the free tenants continued to pay \d., and the
tenants at will paid £4 icu., double the former
amount.1
The local surname is not common, but in 1 307
Henry de Wavertree was vicar of Childwall, and in
I 329 Thomas son of Roger de Warrington was accused
of the death of Robert de Wavertree. The jury found
that the accusation was due to the malice of one
William de Schukedale, who thought that Thomas
had been insufficiently punished1 by the hallmote
court of West Derby for striking him, and so accused
him of this more serious crime. Thomas son of
Gregory the shoemaker was the guilty person.*
The Norrises of Speke had lands here. In 1495
Sir William Norris acquired from William Brown of
Penketh an additional portion called Long Hey,
abutting on the Sandfield towards the west. Robert
Lake of Wavertree in 1499 transferred to William
Lathom of Parbold and Thomas Harebrown of
Wavertree a butt of land, running up to the ' stone
divisions ' on the north, in trust for the chaplain at
the chantry altar in Childwall church, to pray for the
grantor's soul and the souls of his parents and suc-
cessors. This seems to have been the Stonyfield,
which the churchwardens in 1552 exchanged with
Sir William Norris. At the hallmote of West Derby
in 1594 John Lake of Bromborough, Alice Holland,
widow, and Robert Ellison transferred a close called
Widow's Flat to Edward Norris, who was admitted
and paid a fine of 5^.*
John Crosse of Liverpool purchased several parcels
of land in Wavertree in 1497 from the above William
Brown of Penketh and Gilbert his son ;5 while in
1505 Richard Crosse bought from Sir John Ireland
of Hale land in Wavertree, held by William Lake and
paying 15^. a year to the king.6
In Queen Elizabeth's time the tenants had a dis-
pute with the lord of the adjacent manor of Allerton
about some 50 acres of waste ' bounded by Calder,
Roger, or Way stones, as appears by a plan then made
and laid down, now in the chest at Wavertree.' '
When Charles I in 1628 sold the manor of West
Derby it was contended that the manors of Everton
and Wavertree were included, but the tenants in these
townships objecting, the matter was settled ten years
later by an amended grant of West Derby lordship
and manor and the towns of Everton and Wavertree ;
thereupon the tenants of these townships paid their
rent to the purchasers. Next year the latter trans-
ferred their rights to Lord Strange, afterwards earl of
Derby.8 The manor was sold in 1717 to Isaac
Greene, from whom it has descended to the marquis
of Salisbury.9 In 1817 Gregson states 'the court for
Wavertree and West Derby was held under Bamber
Gascoyne for the copyhold lands, which are of inherit-
ance and fine certain.' 10
The common lands were enclosed by Act of Par-
liament in 1768."
In 1717 Darcy Chantrell of Noctorum as a ' Papist '
registered an estate of .£39 in Wavertree.18
The land tax returns of 1785 show the principal
landowners to have been Bamber Gascoyne, Thomas
Plumbe, and Rev. Thomas Dannett.
In connexion with the Establishment, Trinity
Church was built in 1 790 ; a small burial-ground
is attached.13 A separate parish was formed for
it in 1828,'* and the incumbents are styled rectors.14
In 1871 St. Bridget's was erected as a chapel of ease ;
it possesses a reredos of Venetian mosaic work. A
separate ecclesiastical parish was constituted in 1901.
St. Mary's, Sandown Park, was built in 1 849, and a
district assigned in 1856; the incumbents have the
title of rector.16 St. Thomas's was built in 1896."
The Wesleyan church in Victoria Park was built
in 1872. Trinity Congregational church, Hunter
Lane, was founded about 1836, and the building
opened in 1839; there is a mission in Wellington
Road.18
The Roman Catholic church of Our Lady of Good
Help was opened in 1887," and St. Hugh's, on the
Toxteth border, in 1904.*° Bishop Eton, on the
Woolton Road, has been the novitiate house of the
English province of the Redemptorists for nearly
forty years; the order acquired the place in 1851.
The church, Our Lady of the Annunciation, was
designed by Pugin. The Convent of Mercy (St.
Anthony's) in Green Lane is served from Bishop Eton.
THINGWALL
Tingwell, 1177; Thingwell, 1228; Tingewall,
1297.
This township, with an area of only 175 acres,
appears originally to have formed part of the manor
of West Derby ; but although in recent times it
del Dale one each, and the others smaller
portions. The turbary in the marsh was
worth 22t. <)d. Robert de Holand had
been responsible for the payments as
a messuage and J oxgang called Bing-
yard, and Henry son of Robert Thing-
wall, also having a messuage and J oxgang.
The tenants at will begin with William
9 See Childwall above.
10 Fragments, 191.
11 8 Geo. Ill, cap. 51 (Private) ; Lanes,
and Ches. Antij. Soc. vi, 122.
Rentals and Surveys, 379, m. 6, n;
L.T.R. Enrolled Accts. Misc. ». 14, m.
In 1323-5 William son of Richard de
Wavertree paid 45. for entry to 2 acres of
land here by demise of Adam del Ale, and
izJ. for increase. Robert de Wavertree
died about the same time, and there are
tors ; Lanes. Court R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 99, 104-6. The tenants at
will and others also held small portions of
improved land, paying usually 6d. to it.
per acre.
1 Add. MS. 32103, fol. 142. The
list of the tenants is defective, only 8J out
of the 15 oxgangs being accounted for,
and the services omitted. The free tenant*
were John son of William Moore, having
appear, but among those given are Margery
widow of William Malinson, Henry Shep-
herd, Robert de Halewood, John Tran-
more, John Overton, and John Blackburn.
a He was pardoned on payment of 40^.
8 Inq. a.q.d. 3 Edw. Ill, n. 43.
4 Norris D. (B.M.), 25-33.
6 Crosse D. (Tram. Hist. Soc. New Ser.),
n. 158-60.
6 Hale D. There is a copy of this map
in the Athenaeum Library, Liverpool. -
" Gregson, Fragments, 191. A copy is
among the Duchy of Lane, records, maps,
8 Gregson, Fragments, 146-9. There
is a copy of the amended grant (14 Chas. I)
at Croxteth (CC. ii, 1 1). Wavertree is
spoken of as a separate manor in 1340 ;
De Bane. R. 322, m. 279.
112
jurors, 148.
" There is a view in Gregson's Frag-
ments, 190. The registers begin in 1794.
ULond. Gaz. 4 July, 1828.
" Having in 1867 been endowed with
tithe rent-charges of £198, it was after-
wards declared a rectory ; ibid. 23 Aug.
1867; 27 Dec. 1867.
16 Ibid. 16 Aug. 1867 ; 26 Nov. 1867.
" The bishop of Liverpool collates to
Holy Trinity and St. Mary's ; the incum-
bent of the former presents to St. Bridget's,
and Simeon's trustees to St. Thomas's.
18 Nightingale, Lanes. 'Nonconf. vi,
"The mission was founded in 1871,
the old Town Hall being used for service.
w Begun in 1898 under the title of the
Holy Family.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
has been described as extra-parochial, it belonged
ecclesiastically to Childwall and paid tithes as part of it.
For parochial purposes it was at one time included
in the township of Much Woolton, but has since
1877 been attached to Huyton-with-Roby.1 There
was no separate return of the population in 1901.
It consists of the estate known as Thingwall Hall,
standing on a hill, rising to an elevation of 166 ft.
above mean sea-level, in the centre of the township,
with the old manor house, now a farm house, and
a few other dwellings. The London and North-
Western Company's railway from Liverpool to Man-
chester crosses it. The geological formation consists
of the upper mottled sandstone of the new red
sandstone or trias.
Among the field-names on the tithe map of 1849
are White meadow, Hargreaves meadow, Legons croft,
Starch field, Copper flat, and Spake croft.
THINGW4LL first appears upon
MANOR record in 1177, when it was tallaged
half a mark with the other members
of the royal demesne of West Derby.2 King John
gave it to Richard son of Thurstan in exchange for
his thegnage estate of Smithdown,3 from which time
the tenure of this hamlet, assessed as one plough-land,
was described as thegnage. One moiety, however,
had been given to the ancestor of Henry de Walton.
In 1 21 2 Richard son of Thurstan apparently held
one oxgang in demesne ; of him Henry de Walton
held four oxgangs, Alan held two oxgangs for ^.oj.
rent, and William the remaining oxgang for zoj. The
tenant of the Walton moiety was Hugh de Thingwall.4
The descent of the superior lordship from Richard
son of Thurstan to the family bearing the local name
has not been traced. The Walton moiety descended
with the other estates of the family until 1489, when
it passed out of sight.5
Hugh de Thingwall and his descendants became
the chief personages in the manor.6 Richard, the
son of Hugh, about 1250 held three oxgangs here,
another in Walton, and other land in Knowsley ; he
gave his estates to Roger his son, who married Alice
daughter of Adam de Aigburth.7 In 1 298 William
the son of Roger held de antiquo conquestu eight
oxgangs of land — i.e., the whole of the manor —
CHILDWALL
rendering one mark a year.8 He held the moiety of
the vill in 1324 for 6s. %d. a year;9 and his son
Roger in 1 346 held three oxgangs for the twentieth
part of a knight's fee and 5*. rent.10 Thomas
Anderton of Ince in Makerfield died in 1529 seised
of three oxgangs in Thingwall and Walton, held of
the king in chief as the twentieth of a knight's fee."
The two oxgangs held by Alan in 1212 do not
appear again.
The single oxgang then held by William was in
1346 held by William son ot John de Thingwall ; "
a John son of John de Thingwall was admitted to
land in West Derby in 1323." Later this portion was
acquired by the Mossocks of Bickerstaffe, descending
with their estates to the end of the seventeenth
century."
William Boulton held a messuage and lands here
at his death, 6 September, 1632.*° In 1725 there
was a suit between John Tutt and John Mercer as
to the latter's lands in Thingwall and West Derby.
Thomas Crowther, a Liverpool merchant, was living
at the hall, then called Summerhill, in 1824.
Twenty-one years later Thingwall was purchased
from the executors of Thomas Case by Samuel
Thompson, descending to his son and grandson,
Samuel Henry Thompson and Henry Yates Thomp-
son.16 At the beginning of 1899 Miss Annie
Thompson sold it to Sir David Radcliffe, who in
1903 sold it to a land company.17 The mansion
house with ten acres of land became the property of
a Belgian religious order, the Brothers of Charity,
and is used as a poor-law school, known as St.
Edward's Home.
MUCH WOOLTON
Ulventune, Uvetone, Dom. Bk. ; Wlvinton, 1 1 88 ;
Wolventon, 1305, &c. ; Wolvinton, 1341. The
commoner form is Wolveton, with variants Wolfeton
(1347) disclosing the local pronunciation, Mikel
Wolveton, 1301 ; also Wlvetun, 1220, &c. ; Wolton
occurs from 1345 ; Wollouton, 1345 ; Woleton, 1350 ;
Wlton, 1380 ; Miche Wolleton, 1429. Other D.B.
name : Wibaldeslei. Brettargh appears as Bretharue
and Bretarwe in the Whalley Coucher.
1 Loc. Gov. Bd. Order 7403.
4 Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 35.
8 Ibid. 421 ; see the account of Toxteth.
* Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 21. The origin of the
Walton holding is unknown. The 1 31. $d.
thegnage rent was paid in 1226; Ibid.
6 See the account of Walton. Simon
de Walton held three oxgangs in 1346,
paying 6s. 8</. ; Survey of 1 346 (Chet.
Soc.), 30.
'Richard son of Richard de Meath
granted land in Hale to his uncle Hugh
de Thingwall ; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 126.
7 Dods. Roger son of Richard de
Thingwall released his right to land in
Hale in 1292 ; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 132.
8 Inq. and Extents, 287. He was thus
in the same position as Richard son of
Thurstan in 1212. An offshoot of the
family held lands in Wavertree.
» Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 36A.
™ Survey of 1346 (Chet. Soc.), 34.
the division of Thingwall in this extent ;
only seven oxgangs are accounted for, so
that there is probably some error. Roger
son of William de Thingwall held land
in West Derby in 1325; Lanes. Court
R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 102.
William son of William also occurs;
Ibid. 105.
In an aid apparently of 1378, Simon
de Walton is stated to hold the twentieth
part of a knight's fee in Thingwall,
another twentieth being held by William
and Roger de Thingwall; Harl. MS.
2085, fol. 421.
Another plea may be referred to, in
which Margery, widow of Roger son and
heir of Robert de Thingwall, and wife of
Henry son of John de Blackburn, claimed
dower in messuages, mill, &c., at Thing-
wall, against Richard son of Robert de
Thingwall, in 1339; De Bane. R. 318,
m. 164. Margery was a daughter of
William de Winwick. For a different
suit see R. 320, m. I76</.
11 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 30.
His three oxgangs were in Thingwall
and Walton. He left as heirs three
daughters-Ellen, aged 7, Margaret, 5,
and Cecily, 2.
>Sur „
1 Lanes.
» In the Mossock deeds preserved by
Kuerden (vol. ii, fol. 230) are several
"3
relating to Thingwall, but they do not
show how the estate was acquired. The
earliest is dated 1393-4; by it, Joan
daughter of William de Childwall granted
lands to Richard de Thingwall ; n. 30. In
1419 Richard de Thingwall gave land
here to Robert de Wiswall ; n. 38. Other
deeds relate to feoffments of her property
by Cecily, widow of Adam the Salter, be-
tween 1409 and 1417 ; n. 29-36.
The Thingwall estate is recorded in
the Mossock inquisitions of 1593 and
i 598 ; Duchy of Lane Inq. p.m. xvi, n. 28 ;
xvii, n. 87. The estate is not described
as an oxgang, but the rent payable to
the crown was 2O</., the proportion
due from an oxgang. It was sold by
the Parliament in 1653 ; Cal. of Com. for
Camp, iv, 2729.
is Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvii,
n. 12 ; his son and heir was John Boulton.
The following were the Thingwall rents
in 1780 : — Edward Lyon, 2s. lod. ; W.
Longworth, 2s. »a., and W. Carr, is. 6d. ;
John Seth, is.^d. ; Widow Lyon, 31. $d. ;
Duchy of Lanes. Rentals & Surv. 5/13.
16 Baines, Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 214,
215 ; Baines, Lanes. Dir. of 1825.
V Information of Sir D. Radcliffe.
15
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
This township measures about a mile and a half
in length by three-quarters across, and has an area of
795 acres.1 It consists of park-like country on the
southern slopes of a ridge which runs north-west and
south-east. The village of Much Woolton with its
residences, grounds, park, and golf-links occupies the
greater portion of the township. The eastern portion
is devoted to agriculture, crops of corn, potatoes,
turnips, and hay thriving in the shelter of the wooded
hillside. The good and wide roads are pleasantly
shaded by trees. The bunter series of the new red
sandstone or trias underlies the township ; the upper
mottled sandstones to a small extent in the eastern,
the pebble beds in the remaining portion. The
population in 1901 was 4,731.
The eastern and western boundaries lie along roads
from Liverpool which meet at the south-eastern
corner of the township, near the station (Hunt's
Cross) of the Cheshire Lines Committee's railway
from Liverpool to Manchester. A third road passes
between them through the centre, and this is crossed
at the village by the road to Garston.
A local board was formed in 1866,* and was
succeeded by an urban district council of nine members
in 1894. There are a free library, opened in 1890,
and public baths, a village club and a mechanics'
institution, this last dating from 1849.
A wake used to be held on the Green on Mid-
summer Day. A cross formerly stood in the centre
of the village ; the remains were standing until 1900,*
and after displacement have been re-erected.
Two windmills are shown in a plan of 1613, but
only one now exists, and that is in ruins. There is a
fine sandstone quarry.
The Liverpool Convalescent Institution on the
hill side was built from the surplus of the Liverpool
fund for the relief of the Cotton Famine in 1862 ;
it is intended chiefly for patients who have been
treated at the Liverpool Hospitals, but there is a
wing for private patients. The police forces of
Liverpool and Bootle have an orphanage.
The townships of MUCH and
M4NOR LITTLE WOOLTON having early
come under the lordship of the Knights
Hospitallers were said to contain five plough-lands in
all. In 1066 there were here four manors, viz. :
i. Ulventune, with two plough-lands and half a league
of wood ; it was held by Uctred and worth beyond
the customary rent the normal 6\d. 2, 3. Uvetone,
with one plough-land ; held by two thegns for
two manors and worth ^od. 4. WibaUeski, with
two plough-lands ; held by Ulbert and worth 64^.*
Before the date of the Domesday Survey the whole
had become part of the Widnes fee, and before 1212
had been granted out in alms as follows : Two
plough-lands to the Hospitallers, by John, constable
of Chester, who himself was a crusader and died at
Tyre in 1 1 90 ; three plough-lands to the abbey of
Stanlaw by his son Roger, who died in 1 2 1 1 .* This
latter grant was in Little Woolton.
The Hospitallers established a Camera at Woolton ;
in 1338 it had one messuage, fifty acres of land, five
acres of meadow, a water-mill, and £8 of annual
rent, and was let to farm for 20 marks.' The manor
of Much Woolton had the Hospitallers' lands in South
Lancashire attached to its jurisdiction, but was itself
subordinate to the preceptory of Yeveley or Stidd in
Derbyshire. A rent of ;/. a year for the five ' caryks '
(plough-lands) was paid by the Hospitallers to the
receiver of the honour of Halton.7 The superior
lordship was still supposed to reside in the barons of
Halton ; thus in the Halton feodary the two Wooltons
are said to be held as part of the Widnes fee for
five plough-lands and to pay the relief of half a knight's
fee, that is £2 ios.s It descended in the earldom and
duchy of Lancaster, and so to the crown.9
In 1292 the prior of the Hospitallers was sum-
moned to answer the king by what right he claimed
waif, infangthief, outfangthief and gallows in Woolton.
fines for breach of the assize of bread and beer, and
to have the chattels of fugitives, condemned person:
and other felons in Woolton, Linacre, La More,
Bretharche, and about a hundred other places in th<
county, and to be exempt from common fines anC
amercements of the county and suits of county anc:
wapentake courts. The prior in reply showed the
charter of Henry III confirming all the possession-
and franchises of his order, which charter had bcei
duly confirmed by the king himself in 1280. The
right of gallows was claimed in Woolton only. I:
was objected that in the case of lands more recently
acquired the prior was liable to the king for the
services rendered by previous tenants ; and the jur;
very considerably limited the rights claimed.10
Probably the whole of the land was granted out ii
small tenements.11 In 1327 the then prior made
claim against William the Woodward of Woolton foi
a reasonable account for the time he was bailiff i
Report gives 792 ;
•7 J»ly,
» The Cen
inland water.
*Lond.Gaa. .7 July, .866.
» Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 20. ;
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 236. In
one of the Norris D. (B.M.), dated about
now standing at the north end of the town
of Much Woolton.'
* r.C.H. Lanes, i, 2840.
5 Inqt. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 4., and see the notes there.
John, constable of Chester, also gave the
Templars a plough-land, but its position is
• Hosfitallers in England (Camd. Soc.),
7 Norris D. (B.M.), dated n March,
1515-16.
« Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby), i, 708.
9 In .324 Thomas earl of Lancaster
was found to have held Much Woolton for
five plough-lands (where ten plough-lands
made a knight's fee) as part of the fee
of Widnes, in right of his wife Alice,
daughter and heir of the earl of Lincoln ;
and the prior of the Hospitallers was said
to hold Little Woolton without service,
so that Much Woolton bore the whole ;
Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 33, 35*.
In .346 the king was lord as heir of
Alice countess of Lincoln ; Survey of
.346 (Chet. Soc.), 38.
To the aid of 3 Henry IV, the Lords
of Much and Little Woolton paid 6j. &d.
as for a third of a knight's fee ; the
feodary of 9 Henry VI shows that the
king as heir of Alice countess of Lincoln
held five plough-lands here, while that of
.483 states that the prior of the Hospital
of St. John had a third of a fee.
uptac. de quo Warr. (Rec. Com.),
375, 376.
11 Some early charters granted by the
priors are extant. One dating from about
1 1 80 is by Ralph de Diva, prior of the
brothers of the hospital of Jerusalem in
England, who granted to Ralph the Cook
114
and his heirs two oxgangs in Woolto i
which the brethren had by the gift of Johr .,
in hereditary right by the service of 4. .
annually paid to the Hospitallers' hous. ,
and the third part of the chattels at deatl .
Three by Prior Garner de Neapo i
(Nablous) grant respectively an oxgang t ,
Gilbert the Cook and his heirs, viz., or. :
of the two oxgangs which Hugh c-.-
Beaupeinne formerly held, for I2</. yearly ;
an oxgang to Orm son of the widow if
Woolton, rendering 2s. yearly ; and
oxgang to Andrew de Woolton, for I
annual rent. These charters are datt i
1.87, .188, and . 1 89 respectively. Orn
of Woolton occurs among the witness-!
to a Garston charter (t. .2,5-20;;
Wholley Coucher, ii, 570.
Prior Hugh de Alneto or Danet (prob -
bly between 1216 and 1 220) gave Fulk <x
Woolton an oxgang on which the tenam
had already built, for .2</. yearly; ar.
Prior Robert de Diva (about 1230) grant, c
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Woolton and receiver of his money.
occurs a complaint concerning a rescue of the
prior's cattle, taken for customs and services due.
Gilbert le Grelle had with force and arms prevented
CHILDWALL
Later there Woolton appeared against William le Smale and his
wife Alice in 1 308-9.'
In Edward IPs reign Nicholas son of Henry de
Smerley had granted land in the New Branderth
their being taken to the pound and had rescued abutting on the Portway on the east and Carkenton
them.
After the suppression of the English branch of the
Hospitallers by Henry VIII the lordship of the
manor remained in the crown for many years,3 but
was in 1 609 granted by James I to George Salter and
John Williams of London in part payment of money
lent by London merchants.4 It was soon transferred
to the earl of Derby, and, descending in the same
manner as Childwall, is now held by the marquis of
Salisbury.5
The neighbouring families — Ireland of Hale,
Norris of Speke,
an the west, to Henry de Garston, who transferred it
to his son Adam ; 8 and shortly afterwards Nicholas
son of Henry le Rede of Smerley and Ellis his son,
Henry de Garston, Alice daughter of Robert son of
William the Reeve, Adam son of Robert del Brooks,
and others were accused of having disseised Juliana,
widow of William son of William the Reeve, of her
tenement in Woolton — two messuages and an oxgang
of land.9 William the Reeve seems to have had
three sons — William, John, and Robert.10 The
Brooks family was concerned in a large number of
others — appear in extant charters ; the two principal members of it at the end
charters as holders of land in Woolton, as well as a
number of smaller families, including one or me
of the thirteenth century were Robert and Alan.1
William de Laghok 18 occurs down to about the end
using the local surname. In 1301 Roger son of of Edward IPs reign ; he was succeeded by his son
Alan of Much Woolton sued Richard son of Hugh Roger, living in 1345, and he in turn by William
le Fizorm in a plea of mort d'ancestor ; 6 and his son, with whom the direct line ends, the property
William son of Adam son of Richard of Much in Woolton going to his relatives in Speke."
to Thomas de Woolton an oxgang which
the brethren had received from Henry de
Walton, who had held it of them for a rent
of is. a year ; Norris D. (B.M.), 285-90.
On these charters see the essay (with fac-
similes) by Mr. Robert Gladstone, jun. in
Tram. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), xviii, 173.
1 DeBanc. R. 269, m. ^d.
(24-5 Edw.'m™
» It was restored to the Hospitallers
in 1558, but again confiscated on the
accession of Elizabeth.
» Pat. 7 Jas. I, pt. xvi.
'See R. Gladstone, op. cit. 'The
Lord of the manor of Childwall' [and
Much Woolton], wrote Perry in 1771,
•is entitled to certain small dues for-
merly paid to the Knights Hos-
pitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, who
had a house at Great Woolton upon the
heath, where has lately been discovered
the foundation of its round tower. These
acknowledgements, paid at the rate of id.
or id. each person, amount to about £20
i ' ; Enfield, Liverpool, 1 1 5.
Fulk, ancestor of Alice, was probably to the corner of the hedge,' and abutting
the Fulk named in Prior Hugh's grant, on the Out Lane ditch ; also land in
previously cited. Richard Foukc was in Akelou field on the higher side of the
1329 plaintiff concerning various tene- street ; 'and let it be known that Richard
ments in this township, but did not appear son of William and his heirs are bound
8 Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 55, 61 ;
Norris D. (B.M.), 305.
Lssize R. 425, m. i ; m. 2 d.
I" For some grants by them see Norris
D. (Rydal Hall), fol. 48 ; Norris (B.M.),
297, 312.
11 Alan son of Alan del Brooks granted
to his brother Henry half an oxgang of
land in Woolton which had descended to
him from his father, reserving a house and
part of his windmill, all held of Sir Peter
de Button, of Warburton ; Norris D.
(Rydal Hall), F. 47, 54; Norris D.
(B.M.), 300. Prior Garner, in ,.87,
granted two oxgangs in Woolton to Adam
deDutton, great-grandfather of Sir Peter;
Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xviii, 184.
John son of Robert del Brooks had a
grant from Hugh son of Roger de Wool-
ton, of land in the Nether Branderth ; and
the Balschae to Akelouysfeldiseynde for
the said William [grantor] in perpetuity' ;
Norris B. (B.M.), 291, 311 ; Norris B.
(Rydal Hall), F. 41.
One member of the Brooks family
seems to have taken Punchard as a sur-
name, for Hugh Punchard del Brooks
Much Woolton, in 1319; while John
Punchard occurs in 1328 and 1330, and
Henry Punchard in 1366; Norris B.
(B.M.), 324, 332, 359, 373.
12 Law-oak, a name possibly derived
from the celebrated oak in Allerton, where
the sheriffs tourn may have been held.
18 Robert Brown, in 1316, granted to
Roger son of William de Laghok a
messuage in Much Woolton ; land under
the Cliff, abutting towards Allerton and
towards the windmill ; and his part of
> Assize R. 419, m. i,d. in 1334 his son William had from the Carkington greves, as much as belongs tc
appear that Alice was plaintiff's cousin,
for there is extant a charter of Adam son
of Richard de Woolton to John son of
John son of Fulk and Alice his daughter by
Adam's sister Agnes, granting J oxgang in
the vill ofWoolton; Norris B. (B.M.) 292.
Alice widow of William le Smale
granted to Robert son of Elias, land in
the Pilot field in Much Woolton, stretch-
ing from the Ache butts to the Long Shot,
for the rent of a red rose ; to John son of
Robert del Brooks land in the Pughol
field and elsewhere, including a selion
in Harecroft abutting on Carketon ;
Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 46, 52. To
William son of Adam son of Beatrice of
Hale, she gave all her part of Carketon ;
and her husband had formerly with her
consent granted land in the Cross field
and in Carketon to William the Wood-
ward ; Norris D. (B.M.), 306-7. Among
the Norris deeds are a large number re-
lating to Woolton ; those quoted here
are intended to illustrate the place names.
Pughol has a great number of spellings :
Pycyl, Puckel, Pyghill, Pyhol. ' Pulloc
field' and Pilot field seem to be per-
versions of the same. See Engl. Dial. Diet.
Carkington is below Doe Park.
ing as far as the Pughel, and in the Hare
Butts. John del Brooks acquired from
John son of Fulk de Woolton land in the
New Branderth, lying partly by the Out
Lane, and from Robert Brown land in the
Middlegate field abutting on ; Carketon
and on the Poughel, and in the Long
Farthings stretching from the Broadgate
to the Puahel field. In 1317 he had a
grant from John son of Richard, of Much
Woolton, of land near the Swynne gates
abutting towards the Crossfield and in
Pughel ; from Robert son of John, son of
Alan, of land in the Blake Branderth,
abutting towards the Pilote field, and
towards the Portway, and in Aclaw field
Branderth, abutting towards Aclaw field
and towards the Portway ; and from Alice
daughter of Adam son of William, a plot
in the New Branderth, abutting towards
the Pughel and towards the Portway.
Norris D. (B.M.), 304, 309, 314, 317;
Norris B. (Rydal Hall), F. 50, 56, 72 ;
Hornby chapel deeds. Aclaw field is
probably represented by Acre field.
An earlier grant is that from William
son of John of Much Woolton, to Richard,
son of William del Brooks, of a portion
of land extending ' from the great street
"5
year he made a further grant of land in
the Crossfield, abutting at one end towards
the windmill; Norris B. (Rydal Hall),
F. 57, 58.
In 1384 William de Laghok of Speke
had a rent-charge of 2s. 2j</. granted him
by Roger de Walton, payable from lands
in Woolton; and in 1435 William de
Laghok and William the Webster settled
upon William son of Roger de Coldcotes,
and Katherine daughter of John de Faza-
kerley, and their heirs, a messuage and
three roods of land which had been
acquired from Roger de Bold by the said
Roger de Coldcotes; Norris D. (Rydal
Hall), F. 96 ; Norris B. (B.M.), 388.
This John de Fazakerley was the agent
in the same year in a settlement of the
lands of Ellen and Isabel, daughters and
heirs of Thomas de Woolton ; Norris B.
(Rydal Hall), F. 95, 97. In 1483 Thomas,
son and heir of Roger Fazakerley, of
Derby, granted to John, brother of Thomas
Norris, of Speke, 19 acres of his land in
the vill and fields of Much Woolton, in
Glest field, under Carkington (by Hare-
croft), in the Crossfield, Sandfield, Middle-
field, Heath, Branderth, and Accleyfield :
ibid. F. 100.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The interest ot the Irelands commenced in the
time of Adam Austin.1 His son John de Ireland
acquired land from Adam son of William the Wood-
ward in 1349, and made a grant to John son of
Alan le Norreys of Speke."
The Norris family had, however, before this begun to
acquire lands in the township, Alan le Norreys of Speke
being apparently the first to do so.3 A younger son of
Alan, John le Norreys, established himself at Woolton.4
John's elder son John, who succeeded, is mentioned in
the settlement made by Sir Henry le Norreys in 1 367.*
His marriage was arranged in 1 3 8 z, when it was
agreed that he should take to wife Anilla, daughter of
John Grelley, deceased ; for which Isabel Grelley, the
widow, gave him 26 marks ; besides which she was
to provide for him and Anilla at her table for
the first year after the espousals. William de Slene
also gave 40*. to John le Norreys on the day of the
marriage. John le Norreys occurs down to I4I4-6
John le Norreys and Anilla had three daughters, viz.
Katherine, who married Roger Prestwich ; Joan, wife
of Henry Mossock ; and Margery, wife of Thomas
Bridge of Fazakerley. The last-named, in her
widowhood, in 1433-4, relinquished all her inheri-
tance to Joan Mossock.7
From 1329 to 1331 a number of grants were
made to Richard de Alvandley, otherwise de Bold.1
He was succeeded by a son Nicholas.9 The Black-
burnes of Garston also had land in Woolton. '° The
Charnocks of Charnock," Lathoms of Allerton," and
Ormes " of Little Woolton were also landowners.
A Norris of Speke rental compiled about 1460 has
been preserved. At the end is a ' Rental of Much
Woolton, taken out of all the old rentals that were
made when it was first given to God and Saint John,
of certain chief of all the freeholders with their
obits.' "
About the beginning of Elizabeth's reign the
Brettarghs of the Holt in Little Woolton acquired
lands here. William Brettargh, who died in 1609,
held a cottage in Much Woolton in socage by fealty
and i d. rent.15 The family are said to have owned
the site of Woolton Hall, which descended to the
Broughtons, and in 1704 became the property of
Richard, fifth Viscount Molyneux, whose widow died
there in 1766. Soon after this it was purchased by
1 One grant was made to him in 1318
by John son of Richard Fychet, of two
butts in Harecroft, ' as they lie in landoles,'
abutting on Carketon on the west and the
highway on the east ; Norris D. (B.M.),
293, 296, 322.
» Norris deeds (B.M.), 358, 396. In
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 138, 145 i
De Bane. R. 358, m. nod. A memo-
randum, dated 1372, is preserved stating
that 'Sir John le Norreys, Knight [of
Speke] received from Nicholas de Liver-
pool, clerk, five score and fifteen charters
concerning the inheritance of John le
by Anilla de Walton ; Norris D. (Rydal
Hall), F. 62-5.
9 In 1333 Ellen, daughter of Margery,
daughter of Dobbe, granted to Nicholas
son of Richard de Alvandley of Bold a
messuage which she had of the gift of
Richard, son of John Fouke her father,
Hutt held a messuage and 6 acres by a
rent of I2</. ; his cousin, John Ireland of
Lydiate, also held lands of the prior of
St. John ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. vi,
>' Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 45, 69,
70,73; ibid. (B.M.), 349, 35«-
Forde, of Roby, which are in the keeping
of the prior of Holland by the delivery of
the aforesaid Nicholas ' ; Norris D. (B.M.),
378-9.
5 See the account of Speke. The elder
John le Norreys seems to have died before
west ; and in 1 3 50 William, son of Robert
del Low of Speke, granted him all his lands
in Much Woolton ; Norris D. (B.M.),
341, 361.
i" John de Blackburne of Garston, who
died in 1405 (Inq. p. m. 6 Hen. IV), held
was appointed seneschal of the manors of
Much and Little Woolton, by grant of
brother Henry Crounhale, preceptor of
Egle and deputy of the prior of St. John
in England, and proxy of brother John
Etton, preceptor of Yeveley and Bargh
sued John son of John le Norreys, for
a third part of 2 messuages and 4 acres
in Great Woolton; De Bane. R. 431,
m. 38rf.
s Norris D. (B.M.), 574, 390, 630 ;
Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 9,. In ,3 94
was 31. 4</.
" Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. viii, n. 28.
u Ibid, v, 7.
18 The Orme family appear frequently
in the Norris charters of Much Woolton,
from 1426 onward. At the court of
rents, services, and sodality (confrariam)
and appurtenances between Ribble and
John le Norreys 20 acres in Woolton for
i 542-3, it was found that Thomas Orme
had died seised of a messuage there, paying
were included, but Sir Henry was to dis-
charge all the burdens upon the manors,
and to pay a rent of 38 marks annually ;
Norris D. (B.M.). Sir William Norris in
I 544 acquired the Ireland of Lydiate lands
by exchange ; there were two occupying
tenants, each paying a rent and 6d. as
'average'; Norris D. (B.M.).
4 In 1349 John son of John Gilleson,
gave John son of Alan le Norreys, lands
in the Crossfield, the Crofts, and the Port-
way shot ; and Simon de Walton granted
him for life two acres on the Heath pre-
viously held by William son of John
Dobson. Thomas son of Robert del
Inq. p. m. of Robert de Walton (3 Hen. IV,
«. 27) it is stated he held 20 acres of land
in Much Woolton from the prior and
hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in
Smithfield, in socage by the service of
half a mark ; the clear value was 101.
^ Mossock D. (Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 230
on). John le Norreys and Anilla seem to
have made numerous settlements of the
property about 1416, and in the following
year arranged for the succession to Joan,
wife of Henry Mossock, and in default of
heirs to her sister Katherine; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 5, m. 33.
Richard Orme, aged fifteen, was his son
and heir ; he paid his fine, and was ad-
mitted tenant according to the custom of
the manor. Norris D. (Rydal), fol. 104.
14 These names are : Thomas Norris,
Randle Charnock, Edward Lathom, Joan
wife of Henry Mossock, heir of Richard
de Parr ('now Sir Piers Leigh'— later
note), Cicely wife of Sir William Torbock,
Peter Warburton, John Ireland, William
Corker, Richard Primrose, priest, William
Fazakerley, Lawrence Ireland, John Crosse
of Liverpool, Thomas Gill, Roger Wain-
wright, Richard Melling and Katherine
Watergate, the Blake branderth, the
Meadow doles, and in Aclow field near
held of the queen in socage ; Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, n. 28.
Richard Bushell, John Tomlinson, John
Harrison, William Webster, William
Brown, John Norris, John Richardson,
See Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 78, 76,
75 ; ibid. (B.M.), 396, 350, 359, 360,
362.
It was this John le Norreys (called ' of
Speke') who was concerned in some
violent proceedings regarding the manor of
Huyton. He appears to have married
Katherine, one of the claimants ; but the
manor was passed to his brother Sir Henry,
•who sold it very quickly ; Final Cane.
son of Robert the Mercer of Bold';
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 244.
Richard son of Robert del Yate gave
him a half-acre in the Branderth, with
remainders to Richard, Nicholas, and
Simon, sons, and Thomas, Henry, and
John, brothers of the grantee ; Norris D.
(B.M.), 333-8. John son of William of
Much Woolton, also granted an acre
' under the Cliff' to Richard and his sons
116
The seven following paid double the
rent at death as an ' obit ' : William
Corker, Roger Coldcotes, John Harrison,
John Faux, William the Webster, Richard
Bushell, and John Bushell.
The ' obits ' were the third part of the
chattels or other ' succession duty ' levied
by the Hospitallers as lords of the manor.
15 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.),i, ,39, .40.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
a Mr. Booth and came into the possession of Nicholas
Ashton in 1772.' He died in 1833, aged 91, having
greatly improved the house and grounds. The fol-
lowing description is given of its amenities about
1 800 : — ' Woolton Hall, about six miles from Liver-
pool, upon an eminence commands grand and extensive
prospects, the two extreme points of view being
the Cumberland and Westmorland hills to the north,
and the Wrekin near Shrewsbury to the south ; from
thence also may be seen Blackstone Edge in Yorkshire
and several of the Derbyshire and Staffordshire hills ;
to the eastward the rivers Mersey and Weaver join
in view about four miles from this house, and very
soon opening into a fine sheet of water, continue
their course to the port of Liverpool. The prospect
to the south-west is terminated by an irregular scene
of Welsh mountains.' ! Charles Ellis Ashton, son of
Captain Joseph Ashton, and grandson of Nicholas,
sold the house in 1865 to James Reddecliffe Jeffrey,
of Compton House, Liverpool. It was afterwards
purchased by Frederick Leyland, a Liverpool ship-
owner, and sold again upon his death, Mr. Peter
McGuffie being the present owner. It is used as
a hydropathic establishment.
The commoners at the passing of the Enclosure Act
in 1805, included Bamber Gascoyne (one-ninth), the
earl of Derby, Nicholas Ashton, James Okill, Thomas
Rawson, John Weston, Joshua Lace, and William
Slater. Among other matters the Act provided for
the formation of Church Road. Some land in Quarry
Street is said to belong to ' the poor of Dublin,' and
rates are paid by a person representing them.3
For the Established worship the church of St. Peter
was built in 1886-7 to replace that erected in 1826
on an adjacent site.4 The bishop of Liverpool has
the presentation and the incumbents are styled rectors.
A mission church of St. Hilda has been founded as
the result of a bequest by Lucy Ashton, granddaughter
of the above-named Nicholas.
A grammar school now abandoned was in existence
in the sixteenth century.
In the High Street are the new Wesleyan church
(St. James's) and the Congregational church, built in
1864-5. An effort was made to establish a church
in connexion with the Congregationalists as far back
as 1822, but it failed. A second effort in 1863
proved more successful.5 The old Wesleyan chapel,
built in 1834, is now used for unsectarian services.
The Unitarian chapel at Gateacre, formerly called
'Little Lee' chapel, is the oldest ecclesiastical building
in the township, having been licensed as early as
October, 1700, for an English Presbyterian congre-
gation already formed there. It is a plain stone
building with a bell turret. The bell is dated 1723,
and there is a ' cup of blessing,' dated 1 703-4, and
presented in 1746 by Joseph Lawton, minister for
over thirty years. The building remains with very
CHILDWALL
little alteration from its original condition.6 It has
various endowments, £6,000 having been paid by the
Cheshire Lines Railway for land.7 Among its ministers
is numbered Dr. William Shepherd (1768-1847),
author of a biography of Poggio Bracciolini.8
The first Roman Catholic church of St. Mary was
built in Watergate Lane in 1765, the mission having
previously been served from Woolton Hall.9 A new
cruciform church was built in 1860 in Church Street.
The English Benedictines are in charge. From about
1782 to 1818 Dr. John Bede Brewer, one of the
ornaments of this congregation, was in residence ; it
is said that he was on very friendly terms with
Dr. Shepherd, of Gateacre.10 From 1765 to 1807 a
community of English Benedictine nuns from Cambrai
was established in the village. They are now at
Stanbrook, near Worcester. Richard Roskell, bishop
of Nottingham from 1853 to 1874, was DOrn at
Gateacre."
LITTLE WOOLTON
This township contains 1,388 acres." In 1901 the
population numbered 1,091.
The greater part consists of level country under
mixed cultivation, having an open and pleasant aspect.
A smaller portion on the west lies on the slope of a
ridge, which rises to 285 ft. above sea-level. The
village of Gateacre, which lies partly in Much
Woolton, occupies the south-west side, and is nicely
situated in the midst of trees and gardens. The
roads are good, and hedged with hawthorn trimly
kept. Altogether the township wears the prosperous,
respectable look of a district removed from the smoke
and murk of the city, with its feet set on the edge of
the country. Lee is to the east of Gateacre, and
Brettargh Holt, or the Holt, to the north-east, across
the brook. The greater part of the township lies on
the pebble beds of the bunter series of the new red
sandstone ; the westernmost portion and the higher
ground near the Holt are on the upper mottled sand-
stones of that series.
There are numerous roads and cross roads, leading
chiefly to Liverpool by Childwall, or Wavertree, or
Toxteth. Another road runs through the township,
turning round the Lee, to Halewood Green. Gate-
acre gives its name to a station on the Southport
branch of the Cheshire Lines Committee's railway,
which crosses the centre of the township. Netherley
lies on the eastern border, and gives a name to the
brook which bounds the township at that side, and to
the bridge on the Tarbock Road crossing this brook.
Widnes corporation have a pumping station here.
A local board was formed in i867,13 and the town-
ship has now an urban district council of nine
members.
' Enfield, Li-utrpoel (1773), 1 1 5. The
will of Thomas Broughton, of Much
Woolton, was proved in 1686.
3 Quoted in Gregson's Fragments from
Watts' Select Vie-ws, pi. 76.
8 End. Char. Rep. The enclosure map
4 The first stone was laid 22 July,
1825, by Edward Geoffrey Stanley, after-
wards earl of Derby. The building was
in its time described as 'a handsome
structure in the Grecian style.' The
parish was formed in 1828 (Land. Gax.
I July), and declared a rectory in 1868,
having been endowed with a tithe rent-
charge of £26: ibid. 23 Aug. 1867;
21 Jan. 1868.
The present building is in the Perpen-
dicular style, with a tower containing
eight bells.
5 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 208-9.
"Ibid, vi, 192-207. It was built at
the cost of William Claughton, John Gill
and others, on land which had been
acquired from John son of Henry White-
field, to whom it had been let in 1658
by Gilbert Ireland of Hale. Reynold
Tetlaw bequeathed books to it in 174.6 ;
mils (Chet. Soc. New Ser.), i, 185.
^ End. Char. Rep.
8 Diet. Nat. Biog. ; Nightingale, op. cit.
' Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), xiii,
I5°° He died at Woolton iS April, i8zz.
Gillow, Bibl. Diet, i, 291.
" Ibid, v, 450.
12 The 1901 Census Report gives 1,389,
including 2 acres of inland water.
l« Land. G*K. 8 Jan. 1867.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
In the extreme western corner of the township,
serving as mere stones, are the ancient Calderstones,
with 'ring and cup' marks.1 In the map of Elizabeth's
time, made to illustrate the dispute as to Wavertree
and Allerton boundary, these stones are called Caldway
stones, Roger stones, or dojer stones ; a Roger stone
is marked separately to the south-west of the Calder
stones.*
The ancient water-mill of the Hospitallers has dis-
appeared, but a house called Peck Mill House, supposed
to have been connected with it, survived till the
beginning of last century.3 Dam meadows and
Damcroft are names of fields near Naylor's Bridge,
where also are the Beanbridge meadows. Other
notable field names are Monk's meadow (west of Lee
Park), Causeway field, Hemp meadow, Tanhouse
meadow, Shadows, Winamoor, and Creacre. Coxhead
farm is of ancient date ; an old form of the spelling is
Cocksshed.
The history of LITTLE WOOLTON
MANORS is bound up with that of its neighbour,
Much Woolton, except for the time, about
a century, during which it was in the possession of
the monks of Stanlaw. Roger de Lacy, constable of
Chester and lord of the fee of Widnes, after granting
Little Woolton to his uncle (Brother Robert) and the
Hospitallers in the time of Richard I,4 changed his
mind, took it from them and gave it to the abbey of
Stanlaw, founded by his father in 1178. The
charter, granted about the year 1 204, states that
Roger gives the monks Little Woolton in alms as
freely as possible, quit from all earthly service and
secular exaction, for the souls of himself, his parents,
wife, and others. As a consequence, he ordered his
seneschal and bailiffs to make no claim on the men of
the place for any service or aid.5 King John con-
firmed this arrangement, and in 1205 issued his
precept to the sheriff of Lancashire not to trouble the
monks of Stanlaw with respect to this manor, but to
levy all dues and services to which it had been liable
from other lands of Roger de Lacy.6
There were some earlier tenants within the town-
ship holding by charter of the lords of Widnes. One
of them, Gerald de Sutton, sold his land (four oxgnngs)
to the monks for 1 1 marks, one mark to be paid to his
son Robert. John, constable of Chester, granted the
' vill ' of Brettargh to William Suonis, with all ease-
ments of the vill of Little Woolton, and pannage,
rendering yearly I %d. to the Hospitallers.7 John de
Sutton afterwards held it, and disputes which after-
wards arose were settled by an agreement that Bret-
targh within its known bounds should be relinquished
by the monks, but that a strip of land between that
place and Woolton should be a common pasture, rights
of pannage and other easements to remain as before.
Robert son of John de Sutton gave all his land in
Hasaliswallehurst to the monks as well as zd. rent,
which he had received for a ridge in the croft by
Woolton mill, and Hugh [de Haydock] and Christiana
his wife released all their right in the same land.8
Henry son of Cutus de Denton and Maud his wife,
daughter of Richard the Mason, relinquished all their
claim to the latter's land called Whitefield, held of the
abbot ; and John son of Roger de Denton concurred.'
In 1278 Edmund son of Richard de Woolton and
John de Denton sued the abbot and Alan son of
Robert for a messuage and 1 5 acres of land in Little
Woolton.10
About 1275 the Hospitallers revived their claim to
Little Woolton, and after some negotiation the prior
promised the abbot £100 for the surrender of it.
Subsequently at Lancaster, in 1 292, Peter de Haugham,
prior of the Hospitallers, sued Henry de Lacy, earl of
Lincoln, whom Gregory, abbot of Stanlaw, had called
to warrant, for a messuage, a mill, two plough-lands,
and 100 acres of pasture there, and the earl acknow-
ledged the prior's right. Thus, ' by the consent, or it
may more truly be said by the compulsion,' of the
earl, the manor passed from the monks to the
Hospitallers, and remained with the latter till 1540."
The manor has since descended in the same way as
Much Woolton to the marquis of Salisbury.
The priors of St. John were involved in several
suits. In 1306 William son of Henry de Huyton
was charged with cutting trees within Woolton, and
the prior charged Henry de Huyton with entering
his wood by force of arms and cutting and carrying
off trees.12 A curious case arose out of the forfeiture
of Sir Robert de Holand in 1322. It appeared
on inquiry that the Hospitallers held the manor of
Alice de Lacy, daughter and heir of the earl of
Lincoln, in pure and perpetual alms without render-
ing any other service ; its yearly value was 23 marks.
William de Tothale, formerly prior, with the consent
of the chapter, had demised the manor to one Roger
de Fulshaw for life, at a rent of 20 marks. The
tenant transferred his right to Robert de Holand, and
gave his charter back to the prior, who, without con-
sulting the chapter or troubling to make out a new
charter, passed it to Robert de Holand in the name
of seisin. Roger died in 1317, when, of course, the
charter ceased to have effect, but Robert continued to
hold the manor during the lifetime of William de
Tothale, who died in 1318, his successor, Richard
Paveley, and the then prior (Thomas L'Archer),
without any further grant or sanction of the chapter."
1 Raines's Dir. of 1825 (ii, 698)
thus describes them : ' Close by the farm
on which the famous Allerton oak stands,
and just at the point where four ways
meet, are a quantity of remains called
Calder stones. . . . From the circum-
stance that in digging about them urns
made of the coarsest clay [and] containing
human dust and bones have been dis-
covered, there is reason to believe that
they indicate an ancient burying place
.... Some of the urns were dug up
about sixty years ago, and were in the
possession of Mr. Mercer of Allerton.'
» For the Calder stones see V.C.H.
Lanes, i, 240, also a pamphlet by Professor
Herdman,and Duchy of Lane. Maps, «. 73.
•Tram. Hi,t. Sot. (New Ser.), xii,
71-4- The house so marked in the
Ordnance Map is some distance from the
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 166; Wholly Couchcr,
iii, 809-11.
brooks.
18 De Bane. R. 161, m. 473</.; 163, m.
4 Assize R. 408, m. 64.
219.
5 Wholly Couchcr (Chet. Soc.), iii,
minq. a.q.d. 17 Edw. II, a. III.
801-3.
The accounts of the royal receiver for
« Letters Pat. (Rec. Corn.), 52.
the forfeited estate of Robert de Holand
1 Norris D. (B.M.), 983. The charter
show this manor of Woolton to have been
indicates that Brettargh Holt was separate
farmed out to the prior of Upholland for
from Little Woolton.
£23 a year. The prior requested a
» Wholly Couchcr, iii, 804-6. Robert de
written document ; Ancient Petitions,
Sutton in 1284 brought against the abbot
52/2587. In 1323-4 there was further
an action of novel disseisin ; Assize R.
received from sales £14 81. kd., made up
1265, m. 5.
8 Wholly Coucher, iii, 807-9.
of £13 for the crop of wheat (6 acres),
beans and peas (ij acre), and oats (3
10 De Bane. R. 24, m. 4 a. 84 a.
acres) ; io«. for oxen, 6rf. for skins of two
11 Ibid. 19, m. 22; 27, m. 84</.; Assize
rams and a sheep dead of the plague, and
R. 408, m. 64 ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
ifc. for the timber of an old shecpcote
IlS
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
It does not appear that this revelation made any
difference ; the manor was in the king's hands, and in
the next reign was restored to Maud de Holand,
widow of Sir Robert; and in 1330 the prior took
action against her in regard to it.1
In 1324 Roger son of John le Walker, of Tarbock,
and Avice his wife secured by fine three messuages,
80 acres of land, and 1 2 acres of meadow, which in
default of heirs of Avice were to remain to William de
Huyton and his heirs. The story is not clear,* but
the disputes are of interest as introducing the Brettarghs
of Brettargh Holt. William de Stockleigh, in 1355,
surrendered to Avice de Brettargh — apparently the
daughter of Avice, who was the wife of Roger le
Walker — his life interest in a third part of the manor
of Huyton, and in 1358 an agreement as to a third
part of this manor was made between William de
Walton and Avice and William de Brettargh, the
latter renouncing their title in favour of Walton.3
From 1358 onwards several persons bearing the
name of William de Brettargh occur as witnesses to
charters and in other ways.4 In 1398-9 William de
Brettargh the elder and William de Brettargh the
younger claimed from Alan le Norreys and Alice his
wife a messuage and 1 20 acres in Little Woolton, in
which the latter acknowledged the claimants' right,
receiving 20 marks. The land was to descend to the
heirs of William Brettargh the younger.5
In 1502 William Brettargh was one of the justices
of the quorum, and in 1514 a commissioner of the
subsidy.6 The earliest Brettargh inquisition is that of
William Brettargh, who died in 1527; he had a
CHILDWALL
cottage, a dovecote, and 100 acres of land in Little
Woolton, held of the prior of St. John by fealty and
a rent of i8</., the value
being £5 ; his son and heir __^_____^
William was eleven years of
age.7 This son died in 1585,
having acquired by his marriage
with Anne, a daughter and
coheir of John Toxteth, an
estate in Aigburth. At his
death he held a capital mes-
suage called the Holt, a dove-
cote, a water-mill, &c.,in Much
and Little Woolton of the
queen (as of the dissolved
priory) by a rent of 1 8</. and
other land by a rent of \d. ;
a windmill in Little Woolton held of Sir William
Norris of Speke ; also the capital messuage called
Aigburth and other lands there and in Garston, by
reason of the dissolution of the hospital of St. John
outside the Northgate of Chester.8 His grandson
William, son of William, was the heir, and aged
fourteen years.9
The grandson married Katherine, sister of John
Bruen of Stapleford, a famous Puritan.10 There was
only one child, Anne, of this marriage." William
Brettargh married secondly Anne, daughter of William
Hyde of Urmston,1* by whom he had a son Nehemiah,
who took part in the defence of Lathom House with
the rank of lieutenant. Nehemiah had paid £10 in
1631 as composition on refusing knighthood.13
KTTARGH OF BRKT-
TARGH HOLT. Argent,
a fret gules; on a chief or
a lion passant of the second.
blown down by the wind ; the expenses
were is. 6d. for wages for three weeks
was such as that her husband was further
builded up in religion by her means, and
11 From her descended Anne Gerard,
wife of Edward Norris, M.D. of Speke.
before the premises were let to farm. The
his face daily more and more hardened
w Earwaker, East Ches. i, 405.
•lock consisted of 3 plough horses, 9 oxen,
against the Devil and all his plaguey
" Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.),
5 cows, 2 heifers, 4 young oxen (2 sold),
agents, the Popish recusants, Church
169-70; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
1 calves, 2 rams (died of the plague), 194
Papists, profane atheists, and carnal Pro-
Ches.), i, 213. He and his sons James,
sheep (one died of plague), 141 ewes, 70
testants, which swarmed together like
John, and Edward are on the Preston
hogs, and a goat ; also a wagon, two
hornets in those parts.' It was, however,
Guild Roll of 1642 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
ploughs, a harrow, &c. ; L.T.R. Enrolled
her dread that her husband would re-
Ches.), 147.
Accts. Misc. n. 14, m. 77.
nounce Protestantism. See Lanes. Funeral
Nehemiah is described as an 'honest
1 DC Bane. R. 28o,m. 320 J. ; 284, m.
Cert. (Chet. Soc.), i, 37-40 ; and her life
good fellow' by William Blundell of
3°7 </•
in S. Clark's Marrow of Eccles. Hist.
Little Crosby, but was most of his life a
« See the account of Huyton.
One outrage their neighbours perpe-
heavy drinker ; going ' merry to bed ' one
« Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 333 ;
trated upon their cattle is recorded in the
night he was found dead next morning ;
Final Cone, ii, 156.
State Papers, the Norris family being
Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxvi, 37.
* See Norris D. (B.M.). There was
implicated. The bishop of Chester and
His son and heir James, according to
also a family named Brettargh at Oscroft in
his associates conclude their report thus :
the same authority, was ' adorned in the
Tarvin ; Ormerod, C/ies. (ed. Helsby), ii,
*We commend our proceedings herein,
days of the usurpation with the virtues
307 ; Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, 447 ;
as also the poor gentleman so greatly in-
then in fashion ; he was a singular zealot
Rep. xxix, 96. John Brettargh was vicar of
Rhuddlan in 1406 ; ibid. Rep. xxxvi, 57.
jured by these barbarous facts, and in
them the common cause of religion and
and a very sufficient preacher ' ; but after
the Restoration the ' mask fell off,' and
s Final Cone, in, 51.
of justice, to your favour, from which
he ruined his health by excessive drink-
• Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 1 5 ; Tram. Hist. Soc. (New
only we may expect reformation of these
great outrages of late committed by
ing. Riding home after a bout at War-
rington he fell from his horse, sustaining
Ser.),iii, 159; KLuerden, ii, fol. 207*.
Catholics, not without the designments of
injuries from which he died a little later ;
' Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. viii, n. 36.
pestilential seminaries that lurk amongst
ibid. He recorded a pedigree in 1664;
The service agrees with that in the an-
them' ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1598-1601,
Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 57. His will
cient charter to William Suonis quoted
482-5.
was proved in 1666. The will of his
above. William's wife Eleanor survived
In the declaration of ' Grenloe, a priest,'
widow, Deborah Chandler, was dated and
him. She was a daughter of William
about I 599, occurs the following : ' What
proved in 1686 ; she desired to be buried
Lathom of Allerton and so related to the
I lay down cannot be proved, unless we
in the chancel of Childwall church next
Norris and Harrington families ; Pal. of
had as free liberty, law and favour as our
the body of her late husband, James
Lane. Sessional P. Hen. VIII, bdle. 2.
adversaries have against us, viz. that
Brettargh. There are mentioned her
8 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. xiv, n. 60.
Mr. William Brettargh or his disciples
daughters Hitchmough, Hanna, Phoebe
'In 1591 an action was brought
have said that if her majesty should grant
Potter ; her grandchildren, Thomas Bret-
against William Brettargh and Maud his
any toleration to the papists, she was
targh, Edward and Phoebe Richardson,
mother by inhabitants of Woolton re-
not worthy to be queen, and before that
and Deborah, wife of Mordecai Cocker of
Ducatu, Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii, 259.
should be given " ; which speech of tole-
James's 'son Jonathan, born in 1656,
Woolton, as her funeral panegyric states,
'among inhuman bands of brutish Papists,
the earl of Essex was the worthiest to be,
and that as the papists look for a change,
he presented a book ; Local Gleanings
Lanes, and Ches. ii, 115. He died at the
enduring many temporal grievances from
there would be a change by Michaelmas
beginning of 1685; Childwall Registers.
them ; yet her knowledge, patience, mild
day, as near as it was, but little to their
His will is at Chester, dated 6 February,
inclination and constancy for the truth
good ; ' Cal. S.P. Dom. i 580-1625, p. 400.
1684-5, and proved 23 May, 1685. The
119
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Another local family was that of Orme, of numerous
branches ; in the reign of Elizabeth there were Ormes
at the Lee, in the Portway, and at Wheathill, in
Little Woolton. There was a succession of Thomas
Ormes at the Lee;1 one died in March, 1622-3,
leaving as heir his granddaughter Jane, daughter of
his son Thomas, whose wardship was undertaken by
Sir William Norris of Speke. She married Edward
Fairhurst of Liverpool.8
The Little Woolton court rolls of the middle
of the sixteenth century have many interesting
features.8 The officers appointed were the con-
stables, burleymen, hill bailiffs,4 lay layers, affeerers,
bailiff of the vill, and ale fonders ; surveyors
of the highway also occur. The ' cross in the
Oak lane ' is mentioned ; there were two stone
bridges — Astowe bridge and Benet bridge — and it was
forbidden to rete hemp or flax at either of them, or to
wash clothes or yarn at the former. Breaches of
manorial customs were duly brought before the court
for punishment — such as obstructing or diverting the
water-courses, fishing in other men's waters, and dis-
regarding the orders of the officers of the manor.
The morals of the people were also cared for.5 In
1559 it was ordered that no tenant, free or copyhold,
should suffer any crow, commonly called ' ruckes or
Whytebyll croeys,' to eyre or breed within his tene-
ment. Hugh Whitfield of Gateacre had broken
the pinfold and taken a lamb seized in distraint ;
perhaps, as a result of this, it was ordered that ' an
able pinfold ' be made on the green. Transfers of
land made by sale or on the death of a tenant were,
of course, important parts of the business of the
court. Cases of assault and trespass, and also of debt,
came up for trial and sentence. Hospitallers' privi-
leges were guarded by an order that every tenant
should have a cross set upon his house as was accus-
tomed. At the same court the 'reeves of our Lady's
stock at Huyton ' were summoned for a debt.
In 1785 the land was owned by a large number of
persons, as shown by the land-tax returns ; the prin-
cipal were James Okill for Lee, who paid about a
fifth of the tax ; James Brettargh for the Holt, and
William Barrow.
In connexion with the Established Church, St.
Stephen's was built in 1873 as a chapel of ease to
Childwall, and made a separate ecclesiastical parish in
1893. The bishop of Liverpool is patron.
GARSTON
Gerstan, usual to the end of xv cent. ; Gerston,
1201 ; Garston, common from 1500; Gahersteng,
1205, and final g occasionally, leading to confusion
with Garstang.
The township, bounded on the south-west by the
River Mersey, has an area of 1,625 acres.6 The
division between Garston and Toxteth is marked by
Otterspool, a name now given to the waters of the
Mersey, where a brook flowing through Toxteth falls
into that river. Another brook flows — or did flow —
diagonally through the township ; and a third used
to pass through the village and discharge by a narrow
gorge into the Mersey ; a small portion is still visible.
The country is flat, covered with the pleasant subur-
ban colonies of Aigburth and Grassendale, with streets
of houses set in flowery gardens, many running at right
angles to the principal main roads, and leading down
to the river bank. Grazing fields are scattered
amongst the houses and streets, especially near the
river. Garston itself is a seaport town, with docks,
iron and copper works, and large gas works. On the
outlying land are cultivated fields where some crops
are grown. These include potatoes and corn.
testator desired to be buried in the family
burial place at Childwall; no children
are also mentioned. See also Baines'
Lanes, (ed . I 836), iii, 744.
steward at Trafford House; another,
Richard, was one of the victims of the
wife Anne and his brother-in-law Henry
mended for appointment as a justice of
he was imprisoned and died of fever
ment of his estates is mentioned.
Jonathan was followed by his son
James, educated at Jesus College, Cam-
bridge ; Pal. Note Bk. iii, 268, and in-
formation of Dr. Morgan, master of the
College. He married Anne, daughter and
coheir of John Hurst of Scholes near
Prescot ; Land, and Ches. Antiq. Notes,
ii, 17; the licence was granted 23 July,
'in debt and young'; Norris Papers (Chet.
Soc.), pp. in, 164. He is described as
< of Aigburth,' but was then offering the
estate for sale. He died between 1741
and 1765, his son and heir being James
Brettargh, who was the last of the family
to dwell at the Holt, and was buried at
Childwall 28 January, 1786, aged eighty-
five. The will of James Brettargh of
Notes, 13 ; Stretford (Chet. Soc.), ii, 156 ;
Gillow, Haydock Papers, 141, 159;
Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Eng. Catholics, i,
290.
1 In 1582 it was found by the jury of
the manor court that Thomas Orme, or
Ormeson, had died seised of a messuage
called the Lee, and 19 acres of free land,
held by rent and service of two barbed
Newton. This seems to have interfered
with the husband's academical career, as
he did not graduate. Anne Brettargh,
his widow, a professor of the ancient
faith, was living at Prescot in 1750;
Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 362, from
January, 1786, and proved in 1789, men-
tions only his ' daughter Holt,' the wife of
Robert Clelland of Wavertree ; the value .
of the estate was between £100 and £300.
Members of the family settled in
Liverpool, Manchester, and elsewhere ;
he paid at the rate of \id. per acre.
Thomas Orme was his son and heir, and
of full age.
" Norris D. (B.M.).
» Ibid.
4 Otherwise hill haywards, hill lookers,
sister, the other coheir, is described as
targh, an attorney's apprentice in Man-
was dug upon the hill.
same document it appears that James
Brettargh was living in 1741. The will
of Anne Brettargh, widow of James
Brettargh, esq. of Brettargh Holt, made
1745, becoming an ensign in the Man-
chester Regiment ; he was captured at
Carlisle, condemned for treason and trans-
ported in 1749 ; Pal. Note Book, ii, 1 1 8.
' common chider ' of the neighbours, and
must leave the township. Margaret
Hastie kept Anne Dosen in her house,
' being a priest's woman,' and must send
in 1763, and again at Chester in 1788,
after the death of James Brettargh the
elder, her son . The other children men-
tioned are John Brettargh and Elizabeth
Wagstaffe, widow ; they were living in
1788, when James Brettargh the younger,
' of Pendleton, Schoolmaster,'was described
as Anne's grandson and heir ; Peter
Brettargh and Catherine Royle of Salford
Manchester) were friends of John Byrom's
about 1724-8 ; Remains (Chet. Soc.), 1,97,
295.
Richard Brettargh, steward of Henry
Blundell of Ince, caused the births of his
children to be recorded in the Sefton
registers— they were not baptized at the
church. One of his sons was Jonathan
Brettargh, 'the devil's darning-needle,'
120
Orme had kept unlawful ' gamoning ' in his
house ; another had ' bulling and a bull-
ing alley.' Peter Skillington as a re-
setter of ' vagabonds and valiant beggars,'
was fined 6d.
6 The census gives 1,673 acr«> includ-
ing 22 of inland water ; to this must be
added 888 acres of tidal water and 524
acres of foreshore.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Altogether the district is a curious mixture of indus-
trial, agricultural, and residential features.
The geological formation consists entirely of the
pebble beds of the bunter series of the new red
sandstone or trias. To the south-east of Garston
cliffs of drift boulder clay abut upon the river.
There was a total population of 17,289 in 1901.
A local board, formed in 1854,' became in 1894
an urban district council ; but the township was
incorporated with Liverpool by a Local Government
Order in 1903. There are public offices, library, and
accident and smallpox hospital.
The road from Liverpool to Garston and Speke
remains the principal road in the district, running
parallel with the river bank, and about half a mile
from it. The Liverpool tramways reach as far as
Garston. The Cheshire Lines Committee's railway
passes through the township, and has stations at
Aigburth, Otterspool, Mersey Road (close to the
Liverpool cricket ground), Grassendale (Cressington
Park), and Garston. The London and North Western
Company's line to Warrington and Crewe passes
along the north-eastern boundary, with stations at
Mossley Hill near the northern corner, and on the
Allerton Road ; from the latter station, called Allerton,
a branch line curves round into the town of Garston,
where there is a station formerly the terminus of the
Warrington line. The docks at Garston belong to
the London and North Western Railway Company ;
the other railway has a connexion with them.
The sugar works (glucose) have ceased work owing
to the cases of arsenical poisoning traced to them.
Formerly there were salt works which had been
removed from the Salthouse Dock at Liverpool,8 and
at one time the fishery was of importance.3
' The whole hill of Mossley commands a charming
view of the River Mersey and Wirral hundred in
Cheshire, with the distant hills of Wales . . . The
view is equally commanding at Mossley Hall, formerly
the spot where the Ogdens . . . had their country
seat . . . (It) was lately rebuilt by Peter Baker,
mayor of Liverpool 1795), and was afterwards the
residence of the Dawsons ; it is now (1817) that of
William Ewart."
There were anciently two crosses in Garston. The
base of one lies opposite the site of the south porch of
the old chapel ; the other was by the mill dam. The
base stone of this latter one has been re-erected near
St. Francis' Church, with a new plinth.5
' In a field below the dam of the old Garston mill
was found some years ago a curious relic of penitential
discipline — a scourge of iron with spiked links. It
CHILDWALL
had seven lashes of chain, possibly to chastise the flesh
for the seven deadly sins.' 6
In a report made in 1828 upon the changes wrought
by the tides it is stated that ' the line of low water
did not alter materially,' but ' the steep clay banks '
were constantly being worn away. A detailed de-
scription is given, beginning at Speke and going north-
wards to Toxteth. At the southern end ' the land is
said to have lost about 1 5 yds. in width along the
whole front in about twenty-five years ; ' the salt works
to the north of this had been built (1793) upon the
strand ; then came the pool, to the north of which
more of the strand had been enclosed, one part having
been a vitriol works (before 1793). Further north
the tides had made great ravages, about 1 5 yds. in
twenty years being a rate given. In some places an
attempt had been made to protect the bank by means
of walls, but these had been overthrown ; at Otters-
pool, at the extreme north, ' a stone-paved slope or
sheeting ' seems to have been more successful. Here
there was a snuff mill (1780). It is incidentally
stated that the manor courts had ceased to be held.7
This township is not mentioned by
MANOR name in Domesday Book ; it formed part
of the demesne of the capital manor of
West Derby, being one of its six berewicks.8 Its
customary rating was four plough-lands, and in 1212
it was held in thegnage by the yearly service of 2CU.9
Shortly after 1088 Garston was given by Roger the
Poitevin to his sheriff Godfrey, who gave it in alms
to the abbey of Shrewsbury, together with his little
boy Achard, who was to become a monk there.
Count Roger confirmed the grant, and about 1121
Henry I renewed the confirmation. Ranulf Gernons,
earl of Chester, some twenty years later issued his
notification and precept to the bishop of Chester, and
to his justices 'between Ribble and Mersey,' directing
that the monks of Shrewsbury be left in peaceable
possession of their lands and rights in that district,
and particularly in Garston ; and ' let Richard son of
Multon do service to them from Garston completely
and fully as he craves my love ; and that no one of my
men may demand anything from Richard, I proclaim
him absolutely free from all (services) due from
Garston, desiring nothing but prayers therefrom.'
Henry II also in the first year of his reign confirmed
the grant, and about the same time Reginald de
Warenne, as seneschal of the lord of the honour of
Lancaster (1153-64), specially ordered his justices
and ministers to see that the monks had peaceable
possession of Garston with the men and all things
pertaining to it, without injury or insult.10 Later
1 Lend. Gaz. 7 July, 1854.
a 'About 100 persons are employed
here (1825) chiefly in the simple process
of dissolving this rock [from Northwich]
n salt water, and afterwards boiling the
brine, which then becomes salt ' ; Baines'
Dir.
8 At the beginning of the eighteenth
century Thomas Patten of Warrington,
writing to Richard Norris of Liverpool,
lays : 'You very well know the mischief
hat is done on the River Mersey, or at
east have frequently heard what vast
umbers of salmon trout are taken so as
salmon a week at a fishing in or near
Speke, but of late hath taken very few or
' none, of which he hath complained to me,
and he imputes this loss to the destruction
of the fry ' ; Norris Pafer: (Chet. Soc.),
37-8.
'About twenty-five years ago,' wrote
M. Gregson in 1817, 'the chemical pre-
paration for bleaching was manufactured
here by Mons. Bonnel, on its early intro-
duction into England, but the work has
long since been discontinued. Vitriol
works were also carried on for a short
time at Garston . . . There are a few
corn, Hale, Garston, and Toxteth Park.
It is to be lamented that so much small
fry is destroyed, particularly during spring
tides ; as their food being thus taken
away, the large fish are prevented from
visiting our shores as usual ' ; Fragments
(ed. Harland), .93.
« Gregson, l.s.c.
6 E. W. Cox, in Trans. Hist. Soc. (New
8er.), iv ; also Trans. Land, and Chts.
Antiq. Soc. xix, 203.
« E. W. Cox.
7 Joseph Boult in Trans. Hist. Soc. xx,
160-5. Th<: "ilway company's dock.
cloyed and they cannot get sale for them
hey give them to their swine. Your
brother did formerly take three or four
3
Liverpool shore . . . Many fishgarths,
we are sorry to find, are stalled down from
Runcorn Gap to Liverpool, viz. at Run-
121
• Lanes. Inij. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 19.
10 Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 270-86.
16
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
still, in 1227, Henry III included it in his general
confirmation. Another confirmation was issued as
late as 1331. Strange to say, after the monks had
taken such pains to vindicate their right to the place,
they showed no further interest in it, and it does not
appear either in the Valor or in Ministers' Accounts
of the sixteenth century.1
The above-mentioned Multon is the earliest
manorial lord of Garston of whom there is any record.
He had three sons — Richard, Henry, and Ralph —
and perhaps Matthew was another son. To Henry
and to Matthew he made respective grants of three
oxgangs of land, for the rent of ^'i\d., and to the
ancestor of Thomas (living in 1212) he gave four
oxgangs at 30 d. This ancestor may have been the
other son Ralph, who had at least one oxgang, after-
wards the property of Stanlaw.' Richard son of
Multon, who held Garston about 1146, was the
father of Adam de Garston, who in 1201 and various
subsequent years paid his contributions to the scutages.5
Adam died in 1 206, leaving a widow Margaret, after-
wards married to Richard de Liverpool,4 and sons
Adam and Richard, both young. The wardship of
the heir was purchased by his uncle Robert de Ains-
dale.'
Adam the son of Richard was lord of Garston for
many years, dying in 1265. He, like his father,
was a benefactor to monasteries.6 He also granted to
Roger the miller of Barwe the third part of his mill
in Garston with a fishery in Mersey and half the
fishery of the mill pool.7 Adam also came to an
agreement with Alan le Norreys about the fishing in
the pool of Garston, binding himself that none should
fish there without Alan's consent, under a penalty of
4<3.f. to St. Mary of St. John's Church at Chester.8
He died about 1265, and at the inquest it was found
that he had held four plough-lands in Garston in chief
of Robert de Ferrers, earl of Derby, by a rent of lot.
per annum, doing suit to county and wapentake, and
that he held nothing of any one else. Of the land
seven oxgangs (worth <)s. 6d.) were in demesne, and
twenty-five in service ; there was a mill worth a mark
yearly. His son John, of full age, was his next heir.'
John de Garston gave in alms two small portions
of his waste in Aigburth to the monks of Stanlaw.10
He appears to have died about 1285, leaving his
brother Adam as his heir ; and in the inquest ot
1298 it was found that Adam de Garston had been
lord of the place, and that his heir was in the king's
hands by reason of minority.11
The succession at this point is doubtful. Probably
the ' Adam, son of Adam, formerly lord of Garston,'
who about the end of the thirteenth century made
grants to his brother Robert and his sister Margery,
was the son and heir ; " but a John son of Adam de
Garston occurs about the same time, leaving a
daughter Sibota and a son Robert.13 In any case,
however, the inheritance came to an Ellen de Garston,
who early in Edward IPs reign married Robert de
Blackburn," thenceforward called ' lord of Garston.'
It will here be convenient to give some notice of
the other branches of the Garston family. The
inquest of 1212 shows the following members of it
holding portions of the land : (i)The heir of Adam de
Garston held four plough-lands of the king for 201. in
thegnage — this is the main line, whose fortunes
have been recounted ; (ii) Hugh son of Henry, three
oxgangs for 22^., of the gift of Multon ; (iii) Thomas,
four oxgangs for zi. 6d., by the gift of Multon ;
(iv) Henry son of Matthew, three oxgangs for Z2\d.,
of the gift of Multon ; (v) Simon, three oxgangs for
2 2 \d., of the gift of the aforesaid Adam his brother;
these thirteen oxgangs were held of the lord of Garston ;
(vi) there were three acres held in alms.14
1 Man. Angl. iii, 521-3 ; Cal. Pat.
Mersey ; and other lands in the Rother-
for two parts and the miller for one;
1330-34, p. 39.
» Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 564.
rake, and elsewhere. He gave the monks
water rights also ; a fishery called the
Norris D. (B.M.), 662-3.
8 Ibid. 665. Alan le Norreys had ac-
8 Lanes. Pipe R. 279, 153, 178, 204.
Lachegard ; rights in the water adjoining,
quired the half fishery on the millpool
Adam granted in alms to Cockersand Abbey
for the benefit of the convent at Woolton
granted to Roger de Barwe ; ibid. 730.
land from his demesne in Aigburth in the
grange, the monks to use it as they pleased ;
To William son of Alan and Amicii
western corner of the township with pas-
liberty to make another fishery on the
his wife Adam de Garston granted an ox-
ture for 500 sheep and 20 cows, and for
Mersey anywhere as far as Otterspool ;
gang of land formerly held by Suard the
mill at Garston into the Mersey, and a
brother Richard, with the land in Aig-
Allerton, near St. Mary's Well, and be-
place (wherever they might choose) to
burth and the fisheries appertaining to it,
tween the 'meneway' of Halcwood and
make a tannery or fulling mill, with its
the rent to be iSJ. To his daughters
named; Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
necessary pool. All these gifts were in
pure alms, with the reservation that the
by Yseult his wife, Alice and Margery, he
gave 3j oxgangs with all liberties except
554, 557. He also granted his brother
monks should full for him the cloth made
as to the fishes of his pool ; and to Simon
Simon three oxgangs at a rent of n\d. ;
Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 19.
« Richard de Liverpool's Garston ditch
in his own house, and that without pay-
ment ; Whalley Coucher, ii, 559, 563-9.
He granted to his uncle, William de
Backford, son of Adam, parson of that
de Garston he allowed the 4 oxgangs for-
merly held by Henry and Alice, the parents
of Simon, for a rent of zi. 6d. ; ibid. 666,
668, 664.
is mentioned in an early charter (Whalley
place, half an oxgang in Alton (elsewhere
His widow Hawise surrendered to the
Coucher, ii, 565) ; and he was a witness
Holtum) in Garston, for a service of four
monks of Stanlaw all her dower right in
to other charters.
barbed and winged arrows each year ; and
the lands Adam had given them ; Whally
Mbid. ii, 555*.; Lanes. Pipe R. 279 ;
to the hospital of St. John outside the
Coucher, ii, 584.
Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 128. The Ains-
Northgate of Chester, some further land
9 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 232.
dale family had lands in Garston ; see
Blundell of Crosby evidences (Towneley
with half a fishery on the river, which the
brethren afterwards granted to the same
10 Whalley Coucher, ii, 560-74 ; one of
them was in the Middle dole.
MSS.), K.. 1 6, 17; Whalley Coucher, ii, 573.
William de Backford for a rent of i zd.
To Adam son of Henry de Garston he
8 To Cockersand he gave additional land
This holding was with Adam's consent
gave several plots of land — in the Gorstie-
in Aigburth, 'with the consent of all the
transferred to the monks of Stanlaw;
hol, Humbeldale, Rotherrakes and else-
free tenants,' and another piece apparently
in the hamlet called Brooks ; Cockersand
ibid, ii, 578-81. The originals of some
of these charters are among the Norris D.
where ; while to Agnes, one of his sisters,
he gave lands in Echyndale moor ; and to
Cbariul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 556-7. He gave
(B.M.). He confirmed also for a present
Adam son of William de Garston and
to Stanlaw Abbey land in Aigburth, with
the usual easements, for three marks of
of half a mark, the gift of three oxgangs
which Adam de Bickerstath had made to
Ellen his wife a piece in the Brugegrevis ;
Norris D. (B. M.), 690-3.
silver, and an annual rent of id. or a pair
of gloves ; an oxgang which Ralph, son of
Multon, had held ; a plot called < farthing '
with a right to use the road, going and
the same abbey ; ibid, ii, 577.
^ The grantor was to find wood for the
mill and carry it to the site, but Roger
was to make the mill ; as to the pool and
11 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 287.
« Norris D. (B. M.), 673-4.
13 Ibid. 693, 763, 786, 822.
14 The name is often spelt Blakebura.
returning beyond the moor as far as the
the millstones Adam was to be responsible
14 Lanes. Inj. and Extents, 19.
122
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Hugh son of Henry son of Multon gave two of his
three oxgangs to Hugh de Moreton, for the rent of a
pound of cummin, and they were then given to Stan-
law Abbey.1 Hugh and his son Richard continued
to hold the land as tenants ; Richard transferred the
third oxgang to the monks in return for a gift of five
marks.*
Thomas is not heard of again ; but his four oxgangs
may be those granted by Adam de Garston to Simon
son of Henry de Garston, at the ancient farm of
zs. 6d. Simon gave lands in Aigburth to Stanlaw
Abbey. He is probably the Simon the clerk, son of
Henry, who attested several charters ; his father was
also a clerk. Simon had a son Henry and a daughter
Maud, who married John Minting, her father giving
them one oxgang on their marriage.3
Henry son of Matthew had a daughter Aubrey (or
Albreda) who married William Rufus (Roo) and had a
son Walter. Aubrey gave to the monks of Stanlaw
two of the three oxgangs which descended to her,
receiving seven marks and an annual rent of a pair of
white gloves ; and the other oxgang she sublet to
Adam de Ainsdale, who granted this also to Stanlaw,
together with half an oxgang he held of Roger Balle.
Walter duly ratified his mother's gifts.4
The three oxgangs of Simon brother of Adam de
Garston do not occur again, unless, indeed this
Simon, and not Simon son of Henry, was the father
CHILDWALL
rrated
of John son of Simon, whose story has been
above.4
Adam de Garston III had, beside his heir, a
younger son Robert living as late as 1353, and com-
monly known as ' the lord's son.' As stated, Robert
received one oxgang from his brother Adam, who
had had it from their father, with reversion to their
sister Margery. This oxgang he in 1341 gave to
Adam his son for the old rent of $d. to the chief
lord ; with reversion to Margery.6 In 1 343 John
del Femes, chaplain, gave to Robert all the latter's
lands in Garston and fishery
in the Mersey, with remainders
in succession to his sons Wil-
liam, Roger, and Thomas.7
Robert de Blackburn held
Garston for nearly forty years,
dying about the year 1354;
his wife Ellen is mentioned in
1332. He acquired various
portions of land from the
minor owners ; from Richard BLACKBURN or GAR-
son of Richard de Toxteth, STON. Argent, a /«i
two OXgangS and land in Gras- undee between three mul-
sendale ; from Roger de Hale le" sable-
in Quindal Moor and the Dale;
from Adam Wade in Mukelholm ; from Henry de
Easthead, and Margery his wife, in Ychyndale Moor ;
1 Wholly Coucher, ii, 569, 570, 577.
» For this and other grants see Whattey
Coucker, ii, 575, 573, 561, 576. Adam
de Garston as superior lord ratified the
dower ; ibid. 668. Henry son of Simon
had four, as above stated ; John the clerk
seems to have had one ; ibid. 695. Alan
del Moss appears to have had one or two ;
three daughters, Alice, Wymark, and
Iseult ; she quitclaimed to the monks of
Stanlaw, with her daughters' consent,
Henry son of Gilbert the Little of Gar-
this he calls the grantor Richard de Bicker-
.tath ; ibid, ii, 577.
» Norris D.(B.M.), 664, 704 5 WW/gr
Coucher, ii, 582.
Simon son of Henry may also have been
the father of John son of Simon, who had
a son Simon, husband of Iseult; their chil-
dren were Roger and Ellen. The former
married in 1334 Ellen daughter of Robert
del Eves, but had no issue by her, and she
afterwards married Henry de Torbock.
The inheritance thus passed to Ellen the
sister of Roger, and in 1365 she sold it
to John de Blackburn, lord of the manor.
held by Adam de Ainsdale and ij by
Roger son of Siward ; Wholly Coucher
(Chet. Soc.),ii, 571, 583, 584. This land
seems to have come into the possession of
Stanlaw, and may be included in the 7J.
The church or chapel of Garston had one,
unless this was considered part of the
demesne ; Norris D. (B. M.}, 743. Hugh
son of Lette seems also to have had ij ;
ibid. 675. Adam son of Adam II had
one, which afterwards passed to his brother
Robert ; ibid. 674. There may be others.
widow of Richard de Garston (or Bicker-
stath) already mentioned ; Wholly Cou-
cher, ii, 589, 576. The daughter Wymark
appears to have been a person of some
importance ; her daughter Alice was
known by her mother's name and her
husband Adam called himself ' son-in-law
of Wymark.' One of Alice's charters
Hungry hill, Bridge greves, Galghstan
field, Long doles, and the moss ; in an-
other the Grossefield is named ; Norris D.
(B.M.), 707, 708, 747. Adam son of
ages, 30 acres of land and 3^. rent., with
held not directly of the lord of the manor,
1290 a grant of land in Quindal Moor
Norreys of Speke, Adam de Minting and
William Jenkinson Hulleson of Garston,
for lands held of Ellen ; she received
100 marks; Norris D. (B. M.), 707,
767, 777, 835, 808, 833-7 ; Final
Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii,
•73-
There had been a dispute as to posses-
lion between Henry de Torbock and his
wife on one side and the Blackburns and
others on the other side, resulting in
favour of the former ; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 2, m. ii.
4 Wholly Coucher, ii, 575, 571, 582.
Another point to be noticed is that the
holder, while keeping his ' oxgang' intact,
would sell the approvements from the
waste belonging to it. For instance the
above-named Hugh son of Lette sold to
Adam, lord of Garston, land in the field
called Gorsticroft, ' to wit as much as be-
longs to an oxgang and a half of land.'
John the Clerk also granted ' as much as
belongs to one oxgang of land in the place
called Quindal moor'; afterwards he
granted to another person ' all the part
which belongs to the oxgang which John
has in the said vill [of Garston], lying
Richard son of Richard de Thornton
was among the benefactors of Stanlaw,
giving land in Aigburth which he had re-
ceived from Richard son of Hugh ; ibid.
ii, 561. He was followed about the
middle of the thirteenth century by a
Henry de Thornton, perhaps his son.
Henry, who had a daughter Christina
(Norris D. 19), was followed by a Simon
de Thornton ; Simon's widow Alice in
129; relinquished all her claim upon any
lands her husband had given to Stanlaw ;
Wholly Coucher, ii, 586.
Other families occur. Simon de
death of Adam de Garston in 1265 only
7 of the 32 oxgangs remained in the lord's
hands ; the remainder had all been granted
The abbey of Stanlaw had 7j oxgangs
including the land of the Chester hospital.
Suard the thegn had one which passed to
Richard brother of Adam II, and after-
son-in-law of Wymark of Garston, and
Alice his wife granted < all their part of
the waste in Quindal Moor, as much as
belongs to their oxgang of land in the vill
of Garston'; Norris D. (B. M.), 675,
670, 695, 708.
« Norris D. (B. M.), 788.
7 Ibid. 794.
son Adam in 1325-6, holding lands in
Garston ; perhaps a descendant was
William de Molyneux, who about 1410
married Katherine daughter and coheir
of John Godmonson and Aline his wife ;
Norris D. (B. M.), 676, 669, 759, 886.
John the Clerk already mentioned was son
of Martin of Churchlee ; he married
Norris B. (B. M.), 666. Alice and Mar-
gery, daughters of Adam II, had 3J ox-
gangs, of which 3 had been his mother'i
Alan del Moss, who had sons William and
Hugh and a daughter Alice. This last,
known as 'the widow of Garston,' had
son John, who like his father appears in
many thirteenth-century charters ; ibid.
689,694-701.
123
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
and from Robert del Eves lands and a fishery which
had belonged to Simon son of John de Garston.1
Robert de Blackburn was succeeded by his eldest
son John, who even before his father's death seems to
have taken an active part in managing the estate.*
He was lord of the manor for about fifty years,
dying on 8 January, 1 404-5 ,s and during this long
period seems to have been constantly acquiring fresh
portions of land.* At the inquest taken after his death
it was found that he had held the manor of Garston
of the king as duke of Lancaster, by knight's service,
6 oxgangs in Downham, lands in West Derby, Hol-
land Place in Halewood, lands in Allerton and in
Woolton. His heir was his grandson John, son of
Robert, who was then fifteen years old and more.5
John, the grandson,6 died early and without issue,
and the inheritance came to his sister Agnes, who
married Thomas, younger son of Sir John de Ireland
of Hale. Thus the manor passed to the Irelands, who
by the same marriage acquired Lydiate, the property
of Agnes's mother, which they made their principal
residence.7 Little appears to be known of their con-
nexion with Garston.8 The inquest taken after the
death of John Ireland in 1514 states that he held the
manor of Garston of the king as duke of Lancaster in
socage for a rent of 2os., lands in Allerton of the
priory of Burscough by the rent of a grain of pepper
if demanded ; in Woolton of the prior of St. John of
Jerusalem in England, and in Halewood of the earl
of Derby.9 His grandson Lawrence, in 1543, ex-
changed the manor of Garston and lands and water-
mill there and in Much Woolton with Sir William
Norris of Speke, taking the latter's lands in Lydiate
and Maghull.10
The Norris family had long had a fair holding
in the township, the rents in 1450 amounting to
£j io/." A junior branch seems to have resided
there for a time." The manor continued in the
Norris family, descending like Speke, until near the
end of the eighteenth century.13 The dismember-
ment and sale of the estates began in 1775." In
February, 1779, the corporation of Liverpool pur-
chased the manorial rights of Garston, with the
intention, it was said, of regulating the fisheries in the
Mersey, but in April of the following year the manor
was sold to Peter Baker, a Liverpool shipbuilder, and
his son-in-law John Dawson, captain of the privateer
Mentor, which in 1778 had captured the French
East Indiaman Carnatic with a rich booty. Certain
reservations made by the corporation were afterwards
given up. In January, 1791, Baker and Dawson
conveyed the manor to the trustees of Richard Kent,
a Liverpool merchant, who had died before the com-
pletion of the sale. Elizabeth Kent, his daughter,
had married (in 1786) Lord Henry Murray, son of
the third duke of Atholl ; and they joined with John
Blackburne of Liverpool 15 in procuring (at the latter's
expense) an Act of Parliament 16 for destroying the
entail and enabling the trustees to sell the Garston
estate. John Blackburne purchased the manor under
this Act, with various lands in Garston, but exclusive
of the advowson of Garston chapel, the mill dale and
pool, and certain rights ; he also purchased indepen-
dently other lands in Garston, and transferred his
1 Norris D. (B. M.), 757, 771, 772,
783, 790.
garet his wife, and Joan daughter of Adam
de Minting in a plea concerning a messuage
scendants continued the same course,
until, as stated, they acquired the manor
lands and the third part of a mill at
Garston with Roger Kenesson of Crosby
and Maud his wife. {Catherine, bastard
daughter of Ellen daughter of Roger de
Garston, had held the tenements by fealty
and a rent of \dd. and Maud claimed as
the true heir, asserting that she had en-
feoffed Katherine ; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 2, m. viiirf. ; m. xi d ; Assize
R. 435, m. io ; m. 30 ; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 3 (2 to 4 Duke Henry).
About the same time Adam son of
fishery in the Mersey ; and against William
de Whitfield in the same claim. The
defendants did not appear, and John
recovered seisin ; De Bane. R. 460,
m. 375 d.
He made a feoffment of his lands in
1357, including the manor of Garston,
with its demesne lands, mills, fisheries,
&c., and lands in Allerton. No remain-
ders are recited in the deed ; Norris D.
(B.M.), 816, 817, 841.
* Towneley MS. DD, 1457.
in the reign of Henry VIII. Norri. D.
(B.M.), 761, &c.
12 In 1400 Johnson of Richard le Nor-
reys held lands in Garston and Speke, and
in 1448-9 John Norris of Garston and
Katherine his wife enfeoffed Thomas
Blackburn, chaplain, of all their lands in
Garston and Allerton. Two years later
these were released to John Norris of
Kirkby, son of John Norris late of Garston,
and he in turn transferred them to Thomas
Lathom of Knowsley, who conveyed them
de Blackburn and his sons John, Thomas,
and Robert had disseised him of his free
tenement in Garston — 2 messuages and
l z acres. Robert defended himself by the
the wardship and marriage of John, son of
Robert, son and heir of John de Blackburn,
was made to John de Osbaldeston, and a
(B. M.), 877, 903-! 3.
13 A large number of their leases from
1550 to 1680 have been preserved in the
by knight's service and that he took pos-
later ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xl, App. 532 ;
tenements ; in many ' boons and average* '
were required in addition to the money
rent, the 'rent capon' being specially
mentioned. Some interesting and de-
scriptive field names occur ; thus in one of
1577 Leafurlong, abutting on the road
called Greengate ; Bridge Greaves ;
Whyndow Hey (the older Quindal, in the
southern corner of the township), the
higher lane and the way from Garston
chapel to Speke Hall are mentioned.
" The Hon. Topham Beauclerk and
age ; the jury, however, found that the
tenure was socage, and that Adam had
been unjustly disseised ; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 2, m. ii.
2 In 1348 John acquired lands in
Humbeldale from Adam de Minting and
in Mukelholm from Richard son of Roger
Dogson, and made further purchases in
later years ; Norris D. (B. M.), 798, 800,
s The writ Diem clausit extr. was issued
20 January ; Off. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii,
App. ;.
4 In 1357 John de Blackburn acquired
from Robert son of John son of Adam de
Garston, land in Edgefield, Wytefield, and
Quindel Gate, and the reversion of lands
belonging to Ellen the widow of John :
Norris D. (B. M.), 818, &c.
At the end of Edward Ill's reign John
de Blackburn appeared in court against
John son of Henry del Brooks and Mar-
^ Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 25-6. See the
account of Lydiate.
8 The feodary of 1430 states that
Thomas de Ireland held the manor of
Garston in right of his wife, paying 201.
and performing suit of county and wapen-
take, and going with the bailiff ; Dods.
MS. Ixxxvii, fol. 57.
9 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, n. 16.
10 A list of the tenants and their rents is
preserved among the Norris deeds (B. M.).
The total rent was £16 2s. 8</. including
' broad arrows ' valued at ^d. each.
11 In 1326 Alan le Norreys of Speke ac-
quired land by the Kirkway and abutting
on Quindal Moor from Robert the 'lord's
son ' ; continuing he later bought land
called 'Farthings' in Branderth, near
Allerton Brook, and other holdings in the
Brooks, securing in 1339 that of Sibota,
daughter oi John son of Adam de Garston.
Other acquisitions followed ; and his de-
124
of Garston in August, 1774; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 392, m. 64.
15 He was nephew of the Thomas Black-
burne who married Ireland Greene of
Hale, and son of John Blackburne of
Liverpool (mayor, 1 760). He was mayor
of Liverpool in 1788. Gregson, Frag-
ments, 194. Blackburne House in Hope
Street, Liverpool, was a residence of his ;
Picton, Memorials, ii, 152.
» 33 Geo. III.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
CHILDWALL
Liverpool salt works to this place. He willed this
estate to his only child Alice Anne, wife of Thomas
Hawkes of Himley, in Staffordshire, and about 1823
she disposed of them, the manor being sold to the
Garston Land Company. The duchy of Lancaster
afterwards made a claim to the manorial rights,1
which are now said to be divided among the Light-
body* family and several companies.3
The neighbouring families of Ireland of Hale and
Grelley of Allerton also had lands in Garston. In
1 306 Thomas Grelley demanded against Adam de
Ireland and Avina his wife two messuages and an
oxgang of land in Garston.4 One of the fields was
known as Gredley's Acre.
The lands of Whalley Abbey were at the confisca-
tion found to be leased to Lawrence Ireland for a
rent of £4..* Some of the lands were by Queen
Mary appropriated to the endowment of the Savoy
Hospital in London ; 6 and on this being dissolved
they were sold.7 They were held by Topham Beau-
clerk, the heir of the Norris family, about 1775.
Garston Hall was originally the grange house of
the monks of Upholland, who, as appropriators of the
rectory of Childwall, held the land of the church in
Garston and the tithes.8
In 1350 John, prior of Holland, appeared against
Nicholas de Bold and others on various charges, in-
cluding one of carrying away his goods and chattels
(valued at I oos.) at Woolton and Garston, and breaking
into his fold at the latter place.9 After the dissolution
the hall became the property of the new see of
Chester, as part of the rectory of Childwall, and was
farmed out with the tithes to the Andertons and Gerards.
It was a half-timbered building, standing on a rock
overhanging the lower mill-dam. There is a tradi-
tion that a room in it was used for Roman Catholic
worship during the time of proscription, which is not
unlikely, considering who were the lessees.10
The hamlet of Brooks, in which the early Norris
holding seems to have chiefly lain, gave a name to
one or more families dwelling there." The principal
of these had its origin in a certain Gilbert living
early in the thirteenth century. Richard, son ol
Gilbert de Brooks, gave to Roger his brother land
called Carran, stretching from the river dividing the
Carran of Speke from the Carran of Brooks, to the
chief ridge of Roger's heir, and from the river of
Garston to the boundary of Allerton ; Roger son of
Robert de Brooks gave to Hugh son of Lette of
Garston, land near the river of Slodekan, and near the
river of Quitefelf ; and John son of Roger Punchard
granted to Alan le Norreys of land between the
Hollow brook and the highway, one head extending
to the house of Robert de Blackburn on the west and
the other towards Carran in the east." The Tran-
mole or Tranmore family had a small holding at
Brooks which ultimately passed to Norris of Speke,
the rental of 1454 stating that Wilkyn Plombe and
John Jenkynson paid <)s. \d. rent ' for Tranmoor's
lands.' l3
Grassendale " had risen to the dignity of a hamlet
by the time of Elizabeth.
4IGBURTH™ seems at first to have been the
descriptive name of a district at the north-west end
of Garston and the west of Allerton. It was very
largely in the hands of religious foundations — Stanlaw
(Whalley),16 Cockersand, and to a small extent the
hospital of St. John at Chester. Under these houses
probably the local families held. Henry son of Hugh
de Aigburth is mentioned as holding land in the Brooks
about 1270, in a charter to which Adam de Aigburth
was a witness ; and Alice daughter of Hugh de
Aigburth was in 1274 the wife of John de Garston,
son of Robert called the Mouner." Adam de Aig-
burth about this time made an exchange with the
monks of Stanlaw of land in the moor at Aigburth.18
He is described as ' forester of Toxteth,' and may
therefore be the Adam de Toxteth who was the
ancestor of a family holding land in Aigburth down
to the sixteenth century.19 Adam de Toxteth in
1 This statement of the recent descent
of the manor is abridged from a full
account by Joseph Boult in Trans. Hist. Sac.
xi, 147, 190, with map.
"Adam Lightbody about 1775 bought
" A large number of charters referring
to Brooks are among the Norris D.
(B.M.).
A charter of John son of Adam de
Ireland of Hale to his son David (1349)
William de Tranmole of Hale granted to
his son Richard land in Brookfield in
Garston ; ibid. 805. This Richard, about
1 367-8, acquired further lands in the same
place from John son of Alan de Brooks,
descendant Robert Lightbody sold Island
Farm to the Liverpool Land Company ;
tion of bounds : 'All my lands and tene-
ments ... in the vill and territory of
from John son of Simon le Mercer of
Aigburth ; and another in Brooks from
ground.
» Information of Rev. Dr. Oliver.
* De Bane. R. 161, m. 481.
* frtally Coucher, iv, 1235.
6 Pat. 4 and 5 Phil, and Mary, pt. xv.
1 Norris D. (B. M.).
1334 by Roger bishop of Lichfield, which
states that brother William of Doncaster,
formerly prior, resided alone in the manor
house at Garston, contrary to the rule and
to good order, and commands the monks
to recall him to Upholland at once under
the threat of the greater excommunication.
It would appear that ex-Prior William had
quarrelled with his monastic brethren, and
they had sent him away to Garston for the
sake of peace ; Lich. Reg. iii, fol. 60 k.
The ex-prior on his return was to rank
next after the prior in church, refectory,
chapter, dormitory and elsewhere.
le Brokes, within the boundaries hereafter
written, namely : Beginning at the Stan-
bergh where the two brooks join in one
following the rivulet as far as the land of
the Abbot of Cockersand, and so as far as
the boundary of Allerton in the eastern
side, and so following the boundary of
Allerton to the boundary of Speke, and so
following the boundary of Speke to the
aforesaid brook, and so following that
brook to the aforesaid Stanbergh.'
Hale D.
l" Norris D. (B. M.), 709, 716, 727.
18 This family appear in Hale, where in
1292 Richard son of Richard de Tranmoor
had 12 acres, and William son of Richard
1 1 acres ; Plac. de qua Warr. (Rec. Com.),
228. About 1280 Roger son of Robert
de Brooks gave part of his land here to
Richard de Tranmole and his heirs, for his
860. Then in 1429 Roger de Tranmore
of Garston sold to William le Norreys of
Speke all his lands in Garston and Aller-
ton ; ibid. 893, 638.
14 Contracted from the old Gresselond
Dale.
15 Aykeberyt, Aykeberk, Aykeberg,
early; Haykebergh, 1327; Aykebergh,
1361 jEgberigh, 1600; Ackeberth, 1537 ;
Aykeberthe, 1544.
« The old hall of Aigburth is believed
to have been the grange of the abbot of
Whalley. In 1291 the grange at Ayke-
berwe, with half ploughland, was valued
at 51. ; assized rents brought in i it. and
the profit of the stock was 95. -jd. ; Pofe
Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 259.
17 Norris D. (B. M.),; 1 2, 743. A Robert
de Aigburth had land near Hechindale
Moor ; ibid. 694.
18 Whalley Coucher, ii, 562.
1° E. W. Cox in Trans. Hist. Soc. (New
Ser.), iv, 1 36. A view of the building is
given.
silver and the ancient farm of lod. to the
chief lord ; Norris D. (B. M.), 714, 715.
In 1 298 William de Tranmole was witness
to a charter j and in 1349 John son of
125
Aigburth' and 'Adam de Toxteth' are
witnesses to charters in the latter half of
the thirteenth century, but never to the
same charter.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
1292 made an unsuccessful attempt to recover from
Abbot Gregory a messuage and 30 acres of land of
which he said he was disseised by the former Abbot
Robert.1 On the other hand he was successful in
resisting a claim by Robert de Thornyhead of Hale.8
Margery, Adam's widow, granted to Adam son of
Henry de Garston land in the Rotherrakes, and may be
the Margery de Aigburth who had land in Quindal
Moor.'
Roger de Toxteth, the son and heir, may be the
Roger the clerk, or Roger de Toxteth, clerk, concerned
in many of the local charters of his time.4 By a fine
in 1315 this Roger arranged for the succession to his
property ; 5 the remainders after Roger's own children
(unnamed) were to Thomas son of Wenthlian
daughter of Anyan Voyl, to Floria daughter of
Wenthlian, and to John SOB of Richard de Toxteth.6
Roger appears to have died in 1327, and in 1331
Thomas son of Roger de Toxteth made a claim against
Margaret widow of Richard as to land in Garston,
but did not prosecute it.7
The succession is not clear at this point. The
next in evidence is Adam de Toxteth, a witness
to charters in 1 342. He appears to have died early,8
for in 1 344 there was an arrangement made as to the
succession to lands of his young son Roger, by Roger
de la More on the one part and John (son of William)
de la More on the other ; the latter was about to
marry Adam's widow Katherine, a daughter of John
del Ford.9 Some years later the duke of Lancaster's
escheator took into his hands all the lands in Garston
that Adam de Toxteth had possessed, alleging that
Adam had made them over to Roger atte More (on
trust) after he had committed a certain felony. At
the trial in 1352 the jury found such to have been
the case, and said the duke should have the issues for
six years, amounting to £9, which John de Liverpool
must pay.10 Restitution, however, must have been
obtained, for in 1360, when Roger the son and heir
of Adam came of age, John de la More released to
him two-thirds of his lands."
About 1361 Roger de Toxteth made a settlement
of his lands in Garston, Aigburth, Halewood, and
Wavertree on his marriage with Agnes daughter of
William de Slene.1' The succession again becomes
obscure for nearly a century.13
In 1484 a marriage was arranged between James
son of John Toxteth and Isabel his wife, and
Alice daughter of Thomas Norris of Speke.u John,
probably a son of James, in 1525 entered into a bond
in £20 to perform certain covenants.16 In 1 544
there was a settlement of disputes between John
Toxteth of Aigburth and Henry Tarleton of Faza-
kerley on the one part and Sir William Norris on
the other part. Sir William had enclosed a piece of
waste in Aigburth Lane, as common appertaining to
the manor of Garston ; and he further claimed the
marriage of Ellen Toxteth, younger daughter and one
of the coheirs of John, for Richard Norris son and
heir apparent of Henry Norris of West Derby.
Arbitrators were appointed who decided in favour of
Sir William, expressing the wish that he would be
' good master ' to the tenants of John Toxteth and
Alice his wife, as before the variance.16 The elder
daughter, not mentioned here, married William
Brettargh of the Holt in Little Woolton ; and this
family owned a portion of Aigburth until the be-
ginning of the eighteenth century.17
The mention of the Tarleton family is interesting ;
in one way or another they were connected with
1 Assize R. 408, m. 41 d. In 1295 the
plaintiff and his son and heir Roger re-
leased to the abbot their claim ; Whalley
Ccucter, ii, 587, 588.
» Assize R. 408, m. jod. The follow-
Richard de Toxteth in 1347 had land
and a fishery in Aigburth and the Holme
in Garston ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 230.
Roger de Toxteth in 1323-4 claimed
from Robert de Blackburn and Ellen
following years John de la More and his
wife claimed from John le Norreys dower
right in a messuage and 30 acres of land
in Garston ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 6,
m. 5 ; Assize R. 438, m. S d.; Duchy of
Aldouse - s. Henry - s. Henry - s. Robert
land, and from Roger dc Stanihurst and
as part of the same series of actions that
» Norris D. (B. M.), 723, 679.
* Roger's brother Richard was a clerk
also. Nothing further seems known of
the other brother William, but there was
a sister Agnes who married Richard
'called Wade' and had a daughter Floria,
who married John de Derlegh. Adam de
Toxteth gave to his daughter Agnes on her
marriage a plot in the newly ploughed
land outside the Bridge greves, for the
as his inheritance through his mother
Margery de Garston. In the following
year Adam son of Robert de Blackburn
(a minor) appears as claimant of the same
properties ; De Bane. R. 251, m. 117 J. ;
255, m. 224 ; 257, m. 204.
7 Assize R. 1404, m. 18. The widow,
however, released to Thomas the lands
her husband had held in Garston and
Aigburth ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 231*.
(non-suited) for novel disseisin against
John le Norreys ; ibid. R. 6, m. 5 d.
" Norris D. (B.M.), 22, 829, 830. The
remainders were to John de Blackburn,
Richard son of Thomas de Molyneux,
Stephen son of Anyon le Waleys, and
Richard son of John de Toxteth.
18 Roger occurs among witnesses to
charters down to 1391 ; he was followed
by John de Toxteth, occurring 1400 to
(B. M.), 724 ; see also 680, 684. Richard
Wade on his daughter's marriage gave her
all his lands in Garston for the rent of a
rose (1329), and in later years Richard
Wade junior and Agnes widow of Richard
Wade quitclaimed, and Roger de Toxteth
also; Norris D. (B. M.), 748, 750, 753,
760.
In 1325 Roger had a dispute with his
brother Richard's widow Agnes and son
Richard and with Adam Wade concerning
land in Garston. The younger Richard
claimed to hold as heir of an elder brother
William, deceased, and Agnes claimed for
dower. The jury, however, held that
Roger's claim was justified, his brother
having had no more than a life interest ;
Assize R. 426, m. 6.
5 Described as 8 messuages, 100 acres
of land, 6 acres of meadow, 100 acres of
pasture, and 8 acres of wood in Garston.
« Final Cone, ii, 21, 22. John sun of
Toxteth at Prescot ; Assize R. 430, m. 27.
» Norris D. (B. M.), 21.
10 Assize R. 432, m. i.
11 The other third was the dower of
Roger's mother (John's wife). Roger had
younger brothers, John and Thomas ; the
next remainder was to Richard son of
Thomas de Molyneux ; Norris D. (B. M.),
192.
Various suits arose out of the marriage
of Roger's mother to John de la More
(mayor of Liverpool in 1351). They re-
covered in 1 346 the third (dower) part of
a messuage, 26 acres of land, and 2 acres
of meadow against John de Toxteth and
Richard his son; De Bane. R. 348,
m. 126 d.
In 1357 John son of Alan le Norreys
of Speke proceeded against John de la
More for taking cattle in Garston in a
place called the Thorns; while in the
126
from 1474 onwards ; Norris D. (B.M.).
In 1448 Robert abbot of Cockersand
claimed 91. $d. rent from lands in Aigburth
in Allcrton, unjustly held by John Thorn-
ton, master of St. John's Hospital, Chester;
and i ^d. rent in Garston, unjustly held by
Richard Toxteth, and the jury agreed to
uphold his claims ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R.
n, m. 39.
» Norris D. (B.M.), 928-31.
16 Ibid. 23.
" Ibid. 24.
» By fine in 1570 William Brettargh
and Anne his wife transferred to William
Lathom and William Spencer houses and
lands in Aigburth and Garston ; and three
years later William Brettargh, son and
heir apparent of the above, sold to Edward
Norris of Speke the same for £160 ; Pal.
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 32, m. 135 ;
35, m. 27.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Aigburth until the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury, but the succession and connexion of the various
Tarletons is not quite clear during the period.1
The jury of the leet in 1686 ordered that the lord
of the manor of Garston should have free privilege
to set hunting gates, &c., according to his worship's
pleasure, for hunting or any other recreation, dis-
turbers to forfeit zo/.2
In 1717 the following ' Papists ' registered estates
in Garston : — James and William Dwerryhouse of
Grassendale, Thomas Fazakerley, and Edward Hitch-
mough.3
The principal landowners in 1787, as shown by
the land-tax return, were Thomas Tarleton and
Elizabeth Lightbody.
St. Wilfrid's 4 chapel existed at an early
CHURCH date ; and appears to have been considered
parochial, even if not an independent parish
church ; thus ' Henry parson of Garston ' is witness to
a charter in the first quarter of the thirteenth century.5
Just before Adam de Garston's death the chaplaincy
became vacant, and he claimed the patronage as of an
independent church, presenting to the bishop of Lich-
field for institution a clerk named Reginald de Sileby ;
but Herbert Grelley, rector of Childwall, opposed,
CHILDWALL
asserting that Garston was only a chapelry, and in his
own charge as rector. The bishop, after taking ad-
vice, agreed that Herbert, as rector, should hold it as
long as he held the rectory, and (as compensation)
pay from the goods of the chapel 3 marks a year to
Reginald in the Black Friars' Church at Derby.6
The right of patronage was not decided ; but the
question does not seem to have been raised sub-
sequently.7 Besides Henry the parson other early
chaplains are mentioned — Ralph,8 Richard,9 and
Roger, ' chaplain of Garston and of Hale.' 10 Later
chaplains, who probably ministered here, were John
de Femes," John del Dale," Robert Boton," William
Whitfield,14 Adam the Mason,15 William de Waver-
tree,16 William Fletcher,17 Thomas de Blackburn,18
Richard Challoner, and John Fletcher.19
From remains of the mediaeval building discovered
during the demolition of the eighteenth-century
chapel in 1888, it appears that it dated from the time
of Edward I, and was repaired or practically rebuilt
about 1500.*° It seems to have been abandoned for
worship in the reign of Edward VI, when it is
spoken of as nuper cafella'1 The building remained
in use only as a rent-receiving place, many of the
lessees being bound to pay their rents at or in the
1 See Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii,
677. It is clear from the above that the
Tarletons of Fazakerley were the parent
stock of the Aigburth family. Richard
Tarleton, who died in August, 1555, was
the son of Henry Tarleton ; he had no
lands in Aigburth. His heir was his son
William, aged 21, in 1569; Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii, /.. 31. Henry's
second wife Margaret and William's
mother Edith (who had married William
Lathom) were both living.
In 1576 William Lathom and Edith
his wife and William and Edward Tarleton
John succeeding to it ; Engl. Cath. Non-
jurors, p. 1 30. The latter by his will
(Piccope MSS. Chet. Lib. iii, 238, from
Roll of 2 Geo. II at Preston) left the
Aigburth estate to his brother-in-law
William Molyncux of Mossborough, who
in 1731 sold it to George Warrington of
Chester ; ibid, iii, 244 (from an unnum-
bered roll at Preston). Sec also Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 307, m. 52;
between William and George Warrington.
Aigburth passed in succession to John
Hardman of Allerton in 1753 ; to John
Tarleton, a Liverpool merchant, in 1772;
William land in the Cleyforlond, for
which he was to pay annually a halfpenny
to Garston chapel on St. Wilfrid's Day.
Norris D. (B.M.), 667, 706.
In 1 274 John de Garston (son of Robert
called the Mouner, deceased) and Alice
his wife, daughter of Hugh de Aigburth,
released to God and St. Wilfrid and to
Herbert Grelley as rector all their claim
in that oxgang which Richard son of
Multon had given to Garston chapel ;
ibid. 743.
s W 'bailey Coucher, ii, 570. The chapel
is occasionally called aclaia in thirteenth
lands in Aigburth, Garston, Fazakerley,
and other places, to Cuthbert Scholefield
and William Bower ; Pal. of Lane. Feet
of F. bdle. 38, m. 3. About ten years
liter Edward Tarleton occurs in a Fazak-
erley case; Ducatvs Lane. (Rec. Com.),
seat or pew in Childwall church was
appropriated to Aigburth Hall. See the
above-quoted essay in Tram. Hist. Soc. xx,
181-9.
" Norris Paftn (Chet. Soc.), p. 16.
s Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non-
6 Norris D. (B.M.), 742, 734. Regi-
nald de Sileby accepted the bishop's
ruling and renounced any claim he might
have upon the chapelry, under pain of
excommunication (bells ringing and can-
dles lighted) should he not pay the ten
nate' recusant in, 593, but 'could not be
Hitchmough, the priest-informer who
was, as a recusant, assessed £ 10 for the
El's service in Ireland ; Gibson,
u Hall, p. 261, 262 (quoting S.P.
. Eliz. n. ccxxxiii, and vol. cclxvi,
Edward Tarleton died 7 July, 1626,
holding lands in Aigburth of Sir William
Norris of Speke, also in Walton and
Fazakerley ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m.
MIX, 34.
His successor was his son Edward
Tarleton, aged forty-five when the inquest
patrons for gain, was a brother of this
Edward and described as 'of Garston.'
Entering the English College at Rome in
1699 he gave his parents' names as
Thomas and Mary, and his age as twenty-
four. The government gave him the
vicarage of Whcnby in Yorkshire, but he
did not long enjoy it, dying in or before
1724. See Payne, Rec. of Engl. Catholics,
p. 121-75 Foley, Rec. S. /. vi, 450,
v, 349-
4 About 1260 Adam lord of Garston
to Garston on account of the minority of
the heir of Robert Grelley, and Adam de
Garston allowed him to present for that
time; De Bane. R. 100, n. z.
» Norris D. (B. M.), 662.
9 Ibid. 741 : William, a clerk, was his
son. Richard was living in 1263 ; Assize
R. 1196, m. 5.
i» Norris D. (B. M.), 743 (i 274). Prob-
ably the 'Roger de Meles, chaplain of
Garston ' of n. 749.
" Norris D. (B.M.), 85 ; about 1329.
in 1628 paid double to the subsidy
(Norris D.), and died in June, 1653,
leaving by his wife Dorothy two sons,
Edward, who survived his father but a
week, and Richard. On account of their
Toxteth, granted to God and blessed
Wilfrid and the chapel of Garston and to
Roger son of William land in Quindal
Moor, to be held in alms for ever as
chapel property, on condition that Roger
"Ibid. 582; about 1370.
"Ibid. 857 ; 1385.
« Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 87 ;
'chaplain of Garston chapel,' 1395.
» Norris D. (B. M.), 883-4; 1407.
Cal.ofCom.forComf.^izo}.
burning before St. Wilfrid's altar at all
18 Ibid. 903-7 ; 1450.
known ; but Winifred, who married
a wax light before the great cross, to be
Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), iv, 121-35, where
daughter of the elder Edward : Dugdale,
y-mt. (Chet. Soc.), p. 108. Dorothy
inherited Aigburth and by her marriage
with John Harrington of Huyton brought
it to this family, their sons Charles and
mass should be celebrated there; \d. a
day to be paid to the chapel fabric for
default. About the time Wymark
daughter of Alice, 'the widow of Garston,'
granted to her uncle Adam son of
I27
attempt is made to reconstruct the old
building.
» Lanes. Chantries (Chet. Soc.), ii, 268,
276. For the ornaments in 1552 see
Ch. Goods (Chet. Soc.), 91.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
chapel, or more particularly in the south porch. In
1605 the ' right worshipful ' Edward Norris, in his
old age, made an endeavour to keep it in repair, and
desired his son to find a suitable chaplain for it.1
The work seems to have been completed in 1 609,'
The Norrises, as lessees of the tithe-barn at Garston,
received the tithes of that ' quarter ' of the parish,
and may have been responsible for the repair of the
chapel.
The Commonwealth church surveyors found the
' very ancient ' chapel in ruin and decay, and without
an incumbent. They considered it fit to be made a
parish church. Garston Hall paid I y. \d. to the
farmer of the tithes, ' as land belonging to the parish
of Childwall.'3 The Norrises of Speke became
Protestants about this time, but it was nearly fifty
years before they did anything for the chapel. Then
Katherine, widow of Thomas Norris, by her will in
1707 left £300 for a new building, and in 1715 and
1716 her son Edward, lord of the manor, carried out
her wishes at a cost of about £360, and gave £300
as an endowment for a minister, by this means secur-
ing £200 from Queen Anne's Bounty.
The old building was entirely demolished, a font
being found in the rubbish. The new chapel of St.
Michael, a plain but substantial stone building, was
erected on the site. Several gravestones were found
in the chapel-yard, and there Edward Norris himself
was buried in 1726.* There is a tablet to his
memory on the church. A district was formed for
it in 1828,* and the existing church was built in
1876-7. The registers date from 1777. The lord
of the manor of Speke is the patron, and the follow-
ing is a list of the curates and vicars : 6 —
1716 James Holme '
1730 John Norris8
1738 Thomas Barlow 8
1744 Abraham Ashcroft
1786 Jonathan Casson
1805 James Ashton
1810 Marcus Aurelius Parker
1811 John Vause, M.A. (Fellow of King's
College, Cambridge)
1836 John Gibson (first vicar, 1867)
1869 John Fitzgerald Hewson, B.A.
1 884 Thomas Oliver, D.D. (T.C.D.)
Aigburth was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in
1844;' St. Anne's church had been built in 1837.
Mossley Hill became an ecclesiastical parish in 1875 ;
the cruciform church of St. Matthew and St. James
on the crest of the hill has a conspicuous central
tower. A mission church of St. Barnabas has lately
been opened. Grassendale was made into an ecclesi-
astical parish in 1855 I0 for the church of St. Mary,
built in 1853. The patronage of the three benefices
is in the hands of different bodies of trustees.
At Garston the Wesleyan Methodists have two
churches ; the Welsh Methodists and the Methodist
Free Church each one.
There are a Congregational church " and a Baptist
church. The Presbyterians have a church, built in
1894, with a mission hall. The Welsh Calvinistic
Methodists have a place of worship. At Aigburth
also there is a Wesleyan Methodist chapel.
At Grassendale is the Roman Catholic church of
St. Austin, served by the English Benedictines ; it was
opened in 1838, but represents the mission formerly
maintained by several of the older families in the dis-
trict, as the Harringtons of Aigburth.1* There is a
small cemetery adjoining. At Garston a temporary
chapel of St. Francis of Assisi was opened in 1883,
the building having formerly been used by the Congre-
gationalists ; the present church, on an adjacent site,
was opened in 1905.
ALLERTON
Alretune, Dom. Bk. ; Allerton, 1 306. The local
pronunciation is Ollerton.
Allerton is a suburban township containing 1,586
acres,13 pleasantly situated on the gentle slopes of a
ridge which rises on the eastern side to 230 feet above
sea level, overlooking the River Mersey across the
adjacent township of Garston. There are several
large residences with their private grounds set in the
midst of pastures and a few arable fields. There are
plantations of trees, some of a fair size for a suburban
district. An air of tidiness reigns over what remains
of the natural features, with neatly-kept hedges and
railed-in paddocks, and shrubs grown to rule and
measure. The roads are good, and the soil, ap-
parently clay and sand, appears fertile, and is of
course much cultivated ; good cereals are successfully
grown. The pebble beds of the bunter series of
the new red sandstone or trias underlie the entire
township.
The London and North-Western company's railway
from Liverpool to London skirts the south-western
boundary, having stations called Mossley Hill and
Allerton. The population in 1901 was 1,101.
imt has been preserved of the
of £140 which he set aside
already prepared (perhaps the old one)
and for some repairs. The new tower
was to be six yards higher than the top of
the cross on the west end of the chapel ;
the builders were James Haworth of
Aughton and his brother Henry Haworth
of Bradshaw. One of the items is 'To
Gryse for a stone cross — 31. 4^.' The
will of James Haworth, 'Freemason'
(1607), directs that first of all provision
shall be made for the completion of ' my
work begun at the chapel of Garston.'
He died at Garston.
A new bell, ' tunable to the third bell
now hanging in the steeple,' was provided
and cast at Congleton by George Lee, the
Nottingham bell-founder, the cost being
£32 51. 6d. : it is mentioned that the
' old saints bell ' weighed 90 Ib. ; Norris
D. (B. M.) There were three wardei
of the chapel.
a A stone found in rebuilding had upo
it the initials and date, in three compar
11 Founded 1875; school chapel opened
1883 ; Nightingale, Lanes. Nancanf. vi,
E N
N
1607
E S K
E. W. Cox, op. cit. (n. 27 on plate).
s Common-wealth Church Surv. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 69, 70.
4 E. W. Cox, op. cit, where description
Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 169, 170.
<-L<md. Gaz., 4 July, 1828.
6 Ex Inform. Rev. Dr. Oliver an
others.
~> Schoolmaster at Woolton ; buried
the chapel, 5 Feb. 1729-30.
8 Schoolmaster at Woolton.
9 Lond. Gax. 27 August, 1844.
"Ibid. 6 March, 1855.
128
» TV,™, tf/,,. So,. (New Ser.), xiii, .54.
In 1717 Richard Hitchmough the in-
former deposed that ' at Mrs. Harrington's
of Aigburth was one silver chalice and
paten, which he had seen and used when
Henry Challoner, who' entered the
English College at Rome in 1659, gave
the following account of himself : ' Only
son of William and Anne Challoner, born
at Garston . . . made his rudiments at
Crosby and his humanity studies at
St. Omer's College. His father was of
humble rank, and his friends had suffered
severely for the Catholic faith ; he had
two sisters ;' Foley, Rec. S. /. vi, 399.
"The Census Report of 1901 gives
1,589 acres, including 14 of inland
water.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The Calderstones estate, formed in 1828 by Joseph
Need Walker of Liverpool,1 has lately been purchased
by the corporation of Liverpool. The ' famous Aller-
ton oak,' mentioned in the Directory of 1825, still
stands on the lawn of the house, a very large and
ancient tree.
A local board was formed in 1868 ;* in 1894 it
became an urban district council of nine members.
4LLERTON was in 1066 held by
M4NOR three thegns for as many manors, the
assessment being half a hide, and the
value above the customary rent the normal 8j.3 In
the twelfth century it became a member of the barony
of Manchester. It is not mentioned by name in the
survey of 1212, but had apparently before that time
been held in conjunction with Childwall by the lords
of Lathom, who had recently resigned their rights here.*
There was here about the same time a family who
bore the local surname. Richard son of Robert de
Allerton gave to the canons of St. Werburgh of
Warburton whatsoever in Aigburth belonged to his
fourteen oxgangs of land in Allerton, as shown by the
marks and crosses of the brethren, with common
rights and easements of his fee in Allerton. His son
Robert, with the assent of his uncle Gilbert, son of
Robert de Allerton, granted three acres between the
' Twiss ' and St. Mary's Spring, next to the four acres
given them by Richard son of Robert son of Henry.
He further gave his portion of ten oxgangs of land
upon Flasbuttes in the east of Aigburth, between the
Stonebridge and the moss.5
CHILDWALL
In 1241, an assize of mort d'ancestor having been
summoned between Robert son of Richard de Aller-
ton and Geoffrey de Chetham and Margaret his wife,
the former quitclaimed his right in twelve oxgangs of
land in Allerton, i.e. half the manor, to Thomas
Grelley, lord of Manchester, who had been called to
warrant.6 From this time no resident family assumed
the local name.' The superior lordship thus formally
recognized continued to be held by the barons of
Manchester down to the seventeenth century.8
A subordinate manor of Allerton was formed for
one of the members of the Grelley family, the earliest
known tenant being John Grelley. His son Robert
and widow Joan were in 1 306 holding respectively
two-thirds and a third of the manor, which were
claimed by Thomas son of Robert Grelley, the superior
lord, by writ of formedon.9 Robert, however, con-
tinued to hold the manor until the beginning of
Edward Ill's reign,10 when he was succeeded by his
son John," whose name occurs down to about 1380.
In 1382 Isabel, widow of John Grelley, negotiated
the marriage of her daughter Anilla with John
le Norreys of Much Woolton."
The descent of the manor is obscure at this point.
Probably there was an elder daughter who inherited
it. It was afterwards held by the Lathoms of Par-
bold. Their earliest appearance in Allerton is in
1441, when Edward de Lathom obtained by fine
from Richard de Pemberton and Elizabeth his wife
six messuages, a mill and lands here.13 A confirma-
tion of the descent is obtainable from two Mossock
i The house was previously called the
Old House.
•>Lond.Ga*. 3 January, 1868.
» V.C.H. Lanes, i, 2844.
4 In 1209 Robert Grelley, then baron
of Manchester, laid claim to certain
services which Richard son of Robert
ought to render him from a tenement
in Allerton, and the matter was settled
by the latter resigning to the superior
lord the tenement concerned. Final Cone.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 35, 36.
Allerton to Gilbert, son of Robert de
Liverpool, of three acres (24 ft. in length)
in Catranscroft and the Twiss, reaching
to the lands of Cockersand and the
Hospitallers, and lying among the land
bought by Gilbert from Richard son of
Robert de Lathom. Blundcll of Crosby
evidences (Towneley MS.), K.. 198.
'Final Cone, i, 91. Geoffrey de
Chetham twelve years later appeared as
complainant, alleging that the monks
of Stanlaw had forcibly taken some of
Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 4.
In 1323 the justices, William de Herlc
and Geoffrey Le Scrope, stayed a night
at the house of Robert de Gredele in
Derbyshire ; Assize R. 425, m. 14.
11 See Mameeestre (Chet. Soc.), ii, 266 ;
also Norris D. (B.M.), n. 782.
John Grelley was made a verderer
in 1334; Duchy of Lane. For. Proc.
1/17. In 1334 and later John Grelley
disposed of his lands in Chorlton by Man-
chester. In 1389 he is spoken of as
Richard son of Robert de Lathom, from
a claim to the manor made as late as
1316 by Robert de Lathom, by a writ
De avo against Robert Grelley. In the
Plae. (Rec. Com.), p. ,30 ; Cur. Reg. R.
!50, m. 9.
^ William de Allerton and his sons had
lands in the adjoining township of Speke.
shows the Grelley coat, without difference.
See De Trafford D. n. 19, 124-5. John
Grelley and Isabel his wife are named in
1358 ; Assize R. 438, m. 14.
back to the tenant of 1209. De Bane.
R. 216, m. 129J. ; 219, m. nzrf.
It was no doubt the same Richard son
of Robert who gave half a culture here —
viz., half of Exstanesfold— to the priory
of Burscough. Man. Angl. vi, 460. It
was held of the priory about 1400 by
John de Blackburn of Garston, in socage
William son of Thomas de Allerton, a
claimant of land here in 1362, whose
great-grandfather was named William ;
De Bane. R. 410, m. 63.
8 In 1327 John de la Warre held this
of the' fourth part of a knight's fee and
suit to county and wapentake by the
of Diem el. extr. on the death of John
Grelley was issued i March, 1380-1 ;
Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. p. 354.
A Gilbert Grelley occurs in Woolton
between 1350 and 1360. In 1345 John
and Gilbert Grelley had pardons on
condition of serving in Gascony when
summoned ; C«/./J»«f. 1 343-5, pp. 530-1.
MSS. DD, 1457. After the dissolution
it was acquired by the Ditchfields of
Ditton. Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii,
n. 19.
s Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
559-61. Land in Allerton is mentioned
among the possessions of the abbey in
1292 in the Placita de quo Warranto
(Rec. Com.), p. 339. In 1501 the abbey
Plomb, and 6d. for Puntercroft from Sir
Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 35.
In 1346 it with Childwall and Dalton
formed half a fee, suit to county and
wapentake being performed by John
Grelley ; Sari/, of 1 346 (Chet. Soc.), 42.
There is a similar record in other aids.
In 1623 Allerton was held of Edward
Mosley as of the manor of Manchester
by knight's service and i</.rent; Lanes.
Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
iii, 406.
n. 6z ; 6, m. 40. The interval is partly
filled by the occurrence of William de
Slene, during the greater part of
Richard II's reign, as appears from the
Norris deeds of this time. He con-
tributed to the poll tax of 1381 ; and in
1391 the bishop of Lichfield granted him
a licence for an oratory within his manor-
house in the parish of Childwall ; Lich.
Reg. vi, fol. 127. He is also mentioned
in the Chetham Society's volume of
(Chet. Soc.), 1249.
The Richard son of Robert son of
Henry is obviously the lord of Lathom.
The 'Twiss,' a tongue of land be-
tween two brooks, is mentioned in a
grant by Richard son of Robert de
3
claimed lands in Chorlton-upon-Medlock
from them and in Garston from Adam
de Ireland and Avina hii wife.
l°In 1327 Ellen Grelley contributed
to the subsidy, but in 1332 Robert
Grelley is the name given ; Exch. Lay
129
was for the time lord of the manor, but
there is nothing to show the reason for
it. He may have married the eldest
daughter of John Grelley; all that is
known is that he married the widow of
John de Rainford.
'7
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
inquests of the time of Elizabeth ; ' in that taken in
1594 after the death of Henry Mossock his land in
Allerton was stated to be held ' of the heirs of Robert
son of John Grelley ' ; but in that of his son Thomas,
four years later, ' of Richard Lathom.'
Robert Lathom of Allerton, who married a daugh-
ter of William Norris of Speke, occurs from 1472
onwards ; he died at a great age in September, 1516,
and was succeeded by his son William, then over sixty
years old.' The Lathoms were both royalists and
recusants.* Their estates were seized by the Parlia-
ment during the Civil War, and the manor was sold 4
to John Sumner of Midhurst in Sussex, in March,
1654. The price agreed upon was £2,700* It
was not, however, till the beginning of 1670 that
Charles, son and heir of John Sumner, obtained
possession from Thomas Lathom, son and heir of
Richard, by further payment ; later in the same year
the whole was sold to Richard Percival and Thomas
his son for £4,755, of which sum Charles Sumner
received £3,300, and Katherine Lathom, widow,
and her son Thomas the remainder.6
Richard Percival, born in 1 6 1 6, was engaged in
business in Liverpool.7 He and others who refused
to make the declaration required by the Test and
Corporation Act were removed from their alderman-
ships in l66z.8 He died in 1700, being succeeded
by his son Richard.9 The younger Richard had
three sons and four daughters. The eldest of the
sons, John Percival, failed in business about 1722,'°
and the father, apparently overwhelmed by misfor-
tune, retired to Manchester, where he died in 1725."
The Allerton property had been fully settled, but
in 1726 Richard Percival of Liverpool, son and heir
of John, with the assistance of Thomas Aspinall of
Toxteth Park, who had intermarried with this family,"
cut off the entail in order to aid his mother, who out
of her £100 a year had given up £50 to help to pay
her husband's debts. Ten years later he sold the
estate for £7,700 to the brothers John and James
Hardman, the latter being distantly related by
marriage ; he then retired upon £100 a year to
Wavertree Hall, where he was living in 1760, a
recluse, bent upon the discharge of his father's debts.13
John Hardman died in 1755 " soon after his elec-
tion to Parliament, his brother James having pre-
deceased him in 1746. The former had no children,
but the latter left three sons and a daughter, all of
whom died young, and the widow continued to
reside at Allerton till her death, 12 February 1795.'*
The estate was purchased by William Roscoe and
James Clegg, the manorial rights being held jointly."
The former resided at the hall for some time,17 but on
his failure in 1 8 1 6 his portion was sold to James
Willacey of Barton Lodge near Preston, from whose
representatives it passed in 182410 Pattison Ellames
for £28,000. In 1836 the purchaser was living at
the Hall and Samuel Joseph Clegg, son of James
Clegg, at Green Hill in Allerton.18 After prolonged
litigation among the representatives of the families of
Willacey and Ellames, the manor or reputed manor,
demesne lands, and hall estate were offered for sale in
September, 1868, by order of the court of Chancery.
A sale was not then effected ; 19 but later the Ellames
i Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, n. 28 ;
xvii. n. 87.
' Ibid. v. n. 7. A fuller history of
this family is given in the account of
Parbold. For a claim to the manor in
1601 see Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.),
iii, 465.
•William and Thomas Lathom of
1641; Tram. »«f. So*. (New S«.),
xiv, 243.
« The confiscated estates of Richard,
Edward, and William Lathom of Allerton
were sold under the Act of 1652 ; Index
of Royalists (Index Soc.), 43.
5 Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland),
191, 192. Richard Lathom was lord
of the manor at that time ; Cal. of Com.
far Camp, iv, 319.
6 Gregson, l.s.c. In Gregson's time
(1817) there still remained on an out-
house the initials and date , .
proving that the Lathoms L
resided there till the Restora- R , K
tion. Thomas Lathom was 1
of whom married Dr. Samuel Angier, a
popular medical practitioner in Liverpool,
while the younger, Jane, married James
Hardman, brother of John Hardman,
member of Parliament for Liverpool in
1754. See Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby),
i, 588.
Richard had a younger brother Thoma3,
who purchased Royton in 1662.
8 Picton, Liverpool Municif. Rec. i, 238.
» Trans. Hist. Soc. l.s.c. The other son,
Thomas, mentioned in the agreement for
the purchase of Allerton, does not occur
subsequently.
10 ' John Percival of Allerton, gentle-
man,' was one of the trustees of the old
Presbyterian chapel at Gateacre in 1715 ;
Nightingale, Lanes. Noneotif. vi, 195.
He married Margaret Crook ; see Local
Gleanings Lanes, and Ches. ii, 24.
above; Fishwick, Rochdale, p. 521, and
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), vi, 77.
18 Gregson, l.s.c. Roscoe's purchase was
made in .799 ; see the Life by Henry
Roscoe, i, 243. Most of the details given
by Gregson have been by Mr. Robert
Gladstone, jun. checked from the original
deeds, many of which are in the possession
of Mr. N. J. Cochran-Patrick (formerly
Kennedy), of Ladyland, Beith, N.B., one
of the proprietors of Allerton, by virtue of
his descent from James Clegg.
There has been a great deal of liti-
gation owing to the early deaths of James
Hardman's children and the want of
proper settlements. Claimants occasion-
lly come forward still, with many ex-
ravagant stories. A pedigree of the
Hardmans may be seen in Tram. Hist. Soc.
x, 153, where some account is given of
the elder sons, John and Richard, who
may have been dead, and created a trust
for his third son as incapable of managing
his own affairs. The personal property
was left to two of the daughters and two
of John's six children, but the testator
was probably insolvent, as the will was
not proved. Fuller details may be seen
in the paper already referred to.
ween two claimants—Richard Pilkington
nd James Russell, whose shares came
o Roscoe and Clegg.
Richard Pilkington made a feoffment
of the manor of Allerton and the other
Hardman estates in Allerton, Great
Woolton, Garston, Aigburth, Grassendalc,
Childwall, and Liverpool in 1759; Pal.
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 363, m. 4.
joined with Charles Sumner in the fine
of 1671 which concluded the series of
transactions ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdlc.
1 86, m. 122.
^ For an account of the family see
Tram. Hist. Soc. i, 61-6. Richard was
bailiff of Liverpool in 1651 and mayor
in 1658 ; he lived in Water Street, and
his house had six hearths rated in 1663.
In 1668 he leased from Edward Moore
of Bank Hall the 'new fabric which is
already begun, called the Phcenix Hall,
near the bridge in Fenwick Street,' under-
taking to complete it according to the
design ; Irvine, Liverpool in Cbai. II' i
Time, pp. 145, 167. One daughter married
a son of Edward Williamson (mayor in
1 66 1) ; another, Catherine, married
George Leigh of Oughtrington, and had
three sons and two daughters, the elder
was at one time partner with William
Roscoe ; Gregson, l.s.c.
13 Gregson, op. cit. p. 192 ; Trans. Hist.
" He was an executor of the will of
Joseph Lawton, minister of Gateacre
chapel, who died in 1747; Nightingale,
op. cit. vi, 199. He was chosen to
represent Liverpool as a Whig in April,
1754; his successor was elected in
December, 1755 ; Pink and Beavan,
Parly. Ref. of Lanes. 199.
ls The widow's virtues were recorded
by William Roscoe. See Gregson as
I30
his right to a moiety; ibid. bdle. 371,
m. 4 ; in a later fine (bdle. 384, m. 4)
n 1770 Edmund Ogden and Mary his
wife were joined as deforciants with
James Russell and Anne his wife.
W There is a description of the hall
n the Lanes, volume of Britten's Beau-
ties of England and Wales, p. 215, with
a view. The scenery of Roscoe's ' Inscrip-
tion,' printed at the end of his translation
of the 'Nurse,' appears to have been
suggested by his estate here.
18 Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 759.
19 Ibid. (ed. Croston), v, 65.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
trustees sold the hall and manorial rights to Lawrence
Richardson Baily of Liverpool,1 after whose death in
1886 Mr. Thomas Clarke of Liverpool and Cork
purchased the estates and is the present lord of the
manor.'
Three daughters were the issue of the above men-
tioned marriage between John le Norreys of Woolton
and Anilla Grelley, one of them being Joan, who
married Henry Mossock. In 1417 by fine dealing
with lands in Allerton, Ditton, Huyton, and Speke,
the succession was arranged.* The Mossocks re-
tained property at Allerton until the seventeenth
century.4
The Norrises of Speke also held land in Allerton of
the Lathoms. It was situate in the Marshfield and
had been the property of the Brooks family of
Garston.5
Some part of the holding of Cockersand Abbey had
early been farmed to Ralph Saracen, a citizen of
Chester, who gave his right to the Hospital of
St. John the Baptist outside the Northgate, the
brethren thereof being bound to render 5*. yearly to
the abbey.6 On the suppression of the abbey these
lands were granted to Thomas Holt,7 and were after-
wards sold to Edward Molyneux.8
Among the more recent landowners may be men-
tioned the Earles of Liverpool,
who began to purchase about __________
the beginning of last century.
Sir Hardman Earle, of Allerton
Tower, was made a baronet in
1869; he died in 1877, and
was succeeded by his son Sir
Thomas, who died in 1900,
and his grandson Sir Henry
Earle, D.S.O. General Sir Wil-
liam Earle, C.B., C.S.I., a son EARLE of ALLERTON
of the first baronet, was killed TOWER^ °0r tlr^pal-
in the Soudan on 10 February, let, gules each charged
1885; there is a statue to -with an escallop in chief
commemorate him in front of °f the feld.
St. George's Hall, Liverpool.9
An enclosure of waste was made in 1822, the lords
of the manor at that time being Samuel Joseph Clegg
and James Willacey.10
Two small ' Papist ' estates were registered in
1717; William Walmesley of Liverpool, watchmaker,
/~3 5 for a house held for the life of Anne his wife ;
CHILDWALL
and Thomas Miller of Garston, for houses here and
at Garston, .£10."
The church of All Hallows was built in 1872 for
the accommodation of members of the Established
Church. A parish was formed for it in 1876. The
incumbents are presented by Mrs. Bibby. The
stained glass windows were designed by Sir E. Burne-
Jones and executed by William Morris.
SPEKE
Spec, Dom.Bk.; Spek, 1317; Speck(e), 1320; Speke
common from thirteenth century, with variants as
Speek, 1332; Speyke, 1500; once'Espeke' occurs.
In the sixteenth century frequently ' The Speke.'
This district contains some of the best wheat grow-
ing land in the hundred, and has a considerable river
frontage opposite the widest portion of the River
Mersey. There are scattered plantations amongst
open fields, where barley and oats as well as wheat
grow well in light, sandy, or stiff clay soils. There
are no brooks. The village of Speke consists of a
small group of cottages near the church, a mile from
a railway station. Other houses are scattered thinly
over the district. The river bank in places is flat,
but principally consists of high clay banks. Upon
and about these the botanist may find many plants
locally uncommon. The geological formation con-
sists of the bunter series of the new red sandstone or
trias ; the pebble beds underlie the entire township.
The area is 2,504^ acres,12 of which the demesne of
Speke Hall occupies 765 acres. Oglet" is a hamlet
by the Mersey.
In 1901 the population numbered 381.
The road from Garston to Hale crosses Speke in
two branches, and is met at the village by the road
coming south from Woolton. The London and
North- Western Company's line from Liverpool to
Warrington passes through the northern part of the
township, and has a station.
The remains of Hunt's Cross were described in
1895 as 'a displaced massive square stone socket,
lying in a barn, at the crossroads, near the station.' "
At the boundary of Speke, Halewood, and Hale
there is a piece of land called Conleach. Here
formal challenge fights used to take place between the
inhabitants of the adjoining villages.
1 Ex Inform. Mr. T. Algernon Earle.
Liverpool in 1885.
9 Ex Inform. Mr. T. Clarke.
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 4,
m. 33 ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 230. See
also the accounts of Much Woolton for
Norreys, and of Bickerstaffe for Mos-
sock.
It would appear from a suit of 1352
that the father of John le Norreys had
then some land in Allerton, for he
appeared against Robert son of Robert,
son of Richard le Norreys of Burtonhead,
to claim a messuage and eight acres ;
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2, m. iiii (July)
and m. iiii (Oct.)
Kuerden, loc. cit. records a grant in
enclosure being forbidden ; Kuerden loc.
« Norris D. (B.M.), 11-18. Among
the Norris deeds are depositions respecting
the rights of common here, the Lathoms'
tenants objecting to those of the Norrises
sharing, on the ground that the property
in respect of which rights were claimed
lay beyond the boundary.
• Cockersand Charlul. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
561. The property was known as the
Moss Grange ; Rentale de Cockersand (Chct.
Soc.), 5.
In 1523 Thomas Crue, clerk, master
of the Chester Hospital, leased out the
fields or closes called the Moss Grange
within the parish of Childwall for a term
of 77 years, a rent of 331. ^. being
murder Griffith if he came near the
place, according to his complaint ; Duchy
of Lane. Pleadings, Hen. VIII, x, G. 4.
? Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xi, ». 46.
8 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 50,
m. 91 ; the rent of 51. from Moss Grange
was included.
9 An account of the family, with pedi-
grees and portraits, by Mr. T. Algernon
Earle, is given in Trans. Hist. Soc. (New
Ser.),vi, 13-76.
10 Liverpool Corp. D.
ȣȣ/. Cath. Non-jurors, 126, 155.
' Coz. Walmesley the watchmaker ' dined
at Little Crosby in 1712 ; N. Blundell's
Diary, 106.
"The 1901 Census Rep. gives 2,526,
including 9 acres of inland water ; there
John son of John, son of Simon de
Garston.
< In 1662 Richard Lathom of Allerton
granted Thomas Mossock 5$ acres
'(Henthorn head), on the west of the
Mossock holding in Allerton, further
David ap Griffith and Robert Griffith ;
and after their death the latter's son
William held possession for about five
years, being forcibly expelled in May,
1537, by Sir William Norris and others.
Sir William ordered certain persons to
about 2,373 of foreshore.
" Ogelot, Oggelot, and Ogelote oc
early ; Oglot, Ogloth, also commo
Okelot, 1321 ; Hoglote, 1384.
" Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),
237-
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The township is governed by a parish council.
In 1066 SPEKE was one of the manors
M4NOR held by Uctred ; it was assessed at two
plough-lands and its value beyond the
customary rent was the normal sum of 64^.' When
the Lancashire forest was formed, Speke became part
of the fee attached to the chief forestership held by
the Gernet family and their descendants the Dacres.*
The interest of the master foresters in Speke was,
however, merely that of supe-
rior lord after Roger Gernet,
living in 1170, had granted
the manor to Richard de
Molyneux of Sefton in free
marriage.' No service was
attached to the grant,' and
the Molyneux family did not
long retain Speke in their
immediate holding. Before
1 206 half of the manor had
been granted in free marriage
with Richard's daughter to
William de Haselwell, a grant
confirmed by a charter of
Benedict Gernet as chief lord.5
The other half of Speke seems to have been granted
by Adam de Molyneux to his younger son Roger,
together with Little Crosby and other lands,6 and
descended to Sir John de Molyneux of Little Crosby,
who died about 1361.
Under the nominal lordship of the chief forester
there were thus at the end of Henry Ill's reign the
mesne tenancy of Molyneux of Sefton,7 and the
subordinate tenancies of Roger de Molyneux and
Patrick de Haselwell. William de Molyneux of
Sefton granted in free marriage with his daughter
Joan to Robert son of Richard Erneys, a citizen and
merchant of Chester, all his lands and wood in the
vill of Speke with the homages, wards, and reliefs of
the heirs of Patrick de Haselwell and Roger de
Molyneux, the grantor's brother.8 This grant was
confirmed by Richard son of William de Molyneux
about 1 290, or before the death of Robert Erneys.9
GEKNET, chief forester
of Lancashire. Gules,
crowned or, -within a
bordure engrailed of the
last.
•s or Cms-i-rn.
Argent, on a mound vert
an eagle -with wings en-
dorsed sable.
The origin of the Erneys family seems to be un-
known. Robert FitzErneys was settled at Chester
early in the thirteenth century.10 He was sheriff of
the city in 1257 and 1259,
and his nephew Robert, who
married Joan de Molyneux,
served in the same office several
times, and probably died during
his term in 1292-3."
Richard, the son of Robert
and Joan, appears to have been
but an infant at his father's
death. The earliest deeds in
which he took an active part
concern the marriage ot his
sister Mabel with Thomas de
Carleton in 1308; but from
1311 onwards many of his
charters are extant. In 1314 he and his mother
made an exchange of lands in Speke with John le
Norreys and Nicholaa his wife." In 1332 he granted
his manor of Speke to John le Norreys for life, by
the service of a rose yearly for the first four years,
and afterwards of 40 marks ; and at the end of 1339
he granted to Alan le Norreys, son and successor of
John, and to his sons Alan and Hugh for life all his
lands in Speke, and the rents of the free tenants and
tenants at will, by the yearly service of a rose for four
years and £40 in silver afterwards.13 After this he
intervened but little in Speke.
In 1341 he made a small exchange of land with
Sir John de Molyneux, and a year afterwards a mar-
riage settlement was executed in favour of his son
Thomas and Agnes his wife, daughter of Alan le
Norreys.14
Probably Thomas died without issue, for the next
Erneys to be mentioned is Roger son and heir of
Richard Erneys, who in 1369 made a feoffment of
his lands and tenements, rents and services, mills and
fisheries, in the vill of Speke, &c.15 Richard Erneys,
the father, seems to have been still living in 1351,
and Roger is first mentioned nine years later in con-
junction with Sir John de Molyneux and Sir Henry
1 y.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*.
charter, and in a suit in the hundred of
it, except to the Flemings ; Col. of Pat.
forester ; and at the inquest taken after
h-s death it was found that ' in the vill of
Speke he held 2 plough-lands of William
earl of Ferrers ' ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 43, 188.
In 1324 William de Dacre, who
married Joan the daughter and heir of
Benedict Gernet, held Speke; Dods. MSS.
cxxxi, fol. 336.
6 In 1276 William de Molyneux,
Roger de Molyneux, Patrick dc Haselwall
and Nicholaa his daughter, Alan le
Norreys and Margery his wife, with
Henry son of Cecily, were charged by
Thurstan de Holand with depriving him
of 100 acres of his land in Hale. It was
Various grants made by him are extant.
At Speke one of his first acts (1282) was
to come to an agreement with the other
holders there respecting the windmill.
He received a third part of it, including
the site, suit, right of way, and all other
easements ; the miller to be chosen by
the assent and will of the parties to keep
In the feodary of 1484 Lord Dacre, as
' next of kin and heir of Roger Gernet,' is
called the chief lord; Duchy of Lane.
Misc. cxxx.
boundaries, and these he recovered ; As-
size R. 405, m. id.
^ This is not mentioned in the Moly-
penses to be provided by them in their due
proportions ; Norris D. (B.M.), 481, 482.
" Ibid. 486. Like his father Richard
8 Lanes. Inj. and Extents, 4.
* In 1251-2 'William de Molyneux
holds [2 plough-lands in Speke] in free
marriage and Roger Gernet received
nothing from them ;' Inq. and Extents, 188.
In i 524 Molyneux was said to hold Speke
by knight'8 service.
5 'A very old deed sealed with a man
on horseback,' preserved by Kuerden (iv,
S. 19). Among the witnesses arc Hubert
the Bastard then constable of Layc', and
Adam, dean of Ryscham.
For the Heswall family see Ormerod,
Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 511. A John de
showing that William de Molyneux of
Sefton made various grants of land in
Speke to Robert son of Richard de Lay-
coc, William de Allerton, Thomas Redi-
man del Peyc, and Robert de Mossley ;
Norris D. (B.M.), 453-6. Some are
quoted subsequently.
8 Ibid. 480.
» Ibid. 467.
10 It is possible that he was one of the
well-known Norman family of that name
who held lands in Essex, Norfolk, and
11 Norris D. (B.M.). In 1274 he had
ter, and he duly served as sheriff and
mayor (1327-8). He and Joan his wife
purchased land in Speke from Adam son
of William de Allerton, and in 1332 he
acquired more from Elias son of Roger del
Hulle;ibid. 508, 508*, 5,6,567,479-
These he transferred in 13 34 and 1339 to
Alan de Mossley and Ellen his wife and
their heirs; ibid. 521, 531. The wife
was probably the 'Ellen daughter of
Richard Erneys' whose land is mentioned
in some later deeds ; ibid. 563, 565.
» Ibid. 5,7, 533,533. -
u££ !£!£**
132
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
le Norreys, in pleas concerning lands and encroach-
ments at Speke.1
In 1379 he made an arrangement with Cecily,
widow of Sir John le Norreys, as to the custody of
the heir, Henry le Norreys.1 The next step seems
to have been the marriage of Henry le Norreys with
Roger's daughter Alice ; and as the latter became
heir of the Erneys properties on the death of John
her brother about 1396,* the Norreys family acquired
the lordship of Speke, in which their subordinate
tenancy of a moiety became merged.
It now becomes necessary to trace the story of this
family. Alan le Norreys of Formby 4 had at least
three sons, Henry, Alan, and John. The son Alan
about 1275 married Margery daughter of Sir Patrick
de Haselwell. As dowry Sir Patrick granted ' half his
part of the vill of Speke, to wit the fourth part of
the whole vill, retaining nothing,' to Alan and his
heirs by Margery, performing the knight's service be-
longing to half a plough-land where 21^ ploughlands
made the fee of a knight.5 About the same time
Sir Patrick gave the other half plough-land to his
daughter Nicholaa and her heirs, who is found shortly
afterwards to have married John le Norreys, a brother
of Alan.6 Thus the Haselwell moiety passed to the
Norreys family.7
It is from the younger pair that the Norrises of
Speke derive their origin, for Alan 8 and Margery left
a son Patrick who died without issue in 1313, having
granted to his uncle John, son of Alan le Norreys, all
his lands and tenements, homages, rents and services
CHILDWALL
of free men and natives and their sequel and chattels,
mills and sites of mills.9 John le Norreys thus be-
came sole possessor of the Haselwell share of the
manor. He made several purchases and exchanges of
land, and by the lease in 1332
from Richard Erneys he further
improved his position.10 He
died shortly afterwards, his son
Alan succeeding. In 1334 the
three lords of Speke, Sir John
de Molyneux, Alan le Norreys
and Richard Erneys, made an
agreement with Robert de Ire-
land, lord of Hale, respecting
the boundaries between the two
vills, as to which there had
recently been debate in a plea gules,
of novel disseisin at Wigan.11 third <
Alan pursued his father's policy,
purchasing additional plots of
land, making exchanges with Sir John de Molyneux,
and renewing the lease of the manor from Richard
Erneys."
Alan died in 1349 or 1350." Henry his son,
who succeeded him as lord of the manor, had begun
to add to the estate, and in 1360, being made a knight
about that time,:4 exchanged certain lands with
Sir John de Molyneux, agreeing on the view of four
men that Sir John should have 4^ acres lying be-
tween Speke Greves and the vill of Speke, saving to
Sir Henry his mill, and should grant the same amount
"f"
1 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 8, m. 14 ;
Assize R. 441, m. 5.
In 1367 Roger Erneys, being of full
age, received a fifth part of the manor of
Little Neston in Ches. in right of his
mother, Joan, sister and co-heir of John
le Blund (White) of Chest.; Ormerod,
Ches. ii, 539.
2 She and Geoffrey de Osbaldeston,
her second husband, were to take charge
of the land and the heir, viz. Henry son
and heir of Sir John, and half the manor
of Speke (the Norreys part). Should
Henry die while a minor they were to
have charge of his sister Katherine, pay-
ing to Roger or his executors 25 marks of
Alan le Norreys and his wife Margery
and by Nicholaa de Haselwell against
Thurston de Holand, of Hale, concern-
ing boundaries ; and by the agreement as
to the mill above mentioned made in
1282 between Robert Erneys and Joan
his wife on one side, and Alan le Norreys,
Margery his wife, John le Norreys and
Nicholaa his wife on the other ; Assize R.
405, m. id.; 1238, m. 35; 1239,
m. 40</.; Norris D. (B.M.), 481, 482.
8 He may be the Alan le Norreys of
Lanes, who had several official appoint-
ments 1297-1307. See Palgrave's Part.
Writs, i, 761.
9 Norris D. (B.M.), 506-7. This
from the one bound to the Wallbrook as
it descends to the Mersey, and following
the crosses and marches directly to the
ditch of Speke, and thence to the Cross-
field towards the north ; Norris D.
(B.M.), 520.
"Ibid. 518, 519, 553, &c. In 1334
he granted to Henry his son and his wife
Agnes, daughter of Robert de Ireland,
9J acres in Speke in the Sheepcote Field
and 8 messuages and 39 acres held by
ibid. 525. A- few years later he made'
provision for his other sons; in ,339 he
gave to his son John and his heirs a
messuage and two oxgangs in the town-
six months from Henry's death, supposing
that Katherine should in that event be
living and under 14 years of age ; Norris
fine in 1320-1 between John de Nor-
reys, plaintiff, and John de Calveley
and Margaret his wife, deforciants, of a
other liberties, with remainders in
succession to John's brothers Richard,
William, Alan, and Hugh ; ibid. 530.
D. (B.M.), 588.
s Roger Erneys occurs down to 1395 ;
Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. p. 98.
Most of these particulars are from the
Norris Charters; one of them, dated
1421, is a grant to Sir Henry le Norreys
and Alice his wife, daughter and heir of
Roger Erneys. At the Chester Port moot
in June, 1395, John Erneys claimed an
oven as grandson and heir of Richard
Erneys — Information of Mr. W. F.
* He was son of Hugh le Norreys.
His first wife was Margery by whom he
had Henry and Alan; John was the
issue of a later marriage ; De Bane. R.
236, m. 177; 247, m. 170^. &c.
Henry's son Alan made many attempts
latter remitted all right to John le Nor-
reys, who gave them £10. About the
same time a corresponding agreement
was made regarding part of the manor of
Little Caldy in Cheshire— this being in
exchange for Speke. It would appear
that Margaret was the daughter of Alan
le Norreys and Margery, and that she, as
well as her brother Patrick, died without
issue, as their tenement in Little Caldy
afterwards reverted to Norreys of Speke,
who held it down to about 1 540, when
Sir William sold it ; Final Cone. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 40 ; Ormerod's
Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 489 ; Dep. Keeper's
Rep. xxvii, App. 117.
"Norris D. (B.M.), 475, 477, 490,
his sons Hugh, Alan, Richard, and
William, (b) Hugh, Alan, Richard and
John, and (c) Alan, Richard, and John ;
ibid. 550, 55!, 555.
In 1335 Alan le Norreys of Speke
had exemption for life from being put on
juries, &c., unless his oath were necessary
pursuant to the statute, and from being
mayor, escheator, &c., against his will.
This was renewed in 1339. Cal. of Pat.
1338-40, p. 319.
18 In 1350 Katherine widow of Sir
Robert de Lathom sued Henry le Nor-
reys of Speke, John his brother, and John
Grelley, as executors of the will of Alan
le Norreys of Speke, for the sum of
40 marks, afterwards increased by £20 ;
which were held by John le Norreys of
Speke.
' Norris D. (B.M.), 457.
• Ibid. 458.
7 The date of the marriage is fixed ap-
proximately by suits (1276-8) brought by
the sheriff in 1324 as one of the
knights, &c., of the county holding lands
of the yearly value of £15 ; Par!. Writs,
ii (,), 639.
» It was agreed to set up three crosses
and other bounds and marches, beginning
79</.; 364, m. 89</.; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. I, m. 3 d.
" He is not described as ' knight ' in
August, 1360, but had become one before
next year ; cf. Duchy of Lane. Assize
R. 8, m. 14 ; Assize R. 441, m. i d.
133
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
of land, as profitable to Sir Henry as that was to
Sir John ; the moor to lie in common to them and
their tenants as it used to be, with right of turbary.1
In 1354 he obtained a grant of free warren in all
his demesne lands of Speke.1
Sir Henry had a son and heir John, who married
Cecily, daughter of Hamlet de Mascy of Puddington
in Cheshire.'
Of Sir John le Norreys, the next lord of Speke,
but little is known. In 1369 he granted to feoffees
his manor of Speke, together with lands in Garston,
Hale, Woolton, Walton, Ince, and Lydiate.4 He
died about three years afterwards, leaving a widow
and three young children — Henry, Katherine, and
Agnes. In November, 1372, an agreement was
entered into by Cecily his widow with Nicholas le
Norreys of Halsnead,5 and Gilbert le Norreys,
coroner, with regard to the children. She was to
be responsible for their living and clothing, such as
belonged to their estate, for the next twelve years,
and to make suitable provision for each of them when
they were married.6 But as already stated Roger
Erneys, as superior lord, quickly intervened,7 and in
1379 released to Cecily and her second husband the
custody of the heir. At this time Henry was still
under age, and the daughter Agnes is not mentioned.
Except for the dispute with John le Norreys, re-
lated in a note, Sir Henry's tenure seems to have been
undisturbed. By his marriage with Alice Erneys he
became lord of the manor.8 In 14.16 he made pro-
vision for his son William on his marriage with Eliza-
beth, daughter of Sir James de Harrington.9
William, son and heir of Sir Henry, succeeded
about 143 i.'° A grant of land was made by him in
1433-4, and he occurs in 1453 in a bond for £40
from William Gerard." He had a large family, and was
succeeded by his son Thomas, who married a distant
cousin Lettice," daughter and heir of Thomas Norris
of West Derby ; by her he had six (or seven) sons
and five daughters.13 He died in 1487-8, seised
of a messuage and land in West Derby, of four
oxgangs and other land in Formby, also of the manor
of Speke and land, meadow, wood, heath, and pasture
in Speke, but the jurors at the inquest did not know
of whom, he held the same. William Norris, his son
and heir, was then twenty-eight years of age."
Sir William Norris, the successor, must therefore
have been born about 1459. His knighthood appears
to date from 1487, after the battle of Stoke, in which
case he must have fought there on the Lancastrian
side.1" He was contracted in marriage as early as
1468 to Katherine, daughter of Sir Henry Bold."
i Norris D. (B.M.), 548, 566, 5/o,
annual value of 221. clear, was claimed by
"Marriage covenant, .446; Lanes.
Chant. (Chet. Soc.), i, 98 n.
18 In 1464 he made an arrangement
with the prior and convent of Upholland
for the daily celebration of mass at an
altar in the church by one of the monks
(to be deputed weekly according to the
cursus tabule sive scripture sue} for the souls
of Sir Richard Harrington, his parents
and benefactors ; saying between the
about 1358 Henry le Norreys of Speke
of the forest with greyhounds and bows
and arrows, and has been so these ten
years past.' For instance, in 1348 he
had hunted and taken a buck in the
forest, giving half of it to John Grelley ;
Duchy of Lane. Forest Proc. 1-20.
head of Great Woolton ; Lanes. Inj. p. m.
(Chet. Soc.), i, 79, and Towneley MS.
UD. 1462. In a grant made directly to
him, he is called son of Agnes Mosley ;
Norris D. 191.
Naturally his claim was not well
received by Sir Henry's grandson, another
Sir Henry, then lord of Speke ; but it
Henry le Norreys (perhaps the son)
with William de Holland of Hale went
abroad on the king's service in 1359,
having letters of protection granted ;
ibid. p. 347.
In October, 1367, the bishop of Lich-
field granted a licence to Sir Henry le
agreed that this Sir Henry should have
fundis, Pater Noster, Ave Maria, the
collect Inclina Domine, and other suitable
prayers. Every year also on 17 August,
rendering him a red rose, but John's heirs
Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. p. 4 ; Norris D.
(B.M.), 630-1. By later deeds (634,
635) it appears that the dispute went on
was to be solemnly kept at the high
altar, with mass and office of nine lessons,
a bier (libitina) being erected in the choir
house of Speke ; Lich. Epis. Reg. v, fol. 18.
8 The indenture in French settling this
marriage is described by the compiler of
the Norris pedigree about 1600; but he
ascribes it to Edward I's reign ; see
Ormerod in the Topographer, ii, 374.
Sir Henry had children apparently
by several mistresses, for whom he
thought it right to make provision in
1367, not long before his death, by en-
feoffing Roger Poghden vicar of Child-
decision of Sir Richard Molyneux of
Sefton, who allowed the Speke family
land of the value of 201. yearly.
< Ibid. 584.
6 He was one of the executors of the
will, Cecily being the other ; De Bane.
R. 41:9, m. 10.
« Norris D. (B.M.), 585-7.
1 The plea as to the custody of land
and heir by Roger Erneys -v. Cecilia, who
was wife of Sir John le Norreys appears
candle burning at each end. An annual
rent of 8 marks was assigned for this, to
revert to Thomas Norris and his heirs
should the monks fail to fulfil their con-
tract; Norris D. (Rydal Hall). Sir Richard
was uncle of Thomas Norris. He placed
one or two windows in Childwall church,
and founded there the chantry of St.
Thomas the Martyr.
" Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. vol. iii,
n. 38. A rental of the Norris properties
compiled for him has been preserved
(B.M.). It is annotated by his great-
grandson Sir W. Norris.
is Metcalfe, Bk. of Knights, 17. His
arms are not given. The other Sir
William Norreys (said by Dugdale to
have fought at St&ke) was knighted at
Northampton in 1458, and his son
Edward, grandfather of Lord Norris of
Rycot, was knighted at Stoke (Metcalfe,
p. 2, 14). The arms given to this Sir
Edward (viz. Ravenscroft) were quite
different from those of Norris of Speke,
wood, in Oglet and Contelache in Speke.
These lands the vicar at once regranted
to Sir Henry, with remainders to Richard
son of Cecily de Culcheth, to Henry son
of Sir Henry, to Robert son of Alan son of
Alan le Norreys, and to John son of John
le Norreys of Woolton ; Norris D.
(B.M.), 574, 575. By another deed he
granted land for his son Henry and the
heirs of the body of Margaret de Lancas-
ter—in the Dep. Keeper's version it
appears to be ' Henry son of Sir Henry,
m. 183; 462, m. i6J.
8 In 1400 he entered into a recognizance
in xo marks before Hugh Holes, justice
of the King's Bench, to abide by the
judgement of the king and his council as
to his leaving the king's army in North
Wales, taking with him cattle, &c, but
the 20 oxen and 200 sheep taken from
him at Halton were to be restored to
him; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. p. 279.
» Norris D. (B.Mf), 600.
10 Sir Henry occurs in the Chester
mainders to Richard son of Cecily de
Culcheth, to Robert son of Agnes de
Myntynge, and to John son of Agnes del
Mosshead. Henry and Robert son of
Agnes de Myntynge died without heirs
male ; Richard son of Cecily de Culcheth
had a son and heir, John Norreys, who
was convicted of felony and hanged in
1401-2 j and so the property, of the
Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App. p. 633, 197, &c.
"Norris D. (B.M.), 611, 615. In
1458 a marriage was arranged between
his daughter Elizabeth and Thomas son
and heir-apparent of William Gerard of
Ince, for which a dispensation had been
obtained as early as 1449, the parties
being related in the third degree ; ibid.
643-5.
y,,it. (Harl. Soc.), 289.
i« Norris D. (B.M.), 646, 650, 651,
653. There were covenants as to the
dower of Lettice wife of Thomas Norris,
and as to the provision to be made for
younger sons and brothers. Lettice had
sworn upon the holy evangelists before
Sir Thomas Gerard and other witnesses
that the whole of her inheritance in
»34
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Sir William died I September, 1506, seised of the
manor of Speke, and lands there and in Siche, as also
in West Derby, Formby, and Oglet. His son and
heir, Henry Norris, was then aged twenty-eight and
more.1
Henry Norris had in 1500 married Clemence, one
of the daughters and coheirs of Sir James Harrington,
of Wolfage and Brixworth in Northamptonshire.*
On the division of the Harrington property in
1516, half of Blackrod fell to Clemence.5 Henry
Norris is said to have fought at Flodden, in company
with his brother William, under the leadership of Sir
William Molyneux.4 He died at Speke 7 July,
1524, leaving as heir his son William, then aged
twenty-three or more. The manor of Speke and the
other lands, &c., in Speke, Siche, and Oglet were said
to be held of Sir William Molyneux, by knight's
service, except two parcels of land in Speke held of
the same Sir William in socage by the rent of 1 8^.5
William Norris was knighted between 1530 and
1535, upon what occasion does not seem to be
recorded. He made several exchanges and sales of
various Norris properties, parting with Caldy, but
buying the Grosvenor lands in Lancashire, exchanging
lands in Formby, Lydiate, and Ince Blundell for others
in Garston and elsewhere.6 He dwelt sometimes at
CHILDWALL
Blacon near Chester, but Speke was his principal
residence.' In 1544 he engaged in the Scottish
expedition of Lord Hertford, and it is notable as an
indication of his character that the spoils he brought
home were books.8 He seems also to have fought at
Pinkie, as the arms and initials on the ' gwyddon '
won by Sir William Norris in Scotland are those of
David Boswell of Balmuto, whose sons fell there.9
In 1554 he represented Liverpool in Parliament.10
Three years later he was too infirm for military
service in person." In 1563 he compiled his
'Genealogical Declaration,'18 and on 30 January,
1567-8, was gathered to his fathers, being buried at
Childwall four days later.13
Edward Norris, his son and heir, was of the age of
twenty-eight years. A considerable portion of Speke
Hall was built in his time. It does not appear that
he took any marked part in the religious controversy
of the age, though he held the Speke estates for the
greater part of Elizabeth's reign," but at the end of
his life he desired his son to make provision for the
maintenance of a ' sufficient chaplain ' at Garston
chapel,15 £200 being the sum named ; bequeathing
also £60 for a schoolmaster at Much Woolton. He
had in 1605 provided £140 for the rebuilding of the
tower of Garston chapel. In 1605-6, 'being him-
Lanes, and North Wales (except at
Bodiarda and Beaumaris in Anglesey)
should descend to her son William.
third and fourth degree ; and a settlement
was made by Sir William Norris for the
benefit of the bride, the properties includ-
which the original is among the Norris
deeds (B.M.), is printed in the Topographer
and Genealogist, ii, 362-73, with an im-
cured by William, but not if she pro-
cured it. For this marriage Sir Henry
Bold was to pay 215 marks, but Thomas
the tenure of James Robinson ; Norris D.
(B.M.), 657-60.
Soon after his father's death Henry
Norris made arrangements for his mother's
cnd of the second line should be added
' son of Sir John son of Sir Henry.'
18 In the inquisition after his death he
is said to have held Speke of Sir Richard
what he had received of that sum should
Katherine die within six years without
issue ' inheiritable ' by William. Kathe-
rine survived her husband and son, and
was living in 1524.
1 In 1511, about three years after the
inquest had been made, Henry Norris
came into the Court of Chancery at Lan-
the income of her jointure lands (as set-
tled by Thomas Norris) was to be ascer-
tained by her son (or William Brettargh)
and Dame Katherine 'going lovingly to-
gether to the tenants ' to learn ' the parcel
of the lands and what rent every tenant
gives' ; ibid. 66 1 ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
p.m. v, n. 63.
ston of the queen, as of her manor of
West Derby, in socage by a rent of 201.;
tenements in Hale of George Ireland by a
rent of 55. ; in Halewood of the earl of
Derby by a rent of 241. ^J. ; in Allerton,
of Richard Lathom ; in Much Woolton
of the queen as of the late priory of St.
John of Jerusalem in England by a rent of
had caused the escheator to enter into
possession. Speke and the other lands
had been described as held of the king as
of his duchy of Lancaster by knight's ser-
vice, whereas Speke was held of William
Molyneux in socage by fealty, the lands
in Formby of the earl of Derby, and only
the land in West Derby of the king as
duke. Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. iii,
Sir William Norris's will (28 April,
1492) grants to his sons James, William,
and George 401. each to be paid when
they go to service ; should any of them
4 Ormerod, Parentalia (Norris, 30,
31, 47). He had a general pardon from
Henry VIII in the first year of his reign ;
Norris D. (B.M.).
4 Duchy of .Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 63 ;
the will of Henry Norris is recited in it.
The brasses of Henry and Clemence in
Childwall church are figured in Orme-
rod's Parentalia and Thornely's Lanes.
Brasses.
6 A detailed list of the lands exchanged
in Lydiate and Garston is extant.
7 Leland, Itin. v, 55 ; vii, 48. Bla-
the Mersey ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m.
xi, n. 22.
For his attitude in religion see Gibson,
Lydiate Hall, 1 86, 195 ; Raines, Chantries
(Chet. Soc.), ii, 177.
A pedigree was recorded in 1567;
n,it. (Chet. Soc.), 83-6.
14 He was returned in 1590 as a sus-
pected person, conforming to some degree,
but of 'evil note,' his wife was a notorious
recusant, and in 1598 he had to pay £15
to the queen's service in Ireland on her
account ; his children seem mostly to have
adhered to the Roman Catholic faith, and
to be found at the school according to
their degree, and should one become a
priest he was to be maintained till twenty-
four years of age at school ; otherwise
they were to have 261. SJ. each until
advanced 'in service or fee' of 1001. a
year. Should any of them take and keep
paramours they were to lose their right
under the will. His son Henry must
help his sisters Lcttice, Margaret, and Joan
till marriage, when each was to have 40
marks. He desired his wife and eldest
son to live together ' aythur to socur oder.'
His uncles Richard and John Norris were
Oxford.
8 Fourteen folio volumes now pre-
served in the Athenseum Library at
Liverpool have his autograph inscriptions
stating that ' Edin Borow ' was won on
8 May, 1544, and that the said books
were 'Gotten and brought away by me
William Norris of the Speike, K.., the
I ith day of May aforesaid,' and being now
the books of him the foresaid Sir William
Speke as heirlooms.
9 Ormerod, Parentalia, where a sketch
of the banner is given. Sir William's
eldest son William is said to have been
killed at Pinkie.
at least one of them suffered for it. See
Gibson, Lydiau Hall, 244, 247, quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, a. 4. In 1586
the vicar of Kirkham reported 'Richard
Brittain, a priest receipted in the house of
William Bennet of Westby about the be-
ginning of June last, from whence young
Mr. Norris of Speke conveyed the said
Brittain to the Speke .... (who) re-
maineth now at the house of Mr. Norris
of the Speke .... by common report ' ;
Baines, Lanes, quoting Harl. MS. 360,
fol. 32. See also Cal. of S.P. Dom.
1598-1601, p. 482; and Crosby Rec.
(Chet. Soc.), 23.
15 It should be remembered that Garston
granted by Hadrian di Castello, the papal
nuncio, from his residence at St. Paul's in
London, the parties being related in the
i 80.
11 Lanes. Lieutenancy (Chet. Soc.), 17.
"Sir W. Norris's 'Declaration,' of
'35
services, and that Roman Catholics at the
beginning of James I's reign were hoping
to be allowed liberty of worship.
A HISTORY OF
self aged and sickly and his children many in number,'
he made a release of all his lands to his son Sir
William, and dying during the summer of 1606, was
buried at Childwall.1
His eldest son William, who had resided at Blacon,
succeeded him. He was made a Knight of the Bath
at the coronation of James I.* The end of his life
was embittered by a quarrel with his son 3 and a
heavy fine inflicted by the Star Chamber.4 These
troubles seem to have hastened Sir William's end
for he died in October, 1630.*
William his son was described as a recusant
in 1624, and died 10 July, 1651. He married
Margaret, daughter of Thomas Salisbury, of Llewenny.6
It does not appear that he took any part in the Civil
War,7 but a younger son Thomas, who inherited the
estates, had in 1650 fallen under the displeasure of
the Parliament as ' adhering to and assisting the forces'
of the king. His estates were described as 'the
manor and capital messuage of Speke, with the
demesnes thereof, three cottages, two windmills, two
water-mills and lands of the yearly value of £224 5/. %d.,
and the like estate in reversion of certain messuages
and lands in Speke and Garston, then rented out at
£69 ifs. 6d.' The fine imposed was .£508 ; and
there is no mention of any recusancy.8
Thomas Norris, aged forty-six in 1664,' held Speke
till his death about 1686. He married Catherine,
daughter of Sir Henry Garvey, an alderman of
London, and had by her a family of seven sons and
four daughters. The eldest son Thomas was aged
eleven at the visitation ; he was sheriff of Lancashire
in 1 696,'° and member of Parliament for Liverpool
after the Revolution, being a Whig in politics." He
loughby
LANCASHIRE
married in 1695 Magdalen, daughter of Sir Willo;
Aston, bart. Their only child Mary succeeded
the estates on the death of her uncles " without male
issue, and married Lord Sidney
Beauclerk, fifth son of the first
duke of St. Albans. He was
' a man of bad character . . .
notorious for panting after the
fortunes of the old and child-
less.' The marriage took place
in 1736, and the only son was
Topham Beauclerk, the friend
of Johnson and Reynolds, who
married Diana, daughter of
the third duke of Marlborough,
the divorced wife of Lord
Bolingbroke ; by her he had a
son Charles George Beauclerk,13
who in 1797 " sold the Speke
estates to Richard Watt, a
Liverpool merchant.
The new possessor was born at Shevington in
Standish. In his youth he was the driver of the only
hired carriage then in Liverpool ; having been taught
at a night school he went out to Jamaica, where he
amassed a fortune of half a million sterling.16 Speke
became the property of his nephew, Richard Watt of
Bishop Burton in Yorkshire, who died in 1 8 1 2,16 and
was succeeded by his son, grandson, and great-grandson,
each named Richard. The last of these, who died in
1865, was succeeded by his only child Adelaide (born
19 May 1857), the present lady of the manor.17
Speke Hall stands a little back from the shore of
the Mersey, protected by belts of trees on the west
BEAUCLERK. Quarterly
first and fourth France
and England quarterly,
second Scotland, third Ire-
land, over all a sinister
baton gules charged with
three roses argent.
1 FUJI. Cert. (Chct. Soc), 41, 42.
a Metcalfe, Bk. of Knights, 151. About
1 94. Two years later he was a ' convicted
recusant,' paying double taxes; Norris D.
" The 500 tons of timber to be taken
out of the cavaliers' woods for the benefit
the same time licences to travel were
(B.M.).
of Liverpool included some from William
granted to two of his sons, Edward and
Edward Moore of Liverpool, a magis-
Norris's ; Picton, Liverpool Municip. Rec.
Alan.
trate and a Protestant, had questioned the
145.
» From the Norris D. (B.M.) it appears
churchwardens of Childwall as to Sir
He was named in a commission of
that the eldest son Edward having died
William's attendance— or non-attendance
array in 1642. Farington P. (Chet. Soc.),
76 Sec also Feet of F. Lanes. Aug.
became heir apparent and was allowed to
therefore lay in wait for him, and accused
1652.
reside at Blacon with his wife and family.
About 1625 Sir William wished to raise
him of ungentlemanlike dealing. On
Moore hinting that the churchwardens
8 Royalist Comp. P. iv, 227-30. See
also Norris P. (Chet Soc.), 13-15. In
money by a mortgage on this property,
had misrepresented his conduct, Sir
1642 Edward Norris, the eldest son, had
to London to set forth his interest in the
was summoned before the Star Chamber
rington. This may be the reason why
through. It appears that the son had
wards reduced'to £250 j Rmhworth, fittf.
Parliament for her allowance of a third
been promised an annuity of £40 by his
Coll. pt. 2, vol. ii, App. p. 35 (quoted by
from her husband's estate ; Royalist Comp.
father, which had never been duly assigned
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 156) ; Cal. of S.P.
P.iv, 219.
to him, and though he professed the
Dom. 1631-3, p. 80.
» Dugdale's Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 220.
greatest respect and obedience he resolved
5 His will and the disposition of his
1° P.R.O. List, 73.
to hold possession of Blacon till the an-
property mav be read in Royalist Comf.
« Pink and Beavan, Lanes. Parl. Rep.
nuity was secure, and in this course he
P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
192. Other members of the family also
professed to have the support of * his
176-9.
served ; ibid. 193, &c.
ghostly father.' On Sir William's death
It was about the same time that Lord
13 Those who had Speke were Sir
the son brought actions against the trus-
Wentworth made compositions with
William Norris, bart. (cr. 1698), who
tees of Speke, and at length obtained
various recusants; Sir William Norris,
died 1702, s.p. ; Edward Norris, M.D.
possession; Cal. of S.P. Dom. 1634-5,
p. 172, 199.
whose income was estimated at £600 per
annum, was charged £60 ; Cal. of S.P.
who died in 1726, leaving two daughters ;
and Richard Norris, Mayor of Liverpool,
« The Star Chamber fine arose out of
Dom. 1629-31, p. 428.
1718.
religious differences. Sir William had
The inquisition taken after Sir
13 For these and other particulars of the
been accused in 1626 of sending arms and
William's death is in Towneley MS. C 8,
family history see the Norris P. (Chet.
money to Flanders ' to the king's enemies
13 (Chet. Lib.), 916. The manor of
Soc.), p. xi-xx.
beyond seas' ; Cal. of S.P. Dom. 1625-6,
p. 304. A younger son Henry is called
Speke was held of Lord Molyneux.
6 Her father was executed in 1586 in
» For a recovery of Speke Manor, &c.,
by Lady Diana Beauclerk, see Com. Pleas
'Captain' in 1622, and is said to have
connexion with the Babington plot ; he
Rec. R. Hil. 35 Geo. Ill, m. 55; also
served in Flanders.
was grandson of Jane, daughter and coheir
Enrolled D. R-55, m. 25 d.
Sir William was described as < not con-
of David Middleton of Chest. For
15 Brooke, Liverpool, 177-8.
formable to the laws ecclesiastical now
established,' in Richard Fleetwood's will,
1626; Wills (Chet. Soc. New Ser.), ii,
William Norris's issue see Visit, of 1 664
(Chet. Soc.), 220 ; also Ormerod, Paren-
talia, ped. IV.
16 A view of Speke Hall appeared in
the Gent. Mag. of 1804, pt. i.
V Burke, Landed Gentry.
I36
SPEKE HALL : THE CHIMNEY-PIECE IN THE GREAT CHAMBER
SPEKE HALL : SOUTH BAY OF THE HALL
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
and north, and set in picturesque grounds which as
yet show little traces of damage from the chemical
fumes which have done so much to destroy the beauty
of the neighbourhood.
The house is an admirable specimen of timber con-
struction, being built round a central court and
enclosed by a wide moat, now
dry and grass grown, the chief
entrance being on the east,
reached by a stone bridge of
two arches spanning the moat.
The hall is at the north
end of the west wing, with
the great chamber adjoining it
on the north, the kitchens and
offices being in the south wing,
and the chief living rooms on
the north and east. The build-
ings appear to be of two main Jji^'de-lh, 7/7
dates, the south and east wings, changed.
except the north end of the
latter, being the parts built by Edward Norris about At the north-east angle of the house, wh
i 598, while the north and west wings are of earlier
detail, and probably date from the beginning of th
CHILDWALL
is set in a projecting bay with a six-light window on
the first floor. In the spandrels of the arch are the
initials of Edward Norris and his wife Margaret
(Smallwood).
The bay is more richly treated than the rest of
the front, having a band of quatrefoils in the gable,
and below the first-floor window and above the latter
band is Edward Norris's inscription : ' This worke
twenty-five yards long was wholly builded by Edw: N:
Esq: Ano. I 598.' To the left of the entrance, when
the outer door is passed, is the porter's lodge and the
passage to the kitchen wing, and on the right a wider
doorway opening to the corridor running round the
inner side of the north and east wings, and giving
access to the ground-floor rooms. South of the
porter's lodge is a projecting bay, the ground-floor
room in which has an arched head to its east window,
and is said to have been the chapel ; it is now a ser-
vants' hall. North of the main entrance is a large
room with fireplaces at each end, and doubtless once
divided into two ; Tt is now used as a morning room.
the
junction between the early and late sixteenth-century
work occurs, is a large gable projecting eastward — the
th
tury. There is nothing to show that details of its windows showing that it belongs to the
anything older than this is standing.
older part of the building. Edward Norris's work
Edward Norris's work follows the older building in begins from this point southwards, and includes
general design, and is apparently a completion of an
interrupted scheme, the main differences being in the
smaller details, which show a marked renaissance feel-
ing completely absent from the older work. The
irregular setting out of the court is probably due to an
alteration from the design during the course of the
later work, the kitchen wing being swung southwards
in order to allow room for a bay window in the south-
west angle of the court, making an architectural balance
to the hall window in the north-west angle. This care
for symmetry is a sign of the growth of classical taste
characteristic of the latter part of the sixteenth century,
and is worthy of note in a building which in other
respects is thoroughly Gothic in general effect.
The barge boards and gable finials are the most
elaborate features, the cinquefoiled traceries of the
former being imitated, though with somewhat clumsy
detail, in the later sixteenth-century work. The rich
all
the rest of the east wing, about 80 ft. long, thus
agreeing fairly well with the 25 yds. mentioned in his
inscription over the entrance doorway.
The rooms on the ground floor of the north wing
are for the most part unimportant, the largest being
that at the east end, now a billiard room ; but at the
west end is the chief staircase, nearly opposite the
upper entrance to the hall, and beyond it the great
chamber, a splendid room with a richly worked plaster
ceiling, and a large fireplace at the north-west, lighted
by an eight-light window on the west, and a deep bay
window on the north. The details of the latter show,
however, that it is of later date than the room. Over
the fireplace is a very elaborate chimney-piece of
wood, with many figures representing members of the
Norris family ; the execution is very inferior to the
general details of the room. At the south-west angle
a small stone entrance porch has been added, bearing
quatrefoiled panelling of wood and plaster, which is the date 1612, and the initials of William Norris and
used to such excellent purpose in many of the old his wife Eleanor (Molyneux).
timber houses of the district, occur
the
The great hall, which adjoins the great chamber on
yard and garden front of Speke, and the close set the south, is of the full height of the two stories of the
upright and diagonal timbers, and the variety and
unequal projections of the gables, make the house
house, and has a flat panelled ceiling with diagonal
ribs and heavy moulded beams, and at its upper
hole perhaps the most attractive of all the beautiful north end a canopy with a panelled soffit over the site
timber-built houses which the county has to show. of the high table, which with the dais on which it
The roofs are covered with heavy grey stone slates, stood has long since been removed. The width of
making a charming contrast with the black and white the hall is 25 ft. 6 in., and its extreme length 33 ft.
walls, and a panelled cove runs round the walls and
across the gables at the eaves level. The main fram-
ing— posts, sills, and heads — is of oak loin, square,
resting on dwarf walls of red sandstone ashlar, and
towards the court the uprights, set about 5 ft. 6 in.
apart on the south wing, and about 7 ft. elsewhere,
are marked out by shallow wooden ' buttresses ' with
profiles suggested by the weatherings of masonry but-
tresses, many times repeated.
The bridge by which the entrance doorway is
At the north-east is a fine bay window of four canted
sides, with twelve square-headed lights divided by a
transom, and a flat panelled ceiling with moulded ribs
converging to a carved central boss. On the transom
is carved a vine trail. On the opposite side of the
hall, at the north-west corner, is a rectangular chamber
opening with its full width to the hall, but of less
height, and having a large fireplace on the south, and
a six-light window on the west. The hall itself is
lighted by a large four-light window on either side
below the projecting bays, and has also on either side
range of upper windows. The four-light windows
reached is built of sandstone ashlar, with two round-
headed arches and cutwater piers, and the doorway
itself has a four-centred sandstone arch flanked by are insertions of the end of the sixteenth century or
wing walls of masonry with heavy stone cresting, and later, and it is probable that the body of the hall was
3 137 l8
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
originally lighted from the upper windows only.
The greater part of the south or lower end of the hall
is taken up by a great fireplace with a heavy carved
wood lintel and seats in the ingle. Above the fire-
place is a panelled and embattled front, in plaster, and
to the west of the fireplace, over the entrance from
the screens, is a wooden gallery, entered from the
first-floor rooms to the south. The hall is completely
panelled in wood, that at the upper end being specially
notable, both for its deep mouldings and free-standing
fluted pillars, and for the tradition that it formed part
of the loot of Holyrood Palace in 1 544.
From the screens at the south end of the hall a
porch gives access westward to the gardens through a
sandstone arch with renaissance cresting, built in
1605 by Edward Norris, and bearing his initials and
those of his wife Margaret (Smallwood). The rooms
south of the hall passage are of little interest internally,
that immediately to the south-west being used as a
drawing-room, and the others as housekeeper's room,
cellar, store-room, and butler's pantry. The bay
window corresponding to that at the north-east of the
hall is, and has been from the first, divided into two
stories, the upper being now used as a bedroom. The
drawing-room and butler's pantry with the rooms
over them belong to the older work, the block now
containing the cellar, &c., being added to range and
harmonize with the former, but clearly showing its
later date by the differences in detail.
The external elevation of the range just described,
facing westward to the garden, forms one of the most
charming pieces of domestic architecture in the
country. The gables have lost, in all cases but one
(that over the north-west bay of the hall), the carved
barge boards which so greatly enhance the effect of
the east front, and only three of the tall hip-knobs
remain, but these defects are more than compensated
for by the variety and richness of the timber-work,
and the different sizes and projection of the gables.
The frames of the first-floor windows, set out slightly
from the wall face, and the moulded brackets which
carry them, are good examples of a class often found
in the Lancashire houses.
The southern wing contains the kitchen and offices,
its salient feature being the massive stone chimneys
which take up nearly the whole of the south front.
From its west end a modern range of buildings runs
southward, bounding the paved yard, from which a
bridge leads southwards over the moat to the site of
the farm buildings.
On the first-floor of the house corridors run round
the inner sides of the north, east, and south ranges,
opening to a series of rooms which, apart from their
furniture, have little architectural interest. The roof
space is, as usual, plastered and clay-floored, but has
one unusual feature, a small room with a fireplace
over the servants' hall, which, as has been said, may
have been the chapel. There is a small staircase to
this room. It is worthy of note that the ridge of the
roof of the north wing is over the centre of the range
of rooms on the upper floor, and not over that of the
full width of the range including the corridor, which
has separate timbers carrying down the slope of the
roof. It is possible that this may imply a retention
of an older arrangement of the house ; but nothing
else in the detail gives any support to the idea. The
gabled roof of the north-east bay window of the hall is
apparently a later addition, as the embattled plate of
the hall continues behind it, and there is also the head
of an upright timber with part of an applied wooden
' buttress 'like those elsewhere in the court.
A MS. inventory of household stuff at Speke Hall
in 1624, preserved at Rydal Hall, Westmorland,1 gives
a list of the rooms then existing. It is not possible
to identify all the rooms mentioned, and the order in
which they are named does not give much help, but
the list is of sufficient interest to be quoted in full : —
The chamber called the little nursery
The chamber called the great nursery
The withdrawing chamber
The chamber over the compast window
The chamber at the stair-head
The chamber over the old chapel called Sir
Thomas Gerard's chamber
The painted chamber
My lord's chamber
The chamber over the school
The inner chamber
The chamber over the gates
The Chapel chamber
The chamber next to Mr. Tyldesley's
Mr. Tyldesley's chamber
The School chamber
The seller chamber
The great parlour
The little parlour
The hall
The new little Chapel
My mistress' chamber
Mrs. Wolfall's chamber
The kitchen chamber
The corn chamber at the stairhead
The inner chamber
The trunk chamber
The cheese chamber
The chamber over the little parlour
The inner chamber
The old Chapel (chests and lumber)
The store house
The closet over against the kitchen chamber
The porter's chamber (bedstocks)
The brewer's chamber (bedstocks)
The chamber next the new bridge where the
gardens lie
In the New Building:—
The chamber next the brew house
The chamber where the chimney is
The tailor's chamber
The dove house chamber
The work house (bedstocks)
The horse keeper's chamber
The chamber where the servants lie, which is on
the left side of the stairs
The chamber on the right side of the stairs
The ox keeper's chamber
The chamber over the dog kennel
The chamber adjoining the stairhead
The Upper Gallery
The Lower Gallery (pikes, &c.)
In the false roof (int. al. one canopy, one clock
and a bell, some armour)
In the outcast window by the kitchen where the
yeomen dine
The dey house
The brew house
Kindly ,
licated by Mr. R. D. Radcliffc, F.S.A.
138
SPEKE HALL : THE HALL, PANELLING AT UPPER ENU
SPEKE HALL : THE HALL, FROM THE NORTH-WEST BAY
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The Boulting house
The bread loft
The Kitchen
The Dry larder
The wet larder
The Scullery
The new kitchen
The feather house
The buttery
It will be seen that the first sixteen rooms seem to
be on the upper floor. Among them the chamber
over the gates is perhaps that over the main entrance,
and the chamber over the compast window may be
that in the upper part of the bay window at the
south-west angle of the inner court, already noted.
The great parlour and little parlour, mentioned
next to the hall, would appear to be the great chamber
and the room at the north-west angle of the hall.
For the ' new little chapel ' it is difficult to suggest a
site. The mention of the new building should point
to Edward Norris's work, done in 1598 and after,
and the upper and lower galleries may be the inner
corridors. Some of the rooms mentioned may have
been detached from the main building— the dey-
house or dairy, for example, would most likely be so.
At the present day the house is rich in old furni-
ture of all kinds, and has some good tapestry. There
is a little old glass in the upper windows of the hall,
with the initials of William Norris, which must date
from the early part, of the seventeenth century.
The portion of Speke granted, probably, by Adam
de Molyneux to his son Roger descended as stated
above to Roger's son Richard and his grandson Sir
John.1 Richard son of Roger de Molyneux in 1314
made a grant to John his son of the moiety of his
land in Speke, with the moiety of the windmill, the
homage and service of John le Norreys, William de
Laghok, Roger de Culcheth, William de Molyneux,
and Margery, wife of Adam le Roo, for lands which
they held of the grantor, rendering yearly £12 of
silver.2 In 1328 Beatrice, widow of Richard, made
grants of her dower-right in the Bankfield to her son
John, and in other lands to John le Norreys and Alan
his son and Emma, wife of Alan.3
Sir John Molyneux made various agreements as to
the property, already alluded to, and about the end of
his life granted to Margery, formerly wife of Richard
de Bold, and to trustees, his manor in the vill of
Speke, and all his lands there, including the wood
CHILDWALL
called Speke Greve, with the homage of Sir Henry le
Norreys, the heirs of Richard de Laghog, John le
Molineux of Oglet, Cecily le Roo, and the heirs of
Roger de Culchet.'
Early in 1366 Henry de Charnock granted to
William his son and his wife Margaret, all his lands
and tenements in the vill of Speke, with homages,
rents, wards, reliefs, services, of free tenants, and their
appurtenances and easements as fully as Sir John de
Molyneux had held them after the death of his father
Richard.5 The Molyneux manor thus descended to
the Charnocks in accordance with the settlement of
Richard de Molyneux, and the family continued to
hold land here till the sixteenth century.6 The estate
seems then to have been acquired by the Norris
family.'
Having thus traced the main line of Molyneux of
Speke, mention must be made of William de Molyneux,
son of Roger, and younger brother of Richard. He
appears to have been settled on a small holding in
Oglet."
The name of Molyneux frequently occurs in the
Norris leases and documents as that of farmers in the
neighbourhood of Speke. In 1584 Edward Norris
granted a lease in Garston to Thomas Molyneux,
Edward his son, and Margaret wife of Edward, in
consideration 'of the good, faithful, diligent, and
acceptable service of Thomas and Edward Molyneux.'
The last named died about 1618, and the lease was
renewed to his son Robert and Elizabeth his wife.'
Speke itself gave a name to a family, or perhaps
several families. In 1 292 Roger son of Henry de Speke
claimed from Alan le Norreys and his wife Margery
a tenement in Speke by Hale of which he said they
had disseised him. He was non-suited.10 This Speke
family held or farmed the mill of Speke, for in 1315
there was a release by Adam son of William de Speke
to Adam son of Roger de Speke, miller, and Alice his
wife and their heirs, of land in the field called Oglet
Siche ; and William son of the former Adam joined
in the act." Richard son of Gilbert de Speke trans-
ferred to Alan le Norreys in 1334 two oxgangs of
land in Speke."
William de Molyneux of Sefton granted to William
de Allerton, for his homage and service, 22 acres in
Speke — 1 1 near Walleton near the wood of Speke,
and 1 1 near Oglet Siche— to hold in fee and inherit-
ance of the grantor with common easements, wood
and mast, rendering yearly 5/. of silver.13
1 For this family see the account of
Little Crosby. Roger de Molyneux gave
a small portion to Alan the Sumpter,
otherwise called Alan of Amounderness,
and Alan late the Sumpter of the abbot
of Stanlaw, who secured other small plots
from the other lords of Speke ; Norris D.
(B.M.), 451-2, 459, 461.
nity were charged with entering the lands
of Sir John de Molyneux in 1359 with
force and arms and digging turf there.
This looks like an organized attempt to
resist some claim he had made ; Assize R.
451, m. 3.
* John son of Sir Henry le Norreys, and
Robert de Charnock were among the
Robert Charnock in 1498 gave lands in
Speke to feoffees ; Crosse D. 162. Henry
Charnock, who died in 1534, held land
in Speke of Sir William Norris in so-
cage ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. via,
a. 28.
7 Sir William Norris purchased various
lands in Speke, &c., from Thomas Char-
were remainders in succession to Mar-
garet, Joan, and her heirs by Adam ton of
Henry de Charnock, Agnes and Elizabeth,
sisters of John. At the same time Richard
granted to John his son and Agnes his
wife a moiety of his lands in Speke for the
yearly rent of a rose, with remainders to
John's sisters Joan de Charnock, Mar-
garet, and Maud, and to David and John
Blundell, who were sons of Agnes, another
"Ibid. 509-1.
< Ibid. 572-3. There is some error in
the dates.
Thirty-two persons of Speke and vici-
deeds (B.M.), ». 573*. This collection of
deeds appears to include all the Molyneux
6 In '1375 William de Charnock
brought a suit against Robert de Wiswall
and others for taking turf at Speke, and
another against Geoffrey de Osbaldeston
and others for breaking his weir at Speke ;
De Bane. R. 459, m. 49.
Among the Norris deeds are an extent
of William de Charnock's portion of the
manor dated 1384-5, and rentals of ten
years later and 1399; also rentals of
Henry de Charnock 1409, and Robert
Charnock 1480 and 1489.
139
bdle. 28, m.93.
8 Many deeds relating to him and his
descendants will be found among the
Norris D. (B.M.).
• Norris Leases (B.M.).
10 Assize R. 408, m. 36^. Roger was
in 1306 charged with an attempt to kill
William de Ireland ; Assize R.4zi,m.4</.
11 Norris D. (B. M.), 504, 505.
1" Ibid. 526. From other deeds in the
same collection (543-546, and 590 on)
can be traced the transfer of the Speke
family holdings to the Norris family.
18 Ibid. 454. The family can be traced
a little further by means of these deeds.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The Mossley family's holding was also originally
granted by William de Molyneux, who gave Robert
de Mossley for his homage and service 10 acres in
three different places in Speke, and a fishery between
Walton brook and Lithe brook, with the usual rights
of wood and mast, at a yearly rent of 2s. 6J} Robert
seems to have been followed by Alan de Mossley, who
married Ellen Erneys; in 1334 Richard Erneys
granted to Alan and Ellen his wife a tenement in
Speke by rendering a red rose yearly.'
The hamlet of Oglet gave its name to a family.
In 1 344 John son of Roger de Oglet granted to Alan
le Norreys an acre there extending from the sea to
the moor ; and John son of John de Oglet in 1358
enfeoffed Robert de Yeldesley, chaplain, of all his
lands, which Robert regranted to John and Emmot
his wife, with remainders to Alice and Margery,
daughters of Roger Alkoc.3
The rental of Thomas Norris, compiled about 1 460,
gives the names of all the tenants with their rents
and services.4 The demesne lands, ' lying to the
hall,' included Oglet wood with the Branderth, the
two 4-acre heys with Danyes croft, Holboche field,
Coningry field, Wethersfield with the Calf hey, the
hey by the greenway side, the near and far z acres
in the moss. The windmill, z6s. 8</., was added
later. The 'averages' or day-works expected from
the tenants are recorded : Every tenant that pays
i os. of rent or above gives a day with his plough and
another with his ' worthynge ' cart ; if his rent is
under ids., he shall bring his horse and his 'youle'
to fill a day. Every tenant holding above 101.
shall fetch two cartfulls of hay from Redall
meadow ; under I o/., a day to make hay or else give
\ti. Also every man a day to delve turves and every
house a day to ' shear ' in harvest or else pay 2^.
The Ven. John Almond or Lathom, known on the
mission as Molyneux, was born at Speke of recusant
parents about 1565 and went to school at Much
Wool ton. He was afterwards taken to Ireland.
Thence he went to the College at Rheims and to
Rome, where he was ordained priest, returning to
England as a missionary in 1602. After labouring
for ten years he was arrested, tried and condemned
for high treason on account of his priesthood, suffer-
ing in the usual manner at Tyburn on 5 December,
i6iz.s
The recusant roll of 1641 contains a long list of
names in Speke and Garston, including the familiar
ones of Holme, Challinor, Molyneux, Mercer, and
Plumbe.6 On 29 March, 1714, Nicholas Blundell
of Crosby records : ' I went in the forenoon to
Edward Lathom's in Speke Town in hopes to have
heard prayers [i.e., mass]. I found Mr. Maor there,
but he had done before I came.' ' William Harrison
and John Rice as ' Papists ' registered estates in Speke
in 1717; Rice had land also in Eccleston.8
In connexion with the Established Church,
All Saints' was built in 1876.' The vicarage is in
the gift of Miss Watt of Speke Hall.
HALE
Hales, 1176; Hale, 1201— the universal spelling
from about 1250.
Hale is a riverside township, the southern and
eastern limits being washed by the Mersey, which
curves round Hale Point, the most southerly land in
the county, whereon stands a lighthouse. The
northern boundary is mainly formed by Rams Brook.
The land is flat, interspersed with plantations and
farms ; rows of straight, tall Lombardy poplars being
noticeable features of the open landscape.
The park and grounds of Hale Hall occupy a large
portion of the river frontage. The village of Hale
is a straggling one, with some pretty cottages set in
flowery gardens. The surrounding country is entirely
agricultural. Crops of barley, wheat, and turnips are
grown, on loamy and sandy soil with a mixture of clay.
It is said to be one of the best wheat-growing districts
in Lancashire.
The geological formation is the same as in Speke,
with alluvial deposits by the banks of Ramsbrook.
To the north is the hamlet of Ciss Green, and at
the western corner, on the banks of the Mersey, is
Dungeon, where a century ago there were considerable
salt works,10 long since discontinued. The village is
much frequented in summer by pleasure parties. The
population was 524 in 1901.
Roads spread out from the village in several direc-
tions, and a footpath leads north-west. The area is
1,651 acres." The highest ground is but little over
Soft. ; the lowest is in the Decoy Marsh, so called
from a decoy for wild fowl formed near Hale Point.
The celebrity of the place is the giant John Middle-
ton, called the ' Child of Hale.' He was born in
1578, and buried in 1623 in the churchyard, where
what is called his tombstone is shown. He was
gft. 3 in. in height, and was taken to London in 1617
to be shown to James I, who gave him £20. "
The cross upon the highway is mentioned in a
charter of 1387."
A ferry from Hale to Runcorn was established at an
early period. It had been discontinued for want of
a boat for two years in the time of King John, causing
a loss of 201. per annum to the revenue.14
1 NorrisD.(B.M.}456; Oglet, Birechis,
Blakemoor, Hocwood, and Seabank are
named. » Ibid. 521, 531.
3 Ibid. 548, 568,569.
4 It is a long roll among the Norris D.
(B. M.). In the same collection are a
large number of leases of the Tudor and
Stuart periods. They show that the
practice was still common of changing the
surname in such cases as Tohnson • thus
in 31 Elizabeth there is a lease.to Edward
Huchemough and Jane Richards-daughter,
about to be his wile ; and in 5 James I is
one to William Edwardson, whose father
was Edward Williamson. In some cases —
e.g. William Jameson, son of James Law-
renson— an alias is added (alias Lawrenson,
in the case mentioned). ' Customs, boons,
services, and averages' are usually men-
demands for rent hens,' as well as the
rights in ' meadows, leasowes, feedings,
pastures, fishyards, and fishings in the
river Mersey,' more or less amply granted
to the lessees.
5 Cause of Beatification allowed to be
introduced 9 December, 1886. See Chal-
loner, Missionary Priests, ii, n. 152 ; Stan-
ton, Menology, 586, 687 ; Pollen, Acts
7 N. Blundell, Diary, 122. Two years
later James Almond the elder, of Speke,
was reported to be a ' Popish priest ' ;
Payne, Engl. Cath. Rec. 89.
8 Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 1 1 8.
8 For the district and endowment see
Land. Gax. 29 Oct. and 12 Nov. 1875.
10 Owned by Nicholas Ashton of Much
Woolton.
" The census return is 1,654 acres, in-
cluding 7 of inland water ; there must be
description of him as 'one of the learnedest
and insolentest' of those charged ; Gillow,
Biiliogr. Diet, i, 56. There is a curious
story as to his judge, Dr. King, bishop of
London.
• Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 243.
I40
of foreshore.
» Harland and Wilkinson, Lanes. Tra-
ditions, 31. There are portraits at Hale
Hall and High Legh.
13 Norris D. (B.M.), 152.
» Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 249, 253.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Formerly there was a ford in general use. John
Walley of Runcorn in 1423, in attempting to ride
across to Weston by it with two horses laden with
fish from Formby, was drowned, though the fish-laden
horses crossed safely. In 1465 the court rolls record
that a certain John Jackson of the north country and
some companions crossed by it with horses, cattle, and
sheep, and were stopped by the bailiff until they paid
the toll called ' stallage.' ' The ford was in constant
use in the Civil War period and later, being mentioned
in the deeds of the Halsall charity bequest in 1734.
M. Gregson in 1817 mentions a project for em-
banking the Mersey from the marsh at Ditton down to
Garston or even to Knott's Hole at the Dingle.
' Opposite the Dungeon two miles of land in breadth
might be enclosed before the present salt works, where
the river is fordable at low water.' *
In the early part of the last century a fair for toys
and pedlery was held on 19 November, when a large
number of persons called freemen, chosen by the
manor court, appointed a mayor. A wake was held
on the Sunday next to 1 5 August.* The Great
Court of Hale used to be held on the Wednesday
before St. Andrew's Day, and a court-leet and court-
baron on Michaelmas Day, when constables, coroner
(for Hale only),4 water bailiffs, burleymen, aletasters,
and house and fire lookers were chosen ; 4 but courts
have not been held for many years.
The lord had a toll (412'.) from every vessel casting
anchor within the bounds.6 It was the duty of the
water bailiff to collect this due or to make distraint
for it. From the old court rolls it appears that money
found on a drowned man brought ashore at Hale, like
other things cast up by the river, went to the lord as
' dower of the sea.' '
The township is governed by a parish council.
HALE with HALEWOOD formed
MANOR one of the six berewicks of King Edward's
manor of West Derby in io66.8 By
Roger the Poitevin its tithes were in 1094 granted to
the abbey of St. Martin of Seez. The gift was con-
CHILDWALL
firmed by John when count of Mortain, and by
Henry III in 1227.'
The manor remained in the king's hands during the
twelfth century.10 Henry II, after his first coronation,
placed part of it — perhaps that afterwards known as.
Halewood — within the forest, viz. from the Flaxpool
to the Quintbridge ; but it was disafforested in
Henry Ill's reign, according to the charter of the
forest." The assized rent of £4 los. was increased in
1 200 by £z los., so that in later years the sheriff of
the county answered for £j to the treasury.12
By charter, dated at Rouen, 9 November, 1 203,
King John granted to Richard de Meath 13 the vill of
Hale in its entirety, rendering every Michaelmas for
all service the increased rent of £j above mentioned.
The vill was to be held by Richard and his heirs by
hereditary right."
The words as to descent by hereditary right led to
trouble. Richard de Meath was a clerk and beneficed,
having been presented to Swineford church in 1203
and again in 1207," so that he may have been in holy
orders. Yet he allied himself with one Cecily de
Columbers,16 and had four sons and two daughters by
her. In 1226-7 he granted to Cecily de Columbers
and her children begotten by him and their heirs the
vill of Hale and its appurtenances, to be held of
Richard himself during his life, and after his death of
his brother Henry de Walton and his heirs, ' who,'
he declared, ' are my heirs.' The remainders were to
Cecily's children in turn — Richard, Geoffrey, Adam,
Henry, Emma, and Cecily ; ' and so to all other
children that the said Cecily may have by me.' The
holder was to pay annually to Henry de Walton and
his heirs the £7 due to the king and I2</., or a
pound of pepper, in addition." About the same
time (viz. on 19 July, 1227) Henry III confirmed
his father's grants to Richard, as well as the latter's
charter granting Hale to Henry de Walton and his
heirs.18
Richard de Meath lived for several years after this
charter,19 dying, it is supposed, about 1235. He was
1 Family of Ireland Blackburne, 75, 79.
a Fragments (ed. Harland), 214. It was
about here that William Massey of Pud-
14 Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 1 1 3. A reser-
vation of hunting and pleas of the crown
is cancelled on the charter roll. In re-
" A grant of the site of a mill in the
pool between Hale and Ditton, together
with half the water and fish there, was
1715, after the Jacobite overthrow at Pres-
ton ; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 560.
8 Baines, Lane,, (ed. 1836), iv, 751.
4 A coroner for the manor of Hale con-
b On 26 November, 1416, the officers
appointed were : Reeve, constable, two
palfrey worth 5 marks, to which he after-
wards added another palfrey and a chaseour.
He paid z marks as recorded in the Pipe
Roll, and in 1215 the king sent word to
the sheriff to take security from Richard
de Meath for the payment of four palfreys,
Hale, he to pay them 35. annually;
Hale D. In 14 Hen. Ill he was in-
volved in a dispute as to boundaries with
the lords of Speke— John de Haselwell
and Adam de Molyncux — and the dispute
was not settled till the middle of the next
till the ensuing Michaelmas.
« This is still claimed.
' Fam. of Inland Blackburne, 61-78,
This instruction was repeated by
Hen. Ill in 1222. Sec Land. Pipe R.
167, &c. ; Close R. (Rec. Com.), i, 477*.
assarts made and mills raised, and other
matters in Hale ; Cur. Reg. 104, m. iz ;
107, m. 9a. zcja. He had had dis-
(•755).
8 A plea on the Hale charter roll
states the king had had Hale in his own
hands and cultivated 8 oxgangs ; the
pears uncancelled on the Pipe Roll.
" Pat. John, 29, 75.
" She is supposed to have been Cecily
de Vernai, wife of Philip de Columbers,
for in 1226 they had complained to the
king that Richard had ousted them from
their common of pasture and had also
taken away their corn and meadows,
farm rent, and Adam Austin, his grand-
son, desired to recover the 8 oxgangs.
9 Lanes, fife R. 290, 299 ; Rot. Lit.
Clans, ii, 206.
10 Hale contributed two marks to the
aid levied in 23 Hen. II in anticipation
of an expedition to Normandy, and I
mark to the tallage made by Richard
Malboise(4john) ; Lane,. Pipe R. 35, 151.
» fThalley C«,^r(Chet.Soc.), ii, 372.
14 Lanes. Pipe R. 131, 147, 163, &c.
13 One of the clerks of the Exchequer,
and son of Gilbert de Walton.
Irelands of Hale' (Trans. Hist. Soc. 1900,
p. 141).
V Charter on the Hale Chart. R. The
witnesses included Ralph bishop of
Chichester and chancellor (1226-43),
several of the king's clerks, Sir William
le Boteler (d. 1233), sir Gerard de
Hethewell, acting sheriff of Lanes,
(n Henry III)— this name fixing the
date — and Roger de Ireland.
18 Charter R. 19, M Hen. Ill, pt. 2
(where the hunting, &c., are again re-
served) ; Orig. 1 1 Hen. Ill, m. 8.
let them enjoy all such rights herein as
they had formerly held ; Rot. Lit. Claus.
ii, 121.
A charter of his (or of his son Richard)
is extant, granting Alan le Norrcys for
his homage and service all the lands from
the ditch towards Sulcpool, as far as the
Meneway towards Morecote, and so going
down to the land of Roger son of
Geoffrey ; with pasture for his cattle and
pannage for twenty pigs in Halewood ;
the only service being an annual rent ot
21. 6J. ; Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. i.
141
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
succeeded by Cecily de Columbers,1 and then in turn
by Richard,1 Geoffrey, Adam, and Henry 3 her sons.
Henry was still living in October, 1260, when
William son of Henry de Walton endeavoured to re-
cover the manor of Hale, which, as he asserted, Cecily
de Columbers had held of him, and which should
have reverted to him as an escheat on her death, as she
died without heirs, her children being ignored as ille-
gitimate. Henry's defence was technical but success-
ful ; he did not hold the entire manor, as Herbert,
rector of Childwall, had a messuage there with 3^ acres
of land and the site of a chapel.4 Henry retained the
manor till his death, which
occurred soon after, and was
succeeded by his sister Cecily,
wife of John de Wolfall.6
So far, the settlement made
by Richard de Meath held
good ; the Walton family were
overlords, and Cecily de Co-
lumbers and her children suc-
cessively held under them.
The threat of the Waltons to
dispossess them for illegitimacy
seems to have led to a com-
promise, for Cecily de Wolfall
granted a third of the manor of Hale to her overlord
William de Walton, who was satisfied with that
concession.6
Other claims interfered. Robert de Ferrers, earl
of Derby, between 1263 and 1266, granted to
Nicholas dela Hosethe wardshipof Richard de Walton,
and in addition, granted him the £7 rent due from
the manor, and made him
mesne lord of Hale, holding
directly of the earl, and there-
fore superior to the Waltons,
under whom were the descen-
dants of Richard de Meath.
Nicholas de la Hose7 sold his
rights to Robert de Holand,
who thus became superior lord
of Hale, with the Walton heir
in wardship.' HoLAND or UpHO
But at the beginning of LAND. Azure, umte
Edward I's reign another
claimant came forward, more <tmt ar£""-
important than any of the
foregoing. This was Adam Austin or Adam de
Ireland, son of Cecily de Wolfall's sister Edusa," who
had been living in Ireland, where her son Adam was
born and brought up. They were in ignorance of
the state of the succession in Hale, but Adam on
coming into Lancashire claimed his mother's share of
the two-thirds not alienated by Cecily, and then
sought a writ against Richard de Walton for the other
third.10
He first appears as a claimant in 1279, when, in
conjunction with his aunt Cecily and her husband, he
demanded land, meadow, wood, and the third part of
i Cecily de Columbers, ' lady of Hale,1
in her liege power and with the consent
of Henry her son and her other heirs,
8 Henry ' lord of Hale ' gave to Richard
son of Philip de Speke a messuage and
6 acres in Hale, with common of pas-
Holands took possession and brought in
new tenants to the injury of the old ;
Hale Charter R.
Wyswall, and a messuage in the vill of
and reasonable mast-fall ; the service
Henry de Hale, while incapable, to Thurs-
permission to gather windfallen timber
in the wood of Hale for fencing and
building as well as for firewood ; and
other charter he granted to Randle son
of Robert the Miller, formerly of
Garston, 8J acres in Hale in five
R. 336, m. 217.
It is certain that the claims of the Hol-
ands were earlier than the grant to
for one of the best of them, and
housebote, &c., being granted for a rent
liam de Walton had a dispute as to land
to Robert son of Robert de Carinton
3i acres in her wood of Hale, abut-
ting on the road from Hale to Child-
wall, paying -j\d. ; he was to have all the
wood on this land with windfallen timber
and pannage as in the preceding grant ;
Hale D.
2 Richard son of Richard de Meath
granted to Reynold the Miller land
bounded by Fulshaw syke, the highway,
the ditch on Blackstone lee and the Lee,
and the road from Hale to Ditton as far
.as the bridge, for a rent of lid. ; Hale D.
He also granted to his uncle Hugh de
Thingwall 12 acres at the head of Brad-
ley towards Hale— the perch to be of
24 feet — for 21. annual rent ; with the
usual easements in the wood of Hale, and
if he had less than ten he must give as
other tenants so situated ; should the
mast in the wood of Hale be insufficient,
he might withdraw his pigs. Norris D.
(Rydal Hall), F. 2.
4 Cur. Reg. 169, m. 1 1 d. ; 171, m. 32 d.
In the latter case Henry is called < son of
Tirycy dc Meath.'
* As ' Cecily de Wolfall, lady of Hale '
she granted to Henry her nephew, son of
Richard late lord of Hale, 4$ acres of
land and a messuage, at a rent of 2*. 3</.;
Hale D. The nephew Henry must have
been illegitimate.
6 Petition of Adam dc Ireland in the
Hale Charter Roll.
7 Nicholas appears to have been in
possession in 1273; De Bane. R. i, m. 10;
could not have been prior to the Hobnd
claim; Cur. Reg. 172, m. Z7 d. Ralph
the son of Reynold shortly afterwards
made a complaint against Thurstan de
Holand, Robert and Roger his brothers,
William and Adam his sons, and a num-
ber of others that with force and arms they
had come to his house at Hale, broken
the timbers thereof and carried away other
of his property to the value of 12 marks ;
ibid. 173, m. 22^.29 </.; 186, m. 23</. ;
21 1, m. 7d.
In 1276 Thurstan de Holand had a
dispute with the lords of the neighbouring
vill of Speke as to boundaries, alleging
disseisin of his free tenement in Hale, to
wit, 100 acres of land. The jury, how-
ever, said that only 60 acres could be put
(B.M.), 126. This grant seems to have
been divided between two daughters, for
Richard son of Hired gave to Thomas de
'77-
8 Plac. de </uo Warr. (Rec. Com.),
387. For the king it was urged that
Assize R. 405, m. I d. The true origin
of Thurstan de Holand's rights may be
the fine arranged in 1262 between him
with Cecily his daughter 6 acres and half
of war ' ; i.e. the Barons' war.
regarding 400 acres in Hale ; Final Cone.
.chief lord) and an arrow ; and John son
the Holand lordship was made by the
40. An earlier fine between John and
moieties to the same Thomas for I2</.
rent and a pair of white gloves (value id.),
' which pence Richard de Meath and his
heirs have been accustomed to take in
Holand, who had married a daughter of
Henry, came to him, they alleged, as he lay
at the point of death incapable, and took his
seal, which he had hanging from his neck,
shows that the former were then married
and had lands in Hale ; ibid, i, 78. Thus
Thurstan de Holand acquired land by
purchase, and his son Robert acquired the
two parts were thus reunited; ibid.
.1*8-9.
manor of Hale to Thurstan himself and
Robert his son. After Henry's death the
9 Otherwise Editha or Ida.
10 Hale Charter R.
142
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
a mill at Hale. For that he substituted a claim
against John de Wolfall and Cecily his wife for the
moiety of two parts of the manor of Hale as his por-
tion of the inheritance of his uncle Henry de Hale,
lately deceased. To this they agreed, and Adam ac-
cordingly had seisin.1 His next suit was against
Robert de Holand, Richard son of William de Walton,
and others, to recover the third part ot the manor,
except one messuage. Robert de Holand said he
claimed nothing except as guardian of Richard de
Walton, a minor. Richard denied Adam's right, and
the latter repeated his story, with the addition that
his aunt Cecily in her old age and infirmity had de-
sired it to be known that he was her heir, and had
allowed him temporary possession t for one day and
one night,' in token of the same.2
The claim was unsuccessful, and the Waltons re-
tained this part of the manor. In 1292 Richard de
Walton was summoned to show his right to a third
part of the manor of Hale, part of the ancient demesne
of the crown, but stated that he held in fact only about
a sixth of it. On adducing the grant to Richard de
Meath, he was met by the statement that the hey of
Hale with its hunting and other rights had been re-
served by King John ; 3 he could only reply that
Richard de Meath had occupied the hey as well as
the rest of the manor. In 1293 his portion of the
CHILDWALL
manor was taken into the king's hands by default,4
but four years later was restored to his son William de
Walton.4 The disputes between the various lords ot
the manor continued,6 but in 1321 William de
Walton sold his rights to Adam de Ireland and
Robert his son.7
The lordship of Robert de Holand " descended like
his other manors. His son Robert, afterwards
Lord Holand, in 1304 procured a charter for a
market and fair for Hale and free warren there.9 The
market was to be held every Tuesday, and the fair on
the eve, day, and morrow of St. Mary Magdalene.
Robert himself seems afterwards to have granted a
charter for a borough.10 Hale seems to have been
assigned as part of the dower of his widow Maud, and
soon afterwards she was defendant in a suit by Alan
son of Henry le Norreys." She died seised of the manor
in 1349. I* was held of Henry earl of Lancaster by
fealty and suit to the wapentake of West Derby, and
was worth £9 a year clear." The second Lord Holand
died in 137.3, holding it of the duke of Lancaster by
homage and fealty only; it was then worth £60 2.1. 6J.™
His daughter Maud, widow of Sir John Lord Lovel,
died in 1423 seised of the manor of Halewood, held
of the king in chief as of his duchy of Lancaster in
socage by fealty only ; it was worth £40 clear." It
was forfeited by the Lovels in 1487, and given to the
i De Bane. R. 31, m. 25, 99, 125.
twelve tenants of the manor ; but now
10 On the forfeiture of Robert de Holand
In 1283 'Adam Austin came ... to
replevy to Cecily de Wolfall her land in
they were required to pay 23^. a year
beyond the former services. Richard
in 1322 his manors were taken into the
king's hands and the accounts have been
Hale which was taken into the king's
asserted that his grandfather William
preserved. In Hale the various rents in
hands for her default against Thomas son
was in seisin of the services and customs
1323-4 amounted to £73 5». n</.,and
of Pain de Frodsham ' ; Cat. of Close,
he himself demanded, no change having
sales of corn, &c., to £60 3.. 3^., the
, 279-88, P- *33-
been made ; and the tenants were de-
expenses being £5 7.. ;Jrf., so that
a Hale Chart. R. ; Assize R. 1265,
feated ; Assize R. 408, m. 21 d. ; m. 28.
£128 11. (>\d. was paid to the Exchequer.
m. 5</. Richard de Walton later made a
6 De Bane. R. 151, m. 206; 154,
In the following year the net revenue was
claim against Adam Austin; ibid. R. 1 294.,
m. 86; 159, m. 70.
£77 171. old. and in the third year it
m. nd.
' Hale D.
was £73 4.. i\d. In the first of the
5 The variations in the documents
8 Margery, widow of Robert de King-
years named the assized rents of the free
have been noticed above.
hale, claimed her third part of 6J acres in
tenants amounted to £9 71. 8^.— this.
4 Plac. de quo Warr. 227, 382-3,
Hale as dower ; De Bane. R. 20, m. 26 d.
included 6os. from Walton— as well as
607, 230 ; Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc.
IK. Alan le Norreys also claimed 14
6d. for three pairs of spurs sold ; tenants
Lanc,.andChes.),ii)354.
acres there of which he asserted his
at will holding 79 messuages and 5 cot-
5 Hale deeds. Before the above claim
father Alan had been disseised by Thurs-
tages with nearly 570 acres of land paid
was decided in the king's favour various
tan, Robert's father ; he further claimed
£36 15,. 4J4, and £is J..WM toivrf
other suits had been commenced. Adam
common of pasture and reasonable estover
Austin demanded 12 acres of land and
in the wood ; ibid. R. 27, m. 38, 72 d. ;
other sums were derived from lands im-
171. rent from Richard de Walton, but
30, m. 4, 2 d.
proved from the waste, from meadow and
was nonsuited. William son of Hawyse
Robert made several grants of land.
herbage of the park of Linall, &c., gar-
had a claim against Adam Austin for
To Richard dc Tranmole (Tranmere) he
dens and orchards, mills, weir and hall-
land in Hale tried in the court of
William de Walton there; Assize R.
gave a plot lying by the side of his house
for id. rent ; and to Roger the Carpenter
mote court (ijj. jd.). The principal
sales were of wheat (12 quarters), barley
408, m. 23 d.
two acres in Halewood on both sides of
(24 quarters), beans and peas (30 quarters;,.
At the same time Richard de Walton
his house at i id. rent ; Hale D. To
and oats (175 quarters), amounting to-
claimed from Robert de Holand land,
Richard son of Robert de Laghock he
over £50. Some additional sales, as of
meadow, and wood in Hale, as heir of
granted a part of his waste in Hale called
straw, &c., reached another £10, half-
Richard de Meath. Richard de Holand
Thornyhead, between Richard de Lagh-
being derived from the flesh and hides of
twelve oxen and a cow which died of the-
but the case was adjourned; ibid. m.
the other ; Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 6.
plague. Twenty cartloads of hay had not
48. Richard de Walton also made a
Thomas de Shevington, th= 'forester,'
been sold. The payments included sums
a messuage, 14 acres of land, and 341. of
with the timber thereon, in exchange for
the water-mill had been burst by a floodi
rent which should have come to him
5 acres near the pool, with right of way
— and wages ; among the latter the wages
after the death of John de Wolfall and
for his beasts and carts to the pool on the
of the park-keeper, who was also collector
having retained them as heir of Richard
he should be able to cross owing to the
The stock consisted of four plough horses.
de Meath ; Assize R. 167, m. 10 d.
ebbing of Robert's mill-pool ; Norris D.
and a colt, thirteen oxen and a heifer,.
A number of the tenants of Hale ap-
(B.M.),i8o, 1 8 1. To Henry son of William
and eleven swans and two 'stoyells' ;,
pealed against Richard de Walton and
de Garston and Sabina his wife were
two wagons, a cart, three ploughs, four
Adam de Ireland, lords of the same, on
granted 9$ acres in Hale wood with right
harrows (two being double and of iron),.
the ground that customs and services were
of way, housebote, haybote, and other
pots, tubs, dishes, lances, forks and other
demanded from them other than those
easements in the common wood when the
miscellaneous goods, including an iron
their ancestors had been wont to perform.
In the time of William the Conqueror
oaks on the land granted should fail ;
chain for the drawbridge, a net for the
they alleged, the manor being in his hands'
succession to the Garston grant in
" De Bane. R. 280, m. 90, &c.
they rendered yearly for an oxgang of land
1324-5; Assize R. 426, m. 16.
" Inq. p.m. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. i, *. 58.
amercements and reliefs as ordained by
m. 3, „. 48.
14 Lanes. ln<j. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, i.
H3
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
first earl of Derby,1 of whom the Irelands continued
to hold the manors of Hale and Halewood by the
tender of two roses on Midsummer Day.
A junior branch of the Holand family was esta-
blished in Hale.1
The appearance of the Ireland family has already
been narrated. Adam Austin, having established his
claim to a portion of the lordship, in 1285 married
Avina, daughter of Robert de Holand, his superior
lord. The grant to Avina on her marriage3 may be
regarded as a settlement of the disputes between her
father and her husband.
The Norris interest in Hale began with Alan,
father of the Alan and John le Norreys who settled
at Speke. In an undated charter, Alan le Norreys
granted to Simon his son the Ditton half of the mill
of Hale — that upon the pool between Hale and
Ditton — which he had received from Henry de
Walton, formerly the king's servant, with fishing and
other rights.4
This will explain the position in 1292, when the
tenants of Hale were summoned to prove their title to
their holdings. Robert de Holand had 160 acres and
his brother Richard 60 ; Adam de Ireland and Avina 4
his wife had 200 acres ; Alan le Norreys had but 2O.6
From this time the Irelands' position was secure.7
Adam Austin de Ireland, in spite of his many law-
suits, lived until 1324,* and his wife Avina also. In
1 292 he was non-suited in divers claims against Robert
de Holand, Robert Erneys of Speke, and his wife
Joan, and Roger de Culcheth.8 In 1323 he was
returned by the sheriff as one
of those holding lands of the
annual value of £ 1 5 and more ; 10
and about the same time a
claim was made against him
and his wife Avina and their
sons Robert and Adam, by
Randle, son of Henry Malin-
son, respecting his free tene-
ment in Hale, but it was un-
successful." Another claim was
at the same time made against
Adam and Avina, and Adam,
their son, by Robert Grelley."
A charter exists of Adam de Ireland, lord of Hale, to
Richard, son of Henry Malinson, another defendant in
the former suit, granting him a messuage and lands
upon the waste of Hale, near the Old Barn yard, and
a fishery in the Mersey called 'the Heegh Yord,'
for a rent of 5</.13
During Adam's lifetime John de Ireland, who
succeeded to Hale," had become possessed of lands in
the place." In 1331 he appears as son and heir of
IRELAND or HALE.
Gules, lix Jleurs de lit
three, tivo and one argent.
1 Pat. 4 Hen. VII.
* Richard de Holand, said to be ton of
the elder Robert dc Holand, had land in
Hale, and granted to Adam son of Warin
de Speke 12 acres in 'Houuerechaderoc,'
from Rams Brook as far as the sike be-
Hose is here said to have been made to
« Norris D. (B. M.), 130 ; made about
1270. The grant of Henry dc Walton is
No. 234 in the same collection. Thomas
le Waleys gave to Alan, son of Alan le
501, &c. He had a son William and
several daughters. In 1302 Ralph de
Ireland held Hartshorn in Derbyshire
(jointly with Robert de Farnham) as half
a knight's fee, and in 1346 William de
Ireland held Hartshorn, formerly of the
the lords of Hale the farm contained in
Richard de Meath'. charter to Walter de
Arderne, then rector of Frodsham, i.e.
lands and tenements and the third part of
a mill in Hale and Ditton, with pannage,
&c. At the beginning of 1309 Thomas,
years later (1428) Roger Wolley held it
in place of William de Ireland. Feud.
Aid,, 251, 260, 265. Avice (or Avena)
Martinmas should they have pigs there ;
Norri, D. (B.M.), 127.
Richard de Holand attested local charters
down to nearly the end of Edward II's
reign; sometimes 'Robert his son* is
added. John de Holand occurs from 1316
until 1 349; and William de Holland, of
Halewood or Hale, from this year until
Hale, as well in the wood as in the vill,
gery, and six years later Patrick their son
made over his lands in Hale, with the ter-
ritory near the bridge, and his share of the
aforesaid water-mill, to his uncle John le
Norreys of Speke ; Norris D. (B.M.), 131,
134, 135- One of Adam Auitin's early
Godfrey Foliambe, and (2) Sir Rd. Green ;
Top. et Gen. i, 336. For John de Hibernia
of Staveley see ibid, iv, 2.
8 As grandson and heir of Richard de
Meath through Edusa he appeared as
plaintiff in 1321-2; De Bane. R. 240,
m. 237. For pedigree sec roll 219,
m. 248 d.
was a free tenant in 1350 ; he had lands
from William son of Roger le Mayorson in
1365; Final Cone., ii, 170.
others, demanding the customs and ser-
vices due from their free tenements in
Hale ;De Bane. R. 31, m. 31^.; 32,111.41.
1° Parl. Writs, ii (i), 639.
11 Assize R. 425, m. 6 ; 426, m. 7 d.
« Ibid 426, m. i.
1358, Hugh de Adlington and others
having broken into his house at Hale ;
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 6, m. 4, 5 a.
In 1339 Henry de Holland and Agnes his
epiac. de quo ffarr., 370, 378, 379,
227-8. There were numerous smaller
holdings, including Thomas the Forester
1 6 (or 1 8), Thurstan son of Henry 17,
" Robert dc Ireland, who had the manor
of Kirkdale, early in 1322 granted to his
father and mother, Adam and Avina, all
the lands he had of their gift in Hale and
field (as dower), and its reversion to the
heirs of Henry de Ditton was arranged ;
Norris D. (B.M.), 184.
» It gave half of all the land of Hale-
wood with the father's share of the old
mill between Ditton and the demesne of
Alan le Norreys, and of the new mill be-
tween Tarbock Park and Halewood ;
Hale Charter R.
This was confirmed and extended by
Robert son of the above Robert de
Holand, who in 1305 granted to Adam
Richard de Tranmore 12, Richard del
Bank 12, Adam del Bank 6, Robert de
Thornihead 8, and Simon son of Award 8.
7 There were several persons in Lanes,
in the thirteenth century who used
Ireland as a surname. A Roger de
Hibernia was a witness to the charter of
Richard de Meath, already quoted. He
had a son Robert. See notes above, also
Wballey Coucher, ii, 556-7, 567 ; Orme-
rod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby), i, 731. In 1258
Margery, Maud, and Mabel, daughters of
chaplain celebrating in a perpetual chantry
at Hale. He gave and exchanged at the
same time other lands to his brother John ;
Moore Charters, 514. He was described
as 'lord of Hale ' in 1334, acting perhaps
as trustee of his brother John ; Norris D.
(B. M.), 520. The ' manors ' of Yelders-
ley, Hale, Ditton, and Kirkdale descended
to Robert, son of Robert de Ireland, who
was a minor in 1381-2; perhaps Hale,
like Ditton and Yeldersley, is to be
Hale, with the £7 annual rent which his
grandfather Thurstan had by the gift of
Nicholas de la Hose ; his share in the
water-mill, four oaks a year from the
wood, and other easements were added,
assize of mort d'ancestor, and the sheriff
of Lanes, was commanded accord-
ingly ; Excerpta e Ret. Fin. (Rec. Com.),
ii, 287; Orig. 42 Hen. Ill, m. 10, n.
This Robert appears to have had a son
Hale D.
15 Richard Spoch in 13^ transferred to
him a messuage and half an oxgang of
land ; John, son of Roger de Crosbyhouses,
leased him other lands for twenty years
rose annually ; Hale Charter R. It will
be noticed that the grant of N. de la
ness to several of the local charters ; Orig.
43 Hen. Ill, m. 3 ; Moore Charters,
son of John de Wallehul, and others;
Hale D.
144
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Adam.1 At the beginning of 1336 Henry, son of
Randle de Hale, sold to John, son of Adam de Ire-
land, and Agatha his wife,8 certain lands which they
held on lease from him.3
Some dispute appears to have arisen about this time
with Simon de Walton ; for Randle de Merton
entered into a bond to him for the production by
John de Ireland of two charters concerning Hale —
the original one of King John to Richard de Meath
and the confirmation by Henry III. A royal confir-
mation was secured, and the contest with the Walton
family terminated.4 John de Ireland continued to
purchase lands in Hale, and his name occurs as witness
to various deeds down to about 1358.
David de Ireland, his son, succeeded, and was lord
of Hale for over twenty years, his name occurring in
a. receipt for 40 marks paid by him to Sir Richard
de Bold as late as 1378. s In 1367 the bishop of
Lichfield granted him a licence for an oratory in his
mansion at Hale.6
John de Ireland succeeded his father David early in
Richard II's reign ; he was knighted at the beginning
of Henry IV's.7 In answer to a quo wurronto from
the king he claimed wrecks, fishes-royal, assize of
bread and beer, amercements of offenders against the
same, view of frankpledge and other liberties which
had been enjoyed by himself and his ancestors from
time beyond memory.8 From a broken inscription
CHILDWALL
in a window in the chapel, preserved by Challoner,
he seems to have been a benefactor to the chantry.9
His will dated 24 May, 1411, directs his burial in
Hale chapel, and mentions his wife Margery and his
His eldest son and successor was William de Ire-
land.11 At the beginning of 1422 he enfeoffed a
number of trustees, Thomas de Ireland being one,
of the manors of Hale and Hutt, and all his other
possessions.13 He died in 1435."
Another John de Ireland succeeded his father
William. He acquired lands in Smerley in Halewood,
in Fulshawfield, and in several other holdings ;
one of the latest being from Thomas Fulshaw, of
Halebank, in August, 1461, of a piece of land next
to Lord Lovel's holding.14 A dispute between him
and William Norris, of Speke, was referred to the
award of Sir Thomas Stanley.15 The inscription on
his tomb is given by Challoner (or Holme) as
follows : — Hie iacetjoh'es Yerlond armiger qui fuit
dns de Hale et dimid ville de Bebinton inferioris qui
obijt sc'do die Maij ano dfii M° CCCC° sexagessimo
sc'do. . . . Cuius ale propicietur deus. Amen.18
His son William succeeded,17 and was followed by
his son, Sir John Ireland, knighted by Lord Strange
in Scotland, in 1497, during the expedition led by
the earl of Surrey.1' He made an exchange with
Richard Crosse, of Liverpool, taking the latter's holding
1 In an action against Robert del Mulnc
for diverting a watercourse ; De Bane.
R. 286, m. 263.
2 Agatha the wife of John was perhaps
a sister of Randle de Merton, who in the
pedigree is described as 'of Bebington ' ;
Ormerod's Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 178.
Dep. Keeper', Rep. xxxii. App. p. 356,
The Awardson plea above mentioned was
prosecuted against David de Ireland ; De
Bane. R. 433, m. 436.
6 Lich. Epis. Reg. v, fol. i6A.
7 He exchanged a piece of land in the
Gervasefield with Roger Dicmonson, and
daughter and heir of Henry of Bradley of
Halewood, after the divorce between her
and Robin of Garston. Geoffrey was to
swear on a book to deliver all the deeds he
had concerning it, and also that he had
made no alienation ; * the which covenants
and the accord well and leally and truly
sion of certain lands and a fishery in Beb-
ington supposed to be derived from this
marriage; Dep. Keeper', Rep. xxxix,
App. p. 245.
» Hale D. Randle de Hale seems to be
the Randle son of Henry Malinson named
above. John de Ireland had a contest
with Robert, son of Simon Awardson—
Award having been a son of Geoffrey de
Barlow — concerning a messuage and 10
acres of land. The latter called the
superior lord to warrant, viz. Robert, son
and heir of Robert de Holand, and the
case lasted several years ; Hale Chart. R.
riding. He took on lease the land of
Norris of Derby in Hale (except pasture
in the wood of Lynale), and acquired
from John, son of Robert de Walton, the
latter's possession in Much Woolton for
life, being named in the remainders to the
manor of Walton ; Hale D.
8 Ibid. bdle. A, No. 6.
9 Family of Ireland Blackburne, p. 4c
(from Harl. MS. 2129).
10 Lanes. andCbes.Wilh (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), p. i 58. Thomas de Ireland of
Lydiate and Garston is said to have been
a younger son of Sir John.
out fraud or male engyne' ; ibid.
William de Ireland granted a lease to
John of the Mill of 6 acres called the
Porterstacke, in 1424 ; and purchased land
in the Gervasefield in 1432, and in the
Moorcote in May, 1434 ; ibid. The last
deed mentions ' the rector's mediety of the
church of Hale.'
issued 14 August, 1435 ; °<A Keeper's
Rep. xxxiii, App. 35.
11 Hale D. A detailed description of the
boundaries accompanies this.
I* Ibid. A curious indenture between
same Robert and William his brother,
which also lasted some time. Part of the
delay was caused by the absence of Sir
certain lands from John, son and heir of
Richard Award of Halewood, in particular
daughter of Stene Short of Hale, bound
Jenet not to give or sell 'a house, two
to no man living 'nyff to no man nyff
348, m. 235 </. ; 356, m.4o5,/.
as Rommes brook ; along the brook to the
move he was to have it at farm, giving as
himself in an action brought by Thomas
le Norreys of Derby (by writ of formedon)
concerning 7 acres in Hale granted by
West Street, and along this street leading
from the Wro to the old windmill stead ;
Hale D. The same John Award after-
16 Family of Ireland Blackburne, 46 (from
Harl. MS. 2129, fol. 67b). In 1460
William Whalley, prior of Upholland,
this John's son William, father of the
plaintiff; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4,
m. 5, 25 d. ; 5, m. 7 </., 1 5 ; 6, m. 3 d.
« A formal inspeximus of the charter of
John was secured from the king (5 April,
beloved John son of Adam de Ireland and
next of kin and heir of the aforesaid
Richard [de Meath] ' ; and a year later a
writ of allowance of the same was directed
to the judges of assize in Lanes. Hale
Chart. R.,Ca/. Rot. Cbartarum, 174.
^ Hale D. The writ Diem clausit ex-
trcmum was issued on 3 March, 1383-4;
3
the Milne hey and the Danefield ; and
John del Milne surrendered a messuage
called the Peel, and the lands called the
Peelfield ; Hale D.
i" Hale D. About the same time Ralph
de Merton and Agnes his wife leased their
lands in Hale to Bartholomew de Standish
and Ellen his wife (Ralph's daughter), with
remainder to Nicholas de Harrington; ibid.
An English indenture records the pur-
chase for 10 marks from Geoffrev de
Standish of a messuage and 9 acres of'land
formerly belonging to William de Garston,
who had them from Maud of Bradley,
H5
London, and Christopher his brother for
life, within the parish of Childwall ; Lord
Ellesmere's deeds.
V A receipt dated June, 1462, is extant
showing that he had paid for a garden and
croft in Hale just purchased by him ; he
also acquired in 1464 lands belonging to
Thomas, son and heir of Richard Eves,
late of Hale ; Hale D.
The writ of Diem clausit extremum
after the death of William Ireland was
issued I August, 1503 ; Dep. Keeper's
Rep. xl., App. 542.
is Metcalfe, Book of Knights, 31.
19
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
in Halewood in place of certain tenements in Waver-
tree and Liverpool.1 Sir John died 29 July, 1525,
seised of the manors of Hutt and Hale, held of the
earl of Derby in socage by a rent of two roses, the
value being £4.0.'
His son and heir was Thomas Ireland, then aged
2 2 years, whose mother is said to have been an illegiti-
mate daughter of James Stanley, bishop of Ely.
Thomas Ireland married (in 1508-9) Margaret,
daughter of Sir Richard Bold,* by whom he had
two sons — John, who left an only daughter
Margaret — and George, who succeeded him. He
died 27 August, 1 54.5, leaving his possessions by
will to his son George and his heirs, with remainder
to the above-named Margaret.4
George Ireland married for his first wife Elizabeth,
one of the two daughters and heirs of Ralph Birken-
head, of Crowton near Northwich, whereby he came
into possession of considerable lands in Cheshire. He
died 15 July, 1596.*
His eldest son, John, then aged 38, who succeeded,
is said to have been lieutenant of the Isle of Man in
1 6 1 1 . He died 1 7 October, 1614, being buried at
Hale on 1 5 November following.6
Gilbert Ireland, his younger brother,7 succeeded
him, being then about fifty-five years of age. He
was made a knight at Lathom in 1617, during King
James's stay there.8 He served as sheriff of Lan-
cashire in 1622,' and died at the Hutt in April,
1626.'° John, the son and heir, said to have been
aged 29 at his father's death, sold his share of the
Crowton estates, and dying at the Hutt 5 May,
1633," was buried at Hale."
Gilbert, the eldest son of John Ireland, succeeded,
He was born 8 April, 1624, and married Margaret,
only child and heir of Thomas Ireland, of Bewsey,
but there were no children. He took the side
of the Parliament in the Civil War, with the rank of
colonel, and was nominated upon the committee of
the county in 1645 ; he was high sheriff of Lancashire
in 1 648," governor of Liverpool Castle, governor of
Chester, member for Lancashire in 1654 and 1656,
and for Liverpool from 1658 till his death." Like
many of his Presbyterian brethren he aided the resto-
ration of Charles II in 1660, when he received
knighthood, and was appointed a deputy lieutenant of
Lancashire in 1665.'* He was a 'man of unbounded
hospitality ; .... his disposition, however, was
haughty, and his demeanour stately. He was fond
of elections, and maintained a contest for Liverpool
on several occasions, the last of which, from exces-
sive drinking and an extravagant expenditure of
money, proved as fatal to his
health as injurious to his purse.' "
He assigned his estates to trustees
for thirty years to pay his debts,
and, it is said, to prevent his
sister Elizabeth enjoying them.
He died at Bewsey 30 April,
1675, and was buried at Hale;
his widow following him two
months later."
Hale then passed to his
nephew Gilbert Aspinwall, who
died in 1717, and whose son
ASPINWALL OF HALI.
Per pale gules and azure,
afess dancettee ermine.
Edward ls died two years later.
Ireland Aspinwall, son of Edward," died unmarried
in 1733, and the Hale estate devolved on his sister
Mary.
She married Isaac Greene of Childwall, and had
three daughters. The eldest died unmarried ; the
youngest married Bamber Gascoyne ;!0 while the
i Hale D. Richard del Crosse of Liver-
pool had land in Hale in 1423-4 ; Norris
D. (Rydal Hall), F. 18.
a He also held lands in Cronton of the
abbot of Whalley in socage for a rent of
l zd. ; other lands and messuages in Garston,
Much Woolton, Tarbock, and Aigburth ;
the last-named were held of the Hospital
A pedigree was recorded in 1567 ; Visit.
(Chet. Soc.), 95, 96-
• See Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby), ii,
135 ; Funeral Certs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 205. By his will (26 September,
1611) he left his brother Gilbert his silver
and gilt plate, his armorial signet ring
that had been their father's, and the
keep house ' ; Lanes, and Cbes. Wills (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), pp. 126-130;
Ormerod, Cbes. ii, 135.
11 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxviii,
" Three of his sons died before 1638
without issue ; two of the daughters died
unmarried, and the others were Eleanor,
Chester for a rent of i id. ; Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 75.
» There is a bond in relation to this
marriage in the Moore Deeds, 743.
4 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App. 1 60.
The will it wrongly dated. Gregson,
queathed various pieces of plate ' made by
Knowsley/ a gold chain (worth £20)
which had been his mother's, and other
goods ; Lanes, and Cbes. Wills (Chet. Soc.,
NewSer.), ii, 178.
Aspinwall, of Ormskirk— their son Gil-
bert succeeded to Hale— and (ii) . . .
Crompton, a Puritan minister ; and
Martha, who married Arthur Squibb,
w As such he published the proclama-
tion issued after the execution of Charles I,
' Ormerod, Cba. (Helsby), ii, 135;
i, 622; Gregson, Fragment,, 129-30.
The inquisition taken after his death gives
a full list of the Ireland properties at that
time. These included the manors of Hutt
and Hale, with Halewood and Halebank,
held of the earl of Derby, in free socage,
by fealty and the rent of two roses an-
nually, the values of the manors being
respectively £5 and £10 ; lands in Much
Woolton of the queen, by a rent of I2</. ;
in Tarbock, of Edward Torbock, by a rent
of 2 1 d. ; in Denton and Farnworth, of the
barony of Widnes ; in Bold, of Richard
Bold ; in Wigan, of the mayor and
burgesses; in Warrington, of Thomas
Ireland (by knight's service) ; in Walton
le Dale, of Thomas Langton ; and
various lands and tenements in Cheshire
and Flintshire. In the Cal. of S. P.
Dom. .566-79, Add. p. 375, is a curious
(Chet. Soc.), p. .05.
1 He had matriculated at Oxford
(Brasenose) in 1578 ; Foster, Alumni. A
younger brother, Thomas, was member of
Parliament for Liverpool in 1614.
» Metcalfc, Book of Knights, p. 171.
» P. R. O. List, p. 73.
1° By his will, dated on the previous
30 January, he left jewellery and other
articles to his wife Barbara, his best horse
(with the armour and furniture belonging
to a lance) and other gifts to his eldest son
John, with a request that this son ' do not
put in suit a certain bond of £100 which
was at the time of his marriage taken in
his name to no other purpose but to stir
up and cause my Lady Yonge to be more
open-hearted and liberal to him and her
daughter in future time, in respect of her
former large promises made to me how
good she would be to them and what great
England ' ; Local Gleanings Lanes, and Cbes.
i, 163. There is a long account of him in
W. Beamont's Hale and Orford, 55-130.
Fines referring to his manors in Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. Sept. 1649 ; and 1661,
bdle. 167, m. 72.
" Pink and Beavan, Parly. Rep. of Lanes.
pp. 73, 190.
15 A pedigree was recorded in 1 664 ;
Dugdale, ymt. (Chet. Soc.), p. 165.
16 Gregson, op. cit. 102.
17 Funeral Certs. (Chet. Soc.), pp. 82-88.
See further Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. 13,
App. v, 266.
W A settlement of the manors of Hale
and Hutt was made in 1698, by Edward
Aspinwall and Mary his wife; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 240, m. 116.
« Ireland, son of Edward Aspinwall, wa»
admitted to St. John's College, Cam-
bridge, as a fellow commoner in 1721 ;
Daresbury.
marriage and especially at their going to
I46
20 See the account of Childwall.
HALE HALL : THE NORTH FRONT
HALE HALL : PART OF SOUTH SIDE OF THE PANELLED ROOM
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
second, Ireland Greene, in 1752 married Thomas
Blackburne of Orford ; and on a partition of the
properties the last-named had Hale, which became
the residence of the Blackburne family. The eldest
son John, born in 1754, was high sheriff in 1781,'
represented Lancashire in Parliament as a Tory from
1784 to 1830,* and died in 1833. In his time, says
Gregson, ' the house at Hale underwent considerable
alterations ' ; and ' the celebrated collection of plants
which were formerly in the Botanic Gardens at
Orford were removed to this favoured spot.' 3
John Ireland Blackburne, who succeeded his
father in 1833, was several times a member of Par-
liament as a Conservative — for Newton and Warring-
ton.4 He died in 1874, and was followed by his
son, also named John Ireland
Blackburne, who was for ten
years a representative of South-
west Lancashire.5 On his death
in 1893, his son Col. Robert
Ireland Blackburne became lord
of Hale.
Hale Hall is a quadrangular
building of c. 1600, altered in
the latter part of the seven-
teenth century, with a large
south front added in 1 806.
The original house had a
north front with five irregularly
spaced projecting bays, with
mullioned windows and gables. It was remodelled in
1674 by Sir Gilbert Ireland, the gables being masked
by a panelled parapet, flush with the front of the
projecting bays, and carried on semicircular arches
springing from their angles, or from piers brought
forward to the same line. At the same time a porch
was built in front of the entrance doorway, and a
second entrance porch added to the second bay
from the west. This is now built up. The inner
courtyard was very small, and is now roofed over,
and filled up with an eighteenth-century staircase, a
former stair dating from the middle of the seven-
teenth century, with good newels and balusters,
having been moved from its original position near the
south-west angle of the court and set up further to
the west, near the kitchen and offices. On the south
to have been fitted up by Sir G. Ireland in 1 67 1.6
It was designed as the hall of the original house,
and may have had a projecting bay at the south-east
angle of the court and screens at the west, where a
door still communicates with the kitchen passage.
On the first floor a gallery runs round all four sides
overlooking the court, having in its windows some
very interesting early seventeenth -century glass, with
representations of the months, of various birds and
CHILDWALL
beasts, and of Faith, Hope, &c., and in one of the bed-
rooms opening from the gallery on the north, known
as Sir Gilbert Ireland's room, is a bay window with
panels of heraldry, mostly c. 1670, with the arms of
various local families.
The roof-timbers are those of the original house,
and the roof space preserves the clay floor which was
common in the older houses of Lancashire. A
similar floor was found beneath the floorboards of
Sir Gilbert Ireland's room on the occasion of a fire,
and was undoubtedly of use in preventing the spread
of the flames.
The south front of the house consists of a range of
rooms with a tower at the west end, added in 1806,
Nash being the architect. The design is copied from
the north front, both the original features and the
alterations of 1674 being imitated in a manner
worthy of the time.
The house is not so rich in detail as many of the
old Lancashire houses, but what there is is good of
its kind, and there are some good pictures and furni-
ture.
Part at least of the Norreys holding in Hale came
into the possession of the West Derby branch, being
regained by the marriage of Thomas Norris of Speke
to the heiress of that branch about 1460.' Alan
son of Henry le Norreys in 1325-30 claimed from
John son of Alan le Norreys and Richard de
Molyneux of Sefton three messuages, 20 acres of
land, and other tenements, including a third of the
mill ; the plaintiff failed to appear and was non-
suited.8 William son of John le Norreys claimed
in 1346 a messuage and 40 acres from Maud widow
of Sir Robert de Holand,9 and this suit was continued
by Thomas le Norreys of West Derby. The Speke
branch continued to increase its holding in the town-
ship. In 1364 Sir Henry le Norreys acquired a
messuage and 19 acres from John son of Roger
Daukinson ;10 Sir John le Norreys, his successor,
purchased the inheritance of John de Sutton in Hale-
bank and Gervasefield," and other like charters exist
among the Norris deeds.13
As will have been noticed in some of the deeds already
cited, Hale was used as a surname by some of the
undertenants there. John son of John de Wolfall
in 1318 released to Richard son of Thomas de Hale
his right in 6 acres lying near Halepool in the
Greve Riding, in accordance with a charter made
between the respective fathers.13 In 1327 Thomas
de Lathom brought an accusation of breaking into
his houses at Hale and carrying off his goods against
a large number of the people of the neighbourhood,
including William son of Ralph de Hale, Thomas
son of Roger de Hale, Robert son of Thomas de
Hale, Henry de Holland of Hale, and Adam de
Gerstan." Coldcotes gave its name to the holders ;
lP.R.O.L,,,,p.74.
4 Pink and Beavan, op. cit. p. 87.
8 Fragments, p. 203. See also Gent.
Mag. 1824, i, 209, 200, and 1822, ii,
589.
Among the plants was the 'great palm,'
given to John Blackburne, father of the
above-named Thomas, in 1 737 ; it survived
its removal to Hale for many years, and
continued to bear flowers and fruit an-
nually till its death in 1859; Family of
Ireland Blackburne, p. 43.
6 Some stone shields brought t'rom
Orford Hall are here set up, with the
initials of John Ireland, and the Ireland
arms quartering Hesketh, Holland,
Columbers, Walton, and Merton.
-i Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 14, 23.
8 De Bane. R. 258, m. 163 ; 279,
m. 330^.; 286, m. 266.
» Ibid. 348, m. 390 d. ; 356, m. 436.
" Final Cone, ii, 170.
" Norris D. (B.M.), 144.
w The rental of Thomas Norris (about
these Christopher Ireland was the most
important, paying for Lenall £$ 6s. 8</. ;
Richard Pemberton paid 6s. 8</. for the
Wrohey. The total rental was £7 21. »J.
There was also a survey (made in 1583)
of their lands in Hale held by Thomas,
son of William Webster, and Richard
Wainwright ; the tenant of the latter
had been James Hulgreave, who was
there when (in 1544) Sir William Norris
purchased the Grosvenor lands in Lanes.,
of which this farm was a part.
• Ibid. p. ,01.
in Halewood, Halebank, and Hale ; of
«47
M Cal of Pat. 1327-31, pp. 73,74, 278.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Adam de Coldcotes senior gave a house and the old
garden to his son Henry in 1358.'
The Laghok family had land here. At the begin-
ning of 1325 Richard de Laghok recovered in the
Court of Hale from John de Grelley of Barton (or
John de Barton) and Cecily his wife a toft and 30
acres of land. Seven years later Adam son of
Richard de Lachog transferred the same tenement,
said to lie in ' le Brerehevid ' in Halewood, to
Richard son of Robert de Lachog. The family
acquired various other small properties by various
titles, and in 1364 John son of Roger Daukinson de
Lagog and Joan his wife sold a field called Hond-
field to Sir Henry le Norreys of Speke.2
A little later there appears a John Layot (or Leyot),
possibly of the same family,3 whose career was note-
worthy. He was baptized at Hale, and seems to have
been much attached to this place. He was ordained
deacon in Lent, 1382, on the title of his benefice, the
vicarage at Huyton.4 In later years he is described as
a bachelor of decrees.6 Yet he appears to have
married early in life, perhaps before he started on an
ecclesiastical career. He had at least two sons, Richard
and Robert. Richard was not only a master of arts,
but held the position of chancellor to the duke of
Bedford in 1420, so that he may well have been forty
years of age.6
It was in favour of this son that the father, according
to the Irelands, endeavoured to settle his lands in Hale
without their cognisance. He had acquired lands
there in 1393,' and in order to overawe the lords of
the manor he executed a feoffment to the duke of
Bedford, who by deputy took seisin.8 He died in
1427, and was buried in the middle of the chapel of
Hale, where he had made provision for two chantry
chaplains.9
Various settlements were made. In 1426-7 Master
John Layot, rector of a mediety of the church of
Malpas, granted land in Hopkinsyard to Robert his
son, who duly took possession.10 John Layot junior,
, John and Robert, of
sf Chalke in Wiltshire
who succeeded, had two sons,
whom Robert became rector of
and in 1460 made a settlement of the property ; to
his mother Joan Smerley, if she survived him ; to his
brother John Layot, chaplain, and to Thomas and
William, the sons of John by Ellen, 'formerly his
wife,' and Elizabeth the daughter ; in case of failure
of all heirs the lands must be sold, and the money
delivered to the reeves of the chapel of Hale for its
maintenance, repair, and emendation, for the souls of
Robert himself and his parents, friends, and benefactors."
More than thirty years later still a John Layot,
vicar of Chalke, appears as owner ; and in 1497 he,
then rector of Fyfield, at which place one of the Norris
family was settled, appeared in St. John's, Chester, and
made a statement to the effect that he had made no
private settlement, and that after his death the pro-
perties must, by right of inheritance, pass to Sir
William Norris of Speke."
In the meantime the lord of Hale had not' been
idle. William Ireland had gathered evidence that the
Layot land had been copyhold, and having been trans-
ferred from one to another by deeds without any ap-
pearance before his manor court they were forfeited
to him ; and at Lancaster in 1481 he had brought a
writ of assize of novel disseisin against John Layot,
priest, and Thomas Layot. The court rolls were pro-
duced, but the defendants had such 'great evident
proofs ' by original deeds and evidence of possession
that they won their case easily. Hence there was
no opposition when in 1493, on the death of John
Layot, chaplain, Sir William Norris at the hallmote
of the manor of Hale claimed certain lands there—
though by what right was unknown — and they were
delivered to him ; relief z\d.n
The list of tenants in 1292 summoned to prove
their title to their holdings has been mentioned above.
There is also extant a rental of 1324, commencing
with the name of Simon de Walton, lord of the manor
of Walton.1*
i Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 12, 17.
" Norris D. (B.M.), 138, 140, 193,
194.. In 1470 Thomas Laghoke, citizen
and tallow-chandler of London, son and
heir of William Laghoke, deceased, late
of St. Neots in Huntingdonshire, granted
visiting Rome ; here he procured a dis-
pensation from residence for purposes of
study, Pope John XXIII testifying to
his ' literary knowledge, moral rectitude,
and other praiseworthy gifts ' ; Gregson,
10 Norris D. (B.M.), 167, 1 6 8, and
(Rydal Hall), F. 20. In a contemporary
settlement for lands in Speke the re-
mainders are thus given : — John Layot
junior, Robert Layot, Thomas Layot
Henry Laghoke, barber, his land in Hale;
Ibid. 172.
s Richard Layot of Hale was defendant
in a case of debt in 1353; Assize R.
43?, m. n. Some of the family settled
in Chester ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi,
App. 283 ; xxxix, pp. 266, 552; Norris
D. (B.M.), 1 66.
* Lich. Epis. Reg. v, fol. 1 26*.
* He paid a visit to Rome, for he pro-
cured a free burial place at Hale from Ur-
ban VI (1378 to 1389) ; Family of Ireland
to benefactors of Hale chapel ; Cal. Papal
Letters, vii, which volume contains other
references to Layot.
« Sir John Colville and Richard Leyot,
dean of St. Asaph, were in 1419 entrusted
with the negotiation of a marriage
between John duke of Bedford and the
daughter of Frederick burgrave of
Nuremberg. Richard Leyot was in the
king's service in 1435, and in 1447 was
sent on an embassy to Denmark ; Rymer
Foedera (Syllabus), ii, 611, 661, 678.
named for life ; then to William Norris
(of Speke), and to William dc Ireland ;
Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 21.
Thomas Layot, chaplain, took part in
certain recognizances in Cheshire, in
1435-37; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvii,
441, 462.
11 Norris D. (B.M.), 171.
13 Norris D.(B.M.), 174-8. The lands
included the house known as Layofs Hall,
Part's House, and other lands granted out
to various persons by Richard de Meath,
1389 he became rector of Fornham All
Saints in Suffolk, and next year rector
of Denford in Northants. ; Col. of Pat.
1388-92, pp. 10, 191. In 1393 he
was rector of Coddington near Chest,
resigning in 1394 on appointment as
dean of St. John's, Chest. He was
also a canon of this church, holding the
John's, resigning in 1431, and became
dean of Salisbury in 1446 (being then
LL.D.), holding it until 1449, in which
year probably he died ; Ormerod, op. cit.
i, 308, Le Neve, ii, 616.
^ Norris D. (B.M.), 145, 146, 154.
« Family of Ireland Blackburne, 69.
» Gregson, op. cit. p. 204. Some un-
Holand. The relief paid at Hale is
curious — a silver cup value 40*., z6s. %d.
in money, and a superaltar with all that
a priest needed for ministering the sacra-
's Family of Ireland Blackburne, 61-9:
Norris D. (Rydal Hall), F. 32; ibid.
(B.M.),23o.
death. In 1405 he became rector of a
mediety of Malpas, and also held Bangor
Iscoed ; Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby), ii,
735, 607; i, 308, 310; for other digni-
ties see Le Neve's Fan, \, 601, 630 ;
ii, 203. In 1411 he went abroad, again
John Layot junior, perhaps a brother, who
succeeded John Layot senior as rector of
Coddington in 1394, and was soon after-
wards presented to St. Peter's in Chester ;
Ormerod, Cbes. (Helsbv), ii, 735 ; Dep.
Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, 283 ; xxxix, 108.
I48
379, m. 10. The separate holdings and
services of the others include : John de
Holland, a messuage and 30 acres, paying
yearly a pair of white spurs or zd. ;
Richard de Doustes, the same, but paying
id. more; Roger de Culcheth, 9 acres
I
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The Hospitallers had a rent of \^d. from lands in
Hale.1
An Enclosure Act for Hale and Halewood was passed
in 1800.
In 1343 there were serious disputes between Sir
John de Molyneux and some of his tenants and neigh-
bours at Hale. Richard del Doustes and others were
found guilty of assaulting Sir John, and damages were
assessed at loos. Richard was afterwards assaulted
himself, but he was charged with being a ' common
evil doer,' it being among the accusations against him
that he made various poor persons work for him against
their will. He brought a certain Toya Robin to his
house at Hale, bound his head with a rope, and per-
petrated other enormities upon him to make him
acknowledge that he was one of those who took evil
reports to Sir John de Molyneux and so kept alive the
latter's animosity.*
The recusant roll of 1641 shows that a large num-
ber of the inhabitants adhered to the Roman Catholic
faith.3
The chapel of St. Mary is of ancient
CHURCH origin. It is mentioned in a suit of
1 260, and in the feoftment of Robert de
Ireland in 1322, already quoted. Master John de
Layot's foundation, about 1381, was for a chantry
with two chaplains, but there is no record of it at the
time of the confiscation of such endowments.4
Roger was chaplain of Hale about 1270,* William
Kendal in 1420, and John Cundliff in 1434 ; no
doubt many of the ' chaplains ' mentioned in the
local charters also served there. The fourteenth-
century tower is standing ; but the church, said to
have been a ' black and white' timbered building,
was replaced in 1754 by the present one, which was
in 1874 renovated and refitted by Colonel Ireland
Blackburne. The peal of six bells was given by the
agent to the estates ; the inscription is ' Church and
King — John Watkins, Ditton, 1814.' There were in
the old building the tombs of John Layot (1428),
John Ireland (1462), Sir Gilbert Ireland (1626), and
Sir Gilbert Ireland (1675) ; only the latter, of black
marble, has been preserved.6
The chapel continued in use after the Reformation.
In 1592 the wardens were enjoined to provide a
sufficient register book, &c. In the time of the
Commonwealth the commissioners recommended
that Hale should be made a parish church, because of
the distance from Childwall, and ' because there is not
any person hath any seat or burial place within
Childwall church.' The tithes and Easter roll were
CHILDWALL
the only revenues that could be assigned to it, for it
had no endowment ; Mr. Gilbert Ireland of the
Hutt claimed to be patron.7 Out of the rectory of
Childwall, sequestered from James Anderton of
L9Stock, recusant and delinquent, £36 was allowed
yearly to this chapel, afterwards increased to £40."
Bishop Gastrell about 1717 found the income of the
chaplain to be ^17 17-f., including recent endow-
ments.9
Hale was made a separate chapelry in 1828 10 as a
perpetual curacy. Mr. Ireland Blackburne is the
patron. Among the later incumbents have been : —
I 592-1 598 William Sherlock "
oc. 1 609 Thomas Lydgate "
1635 — Thompson ls
1646 Henry Bolton"
1651 Samuel Crosby
1659 Samuel Ellison 15
oc. 1671 John Nickson
1726
50
— Langford
Francis Ellison
1773 Joseph Airey
1805 Samuel Norman
1813 Joseph Hodgkinson, B.D. (fellow of
Brasenose Coll. Oxon.)16
1 8 1 8 William Stewart, M.A. (Brasenose Coll.
Oxon.) "
1856 Richard Benson Stewart, M.A. (Caius
Coll. Camb.)18
HALEWOOD
This township lies between the old course of the
Ditton Brook on the north and Rams Brook on the
south, both running into the Mersey. Halewood
Green, with a hamlet called North End, is near the
northern boundary. To the south-east of this is the
village. The part of the township bordering on the
Mersey is called Halebank, in which is the site of a
large moated house called Level's Hall.
The area is 3,823^ acres.19 In 1901 there was
a population of 2,095. The country is bare and
flat, with wide, open fields, principally cultivated,
yielding crops of barley, oats, wheat, and root crops
such as turnips and mangel-wurzels. Several wide
main roads traverse the country in every direction,
much appreciated by the cyclist and motorist. There
are very few trees, but good substantial hawthorn
hedges, especially about the farmsteads. On the
Mersey bank is a fringe of flat marshy fields and mud
banks. Houses and farms are very much scattered.
and paying as John de Holland; the
remainder paid money rents. There is
a note recording that 'John le Norreys
held a plot of land there and used to pay
3 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv,
243.
4 Lanes. Chant. (Chet. Soc.), 273, 276 ;
see also In-v. Ch. Gds. (Chet. Soc.), 91.
5 Norris D. (B.M.) 130.
with tithe rent-charges, ibid. 1 5 Aug. 1879,
and 24 Feb. 1882.
" Also curate of Farnworth.
" Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 298.
he gave the same to Robert de Holand
in exchange for a tenement in [West]
Derby.' The sum of the rental was
£8 9,. 8fc/. and three pairs of spurs (or
(id.) whereof 51. ' was in decay.' Then
follows a list of burgesses: William Hauk
holds a messuage and a burgage and pays
i zd. yearly, and so on ; the total being
17^ burgages, paying i8j. The mention
of burgesses may be supplemented by the
6 The inscriptions have been preserved ;
see Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 215-
16. That on Layot's tomb ended— 'Qui-
cunque dixerit devote pro ejus anima Pater
noster et A*>e habebit ccc dies indulgencie
contains monuments of the Irelands and
' Common-wealth Ch. Sur-v. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 66, 195. The 'ad-
14 Signed the ' Harmonious Consent.'
1= Afterwards rector of Warrington.
is See Manch. School Reg. (Chet. Soc.),
ii, 104; he became rector of Didcot in
1817.
17 He wa» curate from 1810. In a
leaflet, Memorials of Hale, he mentions that
a vine on the west side of Parsonage Green,
supposed to be 300 years old, was yielding
a yearly vintage of grapes.
Richard le Mayre.
1 Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84. Thomas
Ireland was the tenant about I 540.
4 Assize R. 430, m. 5 </., 24, 27,
|l4
named in the Ireland inquisitions.
8 Plundered Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 50, 100.
» Notitia Cest.n, 170-1.
10 Land. Gaa. 4 July, 1 828 ; endowed
149
compilation of this list.
« The Census Report of 1901 gives
3,873 acres, including 12 of inland water,
there must be added 89 of tidal water, and
about 175 of foreshore.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The geological formation is triassic, consisting in the
eastern part of the township of the pebble beds of the
bunter series, but a fault running from the mouth of
the Rams Brook to Halewood Station throws down
these beds, and in the central, western, and northern
parts the upper mottled sandstones of the same
series are in evidence.
The township is crossed east and west by two rail-
way lines — the London and North-Western line from
Liverpool to Warrington and to Crewe, with stations
at Halebank and Ditton Junction ; and the Cheshire
Lines Committee's railway between Liverpool and
Manchester, with a station near the village of Hale-
wood, to the west of which the Southport line
branches off. There are numerous roads and cross
roads ; that from Hale village to Widnes runs
parallel to the Mersey bank, about half a mile inland,
and is joined by the road from Liverpool through Wool-
ton, which is in turn joined, near Halebank Station,
by the more northerly road through Gateacre, which
runs along the western boundary. A continuation
of this road, which seems to be the old path from
Liverpool through Childwall to Hale, has degenerated
into a pathway along the boundary between Halewood
and Speke ; the southern part has been somewhat
diverted, but an existing footpath to Hale village
seems to be the true continuation of it. The fields
in Halewood along the footpath are known as Port-
way fields, probably part of the ' Portway ' occurring
in the Much Woolton charters.
In the village is a small brewery. The Ditton
Brook Ironworks by the Mersey have been dis-
continued for many years, but the buildings are used
for a grease factory.
Mr. Willis of Halsnead about 1 790 built a staith
for loading vessels with coal.1
On sinking a well near Ditton Junction station in
1881 some Roman remains were found.2
The township is governed by a parish council.
The manorial history of Halewood has
M4NOR been given in that of Hale, from which it
cannot well be separated. The ' wood of
Hale ' is mentioned in many of the early charters, and
the rights of taking firewood, &c., and of pannage
show that the forest was in this case woodland also.
The mill upon the brook dividing Halewood from
Ditton is mentioned early.
One distinction may perhaps be ancient. It would
appear that the Irelands had Hale for their residence
and manor house, while their superior lords the
Holands fixed upon Halewood. Yet the Hutt, which
became the chief residence of the former family, is
within Halewood, just upon the south-west corner,
forming as it were a ' mere.' It will have been
noticed in the account of Hale that Maud de Holand's
manor in 1423 is described as Halewood ; and down
to the last century the earl of Derby, as possessor of
the Levels' confiscated rights, held a manor court there
about Easter.3 The manor of Halewood was part of
the dower of Charlotte, countess of Derby, in 1628.'
There are court rolls at Knowsley.
The remains of the Old Hutt consist of a three-
story gatehouse facing north-west, now used as a
farmhouse, and standing just within the line of a
quadrangular moat, now dry on all sides except the
south-east, while behind the gatehouse is the entrance
doorway of the main building, an early fourteenth-
century arch with moulded head and jambs. A
length of the inner wall of the south-west wing, with
an early seventeenth-century fireplace, and part of a
mullioned window of the same date, is also standing ;
but otherwise the house, which was doubtless a quad-
rangular building, with an inner courtyard, has been
utterly destroyed. The gatehouse is contemporary
with this fragment, and is built of brick with red
sandstone dressings, with a central roundheaded arch-
way now blocked, and over it two stories of square-
headed mullioned windows of four lights with
transoms. On either side of the upper window are
stone panels with the arms of Ireland, Molyneux, and
Handford, and the building is finished with a pitched
roof having a large timber and plaster panelled cove
at the eaves. The farm buildings north-west of the
moated site are of stone and timber construction,
apparently of the seventeenth century, though part
may be of earlier date. One of the buildings has some
very good specimens of heavy timber ' crucks ' on a
low stone base, and on a stone doorhead in the
western range is a date, partly hidden by a beam,
1 6 . . , and the name lohn Irelande.
The abbot of Stanlaw complained in 1 246 that
Richard de Hale and Alan le Norreys had disseised
him of 1 2 acres of land in Woolton ; but the jury
rejected his claim, saying that the land was within
Hale, not in Woolton.5 ' Hale ' at that time included
Halewood, otherwise there could not have been this
uncertainty as to the boundary.
In 1 349 Alice, widow of Robert de Pemberton,
granted two plots of land in Halewood, called the
Wro and the Riding, to her son William ; and they
were settled on William and his wife Margery, with
successive remainders to their children, John, William,
Henry, and Roger ; and in case of failure, to the work
of St. Peter of Childwall. The lands had descended
in 1402 to Henry Pemberton of Halewood, who
settled them on his son William and his heirs by
Margery his wife, daughter of Simon de Hale of
Eccleston.6 In 1508 John Pemberton sold all his
land in Halewood to Roger Ogle, and six years later
his widow Alice Pemberton made a general release.
Sir William Norris of Speke afterwards purchased it
from Ogle.7
William son of Adam, son of Beatrice of Halewood,
granted to Ralph, son of Ellen, and Ellen his wife
1 Trans. Hist. Sac. xxii, 221.
2 Watkin, Roman Lanes. 228.
s Baines, Lanes, (cd. 1836), iii, 752.
4 Royalist Comf. Papers (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
and Ches.), ii, 182, 225.
* Assize R. 404, m. 1 1 d.
6 Norris D. (B.M.), 185-6,189,199.
- Ibid. 221, 222, 229. A memorandum
that was made upon these deeds in the six-
teenth century gives some insight into the
method of settling boundary disputes.
After naming the twelve men of the lord-
ship of Halewood who knew the meres
parting the lands of Kenwrick and Pem-
berton, it proceeds : * And these four men
were sworne upon a boke to meyte the
seide grounde and they founde ayther parte
in lykemekull : Thomas Tarleton, Robert
Robye, Richard Poghton, Rallyn Part.'
On the back is the statement : ' It is
ordered by my lord of Derby by the advice
of learned counsel that for as much as
John Ogle hath his part of the land by
purchased it and showeth that xii men
that knew the meres of the land by four
men made a certainty of the said John
Ogle's part ; the which the party com-
150
plainant will not agree unto because Ogle's
father was then steward of the lordship ;
the said earl wills that William Brettargh
and William Sergeant shall upon the costs
of both parties at a day appointed go to the
ground and call the said xii men and the
plainant can prove 'that the land be not
indifferently bounded and mered and
" dealed " every party " lyke mych," that
they see it reformed accordingto conscience
and right ; and every party to occupy their
own without interruption of other in the
THE OLD HUTT, HALEWOOD : THE GATEHOUSE
THE OLD HUTT, HALEWOOD : ENTRANCE DOORWAY
HUYTON
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
3 acres in a field called Crosbyhouses, one headland
abutting on the king's highway on the west.1 Adam
son of Richard Dawson of Den ton, in 1357 sold to
Henry, son of Alan le Norreys of Speke a messuage
and 5 acres in Halewood, abutting towards the high-
way and towards Ruscar mill.'
Robert de Dalton had lands here in 1 347, and Sir
John his son, lord of Bispham, had the same ; a
settlement was made in 1367, the remainders being to
John and Robert, sons of John, son of Sir Robert.
There were a house and garden and 40 acres of land,
held of Sir Robert de Holland in socage by js. service
yearly. In 1443 Robert, younger son of Sir John Dalton,
and grandson of another Sir John, sued Katherine, widow
of his elder brother Richard, concerning these lands ;
his niece Alice was called to warrant her mother. In
1472 Robert Dalton of Bispham and Richard his son
and heir apparent leased to Robert Lathom of Allerton
CHILDWALL
all their lands in Halewood for thirty-nine years at a
rent of 40*. ; and Robert Lathom transferred this
lease to Thomas Norris of Speke.8
John de Blackburn of Garston in 1405 held
a piece of land called Holland Place, of the hospital
of St. John at Chester.9 Halewood is called a ' vill '
in a deed of 1349 5 aD°ut 1470 the term 'lordship'
Among the ' Papists 'in 1717 Richard Burscough
of Leyburn, and Robert and Thomas Quick registered
estates at Halewood." Mrs. Blackburne of the Hutt'
contributed nearly a third of the land tax in 1787 ;
the remainder was in small sums.
For the Established worship St. Nicholas' was built
as a chapel of ease in 1839; it was made into a rectory
in 1868." The patron is the bishop of Liverpool.
There is a Wesleyan chapel at Halebank, built
in 1861.
HUYTON
KNOWSLEY
HUYTON WITH ROBY
The extreme length of the ancient parish of Huyton
from north to south is over seven miles, and its breadth
about three and a half. The area is 10,383^ acres.3
The highest ground is in Knowsley Park, about 330 ft.
above sea level.
Before the Conquest half was held by Uctred and
half by Dot, each holding one hide. After the Con-
quest, though Croxteth Park was cut off, the parish
was given, perhaps not all at once, to the barons of
Halton as part of their fee of Widnes.1 By these
again the whole, as one knight's fee, was granted to
the Lathom family or their predecessors in title. The
partition indicated in Domesday Book again reveals it-
self, Roby and Knowsley being retained as demesne,
while Huyton and Tarbock became parted among
junior branches of the Lathom family.
To the old county lay, the three townships paid
equally ; 4 to the fifteenth Huyton with Roby paid
£i idj. 6$<t., Knowsley £i 01. (>\d., and Tarbock
TARBOCK
CROXTETH PARK (EXTRA-PAROCHIAL)
the subsidy roll of 1628 only one man — Peter
Stockley of Knowsley — paid double as a convicted
recusant.13
The Civil War also produced little or no disturbance
in Huyton. Lord Derby's property was of course seized,
but Knowsley was reserved for his children and
countess, and of the sequestrations for religion or poli-
tics there are only the cases of Bootle," Brookfield,15
Holme,16 and Hutchins17 in Knowsley, and Harrington
in Huyton. The influence of William Bell, vicar of
Huyton during the Commonwealth, was sufficient to
bring round him a congregation of Nonconformists
after the re-establishment of the Anglican system, and
he ministered to them for some years.
The agricultural land in the parish is thus returned :
Arable land, 3,481 acres; permanent grass, 1,954
acres; woods and plantations, 1,021 acres. The
following are the details :
Arable Grass Woods, &c.
The story of the parish is uneventful. The Refor- Huyton with Rol
mation seems to have made no commotion here.' In Knowsley
i Hale D. Michael Tyldesley of Huyton, and two
a Norris D. (B.M.), 190. others were excommunicated as being non-
3y 1,620 579 15
1,861 1,375 J;006
" Royalist Comf. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
and Ches.), i, 209-10.
The petition of the widow and children
of John Bootle of Knowsley showed that
two-thirds of his land, held on lease from
the earl of Derby, had been sequestered for
'delinquency.' Henry Bootle, as a tenant
of the earl's, had to take part in the war
and had actually fought at Edge Hill on the
king's side ; afterwards, however, he had
an opportunity of changing, and served for
two years for the Parliament.
" Margaret Brookfield being a papist
had had two-thirds of her tenement in
Knowsley sequestered for her life ; ibid.
' " Anne Holme had suffered a similar
penalty for the same divergence from the
laws in force ; after her death the heirj
prayed for a removal of the sequestration ;
ibid, iii, 251.
'7 Benjamin Boult, of Knowsley, pe-
titioned for the restoration of the estate
of an uncle, William Hutchins, B.D. se-
questered for delinquency ; ibid, iii, 307.
acres, including 95 acres of inland water.
4 Half at least before 1086.
5 Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 16;
the whole paid £6 51. when the hundred
6 Ibid. 1 8 ; the total is £4 131. 8J</.,
when the hundred paid £106.
• In 1584 George Stockley, yeoman,
for his wife ' ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 227,
(quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. clxxv, n. 21).
An informer sent the following list : ' Mr.
Woofall, Hugh Parr, gent., Rafe Corsage,
yeoman, and John Molinex ' ; ibid. In
1590 John Ogle of Roby, a 'gentleman of
the better sort,' was ' a comer to church
but no communicant ' ; Gibson, op. cit.
226, 246. At the bishop of Chester's visita-
tion in i 592, Hamlet Ditchfield, Elizabeth
wife of William Ditchfield, Margaret wife
of John Ditchfield, Mary Wolfall, widow,
and Isabel her maid, Elizabeth wife of
wards, however, the two first-named were
said to have begun to attend church
regularly ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),
x, 1 86.
8 Norris D. (B.M.), 195, 214 ; Pal. of
Lane. Plea R. 5, m. 13*; 6, m. 10 b;
8, m. 25 ; 8, m. 26 ; 9, m. 19 A; Inq.
p.m. 21 Edw. Ill, No. 63, and 43 Edw. Ill
(i), No. 31.
" Towneley MS. DD, 1457.
1° Norris D. (B.M.), 186, &c.
11 Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 122, 149.
"The tithes of the township were
granted in 1867, and the rectory was after-
wards declared ; Land. Gaz. 23 Aug. 1867;
24 Jan. 1868.
1" Norris D. (B.M.). The recusant roll
of 1641 gives nine families of recusants
twelve in Knowsley (including j'ames
Stockley and his wife) ; Tarbock is omitted;
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 242-3.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The later history of the parish has been just as even
and tranquil. The growth of Liverpool has had the
effect of transforming Huyton to some extent into a
suburb, and Roby has also been affected ; but Tarbock
remains agricultural, its collieries having given out, and
Knowsley is divided between agricultural land and
the park.
The freeholders in 1 600, in addition to the manorial
families, were William Spencer and Edward Stockley of
Huyton, Robert Knowles and John Easthead of Tar-
bock.1 The subsidy roll of 1628 shows as landowners
John Harrington and Thomas Wolfall in Huyton,
Robert Knowles in Tarbock, and Peter Stockley in
Knowsley * ; the two first-named compounded on re-
fusing knighthood in 1 63 I.3
The hearth-tax return of 1662 shows a considerable
number of houses with four hearths and upwards.*
The church is dedicated in honour
CHURCH of St. Michael, and stands on high
ground in the north-west of the village,
the ground falling from it on all sides. Being built of
the local red sandstone, which weathers badly, it has
been almost entirely re-faced in modern times, and
shows no ancient work outside, except some rubble
masonry at the north-west angle of the original nave
and a few details on the tower.
In 1555 the church of Huyton was reported to be
in a very ruinous condition, and Philip and Mary
ordered an inquiry. The chancel, measuring 31 ft.
by 30 ft., was so dilapidated that service could not be
held there, the body of the church only being used.
The stonework seems to have been sound, for about
£$ was the estimated cost of repairs, but the roof was
' ready to fall,' and the timber and workmanship would
cost £22 ; in addition the slating would be £5, and
the glass and other small necessaries about 5O/.5 It
does not appear that any substantial repairs were made,
for about 1592 the lay rector was called upon to re-
pair the chancel, which was 'ruinated.'6
The building consists of chancel 3 4 ft. by 2 4 ft., with
north vestry and organ chamber, nave 60 ft. by 25 ft.,
with aisles and south porch, and west tower. So little
ancient work remains that nothing can be said of the
development of the plan, but the irregularity of the
line of the south arcade of the nave is noticeable. The
north side of the nave was rebuilt in 1815, and the
south, east, and west' walls in 1822, while a further
general repair took place in 1873." The chancel roof
is stone slated, the aisles have blue slates, and the nave
is covered with copper sheeting. The chancel has a
five-light east window with tracery and three single-
light windows in the north and south walls, all being
modern. On the south side is a small priest's door-
way with a four-centred head, which appears to be of
late fifteenth-century work, and retains its old door,
though now built up. The chancel roof dates from
the repairs of 1663, and is an interesting example, with
hammer beams and turned pendants, and curved
brackets below the lower hammer beams.9 There is
no chancel arch, and no evidence of the date of re-
moval of any which formerly existed, the chancel roof
being designed for the present arrangement.
The north arcade and aisle of the nave are modern,
but the south arcade is of the latter part of the four-
teenth century, with plain chamfered arches of two
orders, and octagonal moulded capitals and shafts.
The curve which is to be seen in its line is doubtless
due to some process of adaptation to older work which
has now disappeared. The south doorway of the nave
is in part of the fifteenth century, having a pointed
head under a square label, with panelled spandrels and
quatrefoils in the hollow moulding of the head and
jambs. The ornamental tooling in the quatrefoils
seems to be in part old, and is a curious detail.
The nave clearstory is of a very plain type, not un-
common in the neighbourhood, with square-headed
windows of three uncusped lights, and the roof is of
low pitch with moulded tiebeams, ridges and purlins,
and carved brackets, probably late fifteenth-century
work. Over the eastern tiebeam is the Stanley crest,
and on the next beam a cherub's head of seventeenth-
century style.
The west tower is of three stages, with a vice in the
south-west angle, and has retained but little old detail.
Over the west doorway is a band of panelling, and the
west window above it has a fifteenth-century crocketed
label, though all the rest of its stonework is modern ;
The tower buttresses also retain the stumps of pinnacles
on their lower sets-off. The tower arch is of two
orders, the inner order dying out above the springing.
The chancel screen is a very good example, with a
wide central doorway and seven openings on either
side, their heads and those of the solid panels below
being filled with elaborate tracery. Above is a cornice
carved with a vine pattern and surmounted by open
cresting. The screen dates from c. 1500, and has two
canopied niches on either side of the central opening,
and above it a shield bearing a fret [Harrington]
impaling six fleurs de lys with a crescent for difference
[Ireland]. In the spandrels are crowned roses flanked
by two other shields.
There was formerly an interesting inscription on
the screen as follows : —
,6
PVLD DOWNE ,N T.ME OF REBELLION +? SET UP AND
REPARED BY IOHN HARINGTON ESQUIRE 1663 FECIT
RICHARD HALSALL.
This was taken away at the last ' restoration ' and has
not yet been recovered.
No other woodwork in the church is old, except
the litany desk, which is a curious piece of work, ap-
parently of seventeenth - century date, rectangular,
with carvings on each side, the Five Wounds, the IHS
monogram, the Agnus, with an inscription ECCE
AGNUM (sic) DEI, and a shield between the letters A s.
The font now in use is octagonal with a panelled
bowl and moulded base, and dates from the latter
part of the fifteenth century ; the bowl appears to
have been cut down. At the east end of the south
i Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
238-43-
> Norris D. (B.M.).
"Mia. (Rec. Soc.), i, 213.
* In Huyton, John Harrington and
William Wolfall each had ten, Thomas
Wolfall seven, the vicarage six, Thomas
I.yon and John Case five each. Jonathan
Williamson in Roby had eleven hearths ;
Robert Hutchins five. Tarbock had John
Marshall's house with five. At Knowsley
Hall there were seventy-two hearths; then
come the dwellings of John Greenhalgh
with seven and Mrs. Isabel Houghton
five. Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvi,
s Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), iii, 191-2.
6 Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x, 1 86.
' Except the north-west angle, as noted
above.
8 A view of the church in 1816 is
in Gregson's Fragments, 228. See also
Glynne, Lanes. Churches (Chet. Soc.),
the spandrels.
152
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
aisle is a second font, found under the west tower in
1873. It belongs to the first half of the twelfth
century, and has a round bowl ornamented with
eleven arched panels, in each of which is a human
head, and above a row of five-pointed stars.1 It is set
on a modern pedestal. In the east part of the church-
yard is what may be a third font, quite plain, with a
hole in one side, which is probably the ground for a
tradition that it was formerly used for grinding corn.
Before 1871 the font now in use stood in the
chancel near the priest's door, and the middle of the
east end of the nave was taken up with a large ' three-
decker ' of pulpit, reading desk, and clerk's desk.
At the east end of the south aisle is a slab with a
tonsured effigy wearing a monastic habit, much
damaged but of very good style, c. 1 300, and in the
chancel are several late brass plates, one to Jonathan
Fletcher, archdeacon of Sodor and Man, 1668,'
another to John Stockley, 1695, another to John
Lowe, vicar, 1 706, and another to Elizabeth Farren,
countess of Derby, 1829.
The church plate consists of a silver cup and cover
paten of 1695, the cup inscribed 'The gift of Capt.
John Case of Redhassles, Anno Domini 1695 ' ; two
plates inscribed ' The gift of Dorothy Case,' with the
mark of Benjamin Branker, a Liverpool silversmith ;
a breadholder of 1714 ; a flagon of 1719 with the
arms of Case ; two modern chalices of Sheffield make,
1873; a silver-topped glass cruet ; and a strainer of
1799.
There are six bells, the treble, second, and fourth
by C. and G. Mears of Whitechapel, 1846, the third
and fifth by the same firm as Mears and Stainbank,
1872, while the tenor is inscribed : —
IACOBUS WILLIAM EARLE OF DARBIS ED. TORBUK ESQ.
IAC. HARINCTON ESQ. HEN. STANLEY ESQ. 1606 TOM.
STANLEY ESQ. TO. WOOLFALL GEN. ED. STOCKEY.
IOHN ORME. W.M. W.D. I.H.
A small bell formerly here was given to the new
church of St. Gabriel in 1894.
' On Sunday one bell is rung at 7 a.m., and two
bells at 8 a.m., in addition to the ordinary ringing for
divine service. The passing bell is tolled as follows —
two for a child under twelve, three for a woman, and
four for a man ; after a short interval the bell is again
HUYTON
tolled for a number of strokes equal to the age of
the deceased. The curfew bell is rung from the first
Thursday after the 1 2 October — this date being what
is known as Huyton Wakes — and continues ringing
each evening to the 25 March.'3
North-east of the church stands the late seventeenth-
century mausoleum of the Case family, now used as a
quire vestry. On its east wall is a tablet to Elizabeth
wife of John Case, 1681.
The registers begin in 1578. In a terrier of 1778
they are described as in three old books — 1578-1667,
1672-1726, and 1727-1759; and two new books
beginning in 1759 an(i J754 respectively.
One volume of churchwardens' accounts exists for
1783-1834.
The church of Huyton was
JDrOWSON granted by Robert son of Henry
de Lathom to the priory he
founded at Burscough about 1189.*
In 1277 Roger de Meulan, bishop of Lichfield,
ordained a vicarage. Its possessions were to be the
competent residence (manse) which the chaplains had
been accustomed to have, next to the cemetery, and
three selions of land extending as far as the wood, the
prior and canons having right of way across them to
their grange. Its revenues were to be various offer-
ings, as those at marriages and burials, in Lent, candles
at the Purification, &c., also small tithes. The vicar
was, however, to pay half the ordinary charges upon
the church, such as synodals and the like, and to be
responsible for extraordinary ones, on the assumption
that his income was 10 marks. The dean and
chapter of Lichfield saw and confirmed this ordinance,
as did the prior and convent of Coventry.5 The
vicars were sometimes canons of Burscough Priory and
sometimes secular priests. The prior and convent
were patrons down to the suppression; after which
the crown presented to the vicarage until it sold the
rectory.
In 1291 the church was said to be worth £10*
In Henry VIII's time £21 is. zd. was the value of the
rectory, and £6 9^. that of the vicarage.7 From a
rental of this time it appears that £6 i p. ^d.
(10 marks) was paid to the vicar by the prior and
canons, who also paid a fee of 26^. %d. to their bailiff
at Huyton.8
1 Tram. Hist. Soc. xxvi, 83 ; ibid. (New
Ser.), xvii, 70.
6 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 249.
The value of the ninth of sheaves,
The yearly value of the tithe of corn
in Knowsley was estimated at £4, and
full of false quantities.
8 Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxiv, 86.
•• Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 350.
This grant was confirmed shortly after-
wards by Geoffrey de Muschamp, bishop
of Lichfield, and his successors William
de Cornhilt and Alexander de Stavenby.
The latter in one of his grants about
1228 specially mentions the poverty of
1 6 marks; Huyton and Roby 5 marks,
Knowsley 5$, and apparently Tarbock
(not named) also ;J ; Inj. Nonarum (Rec.
Com.), 40.
1 Valor. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 222. In
a return made in 1527 the value to the
priory is given as 20 marks ; Duchy of
Lane. Rental &.
8 Duchy of Lane. Rentals, jj .
in the occupation of Robert Bethom.
These seem to have been let by the royal
commissioners to Sir William Leyland for
io6j. 8rf., 'and not more because the de-
mesne lands of the manor of Knowsley
which were wont to be sown yearly are
now enclosed within the park of Knows-
ley and there lie for pasture.' Tithe hay
of Knowsley and Roby produced 105. $d.t
,ordination of a vicarage. The dean and
priory from this parish were 205. from the
ing beasts ; Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts.
(charter of 1232. See Def. Keeper's Rep.
Xxxv, App. 35 ; Rep. xxxvi, App. 200;
Burscough Reg. fol. 68A, 69, 68A, 25*,
6\5*, 66. Pope Gregory IX, in 1228,
give a general confirmation of the grants
to the canons, including the church of
Huyton ; ibid. fol. 636.
3 Burscough Reg. fol. 67. The prior and
canons had in later times disputes with
the vicars as to tithes ; for instance with
John Layot, the agreement with him being
confirmed by Urban VI in 1377-8; ibid,
fol. 104.
3
within Knowsley park ; 31. 6d. rent from
Red Hazels at Huyton, and other small
rents from fields and cottages in Knows-
ley, Huyton, and Tarbock, the vicar of
Huyton being in several cases the tenant.
The tithe barn at Tarbock had been leased
in 1522 by Prior Robert Harvey to the
vicar for thirty-four years at a rent of £6 ;
the tithe corn of Huyton,Roby,and Wolfall
had been leased by him in 1 5 3 1 to the vicar
and two chantry priests for £7 1 31. 4</.,
the vicar to give IQJ. for his heriot and
the others 5*. each.
153
The last item is explained in one of the
rentals thus : For each cow having a calf
id. was paid; for each calf less than
seven \d. ; if there were seven calves the
parson could claim one on paying i\d., if
eight or nine on paying id. or j</., if ten
a calf was due without any payment. For
each swarm of bees id. was paid, and for
each colt also id. ; Duchy of Lane. Ren-
tals 4/6A. A dispute as to this class of
tithes was settled in 1422 ; Anct. D. L.
276. See Def. Keeper's Rep. xxxv, App.
35-
2O
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
In 1553 Queen Mary leased the rectory of Huyton
to Sir Urian Brereton for twenty-one years ; and in
1568 Queen Elizabeth demised it to Lawrence
Mynter, for thirty-one years after the expiry of the
preceding lease, at a rent of £2 1 p. ii d. The
rectory was in 1602 sold for £955 l<)J. id. to
Edward Cason and Richard Barrell, to be held at
the same rent. Three years later, the grantees trans-
ferred it to Edward Torbock, junior (afterwards Sir
Edward), for £1,380 ; the rent of £21 3/. lid. was
to be paid ' at the audit to be holden in the honour
and fee of Halton.' The rectory, like the manor of
Tarbock, came into the possession of Sir Richard
Molyneux. The latter's descendants have since sold
various portions of the rectory ' — the advowson and
the tithes of all the townships except Tarbock — to
the earls of Derby and the Seels ; the earl of Sefton
is still the rector of Huyton, being responsible for the
due repair of the chancel, and has the tithes of
Tarbock.1 The earl of Derby presents to the
vicarage.
The following is a list of the vicars : —
Institution
oc. 1291 . . .
i 2 March, 1 308-9
25 Jan. 1338-9 .
23 Sept. 1349 •
15 April, 1378 .
oc. 1381-2
Name
Henry9
Thurstan de Wigan ....
Adam de Ashton 10
Adam de Ruycroft " . . . .
William de Donington "...
William Bryde
Simon le Walsschs ls . . . .
Robert de Breton 14 ....
John de Forneby 15
Patron
Burscough Priory
Burscough Priory
Burscough Priory
Burscough Priory
oc. 1394 . . .
oc. 1418 . . .
27 Oct. 1433. .
5 Feb. 1454-5 •
20 May, 1461 .
7 Sept. 1473 . .
oc. 1488 . . .
— Dec. 1495
Thomas del Ryding " .
Richard de Kar I8 (or Baxter) . .
Robert Laithwayte 19 . . .
John Lathom '"
Ralph Langley21
Thomas Reynold, LL.B.21 . .
JohnTyrell23
John Haydock'4 . .
Burscough Priory
Burscough Priory
3 May, 1517 . .
— i«8 .
Roger Mason K
Tames Smith .
The Commonwealth surveyors in 1650 reported
that the tithes were worth £i 50 per annum ; of this
£80 was paid to Mr. Bell. The vicarage was worth
£10, and the profits were in the hands of Mr.
Starkie.3 Bishop Gastrell about 1720 found the
value of the vicarage to be £4.2, including the house
and tithes ; there was also £s, a year for a charity
sermon.4 In 1778 the value was about £6$, includ-
ing the modus in lieu of tithes, £42, the vicarage
house and ' fourteen young lime trees in the church-
yard.' 5 The value is now given as £600.
Copyhold land in Deysbrook Lane, West Derby, is
held by the churchwardens of the parish church in
trust for the repair of the building.6
Of the earlier clergy of Huyton the names of two
only have been preserved — Ernald, who was chaplain
in 1191,' and Richard son of Robert (formerly rector
of Walton), who was rector about 1228, probably the
' Richard rector of Huyton ' occurring a little later
than this, and the Richard de Walton rector in
1254.'
Cause of Vacancy
d. of Th.de Wigan
d. of A. de Ruycroft
d. of W. Bryde
d. of R. de Breton
res. J. Lathom
d. of R. Langley
d. of J. Tyrell
d. of J. Haydock
1 There appears to have been a tem-
cloth and napkin ; two surplices, a Bible
11 Adam de Ruycroft appears as early
as 131? in one of the Ince-Blundel
1660, for the earl of Southampton pre-
Homilies. The plate, all of silver and
charters. It is possible he is the same a .
sented in 1663, and about 1670 Charles
kept in an oak chest, consisted of a flagon,
Adam de Ashton.
earl of Maryborough paid the crown a
a chalice (given by Captain John Case, of
"Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 113.
rent of £21 01. -jd. for the rectory of
the Red Hazels, in 1695), two plates
18 Ibid, ii, fol. 124. He was there ii
Huyton ; Pat. 22 Chas. II, pt. 2 (ist R.).
(given by Dorothy Case), a paten and a
1369 (?) ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 231.
' Croxteth D. Z. ii, 2, 3 ; iv, 1 1 ; &c.
salver ; there were also four bells, three
"Vicar in 1367 (?) ; ibid. fol. 270.
» Commonw. Cb. Sur-u. (Rec. Soc.
biers, and two hearse cloths ; three old
One of the dates must be wrong.
Lanes, and Ches.), 71. A petition from
registers and two new ones.
« Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 89* ; he wa .
the inhabitants of Huyton about the
6 The earliest entry in the West Derby
a priest.
beginning of 1649 complained that Lord
Court Rolls is dated 1476, and mentions
18 Ibid, v, fol. 126*; a notice of hi.
Molyneux had as yet, under compulsion,
Ralph Knoll of Knowsley, deceased, as
ordination. See the account of Hale.
made no ' settlement ' of the rectory of
the benefactor. In 1829 the land was
V Occurs in various charters fro: .
Huyton, and that Mr. Bell, 'a learned
let at a rent of £16, and in 1900 at £13,
1394-1407. He was previously chaplai i
/
and painful divine, being appointed by the
Parliament vicar there,' had not above
out of which 21. t>d. was allowed to the
tenant for bringing the money to Huyton.
at Huyton ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 270, & J
18 Towneley MS. in Chet. Lib. C. : J
£20 per annum to maintain him ; and
No manorial payments have been made
20. He was in 1433 promoted to Seftoi ]
the parish being very great, consisting of
nor any of the incidents of copyhold
19 Lich. Epis. Reg. ix, fol. 122 ; he v, s
about 1,000 persons, so it could not be
tenure observed within living memory ;
priest.
expected that any good painful man would
End. Char. Rep. (Huyton), 1900.
20 Ibid, xi, loi, n.
continue long to officiate the said cure
' Burscough Reg. fol. 684, 69.
» Ibid, xii, 99. He was a canon f
upon so small an allowance ; Royalist
Comp. Pap. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
8 Ibid. fol. 69* ; Tram. Hist. Soc. xxxii,
1 88; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Burscough, and had an augmentation .f
his stipend as vicar ; see Dtp. Keept s
iv, 154.
Ches.), i, 116; Pipe Roll, 39 Hen. Ill,
Rep. xxxvi, App. 200.
" Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 177.
oblata.
aa Lich. Epis. Reg. xii, fol. 107*.
5 Terrier preserved in the church. The
* He had a son Adam ; Kuerden MSS.
*> Kuerden MSS. iii, T. 2, n. 2.
church furniture consisted of the com-
ii.fol. 270, n. 68, 73,139.
>" Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii, fol. 158*.
munion table with cloth covering, a linen
10 I.ich. Epis. Reg. i, fol. 56*.
*> Ibid, xiii-xiv, fol. 59*.
154
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Institution
8 Aug. 1558 . .
oc. 1569 . . .
i July, 1 587 .
Name
Edward (Edmund) Lowe 1 . . .
William Wade
Roger Devias *
Patron
The Crown . . .
The Crown . . .
27 Jan. 1607-8 .
13 July, 1615 .
oc. 164.5 (1653) .
Samuel Hankinson, B.A.3 ....
Lawrence Starkie4
William Bell, M.A
Edward Torbock .
Sir R. Molyneux .
* Free election of
1 6 Feb. 1662-3 •
John Lowe5
people '
Earl of Southampton
30 Sept. 1706
25 May, 1708 .
14 Dec. 1737. .
10 July, 1765
26 May, 1786 .
10 Sept. 1809
12 Aug. 1813
1 8 Aug. 1869 .
1 5 July, 1890 .
James Lowe
Thomas Fleetwood, M.A.6 . . .
Edward Jones
Thomas Mallory, LL.B.7 ....
John Barnes, M.A.8
Geoffrey Hornby, LL.B.' . . .
Ellis Ashton, B.D.10
Oswald Henry Leycester Penhryn,
M.A.11
Edward Manners Sanderson, M.A.1*
Duke of Somerset .
William Farington
Jacob Jones .
Lord Strange .
Earl of Derby . .
HUYTON
Cause of Vacancy
res. of Jas. Smith
d. of last incumbent
d. of Roger Devias
d. of S. Hankinson
ejection of W. Bell
d. of John Lowe
d. ofT. Fleetwood
d. of E. Jones
d. ofT. Mallory
d. of J. Barnes
res. of G. Hornby
d. of E. Ashton
res. of O. Penrhyn
Roger Mason, instituted in 151
held the benefice for forty years.11
10 marks had been paid by Burscough Priory, and he
himself was described in 1535 as 'canon.' In 1541
there was a staff of six priests ; " in 1 548 the visita-
tion list shows an increase to eight. In 1554 the
number had fallen back to six, and the two chantry
priests appear to have died shortly afterwards ; the
staff consisted practically of the aged vicar and his
curate, who seems to have been absent.15 Roger
Mason was for a brief period succeeded by James
Smith, whose place was filled by Edmund (or
seems to have Edward) Lowe on the presentation of Philip and
His stipend of Mary. In 1562 Edmund Lowe appeared as vicar ; the
name of the curate, Hugh Brekell, was erased, and John
Whitefield16 written instead. In 1565 Lowe appeared
alone, the six or eight clergy of the pre-Reformation
times having been reduced to one.1' Though he
must have complied with the Elizabethan changes to
some extent, he showed himself hostile as far as he
dared.18 How long he continued at Huyton is un-
known, but in 1569 William Wade was vicar.18
Nothing appears to be known about him or his
successor, Roger Devias, except that the latter in
a Act Books at Chester.
Rec. at Chester.
1858, and now rector of Winwick and
» Ibid. He was educated at Magdalen
John Lowe was returned as 'con-
honorary canon of Liverpool.
Hall and St. Edmund Hall, Oxf. (B.A.
formable' in 1689; Kenyan MSS. (Hist.
la Educated at Trinity Coll., Camb.
11585); and was vicar of Hillingdon,
MSS. Com.), 229.
(M.A. 1875) ; was formerly vicar of
Middlesex, in 1588, and of Aughton in
« Thomas Fleetwood, n of Thomas
Weston St. Mary's, Line. (1875-90);
1601. In 1613 he was presented to
Fleetwood of Prescot, ' pi beian,' entered
Liverpool Dioc. Cal. He is a descendant
Derby, and held it with Huyton till his
teen ; Foster's Alumni Oxo The patron
Canterbury, 1805-28.
death in 1615. See Foster, Alumni
for that turn was a kinsm .
13 Valor Eccl. v, 222, 224 ; Clergy List,
Oxon. ; Ormerod, Cba. (ed. Helsby), i,
7 Thomas Mallory, so and heir of
1541-2 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.)k 15 ;
332. He died at Huyton 10 July, 1615,
George Mallory of Mobberley, in Ches.
Visit. Lists of Chest. The 'Thomas
and was buried there 5 Harl. MS. 2177.
was born 28 Nov. 1727; educated at
Mason' of 1 541-2 is probably an error.
< Act Books. For dates of institution
Trinity Coll. Camb. (LL.B. 1754);
Roger's will is dated 12 May, 1557. He
of most of the later vicars see Lanes, and
became rector of Mobberley 1770, and
bequeathed 20 marks for as many poor
Ches. Antiq. Notes, from the Institution
held the two benefices till his death
maids of Huyton to help them to con-
Books, P. R. O. ; also Croston's ed. of
at Huyton on 28 Jan. 1786. His son,
venient marriage, zos. to the mending of
Baines, v, 69-72.
also rector of Mobberley, became a fellow
the way from Huyton to Prescot, and
Lawrence Starkie, described as of the
of Manchester Church ; Ormerod, Ches.
131. 4</. to the mending of Ditchfield
'University of Oxford,' was also master
(ed. Helsby), i, 42:.
lane, also various sums to the poor, and
of the grammar school ; Local Gleanings
Lanes, and Ches. ii, 115. He is not in
8 John Barnes was son of a clergyman,
Thomas Barnes of South Molton in
in particular 'penny dole* to the poor
who should attend his funeral; Wills
Foster's Alumni. In 1650 as above
Devonshire, and brother of Dr. Francis
(Lanes, and Ches. Rec. Soc.), 181.
stated the Parl. Com. found that ' the
Barnes, master of Peterhouse, Camb.
" The vicar, his curate, two chantry
profits of the vicarage were in the hands
He matriculated at Oxf. Balliol Coll.)
priests, and two others paid by Harring-
of Mr. Lawrence Starkie,' though
in 1770, being eighteen years old ; M.A.
ton and Tarbock.
William Bell is called 'vicar' in 1645.
1778 ; Foster, Alumni.
« Visit, lists.
Starkie was buried at Huyton 10 March,
1652-3 ; Trans. Hist. Sac. xxxiv, 100.
9 Geoffrey Hornby, LL.B. (Peterhouse,
Camb.), was nephew of the patron ; he
" Hugh Brekell was ordained priest
17 Dec. 1558. A John Whitfield was
The king's preacher at Huyton in
became vicar of Ormskirk in 1812, rector
ordained priest on the previous 24 Sept.
1609 was William Harrison, celebrated
of Aylmerton and Felbrigg, Norfolk, in
Ordin. Book (Rec. Soc.), 115, 112.
for ' the extraordinary impressions which
1813, on which he resigned Huyton ; and
W The above particulars are from the
his preaching often produced on the minds
of Bury in 1818 ; Foster, Index Eccl. 91.
Visit, books preserved at Chester.
of the young and thoughtless, especially
10 Ellis Ashton was a younger son of
18 In 1 564 Edmund Lowe was presented
on occasion of his lecturing at markets
Nicholas Ashton of Woolton. He was
for having ' made holy water and other-
or fairs ' ; Halley, Lanes. Puritanism, i, 237.
educated at Brasenose Coll., Oxf.;
wise offended against the queen's majesty's
A sermon of his, printed in 1614, is in
(M.A. 1813, B.D. 1821), of which he
proceedings ' ; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.),
the Warrington Library.
became a fellow ; he was presented by
xxii, 232.
> In 1665 John Lowe, vicar, was pre-
the college to the rectory of Begbroke in
19 1569— Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.),
sented 'for not reading divine service as
1821, and held this with Huyton until
xxii, 56 (called 'Wood'); 1576— Pen-
he ought,' omitting and slighting the
his death, II July, 1869, aged eighty.
nant's Acct. Bk. (MS.); 1578— Trans.
prayers ' as his pleasure is, to the great
Foster, Alumni.
Hist. Soc. xxxiv, 98.
'55
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
1590 was described as 'no preacher." Mr. Han-
kinson, however, is said to have been an excellent
one ; he was one of the King's Preachers for the
county.1 There was a ' lecturer ' at Huyton in
1622.'
William Bell is probably the most distinguished of
the vicars of Huyton. He was son of William Bell
of Manchester, and is described as M.A. of Oxford.4
He was one of the King's Preachers in Lancashire,
but willingly conformed to the Presbyterian constitu-
tion in 1 646, joining the ' Harmonious Consent ' of
1648. The commissioners of 1650 described him
as 'a man well qualified for all parts, and a godly,
studious preaching minister, who came into that place
[the vicarage] by the free election of the people and
the approbation of the Parliament.' On his tomb-
stone it said that he was vicar ' above twenty years,'
but the ' free election of the people ' suggests an
appointment later than 1642.* He was ejected in
1662, not being able to accept everything in the
revised Prayer Book, and retired to Manchester ; after
a time he returned to Huyton and opened a meeting-
house for Nonconformists (1672), dying there in
1683-4, 'n n's eightieth year.6 His will has been
printed.7
St. Gabriel's chapel of ease at Huyton Quarry was
consecrated on i November, i894-s
Two chantries were founded here at the altar of
St. Mary by Richard de Winwick, canon of Lincoln, as
brother and heir of John de Winwick, formerly treasurer
of the cathedral of York, who was buried in Huyton
church. John appears to have procured the rectory
of Radcliffe-upon-Soar in Nottinghamshire from the
prior of Norton in 1358, with the intention of
endowing at Oriel College, Oxford, exhibitions for
poor scholars. He died in the following year, and
his brother obtained, in 1 38 1, the appropriation of the
rectory to the priory of Burscough on the ground of
the poverty of the house ; the canons, however, in
addition to paying the vicar of Radcliffe, were to pay
stipends of I o marks each to two fit secular priests
in Huyton church.9 These cantarists were to say mass,
&c., daily for the souls of Edward III, John de Win-
wick, and the faithful departed ; and to keep in good
repair the chapel on the south side of the church, in
which the said John was buried. His obit was also
to be solemnly kept in Burscough Priory church.10
In accordance with the statutes the Ashtons of
Croston afterwards presented. Hugh de Pemberton
acted as patron in 1421 and 1423. Sir William
Molyneux and Richard Standish presented in 1530,
and in the following year Alexander, son and heir of
Ralph Standish, and the other feoffees of Thomas
Ashton, deceased."
1 Gibson, Lydiate Hal!, 248. The will
of Roger Devias was proved at Chester,
1607.
• Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 12.
» Miu. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
65.
' He was called vicar in Aug. 1645 ;
•ee Plund. Mini. Auti. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 9. It is probable that Bell
was never legally vicar, as Starkie does
not seem to have been disturbed, and
did not die till 1653. Starkie must have
conformed to the Presbyterian discipline,
but may have been practically superseded
6 Halley, Lanes. Puritanism, ii, 186-7;
Ry/aliit Camp. P. i, 173 ; Commonw. Ch.
Sur-v. 75 ; see Baines, Lanes, (ed. Croston),
' ^ Willt (Chet. Soc., New Ser.), ii, 1 1 2 ;
ice also 48.
8 It cost £4,600. Part was defrayed
from a bequest by Miss Lucy Ashton (who
died in 1889), £2,000 of it being applied
to the endowment. She was daughter of
a former vicar of Huyton. See End.
Char. Rep. (Huyton}, 7.
• The foundation was described as
'two chantries, or one chantry with two
chaplains.'
l» In 1383 this was ratified by Robert
Stretton, bishop of Lichfield, whose suc-
cessor sanctioned in 1386 the statutes of
the chantry.
Considering that the said chantry was
founded for the honour of God, and the
no small increase of divine worship, the
bishop ordained that Master Richard de
Winwick should be patron whilst he lived,
and then Master William de Ashton ;
afterwards the heirs of William de Win-
wick, father of Richard. On a vacancy
a fit and honest priest was to be presented
within fifteen days ; if none was presented,
the right for that turn devolved on the
priory of Burscough for another fifteen
days ; after which it lapsed to the bishop
of the diocese.
The two chaplains were to live together
in the same house, namely, the manse by
the churchyard recently built for them,
without strife or discord ; but should one
of them be quarrelsome or a frequenter
gressor against good morals, he must be
deprived. They were to have a suitable
tonsure, and to wear a gown not too
short. They were not to be absent longer
than twenty days at a time. They were
not to hold any benefice which would
hinder the performance of their duties.
ing the devotion of the people and without
also recite the full office of the dead
(Placebo, Dirige, and Commendation) ex-
divers 'compasses' (Copas') of gold; a
beautiful cloth of red satin to hang before
the altar, and another to match embroi-
dered in gold with the Crucified and Mary
and John for ' rierdose ' ; two other suits
of vestments, one being for everyday use,
a 'paxbrede,' a black cloth for covering
the tomb, and a box bound with iron.
Another set of vestments was worth £4.
There was also a great portiforium of
They were to keep solemn obits 'cum
nota' for John de Winwick and certain
others. After vespers the two chaplains
were to recite the ' De Profundis ' and
other suitable prayers at the tomb of
John de Winwick, and each of them to
say devoutly on bended knees the ' Pater
Noster' five times in honour of the five
wounds, and the 'Ave Maria' five times
in honour of the five joys, for the souls.
On Sundays and other festivals (and
especially on feasts of nine lessons) when
divine service was sung in Huyton church,
they were to be present at mattins, vespers,
and the other hours, and to assist in the
Moreover, as purity and chastity of life
in His ministers is most pleasing to God,
a chaplain lapsing a third time must be
removed from his office and another fit
one appointed.
They were to preserve and transmit to
ornaments provided by the founder, or
others as good, viz. a good missal, worth
5 marks ; a beautiful and heavy chalice,
worth i ooi. ; a beautiful and well painted
' Table de Lumbardia ' ; a beautiful vest-
ment of red velvet, viz. a chasuble em-
broidered with various trees in gold, stole
and fanon, alb and amice with apparels to
match, and with two fair ' touwailes,' a
' frountell ' of red velvet embroidered with
10 marks; a great and beautiful psalter
was worth 401.
The chaplains were not only to find
their ordinary food from their stipends,
but bread, wine, and wax for divine service,
' unless the vicar out of his courtesy should
be willing to give these to them.' On
their admission they were to take oath to
keep all these ordinances. These par-
ticulars are from the Burscough Reg.; the
bishop's statutes will be found on fol. 94*-
98 ; and in the Lich. Epis. Reg. v, fol.
72A-75A.
11 The following is a list of the priests,
with references to the Lichfield Epis. Reg.
First Chantry (B. V. Mary): 1383,
William de Sallowe (iv, 94); 1391,
Henry Holbrooke, exchanging the vicar-
age of Littlebourne for this with W.
de Sallowe (vi, 56) ; 1409, Thomas de
Legh, on the death of Holbrooke (Raines) ;
1423, Richard Tyrehare, on the death of
Legh (ix, 113) ; 1443, John de Kyrkeby
(ix, 126*) ; 1486, John Haworth, on the
death of Kyrkeby (xii, 121) ;—, George
Hyll; 1530, Humphrey Hart, on the
death of Hyll (xiii-xiv, 65A) ; 1531,
Robert Standish, on the death of Hart
(xiii-xiv, 68).
Second Chantry: 1384, Robert de
Bolton (iv, 94A); 1390, John de Wol-
leton, in succession to Bolton (vi, 55*) ;
he became vicar of Walton 1404 ;
1395, William Kane, on death of last
chaplain, unnamed (vi, 59*) ; 1417,
Thomas Baxter, on the resignation of W.
de Cave, i.e. probably the last-named
W. Kane (viii, 19) ; -, John Claning ;
1421, Thomas Cosyn, on the death of
I56
HUYTON CHURCH, FROM THE WEST
KNOWSLEY HALL : SOUTH END OF EAST WING
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
At the confiscation Robert Standish and William
Prescot were the cantarists, celebrating according to
their foundation for the souls of John Winwick and
his family, with a yearly obit for the said John.
Their stipends (20 marks) ' had been paid by the
priory of Burscough, and were continued after the
dissolution by the receiver in virtue of a decree of
the Duchy Chamber.'
The ' Chantry Well ' marked on the six-inch Ord-
nance map is about a hundred yards north of the
church; it is a walled-in dipping well.*
The tithe maps are kept at the vicarage.
A grammar school at Huyton was founded in the
sixteenth century or earlier.
The charities of Huyton,4 apart
CHARITIES from a recent benefaction by Sir Thomas
Birch,6 are small in amount.' Knows-
ley has a share in the charity founded by William
Marsh in 1722.'
KNOWSLEY
Chenulveslei, Dom. Bk., Knuvesle, 1199; Knouse-
legh, 1258; Knouleslee, 1261; Knusele, l262;Knous-
legh, 1 346. Pronounced Nowsley, sometimes Nosely.
This township has an area of 5,058 acres.8 A
projecting corner, Radshaw Nook, in the north-west
lies between two brooks, which there form the
boundary, and after joining flow into the Alt. The
population in 1900 was 1,325.
The country is generally flat, very slightly undu-
lating on the east, where it reaches 330 ft. above sea-
level. The land which lies outside the park itself is
divided into rich arable fields, yielding crops of pota-
toes, turnips, and cereals. The soil is variable, some-
times sandy loam, or peat. In the south-eastern part
of the township the geological formation consists of
the millstone grit and coal measures ; on the western
side and in the north-eastern corner of the lower
mottled sandstone of the bunter series, and all the
central and northern parts of the pebble beds of this
series of the new red sandstone.
Game, in the shape of pheasants, partridges, and
hares, is particularly abundant in the district.
The north of the township lies on the edge of
HUYTON
mossland, the birches and bracken in the plantations
being typical of moss vegetation. The village of
Knowsley, which is situated in the north-west, is
entirely modern.
In the north-east is Longbarrow ; Bury is within
the park, on the north. The well-wooded park sur-
rounding Knowsley Hall is the principal feature of
the township, occupying the eastern half of its area,
and stretching over the boundary into Eccleston.
' The scenery in the park, which is beautifully undu-
lating, is exceedingly varied, abounding in charming
lawn and woodland views, with noble groups of trees
in different elevated positions. From almost every
part of the park, but more especially that portion of
it more immediately in front of the hall, the view
of the surrounding country is commanding and
beautiful, not being confined to inland scenery, but
embracing on the west a splendid marine and sea
prospect. . . . The park throughout is magnificently
wooded, more especially that portion which is known
as the Gladewoods, in which there is one large tree
constantly attracting much attention and interest from
the fact of its having been twisted in the stem either
by some freak of nature or other singular agency,
which gives it the appearance of a huge corkscrew.
The park also contains a large and artistically arranged
lake, upward of 90 acres in extent. . . . Near the
head of the lake there is a nude statue called the
" White Man," the tradition being that the statue
was found in the lake. ... A large portion of the
eastern side of the park, consisting of several hundreds
of acres, forms the deer park, in which there are
numerous herds of red, fallow, and other deer.
The gardens and pleasure grounds, which are very
extensive, are most artistically laid out and beautifully
decorated with works of art.' a
The principal road is that from Prescot, west,
north, and east, skirting the park and passing the
church. Another road, crossing this, leads northward
from Huyton, passing near the hall, and ultimately
turning to Kirkby.
Six almshouses, erected in 1883 ; a parish hospital,
1899; and a recreation ground are gifts of the
Stanley family.
The township is governed by a parish council.
Claning (ix, 1 1 ,) ; 1436, Roger Tyrehare,
on the death of Cosyn (ix, 123) ; 1444,
John de Lathom, on the resignation of
Tyrehare (ix, 127) ; 1454, John Holme,
on the resignation of J. de Lathom (xi,
n); 1489, John Lathom, on the death
of Holme (xii, 122*); 1517, William
Prescot, on the death of Lathom (xiii-
xiv, 60).
1 Out of this 335. 4</. had to be given
to the poor; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v,
» They had a chalice (8 oz.), two
Testments, a mass book, and two altar
cloths. In 1548 Robert Standish was
aged 57 and the other 64. They appeared
at the bishop's visitation in that year, but
in the list of 1554 'mortuus' is writ-
ten after each name. See Lanes. Chant.
Chet. Soc.}, 93, &c. ; and Chest. Visit.
5 The following notes arc taken from
the Report of the official Endowed Chari-
ties inquiry in 1900, which contains a re-
print of that made in 1 829. Sir Thomas
Bernard Birch, bart. of the Hazels, who
died in 1880, left £500 for the poor.
and represented by Mersey Dock bonds.
A share of the interest is now paid to
Tarboclc. It had been found that William
Webster who died in 1684, and whose
bequest is supposed to have been the
principal portion of the £130, had not
proper
Lists. The
granted to the earl of Derby in 1549 ;
Pat. 3 Edw. VI, pt. xi.
8 Lanes, and Chet. Antiq. Soc. xix, 200.
4 The principal charity recorded by
Bishop Gastrell in 1717 — a bequest of
£100 by Lady Derby — does not seem to
ive been paid ; Notit. Cettr. ii, 180.
£14 a year, distributed in doles of flannel
and blankets. The vicar and church-
are chosen from the ecclesiastical district
of Huyton and not the whole of the
6 A table of benefactions dated 1710
shows that before that time £93 had
been bequeathed to the poor of Huyton,
and £60 to the poor of Tarbock. In
1829 the commissioners found that the
overseers of Huyton and Roby had a
Liverpool Corporation bond of £130, the
sums to persons in distress belonging to
the township named. Another bond of
£160, including £40 given by the Case
family, was regarded as bread charity,
21. worth of bread being distributed each
Sunday to poor persons of the township.
These sums were in 1900 found intact
157
Huyton with Roby and Tarbock. The
bread charity still continues.
William Williamson Willink, by his
will proved in 1884, left £50 each to the
vicars of Huyton and Roby, the interest
to be added to the Christmas offertories
for the poor.
7 This was a charge of 201. a year on
a house in Church Street, Prescot ; half
of the sum to be given to the poor of
Knowsley. The commissioners in 1829.
found that the payment had been dis-
continued for some time, but were-
able to identify the property from which
it was due. The rent is now charged
on three houses in Derby Street, Pres-
cot, and paid to the parish council of
Knowsley.
» Census of 1901 : — 5,061, including.
79 acres of inland water.
» Pollard, Stanleys of Knowiley, 20-3.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Henry, earl of Lancaster, granted a charter at
Knowsley in 1343.'
The manors held by Uctred in 1066
M4NOR take precedence in Domesday after the
royal manor of Derby ; and the first of
them were Roby and KNOWSLET. These were
together rated at I hide, Knowsley by itself being
4 plough-lands.1
Before 1212 the whole parish of Huyton had
become part of the barony of Widnes, as the Lanca-
shire part of the Halton fee is called. Its four manors
were by the lords of Halton considered as one only —
Knowsley ; so that this must very soon have become
the principal residence of those lords or their under-
tenant. The superior lordship of Halton is recognized
in all the inquisitions ; Knowsley with its members,
Huyton, Roby, and Tarbock, being considered as one
knight's fee, and rated at I 2 plough-lands in all.3
Knowsley and its members were held by the
Lathom family from before the year 1200, but how
they acquired it is unknown. In 1199 Amabel,
widow of Robert son of Henry de Lathom, sued her
step-son Richard for her reasonable dower from her
late husband's estate, and the whole of Knowsley was
assigned to her, as well as Anglezark.4 Her sons
appear to have taken Knowsley as a surname, and to
have divided Huyton among themselves. Tarbock
was held by another of the Lathom family, while
Roby remained manorially part of Knowsley, though
as a township it became merged in Huyton.
In the survey of 1212 it was found that the
Knowsley knight's fee was held by Richard son of
Robert.5 One alteration had been made since the
Conquest ; for Henry II had placed Croxteth Park
within the forest, so that at the inquest made in
1228 it was returned it ought to be given back to
Knowsley.6 This, however, was not done ; Croxteth
Park remained a royal park and extra-parochial.
The service for the manor is not stated quite
uniformly in the inquisitions — apart from its being
that of one knight's fee/
Of the Lathoms' dealings with Knowsley there is
not much record.8 Sir Thomas de Lathom about
1355 obtained a grant of free warren in Knowsley
and Roby with liberty to empark, and in 1359 was
allowed to enclose an adjacent place called Grims-
hurst.9 It was probably at Knowsley that his son
Thomas's melancholy death took place in 1382. He
lay feeble and decrepit for three months before his
death, and during this time his wife Joan refused to
pay him any attention, living in open adultery in the
high chamber at Knowsley with Roger de Fazakerley.
There was no reconciliation,
and immediately after her hus- _
band's death Joan sent his body
to Burscough to be buried,
there being present neither
priests nor gentry, as there
should have been. Immedi-
ately afterwards she married her
paramour.10
It was Joan's children by Sir
Thomas de Lathom who were
in the end the heirs of the
family estates. The eldest
daughter Isabel marrying Sir
John de Stanley brought Knows-
ley into the possession of the family which still holds it."
i Knowsley D. bdle. 1402, n. 10.
« V.C.H. Land, i, 1830.
» The plough-lands were not always
had a wood ' which was called a park '
in 1292, but claimed no right of warren ;
Plac. de quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 387.
carr by Waterhurst and running down to
the head of Stockley, where they met
each other ; also the clearing which used
manner. In other parts of Widnes barony
10 plough-lands seem to have formed a
knight's fee.
* Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Che..), i, 8.
5 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 40. In 1242 it was
found that Robert de Lathom held one
fee in Knowsley, Huyton, and Tarbock
of the earl of Lincoln, then lord of
Halton; ibid. 148. In 1302 Robert de
Lathom paid 401. to the aid for marrying
the king's daughter, for one fee in
Knowsley ; ibid. 312.
« Wballcy Coueber (Chet. Soc.), ii, 372.
Thus it appears that the Alt was the
to Burscough.
Of about 1320 also is the Halton
feodary, which records that Sir Robert de
Lathom held Knowsley, Huyton and
Roby, and Tarbock for one fee, giving
for relief when it should happen £; ;
Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 708.
The extent of Halton made in 1328
records that Thomas de Lathom held the
manors, performing suit at Widnes for
the vill of Knowsley from month to
month ; Inq. p.m. 42 Edw. Ill ( 1st nos.),
n. 61.
His grandson Sir Thomas, who died in
1382, held it as the fee of one knight by
the service of 1 51. per annum and suit of
bounds starting from the rise of the brook
at Watercarr, across to the road to Glest
(in Eccleston), along this way up as far as
the cross, then at right angles to the syke
between the clearing aforesaid and the
land of St. Nicholas (of Burscough), down
the syke of the brook, and up the brook
to the spring of Wetecarr, guided by the
meres and crosses of the canons ; Cocker-
sand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 606.
» Cart. Misc. Edw. Ill, n. 209 ; Lanes,
and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 312; also Dep. Keeper's Rep.
xxxii, App. 346. See also Duchy of Lane.
Forest Proc. ^17, m. 6 (8 Edw. Ill),
where Thomas de Lathom claimed free
south.
7 This is changed to a knight's fee and
a half in the De Lacy Inq. of 131 1 (Chet.
Soc.), 24.
After the death of Sir Robert de Lathom
in 1324-5 it was found that he and his
three weeks ; he held Knowsley and Roby
in demesne and Huyton and Tarbock in
service ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. ii, 7 ;
Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 17.
8 Robert son of Henry gave to his
foundation at Burscough « the place of
Knowsley much earlier, as is shown in a
preceding note.
10 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 19.
11 Her husband is supposed to be the
John son of William son of John de
Stanley who in 1378 was pardoned for
Despenser as of the fee of Widnes, by the
tenances ; Lanes. Pipe R. p. 350. A
Storeton in Wirral, the pardon being
monthly court of Widnes. At this time
there was at Knowsley a messuage worth
(early thirteenth century) is in Harl. 52,
i, 44. In 1223 Robert's grandson Richard
Trivet in consideration of the good
service of the said John done and to be
arable, worth 6J. an acre, and 3 acres of
meadow each worth is. 6J. ; there was a
knights who had been sent to Lathom to
discover whether his excuse of sickness in
to depart in Sir Thomas's company;
Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 443.
water-mill and windmill were valued at
not ; Cur. Reg. R. 82, m. 3.
de Stanley was a younger son of one
amounted to £30, and there were also
pleas and perquisites of courts worth
1 31. 4</. a year. Inq. p.m. (18 Edw. II),
n. 72 ; tVballey Coueher, ii, 553. He
self 'de Knowsley,' granted to St. Wer-
burgh's of Warburton certain of her land
called Bury. Thi. was all the land
between two doughs coming from the
I58
of the next William de Stanley of the
same, who married Alice daughter of
Sir Hamlet Mascy of Timperley and
died in 1397 ; and uncle of Sir William
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The marriage took place about 1385,' for their
son and heir was twenty-eight and more in 1414;
but it was not till 1398 that a dispensation was
asked and obtained from Pope Boniface IX, it having
been shown by Sir John Massy of Tatton that they
were related in the third and fourth degrees.1
At the beginning of 1386 Sir John de Stanley was
appointed deputy of Robert Vere, earl of Oxford, in
the government of Ireland,3 and subsequently held
other offices under the Crown.4 In June, 1397, he
purchased from John le Strange the manor of Bidston
in Wirral, with the adjacent Moreton and Saughall
Massie. Soon afterwards he secured an annuity of
40 marks.5 He received in 1405 a grant of the lord-
ship of Man, forfeited by the Percys for rebellion.6
In February, 1407-8, the king granted to Sir John
Stanley, steward of his household, and Isabel his wife
free warren within their manors of Lathom and
Knowsley, and their lands in Childwall, Roby, and
Anglezark, although the same were within the metes
of the forest.7 Stanley was again sent to Ireland as
lieutenant,8 dying there at the beginning of 1414.'
His widow Isabel did not long survive him, dying in
October, 1414, her son John being her heir.10
The heir, who was soon afterwards made a knight,
had several public appointments. Just after his father's
death he was made steward of Macclesfield11 and master
forester of Macclesfield and Delamere ; in November,
1414, he was elected a knight of the shire.18 He
HUYTON
is frequently mentioned as justice, &c., in Cheshire."
He was at the capture of Rouen in August, 141 8. 14
Sir John Stanley died at the beginning of December,
I437.14 He granted the prior of Burscough a buck in
the park of Lathom and another in the park of
Knowsley in greasetime, and a doe in winter.16
His son Sir Thomas Stanley was thirty-one years
of age on succeeding. It was in July, 1424, that
he had been attacked in his father's tower at Liver-
pool by Sir Richard Molyneux, a dangerous tumult
being created. He had taken part in the govern-
ment of Ireland from 1429 to 1436," and succeeded
his father in his Cheshire offices. In 1446 he re-
ceived a grant of the manor of Bosley, near Maccles-
field, from Humphrey, duke of Buckingham.18 He
was knight of the shire for Lancashire from 1 447 to
145 5, 19 and summoned to the House of Lords as Baron
Stanley, January, 1455-6. He died in February,
1458-9, Thomas his son and heir being twenty-six
years of age.*0
Sir Thomas Stanley, the second Lord Stanley,
married Eleanor Nevill, sister of the King-maker, and
succeeded to his father's dignities in Cheshire, some
additional offices and lordships being added." His
first wife, who brought him into connexion with the
leading Yorkist family, died in 1472, and soon after-
wards he married, as her third husband, Lady Mar-
garet Beaufort, mother of Henry, earl of Richmond,
the hope of the Lancastrian party." In 1475 Lord
Stanley, who married the heiress of
chief seat of the 'senior branch of the
family till the early part of last century ;
Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 415.
The pedigree is not quite satisfactory at
this point.
1 Isabel had been married to Sir Geoffrey
dc Worsley, who died in 13805 see the
account of Worsley.
2 Ormerod, Ches. ii, 415 ; Local Glean-
ings Lanes, and Ches. i, 109.
» Cal. Pat. R. Ric. II, 1385-9, see p.
232 ; also Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App.
444. Thomas del Ryding, afterwards
vicar of Huyton, was among those who
a saltus at Knowsley. The royal patent
recites that there had been a park there
time out of mind, and that Henry duke
of Lancaster, 'our grandfather,' had con-
firmed it ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i,
106. In 1406 he obtained licence to
fortify his house at Liverpool, called the
Tower. The Stanleys were sometimes
described as 'of Liverpool' ; Dep. Keeper's
Rep. xxxvii, App. 69.
8 Cal. Pat. 1422-9, pp. 96, 99, 157.
9 In compiling the account of the
Stanley family the following works have
been consulted :— Bishop Stanley, Family
Poem in Harwell's Palatine Anthology.
Dugdale, Baronage (1675), ii, 247-54.
This appears to be the basis of Collins*
14 Peck, Desid. Curiosa, vii, 6.
« Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App. 672,
343. The writ of Diem el. extr. was
issued on 14 Dec. The inquisition
taken in Cheshire has been preserved ; he
held no lands in that county in chief ;
Ormerod, Ches. ii, 412.
18 Inq. after the death of Thomas, second
earl of Derby.
V Norman R. (Dep. Keeper's Rep. xlviii),
284,294,315.
18 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xlvii, App. 672.
He was comptroller of the king's house-
hold in 1443 and later years ; ibid. 674 ;
Rymer, FoeJera (Syllabus), ii, 667. A
grant of Toxteth Park and the moss of
Smithdown was made in May, 1447, at a
*Cal. Pat. 1385-9, p. H4,&c. ; ibid.
I 388-92, p. 499; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi,
App. 444-6.
« Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 444 ;
Ormerod, Cha. (ed. Helsby), ii, 467.
4 When the lordship came to be con-
tested in 1594 between the daughters of
Ferdinando, fifth earl, and his brother
William, sixth earl, the crown lawyers con-
tended that the grant had been invalid
from the first, having been made before
the Percy estates had legally come into
the king's hands. This was overruled.
The grant had at first been made for
fc, but a little later (6 April, 1405), on
account. John Seacome, Hist, of the House
of Stanley, first published in 1741 ; it
brings the story down to the death of the
tenth earl in 1736. The author had
been steward of the household. He
prints a number of Civil War documents.
Collins, Peerage (ed. 1779), iii, 37-83.
G. E. C. Complete Peerage, iii and vii.
David Ross, House of Stanley (1848) ; the
author was editor of the Li-verpool Chron.
William Pollard, Stanleys of Knowsley
(Liverpool, 1868); useful for recent his-
tory. Baines, Lanes, (ed. Croston), v,
81-91. Foster, Lanes. Pedigrees. Bio-
graphies of the more prominent members
fee farm of lu. 7Jrf. This was renewed
by Queen Elizabeth in 1593. Both are
recited in the Inq. p.m. of the fifth earl,
referred to later.
19 Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 56.
20 Writs of Diem cl. extr. were sent
out on 26 Feb. and 9 and 10 Mar. and
the Dep. Keeper', Rep. xxxvii, App. 676,
677. For a further account of him see
Diet. Nat. Biog.
21 Dep. Keeper', Rep. xxxvii, App. 680-2.
His son John, who became parker of
Shotwick in 1475, is not recognized on
the pedigrees. He seems to have died in
woa nted to him, his heirs and successors,
premie castle and peel of Man, all
Nat. Biog. A fuller account of the
descent will be found in the Pedigree
George; ibid. 680-1, 653.
22 Lady Margaret's second husband died
by seVshopric ; to be held of the crown
z6s. 8<{ homage, paying the king at his
1 Hflon a cast °f falcons ; Seacome,
' when !'/*< Stanley Family ; Rymer, FoeJera
( L. and\}, ii, 554- In some later corona-
3 Ryf earl of Derby bore the sword
8 in \urtana ; William the ninth earl
I Rental claim to do so on his lordship of
*are in fayan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.),
2™Z i. R. 9 Hen. IV, .. 9.
T.. Jgrant included permission to make
10 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 105.
The writs of Diem el. extr. were issued
for Sir John Stanley on 26 March, 1414,
and for his widow, 12 March, 1414-15,
See Dep. Keeper', Rep. xxxii. App. 12.
» Cal. Pat. 1422-9, p. 62.
12 Pink and Beavan, Pad. Rep. of Lanes.
18 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App. 666,
672. He was not the John Stanley
who was constable of Carnarvon Castle,
1428, &c., and living in 1439 ; ibid. 672.
i<;q
for ' the costs and making of a tomb to
be made for the said Henry [Stafford,
knight] at Plessy [in Essex], where his
bones lie.' In 1478 letters of confra-
ternity were granted by the prior of the
Grande Chartreuse to Sir Thomas Stanley
lord of Stanley, and the Lady Margaret
his living wife, and the Lady Elinor for-
merly his wife, now dead, also to Sir
Thomas [i.e. George] Stanley, knight,
and Joan his wife ; see the documents in
the Eagle, Dec. 1894 and Dec. 1897.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Stanley accompanied the king to France.1 At the
siege of Berwick in 1482 he took part in the assault
which gained the town, and afterwards made several
knights." He and his brother Sir William stood
aloof from Richard III at the battle of Bosworth in
1485, and then opposed him, thereby giving the de-
cisive turn to the contest.* As a reward he was
created earl of Derby.4 After the battle of Stoke in
June, 1487, more substantial rewards were granted ;
the forfeited estates of Sir Thomas Broughton of
Furness, Sir James Harrington, Francis Lord Lovell,
Sir Thomas Pilkington and his wife, and Robert
Hulton were conferred on him.5
After the execution of his brother Sir William for
participation in the plot of Perkin Warbeck, the earl
received a visit from the king at Knowsley and
Lathom, and part of the existing hall at the former
place is said to have been erected in anticipation of
this visit, which lasted about a month. The earl
died 29 July, ISO4-6
His son George, made knight of the Bath in
1475, had married Joan, daughter and heir of John,
Lord Strange of Knockin, and was in her right sum-
moned to Parliament from 1482 onwards as Lord
Strange. He fought at Stoke and took part in several
military excursions, including the invasion of Scot-
land in the autumn of 1497 ; 7 soon after his return
from this he died at Derby House, London, where is
now the College of Arms, on 5 December.8 His
eldest son Thomas succeeded his grandfather in
1504 ;9 a younger son James, settled at Cross Hall
in Lathom, is the ancestor through whom the title
has descended to the present earl of Derby.
Thomas, the second earl, married lo Anne Hastings
daughter of Edward Lord Hastings. He took part
in various public affairs of the time, as in the French
expedition of Henry VIII in 1513 ; and was one of
the judges of the duke of Buckingham in 1521.
This was just before his own death on 24 May of
that year. He died at Colham in Middlesex, and
was buried at Sion Abbey.11 There were several
inquisitions taken after his death."
1 Cat. of Pat. 1467-77 ; Rymer, F eedera
(Syllabus), ii, 706. See also Seacome's
History and Collins.
a Metcalfe, Book of Knights, 7.
8 It is probable that they had already
communicated with Henry ; indeed the
old ballad of ' Lady Bessie ' (Elizabeth,
daughter of Edward IV) makes them the
principal agents in the coming and tri-
umph of the new king.
The name of Lord Stanley frequently
occurs in the Patent Rolls of Edward IV
and Richard III ; see printed calendar, es-
pecially the grant to him and his son Lord
Strange on 17 Sept. 1484; Cal. 1476-85,
p. 476. This is recited in the Inq. p.m. of
Ferdinando the fifth earl.
also Bishop Stanley's poem and Diet. Nat.
Biog. In his will he desired that his
body should be buried in the midst of the
chapel, in the north aisle of the church of
Burscough Priory, where lay the bodies of
his father and mother and others of his
ancestors ; the tombs he had prepared
with the * personages' to be duly set up,
that those there buried might for ever be
remembered in prayer, and the ' per-
twenty years or above, to the intent that
the passage shall be free for all people for
evermore, without any further toll or
farm there to be asked, and also I give to
the making up of the said bridge at War-
rington 500 marks.' He also left £20
for the building of Garstang Bridge.
The will was made on 28 July, 1504,
and proved by John Legh in the follow-
ing November.
tors to beset in the arches in the chancel.
He had already made to the priory 'great
gifts in money and jewels and ornaments
and also done great reparations,' and now
added £20 provided that the prior be-
came bound to cause one of the canons
s Bishop Stanley's rhyming history
states that he 'at an ungodly banquet
was poisoned.'
» To his father's possessions licence of
entry had been given him in the previous
March ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App.
560.
10 After 24 Nov. 1505. The marriage
agreement is printed in the Memoirs of
the House of Hastings, 36.
» For certain complaints against the
Inq. p.m. of the fifth earl. For other
grants see Rymer, Foedera (Syllabus), ii,
716, 720,721.
5 Pat. 4 Hen. VII, 25 Feb. The grant,
my soul, and that of my good lady now
my wife after her decease .... and for
the souls of them that I have in any way
offended unto, and for all Christian souls
included an annuity of £40 from the
manor of West Derby, the following
manors or lordships with their appurten-
ances : Holland, Nether Kellet, Hale-
wood, Samlesbury, Pilkington, Bury,
Cheetham, Cheetwood, Halliwell, Brough-
ton-in-Furness, and Bolton-in-Furncss —
to be held by the ancient services ; the
moieties ofthe manors of Balderstun, Little
Singleton, Bretherton, Thornton ; all the
lands belonging to Francis lord Lovell in
Holland, Orrell, Dalton, Nether Kellet,
the Lavatory, audiently to say for the said
souls appointed by name, and all others
in general De profuntiis clamavi and such
orations and collects as are used to be
said therewith.' He confirmed the join-
ture of his wife, and the provision for his
son Sir Edward, desiring also that he
should have Hornby Castle and its lands
for life, as well as other manors and lands
up to the annual value of 100 marks.
He had in April, 1500, enfeoffed his
son James and others of his properties in
824.
111 The Cheshire one is abstracted in
the Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App. 95.
That taken at Lancaster (Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 63) recites his lands
in the county. From Henry VII's grant
to the first earl came the manors of West
Derby, Upholland, and many more. Fur-
ther Lord Strange had held the lands of
Wraysom (by grant of Henry VII) and
Oxcliff and Osmotherley. Sir Thomas
Lord Stanley had received from Henry VI
Lancaster, Wigan, Aughton, Skelmers-
dale, and Sutton ; all the lands lately be-
longing to Sir Thomas Pilkington, in
Pilkington, Bury, Cheetham, Cheetwood,
Tottington, Unsworth, Salford, Shuttle-
worth, Shufflebottom, Middleton, Hun-
dersfield ; all the lands lately of Robert
Hulton in Halliwell, and Smithills ; all
the lands lately of Sir Thomas Broughton
in Broughton-in-Furness, Bolton-in-Fur-
ness, Subberthwaite. Elslack, Urswick,
Ulverston, Merton, Bretby, Cartmell; and
all the lands lately of James Harrington
in Balderston, Little Singleton, Bretherton,
Thornton Holmes, Hambleton, Little
Hull, Dilworth, Plumpton, Broughton,
Elswick, Sowerby, Goosnargh, Claughton,
Much Singleton, Preston, Ribbleton,
various places named, formerly the lands
of William Huddleston and others, and
and all these had descended to the late
earl. The more ancient possessions of
annuities to servants and officials for good
services they had done, ' and also to pray
for my soul.' Among others Reynold
Stanley was to have the office of keeper
of the Little Park at Lathom, at id. a
day, in addition to the annuity from the
then enumerated, as the manors of La-
thom, Childwall, Knowsley, Roby, ar '
others, with houses, lands, woods, m
and rents, and the advowsons of Win- ''
and Eccleshill. at
Various grants made by the dr 'nS
ford was to be continued in the benefice
given him, with board wages whenever
there should be no household kept at
Lathom, on condition that he prayed and
said mass for his benefactor in the chapel
there. Other gifts were made to the
bishop of Man, several priests, and the
abbeys of Whalley and Cockersand.
ship of Knowsley, Roby, Kirkby Sood
and Formby to Sir William to be
knight, who was also to be keep about
manor and park of Knowsley fit""1/ i t
a stipend of £10 ; and the stew: t
cashire to Sir E°. St^nky.To'rdM if one .
A feoffment made in 1513 is iTother „
the Inq. p.m. of the fifth earl. )f the
His will (in English) is ap, " ot to
the inquisition. He desired to-be ' anci at
Burscough, should he die in Lanll'?hire;
Croston, Halghton, Whittingham, Bils-
"i>urough and Farington.
«Will in P.C.C. 19 Holgrave; see
toll of Warrington Bridge 300 marks of
ready money, that is to say after the rate
of the yearly farm and value thereof by
160
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
As Edward Stanley his son and heir was only eleven
or twelve years old at his father's death,1 his wardship
fell to the king, who placed him in the household of
Cardinal Wolsey.8 Of most of the Lancashire estates a
full account has been preserved for the first year of the
minority.8 From these it appears that from Lanca-
shire the earl had a gross income of about £700,
which various allowances, fees, and charges reduced to
about £550. Apart from this there was the produce
of the lands devoted to the maintenance of the house-
hold.4
The young earl, brought up by Wolsey, and after
HUYTON
the latter's fall married to Dorothy Howard, daughter
of the duke of Norfolk,5 appears to have gone with the
court. He was among the peers who asked the pope
to grant the king a divorce (1530) and he assisted as
cupbearer in the coronation of Anne Boleyn, being
then made knight of the Bath (1533). He was also
zealous in resisting the Northern risings under Aske
(I536-7),6 and took a share of the plunder of the
monasteries, including Eynsham and Shefford in
Oxfordshire.7 He assisted at the coronation of
Edward VI. In 1552 he was made lord-lieutenant
of Lancashire.
otherwise at Sion or at Ashridge. Among
other bequests he confirmed his gift to
Dame Ellen Fairbaron, 'ancres' in his
almshouse at Lathom.
Concerning the parcel of ground which
his ancestors had enclosed within the park
of Knowsley and granted to the priory of
Burscough he desired the prior to make a
ninety-nine years' lease of it to his heir,
and to take instead an equivalent amount
of land in Dalton, 'to be measured by
rope and rood,' which would be much
more convenient for the canons, and ,£20
should be paid them for the erection of
a grange ; £30 was to be given for a bell
for Ormskirk church.
4 A more particular account of Knows-
ley and adjacent estates is here added :
The account of William Brettargh,
bailiff for Knowsley, husband, with farm
of the manor and demesne lands, shows
rents at 31. or 31. 4^. per acre from clo-
sures called Millheys, Broadmeynes, Long-
branderth, Shortbranderth, Copthorn hey,
Old Meadow, Whingbutts, Peascroft or
Barriers croft or Wheat croft, Ryecroft,
Rye hey, and Birches. These rents had
been fixed as far back as 1464 ; very slight
changes had been made in the rents of one
or two fields. Several of the meadows
had been included in a lease of the grazing
fights in the park made to Sir William
of 21. %d. as the price of 4lb. of wax,
which had been paid to Huyton church
out of lands in Roby, according to an
ancient grant.
The windmill at Roby was let at 20*.
to Richard Whitfield instead of 261. %d. as
formerly ; it appears that the miller was
to do all the repairs required, except the
'postez' and the mill-stones. The water-
mill at Knowsley paid IOJ. only, instead
of 235. 4</., but the tenant William Heeton
was to do all repairs except the heavy
timber.
Some small sums were respited for con-
sideration by the king's council. These
are not without interest. The wages of
grants to him were revoked. These were
of the castle and demesne of Hornby and
Smithills at a rent of £ I 1 is. $d., the
agistment itself being farmed for £6. The
lessees were to have the herbage and use
of pasture lands and meadows specified in
and carrying hay from two acres of mea-
dow in the new coppice in the park to the
two deer houses, for the winter fodder of
the deer, came to 41. 6J. Edmund Tyr-
in Derbyshire. Sir Edward also had the
manor of Coppull for life. The earl had
St. George as his patron. He desired to
be buried 'according to mine honour
without any pomp or excess.'
The executors named were Hugh Hes-
keth, bishop of Man; Sir Henry Halsall,
knight, steward of his house, Henry Sher-
man dean of his chapel, Thomas Hes-
keth, Edward Molyneux rector of Sefton,
Richard Hesketh, Richard Snede, and
Richard Halsall rector of Halsall ; and
the overseers were Cardinal Wolsey, Hugh
Oldham bishop of Exeter, Geoffrey Blythe
bishop of Chester, John Veysey dean of
the king's chapel, and Thomas Larke
rector of Winwick. The will itself is
preserved (P.C.C. 21 Bodfield) ; it is
proved 27 June, 1524.
The tenures of the various manors are
next set forth. In particular the manor
of Knowsley with Roby, and the various
tenements were held from the king as
but sufficient feeding was reserved for
the deer and other wild animals in the
park.
The free tenants in Knowsley paid
421, gt/. ; 2</., the value of two pairs of
gloves, was paid by Nicholas Eltonhead
for the manor of Eltonhead in Prescot,
with appurtenances in Knowsley ; 2</. for
a barbed arrow from Thomas Gillibrand
and Matthew Ashton. The peppercorn due
from John Harrington of Huyton for a
close in Knowsley had not been paid. In
Roby the free tenants paid 125. 5</., and
21. 8^. (the value of 4lb. of wax) came
from John Aldersey (lately from John
Huyton) for a house and six acres of land
there.
The tenants at will in Knowsley and
Roby paid £78 in. lid. according to the
old rental, but increases had been secured
from time to time, particularly from
various potters desirous to dig clay in the
park of Knowsley and make pots there.
Beside rent each tenant in lieu of ' averages '
felling trees and splitting the wood into
pales, rails and posts, for enclosing the
park and in carrying them, as also in set-
ting up and repairing the paling between
Longbarrow gate and Eccleston gate.
Their charges were I 2</. a hundred for split-
ting the poles, and l\d. a rod for erecting.
There had also been required 400 nails
called 'double spikings' and 200 smaller
ones called 'spikings' and others costing
in all 31. loJ.
Childwall and Woolton grange were
farmed out to Richard Whitfield and
William his son for their lives for £20 a
year ; the lord to pay the rent resolute
and the fifteenth (when levied), and the
Whitfields to repair and maintain houses
and granges, also hedges and ditches. For
some reason the rent resolute (571. 6rf.),
payable to the prior of the Hospitallers for
Woolton grange was disallowed by the
king's council. Lands bought by George
Lord Strange included Coxhead (Cokkes-
shade) House in Little Woolton, rented
mediate fee of Halton being omitted— by
the service of one knight's fee, and the
6d. for a plough and 4^. for a harrow, but
if he had no plough id. The old services
at 2J. These were copyhold under the
Hospitallers.
a year clear. The manors of Childwall,
Rainford, and Anglezark were held of
should work for one day on the sowing of
the lord's oats, for the food of the said
the earl of Derby, for this marriage, which
had taken place without the king's licence,
V
11,
fealty and the yearly rent of 3,. and were
worth £44 171. 6d. per annum. The
premises in Ince Blundell were held of
Sir Thomas Butler (Warrington Barony)
by service unknown and were worth
261. %d. clear.
1 He cameof age before 24 Jan. 1530-1
demanded.
A noteworthy payment is 245. the farm
of coal mines in Whiston. Turbary in
Knowsley Moss produced Ji. id. ; 71.
came from the sale of the bark of trees in
the park cut down to make palings. The
profits of the rabbits, as stated above, be-
L.andP. Hen. VIII, iv, 2810.
A poem on the death of his second wife
Margaret, daughter of Ellis Barlow, is
printed in Halliwell's Pal. Anthology.
6 A volume of his correspondence at this
time has been printed by the Chet. Soc.
h.
c
L. and P. Hen. rill,v, 5?.
a Rymer, Fuedera (Syllabus), ii, 761.
• In the possession of Lord Lathom.
Rentals for other years of the minority
the park ; ' ward and marriage ' had pro-
duced nothing and no courts had been
held during the year.
Payments made by the bailiff follow.
7 St. Leonard's land in Knowsley and
some other possessions of Burscough Priory
were granted to him in 1553, in exchange
for Derby House in London, now the
mary and a list of the countess's dower
lands may be seen in Brewer's L. and P.
#«. ra/,iii, 1186.
3
lordship of Knowsley, now 191. 4//. per
annum. Other payments were disallowed
by the king's commissioners, including one
161
m. 20. The chantry at Huyton had been
given to him and others in 1 549 ; Pat.
3 Edw. VI, a. 11.
21
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
He did not sign the letters patent of 1 6 June, 1553,
whereby the succession of Mary was put aside in favour
of Lady Jane Grey, though his eldest son Lord Strange
signed ; and on Edward's death three weeks later, he
assisted in securing the crown for Mary, who showed
her gratitude by several favours. In the religious con-
troversies of the time it is obvious that he was hostile
to Protestantism.1 On the accession of Elizabeth
when Edward's church discipline was re-enacted, the
earl of Derby was continued upon the Privy Council,
made chamberlain of Chester in 1559 and lord-lieu-
tenant of Lancashire and Cheshire in 1569,' but his
known opposition to the change of religion cost him
the queen's favour.3 In 1562 he with the bishop of
Chester and others was appointed on a commission to
enforce the royal supremacy and the use of the Common
Prayer Book in Lancashire and Cheshire, but nothing
much appears to have been done. Five years later,
the earl and bishop were again urged to exert them-
selves to secure some degree of conformity to the new
order, and the earl, ' upon small motion made to him,
caused all such persons as have been required to be
apprehended," and showed himself ' very faithful and
careful.' *
He was celebrated for the great retinue he main-
tained, and the splendour of his living.5 He took
care to entail Lathom, Knowsley, and others of the
ancient possessions of the house upon the heirs male.6
He died on 24 October, 1572, at Lathom, and was
buried with great pomp six weeks later at Ormskirk.7
The earl was thrice married ; his successor was
the eldest son Henry, by his first wife, born in
1531. The new earl appears to have spent a large
part of his life at court, and had from time to time
various public appointments.8
The view of the county written in 1590 states
that 'Henry earl of Derby hath in that hundred
(West Derby) three of his chief houses, Lathom
and New Park in Ormskirk parish, Knowsley in
Huyton parish. He hath preaching in his house
sabbathly by the best preachers in the county,
and he giveth honourable countenance to all the pro-
fessors of religion, and is very forward in the
public actions to religion,' and his son ' Ferdinando,
Lord Strange, giveth good countenance to religion,
when he is with us.' 9 The household record bears
this out. He added Burscough to the family inheri-
tance by a grant from Queen Elizabeth. His wife
was Margaret Clifford, granddaughter of Mary, the
younger sister of Henry VIII. He had by her
Ferdinando and William, successively earls of Derby,
and three other children who died young.10 He died
on 25 September, 1593, and was buried at Ormskirk.11
His son Ferdinando, who had already (1589) been
summoned to Parliament as Lord Strange, succeeded
his father in his titles and property, and in the
lord-lieutenancy of Lancashire and Cheshire. He
had been mayor of Liverpool in 1588. He was a
friend and patron of literature, being praised by
Spenser among others.18 He married Alice, daughter
1 At the time of Wyatt's rebellion (early
in 1554), George Marsh was preaching
'most heretically and blasphemously' in
the Manchester district, and Lord Derby
being told of this at the council meeting
in London, on his return to Lancashire,
ordered Marsh's arrest. The latter at his
subsequent trial taunted the earl in the
customary manner with having himself
' acknowledged ' the system for which he
was trying another ; but the earl replied
that ' he with the Lord Windsor and the
Lord Dacres and another did not consent
to the acts (of Edward's council touching
religion) and that the Nay of these four
would be able to be seen so long as Par-
6 He was also considered a good sur-
geon. His household expenses for the
year 1560-1 have been printed. They
amounted to £3,295, other expense, (in-
cluding alms of £4 151. 7J,/.) came to
£1,621, of which over £ 1,000 was for
jewels and apparel. The rules of his
household sanctioned in 1568-9 have also
chaplain or ' a chapel. See Stanley P.
(Chet. Soc.), pt. ii, I- 10.
' The deed is recited in full in the in-
quest taken after the death of his grandson
Ferdinando. But for it, it appears that
the following manors would have been
divided among the latter's daughters in-
Sauns Cbangitr, the earliest known occur-
His household regulations, approved in
1587, gave as the first rule that all his
household ' daily repair unto and hear
general, each with' three attendants. There
were seven gentlemen waiters, two clerks
of the kitchen, a chaplain (Sir Gilbert
Townley, rector of Eccleston), numerous
yeomen officers and grooms, two trum-
peters, the cook and his staff, and many
malt maker, and the like ; a 'yeoman of
the horses and assistants in the stables ;
Monumenti (ed. Cattley), vii, 45. The
dissentient lords on the third reading of
the sixth earl : Lathom, Knowsley, Roby,
Childwall, Bispham, Rainford, Chorley,
a staff of 1 1 8. The household books also
give particulars of the provisioning of the
I 5 5 2 were— the earl of Derby, the bishops
of Carlisle and Norwich, and lords Stourton
and Windsor ; Journ. Home of Lords, i, 421.
3 This was probably on account of the
northern rebellion, to which he was
opposed.
8 While the earl attended the meetings
of Parliament and the Privy Council in
Mary's reign, it was otherwise afterwards.
He was present at the earlier sittings of
Elizabeth's first Parliament, but after
9 March, 1 5.58-9, he was absent. Thus
he did not vote on the second and third
readings of the Supremacy Bill, and had
Weeton, Treales, Little Marton, Rosacre,
Wharles, Ulneswalton, Kellamergh, Whit-
tingham, Broughton in Amounderness,
Freckleton, Torrisholme, Oxcliffe, Augh-
ton, Northolmley, Bolton le Moors,
Claughton in Amounderness, Osmotherley,
and Dunderdale ; with others in Cheshire,
Westmorland, Yorks. Middlesex, Oxford-
shire, Shropshire, and North Wales, and
houses, lands, and various rights in these
-' The order of this funeral is fully
described by Seacome and Collins.
Lord Derby's own movements. See
Stanley P. (Chet. Soc.)
9 Gibson, Lydiau Hall, 243.
i" By Jane Halsall, of Knowsley, he
had several natural children— Thomas
Stanley of Eccleshall and Broughton in
Salford, Dorothy, wife of Sir Cuthbert
Halsall, and Ursula, wife of Sir John
Salisbury — for whom he made liberal
" Seacome, Hist.; Diet. Nat. Siog. ;
see also Stanley P. pt. i, 20-29. BX
his will, dated four days before his
He was present during most of the sittings
of Parliament in 1563, but this was his
last appearance at Westminster; Journ.
House of Lords, i, 541, &c.
« Gibson, Lydtate Hall, p. 193-211.
At Lathom in July, 1568, the commission
«at with the earl of Derby presiding, to try
John Westby and others who had refused
conformity. Thus, whatever he thought
himself he took part in the coercion of
others, and by this means seems to have
regained the queen's favour.
of the North (one of its principal duties
being the persecution of the adherents of
the ancient faith). As to his attitude in
this matter, see the long correspondence
in Peck, Dead. Cur. bk. iv.
He was a commissioner on the trials of
Mary queen of Scots, and of the Yen.
Philip Howard, earl of Arundel. These
offices were not particularly honourable to
him, the less so as Howard was a near
relation.
The motto on his garter plate is
l62
seen in the Inq. p.m. of his son Ferdi-
nando, adding West Lidford in Somerset
to those granted to his second son William ;
P.C.C., 66 Dixy. Ferdinando dying be-
to his widow Alice (as his executrix),
17 October, 1594.
18 Amyntas in Colin Clout's Come Horn,
again. Ferdinando was a verse writer
himself, and ' Lord Strange's Company of
players 'is heard of in 1589 and later.
See Stanley P. pt. i, 13, 30, 37.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe,1 and by her had
three daughters. Through his mother he was one of
the nearest heirs to the crown, for, excluding the
king of Scots as a foreigner, in accordance with the
Act of Henry VIII, he came next after Lord Beau-
champ, son of Lady Katherine Grey, whom many
considered illegitimate.8 The English exiles for re-
ligion, now that Elizabeth was growing old, were
endeavouring to secure the succession of a sovereign
who, if not in communion with Rome, would miti-
gate the persecuting laws and allow liberty for the
ancient worship. It was believed that Ferdinando
was so inclined,3 and Sir William Stanley, of the
Hooton family,4 and the Jesuit Father Holt, sent
Richard Hesketh to sound him on the matter.5
Lord Derby, however, handed Hesketh over to the
authorities and he was executed in November, 1593.
Four months afterwards the earl was taken ill, and
after a fortnight's suffering died on 1 6 April, I594-6
He was buried at Ormskirk.7
His brother William, then thirty-two years of age,
succeeded to the earldom and estates. He was called
' the wandering earl,' and was the hero of several ballads,
having travelled much and lived an adventurous life.8
He married in June, 1594, Elizabeth, sister and
coheir of Henry de Vere, earl of Oxford ; was
made chamberlain of Chester 1603 and lord-lieu-
tenant of Lancashire and Cheshire 1607 ; these
offices were shared by his son, Lord Strange, from
i6z6.9 For some reason unknown he retired from
public life about this time, living as a private gentleman
chiefly at Bidston and at a house he built by the side
of the Dee, near Chester, Lord Strange taking up the
public duties and the management of the estates.
HUYTON
He died 29 September, 1642, and 20 years later was
buried at Ormskirk.10
His son Lord Strange, the 'Martyr Earl,' and
the most famous of the line, now succeeded to the
earldom. He had served in numerous public
offices ; was member for the borough of Liverpool
in 1625 " ; mayor of that town 1626. He married in
June, 1626, Charlotte de la Tremouille, daughter
of the duke of Thouars, one of the Protestant
nobility of France, and a granddaughter of William
of Nassau, prince of Orange." After a short experi-
ence of the court he preferred to live in Lancashire,
spending his time chiefly at Lathom and Knowsley.15
The Civil War had begun before his father's
death, and he had taken his side decisively for the
king. After some endeavours to secure peace in
Lancashire, he attempted to aeize Manchester, and
was proclaimed a traitor by the Parliament. In
1643 he took part in the unsuccessful assaults on
Bolton and Lancaster, and recovered Preston ; he
fortified Lathom House, which his countess in
1644 bravely defended against the Parliamentary
forces. Lord Derby had in the meantime been
settling grievances in the Isle of Man ; in 1644
he joined Prince Rupert, who was hastening to
the relief of Lathom, took part in the storming
of Bolton, and later in the year fought at Marston
Moor. His countess having retired to the Isle
of Man, after this defeat he joined her there,
taking no further part in the war, but retaining
the island for the king.14 Parliament retaliated by
excepting him from pardon, by the renewed siege
and destruction of Lathom House, and by the con-
fiscation of his great estates.16
1 'Marrying the earl of Derby's son to
descent on account of his heirs being
An account of his estates made in
alleged as an offence of the earl of
the grants of Toxteth and Smithdown by
land,Yorks. Cheshire, Somerset, Warwick,
Leicester ; Cal. S.P. Don. Addenda 1580-
Henry VI, renewed by Queen Elizabeth;
Surrey, Essex and Lincoln as follows :
1625, p. 138.
of Bolton, &c., by Richard III ; of the
—Total in possession £2,136 15,. io|</.
« See note in the Complete Peerage, iii, 72.
earldom and the manors of Holland,
in right of lady Elizabeth his wife, £560 ;
» In 1583, however, he had been very
Bury, &c. by Henry VII; of Wraysholmc
in leases redeemable, £187 ; in reversion
hostile, writing to Bishop Chaderton that
by the same ; and of Burscough by Queen
after the decease of Alice, countess of
Derby (Ferdinando's widow) and Sir
father of being lukewarm or hostile. See
third earl entailed Lithom, Knowsley,
a total of £4,035 1 01. 8|</. beside advow-
Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, iv, 24, 3 I .
and most of the other possessions of the
sons, stewardships and bailiwicks ; Cal. of
4 He had betrayed Deventer to the king
of Spain and raised a regiment of exiles
full ; as also are feoffments made by the
" Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 186.
for the Spanish service.
5 It appears from the cal. of State
account of the descent is also contained
from one of the Greek emperors. She
Papers that they had approached him be-
in it, to show that William the sixth carl
had come to England in the train of
fore he came to the earldom. Perhaps
was the heir male to whom all these
Elizabeth queen of Bohemia, daughter
his building of the solitary tower at
Leasowe (1593) in Cheshire had some-
manors legally descended. The lordship
of Man not being included was claimed
of James I. Denization was granted
12 Sept. 1626 ; Rymer, FoeJ. (Syllabus),
thing to do with these negotiations.
by Fcrdinando's daughters ; Add. MS.
ii, 866.
Richard Hesketh was a son of Sir Thomas
32104, fol. 406, 453, 465-476. See
13 At the latter place he formed ' a well-
Hesketh of Rufford.
also Chanc. Inq. p.m. 247 (92), 38 Eliz.
stocked library ' ; his widow recovered in
• A minute account of his sufferings
has been preserved, printed in Pennant's
when an Act of Parl. was passed deciding
out frames, 76 pictures in frames, 360
books of great volume, and 570 books
and in Baines' Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 83,
and 7 Jas. I. A statement of the case
of lesser volume ' ; Stanley P. pt. iii,
from Harl. MS. 247, fol. 204.
is in Cott. MS. Titus, B. 8, fol. 65.
p. xxiv.
At the time they were put down to poison
8 Halliwell, Pal. Anthology, 272, 282 ;
In 1630 the duke of Tremouille, Lady
or witchcraft, and the friends of Hesketh
Stanley P. pt. i, 47, 49.
Strange's nephew, visited Knowsley. The
chaplain about that time was Dr. Peter du
appears to have been a spendthrift ; he
Moulin the younger ; ibid, xxxv, xxxvi.
ally sensitive in this matter of the succes-
1598, paid a gaming debt to William
plunder of the ship Mary, bound from
sion and that suspected pretenders had
Whitmore by a grant of Neston, and sold
Liverpool to Carrickfergus, by the earl's
very uncertain lives under the Tudors.
Bosley to the Fittons. See Ormerod,
servants, see Royalist Cornp. P. (Rec. Soc.
See Cal. S.P. Dom. 1 591-4, p. 545. No one
C*a. ii, 474, 5 34, 'i',738- He is men-
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 131-5 ; and Stanly
was punished.
1 The inquisition taken after the death
of Ferdinando is a long and elaborate
document, it being necessary to give de-
ton's Diary (Chet. Soc.), 80.
1° His body lay at Chester during the
Civil-War period, and was 'buried in his
15 The earl petitioned to compound on
22 Jan. 1648-9 (Royalist Comp.P. ii, 122),
and this was apparently allowed him ' at a
taili of the conditions of tenure and
own tomb at Ormskirk ' on 30 June, 1662.
moiety.'
I63
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
In 1651 he repulsed an attack on the island by
Parliamentary forces, and having learnt that Charles II,
who had been crowned in Scotland, was about to
invade England, Lord Derby determined to join him,
and left the Isle of Man in August with 300 men.
He endeavoured to raise as many men as possible in
Lancashire, but after the defeat in Wigan Lane, where
he was wounded, he fled southwards to join Charles
at Worcester, and fought gallantly there on 3 Sep-
tember. The royalist cause now appearing hopeless,
the earl turned north again, no doubt wishing to
reach the Isle of Man, but on the way he and his
party surrendered to Captain Edge as prisoners of
war. He was taken to Chester and tried on the
charge of treason ; his death had already been
determined upon, and he was sentenced to die at
Bolton on or before 1 6 October.1 The place was
chosen as it was supposed the inhabitants cherished
a hostile feeling against the earl on account of the
slaughter there seven years before. The sentence
was duly carried out,* but it was found that the
people were sympathetic instead of hostile. The
executioner, named Whewell, was a farmer of the
district.3 The earl was buried at Ormskirk. Shortly
after this the Isle of Man was captured by the
Parliament.
On the Parliament taking possession of his estates
they had first to satisfy the demands of various
claimants under wills and settlements. Lady Vere
Carr claimed £1,000 under the will of her grand-
mother the countess of the sixth earl.4 The countess
of Lincoln, formerly wife of Sir Edward Stanley,
brother of the seventh earl, claimed rent-charges
from various lands in Lathom, Burscough, and Child-
wall, and Upton Hall in Cheshire, for the benefit
of herself and her sons Charles and James Stanley,
under deeds of 1637, and a large amount for
arrears.5 The almsmen of Lathom also put in a
claim.6
After the earl's execution his countess desired to
compound,7 and in 1653 was allowed to do so after
the rate of five years' purchase for the estates in fee
simple, four years' purchase for estates in tail, three
years for estates of one life, &c., the values of the
year 1 640 to be taken as the standard ; and personal
estate after the rate of one-third.8
1 The official record of the trial it
printed in the Stanley P. pt. iii, cccxxxiv.
' Darbie will be tried at Chester and die
£1,947 "'• 5</-i and in old rent.
£313 in. no1. Various other manors
and lands— at Hawarden, Thirsk, Bid-
The earl's children petitioned in 1650
for the payment of arrears under an order
of 1647 by which they were allowed a
trial began two days later ; ibid. ccv.
» The earl was taken from Chester on
Tuesday, reaching Leigh in the evening,
and next morning taken on to Bolton.
8 Local Gleanings, Lanes. andChes. i, 1 10.
The axe was in 1875 said to be preserved
Prescot and other parishes were estimated
as worth about £ 2,000 a year, out of
which, however, a number of annuities
were payable ; ibid. 147-71.
8 She stated that she held for life the
manors of Knowsley, Bury, Pilkington,
tion ; ibid. 222-26.
Considerable portions of the estates were
sold outright by the Parl. Com. ; ibid.
230-43.
This seems a convenient place for stat-
ing some of the changes of tenure in the
The chair at which he knelt on the scaffold
is at Knowsley.
(Great and Little), and various other lands
and tithes in Lancashire, the value in 1640
the fifth earl, the manors of Lathom and
Aughton and lands in Cross Hall and else-
carl's last journey to Bolton and his
execution there. One of them deserves
£648 13;. (,\d. She had a like estate in
the manor of Bidston, and other lands
veyed by the feoffees to Queen Elizabeth,
who reconveyed them to William, the
the Jesuit Father Clifton, who is said to
of the rectory of Ormskirk and its tithes,
which in 1640 were worth £300. She
Lord Strange ; Pat. 43 Eliz. pt. xi.
ciliation of the earl to the Roman Church
household goods in her possession in the
confirmed by an Act of 1606 (18 Nov.
while riding to Bolton. This narrative
has been received with natural suspicion,
places the demesne of Knowsley in 1640
heirs of the sixth earl, the various manors
but in general agrees with the others. In
his written speech, prepared of course
some time before, the earl said, ' I die a
dutiful son of the Church of England, as
it was established in my late master's
reign and is yet professed in the Isle of
Man, which it not a little comfort to
me.' This part of the speech was not
delivered on the scaffold. The spoken
accordingly set at £6,866 13,. 4</. and
£336 6s. 8rf. for a thousand pounds' worth
of household stuff, making in all £7,200 ;
and having paid half this sum into the
half the sequestration was discharged;
ibid. 204.
male. Charles I, however, at the peti-
tion of James, Lord Strange, made a
grant of the manors of Upholland, Bur-
scough, Lathom, and Childwall to him
and his heirs and assigns ; Pat. 13 Chas. I,
pt. xxvii, m. 10. These dispositions were
probably nullified by the confiscation under
authority of Parliament in 1651 ; Scobell,
Lord send us our religion again ; as for
that which is practised now it hath no
name ; and methinks there is more talk
of religion than any good effects thereof.'
The above account has been extracted
mainly from Canon Raines' biography in
the Stanley P. (Chet. Soc.), pt. iii. There
clerk of Huyton, had for thirty-nine years
received ios. a year from Knowsley, and
the vicar had had £i 6s. %J., and he
thought these sums should still be paid.
Similar demands came from other manors.
There were also a rent 'sook' of in. 6d.
heretofore collected for the Crown and
Charles the eighth earl had lands supposed
to be worth £500 a year settled upon
him ; Commons' Journ. vii, 293, 349, 352 ;
Royalist Camp. P. ii, 231-2. He was
allowed also to repurchase such of hi«
father's manors and lands as had not
been sold outright, the contract being by
scene in Lanes, ffar (Chet.Soc.), 82-3 ;
see also Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.),
320-3; Foley, Rec. S. /. ii, 9-175
Diet, of Nat. Biog.
4 Royalist Camp. P. ii, 125.
' Ibid. 147-71. « Ibid. 143.
1 Various covenants relating to her
marriage were considered. The estates
brought in in 1625 were the manors of
Lathom, Burscough, Childwall ; also
Ormskirk, Orton, Bispham, Bury,
Heaton, Broughton, and various lands
in Lancashire of the yearly value in
demesnes, quit and improved rents, of
of the fee court of Widnes, and a wapen-
takerentof£2 is. lod. (?) issuing out of
Knowsley 2s. 5</., Huyton 2s. 6d., Roby
2s. 6d., Tarbock 31. 4</., and Holland 1 21.,
which Thomas Booth, bailiff of the hun-
dred, deposed were regularly paid down to
1642, when the estate was sequestered;
ibid. 205-7. Edward Stockley of Prescot
claimed Holker House in Knowsley by
virtue of a lease made to him in 1639 at
the ancient rent of 381. nJ. and this was
allowed ; ibid. 157-63. Edward Stockley
had been made ranger of the park in
1647.
l64
agents or trustees; ibid. 238; Cat. S.P.
Dom. (1653-4), 368-9. A further en-
abling Act was passed in 1657 (Commons
Journ. vii, 471, 496, 518), which, accord-
ing to Seacome, enabled the earl to ' sell
several manors, lands, and chief rents,
as Childwall, Little Woolton, part of
Dalton, and all Upholland, with the chief
rents of many of the manors and town-
ships,' whereby he was enabled to pay off
the debt to the Commonwealth on the
lands repurchased, and to buy off certain
family charges ; House of Stanley (ed. 1793),
403.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
In 1647* the six surviving children of the earl
had been permitted to live at Knowsley. A little
after this the eldest son, Lord Strange, went
abroad, and in 1650 married in Holland Dorothea
Helena de Rupa," a maid of honour to Elizabeth,
queen of Bohemia. He returned to England early
in 1651, and found that two of his sisters (Katherine
and Amelia) were in prison in Liverpool,3 having no
allowance from their father's estate and depending
entirely on charity ; the other children were in the
Isle of Man. He therefore 'cast himself on the
wisdom and the mercy of Parliament,' being ' desirous
as well to obedience and his good affection and loyalty
to the Commonwealth, as to preserve some small
ruins of his unhappy family.' Himself, his wife and
child, and the family were quite destitute of means.
After taking the engagement he was granted ' two-
fifths of the four parts yet undisposed of,' and allowed
to live at Knowsley.4
He appears to have been unacquainted with his
father's movements in August, 1651, but on hearing
of his capture and imprisonment at once visited
him, made strenuous efforts for his pardon, and
attended him to his execution, and then at the
burial. He lived at Knowsley, the widowed countess
joining him in 1658. He engaged in the premature
rising of 1659 in favour of Charles II. After the
restoration he was, of course, restored to his father's
honours and to much of his estates ; he bore a sword
before the king at the coronation, and was made lord
lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire, and (in 1662)
chamberlain of Cheshire for life. He wrote and
published two controversial tracts in favour of Pro-
testantism (i668-9),5 and died at Knowsley 21 De-
cember, 1672, being buried at Ormskirk nearly six
weeks later.0
His son and successor was William George
Richard, ninth earl, who left two surviving daughters,
Henrietta and Elizabeth. He was lord lieutenant of
Lancashire and Cheshire from 1676 to 1687, when
he was arbitrarily displaced by James II, to be restored
in the following year, when the king discovered how
much this action was resented. He retained the
office till his death. He preferred a county retire-
ment to court offices, and set himself to the work of
rebuilding Lathom, which, however, he did not
finish.' His daughter Henrietta became sole heir by
the death of her sister Elizabeth in 1714. She was
twice married — to John Annesley, earl of Anglesey,
in 1 706, and to John, earl of Ashburnham, in 1714,
HUYTON
having a daughter by each husband.8 She died on
26 June, 1718, and her second and surviving
daughter, Henrietta Bridget Ashburnham, died un-
married 8 August, 1732.
James, tenth earl, succeeded to the title and the
bulk of the estates on the death of his brother in
1702. He was a member of Parliament for
Lancashire boroughs and for the county from 1685
to 1702 ;9 served in the campaigns of Flanders
under William III, with whom he was in high
favour ; had court offices, was a Privy Councillor,
lord lieutenant of the county 1702-10 and 1714
to 1736, and chancellor of the duchy 1706 to 1710.
He was mayor of Liverpool in 1734. He rebuilt
Knowsley Hall, putting up an inscription as to the
ingratitude of Charles II, ' who refused a bill unani-
mously passed by both Houses of Parliament for the
restoring to the family the estates which he had lost
by his loyalty to him.' 10 He died on I February,
1735-6, at Knowsley without surviving issue."
The title of earl of Derby, with Knowsley,
Halewood, Bury, and other manors, went to the
heir male of the second earl, who had died so
far back as 1521, through the Sir James Stanley of
Cross Hall of whom mention has been made above.1*
He had a numerous family, including Henry Stanley
of Aughton, who married Margaret, daughter and
heiress of Peter Stanley of Bickerstaffe, and was suc-
ceeded in 1598 by his son Edward, created a baronet
by Charles I in 1627. His eldest son Sir Thomas,
second baronet, strove for the Parliament in the Civil
War as strenuously as his great relative the earl of
Derby did for the king ; he died in 1653, leaving a
son, Sir Edward Stanley, who was succeeded in 1671
by his son, Sir Thomas Stanley (died 1714), the
father of Sir Edward Stanley, fifth baronet, who
became eleventh earl of Derby in 1736. He was
sheriff of Lancashire in 1722, and knight of the shire
from 1727 till his succession to the earldom; lord
lieutenant 1742 to 1757 and 1771 till his death on
22 February, 1776. His widow died two days after
him, and they were buried together at Ormskirk.
Their son James married Lucy, daughter of Hugh
Smith of Weald Hall in Essex, and assumed in accor-
dance with Mr. Smith's will the additional surname
of Smith. He was knight of the shire (1738) till his
death, also lord lieutenant from 1757, and chancellor
of the duchy from 1762.
He died in June 1771," and his son Edward, at
twenty-three years of age, succeeded his grandfather as
1 Permission granted 8 Sept. ; Sea-
In 1707 she appears to have held in her
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 540, m. 1 1 ; 567,
come.
own right half the castle of Greenhalgh,
m. 3 ; 623, m. la.
8 Naturalized by Act of Par). 29 Aug.
the manors of Lathom,* West Derby,*
» He was a decided Whig, and the earls
1660.
Wavertree,* Everton,* Adgarley, Alston,*
of Derby adhered to the same party till
8 Afterwards at Chester.
Skelmersdale,* Holland,* Bretherton,*
the time of the fourteenth earl, who him-
4 Royalist Camp. P. ii, 222-4. This
Ormskirk, Newburgh, Great and Little
self down to 1 834 was a zealous supporter
acceptance of the Commonwealth reach-
Sowerby, and Bispham. Those marked
of it.
ing his father in an exaggerated form
greatly distressed him ; Stanley P. pt. iii,
with an asterisk were disposed of as well
as other estates and the manors of Child-
10 See Stanley P. pt. iii, cclxxv, and note.
" The lordship of Man, the barony of
cclxvi.
wall, Much and Little Woolton, which
Strange, and a large part of his estates
5 Local Gleaning! Land, and Che*, i, 241 .
6 On 29 Jan. 1672-3, 'deplored by
last, however, had practically been lost to
the family since the Civil War. With
devolved upon the heir of his aunt Amelia
Anna Sophia, youngest daughter of the
King, country, and Church ' ; Ormskirk
regard to the rest — as also Knowsley,
seventh earl. She had in 1659 married
RTTh
Halewood, Bury, and Pilkington— the
John, second earl and first marquis of
then earl of Derby seems to have been
Atholl ; her eldest son John was created
him in the Kenyan MSB. (Hist. MSS.
able to come to an agreement with her.
duke of Atholl in 1703, and it was his
Com.), including his diary in Oct.-Nov.
These have accordingly come down to the
son James, second duke, who became in
1688, and a contemporary character
sketch. For his action in 1688 see a
present earl, together with Bickerstaffe,
Thornley, and Chipping, the inheritance
1736 heir general of the ' Martyr Earl.'
" For a fuller account of this family see
subsequent note.
of the Bickerstaffe branch of the family.
Bickerstaffe.
8 In conjunction with Lord Ashburn-
For details see Pal. of Lane. Plea R.
" For his character by a particular
ites, including the manor of Lathom.
Feet of F. bdle. z/6, m. 67, 71, 75 ; and
165
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
twelfth earl. He also was knight of the shire 1774
to 1776, and lord lieutenant from 1776 till his death.
He married in 1774 Elizabeth, daughter of James,
sixth duke of Hamilton,1 who afterwards separated
from him, and died in March, 1797. In the
following May Lord Derby married Eliza Farren, an
actress of some fame, commemorated by an inscription
in Huyton church. ' A passion for horse-racing and
cock-fighting was the absorbing one of his life,' and
' Derby Day ' preserves his memory.
His son and heir Edward, born in 1775, had been
member for Preston 1 796 to 1812, and for the
county 1812 to 1832, when he was summoned to
the House of Lords as Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe ;
two years later, on succeeding to the earldom, he also
succeeded to the office of lord lieutenant of Lanca-
shire. He took a great interest in natural history,
and formed a large menagerie at Knowsley,* and also
a museum, which he bequeathed to Liverpool, where
it is still preserved. He died 30 June, 1851.*
His eldest son, Edward Geoffrey, the most brilliant
and distinguished of the modern earls, after a successful
career in the House of Commons, was called to the
House of Lords on his father's barony in 1 844, and
succeeded to the earldom in 1851. He served in
many ministries, being thrice prime minister himself
(1852, 1858, 1866), and becoming leader of the
Conservative party. He was celebrated as an orator,
being known as ' the Rupert of debate,' and main-
tained his reputation for scholarship by a translation
of the Iliad. He died at Knowsley on 23 October,
1869, and was buried there.*
He was succeeded by his eldest son Edward Henry,
born at Knowsley in 1826, and distinguished for a
long and useful public career, having filled numerous
ministerial positions. He died in 1893,' and was
succeeded by his brother Frederick Arthur, the present
(sixteenth) earl of Derby, who after being a member of
the House of Commons for many years, and holding
office several times, was in 1886 summoned to the
upper chamber as Baron Stanley of Preston ; he was
governor-general of Canada from 1888 to 1893. At
home, after the extension of the boundaries of the
city in 1895, he was lord mayor of Liverpool. (See
Pedigree next page.)
Leland in Henry VIII's time notices the place
thus : ' Knollesley, a park having a pretty house of
the earls of Derby, within a mile of Prescot.'6
Camden passes it over.
Until the Civil War Lathom was the principal
residence of the family, but after its destruction
Knowsley took its place. Here, as already stated, the
children, and then the widow, of the seventh earl
took up their residence with the permission of those
in power, and the dowager countess died there on
21 March, 1663-4.'
The house is |_-shaped, with an east wing some
41 5 ft. long, joined towards its south end by a south
wing about 290 ft. long, the latter being the older
portion, and said by Pennant to have been built ' by
Thomas, first earl of Derby, for the reception of his
son-in-law Henry VII.' 8 Parts of the walls may be
as old as this time, but there are now no architectural
teatures which can be older than the latter part of the
seventeenth century, with the doubtful exception of
the three pointed arches in the kitchen. The entrance
to the south wing is on the north side, somewhat to
the east of the middle, and is flanked by circular
stair-turrets. It opens to a passage running along the
whole of the north side of the wing, as far west as
the entrance to the kitchen, and opening into a line
of rooms on the south. These have a cloister in
front of them, and have been completely refaced on
the south, a large block of building projecting south-
ward from the middle of the south front having been
added at the same time. The kitchen measures about
50 ft. by 35 ft., and is divided lengthwise by an arcade
of three pointed arches with octagonal pillars, which
have preserved no ancient detail, if indeed any part of
them is of ancient date. It is to be noted that the
walls here and for some distance eastward are thick,
and may be older than any architectural features
which they have to show.9 The fittings seem to be
nowhere older than the early part of the eighteenth
century, to which date belongs the staircase opposite
the north entrance mentioned above. At the west
end of the wing, on the south side, is a modern block
built round a small court, containing the estate office,
muniment rooms, &c.
The east wing is of several dates, and for the
middle of its length has a thick central wall which
may be its oldest part. The south end of the long
range of buildings seems to have been begun about
1730, and is the work of James, the tenth earl of
Derby, who died in 1736. Dates on the rain-water
heads range between 1 73 1 and 1 737. The range has
a central portion of three stories, about 70 ft. long,
flanked by shorter wings which were originally of two
stories, but have since been raised to the same height
as the central block.10 It is of red brick with stone
dressings, with the characteristic moulded architraves
and sash windows of the time, and is finished with a
rather dull panelled parapet. On its south front is a
two-story portico carried by pairs of columns, and on
this part of the building is the inscription which
records the ingratitude of the Stuarts to the great
1 It is interesting to note that she was
a descendant of James the seventh earl,
and that the present and three preceding
earls are descended from the same.
» Described and illustrated in Gleanings
from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley
Hall, 2 vols. imp. folio, 1846 and 1850,
privately printed.
» See Diet. Nat. Bug.
1 Ibid.
» Ibid.
6 Leland, Itin. vii, 48.
7 In Sept. 1688, William the ninth
earl was at Knowsley. He had just
been restored to office as lord lieu-
tenant of the counties of Lancashire and
Cheshire. In Oct. he received a sum-
mons from the king, which took him to
London; he was desired to use 'great
care to keep his two counties quiet.' On
I Nov. he met his deputy lieutenants
at Knowsley. On the I7th he heard that
there was a design on the part of the
military at Wigan and at Liverpool to seize
upon him at Knowsley, so as to prevent
him from acting with Lord Delamere —
with whom he had in fact concerted mea-
sures—against King James, and so he left
Knowsley, going round by Winstanley and
Astley to Preston ; Kenyan MSS. 198,
A letter dated in June, 1697, describes
the household at Knowsley ; 'We came
to Knowsley on Wednesday last. . . We
stayed at Knowsley till Monday last, and
now we are ready the first wind (and)
1 66
have a ship ready bound for the island.
My Lord and Lady Strange are at Knows-
ley, keep a very few servants, and no
gentlemen came there whilst we stayed,
only Mrs. Lyme one day, and Parson
Richmond another day. . . My Lord
Derby did intend himself to go for the
island, but is off that because of the
danger of the sea, and the many privateers
who are now in St. George's Channel,
waiting for the ships that will come to
Highlake (Hoylake) for Chester Fair' ;
Ibid. p. 418.
8 Tour from Downing to Alston Moor, 22.
9 The house was taxed for 72 hearths
in 1662.
1° The northern wing in 1808, the
southern at a quite recent date.
LATHOM AND STANLEY OF KNOWSLEY
• Robert son of Henry, son of Siward, .on of Dunning (d. 1 198) =
Richard de Lathom (d.
Richard (d. ,232, s
(d. 1232, ,.p.)
- Sir Robert (d. c. 1286) = (ii) Joan
Nicholas (d. c. 1290)
Sir Robert (Inq. p.m. 18 Edw. II) = Catherine
I
1 Sir Thomas (d. Sept. 1370) == Elea
1 Sir Thomas (d. Mch. 1382) = Joan Venables
Thomas (d. 3 Nov. 1383) = Isabel
• Ellen (d. infant, c. 1388)
i (d. 26 Oct. 1414) = Sir John Stanley (d. 6 Jan. 1413-4)
1 Sir John (Inq. p.m. 16 Hen. VI) = Isabel Harrington
1 Sir Thomas, Lord STANLEY (b. 1406 ; d. zo Feb. 1458-9) = Joan Goushill
* Thomas, 1st Earl of DERBY = (i) Eleanor Nevill
(a. 26 in 1459 ; d. 29 July, 1504) I (d. c. 1472)
Sir William
(exec. 1495)
Sir John
George, Lord STRANGE (d. 5 Dec. 1497) = Joan, Lady Strange
Sir Edward, Lord Mounteagle
James, Bp. of Ely
> Thomas, 2nd Earl (d. 24 May, 1521) = Anne Hastings
Sir James, of Cross Hall = Anne Ha
Edward, 3rd Earl (b. 1509 ; d. 24 Oct. 1572) = (i) Dorothy Howard
Henry, 4th Earl (b. 1531 ; d. 25 Sept. 1593) = Margaret Clifford
* Ferdinando, 5th Earl = Alice Spence
(d. i6Apl. 1594) I
3 daughters, coheirs
' William, 6th Earl = Elizabeth V
(d. 29 Sept. 1642) I
* James, 7th Earl = Charlotte de
(exec. I5 Oct. 1651) I Tremouille
Henry of Aughton and = Margaret Stanley
Bickerstaffe (d. 1598) I
Sir Edward, Bart. = (ii) Isabel Warburton
(cr. 1627; d. 1640) [
1 Thomas, 2nd Bart. = Mary Eger
(d. May, 1653)
* Charles, 8th Earl = Helena
(d. 21 Dec. 1672) I
' William, 9th Earl = Lady Eliz. * James, loth Earl John, D. of Charles, E.
(d. 5 Nov. 1702) | Butler (d. i Feb. 1735-6) Atholl Dunmore
s.p.v.
Anne = James, D. of Hami
James, 6th D. of Hamil
es, ' Lord Strange ' = Lucy Smith
(d.June, 1771)
izabeth = * Edward, nth Ea
I (d. 21 Oct. 1834)
Edward, 1 3th Earl (d. 30 June, 1851) = Charlotte Margaret Hornby
Edward Geoffrey, I4th Earl (d. 23 Oct. 1869) = En
Bootlc Wilbraham
• Edward Henry, 151
(d. 21 Apl. 1893)
» Frederick Arthur, !6th Earl = Constance Villien
(b. 15 Jan. 1841)
Edward George Villiers, Lord Stanley
* Lord of the manor of Knowsley.
I67
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
house of Stanley, which had lost so much in their
cause.
In the middle of the east wing rises a large modern
tower with a high roof, and an oriel on the east face,
overlooking the site of a building which formerly
projected from the front at this point, and contained
the chapel. From extant drawings this seems to
have been a poor eighteenth-century building whose
loss is not to be deplored on aesthetic grounds. To
the north of the tower is a two-story range, of early
eighteenth-century date, or perhaps a little earlier,
with tall sash windows of good proportion, and this
and the southern part of the east front are by far the
most pleasing pieces of architecture in the building.
At the north end of the range are modern buildings,
and the whole west face has been modernized, the
old sashes being replaced by plate glass with much
detriment to the general effect. The main entrance
to the house is now in the middle of the west front
of this range, and is covered by a large modern
carriage porch. The fall of the ground is from east
to west, and a terrace has been formed by levelling
the wide lawn which lies before the entrance.
Thomas Pennant visited the hall in 1773. 'About
a mile and a half from Prescot,' he writes, ' lies
Knowsley, the residence of the earls of Derby, seated
in a park, high, and much exposed to the fury of the
west winds ; for distant as this place is from the sea
the effect is visible in the shorn form of the trees.'
Then, after describing the house, he enumerates the
pictures, collected chiefly by James, the tenth earl,
this being his preface : ' I surveyed with great
pleasure the numerous portraits of this illustrious
family, an ancient race, long uncontaminated by vice
or folly. The late venerable peer, Edward, earl of
Derby, supported the dignity of his family ; aged as
he was, there was not a person in his neighbourhood
but wished that his years could be doubled.' '
• The court rolls are preserved at Knowsley.
Apart from the Lathom and Stanley families there
is little record of the township. The Stockley
family, already mentioned several times, occurs as early
as 1302, when Richard son of Adam de Stockesley
brought some small action against Robert de La-
thom.1
Edmund de Prescot occurs as a landowner here in
Richard II's reign.3
In 1717 Sampson Erdeswick, of Healy in Audley,
and Thomas Howard, registered estates here as
' papists.' *
From the mention of the ' place of St. Leonard ' at
Knowsley in the charter of Burscough, it may be in-
ferred that there was already a chapel of some kind
here.5
1 Pennant, op. cit. 21-47. Gregson
supplements this by stating that the agent
employed in collecting the pictures was
Hamlet Winstanley, a painter and etcher ;
'this lord, the patron of Winstanley,
threw open his gallery at Knowsley, and
many young men of those days studied
architecture and drawing under his
mon at that period, when there was not
any academy of design in England.'
Fragments (ed. Harland), 229.
» Assize R. 418, m. 2. Some other
references to the plea rolls may be added.
Assize R. 1425, m. 6 ; De Banco R.
348, m. 427</.; Duchy of Lane. Assize
R. I, m. iiii ; 7, m. 7.
In later times the English Presbyterians had a chapel
in the village, the doctrine in the ordinary course of
development becoming Unitarian ;6 but at the expiry
of a lease in 1830, it was consecrated as a chapel of
ease to Huyton,7 Knowsley becoming an independent
ecclesiastical district in 1 844, and a vicarage in 1 869.
The incumbents are presented by the earl of Derby.
Anew church, St. Mary's, was built in 1843-431
the expense of the thirteenth earl. In 1871 a memo-
rial chapel was added at the expense of the personal
friends and admirers of the fourteenth earl ; a monu-
ment to him was placed therein, the recumbent figure
being by Matthew Noble ; stained-glass windows were
added.9
HUYTON WITH ROBY
Hitune, Dom. Bk.; Houton, 1258; Huton, 1278;
Hyton and Huyton, 1292. This last is the common
spelling from I 300.
The original township of Huyton has been united
with Roby to form the township of Huyton with Roby.
To them in 1877 was added Thingwall,9 part of the
parish of Childwall. The area of the amalgamated
townships is 3,054 acres,10 and the population in
1901 numbered 4,661. The country is somewhat
undulating in the north, but flat in most places. This.
is quite a residential district with the dwellers in
the city of Liverpool, for pleasant country houses with
gardens and shrubberies are seen on all sides. Be-
yond the houses are open fields, some pastures, others
where corn, potatoes, and turnips are generally culti-
vated. The soil is sandy, with a solid base of red
sandstone. At Huyton Quarry the character of the
country varies ; coal mines begin to indicate their
presence by shafts and ventilators. The Huyton
Quarry mine is the nearest to Liverpool of the South
Lancashire mines. To the east of Huyton village the
geological formation consists of the gannister bed&
towards the north-east and the coal measures to the
south-east ; in the western half of the township the
three beds of the bunter series of the new red sand-
stone are successively represented from north-west to>
south-east. In Roby the same three beds occur re-
spectively in (a) the north, (b) the centre, and (c) the
western half and eastern corner.
Huyton proper has an area of 1,819 acres- There
is no well-defined boundary between it and Roby to
the south-west. On the eastern side it is separated
from Whiston by a brook which runs through Tarbock
to join Ditton brook.
The main road from Liverpool to Prescot passe*
through the northern part of the township, the South
Lancashire system of electric tramways running
' Add. MS. 32107, n. 354.
•" Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, 119, I2O.
5 It is described later as standing near
Chester. In 1825 the Rev. John Yates, a
well-known Unitarian minister of Liver-
pool, had charge of the place, which had no
Ridding Chapel ; Burscough Reg. fol. [4] .
« Nothing seems to be known as to the
origin of the chapel, but it is perhaps the
Presbyterian meeting-house in the parish
recorded by Bishop Gastrell about 1718 ;
Notitia Cestr. ii, 177.
In the Manchester Socinian Controversy,
141, it is stated that it was of « orthodox
origin,' the trust deed prescribing that the
officiating minister should 'preach accord-
ing to the doctrinal articles of the Church
of England, and teach the Assembly's Cate-
chism.' It was endowed with an estate in
168
dists had recently used it for preaching, and
afterwards two laymen of the Established
Church went from Liverpool, one reading
the prayers and the other a sermon. See
also Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iv, 196.
7 The old chapel is still in use as the
boys' school. It is half a mile west of
the new church.
8 Information given by the Rev. John
Richardson, M.A., vicar.
9 Loc. Gov. Bd. Order 7403.
1° Census of 1901—3,053, including -
acres of inland water.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
along it from the Liverpool boundary to St. Helens
and beyond. The principal road for Huyton,
however, is that from Liverpool through Broadgreen
and Roby. The London and North-Western com-
pany's line from Liverpool to Manchester passes through
the centre, and just to the eastward of the village a
line branches off towards Prescot and St. Helens ;
there are stations at the western and eastern ends ot
the village called Huyton and Huyton Quarry respec-
tively.
The Hazels or Red Hazels and Hurst House are
in the north-eastern corner of the township ; Wolfall
Hall near the northern boundary, Dam House on the
border of Roby, and Huyton Hey to the south of the
railway near the station.
A local board was formed in 1877, and now the
united townships of Huyton, Roby, and Thingwall ' are
governed by an urban district council of twelve mem-
bers under the Act of 1 894.
About 1830 wire-drawing for the watch-making
industry was engaged in, and there was a colliery.*
The flagstone quarry at the south-east of the township
is now closed. There is a brewery.
A cross on the village green near the church was
erected about 1820 from a design by Rickman.3 It
was replaced in 1897 by the present cross.4
A halfpenny token was issued by Thomas Hodgson
of Huyton in i666.5
At the death of Edward the Confessor,
MANORS the manors of HUTTON and Tarbock
were held by Dot. The assessment was
one hide, quit of all customs except the geld ; there was
land for four ploughs, and the value beyond the
customary rent was 2Os." Afterwards it became
part of the fee of Widnes, and was reckoned as a
member of Knowsley, with the Lathom family as
lords.
A subordinate manor was created or grew up about
the beginning of the thirteenth century. Robert
son of Henry de Lathom took to his second wife
Amabel, daughter of Simon, who was known as the
canon of Burscough. Robert died about 1198, leav-
ing three sons by this marriage, Richard, Adam,7 and
William, who took their surname from Knowsley or
Huyton indifferently.8
The eldest brother 9 seems to have settled at Wol-
HUYTON
fall, and his descendants took their name from it,
while Adam, though usually called ' de Knowsley,'
became possessed of Huyton proper — unjustly as was
afterwards alleged 10 — and his descendants were accord-
ingly 'de Huyton.'
In 1258 Richard de Huyton " claimed from Adam
de Knowsley one-third of the manor of Huyton ;
except the advowson of one-third of the church, and
a third of the mill, and of two oxgangs of land which
Richard when under age demised to him. When
Adam appeared, the justices found that he was not of
sound mind or good memory and could not speak,
and adjourned the matter.18 Three years later Henry
de Knowsley, as assignee of Adam de Knowsley —
probably his son and heir — demanded from Nicholas,
then prior of Burscough, that he observe the covenant
regarding the mill at Huyton which his predecessor
Prior William had made with Adam."
In 1252 Adam and his wife Godith, probably a
relative of the lords of Billinge,14 sought from Adam
de Winstanley l^ oxgang of land in Winstanley.15
The next step in the pedigree is not clear. It
would appear that Adam had several sons — Henry,16
Robert, and William, whose descendants held or
claimed the manor on a title said to be derived from
Adam de Knowsley. Henry de Huyton, if identical
with Henry de Knowsley, has been mentioned already
as the assignee of Adam in 1258. In 1292 he claimed
an acre of meadow from the prior of ' Burcho,' and the
person summoned triumphantly replied that he was
prior of ' Burscho.' " Henry was still living in I 307
when the prior of the Hospitallers complained of
his felling trees in Little Woolton.18 In Billinge
he and Adam de Billinge were chief lords in 1291, in
right either of his wife or his mother ; here his manor
descended to his son Robert, among whose daughters
or grand-daughters it was divided,19 but Huyton went
to another son William,*0 who in 1306 had also been
summoned for cutting trees and doing other damage
in Little Woolton.'1 William de Huyton died about
1328, leaving a son and heir Robert, who being a
minor became the ward of Sir Thomas de Lathom as
lord of Knowsley.2* He died about 1345, and his
daughter Katherine similarly became the ward of
Katherine, formerly wife of Sir Robert de Lathom,
and their son Sir Thomas.
1 Thingwall was included in the local
almost the same witnesses, ' Richard de
cap. 103.
> Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iv, 7.
8 The cost was about £60. ' The in-
Whattty Caucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 575, 585;
Norris D. (B.M.), 741 ; See also Dep.
Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 204. All three
tention in erecting it was to fill up in some
attested another Stanlaw charter dated
measure the large open space, which was
about 1240 ; Wholly Coucher (Chet. Soc.),
much used for bull-baiting and cock-fight-
ii, 520 ; also Scarisbrick Charter, n. iz
ing, which were carried on here and also
in Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), xii, 263.
at fields near the new schools to the south
» Or possibly his eldest son.
of the railway station.' Trans. Hist. Sue.
10 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2, m. viii.
xxxiv 107.
11 Probably the son of Richard de
4 Lanes, and Cfies. Antiq. Soc. xix,
Knowsley and identical with Richard de
200.
Wolfall.
6 Ibid, v, 78.
" Cur. Reg. R. 160, m. 54. There
« V.C.H. Lana. i, 283*. Later the sepa-
is a somewhat earlier mention of him (35
rate assessment of Huyton was 3 plough-
Hen. Ill) in the Originalia, m. 12.
lands, sometimes 2 only.
« Cur. Reg. R. 171, m. 55 d. ; 172 m.
7 In Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2,
3 d.; 173, m. 17 ; Burscough Reg. fol. 44.
m. 8, Adam is called ' son of Roger son of
In 1245 Adam de Knowsley had a lease
Henry.'
of the mill on the same terms as his
8 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
brother Richard had held it, paying 31.
Ches.), ii, 1 38*. Thus in a charter by
a year.
Albreia of Garston to Stanlaw, two of
Henry de Knowsley is mentioned in
the witnesses are Richard de Huyton and
Orig. 44 Hen. Ill, m. ;.
Adam his brother, while in another of her
» Adam had lands in Billinge before
charters, of about the same date and with
1296 j see Assize R. 404, m. 13.
169
15 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.),!, ,14.
Adam de Knowsley granted to Robert
del Birches land within Huyton within
the following bounds : In length from
the ridding which Christiana, sister of the
said Robert, formerly held of Adam to
Stainulf 's ridding, also held of Adam; and
in width from Robert's other boundary to
the hurst, and so as the hurst and the
carr divide from Christiana's ridding to
Stainulf s ridding; Norris D. (B.M.),
980. 'Richard lord of Huyton' was a
witness as was John dc Wolfall.
16 Henry ' son of Adam de Knowsley '
is one grantor in a deed preserved by
Kuerden ; ii, fol. 270, n. 138.
17 Assize R. 408, m. 44.
18 De Bane. R. 163, m. 219.
M See the account of Billinge.
*> Probably Henry was twice married.
« De Bane. R. 161, m. 473 d.
M Ibid. 275, m. 7 d. Robert de Huy-
ton and his wife Mary were defendants,
in 1325, in a claim by Thomas de Beetham
concerning land in Kirkby ; ibid. 259,
22
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
A considerable amount of litigation followed ; in-
deed there had been some already.1 At the begin-
ning of 1 349 John le Norreys, younger brother of
Henry, lord of Speke, married the heiress, Katherine
de Huyton, and at once brought actions against
Emma de Newton and against Margery widow of
Robert de Huyton, on pleas that they were making
waste, &c., in the houses, woods, and gardens which
they severally held as dower in Huyton, and which
were Katherine's inheritance.*
Shortly afterwards (1350) Sir Thomas de Lathom
put forward his claim to the manor of Huyton as
against Margaret, then wife of Johnson of Richard the
Tailor of Warrington.'
In 1354 Henry de Walton, archdeacon of Rich-
mond, purchased two-thirds of the manor from John
le Norreys of Speke.4 The remaining third was sold
in 1357 to William de Walton by Avice de Bret-
targh and William de Brettargh.5
There were cross suits between the Waltons and
the Lathoms as to title. The archdeacon alleged
that Sir Thomas held of him, by virtue of his pur-
chase, messuages, land, &c., by an annual service of
6s. 9>d. Sir Thomas on the other hand asserted the
disseisin done to his great-grandfather, Richard son of
Robert son of Henry de Lathom, and claimed the
manor.6 The suits went on for many years, but in
the end the Lathom claim seems to have prevailed.'
In i 366 Sir Thomas de Lathom
the elder claimed from Richard
de Causay, chaplain, the manor
of Huyton ; two years later he
claimed it from Robert son of
Robert de Standen, certainly a
Walton trustee ; in the next
year the latter prosecuted Robert
de Huyton for cutting down
trees at Huyton.8 In 1371
Gilbert de Ince of Aughton, in
a deed made at Huyton, re-
leased William son of John de
Walton and the above Robert
Standen from all actions.9 After
this the Walton connexion with the place seems to
have ended absolutely.10
The next Sir Thomas Lathom and his wife Joan,
after the recovery of the manor, made a settlement
of it in 1382 ; the remainders were thus stated : To
IN or WALTON-
LE-DALE. Argfnt. a
three falcon? heads erased
table beaked or.
1 The records of the suit are so con-
fused that it is difficult to give a satis-
factory narrative. William de Huyton
whom he afterwards repudiated— the rea-
son is not given— and he settled upon her
and her children lands in Little Woolton,
and also some in Huyton. Avice next
married Roger son of John the Walker
ofTarbock, and a settlement was made
in 1324, the remainder being to William
de Huyton; Final Cone, ii, 58. Wil-
liam's widow Emma having married
Robert de Hale sought her dower from
William Poyde and the above-named
Avice his wife, Roger the Walker having
died ; and the defendants called upon Sir
Thomas de Lathom to warrant them,
as being guardian of Robert the heir of
William de Huyton ; De Bane. R. 286,
m. 57; 287, m. 156; 288, m. 129. It
would appear that the lands in Woolton
and Brettargh were an absolute gift to
Avice, but her right in Huyton was of
the nature of dower, though the marriage
had been null.
Margaret soon afterwards appears as wife
of John de Billinge, claiming the manor of
Huyton as next of kin, being daughter of
Henry dc Huyton. It was alleged that
John le Norreys had seized her at Sutton
in 1349, kept her imprisoned in a house
at Huyton, and by threats compelled her
to sell to him all her right in the manor
—i.e. the two-thirds of it not held as
dower by Emma de Newton, and the re-
version of the other third ; Duchy of
Lane. Assize R. 2, m. ii d. Norreys' reply
was that Margery acted of her own free
Assize R. 435, m. 10.
Whatever truth there may be in this
story, John le Norreys seem, to have
thought his tenure insecure, for he made
over the whole to his elder brother Henry,
who thus for a time was lord of Huyton,
perhaps as trustee, and became the
plaintiff or defendant in actions as to
title ; Assize R. 1444, m. 3 ; Duchy of
7. Quite a different story is now told.
Robert de Huyton is said to have died
Final Cone, ii, 138. The other claimants
all appeared ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R.
2, m. i.
4 Final Cone, ii, 145 ; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 3, m. i d. v d. and vi. Pro-
bably Henry was acting for his brother
William ; they were of the Walton le
Dale family.
5 Avice de Brettargh's charter gives no
clue as to her right or identity ; she was
probably a daughter, for in 1355 William
de Stockley surrendered to Avice de Bret-
targh a third part of the manor of Huyton
which he held for the term of his life—
this implying that his wife Avice wai
now dead. See Norris D. (B.M.), 985 ;
Final Cone, ii, 156; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 6, m. 6 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep.
xxxii, App. 333.
In the meantime another claimant ap-
peared to some land in Huyton — Robert
son of Robert son of William, who wa«
a younger brother of Henry de Huyton.
defendant, and he alleged that the land
was within Knowsley; Duchy of Lane.
Avice late the wife of Roger de Brettargh,
William son of Roger the Walker of
Brettargh, and John another son, with
Margery John's wife, claimed warranty
from Katherine and Sir Thomas de La-
thom, as guardians of Katherine, daughter
that the above-named Katherine his
daughter had now died childless— and
Avice de Stockley is described as daughter
of William de Huyton by his first wife
Almarica, who had died without male
issue, the son Robert being by the second
6 Ibid. R. 4, m. 26 d., 28 d. ; 5, m. 25 d.
1 There are numerous deeds of the
Walton family preserved by Kuerden, and
the manor of Huyton is with other lands
transferred in several feoffments up to
1366, after which Huyton is omitted;
heir of William de Huvton, and from
Avice late the wife of Roger the Walker,
who was only called to warrant William
and John. Emma had now married a third
husband, Matthew son of Thomas de
of the manor by grant from her father
William. The Norreyses had entered on
possession, Emma having died, and Avice's
title being ignored; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. i, m. iii. Emma's husband,
52 ; 56, 57. See also Harl. MSS. 2042,
fol. 164*, i66A.
» De Bane. R. 425, m. 353 d. ; 432, m.
101 d. ; 434, m. i88</.
» Kuerden MSS. iii, W. 8, n. 92.
newed. At a later hearing Katherine de
Huyton appeared to warrant. Avice,
Roger's wife, is called the ' daughter ' of
William de Huyton. If there is no error
in the record, she must have been the
daughter of the Avice already named.
Avice wife of William de Stockley was
also called to warrant ; De Bane. R. 346,
m. 88 ; 358, m. 79 d.
" De Bane. R. 358, m. nod. Ka-
therine had before claimed from Emma
and Margery six charters which they kept
from her; De Bane. R. 352, m. 226;
355, m. 226 d.
» DC Bane. R. 362, m. 16 d. This
ton in September, 1348, by William son
of Robert de Hale (her former husband) ;
Assize R. 443, m. vii.
Avice succeeded in obtaining recogni-
tion, and in 1354 Sir Thomas de Lathom
claimed two-thirds of the manor from
Henry le Norreys of Speke, and one-third
from Avice de Stockley ; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 3, m. iv d. In the previous year
John del Dale of Childwall, chaplain, had
been enfeoffed of this third, which in-
cluded the homages and service of William
the Couper, William son of Matthew de
Huyton, and Matthew his son, William
the Baxter, and Thomas del Wolfall ;
(De Bane. R. 348, m. 98 d. ; 352, m. 442)
several minor' tenants. Henry son of
Roger de Huyton demanded from John
del Birches 4 acres, from Gilbert de Gor-
such (Gosfordsiche) 4 acres, from William
son of Matthew de Huyton a messuage
and 12 acres, from Richard son of Ellis
Simson ' le Swone ' a messuage and 5
acres, from John the Smith a messuage
and 6 acres, from William del Dam an-
other acre. This land the claimant
averred had been given by Adam de
Knowsley to Henry de Huyton, and Avice
his wife ; from these it descended to Roger
170
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Margaret daughter of Thomas and Joan, and her
heirs male ; to Isabel sister of Margaret ; to Cecily
sister of Isabel; and to Katherine sister of Cecily ;
then to Joan and her heirs for ever.1 After Sir
Thomas's death his widow Joan, as wife of Roger de
Fazakerley, had a grant of one-third of the manor of
Huyton, pending the duke of Lancaster's claim to it.*
Joan afterwards married Sir Nicholas de Harring-
ton of Farleton, and by fine in August, 1397, she
remitted to the above-named
Margaret de Lathom and her
heirs the moiety of the manor
of Huyton.3 Margaret is said
to have married 4 Nicholas de
Harrington, a younger son of
Sir Nicholas by a former wife ;
from them descended the Har-
ringtons of Huyton Hey. In
1400 Sir Nicholas, the father,
made an agreement with Tho-
mas de Hornby and Margery
his wife concerning the mar-
riage of their daughter and
heir Sibyl with his grandson John son of Nicholas ;
for this he would pay them 40 marks of silver, and
suitable settlements were to be made for John and
Sibyl. It appears that John was then under seven
years of age.5
John, succeeding his father, occurs in 1442- 3-6 His
son and successor is said to have been Nicholas Har-
rington,7 father of Hamlet (Hamo) Harrington, who
died 15 January, 1527-8. He was found to have
HARRINGTON or HUY-
TON. Sahle, a fret argent
and a label or.
HUYTON
held the manor of Huyton, with lands, &c., in
Huyton and Knowsley, of Edward earl of Derby by
the fifth part of a knight's fee and a rent of I i\d.
He had also held the manor of Akefrith in Farle-
ton, and other lands. His heir was Percival Har-
rington, son of his brother John, then aged twenty-
eight years.8
The heir very quickly arranged for his marriage.
He espoused Anne the only daughter of Henry
Norris of Speke, lately deceased ; and assigned for
her benefit his manor of Akefrith in Farleton and the
Red Hazels in Huyton.9
Percival Harrington enjoyed his manors but a
short time, dying 24 January, 1534-5.'° His son
and heir was John Harrington, aged only five years.
The boy's marriage was at once arranged by Sir William
Norris and others." John was succeeded by his son
Percival " and he by his son John,13 who died during
the Commonwealth period, being buried at Huyton
in 1 6 5 3 . His eldest son Robert having died before him,
he was followed by his grandson John, born about
1627. John was twice married. By his second wife,
Dorothy Tarleton of Aigburth, he had a son and heir
Charles. Together they obtained in 1713 an Act of
Parliament " to enable them to settle their estates and
to dispose of some of them for the payment of their
debts. Charles, though twice married, died without
issue in 1720," and Huyton Hey went to the descen-
dants of his aunt Elizabeth, who had married Richard
Molyneux of New Hall, West Derby, and Alt Grange
in Ince Blundell.16
After the Tarleton marriage the family seem to have
their son, and to his son Roger, father of
to have £10 to celebrate for his soul for
given in the inquisition, which also re-
two Rogers is omitted, and once the sur-
name is given as Wolfall.
Gilbert de Gorsuch and Richard del
Dam had married sisters — Margery and
Norris D. (B.M.), 999. The will was
proved at Huyton before the dean of
Warrington, on 2 Oct. following.
11 Various lands were secured for the
benefit of Alice daughter of Thomas Tor-
bock, or any other of his daughters whom
John Harrington, or other son and heir of
the Birches are in Kuerden MSS. ii, fol.
270, Nos. 65-6 ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New
Ser.),xii, 285.
* Final Cone, ii, 190; Norris D.
(B.M.), 986.
2 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xl. App. 523.
8 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 4, m. 6.
Wolfall appears to have been the other
half of the manor.
* His widow was named Katherine.
5 Norris D. (B.M.), 988. The inven-
tory of the goods of Nicholas Harrington,
dated 9 Sept. 1429, has been preserved.
In his treasury were 9 marks. His plate
consisted of a carved cup, two macers,
and twelve silver spoons. Only two
rooms are mentioned — the chamber and
the kitchen. In the former were two
beds with a large supply of coverlets,
was also St. Mary's. In later times the
Harrington pew was on the north side
of the church ; Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxiv,
117.
6 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 5, m. i6A.
John Harrington of Huyton, esquire,
occurs in 1460 ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 67.
-' Katherine, widow of Nicholas Har-
rington, in 1500 claimed dower in the
manor of Huyton, and in lands there and
in Knowsley, Hornby, and Farleton ; Pal.
of Lane. Plea R. 90, m. 5.
* Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, „. 57.
His will directed that he should be
buried in the tomb within his chapel in
Huyton church ; his (natural) son James,
his 'cousin and heir' Percival, his brother
Richard, and their father Nicholas are
also assigned to Hamlet and Percival,
the younger sons — to the former 4 marks
and to the latter 401. ; Norris D. (B.M.),
loFeb M34-5.
12 Percival Harrington was a freeholder
in 1 600 ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 238.
19 He paid £10 as composition for
knighthood in 1631 ; ibid. 213.
» Private Acts of 12 Anne.
15 N. Blundell's Diary, 138, 161.
16 Charles and Mary Harrington his wife,
of Huyton Hey, registered their estates in
1717; the brother John is mentioned.
Another Mary Harrington, of Whiston,
also had a leasehold estate in Huyton ;
Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cat/t. Non-jurors,
nc, 119.
The following references to enrolled
of the coverlets appear to have been em-
mother - in - law ') Katherine. Twenty
MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 174, &c. :—
of white and yellow ; another, worth 51.,
was of red and white, with birds worked
upon it. The kitchen had due provision
of pots, skellets, a frying pan, a brass
mortar and dishes.
His will of the same date follows. He
wished his body to be buried in the church
of Huyton, on the north side, in the
chapel of St. Mary, to which he gave a
missal. Six candles were to be burnt
round his bier at his burial, and to each
should so many priests be present at his
burial. Three cows were to be given to
our Lady's stock of Huyton, and a glass
window was to be put in the north side
of the church. A large number of per-
sonal bequests were made ; Piccope, Wills
(Chet. Soc.), i, 29.
9 Norris D. (B.M.), 16 Apr. 1528.
10 It was found that he had held the
manors of Huyton and Huyton Hey
under Knowsley, by knight's service and
his father dead ; Dorothy H. his mother).
1723 ; John Harrington of Aigburth
(Charles H. his late brother; Dorothy
H. his late mother).
Ibid. R. 10.— 5 and 6 May, 1715;
Charles Harrington of Huyton to marry
Mary daughter of Sir Rowland Stanley of
Hooton (John H. brother of Charles ;
Anne his sister).
Geo. II, R. 2.— Will of John Harring-
ton of Aigburth; the manor of Huyton, &c.,
be presented a gown with a hood ; id.
was to be given to each poor person pre-
sent. Thomas Wolfall, the chaplain, was
of Richard Bold ; in Knowsley ' Parker-
field ' of the earl of Derby ; Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p.m. yiii, ..41. Hi, will is
Grange ; Aigburth to my brother-in-law
William Molyneux ; my cousin Robert
Fazakerley.
171
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
ceased to reside at Huyton.1 Richard Molyneux of
New Hall did not long enjoy the Huyton estates,
dying in February 1734. His widow lived on till
1790. Their only son Richard died unmarried a
fortnight after his father, leaving his sister Frances sole
heir. She married in 1745 Thomas Seel of Liver-
pool, and by him had four daughters.* The eldest,
Amelia Maria, married Owen Wynne of Llanseck in
Denbighshire, but died childless ; 3 the two youngest
daughters, Margaret and Alice, died unmarried in
1819 and 1797, and the second daughter Frances
was thus eventually sole heir. Thomas Seel the father
had increased the estates by purchasing from William
Wolfall the manor of Wolfall in Huyton, and entailed
the estate on his grandson.
This grandson was Thomas Unsworth, son of
Frances Seel by Thomas Unsworth, whose father, a
SE.L. Per fesse potent
counter-potent pean and
azure three ivol-ves' heads
erased counterchanged.
Liverpool merchant, had purchased a moiety of the
manor of Maghull, including the manor house.
Thomas the heir in 1814 assumed the name and arms
of Molyneux-Seel in accordance with his grandfather's
will, and on his aunt Margaret's death took possession
of Hurst House, and the estate and manor of Huyton
Hey.4 He had a son and heir, Edmund Thomas,
born in Paris in 1824, and still surviving, also two
other sons, Charles William and Henry Harrington.
» Baines, Direct, of 1824, speaks of
8 She and her husband were vouchees
" Kl
Huyton Hey showing the results of i 50
of the manor of Wolfall in 1802; Lent
The bo'
years' neglect. Dorothy Harrington lived
Assizes, 42 Geo. Ill, R. 15.
Alt, Al
at Aigburth ; Charles Harrington died at
4 See Michael Jones MS. Coll. in pos-
bridge,
Scholes in Eccleston ; the Molyneuxes
session of Mr. Jos. Gillow. So Gregson,
called L
probably lived at New Hall.
writing about 1817: 'The hamlet of
Richard
a The following deeds enrolled at Pres-
Wolfall is the property of Mrs. Unsworth
fall, gav
ton concern the Seels. They are from
of Maghull (sister of Miss Seel), whose
the Ian
the Piccope MSS. iii.
son takes the name of Seel . . . The
Huyton
Geo. II, R. 1 8. — Thomas and Samuel
township and manor of Huyton are the
Thoi
Seel of Liverpool, merchants, son-in-law
property of Miss Seel, who resides at
charters
of William Barlow, deceased.
Ibid. R. 23. — II Oct. 1750. Thomas
Hurst House '; Fragments, 231.
« See Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 231.
in the v
cannot
Seel, eldest son and heir of Thomas Seel
« Ibid. 245-
identifi.
of Liverpool.
1 Apparently the eldest son of John
Knowsl
Ibid. R. 30. — 5 June, 1756; Thomas
Harrington, of Huyton Hey.
with th
Seel of Liverpool married Frances sister
8 Recusant R. in Tram. Hist. Soc. (New
adopted
and heir of Richard Molyneux, deceased
Ser.),xiv, 242. In 1653 Anne Harring-
l»Ibi
Hall) ; mentions the moiety of the manor
rington, a younger brother of Robert,
» Bu
of Huyton and Huyton Hey, demesne
asked for an order from the Parliamentary
scribed
held by Charles and John, sons of John
tion of two-thirds of his small property
Richard
Harrington ; also New Hall, the moiety
which had been incurred by his recusancy,
tors fo
of Huyton and Wolfall, &c.
in order that she might have means to
Lanes, i
Among the Croxteth D. are two leases
which illustrate the pedigree :( i ) 1 742 : To
bring up their infant son ; Royalist Comp.
P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii,
and Ch
lsRi
Thomas Seel of Liverpool, merchant, for
I 50.
lives of his sons Thomas (aged 38), and
9 Gibson, Cavalier's Note Book, 166.
charter
Samuel (aged 34), and his grandson
111 Wulfhal, 1 242 ; Wlfal or Wolfal,
200.
Thomas Seel (aged 12); (2) ^1753: for
1292.
' Richai
lives of Thomas Seel of Liverpool (aged
11 The ' manor of Wolfall,' and ' a
liam (!
23), Frances his wife (aged 20), and Ellen
moiety of the manor of Huyton,' seem to
his sister, wife of Owen Wynne.
have been terms used indifferently for it.
He sold Wolfall to the earl of Derby about 1828 and
died at Huyton Hey in 1 88 1. Most of the remain-
ing family estates have also been sold, but Huyton Hey
remains in the family.5 The house so called, now a
farm-house, is still occupied. The site of a moated
hall is adjacent.
The Harringtons after the Reformation appear to
have adhered to the Roman Catholic religion, but to
have avoided convictions for recusancy, probably by
occasional attendances at church in Elizabeth's reign.
Thus, in 1590, 'Harrington of Harrington in Huy-
ton parish, esquire,' was returned among others who
showed ' some degree of conformity, yet (were) in
general note of evil affection in religion.'6 In 1641
Robert Harrington 7 and his wife for this reason paid
to the subsidy.8 As one of the more notable recu-
sants in Lancashire, John Harrington was in 1680
marked for banishment by the Parliament.9 Their
alliances were with the Roman Catholic families of
the district, and their successors — Molyneux, Seel,
and Unsworth — have been of the same faith.
WOLFALL 10 was another manor in Huyton," of
which mention has already been
made. Robert son of Henry
de Lathom, who died in 1 198,
granted it to a Robert son of
Richard for a rent of I zd. pay-
able at St. Bartholomew." It
is possible that it reverted to
the grantor, for his own younger
son, Richard de Knowsley, ap-
pears to have settled there, and
to have had sons who took
Wolfall as a surname. Thus
Richard de Wolfall, son of
Richard de Knowsley, granted
land called Huyton Rawe to
Henry de Huyton.13 In 1245 Richard de Wolfall
granted to Burscough Priory his millpool in Wolfall.14
Several sons are mentioned — Richard, John, William,
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 270, •». I.
s are named as — the Hache,
iddle of the wood, Stock-
boundary, also the assart
i and Sewardsgate. In 1284
Richard del Bury, son of Robert de Wol-
: his brother Adam all his right in
which his brother John had in
; ibid. No. 4.
;h a large number of Wolfall
have been preserved by Kuerden
lume cited, a satisfactory pedigree
>e constructed from them. The
ition of the son of Richard de
:y, brother of Adam de Huyton,
he first Richard de Wolfall has been
as least objectionable,
d. v, fol. 138*. a. 94, ii ; fol.
Burscough Reg. fol. 44. He is de-
as Richard de Knowsley, son of
son of Henry and Amabel his wife.
d de Wolfall was one of the collec-
>r the Gascon scutage in 124x5
Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
ies.), 146.
ls Richard, Adam, and William, brothers,
to an early (1230-64)
ter ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App.
Robert de Wolfall was another.
Richard de Huyton, Adam, and Wil-
liam (his) brothers,' also occur ; ibid.
WOLFALL OK WOL-
bends gules and an ermine
tail between them.
172
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
An early charter by Robert de Lathom granted to
Richard son of Richard del Wolfall 5! oxgangs ' of
land and half the wood and waste of Huyton with
the homage of Adam de Wolfall, William the Pro-
phet, Henry de Derby, and others enfeoffed by
Richard de Wolfall the elder.'
In 1292 Richard de Wolfall sued Robert de Lathom
for release from the services which Henry de Lacy, as
lord of Widnes fee, demanded from the plaintiff; but
when the case came for trial Richard was unwilling to
make any statement, and therefore there was an ad-
journment sine die? He had also complaint to make
as to John de Wolfall, whose annual service of iod.
and a pair of gloves had not been rendered for three
years.4 A little later, in 1307, John son of Adam de
Wolfall occurs granting to Adam de Waverton and
Alice his wife all his lands in Huyton.5
For a long period, though there are numerous
references to the family, the exact descent of the
manor is uncertain.6
In 1354 Adam son of Henry de Wolfall released to
John de Ashton the messuage which had descended
to him, and Thomas de Wolfall of Huyton and Joan
his wife released their right in the same.7 One
Cecily daughter of Ellen, who had been wife of
Nicholas de Huyton, gave to Roger de Shuttleworth
HUYTON
her lands in Wolfall in 1 349 ; 8 and shortly afterwards
Thomas de Wolfall and Joan his wife, with Richard
de Pennington and Cecily his wife (probably the
above Cecily), claimed from Adam son of Henry son
of Roger de Wolfall certain lands which they alleged
had been forfeited because of a felony committed by
the grandfather Roger, though they admitted that
Roger had continued to hold the lands after the
felony.9
In 1383 Robert de Wolfall, who was son of
Thomas, enfeoffed two chaplains of all his lands in
Huyton, and they appeared in the court of Widnes
in April, and made fine with the lord of Halton for
I zd.1" Robert's son and heir was John de Wolfall,"
who in the early years of Henry IV's reign made
settlements of his lands ; the remainders were to
Alice and Margaret, daughters of John ; then to his
brother Thomas ; to his brothers Nicholas and
Thomas, and others."
In 1511-12 Thomas Wolfall granted lands in
Huyton to William Wilbraham, and a little later
purchased three crofts from Hamlet Harrington ; his
mother Joan in 1 5 I 5-16 released to him her lands in
Huyton and Wolfall.13 The succession is not clear.14
Thomas Wolfall was a freeholder in 1 600 ; 15 his son
Thomas married Mary, daughter of Richard Moly-
i Perhaps this should be 5j, i.e. the
third of 2 plough-lands.
a Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 271, n. 14.9.
accused of disseising John son of John de
Wolfall of his lands in Huyton ; Assize
R. 423, m. i d.
sons. The dates are from 2 to 7 Hen.
IV.
John Wolfall and Thomas Wolfall
428, m. 3.
The Prophets are mentioned in other
charters ; by one Richard son of Richard
de Wolfall and Henry son of Adam de
Knowsley granted to William son of
William, 'called the Prophet,' 3 acres
from the waste within Huyton in the
warden of the park of Simonswood ;
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 270, n. 145. A
feoffment of John de Wolfall and Margery
his wife in 1354 is among the Norris D.
(B.M.), 984.
Henry de Wolfall occurs as granting
to Sir Robert de Lathom land in the
1417 ; ibid. n. 119. In 1435-6 Thomas
son of John Wolfall made a release to
John Ashton ; ibid. n. 48. The next
who occur are Richard Wolfall (1442-3),
John son of Richard Wolfall (1465), and
Thomas son and heir of John Wolfall
(1479 to 1488)5 ibid. n. 25, 40, 35, 124,
cestors had held it from the grantors ; for
a rent of lid. William the Prophet in
1286 quitclaimed Richard and Henry.
Among the witnesses to a grant by Richard
de Wolfall the younger of about the same
time is John « called the Prophet ' ;
of Robert son of Roger de Thingwall, and
following the bounds of Knowsley and
West Derby, and thence to the land of
William de Huyton ; ibid. n. 982.
7 Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 61, 32, 21.
One branch of the family seems to have
I3 Ibid. n. 120, 121, 17.
He is probably the Thomas Wolfall of
Malpas and Bickley in Cheshire of whose
will (1530-0 ="> Abstract is given by
Kuerden ; in this he recites a recovery of
his lands made in the last-mentioned year
270, n. 63, 68.
» Assize R. 408, m. 56.
there about this time laid claim to lands in
Wolfall. John de Cowdray the younger
ture and wood, and rents of is. t\d., a
pair of gloves, a broad arrow, nine pepper-
(i) to John his son, of lands in Huyton,
for the rent of a barbed arrow ; (ii) to Roger
his son, of half the land with half the
wood between Stockbridge and the boun-
dary of West Derby, excepting the lands
Roolowe (now Rooley) ; Bold D. (War-
rington), G. 12. Richard de Aughton
leased to John de Pennington the lands
which had been John de Cowdray's in
Huyton ; in 1377 Robert de Wolfall gave
himself, Alice his wife, and Thomas his
son and heir. In his will he further
mentions his daughter Jane. Ibid. n. 50,
108,138.
The will of the son Thomas is preserved
Amery, who was the wife of Richard de
Thingwall, but including Amery's homage;
and (iii), a feoffment to Adam son of
Henry the vicar of Huyton (1292);
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 270, &c. n. 7, 66,
73, '39-
« Assize R. 408, m. 94, 44, 44 d.
John, a son of Adam de Wolfall, made
two complaints against Robert de Lathom :
(i) that he had been disseised of the com-
mon of pasture in Knowsley belonging to
his holding in Huyton, viz. in loo acres
of land in the open season, and loo acres
of pasture and wood all the year round ;
and (ii) that he had been disseised of an
acre in KnowsU-y which Robert asserted
had been demised to the plaintiff's father
for a term of years only. He lost the first
case, but won the second ; Assize R. 408,
m. 43 d. For John de Wolfall see also
the account of Hale.
5 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 270, n. 31.
In 1 309 Richard de Wolfall and others were
College field there ; Kuerden, loc. cit.
n. 19, 14, 36, 79. Some cross suits had
in 1358 preceded this— between John de
Wolfall on the one side, and Richard de
Aughton and Katherine his wife, with
whom was joined Isabel daughter of Henry
de Scarisbrick, on the other. John de
Cowdray, deceased, had been uncle of
Katherine and grand-uncle of Isabel (a
minor) ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 7,
m. 4, 5, 5 d.
» Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 18.
» Assize R. 435, m. $d. 5425.
I" Norris D. (B.M.), 987. See Kuerden,
loc. cit. n. 8, 1 1, 24.
11 John married (about 1396) Emmot
daughter of John de Ashton, the latter
paying £20 and assigning the lands he
had bought from Adam de Wolfall ; ibid.
n. 77, also 3, 12, 20, 64.
1* Ibid. &c. n. 122, 10, 28, 126-9, 123,
29, 34. In some of these abstracts
Nicholas and Thomas are called John's
and was proved on 29 Oct. following.
He mentions his mother Alice, makes his
wife Elizabeth and his sons Thomas (his
heir) and William executors, and also
mentions other sons, John, Edward, and
Robert, and daughters Alice (the eldest),
Elizabeth (wife of Francis Tyldesley), and
Margaret ; Piccope, Witts, ii, 289.
" Thomas Wolfall of Wolfall, gentle-
man, aged about fifty; was a witness in
1556 ; Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iii, 228.
In 1551 Richard Wolfall and his wife
Joan occur, as also Isabel Wolfall, widow.
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 14, m.
266.
John, a younger son of Wolfall of
Wolfall, settled in London ; and his son
John, described as a skinner, recorded a
pedigree in 1634; Visit. o/ZW. 1633-5
(Harl. Soc.), p. 362.
« Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
242.
173
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
neux of Cunscough.1 On the accession of Charles I
Thomas Wolfall received a general pardon, chiefly
required perhaps for recusancy, the family being adher-
ents of the Roman Catholic religion.2 He had two sons,
William and Thomas, and four daughters, and the
estates descended to his great-grandson William Wol-
fall,3 born in 1643. This William mortgaged the
estates in 1674, and he and his wife Mary, daughter
of Thomas Carus, both died at the beginning of
1686, leaving three sons, Richard, William, and
Henry, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret.
Richard Wolfall made other mortgages in 1688 and
1 694 ; he married Anne, daughter and heir of Edward
Stanley of Moor Hall, but on his dying childless in
1718* the estates passed in succession to his brothers
William, who died in 1720, and Henry.5 Henry's
son and heir William " in 1 744 sold lands in Wolfall
to the earl of Derby, and in 1755, after many mort-
gages, sold the manor of Wolfall, Wolfall Hall, half
the manor of Huyton, &c., to Thomas Seel of Liver-
pool,7 whose descendant and heir, as above stated, sold
Wolfall to the earl of Derby in 1828.
Another estate in Huyton, but not considered
manorial, was Deyne or DAM HOUSE* which in
1 664 was held by Thomas Wolfall, son of Thomas
Wolfall, also of the Dam House, who was, as stated,
the younger son of Thomas Wolfall of Wolfall.9
This estate had previously been held, at least for
a time, by the Tyldesley family, as to whom deeds pre-
served by Kuerden supply much information.10
Nicholas Tyldesley occurs in Elizabeth's reign."
A feoffment of the property was made, the remainders
being to Michael, Thomas, George, William, and
Francis, brothers of Nicholas, and to Anthony
Tyldesley." Nicholas Tyldesley died in 1 603 holding
lands and rents in Huyton and Wolfall (Dam) of
William earl of Derby ; Henry his son and heir was
twenty-six years of age.13 His son Henry is men-
tioned in various bonds, and he and his sister or
daughter Ellen occur in 1627, about which time he
appears to have sold Dam House.14
The Red Hazels, already mentioned as part of the
lands of Burscough Priory, became the property of the
Ogles of Whiston, from whom it passed by marriage
to the Cases ; one of the latter sold it to Joseph
Birch, created a baronet in 1831, whose son Sir
Thomas Birch, M.P. for Liverpool 1847-52, after-
wards lived there.15
The Mossocks of Allerton and Cunscough, as heirs
of John Norris of Woolton (who was also described
as ' of Roby ' or ' of Huyton ' ), held lands here in the
fifteenth century. The title was derived from grants
1 Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 45, 169, 95,
167. The untrustworthy pedigree printed
in the Visit, of 1664 (Chet. Soc.), 337,
Ibid. R. 18. — 1744 ; the earl of Derby
buys land in Wolfall from William Wol-
full age ; Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 146. Thi.
Richard son of Thomas Tyldesley occurs
Wolfall paid ^10 on refusing knighthood
Henry).
ibid. n. 75, 96, loi, 50.
in 1631; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ibid. R. 19.— 1745 ; mortgage of Wol-
His son Nicholas (Piccope, Wills, i,
Ches.), i, 213.
2 Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 155. Mary wife of
fall to John Brownell of Liverpool.
Ibid. R. 26.— 1752; sale by William
30) succeeded, being contemporary with
Hen. VIII, and Edw. VI. In 1512-13
Thomas Wolfall is in the recusant roll of
Wolfall to Jonathan Case.
he granted to George Lathom half of
1641 ; Tram. Hist. Sec. (New Ser.), xiv,
Ibid. R. 27.— 28 May, 1753; mortgage
Kilncroft; in the next year to Ralph
242. William Wolfall was marked for
of manor of Wolfall by William Wol-
Ireland of Lydiate lands in Huyton to the
banishment in 1680 ; Cavalier's Note
fall to Thomas Seel of Liverpool, for
use of himself (Nicholas) and his son and
Book, 167.
£2,000.
heir John. In 1544-5 Nicholas made
8 For the pedigree see Piccope MSS.
(Chet. Lib.), ii, 289. In 1650 William
Ibid. R. 28.— 17 June, 1755 ; after a
sale Thomas Seel, as highest bidder, was
another feoffment of his lands, and in
1553 he and his son John, who had land
Wolfall, aged eight, great-grandson of
purchaser of Wolfall.
at Highhurst, made an agreement as to
Thomas Wolfall, prayed for the discharge
8 In 1348 Gilbert de Gorsuch and his
division with Thomas Wolfall ; Kuerden,
of the estate, sequestered for delinquency.
wife Margery with Richard del Dam and
loc. cit. n. 98, &c. He seems to have
the age of eighty, and by an entail of
son of Roger de Wolfall ; De Bane. R.
Ellen released Dam House to Thomas
petitioner ; Cal. Com. for Camp, iv, 2579.
356, m. 511.
9 Dugdale, Visit. 337.
11 In 1558-9 a settlement of the
stated to have been killed fighting for
of Richard II, is Lawrence Tyldesley of
Tyldesley ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
Catb. Apol. (quoted by Challoner).
of Liverpool, son and heir of Margery,
12 Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 114. Anthony
4 He had registered his estate as a
daughter of Adam del Birches, granted
Tyldesley is mentioned in these trans-
•Papist' in 1717, the value given being
7 acres which had descended to him after
actions in 1560-1 and in 1566-7. In
£262 ; Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, 112.
the death of his mother ; Kuerden, loc.
the latter year Thomas Tyldesley of
5 Another brother Thomas, a secular
cit. n. 90, 93.
Wigan was also brought in ; ibid. n. 84,
priest, served at Alt Grange 1704-20.
His son James in the next reign made
38. Michael Tyldesley of Huyton, and
6 He was vouchee in a recovery of the
a feoffment of his lands in Huyton and
Isabel his wife (daughter and co-heir of
manor in 1737 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R.
Wolfall to the vicar of Walton and
. . . Wolfall), in 1594 sold a house in
544, m. 5 a.
another; ibid. n. 85, 97. His son
Huyton to Christopher Kenrick of Rain-
^ The following notes are from the
Lawrence followed him before 1436, in
ford ; ibid. n. 37, in, see also Pal. of
Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 200, &c.,
in which year Randle de Tyldesley, vicar
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 51, m. 266.
abstracting deeds enrolled at Preston: —
Geo. I, R. 3.— 7 May, I72O ; Richard
of Frodsham [1435-55], transferred to
him 'Hopkin acre in Huyton, in the
18 Kuerden, loc. cit. ». 150, 94. By
his will he left £12 to his brother
Wolfall dead (he had married Anne Stan-
place called Rolaw.' In another deed
Francis
ley) ; brothers William and Henry living.
Randle is joined with Joan, lately wife of
" Ibid. n. 104, &c. A fine of 1605-6
Ibid. R. 7.— 25 Aug. 1722 ; Henry
Lawrence Tyldesley, and Emota his
seems to show that he sold to Thomas
was now the only survivor ; the three
daughter. The younger Lawrence occurs
Wolfall at that time ; Pal. of Lane. Feet
were sons of William Wolfall.
as late as 1458 ; ibid. n. 87, 92, 86. A
of F. bdle. 68, n. 4. His wife's name
Ibid. R. io.— 8 Oct. 1720 ; Will of
marriage between Thomas son of Lawrence
was Alice. It was afterwards held by
William Wolfall. His manors to his
brother Henry, with remainder to William
Tyldesley and Janet daughter of John
Birkhead of Wigan was arranged in 1458 ;
John Lathom, whose property was con-
fiscated by the Parliament, and bought by
son of Henry; mentions his sisters Eliz-
Hindley D. 28.
Thomas Wolfall, 1653 ; Royalist Comf. P.
abeth, and Margaret (wife of John
Thomas Stanley in 1460 gave to Ralph
iv, 68.
Brounwell), and Frances daughter of
Tyldesley and Margery his wife land
is Baines, Lanes, (ed. ,836), iv, 7. For
Henry.
which Thomas (? Tyldesley) had held
pedigrees of the Case family see Dugdale,
Geo. II, R. 7.— William Wolfall living
of him by knight's service, to be held till
Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 70 ; and Gregson,
17 March, 1736-7.
Richard son of Thomas should come to
Fragments (ed. Harland), 176.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
by the Wolfalls to the Ford family, whose heirs sold
to John Morris.1
Other families whose names occur in suits or deeds
are Lathom, Moss,' and Lyon.3 Thomas Lathom of
Wolfall is named in a list of the gentry of the hundred
made in 1512. He died in April, 1515, holding a
capital messuage and various lands in Wolfall of
Thomas Wolfall by knight's service and the rent of
I $d. per annum ; also in Rainford, Aspull, Wigan,
Whiston, Glest, Ormskirk, and Eggergarth. His
widow Joan held these lands for nine years, and on
her death the son Thomas entered into possession,
although he was only nineteen years of age.4 The
younger Thomas Lathom died in 154.6, holding his
father's lands ; his son and heir was another Thomas,
then only three years of age.* The last-named,
whose wife's name was Frances, sold his lands between
1573 and I58o.6
Richard Ogle, watchmaker, as a ' Papist ' registered
in 1 7 1 7 an estate here and at Rainhill, of the value
of £64 a year.7
In 1785 the principal owners, as shown by the
land-tax returns, were Thomas Seel and the Case
trustees.
The parish church and its chapel of ease have
already been described. William Bell, the vicar
ejected in 1662, afterwards ministered in Huyton,
but does not seem to have formed a permanent con-
gregation.
The Methodists attempted services about 1 800, but
were driven out by the mob.8
William Alexander of Prescot, an Independent
minister, occasionally preached here early last century,
and a chapel was opened in 1836. The work failed,
and 1856 is given as the date of the founding of the
Congregational church, which was at first a branch
from Crescent Chapel, Everton. A small chapel, now
used as a schoolroom, was opened, and was succeeded
in 1 890 by a larger church, with a prominent spire.9
What provision was made from time to time after
the Reformation for those who adhered to the Roman
Catholic religion is unknown, except that at one
time a priest resided at Wolfall Hall. This, however,
ceased about the middle of the eighteenth century.10
A new mission was begun at Huyton in 1856 in a
temporary chapel near the station, a resident priest
being appointed in 1859. The present church of
St. Agnes at Huyton Quarry was built in 1861."
ROBT— Rabil, Dom. Bk. ; Rabi, 1292; Roby,
1332, and usually— is the south-western portion of
the township of Huyton-with-Roby, its separate area
being 1,059 acres- The surface is almost level.
HUYTON
The principal road is that from Liverpool to Prescot
by Broadgreen ; this goes eastward through the centre
of the township, having the residences called Court
Hey and Roby Hall on the southern side of it. The
London and North-Western company's main line
from Liverpool to Manchester runs along an embank-
ment to the north of the road ; there is a station called
Roby. Court Hey was the seat of the late Robertson
Gladstone, brother of the statesman, and himself a
prominent personage in Liverpool.
Wheathill is at the boundary of the three townships
of Roby, Tarbock, and Little Woolton. Childwall
Brook separates Roby from Childwall. Page Moss
was at the northern corner.
There are the remains of an ancient stone cross by
the road from Liverpool to Prescot. The stocks used
to be next to it.1' There is an old font in the church-
yard.1*
In the time of Edward the Confessor
MANOR ROBrwzs one of the six manors of Uctred,
and as it is placed first in the list was no
doubt the chief of them, Knowsley coming next."
The two together were assessed at one hide, and in
later times Roby was usually said to be of two plough-
lands.14 After the Conquest it lost its pre-eminence
and seems to have had no special manorial rights,
being a member of Knowsley and held in demesne.
To a subsidy levied by Henry III Roby contributed
I2/. 2^. 16 but later than this its contributions are
always joined with those of Huyton.
On two occasions its immediate lords, the Lathoms,
endeavoured to raise its standing. In 1304 Robert
de Lathom procured from the king a charter allowing
a market and fair at Roby, and free warren there.
The market was a weekly one, on Fridays ; and the
fair annual, on the eve, feast, and morrow of St. Wil-
frid.17 In 1372 Sir Thomas de Lathom granted a
charter making his vill of Roby a free borough for ever.
To each burgess he gave a rood of land as a burgage
for which I zJ. in silver was to be paid the lord every
year. A burgess might dispose of his burgage, paying
the lord \d. when he quitted it. Though the bur-
gesses were to be free of toll, terrage, and stallage,
they were to bring their corn to the lord's mill to
grind, to the sixteenth measure, and render services
like other tenants of the vill, having at the same time
similar liberties of pasture and turbary.18
These attempts to ' improve ' the position of Roby
appear to have met with no success, and there does
not seem to be any further allusion to the borough or
fair. The market is mentioned casually in an assize
roll of 1332, when John de Grelley, Simon son of
Simon de Bickerstath, Adam de Wolfall, and others,
1 About the time of Edward I, Roger
son of Richard de Wolfall gave to Richard
de la Ford a place lying in Walton Riding
for the rent of an arrow. In 1307 and
1315 John son of Richard de la Ford had
further grants of land in Huyton from
the sons of Adam le Kiryk (?) of Rain-
hill, which were enlarged or confirmed by
Roger de Wolfall and Alice de Wolfall ;
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 230, &c. ». 87,
89, 43, 84, 92.
John de la Ford was living in 1334,
but appears to have been succeeded by a
Thomas whose daughter Alice (who mar-
ried Nicholas de Liverpool) and widow
Joan are mentioned in one or more deeds
of the years 1361, 1364, and 1369. In
this last year Alice's feoffee, the vicar of
Huyton, gave to John le Norreys Alice's
lands in Huyton, Ditton, Roby, and Child-
wall ; ibid. 95, 91, 96, 94, 22, 57, 55.
»De Bane. R. 248, m. 253; 253,
m. 122.
8 Lane,. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 46, 57.
4 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, n. 6.
6 Ibid, ix, n. 10. George Lathom of
Huyton gave a portion to his son and heir
George, on the latter's marriage with
Margery, daughter of John Ditchfield of
Ditton; Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 138*,
« Pal of Lane. Feet of F. bdles. 36, m.
265 ; 37, m. 171 ; 38, m. 41 ; 39, m.
32 ; 43, m. 121.
T Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, 119; he is
identified with the son of Cuthbert Ogle
of Whiston, recorded in the yitit. of 1664.
175
8 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iv, 163.
9 Nightingale, op. cit. iv, 163-5.
The mission was abandoned after the
death of Fr. John Greene, a Domin
1750; Gillow, Sit!. Diet.
in, 42
Engl. Corn.
Liverpool Catb. Ann. 1 90 1 .
™ Lane,, and Che,. Antij. Soc. xix, 199.
18 Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Sen), xvii, 72.
14 V.C.H. Luna, i, 283*.
« It is, however, sometimes called 3
plough-lands, as in Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 45, 76, early in
Henry Ill's reign.
" Lay Subs. (Lanes.), 130-2.
17 Chart. R. 97 (32 Edw. I), m. i,
n. 12.
« Engl. Hist. Rev. xvii, 295, where the
charter is printed.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
were accused of having wounded Hugh and Thomas,
sons of Adam de Hake, in the market at Roby on the
Friday after St. James, in the year named.1
The place had already appeared on these rolls in
1246, for Hawe del Moor of Roby having been found
burnt in her own house there, her son Adam, the first
finder, was attached by Roger del Moor and Adam de
Knowsley, to give evidence.*
A suit brought by Sir Thomas de Lathom against
William son of Roger the Walker, concerning a mes-
suage and 1 8 acres in Roby, introduces the question-
able title of the Huyton family to their lands. Sir
Thomas asserted that the defendant had no right
except by the disseisin wrongfully made by Henry de
Huyton in the time of Edward I against his father,
Robert de Lathom. The defendant, however, asserted
that the premises were in Woolton, and not in Roby.3
In another case William de Whethill charged Roger
son of Adam de Longworth with taking a horse
belonging to him.4
Richard son of Robert gave to Burscough Priory
land between four crosses in Roby, with mast in
Roby and Huyton.5 The Hospitallers had land here,
which about 1540 was held by the earl of Derby for
a rent of I id!"
A ' manor ' of Roby is mentioned in a fine of 1552
as held by Robert Knowl and his wife Joan, from
whom it was claimed by Henry Bury.7 From the
latter, ' the capital messuage called Roby Hall ' was in
turn claimed, perhaps as trustees, by Richard Sander-
son and William Spencer in I568.8 In 1569 John
and Elizabeth Bury, claiming by descent, sought a
messuage, &c., in Roby, from George Stockley, who
alleged a conveyance from William Bury.9
The present Roby Hall was built by John William-
son of Liverpool (mayor 1761), who left three
daughters coheirs. One of these, Mary, in 1 794
married General Isaac Gascoyne, for many years a
member for Liverpool, and they resided here.10 After-
wards William Leigh, a Liverpool merchant, son of
William Leigh of Lymm, purchased it.11
George Childwall of Roby, gentleman, who died
in 1593, had held of the earl of Derby a messuage
and 8 acres by fealty and ^s. ^d. rent. Edward his
son sold this in 161 1 to Thomas Wolfall, who resold
it to Henry Johnson of Roby."
Hugh Holland of Roby registered an estate in
1717." The land-tax returns of 1785 show the
principal owners to have been the earl of Derby,
Madame Stanley, and Madame Williamson.
Roby is called Comberley in 1328, perhaps by
some mistake of the clerk."
For the adherents of the Established Church
St. Bartholomew's was built in 1850, and rebuilt in
1875. There is a burial-ground attached. An
ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1853." The earl
of Derby is patron.
TARROCK
Torboc, Dom. Bk. ; the regular spelling (with variants
like Torbok or Torbock) till the xvii cent., when the
present spelling appears, and has gradually prevailed.
Turboc, 1245 ; Terbok, 1327.
The south-western boundary of Tarbock is formed
principally by the old course of the Ditton Brook and
its affluent the Netherley Brook. The northern
boundary is in a great measure formed by two little
brooks which divide it from Whiston, running one
east and the other west, and uniting about the centre
to form the Ochre Brook, which flows south and
south-west through the township. Tarbock Green is
near the centre of the township ; Coney Green is a
hamlet in the northern corner.
The area of the township is 2,446^ acres.16 In
1901 the population was 590.
The flat country is divided into pastures and culti-
vated fields, where crops of potatoes, turnips, oats and
wheat thrive in a loamy soil. It is not at all pictur-
esque owing to its level nature and the absence of
woods, excepting those of Halsnead Park, which fringe
the township on the north. A little relief is given to
the otherwise uninteresting landscape by the Ditton
Brook, which is rather a pretty stream. With the ex-
ception of an area one mile square of the coal measures
in the north part of the township the new red sand-
stone is elsewhere represented by the three beds of
the bunter series, the lowest in the centre, the pebble
beds in the south and east, and the upper bed in the
western part.
Two principal roads cross Tarbock east and west ;
one near the northern boundary going from Huyton
to Cronton and to Warrington ; the other through
the centre from Little Woolton to Ditton, crossing
Ochre Brook at Millbridge and going through Tar-
bock Green. There are several cross-roads, including
one from Prescot and Whiston to Halewood, passing
Tarbock Hall and crossing Ditton Brook by Green
Bridge. The Cheshire Lines Committee's railway
from Liverpool to Manchester cuts through the
southern corner of the township.
The principal industry is agriculture. There is also
a brewery.
In 1 824 there were several collieries at the northern
end of the township, but they have now been worked
out.
Tarbock is governed by a parish council.
1 Assize R. 428, m. 3.
3 Ibid. 404, m. 1 8 d. The Moor family
occur later, Augustine son of John del
the second part of the thirteenth century,
and being also defendant in suits in 1292
concerning tenements in Roby brought by
Ellis de Entwisle, and Richard and Pat-
rick sons of Robert de Prescot ; Assize
8 De Bane. R. 287, m. 402 d. ; 292,
m. 294. See the account ot Huyton.
The disseisin was afterwards attributed to
Adam de Knowsley, Henry's father.
4 Ibid. 456, m. 44</. ; 457, m. 95 d.
* Burscough Reg. fol. 45.
6 Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84.
J Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 14, m.
32. ' Henry son of Ralph Bury of Roby '
occurs 1528-9 ; Towneley MS. GG.
In 1552-3 Ralph Bury complained that
his house called Roby Hall in Roby, with
its lands, had been occupied by Hamlet
Stockley of Huyton and Robert William-
son of Wolfall, who had refused to sur-
render ; Duchy of Lane. Pleadings,
Edw. VI,xxxi, B. 15.
» Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdlc 30, m.
5 '• Dueatu, Lane. (Rec. Com.), ii, 374.
10 Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland),
»' For his son William Leigh (1802-73)
see Gillow, Bibl. Diet. of Engl. Catb. iv,
18 Lanes. Inj. f.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanc».
and Ches.), i, 263.
18 Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, 119.
"Inq. p.m. 2 Edw. Ill (ist Nos.),
n. 6 1. There was a Combral about
two miles away on the borders of Cron-
ton ; Wballey Couctir (Chet. Soc.), iii,
117.
13 Lond. Gaz. 9 Aug. 1853.
16 This includes the detached triangular
plot to the south-east, known as Little
Tarbock, 39 acres, which has since 1877
been included in Ditton. At the same
time a small detached portion of Cronton,
called Cronton Heys, was united to Tar-
bock. The Census Report of 1901 gives
the area as 2,413 acres, including 9 of in-
land water.
I76
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
A little hoard of silver and copper coins was dis-
covered at a farm called the Old Sprink in 1838.'
The manor of TJRBOCK was held
MdNOR by Dot in 1066 in conjunction with
Huyton. It early became part of the
Widnes fee, and was held by the barons of Halton in
Cheshire as a member of their manor of Knowsley at
a rating of 3 plough-lands. It passed to the crown in
the same manner as the remainder of the fee.2
The Lathom family, holding Knowsley under
Widnes, twice assigned Tarbock as a portion for the
younger sons. About the end of the twelfth century
Richard son of Henry de Lathom was established
here, holding of the lord of Knowsley.3 He appears
to have had three sons — Richard, Robert, and Henry.4
Richard de Torbock, son of Richard son of Henry,
was a witness to some Stanlaw charters. He granted
to the prior and convent of Burscough an annual rent
of 3/. from the mill which he held of them in
Tarbock.5
His son Henry, later called Sir Henry de Torbock,
was also a witness to many Stanlaw and other charters,
in one place being described as bailiff between Ribble
and Mersey.6 In 1247-8 he had acquittance of all
suits to county and hundred.7 Nine years later he
secured the privilege of free warren in Tarbock,
Turton, Dalton, Whittle, and Bridehead ; also a
weekly market at Tarbock on Thursdays and an
HUYTON
annual fair there on the eve, feast, and morrow of
St. Andrew.8 He married Ellen daughter of Jordan
de Sankey, and her brother Robert gave as dowry
lands in Wrightington and conveyed or reconveyed
the manor of Welch Whittle also.9 Henry held
Dalton of the lord of Lathom in 1242, and his name
occurs as late as I25I.10
His son and heir Robert succeeded him ; " and left
an only daughter and heiress Ellen, ' Lady of Tarbock,'
who being a minor became the ward of her feudal
superior, Robert de Lathom. He married her before
1283 to one of his younger sons, Henry de Lathom,"
and thus for the second time a younger de Lathom
became ' lord of Tarbock.' 13 He and his wife Ellen
gave lands in Ridgate in Whiston to Burscough
Priory, the gift being confirmed by Henry de Lacy
and the bishop of Lichfield in 1287." A more
important act was his establishment of a private chapel
or oratory at Tarbock, which he engaged should be
no prejudice to the mother church of Huyton.15 His
name occurs in various pleas down to 1 294.™ Ten
years later his widow Ellen de Torbock was plaintiff"
or defendant in similar pleas, and so down to 1332,
about which time probably she died.17
She appears to have married a second husband,
called John de Torbock, perhaps from his wife's in-
heritance. He in 1329 arranged for the succession
of the manor of Tarbock and lands in Welch Whittle,
3 V.C.H. Lanes, i, p. 283*. Dods. MSS.
cxxxi, fol. 33 ; Surv. 0/1346 (Chet. Soc.),
3 8, where Tarbock is put as 4 plough-lands,
and Huyton as 2, making 6 in all.
" He gave to St. Werburgh's at War-
burton the assart called Old Tarbock, the
another Sumespitt and so to the pool
which was the boundary of Tarbock and
Hale [i.e. Halewood] ; following the pool
to Bradley Ford, then straight to Wulf-
stansholme, and following straight to the
ridding which Hugh the Miller had held,
bock,' but his descendants were ' de
Torbock ' simply. He acquired the land
called Wulfstansholme from Nicholas of
Tarbock and regranted it to Simon the
son of Nicholas, with the common of
pasture, &c., but with the reservation of
Haliwell Brook ; the boundary followed
said.
mental ; the rent being two iron spurs of
the bank to Cockshoot Head, ascended
From Robert de Ferrers he obtained
the value of a silver penny ; Croxteth
the Cockshoot, went down the Cockshoot
leave to enclose his park, doing it
D. Z. i, i, 2.
to Oldfield (Haldefeldc) lache as far as the
thoroughly well so that no beast of the
" White, Parochial Antiq. i, 434 ;
head of the old hedge, and along this hedge
forest of West Derby should be able to
Dugdale, Man. vi, 460. The grant (1283)
to Haliwell Brook ; Cockcnand Chartul.
stray into it and be kept there ; within
is in the B.M, ; Add. MS. 20521. In
(Chet. Soc.), ii, 607. The same Richard
bounds beginning at the road before the
1299 the prior of Burscough was warden
was a witness to the foundation charter
dwelling of Sir Henry, along the road to
of a hospital for lepers at Ridgate ; De
of Burscough Priory, endowed by his elder
the little Benit (Beint), going round this
Bane. R. 131, m. 329.
brother Robert about 1189; Farrer,
and following the ditch (fossam) to the
15 Burscough Reg. fol. 44*.
Lanes. Pipe R. 349-52.
pales, following these to the road of the
16 Some of his charters are preserved in
4 Henry was a clerk ; to him the
Oldfield ; and along this road to the first-
Kuerden's volumes, iii, T. 2, 15-17.
church of Flixton was granted for life by
named road in front of Sir Henry's door ;
For £20 sterling he quitclaimed to
his uncle Roger son of Henry and Henry
Croxteth D. Z. i, 40 (copy in an inspexi-
Robert de Bold in 1284 all right in lands
son of Bernard, and his name occurs as a
mus of the deeds made in 1595). See
in Bold formerly held by Sir Henry de-
witness to several charters. Ibid. 353,
also Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. xxv,
Torbock ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 1 94, n. 1 2.
354; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, 200,
22</.
In 1294 Ellen de Torbock stated that
291. Henry de Torbock the elder was
Richard de Torbock (about 1334)
her husband, Henry de Lathom, had died:
defendant in 1246 ; Assize R. 404, m. 9.
claimed two parks within his manor;
long ago in Scotland ; De Bane. R. 1 3 1,
* Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii,
Duchy of Lane. Forest Proc. 1-17, m.
m. 320.
S73> 577 i Burscough Reg. fol. 44*.
3 d. 6 ; Lanes, and Cbes. Rec. (Rec. Soc.
i? In one of her suits (1307) she claimed
« Wballey Coucker, ii, 575, 580, 586,
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 319.
from Henry de Huyton 20 acres of pas-
&c. Norris D. (B.M.), 730.
» All that is recorded of him seems to
ture in Tarbock, into which she averred
'Close R. 163.
be that he gave an oxgang of land, or
that Henry had no entry except by Henry
8 Chart. R. 41 Hen. Ill, m. 2 ; the
de Lathom, formerly her husband, who
'decollation of St. John Baptist' was at
to the priory of Norton in Cheshire ;
demised them to him. The defendant,
first written for ' St. Andrew.'
Croxteth D. Z. i, 29; Ormerod, Cbes.
however, said that the land was in Huy-
'Assize R. 418, m. 4</.j Kuerden
(ed. Helsby), i, 686. As however the
ton and not in Tarbock ; De Bane. R.
MSS. iii, C. 36 d. (end).
grant of the oxgang in the demesne of
164, m. 54. One of her latest suits
10 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Tarbock was ratified by Roger constable
(1328-30) seems to have been about the
Ches.), i, 19*.; If bailey Coucher (Chet.
of Chester (d. 1211), this Robert could
same land ; the defendants on this oc-
Soc.), i, 77.
only have renewed an earlier grant. The
casion did not appear, and she recovered
From William de Ferrers, earl of Derby,
words 'Robert lord of Tarbock' may
seisin ; De Bane. R. 274, m. 42 d. ; 275,
Henry de Torbock secured the right to
refer to Robert son of Henry, the founder
m. 2455282, m. %6d.
enclose his wood, to have free park and
of Burscough, the canons for which are
She and others were once accused of
beasts of the forest, but not to make any
supposed to have come from Norton ;
disseising Richard Leprous and John
deer hey (saltarium), paying a rent of a
Men. Angl. vi, 314.
Leprous— the surname is noticeable— of
sor sparrowhawk at St. Peter's Chains at
" Henry son of Robert de Lathom of
their tenement in Tarbock, but they were
the castle of Liverpool. The bounds of
Tarbock and Ellen his wife were de-
acquitted ; Assize R. 424, m. 6.
enclosure were— From the ditch which
fendants in a Turton suit in 1284 ; Assize
Some of her charters are in Kuerden.
wa$ the boundary between Tarbock and
R. 1268, m. II ; see R. 1271, m. 12.
MSS. iii, T. 2 ; ii, fol. 266*.
3
177
23
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Turton, Walton Lees in Dalton, &c. ; from himself and
his wife Ellen, they were to descend to his ' son and
heir ' Richard, or in default of heirs to John's brother
William.1
Though the succeeding lord of Tarbock is called
'son and heir' of John de Torbock, it seems quite
clear that he was the son of Ellen's former husband,
and as ' Richard son of Ellen de Torbock ' or ' Richard
son of Henry de Lathom of
Tarbock ' he occurs in the plea
rolls of the time.' He seems
to have died shortly after his
mother, leaving a son and heir
Richard,3 whose brief career
was marked by matrimonial
entanglements resulting in a
forty years' dispute over the
heirship.
First he married Margaret,
by whom he had three daughters "„ , ,, , J£*
— Emma, Ellen, and Alice, a, ,he ,kigh gules ; on a
who were minors at his death. chief indented azure three
Later he repudiated her and />/<««•
espoused Maud de Standish4
at the door of the church of Ormskirk, having
by her a son (perhaps posthumous) named Henry.
Both Margaret and Maud survived him and married
again, the former to Henry Russell of Chester5
and the latter to Henry son of Bernard. In 1337
John de Holland claimed from Emma and her
sisters, from their feudal guardians the Lathoms, from
Margaret ' late wife of Richard de Torbock chivaler,'
and others an annual rent of 3/. \d. from the manor
of Tarbock and a robe worth zos. of the suit of his
esquires which he alleged had in 1334 been granted
to him by Richard de Torbock. At the same time
John de Button (or Ditton) claimed from them a
rent of 40^. and a robe (with a hood) of the value of
zos. by the year.6 In 1341 Maud, then wife of
Henry son of Bernard, sought dower against Katherine,
formerly wife of Robert de Lathom, and Sir Thomas
de Lathom, the guardians of the lands and heir of Sir
Richard de Torbock, and against Henry Russell and
Margaret his wife. The defence was that Maud was
never legally married to Richard, and the question
being referred to the bishop of Lichfield for inquiry
he reported that there was no lawful marriage.7 Five
or six years later there was a contest between
Katherine de Lathom and her son Thomas and
Henry Russell of Chester as to the custody of the
heirs.8
In the summer of 1344 the daughter Alice had
' entered into religion in the order of the [Gilbertine]
nuns at Walton ' in the East Riding ; while Emma,
the eldest daughter, had married Sir William Carles,
probably a Shropshire man,9 and fresh suits were
instituted and a settlement of the property made.10
Henry, son of Maud, put forward his claims about
1363, when he must have been nearly thirty years of
age. In November, 1 364, Urban V sent his mandate
to the archbishop of York to take order touching the
case of Henry de Torbock, son of Richard de Torbock,
knight, who died intestate, and of Maud, now also
deceased, who duly married the said Richard ; Henry
had been defamed by William Carles, knt., and his
wife Emma, who, in order to exclude him from his
inheritance, said that he was illegitimate." The
prior of Burscough was accordingly delegated to
inquire, and at Prescot in July, 1365, declared Henry
to be legitimate.12 At the beginning of 1365 the
1 In November, the same year, as Ellen
' lady of Tarbock,' widow, she granted an
acre of land in Tarbock to the priory of
Burscough, lying between the land of
Adam of Old Tarbock, and the lane near
the grantor's own demesne. Dep. Keeper's
Rep. xxxvi, App. 200. Then in August,
1 3 3 2, she (Croxteth D. Z. i, 40 ; Kuerden,
of Maud, in a suit of Edward IV3
reign (Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 60, m. 7) a
charter was produced from Ellen de Tor-
bock 'to Richard her son and Maud his
wife.1
4 So named in A88ize R. 1435, m.
38 d.
5 Perhaps the Henry Russell who was
Among the various lawsuits were the
following : —
Henry Lascelles of Walton Lees sought
against Gilbert de Haydock the fourth
part of two oxgangs in Dalton, &c. The
defendant called to warrant Maud late
the wife of Richard de Torbock, who
stated that ' Richard son of Richard de
de Huyton and Maud his wife land in Tar-
Morris, Chat, under the Plantagenets, 104.
of Walton Lees (of which the disputed
ning at a pit on the bank of Whiston Brook,
and going from pit to pit to the old ditch
(fossa) surrounding Huytonshaw, along
the ditch to Whiston Brook, and down
this brook to the pit first named. The
rent was the nominal one of a rose, and
Maud in 1336; De Bane. R. 307, m.
200 d. I9$d.
o Assize R. 1424, m. 8 d. 9. These
suits are mentioned in later rolls, e.g. R.
1425, m. 4,/.-6.
-< Lichfield Epis. Reg. V. fol. 48
it would revert to Emma, wife of William
Carles, and her sisters Ellen and Alice, as
daughters and heirs of the said ' Richard
son of Richard ' ; De Bane. R. 349, m.
243 d. There is no mention of Maud's
son Henry, and she appears in this plead-
of Thurstan and Maud, William his
brother, Henry son of Robert de Huyton,
Richard his brother, Robert son of William,
brother of Henry de Huyton, Robert son
of Henry de Huyton ; Croxteth D. Z. i, 4.
minster, 1 5 Edw. III). Maud's claim was
for a third part of a third of the manor.
8 De Bane. R. 346, m. 285 d. ; 351, m.
267 d. 303 </. ; 353, m. 22 rf. 5 355,
of the former wife's children and their
Henry son of John de Ditchfield
claimed a messuage and lands in Tarbock
from Sir William Carles and his wife,
case ; 426, m. 9 —a Turton case ; De
the forest of Lancaster in 1354 ; Duchy
William and his wife claimed lands from
8 He is often but not invariably called
Sir Richard de Torbock, knt. He ap-
pears to have died about 1334 ; Duchy of
Lane. Forest Proc. 1-17; cf. m. 3 d.
(living) and m. 6 (dead).
In 1333 Richard, son of Henry de
Lathom of Tarbock, and in 1334 Richard,
ton of Richard de Torbock were suc-
cessively plaintiffs in the same Parbold
suit ; De Bane. R. 293, m. 90 ; 297,
m. 12. In the latter year Richard de
Torbock is called grandson of Ellen de Tor-
bock ; ibid. R. 298, m. 30. But while
the earlier pleadings speak ot Richard, son
of Richard de Torbock, at the husband
was one of the knights of the shire in
1353 and 1354 ; Pink and Beavan, Parly.
Rep. of Lanes. 31.
10 In a suit of 1368 by Robert
(? Thomas) de Lathom the elder, and his
wife Joan against Emma wife of Sir
William Carles, the defendant is described
as great-granddaughter of Henry de
Lathom of Tarbock ; De Bane. R. 432,
m. 414. See also Geneal. xvi, 201-6.
A settlement by fine was made in 1354
of the manors of Tarbock, Welch Whittle,
and the quarter of Dalton, with various
lands, Hugh Carles being the intermediary;
Final Cone, ii, 139-41.
I78
40 d., 48 d ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 3,
m- j d. ; 4, m. 17 ; 5, m. 19, 24^.; 4.
In 1362 Sir William had to complair
that William de Brettargh and others hac
broken into his park at Tarbock, cu
trees and done other damage, and tha
similar injuries had been suffered a
Walton Lees and Turton ; De Bane. R
408, m. 163.
11 Cal. of Papal Letters, iv, 51.
13 Coram Reg. R. 420, m. 60. Si
William Carles attempted to bring th
appeal within the royal prohibition of suit i
to Rome.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
king directed the rolls to be searched with reference
to the former claim by Maud for her dower ; and in
July sent a statement of Henry's claim to the t
bishop of Lichfield, commanding him to inquire into
the legitimacy of the claimant. In November a
further letter was sent by the king to the bishop on
the petition of Sir William Carles and his wife Emma.
The bishop's reply does not seem to have been pre-
served ; being again directed to make inquiry, in
November, 1 372, on the following 2 5 April he certified
to the justices at Westminster that upon diligent inquiry
it was found that Henry de Torbock was legitimate.1
In the meantime a decision had been given in the
king's court. In 1365 Sir William Carles and Emma
his wife complained that Henry de Torbock and
others had ousted them from their manor of Tarbock.
Henry replied that he was the lawful son and heir
and had therefore done no injury or disseisin, for
Emma was a bastard and had no right in the manor.
The recognitors acquiesced in the above decision that
Henry was born in lawful wedlock and was the true
and right heir of Richard de Torbock, and accord-
ingly gave judgement that the claim of William and
Emma was a false one.*
Henry de Torbock, now in possession, had to
make complaints as to destruction of trees, &c.3 On
7 March, 1370, as Henry son of Sir Richard de
Torbock, he enfeoffed John Bellerby, vicar of Prest-
bury,4 and Richard Causey of his manors of Tarbock,
Turton, Walton Lees, Welch Whittle, and the fourth
part of Dalton, and all his other lands.5 This was
probably in view of his marriage with Isabel, widow
of Robert atte Poole, and daughter and heir of
Thomas de Capenhurst.6
1° !37S John Carles, apparently the heir of Sir
William, made another attempt to recover the manor
of Tarbock ;' but the bishop's declaration would decide
the matter against him, and the last heard of this
HUYTON
claim is in the Lent of 1391, when acknowledging
that ' Henry son of Henry de Torbock is now of my
certain knowledge ' in possession of the manors in
dispute, he quitclaimed all right in them and gave a
warranty to the possessor.8
Henry son of Richard de Torbock, who thus re-
covered his father's manors, died about 1380, and in
1382 his son Richard made a settlement of them, the
remainders being to Henry brother of Richard and
others. Four years later, as Sir Richard de Torbock,
knt., he made a further settlement.9 He died on
8 February, I 386-7, in Spain, having no doubt accom-
panied the duke of Lancaster on his journey to claim
the crown. At inquisitions in June, 1389, it was
found that he had held Tarbock of the manor of
Knowsley by knight's service and a rent of Js. 6d. ;
also Walton Lees of the lord of Upholland in socage ;
and the manor of Turton of the lord of Lathom.
He had no issue, and his next heirs were Sir William
de Atherton, senior, and Elizabeth daughter of Sir
Geoffrey de Worsley ; but by virtue of the feoffments
made his brother Henry, son of Henry de Torbock,
then seventeen years of age, was heir to the manors
and in possession of them.10
The new lord of Tarbock was made a knight in
1399-1400, and married11 Katherine daughter of
Sir Gilbert Halsall ; in 1407 the succession was
granted to her children, John, Thomas, William,
Robert, Elizabeth, Ellen, and Alice. This was con-
firmed in May, 1418." Sir Henry died soon after-
wards, and his son and heir John died at Halsall on
30 September, 1420, leaving a son Henry, nine
years of age, and two daughters, Margaret and Eliza-
beth, also very young.15
John de Torbock, who in 1410 had been espoused
to Clemency, daughter of Ralph de Standish,14 had
before his death arranged for the succession to his
estates, by enfeoffing Henry Halsall, archdeacon of
1 Lichfield, Epis. Reg. v, fol. 48, 57 ;
De Bane. R. 447, m. 141 d.
a Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), ii, 366, 367 ; De Bane.
R. 434, m. 260.
Sir William Carles in the following
Kuerden, shows the Lathom coat differ-
enced by a fesse, which the eagle's foot
afterwards replaced.
4 John de Bellerby, chaplain, had re-
ceived i ooi. in the case above. He died
before August, 1369; Earwaker, East
shows the usual Torbock coat— Lathom
differenced by an eagle's foot.
I" Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 35,
and Piccope MSS. iii, 38. The reason for
probably only half-brother of Sir Richard.
having been bribed by money or promises ;
thus Otes de Halsall had £20 from Henry
de Torbock, John de Eccleston a like sum,
William de Holland 20 marks, and others
•mailer gifts. Charters to Geoffrey de
Wrightington, ' for his good services ' to
the successful claimant, are given by
Kuerden (ii, fol. 266*, 6-9). Among the
offences in 1374 charged against Henry
de Chatherton, bailiff of the wapentake,
was that he had in 1369 taken looj.from
mistake in the dates.
5 Croxteth, D. Z. i, 5.
6 Robert atte Poole (Nethcrpool in
Ches.) died in or before 1368 : see Orme-
rod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby), ii, 423. Isabel
became a widow a second time, and in I 392
had the bishop's licence for an oratory at
Tarbock; Lichfield Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 1 28*.
In 1375 Henry and his wife Isabel (as
executrix of Robert) sued Edmund, cousin
and heir of Robert de Langton, for £ 18
father's marriage with Isabel atte Poole.
Joan, the widow of Sir Richard, was
living in 1423; Croxteth D. Z, i, 19 ;
Kuerden MSS. iii, T 2, n. 12.
11 Sir Henry first married Margery
daughter and coheir of John Dumvill of
Oxton and Brimstage in Cheshire ; in
1395 he quitclaimed his mother-in-law,
Cecily, of all rights in Oxton and other of
her husband's possessions, but with re-
mainder to himself and his wife, daughter
'maintenance' in these suits, while at the
same time he took £10 from Henry de
Torbock ; and so the said William and
Coram Rege R. 4 54, m. 1 3 . Carles seems
m. 86 d. She was his second wife. His
first wife Joan, living in 1365, is men-
tioned in the grants to Geoffrey de Wright-
ington ; Kuerden fol. MS. (Chet. Lib.),
140.
very soon annulled, for about 1397 Mar-
gery married Sir Hugh de Holes, and their
descendants, the earls of Shrewsbury, in-
herited the manors. Dtp. Keeper's Rep.
xxxvi ; App. ii, p. 464 ; Ormerod, Ches.
gifts were declared forfeit, half to him
and half to the king ; but he did not re-
cover the manor ; Co. Plac. (Chancery)
Lane. n. 1 8 ; De Bane. R. 425, m. 573.
In 1369 he appealed against the decision,
but making no appearance in court was
ordered to be silent for ever ; De Bane. R.
434, m. 260.
8 De Bane. R. 425, m. $26 J. ; 433,
m. 192.
Henry de Torbock's seal, as given by
Shropshire Visit. (Harl. Soc. ), 9.
8 Croxteth D. Z, i, 9.
9 Ibid, i, 6-8.
He was in the service of John of Gaunt,
duke of Lancaster and in March, 1385,
had the king's letters of protection, being
about to go towards Scotland in the duke's
retinue ; Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xl, App.
p. 522. In the following year he had the
bishop's licence for an oratory in Tarbock ;
Lich. Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 122.
Richard de Torbock's seal (in Kuerden)
In Oct. 1397, the bishop granted
Henry de Torbock licence for an oratory
for a year; Lichfield Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 136.
"Croxteth D. Z, i, 10, 12, 13. In
1414-1 5, Sir Henry released to Robertson
of Geoffrey de Wrightington his right in
the manor of Whittle ; Kuerden MSS. ii,
fol. 266, n. 20.
is Lanes. Rec. Inq. p.m. n. 24.
» C. 8, 20, n. 7 — a sixteenth-century
abstract of the Torbock title to Turton,
now in the Chet. Lib., Manch.
179
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Chester, and Richard Smith, chaplain ; but misunder- Strange, in Scotland, during the expedition of 1497."
standings followed.1 The son Henry died within
year after his father, on 21 July, 1421, his sisters
William died 5 May, 1505, seised of the manor of
Tarbock, held of the earl of Derby (as of the manor of
being his heirs, but by the entail, William, their Knowsley) by knight's service and worth £40 clear,
uncle, claimed the manors, being then twenty-two
years of age.8
The claims of the two daughters were at once in
question, Sir John Stanley, the feudal superior, and
Laurence Standish as kinsman, claiming from Arch-
deacon Halsall what the latter apparently would
not give. The matter was referred to arbitration.3
On 2 May, 1423 (or 1424), letters of protection
and of a messuage and six acres in Ridgate. Hi
son and heir was Thomas, aged eight years.12
In 1520 Thomas Torbock came to an agreement
with Hamlet Harrington as to a corpse-way from
Tarbock to Huyton church through the demesne
lands of Huyton Hey ; the owner of the latter agreed
to allow the use of this way during the winter season,
the ordinary road to be used during the summer.15
and attorney were granted to William Torbock of He died on 20 September, 1554, holding the manor
Lancashire, going to France in the retinue of of Tarbock, with thirty-two messuages, a windmill,
Christopher Preston, and similar protection on 8 May, two water-mills, a fulling mill, and lands, wood, heath,
1430, to Sir William de Torbock, in the retinue of and moor in the township, and rents from George
John duke of Norfolk.
Sir William de Torbock was
but died before 1447, when Dame Cecily was a
widow. In 1459-60, his son and heir Richard and
Ireland, Richard Easthead, and Thomas Knolle, also
till living in 1441,* the premises in Ridgate by Prescot ; his son and heir
William Torbock, aged twenty-eight and more.1'
William Torbock survived his father only three or
his wife Elizabeth received from the feoffees a mes- four years.15 His daughters Frances and Margaret
suage and land, called the Longriding, which had
descended according to the charter of Sir Henry
Torbock, Richard's grandfather.6 Some other char-
ters concerning him have survived, showing that he
was alive in July, 1472.'
He was succeeded by his son Henry, knighted by
Lord Stanley in July, 1482, on the taking of Berwick
from the Sc
were aged thirty months and two months at the
inquest 16 — the latter was not yet born when his will
was made — and his brother Edward succeeded him in
the manor of Tarbock." In January, 1577, he
made a settlement of his manor and lands, first for his
own use, then for that of his sons Edward and
Thomas, and other family arrangements have been
He died on I May, 1489, and was preserved. He and his son Edward
1591
also
succeeded by his brother William, then about twenty- came to a final agreement with William Orrell of
five years of age.9 In the following January Dame Turton, as to Tarbock, Turton and Walton Lees.18
Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Done of Utkinton, agreed The family appear to have become overwhelmed by
with him as to his marriage with her daughter debt, and in May, 1611, the manor was sold to
Margery by her former husband, John Stanley of Thomas Sutton of London, founder of the Charter-
Weaver.10 He was made a knight by George, Lord house School.19
1 Croxtcth D. Z. i, 14-17. The cou-
sin and heir of Richard Smith was Robert
son and heir of Adam de Mawdesley ;
ibid. Z, i, 28 (1472).
a Chet. Lib. C. 8, 20, n. 10.
» Nicholas Blundell of Little Crosby
was appointed arbitrator, 'upon the high
the Norrises of Speke, probably daughter
of Sir Henry le Norreys, whose mother
was Cecily. She was living, a widow, in
1478 ; her will, dated 1466, is printed in
Baines' Lanes. (Croston's ed.), v, 73 n.
Dame Cecily, in 1478, restored to the
abbot of Norton the rent of 6s. 8<i. from
bearing the letter T ; his armorial seal
is engraved in Baines' Lanes. (Croston's
ed.), v, 79. It is like that of his grand-
father Sir William as given by Dodsworth,
Iviii, fol. 163 b.
" Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, n. 32.
The Henry mentioned in the will
a simple man of their kin, more than for
any cunning that was in his person.'
After a journey to London to take coun-
sel with judge and ' apprentices • to the
law, the Serjeants having been retained,
he gave his decision in June, 1422, to the
forty years past ; Croxteth D. Z, i, 29.
5 Kuerden MSS. iii, T. 2, n. 4, 5.
• Croxteth D. Z, i, 25.
" Ibid. Z, i, 26-8. He granted a rent
of 131. 4<y. from Tarbock to Lambert
Stodagh in 1464 ; Kuerden MSS. iii,
brother Henry living in 29 Henry VIII.
The latter is perhaps the Henry Torbock
of a settlement by fine in 1 549 ; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F, bdle. 13, m. 44.
18 Croxteth D. Z, i, 33. The herald in
1533 dismissed Thomas Torbock with
William, the heir male, and that Margery
and Elizabeth were to renounce their
William de Ditchfield in 1467 ; ibid, ii,
fol. 247, n. 55.
8 Metcalfe, Book of Knights, J.
9 Writ of Diem cl. extr. was issued
19 Hen. VII, and of Ad mdius inquir. in
20 Hen. VII. The inquest taken after
the death is preserved; Dip. Keeper's
Rep. xl, App. 544 ; Duchy of Lane.
Inq. p.m. iii, n. 71. For settlement see
Kuerden MSS. iii, T. 2, n. 2, 3.
10 Croxteth D. Z, i, 3 1 .
11 Metcalfe, Book of Knights, 31. Before
setting out on this adventure he had made
certenty ' ; Visit (Chet. Soc.), p. 131. In
1536 he was able to raise thirty-one men
teth, D.Z,i, .8.
This decision did not give satisfaction,
.and three years later the matter was re-
ferred to Thomas Langley, bishop of
Durham, and Richard Beauchamp, earl of
Warwick ; these, in a lengthy document,
•gave the manor of Tarbock to the heir
male, the others to be divided between the
sisters ; Croxteth D. Z, i, 20, 21. This
L. and P. Henry VIII, xi, 5 1 1.
14 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. x, n. 46 ;
Croxteth D. Z. i, 34. A brief abstract of his
will is printed in Will, (Chet. Soc. New S.),
i, 230.
"His will, dated 14 May, 1558, is
printed in full by Piccope, Wills (Chet.
Soc.), i, 71-6.
16 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xi, n. 14.
See also the Little Woolton Court Rolls,
Norris D. (B. M.).
V In 1577 he gave a silver bell with
10 marks to be competed for in the
Liverpool races ; Pal. Note Book, ii, 22.
18 Croxteth D. Z. i, 35-9.
i» Ibid. Z. i, 42-7, where are the
settlements made on the marriage of
Edward Torbock the younger with Mar-
garet, daughter of Edward Norris. A large
number of leases were made at the end of
1 6 10 and beginning of 1611 ; these are at
Croxteth, together with the various agree-
ments connected with the sale ; Z.
bdles. iii, iv.
Lane. Plea R. 33, m. I3</.; 34, m. 36.
Margery was already married to Thomas
Corbet, but died without issue ; Elizabeth
afterwards married William Orrell, living
enfeoffing Robert Daniell, knight of the
Rhodes, Sir William Norris of Speke, and
others with the manor of Tarbock and
other lands. His son and heir Henry was
to have all his heirlooms and his daughters
Margaret and Jane 200 and 100 marks
respectively, and his brothers and sisters
smaller presents. A ' sparver ' of white
sarsnet and black was to be given to the
church of Huyton to pray for his soul
and the souls of his father and mother
and his brother Sir Henry ; Croxteth D.
Z. i, 3K This deed has a simple seal
1 80
It appears from the decision that Wil-
liam Torbock was already married to his
wife Cecily, and that he and his younger
brother Robert were in France on the
« Norman ' R. (Dtp. Reefer's Ref.
xlviii), 23°, *?6-
His wife Cecily was closely related to
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Before this, however, Edward Torbock the elder
died, and administration had been granted in 1608
to his widow and son. He appears to have conformed
externally to the change in religion made by Elizabeth,
for in 1584 he was returned as 'suspected' only, and
in 1 590 was among the ' more usual comers to church,
but not communicants.' * His son and heir had been
made a knight by James I at Whitehall on I Novem-
ber, 1606," but he was not able to retrieve the family
fortunes and died in the King's Bench, a prisoner,
being buried at St. George's, South wark, on 28 May,
1617.'
As stated, the manor of Tarbock, with lands in
Cronton and Whiston, and the rectory of Huyton
had been sold to Thomas
Sutton in 1 6 1 1 , Sir Edward's
sons Edward and George join-
ing in the sale. Thomas Sutton
died in December, 1611, and
his heir was his nephew Simon
Baxter of London.4 In July,
1614, Sir Richard Molyneux
of Sefton entered into posses-
sion of Tarbock, having pur-
chased it from Simon Baxter
for ^10,500.*
Sir Richard Molyneux died
seised of the manor as well as
of lands in Tarbock and Huy-
ton and the rectory.6 The manor has descended
regularly to the present earl of Sefton. In 1798
quit-rents amounting to 6s. were paid by various
tenants. The water-mill and the windmill were
in operation.
Other persons or families also took surname from
the place, some of them no doubt descendants of
younger sons.7
The Easthead family also occurs. In I 339 William
HUYTON
Easthead was in prison at Lancaster charged with the
death of Henry son of Ellis le Keu of Tarbock ; but
the jury found that he was unjustly accused by one
Robert Utting, whose wages William took, in his
capacity as reaper for Ellen de Torbock.8 John
Easthead was a free tenant in 1 600 ; and John East-
wood of Tarbock, gent., who died in 1613, held
a messuage, etc., of Simon Baxter in socage by 4*. 4^.
rent as well as lands in Burscough and Lathom. His
son and heir was John Eastwood, then aged thirty.9
The Whitefields are a family whose records reach
to Edward I's reign. Robert de Whitefield in 1292
claimed from Henry de Torbock and Ellen his wife
acquittance of the service demanded from him by
the superior lord, Henry de Lacy, in respect of a
tenement in Tarbock, but was non-suited." By
an inquisition made in 1446-7 it was found that
William Whitefield had held nineteen acres in
Tarbock of Sir Henry de Torbock in socage by a
service of $s. He died on 7 September, 1402, and
Richard Orme, aged twenty-three years, was his
next heir, being son of Alice, the daughter of William
Whitefield."
An assessment of 1 73 1 shows £73 to have been
raised ; John Torbock, as collector, occurs down to
1757. The principal contributor was, of course,
Lord Molyneux, for demesne lands, tithes and mills,
and part of the New Pale ; his payments were doubled
on account of his being a ' Papist.' Others in the
township paying double for the same reason were
Robert Waring, James Abram, Caryll Hawarden, and
John Abram.12 The other portion of the New Pale
was occupied by James Glover."
In 1786 a dispute arose as to Penny Lane croft,
and the matter was referred to Charles Pole, mayor
of Liverpool, for decision ; from the witnesses' state-
ments it appears that the croft was divided by a
gutter into an eastern and a western part, and that
1 Gibson, Lydiatt Hall, 227, 245 (quot-
is probably the 'Mr. Torbock of Tar-
285. Eastwood appears to be a mistake
ing S.P. Dom. Eliz. clxxv, n. 21; ccxxxv,
bock* who accompanied Lord Strange in
or variant of Easthead.
in 1608 there is mention of 'Sir Robert's
Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 51.
widow of Henry de Whitefield claimed
chamber,' as well as a chapel and chapel
An Edward Torbock left England in
from John son of Robert de Whitefield
chamber, so that he had probably sheltered
1622 to take service under the king of
dower in lands in Tarbock, Much Wool-
one of the old priests in his house suffici-
Spain in Flanders and became an officer.
ton, and Childwall. John de Whitefield
ently long to affix a name to the room.
Being landed in Thanet in 1635 on
in November, 1371, granted to Roger de
There is mention of the hall and about
account of ill-health he was imprisoned at
Whitefield the place (Quitefeld) from
twenty chambers or rooms ; among the
Dover, refusing to take an oath of allegi-
which they took their name.
ance ; Cal. ofS. P. Dom. 1625-6, p. 132,
A refeoffment of lands in Lancashire
pen' worth £3, and 'a little boat' worth
and 1635, p. 44.
was made to John de Whitefield in 1385-6.
10,. ; Cbes. Sheaf, 3 Ser. iv, 30.
" Metcalfe, Book of Knights, 157.
» Manning, Surrey, iii, 639.
For later descents, see Reliquary, xi.
6 Lanes. Inq.p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), iii, 384.
Somewhat later(i4O4) Sir John de Ireland
of Hale quitclaimed to John de Whitefield
senior, William de Whitefield his son, and
4 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
7 John son of Nicholas of Old Tarbock
Magot the daughter of William Passmich
Ches.), ii, 1 8.
was a feoffee of Sir Henry de Torbock
and their heirs, his right in the lands he
* Croxteth D. Z. iv, n. Possibly
about 1 290, and Adam son of Adam of
had received from John de Whitefield by
there was some agreement with Sir
Old Tarbock was defendant in a case
a deed of 1399.
Edward Torbock also, for not only is
brought by Sir Henry's widow Ellen in
See De Bane. R. 426, m. 200 d. ; Add.
there a tradition that Sir Richard acquired
it as a payment for a gambling debt, but
1306. Henry son of Adam de Torbock
was wounded at West Derby in 1332.
MS. 32107, n. 359; Kuerden MSS. ii,
fol. 230, ,. ,o ; iii, T. 2, ,. 7 ; Croxteth
Dame Clemence Torbock (Sir Edward's
Croxteth D. Z. i, 3 ; De Bane. R. i 59, m.
D. Z. i, ii ; Kuerden MSS. iii, T. 2,
second wife) in 1619 made a formal com-
48 d. ; Assize R. 428.
•,18,13.
plaint that he refused to allow her dower
Margery widow of Simon de Torbock
11 Lanes. Records, Inq. p.m. n. 36, 37.
right in certain lands purchased by him
sought from Richard the Harper dower in
Probably it was in connexion with this
from Sir Edward Torbock, her late hus-
a messuage and land at Tarbock. It
that Richard Orme demanded from
band ; Cal. ofS. P. Dom. 1619-23, p. 49,
appeared that she had run away from her
Cecily widow of Sir William Torbock a
and 1623-5, p. 121. See also Croxteth
husband with a certain Thomas the
certain chest, no doubt that containing
D. Z. iv, 24, 2,.
Thrower, and had lived with him at
the family evidences ; Pal. of Lane.
The Torbock family continued to
Conway, Rhuddlan, and elsewhere in
PleaR. 10, m. 4, 16*.
reside in the neighbourhood, having some
North Wales. She had never been
>» In 1717 William Abram of Tarbock,
younger son was tor a time tenant of
claim failed ; Assize R. 408, m. 32.
Thornton as a 'Papist;' he had sons
Tarbock Hall under the Molyneux family.
8 Inq- a.q.d. n. 26.
Richard and John ; Engl. Cath. Nonjurori,
Edward Torbock is said to have been
» Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
126.
governor of the I«le of Man in 1642. He
i, 243 i Lanes. Ina. p.m. (same soc.), i,
18 Crorteth D.
181
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the former was in Cronton, and the latter in
Tarbock.1
In 1785 Lord Sefton contributed £$J to the land
tax of .£145 ; Nathaniel Milner, £5, was the next in
amount.
The existence of an oratory at Tarbock has been
noticed.2 In 1332 Simon de Walton was charged with
wounding Nicholas the chaplain of Tarbock.3 Licences
for an oratory occur in the Lichfield registers.4 The
Torbocks also had a chapel in Huyton church.4
William Torbock in 1558 bequeathed to Sir George
Robinson a black gown and yearly stipend of £4, for
which he was to ' serve and say mass and other divine
service that longs for a priest to do. ... at the
chapel that stands upon Tarbock Green. If the said
chapel be not builded up at the time of my decease
then I will that the said chapel shall be made up
upon my costs and charge.' He also left for it a
chalice of silver parcel-gilt, and a suit of vestments.6
The Commonwealth surveyors and Bishop Gastrell
make no allusion to the chapel; but in 1882 it
was stated that it had been pulled down 'about
fifty years ago,' and that it ' was rich in carved
wood-work.' *
CROXTETH PARK
Croxstath, 1228, 1297 ;"Crocstad, 1257; Crox-
that, 1330.
This township, formerly part of Knowsley but
independent and extra-parochial from the twelfth
century owing to its inclusion in the forest, has an
area 0^959 acres. The population in 1901 was 61.
It is well wooded. A public footpath crosses the
park, which is pleasantly carpeted with turf and
shaded by good-sized trees. The woodlands have
been planted with evergreen shrubs, chiefly rhodo-
dendrons, which make cover for the abundant game.
The River Alt, rising in the township of Knowsley,
before it attains much volume flows through the park,
and finds its way through the most level of country
into the sea at Hightown. Beyond the confines of
the park there are wide open fields, some pasture,
but the majority arable, where some of the finest
Lancashire potatoes are grown. Corn and turnips
also are successfully cultivated in the rich loamy soil.
The geological formation consists of the lower
mottled sandstone of the bunter series of the new
red sandstone in the north-eastern half of the town-
ship, and the coal measures on the south-west.
The record of the perambulation of
M4NOR the forest in 1228 gives the first account
of Croxteth ; the jurors found that it had
been taken from Knowsley and placed within the
forest after the first coronation of Henry II, and that
it should therefore be disafforested and restored to
the heir of Robert son of Henry de Lathom.8 This
verdict was not acted upon ; Croxteth remained part
of the forest, being regarded as a member of the
demesne of West Derby, and was committed to
officers who kept the park of Toxteth and chase of
Simonswood.9
Leases of the herbage of Croxteth were granted
from time to time,10 and in 1446 a lease of the
herbage, pannage and turbary of the park for thirty-
one years was granted to Sir Richard Molyneux of
Sefton and Richard his son, at a rent of £5 los. per
annum.11 Just before the expiry of this lease Richard,
duke of Gloucester, as high steward of the duchy,
granted the park to William Molyneux and his heirs
to hold by copy of court roll at the customary yearly
farm, saving to the king and his heirs sufficient pas-
ture for their deer." This grant probably lapsed, for
in I 507 the park was given to William Molyneux of
Sefton, then one of the esquires of the king's body."
From this time Croxteth has descended with Sefton,
and the chief residence of the family was transferred
to this neighbourhood, though Croxteth Hall is within
the township of West Derby." The earl of Sefton
owns the whole of the land.
1 Croxteth D.
a ' A chapel of Ridgate within Tarbock '
is mentioned in 1364; see the account
of Whiston.
Probably the ' oratory ' of Sir Henry de
Torbock was attached to his dwelling,
lu. 6d. in 1257 ; Lanes. Inq.and Extents
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 210. In
1330 a verderer was appointed in suc-
cession to Robert de Sankey, incapacitated
by infirmity; Cal. of Close R. 1330-3,
p. 74. In 1 346 this park was described as
In 1387 a lease for twenty years at
6 marks rent was granted to William de
Bolton ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. zl, App.
526.
11 Ibid. 538. A lease had been granted
to Sir Richard Molyneux in 1437 ; Duchjr
me and my family,' and no injury or
prejudice was intended or would be done
to the mother church of Huyton ; he
would in fact attend the church in person
five times in the year at least, bringing
the due and accustomed offerings, viz.,
on Christmas day, Easter day, Candlemas,
Whit Sunday, St. Michael's day, and All
Saints' ; Burscough Reg. fol. 44*.
» Assize R. 428, m. i.
4 See preceding notes.
5 Baines, Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 73 n. ;
Wills (Chet. Soc. New Ser.), i, 230;
Piccope, Willt (Chet. Soc.), i, 71.
6 Piccope, Wills, i, 74. The ' chapel
hall demesne ' is mentioned in deeds a
little later.
^ Trans. Hist. Sac. xxxiv, 119.
» Whattey Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 372.
The jurors further declared that Egersart
ought to have common rights here.
• The profits of Croxteth amounted to
herbage worth £5 6s. %d. yearly ; a par-
cel of pasture of the Hooks, between the
park and Knowsley, was worth 2s.; the
turbary was not extended; Add. MS.
32103, fol. 142.
Two years later the issues of the park
were thus returned :— Of the herbage of
Croxteth in winter and summer^ 1 31. 4</.;
of the pasturage of the Hooks, 2s. 6d. ;
of the pannage of swine, windfallen wood,
and perquisites of the woodmotes, nil ;
Duchy of Lane. Var. Acct», 32/17,
m. 7 d.
Geoffrey de Wrightington appears to
have been the keeper, for in 1346 he
was demanding an account of receipts
from his bailiff, Richard de Alvetham ;
De Bane. R. 345, m. 21.
1° Henry, duke of Lancaster in 1358
granted a ten years' lease of the her-
bage of the park to Alan de Rainford
at a rent of 5 marks ; Dep. Keeper's Rep.
xxxii, App. 338.
" Croxteth D. F. i. William Moly-
neux was a younger son of the Sir Richard
just mentioned. In the grant the park
was described as ruinous, having no wood
in it or near it for the reparation of the
pale, so that the enclosure cost as much
as the yearly farm. The grantee under-
took to ditch and set wood around the
park, to keep the deer at his own cost,
and to pay the king the usual farm.
18 Ibid. F. 2-5. The park was to be
held according to the custom of the
manor of West Derby, paying yearly the
old accustomed farm of £6, and an in-
crease of £6 yearly for the park and chase
of Simonswood, which was granted at the
same time. The grant was in 1508 en-
rolled upon the court rolls of the manor
of West Derby.
The district was described as a barren
moorish ground.
" See the accounts of Sefton, West
Derby, and Toxteth.
182
HALSALL
ALT CAR
A 1 t c a r ( '—-•> E9*er*Ylh
\ .,/ + AUGHT
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
HALSALL
HALSALL
HALSALL
DOWNHOLLAND
LYDIATE
MELLING
MAGHULL
The parish of Halsall is about ten miles in length,
and has a total area of 16,698 acres,1 of which a con-
siderable portion is reclaimed mossland.
Judging by the situation of the various villages and
hamlets it may be asserted that in this part of West
Lancashire the 25 ft. level formed the boundary in
ancient times of the habitable district. All below it
was moss and swamp, which here formed a broad and
definite division between Halsall parish on the east
and Formby and Ainsdale on the west.
The parish used to contribute to the county lay as
follows : — When the hundred paid £100, it paid a
total of £6 5/. oj</., the townships giving — Halsall,
£l 8/. \\d. ; Downholland, £l $s. <)\d. ; Lydiate,
£l y. 9y. ; Maghull, iji. z\d. ; Melling, £l 8s. I \d.
To the more ancient fifteenth the contributions were :
Halsall, £2 4/. \\d. ; Downholland, £l \^s.\ Lydiate
£l 8/. SJ. ; Maghull, 121. ; and Melling, £l l$s. ±<t.
or £j ID/, i \d. when the hundred paid £106 gs. 6d?
Before the Conquest the whole of the parish, with
the exception of Maghull, was in the privileged dis-
trict of three hides. Soon after 1 1 oo the barony of
Warrington included the northern portion of the
parish, Halsall, Barton, and Lydiate ; while Maghull
was part of the Widnes fee, and Downholland and
Melling were held in thegnage.
The history of the parish is uneventful. During
the religious changes of the Tudor period, Halsall is
said to have been the last parish to adopt the new
services. This, of course, cannot be proved ; but the
immediate reduction of the staff of clergy, the partial
or total closing of the chapels at Maghull and Melling,
and the careful dismantling of that at Lydiate, are
tokens of the feeling the changes inspired.
The freeholders in 1600 were Sir Cuthbert Halsall
of Hahall, who was a justice of the peace ; Lawrence
Ireland of Lydiate, Lydiate of Lydiate, Richard Moly-
neux of Cunscough, Richard Hulme of Maghull,
Richard Maghull of Maghull, Robert Pooley of
Melling, Robert Bootle of Melling, Gilbert Halsall of
Barton, Henry Heskin of Downholland.3 In the sub-
sidy list of 1628, the following landowners were re-
corded :— At Halsall, Sir Charles Gerard and Mr. Cole;
Downholland, Edward Haskayne and John Moore ;
Lydiate, Edward Ireland and Thomas Lydiate ; Mag-
hull, Richard Maghull ; Melling, Robert Molyneux,
Robert Bootle, Lawrence Hulme, the heir of William
Martin, Anne Stopford, widow, and the heirs of John
Seacome.4 George Marshall of Halsall, Edward Ire-
land, and Robert Molyneux paid £ l o each in 1631
on refusing knighthood.5
The recusant and non-communicant roll of 1641
names five distinct households in Halsall ; large num-
bers in Downholland and Lydiate ; several at Maghull,
and at Melling.6
During the Civil War there is little to show how
the people of the district were divided. The principal
manorial lord, Sir Charles Gerard of Halsall, was a
Protestant but a strong Royalist ; he probably did not
live much in the place. His son and successor was an
exile. Ireland of Lydiate was a minor ; Maghull was
in the hands of Lord Molyneux, a Royalist ; and
Robert Molyneux ol Melling was on the same side.
The Gerard manors were of course sequestered by the
Parliament, and in 1653 orders were given to settle a
portion of them, of the value of .£600 a year, upon the
widow and children of Richard Deane, later a general
of the fleet.7 Radcliffe Gerard, brother of the late
Sir Charles, described as ' of Barton,' petitioned for
delay in paying his composition because his annuity had
not been paid for twelve years past.8 John Wignall,
of Halsall, was allowed to compound in 1652.'
The troubles of the Irelands are narrated under
Lydiate ; the estate of Edward Gore there was seques-
tered and part sold.10 Confiscations at Maghull and
Melling are related in the account of these townships ;
in the former place also Richard Mercer, a tailor, had
had his estate seized for his ' pretended delinquency,'
but it had never been sequestered and he obtained it
back."
The hearth tax of 1666 shows that very few houses
in the parish had three hearths. In Downholland the
Haskaynes' house had seven hearths and the hall five.
In Lydiate the hall had ten ; in Maghull James
Smith's had nine and Richard Maghull's six ; in Mell-
ing Robert Molyneux's house had ten hearths, William
Martin's six, Thomas Bootle's five, and John Tatlock's,
in Cunscough, eight.11
The connexion of Anderton of Lydiate with the
Jacobite rising of 1 7 1 5 seems to be isolated ; the squires
and people generally took no share in this or the
subsequent rising of 1745.
The land tax returns of 1794 show that, except in
Lydiate, the land was in the possession of a large num-
ber of freeholders.
The making of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at
the end of the eighteenth century did something to
open up the district, which has, however, remained
almost wholly agricultural.
The geological formation consists entirely of the
new red sandstone, or triassic, series. Taking the
various beds in rotation from the lowest upwards, the
pebble beds of the bunter series occur to the eastward
of the canal in Melling, and to the south of a line
drawn from Maghull manor-house to the nearest
point on the boundary of Simonswood. To the east
1 16,682 acres, according to the census
of 1901 ; this includes 87 acres of inland
'Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland),
3 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lan
138-43.
4 Norris D. (B.M.). The
victed ' recusant, charged double, was Ed-
ward Ireland.
s Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
2I« Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Sen), xiv, 232.
nd Ches.), i, ^ Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), iii, 6- 1 8.
8 Ibid, iii, 23. His delinquency was
being in arms against the Parliament ; he
had laid them down in 1645 and taken the
National Covenant and the Negative Oath.
9 Cal. Com. for Camp, iv, 2953 ; he had
been in arms for the king in the first war.
10 Royalist Camp. P. iii, 87.
"Ibid, iv, 130.
ia Lay Subs. Lanes. 250-9.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
of a line drawn southward from Halsall village to
pass a quarter of a mile or so to the eastward of the
villages of Lydiate and Maghull, following the line of
a fault, the upper mottled sandstones of the same
series occur, whilst to the west of the same line the
formation consists of the lower keuper sandstones.
To the north-west of a line drawn from Barton and
Halsall station to Scarisbrick bridge, spanning the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal, the keuper marls occur,
whilst the waterstones, which elsewhere intervene
between these two members of the keuper series, are
entirely wanting.
There are stone quarries at Melling and Maghull,
producing good grindstones. About 1840 some of
the inhabitants were employed in hand - loom
weaving.1 The agricultural land is occupied as
follows: Arable, 13,337 acres; permanent grass,
1,515 ; woods and plantations, 10.
The church of St. Cuthbert consists
CHURCH of a chancel with north vestry and organ
chamber, nave with north and south
aisles and south porch, west tower and spire, and to
7-iALSALL CHVRCH
have gone on continuously, but there were several
alterations of the first design, which will be noticed
in their place. When the new chancel was complete —
it was no doubt built round the old chancel after the
usual mediaeval fashion, beginning at the east — it is
quite clear that the intention of the builders was to
go on and re-model the nave, if not to rebuild it,
although it was barely thirty years old at the time.
But the work came to a sudden stop when the east
wall of the south aisle was being built, and nothing
more was done to the fabric for some fifty or sixty
years, when the west tower and spire were added, and
the church assumed substantially its present appear-
ance. About 1 5 20 a large three-light rood window
was inserted high up in the south wall of the nave,
and in 1593 Edward Halsall's grammar school was
built at the west end of the south aisle. The north
and south aisles were nearly rebuilt in 1751 and
1824, and in 1886 the north wall of the north aisle
and vestry was rebuilt throughout its length, as was
the greater part of the south aisle wall, with the south
porch and doorway, though both this doorway and
the south of the tower a late sixteenth-century build-
ing, formerly a grammar school. It stands finely on
rising ground on the edge of the broad stretch of
level land which once was Halsall Moss, and is, as
it must have been designed to be, a conspicuous land-
mark for miles round. Two roads join at the west
end of the churchyard, from which point a raised
causeway runs across a depression in the ground in
which is a little stream flowing northward, and joins
the outcrop of sandstone rock, facing the church, on
which the hall and part of the village stand.
No part of the church as it exists to-day is older
than the fourteenth century, and its architectural
history seems to be as follows. The nave with north
and south aisles and south porch were begun about
1320, doubtless replacing the nave of an older build-
ing, whose eastern portions were left standing till
1 345-50, when they were destroyed and the present
fine and stately chancel built. The work seems to
Lewis, Ga
the outer arch of the porch have been reconstructed
with the old stones as far as they would serve.
Remains of mediaeval arrangements are plentiful.
In the chancel are triple sedilia and a piscina, a large
piscina and a locker in the vestry, and there are piscinae
at the eastern ends of both nave aisles. Traces of
the roodloft are to be seen, and the roodstair remains
perfect, but the nave altars below the loft have left no
trace. The patron saint's canopied niche exists on the
north of the altar, and in the north wall of the chancel
is a fine sepulchral recess which was doubtless made
use of in Holy Week for the purposes of the Easter
Sepulchre. A wood screen on a low stone wall stood in
the chancel arch, and against it the stalls were returned.
Some of these stalls, of the fifteenth century, still re-
main, but the return stalls, for which evidence was
found some years ago, have disappeared. A turret for
the sanctus bell stands on the east gable of the nave.
The architectural details of the chancel are exceed-
ingly good, and in common with the rest of the church
it is faced with wrought stone both inside and out.
184
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Its internal dimensions are 47 ft. long by 20 ft. 6 in.
wide, and it is 46 ft. high to the ridge of the roof.
It is divided into three bays, having three-light win-
dows in each bay on the south side, and a five-light
east window. There are no windows in the north
wall. The stone used is a sandstone of local origin,
but of a quality very superior to the ordinary. The
jambs and heads of the windows are elaborately
moulded, internally with the characteristic roll and
fillet, and hollow quarter-round ; while externally the
orders are square, each face being countersunk, the
effect being to leave a raised fillet at the salient and
re-entering angles. This detail also occurs on the
east window of the south aisle. The tracery of the
east window is mainly original, and that of the south
windows a modern copy of the former work ; it is
very late in the style, and shows a distinct tendency
to the characteristic upright light of the succeeding
style. Above the head of the east window, inside, is
a hand carved in low relief, somewhat difficult to see
from below. It is said by those who have seen it at
close range to be an insertion.
The sedilia, in common with nearly all the masonry
HALSALL
either side of the shafts of the pinnacles which flank
the niche are two pin-holes, probably for the fasten-
ings of iron rods.
The first ten feet of the north wall, from the east,
are blank, but about opposite to the sedilia is a recess
6ft. 6 in. wide, and 14 in. deep, under a beautiful
feather-cusped arch set in a crocketed gable and
flanked by tall crocketed pinnacles ; the pinnacles and
gable finish at the same level, about 1 7 ft. from the
floor, with heavy and deeply-cut finials of foliage,
whose flattened tops seem designed to serve as brackets
for images. It is to be noted that the arch is not
constructive, but all joints are horizontal and part of
the walling. In the recess is a plain panelled altar
tomb, on which lies an ecclesiastical effigy of alabaster,
wearing a fur almuce with long pendants over an alb
and cassock ; the head rests on a cushion, on either
side of which are small winged figures, and at the feet
is a dog. The effigy is of much later date than the
recess, and both effigy and recess have been injured by
a process of adaptation, the back of the recess being
hollowed out, and the head and feet of the effigy cut
back to get them to fit the space. The effigy is not
HALSALL CHURCH FROM THE SOUTH-EAST
details of the chancel, are original. They are triple,
with cinquefoil arches and moulded labels which
mitre with the string running round the chancel
walls. The three seats are on the same level, and the
piscina forms a part of the composition, being under
an arch similar to the other three, and adjoining them
to the east. Its bowl is elaborate, with a cusped
sinking of some depth, but the drain is not visible,
though the bowl seems to be part of the original
masonry. It projects from the wall, and is carved on
the underside with foliage and a small mitred figure.
The niche north of the altar, which probably held
St. Cuthbert's image as patron saint, has a fine
crocketed canopy, with flanking pinnacles and a
central spirelet and finial. The corbel to carry the
figure projects as three sides of an octagon, and is
carved below with oak foliage and acorns. The
image itself was bonded into the back of the recess at
half height, and the head dowelled to the wall. On
3 I'
later than 1520. A tomb in this position in the
north wall of the chancel was often used as the place
of setting up the Easter Sepulchre, and adjoining the
recess to the west is a curious masonry projection,
splayed off at a height of 2 ft., and dying into the
wall face at 3 ft. 9 in. from the floor. It is 4ft. 8 in.
long, with a maximum projection of I 2 in. There
are no traces of fastenings or dowel-holes on it
(in which case it might have formed a backing
for the wooden framework of the sepulchre), and
its purpose is hard to understand. It is of the
same date as the recess, for the stooling of the
western flanking pinnacle is worked on one stone of
its sloping top, and the masonry joints range with
the surrounding walling. Close to it on the west is
the vestry doorway, of three orders with continuous
mouldings and a hood mould formed by carrying the
chancel string round the arch, an admirable piece
of detail, retaining its original panelled door, with
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
reticulated tracery in the head, and lock and handle
of the same date. To the west of this doorway is a
modern arch for the organ. The chancel arch is ot
three orders with engaged shafts, moulded capitals and
bases, and a well-moulded arch with labels. It is
26 ft. high to the crown, and 1 5 ft. 8 in. to the
springing. The central shaft shows the almost
obliterated traces of the coping of a dwarf stone wall
loin, thick, and about 3ft. high, which served as a
base to a wood screen across the arch ; a 3 in. fillet
on the central shaft has been cut away for the fitting
of this screen.
Parts of the stalls are ancient, good and deeply-cut
work of the end of the fifteenth century. They were
re-arranged at the late restoration, and there are now
six ancient stalls on the south side, and one on the
north. All these retain their ancient carved seats, the
subjects of the carvings being (i) wrestlers backed by
two ' religious ' ; (2) an angel with a key in each
hand, and wearing a cap with a cross ; (3) a bearded
head ; (4) a flying eagle ; (5) a fox and goose ; (6) an
angel with a book, wearing a cap with a cross ;
(7) fighting dragons. Some of the old desks remain,
with boldly carved fronts and standards, the finials
being a good deal broken ; one of them has the
Stanley eagle and child, another a lion standing.
East of the southern stalls is an altar tomb with
panelled sides containing shields in quatrefoils, which
have lost their painted heraldry, and an embattled
cornice. On the tomb lie two effigies, said to be
those of Sir Henry Halsall, 1523, and his wife Mar-
garet (Stanley). Besides the tombs already noticed
there are a fragment of a brass to Henry Halsall of
Halsall, 1589, memorials of the Brownells, Glover
Moore, and others.1
The vestry on the north of the chancel was
probably built in the first instance for its present
purpose. Its north wall has been rebuilt, but the
south and east walls show some very interesting
features. The south wall, which is also, of course,
the north wall of the chancel, was originally designed
as an outer wall, and had a plinth like that of the
rest of the chancel ; but when the wall had been
built to the level of the top of the plinth the design
was altered and the vestry built as it now is, the
plinth being cut away, leaving its profile in the east
wall. A large piscina was placed in the south wall,
and the east wall built against the west side of the
second buttress from the east, with a locker at the
south end and a central window of one wide, single
cinquefoiled light with a trefoil in the head. This
window is somewhat clumsy, and shows signs of
having been rebuilt. It does not belong to the
chancel work, but its details are those of the nave,
and it is probably an adaptation of the east window
of the north aisle of the nave. Under the first
design for the chancel this window would not have
been disturbed, but when the vestry was added to
the east it became useless, and was probably taken
down and rebuilt in an altered form in its present
place.' The two rows of corbels in the south wall
of the vestry show the line of former plates, belonging
to a roof now gone.
Externally the chancel has a fine moulded plinth
of two stages and a string at the level of the window
sills. The buttresses set back 3 ft. above the string
with weathered and crocketed gablets, with excellent
details of finials and grotesque masks, and are carried
up through a simple parapet projecting on a corbel
course to crocketed pinnacles, which have at their bases
boldly designed gargoyles, the most noteworthy being
that at the south end of the east face of the chancel,
a boat containing a little figure with hands in prayer.
In the east gable, above the great east window, is a
single trefoiled light which lights the space over the
chancel roof. The roof is of steep pitch, covered
with lead ; the timbers are mainly ancient, and are
simple couples with arched braces under a collar. At
the western angles of the chancel are square turrets
finished with octagonal arcaded caps and crocketed
spirelets. The southern turret contains the rood
stair, which is continued upwards to give access to
the nave and chancel gutters on both sides of the
roof in an original and interesting manner. The
northern turret contains no stair from the ground
level, and appears never to have done so, being built
solid at the bottom. It could not therefore give
access to the northern gutters or roof-slopes ; and
this was provided by taking a passage from the south
turret over the chancel arch in the thickness of the
wall, opening into the north turret in its octagonal
story, whence doors east and west led to the gutters.
The passage rises at a steep pitch from both ends, and
is lighted by four small square-headed loops, two
towards the nave and two towards the chancel.3 On
the apex of the gable above is an octagonal sanctus
bell-cote with a crocketed spirelet, which is open to
the passage, and it is quite possible that the bell may
have been rung from here at the elevation, as anyone
standing at the loops looking towards the chancel has
a clear view of the altar. Access to the west end of
the chancel roof is also obtained from the highest
point of the passage, and in the west wall at this
point, exactly over the apex of the chancel arch, is a
short iron bar, which may be connected with the
fastenings of the rood.
The nave is of four bays with north and south
arcades having octagonal bases, shafts, and capitals,
1 1 ft. 6 in. to the spring of the arches, which are of
two orders with the characteristic fourteenth-century
wave-moulding. There is no clearstory, and the
whole work is much plainer and simpler than that
of the chancel. The nave roof is 47 ft. high to the
ridge, covered with stone healing, and the timbers
are modern copies of the old work. At the east end
of the nave the junction of the two dates of work is
clearly shown in the masonry of both walls, and the
plate level of the later work is considerably higher
than that of the nave. On the south side the upper
part of the wall has been cut away for the insertion
of a three-light sixteenth-century window with square
head, embattled on the outside, its object, as already
1 A full description of the church and a That the change of design took place would, of course, have been reversed if
its monuments with plates is given in at a very early stage of the building is this had been the case) ; (iii) that the
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xii, 193, clear for three reasons : (i) that the pis- buttress west of the doorway, although
215, &c.; for the font, ibid, xvii, 63. A
view is given in Gregson's Fragments (ed.
Harland), 215. See also Lanes. Churches
(Chet. Soc.), 1 06, for its condition in
1845.
cina in the south wall is of the same
masonry as the wall, i.e. it is not a
subsequent insertion ; (ii) that the vestry
doorway is built from the first to open
into a building and not to the open air (it
1 86
having the gabled weathering of the
external buttresses, has never had a plinth j
the vestry door could not open if it had.
8 There is a similar arrangement at
Wrotham church, Kent.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
mentioned, being to light the rood and rood-loft.
There are many traces of the beams which carried
the rood-loft, which was entered from the south
turret by a still existing doorway. Access to the
turret is from the south aisle, the lower part of its
stone newel being treated as a shaft with moulded
capital and base. About ten feet up the stair is
lighted by three narrow loops at the same level, one
on the south, looking out on the churchyard, one on
the north-east, commanding the tomb in the north
wall of the chancel, and one on the north-west,
towards the nave, below the level of the rood-loft
floor. From the north-east loop nothing but the
tomb in the north wall can be seen, and it is
evidently built for that object only. It was in all
probability used for watching the Easter Sepulchre
erected over the tomb. Anyone standing here
could also command the entrance of the chancel
from the nave and the south-east portion of the
churchyard.
The south aisle of the nave has been largely
rebuilt, but retains a piscina in the east end of its
south wall. At the foot of the east wall a course of
masonry of 3 in. projection runs southward from the
angle by the turret doorway for 6 ft. 3 in., and its
reason is not apparent, but it may show that the
floor level here was originally higher, and it is further
to be noted that this would go some way towards
accounting for the curious fact that the base of the
south nave respond is a foot higher than that of the
north.1 The east wall with its window and angle
buttresses are of the chancel date, agreeing exactly
in detail with the south windows of the chancel.
There is a little ancient glass, some of it of original
date, in this window. It is chiefly made up of frag-
ments collected from other places, but the two angels
in the tracery seem designed for their position.
Owing to the projection of the stair turret the
window is thrown considerably out of centre, and
the roof timbers barely clear its head. It is con-
ceivable that a gabled roof was contemplated in the
projected rebuilding, which came to a sudden stop at
this point. It naturally occurs to the mind that a
stoppage of work on a building of this date, circa
1350, may be a result of the Black Death of 1348-9,
which has left so many traces of its severity all over
the country. The south doorway and porch entrance,
mentioned above as partly rebuilt with the old
masonry, are alike in detail, of three orders with
wave moulding. Over the outer entrance is a modern
niche with a figure of St. Cuthbert.
In the north aisle nothing ancient remains but the
west wall and window of two lights with fourteenth-
century tracery and jambs and head with wave
moulding. A little old glass is set in the window,
a piece of vine-leaf border being of fourteenth-century
date. The west face of this wall shows a straight
joint, partly bonded across, on the line of the north
arcade wall, which tells of a stage in the building of
the nave when its west wall was built, but not that
of the aisle. In this case it seems doubtful, as the
masonry is so alike in both parts, whether the angle
is much earlier than the aisle wall and represents an
1 The position is a normal one for a 2 The inscription i
charnel, beneath the east end of the JOHN .
aisle, and the floor level might well be HENRY
raised on this account. CHURCH\
HALSALL
aisleless nave. The evidence at the corresponding
western angle is destroyed.
Externally the nave has little of interest to show ;
the main roof has a plain parapet, much patched at
various dates. On the north side is a tablet with
churchwardens' names of 1 700,* and another on the
south, with the date illegible, but of much the same
time.3 The modern aisle-windows are good of their
kind, square-headed, with tracery of fourteenth-
century style.
The west tower is 1 26 ft. high, of three stages
with a stone spire, which is modern, replacing an
old spire of somewhat different outline. The octa-
gonal parapet at its base is also modern, with the
four gargoyles representing the evangelistic symbols.
They replace four ancient gargoyles in the shape of
nondescript monsters, now to be seen set up among
the ruins of the fourteenth-century building north-
east of the church. The top of the parapet is 63 ft.
from the ground. The tower is of the first half of
the fifteenth century ; whether the church had a
tower before this time does not appear, but the
foundations of the west wall of the nave are said to
run across the tower arch, and there must have been
a western wall of some sort, temporary or otherwise,
before the building of the present tower, unless per-
haps an older tower was preserved at the rebuilding
of the nave. The design is that of the Aughton and
Ormskirk towers, with square base and octagonal
belfry and spire. In the belfry stage are four square-
headed two-light windows, with a quatrefoil in the
head ; the second stage contains the ringing floor,
and forms the transition from octagon to square. The
lowest stage has a two-light square-headed west
window and boldly projecting corner buttresses, with
raking gabled sets-off reminiscent of the chancel
buttresses. In the head of the northern of the two
western buttresses is a small roughly cut sinking
which may have held a small figure. The tower
stair is in the south-west angle, entered from within
through a low angle doorway with jambs having the
common fifteenth-century double ogee moulding ;
the stones of the jambs are marked with Roman
numerals for the guidance of the masons in placing
them. The tower arch of three orders is 26 ft.
4 in. high, with an engaged shaft on the inner order
and continuous mouldings on the two outer, the
detail being very good. Part of the walling above
it may be of the nave date, and consequently a
remnant of the former west wall.
The font has a circular basin panelled with quatre-
foils on a circular fluted stem, which is the only
ancient part, and appears to be of the early part of
the fourteenth century. In the churchyard are se-
veral mediaeval grave slabs, turned out of the church
during restoration ; it would be a very desirable
thing to bring them under cover, even if replacing in
the nave floor is impossible. The octagonal panelled
base of a churchyard cross is also to be seen, and the
churchyard wall is of some age, probably sixteenth
century, having a good deal of its old coping re-
maining. There is a picturesque sun-dial of 1725
with a baluster stem. Of wall paintings the church
:ads :— • The inscription is :—
, YATI KETH ROBERT
ARD • MAUDESLIY
1700. CHURCHWAR
til, Rector. DCNS 1 1 HI I HI
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
has no trace, except for a few remains of Elizabethan
black-letter texts ; and the piece of panelling with the
Ireland arms and date 1 627, at the east end of the south
aisle, is the only old woodwork in the church, except
part of the stalls and the chancel roof already described.
It remains to notice the gabled building running
north and south, built into the angle of the tower
and south aisle. It was built to contain a grammar
school founded by Edward Halsall in 1593, and was
originally of two stories, the main entrance being the
now blocked doorway in the east wall, above which
are the Halsall arms with ' E. H. 1593.' The west
doorway, which is cut through the tower buttress,
gave access to the stairs to the upper room, and the
marks of their fitting remain in the tower plinth.
Over this doorway are two panels, the upper having
the Halsall arms and ' E. H. 1593,' and the lower a
now illegible inscription, the words of which have
fortunately been preserved : —
ISTIUS EXSTRUCTAE CUM QUADAM DOTE PERENNI
EDWARDO HALSALLO LAUS TRIBUENDA SCHOLAE.
The windows, of which there are two on the west
and one on the south, are of two lights with arched
heads, churchwarden gothic of the poorest, inserted
THE OLD RECTORY, HALSALL (from a Drawing)
after the removal of the upper floor. A fireplace
remains at both levels, and in the east wall is a
modern doorway into the south aisle.
There are six bells, four recast in 1 786, one cast
in 1811, and another in 1887. The curfew bell is
rung in the winter months.1
The church plate consists of several plain and
massive pieces, all made in London, viz. : a chalice
and paten, 1609 ; chalice and paten, 1641 ; flagon
and paten, 1730 ; two small chalices, 1740.*
The register of baptisms begins in 1606, that of mar-
riages and burials in 1 609 ; but they are irregularly kept
until 1662. From this time they seem to be perfect.*
From the dedication of the church *
ADVQWSON it has been supposed that Halsall
was one of the resting-places of St.
Cuthbert's body during its seven years' wandering
whilst the Danes were ravaging Northumbria (875-
83). The words of Simeon of Durham are wide
enough to cover this : the bearers ' wandered over all
the districts of the Northumbrians, with never any
fixed resting-place ' ; but the places he names — the
mouth of the Derwent, Whitherne, and Craik (Creca)
— point to Cumberland and Galloway rather than to
Lancashire.5
The patronage, like the manor, was in dispute in
the early years of Edward I between Robert de
Vilers and Gilbert de Halsall,6 but the latter seems
to have vindicated his right, as his descendants con-
tinued to present down to the sale of the manor to
the Gerards, when the advowson passed with it. In
1719 and 1730 Peter Walter, a 'usurer' denounced
by Pope, presented ;' and about 1 800 the lord of the
manor sold the advowson to Jonathan Blundell,
of Liverpool, whose descendant, the late Colonel
H. Blundell-Hollinshead-Blundell, was patron.
The Taxatio of 1291 gives the value of Halsall
as £10." The Valor of Henry VIII places
it at £28 id/.9 The rectors have from time
to time had numerous disputes as to tithes and
other church property. Rector Henry de Lea
complained that in 1313 the lord of the manor
had seized his cart and horses owing to a dis-
puted right of digging turf.10 A later rector,
about 1520, leased the tithes of the township
of Halsall to his brother Thomas Halsall, the
lord of the manor, for 14 marks yearly. But
seven years later he had to complain that Thomas
would not pay the tithe-rent, and that he had
refused the rector's tenants the common of pas-
ture on Hall green, and common of turbary,
which had been customary.11
Bishop Gastrell in 1717 found the rectory worth
£300 per annum, Lady Mohun being patron. There
were two churchwardens, one chosen by the rector
and serving for Halsall township, the other by the
lord of the manor and serving for Downholland.1'
From this time onward the value of the rectory
increased rapidly." The gross value is now ovei
£2,100.
1 Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), xii, 224,
231. "Ibid. » Ibid. p. 230.
« In a charter dated 1191 Mabel
daughter of William Gernet granted an
acre of land in Maghull, to God and
was valued at 19 marks ; Halsall, 841. 5</.;
the moiety of Snape, 61. 5</. ; Down-
holland, 321.; Lydiate, <,os. id. ; Mag-
hull, 291. id.; and Melling, 501. id.
Inj. Nonarum (Rec. Com.), 40.
High Street (regia strata), as to which th<
dispute arose. In 1354 Richard de Hal
sail, rector, claimed common of turbar)
belonging to five messuages and five
oxgangs in Halsall, in right of th,
xxxix, fol. 1426.
* Sim. Dunelm. (Rolls Ser.), i, 61-9.
The later wandering (995) seems to have
come no nearer Halsall than Ripon ; ibid, i,
78. 79-
9 De Bane. R. 10, m. 55 ; n, m. 109.
^ Peter Walter, money scrivener and
clerk to the Middlesex justices, died in
1746, aged 83, leaving a fortune of
£00,000 to his grandson Peter Walter,
n M.P. for Shaftesbury ; Land. Mag.
1746, p. 50; Herald and Gen. viii, 1-4.
» Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), p. 249.
The ninth of the sheaves, &c., in 1341
The sum was made up of assized rents of
lands belonging to the church, 321. id.;
tithes, £21 IOJ. id.; oblations and
Easter roll, £5 61. id. The fee of James
Halsall, the rector's bailiff, was 66s. id.,
and synodals and procurations to the
archdeacon, 121.
10 De Bane. R. 211, m. 94. It is
noticeable that the rector asserted that
a quarter of the manor belonged to the
rectory, only three-quarters being held
by Robert de Halsall. The latter, how-
ever, claimed the whole, including the
portion of waste in Forth Green, near the
188
opposition of Otes de Halsall and Rober
de Meols ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 3,
'"Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Hen.
VIII, v, H. 8.
12 Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 172. It
was the custom to tithe the eleventh cocl*
of hay and hattock of corn.
13 Matthew Gregson, about a hundre
years later, stated that 'the late Recto
Moore never received for his tithes mor«
than £1,400 per annum,' though thf
rental of the parish was given as nearly
£25,000 ; Fragments, 215.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Gilbert de Halsall . .
The bishop (by lapse)
Sir Gilb. de Halsall .
Rt. de Halsall . . .
Henry Halsall . . .
Sir Henry Halsall .' '.
Thomas Norris .
Henry Halsall . . .
Anne Halsall, widow .
Lord Gerard of Brandor
E. ofMacclesfield . .
Peter Walter . . .
C. Mordaunt .
The following
Institution
c. 1190 . . .
c. 1253-66 . .
oc. 1292-6 . .
7 Nov. 1 307
is a list of the rectors : —
Name
Robert1
Gilbert'
William de Cowdray *
Henry de Lea *
24 Feb. 1336-7 .
9 April, 1365 .
12 Dec. 1395
15 May, 1413 .
oc. 1429 . . .
9 Feb. 1452-3 .
2 June, 1495
Richard de Halsall 5
Mr. Roger Milnegate 6
John Spencer alias Claviger .
Henry de Halsall '
Mr. William de Neuhagh "...
Mr. Gilbert Halsall, B.D.9 . . .
Edmund Farington 10
Hugh Halsall "
12 April, 1513 .
15 July, 1563 .
— 1571 . . .
2 June, 1594 .
8 Feb. 1633-4 •
e. 1645 . . .
— Dec. 1645. .
20 Feb. 1660-1 .
26 Aug. 1683
3 April, 1719 .
28 May, 1730 .
10 Feb. 1746. .
2 April, 1750 .
Richard Halsall "
Cuthbert Halsall "
George Hesketh."
Richard Halsall "
Peter Travers, B.D.16
Nathaniel Jackson
Thomas Johnson
Matthew Smallwood, B.D." . . .
Nathaniel Brownell, M.A.18 . . .
Albert le Blanc, D.D.19 ....
David Comarque, M.A
Edward Pilkington
John Stanley, D.D.*0
HALSALL
Cause of Vacancy
d. H. de Lea
d. G. Halsall
d. E. Farington
d. H. Halsall
d. R. Halsall
d. C. Halsall
d. P. Travers
d. M. Smallwood
d. N. Brownell
d. A. le Blanc
d. D. Comarque
d. E. Pilkington
1 A witness ; Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 143
(64) ; Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
572> 754- Also about 1230 'Robert
parson of Halsall, Roger his brother ' ;
Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxii, I 86.
9 Coekersand Chartul. ii, 602.
8 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 138 ; Assize
R. 408, m. 56</.
4 Lich. Epis. Reg. i, fol. 27 ; also fol. 28,
two years' leave of absence for study, Jan.
1307-8 ; fol. 103, Henry de Lea, rector
of Halsall, ordained subdeacon Dec.
1306 (?); fol. ro6, priest, Sept. 1308.
He was probably the Henry son of Henry
de Lea, clerk, who was concerned with
Down Litherland ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 27 ; for Henry de
Lea, rector of Halsall, was in 1 3 3 3 witness
to a Litherland charter ; Moore D. n. 7 1 7.
5 Lich. Reg. i, fol. 1 1 1 ; called ' son of
Thomas de Halsall.' He was ordained
subdeacon Sept. 1337, fol. 183. He was
still living in 1354; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 3, m. ij.
« Lich. Epis. Reg. iv. He was made
a notary by Innocent VI in 1353 ; Cal.
Pap. Letters, iii, 490.
^ Lich. Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 6oA ; he was
in minor orders and nineteen years of
age; vi, fol. 155^, ordained subdeacon
Sept. 1396. He became archdeacon of
Chester ; Ormerod, Ches. i, 114.
8 Lich. Reg.vii, fol. 103*. W. Neu-
hagh was also a prebendary of Lichfield ;
he probably died in 1426, when his pre-
bend became vacant ; Le Neve, Fasti. He
had been archdeacon of Chester since
1390, so that his appointment to Halsall
was in the nature of an exchange with
Henry Halsall.
9 Mentioned as rector in a plea of
11 Ibid, xii, fol. 158; ordained sub-
deacon in Sept. 1497, fol. 265 ; deacon
Dec. 1500, xiii-xiv, fol. 289. Hugh
Halsall was on institution obliged to take
oath that he would pay a yearly pension
of £20 for five years to James Strait-
barrel, chaplain, of Halsall, and £i 3 6s. id.
afterwards for life. There had been a
dispute as to the patronage, Straitbarrel
having been presented by Nicholas Gart-
side, patron for that turn ; Lich. Epis.
Reg. xii, fol. 158. In June, 1502, the arch-
deacon of Chester granted a dispensation
to Hugh Halsall to retain his benefice, in
spite of his having been instituted with-
out dispensation before he was of lawful
age (namely, in his nineteenth year), and
ordained priest also before the lawful age ;
xiii, fol. 249*.
"Ibid, xiii-xiv, fol. 58*. Richard
Halsall's will directs his body to be
buried in the parish church in the tomb
made in the wall on the north side ; £20
was to be distributed in alms on the day
of the funeral ; £98 31. \d. to his cousin
John Halsall, son of James Halsall of
Altcar, 'towards his exhibition at learning
where my executors shall appoint ' : a
brooch of gold with the picture of St. John
Baptist thereupon to his nephew Henry
Halsall ; to Sir John Prescott, his ' ser-
vant and curate,' a whole year's wages ;
with other bequests. Any residue of his
goods was to be given 'in such alms, deeds
executors might judge best. A codicil
orders £4 131. 4</. to be given for a
chalice for the use of Halsall church, 40..
and 201. towards the repairs of Melling
and Maghull chapels. The inventory
brick Charter, 165. In 1425 Gilbert de
Halsall, aged about twenty, obtained a
papal dispensation enabling him to hold
any benefice on attaining his twenty-
second year ; Cal. Papal Letters, vii, 390.
10 Lich. Epis. Reg. xi, fol. 3 A. He was
ordained subdeacon 24 Feb., fol. 5 ; deacon
in May, fol. 97 ; and priest in Sept. 1453,
of plate, among it being the ' best stand-
ing cup," called ' a neet,' garnished with
silver and gilt, and valued at £5 ; Piccope,
Wills (Chet. Soc. ),ii, 35-9.
18 Paid first-fruits 6 Nov. i 563. Norris
presented under the will of Sir Thomas
Halsall. Cuthbert was ordained acolyte
17 April, 1557 ; see Lanes, and Ches. Re-
cords (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii,
409 ; Ordin. Book (same soc.), 90. In
1572 Gilbert and Thomas Halsall, ad-
ministrators and natural brothers of Cuth-
bert Halsall, late rector, sued Robert
Amant of Downholland for /3O ; Pal.
of Lane. Plea R. 231, m. 12.
" Paid first-fruits 10 May, 1571.
15 Paid first-fruits 20 Nov. 1594.
16 Institution not recorded ; paid first-
fruits on date given. He was also rector
of Bury ; q.v.
W Institution Book; the Commonwealth
incumbent is ignored. For the institu-
tions and rectors see Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), xii, 241-52 ; Lanes, and Ches.
Antiq. Notes ; and Baines, Lanes, (ed.
Croston), v, 272-5.
Dr. Matthew Smallwood, of the
Cheshire family of that name, held Gaws-
and became prebendary of St. Paul's and'
dean of Lichfield. He is buried in the
latter cathedral. Foster, Atbenae Oxon. and
is Nathaniel Brownell was an Oxford
graduate ; he is buried in Halsall church.
He is described as ' an active and careful
man ; the restorer of both the church and
the school.' He was returned as ' con-
formable' in 1689; Kenyan MSS. He
had had a faculty for teaching boys in the
school in 1680, so that he was probably
curate for Dr. Smallwood. For further
particulars, will, &c., see Ches. Sheaf
(ser. 3), ii, 93, 9«, •«, ^° W. J.
Stavert, Study in Mediocrity.
I9 The next rectors appear to have
been of foreign birth. Albert le Blanc
was made S.T.P. at Camb. in 1728,
' comitiis regiis ' ; and David Comarque
was a graduate of the same university
(B.A. 1720, M.A. 1726), being of Corpus
Christ! College ; Graduati Cantabr. A
Renald Comarque was made M.D. at the
'comitia regia' in 1728.
*° Dr. John Stanley was brother of Sir
Edward Stanley, bart., who became
eleventh earl of Derby in 1736; he had
several benefices, and died as rector of
Winwick in 1781.
189
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Institution Name Patron Cause of Vacancy
8 Mar. 1757 . Henry Mordaunt, B.A.1 . . . . C. Mordaunt .... res. J. Stanley
20 Aug. 1778 . Glover Moore, B.A.8 Charles L. Mordaunt . . d. H. Mordaunt
20 June, 1809 . Thomas Blundell, M.A.3 .... T. Blundell d. G. Moore
2 6 Nov. 1 8 1 6 . Richard Loxham, M.A.4 .... Bridget and Alice Blundell d. T. Blundell
6 Sept. 1843 . Richard Leigh, M.A.5 R. B. B. H. Blundell . . d. R. Loxham
ii Aug. 1863 . Thomas Blundell Hollinshead Blun- H. B. H. Blundell
dell, M.A.6
1 8 Feb. 1906 . James Gerard Leigh, M.A.' .
Col. Blundell
res. R. Leigh
d. T. B. H. Blundell
Halsall has obviously been regarded as a ' family
living ' from early times, as witness the promotion of
mere boys to the rectory because they were relatives
of the patron.
Master Richard Halsall, a younger son of Sir Henry
Halsall, was rector for fifty years, from 1513 to 1563,
seeing all the changes of the Tudor period.8 In
I 541-2, besides the rector and the two chantry priests
there were attached to Halsall parish three clergy, two
paid by the rector, and perhaps serving the chapels of
Melling and Maghull, and one paid by James Halsall.9
In 1548 there was much the same staff, six names
being given, though ' mortuus ' is marked by the
bishop's registrar against one.10 In 1562 the rector
appeared at the visitation by proxy " — probably he
was too infirm to come. John Prescott the curate
came in person ; the third resident priest died about
the same time. In I 563 the new rector was absent at
Oxford ; Prescott was still curate, but was ill — subse-
quently ' defunctus ' was written against his name.
Two years later Master Cuthbert Halsall" appeared
by proxy, and the curate was too ill to come.13
It would thus appear that the pre-Reformation staff of
six — not a large one for the parish — had been reduced
to an absentee rector and a curate ' indisposed ' at the
visitation.14 George Hesketh,15 the next rector, was in
i 590 described as 'no preacher.' 16 The value of the
rectory was £200, but the parson, ' by corruption,'
had but £30 of it." His successor, Richard Halsall,
was in 1610 described as ' a preacher.'18
On the ejection of the Royalist Peter Travers or
Travis about 1645 Nathaniel Jackson was placed in
charge of Halsall. He soon relinquished it, and in
December, 1645, 'Thomas Johnson, late of Rochdale,
a godly and orthodox divine,' was required to officiate
there forthwith and preach diligently to the par-
ishioners ; paying to Dorothy Travers a tenth part of
the tithes for the maintenance of her and her children."
On 23 August, 1654,3 formal presentation to Halsall
was exhibited by Mary Deane, widow of Major-
General Richard Deane, the true patroness ; she
of course nominated Thomas Johnson.20 He, as also
William Aspinall of Maghull and John Mallinson of
Melling, joined in the ' Harmonous Consent ' of 1648.
1 Henry Mordaunt, son of Charles
Mordaunt of Westminster, no doubt the
patron, matriculated at Oxf. in 1750,
aged eighteen, being of Christ Church
(B.A. 1755). He was killed by falling
from his horse.
J Glover Moore was a local man, being
son of Nicholas Moore of Barton. He
matriculated at Oxf. (Brasenose Coll.) in
thing ; of denouncing those who had de-
' accursed,' and telling the people in his
sermons that the souls of their parents
were burning in hell or purgatory, and
many other 'seditious and erroneous
words ' ; of taking parts of the tithes
which the rector had leased, although as
curate he 'kept no household but lay at
book of churchings and burials had been
kept at Halsall for many years, one of the
entries going back to 1498, William
Houghton being curate at that time.
Ducky Pleadings, i, 177-9.
9 Clergy List, 1541-2 (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
and Ches.), 16.
10 Visit. Lists ; see Tram. Hat. Soc.
(New Ser.), xii, 244-6.
graduated in 1760. He is called M.A. on
his monument.
'Thomas Blundell, son of Jonathan
Blundell of Liverpool, was also of Brase-
nose Coll. ; M.A. 1783 ; Foster, Alumni.
4 Richard Loxham was a Camb. man
ale house by the meals' ; of using mena-
cing words to the parishioners, calling them
knaves and other 'ungodly names,' and
then going straightway into church and
and of being a great meddler in temporal
appear at the visitation of 1559, Gee,
Elizabethan Clergy.
" There was one of this name at Hart
Hall in and before 1568 ; Foster, Alumni.
" Visit. List ; see Trans. Hist. Soc.
ut sup. Nicholas Horscar, then curate,
been incumbent of St. John's Church,
Liverpool.
be, dealing in cattle and regulating the
disposal of the rector's tithe corn. The
Ordin. Book (Rec. Soc.), 82.
14 For the ornaments of the church in
Hill.
6 A younger son of the patron. He
was educated at Christ Church, Oxf.;
M.A. 1860. In 1884 he was made
See Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 198-200.
The curate brought countercharges
against the squire. Thomas Halsall
15 A George Hesketh was ordained
priest by Bishop Scott in March, 1558;
Ordin. Book (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
101. He may have been the 'parson of
dean of Ormskirk and proctor in Convo-
cation ; also honorary chaplain to Queen
Victoria 1892. He died i Nov. 1905.
7 Previously rector of Walton ; q.v.
« He was educated at Oxf. ; M.A.
1520; B.Can. Law, 1532; Foster, Alumni
Oxon.
His university course will account for
church, and threatened to draw Kirkby
away from the altar should he attempt to
do so. He once made one of his servants
lie in wait to kill the curate, and again
sent seventeen of them to the house of
William Prescot, where he was at table,
with orders to drive him out of the house
or else kill him ; they actually drove him
been 'reconciled [to Rome] since the
statute of 23 [Eliz.] ' ; Gibson, LyJiate
Hall, 260, from S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxv.
" Lydiatc Hall, 149.
" Ibid ; Ch. Goods, 1552, p. 108.
18 Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS Com.), 1 3.
In 1609 the staff consisted of rector,
curate, and curate of Melling. This rector
conduct of his curate Thomas K-irkby was
the subject of an appeal to the chancellor
of the duchy by Thomas Halsall, lord of
the manor, on behalf of himself and the
return. In the middle of the following
night some of the same men came to the
house of Gilbert Kirkby (the curate's
father) in Aughton, opened the window of
said to be sixty-nine years of age. Hif
inventory is at Chester.
" Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 12, 14, 55. Thomas John-
states, was a very large one, worth £100
a year or thereupon ; and Thomas Kirkby
was accused of visiting the sick and per-
suading them to make their wills, telling
them they were bound to leave him some-
'a coal of fire' kindled a 'burden' of
but being fortunately awake he escaped ;
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings (n. d.), xxi, K5-
From another plea it appears that a
190
1652, it being alleged that he had joined
the earl of Derby for a week ; Col. Com.
for Comp. iv, 2955.
» Ibid, ii, 49. Peter Travers probably
died at this time.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The Commonwealth surveyors of 1650 approved
him as ' an able minister.' ' Thomas Johnson stayed
at Halsall until his death at the end of 1660.*
The later rectors do not call for any special
comment.
Mention of a minor church officer, Robert Breckale,
the holy-water clerk, occurs in 1442.*
There were two chantries. The first was founded
by Sir Henry Halsall, for a priest to celebrate for the
souls of himself and his ancestors ; a yearly obit to be
made by the chantry priest, and a taper of two pounds'
weight to be kept before the Trinity. This was at
the altar of Our Lady, and Thomas Norris was cele-
brating there at the time of the confiscation. There
was no plate, and the rental amounted to ^4 4/. 5</.4
A second chantry was founded about 1520 by the
same Sir Henry Halsall in conjunction with Henry
Molyneux, priest,5 for a commemoration of their souls.
This was at the altar of St. Nicholas, and in 1547
HALSALL
amounted to no more than 64.1. ^d? The chantry
priest was aged fifty-six in 1 548 ; the full stipend was
paid to him as a pension in 1553. He died in 1561
or 1562, and was buried at Halsall.'
A free grammar school was established here in 1 593
by Edward Halsall, life tenant of the family estates.
Apart from schools8 and the
CHARITIES benefaction of John Goore to
Lydiate, the income of this amount-
ing now to £l 36 a year,9 the charities of Halsall are
inconsiderable,10 and are restricted to separate town-
ships."
HALSALL
Heleshala, Herleshala, Dom. Bk. ; Haleshal, 1224;
Haleshale, 1275 ; Halsale, 1278 and usual; Halshale,
1292 ; Halleshale, 1332 ; Halsall, xv century.
This township had formerly a great moss on the
foundation. There was no plate,
1 Commonwealth Ch. Survey (Rec. Soc.
according to his west, covering about half the surface, and constituting
and the rental an effectual boundary. Down to recent times there
1 Raines, Lana. Chantries (Chet. Soc.), five cottages were held for this trust, the
he had a parsonage house and glebe lands
worth £8 a year ; the tithes of the town-
ship were £60 a year ; those of Snape,
paid in alternate years, were worth £25
1549, granted to Thomas Ruthall for
the cottages were destroyed about 1840 by
served ; this lease was sold to Richard
compensation, on the expiry of the leases,
and Lydiate he received /ioo, and there
were some other rents. He paid £20
a year to Mrs. Travers.
" In his will, dated 14 March, 1659-60
and proved 27 April, 1661, he describes
certain persons had assembled in Aughton
and forcibly taken possession of part of his
property. Duchy of Lane. Pleadings (Phil,
and Mary), xxxiv, Hi 9.
8 At Halsall, Maghull, and Melling.
which, amounting to £14 10,., are dis-
tributed in annual gifts of blankets and
sheets and monthly doles of bread. Rob-
ert Watkinson in 1816 left £200, the in-
terest of half this sum to be distributed in
tion of property acquired in Brockhalland
the End. Char. Rep. for Halsall, issued
Day,at the discretion of the churchwardens.
In 1828 bread and linsey were distributed.
The bread is still distributed in monthly
doles, and the other half of the income is
17 Dec., 1660; it is of interest as
John Goore, by his will dated i669,be-
parlour, little closet in the entry, women's
parlour, fellowes chamber, stone chamber,
buttery chamber, buttery, larder, brew-
house, deyhouse, wet larder, kitchen, and
study. The value placed upon the goods
was £60 ; Will at Chest.
8 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 4, m. lot.
« In 1534 the income was £4 6j. %d.,
of which 6s. %d. was distributed in alms
on the founder's obit day ; Valor Eccl.
(Rec. Com.), v, 224. Charles Scarisbrick
in 1858 was paying to the crown a quit
rent of £z 41. t,d. for this chantry ; Duchy
of Lane. Returns (Blue Book), p. 7. The
lands were in Melling, Downholland
(Calders meadow, Myrscolawe, &c.),
Aughton, Formby, Aintree, and Maghull.
' This Henry Molyneux, priest, is men-
tioned as his brother by Hugh Molyneux
of Cranborne in Dorset, who in his will
(1508) left him an annuity in order to
help him to continue at Oxford. The will
also mentions Hugh's father, Richard
poor of Lydiate. He had a house and land
in Aughton, and land called Houghton's
Ground at Birscar in Scarisbrick ; and the
personal estate amounted to £340, which
was invested in land in Lydiate. In 1828
the income amounted to £97 41. a year,
For Downholland donations to the
amount of £175 were given between 1599
and 1726, the earliest being a gift of £10
by Henry Simpkin, and the latest £ ioo
by James Watkinson. The money was
used in the purchase of cottages, and in
51. to 201. at the half-yearly meetings of
the trustees. In 1 86 1 a new scheme was
approved by the Charity Commissioners.
The net income, about £120, is distribu-
ted partly in money and partly in clothing.
from 1677 exists among the books of
the charity.'
Anne Huyton of Lydiate, widow, by her
will of 1890, left £100 for clothing 'the
deserving poor of the Protestant faith' ;
the income (£3 171. 6d.) is distributed at
Christmas to poor members of the Church
of England belonging to Lydiate, mostly
widows.
"> The Hon. and Rev. John Stanley,
five were occupied rent-free by paupers,
and the rent of the others, £22 101., was
carried to the account of the poor rate.
The commissioners disapproved of this
application, but shortly afterwards the
leases expired, and the property reverted to
the lord of the manor, the fund thus being
lost. In 1730 John Plumb gave his inter-
est in a house in Church Street, Ormskirk,
for the use of the poor of Downholland.
In 1828 his interest was stated to be a
moiety of the public house known as the
' Eagle and Child ' : and half the rent (£ 1 9)
was then paid to the overseer, and distri-
buted in money doles. In 1902 it was
found that the licence of the house having
mot, his wife, Agnes, and his chil-
dren. To Halsall church, where Hugh
was baptized, was left 101., and to the
wardens for keeping the light burning
before the image of Our Lady, 61. %d. ;
Gisborne Molineux, Mem. of Molmeux
Family, 139. Henry Molyneux himself
Bibles and Prayer Books for poor families in
Halsall parish. The stock is intact, and
every few years the accumulations of in-
terest are applied according to the bene-
factor's wish, the recipients being in prac-
tice chosen from the township of Halsall.
« For Halsall and Downholland the
had been sold for £426, and half the pro-
ceeds invested for Plumb's charity ; the
income, £5 in. 4</, is still distributed in
money doles at Christmas.
The Lydiate charities— Goore and Huy-
ton— have been described.
At Maghull there was an ancient poor's
stock of £120, the interest of which used
to be distributed on Good Friday. In 1 8 1 5
this was expended on a wharf on the Liver-
pool and Leeds Canal, let at £4 a year.
The Charity Commissioners disapproving,
the wharf was sold in 1828 for £120,
which is now invested in consols, and the
income (£3 izs. SJ.) is distributed every
Good Friday in doles of 31. Benjamin
country ' before his death ; Duchy of
Lane. Pleadings, Hen. VIII, iii, H$.
6 The gross rental in 1534 was found
to be 671. io</., but i8</. and 21. were fixed
rents due to the earl of Derby and the
abbot of Cockersand : Valor Eccl. (Rec.
Com.), v, 224. The lands were in Lydiate,
Westhead, and Aughton.
ward Halsall in 1593 is still paid by the
owner of the Sherdley Hall estate in Sutton
and Ditton, and is distributed to the poor
of the townships, Halsall receiving £it
and Downholland the rest.
For Halsall itself there was a poor's stock
of /74 contributed by Gabriel Haskayne
in 1 66 1 and later benefactors. In 1828
191
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
were also three large meres — Black Otter, White Otter,
and Gettern. The fenland has now been reclaimed
and converted into fertile fields under a mixed culti-
vation— corn, root crops, fodder, and hay. There is
some pasture land, and occasional osier beds fill up odd
corners. The soil is loamy, with clay beneath. The
low-lying ground is apt to become flooded after wet
weather or in winter-time, and deep ditches are
necessary to carry away superfluous water. In summer
these ditches are filled with a luxuriant fenland flora,
which thus finds shelter in an exposed country. The
scanty trees show by their inclination the prevalence
of winds from the west laden with salt. The ground
rises gently to the east; until on the boundary 95 ft.
is reached. The total area of the township is 6,995
acres.1 The population in 1901 was 1,236.
The principal road is that from Downholland to
Scarisbrick and Southport ; there are also cross-roads
from Ormskirk to Birkdale. The Liverpool, South-
port, and Preston Junction Railway, now taken over
by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Company, formed a
branch through the township with a station called
Halsall, half a mile west of the church, and another at
Shirdley Hill.
The scattered houses of the village stand on the
higher ground near the church. To the south-east is
the hamlet of Bangors Green ; Four Lane Ends is to
the north-east. From near the church an extensive
and comprehensive view of the surrounding county is
obtained. The northern arm of the Downholland
Brook rises in and drains part of the district, running
eventually into the River Alt, which is the natural
receptacle for all the streams and ditches hereabouts.
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal crosses the south-
eastern portion of the township, with the usual
accompaniment of sett-laid roads and untidy wharfs.
Renacres Hall and La Mancha are on the north.
The township is governed by a parish council.
The wakes are held the first Sunday in July.
The hall is to the south-west of the church ; be-
tween them was a water-mill, taken down about 1 880.
North-east of the church are portions of the old rectory
house, consisting of a wall 5 5 ft. long, with three
doorways and three two-light windows, several traces
of cross walls, and a turret at the north-west. Part is
of fourteenth-century date.'
The roads having been diverted, the village green
is now within the rectory park. A cross stood there.1
The base of the churchyard cross 4 still remains. Two
other crosses — North Moor and Morris Lane — are
marked on the 1848 Ordnance map, but have dis-
appeared.5
The turf is left uncut, in order to diminish the
danger of floods.
A natural curiosity of the district is the bituminous
turf, formerly used for lighting instead of candles.6
HALSALLvw held by Chetel in 1066;
MANORS its assessment was two plough-lands, and
the value 8/. It was in the privileged
three hides, and from the manner in which it is
named was evidently one of the principal manors of
the district.7
It was granted to the lord of Warrington for the
service of a pound of cummin, and the various in-
quisitions and surveys recognize its dependence on
Warrington.8
Pain de Vilers gave Halsall to Vivian Gernet in
marriage with his daughter Emma ; it was to be held
by the service of one-tenth of a knight's fee. In 1212
Robert de Vilers was the lord of Halsall, and Alan
son of Simon held of him.9 Alan de Halsall, other-
wise called 'de Lydiate,' 10 was probably the husband
of the heiress of Vivian Gernet, for his wife Alice is
joined with him in Halsall charters."
To Alan his son Simon " succeeded. A charter by
Robert de Vilers, his immediate lord, quitclaimed the
rent of 1 3/. of silver which Robert and his predecessors
had annually received from Simon son of Alan and
his predecessors in respect of the vill of Halsall, com-
muting the service into a pound of pepper.1*
Pimbley in 1881 bequeathed £200 for coal
and clothing for the poor resident in Mag-
hull, to be distributed at Christmas time.
The old poor's stock at Milling amounted
to £35, whicu about 1780 was carried to
the poor-rate account, 35*. a year being
paid by the township as interest, and in
1828 was distributed on Good Friday
among the applicants. It has since been
lost entirely. Richard Tatlock left £20,
and his son John £10, for the poor; two-
thirds of the interest was in 1828 paid to
the schoolmaster, and the rest added to
the poor's stock money. The 305. is still
paid by Captain Hughes of Sherdley Hall,
and is distributed about Easter in sums
varying from u. to 51. Caroline Formby
6 At the beginning of last century 'a
species of inflammable wood, called "fir-
wood," was dug out of the mosses. . . .
The "stock-head," being considered the
best, was split into laths, which were used
in lieu of candles . . . principally in
public-houses. ... A bunch of laths
used to be sold at Ormskirk by the old
bunch measuring 1 8 in. by 12' ; Whittle,
Marina, 123.
^ V.C.H. Lanes, vol. i, p. 285,1. The
two plough-lands probably included several
outlying berewicks, as Eggergarth (2 ox-
gangs) and Snape, its assessment in after-
times being given as one plough-land only.
The church lands were in the fourteenth
the dimensions are thus given : 15 perches
in length from Sandiford to the cross in
the western part, from this cross 66 perches
in breadth to the cross at the head of
Bechak, from this cross in length 26
perches to the brook, and thence up the
brook to Sandiford, the mill site being
excepted ; Cockersand Cbartul. (Chet Soc.),
ii, 637. This was held by Sir Henry
Halsall in 1501 for a quitrent of 2s.;
Rentals de Cockersand (Chet. Soc.), 7.
'With the counsel and consent' of
his wife he granted to God and St. John
and the blessed poor men of the Hospital
of Jerusalem all the arable lands in
Renacres and Wulfou (Wolfhow) from
Turnurs creek to the syke flowing into
£00 for coal for the poor at Christmas ;
present income is £2 165. 8</. William
manor, or 5 oxgangs.
8 Thus in the sheriff's compotus of
ture, in pure alms, desiring prayers only
in return ; but Alfred de Ince was to hold
for bread for the poor attending Melling
chapel ; the income is 51. 6J., which is left
for i \J. of the rent of William le Boteler
for the manor of Halsall . . . viz. for
right, paying i2d. a year; Trans. Hist.
S0,.xxxii,,83.
1 Including 1 6 acres of inland water ;
census of 1901.
' Trans. Hi,,. Soc. (New Ser.), xii, 195.
» Ibid.
4 Henry Torbock of Halsall by his will
(1595) desired to be buried 'in the parish
churchyard of Halsall near unto the cross.'
From the will at Chest.
» Tram. Lane,, and Cba. Antij. Soc.
,ix, ,58.
was still paid in 1548; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 142.
9 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 8.
10 Alan had lands also in Lydiate and
Maghull.
11 Alan de Lydiate, ' by the assent and
consent of Alice his wife,' granted to
Cockersand Abbey in pure alms certain
land in Halsall, with the usual easements ;
I92
to agree in 1224-5 i Pipe R- 9 Hen. Ill,
n. 69, m. 6d.
18 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 139*.
As Simon ' de Halsall ' he granted to
the prior and canons of Burscough land
in Halsall, the bounds beginning at the
foss which falls into the channel above
the ford of Aughton, following the ton
as far as the moor, thence by another foss
to the boundary of Scultecroft, along this
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Simon, still living in 1242-3,' was a little later
succeeded by his son Gilbert, who in 1256 acknow-
ledged the suit he owed to William le Boteler's court
of Warrington, promising that he would do suit there
from three weeks to three
weeks. William, on the other
hand, remitted all right to
claim from Gilbert or his heirs
'bode' or 'witness' or puture
for any of his Serjeants.* Gil-
bert's name occurs as a witness
and otherwise," but he seems
to have been very soon suc-
ceeded by his son Richard de
Halsall, who is frequently men-
tioned about the end of the
reign of Henry III.4
Richard died about 1275,
in which year his son Gilbert
had to answer Robert de Vilers respecting his tenure
of a messuage and plough-land in Halsall ; the ser-
vices due from Gilbert were alleged to be homage,
doing suit for Robert at the Warrington court, and
paying I mark a year, and they had been rendered in
the late king's reign by Gilbert's father Richard to
Robert's father Robert.5 Gilbert denied that he held
land of Robert; and in reply to a later suit (1278)
he showed that there was an error in the writ ;
for he had only two-thirds of the tenement, Denise,
widow of Richard, having the other third in dower.6
She afterwards married Hugh de Worthington, and in
1280 the suit by Robert de Vilers was continued,
Gilbert de Halsall warranting the third part to her
HALSALL
and her husband. The dispute ended by Robert's
acknowledging the manor to be Gilbert's right and
quitclaiming to him and his heirs in perpetuity ; for
which release Gilbert gave him 10 marks of silver/
From this time no more is heard of the mesne lordship
of Vilers.8
Gilbert's wife was another Denise ; by her he
had a son Gilbert, who succeeded to Halsall some
time before 1 296, in which year, as Gilbert son of
Gilbert de Halsall he received from William de
Cowdray, rector, all the meadow by the mill which
had been in the possession of Robert de Halsall.9
Two years later he came to an agreement with
Sir William le Boteler of Warrington and others as
to a diversion of the watercourse in Lydiate near
Eggergarth mill.10 The succession had been rapid,
and Gilbert was no doubt very young at this time ;
he was still in possession in I 346." He secured the
land called the Edge in Halsall from its owners,
Robert and his son Richard, in 131 7," and acquired
Ainsdale from Nicholas Blundell of Crosby." As
early as 1325 he made an agreement with Henry de
Atherton as to the marriage of his son Otes '* with
Henry's sister Margaret, and settled upon this son and
his wife lands in Halsall and Barton ; and Robert de
Parr granted them an annual rent of 4O/.15
Otes succeeded his father about I346.16 The
marriage arranged for him in infancy did not prove
altogether satisfactory ; and his wife Margaret after-
wards sought maintenance before the bishop of Lich-
field, her husband having unlawfully allied himself
with Katherine de Cowdray. Katherine was the name
of his wife in 1354."
to Alreneshaw syke, and down the syke
as far as the first-named channel ; Dep.
Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 198.
To Richard de Scarisbrick Simon con-
firmed a grant previously made by Henry
de Halsall, viz. Trulbury, Thornyhead,
and Shurlacres (Schirewalacres), the
bounds being thus given : Going up from
Senecarr as far as Gorsuch, thence to
Rodelache between Wolfhow and Shurl-
acres, returning as far as Snape Head to
The descent— Simon, s. Gilbert, s.
Richard, s. Gilbert— is from Assize R.
1294, m. 10. The first Gilbert (son of
Simon) is omitted in the pedigree in a
later suit ; Assize R. 426, m. 3.
7 Final Cone., 157. Gilbert granted
to Richard son of German a portion of
his land in Halsall ; Dods. MSS. xxxix,
fol. 141, n. 30 and 27.
* It would appear that it had been for-
feited before 1242, at which time the
to be Robert's right, and the latter
granted them to him for life ; and
granted further that the third part of the
above tenement, held by Denise as dower
'of the inheritance of the said Robert,"
should also go to Gilbert, and after his
decease to his son Otes or heirs ; Final
Cone, ii, 71.
In 1378-9 Alan de Bradley, son and
heir of Robert de Parr, quitclaimed to
Gilbert son of Otes de Halsall all right
annual rent was to be zj. in silver ; Tram.
Hist. Soc. xxxii, 188.
agreement made about 1220 between
Siward son of Matthew de Halsall and
—viz. Hoole, Windle, and Halsall— were
in the hands of the earl of Derby, as lord
of the land between Ribble and Mersey ;
Inq. and Extents, 147. Windle and
Halsall were restored to the lord of
Robert my father had of the gift of Gil-
bert father of Otes' ; Dods. MSS. xxxix,
fol. 142* (52). A family of Parr of
Halsall appears in 13^5 ; Duchy ofLanc.
Assize R. 4, m. 7.
the expedition (tramfretatio) of Richard
earl of Cornwall; Dods. MSS. xxxix,
fol. 139, n. 15.
1 Lanes. Inq. and Extent! (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 149.
* Final Cane. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 129.
8 Tram. Hist. Soc. xxxii, 187.
4 As 'lord of Halsall' Richard confirmed
to the Burscough canons all the land he
.held of them hereditarily— namely, that
which Simon de Halsall had formerly
given, and which, after being held for a
time by Adam de Walshcroft, seems to
have been granted back to the Halsall
family ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App.
198. His widow Denise and his son
Gilbert afterwards confirmed this ; ibid.
Among Richard's other grants are one
to Richard son of Alan de Maghull, of
land in Halsall for his homage and
about 1260, so that from this time the
Halsalls held directly of the Botelers ;
Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 219*, n. 178.
9 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 138, n. i.
"Gibson, Lydiatt Hall, 13; his seal
has the motto ' Crcdc michi.'
"His lands were over £15 annual
value in 1324; and about that time he
held public offices ; Purl. Writs, ii, 968.
M Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 141, n. 31.
13 See the account of Ainsdale.
" Auti, Outhi, or Otho.
16 Dods. loc. cit. fol. 140*, n. 24 ; 141,
n. 27 ; 142*, n. 53. It should be noted
that Otes asserted that he was under age
in Dec. 1346 ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 3,
m. viij.
It is not clear how Robert de Parr was
connected with the manor, but in Oct.
1325, he was deforciant and Gilbert
claimant of the manor of Halsall, a four-
tiff about 1350, but maybe Otes's bro-
ther ; Assize R. 1444, m. 7. There may
have been a division of the Halsall estates;
between Otes and Gilbert his brother -Y
see the account of Maghull.
Otes was the tenant doing suit of
county and wapentake for William le
Boteler, in the Survey of 1346 (Chet.
Soc.), 38. His seal shows two bars,
within a bordure engrailed.
!7 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 142, n. 50, 4?.
He seems to have been violent and law-
less in other respects also. His brother
Gilbert, who agreed with him as to land
in Halsall in 1346 (ibid. fol. 142, n. 49),
had previously (in 1343) accused him of
taking his goods, and though Otes wa«.
acquitted of this charge, he was convicted
of assault and sent to gaol; Assize R.
430, m. 3, 4, 4 d. 7 d. 8. He was charged:
with other offences, including that ot
Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 141 b, n. 36, and
143, n. 66.
'DeBanc. R. I4,m.45</.
•De Bane. R. 27, m. 16; 30, m. 6
3
a moiety of the thirteenth part of the
same, and the advowson of Halsall
church, except 8 messuages, &c. After-
wards (1328) Gilbert acknowledged them
'93
the stocks at Ormskirk ; Assize R. 43 2_
m. I </. ; Exch. Misc. xc, 1 3. Afterwards,,
however, he appears to have reformed.
He might have pleaded that his neigh-
25
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
His son and heir was Gilbert, made a knight in
1388. In 1367 Otes de Halsall gave land in Barton
to Gilbert his son and Elizabeth his wife, probably
on the occasion of their marriage.1 Some dispute
occurred about 1379 as to the title of David Hulme
of Maghull in the manor of Halsall, and this was
settled by Gilbert.8 He was escheator for the county
in 22 Richard II. After his death two inquisitions
were made (1404), one of which states that 'on the
day of his forfeiture ' he had no estates save those
found and appraised in an inquisition taken in
August, 1403.* The other recites the gifts of
Robert de Parr of the manors of Halsall and Down-
holland and lands there ; also Argar Meols and Birk-
dale, with remainder to Otes son of Gilbert ; these
had descended to Henry de Halsall, clerk, as son and
heir of Sir Gilbert, son of Otes ; the grant by the
last-named to his son and his wife is also recorded,
with the statement that Gilbert died seised thereof,
and Elizabeth his wife was still living.4
Henry de Halsall, the heir, had embraced an
ecclesiastical career, and was in 1395 presented by
his father to the rectory of Halsall, which in 1413
he exchanged for the archdeaconry of Chester. He
retained his various preferments till his death on
7 March, 1 42 2-3. 5 He wished to interfere as
little as possible with secular business, for one of his
earliest acts was to make a settlement on the marriage
of his brother Robert with Ellen daughter of Henry
de Scarisbrick ; and then to arrange the dower of his
mother.6
His brother and successor Robert does not seem
to have survived him long, for from 1429 the name
of his son Henry frequently occurs.7 The inquisi-
tions taken after the death of Henry Halsall in July,
1 47 1, give many details of the family history and pro-
perty. Otes, his great-grandfather, had acquired a
messuage and 24 acres from Emma wife of Thomas
the clerk of Edge, and some similar properties. His
father Robert appears to have acquired other lands
in Halsall and the neighbouring villages — including
Thornfield Clerk, Blakehey, Dudleyhey and Brand-
erth in Halsall ; and these he had given to Henry
in 1426-7 on his marriage with Katherine, daughter
of Sir James Harrington, and they had descended to
his daughters and heirs, Margaret and Elizabeth (wife
of Lambert Stodagh), whose ages were forty and
thirty-eight years respectively. Most (or all) of the
lands, however, went to the heir male, his brother
Richard's son Hugh, who was of full age in 1472.*
Hugh's father Richard had been married at the
end of 1448 to Grace daughter of Sir John Tempest.'
Of Hugh himself nothing seems known ; he was still
lord of Halsall in 1483.'° His son " Henry, who was
made a knight by Lord Strange in Scotland in the
autumn of 1 49 J," married Margaret Stanley, daughter
of James Stanley, clerk.13 Sir Henry died in June,
1522. At the inquisition taken after his death it was
found he had held the manors of Halsall, Renacres,
Lydiate, and Barton, and lands in Scarisbrick and
elsewhere ; also the manors of Downholland and
Westleigh.14 These had been assigned to trustees to
perform his will, made in I5i8.15 The manor of
Halsall was held of Thomas Butler by the twentieth
part of a knight's fee ; the manor of Renacres of the
prior of St. John by the free rent of i id. yearly,
being worth 40^. clear ; the manor of Barton of the
heirs of Peter Holland by the service of 6d. yearly, its
clear value being 40^.; the premises of Downholland
were held of the same.16
de Cunscough and Adam his son with
having set tire to his houses in Halsall ;
De Bane. R. 349, m. 118.
In 1359 he received from Henry duke
1420 to 1452, may have been anotner.
Gilbert and Richard, sons of Robert, were
in 1429 executors of their uncle Henry,
late archdeacon of Chester ; Pal. of Lane.
Plea R. 2, m. 8.
identified with James Stanley, afterwards
bishop of Ely ; Margaret's son was born
about 1498, so that her birth may be
placed about 1480, and her father's about
his demesne lands of Halsall and Ren-
Sir Gilbert Halsall, who fought in the
" These Sir Henry had recently pur-
acres, unless they were within the metes
French wars and was bailiff of Evreux,
chased from Edmund Holland.
of the duke's forest ; Dep. Keeper's
afterwards marrying a Cheshire heiress ;
14 By this will he provided for his
Rep. xxxii, App. 338. In 1361 he had
Dep. Keeper's Rep. xli (Norman R.).
younger sons and the marriage portions of
from the bishop licence for two years
App. 758; Rep. xlii, App. 320, &c. ;
his daughters. Should the rectory fall
for an oratory; Lichfield Epis. Reg. v,
also Rep. xxxvii (Welsh Records), App.
vacant while his heir was under age the
fol. 7. He was a knight of the shire in
342. A grant of land in Lydiate was
feoffees must present ' one of the next of
1351 (Pink and Beavan, 30), and was
made to Sir Gilbert Halsall in 1423 ;
his blood ' to it, or (in default) some other
still living in 1377; Dods. MSS. cxlii,
Croxteth D.
person of good conversation whom they
fol. 233.
8 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 84-
might judge would be 'loving and kind'
1 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 143, n. 63.
91, 109. The estate included the manors
to his heirs. They were also to set apart
a Ibid. fol. 142, n. 51. The Hulme
of Halsall (held under Warrington), Ren-
land of the yearly value of £4 6s. SJ. to
claim may have been based upon the
acres (under the Hospitallers), Lydiate (a
find 'an honest and well-disposed priest'
doubtful legitimacy of Gilbert. A com-
moiety), and Barton, and 50 messuages,
to pray and do divine service in Halsall
promise seems to have been made ; see
300 acres of land, 40 acres of wood, 100
church for ever for his soul and that of
the account of Ainsdale.
acres of meadow in Birkdale, Argar Meols,
his deceased wife Margaret. His heir was
8 He was witness to a charter dated at
Melling, Liverpool, and Aughton.
to be found at school and to be kept 'like
Ormskirk, 19 June, 1402.
Henry de Halsall was escheator in
a gentleman ' till the age of 20. As the
4 Towneley MSS. DD., n. 1464, 1456.
1430; and a knight of the shire several
son and heir was over 28 in 1522, it
An annuity of £20 was granted to Sir
times between 1435 and 1460; Pink and
would appear that the date of the will is
Gilbert de Halsall in 1397, the king
Beavan, Parly. Rep. of Lanes. 55-57.
much earlier than 1518. In 1520 he
having retained him in his service for
An annuity of ^10 granted to him was
gave lands in Scarisbrick, Harleton, Hal-
life ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 214.
reserved in the Act of Resumption in 1464;
sall, and Snape to other feoffees for the
He served in Ireland ; Cal. of Pat. Ric. II
R. ofParl. v, 547. The bishop of Lich-
benefit of his younger (natural) sons
and Hen. IV.
neld on 27 Sept. 1453, granted to him
Edward and George for their lives.
* Lich. Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 60 d. ; vii,
and Katherine his wife licence for an
18 The other properties were held in
fol. 103^.; ix, fol. nzd. The writ of
oratory where mass and other divine
socage (except where stated otherwise)
Diem cl. extr. was issued on 12 March,
offices might be celebrated; Lichneld
by small annual rents as follows : Birk-
,422-3 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App.
24.
Epis. Reg. xi, 46.
• Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 1434, n. 73.
dale, abbot of Cockersand, ios.; Aspemoll
in Scarisbrick, James Scarisbrick, 6</.;
6 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 139*, n. 20
10 Ibid. n. 56. So also in the Duchy
Melling, prior of St. John, 6d. ; half-
(June, 1405), and n. 19, and fol. 141,
Feodary of 1483.
burgage in Liverpool, the king (as duke)
„. 29 (Feb. .406).
" Edward Halsall, clerk, was another
in free burgage, by 6d.; Ormskirk, prior of
1 Robert had other sons, Richard and
son ; ibid. n. 48.
Burscough, 6d. ; Aughton, James Brad-
William ; and Gilbert, rector from about
1* Metcalfe, Bk. of Knights, 31.
.haw, 2s. ; manor of Downholland, the
I94
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Of his sons, Thomas the eldest succeeded him ; he
was knighted in 1533 at the coronation of Anne
Boleyn.1 His wife was Jane Stanley, daughter and
coheir of John Stanley, son and heir of John Stanley
of Weaver.2 She brought him the manor of Mailing
and other lands. Sir Thomas died in 1539, and in
the subsequent inquisition are recited the dispositions
he made of the estates.3 The manors and services
correspond generally with those recorded in the
previous inquisition. Henry his son and heir was
eighteen years of age.'
Henry Halsall lived till I 574..' He married Anne,
daughter of Sir William Molyneux of Sefton by his
second wife Elizabeth, the heiress of Clifton, and this
daughter herself, by the death of her brothers without
issue, became heiress of the same. There was only
one son, Richard Halsall, who died before his father,
leaving an illegitimate son Cuthbert.
The inquisition after Henry's death,6 which
happened on 2 1 December, I 5 74, states that he held
the manor of Melling in right of his mother ; the
paternal manors of Halsall, Downholland, and Formby,
and various lands ; also the advowson of the church of
Halsall ; in addition, there was his wife's manor of
Clifton, with various lands and rights north of the
Ribble. A settlement was made of this great estate
in the spring of 1572, securing the wife's dower;7
the residue going to the following, in successive
remainders : To Edward Halsall, bastard son of Sir
Henry Halsall, for life ; to Cuthbert Halsall, bastard
son of Richard, and his lawful male issue ; to Thomas
Halsall of Melling and heirs male ; to James Halsall
of Altcar and heirs male ; to Thomas Halsall, brother
of James, and to his first, second, and third sons and
their heirs male ; to Gilbert Halsall, bastard son of
HALSALL
Sir Thomas, and lawful heirs male ; to Thomas Halsall,
of Barton, bastard son of Sir Thomas Halsall and law-
ful heirs male ; to Silvester Halsall, bastard son of
Henry Halsall of Prescot, and heirs male.8 His
lawful heirs were his nephew Bartholomew Hesketh
(son of his sister Jane), aged twenty-eight, and his
sister Maud Osbaldestone, aged forty.9 Anne Halsall,
the widow of Henry, died in June or July, 1589.'°
Edward Halsall, after coming into possession ot
Halsall, occasionally resided there ; he was a member
of commissions of array in 1577 and I58o,"and held
various public offices. His re-
ligious leanings are thus de-
scribed in the report of 1590 :
'Conformable, but otherwise
of no good note.' " He died
in 1594, having founded the
school at Halsall. He was
twice married, but his son
predeceased him."
After his death Cuthbert
Halsall succeeded, under the
disposition made by his grand-
father Henry." He was made
a knight in Dublin, 22 July,
1599, being apparently in the
suite of the earl of Essex.15 He was a recusant in
1605, and the profits of his forfeitures as such were
assigned to Sir Thomas Mounson.16 He was one of the
knights of the shire in 1614" and sheriff in 1601
and l6i2.18 Within thirty years he had dissipated
his inheritance, and in 1631 was in prison for debt.
Halsall was sold in 1625, along with the advowson,
to Sir Charles Gerard, grandson of Sir Gilbert, who
was Master of the Rolls in Queen Elizabeth's time."
HALSALL OF HALSALL.
Urgent, three serpents'
heads erased a
gules.
elangued
king (as duke) by the fourth part of a
knight's fee, except a messuage and lands
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, p. 117. It appears
therefore that Henry Halsall himself had
The similar expression, ' I pray and hope
to live and die a member of the Catholic
manor of Westleigh, John Urmeston, 41.;
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 50.
» Edward Halsall, first in remainder,
(1599 ; see Piccope, Will,, iii, 24), may
be noticed, as there is no doubt as to her
have settled at Altcar, originating the
Halsalla of that parish ; Richard was
rector of Halsall.
1 Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 65.
Arms : quarterly, I and 4, three dragons'
heads ; 2 and 3, three unicorns' heads.
»f«K. of 1 5 33 (Chet. Soc.), p. 166 ;
see further under Melling.
8 Provision was made (1525-6) for his
ton and heir Henry on his marriage ;
life interest was no doubt given to him,
being a lawyer, as the most suitable guar-
dian for Cuthbert, who was still a minor
in 1590.
10 By her will she directed her body to
be buried in the chancel of the parish
church, as near as possible to the place
where her husband lay. She left numer-
ous legacies, including I zd. 'to every one
that I am godmother unto dwelling with-
who was to succeed him at Halsall,
Edward left all his books, which were for
ever 'to remain in safe keeping in the
said house to the use of the owners there-
of and of their children apt to the study
of the common law of this realm or other
learning,' as a memorial of the goodwill
he bore (as he was bound) to that house.
The house he had built for himself at
Eccleston was to be kept in order for his
annuities; also for illegitimate sons,
Thomas (afterwards called ' of Barton '),
Gilbert, and Cuthbert — probably the
Cuthbert afterwards rector.
4 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, n. 13.
Henry had special licence of entry without
proof of age, 8 Feb. i 543-4 ; Dep. Keeper's
Rep. xxxix, App. p. 554. Sir Thomas's
daughters were Jane, who married Gabriel
Hesketh, and had a son and heir Bartho-
of her goods and chattels she left to
'Cuthbert Halsall alias Morris, esquire.'
Piccope, mils (Chet. Soc.), iii, 143-6-
11 Lanes. Lieutenancy (Chet. Soc.), 87,
108.
" Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 244.
13 By his will he desired to be buried in
the church or chancel of Halsall, 'wishing
(although it may seem but a vanity) that
such parts of the body of Ursula my late
provisions he had made. Piccope, milt
(Chet. Soc.), ii, 214-18.
11 He was educated at Oxford, where he
matriculated early in 1588, being then
fifteen years of age, and was at Gray's
Inn, 1593; Foster, Alumni Oxon. He
was a justice of the peace in 1595;
Kenyan AfSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 583.
15 Metcalfe, Book of Knights, 209.
16 Pal. Note Book, iv, 232.
Osbaldeston.
* He was in this yeai called upon to
furnish a demi-lance, two light horses,
remain unconsumed may be taken out of
the parish church of Prescot where they
were buried and laid in grave with me,
" P.R.O. ,£,,„, 73.
19 A transfer to Richard Shireburne and
Edmund Breres was made in 1619 ; Pal.
tenancy (Chet. Soc.), p. 38.
6 It is erroneously dated 10 instead of
Anne now my wife (when God shall call
for her) likewise to lie, if it may so stand
the sale to Sir Charles Gerard in 1625 ;
ibid. bdle. 107, m. 24. In 1626 the
been taken from his mother's inquisition.
7 His wife's property eventually re-
turned to the Clifton family by default of
heirs. See also Duchy of Lane. Feet of
F. bdle. 34, m. 132.
8 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii, n, 34 ;
may all together joyfully rise at the last
day, to live (as my hope is we shall) with
Christ our Lord everlastingly in His
glorious kingdom.' The only other ex-
a member of God's Catholic Church.'
obtain possession of the deeds. He had
not bought directly, but through Shire-
burne and Breres 'for very great and
valuable consideration.' Sir Cuthbert
and his wife set up the defence that
Barton in Downholland was not a mere
195
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
GERARD EarlofMac
clesfidd. jrgaa. a sMr
Sir Charles Gerard married Penelope, daughter
of Sir Edward Fitton of Gawsworth, and one of the
heirs of her brother Sir Edward. Sir Charles, who
died at York about 1640, was buried at Halsall.1
He built a windmill there ;
and there was also a water-
mill.' His eldest son, Charles,
was born about l6l8,and took
the royal side in the Civil War,
as did his two brothers. He
greatly distinguished himself,
and was in 1645 created
Baron Gerard of Brandon in
Suffolk. He was obliged to
quit England during the rule
of Cromwell, and was reported
to be scheming the assassination
of the Protector. Returning
at the Restoration he had various promotions, and in
1678-9 he was created Viscount Brandon and earl of
Macclesfield. Afterwards he intrigued with the duke
of Monmouth, and in the time of James II was
obliged again to seek a refuge abroad, returning with
William prince of Orange, by whom he was rewarded
with offices of honour. He died in January, 1693-4,
and was buried at Westminster.3 So far as the Halsall
estate was concerned, Lord Gerard went on with
the disputes with Robert Blundell of Ince as to the
boundaries of the adjacent manors of Birkdale and
Ainsdale and Renacres. These disputes lasted till
I/I9/
His son Charles, born in Paris about 1659, was
knight of the shire (Lord Brandon) 1679-85 and
1689-94, and made lord lieutenant on the Revolu-
tion. He had been convicted of high treason in
connexion with the Rye House Plot, but pardoned.5
He died without legitimate issue in November, 1701,
and was succeeded in the titles by his brother Fitton,
who died unmarried in December, 1 702, when the
earldom, &c., became extinct.6
Two sisters were co-heirs of the properties : Eliza-
beth, who married a distant cousin, Digby, fifth Lord
Gerard of Bromley, and died in 1700, leaving a
daughter and heiress Elizabeth,
who married James duke of
Hamilton ; and Charlotte, wife
of Thomas Mainwaring, who
left a daughter and heiress
Charlotte, who married Lord
Mohun, and died in or before
1 709. Lord Mohun, by the
will of the second Lord Mac-
clesfield, became owner of his
wife's share of the Gerard
estates, and the duel between
him and the duke of Hamil-
ton, in which both were killed (15 November,
1712), originated in a dispute about the division.'
His widow was made the heir to his part of the
estates, which included Halsall, and carried them
to her third husband, Colonel
Charles Mordaunt.8 Though
Colonel Mordaunt had no
issue by her, he remained in
possession of the Gerard and
Fitton properties, and Halsall
descended to his son by a
second wife,9 Charles Lewis
Mordaunt, who at one time
resided in the hall at Halsall.10
Eventually he sold the manor
to Thomas Eccleston, lord of
the adjoining manor of Scaris-
brick, and the advowson of
the rectory to Jonathan Blundell of Liverpool. He
died at Ormskirk on 1 5 January, 1 808, aged seventy-
eight."
The manor has since descended with Scarisbrick.
Courts used to be held in July and October ; "
there is still one kept in November.
The grant of RENJCRES13 to the Hospitallers
has been related, and the Halsall family held it
hamlet, but a distinct manor in itself, and
was not included in the sale. Sir Cuthbert
further pleaded that the sale to Shireburne
and Breres in 1619 was of the nature of
a mortgage, they being bound for his
debts ; Edmund Breres himself was a
man of very ' miserable decayed estate,
very far indebted.' By discrediting his title,
they had prevented him from marrying his
daughter to John Mallet, 'a gentleman
at the hall ; there is mention of boon
hens and other services ; ibid. n.
8 Ormerod, loc. cit. ; G.E.C. Complete
Peerage.
< Gibson, Lydiau Hall, 114-16. A
deposition in 1664 states the Halsall
boundaries thus : From Renacres Merc
on the north or right hand to Bull Acre,
Corner Hill or Shirleys Hill, Shurlacres
Mere on the left, to Birkdale Cop (divi-
Lord Molyneux, a grand papist. . . Hii
actings may administer suspicion what
his designs are, if these things were in-
quired into, viz. what arms besides the
militia arms (of which every soldier keeps
his own) are stored up in Lancashire by
that lord, part at Halsall, part at Liver-
pool Castle, and other parts elsewhere, in
the custody of some Dissenters ' ; Kenyan
AfSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 234-5.
have given him £10,000. His pleas for
delay and rescission of the sale did not
avail, and Sir Charles Gerard retained
the manors of Halsall and Downholland ;
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Easter and
Trin. 2 Chas. I.
of Birkdale Brook (dividing Birkdale and
Halsall), to Ainsdale Brook (dividing
Ainsdale and Halsall), to a ditch from
Gettern Hey (parting Formby and Hal-
sall), and another ditch between Barton
and Halsall ; containing 4,000 acres and
" Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby), i, 653;
iii, 551 ; Earwaker, East Cbes. ii, 561-7;
G.E.C. Complete Peerage ; Gregson, Frag-
ments (ed. Harland), 218.
8 Son of General Lewis Mordaunt,
brother of the third earl of Peterborough.
in 1631, on the point 'how much Sir
Charles Gerard should pay to Sir Cuth-
bert Halsall more than he had already
paid to Shireburne and Breres ' ; and in
the following year Dame Dorothy, as
widow and executrix, continued the ap-
plication ; Decrees and Orders, 7-10
•Chas. I, xxxi, fol. 129, 131,211.
Sir Cuthbert retired to Salwick Hall,
was a member of Downholland Manor.
Most of the said premises, the complaint
adds, were seized and sold by ' the late
usurped powers on account of plaintiffs
loyalty to His Majesty' ; Duchv of Lane.
Pleadings, Easter, 16 Chas. II.
6 He appears to have been distrusted
i n Lancashire. 'It will not be easily for-
got,' it was said in 1689, 'that Lord
of his wife by her first husband and part
was sold. The parties to a fine concerning
Halsall in April, 1728, were Sir Richard
Rich, bart. and his wife Elizabeth ; Wil-
liam Stanhope and Charles Mordaunt;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 299,
m. 119.
"His initials and the date 1769 are
on a spout head ; his coat-of-arms is over
there about 1632 ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall,
114, 116.
1 Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 653.
» Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iii, 16, 18. Radcliffe Gerard
•was one of the trustees, and had resided
murder and another for high treason ;
and that after the .late king had forgiven
him he was a violent asserter of that
king's dispensing power to the highest
degree in that county and in that reign,
when he was a deputy-lieutenant to the
"Gregson, op. cit. 218.
"Baines,Z..w«. (1836), iv, 261.
18 The old spelling seems to be Runacres,
with variants like Ruinacres, or Rynacres ;
later (1575) is Renacres. A common
modern spelling is Ranicar.
196
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
under them.1 On the sale of their estates early in
the seventeenth century it was acquired by Robert
Blundell of Ince,s and became involved in the dispute
between the latter and the earl of Macclesfield. In
depositions taken at the trial (1664) it was stated
that Sir Cuthbert had improved the lands belonging
to Renacres and let them in common with the
demesne lands of Halsall ; and the tenants of Halsall
had ' done boon ' in Renacres.3 The owners or
tenants of Renacres had generally been called as
suitors at the courts of the manor of Halsall, though
none of them seem to have appeared there ; and
they paid lays to the constable of Halsall.4 So far
as Renacres was concerned, the cause was decided
in favour of the Blundells' claim in 1719, and it
has since descended with Ince Blundell.5
Renacres gave its name to one or more families
in the neighbourhood.6
SN4PE, as may be implied in its name, was a
border farm or hamlet.7 Thomas son of Alan de
Snape granted (about 1 300) certain land in Halsall
to Thomas the clerk of North Meols and Emma his
wife. After the death of Thomas de Snape, his
widow Alice taking her third as dower, this land was
claimed by his heiresses — Margery wife of Robert del
Riding of Sefton (Roger their son), Goditha wife of
Paulinus del Edge of Halsall, Avice wife of Adam de
Molyneux, Anabil wife of Robert the Tailor of
Lathom — in right of their sister Denise, who, they
said, died in possession. The jury found that
Thomas the clerk and his wife had been unjustly
disseised by force and arms, and must recover, the
damages being taxed at 34/.8
DOWNHOLLAND
Holand, Dom. Bk. ; Holland, 1258; Doun- or
Downholland from 1290.
Bartune, Dom. Bk. ; Barton, 1246.
This is a composite township, Barton in early
times having been separate. It lies on a very gradual
slope from a slight ridge reaching 70 ft. above sea
HALSALL
level down to fenland only 1 1 ft. above that level.
The three villages, Downholland, Haskayne, and
Barton are situated on the higher ground. The
lower ground is of a marshy character, but mostly
reclaimed and converted into fertile fields, drained by
ditches in the lower parts and divided by spare
hawthorn hedges in the higher portions of the
township. There is a natural dearth of plantations
and hedgerow trees in a district swept continually
by sea-breezes, and what trees there are are stunted
and bent by the prevalent westerly winds, whilst the
many picturesque thatched cottages in the villages
also seem to turn their backs to the west. The
principal crops produced in the township, grown on
the sandy soil, are potatoes, cabbages, wheat, and oats.
The area of the township is 3,472 J9 acres, of which
Downholland has 1,378 acres and Haskayne 908.
In 1901 there was a population of 692.
The principal road is that going northerly from
Lydiate through the hamlets of Downholland and
Haskayne in succession ; a cross-road leads to Barton,
which is close to the northern boundary. The
Leeds and Liverpool Canal winds through the town-
ship, crossing the main road at Downholland and
Haskayne ; it is the principal means of carriage for
the farm produce of the district. The Cheshire
Lines Committee's railway crosses the mosslands
north, and has a station called Mossbridge. Just at
the southern boundary there is a junction with the
branch line of the Liverpool, Southport and Preston
Junction Railway, which has a station at Barton
village.
The township is governed by a parish council.
Near this village there was ' a remarkable fountain
of salt water,' a quart producing ' near half a pound
of good white granulated salt."0 There is abundance
of brine under Barton Moss, but though a company
was formed to pump it, nothing was done.
Chisnall and Warnshaw brooks run through the
township. Sander Lane, the Quarters, Hallaso Carr,
and Stake Hey are mentioned in the Alt Drainage
Act of 1779.
1 About 1540 Sir Thomas Halsall held
it of them by a rent of i ^d. ; Kuerden
MSS. v, fol. 84.
3 Among the early charters of this
family are the following relating to
it : (i) Walter son of Adam grants to
William son of Roger an eighth part of
Renacres in fee and heredity, paying 6d.
to the superior lord and an additional T,d.
to the grantor and his heirs ; (ii) the
tame granted a quarter of his land there
to Alan son of Adam, perhaps his brother,
acres Mere ; thence, transversely, in a
straight line to the cross already named ;
Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxix, ^-S.
'Dame' Mary Blundell, widow of Henry
Blundell, appears to have been living at
Renacres manor-house in 1717, when she
as a ' Papist ' registered an estate ; Eng.
Catb. Non-jurors, ill.
8 Duchy of Lane. Depos. 1664, n.
10 d. It is further stated that Jackson's
Brook, beginning at North Moor in
Halsall, anciently divided Halsall and
Kettelsgreave Ditch, part of the boundary
between Birkdale and Renacres.
"Ibid. 1701, n. T.
5 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 116 (derived
from papers at Ince Blundell).
« Alan de Renacres occurs about 1 240 ;
and Richard son of Alan de Renacres and
others made complaint against Gilbert de
Halsall in 1305; Herbert de Burscough
son of Robert de Renacres, and William
son of Simon de Renacres appear about
1260 ; Simon son of Stephen de Renacres
tholomew) as that of Alfred de Ince in
the Hospitallers' charter ; (iii) Robert son
Shurlacres Mere' in Scarisbrick. The de-
from time to time. Assize R. 420, m. 5 ;
424, m. \d. 6. See also the accounts of
of his land in Renacres to his brother
Roger, with all easements and common
rights as contained in Robert's charter from
Gilbert de Halsall, rendering 6d. yearly
for all services and dues. The bounds of
this donation are thus described : From
the cross above Turnerliche, following the
division between the dry land (' terra
certa ') and the marsh as far as the ditch
formerly there was a « fleam ditch ' kept
open, which was part of the boundary ;
but Mr. Herle, then possessor of Ren-
acres, filled it up, and sedges and withens
grew there. Another deponent gave the
boundaries of the 'inlands' of Renacres
thus : From the head of Skellet Wood
down to a sandy hill, and so to Shirleys,
and thence along the brookside to Meols
Adam de Renacres in 1284 secured
from Robert de Renacres seven acres in
Halsall, the rent being a rose annually ;
for which concession Adam gave Robert
a sor sparrowhawk ; Final Cone, i, 163.
7 It is now within Scarisbrick, but
formerly appears to have been halved ; see
the quotation from Ina. Nonarum, given
in a former note.
and along the same natural boundary to
the ditch between Wolf how and Renacres,
and thence by the division between the
dry land and the Moss around Wolfhow to
the ditch between this place and Shurl-
Hill derived its name from a recent
occupier, the old name was Corney Hill.
More interesting names are Kettelwell
Moss, 'behind a place called Shirley,'
apparently on the Birkdale side; and
197
m. 3; 423, m. ^d.
» 3,475 in the census of 1901, in-
cluding 22 acres of inland water.
10 Bowers, Syit. Geogr. i, 2 1 3 (quoted in
Baine,' Lanes.).
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
An amphora of Samian ware was found here in
1712.'
Two thegns held six oxgangs of land
MANORS for two manors in Holland, and Teos
held Barton as one plough-land, at the
death of Edward the Confessor, the values being 21.
and 32</. All were in the privileged three-hide
district.8 After the Conquest, HOLLAND and half of
Barton were granted in thegnage together with Ain-
tree and Ribbleton, while the other half of Barton
was annexed to the Warrington fee, together with
Halsall and Lydiate.
In 1212 it was found that Henry de Holland held
the thegnage portion — three plough-lands and two
oxgangs in all — by an annual service of z6/., an
average of u. an oxgang. He had granted out Rib-
bleton, most of Aintree, and his half of Barton to
undertenants, but retained all or most of Down-
holland, and from it the family took their surname.3
Henry was the son of Alan de Holland, who had held
these manors in the time of Henry II.* He had a
brother Adam, and probably a sister or daughter who
married Robert son of Wronou.4
Roger son of Henry de Holland gave Haskayne to
the Hospitallers.6 On the other hand his cousin
William son of Adam de Holland resigned to ' his
lord ' Roger, all claim he might have to lands in Old
Holland and Barton Wood, and 20 acres in Mur-
scough/ Roger was followed by his son Henry, who
gave to Robert son of Roger de Eggergarth land in
Downholland by Oldfield.8
In 12V7 the heirs of Roger were found to be
holding Downholland and its appurtenances by the
service of 1 8/.9 Roger de Downholland was in 1324
lord of the place.10 At Michaelmas 1323 the abbot
of Merivale as lord of Altcar and Richard de Down-
holland had a dispute as to a messuage, mill, land, and
wood in Downholland." Richard de Holland is
named in the subsidy rolls of 1327 and 1332, and he
is called 'lord of Downholland' in 1337, retaining
possession in 1 346 and 1 348." The assessment is
now stated at 2 .V plough-lands (for two and a quarter)
in Downholland, Aintree, and half Barton, and the
service as the fourth part of a knight's fee, with the
ancient l8.r. rent. By a charter made in June, 1341,
Richard de Holland granted to Alan his son and
Alan's wife, Katherine daughter of Robert de
Cowdray, various lands.13 The fruit of the marriage
was a daughter, and Alan dying a short time after-
wards, the father in 1 345 granted Downholland to
his eldest surviving son, Roger, with remainders to
Henry and Charles."
Roger succeeded his father about I349-15 In
1356 he acquired from Emma, daughter of Henry
son of Alan de Holland, and wife of Simon son of
Robert de Wolvesegh of Litherland in Sefton, the
oxgang in Holland formerly held by Alan's son
Robert. Next year Roger Ford of Litherland quit-
claimed to him all right in land he had held in Down-
holland, and in this he was joined by his wife Alice,
daughter of William son of Thomas de Downlither-
land.16
His son Thomas, contracted in 1363 to marry
Joan daughter of Richard de Scarisbrick,17 did not
possess the manor more than a few years, dying on
20 May, 1387, when his son William was only ten
years of age. He was found to have held two-thirds
of Downholland — his father's widow no doubt having
the other third — by knight's service. The manor of
Aintree was dependent on it, and held by the
daughter of Thomas de Nevill ; and the whole paid
annually to the duke 1 8;. The wardship and mar-
riage of William de Holland were granted to Richard
de Crooke of Whittle.18 William did not prove his
age until the spring of 1403, when his lands were
restored to him.19
William had a son Roger, to whom he made
grant of land in 14.23-4,™ and who in time succeeded
to the manor.81 To William Holland and Isabel his
wife,'8 Thurstan Holland in 1430-1 transferred all
1 W. T. Watkin, Roman Lanes. 214.
3 V.C.H. Lanes, i, p. 2853.
8 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 49. Only the 1 81. for
Downholland, Aintree, and Barton is
afterwards reckoned.
been her brother, being (as above) de-
scribed as 'son of Adam.' The lands
were taken into the king's hands ; Cur.
Reg. R. 1 60, m. 5, 32.
Some years earlier (1246) a Ralph de
Holland had claimed land from Simon lord
Soc. xii), n. 78 ; he occurs among the
witnesses down to I388(n. 125).
" Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 1 4 1 b, n. 43 , 40.
W Ibid, cxlvii, fol. 40*. Richard was
probably the brother of Gilbert de Scarii-
brick, who died in 1354. Thomas's
Ches.), i, 179 ; Cackersand Cbartul. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 631.
5 There was also an Alan de Holland
to whom Henry gave part of Aintree,
and to whose son John he gave part of
his land in Downholland, situate among
the lands which John already held of
Roger de Holland ; Dods. MSS. xxxix,
fol. 138, n. 2.
« Ibid. fol. 139, n. 17; fol. 138, n. 5.
failed, and his pledges— William son of
Adam de Holland and Henry de Holland
— were fined : Assize R. 404, m. i d.
Henry son of Robert de Holland seems
to have been one of the principal holders
in 1292 ; Assize R. 408, m. 48 d.
9 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 288.
10 Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 34. Perhaps
it should read, ' The heir of Roger.'
» Richard is described as great-grand-
Diem el. extr. after her death was issued
6 Feb. 1407-8; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii,
App. 7.
^ Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 27,
« Duchy of Lane. Chan. R., div. xxV,
R. 5, n. 62.
*> Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 141*, a. 38.
William was living and in possession of
manor in Dec. 1431 ; Sub. R. 130-49.
of my land which lies within the land of
Thomas de Haskayne.'
7 Ibid. fol. 138, n. 4.
Holland ; De Bane. R. 248, m. -]<)d. ;
252, m. 61 d.
" Survey of 1346 (Chet. Soc.), 34;
is found complaining of trespass by
Henry Scarisbrick and others ; Pal. of
Lane. Plea R. 3, m. 14 ; R. 4, m. n ;
William de Holland gave to his son
Alan and heirs an acre in Downholland
and the service of John Holland and of
Henry Holland ; ibid. fol. 142, n. 44.
The charters referred to are undated, but
in or before 1258 Christiana daughter of
15 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 138*. The
remainders were to his other sons Roger,
Henry, Andrew, and Charles and his
daughter Ameria. For Katherine see the
accounts of Barton and Halsall.
Alan at once re-granted the manor to his
1476, when as son and heir of William
Holland he was defendant in a suit ; ibid.
R. 44, m. 2 </.; R. 26, m. 9. ' Hodgekin
(Roger) Holland and his brothers ' were
stated about 1550 to have been lords of
Downholland about the middle of the
land. She had a son Richard, who about
the end of 1325 claimed 8 acres from
Richard lord of Downholland ; De Bane.
R. 258, m. 45 d. William seems to have
fol. 142, n. 44.
» Ibid. fol. 138*, n. 13 ; fol. 141*,
15 Scarisbrick charters (Trans. Hist.
w She was an Urmston ; the Westleigh
property held by the Hollands was her
inheritance; see Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii,
App. 37.
I98
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
his lands, &c., in Downholland which he had had
after the death of his father and mother.1 Another
William Holland* in 1444-5 settled lands in the
same place upon Peter Holland and his wife Margaret,
with remainders to Richard, Ralph, Nicholas, John,
Henry, and Thomas Holland.'
It is no doubt this Peter who survived till 1513.
He seems to have married a second wife, Ellen, in
1478, when a settlement was made, the remainders
being to his son Robert and heirs male, and then to
a younger son Edmund.4 Ellen survived her hus-
band, but some of the lands had been assigned to
Alice widow of Robert, who died without male
issue. Thus Edmund was heir to Downholland at
his father's death, and over forty years of age. The
service was the fourth part of a knight's fee.5
Edmund Holland very soon after his succession
sold his manors to Sir Henry Halsall of Halsall.6 He
died about ten years afterwards, and in I 5 3 3-4 his
son and heir William released to Sir Thomas Halsall
all his claim in Downholland and Westleigh, Elizabeth,
widow of Edmund, having her dower assigned some
four years later.7 From this time Downholland and
the half of Barton have descended with Halsall.
Several disputes followed with the lords of neigh-
bouring townships — Altcar and Formby — as to
boundaries.8
HASK4YNE, as stated above, was granted to the
HALSALL
Hospitallers in alms by Henry de Holland.9 The
hamlet of Haskayne gave a surname to a family who
prospered until in the seventeenth century they were
reckoned as gentry.10 One of them was a benefactor.
The Harkers of Downholland are commemorated
by an inscription in the vestry. The will (1618) oi
Thomas Harker of Haskayne, gentleman, mentions
his nephews Richard and Henry, and demises lands in
Aughton and Barton.11
Thomas Johnson, Francis Farrer, and Richard
Moore, of Downholland, registered estates in 1 7 1 7 as
' Papists.' "
As already stated B4RTON was divided between
Downholland and Warrington.
The four thegnage oxgangs of land appurtenant to
Downholland were divided by 1212 between Adam
the brother of Henry de Holland " and an unnamed
sister or daughter on her marriage with Robert son of
Wronou. Robert son of Wronou de Barton gave to
Cockersand Abbey a selion of his land, extending
from the vill towards Harewer, in pure alms, for the
soul of King John in the first place, and then for his
own soul and those of his relatives.1* These two ox-
gangs seem to have returned into the possession of
the superior lord.15
The Halsall family early acquired an interest in
Barton and Downholland, and in 1292 Henry son of
Robert de Holland claimed tenements in Barton from
1 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 139, n. 13.
a William Holland of Downholland
was a witness in a Bedford suit in 1444 ;
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 6, m. 1 1.
» Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 141*, n. 41 ;
the meres and bounds on the Formby
side were Barton pool head, the Scaling,
and the Black mere— this was east of
the Scaling, the White moss lying be-
tween. At the Scaling there used to be
Lane. Depos. Phil, and Mary, Ixxv, H. 3 ;
Duchy of Lane. Decrees and Ordci s, Phil.
and Mary, xi, fol. 2696— an intermediate
order.
9 Inf. and Exfcnfs, 49 ; it is called
tionships are not stated ; probably Peter
was the son of Roger.
" Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 138*, n. n.
5 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, n. 30.
The younger son James appears to have
sold his part of the lands to the Halsalls
in 1520; Dods. MSS.xxxix,-fol.i4i, n. 33,
The inquisition recites the will of
Peter Holland, made in 1504, in which
he made provision for his younger sons —
James, Hugh, Henry, and William— by a
charge on tenements in Westleigh; a
later will (1512) refers to his daughters
Douce, Margery, and Ellen.
away by the Formby men. Peter Holland
had been heard to claim the land for ' 1 6
rodfall ' beyond Barton pool head. From
this spot ran the stream called Barton
pool ; its source was the reedy hook be-
tween Barton and Downholland, whence
it flowed westward to Typool and Barton
pool head. The boundary went along
this stream as far as Gossiche ditch, and by
this ditch to the Scaling, which was south
of the pool head and near Harvey House.
One of the witnesses, Thomas Has-
kayne sixty years of age, had heard old
mill at the head of Barton pool, and that
Downholland in the Plac. de quo Warr.
(Rec. Com.), 375. About 1540 the
following was the Hospitallers' rent
roll : Sir Thomas Halsall, lid. ; Thomas
Haskayne, 6d. ; Sir Thomas Halsall and
Robert Bootle, bd. ; Sir T. Halsall for a
messuage bought from David Holland, zJ.;
Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84.
10 The name is frequently spelt Hes-
kayne or Hesken, and is confused with
Heskin in Leyland hundred.
11 A. Patchett, Tatlocks ofCumcough, 35.
these had property in neighbouring town-
ships. Alice, the daughter of Francis
deed enrolled at Lane., 14 Hen. VIII.
At Croxteth is a deed by which Sir Henry
Halsall had a grant of the manors of
Downholland and Westleigh, &c., dated
4 Aug. 1517. Sir Henry's sons Richard
(clerk) and James are named.
Mbid. fol. 141, n. 11 ; fol. 138*, n. 9.
8 See the account of Altcar; also
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Hen. VIII,
v, H. 5.
Henry Halsall complained that on
10 Aug. i<<3, Henry Norris and others
of Formby, accompanied by twelve riotous
persons, had invaded the 4,000 acres of
moss and pasture in Downholland, called
Holland Moss, and had dug and carried
away 3,000 cartloads of turf and burnt
his turves; with 'unlawful dogs' and
otherwise they had driven his cattle
of it ; afterwards they removed the tim-
ber, and the mill fell into decay. It was
also stated that 'Master Norris of the
Speke' one time accompanied Roger
Holland home, after they had dined
together at Formby, and on coming to
the disputed land offered to buy it, to
the annoyance of Roger, who replied
that he thought their meeting had been
'to make merry,' and he was not dis-
posed to sell his lands. The result was
in favour of the Halsall claim. See
Duchy of Lane. Depos., Phil, and Mary,
Ixiv, H. 2 ; Decrees and Orders, Phil,
and Mary, x, fol. 144*.
A year or two later the complaint was
renewed, and the lords of Formby brought
evidence to show that the disputed ground,
called the Horse Hooks, was a 'mean and
seen her angel guardian ; N. Blundell's
Diary, 188.
i» The children of Adam— William and
Christiana— have been mentioned ; it is
probable that his two oxgangs were divided
between them, and that the share of Alan
son of William descended to Emma the
wife of Simon de Wolvescgh, who sold
an oxgang to Roger de Holland. Of
Christiana's share nothing is positively
known, but a certain Henry son of
Dolfin de Barton quitclaimed to 'his
lord,' Roger son of Henry de Holland,
all his right in an oxgang in Barton;
Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 143, n. 61.
14 Cockcnand Cbartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
63i,754-
"Ellas de Barton son of Henry, the
grantor, was in possession of three oxgangs,
•destroyed, drowned, and spilled in the
pools and marresses' of the moss. The
accused persons alleged that the disputed
ground— called the 'common of Barton
pool and the Horseplecks'— was within
Formby, and an official inquiry was made
as to the boundaries.
It was alleged for the complainant that
Downholland, Formby, and Altcar met,
being three-quarters of a mile from the
nearest dwelling-house in Formby, a mile
and a half from the nearest in Down-
holland, and a mile from the nearest in
Altcar. The case went on until 1588,
but the final decision does not seem to
have been preserved. See Duchy of
199
son of Dolfin, and another acquired from
William son of Robert son of Wronou ;
Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 143, n. 64. The
third, perhaps, came from another son of
Robert. The same William, grandson of
Wronou, quitclaimed all his right in the
four oxgangs in Barton to Henry son of
Alan de Holland ; ibid. n. 62.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Gilbert de Halsall, with whom in one plea Robert
son of Alan de Holland was joined. The defence,
which was accepted, is noticeable : Barton was not
a vill, but a member of the vill of Downholland.1
Thus it had lost its ancient independent status.
A local family took a surname from the hamlet.
In 1314 Richard son of Adam de Barton gave to his
son Roger land which the grantor had previously
purchased from his sister Anabel, formerly wife of
Robert the clerk of Halsall, except the house which
Richard's son and heir inhabited.1 Robert son of
Richard de Barton gave to Robert de Cowdray some
arable land and meadow in the Flats in 1 344.*
Roger son of Robert de Barton in 1375 gave to his
son Robert and Margaret his wife and their heirs 4 acres
with a chamber built in the garden.4 About 1388
Robert son of Roger de Barton was refeoffed of his lands,
with remainders to Richard the son of Robert, and then
to Alice and Maud, his daughters.5 The son appears
to have died without issue, so that the inheritance
came to the daughter Alice, who married Richard
Fazakerley ; while in September, 1404, Maud, still
unmarried, quitclaimed all her right in the property
to Alice.6
The next in possession was William Fazakerley/
probably the son of Alice and Richard, and his son
Henry in 1495 enfeoffed Henry Molyneux, chap-
lain,8 of a tenement in Barton then occupied by the
grantor's brother John.9 He had in 1491-2 arranged
for the marriage of his son Robert with Cecily,
daughter of John Ireland, of Sefton or Maghull,
brother of Richard Ireland.10
The son and heir of Robert and Cecily was
Thomas Fazakerley, who soon after the acquisition
of the Holland manors by the Halsall family, and
while still a minor, was ' pulled forth ' of his holding
by divers men acting by order of Thomas Halsall.
Thereupon his relatives in Great Crosby and Thorn-
ton took possession of the disputed lands (including
the Peck and the Hook) by force in April, 1525, and
' bette and hurted ' the tenants who had been in-
truded therein."
Thomas Fazakerley seems to have died childless,
and Henry Halsall was in 1566 able to purchase
(through Gilbert Halsall of Barton ") the share held
by Alice, wife of Peter Snape of Formby, and one 01
the sisters and coheirs.11
A branch of the Norris family also had some
holding here.14 Part at least of their estate was the
acre belonging to Cockersand Abbey, which was held
in 1501 by John Norris.15
The half of Barton held by knight's service by the
lords of Warrington was by Pain de Vilers granted
together with Ince Blundell, and the mesne lordship
was long considered to be in the hands of the lords
of this place.16 They quickly created subordinate
manors. One oxgang was granted to Simon Blundell ;
but this was about 1240 given to William Russel
and Amabel his wife, probably as the latter's dowry.
Thereupon Benedict the son of Simon made hi*
claim in the king's court against Richard son and heir
of William Blundell, and it was decided that the
latter must compensate Simon by an equivalent grant.17
This oxgang in Barton descended regularly with
the manor of North Meols. The other three oxgangs
also came into the possession of the lords of North
Meols, and at the inquisition after the death of
William de Aughton in 1388, the jury were unable
to say of whom he had held a portion of Barton
rendering £z 1 3*. I oJ. A further inquiry being
ordered, at first it was found that it was held of
John le Boteler of Warrington by knight's service
and the service of I oJ. yearly ; but after yet an-
other inquiry the mesne lord was found to be John
Blundell of Ince.18 The later inquisitions of the
North Meols family describe their tenement a&
held of the crown, in right of the duchy of Lan-
caster, by knight's service, viz. the sixth part of a
fee.19
John Waring and William Shepherd of Croxteth,
as ' Papists,' registered estates here in IJIJ.M
The rector of Halsall has established a mission
room in Barton.
LYDIATE
Leiate, Dom. Bk. ; Lydyate, 1276 ; and Lydeyate,
1292 ; the usual spellings. Liddigate occurs 1202,
Lichet, c. 1 240 ; Lydegate, 1 296 ; Lidgate, 1 299 ;
Ledeyate, 1414; Lidezate, 1481."
This township has an area ot 1,995 acres-1*
Lydiate proper is bounded on the south by small
brooks which divide it from Maghull, and on the
east and north by the Sudell or Lydiate Brook ; while
on the west the 25 ft. level is almost coincident with
the boundary. The township also includes the
1 Assize R. 408, m. 7 d. tf d. 76.
"Dods. MSS. cliii, fol. 49. Adam
«on of Anabel contributed to the sub-
sidies of 1327 and 1332.
8 Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 230*. Otcs de
Halsall some time afterwards acquired
meadow land from Robert de Barton and
iii, H. 5. The disputes were settled in
Fazakerley' s favour about 1 540 ; Dods.
MSS. cliii, fol. 49*, 50.
u See the account of Halsall.
1" Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 142*, ». 58.
" In 1486 Henry son of John Norris,
late of Barton, was placed in possession of
and in return he received an oxgang in
Ince ; Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxii, 189, 190.
18 Pal. of Lane. Chan. Misc. bdle. i, *.
27 ; Lanes. Inq. f.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 30,
39. This inquest refers to three oxgangi;
the other was probably in the possession
of William's mother. In 144! the
Botelers had a rent of iol<L from
Gilbert and Elizabeth his wife in 1367 ;
Dods. MSS. xxxix. fol. 143, n. 63. In
1374 Adam son of Adam de Brcdkirk
claimed from William de Barton a house
and lands in Barton as heir of a certain
Alice who married John de Bredkirk the
claimant's grandfather; De Bane. R. 453,
m. 394.
« Dods. MSS. cliii, fol. 49.
5 Ibid. fol. 49*.
•Ibid.
7 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 4, m. 3, itt.
s See the note on Halsall chantry.
• Dods. MSS. cliii, fol. 50.
I" Ibid.
" Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Hen. VIII,
named William, Robert, Edward, Richard,
and James, and the ultimate remainder
indicates that they were related to the
Speke family ; Formby D.
I* Rentalc de Cockersand (Chet. Soc.
Misc.), 5.
16 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 7, 147. A
dispute between William de Ferrers and
William le Boteler as to common of
pasture in the hey of Barton may refer to
this Barton ; Cur. Reg. R. 149 (37 Hen.
Ill), m. 17.
17 Assize R. 404, m. 5 d. Two charters
at Ince Blundell complete the story. By
one Simon quitclaimed to Richard any
title or claim in lands in Ince and Barton ;
200
Barton ; ibid, ii, 49. The same sum wa»
paid by John Aughton in 1 548 ; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 3, m. 141.
» Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xv, n.
44.
The holding was described as four me»-
suages, 50 acres of land, 10 acres of
meadow, and 50 acres of moss.
40 Eng. Catb. Non-jurors, 97, 121.
al For comparison may be cited Lawton
Lidgate in Cheshire (Church Lawton) ;
Ormerod, Cits. (ed. Helsby), iii, 15, 20.
Lidyate frequently occurs as a common
*• 1,994, including 21 inland water ;
census of 1901.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
1 to the north of the Sudell
Brook, and forming a wedge between Aughton and
Downholland. In 1901 the people numbered 1,024.
The highest point in Lydiate is near the southern
boundary, where the windmill stands, about 87 ft.
above sea level ; Eggergarth rises to 80 ft. on the
northern boundary. The country is chiefly agri-
cultural, occupied by market gardens and fields, where
potatoes and cabbages alternate with wheat and oats.
The soil is sand loam over a subsoil of peat.
Pastures are found principally in the low-lying
parts westwards.
The Liverpool and Ormskirk road passes north-
eastwardly through the southern end of the township ;
another road branches off from this at the southern
boundary and goes north to Downholland and
Halsall. The houses are scattered along this road ;
the ruined chapel popularly called ' Lydiate Abbey '
is on the left side of it about a mile north of the
boundary ; the old hall is just to the north. The
Leeds and Liverpool Canal winds its way through
the township.
There is a parish council.
' From the tower steeple ' of the ruin, wrote a
visitor in 1813, 'the view over the low meadows of
Lydiate and Altcar, which are frequently flooded
after sudden and violent showers by the overflowing
of the River Alt, is very extensive, embracing the
whole of Formby Channel and part of the River
Mersey, and bounded only by the chain of mountains
terminating with the Ormshead."
Traces of seven crosses were known or remembered
recently. The base of one remains near the hall ;
another, the School Brow cross, is buried beneath the
footpath ; it is reported that funerals used to stop
there while the mourners repeated the De Profundls?
The wake was held in Ember week.4
HALSALL
Uctred held LTD1ATE proper at the
MANORS death of Edward the Confessor. It was a
border township of the privileged three
hides, was rated as six oxgangs of land, and had wood-
land a league in length by 2 furlongs broad.5 The value
was 6ifd., a great advance on the normal 24.^., due
perhaps to the wood. Early in the twelfth century it
was granted to Pain de Vilers as part of his fee of
Warrington, to which it continued to belong,6 and
Pain in turn granted it to William Gernet, to be held
by knight's service as three-fortieths of a knight's
fee.' In 1 2 1 2 his six oxgangs in Lydiate were in the
joint tenure of Benedict and Alan, sons of Simon.8
That Alan was the elder brother seems clear by the
order of the names in a quitclaim in 1202 by Simon
Blundel and Siegrith his wife to Alan and Benedict
de Lydiate, after an assize of ' mort d'ancestor ' had
been summoned between them, concerning two-thirds
of two oxgangs in Gildhouse and Sureheved.' As
Alan ' de Lydiate ' he granted to Cockersand a por-
tion of his land in the townfield in pure alms.10
His nephew William, son of Benedict de Lydiate,
gave his share of Orshawhead to Cockersand in alms,"
and added a further piece of land.'8 William le
Boteler, as overlord, ratified the Orshaw grants, giving
the bounds thus : In length from the cross on the
north side of Orshaw to the ditch on the south side,
in the further part of Orshaw field ; and in breadth,
from the brook on the west to the ditch under the
law on the east.13
William de Lydiate was holding Lydiate of the heir
ot Emery le Boteler, in 1 242." He seems to have
been still living in 1255, but to have died shortly
afterwards, leaving as his heir Benedict, probably his
son, whose widow Alice about 1270 made over to
Sir William le Boteler all her dower and whatever
claim she might have in land in the vill of Lydiate.15
1 Egergarth, 1 292 ; Ekirgart and other
forms are found. The name has long been
disused. » Kaleidoscope, 8 July, 1823.
» Short Acer, of Lydiate, 1 1, 12 ; Lanes,
ami Cbes. Antiq. Sac. xix, 170-1.
« Baines, Lan«. (ed. 1836), iv, 272.
5 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 2853. This wood was
probably on the west, for in Altcar also
there was, at least in later times, a wood
in the portion adjoining Lydiate. The
name Frith may point to the same fact.
«In 1548 the following rents were
payable to the lord of Warrington from
the manor of Lydiate : Lawrence Ireland
51. 4j(/. and yJ. ; Henry Halsall, 2O</. ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdlc. 1 3, m. 142.
^ Lanci. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 8. It would appear
that Pain had first of all granted it to
Alan de Vilers his son, the latter bestow-
ing it upon Chester Abbey about 1 140 ;
St. Werburgh's Chartul. fol. 8. Possibly
the gift did not actually take effect, for
nothing further occurs in the chartulary
with respect to it.
8 There is nothing to show their con-
nexion with the former holder ; the
tenure suggests that the two brothers had
Alan was also lord of Halsall.
» Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 20. Gildhouse (Gildus) is men-
tioned later as being in Lydiate ; the other
place seems lost. The ' two-thirds ' prob-
ably means that the father's widow was
still living. Siegrith may have been a
third sister, claiming her share (two ox-
gangs) in the manor.
A charter of this time by Simon son of
Stainulf de Lydiate to the monks of
Cockersand grants all Tunesnape, both
wood and open, free from all secular ser-
vice ; the bounds begin from Maghull
Pool to Rutende Brook, and from the
middle of the moss to the Alt opposite
Longley ; Cockersand Cbartul. (Chet. Soc.),
ii, 635. The Alt is probably not 'Great
Alt ' (which does not touch Lydiate), but
the tributary brook called Sudell Brook
or Lydiate Brook ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall,
10 The bounds are thus described : From
Sandyford to Murscough (Maircough is in
the north of the township, adjoining
Downholland), following the Alt round
the Hurst to the mill pool, across to the
mill road going ' by the edge of the wood,'
along this road to the edge of Orshaw,
and by another road to Sandyford ; Cocker-
sand Cbartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 634.
11 The monks were to have pasture for
four oxen, twelve cows, and three mares
and their offspring, pannage for twenty
pigs, with goats and sheep at the monks'
pleasure. The bounds are described with
great minuteness ; they mention Orshaw
law, Orshaw-syke, a cross and an oak
tree. Simon son of Alan (now styled ' de
Halsall') gave his share, William the
White of Gildhouse— perhaps son of the
Simon Blundel above mentioned — did
the same, and Robert de Orshaw gave half
of his land within the same bounds. The
abbey thus had grants of this land from
the overlords and tenant. In 1268 Adam
son of Robert de Orshaw held it by in-
201
hcritance, paying lid. a year ; and on his
decease his heir would have to pay half a
mark and do homage to the monks ; ibid,
ii, 632-4.
i" It was thus bounded : From Sandy-
ford to Murscough, as far as the road from
Downholland ; turning to the moss and
as far as Rushy Hills on the south, and
thence to Orshaw dyke, and so back to
Sandyford ; ibid, ii, 636.
The Cockersand rents from Lydiate in
1501 amounted to a little over 2os., the
principal tenant being Nicholas Longback,
who rendered ijj. \d. and z capons;
Rentale de Cockersand (Chet. Soc.), 5, 7.
'» Cockersand Cbartul. ii, 636.
» Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 147.
15 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 23. In 1276
she claimed her dower right in various
messuages, lands, and wood, and half a
water-mill from a number of holders in
Lydiate, including William son of Bene-
dict (an oxgang and a half, and half the
mill, &c.), Adam de Churchlee (an oxgang
and a half, &c.), Robert de Halsall (half
the mill, &c.), Alice, widow of Roger de
Lydiate, Margery daughter of Gilbert de
Halsall, Simon son of Beatrice, Camel
de Lydiate, Richard son of Adam (one ox-
gang, &c.), Roger son of Adam, Simon
the Provost, William the Serjeant, Richard
de Ince, Alan de SeuedhiU, and Adam de
Sefton. The total of the claims shows
that there were in this two-thirds of
the manor (4 oxgangs), 12 messuages,
79 acres of arable land, 60 acres of
wood, and a water-mill ; De Bane. R. 1 5,
m. 104.
26
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
In the middle of 1277 the same Alice prosecuted
her claim against Robert de Halsall. The defendant
called William son of Benedict to warrant him as to
part ; as to the mill he denied that Benedict her hus-
band was ever in seisin, all his interest being AJ. yearly
rent.1
In 1292 Emma, widow of William the Finder,
claimed dower in a small holding from Robert de
Lydiate, and the latter called upon William son of
Benedict to warrant. This he failed to do. Emma
therefore recovered her dower against Robert, who was
to have the value of it out of William's lands.*
Who this Robert de Lydiate alias de Halsall was
there is nothing to show ; he seems to have held a
small subordinate manor of William de Lydiate.3 In
I 303 Thomas son of Robert de Halsall gave 201. for
licence to agree with Robert de Halsall of Lydiate.4
The double lordship of Lydiate again comes out in
1313 in a suit brought by the abbot of Cockersand
for common of pasture of which he had been dis-
seised, as he stated, by Benedict son of William de
Lydiate and Thomas son of Robert de Lydiate.5
Two years later the succession to what may be called
the junior moiety of the manor was settled by fine
between Thomas de Lydiate and his son Gilbert, the
remainders being to Gilbert's brothers William, Adam,
and John in succession.6
About the same time (1315) Richard son of Bene-
dict de Lydiate settled an oxgang of land, &c., on his
daughter Cecily, married to Elias de Occleshaw. He
had received this oxgang, which lay in Gildhouse,
from his brother William, and it had previously been
held by Adam de Churchlee.7
Benedict de Lydiate, at Easter, 1325, complained
that Gilbert de Halsall, John del Wolfall, and Denise
his wife, and others had disseised him of ten acres of
pasture in Lydiate. In this complaint he was joined
by Gilbert son of Thomas de Lydiate, and Margery
his wife ; also by Alice, widow of Thomas ; as repre-
senting the other moiety of the manor.8 The defence
was that the land was ' wood, not pasture.' Benedict
and the others had enclosed the wood and so sought
to deprive the defendants of the right to send their
pigs there in mast-time. The jury took this view.9
This case introduces another family into the history
of the township, the Wolfalls.10 A settlement was made
by fine in 1323 of two messuages, eighteen acres of
land, and \yd. rent in Lydiate upon John del Wolfall
and Denise his wife for life." From this time the
Wolfalls constantly appear in the neighbourhood in
various relations.
Benedict de Lydiate must have died soon afterwards,"
for though he paid to the subsidy in 1327 he is not
named in 1332. For a time Gilbert de Lydiate was
the foremost man in the township, as in the assize of
1331 and the subsidy of 1332." John son of Benedict
becomes prominent about 1350." In that year he
pleaded that Sir William le Boteler of Warrington,
Elizabeth his wife, and many others, including the
Wolfalls and Elias de Gildhouse, had unjustly disseised
him of his free tenement in Lydiate, viz. two-thirds of
the manor. The recognitors decided in his favour,
saying that he was seised of it until the defendants
ousted him by force and arms."
Shortly afterwards, in 135 2, John de Lydiate and
two others were charged with having disseised Margery,
widow of Robert de Lydiate, of her third of the junior
moiety.16 A year later Elizabeth daughter of Robert
de Lydiate claimed certain lands as her inheritance, of
which John de Lydiate and his tenants were in
i De Bane. R. 20, m. ij d. The
writhnd been issued on 4 April, 1276.
The mill was in Eggergarth. The widow
the father was a younger brother of
Richard, who had lived in adultery with
Maud for a long time, but on his death
«> See the account of Wolfall in Huy-
" Final Cone, ii, 54. The remainder
have taken as her second husband Adam
her, yet without the Church's blessing and
Wolfall ; but if he should die without issue,
de Churchlee (Prescot).
the nuptial mass. Richard had no lawful
then one messuage and4 acres in Shourshagh
In 1291 a claim by Sir William le
children, and his father Robert, who was
must go in succession to Richard, brother
Boteler produced some further informa-
still living, entered as guardian and as-
of Thomas, for life, and then to Henry son
tion. Gilbert de Halsall and Robert de
signed the tenements to Maud as dower ;
of Walter de Acton for life, and then to
Lydiate accused the superior lord and
Simon the claimant, was then under age j
Robert son of Roger de Wolfall and his
others of having dispossessed them of part
Assize R. 419, m. 6.
heirs ; the residue of the tenement was to
of their free tenement in the township,
William de Lydiate claimed 5j acres
go to Gilbert son of Thomas de Lydiate for
namely, in 35 acres of wood. Among the
from Robert de Halsall, as heir of his
life, and to Robert and John his brothers,
defendants were William son of Robert de
father Richard, who had held them in
and after their death to Gilbert de Halsall
Vepont and Adam son of Simon de
socage by the service of 27^. a year, pay-
and his heirs.
Lydiate. Sir William put forward his
ing 2tJ. to the king's scutage of 40*. ; but
» ' Benedict de Lydiate ' was a witness
claim as being chief lord, but it appeared
his claim was rejected on account of his
in 1329 (Blundell of Crosby D.).
that his right in the present case was due
illegitimate birth ; ibid. m. 8</.
i" Assize R. 1404, m. 17 ; E*cb. Lay
to a demise to him by Adam de Churchlee,
4 De Bane. R. 148, m. in</.
Sail. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 21.
who held (by the law of England) part of
the inheritance of William son of Bene-
4 Assize R. 424, m. i d. It appeared
that Agnes, mother of Benedict, held a
" In the aid of 1346-55 John son of
Benedict de Lydiale is named ; Feud.
dict ; and he had arbitrarily ' approved '
third part, and as she was not named in
Aids, iii, 90. John was probably very
the 31; acres of wood. Gilbert de Halsall
the writ the abbot's suit failed for the
young on succeeding.
was the heir of Simon de Halsall, who
time.
15 Assize R. 1444, m. 3. John's mother
had purchased an acre in Lydiate, with
• Final Cone, ii, zo. Simon son of
seems to have been living and in possession
rights of common ; and Robert shared the
Simon de Lydiate also put in his claim, as
of her third of the manor. Elias de Gild-
vill with the above-named William son of
did Alan de Halsall. A short account of
house is no doubt the Elias de Occleshaw
Benedict ; Assize R. 1294, m. 10.
a claim by Simon de Lydiate, his son
mentioned already. He was called by the
The Veponts occur in another local
Robert, and grandson Adam, is given in
latter name in 1355, when he was con-
suit at this time, Cecily relict of Robert
the account of Little Crosby. Another
stable of the vill ; Duchy of Lane. Assize
le Vepont proceeding against William le
grandson seems to have been William ;
R. 4, m. 5. John brother of Henry
Vepont, Richard le Vepont, and Juliana
relict of Robert le Vepont concerning
ibid, ii, 165.
^ Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 24.
Blundell of Little Crosby acquired from
Elizabeth de Gildhouses her lands in
tenements in Lydiate, Eggergarth, and
» Alice widow of Thomas de Lydiate in
Lydiate in 1420 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet ol
Downholland ; she was non-suited ; As-
1323 claimed dower from Gilbert son of
F. bdle. 5, m. 15.
size R. 408, m. ii.
Thomas de Lydiate, Richard son of Ro-
is Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2, m. xj :
11 Ibid. m. 59</.
bert de Gildhouse and Richard his son,
Margery was a daughter of Henry de Wol-
• In 1 304 Maud, late the wife of
Robert and William sons of Adam de
fall. Robert son of Thomas de Lydiatf
Richard son of Robert de Lydiate, claimed
Orshaw, and many others ; De Bane. R.
was defendant in a suit brought by Otet
5 acres of land from Simon son of Simon
248, m. 157.
de Halsall in the following year, but not
de Lydiate and Adam Blundel. Simon
» A»size R. 426, m. 6.
prosecuted ; Assize R. 435, m. 28.
202
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
possession. Their defence was that she was a bastard,
and the matter was referred to the bishop for inquiry.1
From this time the 'junior manor' disappears from
view.2 John de Lydiate had suits later with Otes de
Halsall,3 Robert de Wolfall,4 and Adam Tyrehare,
a chaplain and trustee,5 concerning various claims as to
lands in Lydiate.
One other family may be noticed at this point.
Simon son of Richard de Ince in 1306 claimed from
William del Halgh of Lydiate a tenement in the latter
place.6 William del Halgh enfeoffed William Blundell,
clerk, of his holding in Lydiate and Maghull, who re-
enfeoffed him and his wife Anabel, with remainder to
John their son and his wife Agnes. John died, leaving
an infant daughter Isabel, who in 1359 claimed it from
Henry de Bickerstath of Aughton, senior, his wife
Agnes (Isabel's mother,) and others.7
John de Lydiate's daughter and heir Katherine
married Robert son of John de Blackburn of Garston ;
and as a release to his father of lands received from him
in Downham and Much Woolton was made by Robert
in 1389," the marriage probably took place then.
There were at least two children — a son born about
1400 and a daughter Agnes, eventually the heir of both
father and mother.9 She married Thomas, a younger
son of Sir John de Ireland of Hale, who thus became
lord of Garston and Lydiate.
Katherine the heiress seems to have died in I435.10
Her grandson Lawrence Ireland, son of Thomas,
would then come into possession of the manor. He
was a minor, and his mother had in 1433 married as
her second husband David de Standish. He married
Katherine, daughter of Henry Blundell of Little
Crosby, and by her had a son and heir John, who in
March, 1 469, is described as ' lord of Garston,' so that
his father Lawrence probably died before that time.11
John Ireland of Lydiate, who married Beatrice
daughter of William Norris of Speke, died in May,
1514, holding the manor of Lydiate of Sir Thomas
Butler by the tenth part of a knight's fee ; it was
worth 10 marks annually. He also held the manor
of Garston and lands in Downham, Allerton, Wool-
ton, Halewood, and West Derby, which were the
Gules, a hunting spear in
bend head downwards or,
between six Jleurt de Us
dure engrailed of the second
charged luith ten pellets.
HALSALL
Blackburn inheritance, the annual value being a little
over 14 marks. George, his sen and heir, was forty-
seven years of age."
George Ireland held the manors for some twenty
years,13 being succeeded about
1535 by his son Lawrence, who
in 1540 made an exchange
of lands with Thomas Lydiate
of Lydiate.14 In 1539-40 he
had a grant of lands in Garston
from Thomas Ireland of the
Hutt, and four years later he
surrendered all his lands in
Garston and the neighbour-
hood to Sir William Norris
of Speke, receiving the Norris
lands in Lydiate and Maghull
in part compensation.15 About
the same time he purchased
from Thomas Holt of Gristle-
hurst that portion of the pos-
sessions of Cockersand Abbey which lay in his own
neighbourhood — in Lydiate, Thornton, Melling, and
Cunscough ; and in 1546 he acquired Eggergarth
from the Scarisbricks.16
He died in March 1566, holding the manor of
Cunscough of the queen in chief; the manor of
Lydiate of Thomas Butler of Warrington by the
twentieth part of a knight's fee, paying a rent of
5*. 4£/, the clear value being 40 marks ; the manor
of Eggergarth of the same Thomas Butler, as the
twentieth part of a knight's fee, paying 71., the value
being £ 1 1 ; also lands in Aughton of the earl of Derby.
His son and heir was William Ireland, who was forty-
six years of age.1'
William Ireland died about three years after his
father. In 1567 he granted the reversion of Cun-
scough and Eggergarth to Gilbert Halsall and William
Ireland,18 his youngest son, for ninety-nine years. He
had a dispute with his younger brother George of
Gray's Inn, who claimed everything under a feoftrnent
made by their father.19 A pedigree was recorded in
1567.'° The inquisition after his death records only
1 Assize R. 435, m. 33 d.
* The surname Lydiate remained com-
mon in the township ; Lydiate Hall, z6.
Boniface IX in 1394 granted a dispen-
sation for the marriage of Robert son of
Richard Lydiate and Joan daughter of
Henry Simson of Halsall, Robert having
had illicit intercourse with Agnes Blundell,
who was related to Joan in the fourth de-
gree ; Lichfield Epis. Reg. vi, fol. looA.
A pardon was granted to Thomas
Lydiate in 1403-4 ; a feoffment by John
mother was still living and in lawful
possession.
8 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 25. Katherine
de Lydiate married, as her second husband,
Nicholas, son of Robert de Parr ; and in
1415 it was reported that she was of un-
sound memory and mind, and in this con-
dition had alienated to Ralph de Parr all
her hereditary lands in Lydiate, worth £8
per annum; Lanes, Inq.p. m. (Chet. Soc.),
i, 102.
9 See the account of Garston.
80 when he died. See Duchy of Lane.
Pleadings, Eliz. Ixxxiv, S. 22. He placed
a stained window in Sefton church.
W Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xi, „. 33.
The inquisition recites arrangements for
younger sons— an annuity of 5 marks for
George and the like for Lawrence, both
of them living at Wigan in 1566 ; and a
general feoffment, the remainders being
in succession to George Ireland his
younger son for life, and then to Lawrence,
eldest son of William Ireland (eldest son
and his son Thomas was re-enfeoffed in
1480; Add. MS. 32108, n. 1512, 1466,
1465.
8 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4 (1355),
m. 24 d.
« Assize R. 438, m. 14, and Duchy of
Lane. Assize R. 7, m. 2(1358-9). The
descent is given thus — Robert son of
William Diotson (or Dicceson) de Wol-
fall.
"De Bane. R. 457 ('375), <". iS6<t.
Adam Tyrehare was executor of the will
of John de Wolfall of Lydiate in 1361 ;
Assize R. 441, m. 3.
• De Bane. R. 158, m. 269^; 161, m.
426.
' Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 7, m. i.
The claim failed, apparently because her
1435 ; Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App.
38.
" By a deed of ,45. Lawrence con-
firmed a grant of land by Robert de
Wolfall alias Lydiate to Henry dc Scaris-
brick and John de Aughton; Gibson,
op. cit. 28.
"Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv,n. .6.
18 He did homage to the lord of War-
rington on 18 March, 1514-5; a year
later he paid his relief of 101. ; Misc.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 32.
» Gibson, op. cit. 29.
15 Norris D. (B.M.).
« Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 29-31. He
had the reputation of attending to the
his neighbours. He was considered about
203
his heirs male, to John Ireland and to
Thomas Ireland, younger sons of William.
William was to have for life the manor-
house of Lydiate, the mill, &c., and the
demesne of Eggergarth, paying £10 a
year to George.
18 Afterwards of Nostell Priory, Yorks.
19 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz.
Ixxii, 17.
» Visit, of 1 567 (Chct. Soc.), : Z2. In
disputes after his death it was stated that
the second wife (Eleanor, daughter of
Roger Molyneux of Hawkley) brought no
dower, and that he had made no pro-
vision for the children of his first mar-
riage, but a liberal one for William, who
was the son of Eleanor ; Duchy of Lane.
Pleading,, Eliz. xcii, I,,.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
a messuage and land in Cunscough, in the tenure of
Thomas Tatlock, held of the queen in chief by the
service of the sixtieth part of a knight's fee, the value
being ^^>s. \d. Lawrence Ireland, his son and heir,
was eighteen years of age.1
The heir was engaged in many lawsuits.2 He
died 6 May, 1609, leaving a widow and ten young
children, for whose benefit he had in 1605 enfeoffed
Sir Richard Molyneux and others, of Lydiate Hall,
Lydiate chapel near the manor-house, the dove-house,
barns, &c. Lydiate and Eggergarth are stated in the
inquisition to be held of Thomas Ireland of Warring-
ton in socage by the rent of a rose yearly, their value
being £5 clear ; he also had tenements in Cunscough,
Melling, Aughton and Maghull.3
Edward Ireland, his son by his second wife Mary
Scarisbrick, was his heir, but only sixteen years of
age, and his wardship was granted by James I to
Barnaby Molyneux and Hugh Nelson.4 He was
twice married ; by his first wife he had two daughters ;
by his second — Margaret Norris, a granddaughter of
Edward Norris of Speke — he had a son and heir
Lawrence.5 He died on I April, 1637,° and the
inventory of his property has been preserved.7
His son and heir Lawrence was only about three
years of age,8 and was still under age in 1651, when
his mother Margaret sent a petition to the Parlia-
mentary Commissioners touching the sequestration of
his estate. Like many others of his faith he was
sent to one of the colleges abroad to be educated.
On account of religion two-thirds of the Ireland
estate was sequestered, and the widow was allowed a
fifth in 1651, to be increased to a third should she
prove that she was not a delinquent ; ' Gilbert Ireland
of the Hutt, a distant relative and a strong partisan
of the Parliament, was made guardian. Mr. Ambrose,
the Parliament's agent, ' had given reasons which
induced him to believe that young Mr. Ireland was
being brought up in popery ; namely, that his mother
demanding from him how her son should be main-
tained, he answered that if she would please he should
be brought up in the Protestant religion he might be
provided for according to his rank and quality, she re-
plied "she had rather see him hanged" ; that he could
never hear of him going to church, but that he had been
kept secret and conveyed from one papist's house to
another, whereof Mr. Ditchfield, a papist at Ditton, was
one ; and that it had then lately been given out that he
had been sent beyond the seas, where Mr. Ambrose
believed he then was.' It was replied that he had
been educated at Oxford,10 and only sent abroad by
licence from the Council of State. Colonel Gilbert
Ireland refused to stir ; ' he had heard they were
about to marry him (Lawrence) with Mr. Ditchfield
of Ditton's daughter, an arch-papist, signifying his
dislike thereof.' It appears therefore that the widowed
mother secured no better terms."
Lawrence came of age in 1655, in which year he
granted a lease of Cunscough Hall to John Tatlock.
He married, about the beginning of 1658, Anne,
daughter of Edward Scarisbrick, but she died within
six years, leaving two daughters, Margaret and
Katherine. In 1 664 he settled his estates on his elder
daughter and her heirs, with remainder to the younger
daughter and her heirs, and further remainders ;
gave the children into the guardianship of his mother,
and for himself sought admission into the Society of
Jesus. He made his profession in 1666, and was
ordained priest, but there is little further record of
his career,'* and his only connexion with Lydiate was
his settling a messuage in the place upon his younger
daughter Katherine in 1673 ; she afterwards became
i Duchy of Lane. Inq.
25-
5 The settlement of the estates he
nade provided that in case of failure of
are interesting ; they begin with * one
tree framed for a milne post, and one top
a The Elizabethan persecution added
male issue, they should go to John Ire-
of a tree with broken wood upon the hill,
recusant in 1584, and in 1590 was among
those ' in some degree of conformity yet
in general note of evil affection in
religion.' Two years later George Ding-
ley, a priest who had turned informer,
thus reported : ' Mr. Ireland of Lydiate
hath not only relieved me and Seminary
priests before the late statute of 27
[Eliz.], at his own house, but has also
sons. The trustees received formal seisin,
as the endorsement testified, ' in the dining
chamber in the hall of Lydiate, being
parcel of land within mentioned, in the
name of all the manors and lands within
mentioned, to the within named Henry
Mossock [of BickerstafFe], James Halsall
[of Altcar], and Richard Formby [jun.,
of Formby],' in the presence of Robert
eluded an old vial, a pair of broken
virginals, ox yokes and bows, horse collars,
hemp traces, and millstones. The goodi
specially bequeathed to his son are duly set
out, and provide the names of some of the
chambers— the dining chamber, great
chamber, hall chamber, little chamber (or
Mistress Clive chamber), buttery chamber,
Crosby since the same statute, by sitting
at the table with us, and I verily think
he relieved the said Forde or Forthe.
He is of very good living.' In 1598 he
His will, made a week before his death,
expressed the desire that his body should
be buried as near as possible to his father's
resting-place in Halsall church. To his
series, squirrel chamber, ward chamber,
' rowling ' chamber, great parlour, green
parlour, servants' chamber, cellar, hall,
kitchen, buttery, larder, brewhouse,
for Her Majesty's service in Ireland. See
Gibson, op. cit. 35, 36; also 227, 245,
259.
8 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
and Ches.), i, 1 26-9 Will and inventory
are at Chester. The tenure recorded
shows that Lydiate had been enfranchised.
4 Two brothers of Edward Ireland's
entered the English College in Rome.
Alexander, the elder, on entering it in
1626 stated that he 'was converted from
heresy through his eldest brother and sent
to St. OmerV; he became a Jesuit.
Thomas, who entered in 1633, stated that
two of his brothers were priests ; he had
been • brought up among Catholics till
ten years of age ; living among Protes-
tants he imbibed their heresy, but was
afterwards restored to the orthodox faith ' ;
Foley, Rtc. S. J., vi, 310, 330.
bowl, household goods, including all the
brewing vessels ; ' also all the armour
with the clock and the drum,' and box
containing money, &c. The residue of
his property was to be divided into three
equal parts, one for his wife, the other
two for his daughters, who were to share
equally. A third daughter (Mary) was
born before the date of the codicil,
20 March, in which she is mentioned.
6 He paid £10 on declining knight-
hood in 1631 ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 213.
1 Printed by Gibson, op. cit. 36-43.
Beds and other furnishings included look-
ing-glasses, brushes, and a cradle. Kitchen
furniture included 'wooden bottles,' an
ark, two spinning-wheels, two hair cloths
for the kiln, churn, cheese-press, and
salting tubs. The miscellaneous goods
204
stocks (sometimes more than one) in
each of the chambers, parlours, and
nurseries, except the hall chamber,
squirrel chamber, and rolling chamber.
The armour consisted of three corselets,
three musketeers complete, together with
a drum and the ' furniture ' complete for
a light horse.
8 He was born 23 May, 1634, according
to William Blundell ; Cavalier's Nott
Book, 277.
'Her offence was 'recusancy only';
her son was, of course, too young to
have taken part in the war had he been
in England.
"> His name is not in Foster's Alumni
Oxon.
11 Royalist Cornp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iv, 14-23.
» Foley, Rec. S. J. vii, 394.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
HALSALL
a nun at Dunkirk. He died at York, 30 June, 1673.
His mother survived him, being buried at Halsall in
1695.'
The manor of Lydiate now went to Charles
Anderton,3 who had married Lawrence Ireland's elder
daughter. He had first to meet claims to the estates
by William Ireland, brother of his wife's grandfather
Edward, and by William's son Francis ; these claims
were based on a feoffment made by Lawrence Ireland
(d. 1609), the father of Ed-
ward and William, but never
executed. It is not certain
whether Charles Anderton ever
resided at Lydiate ; on suc-
ceeding his father in 1678 he
lived at Lostock, and Lydiate
was leased to Thomas Lydiate ;
old Mrs. Ireland lived in part
of it.3 He died in 1691. His
eldest son Charles was then at
St. Omer's, where he died in TOCK. Sable, three
1705, being succeeded by his shack-bolts argent.
brother James. The manors
of Lydiate, Melling, Cunscough, and Eggergarth
and other Ireland lands were in this year settled to
the use of his mother Dame Margaret for life, with
remainders to Francis and to his brother Joseph in
tail male ; then to his sister Mary, the wife of Henry
Blundell of Ince Blundell. James, the legal owner,
had entered the Society of Jesus in 1703, and drew
a pension of £50 from the family estates ; he died
in 1710, having in 1708 executed a conveyance in
order to enable his younger brother Francis to make
a marriage settlement.*
Francis Anderton took part in the rising of 1715,
and was taken to London and condemned ; * he was
pardoned, but the forfeited estates were recovered by
an elder brother Lawrence, who had been a Bene-
dictine, renouncing his vows and his religion in 1724.
He died very shortly afterwards, and by his will left
his estates to his brother's children, with remainder to
the Blundells. Under this will the Blundells of Ince
Blundell succeeded to the Lydiate manors and estates
after the death of Sir Francis Anderton in 1760.
Sir Francis, after his pardon, had lived very quietly
at Lydiate Hall, devoting himself to country sports,
and especially to cock-fighting.6
A very singular dispute followed his death without
issue. By the will of his brother, as stated, the
Blundells of Ince Blundell were the heirs to the
Anderton properties ; but Dame Margaret, who died
in 1720, had also by her will made a settlement of
the Lydiate estates as follows : ' As for and concerning
my manors or lordships of Lydiate, Melling, Cun-
scough, Eggergarth, Aughton, Maghull, and Aintree,
&c., I do hereby give, devise, and bequeath the same
unto Nicholas Starkie, his heirs and assigns for ever,
and to and for no other use, intent, trust, or purpose
whatsoever.' Mr. Starkie was a lawyer of good
repute, who though a Protestant had long been con-
cerned in her affairs.11 Her desire was to secure the
estate for her son Francis, but as he had been con-
victed of high treason to have named him directly
would only have led to forfeiture. After Lawrence
Anderton's death a settlement was drawn up in
accordance with Dame Anderton's known wishes. Her
daughter Mrs. Blundell, then a widow, refused to sign
it, on account of a clause indemnifying Mr. Starkie ; the
latter, who was receiving the rents and was apparently
the legal owner, could not see his way to relinquish
the clause, but after some negotiation and the payment
of £1,000 he in 1728 made over the Lydiate estates
to three trustees, his son being one, for the use of
Sir Francis Anderton during life and then to the
heirs of his body, all mention of the Blundells being
omitted. Mrs. Blundell and Mr. Starkie died before
Sir Francis ; and Robert Blundell of Ince, as heir, was
met by the claims of Edmund Starkie the son, the
only surviving trustee, who insisted that Dame
Anderton had made an absolute gift to his father, of
which he intended to avail himself, the allowance to
Sir Francis having been an act of compassion to him
personally. The Blundells, however, took possession,
but it is supposed they had to compensate Edmund
Starkie by a heavy payment.8 Since that time the
manor of Lydiate has descended with Ince Blundell.9
The Halsalls of Halsall preserved an interest in
Lydiate, derived perhaps in part from Alan de Lydiate
of Halsall. In 1414 Archdeacon Henry de Halsall
acquired a quarter of the manor from Owen de
Penerith and Joan his wife ; the origin of their title
is unknown.10 Seven or eight years later (1422)
Sir Gilbert de Halsall bought lands there from
William Fletcher of Lydiate and Joan his wife." At
the death of Henry Halsall in 1472 he was said to
have held half the manor, but the tenure is not
stated." Sir Thomas Halsall, who died in 1539, is
stated to have held the ' manor ' of Lydiate by the
tenth part of a knight's fee.13 In the next inquisition,
in 1575, the lands in Lydiate and Eggergarth are said
to be held of Lawrence Ireland.14
The Molyneux family bought small parcels of land
here as early as the fifteenth century. Sir William
Molyneux in 1543 acquired from Sir William Norris
a fourth part of the manor of Formby in exchange
for lands in Lydiate 16 and Maghull. Then at the
beginning of 1561, John, son of Sir Edward
Warren, and Sir Richard Molyneux agreed to take
all the Halsall lands in Lydiate, charged with
20^. payable to the chief lord, in exchange for the
fourth part of the manor of Formby ; the 20^. was
divided into f)d. and I id. to correspond with the
purchasers' shares.16 In 1595 Edward Warren, son
of John, sold his share of Lydiate to Sir Richard
1 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 45-8. A lease
of Lydiate Hall in 1671 mentions the
dovecote, little kilncroft, haugh by
Holland's house, pool brook, and Wolfall's
copy ; ibid. 47.
» Eldest son of Sir Francis Anderton,
baronet, of Lostock and Anderton.
8 Gibson, op. cit. 63-5. « Ibid. 65-6.
6 In 1717 Dame Margaret Anderton,
as daughter and heir of Lawrence Ireland,
and a 'Papist,' registered her estate at
Lydiate and Aughton, as of the value of
^48 6 ; Eng. Cath. Nonjurors, 114.
« Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 68-71, 80-3.
In the leases granted by him there was
always a stipulation with the tenant for
the 'keeping of a cock/ The model
of a tench caught by him is still preserved
at the hall.
7 To choose a Protestant friend and
give him the property with a secret trust
was a course often pursued in such cases
in the times of the penal laws.
8 Gibson, op. cit. 71-80, 131-2.
' The hall is described in Trans. Hist.
Soc. iii, 78, and (New Ser.), x, 107.
205
10 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 5, m.
44. Their holding may have been the
•junior manor 'already named.
« Ibid. m. 5. This Sir Gilbert is men-
tioned in the account of Halsall.
14 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 90.
18 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, n. 13.
The principal under-tenant was Nicholas
Lydiate, who had the Gildhouses and
other lands. " Ibid, xiii, n. 34.
15 Croxteth D. Genl. i, 79.
" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 23,
m. 22, 32.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Molyneux;1 and in 1623, at the inquisition after
Sir Richard's death, he was said to have held the
' manor ' of Lydiate and various lands there, but the
jury did not know by what services.* It remained in
the possession of the family till the end of the
eighteenth century, when it was sold as 'the moiety
of the manor,' to Henry Blundell of Ince, who thus
became sole lord ; the price paid was £460.
neux of Sefton, out of his covetous mind and mali
towards Sir Henry Halsall, had caused Katheri
Male to claim them in the wapentake court, where
William Molyneux was steward, and the twelve
suitors who tried the case were his tenants and forced
to do as he told them." A little later Sir Henry
Halsall made further complaint as to this aggression.13
It was in respect of Eggergarth that Sir Thomas
EGGERGARTH is not mentioned by name in Butler early in the reign of Henry VIII claimed the
wardship of Thomas son and heir of Gilbert Scaris-
brick from the earl of Derby ; by the first award the
In the survey of 1212 it is custody of the manor was allowed, but about 1517
le Boteler had given the two the wardship of the heir was confirmed to the earl,
and the custody of the manor was transferred to him,
Sir Thomas receiving £40
Domesday Book, being at that time probably included
in Halsall. Like Halsall and Lydiate it formed part of
the Warrington fee. In the survey of
stated that Richard
oxgangs in Eggergarth to Matthew de Walton by
knight's service (one-fortieth of a fee), and that Henry
son of Gilbert was holding it at the date mentioned.3
Henry de Walton granted to the monks of Cocker-
sand a ridding in Eggergarth.'
William de Walton and William de Lydiate held
Eggergarth and Lydiate of the heir of Emery le
Boteler in 1 242 for the tenth part of a knight's fee.5
In 1355 Gilbert de Scarisbrick was holding it of the
lord of Warrington,6 and it continued in this family
until, as stated above, it was purchased about 1 546 by
Lawrence Ireland from James Scarisbrick, possession
being given in I547-7 The delay in payment of the
purchase money caused much disputing, the matter
remaining unsettled for twenty years.8 From this
time Eggergarth has descended with Lydiate, in
which it has become merged, though mentioned
separately in inquisitions and settlements.
It seems to have possessed a mill from early times,
situated on the brook dividing it from Lydiate proper.
William son of Benedict de Lydiate in 1296 granted
\s. of annual rent from the mill to Gilbert son of
Richard de Halsall ; 9 and four years later contention
having arisen between Sir William le Boteler, Adam
de Pulle and Alice his wife on the one part, and Gil-
bert son of Gilbert de Halsall on the other, respecting
the diversion of the course of the Alt,10 which flowed
to the injury of a certain mill in Eggergarth and
Lydinte, an agreement was in June, 1298, made for
a diversion of the course.11 The Halsall lands in
Lydiate adjoining the brook were in dispute early in
the reign of Henry VIII, when Nicholas Longback,
tenant of Sudell Close, complained that William Moly-
compensation."
Robert Blundell in 1598 asserted that from time
immemorial the lord of Ince Blundell and his ser-
vants and tenants and all the people of the manor
had had a right of way from Ince, over Alt Bridge
and through Altcar, and thence ' through Lydiate to
certain lands called Eggergarth, and thence to
Aughton, and so to Ormskirk church and the market,
and back again the same way by and near to a water-
mill in Eggergarth.' Of late the tenant of Lawrence
Ireland had stopped plaintiff's servants and tenants
near the mill, on their way to the market, and told
them that in future they would not be allowed to pass
through Eggergarth.15
The Orshaw family appears from time to time.
In 1529 Henry son and heir of Richard Orshaw,
deceased, complained that Thomas Halsall and others
had ousted him from his free holding in Lydiate. It
appeared that the lands had been bought in 1520 by
Sir Henry Halsall and given to found a chantry in
Halsall church.16
Families in the neighbouring townships also held
lands in Lydiate, as the Maghulls, Molyneuxes, and
Walshes, but the only freeholders recorded in 1600
were Lawrence Ireland and Lydiate.17 Descen-
dants of the Molyneuxes of Melling were settled here
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.18
James Dennett of Lydiate registered in 1717 a
small estate in Cunscough and Sutton ; his son James
became a Jesuit.19 Among the returns of ' Papists'
Estates ' at the same time occurs the name of James
Pye of Lydiate, yeoman.20
1 Croxteth D. bdle. S ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 59, m. 327.
1 Land. Inij. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Che*.), iii, 39°-
pavment. The matter was left in doubt
between the executors of the three parties
—Scarisbrick, Molyneux, and Ireland ;
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxxxix,
right of way still exists in connexion
with it, the Scarisbrick estate receiving a
small acknowledgement from the owner
of the adjoining property for the use of a
may be the 'Matthew son of Rich-
ard' written over the entry 'Adam de
Walton ' in the Pipe Roll of 1203-4, one
mark having been received from him for
the scutage levied at 2$ marks for a
knight's fee ; Lanes, fife R. 179.
4 Cockersand Cbartut. ii, 541.
s Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 147. The
moved in conscience,' set apart £63 in
goods to meet part of the claim, but his
son William had refused to hand them
over ; also S. 10, and Ixxxiv, S. 7, S. 22.
9 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 143, «. 65.
10 The Sudell or Lydiate Brook.
« Gibson (op. cit. i 3, 14), remarks : ' It
road (from a point nearly opposite the
ruined chapel) towards the mill ; Gibson,
op. cit. 15.
>« Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 174-9. See deeds in
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 262, etc. n. 91,
117.
V Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 238-9.
10 plough-lands made one fee.
6 Feud. Aids, iii, 90. A grant of land
in Eggergarth to Henry Walsh made by
Gilbert Scarisbrick is given in Kuerden
MSS. ii, fol. 262, n. 35.
7 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 2,
made nearly 600 years ago. It extends
about 200 yards on a right line to the
site where the mill formerly stood, and is
still useful for turning a mill for churn-
ing.'
had a son Othniel, who died in 1731, and
bequeathed the bulk of his property in
Lydiate and Maghull to the Society of
Friends. Henry's sister Jane married
John Torbock of Sutton, also a Quaker ;
8 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 30. Lawrence
Ireland becoming 'old, impotent, and
almost senseless,' entrusted the manage-
ment of his property to his son William,
who induced William Molyneux of Sefton
to pay part of the money (probably the
balance), and entered into a bond for re-
18 Duchy Pleadings. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 157; the date should be
9 Hen. VIII (as at the end).
» Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Hen. VIII,
iii, B. 3.
14 Ibid. Eliz. clxxx, B. 22. A curious
206
from Alice Molyneux, a granddaughter of
Henry's brother Robert, various proper-
ties in West Derby. He died in 1805.
« Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, 108 ; Foley,
Rec. S. J. vii, 200.
*> Lanes, and Cbes. Rec. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 194.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
In 1530 the Hospitallers received a rent of zJ.
from the heirs of Kirkby for Hollins Acre in Lydiate.1
In connexion with the Established Church St.
Thomas's was erected in 1839 5 a district was formed
in 1871.' The rector of Halsall presents.
Lydiate Hall was originally a quadrangular building
enclosing a small court, but the eastern range of build-
ings was destroyed about 1 780. The other three sides
still remain, but the house is empty and dismantled,
and in spite of some amount of repair not many years
ago, is rapidly falling into decay. This is all the more
to be deplored because the chief rooms, the hall and
great chamber, have been but little altered since they
were first built, and preserve several charming pieces of
detail. The exterior is very picturesque, with its
panelling and bands of quatrefoils of white plaster set
in black wood, and the grey stone roofing slates make
HALSALL
on which are three roses. The entrance door is
probably original, closely studded with nails after the
fashion of many others in old Lancashire houses, and
immediately to the left on entering is the door of the
hall with Lawrence Ireland's initials in the spandrels of
the arched head The hall has a flat ceiling with
moulded beams, and is lighted by a continuous row of
windows on east and west. It has a large masonry
fireplace at the north end on the line of the screen,
probably an early sixteenth-century addition to the
plan. At the south end is the canopy over the dais,
a plaster cove panelled with wooden ribs, having
carved bosses at the intersections. On the bosses are
a variety of devices of which some are armorial, but
many seem to be merely decorative. Among them are
two with the initials J. I. and B. I., for John Ireland
and Beatrice (Norris) his wife. He died in 1514, and
LYDIATE HALL FROM THE EAST
of the
an agreeable contrast to the varied patte
walls.
The house is of two stor
west wing, with a range of rooms over it, while the
great chamber is to the south, and the kitchen wing
to the north. The destroyed east wing is said to
have been the oldest part of the house, and stone
built, but unfortunately nothing is left of it. What
remains is of timber and plaster on a low stone base,
and its earliest part seems to belong to the end of
the fifteenth century, having probably been built by
Lawrence Ireland, whose initials are on the door-
the date of the canopy is probably a few years before
this. It is a beautiful and valuable example of its
, the hall occupying the kind, but in the present neglected state of the house,
is in no small danger of damage.
An earlier example from Boultons in West Derby
parish is now set up in safety in the Liverpool
Museum.
At the west end of the da'i's was formerly a project-
ing bay, now destroyed, and the opening to it blocked
up ; while at the east end is a projection balancing
the porch at the other end of the hall, and containing
the stair to the chamber on the first floor. In the
way from the hall into the screens ; he was living south-east corner of the hall is a door to th
about 1 470. The screens are at the north end of the the ground floor of the south wing, which now contains
hall, and are entered through a projecting porch, little of interest except two good late seventeenth-
altered in the eighteenth century, and bearing the century fireplaces.
Anderton arms, above which is a small room with a and in the hall,
three-light window, setting forward on carved brackets century panelling
In the larger of these rooms,
the sixteenth and seventeenth-
hich formerly lined their walls
1 Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84.
' Land. Caz. z8 Mar. 1871 ; endowments, 3 Oct. 1845, and
31 Jan. 1873.
is carelessly stacked, at the mercy of any chance
comer who may see fit to carry ofF anything that
takes his fancy.
207
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The great chamber has a ceiling panelled with
moulded wooden beams and light ribs crossing the
panels diagonally, the beams being slightly cambered.
This room has been lined with sixteenth-century
wainscot, full of good detail, and in it were inserted
two elaborately carved panels with figures in low re-
lief said to represent Henry VIII and his wives. Only
one of these panels now remains, leaning against the
wall.
The rest of the south wing is gutted, and ends in a
plain brick gable.
The north wing has been nearly rebuilt, and re-
tains nothing of its old fittings, its eastern half being
now used as a farmhouse. On the north are some
picturesque brick farm buildings, built by Sir Francis
Anderton in 1744.
To the south of the hall in an open field stands
the ruined chapel called ' Lydiate Abbey.' It was
dedicated in honour of St. Catherine. Its plan is of
the simplest form, a rectangle 46 ft. 9 in. long by
1 6 ft. 4 in. wide, internal measurement, with a small
west tower. Weather and the arch-enemy of ancient
buildings, ivy, are slowly destroying its ruins. It
has had an east window of five lights, and four three-
light windows on the south side, with stepped but-
tresses between the windows, formerly capped by
pinnacles, which, with an embattled parapet, are
shown in Pennant's view, noted below. There are
no windows on the north side. There are north
and south doorways near the west end, with a south
porch, over the outer arch of which are the arms of
Ireland, and on the dripstones of the label the initials
LI and CI. There are stone seats on both sides of the
porch, and in the north-east angle is a holy-water
stone, while the remains of a niche and corbel,
formerly over the outer arch, lie near by. The
tower is of three stages with diagonal buttresses, and a
three-light west window. In the belfry stage are
two-light windows with tracery, and the tower has an
embattled parapet with angle pinnacles.
Parts of a broken altar-slab lie in the church,
enough remaining to show that the altar was 3 ft. 4 in.
high by 8 ft. 6 in. long and 2 ft. 6 in. wide.
The date of the building is probably fixed by the
initials on the porch of Lawrence Ireland, ob. before
1486, and Catherine (Blundell) his wife, though
the details would suggest a later date, especially the
absence of cusps in the window tracery.
Pennant thus describes it in 1773 : 'A small but
most beautiful building, with a tower steeple, with pin-
nacles and battlements venerably overgrown in many
parts with ivy." Gregson also notices the building,
but was of opinion it was never completed.1 This
however, is a mistake, fragments of stained glass and
roofing flags having been found within the walls.
The chapel was no doubt dismantled when the
worship for which it was erected was prohibited
by law. Four alabaster groups attributed to the
Nottingham school, and representing the story of
St. Catherine, probably formed the reredos ; they
were preserved at the hall, and are now in the pulpit
of the church opposite. An alabaster figure of
St. Catherine, which has been supposed to have occu-
pied the niche over the porch, has also been transferred
from the hall to the church.3 The interior of the
chapel was used for burial occasionally — five priests
lying there.4
No details are known as to the continuance or
revival of the Roman Catholic worship in Lydiate, but
Francis Waldegrave, S.J., was in residence at the hall
in 1 68 1. Margaret Ireland of Lydiate, widow, and
many others, occur in a list of recusants fined or
outlawed in i68o.5 The mission was served by
the Jesuits down to l86o,6 when the late Thomas
Ellison Gibson, a secular priest, was appointed.' He
was a diligent antiquary and author of the work
frequently quoted in this account — Lydiate Hall and
its Associations, issued in 1876. He also edited the
Cavaliers Note Book, Crosby Records, and N. Blunders
Diary. Edmund Powell, appointed in 1885, must
also be mentioned.8
Gregson in 1 8 1 6 records that ' the neighbourhood
still abounds with Catholic families, and mass is
regularly performed in the old hall.' ' This domestic
chapel has been superseded by the church of St. Mary
(commonly called 'Our Lady's'), built in 1854 by
the late Thomas Weld Blundell, and consecrated in
1892. A burial ground was opened in 1860. Be-
sides the alabaster groups and statue already mentioned
the church has the figure of a bishop seated (said to
have been brought from Halsall), a pre-Reformation
chalice, and an ancient processional cross. A roadside
cross, found buried in the neighbourhood in 1870,
has been erected as the cemetery cross.10
MELLING
Melinge, Dom. Bk. ; Melling, 1224, usual;
Mellinge, common ; Mellyngg and Mellyngge
1292.
graving of the chapel is given.
* Fragments (ed. Harland), 219; with
an engraving ; see also Gent. Aiag.
channel could be traced leading to the
position indicated ' ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall,
8 Ibid. 175-9. It! material makes
•He was born in Manchester in 1822,
and educated at Ushaw. Ordained in
pool, in the Fylde, and at Lydiate. He
tion of the fact of the chapel having been
used for Catholic worship was met with.
About six feet in front of the altar, and
about three feet from the surface, some
dark mould was found mingled with fine
sand, which had evidently been brought
there, as it did not belong to the natural
soil. . . On my mentioning the discovery
to the bishop (Dr. Goss) he at once re-
ferred it to the well for the deposit of the
sacrarium (or piscina), which it was cus-
tomary to place in front of the altar ; he
believed that a communication would be
found with the spot occupied by the
sacrarium on the south side. This con-
jecture proved to be correct, and a little
ill-suited for exposure to the weather.
4 The earliest record of a burial is of
Thomas Bell, who had turned informer,
and is dated about 1590 : ' Mr. Blundell,
of Crosby, kept many years one Small, a
Seminary priest, who at his death was
buried in the chapel of Lydiate, where
never was any buried before.' Christopher
Small had been fellow of Exeter Coll.
Oxf. till 1575 ; Short Account of Lydiate
(1893),' 8 ; quoted from the Archives of
the archdiocese of Westminster, iv, n. 38,
433-
4 Lydiate Hall, 284.
« An account of each will be found in
the work just quoted, 274-95.
208
died 29 January, 1891, at Birkdale, but
was buried at Lydiate. From the Memoir
(with portrait) in Liverpool Catb. Ann.
,892.
8 He was the son of a Liverpool corn
merchant; born in 1837, educated at
Everton, Eichstadt, and the English Col-
lege, Rome ; and ordained in the Lateran
Basilica, 1862 ; he laboured in Liverpool
and its neighbourhood. He was an an-
tiquary also, and edited the Scarisbrick
charters for the Historic Society's Trans-
action!. He died 26 Dec. 1901. There is a
memoir with portrait in Liverpool Catb.
Annual, 1903.
9 Fragments, 219.
lu Lanes, and Ches. Antij. Sac. xix, 168.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
This township has a total area of 2,137 acres;1
of which 1,395^ acres belong to Melling proper,
or the south-western half, and the remainder to
Cunscough ' in the north-east. The ground rises
gradually from the Alt, the western boundary, to-
wards the north-east, reaching 1 20 ft. near the centre
of the township, where is the hamlet of Melling
Mount. The hamlet of Waddicar is to the east of
Melling village. The church and its few attendant
buildings stand upon a slightly elevated knoll of
sandstone rock, whence the surrounding country
appears in a level panorama. Fields of corn, potatoes,
and varied market-garden produce make patches of
different colours on every hand, whilst trees and bushes
are of the scantiest description. The country in the
northern portion of the district is rather richer in ap-
pearance ; there are a few more trees than in the south.
The soil throughout is sandy and loamy and fertile.
The principal roads are the main road from Liver-
pool to Ormskirk, passing from Kirkby through Melling
Mount, and another but circuitous road connecting
the same places, coming from Aintree through the
village and thence to Maghull. The Leeds and
Liverpool Canal winds through the township. The
Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's railway from
Liverpool to Preston crosses the western corner.
The population in 1901 numbered 947.
There are stone pottery works and a gun-cotton
factory.
The township is governed by a parish council.
A cross is marked on the 1 848 map at Waddicar.
Among the field names here in 1779 were Knots-
field, Cannock, Meakins Hey, Dyers Carr, and
Poolers Meadow.
Godeve held MELLING in 1066 ; it
MANORS was rated at two plough-lands, and valued
at lo/. There was a wood a league in
HALSALL
length by half a league in breadth, measurements
agreeing fairly well with those of Cunscough. It was.
part of the privileged three-hide area, though physic-
ally separated from the main portion.3
A century later it was held in thegnage, paying a
rent of io/. to the king. Siward de Melling seems to-
have been tenant about that time ; his son Henry
was in possession in 1193, and having shared in the
rebellion of John count of Mortain, next year made
peace with King Richard, his fine being a mark.*
Several grants by Henry son of Siward de Melling
are recorded in the Cockersand chartulary.5 The
manor seems to have been divided with his brother
Thomas, who at the petition of his wife Maud made a
grant to the same house.6
The survey of 1212 records that Henry de Melling
held four plough-lands7 of the king. Thomas held one of
the plough-lands — the moiety of Melling referred to
in charters just cited — ' and the said Henry and
Thomas have given Northcroft and Hengarth and
Routhwaite, small cultures, to St. Mary of Cockersand
in alms.' 8
The notices of Melling in the thirteenth century
are scanty. Randle son of Adam de Quick, with the
consent of Alice his wife, granted the homage and
service of William son of Robert de Lund ; s Thomas
de Routhwaite quitclaimed all his right in three
selions lying between the land of St. James of Birken-
head and that of Amery son of the chaplain ; 10 William
son of Alan de Melling gave two ' lands ' to Cocker-
sand, one between the land of Robert de Molyneux
and the other in Melling Wood."
Henry de Melling died in or before 1225, when
his son Thomas paid the king 22/. as relief on succes-
sion to the four plough-lands." Besides Thomas his
' heir ' he mentioned his ' son ' Roger in one of the
Cockersand charters."
JThe Census Rep. of 1901 gives it
into it, and then across the field according
may be Randle de Melling, who, with Alice
2,119 acres, including 13 of inland water.
as land and wood separate between the
his wife, before 1256 granted to Henry
By an order of the Local Government
carr and the holt ; across on the south
de Lea two acres in Melling, with com-
Board a small detached portion of Mel-
side to another brook flowing down to
mon of pasture, to hold of them and the
this will account for the diminution.
end of Routhwaite on the south side ;
gillyflower ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
2 Or, Keniscough.
then across the field as the canons' crosses
and Ches.), i, 1 1 8.
8 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*.
show, and along the field as far as the
10 Ibid, ii, 542. This Amery son of
« Farrcr, Lanes. Pipe R. 78, 86. He
carr of Rouditch ; then as the carr and
Henry the chaplain held of the abbot land
paid J mark scutage in 1 201-2; ibid. 153.
field separate, as far as the crooked oak
with a messuage and gave it to John son of
' By one he gave, at the request of his
on the south side, across to two oaks and
Randle, who was to pay a rent of id. to
whole of Hengarth and all his part of the
the Sandwath; ibid, ii, 532.
11 Cockersand Chartul. ii, 543. Rouditch,
open land from Hengarthlache to the
Another of his charters mentions
Rudswain, and Pesehey ditch are men-
boundary of Bickerstaffe, with rights to
Aythwaite, Oylin's Syke and Stockbridge ;
tioned in it. Routhwaite is mentioned
common in his moiety of the vill ; it was
another Thorp and Westmoor. In
in a later plea (1265) when Nicholas de
given in free alms, quit of all secular ser-
another the Church lane is named ; ibid.
Melling, clerk, accused Thomas de Rou-
vice, for the souls of his father and mother;
•'» 533. 538, 539-
thwaite, William son of John de Melling,
Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 531.
Thomas de Melling made several grants
and Roger de Melling of having cut down
« It included all the land between the
which were duly confirmed or supple-
a tree in Nicholas's wood and then set
great street or highway and the boundary
mented by Henry. One of them mentions
upon the complainant and grievously
of Simonswood— which street crossed the
« the land of the church ' ; another Ful-
wounded him ; Cur. Reg. R. 195, m. 21 d.
Alt at the ford between Melling and
wath Shaw ; a third, the chapel and ' the
Other holders of land occur incidentally
Thorp, stretching as far as Hengarthlache ;
headland between the fall and the flats,'
in the Chartulary; in some cases the-
and all his part of the open land from this
while a fourth speaks of ' the road which
tenants and services in 1268 are noted in
lache to Bickerstaffe ; and in addition all
goes from Melling to Sefton ' ; ibid, ii,
the margin ; ibid, ii, 532, 535.
his part of Cunscough as far as the
boundaries of Aughton and Maghull, and
" Two were in Upholland.
« Pipe R. 9 Hen. Ill (69, m. 6 d.) •„
Excerfta e Rot. Fin. (Hen. Ill), i, 131.
from the latter by a boundary through the
8 Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
The relief was the same as the annual
moss to the lache named, with common
Lanes, and Ches.), 15.
service.
rights in his part of the vill. His brother
Some land in Melling was held by
18 Cockersand Cbartul. ii, 539 ; also 535.
Henry, as superior, confirmed this grant,
Birkenhead Priory, but the donor and the
Roger gave land in Hengarthslache to the
which he describes as Northcroft and half
date of gift are unknown. The priory
priory of Burscough, extending ' as far as
Cunscough; ibid, ii, 534.
had in 1535 a rent of is. 6d. in Melling ;
the abbot of Cockersand's cross upon
A later grant by Henry describes the
Vahr Eccl. ( Rec. Com.), v, 2 1 2. Part of
Hange Pool.' He was also a witness to
boundaries with some minuteness ; From
this land was afterwards held by Molyneux
the charter of the same priory by which
the western side of Routhwaite, where
of the Wood. For other small rents from
William de Melling gave a messuage with
the carr goes down to Sandwath Brook,
it see Pat. 4 & 5 Phil, and Mary, pt. xii.
its curtilage 'where the hall used to be' ;
along the brook to another which falls
» Cockersand Chartul. ii, 541. Randle
Dep. Reefer's Rep. xxxvi, App. 198-9.
3
209
27
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
For the next hundred years the succession is
uncertain. The heirs of Jordan de Hulton held
Melling, paying the ancient los. in 1297,' and in
the extent of the lands of Thomas earl of Lancaster
made in 1324 it is stated that ' Peter de Burnhull
(Brindle) holds the manor of Melling by the service
of los. for all services." Jordan de Hulton had
occurred in connexion with Melling in 1259-60,
when Henry de Melling claimed 8 marks from him,
the arrears of an annual half-mark due.8 There is
nothing to show how the manor passed to Jordan, or
to Peter de Burnhull.* Peter's two sisters were his
heirs — Joan, who married William Gerard of Kingsley
in Cheshire, ancestor of Gerard
of Bryn ; and Agnes, who mar-
ried another Cheshire man,
David de Egerton.4 The Eger-
tons disappear, and in the feo-
dary of 1483 it is stated that
'Thomas Gerard [and others]
hold Melling.' It is to be
noted, however, that the in-
quisitions relating to the Gerards
do not claim any ' manor ' there,
but only a rent of a few shil-
lings. Thus Sir Peter Gerard,
who died in 1446, had ;/. and
I $1. rents in Melling,6 and Sir Thomas Gerard in
1523 held land there of the king in socage worth
3/. clear.6
Although this succession is supported by the sheriff's
accounts, it is not quite satisfactory. The Byron
family or a branch of it had certain manorial rights
in Melling ; and as Jordan de Hulton, rector of War-
rington, is found to call Geoffrey de Byron 'my
cousin ' 7 it appears probable that their right origi-
nated through him." Again, the Molyneuxes of
Thornton had a fair estate here from an early time,
and claimed a share of the manor.9 In I 292 Robert
son of Robert de Molyneux appears as claimant of a
tenement against Henry son of Henry de Bootle, and
the latter Henry's widow Alice,10 and as defendant in
suits brought by William son of Adam de Sefton, the
' Demand ' of Sefton, as to tenements which he claimed
in right of his grandfather Award de Sefton. In one of
these claims, which included a share of the wood,
Robert de Byron was the other defendant." Robert de
Molyneux relied on a technical plea — that his mother
Margery held a third in dower ; but Robert de Byron
denied that Award was ever in possession, and the
plaintiff withdrew his claim.
Some years later (1300 onwards) Adam the
Forester of Melling made a number of claims against
various people of the vill," in respect of the inheri-
tance of his wife Anabil, daughter of Bernard son ot
Richard. One of these suits placed Robert de Byron,
Robert de Molyneux of Thornton, Margery late the
wife of Robert de Thornton first among the de-
fendants. Their defence was that they were lords of
the town of Melling, holding the waste in common ;
Adam the Forester had enclosed part of this waste,
and they had pulled down his hedge, as it was lawful
for them to do. The jury accepted this defence and
dismissed Adam's claim.13 Robert de Byron, Henry
and Nicholas de Bootle and others were in 1303
charged with assaulting one Henry de Moss, and
carrying him off to prison at Lancaster, for which he
claimed £1,000 damages."
Robert de Byron was succeeded by two daughters
— Isabel, who married Robert de Nevill of Hornby,
and Maud, who married William Gerard of Kingsley,
father of the William Gerard above mentioned."
The latter thus had a double right in Melling, by
his mother as well as by his wife. The Nevill share
descended with Hornby to the Harringtons, and in
the division of Sir John Harrington's 16 estate between
his two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne, Melling went
to the former. She married John Stanley, son and
heir of John Stanley of Weaver, in Cheshire (a
younger brother of the first earl of Derby)," and Jane,
Roger's estate seems to have been acquired
* Towneley MS. DD, 1465.
with Alice the Recluse of Melling, touch-
by the Byrons.
« Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 52.
ing a plea of debt.
sometimes described as son of Robert
919.
4<£ ; 423, m. I. See also De Bane. R.
rector of Halsall, made two grants. The
8 Prior Warin of Burscough (about
149, m. 348 ; 152, m. 87 d.
boundaries of one are thus described :
1280) granted to Robert de Byron and
13 Assize R. 420, m. \d.
From the land of Adam the brewer to the
Joan his wife for their homage and ser-
" Ibid. 42 1, m. i. Comparing the case.
clough of Northcroft on one side, and on
vice two selions formerly held by Richard
it seems that Robert de Byron (1292)
the other side all that piece of land between
del Halle of Kirkby j Def. Keeper's Ref.
had inherited or acquired the estate of
my land and Adam's, extending in length
xxxvi, App. 199.
Roger de Melling (1246).
from the water called Alt to Adam's field,
9 The 'land of Robert Molyneux' has
15 De Bane. R. 251, m. 160. See al»o
and 'having in breadth 4 perches faith-
been mentioned in one of the charters
De Bane. R. 220, m. 92 d. ; Nevill v .
fully measured by the rod of 24 feet,' with
quoted above. By a charter dated be-
Richard son of Adam Tatlock.
various common rights, and 'with honey
tween 1235 and 1240, William son of
In August, 1313, Robert de Nevill and
and hawks (mil) found there'; ibid, ii,
Simon de Molyneux granted to Richard
Isabel his wife took action against William
535, 540.
1 Latia. Inq. and Extent!, 288.
« Cur. Reg. R. 164, m. 2 d. Jordan
son of Richard de Thornton certain lands
with common rights, mast-fall for his pigs,
and timber and firewood in Melling ;
son of Roger de Melling in a plea of the
assize of mort d'ancestor. Hervey de
Melling and Henry his son, as also Henry
de Hulton may have purchased the manor
Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 46.
son of Roger de Melling, were concerned
from Henry.
In 1246 Simon de Wadacre (Waddicar),
in the case ; Assize R. 424, m. 4.
8 Before 1330. Peter, son of Peter de
William de Widnes, and others were found
In 1374 Henry de Chathirton, in right
Burnhull, is named among the kinsmen of
to have disseised Roger de Melling and
of Robert de Nevill, prosecuted Gilbert
Jordan de Hulton in 1292; Assize R.
Robert de Molyneux of one acre in
son of Otes de Halsall and others for
408, m. 37 rf.
Melling ; Assize R. 404, m. 8 d. Robert
taking cattle at Melling ; De Banco R.
« See Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby),
is also mentioned as holding land in 1276
456, m. 408. For a claim against this
ii, 628 ; he may be the David de Eger-
in connexion with a claim by the Aintree
Henry see Def. Keeper's Ref. xxxii, App.
ton who died in 1361 s.p. In 1348
family ; Assize R. 405, m. 4 ; De Bane.
354-
the sheriff rendered account of los.
R. 151, m. 148.
16 Killed at Wakefield in 1460.
from David de Egferton and William Ge-
10 Assize R. 408, m. 3zJ.
" Visit, of 1533 (Chet. Soc.), 1 66.
rard ; Duchy of Lane. Var. Accts. 32/17.
11 Ibid. m. 34 d. 68. There was another
He is elsewhere described as illegitimate
About 1400 it was found that the manor
claim by William the 'Judger' against
(Visit, of 1567); but John Stanley of
of Melling was held of Peter Gerard,
Byron and Molyneux ; ibid. m. 1 1.
Weaver certainly had a son and heir John
lately deceased, and he held it of the
Another case in the same roll (m. 98 </.)
living in 1476, though his brother Thomai
king in thegnage; Duchy of Lane.
may be mentioned— Richard prior of
succeeded to Weaver ; Ormerod, Cbes. (ed.
Mi»c. 2/6.
Burscough gave \od. for licence to agree
Helsby), iii. 574.
210
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
HALSALL
one of their three daughters and co-heiresses, brought
it to Sir Thomas Halsall, who died in 1539. His
widow afterwards married John Osbaldeston of Os-
baldeston, and died at this place 19 August, 1567.'
Inquisitions taken after the death of her son Henry
state that she held the manor of Melling and ten
messuages, 200 acres of land, &c., in Melling and
Liverpool. The manor was held of the queen by
knight's service, and was worth £4 clear. By inden-
ture and fine in 1566 the succession was arranged
to Henry Halsall and his heirs, or in default to Jane's
other children, or to her right heirs. Henry Halsall
accordingly succeeded to the manor, and on his death
in 1575 without issue — his grandson Cuthbert being
illegitimate — it passed to Maud, wife of Edward
Osbaldeston, one of the daughters of Dame Jane
Halsall, and to Bartholomew Hesketh as son and heir
of her other daughter Joan, who had married Gabriel
Hesketh, the former being thirty-six years and the
latter twenty-two.3 In 1587 Bartholomew Hesketh
purchased the Osbaldeston share,3 but no further
mention is made of it after 1598 * in the known in-
quisitions or settlements of this family, nor does any
claim seem to have been made to it.
The Molyneuxes of Sefton claimed a manor here
also. Sometimes it is described as Melling simply,
at others as ' half of Melling,' and at others is joined
with Lydiate. Sir William Molyneux purchased the
Swifts' share of Elizabeth Harrington's inheritance in
1521 and the Grimshaws' share in 1554.* In the
inquisition of 1623 'the manor of Melling' is said
to be held of the king by knight's service, viz. by
the tenth part of a fee.6 The family continued to
hold it down to the end of the eighteenth century,
when it was sold to John Foster for £1,050 ; eight
small chief-rents were payable, ranging from \d. to
is., and amounting to 5/. %d.
The manor-house in Melling now belongs to a
family named Cartwright.
A charter by Robert de Byron granted land in
Melling to Nicholas son of Henry de Bootle, at the
yearly rent of \d. ; and a further grant at the same
rent was made in 1 309.' Another charter granted
Adam son of Richard de Thorp land which Robert
de Brookfield formerly held, extending between Alt
and Melling Moor, and pannage of his pigs in the
common wood.8 This same Adam de Thorp had
from William son and heir of Henry de Lea a grant
of all his lands and tenements in Melling, including
the homage of Richard de Lund (with 8J. rent),
Adam del More, Robert de Byron (zd.), Richard son
of Robert ( I od.), and Amery the priest's son (6d.),
at the yearly rent of three grains of pepper.' In
1280 Baldwin de Lea granted all his lands in Melling
with various homages to William his son.10 In 1305
Emma de Aintree and her daughters Alice and
Margery, Alice de Parr, and others were charged
with having disseised Randle de Aintree and Hawise
his wife of their free tenement in Melling, but it was
found that the real holder was William son of Adam
Barret of Aintree, who had demised certain tene-
ments in Melling for a term of years to Gilbert the
brother of Emma, and that she had entered as
successor."
It thus appears that Melling was much divided
from early times, making its lordship somewhat un-
certain. Hence the vague expression of the extent
of 1346, 'all the tenants and abbot of Cockersand,'
is easily understood."
About the beginning of the fifteenth century the
Molyneux family of Thornton, who, as already shown,
had long claimed a manor,13 made Melling their
principal residence, their house being known as The
Wood, or Hall of the Wood. Robert de Molyneux,
the first described as ' of Melling,' " had a son John
who married Agnes daughter of Henry Blundell of
Crosby,15 and was succeeded by his son Robert and
his grandson John.16 The latter's son and heir
Robert died 5 July 1541, leaving a son and heir
John, then aged twenty-three, and younger children.1'
1 See Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 28,
m. 15.
3 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii, n. 34 ;
Anne, who married John Swift, and
Margaret, who married Thomas Grim-
8 Croxteth D. • Ibid. U. ii, 2.
10 Ibid. U. ii, 3. The Lea interest
was probably derived from the grant by
Randle de Melling. Baldwin de Lea
Robert Molyneux occurs in 1456;
Blundell of Crosby D., K. 33.
The younger John was a collector of
the fifteenth in ,5,1-12, and found it
died about 1288. The Feodary of 1483
and the victims in revenge, while he was
MS. 32,05,^.8,3.
Margaret Grimshaw, widow, died in
1549, holding the third part of 34 mes-
suages, ,,ooo acres of land, &c., 8
•oppells' of a horse-mill and a water-
mill in Melling, Aintree, and Liverpool.
All was held of the king by the third part
of a knight's fee, and 41. $£d. rent. The
heir was her son Richard, forty-six years
of age ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. ix,
» Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 49, m.
4 Ibid. bdle. 60, m. 1 3 9. Pal. of Lane.
Plea R. 245, m. 6, recites the settle-
ment ; John Pooley demanding certain
messuages, &c. in 1579. It may be
noticed that though the Halsalls had re-
tained no right in it Sir Cuthbert pro-
fessed to sell the manor of Melling in
1623 ; ibid. bdle. ,02, m. 63.
6 car. in Melling by the king's charter ;
but this is an error.
11 Assize R. 420, m. 3 d. Another
case shows that Emma had had three
brothers— Henry, Gilbert, and Robert.
13 Survey of 1346 (Chet. Soc.), 34.
18 The names of a number of tenants
are given in a plea for dower in , 343 by
Agnes widow of Robert de Molyneux ;
De Banco R. 334, m. 391 d. Alice,
widow of Robert de Molyneux of Melling
and wife of Nicholas, son of Robert de
Farington, occun in 1362; ibid. 446,
m. 42.
14 He had younger sons, William and
his horses and kept it without food, and
also maltreated his son Henry ; Duchy of
Lane. Pleadings, Hen. VIII, iii, M. ,.
William son of Robert Molyneux de-
ceased in ,440 granted all his lands in
the vill of Melling to Henry his son,
with remainder to Ralph (father of the
grantor) ; Croxteth D. Genl. i, 55.
"The inquisition taken some years
after his death (Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m.
ix, n. 38) gives a somewhat minute state-
ment of his possessions. These included
nine messuages, a windmill, arable land,
pasture, wood, &c. in Melling ; messuages
with lands in Thornton, Sefton, and Ain-
see Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 39 ;
Croxteth D. Genl. i, 55. Henry, who
was attainted of felony, died without
issue, his brother Thomas being heir;
of ltd. from the tenement of Elizabeth
Stanley, another rent of 51. 4</. from
Robert Bootle's tenement, and the service-
named.
6 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), iii, 390.
? Croxteth D. U. ii, i, 4.
dower in 1471 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R.
38, m. ,«</.
" This descent— John, Robert, John-
is taken from the pedigree in the Visit.
of ,567 (Chet. Soc.), ,00.
from James Halsall, i^J. from Richard:
Pulley, id. from Robert Ballard ; 5</. and'
a reaper for one day from the heirs of
Sir Thomas Halsall; similar rents and.
services from minor tenants in Melling
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
John Molyneux was one of the eight Lancashire
gentlemen and yeoman recusants who at the begin-
ning of the Elizabethan persecution in 1568 were
singled out by the royal commissioners in the hope
of terrorizing the rest. John Molyneux stated that
he had attended service at Melling chapel 'divers
times ' within the year, and once received the com-
munion there. He had, however, entertained various
persecuted priests at his house — Vaux, Murren,
Marshall, Peel, and Ashbrook ; also Foster, an Oxford
scholar, and Allen, afterwards cardinal. He was thus
one of the numerous class who put in an occasional
attendance at the new services to escape the heavy
fines. By the report of his neighbour Edmund
Hulme of Maghull it appears that he had more re-
cently repented of this degree of compliance and had
* taken a corporal oath on a book ' to acknowledge the
pope's supremacy. Though he appears to have been
dismissed with a warning and injunction, ' he was
afterwards committed to custody and is said to have
died in prison. His death took place on 21 July,
1582, Edmund Molyneux his son and heir being
thirty years of age.1
Edmund Molyneux adhered to the religion of his
ancestors, though like his father he saved his estate
by occasional conformity. In I 584 he was returned
by an informer as a recusant and in 1590 was 'in
general note of evil affection in religion and non-
communicant." He died 13 July 1605, Robert his
son and heir being twenty-five years of age.3 By his
will he left his lands to this son and £300 to his
daughter Ellen.4 For a time Robert appears to have
avoided conviction for recusancy, but two-thirds of
his estate was under sequestration for this offence
in 1631 when he compounded for knighthood.*
When the Civil War broke out he joined the royal
standard and was killed at the first battle of New-
bury, 20 September, 164.3. Two of his sons, Robert
and John, fought on the same side at the second
battle there (October, 1644), and the former is said
to have been killed or mortally wounded in it.6
It was inevitable that the property should be seized
by the Parliament. The last-mentioned Robert had
left a son about four years old, whose guardian, Cuth-
bert Ogle, compounded for him in 1650.' The peti-
tion presented on behalf of the heir, desiring to
compound for certain lands ' then lately come to him
by the death of his grandfather and father,' stated that
they ' were never sequestered, but he feared they
might be liable for some delinquency of his father.'
The Lancashire commissioners, however, stated that
the estates had been sequestered for the delinquency of
Robert the grandfather before the death of Robert the
father — this latter being a 'papist delinquent' and
never in actual possession — and that Robert the peti-
tioner, then about twelve years of age, was being
educated in popery.8 The reply sent in for the peti-
tioner alleged that ' his grandfather and father so far
from being " convict " had both lived and died Pro-
testants, and were never till this questioned for popery,
and petitioner was being brought up under a known
Protestant his guardian.' An allowance was requested
for himself and his brothers and sisters (four in
number).9
In spite of this reply — which appears to be quite
untrue — Robert Molyneux was brought up in the
proscribed faith. He married Frances, daughter and
heiress of William Lathom of Mossborough in Rain-
ford, a zealous adherent of the same religion.10 They
had two sons, Robert and William ; the former died
without issue in or before 1728, the latter in 1744,
leaving an only child Frances, who married (about
1753) Edward Blount of Sodington, who succeeded
to the baronetcy in 1758. They sold their Lancashire
possessions, and as they had no children the families
of Molyneux of Melling and Lathom of Mossborough
became extinct. The Hall of the Wood became the
property of the earl of Derby, but much of their land
in Melling was sold to Thomas Bootle of Melling and
Lathom.
The Booties of Melling, ancestors of Lord Lathom,
are traceable from about 1300. Roger son of
Dobbe de Melling in 1317 quitclaimed to Henry
de Bootle certain lands of which he had enfeoffed
him.11 A few years later (1324-5) Adam son of
Richard de Bootle granted to Adam son of Richard
and Thornton ; and i Ib. of pepper from
Henry Blundell's lands in Sefton. The
wife was a daughter of Sir William
Norris-the marriage licence was granted
son Robert and heirs, with provision as to
his wife Ellen (still living in 1651) and
his younger sons John Edmund and
ing were held partly of Lawrence Ireland
•of Lydiate by a rent of izrf.; partly of
Sir William Molyneux of Sefton by a
rent of two halfpennies; and partly of the
king (by reason of the suppression of
Birkenhead Priory) by the rent of 6J.
The clear value was £8. Thornton was
held of Sir William Molyneux in part by
fealty and the service of a red rose, and in
8 Lana. Inq. f. m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 42. Robert's first wife was
Cecily, daughter of John Pooley. She
died without issue on 9 April, 1607, the
inquisition showing her holding in Mell-
ing, under divers lords, to have been of
the clear value of 435. ; other lands in
Fazakerley and Walton, in Kirkby, and
in Downholland and Haskayne were
Thomas ; Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), iv, 168.
8 There was some uncertainty as to
which had died first — father or grand-
father ; in the latter case, ' then the father
had therein an estate tail, and being a
papist in arms 'tis left to consideration
whether the estate tail were not forfeited
for his delinquency' ; ibid, iv, 170.
fee ; and the lands in Sefton and Aintree
•were held of the same lord, the former by
.a rent of e,d. and the latter by a grain of
f epper ; the clear value was £12 161. z</.
i Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 209-11; Gil-
low, Bibliog. Diet, v, 61. The inqui-
sition taken after his death (Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p. m. xiv, n. 73) shows much
the same possessions as his father had.
The additional properties include lands in
Maghull, Fazakerley, and Pembcrton, and
a burgage in Wigan.
Edmund Molyneux acquired lands in
Melling and Maghull from the Tarletons
in 1576 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
38, m. 43.
» Gibson, Lydiau Hall, zz7, 245. His
Secome and Anne wife of William Stop-
ford ; ibid, i, 78. In 1594 and onwards
there were claims by Cecily widow of
John Pooley and next of kin to Richard
Pooley, and by Ralph Secome and Kathe-
rine his wife, for dower and lands in
Melling; Ducatui Lane, iii, 3 10, 328, 514.
4 Gisborne Molineux, Molineux Family,
138.
« Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 2 1 3. • Gillow, BMiog. Diet, v, 68.
1 It appeared that the marriage took
place in 1637, and the grandfather con-
veyed his ' manor and manors ' of Melling,
the capital messuage called Hall of the
Wood, and all his other lands to feoffees
for the use of himself, and then for his
212
9 Ibid, iv, 167-74.
10 Robert Molyneux of Melling and
Frances his wife were indicted a» recu-
sants in 1678 ; Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS.
" Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 85. The wit-
nesses are noteworthy— Robert de Nevill,
William Gerard, Thomas de Thorp, and
Alan de Renacres.
William Gerard and Maud his wife,
Joan formerly wife of Robert de Byron.
Ralph de Bethom and others were in
1323 alleged to have made a mill pool or
the Alt, between Kirkby and Melling, in
such a way that Henry de Bootle's lane
was flooded by the water impounded.
The jury ordered its abolition ; Assize R.
425, m. . d.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
the Serjeant all his land in Melling lying between
Thorpsbrook and the moor.1 In 1327 Henry de
Bootle made provision for his sons, granting Abul-
thwaite in Melling to Thomas his son and heir, with
remainders to his other sons John and Henry ; while
to John he gave Northfield, with remainders to his
brothers.' Nicholas son of Henry de Bootle has
already been mentioned; he was living in 1324-5,
when Goditha widow of Thomas de Thorp claimed
from him dower in 3 acres in Melling.3 Robert son
of Nicholas de Bootle in 1364 gave to Richard de
Rainford a house and some land in Melling (in a field
called Lounstowne), and the reversion of a third part
held by his mother Cecily in dower.4
Thomas Bootle, who died at Melling on 10 Octo-
ber, i 597, held of Edmund Molyneux of The Wood
by a rent of 5/. 4^. two houses, 30 acres of land, &c.
in Melling, besides lands in the neighbouring town-
ships. His son and heir was Robert Bootle, then
aged thirty, who was the father of two sons, Ferdinand
and Edmund.5
CUNSCOUGH seems to have been almost entirely
the property of the abbey of Cockersand.6 After
the dissolution the abbey land here was granted to
Sir Thomas Holt of Gristlehurst ; ' he soon after-
wards sold it to Lawrence Ireland, and it has descended
with Lydiate.8 In the inquisition after Lawrence
Ireland's death (1566) is recited a lease from him to
Thomas Tatlock and John his eldest son of a messuage
and land in Cunscough, with right of turbary, which
had been held previously by John Tatlock, father of
Thomas.9 Lawrence Ireland, a younger son of the
owner, seems also to have settled there.10 The estate
was called a manor, held of the queen in chief, and
of the clear annual value of £lo.u
A complaint by Thomas Knowles, one of the
Ireland tenants, led to an inquiry in which some of
the usages of the old time were stated. For the
plaintiff it was alleged that the tenants had their
holdings ' by the custom of the manor,' and besides
their yearly rent used to pay to the abbot certain
capons at Christmas. As a ' fine ' the abbot used
commonly to take of an incoming tenant a year's
rent, and the cellarer then entered the name in the
HALSALL
court roll and in the rental, so that he might have
the tenement for life, with remainder to his widow so
long as she did not marry again, and then to his
eldest son. It was never known that the abbot had
ever put any tenant out, and the present complainant
had succeeded his father Thurstan and his grandfather
Ralph. On the other side it was stated that this
Ralph had come in by marrying the former tenant's
widow, thus taking away the succession of the sons
of her former husband, by favour of her brother,
then bailiff of the manor. Sometimes also a younger
brother succeeded, as in the case of John son of Henry
Tatlock, whose elder brother William was passed
over. In the end it was decided that the plaintiff
had not proved the custom by which he claimed to
succeed." The crops on the land were oats, barley,
and flax.13
Richard Molyneux, grandson of Sir William,
married a daughter of John Molyneux of The Wood
and settled in Cunscough, being returned as a free-
holder there in 1600." He was a justice of the
peace. An abstract of his last will is preserved by
Kuerden ; he desired to be buried in the chapel at
Melling ; he mentioned his son Richard, who was to
buy the capital messuage called Cunscough, and his
daughters Mary Wolfall, Frances Lathom, and Elinor.15
The Mossocks of Bickerstaffe also obtained a hold-
ing in Cunscough. Thomas Mossock in the time of
Elizabeth married Margaret, a daughter of Lawrence
Ireland of Lydiate, and in the visitation of 1664-5
the family is described as Mossock of Cunscough.'6
The Tatlocks can be traced from the thirteenth
century down to recent times, especially in con-
nexion with this portion of the township." The
following notes on their later history are taken
from the monograph by A. Patchett,18 in which may
be seen the evidences for the statements made. John
Tatlock, who died in 1598, had by his wife Kathe-
rine five sons and two daughters. The eldest son
Richard was of sufficient standing to be called upon
for a composition on refusing knighthood in the time
of Charles I ; 19 and he bequeathed £20 to the poor
of Melling. By his wife Margaret he had a son John
and six daughters. He died in 1 640, and was sue-
1 Croxteth D. The first witnesses are
Robert de Nevill and Henry de Bootle.
" Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 85 (Robert de
Nevill and William Gerard being wit-
nesses).
• De Banco R. 253, m. 351. There
was yet another son, Robert, who in 1343
released to his brother John lands which
he had had from Henry their father;
Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 85*. A year before
this Richard del Lunt (as trustee) had
given Abulthwaite to Thomas Byl for life,
rence the hall of Cunscough ; Gibson,
Lydiate Hall, 31.
" Duchy of Lanes. Inq. p. m. xi,«. 33.
" Duchy of Lane. Dep. Edw. VI, L.I,
K..2 ; Dec. and Ord. Edw. VI, viii, fol.
is Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Edw. VI,
xxix, K.5.
» Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
238. In 1590 he was reported as 'of
very bad note in religion ; his wife a re-
cusant ' ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 244.
some of her beasts which really belonged
to his brother's children ; Excheq. Misc.
^"am Tyrehare (as trustee) in ,364
enfeoffed Richard Tatlock and his heirs of
lands in Melling; while in September,
1410, John de Cunscough gave Richard
Tatlock a fee farm of 8i/. out of all his
lands in the same place ; Croxteth D.,
U. i, 4, 5.
At the beginning of 1524 Robert Tat-
lock and his son John sold to Sir William
Henry, and ultimate remainder to Richard
de Molyneux of Sefton ; Croxteth D.,
U. i, i.
4 Ibid. U. ii, 5.
4 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. xvii, n. 57.
6 For the tenants see Cockersand Cbartul.
iv, 1 240, &c.
It appears that 101. was about 1540
paid by the canons to William Molyneux ;
Duchy of Lane. Rentals, 5/2.
^ Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. iv.
« Lydiat, Hall, 29.
• Henry and Robert Tatlock were
among the Cockersand tenants in 1501 ;
see Rental above cited.
10 Lawrence Ireland and William his
•on in 1561 leased to the younger Law-
16 See the account of Bickerstaffe.
V Richard Tatlock, possibly the Richard
recorded as a Cockersand tenant in 1268,
granted to his sons Richard, Henry, and
William successively two acres of land in
Melling ; Croxteth D., U. i, 2.
In 1333 Richard son of Stephen de
Bickerstath gave all his land in Melling
to Richard son of Adam Tatlock, and in
1349 Thomas son of Richard Tatlock
gave a bond to his brothers Richard and
William and his sisters Joan, Agnes, and
Maud as to the payment of 20 marks of
silver; ibid. U. i,' 3, and Misc.
Margery widow of Henry de Bootle
complained that Thomas son of Richard
Tatlock, with his father's support, took
213
a mill in Melling, with houses and lands
in Aughton and Liverpool, 'for certain
sums of money paid ... for relieving
them and the other children of the said
Robert ' ; ibid. U. i, 6-8. About three
years afterwards Sir William leased these
lands to Robert Tatlock for thirty years
at a peppercorn rent ; ibid. Ee. 34.
John son of Robert Tatlock married
Ellen daughter of William Haskayne in
1 509 ; see settlements of lands in Aughton
upon them in Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 53.
13 Memorials of the Tatlocks of Cun-
scough (privately printed), iv, 67 pp. Liver-
pool, 1901.
» Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
214.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
ceeded by John Tatlock, who lived at Cunscough
Hall and recorded a pedigree at the visitation of
I664-1 He added .£10 to his father's gift to the
poor, and left a charge of 40^. a year for ' a preaching
minister' at Melling. He died in 1675, leaving by
his wife (Ellen Mercer) a son
and heir John, born in 1653,
and five daughters. John, who
matriculated at Oxford (Brase-
nose College), but did not
graduate, gave £20 to the
school at Melling, and on his
death in 1 7 1 2 he was succeeded
by his son Richard. This last,
who died about 1737, had three
daughters, of whom Mathilde
died in infancy, Ellen died un-
married, and Elizabeth, even-
tually sole heiress, married the
Rev. William Johnson, vicar of
Whalley. Their representative in estate is Major
Hughes of Sherdley, near St. Helens.
The Hospitallers about 1540 had a rent ot lid.
from a toft held by Thomas Halsall.'
The Halsalls of Melling recorded a pedigree at
the visitation of l664~5.3
In 1374 the royal commissioners reported that
Robert de Westhead and his mistress Margery had
some years previously murdered the latter's husband,
John the Palmer, in his bed at Melling ; and that
Henry de Chaderton, the king's bailiff, had compro-
mised the matter for a house and 10 acres of land in
Uplitherland and Aughton.4
The land-tax return of 1794 shows that the prin-
cipal owners, Richard Wilbraham Bootle, the earl of
Derby, and Henry Blundell, between them contri-
buted £30 out of £%o raised.
A view of the old chapel shows a double
CHURCH nave,5 with two fourteenth-century
windows at the west end, and a late
square-headed window at the side. There was a
square embattled tower at the eastern end of the
nave ; the chancel went eastward from this tower.6
The church7 was rebuilt in 1834, and has been
enlarged since. There are monuments to Sir Thomas
Bootle of Lathom and others.8
The chapel is mentioned in a charter dated about
I2io.9 The bishop, hearing that the cemetery had
been polluted by the effusion of blood, in August,
1322, directed the vicar of Childwall, as dean of War-
rington, and the rector of Halsall to inquire whether
or not the cemetery had ever been consecrated, and
for how long burials had taken place there, as well as
into the circumstances of the alleged pollution.10
It appears that there was in 1556 a house in
Melling called ' the priest's house,' with lands per-
taining to it ; this had been set apart in former times
for the perpetual maintenance of a priest to celebrate
divine service in the church of Melling. It was
granted by Philip and Mary to Sir John Parrott,
knight."
A complaint by Rector Halsall about the end ot
1554 stated that in consequence of the chantry com-
missioners having erroneously described Melling as a
' free chapel ' he was in danger of losing his rights
there. The chapel " had always been considered as
dependent on Halsall, though the curate, appointed
by the rector, was called the ' curate or parish priest
of Melling.' I3
In 1592 the wardens ot the chapel were ordered
to ' make up ' the churchyard wall, and to provide a
communion book and a pulpit."
Probably a lay ' reader ' was employed more or
less regularly ; " in 1590 the report was that there
was 'no preacher' there,16 and later, about 1610,
there was neither service nor preacher.17 As the
registers begin in 1613 it is probable that this neg-
lect was noticed by the bishop, who insisted upon
some improvement.
The parliamentary committee in 1645 ordered
Melling to be made a semi-independent chapelry, the
tithes of the township to be given to the minister whc
should be appointed.18 This was accordingly done, and
Mr. John Mallinson was there by the election of tht
township in 1650, when the Commonwealth Surveyor;
recommended that the chapelry be made a parish of
itself.19 In October, 1654, Mr. Christopher Windh
was minister there." Soon afterwards notice was
given of the intention to erect Melling into a parish,
but nothing seems to have been concluded."
Bishop Gastrell about 1717 found that the curate':
income was £28 lo/., of which £20 was paid by th<
rector, and £$ was the estimated value of the house
and grounds. The remainder was the interest o
some small legacies and the fees. There were twc
wardens."
i Dugdale, Visit. (Chct. Soc.), 300.
1 Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84.
« Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 1 29.
< Coram Rege R. Trin. 48 Edw. Ill,
pt. ii, m. 13.
the dean had heard from John Walsh of
Litherland (who had died a centenarian
some time previously) that neither had
been dedicated ; Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol.
140*. 5 Gibson, Lydiati Hall, p. xxxvii.
time Maghull chapel had not been i.
regular use.
1 88.
is The will of William Simkin, clerk.
same size as the nave proper. For the
font see Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),
1364 ; perhaps it was the same as Mell-
ing. It was asserted that the abbot of
Later, about 1600, Henry Whittle wa
curate ; and Richard Vawdrey in 1609.
« Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland),
297.
• The dedication is given sometimes a.
Holy Rood and sometimes as St. Thomas.
» See also Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),
vi, 259.
» Cockersand Charm!, ii, 538.
I" Lich. Epis. Reg. iii, fol. 4*.
An inquiry had been held two years
before in the parish church of Halsall,
when it was alleged that neither chapel
nor cemetery had ever been dedicated.
The chapel was from ancient times a
chantry ; and though the churchyard had
been used as a burial-place time out of mind,
lain to celebrate daily for the souls of the
kings of England for ever ; L. T. R. Mem.
R. 130, ix. The abbot produced his
charters, showing what the tenure really
« Pat. 3 & 4 Phil, and Mary, pt. ii.
" For its equipment in 1552 see
Church Goods (Chet. Soc.), no; also
Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), ii, 268,
276-7.
l» Duchy of Lane. Dep. Phil, and Mary,
Ixxi, H. 2. As the rector stated the
chapel was for ' the convenience of the
parishioners of Melling, Maghull, and
Cunscough,' it would seem that for some
2I4
17 Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.].
" Plund. Mins.Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes
and Ches.), i, 10.
19 Common-wealth Church Sari/. (Rec
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 86. They describ
the building as 'an ancient parochia
chapel with a fair yard well walled oul.
and also a mansion house with gleb •
lands ' worth £3 3*. a year ; the tithe
were worth £60, out of which £6 wa
paid to the ejected rector's wife.
M Plund. Mins. Accts. i, 142.
m Ibid, ii, 169, 179-80.
*> Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 176.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Among the curates and vicars of Melling, who are
presented by the rector of Halsall, have been : —
oc. 1665 Cuthbert Halsall
oc. 1671 John Lowe
oc. 1676 Joseph Dresser
oc. 1689 Peter Dean, B.A.1
oc. 1733 Thomas Harrison
f. 1760 Glover Moore'
1777 Benjamin Whitehead 3
1817 Matthew Chester 4
1829 Miles Formby, M.A. (Brasenose Coll.,
Oxford)
1849 John Kirkland Glazebrook, M.A. (Mag-
dalen Hall, Oxford)
1900 Joseph Sturdy Gardner, M.A. (Trinity
Coll., Dublin)
It appears that mass ceased to be said at Melling
when The Wood was sold about 1750.* It is now
occasionally said by the priest in charge of Maghull.
MAGHULL
Magele, Dom. Bk. ; Maghul, Maghyl, Maghale,
Maghal, Mauhale, 1292 ; Maghhal, 1303 ; Mauwell,
1351 ; Maghull, Maghell, 1353. These last two
forms and Maghale most general. In the xv cent, the
name was contracted to Maile or Male, which shows
the local pronunciation. Sometimes the article was
prefixed, 'The Maile.'
Maghull is an agricultural township, situated in
flat country fairly well supplied with trees, gener-
ally grouped about the villages and farmsteads. The
land is divided into arable and pasture, the latter
mostly to the west, whilst numerous market gardens
thrive on a light sandy soil. Crops of potatoes
and other root crops, wheat and oats are success-
fully cultivated. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal
crosses the township from north to south-east ; the
upper end of Maghull village, with its sett-laid roads
and gaily painted houses, is a typical canal-side settle-
ment. The River Alt drains the low-lying ground
to the west, and forms the boundary of the township
in that direction. The total area is 2,098 acres.6
There was in 1901 a population of 1,505.
The principal road, leading from Liverpool to
Ormskirk, passes through the village from south to
north, and is joined on the east by the more circuitous
route through Melling, and on the west by the road
from Sefton. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Com-
pany's line from Liverpool to Preston crosses in a
north-easterly direction, and has a station called
Maghull. The Cheshire Lines Committee's railway
to Southport passes along the western border, where
there is a station called Sefton.
HALSALL
The township is governed by a parish council.
Three ancient crosses are known to have existed.
The pedestal of the 'Woodlands Cross' is visible
above the footpath at the junction of Green Lane
with the Liverpool and Ormskirk road. Others are
at Clent Farm (removed in 1 890) and Back Lane.7
A sundial on the lawn in front of the manor-house
has the motto and date, ' Volvenda dies, 1 748.'
Another in the churchyard is dated 178 1.8
The Alt Drainage Act (1779) has the following
field names : Chew, Pushed Meadow, Lower Mean
Hey, and Lowest Alter.
A writer in 1823 says : ' From the chapel yard is
an extensive view of the high land near Liverpool,
on which Everton church is a very prominent object ;
of Ince Hall and park ; and in the distance the two
landmarks of Formby.' He characterizes the village
as 'pleasant.'9
The wakes are held on Advent Sunday.
There was a racecourse here for one of the Liver-
pool meetings until the Aintree course superseded it.
Maghull manor-house is now used as an epileptics'
home.
M4GHULL was one of Uctred's six
MANORS manors in 1066 ; its rating was half a
plough-land.10 Afterwards, like fourothers
of the group, it formed part of the Widnes fee held
by the barons of Halton in Cheshire, and this tenure
is regularly stated in the inquisitions down to the
seventeenth century. In 1212 it was found that Alan
de Halsall held half a plough-land of Roger the con-
stable of Chester by knight's service."
The Halsall family continued to be regarded as the
superior lords of Maghull, holding it for the twenty-
fourth part of a knight's fee, where 1 2 plough-lands
made such a fee. So it was recorded in the Gascon
scutage of 1242-3," and in the Halton Feodary, the
relief being stated as 5*." In the fourteenth century
the lordship seems to have passed from Halsall.
In 1355 the heir of Gilbert de Halsall was lord;14
afterwards it was held by the Hulme family, as will
be seen later.
Simon de Halsall, the son of Alan, made two grants
in Maghull. By one he gave to his son Richard the
whole of his land in the vill,15 the service to be that by
which Simon himself held it — the twenty-fourth part
of a fee.16
Simon's other grant was made about 1 240. By it
he gave to William de Maghull and his heirs the
fourth part of all his vill of Maghull in demesne with
all its appurtenances, reserving two parcels of 40 acres
each in the woods. The service was to be that of a
judge or doomsman, acting as deputy of Simon and
his heirs, in the court of the chief lord at Widnes ;
1 'Conformable' in 1689; Kenyan
MSS. 229. He was curate of Halsall in
1665, and in the visitation of 1691 he is
•till so styled. His will was proved in
About the same time Roger son of
Robert son of Outi granted to God and
St. Werburgh of Warburton an assart
which had belonged to Simon son of
" Feud. Aids, iii, 86.
15 Namely, two oxgangs in demesne and
two in service, with all their easements,
&c., in wood and open country, in mosses,
* Afterwards rector of Halsall.
» Also curate of Maghull.
4 Master of Crosby Grammar School.
* Gillow, op. cit. v, 64.
« 2,099 according to the census of 1 90 1 ,
including i 3 acres of inland water.
' Lanes, and Cbes. Antiq. Soc. xix, 171.
» Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 255.
» Kaleidoscope, 8 July, 1823.
" V.C.H. Lanes, i, 283*.
11 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 43.
pure alms. This was confirmed or re-
granted by the superior lord, Alan de
Halsall, 'with the favour and assent of
Alice his wife.' Cockersand Charntl. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 543-4.
13 Inq. and Extents, 149.
" Ormerod's Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 708.
There are one or two errors; Halsall
is printed for Maghull, and Richard de
Halsall should be either Robert de Halsall
or Richard de Maghull.
215
also all his 'natives' and their offspring.
He reserved for himself and heirs and the
men of Halsall, timber from the wood
and mast for their pigs.
" Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 140.
It is not known what was the result of
this grant. Thomas son of Richard de
Halsall granted to Gilbert de Halsall,
about 1 290, all the right he had in Carr-
field in Maghull ; ibid. fol. 14 ;/>.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
zj<^. annual rent was also to be paid.1 This was the
origin of the holding of the Maghull family.
In i 292 Richard son of Robert de Maghull claimed
from Gilbert de Halsall 5 acres
of wood as his inheritance,
from his grandfather Richard
son of William, who had held
it in the time of Henry III.
Gilbert raised the technical plea
that his brother Henry ought
to have been joined with him
as defendant, since he held
i $ acres of the disputed land.2
In August, 1301, Richard
son of Robert de Maghull
fave to his son Richard and
is wife Emmota, daughter of
Robert de Rydings of Sefton, or-
all his lands in Aintree and
in Melling ; he and his wife Alice giving warranty.3
Gilbert de Halsall, Richard son of Robert de Mag-
hull, Richard son of Simon de Maghull, and others
were in 1 304 defendants in a claim made by Thurstan
de Maghull in right of his wife Margery, formerly
Robert de Maghull and Emma his wife, Thomas son
of Richard son of Simon de Maghull and Alice his
wife, Richard son of Simon de Maghull and Margery
of land and 2^ acres his wife, and Robert and Henry sons of the first
defendant.6 In another suit in 1334 it was stated
that Gilbert de Halsall was lord of one moiety ;
Thomas son of Richard son of Simon, and Richard
son of Richard son of Robert being lords of the other
moiety.7
It thus appears there were two families taking their
name from Maghull, one descending from Robert and
the other from Simon, and probably both from the
above-named William de Maghull.8 This comes out
again in 1350 in a claim by Gilbert de Halsall in
which the defendants were the grandsons above-
named — Richard and Thomas.9
Gilbert de Halsall in 1 346 prosecuted Thomas son
of Richard de Maghull for breaking his mill, to the
loss of loos, profit.10 William son of Thomas de
Maghull was a grantor in 1361." Six years later
Thomas de Maghull complained that John the
Mercer and others had attacked him with bows and
arrows, and that he dare not go to church or visit
anyone in the town without protection ; but the
the wife of Adam de Crosby, regarding common of jury acquitted the accused. There
pasture in 100 acres of moor, wood, and pasture.
Gilbert de Halsall and Richard de Maghull were
lords of the vill ; and their defence was that the
approvement made was lawful according to the statute
of Merton.4
In 1336 Richard son of Richard de Maghull
granted his son Richard land in the township, with
remainders to Adam and to William, brothers of the
grantor. Three years later the same Richard made a
similar grant to his brothers William, Adam, and
Henry in succession.5 Between these grants (in
I 338) Thomas son of Ellen de Maghull (with whom
his son Simon was joined) brought a claim by writ of
novel disseisin, against Richard son of Richard son of
ere counter
harges against Thomas, his son John and brother
William." Thomas was living in 1358.
At this point there is a defect in the evidences."
Richard de Maghull occurs as one of the lords ot
the vill in 1395." The name of Thomas de Maghull
occurs in 1418 and 1423 and again in 1447." The
series of Maghull charters begins again in 1421 with
a grant by Hugh de Bretlands and Margery his wife
to Thomas de Maghull of Aintree, of all the mes-
suages and lands in Maghull, Melling, and Aintree
which had belonged to Emmota the widow of Henry
del Crosse.16
William Maghull is said to have been lord of this
portion of the manor about 1420, and to have granted
1 Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 46*. Rights
William), son of Thurstan de Maghull,
of Richard the Ward. Robert had held
were granted, but oaks and ash trees were
the grantor's uncle William son of Richard
in socage, and Richard de Bechington
reserved. The date (19-25 Hen. Ill) is
the Rede gave to the first-named William.
claimed the wardship as nearest of kin,
fixed by the style of one of the witnesses,
Richard son of Simon de Maghull is
namely, son of Simon the brother of Mar-
' Simon de Thornton, then sheriff.'
among the witnesses ; Croxteth D.
garet, who was mother of Emma. The
Simon dc Halsall in 1246 brought a
5 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 262, nn. 69,
defence was that Robert had nothing.
writ of novel disseisin against Adam de
34. Richard son of Simon de Maghull
except at the will of his father, the firrt-
Molyneux and others regarding land in
was a witness to both charters.
named defendant ; Duchy of Lane. Assin
Maghull, but did not prosecute it ; Assize
« Assize R. 1425, m. 6.
R. 3, m. W.; R. 4, m. 4</.; Assize R
R. 404, m. 7.
7 Coram Rege R. 297, m. id.
435, m. 5. It is possible that Richarc
58 d.
Richard de Maghull, dated 1341, in Anct.
hull, but a Roger the Ward of Maghul
A William de Maghull in 1278 put
D. (P.R.O.), A. 10300.
is mentioned in 1292; Assize R. 408
forward a claim upon the same Gilbert,
9 Assize R. 1444, m. 6.
m. 94.
alleging disseisin; Assize R. 1238, m.
10 De Banco R. 347, m. 23 d.
Adam de Orrell in 1 360 complained tha
33 d. See also R. 408, m. 34^. for Wil-
11 Croxteth D., T. i, 2.
William de Lydiate had taken from hin
liam de Maghull a plaintiff.
la Exch. Misc. xc. m. 46, 49.
Henry, son and heir of Roger son o
In 1303 Cecily daughter of William de
18 Some contemporary cases may be re-
William de Maghull, the marriage of thi
Maghull had a messuage and 14$ acres
of land confirmed to her ; Final Cane.
corded. One is that of Joan widow of
Adam de Aintree, who claimed dower in a
minor pertaining to Adam; Duchy o:
Lane. Assize R. 8, m. 4 ; Assize R. 441.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 202.
messuage and land from Henry son of
m. id.
3 Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 46. Alice l»
Simon de Bickerstath and Agnes his wife ;
» Nicholas de Maghull had held a mes
supposed to have been an Aintree heiress.
Isabel daughter of William son of William
suage and 10 acres of him there, which
Richard granted 1 1 acres to his sister
del Halgh was called to warrant ; Duchy
after his death had descended to Richar '
Margery, five lying by Quinbrok and six
of Lane. Assize R. 3, m. ij, v ; R. 4, m.
de Derbyshire, a 'native' of the duke1!.
towards the vill ; ibid. fol. 46. Whin-
17; Assize R. 438, m. 5 d. Agnes de
as son and heir of Nicholas's sister Alice
ney's Brook runs through the centre of
Bickerstath also proceeded against Thomas
Lana. Inq. p. m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 56.
the township.
son of Ralph de Maghull and John his
In 1397-8 Nicholas son of William d
•" Assize R. 419, m. 6d.; R. 420, m. i,
son ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 3, m. I, ij.
Maghull leased to Emmot his wife cei
4, 4*. 10 d. ii. The plaintiffs were
These cases lasted from 1354 to 1360.
tain lands in Maghull for the life of hi
partia ly successful. Thurstan may be
Richard de Bechington sought from
brother Thomas ; Norris D. (RydalHalT,
the Thurstan son of Alice de Whitelaw
Richard the Ward of Maghull, Richard
F. 89.
of an earlier suit (1292) ; Assize R. 408,
son of William de Molyneux, and Jordan
"Lane,. 7»?. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 135 ;
m. 34 d.
de Massy, rector of Sefton, the wardship
11, 54.
In 1318 Richard (as heir to his brother
of Emma daughter and heir of Robert son
16 Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 47.
216
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
a right of turbary to Robert Molyneux in 1422."
He occurs as witness to a charter in October, 1403.
Ellen the daughter of Thomas de Maghull, late of
Aintree, was in January, 1425-6, contracted in
marriage to Gilbert de Maghull, Thomas de Maghull
of Maghull, apparently the father of the latter, being
joined with him in the contract.' Thurstan de
Maghull of Aintree made a general feoffment of his
lands in 1441 ; and he is mentioned again two years
later.*
From the witnesses to a deed of 1442 it appears
that there were in Maghull at least two families
bearing the local name, and possibly a third ; for
Thomas de Maghull of the Clent, Thomas de Mag-
hull of the Carr, and Richard de Maghull attest it.'
The succession is again uncertain ; but in March,
1462-3 John Maghull, chaplain, granted to his
brother Nicholas all tenements in Maghull ; the
latter was son and heir of Thomas of the Carr.5
Matthew was the son and heir of Nicholas, and in
the next year he (an infant) received Mollington
Yard from his father's feoffees ; it had formerly been
held by Richard Maghull of the Clent.6 He lived
to a great age, and in 1508 enfeoffed Hugh Aughton
of North Meols and others of his lands.7 His
grandson William (eldest son of Thomas Maghull of
Aintree) was contracted in marriage with the daughter
of one Stananought, but died before marriage.5
Matthew's son Thomas, who had in 1514 sold
lands to Sir William Molyneux,3 was ' riotous and
unthrifty and evil disposed, and liked to sell all the
inheritance if it should descend to him ' ; after
William's death therefore he settled the succession
on Thomas's second son Robert.10 It had in 1507-8
been settled on Thomas, who married Isabel, daughter
of William Formby." The new arrangement was
HALSALL
secured by a recovery at Lancaster ; " and in 1535
the feoffees transferred to Robert Maghull and Alice
his wife certain lands in Maghull, Melling, and
Aintree.13
Robert Maghull died 1 1 August, 1543, leaving a
son and heir Richard, who being a minor, became
the king's ward, until in 1558 livery was granted
to him." The inquisition >b states that Robert held
the manor of the king as of the duchy of Lancaster
by knight's service and the yearly rent of 2 \d. ; the
clear value was £4.
This family seems to have gone with the times in
religion, the name being absent from the list of
recusants in the parish. Richard Maghull purchased
some property in Liverpool in 1560, and soon after-
wards sold land in Aughton to Thomas Bootle ot
Melling.16 He joined in the partition of Maghull
made in 1568," and afterwards became Sir Richard
Molyneux's bailiff for the manor of West Derby,
appointing a deputy in I587-18 His eldest son
Richard died early, and the succession fell to the
second son Andrew.19 Richard died on 27 July,
1606, holding the fourth part of the manor of
Maghull, with a capital messuage there called the
Carr House.80 His son Andrew having died before
him leaving a son Richard, this last was heir to his
grandfather and 10^ years of age.21
This Richard married Alice daughter of William
Clayton of Leyland, and had with her certain lands
in Leyland.32 He recorded a pedigree at the visitation
of 1664-5. of nis sons> Richard, William, and John
died without issue, and Robert, who succeeded him,
is called a citizen of London in 1664, and said to be
thirty-nine years of age.83 Robert Maghull died in
1674 ; his son William, who married Cecily, daughter
of Thomas Bootle of Melling,24 died in 1709, and
1 Duchy of Lane. Depositions (Phil,
and Mary), Ixxix, m. I. In Sept. 1494,
Nicholas Bickerstath of Aughton, ninety
years of age, and Robert Walsh of the
•ame place, aged eighty-four, ' at the
instance and request of Richard Hulme,
esquire, by way of charity and conscience,1
certified that ' at no time in all their days '
of the marriage. Sir William had ' caused
him to seal a deed, being unlearned and
his speeches,' and he found it advisable to
make his protest in open court at Lan-
caster ; ibid. fol. 49*.
9Dods. MSS. cliii, fol. 128.
10 Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 53*. In one
V Ibid. fol. 51*.
18 Ibid. fol. 56. An abstract of the will
of his brother Anthony is given in Wills
(Chet. Soc. New Ser.), i, 221.
"Harl. MS. 2042, fols. 51, 52.
» There were also 14 messuages, loo
acres of land, &c., in Maghull, Sefton,
Lunt, and Netherton. He had leased
liam Maghull, lord of the fourth part of
the manor ; Croxteth D.
"Marl. MS. 2042, fol. 47*, 48, 46.
Lands in Maghull, Lydiate, and Fazaker-
ley were assigned. • Ibid. fol. 47*, 48.
4 Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 48. The deed
»ion of the 'above-mentioned 'native1—
Dicon of Derbyshire. He left a son and
two daughters— Emma and Alice— the
former of whom had married Christopher
Mollington) it is stated that 'the same
day Thomas Gaskin did take the said
land of Robert Maghull, and gave him
a penny called "God's penny," before
witnesses'; ibid. fol. $gb.
"Ibid. fol. 49. In 1497 Matthew
Maghull, son and heir of Nicholas, granted
to Isabel daughter of William Formby, on
Dam House in Sefton ; Croxteth D'. X.
iv, 12. "Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 49*.
arrangements. The port on of the manor
of Maghull was held of the king as of
his duchy of Lancaster by a fourth of a
twenty-fourth of a knight's fee.
21 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 66-7. The writ of Amovsas
manus to the escheator is dated 27 Jan.
10 Jas. I ; Croxteth D. T. ii, 22. In
1597 an agreement had been made
between Thomas Halsall of Melling and
Richard Maghull of Maghull, touching the
Aughton. Both being widows they agreed
"Ibid. fol. 51. In the inquisition he
son of the latter, and Anne, daughter of
to them on the death of their brother
John without other heirs. In the follow-
ing year Alice Barber released her share
to Thomas de Maghull of the Carr ; ibid.
The land was called Kennetshead, now
ICennessee; it became the above-named
Gilbert's. Thomas in 1449 gave his
'manor' of Maghull to two trustees;
ibid. fol. 47*.
'Ibid. fol. 48*; Pal. of Lane. Plea
R. 44, m. 2 </.
6 Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 48*.
7 Ibid. fol. 49.
8 In 1530 the grandfather (being sixty-
six years of age) charged Sir William
Molyneux of Sefton with a breach of
3
See also Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App.
557-
15 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii,
n. jo. The intermediate Halton fee i>
not mentioned, nor yet the mesne lord-
ship of the Halsall family. It recites
several charters of Matthew and Robert
Maghull, and gives a detailed description
of the property, in which the following
Hey, Rush Hey, New Hey, Cow Acre,
Oseys, Pele, Old Meadow, Qwarvys ; to
Oxhouse— Bottom Slack, Bottom Hill,
Long Hurst, Plum Field, Maghull Heys,
and Old Smith Carr Meadow.
"Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 54*, 55, also
fol. 56.
217
M Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 52*. A door-
way of the manor-house has the initials and
date : pj—
j R,638A
i W'M
» Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 192.
On a building in the orchard is a stone
Scribed: j j
1 ><*? 1
* The will of Cecily Maghull alias
Male, widow of William Maghull, gentle-
man, dated 31 March, 1717, was proved
ii May, 1721, at Chester. She desired
to be buried in Sefton near the bodies of
28
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the inheritance was ultimately divided between his
daughters Ellen, who married Joseph Yates of Peel
in Little Hulton,1 and Elizabeth, who married
Edward Aspinwall.* The manor was purchased by
Thomas Unsworth of Liverpool, and descended to
his grandson William Gillibrand Unsworth, after whose
death it was sold to Hugh
McElroy. The present owner
of the manor-house, by pur-
chase from H. McElroy's exe-
cutors, in September, 1880, is
Mr. Thomas Curry Mather of
Lydiate, but no manorial rights
belong to it.*
Gilbert de Maghull, above
mentioned, had a daughter and
heir Joan, who married Ralph
Molyneux.4 Ralph left sons —
Richard, who married Isabel,
Thomas, and Geoffrey.5 Richard
had two sons, Robert and Ed-
mund. The elder married
Margery daughter of Robert
Gore, about 1498,* and they had two daughters,
Elizabeth and Anne, who were co-heirs of Ken-
netshead and other property. Elizabeth married
(i) Melling and (ii) Humphrey Ley,7 and Anne
married Henry son and heir of Thomas Pye of
Lydiate.8 Elizabeth and Humphrey Ley and their
son Edmund sold their land in Maghull to Richard
Maghull in 1570.' Nevertheless at the inquisition
after the death of Edmund Ley (made in 1589) it
was found that he died on 17 January, 1587-8, seised
of a house and lands there, held of Richard Hulme ;
and that his son Richard was his heir.10
It has been convenient to narrate the history of
the Maghull family first, as it bore the local name.
MATHM or LYDIATK.
Barry of ,ix a*ur, and
mm, 'on a chief of 'the
second an escallop between
The superior lordship of the Halsalls was replaced some
time between 1370 and 1380 by that of the Hulmes,
it is supposed by marriage. The first of this family
to appear in connexion with Maghull is Richard de
Hulme, who contributed to the poll tax of 1381."
David de Hulme, who was probably his son, died
6 December, 1418, seised of the manor of Maghull,11
and holding it of the king as of his duchy of
Lancaster, viz. of the honour of Halton, by knight's
service and a rent of I $d. per annum. It was worth
clear 10 marks.13 His son and heir, Lawrence, was
nine years of age, attaining to his majority before
March, 1432, when his lands were delivered to him.
It was proved that he was baptized in Maghull
chapel ; Henry Blundell of Crosby, aged forty-three
and over, was in the church on the same day, being a
' love day ' or settlement between Sir Thomas Gerard
and Sir John Bold."
Lawrence Hulme in 1442 gave certain lands to
his son Richard on his marriage with Joyce daughter
of Robert Molyneux.15 He lived on until 1483,"
in July of which year he settled various lands in
Maghull (held by his son and heir Richard and others),
Scarisbrick, and Ainsdale on Ellen daughter of Henry
Becconsall, who was to marry his grandson Edmund."
This Edmund died on Christmas Eve, 1525, holding
the manor of Maghull and messuages, land, &c., in
Maghull, of the duchy of Lancaster by the twelfth
part of a knight's fee. He also held lands in
Lydiate, Halsall, Barton, and Aspemoll in Scaris-
brick, and the manor of Ainsdale with lands there.
His son and heir Richard was aged thirty-five and
more in 1529."* Richard Hulme died on 21 Novem-
ber, 1539 ;19 Edmund Hulme, the son and heir, wai
nearly thirteen years of age.
Edmund Hulme after coming of age complained
that his mother Anne, who had married for her
her husband and her son Edward. She
mentions her daughters Ellen, wife of
Joseph Yates of Manchester, gentleman
(their son was Maghull Yates), and
Elizabeth, wife of Edward Aspinall.
Richard was a minor, and the lord
took possession of the tenements in the
name of wardship. The widow Eliza-
beth Ley strongly objected ; she would
be beggared by this 'guardianship in
Isabel was in 1467 contracted to marrjr
Richard son and heir of Ralph Molyneux
of Maghull ; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.),
"'in 'the' feodary of this date he is
land in Maghull from Robert Molyneux
of Mossborough and William his brother
in 1772 ; Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii,
214, from R. 4 of Geo. I, at Preston.
a Baines, Lanes, (cd. Croston), v, 279.
A pedigree and several of the charters
croachment by building on Maghull Clent
she admitted setting up 'a little cot for
hogs, of very small compass,' and believed
that part of her little cottage was two
yards over the boundary, but she thought
plaintiff would not object as she only
>' Croxteth D. T. ii, 8.
18 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 28.
A number of complaints had to be settled.
His widow Ellen asserted that she and
her younger children had been forcibly
expelled from the house a week after
Herald. \, 300.
s Ex inform. Mr. Mather.
* Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 48*. Gilbert
was dead in 1465. Joan is described as
heir of Thomas Maghull of the Clent ;
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 44, m. 2./.
5 Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 53.
« Ibid.
7 The Ley or Lee family occur much
earlier in Maghull. Ruerden has an
abstract of charter (n Edw. IV.) men-
tioning Richard de Lee, son and heir of
Alice [daughter] and coheir of Richard
Renacres, formerly of Maghull ; also
Robert Lee and Ameria his wife, daughter
and coheir of Richard Renacres. Kuer-
den MSS. ii, fol. 262, n. 25. The rents
and services of Ralph Lee (4^.) are men-
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxlvi,
H. 2.
Richard Ley died early in 1597, holding
the same lands of Richard Hulme by
knight's service (as the two-hundredth
part of a fee) and a rent of 6s. ; his
brother John was his heir ; Croxteth
D. T. ii, 20. John wa» a minor, and his
wardship was claimed from his mother
by the lord of the manor ; ibid. T. ii,
19. John eventually succeeded and had
a son William, whose wife was named
Mary ; ibid. T. ii, 23.
11 He was a witness in 1 390 ; Crosse D.
(Trans. Hist. Soc.), n. 83; and 1391-2;
Croxteth D. Genl. i, 42. Richard de
Hulme of Liverpool (18 Ric. II.) ii
described as son and heir of Margery son
and others (including Richard Hulme)
and imprisoned in Halsall mansion-house
for a day and a night ; Duchy of Lane.
Pleadings, Hen. VIII, iii, H. 7.
The daughters complained that Edward
Molyneux, priest (rector of Sefton), had
taken the profits of the lands assigned to
them, but his answer was that he wa«
charged to keep the money towards their
marriage ; ibid, xix, H. 4.
The widow and the younger children
were also charged with having taken the
profits of their lands without suing out
livery ; in consequence the escheator was
charged £15 which should have been
paid to the king, and when he tried to
recoup himself by distraint Richard
Hulme and others rescued the twenty
Hulme and Joyce Molyneux; Croxteth
D. T. ii, 2.
8 Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 35* (bis);
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 22,
m'»Harl. MS. 2042, fol. ?2.
'» Croxteth D. T. ii, 1 8.
MSS. ii, fol. 270*, n. 93.
« He had received it from certain feof-
fees in Oct. 1408 ; Croxteth D. T. ii, i.
» Lancs. In?, p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, .35.
He held Ainsdale lands also.
" Ibid, ii, jo.
14 Croxteth D. T. ii, 2. His daughter
218
B. 1 7. In December, 1535, Ellen Hulme
widow, granted her son Richard the
Halthwait, &c., for an annual rent;
Wapentake Ct. R. at Croxteth.
19 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, n. 9.
The provision for Richard's younger bro-
thers and sisters is recited.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
second husband Richard Bradshaw, had neglected to
keep the mansion-house of the manor in good repair.'
Soon afterwards the steward of the fee of Halton
(Sir John Savage) accused him of wilfully absenting
himself from Widnes court and assaulting the bailiffs
when they demanded the fines for absence.' Ed-
mund complained that Sir Richard Molyneux, John
Molyneux, and others had been digging turves upon
his moss, carrying away 500 cartloads.3 Sir Richard
retorted by alleging that Edmund, Henry, and
Thomas Hulme and others attacked him in the
Lower Meadow, Edmund Hulme having a javelin in
his hand and there being a ' privy ambushment ' in
the wood adjoining. The dispute was as to which
of the two parties should take the hay in the meadow ;
the Molyneux party arrived first, but the others
carried off the hay.4 Edmund sold his rights in
Halsall and Ainsdale to the Halsalls in 1555.'
Richard Hulme (or Holme), his son and successor,
had livery of the manor of Maghull and the rest of
his father's lands in November, 1575.° He had his
share of litigation. He claimed from Thomas Bootle
of Melling certain services, including £ Ib. of wax
yearly, due from a holding in Maghull ; the reply
was that some small works and boons had been done
for the plaintiff, but only ' by courtesy.7 Richard
died 1 8 February, 1614-15, seised in fee of the
manor of Maghull, held of the king by the hundredth
part of a knight's fee ; also of lands in Kirkdale and
Maghull. His son and heir Edmund was forty years
of age,8 but by his father's dispositions did not
succeed to the manor.
Edmund Hulme and Ellen his wife in Maghull
were presented to the bishop as recusants or non-
communicants in 1634, as also Edward and Alice
Hulme. Edmund Hulme and Ellen his wife and
Alice Hulme appear also in the recusant roll of
1641.' By indenture in 1623 he assigned to Richard
his eldest son, and his assigns certain leasehold pro-
perty in Maghull, in view of his marriage. Richard
married Margery, and died young, leaving a daughter
Mary. The widow married Thomas Wilkinson
(their names appear in the recusant lists of 1635 anc^
1641), and in 1653 the husband petitioned the par-
HALSALL
liamentary commissioners for the removal of the
sequestration of two-thirds which had been incurred
by the recusancy of Edmund Hulme, who had died
three years previously.10 Mary Hulme was the wife
of Thomas Hesketh in 1659.
Internal troubles in the Hulme family had per-
haps been the cause of Richard Hulme's diverting the
natural course of succession ; about eighteen months
before his death he assigned the manor of Maghull
and all other of his lands to trustees for the use of
himself for life, and then for William Ley or Lea
and his heirs, and failing these for Henry, Richard,
James, John, and Bartholomew in succession, the sons
of William Hulme by a certain Elizabeth Pimley.
Thus his own son Edmund was removed a long way
from the succession." This is not mentioned in the
inquisition after Richard's death ; but a few months
after this event Henry Pimley alias Hulme sold to
Sir Richard Molyneux the manor of Maghull.
Edmund Hulme and William Ley were also parties
to various agreements in connexion with the con-
veyance ;" and as late as 1659 Mary Hesketh,
daughter of Richard Hulme, joined with her husband
in renouncing all claim to the hall of Maghull, then
belonging to Caryll, Viscount Molyneux.13 Edmund
Hulme had had a lease of the hall for three lives.14
The Molyneuxes of Sefton had for some time been
acquiring lands in the township. In 1544 Sir William
Molyneux purchased from Edward and Nicholas
Maghull Carr House and 22 acres of land, and one
or two other tenements seem also to have been ac-
quired.15 In 1567-8 accordingly the partition of
the various lands, with moss and turbary, was made
between Edmund Hulme, Sir Richard Molyneux
and William his son, and Richard Maghull, as the
three lords of the place.16
The manor (or three-quarters of the manor) of
Maghull " remained in the hands of the Molyneux
family down to the end of the eighteenth century,
when it was sold for £7,500 18 to William Harper
of Liverpool and Dunham in Cheshire ; his daughter
and heir Helen married John Formby of Everton and
afterwards of Formby ; and these were in possession
at the beginning of 1816." In 1858 the hall, with-
1 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Edw. VI,
X, H. 12.
> Ibid. Phil, and Mary, xxxiv, S. 3.
1 Duchy of Lane. Dep. Phil, and Mary,
John Hatton, a footman in ordinary;
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 211.
Another Richard Hulme of Maghull,
bom in 1604, entered the English College
ler Richard ; Lawrence, aged 1 2, was
and heir ; ibid, i, 235.
Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 232.
0 Royalist Comp. Papers (Rec. Soc.
ics. and Ches.), iii, 253.
of Melling complained that having no
turf he could keep no fire, and had been
obliged to break up his house ; Duchy of
Lane. Pleadings, Phil, and Mary, xxxiv,
M.y.
4 Duchy of Lane. Dep. Phil, and Mary,
Ixxii, M. 3.
'Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 16,
One of Edmund Hulme's acts is not
altogether creditable. Generally speaking
the family adhered to the Roman Catholic
religion, but in 1568 he made charges
against Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton
and others as to their having received
absolution from a priest named Pick, and
became an informer against his neigh-
bours as to their want of conformity to
the new laws. He and his wife had been
examined, it appears, and possibly he
thought to ward off danger to himself by
accusing others. His successor Richard
was a recusant in 1610, when a grant of
the profits of this offence was made to
would
em, after t
yea
virtuous than talented.' On admission
he stated that when he was nine years
old he and others, their parents being
dead, were placed by their brother ' in the
house of his Catholic father-in-law. Here
they lived as Catholics for six years.
Their brother afterwards placed them in
a heretical school, where they lost their
religion.' His father had become a Ro-
man Catholic before his death. 'His
brothers and sisters were either actually
verted by a priest who lived near '; Foley,
Rec. S. J. v, 308.
« Croxteth D., T. ii, 16. Edmund's will
was proved in the same year.
1 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz,
cxlvi, H. I.
8 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
and Ches.), ii, 19. William Hulme, who
died in 1612, was found to have held
2I9
F. bdle. 83, m. 49. A later William
Hulme is said to have married Anne the
daughter of Richard Maghull ; Dugdalc,
Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 192.
» Croxteth D., T. ii ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 88, m. 18.
l» Ibid. T. ii, 34. " Ibid. T. ii, 32.
15 Ibid. T. i, 4-6, 9.
" Ibid. T. i, 10 ; the Molyneuxes had
a quarter. See also T. ii, 14 for a parti-
tion of various lands and moss between
Edmund Hulme and Edward Molyneux
(1556) and Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 51*.
17 See (e.g.) the Inq. p.m. of Sir Richard
Molyneux in 1623 ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 390, where its
dependence on Halton is again stated
18 Chief rents varying from \\d. to is.
were then due from several tenants, and
an annual rent of <jd. was payable to the
duchy.
!' Pal. of Lane. Docquet R. Lent, ,6
Geo. Ill, R. ii.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
out any manorial rights, was sold by the Formbys to
Bartholomew French, of Liverpool and County
Mayo; he died in 1868, and in 1875 his trustees
sold the hall to Mr. William Ripley, the present
owner. The manorial rights are supposed to be
extinct.1
A branch of the Molyneuxes resided at the Peel *
in Maghull in the first part of the sixteenth cen-
tury.3
Thomas Bootle of Melling, who died in 1597,
held lands in Maghull of each of the lords-
Richard Hulme, Sir Richard Molyneux, and Richard
Maghull.4
Henry Stanley of Maghull had his small estate
sequestered by the Parliament, but was discharged,
having taken the National Covenant and Negative
Oath in 1646.*
The present church of St. Andrew
CHURCH was consecrated 8 September, 1880, and
stands near the old site. It is in the
early English style, with chancel, nave, north porch,
and western tower.
Forty years ago the chapel had ' an ancient chancel
with a small aisle or chapel to the north,' divided
from it 'by two very low pointed arches, perhaps
early English, with a circular pillar having a moulded
cap. The western respond had nail-headed mould-
ings.' The body of the church, built about 1830,
was ' unworthy of notice. . . . The interior was posi-
tively shapeless.' 6
The chancel with its north aisle has been preserved,
and is commonly known as the Unsworth chapel, the
owner of the manor-house using the aisle as a mor-
tuary chapel. ' A careful comparison of the mould-
ings appears to indicate that the building does not
date earlier than 1285 to 1290, in spite of the
Norman-looking round arch, which, oddly enough,
has the most distinct thirteenth-century detail in the
moulding.' On the east wall is a trace of a mural
painting. There are a mutilated piscina and a prism-
shaped holy-water font. A Georgian baptismal font
is built into the wall over the modern west door.'
' The chapel house nearly opposite is a good example
of early seventeenth-century architecture, with long
square mullioned windows.' 8
The origin of the chapel is unknown, but from
what has been said above one must have stood there in
the thirteenth century.9 A gift of five acres of land was
at one time made for the finding of a light in the
chapel.10 The building in 1550 was valued at 30*."
About the same time the rector of Halsall complained
that he had been ousted from a close called ' Church
land ' at the east end of the chapel of Maghull, another
small piece between the barnyard and Maghull Green,
and four butts on the south side of the chapel.1*
Nothing is known of the fate of the chapel for
some time after this. Melling was perhaps used as
more convenient. In 1 5 90 there was ' no preacher '
at Maghull;13 about 1610 it was 'without service
or preacher.' " The registers do not begin till
1729.
Under the rule of the Parliament, Maghull was
placed under the charge of a separate minister, who
had the tithes of the township, a tenth being de-
ducted for the benefit of Mrs. Travers, wife of the
'delinquent' rector. In November, 1645, Mr. James
Worrall was appointed to the charge of it.15 The
surveyors of 1650 found 'an ancient chapel' with
about a roodland of ground around it, 'fit to be
enjoyed therewith,' and recommended that the town-
ship should be made a separate parish. Mr. William
Aspinall, ' a painfull and godly minister,' was then
supplying the cure, his regular stipend being £45
clear.16
Bishop Gastrell records that in 1717 there was
nothing belonging to the chapel beyond £20 a year
paid by the rector, and about £$ surplice fees ; " the
rector of course appointed the curate, and now pre-
sents the vicar.
Among the curates and vicars at Maghull have
been : —
oc. 1665 — Shaw
1670-91 Zachary Leech 16
oc. 1 704 Ralph Sherdley
1777 Benjamin Whitehead "
1 8 n George Holden, M.A. (Glas.) '"
1865 Joseph Lyon, M.A. (Trin. Coll.,
Oxford)
1869 James Gerard Leigh, M.A. (Christ
Ch., Oxford) "
1884 John Francis Hocter, M.A. (Trin. Coll
Dublin)
1 Information of Mr. R. E. French.
a Alan del Peel made a complaint
against Thomas de Maghull in 1348;
Exch. Misc. xc, m. 238.
» Joan wife of Ralph Molyneux died
there in 1503, absolved and houselled by
Humphrey Hart, priest. The place de-
scended to her son and heir Richard, who
in 1514 arranged that his lands in Lydiate
and Maghull should upon his death go to
the use of his wife Elizabeth for her life,
and then to his sons Edmund and Ralph.
Richard died about February, 1521 ; and
while his body lay in the house, another
son, Robert, came in and sat down by way
of taking possession. He refused to take
part in the funeral, but after the ' dole '
had been distributed among the people at
the churchyard the funeral party returned
to the house 'and there drank without
hurt or misdeameanor of any one.' Shortly
afterwards Robert was expelled by the
servants of Edward Molyneux, rector of
Sefton, one of the trustees for the widow;
Duchy of Lane. Depos. Hen. VIII, xii,
4 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. xvii, «. 57.
« Cal. Com. far Camp, ii, 1483.
« Lanes. Churches (Chet. Soc. New Ser.),
37. 'The chapel appears to have been
built at different times,' says a visitor of
1823, referring to the old building, ' and
the exterior is destitute of simplicity or
architectural beauty. The interior is
neat and crowded with seats, capable of
containing a numerous congregation,
which, however, has so much increased
as to render necessary the addition which
is at present contemplated. On the north
side of the chancel is a small private
chapel belonging to the Unsworth family,
whose seat, the Manor House, lies ad-
jacent.' Kaleidoscope, 8 July, 1823.
^ Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 252.
Some remains are built into the manor-
house. » Ibid.
' Lawrence Hulme was baptized at it
in 1411, so that it was to some extent
parochial ; Lanes. Ina. p.m. (Chet. Soc.),
ii, 30. John the chaplain of Maghull is
named in 1461 ; Cockersand Chartul. iv,
1244.
10 Lanes, and Cbes. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Che,.), ii, 256.
" Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), ii,
277. For the property of this chapel ii
1552 see Church Goads (Chet. Soc.), 108.
« Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Edw. VI,
xxvi, H. 16; xxix, H. 16.
13 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 249.
" Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 13.
In 1609 one Richard Vawdrey was curat-
of Melling and Maghull ; Raines MSS
(Chet. Lib.), xxii, 298.
« Plund. Mins.Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes
and Ches.), i, 10. He was transfers
to Aughton very soon afterwards.
16 Commonwealth Cb. Sur-v. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 87.
V Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 175.
There were two wardens, appointed by
the inhabitants.
18 Visit. Lists. « Conformable ' in 1 689 ;
Kenyan MSS. 229.
" Also at Melling.
«> He was a justice of the peace an i
author of several theological works. He
was the originator of Maiden's Tide Table,.
He lived at Halsall Hall. See Diet. Na:.
"'Now rector of Halsall.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
HALSALL
the Roman Catholic services dates only from 1887,
is a tradition that during the times of per- when a barn was fitted up and used as a chapel.
secution mass was said secretly in an old building in In 1890 the school chapel of St. George was
the manor-house grounds, but the public revival of opened.4
The Wesleyan Methodists have a chapel.
There is a tradition that during the ti
ALTCAR
Acrer, Dom. Bk. (exceptional) ; Altekar, Aldekar,
Althekar about 1250; Altcarre, 1439; Alker, 1587;
Allkar, 1604.
The situation and aspect of this parish and town-
ship are sufficiently indicated by its name — the carr
or marsh-land beside the Alt. It lies on the right
bank of this stream, as it flows north-westward, west-
ward, and then southward to the Mersey estuary.
The boundary on the east is practically coincident
with the 2 5 ft. level, till it reaches Lydiate Brook at
the Frith Bridge. The old course of the Downhol-
land Brook, crossed by the old Fleam Bridge, was
the western boundary, but has been greatly altered,
and now is led straight to Alt Bridge.1 The narrow
strip of land belonging to Altcar, which borders the
Alt down to its mouth, is over two miles in length.
On the widest portion, between the southern course
of the river and sea shore to the west, is the Altcar
rifle range. There is here a twelve-gun battery for
the defence of the Mersey. The population in 1901
was 545.
The area of the whole parish is 4,083 acres.1 The
whole is flat and lies very low. The geological forma-
tion consists entirely of the lower keuper sandstone
of the trias or new red sandstone, which is obscured
in the western part of the township by fluviatile
and some blown sand. The village of Altcar, or
Great Altcar, with a long crooked street, is in the
north-west, on ground which is only about 1 2 ft.
above sea level. Hill House,* to the east of the
village, is 40 ft. above sea level. To the south of
this house is Carr Wood. Altcar Hall, a farmhouse,
adjoins the church at the west end of the village.
The township is very sparsely timbered ; small trees
are grouped about the scattered farms, and there are
a few limited plantations to the east. As in other
low-lying townships the fields are mostly divided by
ditches, regularly-planted hawthorn hedges being seen
along the high roads and about the villages. Corn,
potatoes,5 and other root crops are extensively culti-
vated, besides quantities of hay. There are now in
Altcar 2,670 acres of arable land, 829 in permanent
grass, and 5 5 of woods and plantations.
The chief roads start from Alt Bridge ; that to
Ormskirk going north-east and east by a very devious
course through Altcar village, past Hill House.6
The Southport and Cheshire Lines Committee's
railway, opened in 1884, runs through the parish near
the eastern boundary, with two stations, called Lydiate,
and Altcar and Hill House. The Lancashire and
Yorkshire Company's Liverpool and Southport line
crosses the western portion, beyond Little Altcar.
There was a sandstone quarry near Hill House ;
this is now filled with water.
The history of this isolated place has been un-
eventful. One stormy incident, however, is recorded.
It arose out of the revival of religious persecution
caused by the Gates plot. In February, 1681-2,
eight officers of the law visited Altcar to distrain the
goods of John Sutton and Margery Tickle, recusants.
They seized cattle accordingly, and waited from nine
to three o'clock expecting that the cattle would be
redeemed. Receiving an intimation of a projected
rescue the sheriff's men tried to get away with their
capture, but were opposed by a party of about
twenty men and women, armed with long staffs,
pitchforks, and muskets, who easily routed the officers,
beating them, leaving them in the mire, and driving
the cattle away. Six men were badly injured, two so
severely that life was despaired of.7 There is nothing
1 Formerly it seems to have reached
the main stream nearly half a mile to the
west of Alt Bridge, after encompassing the
hamlet called Little Altcar.
For an account of the Alt Drainage Act
see Sefton.
•4,116, according to the cen.u. of
1901 ; this includes zo acres of inland
water. There are in addition an acre of
tidal water, and 132 acres of foreshore.
8 This bears the inscription
4 Liverpool Cath, Ann. 1892.
* 'An Irish vessel, part of its cargo
being potatoes, was wrecked in 1665 near
North Meols. The potatoes were gathered
from the sands, and some of them planted
in Altcar, and from that time to the
present the growth of potatoes has been
element in the Altcar
an impor
husbandry
ry'; Rev. W. Warburton in
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 172. Full
use has been made of this essay, and the
editors have to thank the author for other
information readily afforded.
• The road over Alt Bridge, through
Altcar and Lydiate to Aughton and Orms-
kirk, is mentioned as of immemorial use
in a plea of i 598 ; Duchy of Lane. Plead-
ings, Eliz. clxxx, 22.
There was formerly a small wooden
bridge over the Alt, near Ince Blundell
village, from which a footpath led to
Lydiate Hall.
7 See Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.),
pp. 134-9. ' The rioters are said to be all
papists,' writes Roger Kenyon's informant,
'and above eight-and-twenty in number.
Mr. Justice Entwisle has been active to
apprehend them, but the constable of the
town, one John Tyrer (?), who denied to
go with the officers to preserve the peace,
made not that quick execution of his war-
rant against them he ought to have done,
so that they all fled and there's none to
be light on. Afterwards Mr. Entwisle
sent hue and cry after two of them,
Thomas Tickle and Edward Tickle his
brother, who were the authors of all the
mischief. But that way proved ineffectual,
and now Mr. Entwisle and Mr. Mayor of
Liverpool (Richard Windall) have ap-
pointed a sessions to be held at Altcar
upon Monday sennitt for inquiry.'
Sir Thomas Preston wrote from Haigh :
' The grandee papists here seem much
concerned at it, thinking it an obstruction
221
to their false petition, which before they
hoped might have prevented any new
process against them.'
The inquisition arranged for took place
at Altcar on 20 February, and a true bill
was returned against Thomas and Edward
Tickle, John Sutton, senior, Ralph Star-
key the miller, and other yeomen and
husbandmen, for riot, assault, and rescue.
'Most of the town being papists or
popishly affected they will not tell who
they [the rioters] were; only upon the
one is taken and sent to gaol. Warrants
are out against the rest, who, as I told
you in my last, are fled and lie hidden
privately in the country, waiting what
will become of the man that is so sore
wounded, who now (as the doctor sup-
poses) cannot live long alive, being every
day weaker and weaker.'
The Justice Entwisle who showed
himself so active in the matter wrote
that he feared 'that party [the Protestant]
in Altcar is so slender that they dare not
deny the Roman whatsoever he is pleased
to call a neighbourly civility. I have
found the insolence of that party so high
in that town that the officers, in return to
my warrants for their present rent! of
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
stated as to the result, beyond a hint that the king
was about to intervene to prevent further proceedings.1
The modern celebrity of Altcar is due to the
Waterloo coursing meeting which takes place here
about February. There are also one or two minor
meetings.
The township is governed by a parish council.
In recent years improvements in the drainage of
the district have been made, and a pumping engine is
employed to keep the water under control.*
In former times the villagers of Altcar used occa-
sionally to challenge those of Formby, then chiefly a
fishing village, to fight, the combats taking place at
Fleam Bridge, on the boundary.3
' Mid Lent Sunday was known as Braggot Sunday,
from a specially-made non-intoxicating drink called
Braggot ; its place was afterwards taken by mulled
ale. A labourer expected four eggs from his em-
ployer, which he took to the ale-house, where the
eggs> with spices, were drunk in hot ale. This
custom died when the public-houses were closed.'
All Souls' Day was observed by children begging a
' soul loaf.' The rush-bearing customs died out sixty
years ago. A little fair was held ; a mock mayor was
elected — the first man who succumbed to the effects
of the drinking that took place — and he and fantas-
tically-dressed neighbours went in procession, calling
at various houses for money or drink.4 The rush-
bearing took place between 12 and 19 July.4
' There are many trees and roots buried in the
moss lands and carr lands of Altcar. Every now and
then a plough comes in contact with one of these
long-buried trees. . . . They are chiefly oak trees ;
the trunk of one of them must have been z ft. 6 in.
in diameter. . . . There are also some trees of
softer wood, which seems to be black poplar. Many
of the trees have been cut down ; but in some cases it
would appear that the trees had been torn up by the
roots by some storm in the higher grounds and then
floated down the flooded waters of the Alt. ... In
cutting the drain-sluices, the horns and bones of
wild animals have been found buried with the trees.
Much of the timber is sound and undecayed, while
some is so soft that it can be cut out with a spade.' 6
The field names include Priest Carrs and Monk's
Carrs, Hemp Yard, God's Croft, and Salt Fields. In
1779 there were also Showrick Side, Hainshoot
Meadow, Cuddock Meadow, and Nearer Mossocks.
In 1066 the manor of ALTCAR was
MANOR held by Uctred ; it was assessed at half a
plough-land, and was ' waste ' — the only
manor in the hundred so described — and no value is
recorded. It was a portion of the privileged three
hides in the parishes of North Meols, Halsall, and
Ormskirk.7
After the Conquest it seems to have been taken
into the demesne of the honour, like the adjacent
Formby. It is next mentioned in the perambulation
of the forest made in 1228. The jurors found that
Altcar had been placed within the forest since the
coronation of Henry II, and should be disafforested ;
within its bounds had been included portions of the
neighbouring townships — Ince
Blundell, Raven Meols, Down
holland, and Lydiate. It wa
disafforested accordingly.
XAA/
XAA/1
LfuYfl
After the death of Ranulf
Blundeville, earl of Chester, in
1232, his sister Agnes, wife of
William de Ferrers, earl of
Derby, succeeded to this part
of his possessions. Within a
very short time (before 1238) MEKIVALE ABBEY.
she and her husband had be- Fairy or and gules.
stowed Altcar upon the Cis-
tercian Abbey of Merivale (de Mira Valle) in War-
wickshire, a Ferrers foundation. There are several
charters relating to it.*
absentors from church upon the laws of
12 J. a Sunday, have told me they durst
• Ibid. 187. « Ibid. 193-6.
* Harland and Wilkinson, Legends ana
• Some originals and some copies, pre-
served at Croxteth ; bdle. At and A6.
house I have also been informed was four
• Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 201.
assent and good will of Agnes the countess
the Roman priests and usual place of
extracted from the soil that on visiting a
themselves and their ancestors and po»-
1 See Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.),
balk may generally be seen upon the fire.
Marsh, the boundaries proceeding from
roll of 1641 ; Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),
xiv, 235. Bishop Gastrell in 1717 re-
Thomas Haskeyne, of Gore Houses, Alt-
car, a farm under Lord Sefton, which has
been held by the family for many genera-
to Fers Pool, Reedy Pool, and Barton
Pool — this pool continued to be on the
boundary between Downholland and Alt-
al to any others ; Notitia Cestr. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 163. In 1767 the number re-
turned was 92 persons ; Account at
Chester Reg. Several marriages solem-
nized by 'the Popish priest' appear in the
registers of 1708 and thereabouts.
1 Formerly the inhabitants suffered
many inconveniences from the situation
of the place, especially in winter, when
stepping-stones were needed for passing
from one cottage to another. At hay
time the grass had often to be carried
from the town to the higher levels to be
dried. ' At one farmhouse a small boat
was attached to the door latch, and when
milking time arrived the milker paddled
scarcely a day has passed in which two
large balks have not been consumed in
this manner. The custom has always
been to place one upon the kitchen fire
after the first meal, and another after
dinner' ; Gibson, Lydiatt Hall, 3.
7 V.C.H. Lanes, i, p. 2853.
8 See the document in Baines' Lanes.
(ed. Croston), i, 379.
Two facts in connexion with Altcar
must be observed ; first, the assessment
was increased to I plough-land; and
second, a strip of land on the north bank
of the Alt, extending west as far as the
sea, now belongs to Altcar, though it
did not do so in 1207. In this year
hey to Landlache and Muster Pool, de-
scending this last through the Withini to
the Alt ; then along the Alt to Mere
Pool. This seems to be the main portion
of Altcar, between Formby and Lydiatt
Brook, here called Muster Pool. The
western corner between this brook and the
Alt is now called the Withins. The rent
of 401. was excused in a later charter, but
hunting rights were reserved to the earl.
By a second charter he granted all that
part of the word and pasture in Altcai
within these bounds: Where Mustei
Pool descends in a straight line from the
moss through the Withins as far as the
Alt, then following the Alt as far as Alt
the shippon to milk the cows. It is also
stated that occasionally people proceeded
to church in boats, and that on one occa-
sion the boat was actually floated over the
churchyard wall.' See Tram. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), xi, 185.
Raven Meols, gave permission to William
Blundell of Ince to make a mill pool on
Henry's side of the Alt ; Wholly Coucher
(Chet. Soc.), ii, 497. Thus the northern
bank of the Alt was then in Raven
Meols.
222
and then by the divisions of the hey tc
the said Muster Pool. This seems to bt
the eastern part of Altcar, between Lydiati
Brook and Maghull.
Agnes dc Ferrers afterwards confirmee
her husband's grants.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The monks of Merivale on being established at
Altcar began improvements, in particular by draining
their land. This brought them into conflict with
their brother Cistercians of Stanlaw on the southern
side of the river, whose lands and mill might be
damaged by any alteration of the course of the Alt.1
The monks also made an agreement with John de
Lea of Raven Meols by which he granted them for
their cattle a road next to the Alt over his land, the
road being 3 perches wide (each of twenty lawful
feet) and extending from the King's way between
Raven Meols and Alt Bridge, as far as the pasture on
Alt Marsh. On the other hand he obtained leave to
embank and enclose Herdebreck Pool.'
In 1292 the abbot was called upon to show by
what right he held a messuage and a plough-land in
Altcar. In reply he cited the above grants by
William de Ferrers and Agnes his widow. For the
king it was urged that he should also show some
royal confirmation, and that being unable to do so
his tenure was bad. The abbot retained Altcar.3 In
the eyre of the forest of Henry earl of Lancaster in
1329 the abbot and convent were again called upon
to show their warrant for holding the manor in alms.4
The abbot seems to have sent two or three monks
from Warwickshire to farm the land.5
In January, 1383-4, Sir Thomas de Stafford
surrendered to the monks the grange of Altcar which
he had held from them, together with the mill and
crofts of the Gore, &c. In 1389 the abbot and
convent leased (for his life) to Thomas Heton of
ALTCAR
Lydiate a moiety of the Gore, with hall, barn, and
appurtenances, for a rent of 33^. 4^., the tenant to
pay all tithes and other dues as might be levied. At
the same time they leased (also for life) to Robert
Colon of Lydiate a messuage called Long Houses and
a meadow called Priest Meadow lying next to the
Gore, paying yearly to their warden (' custos ') of
Altcar 1 8/., as well as tithes, &c.6
In June, 1429, Abbot John Ruggeley and the
convent of Merivale leased to Edmund Lord Ferrers,
Thomas Mollesley and William Donyngton the
manor of Altcar for the life of the abbot, an annual
rent of 50 marks to be paid. The abbot and convent
undertook also to send one of their monks to celebrate
divine services in the chapel of St. Mary ' in the said
manor, at the cost of the tenants. It was provided
'that if Robert Molyneux, Roger Wyrley, and
Richard Lowe should die before the abbot' the
monks might re-enter.8
About ten years after this, Sir Richard Molyneux of
Sefton, brother of Robert the lessee of Altcar,
endeavoured to make an exchange with the monks.
He would give them two acres in Sefton with the
advowson of the parish church, which they might
appropriate, appointing a vicar ; in return he was to
have the manor of Altcar, and so much land there as
would bring in the same amount of money as the
rectory of Sefton would be worth to the monks.
This scheme for making a profit out of Sefton church
was not carried through ; but it shows that the
family of Molyneux had already cast eyes upon Altcar.'
1 The dispute was referred to the abbots
of three other Cistercian houses— Roche,
Kirkstall, and Sawley— and these in 1238
decided against any innovations by the
Merivale monks; Whalley Coucher, ii, 512.
Original at Croxteth.
A dispute in 1274 was settled by the
arbitration of the abbots of Combermere
and Croxton. The monks of Stanlaw had
obstructed the Merivale openings through
which the flood-waters of the Alt escaped,
and had raised their own flood-gates too
high ; their mill also obstructed the flow
of water. Thus the abbot of Mcrivale's
crops were in danger ; ibid, ii, 513.
'Croxteth D. It might be inferred
from these deeds that the Merivale monks
had a right to use the marshy pastures at
'plough-land' here is obviously not the
'plough-land' of the ancient assessment.
Some liberties were conceded to the
abbot in the time of Edward II. Robert de
Halsall gave right of entry and exit by
the road called Holbeck Gate, from Altcar
to the High Street of Lydiate ; and some
dispute as to right of way was formally
settled before the sheriff in his tourn of
West Derby ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 270*,
< Duchy of Lane. Forest Proc. 1-17.
At the beginning of 1377 John of
Gaunt seems to have laid claim to this
manor, but on inquiry the abbot's right
was once more affirmed. The tenement
was described as a messuage, 200 acres of
carried on with the rector of Halsall in
1367 ; De Bane. R. 413, m. 184 ; Crox-
teth D. A. I.
« Croxteth D. A. 6, 7, 8. Some time
in the fourteenth century the monks are
said to have lost lands here by the inroads
of the sea ; but the statement rests only
on a vague tradition ; Duchy Plea. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i. 24.
7 The last and present churches have
been named St. Michael's.
8 These three gave a bond for £200 to
perform their covenant with Lord Ferrers
and the others ; Croxteth D. A. 9.
A valuable inventory is attached to
this lease. In the first place in the
chapel were a missal, two vestments (one
of black satin, the other of black stuff
account for the above-mentioned strip of
land extending to the west.
Another charter, granted about 1300,
» from Thomas son of Richard de Halsall
to the monks, being a quitclaim of any
right he might have in certain land next
ture, held in pure and perpetual alms
without any secular service or demand ;
Croxteth D. A. 5.
* Generally speaking, their existence
was peaceable enough, but in 1343
Richard son of Sir John de Molyneux of
book called ' Krystnyng book,' and
another called ' Buryyng book,' a brass
vessel for holy water, and two chair..
In the hall two trestles, one table, and
two tables dormant, a basin with wash
bowl, and hanging tapestry (dosum).
of two houses ' at our place of the Gore '
are built. Croxteth D. ; for Hole Beck
cf. Ale Pool in the first charter ; Gore
U on the border of Lydiate and Mag-
hull.
Much earlier than this (1251) Henry
de Nottingham had quitclaimed to the
monks all his right in common of pasture
in Altcar ; the abbot giving him 405.
Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 113.
« flu. d, quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 383 ;
Akbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 230*, 288*.
In the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas, 1291
(p. 258), the abbot of Merivale is said to
have at the grange called Altcar 4 plough-
lands of an annual value of £l 6s. M.,
profits of his stock of cattle, &c., £3, and
rent in various places, £10. The word
same place, Richard de Standish, and
other evil-doers, were accused of having
gone into the abbot's manor of Altcar
with force and arms and threatened the
monks, so that they removed from the
place with their servants, not daring to
live there any longer. The doors were
broken down, and the stores and utensils
consumed; Assize R. 430, m. I4,2di/.
29 d. On the other hand, Thomas de
Shevington, monk of Altcar, was in
1354 charged with having struck William
Gervase of Ince Blundell, and thrown
Robert de Bickerstath into the ditch and
kept him there till he was nearly
drowned; Assize R. 436, m. I.
The abbot had a dispute with some of
the neighbours about watercourses in
1363, and another as to boundaries was
carpet (tafetum) worth 6s. 8</., a pair of
sheets, a mattress worth 21. with two
blankets, a coffer bound with iron. The
buttery, larder, and kitchen were fully
furnished. The cattle were 12 cows, 12
calves and a bull, 16 'twinters' and 20
stirks, 8 oxen, 100 sheep, 4 horses and a
mare; worth in all £23 6s. %d. There
were also wains, etc. The mill had 4
sail cloths worth IQJ. and 2 millstones
and a 'royne' worth IDS. ; at the other
mill were 2 stones and a 'ryne' worth
61. &J. ; Croxteth D. A. 10.
» Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxiv, 125-7.
In 1480 Thomas Molyneux of Sefton
was endeavouring to obtain a lease of
Altcar from the abbot of Merivale, and ai
a preliminary he came to an agreement
with Piers Holland of Downholland as
223
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
In 1532 William abbot of Merivale complained
that the Halsalls had taken possession of part of his
land.1 Sir William Molyneux and others were com-
missioned to make inquiry; after hearing the evidence
they were to make an exact boundary, and send their
report to Westminster.1 Thomas Halsall alleged that
the disputed land was part of a great moss called
Downholland Moss, of one thousand acres or more. He
gave his version of the boundary, and averred that he
and his predecessors had received \d. a day from
persons wishing to take turf from this moss.3 Judge-
ment was made by setting stakes, stones, limits, and
meres on the moss, beginning in the nook of the
Frith Dyke and going on to the Black Mere ; * all
to the north-east to be Halsall's ; all on the south-
west of the meres set on the moss to the dyke
following the woodside, and from the nook of the
Frith Dyke to Holland Causey, to be the abbot's.4
The abbot in 1537 leased to Robert Molyneux of
Hawton in Nottinghamshire and William his son and
heir the manor, grange, and lordship of Altcar with the
mill and the tithes, &c., for eighty years ; the lessees
being bound, among other things, to maintain a priest
to celebrate in the hall, paying a monk £5 a year.6
The suppression of the abbey quickly followed, but the
Court of Augmentations ratified this lease in 1539.'
In 1556 a commission was appointed by Philip and
Mary to make a division between the spiritualities and
temporalities of the manor.8 In 1558 for the sum of
£1,000, the crown sold the manor and grange, 'lately
in the occupation of Robert Molyneux and William
his son,' to Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton, with the
reservation to the vicar of all his rights and endow-
ments, the lead in the windows and gutters, and the
bells. The manor was to be held as the twentieth
part of a knight's fee.9 Shortly afterwards Francis
Molyneux of Hawton, who had inherited the eighty-
years' lease, surrendered the unexpired term to William,
the son and heir apparent of Sir Richard Molyneux,
for 500 marks.10 Thus the Sefton family came into
full possession of the manor, which they have retained
to the present time."
In 1609 Sir Richard Molyneux purchased the
spiritualities or tithes of Altcar, formerly demised to
Robert Molyneux and William his son at a rent of
£6 1 3*. 4<^., but I oos. was to be allowed to the cele-
brant of divine offices in the chapel, in accordance
with the lease of 1537."
Sir Thomas Hesketh, attorney of the Court of Wards
and Liveries, and Thomas Ireland, learned in the law,
had, in 1 604, after perusal of the charters, decided that
all persons dwelling on lands at any time belonging to
Merivale Abbey were free of toll and duty in all fairs,
markets, towns, and villages ; and the earl of Derby, as
lord lieutenant, accordingly gave instructions that the
inhabitants of Altcar should enjoy this immunity.13
Three of those whose estates were confiscated by
the Parliament in 1652 were described as ' of Altcar ' :
Edward Gore, who had land in Lydiate, Henry
Lovelady, and John Tickle."
The hearth tax assessors in 1666 found only four
houses here with three hearths or more.14
Thomas, son of Cuthbert Formby of Formby, regis-
tered a leasehold estate here in 1717 as a 'Papist.'16
In 1720 Edward Fazakerley had a lease of land here
from Lord Molyneux ; also of Hill House, lately in
the possession of Nicholas Fazakerley, deceased.17
A court-baron used to be held in May, and an
adjourned court in October;18 the tenants of the manoi
were bound to the service of clearing the marshes.
No courts are held now.
The earliest record of any church 01
CHURCH chapel at Altcar is that in the lease of
1429, already given, but there can b<
little doubt that religious worship had been main-
tained in the manor-house, to which the chapel would
to certain lands which were in dispute
between the latter and the abbot. The
situation of this debatable area is thus
called before them sixteen 'old and
ancient ' men of Altcar, who all gave the
bounds as stated by the abbot. These
above-named William Molyneux (wh<
predeceased his father), and his sor
Richard. All 'the old ancient and ac
new ditch between Downholland and
Altcar, beginning at the Frith Gate in the
south end of Helmescough, along this
new ditch to the north-west, then along
the old ditch to Helmescough Wood,
along the wood ditch to Holland Cause-
way, and so to the Black Mere, which is
common to the two townships ; Croxteth
D. A. 1 8. Improvements of the moss-
lands seem to have been the cause of the
dispute.,
i The abbot described his boundaries as
follows : From a certain place called
Horse Hook (or Horse Flecks) near Barton
Pool (Downholland Brook) where the
division between the parish of Halsall
and Altcar begins, thence to Frith Stone,
taken away or hidden— by the defendant,
as they supposed. The defendant's wit-
nesses described the boundary thus : From
the Frith Gate north-west to the Black
Brow, west to the old ditch, along this to
the wood ditch, by this to Holland Causey
straight to the Black Mere, where they of
rendered; Croxteth D. A. 15. Thepreviou;
lessee was James Halsall, deceased.
The Old Gore, in Gore Houses, wai
in 1587 leased by Sir Richard Molynem
to his uncle John Molyneux, ancestor o
Molyneux of New Hall and Alt Grange,
with the usual liberties of pasture am
< Or, Goodleys Mere,
s Duchy of Lane. Depositions (as
above) ; Croxteth D. A. 17.
Henry Gore, then tenant of the Gore
House in Altcar, was still to be at liberty
to put his cattle to pasture on the moss
from the Holland Causey.
6 Ibid. A. 37. '• Ibid. A. 35.
3 Croxteth D. A. 24. The result of the
to be used upon the tenement ; also ' with
housebote, hedgebote, utongsbote, firebote.
heybote, and cartbote, to be taken in am
upon the premises and to be used and spen
upon the same.' Ibid. A. 16.
" Croxteth D. A. 25.
"Ibid. A. 22. James I in 1613 con
firmed these privileges ; ibid. Bisho]
Gastrell states : ' The inhabitants of thi
'river' to Drythalt alias Alepool, along
Drythalt between the Frith, the Acres,
Hyndeford Meadow, and the Gore in
succession on one side, and Lydiate on the
other side, as far as Holy Beck Lane ;
and then between the Priest Meadow and
Sholy Wyke in Altcar and Maghull down
to Great Alt. Places to the north and
east of these bounds were in Halsall
parish, those to the south and west
being in Altcar parish ; Duchy of Lane.
Depositions, Hen. VIII, xxiii, m. i.
a Croxteth D. A.
"The arbitrators went to view the
disputed mossland several times, and
worth £6 135. 4</. and the temporalities
£40 a year. £46 131. 4^. was the rent
the monks had been accustomed to receive
from Altcar ; Man. Angl. v, 483.
9 Croxteth D. A. 28 ; Pat. 4 and 5 Phil,
and Mary, pt. v.
10 Croxteth D. A. 29, 12.
» The clear value of Altcar in 1623 was
considered to be £30 155. T,d. ; Lanes, Inq.
p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes. & Ches.), iii, 389.
The Wood House in Altcar— supposed
to have been the predecessor of Hill
House — with its appurtenances was in
1580 leased to Richard Radcliffe, who
married Bridget Caryll, the widow of the
224
thing to county bridges ' ; Nat. Can-.
(Chet. Soc.), ii, 163.
" Index of Royalists (Index Soc.), 42-4
For Edward Gore see Roy. Com. Pap. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 87. Nothinj
seems recorded of the 'delinquency ' of th,
others — probably it was religious.
15 Lay Subs. Lanes. 250-9.
^En£l.Ca,h.Non-jUrorS,-i^.
V Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 206,
quoting 4th Roll of Geo. I at Preston.
They were of the family of Fazakerley o;
Kirkby.
18 Held in 1836 ; so Baines, Land.
(I8ted.),iv, 232-3.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
adjoin, from the time the monks of Merivale received
possession of it.1 The chapel appears to have been
but poorly furnished. From that year there is clear
evidence that divine service was regularly celebrated,
the leases stipulating for the payment of a resident
priest, normally one of the monks of Merivale.*
The church existing in the seventeenth century is
said to have been of timber and plaster. About 1614
Altcar was described as ' a donative impropriate to Sir
Richard Molyneux, Knight ; no incumbent, but a
bare reader and a mean pension.' 3 The Common-
wealth surveyors of 1650 found that there was a
church, but no parsonage or glebe lands ; the tithes,
worth £70 a year,4 were farmed by Lord Molyneux
under a lease for ten thousand years. The church
was well situated within the parish, and there was no
need for any other.6 In 1646 the stipend of the
minister was but twenty nobles (£6 I $s. 4^.) a year, as
the old rent of the spiritualities of the parish ; but
upon Lord Molyneux's property being sequestered by
Parliament .£503 year was promptly added to this
stipend out of the tithes of Altcar.6 Altcar Hall was
assigned as a parsonage house, with orchards, gardens,
yards, stables, and outhouses. It is the old church-
house. Afterwards it became an inn, and is still
standing by the churchyard.
Bishop Gastrell in 1717 found that Lord Molyneux,
who let out the tithes for £80 a year, paid the curate
there about £10 a year, to which a further £l los.
might arise from surplice fees. There were two war-
dens, serving by house row.'
Nearly thirty years later the church is supposed
to have been destroyed by fire, and a new one was
built, a royal brief in 1743 raising a certain portion of
the cost. The new building was consecrated in 1747.
It was a 'small brick edifice, with a cupola in which
was only one bell. The interior was very plain.' 8
The present church of St. Michael,9 in the Perpen-
dicular style, was built in 1879, the former one being
pulled down.
The registers begin in 1664, but no marriage is
recorded till 1680. There are parish accounts from
ALTCAR
1714. An old font lies in the churchyard, in company
with the base of a cross and the font (sundial pattern)
of I747-1"
Altcar being a donative, no institution or licence
was required ; but about the end of the seventeenth
century Bishop Gastrell notices that curates had been
licensed." Probably the monk in charge at the dis-
solution of the monasteries would remain at Altcar,
having no longer any other home ; " but the first
curate whose name is known is Gilbert Shurlacres.13
It appears that the curate-in-charge might only be
a ' reader,' that is, a layman licensed to read the
prayers ; the salary was very small, and as practically
all the people adhered to the Roman Catholic faith after
the Reformation there would be few offerings and other
dues to increase it. The improvement in the minis-
ter's stipend made by the parliamentary authorities
was accompanied by the appointment of Robert
Seddon, 'an orthodox and painful godly minister,'
who had been put in by Colonel John Moore, and
was there in 1650.'* The following are among the
later curates and vicars, who have since 1856 been
presented by the Earl of Sefton as patron :
1656 Nathaniel Brownsword 13
1657 John Walton, clerk "
oc. 1665 — Brookes17
e. 1 669 Zachary Leech "
oc. 1671 Richard Critchley "
1 702 — Norris
1702 Timothy Ellison 1S
1717 Edward Pilkington 19
1724 William Clayton "
1735 Thomas Mercer21
oc. 1774 William Naylor8'
1823 Thomas Garrett, M.A. (Aberdeen) a
1826 Charles Forshaw, B.A. "
1856 James Pearson, M.A. (Trinity College,
Camb.) »
1862 John Thomas26
1880 William Warburton 8?
tithes in the foundation charters.
» The Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.) of 1535
(v, 221) states that Altcar used to be in
"One in 1695 to Altcar ; one in 1702
to Altcar and Formby ; Notitia Cestr. ii,
163.
u In 1 509 Richard Walker, ' commonk '
should officiate at Altcar every Sunday
afternoon; hitherto, only £10 being
allowed by Lord Molyneux as the curate's
salary, there had been divine service only
of the church in 1552 see Ch. Goods (Chet.
Soc.), 105. 8 Kenyan A/SS. 13.
* The meadows were tithe free ; Notitia
Cettr. ii, 163.
5 Commonwealth Ch. Surf. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Che..), p. 95-
6 Plund. Mint. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
andChes.), i, 13, 18.
In 1648 Lord Molyneux was allowed
Liverpool Corp. D.
la Visit. Lists at Chest. He lived at
Ormskirk and was buried there in 1558.
" Commonwealth Ch. Survey, p. 95. He
joined in the ' Harmonious Consent 'of
1648, and seems to be the Robert Sed-
don, M.A. (of Christ's Coll., Camb.),
who was in 1654 ordained to Gorton
Chapel, and was afterward, promoted to
Chester.
" Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 98.
*> Presented by Viscount Molyneux.
21 Also curate of Formby.
M He wa. for fifty year, master of
Ormskirk Grammar School. He died in
23 Thomas Garrett had been appointed
curate in 1821, and became incumbent in
thirty years, on condition of paying £70
a year to the minister ; Croxteth D. ;
also Plund. Mini. Accts. ii, 142, 188.
~> Notitia Cestr. ii, 163. The divisions
of the parish were Town Row, Gore
Houses, and Little Altcar.
"Baines, Lane,, (ed. 1836), iv, 233.
A new .andstone font wa. provided,
and a silver chalice and paten were pre-
ton. He would be only 20 years of age
on appointment to Altcar. Nightingale,
Lanes. Nonconf. iii, 5-7.
16 ' Approved according to the ordinance
for approbation of Public Preachers ' ;
Plund. Mins. Accts. ii, 142.
16 Upon a nomination exhibited from
Frances, Viscountess-Dowager Molyneux,
with satisfactory certificate, and admitted
He afterwards held Talk and Audley in
Staffordshire, and died in 1841 ; Ches.
N. and Q. (New Ser.), i and v. He
published some poem, concerning the
district.
M Master of Ormskirk School.
» Presented by the Earl of Sefton in
1856. The patron built a vicarage in
1858, from which time there has been a
widow, of Downholland.
9 For endowment, see Lorn/. Gav.
30 Aug. 1 864 and 6 Feb. 1866.
10 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvii, 63.
The cross (base) is mentioned in Lanes, and
Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 169.
3
Protector. He was still at Altcar in
1659. See ibid, ii, 181, 289.
*> Visit. List.
l<» In 1702 the chapel being vacant by
the death of Mr. Norris, it was arranged
that Timothy Ellison, curate of Formby,
225
26 John Thomas, incumbent of St.
John's, Workington, was presented in
1 862, having exchanged with Mr. Pear-
son. He died in 1889.
V Previously, 1871 to 1 888, incumbent
of St. Peter's, Aintree.
29
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The patron has in recent times not only built the
vicarage but given £100 tithe rent-charge ; and this
has been supplemented by Queen Anne's Bounty, the
total income being now about £240.
There are a few charities, the
CHARITIES most considerable being tha
founded by Peter Darwin, who
about twenty years ago left £400 for the poor.5
NORTH MEOLS
NORTH MEOLS
BIRKDALE
There is little to state regarding the history of the
parish apart from what is recorded under the town-
ships and the church. An isolated patch of land fit
for cultivation lying between the sea and the sand-
hills on one side and Martin Mere and the mosses of
Scarisbrick and Halsall on the other, it was not an
attractive place of residence in former times, and the
sweeping away of Argar Meols by the sea cannot have
added to its charms. In more modern times the
draining of mere and mosses and the growth of South-
port have wholly transformed it, and it has become
one of the favourite health resorts of the country.
The agricultural land of the parish is thus occupied :
Arable land, 5,166 acres ; permanent grass, 1,449 5
woods and plantations, 38. The surface of the
L nderlying rock, the red keuper marl of the new red
sandstone, or trias, is completely obscured by blown
sand for a width inland from the shore of one and a
half to two miles, by tidal alluvium at Crossens, and
on the landward side by glacial deposits.
To the county lay the parish used to pay the same
amount as Aughton, viz. £2 is. SJ. towards ,£100
for the hundred ; North Meols with Crossens paid
five-sixths, and Birkdale only a sixth. To the fifteenth
it paid 22s. of £ 1 06 paid by the hundred.1
In 1628 the only landowners contributing to the
subsidy were Thomas Hesketh, Richard Bold, and
Jane Bold, widow.' The hearth tax of 1666 shows
a total of in householders with 138 hearths; the
only considerable houses were the two halls — North
Meols Hall with twelve hearths, and Bold House with
eight : the parsonage at Crossens had three, and no
other house had more than two.3 Bishop Gastrell
about 1725 records 200 families, including five of
'Papists.'4 In 1901 the population numbered 64,105.
Crossens was in 1715 the scene of a skirmish
between the royal troops and the Highlanders ; small
•cannon balls, bayonets, and other relics have frequently
been dug up, some being preserved in the vestry of
.the church.
The church of St. Cuthbert is a p'ain
CHURCH edifice, built in 1730 on the site of th
older building, which had been burn
down.6 It cost £1,292. It is almost square in plan
with a short western tower and spire erected in I
In 1836 it was 'a small building without side aisles
having nave, chancel, and north transept : lighted b
three windows on the south side, and two semicircula
ones in the chancel.'7 In 1860 it was to som
extent rebuilt and enlarged, the north aisle and par
of the chancel being of this date, and now consists o
chancel, nave with north aisle, and west tower wit
spire. It is faced with wrought stone throughout
and has a slate roof of low pitch over nave am
chancel. The chancel has diagonal angle buttr
of pseudo-Gothic design added in 1860, surmountec
by plain octagonal pinnacles without finials. Th
east window is of three lights, divided by tw
columns, with Ionic capitals and bases, carrying arch
trave, frieze, and cornice over the side-lights ; th
central light has a semicircular head with keyec
voussoirs springing from the level of the cornice ove
the side-lights ; the sill projects on brackets. Th
side windows of the chancel are single lights, wid
and tall, with semicircular heads, of plain sqvj
section, with a projecting keystone. The nave ha
precisely similar windows and a plain south doorway
over which are inscriptions as to the building anc
enlargement. Above is a sun-dial. The roof is o
one span over nave and north aisle, its centre li
being consequently some way north of that of th
chancel roof ; all gables have plain copings and sma
gable crosses of poor design. The tower is of thre
stages with an octagonal stone spire, with a vane, bu
no finial ; and having two tiers of spire lights an
three plain strings. It rises from within a parape
with shallow pilasters at the middle and angles of eac
face. The belfry stage is surmounted by a heav
cornice, and has on each of its four sides a single
light window with semicircular head and projectin
1 Gregson, Fragments (cd. Harland),
1 6, 1 8.
> Norris D. (B.M.).
8 Addl. Lay Subsidy, bdle. 250, ». 9.
Two old cottages are described in S. O.
Addy's Evolution of the Home, 43,
5'< Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 194.
5 The following details are from the
End. Char. Rep. for Altcar, issued in
1898; it includes a reprint of the re-
port of 1828.
Peter Darwin, of Altcar, by his will
189$ the annuity was transferred into the
name of the Official Trustees.
Jane Liptrot, of Altcar, wished £50 to
be given to the incumbent and church-
wardens for the benefit of the poor, and
£19 191. to the churchwardens and over-
seers for the master of 'the day school
recently erected.' Her will was dictated
the day before her death (July, 1841), but
was never executed ; but her brother,
Samuel Liptrot, paid the money, which is
now deposited in the Liverpool Savings
Ellen Goore, who died in 1789, l
,£40 to the poor, the interest to
divided among poor women attending
money was taken by the parish, 401. bei
paid out of the rates as interest. It
(dated 1884 and proved 1888) left £400
to the minister and churchwardens, the
interest to be laid out in bread, coals, and
clothing, and distributed twice a year to
the deserving poor. The sum actually
received was £359 101, and being in-
vested in a Mersey Dock annuity, pro-
duces £13 os. 8</. a year, distributed in
accordance with the testator's wish. In
trustees appointed by the parish council.
The schoolmaster receives 1 2s. a year,
and the parish clothing club 23!., the
paid
unknown origin was £3 10.
18 to the incumbent from the rate
supposed to be the interest on £7
an endowment of the church. Thi
but was discontinued for some
William Wilson, in 1665, gave £
for the poor, which in Bishop Gastrel
time was upon bond ; Notitia Cestr.
,64. He gave £zo in all, the interest
be divided equally between Altcar a
Lydiate. In 1828 nothing was kno
6 The churchwardens' seat has the A..
1683 : and the gallery has the date i;c
Thus the destruction by the fire was i
complete.
' Baines's Lanes, iv, 270. A view of I
church is given in Farrer's North Meol:.
226
NORTH MEOLS
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
NORTH MEOLS
keystone and imposts, and wooden luffer-boards.
There are drafted angle quoins on all three stages of
the tower. The second stage is divided from that
above by a moulded string, and has on its south face
a tablet with an arched head. At the top of the
ground stage is a plain square string.1
There are two bells in the tower : a small one
without inscription of about 18 in. in diameter at the
rim, and a larger one, presented in 1750 by John and
Henry Hesketh, wine merchants in Preston."
The church plate consists of two chalices, a paten,
and a large flagon.3
The first register begins in 1594 ; the second in
1600.
There are some Fleetwood and Hesketh monu-
ments. In the churchyard is a brass plate commemo-
rating Thomas Rimmer, mariner, who had been
' captive in Barbary for sixteen years and six months.'
He died in 1713.
The known history of the church
ADVOWSQN goes back to the time of King
Stephen, when Warin Bussel granted
it to Evesham, the abbey to provide a chaplain.
Warin's son Richard confirmed his father's gifts,
including ' 2/. from the chapel of Meols.' * Down
to the suppression of the monasteries the abbots of
Evesham continued to be patrons, presenting the
rectors and receiving the pension of 2/. a year, later
increased to half a mark.5 The church was not
taxed in the valuation made by order of Nicholas IV,
about 1291, 'on account of its insignificance.' In
1341 the value of the ninth of sheaves, fleeces, and
lambs was stated to be 40^., for which Mcols with
Crossens answered.6 In 1534 the income from
lands, tithe, and all sources was estimated at £8 19;.,
out of which a pension of 61. 8^. was paid to the
prior of Penwortham, and 8j. 8^. for synodals and
procurations.'
In i 543 the patronage was granted by Henry VIII
to John Fleetwood of Penwortham,8 in whose family
it descended until, on the death of Henry Fleetwood
in 1746, without issue, it passed under a settlement
of 1725 to his grand-nephew Walter Chetwynd ot
Grendon, Warwickshire. In 1 748 a private Act of
Parliament was procured by the trustees, enabling
them to sell parts of the estates, and in the same year
they presented John Baldwin to the rectory ; this
was no doubt by arrangement with his father, Thomas
Baldwin, rector of Liverpool, who next year bought
the advowson. The latter died in 1752, and the
right descended to his son Thomas, vicar of Leyland,
who in 1793 sold the next presentation to John Ford
of Bristol, who immediately nominated his son. Two
years later the advowson was sold to Thomas Wood-
cock for /93 3, and not long afterwards was again
sold, this time to Robert Hesketh of North Meols ;
it has since descended with his moiety of the
manor, Mr. C. H. Bibby-Hesketh being the present
patron.
The gross annual value is now given as ^800.
The followin
Date
oc. 1178
g is a list of the rectors : —
Adam the Clerk 9
c. 1 190
c. 1250 . . .
before 1281 . .
16 April, I 300 .
1 3 May, 1300 .
20 Dec. 1314
22 Sept. 1339 .
8 May, 1342 .
before 1352 .
3 May, 1358 ,
Osbert10
Robert "
Mr. Thomas le Boteler " .
Henry de Hampton "
Nicholas de Hercy"
Robert de Preston '5
John le White 16
Stephen de Claverley "
William Abel 18
Adam del Meols ls
i It is intended to rebuild and enlarge
the church, only the tower and spire and
the south wall of the present one being
Evesham Abbey
He had in 1539 secured a 99-years' lease
of the lordship of Penwortham, &c., from
the abbot of Evesham ; Piccope MSS.
(Chet. Lib.), xvi, 158.
. . . res. N. de Hercy
. . . res. R. de Preston
. . . res. J. le White
'. '. '. res. W. Abel
ampton had been presented in the
evious December.
14 Ibid. fol. 8i. N. de Hercy resigned
Oct. 1314. 15 I bid. fol. 6 1 b.
» The inscription is-
1178 fined J mark for an offence against
change between Robert de Preston and
MSRCAT'
the forest laws ; Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 38.
It is not certain that he should be reckoned
John le White, the latter having been vicar
of Leyland.
and beneath, with the royal arms between
» The chalices are of bell-bowl shape
with plain trumpet-shaped stems and a
round the upper part of the bowl. The
Roman capital B points to their having
been made in London in 1579-80. The
paten is probably of the date 1637-8
(italic U in shield). The flagon is a tall
and massive piece of plate, bearing the
Hesketh arms on a lozenge, and the
inscription-
among the rectors.
1« ' Osbert the chaplain of Meols ' was
witness to a Burscough charter made be-
tween 1189 and 1192; Duchy of Lane.
Anc. D. L. 270.
11 To ' Robert the parson of North
Meols ' was granted by Thomas, son of
Malle of Longton, a house in Longton,
it being given to him 'and to the heirs
of his body' ; Kuerden's fol. MS. 236.
About 1270 'Robert the Clerk of Meols,'
possibly the same, was witness to a charter
of Madoc de Aughton.
12 Master Thomas le Boteler, parson of
W Ibid. fol. n;i.
18 William Abel, rector of North Meols,
obtained licence on 14 July, 1352, to say
mass, &c. for the soul of the earl of
Huntingdon for the two years next follow-
ing; Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 1 3. The phrase
insisundi otsejuiis may imply residence
at some place away from his parish. On
27 Sept. 1 3 5 5, he obtained leave of absence
for a year ; ibid. fol. 14*.
" Ibid. fol. 1 34*, 135. Adam del Meols
exchanged benefices with William Abel,
the latter becoming rector of Christleton
in his place. In 1353 he procured licence
tions see Pcn-wortham Priory (Chet. Soc.),
Boteler, had letters of protection in Dec.
hour of death ; Cal. Papal Letters, iii,
yakrEcd. (Rec. Com.), v, 223.
Nenarum Inq. (Rec. Com.), 40.
1 Valar Eccl. loc. cit.
Pat. 34 Hen. VIII, pt. viii, m. 3 (25).
; these were extended in the folio
ing April ; Cal. Pat. R. 10 Edw. I, 4, 15.
He was plaintiff in 1290 ; De Bane. R.
86, m. 144.
» Lich. Epis. Reg. i, fol. 4*. Henry de
227
504. He died about 5 Oct. 1369. Emma,
his daughter by Maud de Croston, married
successively Richard Banastreand William
de Thornton ; Towneley MS. OO, <w.
,566, ,588.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Date
Rector
Patron
10 Nov. 1369
Thomas de Seynsbury ' . . . .
Evesham Abbey
8 May, 1389 .
7 Aug. 1424.
John de Liverpool *
Richard Brekell *
„
14 Dec. 1436
John Ireland4
17 Sept. 1474
William Fowler5
Thomas Wulton .
21 May, 1477
Thomas Bolton 6
Evesham Abbey
2 July, 1505
John Wallys, LL.B. '
25 May, 1519 .
John Pryn, Decr.D. 8
',',
c. 1524
Thomas Copland 9
i Nov. 1530 .
Robert Farington '"
21 Oct. 1537. .
Lawrence Waterward " .
n
15 Aug. 1554 .
Peter Prescot "
Henry Forshaw .
23 Dec. 1557 .
Thomas Stanley, bishop of Sodor " .
John Fleetwood .
f. June, 1569
Peter Clayton "
23 June, 1591 .
John Hill I6
Rd. Fleetwood . .
c. May, 1595
Robert Bamforde '"
»
21 April, 1600 .
Matthew French "
»
26 Jan. 1614-15
Henry Wright18
»
18 Mar. 1638-9.
James Starkie "
(King Charles . .
(John Fleetwood .
28 May, 1684 .
Henry Rycroft *"
Edward Fleetwood
15 Nov. 1688 .
Richard Hardy "
B
24 July, 5708 .
Ralph Loxam "
Hy. Fleetwood. .
28 Dec. 1726
James Whitehead, M.A. n . . .
»
20 Nov. 1733 .
Christopher Sudell, M.A. " . . .
,, • •
Cause of Vacancy
d. A. del Meols
d. T. de Seynsbury
res. J. de Liverpool
d. R. Brekell
d. J. Ireland
res. W. Fowler
res. T. Bolton
d. J. Wallys
res. J. Pryn
d. T. Copland
res. R. Farington
depr. L. Waterward
d. P. Prescot
(d. Bp. Stanley)
d. of P. Clayton
res. R. Bamforde
d. Mat. French
id. H. Wright
d. J. Starkie
d. H. Rycroft
d. R. Hardy
d. R. Loxam
d. J. Whitehead
•1 Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 85. Thomas de
Seynsbury died at Cartmel 20 Feb. 1388-9.
2 Ibid, vi, fol. £.3*. In 1401 Roger
de Blythof Lathom was accused of having
thrown John de Liverpool, rector of
North Meols, on a bed, poured water
into his mouth and compelled him to say
where his treasure was, then robbing
was probably the same who was chantry
priest at Our Lady's Altar in Ormskirk
church in 1546. One of the same name
was prior of Upholland at the dissolution.
I" Institution Book, 50 (Notitia Cestr. ii,
194). Bishop Stanley also held Winwick,
Wigan, and Barwick in Elmet ; see the
account of Wigan church.
Visit. Papers. By his will he desired to
be buried in the middle of the chancel,
where his first wife's body lay. The great
chest, bedstocks, and table in his house at
Leyland were to be heirlooms ; and his
books were to be divided between his sons.
19 From this point the presentations
have been compared with those in the
of Lane. Plea R. i, m. 18.
» Lich. Epis. Reg. ix, fol. 114.
4 Ibid. fol. 123 ; another entry is dated
exactly a year later, fol. \2-$!>.
5 Ibid, xii, fol. 109.
6 Ibid, xii, fol. in. The cause of
vacancy was an exchange, Thomas Bolton
having held West Kirby church.
for first-fruits on 18 June, 1569. He was
ordained subdeacon in 1557, deacon and
r' st in March and April, 1558, so that
belonged to the old clergy ; Ordination
Book (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 95,
100, 105. He was still rector in 1583;
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxxviii,
C.6.
Cbts. Antiq. Notes. It is not known why
the king presented at this time. There
were three presentations in all : By the
king on 10 Feb. 1638-9 ; by John Fleet-
wood, the patron, on 22 Mar.— done, no
doubt, to safeguard his rights ; and by the
king again on 8 April. The first-fruits
7 Ibid, xiv, fol. 54.
8 Ibid. fol. 6oh. This is probably the
Dr. John Pryn who in 1528 became a
prebendary of Lincoln, advancing to the
sub-deanery in 1535; he died in 1558
and was buried in Lincoln Cathedral ; Le
Neve's Fasti, ii, 40.
9 Thomas Copland was instituted before
18 June, 1524, on which day Dr. Fitz-
herbert, vicar-general of the bishop of
Lichfield, sanctioned the payment by him
15 He paid his composition for first-
fruits on 24 Aug. 1591. He was ' a
preacher' ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 249,
quoting Dom. S.P. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4.
16 Robert Bamforde compounded for
first-fruits on 23 May, 1595 ; possibly he
was the Robert Bamforde of Brasenose
Coll., Oxf. who graduated B.A. in 1574
and M.A. in 1580, and became canon
of Lichfield in ic97. He had another
benefice in Derbyshire, where he resided ;
of Heskin Grammar School ; he was a
vicar of Preston from 1630 to 1639. He
conformed to the Presbyterian establish-
ment in 1646, and signed the 'Har-
monious Consent' of 1648. He may have
conformed again in 1662, as he retained
the benefice till his death in May, 1684.
It is to be remarked, however, that he
was considered a Nonconformist for many
years after 1662. He appeared at the
rector, to be paid upon the font in the
church of Evesham Abbey; after £57
had been paid the pension would be
reduced to 10 marks ; Lich. Reg. xiv,
fol. 67.
10 Ibid. fol. 664. Sir Henry Farington,
perceiving that his third son Robert 'was
disposed to learning and the priesthood,'
procured for him the next presentation
to North Meols, of the yearly value of
£20, and kept him at Cambridge. Robert,
however, became ' weary of holy orders,'
resigned, and married ; Duchy of Lane.
Pleadings, Hen. VIII, xiii, B. 18. A
Farington was bachelor of the civil law
at Cambridge as early as 1531; Grace
Book B. (Luard Mem.), ii, 164, 166.
11 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 36*.
He married and was deprived in 1554 ;
Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.),iii, 163.
M The Composition Books show that he
paid his first-fruits on 8 Oct. 1554. He
17 He paid his first-fruits on 9 June,
1600. He was reported in 1606 to wear
the surplice very seldom ; it seems, how-
ever, that he did so on Sundays ; Visit.
Books. He was buried 25 January, 1615,
at North Meols, and his will was proved
at Chester in the same year ; he mentions
his wife Ellen and several children, also
his mother Agnes. He bequeathed his
book called ' Maginis Geography ' to his
brother-in-law Edmund Wearden. It may
be noted that a Matthew French of
Northampton, son of John French of
Dunstable, matriculated in 1597 at the
age of seventeen at Balliol College, Ox-
ford ; Foster, Alumni. If this is the same
he would be only twenty when appointed.
He was described as ' a preacher ' ; Kenyan
MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), 13.
18 Henry Wright paid his first-fruits
composition 3 Feb. 1614-15. In 1625 it
was reported that he did not always wear
the surplice when serving the Communion;
228
exhibiting his letters of orders ; see Night-
ingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 8. The case of
Rainford shows what was possible, with
» Henry Rycroft of Penwortham was
a foreign burgess at Preston Guild in
1682. He was buried at North Meols
12 Sept. 1688.
21 Richard Hardy was 'conformable' in
1 689; Kenyan MSS. 229.
M He is probably the Ralph Loxam who
was admitted sizar of Jesus College,
Camb. in May, 1700. He was buried
at Penwortham, 19 Oct. 1726.
2" James, son of John Whitehead of
Saddleworth, was educated at Oxford ;
M.A. 1698. He was buried at North
Meols, 3 Sept. 1733.
" Christopher Sudell was of the Preston
family of that name, and was educa-
ted at Emmanuel Coll. Camb.; M.A.
1696. He had previously been rector ot
Aughton (ejected for simony), and vicar
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Date Rector
8 Dec. 1735 . Edward Shakespear, M. A. ' . .
'f; June, 1748 . John Baldwin (Rigby), M.A. .
21 Nov. 1793 . Gilbert Ford, M.A. 3 ....
6 May, 1835 . Charles Hesketh, M.A. ' . . .
4 Oct. 1876 . Charles Hesketh Knowlys, M.A. 5
6 Oct. 1894 . James Denton Thompson, M.A. 6
26 July 1905 . Robert Bibby Blakeney, M.A.7 .
NORTH MEOLS
Patron
Hy. Fleetwood ....
Richard Harper, &c. .
John Ford, M.D. . . .
Peter Hesketh ....
Mrs. Anna Maria Hesketh
C. H. B. Hesketh . . .
Cause of Vacancy
d. C. Sudell
d. E. Shakespear
d. J. Rigby
d. G. Ford
d. C. Hesketh
res. C. H. Knowlys
res. J. D. Thompson
Apart from the conduct of James Starkie the list of
rectors has few points of interest. In 1541-2 there
were in addition to the rector two stipendiary priests,
Edmund Hodgson and James Hodgkinson, both paid
by Sir Richard Aughton.8 All three appeared at the
visitation of 1548.' There was no endowed chantry.
In 1554 the rector had been deprived, and only
Edmund Hodgson was left in charge ; lo the late
rector, having married, was probably inclined to the
new opinions in religion. In 1556 it was found
that the church wanted repairs, and that books and
ornaments were lacking." Bishop Stanley, a non-
resident pluralist, was scarcely likely to make much
improvement, and in 1561 the church was still out of
repair. By 1563 things had become worse; the
chancel was not repaired and there was no curate, so
that children were not baptized and burials had to
wait six days — presumably till some one came to take
the Sunday duty." Henry Charnley was immediately
afterwards appointed curate, and in 1565 the clergy
summoned to the visitation were Bishop Stanley, who
appeared, but was not examined, and Henry Charnley,
who did not appear.13 The chancel remained out of
repair, it was even 'ruinated,' but in 1592 the execu-
tors of the late rector, Clayton, were compelled to
put it right ; the churchyard at this time required
attention, and there was neither Bible nor Commu-
nion Book in the church.14 It thus appears that the
new services were not regularly performed. In 1598
the chancel was once more out of repair, the windows
wanted glass, and the roof was ready to fall.15
In 1605 only one recusant (Ellis Rimmer) was
reported, and but two others who ' came slackly to
church.' In 1625, Cuthbert, the son of Ellis
Rimmer, was considered ' a dangerous person for
seducing of good protestants,' but in spite of the
example of the squire's family there seems to have
been little refusal to attend church for religious
reasons.16 The fewness of such presentations may have
been due to the indifference of the ministering clergy,
for in 1665, after the Commonwealth persecution, a
considerable number of recusants were found at North
Meols.17
Protestant Nonconformity appears to have had
few adherents in the district until the rise of
Southport.
Anciently the rectory house was at Crossens,18
some distance from the church. In 1 803 the rector
stated that it was entirely unfit for residence through
no fault of his, and he therefore desired leave to reside
outside the parish ; he had a resident curate. In
1825 the old parsonage house and some glebe were
exchanged for lands of Peter Hesketh, and a new house
was built for the rector in Roe Lane. This in 1879
became the property of Mrs. Hesketh ; it is known as
the Rookery, and is the local residence of the Hes-
keth family. In return a new rectory was built,
and land given with it.
A grammar school was founded near the end of the
seventeenth century."
Peter Rimmer, formerly clerk, about
CHARITIES 1773 left £80, the interest to be
spent on clothing for the poor ; in
1828 the overseers paid £4 a year as interest on this
money, which was spent as nearly as possible in
accordance with the founder's wishes. In 1898 no
trace of this charity could be found in the books of
the overseers or churchwardens.20
of Leyland (1720) ; at his death he was
also chaplain to James earl of Derby,
rector of Holy Trinity, Chester, and pre-
bendary of the cathedral (1730). He
presented brass candelabra to Ormskirk
thurch, and was buried in the Cross Hall
chapel there.
1 He was also vicar of Leyland. He
was a Camb. graduate (Clare Coll. ; M.A.
1736), and published two sermons. Some
W. Farrer's North Meols, 83.
2 The patrons for this turn were Rich-
4 Educated at Trinity Coll. Oxf. ; M.A.
1830. He became vicar of Poulton-
le-Fylde in 1828 and in 1831 perpetual
curate of Bispham also, resigning both on
coming to North Meols. He gave land in
1856 for the enlargement of the church-
vard, and procured a partial rebuilding of
the church in 1860.
5 Charles Hesketh Knowlys was edu-
cated at Trinity Coll. Camb.; M.A.
1871. He is now rector of Washfield,
Devon.
'James Denton Thompson was edu-
took advantage of the times to seize the
rector's hay and refuse him the accus-
tomed rights of way ; Duchy Pleadings, iii,
118.
The inventory of the vestments, &c.
in 1552 will be found in Ch. Gds. (Chet.
Soc.), 115.
11 Visit. Books at Chest.
« Ibid,
is Ibid.
14 Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), x,
1 88.
is Visit. Books at Chest.
Walter Chetwynd. John Baldwin was of
Peterhouse, Cambridge ; M.A. 1739. He
•was the eldest son of the Rev. Thomas
Baldwin, rector of a mediety of Liverpool,
•&c. In 1757 he purchased the estate of
M.A. 1886. He was vicar of St. Leo-
nard's, Bootle, from 1889 to 1894. He
was made an honorary canon of Liver-
pool in 1895. In 1905 he became vicar
of Birmingham.
wife of Thomas Hesketh, two others of
the family, and four women ; Trans. Hist.
Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 232.
17 Visit. Books at Chest. ; so also in
I6/7' 8 h
813), and in 1787 succeeded to the estate
of his uncle Thomas Rigby of Harrock,
after which he took the surname and arms
of Rigby only ; see Stanley Papers (Chet.
Soc.),ii, 108.
s Educated at Wadham Coll. Oxf. M.A.
1798. He became chaplain to the duke
•of Clarence.
Formerly incumbent of St. Jude's,
Andreas, 1893, and rector of Wombwell,
1894.
* Clergy List of 1541-2 (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 14.
• Visit. Books at Chest.
10 John Bold, one of the lords of the
manor, 'of his covetous and greedy mind,'
position may have been determined by a
grant by Albert Bussel, among other lands,
of two oxgangs in North Meols and the
land between Bernes Lane and Blackshaw
Brook ; Kuerden's fol. MS. 53.
19 Notitia Cestr.
w End. Char. Rep. 1899. This report
includes a reprint of that of 1828.
229
A HISTORY OF
NORTH MEOLS
LANCASHIRE
Otegrimele, Otringemele, Dom. Bk. ; Northmeles,
IZ32; Nordmele, 1237.
The land in this most northern township in the
hundred is very flat, so much so that it is protected
from the inroads of the waters of the Kibble estuary
by high embankments, and the force of the tide is
broken by piles driven at high-water mark along the
muddy shore. Within the shelter of these banks the
marshy land has been reclaimed and turned to good
account ; the soil, a rich peat mixed with sand, proves
very fertile. Thus a large area of country is occupied
by market gardens and fields, where crops of clover,
hay, potatoes, corn, &c. flourish. The fields are
divided by ditches which serve the double purpose of
division and drainage, whilst low hawthorn hedges
form part of the demesne of the barons until Jc
count of Mortain, held the honour of Lanca.l^
(1189-94), w^en Hugh Bussel gave it to Richa
son of Ughtred, lord of Broughton and Little Sing
ton, master serjeant of Amounderness. The superi
lordship passed in 1 204, with the rest of
barony, to Roger de Lacy, constable of Chester.6
1243 the tenure was described as the fourth part of
knight's fee;7 but in 1323 it was recorded th
' Thomas late earl of Lancaster and Alesia his wife
of her right) held the manor of North Meol;
homage, the service of 34*. 8^. yearly, and the four
part and the sixteenth part of a knight's fee.' 8 T
superior lordship continued to be held by the ea
and dukes of Lancaster.
The grant to St. Werburgh's appears to have bee
surrendered or repurchased, for in 1 3 1 1 Thoma
form the divisions in the more sheltered portions of Sutton held the three oxgangs.9 The grant of t
the township. A wide and deep sluice and several
large drains carrying oft" the water from the district
about the site of Martin Mere empty themselves into
the sea ; constant pumping and draining operations
are necessary to prevent this portion reverting to its
original state of inundation. There are but few
plantations to break the monotony of the level surface
of the country, and these are strictly preserved as
cover for game.
The area is 8,467 acres.1 The population in
1901 was 49,908, of whom 1,825 belonged to the
part of the township outside Southport. Half the
area of the township has by degrees been included
within the borough. The remainder, known by the
old name, is governed by a parish council ; it contains
the hamlet of Banks.
In 1066 five thcgns held OTEGRI-
MjJNOR MELE1 for five manors, the whole being
assessed as half a hide, or three plough-
lands ; the value was lo/. It formed part of the
privileged three-hide area, and from the second men-
tion of the place in Domesday Book it appears that it
was the head of a district.3
In Stephen's reign it was a member of the barony
of Penwortham, held by the Bussels.4 Richard
Bussel gave three oxgangs of land to St. Werburgh's
Abbey at Chester ; and Richard's brother and suc-
cessor, Albert, confirmed the gift.* It continued to
manor to Richard de Singleton 10 was likewise tr
tory. Alan his son succeeded in 1211, but it see:
as if the grant had lapsed with the transfer of
barony in 1 204 from the Bussels to the Lacys, 1
another lord of the manor soon appears in the pers
of Robert de Cowdray. In 1232 Alan claimed t
land from Cowdray, but probably made a com
promise with the new lord, as the latter alone
recognized in the inquest of 1243." Yet in t
latter part of Edward I's reign (between 1 294 an
1303) the monks of Sawley deemed it advisable
have from Thomas son of Sir Alan de Singleton
release of any claim upon their lands in Nort
Meols.11
The new lord, Robert de Cowdray, or
in the service of John and Henry III." The gra
to him was made between 1213 and 1222 by John
Lacy,14 and the grantee subsequently obtained fro
the king leave to have a market on Wednesdays,
a fair on the eve and day of St. Cuthbert at 1
manor of North Meols.15 He died in 1222,
within two years this leave was withdrawn, as it w
found that the new market would be to the injury
others in the neighbourhood."
William Russel was Robert's nephew (nepos) an
heir. In 1232 he was in Normandy in the
Ranulf Blundeville, earl of Chester.18 He is call
William de Cowdray in the survey of 1243."
1 The Census Report of 1901 gives
Richard paid for the grant by a present of
was ordered to be returned to his heir
this 5,144 was within Southport. There
MSS. cxlii, fol. 231. It was immediately
™ Inland Extents, \.*.C. An o^ang
1 2,7 2 5 acres of foreshore.
John; ibid. fol. 231*.
held by William Russel and Amabel
a certain Mark of Mdh ; Landndmabok,
'* y.C.H. Lanes, i, p. 284*.
* Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Chea.), 32.
' St. Werburgh's Chartul. fol. 141. A
century later John, constable of Ches-
ter, gave an oxgang in North Meols to
Dieulacres Abbey; Dieul. Chartul.
fol. 17.
6 Roger gave to Sawley Abbey an acre
at Ratho for a saltpit, with rights of pas-
ture and turbary ; Sawley Chartul. (Harl.
MS. ..2).
7 Iny, and Extents, 149.
Thomas de Clayton and Cecily his wife
and others claimed three messuages and
20 oxgangs in North Meols against Alan
de Singleton ; De Bane. R. 47, m. 101.
™ Sawley Chartul. fol. 72*.
18 Farrer, North Meols, 9.
» The charter gives 'the whole town'
of Meols, with the vill and appurtenances,
except the fishery and the free tenants
and their holdings ; the service to be the
eighth part of a knight's fee ; Dods. MSS.
cxlii, fol. 238*.
15 Fine R. 4 Hen. III. m. 8.
16 Close R. 7 Hen. Ill, m. 28 his.
Robert granted an oxgang of land in North
A charter of this period (1222-4
may imply that there was some oth
claimant to the manor, for by it Hen
de Cowdray gave to William Russel,
a pair of white gloves being paya!
yearly ; ICuerden's fol. MS. 72.
Several of William de Cowdray's ch
ters have been preserved. By one
granted to John de Lea a messuage an
land extending from the new dyke
Threleholmes, for a yearly rent of a p
of white gloves payable at the feast o
St. Cuthbert in autumn ; Add. MS. $2ic
n. 379, m. 8.
» Duchy of Lane. Knights' Fees, bdle.
' "«' This charter gave ' all North Meols,'
the annual service being a mark of silver.
firmed by his brother Henry, but in some
way alienated ; Palmer MS. (Chet.
Lib.), A. xiii-xv.
T Close R. 8 Hen. Ill, m. 12. Robert
had given a palfrey for this grant, and it
230
dow by Otterpool is mentioned ; whil<
third granted to the same house his sa
pit at Crossens and land there with suffi
cient sand and turbary, and directed
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
•Villiam's son and heir Robert succeeded about
g6o,' and was in turn (about 1 307) succeeded by
jiis son William, who appears to have married Joan,
daughter and heiress of Alan de Meols, who held a
quarter of the vill. A grant of all Alan's lands there
was made to William de Cowdray in 1326, and it
was confirmed by Adam de Meols in 1343.*
It will therefore be convenient to give an account
of the Meols family at this
point. The first to be noticed
is Alan de Meols, who between
1204 and 1209 took oath that
he would not interfere with
the grant in Ratho to the
monks of Sawley.* Early in
the reign of Henry III he
secured from John de Lacy a
confirmation of his lands, the
charter describing them as 44 ox-
gangs held by homage and a
service of 8s. yearly.' The heir
of Robert de Meols was holder
ooo
MEOLS 01
Argent, three
chief.
in I243,5 and in 1296 another Robert de Meols was
tenant of Henry de Lacy, rendering 8/. \\d., while
to the same Henry in 1311 Alan de Meols rendered
%s. yearly by custom.6 Alan was still tenant in 1323
and 1324.' Adam son of William de Meols, men-
tioned above, contributed to subsidies in 1326 and
1332-8
William de Cowdray was thus, in his own right
and his wife's, lord of the whole manor. A somewhat
earlier acquisition may also be noticed here. Albert
Bussel, third baron of Penwortham, who died in
1 1 86, granted to Houkell son of Adam the whole land
of Swartbank.9 Geoffrey son of Houkell (or Houth-
kell) afterwards, about 1240, gave this tract to William
de Cowdray as trustee, it would seem, for Henry de
Pool, ancestor of the Becconsall family, who in turn
gave it to Thomas Banastre of Bretherton. In 1298
NORTH MEOLS
the latter granted it to William de Cowdray and Joan
his wife,10 and it thus became incorporated with the
possessions of the lords of the manor."
William de Cowdray was succeeded before 1343
by his son Robert, who died before 1350," leaving a
son and heir William, who died soon after, his heirs
being his sisters Katherine and Eleanor. The latter
married Henry, son of Gilbert de Scarisbrick, but
died about 1346, leaving a
daughter Isabel, who died in
infancy." Katherine was twice
married— to Alan, son of Richard
de Downholland, who died be-
fore 1345, leaving an only
daughter Eleanor, who died un-
married ; " and to Richard de
Aughton, a younger son of
Walter de Aughton.15 The suc-
cession was not undisputed,
DDDD
D D D
DO
D
Thou
de Cowdr
Gules, ten billet!, 4, 3,
Robert, claiming under an en-
tail to the heirs male of Robert's
father William. This, however, only affected the
share inherited from the Meols family, and Thomas
appears to have enjoyed this portion for life only, so
that the whole manor descended to the heirs of
Richard and Katherine de Aughton,16 and in 1380
the whole was given to William de Aughton, their son,
and his heirs."
William married Millicent, one of the four
daughters and co-heirs of John Comyn, lord of
Kinsale and of lands in the counties of Warwick and
Worcester.18 He was pardoned some outlawry he
had incurred in 1381-2 at the special request of
Queen Anne.;19 and in 1386 had letters of protec-
tion on going to Ireland in the king's service.8" He
died at the beginning of 1388, seised of the manor of
North Meols, held of the duke of Lancaster by
knight's service, and by the service of 9^., sake fee,
body to be buried at Sawley. This charter
also confirms 'all that the monks have
tainment for those who might have need
thereof— probably those waiting for an
given very fully in Assize R. 1444, m.
4</. The entail was made by Alan de
printed in Farrer's North Meols, 1 1.
1 Robert gave to Sawley an acre in the
Warsch, and exchanged another acre in
<the Backfield within Crospeles ' for one
in Wolfpit, which his father had given to
Bank, four or five miles from Crossens,
and there may have been one at the latter
place at the time of the charter. The
bounds mentioned are : From Blackpool
on the east across to the west of Brade-
Shortly afterwards (1354) the former
defendants became plaintiffs, it being
alleged that William, the elder brother of
Katherine de Aughton and uncle of
Isabel de Scarisbrick, had held this sixth
Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 238
In or before 1278 he acquired from his
superior lord, the earl of Lincoln, the
is a Brade Lane in Crossens.
10 Ibid. fol. 225*, 226.
11 Galway, or Galwathlands, in North
and not to Thomas de Cowdray. The
matter, so that some agreement had prob-
Duchy of Lane. Anct. D. L. 2369.
about I 300 ; see De Lacy Iny. (Chet. Soc.),
suit had reference to the boundaries ; it
inquests ; the fishery was at Otterpool.
8 Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 238, 238*.
3 Sawley Chartul.
11 In I 346 he accused certain persons of
killing a tame buck of his ; De Bane. R.
346, m. 113 d. His widow Eleanor
within North Meols, the bounds beini;
' from Snoter Pool to Snoter Stone, and
so to the thread of Ribble stream ' ;
5 Inj. and Extents, 149. In 1241 he
established a claim to an oxgang in Meols,
also claimed by Beatrice, wife of William
son of Walter, clerk of Much Hoole ;
Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 238.
• De Lacy Compoti (Chet. Soc.), pp. 9,
io6;.Inq.p.m.4Edw.II,n. 5,.
13 Scarisbrick deeds (Trans. Hist. Soc.
New Ser. xii), nn. 74, 75 ; Duchy Plead-
ings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 22.
14 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 138*.
« His parentage is decided by De
Bane. R.436, m. & d. Richard and his
wife Katherine were in 1350 enfeoffed
3, 3 d. In 136! North Meols was held,
as the fourth part of a knight's fee, by
Henry de Scarisbrick and Richard de
Aughton in right of their wives ; Inq.
p.m. 3; Edw. Ill, pt. ii,«. 122.
17 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. i, n.
24. In a previous fine (1359) Katherine
Mins. Accts. bdle. 1148, n. 6
8 Exch. Lay Subs. bdle. 1 30, n. 5 ;
rtsoExch. L. S.of 1 3 32 (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), ,5.
9 The grant was made in pure alms
for the souls of the grantor, his wife, and
others, the service required being 'the
maintenance of a certain place of enter-
ships, escheats, . &c.' in North Me
Crossens, and ' Foly ' (? Sollom) ; also the
Cowdray part of Barton by Halsall ; Dods.
MSS. cxlii, fol. 233.
16 In the Pleadings (1350) Thomas's
of Richard de Aughton's wife, ]
put in her claim ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 1 60.
18 The Aughton family adopted the
Comyn arms— sable, three garbs or— as
of the manor, while the defendants alleged
it was only a sixth part. The story is
23I
Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 232*.
Col. Pal. K. (.385-9), 114,189.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
castle-guard rent, and suit to the court of Pen-
wortham. His heir was his son Hugh, fourteen years
of age,1 whose guardianship
was in the following year
granted to Matthew de Hay-
dock.'
The heir came of age at the
beginning of 1 397,3 and shortly
afterwards his mother leased to
him all her dower lands,4 and
in 1409 made over to him
her inheritance in Newbold
Comyn and Hall Moreton.5
In 1410 Hugh agreed to an
arbitration as to a disputed
boundary between North Meols and Scarisbrick.'3
He died at the beginning of 1417, seised of the
manors of North Meols and Thistleton in Amounder-
ness ; his son and heir, Hugh, only ten years of age,
was given to the guardianship of Nicholas Blundell
and Robert de Halsall, who died respectively about
1422 and 1427. In 1429, having proved his age,
Hugh received his lands.'
Hugh de Aughton married Joan, daughter of
Henry de Scarisbrick, on whom he settled certain
lands in 1460, with remainder to his brother
Nicholas.8 He died 20 July, 1464, without issue,
and his heir was his sister Elizabeth, aged fifty years
and more.9 This finding probably means that
Nicholas was half-brother only ; he succeeded to the
manor under the settlement. In 1469 Nicholas
married his son Hugh to Maud, daughter of Robert
Hesketh, the former being about five years of age and
the latter still younger.10 He died in 1488, and at
the subsequent inquisition it was found that he had
held the Wyke in North Meols and lands in Barton,
each by the twelfth part of a knight's fee. Hugh,
his son and heir, was twenty-four years of age."
Hugh Aughton in 1498 contracted his son Richard,
then five years old, in marriage to Isabel daughter of
James Boteler." In 1503 a dispute as to the Wyke
occurred.13 In 1516 Hugh made a feoffment of all
his manors and lands in North Meols, Barton,
Thistleton, Much Hoole, and Whiston, for the
benefit of Thomas Hesketh during life and then to
the grantor and his heirs. He died on 1 1 December,
i 5 20, his heir being his son Richard, aged twenty-
eight years.14
Richard Aughton in 1522 conveyed to fresh
trustees all his lands, to the use of himself and then
of his son and heir John ; three years later the estates
were reconveyed to him in fee simple.15 In 1529 he
received a confirmation of exemption from the juris-
diction of the Great Admiral of England for his lands
and ports from the cross in the Hawes (now South-
port) up to Snoterstone, and as far seaward as one
might see towards the ' Humbar Barrel ' ; this al-
lowed him wreck, fishes-royal, &c.16 He was made
knight before 1536, in which year he appeared at
Sawley with thirty-six men, as part of the force called
out to resist the northern rising.17 He died on
i 'March, 1542-3, his heir being his son John,
twenty-six years of age.18
John Aughton had livery of his lands on 26 April
following. A few years later another boundary dispute
occurred.19 A little later the lessee of the leet court
of Penwortham attempted to prevent the constable
of North Meols from presenting assaults at John
Aughton's court-baron.*0 He died without issue on
26 February, 1549-50, his sisters Elizabeth, aged
twenty-eight, and Anne, aged twenty-five, being his
heirs.'1
Elizabeth was the wife of John Bold, and Anne the
wife of Barnaby Kitchen ; and these two shared the
inheritance. There appears to have been a partition
of the lands, and some contention followed concernir
the Wykes." Both sides, however, agreed in resisting
the claim to an annual rent of 37*. s,\d. claimed
as due to the baronial court of Penwortham.*3
Elizabeth Bold died in August, 1558, and her
husband in December, 1589; their son and heir
was John Bold, aged forty and more in I59O.*4 In
Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 30, Aughto
1489 farmed them for 21 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.]
rent of £2 131. icW. in Barton. Henry
fourth part of the manor of Hall Moreton-
tioned in this inquisition; and Oliver
de Scarisbrick, by the courtesy of England,
under-the-Hill for 20 marks to Henry
Ball Hey, Moss Hey, and the Frere Hook
held certain lands in North Meols, with a
Smith; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 227, 2276;
are also named. In the subsequent as-
rent of 3j marks from the manor. He
liii, fol. 92.
signment of dower to the widow there
granted a temporary right of turbary in
Scarisbrick to the heir's guardian ; Scaris-
12 Ibid, liii, fol. 92 ; cxlii, fol. 227*.
*» Duchy of Lane. Depos. iv, L. 7. It
are some interesting particulars; th<
document is printed at length in Nortl
brick D. «. 123.
was due to a confusion between three
Meols, 31-4.
2 Towneley MS. CC. (Chet. Lib.), n.
places of the name : one, already men-
There was an eel fishery on the watei
351.
tioned, was in North Meols ; and two in
running to the mill ; also a fishery on
» Ibid. n. 2101.
Scarisbrick, then known as Long Wyke
Martin Mere. Marsh Side was ther
" Dods. MSS. cxlii. She married se-
and High Wyke, on the eastern side of a
called the Howes, and was waste. A
condly Richard Massy, of the Hough near
' great moss ditch ' that formed the boun-
windmill called Ashurst Mill stood to th<
Nantwich.
dary between the townships. There is
east of Churchtown.
« Ibid. fol. zz6l>. She afterwards
now a Wyke in the north-western corner
™ Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. Ixiv.
(about 1417) made complaint as to her
of Scarisbrick; Blowick may be the
B. 12, andxlix, K. i.
disherison by Robert de Halsall and
Wyke in North Meols.
88 Ibid, xlv, F. 15 ; the date of the bil
Nicholas Blundell; Early Chanc. Proc.
" Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. V. n. 28.
of complaint was Easter, 1560.
bdle. 5, n. 121.
15 Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 234, 112. In
« Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xv, n. 44.
6 Scarisbrick D. n. 147.
1523 he had petitioned for the restoration
Their share is described as the moiety o:
< Duchy of Lane. Chan. R. 7, §§ 62, 65.
of the family muniments; Duchy of
the manor of North Meols, four messuage
8 Towneley MS. CC. n. 2146 ; there
Lane. Pleadings, Hen. VIII, iii, A. 2.
with land in Barton, five messuages anu
are three deeds.
16 Bland, Annals of South fort, 1 1.
land in Thistleton, an acre in Whiston,
» Ibid. The manor is said to be held
" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, n. 1251.
and a quarter acre in Much Hoole. Be
as the twelfth part of a knight's fee ; the
18 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. viii, n. 3.
tween 1572 and 1585, however, th
parcel of land known as the Wyke was
19 The bounds were found to begin at
Bolds had been selling various parcels c:
held by the same service.
Snoterstone, 'standing within the flood
their lands, the purchasers being Robei :
i» Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 233.
marks,' thence to the foot of Walding
Wright, Gilbert Rimmer, Richard Johnson
" Towneley MS. C. 8, 1 3 (Chet. Lib.),
Pool, and up this to a ' stub ' fixed by the
(alias Brekell), William Clayton, an I
A. 33. Nicholas Aughton had farmed
commissioners ; Farrer, North Meals, 29.
Richard Lee ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of I .
out his lands in Newbold Comyn at a
2» Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Edw. VI,
bdle. 34, m. 87 ; 37, m. 199 ; 38, n-.
rent of £3 101. in 1487; and Hugh
xxiii, C. 12.
'35, "3 i 47, m- 85.
232
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
1576 he conveyed his estates to feoffees,' for the use
of himself and his sons, with remainders to Richard
Bold of Bold and others. Having no children he in
1588 sold the reversion of the dower of John Augh-
ton's widow and the remainder just named to Richard
Bold. He died on 31 December, 1600, his heirs
being his sisters Ellen Anderton, widow, and Anne,
wife of Thomas Gerard.8
Bold House seems to have been erected about
1550, but after the death of John Bold, when Richard
Bold became lord of this moiety,
it is unlikely that the owners
were in constant residence. Sir
Thomas Bold died here in 1612.
He was a natural son of Richard
Bold and had a grant of this
manor, but dying without issue
by his wife Bridget, daughter
of Sir William Norris, his estate
reverted to the Bolds of Bold.3
It descended regularly to Peter
Bold of Bold, who by his will in ^ LfiEjfS
1757 settled it upon his eldest or.
daughter, Anna Maria. She died
unmarried in 1813, and Colonel Peter Patten in-
herited it, as son of the younger daughter Dorothea,
he took the additional name of Bold.
He died in 1819, leaving four daughters as coheirs.
The eldest, Mary, became lady of the manor ; she
married the Russian Prince Eustace Sapieha, and died
without issue in 1824, when the estate went to her
sister Dorothea, who married Henry Hoghton, after-
wards Sir Henry Bold-Hoghton, bart. This moiety
of the manor was sold by him in 1843 to Charles
Scarisbrick of Scarisbrick; since his death in 1860
the manorial rights and appurtenant estates have been
vested in his trustees.4
The Kitchen moiety of the manor seems to have
been the more important, as the family resided in
North Meols. Anne Kitchen died in August, 1572,
and her husband Barnaby in July, 1603. They had
an only daughter Alice, who married Hugh Hesketh,
a natural son of Sir Thomas Hesketh of Rufford.5
Hugh Hesketh died in 1625, and was succeeded by
Jlis eldest son Thomas, who in 1641 paid double to
the subsidy as a convicted recusant.6 Next year he
conveyed his estates to his eldest son William, charging
them with annuities to himself and his other children.
In 1643 William Hesketh took up arms in the king's
service, his estates being thereupon sequestered. He
died the same year.
NORTH MEOLS
His brother Robert, as heir male, petitioned the
Committee for Compounding in 1648 ; and subse-
quently his parents and brothers also petitioned.
William's wife and daughter lost their income, it
being declared in 1652 that the manor and other
lands had been sequestered ' for the popery and
delinquency of Mrs. Hesketh, then late of North
Meols.' In 1653 the sequestration was discharged.7
Thomas Hesketh, the father, lived on till 1666.
Robert Hesketh had a long dispute, beginning in
1 65 1, with the widow and daughter of his elder
brother, but in the end retained the estate, as Anne
the daughter, who married Thomas Selby, died without
issue, and her husband then gave up the struggle.8
Robert Hesketh died in December 1675, and was suc-
ceeded by his son Roger.
The new lord appears to have occupied himself
with the care of his house and estate. The great
event of his life was the abortive Jacobite trial of 1694,
in which he and his wife were among the accused ; a
carrier had deposed to seeing a quantity of arms dis-
tributed in July 1692, to a number of the gentry,
Roger Hesketh being one.9 He died in June 1720,
and was succeeded by his son Robert, who held this
moiety of the manor less than two years, dying in May
1722. His son and heir, Roger, then only eleven
years of age, enjoyed possession for seventy years,
his death taking place in June, 1791 ; in 1740 he was
high sheriff of the county.10 His first wife was Mar-
garet, eldest daughter and coheir of Edward Fleet-
wood of Rossall. Their son and heir was Fleetwood
Hesketh, born in 1738, who became lord of Rossall by
inheritance from his mother. He married Frances,
daughter of Peter Bold of Bold, by whom he had two
sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Bold Fleet-
wood Hesketh, high sheriff in 1797,'° died unmarried
in 1819, and was succeeded by his brother Robert,
who served as high sheriff in 1820. lu
He had a numerous family. The story of his son
and successor, Peter, belongs to Fleetwood, which town
he created ; he was made a baronet in 1838, but dying
in 1866 without male issue the title became extinct.
The manor of North Meols he sold in 1845 to his
brother Charles," who thus became lord of the manor
as well as rector. He died in 1876, and his son
Edward Fleetwood Hesketh died unmarried in
October, 1886.
In the lordship of the manor, however, the Rev.
Charles Hesketh had been followed by his widow
Anna Maria Alice. By her will it passed, on her
death in November 1898, to the son of her husband's
sister Anna Maria Emily Fleetwood, who had married
1 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 38, m.
148.
' Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xviii, n. 43.
It appears that there were living a half-
brother Henry, and a half-sister Elizabeth,
wife of William Muscle of London, who
put in claims which afford various parti-
culars as to the family and land ; see
North Meols, 42-4. From the inquisition
it may be gathered that the principal
divisions of the township were the Church
Town, the New Row, and the Blowick.
• Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 254.
4 Farrer, North Meols, 56.
5 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 23. Barnaby Kitchen's will
may be seen in North Meols, 44. The
will was questioned, but Mntthew French,
then rector, deposed that going to visit
him the day before he died, he being a
parishioner, Barnaby Kitchen desired the
rector to write out his will, and he did so;
Depos. at the Reg. Off. Chest.
6 His wife Ellen (Molyneux) was a
recusant, and his sons William and Robert.
His brother William was reported in
1625 to have had a son before marriage and
or by whom'; i.e. probably by a mis-
sionary priest. The widow, a recusant, sub-
submitted in 1627 ; Visit. Books at Chest.
The Bolds had also been recusants ;
John Bold of North Meols was in 1590
among the esquires who were ' in some
degree of conformity, yet in general note
nts ' ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 245
233
(quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4).
Henry Bold was in 1592 fined £5 for the
queen's service in Ireland for his oppo-
sition to the legally established religion ;
ibid. 262 (S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclxvi, n.
80).
^ Royalist Comf. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iii, 209-18.
» The documents are given in Farrer's
North Meols, 48-53.
9 Jacobite Trial (Chet. Soc.), 5 1. He had
probably conformed to the Established
religion, as he did not register his estate
in 1717.
i» P.R.O. List of Sheriffs, 74.
11 Bland, Southport, 104 ; part of this
share of the manor was, it is stated, sold
to Charles Scarisbrick, who had already
purchased the Hoghton moiety.
3°
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
John Bibby of Allerton near Liverpool. Mr. Charles
Hesketh Bibby, born in 1871, therefore became lord
of this moiety of the manor. In February 1899 he
a bend sable three garbs
or ; a chief azure, there-
on an eagle -with nvo fesse point by a lion ram-
heads displayed proper, pant pean ; two escallops
all ivitkin a bordure er- in pale and as many mul-
minis, lets of six points in fesse
of the second.
assumed the surname of Hesketh by royal licence, and
served as high sheriff of the county in 1901.
A court-leet and view of frank-pledge is held twice
a year, in July and November. In 1805 a number
of by-laws were drawn up for the regulation of rights
of turbary and common of pasture and for the main-
tenance of the drains and sea-banks in an efficient
state.' An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1825 to
enable the joint lords of the manor to apportion the
undivided portions of their estates and to make ex-
changes for their mutual advantage.
The modern town of SOUTH-
BOROUGH PORT'1 is bounded by the sea on its
north - western edge. The country
is very level and the coast flat and sandy, immense
sandbanks stretching out into the estuary of the
Ribble. Where a broad band of sand-hills once
existed as a natural protection to the low-lying land,
the pleasant town, with its long promenade, winter
gardens and other places of amusement, now stands, at
any rate along one-third of the entire sea-frontage.
There are marine parks where concerts are given in
the summer, on each side of the pier, between the pro-
menade and the lake. There are a fine park and
botanic gardens, the mildness of the climate being
conducive to the growth in the open air of many
sub-tropical plants.
The fishing village of Crossens stands upon a slight
knoll of clay, otherwise all the country inland is very
flat and extensively cultivated, occupied by market
gardens, arable fields, and pasture. A deep drain or
ditch, called the New Pool, serves to drain the marshy
district east of the township, also forming the boundary
between Southport and the present North Meols
township.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century visitors
began to frequent the North Meols district for bathing
in the summer, finding what accommodation they could
in the cottages near the shore. In 1792 William
Sutton, known as ' the Duke ' or ' the old Duke,' son
of a Churchtown innkeeper, erected from odds and
ends a rude lodging-house in South Hawes, where a
little brook ran down to the sea. This was used during
the summer only ; but in 1798 having constructed a
better house — the Original Hotel, afterwards the ' Royal '
— he came to reside permanently, and at a house-warm-
ing banquet the place was named South Port by an
eccentric physician, Dr. Barton of Hoole.' Though
the house was called ' Duke's Folly ' and the builder
soon found himself in a debtor's prison,4 a little town
sprang up around the spot he had chosen. A start
had already been made in 1797 by the erection of
Belle Vue Cottage.5 In 1805 another hotel was
built, and two years later, a row of ' company houses '
was erected in Lord Street. A Liverpool paper in
1 809 printed a list of ' fashionable arrivals ' ; and the
first guide-book to the district was published.6 Inde-
pendents, Wesleyans, and Roman Catholics had op-
portunities of worship ; and the Strangers' Charity
had been established for the relief of the sick poor
who might be benefited by sea air and bathing.
From 1820 the town increased rapidly — the Direc-
tory of 1825 describing the 'village' as consisting of
one main street, 88 yards wide, with three large hotels
and many boarding-houses.7 The amusements of the
place were ' those afforded by the theatre, the news-
rooms and libraries, the billiard rooms, the repositories,
and the assemblies.'8 A plan was published in 1824.'
In 1836 the first newspaper was attempted, and in
1844 the Fisiter commenced to appear.10
1 Printed in North Meols, 57.
» Acknowledgement must be made in the
first place to E. Eland's Annals of South-
port, reaching to 1886; where no other
reference is given it may be assumed that
this work. Further, to Mr. Frederick W.
Brown, mayor of the borough 1903-4, for
assistance and criticism liberally afforded,
more particularly as to present conditions;
and to the Brit. Assoc. Handbook, 1903,
permission to use which was obtained
through Mr. Brown.
8 This story appears in the second
edition of Glazebrook's Guide, published
in 1826, p. 58. There is a sketch of the
building in Bland, 56. The complimen-
tary description of Southport as 'the
Montpelier of England' is attributed to
Dr. Brandreth, a popular Liverpool physi-
* He had to leave the hotel in 1802.
He was buried at Churchtown, 29 May,
bronze relief marks the spot, near the
crossing of Lord Street and Duke Street,
where Sutton built his house.
5 Mrs. Sarah Walmesley was the owner ;
it has developed into a large mansion, and
is now the residence of Sir George Pilking-
ton (formerly Coombes).
6 It is a pamphlet of eighty pages by
Thomas Kirkland Glazebrook of Warring-
ton, of which about twelve pages are de-
voted to Southport proper ; the name is
always spelt South-Port. The book con-
tains an interesting account of the peculiar
plants then observable on the shore. A
second and greatly enlarged edition was
printed in 1826. The author died in
1855; Bland, 120.
The earliest printed account, however,
was that of G. A. Cooke in his Topographi-
cal Description of the county, published in
1805 (p. 313). It was copied into a
Liverpool paper, and may be read in
Bland, op. cit. 63.
was compiled by J. S., containing a plan
and directory. The Gent. Mag. for I 840,
pt. i, has a notice of Southport.
~< During the season coaches ran daily
from Liverpool and Manchester, and three
times a week from Bolton, and other
towns ; other visitors travelled by the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal to Scarisbrick
Bridge, five miles away.
8 Baines, Lanes. Directory, 1825, ii,
552-4. An Act of Parliament obtained
by the lords of the manor provided that
Lords Street, now Lord Street, should be
88 yards wide. Thus one of the distinctive
beauties of the town was early decided ;
Bland, p. 86. In 1864 a committee was
appointed to consider the question of
planting trees and forming gardens in the
street.
9 This and another of ten years later
are reproduced in Farrer's North Meols.
10 These papers were at first published
in the season only. The Whiter now
mental mason in the parish ' ; Bland, 99.
The hotel itself was pulled down in
1854 in order to allow the continuation of
Lord Street, a new Royal Hotel having
been erected; ibid. 119. A lamp with
1830 by P. Whittle, of Preston, in a
volume entitled Marina ; it gives a plan
of the town. In 1832 a brief account of
the place was issued by William Alsop, of
Southport ; and in 1849 a similar account
234
called the Independent, was started in 1861,
re-named the News in 1865, and then
made a daily paper ; it ceased to appear in
1881. In the following year the Guardian
was begun ; it is issued twice a week.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
In 1 846 the first of the Improvement Acts was
passed, vesting the government of the town in twenty-
three commissioners.1 A town hall was built in 1852,
but has been enlarged and transformed, though the
old front remains. In 1848 a market was opened.2
Suggestions for incorporation were made in 1863,
and the charter was granted in 1 866, four wards
being constituted with six councillors and two alder-
men for each.3 The new council was elected on
I June, 1 867. The limits of the borough were ex-
tended in 1871, 1875, 1885, and 1900; so that
there are now ten wards, each with an alderman and
three councillors,4 and the population having reached
50,000 Southport has been declared a county
borough.
Hesketh Park was opened in 1867 ; the land had
been given by the Rev. Charles Hesketh, rector and
one of the lords of the manor ; here are the Corpo-
ration Observatories.5
There is also a recreation ground. Cambridge
Hall, in which are the police offices and a public hall,
was opened in 1874, anc^ l^e Free Libraries Act
being adopted in 1876 William Atkinson6 offered a
library and art gallery, opened in 1878.' The
Victoria Science and Art Schools were built by the
Corporation in 1887. The cemetery was opened in
1865. In it is a public memorial of the men who
lost their lives by a lifeboat accident in 1886.
The gas and electric lighting works are owned by
the Corporation. The water supply was in the hands
of a company incorporated by Act of Parliament in
1854, its powers having been extended by later Acts,
in 1856, 1866, and 1878 ;8 but it is now governed
by the Southport, Birkdale, and West Lancashire
Water Board.
The sands and bathing were the original attraction
offered by Southport and so remain. A breakwater
was first attempted in 1821, and in 1834 a promenade
along the sea-front was begun by Peter Hesketh, one
of the lords of the manor ; this has gradually been
improved and extended, being now a mile and a half
in length.9 The foreshore was purchased by the
Corporation in 1885. The pier was opened in 1860,
and extended in 1864 and 1 868, while a marine
NORTH MEOLS
park and lake have been formed more recently.10 Its
pure air, good water supply, cleanliness, wide sands,
and the beauty of its buildings, streets, and parks have
made Southport one of the chief health resorts in the
kingdom." The Winter Gardens were op:ned in
1874, and the Botanic Gardens at Churchtown two
years later. The Opera House in Lord Street was
built in 1891.
The growth of the town was aided by the improve-
ment of communications. Railways were projected
as early as 1 844, but the first was that from Southport
to Waterloo, afterwards continued to Liverpool. This
was opened in 1 848 ; the original terminus was in
Eastbank Street, the present station in Chapel Street
being opened in 1851." Next year passengers by
the Liverpool and Preston line were carried to South-
port by coach from Ormskirk. The Manchester and
Southport line by Wigan was opened in 1855," and
the St. Helens and Ormskirk line, giving access to
Southport, in 1858; the West Lancashire Railway
was projected in 1871, and the first section — to
Hesketh Bank— opened in 1878 ; the whole line was
completed in 1883"; all of these came to Chapel
Street Station. Lastly, the Cheshire Lines Extension
scheme was opened in 1884 ; its terminus is in Lord
Street. The tramways were begun in 1873 ; they
are now controlled by the Corporation.
The Strangers' Charity, already mentioned, com-
pleted its first building in 1823, the later hospital
being opened in 1852 ; a new portion wa; built in
1883. The name was changed about 1862 to
Convalescent Hospital.15 In 1825 a dispensary was
established, which has since grown into the infirmary.
The first building for this purpose was begun in 1 870,
the new buildings being opened in 1895.'° There
are numerous other hospitals, orphanages, homes, and
benevolent institutions. There are also literary,
artistic, and scientific associations.
The fishery is an important one, shrimps, plaice,
cod, &c., being taken ; but there are no manu-
factures.
The land in the town is, with scarcely any excep-
tion, leasehold of the lords of the manor, and to the
restrictions enforced by them is due the absence of
Council Offices, Preston.
side, and Crossens). In 1894 Southport
in ,8C2.
opened in 1857; a fish market being
added in 1863. The present building in
Eastbank Street was opened in 1881 ; it
contains market hall, fish and wholesale
market. The special market days are
Wednesday and Saturday.
8 The area under the jurisdiction of the
first council extended from the Birkdale
boundary to the north-west boundary of
Park Ward ; inland it was bounded bv
Fine Jane's Brook and a line drawn north-
ward from the crossing of the railways at
Blowick.
* In 1871 a small area including the
gasworks was added ; in 1 87 <; the limits
North Meols parish within the municipal
boundary.
5 The Meteorological Observatory was
founded by John Fernley in 1871 ; the
Astronomical Observatory was opened in
1901. John Fernley, founder of the
Fernley Lecture, died 16 Jan. 1873;
Bland, p. 174.
6 This benefactor of the town died
20 Jan. i883,having resided in Southport
for about twenty years ; Bland, p. 207.
' There are two branch libraries.
« Under this latest Act « the limits of
supply were extended, at the request of
the inhabitants of several districts around,
pier was opened in 1887 ; the northern
portion in 1892. The two were after-
wards joined, and the Marine Drive was
11 The meteorological averages for the
thirty-one years 1872 to 1902 given in the
Corporation's Tear Book, show the mean
temperature of the air to have been 48-4,
ranging from 38-6 for Feb. to 59-5 for
July; and the average rainfall, 33-14 in.
in the year on 187 days, Oct. with
3-81 in., having the heaviest fall.
13 In 1904 the electrification of the
Liverpool and Southport line was com-
pleted.
Churchtown, Crossens, and Marshside ; a
piece of the foreshore wasadded in 1885,
and in 1900 two small portions at the
extreme south and north ends of the
borough, the latter of these including the
sewage works. The wards are named :
Central (including the town hall and
other municipal buildings), West, South,
Craven, Marine, Talbot, Sussex, Park (in-
cluding Hesketh Park and the district
called Little Ireland), Scarisbrick, and
among them — the majority of which had
hitherto been supplied from shallow holes
dug in the sand, the water in many cases
being ladled out with wooden scoops, and
in other cases obtained by a pump going a
few feet into the sand, thus affording the
same source of supply as Southport had
prior to 1854* ; South for r, Descriptive and
9 The promenade was extended to
Duke Street in 1873, and northwards in
St. Luke's, Hesketh Park, Churchtown,
Crossens, and Banks ; on the Altcar sec-
tion, at Meols Cop and Kew Gardens.
« The buildings now consist of the
Strangers' Home, and the hospital erected
out of the surplus of the Cotton Famine
Fund.
" An eye hospital, established in 1877,
has now been incorporated with the
infirmary.
235
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
courts and slums, almost every house, however small,
having garden plots at front and back.
The parish church of North Meols,
CHURCHES already described, is now within the
borough. Christ Church was built in
1821 ;' it has since been transformed by numerous
alterations. A separate district was assigned in
1865.' Mr. Bibby-Hesketh is the patron. Holy
Trinity church was opened in 1837;' St. Paul's
in 1864;' and St. Andrew's in 1872.* The
patronage of these three churches is vested in
various bodies of trustees. All Saints' Church was
opened in 1871, as a chapel-of-ease to North Meols ;
a separate district was assigned in 1878." Mr. Bibby-
Hesketh is patron. St. Luke's was opened in 1 880,
and consecrated in 1882.' The patron is the vicar
of Holy Trinity. St. Philip's was opened in 1886,
an iron church having preceded it. The vicar of Christ
Church is patron. St. John's, Crossens, was first
erected in 1837. An ecclesiastical district was formed
in i86o.8 The incumbents are presented by trustees.
Emmanuel and SS. Simon and Jude's, built in 1895,
as chapels-of-ease to the parish church, became sepa-
rate parish churches in 1905 ; Mr. Bibby-Hesketh
presents to the former, and trustees to the latter.
St. Stephen's-in-the-Banks was built in 1897;' the
rector of North Meols is patron.
The Southport Clerical Conference, an annual
assembly of the Evangelical (or Low Church) clergy and
laity, was inaugurated in 1860.
Wesleyan Methodism is supposed to have originated
here in visits paid by Wesley in 1765 and 1770 to
North Meols ; but the first regular minister was not
.appointed until 1 806. 10 In Southport itself the
Methodists are stated to have had a preaching place in
i 809. Two cottages in Eastbank Street were used in
1 8 1 1 , and these were succeeded by Wesley Chapel in
1824. In 1847 this was replaced by a new chapel
in Hoghton Street, in turn superseded in 1861 by
the present church in Mornington Road. In 1861 a
second chapel was erected, known as Ecclesfield
Chapel." In 1864 Trinity Church was built;
Southbank Road in 1877, Leyland Road in 1880, and
High Park in 1881. A mission at Blowick was
begun in 1863 in a workshop, a chapel being opened
in 1865. The Primitive Methodists are said to have
begun preaching in the neighbourhood as early as
1830, but their first chapel was built at Banks in
1849. In Southport one was built in 1862 ; there
are now three ; also others at Crossens and Church-
town. In 1 85 I a Methodist Reform agitation resulted
in Southport in the expulsion of certain members
from the Connexion, and two years later the
Reformers, now known as the United Methodist Free
Church, opened the old dispensary as a chapel.
They now have two churches in the town, and others
at Churchtown and Crossens. A Methodist New
Connexion Church was opened in 1864. There are
three Independent Methodist Churches,
The history of Congregationalism in the parish
begins in 1801, when the Rev. William Honeywood,
stationed at Ormskirk, began to hold meetings at
Churchtown and Southport. He was succeeded in
1802 by the Rev. George Greatbatch, who died at
Southport in 1 864. The first chapel was built at
Churchtown in 1807, the minister fixing his residence
there, and preaching in many neighbouring villages.
In 1808 he preached in Southport during the season."
What was known as the Calvinistic chapel was erected
in Eastbank Street in 1823 ; it has given a name to
Chapel Street.13 As an offshoot from this the West End
church was built in 1862. A division of opinion in
this congregation in 1871 led to the church in Port-
land Street, opened in 1877. There are three other
Congregational churches, and there is also a chapel for
Welsh-speaking members of this denomination.
' Hall's Chapel ' in Little London was built about
1835 f°r an Anglican clergyman who had adopted
Calvinistic doctrines and ' sold his living.' His con-
gregation quickly died away, but from the building
Hall Street took its name."
In 1868 Presbyterian services were begun in the
town hall; the congregation built, in 1873-4,
St. George's Church. There is a Welsh Calvinistic
Methodist church, opened in 1871.
A congregation of Baptists assembled at the town
hall in l86l,and in the following year acquired a
chapel in Hcghton Street from the Wesleyans. The
Tabernacle was opened in 1892, and there is also a
Strict Baptist chapel.
A Church of Christ was the outcome of meetings
held in 1878 ; there are two places of worship. The
Plymouth Brethren have two meeting places. There
are several mission rooms, one used by the Catholic
Apostolic Church (Irvingites) and another by the
Mission of Love. The Salvation Army has a barracks.
The Society of Friends have held meetings here since
an early period in the town's history. Their first
building, however, was erected in 1865. A Uni-
tarian congregation was formed in 1866, a church
being opened the following year. The New Jeru-
salem Church was opened in 1875.
In 1 809 it is stated that mass was said in South-
port, no doubt during the season ; the guide book of
1826, however, shows that this had been discontinued,
the chapel at Scarisbrick being apparently the nearest.
Services were re-started in 1827, and in the map of
1834 a chapel is shown in Lord Street, near Union
Street. Its successor, St. Marie's church, from designs
by A. W. Pugin, was opened in 1841 ; and the
church of the Holy Family in 1893. There is a
convent of Sisters of Charity.
A Jewish Synagogue was opened in 1893, in a
building formerly used by the Plymouth Brethren.
BIRKDALE
Erengermeles, Dom. Bk. ; Argarmeols, xiv. cent. ;
Birkedale, 1311.
The greater part of the area of this township, which
1 There is a
ing in Bland.
* Land. Ga*.
3 A district
time as to Chris
« Ibid. 4 Nov
in 1861 by an i
mission church.
5 Ibid. 1 8
'873.
of the
al build-
19 May, 1865.
as assigned at the same
t Church.
. 1 864. It was preceded
ron church. There is a
Oct. 1872; 27 June,
« Ibid. 9 April, 1878. All Souls', la In 1 8 1 2 he used a room in ' Duke's
Blowick, is an iron mission church. Folly.' The lords of the manor at first
7 A district was assigned in the follow- refused land for Nonconformist places of
ing year ; ibid. 16 Mar. 1883. worship, and a wooden tabernacle erected
* Ibid. 30 Aug. 1860 ; 15 Oct. 1861. in i8zi was the best that could be done
« A preceding church was built in 1 866. until they relented.
10 Two cottages in Churchtown were la Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 25-9.
fitted up for services, and in 1816 ' Sugar For the later history see pp. 30-44. It
Hillock ' chapel was erected. was rebuilt in 1867.
11 Now used as a mission room. » Ibid. 25 ; a view is given.
236
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
measures 2,214^ acres,1 consists of a broad band ot
sand-hills, fringing the sea-coast and raising the surface
of the land to some fifty feet above sea-level. The
seashore itself is flat and sandy, and a large expanse of
sand is uncovered at low tide. The sand-hills are
covered with a dense growth of dwarf willow and
star-grass, or sea marram, which by their long subter-
ranean stems and roots bind the shifting sands to-
gether. The sand-hills are so strictly preserved on
account of 'game,' that the naturalist has little chance
•of searching the hills for the many uncommon wild
plants which grow there. Inland from the shore it is
quite flat, and the land is occupied by cultivated fields
yielding crops of corn and potatoes in a sandy soil.
There are no brooks, but numerous ditches drain the
lower portions of the district.
The northern portion of the township is occupied
by the residential district of Birkdale, the houses being
usually surrounded by gardens. Two railways cross
it going north to Southport, viz. the Lancashire and
Yorkshire, with a station named Birkdale ; and the
•Cheshire lines, by the shore, with a station called
Birkdale Palace, near the large Hydropathic Hotel.
The population in 1901 was 14,197.
A local board was formed in 1863,* and a school
board in 1883.* The township is now divided for
local government into four wards, each returning three
members to the urban district council. The town
hall was built in 1872. A recreation ground was
opened in 1886.
Wibert held the manor in 1066,
MANOR when it was assessed as two plough-lands
and its value was 8/. It was placed at
the head of the privileged district of three hides com-
paratively free from the interference of the reeve of
the royal manor of West Derby.4
It was certainly made a portion of the Bussels' fee
•of Penwortham, and may have been held by Warin
Bussel under Roger of Poitou before I loo. Of the
barons of Penwortham it was held by Roger son of
Ravenkil, and descended to his son Richard, lord of
NORTH MEOLS
Woodplumpton and founder of Lytham Priory. Two
only of Richard's five daughters left issue — Maud, wife
of Sir Robert de Stockport, and Amuria, wife of
Thomas de Beetham ; 5 their heirs continued to hold
it down to the time of Edward II.
By this time there had probably been an infeu-
dation in favour of the Halsall family. In 1346'
the fourth part of a knight's fee in Argar Meols was
held by Otes de Halsall ; he rendered io/., but it was
stated that the place ' had been annihilated by the sea
and there was no habitation there.' 7 From an inqui-
sition taken in 1404 it appears that the manors of
Argar Meols and Birkdale had been held by Otes' father,
Gilbert, so that the transfer from the old lords to the
new must have taken place about 1 3zo.8 The matter
is somewhat complicated by the statement in a feodary
compiled about 1430 that 'Thomas de Beetham and
his parceners' held the fourth part of a knight's fee in
Argar Meols,9 while in a later feodary (1483) it is
stated that Hugh de Halsall held it of the king in
chief.10 The more correct statement would appear to
be that from the beginning of Edward Ill's reign the
Halsall family held it of the king as of his barony of
Penwortham, though this intermediate barony is
usually omitted in the inquisitions."
The manor descended regularly with the Halsall
estates until their dispersal early in the seventeenth
century by Sir Cuthbert Halsall.12 The most interest-
ing incident in connexion with their tenure was an
inquiry in 1503, when the escheator was endeavour-
ing to prove that Sir Henry Halsall held lands and
tenements in Argar Meols of the king, as duke of
Lancaster, in chief, Sir Henry in reply asserting
that the place had long ago been swallowed up by
the sea.13
It was about 1632 that Birkdale, Meandale, and
Ainsdale were sold by Sir Cuthbert Halsall to Robert
Blundell of Ince. Boundary disputes at once began
with Sir Charles Gerard, who had purchased Halsall
and Downholland. The latter's son, created earl of
Macclesfield after the Restoration, carried on the dis-
1 2,699 i Census Rep. 1901. The fore-
S "l^r'cas. 2 June" 1863.
gar Meols seems in fact to have disap-
peared, though the name survived in
In 1508 Sir Henry had eight messuages
and 20 acres of pasturage in Birkdale
»Ibid. 28 Aug. 1883.
< V.C.H. Lanes, i, p. 284.*.
sThe inquisition after the death of
Thomas de Beetham (1249) shows that
he held 8 oxgangs of land here of the earl
of Lincoln, rendering 121. yearly, and 2
by knight's service from which he took
nothing. In 1242-3 Thomas de Beetham
and Robert de Stockport were said to
hold the fourth part of a knight's fee here.
See Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.}, 149, 171. In 1254 the holding
is said to be one plough-land, worth in all
issues i6s. yearly, and the tallage of the
tenants in bondage worth 21. 6J. ; ibid.
171. In 1311 Nicholas de Eaton and
Joan his wife, daughter and heir of Rich-
ard de Stockport, are mentioned as ten-
ants ; De Lacy Inquest (Chet. Soc.), 22 ;
while in 1323-4 Ralph de Beetham alone
is mentioned, and he is said to have held
cessor in 1295 in the De Lacy Compotus.
As a name Birkdale occurs in a charter of
Cockersand Abbey about 1200 ; it was in
Ainsdale or upon the border ; Cockcrsand
Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 575, 581.
8 Towneley MS. DD. n. 1456. It was
Gilbert de Halsall who acquired from the
Blundells of Crosby the adjacent manor of
Ainsdale. In 1752 it was customary to
assess the old Halsall estate in Ainsdale
along with Birkdale ; though Ainsdale
was, properly speaking, in another town-
ship and parish ; see Farrer, North Meols,
98. In 1377 accord was made at Halsall
between Otes de Halsall and the lord of
North Meols (William de Aughton) for
pasturage of their lands of North Meols,
Ainsdale, Birkdale, and Argar Meols, there
being apparently no clearly denned boun-
daries ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 233.
dale, of which mention has already been
made as being considered part of Birk-
dale ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v,
n. 50.
A dispute between Edmund Hulmc
and Henry Halsall in 155; revealed
more clearly the uncertainty as to the
boundaries and tenures; whereas the
former claimed the 'manor* of Ainsdale
and asserted that it was wholly within the
parish of Walton, the ' manor ' of Birk-
dale being wholly within North Meols ;
Henry Halsall fell back upon the state-
ment that though there once was a place
called Ainsdale it had long been washed
away and lost. The land in dispute was
called Meandale or Birkdale Hawes ; the
bounds were stated to begin at the spring
wall near Ainsdale demesne and to follow
certain stoups to the Brown Hill or Brown
Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 36*.
"In 1345 there were cross-suits by
Robert de Cowdray as lord of North Meols,
and Gilbert de Halsall as lord of Argar
Meols of which Birkdale was a part, each
alleging that the other had trespassed ;
De Bane. R. 342, m. 374, 374^.
^ Lay Subsidies (Lanes.), >fl>. Ar-
10 Duchy of Lane. Misc. cxxx, fol. 8.
The Beetham family had by that time
lost their manors.
11 Argar Meols is included in a feodary
of Penwortham made about 1505.
« See the account of Halsall.
13 Duchy Pleas. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 23-4.
then west to the sea. There had formerly
been frequent disputes owing to cattle
straying over the bounds ; see Duchy
Pleas, iii, 218-22. Edmund Hulme
closed the dispute by selling his rights to
Henry Halsall ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 1 6, m. 134.
237
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
pute with much bitterness,1 and it was not settled till
1719. The Gerards had then died out, and their
representative, Colonel Charles Mordaunt, having
brought an action against Robert Blundell of Ince,
a minor represented by his mother and guardian,
a final decision was given in favour of the defendant.
The manor has since descended with Ince Blundell,
and the lord of the manor, Mr. Charles Joseph Weld-
Blundell, owns the whole township.
In 1246 the township was amerced in z zs. for a
wreck which had been concealed.8
There appears to have been no manor-house or
resident lord, nor did the place give a surname to any
family of note. It was not rated separately for sub-
sidies, &c., and for the hearth tax of Charles IPs
time it ranked only as a hamlet of North Meols ; in
1673 there were twenty-seven houses charged, only
one of which had more than a single hearth.
In connexion with the Established Church
are three places of worship in Birkdale. The
earliest is St. James's, opened in 1857 " ; St. John's,
at first a mission church in connexion with it, became
a parish church in 1905 ; St. Peter's, preceded by a
school-chapel in 1870, was consecrated in 1872.*
The vicars are appointed by different bodies of
trustees.
The Wesleyan Methodists have a large church
in Aughton Road, called Wesley Chapel ; there are
also two mission chapels. The United Methodist
Free Church has a place of worship. The Congrega-
tionalists acquired a building here in 1877.
There are two Roman Catholic churches,
St. Joseph's, built in 1867, and St. Teresa's, opened in
1884. The convent of Notre Dame is served
from the former. There is also the Birkdale Farm
Reformatory school.
ORMSKIRK
LATHOM
BURSCOUGH
ORMSKIRK
SCARISBRICK
BICKERSTAFFE
SKELMERSDALE
The parish of Ormskirk comprises six townships
anciently arranged in four quarters, paying equally to
the county lay ; viz. (i) Ormskirk and Burscough,
each paying equally ; (ii) Lathom, (iii) Scarisbrick,
(iv) Bickerstaffe and Skelmersdale ; each quarter paid
£2 is. M. when West Derby hundred paid /loo.3
To the ancient fifteenth Burscough and Ormskirk
paid nothing, Lathom £2 \<)i. 4*2'., Scarisbrick
£3 g/. \y., Bickerstaffe £i 21. 6\<t., and Skelmers-
dale £l I is. — in all £<) is. I I .W., when the hundred
paid £106 t)s. 6J.4
The parish is over nine miles in length from
north-west to south-east, and about five miles in width
from Ormskirk to the River Douglas. The area is
3 1, 009 V acres. The land is occupied as follows:
Arable, 23,578 acres ; permanent grass, 3,702 ; woods
and plantations, 961. A ridge rising about 240 ft. above
the Ordnance datum crosses it from east to west ; on
the southern slope lies Bickerstaffe, all the rest to the
north. The River Tawd and Eller Brook flow north-
wards through Lathom to join the Douglas ; the
Mere Brook, which derives its name from being for a
while the boundary between Ormskirk and Aughton,
formerly ran into Martin Mere, on the northern
boundary of the parish, now drained. Several brooks
flow south through Bickerstaffe, to join the Alt or the
Mersey. Originally both northern and southern
boundaries were formed by a series of mosses ; but
these have now been drained.
The parish derives its name from the church.'
The present boundaries indicate Ormskirk township
area to have been taken from Lathom and Burscough ;
so that some early lord of Lathom was perhaps the
founder of the church, his name being preserved
by it."
The part of the parish lying on the northerly slope
of the ridge running westward from Upholland to
Aughton was before the Conquest included in the
privileged three-hide area,9 while the portion which lay
upon the ridge and to the south of it— Skelmersdale and
Bickerstaffe — was outside it. This distinction did not
endure ; all the northern portion was granted to the
lords of Lathom in thegnage, the southern townships
being held by others as part of the forest fee, or in
1 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 114-15, 121-4.
Many interesting points occur in the
depositions. In 1662 William Norris of
Gettern Mere and so down the walk mill-
hey ditch southward ; out of this another
ditch, called the division ditch, went
were situated. Between this district and
the sea was the common called 'the
Hawes,' where the Starr hills were. To
bcrt Halsall and the Blundells, stated that
shipwreck and all things cast up by the
sea were taken formerly to Sir Cuthbert's
manor-house, but after the sale, to Robert
Blundell. Once a sturgeon had been cast
going toward Renacres (in Halsall) east-
ward to a place called Kettlesgreave ; at
the end whereof was another ditch run-
ning partly westwards to White Otter
Mere, on the north side of which was
the Heys by a brook. Duchy of Lane.
Depos. 1701, n. 3. These and other
depositions are printed in North Meals,
* Assize R. 404, m. 10.
a wagon to Ince Blundell. Another wit-
ness remembered in the earlier period a
porpoise being cast up at Birkdale; it
was cut in pieces and carried on men's
backs to Halsall.
The rector of North Meols in 1644
deposed that he received the tithes of
Birkdale as far as Birkdale Cop. To
some extent this is confirmed by a state-
ment at the earlier trial that a boat
having been cast ashore it was delivered
to Robert Blundell, who refitted it and
used it on White Otter Mere. There
was a privilege of fishing, known as the
'•• Ibid. 1 8.
5 A district was assigned in 1865;
Land. Gax. 1 9 May.
6 For district ibid. 5 Feb. 1875.
' So also do the parishes of Eccles and
St. Michael's on Wyre ; but there there
Brook was the boundary, and he received
nothing from lands to the east of that.
Confirmatory evidence was given by the
the boundary ; Duchy of Lane. Depos.
1664, n. 10, lod.
In 1701 a fisherman of Meols de-
scribed Birkdale as distinguished into
several sections ; the main portion in the
centre was called ' the Heys,' from its
enclosed land ; here the dwelling-houses
238
8 As it is rare in England that a founder
gives hia name to a church it has been sug-
gested by the Rev. John Sephton that Orm
was a recluse who built an oratory here
and acquired some local celebrity.
9 r.C.H. Land, i, 273.
gatherer of Formby. For the Blundells
it was stated that the boundary was
further to the east than this ; it began at
ORMSKIRK
AUGHT ON
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
thegnage. It is interesting to notice that the earls of
Derby, descendants of the Lathoms, are still the most
prominent personages in the parish, holding a fragment
of the original lordship — Newburgh ; while another
part — Burscough and Ormskirk with the advowson —
was regained after the suppression of the priory, and
Bickerstaffe has been acquired by marriage.
It is difficult to find how far the religious changes
of the sixteenth century affected the district, apart
from the suppression of Burscough Priory. The
third earl of Derby was long opposed to Protestantism,
and the adherents of the Roman Church have
always been numerous, but no open opposition was
made to the re-establishment of the Edwardian
services and doctrines by Elizabeth, though the vicar
was disaffected. Ormskirk is named in 1586 as one
of the places which had entertained John Law, a
seminary priest,1 but the number of ' convicted
recusants ' in the parish appears to have been insig-
nificant even before the more indulgent days of the
Stuarts. In 1590 the Scarisbricks and Gorsuches
were of evil note in religion, and Stanley of Bicker-
staffe indifferent; in 1628 there seem to have been
only three of the landowners convicted of recusancy,
and paying double, but the lists of minor recusants
and non-communicants in 1626 and 1641 are of great
length.2
Besides the manorial lords — the earl of Derby,
Scarisbrick, and Stanley of Bickerstaffe — the free-
holders in 1600 numbered nineteen.3
The confiscations of the Parliamentary authorities
in the Civil War period affected several families in
the neighbourhood, the principal being, of course,
that great ' delinquent ' James earl of Derby. In
Ormskirk itself a small case was that of Ellen wife of
John West.4 In Bickerstaffe besides the Mossocks,
Peter Cropper and John Gore were victims.'1 Anthony
ORMSKIRK
Beesley of Burscough, aged ninety-eight years, and ' like
to be turned out ' of his house and 2| acres of land,
' and to go a-begging,' asked to be allowed to rent it,
as it had been sequestered. This was granted.'
Cuthbert Halsall, yeoman, had not borne arms against
the Parliament, but being a recusant his house and
lands were sequestered ; in 1650 he conformed to
the Established religion, took the oath of abjuration of
Popery, and afterwards asked for the restoration of his
property.7 Alexander Breres of Lathom had been
within the garrison of Lathom House ; he, however,
took the National Covenant in March, 1 644, and at
the second siege showed himself friendly to the
attacking force. In 1 647 it was ordered that ' a fifth
of his estate, except the demesne of Croston, should
be allowed to so many of his children as should be
brought up in the Protestant religion.' 8 At Scaris-
brick the two families — Scarisbrick and Gorsuch —
suffered for their political and religious disagreements
with the ruling powers. Skelmersdale seems to have
escaped notice, except as involved in Lord Derby's
estates.
On the Restoration Lathom ceased to be the chief
residence of the earls of Derby, a change which must
have had a considerable effect on the district.
The hearth tax return of i6669 gives some
indication of the prosperity of the parish ; the list
for Ormskirk town seems to be missing. In Burscough
there were four houses with three hearths and above,
James Starkie's having twelve ; in Lathom twenty-
two ; 10 in Scarisbrick eleven ; " in Bickerstaffe eight ; "
and in Skelmersdale nine. Nonconformity made its
appearance at Ormskirk and Bickerstaffe, while at the
latter place a Quakers' meeting-phce had been
established. The Gates Plot caused some renewal of
persecution of the adherents of the Roman Catholic-
faith.13
1 Lanes. Lieutenancy (Chet. Soc.), ii, I 88,
quoting Harl. MS. 360. John Law or
Low was a Douai priest, banished in 1586
after two years' imprisonment. He soon
returned to England ; Douai Diaries, p.
211, &C.
3 Lay Subs. Lane . bdle. I 3 1 , No. 3 1 8 ;
Trans. His,. Soc. (New Ser.;, xiv, 233-5.
About ten families are named in Orms-
kirk ; a much larger number in each of
the other townships, except Skelmersdale,
in which only three distinct names appear.
8 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
of them will be found in the same
society's volumes of Inquisitions post
mortem; Humphrey Golborne, ii, 185;
Hugh Gillibrand, i, i 30 ; William Rigby,
i, 19 ; Richard Cropper, ii, 213. For a
clerical impostor (John Cropper) of this
last family see Pal. Notc-bk. ii, 273.
Other printed inquisitions concern Peter
was sequestered in 1645, discharged two
years later, but afterwards « secured '
again; his widow Cecily in 1652 made
petition for its restoration to her ; ibid.
his small property, let at 641. a year, was
therefore sequestrated ; ibid, iii, 87. See
also Cal. Com. for Comp. iv, 2840, 3096.
* Royalist Comp. P. \, ,59.
-i Ibid, iii, 145. The minister and
churchwardens certified that he 'did
come unto the parish church of Ormskirk
the 27th day of January 1649 and there
did decently behave himself at the time
of divine service and sermon, and hath
continued ever since a constant church-
man.' Other Burscough cases were those
of John Fletcher, who had sold his
tenement there to Richard Holland of
Lathom, but two-thirds had been seques-
tered for the recusancy of Fletcher and
name from the family. Martin Hall was
also held by them. Administration was
granted to the estate of John Breres of
Lathom in 1 646, and to that of Alexander
Breres in 1671. Some minor Lathom
Bower, who had been in arms in ' the
pound (ibid, i, 213); Richard and
Thomas Nelson, husbandmen, were ac-
cused of different delinquencies ; it was
suspected that the latter was Thomas
Nelson of Wrightington, and the order
was that his estate might be discharged
if he were a different person and took
the oath of abjuration; ibid, iv, 210,
2 1 1 ; See Cal. Com. for Comp. iv, 2974,
3007.
9 Lay Subs. Lane. 250-9.
10 These included the earl of Derby's
Moorcroft of Burscough, i, 191 ; Henry
Parker of Burscough, ii, 208 ; and Cuth-
bert Sharpies of Lathom, ii. 1 1 6.
4 Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iv, 91. She was 'in all
things conformable to law and to the
Government,' but her father, Nicholas
Leigh, had been a recusant, and two-
thirds of his property had been sequestrated
could not obtain possession (ibid, iii,
240) ; Katherine Wignall, who died in
1654, having had two-thirds of her small
estate in Ormskirk and Burscough simi-
larly sequestrated (Cal. Com. for Camp.
v, 3220); Ralph Whittington, whose
estate had been sequestered for alleged
recusancy, but who had taken the oath
of abjuration (ibid, iv, 2873); Henry
that some rebuilding had taken place;
Cross Hall eight, Mrs. Sharpies and Mr.
Breres five each, Mr. John Wycliffe and
Mr. Richard Worthington each four.
" The hall had eighteen, James Halsall
(perhaps at Hurleton) eleven, Gorsuch
nine, William Smith six, Gabriel Heskin
and Robert Hesketh five each.
" The hall had eleven, Henry Mossock
tution of lands in Ormskirk, which should
des9end to her as the heir of her mother
Alice. Nicholas Leigh died at Garstang
about 6 February, 1651-2; Alice his
wife had died twenty-one years earlier.
4 The particular delinquency of Peter
able,' petitioned for the restoration of
his recusant father's estate (ibid, iv,
2956).
8 Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 234 ; iii, 50. Alex-
ander was the «on of John Breres.
239
m The result was that some abandoned
it and conformed to the Established
religion ; the churchwardens' accounts for
1679 show that 6d. was 'paid for a roll
of parchment about enrolling Popish
submitters' ; Trans. Hist. Soc. jutvi, 13.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The revolution seems to have been welcomed in the
district, the earl of Derby taking the side of the Prince
of Orange. The rising in 1715 brought suspicion upon
Robert Scarisbrick, who on trial was acquitted, and
upon one or two others in the parish.1 At the con-
sequent ' registration of Papists' estates,' a considerable
number of properties were enrolled. The rebellion of
1745 had no such ill results in the parish. More
provision for education was attempted at this time,
and material prosperity was advanced by the making
of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in the latter part
of the century, and of the railway in the next ;
also by the opening of coal mines in the Skelmers-
dale district about fifty years ago. Apart from these,
however, the main occupation of the people has
been farming, the industries which from time to
time have flourished at Ormskirk not being on a
large scale.
Pennant in 1773 passed through the parish, and
from his description the following portions are quoted
to serve as an introduction to the more detailed
accounts to be given : ' Four miles further [than
Lydiate] lies Ormskirk, a neat little town with four
well-built streets crossing each other. Its only trade
is the spinning of cotton for the Manchester manu-
factures and thread for sail cloth. It has long been in
possession of a fair and market. . . . The church is
seated at the upper end of the town, and is remarkable
for its two steeples, placed contiguous, the one a tower
the other a squat spire. ... At about two miles
distant from Ormskirk I turned into a field to visit the
site of the priory of Burscough. . . . Nothing is left
of this pile but part of the centre arch of the church,
and instead of the magnificent tombs of the Stanleys,
which till the Reformation graced the place, a few
modern gravestones peep through the grass, memorials
of poor Catholics who fondly prefer this now violated
spot. ... At a little distance east of Burscough, on
an eminence, stands Lathom Hall, a palace built by
Sir Thomas Bootle, knight, chancellor to Frederick,
late Prince of Wales. He was bred to the law, and
raised by his profession vast wealth. He, dying a
bachelor, left his estates to his brother, who had been
captain of an East India ship, whose only daughter
transferred them into the honourable house of Wil-
braham, by marrying with Richard, son of the honest
advocate Randle Wilbraham, a cadet of the house of
Townsend of Nantwich, who had raised a large fortune
with a most unblemished character. Lathom is placed
on a most barren spot, and commands a view as exten-
sive as dull. . . . (A) singular anecdote is preserved,
serving to show the pride of high lineage and the
vanity of low. The late earl of Derby had on sale a
place near Liverpool called Bootle, which Sir Thomas
was particularly desirous of, through the ambition of
being thought to have been derived from some ancient
stock. The earl refused to part with it to this new
man, who with proper spirit sent his lordship word —
Lathom being then to be sold — that if he would not
let him be Bootle of Bootle he was resolved to be
Bootle of Lathom. . . . From Lathom I descended
and passed over Hosker Moss, leaving on the right some
beautiful hills wooded and well cultivated ; crossed the
River Douglas at Newburgh. . . .' '
The church of St. Peter and St. Paul *
CHURCH consists of chancel with a large south chapel
and north vestry, nave with north and south
aisles, tower and spire at the west end of the south
aisle, and a second tower at the west of the nave. It
is finely placed on high ground to the north of the
town, the land sloping down from all sides of
the site, the steepest slopes being to the west and
north.4
The earliest part of the building is the north wall
of the chancel ; its date is about 1 1 70, and it forms
the only remaining fragment of a church consisting of
a chancel with probably aisleless nave, whose internal
dimensions were approximately, chancel 30 ft. by 1 8 ft.,
and nave 65 ft. by 24ft. No evidence as to its
western termination can be deduced from the plan, and
the chancel may have been shortened from its original
size. No doubt this building passed through the
regular process of enlargement by the addition of aisles
and chapels, but little positive evidence of this remains.
In 1280 or thereabout a chapel was added on the south
of the chancel, opening into it by two arches. No
fourteenth-century work is to be seen in the church,
but to the fifteenth century belong the south-west
tower and spire, the east wall of the chancel, part of
the west wall of the north vestry, and probably the
walls of the Scarisbrick chapel. The south-west tower
gives the key to a great deal of the history of the
church. Looked at in connexion with the present
plan it seems to stand awkwardly, especially with regard
to the south arcade of the nave. But an inspection
of the north face of its north-east pier shows that when
it was built the south arcade of the nave was not on its
present line, but further south, and the tower was
built against the southern side of either the first pillar
from the west, or the western respond, of this arcade ;
the north-east angle of the tower pier, projecting be-
yond the sight-line of an arch of the arcade, being cut
back to that line to avoid the partial blocking other-
wise caused. Now if the plan of the present church
be examined, it will be seen that the centre line of the
nave is not the same as that of the chancel, but roughly
speaking a foot to the north of it. But over the
eastern arch of the large western tower is the weather
moulding of a roof which preceded the present nave
roof, and its centre line is exactly that of the chancel,
or in other words, that of the twelfth-century church.
Taking this line for a centre, it will be found that the
present north arcade, and the former south arcade,
against which the south-west tower was built, are
equidistant from it, which means that they occupy the
line of the nave arcades of the church in its earlier
condition, and according to the usual process of develop-
ment the line of the walls of the twelfth-century nave.
So that the dimensions of the early church can be laid
down with some accuracy.
Again, on the east face of the south-west tower is a
gabled weather-moulding which, taken in conjunction
with a straight joint in the masonry of the east face of
the south-east pier of the tower, gives the width of the
1 John Ashton of Lathom is named
the list in the Def. Keeper's Rep.
Lanes. Forfeited Estate Papers, 2 L.
ee Glynne, Lanes. Churches (Chet. taining wall runs north and south across
! ; for the font, Trans. Hist. Soc. the west front of the church, level with
nant notes that the arms assumed by the
Beetles were those of Ponsonby, earl of
Bessborough. They have been varied.
as it was about 1830 are printed in Lea's
Ormskirk Handbook, 66-9. It was called
All Saints' in 1342 ; Coram Rege R. 329.
24C
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
south aisle of the nave at the time the tower was built.
Whether it was coeval with or earlier than the tower
cannot now be determined ; the fact of its being out
of centre with the tower arch would suggest that it was
not built at the same time, and the existence of a south
arcade earlier than the tower demonstrates the existence
of an earlier aisle. Later than the tower it cannot be,
as the weathering is part of the original masonry and
not an insertion.
As has already been said, the weathering shows
that the aisle roof was gabled, and not a lean-to ; and
this raises the question of what was its east end, and
how did it abut on the late thirteenth- century south
chapel at the east of the church. The form of roof
of this chapel cannot now be known, but the height
of the arches in the south wall of the chancel makes
it probable that it was a lean-to roof, and not gabled.
But whichever it was, a little calculation will show
that its pitch could not have been the same as that
ORMSKIRK
respond, it is clear that the arcade ran further east-
ward, and that consequently there was no north
transept, at any rate after the building of the arcade.
But any argument based on the positions of these
arcades is weakened, as far as it refers to the earlier
history of the church, by their late date, which will
shortly be referred to.
In the sixteenth century a great deal of building
was undertaken, as may be shown both by documen-
tary evidence and by actual remains.1 The great
west tower may be dated from 1540-50. The fact
that on the eastern face of this tower the apex of the
weather-moulding is on the centre line of the early
nave shows that at this late date the nave arcades
were almost certainly in their original position, and
that the south arcade did not occupy its present site
till after the building of the west tower. But it must
have been built almost at once after this, and the
words of John Bochard's bequest evidently point to
ORMSKTRK CHVRCH
of the aisle roof, and that therefore the two roofs
could not have run in one line from east to west.
No decisive argument can be based on this, but the
existence of a south transept is at least suggested, and
further evidence is available on the point. The pre-
sent nave arcades, which are entirely modern, replace
an arcade of four bays of sixteenth-century date,
whose east pier on the south side was level with the
west wall of the Scarisbrick chapel, and between it
and the western respond of the thirteenth-century
arcade in the south wall of the chancel was an arcade
of two bays of a totally different character from the rest.
In the north arcade there was a corresponding eastern
pillar, but as it was a complete pillar, and not a
other work than the tower being in hand. The plan
shows that the old south arcade would give a very
lopsided effect with the newly built west tower arch,
and that the obvious remedy for this would be to re-
build it further north, on the line of the south wall
of the chancel ; and this is exactly what happened.
Whether any sort of transeptal arrangement remained
at this time is not clear, but the evidence given above
suggests that it did, on the south side at any rate.
In the late restoration both arcades and the whole of
the north aisle were rebuilt, and any further light
they may have had to throw on the history of the
church is finally destroyed. The south-east or Derby
chapel is, with the exception of the eighteenth-century
'Miles Gerard, 1518, left £100 to-
wards the building of a new aisle on the
south side of Ormskirk Church ; P.C.C.
29 Mainwaring. No work at present
remaining can be attributed to this be-
quest. In 1528 Peter Gerard, priest, left
£20 towards the building of St. Mary
Magdalen's Chapel, but nothing of this
24I
date can now be identified. John ]
clerk, in 1 542 bequeathed £60 towards
the building of the steeple and church of
Ormskirk; P.C.C. 20 Spert.
31
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
south aisle wall, the latest piece of work in the church,
the window mouldings showing distinct Renaissance
detail, and it seems that the windows of the Scaris-
brick chapel were altered about the same time, i.e. in
the second half of the sixteenth century.1
The church is built throughout of wrought stone,
which has been considerably renewed from time to
time,* and the chancel contains no trace of mediaeval
ritual arrangements. The twelfth-century window
in the north wall is z ft. icjin. wide inside, with a
recessed opening flanked by jamb shafts with bases
and scalloped capitals, both modern, carrying a semi-
circular arch moulded with a keeled roll between
hollow chamfers. It is lojin. wide at the outer
face with a small bevel at the external angle. The
south arcade of the chancel, of late thirteenth-century
date, has octagonal shafts with moulded capitals and
bases and arches of two plain chamfered orders. In
the vestry north of the chancel is a single square-
headed light of the fifteenth century, looking west-
ward into the north aisle, and retaining its original
iron stanchions and saddlebars. It has never been
glazed, and was always internal, as now, and probably
belonged to the mediaeval vestry. The south-east
or Derby chapel is enclosed on the north and west
by a plain seventeenth-century wooden screen with
turned balusters and wrought-iron cresting of fleurs-
de-lis. It has a large east window of seven lights,
with a low four-centred arch and a transom at the
springing line, and plain uncusped lights in the head.
In this chapel are three effigies, placed here at a
recent restoration, and said to be those of Thomas,
first earl of Derby, and his two wives.
The Scarisbrick chapel, west of the Derby chapel,
retains no ancient features ; the two windows on the
south show detail similar to those in the Derby
chapel, while their tracery is of an earlier type, but in
both the stonework is modern.
The south aisle wall, of eighteenth-century date,
retains its plinth and parapet, and the jambs of a
blocked doorway at the east end ; the three windows
are modern three-light insertions in fifteenth-century
style. The north aisle is completely modern, though
apparently following the lines of an older building.
A few fragments of old work are built into the inner
face of its north wall ; a piece of a crocketed sixteenth-
century label, and what looks like part of the coarsely
worked base of a clustered pier.3 Both nave arcades
are modern, of fifteenth-century style, and replace the
sixteenth-century arcade with octagonal pillars men-
tioned above.
The two towers standing together .at the west end
of the church form an unusual and not altogether
happy composition. The south-west tower is of a
type found elsewhere in the neighbourhood, and
stands in point of date between the similar towers of
Aughton and Halsall. In plan somewhat irregular,
as having been fitted to the lines of an existing build-
ing, it is, roughly speaking, a square of 1 8 ft. at the
base, with buttresses of 4 ft. projection at the external
angles and a high moulded plinth. There is a vice
in the south-west angle. The entrance doorway is
on the south side, and is now covered by a modern
porch ; the north and east sides have open arches
toward the church. Over the entrance doorway is a
two-light window of original date with a quatrefoil
in the head. The second stage of the tower forms
the transition from square to octagon, and the third
or belfry stage is octagonal with two-light windows
with quatrefoils in the head in the four cardinal
faces, surmounted by a plain parapet, from within
which rises the plain octagonal stone spire. The
second or western tower is exceedingly massive, 38 ft.
square at the base with walls 6 ft. 6 in. thick. It is
said to have been built to contain the bells from a
suppressed religious house, probably Burscough, and
its date (1540-50) and great size go some way to-
wards confirming the tradition. It is clear that about
this time a tower larger than the existing south-west
tower was needed, whether for taking a large ring of
bells lately acquired, or for some other reason ; and
as the south-west tower was not pulled down, the
new one could not be built in the normal position of
a west tower, i.e. with its axis on the centre line of
the nave, unless its diameter were to be greatly re-
duced. This was, as it seems, impossible, which sug-
gests that the size was determined by some pre-existing
cause, and therefore the tower was built as far to the
south as might be, its south wall close up to the
north-west buttress of the older tower, and its eastern
arch springing with no respond from the inner face
of the south wall, quite out of centre with the square
of the tower ; but in spite of this the north aisle was
overlapped to half its width. The details of the work
are coarse, as might be expected ; there is a high
moulded plinth, cut away on either side of the west
doorway in a manner which suggests that there has
been at one time a wooden porch over the entrance.
The west doorway has continuous mouldings. In the
ground stage of the tower are three-light windows on
north and south, the mullions of the north window
being modern. There is a vice in the north-east
angle, entered from the east, which is the original
arrangement ; but before the last restoration there
seems to have been an entrance from the west
through the jamb of the north window. In the
belfry stage are two three-light windows on each face,
with mullions intersecting in the head ; a plain em-
battled parapet completes the elevation.
There are a Scarisbrick brass 4 and some Stanley
monuments ; also monuments of John Ashton of
Penketh, who died in 1707, and Alice wife of the
Hon. and Rev. John Stanley, who died in 1737, and
others. The registers date from 1557.*
There is a peal of eight bells.6 It is supposed that
some or all of them came from Burscough Priory, but
that the inscriptions have been lost in re-casting, with
the exception of that on the treble. Nos. 4 to 7 are
the work of Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester, and
2, 3 and the tenor of Thomas Rudhall. In the spire
9) giv
1 Sir Stephen Glynne (op,
the date 1 572.
» Part of an early cross-shaft is built
into the outer face of the east wall of the
chancel, towards the north side.
8 Near these is a brass plate with an
the dat
3. Peac
plate is to be seen in the north aisle of
Aughton Church.
< Thornely, Lanes. Brasses, Si.
1 5 5 7- 1 626 has been printed by the Lanes.
Parish Register Soc.
inscription of 1661, recording the use of « The inscriptions are as follows: croft, Thos. Aspinwall, Churchwardens
part of the aisle as a burial-place of the Treble, I S de B armig et E ux me fecerunt 1714 ; Tenor, Thomas Rudhall, Glocester,
Mossock family for 385 years ; a similar in honore Trinitatis R B 1497 ; also Founder 1774.
242
of re-casting, 1 576 ; 2, 1774;
and good neighbourhood, 1774;
Wm. Grice p'sh clerk A R 1714;
5. Mr. Henry Helsby (? Welsby) A R
1714 ; 6. Archippus Kippax rector (vicar)
A R 1714; 7. Beni Fletcher, Thfls. Moore-
ORMSKIRK CHURCH : WINDOW ON NORTH OF CHANCEL
ORMSKIRK CHURCH, FROM THE SOUTH
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
is a small bell, supposed to be a re-cast in 1 7 1 6 of the
old Saints bell.
Two of the chalices are dated 1633, and a silver
chalice and paten 1674 ; and there is other plate of
the eighteenth century.1
The churchyard was several times enlarged and im-
proved during the last century.1
The first express mention 01 the
JDrOffSON. church is in the confirmation charter
of Burscough Priory, in 1189 or
1190, by which Robert lord of Lathom conferred
on the new house ' the church of Ormskirk with all
its appurtenances.' 3 This was ratified by successive
bishops of Lichfield and by Pope Gregory IX in
1228.* But little is known of the early incumbents ;
the church is so near to the priory that it is probable
the canons themselves took turns in serving it. It
was not very long, however, before the bishops of
Lichfield intervened. William de Cornhill, bishop
from 1215 to 1220, judged it unfit that canons
regular should meddle with temporal matters, and,
allowing them not only the two-thirds of the revenues
they already had, but the other third also, in compas-
sion of their poverty, ordered that they should appoint
a suitable vicar to have charge of the church, answer-
ing to them in respect of temporalities, but to the
bishop as to spiritualities.5 In 1285 Bishop Roger de
Meulent modified this, by allowing that on the resigna-
tion or death of the vicar then holding, one of the
canons, being a fit and honest priest, might be pre-
sented, seeing that Burscough was so near to the
church.6 Alexander de Wakefield, appointed vicar in
1339, seems to have been dissatisfied at the provision
made for him, and appealed to the bishop, who on in-
quiry found that the preceding vicar had had a com-
petent manse and 4 acres of land assigned to him,
besides a stipend of £10, all liabilities being discharged
by the prior and canons. This the bishop confirmed,'
and the new vicar and his patrons accordingly came
to an agreement, which was many years afterwards
ratified by Pope Innocent VI.8
At the valuation made about 1291 by authority of
Pope Nicholas IV Ormskirk was found to be worth
20 marks a year.9 At the inquiry of 1341 the ninth
ORMSKIRK
of sheaves, fleeces, and lambs was found to be worth
24 marks, Lathom answering for 1 2 marks, Hurleton
with Scarisbrick 6, and Bickerstaffe with Skelmers-
dale 6.10
The valuation in 1534 made the rectory worth
£3 1 1 3*. ^d. from tithes and offerings of all sorts ; the
vicar received the £10 stipend fixed 200 years before."
After the suppression of the priory of Burscough
the £lo was continued to the vicar (Robert Madoke)
and his successors, with the profits of the house and
land attached ; and as the size of the parish rendered
an assistant priest necessary, a grant of 2CU. towards
the tenth payable to the king was made." The rectory
was leased out by the crown" until, in 1610, it was
granted to the earl of Salisbury and others, apparently
as trustees for the earl of Derby." It was sequestrated
with the rest of the family estates during the civil war,
and in 1650 the vicar had the profits of the vicarage
house and glebe, about 4 acres, valued at £5 a
year, and £l a year bequeathed by James Blackledge
of London ; the old stipend of .£10 increased to £2 1,
payable by the crown, and beyond this, £50 out of
the sequestrated estates in the hundred.15
A ' review ' of the possessions of the vicarage made
in August, 1663, describes the house as 'old' ; it had
a small barn and shippon, a garden, and about 4 acres
of land, worth £5 or £6 a year.16 Bishop Gastrell,
about 1720, found the value of the vicarage to be
£44, including the £z I pension from the duchy.
There were six churchwardens, the jurors in the
several township courts appointing one for each."
The rectory appears to have been part of the dowry
of Amelia, daughter of James the seventh earl of
Derby, who married the earl of Atholl ; in 1 7 1 3 it
was held by John earl of Dunmore.18 ' The rectorial
tithes were some time since,' wrote Gregson in 1817,
' the property of Colonel Francis Charteris, of infamous
character, whose grandson, the late Lord Elcho, sold
them to various impropriators.' "
The right of presentation to the vicarage was pur-
chased by the earl of Derby in I 549 from Sir William
Paget 20 and has remained with his successors to the
present time.
The bishop of Chester in I 593 sanctioned a division
of the body of the church into four equal parts, each
appropriated to one of the quarters of the parish. The
1 Glynne, Lanes. Churches, 10.
* The Earls of Derby gave land for this
purpose in 1825, 1837, 1861, and 1897.
'Lane,. Fife R. 350.
4 Burscough Reg. fol. 684, 69, 63.
4 Ibid. fol. Io8A; Duchy of Lane.
Anct. D. LSio8.
6 Burscough Reg. fol. 107.
' Lich. Epis. Reg. iii, fol. 8oi.
8 Burscough Reg. fol. io6A.
* Taxatio Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 249.
10 Ina. Nonarum (Rec. Com.), 40.
11 Paler Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 222,223.
ings, &c., to £10 31. 4</. ; 141. 8</. arose
kTrk". 3
18 By letters patent dated 14 July,
1537, the rectory was leased for twenty-
one years to Hugh Huxley, late prior of
Burscough, Humphrey Hurleton, and
Robert Birkhead, at a rent of £40 us. la.
They had some difficulty in collecting the
tithe in the lands of Sir James Stanley
of Cross Hall— who had been steward of
the priory (Derby Correspondence, Chet. Soc.
New Ser. p. 129) — and made complaint
and after his execution she claimed the
hd/it'tm here'death. It was then?worth
£300 a year, with tithe barns in New-
burgh, Bickerstaffe, and Scarisbrick ;
Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 187.
15 Commonwealth Ch. Survey (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 89 ; Royalist Comf. P.
ii, 215 j the £50 had been granted in
1645 ; see Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 8, 25. This was to
come out of Lord Derby's estates, with
158, n. 15. From theaccounts of Thomas
Dawtrie, the king's bailiff in 1535-6,
it appears that the tithe barns had been
leased out by the prior for small rents—
Newburgh £4, Skelmersdale £4 and the
best beast as heriot, Bickerstaffe £4,
Scarisbrick £z, Snape 661. 8</., the tithes
of the last being paid alternately to
Halsall and Ormskirk ; Burscough and
Lathom 1 151., belonging to the sacristan
of the priory ; Ormskitk £4, leased to
him ; Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), ii, 125-128. In 1550 the
parishioners of Ormskirk petitioned that
the 'curate'.' stipend, which was only
£10 a year, might be increased, and
another £10 was added out of the farm
of the rectory ; Baines'8 Lanes, (ed.
Croston), v, 255, quoting Harl. MS. 352,
» Pat. 8 Jas. I (30 May), pt. Ivii. On
the marriage of James Lord Strange the
seem to have been paid regularly ; ibid,
p. 128.
"Add. MS. 22655, Plut. clviii, G.
fol. 3 1 ; from the Registers.
" Notitia C«rr.(Chet. Soc.), ii, 196, 198.
18 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 498 (recovery,
Aug. 12 Anne).
19 Fragments (ed. Harland), p. 240.
For the grant and restoration to Francis
Charteris, see Pat. 4 Geo. II (27 Nov.)
pt. 2a, n. 15. Gastrell, Notitia, ii, 196.
amounted to 1 261., and the Easter offer-
to his wife Charlotte de la Tremouille ;
243
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
central alley and the main cross alley leading from the
south door were to be 7 ft. wide, the minor alleys
5 ft. wide. It was found on measurement that the
body of the church contained 21 8J yds. 7^ ft., and a
little over 54^ yds. was accordingly the allowance for
each quarter. Edward Scarisbrick, the earl of Derby
(two), and Henry Stanley of BickerstafFe then agreed
upon the division.1
There was a stormy scene in the church about i 540,
The following is a list of the vicars of Ormskirk : —
Instituted
Name
c. 1 190 .
Henry the Chaplain* .
c. 1275 . . .
Gervase4
15 Dec. 1298
William de Lutton 5 .
30 Dec. 1306 .
Robert de Farnworth6. .
i May, 1309 .
Henry de Lichfield7 . .
Henry de Melling . .
6 Dec. 1311. .
Richard de Donington 8 .
28 Mar. 1339 .
Alexander de Wakefield 9 .
31 Dec. 1341 .
William de Bolton lo . .
3 April, 1384 .
1 6 Mar. 1422-3 .
John Spink " ....
Richard de Lancaster ls
Thomas Bolton "...
1 2 Mar. 1454-5-
John Marke " .
i Nov. 1467 .
Richard Ince li . . . .
2 Oct. 1489
William Ambrose I6.
Hugh Hulme 17 ...
10 Aug. 1506
Henry Hill ls . . . .
John Devyas 19 . . . .
15 Nov. i 530
Robert Madoke"0 . . .
28 Jan. 1537-8 .
Eliseus Ambrose" .
19 Feb. 1571-2 .
Richard Ambrose **.
21 May, 1613
William Knowles, M.A." .
when Thomas Gorsuch caused the arrest of Richard
Gillibrand, the collector of the Easter roll, to be made
within the building, during the celebration of high
mass on Easter Day, and while most of the inhabitants
' were diligently preparing themselves to receive the
most Blessed Sacrament.' The accused retorted with
charges of intention to ' murder, maim, or evil in-
treat ' him, which made it necessary for him to apply
for the warrant.'
Pr. and Conv. of Burscough
„ res. R. de Farnworth
d. H. de Melling
„ d. R. de Donington
d. of A. de Wakefield
„ d. of last vicar
„ res. J. Spink
Pr. and Conv. of Burscough [depr. T. Bolton]
d. J. Marke
d. R. Ince
The king . . . .
Thomas Hopford, etc.
Hugh Hesketh, etc. ,
d. H. Hulme
d. J. Devyas
d. last incumbent
depr. Eliseus Ambrose
d. of R. Ambrose
> Dioc. Reg. Chest. The seating space
5 Lich. Epis. Reg. i, fol. ib. He paid
half a mark.
« Ibid, i, fol. 10*. He was a priest, and
the date of induction as 5 Mar. 1505-6 ;
the south wall : 6 ft. 8 in. ; alley, 7J ft.,
7 J ft. ; middle alley, 8J ft., 9 ft. ; alley, 9 ft.
A length of 13 ft. seems to have been
taken from the chancel at the same
of vacancy.
"John Devyas was vicar in 1527; Wills
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), p. 1 66. 'Sir
Henry and Sir John Aim-worth ' are named
^ Ibid, i, fol. 57 ; a priest. His stay
must have been very short, even if he be
aisle being maintained at 7ft. wide.
Edward Scarisbrick had both sides of the
south aisle and a small piece at the lower
end of the nave ; the carl of Derby had
chancel, and also of 'the north aisle;
Henry Stanley of Bickerstaffe had the
remainder of the north aisle, at the end
of which was his chapel.
died in October, 1311.
8 Ibid, i, fol. 60 ; a priest.
» Ibid, ii, fol. 113*; canon of Bur-
10 Ibid, ii, fol. 115 ; priest and canon of
Burscough. In Jan. 1365 the bishop
appointed him penitentiary for the four
deaneries of South Lanes, the reserved
cases excepted ; Ibid, v, fol. i zb. This was
Mins. Accts.bdle. I36,n. 2,i98,m. 6 d.
80 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 66* ;
canon of Burscough. He was vicar in 1 5 34;
Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.) v, 223, and at
Easter, 1537 ; Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 126.
81 Ibid, xiii-xiv. fol. 36* ; one of the
king's chaplains. He was son of Henry,
the brother of Robert Ambrose, father
Ches.), ii, 243, j 28. For another dispute
"between the same parties see Duchy
of Lane. Depositions, Hen. VIII. xxxiv.
H4. Among the Scarisbrick D («. 162)
is the record of a denial made publicly at
high mass in Ormskirk Church on 10
July, 1446, concerning a feoffment of
property. The prior of Burscough and
all his canons were there, and many
others of note in the district; and an
oath was sworn to the truth of it.
8 ' Henry the Chaplain of Ormskirk '
was witness to a charter of Henry
prior of Burscough, which may be dated
between 1 189 and 1 192 ; Duchy of Lane.
Anct. D. L27o.
'Ralph the clerk of Ormskirk' was
witness to several charters of the earlier
half of the thirteenth century; Dep.
Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. pp. 199, 201,
11 Ibid, iv, fol. 94* ; priest and canon
of Burscough. A John Spink was rector
of Aughton and Standish, dying in 1424.
18 Ibid, ix, fol. 112*; canon of Bur-
scough.
"Ibid, xi, fol. 55; Thomas Bolton,
canon of Burscough and vicar of Orms-
kirk, was deprived on account of his
He was absolved in Feb. 1454-5 ; Ibid.'
xi, fol. 55*.
» Ibid, xi, fol. 1 1 ; canon of Bur-
scough. The presentation was made by
the sub-prior and convent.
15 Ibid, xii, fol. 103* ; canon of Bur-
scough.
16 Ibid, xii, fol. 123 ; canon of Bur-
scough.
W James Meadowcroft, priest, living in
Ormskirk in July, 1506, speaks of a
before 1572; Duchy of Lane. Pleadings,
14 Eliz. Ixxxv, A 4. He refused to
appear at the Elizabethan visitation in
1559 (Gee, Elia. Clergy], but must have
conformed afterwards. Buried in the
church i June, 1572. The proceedings
recording his deprivation are stated to be
among the York Consistory records.
M The patrons were T. Hopford, Ric.
Ambrose, and Hen. Webster. Ambrose in
1610 was described as 'no preacher';
Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), p. 13.
An abstract of his will is printed in
Fishwick's Garstang (Chet. Soc.), p. 158.
Buried in the chancel 7 Feb. 1612-3.
33 Baines' Lana. (ed. Croston), v, 255.
The Act books at Chester give the date
as 23 March, 1612-3, an^ l^e patrons as
Hugh Hesketh and John Birchall, ' by
grant of William earl of Derby.' William
he had charge of the parish.
4 ' Gervase, vicar of Ormskirk,' attested
*everal charters about 1275 ; Dep.
Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App. pp. 198, 2O2.
Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.) i, 30.
18 Ibid, xiii-xiv, fol. 54* ; canon of Bur-
scough. The Act books at Chester give
and was at Ormskirk in 1609 ; Raines
MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 298. He resigned
on 28 March, 161 5, and was buried in the
chancel 2 Oct. 1617.
244
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Instituted
Name
Patron
Cause of Vacancy
3 1 Mar. 1615 .
Henry Ambrose, B.A.'
Earl of Derby ....
res. W. Knowles
29 April, 1628 .
John Broxoppe, M.A.* ....
Lord Strange ....
d. H. Ambrose
- - 1643 -
William Dunn 3
d. J. Broxoppe
7 Aug. 1656 .
Nathaniel Heywood, M.A.4 .
Dowager countess of Derby
4 Oct. 1662 >
John Ashworth, B.A.S
„
depr. N. Heywood
9 Mar. 1679-80
Zachary Taylor, M.A.6 ....
Earl of Derby ....
res. J. Ashworth
12 April, 1692 .
Archippus Kippax, M.A.7 ....
„ ....
res. Z. Taylor
21 Aug. 1718
Christopher Gibson, B.A. 8 . . .
,, ....
d. A. Kippax
26 Dec. 1727
William Knowles, M.A.» ....
„ ....
d. C. Gibson
10 Feb. 1780 .
17 Dec. 1800
Randal Andrews, M.A.10 ....
....
d. W. Knowles
30 Oct. 1812. .
Geoffrey Hornby, LL.B. "...
„
d. J. Stanley
7 June, 1813 .
Edw. Thos. Stanley Hornby, M.A."
„ ....
res. G. Hornby
9 Dec. 1 8 1 8
Joshua Thomas Horton, M.A." .
,,
res. E. T. S. Hornby
3 Jan. 1846
Edw. Jas. Geoffrey Hornby, M.A.15
„ ....
d. J. T. Horton
26 July 1850
William Edward Rawstorne, M.A.16
„ ....
res. E. J. G. Hornby
I 3 Sept. 1853 .
Joseph Bush, M.A.17
„ ....
res. W. E. Rawstorne
8 Nov. 1870 .
Richard Vincent Sheldon, M.A.18 .
„ ....
d. J. Bush
5 Sept. 1884 .
John Edwin Woodrow1" ....
....
d. R. V. Sheldon
It will be noticed that most of the pre- Reformation
vicars were canons of Burscough Priory. In 1366
the parishioners subscribed the stipend of a chaplain
to minister at the parish church at the altar of Our
Lady.10 In 1541-2 besides the vicar and the three
regular chantry priests there were six others stationed
in the parish, one paid by the vicar ; two by Peter
Stanley of Bickerstaffe ; one by James Stanley of
Cross Hall ; and two by the earl of Derby. Some of
these would be domestic chaplains, and others would
celebrate at the parish church." In 1554 there was
a nominal staff of eleven priests, including the vicar,
his curate, and three who had been chantry priests."
At the visitations of 1563 and 1565 none of them
put in an appearance except the vicar ; his curate,
the only other name recorded, was Hugh Brekell." The
old staff of ten or eleven priests had quickly been
reduced to two. At the visitation of 1592 there
1 Act books at Chester. He was buried
in the chancel 25 April, 1628.
« Act books at Chester. He seems to
have been Archdeacon of Man; Le Neve's
Fasti, iii, 329. Previously lecturer at
Huyton. A king's preacher. Buried in
the chancel 23 Dec. 1642.
8 Appointed in 1643, according to a
in 1689; Earwaker, East Ches. ii, 521,
505, 506.
6 Visit, and act books at Chester.
Described as 'conformable' in 1689;
Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), p. 229.
He was afterwards rector of Croston.
7 Of Clare College, Camb. ; M.A.
1685. Archdeacon of Man 1696-1700;
Eccles. Com. that the benefice was worth
£300 to £400 a year ; Act books at
Chester. Youngest son of Geoffrey
Hornby, formerly vicar of Ormskirk.
He was afterwards rector of Bury.
16 Afterwards vicar of Penwortham.
17 Misc. in Dioc. Registry at Chester.
On the presentation was endorsed a cer-
book. Signed the 'Harmonious Con-
sent' of 1648. He was described as a
•painful preaching minister' in 1650,
and was transferred to Bromborough in
1657; Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 195.
4 Brother of Oliver Heywood ; edu-
cated at Trinity College, Camb. ; expelled
in 1662, though he had welcomed the
Restoration. Afterwards licensed to
Ormskirk 6 May, 1718, and has a monu-
ment in the church.
8 Act books at Chester. Educated at
St. John's College, Camb.; B.A. 1706.
See Admissions, St. John's Coll. Camb. ii,
1 66. Was king's preacher. Buried at
Ormskirk 16 Aug. 1727.
9 Visit, books at Chester. He had pre-
viously been curate. Educated at Camb.
(Sidney Sussex College) ; M.A. 1742. He
than £300 ; Act books at Chester. Had
been chaplain to the county asylum at
Rainhill. Of Wadham Coll. Oxf. ; M.A.
1853 ; Foster's Alumni.
1" Misc. in Chest. Dioc. Registry.
Previously incumbent of St. Matthias',
Liverpool, and of Hoylake. Educated at
Camb. (Queens' Coll.); M.A. 1864.
Honorary canon of Chester 1875; rural
dean, 1876. He began the restoration of
house) and Scarisbrick, but silenced.
to the church. Buried in the chancel
19 Misc. in Chest. Dioc. Registry. For-
Ormskirk church on 18 Dec. 1677.
Ancestor of Sir T. P. Heywood, bart.
See the account of him by James Dixon
in Trans. Hist. Soc. xxx, 159. Facsimile
of his presentation to Ormskirk in
0. Heyuiood's Diaries, ii, 48.
Lanes, and Ches. Antic,. Notes, i and ii ;
from the Inst. Books P.R.O.
Ashworth was presented twice. Insti-
tuted by the archbishop of York on
29 Jan. 1662-3 i visit, books at Chester.
He was of St. John's College, Oxf.
B.A. 1649 ; Foster's Alumni Oxon.
Master of Great Crosby School, 1662-77.
King's preacher. Being non-resident the
charge of the parish practically devolved
on the ejected vicar ; Nightingale's
Lanes. Nonconf. iv, 187. John Ashworth
was appointed master of Macclesfield
School at the end of 1676 ; afterwards
he became preacher in the parish
church. He was buried at Macclesfield
w Act books at Chester. Educated at
Worcester Coll. Oxf. ; M.A. 1776 ;
Foster's Alumni. Died 27 Nov. 1800.
11 Act books at Chester. Probably the
James Stanley of Peterhouse, Camb. ;
M.A. 1801.
1" Act books at Chester. Son of Geof-
frey Hornby, rector of Winwick. After-
wards became rector of Bury.
u Act books at Chester. Younger
brother of the previous vicar. Educated
at Oxf. (Fellow of All Souls); M.A.
1809; Foster's Alumni.
» Act books at Chester. Had leave of
chaplain to H.M.S. Gloucester; Misc. in
Dioc. Registry at Chester. Was of Trinity
Coll. Camb.; M.A. 1811. In 1830
he succeeded to the paternal estates at
Howroyde in Yorks. ; for pedigree see
Burke's Commoners, i, 283.
15 On the presentation by the earl of
Derby was endorsed a certificate by the
245
(1871-80).
*> Exchequer Lay Subs. 1332 (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 109-121.
21 Clergy List (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 16. The first four of the above
answered the call at the visitation of
1 547 ; Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.),
103, quoting from the Visit, books at
Chest. For the plate and vestments of
the church remaining in 1552 see Church
Goods (Chet. Soc.), 113. They included
' a pair of organs bought of the king '—i.e.
probably from Burscough.
*> Visit, books at Chester. Of the old
clergy John Dolland was buried in the
church 30 July, 1558; Reg.; Gilbert
Shurlacres 21 Aug. 1558; Humphrey
Jackson 29 May, ,567.
*» Visit, books at Chester. Hugh Brekell
had been ordained by Bishop Scott in 1 558,
being made priest in Dec. ; Ordination Book
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 103, 108,
115.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
were none presented for recusancy ; but Judith
Whitstones was reported to have prayed upon beads.'
There were three endowed chantries in the church.
The most ancient of them was founded in the latter
half of the fifteenth century by Thomas the first earl
of Derby, and others, at the altar of Our Lady.*
The rental amounted to j8s. 6d., derived from lands
in Aughton and Ormskirk ; out of this 4/. 5^. was
paid to the king in right of Burscough Priory and 6J.
to Richard Whitstones.3 The second chantry was at
the altar of Our Lady of Pity, founded by Thomas
Atherton of Bickerstaffe, for a priest to sing and cele-
brate for the souls of himself and his ancestors. The
priest had an annual rent of 7 marks from the heirs of
the founder, charged upon their lands in Aughton,
Bickerstaffe, and Sutton.4 The third chantry was
that at the altar of St. Mary Magdalen, founded by
Peter Gerard, clerk, brother of Miles Gerard of
Aughton. The stipend of \6s. was derived from
tenements in Aughton and Formby.5 Afterwards the
Gerards endeavoured to secure the property of the
chantry on the ground that it was not founded in
perpetuity.6 None of the chantry priests had
other benefices. The lands of the Gerard and
Atherton chantries were leased in 1583 to Henry
Stanley of Bickerstaffe, but making default in his
payments he forfeited the lease, and it was trans-
ferred to Nicholas Dickson in 1599.' Six years
later the chantry of St. Peter was leased to Robert
Caddick for twenty-one years,8 but shortly afterwards
transferred to George Johnson.9 It appears to have
been finally disposed of by the crown in 1670.'°
The grammar school was founded about 1612, and
the charity school, now incorporated with the national
schools, in 1725.
The charities of the parish, in addition to the
schools, are numerous and valuable. Bishop Gastrell
records many as existing in 1720." Details elicited
at the inquiry in October, 1898, are given in the
notes."
tempt either by not coming or by leaving
without showing their presentments ; and
following is an abstract :—
The Blackleech charity was founded
chosen by him. The net income, £10 31.,
is paid to the organist, who is appointed
giving the churchwardens evil words.' A
fornicator condemned to public penance
on three successive Sundays in Ormskirk
Blackleech (or Blackledge) of London,
dated 1631, by which £sj a year was to
be paid to the churchwardens of Orms-
kirk (or trustees) for the benefit of the
Catherine Brandreth, widow, by her
will of 1827, bequeathed £200 for the
benefit of the poor of Ormskirk parish.
The money was given by the executor to
a commutation ; he was therefore ordered
to pay 131. 4</. to the vicar and church-
weekly lecture. The £6 a year is now
was an improper use, the subscribers in
,842 repaid the £200; this was invested,
poor, or other pious purposes. See Trans.
Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), x, 183.
» Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), 103-5 ;
Valor Ecel. (Rec. Com.), v, 223. The
latter names the founders thus : — The
earl of Derby, Hamlet Atherton of Bicker-
stafte, Thomas Hesketh of Ormskirk and
Joan his wife, Godfrey Hulme, Hugh
the poor of the township of Ormskirk, and
£i is paid to the vicar, whose weekly
sermon is supposed to be equivalent to the
'lecture' of the will.
Henry Smith in or before 1641 gave
to trustees the manor of Longney in
Gloucestershire with the impropriate rec-
tory, the income to be divided among
distributed in flannel to widows and other,
in Ormskirk, Lathom, Burscough, and
Scarisbrick.
The Dispensary is said to have been
founded in May, 1705. Dr. Brandreth, a
physician in Liverpool at the beginning of
the last century, took a great interest in
it, having been born in Ormskirk, and the
ton, and Ellen Shakerley. Peter Prescot
tions, Ormskirk receiving 3|j- of the
stated, applied by their son to the pur-
chase of a house for it. The scheme was
of age and celebrating, according to his
the churchwardens distributing this in
generally approved, and a dispensary built
in 1831 in Burscough Street, for the
Derby and his ancestors.
kirk, Burscough, and Scarisbrick ; half the
the neighbourhood. In 1896 a cottage
i8</. to the rector of Aughton. In the
Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. (bdle. i68,n.
2682) this is erroneously called ' the chan-
try at the altar of B. Mary Magdalen.'
* Raines, Chantries, 101-3. Roger
Burscough was the celebrating priest in
1534; Valor, loc. cit.; and Humphrey
Jackson in 1 547. The latter was fifty-four
The charity founded by Peter Lathom
(1700) will be described under Cros-
of the coal mines the income has greatly
Of this the townships of Ormskirk, s'caris-
brick, Burscough, Bickerstaffe, and Skel-
mersdale, and the hamlet of Newburgh in
home in 1898, after which the former
house was sold. In addition to annual
subscriptions the invested funds amount
to about £6,860, yielding a gross income
of £231.
Besides the preceding general charities
there are a number limited to particular
townships or classes.
at the altar of St. Peter.' From a dispute
or cloth ; but in 1879 the Charity Com-
grammar school, and £46 for the benefit
that both names — Our Lady of Pity and
St. Peter — were in use ; Duchy of Lane.
Pleadings, Eliz. clxxvi, A. 4.
Lathom (excluding Newburgh) was ad-
mitted to participate, and the share of
each was reduced to one-eighteenth,
tion of bread at the church. The capital
purchased £100 consols. The income it
now £z i 51., and is administered by the
cit. The priest of this chantry in I534and
trustees are now allowed to distribute the
Charity, eighteen loaves being distributed
of age. In the Mins. Accts. loc. cit. this is
called ' the chantry at the altar of B. Mary.'
« Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxc,
W . 1 2. See the account of Aughton.
•i Duchy of Lane. Books, Leases, 370,
fol. 82*.
8 Duchy of Lane. Draft Leases, bdle. 57 ;
Pat. 3 Jas. I, Pt. « (2 Deer.).
» Pat. 5 Jas. I, pt. l, I.
10 Pat. 22 Chas. II, pt. ii, I.
" Notitia, ii, 1 99, &c.
ing subscriptions to hospitals, education,
libraries, tools and other outfit, as well as
in money and goods. Thus in Ormskirk
in 1897 £6 was given to the District
Provident Society, £7 6s. to the Dispen-
sary, and £6 to the Ladies' Charity ; £7
for prizes at the national schools ; and the
nearly 200 persons.
Jane Brooke, widow, having given an
organ to the church, by will dated 1737,
246
the service is not obligatory. Elizabeth
Kippax, granddaughter of a former vicar,
before 1800 left £100 for bread for the
poor of Ormskirk 5 this is now represented
by £170 181. lod. consols in the hands
of the official trustees, and the interest,
£4 I4J., is distributed in bread. Mary
Fairclough, by will in 1830, bequeathed
the residue of her effects to the poor of
Ormskirk, the interest to be laid out in
blankets. The capital sum is £233 con-
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
r Arri-rr»A/r to XV- cent- ! Lathom, 1223, became the usual
spelling, sometimes as Lathome, about the end of
Latune, Dom. Bk. ; Lathum, 1200, and generally xv. cent.
•ols, and blankets are distributed once a some cow-beef at Christmas time. John estate for charitable uses at the discretion
year. Sarah Mollineux, widow, in 1839 Tasker, in addition to his gift to the of the trustees. In 1828 the property con-
left the residue of her personal estate for school, left £30 for beef at Christmas. sisted of the tenement called Heyricks —
the provision of clothing for the poor. Roger Scarisbrick and Gabriel Walker to which an allotment on Span Moss had
The interest on the capital sum of £948 gave £20 for a like charity ; the will of been added in 1781 under the Enclosure
consols amounts to £26 is. 8</. a year. the latter, made before 1692, ordered £6 Act — and a field and two cottages in New-
This is administered in conjunction with to be invested for the poor. Richard Berry burgh, producing £40 51. a year, to which
the preceding charity, clothing and blankets the elder in 1799 also gave £10 los. for £7 was added by Lord Skelmersdale as the
being given. Timothy Virtue, who died beef at Christmas ; Alice Parrpoint in rents of some leasehold cottages formerly
in 1839, but of whom nothing further is 1768 gave £14, and Thomas Baldwin £5 held by the trustees. A distribution of
known, left £100, now held by the vicar to the poor ; James Berry £5 for bread drab cloth, linen, and flannel was made in
and churchwardens; the interest, £2 ios., at Christmas, and Richard Berry, who November yearly, in conjunction with
the burial place is repaired as required,
this last being the purpose intended by the
donor. Philip Forshaw in 1862 left
£1,000 to the vicar for distribution in
bread, coals, and consumable stores to the
poor, not more than £100 a year to be
spent. Both capital and interest are drawn
upon, and there was in 1899 £660 re-
maining, the expenditure being about £40
a year.
The following had been lost before
1828: The interest on £24 bequeathed
by John Bayliff in 1749, paid down to
1802; on £30 given by Peter Aspinall
before 1767, paid till 1821 ; on £20 left
by Eleanor Rigby in 1774, also paid till
1821 ; on £10 left by Anne Taylor in
1791, to augment the Rigby bequest — no
trace ; on £10 bequeathed by Ralph Platt
not only doing so, but adding 41. as his
own gift. Richard Robinson, by will
made in 1800, gave his share of the pew
No. 5 in the south gallery of Ormskirk
church to his son, subject to 55. to be dis-
tributed annually for ever in bread at
Christmas time.
The capital sum of the charities was in
1774 in the hands of William Hill, and
Crean, James Cropper, Thomas Baldwin,
and John Crean in 1743 bequeathed £32
for bread for the poor, the bread used to
be distributed on Easter eve ; but in t8oo
the principal was added to the Crane be-
quest. This originated in a rent-charge
of £4 lot. bequeathed by George Crane
in 1751 for bread for the poor of Orms-
kirk and Lathom. The charity appears
to have been lost for a time, but in 1792
count was found to be £625. Of this
£600 was invested in a mortgage of
property in Ditton ; possession had to be
taken, and in 1805 on the accounts being
made up it was found that £827 was due
to Burscough. This sum was secured
upon the sale of the estate, and gradually
1 799 Anne Crane, the representative of
the testator — being daughter and coheir of
James the only brother and heir-at-law of
George Crane ; and also devisee of the
effects of her sister, Sarah Segar, widow,
the other daughter and coheir — in con-
sideration of £80 granted to trustees the
house at Moor Street End on which the
charge had been made. In 1812 the rent
of this house amounted to £17 lot, part
of which was distributed in bread and part
in linen and flannel. For the Halsall
charity new trustees were appointed in
1889. The property and income remain
Aspinall's, were bread charities. In 1822
a vestry decided that as the lay-payers had
ancestors had taken and spent on the
public service the payment of interest
Canal Company ; another £50 was added
in 1815. Thus in 1827 the amount in-
vested was largely in excess of the total of
the original bequests, and the distribution
»f the interest, though in general accord-
uied to buy a cottage in 1828 held by the
township.
For Bickerstaffe there is only one charity,
founded in 1 8 1 8 by a bequest of Robert
Watkinson for bread to be distributed to
the capital. The Commissioners there-
New trustees also were appointed for the
distribution, which was agreed to by the
township at once.
Later, Peter Prescott (1828) gave £50,
and the money invested in the name of
the official trustees in £834 consols. This
and recommended strict adherence to the
founder's wish. The stock amounts to
£58 consols in the hands of the official
will of 1830 provided for the continuance
of the los. he had given to the poor, and
added loi. more. In 1874 an application
£23 a year. Part of this is still distributed
in bread at Ormskirk church, though no
Lathom people go to receive it, and part
in flannel and calico in conjunction with
•hare in it.
drawn up in 1880 by which one-third of
House to give £5 a year to the poor. This
is understood to be included in a dole of
Besides gifts to the school, there were
others to the poor. William Sutch, by
to the school, and the rest in subscriptions
By an award made in 1781 under the
Porter's meadow and ^QJ. on a meadow
adjoining Eller Brook, payable to the con-
in payments in money either in small
sums as needed or by way of annuity. The
of 1 8 Geo. Ill, an allotment of 'Poor's
land' was made of about 3 J rds. This is
former payment, though continued till
1802, had ceased, and as Porter's meadow
was no longer known, could not be re-
covered ; but the latter one was still in
force. John Houghton, the founder of
the school, gave further sums of £20 and
£80, the interest on the former to pro-
Tide bread and beef for the poor, and on
the latter to pay the apprenticeship pre-
miums of poor children ; besides these,
the residue of his estate, about £210, was
left to the poor. Thomas Sharrock, by
hi, will of 1729, left £52 for a weekly
distribution of bread to poor persons of
Burscough attending divine service at
Ormskirk parish church. Ralph Platt in
1793 bequeathed £50, the interest to
purchase cloth for the poor. Richard
Alty, by will dated 1802, left £20 for an
annual distribution of good and whole-
The ex-officio trustees were the vicar and
churchwardens of St. John's, Burscough,
and the overseers ; and there were three
non-official trustees approved by the
Charity Commissioners.
Robert Reynolds of Southport, by his
will dated 1878, bequeathed £1,700, the
interest to be applied to various charitable
objects. The net sum received is repre-
sented by £1,505 consols in the hands of
the official trustees. The income, £41 St.
is distributed according to the wishes of
the benefactor, the greater portion being
given in doles by the incumbent of St.
John's Church to 'sick and needy poor
people ' in Lathom and Burscough.
For L0thom, beside the almonry and
Newburgh School, there are several im-
portant charities. Heyrick Halsall, by
his will of 1724, left the residue of his
council for £i 151. The same council
also lets the Town's Croft at Moss Bridge
for £2 1 5,. These sums are applied to
the relief of the rates.
Mrs. Mary Robinson, by will dated
1791, left £200, the interest to be applied
in the distribution of linen and woollen
cloth to the value of £6 annually on 26
June ; the remainder of the interest to be
given in beef on St. Thomas's day to the
poor of the township of Lathom. It
would appear that an arrangement was
made by the executors and beneficiaries
by which a tenement in Newburgh was
charged with £10 a year, for this sum
was paid regularly down to 1 873, when the
estate, belonging to Henry Robinson & Co.
brewers, Wigan, became the subject of a
suit in Chancery, and the payments ceased.
A sum of £20 has since been paid as full
247
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
This township has an area of 8,694^ acres, with
an extreme length of nearly six miles. Two brooks,
the Tawd and Eller, flow northward through it to
join the Douglas, which forms part of the boundary.
The portion between the brooks contains Lathom
House, with its large park, situated about the centre
of the township ; in the extreme north is Hoscar
Moss, below the 25 ft. level ; in the west are Blythe
Hall, and to the south of it, New Park, on the edge
of which it is believed was anciently the lord's abode,
known as Alton or Olton. To the west of Eller
Brook is Wirples Moss, adjoining Hoscar ; while in
the south is the hamlet of Westhead, near which is
Cross Hall.
The larger portion of this township consists of
a plateau sloping gradually on its southern side, and
rather more abruptly to its north-eastern boundary.
The country is divided into arable and pasture fields,
with small hamlets and farms scattered at intervals.
To the west it is flat and uninteresting, but to the
east it is undulating, rising to 215 ft. above sea-level,
and pleasantly varied with plantations and farms.
Newburgh is an old and picturesque village on the
east, near the River Douglas, and contains a village
green with a restored cross. To the south the
country becomes singularly unpicturesque, with flat,
bare fields and stunted hedges, with collieries and
their usually unattractive surroundings.
The geological formation of the western part of
the township consists of the upper mottled sandstone
beds of the bunter series of the new red sandstone,
with overlying beds of lower keuper sandstone,
extending for a mile and a half north and south, and
half a mile east and west of Cross Hall, and again
around New Park. The eastern portion of the
township lies wholly upon the middle coal measures
and upon the gannister beds of the lower coal
measures.
The principal roads are those crossing the township
from west to east, in the northern part from Bur-
scough to Newburgh, and in the south from Ormskirk
to Dalton. There are cross roads leading north from
Bickerstaffe and Skelmersdale. The Leeds and Liver-
pool Canal crosses from Burscough Bridge to Newburgh,
and a branch goes north to join the Douglas. The
Southport and Wigan line of the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway runs to the north of the canal,
and has a station about the centre called Hoscar.
The same company's Liverpool and Preston line is
near the western boundary, with a station at Burscough
Bridge. The Ormskirk and St. Helens Railway of the
London and North-Western Company passes through
the southern part of the township.
The soil is loam, the subsoil being sand and clay.
The chief crops are wheat, oats, and potatoes. The
collieries are at Blague Gate.
Lathom adopted the Local Government Act in 1 8 72,*
the local board of eight members becoming an urban
district council of fifteen members in 1894. The
population in 1901 was 4,361.
In Lathom the pedestal of Hob Cross remains,
north of the park. The pedestal of the Newburgh
cross also remains, at the upper end of the green.*
In the seventeenth century there was a Spa at
Lathom. The site is marked by Spa Farm, near the
boundary of the township. The sinking of coal shafts
in the neighbourhood caused its disappearance. It is
mentioned as late as 1807.*
At the death of Edward the Confessor
MANORS LATHOM with a berewick was held by
Uctred, the assessment area being half a
hide and the value I Of. %<t. beyond the usual rent.
It was within the privileged 3 hides. The wood-
land approximated to 720 customary acres. The
berewick may have been the half of Martin which
had been incorporated with Lathom, or else Ormskirk;
the wood was probably Burscough.5
The next lord of Lathom whose name is on record
was Siward son of Dunning, who held it in thegnage
about the time of Henry II. Siward made a grant
of one plough-land here to Gospatrick, probably the
lord of Hindley.6 Siward's son Henry received from
discharge of all obligations in respect of
this charity.
For Scariibrifk there arc several chari-
ties besides the school. Henry Culshaw,
the school. One of the benefactors of the
school also left land in Upholland, called
Naylor's Hey, the income from which was
to be given in bread to the poor of Skel-
also ,£1,190 consols ; the gross income
being £69. By the enclosure award of
1781 a claypit in White Moss Road was
appropriated to the township. The material
gift of cloth to the poor ; Edward Tatlock
in 1815 bequeathed £200 for the poor,
which was utilized in conjunction with the
previous bequest ; Robert Watkinson in
1 8 1 6 founded another cloth charity, giving
£200, the interest on which was to be
ared equally between the hamlet of Snapc
piece of land in Dalton, called the Pickles,
for binding poor children as apprentices.
It was only about an acre of land, but had
a house upon it. In 1818 it was leased
to the township of Dalton, and other cot-
tages had been built out of the profits of
the charity. The commissioners reported
land is now let by the overseers, the
rents going in relief of rates. In 1898
Richard Jervis, superintendent of police
at Ormskirk, gave £150 to the district
council of Skelmersdale, part of the surplu.
of money collected to relieve the sufferers
by the Tawd Vale Colliery disaster of the
also benefited by the bequests of William
Sutch (see the account of Aughton) and
of James Edwardson, who in 1732 left
£20 to the poor. The Commissioners in
1827 found all the benefactions in opera-
managed, and recommended a change.
in 1851, but it was found difficult to spend
the whole amount of the income on the
objects intended by the original donors,
about Christmas to sick and poor persons
employed at the coal mines, or their
widows and children.
1 8,695, including 60 of inland water ;
census of 1901.
Edwardson bequests have been lost ; the
but the payment of interest had been dis-
continued before 1859. Elizabeth Wat-
further increased this difficulty. Hence a
considerable surplus accumulated, and in
1886 a scheme was sanctioned by the
Charity Commissioners whereby the en-
» H. Taylor, in Tram. Land, and Ches.
Antiq. Sac. xix, 153-7.
* Lanes, and Ches. Hist, and Gen. Notes,
ii, 7, 9, 1 1 5. It is described as ' a chaly-
£100 for a flannel charity. This and the
other funds above mentioned are still in
existence, and additional sums are derived
from the foundations of Henry Smith and
Catherine Brandreth. The annual re-
ceipt, are £16 5«. and are distributed
once a year in doles of flannel, etc. by
the churchwardens and overseers of the
township.
For Skelmersdale the principal charity i»
tees, and the income is disbursed by local
trustees. They may use it for the benefit
of the poor of the township by subscribing
to a cottage hospital or dispensary or
provident society, by granting annuities or
small payments, or by providing outfit,
clothing, or similar objects ; also for educa-
tional purposes. The endowment now
consists of Naylor's Hey, Pickles, and
another piece of land with house and shop ;
248
which has wrought many remarkable
cures.' From the name here given it
appears to have been a holy well, dedi-
cated to St. Mary Magdalen, to whom,
as will have been noticed, one of the
chantries in Ormskirk church was dedi-
cated. See also H. Taylor, loc. cit.
« V.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*.
6 Lanes. Inquests and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 16.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Albert Grelley the elder a plough-land in Flixton,
with the church of the manor, to hold as a member
of the barony of Manchester.1 Henry was succeeded
by his son Robert, who at Michaelmas, 1 1 69, rendered
account of 10 marks due by him to the aid to marry
the king's daughter.2 His most notable act was the
foundation of the priory of Burscough in or before
1 1 89." He took part in the rebellion of his chief,
John, count of Mortain, in 1 1 94, and later in the
year paid an instalment of the fine of 20 marks
incurred therefor.4 He seems to have been married
twice ; his widow was Amabel daughter of Simon,
who was suing her stepson for dower in 1199.
Knowsley and Anglezark were subsequently assigned
to her.5
Richard son of Robert succeeded. Early in 1201
he had livery of his father's lands, paying for relief of
Lathom five marks and a palfrey at Pentecost and
the same at Michaelmas.6 The survey of 1212 shows
that of the three plough-lands which he held de antl-
qultate in thegnage by a service of 201., one plough-
land, granted to Gospatrick as stated, was then held
by Roger son of Gospatrick, his undertenants being
Richard and John (l oxgang for I2<t.) and William de
Stainford (3 oxgangs for T,S.) ; one plough-land had
been given to Burscough, and half a plough-land was
held by Richard de Elsintree for 41. It would thus
appear that only half a plough-land was left in Richard's
own hands ; probably the demesne of Lathom.7
Richard de Lathom confirmed his father's gifts to
the canons of Burscough.8 His wife's name was Alice;
she survived him, and seems to have married Simon
ORMSKIRK
de Grubehead, who received Childwall, Roby, and
Anglezark as her dower.9 Richard died about 1220
and was succeeded by his eldest son Richard, who had
livery of his lands by writ dated 27 January, 1221 ;
he paid loos, for his relief.10 In 1229 a composition
was made between him and Benedict, prior of Bur-
scough, as to the corn mills of Lathom and Knowsley,
which he held from the canons by a rent of 2s. and
also as to Cross Hall.11 He was a benefactor of
Cockersand Abbey.18 He died in the summer of 1 2 3 2,
having no issue by his wife Roesia, whose dower was
claimed in the following autumn.13
He was succeeded by his brother Robert, a man of
note in the affairs of the county. He confirmed the
charter of Burscough and added the land of Adam de
Birkes, which his brother Richard had bequeathed
ith his body,
ell as two othe
By his
marrage with Joan,15 sister and coheir of Thomas
son of Robert de Alfreton, he became possessed of a
moiety of her father's estates in Alfreton, Norton, and
Marnham, held of the honour of Tickhill.16 She prob-
ably died without issue, as these manors did not
remain with the Lathom family. Robert was made a
knight in 1243 in consequence of the king's writ to
enforce knighthood on all who had an estate of fifteen
librates of land.17 In 1 249 the county and castle of
Lancaster were committed to Sir Robert, during the
king's pleasure.18 By this appointment he held the
office of sheriff from Easter, 1249, to Michaelmas,
1254; he held it again from Easter, I 264, to Michael-
mas, 1265. '9 His second wife was Joan, daughter of
Adam de Millom,10 by whom he had several children.
* Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 57. See the account
of Flixton. His descendants held Child-
wall, &c. of the same barony.
" Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 1 2, i 5.
8 Ibid. 349. Robert gave a ridding to
the nunnery at Chester. In 1534-5 the
nuns had a rent of 41. from Lathom.
« Ibid. 77, 89. He received a grant
the north unto the Mosilache, following
this lache to Alton gate, thence to the
nearest ditch on the west, and so back
to Swain's land ; the brethren's crosses
indicate the boundary ; Cockersand Chartul.
(cft£Ttf ££,,«.!«.
" Burscough Reg. fol. 3, 3*. One of
these had been held by Stephen son of
as to the knights' fees which should
contribute to the scutage of Gascony, it
was found that in Notts. Robert dc
Lathom held two-thirds of a knight's
fee in Alfreton and Norton of Alice,
countess of Eu, and half a knight's fee
of the earl of Leicester in Edwalton of
ancient feoffment ; while in Lanes, he
held one fee in Knowsley, Huyton,
and Roby of the earl of Lincoln, and
5 See the account of Knowsley.
» Rot. de Otlatis (Rec. Com.), 116.
Richard's name appears earlier, together
watercourse to Pilatecroft, around this to
the watercourse, following this to the
church road from Alton ; by this road
Wrightington, of the baron of Manchester;
Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 148, 154.
» Close R. 56, m. 4</.
foundation charter of Lytham Priory,
following Fulshaw to Hurleton Ford ;
The grant was repeated in 1254; Origi-
the knights who made the survey of 1212.
"'Lanes. laj. and Extents, 1 6. No-
thing further is known of the under-
tenants, but it is probable that their
holdings are represented by the free rents
mentioned below.
8 Burscough Reg. fol. ib.
9 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 131;
'Alice, who was the wife of Richard son
of Robert, was of the king's donation ;
from the great lache by Pilatecroft unto
the little lache which extends to the
ford of Richard. The second grant was
of all the land of Richard de Riding, for
the fabric (oferi) of the priory church.
He also gave half a plough-land in Child-
wall to the monks of Stanlaw ; Whalley
Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 551.
15 Otherwise Amicia ; Man. Angl.
vi,8.
19 P.R.O. List of Sheriffs, 72. It is
possible that he was sheriff continuously
from 1249 to 1255, those whose names
appear in the list of sheriffs being his
deputies. In Sept. 1266, the king ex-
cused his coming to give account at the
Exchequer for the period during which
he had been sheriff, on the ground that
he was then, by the king's order, stay-
ing in Lanes, with horses and arms to
worth 205.' Also Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 44, 76. For Simon
de Grubehead see the account of Scaris-
brick.
10 Fiat R. Excerpts (Rec. Com.), i, 60.
11 The 21. from the mills was thence-
seisin of these estates, having done
homage and given security for the pay-
ment of his relief— £7 los., the usual
render for a knight's fee and a half.
Later (27 Mav) he proffered £100 and
1 5 marks (in 'lieu of three palfreys) for
Close R. 87, m. i.
"> Chartul. of Beauchief Abbey. In
1260 Robert de Lathom and Joan his
wife had a dispute with the abbot of
Millom ; Cur. Reg. R. 166, m. 21 d. and
Simon the miller and his successors being
chargeable with it; and 'when the said
Richard shall have gone the way of all
to Thomas de Chaworth, son of his
wife's sister Alice, and it was granted to
him ; Fine R. 26 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 9 ;
riage is the subject of the two coats
borne by Robert de Lathom. In a roll
of arms (Harl. MS. 6589) of this period
and canons freely and wholly, without
gainsay by anyone, and the 2s. paid for
the mills shall cease'; Burscough Reg,
fol. 6.
u He granted land in the Wythares in
Lathom, between the land of Swain on
3
of 36 Hen. Ill is the grant of a
market at Alfreton to Robert de Lathom
and Thomas de Chaworth ; Robert
afterwards released to Thomas all his
right in the lordship. By the inquest
taken about Christmas, 1242,10 inquire
249
vair' ; but about 1250 he sealed a charter
of manumission of Roger son of Gun-
hilda, and this seal bears the coat subse-
quently used by the family— 'or, on a
chief indented azure, three plates.' The
former coat may have been that of his
32
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
From 1277 until his death about 1 290, he was engaged
in the wars.1
He was succeeded by his son Nicholas, who was
quickly followed by his brother Robert.' In 1298
Robert de Lathom held the manor by a service of 201.
and doing suit to the county and wapentake.' In
1 304 he obtained a royal charter for markets and fairs
on his manors of Lathom and Roby ; also of free
warren. At the former place there was to be a market
every Tuesday, and fair on the eve, feast, and morrow
of St. Barnabas."
He served in the wars and in public offices.5 In
1324 he was among those returned by the sheriff as
holding land of the value of £l 5 yearly.6 His wife's
name was Katherine.7 Sir Robert died at the be-
ginning of 1325,* and at the subsequent inquisition9
it was found that he had held the manor of Lathom
as of the honour of West Derby by the service of zos.
and doing suit to the county every six weeks, and to
the wapentake every three weeks. His heir was his
son, Thomas de Lathom, then aged twenty-four years
or more.
Thomas at once entered into public lite and the
fulfilment of the duties imposed upon him by his
position in the county.10 He had already (1322) been
appointed a commissioner of array for Lancashire
and in 1324 was one of the knights of the shire
attending Parliament ; in the following year he was
appointed a conservator of the peace, and shortly
afterwards again nominated a commissioner of array."
In 1339 he obtained a charter of free warren in his
demesne lands of Lathom and elsewhere.18 In I 340
he was a commissioner for the taxation of the ninth
of sheaves, &c.13 and was frequently engaged in
levying forces in the county to repulse the inroads of
the Scots in the reign of Edward III.14 He was one
of the knight bannerets with the king in the French
expedition of 1344 to 1347, his retinue being a
knight, eight esquires, and twenty-three archers.15
The extent of the county made in 1346 records that
he held the manor of Lathom,16 and in the inquest
taken after the death of Henry, duke of Lancaster
(1361), it was found that he held of him a knight's
fee in Knowsley, Tarbock, and Huyton.17 There are
but scanty records of his management of his estates."
He married Eleanor, daughter of Sir John de Ferrars,
second wife's family. The grant just
' enemy and rebel, Robert de Brus, was
Lathom, held of the prior of Burscough
in Lathom, the boundaries beginning at
Gerald's Well ; William, prior of Bur-
Cal. Pat. R. 1301-7, p. 509. In 1309 he
was again summoned to serve against the
10 The inquest of 1324-7 states that he
held the manors of Lathom and Scaris-
of about the same date gave to Robert son
of Ughtred de Lathom land on the
western side of Scakersdale, the bounds
beginning at Bradeyate Ford, touching the
road from Lathom to Ormskirk as far as
Brechehale Syke, crossing to Deepdale
and going down to Marcheal Ford ; there
peace for the county and a collector of
several subsidies ; Palgrave, Part. Writs,
ii (iii), ,078.
6 Ibid.
secondly, Sir John de Denum, who,
however, did not live long. Katherine,
Burscough and the church of Ormskirk ;
Dods. MSS. cxxxi, 33*. This inquest,
made in 1323, was imperfectly corrected
to bring it up to date ; thus after stating
that ' Thomas de Lathom tenet,' &c., it
proceeds in the next paragraph, ' Idem
Robertas tenet,' &c.
ford, as also of mastfall in his park and
in Burscough. The charters are from
Towneley MSS. GG. 1278, RR 1060;
RR. 891 and GG. 1334. For a manu-
mission by fine in 1246 see Final Cone.
(Rec. Soc.), i, 88.
1 Palgrave, Par/. Writ,, i, 698. In
Llewelyn prince of Wales, and again in
1282 ; five years later he had to appear
with horse and arms at a military council
at Gloucester before Edmund earl of Corn-
wall, and in 1291 he or his son Robert
was called to serve against the Scots.
for many years ; see e.g. the account of
Huyton and Final Cane, ii, 138.
8 The writ Diem elausit exlremum was
issued on 7 Mar. 1324-5 ; Fine R. 124,
m. i. He made an agreement in 1322
as to boundaries with the prior of
Burscough, by which it would appear
that the present southern boundaries of
Ormskirk were secured; 'the highest
point of a place called Scarth' stood on
the line. BurscoughReg.fol.il. Two
of his charters have been preserved by
Towneley. One is a grant of land in
r' tments will be found. Also Cal. Pat.
Pink and Beavan's Lanes. Part.
Representation, 20.
u Cal. Pat. R. 1338-40,396.
18 Ibid. 1340-3, p. 27.
» R. Seot. i, 282, &c.
15 Staff. Hist. Coll. xviii, pt. 2, passim.
He was in the third division, the king's,
at Cressy (p. 35).
16 Ancient MS. copy in possession of
W. Farrer, fol. 1 7. The entry reads :
'Thomas de Lathom, knight, holds the
manor of Lathom, which is 3 plough-lands,
an agreement in 1287 with the canons
of Burscough, relating to certain lands
there and the mill, and other points in
dispute. The prior and canons surrendered
their mills to him, with the right to
construct others also, provided that any
Alice his wife ; and the other, of land in
Lathom ' lying towards Wolmoor,' to
Adam son of Richard son of Osbert ;
Towneley MSS. GG. nn. 2245, 1342.
Kuerden mentions a grant to Robert the
Tailor; iii, W. 30. See also Final Cone-
scough and of the Church of Ormskirk, in
thegnage, rendering yearly at the four
terms 201., with relief, suit to county and
wapentake, and puture ; whereof the
the aforesaid land.' In the aid granted
right to construct mills within their own
lands ; in return he gave them 40 acres
of land by the king's highway from
Burscough to Wirplesmoss. Burscough
Reg. fol. 1 6b.
2 Nothing seems to be known about
Nicholas de Lathom, but the fact of his
succession is certain from a pleading by
his brother and heir Robert in 1302;
De Bane. R. 144, m. \%^d.
» Lanes. Ina. and Extents, i, 287.
< Chart. R. 97 (32 Edw. I), m. ,,
n. 12. The market and fair for Lathom
were held at Newburgh, as appears by
the extracts from the accounts of 1522-3
given below.
6 He was one of those charged in 1 307
with the equipment of a thousand footmen
for service in Scotland, where the king's
printed in Whalley Coucher, ii, 552. The
account of Lathom states that the
messuage was worth yearly, as in the
fruits of the garden, 6s. 8</. There were
200 acres of arable land, worth £5 ;
40 acres of ridded land (terra frissa},
worth 1 3*. 4*/. ; 40 acres of meadow,
worth 601. ; plots of several pasture,
worth yearly in summer 551.; the park,
as for grazing in the summer, was worth
261. 8</. There was a water-mill rented
at £4; also a windmill, ruinous and
decayed, worth 6s. 8J. The rent of the
free tenants amounted to £26 1 35. 4</. ; the
profits of the hallmotes, held twice a year,
averagedabout 101. An enfeoffmcnt of part
of his estates had been made to him and
his wife jointly ; this included a messuage
and plough-land and wood of 3 acres in
250
Sir Thomas had licence for his oratories
within the diocese of Lichfield ; Lich.
Epis. Reg. v, fol. 7.
V Inq. p.m. 35 Edw. Ill, pt. i, n. 122.
18 In 1357 he acquired from William
de Clives of Aughton and Ellen his wife
two messuages and 20 acres of land and
acres of moor in Lathom ; Final Cone.
ii, 155. The plot of pasture called
Horscar, with the issues (le pele) of the
Thorny thwait and Malkins Yard and
from there to the bounds of Rufford, was
in 1364 let to farm to Gilbert son of
Richard de Ince of Aughton, 160 marks
being paid down and a rose to be the annual
rent. The ground included meadows be-
tween the Douglas and town fields ; a
right of way for carrying turf was reserved.
Duchy of Lane. Anct. D. Li2ii.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
knight, by whom he had two sons. By his will (l 369)
he desired to be buried in the priory church of Bur-
scough.1
Sir Thomas de Lathom, the younger, succeeded his
father in 1 370. He was the Sir Oskell of the Lathom
legend.* He made an enfeoffinent of his estates in
1376." He paid his quota of the aid to make the
duke of Lancaster's son a knight in 1378.' Two years
later he was pardoned certain offences committed within
the forest of West Derby, Joan his wife and Edward
their son being included in the grant.5 His wife Joan
was daughter of Hugh Venables of Kinderton ;6 his
children were Thomas, Edward, Isabel, Margaret, and
Katherine.7 He died at the beginning of 1382, having
been lord of Lathom for twelve years.8
His son and heir Thomas had a shorter tenure,
dying about eighteen months afterwards ; his heiress
was a daughter Ellen, born two months after his
death.9 The widow afterwards married Sir John de
ORMSKIRK
Dalton.10 The heiress became a ward to the duke
of Lancaster; she was still living in 1387, but died
before the end of 1390, when the duke ordered John
de Audlem and Richard de Longbarrow to continue
in possession until further orders."
After her death the Lathom manors reverted to
the younger children of Sir Thomas, and Edward
having died, Sir John Stanley received them in right
of his wife Isabel."
The manor continued to descend in the Stanley
family a until the sale about 1717. Lathom was
their principal residence until its destruction in the
Civil Wars, after which Knowsley took its place,
though William, the ninth earl of Derby, had some
intention of rebuilding it."
A very complete survey of the manor is contained
in the compotus rolls of 13—14 Henry VIII, when
the family estates were in the king's hands through
the minority of Edward, the third earl of Derby."
1 Scarisbrick D. (in Trans. Hist. Soc.
New Ser. xiii), n. 102. He bequeathed
to the prior and canons loos, to pray for
him, and other sums to the friars of
Warrington, Preston, and Chester ; also
/ 20 for a chaplain to celebrate divine
offices for him for five years. To the
bridge of Douglas and Cal'der he gave two
marks. After legacies to his [younger]
son Edward, servants, and others, he
desired that the residue of his goods
should be spent in alms for the souls of
himself and Eleanor his wife.
» Bishop Stanley's poem in Halliwell's
Palatine Anthology, 217; Seacome's His-
tory of the Stanley Family, 46 ; Harland
and Wilkinson, Legends and Traditions, 19.
3 Final Cone, ii, 190. There is said
to have been a supplementary fine, to
which Sir Thomas and his wife Joan
were parties, providing that, failing the
issue of his son Thomas, their daughter
succession ; Lanes. Inj. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
p. iv. Some such entail was the basis of
the claim by Sir John Stanley in 1385 ;see
below. 4 Harl. MS. 2085, fol. 421.
3 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xliii, App. I, n. 3.
« Dods. MSS. Ixxxvii, 10, n.
Edward was probably still living in
Lathom, her reasonable dower of the
manor of Lathom, except in a parcel
which she claimed to have held jointly
with her husband. She was to take
oath not to marry without the duke's
Pal. of 'Lane. Chan. R. 3, 191 ; Lanes.
Inj. (Chet. Soc.), i, 20. The exccpted
tenements, which she afterwards ob-
tained, were Horscar, Deep meadow by
Rufford, Robinfield in Horscar, Calver-
hey, and Walton Riding, and a yearly
rent of 8 marks of the freeholders of
Newburgh ; Journ. Arch. Assoc. vi, 416.
Sir John de Dalton and Isabel, having
knowingly contracted matrimony within
the fourth degree, incurred excommuni-
cation, and after separation and licence to
re-marry they were dispensed by Boni-
face IX in 1391, their issue to be
legitimate ; Cal. Papal Letters, iv, 412.
11 Lanes. Inq. (Chet. Soc.), i, 20, 21.
"He had put in a claim in 1385,
probably on his marriage with her ; ibid.
21. She had previously been the wife of
Sir Geoffrey de Worsley, but the union
was declared unlawful ; see the account
of Worsley.
13 See the account of Knowsley.
14 Seacome, House of Stanley, 405 (ed.
the works of 69 ploughs ploughing for
one day on the lord's land ; and id. was
the price of each workman and his food
for the 70 days' work to be done — one
man giving one day. The money value
was 461. id. in all. No courts had been
held during the year for Lathom or New-
burgh, so that no profits had to be
accounted for. There were no swarms
of bees, and no « casuals ' for gressums,
wardships, marriages, or reliefs. The fair
at Newburgh at the feast of St. Barnabas
showed a profit to the lord of 31. id., but
the expenses of the bailiff and two under-
bailiffs, collecting tolls and keeping order,
amounted to 31. 3^. ; there was thus a
net loss of id.
The various ancient rents paid are also
of interest. To the king, for the lordship
of Lathom, 201. was duly paid ; also 8j.
for Scarisbrook and Hurleton ; to the
abbot of Cockersand for Birkinshaw Place
i id. ; to the prior of Burscough for
Edgeacre 31., for Cross Hall 3,., and for
Walmer's lands in Lathom 6d.
The rents which showed a decrease
were next considered. The fulling mill,
formerly yielding 265. 8</., had been in
ruins for many years past ; and the fishery
in the Douglas, which should have brought
about 1540, writes thus : 'Lathom, most
in lid., showed no result for default of
conduit. The new almshouses had taken
his melancholy end (see the account of
Knowsley). In 1391 there was an in-
history of Lathom, such as the visit of
Henry VII, are noticed in the account of
(most of which had been included in the
New Park) had also to be allowed for ; as
of Sir Thomas and Joan ; but the bishop of
" In Lathom proper the assized rents
moss-looker. Various expenses were in-
Lane. Misc. bdle. ,, ». 53, 54; Lich.
Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 79*.
rental made in 1464, amounted to
£6 iSs. 8J</. ; increments of rents, due
the deer-houses, for repairing the rails of
the park, and mending the head of the
1383-4 i Lanes. Inq. (Chet. Soc.), i, 10,
and the erection of cottages, amounted to
William Stanley and Andrew Barton con-
in the date of the first cited inquest ; as
it stands this inquiry, alleged to be taken
on 3 July, 1383, is immediately followed
by another into the lands of John Keke-
wich, who died six months later. The
first date should be 3 July, 1384, and the
inquest certainly relates to the younger
Thomas. This clears away the alleged
double Lathom-Pilkington marriage. As
the regnal year for Richard II began on
22 June the error of carrying the seventh
year a week or so later is easily explained.
1° On I Feb. 1384-5 a writ of de dote
assignanda was issued to the escheator to
give Isabel, the widow of Thomas de
£56 18,. 7d., with an increment (from
i o acres in Greetby ) of 41. 8</. Demesne
lands outside the park yielded 1755. SJ. ;
the herbage of Horscar meadow, £i 5 1 81.;
the dovecote, which formerly brought in
131. 4^., had fallen to the ground many
years before, and its stones had been used
to build the external walls of the manor
house ; from turbary on Horscar moor,
Scarth moor, and Lathom moss, 24». 6d.
was received.
More interesting are the values of the
' averages' or works of the tenants, which
had long since been commuted for money
payment.. Sixpence each was paid for
251
park, they being farmers of the agistment
of the Great Park, the New (or Lady's)
Park, the Horscar, &c. The terms of
the lease forbade any hunting or waste of
the lord's deer or wild beasts, or any cut-
ting down of timber or underwood. The
fields occupied with the lord's deer and
cattle were called Overton, Bromefield,
the Launde, Tillington, Taldford field,
&c. ; a close in the Old Park was known
as Laithwaite Place. These particulars
have been taken from a roll in the posses-
sion of the earl of Lathom ; other rolls
are among the records of the Court of
Augmentation.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The most famous event connected with Lathom
is the siege of 1644. In the previous year, Lord
Derby being occupied in the Isle of Man, the
countess was summoned by the Parliamentary governor
of Manchester to subscribe to the propositions of
Parliament, or yield possession of Lathom. She
refused, but offered to dismiss all her armed servants
except such as were needful for the protection of the
household in the disturbed state of the county. This
was allowed, but her people were constantly harried ;
and in the following February it was determined to
demand the surrender of the house. The countess
had timely notice and made preparations for a siege.
On Tuesday, 27 February, 1643-4, the Parlia-
mentary forces took up positions around the house, at
the distance of a mile or more ; their leaders were
Colonel Ralph Assheton of Middleton and Colonel
John Moore of Bank Hall, Liverpool, to whom
Colonel Rigby afterwards joined himself, and Ormskirk
was chosen as head quarters. Next morning a formal
demand was made for its surrender. A week was
spent in fruitless negotiations, and the countess having
peremptorily rejected the demand for surrender, the
besiegers began to raise earthworks. They tried a
little further parleying, but this time the countess
responded with a sally of a hundred of her men
(12 March), who, headed by Captain Farmer, a
Scotchman, drove the enemy from their nearer
trenches and secured a few prisoners ; a similar
sally was made on the succeeding Sunday. On Tues-
day (19 March) the besiegers brought their first gun
into position and next morning opened fire. By the
following week several more cannon were available, and
on 2 April a mortar was brought into use. No per-
ceptible progress being made, the besiegers devoted
themselves to prayer for several days, but on Wednes-
day 10 April the garrison made another sally, drove
the besiegers from their works and spiked many of
their guns.
This damage being repaired the attack became
more serious, the guns being used more frequently
and sometimes even during the night ; the mortar in
particular caused great annoyance. Easter Tuesday
(23 April) was marked by specially vigorous firing,
and such damage was done to the Eagle Tower, in
the centre of the building, that the countess had to
seek another lodging. On the Thursday, Colonel
Rigby, now chief commander, sent a new summons
to surrender, but the answer was a fierce refusal, the
countess declaring that she would set fire to the place
and perish therein, rather than surrender to Rigby.
At four o'clock next morning (26 April) a determined
sally was made in order to capture the mortar, and
to the joy of the garrison this terrifying weapon was
within a short time brought within the defences. The
countess ordered a public thanksgiving. A prisoner
captured at the same time revealed the plans of the
enemy for stopping the supply of water.
For the next month the besiegers did little, hoping
to starve the garrison into surrender ; their troops,
however, began to grow mutinous. On 23 May
Colonel Rigby made another demand for surrender,
which was refused as firmly as before ; and at night
there was news that Prince Rupert was in Cheshire
on his way to relieve the place. This was too much
for the besiegers, and on the following Monday
(27 May) Colonel Rigby withdrew the last of his
troops ; marching off in the direction of Bolton he
encountered the Prince and the earl of Derby, and
was routed with considerable slaughter (28 May).
Next day the earl presented to his countess ' twenty-
two of those colours which three days before were
proudly flourished before her house.' '
After this the earl and countess of Derby went to
the Isle of Man, and Lathom House was delivered to
Prince Rupert to fortify and defend. He placed
Captain Rawsthorn in command, with a due store of
provisions and ammunition. The second siege was
not seriously undertaken until the early summer of
1645. The defeat of the king's forces at Rowton,
near Chester (24 September), prevented him from
doing anything to relieve the place ; but the garrison
held out until the beginning of December, when they
surrendered on conditions.*
The house was then given up to plunder, and sub-
sequently almost destroyed, two or three little timber
buildings being alone left to mark the site of the
palatial mansion.3
The earl's estates were sequestrated and afterwards
confiscated by the Parliament. Lathom was found to
be one of the manors charged with an annuity of
£600 to the countess of Lincoln and her children by
her first husband, Sir Robert Stanley.4 In 1653
Henry Neville and Anthony Samwell contracted to
purchase Lathom, Childwall, and some other manors,
and others bought various lands in Lathom.6 Soon
afterwards, however, these manors were again in the
possession of the earl.6
Lathom was sold in or about 1717 by Henrietta
Maria, then countess of Ashburnham, daughter and
heir of William, ninth earl of Derby, the transac-
tion being completed in 1722. The purchaser was
Henry Furnesse, described as ' of the parish of St.
Stephen's, Coleman Street, London ' ; 7 and two
1 Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), I 59-86;
from Harl. MS. 2074. The notes show
the principal differences between this
(Chet. Soc.), 63. Some documents re-
lating to its destruction will be found in
Seacome (ed. 1793), 394-402. A record
Lathom are printed in Kenyon MSS. (Hist.
MSS. Com.), 167 (1683) and 269 (1692).
Lathom and other manors were included
House of Stanley. Another account is in
the Land. War (Chet. Soc.), 46-9.
between 1857 and 1884 may be seen in
W. Lea's Ormskirk Handbook, 95-7.
Maria, wife of the earl of Anglesey, made
in 1708 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
from Seacome, House of Stanley (ed. 1793),
253-78. See also Land. tTar(Chet. Soc.),
60-63 ; here it is stated that Colonel
Egerton of Shaw was the commander of
the besieging force. Some letters relating
to the second siege are printed in Local
Gleanings Lanes, and Ches. i, 1, 4, 7, n.
refrain from expressing regret at this
saloon or drawing-room it was found ' (i)
that the north wall of the room
is extremely old and built of rubble stone ;
and (2) that the whole of the south front
of the present house is built up to and
abuts upon this ancient wall.'
4 Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), ii, 147, &c. This charge was
allowed.
^ Henry Furnesse was purchaser of
the manor of Lathom, the demesne and
park, under a decree of the Court of
Chancery made 4 July, 1719, in a cause
depending between the Hon. Henrietta
Bridget Ashburnham, only daughter and
heir of Henrietta Maria, Lady Ashburn-
ham, deceased, an infant and others, v.
John Lord Ashburnham. Then, on
county. The earls, lords thereof, were
esteemed by most about them with little
lets respect than kings ; ' Lanes. War
assigned to the earl a little later ; ibid. 232.
6 Possibly the sale was not completed.
Letters by the earl of Derby dated from
252
and others sold to Henry Furnesse. From
Deeds at Lathom House.
A private Act was passed in 1720 for
LATHOM HOUSE : THE ENTRANCE FRONT
LATHOM CHAPEL : THE EAST END
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
years afterwards he sold it to Thomas Rootle of
Melling in Halsall, and of the Inner Temple.1
Thomas Bootle held various public offices, being a
baron of the Exchequer of Chester * and Chancellor
to Frederick, Prince of Wales. He represented
WILBRAHAM OF RoDE
HALL. Argent, three
bendlets -wavy azure.
BOOTLE or MELLING.
Gules, on a chevron en-
grailed between three
comb; argent as many
crosses fatte f tehee of the
field.
Liverpool as a Tory in Parliament in 1724 and
1 727." He was knighted in 1 746.4 Dying unmar-
ried in 1753 he was buried at Melling.5 Lathom
and other estates passed to his brother Robert, a
ORMSKIRK
director of the East India Company, born at Maghull
in 1693 ; who dying in 1758 6 was succeeded by his
only daughter Mary. She married in May, 1755,'
Richard Wilbraham, of Rode Hall in Cheshire,
descended of an ancient house, who on his succession
assumed the surname of Bootle pursuant to the will
of Sir Thomas Bootle.8 They had a numerous
family, of whom Edward Wilbraham, born in 1771,
was the eldest surviving son. He obtained the royal
licence in 1814 to take the additional surname of
Wilbraham, thus becoming Edward Wilbraham
Bootle Wilbraham.9 He was member of Parliament
for various constituencies from 1795 to l8z8, and in
the latter year was created Baron Skelmersdale of
Skelmersdale. He died in 1853, his eldest son
Richard having predeceased him in 1844, and was
succeeded by Edward Bootle Wilbraham, Richard's
only son, born in 1837. He had several official
appointments, was a prominent freemason, and held
an honourable position of respect and influence in the
county. In 1880 he was created earl of Lathom ;
dying in 1898 he was succeeded by his son, Edward
George, born 26 October, 1864, the present earl of
Lathom and lord of the manor. The house is a fine
building in the Renaissance style with a large park
five miles round ; it commands a beautiful view.
confirming the manor of Lathom, &c., to
1439; ibid, and Crosse D, n. 139. He and
for life. He survived his father some
trusts to which the same were liable and
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 230, n. 23.
1 8 Dec. 1693; Ch. Reg. There is an
of Charles I for reconveying the reversion
in fee to the crown ; 7 Geo. I, c. 29.
1 Deed at Lathom House, dated 1 3
July, 1725 ; it recites an agreement of
1 6 Sept. 1724 between the parties for
the sale of Lathom Hall and ' the nomi-
nation or presentation to the almshouse
In this year Robert Bootle of Melling
held lands in Thornton by Sefton in right
of his wife Elizabeth ; Pal. of Lane. Feet
of F. bdle. 14, m. 142. He paid 8j. to
the subsidy in 1558-9 ; Lay Subs. Lanes,
bdle. 131, n. 272. His son, according to
the Vnit. of 1664-5 (Chet. Soc. 45), was
Thomas Bootle of Melling, described as
by the vicar of Walton (28 Dec. 1693) :
'Mr. Bootle has gone into the other
world and was, some time before he fell
sick, stripped of all relation to Mr.
Molyneux's concerns. He was not, in-
deed, a good man, but had been good to
the interest of Croxteth, without reaping
any advantage from its service ; but so
almshouse.' The price was £21,075.
No detailed account can be given of
the Bootle family. They probably took
after his death, by which he was found
to have held lands in Melling, Maghull,
Kirkby, and Aughton ; also in Haskayne
Kenyan MSS. 279. His son Caryll—
named after Caryll, Lord Molyneux — was
then an infant, whose mother Jane, in 1 699,
ing Liverpool. Henry de Bootle had
lands in Melling as early as 1317 ; Harl.
MS. 2042, fol. 85-293 ; he was de-
fendant in a case brought against him at
Lancaster assizes 1324-5 by Nicholas de
Bootle touching lands there ; Assize R.
426, m. 37. Henry de Bootle (1327)
JO Oct. 1597, and was succeeded by his
son Robert, then aged thirty and more ;
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. (42 Eliz.), xvii,
n. 57. This inquisition recites a settle-
ment of lands upon Robert Bootle and
his sons Ferdinand and Edmund. These
are not mentioned in the visitation cited
Melling and Kirkby for his benefit ; deed
at Lathom. On 10 Aug. 1708, as Caryll
Bootle of Liverpool, he sold to John
I'lumbe the bailiwick of the wapentake,
and on 18 March, 1712, William Clay-
ton and John Earle of Liverpool trans-
ferred Caryll Bootle's lands in Melling to
whom their father gave lands in Melling,
which he had himself received from his
father; Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 85-293.
Possibly the father was also named Henry,
for Nicholas de Bootle was son of a
heir to be Thomas, born about 1602, and
still living in 1664, when he recorded
this pedigree.
Robert Bootle was one of the free-
holders living in the hundred in 1600 ;
deed at Lathom. Caryll seems to have
died unmarried. He was buried at
Melling in 1710; Ch. Reg. The
Thomas Bootle who had Caryll's lands was
the son of the above-mentioned Robert,
grants from Robert de Byron early in the
fourteenth century ; Croxteth D. U. bdle. ii,
». i, 4. He paid 2j. in Melling to the
subsidy of 1332; Excb.Lay Subs. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 24. An Adam
de Bootle paid i8</. at the same time and
place ; ibid. Robert de Bootle, son of
Nicholas, in 1364 gave land to Richard
de Rainford, and the reversion of the
third part held by Cecily, the grantor's
mother ; Croxteth D., U. bdle. ii, «. 5.
Possibly he was the Robert de Bootle
who paid 41. to the subsidy of 1332;
Excb. Lay Subs. loc. cit.
A Hugh Bootle of Liverpool occurs in
the next century ; he had a son and heir
Thomas (who predeceased him) and a
grandson Hugh ; Crosse D. (Trans. Hist.
Soc. New Ser. v-ix), ,,.139. Hugh, senior,
had also brothers Henry and John, and
other children, Henry and Alice ; Harl.
MS. 2042, fol. 47. He died in 1438 or
He was buried in Melling 18 Feb. 1632.
Ch. Reg. The son Thomas, just men-
tioned, had in 1651 a lease from Richard,
Lord Molyneux, of Simonswood House
and lands ; deed at Lathom. His dwell-
ing at Melling had five hearths in 1666.
Hearth Tax, bdle. 250, n. 9. He died
in 1 68 1, and was buried at Melling. Ch.
Reg. Thomas Bootle had several chil-
dren ; the eldest son was Thomas, aged
thirty in 1664; the others were Edward,
afterwards described as 'of Manchester'
(deed at Lathom), Matthew, and Robert ;
Vmt. loc. cit. Matthew Bootle mentions
a brother Abraham living at Warrington ;
Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 141,
143, 181 ; the same volume has other
notices of the family. To Robert his
father in 1669 assigned the demesne lands
of Simonswood ; deed at Lathom. To
the eldest son, Thomas, Chas. II granted
the bailiwick of West Derby wapentake
253
2 Lanes, and Ci.es. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 68.
8 Pink and Beavan, Lanes. Par!. Ref re-
sent. 197-8.
4 See a letter of his and further refer-
ences in Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MS. Com.),
473) 475) 490-1-
5 For the order of the funeral on 26 Jan.
1754, see Pal. Note Book, iii, 30.
6 There are monuments to Sir Thomas
and Robert Bootle in Melling Church.
7 Married at St. Andrew's, Holborn,
31 May, 1755. This and the particulars
in the text are derived from the pedigrees
at the College of Arms.
8 He represented Chester in several
Parliaments ; Par!. Return, ii, 162, &c.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society.
• Cockayne, Complete Peerage ; also
Pedigrees in Baines' Lanes, (ed. Croston),
v, 262, and Ormerod's Ches. (ed. Helsby),
iii, 55.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Wolmoor ' was a small estate or manor in Lathom
which early in the thirteenth century gave a surname
to its owners. These granted part of it to Bur-
scough.1 Another small estate called Taldeford, later
Tawdbridge, gave its name to the owners.3
BLTTHE was held in 1 189 by Geoffrey Travers,4
whose son Henry, called ' de Blythe,' by his charter
released to Prior Benedict of Burscough all his claim
to mastfall in Tarlscough, Greetby, and Burscough ; 5
Henry also gave to the priory a watercourse running
through his Holme to the priory mill of the Bayes.6
John and Robert de Blythe occur among the names of
subscribers to the stipend of a chaplain at Ormskirk
in 1366,' and the latter also in the Poll Tax Roll of
1 38 1.8 John de Blythe attested Scarisbrick charters
in 1399 and 1401, and was the father of Roger, who
in 1397 was charged with breaking into the parsonage
house at Crossens.9 From him descended Roger
Blythe, whose daughter and heir Margaret by her
marriage with John Blakelache (or Blackledge) con-
veyed the estate to this family.10
Evan Blackledge " by his will, made in July, 1565,
desired to be buried in Ormskirk church ' on the
north side of an overlay or stone under which Bishop
Blackledge was buried.' 12 His brother John succeeded
him, and in 1576 made an exchange of lands with
Ralph Langley.13 He was followed by Evan Black-
ledge, apparently his son, who in 1593 made a settle-
ment upon the marriage of his son John with
Margaret, daughter of Henry Walton of Little Hoole.14
Evan died at Lathom on 31 January, 1612-13, seised
of Blythe Hall and other lands, John, his son and heir,
being then aged forty-two years and more.10 John
Blackledge contributed to the subsidy of i628.16 He
was succeeded by another Evan, probably his son,
who died in or before 1658, leaving three sons —
John, James, and Thomas. The first of these married
in 1658 Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Jodrell of
Leek," but died without issue before 1683, and was
succeeded by his brother James, a pewterer of
London. The latter's son Evan, described as 'of the
parish of St. John, Wapping, gentleman, and of
Blythe Hall,' sold the Lathom estate to William Hill
of Burscough in 1698. William Hill, junior, in
1761 conveyed the estate to William Shaw and John
Sephton, probably as trustees." About 1800 it was
purchased by Thomas Langton, who in 1826 sold it
to Edward Bootle Wilbraham, from whom it has
descended to the present earl of Lathom."
A family bearing the local name of Ellerbeck
once resided in Lathom ; one of them became prior of
Burscough.*0
Alton or Olton, later New Park, is mentioned in
1189 in the charter of Burscough Priory. The name
suggests an early place of settlement in the township.
In 1198 it appears to have been a hamlet." There
was a small ford over Edgeacre (Eller) Brook, lying to
the south of Blythe, which is more than once described
as the ford which leads from Alton to Harleton." In
course of time, perhaps in the fifteenth century, it had
ceased to be a hamlet, and the lords of Lathom turned
it into a park, called Lady Park, or New Park.23 The
earls of Derby occasionally kept house here.24 It now
forms part of the Cross Hall property.
' Wolvemor, 1 202 ; Wllemor.f. 1210 ;
Wlmore.c. 1270.
a Def. Keeper's Ref. xxxvi, App. 4, p.
8 Lay Subs. Lanes, bdle. 130, n. 24.
» Pal. of Lane. Plea R. i,n. 18.
10 Lathom House D. box 2, bdle. 9 *.
were held of the lately dissolved priory of
Burscough by fealty and zid. rent ; and
a messuage and lands in Aughton of
Gabriel Hesketh by fealty and 21. ij</.
keththeit or Leikestheith (Laithwaitc).
See also Final Cone, i, 1 6.
8 In the thirteenth century Augustine
de Taldeford gave land to Burscough
Priory ; Burscough Reg. n. xiv. At Lan-
caster Assizes in 1246 Siegrith recovered
heir of John Blythe, and wife of John
Blakelache of Lathom, had, in conjunction
with her husband, leased to Thomas, ille-
gitimate son of John Blythe, all her in-
heritance in Lathom, Burscough, Aughton,
and Uplitherland. One of the witnesses
561. 8</. i6 Norris D. (B.M.).
'' D. of Settlement (1655) at Lathom
House.
!8 Deed at Lathom House. William
Hill in 1792 contributed to the land tax
for Blythe Hall.
« Britten, Beauties of England (Lanes.),
™ William de Shornington (? Sherving-
ton) and Alice his wife claimed her dower
in a messuage and plough-land, &c. in
Lathom from John de Ellerbeck in 1319 ;
De Bane. R. 229, m. 213 and 242 </.
21 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 353.
811 Ibid. A charter of Sir Robert de
Lathom, made about 1250 to 1260, refers
to the northern boundary of Alton. It is
a grant to Burscough Priory of land for-
merly held by Stephen son of Richard de
Alton, within bounds beginning at the ford
of Harleton, ascending the watercourse to
de Taldeford, of which her brother Robert,
and Man (1487 to 1510), who is buried
Hugh of the Fratey, great-grandson of
Augustine, afterwards held this land of
the priory at a rent of lid. yearly ; Bur-
scough Reg. fol. 22.
Robert de Lathom granted to Richard,
son of Richard de Taldeford, certain land
by the river ; Towneley's MS. OO. n.
" Probably the Evan Blackledge who
succeeded his father Henry in i 5 3 8 ; Duchy
Lane. Ct. R. 79, n. ,061.
12 Lathom House D. box 2, bdle. 9*.
From its date the introduction is of in-
terest : ' I bequeath my soul to Almighty
God, His blessed mother Saint Mary, and
to all the holy company of heaven.' To
John Blackledge, his brother and heir, he
bequeathed his lands in Lathom, Aughton,
Blackledge Hall in Lathom as heirlooms
for ever. Others mentioned are Alice his
on the south, followed the hedge to th e
king's highway, and so to Tawd again on
the east, thence ascending the stream to
the starting point.
In 1323 Emma, wife of Robert de
pied by Sir Robert de Dalton and Mary
his wife, and Robert de Bispham ;
Assize R. 425, m. 4. Robert de Talde-
ford in 1332 contributed zs. $d. to the
subsidy ; Excb. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 25. In 1367 Hugh,
son of Robert de Taldeford, claimed cer-
tain land in Lathom from John de
Bispham and Cecily his wife ; De Bane.
R. 429, m. 226*.
4 Farrer, Land. Fife £.350. The land
was bounded on the west by the land of
Stephen the Bald in Burscough.
s Burscough Reg. fol. 7*.
6 Ibid. fol. U.
' Excb. Lay Suit. (Rec. Soc.), 109,
1 1 6.
son ; John son of Henry, another bro-
ther ; Alice his sister (wife of Thomas
Ayscough), and William her son ; also
Ralph Langley, husband of another sister,
and Evan their son. The vicar of Orms-
kirk was one of the witnesses, and the
will was proved at Warrington on 17 April,
1567.
13 Lathom House D. The lands, lying
in Aughton, were called Blythe Meadow,
&c. showing that they had descended with
the Blythe estate.
14 Duchy of Lane. Plea. Eliz. cxcvi, B. 2.
15 Lanes. Inq. f.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
and Ches.), i, 237. Blythe Hall was held
of the earl of Derby in socage by fealty
and ioj. 6d. rent ; his lands in Burscough
254
road coming from Alton, &c. ; Burscough
Reg. fol. 3.
One of the subscribers to the stipend of
a priest at Ormskirk in 1366 was Alice
de Olton; Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc.J,"'
109.
23 See the extracts from the accounts of
1523 given above.
M Derby Household Books (Chet. Soc.),
19. Before the first siege of Lathom the
countess of Derby was invited to meet
the Parliamentary leaders at « New Park,
a house of her lord's, a quarter of a mile
from Lathom;' Civil War Tracts (Chet.
Soc.), 164. The editor of the Household
Books states that it was pulled down in the
eighteenth century.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
CROSS HALL may have taken its name from a
cross erected here by the Burscough canons. The
boundaries are detailed in the early charter of Bur-
scough Priory.1 A later deed, dated 1229 and
entitled ' charter of the rent of Cross Hall,' grants
an annual rent of 2*. from this land, payable by
Roger and Reginald of the Cross and their successors
on behalf of Richard de Lathom.* The tenants
seem to have been Welshmen ; they are called
le Waleys, and were perhaps kinsmen of the Aughton
family. Richard le Waleys was said by the prior of
Burscough to have erected a horse mill within the
latter's ' Land of the Cross ; ' but the parties came to
an arrangement by which Richard acknowledged the
prior's title and received the mill as tenant at a rent
of lid? Another agreement, made about 1280,
allowed the prior certain rights of way over Richard
le Waleys' land.4
In 1309 Richard le Waleys of the Cross, the
younger, complained that William de Codesbecke,
Robert of the Cross the elder, and Adam his
brother, had disseised him of his free tenement in
Lathom ; the estate had been mortgaged to Eustace
de Codesbecke,5 deceased, whose debt had not been
paid.6 The Cross family retained an interest in the
ORMSKIRK
place to the end of the fourteenth century, the lords
of Lathom being superior to them as tenants of the
prior of Burscough.'
Afterwards it appears to have reverted to the Stanleys
as successors to the Lathoms, and in the accounts
already quoted may be noticed the rent of 3/. paid to
the prior of Burscough. It came into the ownership
of the earls of Derby together with other lands of the
priory.8 A junior branch of this family had Cross
Hall on lease from the earl,9 and Sir Thomas Stanley
of Bickerstaffe was still holding it in 1653. 10
Sir Thomas Stanley's eldest son was ancestor of the
earls of Derby. His second son, Peter," was father of
Thomas Stanley of Cross Hall, high sheriff in 1 7 1 8,"
who died in 1733," and to whose son Charles the
tenth earl of Derby bequeathed Cross Hall." His male
issue failing it devolved, in virtue of the terms of the
bequest, on the issue of Dr. Thomas Stanley, rector
of Winwick, the present owner being Mr. Edward
James Stanley.
Apparently adjoining the estate of Cross Hall
was a messuage called Cross Place, in Westhead.
This was held until the end of the fourteenth century
by .the Cross family, and in the succeeding century
passed to the Woodwards of Shevington. It is now
1 Farrcr, Lanes. Pipe R. 349. ' The land
which lies in the head of Burscough, along
the boundary of Stephen the Bald as far
as Edgeacres, between the highway of
Wirples Moss and the brook of Edgeacres
of land, 6 acres of meadow, and 6 acres of
wood. The word ' plough-lands ' here is
obviously not used in the sense of a mea-
sure of assessment. Robert of the Cross,
junior, in 1321 claimed from Robert de
his son, the complainant's husband. The
latter enjoyed possession tor some fourteen
years, until his death, intestate, in Sep-
tember, 1591. He had made mortgages
of part to Henry Stanley of Bickerstaffe,
and thence by Scakersdalehead Brook to
the ford going from Alton to Harleton ;
thence across to the division between the
lands of Geoffrey Travers and Stephen the
Bald,' i.e. the division between Blythe (in
Lathom) and Burscough.
a Burscough Reg. fol. 6. It would
appear from this that Richard de Lathom
held the land of the prior of Burscough,
tenants ; the latter were now to pay the
rent to the prior instead of to him. By
another charter Richard son of Robert
gave to Richard son of Richard de La-
thom his 'Land of the Cross' by the
boundary of Matthew son of Baldwin
time of Henry III. The pedigree is thus
given : Robert le Waleys— s. and h.
Richard— s. and h. Richard— s. and h.
Robert, the plaintiff. The jury sustained
the claim and assessed the damages at
£20 ; De Bane. R. 237, m. 143 d.
" Cross Hall in Lathom was among
the lands of Sir Thomas de Lathom in
1375 ; deed enrolled on Duchy of Lane.
Chan. R. 3, § 3 'in tergo.' Robert son
of Robert of the Cross of Lathom occurs
in 1322; Whallty Coucher (Chet. Soc.),
iv, 1137. Robert and John of the Cross
contributed 43. 8</. and lod. respectively
to the subsidy of 1332 ; Excb. Lay Subs.
(Rec. Soc.), 25 ; Robert of the Cross of
threatened her interest. The grant of the
manor of Burscough was also involved.
The reply of the uncle was that he was
next of kin ; and that, as Henry Stanley,
junior, had not taken out letters of ad-
ministration to the estate of his elder
brother Edward, who also died intestate,
it was his duty to do so ; Duchy of Lane.
Plead. Eliz. civ. S. i, S. li. ; clix. S. 17 ;
10 Royalist Comp. Papers, ii, 232.
11 Buried atOrmskirk, 27 Jan. 1686-7;
' of Bickerstaffe.'
Ia P.R.O. List ; described as ' of Cli-
18 Buried at Ormskirk, 18 Apr. 1733, as
thence to Scathkeresdale, to Westfield,
and to the brook of Scathkeresdale ; by
defendants in a Wigan suit ; De Bane.
R. 300, m. id. ; and in 1366 William,
" The tenure had hitherto been lease-
hold under the earls of Derby ; Pal. of
Chow, lying between the lands of Richard
and Matthew ; Towneley's MS. OO, n.
1274.
8 Burscough Reg. fol. 64.
« Ibid. fol. 5*. There is mention of
the ford in the clough between Richard's
field and the field of Robert son of Walter
de Greetby. Richard of the Cross in 1278
to the chaplain of Ormskirk's salary ;
Excb. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc.), 118. The
Roll of i 38 1 ; Lav Subs. Lanes, bdle. I 30,
n. 24.
The Crosses of Wigan and Liverpool
may be descended from this family ; see
Crosse D. Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),
the Knowsley Deeds, bdle. 24, ». 13, ,4.
The terms of the will are : ' To Charles
Stanley, eldest son of Thomas Stanley,
late of Cross Hall, deceased .... the
whole messuage of Cross Hall and all and
every messuage thereunto belonging ....
and from and after the decease of the said
that he had dispossessed Richard de
Crosse of Lathom had a house and land
the said Charles and heirs male in tail-
Lathom; Assize R. 1238, m. 34 d. In
1291 Robert son of Richard le Waleys,
and his brothers Henry and Adam, com-
plained that Richard le Waleys and others
had disseised them of a messuage and land
in Lathom, and the jurors endorsed their
Chan. R. n. 3, § in. See also Exch.
Misc. vol. 90, 233 (23 Edw. III).
8 Though not expressly named it ap-
pears to have been included in the grant
of the site and lands of the priory ; see
the account of Burscough.
Thomas and to James, the younger sons
of Thomas Stanley (described as Sir
Thomas) ; and then to Sir Edward Stanley
of Preston. To the last-named were be-
queathed all honours, castles, manors,
lands, tenements, &c., except Cross Hall,
son of Richard ' le Jeuene ' of the Cross
claimed certain land (30 acres) in Lathom
from Jordan de Kenyon ; Assize R. 408,
m. 99.
6 See the account of Prescot church.
6 Assize R. 423, m. 2. The estate
it described as a messuage, 2 plough-lands
complaint by Jane Stanley, widow of
Henry Stanley, of Cross Hall, gives
some account of the tenure. The earl
of Derby in March, 1 162, leased the
Cross Hall and the windmill there, also
the Edgeacres, Greetby Wood, &c. to Sir
George Stanley, from whom it came to
and the next presentation to Winwick
Dr. Thomas Stanley was father of an-
other Thomas, who was knight of the
shire (Whig) from 178010 1812; Pink
and Beavan, op. cit. 87. A younger son,
James, was grandfather of the present
owner, who for many years represented
the Bridgwater division of Somerset.
255
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the property of the trustees of the late Charles Scaris-
Westhead was apparently occupied by small free-
holders from early times.1 A grant made by Robert
de Lathom in 1292-3 to Robert, his tailor, probably
refers to land here.3
The lands of several persons in Lathom were con-
fiscated and sold by the Parliament in 1652: John
Wainwright, John Gregson, Richard Moss (a skinner),
George Rigmaiden, and William Speakman.4 John
Speakman of Scarisbrick, as a ' Papist,' registered an
estate here and at Ormskirk in 1717 ; and John
Stock one here and at Newburgh.5
In 1792 the principal contributor to the land tax
was R. Wilbraham Bootle ; the others included
T. Stanley of Cross Hall, W. Hill of Blythe Hall,
Mr. Ashton's heirs and W. Johnson's heirs.
An Enclosure Act for Lathom and Skelmersdale was
passed in 1778."
NEWBURGH village is on elevated ground, sloping
LATHOM CHAPEL
B 1500 I I modern
to north and east down to the Douglas ; on the south
the ground rises gently. The annual cattle fair, held
on 20 June and made free in 1853, has lost much of
its old prestige, but it is still celebrated with a great
ingathering of the country-side for the amusements
provided. The stalls and booths are erected on the
village green, on a little knoll where are some remains
of the ancient cross. ' Fairing cakes,' like Eccles
cakes, are made and sent to friends. The weekly
market has been discontinued. The old schoolhouse,
built in 1714, stands at the west end of the village/
A court-leet is still held.8
A mock corporation — probably a relic of the
ancient borough— once held its meetings here. The
custom was for the villagers to assemble annually round
the village cross and elect a new mayor. The last
minute book, 1827-32, is extant.
A century ago the best cheese in the country was
made here and at Leigh. There seems also to have
been a small pottery.*
The name indicates that a borough had been
formed. In 1385, Isabel, widow of Thomas de
Lathom, had a rent of 8 marks of the freeholders of
Newburgh as part of her dower right.10 The accounts
of the Derby estates during the minority of Edward,
third earl of Derby, show that the ancient
burgagerent was is."
The manor became distinct from Lathom
30 and has remained with the earls of Derby
The school at Newburgh was founded in
1714 by the Rev. Thomas Crane.
L4THOM CHAPEL is a picturesque
little building of c. 1500, in plan a plain
rectangle 20 ft. wide internally by 61 ft. long.
The east gable and five-light window remain
unaltered, but the north and south walls are
hidden by a coating of modern cement, and
the windows are all modernized, with wooden
mullions and plain four-centred heads. The
west wall is partly hidden by the almshouse
buildings, and is surmounted by an octagonal
bell-turret with embattled cornice and short
octagonal spirelet, capped by a stone ball in
place of its original finial. The internal fittings of
the church are modern, of the style of the early
Gothic revival, with pulpit, reading-desk, and lectern
to the west of a chancel screen with two rows of
plain stalls, and at the west end an organ gallery
1 In 1278 Robert de Lathom, lent., re-
leased John of the Cross and his heirs from
the obligatory office of receiver, reeve, and
tofore used ; and about the same time
granted to him land in Lathom which
Simon of the Cross had formerly held,
being half the land within bounds begin-
the messuage called Cross Place in West-
head, Margery relict of Peter Collay
joining in the release. In 1468 the feof-
fees of John Wodward delivered the estate
to Ralph Wodward for life, with remain-
der to his heirs. To this deed Oskell
Lathom, chaplain, and Thomas Lathom
his brother are witnesses ; D. in poss. of
Scarisbrick Trs. Ralph Woodward, gent.
Cecily, wife of Richard son of John
Wilkemogh of Skelmersdale ; Final Cone.
'* Index of Royalist! (Index Soc.), 41-4.
* Eng. Cat/!. Non-jurors, 148, 108.
• The award, made in 1781, is preserved
at Preston.
1 Inside the building is a brass plate
with inscription commemorating the
the moss, following the brook to ' le
Clowe,' which was the boundary against
the land of Robert le Walcys, thence by
'le Clogh' to 'le Hacchys,' and by the
same to the ditches and to Dcpedale, follow-
William earl of Derby, in socage for bd.
yearly ; In?. f. m. (Rec. Soc.), iii, 347.
Ralph Woodward, grandson of the above,
entered his pedigree in the Visit, of
1664-5 i Chet. Soc. Ixxxviii, 336
8 Twelve members are elected every
seven years, including an ale-taster and
window-looker. Court Rolls are pre-
served at Knowsley.
9 The above account is taken from
named boundary, for 6J. yearly rent, with
common rights, and mastfall for his swine
except in Burscough Park.
In 1 367 William of the Cross of Lathom
settled his estates in Lathom upon himself
for life, with remainder to his son Thomas
and his issue by his wife Agnes, daughter
of Alan de Fourokeshagh. Agnes was
living a widow in 1410, when Peter
Collay, in right of his wife Margery, was
entitled to the estates. In 1440 Ellen
relict of Richard Wodward of Shevington
released in her son Alexander Wodward
of a chaplain at Ormskirk in 1366 con-
tains nearly a hundred names of those
living in « Westhead and Lathom ' ; among
them being Hubert, Robert, and John del
Westhead ; Excb. Lay Safe. 118.
8 The boundaries began at the Castle-
gate siche on the west, then by the field of
Ameria del Marhalge to Stephen Long-
wood's land, and by other fields and
ditches to the Kirkgate, by which the
starting point was reached. This Robert
may be the Robert del Westhead who in
1313 made a settlement upon his daughter
256
of the Douglas Valley,' in Trans. Hist.
Soc. (New Ser.), xv, 193-8.
i» Duchy of Lane. Cal. of Chan. R.
n. 3 § 103. As this rent included the
issues of numerous small holdings in
addition to the burgages it is not possible
11 Duchy Compotus R. of 13-14
Hen. VIII. The rent of burgages in
Newburgh, payable at St. Barnabas',
amounted to £6 01. zd. It has been
stated above that Lathom fair was held
at Newburgh on St. Barnabas'* day.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
carried by iron columns, with a plain octagonal font
beneath it.
The chapel forms the north-east angle of a group
of buildings, a row of almshouses adjoining it on the
west, and a vestry and school building on the south-
east. It is to be noted that the centre of the east
window is 9 in. to the south of the centre line of the
chapel, the error being probably one of setting-out
only, but there may have been some reason for it,
such as to provide extra space for the niche holding
the statue of the patron saint, which would be set up
on the north side of the window.
A chantry was founded in the new chapel at
Lathom,to which a hospital was attached, by Thomas
second earl of Derby in 1500.' In 1509 it was
formally sanctioned by the bishop of Lichfield, the
chapel to be consecrated by Huan, bishop of Sodor.2
In 1548 the priest, John Moody, was fulfilling his
duties according to the founder's wishes, and as the
chapel was three miles from the parish church of
Ormskirk he had licence to minister sacraments and
sacramentals there for the benefit of the neighbour-
hood.3
The foundation, so far as concerned the almshouse,
either escaped destruction in 1 547-8 or was soon
refounded. In 1614 it was described as a 'small
chapel to Ormskirk,' served by ' a curate with a
small pension.' 4 The minister has usually been styled
the Almoner. In 1650 the almsmen sent to the
Parliamentary Commissioners a protest against the
confiscation of their endowment, although it was
derived from lands of the earl of Derby.5
In October, 1686, an inquiry was held at Wigan
as to the earl of Derby's right to dismiss the master
or almoner ; William Norris, clerk, who had been
frequently absent from duty and otherwise neglectful,
claiming a freehold. The earl's right appears to have
been upheld.6
ORMSKIRK
In 1827 the Charity Commissioners found that
thirteen poor persons by ancient custom received
£•} 6s. yearly apiece ; six of these pensioners lived in
the almonry. The chapel attached was a domestic
chapel, but was attended by residents in the neigh-
bourhood who had permission to do so. The
minister was nominated by the owner of Lathom
House ; the bishop of the diocese had no juris-
diction.'
A settlement of the endowment was made in 1845,
when a rent-charge of £145, issuing from a messuage
called Pennington in Upholland, was granted. There
are thirteen pensioners, each receiving £•$ 6s. a year ;
the chapel clerk has £3, and the chaplain or almoner
the rest. The chapel is used for ordinary services as
well as a domestic chapel.8
The church of St. John the Baptist stands at
Burscough Bridge, but is situated on the Lathom side
of the township boundary. It was begun in 1827
and opened in 1832, the cost being defrayed partly
by a parliamentary grant.9 The district chapelry was
constituted in 1 847. '" St. James's, Lathom, was built
in 1850 by the earl of Derby ; a district chapelry
was assigned to it ten years later." Christ Church,
Newburgh, was built in 1857, and a new parish was
formed in 1871."
There are Wesleyan chapels at Hoscar Moss and
Moss Lane, but the Independent chapel formerly at
Ashbrow, Newburgh, has disappeared.
Burscough Hall, now belonging to St. John's Roman
Catholic church, is said to have taken its name from
the Burscough family.'3 The house, in the seventeenth
century the property of the Longs," recusants, was in
1667 granted to Peter Lathom of Bispham, founder of
the now very important Lathom charity, who early in
1700 leased it for 999 years at a rent of £10 to John
Heyes.u This was in trust for the mission. About this
time Thomas Gorsuch, eldest son of James Gorsuch, of
1 Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), 106 ;
the priest was to celebrate there
for the souls of the earl and his
ancestors, and eight old men were to
be bedemen to pray for the same ; he
was to pay each of the bedemen iJ. a
day for sustenance, and have the balance
of the revenues. The foundation is men-
wait on them. The alms appear to have
been the Holland dole formerly distri-
buted at Upholland Priory previous to the
dissolution of the religious houses. See
V.C.H. Lanes, ii, 'Religious Houses';
Duchy of Lane. Rentals, bdle. 5, n. 12.
Some small addition had been made to
the endowment. See Royalist Camp. P. ii,
143-7. In l646 an order had been
made for £50 a year to be paid to the
minister at Lathom out of Lord Derby's
sequestrated tithes; Plund. Mins. Accts.
i, 30. See also Commonwealth Church
Survey (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 91.
Mr. Henry Hill, ' an orthodox and godly
painful minister,' was in charge.
13 Land. Gaa. 1 6 May, 1871. The
earl of Derby is patron.
IS In Towneley MS. OO are some
deeds relating to the Burscoughs, who
had lands in Westhead and elsewhere in
Lathom. Richard de Burscough and
Katherine his wife in 1371 were re-
feoffed by their trustees, and in 1393
Richard, son of Richard de Burscough,
and Ellen his wife, daughter of Roger de
Bispham, were similarly endowed, nn.
1262, 1255. The next deeds relate to
settlements made by Thomas de Bur-
scough in 1458 and later, from which it
appears that his wife was named Alice,
and his children were Gilbert, Margaret,
Maud, Joan, and Catherine; n. 1249, &c.
quoted.
2 Ibid, (quoting Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-
xiv, 95). The prior of Burscough had
signified his assent.
> Ibid. 107-9. The rental, derived
from various scattered holdings in Cop-
pull, Heath Charnock, Culcheth, Melling,
&c., amounted to £16 191. ;</. The
valuation of 1534 was only £4 6». 8rf.,
Ralph Webster was then chantry priest ;
Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 223.
charge of a master or governor ; the lands
consisted of two and a half acres adjacent
to the almshouse and six acres in Horscar
Burscough received from his feoffees his
lands in Lathom and Burscough ; ibid. it.
1806. Gilbert Burscough and Eleanor
afterwards (1698) bishop of Man, was at
one time in charge.
* The rents at that time amounted to
about £25 a year, and there were six or
seven acres of land belonging to the alms-
house. The tradition was that the
original foundation had been at Uphol-
land, and was due to the Levels ; and
that after the Level manors were granted
to the earls of Derby the almshouse was
removed to Lathom. No evidence of
this was produced, but it was proved that
for at least thirty years the bailiff of
Holland had paid £25 a year to the
almshouse, in which there were ten alms-
men governed by a minister called the
3
paid from Upholland, and certain lands at
Christleton and Littleton, near Chester,
also belonged to the place, the total in-
come being £46 9s. ±d. The earls of
Derby had at their own pleasure appointed
or removed the almsmen and also the
master ; End. Char. Rep. 1899 (Ormskirk),
63 ; Gastrell, Notitia, ii, 201.
^ End. Char. Rep. 1899 (Ormskirk), 17
(from the report of 1828). Full details
are given. » Ibid. p. 64.
>> Baines' Lanes, (ist ed.) iv, 258.
1° Land. Gaz. 3 Aug. 1 847. The vicar
of Ormskirk is patron.
" LW. Gaz. 10 Mar. 1860. The
vicar of Ormskirk is patron.
257
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 12, m. 25.
For Gilbert's will see Wills (Chet. Soc.
New Ser.), i, 203.
» Henry Long, son of Elizeus Long
and Alice Ashton, entered the English
College at Rome in 1659 ; in reply to
the usual inquiries he stated that 'his
parents were of the middle class, had
been always Catholic, and had suffered
much for their religion. He had two
brothers and one sister ; he was never a
heretic, and made his humanity studies in
England ' ; Foley, Rec. SJ. vi, 399.
is Gillow, Bit/. Diet, of Eng. Catholics,
iv, 324; Char. Rep. 0/1828, xv, 129
(Croston parish).
33
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Scarisbrick, was tenant. It has been used continually
for religious purposes since that time.1 The first
priest known to have resided here with any regularity
was James Gorsuch.8 In 1759 the chapel in the house
was improved at a cost of £80. The present chapel
and presbytery, near the old hall, were built about
1819 by William Coghlan, son of the publisher, he
himself giving about a third of the total cost, £1,520.
The church has since been altered and improved.3
There is a cemetery attached, consecrated in 1890.
BURSCOUGH
Burgastud, c . 1190; Burgche stude, Boureghe stide,
Burrestude, Burgaschou, Borchestuoe, early xiii cent. ;
Burcho, Burscho, Burschou, Borescou, later xiii cent. ;
Buresco, 1235 ; Burschehou, 1241 ; Burschou, 1303 ;
Burschogh, 1324; Burscogh, 1327. Sometimes the
first letters are transposed, as Bruscow for Burscow.
This township extends northward from Ormskirk
about 4^ miles. The northern half is, properly speak-
ing, the demesne of Martin or Marton ; but this name
has long since fallen into disuse, though Martin Hall
and Martin Mere preserve it. Bordering on the mere
is the hamlet of Tarlscough. The area is 4,960
acres.4 The population in 1901 was 2,752. The
highest ground lies on the south, where Greetby Hill
(1776.) stands at the meeting point of the three
townships of Lathom, Ormskirk, and Burscough. The
main road through the township is the Liverpool and
Preston road, running north-westward ; there are
numerous cross roads. The Leeds and Liverpool
Canal passes through the township from east to west,
and at the point where the highway crosses it a village
has grown up, called Burscough Bridge, but as the road
is here the boundary between this township and
Lathom, the village lies partly in both. The railway
from Liverpool to Preston runs parallel to the main
road and to the east of it, with a station at Burscough
Bridge ; at this point also there is a junction with the
railway from Southport to Wigan, which crosses the
township to the north of the canal and has a station
called New Lane. Burscough village lies to the south
of the above.
In Burscough the sites of several ancient crosses are
known. Manor House Cross stood between Lathom
and Martin ; Burscough Priory Cross was to the
south, and Pippin Street Cross to the north of the
priory ; Bathwood Cross near the boundary of Bur-
scough and Lathom. The pedestal of the second of
these remains.6
For local government purposes Burscough is joined
with Lathom.
In common with adjacent districts the surface is
very flat, whilst the country is portioned out into both
pasture and arable fields, where the principal crops
raised are potatoes, wheat, and oats. The northern
part embraces a portion of land originally covered by
the waters of Martin Mere. An effective system ot
drainage and constant pumping operations keep the
ground from becoming once more inundated. The
soil consists of peat, in places, and sand, whilst the clay
in parts of the district is used in the manufacture of
bricks and tiles ; the tall chimneys of several brick-
works being prominent features of a landscape but
barely clad with timber. The geological formation
consists of the upper mottled sandstone of the bunter
series of the new red sandstone, with a small over-
lying patch of lower keuper sandstone immediately
around Martin Hall.
There are steam flour mills here. Formerly there
was cotton spinning.
Theearliest mention of BURSCOUGH
MANORS is in the foundation charter of the
priory granted by the lord of Lathom
in or about ilSg.6 At that time some clear-
ing of the woodland had probably commenced
by the course of Eller Brook where it was crossed
by the road from Alton in Lathom to Hurleton ;
and the canons, fixing their residence to the north-
west of the ford at this point, would continue
the improvement of the land.7 During the tenure ot
the place by the canons its history was uneventful.
Some families in the neighbourhood acquired lands in
it, and one or more took the local name ; thus Richard
son of John de Burscough sued Robert de Lathom in
i 292 concerning a tenement here, but was non-suited.8
The prior of Burscough appears as plaintiff or de-
fendant in suits from time to time, sometimes as land-
owner, at others as trustee, but there are no points of
interest.9
After the dissolution in I 536 the manor remained
for ten years or more in the king's hands, and the
accounts which have been preserved throw some light
on its value and previous management, and likewise
record the tenants' names.10 The first grant by the
i Eng. Cath. Non-jurors, 108.
a Several times mentioned in N. Blun-
dell's Diary, from 1712 to 1726.
8 The above particulars are from the
Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1892, where the suc-
in exchange for land in the town of
Walton Lees (in Dalton) ; she gave the
holme by the land of Richard the Smith,
together with the water-course, for the
site of a mill. Burscough Reg. fol. 9, 8i,
234. Benedict the prior confirmed to
Wigan v. the Prior and others ; De Bane.
R. 21, m. 1 8. Ralph de Hengham v. the
Prior and others, plea of debt ; De Bane.
R. I53,m.435</. toR. 164, m.252. The
Prior -u. Gilbert the goldsmith and Chris-
tiana his wife ; De Bane. R. 273, m. 104 ;
< 4,965, including eighteen of inland
water; Census of 1901.
5 H. Taylor in Lanes, and Cbes. Antiq,
S«. xix, 150-3.
An old cottage is described in Addy's
Evolution of the House, p. 48.
which Henry had bought from Sir Robert
de Lathom in the underwood of Bur-
scough, lying between Burnards Castle and
other land purchased from Sir Robert ;
ibid. 26. Henry, son of Swain de Bur-
scough (or de Hurleton), gave the canons
Prior, withholding bonds ; De Bane. R.
276, m. 144 to R. 282, m. 39. And
similar cases.
In 1442 Thomas and Henry Becon-
saw of Burscough were charged with
stealing forty bream, the prior's property,
Lanes. Fife R. 349, from the Burscough
Reg. fol. i, 56. See also Inj. and
Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 16.
An account of the priory will be found in
V.C.H. Lanes, ii, ' Religious Houses.'
the Burnelds gate for the health of the soul
of King John and for the soul of Richard,
late lord of Lathom ; ibid. 9*. He also
gave three large and good acres of land
bounded by ditches and four crosses, these
10 The priory rental of 1512 continued
in u«e, the necessary corrections being
made from time to time, though another
was compiled in 1524. Duchy of Lane.
quoted : — Emma, daughter of Siward, son
of Swain, had land between the highway
of Wirples moss and the brook, adjoining
land of Henry her brother, which her son,
Robert de Burscough, gave to the canons
Meangate close of Ormsdyke ; ibid. 9A.
8 Assize R. 408, m. 54 d. See also the
account of Burscough Hall in Lathom.
» Executors of the will of Nicholas de
258
sixty tenancies at will— Thomas Such,
231. ^d. &c. ; and mentions Debdale,
Dam head, Bild acre, Bradshaw ees,
Dowe acre, Mere hey, and Batel
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
crown was made in May, I 547, to Sir William Paget ;
it included the site of the priory, all the demesne lands,
Martin Grange, rights of pasture, fishing, mills, and so
forth ; but no mention is made of manorial rights.1
Shortly afterwards (1549) the grantee sold the estate
to the earl of Derby, from whom it has descended to
the present earl.2 The manor was granted in August,
1560, to Sir George Stanley of Cross Hall, in reward
for the 'great, painful, and valiant service' done by
him in the wars in Ireland and foreign countries.3
After his death (1570) it passed to his sons, Edward,
who died in 1576, and Henry, who died in 1590
without male issue, when it reverted to the crown. It
was in 1591 granted to the earl of Derby,4 and has
since passed with the earldom. In 1651, when the
rights of the crown were in the hands of trustees for
the Commonwealth, a report was made that certain
profits had never been attended to or collected.5
Immediately after the surrender it was ordered that
the buildings of the priory should be demolished. The
earl of Derby was very reluctant to destroy the church,
his ancestors having been buried there, and offered to
maintain a priest if permission were granted.6 This
must have been denied as the buildings have been
demolished, the only conspicuous fragments now re-
maining being the northern piers of the central tower ;
portions of old walls remain just below the surface of
the ground. In 1886 a systematic exploration of the
ground on which the church stood was carried out, and
many interesting details and remains of the building
were found.7
ORMSKIRK
The church was cruciform with a presbytery 42 ft.
by 24 ft. ; central tower 22 ft. 6 in. square ; north
transept 26ft. 6 in. by 25ft. 6 in. ; south transept
24ft. by 23 ft. ; and nave looft. by 24ft. gin. with
a north aisle 1 2 ft. wide. On the south side of the
nave were the claustral buildings, the cloister being
about 67 ft. square. The eastern and southern ranges
were not cleared, but the approximate size of the frater,
54ft. by 21 ft. was ascertained by sounding with a
bar. About half the western range was uncovered,
and the foundations of a building were cleared adjoin-
ing the north side of the north transept. The parts
now above ground are the north-east and north-west
piers of the central tower of the church, which stand
to some height above the springing of the crossing
arches, though the voussoirs of the arches themselves
have been removed. The work is plain but good in
design and workmanship, its date being c. 1280, and
both transepts and the presbytery appear to have been
of the same date.
Whether any part of the older church was discovered
is not stated, but the gap between the east wall of the
cloisters and the south transept suggests that the former
is on the site of the twelfth-century cloister, and pre-
served the old arrangement after the eastward enlarge-
ment of the church c. 1280. The plan of the nave
also may represent that of the twelfth-century church.
A careful and complete excavation of the site is much
to be desired.
Court rolls of the period during which the manor
was held by the crown have been preserved. In I 536
holme ; John Scarisbrick on account of
Burscough mill paid 335. 4^. The free
tenants, who paid small quit-rents, usually
sub-let their holdings ; thus Thomas
Atherton paid izJ. for Shakelady hey by
Hugh Hulme, and Lord Derby paid 31.
for Edgeacre hey by the wife of Hugh
Shaw and Henry Burscough.
The survey made immediately after the
suppression (Duchy of Lane. Wins. Accts.
entry to lands, heriots and reliefs, 'top
and crop ' of trees and barks felled in the
woods, or additional rents for improve-
ments.
1 Duchy of Lane. lib. Edw. VI. xxiii,
fol. II. All was to be held by the yearly
rent of 281. t,d. The lands, late in the
tenure or occupation of Edward, earl of
Derby, are specially mentioned.
are vividly described in a subsequent
letter. Countercharges of waste were
made by Stopford, who was farmer at
Martin Grange under the earl of Derby ;
he confessed that he had had timber from
Walshaw and Tarlscough for his house and
more from the hedgerows, which he
claimed for ploughbote and cartbote ;
Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. Misc. bdle.
158, n. 30.
ment of the demesne lands and crops and
stock upon them. There were meadows
and pastures called Cow hey, Battleholme
or Batterholme, Bradshaw, Marsh, High-
field, Corse hey, Crooked Acres, and Aspen
site, circuit, ambit, and precinct ' of the
priory, messuages, tofts, gardens, orchards,
acres of land, with 'meadow and o'ther
lands including 10,000 acres of moor,
Stanley, cut down an ash tree in 1575,
but Robert Prescott and others refused to
allow it to be carried away ; he said his
father had planted it ' for the safeguard of
the house,' having held the premises on
oats, Sandycroft with rye, and Bankfield
with oats and barley. Walshc hey wood
contained oak saplings, ashes, and under-
wood ; Tarlscough wood, oak saplings ;
Greetby wood, oaks, * spires,' and ashes.
The windmill, water-mill and fishing in
Martin mere were in the prior's hands.
The only wheat growing mentioned was
in the Mill field of eight acres, ' whereof
four be sown with wheat and four lie
leye.' There was common pasture in
Tarlscough moss, alias ' Wirpulles ' moss,
and in Hitchcock moss.
The first year's account of the profits
Martin mere. Exactly the same property
seems to have been again granted to
William Tipper and others in 1588 ; Pat.
R. 30 Eliz. pt. i6,ii.
8 Quoted in the pleadings and in the
subsequent patent. There was an annual
rent of £46 51. 7d. payable for it.
<Pat. R. 33 Eliz. pt. 5, m. 34; ,ee
also Lanci. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 3 1 ; Royalist Comf. Papers
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 122, &c.
The grant was to Henry, earl of Derby
and the heirs male of his body, at the
same rent as before.
Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. xcviii, S. 4. Henry
Stanley, younger son of Sir George, in
1586, wished to build a house upon land
which the tenants of the manor claimed
as part of the common. They accord-
ingly assembled on Hitchcock moss,
pulled down the portion erected and burnt
the frame timber and trees collected •„
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxl.
8.19.
5 Aug. Parl. Surveys, Lane. 6. These
profits are described as ' all manner of re-
liefs, escheats, goods, and chattels of
felons and fugitives ' which had been ex-
Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 136, „. 2198.
The assize or quit-rents of the free
375. njrf. Then follow the rents of
tenants by indenture and at will. In these
cases the indentures are recited at length ;
they provide for an annual rent and a
henot at death, e.g. 'the second best
animal or 6.. 8</.' The total of these
was £32 7». 7d. The demesne lands
had now been let for £14. 41. iJ. Later
accounts (nn. 2205, &c.) record the profits
putes occurred from time to time as to
manorial rights. In 1543 John Whit-
tington, keeper of the woods, reported
that William Stopford had taken six trees
to make a new window in the side of his
house and for other repairs ; he had also
'discharged' the king's tenants of the
hay and ' skowre ' for their cattle they
used to have in summer in the prior's
time, so that they would be unable to
keep a plough and pay their rents. A
privy seal was sent to William Stopford,
also timber trees, pollards, saplings, and
dotterels in Burscough wood.
6 Derby Correspondence (Chet. Soc.
NewSer.), 128. Leland's brief note (Inn.
vii, 46) mentions the burial place of the
Stanleys.
7 The exploration was made at the ex-
pense of the earl of Derby, under the
direction of Mr. James Bromley. The
latter's account of the discoveries, with
plan and numerous drawings, is printed in
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser ), v, 1 27-46 </.
259
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the tenants claimed that they had by custom a bull, a
boar, and a stallion, found by the priory, and they
desired its continuance. They had ' followed scythe
and sickle ' with their cattle in the pastures until
Candlemas, and in return they had given a hen for
every cow, and calf calved.1
The lands of John Fletcher of Burscough were con-
fiscated by the Parliament and sold in 1652 ; this
JURSCOUCH PRIORY CHURCH : NORTHERN PIERS OF
THE CROSSING
seems to have been for recusancy only.* In 1717
estates in the township were registered by William
Bradshaw, Richard Cropper, George Culcheth, and
Edward Tristram of Ince Blundell, as ' Papists.'3
John Houghton in 1733 left £10 for building a
public school on the brow near the pinfold, and £100
as endowment.4
The reference in Domesday to M4RTIN* shows
that before 1066 one-half of it had been united to
Harleton ; 6 the other half is not mentioned, but it
had probably been merged in Lathom. It is this
latter portion which was bestowed by Robert de
Lathom upon the newly-founded priory of Burscough
in 1189,' and which apparently is the 'plough-land'
referred to in the survey of 1212 as thus granted.8 It
appears, however, that the same Robert de Lathom
had already granted land here to his nephew (nefos)
Henry, from whom it descended
to Henry de Radcliffe. The
latter exchanged it for lands
in Oswaldtwisle held by his
brother Matthew,9 whose son
Richard about 1240 resigned
Martin to the prior and canons
of Burscough.10 After its ac-
quisition by the canons, this
half of the original Martin be-
came part of Burscough ; yet
as late as 1366 the whole is
called Burscough-with-Martin."
Agreements were made in the
latter part of the thirteenth
century as to the boundaries between Burscough and
Martin on the one side and Scarisbrick and Harleton
on the other. These were supplemented by others a
century later.12 Martin Grange was retained by the
canons among their demesne properties, and the earl
of Derby had rented it of the king's commissioners
in I538.13 Others of their lands there had been
leased out just in the same way as those in Burscough
described above.14
In 1612 Martin Hall or Grange was granted to John
Breres of Martin, who appears to have sold it to the
Wrightingtons of Wrightington, under whom he
became tenant.15 It descended with the Wrightington
estates until recently, when it was sold to the earl of
Derby.
In 1694 an Act was passed for ratifying and con-
firming an indenture of lease of Martin Mere, made
by the earl of Derby to Thomas Fleetwood.18
There is a Wesleyan chapel at Burscough.
WRIGHTINGTON or
a chevron argent between
three cross crosslcts fickle
1 The series extends from 28 Hen. VIII
(from which the above quotation is made)
to 42 Eliz. ; Duchy of Lane. Ct. R. bdle
lands here had assumed the name of the
place. Thus Henry, son of Hugh de
Merton, gave to Stephen his son and heir
agreed that Thoraldstub in Malle Lane
should be the boundary between Ormskirk
and Harleton ; from this the bounds
onwards are at Knowsley.
* Index of Royalists, 42 ; Cal. Com. for
Camp, iv, 2924.
3 Eng. Cath. Nonjurors, 127, III, 126.
« End. Char. Rep. Ormskirk, 1899,
pp. 9, 57, 58.
s Merretun, Dom. Bk.; Mereton, 1205;
he held in Martin from the priory for the
rent of ^ Ib. pepper, ^ Ib. cummin, and
3</. The Oatcroft, ' Migge halch,' and
the Plox riding are mentioned. Duchy
of Lane. Cart. Misc. I, fol. 19.
11 Exch. Lay Subs. 1332 (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 115; there ii a long
Simon Tope, at which the last agreement
had started. From Deepdale, where it
ended, the boundaries were fixed to
Martin Pool and on to the great lake, so
that the plot of waste between Blake-
lache and Martin Pool was divided between
the parties, certain common rights being
1398; Marton, 1494.
6 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*.
^ He gave 'the whole vill of Martin
with all its appurtenances in wood and
plain, in meadows and feeding grounds,
together with Tarlscough and all other
easements' ; Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 350.
8/B?. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 16.
9 Matthew de Martin paid J mark to
the scutage in 1205-6; Farrer, Lanes.
Pipe R. 205. His heir offered 20 marks
for his relief in 1 210-11 ; ibid. 242.
I" Duchy of Lane. Anct. D. L6i2 and
L6i3. The grant was made as an alms,
and included the suit and sequel of two
men Swain son of Dunning and Peter
concerning land here in 1349, Challes v.
Pettit, see De Bane. R. 358, m. 64^. ;
360, m. 52 rf.
« Scarisbrick D. (Trans. Hist. Soc. New
Ser. xii, and xiii), m. 17, 44, 129, 133 ;
also Duchy of Lane. Anct. D. L592 ;
Burscough Reg. fol. 28. The first, made
about 1 260 between Prior Nicholas and
the lords of Scarisbrick and Harleton,
traced the boundary from the corner of the
ditch of Simon Tope, along the ditch in a
straight line to Blakebank below Bere-
waldishal (or -hul) and to Cundlache
Bridge, thence to Deepdale Head and to
Longshow Head, then to Hondelache, and
so to the starting point. The second was
and 1398 fixed the boundaries and pas-
ture rights more definitely,
is Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle.
136, n. 2198. Disputes concerning it
have already been related.
" Ibid.
«* Pat. R. ,o Jas. ., pt. ii, m. ,. ;
Commonwealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 90, 91. James Starkey
was there in 1682 ; Preston Guild R.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 195. M arti
Hall and the demesne, worth £80 a year,
occur in the Lanes. Forfeited Estates
Papers, 2 L.
l« 6 and 7 Will. HI, c. 15. This was
in connexion with the draining of the
About the same time a family holding
the lords of the same manors. It was
ngetseq.
260
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
ORMSKIRK
Ormeskierk, 1202; Ormeskirk, 1366; Ormiskirk,
i>54-
This township, surrounding the parish church, has
an area of only 572^ acres.1 The boundary on the
west is the Mere Brook dividing it from Aughton.
The fine old market- town of Ormskirk, noted for
its gingerbread, lies on sloping ground on the side of
a ridge, whose highest point is 254ft. above sea-level.
The small amount of open ground consists of pasture
and cultivated fields, bare and almost destitute of trees.
Two large water-works on Greetby Hill are prominent
features, but hardly add to the beauty of the neigh-
bourhood. The geological formation is similar to that
of the adjacent townships. The town has grown up
along the great road going north-west to Preston,
named at this point Aughton Street and Burscough
Street. At the market cross two other main roads
branch out ; Church Street leads north to the church,
and turning round its east end branches off towards
Scarisbrick and Halsall ; while Moor Street, leading
east, soon divides into roads leading to Bickerstafte and
Skelmersdale. The population in 1901 numbered
6,857.
The Liverpool and Preston Railway, opened in
1849, runs parallel to and on the east of the first-
named highway. The station stands in the other
main street of the town — Derby Street — parallel to
and on the north of Moor Street. The houses have
spread out to the east of the railway. A branch line
of the London and North-Western Railway connects
the town with St. Helens.
The market is held in Moor Street and Aughton
Street. A clock tower was built here in 1876,* and
the Corn Exchange was erected in 1896. In Moor
Street is a statue of the earl of Beaconsfield, erected in
1884. The Savings Bank dates from 1822 ; a library
was formed in 1854, and a working men's institute in
1867. Public pleasure grounds were opened in 1894.
The soil is chiefly mossy and sandy, and the subsoil
sand and clay.
The town is thus described by Leland, who visited
it about 1535 : — ' Ormskirk, a four miles or five miles
from Liverpool, and about a two miles from Lathom ;
a parish church in the town ; no river by it, but mosses
on each side.' 3 Camden, writing fifty or sixty years
later, merely says that it was ' a market town, famous
for the burial place of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby.' 4
A more vivid account of its state in 1598 is contained
in one of the pleadings in the Duchy Court, as
follows : — ' Ormskirk is a great, ancient, and very
populous town, and the inhabitants are very many,
and a great market is kept there weekly besides two
fairs every year ; and the Quarter Sessions are held
there twice a year, whereunto, as also to the church
there on Sundays, holidays, and other days to divine
ORMSKIRK
service, weddings, christenings and burials, and also
upon other great occasions, great multitudes of people
continually thither repair.'5
The Quarter Sessions were held in Ormskirk from
the time of Henry VIII onward until 1817, when
they were transferred to Liverpool.6 The ancient
market and fairs were conveniently situated for the
district, and have continued to the present day ; the
weekly market being held on Thursday, and the fairs
on Whit Monday and Tuesday and on 10 and 1 1
September.
During the Civil-War period Ormskirk was the
head quarters of the Parliamentary forces. At the
Restoration Charles II was twice proclaimed at the
market cross by John Entwisle, a prominent lawyer
and justice of the peace.7 Sir William Dugdale stayed
here in 1664, when engaged upon the work of his
visitation. References to it in the eighteenth century
show that it was a miniature capital for the district,
where public and private business could be transacted
and social meetings and entertainments arranged.
The Aughton races must have contributed to enliven
its social life. There was also a cockpit in the town.8
There yet remain, as inns, shops, or the like, some of
the eighteenth-century town houses of the families
who lived in the neighbourhood, plain but of good
proportion and detail, and often containing fittings
belonging to their better days. A good instance is
the Wheatsheaf Inn, formerly belonging to the Rad-
cliffes.
At the beginning of last century the place was
described as ' a clean, well-built market town.' Cotton-
spinning obtained a 'footing' here, but was abandoned,
and about 1830 silk-weaving also was attempted.9
About the same time hat-making was an important
industry, but this also has decayed.10
In 1635 Ormskirk was a seat of the glove trade."
Roperies and breweries are now the principal
industries, and there is an iron foundry ; while there
are market gardens around the town.12
The ducking-stool formerly stood in Aughton
Street, near the Mere Brook, but was removed in
1780. The dungeon and pillory were in the same
street. The stocks were kept in the tower of the
parish church, and when required for use were
erected by the church gates, or by the fish-stones
in Aughton Street.13
A number of books were published here early last
century.11 A newspaper, The Advertiser, was estab-
lished in 1853, and continues to be issued weekly on
Thursday.
The more noteworthy natives of the place include
Austin Nuttall, author of the Dictionary ; Alexander
Goss, Catholic bishop of Liverpool ; 15 and Robert
Harkness, a geologist.16 Of minor note was William
Hill, who discovered a mad-dog medicine which made
Ormskirk famous.17 What is known as the Ormskirk
1 574, including i acre of inland
water, according to the Census Rep. of
1901.
7 Par. Reg.
8 N. Blundell's Diary (1702-28) passim.
9 Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iv, 258.
Ushaw and Rome, became coadjutor to
Bishop Brown in 1853, and succeeded
him in 1856. Hediedin 1872. He had
the town by the earl of Derby, in 1684.
8 Leland, [tin. vii, 47.
4 Camden, Brit. (ed. 1695), 749.
5 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz.
clxxxvii, A. 43-
6 Duchy of Lane. Deposns. Hen. VIII,
xlviii, R. 2 ; Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS.
Com.), 153 ; information of the Clerk of
the County Council.
in balance-making.
11 Pal. Note Book, 1,213.
la The Directory of 1825 mentions
carrots and early potatoes as the distin-
guishing agricultural produce of the
neighbourhood.
18 Lea, Ormskirk Handbook, 6.
» The publisher was John Fowler.
1;' He was born in 1814, educated at
for the Chet. Soc. and another for the
Manx Society ; Gillow's Bibl. Diet. ofEngl.
Catholics, ii, 535.
«He was born in i8i6,and died in
October, 1878. He wrote, among other
essays, an account of the geology of
Ormskirk.
V Lea, op. cit. 15. He lived at the
'Hall' in Burscough Street.
26l
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
watch escapement was invented about 1700 by Peter
de Beaufre ; these watches were extensively made in
the town, and thence came the trade name.1
Several tokens were issued by tradesmen here in
the seventeenth century.1
' In the old coaching days Ormskirk was a centre
of great activity, the coaches on the turnpike road
between Liverpool and Preston halting in the town
for a " change " both for man and beast, and to set
down and pick up passengers.' 3 The Directory of
1825 enumerates twenty-seven inns here, and a list
of nine coaches passing through the town daily, or
starting from it.
' The Curfew bell is rung at nine in summer and
eight in winter . . . Within recent years there was
also continued to be rung, for six weeks before Christ-
mas and six weeks after, the bell known as the
" Prentice Bell." ' *
The market cross of Ormskirk stood on the site of
the present clock tower. Outside the town to the
north was Stockbridge Cross, the pedestal of which
remains.5
The legend as to the two sisters and the tower and
spire of the church is well known.6
There are two sundials in the churchyard, one
against the south wall, the other on a pillar by the
porch.
The head of a pike was dug up in the churchyard
in 1879.'
The plague or sweating sickness is said to have
visited the town several times during the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, the last occurrence being
in 1647. 'God's providence is our habitation' is
carved on the front of a house to the east of the town,
as a commemoration of the escape of its dwellers at
that time.8
The churchwardens' accounts of 1665 and 1666
record a number of small payments for repairs to the
church and its fittings ; also for the destruction of
' vermin,' including orchants (hedgehogs), planets
(magpies), gels (jays), and maulderts (moles).9
When about 1 1 89 the church was
MANOR given to the new priory of Burscough the
description used, ' the church of Orms-
kirk with all its appurtenances,' 10 suggests that there
was here a rectory manor, subordinate to Lathom, but
having distinct limits which probably coincided with
those of the present township."
In 1286 the canons obtained from the king and
from Edmund, earl of Lancaster, the grant of a weekly
market on Thursday at their manor or town of
Ormskirk, and an annual fair, to continue for five
days, commencing on the eve of the Decollation of
St. John Baptist (29 August). They were to pay
to the earl, by the hand of his bailiffs of Liver-
pool, a mark of silver every year, in lieu of the
stallage or toll payable to the earl." An additional
fair, on Whit Tuesday, was granted by Edward IV,
in 1461."
These charters were followed or
BOROUGH accompanied by the creation of Orms-
kirk into a free borough ; Warin,
prior of Burscough, and the canons granting that the
burgesses and their heirs should have a free borough
there for ever, as also ' all right customs and liberties
as is more fully contained in the King's Charter.'
Each burgess was to have an acre of land to his bur-
gage, with appurtenances, and to pay I zJ. a year ; his
corn was to be ground at the canons' mills ; he might
sell or grant his burgage as he pleased, provided that
the service due to Burscough was secured ; and the
court of pleas called Portman mote was to be held
every three weeks. The holder of a toft within the
borough was to pay 6J. a year for it.14 Many of the
gentry of the surrounding country possessed burgages
in the town, notably the lords of Lathom and Scaris-
brick and the canons of Burscough themselves, the
inhabitants — mercers, glovers, and other tradesmen —
1 Lane:, and Ches. Antiij. Sac. v, 87,
where six are described.
8 Lea, op. cit. n.
< Ibid. 52.
0 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 148,
154.
6 HarUnd and Wilkinson, Legends and
Traditions, 47.
1 Lea, op. cit. 58.
8 Lea, op. cit. 6.
9 Trans. Hist. Sue. xxx, 169, &c.
10 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 350.
» Some early charters concerning Orms-
kirk and Burscough have been preserved.
Henry son of Thomas de Ormskirk re-
leased to the prior and canons the land his
father had held of them, and placed him-
self under the jurisdiction of the arch-
deacon of Chester, under a penalty of
5 marks payable to the fabric of
St. John's Church at Chester. Burscough
Reg. fol. 12. Henry de Ormskirk, son of
Alan, sometime canon of Burscough, for
5 J
rks sterlin
remainder to his sister Beatrice ; this
grant to hold good even should the house
be removed, re-dedicated, or placed in
subjection to some other house. Duchy
of Lane. Anct. D. L. 270. This appears
to be the original grant of the lands called
Edgeacres and Ashenhead. Alice or Avice,
formerly wife of Henry dc Ashenhead —
possibly the same Henry — released to the
prior and canons her late husband's lands
in Ormskirk in exchange for a grant to
her and Alan her son (for life) of land in
Brackenthwaite ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi,
App. 197. Alan, the son, gave a similar
release. Ibid.
5ugh, widow, gave in free
alms to the canons all her right in Gerstan
(in Ormskirk), the bounds of which began
by the land of Ralph son of Alexander,
went down by the ditches as far as the
ditch of Ashenhead (Asseneheved), and by
that ditch as far as Lydeyate, thence in a
straight line to the boundary of Birklands,
Ormskirk, with homages, services, and
reliefs. Deft. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 196.
This is no doubt the land in Ormskirk
and Edgeacres of which the grant to
Henry is extant. Alan the clerk having
. become a brother of the house, Henry
the prior and the convent, with the con-
sent of Robert de Lathom, gave his land
to Henry his son, for a rent of lid. with
Lane. Anct. D. ^589. The seal has a
fleur-de-lys, with the legend s' MARGERIE
DE PARIS. Margery, widow of John de
Paris, quitclaimed to the canons about
1 280 all her right in her late husband's
holding j Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App.
Derby Street.
12 The king's charter, dated 28 Apr
1 286, is copied in the Burscough Registe
262
fol. 13 ; also Chart. R. 14 Edw. I, m. 4,
n. 23, and Add. MS. 20518. The earl's
Charter, 29 September, 1286, is among
the Duchy of Lane. Misc. Charters, i,
fol. 45.
ls Duchy of Lane. Royal Charters,
n. 385. There was expressly added the
measures and weights in the town of
Ormskirk.
14 Burscough Reg, fol. 15. In 1292 the
prior was called upon to show by what
warrant he claimed market and fair in
Ormskirk. On producing the charter it
was argued that it did not justify him in
claiming fines nor breach of the assize of
bread and ale : the jury, however, upheld
his reply that the words, ' all the liberties
and free customs ' of such a market and
fair, were sufficient warrant. Plae. dt
qua tTarr. (Rec. Com.), 370. Subse-
plaining that the market and fair injured
him by reducing his toll of the wapentake,
secured an additional J mark a year from
the canons. Thus in 1322 the sum of
201. was paid by them; Dods. MSS.
cxxxi, fol. 36*. A further confirmation
of the rights of the priory regarding the
market and fair of Ormskirk was ob-
tained from Henry, earl of Lancaster, in
one in 1354 from his son Henry after he
had been created duke of Lancaster ; Bur-
scough Reg. fol. 14.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED ORMSKIRK
holding under them.1 In 1357 Thomas de Sutton was rendered to the king by his bailiff, giving full
and Godith his wife purchased from Hugh the Cloth- details of tenants and services.18 The subsidy rolls also
seller and Quenilda his wife, and Richard the Stringer supply lists of the inhabitants.13
and Margery his wife, a messuage here ; * and other The ma:
similar acquisitions are recorded.* The borough
seems to have become extinct before the sixteenth
century.
The Crosse family had lands in Ormskirk at an
early date,4 and among other holders may be men-
tioned Croft,5 Standish,6 Gerard/ Scarisbrick,8 and
Parr.9 A rental of i 5 24, compiled for the prior of
Burscough, gives a list of the tenants in Ormskirk,'0
and there is a list of tenants at will dated 1522."
After the suppression of the priory an annual account
the windmill called Greetby Mill, another windmill
and a water-mill, the new vicarage, and some other
tenements were in July, 1603, granted by James I to
William, earl of Derby, for £480;" and from that
time the manor descended with the earldom.
The town was governed by the court-leet, which
held its meetings in the old town hall in Church
Street.15 A local board of health was established in
l85o,16 and its authority displaced that of the court-
leet, which was dissolved in i876.17 The market
1 A list of seventy-one inhabitants of
Ormskirk in 1366 is contained in the roll
of subscriptions to a chaplain's stipend.
The surnames are of all kinds — Robert de
Blythe, John the Tailor, Robert Nickson,
Adam Childsfather, &c. ; Excb. Lay Subs.
1 3 32 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 109.
In 1346 the prior and convent of Bur-
scough acquired from Gilbert de Haydock
a tenement in Ormskirk in part satis-
faction of a licence from the king to
purchase lands to the value of 20 marks
yearly ; it consisted of a messuage and
2 acres held of the purchasers themselves
by a rent of 2s. The preliminary Inq.
a.q.d. states that the prior held the tene-
of the manor of Lathom in free alms ;
Sir Thomas holding this manor by a
service of i8s. (elsewhere 201.) of Henry,
earl of Lancaster, and the latter of the king
as of the honour of Lancaster ; Inq. p.m.
20 Edw. Ill (2), n. 59.
a Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 154; 10 marks were paid.
townfields of Ormskirk ; with remainders
to Nicholas, Benedict, Hugh, and Joan,
brothers and sister of John, and to John,
Robert, and Elizabeth, children of Thomas
Oliver; Towneley MS. DD. n. 210.
The will of John Croft, dated 6 August,
1492, after giving 201. to Brother Law-
rence Brown, of the Grey Friars of
Chester, for celebrating for his soul, left
all his lands, &c. to the children of his
son Robert in succession — Godfrey, John,
and Margaret ; and in default of heirs to
the heirs of the testator's son Richard.
Alice wife of the son Robert, and Godfrey
Hulme were appointed executors; ibid.
n. 348.
6 In May, 1481, Evan Standish of
Warrington, son of William Standish
deceased, surrendered to Hugh Standish
of Ormskirk all his right in the lands, &c.
which the latter held in Ormskirk and
Newburgh. Twenty-one years later these
lands were in the possession of Gilbert
Standish, who settled them upon his son
Robert and his heirs by Margaret daughter
in the town by the rents of I2</. and dd.
The Scarisbricks al*> had in 1492 bur-
gages near the church ; n. 179.
9 In the reign of Edw. Ill Robert son
of Henry de Parr by his marriage with
Cecily daughter of John Whitehead of
Lathom, became possessed of lands in
Lathom and Ormskirk, which descended
with the other estates of the family ;
Ct. of Wards D. box 133, n. FDi4, and
n. 47, m. 5.
10 Duchy of Lane. Rentals, bdle. 5,
n. 1 6 ; some erasures have been made and
fresh names substituted. The list is
headed by the earl of Derby, who had six
different parcels, the rents in all amount-
ing to 151. id. Thomas Halsall, Thomas
Scarisbrick, James Scarisbrick, Ralph
Standish, Peter Gerard, chaplain, James
Bradshagh, Matthew Clifton, the widow
of Robert Standish, Roland Shacklady,
and others follow, including 'the priest of
Lady Perpitte ("St. Mary-land" in later
rental) and Thomas Croft for More-
lydyate.' The rents are often very small,
kirk obtained from John de Eccleston of
Liverpool and Ellen his wife a messuage
in Ormskirk, 10 marks being paid ; Pal.
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 2, m. 25. The
following is a case of forfeiture :— Richard
the Parker of Lathom and Alina his wife
DD. 60, 234.
' Gilbert Gerard of Ormskirk, draper,
in 1482 obtained from Thomas Ayscough
of Aintree, a burgage in Burscough Street ;
Towneley MS. DD. n. 57. The tene-
ment of Gilbert Gerard was in 1498
names of the sub-tenants are given, and
in many cases those of former holders or
11 Duchy of Lanc.Rentals, bdle. 4, n. 8.
The last name is Roger (corrected to
Thomas) Fairclough for a brewhouse
in Ormskirk from Thomas, prior of
Burscough, Richard de Litherland, Roger
the Flecher of Ormskirk and Margery his
wife, and Robert the clerk of Ormskirk.
The prior's answer, which the jury ac-
cepted, was that one Henry Rauf, clerk, a
bastard, had held the property, which on
his death passed to his son John as heir.
The latter dying without issue, his sister
Thomas (son of Gilbert) Gerard and
Margery his wife, and Gilbert son of
Thomas, at a rent of 141. and the accus-
tomed services ; for a heriot at death the
second best animal or 6s. M. was to be
given ; Gilbert Gerard, senior, and Joan
his wife were still living ; Duchy of Lane.
Mins. Accts. bdle. 136, n. 2198, m. 7.
The properties of Croft, Standish, and
12 Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle.
136, n. 2198, m. 6; this is the account
for 1535-6, the first rendered. Several
Burscough are recited in full, including
one for the 'new vicarage'; this in-
cluded various tithes, also the altarage and
sacristanship of the church. Eight shops,
had ejected her as born before marriage,
and had lawfully taken possession ; Duchy
of Lane. Assize R. 4, m. 1 7. In the cases
of John de Teuland hanged for felony,
and Henry the Barker outlawed for the
same, their holdings — an acre and a
Heskeths of Rufford.
8 The Scarisbrick Deeds (Trans. Hist.
Soc. New Ser. xii and xiii) contain some re-
ferences to Ormskirk. The earliest is an
undated grant by Adam de Edgeacre to
Richard son of Molle of Eggergarth, con-
and 6s. »J. was the profit of the market
and of two fairs held at Pentecost and
at St. Bartholomew's (sic}.
18 One for 1525 is in Lay Subs. R. bdle.
ijo,». 84.
» Pat. R. I Jas. I, pt. v, m. 6 ; Lanes.
a day ; Inq. p.m. 24 Edw. Ill, pt ii, n. 3.
"Thus in 1316 Emma daughter of
Thomas de Ince and widow of William
son of Adam of the Cross of Wigan, sur-
rendered her dower right to lands, &c., in
Ormskirk to John of the Cross of Wigan ;
Towneley MS. GG. n. 2384. John de
Ince, who died in 1428, held in Ormskirk
a messuage and field called Selerfield and
half a messuage, of Hugh, prior of Bur-
scough. These descended to the Aughtons
of Aughton; Lanes. Inq. p. m. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 23.
5 Thomas Croft of Ormskirk in 1437
gave to his son John and heirs burgages,
lands, and tenements in the town and
between lands of William de Wakefield
and John Todd ; there was a rent of 21.
to the prior and canons of Burscough ;
n. 30. By another, (n. 104), Richard de
Penwortham in 1369 demised lands and
buildings to John son of Alice, daughter
of Geoffrey de Ormskirk ; and in the
following year Richard son of Alan del
Greve granted to Henry de Scarisbrick
lands which had descended to him after
the death of John son of John de Orms-
kirk ; «. 109. In 1402 Robert Bradshagh
acquired from John le Ring and Joan his
wife a burgage and a half burgage by the
churchyard ; n. 149. In the rental of
1524 James Bradshagh was holding lands
263
Ches.), ii, 264. The original grant was
to William, earl of Derby, and Elizabeth
his wife and the heirs male of the body
of the earl.
" On the Wednesday in the week after
Michaelmas Day; Baines, Lanes, (ed.
1836), iv, 237.
" Land. Gaa. 1 6 July, 1850.
17 Lea, op. cit. 10, 18, 19. The court-
leet was revived in 1890, but its functions
are merely ornamental. The regalia are
preserved : (i) Constable's staff, 5 ft. 6 in.
high, of heavy wood, with massive silver
knob; dated 1703. (2) Walking staff,
4ft. with silver knob, 1790. (3) Two
mounted javelins, 7 ft. 6 in. high, in oak,
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
tolls were purchased by the local board in 1876 from
Lord Derby for £1,000.' By the Act of 1894 the
board became an urban district council ; the town is
divided into four wards,2 each electing three members.
The council owns the water supply, but gas is supplied
by a private company established in 1833.
The West Lancashire Rural District Council meets
at Ormskirk.
While the crown held the manor disputes arose as
to the rights of the mills.3
Court rolls of the manor have been preserved for
the period during which the manor was vested in the
crown ; the courts seem to have been held in conjunc-
tion with those of Burscough.4 There are other court
rolls at Knowsley.
The following, as ' Papists,' registered estates here
in 1717: Thomas Bradshaw, maltster ; Hugh Bull-
ing, of Lathom ; Tidward Spencer, of Scarisbrick, and
Lawrence Wilson.5
The parish church has already been described.
The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in 1 8 1 o
in Chapel Street, but in 1878 removed to the new
Emmanuel Church, near the railway station.6
In connexion with the Congregationalists the
Itinerant Society of Ministers began preaching here in
1801. The services were not continuous. In 1826
part of a silk factory in Burscough Street was secured
for a chapel, and a church was formed two years later.
In I 834 the present church was built in Chapel Street,
but the cause has never been very prosperous.7
The Presbyterian meeting-place had its origin in
the ministrations of the ejected vicar of 1662. In
1689 his son and successor, Nathaniel Hey wood, used
Bury's house in Ormskirk as a meeting-place.8 A
chapel was built in 1696 in Chapel Street.9 In 1755
the income of a sum of £ I o was to be devoted to the
benefit of the minister who should officiate at the
chapel or meeting-house at Ormskirk ; it seems to
have been bequeathed by Alice Lawton. Henry
Holland, in 1776, left £100 as an endowment for
the Protestant Dissenting minister officiating in
Ormskirk. A few years later (1783) land was acquired
in Aughton Street on a 999 years' lease, and more in
subsequent years, on which a minister's house was
erected fronting the street, with a chapel and chapel-
yard behind, ' for religious worship for Protestant
Dissenters, usually nominated Presbyterians.' 10 Trus-
tees were from time to time appointed, the last in
1 88 1 ; and in 1890 they applied to the Charity Com-
missioners for power to sell the chapel and house,
stating that these had been entirely disused for four
years,11 and that for thirty years there had been no
congregation, the Unitarian body being practically
extinct in Ormskirk and district.18
The adherents of the Roman Catholic Church have
always been numerous, and in the times of persecution
would be able to worship at some of the neighbouring
mansions, as Scarisbrick and Moor Hall.13 A house in
Aughton Street, next to the Brewer's Arms, was known
as the ' Mass House.' " The use of it probably
continued until the chapel in Aughton was built, a
short distance outside the Ormskirk boundary.15
with brass spears, 1798. (4) Two spears
with brass spikes. The constable used to
have a special seat in the church ; on the
back was carved 'The constable's seat,
1688.' Ibid. 10.
1 Lea, op. cit. 7.
tinued, and in 1598 Lawrence Ireland
and others, having erected a water-mill
and a windmill in Aughton, close to the
border of Ormskirk, were accused of per-
suading the people of this place that there
was no obligation on them to have their
second an Arminian, the later ones (three)
Unitarians ; Lea, op. cit. 20.
11 Henry Fogg, the last minister, died
in 1886. He had been there for sixty-
two years ; ibid.
" End. Char. Rep. 1899 (Ormskirk),
54. The property was sold for£4OO, and
the trustees hold a further £300. The
income is given to the Liverpool Dist.
Miss. Assoc.
18 The following entry occur, in the
Ormskirk Reg. 30 September, 1613,
against the burial of Katherine Jump,
widow : ' Note, that she was a recusant,
and buried without consent of the vicar.'
In 1626 there were 1 1 1 recusants or non-
Scarisbrick.
3 Thomas Such, who farmed them, corn-
they had induced a number of Ormskirk
people to use the new mills, as more
certain of the inhabitants of Ormskirk
had recently taken their corn to other
Edwa'rd Scarisbrick and Gabriel Hesketh,
lords of adjacent manors. These in reply
stated that besides the queen's mill, called
(Roger Sankey) consequently obtained an
injunction forbidding Lawrence Ireland
and his partners from receiving and grind-
kirk ; ibid, clxxix, A.z; ; clxxxvii, A-43 ;
Duchy of Lane. Decrees and Orders,
called Our Lady's Mill, in the tenure of
Sir George Stanley of Cross Hall ; there
built had been the property of Robert
Subs. Lanes, bdle. 131, n. 318. The roll
of 1641 records a number of recusants
Hall Mill, and Bradshaw Mill, of which
Ormskirk people had been accustomed to
make use. There were complaints against
the miller that the corn was not so well
ground by him and that he took, or lost, an
excessive proportion of the flour ; Duchy
of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. Ixxiv ; 8.19. It
appears from the document next quoted
bought it. The latter in his defence
mentioned Tawd Mill among others.
4 Duchy of Lane. Ct. R. bdle. 79,
rm. 1060 to 1070; from 29 Hen. VIII
to 42 Eliz. It was the duty of the tenant
of a house to repair the pavement "up to
the middle of the street. In I 539 it was
ordered that 'no tenant shall dig flae
(New Ser.), xiv, 233. In the return for
1767 at the Chest. Dioc. Reg. the number
of 'Papists' in the whole parish is shown
1086 ; but only two resident priests are
named— at Scarisbrick and Lathom; Trans.
Hist. Sec. (New Ser.), xviii, 215.
14 Lea, op. cit. 9. It had been the resi-
other objections that Thomas Such built
a new mill at the Knoll ; but in 1 567, he
had again to complain of withdrawal of
custom; ibid. Ixxiv, a. 26. In 1591 he
Richard Fletcher, 'a great occupier of
malt and seller and utterer of a great
erected a horse-mill of his own and'with-
kirk moss under pain of 6j. SJ.' (n. 1061).
In 1545 the inhabitants were ordered to
repair their pavement 'next the Lyde-
yate' (n. 1064). In 1549 it was com-
manded that Thomas Hesketh, 'commonly
called the Bell man,' was to clean the
5 Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non-
juror,, log, 126, 127. Wilson appears at
Altcar also.
Latin inscription on the gable. 'I am
told by one of the oldest Protestant
tradesmen that when he was a boy he
remembered a big room at the top of the
house with " strange arrangements " ; but
he had never heard that it had been a
place of Catholic worship, or that it was
called a Mass house'; Abbot O'Neill,
O.S.B. of Aughton. In 1701 the Jesuit
Fr. Gillibrand is said to have 'helped ' at
Ormskirk ; Foley's Rec. S. J. v, 320.
15 See the account of Aughton. Dr.
John Fletcher, born at Ormskirk, was a
professor at St. Omer's when the French
Revolution broke out, and suffered im-
prisonment for some years ; Gillow, BiU.
Diet, of Engl. Cath. ii, 298.
inadequate for the people, some having to
use hand-mills, while others took their
off; ibid, clix, S. i.
The dissatisfaction on both sides con-
&c.
8 Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 231;
0. Hey wood's Diaries, i, 38 ; iv, 308.
9 Nightingale, op. cit. iv, 187.
l» The first minister was a Calvinist, the
264
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
SCARISBRICK
Skaresbrek, Scharesbrech, 1238 ; Scharisbrec, 1307;
Scaresbrecke, 1575; Scarisbrick, 1604. There was
a tendency to omit the initial S ; e.g. Charisbrec, c.
1 240. Locally pronounced Scazebrick.
This township forms the north-western corner of
the parish. It is situated in open country, flat as to
surface, and like most of the wind-swept districts of
the northern part of the hundred but poorly supplied
with trees. Scarisbrick Hall, standing about the centre
of the township, is surrounded by ample grounds fairly
thickly wooded, and by comparison the rest of the
country looks bare and unclothed with foliage, with
the exception of scattered plantations in the fenny
land. The north-eastern part of the township occu-
pies part of the site of Martin Mere, and is conse-
quently of a marshy character liable to flooding; there-
fore the land is systematically drained and pumping
operations are constantly carried on. The geological
formation consists of the keuper red marl of the
upper red sandstone, except to the south-east of
Scarisbrick Hall, where the upper mottled sandstone
of the bunter series is thrown up by a fault — running
north-east to near Tarlscough. In the north-western
half of the township the strata are obscured by peat
10 to 30 feet in thickness. The northern half of its
surface is less than 25 feet above the Ordnance
datum.
The hamlet of Snape lies in the west; Bescar, a cor-
ruption of Birch carr, in the centre ; and Drummers
dale, anciently Drumbles dale, in the east. To the
south-west of the park is Gorsuch, formerly Goose-
ford-syke. The southern half of the township is
properly called Hurleton, now written Harleton. On
the eastern edge is Barrison Green, and on the southern
is Aspinwall, sometimes called Asmoll. The town-
ship measures five miles from north-west to south-east ;
the total area is 8,397^ acres.1 The rich soil re-
claimed from waste marsh is very fertile, fine crops of
potatoes, oats, beans, turnips, &c., are successfully
cultivated. The soil is loam, in some places sandy
and peaty. The population in 1901 was 2,140.
The principal road is that from Ormskirk to South-
port, passing along the west side of the park and
through Snape. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal
winds through the southern part of the township,
mainly from west to east. At the point where the
Southport road crosses it by the bridge, passengers for
ORMSKIRK
that seaside resort used formerly to alight to take the
coach for the rest of the journey.' The Lancashire
and Yorkshire Company's line crosses Scarisbrick to
the north of the park, having a station at Bescar lane.
Bricks and drain pipes are made.
The township has a parish council.
' Divers scores ' of Roman coins were found here
in 1655.'
A considerable number of crosses are known to
have existed in Scarisbrick. One is still standing
within the park wall near the south-west corner ; for-
merly it was a wayside cross, but the park has now
encroached upon the road.* There is a well close by.
The name SCARISBRICK does not oc-
M4NORS cur in Domesday Book, the township being
involved in ' Harleton and half of Martin,'
which in 1066 was held by Uctred for half a hide,
or three plough-lands, and was worth I o/. 8d. beyond
the usual rent, being part of the privileged three
hides.4
There is no express mention of these places from
1086 until the time of Richard I. It is probable that
then, as for long past, they were held of the lord of
Lathom in thegnage.6 In the reign of Richard I
Simon de Grubhead, who has been named in the
account of Lathom, gave these places to his brother
Gilbert,7 who, as Gilbert de Scarisbrick, afterwards
made a grant of land in his manor to Cockersand
Abbey.8 Some forty years later Richard son of
Robert de Lathom gave, or confirmed, to Walter de
Scarisbrick, who was son of Gilbert, ' Harleton and
Scarisbrick, which Simon de Grubhead formerly gave
to Gilbert his brother by charter, rendering the
ancient farm, viz. 8 shillings of silver at Martinmas.'9
Simon de Grubhead appears to have had some claims
to the estates of the Lathom family, which, in 1224,
were limited (by fine made with Richard son of
Richard de Lathom) to the manors of Childwall, Roby,
and Anglezark, and were extinguished in 1238 by
Robert de Lathom by a payment of 80 marks.10
Harleton and Scarisbrick were included among the
lands which Roger de Marseysold in 1230 to Ranulf,
earl of Chester ; " but the nature of Marsey's interest
is not clear. It is possible that he was mesne between
the lord of Lathom and the earl of Chester, to whom
Henry III, in 1229, had granted the land between
Ribble and Mersey, including the wapentakes of West
Derby, Salford, and Leyland.12 If so this mesne
tenure was removed by the sale of I23O.13
1 8,398> including 29 of inland water ;
census of 1901.
" Baines' Lanes. Dir. of 1825, ii, 554.
» T. Gibson, Cavalier's Note Book, 280;
Tram. Hist. Soc. xxxi, 52.
4 Others were Carr Cross, near Snape
Green ; Gorsuch Cross ; Pinfold Cross ;
Harleton Gate Cross, of which the pedes-
tal is still in position, to the south of
Harleton Hall ; Wood-end Cross ; Hes-
kin Hall Cross ; and Hales Cross, which
stood close to the boundary of Augh-
ton, Ormskirk, and Scarisbrick. This line
of crosses stretches south-eastward from
Snape to Ormskirk. More to the north
are Bescar Brow Cross, Turton's Cross,
Cross, and Throstle's Nest Cross. These,
though marked on the maps, appear to
have disappeared completely ; the last
one was no doubt a boundary cross.
Brooklands Cross, to the south, was also
a boundary cross ; it was standing corn-
appeared. See H. Taylor in Lane:, and
Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 141-52 ; a plate of
the Scarisbrick Park Cross is given at
p. 1 80.
5 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 284*. Scarisbrick-
with-Harleton was formerly the name of
the township, but Harleton has fallen out
of genera
6Th«
'They are not mentioned
the
the carucate geld paid in 1066 for 3 caru-
cates of land, the assessment area of these
places. See V.C.H. Lanes, i, 276. Simon
de Grumbeheved, or Grubhead, attested
a charter of Thomas de Colcvill to Whitby
Abbey (Surtees Soc. Ixix, 62) and another
of Richard de Radcliffe giving land in
Martin to Burscough Priory ; Def.
Reefer's Ref. xxxvi, App. 2, 199.
rental of West Derby hundred made in Soc.), i, 44, 76.
1226. Inj. and Extents (Lanes, and " Duchy of Lane. Gt. Coucher quoted
Ches. Rec. Soc. xlviii). by Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Hclsby), i, 37.
' Deed in poss. of Scarisbrick Trustees. « Cal. Chart. R. i, 101.
8 It lay 'between the brook and the ls In 1323-4 Robert de Lathom held
highway'
dale ' ; and included an :
Pe:.s
xi, 36. Lat
Cockersand Cbartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 551.
» Deed in poss. of Scarisbrick Trs.,
also Kuerden MSS. (Coll. of Arms), v,
265
litary, by
the service of four-fifth* of a knight's
fee, with a castle-guard rent of Ss. ;
Extent of 1346, Addit. MS. 32103, fol.
144*.
34
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Gilbert de Scarisbrick ' was succeeded, probably
before 1238, by his son Walter, who, like his father,
was a benefactor to Cockersand, granting an acre of
his demesne ; * he also added
to the endowments of Burscough
by grants in Harleton, Gorsuch,
and Scarisbrick.3 According to
the register of Burscough Priory
Walter was twice married,4 and
by a certain Edusa he had a son
Richard, sometimes called ' son
of Edusa,' and sometimes ' son
of Walter.' 5
Henry de Scarisbrick suc-
ceeded his father Walter about
i 260, and held the manor some
ten y
SCARISBRICK OF
SCARISBRICK. Gules,
three mullet! in bend be-
rtveen two bendlets en-
He and Roger de grailed argent.
Hurleton made an agreement
with the prior of Burscough as to the bounds between
their lands." He also was a benefactor to Cockersand
Abbey.?
Gilbert, son and heir of Henry, probably a child,
succeeded. He made a grant to the prior of Bur-
scough, and came to a further agreement with him as
to bounds.8 He also acquired lands called Quassum
(or Whassum) in Scarisbrick.9 In 1312 Gilbert was
returned by the sheriff as holding forty librates of land
of others than the king, and not being a knight.10
He was still living in 1336, when Robert son of
Richard del Cross of Scarisbrick quitclaimed all right
to a plot in Harleton and Scarisbrick ' on the east side
of his field near Quassum ' ; on it Gilbert had erected
a windmill."
He was succeeded about 1330 by his son Gilbert,
who before 1320-1 had married Joan daughter of Sir
John de Kirkby.18 Gilbert the father and Gilbert the
son agreed not to alienate the manor of Scarisbrick
or any part of the inheritance of Henry son of the
younger Gilbert.13 Gilbert Scarisbrick died in Sep-
tember 1359," and was succeeded by his son Henry,
who married Eleanor a daughter and coheir of Wil-
liam de Cowdray.15 In 1361 he entailed his estates
on his heirs male, with remainder to his brother
Gilbert ; the entail included his manors of Scarisbrick
and Harleton, with the homage and services of the
free and other tenants, with all the natives, their
chattels and sequel.16 In 1386 he went to Ireland in
the king's service, under Sir John de Stanley.17
About ten years later he made agreements as to
bounds with the prior of Burscough, new disputes
having arisen.18 His last recorded act was the leasing
of lands called Withinsnape to William the Stringer.19
His son, Sir Henry de Scarisbrick, succeeded before
1405,*° when with his mother Joan he was a party to
the agreement for the marriage of his daughter Ellen
to Robert de Halsall.81 By his wife Isabel he had
1 In the time of Richard I, Henry de
Halsall granted to Gilbert de Scarisbrick
lands called Trussbiwra, Thornihevet, and
Cockersand Cbartul. ii, 553. By another
charter he gave to Simon son of Adam de
Scarisbrick the fourth part of his lands
scough, near his mother and his wife ' ;
his best beast was to be given 'before his
body ' as a mortuary. He mentions his
ing from Souekar to the end of Souekar
Brook, thence to Rodilache, between
Wulfawe and Shyrewalacres, from thence
Scarisbrick D. n. 24.
8 See the account of Martin ; also
Scarisbrick D. «. 44. In 1303 he quit-
brother Richard. He describes himself as
' the elder,' having a younger son Gilbert,
on whom the manor was entailed in
Snapesbrok, where the boundary began ;
with common of pasture of the vill of
Halsall. The witnesses were all early
landowners in the hundred, viz. Richard
son of Roger (Wood Plumpton), Robert
son of Henry (Lathom), Richard de
Molyneux, Alan son of Outi (?Pember-
ton), Richard son of Henry (Tarbock),
Gilbert son of Walthef (Walton on the
Hill), Stephen, clerk of Walton, William
son of Swain (Carleton), and Richard
Blundell (Ince) ; D. in poss. of Scaris-
brick Trustees.
11 Cockenand Chartul. ii, 552.
8 By one charter he gave the lands
held of him by William son of Simon
Hawks Head ; Def. Keeper's Ref. xxxvi,
App. 199.
9 Scarisbrick D. n. 39. The places
named are Quassum, Gorstihill, and
'Heuippe field.' In 1303 John de Edge-
acre gave to Gilbert all the lands the
grantee had in Quassum by the gift of
John de Quassum; ibid. ,..45. Gilbert
probably married the heiress of Eggergarth
in Lydiate, as this small manor was long
held by his descendants.
10 Misc. R. Chan. Knights' Services,
bdle. 8, n. 4, roll 9. He seems to have
proved that he did not hold so much, for
he was not made a knight, and in 1324
Gilbert acquired lands in the township ;
ibid. a. 93, 96. For a dispensation for
the marriage of Richard de Scarisbrick
and Maud de Birchecar in 1364, see
Cal. of Pa fa! Letters, iv, 42.
15 She died before 13 50, leaving an only
daughter Isabel, who died in childhood ;
but Henry enjoyed, in the right of this
marriage, a share of the manor of North
Meols during his life ; Towneley's MS.
CC. n. 2100. His annuity was 5J marks.
He surrendered lands in North Meols to
his wife's sister in ,377-8 ; Kuerden
MSS. vi, 83,^.299.
16 Scarisbrick D. n. 91. The names of
the tenants are given in full ; they include
Robert de Renacres, and Richard son of
Roger del Hull. By another he gave a
portion of Hawkshead, bounded by ditches
touching the ' Quytegore,' and so to
Muscar Syke. Burscough Reg. fol. 156
-17. To his daughter Godith he gave
a year ; Palgrave, Parl. Writ,, i, 639.
11 Scarisbrick D. 11.64. In 1308 Gil-
bert de Scarisbrick and others were accused
by the earl of Warwick of entering his
lands at Middleton and Newbiggin in
Westmorland and making prey of his
Richard son of Walter del Shaw, William
Blethin, Henry Tebaut, also the Milner,
the Mercer (Lydiate), the Stringer, the
Fisher, the Salter, and the Bagger.
The occasion was probably his second
marriage, with Joan . . ., who sur-
sequel and chattels ; Scarisbrick D. (in
Trans. Hist. Soc. New Ser. xii), n. 18.
posing of them ; Cal. Pat. 1307-13,
p. 169.
Ibid. n. 157. Licence was granted to
Joan in 1420-1 to have masses and other
Quenilda and Margery ; the latter had a
son (apparently by a former husband)
named Thomas ; Scarisbrick D. n. 26.
5 Edusa is called 'de Hurleton'; be-
sides the son Richard, who had a son
William (Scarisbrick D. n. 24, 25,40,33),
on the occasion included a messuage, 17
acres of land, 2 acres of meadow, and 20
acre, of pasture in Harleton, and rents
amounting to about 84!.
13 Scarisbrick D. n. 66. Richard de
Scarisbrick, a son of the elder Gilbert, and
in a low voice by a suitable chaplain;
ibid. n. 152.
1? Cal. Pat. 1385-9, p. 189.
18 Scarisbrick D. n. 129, 133. Henry
the son was joined with Henry de Scaris-
brick the father in the second arbitration.
probably from the Shaw between Harleton
and Scarisbrick ; Simon's daughter was
Quenilda (ibid. n. 15, 24, 25, 36, 53). A
6 See the account of Martin.
' He gave an acre in the townfields,
viz. in the Hoarystones Hill, for the wel-
fare of the souls of his father and mother ;
the trustees for Henry ; the deed was prob-
ably made on the occasion of the Scaris-
brick-Cowdray marriage.
» Scarisbrick D. n. 83. His will was
made on 23 Sept. and proved (at Orms-
kirk) on Tuesday, : Oct. 1359. He
desired to be buried ' in the old chapel on
the northern side of the church of Bur-
266
may have been living in June, 1402,
when his son in attesting a deed describes
himself as ' the younger ' ; ibid. n. 149.
20 Letters written about this time by
him, as lieutenant of Sir John de Bold
at Conway, are printed in Sir H. Ellis's
Original Letters, 2nd series, i, 30, 37.
"Scarisbrick D. a. 141.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Henry and other sons, and a second daughter Isabel,
who in 1418 married Richard de Bradshagh of
Aughton.1 He took part in the French wars of
Henry V, fighting at Agincourt, and being mentioned
in the commissions of array in July, 1419, and May,
1420.* The writ of Diem clausit cxtremum con-
cerning him was issued about July, 1420, so that he
probably died in France." His widow Isabel was
living in 1442.'
He was succeeded by his son Henry, who had no
surviving children by his first wife Katherine (who died
before 1 440), but by his second, Margery, had daughters
Margaret and Agnes and a son James, born late in his
life. He made several feoffments of his estates.4
He seems to have died in or before 1 464^ in which
year his son James was a juror on the inquest taken
after the death of Hugh de Aughton, being described
as ' esquire.' In 1471 a dispute between him and
the lord of Halsall as to the bounds of Renacres in
Halsall and Shurlacres ' in Scarisbrick was settled by
arbitration.8
In 1472-3 an arrangement was made between
James Scarisbrick and Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall
as to the marriage of the former's son and heir,
Gilbert, with the latter's daughter Elizabeth, and in
1488 the 420 marks due to James Scarisbrick were
fully paid.9 Of his own marriages it is recorded that
his first wife was Margery, daughter of Sir Robert
Booth of Dunham ; 10 his second wife, who survived
him, was named Elizabeth. He died between Sep-
tember, 1494" and May, \^<)6."
ORMSKIRK
Gilbert, who succeeded, did not long survive his
father, dying on 24 April, I5O2.1S His will recited a
feoffment of his manors of Scarisbrick and Eggergarth,
and desired his trustees to marry his son and heir,
James, ' to a woman of worshipful blood,' and to apply
the sums received for this marriage towards providing
portions for his daughters Margery and Alice. His
other son, Thomas, was to have £4 a year, and Mar-
garet his wife certain lands in Snape and elsewhere ;
to his bastard daughter, Alice, he left 10 marks.14
James 'Scarisbrick was aged about ten years at his
father's death. Some years later the king claimed his
wardship, on the ground that certain of his lands were
held directly of the crown ; on inquiry this was
found to be a mistake. Scarisbrick and Harleton
were held of the earl of Derby as successor to the
Lathom family,15 Eggergarth of Butler of Warrington
(the king then having the wardship of the heir),
Snape of Sir Henry Halsall, and other lands of the
prior of Burscough and the lords of Aughton, Griffith,
and Starkie.16 Before this was settled James died,17
leaving his younger brother Thomas, then six years of
age, to succeed. His wardship was granted by the
king to William Smith, escheator of the county,18 who
sold it to the earl of Derby. The latter availed him-
self of the opportunity to marry his natural daughter
Elizabeth to his ward.19
In 1529 a disputed boundary in the moss land be-
tween Scarisbrick and Halsall was decided by setting
' meres, limits and stakes ' by twelve men (six from
each side) in the presence of numerous witnesses.20 In
1 Scarisbrick D. n. 151.
1 Nicolas, Agincourt, 354 ; Norman R.
(Dep. Keeper's Ref. xlii), 323, 373.
3 Def. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 18;
advisable, early in 1452, to have it
declared publicly in Halsall churchyard
that he was born of lawful wedlock, was
of sound estate, good respect, uninjured
made of lands in Parbold, Wrightington
and Dalton, and others in Ormskirk and
Scarisbrick (the latter including Whassom
Heys and the fishery of Wyke) ; with
p. 24.
« Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 4, m. 1 1. She
is described as 'of Eggergarth.'
6 One of theic was made in 1424 ;
Scarisbrick D. n. 153. Another in 1433
granted the manor of Scarisbrick, except
lands held by his grandmother Joan and
those jointly occupied by himself and his
wife Katherine; ibid. n. 157. A third
(1440) concerned lands in Scarisbrick
crime ; call'ing upon the apostolic see and
the primatial court of Canterbury, sub-
mitting himself to their protection, and
protesting that in the event of any trouble
of the kind he feared he appealed to them ;
Scarisbrick D. n. 165.
«He was living in April, 1463;
ibid. n. 169.
1 Shirwall acres.
younger, and then to Gilbert, son and
heir of James Scarisbrick the elder ;
Scarisbrick 0.11.179.
12 In May, 1496, Elizabeth widow of
James Scarisbrick and their son James on
the one part, and Gilbert the son and heir
to lands which the former had received (for
life) from James Scarisbrick the father ;
Scarisbrick D. n. 1 80. See also Duchy of
Wyke, Pewe hey with Chitfold, Pole hey,
Pewe meadow, and Gyliot meadow ; ibid.
other arbitrators perused the charters
and muniments and took the evidence of
» Writ of Diem d. extr, issued i Aug.
I 503 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xl, App. 542.
displaying three mullets between two
bcndlets engrailed ; the helmet is sur-
mounted by a dove ; the legend is SIGILLUM
lands were regranted to Henry and his wife
Margery, with remainders, in default of
male issue, to his daughter Margaret and
his brothers William and Gilbert ; ibid.
». 1 60. This Margaret was a daughter
the bounds as follows : Beginning at the
end of Senekar where the Whit syke fell
into it (and where a stone was then
placed) to an old ditch between the dis-
puted areas to a large stone ; thence
following the stones placed by the arbitra-
tors to the Rodelath between Wolfhaugh
and Shurlacres to two large stones on the
bank of Shurlacres mere ; the lands and
carried out the wishes of the testator ;
Pal. of Lane. Bills, bdle. I, n. 10. There
are other directions in the will that
should be noticed here. He desired to be
buried in Halsall church; his 'best
cattle' he left to the prior of Bur-
scough as a mortuary; and £4 a year was
to be paid for fifteen years to Thomas
1433 to Boniface de Bold ; Lich. Epis.
Reg. ix, fol. 1 68 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
Scarisbrick's, and those on the west, as
far as Halsall church, to be Halsall's ;
his soul and his wife's. Towards buying
a cross for Ormskirk church 5*. was
another Margaret, daughter by the second
Nicholas Blundell of Little Crosby, a
child, and lived with him for sixty years.
Scarisbrick D. n. 1 66 ; Gibson's Cavalier' t
Note-bank, 10. In September, 1447, the
bishop of Lichfield granted to Henry
Scarisbrick and Margery his wife licence
There was later (1488-9) a dispute
with Hector Scarisbrick, prior of Bur-
scough, as to a lease of land called Mene-
water, made by Henry Scarisbrick to
William his brother. The latter's widow
Janet was called ; she spoke of the prior
as her son, another son (Robert) having
succeeded his father William as tenant ;
15 The holder paid 305. yearly, and
rendered 2s. to a scutage of 401.
l« Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 109, m. :i and
17 On 25 July, 1508 ; Duchy of Lane.
Inq. p.m. ii, n. i (imperfect) ; and iii,
n. 10.
I8 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App. 559.
service in their oratories; other sacra-
dice to be done to the mother church.
Scarisbrick D. n. 163-4 (dated 1451).
For some reason unknown he found it
9 Harl. MS. 804, fol. 17* ,• Add. MS.
32104, n. 913.
10 Tram. Hist. Sor. (New Ser.), vi, 257 ;
Ormerod, Cba. (ed. Helsby), i, 523.
11 On 15 Sept. 1494, a settlement was
267
iii, B. 3.
20 Scarisbrick D. n. 182. There was an-
other arbitration in 1530 on the disputes
between Thomas Scarisbrick and Hum-
phrey Hurleton ; ibid. nn. 184, 186-7.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the same year new feoffees of the estates were ap-
pointed on the arrangement of a marriage between
Frances (or Dorothy) Booth and James the son and
heir of Thomas Scarisbrick. James was then about
six years of age, and he chose Dorothy, aged four.1
Thomas Scarisbrick did not long survive, his will
being dated 4 October, 1530.*
The son James Scarisbrick's lands were in 1543
valued at £20.' Soon afterwards a complaint was
made against him by Ralph Olgreve of Manchester,
that he had carried off the latter's wife Isabel from
her father's house and was living with her at his own
mansion.4 A little later (1547) Thomas Gorsuch and
Margaret his wife complained that he had trespassed
on their lands and made illegal claims.5 In 1551 he
purchased from William Bradshagh the manor of
Uplitherland and the third part of the manor of
Aughton, but sold it soon afterwards. He sold the
manor of Eggergarth and various lands to Lawrence
Ireland of Lydiate.6
His son and heir Edward succeeded early in the
reign of Elizabeth. He married Margaret, daughter of
Alexander Barlow of Barlow, and had several children.
He was a justice of the peace, and in religion ' conform-
able,' though his wife was a recusant, his children were
trained up in Popery and his daughters never came to
church.7 He died on 27 April, 1599,* and was
buried in the Scarisbrick chapel (' his own chancel ')
in Ormskirk church. By his will, as he had no sur-
viving son, he made Henry son of Thomas Scarisbrick
of Barwick his heir, bequeathing to him his sealing
ring and other heirlooms.9 He had previously made
a settlement of his estates, described as the manor of
Scarisbrick, two windmills, a hundred messuages,
3,000 acres of land, &c. ; these were to go to the
above named Henry Scarisbrick, who was to marry
Anne daughter of Anthony Parker of Radham in
Yorkshire, with remainder to Henry's younger
brothers, Anthony, Francis, and Thomas ; and then
to Edward, son of James Scarisbrick of Downholland.10
The new lord of Scarisbrick was only fifteen years
of age on succeeding." The wife chosen for him was
a daughter of Anne, sister of Edward Scarisbrick, so
that the two lines were re-united by the marriage."
He did not long enjoy possession, dying on 1 7 Octo-
ber, 1608; he was buried in 'his own chapel' at
Ormskirk. His son and heir Edward, the only child of
the marriage, was not born until the following March.11
Edward Scarisbrick, shortly after coming of age,
married Frances daughter of Roger Bradshagh of the
Haigh, by whom he had nine children. He had been
brought up in the Roman Catholic religion, but appears
to have avoided conviction as a recusant; his wife's name
is in the list of 1641. He was at ' the great gathering
of Catholics at Holywell' in 1629," and, adhering to
the royal side in the Civil War, shared the misfortunes
of the defeated. In 1645 and 1649 his name occurs
among those ' delinquents and Papists in arms ' who
had to supply Liverpool with timber and £l 0,000 as
compensation for its losses during the sieges ; and his
estates were sequestrated.15 He died in 1652, and
was buried in St. Andrew's, Holborn.16
(Chct. Soc.), 78.
2 In this he mentions the marriage of
James and Dorothy, his (second) wife
Jane, his son Gilbert, and his daughters
Margaret, Maud, and Anne ; his uncle
James Scarisbrick was to be one of the
overseers ; Piccope's Wills (Out. Soc.), i,
living.'
8 Duchy of Lanes. Inq.p.m. xvii, n. gq.
9 Piccope, Wills (Chet. Soc.), iii, 8.
at Chester, show disbursements of £1,3 3 5,
of which 'blacks for mourners at the
funeral' cost £167. Mr. Rumney, the
made by his father, by which the lands
were to descend to his son Edward, then
to Gilbert brother of James, and then to
Henry son of James Scarisbrick of Bicker-
stafFe, knight ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
F. (38 Hen. VIII), bdle. 12, m. 308.
St. Nicholas, and left his 'best quick
priest was to say mass, at the altar named,
for seven years for the souls of the testa-
apostle spoons had been given to Mr.
Henry Scarisbrick ; and a ' treble sove-
reign ' to each of the godsons — Alexander
Barlow the younger and Edward, son of
13 Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
and Ches.), i, 119. Before his death
Henry Scarisbrick had demised to James
Anderton, of Clayton le Woods, the hall
of Scarisbrick and lands belonging to it
year. The prior of Birkenhead was to
take charge of the moneys set aside from
testator's cattle at Newbi.rgh fair 31. 8</.
was spent, and I id. paid to Gilbert
mentioned the Damstead, Townwood,
Whawshaw windmill, and Otterstyes
His son Gilbert was to be kept at school,
and the issues of his lands not to be
wasted but employed for his use till he
should reach twenty years of age.
The chapel at Scarisbrick Hall has
been mentioned; the following 'heir-
looms' show that it was fairly well fur-
nished : two vestments, two chasubles,
two alb., a chalice, two mass books,
for sale. The will of Jane, daughter of
Edward Scarisbrick, is printed in Piccope's
mils, iii, 23.
10 This James was Edward's brother,
mentioned in his will and appointed
executor and trustee. It is difficult to
understand why he did not succeed to
Scarisbrick, unless he was illegitimate.
It is supposed that he was one of the very
of Derby by Ss. yearly rent.
" Foley, Rec. S. /., iv, 534. In 1631
he paid £13 61. Sd. on refusing knight-
hood ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 212.
16 Part at least was sold under the
second act, 1652, for the use of the
Navy ; Index of Royalists, 30 ; Cal. Can,.
far Camp, iv, 2494.
16 W. A. Abram, quoting from Foley's
The other apartments mentioned are the
kitchen and brewhouse, the buttery,
chamber, larder-house, and hall. Ex-
amples are extant of alabaster images set
in wooden cases.
8 Lanes. Lay Subs. bdle. 130, n. 168,
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 246. For the Scaris-
brick quarterings in 1590 or thereabouts,
see Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), vi, 256,
274.
11 He was descended from James Scaris-
brick, who died about 1495, and had by
Note-book (288-90.) Four of his five sons
— Henry, Edward, Thomas, and Francis —
entered the Society of Jesus. Henry was
priest at the hall from 1679 to 1688,
but had to fly at the Revolution, being
an adherent of James ; he died in Lanca-
valuation was £60, and he paid 601. to
the ' benevolence.'
4 Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), ii, 221.
6 Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), i, 225 ;
Pal. of Lane. Pleadings, Edw. VI, i,
G. 8.
6 See the accounts of Aughton and
James. The latter married the heiress
of Bickerstaffe, by whom he had an only
daughter, and afterwards married again ;
by this wife he had a son Henry, father
of the above-named Thomas Scarisbrick,
of Barwick.
" Much of the information in this and
the later parts of this account are derived
James II, and published some sermons
and other works. He was one of the
intended victims of Titus Gates. On
the Revolution he took refuge on the
Continent for a time, but returned to
Lancashire, where he died early in 1709.
Gillow, Bibliog. Diet, and under ' Nevill '
in Diet. Nat. Biog. In Foley's Rec. S. /.,
-' Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 244, 247, 257.
and Ches. Antiq. Notes, ii, 211-54. The
268
members of the family.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
James Scarisbrick, the heir, was seventeen years of
age at his father's death, and it was not till the
Restoration that he obtained possession.' He married
Frances, daughter of Robert Blundell of Ince Blundell,
and had numerous children, one being born after his
death in April, 1673.*
His son and heir Edward was ten years ot age at
his father's death ; and at eighteen entered the Jesuit
novitiate at Watten in Holland, resigning his estates
to his brother Robert. Apparently there was a
further settlement when he came of age in 1685.*
Robert Scarisbrick came of age about 1690 and five
years afterwards married Anne daughter of John
Messenger of Fountains Abbey. Nine sons and four
daughters were born to them. He was a Jacobite in
politics ; as early as 1701 he seems to have been sus-
pected by the authorities,* and was perhaps in some
way implicated in the rising of 1715. For this he
was attainted, and on his surrender in 1717 was
committed to Newgate. Next year he was admitted
to bail at Lancaster, and on trial, acquitted, his estates
being restored to him.5 He died in March, 1737-8,
and was buried in the Scarisbrick chapel at Ormskirk.6
His widow died in 1744. Of his children James, the
eldest, died before his father ; 7 Edward, the second,
became a Jesuit priest and renounced his right to the
estates, as did Francis and Henry, younger sons.8
Robert Scarisbrick, the third son of Robert, suc-
ceeded, but died unmarried in 1738, leaving his
brother William the heir. He married Elizabeth
Ogle of Huyton, and had an only child Elizabeth,
who married John Lawson of Brough (afterwards a
baronet). It is not certain whether or not he took
any part in the rising of 1745, but a local tradition
has it that 'one of the Stuart adherents was concealed
in a farmhouse on Martin mere." He died in July,
1767; his wife lived till 1797. Joseph, another
brother, succeeded, and held the estates for some
years, dying between I77Z and 1778. The Jesuit
order having been suppressed in 1772 Edward and
Francis Scarisbrick seem to have occupied the hall ;
the latter, just before his death in 1789, settled the
estate on his nephew Thomas Eccleston.
The remaining son of Robert Scarisbrick was
named Basil Thomas ; in the early part of his life he
is said to have lived at Cadiz, probably as a merchant ;
he occurs as 'of Liverpool' in 1742 and 1743. In
1749 ne married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward
Dicconson of Wrightington, and had by her a son
Thomas, and two daughters. He succeeded to
Eccleston in 1742, and soon afterwards took the sur-
ORMSKIRK
name of Eccleston.9 It was his son Thomas Eccleston
who, after holding Scarisbrick under his uncle Francis
for some years, succeeded him in 1789 as lord of the
manor, having already succeeded his father at
Eccleston.10 During this time he had attempted
improvements in the agriculture of the neighbour-
hood and begun the drainage of Martin mere." He
added to the family estates the manors of Halsall and
Downholland, but tried to sell Eccleston in 1795 ; in
1 807 he succeeded to the Wrightington estate on the
death of his uncle Edward Dicconson. He resumed
the family name of Scarisbrick instead of Eccleston.
In 1784 he married Eleanora, daughter of Thomas
Clifton, by whom he had several children.
He died at Ormskirk in November, 1809, having
been taken ill during the celebration of the jubilee of
George III. The Scarisbrick and Eccleston estates
then went to his eldest son Thomas, who sold
Eccleston in 1812, and Wrightington to the younger
son Charles. Thomas's only child was a daughter,
who died young, so that on his death in 1833 Charles
succeeded to the whole. He had taken the name of
Dicconson in 1810, but now adopted the family name
of Scarisbrick. He purchased the Bold moiety of the
manor of North Meols in 1843. His great work
was the re-building of the hall,
the two Pugins being in sue- _
cession the architects ; he was
also a collector of pictures.
The Hall is in the same state
at this time. The tower is
particularly graceful and forms
a landmark. At his death in
1860 he was supposed to be
the wealthiest commoner in
Lancashire.
He never married,12 and his
youngest sister Elizabeth, wife
of Edward Clifton, succeeded
to Wrightington ; while the
eldest sister, Ann Lady Hun-
loke, had Scarisbrick and Hal-
sall, and assumed the name of Scarisbrick. She died
in March, 1872, and was succeeded by her daughter,
Eliza Margaret, who had in 1835 married Remy
Leon de Biaudos, Marquis de Casteja. She took the
name of Scarisbrick in 1873. There was no surviving
issue,13 and on the marchioness's death (13 Novem-
ber, 1878), her husband (d. 1899) and then his
adopted son, Marie Emmanuel Alva de Biaudos
Scarisbrick, Count de Casteja, under a deed of settle-
THE MARQUIS DE CAS-
TEJA. Cults, three mullet!
lets engrailed argent; in
middle chief a cross cross-
let or.
1 In the meantime he had finished his
education at St. Omer's, his tutor at
Scarisbrick having been the resident priest,
his uncle Christopher Bradshaw.
> For the story of his death, anticipated
in a dream, see Cavalier's Note-book, 261.
His widow wished to retire to a convent,
but her duty to her children being put
before her by William Blundell of Crosby,
she remained in the world, dying in 1721.
8 He became superior of the Derbyshire
district and died in 1735.
< See his letter in Norris Papers (Chet.
Soc.), 66.
5 The account of his temporarily for-
feited estates (Geo. I, B. 75, 119) gives
a list of the tenants and their holdings.
Among the lands attached to the hall were
the Sutch fields, Scarth, Damstead, Flat-
backs, and Clift. Other place names include
to have been rented at £$. At the end is
the note, 'Acquitted on Tryall.' A further
" ited the
(B. 76, fol. 34-9) ,
of the hall, in Mrs. Sc
for
session, at £ 1 5 9 ; the new hall was let
£70. Nicholas Blundell of Crosby
Scarisbrick ; Blundell's Diary, 144, 148.
In 1717 Frances Scarisbrick, widow, and
Edward Scarisbrick registered estates here.
Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 112, 1 08.
6 The Gent. Mag. of 1738 among the
deaths has— ' March n, Robert Scaris-
brick, esq., of £2,000 per annum, in
Lancashire, a Roman Catholic of very
good character.'
^ He had entered the Jesuit novitiate,
but left after eighteen months' trial.
Fra
269
Pretender in 1745 ; see the story, obvi-
ously inaccurate as referring to a * defeat
at Preston,' in Gillow's Bibl. Diet, of Engl.
Cath. iii, 39.
10 He is said to have been 'much
influenced by the infidel and anti-Catholic
literature of the time ; ' Foley's Rec. S. /.,
vii, 1411.
11 The land was laid dry in 1783, and
the first crops sown in 1784; and he
wrote accounts of the operations for the
Society of Arts in 1786 and 1789, receiv-
ing their gold medal. He adopted
grazing rather than tillage, and found
that horses answered best on the natural
coarse grass and weeds of the softest
parts ; flax also succeeded well.
" He had natural children, on whom
hands of the Scarisbrick Trus'tees.
A son died in infancy.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
ment succeeded to Scarisbrick. The latter was born
in 1849 and married in 1874 Adolphine Gabrielle
Marie de Faret, daughter of the Marquis de Fournes ;
a son, Marie Andre Leon Alvar, was born in
1875.'
H4RLETON* was held of the lords of Scarisbrick
by a family whose surname was derived from it ; the
tenure was homage and fealty and the yearly service
of 4/.8 The first mention of the place after Domesday
book is a charter of about the year 1190 by which
Robert, son of Ulf de Hurleton, gave to the abbey of
Cockersand 2 acres of his land in Harleton.4 He
afterwards granted to Burscough Priory land near
Ayscough in Harleton, in pure alms, for the souls
of King John, his own father and mother, and
others.5
Before 1233 Robert had been succeeded by his son
Roger.6 Roger was a benefactor to Burscough,
granting land in the townfield
of Harleton,' also the lands on
the east of Nather dale, 'from
Simon's barn to the Graynet
hake,' and elsewhere in Harle-
ton.8 Several of his charters
are preserved at Scarisbrick,
including one to his brother
Richard.9 In 1 246 he was
summoned to warrant to the
abbot of Cockersand 48 acres,
which the latter held of him by
the charter of Robert his father ;
Walter de Scarisbrick was claim-
ing certain land in Naithalargh as inherited from
his father Gilbert.10 Roger was himself a benefactor
to Cockersand." He took part in 1261 in the
agreement as to boundaries made with the prior of
Burscough, and in 1303 Robert, his son and successor,
joined in a further agreement."
For several generations the lords of Harleton bore
the name of Robert, so that it is impossible to dis-
tinguish them clearly.1* In 1365 there occurred a
dispute as to the wardship of Robert, son and heir of
Robert de Hurleton, ten years of age ; Henry de
Scarisbrick claimed as the immediate lord of Harleton,
while Sir William de Atherton claimed as representing
the Lathoms ; the former established his right.14 In
1369 Robert de Hurleton and Margaret his wife
were claiming lands in Harleton from Roger de
Shaw and Margery his wife and their son John.15
William de Hurleton, possibly a younger brother
of the last-mentioned Robert, was holding the manor
in 1381 and granted it to Gilbert de Gorsuch in
marriage with Maud, apparently a daughter and co-
heiress of Gilbert.16 From 1418 there are for some
time no certain evidences by which the descent of the
manor can be traced." Nicholas de Hurleton occurs
as early as 1433, 18 and as he seems to have inherited
the Gorsuch estate in Longton, he must have been a
descendant.19
Humphrey Hurleton, son and heir of Robert son
of Nicholas, succeeded his father before 1524. He
was soon afterwards engaged in a dispute as to the
Little Branderth, near Harleton Brook, this being
claimed by Thomas Scarisbrick ; the matter was settled
by the arbitration of the prior of Burscough and
others in 1529.*° In 1537 he was one of the farmers
of the parsonage of Ormskirk.21 He had a son Thomas
who married Elizabeth, daughter of Adam Birken-
1 Burke's Landed Gentry, gth edit., ii,
'3>5-
exit where the road leads from Litherland
to Harleton ;' then by Aspinwall ditch
and others ; while the son agreed that
the rent-charge should not be used pro-
Hurleton, xiii cent, and usually; Hyr-
dilton, 1278; Hurdelton, 1359.
3 Before 1230 they appear to have held
directly of the lords of Lathom.
* Kuerdcn MSS. ii, C. m. 32 d. ;
Roger and Adam, sons of Ulf, are among
the witnesses. See also Cockersand Cbartul.
ditch to the commencement.
the estates (n. 71, 70, 70*). Alice
Lamford, rights of way to Broad head and
Moorcroft, and safeguards the watercourse
to Roger's mill. Another (n. 31) con-
cerns land on the north of Withinsnape,
the bounds commencing < at a certain
plaintiff in 1317. De Bane. R. 219,
" Co. Plac. Chan. Lanes, n. zi ; Lanei.
and Cbes. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 367 ; De Bane. R. 418, m. 3i</.
and 419, m. 67 d. Harleton (12 oxgangs)
was still held by knight's service, paying
i Of. to the scutage of 401. and a rent of
41. to the lord of Scarisbrick.
» De Bane. R. 434, m. 76.
16 This appears from Scarisbrick D. n.
121 and 126. William's name occurs
in 1397, 1398, 1416, and 1418; ibid.
»»• '3'. '37, I5°i L*»"- In1- P-m-
(Chet. Soc.), i, ,35.
>' In 1427 Elizabeth widow of Gilbert
dc Hurleton remitted all actions, &c.,
against Henry de Scarisbrick and others i
Scarisbrick D. n. 154.
18 He and James, Thomas, and John
de Hurleton, with others in this year
gave a recognizance of a debt of £300
to Henry de Scarisbrick and others;
ibid. n. 156.
Robert's are printed. The first grants
the whole of ' Naithalarwe ' (also spelt
Nazelarwe and Naithalargh), one of the
boundaries 'following the syke as far as
Hurle of Aykescough ' ; the second con-
cerns land on Twinegreavc ; the fourth
mentions Blaklache by Whitestop, Broad-
head brook, and the Waingate on the
west side of the moor.
5 Burscough Reg. fol. jb.
made relating to the boundaries of Scaris-
brick and Harleton ; by it Walter de
Scarisbrick granted to Roger and his heirs
the twelve oxgangs of land in Harleton
(to be held as described above), while
Roger surrendered his claim to Gorsuch
and other lands, including the common
by n. 4. Others mention Holditches
greve, Blakelands heads, Wet renes, the
Long Sharp, and Quassum ; n. 5, g-n.
His seal is appended to several ; it bears
four palm (?) leaves arranged crosswise
surrounded by the legend + s' HOG'
1° Assize R. 404, m. 9, .0. Walter's
claim was dismissed.
11 Cockersand Cbartul. ii, 640. He gave
an acre and the south side of Greenland
and Heselengreaves, a high acre, to wit,
' Whiteland and Blackland,' and an acre
in the garden adjoining the road from
Hallford to the village ; also the messuage
of Lewin and half a selion.
" See the account of Martin.
13 The Scarisbrick deeds include several
Kuerden MSS. v, 115, n. 181. Harle-
ton and Scarisbrick together were three
plough-lands, and the service was 81.5 thus
Roger had half, rendering half the service.
7 Burscough Reg. fol. 19. The Town
green, Waingate, Fold sykc, Kiln stead,
and barn arc mentioned.
8 Ibid. fol. 19*, :8i, 19. The last
concerns land ' at the head of Ayke-
scough ' ; the bounds began at the syke on
the west, followed the ditch north to the
boundary of Aspinwall,' saving a certain
John, and Nicholas, sons of Robert de
Hurleton, resigned to their father a rent
of 31. t,d. issuing from the manor (a. 61).
Ten years later Robert son of Robert
de Hurleton made various grants on the
occasion of his own son Robert's marriage
with Eleanor, daughter of Gilbert de
Scarisbrick; by the first he gave his
•on a rent-charge of £20 upon his
manors and lands; and by another he
gave his part of the wood of Aykescough
and lands tenanted by Richard Bonyard
270
He is said to have married Eleanor
Chisnall of Chisnall. In 1463 articles
of agreement were signed between him
and Henry Scarisbrick for the marriage
of his son and heir Robert to Henry's
daughter Agnes ; Scarisbrick D. tin. 168,
169. Nicholas Hurleton was a juror
at Ormskirk in 1473 ; Lanes. Inj. p.m.
(Chet. Soc.), ii, 102.
«• Scarisbrick D. nn. 186, 184.
M Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, ,25.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
head, and seems to have settled in Cheshire. His
eldest son was Richard,1 who was succeeded in 1589
by his son John, described as ' of Picton,' near Chester.
A dispute occurred between John Hurleton, as lord of
the manor, and John Shaw of ' the hall of Shaw,' the
latter asserting that he and his ancestors had from
time immemorial had a right of way through the
pasture called Long Furlong, from their house to
Ormskirk.* From this time onward the story of
the Hurletons belongs to Cheshire rather than to
Lancashire.3 It is not known when they sold
Harleton to the Scarisbricks.4
Harleton Hall stands on rising ground near a small
stream, and a quarter of a mile north of the road to
Ormskirk. It is a house of the H type> originally
of the fifteenth century, much altered about the
beginning of the seventeenth, the central hall and
parts of the east wing being of the first date, and the
ORMSKIRK
been re-built in brick in modern times, though prob-
ably on the old plan.
The hall is entered by a door at the north-east
corner, opening into a passage which once formed the
screens, and probably still contains some of the
original wooden construction concealed in the par-
tition which forms part of the east end of the hall.
The passage, once open at both ends, now has a
north doorway only, its south end leading to a stair-
case which fills up the space between the hall chimney
and the east wing. Externally the north wall of the
hall is much in its original condition, and is a
picturesque piece of timber construction of upright
posts set in a massive wooden sill, which rests on a
dwarf wall of wrought stone twelve inches thick. At
somewhat over half height the uprights are mortised
into a moulded headpiece which has had a row of
carved paterae or some such ornament along it, of
HARLETON HALL : NORTH SIDE OF HALL
west wing, with the bay window and chimney of the which only the traces of attachment remain. Above
hall, and the south end of the east wing, of the are a shorter row of uprights, reaching to the wall-
second. A considerable part of the east wing has plate. The spaces between the timbers are filled in
1 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 z,
m. 109. Thomas Hurleton was then
dead. One of the family was John
Hurleton, archdeacon of Richmond,
ejected (probably as married) about 1554
and restored in 1559; Gee's Elia. Clergy ;
Wills (Chet. Soc. New Ser.), i, 47.
2 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. clvii,
H. 2. For another dispute of the same
year see cliv, H. 8.
» Cbes. Visit, of 1580 (Harl. Soc.),
1 30, where Richard Hurleton is said to
have been 'living 1566' ; also Ormerod,
Cbct. (ed. Helsby), ii, 815, where there
is a pedigree. They altered their name
to Hurleston. Numerous references to
the Hurlestons will be found in the
of Picton (in 1589) with Jane daughter
of George Massey of Puddington, the
manor of Harleton in Lancashire being
among the lands included. Richard
Hurleton died in the same year, and
his son John in 1603, leaving an infant
4 John Hurleston, Mary his wife, and
Charles the son and heir apparent, were
in possession in 1684; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 213, m. 69. In 1706,
John Hurleston, son of Charles, was
summoned to vouch concerning the
manor ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 482,
m. 3. In 1716 a chief rent of 21. i\d.
was payable by Charles Hurleston, younger
brother of the last-mentioned John, to
nieces, daughters of John, viz. : Anne,
who married, (2) John Needham, lord
Kilmorey; Mary, who married John
Leche of Garden, near Malpas ; and
Elizabeth, who married Traffbrd Barnston.
See Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 320,
m. 113, and bdle. 324, m. 164. John
Leche and Mary his wife were concerned
in a third part of the manor of Harleton
in 1739 ; Pal. of Lane. Docquet R. 548,
m. 8. The Scarisbricks must have pur-
chased it shortly after this, for it was
included in the portion of Elizabeth,
daughter of William Scarisbrick, who
married John Lawson ; and in 1772 the
latter transferred to Joseph Scarisbrick
and others 'a messuage in Harleton late
xxxix ; on p. ,9. of the latter is an
abstract of the deed of settlement on the
marriage of John son of Richard Hurleton
tales, Geo. I, B. 76, fol. 36. After the
death of Charles Hurleston in 1727 the
estates were divided among his three
271
late of Newton, Cheshire'; Piccope
MSS. iii, 394, from R. 5 of Geo. II at
Preston.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
with a yellowish plaster, and have been decorated in
modern times with quatrefoils painted in black to
imitate timber-work, with the usual poor and flimsy
effect. There are no original windows ; a modern
four-light window has been inserted in the lower part
of the wall, and smaller ones above to light the bed-
rooms in the roof. The condition of the external
woodwork is bad in places, it having been much
strained by the weight of the floor inserted at half
height in the seventeenth century. Of the south
wall of the hall only a small piece remains by the
staircase, concealed by plaster and otherwise mutilated.
The interior has suffered by being cut up into two
stories ; the ground floor, which is paved with stone,
shows three moulded beams of the seventeenth century
in the ceiling, but has no other features of interest,
the seventeenth-century fireplace being hidden by the
insertion of a modern grate, and the bay-window cut
off by a partition. On going into the bedrooms
above it will be seen that the fifteenth-century roof
remains, though but little of it appears through the
plaster and whitewash. It is a good specimen of its
kind, having king-post trusses with cambered ties and
curved braces below, and quatrefoiled wind-braces
i5^cent. EH3 c. 1 600 CZD mo d c rn
HARLETON HALL : GROUND PLAN
between the purlins. Its easternmost truss has larger
braces than the others, forming a four-centred arch
below the beam designed to frame the gallery over
the screens. The bay-window of the hall is in two
stories, as originally designed, built of brick with
stone mullions and dressings, with a five-light window
on the south and single openings on each side, all
being square-headed with weathered labels of the
usual section above.
The west wing, of two stories, with brick walls only
14 in. thick, is all of the early seventeenth century,
and contains on the ground floor two rooms, now
used as sitting room and kitchen, with modern out-
houses built on to the north. The sitting-room has
a good window of seven lights on the south, and a
small projecting two-story bay on the west, one side
of which is formed by a large chimney stack. The
interior is completely modernized, the fireplace being
blocked with a modern grate, the bay partitioned off to
form a cupboard and its windows filled in, and the
long seven-light south window in great part built up.
Externally the original arrangement is clearly to be
seen, and on the accompanying plan the windows are
shown without the modern blocking. They are
exactly similar in character to those of the hall bay
above described. The room now used as a kitchen
has been much altered, and has no ancient features of
interest, but retains in part the chamfered stone plinth
which runs all round the seventeenth-century work.
The upper rooms in this wing contain nothing worthy
of mention.
The east wing, ot two stories, has been largely
rebuilt in red brick, but its plan is probably on the
ancient lines, and the west and south walls, though
now refaced, are of timber and plaster construction ot
the same date as the hall ; the original
roof also remains, though hidden by plaster.
Under the south end of this wing is a
cellar, entered from the passage at the
end of the hall, with seventeenth-century
mullioned windows in its south wall.
The family of Shaw were an early oft-
shoot of the Scarisbricks. Simon del Shaw
was a son of Walter de Scarisbrick by
Edusa de Hurleton, and had a son Gil-
bert and a daughter Quenilda.1 His
brother Robert had a son William.8
In 1449 Henry Scarisbrick complained
that Isabel, widow of James del Shaw,
had taken away Hugh son and heir of
James, whose marriage belonged to him.*
Hugh Shaw of Scarisbrick, Maud his wife,
and James his son and heir, occur in
1477." James Shagh was assessed to the
subsidy in 1525 upon lands worth ^5;5
and occurs in 1539 with his son William.6 In
1563 Thomas Shawe was assessed to a subsidy in re-
spect of lands here, and John Shaw in 1599.' John
Shaw of Scarisbrick, gent., and Thomas, his son and
heir-apparent, occur in l6i8.8 John Shaw, gent., con-
tributed to the hearth tax in l666;9 his will was
proved in 1692.'°
GORSUCH was given by Walter de Scarisbrick to
his younger son Adam, who took the local surname ;
subsequently the land was given to Burscough Priory
to be held of Adam in free alms." The prior re-
1 Scarisbrick D. n. I 5 (a grant to Simon
by the prior of Burscough), 36, 53 ; there
was a contemporary Thomas del Shaw ;
also n. 24, 25 (Quenilda), and ». 35
(Gilbert).
a Ibid. n. 33, 40. Other members
of the family are named in the same
deeds, but no connected pedigree can be
formed.
Simon del Shaw granted lands, &c., in
Harleton, Scarisbrick, and North Meols,
to his son Hugh, who had married Elina
daughter of Richard Keneson ; Scarisbrick
Trustees' Deeds. Walter del Shaw and
his son Simon occur in 1334 ; ibid.
Hugh del Shaw was defendant in a
suit as to lands, brought by Henry de
Scarisbrick in 1376; De Bane. R. 457,
m. 2i6</. and 459, m. 76 d. Robert del
Shaw in 1375 sued John de Westhead for
waste in Harleton and Scarisbrick, as if
he had just entered on possession ; De
Bane. R. 454, m. 289 d. In 1 449 an agree-
ment as to bounds was made by James
Shaw and Richard Shaw; Scarisbrick
Trustees' D.
8 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 14, m. II.
4 D. in poss. of Scarisbrick Trs.
5 Lay Sub. Lanes, bdle 1 30, n. 84.
6 D. in poss. of Scarisbrick Trs.
272
' Lay Sub. Lan
8 Lanes. Inq. p. m. (Rec. Soc.), ii, 186.
9 Lay Sub. Lanes, bdle. 250, n. 9.
10 Will at Chest. The will of John
Shaw, of Scarisbrick, yeoman, was proved
in 1735.
11 Burscough Reg. fol. 15 b. The char-
ter gives the bounds thus : — From the head
of Gosford Syke, along the syke to and
then along the boundary between Ren-
acres (in Halsall) and Scarisbrick to the
place where the White Syke falls into
Senekar Syke ; then by the corner of
Adam's ditch to the starting point.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
granted it to Adam at a rent of I id. with other lands
in Scarisbrick, a yearly pound of cummin to be paid.1
Adam was succeeded by Walter de Gorsuch, probably
his son, as is indicated by a grant to Nicholas son of
Simon de Renacres.9
In May, 1 292, an agreement was sealed for the
marriage of Robert son of Walter de Gorsuch with
Agnes granddaughter of William Brid of Donnington ;
Robert, though a minor, had been enfeoffed of lands
by the prior of Burscough, his father binding the
feoffees to find food and raiment for Robert and Agnes,
any surplus to be kept for them and delivered with
the lands on their coming of age.3 Robert seems
to have died without issue,4 and his brother John
succeeded, marrying in 1 299 Cecily daughter of
Richard de Culcheth.5 John de Gorsuch granted
(about 1320) to Gilbert his son lands in the
townfields of Scarisbrick on the north of land near
the cross, held of William son of Richard de Scaris-
brick.6
The family acquired lands in North Meols, Lathom,
and Huyton, about this time. Gilbert de Gorsuch suc-
ceeded about i 347 ; ' he is described as ' son of Adam
son of Walter.' Gilbert had no son, and settled estates
ORMSKIRK
in Longton upon his younger daughter Maud, wife of
William de Hurleton ; the latter also had no son, and
Gorsuch and other lands went to Richard de Sutton,
who had married the elder daughter Joan.8 In 1 390
Gilbert de Gorsuch had made a settlement or testa-
ment providing for the succession to a portion of hit
lands ; ' and other deeds preserved by Kuerden show
that the main portion was settled on Richard de
Sutton and Joan his wife, with the remainder to
William de Hurleton and Maud his wife.'"
For more than a century the Suttons " remained
in possession, and then the estate returned to the
Gorsuch family, for in 1515 a marriage was arranged
between Margaret daughter of Roger Sutton (son
of John, the son of Gilbert) and Thomas son and
heir of William Gorsuch." Gilbert Sutton died on
20 April, 1518, and the inquisition taken after hi*
death shows a considerable estate, the heir being
his infant great-granddaughter, already espoused to>
Thomas Gorsuch." Thomas Gorsuch was succeeded
about 1560" by his son James, who in 1577
secured from Edward Scarisbrick a right of way
from Gorsuch to Carr Cross in Snape, to Snape
Green, thence to Wood moss, near Long Wyke, to>
i Scarisbrick D.n. 16 ; Kuerden MSS.
v, fol. 115, n. 9, 10.
" Scarisbrick D. n. 27. See also nn. I 3,
32 ; to the former the seal is attached,
bearing an eagle attacking a hind, with
de Gorsuch before me [Richard de Twis-
leton, chaplain] and several others as to
the espousals between him and Maud,
Gilbert's daughter, and that he would
never claim the inheritance of the said
Wrightington, Wigan, Aspull (of the
Hospitallers, service unknown), Penwor-
tham, Ulneswalton (Hospitallers, 4^.), and
North Meols.
A petition by Adam Ashurst and Alice
o Ibid. «. 37.
1 Agnes, wife of Henry son of Randle
de Martin, claimed dower in Gorsuch
Richard de Sutton or the jointure of his
wife in time to come.' This declaration
was made in ,403.
Roger Sutton and mother of Margaret
Gorsuch, describes the inheritance as a
capital messuage called Gorsuch, 50 acres.
others, in 1315. De Bane. R. 212,
m. itgj.
» Scarisbrick D. n. 41. Walter's pos-
sessions are described as ' all my lands,
meadows, pasture, houses, mills, and mill-
pools in Scarisbrick, Harleton, and Augh-
ibid. n. 134. In the following Nov.
lands were granted to his widow Margery,
with remainders according to his wish;
ibid. n. 126.
10 Blundell of Crosby D. K. 65, 79.
of pasture. After the death of Gilbert
Sutton the guardianship fell to William
Margaret being still under age) to his
widow Emline, who married James
Scarisbrick. During all this time a rent
younger brothers of John.
« Scarisbrick D. n. 40. John de Gor-
and Croston. Richard de Sutton died at
the end of 1405, and his widow made a
but three or four years after coming of
age (about 1536) Thomas Gorsuch re-
1333 charged with complicity in the
murder at Aughton of Adam de Cocker-
ham, one of the canons of Burscough.
The accused did not appear when sum-
Gilbert de Sutton, Thomas, John, Richard,
and Henry, and Cecily and Ellen ; Scaris-
brick D. n. 142. The first three died
without heirs, for in 1444 Joan wa«
daughter of John Ireland and had 50 marks
from her father, the last instalment being
paid at John Nicholson's house, called
Hill House, in Scarisbrick. In 1542,
when the inquiry took place, Thomas
mas most of them surrendered, and at
Plea R. 6, m. 9, 9</.; Scarisbrick D.
inheritance, and 'he did not keep his;
the prosecution being adjudged malicious,
elder.'
with his mother ; Duchy of Lane. De-
person appears to have been John son of
John de Gorsuch ; he at last surrendered
in June, . 344, but at the same time ex-
hibited a pardon granted by the king ' for
the good service which John de Gorsuch
has bestowed on us in this present war of
Scotland,' in which he had taken part
under Sir Thomas de Lathom ; Coram
Rege R. 7 Edw. Ill, ' Rex ' m. xxj d. ;
also Scarisbrick D. n. 62.
7 John de Gorsuch attested deeds up
to June, 1346. He had sons, Adam and
Gilbert, who may have succeeded him for
a few months ; Scarisbrick D. nn. 73, 75,
77-
The daughters of Henry, elder brother
of Adam, remitted to Gilbert all their
rights in the family inheritance ; Agnes
surrendered her right on 20 Jan. 1 349-50,
and Amota in the following September ;
ibid. n. 77, 79. The Black Death may
have brought about the irregular succession.
» Scarisbrick D. a. 140 ; 'William de
were sealed between Richard Sutton of
Gorsuch and Edward Lathom of Parbold
for the marriage of the former's son Gil-
bert with the latter's daughter Margaret ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 81. In 1486
Gilbert married his son and heir John
Sutton to Mary daughter of John Crosse
of Liverpool, making for her an estate of
4 marks a year and promising not to
alienate any of his inheritance ; Scaris-
brick D. n. 178. In 1481 Gilbert Gor-
such leased lands in Penwortham to
Evesham; Men. Angl. iii, 421.
« Blundell of Crosby D. K. 60, 75, 79,
82. The lands were re-delivered to
Thomas Gorsuch and Margaret his wife
in 1545-6; ibid. K. 80.
18 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. V. ». 67.
Lands in Scarisbrick and Harleton were
held of the prior of Burscough by the
rent of a pound of cummin ; other lands
were in Ormskirk, Aughton (rent of two
barbed arrows), Welch Whittle (held of
complaint was renewed in 1550, Thomas
still refusing to pay; Duchy of Lane.
Pleadings, Edw. VI, xxv, A. 7.
A few years later (1547) Thomas.
Gorsuch and his wife complained that
James Scarisbrick had entered their lands-,
and molested their tenants, and moreover
had 'made a law in his manor of Scaris- -
brick, wherein the premises lie, that it
should not be lawful for any of the-
tenants to sell any of their calves brought
up on their farms within the said town
to anybody in open market or elsewhere
except to him (James) for 2,., under the
forfeiture of zt. for every calf so sold.'
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Edw. VI, .
xxiii, G. 8. For a complaint by Richard
Halsall, rector of Halsall, as to Thomas ,
Gorsuch see Duchy Pleading, (Rec. Soc. .
Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 127.
14 Margaret Gorsuch was a widow in i
1565, and apparently some years earlier ;,
Duchv of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. xlix,.
273
35
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Baldmony Hooks in North Meols, with right to carry
hay, &c., in carts or on horseback.1
The family, which then ranked among ' gentry ot
the better sort,'" adhered to the Roman Catholic faith,
and in 1 590 John, son and heir of James Gorsuch, was
'a recusant and indicted thereof.'3 Probably John died
before his father, for it was another son, Edward,
who succeeded to the estates.4 The latter, as a con-
victed recusant, paid double to the subsidy of 1628,*
and dying in 1641 6 was succeeded by his son James,
who was then thirty-one years of age.7 Under the
third Confiscation Act, 1652, the land and estates of
James Gorsuch 'a Papist delinquent,' was declared
forfeit and ordered to be sold.8 In October, 1653,
he petitioned for restitution ; but in November two-
thirds of his lands were sold to George Pigott and
William Smith.9
A pedigree of the Gorsuch family was entered in
the visitation of Lancashire by Sir William Dugdale
in 1665, and is headed by a trick of an interesting
canting coat shewing three sprigs of gorse between
two chevronels. A contemporary note states that
these arms are on an old seal of Queen Elizabeth's
time in the possession of the family ; and James
Gorsuch, no doubt, put the seal forward as evidence
for the traditional coat-armour of his house. It is
noteworthy, however, that no tinctures are shewn
in the tricked shield ; and the heralds do not
appear to have allowed these arms to the family.
James Gorsuch appears, however, to have regained
part, if not the whole, of his estates. He married
Anne Harrington of Huyton, and was succeeded
by his grandson James, the son of his second son
Edward by Mary Eccleston.10 The younger James,
born in 1656, was buried at Ormskirk on 21 Decem-
ber, 1752." His surviving son John obtained the
Eccleston estate in virtue of a settlement made by
Father Thomas Eccleston, S.J., as being a descendant
of Mary Eccleston, and took the name of Eccleston ;
he died without issue in 1742, when this estate went
to Basil Thomas Scarisbrick, whose son succeeded to
Scarisbrick also.
At a very early period land called Aspinwall was
given by an ancestor of the lords of Scarisbrick to the
church of Ormskirk. The gift was confirmed early in
the thirteenth century by Richard, son of Gilbert de
Scarisbrick, who describes it as lying within Harleton."
The place gave a surname to the tenant.13
The inquisition after the death of George Aspin-
wall, 4 December, 1559, shows that he held a
messuage and small parcels of land in Harleton and
Scarisbrick of Richard Hurleton, Edward Scarisbrick,
and others; his daughter and heir was Jane Aspinwall,
then one year of age." Later (1562 to 1579) occurs
1 Scarisbrick D. n. 194.
» A branch settled
1633-4 (Harl. Soc.).
8 Gibson, Lydiate Hall,
4 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 63,
m. 94. The inventory of James Gorsuch,
5 Morris D. (B.M.).
6 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxix, n. 58.
The hall of Gorsuch was then held of
the earl of Derby, as of the late dissolved
dung were among the services to be ren-
dered ; S.P. Dam. Interreg. G. 580, fol.
524, &c.
w Visits, of 1664-5 (Chet Soc.), 123.
On this Mr. Gillow remarks : ' Dugdale's
Gorsuch pedigree, like most of his
Catholic pedigrees, is very deficient.
Aspinwall in Harleton to Walter, son of
Gilbert de Scarisbrick, at a rent of 21. ;
D. in poss. of Scarisbrick Trs.
13 In 1292 Avice, daughter of Simon de
Nathelargh, Adam de Aspinwall, and
others alleged that Gilbert de Scarisbrick
and Robert de Hurleton, chief lords of
George is said to have died young ; as a
matter of fact he was a priest and passed
under the " alias " of Talbot. Of course
and the rent of a pound of cummin.
For a suit of his in 1639 see Excb. Depo-
sitions (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 26.
His widow Elizabeth and sister Frances
appear in the recusant roll of 1641 ;
Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 235.
7 James and his sons James and Ed-
ward were foreign burgesses at the Pres-
ton Guild in 1642 ; Guild R. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 112.
8 Index of Royalists, 42.
9 Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iii, 88-90. A survey made
in Aug. 1653 shows that the reserved
rents and boons were worth £3 71.
Gorsuch Hall consisted of a hall, kitchen,
larder, two butteries and seven other
lower rooms, a long upper room called
the chapel chamber, four other large and
small upper rooms and four closets ; a
wash-house ; a decayed mill house, a
brick kiln house of six bays, a fair slated
barn of five bays, nine other bays of out-
housing ; with gardens, orchards, courts,
fold or milking yard, &c. One-third had
been sequestrated (like her other dower
Jands) for the recusancy of Elizabeth,
widow of Edward Gorsuch ; the other
two-thirds were occupied by James Gor-
such. The lands comprised the Brand-
earth, Broad Keys, Maud Hey, hop yard,
Muscarrs and Hawkshead (in Burscough),
the Hooks (North Meols) ; there was a
conigree in the dower lands. The evi-
dences had been ' lost in time of the late
wars, when the house aforesaid was ran-
sacked and plundered.' The lands
granted out on lease are then described ;
two days' reaping and one day's filling of
matters, and hence the returns of Catholics
to the heralds are generally very imperfect.'
11 Nicholas Blundell of Crosby was one
of the bearers and William Molyneux of
Mossborough was another; the latter's
son William in 1732 married Frances
daughter of James Gorsuch ; Blundell's
Diary, 4, 212; Gibson, Lydiate Hall,
254; Piccope MSS. iii, 250 (R. 5 of
Geo. II). James Gorsuch had four sons
—Thomas, who resided at Burscough
Hall, and died without issue ; John, who
succeeded to Eccleston ; George, who
died childless ; and Ja
ing the Burscough mission. This last,
at Douai in 1705, was described as son
of James Gorsuch and Abigail Metham,
born 29 Apr. 1683 ; Douai Diaries, 54,
90. A settlement by the father concern-
ing Gorsuch Hall mentions 'Thomas my
eldest son' and 'John my son' ; Piccope
MSS. iii, 172 (from R. 2, n. 266, of
the Papists' Estates registered under the
Act of i Geo. I in the Court-house,
Preston) ; Eng. Catb. Non-jurors, 108.
John Gorsuch in 1732 married Winifred,
daughter of Anthony Low, M.D., de-
scribed as Mate of Milnhouse, in the
county of Chester' ; ibid. 348 (R. 16 of
Geo. II). Gorsuch Hall appears to have
been acquired by the Scarisbricks towards
of moor, moss, and pasture, and their
claim was sustained ; Assize R. 408, m. 5 2.
Adam de Aspinwall occurs down to
1307 ; Scarisbrick D.n. 48. On 24 Nov.
1310, Henry, son of Adam de Aspinwall.
was pardoned for the death of John de
Aykescough; Cal.ofPat. 1307-13, p. 296.
In Aug. 1315, Henry de Aspinwall was in
the king's prison at Stafford for the death
of John de Aspinwall at Ormskirk ; Cal.
Close R. 1313-18, p. 242.
Simon son of Adam early in 1306
granted to his daughter Emma 'all his
land and manor' in Harleton, Scarisbrick,
and Snape which he had had from James
de Snape, rendering the services due to
the chief lord and a rent of 1 6d. He was
still living in 1316 ; Scarisbrick D. n. 46,
49, 5 1. A Gilbert de Aspinwall was con-
temporary with him, or perhaps later ;
ibid. nn. 33, 40. Thomas de Aspinwall
appears from 1364 to 1398 ; ibid. nn. 96,
99. '3'. "37-
John de Aspinwall in 1371 made a set-
tlement of two-thirds of his lands in Harle-
ton and Scarisbrick on his daughter Joan
and her heirs ; Scarisbrick D. n. 114, &c.
One Hugh de Aspinwall occurs in 1414
and 1429, and another in 1490 ; ibid.
nn. 148, 155, 177. In 1474 Margaret,
wife of Richard Male (Maghull), received
dowry in Aspinoll (Aspinwall) and Augh-
ton from Hugh Aspinoll : she had been
wife of Owen Aspinoll ; Pal. of Lane.
Plea R. 42, m. 10.
leased to the original owners ; ibid. 20,
(R. 12 of Geo. II) and 194 (R. 9).
18 Burscough Reg. fol. 23 ; he expressly
says that his ancestors had given it in
times past. One of the witnesses is
Richard de Lathom, who died in 1232.
Geoffrey, prior of Burscough, granted
274
J&
A grant by feoffees to Thomas son of
Hugh de Aspinwall, ancestor of George,
is recited ; the pedigree being : Hugh — s.
Thomas (1375)— 8. Hugh— s. Evan-s.
Hugh— s. James— s. William— s. George,
whose brother and heir male in 1565 wa»
James Aspinwall.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
William Aspinwall, who in the last-mentioned year
made a grant or transfer of lands to James Gorsuch.1
Directly afterwards William Moorcroft released certain
lands to William Aspinwall, and others to Humphrey
Aspinwall ; the latter were in 1581 conveyed by
Humphrey and his wife Ellen to Roger Sankey.2
A charter by Thomas, son of William de Cowdray,
made at Aspinwall in 1354, shows that he held lands
there and elsewhere in Scarisbrick.3
Snape has some notice under Halsall. It was held
by the Scarisbricks of the Halsalls, as the inquisi-
tions show,4 and parochially its position was uncertain.
It is now, however, reckoned as a hamlet of Scarisbnck
and within the parish of Ormskirk. It gave its name
to a local family of whom there are some traces.4
Two plots of land in Harleton given by Walter de
Scarisbrick to Burscough Priory became known as
Moorcroft, and gave a name to the family which held
it of the canons.6
John de Moorcroft's lands, or part of them, were
the subject of a dispute in 1292 ; he died seised of
them, and his son Robert held them for ten years or
more, when they were claimed from Robert's son
Hugh by his sisters Beatrice (wife of William Fraward)
and Margery (wife of Richard le Ditcher), and by
Agnes, daughter of the Roger just named. The claim,
however, failed.7 The Hugh de Moorcroft successful
in 1 292 may be the Hudde father of Richard who
married Margery and had by her a son Richard,
enfeoffed of lands in 1327* William Moorcroft,
yeoman, who died in 1608, held a messuage and land
in Harleton and Scarisbrick of the earl of Derby, as of
his manor of Burscough, by 4^. rent ; also lands in
Aughton. His son Humphrey, who had married
Agnes Holland, was his heir, and living at Harleton.9
ORMSKIRK
William Moorcroft, as a ' Papist,' in 1717 registered a
small estate here.10 The family appears to have spread
to the adjoining townships.11
Shurlacres was adopted as surname by a local
family.18
In 1717 a number of ' Papists ' registered estates
here, including John Barton, Thomas Blundell, John
Bullen, Edward Cooke, William Culcheth, Robert
Draper, John and James Worthington, and Peter
Wright.13
The land-tax return of 1794 shows that Thomas
Eccleston paid about a third of the levy here ; the
remainder was in small sums.
A school-chapel at Scarisbrick was founded in 1648,
when Henry Harrison alias Hill and Thomas Hill his
son and heir-apparent gave the Great Hey at Barclay
Hey to the inhabitants for a chapel or school. A
building was erected and was used as a chapel in 1650,
when Mr. Gawin Barkley, ' an able, orthodox, and
godly preaching minister,' was there, with a salary of
£50 paid from Royalists' sequestrated estates."
The Anglican church of St. Mark was built in 1 848
and consecrated in 1853 ; the vicar of Ormskirk is
patron. A district chapelry was formed for it in
i869.15
About 1840 Richard Sephton, a member of Orms-
kirk Congregational Church, gathered a Sunday school,
for which in 1 843 a small school-chapel was provided
at Drummersdale.16
Roman Catholic worship was suppressed for but a
short time at Scarisbrick, as the presence of Jesuit mis-
sionaries can be traced from the early years of the
seventeenth century. Several of them were members
of the Scarisbrick family, and a room in the hall was
used as a chapel until 1812. An old tithe barn was
'Scarisbrick D. m. 191, 192, 195;
also Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 24,
m. 64.
Reg. fol. 17. Walter de Scarisbrick gave
land also called Moorcroft to Adam and
Robert, the sons of Robert, 'formerly lord
generation later William de Moorcroft
appears ; ibid. n. 86, 1 1 1 . William son of
Hugh de Moorcroft granted part of Moor-
m. 157, 160 ; 43, m. 29.
From these Aspinwalls, it is said, de-
scended the Aspinalls or Aspinwalls of
Toxteth and Hale, who sided with the
Parliament and attained a prominent posi-
land of Robert de Bickerstath and Alice,
sister of the said Adam and John (?),
and so towards Aikilchoh, following the
ditch to the watercourse of Liverischalre,
ascending the same to the first-named
poss. of Scarisbrick Trs.
In 1564 Margaret Gorsuch, widow, re-
leased to Henry Moorcroft and Jane his
wife a messuage and lands in Scarisbrick
and Martin, in consideration of £80 ;
century.
3 Dods. MSS. cxlii, 226.
« See also Pal. of Lane. Chan. Misc.
bdle. i, file 10 ; and Pal. of Lane. Plea R.
67, m. 7.
bounded by Lamiput and by a watercourse
to Lamiford Vra, where the sheepfold was
in the time of their father. B. prior of
Burscough, and Roger, lord of Harleton,
were witnesses ; D. in poss. of Scaris-
9 Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, .0,.
10 Eng. Catb. Non-juror;, 107-8.
" Two of the name were rectors of
Aughton in the sixteenth century ; and
Scarisbrick D. ». 31. Simon, son of Alan
de Snape, had a messuage and land in the
place in 1 292, and Thomas, son of Alan
de Snape, occurs as plaintiff or defendant
William de Moorcroft surrendered to
the priory his right in the land his brother
Henry held of him; Burse. Reg. fol. 20*.
Another grant by William de Moorcroft
(about 1 260) is in the Scarisbrick D. n. 67.
lands in the same parish in i 575. Prob-
ably he was the James Moorcroft who
had the mill there in 1551 ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 14, m. 259. James was
succeeded by his son Henry, who died in
Richard, son of Siward de Snape, was
joined with Gilbert de Scarisbrick in de-
fending a claim to land brought by Robert
son of Richard le Feuer of Aughton, as
heir of his grandfather Robert le Feuer ;
croft released to Robert de Marehalgh his
right in certain lands; Scarisbrick D.
n. 29, 34. The seal of Roger is ap-
pended to the latter ; it shows an eight-
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 281. See also the
inquisition taken after the death of
Richard Moorcroft of Burscough; ibid,
i, 191.
The Moorcrofts of Ormskirk recorded
daughter Margery on her marriage with
Thomas de Broadhead.
8 The first grant — for the soul of
Walter's wife Quenilda — wa» of land
within bounds beginning at the water-
course dividing Harleton from Ormskirk,
and going northward, eastward, and south-
ward till the boundary of Ormskirk was
reached again ; the second— for the soul
of his wife Margery— adjoined that held
by William de Moorcroft; B-jrscough
of dower in 1278 by Alice, widow of
William de Moorcroft, against Simon
de Moorcroft, see De Bane. R. 24,
m.58i
7 Assize R. 408, m. 38</. Juliana,
the widow of Robert, now re-married to
Robert de Longton, also made a claim
against Beatrice Fraward ; ibid. m. 27 d.
* Scarisbrick D. n. 57. Almost con-
temporary were three brothers, Richard,
John, and Robert ; ibid. n. 51, 59 ; and a
275
Soc.), 209.
" In 1370 Joan, widow of Richard de
Shurlacres, sued Robert, son of Robert le
Spencer and Margery his wife for certain
land in Scarisbrick ; De Bane. R. 440,
m. 96.
w Eng. Catb. Non-jurors, 107-12.
" Common-wealth Cb. Sur-v. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 92 ; Gastrell, Notitia,
"' *?Lnd. Go*. 1 4 Dee. 1869.
" Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 50.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
then utilized (St. Mary's), and was enlarged in 1840 ;
it was, however, a great contrast to the squire's splen-
did mansion, and a new chapel, St. Elizabeth's, was
built on the old site by the marquis de Casteja and
opened in 1889 ; the marchioness's remains were
brought from Wingerworth to a new vault here in
1890.'
BICKERSTAFFE
Bikerstat, Bikersteth, Bikerstath, xiii cent. ; Bykyr-
stath, 1529 ; Bickerstaffe, xvi cent.
Bickerstaffe may be described as an unpicturesque
open country bare of woodland, with the exception
of a few plantations mostly composed of birch trees,
characteristic of moss land. Fields, divided by low
hawthorn hedges, are mostly cultivated. The country
is waterless, with the exception of two small streams
on the south. The farms and houses are considerably
scattered and nowhere can be said to form a settle-
ment of any size. The western half of the township
consists geologically of the upper mottled sandstone of
the bunter series of the new red sandstone. By a
fault running due north and south the middle coal
measures are thrust up in the eastern half.
The township lies almost entirely south of the ridge
of high land stretching from east to west across the
parish, the centre line of this ridge being the northern
boundary, except for a small portion in the north-west.
The southern portion was anciently occupied by great
mosses, now mostly reclaimed, and beyond were the
woods of Cunscough and Simonswood. The popula-
tion in 1901 was 2,096. Near the centre, on the
200 feet level, stands the hall ; close by is the modern
church. Nearly a mile to the north is Stanley Gate,
and about as far to the south is Barrow Nook. The
area is 6,4444 acres.8
The principal road is that from St. Helens to
Ormskirk, which in one part divides to unite again ;
at right angles is the road from Melling to Skelmers-
dale. The Liverpool and Bury line of the Lancashire
and Yorkshire Company passes through the south-
eastern corner of the township.
The surface consists of clay and sand, with some
patches of moss, overlying gravel, clay, and moss. The
crops are barley, wheat, oats, and potatoes. Besides
agriculture the principal industry is coal mining. The
following curious entry occurs in the Ormskirk Burial
Register, I o December, 1 600 : ' A stranger slain by
one of the glassmen being a Frenchman then working
at Bickerstaffe.'
The township is governed by a parish council.
In 1066 BICKERSTAFFE, under the
M4NOR name of Achetun, was one of the manors
of Uctred, lord of Roby. Although in the
parish of Ormskirk, the old name seems to show that it
was originally a portion of Aughton, which adjoins it
on the west. The separation must have taken place
before the Conquest, as the two manors, though both
held by an Uctred — possibly the same person — are
quite distinct in the record.3
After the Conquest it seems to have been early
granted in thegnage ; the assessment was half a plough-
land, and the service an annual rent of 5*. The
earliest known of the lords was Ralph son of Bernulf,
who held it in the middle of the twelfth century. He
granted Stotfoldshaw to the Hospitallers,4 and Holmes
also ; these lands were called cultures.5 Ralph was
succeeded by his son Adam, a benefactor of Cockersand
Abbey.6 Several early grants
were also made to lay holders, ,____ __ ^_ ^...^^
probably younger sons or other
near relatives, and in 1212
Henry son of Elias (or Eilsi) 7
held an oxgang, i.e. a quarter of
the manor, and Adam son of
Waltheof held a third of the
manor.8 Thus about a third
was left in the hands of the
lord.
Adam de Bickerstath was in ^nmnn^Argnt,
turn succeeded by his son Ralph, on a cross patonce table
who was holding the manor in fa' mullets or.
1 2 1 2 by the service already
stated. Ralph also was a benefactor of Cockersand.'
The succession for a time is uncertain. In the
rental of the county for 1226 Alan son of Bernulf
was said to be holding Bickerstaffe, paying the
customary 5/.,10 and in 1246 Alan de Bickerstath
claimed a third of the manor " against Adam de Bicker-
stath, Simon his brother, Gilbert de Rohel, and Roger
and Walter de Bickerstath.12 On this occasion Alan
' withdrew his claim.' Adam de Bickerstath's name
frequently appears in charters and other public acts of
1 From the Liverpool Catb. Ann.
\8g2. A good account of the mission
-will be found in Foley's Rec. S. J. vii,
1398; it is by W. A. Bulbeck, O.S.B.,
.formerly at Scarisbrick Hall. A list of
books of'st. MaVy's library, which their
bequests gradually built up ; the school,
which lasted from about 1628 to 1700, is
also described, and many of the scholars'
names are recorded. For this see also
Pal. Note-book, iii, 221. The library is no
longer at the hall.
The Abbe Dorival, a French priest,
•was the first in charge of the detached
. chapel. In 1 8 24 the English Benedictines
-.took charge; J. Gillow in Tram. Hist.
Soc. (New Ser.), xiii, ,67.
In 1860 a trust was created, called the
Benedictine Trust, for securing certain
lands and buildings for the use of a Roman
Catholic chapel and burial-ground, to be
and of English birth. An exchange of
land was made in 1886 ; End. Char. Rep.
.« 899 (Ormskirk), 7 1.
* 6,453 '» tne Census Report of 1901,
including n acres of inland water.
3 y.C.H. Lanes, i, 283*.
« Kuerden MSS. ii, 269*, n. 79.
5 Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Che..), .7-
• Cockersand Cbartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
545. Adam's gift, made with the assent of
About the same time Edward son of Robert
de Bickerstath granted a portion of his
land in Bickerstaffe by Wildmere ford, on
both sides of the road and between Wit-
lache and Orfelles as far as the cross, in
alms. The Cockersand lands here were
afterwards held by Simon de Bickerstath
and William his son, passing to the Mos-
DZ.
the wood, togethe
th a toft in the
7 Elias was the uncle of Ralph : see the
rant to him in Dods. MSS. cxlii, 252*.
8 Inq. and Extent:, 1 8. It is supposed
that these lands came back eventually to
the lord of the manor. In 1212 Hugh de
Moreton and Margery his wife held the
oxgang of Henry son of Elias ; Margery
was one of the daughters of Richard
son of Roger of Lytham, and dying child-
less the portion reverted to Henry, whose
l»7«?. and Extents, 136. This docu-
ment was compiled from an earlier one,
the phrase 'Son of Bernulf pointing to the
time of Hen. II ; possibly ' Ralph son of
Bernulf' in the original roll was adapted
by substituting the Alan of 1226 for
Ralph.
» 'One-third of half a plough-land in
Bickerstaffe ' is the phrase.
11 Assize R. 404, m. 3 d. The third part
may have descended to Alan from the
Adam son of Waltheof of 1212. About
1240-50 Alan and Adam de Bickerstath
witn
charter
served
sand Charters ; Cbartul. ii, 547.
»Ibid. The original deed is
Blundell; Trans. Hist. Soc. xxj
276
among the Scarisbrick D. (Trans. Hist.
Soc. New Ser. xii), ». 4 ; to another (». 6)
Adam de Bickerstath and Alan de Renacres
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
the time.1 One of his own grants has been pre-
served ; it conferred on Alan son of Robert de Holmes
a defined parcel of land in BickerstafFe for a rent of
2oJ* In 1 292 he recovered some land which had
been unlawfully ' improved ' from the wood and
heath.3
Adam was succeeded by his son Ralph,4 a prominent
man in the county, being sheriff in 1308, 1310,
1312, 1314, and 1315, and knight of the shire in
1313.' He took part in the rising of Thomas, earl
of Lancaster, against Piers Gaveston, for which he was
pardoned in October 1 3 1 3-6 He was killed at Preston
4 November, 1315.' As 'Ralph son of Adam de
Bickerstath ' he made a grant to Burscough Priory.8
Adam de Bickerstath, son and heir of Ralph,
succeeded, holding the manor till 1346 or later.9 In
1331 he settled upon his wife Joan and his son Ralph
six messuages and six oxgangs in Little Eccleston in
Amounderness, then in the possession of Henry de
Bickerstath 1() ; and arranged the succession of two-
thirds of the manor of Bickerstafte, after his decease and
the decease of his wife Joan, to Ralph and his issue."
ORMSKIRK
Ralph de Bickerstath's name appears frequently
from 1347 to 1372.'" His son and successor was
another Adam, the last of the principal line. His
first appearance is in 1361, when he complained that
certain persons, apparently his
trustees, had been guilty of , ^ j. j
waste.13 He settled his estates
in 1377 on his only daughter
and heir Joan, who married
Nicholas de Atherton.14
Nicholas was a younger son
of Sir William de Atherton of
Atherton. He was a knight
in 1401, when he represented
the county in Parliament. 15 He
died in 1420, and by his will
desired to be buried at Orms-
kirk.18 His son Nicholas suc-
ceeded, but his tenure was brief,
as he died at the beginning of 1424. Just before
his death he gave his manor of BickerstafFe to trustees.
His son and heir Henry was then aged nine years
ATHIRTON OF BICKER-
STAFF K. Gale,, three
sparrow-hawks argent,
belled or.
were witnesses ; it is not impossible that
the same Alan used both surnames, and
that he was the ancestor of the Renacres
family whose descent is traced later. They
seem to have called themselves ' de Bicker-
stath ' at times. In 1255-6 Adam gave
the king J mark for a brief; Originalia
R. 40 Hen. Ill, m. 3.
The parentage of Adam and Simon does
not seem to be known,
i As for instance in many of the deeds
just referred to, and in the Burscough
charters in Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App.
197 seq. Adam and his brother Simon
were in 1253 witnesses to a grant to
Cockersand Abbey ; Chartul. 602. Adam
To Simon son of Orm Ralph granted
for life common of pasture and all other
liberties in Bickerstaffe. A little later he
gave to Simon son of Simon de Bicker-
stath < all the land which Simon the father
had held of Adam, the grantor's father, by
hereditary right,' for a rent of i id.; Kuer-
den MSS. ii, 268, B. 10, B. 22. There
were probably other Ralphs besides those
mentioned. One of these was witness to
some Burscough charters in the first half
of the thirteenth century ; Dep. Keeper's
Rep. xxxvi, App. 201.
In 1290 Ralph de Bickerstath com-
plained that Adam de Raintord and others
had disseised him of a messuage and land
1331; Assize R. 1404. In 1346 he
held Bickerstaffe by the old services ;
Survey (Chet. Soc.), 34.
10 Henry de Bickerstath was knight of
the shire in 1339; Pink and Beavau,
op. cit. 27.
u Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 80. Simon de Renacres and
Richard his son put in a claim. See also
De Bane. R. 284, m. 13 i</.
la In the Scarisbrick D. from 1359 to
1365; nn. 86, 98. In 1355 he was
defendant in a suit; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 4, m. 13. In 1366 he sub-
scribed I2d. toward the stipend of a
priest at Ormskirk ; Misc. (Rec. Soc.
1276; A bbre-v. Placit. 266.
» Kuerden MSS. ii, 268, B. I. Simon
de Bickerstath was a witness ; the date is
about 1260.
' Assize R. 408, m. 70.
land was found to be in Rainford ; Assize
R. 1288, m. 12. He made a similar com-
plaint against John le Waleys of Uplither-
land and others ; and the land in dispute
was found to lie partly in Aughton and
the Ralph de Bickerstath who held part
of a fee in Bretherton in 1346; Exch.
Lay Sub. Lanes, bdle. 130, «. 16.
is Assize R. 441, m. 6 d.
" Adam was a witness to Scarisbrick D.
by Thomas Whitehead to recover from
Ralph son of Adam de Bickerstath, ' chief
lord of the vill,' the 'improvement ' which
Adam had just successfully claimed ;
Assize R. 408, m. 24. For a suit by Ralph,
see the same roll (m. 37^). Ralph was
certainly holding the manor in 1297, at
the death of Edmund, earl of Lancaster ;
7»?. and Extents, 287.
5 P.R.O. List, 72 ; Pink and Beavan,
Lanes. Parl. Represent. 1 6. He was in
1306 styled Sir Ralph de Bickerstath;
Scarisbrick D. n. 46.
« Rymer, Foedera (Syllabus, i, 180).
7 Palgrave, Parl. Writs, ii (2), 392,
&c. Maud, widow of Ralph de Bicker-
stath, made a claim against Alice, widow
of Geoffrey de Cuerdale, as to lands
in Little Layton ; De Bane. R. 235,
m. 1 66.
8 Dods. MSS. ix, 231. The abbot of
Cockersand granted his lands in Bicker-
though his father was still living. In 1294
Stephen de Bickerstath, Stephen de Ren-
acres and others were accused of a similar
offence against Ralph de Bickerstath ; it
was stated that Stephen had sold the lands
one Sunday at the hour of vespers for 22
marks; Assize R. 1299, m. I 5 d. Later
(1313-14) Ralph de Bickerstath, Simon
son of Stephen de Renacres, and others
were accused of depriving Robert son of
Simon de Bickerstath of common of pas-
ture ; and the same Simon de Renacres
brought an action against Ralph and
others ; Assize R. 424, m. I d. 6 and
In the Extent of 1323-4 Ralph de
Bickerstath is returned as the lord of the
manor, holding it in thegnage by the ser-
vice of 51. and doing suit to the county
and wapentake ; Dods. MSS. cxxxi, 36.
9 Dods. MSS. xvii, 40; dated 1320.
He was a defendant in a suit 1319-20 ;
Dods. MSS. cxlii, 252* ; Sir William de
Atherton was a witness. In 1379 he
was rated at 55. in respect of his lands
at Bickerstaffe; Harl. MS. 2085, fol.
421*. In I 370 he and his wife Elizabeth
were defendants in a suit brought by
Richard son of John son of Stephen de
Bickerstath ; De Bane. R. 438, m. 321.
In June, 1371, he obtained a licence for
an oratory in his manor-house at Bicker-
staffe ; Lich. Epis. Reg. v, 256.
I* Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 45.
"The writ of Diem cl. extr. wai
issued 20 Nov. 1420 ; Dep. Keeper s Rep.
xxxiii, App. 19. The bishop of Lichfield
granted Nicholas de Atherton licence for
an oratory in his manor of Bickerstaffe in
September, 1389; Lich. Epis. Reg. vi,
125*. This was probably soon after
he came into possession. His will was
made in 1415. He made bequests to
the four orders of friars, to various
to have resigned them later) for rent of
2i. sterling ; on the decease of himself or
any of his heirs succeeding to the lands
half a mark was to be paid, and 41. on the
death of a wife. Sir Ralph de Bickerstath
1321-2 by Adam son of Ralph de
Bickerstath is given by Kuerden (ii, 269,
n. 49). In the roll of the Foreign rent
of Derbyshire, 17 Edw. II, Adam was
holding the manor.
Nicholas, Joan daughter of Nicholas
Atherton, Hugh Atherton, Peter Boyer,
and Ellen formerly wife of John de
Walton. It was proved in 1420;
Kuerden MSS. ii, 268*, n. 24. Beside
arrangement. An agreement as to bounds
was made in i 302 ; Cockersand Chartul.
ii, 548-50.
the Scarisbrick D. from 1319 to 1346;
nn. 52, 75. He was one of the West
Derby jurors summoned, but absent, in
James ; the former had pardon for the
murder of Robert le Walsh in 1401-2 ;
Add. MS. 32108, n. 1510.
277
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
or more. ' Little is recorded of Henry Atherton * ;
he had four sons— Hamlet or Hamnet, his successor,
William, Henry, and Charles. Hamlet had a son
Thomas,3 whose heir was his daughter Margaret,
born about 1486.*
The heiress married James Scarisbrick, a younger
son of James Scarisbrick (who died about 1495), lord
of Scarisbrick. She died on 1 8 January, 1517-18,
leaving an infant daughter Elizabeth as heir to the
Bickerstath properties.6 Elizabeth Scarisbrick, born
about the beginning of I 5 16, married Peter, a younger
son of Sir William Stanley of Hooton, and died about
1560, leaving an only daughter Margaret as heir.
Peter Stanley married again, but retained BickerstafFe
during his life ' by the courtesy of England.'6
Margaret Stanley married in 1563 Henry Stanley
of Little Hall in Aughton and Cross Hall in Lathom.
He was a younger son of Sir James Stanley, marshal
of Ireland in the time of Henry VIII, who was
third son of George, Lord Strange of Knockyn,
and brother of the second earl of Derby. 7 Henry
Stanley, dying in 1598,* was succeeded by his
eldest son Edward, created a baronet by Charles I
in 1627.' He was buried at Ormskirk 4 May,
i64O,10 being succeeded by his son Sir Thomas
Stanley, born in 1616.
1 Towneley MS. DD. «. 1477. The
Hamlet Bickerstath enfeoffed Sir William
Hesketh of Rufford, and Agnes or Anne
married a Salisbury. There is in the
reg. at Chester a deposition by Jane
15 Mar. 1424 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii,
remainder to Thomas Atherton his son
Stanley alias Clifton, relict of Henry
to the effect that Anne Salisbury was the
App. 25. Besides the heir he had other
and heir. The whole estate is described
only sister of Henry, living in 1592, his
children ; Joan, mentioned in the will of
as the manor of Bickerstaffe, with a
brother also being dead. Henry, the
Sir Nicholas ; Edmund, of Gautley ; John,
hundred messuages, a windmill, a thousand
youngest son, thus succeeded to Cross
and perhaps Matthew also. John had
acres of land, also meadow, pasture, wood,
Hall.
children— Philip, who married Joan,
turbary, furze and heath, and marsh, with
8 The inquisition notices only the
daughter of Nicholas Hurleton ; Robert,
201. rent in Bickerstaffe, Ormskirk, Bur-
Little Hall in Aughton, held of John
Ellen, Margery, Margaret. For these
scough, Aughton, Lydiate, Billinge, Rain-
Starkie of Aughton by fealty and a rent
see Kuerden MSS. ii, 269, «. 35; also
ford, Mossborough, Whiston, Sutton by
of lod. ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvii,
268i, &c. In some places John is called
Prescot, Dalton by Lathom, and Little
n. i. Henry Stanley acquired this pro-
* His marriage with Douce, a daughter
gave these lands to feoffees to fulfil his
of John Becconsall, in 1566; Pal. of
of Hamlet Mascy of Rixton, was arranged
will, and next year made an estate of 20
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 28, m. 215. In
He had some variance with John Atherton
Margery and James Scarisbrick and their
and orders his burial 'in his chapel in
about 1441 ; Kuerden MSS. ii, 268*,
heirs. He also set apart certain lands
Ormskirk church and amongst his
ancestors ' • his unmarried daughters
Henry was living in 1461, and apparently
and others for the maintenance of a
were to have £500 apiece out of Bicker-
in 1474 (Cockersand Cbartul. ii, 668 ; Pal.
chaplain at the altar of the B. V. Mary
staffe, 'they being ruled by my wife.'
of Lane. Plea R. 44, m. 1 3 </.), but Hamlet
in Ormskirk church. The clear annual
His lands were to go to his eldest son
is given as tenant in the feodary of 1483.
value of the manor of Bickerstaffe was
Edward, with remainder to his second
Hamlet and William Atherton of Bicker-
said to be £40; the 51. rent was still
son James ; the latter was to have the
staffe were accused of being concerned in
paid to the king (as duke) at his manor
lease of Cross Hall and its lands granted
the death of Robert Derbyshire ; Pal. of
of West Derby. The value of the other
by William, earl of Derby, but was to
Lane. Plea R. 28, m. gd.
properties was about £ 1 1. James Scaris-
surrender it to his elder brother on being
8 Kuerden MSS. ii, 268*, „. 12.
brick married a second time, and his
placed in possession of the Little Hall
Living in 1479.
heirs by this marriage ultimately suc-
and a rent of £30. He died a few days
« The inquest after the death of
ceeded to Scarisbrick. For his tomb in
after making this will, being buried at
Thomas Atherton, taken in 1515, shows
Ormskirk church see Dods. MSS. cxlix,
Ormskirk on 28 July, 1598. His widow
that he died in 1514, holding the
68 ; and Visit, of 1533 (Chet. Soc.), 171.
Margaret was buried there on 2 Nov.
manor of Bickerstath in socage by a
6 In Eastham church was formerly the
1613.
daughter and heir Margaret was of the
the younger sons of William Stanley of
comers to church, but not communicants ' ;
age of 30 years ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
Hooton, knight, and Elizabeth his wife,
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 245. The Stanleys
p.m. iv, n. 68. An account of the
the daughter and heir of James Scarisbrick
seem to have conformed entirely soon
descent from the younger Nicholas
and Margaret his wife, who was daughter
afterwards ; they do not appear in the
Atherton will be found in Duchy Pleadings
and heir of Thomas Atherton of Bicker-
recusant rolls. Henry had a natural son
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 27-31.
staffe esquire ; which made this window
William, a prisoner for debt about 1595,
Ralph, a younger brother of Nicholas,
anno 1543, 34 Hen. VIII1; Add. MS.
to whom he gave a lease of lands in
died in 1461 without legitimate issue,
32111, 77*.
Bickerstaffe ; about this there was after-
when his property was taken by Henry,
There was a son and heir, Thomas
wards a dispute between Edward Stanley,
as son and heir of the elder brother,
Stanley, who married Jane, daughter of
the heir, and Roger Wallwork of Bicker-
and descended to Hamlet and Thomas.
Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton; the
staffe, who had been tutor and ' instructor
In 1506, however, Ralph, son and heir
of Humphrey Atherton, put in his
marriage covenant being made in 1547 ;
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. clxv, M. 6.
in learning ' to Edward ; Duchy of Lane.
Pleadings, Eliz. ccvi, W. 10.
claim ; but it was shown that Humphrey's
He died young and she married again ;
The son James, described as of Little
father, Piers, was one of four illegitimate
see the account of the Mossocks.
Hall in Aughton, was a convicted re-
children of Ralph Atherton. Janet,
widow of Gilbert Walsh, was another ;
In the reign of Elizabeth, Peter Stanley
made complaint that Richard Molyneux
cusant ; and his estate was consequently
sequestered by the Parliament ; he was
she was then 58 years of age. The writ
of Sefton had claimed common rights in
dead in 1654; Cal. Com. for Comp. v, 2981.
Diem cl. extr. for Ralph Atherton was
Barrow within Bickerstaffe on behalf of
9 G. E. C., Complete Baronetage, ii, 27.
issued in July, 1461 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep.
the tenants of Simonswood ; Duchy of
Sir Edward was sheriff of Lanes, in 1614,
xxxvii, App. 176.
Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. Ixxxiii, S. 6.
1626, and 1638 ; P.R.O. List, 74. At
Some Athertons continued to reside
1 Visit, of 1533 (Chet. Soc.), in.
Edward Stanley's court-baron of Bicker-
in Bickerstaffe. Philip Atherton, son
Sir James Stanley, knight, was still
staffe, held II July, 1617, Henry Wilding
and heir of Arthur Atherton, was sum-
living in 1545; Lay Subs. bdle. I3o,
was fined IDS. for having overcharged the
moned to Lancaster in 1541 ; he brought
n. 136. The two eldest sons are said to
common of the manor with cattle. The
a complaint against Gowther Scarisbrick
have died without issue. Sir George,
bailiff, in distraining, broke into a close
in 1550; Pal. of Lane. Writs, Lent,
'the Black Knight of Ireland,' died in
to seize a mare, for which he was
32 Hen. VIII; Duchy of Lane. Plead-
December, 1570, and was buried at
indicted at the assizes and punished;
ings, Edw. VI, xxv, A. 4.
Ormskirk ; his sons (Edward and Henry)
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 322, m. n.
& Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, ». 92.
This inquisition records that in 1478
died without issue, and of his daughters
Mary married Robert son of Sir Robert
l°Fim. Cert. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 207.
278
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Sir Thomas took a prominent part in the Civil
War, upon the Parliamentary side. It is said, indeed,
that in the attack on Lord Strange at Manchester in
July, 1642, it was this distant cousin who fired at
him thrice. He had in the previous March been
made a deputy-lieutenant of the county by the Com-
mons, and in October was made a magistrate ; in
April next year he was placed on the newly-formed
committee ' for sequestering notorious delinquents'
estates." He married, in or before 1643, Mary,
daughter of Peter Egerton of Shaw, another Parlia-
mentarian, by whom he had two sons and two
daughters. He died in May, 1653, and was suc-
ceeded by his son Sir Edward Stanley.8 Sir Edward's
son Thomas, just a year old, succeeded in 1671.
Before he came of age he married Elizabeth, daughter
and heir of Thomas Patten, through whom he ac-
quired a great estate in and near Preston.* In 1695
he was returned as one of the Whig members for
Preston.4 He died in May, 1714, and his son, Sir
Edward Stanley, succeeded him in February, 1735-6,
becoming earl of Derby, in succession to James, the
tenth earl, since which time the manor of Bickerstaffe
has descended with Knowsley.4 In 1831 Edward
Smith Stanley, afterwards thirteenth earl, was sum-
moned to the House of Lords as Baron Stanley of
Bickerstaffe. The hall is a shooting box of the earl of
Derby. Court rolls from 1735 are preserved at
Knowsley.
There were several other branches of the local
family ; some of them settled in Aughton, but others
continued to reside in Bickerstaffe. Simon de Bicker -
stath contributed to the stipend of a priest at Orms-
kirk in 1 366."
ORMSKIRK
The Renacres family7 have been mentioned ; they
appear to have been closely related to the lords of the
manor, and on one occasion ' put in their claim ' at a
settlement of the family estates. A number of deeds
concerning them have been preserved by Kuerden,
but it is not possible to give a complete account.
From cases cited above it appears that Stephen de
Renacres8 was a prominent personage in Bickerstaffe
about 1290, and that he was succeeded by his son
Simon, who occurs in the reign of Edward II.9 In
1348 Richard, son of Simon de Renacres, granted to
his father a rent of zs. ifd. issuing from lands in Bicker-
staffe,10 and in 1391-2 Ellen (Walsh), the widow of
Richard de Renacres of Bickerstaffe, granted to Hugh
le Spencer of Ormskirk certain lands which had come
to her after the death of her husband." Their son
was Thomas, who in 1424-5 arranged for the succes-
sion to these lands.18 Perhaps it was the same Thomas
who, as 'Thomas, son of Richard de Renacres,' granted
some land in Bickerstaffe to ' Thomas de Renacres son
of Maud de Hopcroue,' in 1402-3." The following
year a settlement was made, by which there were re-
mainders to other of Maud's children — Richard,
Henry, Cecily, and Isabel." These lands seem
shortly afterwards to have been acquired by John
Atherton of Bickerstaffe.15
Another family of long standing in the township
was that of Mossock, who acquired lands also in
Aughton and elsewhere in the district. Sometime
about 1280 Richard de Bickerstath, son of Alan de
Renacres, gave to William son of Simon de Bicker-
stath a portion of his land, which from its boundaries
appears to be that on which Mossock Hall now stands.
The rent was to be zd.u Another portion, lying on
» Civil War Tract, (Chet. Soc.), 33, 2,
60, 90. Some despatches signed by him
and other officials of the party are printed
in Local Glcaningt Lanes, and Ches. i, 5,
"> Kuerden MSS. ii, 271*, B. 8?.
11 Ibid. n. 84. For some early Renacres
deeds see Kuerden MSS. iii, R. i.
12 Ibid, ii, n. 82. Contemporary with
John de Renacres of Lancaster (?), attorn
certain persons to deliver seisin to John
Atherton of lands in Bickerstaffe ; Kuer-
den MSS. ii, 268i, n. 3. At the same
a The Stanleys of Cross Hall are de-
scended from Sir Edward's younger brother,
Peter Stanley.
Sir Edward matriculated at Oxf.
(Brasenose Coll.) in 1661, and married
in 1663 Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of
Thomas Bosvile of Warmsworth ; Dug-
dale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 284.
8 Pollard, Stanleys of Know sley, 93. Pat-
kirk, son of Thomas de Renacres, who in
1391-2 deputed Joan his wife and another
to take seisin of his father's lands in
Bickerstaffe ; ibid. n. 83 ; Kuerden (fol.
MS. (Chet. Lib.), 357, R- 37°) has pre-
served a grant by Thomas de Renacres,
perhaps the father of this Richard, made
in 1366. His holding included the tene-
ment which Richard (tie Renacres) held
Christiana his wife, daughter and heir of
John Renacres of Wantage (?), granted to
John son of Nicholas Atherton lands which
formerly belonged to Thomas Renacres of
Bickerstaffe; ibid. n. 18. Then in 1435-6
John Atherton of Bickerstaffe enfeoffed
Sir Thomas Stanley and Sir William
Atherton of all the messuages and lands
which formerly belonged to Thomas, son
chief residences of the family. A private
Act was passed (12 Will. Ill, cap. 32) to
enable Sir Thomas Stanley to charge cer-
tain manors and lands in Lanes, with
Simon de Holme, Thomas de Rainford
and Elizabeth his wife (daughter of Wil-
liam), and Richard Godithson. ^1363
Bickerstaffe ; ibid. n. 7. Then again in
1470 Christiana, lately wife of William
Wild of Alderington(P) in Berks., quit-
sisters' portions.
4 Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 158.
4 See the account of Knowsley.
« Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii,
114. John son of Simon occurs in I 371,
as holding land in Bickerstaffe and Augh-
ton ; Final Cone, ii, 182. Other mem-
bers of the family are mentioned in De
Bane. R. 425, m. 405 ; 439, m. i64</,-
453, m. 151.
• There is a place so named in Halsall.
8 In 1284 Richard de Renacres made a
claim but withdrew it ; Assize R. 1268.
Alan was Richard's father (see below) and
Stephen was his son; Assize R. 408,
m. 76 ; Coram Rege R. 138, m. 59.
9 Kuerden (fol. MS. 390, T.) has the
following abstract : ' I Simon de Renacres
have inspected a charter which Richard de
Renacres my grandfather made of divers
lands in Bickerstaffe.' The date is about
the end of the reign of Edw. I.
Thomas and whose successor was appointed
in 1365— claimed lands in Bickerstaffe
from William Barrett, Alice his wife, and
John their son, alleging that they were
given by Stephen son of Alan de Renacres
to Thomas son of Richard de Halsall and
his wife Siegrith, and after their death
should have descended to the plaintiff;
De Bane. R. 415, m. 199, and 416, m.
387.
!3 Kuerden MSS. ii, a. 91. Probably
he was a natural son of Thomas the
grantor. See n. 88.
" Ibid. n. 93. One of the remainders
was to Thomas son of Richard de Ren-
acres — perhaps the Richard of Ormskirk,
who was living in 1429 ; ibid. «. 92.
15 The dates and names as given by
Kuerden cannot be read with certainty,
but seem to stand as follows : In 1425-6
Wylder(?) deThurnham (?) and Constance
his wife and her sister Ellen, daughters of
279
gift and the gift of her sister Ellen in
Bickerstaffe; ibid. 271*, n. 87. With
these may be compared fol. 262, «. 25,
been daughters and co-heirs of a Richard
de Renacres.
16 Kuerden MSS. ii, 231, n. 101. The
bounds began at a ditch on the eastern
side next to Crawshaw, proceeded to the
Harestone, and then to Wilmanford ; then
along a syke as far as the boundary between
Melling and Bickerstaffe, along this boun-
dary to Crawshaw, and by Crawshaw to
the starting point. It adjoined land on
Crawshaw Moor held of the grantor by
Simon de Bickerstath. Edusa, widow of
Richard de Renacres, surrendered her
dower right to William and Richard, sons
of Simon de Bickerstath; ibid. n. 83.
There is also a grant by William de Ren-
acres to William de Bickerstath of land
called the Bickinshaw ; ibid. n. 85.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Crawshaw Moor, was given about the same time for a
rent of 4^.' Some years later ( 1 300 to 1310) William
son of William son of Simon de Bickerstath gave to
Ralph son of Henry de Mossock in free marriage with
Anilla his daughter all his messuages and lands in
Bickerstaffe and Aughton.8
Richard de Mossock quickly follows ; probably he
was the son of Ralph. In 1327 he leased certain
lands in Bickerstaffe,* and in 1332 he was plaintiff in
a suit of novel disseisin against Henry son of Simon
de Bickerstath, but did not prosecute it.4 His son
Thomas is mentioned last in the remainders to the
lands of John son of Simon de Bickerstath, in a deed
made about 1 38o.5 It is possible that he did not long
survive his father, for in the first quarter of the
fifteenth century his son Henry comes into promi-
nence. Henry married, about 1410, Joan daughter
and coheir of John le Norreys of Much Woolton, who
brought him lands in Allerton, Woolton, Huyton, and
Garston, and from this time the family seem to have
had a house in Allerton. Henry had also a house in
Liverpool, and took part in the affairs of the town,
being mayor in 1 426." He had a dispute with Henry
Atherton, lord of Bickerstaffe ; it was referred to the
arbitration of Sir Thomas Stanley, who decided that
Henry Mossock must pay a rent of <)J. and find a
man in harvest time.7
He was succeeded by Thomas Mossock, who in the
time of Henry VII was followed by his son Henry.8
In 1493-4 he married Anne, daughter of Robert
Shakerley.9 He was followed by his son Thomas,
living in I55O.10 Thomas's son was another Henry,
who married Ellen daughter and coheir of Philip
Wettenhall." One or two deeds concerning him
have been preserved." He was buried at Ormskirk
on 22 November, I 593." His son and heir, Thomas,
succeeded, being twenty-three years of age. He married
Margaret daughter of Laurence Ireland of Cunscough
in Melling, where the family seat was when the visi-
tation of 1664 was made.14 He survived his father
only three years, leaving a son and heir Henry, then
nine years of age.16 This Henry was still living in
1 664, having weathered many storms. He married
Jane, a daughter and coheir of John Moore, son of
Edward Moore, of Bankhall.16 In 1628, as a con-
victed recusant, he paid double to the subsidy ;" and
in 1641 his two children, Thomas and Elizabeth,
appear in the recusant roll. '8 As a matter of course
his estates were sequestrated by the Parliament 'for his
recusancy and delinquency,' and in 1652 he made
complaint that Sir Thomas Stanley, ' taking advantage
of his condition," had enclosed
a moss adjoining his estate, on
which he had right of depastur-
ing. The next year his estates
were sold to Anthony Shelley
under the third confiscation
Act, i652.19
The son, Thomas Mossock,
was a lieutenant in the Royal
Forces, and was taken prisoner
at the battle of Ormskirk, in
l644.w He married Anne, LEY. Gules, on a chief
daughter of Thomas Berington, fmim tvn hurts.
by whom he had a daughter
who died in infancy ; and secondly Anne, a
daughter and coheir of Richard Urmston, of West-
leigh, but appears to have had no issue by her."
The family seem to have recovered part at least
of their estates. To Thomas his brother Richard
succeeded,22 and was in possession in 1685," but
Mossock Hall and other lands went to the heirs of
1 Kuerden MSS. ii, 231, n. 99.
"Ibid.nn. 81,98, 100. Thetwoforrm
of these are dated 4 Edw. I, and the la:
8 Edw. I ; probably errors for Edw. II.
account is given in Ormerod, Cbes. (ed.
Helsby), iii, 367.
"Ibid. a. 133. In I 586 he purchased
land in Aughton called the Moor ; Pal.
18 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 233.
19 Royalist Camp. Papers (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), iv, 202, 203; Index of
Royalists, 43. Kuerden notes a lease by
3 Ibid. n. 48.
tributed 4</. to the stipend of a priest at
Ormskirk in 1366; Misc. (Rec. Soc.
sock was accused of ousting Robert
Bickerstath from a tenement in Bicker-
was buried <in his own chancel1 in Orms-
kirk church. In a letter from William
5 Kuerden MSS. ii, 2684, 2, and B8.
« The Mossock Deeds (156 in number)
and his wife Elizabeth and their son and
heir Thomas by lease dated in December.
Mossock, the true penitent, died on the
most penitent saint's day, July 22 ' ;
Geoffrey Mossock occurs in 1432-3 ; n.
"i Ibid. n. 105 ; it is dated 1437-8. In
a deed of 1417 Henry is described as
'parker'; ibid. ». 141.
lay adjacent, and that he had common of
pasture and turbary on Bickerstaffe moss
and a right of way to it through Deeplache;
the plaintiff having stopped this way by a
hedge and ditch, he had made a passage.
<» See the account of Aughton ; Civil
War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 204.
» Kuerden MSS. ii, 230*, n, 47.
Anne Mossock died in 1699; for her
will see Lanes, and Cbes. Antij. Notes,
tor of Godfrey Mossock, is mentioned in
1488 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 66, m.
dd.
9 Kuerden MSS. ii, 231,11. 107 ; 230*,
n. 49 ; n. 26 is a receipt from Thomas son
of the land had been made with the assent
of Mistress Jane Radcliffe, widow of
Thomas Stanley ; she had since (before
1 1567) married Thomas Molyneux; Duchy
of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. Ixxv, 8.4. She
*> A very unfavourable opinion of him
must be formed from his treatment of the
widow. When she claimed her dower
Richard objected that she had never been
' lawfully coupled together in matrimony.'
Henry Mossock, acknowledging 5 marks
from Thomas's rents in Shuttleworth, due
after the death of his mother Isabel ; it is
dated 1505-6. Henry Mossock was living
in i 548, aged about 76 ; Depos. and Plead,
cited under Cunscough.
1° Ibid. n. 1 26 ; this is an order to Robert
and John Hey of Aughton to build a barn
and carry it to Allerton.
" With him begins the pedigree in Dug-
neux was described as of Nutfield, in
Surrey ; Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz.
clxv. M. 6. She was dead in Nov. 1602 ;
ibid, ccvi, W. 10.
18 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, n.
28.
14 Hethenhead seems to have been the
name of the dwelling ; it is probably the
origin of M. Gregson's ' Heathenland.'
1s Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvii, n. 87.
Mossock, popish recusant, by Henry
Lathom, a popish priest, according to the
custom and with all the ceremonies used
in the Romish church.' A writ was di-
rected to the bishop of Chester to inquire,
but the result is not stated. (Note by J. P.
Earwaker.) She was living at Westleigh,
an indicted recusant, in 1678; Kenyan
MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 109.
23 Kuerden MSS. ii, 231*, n. 127. He
marriage (indentures dated 4 July 1559)
see Kuerden MSS. ii, 230, n. 16, 47; it
is said that he had £40 in land with his
wife, but his son sold this estate to Lord
Chancellor Egerton. A slightly different
Henry Stanley and Margaret his wife, in
the latter's right.
16 Her portion was £450 ; Kuerden
MSS. ii, 230*, n. 47.
i' Norris D. (Brit. Mus.).
280
He was at Douai College in 1644 and
1645; Douai Diaries, 46, 8 1. But see
Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc.), iii, 101. He wrote
the Mossock inscriptions in Ormskirk ana
Aughton churches (1661).
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
his sister Elizabeth, who married Thomas Walmesley,
of Showley.1
The site of Mossock Hall, just on the Aughton
boundary, is low, and has at one time been
moated. The hall, which is now and has been
for many years a farmhouse, belongs to a type con-
sisting of a main building with two rooms, one on
each side of a large central chimney stack, which are
entered from a common lobby and projecting porch
and give access to wings at either end, projecting either
to front or back, or in both directions. In this ex-
ample a porch of two stories opens into the lobby, with
a door to the kitchen on the left. The right-hand
partition and door of the lobby have been removed,
and a passage as wide as the lobby is cut off from the
sitting-room on the right of the central stack, to give
access to the right wing of the house,
which contains on the ground floor
a dairy, staircase, and second sitting-
room.
The oldest parts of the building are
of the first half of the seventeenth cen-
tury, two stories in height, of red brick
with stone dressings, the masonry being
of good quality, and include the porch,
which has outer and inner doorways
with four-centred heads, the lobby and
central chimney stack, the front walls of
kitchen and sitting-room to right and
left of the porch, and probably part of
the back walls of both. The front
window of the kitchen is of five lights,
square-headed, and that of the sitting-
room, now cut off from it by a parti-
tion, of six lights ; both have plain
chamfered stone mullions and dressings.
Heavy beams run across the fireplace
recesses in both rooms, and carry the
timbers of the upper floor, so that none
of the constructional woodwork rests on
the masonry of the central chimney — a
wise precaution, the neglect of which has caused
the loss of many an old house of this date and
earlier. The beam in the sitting-room is the
roughly squared trunk of an oak tree, fourteen inches
square at its smaller end, and eighteen or more at
the butt.
The back wall of the house has been refaced or
rebuilt in the eighteenth century in very poor red
ORMSKIRK
brick with wooden casements, a great contrast to the
excellent work of the front.
The sitting-room in the right wing and bedroom
above are of better construction, stone-faced, with
a massive stone chimney stack, and doubtless date
from the prosperous farming days of the beginning
of the nineteenth century.
The side wall of the kitchen is a very rough affair,
and there has evidently been at this end of the build-
ing a wing in some measure corresponding to that
still standing.
On the back elevation some nine feet of rough
stone footings are to be seen projecting from below
the eighteenth-century brickwork, at a slightly dif-
ferent angle to the present wall. They stop on the
line of junction of the right wing with the main
MOSSOCK HALL
building, and it may be that this wing formerly
projected beyond the back wall.2
There was a resident priest at Mossock Hall at the
beginning of the eighteenth century.3
STOTFOLDSHJW,' as stated, was granted to the
Hospitallers by Ralph de Bickerstath. A little later
(about 1 1 80) it was granted by Ralph de Diva, their
prior, to Norton Priory in Cheshire.5 It was held
1 Burke, Commoner, (1837), iii, 228;
Abram, Blackburn, 459. The estate was
registered by Richard Walmesley of Rib-
chester at Preston about 1716; Piccope
MSS. iii, 166 (from R.I,B. 145). Thomas
Walmesley of Showley, party to a deed in
1756, is described as grandson of Richard
Walmesley of Ormskirk, which Richard was
nephew and heir-at-law to Richard Mos-
sock of Bickerstaffe ; ibid. 372 (from R.
30 of Geo. II).
a 'The attic rooms have clay floors and
the walls exhibit the mud and wattle
construction so often to be met with in
old houses. Forty years ago the place
was in a very neglected state, and was
surrounded with timber and old hedges.
' It was generally believed by the neigh-
bours to be haunted, and was known for
some time as Boggart Hall, the only
The stories told are that one of the
ghosts, with clanking chains, used to
walk on stormy nights along a dark and
narrow road leading from opposite the
old barn. The house itself had a ghost
of its own, that of a lady in a green dress,
who followed any visitor leaving in the
night season ; would bang the door and
have remained buried for more than two
centuries ' ; G. C. Newstead, Annah of
Augbton, 18-20. A view of the house is
ghosts had been laid to rest after a sum
of money had been found, which, gossio
says, was concealed either on the staircase
in the balustrades, which are hollow and
of great thickness, or in a coffin-shaped re-
ceptacle on the landing, which evidently
had been a secret place for hiding valuables
or plate in troublous times.
' One of the remarkable objects on the
farm ii a huge stone trough near the
stables, which at one time lay in a field
near the house. Report has it, that if
removed from that spot it was always
mysteriously replaced during the night.
given. » N. Blundell's Diary, 2.
(as ' Stotfoldechage '}, 1212. The first
f and the / vary to c and r, as Scotford-
shaw. The name has long been lost.
5 Kuerden MSS. ii, 269*, „. 80. A
curious undated grant is contained in
the same volume (fol. 268, B. ,6), by
which William the priest of Stotfoldshaw
conveyed to God and St. Mary of Norton,
with his body, the whole of 'Stodfold-
shohom' and ' Menshahom.1 At the
4,. was paid toaNo°rton from Stotfold-
shaw ; Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby), i,
686. A grant to Richard de la More by
near the roots of a large thorn opposite
the principal door of the house. It is
said to have belonged to Lord Charle-
28l
Birch Chapel (Chet. Soc.), 189. In it
'Adam Son of Ralph' is named as the
donor to them.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
of them by the Bickerstaths and Inces of Aughton,
whose rights passed to the Stanleys of Moor Hall.1
It gave a name to the tenants ; Richard de Stotfold-
shaw occurs in the time of Edward II. One of his
grants — to his son Henry — has been preserved ; ' and
in 1370 Henry son of Simon de Stotfoldshaw re-
leased to Gilbert de Ince of Aughton all his lands in
Bickerstaffe.3 Another family connected with the
MOSSOCK flALL
ip o 10 20 30 4p
SCA.IC of Feet
place was that of Withard, Whitehoud, or White-
head, sometimes called Stotfoldshaw.4
A long list of the inhabitants in 1366 is given in
the roll of contributors to the stipend of a priest at
Ormskirk.5
Stanley of Bickerstaffe was the only freeholder in
l6oo,6 but in 1628 three were named — Sir Edward
Stanley, Henry Mossock, and Thomas Cobham.7
John Bullen of Bickerstaffe, as a ' Papist,' registered
an estate in 1 717.®
In 1650 the surveyors for the Commonwealth
recommended that a church should be built in this
township.9
The church of Holy Trinity was built in 1843
by the earl of Derby, and enlarged in 1860. There
is a burial ground attached. The incumbents are
presented by the earls of Derby.
The Society of Friends early had a meeting at
Stanley Gate.10 A house was licensed for meetings
in 1689," which were discontinued in 1786, and the
house made into cottages." They had also a burial
ground in Bickerstaffe, close to Moor Hall in Aughton."
SKELMERSDALE
Schelmeresdele, Dom. Bk. ; Skelmersdale, 1 202 ; Scal-
mardale, 1246; Skelmaresdale, 1300. There are some
eccentric spellings (e.g. Kermersdale, 1292), but only
one variant requiring notice, viz. Skelmardesdale and
the like, occurring 1300 to 1360.
Skelmersdale is a particularly bare, unpleasing
district, for the most part occupied by collieries, with
huge banks of black refuse at intervals amongst tree-
less fields. In the outlying parts of the township
crops of potatoes and corn are grown in a soil which
appears to be sand and clay mixed. That clay con-
stitutes a large proportion of the sub-soil is evidenced
by the numerous brickworks, which do not tend to
render the landscape more picturesque. The River
Tawd flows northward through the township on its
way to the shady Lathom woodlands, quickly ex-
changing a monotonous landscape for one varied with
foliage and pleasant meadows. The geological forma-
tion consists almost entirely of the middle coal mea-
sures, which, over a very small area on the eastern
border of the township, are overlaid by the lower
mottled bunter sandstones. Near Sephton's Hall in
1 Sec the account of Aughton ; also
Lanes, and Cbes. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), ii, 329 ; and Lanes. Inq.f. m.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 168.
John Starkie, about 1540, held a close
here of the Hospitallers, for a rent of
j,/; Kuerden MSS. v, 84.
* Ibid, ii, 268, B. 7. The bounds
began at the Calverhey ; thence going by
the Small-gate to the Gap, and by a dyke
to Hanneyard ; thence to a dyke in the
Hey Moss, and along this dyke to Stot-
foldshaw. Richard attested two of the
Scarisbrick D. m. 33, 52 ; the date of
the latter is 1318-19. He had a son
Simon son of Thomas and Cecily his
wife had at the same time a grant of
14 acres from Roger de Walshcroft, lying
near the land of Adam son of Gilbert de
Greenol (ibid. B. 13). The last-named
Adam had complained of having been
disseised by William de Withinsnape,
Richard de Stotfoldshaw, and Adam de
Bickerstath of certain lands (Assize R.
424, m. 9). Cecily, Simon's widow, was
living in 1360, holding lands for her life
which would descend to Thomas del
Hall (or Hull) on her death (ibid, ii,
268). Simon son of Thomas del Hall in
1336 released to Adam son of Thomas
were related, but in 1360 there was an
inquiry as to whether Thomas White-
head had disseised Cecily, daughter of
Madoc del Plat and wife of John Baxter
of Maghull, of a messuage and land in
Bickerstaffe, and she gained the day;
Duchv of Lane. Assize R. 8, m. 8.
Thomas Whitehead— here the form of
the surname is Whitehoud — was son of
Adam son of Thomas. Cecily wa«
under age in 1 340, but is probably the
widow of Simon Whitehead.
5 Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 114.
6 Mist. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
Some further grants to this family are
given by Kuerden (vi, 63*, n. 7-12). In
1 1 Edw. I (? II) Simon son of Stephen
de Renacres gave Alan de Stotfoldshaw
this Adam son of Thomas had grants
from his father also (ibid. 268*, B. 5,
B.,.[Ermlachneld,,329],B.8[.338]).
In 1336 Adam, together with Robert of
^ Norris D. (B.M.).
s Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, 1 08.
9 Common-wealth Cb. Surv. (Rec. Soc.
Lane, and Ches.), 93.
of the lands and tenements of Edusa,
formerly wife of Richard de Renacres
(grandfather of the grantor) ; remainder
to Richard de Stotfoldshaw. Richard de
Bickerstath in 1340 gave to Robert son
of this Alan and Sibyl his wife an acre of
de Stotfoldshaw and John his brother.
8 Kuerden MSS. ii, 268, B. 24.
There was also an Alan de Stotfoldshagh
who had a son Robert ; ibid, iii, R. I.
4 There is a grant from Richard de
Walshcroft to Thomas Whitehead of
Richard de Stotfoldshaw, gave a bond to
Simon son of Thomas del Hall of Bicker-
«taffe (ibid. 268, B. 17).
In 1362 Thomas son of Simon de
Stotfoldshaw sold land to William de
Ince (ibid. 268*, B. 7).
In 1397 Agnes widow of John de
Huyton released to the son of Adam
Whitehead all the tenements formerly
belonging to John son of Thomas White-
head in Bickerstaffe (ibid. 268, B. 21).
About twenty years later (6 Hen. V)
John Whitehead alias Stotfoldshaw of
have been beaten to death in 1660, while
going from the meeting.
" Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.),
" Ex inform. Mr. J. S. Hodgson.
18 Here lies one Oliver Atherton, who,
refusing to pay tithes to the countess of
Derby, lay rector of Ormskirk, was cast
into prison, where he died in Feb. 1663,
after two years' confinement. His
friends, obtaining his corpse, carried it
through certain towns in Lancashire,
affixing an inscription to the market
him by Adam son of Gilbert and Agnes
his wife; both dated 1326-7. Kuerden
MSS. ii, 268, B. 2, 14.
Bickerstaffe, sold his lands to Robert
Cliver of Ormskirk (ibid. B. 9, 10, 15).
It does not appear how these families
282
'persecuted to death' by the countess 'for
keeping a good conscience'; Newstead,
Annals of Aughton, 15, i 6.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
the east the underlying millstone grit is thrown up by
a fault over a very small area.
The township is mostly on high ground, 230 feet
being reached in the centre of the village. Its area
is 1,940^ acres.1 The village of Skelmersdale lies in
the western corner ; to the north-east is the hamlet
called Stormy corner. The White Moss, now re-
claimed, anciently formed part of the boundary
between this township and BickerstafFe.
The railway from Ormskirk to St. Helens passes
through the village, where there is a station. The
main highway leads east to Wigan, and west, dividing
into two, to Ormskirk.
A local board of fifteen members governed the
township from 1874* until 1894, when it was re-
placed by an urban district council of fifteen members.
The gas and water works are the property of the
council. The population numbered 5,699 in 1901.
According to Domesday BookSKEL-
MJNOR MERSDJLE was in 1066 held by
Uctred, who also held Dalton and
Uplitherland ; like these it was assessed as one plough-
land, and was worth the normal 32^. beyond the
usual rent.3 Later it was part of the forest fee, held
by the Gernet family. The first of them known to
have held it, Vivian Gernet, gave Skelmersdale and
other manors to Robert Travers ; these were held in
1 2 1 2 by Henry Travers under Roger Gernet.4
Already, however, there had been a sub-infeudation
of the manor in favour of Alan de Windle, for in 1 202
Edusa his widow claimed dower in this among other
manors, which she released to Alan's son Alan, upon
an assignment of her dower here and in other
ORMSKIRK
lands.5 From the later history it is clear that before
1290 the Holands of Upholland held a mesne
manor here.
The superior lordship descended from the Gernets
to the Dacres, with the rest of the forest fee.6 The
Travers mesne manor descended like Whiston, but the
exact fate of it is unknown. The Holand inferior
mesne manor passed to the Levels, and after the for-
feiture in 1487 was granted to Thomas earl of Derby.7
The Windle manor passed, like Windle itself, to the
Burnhulls and Gerards in succession;8 but in the
time of Elizabeth Sir Thomas Gerard sold it to Henry
Eccleston of Eccleston.9 This family did not retain
it more than thirty years ; it was purchased by the
earl of Derby in l6l5,10 and descended to Henrietta
Maria Lady Ashburnham, u and was sold about 1717
to Thomas Ashhurst of Dalton.18 From Henry Ashhurst
it was purchased in 1751 by Sir Thomas Bootle,13and
has since descended with Lathom, the earl of Lathom
being now lord of the manor. His great-grandfather,
upon elevation to the peerage, took his title from it as
Baron Skelmersdale.
The family of Ashhurst had lands in 1346" and
frequently occur later. The Huytons of Billinge held
land here as early as I3O7.15 There was also a
family surnamed Flathyrale here in the fourteenth
century, as various suits show.16 The Swift family,
numerous in the district to the present time, appear
in some pleadings of 1556, when Peter Swift of
London claimed lands held by his father John in
Skelmersdale, Ormskirk, and Sefton.17 The father had
married for his first wife Margaret, daughter of Ralph
Atherton ,18 having by her a daughter loan, who, in
1 1,942, including twelve of inland
water ; Census, 1901.
* Land. Gas. 3 Feb. 1874.
» V. C. H. Lanes, i, 284*.
* Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), 43. 44-
^ Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i. 38. She received an oxgang
held by Ralph, a third of the oxgang held
by Levenat, the two making a third part
of half the manor ; also a third of the
meadow called Torkraell, a third part of
certain land called Tunstede (town-stead)
in Alan's demesne, and a third of the
been considered part of Upholland ; Pat.
R. 4 Hen. VII. In the case of Cecily
Gerard the manor was said to be held of
the earl of Derby ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
p.m. 1 8 Hen. VII, iii, n. 95. The tenure it
similarly described in later inquisitions ;
see Lanes. Inq. p.m. [Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.], (,131. For fines concerning
the Gerards, see Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.,
bdle. 24, m. 74; also bdle. 26, m. 168,
209.
8 See the account of Windle. In
1276 Peter de Burnhull and Alice his
wife, in the latter's right, took action
also interested in it ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
F. bdle. 260, m. 53.
12 Thomas Ashhurst held it in 1721 :
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 512, m. 8.
i>» Ibid. R. 575, m. 9</.
» Final Cone, ii, 122.
15 Robert de Huyton and Juliana,
widow of Richard, son of Robert de
Wolfall, had a suit as to the latter's
dower ; De Bane. R. 163, m. 3 ; also Final
Cane., it, 42, for an agreement dated 1321.
John de Huyton of Skelmersdale was
suit brought in 1356 by Margery del
and demesne land and the mill.
6 The Feodary of 1483 gives the com-
dale; De Bane. R. 17, m. 53. The
right of Alan, son of Peter de Burnhull,
By fine in 1557 the feoffees of Thomas
Huyton restored to him his lands in
knight, holds Skelmersdale of Lord
Holand and Level, and the said Lord
Lovel of John Travers, and he of Lord
Robert de Lathom in 1300; Final
Cone, i, ,89.
9 By fine in 1584 Henry Eccleston
three messuages, &c. and about 340 acres,
the succession to be to his heirs male,
with remainders to his daughters Mar-
caster.' The Extent 1323-4 gives Skel-
mersdale the rirst place among the manors
bethhis wife, Thomas the son and heir
bdle. .7, m. 27.
adding the name of Robert Travers of
Whiston as tenant ; Dods. MSS. cxxxi.
and with houses, mill, gardens, and lands,
and 201. rent there. He also purchased
daughter of a certain Adam de Flathyrale.
The latter, it would appear, had issue by
7 Sir Robert de Holand was defendant
descended to the present owner of Scaris-
wife of Adam, son of Richard de Haysarm,
mersdale in 1354, John de Langton the
younger and Isabel his wife being
claimants ; they did not proceed ; Duchy
of Lane. Assize R. 3, m. vij. The in-
quisition after the death of Sir Thomas
Oerard (1416) states that he held the
manor of Skelmersdale of Lady Maud
m. 142, 25 ; also bdle. 46, m. 220.
10 In July, 1611, Edward Eccleston,
with his wife and son, conveyed the
manor, with lands in Skelmersdale,
Lathom, and Dalton, to Robert Hudson,
and four years later (Aug. 1615) Robert
Hudson and Jane his wife sold the manor
when out of his mind, to the injury of
Maud; Assize R. 1424, m. 11 ; De Bane.
R. 347, m. i$*d., &c.
17 Duchy of Lane. Deposit. Ph. and M.,
Ixxx, S. 3. The following account of the
family is given. John Swift had a son
John (d. about 1518), father of the plaintiff
[Cnhet°.f6s'of]' '""^3: LThe' g'rlnfTo
Thomas earl of Derby and his heirs male
was made early in 1489 with other con-
fiscated lands ; the manor is not dis-
tinctly mentioned ; it appears to have
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 79, m. 3 ;
bdle. 88, m. 45.
11 It was among the manors of John
earl of Anglesey and Henrietta Maria
his wife in 1708 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R.
487, m. 4. James earl of Derby was
283
in 1556, chaplain to Lord Strange and
curate or rector of Bidston) and John (aged
about 65). They were by a second wife.
I" Probably one of the illegitimate chil-
dren of Ralph Atherton of Bickerstaffe ;
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
virtue of the feoffment made on the marriage, became
possessed of the disputed property. This descended
to her son John Orrell ; on which Peter Swift, as
heir male, attempted to oust him, but the case was
dismissed.' At the time of the sale of the manor to
Henry Eccleston, the windmill was in the occupation
of Thomas Sefton, who in the inquisition taken after
his death in 1593 is called ' of Skelmersdale.' * There
was also a family named Ascroft holding lands here
and in other places adjacent.3
The local name occurs in a complaint in 1246
by Avice de Skelmersdale against Peter de Skelmers-
dale concerning land which she claimed as her
inheritance.4
There is but little concerning this township in the
various assize rolls, but a complaint by Richard son
of Roger de Bury relates to a disturbance there in
1348.* A list of the inhabitants in 1366 has been
preserved.6
In 1608 the capital messuage of Richard Moss,7 a
recusant, of Skelmersdale, was granted on lease by the
king to Edward Thurstan and Robert Webb;8 Richard
Moss was still living in 1628 when, as a convicted re-
cusant, he paid double to the subsidy." Two families
of the name appear on the recusant roll of 1641 —
Henry Moss and Elizabeth his wife, and Joan wife of
Richard Moss.10 The hearth-tax list of 1666 shows
that Richard Moss, a dyer, lived here, his dwelling
having three hearths." Richard Aspinwall of Albrough,
and Edward Moss, as ' Papists,' registered estates here
in 1717."
The commons were enclosed in 1781 ; a copy of
the award and plan are at Preston.
The Commonwealth surveyors in 1650 stated that
a chapel had formerly existed in this place, but nothing
further seems to be known of it. They recommended
that a church should be built here."
The Anglican church of St. Paul was first built
by subscription in 1776," and enlarged in 1823. A
chapelry was constituted in 1858." The vicar of
Ormskirk is patron. The building had to be closed
for a time owing to its insecurity caused by mining
operations, but has been rebuilt. There is also a
licensed mission church.
A school was erected in 1732.
There are Wesleyan Methodist," Primitive Metho-
dist, and Free Gospel chapels. The Salvation Army
has a meeting place. The Congregationalists used
two cottages for worship in 1878 ; in the following
year they erected an iron chapel,18 replaced in 1905
by a permanent church. The Welsh Presbyterians
or Calvinistic Methodists also have a chapel.
The Roman Catholic church of St. Richard WM
opened in 1865.
AUGHTON
Acheton, Dom. Bk. ; Acton, 123 5, common ; Hac-
ton, occasionally ; Aghton, 1330, and common to six-
teenth century ; Aighton and Auton also occur.
Aughton appears in the sixteenth century. Local
pronunciation is Aff'n.
Literland, Dom. Bk. ; Uplitherlond, 1 199 ; Lither-
land, 1 212, and common ; Uplederland, 1226 ; Up-
lytherlond, 1297; Lytherlond, 1322.
This parish consists of a single township of the
same name. The area is 4,609^ acres." The popu-
lation in 1901 was 3,517.
The southern and south-western boundary is formed
by the Sudell Brook. The hilly ridge, over 200 ft.
high, stretching west through the neighbouring parish
of Ormskirk, comes to an end in the central portion
of the township, a height of 260 to 270 ft. being
attained at the Devil's Wall ; there is a fine view
from this point. Gaw " Hill is a little to the south."
Aughton proper is on the south-western slope of
the hill. Here is the church, with the old hall to
the north-west, and water-mill and windmill formerly
adjacent. Further to the north-west is Walsh Hall.
A mile east of the church is Town Green, with Moor
Hall still further to the east. Holt Green is south-
east of the church, and has the Mickering a little to
the south. From near the last-mentioned farm the
Cock Beck flows west to Sudell Brook, and in the angle
between the confluence is Brookfield, to the south of
which, on the border of Maghull, was formerly i
water-mill. Beckington or Bickiston Brook rises, or
1 Duchy of Lane. Decrees, Ph. and M.
x, fol. 266. In 1580 John Orrell and
William his son and heir sold lands in
Skelmersdale and Lathom to Thomas
of Sylvester Ascroft, Richard brother of
Henry ; John, son of James Ascrott ot
Skelmersdale ; Hugh Ascroft of Eccles-
ton (Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xviii, 8).
11 The census of 1901 gives 4,612
acres, including two of inland water.
11 Lay Subs. Lanes, bdle. 250, n. 9.
13 Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, 94, 148. Foi
in Skelmersdale, &c. to Henry Eccleston ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 42, m. 17;
bdle. 45, m. 101.
» Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m.xvi, n. 34 ;
his lands were held partly of the earl of
Derby by a rent of 5,. $d., and partly of
Henry Eccleston by a rent of izd. He
had also lands in Ormskirk, Aughton, &c.
His son Thomas died in 1601, leaving
a son and heir of the same name, fourteen
years of age; ibid. xviii,*. 34. Also Duchy
of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxlv. E. 2. For
fines concerning the Sefton holding see
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 25, m. 239;
bdle. 48, m. 40.
» John Aseroft occurs in 1598 (Duchy
of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. clxxxi, E. 4).
Henry Ascroft died 7 Jan. 1 600-1 ; Mar-
of another Henry Ascroft, holding the
same lands, may be seen in xxviii, 66
(. 3 Car. I).
4 Assize R. 404, m. ij</.
5Exch. Misc. xc, 114. William the
Cooper was one of the accused.
« Excb. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 120.
' Philip and Robert Moss, brothers,
occur in a fine concerning land here in
1566 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 28,
m. 57. Edward Moss, ibid. m. 89. Hugh
Moss, bdle. 37, m. in.
• Pat. R. 6 Jas. I, pt. 2.
• Norris D. (B.M.).
1° Trans. Hi,,. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 234.
The lands of Richard Moss, dyer, were
confiscated and sold by the Parliament in
House see Payne, Engl. Catb. Ree. 148
Aspinwall's tenement had been 'given ti
superstitious uses to defraud the next
Protestant heir' ; Lanes. Forfeited Estate:
Papers, 2 L.
" Common-wealth Cb. Sur-v. (Ree. Soc
Lanes, and Ches.), 94. It is under Orms
kirk that M. Gregson makes his complain'
that the clergy of the neighbourhood
though their revenues had enormoiul)
increased, had treated them as privati
property, doing nothing more for the
people ; Fragment, (ed. Harland), 240.
" Consecrated in 1781 ; Gregson, Frig
"Land. Ga*. 2 Aug. 185*.
V For their property see End. Char. Ref
1 899 (Ormskirk).
years old. The estates were willed to
the heirs male in succession : — Henry, son
lost his lands also; Peacock, Index of
Royalist,, 43, 41.
284
« Otherwise Gall or Goe.
80 Cleave Hill is a spur to the west.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
rose, by the church, to flow west to the Sudell.
Gerard Hall and Bowker's Green lie in the south-
eastern corner.
The north-western slope of the hill is properly
Litherland,1 formerly a separate manor. The New
Hall,2 almost on the northern boundary, is called
Aughton New Hall. Aughton Moss is on the top of
the hill. The greater part of the country is flat,
and divided into cultivated fields, where wheat,
oats, potatoes, and other root crops are successfully
raised. There are also extensive market gardens,
which give employment to the villagers. The northern
portion of the district is bare and open, with very few
trees, but on the south there are clumps of trees, and
good hawthorn hedges divide the fields. The
upper mottled sandstone of the bunter series (new
red sandstone) occurs throughout the parish ex-
cept on Cleave Hill, where a narrow strip of the
lower keuper sandstone extends for a mile and a half
along the western side of the road leading to Halsall, and
another small strip three-quarters of a mile north-east
of Aughton village. The soil is light and sandy, with
clay in some places. There are now in the parish
3,407 acres arable land, 357 in permanent grass, and
7 of woods and plantations.
The principal roads are those from Liverpool to
Ormskirk ; one passing northward through Melling,
the other north-eastward through Lydiate and Aughton
village. There are numerous intersecting roads and
footpaths ; one of the latter connects Town Green
and the parish church. The Lancashire and York-
shire Company's railway from Liverpool to Preston,
opened in 1 849, goes through the parish northward ;
there is a station at Town Green.
Being easily accessible from Liverpool numerous
residences have sprung up in recent years, particularly
on the high ground. In the same district is Whim-
brick Mill, formerly a windmill, but now worked by
steam. Excellent sand for casting purposes is found
here. A quarry is also worked. There is a brewery
near the Ormskirk boundary.
Formerly there were races, known as ' the Orms-
kirk Races,' held on Aughton Moss ; they are men-
tioned as early as 1705 and continued until 1815.
In 1813 an Act for the enclosure of the common was
passed,3 and the racing was stopped.
A perambulation of the boundaries took place in
1876 ; it was discovered that a small plot of ground
had escaped rates for many years.
Pace-egging is kept up on Good Friday ; a troop of
boys go round acting a degenerate version of St. George
and the Dragon, and asking for eggs (or money).4
AUGHTON
Holt Green, a triangular piece of ground, still
remains open ; the other four greens have been enclosed,
viz., Town Green, Codpiece Green, Bowker's Green,
and Hollinhurst Green.
There were within recent times traces of seven
ancient crosses ; the pedestal of one remains on Holt
Green, and two other pedestals stand at the junction
of Mill Lane with the Liverpool and Ormskirk Road,
and in Green's Lane.6 Sundials exist at Island House
(1719), the churchyard (1736), and Walsh Hall
(1738). It is said the parish clerk used formerly to
read out notices from the sundial in the churchyard.6
Pudding Street is an interesting name ; it has been
renamed Brookfield Lane. Brats, duding-strings,
muckindalf (handkerchief), and barmskin (leather
apron) are words occurring in the overseer's accounts.7
The church bell used to be rung at eight and one
o'clock on Sundays.
The wakes were held on the first Sunday after
Michaelmas Day, and lasted most of the following
week.8
Two items of folk-lore may be mentioned ; one
concerns the building of the church, averring that
what was done in the day was overthrown in the
night until the proper site was fixed upon ; 9 the other
describes the building of the Devil's Wall.10
The open ground on the hill is said to have been
used as a training ground for the forces assembled in
anticipation of the Spanish Armada in 1588. With
the exception of the battle in 1 644 the history of the
parish has been quite peaceful. Aughton paid
£2 I -js. (>\d. to the fifteenth ; " and to the county
lay a quarter of what Ormskirk paid, viz. £z is. 8</.
towards a contribution of £100 payable by the
hundred.
The Reformation entailed persecution on the Hes-
keths and some others who adhered to the Roman
Catholic faith. In 1592 the churchwardens were
ordered to levy the izj. of 'the absents.'" In 1606
Jane, wife of Gabriel Hesketh, Edward Stanley
and Bridget his wife, Elizabeth Gerard, widow,
Margaret Hesketh, Gabriel Shaw, Jane Moorcroft,
widow, Alice wife of Barnaby Molyneux, Margaret
wife of James Burscough, Richard Wolsie and his
wife, and a number of others were named to the
bishop as ' not coming to church.' 13
In 1628 the landowners who paid the subsidy
were Bartholomew Hesketh, Henry Starkie and Mary
Starkie (widow), Peter Stanley and Bridget his mother,
Thomas Gerard and Mary Rigby, Robert Walsh, James
Burscough, and the heirs of James Rainforth." The
Sankeys also were landowners at this time.15
1 It was called Uplitherland to distin-
guish it from Litherland in Sefton— Down-
litherland. The name is now disused,
except in some field names ; but Uplither-
land Hall, or its successor, is still standing.
8 This name goes back to the sixteenth
century.
8 53 Geo. Ill, cap. 100. In the same
session (cap. 151) an Act was passed
relating to the tithes.
4 Newstead, Ann. of Augbton, 39-40 ;
the verses sung are printed.
5 It is on record that a century ago
Roman Catholic funeral processions stopped
on arriving at the remains of the crosses,
the mourners alighting and reciting De
165-8;
ProfunJis on their knee
6 Lana. and Ches.
. Antiq. Soc.
and Newstead, op. cit. 107.
• Ibid. 128.
8 Ibid, iio-n.
» Cheshire Sheaf (Ser. 3), ii, 117.
w Landreth, Legends of Lanes. (1841),
''"'when the hundred paid £ 106.
18 Tra«. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x, 184.
At the same time, Eleanor, wife of Richard
Holden, was excommunicated for having
her child baptized 'not at her parish church,
but supposed contrary to Her Majesty's
i» Visit. Book at Chester. One Thomas
then a recusant, but 'now she doth duti-
fully repair to church and shall do here-
after.'
The recusant roll of 1641 shows a long
list of names, including Rowson, Taylor,
Burscough, Buchard, Hulme, and Moor-
croft ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv,
235-
» Norris D. (B. M.). John Rainford,
in 1 583, bought land in Uplitherland from
Thomas Molyneux, of Hawkley, and
Sibyl his wife ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 45, m. 139 ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
beth (a Bickerstath) ; he had married
her at North Meols in the house of
Nicholas Bank, curate there, without
licence or banns, and in the night time,
but in the presence of witnesses ; she was
285
16 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 276. Their interest was ac-
quired by purchase from William Brad-
shaw ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 44,
m. 142.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The Civil War affected the parish directly. The
principal landowner, Bartholomew Hesketh, tried to
preserve a strict neutrality ; but Gilbert Burscough
was killed at Newbury fighting for the king in 1 644,
while Edward Starkie served on the side of the Parlia-
ment. A somewhat important engagement took place
in Aughton itself, known as the 'battle of Ormskirk.'
A body of Cavaliers were retreating from the Fylde
district, when, on 20 August, 1644, they were over-
taken by Major-General Meldrum on the hill to the
south-west of Ormskirk. They stood in battalia, but
upon the first charge of the Parliament's musket-men,
fled, and were then routed by the horse ; three
hundred prisoners were taken, and Lord Byron and
Lord Molyneux were forced to leave their horses and
hide in a cornfield. Had it not been late in the
evening there would probably have been a greater
victory for Meldrum ; as it was, the scattered frag-
ments of the defeated party made their escape into
Cheshire.1 Barnaby Molyneux had been deprived
1717: John Bamber, Peter Butchard, James Halsall,
Christopher Ince, Thomas Leatherbarrow, and Thomas
Molyneux, of Lydiate.5 The land tax return of
1798 shows that there were then a large number of
freeholders, the principal being Charles Stanley
and Catherine Stanley, Thomas Plumbe, and the
executors of Julia Clifton.
In 1774 the first stage coach, running between
Liverpool and Preston, passed through the parish.6
Aughton is governed by a parish council.
The church of St. Michael con-
CHURCH sists of chancel with north chapel
and vestry, north tower and spire,
and nave with south porch and a large north aisle, and
stands on a fairly level site some way to the west of
the station, at the junction of two roads.7 The south
wall of the nave is the earliest part of the building,
the blocked south doorway and the walling for some
fifteen feet westward being what remains of a probably
aisleless nave and chancel church of the middle of the
AVGMTOTN CMVRCH
H^ccnt. E3 i/^cent
of two-thirds of his tenement for recusancy ; but his
son, Thomas, who was ' a Protestant and conform-
able,' applied for its restoration to him.*
The hearth tax of 1666 found a total of 181
hearths in Aughton.3
The defeat of the Young Pretender, whose march
through Wigan had brought terror to the people of
the district, was hailed with great delight, the church-
wardens paying 1 6s. ' for ringing night and day for
good news about vanquishing the rebels,' and 21. 6J.
more for ringing when the news of Culloden came.4
The following ' Papists ' registered estates here in
twelfth century. The internal dimensions must have
been about 50 ft. by 21 ft. for the nave, and perhaps
2 5 ft. by 1 8 ft. for the chancel ; of the latter no traces
now remain. In the thirteenth century the nave was
lengthened westward to approximately its present size,
the eastern part of the south wall rebuilt, and a
chapel added to the north of the chancel. Other
work, such as the building of a north aisle, may have
been done at this time, but no evidence remains on
the point. To the fourteenth century belongs the
tower, built at the west of the north chapel. A
north aisle to the nave was built, or rebuilt, at this
i Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.) , pp.
204-6 ; Lanes. War (Chet. Soc.), p. 58.
Some relics of the battle are preserved in
the district and some in the British
Museum. Trcnchfield, near the place,
was a place of encampment about that
time for the troops besieging Lathom
» Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iv, 143.
9 Lay Subs. Lanes. 250-9. The most
considerable houses were those of Gabriel
Hesketh and Edward Stanley, eight hearths
each, Rector Stananought, six, Edward
Starkie, Thomas Gerard, William Aspin-
wall, and Mr. Crosse with five each, and
Thomas Walsh, Richard Hesketh, and
Robert Charles four each ; there were five
houses of three hearths, and fifteen of
4 Ncwstead, op. cit. p. 105.
5 Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non-
286
jurors, pp. 1 1 0-12, 126. James Hal-
sall had a son George a Jesuit j John
Bamber had lands also at Carleton and
Bispham.
' Newstead, op. cit. p. 23.
^ A view of the church about 1816 is
given in Gregson's Fragments (ed. Har-
land), p. 214. There is a description in
Glynne's Lanes. Churches (Chet. Soc.},
p. 36. For the font see Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), xvii, 64.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
time, but has in its turn given place to a later build-
ing. In the fifteenth century the chancel was rebuilt
or remodelled, the south nave doorway blocked, and a
new doorway with a porch over it inserted farther
to the west, as the thirteenth-century extension of the
nave westward had made the old south doorway seem
inconveniently far to the east, and the west wall of
the nave refaced or rebuilt. The north arcade was
rebuilt about the same time. The large north aisle
dates from the middle of the sixteenth century, and
about the same time the north chapel was length-
ened eastward to the line of the east wall of the
chancel. The vestry north of the chapel seems to be
of seventeenth-century date. In recent years the
chancel has been completely rebuilt in fifteenth-cen-
tury style, a copy of the twelfth-century doorway of the
nave inserted in the north wall of the north chapel, the
roofs, except that of the nave, renewed, and the west
window and part of the south porch rebuilt. The
church is faced with the wrought stone of local origin,
of much the same quality throughout ; the best
masonry is to be seen in the tower, but the material
does not admit of elaborate workmanship.
Of ancient ritual arrangements no trace exists,
though the sixteenth-century canopied niche on the
east jamb of the south-east window of the nave may
have been connected with the south nave altar.1 The
chancel, having been completely rebuilt in 1876,
is of no archaeological interest. The east window
is of five lights, and there are three four-light windows
and a doorway on the south. An arcade of two bays
opens into the north chapel, and in the eastern part
of the north wall is a recess containing a monument.
The disproportionately large corbels of the modern
roof perpetuate the memory of some interesting carv-
ings in the roof of the old chancel, which disappeared
at the rebuilding. The chancel arch is of two orders,
with engaged shafts with octagonal capitals and bases.
The north chapel * is of two dates, the western part
being the earlier. Its north wall between the tower
and the vestry shows masonry similar to that in the
south wall of the nave, and is probably of the same
date, the first half of the thirteenth century. On the
east face of the tower is the weathering for a steep-
pitched roof which formerly covered the chapel, but has
long been replaced by one of a lower pitch. No archi-
tectural features of original date remain, and the eastern
part of the north wall is hidden by the vestry, so that
its exact termination in this direction is unknown ; it
was, perhaps, some ten feet short of the east wall of
the chancel. Coming to the present east wall of the
chapel it will be noted that at the south end of its
east face, where it abuts on the modern chancel, there
is a length of old plinth with projecting footings, ap-
parently of the fifteenth century, against which the
plinth of the east wall of the chapel stops. The foot-
ings and plinth have belonged to a buttress running
north from the chancel wall, and show that in the
fifteenth century the eastern part of the chancel stood
free on the north side, or in other words that the
north chapel did not extend as far east as the chancel.
But at a later date, which from the character of the
work may be the second half of the sixteenth century,
the chapel was lengthened eastwards to its present
size. Its east window is square-headed, of three tre-
1 An altar of St. Nicholas is mentioned in 1526; Piccope,
Mils (Chet. Soc.), i, 6.
" Called the ' Little Chancel' or Plumbe chapel. Information
from Rev. W. A. Wickham.
AUGHTON
foiled lights, which seem to be old work re-used,
of late fourteenth century date, and perhaps formed
part of the east window of the chapel before its
extension.
The tower, which stands to the north of the nave,
between the north chapel and the north aisle, is of
three stages, square below and octagonal above, with
an octagonal spire. It is of the type of the neigh-
bouring towers of Halsall and Ormskirk, but earlier
than either, being of the first half of the fourteenth
century. The octagonal spire has two tiers of spire
lights, those in the upper tier being single trefoiled
openings under a crocketed gablet, and those in the
lower having two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in
the head and a crocketed gablet as in the upper tier.
At the base of the spire is a plain parapet set out on
moulded corbel-courses. The octagonal belfry stage
has four two-light windows, trefoiled, with a quatre-
foil in flowing tracery in the head and a moulded
label. The next stage below forms the transition
from octagon to square, and has a single trefoiled
light in the north face. On the east and west faces
are weather-mouldings for steep-pitched roofs long
since destroyed. The lowest stage of the tower is
square, with a window in the north face, once of two
lights, but now without tracery, two massive but-
tresses at east and west of the same face, and a fine
moulded plinth of three stages, which stops without a
return against the wall of the north chapel, the
evidence being clear that the chapel wall is older than
the tower. Internally the tower has open arches of
two plain chamfered orders, without capitals or shafts,
on the south, west, and east, and a vice in the north-
west angle. In the north wall below the window is
a recess 1 8 in. deep with a cusped and moulded arch,
with a label of the same date as the tower. Its floor
is considerably above the level of that under the
tower — which has been lowered some six inches from
its original level — and though probably sepulchral,
it shows no trace of a slab or monument of any
kind.
The nave retains in its south wall the only
remaining part of a probably aisleless church of about
1150. The blocked south doorway, of this date, is
of two plain orders, with jamb-shafts with scalloped
capitals and moulded bases. The blocking dates
from the fifteenth century, at which time a doorway
was inserted in the twelfth-century wall to the west
of the original doorway. Walling of the first date
exists on both sides of the blocked doorway, stopping
in the one direction a little to the west of the south
porch, in the other below the east jamb of the
window next the doorway. The plain weathered
plinth of the first date stops at this point, and another
plinth of slightly different section runs eastward at a
higher level to the buttress at the eastern angle of the
nave. This plinth and the walling above it belong
to a rebuilding, partly with the old materials, in the
thirteenth century ; the same type of walling con-
tinues westward from the end of the twelfth-century
masonry to within eighteen inches of the west wall of
the nave, and contains a blocked lancet window, now
almost completely hidden by a sixteenth-century
buttress. The whole length of the south wall has
been thrust outwards, probably by an insufficiently
tied roof, and the upper part has been rebuilt or
heightened, and set back to the vertical line, while a
buttress has been added, as has been said, in front of
the lancet window in the sixteenth century, and
287
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
another at a later date against the blocked south
doorway. The present south doorway is of the
fifteenth century, with continuous mouldings, and is
covered by a porch of perpent ashlar of the same date,
whose outer arch and wall have been rebuilt. The
windows in the south wall are of the poorest
description, having lost all tracery and everything but
their outer order ; they are now filled with plain
glazing. From the shape of their arched heads they
should not be later than the fifteenth century, but
they have lost all characteristic features. High in the
wall are two small three-light square-headed windows
which have formerly lighted a gallery.
The west wall of the nave is considerably thicker
than those adjoining it, and though now faced with
fifteenth-century masonry and buttresses is probably
in part of earlier date. The west window is modern,
of three-lights in fifteenth-century style. The gable
shows signs of rebuilding in the upper portion. The
face of the wall has bulged considerably, and this has
been corrected by the simple expedient of chipping
back the stone face to something nearer a vertical
line. The north arcade of the nave is of four bays
with octagonal columns and coarsely-moulded capitals
and bases, with pointed arches of two chamfered
orders, poor work of fifteenth-century date, probably
coeval with the facing of the west wall. The nave
roof appears to be of the end of the sixteenth
century, with arched braces plastered on the under-
side and shaped pendants hanging from the apex.
The north aisle seems to have been built in the
time of Brian Moorcroft, rector 1528-48, and the
north arcade may be of the same dale.1 Its four
north windows are of three lights under a semi-
circular head with tracery of intersecting mullions
without cusps, all of the simplest detail, with plain
chamfers and no mouldings. A blocked four-centred
doorway occurs between the first and second windows
from the west. The west window is of four lights
with a four-centred head and the same plain detail ;
outside the tracery is modern. In the gable is an
ancient stone carved with two sunk quatrefoils.
A little original coloured glass remains in the
western window of the four on the north side,
consisting of a canopy of very late style and two sets
of initials. At the east end of the aisle, across the
western arch of the tower, is a beam painted with the
names of some eighteenth-century churchwardens,
which is locally said to be the rood-beam ; but if so,
it has been considerably altered. The remains of a
west buttress of the tower, projecting into the aisle,
give the probable line of the wall of a fourteenth-
century north aisle, the weathering of whose roof is
to be seen above the west arch of the tower. The
font, which stands under the tower, is of the fifteenth
century, octagonal, with a moulded and embattled
cornice to the bowl, which is 1 8 in. deep, the faces
being each io£ in. wide.*
There are brass plates commemorating Edward son
of Hugh Dicconson, of Wrightington, who died in
1 66 1 ; and the Mossocks (1686) ; this being a
replica of the plate at Ormskirk.
The new church (Christ Church) on the hill at
the highest point of the road to Ormskirk, begun in
1867 but not consecrated until 1877, is a chapel of
ease. In 1888 the Cottage Lane Mission Room was
opened.
The parish registers begin in 1541, but up to
1601 are copies. The entries from 1653 to 1657
are in a separate book ; and there is a defect in the
baptisms from 1608 to 1626, and in the burials
between 1747 and 1753.
The churchwardens' accounts date from 1737.
The curious fact that the right of
ADFOWSON presentation to the church was sup-
posed to reside in the lordship of
Uplitherland is probably due to some decision of the
lords of this place, who also held a third of Aughton ;
Litherland being their dwelling place, they attached to
it the advowson, derived from their ownership of a
portion of the other manor.3 The right has regularly
descended with Litherland to the present time,
Sir Tristram Tempest-Tempest, baronet, now being
patron.
In 1291 the church was omitted from the Taxatio
of Nicholas IV as too poor to pay anything ; in
1341 the value of the ninth of the sheaves and
fleeces was returned as looj.4 The inquiry of
1534-5 found the annual value to be £15 gj. S^.5
The Commonwealth surveyors of 1650 describe the
parish as having a parsonage-house with barns and
outbuildings, and about 3 acres of glebe in the
incumbent's hands, worth 50^. a year ; other portions
of the glebe, with cottages upon it, were let out at
small rents, but worth 36.*. in all. The tithes were
then worth £95 a year.6
About 1717, according to Bishop Gastrell, the
income reached £120. There were two church-
wardens.7 The gross value is now given as £j8o,
including £40 as that of the new church.
1 In the inventories of church goods,
1552 (Chet. Soc. cxiii, no), is a note of
the pledging of two chalices and a cope to
Sir Brian Moorcroft, the money being
bestowed on the building of ' the He in the
body of the same church.'
The editors are indebted for this refer-
ence to the Rev. W. A. Wickham, of
St. Andrew's, Wigan.
Roger Gernet and Quenilda his wife,
Thomas de Beetham, and Avice de
Millum — allowed the right of Richard
le Waleys, Bleddyn dc Aughton, and
Madoc de Aughton to present to the
benefice, which was then vacant ; Final
Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
63-5. These three were the lords of
Aughton, and as Bleddyn and Madoc had
pew
Sir Richard Molyneux for a seat or
(5 ft. by 4 ft.) on the north side o
church, formerly belonging to the Beccon-
salls, and the ground between this pew
and the chancel (6 ft. by 6 ft.) ; Crox-
teth D.
3 This appears to be brought out quite
clearly in the earliest mention of the
matter, in 1235. The superior lords —
any title they might have was derived
from their lordship in Aughton ; whence
it seems clear that Richard le Waleys'
right had the same origin. Nevertheless,
the presentation was afterwards the sole
right of the lord of Uplitherland, possibly
by purchase from his partners in Augh-
4 Inj. Nm
n (Rec. Com.), 40
288
* falorEcfl. (Rec. Com.), v, 223. The
glebe land brought in only 51. a year ; the
an average of £1 1, while Easter pay-
ments came to £4 V. Id.
6 Commonwealth Cb. Sur-v. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 94.
-i Notitia Ccstr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 161.
The custom of tithing at that time, ac-
take the eleventh shook or rider of corn,
or in default the eleventh sheaf; from
kd. to 21. t>d. the acre for hay ; 8:. the
acre for potatoes, or (id. the bushel sett-
ing ; i\d. cow and calf, and (when not
taken in kind) 21. for every tithe lamb,
pig, &c., and 6J. for every tithe pig. For
the Easter roll there was given 5</. a
house yard and offering.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
AUGHTON
The following is a list of the rectors : —
oc. 1246 . . .
Robert Blundell '
oc. 1292 . . .
Henry [leWaleys]8 ....
26 June, 1303 .
Thomas le Waleys 3 . . . .
. Richard le Waleys . . .
not stated
oc. 1317 . . .
Gilbert leWaleys4
.
20 Jan. 13 18-9 .
John le Waleys 5
. Richard le Waleys . . .
3 Nov. 1337 .
Henry (son of Ric.) le Waleys9 .
. Richard le Waleys . . .
d. of J. le Waleys
27 Sept. 1369 .
John (son of Ric.) le Walsh ' . .
. Thomas de Formby, &c. .
d. of H. leWaleys
17 Nov. 1382
John de Bradshagh8 ....
Roger de Bradshagh and
d. of John Walsh
Maud his wife
22 Mar. 1418-9.
John Spink 9
.
res. of J. Bradshagh
1 6 Apr. 1424 .
William de Litherland 10 . . .
. Maud de Bradshagh . .
d. of J. Spink
i Oct. 14.89 .
William Bradshagh "
Thomas Bradshagh
d. of W. Litherland
17 Dec. 1512 .
William Bradshagh " . . . .
. James Bradshagh .
d. of Roger Bradshagh
14 July, 1528 .
Brian Moorcroft, B. Deer. " . .
. Sir W. Leyland, &c. . .
res. ofW. Bradshagh
1 8 May, 1548 .
Edward Moorcroft 14 . . . .
. [Earth. Hesketh] . . .
d. of B. Moorcroft
8 Nov. 1548 .
)
([Geo. Kirkby, &c.] . .
1
i Thomas Kirkby
. \ [The crown] ....
do.
? Nov. 1554 .
)
( [do.] . . . .
j
(?) '559 •
Edward Moorcroft " . . . .
[exp. T. Kirkby]
17 June, 1577 .
John Nutter, B.D
. The queen
25 Aug. 1602
Samuel Hankinson, M.A.
. Gabriel Hesketh . . .
d. of J. Nutter
28 July, 1607
Nicholas Banastre, M.A.16 . . .
. The king
depr. of S. Hankinson
1 1 Apr. 1 646
James Worrall, M.A.17 . . .
Edward Stockley .
d. of N. Banastre
6 Mar. 1651-2
I Peter Stananought, B.A.18 .
Earth. Hesketh ....
d. of J. Worrall
27 Oct. 1662
27 June, 1674 .
Alexander Baguley, B.A.19 . .
(Henry Farington .
' (Gabriel Hesketh . . .,
I d. of P. Stananought
1 6 May, 1679 •
John Brownsword, M.A.80
. The king
depriv. of A. Baguley
\
(Alex. Hesketh . . . .'
1
7 N^ 1 1 7°° '
Christopher Sudell, M.A.S1 . .
. JAlfflt. Hesketh and Rt.
\ d. of J. Brownsword
21 IN OV. 1
( Scarisbrick
|
6 Jan. 1700-1 .
Robert Hindley, M.A.82 . . .
. The king '
depriv. of C. Sudell
« Assize R. 408, m. 97 d. Henry was
one of several complainants against his
brother Thomas and others, but the jury
acquitted the accused. He was son of
John le Waleys (Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 262,
«. 32), and became rector of Standish in
» Lich. Epis. Reg. i, fol. 9A. In Cal. Pap.
9 Ibid, viii, fol. 19*. This was an ex-
change, John de Bradshagh becoming
rector of Freshwater in place of John
Spink. The change had been made
14 May, 1418. John Spink was also
rector of Standish.
10 Ibid, ix, fol. 113*. William de
Litherland was a trustee for the Maghull
family ; Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 46, 46i.
a vear. He made a considerable number
of bequests, the places in which he was
interested being Aughton, Ormskirk and
Sefton, Windsor and Eton, Tillingham
and Dengie in Essex, and Hereford, to
the poor of which places he left money.
To his wife's brother Roger Morell he
left St. Augustine's works ' in six great
volumes.' Anthony Moorcroft was among
treasurer of York, &c. is called rector of
Aughton in 1308, but his benefice was
probably in Yorks.
4 Lich. Epis. Reg. i, fol. 85. On 20
June he obtained licence to study for a year.
Ibid, i, fol. 86. The rectory had been
vacant since 18 Nov. 1318. On the
ensuing Easter eve John was ordained
subdeacon, priest in 1320 ; fol. 135*, 138.
« Ibid, ii, fol. mi. On 28 Feb. 1365-6
the bishop granted him leave to choose a
confessor ; ibid, v, fol. 13. He died on
18 Sept. 1369 ; ibid, iv.fol. 85. Henry le
Waleys occurs frequently in the local char-
ters and suits ; e.g. De Bane. R. 346, m.
1 Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 85. The
patrons were the guardians of Richard le
Walsh, viz. Thomas de Formby, Henry
le Walsh, Roger son of Richard de Brad-
shagh of Penningtnn, and Cecily daughter
name of this or the next rector should be
Roger Bradshagh, but the register has been
followed. Aughton is erroneously called
a vicarage. In a list dated 15 27 Roger
Bradshagh is given as the rector's name,
and he is said to have been there twenty-
four years; Duchy of Lane. Rentals,
5/iS-
12 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 58.
18 Ibid. fol. 64 ; the patrons, by grant
of James Bradshagh, were Sir William
Leyland, Edward Molyneux, clerk, and
Richard Cholmondeley.
14 For institutions and firstfruits of the
later rectors see Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 408-14; Lanes,
and Ches. Antiq. Notes, where are printed
the institutions from the P.R.O. Books ;
Foster, Index Eccl. ; Baines, Lanes, (ed.
Croston), v, 241-4.
" Edward Moorcroft was in Jan. 1559-
(1594, P.C.C. 49 Dixy), desired to be
buried in St. Stephen's, Walbrook, ' in the
chancel there under the stone where
Edward Moorcroft, late canon of Wind-
sor, was buried.* He, too, left money
for the poor of Tillingham and Dengie in
16 Educated at Brasenose Coll. Oxf. ;
M.A. 1605 ; Foster, Alumni. He was
'no preacher'; Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS.
Com.), 13. In 1609 Banastre and a
reader were included in the Visit. List ;
Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.),xxii, 298.
17 Of Brasenose Coll. Oxf. ; M.A.
1633 ; Foster, Alumni Oxon.
i" Educated at Westminster and Christ
Church, Oxf. ; B.A. 1646 ; ibid.
»• Educated at Brasenose College, Oxf.;
B.A. 1672. He became rector of Burton
with Coates in Sussex in 1692, and of
Up Waltham in 1705 ; ibid.
was ordained subdeacon in April, 1370
(ibid, v, fol. 98), deacon in June, and
priest in Oct. (ibid. fol. 98*, 99*). He
died 7 Nov. 1382 ; ibid, iv, fol. 93*.
8 Ibid, iv, fol. 93*. In the following
January John had leave of absence (ibid,
v, fol. 35*), and was not ordained sub-
deacon till June (ibid, v, fol. 128*) and
priest in the following June (ibid. fol. 129).
which he retained until his death in or
before May, 1580 ; Le Neve, Fasti, iii,
395, 397. The will of Edward Moor-
croft, canon of Windsor, made 28 Feb.
1579-80, and proved 17 April, 1580
(P.C.C. 14 Arundell), shows that he had
married a Morell. His son George, then
under fifteen, was to be sent to Oxf. or
Camb. with a total allowance of £20
M.A. 1676 ; ibid. He was 'conformable'
in 1689 : Kenyan MSS. 228. He was
buried at Aughton, 25 June, 1700 ; ad-
ministration with inventory at Chest.
' 7°l°Afterwards vicar of Leyland and rector
of North Meols.
M Educated at Jesus Coll. Cam. ; M.A.
1700. See Pal. Non-book, iii, 268.
37
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Institution Name
1 3 July, 1721 . Thomas Atherton, M. A.1 . . .
20 Feb. 1734-5 • Thomas Plumbe, B.A.' . . .
20 Dec. 1769 . William Plumbe, B.A.' . . .
6 June, 1786 . George Vanbrugh, LL.B.4 . .
15 Aug. 1834 • William Henry Boulton, M.A.5 .
4 Aug. 1885 . Charles Warren Markham, M.A.'1
24 Nov. 1896 . Roger Francis Markham, M.A. .
The story of the rectory in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries is of some interest. Brian
Moorcroft, presented in 1528 by the administrators
of the estate of James Bradshagh, found his title
challenged by Master Thomas Donington,7 who
alleged a presentation by William Browne and others,
in virtue of a deed of James Bradshagh's dated 1515.
Another dispute occurred after Brian's death, for in
1535 William Bradshagh had granted the next pre-
sentation to George Kirkby of Aughton and others,
and less than a year afterwards he sold the patronage
to Bartholomew Hesketh, who also became lord of
the manor ; 8 and Thomas Kirkby was presented by
the former and Edward Moorcroft by the latter.'
In 1541-2 the clergy at Aughton, besides the
rector, who may have been non-resident, were his
curate and two others, paid by Thomas Starkie and
Alice Hervey.10 At the visitation in 1554 Edward
Moorcroft was still rector, and Thomas Walsh was
his curate ; the other priests had disappeared. Im-
Patron
Thomas Heys .
John Plumbe .
Thomas Plumbe
Thomas Plumbe
R. Boulton . .
Cause of Vacancy
d. of R. Hindley
d. of T. Atherton
d. of T. Plumbe
d. of W. Plumbe
:s. of G. Vanbrugh
. Sir R. Tempest-Tempest . d. of W. H. Boulton
. Sir R. Tempest-Tempest . d. of C. W. Markham
mediately afterwards it appears as if Moorcroft lost the
rectory. From his later history he seems to have been
a Protestant, and was perhaps already married, but
his removal was due to the right of patronage reas-
serted on behalf of the crown." Kirkby received the
benefice, but Moorcroft must have been reinstated on
the accession of Elizabeth."
In 1563 the same names occur as in 1554, but
Rector Moorcroft was at Windsor, and the curate
being ill had to be excused. The rector made his ap-
pearance in 1565, but the curate was again sick," and
he was buried in the following February."
John Nutter, rector of Sefton, &c., was presented
by the queen in February', I5/6-7;14 probably he
paid little attention to this small parish. In 1592 it
was reported at the visitation that there was no
' sufficient ' Bible ; the first tome of the Homilies
and Jewell's Apology and Reply were lacking ; there
were no perambulations, and no collectors for the
poor.16
1 Thomas Heys, executor of the last
rector, presented Thomas Atherton, vicar
of Chipping, who resigned that benefice.
The rector was buried at Aughton i 5 Nov.
1734 ; will proved at Chester 1734.
2 Thomas Plumbe was the second son
Thomas Garrett, the incumbent of Altcar.
Mr. Vanbrugh died in 1847. His bene-
faction is described among the charities.
5 Richard Boulton, of Olive Mount,
Wavertree, as patron for this turn, pre-
sented his son William Henry. The new
dog had a matter against them he would
take part with the dog ! ' See Pal. of
Lane. Plea R. 146, m. 5 ; Sessional Papers,
20 Hen. VIII, bdle. 2 ; and Assumption,
21 Hen. VIII, bdle. 3.
Brian Moorcroft was aged fifty-seven
He was buried in the church 2 Dec.
1769. He was also rector of Mobberlev,
Cheshire, from 1733 till his death.
8 William Plumbe, brother of the
a piece of the glebe to the churchyard.
In 1867 Christ Church was founded,
being built largely by the money provided
by Mr. Boulton and his friends. He was
Starkie case.
a Aughton D. (Patchett), „. 44 ; Pal.
of Lane. Plea R. 162, m. 2, 15.
9 The Caveat to the bishop on behalf
of the Heskeths is entered in the Lich-
B.A. 1767 ; ibid. In 1785 a certificate
was issued for the sequestration of the
rectory for a debt of £840, which James
Clegg had recovered against Mr. Plumbe ;
Newstead, Aughton. A suit in which the
rector was plaintiff (1777) seems to be
commemorated by some verses, ' The
luxuriant Plumb-tree lopp'd,' in the same
volume ; p. 59, &c. In 1776 the rector
bought a Presbyterian chapel standing in
Temple Court in Liverpool, known as the
Octagon ; he named it St. Katherine's,
and officiated there till his death, being a
and benevolent disposition, and the
parishioners, on the completion of his
fifty years' ministry, subscribed for a new
clock for the church tower and a silver
communion service for the church. He
was a justice of the peace for the county.
He died in April, 1885.
8 Charles Warren Markham, of Mag-
dalene Coll. Camb. (M.A. 1860), had
held the benefices of Owston, Tong, and
All Saints, Saxby, in succession. He was
also a justice of the peace for Lindsey
in Lincolnshire. He died in 1896. The
The king also intervened, presenting
Thomas Kirkby on a claim that the
patronage belonged to the duchy of Lan-
caster, and that Henry VI had presented
one Thomas Litherland to the rectory;
Duchy of Lane. Lib. Edw. VI, n. 23,
m. id.; Duchy of Lane. Pleadings,
Edw. VI, xxiv, K. 2 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea
R. 188, m. 9. No hint is to be found in
the Lichficld registers of this right, or of
the existence of Thomas Litherland.
Thomas Kirkby is no doubt the chantry
priest of Sefton who occurs in several
350-1. He died 25 May, 1786, at Fare-
ham, Hants.
« George Vanbrugh, of Queens' Coll.
Camb. (LL.B. 1783), became one of
the king's preachers in 1812, and pre-
bendary of Wells in 1825 ; he was also
chaplain to the duke of Gloucester and
the bishop of Bath and Wells. He re-
signed this rectory in 1834, 'feeling that
(M.A. 1894), is hi, son.
7 Thomas Donington, B. Deer, was
canon of York and Southwell ; he died
in ,532. See Le Neve, Fasti, iii, ,89,
442.
Donington was formally instituted to
Aughton by Cardinal Wolsey, as legate ' a
latere,' and had, it would appear, obtained
possession, but on the Feast of the
i, 113*.
10 Clergy List (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), p. 17.
For the ornaments of the church in
1552 see Cb. Goods (Chet. Soc.), pp.
11 Lib. Pat. Edw. VI and Mary, xxiii,
fol. i A. The cause of vacancy was stated
to be the death of Brian Moorcroft, the
• emoluments of a benefice the duties of
which he was unable, through advancing
years, adequately to perform . . . afford-
ing in this act an instance of disinterested-
ness and of personal sacrifice to principle
and preach the word of God, was ousted
by Brian Moorcroft. The latter was
chaplain of Edward Molyneux, rector of
Sefton, described as a great ' ambrasiater '
of inquests and juries, and a 'right
« Moorcroft, however, is said to have
'refused to appear' at the Visit. in 1559;
Gee, Eli*. Clergy. Perhaps he had not
been actually reinstated.
i» Visit. Lists at Chest.
and benevolence by which his whole life
had been distinguished.' The parishioners
matters and causes than ghostly,' and a
maintainer of Moorcroft in this affair.
aged 45 in 1553.
15 The reasons for the vacancy and the
token of their esteem ; Liverpool Courier,
25 Feb. 1834. Another eulogy is con-
tained in a poem called ' The Pastor,' by
intruder, and that his agent, Thomas
Halsall, had a particular grudge against
the rectors of Sefton and Aughton : ' if a
a resignation by Edward Moorcroft seems
a probable cause for the former.
« Trans. Hist. Soc. (NewSer.), x, 184.
290
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The right of the Heskeths having been vindicated
in the suits with William Bradshagh,1 Samuel Hankin-
son was presented by Gabriel Hesketh, at the request
of Sir Cuthbert Halsall, to whom he had been recom-
mended by the bishop for the mastership of Halsall
school. Again, however, a dispute occurred. The
new rector was accused of simony, and the king inter-
vened in consequence, presenting Nicholas Banastre,
who was instituted in 1607.'
The parliamentary authorities appear to have made
no objection to the appointment of James Worrall,
who had indeed just been approved of as curate of the
chapel of Maghull.* He joined in the ' Harmonious
Consent ' of 1648.
Peter Stananought, his successor, was expelled
from Oxford by the parliamentary visitors in 1648,
and for a time taught in a school at Sevenoaks in
Kent. Here he began a correspondence with Dr.
Henry Hammond.4 In 1651 he conformed to the
Presbyterian discipline established in the Church of
England, becoming one of the ministers in the
garrison at Liverpool ; he relinquished this duty on
appointment to Aughton. In 1 660 he seems to have
welcomed the restoration of episcopal government,
conforming and receiving a new institution. He was
also made one of the king's preachers for the county/
His successor, Alexander Baguley, was very soon
deprived for simony,6 and the king presented the next
rector. Christopher Sudell, on John Brownsword's
death, was presented by Alexander Hesketh, but
resigned six weeks afterwards to be presented a second
time by Alexander Hesketh and Robert Scarisbrick.
Three weeks later the benefice was declared vacant
for simony.7 The king for this reason again presented
to Aughton.
The new rector, Robert Hindley, purchased the
next presentation of the rectory for his son, who, how-
ever, died before him.8 ' The old parsonage being
extremely ruinous and upon inspection found incapable
of tolerable repairs,' was in 1711 rebuilt by him at
his own cost.9
From a list made it is evident that the furniture of
AUGHTON
the church a little later was of the simplest kind ;
the vestments consisted of ' two surplices ' ; at the
communion table were a velvet cloth and cushion, a
table cloth, a napkin, and two bosses (to kneel
on) ; and the plate consisted of a silver chalice, two
pewter tankards, and a salver. There were a pitch
pipe and figured boards for the singers in the gallery.10
The Long Lane Baptist Mission began in 1872 ;
the wooden building then erected was replaced by a
stone-fronted building about 1887."
There are two Roman Catholic churches within
the parish. Formerly the chaplain of Moor Hall," for
whom an endowment of £300 had been given in
1728 by Mrs. Wolfall, served the mission. Simon
George Bordley, an able but eccentric priest, had
charge for many years, keeping a school also ; but on
some of the Stanley family coming to reside there, he
in 1 784 removed to New House, close to Gerard Hall.
His successor built St. Mary's in 1823.'*
St. Anne's, the church of the Ormskirk mission, is
situate on the high road a little way outside that town.
In 1729 Mr. Lancaster of Ormskirk gave £100 to
the Benedictines in order to have mass said once a
month at Ormskirk during his life and that of his wife.
Fr. Anselm Walmesley of Woolston discharged this
duty until 1732, when Fr. Bertram Maurus Buhner
came to reside here, and built a house which served
as residence and chapel.14 ' After the Jacobite rising
of 1 745 the chapel and mission house were attacked
and partially burnt down by the mob.15 In 1 784
Bishop Gibson confirmed 94 persons here, at which
time the communicants numbered 260.' 16 In 1795
a chapel dedicated to St. Oswald was built, adjoining
the priest's house. St. Anne's replaced this in 1850.
The Benedictines have continued to serve the mission
to the present time."
There was in 1721 an annual dis-
CH4RITIES tribution of £6 I/., the result of gifts
by several persons.'8 Various additions
have been made from time to time, as well as bene-
factions for other purposes, but the principal charity is
the almshouses founded by the Rev. George Vanbrugh."*
1 See the account of the manor of
Litherland.
« Samuel Hankinson, who became vicar
of Huyton, in a letter from Lathom
chapel, II June, 1607, released his title
to the rectory, owing to the controversy
quested the bishop to institute the latter ;
Aughton Ch. Papers.
8 Plund. Mini. Acctt. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 10.
It was reported in 1650 that he was
'an orthodox divine of godly life and con-
versation,' observing the Lord's days and
days of humiliation and thanksgiving ap-
pointed by Act of Parliament ; one, how-
ever, he had omitted, ' in regard he was
carry.' She afterwards married Thomas
Marsden, vicar of Walton. To the poor
of Aughton he left £10. His property
was valued at £228, including a library
worth £40, and silver plate £12.
6 According to Oliver Heywood
(Diaries, ii, 265) 'Mr. Hesketh, a papist
sentation at cards to Mr. Banastre of
Bank. The relatives of ' young Baguley '
obtained it by giving £100 to Mr.
Banastre, hoping to evade the law of
simony by calling this sum the price of a
horse they bought. The bishop refusing
to institute except on a presentation by
the true patron, the latter was induced to
agree by a present of 20 guinea pieces.
for
anil
he might have ordered for that day ' ;
Commonwealth Cb. Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), p. 95. His will was proved
in 1653 ; Breat 98.
4 Pal. Note-took, iii, no.
5 His eagerness in the matter — it was
but a month or two after Charles's re-
turn— gave great offence to his neighbour
Nathaniel Heywood, vicar of Ormskirk.
By his will, dated 7 June, 1673, and
proved 23 June, 1674, he left his tene-
— 'ghtington to his
if she marry or mis-
there's no choice, he living as ill as the
other.' The case has a record in the
Exch. of Pleas, 31 Chas. II, Trin. m. 107 ;
and 10 June, 33 Chas. II.
' Aughton Ch. papers.
8 Baines, Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 243.
» Terrier at Aughton.
1° Newstead, op. cit. 62.
decayed as to be unfit for use; ibid.
58> 59-
11 Newstead, 32. The mission is an
offshoot of Myrtle Street Baptist Chapel ia
Liverpool.
11 John Blackburne was the priest in
l 703 ; N. Blundelfs Diary, 9.
" Gillow, Sibling. Diet, and Liverpool
Cath. Ann. 1892.
" Information of Abbot O'Neill, O.S.B.
16 Pal. Note-book, (,213, mentions one.
of Fr. Bulmer's books showing signs of fire..
M Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.}, xiii,.
i 56-7, where a list of the priests in charge'
" Newstead, 26 ; Liverpool Catb. Ann..
18 Gastrell, Notitia, ii, 162.
19 The following details are taken from
the End. Char. Rep. for this parish, issued
of I 828 'is included:—
The Commissioners of 1828 found that
ments in Appley in
wife, but 'half only ii
sider means of raising money to buy
' decent vessels for the celebration of the
Lord's Supper,' the old ones being so
closes called Long Hey and Little Hey in
Aughton for the benefit of the poor of this;
place and also of the township of Snape,.
;j. being allowed for the entertainment of
the distributors. The trustees first ap-
pointed died, and no new ones were ap-
pointed, but the rector, churchwardens,
and overseers managed the estate, which
was producing £14 101. a year, besidea
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Before the Conquest Aughton con-
M4NORS tained two manors— Aughton in the
south and Litherland in the north.
Uctred, in 1066, held Jlchetun, and Uctred, perhaps
the same person, held Liter land ; in each case the
assessment was a plough-land and the value 32^.*
After the Conquest LITHERLAND seems to have
been included in the royal demesne or held in thegnage
at a rent or service of icu. a year.' About the middle
of the twelfth century it was granted to Warin de
Lancaster, chief forester, by the serjeanty of keeping
the lord's falcons.* The thegnage tenant would hold
it of him. The mesne lordship did not endure very
long, for though King John, while count of Mortain
and afterwards as king, confirmed Uplitherland to
Warin's descendant, Henry de Lea, in 1207 he ex-
changed this manor and Liverpool for that of English
Lea in Amounderness.' From this time the thegnage
tenant again held directly of the lords of the honour
of Lancaster.
The first of these tenants whose name is known was
Richard le Waleys, who also held a third of the manor
of Aughton. In 1212 it was found that he was hold-
ing a ploughland in Litherland for los. He died in
1 22 ir and his son and heir Richard agreed to pay ^.o/.
— four times the annual rent — as his relief, and was
placed in possession.5 He had also four oxgangs of
land in Whittle and a quarter of Dalton.6 His
father's widow Quenilda was ' of the King's donation,
and her land was worth half a mark." In 1235 he
was one of the patrons of the rectory of Aughton,8
and was still living ten years later when he was
defendant in a suit brought by Henry de Standish."
After the death of Richard, a Robert le Waleys
appears to have been the principal member of the
family ; 10 possibly he was a brother and held some
part of the manor, acting as guardian to John le
Waleys of Litherland, the son and heir of Richard,
who lived on till the beginning of the next century,
and was after his death said to have been a 'cen-
tenarian.' " John held Uplitherland in 1 297, pay-
ing the old rent of 101." Before 1303, however, he
had been succeeded by his son Richard."
Richard married Maud, daughter of Robert de
Bold of Bold, and was still holding the manor by
the old service in 1323-4;" in 1329, however,
Maud was a widow.14
Richard Walsh succeeded.16 His name occurs as
witness to deeds down to 1361. He left two
daughters — Maud, who married Roger son of Richard
the interest on a sum of £zi 9j. derived
from the sale of marl from one of the fields.
In addition, a sum of £60, of unknown
origin, belonging to the poor of the parish,
was secured upon the tolls of the turnpike
road from Liverpool to Preston ; this was
made ; funeral expenses also are defrayed.
The beneficiaries are usually women and
must be members of the Church of England,
according to the founder's desire.
Margaret Williams, widow, in 1878,
left £100, the interest to be applied to
marked with a cross, and land in Aughton
adjoining Halsall, and next to lands held
by Simon de Ince and Adam de Bootle the
noteworthy for the easements, which in-
cluded ' houscbote and hcybote of oak and
other timber trees in the thick wood
(" nemus ") of Aughton and Litherland,
except the shaw of Lamylache, which
must not be cut ' ; ibid. fol. 38.
1» Ina. and Extents, 288.
1" Scarisbrick charters, Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.) xii, xiii.
In 1316 John, son of Simon, son of
Mabel, demised to Richard ten acres in
the townfields of Litherland, lying between
Mahount field and 'Crawachay,' which
divides Litherland from Halsall ; Charter
at Ince Blundell.
« Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 34. Richard'i
name is among those returned by the
was distributed on the Monday after
Christmas and Good Friday.
At the inquiry held in April, 1901, it
was found that a parcel of moss land had
been added (due to enclosures) to the
original lands of Sutch's charity, and the
whole (10 acres) was let for £25, out of
which taxes and repairs had to be paid.
No tithes were demanded from this land.
The Poor's Money of £60 could be traced
Catherine Bland of Aughton, by her
will (dated 1893 and proved 1899), de-
vised her land in Bold Lane, with 'an
earnest request ' that it should not be sold
or built upon, and that out of the rent
£2 should be paid to the churchwardens
distribution among twelve elderly
persons of the parish church district.
The request has been acted upon by the
legatee.
1 V.C.H. Lanes, i, p. 284*.
2 Lanes. Irtq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), p. 27.
It contributed a mark to the tallage of
1177 ; Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 36.
8 See the account of Raven Meols.
4 Ibid. p. 1 1 6, 123; Charter R. 9
John, m. 6.
* Fine R. 6 Hen. Ill, m. 9.
« He granted part of his land in Dalton
to Burscough Priory ; Burscough Reg.
fol. 35.
7 Inq. and Extents, i 27.
8 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 63.
referred to by Bishop Gastrell, and may
include the £10 bequeathed by Rector
Stananought. It has been increased by
sales of marl and from other sources, and
Mersey Dock bond. A 'further addition
has been made by Alexander Wotherspoon,
of Sandfield, Wallasey, who by his will
(proved 1809) left £5° to the rector of
Aughton, the interest to be given in bread
to the poor. This is invested with the
above sum, and all three are administered
as one, under the title of the 'United
Charities.' The rector and the parish
of land ; Palgrave, Mil. Writs, ii (i),
638. He was also a < sub-custos pacis '
for the wapentake ; ibid, ii (2), 238.
« The marriage covenant was early in
1322 confirmed by a fine, which describes
his property as the manor of Litherland,
a fourth part of the manor of Dalton, and
a third part of the manor of Aughton and
the advowson of the church ; while the
two former and the advowson were settled
was sanctioned by the Charity Commis-
sioners in Sept. 1898. The trustees are
the rector, three nominees of the parish
council and one of the rector. There
are so few poor in the parish that it is
difficult to find objects for the charity
without having recourse to those in receipt
of outdoor relief.
The Rev. George Vanbrugh bequeathed
£3,000 as a memorial of himself, ' which
might be beneficial to some of the poor
inhabitants of a place where his duties
were so long a labour of love.' His sugges-
tion was that almshouses should be built.
10 He was witness to a number of the
early Scarisbrick charters ; but may have
been of the Waleys of Lathom family.
11 Dods. MSS. xxxix, fol. 140*. See
the account of Melling chapel.
John le Waleys was a benefactor of
Burscough, granting the prior and canons
a portion of his land near the northern
boundary of Litherland, with common of
pasture and other easements and liberties
in both Aughton and Litherland ; Bur-
scough Reg. fol. 36. Another charter
varied this grant, the words ' the boundary
between Hurleton and Litherland ' being
Aughton was to descend to his son John
for life and then to another son Richard
and his heirs ; Final Cone, ii, 46.
Maud his widow in 1329 demised
to her father, ' Richard ' de Bold, all the
lands as well in demesne as in service,
with wardships and other rights which
she had in dower ; Kuerden, fol. MS.
p. 448, n. 569.
i<= Whether he was the son Richard
mentioned in the preceding note or a
younger son is not clear.
The third part of the manor of Augh-
ton continued to descend with Litherland.
Church field, and seven almshouses were
built. One of the houses is occupied by
the parish nurse. There is a sum of
and free passage being reserved for the
grantor and his heirs and the tenant of his
land by Nazelarwe syke, to till and carry
states that ' Richard Walsh holds in soc-
age a plough-land in Uplitherland, with
the advowson of the church of Aughton
ing £84 a year ; i 55. a month is paid to
each of the almspeople, and other gifts are
36 b. Further grants included Walsh-
croft, its bounds commencing at an oak
los. for all services'; Survey of 1346
(Chet. Soc.), p. 40.
292
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
de Bradshagh of Pennington,1 and Eleanor, who
married Thomas de Formby. Roger de Bradshagh's
name appears among the attesting witnesses of charters
from 1371 onwards.*
There is some uncertainty as to the exact succession
at this point. Richard may have left a son,3 but if so
he died without issue before 1372, when Eleanor had
brought to her husband a moiety of the estates, which
was settled upon them by fine in that year ; she had
the third part of Aughton, the fourth of Dalton, and
a moiety of the advowson, so that to her sister Up-
litherland was left.4 This sister and her husband
Roger de Bradshagh were in possession of the whole
in 1381, when they enfeoffed Richard de Sutton and
Henry de Bradshagh.*
Richard, the son and heir, must have been over
thirty years of age when his widowed mother in
1418 covenanted with Sir Henry de Scarisbrick that
he should marry Isabel, daughter of Sir Henry ; she
agreed to surrender to Richard and Isabel all her
manor of Uplitherland, the windmill alone being
reserved.6 Richard's son and heir was Thomas,
whose name occurs in a deed of 1457-8. In 1472
Thomas agreed that his son Richard should marry
Alice, daughter of Joan the wife of William Main-
waring.7 Thomas was succeeded by his grandson
James, the son of Richard and Alice.
James Bradshagh died 28 November, 1527, his son
and heir William being then fourteen years of age.
The service of los. is duly recorded in the inquisi-
tion, which gives the value of the manor as 20 marks
AUGHTON
clear.8 As soon as he came of age William Brad-
shagh9 began to dissipate his inheritance. In 1535-6
he demised Aughton Meadow to Brian Moorcroft,
clerk, who transferred it to Peter Stanley of Bicker-
staffe. Eight years later he sold other lands to the
same Peter Stanley.10 In 1551
he sold the manor of Uplither-
land, the third part of Aughton,
and all the demesne lands not
previously disposed of, to James
Scarisbrick of Scarisbrick ; and
this was confirmed by fine in
the following year." In 1599
William Bradshagh of London
exhibited a bill of complaint in
the duchy chamber, apparently
with a view to testing the validity
of his ancestor's alienations. The
answer of the defendants re-
viewed their title and disposed of any doubt as to
its soundness. It appears from the complaint that
the William Bradshaw who sold Uplitherland died
about 1565, leaving two sons — Edward who died
about 1587, and William who died a little later,
leaving a son, the petitioner.12
James Scarisbrick held Uplitherland for less than
ten years, selling it to Gabriel son of Bartholomew
Hesketh, who had already an estate in the parish.13
In 1561 George and Gabriel Hesketh mortgaged the
manor to Edward Halsall for £500, recovering part
of the land two years later,14 the manor being restored
?RADSHAGH. Argent,
•e mullets between
i kendltts sable.
1 Richard de Bradshagh and Chris-
tiana his wife had a suit concerning lands
in Dalton in 1352; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 2, m. viij d.
^ Scarisbrick charters, n. 114. He
joined in the presentation to Aughton
rectory in 1369.
8 See the presentation referred to.
* Final Cone. ii, 183. Eleanor
seems to have died without issue before
'''Barnes, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iv, 223.
Gerard in Ormskirk and carried off
Lionel's wife Grace and some of his
goods, and took sanctuary at Ripon. The
aggrieved man recovered his wife and
some of his goods, but Bradshagh being
'a man of great possessions, substance
and riches ' was able to molest and de-
fraud him ; Duchy Pleading: (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 124.
10 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 269*, n. 103,
In 1582 William Bradshagh of Killing-
worth in Warwickshire, son of the above-
named William, sold to Peter Stanley of
Bickerstaffe the Little Meadow and an
acre of land in the tenure of Henrv
Moorcroft ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 269*,
n. 109.
12 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxcii,
B. 35.
13 In I 5 3 6 Bartholomew Hesketh.senior,
one of the Hesketh of Maynes family,
acquired Walshcroft from the Halsalls,
made three years later by fine ; the
succession was to be to their heirs, then
» Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 14, m.
139. The property included a dovecote
the Inq. p.m. of Henry Halsall, 1472 ;
Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 87.
garet, Isabel, Katherine, Agnes, and
Cicely in succession, the daughters. There
was a third provision, that the fourth part
of Dalton should remain to their son
A curious remissness in the care of the
'evidences' is shown by an inquiry relat-
ing to this manor. Thomas Kirkby,
clerk, stated that he could make deeds
it ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, n. 13
(Sir T. Halsall). It passed to George
Hesketh, who between 1543 and 1547
alienated it to his half-brother Gabriel, as
then to the heirs male of Maud and so
and afterwards 'exercised* writing when
Lightollers of Eggergarth, gentleman,
who had had a lease for six years granted
bdle. I, m. 23. For Thomas see the
account of Moor Hall.
neux (sometime rector of Sefton). He
had never embezzled or forged deeds, but
expelled by force by Gabriel Hesketh in
1547 ; Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Edw.
Hist. Sac. New Ser. xiii.)
The feodary of 1430-1 shows that
Richard de Bradshagh was still holding
the manor by the ancient service ; Dods.
MSS. Ixxxvii, fol. 58*.
7 Towneley MS. DD, «. 112. Pro-
visions for Thomas and other younger
sons may be seen in Kuerden MSS. ii, fol.
fame for making untrue deeds and writings.
As to the Bradshagh deeds Edward Moly-
neux had had the custody of them, as
trustee for James Bradshaw, and they
were put into a basket. This basket was
kept locked, and had been in Kirkby's
custody for fourteen years or more, ever
since the death of Edward Molyneux, but
In 1549 Gabriel claimed, as having
succeeded to his brother's title, the Walsh
and Bradshagh estates, which had come
into the hands of Richard Molyneux of
Sefton. This claim is of interest as
giving a number of farm and field names :
Broad Hey, Akens and Pyggill, Potter's
Hey, Finch Hey, Whight Shaw, and
Bradshagh's seal bore 'Three mullets
between two bendlets ' ; ' Crest, a bird.'
There are named Robinson House and
Moor Hall in Aughton, lands in Brook
Acre, Kirk Acre, and in Ormskirk and
Burscough.
the writings demanded ; afterwards he
found some other writings therein, and
sent those up to London. He had heard
Edward Molyneux say that whoever
bought William Bradshagh's lands would
lose both his money and the lands;
son's Keys, Marewood Heys and Banks
Hey ; ibid. Edw. VI, xxvi, H. 5.
Gabriel Hesketh is called 'son and
heir' of Bartholomew Hesketh, deceased,
in 1543 ; he was then a minor, and a
ward of the king ; Duchy of Lane.
»0ne night in 1 538 or .539 William
Bradshagh, described as 'a man of light
disposition and behaviour,' and 'a very
have other evidences as to Uplither-
land ; Duchy of Lane. Depos. Edw. VI,
Ivii, U. 2.
2025-6.
" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13, m.
293
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
to Gabriel's son and heir Bartholomew in 1573.
Gabriel Hesketh died 21 November, 1573, 'and his
holding is described in the subsequent inquisition as
four messuages, land, &c. held
of Henry Starkie of Aughton,
by a rent of 3/. xd. ; other
land in Aughton held of James
Scarisbrick by a rent of 6s. id. ;
lands, &c. in Uplitherland held
of the queen in socage by a
rent of \s. ^d. Bartholomew
Hesketh was his son and heir,
and twenty-nine years of age.*
Soon after his father's death
Bartholomew Hesketh was in-
volved in disputes with his t ntiuJ gala tbra
stepmother Elizabeth * and half- garbs or.
sisters.4 Much more serious
trouble fell upon the family through their adherence
to the Roman Catholic religion. Among those who
attended the ministrations of a Cistercian monk
(Dominic Halsall) at North Meols Hall in 1577 were
Mr. Bartholomew Hesketh of Aughton and his second
wife Margaret,5 daughter of a noteworthy victim of
the persecution — Sir John Southworth. Mrs. Hes-
keth was at this time returned by the bishop of
Chester as 'a busy recusant.' She acted so
undisguisedly that in 1584 Walsingham wrote
to the bishop of Chester touching her ' bad
disposition,' and ' how she did much hurt in being at
liberty to go (as she used to do) where she would
among recusants and like persons.' 6 She was accord-
ingly arrested at Meols Hall and confined in the New
Fleet in Salford. The husband, though returned in
159035 'in some degree of conformity,' ' was reported
about the same time for having ' kept for sundry years
now together one Gabriel Shaw to be his school-
master, which Shaw is most ) malicious against true-
hearted subjects.' 8
Bartholomew Hesketh died in February, 1600,
and was succeeded by his son Gabriel,9 who died,
outlawed, about the end of 1615. His widow Jane
renounced executorship of his will on 8 December,
and at an inquiry made in the following March an
account was taken of his goods, which were seized to
the king's use.10 Gabriel's son Bartholomew was his
heir, being about fifteen years of age." In the civil
war Bartholomew Hesketh ls escaped any penalties
until, upon some charge of 'delinquency,' his estate
was seized at the beginning of 1652."
Gabriel Hesketh, who succeeded to the manor and
other estates of his father about 1672, quickly fell
into financial difficulties. He mortgaged or sold his
estate to his younger brother Alexander, who seems
to have taken up his residence at Aughton and kept
the place in repair.14 In 1682 Gabriel demanded the
estate from his brother, offering £200, on the
allegation that he had merely mortgaged it, and had
a right to redeem it ; but Alexander contended that
the bargain was absolute, and retained the whole."
He does not seem to have prospered.16 In 1718
he and his son Thomas joined in the sale of the hall
and demesne of Aughton and all other their lands in
Uplitherland and Aughton to John Plumbe of Waver-
1 An abstract of his will is in frills
(Chet. Soc. New Ser.) i, in.
• Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xii, ,. 32.
Gabriel's first wife, the mother of Bar-
5 Both are in the bishop of Chester's
report of 1577; Gibson, Lydiau Hall,
20 September, 1575; Pennant's Acct.
and his sons (by his first wife, Anne
Halsall) Gabriel, Bartholomew, and Alex-
ander ; he describes himself as ' of the
manor of Uplitherland.' The inscription
ultimately' co-heir of Henry Halsall; see
the account of Melling. The second
son, Sir Thomas, made a fortune by the
daughter of Sir William Norris of Speke ;
her son Gabriel was baptized in 1574.
• Desiderata Curiosa (ed. 1779), bk. iv,
he had made _ B H H , alteration,
in the building to lg A and that
hj« »nn wa» married.
law and purchased Heslington in York-
shire, where he was succeeded by his
younger brother Cuthbert ; fTills (Chct.
Soc. New Ser.), ii, 165.
As no 'manor of Uplitherland' is
mentioned and the annual service is
changed, it will be proper to add the
account of its possession as given by
149.
7 Gibson, op. cit. 245.
8 Ibid. 258. Here Mr. Hesketh is
described as ' of New Hall.'
» He recorded a pedigree in 1613;
Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 22.
10 fTills (Chet. Soc. New Ser.), i, 212 ;
and Testimony (1619) in the Dioc. Reg.
The younger son Bartholomew seems
to have died shortly afterwards (12 January,
1674-5), and administration was granted
to his brother Alexander, described as ' of
Croston.' The nventory (preserved at
Chester) is noticeable: Nag, apparel,
trunk, colt; books £5 ; two periwig, £i ;
his picture that hangeth in the gallery
to William Bradshaw : 'As for the
manor of Uplitherland and the messuages,
lands, &c., in Uplitherland and Aughton,
now in the tenure of the defendant or
his tenants or farmers (other than the
advowson of Aughton), the said Bartholo-
mew Hesketh says that he by virtue of
divers fines, recoveries, &c, levied and
suffered and made by William Bradshaw
the grandfather and William Bradshaw
the father [of plaintiff] to this defen-
dant's late grandfather and father or to
defendant, is seised in the fee of some
11 Aged 64 in 1664 ; pedigree recorded
by Dugdale, risit. (Chet. Soc.), 134.
Jane Hesketh died about the end of
1622 ; among her bequests is one of 'my
best heifer' to Gabriel Shaw. Will at Chest.
u He paid £10 on refusing knight-
hood in 1631 ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 212.
By fine in Lent, 1641, a settlement
was made of the manors of Aughton and
Uplitherland, and the advowson of Augh-
ton, Bartholomew Hesketh and Alice his
» At the time of the bargain (1675)
Gabriel was a prisoner in the Counter
in London, and on the 'common' or
poor man's side ; there were fourteen
actions against h m. Through a friend,
Cuthbert Gerard of Garswood, he was
relieved and transferred to the Fleet.
His brother soon afterwards procured his
release, paying £130 for him. It
appeared that Gabriel had been living in
Falcon Court, London, in great splendour
all the previous winter, being known .,
' the great esquire Hesketh of Lancashire.'
ances, part whereof were made in the
time of Hen. VIII and Edw. VI, and
the rest in Queens Mary and Elizabeth ' ;
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxcii,
8.35.
" She afterwards married William
Gerard, the licence being granted i June,
1576 ; Pennant's Acct. Bk. at Chest.
« These had leases of lands and tithes,
and it appeared that they had been pre-
vented from carrying the produce, and had
only made a way by force ; Duchy of
Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. Ixxxvii, H. II, 16.
bdle. 138, m. 35.
13 Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Chcs.), iii. 185-6. No mention is
made of recusancy, but his son Gabriel
was described as 'a papist' in 1674. In
1665 Alice wife of Bartholomew Hesketh,
Gabriel Hesketh, Alice his wife, and
and in 1671 Bartholomew Hesketh him-
self was included ; Visit. Rec. at Chest.
Bartholomew's will, made 22 Feb.
1669-70, was proved at the beginning of
1673 ; it mentions his second wife Alice,
Duchy of Lane. Depos. 1682, n. 3.
I* Ibid. The estate was described as
worth 'about £100 or £120 a year, anc
16 In August, 1692, Alexander Hesket!
and Mary his -wife by fine remitted t<
Thomas Earl V lliers and his heirs th.
manors of Uplitherland and Aughton, anc
various lands there and in Ormskirk.
Scarisbrick, Aspinwall, Har eton, an,
Snape ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
229, m. 77.
On 21 January, 1705-6, he wrote [t.
294
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
tree; and the latter having in 1724 obtained a
decree in the Court of Chancery confirming the
same, Thomas Hesketh surrendered possession.1
Of the ancestry of John Plumbe, the purchaser of
the manor, nothing has been ascertained. He was an
attorney in Liverpool.' He must have been born
about 1670, and is stated to have married Sarah Marsh,
niece and co-heir of James Vernon of Liverpool.3 His
eldest son William died before his father, who survived
until 1763,' and left a son Thomas, who succeeded
his grandfather at Aughton. Thomas Plumbe 5 married
Elizabeth, eldest daughter and heir of John Tempest
ofTong near Bradford, and his son John in 1824
assumed the name and arms of Tempest.6 John
Argent, a bend between
six martlets sable.
Plumbe Tempest dying on 6 April, 1859, was suc-
ceeded by his son Thomas Richard, who on his death
in 1881 was followed by his nephew Robert Ricketts,
son of his sister Henrietta by her husband Sir Corn-
wallis Ricketts, baronet. Sir Robert succeeded to the
baronetcy in 1885, having in the previous year
assumed the name and arms of Tempest in lieu of his
own, and died at Torquay on 4 February, 1901. His
son and successor, Sir Tristram Tempest Tempest,
baronet, of Tong Hall and Aughton, was born 10
January, 1865.
The old hall of Uplitherland (now a farmhouse)
was rebuilt in stone about 1686.
Litherland was used as a surname. In 1246 Edith
AUGHTON
de Litherland complained that Yarwerth de Lither-
land had taken her cow ; but he proved that she was
his ' native ' and that he seized the cow in lieu of her
service. She was poor and had been abetted in the
matter by Richard le Waleys and Henry de Standish.7
4UGHTON proper is supposed to have been granted
to Thurstan Banastre about the middle of the twelfth
century, and to have been carried by Margery his
daughter to Richard son of Roger de Lytham,
who died in or about 1201, leaving five daughters
his co-heirs. One of these was Quenilda, wife of
Roger Gernet the Forester,8 and after her death in
1252 it was found that she had held one plough-land
in Aughton in chief of William de Ferrers, earl of
Derby, by knight's service ; but that she received no-
thing from it except wardship and relief. Her next
heirs were Robert de Stockport and Sir Ralph de
Beetham, as representing her sisters.9 The superior
lordship descended to their heirs, and in 1327 two-
thirds was held by Robert de Beetham and the other
third by Nicholas de Eaton, in right of his wife Joan
de Stockport, in socage by homage and fealty.10 The
Beetham share, in this as in other cases, came before
the sixteenth century into the hands of the earls of
Derby. The Stockport share disappears ; perhaps it
was united with the other.
In the meantime, however, the manor had been
divided among two or three subordinate holders. It
is supposed, from their names, that they were descen-
dants of the Welshmen who settled in Lancashire in
1177, when Robert Banastre was expelled from Rhudd-
lan by Owen Gwynedd, and that Aughton being a
Banastre manor, lands were granted to them there.
Early in the thirteenth century the three mesne lords
seem to have been Richard le Waleys (or, the Welsh-
man), who had a third of the manor ; Madoc de
Aughton and Bleddyn de Aughton. These three
were defendants in a suit touching the advowson of the
church in 1235."
I. Richard le Waleys settled at Uplitherland, and
the descent of his portion of Aughton has been traced
in the account of that manor. Though the matter is
not quite clear, the Waleys third seems to have
Richard Norri. of Liverpool urging the
completion of a sale of land : ' All per-
sons was agreed and you and Mr. Greene
Stanley Hesketh of Liverpool, as son of
Thomas Hesketh, late of Ormskirk, gen-
tleman, deceased ; administration granted
has now disappeared, Exchange Station
standing on the site.
7 Assize R. 404, m. 19. For another
family named Litherland, see below in
and none of mine .... though writings
was not made out ' ; Norris Papers (Chet.
Soc.), .48.
In 1716 he appears, as a magistrate,
'happily' preventing his grandson Edward
In 1745 Stanley Hesketh was vouchee
in a recovery of the manor ; Pal. of Lane.
Plea R. 560, 3 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
F. bdle. 332, m. 90.
A full account of the descent from the
Aughton, 3.
s r.C.H. Lanes, i, 368 ; Farrer, Lanes.
Pipe R. 44.
» Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 189-191.
10 Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 34. Ellen
educated for the priesthood ; Payne, Rec.
oJEngl. Cath. 152.
In his will, dated 21 July, 1717, and
proved 12 March, 1718-9, Alexander
Hesketh described himself as 'of Uplither-
land,' and desired to be buried 'in his own
chancel ' in Aughton Church. There are
bequests to his wife Mary and his son
Thomas ; no other children or relatives
are mentioned.
1 Will at Chester, with deposition
attached.
It does not appear what became of the
son; but in 1741 Anne Holme of West
Derby, principal creditor of Thomas
Hesketh, late of Aughton, gentleman,
deceased, gave a bond of £100 to exhibit
an inventory and truly administer his
goods; Administration granted 19 Nov.
1741.
A similar bond was in 1749 given by
be found in the rolls of the Exch. of Pleas,
10 Geo. II, Trin. m. 25-9. There
appears to have been an unsuccessful
attempt to regain the manor for the
Heskeths.
a He is several times mentioned in the
Diary of N. Blundell of Little Crosby, for
whom he held courts.
8 Baines, Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 244.
" Gent. Mag. 1761, p. 237— William
Plumbe of Liverpool, died 10 May; 1763,
p. 201— John Plumbe of Liverpool, died
about March, aged 92.
6 He was vouchee in a recovery of the
manor in Aug. 1763 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea
R. 598, 6.
"Gregson writes in 1823: ' Of the
family of Plumbe one in our time (in the
law) resided in Liverpool and owned the
lands on which Plumbe Street is built' ;
Fragments (ed. Harland), 218. This street
295
widow of Robert de Stockport early in the
reign of Edw. I, brought an action against
Adam de Aughton in Newsham and Madoc
de Aughton in Aughton ; De Bane. R. 10,
" See the account of the church.
In the Lichfield registers of the four-
teenth century the parish is called Acton
Blundell. Robert Blundell, rector, in
1246 claimed two oxgangs from Madoc
son of Lewel (Llewelyn), and Quenilda
widow of Richard le Waleys. He did not
prosecute his claim (Assize R. 404, m. 3 </.),
and it is uncertain whether he based it
on inheritance or the right of his church.
Blundells appear afterwards in this town-
ship, and also in the Formby district.
Madoc de Aughton is in this instance
called Madoc son of Llewelyn ; it will
be seen that his daughter married a
Blundell.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
descended or to have been sold with Uplitherland, and
is thus held by Sir Tristram Tempest Tempest.1
2. The share of Madoc de Aughton, ancestor of
the Aughton family, is harder to trace. He granted
to Einion de Aughton the mill by the pool of Augh-
ton and the land of Haylandhurst in exchange for the
overflow of the mill waters.* Madoc his son gave to
William son of Jugge land adjoining Cokemonhurst.3
Walter son of Madoc succeeded in or before the time
of Edward II.4 Walter's heir was his son Thomas,6
who in turn was succeeded by Nicholas de Aughton,
probably his son or grandson, whose name occurs
down to the middle of the reign of Henry IV. He
was followed by his son and heir Roger.6 Roger was
succeeded by his son and heir John de Aughton,
whose name occurs as late as 1468. John probably
died without issue. The heir to this portion of the
manor and the lands held with it was Nicholas Augh-
ton, son of Nicholas Aughton and Cecily his wife ;
and the latter Nicholas was son of Thomas de Augh-
ton, probably uncle or brother of the above-named
Roger. Nicholas Aughton the son married Emma,
and his son and heir John leaving two daughters,
Alice and Margery, the estate was divided between
them. Alice, though twice married — one of her hus-
bands was named David Griffith ; — died without issue
in 1520; and thus the whole came into the posses-
sion of John Starkie, grandson of Margery, who had
married a John Starkie, supposed to have been a
younger son of the Stretton family.8
The will of John Starkie, son of Margery, has
been preserved. It is dated in September, 1526, and
was proved a year later.9 In 1545 John Starkie, his
son, conveyed to trustees his manor and estate in
Aughton.10 He died before 1569, when his son and
heir Henry was in possession, and said to be 34 years
Plumbe's evidences').
North Meols.
Alice Griffith's will ; he stated that in
this portion of Aughton is that of a grant
of land to Cockersand Abbey, made by
served. One gave to Owen son of William
son of Jeui certain land in Aughton ;
had desired him and Sir Alexander Rad-
cliffe of Ordsall to be present at the mak-
bounds were — From Stanriford down the
brook to Sigerith's pool, up this pool (or
brook) to the moor, and so to Stanriford.
This was afterwards held of the abbey by
John son of Richard of the Cross, who
released it to the abbot, granting also the
service of Hugh de Mulnelewe for ' Her-
1353, leased to Richard de Litherland the
Platt meadow in the same township for a
term of 9 years, the rent being a wreath
of roses annually on St. John's Nativity ;
Ince Bundell deed in Gibson's Lydiate Hall,
p. xxxvi. ' This deed was probably exe-
cuted at the local court, and the seal is
— Sir Alexander being absent through i -
ness— she had given 4 marks yearly to
Henry Starkie, her sister's son, with re-
mainder to John Starkie. She did not
wish to disinherit the latter ; but he had
married without her consent, and there-
fore £4 a year should be paid to a priest
Halsall also resigned all his claim in
man's head surrounded by the inscription
husbands until the sum amounted to one
land ; and Henry le Waleys gave a quit-
claim. See Cockersand Cbartul. (Chet. Soc.),
ii, 544-5, 752. The Walshes of Walsh
Hall were long the tenants under the
6 After the death of Maud, daughter
and heir of Robert de Holand and widow
of Sir John Level, it was found that she
had held 6 acres in Aughton of Roger de
custom of the country.' Thomas Starkie.
aged about 60, then lying at the point o:
death, having 'received all the rites o:
holy church as a Christian man ought foi
crown and the earls of Derby.
3,/. ; Lane,. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 2.
brother Henry alleged, but Sir Willian
is the original grant of Stockbridge House.
John le Waleys of Litherland gave to
Robert son of Cokemon land within
» This account is based upon plead-
ings of 1 540 and later years concerning
statements made it appears that the testa-
trix was afraid that her nephew and th<
priest would make a will too favourabh
Aughton to Litherland, where a way leads
to Stockbridge syke 5 along this way to
the road from Lydiate to Ormskirk, by
states that Alice Griffith, widow, daugh-
ter and one of the heirs of John Aughton,
held lands in Aughton, Lathom, Bicker-
two knights. In the end, after the priest
yearly fee had been confirmed, the fina
decree was in favour of John Starkie
Halsall, and by the last road to Stockbridge
she gave parts, called Shadhouse, Stotfold-
from the premises in dispute until h
way ; Kuerden MSS. iii, A. 6, n. i. The
same John granted to William son of
Mill House, and 31. rent, to certain trus-
Lane. Depos. Hen. VIII, xli, S. i ; Duch
Haswell (or Old Haselwall), Woodlache
snape, the Turmeris (touching the road
from Aughton to Halsall) and other par-
cels ; ibid. A. 6, n. 2.
Some of the above names appear in
1267-8, when Robert de Winstanley pro-
ceeded against William son of Richard,
Thomas Cokemon's son of Haselwall,
Robert the Tunwright, Madoc son of
Bleddyn and Madoc son of Madoc in a
plea concerning common of pasture in
Aughton; Cur. Reg. R. 186, m. 19.
Cokemon's croft, on the north side of the
Leatherbarrow being the first. Henry
Starkie was to hold Stotfoldshaw during
this term at a rent of 261. 8</., and his
complaint was that John Starkie (his
nephew) had taken possession a few
months ago, after Alice's death, as being
her heir. John Starkie in reply quoted
the disposition of this property made by
Nicholas, son of Thomas Aughton, by
which after the death of himself and
Cecily his wife it should descend to their
son and heir Nicholas. A later settle-
fol. 1844.
9 He desired to be buried at Aughto
Church, before the altar of St. Nichola
He gave his best beast to the rector i
the name of principal ; also 101. for
trental of masses, to be distributed amon
the priests, and 6s. 8J. for the repairs c
the church. His lands in Aughton ir
herited from his mother were to be to th
use of his wife Elizabeth and herchildrei
as also his two houses and moiety of
salthouse in Northwich, and his gooc
generally. He made a bequest to Joh
Henry son of Henry de Aughton to Henry
de Litherland, together with the Fluland
or Fowland ; Townley MS. OO (in pos-
session of W. Farrer), ». 1351 ; Kuerden
MSS. ii, fol. 262, n. 37-8.
2 Charter at Ince Blundell.
' Kuerden MSS. iii, A. I, a. I.
4 He made provision for his younger
children by granting a small piece of land,
with the appurtenances, to his son Gilbert,
with remainders to the latter's brothers
David and Richard ; Dods. MSS. cxlii,
fol. 227*. Richard de Aughton married
and his wife Emma, by which it descended
to John their son and heir, and so to
Margery Starkie and Alice Griffith ; from
Margery's son and heir John it had come
to defendant as his son and heir. He
alleged also that Alice, as wife of David
Griffith, had granted the lands in dispute
to feoffees for the benefit of her sister's
heirs. See Duchy of Lane. Pleadings
(n.d.), xix, S. I.
John Starkie was the next to complain,
desiring to upset the trust for the main-
tenance of a priest. Sir William Leyland
296
also to John Starkie his son and hei
and Lawrence and Margery, his othi
children ; Piccope, Wills (Chet. Soc.
i, 6.
w Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. I: ,
m. 120. There was a windmill. In 1553
Henry Starkie and Katherine (Halsal
were divorced ; Towncley MS. RR, «. J(.
This was a child-marriage. Then in 155
Henry son and heir of John Starkie w:
contracted to marry Isabel daughter <
Edward Radcliffe of Todmorden ; Town,
ley MS. DD. n. 634.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
of age.1 By his will, made a few weeks before his
death, Henry Starkie desired to be buried at Aughton
church, ' in that place where his ancestors had been
buried ' ; to John, his son and
heir, he gave two long boards
and forms in the hall as also
a screen there, with the wish
that these might remain as heir-
looms in the house.' He died at
Aughton on 6 March, 1593-4,
and was succeeded in the manor
of Aughton by his son John,
then 39 years of age. The
manor was said to be held of ~ .
the queen by the fortieth part TOJAR^-«,°' a ^r'k
of a knight's fee ; it and the sable membered gales, a
lands were worth £zO clear.3 mullet for difference.
John Starkie was almost im-
mediately involved in disputes with his neighbour
Lawrence Ireland of Lydiate.4 Shortly before the
death of John Starkie in 1626, his windmill and
various lands, including the Furlongs and Broad
Carr,4 were the subject of family disputes. His
son Henry, to whom he had refused to make any
allowance for many years, put in a claim to them.
The rector of Aughton expressed his belief that the
' unnaturalness ' of the father to plaintiff and the
persuasions of the stepmother and others would
greatly endanger Henry's overthrow and be the ruin
of that house.6 Possibly this anticipation was justified,
as the family seems to have declined in importance.
For instance their manor was ignored in 1657, when
AUGHTON
it was awarded that Uplitherland was a particular
district and a distinct manor, Bartholomew Hesketh
being sole lord ; and that Aughton was another
distinct manor, Caryl Lord Molyneux, Lawrence
Ireland, and Bartholomew Hesketh being the three
lords of it ; boundaries were then fixed by the
referees.7 In 1640 the lands of Richard Tatlock
were said to be held of Lord Molyneux, Edward
Ireland, Bartholomew Hesketh, and Edward Starkie
' as of their manor of Aughton.' 8
Henry Starkie, the son, died in 1639. His will
mentions his wife, Edward his son and heir, and
other children.9 Edward Starkie was one of the
' commanders and officers ' in
the siege of Lathom House, f__Bai__
thus taking part with the Par- |
liament.10 He recorded a pedi-
gree at the visitation of 1664,
describing himself as forty-six
years of age."
His younger son John seems
to have succeeded to the manor
shortly after the father's death,
for early in 1682 he and Mary
his wife by fine transferred to
Roger Bostock the 'manor of
Aughton,' various lands and a grain mill." He died
about a year later, administration of his goods being
granted to his widow Mary on 12 May, 1683. ls
This appears to have been the end of his family's
connexion with the place. In 1687 an agreement
was signed by Lord Molyneux, Sir Charles Anderton,
1 Duchy of Lane. Depoa. n Eliz. n. 3 ;
and Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. Ixiv,
S. i.
a Piccope, Will;, iii, 51. Mr. Ireland
John Litherland had held various lands
called Bycall— where West Tower now
stands — adjoining John Starkie's land
called Highfield ; also land in the Fur-
mentions a settlement made in 1605 by
him and Henry his son ; his other sons
were Nathan, James, Thomas, Nathaniel,
and Samuel; and his 'younger children,'
On a map of about this date the hall and
the land round it are coloured as 'Mr.
Starkie's,' but upon the building is in-
scribed 'Mr. Ireland's.'
8 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvii, it. 70.
mill Hey. There had, about 1579, been
a claim put in by Henry Starkie, who had
defaced the old meres and bounds. This
had been remedied, and John Litherland
about 1590 sold Bycall to Lawrence Ire-
against her father's will), Tabitha, Re-
becca, Joseph, Susan, Priscilla, Mary, and
Ruth. The number of Bible names may
indicate that he was a Puritan. The in-
ventory includes ' a standish and in printed
among the members of the Edgeacre
family. In 1553 John Starkie of Augh-
ton, aged about 46, and Henry Starkie
evidence in the claim made by James
Edgeacre against his step-mother Janet for
' evidences ' which she first promised to
bring to Aughton church, and then as-
serted she had burnt. Henry Edgeacre
of Coleshill, Berks, as brother and heir
of James, laid claim to lands in Aughton
(Longley, &c.), of which Henry Starkie
(aged about 34 in 1569) was chief lord,
and of which Robert son of James was
in possession. There was a dipute as to
Robert's legitimacy. See Duchy of Lane.
Depos. Edw. VI, Ix, E. i i Duchy of
Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. xlviii, E. 3, and
Starkie, claiming possession 'from time
immemorial.' Other lands in dispute had
been held of his ancestors by ' a yearly
rent of 31. 3J., a day's ploughing, a day's
loading of " worthing," and a day's shear-
ing.' Lawrence Ireland acknowledged a
rent of zs. ^d., professing ignorance of the
immediate superior, and denying the other
services, which the former tenant grudg-
ingly acknowledged as follows: 'John
Starkie and his father being gentlemen
and her near neighbours and able to do
her pleasure and displeasure (she being a
poor woman and a widow) she had helped
them by starts both with ploughing and
worthing.' Another tenant admitted a
day's shearing once.
Another point in dispute was a right
books^.also.apa.rofplay.ngtab.e,,
7 Add. MS. 22644; from' Col. Plumbe's
evidences.'
8 Patchett, Tatlocks of Cunsccugb, 27.
9 Will at Chest, dated i Dec. 1638;
proved 6 Mar. 1639-40; inventory, 19
July, 1639. 'The " armore," the long
board now standing on the east side of
the hall, and the evidence chest ' were to
be heirlooms.
10 Royalist Conf. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 235-6.
» Dugda\e, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 29?. His
will, dated in 1670, and proved in Jan.
1674-5 by h's eldest son Aughton, re-
cords that as 'Edward Starkie of the hall
of Aughton' he had on 24 Sept. 1670,
bdle. 21, m. 8; and bdle. 32, m. 29.
James Edgeacre had when a boy (about
1530) married Cecily daughter of Nicho-
las Barnes (or Jackson) at Melling Chapel.
Afterwards he procured a divorce and
married (about 1540) Ellen daughter of
William Shurlacres, after due proclama-
way, from Ireland's manor of Eggergarth
to Aughton church, with the right to
carry a corpse that way for burial, a
yearly rent of 12</. being paid. John
Starkie having alleged that the i id. was
due for a close called Watson's Hey, and
not for the right of way over his lands,
messuage and mansion house called
the hall of Aughton', also the mill called
'Aughton windmilne,' the great common
called Aughton moss, and his other lands.
He left bequests to his sons Henry and
John, his daughters Ellen and Mary, also
to others. From the will at Chester
days m Halsall and Aughton churches.
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. clxiv, 14.
2oth of same.
rector of Bladon, Oxford), officiated, and
Richard Dodson, clerk, was present ; the
marriage was duly entered in the Halsall
register.
4 From the pleadings it appears that
3
ash and sapling wood,' according to one
deponent.
« Duchy of Lane. Depos. 2 Chas. I, n.
22. John Starkie's will (dated 6 Mav,
1625, and proved at Chester 8 Dec. 1626)
297
m. 121. Roger Bostock of Ormskirk
was one of the father's trustees.
18 Admon. at Chester. The inventory
had been taken on 24 Feb. ; the total
was only £6 5,.
38
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Alexander Hesketh, and Roger Bostock, lords of the
manor and parish of Aughton, concerning the election
of officers within the parish.
The hall afterwards became the property of the
Stanleys of Hooton, owners of Moor Hall ; on the
sale of their estates in 1840 it was bought by
Gaskell of Wigan ; in 1857 it was again sold,
to Edgar Musgrove, and after his death to Thomas
Seddon.1
3. Bleddyn de Aughton was succeeded by his son
Madoc, who had three sons — Einion (sometimes sur-
named Gam), Wido or Guy, and Madoc. Several
charters of the elder Madoc have been preserved.8
Einion son of Madoc was twice married. By his
first wife he had two daughters, Margaret who mar-
ried Henry de Litherland, and Nesta (or Nigella)
who married Owen Seys ; * by his second wife he
had a son John * and a daughter Dionysia.4
About i 320 the next Henry de Litherland demised
to Margaret his mother for life all his lands in
Aughton, except his field of Stockbridge, with services,
escheats, reliefs, &c., and the half of the wastes and
waters.6 Henry's wife was Joan, and probably his
son was the Henry de Litherland who in 1361 gave
a yearly rent of £20 from his lands in Aughton to
William de Stanley and Agnes his wife, the widow of
John de Lascelles.7 Eight years later William de
Stanley gave to Agnes de Beckington,8 formerly wife
of Henry de Litherland, lands in Wallasey, while
Agnes gave to William lands she had in Storeton in
Wirral." Henry — apparently the same — was living in
1371, when a re-feoffment of his lands in Liscard was
made to him ;'° and a little later a settlement of his
Cheshire lands was made upon John his son, with
remainders to his other children, Matthew and
Katherine."
The Litherland family continued to hold lands in
Aughton down to the sixteenth century. In 1 548
William Bradshaw, of Uplitherland, released to Petei
Litherland his right in certain lands there; " but il
would appear from what has been stated above that
most, if not all, of the Litherland estate was, not lonj
afterwards, sold to the Irelands of Lydiate,13 who ac-
quired portions of other estates also."
The Ireland estate continued to descend witt
Lydiate, passing to the Andertons and Blundells ir
succession. At the exchange of lands in 1772 b)
Robert Blundell of Ince and his son Henry, the land
in Aughton, including Hollinhurst, were given to the:
earlofSefton."
The second of the sons of Madoc son of Bleddyn
was Guy, who renounced England for Wales and wa;
killed in or before September, 1282, while accom-
panying some Welshmen fighting against Edward I.
i Newstead, Augbton, 87.
» Kuerden fol. MS. 137, «. 109.
months; Dep. Keeper', Rep. xxix, Ap, .
» In one he granted to Einion his son
The following notes may be useful:
178.
all the land which Thomas son of Coke-
John de Litherland was in 1404 pardoned
" Kuerden, fol. MS. 475, n. 70, 72.
mon held in Aughton and a third of the
for a share in the Percy rising ; he ap-
WA fine of 1588 mentions Joh i
Moor Hey; Towneley MS. OO. n. i 363 ;
pears on the Recognizance Rolls of
Litherland's wife Ellen ; Pal. of Lan .
Kuerden, fol. MS. (Chet. Lib.) K. p. 38.
Ches. down to 1416 ; Dep. Keeper's
Feet of F. bdle. 50, m. 146. The Wa -
See also Towneley OO, n. 1428. Kuerden
Rep. xxix, App. 63 ; Rep. xxxvi, App.
lasey estates were sold by Edward Lithei -
fol. MS. 449, n. 64. One grant was of
463. In 1410 he was executor of the
land ; Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), vii -
land on Cock Beck, beginning at Blake-
will of the bishop of Sodor and Man ;
viii, 13,14; ix, 38, 71-
ford ; Kuerden, fol. MS. p. 38.
Towneley MS. OO, it. 1355. About the
Lawrence Ireland in 1596 complaint i
8 In 1292 the latter farmed all her
same time John de Meols of Wallasey,
that Henry Stanley of Bickerstaffe an 1
land for twenty years to Henry de Lither-
lord of Great Meols, made a grant to
others had disseised him of lands callii
land ; Towneley MS. OO, n. 1358.
Isabel, daughter of John son of Henry
Litherland's earth, and Bear Hill, and t[ e
4 John married Alice daughter of Alan
de Litherland ; Towneley MS. GG. n.
Five or Fye lands, formerly belonging to
de Lascelles; Towneley MS. OO, ».
2592. John had a dispute with the abbot
Robert Litherland and afterwards to hi
1350.
of St. Werburgh's in 1403 as to the pre-
son John, from whom the plaintiff h:-.d
6 After his death some dispute arose
sentation to Wallasey church ; Ormerod,
bought them ; Duchy of Lane. Pleading i,
Aughton, but in 1292 the younger chil-
Alice sued Henry de Litherland for dower
it appears that John Litherland was a
dren secured their right ; Assize R. 408,
in 1426 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxix, App.
79. See also Cbes. Sheaf (wr. 3), ii, 197.
possession of Hollinhurst in 1586, and
afterwards sold his lands to Lawrence Ir •-
'The claim of Thomas de Formby and
His son Henry appears on the Recog-
land, to whom the lessee continued to p if
seems to refer to this portion, Eleanor
commissioner or collector ; Dep. Keeper's
ings, Eliz. clxvi, S. 25.
being probably daughter and heir of John
Rep. xxxvi, App. 463-4. He was a
14 The Irelands also purchased lands in
son of Einion ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
godfather in 1412; and had a 'dies
Aughton when William Bradshagh beg m
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 183.
amoris' for settlement with John Launce-
the dispersal of his estate ; Duchy o
It seems possible also that the Dionysia
who married Richard son of William
lyn in 1422 ; Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby),
ii, 496, 774. He continued the suit as
Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. clxxxvii, B. I.
Lawrence Ireland of Lydiate purchased
Bymmeson of Formby was the daughter
of Einion ; Kuerden, fol. MS. 448, n. 612.
to the Wallasey rectory.
Edmund Litherland was bound over
some of the Beconsaw inheritance frc :n
Anthony and Joan Browne in 1556, a id
6 Towneley MS. OO, n. 1359 (the date
to keep the peace towards the abbot of
from Dorothy Huddleston and her husba id
given, 14 Edw. I, is probably an error for
St. Werburgh's, Chester, between 1464
Edmund in 1561 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
14 Edw. II). A grant to Henry from
and 1476 ; Def. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App.
F. bdle. 16, m. 95 (16 messuages, i >o
Adam le Flesheur mentions the road from
463-4.
acres of land, &c.) ; and bdle. 23, m. 'i!
Lydiate to Ormskirk, and the lands of
Henry de Litherland and his son John
(20 messuages, land, &c.). The purch se
Robert Wolvesey and William Pigin ;
Ince Blundell D. A re-feoffment in 1331
made a grant in 1476 ; Towneley MS.
OO, n. 1342. John Litherland occurs on
of 1 5 56 was resold in the next year to
Sir Richard Molyneux.
mentions his lands at Stockbridge, Hasel-
the Recognizance Rolls from 1476 to
When he bought the manor of Egg.-r-
wall, and Oldfield end ; Kuerden's fol.
1512 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App.
garth from James Scarisbrick in 154*
MS. p. 449, n. 9.
464, and xxxix, 178. In 1517 he made
Lawrence Ireland appears also to h: ve
1 Kuerden's fol. MS. 249, n. 13.
a grant of lands in Wallasey on the
purchased lands in Aughton ; at the :a-
» Henry de Litherland and Agnes his
marriage of Robert, son and heir of Peter
quest taken after his death his lands w re
wife were defendants in a Cheshire plea
Litherland, with Elizabeth, daughter and
said to be held of the earl of Derby, bf
in 1369; Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby),
heiress of Nicholas Page and Emma his
services unknown ; Duchy of Lane. I .q.
ii, 451.
wife ; Kuerden fol. MS. 249, n. 21.
p.m. xi, n. 33. It does not appear t.nt
» Kuerden's fol. MS. 475,1. 73 ; Orme-
The parentage of Peter Litherland, the
any 'manor' was claimed— see, for n-
rod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby), ii, 446-7.
10 Kuerden fol. MS. 315, n. 77. He
heir of the properties, does not appear.
His son Robert died in 1557, leaving
stance, Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lai cs.
and Ches.), i, 127 ; but in 1657 Lawre: ce
was alive in 1375 ; Towneley MS. OO,
as his son and heir John, the vendor of
Ireland was one of the three lords of
n. 1417.
Aughton, then aged about eighteen
Aughton. 15 Croxteth D.
•,
298
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
He was, therefore, a rebel, and his lands were
confiscated.'
The third son of Madoc son of Bleddyn, also
named Madoc, seems to have had a son Baldwin, who
had a son Madoc and a grandson Baldwin,* and this
last a son John. There are various notices of this
branch of the family, but it does not appear that any
manorial rights were claimed through them or for
them.3
The interest of the Molyneuxes of Sefton seems to
have originated in the purchase, in 1479, by Thomas
Molyneux of Richard Faldworthing's lands in Aughton
and Lydiate. Sir William Molyneux in 1 527 bought
from John Lunt a tenement granted in 1 340 to
Robert de Lunt by Thomas de Aughton. Another
small purchase of lands in Aughton and Melling (this
including Tatlock's Mill) was made in 1542 from
Katherine daughter and heir of John Tatlock.4 Sir
William Molyneux died in 1 548, holding in Augh-
ton a messuage and twenty acres of land, &c., of John
Starkie by the rent of 8</.4 The mill and lands of
the abbot of Merivale seem to have been acquired at
the same time as Altcar ; and part of the Middlewood
estate (but not Middlewood itself) which belonged to
Henry Beconsaw, was resold in 1557 by Lawrence
Ireland to Sir Richard Molyneux ; and this included
' all courts and view of frankpledge.' 6 Thus in 1 569
it was stated that Sir Richard had held ' the manor of
Aughton,' but of whom the jurors did not know.7
The same manor appears in the later inquisitions,
and was in the eighteenth century described as ' a
quarter or third of the manor.' In 1772 the family's
holding here was increased by the exchange made
with Henry Blundell of Ince ; but all was sold in
1798 to James Gill.8
The lordship of the manor ol Aughton therefore is
a matter of doubt. In 1730 the two constables of
the township were appointed by Lord Molyneux and
John Plumbe as lords of the manor ; but after the
earl of Sefton sold his estates, the parishioners elected
one, and his right in the matter lapsed.9
Molyneux of Hawkley held lands in Aughton
AUGHTON
and Uplitherland in the sixteenth century." A
considerable number of minor estates in Aughton de-
serve notice, the evidences being more abundant than
for similar estates elsewhere, and the owners of more
note.
The Walshes of WALSH HALL and Brookfield
were a junior branch of the Uplitherland family."
Two early deeds relating to Stockbridge House have
been given. Brookfield was partly held of Cocker-
sand Abbey, partly by a grant from John le
Waleys, and partly by others from the Aughton
families.1' Henry son of John le Waleys, and rector
of Aughton, acquired various lands, particularly in
Haylandhurst,13 and transferred them to his brother
Gilbert, who purchased others.14 A settlement was
made by Gilbert and Joan his wife, with remainders
to sons John and Richard.15 Nevertheless the lands
seem to have descended to Henry, another son, who
is frequently mentioned from 1356 to 1367, and
himself made further acquisitions, including land
called Greenhearth.16 There is some obscurity in the
descent from Henry le Waleys. In 1408 a claim
was made by Joan the wife of William de Huddleston,
as daughter and heir of Ralph de Freckleton, who
was son of Emma, the daughter (and, as Joan asserted,
the heir) of Henry, to the whole property.17 Roger
son of Henry held it, and is found attesting deeds
in 1 389 and I4O5-18 Joan Huddleston's suit led to a
fine by which her right was acknowledged, upon
which she granted the lands to Roger.19
Robert Walsh, son of Roger, in 1474 settled his
estate on Gilbert his son, with remainders to younger
sons Thomas, Edmund, and Henry."0 Gilbert mar-
ried about 1464, when Joan his wife is mentioned.21
He was living in 1501, and holding lands in Aughton
which his father had had in 1451 and 1461." He
was succeeded before 1506 by his son Robert, who
in turn was succeeded between 1523 and 1529 by
Gilbert Walsh."
This Gilbert was succeeded by his sons Robert,
who died in November, 1571, and Thomas, who
survived till 1594." The inquisition taken after
1 The subsequent inquiry held at West
Derby showed that he had held some land
5 1 d. ; see also Duchy of Lane. Assize R.
4,m. 5.
la Loc. cit. ». 23, 1 1, 12.
18 Ibid. n. 22, 5, 7, 44.
" Ibid. n. 8, 42. 13 Ibid. n. 29.
of his brother Einion. A further inquiry
showed that he held a messuage and a
plough-land in Aughton. See Inq. p.m.
IlEdw. I, n. 62.
the servant of Richard dc Scarisbrick at
Aughton, and that William del Burgh,
bailiff of the wapentake, accepted 61. 8</.
from him for proclaiming peace at Liver-
" Ibid. n. 62-4, 66, 78, 70, 125.
In 1329 Henry son of John le Waleys
conveyed land called the Fall in Aughton
to a trustee for Simon son of Cecily de
Formby and his issue, with remainder to
of Lancaster in 1285, by which he' gave
in free alms to the abbot of Merivale a
water-mill, with the millpool and suit to
the mill, and 3 acres of land in Aughton.
A century later (1386) Robert le King
recites that the abbot had time out of
mind held the mill and pool, with the
stream running from Cock Beck through
Robert's land, and that Robert's ancestors
had been accustomed to repair the mill
stream as needful, in return for which
they had held lands from the abbot ; he
wished to resign all right in these lands.
From Croxteth D.
» In 1328 occur Madoc son of Baldwin
and Mabel his wife ; Blundell of Crosby
D., Kuerdcn MSS. ii, ». 217. Madoc
son of Baldwin de Aughton in 1329 made
a grant to Baldwin his son; ibid, iii, A-5,
n. 564. Baldwin son of Madoc was de-
fendant in a plea by John son of Thomas
de Aughton in 1347 ; Assize R. 1435, m.
m. 12, 38</. In 1374 Nicholas de Augh-
ton complained that Baldwin de Aughton
had broken into his close at Aughton,
cutting down his trees and doing other
damage ; De Bane. R. 453, m. 65.
4 Croxteth D., C.
5 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. ix, ». 2.
6 Croxteth D., C. See the account of
Middlewood later; the Beconsaws' title
was derived from grants made by Einion
son of Madoc.
7 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii, „. 3 5.
8 No copyholds were held of this manor,
but seven small chief rents were payable,
including 31. c,d. for Middlewood (John
Dennett), u. 6d. for Winfield, u. id.
for Town Green, &c.
9 Newstead, op. cit. 135.
1° Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz.
cviii, M. 3.
" In Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 262, &c.,
is a collection of 127 deeds relating to
mcnt was made by Simon in 1347 ; ibid.
n. 105, 58, 106. V Ibid. n. 60.
« In 1394 Thomas de Hothersall had
pardon of outlawry incurred for having
with force and arms disseised Roger of
his tenements in Aughton, Ormskirk, and
Maghull ; Towneley MS. CC. n. 388.
i« Kuerden, fol. MS. 433. Neverthe-
less, nearly forty years later Roger's son
Robert is found taking action against
Joan, widow of William Huddleston, con-
cerning land in Aughton ; Pal. of Lane.
Plea R. 7, m. 2 ; 8, m. 4.
» Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 262, n. 85, 43,
74, 112, 97. References to Robert occur
from 1437. »i Ibid. n. 109.
M Cackerumd Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), iv,
1244, 1249, 1247.
m Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 262, n. 94, 89.
« Ibid, ii 6, 55, 107. New trustees
were appointed in 1555 when Robert
Walsh was already in possession ; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 15, m. 141.
299
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Robert's death describes the estate as ten messuages,
100 acres of land, with meadow, &c. in Aughton,
Ormskirk, and Eggergarth. In 1566 he had arranged
the succession as to his heirs male by any other woman
than Ellen Toxteth, then his wife ; ' in default, to his
brother Thomas and his heirs male. The Brookfield
was held of the queen, as of the late monastery of
Cockersand, by a rent of I ^d. ; other lands in Augh-
ton were held of Henry Starkie and Edward Scaris-
brick.* Thomas Walsh made sales or settlements of
part of his estate in 1578 and 1584 ;* and the lands
in Aughton were in 1595 held of the queen, John
Starkie, and Bartholomew Hesketh. Thomas's heir
was his sister Anne Prescott, aged fifty years and
more.4 By the settlement, however, Thomas Walsh
succeeded his father. He died in June, 1614, his
heir being his son Robert, then twenty-eight years
of age.5
The Walshes appear to have been conformists, but
Thomas, the son of this Robert, took part against the
Parliament, and in 1653 an exact survey of his lands
was made by the commissioners appointed for the sale
of estates forfeited for treason.6 The father survived
till the Restoration,7 and Thomas Walsh died in
1 694-8 Mr. Edward Wignall of Lathom is said to
be the present owner of the Walsh Hall estate.
The Stanleys of Bickerstaffe had a house in Augh-
ton called the LITTLE HALL?
The Bickerstath family of the adjacent township
very early secured lands in this. Thus Madoc son
of Bleddyn de Aughton granted to Simon de Bicker-
stath and his heirs by Margery, daughter of Richard
de Westhead, various lands with the usual liberties, to
be held by a rent of 6d.w This Simon had a son
Simon to whom he gave three acres purchased from
Einion de Aughton, and to whom Madoc de Augh-
ton released the rent of 13^. and three peppercorns
due." In 1282 Simon the father settled upon his son
an estate, later known as MOOR HALL, of a messuage
and 120 acres in Aughton, subject only to an annuity
of 3cu. payable to the father during his life.lr
Simon the son appears to have died without male
issue, and the estate came to Richard de Ince by the
latter's wife Dionysia.13 She was probably the mother
of Henry de Ince, the father
of John de Ince, through whose
heirs the estate came to Roger
Aughton and Thomas Bradshagh
in the fifteenth century.
After the death of John de
Ince, in August, 1428, it was
found that he had held the
manor of Moor Hall, of Thomas
de Beetham, and lands called
Stotfoldshagh in Bickerstaffe, and
some others. The next heir
was Roger de Aughton, as son
of Nicholas de Aughton, son
of Agnes de Ince.14 Some twenty years later
division of the lands took place between Thomas
Bradshagh (as heir of his uncle Thomas Brad-
shagh), and John Aughton (son of Roger) ; the
former was to have Moor Hall and its demesne lands
together with the mill, and John Aughton the rest
This was confirmed in 1457-8, and in the next year
Thomas Bradshagh gave a formal release.
i She had an illegitimate son Roger ;
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 263, n. 107.
3 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii, n.
n.
» Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 40, m.
local names mentioned. S.P. Dom. Inter.
G.58<i, fol. 513.
1 The inventory after his death was
taken on 18 Dec. 1668, on which day
his widow Anne asked that administra-
Simon already held from Einion and tha
which Adam de Birches held, viz. be-
ginning at the ditch on the east, follow-
ing the mid-stream of the water of Craw-
shaw to the ditch on the south, and .0
second case were— to Thomas and Eleanor
for life, then to bastard sons, named
Thomas and John.
4 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, n. 23.
This inquisition contains a partial de-
son, John Walsh ; Inventory at Chester,
total £34.
8 By his will, made in 1692, he desired
that his body should be buried in the an-
cestral burial place in Aughton church ;
the east, and back to the starting point
ibid. fol. 269*, n. 75.
11 Ibid. fol. 268, n. 6, i. The youngei
Simon was of sufficient position to marr)
Dionysia, daughter of John le Waleys o
Litherland, receiving from her father •*
rooms, and a buttery ; with which went
three bays of the barn, the old shippon,
the swine-houses, and the kiln ; a garden,
hempyard, orchard, and stackyard.
5 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Che..), ii, 129- By his will Thomas
Walsh desired to be buried in Aughton
church, as near as possible to his father.
daughter Mary, then wife of Robert Faza-
kerley of Spellow House, and her issue, and
to his grandson Thomas Farrer, son of his
daughter Elizabeth. He mentions also
his daughters Katherine Walsh, Margaret
King, Susan Carter, Anne Johnson, and
Jane Walsh ; Will at Chester. The inven-
tory shows farm stocks, &c. worth £178.
fresh grant of land in Longley, with
liberty (among other things) to grind hi*
corn at the granter's mill at Winckle)
without multure, rendering a peppercorr
yearly ; ibid. fol. 269, n. 66. Einion d,
Aughton added a further grant upoi
Longfield, the boundaries touching thi
Alt ; ibid. fol. 2696, n. 76.
>» Final Cone, i, I59.
brother-in-law, ' Mr. Edward Moorcroft,
one of his majesty's servants,' the over-
seer. Among the farm stock, &c., were a
peacock and a peahen, worth ltd. ; Will
at Chester, dated 5 and proved 23 June,
1614.
6 His lands were sold under the Act of
1652 ; Index of Royalists, 44 ; Cat. Com.
for Comp. iv, 3134. The account em-
braces not only what he held, but what
would come to him after his father's
death. What he held included the ' lower
part' of the mansion house, containing
six rooms, with farm buildings adjacent,
his father living in the remainder, which
had also six rooms ; also the washing-
pit, croft and other fields near the house,
bounded by the Common Lane, High
1708, makes bequests to her daughter
Mary, her son-in-law Robert Fazakerley,
and their son Robert and others ; and
leaves the residue to the children of her
son Robert Walsh, towards their prefer-
ment. The inventory gives a list of
household stuff at 'Hall Walsh,' and
shows a total of £170 ; Will at Chester
(made 27 Sept. 1705 ; proved 20 May,
1710) ; inventory, 17 July, 1708.
• See the account of Bickerstaffe.
10 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 268, A. 8.
Three of the lords of the place— John le
Waleys, Madoc son of Madoc de Augh-
ton, and Guy son of Madoc son of
Bleddyn— made a further grant of land
touching on Bickerstaffe. Later, Einion
son of Madoc released 21. yd. rent due
to Dionysia, formerly wife of Richard d.
Ince ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 268, n. B. 4
14 Lanes. In/j. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 23
See also Kuerden, ii, fol. 269, n. 58
Thomas Bradshagh of Uplitherland peti
tioned the archbishop of York as chan
cellor — probably 1426 to 1432 — to d
him justice against Roger de Aughtor
who while petitioner had been over th-
seas in company of the duke of Bedfor, ,
laid claim to certain lands of which Job
de Ince had enfeoffed the petitioner, h.i
brother Richard Bradshagh, and other ,
for the performance of his will, as fo -
lows : 'Isabel his wife, sister of Thorns
Bradshagh, to have part of the lands, wit:.
Isabel were both dead. Early Chan. Proc.
north, and west. The Hills, Dolly Lane,
and the Willow Snapp are some of the
in addition he granted land between the
bank of Crawshaw and the lands which
15 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 269, ». 113 ;
fol. 271, .. 59, 13.
300
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
STANLEY
HALL. Argent, on a
bend azure coined gules,
three buck:' beads ca-
bossed or.
Moor Hall descended like Uplitherland until in
1533-4 William Bradshagh conveyed to Peter Stanley
of BickerstafFe the reversion of the hall and its lands.1
The purchaser died on 22 July, 1592, holding seven
messuages, lands, meadow, &c., in BickerstafFe,
Aughton, Ormskirk, and Skelmersdale.* The family
adhered to the old religion ; in 1584. Peter Stanley,
like other recusants or suspected persons, was required
to furnish a light horseman accoutred (or £24) for
the queen's service in Ireland.3 Edward Stanley, his
successor, died at Moor Hall
on 30 March, 1610. He held
his patrimony unchanged ; his
wife Bridget survived him, and
his son Peter, though only eleven
years of age, was already mar-
ried to Elizabeth daughter of
Thomas Wolfall of Huyton.4
He was succeeded in 1673 by
his son Edward Stanley,5 who
married Margaret daughter of
Thomas Gerard of Aughton ;
their sons died young, and of
their two daughters Elizabeth
died unmarried, and Anne, born
about 1650, married Richard Wolfall of Huyton,
but died without issue in 1731.
The estate then passed to the head of the family,
Sir William Stanley of Hooton. On the sale of the
Hooton estates in 1 840 it was purchased by John
Rosson,6 who died in 1857, and was succeeded by
his sister Frances. She sold it to J. P. DufFin 1863,
but re-purchased it in 1865, disposing of it in 1873
to Thomas Walmesley, sometime mayor of Bolton.7
After his death it was sold to Mrs. William Potter of
Liverpool.
The site of the hall is level, and there are traces of
a moat. The house is interesting as a good example
of the transition stage of domestic architecture. In
general arrangement it is of the mediaeval type, having
a central hall, with screens and entrance passage at the
lower end, between two wings set at right angles to
the hall, one containing the living rooms and the
other the offices. But the small accommodation pro-
vided by the living wing, being quite inadequate for
Elizabethan ideas of comfort, rendered some further
development necessary, and accordingly the hall was
cut up into two floors, an arrangement which had the
additional advantage of giving access from the upper
AUGHTON
floor of one wing to that of the other, without having
to use the hall as a passage room on all occasions.
Another evidence of the stage of development is the
lesser relative importance of the hall ; its height and
width are exactly equal to those of the wings, instead
of exceeding them, and it is treated as one of several
large rooms, rather than as the nucleus round which
everything else is grouped.
An inscribed tablet over the doorway of the porch
gives the date of the building, 1566. To this date
the whole of the main building, of two stories and an
attic, belongs, though much refaced and otherwise
altered. The walls are 2 ft. 6 in. thick, faced with
wrought stone ; the windows are square-headed of two
orders under a label, with plain hollow-chamfered
mullions. A weathered string of the same section as
the labels ran at half-height. How the gables were
originally finished does not appear, but the back gable
of the office wing is filled in with half timber work,
which is said to be a reproduction of the former de-
sign. One of the weak points of the plan is that a
good and convenient staircase could not be provided ;
the stairs had to be fitted on at one end of the hall,
taking up the minimum of space ; so that as might
be expected, the first alteration of the house was in
the direction of providing a better staircase. To get
enough room for it the five-light window at the end
of what is now the drawing-room was slightly over-
lapped. The next step was that a porch with a room
over was built on to the front entrance, and the kitchen
and offices accommodated in a new building parallel to
the wing which they had hitherto occupied, and com-
municating with it by a short passage. In this way
the whole of the space in the main building was made
available for living rooms. All this work may be
placed in the seventeenth century ; and since that
time, beyond the addition of a few offices and out-
buildings, the plan has undergone no important change.
The front elevation has been refaced and all window
mullions removed and replaced by sashes. The door-
ways at both ends of the screens are original, with low
four-centred arches, and retain their oaken doors,
which have been rehung with the hanging styles out-
ward to their old wrought-iron strap hinges. The
line of the right-hand screen (on entering by the front
doorway) is shown by the beam in the ceiling, though
the screen itself has gone ; that on the left, forming the
end of the hall, remains in position, though recased
and panelled. The hall fireplace is 8 ft. 2 in. wide,
1 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 269*, n. 98,
were made, including the furnishings of
99, no.
Moor Hall, a chest in the great chamber,
" He had (by fine, 1566) settled them
' all armour and furniture for wars and one
upon his second wife Cecily for her life,
great stone used for the preservation of
with remainders to himself and his chil-
swine meat ' ; Piccope, Wills, ii, 282.
dren Edward, William, Anne, Alice, and
For the marriage contract of Edward and
Margaret (wife of Henry Stanley), and
Catherine (I579) with its provision for
for default to John son of John Stanley
the brother of Peter. He had other
payment ' upon the font at the parish
church," see Newstead's Augbton, 74, 75.
lands in Netherton, Ormakirlc, and Rain-
8 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 231 ; Kenyan
ford. The premises in Aughton were
MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 593.
held of the earl of Derby in socage by
4 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
fealty only ; a house and some land in
and Ches.), i, 167. In 1628 Peter
Uplitherland of the queen (but not in
Stanley and Bridget his mother, as con-
chief) by the yearly rent of 6d. Edward
victed recusants, paid double to the sub-
Stanley, the son and heir, was over thirty
sidy ; Morris D. (B.M.). The will of
years of age ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m.
Bridget Stanley was made in Apr. 1639,
xvi, n. I ; also Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
and proved in May, 1640. Her sons
bdle. 28, m. 69. Cecily died before her
Thomas and Peter received legacies ; the
husband, whose will mentions 'Jane now
former, with her friends Hugh Aspinwall
my wife.' To Edward Stanley and K.a-
of Aughton and Thomas Burscough of
therine (Ireland) his wife, and their chil-
Lathom, were made executors. The in-
dren Jane and Elizabeth, various bequests
ventory amounted to £188. Peter Stanley
301
had two-thirds of his estate sequestered
by the Parliament for recusancy, and in
1652 complained that the remaining third
had been taken from him 'on some
charge of delinquency.' It was in fact
sold under the Confiscation Act of 1652,
and bought by William Barton 5 but
seems to have been repurchased; Cal.
Com. for Camp, iv, 2937; Index of Royalists
(Index Soc.), 44-
5 He was indicted for recusancy, 1678;
Kenyon MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), no;
and marked out for banishment in 1680;
Cavalier's Note-book. He was buried at
Aughton 9 Sept. 1689.
8 He was a Liverpool barrister, and
had been a prominent member of the
Catholic Association, which did good ser-
vice in promoting the cause of emancipa-
tion ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 313.
7 Newstead, Aughton, 10. For a claim
of chief rent made by the earl of Derby,
see ibid. p. 27.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE"
by 2 ft. 8 in. deep, with a flat four-centred head and
moulded and splayed jambs. The bay window is
modern. The drawing-room, separated from the hall
by an eighteenth-century panelled partition, on the
old line, retains its fireplace, which is like that of the
hall, but smaller, 7 ft. 3 in. wide by 2 ft. 3 in. deep.
The ceiling beams are original, and very roughly cut ;
the windows are all modernized except the large five-
light square-headed window at the back. This end of
the room was once partitioned off from the rest, and is
by tradition the chapel. It opens by a modern doorway
into a porch, which is of two stories, forming a small
bay to a bedroom on the first floor ; it had as first
built no entrance at the ground level and was probably
a garderobe. The stairs occupy the place of the
original staircase by the side of the hall chimney, but
are on a larger scale. They are of eighteenth-cen-
tury date, but the masonry of the walls is probably a
century older. Owing to the difficulties of fitting, a
good deal of the side space is boxed in with panelling,
giving rise to the customary ' priest's chamber ' story.
A plain four-centred doorway on the first floor is
pointed out as the door of this chamber, but is very
XOOR MALL, AVGHTON
to O 10 20 30 40
The first floor rooms call for no remark, but the
attics have the original clay flooring between the
joists. The trusses are king-posts with struts ; nearly
all the king-posts have been cut away to make a cen-
tral passage in the roof space, but the tie-beams are
sufficiently strong and do not seem to have sagged in
consequence.
The MWDLEWOOD estate, already mentioned,
belonged to another Bickerstath family.1 Madoc
son of Madoc de Aughton granted to his daughter
Emma lands called the New Ridding and ' Steuensis
Field.' This was afterwards known as the Cock
Beck estate. She married Thomas Blundell and had a
son Robert, who married Maud, daughter of William
Blundell (of Ince), and had a daughter Joan. Maud
married as her second husband Henry de Ince.*
No doubt through her influence, if not her right, the
lands descended to her son Gilbert de Ince, whose
wife Emma Ward was an heiress, Wido son of Madoc
son of Bleddyn having granted lands known as Craw-
shaw' to her ancestor William the Ward. Gilbert de
Ince acquired Bangardus Field, and was a prominent
man in the district in the latter part of the reign of
probably the stairhead of the first staircase, which was
taken up, as at present, outside the main wall of the
house. The ' office ' wing, which now contains the
dining-room and an inner hall with a second staircase,
has an original five-light window in the back wall, set
very much to one side to allow for some former sub-
division of the space. The stairs in the angle conceal
an original two-light window in the side wall. The
dining-room fireplace is modern, but the old chimney
stack, and probably the arched fireplace, remain.
The kitchen offices are built with the usual 1 2 in.
stone outer walls, and cut up by wooden partitions ;
they contain no ancient features of interest.
Edward III.4 The two daughters of Gilbert and
Emma divided the inheritance in 1 399, but one sister,
Malma or Maud, who married Henry de Bickerstath,
seems ultimately to have inherited the other's share
The family prospered, and Thomas Bickerstath, the
representative at the beginning of the seventeenth
century, purchased another estate in Aughton, called
Middlewood, which had originated in grants made by
Madoc son of Bleddyn and his son Einion 6 to Adam
son of Stephen de Aughton, and others, and had come
to the Beconsaw (or Beckinshaw) family of Becconsall
and Aughton,6 descending regularly till 1557, when
1 Its fortunes have been traced in A.
Patchett's Ancient Charter! relating to
Aughton ; privately printed (Liverpool),
mentioned in 1344; Assize R. 1435,
m. 45 d.
8 'Crotia' gives names to fields in the
6 The Beconsaws had lands in Wallasey
also.
In 1329 the prior of the Hospitallers
duction and notes, and a pedigree of the
Bickerstath family. The author has not
been followed in identifying Madoc de
Aughton with Madoc son of Bleddyn.
» This summary is from the work cited,
where the evidences are printed. Henry
de Ince of Aughton, and Gilbert Anian,
John and William, his brothers, are
shaw in Bickerstaffe.
4 Probably he married again, as Banastre
of Bank held lands of Alice wife of Gil-
bert de Ince of Aughton ; De Bane. R.
364, m. 12.
5 One of these mentions ' Broad Oak ' as
a boundary. The land of William son of
William the Harper was adjacent.
302
\c Walsh 3and 'uenry de'fiecorLw ; the
latter held half the manor of Becconsall,
which the prior also claimed ; De Bane.
R. 279, m. 1 80 d. Gilbert Walsh about
1530 held Crossfield in Aughton of the
Hospitallers by the yearly rent of lid. and
Thomas Walton had two messuages, paying
zJ. ; Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
H. Sab!,, ,
cross patie and in sinistei
chief an escallop argent.
it was sold ' to John Charnock of Farington.* In
1613 it was sold by Robert Charnock to Thomas
Bickerstath. The latter by his will gave all his lands
to his son Robert — his eldest
by his first wife — excepting the
Cock Beck estate, which he
gave to John, one of his sons
by his second marriage, and it
was quickly sold to Henry Pye
of Aughton. The Middlewood
estate descended from Robert
Bickerstath to his nephew, an-
other Robert, who also died
childless ; it then passed to
Thomas, half-brother to the
former Robert, and was sold by
his great-grandson Robert to
John Dannett, whose son (the Rev. Henry Dannett
of Liverpool) sold it to an ancestor of the present
owner, Major Hughes of Sherdley in Sutton.*
Another Bickerstath family acquired an estate
before 1326, when Henry de Bickerstath contributed
3*. to the subsidy. He appears to have been son of
a Simon de Bickerstath, and his own son was Henry,
to whom on his marriage with Margaret, daughter of
Richard de Sankey, the father gave lands in Aughton
and BickerstafFe.4 Father and son dying without
further issue, Richard de Sankey in 1361 released to
John son of Simon de Bickerstath all his lands, mills,
&c., wardships and reliefs, with remainder to John
Bas of London and Margaret his wife.4 John's
widow Alice de Bickerstath was afterwards placed in
possession of certain of her husband's lands, with
remainder to Simon son of John de Bickerstath.6
Gilbert occurs in 1408 ; and Joan widow of John
held part of the lands in dower in 1479, Nicholas
Bickerstath being in possession of the remainder.
The estates were in this year settled upon Nicholas,
with remainders to his two sons, two brothers, and
AUGHTON
the four sons of Gilbert Bickerstath.7 Hugh, one of
his sons, succeeded Nicholas, and in 1498-9 released
to Miles Gerard of London, gentleman, twelve
messuages, 200 acres of land, 100 acres of meadow,
and 200 acres of pasture in Bickerstaffe and Aughton.8
GERARD'S HALL takes its name from this family.
Nothing is known of the ancestry of Miles Gerard;
in his will9 he describes himself as having been born
in Ormskirk. At the inquest in 1522, taken after his
death, it was found that he held lands, &c. in Aughton
of Alice Griffith and Margery Stanley in socage, by
the yearly rent of 6J., and
another parcel called the Halt
Heyve Wood, of James Brad-
shagh, by the service of id.
yearly. Peter Gerard, clerk,
was his brother and heir, and
over fifty years of age.10
By the will of Miles Gerard
the estate descended to his
natural son Lionel," whose son
and heir Miles Gerard was in
1599 accused of withholding
a rent due to the chantry of
St. Mary Magdalen in Ormskirk
church.12 Henry Mossock of Bickerstaffe made com-
plaints against him and his son Thomas in 1584."
This Thomas Gerard died in I 595 or 1 599, before his
father, leaving a son Miles, about ten years of age."
Miles Gerard the elder deceased in June, 1602 ;
by his will he desired to be buried in the parish
church of Aughton ' near his ancestors,' and be-
queathed ' all his harness and his cross bow ' to his
grandson Miles, and a dagger to Paul, one of his
younger sons.15 Miles Gerard the younger died
28 December, l6l6,16 and was succeeded by his
eldest son Thomas, then a minor, not thirteen years
of age. Thomas Gerard paid double to the subsidy
of 1 62 8 as a convicted recusant." What became of
1 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdlc. 1 7, m. 74.
ton, Ashton, Liverpool, and Wigan were
Gerard tenements in Aughton, Ormskirk,
Lydiate, who resold it to Sir Richard
remainder to his daughter Barbara, also
gardens lying outside the Northgate of
Molyneux.
base ; for default of heirs, to Miles son of
Chester, in right of her marriage settle-
« Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xii, n. 35.
Godfrey Gerard, 'my brother.' There
ment. She complained that her son was
» Among the field names are Bastenhead,
was also a daughter Pernell. His brother
being badly trained, spending his time ' in
Bangart, and Willfield.
Sir Piers was to be guardian of the
dissolute and unbridled manner without
last-named Robert, settled in Kendal, and
were to be sold. Sir Thomas Seymour
not suitably clothed ; ibid, ccxi, G. 4.
of Ripon, Bishop Bickersteth of Exeter,
Wyatt the overseer.
proved 24 June. The inventory (9 June)
Lord Langdale, Master of the Rolls, and
10 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 43.
shows a total of £60 81.
other distinguished men.
At the inquest after Peter's death, made
16 He held four messuages and land
* Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 269*, n. 63.
in 1529, it was found that Miles son of
in Aughton of Bartholomew Hesketh and
5 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Godfrey Gerard was his heir, and aged
John Starkie ; also two cottages built on
Ches.), ii, 182.
twenty-six and more ; ibid, vi, n. 58.
land recently improved from the waste, of
« Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 286*, n. 2.
" For the abduction of his wife Grace
the king, in right of his duchy, by the
•• Ibid. fol. 268*, n. 27.
see above, under Litherland. In Pal. of
3ooth part of a knight's fee. He had
8 Ibid. n. 26 ; also fol. MS. 462.
Lane. Feet, of F. bdle. 13, m. 127, is a
other houses and lands in Ormskirk,
Hugh's sisters, Katherine Mossock and
feoffment by Lionel Gerard. Miles his
Burscough, Bickerstaffe, Lathom, and
Margary Faldering, released their claim
son and heir apparent appears with Lionel
Formby ; also in Ashton in Makerfield,
in 1514-15.
Gerard and his wife Grace in 1574; ibid.
Liverpool, and Chest. See Lanes. Inq. p.m.
• P.C.C. 29, Mainwaring. It is dated
bdle. 36, m. 29.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii,46-8.
I June, 1518. He is called citizen and
fishmonger of London. He left money
to Ormskirk church, including £4 for a
" He admitted that Peter Gerard by
his will in 1528 desired an annual pay-
ment of 465. to be made to Roger Shaw,
» Norris D. (B.M.). He did not
persevere. The troubles of the Civil
War period seem to have made him ready
priest there to pray for his soul and the
priest, for his life, and gave £20 to the
to swear or abjure anything in order to
soul of Hugh Bickerstath and all Chris-
building of St. Mary Magdalen's Chapel ;
preserve his property. At the beginning
tian souls for ever ; also to ' the new
but denied that any permanent endow-
of the war, being one of the trained
chapel founded by the Fishmongers in
ment was made or intended, his father
bands, he had been 'enforced' to take
St. Michael's in Crooked Lane (London)
and himself having enjoyed the lands,
arms against the Parliament. Sequestra-
and built, I being their warden and chief
after Roger Shaw's death, without any
tion followed and he compounded, paid a
deviser thereof, and for my "lestow" there
burden upon them ; Duchy of Lane.
fine of £80, and was discharged in 1648.
I bequeath a silver gilt chalice of the
Pleas, Eliz. cxc, W. 12.
He took the National Covenant in 1644
value of £8 sterling to serve in the said
« Ibid, exxx, M. 8.
and again in 1646, and the Negative
chapel.' His lands in Ormskirk, Augh-
14 The widow Dorothy claimed the
Oath also. Next came the more serious
303
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
his thirteen children is unknown. He appears to
have died in 1671, when administration was granted,
and his daughter Margaret, who married Edward
Stanley of Moor Hall, is called his heir ; Moor Hall
and Gerard's Hall thus passed into the same owner-
ship.
The MICKER1NG was one of the estates sold by
the Bradshaghs in the reign of Henry VIII. It was
purchased in 1 547 by William Laithwaite ; ' a
further small portion was acquired in 1552-*
William died in 1565, and his son Robert in 1572,
when James Laithwaite succeeded to the Mickering.*
He died at the beginning of 1 6 1 o, and in his will
describes the difficulties he had had, and the heavy
payments necessary, before he obtained the estate.
These, he considered, amounted almost to a new
purchase ; consequently, he and his brother Henry,
having no male issue, resolved to put aside the
restriction imposed by their father. James willed
that the Mickering should go to his grandchild James
Burscough, although aware that William, the son of
Robert, was desirous to claim under the old entail.4
James Burscough died in 1633, and the estate
descended to his second son Maximilian. The elder
brother Gilbert had his estate sequestered for
'delinquency' in 1643, and dying next year
Maximilian claimed it, conforming to the existing
government, but had to petition again in 1652, a
new sequestration being enforced.6 In 1658 part of
it was purchased by John Tatlock of Cunscough from
Maximilian, and more in 1682 from his daughters.
From John Tatlock (who died in 1712) this and
other estates descended to his son Richard ; and on
the latter's death in 1737 to his daughters Elizabeth
and Ellen. The latter died unmarried ; the former,
ultimately sole heir, married in 1743 William John-
son, vicar of Whalley.7
There was also a Bochard or Butcher family
residing in Aughton, the members of which are
mentioned from time to time.8
One of the free tenants of Aughton about I 300
was Adam del Green. He had been a 'native' under
the priory of Burscough, and the charter of his
manumission has been preserved. By this the prior
and convent gave to Adam son of John del Green
and all his issue perpetual liberty, so that thence-
forward they should be free men of St. Nicholas of
Burscough wheresoever they wished to dwell ; for this
grant sixpence of silver was to be paid annually to the
priory.9
WARRINGTON
WARRINGTON POULTON-WITH-FEARNHEAD
BURTONWOOD WOOLSTON-WITH-MARTINSCROFT
RIXTON-WITH-GLAZEBROOK
The ancient parish of Warrington lies along the
northern bank of the Mersey between Sankey Brook
and Glazebrook ; the township of Burtonwood, how-
ever, lies to the north-west of this area, on the
western side of the Sankey. The total area is
12,954 acres, and the population numbered 69,339
in 1901.* The surface is level and lies low. From
Penketh on the west to Glazebrook on the east,
the geological formation consists wholly of the new
red sandstone or trias, and mainly of the upper
mottled sandstone of the hunter series of that for-
mation. In Great Sankey and Burtonwood the pebble
beds of the same series occur, and in Rixton-with-
Glazebrook the keuper series, owing to the effect
of a .fault running from south-east to north-west
through the township. The soil is loamy and fertile,
and the neighbourhood has long been famous for
potatoes and other vegetables.10
For the county lay, fixed in 1624, each of the
four townships paid equally, this parish contributing
£6 5/. when the hundred gave £ l oo." To the ancient
fifteenth Warrington itself paid £2 I is. 8d., Burton-
wood l8/. \d., Woolston-with-Poulton £i zs. 8/,
Rixton £1 zs. \d.t and Glazebrook 8/., making
£6 p. 8^."
The history of the parish is largely that of the towr
accusation of recusancy ; notwithstanding
his former conviction, he maintained that
though his wife was a recusant ' he had
been brought up in the Protestant religion
according to the laws of England ; he was
conformable to the Church and Common-
wealth of England as the same is now
[1651] established, to the best of his
knowledge.' Even in 1644 he had ' fre-
quented the church of Liverpool, joined
with the congregation there in prayers,
hearing the word and receiving the sacra-
ment from the hands of Joseph Thomson,
then minister there.' In 1652 he pro-
fessed that he dared not return to his
own county, on account of his debts, he,
his wife, and thirteen children being
forced to beg their bread. Soon after-
wards he took the oath of abjuration, and
it is probable that his lands were then
restored to him ; Royalist Comp. P. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 27-33. In
some of these he is called 'gent.', and
in others ' yeoman.'
1 Pal. of Lone. Feet of F. bdle. 13,
m. 278.
a Ibid. bdle. 14, m. 244. The pur-
chaser made a settlement in 1563, pro-
1 Much of the information as to thii
estate is derived from The Tathcis oj
James, Henry, Robert, and William in
tail male ; the names of the fields are
given as Wolton Greves, Green Hey,
Gorsey Hey, Oiler Croft, Bog Land,
Milne Croft, Washing Hey, Cow Hey,
and Geld Grass.
the account of Melling. For descendant!
sec Burke' s Landed Gentry, under Johnsor
of Temple Belwood and Hughes o
Sherdley Hall.
8 The will of John Bochard, clerk,
made in 1542, shows that he was o
the property. James Bradshagh in 1516
had granted a long lease of the estate
which William Bradshagh had in 1535
confirmed and extended for sixty years,
and the new owner wanted possession ;
Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxxii,
L. 2, 3 ; clxxiv, M. 17.
4 Will at Chester ; proved 24 April,
1610 ; inventory £45.
s This number includes Latchford, but
not Orford.
6 Royalist Comp. P. i, 257. From
the date of Gilbert's death, and the fact
that he was buried at Newbury, it will be
gathered that he fell, fighting on the
Royalist side, Oct. 1644.
304
for Ormskirk church. He names hii
brother Hugh Bochard ; his sister ap
pears to have married one Davy o:
Chester, and several children are men
tioned ; P.C.C. 20, Spert. The nami
is preserved in Budget's or Butcher'
9 Towneley MS. OO, n 1424.
w Baines, Lanes. Direct, ii, 587.
11 Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 16,
22. In Rixton-with-Glazebrook the forme
part of the township paid twice as much a
the latter. Poulton and Woolston wer
treated as one township.
la Ibid. 1 8; that was when the hundre <
paid £106.
WARRINGTON
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
of Warrington. This place is supposed to have been
of British origin. Two Roman roads, from the south
and from Chester,1 met at Latchford on the south
bank of the Mersey, near which point considerable
discoveries have been made ; crossing probably at this
ford, the north road was continued through War-
rington to Winwick and Wigan.2 Sometime before
the Norman Conquest Warrington became the head
of a hundred.
Afterwards the lordship was divided. Warrington
and Rixton seem to have been original parts of the
Warrington barony, created early in the twelfth cen-
tury, and long held by Pain de Vilers and his de-
scendants the Boteler family. Woolston, Poulton,
and Burtonwood were retained by the lords of the
district ' between Ribble and Mersey,' the two former
in time becoming part of the fee of Makerfield, and
Burtonwood being added to the fee of Warrington.
The lords of Warrington established their residence
or castle at the mote hill,3 from which the town
spread westward along the road to Prescot.4 A bridge
was built,5 perhaps early in the thirteenth century,
and this soon became one of the principal means of
communication between the north and south of
England. The street leading north from it was
called the Newgate as late as 1465. Near the bridge,
on the west side of Newgate, was a house of Austin
Friars, and at the point where this new street crossed
the old road to Prescot a market was established
about 1260." The town gradually increased round
this point, and in time the parish church, at the
extreme east end, became somewhat isolated ; the
change was no doubt assisted by the removal of the
lord's residence from the mote hill to Bewsey in
Burtonwood.7
A borough was created about 1230, but its growing
WARRINGTON
strength appears to have alarmed the lord, who con-
trived to repress it before 1300, granting certain
privileges to the free tenants as compensation ; and
the town remained under the authority of the lords
of the manor until the beginning of last century. A
survey of the portion belonging to Sir Peter Legh in
1465 has been printed ;8 this shows that the houses
had extended from the church westward as far as the
market, and a little way along San key Street ; also
south from the crossing down Newgate to ' the place
where the bridge formerly stood.' Other streets,
north and south of Church Street, are mentioned ;
on the north side of the market-place was a row of
houses called Pratt Row ; their long back gardens
touched the great heath,9 on which stood a windmill.
Across the heath the main road led north by Long-
ford to Winwick, but there was a branch to Bewsey.
To the south of the town were the great meadows of
Rowley and Arpley. The water-mills were on
Sankey Brook. The visit of Henry VII to Lathom
in 1495 induced the earl of Derby to rebuild the
bridge and provide for its maintenance.10
Leland about 1535 thus records his impressions :
' Warrington, a paved town ; one church (and) a
Freres Augustine at the bridge end. The town is of a
pretty bigness. The parish church is at the tail of all
the town. It is a better market than Manchester.' "
The Reformation was here received as elsewhere in
the district. The chantries were suppressed and the
services of the parish church altered ; but the grammar
school, founded in 1526, was preserved. A lease of
the rectory made in 1544 reduced the rector's stipend
to £20, at which sum it remained for 200 years.
The Butlers conformed to the Elizabethan order in
religion,12 but this did not stave off their ruin ; their
successors, the Irelands, were also Protestants. Most
1 For the Roman remains at Wilders-
pool and Stockton Heath see Thompson
Watkin, Roman Ches. 260-73 > and T-
May, Warring*,', Roman Remain, (1904).
In Warrington proper only slight evidence
has come to light of the Roman occupa-
tion ; Watkin, Roman Lana. 224-5.
2 The road across Howley meadow,
which the ford at Latchford would require,
has disappeared.
In 1364 it was at least intended to recon-
carried out, for although John Boteler in
1420 left 20 marks for the repair of the
bridge, in 1465 it is spoken of as a thing
of the past — ' ubi pons quondam stetit ' ;
Warr.in 1465, PP- 88, 91 (quoting Rymer,
Foed. iii, 740-1) ; Lards of Warr. ii, 277
(quoting Sir John Boteler's will). A pas-
sage was then maintained by boats ; Duchy
Plead, loc. cit.
6 The charters for the markets are
10 In 1453 tne archbishops of Canter-
bury and York granted indulgences to all
who should contribute to the building and
re-erection of the bridge over ' the great
and rapid water commonly called the
Mersey'; Lards of War r. ii, 278. Again,
in H79> a forty-days' indulgence was
granted by the archbishop of York for
the same object ; ibid, ii, 336. The con-
tributions elicited, with £20 granted about
(Lanes, and Ches. Rec. ii, 300), were prob-
the residence of the lord of Warrington
his old residence, or its site, was supposed
to be attached to it. The 'castle' of
William le Boteler is mentioned in the
Perambulation of the Forest in 1228 ;
Wholly Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 372 ;
position of the Austin Friars' house and
of the market (at least in the fifteenth
century), it seems clear that the road
northward across the bridge had already
become a popular highway.
" Before 1 280 the manor of Burtonwood
the first earl of Derby is justly credited
with the work ; his interest in it is shown
by the 300 marks he bequeathed for the
redemption of the rents and tolls of the
bridge ; Lords of Warr. 353, 363. The
bridge was shortly afterwards declared:
4 The 'burgages' named in fVarr. in
1465 (Chet. Soc.) are chiefly in Church
Street, Bridge Street, and the east side of
the town, but one or two seem to have
been in Sankey Street.
5 The history of this bridge is given in
the work just cited, 86-91. The Boydells
of Dodleston had the grant of the tolls
for the passage of the Mersey at Latch-
ford ; foot passengers were free, but horse-
men and carts had to pay toll ; Ormerod,
Out. (ed. Helsby), i, 603-4. The privi-
century ; Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 39-4,. The 'bridge
of the Mersey at Warrington ' is named
in a charter of 1305; Beamont, Lords
8 Chet. Soc. vol. xvii (ed. W. Beamont),
quoted above.
' Ibid. 41-59 ; one of the seven hold-
ings in this position is described as follows :
'A fair messuage newly built, with two
fair high chambers, with a kitchen, large
garden containing a new oven at the
north end ; ... worth to Sir Peter Legh
i u. a year in addition to the service of
two days in autumn, worth 4^.'
Among the local words are Wroe and
Warth (in Arpley), Crimble, and Pighull.
It is noteworthy that the Mersey is called
the 'sea.' Burgages in Church Street
had an oxgang of land in Arpley appurte-
nant in two cases ; pp. 67, 71.
A large number of place and field names
charged themselves with its mainten-
ance, but the Civil War so impoverished
them that they refused to do it any longer,,
and the expense was then charged on
the counties of Chester and Lancaster ;
Ormerod, i, 604 (quoting Seacome, House
of Stanley). Henry VII arrived at Warring-
n^r
13 Gibson, Lydiate Halt, 195, quoting
S. P. Dom. Eliz. xlviii, n. 35. This is a
report dated 1568 from W. Glaseor to the
queen's commissioners ; it states that
' from Warrington all along the sea-coast
of Lancashire, except Mr. Butler, begin-
ning with Mr. Ireland, then Sir William
Morris, and so forward, other gentlemen
are given the tolls chargeable in 1310.
3
pp. Ixviii-lxx.
3°5
selves from religion.'
39
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
of the gentry remained attached to the Roman
Catholic religion ; and Woolston and Rixton pro-
vided refuges for the missionary priests in the times
of persecution. How the townsmen of Warrington
were affected is not so clear. After the Restora-
tion congregations of Presbyterians and Quakers were
formed, and have continued to the present. James I
visited Sir Thomas Ireland at Bewsey in 1 6 1 7 ' in his
progress from Scotland southwards.
The Civil War necessarily affected Warrington
through the town's situation on the road to the north,
which made it ' the principal key of Lancashire.'
Hitherto the people of the district had known of war
only at a distance,1 now they had personal experi-
ence of it. The earl of Derby in September, 1 642,
inarched through the town with 4,000 men for his
futile attack on Manchester ; s and at the end of
November he was stationed at Warrington, which he
made a garrison, in order to secure the passage of the
Mersey.4
Sir William Brereton was defeated on 3 April,
1643, at Stockton Heath when advancing to attack
Warrington.5 Sir William afterwards crossed the
Mersey and attacked the town from the west ; but
Lord Derby began to set the town on fire, on which
the parliamentary forces desisted.6 Colonel Edward
Norris, eldest son of the lord of Speke, was left in
command of the king's garrison. He was attacked on
22 May by Sir William Brereton, and after six days'
siege gave up the town, leaving arms, ammunition,
and provisions behind. On Trinity Sunday, 28 May,
Sir George Booth, a parliamentary commander, and
lord of the manor, made a formal entry into the town,
and was received by the people with the usual tokens
of joy.7 The townspeople were treated with great
leniency by the victors.8
The next five years were uneventful, but the duke
of Hamilton's Scottish force on being defeated at
Winwick 19 August, 1648, retreated to Warrington,
where 4,000 surrendered upon quarter for life — arms,
ammunition, and horses being relinquished.9 There
were skirmishes near the town in 1651 when Charles II
with the Scottish army forced the bridge on their
march to Worcester,10 and in August, 1659, part of
Sir George Booth's troops, after their defeat at
Winnington, surrendered at Warrington to the parlia-
mentary garrison."
The rising of 1745 occasioned the partial destruc-
tion of the bridge in order to prevent the Young
Pretender from crossing the Mersey there. Some
Highlanders are said to have been captured near
Rixton, at which point the duke of Cumberland
crossed the Mersey in his pursuit.1* In 1798 a body
of volunteers was raised, on threats of a French inva-
sion, but their only active service was in suppressing
a riot in Bridge Street in 1799." In 1859 a corps ot
volunteers was formed ; it is now known as the
I st V.B. Prince of Wales Volunteers (South Lan-
cashire Regiment).
In 1693 an inquiry was held at Warrington as to
certain lands and moneys devoted to ' superstitious
uses,' Lord Molyneux, Sir William Gerard of Ashton,
William Standish of Woolston, and other gentlemen
of the neighbourhood having been reported to the
1 Metcalfe, Book of Knights, 171.
* The Botelera had been a military
race, and their tenants and dependants
would accompany them to the wars. They
had sided with Simon de Montfort in the
Barons' War, and among the miraculous
cures attributed to that popular hero
several were reported by Warrington
the middle of the town on fire, protest-
ing he would burn it all ere they should
have it ; which the Parliament forces per-
ceiving, seeing the fire still increasing, to
save it from utter desolation, withdrew
their forces after they had been there
three days and more, and so departed for
that time ' ; Burghall, 45. To this assault
9 Cromwell reported: 'We prosecuted
them home to Warrington town ; where
they possessed the bridge, which had a
strong barricado and work upon it, for-
merly made very defensive. As soon as
we came thither, I received a message
from General Baillie desiring some capitu-
lation. To which I yielded. Consider-
appP to Rishanger, Chron. Camd. Soc.).
by the Manchester force, which, marching
could not go over the River Mersey
to William le Boteler at Rhuddlan ; Sir
William Boteler accompanied Hen. V to
France and died at Harfleur in Sept. 1415;
Sir Thomas Boteler fought at Flodden in
1513, and John Mascy of Rixton was
killed at the same battle.
» Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 64,
66 ; War it, Lanci. (Chet. Soc.), 7.
* Burghall, Civil War in Ches. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 239 ; War in Lanes.
15. In the following year many Royal-
ists, driven from other parts of the county,
took refuge in Warrington ; ibid. 39. This
accounts for its description as < the last
hold the Papists had ' in the county ; Civil
War Tracts, 101.
5 This was one of the few successes
gained by Lord Derby ; it is alleged that
and made a strong assault on Warrington
church and the works about it ; 'but the
soldiers within, defending it with man-
hood and great valour,' the attacking forces
withdrew, having lost some men ; War in
Lanes. 31.
1 Burghall, 56-7 ; Civil War Tracts,
101. The terms of surrender were that
'the captain and commanders should de-
part every man with his horse and pistols,
and all the soldiers to pack away unarmed
and leave all their arms, ammunition, and
provisions behind them.' Shortness of
supplies and a defeat of the Cavaliers in
Yorkshire, which destroyed the hope of
relief, were the reasons for the surrender.
Some documents relating to this siege and
the later fortunes of the town were dis-
army, I gave him these terms : That he
should surrender himself and all his officers
and soldiers prisoners of war, with all his
I giving quarter for life and promising
civil usage. Which accordingly is done ;
have received and are receiving all the
arms and ammunition ; which will be, as
they tell me, about 4,000 complete arms ;
and as many prisoners : and thus you
have their infantry totally ruined.' Baillie
was acting under the express orders of the
duke of Hamilton ; Civil War Tracts,
287-8.
10 War in Lanes. 71 ; General Lambert
was hanging on the flank of the king's
army, but unable to check its progress.
some of his men in the same style as those
Houghton Green near Winwick ; two of
Chester, and sentenced to be shot ; Civil
95, 135 ; also Burghall, Civil War in Che:.
44.
6 It was only two days after his repulse
at Stockton Heath that Sir William Brere-
ton, having received help from Sir John
Seaton, who had just captured Wigan,
' beset Warrington and fiercely assaulted
it, having gotten Sankey bridge, a fair
house of one Mr. Bridgeman's, and some
men by Colonel Norris, in view of the
expected attack ; Trans. Hist. Soc. iv,
18-32.
8 But few Warrington cases appear in the
Royalist Comp. Papers (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.). John Bate, who had gone to re-
side in the enemy's quarters, but had
since taken the National Covenant, was
allowed to compound in 1646; i, 152;
Worcester many of the scattered Royal-
ists found their way north by Hollin-
fare, Warrington Bridge being well guarded)
ibid.
11 Ormerod, Ches. i, p. Ixv ; the battle
was fought 1 9 Aug.
12 W. Beamont, Trans. Hist. Soc. ii,
184.
is Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 22 ; with a plate
space of time [they] were likely to have
the whole ; which the earl perceiving set
whose delinquency was similar; ii,
3 '4-
306
the volunteers of 1 803 see Local Gleanings
Lanes, and Ches. ii, 217.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
government as holders of money or lands for the use
of the Jesuits, Franciscans, or secular clergy.1
The prosperity of the town does not seem to have
been affected by the Civil War or later troubles.1 In
1673 it was thus described: 'Warnngton is seated
on the River Mersey, over which there is a curious
stone bridge, which leadeth to Cheshire. It is a very
fine and large town, which hath a considerable market
on Wednesdays for linen cloth, corn, cattle, provisions,
and fish, being much resorted to by the Welshmen,
and is of note for its lampreys.'5
Dr. Kuerden, who passed through the town about
1695, recorded his passing the Mersey 'over a fair
stone bridge of four arches,' and 'through the Market
Gate to the height of the market ' ; then ' keeping
the road northward over the common at a distance of
about half a mile stands a spacious hall or mansion
called Bradshaw. . . . You meet with two roads,
one leading to Bewsey Hall on the left, and that on
the right towards a fair hall with a spacious garden
and orchard belonging to Mr. Jonathan Blackburne,
justice of the peace.' Then he crossed the Orford
Brook by 'an arched bridge of stone,' and through
'a plashy way' to Hulme.4
About 1730 Warrington looked 'a large, populous,
old built town, but rich, and full of good country
tradesmen. Here is particularly a weekly market for
linen ... a sort of table linen called Huk-a-back or
Huk-a-buk.' The writer adds : ' I was told there
are generally as many pieces of this linen sold here
every market-day as amount to £500 value, sometimes
much more, and all made in the neighbourhood of
the place.' 5
Judge Curwen in 1777 was less complimentary:
'Streets narrow, dirty, and ill-paved; like many
other towns, with a gutter running through the
middle, rendering it inconvenient passing the streets.
This town abounds in dissenters, and has an academy
for young preachers of that persuasion.'6
The most notable institution in the modern history
of the town was the Academy just referred to, founded
in 1757 for the education of candidates for the minis-
try among the Protestant Nonconformists. It endured
for nearly thirty years, when, owing chiefly to internal
WARRINGTON
dissensions, it was dissolved, a similar institution at
Manchester (the 'ancestor' of Manchester College,
Oxford) replacing it in i 786. John Seddon, minister
of the Presbyterian congregation, was its projector ;
among the tutors were John Taylor, Joseph Priestley,
F.R.S.; John Aikin, sen.; Reinhold Forster, William
Enfield, George Walker, F.R.S.; Gilbert Wakefield,
Nicholas Clayton, Pendlebury Houghton, and John
Holt. Most of these have a place in the Dictionary
of National Biography.' Thomas Barnes, president of
the Academy after its transference to Manchester, was
a native of Warrington.8
Among other natives or residents calling for some
notice were the Ven. James Bell, a Marian priest
executed at Lancaster in 1584;" Charles Owen, a
resident Presbyterian minister ; 10 Edward Evanson,
an Anglican divine who became heterodox ; " John
Macgowan, a baker and satirist. Thomas Percival,
a physician, founder of the Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society, was born at Warrington in
1740.'' Peter Litherland, the inventor of the lever
watch, was a Warrington man ; and John Harrison,
of chronometer fame, resided in this town. Samuel
Fothergill (1715-72), a Quaker minister, brother of
Dr. John Fothergill, resided here.13 John Blackburne
of Orford and Anna his daughter were famous for
their studies of plants and birds. Michael Adrian
Hankinson, O.S.B., became bishop of Port Louis,
Mauritius." Among artists Hamlet Winstanley, a
painter of note, who died in 1756 ; !4 and John
Warrington Wood, a sculptor, who died in 1886,
were natives.
In addition, many others might be named, as
William Beamont of Orford, the indefatigable local
historian, who died in 1889. His son, the Rev.
William John Beamont, the two Kendricks, John
Fitchett, Thomas Kirkland Glazebrook, George
Crosfield, William Wilson, John Fitchett Marsh,
and Peter Rylands have found places in the Dictionary
of National Biography. K
The printing press was not regularly established
until the eighteenth century. The first newspaper,
the Warrington Advertiser, was published here in 1756,
but soon ceased. It was issued from the Eyres Press,
1 Jacobite Trials (Chet. Soc.), 2-3 ; it
poration. It is occupied by the Warrington
Soc. founded in 1898 for the preserva-
tion of ancient buildings and other local
monuments, the collection of books, &c.
». 40). The first stage in the procedure
of his beatification was reached in 1886.
111 See Diet. Nat. Biog. ; he was a
strong supporter of the Hanoverian dy-
conveyed lands at Woolston worth £100
a year for the benefit of the Franciscans.
and partly a legacy of his father.
Of Warrington in the latter part of the
A list of these is given in N. and Q.
There is an account of the inquiry
eighteenth century there is an account bv
(5 ser.), i, 90.
among the Norris Deeds (B. M.) ; some
Dr. Kendrick in Trans. Hist. Soc.vn, 82 ;
11 He was born at Warrington in 1731
of the witnesses were religious and others
and in Aikin, Country Round Manch.
and educated at Emmanuel Coll. Camb.
who had embraced Protestantism. For an
300-8.
He became vicar of Tewkesbury and Long-
example see Payne, Engl. Cath. Rec. 126.
8 Thomas Barnes was born in 1747,
don, but resigned in 1788, and died at
2 A number of tokens issued by Edward
and educated at the grammar school. He
Colford in 1805. He published several
Borron and other local men between 1666
became minister of Cross Street Chapel,
theological essays ; see Diet. Nat. Biog.
and 1672 are described in Lanes, and Cbes.
Manchester, in 1780, and died there in
" See Diet. Nat. Biog. ; Baines, Lanes.
^•f.Sof.v,9,.
1810. For life see Baines, Lanes, (ed.
(ed. 1 870), ii, 2 3 8. He died in 1 804, and
8 Blome, Britannia (quoted by Baines).
1870), ii, 240; Sir T. Baker, Dissenting
was buried at Warrington ; he wrote
* Local Gleanings Lanes, and Ches. i, 208.
s Defoe, A Gentleman's Tour through
Chapel, 47 (with portrait) ; Diet. Nat. Biog.
9 He was a native of the town. He had
Medical Ethics, and other works.
18 Diet. Nat. Biog. and life by George
Great Britain (ed. 1738), iii. 170.
conformed to the Elizabethan establish-
Crosfield (1843).
6 Loc. Gleanings Lanes, and Ches. i, 262.
« He was born at Warrington in 1817,
' An account of the Academy, with
to the new services ; but became recon-
being of a Woolston family, and died at
views of the buildings of 1757 and 1762,
ciled with Rome in 1581. He afterwards
Douai in 1 870 ; Gillow, Bibl. Diet, iii, 1 1 1.
&c. is printed in Trans. Hist. Soc. xi, i ;
resumed his priestly office, but was hunted
14 Diet. Nat. Biog. ; see Local Gleanings
see also Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf.
down by the authorities and executed
Lanes, and Cbes. ii, 137-40.
iv, 271-87. In 1858 the Guardian was
20 April, 1584, for having said mass at
16 There is a notice, with portrait and
printed in part of the later building,
Golborne the previous Christmastide ;
list of works, of the younger Dr. Ken-
another part being used as a Church In-
Challoner, Missionary Priests, n. 27 (from
drick in Pal. Note Book, ii, 1 1 3.
stitute. This building has been demolished,
Bridgewater's Concertatio) ; Gillow, Bib/.
Miss Richmal Mangnall, author of the
but that of 1757, at Bridge-foot, is stand-
Diet, of Engl. Catholics, i, 173 ; Fo\ey,Ree.
Questions, kept a school in Warrington from
ing, and is the property of the Cor-
S. J. i'i, i 36 (from S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxvii,
1805 to 1811.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
which had been at work since 1731.' A recent paper
called the Advertiser was issued from 1862 to 1889.
The Harrington Guardian (now issued twice a week)
was established in 1853 ; the Examiner, founded in
1875, and the Observer in 1888,* are weekly papers.
The Review is also published weekly.
The river was formerly the great means of com-
munication with Liverpool,3 and was improved by the
Mersey and Irwell Navigation ; * 'the communication
between Manchester and Liverpool' by its means
was, in 1825, described as 'incessant ; the brickdust-
coloured sails of the barges are seen every hour of the
day on their passage, flickering in the wind.' The
first stage-coach 5 in the county issued from this town,
according to the same authority, and ' between sixty
and seventy coaches on an average passed through
Warrington every day, and the principal streets were
kept by them in a state of perpetual animation.' 6
The fishery was formerly a valuable one. In 1825
it belonged to John Arthur Borron and Edward
Pemberton, but by that time it had ceased to be of
much importance.7
The agricultural land in the parish is now occupied
as follows : Arable land, 7,635 acres ; permanent
grass, 1,546 ; woods and plantations, 164."
The church of St. Elphin stood till
CHURCH after the middle of the last century at
the extreme east end of the town of
Warrington, but has since become surrounded by
houses. The churchyard is of irregular shape, the
longest dimension being from north to south. The
fabric of the church has in the last two centuries
undergone many changes and reconstructions, and
retains nothing of mediaeval date except the chancel.
The site is undoubtedly one of great antiquity, but
the oldest work that has been found belongs to the
latter part of the twelfth century ; a series of small
capitals of this date, found during the rebuilding of
the nave, being preserved in Warrington Museum.
The present building consists of chancel with south
vestry, central tower and transepts, and nave with
north and south aisles.
The chancel of three bays is recorded to have been
built in 1354, and its details agree well with the
date. In common with the rest of the church it is
entirely faced with red sandstone ashlar. It has an
east window of five trefoiled lights with flowing
tracery, and on each of the north and south sides
three three-light tracery windows of similar style,
those in the western bay being modern. The original
windows in this bay were destroyed by a fall of part
of the tower some fifty years since. Beneath the
eastern bay is a contemporary crypt, vaulted in two
bays with a modern ribbed vault springing from old
corbels, and lighted by two two-light windows on the
approached by stairs on north and south, but only
the stair on the north is ancient. This is contained in a
broad buttress, and leads down from the chancel to
the crypt, and formerly led upwards from the
chancel to the roof, though this part of it is
now broken away. The buttress in which it is
contained dies into the wall before reaching the
top, the upper part being modern. The door from
the chancel to the stair is modern, but replaces an
original doorway which stood a little farther to the
west, and after having been hidden by panelling for a
long time was rediscovered in 1824. Before this
date the crypt had been inaccessible, probably for some
centuries, as it had never had an entrance from the
churchyard, and had also at some time been filled in
with earth, and the crown of its vault destroyed, in
order to lower the level of the floor at the east end of
the chancel. The window in the buttress which
lights the stair is modern, and the west jamb of an
older window is to be seen close to it. The doorway
at the foot of the stair, opening to the crypt, is also
modern, but occupies the site of the original entrance.
It seems unlikely that the crypt has ever contained
an altar, and as the sills of its two east windows
were originally carried down to the floor level, it may
have been a charnel, and it is to be noted that many
bones were found in it when it was cleared out. But
against this must be set the fact that it is unusually
well lighted for such a purpose, and it is possible that
it was intended for a vestry. Under the second
window on the south side of the chancel is an original
doorway, once external, but now opening into a
vestry built about 1 740 ; it is designed for a door
opening inwards, but the present door opens towards
the vestry, to the detriment of the mouldings of the
outer arch.
The central tower dates from 1860, and is carried
on four moulded arches of fourteenth-century style.
There are two two-light belfry windows in each face,
crocketed gabled hood-moulds, and above them
pierced and panelled parapet
ngl<
inacles.
and a tall stone spire with three tiers of spire-lights, th
1 A full account of this Press was con-
tributed by Dr. James Kendrick to the
Warr. Guardian in 1 880-1. The first
known product was a broadside issued
by John Eyres, who was living in the
town as a printer in 1731, and whose son
William made the Press famous from 1760
onwards. One of William Eyres's books
was Watson's Memoirs of the Earls of
Warren, 1782. An account of some
booksellers of Warrington in the middle
of the seventeenth century may be read in
» 'In 1753 the ship Satharissa, which
. • . had a cargo of sugar on board, hav-
ing left Liverpool for Bank Quay eight
days before, was wrecked on the Long
Duck Stakes near Sankey . . . ; and the
the loss of a sea-going vessel, had to be
made on the SacAarissa ' ; Beamont, Hale
and Orford, 229.
" The Irwell and Mersey ' were made
navigable under powers of the Act of Par-
liament obtained in 1720, when it was
Warrington, during the summer season,
and arrive at the above inns every Wed
nesday and Saturday evening. Each pas
senger was to pay two guineas and to b>
allowed fourteen pounds of baggage ' :
Hale and Orford, 231. On the same pag.
will be found the advertisement of 176.
of the Manchester and Liverpool coach,
which passed through Warrington an
Prescot.
6 Baines, Lanes. Direc. ii, 587, 590.
1 Ibid, ii, 587. The same work is th
list of books in stock in 1647 is given,
pp. 77-111.
3 A number of other newspapers and
to time, but have not continued. The
Standard and Times, both begun in 1859,
were united and continued until i86z.
The Evening Post lasted from 1877101880.
The Catalogue of the Warrington Library
.gives particulars of these and others.
turers* : Pennant, Downing to AUton
Moor, 1 6.
5 The 'Warrington coach' is spoken of
by Matthew Henry in 1704; quoted by
Beamont, Annah of Warr. from i 587, p.
xi. On 9 June, 1757, 'it was announced
that the Warrington flying stage-coach
would set out every Monday and Thurs-
day morning from the Bull Inn in Wood
Street, London, and the ' Red Lion ' in
308
indentures of apprenticeship at Warring
ton by which the masters stipulated nc
to oblige their apprentices to eat salmo
more than twice a week' ; this appeal
to be imaginary.
8 The details are: Warrington— Arabic,
4,568; grass, 1,121 ; wood, &c., 25;
and Burtonwood, 2,977, 425, 139, re-
spectively.
RINGTON CHURCH : INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST
THE BARLEY Mow INN, WARRINGTON
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
total height being 281 ft. The former central tower
is recorded to have been built in 1698 in place of an
older one damaged in the Civil Wars, but it is not
clear whether the older tower was taken down to the
ground or not. Sir Stephen Glynne,1 describing the
church in 1843, says that the tower arches are part
of the original structure, and have continuous mould-
ings of great depth, and that there is stone groining
under the tower with strong ribs. This points to
the fact that the upper part only of the tower was
rebuilt in 1698, and extant views seem to confirm
this. It had an embattled parapet with pinnacles,
and large belfry windows, in poor Gothic style, with
labels and large dripstones, four of which, representing
a lion, a griffin, a dog, and a swan, are preserved in
the Warrington Museum.
The north transept, or Boteler chapel, in which was
the Lady altar, was rebuilt in 1 860. It contained work
of the fourteenth century, as the two arched tomb-
recesses in its north walls appear to be copied from
former recesses of this date, and retain carved corbels
off. 1320. The windows were of fifteenth-century
style, that in the east wall having five lights.
The south transept, or Mascy chapel, was perhaps
originally of the same date as the north transept, but
underwent several alterations before the final rebuild-
ing in 1860. It seems to have had an altar of
St. Anne, and a chantry was founded in it by
Richard Delves, rector, in 1486. In 1723 the
Patten chapel was built, adjoining it on the west,
and this, after being rebuilt in 1773, was pulled down
together with the transept in 1860, and rebuilt in its
present form.
The nave and north aisle date from 1 860, and
replace a nave built in 1770, which had no arcades,
and being designed for galleries, had two tiers of
windows on north and south. A south aisle was
added in 1835, of the width of the south transept,
apparently by the process of removing the south wall
of the nave of 1770 to its present position, and re-
facing the south end of the Patten chapel to corre-
spond with it. The upper tier of windows is in a
pseudo-Gothic style, evidently intended to harmonize
with the fourteenth-century windows of the chancel,
and the south doorway has a clumsy ogee head, on
which is cut 'Rebuilt 1770.'
The present west front of the church has three
gables flanked by pinnacles, with a large tracery
window of seven lights in the central gable.
The earlier history of the development ot the
church is difficult to read on account of the rebuild-
ings of the last few centuries, but something may be
deduced from old illustrations and the copy of a
small plan of 1628, unfortunately not drawn to scale,
which was formerly among the church papers. From
these it may be seen that the old tower was narrower
than the transepts, the line of its west wall being
eastward of that of the transepts. The mediaeval
nave certainly had arcades, and consequently aisles, as
foundations of the former were discovered in 1860,
not being in line with the north and south arches of
the tower, but further to the north and south, like
the present arcades. The tower arches appear to
have been of the fourteenth century, and perhaps
WARRINGTON
coeval with the chancel, which is of the same width
north to south as the tower.
These irregularities, and the evidence of the exist-
ence of work in the north transept of earlier date than
the rebuilding of the chancel, 1354, go to show that
the church was not completely rebuilt at the latter
date, but followed a gradual process of development,
after the usual fashion, having originally consisted of
an aisleless nave and chancel, which was afterwards
made into a cross church, the tower being built on
the west part of the chancel.
The traces of ritual arrangements in the church are
naturally scanty. In the south wall of the chancel
are three sedilia and a piscina, with ogee arched heads
and trefoiled spandrels under a horizontal string, poor
modern work of wood and plaster, but in the old
position. Parts of the old masonry remain at the
backs of the recesses, which have been altered since
Sir Stephen Glynne's visit in 1843, and do not
at all correspond to his description. There is no
ancient woodwork in the church, but the altar table
in the Boteler chapel was given to the church in
1720. In this chapel is a fine alabaster altar tomb,
on which are the effigies of Sir John Boteler,
ob. 1463, and his wife Margaret. The tomb was
taken to pieces in 1 847, and when it was reset
the east end was made up in plaster. On the other
three sides are a row of canopies alternating with
shields now blank, and under the canopies are
alabaster figures or groups : on the north side, St.
James, St. Michael, St. Christopher, St. George,
St. John Baptist, and the Holy Trinity ; on the west
a Crucifixion with our Lady and St. John, an angel
holding a shield, and an Assumption ; and on the
south St. Faith, our Lord's Pity, St. Barbara,
St. Catherine, St. Margaret, and our Lady and
Child. The figure of Sir John Boteler is armed in
plate, but the arm defences, except the elbow-cops and
gauntlets, appear to be of leather. He wears a collar of
St. George, and holds his right gauntlet in the left hand,
while his bare right hand clasps that of his wife. She
wears a collar of St. Agnes, and has a lamb at her feet.1
In one of the arched recesses in the north wall of
this chapel is the sandstone effigy of a lady of late
fourteenth-century date. In the floor of the Patten
chapel is a cross slab formerly covering the grave of
Thomas Mascy, rector, who died in 1464, and close
to it is a modern altar tomb with the white marble
effigy of the late Lord Winmarleigh.
On the north side of the chancel, opposite the
south doorway, formerly stood the tomb of Richard
Delves, rector, 1527.
The font is modern.
There are eight bells, all cast by Henry Bagley of
Ecton in 1 698.'
The church possesses a fine secular standing cup
and cover, silver-gilt, with the London date letter for
1615.
The registers begin in 1591.
Before the Conquest the church of
ADVOWSON St. Elphin had a plough-land in War-
rington free from all imposts except
the geld.4 The patronage, except for a grant to
Thurgarton Priory about 1 1 60, which was a century
1 Churches of Lanes. (Chet. Soc.). 70.
a For a full description of the Eoteler
monument with drawings, see Lords of
Warr.itfi. Armorial notes taken in 1582
and later are printed in Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), vi, 269 ; others made in 1572
and 1640 are given in Beamont and
Rylands* Attempt to identify the Arms in
Warr. Ch. (1878).
» For inscriptions see Warr. Ch. p. in.
309
4 y.C.H. Lanes. \, 286*.
Elphin was in course of time modified
to Ellen, but the old name was restored
at the rebuilding of the church in 1859-
60.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
later granted back,1 remained with the lords of War-
rington to the latter half of the sixteenth century,
when it passed by sale to the Irelands of Bewsey, and
has descended like Bewsey and Great Sankey to Lord
Lilford, the present patron.'
In 1291 the value of the benefice was found to be
£13 61. 8d ;3 and fifty years later the ninth of the
sheaves, wool, and lambs was estimated at twenty
marks, i.e. the same sum.4 The gross value in 1535
was £4.1 I5/. Afti., of which the glebe brought in
161. 8</.; the payments included one of zos. to the
abbot of Shrewsbury, and the net value was ^40.*
The Commonwealth surveyors in 1650 found that
the tithes, valued at £150, were farmed by Gilbert
Ireland, who allowed the rector £20 a year ; 6 this
was increased by an allowance of £50 a year out of
the sequestered tithes of Childwall/ reduced later.8
Bishop Gastrell in 1717 found the income to be
£61 iSs. ^d? At present the gross value is stated to
be £965.'°
Warrington was from early times the head of a
deanery comprising the parishes in West Derby
hundred.11 In 1535 the revenue of the dean was
estimated at 15 us. lid.™
The following
; is a list of the rectors : —
Date
Name
C. I 1 80 . . .
Richard"
C. 12 2O
James 14
c. 1250 . . .
Jordan de Hulton 15
c. 1265
William de Eybury 1G
oc. 1289 . . .
William le Boteler "
(?)Feb. 1298-9 .
William de Sankey 18
24 Nov. 1325 .
Stephen le Blund I9
3 April, 1330 .
Robert de Houton 20
10 June, 1343 .
John de Luyton n
i June, 1346 .
I o May, 1351
Sihn de Stamfordham " . . . .
icholas de Waddington " . . .
22 June, 1357 .
John de Swinlegh "
I 3 Jan. 1361-2 .
John de Donne "
Sir W. le Boteler . .
Sir W. le Boteler . ,
Sir W. le Boteler . .
John earl of Lancaster
res. W. de Sankey
exch. S. le Blund
d. R. de Houton
exch. J. de Luyton
d. J. de Stamfordham
exc. N. de Waddington
res. J. de Swinlegh
i Chart, in Beamont, Lards of Warr.
(Chet. Soc.), i, 19, 83.
» See the account of Bewsey. A fine
9 Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 230 ;
apart from the £20 received from the
lessee, the income was derived mainly
advowson of the church ; Final Cone. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 83.
In 1361 Henry duke of Lancaster 'died
seised in his demesne as of fee of the
advowson of the church [of Warrington]
for the term of the life of William le
Boteler, knt., by the demise of Richard
wardens — two for Warrington appointed
by the lord and Mr. Legh of Lyme, and
the higher orders ; Lich. Epis. Reg. i
fol. 2,1,. He had probably just beer
appointed to the rectory. Richard dc
Astley sued William de Sankey in 132
for six years' arrears of a rent of 2 marks
and at the same time Henry del Bruch.
the parish, elected by house row.
10 Liverpool Dioc. Cal. Some benefac-
tions are noticed in the War. End. Char.
robe
; De Banco R. 236,
Winwick, who demised the said church to
William le Boteler for the said term ' ;
Inq. p.m. 3; Edw. Ill, pt. i, n. 122.
There were suits between the duke of
Lancaster and Sir William le Boteler in
1374 and 1375 respecting the patronage ;
De Banco R. 456, m. 197 ; R. 457, m.
1 16. The duke recovered.
» Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 249.
4 Inq. Non. (Rec. Com.), 40. The
sum was thus made up : Warrington and
Burtonwood each £4 61. 8</.; Glazebrook
95. 4</.; the third part of Great Sankey
261. S,/.; Woolston 335. 4</.; Rixton 241.
* Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 219.
An Easter roll of the year i 580 is pre-
served among the Norris D. (B. M.); the
amount received at the 'houseling board '
was 481. go1.; 121. 6d. was laid out on
bread and wine. This has been printed
in full by Mr. J. Paul Rylands in Trans.
Hist. Soc. (New Sen), xix, with a number
of illustrative particulars.
6 Common-wealth Cb. Surv. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 51. Gilbert Ireland
was a Parliamentarian, so that his estates
were untouched. The value of the man-
sion-house, with its barn and garden, was
'Plund. Mins. Aects. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
and Ches.), i, 34 ; this order was made in
1 646. James Anderton, the farmer of the
Childwall tithes, was a 'papist and delin-
quent,' whose estates were sequestered.
" Ibid. 288. £30 only was payable in
1655, but was increased to £40; ibid.
ii, 132, 289.
preserved, e.g. Elias, xiii cent. (Wballey
Coucher [Chet. Soc.], i, 126) ; Richard de
Standish, c. 1240 (Kuerden, ii, fol. 219,
n. 330); Roger was dean in 1277 (De
Banco R. 21, m. 18) ; Henry de Waver-
tree, vicar of Childwall, 1319; Richard
12 Valor Eccl. loc. cit. The deanery was
in the hands of William Knight, archdea-
con of Chester, and he farmed it out to
Richard Clerk, chaplain. The sources of
income were the probate dues on wills,
payable by the benericed'clergy.
18 Richard, priest of Warrington was
witness to a charter between 1175 and
1182; Lanes. Fife R. 287.
There is an account of the rectors in
W. Beamont's Warr. Ch. Notes ; see also
Baines' Lanes, (ed. Croston), iv, 417-26.
14 James rector of Warrington attested
a grant to Stanlaw made before 1233 ;
WKallty Coucher, ii, 416.
« ^bOrCtiKfcr.iii, 7*3,919. Jordan
Lever Deeds; Add.' MS. 32103, As. 66,
S. 32103,
of'jordande Hulton complained in 1292 of
In July, 1325, Sankey had the king'
protection for twelve months, perhaps 01
going abroad in the king's service, an.
shortly afterwards he resigned the rectory .
Cal. of Pat. 1324-7, p. 148.
19 Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. loii.
so Ibid, ii, fol. 105*; the new r<
had held Leatherhead (' Ledred ') in th
diocese of Winchester, exchanging it fo
Warrington. He is mentioned in 133..
in Coram Rege R. 297, m. 94. Sons o
Robert de Houton were concerned in
plea by his executors in 1344; ibic.
R. 337, m. 19.
31 Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. n6A. H
had been rector of Whittington.
32 Ibid, ii, fol. 119 ; the new rector ha
held Luyton, in the diocese of Lincoln.
48 Ibid, ii, fol. 128*; the new recto
24 Ibid, ii, fol. 1 34 ; the new rector ha i
been rector of Winwick, Huntingdon-
shire. He is probably the John d-
Swinlegh, priest of the diocese of Lichfielc ,
who was made a notary by Clement VI
in 1351, and had an indult to choose
confessor, &c. ; Cal. of Papal Letters, ii
447, 449. He became archdeacon <;
Huntingdon in 1362 on the king's preser
25 Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 80. The
others; Assize R. 408, m. t,od. 61 d.
96J. " Beamont, op. cit. 28.
i? Witness to a Warrington charter in
1289 ; Dods. MSS. liii, fol. 15*, n. 3.
is ' William rector of Warrington ' had
on 22 Feb. 1298-9, licence to attend
the schools for three years, during which
time he was not to be compelled to enter
3IO
written Donne, but possibly it should b
Doune. On 10 Nov. 1362, he, beiiu
then a subdeacon, obtained the bishop' i
leave to be absent from his church ft r
three years ; ibid, v, fol. 7b. On 9 Ma> .
.366, this was renewed for two years';
ibid, v, fol. 13*. Thus he was abset t
almost all the time he held the rectory.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Date
(?)Dec. 1367
5 June, .368 |
4 April, 1370]
17 May, 1374
(?) 1374 • •
20 Mar. 1390-1
21 Aug. 1396
27 April, 1435
4 July, 1464
1 8 May, 1466
7 Sept. 1476
1 6 June, 1486
6 Dec. 1527
8 Nov. 1537
20 Nov. 1554
31 Dec. 1556
24 April, 1574
John Parr, senior ' . .
Ellis de Birtwisle* . .
Robert de Sibthorpe 3 .
William (de Burgh) « .
Richard de Carleton 5 .
Richard le Walker6 . .
Thomas Mascy 7 . . .
Thomas Neilson 8 . . .
Thomas Byrom 9
Mr. James Stanley '" . .
Hugh Reddish . . . .
Richard Delves » . . .
Thomas Maria Wingfield '
Edward Keble, M.A.13 .
Nicholas Taylor " . . .
Thomas Amery 15 . .
John Butler 16 . .
Urban V
John duke of Lancaster .
Sir William le Boteler and
Sir John his son
John duke of Lancaster .
Sir John le Boteler . .
Hamlet Mascy, &c. . .
Richard Browne, &c. . .
John Holcroft ..'.'.
T. Boteler
H. Wingfield, &c. . . .
Sir T. Boteler ....
John Grimsditch and
Richard Penketh
Thos. Butler .
WARRINGTON
res. John Parr
d. Ellis de Birtwisle
d. R. de Carleton
d. R. le Walker
res. T. Neilson
d. T. Byrom
res. Hugh Reddish
d. R. Delves
res. T. M. Wingfield
depr. E. Keble
d. N. Taylor
1367, probably soon after his appoint-
ment; Lich. Epis. Reg.v.fol. 93. He was
ordained deacon and priest in the following
March ; ibid, v, fol. 94, 94*.
In 1372 a dispute about the presenta-
tion was heard before Arnold Garnerii,
the papal nuncio and collector, who had
feofTment by Sir John Boteler, deceased.
9 Ibid, xii, fol. 102*. Thomas Byrom
Sir Thomas Boteler, the rector to receive
£40 a year ; that Sir Thomas, before the
rector of Grappenhall ; the latter benefice
he resigned on being presented to War-
rington ; Le Neve, fasti, i, 627, &c. He
was archdeacon of Nottingham from 1461
the lease to the above-named Bruche and
Shaw for £186 i^.^J. ; plaintiff, • seeing
that the lease was not binding because he
had nothing in the said parsonage at the
Urban V in April, 1364, had provided
John Parr, senior, to Warrington. Ellis
de Birtwisle alleged that there had beer,
no vacancy since Nicholas de Waddington,
who had been called an apostate, had
The nuncio was satisfied ; Duchy of
Lane. Misc. Bks., xiii, fol. 14.
bishop Booth, dated at Southwell in 1464 ;
Raines, Abfs. of Turk (Rolls Ser.), iii, 333.
See Beamont, op. cit. 47.
10 Lich. Epis. Reg. xii, fol. noA; also
rector of Winwick (q.v.), warden of Man-
chester and archdeacon of Chester. John
Holcroft presented in virtue of a feoff-
back. Sir Thomas induced the rector to
borrow it for him, and then planned a
scheme with the lender to obtain the
sum from the rector, who was therefore
unable to pay his firstfruits to the king 5
Duchy Pleading! (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 120. He had previously been
a priest. The second institution (ibid.
Stanley died in 1485.
Bruche, ' a very unruly person and a
great unquietor of his poor neighbours,'
and had leased the parsonage to him for
free resignation into the lord's hands. It
is clear from the preceding note that
litigation had been proceeding as to
Nicholas de Waddington, and that John
Parr's resignation had been called in
question.
For Ellis de Birtwisle Innocent VI
had in 1355 reserved a benefice with
cure of souls, of the value of 25 marks,
in the gift of the abbot and convent of
Hyde, Winchester ; Cat. of Papal Letters,
iii, 570. Ellis died 6 March, 1373-4.
was son of Sir John Delves of Dodding-
Boteler ; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), iii,
522. He became canon of Lichfield in
1485 (Le Neve, Fasti, i, 620, 587, 627) ;
and he founded a chantry at Warrington.
His will, dated 13 August, 1527, directed
his burial either at Warrington or Wybun-
bury, and bequeathed to the schoolmaster
at the former place a diaper cloth and a
missal. He died 22 October following,
and was buried in the choir ; the epitaph
Early in i 543 Rector Keble leased the
rectory for 200 years to nominees of the
patron, at a rent of only £20 a year ;
Beamont, op. cit. 57 ; and Lords of
Warr. ii, 453 (quoting Lord Lilford's
deeds). Abstracts of the deeds relating
to 'this discreditable matter' are given
in Ch. Go's. 1552 (Chet. Soc.), 59 ; Def.
Keeper's Ref. xxx, App. 177.
Keble was probably inclined to Pro-
f"on the 1 2 June William de Burgh,
clerk, was presented by the duke of
Lancaster ; Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks.
xiii, fol. 46*. He appears to have ob-
tained possession after a suit between the
duke and the Botelers, for in Nov.
1389, the bishop allowed 'William rector
of the church of Warrington,' a year's
Beamont, Warr. Ch. Notes, 53.
prebendary of Westminster ; Le Neve,
was a clerk. The patrons, Humphrey
Wingfield and Robert Brown, clerk, acted
by grant of Sir Richard Wingfield, de-
ceased. Sir Richard, who was chancellor
of the duchy from 1522 to 1525, prob-
ably obtained a grant of the presentation
from Thomas Boteler. Thomas Maria
rectory of Warrington he lost in 1554;
the reason is not stated, but perhaps he
had married. He does not appear to have
claimed either preferment later, but is
said to have been beneficed in Warwick-
shire from 1558 till his death. He must
therefore have renounced Protestantism,
tration of the fruits of the church ; Lich.
Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 125*. A William de
Burgh was rector of Babworth, Notts, in
1384; Cal. Pat. 1381-5, pp. 465, 576.
3 Lich. Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 556 ; a priest.
He died in August, 1396.
6 Ibid, vi, fol. b\b ; a priest.
"Ibid, ix, fol. 122*; a clerk. The
patrons, Hamlet Mascy of Rixton and
Wm. Arrowsmith of Warrington presented
in right of a grant by Sir John Boteler.
Thomas Mascy was still rector in 1458 ;
Lanes. Inq. f.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 73.
8 Lich. Epis. Reg. xii, fol. 101* ; a
priest. The patrons, Richard Browne,
vicar of Poulton, John Holcroft, and
child, graduated at Oxf. in 1534; he
afterwards renounced an ecclesiastical
career and became member of parliament
for Huntingdon borough in 1553 j Foster,
13 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 36*.
On 27 October, 1537, i.e. after granting a
presentation to Edward Keble, Sir Thomas
Boteler leased the advowson for sixty
years to William Bruche, merchant tailor
of London, and Hamnet Shaw ; and on
i 5 July, 1 540, William Bruche, the sur-
viving grantee, gave his right to Richard
Penketh and John West ; ibid. fol. 5*.
About 1 540 Edward Keble complained
that he had before institution granted a
again in 1559. For the vestments, bells,
&c. in 1552, see Ch. Gds. 57. Richard
Johns, parson of Warrington, is mentioned
in 1 547 ; Piccope, Wills (Chet. Soc.), i,
104. Possibly he was Richard Taylor the
schoolmaster.
"He paid firstfruits 22 June, 1555;
Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), ii, 409. Later references
to these payments are from the same
« His name appears in the Visit. lists
in 1563 and 1565. In 1562 he obtained
leave of absence for study for five years in
all ; Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. iii, 292.
"Paid firstfruits 8 May, 1574,
311
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Date
26 Nov. 1 579
4 July, 1581 .
3 June, 1589 .
1 Mar. 1607-8.
29 May, 1621
oc. 1646 . .
— Dec. 1646 .
17 Jan. 1662-3 •
4 Oct. 1664 .
10 Jan. 1690-1 .
22 Jan. 1718-9 .
21 June, 1723 .
27 Dec. 1766
14 Sept. 1767 .
3 June, 1807 .
3 Jan. 1832 . .
2 Sept. 1854 .
20 May, 1888 .
Simon Harward, M.A.1 ....
Michael Johnson, B.A.8 ....
John Ashworth 3
William Gillibrand4
William Ward "
James Smith 6
Robert Yates7
Samuel Ellison *
Joseph Ward, B.A.S
Samuel Shawe, M.A.10 ....
Thomas Egerton, M.A.11 ....
John Haddon, M.A.1' ....
William Farington, B.D.13 . . .
Edward Owen, M.A." ....
Robert Atherton Rawstorne, M.A.15
Hon. Horatio Powys, M.A.16 . .
William Quekett, M.A." . . .
Frederic William Willis, M.A.18 . .
Edward Butler . .
Sir Hen. Scurwen .
Thos. Ireland . .
Sir T. Ireland '. '.
Gilbert Ireland. .
Sir G. Ireland . .
James Holt . '. '.
Ric. Atherton .
R. V. A.'Gwillyro!
Lord Lil'ford .' .'
The Queen . . .
Lord Lilford .
Cause of Va
d. J. Butler
d. J. Ashworth
d. W. Gillibrand
res. W. Ward
exp. R. Yates
d. J. Ward
d. S. Shawe
res. T. Egerton
d. J. Haddon
d. W. Farington
d. E. Owen
res. R. A. Rawstor
prom. Bp. Powys
d. W. Quekett
The most noticeable feature of the above list is the
rapidity of the succession in many periods. About
1360 the title appears to have been uncertain. The
lease of 1534 having reduced the income from tithes
to £zo a year for two centuries, Warrington was not
as a benefice very attractive.
The commissioners of I 5 3 5 found a rector and four
endowed chantry priests serving the church ; one of these
also taught the school, and another served the chantry
at Hollinfare.19 The clergy list of I 541-2 shows that
besides the rector, probably non-resident, and the four
cantarists, there were in the parish eight priests, one
of them being the curate, and the others paid by pri-
vate persons or living on casual fees and offerings :
two of them seem to have removed soon afterwards."
The visitation list of I 548 records the names of the
rector and eight other clergy, four being chantr)
priests ; two died about the same time. Six years
later the rector, just deprived, is not named ; six name:
are recorded, two of the bearers, however, appear tc
have been absent ; the four chantry priests were stil
living, though unemployed. The diminution in the
number of clergy went steadily on at Warring
ton ; in 1562 the rector Thomas Amery, his curate,
and two others were named in the list ; but one c-~
the latter did not appear. The rector, appointed i i
1 The name is also given as Harwood ;
and also by the free election of the
he paid firstfruits 25 June, 1580. He
was of Christ's Coll. Camb. ; B.A. 1575 ;
congregation there ; and that the said
Mr. Yates is a man of good life, and
incorporated at Oxf. HJ77 ; a man of some
howbeit he doth disassent from and not
note as preacher and physician ; see Diet.
Nat. Siog. and Cooper, Atbenae Cantab, ii,
submit to the present government, and
did neglect to observe and keep the days
478, where the titles of his works are
of humiliation and thanksgiving enjoined
given, with many references.
by the present parliament ' ; Commonwealth
s He was of Cumberland ; entered
Ch. Survey (1650), 51. In the church
Queen's Coll. Oxf. in 1572 ; B.A. 1577 ;
registers is the entry: '1646, Dec.
also rector of Heveringham, Yorks. ;
Robert Yates, minister.* As ' pastor of
Foster, Alumni.
the church at Warrington ' he signed the
8 He paid firstfruits 9 July, 1590.
Harmonious Consent at the beginning of
He had been vicar of Bolton le Sands.
1648.
The registers begin in his time. In 1590
His opposition to the Engagement led
he was described as ' a preacher ' ; Gibson,
to his trial for treason ; he was sentenced
LyJiate Hall, 248.
to death, but pardoned and restored to his
* A William Gillibrand, of Brasenose
benefice. At the Restoration, while loyal
Coll. Oxf. took the B.A. degree in 1569 ;
to the king, he could not agree to every-
Foster, Alumni. For his family see Dug-
thing in the Prayer Book, and so was
dale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 121. He was a
expelled from the rectory in 1662, and in
• preacher ' ; Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS.
the following year sent to prison. He
Com.), 12.
5 The institutions from this time have
died in 1678, being buried at Warrington
28 October. See Beamont, op. cit. 74-80.
been taken from the entries in the
8 Samuel Ellison is no doubt the same
Inst. Bks. P.R.O. as printed in Lanes, and
who was appointed to Hale Chapel in
Ches. Antiq. Notes, i, ii. William Ward
1659 on the nomination of Gilbert
paid firstfruits on 18 February, 1621-2.
Ireland ; Plund. Mins. Accts. ii, 300.
He was promoted to the rectory of
He was a son of Henry Ellison of Waver-
Walton in 1645 on the expulsion of the
tree; educated at Woolton School and
royalist Dr. Clare.
St. John's Coll. Camb. which he entered
charge in October, 1646, when an ad-
ditional stipend was ordered; Plund.
'Joseph Ward of Emmanuel Coll.
Camb. took the B.A. degree in 1661.
Mins. Accts. i, 38. No minister's name
He was 'conformable' in 1689; Kenyan
is given in the earlier order on p. 34.
MSS. 230.
'Erastus, son to Mr. James Smith,
I" Of Queens' Coll. Camb.; M.A. 1677 ;
minister,' was baptized 9 August, 1646.
incorporated at Oxf. 1677 ; master of the
Other ministers are named in the War-
Boteler School, 1689; one of the four
rington registers.
royal preachers, 1682; Stratford's Visit.
7 ' Mr. Yates came in by the quest and
List. James Holt presented as guardian
presentation of Gilbert Ireland, esq., who
claims to be patron and donor thereof,
of John Atherton, a minor.
l1 See the account of rectors of Sefton.
3I2
11 Educated at Brasenose Coll. Oxf. ;
M.A. 1723; Foster, Alumni Oxon. Ii ;
his time Keble's lease expired. He w. *
a friend of John Byrom.
18 See the account of vicars of Leigh.
14 Educated at Jesus Coll. Oxf. ; M.^.
1752; also master of Warrington schoo ;
at Great Crosby School and curate .f
the chapel there. See Beamont, op. c :. J
104-14. He translated Juvenal ai d 1
Persius, and was author of some ed i-
cational works ; and he also publish d
sermons, one volume going under thfl
name of his predecessor — Faringto.'s
Sermons; Trans. Hist. Soc. xxii, 123.
He has a place in the Diet. Nat. Siog.
>5 Educated at Brasenose Coll. Oxf ;
M.A. 1803 ; rector of South Thoresl y, ',
Lines. 1807 to 1852 ; perpetual curate of;
Penwortham and Longton, 1831 to i8<2, j
when he died ; Foster, Alumni. He v .ill
a relative of Lady Lilford. His atten :>t
to make the head-mastership of the schc ol
a sinecure for the rector was defeaU-d *
after an appeal to the court of Chancer •>
Beamont, 116.
16 Son of the patron. Educated at
St. John's Coll. Camb.; M.A. 182.;
ministered to the sick during the chol ra
epidemic of 1833 ; bishop of Sodor £ id :
Man, 1854. See Beamont, 122-6.
i? Educated at St. John's Coll. Cam . i
M.A. 1831 ; incumbent of Christ ch
Poplar, 1841. He rebuilt the church.
18 Son of Daniel Willis of Halsner, 1 1
educated at Corpus Christ! Coll. Ox!.
M.A. 1873 ; vicar of All Saints', Well! |
borough, 1872 ; hon. canon of Liverp. i
1895.
» Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 219.
*> Clergy List (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
Ches.), 14.
BLOCK PLAN OF SITE OF AUGUSTINIAN FRIARY, WARRINGTON
Scale, 80 ft. to i in. WILLIAM OWEN, metis, et del.
3 3*3 40
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Bishop Cotes's time, had thus conformed to the
Elizabethan statutes, and continued to hold his bene-
fice. In the following year five names appear, two of
them being new. In the margin is the record — 'They
took oath according to the statute,' i.e. acknowledging
the queen's supremacy, the formal act of separation
from the ancient system.1 One of the five, John Barber,
curate of Rixton, appears to have repented quickly, a
note stating that he had 'fled.' In 1565 the rector
and two others appeared ; these two were survivors of
the 1548 clergy, one being the schoolmaster.8
Warrington thus fared better than other parishes in
the neighbourhood in maintaining a staff of three
clergy, there being only one chapel to serve in addition
to the parish church. The school stipend was, of
course, a means of supporting one beside the rector.
At Hollinfare chapel the new services were probably
not kept up regularly. As to the parish church the
visitation of 1592 showed that the chancel was ' in
great decay '; there were wanting Bible, Communion
Book, Jewell's Reply and Apology, a ' comely table
covering and table cloth,' and surplice.3 An improve-
ment no doubt took place as time went on, the Stuart
bishops and the puritan ministers of the seventeenth
century bringing it about. The later rectors, with
one or two exceptions, do not call for remark.4
There were three chantries established in the parish
church, and another at Hollinfare. St. Mary's
Chantry was endowed or re-endowed by Sir Thomas
Boteler, apparently the Sir Thomas who died in ijza.5
By his will, carried out by his son Sir Thomas, he
founded also the grammar school, the master of which
was the priest at a second chantry.6 Richard Delves,
rector from 1486 to 1527, founded the chantry at the
altar of St. Anne.' The chantries were suppressed in
1 548, but the school was preserved.8
A house of Austin Friars, the • only one in the
county, was established near the bridge.9 Its church,
the Jesus Church, was probably the popular one, being
situated near the centre of the town. The friars had
an oratory on the bridge. The property was con-
fiscated by Henry VIII and granted to Sir Thomas
Holcroft.10 Nothing now remains of the buildings."
It is supposed that the church was used for worship,
at least occasionally, down to the Civil Wars."
The site of the house was partly explored in 1886,
and from the remains then found a plan of the
church was drawn up by Mr. William Owen." It
shows a quire 58ft. long by 24ft. wide, an oblong
crossing typical of a friars' church, with screens to
east and west, a nave 86ft. by zyft., and a very
large north transept 62 ft. by 44 ft. The evidence
for some part of the plan is slight, but there seems
no doubt that Mr. Owen is correct in his reading
of it, which has been confirmed, as to the size of
the transept, by recent excavations. The details
point to c. 1280 for the earliest work, and the large
north transept seems to be little, if at all, later than
the rest of the building. The crossing was doubtless
surmounted by an octagonal tower as in other friars'
houses. Part of the tile pavement of the quire was
uncovered, and is illustrated in Mr. Owen's paper,
being a very good specimen of its kind, dating prob-
ably from the early years of the fourteenth century.
The shaped tiles of the central panel are specially
interesting, though not so elaborate as those in the
well-known Crauden chapel at Ely. Part of this
pavement was taken up and is preserved in the War-
rington Museum. Of other parts of the friary
nothing has been found except the north end of a
buttressed building south-east of the church and about
i 20 yards distant from it. It is 15 ft. wide, but its
length and purpose cannot at present be determined.
The principal charity of War-
CHARITIES " rington, apart from the grammar
school ls and the bluecoat school,"
i It is the only note of this kind in the
deanery.
» These details are from the visitation
lists preserved in the Chest. Dioc. Reg.
» Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), x, 191.
There had been no perambulations and no
executors ; also Sir Richard Bold and other
feoffees. The schoolmaster-chaplain was
Richard Taylor ; of the gross income of
£12 2s. 9j</. a distribution to the poor
of 425. 9rf. was made on Sir Thomas's
Great and Little Worley ; Raines, op
cit. 63-5. In 1553 Robert Aughton had ;
pension of £$ ; he died about that time
Cb. GJs. 59. For a grant of St. Anne'
Chantry see Pat. 3 1 Eliz. pt. vii.
The Mascy chapel, of unknown foun
•> See notes above on Yates and Owen.
5 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 219.
Robert Hall was chaplain ; the income was
/4 10J. 6J. The same chaplain remained
to the end ; in 1548 he was described as
' of the age of seventy years, a man decrepit
and lame of his limbs.' The revenue
in Warrington and the neighbourhood;
provided elaborately for the anniversary
to be kept on 27 April, 'for the souls of
the said Sir Thomas and his ancestors and
his heirs, and for the soul of Dame Mar-
garet Boteler after her decease.'
Eight priests and ten singing clerks or
scholars were to say the office and mass
for the dead ; the bellman was to announce
the celebration through the streets, and
v, 97-104.
article on ' Schools.'
9 The prior in 1400 complained that om
Thomas Graner of Manchester had no
properly constructed a horologium forhin
at Warrington ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. I.
m. 25*.
«• Pat. 32 Hen. VIII, pt. iv (18 June,
1540).
11 For the history see ' Religious Houses ' ;
had a bequest of books from Randle Pole
in 1545, including the Pica, which was
'to remain in Master Boteler's chapel at
Warrington' ; ibid. p. 60 note.
to be rungen with all the bells in the
steeple except the sanctus bell.'
Robert Wright in i 548 had an endow-
ment of 211. 8</. a year as 'stipendiary'
Accounts of the glass, tombs, &c., hav
been published by Messrs. Beamont an i
Rylands (1878).
12 Beamont, IVarr. Cb. Notes, 131.
at least suggested by the record of 'land
called "St. Mary's Land" belonging to
the church of Warrington,' situate on
the Heath in 1465 ; ffarr. in 1465,
p. 58. A messuage in Church Street was
bequeathed by Katherine Fisher to the
maintenance of a chaplain celebrating
before the cross in the parish church ; ibid.
96, 102. Thus there seems to have been
a Rood altar.
6 PahrScd.loe.dt. The founders were
Sir Thomas Boteler and Dame Margaret,
widow of the late Sir Thomas, and his
Raines, ii, 251.
1 falorEccl. \oc.cit. The gross rental was
£7, out of which 201. was distributed in
alms at the anniversary of the founder, and
I zi. \d. paid in rents. William Caterbank
was the chaplain in 1535, and Robert
Halghton or Aughton paid firstfruits on
appointment in 1536; Lanes, and Cbes.
Recs. ii, 407. In I 547 the royal commis-
sioners found him celebrating and distri-
buting according to his foundation. This
chantry had a chalice and eight vestments.
Its lands were at Norton in Start's, and
"The following details are from th-
End. Char. Rep. for Warrington 1899, in
which is reprinted the report of 1828.
" The income of the grammar scho, 1
is about £2,000.
16 This charity has an income of £1,50 ..
from real estate and £536 from inves:
ments; the income exceeds the expend '-
ture by over £300 a year, so that thr
fund is not so beneficial to the town as :
might be. The first acquisition of Ian 1
was the Gallows Acre in Warrington h
1674 ; on this the school was built.
3*4
3'5
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
is the infirmary, with an income of nearly £740 a
year from investments.1 Of the minor charities some
are for Warrington proper" and others for different
townships of the parish — Burtonwood,3 Rixton,* and
Woolston ; 6 that for Poulton has been lost.6
The Warrington Clergy Institution for the relief
of widows and orphans of clergymen in the old arch-
deaconry of Chester, which included Cheshire and
South Lancashire, was founded in 1697, and still
continues its benevolent work. In conjunction with
it is a school for the orphan daughters of clergymen,
founded in 1 842 ; the buildings were erected on the
site of the old mote hill, but the school was removed
to Darley Dale, Derbyshire, in 1905. There is a
training college for schoolmistresses in connexion with
the Established Church.
WARRINGTON
Walintune, Dom. Bk. ; Werinton, 1 242 ; this and
Werington common to 1550 ; Warington, 1330.
Warrington lies on flat ground near the Mersey,7
which winds with sudden swoops and curves all along
its southern margin. From Little Sankey to Padgate
Brook an alluvial terrace fringes the low ground lying
by the course of the river, of which, for a considerable
part of the distance, it constitutes the northern bank,
concealing over a large area the underlying mottled
sandstones of the bunter series. Along the riverside
the land is composed of marshy pastures called Arpley
and Howley, dotted over with cattle, or where the
river nears the big industrial town of Warrington
huge factories line the water's edge. With the ex-
ception of a fringe of open country on the edges of
the township the land is covered with houses, streets,
railways, and factories. The soil is loamy and fertile
and produces crops of potatoes, and other market
produce. Good broad roads run into the town from
all quarters and become quickly narrowed as they ap-
proach the centre of the town, where is a curious
mixture of really picturesque old houses and great
modern factories which overshadow the antique. In
the floor of the old schoolhouse near the parish
church of Warrington is St. Elphin's Well, now
disused. This is generally reported to be in the
churchyard. The Sankey Brook forms the western
boundary of the township on its way to join the
Mersey.
The town grew up beside the river, about the
centre of the boundary. Little Sankey lay on the
western side and Orford on the north ; between these
hamlets and the town was the heath. Orford was
divided from Hulme in Winwick by a brook and
tract of marshy ground ; and probably in the same
way from Warrington town. The area is 2,8 1 7 acres.
The population in 1901 was 64,242.*
The road from Prescot and the west passed the
Sankey Brook by a bridge,9 then north-eastwardly
through Little Sankey, with its green, and wound
and still winds eastwardly through Warrington till
it reaches the parish church at the extreme east end
of the town ; it is called in turns Sankey Street,
Buttermarket Street, Irlam Street, and Church Street.
After passing the church and the ancient mote hill
the road divides ; the main road goes to Manchester,
and a northerly branch, Padgate Lane, to Bolton.
From the bridge over the Mersey a cross-road leads
north, as Bridge Street, Horsemarket Street, and Win-
wick Street, to Winwick and Wigan ; it crosses the
former road near the highest land of the town, about
a thousand yards west of the church. The market
stands to the north-west of the crossing I0 and marks
1 See 63-4 of the Re fort.
'l Brownfield's Almshouses were esta-
blished by the will of John Brownfield,
1697, augmented by his wife and John
Goulborne. Four houses were in 1828
supposed to belong to this charity. Part
of the endowment was afterwards lost,
the overseers being unable to identify
Morris left in 1885 a net sum of £800
for the benefit of the poor attending the
parish church, and Thomas Morris in
1897 left £500 for blankets for women
over sixty years of age.
The Ladies' School of Industry, the
gymnasium and reading-room, and the
Charles Middleton Scholarships and the
land is divided into forty-eight allotments,
By t°heP lime award" Martens croft Green
was reserved as a recreation ground.
6 There was in 1786 a poor's stock of
£220, the accumulation of gifts made by
This seems for a long time to have been
charged j and in 1874 the houses, having
become ruinous, were pulled down, and
the site was afterwards sold. The pro-
ceeds were invested, and an annual income
Report.
A Besides the school there was formerly
an accumulated poor's stock of /63 101.,
but this was lost by the failure of Thomas
was in the hands of Thomas Claughton. He
failed, and only £ 10 wa. recovered ; this
amount was spent on clothing for the
poor, and the charity became extinct.
among poor widows.
Anne Royle, by will in 1731, left her
of unknown origin, has a stock of £20,
the interest of which is expended in
Cheshire side, but belonging to the town-
ship of Warrington was encircled by the
that he might distribute the rent to poor
found to be dilapidated. The last rent
known to have been paid was in 1831 ;
under the control of the parish council.
4 Thomas Clare in 1730 left an acre
called the Town-field in GU&ebrook for
the benefit of the poor. In 1828 it was
century, when during a great flood the
river cut through the neck of the isthmus
Warr. in 1465 (Chet. Soc.), 86.
sold the premises, and nothing further
Joseph Daintith in 1787 bequeathed
/8o a year for the Sunday school which
he had established, and a building was
tributed by the agent of Charles Tempest,
trustee. This arrangement continued until
1869, when trustees were appointed by
the Char. Com. The present income,
£6 ioj., is spent on cotton cloth, which
of which Warrington proper had 1,714
acres, Orford 658, and Little Sankey 445.
The population, however, h that of the
county borough, including Latchford anc
excluding Orford. The area of thf
Street. After several changes owing to
the erection of other schools and altered
circumstances the buildings were sold
The Hon. Elizabeth Wilson-Patten,
daughter of Lord Winmarleigh, in 1896
gave a room, with an endowment of
3,058 acres, including 77 of inland water .
there are besides 67 of tidal water and 1 1
of £388 consols, the income being applied
by the rector in the purchase of Bibles,
&c., for the use of the Sunday school.
as club-room, reading-room, or the like,
for the education or recreation of the
people of the township.
Sankey Bridge is shown in Tram. Hisi
the king-post, and ' R. B. 1632,' on th.
£00 for the benefit of the aged poor ;
income, £14 2s. 4</., is employed in
the purchase of blankets for distribution
to poor persons, chiefly widows. James
allotment of 4 acres of mossland was
assigned to the labouring poor. A rent-
charge of £3 io». was payable, but does
not seem to have become operative. The
3l6
'" This crossing, the Market Gate, i-
at the junction of Sankey, Horsemarket,
Buttermarket and Bridge streets. Th.
last three streets ascend to it.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
the western limit of the old town, as the church
marks the eastern.
Mersey Street leads from the bridge north-east to
Irlam Street, about halfway between the market and
the church. From this point Fennel Street and
Battersby Lane lead north to Orford Hall. From
Buttermarket Street, Bank Street and Academy Street
lead down to Mersey Street — in the former was the
county court ; in the latter stood the famous
Academy.
From Horsemarket Street a narrow crooked lane
called Town Hill, Cockhedge Lane, and School Brow
leads eastward to the Boteler Grammar School, and
then turns into the Manchester Road near the parish
church.
On the western side of the town Cairo and Bold
streets lead south from Sankey Street ; in the latter
is the Museum and Library, with the School of Art
adjacent. King Street, Golborne Street, and Legh
Street lead north from Sankey Street ; and farther to
the west, on the same side, is the Town Hall,
formerly Bank Hall. These streets indicate the
extent of the town about a century ago. Now it
has spread over a much larger area, especially to
the north-west and west. At the west end of
Sankey Street and Green Street, which marks the
site of the old green, two other ancient lanes remain.
One runs north and east to near the market-place ;
the other makes a more extended circuit in the
same direction, and is known as Lovely Lane, Folly
Lane, Longford Street, Conies Corner, and Marsh
House Lane. The last named, on the north side
of which are the Orford Barracks, opened in 1878,
ends at Padgate Lane, close to its junction with
the Manchester Road.
Orford Barracks is the depot of the combined
8th and 4Oth regimental districts, or the King's
(Liverpool Regiment), late 8th King's, and the
Prince of Wales' Volunteers (South Lancashire
Regiment), late 4Oth and 82nd Foot.
A dispensary was opened in the market-place
in 1810, and removed in 1818 to a more com-
modious building in Buttermarket Street. The
new infirmary and dispensary in Kendrick Street
was built in 1872.
The public cemetery is on the eastern extremity
of the town. The workhouse lies on the north-
western boundary ; near it is the infectious diseases
hospital.
The post office, formerly accommodated in a
building at the corner of King and Sankey streets,
was in 1882 removed to the opposite side of the
latter street. A new one is being built. New police
courts were erected in 1900 near Bank Quay Station.
Warrington is crossed by the railways of the
London and North Western Company and the
Cheshire Lines Committee. The former company's
railway from London to Carlisle passes north through
the town on a high-level line. There are two
adjacent bridges over the Mersey and Ship Canal,
one for the main line from Crewe, and the other for
the branch from Chester, which here join.1 The
WARRINGTON
station is at Bank Quay on the south-west of the
town. The same company's railway from Liverpool
to Stockport through Widnes has stations at Bank
Quay (low level) and Arpley ; near the latter it crosses
the Mersey into Cheshire. The Cheshire Lines
Committee's Liverpool and Manchester railway has
a station (Central) in Horsemarket Street. This
necessitates a deviation of over half a mile from the
direct line, the junctions being near Sankey Brook on
the west, and Padgate on the east.
From its position at the head of the tidal part of
the Mersey, half way between Liverpool and Man-
chester, and as having what was formerly the lowest
bridge across the river, Warrington has always been a
good market town, and many industries have sprung
up and flourished in it. A century ago the manu-
factures were huckabacks and coarse cloths, sailcloth,
canvas, fustian, pins, and glass ; and it was also noted
for the excellence of its malt. The Wednesday
market was noted for fish, provisions, and all kinds of
THK OLD Fox INN, WARRINGTON
cattle and sheep, ' not inferior to the Leicestershire
breed.' '
In 1825 sugar-refining and copper works were
among the industries that had been lost to the town ;
cotton yarn, velveteens, calicoes, and muslins were the
chief manufactures, and pins, files, and other tools
were made.3
More recently great forges and iron-foundries and
soapworks have been established, but the older in-
dustries of wire-drawing, file-making, and fustian-
cutting have been retained ; the breweries are also
well known. Boats are built. There are extensive
tanneries, heavy sole leather and belting being
made.4
1 The first railway was a branch from pool and Manchester for
Manchester line, to Bewsey Street, opened
in 1831. The Grand Junction line through
Crewe to Warrington and the north was
opened in 1837 ; it served for botli Liver-
time. The
began work-
ing in "1850. See W. Harrison, Manch.
Rail-ways.
' Capper, Tofog. Diet. 1808. The mak-
ing of sailcloth and sacking
manufacture were the chief industries in
1769 ; Arthur Young, Tour, iii, 211-13.
« Baines, Lanes. Direct, ii, 590.
< A plan of the town, showing the
different factories, &c., was issued from
1 pin the Otim
office
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
In several of the riverside localities in the township
osiers are much grown, this industry having been in-
troduced in 1 803, when a successful attempt was
made by a Warrington resident to supply English
basket-makers with willow, when the foreign materials
were unobtainable.
Though the growth of the town has caused the
destruction of many of the small two-story houses
which were characteristic of its streets, a good num-
ber still remain. The oldest are of timber con-
struction, such as the old Fox Inn in Buttermarket
Street, now a tobacconist's shop, and though much
altered retaining sufficient old work to mark its date
as belonging to the sixteenth century.1 In the
seventeenth century Warrington houses seem to have
BARLEY Mow INN, WARRINGTON : ROOM ON FIRST FLOOR
been commonly dated by inscriptions over the door-
ways, giving not only the year but the day of the
month, with the owners' initials. Nearly opposite
the Fox Inn is a house with IVN . xxi . 1649 . AK IK EK,
and in the Warrington Museum are several beams
from destroyed houses with similar inscriptions, all
ranging between 1645 and 1658. In Church Street
is a good timber house with a projecting upper
story, of early sixteenth-century date, but the finest
specimen of timber work is the Barley Mow Inn, on the
west side of the market place, belonging to the latter
part of the sixteenth century, with low wood-
mullioned lattice windows and quatrefoil panelling
of black wood filled in with plaster. The gables
toward the market place are now covered with flimsy
weather boarding, but otherwise the outside of the
house has preserved much of the original work. The
interior is naturally less perfect, but on the first floor
is a room completely panelled and with a good
chimney-piece of Jacobean style, and the staircase has
good turned balusters and newels of seventeenth-century
date. In the windows are a few quarries of coloured
glass, and in one of the ground-floor rooms is a fine
carved and panelled chimney-piece, removed from
a small room on the first
floor.'
A second type of house
which is found in the town
is of brick with projecting
labels over the windows and
simple patterns on the wall
surfaces ; such houses appear
to be of seventeenth-century
date, and an earlier example
of the kind occurs at Newton-
le- Willows Hall.
The White Cross, formerly
at the west entrance of the
town, has disappeared.3
Before the
HUNDRED Conquest WAR-
RINGTON was
the head of a hundred com-
prising the parishes of War-
rington, Prescot, and Leigh,
and the township of Culcheth
in Winwick.4 Afterwards this
was merged in the hundred of
West Derby, in which it has
since remained.
In the time of Henry I a barony or fee
BARONY was formed for Pain de Vilers, Warring-
ton being its head and giving it a name.
It descended in regular hereditary succession in the
Vilers and Pincerna or Boteler family until nearly
the end of the sixteenth century, when the Boteler
manors and estates were broken up and the Irelands,
who purchased the principal share, enfranchised the
subordinate manors of the fee.3
1 In front of the ' Fox ' is a post on
in the counties of Derby, Nottingham and
Burtonwood, Bold, and possibly other:
WARD 1704 — being a regulation for the
market stalls. Above is a coronet for the
The barony proper embraced War-
rington with Orford and Little Sankey,
than the formation of the fee or even
than 1212; thus, in the Survey of 1346
" Some views of old buildings in the
135; xxvii, 115. A house in Fennel
Street had a thirteenth-century room, of
which a view is given in S. O. Addy's
Evolution of the English House, p. 1 12. It
was pulled down in 1905.
8 Lanes, and Cbes. Antii;. Soc. xix,
"*y.C.H. Lanes, i, 286*.
• 'Ibid. 337-49-
wood ; also Rixton with Glazebrook,
Culcheth, Atherton, Bedford, Pennington,
Tyldesley, Windle and Bold, all in the pre-
Conquest hundred of Warrington ; Ince
Blundell, Lydiate with Eggergarth, Hal-
sail, half of Barton, and two-thirds of
Thornton in the hundred of West Derby ;
and Becconsall, Hesketh, Great and
Little Hoole. The usual service for
the fee was stated as 'where ten plough-
lands make the fee of one knight ' ;
lord of Warrington for Halsall was I Ib.
of cummin (or .fr/.) for suit to the count,
and wapentake. At this time also th<
service due from the whole fee was said tc
be 'two and a half fees and the sixth part
of a knight's fee.' For ward of Lancastei
Castle 20.. was payable, and 6s. 8</. fot
sake fee. Suit for the manor of Ince
was done by William Blundell.
Some Boteler inquisitions have been
printed by the Chet. Soc. (vols. xcv, xcix),
Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 5-1 1. The whole included eight
knights' fees, of which two formed the
reputed barony and one was in Layton
in Amounderness ; the other five were
was about thirty-nine plough-lands, or
nearly four knights' fees, so that, allowing
for demesne and grants in alms, the ser-
vice due to the crown was amply secured.
How the service for the two fees had
been distributed may be seen ibid. 146-7.
318
by W. Beamont (vols. Ixxxvi, Ixxxvii).
The king leased to Thomas Botelei
the view of frankpledge in the manors 01
Warrington and Layton in 1 504 ; Duchy
of Lane. Misc. Books, xxi, A. 59. See
also ibid, xxii, I7o(i543).
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The manor descended in the same way
M4NOR as the barony of which it was the prin-
cipal member, although the Botelers' chief
residence had long been at
Bewsey in Burtonwood.' It
was purchased by Thomas Ire-
land, afterwards a knight, in
1597. In 1628, however, his
son Thomas Ireland of Bewsey
and Margaret his wife, together
with George and Robert Ireland,
joined in selling the manors of
Warrington, Orford, and Arp-
ley, with various lands and rents,
to William Booth, eldest son of Gules, six fleun-de-lh.
Sir George Booth, baronet, of 3, 2, and \, argent.
Dunham Massey in Cheshire.*
William's son George, a Presbyterian, fought for
the Parliament in the Civil War, and took part in
one of the successful attacks on Warrington in 1643 ;
he was, like many of his party,
dissatisfied with the Protector
and his son and in 1659 en-
deavoured to raise the country
in favour of Charles II. His
attempt was defeated, and he
was committed to the Tower,
but when the Restoration took
place the king raised him to the
peerage as Lord Delamere."
He died in 1684, and was
succeeded by his son Henry,
who adhering to his father's
politics fell under the suspicion
of James II at the time of the Monmouth insur-
rection and was charged with high treason. He
was acquitted, but took part with other Whigs in
the Revolution and was rewarded by an advance in
the peerage, being created earl of Warrington in
BOOTH OF DUNHAM.
Argent, three boars' beads
erect and erased sable.
GREY or STAMP.
Barry of six argent
WARRINGTON
1690. He died three years later and was suc-
ceeded by his son George, who, dying in 1768, left
an only daughter Mary as
heiress, the earldom 4 becoming
extinct.
This daughter married Henry
Grey, fourth earl of Stamford,
and in the year after her
father's death joined with her
husband in the sale of the
manor of Warrington to John
Blackburne of Orford.5 The
lordship descended in the same
manner as Orford and Hale
until 1851, when it was pur- ««««•
chased by the corporation.6
William le Boteler, who died in
BOROUGH 1233, created a borough in Warring-
ton. His charter does not seem to
have been preserved, but the burgage had an acre of
land with it and was liable to a rent of I zd. Wil-
liam's son and heir Emery
died in 1235, leaving a son
William, a minor, as heir.
William de Ferrers, earl of
Derby, who was the guardian,
created some new burgages,
but about forty years afterwards
William le Boteler appears to
have become alarmed at the
growing claims of ' the Com-
monalty of Warrington,' and
set himself to resist them.7 In
1292 he granted a number of
privileges to his ' free tenants '
in the town,8 but at the same time succeeded in
destroying the borough court which had grown up.
Eight years later the free tenants and burgesses finally
renounced all claim to have such a court (curia
1 The manor of Warrington occurs
•> These statements are borne out by
rolls as early as 1275 ; De Banco R. 10,
settlements. It with Burtonwood (or
Bewsey) and Great Sankey remained in
the hands of the lords.
The later history of the manor is told
in detail in W. Beamont's Annals of Warr.
from .587.
o Pal. of Lane. Feet, of F. bdle. 116,
m. 3. The sale did not include Bewsey,
Little Sankey, and the advowson of the
the community of the vill of Warrington
asserted that William le Boteler, grand-
father of the then lord had by his
writing granted to his burgesses of War-
rington that they should have their
free court. The lord, on the other hand,
stated that Emery his father, in all his
time, had his court of all the free tenants
in the said vill and died in seisin thereof
8 The original charter is in the War-
rington Museum ; see Beamont, Lords of
Warr.\, 102-12. The eleven pointscon-
ceded were :—
i. The free tenants were to be exempt
from tolls in the markets and fairs of
ii. Their measures to be free, according
to the king's standards ;
Booth concerning the purchase is printed
in the Cbtt. Misc. (Chet. Soc.), iii, pt. 4.
The boon services performed by the
his father's death all his tenements were
by reason of his own minority in the
hands of the king, who granted the cus-
according to the injury done, as adjudged
by good and lawful men of the town ;
iv. Acquittance of pannage granted ;
66 shearers (reapers) and fillers of dung,
4</. ; Warr. in 1465, p. Ixii.
8 For an account of Lord Delamere see
Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby), i, 531 ;
G.E.C. Complete Peerage; Diet. Nat.
Biog.
* Authorities as above. There are
notices of the first and second earls of
Warrington in Diet. Nat. Biog.
s Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 370,
m. 132. Though the lordship of War-
rington had thus been relinquished the
son of the vendors was granted the title
of earl of Warrington in 1796.
6 The date of purchase was 10 April,
1851. Under the Improvement Act of
1854 the power to levy tolls within the
manor was extended to the portion of
Latchford within the borough.
the time, and he (William) had not allowed
it ; Assize R. 408, m. 1 ; see also Ina.
and Extents, 146 note.
In another suit William claimed sepa-
rate acres from various holders. The
jury found that Emery his father had died
seised of the soil thereof, but that the
custodians during minority had demised
from the waste to the defendants' ances-
tors, a rent of i ^d. to be paid for each
acre ' as ancient burgages of the said vill '
of Warrington with $d. increase for entry,
payable to the lord, and id. to the bailiff.
When William le Boteler came of age he
received the services of the tenants, and
his present claim against them was sus-
tained ; Assize R. 408, m. 16.
The suit of the burgesses respecting the
court of the community appears in the
3*9
vi. Fines to the lord to be fixed accord-
ing to reasonable taxation in a full court,
by the view of their neighbours in War-
rington.
vii. The lord not to take inquisition
upon his free tenants without their con-
sent ;
viii. The tenants were not bound to
keep any man taken or attached by the
lord's bailiffs, except according to the
custom of England ;
ix. They were not bound to drive cattle,
&c. distrained in the town ;
x. They were not to do ward or pay
relief, except according to the tenor of
their feoffments ;
xi. The officers for the assize of bread
and beer were to be chosen by the free
tenants themselves.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
!i°""!s '?"*""> 3
and I gules -within a
ure c/,arged
hurgensium).' For the next five hundred years War-
rington was governed by means of the lord's manor
court.
In 1254-5 William le Boteler obtained a charter
for an annual fair at Warring-
ton to be held on the eve, day,
and morrow of the Translation
of St. Thomas the Martyr.8
A second fair of eight days, be-
ginning on the eve of St. An-
drew, was conceded by Edward I
in 1277 ; at the same time a
weekly market on Friday was
allowed.3 Eight years later the
summer fair was extended to
eight days, and a weekly market
for Wednesday was allowed—
apparently in substitution for jt
the Friday market, which was eight covered cups
not afterwards held. At the
same time a grant of free warren in his demesne
lands of Sankey, Penketh, Warrington, and Layton
was allowed to the lord.4 The fairs have continued
to the present time, the days being 1 8 July (old
St. Thomas's) and 30 November ; the Wednesday
market also survives, and another on Saturday
has been established, by custom probably.
The claim of William le Boteler to have
markets and fairs, as well as free warren, wreck
of the sea, and gallows in Warrington and Layton
was tried at Lancaster in 1292. He produced
the charters mentioned, and claimed to have had
wreck of the sea at Layton and gallows in War-
rington without interruption from the time of the
Conqueror. The jurors found that his claim was
valid, and further that he and his ancestors had
held a market and fair from beyond the memory
of man.5
The constables chosen each October at the
lord's court governed the town, under the justices
of the peace, down to 1813, when commissioners
appointed by the local Improvement Act of that
year were associated with them.6 In 1832 the town
became a parliamentary borough under the Reform
Act, returning one member; and in 1847 it was
incorporated,7 and has since been governed by the
council. As already stated the manorial rights, in-
cluding the market tolls, were purchased . by the
corporation. The municipal boundary at first in-
cluded only about half the area of the township,
Orford and Little Sankey remaining outside.
Some portions of the township of Latchford and
Thelwall in Cheshire were also included in the
borough.8 The boundary was extended in 1 890, and
again in 1 896 ; it now includes all the ancient town-
ship of Warrington (except Orford) and Latchford as
far south as the Manchester Ship Canal.9
In 1890 the enlarged town was divided into nine
wards,10 each with an alderman and three councillors.
The gas and water supplies are in the hands of the
council, which has also instituted an electric light and
power supply, and an electric tramway service. Baths,
gymnasium, and other useful and necessary institutions
have been established."
A grant of arms was made in 1 897."
A circulating library, begun in 1 760 by the pro-
jector of the Warrington Academy, was in 1848
united with the museum of the local Natural History
}ANK HALL, WARRINGTON ; NOW THE TOWN HALL
Society, founded in 1835, and being taken over by
the corporation became the public museum.13 This
was the first town in the kingdom to open a rate-
1 Charter in Warrington Museum ; Bea-
mont, op. cit. p. 119. It was made in
thereon and to deal in bread, iron, fish,
and all other goods toll free, ' as freely as
boundary on the south, i.e. the north
bank of the Ship Canal, was made the
the community of the whole vill of War-
Bold Deeds (Warr. Museum), D. 3.
so that the whole of the borough might
rington.' The remains of a seal — presum-
6 Baines, Lanes. Direct. 1825, ii, 590,
be within one county. A portion of
ably the borough seal — are attached.
It must have been later that the 'com-
Improvement Act of 1 7 & 1 8 V ic. cap. 8),
lu Viz. Town-hall, Bewsey, Fairfield,
monalty of the vill of Warrington ' prayed
was 'for paving and improving the town
Howley, Orford, Whitecross, St. Austin's,
the king for a lease of the pannage of the
of Warrington and for building' a new
St. John's, Latchford.
town for the sake of the soul of his father
bridewell in the said town.' The bride-
"The town was lighted with gas in
Edward ; the plea being that they were
well was built, and a town hall in Irlam
1821 ; the Act incorporating the company
summer and winter living in a marsh, so
Street in 1820. The other public build-
was passed in the following year. The
that one could hardly come or go ; Ana.
ings in 1825 were the market hall in the
works were purchased by the corporation
Pet. P.R.O. 78/3876.
market place, used on market days for the
in 1877.
The court of the borough as well as of
sale of corn, and having a suite of assembly
" Printed in Geneal. Mag. i, 261, 430.
the fee of Warrington is named in the
rooms ; two cloth halls, one by the mar-
is It has a large collection of Warrington
Boteler inquisition of 1441 ; Lanes. Inq.
ket, and the other, built in 1817, in
acts, maps, charters, and books on local
f.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 49.
« Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), i, 16 ;
Buttermarket Street ; and a theatre.
7 ii & 12 Vic. cap. 93.
history, and by local authors. Dr. James
Kendrick presented over a thousand books
half a mark was paid for it ; Orig. 40
8 There were four wards — North-east,
and pamphlets. It contains good collections
Hen. Ill, m. n.
North-west, South-east, and South-west —
of local antiquities, especially from Wil-
« Charter R. 70 (5 Edw. I), m. i,
divided by the principal cross-streets.
derspool and the Friary church.
n. 2.
9 This and other information concern-
A museum of natural history had been
' " Ibid. 78 (13 Edw. 1), m. 26 d. n. 8.
ing the borough ii due to Mr. J. Lyon
formed in the town as early as 1812;
6 Plac. de quo Warr. (Rec. Com.),
Whittle, the town clerk. Orford was
Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 677.
386.
added to Winwick and a township of
The editors are indebted to Mr. Charles
In 1363 John le Boteler leased a plot
Little Sankey formed in 1894; L.G.B.
Madeley, the curator and librarian, for
of land near the Market Gate at a rent of
Order 31665.
information and assistance willingly af-
\zd. The tenant had leave to build
At the last extension the borough
forded them.
320
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
supported library. After occupying hired premises
in Friar's Green, buildings were erected for it in
1855, and enlarged in 1876 by the addition of an
art gallery, and again in 1 88 1. The School of Art
adjoins ; it was founded in 1853. A technical insti-
tute was built in 1902.
A town hall and bridewell were built under the
Act of 1 8 1 3 ; the building was till recently used as a
court for the magistrates, &c. The present town hall,
formerly Bank Hall, was purchased in 1872 ; it was
the seat of the Patten family, and erected in 1750.
It is a fine specimen of a large country house of the
time, with good plaster wall and ceiling decorations,
and a pediment on the front with the Patten arms.
The rain-water heads and wrought-iron railings are
excellent of their kind. The grounds have been
thrown open to the public. Parr Hall, presented to
the town by Mr. J. Charlton Parr in 1895, is used
for public meetings.
The markets were held in an open space in the
angle formed by Sankey and Horsemarket Streets.
There the present market-hall was built in 1856
under an Act obtained in 1854 ; a large covered shed
adjacent was erected in 1879 to give further accom-
modation. Horsemarket and Buttermarket Streets
show by their names how they were formerly used.
WARRINGTON
Apart from the Boteler family the chief landowners
in Warrington were the Haydocks and their successors
the Leghs of Lyme. An account of their holding has
been printed in William Bcamont, Warrington in
1465.' One or more families bore the local name ; *
others took a surname from their trades or offices, as
the Arrowsmiths ;3 others again had come into the
town from the adjacent town-
ships, as Rixton and South-
worth, and may have been
younger branches of the ma-
norial families.4 Other surveys
of the town were made in
1587 and 1593, and are now
in the possession of Lord Lil-
ford ; there is a copy in the
museum.
In more recent times the PATTKN
chief local family was that of HALL. Loaengy ermine
Patten, whose residence, as and utlt, a canun gula.
already stated, is now the town
hall.4 The Borrons recorded a pedigree in 1664.*
The prior of the Hospitallers ' and the abbot ot
Whalley " had exemptions from toll. William le
Boteler early in the thirteenth century granted to
Cockersand Abbey a burgage which the priest had
1 Chet. Soc. vol. xvii.
» The Warringtons may have been an
offshoot of the Bottlers. In 1 246 an agree-
ment was made respecting an oxgang of
land and a water corn-mill in Warrington,
held for life by Henry le Boteler of
Richard le Boteler, who held of William
le Boteler, chief lord of the fee ; Final
Cone, i, 100.
Richard son of Henry son of Ralph in
1278 recovered from William le Boteler
and others a free tenement, part of which
the defendant claimed as guardian of
Simon, son of William, son of Ralph,
which Ralph was elder brother of the
plaintiff. The other part had been granted
by the earl of Ferrers while defendant wa
20 a. For Henry son of Robert Ruyl see
Wbattey Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 418,
William son of Payn being a witness to
his grant. Agnes daughter of Thomas
Payn was among the plaintiffs in a suit of
1332, William Payn of Warrington being
a defendant ; Assize R. 1411, m. 12.
Hawise widow of Richard de Hallum,
William dc Ripon, and Richard del Ford,
demanded certain messuages against Wil-
liam, son of William le Boteler in 1356 ;
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 6, m. 5</.;
Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 337.
Four years later Elizabeth daughter of
Robert de Medburn complained that Wil-
liam dc Hallum, and Margaret his wife,
William de Ripon, and Richard de Wools-
38. His son, another Thomas, the
builder of Bank Hall, acquired the lord-
ship ofWinmarlcigh; and his son Thomas,
high sheriff in 1773, married one of the
daughters and co-heirs of Peter Bold of
Bold. Their son Peter Patten Bold left
four daughters as co-heirs, and the Patten
estates went to his brother Thomas Patten
Wilson, whose son John Wilson Patten
was in 1874 elevated to the peerage as
Lord Winmarleigh. He died in 1892,
and his son and grandson having died
before him, the peerage became extinct,
and his daughters inherited the estates ;
G.E.C. Complete Peerage, viii, 189.
Another branch of this family settled
at Preston, and acquired the manor of
alsoR. 1239, m. ^d.
Richard son of Henry de Warrington in
gang of land from Richard the Carpenter
and Isabel his wife and others, Isabel
being daughter and heir of Elota ; Assize
the town ; Assize R. 440, m. I d. In the
following year William de Hallum of
Warrington complained that John, son of
Gilbert de Haydock, had taken his cattle,
'against the gage and pledge' ; Assize R.
441, m. 3. Hallums Lane and Hallums
Thomas Stanley of Bickerstaffe, and the
estates have descended to the earl of
Derby.
Two deeds relating to William Patten's
property in Warrington in 1682-3 mav
be seen in Local Gleanings Lanes, and
earlier plea it is known that Elota was
Ellen de la Bank ; Assize R. 408, m. 4.
Ralph son of Henry de Warrington was
where it is stated that the well was after-
wards known as the Running Pump.
John Scott recovered a messuage in
notices of the families of Woodcock and
Hayward ; i, 204 ; ii, 29. One of the
latter, the Rev. Thomas Hayward, be-
same time other plaintiffs were Hugh de
Warrington and John son of Gilbert, son
of Walter de Warrington ; ibid. m. 27 d.
' » Mary widow of William Arrowsmith
occurs in 1445 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 8,
m. 10. She and Robert Arrowsmith were
executors of her husband's will ; ibid.
R. 7, m. 4. He had had William le
Boteler's magnum hospitium of which Joan,
widow of Hamon the Nailer, was tenant
in 1465 ; Beamont, op. cit. p. 72. The
heir of Roger Arrowsmith is frequently
mentioned in the same work. In 1575
Thomas Norris purchased several mes-
suages from Robert Arrowsmith ; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle 37, m. 16.
m. 5.
' The surname Patten occurs in War-
rington in the Survey of 1461; (p. 92)
already quoted. Pedigrees are given in
Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 184,
and Burke, Commoners, iii, 79. In an as-
sessment of the town made in 1649 the
names of Thomas and John Patten ap-
pear ; Kuerden MSS. iii, W. 18. A
pedigree was recorded by Thomas Patten
in 1665 when he was twenty-eight years
of age, it is headed by Richard Patten of
Wainfleet ; Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.),
229. Mary, daughter of Thomas Patten,
in 1698 married Thomas Wilson, the
famous bishop of Sodor and Man, and
their son, Dr. Thomas Wilson, left his
1720.
6 Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 65 ;
Misc. Gen. et Herald. (New Ser.), Lanct. and
Cbes. Antlq. Notes, ii, 204 ; Deed enrolled
in Com. Pleas, Trin. 1756, R. 43, m.
114,4
7 The agreement that the prior and hi*
successors and the brethren and their
tenants should for ever be free of toll
in the fairs and markets of Warrington
was confirmed by a friendly suit in 1292 ;,
Assize R. 408, m. 17.
8 William le Boteler early in the thir-
teenth century granted full quittance of
toll in his vill of Warrington both in buy-
ing and selling ; he also gave them a free
burgage in the vill, which they could use
about 1300. Roger son of William Payn
they should take the surname of Wilson.
414. A suit of 1272 concerning this ex-
m. 44. He successfully defended his right
to land claimed by Amery widow of
Thomas Ruyl of Warrington ; ibid. m.
3
prosperous merchant, deepened the chan-
nel of the Mersey, greatly improving the
navigation ; NorrU P. (Chet. Soc.), 37,
32I
At the suppression a rent of 8j. was paid
for the abbey's messuage in Warrington ;
Wballey Coucber, iv, 1247.
4*
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
held.1 Norton Priory or Abbey, Birkenhead Priory, possession till the end of the sixteenth century, when
and the hospital of St. John at Chester also held they were succeeded by a branch of the Tyldesley
lands in the town.* family, by marriage with the heiress of Thomas
The hamlet of ORFORD 3 was held of the lords Norris.6
of Warrington by several tenants. Among these Shortly afterwards the Blackburnes of Newton-in-
were the Haydocks and their successors the Leghs,4 Makerfield acquired an estate here, and Orford was
and the Norris family. The latter appear to have their principal residence until the beginning of last
acquired a holding about 1 300,' and remained in century, when Hale Hall became their seat/ Orford
1 Cockmand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, haps the John, son and heir of Henry le W. Beamont's Hale and Orford, from which
641. Robert the clerk and Astin the Norreys, to whom the steward of the book much of the following is derived.
Skinner concurred in the grant, the latter manor of Warrington gave twenty-one There are several entries relating to the
receiving 401. from the canons. deeds touching the inheritance of « the family in Foster's Alumni Oxon.
" Warr. in 1465, pp. 40, 74; a croft said John de Halsnead.' The Blackburnes were a trading family,
belonging to Norton was called Marbury's The pleadings in the courts do not give previously of Thistleton and Garstang,
land (p. 1 04), which may indicate the donor. much assistance. Robert le Norreys was who acquired lands in Newton and the
The three ecclesiastical bodies named, a defendant in a claim in 1292 by neighbourhood late in the sixteenth cen-
with the abbot of Whalley, had their Richard de Warrington, chaplain, Gilbert tury. Richard Blackburne of Newton
lands as early as the time of Edward II, son of Gilbert, and others, for reasonable gave £20 a year towards the stipend of a
as appears from an old list of the free estovers for housebote and haybote in 60 ' preaching minister ' at the chapel there ;
tenants preserved in the inq. p. m. of acres of wood in Warrington ; Assize R. Commonwealth Ch. Sur-v. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
Sir Thomas Boteler ; Duchy of Lane. 408, m. 27. At the same time Thomas and Ches.), 47.
Inq. p.m. v, n. 13. de Halsnead and John his son were defen- Thomas, son of Richard, acquired the
Before the dissolution Norton received dants in other pleas ; ibid. m. 7 d. Robert Tyldesley mansion in Orford as stated
a rent of 41. $d. from Warrington ; Orme- le Norreys was again a defendant in 1 305, above. He afterwards succeeded his elder
rod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby), i, 686. Birken- the Fords being among the claimants ; brother in the Newton estate. He was a
head had jrf. rent ; ibid, ii, 462. Fora De Banco R. 156, m. 15, 28</. Robert devout Protestant, but does not seem to
Jas. I, pt. xxiv.
» Overforth, 1465.
* From Beamont, Warr. in 1465 (Chet.
Soc.), 140, it appears that Richard
Bruche held land in Orford of Sir Peter
Legh by a chief rent ; his land lay be-
tween Orford Lane on the north, and
Rushfield Brook on the south ; to the
south of this again was the Heath.
The list of tenants at will occupies
pp. 116-39. The meadow called Dalcarr,
of six acres, lay to the west of the road
leading from Longford Bridge to the vil-
lage of Hulme ; a meadow called Homur
Plock, belonging to William Boteler, lay
on its western side. It was worth 1 35. ^d.
a year ; p. 1 16. The Penny Plock was a
meadow encircled by the rivulet called
Houghton Brook, which bounded it on
the west ; Richard Bruche's field called
demanded 24 acres of pasture against
William le Boteler ; ibid. 205, m. 65 d.
Ten years later John le Norreys of
Halsnead was plaintiff and defendant in
suits concerning lands in Warrington ;
Assize R. 425, m. 6 ; 426, m. 2 (Robert,
son of William de la Ford, being plaintiff
in this case).
John le Norreys of Orford died 7 Sep-
tember, 1416, leaving a son and heir of
the same name, then twelve years of age ;
his lands in Orford were held of John le
Boteler by knight's service, and other
lands in Church Street in Warrington of
Sir Gilbert de Haydock, also by knight's
His diary has been preserved, and is now
at Hale Hall. In March, 1653-4 a set-
tlement was made by fine of the hall
of Orford, wilh lands in Warrington, &c.,
and a free fishery in the Mersey; Thomas
Blackburne was plaintiff and Edward
Blackburne deforciant ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 153, m. 33. He died in
1663, and was buried at Winwick.
His eldest son Thomas, of Orford and
Newton, recorded a pedigree in 1664,
being then thirty years of age ; Dugdale,
risit. (Chet. Soc.), 36. He died without
issue in 1670, and was succeeded by a
the heir were granted to Richard de
Burscough ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet.
Soc.), i, 1 24. The lands of John Norreys
are fully described in Warr. in 1465,
in the guidance of local affairs. He
appears to have been a Whig in politics,
for he was the first sheriff of Lancashire
appointed by George I. He enlarged and
A number of field names occur — Irpuls
earth, Gorsty acre, Hoole acre, Gale
sparth, Emme acre, Payns field, Marbury's
land, &c. Besides a money rent each
tenant at will was required to give one
day's work at filling the dungcart, worth
id. ; one day at haymaking, worth id. ;
and two days in autumn, worth 8</.
* Some of the Norris D. have been pre-
served by Dodsworth (MSS. liii, fol. 15*).
In 1261 Jordan, son of Robert de Hulton,
granted to Roger de Hopton (Upton) a
burgage in Warrington purchased from
William le Boteler for 401. At the end
of 1288 Robert Me Charter' and Alice de
Kingsley his wife quitclaimed to John, son
of Robert le Norreys, all their right in a
burgage and acre of land in Warrington ;
and two months later Robert, son of Roger
de Upton, granted to the same John le
Norreys lands in Warrington and Bold, by
a charter dated at Burtonhead. Five years
afterwards Roger Michel and Margaret
his wife released to John le Norreys their
claim on a fourth part of the land which
Robert, John's uncle, had held in War-
rington. This uncle may be the Robert
de Upton of the preceding charter.
In 1339 William le Boteler of War-
rington and Elizabeth his wife granted to
Henry, son of John le Norreys of Halsnead,
four acres in Warrington, with remainder
to Nicholas (eldest) son of the said John.
In August of the same year John le
Norreys of Orford granted lands in
A feoffment of his lands by John Norris
of Orford in 1473 is in Kuerden MSS.
iii.T. 2,». ,9.
Thomas Norris did homage for his
lands in 1506, and appeared at the lord's
court in i 523 among the other free tenants;
Lords of Warr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 363, 432.
6 A settlement of his lands was made
by Thomas Norris in 1573, the feoffees
being Robert and Henry Norris ; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 35, m. 9. Thi.
Thomas appears to have prospered ; in
the following years he made various pur-
early in 1724.
John Blackburne, who was the second
son of Jonathan, succeeded. He was high
sheriff of the county in 1743-4, and
built or restored the bridge and roadway
at Longford, in order to secure the
northern approach lo the town from being
rendered impassable by floods, as had fre-
quently happened. He built a school
house at Orford. He himself was a stu-
dent of horticulture, making collections
of plants, building greenhouses, and laying
out his gardens with devotion and success.
His daughler Anna was a nolable botanist.
The Warrington Academy had probably
some share in stimulating these tastes, as
Dr. Reinhold Forsler was one of it«
lulors, and named a genus of plants
Blackburnia, in memory of the kindness
the family had shown him. John Black-
burne extended the family possessions,
his most noteworlhy acquisition being the
lordship of the manor of Warrington in
1769. He died in 1786, in the ninety-
third year of his age, having lived to see
his grandson and heir the high sheriff of
the county in 1781. There is a nolice of
him in Aikin, Country round Manch. 307.
John Blackburne's eldest son Thomas
had married Ireland Greene, the heiress
of Hale, and had setlled in ihis place,
where he died in 1768. His son John
had thus, long before succeeding his
grandfather at Orford, succeeded his falher
at Hale, but he resided at Orford until the
death of his mother.
1585 he purchased lands in Lag'hok or
Laffog in Parr j ibid. bdle. 36, m. 175 ;
37, m. 16; 38, m. 71; 47, m. 23.
Thomas Norris died in 1595 seised
of lands in Orford, Warrington, Long-
ford, Great and Little Marlon, Poulton,
Laffog, Parr, Windle, and Windleshaw ;
his heir was his daughter Anne, wife of
Thomas Tyldesley (of Wardley), aged
twenty years ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m.
xvi, n. 51. Her husband was knighted in
1616; MetcMe,Sk. of Knight,, 167. The
inherilance passed lo their son Richard,
but Orford was sold to Roger Charnock of
Gray's Inn in 1631 to pay the debts of
Sir Thomas, and afterwards became the
property of Thomas Blackburne i Norris
D. (B. M.).
7 There is a Blackburne pedigree in
Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 194.
322
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Hall has since been let ; it was for many years the
residence of William Beamont, the well-known
antiquary.1 It is now occupied by the Warrington
Training College, and stands
among the wreckage of what
was once a well laid-out and
planted garden, with a little
wood behind it and a small
stream and duck decoy.* The
smoke has killed all the trees
and defaced the garden, the
stream is foul and the decoy
long since disused, while the
house itself, a plain square build- MORRIS or OR
ing of three stories, has nothing Q»fr'"->J *rgent
f. , yules ; in the second and
of interest to sho °
and
,
beyond a tifj quarters aj-re
well-designed entrance doorway over all on afesse sable
at the east front with a window tbra mullets of the first.
over it, on the keystone of
which is the date 1716. This may mark a re-
facing of older work, as the windows on the south
side, with wooden transoms and casements, appear
to be some thirty to forty years older than the
date.
The manor of LITTLE SJNKEr3 was granted
by Pain de Vilers, lord of Warrington, to Gerard de
San key the carpenter, in the early part of the twelfth
century. It was assessed as one plough-land and held
by knight's service. In 1212 Robert son of Thomas
was holding it ; * and thirty years later Robert de
Samlesbury was the tenant.5 He or his descendants
probably adopted the local surname ; but little or
nothing is known of the place 6 until the end of the
fifteenth century, when Randle, son of Randle
Sankey, did homage and paid los. as his relief for
one plough-land in Little Sankey.7 Edward Sankey
WARRINGTON
died I December, 1602, holding the tenth part of
a knight's fee in Little Sankey, Warrington, and
Great Sankey ; Thomas, his son and heir, was under
sixteen years of age.8 Nothing further seems to be
known of the family or manor. The latter may have
Ut
been acquired by the Irelands
sidered a member of Lord
Lilford's manor of Bewsey.10
The parish church has already
been described ; it has two
mission churches — St. Clement's
and St. George's. The follow-
ing also are used for the Estab-
lished worship : —
Holy Trinity, founded by
Peter Legh of Lyme in 1 709,
in Sankey Street, in the centre SANKEY OF SAI
of the town ; it was rebuilt in Argent, on a bend
1760 and restored in 1872." three fsbes or.
It is divided by pillars which
support galleries into nave and aisles, the galleries
being on north, south, and west, and there is a
west tower, which contains the corporation clock
and bell, the latter rung every evening at 8 p.m."
The pulpit and reading-desk are good examples
of woodwork, with well-designed balusters ; and
in the middle of the church hangs a fine eigh-
teenth-century brass chandelier, formerly in the
House of Commons, and presented to the church in
1 80 1. All pews are of oak and probably coeval with
the church, but the font, of baluster shape, is
more modern. The registers begin in 1816, but
no district was assigned to the church until 1 8 70. ls
The incumbents are now presented by the rectors of
Warrington.14 St. Luke's, Liverpool Road, built in
1893, is a chapel of ease to Holy Trinity.
1 A notice of the family of Booth of
Orford is given in Local Gleanings Lanes,
and Ches. ii, 148.
> Adam Neal, the gardener at Orford,
prepared a catalogue of the plants there,
printed at Warrington in 1772. The
collections were transferred to Hale.
There is a view of Orford Hall in Pen-
nant, Dawning to Alston Moor, 82 5 see
also Memorials of the Ireland Blackburne
Family.
' Sanki, 1 21 2 5 Sonky, 1242, and com-
"L,
Inq. and E.
Lanes, and Ches.), 10.
> Ibid. 147.
« In 1296 an agreement was made as
to ten messuages, a mill, 8 oxgangs of
land, &c. in Warrington— probably Little
Sankey — between Robert de Sankey,
senior, and Robert de Sankey, junior ;
Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 180. The remainder was to Jordan de
Sankey.
Cecily, widow of Roger de Sankey, who
had a son and heir Robert, in 1307
claimed dower in four oxgangs against
two Roberts de Sankey, senior and
junior; she was espoused to Roger in
1288 at the door of Winwick church;
De Banco R. 163, m. 48 </. From an-
other suit, a few years earlier, it seems
that the younger Robert was son of the
elder, and that his wife's name was
Emma ; Robert, son of Roger de Sankey,
may be the elder Robert ; Assize R.
It is noticeable that in 1341 Little
Sankey was called the 'third part of
(Rec. Soc. App. 626.
Great Sankey'; Inj. Non. (Rec. Com.),
40.
In 1 344 Robert, son of Adam de Sankey,
was concerned in the warranty of two
messuages, &c. in Little Sankey ; De
' Beamont,' Lords of Warr. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 349 ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 14.
Robert de Sankey of Warrington had the
king's letters of protection on crossing
the seas in 1421 in the retinue of Sir
Piers de Legh ; Def. Keeper's Ref. xliv,
Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, I ; besides the knight's ser-
vice I2s. 6d. rent was payable. Edward
was the son of one Thomas Sankey and
grandson of another. Thomas Sankey in
1542 held the two water-mills on the
Sankey ; and five years later Thomas
Boteler leased the mills to him for
twenty-one years at a rent of £6 131. t^d.
and 300 ' stick eels' in season; Lords of
Warr. ii, 452, 468. In August, 1593,
a settlement was made by Edward
Sankey and Anne his wife, daughter of
Richard Penkethman, and Anne Sankey,
widow, of the family lands in Warrington
and Great and Little Sankey; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 55, m. 63. The
Sankeys, like most of the neighbouring
gentry, adhered to the Roman Church on
the Elizabethan changes. In 1 584 a raid
was made upon Sankey House, stated to
be in Great Sankey, in the small hours of
a February morning, the priest-hunting
sheriff's officer hoping to capture the well-
known Dr. Thomas Worthington and his
323
four nephews. The boys were taken,
but the priest escaped, he being then
attending a sick man in the town ; Foley,
Rec. S. J. ii, 1 1 6- 1 8. About the same
time Anne, wife of Thomas Sankey of
Sankey, was condemned for recusancy,
but had not been captured ; ibid, quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. clxvii, n. 40. Edward
Sankey in 1590 was classed among those
who came to church but were not com-
municants ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 246
(quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4).
Francis, Lawrence, and William Sankey,
natives of Lancashire, became Jesuits in
the early part of the seventeenth century,
Lawrence serving in his native county
from 1638 to 1649 ; Foley, vii, 685. An
Edward Sankey occurs in 1639.
9 In the Boteler settlements, &c. Or-
ford and Little Sankey seem to have gone
together ; Lords of Warr, ii, 470, 476.
10 Information of his lordship's agent,
Mr. John B. Selby.
" A full account of this church and
Warr. Ch. Notes, 129-81. From an
rector in 1760 it appears that the tacra-
ment was administered in the parish
church on the first Sunday in the month
and at Trinity Church on the third Sun-
day ; p. 141.
12 The bell, dated 1647, formerly hung
in the court-house.
*>LonJ. Gaz. 8 Feb. 1870; endowment,
6 May, 1870; see also End. Char. Ref.
for Warr. i 899, pp. 67-70.
14 For the transfer of the patronage see
Beamont, op. cit. 145-6.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
St. Paul's, Bewsey Road, was built in 1830, and
formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1841.' The
patronage is in the hands of trustees. St. Anne's,
Winwick Road, had an ecclesiastical district assigned
to it in 1864, services being held in the schools ; the
church followed in 1868. The patronage is vested
in Simeon's Trustees.* St. Peter's, Birchall Street,
began with a temporary church in 1874 ; the present
building was erected in 1890. The rector of War-
rington and the vicar of St. Paul's present alter-
nately.3 St. Barnabas, Bank Quay, was built in 1879
as a chapel of ease to St. Paul's, the vicar of this
church being patron. A district was assigned to it
in 1884.
At Orford there is a licensed chapel of ease under
Padgate in Poulton.
The Reformed Church of England has a place ot
worship called Emmanuel.
The Presbyterian Church of England uses St. John's,
in Winwick Street, built in 1807 for a congregation
of seceders from St. James's, Latchford. Down to
1830 it belonged to the Countess of Huntingdon's
Connexion, and again from 1836 to 1850. The
congregation ceased to exist, but was re-formed in
1851 ; becoming Congregational next year it took
Salem Chapel, St. John's being disused, and re-opened
as a Presbyterian place of worship in 1854. From
1830 to 1836 it had been used by the Scottish
Secessionists, afterwards the United Presbyterians.4
The Wesleyan Methodists have churches in Bold
Street, Bewsey Road, and Liverpool Road ; also two
mission-rooms. John Wesley preached in Warrington
several times between 1757 and 1768 ; a Methodist
Chapel was built in Upper Bank Street in 1782.
The Primitive Methodists have a church in Legh
Street. The United Methodists have a church in
Dallam Lane, and the Independent Methodists one
in Friar's Green, built in 1 802. There are Free
Gospel churches at Bank Quay and Academy Street.
In the latter street is also an unsectarian mission-
room.
In 1824 there was a Baptist meeting in Bridge
Street, an offshoot from the old Hill Cliff Chapel in
Cheshire. A Particular Baptist church exists in
Legh Street. Another Baptist church is in Golborne
Street ; it was built in 1 8 1 1 for Congregationalists
who had seceded from Stepney Chapel, and has had
a chequered history. The Baptists had it from 1855
for a few years, and regained it in 1876.*
Wycliffe Congregational Church, Bewsey Street, is
the outcome of secessions from Cairo Street Chapel
on account of the Unitarian doctrine prevailing there.
Stepney Chapel, in King Street, was built in 1779,
and a church was formed in 1797; the Rylands
family were connected with it. In 1848 it was
closed. Services were for a time held at the
'Nag's Head,' Wycliffe Church being opened in
1852.°
The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have a church.
The Society of Friends has long had members
here. Their meeting-house in Buttermarket Street
was built in 1720 as a branch of the Penketh meet-
ing ; it was rebuilt in 1830.'
Robert Yates, when ejected from the rectory in
1662, continued to minister in the town and district.
Ten years later, during a temporary indulgence, he
was licensed. The old court-house, on the site of
the market hall, was a meeting-place, perhaps by
favour of the lord of the manor, a Presbyterian.
The first chapel was built in Cairo Street in 1702,
for the Nonconformist congregation resulting from
Mr. Yates's labours; this was rebuilt in 1745.
About the latter date the minister and most of his
flock became Unitarian ; and this chapel, which in
its time was the centre of the town's intellectual life,
remains in the hands of the Unitarians.8
Those who remained faithful to the Roman Church
at the Reformation had opportunities of worship, in
spite of legal proscription, at some of the halls in the
neighbourhood.9 A room in the Feathers Inn,
Friarsgate, now pulled down, was used as a chapel
about 1750. Dom Thomas Benedict Shuttleworth,
a Benedictine stationed at Woolston, removed into
Warrington in 1771, and a hall in Dallam Lane, now
belonging to the Primitive Methodists, was occupied
until 1 778, when a chapel was built off Bewsey Street.
In 1823 the present church of St. Alban was built
close by, Dr. Molyneux, titular abbot of St. Albans,
being then in charge. He procured the gift of the
chasuble found in 1835 hidden in the crypt of the
parish church, and this is preserved at St. Alban's.10
The orphreys only are ancient, of late fifteenth-century
date, the body of the vestment having been renewed
in red velvet. In the church is preserved another
English chasuble of somewhat later date, but the silk-
embroidered orphreys are much repaired. In 1877
the Benedictines built the fine church of St. Mary on
the eastern side of the town. More recently they
have opened St. Benedict's school-chapel (1896).
The church of the Sacred Heart, built in 1894, is in
the hands of the secular clergy. There is a house of
sisters of the Holy Cross and Passion, who teach in
the schools."
BURTONWOOD
Burtoneswod, 1228; Bourtonewod, 1251; Bur-
tonwode, 1297; Bortounwod, 1337.
This township, of 4,192^ statute acres," was long
purely agricultural in character. The population has
1 It was one of the churches built by
parliamentary grant. See Beamont, op.
cit. 183-98 ; Lond. Gaa. 1 6 April, 1841 ;
endowments, 22 Oct. 1841, &c.
3 Lond. Gax. 4 Nov. 1864 ; Beamont,
op. cit. 199.
8 Ibid. 20 Oct. 1874; Beamont, op.
*"< Nightingale, Lane. Nonconf. iv, 246-5 '•
•» Ibid. 242-5 1 for this story.
« Ibid. 227-41.
1 Attached is a burial-ground, now
•disused.
8 Nightingale, op. cit. iv, 206-26. An
account of its endowments will be found in
the Rtfort of the Warr. End. Char. p. 56.
» Humphrey Cartwright of Warrington
had already in 1593 suffered ten years' im-
prisonment for religion ; Local Gleanings
Lanes, and Cbes. ii, 252. There are a fair
1641 ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv,
244; one of them was Douce Patten,
Edward Booth, born at Warrington about
1640 and educated at the English College,
Lisbon, laboured as a priest in Lancashire
for about half a century, and wrote some
scientific essays; Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of
Engl. Catbs. i, 267.
In 1717 those who registered estates
were Thomas Crosby, Richard Ashton,
324
and (at Orford) Isaac Smith and Daniel
Platt, ' whitster ' 5 Orlebar and Payne,
Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 117, 123.
10 Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1894, 1903;
also J. Gillow in Tram. Hist. Soc. (New
Ser.), xiii, ,57, where it is stated that
ninety-one persons were confirmed in
1784.
In 1767 the numbers of ' Papists ' were
returned by the bishop of Chester as
follows : Warrington, 401 ; Burton wood,
15; Hollinfare, 41; Tram. Hist. Sac.
(NewSer.),xviii,2.5.
11 Liverpool Cath. Ann.
18 The census of 1901 gives 4, 195 acres,
including 33 of inland water.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
recently increased at a rapid rate, and in 1901 num-
bered 2,187 persons. The country is extremely flat,
with much reclaimed marsh or mossland, drained by
'cuts' into the Sankey Brook, which, winding from
north to south-east and south, forms the boundary of
the township on those sides. It yields crops of wheat,
clover, and hay, and some potatoes and turnips on a
clay soil ; but on the north it becomes a coal-mining
district, and at Collins Green shafts of coal-mines are
prominent features in the landscape. The geological
formation illustrates the complete bunter series of the
new red sandstone. Bewsey and Dallam are upon
the upper mottled sandstone ; Burtonwood, Bradley
Hall, and Collins Green upon the pebble beds, the
remainder of the township being upon the lower
mottled sandstone, except a very small area of permian
rocks and coal measures occurring to the west of
Collins Green. The St. Helens and Sankey Canal,
after crossing Sankey Brook, passes through the south-
eastern end of the township near Dallam and Bewsey.
There is a station at Collins Green on the Manchester
and Liverpool section of the London and North
Western Railway, which enters the township on the
east over the celebrated Sankey Viaduct of nine arches,
each of 50 ft. span and varying from 60 ft. to 70 ft.
in height, one arch spanning Sankey Brook and
another the Sankey Canal.1
A school board was formed in 1876.'
There is a parish council.
Probably known before the Conquest
MANORS as 'Burtun' and held by one of the
thirty-four drengs of Warrington hundred
as a dependent manor or berewick of Warrington, this
manor was subsequently included in the demesne of
the lords of the honour of Lancaster, and by Henry I
put into his forest between Ribble and Mersey, when
it doubtless acquired its name of BURTONWOOD. In
1228 it was perambulated in accordance with the
charter of the forest of 1224-5, an<^ was retained in
the king's forest within boundaries extending from
Hardsty on the west to Sankey Brook on the east, and
from Bradley Brook on the north to Ravens Lache on
the south, reserving therein to William le Boteler and
his heirs common of pasture and stock (instauri), mast-
fall for their swine, timber for their castle of Warring-
WARRINGTON
ton and other buildings and for fuel.5 The right ot
taking estovers defines the extent of the interest in
this township held by the lords of Warrington.
It passed about 1229 to the earl of Chester with
the rest of the comital demesne between Ribble and
Mersey, and subsequently to Ferrers, earl of Derby,
and we find William de Ferrers on 2 October, 1251,
granting to the abbey of Tiltey in Essex— a house of the
foundation of his ancestor Robert de Ferrers in 1152
— a messuage in ' Harderesley' in the Hey of Burton,
with 1 20 acres of land and wood around it (with liberty
to enclose the same), ample pasture for their stock and
plough beasts, and licence to make two water-mills
with weirs on the water of Sankey.4 In December,
1251, William de Ferrers had a charter of free warren
in this manor.5 Two years later he was plaintiff in
a suit with William le Boteler concerning common of
pasture in the Hey of Burton.6 About the year
1264 Robert de Ferrers sold the manor to William
le Boteler for 900 marks, which the latter undertook
to pay by half-yearly instalments of £ i o.7 In 1280
Edmund earl of Lancaster released to William le
Boteler a plot of land called Hardersley, in the wood
of Burton, which the abbot and monks of Tiltey had
sometime held of the earl of Ferrers." At the death
of the earl of Lancaster in 1296, William le Boteler
held the manor of him for one penny yearly service.9
At what time the abbey of Tiltey sold or resigned
the estate of Hardersley is uncertain, but it was
probably purchased by William le Boteler before
1280. During the time of the monks' ownership
they seem to have established a grange here, within
an enclosure of wood or park, to which they gave the
name ' beau site,' afterwards softened to Beausee or
Bewsey.10 Asearlyas the commencement of Edward It's
reign the lords of Warrington had made this their
country seat.11
In 1328, by deed dated at Bewsey, William le
Boteler demised to Matthew de Southworth, John
and Margaret, his children, a plat of land, meadow,
and waste in Burtonwood and in the old park of
« Beausi,' and 1} acre in the field of Harderslegh, for
their lives and the life of the longest liver.18 The
Botelers wisely refrained from granting estates in this
manor in fee, but demised tenements for lives or
1 Liverpool and Manch. Railway (ed. ii,
1830), 34.
*Lond.Gax. 10 Mar. 1876.
8 Cat. of Close, 1227-31, p. 101. In the
Whalley Cmcher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 372,
Ravnesneslake is given as Raveneschagh.
4 The boundary ran in length from
Mcrlake by Sankey Brook 60 perches of
20 ft. to Ballermoss, thence in width the
to Burton Brook and beyond it to Cress-
doke and Shotbriggate, and past Har-
Ferrers, released to William their claim
in the arrears of the purchase-money for
Burtonwood; Dods. MSS. cxlii, 236*;
Annals of Warr. (Chet. Soc.), 73.
" Bold D. (Warr. Mus.), E. 27.
9 Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 288.
"Beause, 1313; Beusee, 1368.
» Towneley MS. HH. „. 1692 (penes
W. Farrer).
A Boteler charter dated at Bewsey as
early as i 307 has been preserved; Bold D.
Dallum Park which Matthew de South-
worth had made, to the ' aide paleis ' in
the said park, and along the old pales to
the house late of Robert Curtays, thence
by an ancient ditch eastward to the out-
lanc which leads from Winwick to the
wood of Burtonwood, and along that lane
by hedges and ditches against the land of
Robert son of Adam of the Granges into
the midstream of the water of Sankey,
and following the midstream on the
eastern side to the aforesaid Dallum
(lache), thence to the hedge of the wood,
and following the hedge to Brend-oak
towards the gate of the messuage (of
Harderesley), thence through the wood
and across the earl's meadow to the water
of Sankey and along the same to Merlake ;
le Boteler, lord of Warrington, granted to
Roger son of Hawise 9 acres of arable
land in Burtonwood for the lives of
Roger and his wife Emma, with common
of pasture in Burtonwood for one horse
and two oxen all the year round except
within that boundary lying in the Frer-
eghes, which Gilbert de Haydock, Henry
his brother, and Henry the Parker held of
the grantor for a term. The demise
included estovers in Burtonwood, turbary
in Dallum Moss, the right to rid the
, • Ibid. 373.
6 Cur. Reg. R. 149, m. 17.
^ Bold D. in Warr. Mus. (D. 14) ;
see Gents,' Mag. Dec. 1863. There re-
mained 460 marks of the principal sum
due to Edmund earl of Lancaster in Feb.
1270 ; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxxviii,
309. About 1280 Henry de Lostock and
Joan his wife, assignees of Robert de
ancient park of Bewsey for twelve sheep ;
the rent was 131. 6d. Roger and Emma
were to grind their corn, &c. at the
Boteler mills of Burtonwood, Sankey,
and Warrington ; they had leave to cut
wood for their own use, but not for sale or
giving away ; ibid. D. n.
"The boundary began at Dallum Yate
and followed a ditch near the moss of
it with marl, to make a bridge over the
water of Sankey in the tenement to con-
nect it with Matthew's land in Winwick,
to common eighteen beasts, three stallions,
twelve sheep, in the old park of Beausee
at all times of the year and in the wood
except at the time of mast-fall. The
rent was 2j marks ; Towneley MS. HH.
n. 1692.
325
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
terms of years by which increasing areas of cultivated
lands accrued to them from time to time at greatly
enhanced values. A fine levied in 1332 discloses the
fact that there were then in the manor at least fifty
messuages, 250 acres of land and meadow, and
114 acres of wood in the hands of the tenants
held for terms of one, two, or three lives.1 In
1337 the principal tenants of the manor were
Matthew de Southworth, Alan de Eccleston, and
William Muskil.* Burtonwood was then described
as being neither a vill nor a hamlet.3 It seems
to have contained much timber at this time, for
in 1331 William le Boteler sued William son of
William de Calverhale for 100 marks, the value
of trees which he had cut down here and carried
away.4 The demesne lands were described in
1416 as consisting of lands and tenements called
Dallum, the ' Parkes feldes,' and the Dourehey,
valued at £9 clear, in addition to the manor-
house and lands of Bewsey.5 At the death of
Sir John le Boteler, in 1463, his messuages and
lands here were said to be held of Lord Ferrers
in socage by the service of id. yearly.6 At the
death of Sir Thomas Boteler,7 1522, Bewsey was
said to be worth £74 clear.8
In i 580 Edward Butler alienated the manor to
Richard Bold of Bold,9 and in 1597 John Main-
waring and Elizabeth his wife and Sir Robert
Dudley and Alice his wife, to whom Edward Butler
had conveyed an interest in his estates in 1581, con-
veyed the manor by fine to Richard Bold and Thomas
Ireland.10 By a subsequent division, or perhaps by
virtue of the respective deeds of conveyance made to
them, Bold acquired the manor,
twenty messuages, 350 acres of __. ^ _ __ __ m
land, meadow and pasture, and
300 acres of moor and turbary
lying near his demesne lands
in Bold," whilst Ireland ac-
quired the manor of Bewsey
and a reputed manor of Bur-
tonwood with thirty messuages,
1,200 acres of land, meadow
and pasture, and 210 acres of
moor, moss, and wood in Bew-
sey and Dallam." From this between three flutes each
time till the year 1 86 1 the charged -with a griffin's
manor descended like the other htad erastd sable-
Bold family estates13 to Sir
Henry Bold-Hoghton, the representative of that
family in right of his first wife. It was then sold
to Mr. Thomas Henry Lyon of Appleton, near
Daresbury, the present owner.14
The origin of the name of the mesne manor of
BEWSET and the date of its acquisition by the
Botelers have been suggested above. For nearly four
centuries it was the abode of the lords of Warrington.
In 1368 William le Boteler had a licence for his
EWSEY HALL, WARRINGTON
oratory at Bewsey.15 The manor-house, park, and
demesne lands lay within the township of Burton-
wood and formed part of the superior manor, but
some lands in Warrington and Great Sankey seem
to have been included in the park and demesne of
Bewsey.16 Upon the dispersal of the estates in the
time of Elizabeth by Edward Butler, this manor was
acquired by Thomas Ireland, afterwards of Bewsey,
from whom it has descended to John Powys, fifth
Baron Lilford, in the manner described under
Atherton.17
Bewsey Hall stands within a nearly circular moated
enclosure. There remains only the south end of a
fine house of circa 1600, which had its principal
front to the east, of three stories, with tall, square-
headed, mullioned and transomed windows. The plan
belongs to the stage of development when the hall is
represented by a small central part of the front flanked
by projections representing the bay and porch re-
spectively. Beyond these at each end projected a
larger gable, as in the earlier houses, but at Bewsey
only the large south gable and the projection repre-
senting the bay of the hall now remain. The stone-
work— of red sandstone — is in poor condition, and the
house preserves nothing of its ancient fittings.
* Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, at
Ches.), ii, 83-5.
"Assize R. 1424,111. 10.
» Ibid.
< De Bane. R. 287, m. 347 d.
s Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 1 1 2.
'Ibid, ii, 74.
the king as of his duchy of Lancaster in
socage by fealty and id. per annum ;
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. jtxvii, n. 58.
» Sir Thomas Ireland died seised of
this estate in 1641, holding it in chief of
the king ; ibid. «vi, n, 58. A convey-
ance by fine in 1543 to the king made by
gives the names of forty-eight tenants
of Sir Thomas Boteler in Burtonwood ;
Raines MSS. xxxviii, 315.
8 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 13.
9 PaU of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 42,
m. :77 ; bdle. 43, m. 16.
"Ibid. bdle. 58, m. 152, 364.
" Richard Bold died seised of the above
estate here in 1636, holding the manor of
F. bdle. 12, m. 100), and a subsequent
grant in 1600 by letters patent by Queen
Elizabeth to Humphrey Davenport and
others of the manor of Burtonwood,
Great Sankey, and Warrington, may have
had something to do with the creation of
the reputed manor held by Ireland ; Pat.
42 Eliz. pt. xxiii (Palmer's Ind. xv, 76).
w Pal of Lane. Plea R. 471, m. 48 d. ;
326
B»
Thi
£"£,
courts
in the
Lilford
Leigh.
R. 523, m. 3 ; and Feet of F. bdles. 244,
m. 4 ; 296, m. 56 ; Docquet R. Aug.
37 Geo. Ill ; Aug. 43 George III ; and
Lent, 54 Geo. III.
14 See Burke, Landed Gentry.
15 Lich. Epis. Reg. v, fol. igb.
s Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 113 ;
See also W. Beamont's Annals oj
rr. and Bewsey since 1587, pp. 127-62.
- manor of Bewsey now com-
the portion of the Lilford Estate
rtonwood and Little Sankey, and
ts were held yearly to 1888 at an inn
place ; Information of Lord
Lilford'» agent, Mr. John B. Selby of
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
In the fifteenth century Bewsey was the scene of
one or two notable acts of violence. Isabel widow
of Sir John Boteler was in July, 1437, seized by
William Poole, of Wirral, and a number of accom-
plices, outraged and carried off to Birkenhead and
Bidston, where she was compelled by threats to marry
him. He then made his escape into Wales, and thus
appears to have escaped punishment.1 Her son
Sir John Boteler, who died in 1463, is said to have
been the victim of an outrage instigated by Sir John
Stanley and Sir Piers Legh — a ballad, perhaps con-
temporary, giving the story of the surprise of Bewsey
Hall at midnight by a party of men who crossed the
moat in a boat of a bull's hide, the murder of the
chamberlain, and then of Sir John Boteler himself.'
James I, in his Lancashire progress of 1617, visited
Bewsey 21 August, and made its owner a knight.3
A bronze box found in the moat at Bewsey is
perhaps mediaeval.4
The first enfeoffment of the Haydock family of the
mesne manor of BR4DLET? where they and their
successors the Leghs resided for several centuries, has
not been preserved on record, but was probably made
before the acquisition of the
manor of Burton wood by William
le Boteler circa 1264. In 1336
William le Boteler of Warring-
ton demised to Gilbert de Hay-
dock and his son Matthew, for
their lives, a plat of land and
waste on the western side of their
field called Pikiswode, another
plat of wood and waste on the
southern side of Bradelegh Brook,
and 3 acres of arable land on
Sonki Bonke, all lying in Bur-
tonwood, with liberty to clear
the land of trees and cultivate it.6 The same
Gilbert had a charter of free warren in his manor
of Bradley in 1344.' In 1357 Sir William le
Boteler released to John son of Gilbert de Haydock
and Joan his wife all the lands and tenements which
they held of him in Warrington, Great Sankey, and
Burtonwood in return for a deed of feoffment grant-
ing to Sir William for life certain lands and tenements
of his inheritance which had been the subject of
litigation between them,8 and in 1358 another agree-
LEGH OF LYMI.
Gules, a cross engrailed
arpent : an escutcheon of
•ble semee
WARRINGTON
ment was made between William le Boteler and
Gilbert de Haydock, touching common of pasture
and improvements made, or to be made, in the
common wood of Burton-
wood.9 John de Haydock had ^
a licence in 1386 for the cele-
bration of divine service in his
manor of Bradley.10 By the
marriage of Joan, daughter and
heir of Sir Gilbert Haydock,
to Sir Peter Legh of Lyme,11
this manor passed to the Leghs,
but was sold early last century
to Samuel Brooks, of Man-
chester, banker, and has since
descended in his family.
Leland recorded that ' Syr
Perse Lee of Bradley hath his
Place at Bradley in Parke a per, the band grasping a
ii. miles from Newton. ' " The standard of the second.
memory of the park is preserved
in the name of two fields called The Parks, near the
site of the old hall.13 Part of the ancient manor-
house, including the Knights' Chamber, was of an
older date than 1465. Shortly
before that year Sir Peter Legh _
had greatly enlarged and im-
proved his residence.14 Of the
stately building which existed
at that time now only the gate-
way and the moat remain.15
The gateway is faced with
wrought stone, and has been
covered with a fan vault of two
bays, the springers of which
yet remain.16 The details of
the work are plain, and point bars, -wavy azure, a cross
to a date in the Second half patona erminois, in chief
of the fifteenth century. It "fountain.
is approached by a stone bridge
over the moat, and within the enclosure stands the
present Bradley Hall, a brick farmhouse of no great
age, but preserving several interesting fragments of
older work. The most notable are the front door
and the door to the kitchen, which have elaborate
wrought-iron scrolled hinges of the fourteenth century.
On the stairs are two roundles let into the wall, bearing
61 ; Part. R. iv, 497 ; Dame Boteler died
dig marl in the outlane next the Frereghes
(bastellium) thereon, with good ramparts,
in 1441.
for the tillage of the same and of a parcel
and a fair chapel. In addition to the
2 The ballad, edited by Dr. Robson, is
of land called Egardeslegh, part of which
hall were other convenient buildings
printed in Lords of ffarr. ii, 321-3,
lay in a certain close which had not been
previously existing, the whole being sur-
where will be found a discussion of the
ridded ; ibid. In 1356 they had a release
rounded by a moat with a drawbridge.
various and conflicting traditions.
from the same William of lands lying
Beyond the moat and on the north side
Mr. Beamont thought that Sir John's
between Egardeslegh and Smallegh and
were three large barns, with a great ox-
father, Sir John Boteler, who died about
near their new grange, which lands they
house and stable, with a bailifFs house
1432, might have been the victim.
held by demise of Dame Sibyl Butler ; ibid.
and a kiln newly built at the end of a
"Metcalfe, Bk. of Knights, 171 ; besides
Sir Thomas Ireland another knight was
10 Lich. Reg. Epis. vi, 122.
"Visit, of 1533 (Chet. Soc.), I7».
place called « Parogardyne,' to the south
of which lay a great apple orchard and
there made— Sir Lewis Pemberton.
From the various inq. p.m. of the Leghs
garden ; Warr. in 1465 (Chet. Soc.),xxiii.
* Arch. Jour*. »,\\\, 159.
of Lyme it appears that the manor of
15 In 1849 the holy-water stoup from
5Bradele, 1228 ; Bradelegh, 1336.
Bradley and lands in Burtonwood were
the chapel at Bradley, bearing upon one
'Raines MSS. xxxviii, 293.
held of the duchy of Lancaster by fealty
of its four sides the arms of Haydock, was
ICal. of Chart. R. (Rec. Com.), 178.
only ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n.
preserved in the chapel at Lyme ; ibid.
8 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 6, pt. i,
63 ; xv, n. 38.
In 1524 Piers Legh, to remove from
m. 3 d. The litigation and disputes con-
"Itin. vii(!), 56.
his father's mind any doubts as to the
tinued for two centuries ; see Beamont,
18 As the estate consists of no acres
execution of his will, swore upon the
Lords offfarr. (Chet. Soc.), 188-91, 475.
of the large measure only the park must
holy elements in the chapel of Bradley,
A memorandum of Sir Peter Legh's
have been of inconsiderable extent.
in the presence of a number of local
title in 1505 is among the Bold D. in
14 The additions then made included a
gentry, to secure its faithful execution 5
Warr. Mus. (B. ,7).
fair new hall with three chambers, a dining-
Lanes. Chant. (Chet. Soc.), 1 1 2 n.
•Raines MSS. xxxviii, 29?. In 1345
Henry de Haydock and William his son
hall with a new kitchen, bakehouse and
brew-house, a new stone tower and small
"See also Baines, Lar.cs. (ed. 1836),
iii, 683.
327
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the arms of Standish of Standish and Legh of Lyme.1
In the roof is a beam now doing duty as a purlin,
inscribed thus : —
[Her]e . . . maister dothh, and mistris both accorde :
with godly mindes and zealous hartes to serve the
livinge lorde. Anno. IJJJ97. Henry Wesle.*
The landholders contributing to the subsidy levied
about 1556 were Sir Peter Legh and Thomas
Butler.3 Their successors in 1628 were Sir Peter
Legh and Thomas Ireland.4
The chapel of Burtonwood was erected in 1605-6
upon land granted by Thomas Bold of Bold, who by
a deed of feoffment dated 27 September, 1605, con-
veyed about i acre of land to feoffees, whom he
directed to erect thereon a house of prayer, sufficiently
to uphold the same, and to choose a fit person to
read divine service and ' teach Grammar Schole ' there
according to the intent of the last will of Thomas
Darbyshire of Burtonwood, yeoman, dated 2 3 January,
1602. This testator had bequeathed £60 to trustees
for the purpose of founding a chapel at Windybank
in Burtonwood. The chapel was built at the com-
mon charge of the township,5 but in 1650 it was
described as inconveniently situated for the use of the
township. William Baggaley was the incumbent,
elected by the inhabitants ; 6 he had £4.0 a year by
order of the committee of sequestration made in 1 646,
when there were found to be 1 20 families resident in
the township.7 The report of 1650 was adverse to
him, and he was soon removed by the Independents,
who brought in Samuel Mather, eldest son of Richard
Mather, born at Much Woolton, and the author of
an Irenicum? Mather was removed in 1662.' The
present church of St. Michael is a plain building of
brick. The register dates from 1668. The benefice
is a vicarage, in the gift of the rector of Warrington.
In 1 690 Peter Gaskill's dwelling, known as the Red
House, was licensed as a meeting place for dissenters.10
A Wesleyan church was built in 1850.
The Passionist Fathers of Sutton in 1886 built the
school-chapel of St. Paul of the Cross, the first mass
being said on 31 October. In 1898 a resident secular
priest was appointed to the mission, and three years
later an iron church was opened."
Poll
Poulto
POULTON WITH FEARNHEAD
47, i '55;
1093-4, 1246; Pulton,
.285.
Ferneheued, 1317, 1382-3; Fernyhede, 1414;
Fernehead, 1530.
Poulton with Fearnhead is situated in an un-
interesting country, flat and devoid of trees. There
is nothing picturesque enough to induce the passer-by
to revisit the neighbourhood. There are open fields
where various crops are cultivated, including potatoes,
turnips, clover, and corn. On the south the River
Mersey forms the boundary, taking a sharp turn here,
so that the flat marshy pastures are surrounded by the
river on three sides, whilst on the north the canal-
like ' cut ' of the Mersey Navigation makes this pro-
montory of land to all intents and purposes an island.
The geological formation consists entirely of the
upper mottled sandstone of the bunter series of the
new red sandstone. The soil is chiefly alluvial in the
south and of clay in the north.
The two portions of the township are united for
all purposes except the maintenance of the roads.
Poulton, on the south, contains 703 statute acres. It
is traversed by the main road from Manchester to
Warrington, and by the Liverpool, Warrington, and
Manchester section of the Cheshire Lines Committee's
railway, with a station at Padgate. Poulton village
stands upon the old highway between Warrington
and Bolton, formerly known as ' Padgate,' which has
given its name to the brook dividing the township
from Warrington. Fearnhead, on the north, was
formerly described as a hamlet of Poulton, but in the
thirteenth century was part of Woolston.1' It contains
an area of 6 1 6 £ statute acres,13 with a group of houses
at Fearnhead Cross on the highway last referred to.
The population of the joint township in 1901 was
1,428 persons.14
The township is governed by a parish council.
Industrial schools were erected here in 1881 by
the guardians of the Warrington Union.
The great tithes belong to Leycester's Hospital,
Warwick.15
POULTON was given by Count
MANORS Roger of Poitou in 1093 or 1094
to the abbey of St. Peter of Shrews-
bury.16 It had formed part of the count's demesne
between Ribble and Mersey.17 The gift was duly
confirmed by Henry I, and about the year 1147 by
Ranulf, earl of Chester,18 and in 1155 by Henry II."
At a subsequent date, probably before the end of the
twelfth century, the manor appears to have been ac-
quired from the abbey of Shrewsbury by Robert
1 The quarterings are : —
A. I, Standish of Standish. 2, Standish,
ancient. 3, Radcliffe of Chaderton. 4,
Chaderton. 5, Harrington of Wcstleigh.
6, English. 7, Urswick. 8, Verdon.
B. i, Legh (Corona coat). 2, Legh of
Lyme. 3, Butler of Merton. 4, Croft
of Dalton. 5, Haydock of Haydock. 6
and 7, Boydcll. 8, Walton of Ulnes
Walton. Coat of augmentation in pre-
« The will of Henry Westle of Sutton
was proved in 1613.
» Mascy of Rixton D. ; the values were
respectively £60 and £66 13,. *d.
« Norris D. (B. M.).
6 Inq. ad pios usus taken in 1627 (Harl.
MS. 1727, fol. 49), quoted by Baines,
Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 684 ; Gastrell, Not.
Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 237. Edward Ken-
rick was 'reader' at Burtonwood in 1609 ;
Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 298. The
building was not consecrated ; ibid. 198.
« Cemiaonetaltt Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 52.
^ Plundered Mini. Accts. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 92.
8 Wood, Athenae Oxon. ii, 357 ; Calamy,
Nonconf. Mem. ii, 355 ; Halley, Lanes.
Puritanism, ii, 182.
9 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. vi, 76.
In 1681 John Jackson was licensed to be
schoolmaster and reader of prayers at
Burtonwood, being ordained deacon 18
Dec. 1681 •, Visit. Bk. 1691, Dioc. Reg.
at Chester. A Mr. Jackson was school-
master here in 1648-50 ; Admiss. to Gon-v.
and Caius Coll. Camk. 230. An account of
the chapel and its ministers will be found
in Beamont's Warr. Ch. Notes, 213-24.
10 Nightingale, op. cit. vi, 265.
" Liverpool Catb. Ann.
u See the boundaries of Houghton in
Winwick as described in charters quoted
in the account of that township. It should
be noticed, however, that as late as 1341
Poulton did not appear as a separate town-
ship ; I«j. Non. (Rec. Com.), 40. In
1556 the combined townships are called
'Woolston with Fearnhead,1 but shortly
afterwards Woolston and Poulton had
separate constables ; Beamont, Lords oj
Warr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 470, 472.
18 The Census Report of 1901 gives the
combined area as 1,232, including 15 acres
of inland water, instead of 1,319$ acres.
14 Including Paddington and Padgate.
15 The tithes of Woolston and Poulton,
formerly belonging to the abbey of Shrews-
bury, were in 1582 granted to Edmund
Downing and Peter Ashton ; Pat. 24 Eliz.
pt. x. They were then granted to Robert
Dudley, earl of Leicester, who gave them
to the hospital; Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836),
iii, 658.
16 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe K. 270 (from
Shrewsbury Reg.).
tf Ibid. 272. 18 Ibid. 277.
" Ibid. 284.
328
BRADLEY HALL : OUTER FACE OF GATEWA
ER FACE OF GATEWAY
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
WARRINGTON
SHREWSBURY ABBEY
Aaure, a lion ramfan
debruised ivith a erotic;
Banastre, first lord of Makerfield. In 1246 a later
Robert Banastre, by fine and for 2 marks of silver,
released two brothers, Hamon and Robert, his natives
of Poulton, from all manner of nativity and servitude.1
A little before 1285 Robert
Banastre enfeoffed Alice, daugh-
ter of Gilbert de Haydock, of
the whole vill of Poulton, to
hold in fee and inheritance,
as freely as the grantor or his
ancestors had held it, render-
ing a pound of cummin at the
Nativity of St. Mary.8 In
1285, at Newton in Maker-
field, after the said Alice's
marriage to Richard de Mos-
ton, the same Robert confirmed
this grant to them.3 In 1292
Richard son of Emma de Woolston recovered seisin
of a tew acres of land here against Richard de
Moston.4
Richard de Moston seems to have been son of
Richard de Moston of Moston in the parish of Man-
chester.5 By Alice his wife he had issue William,
who in 1323, describing himself as 'dominus de
Morleys,' conveyed all his lands in Poulton and Wools-
ton to Robert his brother.6 William de Moston, son
of this Robert, was living in 1366 when he gave to
John de Haydock an acquittance for £500 due upon
a bond.7 In 1377 he conveyed the manor to feoffees,
by whom it was settled upon his brother Richard,
with remainder to four sisters (?) or their issue, repre-
sented in 1393 by John son of John de Sutton,
Katherine wife of Gilbert de Bruche, Emma wife of
John son of Robert de Assheton, and Agnes daughter
of Thomas Kynsy, afterwards the wife of Henry
Berry.8 To these persons Matthew son of Gilbert
de Southworth in 1394 released his right in the
manor, which he had acquired by a demise made to
him by William de Moston in I384-9
From this time the reputed manor ceases to exist,
the estates belonging to it descending in the repre-
sentatives of the families named. In 1432 John
Hawarden and Elizabeth his wife held one of the
pourparties.10 Another descended in the family of
Bruche, and seems to have been conveyed to Thomas
Norris in 1 576, with lands in Orford and Warrington,
by Hamlet Bruche.11 A third share, consisting of
3 messuages, 120 acres of land, meadow, and pasture,
420 acres of wood, moor, and heath in Woolston,
Poulton, and Fearnhead, was conveyed by fine in
1567 by Sir John Atherton, Margaret his wife, and
William Culcheth, base son of Ralph Culcheth, to
Thomas Walmesley," and was in the possession ot
Robert Walmesley of Coldcotes, who died in 1612,
holding it of Sir Richard Fleetwood, as of his manor
of Newton in Makerfield by a yearly rent of 2s."
The fourth was probably subdivided into small
tenements.14
Long before the manor ot Poulton was granted out
of his demesne by Robert Banastre the mesne manor
of BRUCHE " appears to have been given to the
Botelers of Warrington, as 2 oxgangs of land. In 1 2 1 9
the southern half of this estate was conveyed by fine
by William le Boteler to Thomas Waleys, possibly a
brother of Richard Waleys, lord of Uplitherland."
The immediate descendants of Thomas Waleys have
not been traced. At some subsequent date the same
oxgang of land seems to have been granted to the
ancestor of Bruche," while the mesne lordship of the
other oxgang was conferred upon the family of Hay-
dock, of Bradley, the lords of which are subsequently
found to have been mesne lords of one moiety of
Bruche under the Botelers of Warrington, who in turn
held this mesne manor of the lords of Newton in
Makerfield.
Whilst Richard Fitton was seneschal of Makerfield,
circa 1280, Robert Banastre gave a parcel of ground
lying between the moss and Woolston Brook, on the
south side of the Levynges croft, in Woolston, to
Robert de Samlesbury, and to his tenants dwelling in
La Bruche he gave common of pasture for all cattle
within the bounds of Poulton and Woolston for 1 8</.
at Midsummer.'8 In 1288 Richard de Samlesbury re-
covered, against Richard de la Bruche and Margaret
his wife and others, his seisin of common of pasture
belonging to his free tenement in Warrington.19
Richard was living in 1305,*° and was probably
father of Thomas de Bruche, who with Agnes his wife
was a defendant in pleas in 1325 and 1328," and of
Henry del Bruche, the elder son, who was receiver of
the honour of Halton in 1317" and in possession of
1 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Che..), i, 100.
• Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxxviii,
4°« Ibid. The witnesses were Sir John
de Byron and John Dcvias, kts., Richard
de Bradshagh, then seneschal (of Maker-
field), and others. A small circular seal
of green wax with a heater shield bears
three chevronellcs and the legend : s' ROB'I
* Abbre-u. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), 7 3 b.
Proceedings had been instituted against
Richard son of Richard de Moston before
' Raines, op. cit. 409, n. 4; there is a cir-
cular seal bearing, on a heater shield within
a fretwork border, lozengy on a chevron
three mullets, and the legend : SIGILLVM
WILL'I DI MOSTON +. See also ibid.
413, n. 2.
8 Ibid. 413, n. 6. At the beginning of
the fifteenth century the representative of
William de Moston's feoffees and Richard
son of Robert de Moston obtained a writ
aboveS'Zrev°ersio°nVeers for hiving forcibly
entered upon lands in Poulton, Fearnhead,
and Rixton ; Towneley MS. CC. (Chet.
13 Ibid. bdle. 29, m. 96.
18 Lanes. Inq. f.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.),i,2,8-23.
" Ralph Bury and Anne his wife, by
fine in 1552, settled 3 messuages, lands,
and rents here upon Robert Knowlc and
Joan his wife and her issue ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 14, m. 60.
" Bruches, 1219; Bruche, 13-! 9 cen-
16 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 42. Richard le Waleys wa«
Thomas's attorney.
V Beamont, Brucbe Hall, 1 1 ; a deed
4°8, m. 5, jzrf. 55 and 91.
5 Raines MSS. xxxviii, 413, n. 4.
6 Ibid. 409, n. i. William de Moston
had a son William who in 1325 released
to Agnes daughter of Adam del Egge
his right in land in ' Le Ferniheued '
which Richard his father had given to
Adam del Egge of Woolston; ibid. 413,
In 1 344 Richard de Moston was plaintiff
R. 341, m. 249 d.
3
» Ibid. 41 5, n. 3,4.
I" Lanes. Inq. f.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 46.
" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 38,
m. 71 ; the premises consisted of 3 mes-
suages, no acres of land, meadow, and
pasture, 32 acres of heath and turbary,
and 241. of rent. Roger Bruche, brother
of Hamlet, in 1585 conveyed 40 acres of
land, meadow, and pasture in Poulton to
Sir Peter Legh, but this may have been
part of the demesne, of Bruche ; ibid. bdle.
47, m. 89.
329
and pasture in Warrington byViUiamTe
Boteler to Henry de Bruche shortly before
1328.
is Raines MSS. xxxviii, 403, n. 2.
The deed is sealed with a circular seal
bearing a rude water bouget and the
legend : t' ROBERTI BANASTRE.
« Abbrc-v. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), i, 58*.
80 Assize R. 420, m. I.
al Ibid. R. 426, m. I d. ; R. 1400, m.
233-
» Beamont, Halton and Norton, 36.
42
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
this manor in 1323,' when he enfeoffed his son
Richard and Amine his wife, daughter of Thomas de
Hale, of lands in Poulton and Warrington.' At the
same time an agreement was made between Richard
de Bruche and his father-in-
law that the latter should have
these lands for five years and
in return would honestly main-
tain Richard and Amine in
victuals, clothes, and other
necessaries in a manner befit-
ting a gentleman and gentle-
woman of their estate, and the
first year of the five would
maintain Richard at school at BR
' Oxenford ' with all necessaries, Arl"\ " cbm">n f-
, i r . nveen three pierced mullets
and the four ensuing years at sMti
the court of our lord the king
at the Common Bench, if it should be in Eng-
land, with all needful charges, and paying him also
the sum of 43/. 4^. yearly.1 The issue of this
marriage was at least two sons, Thurstan, who with
his mother Anina or Amina, was occupying lands
in Poulton in 1361,' and Gilbert, the eldest son
and heir, who married Katherine, one of the sisters
and coheirs of William de Moston, lord of Poulton .6
In 1387 he was in Ireland on the king's service
in the company of Robert, duke of Ireland,8 and
he was still living in 1397-8.' He was the father
of William Bruche, upon whom tenements in Poul-
ton and Glazebrook were settled by fine in 1 417."
In 1432 William Bruche was adjudged to give
Nicholas Risley a hogshead of wine or 2 marks as
the result of an award made between them and their
respective sons, concerning divers trespasses committed
between them.9 He died in 1436.'°
Richard his son and heir married Margaret, daughter
of Peter Legh of Bradley and Lyme. In 1457 he
settled part of his estate upon Dulcia, daughter of
Hamlet Mascy of Rixton, upon her marriage to his
son and heir apparent, Hugh Bruche.11 In 1465,
Richard Bruche held of Peter Legh of Bradley one
half of the manor of Bruche by knight's service and
I ^d. yearly, which manor was situated on the south
side of a certain heath called the Bruche Heath, and
extended to the lane leading from Warrington to
Woolston and as far as the water of Mersey, and in
width from the Bruche Brook on the west to Woolston
Brook on the east." Richard Bruche was living in
1476 and was the father of Henry Bruche, who is
thought to have fallen at Bosworth Field,13 and of
Hugh, his eldest son and successor, who did homage
to Sir Thomas Butler for his lands in Orford and
Sankey on 1 3 January, 1 490." Hugh died before
1 504, and was succeeded by Hamlet, his son and heir,
who did homage at Bewsey on 1 1 April, 1507, for
his lands in Bruche, Orford, Warrington, and both
Sankeys,15 but died on 7 April, 1508, Richard his son
being six years of age.16 The wardship of the heir was
in dispute between Sir Thomas Boteler and Hamlet
Bruche's feoffees, but the matter was compromised.17
Richard Bruche did suit at a court held at Warring-
ton in 1 523. l8 He married Anne, daughter of Thomas
Hawarden of Woolston, and heads the pedigree of
Bruche entered in William Flower's visitation of the
county in 1567." He died at Warrington 20 August.
I56o,*°and his wife 21 August, 1568. Thomas hi;
son was twice married, first to Margaret, daughter o:
Peter Legh of Bradley, by whom he had two sons,
Hamlet and Roger, and secondly, to Sibyl, daughter o:"
Sir George Holford, widow of John Warburton o '
Arley, by whom he had one son, Richard."
Among the names of various enclosures forming the
demesne of Bruche the following occur at this time :—
Thickholt, Thinholt, Stockey Croft, Lockers meadow,
Warthe meadow, and Harper Sparth. By the wate-
of Mersey was a messuage called The Twyeste or Twist ;
near Bruche were the Great Haighand The Offenham
or Ofnam ; in Warrington land called Rypshagh an<l
Rysshefeld."
The three last-named generations of this famil/
were spendthrifts, each in its turn in a greater de-
gree than the last. In 1584 Hamlet Bruche having
issue only one daughter, Dorothy, sold the hall ani
demesne to his brother Roger, reserving a life estate
in the western half of the mansion with some old farm
buildings." From this time Roger Bruche appears u
have indulged in the dissolute but fashionable habi s
of dicing, gaming, and cockfighting. Early in 1590
Peter Legh of Bradley, his kinsman and master, di^-
charged his debts, then amounting to £200, and with
another friend became his trustee with a view to pr>
serving his inheritance ' for the maintenance of Us
issue and posterity,' a consummation which his kin;-
man Legh ' did greatly desire.' r* In furtherance .jf
this object Legh persuaded his thriftless kinsman to
1 In 1322 William de Moston gave to
Henry del Bruche a plat of waste between
the Bruche and Poulton, lying between
Le Dedcmounes slak and the boundary of
« Ibid. 409, n. 3.
'Ibid. 413, ». 6 (1393) i 415, n. 3
(1394). In a deed dated 1374 he is de-
scribed as Gilbert son of Richard del
« Chet. Soc. Ixxxi, 121. On 26 Ap.il,
1528, Richard Bruche lets for six years 'or
201. one Fisheyarde— ' in the water of
Mercey called Ould Yarde ' (rent payal le
2. In an earlier deed the mill pool, the
causey (i.e. causeway), and the ditches of
Robert de Surreys and Richard de Moston
are mentioned as the boundaries of this
parcel of ground ; ibid. 411, n. 2.
' Ibid. 321, n. i j the deed says :— 'All
my lands and tenements in the vill of
Warrington, except my lands and tene-
ments at Le Bruch and Orford, and one
selion in Arpalegh called Haregrevelond,
together with lands and tenements of my
inheritance in Warrington which Robert
de Kenyon and Ameria his wife hold in
the name of her dower for their lives.'
Henry de Bruche was living in 1328 ;
Brucbe Hall, n. He had a third son,
Robert ; Cal. of Pat. 1243-5, P- S31 5
.345-8, p. 244-.
» Raines, op. oil. 329, n. 4.
« Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 278.
7 Bruchefield in the territory of War-
rington being then in his occupation ;
Brucbe Hall, 12.
8 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 5, m. 26.
9 Trans. Hist. Sac. 1851, p. 104 ; Brucbe
Hall, 13-14.
10 Writ otDiemcl. extr. 14 May, 1436;
Dep. Keeper's Rip. xxxiii, App. i, 36.
"Raines MSS. xxxviii, 323, n. 15
p. 421, ». 6.
« Rental of Warr. (Chet. Soc. xvii), 69.
13 Brucbe Hall, 19.
" Warr. Homage R. (Chet. Soc. Ixxxvii),
« Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 21. « Ibid. 25.
17 Annals of Warr. from Hale D. (Chet.
Soc. Ixxxvii), 377. i8 Ibid. 431.
wife, mother of the said Richard)- to
Robert and Henry Dunbabyn, who sh .11
' have the same repaled and tenantable af er
the custom and usage of other fyshyards in
the aayd water of Mercey, provyded alwr.yi
that if it fortune that the See be cast or en
by any ordynance soe that Schypps a id
Bootes shall have cause to passe and :e-
passe, then the Lease to be voyd,' et~.
Raines MSS. xxxviii, 437 (4).
«> Ibid,
si Ibid; P»;V. 1567, p. 121.
« Raines MSS. xxxviii, 333-51, f .:.-
»»Ibid. 345, n. 3. In 1590 Han let
Bruche was reported as one of the 'm >re
usual comers to church, but no communi-
cant. '; Z,y«« tf a//, 245.
« Raines, op. cit. 347.
330
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
WARRINGTON
enter into a recognizance with him in £100 that he
would not, during his after life, play at dice or cards
except in his kinsman's presence, nor play at tables,
bowls, or other games above I zJ. a game, nor bet at
such games above that sum, ' nor shoote, belt or lay
upon any one matche shooting above 2Os.' nor make
nor fight any battle at any cockfight above zs. at any
one battle, nor become surety with or for anyone by
bond without his kinsman's consent.1
In 1612 Hamlet Bruche and his brother Roger
had become lessees of part of the demesne of Bruche
under their kinsman Sir Peter Legh,* who had then
acquired their whole patrimony, out of which little
seems to have been left to them beyond a small sum
in cash.3 The manor subsequently descended to
Piers Legh of Bruche, who died in 1686 unmarried,
when the estate devolved upon his half-sister Frances,
who married in 1687 her kinsman Peter Legh, son
of Richard Legh of Lyme. Their only son died un-
married in his mother's lifetime, and upon her death
in 1727 the estate passed to the representative of her
aunt Frances Legh,4 who in 1656 had married
William Bankes of Winstanley.
The estate was sold early in the last century by
William Bankes of Winstanley, and was acquired by
Jonathan Jackson, sailcloth manufacturer of Warring-
ton. In 1 820 soap works were erected upon a portion
of the Bruche estate, to which the name of Paddington
was given, by Robert Halton,
whose partner Mr. Jackson be-
came in 1821. Three years
later the excise officers of the
crown recovered the sum of
£6,340 against the partners for
double duty upon soap surrep-
titiously made in a secret boil-
ing-room of which no entry
had been made in the excise
books. The trade creditors of
the firm taking alarm caused it
to become involved in bank-
ruptcy, upon which the part-
ners' estates were sold. On
10 December, 1824, the Bruche
estate was put up for sale and
purchased for £19,200 by Tho-
mas Parr of Warrington,5 whose
son Thomas Philip died with-
out issue in 1891, when the estate passed to his
brother John Charlton Parr of Grappenhall Heys,
the present owner.6
FEARNHEAD was anciently an area mainly con-
sisting of wood, waste, and moss, which in process of
time was brought into cultivation by the tenants of
the manor of Poulton. In 1282 Hugh son of Gilbert
de Southworth demised to farm to Richard son of
Emma de Woolston for life lands in Fearnhead in
Poulton which he had by the grant of the said
Richard.7 Richard de Fernyheued is mentioned as a
contemporary of Henry de Bruche,8 and again in I 3 1 J?
PARR OF GRAPPEN-
HALL HEYS. Argent,
two bars sable between
two roses paleways gules,
barbed and seeded proper,
within a bordure en-
grailed of the second
charged with f-ut be-
zants and as many pear-
leaves alternately or.
1 Raines, op. cit. 353.
'Ibid. 351.
8 Beamont, Bruche Hall, 39-40.
* In 1694 Peter Legh and Frances his
s Raines MSS. xxxviii, 411,
9 Ibid. 41 3, n. I.
10 Dods. MSS. liii, i8i.
11 Ibid. 24.
n.J.
other lands to Thomas Leigh and Leigh
Bankes ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
232, m. 62. « Bruche Hall, 58-67.
« Information of Mr. Parr.
' Dods. MSS. liii, 25*.
file 9, m. 122.
"Towneley MS. HH.
Farrcr), n. 1527. Perhaps
should be Rainestrymoll.
» Ibid. n. 2099.
331
(pene, W.
the name
In 1382-3 Maud del Fernyhed gave a parcel of land
in Ferneheud to Matthew de Southworth,10 and in
1414 Richard son of Adam de Fernyhede gave all his
lands in Fernyhede hamlet and Woolston to feoffees."
In the year 1400 John de Southworth and Jane his
wife were described as of Fearnhead." A lease of
Sir John South worth's lands here in 1509 names
Peys Croft, Heathey, Maben Ridding, and Romescry-
moll." In 1586 Roger Bruche and Sir John South-
worth agreed to abide by the award of Randle Rixton
of Great Sankey touching the division and 'mearing
out ' or bounding of the waste grounds and common
called Bruche Heath in Poulton.14 In 1530 John
Fernehead possessed lands in Fearnhead, which he
held by a free rent of 8/. 9^. of Richard Bruche.15
The will of Richard Fearnhead of Fearnhead, yeoman,
was proved in 1604, and that of Thomas in 1642,
but the family did not continue to be landholders here
much later.
Roger Bruche of Bruche and John Heapy of Fearn-
head were freeholders in i6oo.16
Christ Church, Padgate, was built in 1838, and an
ecclesiastical district was formed for it." The vicarage
is in the gift of the rector of Warrington.
There is a Wesleyan church at Padgate.
Formerly there seems to have been a cross at
Fearnhead.16
WOOLSTON WITH MARTINSCROFT
Ulfitonr. 1147; Wlfiton, 1175-82.
Woolston to the west and Martinscroft to the east
extend along the bank of the River Mersey, and
together form a joint township containing an area of
1,566^ statute acres, of which Woolston proper has
l,225.19 The township lies wholly upon the upper
mottled sandstone of the bunter series of the new
red sandstone. The high road from Warrington to
Manchester passes through it, and the Woolston New
Cut, a short canal belonging to the Manchester Ship
Canal, passes through Woolston and shortens the
waterway of the Mersey and Irwell Canal by avoiding
some of the numerous windings of the River Mersey.
In 1901 there were in the joint township 484 persons.
There are a number of small landowners here, the
land being let in small tenements.
There is a parish council.
The flat country ''s divided into fields with rather
meagre hedgerows and scanty trees. The alluvial and
sandy soil appears fertile, yielding good crops of
potatoes and turnips, oats, wheat, and clover, whilst
many a marshy corner is devoted to the cultivation of
osiers for the manufacture of potato-hampers and
' skips.' In the north of the district there is a con-
siderable patch of mossland, and here too there is a
good deal of clay in the surface soil. By the river
there are moist pastures. The inhabitants are
entirely employed in agricultural labour and basket-
making.
1* Raines MSS. xxxviii, 329, n. 3.
" Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
139, 240.
W See Beamont's Wa
225 ; Land. Gax. 16 Ju
19 The census report of 1901 gives the
total area as 1,623 »««, of which 47 are
Ch. Notes,
1843, &c.,
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The descent otffOOLSTO N corresponds with that
of the neighbouring manor of Poulton.
MANOR Both were in 1094 bestowed upon the
abbey of St. Peter of Shrewsbury by
Count Roger of Poitou,1 and both passed — pro-
bably by purchase — to the lord of Makerfield about
the reign of Henry II. From that date Woolston was
held by a number of free tenants as of the barony of
Newton in Makerfield. The names of those exist-
ing between 1 175 and 1 182 are recorded in a charter
of Ralph, abbot of Shrewsbury, granting to them in
fee the riddings or assarts of the ' Eyes ' lying within
a ditch by the water of Mersey for 2 1 pence yearly,
and one ' land ' or acre strip from each tenant for
ever as an obit.* In 1292 two-
thirds of the manor were held ----- \
by Robert de Woolston, whose
ancestors had been enfeoffed by
Robert Banastre, sometime lord
of Newton in Makerfield.' The
remaining third part was held
by Richard de Moston, lord of
Poulton, in right of his wife
Alice, daughter of Gilbert de
Haydock, whose ancestor had
likewise been enfeoffed by Robert
Banastre.
WOOLSTON or WOOLS-
)N. Argent, a wolf
This third part de- passant sable.
scended in the same succession
as the manor of Poulton. Some considerable part of
it was held in 1292 by Richard son of Emma de
Woolston by the yearly service of 8/.s
Robert son of Orm de Woolston, who was living
in I293,6 had issue by Alice his wife four sons, Adam,
father of Agnes, by his wife Ellen, whom he divorced;7
Richard his heir, living in 1313, when he was suing
Richard de Moston and Alice his wife for making
sale and destruction in their common wood and tur-
bary in Woolston;8 Simon, living in 1309 ;9 and John,
described as John son of Robert Ormeson 10 in 1318,
when Hugh de Woolston recovered against him and
Alice his mother two messuages in this vill." In
1326 and 1332 Richard de Woolston, Richard and
Robert de Martinscroft, Simon son of Robert, Henry
le Wolf and John de Hepay were the principal owners
of land." In 1349 Emma, relict of Richard de
Woolston, was claiming her dower in the manor of
Woolston against Robert de Woolston her son and
Alice his wife, and in six messuages, 36 acres of land,
and 3O/. of rent in this vill against Alice, relict of
Henry le Wolf.13 Robert de Woolston « of the Ferny-
heued,' died before 1367, in which year Agnes his
relict was sued by Thomas de Southworth for a mes-
suage and I oo acres of land which she held in dower,
and for waste which she had made in the wood of
Woolston."
In 1359 the abbot of Shrewsbury brought a writ
of novel disseisin before the justices at Lancaster
against Robert son of Robert de Woolston touching
tenements here, but did not prosecute his writ.15
Four years later the abbot successfully traversed the
finding of an inquest taken for the king to the effect
that one of the king's progenitors had given a plat
of land, called Wyldegreve, a fishery in the manor,
and 2O/. of rent in Woolston, to find a monk to
celebrate divine service daily for ever in the chapel
of Wyldegreve for the souls of the kings of England,
which chantry had been withdrawn for many years
past, the lands being worth yearly 24^. and the
fishery 2O/. An inquest found that the abbot and
his predecessors had held the tenements time out of
mind of the gift of Ranulf, earl of Chester, in free
alms, whereupon judgement was given for the abbot
with restitution of the tenements, the issues, and the
fishery.16
The descent of the family of Woolston is some-
what obscure during this time.1' In 1401 Hugh de
Woolston was in possession of the manor.18 By the
marriage of his daughter Annabel (or Elizabeth) to
John de Hawarden of Hawarden, co. Flint, the
manor passed to the last-named family.19 In 1432
1 Farrer, Land. Pipe R, 270 et seq.
wood of Ferniheued for 8</. at St. Peter's
Robert de Martinscroft, Richard son of
» Ibid. 287.
Chains. See Raines MSS. xxxviii, 41 1 (i).
Gilbert of the same place, John de Hepay
8 Assize R. 408, m. 41 d. About the
4 Assize R. 408, m. 41 d. 60.
of Woolston, Robert ton of Roger de
year 1285 Robert Banastre gave to Robert
* Ibid. m. 62 d. ; also m. 6 and m.
Woolston, Henry le Wolf of Woolston,
de Samlesbury 3 acres of land with
63^. In 1323 William de Moston re-
and Richard de Standys of Orford ; De
common of pasture in Woolston, begin-
leased to Robert son of William son of
Bane. R. 275, m. 152 ; 276, m. 190.
ning at the Lache towards the north by
Levynges Croft and continuing between
Tylle (Tillesson) 9J acres in Woolston
and Poulton, which Richard de Moston
« De Bane. R. 357, m. n8</.
" Ibid. R. 429, m. 453 ; 432, m. 347.
the moss and the brook until 3 acres were
father of William gave to Richard son of
In 1353 Thomas son of Gilbert de South-
fully completed; Raines MSS. (Chet.
Emma ; Raines MSS. xxxviii, 407, n. 3.
worth withdrew a plea against Richard
Lib.), xxxviii, 403, n. 2.
See Cat. Close R. 1288-96, p. 252.
son of Robert dc Woolston of the Ferny-
In 1290 Robert lord of Woolston ex-
' Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
head and Agnes relict of Robert de
changed land in Woolston for other land
Lanes, and Ches.), 276.
Woolston ; Assize R. 435, m. 4. In
between Helecroft on the east and the
7 Assize R. 423, m. I d.
1336 Agnes daughter of Simon son ol
Outlone on the west, with William de
8 De Bane. R. 198, m. 56.
Robert son of Orme released to Thomas
Midelton and Ameria his wife, daughter
• Assize R. 423.
de Southworth a messuage in the Ferny-
of Robert le Boteler, of whose inheritance
10 In 1343 Robert son of Richard de
head in Woolston ; Towneley MS. HH,
it was ; Towneley MS. HH, n. 1835.
Moston gave to Cecily daughter of Robert
n. 1934.
As Robert, lord of Woolston, he gave
del Wode and to Richard her eldest son
15 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 7, m. 6.
to Robert son of Orm de Pesforlonc in
and his issue the lands and buildings in
"Co. Plac. Lane. No. 10. See Col.
fee 2 plats of land in Woolston, viz. (i) be-
Woolston and Poulton which had belonged
Close R. 1327-30, p. 478.
ginning at the land formerly Adam de
to Alice daughter of Richard Ormesson,
" In a complaint by Thomas Hawarden
Midelton's on the north, following the
mother of the said Cecily, with remainders
the elder in I5i6(?) his pedigree is thus
ditch which the same Robert raised there
to John son of Matthew de Southworth
traced : Richard de Woolston— s. Richard
towards the east, to the highway leading
by Agnes Drynkale, to Gilbert son of the
—s. Hugh— s. Robert— s. Hugh— d. An-
from Poulton to the wood of Ferniheued,
said Matthew, to Godith and Margery
nabel— s. Thomas Hawarden, the plaintiff,
and so following the ditches on the south
daughters of the said Matthew ; Raines
who had a son Thomas ; Star Chamb.
against the highway to the land of Adam
MSS. xxxviii, 409, n. 2.
Proc. Hen. VIII, xxv, 330, vi", 247.
le Rede of Rixton ; (2) beginning at the
11 De Bane. R. 221, m. 57 d. ; R. 223,
18 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. i, m. 7.
tame highway on the west, following in
m. 119.
19 In 1427 Richard Walker, rector o:
length by the land of Peter de Midelton
13 Lanes. Lay Sub. bdle. 130, n. 5 and
Warrington, and other feoffees restored
to the land of Andrew de Midelton, and
6. In Michaelmas term, 1328, Wil-
certain of Hugh de Woolston's lands ir.
to the land of William Fox on the east,
liam Lambe of Warrington sued in
Martinscroft to him, with remainder to
following ditches southward to the Out-
lone, with estovert and pannage quit in the
the King's Bench for 20 marks debt,
Richard de Woolston, Richard ton of
Annabel, his daughter, wife of John de
Hawarden ; Towneley MS. OO, n. 1265.
332
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
HAWARDIN or
WOOLSTON. Argent^
puttee de poix and a fcsse
nebuly sable.
John Hawarden and Elizabeth his wife were
freeholders in Poulton and Woolston.1 His son
Thomas Hawarden * had a son Thomas, who died
before 1513, in which year
Joan his wife gave 20 marks
for the marriage of her son
John, which Sir Thomas Boteler
claimed in respect of lands held
of him in Warrington.3 In
1523 John Hawarden was
amerced for not appearing at
a court held at Warrington to
do his suit for the same lands.4
He died in 1556-7 seised of
this manor and of lands in
Halewood.5 Adam his son,
aged thirty years in 1556—7,
entered his pedigree at the visi-
tation of William Flower in 1 567." The manor was
settled upon him by his father John Hawarden by fine
in 1548.' He died 6 February, 1596-7," his only
son having predeceased him. Elizabeth, daughter of
Adam, had married Alexander, son and heir of
Edward Standish of Standish,
in I575,9 and in 1581 Adam t t
Hawarden and Alexander Stand-
ish had conveyed the manor
and family estates by fine to
trustees,10 as Alexander Standish
and Elizabeth his wife likewise
did in 1609." The manor
subsequently descended with
Standish until March, 1870,
when the hall was sold to the
present owner, Mr. John Ben-
nett, by the Standish trustees,
with the consent of the late
Charles Henry Lionel Widdrington Standish. The
'manorial rights, if any,' were reserved by the
vendors."
In 1278 Robert son of Alan le Norreys of Halsnead
STANDISH OF STAND-
ISH. Sable, three stand-
ing dishes argent.
WARRINGTON
and Agnes his wife claimed estovers in Robert de
Woolston's wood in Woolston, which they had been
used to enjoy." John son of the same Robert in
1323 and again in 1332 sought to recover a messuage
and two oxgangs of land here from Richard son of
Hugh de Woolston."
The family of Southworth of Samlesbury held an
estate here from an early period. In 1432 Thomas
Southworth died seised of lands held of John Hawarden
and Elizabeth his wife.15 Richard Southworth died
in 1472, and Christopher his son in 1487, seised of
the same, held of Thomas Hawarden by the yearly
rent of \d. In 1502 Ralph Anderton claimed the
premises.16 The subsequent descent is unknown.
Ralph Culcheth died in 1564 seised of a small
estate here, which he held of Adam Hawarden in
socage by a yearly free rent of 3/.17 William his
bastard son and heir alienated it in 1567 to Thomas
Walmesley of Showley,18 who died seised of the same
in I584.19 It descended in 1612 to Thomas, son
and heir of Robert Walmesley of Coldcotes,'0 and
probably passed with the other estates of this family.
MARTINSCROFT'1 was, as the name suggests, a
several enclosure within the manor of Woolston.
Gilbert de Martinscroft held land here in the time
of Edward I,*2 and Richard his son was one of the
largest contributors here to the subsidy of 1326."
By his wife Agnes, daughter of John de Shaw, he
had issue two daughters, Godith and Margery, who
with their husbands were claiming a messuage and
lands here in 1346 against Robert, son and heir of
the said Richard de Martinscroft, and Richard's
widow, Margery de Edgeworth."
Richard Houghton, Ellen Hawarden, Adam
Hawarden, and Richard Bruch, as landowners in
Woolston, contributed to a subsidy in Mary's reign."
The only freeholder recorded in 1 600 was Alexander
Standish.'6 Sir Peter Legh and Ralph Standish were
the landowners paying to the subsidy in 1628, in
Poulton and Woolston." Richard Booth was in
1653 allowed to contract for two-thirds of his estate
son of Thomas de Hawarden and William
his son about 1396 had lands in Cheshire;
n. 1237, 1240. In 1474 John, son and
heir of John Hawarden, late of Chester,
held the manor of Statham in Lymm ;
n. 1246.
1 Lanes. Inq. p. m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 46.
Hugh de Hawarden and Agnes his wife
occur in a Warrington suit in i 3575 Duchy
of Lane. Assize R. 6, m. 6 d., and (pt. 3)
m. i i fuulCme.il, 156.
" Writ of Diem clausit extr. issued 1 6 Hen.
VII(?) ; Towneley MS. CC. (Chet. Lib.),
n. 723. The dates in the text do not agree
with the Star Chamber Pleading of a pre-
ceding note. In 1485 Thomas Legh of
High Legh appointed Thomas Hawarden
one of the executors of his will (Rec. Soc.
at the latter'* death in 1582; Ormerod,
'' rpi. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13,
'* In the inquest taken after the death
of Adam Hawarden, 13 Mar. 1598, it
was found that Anne Hawarden, Eliza-
beth the wife of Alexander Standish, Jane
the wife of Thomas Flower, Margaret the
wife of Richard Ashton of Bamfurlong,
Ellen the wife of Edward Standish, jun.,
Isabel the wife of Hugh Adlington, and
Clemence Hawarden, were his daughters
and heirs ; Culcheth D. in Lanes, and Ches.
Hist, and Cental. Nates, i, 156.
9 Lanes. Inq. f>. m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 187.
"Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 43,
3 De Bane. R. 24, m. 38 d. 67 d.
"Ibid. R. 248, m. 149^.; 290,
m. i43</.
15 Lanes. Inj. p. m. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
46.
"Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, n. 41,
103.
"Ibid, xi, „. 34.
18 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 29,
m. 96.
19 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. xiv, ».
72»Ibid.rx,». 34.
al Martinescroft, Edw. I.
M By deed s.d. Roger of the Hurst of
Culcheth gave to Norman de Culcheth
land in Symondeshurst in Culcheth, which
he had by the gift of Richard de Martins-
John Hulton of the Park in his will
describes him as his brother; ibid. 24.
Thomas Hawarden purchased the Statham
lands in Lymm in 1485-6, and Thomas,
son and heir apparent of Thomas Hawarden
of Woolston, made a further purchase in
H9*-3i Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby),
' " Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 27.
* Lords efWarr. (Chet. Soc.), 431.
0 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. x, «, 33.
twenty messuages, &c., a water-mill, a
dovecote, 2,300 acres of land, meadow
and pasture in Woolston, Fearnhead,
Bruche, Poulton, Marscroft [Martins-
croft], and Halewood.
"Ibid. bdle. 75, m. 15.
" Information supplied by Mr. Bennett,
through his solicitors, Messrs. Robert
Davies & Co., Warrington, who state that
by his will of 1807 Edward Townley
Standish made Charles Standish tenant for
life with remainder to Charles H. L. W.
the land which was Ulphis' the son of
Dolphin de Bedford, and all the herbage
wh ch Richard de Martinscroft gave him
to the east of Glaze Brook, rendering 21.
rent ; Lanes, and Ches. Hist, and Geneal.
Notes, i, 22.
Lanes. Lay Sub. bdle. 130,0. 5.
De Bane. R. 348, m. 248 d.
Mascy of Rixton D.
Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 38.
Norris D. (B.M.).
333
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
sequestered for his recusancy.1 Richard Booth and
William Caldwell, reedmaker, as ' Papists,' registered
small estates in 1717.'
A family named Willme resided at Martinscroft in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; one of
them, John Willme, who died in 1767, was a mathe-
matician and astrologer.3
The land-tax returns of 1787 show that Edward
Standish, Henry Pickering, and Strickland were
the chief owners of the soil.
The enclosure award (with plan) for the township
is preserved at the County Council offices, Preston.
A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built at Martins-
croft in 1827.
The Hawarden family and their successors, adhering
to the Roman Catholic faith at the Reformation,
afforded shelter to the missionary priests during the
times of proscription.4 The domestic chapel of
Woolston Hall was served by the English Bene-
dictines until the beginning of last century,6 when
it was demolished. The present church of St. Peter,
opened in 1835, is in the hands of secular clergy.6
RIXTON WITH GLAZEBROOK
Rixton, 1 212 and commonly; Rickeston, 1259.
Glazebrok, 1259, 1302, &c. ; Glaseborke, 1292;
Glazebrook, 1389.
This township 7 is the most easterly one of the
hundred. It lies along the course of the Mersey.
The Glazebrook, a fair-sized stream, forms the
boundary between this and the hundred of Salford ;
it flows through marshy meadows, its course marked
by luxuriant poplar trees, to join the Mersey.
The geological formation is triassic. A fault
which traverses the township from north-west to
south-east has thrown up the upper mottled sand-
stone of the bunter series in the south-western part.
The same beds occur also in the northern angle from
Glazebrook station northward. The remainder of
the township, forming a triangle of which the apex
extends into Risley to a point between the old and
new halls, having the base along the Mersey, consists
of the basement beds to the north and the water-
stones of the keuper series to the south, the dividing
line extending from Moss Side to Hollins Green.
There is a good deal of mossland in the township ;
in places peat is still cut for fuel and litter. In the
south the soil is principally stiff clay with some sand.
The land is given over almost entirely to farming and
market-gardening, crops of corn and potatoes being
the chief general produce. Occasional osier-beds in
the low-lying ground by the river and brooks point
to the manufacture of baskets and hampers to hold
the produce of the fields and gardens. The total area
is 2,988 acres,8 of which Rixton, the western portion,
has 2,2 1 3! acres, and Glazebrook the remainder.
Hollinfare or Hollins Green is a hamlet on the
boundary of the two portions of the township, and
gives its name to the chapelry. The population in
1901 was 998.
The principal road is that from Warrington to
Manchester, running not far from the Mersey. The
Cheshire Lines Committee's railway between the
same places also crosses the township, with a station
at Glazebrook, at which point it is joined by the
line from Wigan worked by the Great Central Com-
pany. At the same point the line to Stockport
diverges to the south-east. The Mersey and Irwell
Navigation has a short cut through the township, and
the Manchester Ship Canal also passes through it.
The tremendously elevated iron bridges which span
the canal at intervals are noticeable objects in the
landscape.
The duke of Cumberland crossed by the ferry and
passed through the township in December, 1745, in
his pursuit of the Young Pretender.
A bar erected on the road in 1831 to increase the
tolls was pulled down by the people.9
The annual fair is held on 1 2 May, Old St. Philip's
day.10 A wake was celebrated
on the first Sunday in October.11
The township has a parish
council.
Nothing is known
MANORS of the manor of
RIXTON until the
beginning of the thirteenth
century, when it formed one
of the members of the fee of
Warrington," and in 121 2 was
held of William le Boteler by
Alan de Rixton by knight's
RIXTON.
Argent, on a bend sable
three covered cups of the
service and the payment of first.
I mark ; the assessment was
one plough-land. As nothing is said of the origin of
the tenure, which was ' of ancient time,' the Rixton
family may have been in possession as early as the
beginning of Henry I's reign.13 Little can be dis-
covered concerning them ; the name Alan de Rixton
occurs from 1200 to 1332, so that several successive
lords of the manor must have borne it.1*
1 Royalist Camp. Papers (Rec. Soc.
Lane, and Ches.), i, 209.
*Engl. Cat/,. Non-jurors, 123.
8 For an account of him see Pal. Note
Book,\, 117, 193.
4 A search by the priest-hunters at
Woolston Hall in the early hours of a
Feb. morning in 1584 is reported in
Foley, Rec. S.J. ii, 117.
In 1590 Adam Hawarden of Woolston,
though in some degree of conformity,
was yet ' in general note of evil affection
Lydiate Hall, 245 (quoting S.P. Dom!
Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4).
A fair number of names appear in the
recusant roll of 1641 ; Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), xiv, 244.
6 The Benedictines are known to have
been in charge from early in the eighteenth
century. The last of the line moved to
Rixton in 1831 ; Gillow, in Trans. Hist.
and three years later he owed half a mark
Soc. (New Ser.), xiii, 146.
to the scutage ; Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R.
« Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1901.
1 3 1, 1 80. He had also lands in Lowton
7 For the ancient levy called the
in 1212; Inq. and Extents, 73. Alan,
fifteenth, Rixton and Glazebrook were
son of Alan de Rixton had a further grant
assessed independently as if separate
in the same township from William de
townships.
Lawton ; Mascy D. R. 63.
8 2,994, including 54 of inland water,
In 1258-9 Alan de Rixton gave half a
according to the census of 1901.
mark for an assize taken before Peter de
» Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 686.
Percy ; Orig. 43 Hen. Ill, m. 6. It wa»
10 Beamont, Warr. Ch. Notes, 205.
probably the same Alan who came to an
11 Baines, loc. cit.
agreement with Sir Geoffrey de Dutton
M V.C.H. Lanes, i, 340. Rixton con-
respecting weirs on the Mersey between
tinued to be mentioned in the Boteler
Rixton and Warburton ; Mascy of Rixton
inquisitions down to the enfranchisement ;
D. R. i. For Sir Geoffrey see Ormerod,
see Beamont, Lords offfarr. (Chet. Soc.),
Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 569.
488.
Alan de Rixton was fined for contempt
18 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
in 1292, 'because he stood in the hall for
Lanes, and Ches.), 9.
pleas of the Crown without warrant, and
being solemnly called, would not come ' ;
tioned together with Henry de Culcheth,
Assize R. 408, m. 34</. He was the
334
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Between 1212 and 1242 a moiety of the adjoining
manor of Glazebrook was acquired and remained in
the possession of the Rixtons and their successors ;
the combined holding was called the fifth part of a
knight's fee ;' and in the later inquisitions the service
is variously stated as zos. or zos. l\d., i.e. a mark
for Rixton and half a mark for the moiety of Glaze-
brook.* Suit had to be done to the court of War-
rington from three weeks to three weeks, but in 1 300
William le Boteler conceded that for the future only
one beadle need attend, instead of two.3 The en-
franchisement of the manor was obtained in 1598.
In the autumn of 1332 Alan de Rixton made a
settlement of his manors and lands, his daughters
Katherine, Sibyl, Elizabeth, Emma, Maud, Margaret,
and Agnes, and their heirs male having the succession
WARRINGTON
in turn.4 The first of these about the same time
married Hamlet, son of Robert de Mascy of Tatton
in Cheshire,5 and their descendants continued in
possession down to the end of the eighteenth cen-
tury. Hamlet died about 1360,° and was succeeded
by his son Richard, who made a feoffment of the
manors of Rixton and Glazebrook in 1384.' Other
of Richard de Mascy's charters have been preserved,
and he gave evidence in the Scrope v. Grosvenor trial
in 1386.' He died before 1406,* leaving two sons,
Hamlet and Peter, who married the daughters and
coheirs of William de Horton of Hartford in
Cheshire.10
Hamlet succeeded his father at Rixton,11 and added
to his possessions there by purchasing the lands of
Richard the Smith." He had several sons, of whom
408, m. 63 J.
From the Mascy of Rixton deeds he
seems to have lived until 1315 ; R. 50.
In 1303 he granted lands in Lowton, &c.
to Henry son of Richard de Glazebrook,
in view (it appears) of the marriage of
Henry's son with his daughter Isabel, and
Troutbeck ; she is named as Joan his
daughter in the pedigree in Ormerod, Ches.
ii, 41, 42. John de Rixton in 1404 had the
king's protection, he being in Picardy in
the retinue of the earl of Somerset ; Pal.
of Lane. Misc. 1-9, m. 107.
1 Inj. and Extents, 147. The service
xxxvi, App. 463. His widow {Catherine
is named in 1360; Dep, Keeper's Rep.
xxxii, App. 340.
See also Ormerod, Chts. (ed. Helsby),
i, 441. De Mascy appears to be the cor-
rect form of the surname, though le Mascy
became common. The old spelling of
Mascy has been retained throughout, but
Henry de Byrom by his son Alan de
Rixton; ibid, R. 63 ; Kuerden fol. MS.
364. The latter Alan in 1332 gave to
Robert son of Alan de Rixton, as trustee,
his manor of Rixton and moiety of Glaze-
brook with the homages of Alan del Shaw
plough-land.
3 See the Mascy Inq. quoted below.
8 Mascy D. W. 1 3, in Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), iv, 158. Alan's service was
to be puture of one beadle, 'bode and
witness ' ; he was to be acquitted of all
of £200 of silver; Mascy D. R. 55.
Richard de Rixton attested another deed
of this date; R. 57. In the same
and < flortol.'
« Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 86 ; after Alan's daughters the
1 Mascy D. R. 77. Various release,
to Richard de Mascy were made in 1386,
and in December he made a feorfment of
the lands in Rixton and Glazebrook he
had acquired from William son of Mat-
thew de Rixton ; ibid. R. 78-83. The
trustee in 1395 regranted to him the
manor of Rixton and lands in Glazebrook,
Bowdon, and Rostherne.
In 1385 Richard de Mascy of Rixton
was to have taken part in John of Gaunt' s
Spanish expedition, but refused to go ;
J-mV.of 1533 (Chet.Soc.),22,m; Bea-
mont, Halton Rec. 22. His substitute
seem to have been Thomas de Torbock
of Melling, and William de Bredbury, re-
ring given in 1390 ;
and others contributed to the subsidy ;
Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii.
Various families with this surname
appear in later times. The last-named
William de Rixton was probably a son of
* In the following account full use has
been made of the carefully compiled essay
by Mrs. Arthur Cecil Tempest on the
' Descent of the Mascys of Rixton,' in
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iii, 59-158,
and of the Mascy D. ibid, iv, 156-76
granted lands in Glazebrook ; Mascy D.
R. 20. A Richard de Rixton who had
been accused of the murder of John, son
of Henry de Whittle, in 1348 brought an
action for false imprisonment ; De Banco
R. 355, m. iga". Avina, widow of
Richard del Bruche, in 1355 did not pro-
secute her suit against Sir William le
Boteler and Matthew son of Richard de
Rixton ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4,
William son of Matthew de Rixton in
1384 sold all his lands in Rixton and
Glazebrook to Richard de Mascy ; Mascy
D. R. 83. William de Rixton died in
1400, holding lands in Warrington, Sankey,
Penketh, Parr, and Sutton, and leaving as
next of kin and heir Richard son of John
de Townley, thirteen years of age ;
Towneley MS. DD, «. 1512 (from which
it appears that this William had had
brothers, John and Gilbert, who in turn
succeeded). Another version of the in-
E' ' ion is given in Lanes. Inq. p. m.
:. Soc.), i, 159, showing that Wil-
B daughter Isabel married John de
Townley.
John de Rixton occurs in 1390 ; Bea-
mont, op. cit. p. 213. Nicholas and Wil-
liam de Rixton gave evidence at the Scrope
v. Grosvenor trial, 1386-9; ibid. 222
(quotinj Nicholas, i, 248). Nicholas de
de Rixton occur in a grant by Sir
John le Boteler in 1385; Mascy D.
W. 34, in Trans. His,. Soc. (New Ser.),
iv, 162. The heiress of William de Rix-
The marriage covenant is dated 18 Jan.
'332-3; Hamlet was to pay £40 and
Alan was to grant the moiety of the
manor of Glazebrook to his daughter and
her husband, receiving it back as their
tenant at a rent of four marks a year ;
Mascy D. R. 60. The seal bears a shield
having a bend charged with three cups,
Hamlet and Katherine were probably
married the same day, the grant of the
moiety of the manor speaking of them as
Mascy D. R. 84, W. 35.
a Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iii, 63 ;
he was then thirty-eight years of age.
9 He was living in 1400 when he
granted lands in Cheshire to his son Peter
pending the division of the estate of Wil-
liam de Horton between daughters Ellen
and Margaret, who were already married
to Richard's sons Hamlet and Peter;
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iii, 68, quot-
ing Dods. MSS. xli, fol. 91. In this he
names Maud his wife. In 1403 Hamlet
son of Richard de Mascy of Rixton and
Alan de Rixton was made about a month
later ; ibid. R. 57*.
Alan de Rixton had previously granted
the same moiety of Glazebrook to his son
Alan in view of his marriage with Eliza-
beth, apparently a Radcliffe, but the
younger Alan having died, an agreement
and {Catherine from interference ; ibid.
R. 59. Elizabeth or Isabel was living in
1 364, when she demised to John de Mascy
all her messuages, lands, rents and ser-
vices in Rixton and Glazebrook ; ibid.
R. 66.
Alan de Rixton, the father of {Catherine,
in 1335 made an agreement with Henry
de Byrom respecting lands in Lowton, &c.;
ibid. R. 63. This seems to be the latest
6 In 1341 Hamlet, son of Robert de
Mascy of Tatton, with others entered into
a recognizance touching the farm of the
manor of Frodsham ; Dep. Keeper's Rep.
335
Maud de Oulton, heirs of John de Oulton,
lately deceased, appointed proctors to act
for them ; • Mascy D. R. 89. An attempt
was unsuccessfully made about that time
to prove John de Oulton's daughters ille-
gitimate ; and Maud de Oulton was prob-
ably the widow of Richard de Mascy and
mother of Hamlet ; see Ormerod, Ches.
(ed. Helsby), ii, 187, 190. Maud, widow
of Richard, was living in 1414 ; Dep.
Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App. ii, 80 1.
10 See last note and compare Ormerod,
Ches. ii, 1 98 ; from this it appears that Peter
de Mascy afterwards married an Ellen,
who in 1435 was the wife of John de
Parr, and that he left a daughter and heir
Isabel.
11 In 1407 and 1409 the different
feoffees restored to Hamlet all the lands
in Rixton, Glazebrook, and elsewhere
which they held by the grant of his father
Richard and himself; Mascy D. R. 91,
'« Ibid. R. 96, 97.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
one, Thomas, became rector of Warrington.1 He
died 20 June, 1436, holding the manors of Rixton
and Glazebrook of the Boteler
trustees by knight's service and
the rent of 2O/. ; his son and
heir, William, was thirty-one
years of age.* Little is known
of William de Mascy, but
by his marriage with Parnell,
daughter and heir of Richard
de Warburton of Surges in
Cogshall, he increased his Che-
shire lands.1 Hamlet, his son
and heir, was in 1438 married
to Joan daughter of Sir Robert
Booth,4 and succeeded his father
in 1448;* three years later
the bishop of Lichfield granted him a licence for
an oratory at Rixton.6 In 1453 Hamlet made a
settlement of his estates.7 He died in April, 1462,
leaving a widow and eight children.8
Of these the eldest son, Hamlet, succeeded to
MASCY OF R.XTON.
Quarterly gules and argent,
on the second quarter a
mullet sable.
Rixton. He acquired lands in Warrington and Glaze-
brook,9 and among other acts endowed a chantry in
the chapel of Hollinfare in the latter township.10 He
married Alice, daughter of Sir John le Boteler," and
left two daughters, who had some of the Cheshire
lands as their inheritance." Rixton and the moiety
of Glazebrook passed to Hamlet's younger brother
John, who in 1 500 was contracted in marriage to
Anne, daughter of Sir John Booth.13 John Mascy
made some addition to the estates." He twice com-
pounded for refusing knighthood,15 and was killed at
Flodden 9 September, 1513, where also fell his
father-in-law. William, his son and heir, then
aged nine years, became the ward of Sir Thomas
Boteler.16
William Mascy was married in 1518-19 to Anne,
daughter of Richard Aston of Aston near Frodsham,17
and died in May, I538.ls In the previous month he
had made various settlements.19 His son and heir
Richard was then thirteen years of age, but had
been married some years before to Anne, daughter of
Thurstan Tyldesley.10 He repurchased the confiscated
1 Mascy D. R. 95 ; a deed of release
dated 1452 to Hamlet Mascy of Rixton,
by Richard son of Hamlet Mascy, Thomas
Mascy, rector of Warrington, and others,
concerning lands which they held by the
feoffment of William Mascy of Rixton ;
good prosperity and soul-heal ot the said
Joan and of the said children, and for all
Christian souls 'i ibid. R. 109.
8 The will is dated 9 April, 1462, and
was proved on 26 April; ibid. R. no.
He bequeathed his soul to God Almighty,
1501-2, and did homage about three years
later ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 13, 14. He did not pay the relief for
his Cheshire lands until 1 507 ; Mascy
D. W. 88. He purchased lands in War-
rington and in Glazebrook ; ibid. W. 93,
her young, with the legend THOMAS
MASCY. In the following year Hamlet
Mascy granted all his manors, lands,
&c. to the above-named Thomas Mascy,
Richard Mascy brother of Thomas, and
others, and they in turn granted them to
Master John Booth and other trustees in
1461 ; ibid. R. 106. The three genera-
tions are shown by these deeds — Hamlet,
William, Hamlet ; Thomas and Richard
being sons of the former Hamlet and
uncles of the latter. William Mascy in
1436 confirmed a grant of lands in
Cheshire recently made to his brother
Richard by their father Hamlet ; ibid. R.
> Towneley MS. DD. n. 1495. The ser-
vice of 201. is clearly made up of the
mark for Rixton and the half mark for
the moiety of Glazebrook. The value of
his body to be buried in the parish church
of Warrington (no doubt in the Mascy
chapel) ; to the rector he left his best
beast as a mortuary ; a proper chap-
lain was to celebrate for his soul for a
year in his chapel at Rixton, receiving
seven marks of silver. To Joan his wife
he bequeathed the lease of lands in the
parish of Bowdon and of the tithes there.
In 1465 grants of tenements in Rixton
were made to John and William, sons of
Hamlet Mascy, and an agreement as to
disputes between them and Joan, the
widow, was arrived at ; ibid. R. 115-120.
9 Mascy D. W. 65, &c. ; R. 124, &c. ;
the dates range from 1474 to 1497.
10 Ibid. R. 151* ; see further below.
11 Ibid. R. 114; by this deed, of
27 Feb. 1463-4, the Mascy feoffees
granted for her life to Alice, daughter of
" The first occasion was on 'the crea-
tion ' of Prince Henry as Prince of Wales
in 1503 ; ibid. R. 146, 146* ; the second
probably at the coronation of the same as
Henry VIII ; R. 145. He paid 10 marks
on the former refusal and 531. $d. on the
16 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 9 ;
the manor of Rixton and lands in Rixton
and Glazebrook were held of Sir Thomas
Boteler as of his manor of Warrington by
the fifth part of a knight's fee and the
yearly rent of 24*. $^d. made up thus : —
For the manor and lands in Rixton
201. ijrf. ; for soke and ward lad. ; for
the lands in Glazebrook nJ. ; and for
soke and ward zod. ; also by suit at the
court at Warrington every three weeks.
The clear annual value was 20 marks.
Lands in Pennington and Warrington were
« SeeOrmcrod, Che,, i, 655, 656. The
dispensation for the marriage of William,
.on of Hamlet de Mascy, and Parnell,
daughter of Richard de Warburton, re-
lated within the fourth degree, was granted
by John XXIII in 1415; ibid, i, 571
Rixton, those in the latter including the
ten-acre in Swallescgh, the Stramard, the
Branderth, the Nethcrfields, &c. ; the re-
version being to Hamlet, son and heir of
Hamlet Mascy deceased. Hamlet's wife
the seventh part of a knight's fee and a
rent of 31. lad. ; and lands in Poulton ol
Thomas Langton of Newton by fealtj
only. It will be noticed that the moiet)
of the manor of Glazebrook is not ex-
(quoting Lich.Epis. Reg. vii-viii, fol. 22).
Two of William Mascy's deeds are printed
in Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Scr.), iv, 164,
165 (W. 45, 46). He was a trustee of
1497 ; ibid. R. 151.
la The settlement referred to provided
that Hamlet's lands in Bowdon, Hale,
Altrincham, and Yarwood should descend
>7 Ormerod, Ches. i, 713.
" Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. viii, n. 17 ;
the rent payable to the lord of Warrington
was recorded as lit. oj</. His will, datec
* Mascy D. W. 47.
* In 1444 William Mascy of Rixton
was one of the Boteler trustees, but in
male, with remainder to his brother John,
while the lands in Cogshall, Over and
Nether Whitley, Thelwall, and Comber-
cope's Wills (Chet. Soc.), ii, 201 ; he de
sired to be buried in the Rixton chapel ir
the parish church, and among other be
Beamont, Lards of fTarr. (Chet. Soc.),
ii, 263, 264.
« Mascy D. R. 102 ; masses and other
Lancashire descend to his heirs general,
' which as yet were his daughters.'
>» Ibid. R. 142 ; Hamlet Mascy agreed
to maintain divine service there. In 1 5 3 \
he recorded his arms, the quarterings beinj:
Rixton, Mascy, Pennington, and Horton ;
voice by fit chaplains in the presence of
Hamlet and Joan and their family.
' Ibid. W. 50, R. 103. The trustees
were changed in 1461, and regranted the
manors to Hamlet; ibid. R. 108, 107.
At the same time provision was made for
for his brother John and heirs male, and
Sir John Booth to pay a sum of 20
marks.
Hamlet Mascy probably died shortly
afterwards. His daughters were— Mar-
garet who married John Holcroft, and
» Mascy D. R. 156-9.
ao The marriage was recorded by th,
herald in 1533 ; he remarked that < th.
elder of them passeth not seven years.' Ii.
1538, at the request of Thurstan Tyldes-
ley, William Mascy had made a settlement
band' that she might be able to 'marry
and help ' their children and to find priests
« to do divine services for the soul of the
said Hamlet and his ancestors, and for the
Booths ; Ormerod, Ches. ii, 198 ; Visit, of
. 567 (Chet. Soc.), ,31.
" John Mascy paid to the lord of
Warrington 201. io</. as relief on 7 March,
336
Rixton hall,' with his various lands in Lan
cashire and Cheshire ; the remainder bein;;
to his son Richard and Anne his wife an
their male heirs ; Mascy D. R. 159.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
WARRINGTON
lands of Hollinfare chantry.1 Dying 15 July, 1579,
he was succeeded by his eldest son William, then
twenty-seven years of age,' who had married Dorothy,
daughter and heir of Peter Daniell of Over Tabley.3
William Mascy was described in 1590 as 'in
some degree of conformity, yet in general note of evil
affection in religion, and a non-communicant.' 4 Two
years later it was reported that he had formerly had
one Peel, a recusant and an ' old priest ' as school-
master for his children ; then he took James Gar-
diner, a seminary priest, and afterwards Gale alias
Simpson, also a priest, for the same duty, in defiance
of the statutes ; the informer adding that he had ' a
good living, and therefore to be placed among the
best.' 6 At the same time he insisted on his rights in
the family chapel in Warrington church.6 He died
in 1595,' and was succeeded by his son Richard
Mascy, who married Anne daughter of Edward
Middleton of Middleton in Westmorland.8 He
purchased the enfranchisement of the manors of
Rixton and Glazebrook in 1598 from Thomas Ire-
land, who had recently become lord of Warrington.'
In 1615, on the marriage of his son Hamlet to
Dorothy daughter of Richard Bradshagh of Haigh, a
settlement of the manors was made, with remainder
to uncles and cousins.10 On the accession of Charles I
he procured a general pardon,11 probably on account
of his adherence to the old religion, and four years
later, as a convicted recusant, made a composition with
the crown for himself, his son, and their wives.1* His
wife and his son Hamlet died about the end of 1 636,"
but he lived on until 1645," his estates having been
sequestered shortly before that time by the Parlia-
ment." His grandson and heir Richard was then
serving the king in Lord Herbert's regiment.16 Being
both a recusant and a delinquent Richard Mascy's
estate— or his life interest in it — was of course sold
by those in power.17 The purchaser was Gilbert
Ireland of Hale and Bewsey ; after renewing the
leases of most of the tenants and securing the fines, he
disposed of his interest to trustees for Richard Mascy,
who thus regained possession of his hereditary estates.13
1 This purchase took place in 1556 ; the
price paid to Sir Thomas Holcroft was
£200; Mascy D. R. 160-2; W. 100 ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle 17, m. 189.
In 1563 he bound himself to pay 20 d,
yearly to the lord of Warrington for his
homage and fealty ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanc».
and Ches.), i, 39.
» Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiv, n. 83 ;
Mascy D. R. 169. He died seised of the
8 Dugdale, VlM. of Westmorland (ed.
Foster), 1664, p. 90. In July, 1597,
Edward Norris of Speke, Henry Stanley
of Bickerstaffe, and Richard Mascy of
Rixton agreed to pay £12 to Miles
Gerard of Ince, who undertook to furnish
a demi-lance for the queen's service, and
a further payment of £2 each in case he
should be called out for active service ;
Mascy D. W. 106.
Richard Robinson's. The ' chapel chamber-
contained a meal-chest and other miscel-
laneous articles. The total valuation was
£347 IOJ. 4</.; Mascy D. R. 189.
" Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
and Ches.), iv, 125. He had married a
second wife, Alice, daughter of Sir Cuthbert
Clifton, and her petition in 1651 mentioned
that her late husband's estate had been
sequestered for his recusancy, and that a
twenty messuages, water-mill, windmill,
is described as knight's service, suit to
was afterwards stopped.
manor of Glazebrook and lands there, and
a fishery in the Mersey, held of Thomas
Butler by knight's service and a rent of
22*. ij</., the clear value being £16 a year,
weeks to three weeks, suit to the queen's
court-leet held twice yearly at Warrington,
and rents of 221. ij</. for Rixton, izrf.
for Glazebrook, and 5*. $d. for premises
1643 ; Mascy D. R. 1 88. His will, made
the following February, provided for his
son and heir apparent, for his wife Anne
and such younger child or children as he
of Hollinfare, held of the queen by knight's
service and a rent of 301. ; also of two
burgages in Warrington, &c.
Livery was granted 16 May, 1580, to
William Mascy; ibid. R. 170.
socage, a rent of id. being paid to the lord
of Warrington and appearance being made
thrice a year at the court-leet. By a
second deed Thomas Ireland relinquished
for the payment of his debts ; ibid. R. 187.
The agreement for his marriage with
Mary, daughter of Francis Plowden the
younger of Plowden in Shropshire, was
made in May, 1640; ibid. R. 183. A
Dec. 1571, by which Richard Mascy of
Rixton granted to trustees for Dorothy,
daughter and heir apparent of Peter
Daniell, deceased, and then wife of
Richard, certain lands of the annual value
Glazebrook, including the 61. 8</. chief rent
due from John Ashton of Glazebrook.
10 Ibid. R. 174 ; after Hamlet's sons in
tail male the remainders were to Richard
Mascy, uncle to Richard Mascy, father of
Hamlet ; to James Mascy, another uncle ;
March, after the marriage, by which the
Rixton estates were settled on Richard
Mascy the younger and heirs male, with
successive remainders to his brothers
Thomas, George, and William, to Thomas
and Hamlet, sons of William Mascy, de-
marriage covenant made five days before
between Richard Mascy and Thomas
Mascy of Cadishead and Thomas his
brother. A further settlement was made
to Thurstan Mascy of Southwark and
Thomas Mascy of Rixton, sons of Richard
Ches. i, 475-
About three years afterwards William
Mascy and his wife granted the £20 to his
father and uncle on condition that suffi-
cient lodging and maintenance be provided
for them, including a man servant and
maid servant ; Mascy D. R. 167.
< Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 24.5, quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, ». 4.
5 Ibid. 259, quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz.
ccxv. His widow Dorothy in 1598 was
" Mascy D. R. 177.
"Ibid. R. 178.
« Warr. Reg. Hamlet Mascy left seve-
ral children besides Richard his heir. A
younger son, Thomas, desiring the priest-
hood, entered the English College at Rome
in 1642, when twenty years of age, under
the alias of Middleton. He stated: 'I
was born and brought up near Warrington
in Lancashire. My father is (f was) a
gentleman and a Catholic, as all my friends
to Robert Blundell of Ince and his male
heirs by Joan wife of William Bayldon, and
then lastly to Edmund Veale of Whinny
Heys and his heirs by Joan wife of William
Westwood ; ibid. R. 183 B.; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 138, m. 34.
»7 Index of Rojalistt (Index Soc.), 30 ;
Royalist Comf. P. loc. cit. John Peers or
Pearse had a lease of the estate for seven
years granted I Jan. 1651-2, at a rent
of ^1 58 ; the ferry at Hollinfare was like-
for the 'queen's service in Ireland ; ibid
I studied to the end of poetry at St. Omers
College, and was always a Catholic.' He
building the boats and leaving them in
sufficient repair at the end of the term.
had necessitated an encroachment upon the
Mascy chapel. On William Mascy com-
plaining, the bishop's chancellor allowed
him £5, which he agreed to accept a.
compensation ; Mascy D. R. 171.
* In August, 1595, a settlement of the
manors of Rixton and Glazebrook was
made by William Mascy and Richard his
son and heir apparent : Pal. of Lane. Feet
of F. bdle. 57, m. 68.
3
on the English mission ; Foley, Rec. S.^.
v, 408 ; vi, 356.
14 Warr. Reg. An inventory of his
goods was taken 19 Jan. 1645-6. The
rooms in Rixton Hall were the great and
little parlours, closet, hall, kitchens, store-
house and cellar, and numerous 'cham-
bers ' called chapel, bride's, great, green,
kitchen, stairhead, Isabel's, Mr. Thomas's,
Mr». Eltonhead's, Mr. Mascy's, and
337
widow of Hamlet Mascy, was under se-
questration 'for recusancy only'; she wa»
allowed to contract for it in 1654; ibid.
iv, 124.
18 Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iii, 132-4;
Mascy D. R. 196. The price was
£1,722 IOJ. 2j</.; the lands excepted were
those charged with various jointures and
annuities; ibid. R. 194, 195. Richard
Masey was living at Rixton Hall in April,
43
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
In 1662 a settlement of the manors of Rixton and
Glazebrook, and lands in Warrington, Poulton, Fearn-
head, and Mosscroft was made by Richard Mascy of
Rixton and Hamlet, his son and heir apparent, in con-
sideration of the marriage which had taken place
between the latter and Margaret, a daughter of Sir
Edward Moore, bart., deceased.1
Richard Mascy's chequered career closed in 1667.'
By his first wife, Mary Plowden, he had two sons,
Hamlet and Francis, and two daughters who became
nuns." Hamlet died before his father, leaving an
only daughter Mary, who married George Meynell,
of Aldborough ; and their grand-daughters nearly a
century later inherited the Rixton estates. Francis,
the younger son, on succeeding lived quietly at
Rixton, but died in 1675, leaving a widow and two
young children, Richard and Anne, afterwards a nun.4
The estates were by this time much encumbered —
the confiscation by the Parliament and family charges
being perhaps accountable, in addition to religious
disabilities — and the long mi-
nority of Richard Mascy does
not seem to have helped matters.
About 1711 the mortgagee,
Nicholas Starkie, entered into
possession, and the nominal
owner was receiving a small
pension to keep him from
starving.4 He had married Jane,
daughter of William Fitzherbert
of Norbury, in 1697 ; she died
seven years later, having borne
him a son Francis, who in 1724
succeeded to the encumbered
estates. He remained unmarried and seems to have
endeavoured to pay off his father's debts. He cut off
the entail in 1729, and by his will in 1741 bequeathed
the manors of Rixton and Glazebrook and other
estates to his kinsman George Meynell of Aldborough,
son of Mary Mascy.6
Francis Mascy died in 1 748, and the last-mentioned
WITHAM OF CLIFFE.
Or, a bend gules between
three eagles sable.
TON. Argent, a bend
between six storm finches
table.
George Meynell and his son and heir, George, having
already died, the latter George's three sisters became
coheirs under the will. They were — Elizabeth, wife
of Dr. Thomas Witham of ClifFe, Yorkshire ; Anna
Clementina, wife of Simon Scrope of Danby ; and
Frances Olive, wife of Stephen Walter Tempest of
Broughton in Craven. The
second of these took the Mey-
nell manors to her husband ;
the other sisters divided the
Mascy estates. Half the manors
of Rixton and Glazebrook, with
the old hall and the Mascy
chapel in Warrington church,
went to Elizabeth Witham, and
were sold to Thomas Patten of
Warrington in or about 1785.
The other half of the manors,
with the Little Hall in Rixton,
the free fisheries in the Mersey
and Glazebrook, and Hollins
Green ferry went to Frances Olive Tempest, and
most of this remained in the Tempest family until
1865, when it was sold in accordance with the will
of Sir Charles Robert Tempest.7
The manor was held by John Wilson-Patten, Lord
Winmarleigh ; the present holder, for her life, being
his son's widow, the dowager marchioness of Head-
fort. No courts are held, nor are any manorial rights
exercised.8
Little can be said of the manor of GLAZEBROOK.
It is not mentioned in 1212. One moiety of it
was acquired by the Rixton family in the thir-
teenth century, but it is not clear whether this wa;
by a grant from the lord of Warrington to Alar
de Rixton, who afterwards granted it to a familj
or families using the local surname, or whether it wa •
by purchase or repurchase from members of the
Glazebrook family, whose interest was very much
divided.9 In 1300, however, it is clear that one
moiety had been attached to the manor of Rixton, whib
1658, when he pledged his effects for the
payment of certain debts; Mascy D. R. 197;
a list of these effects is given, including
bedsteads and other furniture, a dozen and
a half silver spoons, horses, cows, and other
farm stock, valued in all at about £350.
On 3 Feb., 1658-9, Gilbert Ireland
for 401. sold to three trustees his right in
the Rixton estates ; ibid. R. 199.
1 Ibid. R. 200-1. In consideration of
£2,000, the marriage portion of Margaret
Moore, a settlement was made to secure
it to her younger children or daughters, the
manors of Rixton and Glazebrook, and
lands in Warrington, Poulton, Fearnhead,
and Mosscroft being entailed that they
might 'remain as long as it pleases
Almighty God to keep in the name, blood,
and kindred of the Mascys.' See also Pal.
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 169, m. 102.
a He was buried 21 Dec. 1667 at
Warrington church.
8 He recorded a pedigree in 1665;
T>ugdale Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 194. Francis
the younger son is omitted, he being no
doubt the Francis Mascy of Lancashire
who in that year entered the Jesuit
novitiate, but left soon afterwards ; Foley,
•op. cit. vii, 492. The apparent desertion
is explained by the death of his elder
brother without male issue.
« Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.). iii, 139-
J40.
6 Ibid, iii, 140-6, quoting family papers.
There was a recovery of the manors of
Rixton and Glazebrook, &c., in 1697,
Richard Mascy being called to vouch ;
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 465, m. 7. In
1717 as a ' Papist1 he registered his estate
in the manors, the value being given at
£315 lit. 3,/.; Engl. Cath. Non-jurors,
• 'Trans. Hist. So<r.(New Ser.), iii, 146-8.
A recovery of the manors was suffered in
1730, Francis Mascy being called to
vouch; Pal. of Lane. Docquet R. 530,
m. 3.
^ Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iii,
149-50. In 1749 a settlement was made
of the manors of Rixton and Glazebrook,
with lands there, a dovehouse, water corn-
mill, free fishery, &c. ; by Thomas
Witham, M.D., and Elizabeth his wife ;
Anne Meynell, spinster; and Stephen
Walter Tempest and Frances Olive his
wife ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 340,
m. 219. A further arrangement as to a
moiety of the manors was made in 1772,
the deforciants being Sir Henry Lawson
and the three sisters and their husbands,
Anne dementia being now the wife of
Simon Scrope ; ibid. bdle. 388, m. 139.
8 Information of the marchioness
through Messrs. John White & Co., her
agents.
» It has been pointed out in the account
of Rixton that while the Alan de Rixton cf
1 21 2 held one-tenth of a knight's fee his
namesake thirty years later held the fift i
part ; from which it might be inferre 1
that he had had the whole of Glazebroo^
granted to him ; Inq. and Extents, 9, 14; .
On the other hand the rent was increase i
the family holding a moiety of Glaz'ebroorC
paid half a mark.
The moiety purchased or repurchased \ ].'
the Rixton family appears to have been he 1
at one time by a Geoffrey de Glazebroo! ,
but it had become much subdivide .
Geoffrey de Glazebrook was living ii
1246, when he failed in a suit of nov 1
disseisin against Gilbert de Culchet:,
Richard son of Basil, and William son . f
this Richard ; Assize R. 404, m. I d. It
is possible he was the Geoffrey de Glaz -
brook who with his wife Edith had lands
in Billsborough in 1227; Final Cm:.
i, 47. If so. there may have bee:i
two Geoffr s in A Hen- /
de Glazebrook appears later in the Fyke
district ; Ina. and Extents, 277, 280.
In 1 3 28 and later years Henry son ,f
Henry, son of Richard, son of Geoffr. v
de Glazebrook, claimed a messuage a. 1
three oxgangs of which Geoffrey h;: 1
been seised in the time of Henry III,
which had come into the
Richard son of Richard de
,
possession •>(
Moston, ad
338
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
the other was held by Robert de Glazebrook, to whom
William le Boteler released his claim to more than one
beadle to do service at his court at Warrington.1
There are numerous charters regarding the dealings
of the Rixton and Mascy families with their portion of
the manor,' but no account can be given of the other
moiety, except that a branch of the Ashtons held it
in the sixteenth century by the service of half a mark.3
In 1598 the rights of the lord of Warrington were
purchased by Richard Mascy, so that the Ashtons
held of him,4 but it does not appear what became of
the family, or that they claimed any manor.
Richard Mascy and Hamlet Ashton were the only
landowners contributing to the subsidy in Mary's
I«abel his wife ; De Banco R. 275,
m. 17 $ R. 279, m. 256 </. In a some-
what earlier suit a different pedigree is
given— Henry, son of Henry, son of
Richard, son of Richard dc Glazebrook ;
De Banco. R. 251, m. 41 d. Possibly there
were two families. It has already been
noted that the plaintiff in the latter is
Richard, recorded above, completed the
Rixton family's acquisition of this moiety.
At the beginning of 1329 John son of
Gilbert de Glazebrook claimed a messuage
and half an oxgang of land from Henry
son of Beatrice ; De Banco R. 276, m. 64.
Half an oxgang of land in Glazebrook
was the subject of a suit between several
Byrom in Lowton. His father, Henry
de Glazebrook, had sold all his possessions
in the township to Alan de Rixton, with
the homage and services of Henry son of
Beatrice (Betocson), and of Maud daughter
of Grimbald ; Mascy D. R. 13. Henry
son of Beatrice, otherwise Henry son of
Richard de Glazebrook, son of Simon de
Houghton also sold his lands to Alan de
Rixton ; and Beatrice, described as
daughter of Geoffrey de Glazebrook, in
her widowhood similarly released her
rights to Alan ; ibid. R. 14-17. William
son of Maud de Glazebrook also granted
Alan lands by way of exchange ; ibid. R.
1 8. Margery the daughter of Henry,
William the son of Maud, and Robert de
Moston (for life) were homagers in the
Rixton moiety of Glazebrook in 1332;
ibid. R. 55. In 1292 Richard son of
Geoffrey de Glazebrook was non-suited
in a claim against Beatrice widow of
Richard son of Simon de Houghton con-
cerning the customs and services due from
her free tenement in Glazebrook ; Assize
R. 408, m. 57</.
William son of Geoffrey de Glazebrook,
also known as William del Hollins, made
various claims for lands, common of pas-
ture, &c. against Henry son of Richard
de Glazebrook in 1301 and 1302, but did
not prosecute them; Assize R. 1321,
m. 10 d. ; R. 418, m. 2, 13. About the
same time he sold a messuage and land in
Glazebrook to William de Holcroft ;
Final Cone., i, 193. Two years later
William de Glazebrook and William de
Holcroft severally released to Alan de
Rixton all their lands in Glazebrook ;
Mascy D. R. 40-1. Alan granted these
to his son William ; ibid. R. 20.
Henry son of Geoffrey de Glazebrook
(probably the Henry de Glazebrook of
the Fylde) in 1302 granted to the same
Alan all his lands and goods in Glaze-
brook ; and Richard, another son of
Geoffrey's, released all his claim upon
them ; ibid. R. 37, 39. Richard de
Glazebrook and Henry his son had in
1294 granted certain lands and common
rights to Alan de Rixton ; ibid. R. 29,
32, 33. In return Alan granted to
Richard a lease for thirty years of two
oxgangs of land and a moiety of the waste
and common in Glazebrook, the oxgangs
being one held by Alice, widow of Geoffrey
de Glazebrook, as dower, and another for-
merly held by Maud de Glazebrook ; ibid.
R. 21. The grant of Henry son of
Denise, wife of John de Barrow ; Agnes,
wife of Richard de Glazebrook ; and
Alice, daughter of Henry de Glazebrook.
The defendants were William, son of
John de Ravenshaw and Margaret his
wife, and it seems that Margaret, wife of
another William de Ravenshaw, was also
a coheiress ; Assize R. 435, m. 6.
i Mascy D. W. 13; the release is
similar to that granted at the same time
to Alan de Rixton.
Robert de Glazebrook in 1258-9 gave
half a mark for a brief ; Orig. 43 Hen. Ill,
m. 3. Robert son of Robert de Glaze-
brook made a grant of certain lands in
the township to Alan de Rixton ; but
Robert was to be ' hopper free * at the
mill ; Mascy D. R. 19. He granted the
Hollins to William de Holcroft; ibid. W. 6.
In 1 294 Robert de Glazebrook released
all claim to certain tenements, perhaps
those which Alan de Rixton had just
acquired from the descendants of Geoffrey
de Glazebrook ; ibid. R. 30. In 1307
William le Boteler, lord of Warrington,
Robert de Glazebrook, Henry son of
Beatrice, and William son of Maud de
Glazebrook united in giving a warranty
of tenements which William le Boteler
had granted to Alan de Rixton and Alan
his son ; ibid. R. 44. Henry son of
Henry de Glazebrook in 1320 claimed a
messuage and two oxgangs against Robert
de Glazebrook, and an oxgang against
Henry de Woodhouses and Agnes his
wife ; De Bane. R. 236, m. 43. Other
suits following this have been mentioned
above.
> Some of these have been quoted in
the previous note. The Mascys continued
to increase their holding in the township.
» They are supposed to have been a
branch of the Ashtons of Penketh.
A Humphrey Ashton attested a Mascy
purchase in Rixton and Glazebrook in
1479 ; he may have been of the latter
township ; Mascy D. R. 129.
WARRINGTON
reign,5 and their successors were the freeholders re-
corded in 1 6oo.6 Richard Mascy alone appears as a
landowner contributing to the subsidy of 1628.'
In 1717 the following as 'Papists' registered
estates : Thomas Marsh, John Speakman, and Mary
Whiteside of Rixton ; Martha Clare of Glazebrook."
As the ferry at Hollinfare— the
CHURCH 'Holly ferry'— was of ancient date'
and the road from Warrington to Man-
chester passed through the place, it is probable that a
chapel existed there before Hamlet Mascy built one
for the chantry he founded in 1497 ; 10 the bishop of
Lichfield licensed it in the following year." It con-
tinued to be used according to the founder's wishes
by colour of some deeds of which he had
obtained possession, had during plaintiff1,
minority taken marl to the quantity of
6,000 loads ; he further declared himself
to be lawfully seised of a third part of the
manor and moss of Glazebrook, he and
his ancestors having enjoyed the waste in
common with Richard Mascy, lord of the
other two-thirds, on which the latter had
made encroachments ; Duchy of Lane.
Pleadings, Eliz. lix, A. 13, xcv. A. 46, as
quoted in Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),
iii, 106, 107. Hamlet Ashton died in
Oct. 1590, seised of a tenement in
Glazebrook held of the lord of Warrington
by knight's service and the rent of
6s. 8rf. ; his son and heir was John, then
seven years of age ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
p.m. xv, n. 35. By his second wife,
Christiana, a daughter and coheir of John
Ashton of Penketh, he had a son Thomas
who succeeded to Penketh, as shown in the
account of that township.
«A3 already stated, the services and
rent of 6s. &/. due from John Ashton of
Glazebrook were in 1598 included in the
sale by Thomas Ireland to Richard Mascy
of Rixton; Mascy D. R. 173 B. John
Ashton died in Aug. 1623, seised of a
fourth part of the manor of Glazebrook,
held of the lord of Warrington by knight's
service— the sale to Mascy being ap-
parently ignored — and left a son and heir
Hamlet, aged two years ; Lanes. Inq. p.m.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 453.
Hamlet Ashton was buried at Warring-
ton 10 Sept. 1663, and his widow Alice in
the following year. A son John had died
did homage to the lord of Warrington and
paid 6s. as his relief ; Mite. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 20. In 1523 he
appeared at the lord's court j Lords of
Warr. ii, 432.
Hamlet Ashton of Gray's Inn, son and
heir of Hamlet Ashton of Glazebrook,
deceased, complained in 1576 that though
Glazebrook which should have descended
to him, John Mascy of Hollins Green,
339
6 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
238, 240. 7 Norris D. (B.M.)
8 Engl. Catb. Nan-jurors, 1 1 6, 1 23, 1 50.
Martha Clare was lessee of the ferry ;
her son Thomas, who also registered,
was described as ' of Clifton, Notts, gent."
Charles Speakman of Rixton had con-
tributed to the subsidy in Mary's reign.
William Speakman was a tenant in the-
time of James I ; Mascy D. W. 107*.
9 ' Le Fery del Holyns ' in Rixton it
named in a murder case in 1352 ; Assize
R. 453, m. i.
l» Mascy D. R. 151 ; Hamlet Mascy'*
feoffees were to stand seised of tenements
in Glazebrook and Rixton of the clear
annual value of £S, from the issues pro-
viding an honest priest and chaplain to say
mass and do divine service in the chapel of
Hollinfare Green late by the donor edified,
and buying necessaries and ornaments.
There is an account of the chapel by
Mrs. A. C. Tempest in Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), v, 77-97.
11 Mascy D. R. 1 5 1 B. In 1 5 27 William
Mascy and John Ashley granted a lease
of the messuage in Glazebrook held by-
George Clark and Lettice his wife, paying
the rent of 1 31. $d. to Lawrence Langshaw,
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
down to the suppression of chantries by Henry VIII
and Edward VI.1 In 1554 the confiscated lands
were granted to Sir Thomas Holcroft/ who sold them
to Richard Mascy as stated above.
For the next century the chapel was probably used
but occasionally;3 there was no endowment4 and the
chief landowner attended the statutory services only
on compulsion, so that neither he nor the rector of
Warrington had any inducement to keep it open.
Under the Commonwealth an additional £40 was
granted from the sequestered revenues of Royalists, but
this would cease at the Restoration.5 The recommen-
dation to make it parochial was not acted upon. The
building decayed and became ruinous, but soon after
the Revolution the bishop of Chester found means to
compel the lord of Rixton, ' a Papist,' to rebuild it and
keep it in repair ; and Bishop Gastrell about 1718
found that an addition of $os. had been acquired as the
interest of various benefactions.8 The church, now
called St. Helen's, is a plain brick building, restored in
1882.' The rector of Warrington is patron. Among
the incumbents have been :
oc. 1 609 Richard Garnet 8
c. 1646-50 Henry Atherton9
oc. i6»9 George Hatten10
c. 1712 John Collier"
priest at HoIIinfare chapel, also the accus-
tomed 'average'; Mascy D. R. 155.
In the previous year William Mascy, as
patron of the chantry, had recommended
his feoffees to present his chaplain, Randle
Woodward, at the next vacancy ; Risley
D. at Hale, ». no. It is not known
that this was acted on, as in 1535 the
cantarist was William Mastyn (? Mascy) ;
Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 219.
1 At the suppression William Mascy
was the priest in charge ; he celebrated,
kept the obit, and distributed 55. a year to
the poor, according to his trust. There
was no plate, and the endowment was the
looj. a year at first granted ; Raines,
Chant. (Chet. Soc.), 61. He was thirty-
four years of age.
" By patent dated at Winchester, 23
July, 2 Mary, at the time of the queen's
marriage to Philip of Spain ; Mascy D.
R. i6oB.; Pat. 2 Mary, pt. ii. Edward
VI had granted a 21 years' lease of the
chantry property to Sir William Norris in
,548, at a rent of £5; Mascy D. R.
i6oc. Licence to alienate the chantry
lands to Richard Mascy was granted by
Philip and Mary to Sir Thomas Holcroft
in 1556 ; ibid. R. 163. The rent of £5
is not named, but would no doubt be pay-
able by the new grantee.
8 In 1590 there was 'no preacher*
there ; Lydiate Hall, 248. Hamlet Persi-
val is named as curate in i594;Scholes
and Pimblett, Bolton, 249. It had 'no
certain curate' about 1612 ; Kenyan MSS.
(Hist. MSS. Com.), 12.
4 Possibly in consequence of the reports
quoted in the last note an allowance of
/4 1 2s., the net receipt from the chantry
lands, was granted from the duchy funds
towards the stipend of 'a preaching minis-
ter ' ; Commonwealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 53.
6 Ibid, also flund. Mini. Accts. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, passim.
« Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 139 5
Gastrell notes that the building was be-
lieved to have been consecrated. Baptism
was administered in it.
• No dedication was known to Canon
Raines, the editor of Gastrell ; St. Helen
may have been suggested by the name
1784 James Hartley"
1798 William Wright"
1829 Peter Steele Dale"
1871 George Farrar Roberts, M.A. (Jesus
Coll. Oxf.)
1896 Edmund Peel Wethered, M.A. (Christ
Ch. Oxf.)
1905 Arthur Frederic White, M.A. (Dur.)
A mission room at Rixton was built in 1 894.
A school was built in Glazebrook in 1713."
The Primitive Methodists and United Free
Methodists have chapels at Glazebrook, and the
Wesleyans one at Rixton.
In spite of the Elizabethan persecution there can be
no doubt that Roman Catholic worship was continued at
Rixton Hall by the priests whom the Mascys employed
to teach their children.16 No records, however, re-
main earlier than the middle of the eighteenth century,
when a Jesuit father, Henry Smith, was in charge."
The Jesuits, who had charge also of Culcheth and
Southworth, probably worked the three together.
They continued there until 1825;'" and shortly
afterwards were succeeded by Benedictines, who
built the present church of St. Michael in 1831."
The mission was resigned to the secular clergy in
I874-20
HoIIinfare, or by the dedication of Warring-
gentlemen who had served in King Charles
ton church. The chapelry was formed in
I's army entered into a combination in
1 874 ; Land. Gax. 20 March, 1 874. For
the year 1650 to plunder the parsonage of
an account of endowment see Warr.
Winwick ' — perhaps in frolic, or more
End. Char. Rep. 1899, p. 74.
probably in retaliation for its former cap-
9 Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 298.
Buried at Warrington 1629, as 'minister
at HoIIinfare.'
ture and spoliation by the Parliamentary
forces. « The persons following rifled the
parsonage, viz. Mr. Catteral, Mr. Mascy
» He was there on the formation of the
(a younger brother) of Rixton, a French
classis in 1646. He was a ' man of good
gentleman, and some others.' The French-
life and conversation and a godly, painful
man was the only one captured, and as he
minister,' but had not kept the fast recently
named Rixton a search was made there ;
appointed by Parliament ; Commonwealth
Ch.Sur-v. (1650), loc. cit.
Fr. Smith was found in his chamber, and
in the room was found a red cap belong-
10 He is called ' curate ' and ' conform-
ing to Mr. Herle, the rector of Win-
able ' in 1689 ; Kenyan MSS. 229. He
wick, and no doubt part of the plunder.
was not present at the Visit, of 1691.
11 Father of ' Tim Bobbin.' For par-
The priest was charged as an accomplice
and executed at Lancaster, as the secrecy
ticulars of this and later curates see Bea-
necessitated by his office prevented hi;
mont, Warr. Cb. Notes, 209, from which
giving any satisfactory account of the
the list here given is mainly derived. Mr.
matter. The occurrence of course gave
Beamont states that ' at the beginning of
rise to some scandal, but Dodd remark!
the eighteenth century many lay persons
that ' most people lamented Mr. Smith'i
in our northern counties officiated in the
hard fate; but such were the circumstances
country curacies in poor districts, without
of his person, his religion, and the humoui
being admitted to holy orders ; but in the
of those times, that no favourable con
reign of George I the bishops determined
struction would be admitted. The par-
that this state of things ought no longer
ticulars of this story I have not only rea<
to continue ; yet in order that the change
in a well - attested manuscript, but als<
might be no hardship to those who were
received them by word of mouth from :,
arranged that all such persons should be
Mr. Smith and had a great opinion of hin
admitted to holy orders without undergoing
for his many excellent qualities.'
any examination ; and it was evidently in
compliance with this arrangement that
Only two names appear in the recusan
roll of 1641 ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),
Mr. Comer was now (1725) admitted to
xiv, 244.
the priesthood.'
1? Foley, op. cit. v, 322 ; his incom.-
" Also vicar of Leigh.
was £18 1 6s. 6d. the number of genera
18 Suspended from 1813 onwards ; died
confessions ten, and of 'customers' 100.
1829.
In 1784 seventeen persons were confirmc<.
"Curate in charge from 1813; 'a
at Rixton, and there were thirty com
most zealous and active minister.'
municants at Easter; ibid. 324. Thr
1J Gastrell, Notitia.
bishop of Chester's return in 1767 gave
« See above, in the account of Richard
the number of ' papists ' in HoIIinfare a^
Mascy, 1590-2.
In Foley, Rec. SJ. .,664, is an account
of the trial and execution of Fr. John
41 ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xviii, 215.
18 Foley, op. cit. i, 664.
« Gillow in Trans. Hist. Soc .(New Ser.).
Smith, the Jesuit chaplain at Rixton in
xiii, 158 ; a list of the missioncrs fron.
1650, taken from Dodd, Cb. Hist, iii,
1831 is given:
312. His real name is supposed to have
™ Liverpool Catb. Ann. 1901, wher"
near Liverpool, and sent on the Lancashire
one time in charge ; this seems to be an
mission in 1648. It is said that ' several
error.
340
PRE SCOT
Dillon ) ****** I Cuerdl^| ft
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
PRESCOT
I— WHISTON
PRESCOT
SUTTON
ECCLESTON
RAINHILL
PRESCOT
WINDLE
PARR
RAINFORD
II— WIDNES
CRONTON
CUERDLEY
DITTON
BOLD
GREAT SANKEY
PENKETH
The ancient parish of Prescot was very extensive,
comprising fifteen townships and having a total area
of 37,221 acres. From early times, however, the
southern half of the parish was considered a separate
chapelry, with Farnworth as centre ; from it, at the
beginning of the eighteenth century, Great Sankey
was cut off to form a chapelry by itself.
The townships were thus arranged for the county
lay : Prescot Division, paying twenty parts out of thirty-
nine, had four quarters, each paying the same, viz.
(i) Prescot, Whiston, and Rainhill ; (ii) Eccleston
and Rainford ; (iii) Windle and Parr; (iv) Sutton.
Farnworth Division, paying the other nineteen parts,
had four quarters and a half, viz. (i) Widnes with
Appleton ; (ii) Bold ; (iii) Cuerdley and Cronton ;
(iv) Ditton and Penketh ; each of these quarters paid
the same amount, and the half quarter was Great
Sankey, which paid half of what a quarter paid.
There were further rules for the division of the con-
tribution from each quarter among the separate town-
ships.1 The more ancient fifteenth was levied thus :
Whiston 2O/., Sutton 40^. 8/, Eccleston z()s. 8<£,
Rainhill 26s. 6y., Windle 25s. 6y., Parr 141. 4^.,
Rainford 23*. 4^., and Widnes with Appleton 49;. 4^.,
Ditton 4cu., Bold 59*. 6J</., Cuerdley 34^. 6J</.,
Sankey with Penketh 35*. 8J., Cronton 2js. $d.'
The history of the parish has been comparatively
uneventful. No Roman or other early remains have
been found here. The Bolds were for long the lead-
ing family resident in it ; Sir John Bold was governor
of Conway Castle in the first part of the fifteenth
century. By 1600 the family had conformed to
Protestantism, and during the Civil War the youthful
squire adhered to the Parliament, but seems to have taken
no active part in the strife. The Ecclestons and
many of the smaller families persevered in professing
the Roman Catholic faith,' and suffered accordingly,
alike from king and Parliament ; John Travers was
executed in 1586 for his share in the Babington plot,
and the Jesuit father Thomas Holland for his priest-
hood in 1642. On the other hand, Roger Holland
was burnt at Smithfield in 1558. Generally speak-
ing, the gentry took the royal side in the Civil War,
including Protestant families like the Ashtons of Pen-
keth. Nonconformity was, however, very prevalent
in the seventeenth century, and the Revolution seems
to have been accepted without demur, so that the
risings of 1715 and 1745 found no noteworthy sup-
porters, except perhaps Basil Thomas Eccleston.
In modern times great manufacturing towns have
1 Grcgson, Fragments (ed. Harland),
16, 22. The whole parish paid 7-48 th»
•of the contribution required from the
hundred.
1 Ibid. 18; a total of £21 6s. s£/.
•when the hundred paid £106 91. f>d.
8 John Lister, a seminary priest, was
•captured at Prescot in 1585, very soon
grown up at St. Helens and Widnes, which have
altered the character of the district. The town of
Prescot has also some manufactures, though it has lost
its ancient relative importance.
The agricultural land in the parish is (1905)
occupied as follows : Arable land, 25,130 acres ; per-
manent grass, 3,146 ; woods and plantations, 928.*
The most noteworthy of its natives appear to be
William Smith, bishop of Lincoln, co-founder of
Brasenose College, Oxford ; Archbishop Bancroft ;
and John Philip Kemble, the Shakespearian actor.
Pennant, who crossed the parish from Warrington
to Knowsley in 1773, after noticing the Sankey
Canal and mentioning Bewsey Hall and Bold Hall,
proceeds : ' The parish of Prescot commences at
Sankey Bridges : eight miles further is the town,
seated on a hill, and well-built and flourishing ; the
intervening country flat and full of hedge-rows ; and
the whole parish rich in collieries.' * The Rev. William
MacRitchie, a Presbyterian minister, passed through
it in 1795 on his way from Liverpool and writes:
' Breathe again the air of the country. See on the
rising grounds above a view of Cheshire and the
Welsh mountains towards Snowdon and Anglesey.
At Prescot pass by, on the left, Knowsley, seat of
Lord Derby. A large pottery work carried on at
Prescot of clay found in its neighbourhood.' 6
The church of our Lady stands on the
CHURCH south side of the town, where the ground
falls considerably to south and west. It
has a chancel with south vestry, north organ-
chamber and vestry, a nave with aisles and a west
tower and stone spire. The chancel is of the same
width as the nave, 28 ft., and is 56 ft. long, the nave
being 96 ft. long. Little evidence remains of the
early history of the building, but the base of the south
wall of the chancel may be ancient, and the north
vestry is probably of the fifteenth century. With
these exceptions the whole church was rebuilt in 1610
in a plain Gothic style, and the west tower dates from
1729, apparently replacing an older tower, while in
1 8 1 8 the aisles were enlarged and altered. The outer
stonework of the church is entirely modern, and the
south vestry is an addition of 1900. In spite of the
many modern alterations the church is of considerable
interest. The chancel has a set of black oak stalls
dated 1636, three returned on each side of the
entrance to the chancel, three against the south wall,
and two against the north. All have misericordes,
but the carving beneath the seats has been removed.
after being sent to England.and imprisoned
for many years ; Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc.),
ii, 241, 273, 279.
Arable Grass
Sutton. . 1,634 334
Eccleston . 1,982 170
Woods
167
plied by Board of Agriculture :—
Arable Grass Woods
Prescot . 3,036 603 136
Prescot . 16,118 1,768 366
Parr . . 627 71
5 Downing to Alston Moor, 21
' Antiquary, xxxii, 139.
235
341
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The fronts and standards are well carved, and the
benches in front of the stalls are supported at inter-
vals by turned balusters. The altar rails are also of
the seventeenth century, and are returned westward
in the middle of their length, giving kneeling space
for communicants on three sides, while against the
north and south walls are benches backed with seven-
teenth-century panelling. A bench-end on the north
side seems to belong to an earlier date than any of the
rest of the woodwork in the chancel. Against the
north wall is an effigy placed upright, with a panel of
heraldry over it, and the initials I O and the motto
' Veritas Vincit." It commemorates John Ogle of
Whiston. Near the effigy is a good example of a
seventeenth-century poor-box. The roof of the
chancel is not old, though following old work in its
detail ; and the chancel arch is modern.
The nave has north and south arcades of five bays
with octagonal pillars, plainly moulded capitals, and
pointed arches of one chamfered order, which, in
spite of their Gothic form, doubtless date from the
rebuilding of 1 6 1 o, and have over them a low clearstory,
with ten three-light square-headed windows on each
side, and over the chancel arch a five-light window of
the same character between two three-light windows
at a slightly lower level. The nave roof is a fine
example, with alternate tie and hammer beams with
carved brackets, and wind-braces to the purlins. On
one of the beams is the inscription, ' Thomas Bold,
knight, 1610.'
The aisles of the nave have nothing of interest to
show except some stone tablets let into the walls ;
one in the north aisle with the arms of Bold and
•T. B. 1610' (for Thomas Bold), and three in
the south aisle, namely, one with the crowned
arms of Derby and de Vere quarterly, with W. D.
for William, sixth earl of Derby and king of
Man ; another, dated 1610, with the Bold
arms and ' H. B., M. B.' (for Henry and Mar-
garet Bold) ; and a third, with the Gerard coat,
inscribed « Sir T. G. Kt.' They are all of good work-
manship, and form a distinctly unusual feature, and it
is possible that they were here set up to record those
who contributed to the rebuilding of 1610. In the
south aisle also are the royal arms of George III.
The west tower, though rather coarse in detail, is of
good proportion, and has round-headed belfry windows
of two lights flanked by Doric pilasters, and over
them a heavy cornice with a group of three vases at
each angle of the tower. Above is a tall stone spire
with three tiers of spire lights, of Gothic form. In
the second stage of the tower is a circular window
1 There is a view in Gregson'i Frag-
ments, 1 7 3 ; sec also Glynne, Lanes. Churches
(Chet. Soc.), 63. For armorial notes,
made about 1590, see Trans. Hist. Soc.
xxxiii, 247. An old font, said to have
belonged to Prescot, is now in Roby
churchyard, used as a flower-pot ; ibid.
(New Ser.), xvii, 72.
" Adam MartindaSe (Chet. Soc.), 172.
• Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 43-4, 188.
* Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.),ii, 192, 68 „.
« Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 87*.
« Ibid, vi, fol. 57 ; also Duchy of
Lane. Great Cowcher, i, fol. 70, n. 44 ;
fol. 69, ». 43. See Dep. Keeper's Rep.
xxxii, App. p. 361.
7 The grant was made 6 Aug. 1445
(Pat. 23 Hen. VI, pt. xxii), and was speci-
on the west face, and above it an inscription record-
ing the building of the tower, ' Conditum an" domni
1729'; while in the ground stage is a three-light
west window with two plain circles in the head, and
below it a square-headed west doorway, the head of
which is level with the tall, moulded plinth of the
tower.1
The fittings of the church other than those already
noted are modern, the reredos in the chancel being a
very good piece of work. The eighteenth-century font
is of marble, tazza-shaped, with a fluted bowl, on which
is an inscription recording its gift by William Halsnead.
The plate consists of two silver communion cups of
1663, with two flagons of the same date, and two
patens of 1723 and 1738 respectively.
There are eight bells by Mears of London, 1845.
The registers begin in 1580.
The dial in the churchyard is mentioned in 1663.*
The advowson was one of the
ADVQWSON appurtenances of the manor of Whis-
ton, held by the Forester of Lancas-
ter ; * it descended from the Gernets to the Dacres,4
and was acquired from Ranulf de Dacre about 1374
or 1375 by Sir John de Nevill, lord of Raby.5 In
December, 1391, Ralph de Nevill of Raby exchanged
it for the advowsons of Staindrop and Brancepeth in
the bishopric of Durham, John of Gaunt, duke of
Lancaster, becoming patron of Prescot.6 The advowson
descended with the crown until conferred by Henry VI
on his new college of the Blessed Virgin Mary and
St. Nicholas at Cambridge in 1445.' From that
time to the present the right of patronage has belonged
to King's College, together with the manor of Prescot.
The rectory was appropriated to the college in October,
1448, a vicarage being ordained.8
The annual value of the rectory was assessed at
.£40 in 1 29 1.9 Fifty years later the value of the
ninth of sheaves, wool, and lambs, was declared to be
£50. lo In the time of Henry VIII the vicarage was
valued at £24 01. gtt. net." From the report of the
Commonwealth surveyors in 1650 it appears that
King's College had farmed out the rectory to the
vicar of Prescot, the earl of Derby, and others, so
that they received but a small share of the revenue,
the vicarage having about £60 from small tithes, as
well as a house with ^\ acres of land. Various
subdivisions were recommended."
Bishop Gastrell in 1719 found the vicarage worth
£140 a year.13 The gross value is now stated as .£650,
but the district attached to the parish church has
become practically restricted to little more than the
town of Prescot.
ally exempted from subsequent Acts of
the archdeacon 1 51. ^d. The vicarage
resumption ; Par!. R. v, 92, 523 ; vi,
house was worth 51. a year. There were
91.
three chantries in the parish.
8 Lich. Reg. x, fol. 64-8*. There is
la Common-wealth Cb. Surv. (Rec. Soc.
a local story attributing the vicarage to
Lanes, and Ches.), 70-9.
the king's disgust at finding the rector so
wealthy as to be able to shoe his horses
" Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 203.
There were four wardens, one named by
with silver; Grcgson, Fragments, 173.
» Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 249.
the vicar for Prescot, Whiston, and
Rainhill, in turn ; and others for Sutton
W/ny. Nonarum (Rec. Com.), 40.
The various townships contributed as
(i), Eccleston and Rainford (i), and
Windle and Parr (i), these being named
follows : Rainhill, 601. ; Whiston with
by the 'eight men.' There were 735
Prescot, 501. ; Eccleston, /4 ; Rainford,
families, and the number of ' papists ' wa»
Windle, and Parr, 601. each; Sutton,
372. The account made in 1767, and
£4 IOJ. ; Bold, £5 &,. id. ; Ditton with
Penketh the same ; Appleton, £7 is. SJ. ;
Sankey, £2 I y.tf. ; Cuerdley, £3 8,. *d. ;
preserved in Chester Diocesan Registry,
gives 1,294 'Papists,' in Prescot and St.
Helens, there being four priests known,
Cronton, 6oj.
11 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 220.
viz. Joseph Bamand at Windle, Philip
Butler at Parr, Mr. Weldon and Mr.
The bishop received 131. 4^. a year, and
Conyers at Ecclestcn.
342
The folk
1245
1266
c. 1303
13 May,
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
st of the rectors and vicars :
1309
5 May, 1346
1 8 Apl. 1375.
25 June, 1393
23 Oct. 1403 .
28 Apl. 1417.
(?) 1419.
6 Nov. 1436
RECTORS
Cause of Vacancy
Patrick1
Richard *
• •
Mr. Alan le Breton 3 .
Eustace de Cottesbech * .
William de Dacre5
. . Bp. of Lichfield. . .
Sir Wm de Dacre and
Ranulfde Dacre6 ....
John Fairfax'
Mr. William de Ashton 8 . .
Joan his wife .
. . Sir Wm. de Dacre . .
. Sir John de Nevill .
. . John duke of Lancaster
d. Eust. de Cottesbech
d. W. de Dacre
res. R. de Dacre
d. John Fairfax
Philip Morgan, J.U.D.10 . .
Robert Gilbert, S.T.P." . .
Richard Praty, S.T.P." . .
'. '. The King . . . .
cons. R. Gilbert
1 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 3 50-4. Patrick
is not actually described as 'parson' of
Prescot, but he is included among -the
clergy, as is shown by his name appearing
before that of Richard, son of Henry de
Lathom. From another deed Patrick and
Richard seem to have been clerks at
Prescot in 1191 ; Wkalley Coucber (Chet.
Soc.), i, 40. Richard, clerk of Prescot,
appears earlier (1177) as paying a fine of
i mark for a breach of the forest laws ;
Lanes. PiptR. 38.
s JVhalley Coucber, iii, 809. Patrick de
Prescot and Richard are named as preced-
ing rectors in pleas by Alan le Breton ;
DeBanc. R. 59, m. 31 ; 92, m. 138.
8 It appears that Alan le Breton was
presented to Prescot by Roger bishop of
Lichfield, who by some lapse was patron
for i
appointed chamberlain and receiver in
Scotland by Edward II in Sept. 1 307 ;
Cal. Docs, relating to Scotland, ii. 2. He
was dead in Feb. 1308-9 ; ibid. p. 14.
He is mentioned a number of times in
the Close and Patent Rolls of the first
years of Edward II and probably spent
most of his time in Scotland.
5 William de Dacre was cltricus on
ordaii
Lent; ibid, i, fol. 109*. Nine years
for a year's study (ibid, i, fol. 856) ; this
was renewed in 1320 (ibid, i, fol. 87*).
Two years later he seems for a time to
have resigned the rectory, for John Bone
was instituted on 29 July, 1322, the
patrons being Henry de Tunstall and Joan
In 1389 the king, for reasons un-
known, presented William Strickland
to the rectory ; Cal, Pat. 1388-92,
p. 90.
8 Lich. Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 57. He was
canon of Lincoln from 1388, and for a
time (1390) was dean of St. Martin's le
Grand; Le Neve's Fasti, ii, 158-63.
He was also prebendary of Lichfield ;
ibid, i, 601 ; Cal. of Pat. 1388-92, p. 295.
It appears he was of the family of
Ashton of Croston, relations of the
Winwicks; ibid. 1386-9, p. 10 ; Pal.
of Lane. Plea R. I, m. 25*.
» Lich. Epis. Reg. vii, fol. 91. Master
of University Coll. Oxf. 1398; pre-
bendary of Hereford and Lincoln ; dean
of Chapel Royal under Henry V, bishop
of Hereford 1417, and of Exeter 1420 to
rector of Coddington, and was allowed to
hold Prescot also in consideration of the
numerous and heavy labours and grave
perils he had undergone for the bishop
of John, prior of Burscough'; ibid, ii,
fol. 99. William de Dacre, however,
continued rector until his death, being
Biog.
»« Lich. Epis. Reg.
in the ratification of it by Walter, the
bishop in 1299 ; Lich. Epis. Reg. i, fol. 22.
Alan was made treasurer of Lichfield
Cathedral about 1276, and retained the
office till his death in June, 1306; Le
Neve's Fasti, i, 581. His tenure of
Prescot was marked by a series of conten-
tions with his secular neighbours respect-
ing church lands; Assize R. 1265, m.
5; 1268, m. igj. ; 1277, m. 31^.;
408, m. 17 d. Bishop Walter specially
noticed these efforts for the benefit of the
church of Prescot, its rights and liberties
having been almost lost by the negligence
of preceding rectors and its property
alienated, and encouraged him to go
forward in his task of recovery and
reformation. In one matter his zeal
seems to have been excessive ; for in
1386-7 a successor, John Fairfax, had to
give twenty marks for the king's pardon,
Alan le Breton having acquired lands for
the church (without licence) from Richard
de Churchlce; Fines R. 190, m. 3;
Assize R. 1271, m. n d.
* Alan le Breton appears to have
resigned Prescot in 1303, in which year
he called upon Master John le Norreys of
Lichfield for an account of the time he
had acted as his bailiff at Prescot ; De
Bane. R. 148, m. 176 d. Eustace de
of a violent breach of sanctuary at
Prescot church; Coram Rege R. 302,
Rex, m. 6 d.
6 Lich. Epis. Reg. ii, fol. 1 1 9. Ranulf de
Dacre in 1361 became head of the family,
and was summoned to Parliament as
Lord Dacre; he died in 1375, probably
soon after his resignation ; see G. E. C.
Complete Peerage, iii, I. In Aug. 1350,
Clement VI confirmed to Ralph de
Dacre the church of Prescot, to which he
had been instituted three years pre-
viously, when five months under the
canonical age ; Cal. Papal Letters, iii, 397.
He died intestate ; De Bane. R. 463, m.
142 </.
7 Lich. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 87*. Sir
Ranulf, having sold the advowson, retired
to allow the new patron to exercise his
right. John Fairfax was a younger son of
William Fairfax of Walton, near York.
His will, dated at Prescot 7 June, 1393,
and proved a week later, shows that he
was a man of some wealth. He wished
to be buried in the church of Walton,
where he founded a chantry, and gave
directions as to his funeral and its
attendant dinner. To Prescot he be-
queathed £10 for the stone bell-tower
recently built, and a great breviary with
musical notes according to the use of
(ibid. R. 152, m. 1 80) ; he was rector of
Halton in 1303 ; ibid. R. 148, m. 19 d.
There was a sequestration in 1308, the
bishop granting the custody to William
de Tatham and Roger de Shelton ; Lich.
Reg. i, fol. 56*. The rector had been
Thomas Gerard and Maud his wife, to
John Gerard, the testator's godson, and
to Richard, son of Henry de Bold;
Test. Ebor. (Surtees Soc.), i, 186-190.
There is a deed of his in P. R. O. Ana. D.
B. 3522.
343
ii, fol. 19. No
i for the vacancy, but Ed-
mund de Lacy was consecrated to Hereford
1 8 April, 1417 ; Le Neve, i, 464. Dr.
Philip Morgan was continually employed
on foreign missions, 1414 to 1418 ; pre-
bendary of Lincoln 1416; bishop of
Worcester and privy councillor 1419;
elected archbishop of York 1423, but
translated by the pope to Ely in 1426 ;
vigilant in putting down clerical abuses ;
Le Neve's Fasti ; Diet. Nat. Biog.
11 The name of this rector is known
only by the record of appointment of his
successors. He was a man of distinc-
tion ; warden of Merton Coll. Oxf.
from 1417 to 1421 ; held prebends in
York and Lincoln ; was at different times
precentor of Salisbury, archdeacon of
Durham, treasurer and dean of York ;
and finally became bishop of London,
and knowledge and the services he had
rendered to Henry V and the reigning
king ' he was allowed to go to Rome in
person to obtain confirmation of his
election. He died in 1448 ; see Le
Neve's Fasti, ii, 296, &c.
la On Gilbert's promotion to the see of
London he may have been allowed to retain
Prescot for a time, or else the Lichfield
registrar made a slip in his record ; for two
years later a second presentation was
made, the same reason for the vacancy
being assigned.
Richard Praty, whose institution to
Prescot may have been null, is described
as ' Sacre Pagine Professor ' ; Lich. Epis.
Reg. ix, fol. 123 ; in 1438 he, being dean
of the Chapel Royal and chancellor of
Salisbury, was made bishop of Chichester ;
Le Neve's Fasti, i, 246.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Date
2 Aug. 1438 .
4 Nov. 1441 .
e. 1448 . . .
6 July 147 1. .
7 Aug. 1492 .
e. 1509 • • •
14 Dec. 1529 .
15 April, 1541 .
25 Dec. 1558 .
26 Dec. 1583
5 Dec. 1616 .
21 Feb. 1642-3 .
June, 1650 .
22 Aug. 1650
8 Nov. 1662 .
2 9 June, 1667 .
24 July, 1677 .
1 8 July, 1 690 .
1 8 Mar. 1691-2.
» Lich. Epis. Reg. ix,
prebendary of London
archdeacon successive
Name
Stephen Wilton, Deer. D.1 .
William Booth' ....
Ralph Duckworth, D.D.8 . .
Richard Lincoln, S.T.B.4.
Robert Hacomblene, D.D.6 .
Robert Noke, M.A." . . .
Simon Matthew, B.D.' . .
Robert Brassey, D.D.8 . . .
. . The King " r.°n . . .
VICARS
. . Thos. Cliff, by grant ot
King's College . .
. . King's College . . .
. . King's College . . .
Cause of Vacancy
cons, of R. Gilbert
exch. with S. Wilton
res. R. Duckworth
d. S. Matthew
d. R. Brassey
d. W. Whitlock
d. T. Mead
d J. Alden
William Whitlock, D.D.' . .
Thomas Mead, M.A.10 . .
John Alden, B.D." . . .
Richard Day, B.D." . . .
Edward Larking, M.A." . .
j-John Withins, M.A." . . .
; ; » ; ; ;
...
d. R. Day
d. J. Withins
d. A. Ball
res. E. Goodall
d. John Legge
ereuit earl of Essex, this cle
lis theological standpoint,
this time the institutions I
from the Institution Be
printed in Lanes, and C
Abraham Ball, M.A." . . .
Edward Goodall, M.A.16 . .
John Legge, M.A.17 . . .
Thomas Bryan, M.A.18 . .
fol. 123*. He was is doubtful ; he
and Lincoln, and 1 500, became
ly of Middlesex, Southwell, and
entered King's College in Robert Dev
prebendary of York and indicating 1
died in 1529 ; Le Neve, " From
4.27. For his decrees see been taken
»Lich. Epis. Reg. ix, fol. 125. The
admission took place on 9 Nov. William
Booth was then canon of Salisbury ; he
became rector of Leigh (q.v.) in 1445,
bishop of Lichfield in 1447, and arch-
bishop of York in 1452. He died in
1464 ; Le Neve's Faiii, (,553, &c. In
mentioned as having been rector in 1521 in
a suit as to tithes ; Cb.Goods, 1552, p. 81
(quoting PiccopeMSS.). In 1523 Cardinal
Wolsey expressed a wish to have him as
subdean of his chapel, but Bishop West,
in sending him, expressed a doubt as to
the suitability of the appointment ; L.and
Prescot ; Tat. Ebor. ii, 266.
s The succession at this point is not
One of the early episcopal acts of the
last-named rector was to sanction the
appropriation of Prescot to King's Col-
lege and to ordain a vicarage there. The
first vicar, Dr. Ralph Duckworth, who
may have also been the last rector, stayed
for twenty years or more, and from
several notices in the registers it appears
that he frequently or usually resided. In
1453 he was associated with Archdeacon
Stanley and others in an inquiry con-
cerning various defaults in Burscough
Priory; in 1457 and 1459 he inquired
concerning frays in Wigan and Lowe
churchyards ; in 1459 also taking part in
an inquiry as to the condition of Walton
church ; Lich. Epis. Reg. xi, fol. 50, 91* ;
xii, fol. 124*, 125.
* Ibid, xii, fol. 1 06. He was a fellow
of King's Coll. Cam. See Grace Book A.
(Luard Mem.), p. 52, 77. For his 'cau-
tion' he deposited a volume of Chrysostom.
vicars printed by Gregson (Fragments, 174,
175) from one said to have been compiled
by Mr. Bere, probably the vicar in 1700.
It has been compared with the books
at King's College. For biographical
Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 6. Assistance has
been given to the editors by the Rev. F. G.
Paterson, M.A, lately curate of the parish,
in the general history of the township, and
more especially in compiling the accounts
of the vicars.
Robert Hacomblene in 1509 became
provost of King's, which he had entered in
1462. He died in 1528, and was buried
in the College Chapel. Cooper, Athmat
Cantab, i, 34 ; Diet. Nat. Biog.
6 Robert Noke's tenure of the vicarage
7 Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 65*. No
reason is given for the vacancy. Simon
Matthew went to King's Coll. in 1513,
held other benefices, and was prebendary
of St. Paul's; he appears to have taken
an active part in the Anglican Reforma-
tion of Henry VIII's time, and some of
his sermons have been printed ; Cooper,
Athenae Cantab, i, 78, 533.
» Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii-xiv, fol. 38*. A
Robert Brassey was vicar of Friston in
Sussex in 1534 ; Vahr Eeel. (Rcc. Com.),
i, 341. For Prescot firstfruits were paid
13 April, 1541; Lanes, and Ches. Rec.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 407.
Though he retained his benefice through
Antiq. Notes, i, ii. Firstfruits were paid
21 Jan. 1616-7. John Alden entered
King's in 1592. He acted as justice of
the peace in Lancashire. A decision was
made by the bishop of Chester in 1619
concerning repairs, the election of church-
wardens, &c. as between the people of
Prescot and those of Farnworth ; Kenyan
MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 25.
19 Firstfruits paid ii April, 1643. Day
was admitted to King's College in 1622.
His will was proved at Chester in 1650.
18 Commonwealth Ch. Surv. 71. He
was son of John Larking, prebendary of
Rochester; admitted to King's Coll.,
becoming fellow ; M.A. 1647 ; described
as ' a very troublesome man in this col-
lege in the year 1650' ; became rector of
Dunton in 1653, and of Limpsfield in
1655 ; author of Speculum Patrum, 1659.
From the records of King's Coll. ; also
Cal. cfS.P. Dam. 1660-1, p. 165.
» Educated at King's Coll, entering
in 1639. He was presented 'on the
have adhered to the ancient order and was
made provost of King's in 1556. He
retained this benefice; and in 1554 was
resident, for he was invited to take part
in the discussions with George Marsh at
Lathom House ; Foxe, Acts and Monu-
ments (ed. Cattley), vii, 42. He was of
King's Coll.; B.A. 1530; D.D. 1557.
He died a week before Queen Mary, on
10 Nov. 1558, and was buried in the
College Chapel, where there is a brass.
See Cooper, Athena Cantab, i, 182.
9 Act books at Chester. Dr. Whitlock
was also beneficed elsewhere, and was
prebendary of Lichfield 1561 to 1583;
Le Neve, Fasti, i, 594. He entered
King', Coll. in 1537 ; B.A. 1542 ; B.D.
1553. Though he became an adherent
of the new system in religion he appears
to have had antiquarian tastes, and pub-
lished books on the history of Lichfield ;
Cooper, Atbenae Cantab, i, 485 ; Diet. Nat.
Biog.
" Educated at King's Coll. and be-
came vice-provost. Firstfruits paid 17
Jan. 1583-4. He was chaplain to Henry
Stanley earl of Derby, and afterwards to
344
been instituted. He married Day's
widow; Dugdale, fisitat. (Chet. Soc.),
223. On his conforming in 1662 a new
presentation seems to have been required ;
probably he had not been episcopally
ordained.
"Entered King's Coll. 1650.
16 Entered King's Coll. in 1661 and
became fellow ; M.A. 1670. In the time
of James II he was received into com-
munion with the Roman Church, but
retained his benefice until 1690, when
he resigned it. His subsequent career it
unknown. His delay in resigning caused
great indignation, and 51. %d. was paid to
the ringers when the news came that he
was 'quite outed.' He was the subject
of a controversial tract by Thomas
Marsden, vicar of Walton ; Gillow, Bit/.
Diet. ofEngl. Catb. ii, 523.
V Educated at King's Coll.; M.A. 1683.
He resided at Prescot during his short
tenure of the benefice.
" Of King's Coll. ; M.A. 1685 ; fellow.
He resided at Prescot during his first year,
but not afterwards, Christopher Marsden
of Farnworth being left in charge.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Da
8 May,
28 July,
1 8 Sept.
1 1 July,
1 1 July,
9 Dec.
28 July,
24 Jan.
2 Feb.
1 700 . Francis Bere, M. A.1
1722 . Benjamin Clarke, M.A.' . . . .
1730 . Augustine Gwyn, M.A.3 ....
1776 . Samuel Sewell, M.A.4
1815 . Charles George Thomas Driffield,
M.A.6
1848 . Charles Chapman, M.A. 6 . . . .
1 849 . Lewis William Sampson, M.A. 7 . .
:883 . Henry Alexander Macnaghten,M.A.8
1887 . Harry Mitchell, M.A.9 ....
King's College
PRESCOT
Cause of Vacancy
res. T. Bryan
d. F. Bere
d. B. Clarke
d. A. Gwyn
d. S. Sewell
d. C. G. T. Driffield
d. C. Chapman
d. L. W. Sampson
res. H. A. Macnaghten
The rectors were usually prominent men ; as, after
the patronage came into the possession of the dukes
of Lancaster and the kings, the benefice was bestowed
as a reward of public service. These busy officials
probably never visited Prescot, discharging their
duties by a resident curate.10 Hence the bestowal
of the rectory on King's College was no loss to the
parish, though the new vicars, sometimes men of
importance in the university and holding other
benefices, were probably not seen much oftener by
their parishioners than the old rectors. The first
account of the resident clergy of the parish is sup-
plied by the Clergy List of 1541-2." The vicar
of that time is known to have resided at least
occasionally ; he paid a curate. There were three
chantry priests ; also chaplains or curates at Rainford
and Farnworth. Two priests were paid by John
Eccleston, three lived ' de stipite,' and one, Ralph
Richardson, by the profits of lands. There was thus
a staff of thirteen clergy serving the parish church,
the four chapels and three chantries, and private
oratories. Eleven, including the vicar, appeared at
the visitation of 1 548 ; two of them had been
chantry priests, but four of the names were fresh, so
that three or four of those living here in 1541 had
disappeared, by death or migration. Three others
are named under Farnworth."
The effect of the changes made under Edward VI
becomes manifest in the visitation list of 1554 ; the
vicar and his curate alone remained at Prescot, and
the curate at Farnworth, the staff of thirteen having
been reduced to three.13 Very little improvement
was effected by Bishops Cotes and Scott, the list of
1562 showing the vicar and three assistants at Prescot,
and a curate at Farnworth.14 Next year showed a
decline ; the vicar was absent in London, but the
curate and the schoolmaster appeared ; as also those
of Farnworth.16 The minimum seems to have been
reached in 1565, when neither the vicar nor the
curate of Farnworth appeared, the curate of Prescot
being the only representative."
In 1590 the vicar was described as a preacher;
there was also a preacher at Rainford, but the chapels
at St. Helens and Farnworth had only readers.17 Two
years later it was alleged that the vicar and curate did
not catechize the youth ; Mr. Mead ' appeared and
stated that every Sunday and holiday he did interpret
upon some parcel of Scripture both before and after
noon,' but he was ordered to catechize also. The
churchwardens were ordered to provide 'a decent
communion table ' before Christmas, also a ' fair linen
cloth ' for it ; to use the perambulations and to make
a presentment of offenders.'8 No change is revealed
by a report made about 1 6 1 o, but the vicar was the
only ' preacher ' in the parish."
The parliamentary authorities temporarily expelled
Mr. Day. Articles were presented against him in
1645, but he did not appear, having 'deserted'
the place, and it was next year ordered that the
' rectory ' should stand sequestered to the use of some
godly and orthodox divine until the vicar should
submit. It appeared that he had some scruples of
conscience as to taking the Solemn League and Cove-
nant.20 Afterwards he was able to satisfy the authorities
and was restored to the full enjoyment of the vicarage.81
His successor, John Withins, conformed in 1662.
1 Educated at King's Coll.; M.A. 1 692.
a Admitted to King's Coll. 1696; M.A.
and in 1886 was appointed rector of
Tankersley in Yorks.
appeared, did not subscribe. The curate
of Rainford's name is not entered ; pos-
cot he built the vicarage house. He is
1886. Mr. Mitchell was vicar of Peak
1559 Robert Nelson, curate, had refused
said to have been ' one of the Suffolk
Forest from 1875 till 1881, when he was
to appear at the visitation ; Gee, Eliza-
curates for many years.'
presented to St. John's, Pemberton. He
bethan Clergy.
8 Educated at King's Coll.; M.A. 1723;
was made rural dean of Prescot, 1890, and
15 Visit. List. There was also a blank,
fellow. His son William became principal
canon of Liverpool, 1893.
with the words ' cur. de Raynforth' follow-
of Brasenose Coll. Oxford, in 1770, but
10 William Brinklow, rector of Mancet-
ing; so that while the services were supposed
died shortly afterwards; Foster, Alumni
ter, was appointed to hear the confessions
to be maintained no one was in charge.
Oxon.
of the parishioners in 1395 ; Lich. Epis.
" Ibid.
4 Educated at King's Coll.; M.A. 1762 ;
Reg. vi.fol. 132*.
17 Gibson's Lydiate Hall, p. 248 (quoting
lenior fellow. There is a monument in
11 Printed by the Rec. Soc. of Lanes, and
S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4).
the church recording his benefactions to
Ches. I 5.
18 Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x, 189.
Prescot, Liverpool, and Windsor.
la Visit. List at Chester.
The offences named are adultery and like
• Educated at King's Coll.; M.A. 1798;
For the church ornaments at this time
sins ; marriage without banns ; playing
fellow. He was also vicar of Little Maple-
see Cb. Gas. 1552 (Chet. Soc.), ii, 80 ; and
cards 'on the Sabbath day' at home at
stead in Essex.
Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc), 270, 279.
the time of evening prayer ; and having a
« Of King's Coll. ; M.A. 1834 ; fellow.
1" List at the Chester diocesan registry.
child baptized by some missionary priest.
He committed suicide shortly alter being
In his decree as to Farnworth, Bishop
» Kenyan At SS. 13.
presented and never resided.
Cotes said of Prescot church : 'There is
20 Plund. Mim. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
"' Admitted to King's Coll.; M.A.
so great ruins and deformities and dilapi-
and Ches.), i, II, &c. From 1644 to
1834; fellow. He lived in London
dations in the roofs, ornaments, walls, and
1647 he lived as a fellow commoner at
until the bishop compelled him to reside ;
windows that unless speedy remedy be
Trinity Hall, Camb. ; Hall's Catalogue
the parishioners held a mock funeral, by
taken the said church is in a short time
in King's Coll.
way of showing their resentment at his
likely to fall down to the ground.'
« Plund. Mins. Accts. i, 47, 5 5-8. The
absence.
" Ibid. The vicar, William Whitlock,
committee of the county of Cambridge
8 Of King's Coll.; M.A. 1875. He
appeared and subscribed, as did Robert
had in 1643 certified that Mr. Day wa.
was vicar of Wentworth, 1877 to 1882,
Nelson; but Ralph Richardson who
•of a pious life and no way delinquent
3
345
44
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
From this time onward the vicars, except Edward
Goodall, do not call for special mention. It is notice-
able that at the visitation in May, 1691, no clergy
appeared from this parish l ; the chapels of Rainford,
Great Sankey, and St. Helens were then in the hands
of Presbyterians. The schoolmaster, Henry Wareing,
licensed a year before, was the only representative.*
A grammar school was founded here before 1 600.
The charities, usually for particular
CHARITIES districts or townships, are very
numerous * The old almshouses were
founded by Oliver Lyme in 1707, for poor persons in
Prescot and Whiston.4 For Prescot itself were the
benefactions of the Rev. Samuel Sewell, John Lyon, Sir
Thomas Birch, and others.5 A number of charities
are united under the control of the chief officers of
the township, but the intentions of the several bene-
factors are, as far as possible, respected in the distribu-
tion. In 1861 Eleanora Atherton bequeathed £4,500
for the erection of almshouses.8
For Eccleston Richard Holland, Priscilla Pyke, and
others left various sums.7 Rainhill received 201. from
or ill-affected.' It appeared that he had
Rainford, Farnworth, and Childwall, the
eluding £200 to the poor in the Prescot
almshouses. She was sister of John
safe for him to live at Prescot, ' in re-
Upton, Farnworth, Halewood, and Prescot,
Chorley, and had sisters, Jane, Mary, and
Frances. Jane Chorley, by her will of
gard of the wars and of the king's forces
amounting in all to £i 2. The payments
1824, left £4,000 for charitable purposes,
then frequent in those parts.' In 1650,
continue to be made/
including a school for poor girls at Prescot;
the new vicar not having come down,
Ellen Siddall in 1729 gave her estate
to this was to be added £1,400 received
the schoolmaster of Farnworth supplied
in Whiston, called Cumberley's or Cum-
under the will of her sister Elizabeth.
his place, receiving 1 51. for every Lord's
berlane tenement, for the poor and the
Frances Chorley, in 1 849, also bequeathed
day he officiated; Common-wealth Cb. Surv.
charity children of Prescot. The estate
£200 for coals and clothing for the poor.
7'-
was sold in 1900, and the proceeds in-
Part of these bequests was lost owing to
'Thomas Wells was curate in 1689
vested. Joshua Marrow in 1708 left his
the bankruptcy of the clerk, but the capi-
and ' conformable' ; Kenyan MSS. 230.
residuary estate, amounting to £400, to-
tal stocks at present are £554 for the
a Visit, list at Chester.
wards binding poor children apprentices.
Clothing Charity; £1,216 for the
» The particulars given in the follow-
This and other charitable funds appear to
Ladies' Charity — this including many ad-
ing notes are taken from the report on
have been spent in rebuilding the town
ditional gifts ; and £4,660 for the school.
the Endowed Charities of Prescot, exclu-
hall, the interest being paid out of rents
William Ackers, sailcloth manufacturer,
sive of the borough of St. Helens, made
and rates. In 1783 the known benefac-
in 1851 bequeathed £300 for an annual
in 1902, supplemented by that of the
tions amounted to about £950, as fol-
distribution of clothing. The adminis-
commissioners of 1829. The report for
lows :— Joshua Marrow, £400 ; Thomas
tration is left to the vicar. Ellen Byron
St. Helens was issued in 1905. Some
Glover, £50; Mary Cross (a third of
in 1872 left£ioo foraged single women ;
earlier particulars will be found in Bishop
£50), £16 135. 4</. ; Margaret Norris,
the interest is distributed in clothing.
Gastrell's Notitia Cat. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
£20; Lawrence Webster, £10 ; Eliza-
Sir Thomas Bernard Birch in 1880 left
205-15.
beth Booth, £10 ; Ellen Siddall, arrears,
£500 for the poor. The interest is dis-
« Jonathan Case, lord of the manor of
£20 ; Anne Glover, £,oo ; Jame, Wal-
tributed at Christmas-time in doles of
Whiston, conveyed part of the waste to
ton, £50; Edward Blundell, £50;
coal.
Oliver Lyme in 1708, and almshouses
Catherine Waring, £50 ; James Cross,
6 They were a memorial to her sister
were erected, a sum of £500 being the
endowment. After the founder'! death
£60; Nicholas Fazakerley, £50; Dr.
Roper, £4.0 ; Robert Barrow £17 ^s.^d. ;
Lucy, wife of Richard Willis, of Hal-
snead. The inmates are to be members
hi! sister, Ellen Glover, claimed the money
a company of comedians, £12 9.. This
of the Established Church. The aims-
but continued the foundation, trustees be-
last entry i, interesting. Some of these
houses, a handsome and substantial block
ing appointed. In 1753 William Part
sums were for the benefit of the poor
of building near the old almshouses, were
left £50 to the almshouses. In 1828
attending the services at the parish church.
ready in 1862. Each married couple
there were twenty-seven of these houses,
Dr. Roper s £40 was derived from the
receives 8.. 6J. a week and each single
of which eight were rented by the town-
sale of wood from the racecourse, 1772 ;
person 51. 6d. ; and there are other
people were appointed by the trustees,
considered as applicable towards rinding
7 Henry Bispham, of Upholland, in
each having 21. 6J. a week and an allow-
ance of coal The income was £172 I o.
a dinner for the jury on the feast of
1720 and 1728, made benefactions for
chiefly derived from farms in Eccleston.
rents from the town hall, &c., amounted
clothing for the poor in various townships,
A further endowment of £1,000 was re-
in 1828 to £79. Since 1829 the capital
including Rainford, Windle, and Eccles-
ceived in 1877 from Elizabeth Athcrton.
has been increased by £1,000 under
ton ; a fuller account is given under
Leases for working the coal under the
Elizabeth Atherton's will in 1877, and
Wigan. Richard Holland, by his will of
lands belonging to the charity have been
£289, the capital of Siddall's charity,
1713, left money for clothing the poor ;
made since 1892, and the gross income
has been incorporated with the other
and £13 I os. a year was the income in
what dilapidated, form a row on the Prescot
a year.
consols, and the income is spent in blan-
and Rainhill road, the oldest portion
William Marsh in 1723 charged 201.
kets for the poor.
dating from 1708. They are occupied by
upon his house, called Kenrick's, for the
Priscilla Pyke, in 1739, bequeathed
twenty-eight persons, nearly all women,
benefit of the poor of Prescot and Knows-
£100 for a like purpose ; this and other
who receive weekly allowances varying
ley ; this appears to have been lost about
sums were lost by the failure of a bank in
from 31. (id. to 41. 6J.
1 800. After a time payment was re-
Liverpool, but Peter Moss, of Eccleston,
5 The Rev. Samuel Sewell, vicar of
sumed, at first only for the Knowsley half,
one of the trustees, replaced this £100,
Prescot, gave in 1815 £200 to the
but since 1892 for the Prescot half. The
entrusting it to Thomas West, who died
grammar school, £800 to the Sunday
money is added to the Public Charities
in 1828, and £4 io«. as interest was paid
school, £700 for almshouses, and £400
as above. Anne Wainwright in 1818
by his son, James Underhill West. The
towards establishing a fever ward. The
left £100 for the benefit of poor per-
capital is invested in consols. The charity
fever ward not being practicable it was
sons attending the parish church. This
has always been considered as for the
purposed to apply the money to the aims-
also forms part of the Public Charities
benefit of Roman Catholics only, the re-
houses. The endowment for these was
fund.
cipients being now selected by the priest
void in law, but Sir John Sewell, a resi-
Mary Gwyn, 1821, left £90 for the
in charge of the Sacred Heart Church,
duary legatee, undertook to give £700.
poor. This is now represented by a
St. Helens.
This was carried out, and in all six aims-
Mersey Dock bond of £100, but the
John Alcock, in 1653, left £50 towards
houses were built in 1830 and 1850. The
income has not been expended for many
apprenticing poor boys ; Lawrence Web-
occupants are women, and each receives
years. Anne France left £5 for bread,
ster £10 to the poor of Eccleston, Rain-
31. 6d. a week.
to be distributed on Good Friday ; it has
hill, and Whiston ; Mary Cross £50 to
John Lyon, who built a school at
been incorporated with the General
the poor of Prescot, Eccleston, and Rain-
St. Helens, gave in 1670 a house called
Linaker's at Upton in Widnes to William
Charities, and the Good Friday distribu-
tion has ceased.
hill ; and Eleanor Eccleston £100 to the
poor. These charities, with the exception
Glover, charging it with annual payments
Elizabeth Chorley, by her will dated
of the Prescot third of Mary Cross's gift,
to preaching ministers at St. Helens,
1820, left money to various charities, in-
had been lost before 1828.
346
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
a gift by William Glover.1 Whiston had a special
benefaction from James and Samuel Ashton, and
shares in others.*
To Rainford Thomas Lyon left his estate, and there
were other donations.3 Windle benefited by the gifts
of Thomas Taylor, Richard Holland, and others ;<
and more substantially by land granted by Sarah
Cowley in 1714, resulting in the establishment of
PRESCOT
the Cowley Schools.4 Parr received some small bene-
factions.6 Sutton shared certain charities with Bold
and Windle.'
In Farnworth division numerous small sums have
been left for charitable purposes in Widnes at different
times, more particularly by the Rev. Richard Garnet.8
Bold has a poor's stock and other moneys.9 Cronton
received gifts from T. Windle, Margaret Wright, and
1 William Glover left zoj. a year to
each of the townships of Rainhill, Cron-
ton, and Whiston, charged on a meadow
in the last-named. The money was paid
until 1871, since which time payment has
been refused. The meadow belongs to
Mr. Willis of Halsnead.
"In 1689 James Ashton, as carrying
out the wishes of his brother Samuel,
gave four cottages at the Hillock in Whis-
ton, the rents to be applied to the relief of
aged and impotent persons, at the discre-
tion of the constables of the township. In
i8z8 of three cottages said to belong to
the charity, one had been sold to the then
'new railway' from Liverpool to Man-
chester. There are now four cottages at
is now paid to the overseers, who distri-
bute it in doles of flannel, &c.
« Thomas Taylor, in 1684, gave pro-
perty in Great Crosby to trustees for the
benefit of the poor of Windle and Great
Crosby. The land produced £50 a year
in 1828. Richard Holland, in 1707,
charged his land in Windle (Windle Ashes
Farm, now owned by Mr. Richard Pilking-
ton) with £5 a year for the poor. Oliver
Denton charged land in Billinge with 101.
a year. William Heyes was supposed to
be the benefactor on whose account
£13.. 4rf. a year was received for
poor from the 'King's Head' in
St. Helens. Mary Egerton, in 1693, gave
205. a year to the poor j this had since
widows also share in Catherine Carton's
gift. Miss Eliza Brooks, in 1877, be-
queathed £100 for the poor ; the interest
is added by the vicar to the sick and poor
fund. A gift of £10 by Bryan Leay
could not be traced in 1829.
8 The Rev. Richard Garnet, who died
in 1764, left £200 for woollen cloth and
useful books to poor Protestant families
in Widnes. In 1868 the turnpike in
which the fund had been invested ceased
to pay interest, and part was lost, the
present capital being £85 consols. The
interest is distributed by the vicar of
Farnworth.
At Barrow Green in Widnes was
Knight's house, the rents of which had
The net income, about £19, is distributed
by the overseers at Christmas in money
gifts.
By Richard Hawarden's will, 1600, the
trustees of Prescot school were to pay
6s. SJ. a year to the poor of Whiston. On
the sale of the premises from which the
rent-charge was due, the purchaser (Cap-
tain Willis) redeemed it by a transfer of
/i 3 6s. %d. stock to the official trustees.
The £10 left by Lawrence Webster had
been lost between 1798 and 1828. Henry
Case of Whiston, butcher, left a rent-
charge of 201. a year for the benefit of the
Hall. Samuel Clark left £ 100 for poor
housekeepers ; it was lent to the town-
ship and in 1828 £4 155. was paid as in-
terest. Peter Greenall, of St. Helens, in
1828 paid lot. annually, charged on the
Lower House in Hardshaw ; the origin of
this was unknown. With the exception
of the two last-mentioned, which have
been lost, the charities still exist ; the
combined income is distributed in money
doles.
Three charities have been established
since 1829: Mary Bolton, widow, in
1848 left £250 for the relief of the poor,
charitable gifts. The origin of this bene-
faction was unknown in ^28, when one
Thomas Kidd was acting as trustee. In
1762 John Hargreaves paid to the copy-
holders of Widnes £ 10 left by Thomas
Smith of Cuerdley, the interest to be paid
off Knight's house. The present gross
income is £21 155., which is distributed
once a year in money doles ; ' it is stated
that at one time the distribution was in
ale.'
Bread charities were established by
James Heyes in 1724, and by Thomas
Windle, by charging estates in Halewood
or the land on which it was charged.
8 Thomas Lyon, of Rainford, in 1667
left his estate there, called Quakers, in
thirds for the chapel, school, and poor
housekeepers. In 1768 there was a poor's
stock of £120, which was practically in-
tact in 1828. The estate was sold in 1861
under an order of the Charity Commis-
sioners, and the proceeds invested in
£1,615 consols. The income of £49 is
distributed in accordance with a scheme
prepared in 1877— one-third to the vicar
of Rainford ; one-third to exhibitions for
ton, widow, in 1876 bequeathed £300 for
poor widows. Edward Carr, formerly
vicar of St. Helens, left £100 for the
benefit of widows who had been com-
municants. The interest of these sums
is distributed annually in money doles.
5 Sarah Cowley left £5 a year to Mrs.
Anne Naylor, and 201. to the Dissenting
Minister at the New Chapel at St. Helens
for preaching on New Year's Day and
Midsummer Day. Further, she left her
house and land to Joseph Gillibrand, at
that time the ' Dissenting Minister,' in
£5 41. and £2 121. The former charge
is now paid by Lord Derby, and the latter
by the tenant of a farm at Townend in
Cronton. The sums are distributed in
bread every Sunday. William Fenn, by
his will, dated 1825, left his pew in Farn-
worth church, let at £2 2s. a year, in trust
for the poor ; he also left £50 to the Pro-
testant Sunday schools. No rents are now
payable for the pews in the church. The
poor of Upton and Farnworth benefited by
the charity of John Lyon, and those of
Farnworth district by thatof Ellen Greenoe,
exhibitions there is no demand ; and one-
third to the poor, in the form of blankets,
flannel, &c.
Bishop Gastrell (ii, 214) states that the
children, and 'to find them with books,
as the Love Book, the Primer, the Psalter,
Testament, and Bible ' ; the surplus to be
laid out in linen and clothes for them. A
not been paid since 1815.
9 Ellen Greenoe, by her will of August,
1759, left all her lands in Sutton called
Greenoe1 s to the minister and wardens of
Mrs. A. Singleton had added £60. This
crease in income due to the opening of
produced a rent of £12 12,. and of this
supposed to be part of the Thomas Lyon
fund, and so administered. David Gray-
ton, in 1735, gave the interest of £20 to
poor pipemakers* widows and orphans.
This, in 1828, was represented by a charge
of £i 3 year on a house in Tithebarn
Street, Liverpool, known as the ' Hole-in-
the-Wall.' This payment was continued
by James Birch as a private charity down
to 1847, when it ceased. No one had
ever been able to identify the ' Hole-in-
the-Wall.' George Mather's charity had
been lost, and £2 a year left by John
has been devoted to the present Cowley
Schools, which have a gross income of
£800.
6 Mary Egerton of Hardshaw, in 1693,
left £i a year to poor housekeepers in
Parr. This was in 1828 distributed, to-
gether with the interest of a .lock of £50,
by Charles Orrell, in gifts of cloth and
blanket. John Martin had contributed
£zo of this stock, but the origin of the
remainder was unknown. Nothing is
now known of these gifts.
Joseph Greenough of Sutton, in 1877,
worth, i os. to the minister of Tarleton,
£i to the poor of Farnworth, and the rest
was divided equally between the poor of
Bold and Sutton. The testatrix specially
desired 101. to be expended on books for
the children, but this appears to have been
a temporary use. The rent of the farm
in 1898 was £35. The money is laid out
in accordance with the testator's wishes,
money doles being given. The los. for
books is given to the managers of Bold
School.
For Bold itself there was a poor's stock
James Barnett, by his will of 1832, left
railway stock in the hands of the Offi-
arising chiefly from gi'ts of £50 by Peter
interest of which is distributed in the same
way as the clothing part of Thomas Lyon's
charity. David Rosbotham, in 1857, left
£200 for the poor, the interest of which
buted once a year in gifts of clothing and
" The poor of Sutton share in the
Greenoe (£zz) and Hcyes charitie. ;
former steward of the Bold estates. The
capital is still intact, and the interest,
£S 2s. 6J., is distributed once a year in
money doles.
347
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
others ; l an endowment exists, dating from 1 794,
for the relief of poor housekeepers.1 Cuerdley once
had a small poor's stock, which has been lost.* Great
Sankey and Penketh had a similar stock, and received
other benefactions.4
WHISTON
Quitstan, 1245 ; Wystan, Quystan, 1278 ; Whys-
tan, Whytstan, Whyghtstan, 1292 ; Quistan, 1346 ;
Whistan usual, but Whiston occurs as early as 1355.
This township has an area of 1,782^ acres.* It
occupies irregular ground south of Prescot, in the
very prosaic neighbourhood of coal-mines. The
grounds of Halsnead Park, in the south-east, a rather
bare, sparsely timbered estate, fill up a little more
than one quarter of the whole area of the township.
To the west of Halsnead is Ridgate. The rest of the
land is laid out in pastures and cultivated fields where
potatoes, turnips, and corn are raised, the loamy and
gravelly soil seeming very fertile. There are oc-
casional substantial-looking farms. The northern
part of the township is bare and has an unfinished
appearance, a good deal of small cottage property
standing amongst patches of treeless waste ground.
The village of Whiston is almost continuous with
Prescot. The roads are generally paved with square
stones and are not of the smoothest. The geological
formation of the western half of the township consists
of the coal measures ; the eastern moiety, of the lower
mottled sandstone of the bunter series, except in the
north-eastern corner, where the pebble beds of this
series of the new red sandstone formation occur
southward as far as Holt.
The western and southern boundaries are formed
by two brooks, which unite to flow south through
Tarbock. The Prescot and Warrington road, along
which run the electric cars, passes through the
northern part of the township, and from it two roads
spread out, passing through Whiston village, and then
to the east and west of Halsnead Park to join the
road from Huyton to Cronton. The London and
North Western Company's railway from Liverpool to
Manchester goes through the centre of the area, and
the St. Helens branch through the northern part.
The population in 1901 was 3,430.
Collieries are worked, and form the chief industry.
Formerly women as well as men worked in them.6
Flower pots are made here. There are also file and
tool makers.
Whiston cross stood about a mile and a half south-
east of Prescot church ; and the stocks were close
by it/
The Whiston Parish Council consists of ten mem-
bers. The Whiston Rural District Council is com-
posed of representatives of all rural townships in the
Prescot Union, and has a sanatorium and an isolation
hospital in Whiston, in which is also the workhouse
for the Prescot Union.
The earliest record ot WHISTON is
MANORS contained in the survey of 1212, in
which it is stated that ' Vivian Gernet
gave to Robert Travers four plough-lands and a half
by the service of the third part of a knight,' parcel
of the fee of one knight which he held as chief
forester of the forest of Lancaster.8 As Vivian
Gernet lived in the time of Henry II, an approxi-
mate date for the grant is afforded.9 Richard
Travers occurs about 1 1 90,'° and shortly afterwards
Henry Travers was lord of Whiston, and granted to
Cockersand Abbey an annual rent of 2/. from the
mill." He was succeeded by his son Adam, who con-
firmed the gift of his father," and Adam by his younger
brother Richard ; the latter in 1252 was holding the
four and a half plough-lands in Whiston.13
Richard had two sons — Roger and Henry ; the
elder succeeded to Whiston, the younger receiving Rid-
gate from his father, and becoming ancestor of the
1 Thomas Windle, jun, gave £2 ioj. a
year to the poor of Cronton ; this is paid
from an estate at Townend in Cronton.
To it was formerly added £i from the
charity founded by William Glover, but
payment has been refused since 1871.
The Windle money is laid out in doles.
Bread was given to poor widows of
fate of the money, though something had
been paid to the poor till about 1810.
The origin of the stock was traced to
Bishop Smith, who gave £10 ; to this
£20 was added by John Martinscroft, and
£20 ' by Government.' No charities are
n™Th7poVr°,esXtock in .735 wa, £27,
pears as witness to a charter dated between
1160 and 1170.
10 Farrcr, Lanes. Fife R. 353.
" Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
603. The grant was made for the soul,
of himself and his son Richard. Henry
Travers was one of the supervisors of the
work on the castle of West Derby in
worth on Christmas Day, Easter Day, and
Whit Sunday. A distribution of bread
continues ; it is still paid for by a charge
of 6.. on an estate called Norlands, partly
in Widnes and partly in Cronton.
Up to 1797 a sum of £2 had been dis-
tributed by the overseer as interest of
moneys left at various times by John
Rowson, Henry Windle, and others, as
also of ' Aughton's Dole.' No reason was
Ralph William Barnes; £7 10*. was
added in 1811, as part of a gift by John
Kerfoot. For this 261. dd. a year was
paid as interest by the overseer, until
about 1838, when the parish refused, on
account of the new poor law. Another
4.. kd. was derived from £$ left by
Thomas Sixsmith in 1766, but was lost
by bankruptcy about 1833. A further
20J., called ' Dutton's money,' was re-
355, for other references to him between
1 1 89 and 1208.
« Cackcrsand Cbartul. ii, 604. Hit
brother Richard is mentioned in this con-
firmation, which from the names of the
witnesses may be dated about 1230.
Soon afterwards, a disagreement having
arisen, the matter was discussed before
judges delegated by the pope, and Adam
and his heirs were bound to the payment ;
ment. Margaret Wright left £10 for
teaching children. Up to 1794 the sum
of 91. a year as interest had been paid by
the overseers cither for teaching or for
school books, e.g. ' Markham's and Dill-
worth's spelling books.' This had been
discontinued before 1829.
a The estate consists of a small piece of
land and a schoolroom and house upon it,
a rent of £13 being charged for the house
and land. Formerly this went to the
relief of the poor rate, but the net income
has lately been divided among poor house-
keepers chosen by the parish council.
8 The stock amounted to £50 in 1774,
but the trustees had died long before 1828,
and nothing could be discovered as to the
Cheshire ; the origin of the gift was un-
known in 1829. The charge is still
operative, and the money is given to poor
widows.
« 1,788, including 8 of inland water ;
census of 1901. A small portion of
Prescot was added in 1894 by a Local
Government Board order.
8 Baines, Lanes. Directory, 1824, ii, 707.
1 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Sac. xix, 207.
8 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 44. The names of
the manors are not given, but are con-
sidered from other sources to have been
Whiston, two plough-lands; Parr, one
and a half; and Skelmersdale, one.
9 Ibid. 47, where Robert Travers ap-
348
l« Inq. and Extents, 1 88, where he is
called Richard de Whiston ; as Richard
ibid!"^/ 'in 1278 Richard TrtTen and'
Henry his son were accused of disseising
Richard le Norreys of his common of
pasture in Whiston ; Assize R. 1238, m.
34</. ; also m. 35. In a roll of Ogle
deeds written in 1602, which has been
lent to the editors by the Rev. F. G.
Paterson of Prescot, and is in the posses-
sion of Messrs. H. Cross & Sons, solicitors,
of that town, is a copy of a charter by
Richard Travers, granting to Richard son
of Robert le Scarseriweige land in Whis-
ton, the bounds of which mention 'the
Oldmilford.'
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
family of Travers of Ridgate and Hardshaw, which
continued down to the beginning of the seventeenth
century. In 1284 Roger Travers made complaint
that Benedict Gernet, Alan de Halsall, and others had
disseised him of the manor of Whiston, except one
messuage, and it was decreed that he should recover.1
Roger was still living in 1314,* but his son Robert
was in possession in 1324.' He received from William
de Dacre a confirmation of the manor of Whiston,'
and grants of his as late as 1348 are extant.5
John son of Robert Travers had in 1353 a dispute
with the rector of Prescot as to a messuage and acre
of land which the latter claimed as belonging to his
church;6 and there were further disputes in 1369
and 1370.' Early in 1390 he made a general
feoffment of his manor of Whiston and lands,8 which
his feoffees in April, 1394, regranted to John Travers
of Whiston and Margaret his wife, with remainder to
Richard, son of Thomas Travers and the heirs between
him and Cecily his wife, daughter of Thomas de
Strangeways.9 Richard was probably the grandson
of John Travers, and very young at the time ; it is
not known whether the marriage then arranged ever
took place, but in 1408 Richard was contracted to
PRESCOT
marry Katherine, daughter of Sir John de Bold.10
He was still living in 1444."
John Travers, son of Richard, appears to have
succeeded. By his wife Alice he had a son Thomas,
who in 1480 sold the manor of Whiston to Richard
Bold of Bold," whose descendants held it throughout
the sixteenth century." About
1600 it was acquired by the
Ogle family, who had long be-
fore commenced to purchase
parts of the Travers lands."
The Ogles appear in Lan-
cashire in the middle of the
fifteenth century as stewards
of the manor of Prescot. John
Ogle, the earliest known, is
said to have been a son of Sir
Robert, first Lord Ogle, who
died in 1469." Early in 1472
John Ogle of Prescot purchased
lands in Rainhill from John, son and heir of Hugh
Woodfall.16 Margaret, widow of John Ogle, and
Roger their son purchased lands from John Tra-
vers,17 and the family continued to prosper, becoming
1 Assize R. 1265, m. 5 ; also R. 1268,
John de Halsnead, John de Standish,
m. 13.
Richard de Aughton, and others ; Ogle R.
Roger, son of Richard Travers, granted
at above. • Bold D. (Warr.), G. 53.
to William de Fegherby part of his land
10 Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 202*, n. 66.
in Whiston, called Sutton Cliff and Sour-
» In June, 1438, there was an arbi-
croft, with common of pasture in the
tration between Richard Praty, rector of
Holt, « which is common pasture belong-
Prescot, and Richard Travers touching
ing to the vills of Eccleston, Whiston, and
lands called the Pirwall ; it went against
Rainhill, and which shall for ever remain
the rector; Bold D. (Warr.), G. 62.
common ' ; Ogle R. as above. Roger
also released to Alan le Norreys land in
In 1443-4 Richard Travers and John
hi. son surrendered Whiston mill, in
Whiston between the Holt and Churchlce,
Aughton's lands, to Thomas Boteler, lord
which had been held by Richard de Pres-
of Warrington ; ibid. G. 58.
cot of Richard, the grantor's father, at a
la Bold D. (Warr.), G. 64. The
rent of i ^d. ; ibid.
manor of Whiston and lands there were
"He occurs as defendant in 1292,
held of the lord of Dacre by fealty and
juror in 1304, and witness to a charter in
answering for him at the court of West
1314 ; Assize R. 408, m. 36 ; R. 419 ;
Derby. A grant, in connexion with the
Norris D. (B.M.), ". 52.
sale, made by Thomas son and heir of
8 Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 33*.
John Travers, mentions the Barfurlong,
He was the son of Roger Travers ; De
Bane. R. 283, m. 284.
Kilngrove, Gubbie Croft, Copped Holt,
Spital Meadow, &c., some of them being
* Ogle R. as above. The confirmation
held by Alice, the grantor's mother, as
and the advowson of the church of Pres-
payable by Lord Stanley for Akilshaw
cot. William de Dacre died about 1318.
House, 1 6d. by Nicholas Aughton for
Robert had also the grant of a windmill
in Whiston from Edmund de Nevill ;
for Tottill House, and various others, the
tenants' names including John Blundell,
Bold D. (Warr.), G. 66.
John Standish, James Ellom, Nicholas
* In 1377 Robert Travers granted to
Harrington of Huyton, John Garnett,
Roger de Denton, clerk, Anne his wife,
Thomas Atherton of Bickerstath, Roger
and William their son, land in Whiston ;
Ogle, and Thomas Lathom. The sale
the bounds included Wiglache, the ditch
appears to have been concluded by a fine
dividing Whiston and Halsnead, and
in Aug. 1482. See Ogle R.
the Oldfield ; Bold D. (Warr.), G. 61.
ls This appears from the inquisitions of
In 1 348 he gave to Robert, son of Robert
several of the tenants ; e.g. of Thomas
de Hurleton lands in Whiston which
Atherton, taken in 1515, and of Percival
Richard de Rainhill and others held of
Harrington, taken in 1535-6 ; Duchy of
him, for a rent of a rose ; it would seem
that his daughter Margaret was to marry
Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, n. 68 ; viii, n. 41.
On the other hand those of the Lathoms
the younger Hurleton ; ibid. G. 60.
of Wolfall in Huyton declare their lands
8 Assize R. 435, m. 6 d. ; Duchy of
in Whiston to be held of Thomas Travers
Lane. Assize R. 3, m. iij.
or his heirs, as late as 1547; ibid, vii,
7 De Banco R. 433, m. 263 ; 4;8,
.. 6 ; ix, „. ,0.
m. 382. As there was at the same time
That after the death of Richard Bold
another John Travers, of Whiston or
in 1559 says that Whiston was held by
Ridgate, there is some difficulty as to
him of the heir of Thomas Dacre, Lord
identification occasionally. Thomas de
Dacre, by the rent of a red rose ; ibid, xi,
Lathom, who died in 1383, held Brand-
n. 63. The last Thomas Lord Dacre had
erth in Whiston of John Travers ; Duchy
died in 1525. This was Dacre of the
of Lane. Inq. p.m. ii, ». 7.
North, heir male of the Foresters. On
8 It included his manor of Whiston,
the other hand Whiston was said to be
and all other lands, with the homages,
held by Richard Bold of Lord Dacre of
rents, and services of William Daniell,
the South ; Harl. MS. 2112, fol. 21.
349
14 The manor appears to have been sold
by Sir Thomas Bold to John Ogle about
1608, though it is not mentioned in the
list of his possessions in 1613; Lanes, and
Cbes. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 32 ; Lanes. ln<j. p.m. (same soc.), i, 254.
Henry Ogle was lord of Whiston in
1619; ibid, ii, 140.
»* John Ogle and [Catherine his wife in
1457 purchased lands in Upton and in
Widnes from Robert de Ditton, with
reversion of those in the tenure of Cecily
widow of William de Ditton; Duchy of
Lane. Ct. R. bdle. 5, n. 69. The descent
from Lord Ogle is supported by the fact
that two deeds of his family appear among
the Ogle of Whiston deeds in Harl. MS.
2042, fol. 79. " Ibid.
V Ibid.; a deed of confirmation, dated
i 506, by which Thomas son and heir of
John Travers confirmed the sales of cer-
tain messuages, lands, and services in
Whiston made by his father and himself
to Margaret relict of John Ogle, and to
Roger son and heir of the latter. This is
the last mention of the main line of
Travers of Whiston. The deed just quoted
is followed (loc. cit,) by another, dated
1515, by which John Ogle of Prescot,
probably the son of Roger, enfeoffed Sir
William Leyland, Humphrey Ogle, M.A.,
and William Ogle, chaplain, of all his
lands in England. This Humphrey Ogle,
perhaps an uncle, was afterwards a pre-
bendary of Hereford and benefactor of
Brasenose College, Oxford, founding two
scholarships, with preference to candi-
dates from Prescot. William Ogle was
a brother of John; he was rector of
Credenhill in 1536 ; L. and P. Hen. FIJI,
x, 532. The will of John Ogle was
proved in 1525 ; he desired to be buried
in Prescot church, bequeathed his gold
seal to his son and heir John, mentioned
his daughters Alice, Margaret, Anne, and
Maud, his brother William, and his kins-
man Sir William Leyland ; Wills (Chet.
Soc. New Ser.), i, 224.
The inquisition taken in 1563 shows
that John Ogle had held lands in Whiston
of Richard Bold by the rent of a rose, in
Sutton of William Holland, and in
Huyton and Roby of John Harrington,
Nicholas Tyldesley, and the earl of Derby ;
Edward Ogle, twenty-one years of age,
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
of the manors of Whiston and Hals
the purchaser being John Ogle.
John':
married
Whitby of Chester,3 and had by her a numerous off-
spring. He died about 1649,* but does not seem to
Richard Travers, as already stated, gave his younger
son Henry his land in RIDG4TE 10 in Whiston,
and heir Henry, born about 1586,' which had been granted to him by the hospital of
1610 Elizabeth, daughter of Robert St. John outside the Northgate of Chester at a rent
of izd.n Henry Travers had sons John and Henry,1*
nd the latter apparently a son and successor named
have taken any part in the Civil War. Two of his John,13 contemporary with the John Travers son of
sons, however, took arms on the king's side. Cuthber
the eldest, received a commission from the earl of
Derby, but soon retired, and in 1646 took the
Robert, who was lord of Whiston. The descent
cannot be traced with certainty.14
At the end of the fifteenth century appears another
National Covenant in London and compounded for John, followed by Henry " and Robert early in the
his estates by a fine of j£l2O.4 Henry his brother, next.16 About 1560 the last-named was succeeded by
holding a similar commission, took p
defence of Lathom House.6
the
Cuthbert died
his son John, who died in October, 1583, holding
the manor of Ridgate of the queen, as of the late
670, the heir being his son dissolved hospital of St. John at Chester, by a rent of
Edward,7 whose daughter and eventual heir Elizabeth I id., and lands in Whiston, Hardshaw, and Rainford."
carried the manor to her husband Jonathan Case, of
the Red Hazels in Huyton.8 About the beginning
of last century the manor was held by Richard Willis
of Halsnead, to whose heirs it has descended ; but
His heir was his son John,18 twenty-three years of
age, who soon afterwards became implicated in the
Babington plot, for which he was executed as a traitor
in 1586, his property being forfeited.19 William
the hall was then in the possession of John Ashton Travers, believed to be a brother, :
Case, a Liverpool merchant, great-grandson of the
above-named Jonathan.9
ered Ridga
and most of the lands held by the father ; dying
1591 he was succeeded by a younger brother, Henry
was his son and heir ; Duchy of Lane.
Inq. p.m. xi, n. 42. Edward Ogle died
in Dec. 1567, leaving a son and heir John,
only nine years of age ; ibid, xi, n. 23.
1 The above John Ogle, son of Edward,
was the purchaser. In a fine of 1609
Thomas Brooke and John Ogle appeared
as plaintiffs and Sir Thomas Bold and
buried 30 Dec. 1691, and his will proved
in the following year.
8 A Jonathan Case, aged eleven, ap-
pears as eldest son of John Case of Huy-
ton in the pedigree in Dugdale's Viat.
(Chet. Soc.), 70. Gregson (Fragments,
176) makes the Jonathan who married
Elizabeth Ogle to be a generation later. A
18 Robert Travers of Whiston, Maud
his wife, and John his son and heir ap-
parent, occur between 1549 and 1557;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 25 ;
15, m.46; 19, m. 83.
1? Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiv, n. 65 ;
the other land in Whiston was held of
Richard Bold, by the rent of T,d. John
manor of Whiston ; the sale must have
taken place about this time ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 75, m. 83.
In 1590 John Ogle was among the
' comers to church but no communicants';
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 246 (quoting Dom.
Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4). With him begins
the pedigree in Dugdale's Visit. (Chet.
Soc.), 223. He was living in 1610, when
his son's marriage settlement was made,
but dead in 1619.
the'manor of Whiston, &c. was made by
Thomas Case son of Jonathan and Mar-
son* Jonathan'; "pa" of "l-anc. Teet of F.
bdle. 332, m. 158.
• Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 719.
10 The older spelling was usually Rud-
gate ; but Ryddegate occurs in 1332.
» Ogle R. as above. Henry Travers
Hardshaw, Whiston, and Rainford in 1 569;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 3 1, m. 50.
18 John Travers, apparently the younger,
was about 1583 involved in disputes with
Richard Bold as to the exact tenure of
Ridgate. The latter asserted that John
Travers of Hardshaw held certain lands of
him in his manor of Whiston by homage,
fealty, escuage, and suit of court ; but,
having casually become possessed of cer-
tain court rolls and writings, had refused
nose Coll.) in 1603, aged sixteen;
Foster, Alumni Oxon.
» Lanes, and Chcs. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
Assize R. 408, m. }6.
" John son of Henry Travers brought a
suit against his father as early as 1292 ;
tenants had also begun to withdraw. John
Travers, in his reply, repeated the state-
ments as to the tenure given above from
5 Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iv, 236 ; he had in Whiston
a messuage and lands ; also a windmill
and watermill. He was probably the
' Master Ogle' who attended Lord Strange
in the attempt to seize Manchester in
1642 ; Civil Wat Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 51.
6 Henry had fought at Edgehill, where he
was taken prisoner ; ibid. 169, 178, 184.
"i Cuthbert Ogle was buried 10 Sept.
1670, at Prescot; administration was
granted to his son Edward in 1673. At
this point there is an error in Dugdale's
Viat. as printed. The children of Cuth-
bert Ogle are given as Cuthbert, aged
eighteen ; Richard, aged fourteen ; and
Elizabeth. From the Prescot registers it
Henry Travers occurs in 1356; Duchy
of Lane. Assize R. 5, m. 25.
is John son of Henry Travers in 1368
claimed certain lands held by John Haukc
and Clemency his wife ; De Bane. R.
432, m. 68. The descent suggested in
the text as most probable must not be
In 1386 John Travers of Whiston
had the king's protection on proceeding
to Ireland in the retinue of Sir John de
Stanley; Cat. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 156.
" John, William, and Henry Travers
are mentioned early in the fifteenth
century. Alan de Ditton in 1425-6
entered into a bond with William Travers
of Ridgate concerning the manor of
answered that it was no manor at all, but
a freehold, and had never been held by the
Hospital of St. John of Chester ; Duchy
of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxxviii, B. 18}
cxxv, B. 34 ; ex, B. 23.
The inquisition after the death of
William Travers repeated the disputed
statement as to the tenure from the Hos-
pital, from which it may be inferred that
Richard Bold lost the day. On the other
hand, on the Ogle roll is a decision by
the Chancellor affirming the right of
Richard Bold as lord of Whiston.
19 A curiously bitter account of Travers'
behaviour at his execution is given by a
spectator. 'When he had ascended the
ladder he said "he was never guilty of any
treason in his life," ' though the others
1664, and that Edward, unnamed by
Dugdale, was baptized in 1645, and there-
fore older than Cuthbert. He married
Margaret daughter of Thomas Preston of
Holker in Cartmel, and had a son Cuth-
bert, described as « of Chester,' baptized in
1673 and buried in 1709, and two daugh-
ters, Catherine and Elizabeth, baptized in
1674 and 1675. His wife died shortly
after the birth of the last child, who
proved to be the heir. Cuthbert Ogle
entered St. John's Coll., Cam., in 1692 ;
Admissions, li, 125. Edward Ogle was
of John the father of William ; Henry
son of William was a party ; Blundell of
Crosby D. K. 64. Two years later Henry
Blundell and Alan de Ditton released to
William Travers of Whiston, son and heir
of John Travers of Hardshaw, all the
messuages and lands they held by the
feoffment of John Travers ; ibid. K. 54.
« See the account of Hardshaw in
Windle. A free rent of jd. from John
Travers of Ridgate is mentioned in the
above-named grant by Thomas Travers
in 1480.
made a formal acknowledgement of guilt.
He gave not the slightest attention to the
political and religious arguments addressed
to him, only saving, 'I die a true Catho-
lic, and do believe all that the true
Catholic Church doth.' ' He hanged in
all men's sight till he was dead, and when
the hangman had his heart in his hand it
leapt and panted. Even thus concluded
the last part of this obstinate fellow, who
had fully purposed, as it was to be conjec-
tured, to live a seditious person, and reso-
lute to die a papistical traitor' ; Kenyan
MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 617.
350
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Travers, described as of ' Hardshaw.' ' After this
Ridgate seems to have passed away to the Bolds and
Ogles, together with Whiston.*
About 1285 Henry de Torbock and Ellen his wife
granted their land in Ridgate to Burscough Priory.*
From the charters it would appear that Ridgate was
partly within Tarbock, but later inquisitions state that
the Torbocks' land in Ridgate was held of the lord of
Whiston.4
At the halmote of the manor held in 15233 record
was made of the bounds, and in 1526 Sir Richard
Bold, lord of the manor, was reported to have wrong-
fully enclosed part of the Copped Holt.*
HALSNEAD * is first mentioned in 1 246, when
William, son of William Assolfi, and William, Adam,
and John, his sons, with others, were convicted of
having dispossessed Siward de Derwent and Cecily
his wife of an acre belonging to the fourth part of
Halsnead.7
PRESCOT
Three generations of a family bearing the local
name appear next — Adam, Ralph, and Thomas.
Adam de Halsnead granted his ' whole vill of Hal-
snead ' to his son Ralph, and Ralph granted it to
Richard son of Alan le Norreys.8 In 1278 and 1 284
Richard le Norreys appeared as plaintiff against
Richard Travers and Henry Travers of Whiston, as
already stated.' The next step is not clear, but
Halsnead passed from Richard's son Alan to Robert le
Norreys of Burtonhead, and his son John was in pos-
session from 1324 onwards.10 Dying about 1346
John was followed by his son Nicholas, who occurs
from time to time down to the end of the reign of
Edward III ; " he may be the Nicholas le Norreys of
Burtonhead whose son succeeded to that manor, but
though the Burtonhead family afterwards acquired
part of Halsnead, the Wetherbys were the heirs in
1422." The two families of Wetherby " and Pember-
ton u remained in possession down to the beginning
1 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. xvi, ». 35.
Frieny Hill as one of the boundaries on
chief of the said William Daniell,' in
Henry Travers was aged seventeen. A
the west. Both expressly mention its
whose hands they were by reason of the
settlement had been made in August,
dependence upon the 'heirs of Whiston.'
minority of Thomas, son of Thomas de
1589 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 51,
Ralph de Halsnead was plaintiff in
Wetherby, cousin and heir of Nicholas,
m. 81.
1283; De Bane. R. 49, m. 22</.
together with the marriage of Thomas ;
'> There was a recovery of the manor
Thomas son of Ralph de Halsnead ap-
Ancient D. P.R.O. A 5631. This is a
of Ridgate in 1599; Pal. of Lane. Plea
pears in 1304; Coram Rege R. 178, m.
second illustration of the dependence of
R. 284, m. i. James Pemberton and
zo</. In 1317 and later Emma, widow
Halsnead upon Daresbury and Sutton.
Henry Travers were called to warrant.
of John de Halsnead, claimed dower in
13 V ery little is known of the We.her-
8 This gift was confirmed by Henry de
Whiston from Henry son of John de
bys beyond their attachment to the Roman
Lacy, with the proviso that one leper
Molyneux, and Thomas son of Ralph de
Catholic faith at the Reformation. Thomas
within the lordship of Widncs should be
Halsnead ; De Bane. R. 220, m. 10 ;
Wetherby paid a free rent of 6±d. to the
maintained by the canons, that mass
221, m. 9 ; &c.
lord of Whiston in 1480 ; Ogle R.
should be said there at Easter, and that the
9 Assize R. 1238, m. 34</. 35 ; 1268,
Isabel, daughter of Piers Wetherby of
names of himself and his wife should be
m. igJ.
Halsnead, married Thomas Ditchfield of
inserted in their martyrology and in the
»o In 1346 Alice, as daughter and heir
Ditton at the end of the fifteenth cen-
canon ; Dugdale, Man, vi, 460 ; Bur-
of Alan, son of Richard le Norreys,
tury ; Viiit. of 1 567 (Chet. Soc.), p. 123.
scough Reg. fol. $6d.
claimed a messuage and two plough-lands ;
Peter Wetherby appears on the list of
In the Escheator's Accounts, 1362-64
her story was that John son of Robert le
gentry of the hundred made about 1512.
(Exch. L.T.R. R. 5, m. 7), is the follow-
Norreys had entry only by demise of Robert,
The will of Thomas Wetherby, of Hal-
ing entry : ' One plough-land in Tarbock
who had disseised her father Alan. The
snead and St. Gregory's by St. Paul's,
which a progenitor of the king's gave to
defendant called Alan le Norreys of Dares-
London, 1537, is at Somerset House
(5 Dyngeley). In 1590 Peter Wetherby,
the said vill of Tarbock for the souls of
messuage and two plough-lands in Whis-
one of the 'gentlemen of the better sort,'
was a recusant and indicted thereof ; in
the kings of England ; withdrawn many
ton ; De Bane. R. 346, m. 22 ; 348, m.
1 593 the sheriff could not find him ; Gib-
years. 301. yearly value. Delivered 8 July,
14 d. The ' plough-land ' of this time does
son, Lydiat, Hall, p. 246, 261 (quoting
of the said plough-land to answer thereof
assessment.
His will was proved in 1620. The lands
to the king if it be considered that the
The rents and services of William
of Peter Wetherby, recusant, were in 1623
issue belonged to the king'; Orig. 38
Daniell and John de Halsnead are men-
granted to Anthony Croston and others ;
Edw. III. See the account of Tarbock.
tioned in a feoffment by John Travers in
Pat. 2! Jas. I, 27 July. George Wether-
< The inquisition taken in ,505 states
1390, on the Ogle R.
that Sir Henry Torbock's messuage and
John le Norreys in 1324 brought a
the subsidy of 1628 ; Norr'is D. (B.M.).
land in Ridgate next Prescot had been
suit of novel disseisin against Henry son
11 Some account of the Pembertons
held of Henry Travers in socage by fealty
of John de Molyneux (named in a previous
will be found under Burtonhead in Sutton.
and the yearly rent of I2d. ; Duchy of
note), but did not proceed with it ; Assize
John Pemberton, according to the Ogle R.
Lane. Inq. p. m. iii, n. 71.
R. 426, m. i d. Later, Alice, widow of
in 1480 paid a rent of \\d. to Thomas
5 On the Ogle R. Halsmeadows was
Adam del Grange, claimed from John le
Travers of Whiston ; with the (>\d. from
on the north or Prescot side of the boun-
Norreys of Halsnead an acre of land ; De
Thomas Wetherby the whole service was
dary, and Cockshoot on the south or
Banco R. 259, m. 22.
%d. A dispute as to the succession took
Whiston side; Chaps Clough, Church
" Nicholas le Norreys carried on the
place in 1472 between John Pemberton
Lees, and Shea Brook are also named.
suit with Alice, daughter of Alan ; De
and Thomas Halliwell of Wrightington ;
Copped Holt was on the border of Eccles-
Bane. R. 350, m. 20. As son and heir
of John, Nicholas in 1351 and 1352
from other deeds it appears that one or
both were heirs of William de Tunley,
6 Halsnade, 1246.
demanded certain lands from Margery de
whose son William married Emmota,
7 Assize R. 404, m. 3 d. 7 ; two ver-
Bold, Master Henry de Rixton having
daughter of Simon de Gorsuch, in 1403 ;
sions of the same charge ; in one the wife
granted them to his father John and his
Norris D. (B.M.), n. 946-9.
is called Juliana.
wife Alice in the time of Edw. II ; the
In 1502 James, son and heir of John
8 These grants are upon the Ogle R.
case was deferred, Richard de Bold, the
Pemberton, complained that whereas his
The bounds are thus given in the earlier
heir, being still a minor ; Duchy of Lane.
father had been seised of the manor of
deed : Beginning on the east at the Wig-
Assize R. I, m. iiij ; z, m. vij. The
Halsnead and other lands and tenements in
galache, which was the boundary between
same or a later Nicholas le Norreys of
Whiston, a certain Geoffrey Molyneux
Halsnead and Rainhill, and following the
Halsnead was collector of a subsidy in
and his companions had taken possession.
syke to Longleigh Brook in the south ;
1384; Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xl, App. p.
At the inquiry ordered by the king in his
along this to the Spital House in the
west, and following into the Deep Clough
"At the end of June, 1422, William
'great marvel and displeasure,' James
as far as the Casselache in the north;
thence by the Hecseptese Gate to the
Daniell of Daresbury gave Sir John de
Stanley the custody of all the lands in
sion • Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
ing point. The second grant mentions
le Norreys of Halsnead, ' which he held in
and Ches.), i, 14-16. James Pemberton
351
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
of the seventeenth century, when the Ogles of Whiston
probably acquired the lordship.1
Their tenure did not continue long. In 1684
Thomas Willis, a merchant of Liverpool, purchased
Halsnead and settled there.* He had a son Martin,
whose children Thomas * and Daniell * dying without
issue, Halsnead went to their cousin Thomas, grand-
son of William Swettenham of
Swettenham, by his wife Bertha,
daughter of Thomas Willis.6
The heir took the name of
Willis, but his son Thomas dying
without issue in 1788, another
cousin of Daniell Willis, by
his mother's side, succeeded.
This was Ralph Earle, who took
the name of Willis.6 He died
two years later, when his son
and heir Richard came into
possession and held it till his
death in 1837. He was suc-
ceeded by his sons Richard, '"*""•
Joseph, and Daniell in turn ;
the last of these died in 1873, and his son Henry
Rodolph D'Anyers Willis, in 1902; the latter's son
between three lion
pant gules ; a border
Richard Atherton D'Anyers Willis, born in 1871,
is the present lord of the manors of Whiston and
Halsnead.7 No courts are held.
The Athertons of Halsnead occur frequently in the
fifteenth century.8
The freeholders of Whiston in 1600 were John
Ogle, James Pemberton of Halsnead, and Peter
Wetherby ;9 in 1628 they were Henry Ogle, James
Pemberton, and George Wetherby.10 According to
the hearth-tax list there were in Whiston in 1666
eighteen houses of three hearths and more ; the prin-
cipal was that of Henry Ogle, with eleven." The
' Papists' estates ' registered in 1717 included those
of Henry Case, a house and coal mine ; William, son
of Robert Case ; and William Forrest." The land
tax returns of 1787 show that the principal owners
there were Thomas Willis of Low Halsnead, the
Case trustees, and Thomas Mackin.
In connexion with the Established Church,
St. Nicholas's was built in 1868, succeeding a
licensed chapel opened in 1846." There are chapels
for the Wesleyan Methodists and the United Free
Methodists, erected in 1832 and 1879 respectively.
The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists also have a chapel,
built in 1890.
of Halsnead was reckoned among the
gentry in 1512. George Pemberton, who
followed, died about 1558 ; his son James
held the manors of Halsnead and Burton-
head in 1557-8 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 19, m. 13.
The Pemberton and Wetherby families
re-sold by John Molyneux to George
Wetherby ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdlcs.
II, m. 242 ; 29, m. 144.
A settlement of lands in Whiston and
Halsnead was made in 1585 by James
Pemberton and Alice his wife, and James,
the son and heir apparent, and Katherine
granted to Daniell Willis, brother and
next of kin.
4 By his will, 1758, Daniell Willis
left his estates in Prescot, Huyton, Stan-
dish, Bolton, Eccles, Wigan, Wigan
Woodhouses, and Ireland, under different
limitations, to kinsmen : Thomas Swet-
tury, of which the following summary
may be given from the Duchy Pleadings.
George Pemberton, being seised of a
The younger James had a son James,
whose wife was Margaret ; ibid. bdle. 58,
m. in.
Mainwaring of Church Mmshull, William
Heycs son of Robert Heyes (late collector
of excise at Northwich) by Elizabeth his
snead, and of various other messuages and
lands in Sutton, Bedford, and Whiston,
by, son of Peter, suffered sequestration
and forfeiture, under the rule of the Par-
Martin of the General Post Office in
Dublin ; and Ralph, Thomas, and Wil-
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 5, m. 84), his
wife Isabel to have it after him for her
life. But in June, 1 5 54, his son and heir
James entered the house, stole certain
deeds from a locked chest, and afterwards,
with the aid of his wife Alice, Katherine
Standish, and other riotous persons, so
molested the father that he could not
obtain any rents or profits ; Duchy of
Lane. Pleadings, Phil, and Mary, xxxiv,
P. 4. In a later complaint James Pember-
ton, George Wetherby, and Isabel Pem-
berton (then a widow), are said to have
ousted Hamlet Ditchtield and George
Lathom, the father's feoffees ; ibid. Eliz.
liv, D. 7.
George Wetherby, who was in posses-
sion in 1566 (Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 27, n. 174), died in or before 1568,
leaving as his heir a natural son, Peter
tioned for restoration in 1653 ; Col. Com.
fur Camp, iii, 1952 ; v, 3213 ; iv, z86i,
3142 ; and Index of Royalists (Index Soc.),
43, 44. James Pemberton's estates were
sold to John Fullerton of London ; he
remonstrated against being put in the
additional Act for Sale, but in vain, for
his sequestration was for recusancy as
well as delinquency. Thomas Wetherby1.
petition was successful.
1 Edward Ormc, who died at Tarbock
I January, 1631-2, held land in Whiston
and in Halsnead, in each case of Henry
Ogle ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. xxix, 38.
Edward, his son and heir, was eighteen
years of age in 1636.
» Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), vi, 72 ;
see Burke, Commoners, ii, 374. Thomas
Willis's son Martin was reckoned among
the gentlemen of Huyton in 1689 ; ton-
to take the name of Willis. From a
note by Mr. W. F. Irvine.
4 Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), iii, 74.
« Elizabeth, daughter of William
Daniell, had married Ralph Finch of
Chester; their daughter Mary married
John Earle of Liverpool, as his second
wife, and Roger Earle was their son;
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), vi, 30-39, 72,
74. He was a merchant in Liverpool, and
mayor in 1769 ; in politics a Whig.
7 This account of the family has been
taken from the paper already quoted in
Trans. Hist. Soc. and from Burke's Landed
Gentry.
« There are several charges against
Thomas Atherton of Halsnead the elder,
called also the coroner, and Thomas
Atherton the younger, for debt, waylaying
and defaults, between 1443 and 1446 ;
was Matthew Travers ; Duchy of Lane.
Pleadings, Eliz. Ixxvii, W. 6. Eleven
years later James Pemberton and Peter
Wetherby being seised of the several
capital messuages or manor houses in
Halsnead and pasture called 'Halsnead
Heath,' were disturbed by Thomas Blun-
dell and others, who had casually obtained
possession of certain deeds; ibid. Eliz.
cxiii, P. 4. A little later Peter Wetherby
complained that James Pemberton and
James his son and heir withheld an annual
rent of 335. 4</. due to him from lands in
Halsnead and Whiston occupied by the
elder James; ibid. Eliz. cxix, W. 8 ; cxxvii,
A. I . This rent had in 1511 been sold by
James Pemberton and Elizabeth his wife
to Richard Molyneux, and was in 1567
daughter of William Daniell, originally
D'Anyers, of Over Tabley, who had been
a colonel in the Parliamentary forces in the
Civil War ; his elder son Thomas died in
1727; the younger, Daniell, lived until
1763, having arranged the succession.
Their house at Halsnead was called the
Red Hall ; Char. Rep. of 1828. A plate
of Chester in Browne Willis's Cathe-
drals states that it had been given by
'Thomas Willis of Wigan, the author's
only Willis cousin.' Some letters from
this Thomas to the antiquary are printed
in Local Gleanings, Lanes, and Ches. i, 62,
71 ; he knew little of his ancestry, but de-
sired a confirmation of the arms he used.
8 In 1728 administration of the estate
of Thomas Willis of Liverpool was
352
Thomas Atherton of Prescot, executor of
the will of Edward Atherton, one of the
chaplains of St. Stephen's, Westminster,
had absolution for contumacy in 1459-60;
Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 229*.
' Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
239, 242. In 1619 George Georgeson
altos Dam was found to be holding lands
in Whiston of Henry Ogle ; the Ireland!
and Bolds were also freeholders ; Lanes.
^±a£i;:>139-
" Lay Subs. 250-9.
111 Estcourt and Payne, Eng. Catk. Con-
jurors, 120, in, 119.
"For the district see Land. Gax.
22 June, 1869. The vicar of Prescot is.
patron.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
PRESCOT
Prestecot, 1190 ; Prestecote, 1292 ; Prestcote and
Prescote, 1440.
The township of Prescot, cut off from Whiston as
a manor for the rectory, is comparatively small, con-
taining only 270' acres, lying wholly upon the coal
measures. A little town has grown up near the
church, on the top and eastern slope of the hill,
which here attains 250 ft. The main street,
Eccleston Street, begins at the church and goes east-
ward. The market-place, where the town hall is
situated, opens out of it close by the church, on the
steep hill side. The town hall was built in 1755,
and has the arms of King's College, Cambridge,
on a panel over the doorway. It stands north and
south, with an apse at the south end, and a line
of shops on the ground floor, and though of no
particular merit, has considerable picturesqueness from
the steep southward fall of its site. The town con-
tains a good number of eighteenth-century houses; and
in Eccleston Street is a small timber house dated 1614,
a pretty little building. The Lyme almshouses on the
Rainhill Road, east of the town, were built in 1708,
and are simple in detail and a welcome break in the
absolute modernity of this part of Prescot. Near by
a little suburb of cottage houses of the usual type has
sprung up near the watch factory and the insulated
wire works, the principal industries of the place.
The dismantled windmill also stands here. The
woods of Knowsley Park make a pleasant background
to the north. At some little distance from the town,
but in Huyton, stands the Hazells (Mr. W. Windle
Pilkington) a fine old house, surrounded by picturesque
grounds. It belongs to Lord Derby.
The ancient highroad from Liverpool to Warring-
ton passes through the town ; the South Lancashire
electric tramway system uses this, and also the road
from Prescot to St. Helens through Eccleston. The
London and North Western Company's line from
Liverpool to St. Helens crosses the township on the
south, and has a station within it (Prescot) about half
a mile from the church. The population was 7,855
in 1901.
Leland, about 1535, described it as ' a little market ;
having no notable water about it ; four miles from
Mersey, up towards Liverpool.' *
Tokens were issued by Prescot tradesmen in 1666
and 1 669 .3 The town has long been celebrated for
the manufacture of various parts of watches/ for files,
and for pottery.6
The cotton manufacture was early introduced here,
but has died out ; there was formerly a sail-cloth
factory, while coal mines, now closed, were worked
PRESCOT
within the township last century. Samuel Derrick,
writing from Liverpool, gives the following account
of • the town's appearance in 1760: 'About eight
miles off is a very pleasant market town called Prescot.
In riding to this place travellers are often incommoded
by the number of colliers' carts and horses which fill
the road all the way to Liverpool. It stands finely
upon an eminence having an extensive command.
The houses are well built and here are two inns in
which attendance and accommodation are cheap and
excellent.' 6
Pennant, in 1773, recorded that ' the town abounds
in manufactures of certain branches of hardware, par-
ticularly the best and almost all the watch movements
used in England, and the best files in Europe. Here
is, besides, a manufacture of coarse earthen mugs, and
of late another of sail-cloth." 7 About 1 840 it was
said the district ' has long been noted for the superior
construction of watch tools and motion work. The
drawing of pinion wire, extending to fifty different
sizes . . . originated here ; and small files, considered
to be of unparalleled excellence, are made and ex-
ported in large quantities. The manufacture of
coarse earthenware, especially sugar-moulds, has also
been established for a very long period, the clay of
the neighbourhood being peculiarly adapted to that
purpose ; and a few persons are employed in the
cotton business : the manufacture of glass bottles is
likewise carried on.' 8
Thomas Eyres was a printer here in 1779, and
Thomas Taylor in 1 790.'
In 1824 the market-days were Tuesday and Satur-
day, with special fortnightly cattle markets in the
spring ; there were five fairs — on Ash Wednesday,
the Wednesday after Corpus Christi, 24-25 August,
21 October, and I November.10 Afterwards these
were reduced to two, the Tuesday after Whitsuntide
and the Monday in the week in which fell 5 Novem-
ber.11 There is now a Saturday market, and the fair
is held at Corpus Christi.
Two newspapers are published here on Friday.
The manor of PRESCOT, attached to
the rectory of the church, has descended
with it, the rectors being lords of the
manor. They were engaged at various times in suits
with their neighbours as to the lands and rights of
their church.1' One of the most interesting of these
concerned the market established here by a charter
obtained by the rector in 1333, which also granted
an annual fair.13 In 1355 the rector of Wigan peti-
tioned for leave to destroy the market at Prescot,
which had proved of great injury to his own market
at Wigan, the two towns being only eight miles apart."
Prescot retained its market, and a further grant was
made in October, 1458, by Henry VI.14
1 297 according to the census of
1901. A small portion was added to
Whiston in 1894, and at the same time
part of Eccleston was taken into Pres-
cot, by a Local Government Board order.
8 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Sac. v, 87.
4 The watch trade has long been a very
important one ; it is said to have been
introduced by a Huguenot refugee named
Woolrich, who settled at Coptholt.
6 ' Prescot for pan-mugs,' says the old
rhyme ; Pal. Note Book, iii, 95. A coarse
red ware was the chief product, but at one
time there was a factory of white ware.
8 Derrick, Letters, 29. The old inns
have large stable accommodation, and
posting was an important business.
^ Downing to Alston Moor, z I . Similar
but more detailed accounts of the trades
may be seen in Aikin's Country around
Manch. (I795), 311; and in the Lan-
cashire volume of Britten's Beauties of
England and Wales, 1808, p. 226.
8 Lewis, Gazetteer (ed. 1 844.) ; derived
from Baines' Lanes. Direc. of 1 824, ii, 467.
» Local Gleanings Lanes, and Ches. ii, 229,
239, 298.
10 Baines, loc, cit. In 1795
day was Tuesday, and the fairs
June and November.
11 Baines, Lanes, (ed. Harland), i
353
« For one with John Travers see the
account of Whiston. Another with John
son of William de Farington concerned
land in Sutton ; Duchy of Lane. Assize
'«*Th'e market every Monday, and the
fair on the vigil, day, and morrow of Corpus
Christi ; Chart. R. 7 Edw. Ill, m. 9, n. 43.
11 The case lasted some years ; see
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4, m. 5 ; 6,
m. 2 d., &c. The rector of Prescot re-
plied that he had found the market estab-
lished, and could not answer without the
bishop and the patron.
15 Chart. R. 27-39 Hcn- VI, n. 13.
This was for a market on Fridays.
45
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
KING'S COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE. Sable, three
roses argent, barbed -vert,
seeded or ; on a chief per
One or more families took their surname from the
place, but no connected account of them is possible.1
Another local family took its name from Churchlee in
Prescot. Richard son of Robert
de Churchlee early in 1286
accused Alan le Breton, the
rector, of disseising him of his
free tenement there ; Henry
the son of Richard joined in
the complaint, which terminated
successfully.'
The hall of Prescot, at one
time the residence of the Ogles,
as stewards of the lords of the
manor, was afterwards leased
out.*
There were in the town in
1666 thirty-two houses with
three hearths and more.4 "and a lion passant guard-
Thomas Waller of Prescot ant on the sinister of the
compounded with the Com- fourth.
monwealth authorities in 1646
for his sequestered estate.5 In 1717 John Ashton
of Whiston, watch-maker, as a ' Papist,' registered
his estate as a house at Prescot ; Arthur Ashton, tailor,
had two small houses; Edward Ellam and Edward
Greenough of Parr also registered small freeholds.8
John Philip Kemble, the actor, was born at Prescot
in 1757.'
In 1843 a dispute occurred respecting the boun-
daries, the township of Whiston claiming Prescot Hall
to be within its limits. It appeared that though all
the usual rates had been paid by the hall to Prescot,
the tithes had been collected with those of Whiston.
This arrangement may have been due to one of the
leases granted by King's College to the farmers of
the tithe. The Prescot authorities justified their
contention that the boundary went as far as Shaw
Lane, where an ancient mere-stone was placed.8
The government of the town by the old court-leet
was thus described in 1836 : 'The manor and liberty
of Prescot is governed by a steward, " four men," a
coroner and several constables, nominated by the jury
of the court leet and baron, who are composed of
twenty-four of the principal inhabitants of the town-
ship of Prescot, and who are nominated by the lords
of the manor. ... A court-baron, or court of re-
quests, is held for causes to any amount every fort-
night in the town-hall. . . . There is also a general
court-baron held on Corpus Christ!, and special courts
with which a court-leet is held.' 9
The Local Government Act of 1858 was adopted
in 1867 ;I0and Prescot is now governed by an urban
district council of twelve members. The coroner of
the Liberty of Prescot is appointed by King's College,
Cambridge. The town is lighted with gas and the
electric light by private companies ; and water is
supplied by the Liverpool Corporation. A lending
library was established in 1854.
The history of the parish church has already been
given.
The Wesleyan Methodists and United Methodists
have each a place of worship, and the Independent
Methodists have two 'Free Gospel* churches, one
called ' Zion.'
There is a barracks of the Salvation Army.
The Congregational church was founded in 1798,
but the chapel was not built until 1 8 1 1 , from which
time there has been a regular succession of ministers.
The present church was built in 1878." There is
also a Welsh Congregational church.
The Unitarian church seems to have represented the
earliest effort of Nonconformity to gain an establish-
ment in Prescot. It was founded about 1756, by
the St. Helens congregation." It has been disused
for services for about twenty years, the Wesleyans
having it for a school.
The Roman Catholic church of Our Lady Immacu-
late and St. Joseph was erected in 1857 ; it is served
by Jesuit fathers.13
BUTTON
No variation in spelling.
This township, now included within the borough
of St. Helens, has an area of 3,752^ acres. It
partakes of the unpicturesque character of other Lan-
cashire townships where the country is flat and open,
containing manufacturing towns and coal mines.
The smoke and fumes arising from factories have
well-nigh destroyed the best trees, and even hedges
have a blackened stunted appearance, and cinder-
paths are frequent. There are, however, crops
grown in the more favoured parts of the district, con-
sisting chiefly of oats, wheat, hay, and clover. The
soil is of clay.
The greater part of the township lies upon the
coal measures. A belt of the lower molded sand-
1 See, for instance, the account of
Eccleston. William de Prescot was wit-
ness to a Lathom charter of the time of
Richard I ; Lanes. Pipe R. 353. Patrick
mainder of the term was granted to
Michael Doughty, who in the following
year transferred it to Richard Harrington.
In 1604 his widow Elizabeth complained
court rolls themselves, from about the end
of Elizabeth's reign, are preserved at the
town hall. From that of 1604 it appears
that the following were the officers elected :
Patrick de Prescot, c. 1300, is in one
charter called Patrick de Molyneux of
Prescot; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 254*,
2 Assize R. 1271, m. u d. Later in
the same year Richard de Churchlee
granted to Richard his younger son all the
land which he held of God and St. Mary
of the church of Prescot, rendering yearly
to this church a pound of incense at
Candlemas; Norris D. (B. M.). The
name Churchlee remained in use in the
seventeenth century.
•In 1568 John Layton of Prescot
Hall had a lease of the hall, coal mines,
and windmill from King's College for
fifty years, and after his death his son
Philip succeeded him. In 1600 the re-
ments ; Duchy of Lane. Pleas. 2 Jas. I,
bdle. 219.
4 Lay Subs. 250-9. The principal
house was the vicarage, with 10 hearths ;
then followed Oliver Lyme and Katherine
Stockley, 9 each ; Cuthbert Ogle, 8 ; John
Walls and William Blundell, 7 each ; and
Thomas Litherland, 6. The < Eagle and
Child ' had 5.
5 Cal. Com. for Camp, ii, 1493.
6 Eng. Cath. Non-jurors, 119, 121, 152.
John Ashton seems to have been con-
nected with the Harringtons of Huyton.
1 See Diet. Nat. Biog.
8 From the printed report of the trial.
9 Baines, Lane,, (ist ed.), iii, 705. An
abstract of the proceedings of the manor
court exists, beginning in 1509, and the
354
leather, two supervisors of the streets, two
affeerers of the court, a clerk of the market,
a coroner, and a bailiff; the jury num-
bered twelve. The business of the court
consisted chiefly of the records of changes
of tenancy, punishment of assault, &c.,
and determining in cases of debt.
10 Land. Gax. I Mar. 1867.
11 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iv, 157.
A list of the ministers is given.
la Nightingale, op. cit. iv, 1 50. There
is a plate in the chapel with an inscrip-
tion commemorating the Rev. Samuel
Park, minister there, who died in 1775.
The early registers, 1776, &c., are at
Somerset House.
18 Foley, Rec. S. J. v, 397 ; Liverpool
Catb.Ann. 1901.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
stone of the hunter series (new red sandstone)
extends across the south-eastern portion with small
areas of the permian beds intervening at Leech Hall,
Peckers Hill Lane, and Sutton Moss. From St. Anne's
Well to Thatto Heath the pebble beds of the bunter
series occur.
Sutton Hall is near the centre ; Burtonhead is on
the western side, with Ravenhead to the north,
Eltonhead to the south-west, and Micklehead in the
southern corner. Sherdley, on the borders of Bur-
tonhead, has Lea Green to the west and Marshall's
Cross to the south ; Peasley Cross is in the north-
east. The various ' heads ' denote the edges of the
higher land on the west and south of the township.
Sutton Brook crosses the township from the southern
corner to join Sankey Brook to the east of St. Helens.
Numerous roads radiate from St. Helens to the
south and south-west, and there are cross roads from
Prescot to Burtonwood and Parr. The London and
North-Western Company's lines from Liverpool to
St. Helens, and from St. Helens to Widnes, pass
through the township ; on the latter are stations at
Peasley Cross, Sutton Oak, and Clock Face. The
same company's Liverpool and Manchester line
crosses the southern part of the township, with
stations at Lea Green and St. Helens Junction.
The Local Government Act of 1858 was adopted
in 1864, the board being dissolved in 1869 on the
creation of the borough of St. Helens.
The rich coal fields of Sutton have long been
known, a ' mine of coals' being mentioned in 1556; '
and they have attracted the other manufactures for
which the district is famous. The plate-glass works
at Ravenhead were established in 1773, and on
failure in 1794 were again set going.*
Earthenware, especially in drainage pipes, is an
important trade, a peculiar clay being found here.
Watch movements were also made.
St. Anne's Well lay on the border of Rainhill ; the
PRESCOT
water had a reputation for healing diseases of the
eyes.'
SUTTON, Eccleston, and Rainhill
MANORS were probably members of the Widnes
fee in 1086,' and continued to be held
as one of the four knight's fees which constituted the
service due for this lordship. In 1212 William son
of Matthew de Daresbury held these manors.6 About
1250 William de Daresbury6 granted to Robert son
of Roger de Ireland, in free marriage with his daugh-
ter Beatrice, the homage of William called Samson in
the whole of Eccleston and Rainhill, of Robert son
of John de Sutton for three plough-lands in Sutton,
and of Matthew de Daresbury, perhaps a brother of
the grantor, for another half
plough-land there.7 Sutton
by itself being assessed at four
plough-lands, the remaining
half plough-land was probably
held in demesne.
Beatrice was her father's
heir, and her two daughters,
Margery and Maud, carried
the inheritance to their hus-
bands, Henry and Gilbert, sons
of Alan le Norreys of Formby.6
DARISBURY or DARES-
BURY. Argent, a -wolf
able.
There seems to have been a fassaat s
division, Henry and Margery
as the seniors taking Daresbury,9 whilst Gilbert and
Maud took Sutton. Very soon, however, the latter
resigned their rights in Eccleston and Rainhill to the
others.10 Sutton they retained for themselves. Maud
seems to have died early, leaving an only daughter
Margery as heir.11 Gilbert married again, holding this
manor until his death ; his sons Robert and Richard are
named.11 Margery married one John de Meols, and left
a son and heir Gilbert, who successfully asserted his
right to his grandmother's inheritance.13 He died
about 1348, leaving an only son and heir Robert,
1 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 18,
m. 38. 'Beds of cinders or coke and
potsherds have been discovered three feet
thick,' the token of ancient workings ;
Brookbank, St. Helens, 20. The Sankey
Canal was made to facilitate the export of
the coal, about 90,000 tons being sent by
it in 1771 ; Pennant, Downing to Alston
Moor, 1 8.
a Britten, Beauties (Lanes.), 227. The
first company was incorporated by Act of
Parliament
8 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 207.
The well has been filled in, nothing re-
maining but the top of the stone coping
on a level with the ploughed field. The
crosses at Peasley Cross and Marshall's
Cross seem to have disappeared entirely ;
*y.CM. Lanes, i, 285*, 298.
as sheriff, 1249 to 1254 and I264(P.R.O.
List of Sheriffs, 72) ; and as Edmund de
Lacy, who died in 1258, is mentioned,
this charter belongs to the former period.
See also Ormerod's Ches. (ed. Helsby), i,
» Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 241, n. ^.
9 Henry le Norreys was lord of Dares-
bury in 1291 ; Ormerod, loc. cit.
10 Dods. loc. cit. n. 3. The date of the
grant by Gilbert and his wife was about
" Gilbert le Norreys and his wife
Maud were defendants in a claim by
Robert de Sutton in 1275 ; De Banco
R. 9, m. cjj. Nine years later it was
Gilbert le Norreys and Margery his
daughter who were among the defendants
in a suit brought by Henry de Eltonhead ;
Assize R. 1265, m. 21 d.
sion of Sutton, Eccleston, and Rainhill in
1328, holding them by the service of one
fee and by doing suit at the court of
Widnes from month to month, was
really Gilbert de Meols ; Assize R. 424.
m. 7; Inq. p.m. 2 Edw. Ill, ». 61 (ist
Nos.), and Ormerod's Ches., i, 708,
where he is called ' Gilbert le Norreys,
junior.'
In 1329 Robert le Norreys was plaintiff
in a suit, which he did not prosecute,
against Gilbert de Meols ; Assize R. 427,
It does not appear what became
of this Robert; but Richard son of
Gilbert and his wife Agnes occur down
to 1347; De Bane. R. 274, m. 33^. ;
279, m. 66 d.; 353, m. 76 d. There is
a grant by Robert le Norreys, dated 1330,
in Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 245.
Lanes, and Ches.), 41.
« He was probably a son of William
son of Matthew. William son of William
and holding the Sutton fee of the earl of
Lincoln; Inq. and Extents, 312. In
1311 he and his partners held Sutton by
Meols as early as 1306; Final Cone.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 209. Gil-
bert, their son, in 1316 made a claim for
card in Cheshire to William the clerk, son
of Gilbert de Liscard ; Towneley MS.
OO. (penes W. Farrer), n. 1375.
7 Among the Bold D. transcribed in
Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 241, &c., xxxii,
fol. 7, &c. are a number of Sutton char-
ters and extracts from the Widnes Ct. R.
The grant by William de Daresbury is in
vol. cxlii, fol. 241*. The first witness
was Sir Robert de Lathom, ' then sheriff
of Lancashire'; Sir Robert had two terms
for sakefee, and suit to the three-weeks'
court of Widnes ; De Lacy Inq. (Chet
Soc.), 23. In 1313 he and his son Robert
were among the lords of Sutton. He
died about 1318, when his executors —
his sons Alan and Richard, and his widow
Alice — were defendants in a suit by Roger
de Wedacre, a creditor; De Bane. R.
225, m. 374</.
It seems clear, therefore, that the
' Gilbert le Norreys ' who was in posses-
Bane. R. 217, m. 2i6</. He was plain-
tiffin 1332, and in other suits down to
1347 ; ibid. R. 290, m. 83 d. ; 347, m.
23 d. ; 353, m. 231. This last is
noticeable as containing a statement of the
descent. The defendant (Richard de
Alvandley of Bold) held by demise of
Gilbert le Norreys, husband of Maud,
daughter of Robert de Ireland and grand-
mother of the plaintiff (Gilbert) by her
daughter and heir Margery.
355
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
who died soon after his father without issue, by his
wife Agnes.1 Thereupon Sutton was claimed and
recovered in 1 349 by Clemency, as daughter and
heir of Alan le Norreys, son
of Alan, the son and heir of .
Henry and Margery.'
At this time Clemency was
a minor, in the guardianship of
John Danyers or Daniell, who
married her to his son William.3
The manor continued in the
line of Daniell of Daresbury
until 1517,* when John Daniell
sold his manors of Sutton,
Eccleston, and Rainhill, to John BUI
Bold, most probably the half Juuliy able?
brother of Sir Richard Bold.5
From him they passed to his brother Tucher or
Tuger,6 who gave them in 1545 to his nephew
Richard Bold.7 With the rest of the Bold estates
they came into the possession of Sir Henry Bold
1 Extracts from the Widnes Ct. R. in
Dods. MSS. xxxii, fol. 12*, 13 ; 'Robert
son of Gilbert de Meols, who held of
the lord lands and tenements in Sutton by
knight's service, died on the Nativity of
the B. V. Mary last past [8 Sept. 1 348 or
1 349]. His lands were in the lord's hands
by reason of the minority of Clemency,
daughter and heir of Alan le Norreys,
next of kin and heir of the said Robert ;
they were worth, including the demesne
and 151. id. free rent, 751. i\d. whereof
a third had been assigned to Agnes, the
widow, as dower.'
a Ormerod, Chts. (ed. Helsby), i, 732.
' Ibid. Clemency was still a minor in
i 359 ; Kuerden MSS. iv, S. 25, 26 (from
Widnes Ct. R.) ; the lands were farmed
out to Walter Withers for £4 8j. lod.
4 See the pedigree in Ormerod, Chet. i,
734, with the documents cited, 732, 733.
Hoghton. Sutton being sold, was in 1869 pur-
chased by William Pilkington, from whom the lord-
ship of the manor has descended to Mr. William
Lee Pilkington, his son.8
The Hospitallers had land in Sutton called Cross-
gate, from which they drew a quit-rent of \zd?
The charter of William de Daresbury shows that
three of the four plough-lands of SUTTON were in
the possession of the family taking the local name.
They appear at the end of the twelfth century, when
William son of Ivo, at the prayer and with the con-
sent of Siegrith his wife and his heirs, gave to Hugh
le Norreys a plough-land in Eltonhead.10 Siegrith
afterwards gave Burtonhead, as half a plough-land, to
Gilbert de Haydock,11 and made benefactions to
Warburton." She was succeeded by her son John,
who confirmed his mother's gifts to Cockersand ;13
and his son Robert, as above stated, was in possession
about 1250." Sons of his named John, Richard, and
Robert are known,15 but though the family seems to
have retained some holding in Sutton,16 the manor is
10 Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 248* ; printed
in Cockersand Chart*!. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
597. One of the witnesses, Gilbert de
Walton, died in 1197.
11 Dods. MSS. xxxii, fol. 7. John,
constable of Chester, was the first of the
witnesses, so that the date must lie be-
tween 121 1 and 1 240; he is not described
as earl of Lincoln, so that the earlier half
of this period is probable. The original
is at Lyme ; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.),
13 Cockersand Chartul. loc, cit. The land
was called Cockshoot Head ; the boun-
daries began at the king's road towards
conditions, to Sir Rauf Denton, chaplain,
Henry Smyth, and Thomas Worsley,
' kyrk-revys of the kyrk ' of Farneworth,
the homage, royalties, chief rents, and
service of Eccleston, Rainhill, and Sutton,
and the following chief rents, viz. of John
Rauf Eccleston for his manor and tene-
ments in Eccleston and the wardship,
marriage, homage, and service of Rauf
and his heirs, as much as belonged to
six plough-lands in Eccleston; i6d. of
Richard Bower for his tenement there ;
6d. of Nick'ne Colley for his tenement
there ; 6d. of the wife of John Byrkenhed
Norres, esq. for tenements there ; a chief
rent of Perys Wetherby for tenements
there ; the homage and service of John
Eltonhead for land there : and his common
as the valley, being marked by meres and
crosses and the ditches of Simon of Cock-
shoot Head; thence the brook was followed
as far as the Colt Snape, from which
point the bounds were again marked by
supplemented by the deeds preserved in
Dodsworth and a collection of Daniell
charters in Anct. D. (P.R.O.), iii, v.
From these it appears that Clemency
was living in 1399 ; her husband died in
1406 (Lanes. Inq. p.m., Chet. Soc., i, 88) ;
same, if any, within Sutton ; Anct. D.
v, A. 12607.
'Thus in 1522 Richard Eccleston
held his manors of Eccleston and Rain-
hill of Tuger Bold ; see the account of
Eccleston.
here was held by a family named' Sef ton ;
it is described as in Burtonhead. See the
rentals ibid., iv, 1242-5.
18 Ibid, ii, 597. John de Sutton was a
plaintiff in 1246 ; Assize R. 404, m. $d.
74 Robert son of John de Sutto
Bold, died in 1434-5, leaving a son John,
Hoghton Tower; n. 88. With the
Maud his wife a messuage and 4 oxgangs
who in 1422 married Joan Hallum.
manors of Sutton, Eccleston, and Rainhill
of land and from Robert le Norreys two
Dying in 1476, having long outlived his
was granted the wardship of the heirs of
messuages and four oxgangs ; Coram Regc
son John the younger, he was succeeded
by his grandson Thomas, who married
John Ogle, Peter Williamson, Henry
Holland, George Pemberton, Thomas
R. 121, m. 53. At the same time he
charged Alan le Norreys and others with
Grace Ogle and died in 1497. See Pal.
Eccleston, John Birkhead, Richard Elton-
breaking his mill dam at Bokedene— no
of Lane. Plea R. 92, m. 8 d. for the
head, William Woodfall, William Wat-
doubt the Poghden of later documents ;
widow's claim ; also Duchy of Lane. Inq.
mough, Richard Bower, and Nicholas
ibid. m. 54.
p.m. ii, n. 76 for a petition by John the
Colley, tenants by knight's service. The
15 Robert son of John de Sutton granted
son and heir, that he might be excused
remainders were— to Richard, son of
to his son Richard a portion of his land
the relief of 1001. on the ground that
Richard Bold for life ; and to the heirs
in Sutton called ' Ferrymorall ' ; Dods.
Grace, the widow, was in possession.
male of Richard Bold, grandfather of
MSS. cxlii, fol. 199*. He had a suit
This John sold Sutton, Eccleston, and
Tuger. The manors are recorded as fol-
with Gilbert le Norreys and Maud his
Rainhill. The interests of the family
lows in the inquisition after the death
wife concerning a messuage and four ox-
were mainly in Cheshire, and there is but
of Sir Thomas Bold in 1612 : 'The
gangs in Sutton in 1275, and wa» one of
little to relate of their lordship of these
manor of Sutton and other the premises
the defendants in a claim made by Henrjr
manors, but John Daniell, probably the
in Sutton, Eccleston, and Rainhill are
de Eltonhead in 1284; De Bane. R. 9,
last to be connected with this township,
sold a parcel of land in Sutton called
'Paladin Croft' and an annual rent of
held of the king by the service of a
knight's fee'; Lanes, Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 256.
m. gd.; Assize R. 1265, m. 21 d. He
died before 1292, when inquiry was made
if Robert de Sutton, father of John, had
31. issuing out of a tenement called ' Tor-
The Bold family had lands in Sutton
been seised of messuages and lands, in-
bock House,' to Christopher Woods and
long before they acquired the manor ; for
cluding a twelfth part of the mill ; Assize
others, to the intent that they should pay
Richard Bold, who died in 1528, held
R. 408, m. 48</. ; 418 (30 Edw. I), m.
the king's bailiff of West Derby «. of
lands there of Richard Holland and
6a, &c.
free rent due from Sutton, Eccleston, and
Richard Lancaster ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
« Robert son of Gilbert de Sutton is
Rainhill, and izd. yearly for ' sakkefee .'
p.m. vi, ». 25.
named as granting of land some time be-
Anct.D.v,A. 13548.
"Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1870), ii, 249;
fore 1279; De Bane. R. 30, m. 33 d.
• Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 1, m.
and information of Mr. W. L. Pilking-
Gilbert de Sutton was defendant in a case
226; Anct.D.v, A. 12590. In 1516
ton.
in 1292 respecting common of pasture ;
John Daniell sold, subject to certain
» Kuerden, MSS. v, fol. 84.
but he may be Gilbert le Norreys ; Assize
356
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
very soon afterwards found in the possession of Richard
de Holland.1
The Hollands retained the manor down to the
eighteenth century, but very little is known of them.8
The religious changes of the sixteenth century brought
Roger Holland to the stake for his persistence in the
doctrines of the reformed church,5 but the family
remained generally constant in the profession of the
Roman Catholic faith, and had much to endure in con-
sequence.4 The Ven. Thomas Holland, a Jesuit, who
suffered as a priest at Tyburn, 12 December, 1642,
is supposed to have been of this family.5 Pedigrees
were recorded in 1567* and 1664.'
William Holland was the head of the family in
1567. His eldest son was Alexander,8 who died
PRESCOT
i April, 1588, holding the hall of Sutton of the
queen as duke of Lancaster, and land in Ditton ; his
son and heir was Richard, aged thirteen.9 Richard
Holland made a settlement of his lands in 1611 in
favour of his son William ; the latter succeeded his
father, and at his death on 24 February, 1623-4,
the inheritance passed to his son Richard, aged nearly
nine years.10
The family appears to have been deeply involved in
debt ; and after the outbreak of the Civil War
Richard Holland's estate was sequestered by the
Parliament for his recusancy and delinquency. He
died in 1649, and his wife about the same time, leaving
three young children — Edward, born in 1640,
Richard, and Anne. A creditor seized the estates,
R. 408, m. 42. Ithel de Sutton is named
in 1324 ; Assize R. 426, m. 6. In 15 12
Oliver Sutton enfeoffed William son of
have been a granddaughter Margaret,
daughter of Richard ; being then a minor,
she can scarcely have been a sister. Her
in Sutton for the benefit of his natural
der to his brother Miles; Bold D.
(Warn), F. 265.
i In the Holland pedigrees this Richard
is called the son of Robert, who is said to
have bought the manor from John de
Sutton and Margery ; he is most probably
the Richard son of Robert de Holland
who purchased land in Rainford in 1321 ;
Final Cone, ii, 44. Robert is described as
cousin of Sir Robert de Holland, being son
of Richard son of Robert de Holland.
local charter in 1305 ; Dods. MSS. cxlii,
fol. 242. His wife, probably second wife,
was the widow of David Blundell of
Little Crosby. He, in 1323, made a
settlement of lands, &c. in Sutton, in-
cluding two mills, upon his son William,
with remainders to his daughters Avina
and Joan ; Final Cone., ii, 50. Jordan
de Penketh and Margaret his wife put in
their claim. Possibly Margaret was a
sister of Richard de Holland ; all that
appears is that Robert de Holland, prob-
ably the father, had enfeoffed Richard of
a quarter of the manor of Sutton for life,
with remainder to Margaret and her issue ;
Assize R. 425, m. 4 ; 426, m. 6. As
there were six oxgangs in the quarter
claimed, the Holland manor is at once
identified with the Sutton manor of three
plough-lands.
About the same time Richard de Hol-
land was defendant in a claim by Gilbert
le Norreys and others ; Assize R. 426,
m. i d. A grant by Richard de Holland
and William his son is in Dods. loc. cit.
fol. 245*. Avina, daughter of Richard de
Holland, was a plaintiff in 1350 against
Henry and Nicholas de Tyldesley ; Assize
R. 444, m. 10.
In 1334 Jordan de Penketh and Mar-
garet his wife claimed a fourth part of the
manor of Sutton — six oxgangs of land,
ardship •
de Holland and Matthew de Rixton ; she
was eight years of age and married, and
the next heir was Roger de Holland, also
a minor. Sir Robert maintained his right
to the guardianship; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 5, m. 6 d. The holding is
described as a messuage, ten oxgangs of
land, &c.
Nothing further is heard of Margery
and Roger, but in 1357 Godith, widow of
ministered in London to the Protestants
during the Marian persecution. Though
Roger Holland's act was reported to the
authorities, he was not taken till May-
day morning, 1558. Being brought
before Bonner, the bishop and others
endeavoured * to allure him to their Baby-
lonical church.' At the third examination
the 'Lord Strange, Sir Thomas Gerard,
Master Eccleston esquire, and divers
other of worship, both of Cheshire and
Lancashire, that were Roger Holland's
kinsmen and friends,1 were present to
plead with the bishop for him, and to
de Sutton, tailor, and Agnes his wife were
charged with having disseised Thomas son
of Thomas the Smith's son of his free
tenement in Sutton. Godith asserted
that the plaintiffs grandfather had grant-
ed the disputed land to her husband and
his heirs, but seisin was recovered ; ibid,
m. 3 d.
John de Holland eventually succeeded
his father ; see Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet.
Soc.). i, 3., 35, 40. He was probably
father of John de Holland of Sutton, who
died in 1402, leaving a son and heir
Richard only two years of age, concerning
whose wardship some dispute ensued.
Ellen, widow of John, married Geoffrey
de Standish, and they occupied the manor
by the king's grant for many years ; Dep.
Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 17; Duchy
of Lane. Chan. R. 8 Hen. V, n. 82;
Towneley MS. CC. n. 126. In 1420,
however, William Daniell of Daresbury
made claim to the wardship and suc-
ceeded ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 24*.
Richard Holland is mentioned about 1435,
and Henry Holland in 1476, and these
were followed by Richard Holland, living
in the reign of Henry VIII ; ibid. fol. 240,
2406 ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 25.
8 Foxe, Acts and Monuments (ed. Catt-
ley), viii, 473. He was certainly of this
family, for ' Mr. Eccleston ' was near of
kin to him. His father, whose name is
not given, was living. The following is
steadfast, however, he was burnt at Smith-
field for heresy 27 June, 1558, he and his
companions being the last to suffer there
on that charge in Mary's reign.
< Gillow, Bibliog. Diet, of Engl. Cab. iii,
• Ibid. ; Foley, Rec. S. J. i, 542-65 ;
vii, 366. He was born in Lancashire in
1600, educated at St. Omer's and Valla-
dolid, entered the Society of Jesus in Flan-
ders, and after ordination was sent on the
English mission in 1635. He was arrested
in October, 1642, and tried and con-
demned for * taking orders by authority of
the see of Rome and returning to England,'
was charged against him. The first step
in the process of beatification was allowed
by Leo XIII in 1886.
There were other Jesuits of this family ;
Henry, uncle of Thomas, laboured in Eng-
land, chiefly in Lancashire, from 1605 till
his death in 1656; Alexander Holland,
born in 1623, was sent on the Lancashire
mission in 1653, and died in 1677; he
' translated pious books for the use of the
Catholics' ; see Foley, v, 369 ; vi, 207 ;
vii, 364, &c. 6 Chet. Soc. Ixxxi, 115.
1 Ibid. Ixxxv, 147.
8 Vitlt. of 1567, as above. Alexander
of Richard de Holland of Sutton, Godith
his wife, Agnes, widow of Richard de
Holland, and others. The jury gave a
verdict for the plaintiffs, reciting that
from John Bold in 1581 ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 43, m. 56.
9 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xv, n. 4.
Richard and his wife Anne were heavily
fined for recusancy in 1597, 1603, and
John
Robert de Holland, who had transferred
them to Richard's son Robert and to
Margaret, wife of Jordan ; Richard de
Holland's grant to his son William came
later ; Coram Rege R. 297, m. 64.
William de Holland was living in 1348,
but died in or before 1356, when his
widow Godith was defendant ; De Bane.
R. 354, m. vj, 150 d. ; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 5, m. 3 d. His heir appears to
ling Street, London, and led a reckless,
dissipated life, being moreover ' a stubborn
and obstinate Papist.' He lost some of
in his trouble by a loan from a fellow-
whose name was Elizabeth, which pro-
fessed the Gospel.' He reformed, em-
braced the new doctrines, and went down
to Lancashire to his father to teach the
same to him and borrow money to begin
business; then in 1553 he married Eliza-
beth. Their child was baptized in the
house by one Master Rose, who secretly
357
on the recusant roll of 1634 ; Gillow, as
above. Mr. Holland of Sutton (i.e. the
father) was a suspected person in 1584 ;
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 226.
10 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iii, 430. The lands of Richard
Holland, recusant, were granted to An-
thony Croston in 1623 ; Pat. 21 Jas. I,
27 July. Anne and Margaret, widows of
Richard and William, were both living.
Margaret survived her husband thirteen
years, having a house and lands called
Milehouse at Sutton ; Duchy of Lane.
Inq. p.m. xxix, n. 32.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
and a fifth of the annual value, estimated at only £27,
was all that was allowed for the maintenance of the
children.1 Edward and his wife Esther were re-
turned as recusants in 1 679,' and their son Thomas
registered his estate as a ' Papist ' in 1 7 1 7.* In 1 700,
however, the manor had been sold to Richard Bold,
and became merged in the superior lordship already
held by him.4
The grant of BURTONHEAD by Siegrith de Sut-
ton to Gilbert son of Henry de Haydock has been
mentioned.5 Towards the end of the thirteenth cen-
tury Robert, son of Gilbert de Haydock, gave to
William, son of Adam de Burtonhead, a portion of
his land in Fernylea in Burtonhead,8 but soon
the Haydocks gave place to Norrises. The grant just
named shows that there was a local family besides.7
Alan le Norreys, whose sons Henry and Gilbert
afterwards acquired by marriage the superior lordship,
was in possession as early as 1 246, when he appears
as one of the lords of Sutton, complaining of a dis-
seisin.8 He was succeeded by his son Robert about
1276, and then the name of Robert le Norreys —
there being apparently two persons successively
bearing the name, father and son — occurs for over
fifty years,9 being succeeded by Nicholas son of
Robert, who is found as plaintiff as early as 1319;'°
he died about I 349, his widow Emma appearing in
a suit in 1351." By virtue of a certain entailing
deed he was succeeded by Robert son of Nicholas le
Norreys, then a minor. This Nicholas, called ' of
Burtonhead,' lived until 1367, and then followed
Robert, born about 1335." Robert had sons Thomas
1 Royalist Comf. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iii, 240-4. Ralph Holland, of
Eccleston, probably an offshoot of the
son of Hugh le Norreys, who had given
him money in his need ; Anct. D. P.R.O.
A. 5935.
Robert son of Robert le Norreys con-
firmed to Richard son of Peter the Smith
of Sutton all the lands held at the making
of the deed, Nov. 1312; Dods. MSS.
cxlii, fol. 242*.
" De Bane. R. 225, m. 478. Nicholas
son of Robert le Norreys complained of
depasturing by Richard son of Gilbert le
Norreys. The suit may have been a
friendly one brought in the name of
Nicholas, a child, against his father's
cousin (Assize R. 418, m. 15) in order
to give notoriety to some grant to him
by the father ; De Bane. R. 225, m.
478.
Nicholas claimed the moiety of a mill
in Sutton from John de Sherdley in
1323 ; De Bane. R. 248, m. i85</. To
Nicholas le Norreys, with Emma his wife,
Robert son of Gilbert le Norreys gave in
1330 certain lands which he had had
from Gilbert de Meols for a limited
period ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 245. To
Nicholas son of Robert le Norreys 12
acres on Poghden Bank were granted by
John son of Richard Hancockson in 1352
(an erroneous date) ; and late in 1 349 he
enfeoffed Master Ranulf de Dacre, rector
of Prescot, of his mill at Poghden, with
its pool and appurtenances ; Dods. MSS.
cxlii, fol. 245 ; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 62.
" Duchy of Lane. Assize R. I, m. iiij d.
She afterwards married a 'native' and
questered for recusancy took the oath of
which Roger son of Robert of Burton-
quenter of the congregation of Ellens ' ;
Ibid. 238.
a Gillow, as above. Richard Holland's
house had five hearths in 1666; Lay Subs.
» Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non-
jurort, 122. The annual value was
given as £70. At the same time Alex-
ander Holland, of Whhton, watchmaker,
registered his estate of £19 in Sutton ;
Ibid. 121.
< Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 244, m.
85, and Pal of Lane. Docquet R. 471, 40
(recovery). Besides the manor, the pro-
perty included water-mill, windmill, dove-
cote, &c.
5 Dods. MSS. xxxii, fol. 7. The bounds,
which are minutely described, are of
interest as identifying several places now
lost. They began at Thurstanshaches on
the border of Bold and Sutton, followed
Bold acres to the Chester Gate— the road
from Sutton to Chester, which may be
identified with one now forming a portion
of the boundary between the townships
named — along this road to Holbrook
head. This shows the position of Hol-
brook in Bold. From this point the
bounds went to ' Priesteolers,' and by
Raven Svke to Ritherop Brook, which
divides Sutton from Rainhill ; along this
to Wetshaugh, thence to the Pye thorn
by Scoles in Eccleston, to Thetwall (now
Thatto), by Thatto Brook to Nutty
Brook ; along this till it falls into Pogh-
son of Alan le Norreys. The latter as-
serted that he had had it from Roger's
grandfather, Ralph, the son of Walter de
Burtonhead. De Bane. R. 14, m. 9. ; 18,
m. 2;29, m. 13, 62</.&c. In 1283 Roger
quitclaimed to Robert all his right in
Burtonhead, except a quarter of an ox-
gang held of Robert ; Dods. MSS. cxlii,
fol. 224^. For a complaint by Roger de
Burtonhead against some of his neigh-
bours, see Coram Rege R. 47, m. 28.
8 Asszie R. 404, m. 4 d. It is pos-
sible that he held Burtonhead in right
of his wife Margaret, to whom he had
been married at this time; final Cone.
i, 106. He was defendant in a claim for
dower brought by Alice de Preston in
1258-9; Cur. Reg. R. 162, m. 43 d.
The suits in the last note, in which his
son Robert was defendant, show that he
died before 1276. It should be observed
that Robert's wife was called Agnes de
Burtonhead ; De Bane. R. 248, m. \^d.
in Sutton in 1318-19, Robert le Norreys,
junior.was plaintiff, and Robert le Norreys,
senior, defendant. This may have been a
but there were others of the name living
there, as about the same time Robert le
Norreys (apparently son of Robert) made
a claim upon Robert son of Gilbert le
Norreys for a mill and land in Sutton,
which the defendant stated had come to
him from Alan le Norreys, to whom
Rtp. xxxii, App. 341.
"In 1349 Nicholas le Norreys, as
guardian of Robert and Thomas le Nor-
reys, sons of Nicholas, appeared in court
at Widnes with Thomas de Parr to take
up land to which Robert had become
heir, until he should come of age, paying
thence in a line to Bale birch in Morkel's
moss— near the present Marshall's Cross—
and thence straight to the starting point.
The grant included wards, reliefs, &c.,
De Bane. R. 230, m. 192; 231, m.
113^. Robert le Norreys, junior, was at
this time defendant in a suit brought by
John de Sherdley for the restitution of a
as admeasured ; four years later Robert
and Thomas appeared in court, and being
of full age were put in possession of their
lands ; Dods. MSS. xxxii, fol. 13.
In 1361 Nicholas le Norreys of Burton-
head received from William the Mercer
and Alice his wife a messuage and land
in Sutton. Five years later he and Alice
his wife were enfeoffed of certain lands
he had set apart, with remainders to
Agnes widow of Thomas de Parr, and
Robert and Thomas sons of Nicholas and
Alice ; with further remainders, in default
of issue, to Roger son of John de Coldale,
Gilbert le Norreys, junior, and Robert his,
brother; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 245,
245*.
In 1345 the king pardoned Hugh son
of Robert le Norreys of Burtonhead and
Robert his brother outlawries incurred for
felonies committed at Liverpool, &c., on
14 Feb. of that year; Cal. Pat. 1343-5,
P- 538-
or an eighth part of the grantor's whole
vill ; though, a little later, as stated above,
the share of the Sutton family was called
three plough-lands. This grant itself ac-
counts for the loss of half a plough-land,
for it was to be held of the chief lords of
the fee directly by the usual services, viz.
sakefee and suit to the court of Widnes.
» Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 229.
1 Richard, son of Walter de Burton-
head, early in the thirteenth century
granted 5 J acres, with Fernylea, to Cocker-
sand Abbey in free alms; Cockersand
Chartul. ii, 597. This grant, it is added,
had been made and confirmed by Siegrith
de Sutton. Robert son of Rod. de
Burtonhead granted all his land, except
the fourth part of an oxgang, to Alan,
Norreys, senior, had disseised the plaintiff',
grandfather; De Bane. R. 231,111. 103 d.
Robert le Norreys of Burtonhead was a
defendant in a claim for land in 1284;
Robert de Eccleston ; Assize R. 1265,
m. 21 d. ; Abbrev. Placit. (Rec. Com.),
322. This Robert granted to Robert son
of Robert the Mercer of Bold some land
on both sides of Poghden Brook, with the
water within the bounds ; the grant may
be dated about 1270, William de Bold
being a witness ; Towneley MS. GG.
n. 2125. Robert le Norreys— junior, on
the supposition above stated-was a plain-
tiff in 1324-5, and paid to the subsidy in
1332; Assize R. 426, m. i d. ; Exch.
Lay Suit. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 15.
358
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
and John,1 and the former leaving a daughter and
heir Margaret, Burtonhead passed to her issue by her
husband, Hugh son of Richard de Pemberton.'
William their son succeeded,3
and was followed by John
Pemberton, who died about
1501;' the latter's son James
was followed by George Pem-
berton,5 and he by his son
iames.6 His heir was another
ames, his son, who with his
son James appears to have mort-
gaged and then sold the manor,7
which shortly afterwards was
held by Henry Eccleston of
Eccleston.8 In this family and
its successors it descended 9 like
Eccleston until 1803, when it
old to Michael Hughes
HUGHES OK SHERD-
LEY. Gules, two lions
passant in pale and in
chief a rose argent} in
dexter chief a mullet for
difference.
of Sherdley, ancestor of Captain Hughes, the present
owner.10 Large portions of the lands pertaining to it
have been sold to manufacturing companies and others.
The Norrises of Speke also had land here.11 It
was at Sutton that John le Norreys of Speke im-
prisoned Margery de Bulling until she resigned her
land.1'
The grant of ELTONHEAD, as one plough-land, to
Hugh le Norreys 13 has been mentioned above. The
lordship of Eltonhead is next found after nearly two
centuries, in the possession of the Lathoms of Lathom.
PRESCOT
In 1370 it was held by Thomas, son of Robert de
Lathom, of William Daniell, by knight's service." It
descended to the earls of Derby with the other
Lathom manors, but is not
mentioned in the Derby in-
quisitions.15 The same or a
later Hugh le Norreys in the
thirteenth century granted four
oxgangs of land, or half the
vill of Eltonhead, to William
le Norreys,16 who appears to
have settled there, becoming
ancestor of the family who took
their name from the place and
ELTONHEAD. Quarterly
per Jesse indented sable
quarter three plates fesse-
ivajs.
held this mesne manor down
to the end of the seventeenth
century. The sons of William
were probably the ' Alan and
Robert, sons of William le
Norreys ' who attested the charter of William Samson
concerning Eccleston and Rainhill about 1270."
William le Norreys was still living in 1 2^.6.w
For a time Eltonhead seems to have been held in
division between the descendants or representatives of
his sons. Of the two brothers, Robert lived the
longer, dying about I3IO;19 Alan was represented by
Henry, probably his son, as early as 1 302. Robert
was succeeded by his son Alan,*0 and the latter's son
Richard, dying in his fuher's life time," was succeeded
by his son Henry before 1353."
1 At the beginning of 1376 Thomas
son of Robert le Norreys of Burtonhead,
who had married Emma daughter of John
de Eltonhead, was enfeoffed of his father's
lands, with the homage and service of the
Burtonhead; ibid. bdle. 19, m. 13. For
his paternity see Duchy of Lane. Plead-
ings, Phil, and Mary, xxxiv, P. 4, and the
account of Whiston.
^ William Sergeant appears as deforci-
Pymfields, Northall, and Wingates ; the
lands were to descend to John Eltonhead;
Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 243. By another
deed lands of this John Norris were trans-
ferred to Ellen widow of Gilbert, with
Holland of Sutton, John son of William
de Holland, Henry de Tyldesley of Ditton
and Alice his wife, John de Eltonhead,
Matthew son of Henry de Tyldesley, John
son of John de Parr, Nicholas de Bold,
Richard de Standish and Cecily his wife,
interest arose is not stated ; he seems to
have sold his interest to Edward Halsall
in 1562 ; the latter purchasing further
from John Parr and Margaret his wife
and Thurstan Barton and Anne his wife
m 1567 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet, of F. bdles.
John ; and in default to 'William son of
the aforesaid Sir Henry Norris of Speke,'
who had not been mentioned before ;
Towneley MS. GG. n. 2129. See also
ibid. (..2136,2137. In the Norris rental
of 1464 Robert Barnes's rent in Sutton
to John brother of Thomas, and to Robert
son of Alan de Parr ; Dods. MSS. cxlii,
fol. 243i.
2 In 1403 Henry de Atherton, who
had married Emma widow of Thomas le
Norreys, and John de Eltonhead bound
themselves in £100 to make no alienation
Hugh son of Richard de Pemberton and
Margaret his wife ; ibid. foL 244. The
Pembertons succeeded to part of the
Norris property in Halsnead. The will
of Hugh de Pemberton was proved on
15 Jan. 1434-5, one of the executors being
his son Richard ; Bold. D. (Warn), G. 16.
8 William son of Hugh de Pemberton
made a settlement of his lands in Burton-
head in 1437-8 ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol.
244. Ten years later he appointed
Robert Merrick his attorney to deliver
Anne seems to have been the widow of
William Sergeant ; ibid. bdle. 24, m. 260.
Part at least of Edward Halsall's pur-
chases was devoted to the endowment of the
school at Halsall; Ducatus Lane, iii, 398.
For the sales of their lands in Sutton by
James Pemberton the elder and Katherine
his wife, James Pemberton, son and heir,
and Margaret his wife, see Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 58, m. 15, 148, 211.
This was in July, 1597.
8 Burtonhead was included with Eccles-
ton in a settlement by Edward Eccleston
and Henry his son and heir in 1618 ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet, of F. bdle. 94, n. 29.
See Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. (4 Chas. 1),
xxvi, n. 21 ; the manor of Burtonhead was
held of Richard Bold, by knight's service.
9 Pal. of Lane. Feet, of F. bdle. 132,
n. 37 (1637), Thomas Eccleston and Jane
6s. %d. ; Ellen wife of Gilbert Norris held
in jointure the Pymfields, the rent of
which was 261. %d. ; Norris D. (B.M.).
i" See the account of Huyton.
"One Hugh le Norreys was of Haigh
and Blackrod, and another of Formby.
"Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. ii, n. 7.
How it came to him is unknown. It is
not mentioned in the inquest taken after
his father's death in 1324-5; Whalley
Confer (Chet. Soc.), ii, 552.
14 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 279-
16 Dods. MSS. cxlii. fol. 248*. Hugh le
Norreys was a benefactor to Cockersand,
granting six acres near Harestone in free
alms; William son of Uvieth released
his interest in the land to the canons so
that Alan son of Hugh might be en-
feoffed ; Cockersand Cbartul. (Chet. Soc.),
Wigan, and elsewhere to Richard Pem-
berton ; ibid.
•> Duchy Pleadings ( Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, ,4.
4 George Pemberton of Halsnead in
1551 granted his younger son John a
messuage in Burtonhead for life ; Dods. loc.
cit., fol. 244*. See Pal. of Lane. Feet of
F. bdle. 1 5, n. 84, for a settlement of the
manor of Burtonhead and lands in Sutton,
Bedford, and Whiston.
6 James Pemberton in 1558 made a
settlement of his manors of Halsnead and
bdles. 218, m. 35 and 237, m. 31! An
indenture of 1749 enrolled at Preston
recites the settlement made by Thomas
Eccleston concerning the manor of Eccles-
ton and Burtonhead in 1725 ; Piccope MSS.
(Chet. Lib.), iii, 356, from the 23rd R. of
i« Ex inform. Mr. H. R. Hughes of
" John Norris, chaplain, brother and heir
of Gilbert son of Henry Norris of Sutton,
made a grant of land, in Sutton called
359
Peter de Burnhull in conjunction with
Scholes in Eccleston ; ibid.
i^Dods. loc. cit. fol. 241.
l8 Assize R. 404, m. 4 d.
19 Robert de Eltonhead was a witness to
charters from about 1270 to 1305 ; Dods.
MSS. cxlii, fol. 241, &c.
20 See the suits quoted later.
"In 1 317-18 Cecily, widow of Richard
de Eltonhead, sued his father Alan, son of
Robert de Eltonhead, for her dower ; De
Bane. R. 220, m. 332 d.
M See later note.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Henry de Eltonhead in 1332 contributed to the
subsidy.1 In 1337 Alan, son of Henry, put in a
claim to the manors of Haigh and Blackrod.* The
next of this, the senior branch, to appear is John de
Eltonhead, grandson of Henry, who was in posses-
sion for about fifty years. One of his earliest acts
was the recovery of the share of the manor held by
Henry, son of Alan de Eltonhead, by which he
became sole lord of the manor.3 From this time for
more than a quarter of a century there are only
fragmentary notices of the family.4 From 1500
onwards, however, a fairly complete account can be
compiled from the inquisitions post mortem 4 and the
pedigrees recorded at the visitations.6
The family would appear to have conformed, after
a brief resistance,7 to the religious changes of Queen
Elizabeth, but Richard Eltonhead the elder took arms
for the king in the Civil War, and had to compound
for his estates.8 In 1676 Richard Eltonhead and
Richard his son conveyed to Thomas Roughley the
hall of Eltonhead and the lands belonging to it ; 9
and the sale was completed in 1684.'° From Thomas
it passed to his sons Henry and Percival, and then to
their creditors, being purchased in 1712 by Isaac
Greene," from whom it has descended, through the
Gascoynes, to the Marquess of Salisbury, the present
possessor.1*
Early in the thirteenth century, WOODFALL in
Burtonhead was granted to the canons of Cockersand
by Siegrith de Button and Richard de Burtonhead ;
Emma wife of Simon son of Roger de Rainhill, with
the assent of her husband, resigned all her right
in it."
The family called after this estate, of which there
are few particulars, began with an Adam son of
William Blundell,14 whose two sons William and
Richard had some disputes concerning their in-
heritance.15 The Woodfalls continued here until the
lExcb. Lay. Subs. 16. Henry and
Robert de Eltonhead are named among
the lords of Sutton in 1302, and Henry
and Alan in 1313; Assize R. 418, m.
1 5 ; 424, m. 7. Six years later Henry
was claiming lands in Sutton from Alan,
and a year later was demanding the
guardianship of Alan's son and heir from
Ellen the widow and others, alleging that
Alan had held of him by knight's service ;
De Bane. R. 233, m. 20 d. ; 236, m. 204.
Henry, the son and heir of Alan, was a
minor in 1321 ; De Bane. R. 238, m.
139. Robert de Langley and Cecily his
wife called upon Henry son of Adam
( ? Alan) son of Robert de Eltonhead in
above-named Nicholas, died in Oct. 1526.
The capital messuage called Eltonhead,
with windmills, lands, &c., was held of
the earl of Derby by knight's service and
grandson Richard, son of John's son John,
aged 24 ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi,
his eldest son, Henry, who in Jan. 1695,
conveyed it to Philip Foley and others
appointed by the Land Bank, and four
years later granted his equity of redemp-
tion to his brother Percival Roughley.
1705 Eltonhead was the subject
Thomas Eltonhead, the estate is called •>
manor ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes
and Che,.), i, 277.
with Elizabeth, daughter of Johannah
Warner, but the creditors appear to have
taken possession in 1710, Isaac Greene
p. 115; of 1664, p. 103 (Chet. Soc.).
From these it appears that the Richard
Eltonhead in possession in 1530 left sev-
children, including Richard, the heir,
in consideration of certain payments to
Thomas, Henry, and Richard Roughley,
Susannah and Joshua Palmer, and other
creditors, made by Isaac Greene, he
Eltonhead ; De Bane. R. 344, m. 475 d.
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 46, m. 138 ; and
afterwards included in the fine concerning
* Final Cone, ii, 106-7.
Wills, Chet. Soc. New Ser. i, 209), but
Childwall, West Derby, and other manors
3 The pedigree in the Vitit. of 11567
died without issue about 1589 ; William,
purchased from the Ashburnhams ; Pal.
(p. n 9), which appears fairly trust-
who succeeded his brother and was in
of Lane. Plea R. 500, m. 9.
worthy, makes John's father to have been
possession in 1600 (Misc. Rec. Soc. Lanes.
12 See the account of Childwall.
Thomas son of Henry.
and Ches. i, 240), but died shortly after-
l» Cockersand Chartul. ii, 598. The
There were cross-suits in 1353 between
wards ; and Thomas, who succeeded
boundaries recorded met in the mill
the two branches of the family. Henry
before June, 1602, as appears by the
Prescot Ct. R. of that year, and died in
brook and the road to W indie. John
Woodfall paid a rent of 6d. to the abbey
either John's father or his uncle ; on the
mentioned ; also Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
Thomas in 1537; ibid. 1241, 1249,
other hand John claimed land from Henry,
bdle. 64, n. ii. William Bower about
1251.
on the ground that the title was derived
1569 gave to Richard Eltonhead certain
" It was a William Blundell who en-
from Robert de Eltonhead, who had un-
lands in Eccleston, with remainders to his
feoffed Alan son of Hugh le Norreys of
justly disseised John's grandfather Henry
brothers Thomas and William ; Kuerden
an estate in Formby ; De Bane. R. 238,
of it; Assize R. 435, m. 10, 13, 26, 30 rf.
MSS. ii, fol. 270, n. 41.
m. 191.
As the disseisin is said to have taken place
There were several suits in which
In 1 246 Adam son of William Blundell
in the reign of Edw. Ill, the Robert de
Richard Eltonhead, Jane his widow,
was charged with having disseised the
Eltonhead concerned cannot have been
William and Thomas Eltonhead were
other lords of Sutton of the common of
Alan's father Robert.
concerned ; Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.),
pasture belonging to their free tenement
In the Lathom inquisition quoted above
i, 272 ; iii, 494, &c.
there ; he acknowledged his fault. It is
(ii, n. 7) it is stated that John de Elton-
The estate passed to Thomas's nephew
noticeable that two of these lords — Alan
head held the lands and tenements (not
manor) called Eltonhead by knight's
Richard, son of William, born about 1582,
and living in 1664, at which time his son
and William le Norreys, of Burtonhead
and Eltonhead respectively— were his
service, and by rendering yearly one pair
Richard was 53 years of age, and his
sureties ; Assize R. 404, m. 4</.
of gloves.
grandson Richard 21.
is Richard de Woodfall and William hi»
John de Eltonhead the elder was living
7 Richard Eltonhead, of Sutton, Alice
brother were among the lords or free-
in 1413; Towneley MS. GG. n. 2819.
his wife, and William his brother were
holders of Sutton in 1 302 ; Assize R. 41 8,
In 1417-18 a settlement was made by
frequenters of the secret services at Bold
m. 15. In 1315- 1 6 William de Woodfall
John de Eltonhead and Maud his wife ;
Hall in 1582; Gibson, Lydiate Hall,
claimed from Richard three-quarters of
perhaps there were two Johns in succes-
221, 226 (quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. cliii,
an oxgang in Sutton, of which the plain-
sion ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 5,
n. 62 ; clxxv, «. no).
tiffs father, Adam Blundell of the Wood-
m. 29.
8 Royalist Comf. P. ii, 279. Richard
fall, had enfeoffed defendant. The latter
'"William de Eltonhead and William
Eltonhead had the principal house in
alleged a charter which William denied
his son were in 1446 accused of waylaying
Sutton in 1666 ; Lay Subs. 250-9.
to be genuine ; De Bane. R. 212, m.
Randle de Standish at Eccleston with
» This account of the descent of Elton-
262 d, 283 d. See also Assize R. 425,
intent to kill him ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R.
head is from a paper at Hatfield (682-10)
m. i.
9, m. 15. William son of William was
drawn up apparently by Isaac Greene.
William de Woodfall's wife was Chris-
living in 1458 ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol.
10 By fine, 17 Aug. 1684; Richard
tiana, daughter and coheir of Richard de
243. Nicholas Eltonhead was a juror
Eltonhead and Anne his wife, and Rich-
Loughfield of Rainford ; De Bane. R.
at the Widnes court in 1476 ; ibid. fol.
ard son and heir-apparent, to Thomas
209, m. 114. From fines in 1321 it
240.
Roughley.
appears that the moiety of an oxgang and
5 John Eltonhead, who, according to
11 On 2 Feb. 1694, Thomas Roughley
lands in Sutton were settled by William
the printed pedigree, was a son of the
transferred it, with certain exceptions, to
and Christiana upon Roger, William's
360
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
sixteenth century,1 when they appear to have sold
their estates, being succeeded by Livesey of Ravenhead
and Watmough of Micklehead.2
John de Northale in Sutton was plaintiff in 1276
with the lords of Rainhill in a suit respecting the
boundaries ; 3 the family are mentioned from time to
time in various pleas ; thus Gilbert son of Henry de
Northale occurs in 1 292,* Alice, widow of Henry son
of Simon de Northale, in 1 317,* and Hugh de
Northale in 1305 and 1332." By this time, how-
ever, the main branch appears to have settled at
SHERDLET and assumed a new surname from it,
for in 1319 John de Sherdley, in a claim to lands in
Sutton, traced his descent thus : he was son and heir
of Robert, who was son and heir of Henry de
Northale.7 In 1303 John de Sherdley was reckoned
among the lords or freeholders of Sutton.8 The
family appear to have held their lands down to the
sixteenth century, when they also gave place to
others.9
Captain Michael Hughes, the present owner ot
Sherdley Hall, is a great-grandson of Michael Hughes,
whose first wife was Mary, daughter and heir of the
Rev. William Johnson, a former owner.10
Some ancient deeds as to Blackley are preserved at
Warrington.11
Among the families who held lands in Sutton were
those of Gerard, Parr, Atherton, Sale, and Standish.11
The leasehold estate of Robert Cowley was seques-
tered by the Commonwealth authorities.13 Besides
the Hollands the following ' Papists ' registered estates
in Sutton in 1717 :— Henry Foster; Catherine
.on; Final Cone, ii, 44, 45- Five
years later Alina daughter of Roger de
Woodfall complained of the waste made
by William and Christiana, viz. by over-
throwing and selling a grange, worth £10;
and cutting down and selling six apple
trees, each valued at 6d., to her disherison ;
De Bane. R. 261, m. 70 d. ; and see
are from Gillow, Biiliog. Diet, of Engl.
Cath. iv, 284.
>> Assize R. 405, m. i.
4 Assize R. 408, m. 60.
'DeBanc. R. 223, m. 49 </. 59.
6 Thomas so.i of Hugh de Northale
was defendant in a claim to a messuage
and lands in Sutton made by Roger son
sons of the grantor's son John by his wife
Agnes, with remainder to William, brother
of Adam ; the capital lords were Henry de
Eltonhead and John de Sherdley, to whom
i+J. and U. respectively were to be paid
for all services ; Bold D. (Warr.), G. 14,
G. 9. Henry de Eltonhead, in 1291,
gave land in the same place to Roger
In 1 329 Robert de Woodfall, apparently
the son of William, complained that
Adam de Barrow had trespassed on his
land, seized his cattle, and done other
435, m. 23 ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 3,
7 De Bane. R. 231, m. 103 </.
Some Sherdleys occur earlier than this.
to Parr, one head abutting on Blackley
and the other on Peasley ; Richard de
Eltonh ad was a witness ; ibid. F. 195.
12 Henry son of Henry de Parr occurs
lawful distraint for arrears of a rent-
a messuage and oxgang of land from
The Halsalls of Parr are mentioned in a suit
Woodfall, who at that time had a mes-
suage and plough-land in Sutton ; De
Bane. R. 278, m. 6 d.
1 John Woodfall occurs in 1444 ; Pal.
of Lane. Plea R. 6, m. 17.
R. 21, m. 61.
John son of John de Sherdley was non-
suited in his suit against Gilbert de
Northale in 1292 ; Assize R. 408, m. 60.
In 1294 he had a suit against the Norreys
suit Adam de Leatherbarrow (Lodirbareve)
was also a defendant. Adam son of Adam
de Leatherbarrow, in 1319, granted lands
to John de Holbrook in the East Wood,
abutting on the boundary of Bold and to-
others v. William Woodfall ; 24 (1562),
m. 27— George Livesey v. John Woodfall
Richard de Holland and William his son
acknowledged that they owed John de
to Henry son of Robert de Parr in 1373 ;
ibid. 0.41.
Lawrence Livesey and others -a. John
Woodfall; 58 (1597), m. 373— Francis
Watmough -v. John Woodfall and Margery
his wife.
of land ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 246.
9 Richard de Sherdley had an interest in
Lowfieldin 1361 ; Dods. loc. cit. fol. 245*.
Thomas son of Ralph de Sherdley received
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 27-31. In
1538 Edward Atherton of Sutton quit-
claimed to his son and heir John land
called the Little Hey, the inheritance of
John Eltonhead in 1526; see Inq. p.m.
G. 2. Thomas Sherdley was a plaintiff
and heirs of Thomas Lawrield ; shortly
paying double to the subsidv, held land in
1628 ; Norris Papers (B.M.) ; Richard
Henry Sherdley was a juror at the Widnes
court in 1476 ; Dods. loc cit. fol. 240. In
to Dame Margery Bold ; Dods. MSS. cxlii,
fol. 243.
liamentary authorities in 1652; Index of
Royalists (Index Soc.), 44 ; Cat. Com. far
Comp. iv, 3,72. Lawrence Watmough',
house in 1666 had five hearths; Lav
Subs. Lanes. 250-9.
TheLiveseys of Ravenhead also adhered
to the Roman Catholic religion. Some
particulars as to their estate are given in
Royalist Con,p. P. iv, .03-109. From
these it appears that George Livesey, a lieu-
tenant in the royal forces, was killed in a
held his lands in Sutton of the heirs of
Richard Sherdley ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
In 1543 Richard Bold purchased lands
in Sutton from William and Ralph Sherd-
ley ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 12,
m. 72; 24, m. 192. William Sherdley
of Ware and John Sherdley of Stoke
Nayland released their interest to Richard
Bold in 1561 ; Bold D. (Warr.), G. 46,
F. 237.
Alice his wife, inherited through his
mother, as appears by a fine of 1438 ; she
had an elder son, Matthew de Hulton ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 8, «. 91-2.
Oliver Sale was one of the jurors of the
Widnes court in 1476 ; Dods. op. cit., fol.
240. In 1505-6 John Sale of Burtonhead
made a feoffment of his lands in Sutton
and Bedford ; Joan Sale of Burtonhead
had, four years before, been married to
Henry Serjeant. From Abstracts of Dods.
and heir was left a minor, and the estates
the Byroms of Byrom before 1560;
In the time of Edw. VI, Edmund Ley
rncy ' ; nothing is said of religion,
pedigree was recorded in 1666; Dug-
dale's Visit. 189.
The estate of Ravenhead afterwards
passed to Lawrence's daughter Mary,
who married Richard Blackburne of
Stockenbridge, and then to her daughter
Ellen, wife of William Hathornthwaite,
by whose daughter and heir it was con-
veyed in marriage to Richard Leckonby of
Great Eccleston. The latter's grand-
daughter and heiress, Mary, in 1799
married T. H. Helc-Phiprs, of Leighton
House, Wiltshire, bv whom the Raven-
head estate was sold. These particulars
3
Thomas Roughley of Sutton, yeoman,
held it of Henry Byrom at his death in
1613. He desired that it should be sold
to Richard Roughley for £440, payable
in the south porch of Prescot church;
£100 of this money was to be applied to
the free school about to be erected at
St. Helens. His brother Robert was his
next heir. Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 279.
10 Burke, Landed Gentry. Captain
Hughes is not descended from Mary John-
son (*./>.), but from a second wife.
11 Henry son of Malin de Hale granted
land in Blackley Carr to Adam, one of the
36l
and heirs of Thurstan Standish of Sutton,
complained that George Pemberton of
Whiston and others had disseised her of
certain lands which were her share of her
father's property ; her sisters were Jane
Ley, Agnes Bennet, Olive Potter, and
Elizabeth Standish ; Duchy of Lane. Plead-
ings, Edw. VI, xxxii, L. 2.
The freeholders named in 1600 were :
Thomas Gerard, Henry Mileson or Pear-
son, Thomas Fox, John Leigh, Francis
Watmough of Micklehead, and William
Eltonhead ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 238, &c.
18 Royalist Camp. P. ii, 83.
46
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Hawarden, widow, daughter of Bryan Lea ; Ralph
Howard, tanner ; John Longworth, whose wife
Margery was a daughter of William Holland ; and
Thurstan Scott.1
The largest contributors to the land tax ot 1787
were Mrs. Bold and Bamber Gascoyne, together pay-
ing a fourth of the whole, Philip Afflack, and the
Ravenhead Copper Co.
A dispute concerning a plot called Bold's Acre and
Windyates in Sutton, between Richard Bold and
Peter Stanley of Bickerstaffe, has some points of
interest. Stanley claimed in right of his wife, heir
to the Athertons of Bickerstaffe. The plot was
owned half by one party and half by the other, ' a
great byland or sparth ' being the mere between the
two portions. William Watmough, aged seventy,
deposed that the lane called Chester Lane, leading
from Sutton to Chester, was at the east end of Bold's
Acre, and that Ritherope brook was at the west end
of it. There had formerly been a marl pit on the
Bold share. Richard Dyke had dwelt with John
Bold, the former occupier of Gifforth House, to which
Windyates was appurtenant, and when he was sent to
plough ' he was warned not to hurt the balk, as it
was a mere between two lords' lands."
In connexion with the Established Church, the
following places of worship have been erected in re-
cent times : — St. Nicholas's Church was built by
King's College, Cambridge, and a parish formed in
1848, the patronage being vested in the college.* A
chapel of ease, All Saints', was erected in 1893.
St. John the Evangelist's, Ravenhead, was built in
1870* ; the patron is the vicar of St. Helens.
The Wesleyan Methodists have a church in Sutton,
and the United Methodists one at Marshall's Cross.
The Congregational church at Peasley Cross was
begun in 1864-5 ; in 1869 it was associated with
the St. Helens congregation, and the two have since
been worked together.6
The Salvation Army has barracks.
It is possible that in the severest periods of the per-
secution of the Roman Catholic Church 6 mass was said
at times in the houses of the Hollands and others ; but
the earliest distinct notice is that of a chapel at Raven-
head Hall, in 1716.' A mission was begun at Peasley
Cross in 1862, St. Joseph's Church being built in
1878. The Passionists have a house at Sutton called
St. Anne's Retreat. In 1 849, John Smith, a native
of the place who became a successful railway con-
tractor, built a church here, and added land for a
monastery, which he gave to Fr. Dominic, who intro-
duced this order into England. The church was
opened in 1853, one of the sermons being preached
by Fr. Ignatius Spencer.8
ECCLESTON
Eccleston, 1280; Eccliston, 1285.
Eccleston is situated between two extremes, the
green woods of Knowsley Park on the west, and the
smoke-laden environs of St. Helens on the east.
The country is of an undulating nature and princi-
pally dedicated to agriculture, fields of rich and fertile
soil being predominant. The crops raised are
chiefly potatoes, oats, and wheat on a clayey soil
which alternates with peat. Eccleston village lies in
a hollow, and an adjacent colliery shows that farming
is not the only source of revenue of the inhabitants.
The geological formation consists mainly of the mid-
dle coal measures with a small area of the gannister
beds on the western side in Knowsley Park ; whilst
the lower mottled sandstone and the pebble beds of
the bunter series (new red sandstone) occur between
Eccleston Hall and Hanging Bridge on the south,
Thatto Heath and Eccleston Four Lane Ends on the
west.
This township has now been partially absorbed
into the borough of St. Helens. Originally it con-
tained 3,569 acres ; at present only 2,632.° The
hall stands near the centre of the old township, with
Gillar's Green on the west, Glest in the north-west
corner, and Scholes in the south-east. Thatto Heath,
on the eastern boundary, extends into Sutton.
The principal road, along which runs the electric
tramway, goes from Prescot, north-east, to St. Helens.
Close to it, just outside Prescot, at a level of 260 ft.,
is a reservoir or balancing station on the Vyrnwy-
Liverpool pipe line, and further on is the old school-
house. One road branches off to the north, passing
through Gillar's Green and Eccleston village to
Windle ; and another to the east, by Portico to
Thatto Heath, into Sutton. The county lunatic
asylum, though named from Rainhill, is in this
township, to the south side of the road last men-
tioned. The London and North Western Com-
pany's line from Liverpool to St. Helens crosses the
southern corner of the township, with two stations
called Eccleston Park and Thatto Heath.
The population of the reduced township was 3,429
in 1901.
The parish council consists of eight members, four
being chosen by each of the wards — Portico and
Gillars' Green.
The colliery is at Gillar's Green, and there are
several old shafts and quarries within the township.
There is a brewery at Portico, and a pottery near
Prescot, while glass, watchmakers' tools, and mineral
waters are also manufactured.
Copper-smelting was established at Green Bank,
close to St. Helens, about 1770, the ore coming
from Anglesey;10 but these works were closed in 1815,
being succeeded by others in the neighbourhood.
Cotton factories also were established, but had to be
discontinued in 1840 owing to the fumes of the
chemical works."
A cross used to stand in the old schoolyard."
The schoolhouse has the date 1634 *b°ve tne door.
The late Richard John Seddon, premier of New
Zealand, was born there in 1845 ; he was the son
of Thomas Seddon and Jane Lindsay.13
1 Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non-
juror,, 97. See Piccope MSS.iii, 346, 386.
* Duchy of Lane. Depos. Phil, and
Mary, Ixxvii, B. I. Hugh Holt was pre-
«cnt when John Bold took Gifforth House,
paying down 4</. « in name of a God's
penny.' The depositions were taken at
Winwick in April, 1556.
8 Land. Gaz. 17 Aug. 1848.
'Ibid. 1 9 Aug. 1870.
5 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iv, 142.
6 Thirty names appear on the recusant
roll in 1626, as fined in Button; Lay
Subs. 131/318-
' Gillow, op. cit. iv, 284.
8 Liverpool Cath. Almanac, 1901. Fathers
Dominic and Spencer are buried in one of
the chapels.
9 2,632, including 58 of inland water ;
Census Rep. of 1901. A small portion
362
was taken into Prescot in 1894, and
another portion into St. Helens in 1898.
10 Pennant, Tour to Alston Moor, 18.
11 Brockbank, St. Helen,, 25.
" Lanes, and Cbts. Antij. Soc. xix, 208.
There is a small disused burial ground
here, and according to tradition there was
formerly a chapel ; see the account of the
charities.
« N. and Q. (loth Ser.), v, 470.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
A legend of the Spectre Bridegroom type is con-
nected with Gillar's Green.1
A playhouse is said to have been built on Eccleston
waste about I 590.*
Mywnnc Under Button, as already shown, EC-
K CLESTON and Rainhill were held as half a
knight's fee.3 The immediate tenant took his surname
from the former township, but in the thirteenth century
there was a mesne lord between him and the Daresbury
family, in the person of William, ' called Samson," who
surrendered his rights to the Norrises.*
The first of the local family whose name occurs
was Hugh de Eccleston, a benefactor of Cockersand
PRESCOT
Abbey.5 His sons, Richard de Eccleston and Alan
his brother, were witnesses to an early charter con-
cerning Hale.6 Richard was succeeded, after 1 246,'
by his son Robert de Eccleston, who died between
1276 and 1280, leaving a widow, Amery, to survive
him many years.8 Robert had several children ; a the
eldest son, Alan, predeceased him, and Robert son of
Alan succeeded his grandfather.10 He in turn was
followed by his son Alan, who held the manor for
many years, and dying in 1349 was succeeded by his
' cousin ' and heir John de Eccleston, the son of
Alan's brother Henry." Then there came in succes-
sion Henry and two Johns." Ralph Eccleston, son of
i Pal. Note Book, i, 7.
a A writer in the Liverpool Daily Post,
referring apparently to some Farington
» In 1 3 1 1 it is called ' one knight's
fee ' ; the rent was 31. 6d. for sake fee,
and suit was done to Widnes court ; De
Lacy Inquest (Chet. Soc.), p. 23. The ten
plough-lands in this fee were unequally
divided ; thus Sutton, with four, was
called half a fee ; and Rainhill, with two,
had its exact share, one-fifth ; Eccleston
having the remainder.
4 William called Samson by his charter
quitclaimed to Alan le Norreys (of Sutton),
and after his death to Henry and Gilbert
his sons and their wives, Margery and
Maud, daughters of Robert de Ireland and
Beatrice his wife, the homage of Robert
de Eccleston for six plough-lands, namely
two in Rainhill, and four in Eccleston, and
the 31. a year Robert had been accus-
tomed to pay the grantor ; Dods. MSS.
cxlii, fol. 241. Samson is also found as
a surname in Wallasey, another manor
held of the constable of Chester ; Ormerod,
Chts. (ed. Helsby), ii, 472.
The bounds of Eccleston in 1384 are
thus described in a deed in the Prescot
town chest : ' Beginning at the Well-
syke, which is the division between
Churchley and Eccleston, following a cer-
tain water called the Shaw brook by the
division of Whiston and Rainhill to the
Akenford in the highway called Chester-
gate between Eccleston, Sutton, and Rain-
hill, where it ceaseth to be calleth Shaw
brook and beginneth to be called Ritherope
brook j and so following the Chester gate
between Wheashaw and Sutton to the
Brown hedge, and so leading the said way
between Scholes and Sutton to the Frogley
head, and following the Frogley to Shot-
well brook, and following Shotwell brook
to the Notcr brook, and from Noter
brook, by the divisions of Windle to the
Longborough, and so from Longborough
to the head of Cattshaw green, and so by
a line to the Whitlow carrs, and from
Knowsley and the land of Roger Prescott
in Eccleston, and following the said ditch
to Deishurst lane, and so from Deishurst
lane between the division of ... and
Knowsley to the bounds of Prescot, and
so leading between the Healley moss and
Prescot, by the Liverpool gate to the
Wellsyke, which is the first division.'
* Cockersand Chartul. (Chct. Soc.), ii,
600. There were two grants, the second
being for the souls of his predecessors.
Nicholas and Adam, sons of Nicholas, with
Hugh's permission, also became benefactors.
8 Hale D. printed in Final Cane. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 139.
' In this year Richard de Eccleston was
a defendant ; Assize R. 404, m. n.
8 In 1276 Robert de Eccleston was
405, m. i, 2. At the same time Richard
de Wulcrofthead accused him and others
of razing his dike, so that their cattle
entered and destroyed his corn. The de-
fendants alleged that he wished to improve
to himself a part of the common pasture
of the vill of Wolfscroft; whereupon
Robert de Eccleston caused the dike
The jury acquitted the defendants ; ibid.
The «vill of Wolfscroft' is now un-
known; but in 1292 William eon of
Beatrice de Glest and others of the family
were charged with disseising Richard de
Wolcroftshead of his common pasture in
Eccleston, and plaintiff recovered ; Assize
R. 408, m. 69. Thomas son of Richard de
Wolcroftshead was defendant in 1324;
Assize R. 426, m. 3 d.
Robert de Eccleston is described as son
of Richard and calls Hugh his grandfather
in a grant of land formerly held by
Walter, ' famulus sororis de Polleswrthe ' ;
the boundaries included a portion of the
Kirkgate of Parr ; Cockersand Chartul. ii,
602.
In 1280, Amery, widow of Robert,
claimed her dower in certain lands held
by Peter de Windle ; De Bane. R. 32,
m. 20 rf. In 1292 Robert de Eccleston
complained that whereas she held 6 mes-
suages, 4 oxgangs of land, 4 acres of wood,
and the third part of 20 acres of wood in
Eccleston, she felled 20 oaks, worth ±d.
each, destroyed 1 2 orchards worth 21.,
2 granges worth iooj., and a chamber
worth 401. The sheriff made inquiry,
when it was found that defendant had
made no waste, but that part of a decayed
served. By one he granted his brother
Stephen land in Eccleston, the bounds of
which began at the Milnewards Garth and
proceeded along the divisions between
various riddings, for a rent of \zd. ;
Towneley MS. GG. n. 2091. By another,
Henry son of William dc Grimsditch
received an addition to his holding : Add.
MS 32107, „. 370.
Robert died between 1306 (De Bane.
R. 161, m. 365 d.) and Sept. ^15, when
his widow Isabel gave to Roger de Pres-
cot, clerk, and his wife and children land
near the house of Henry Halshagh and
below Lystanhurst Field ; Add. MS.
32107, n. 371.
11 Alan de Eccleston and his wife Alice
are frequently mentioned from 1324 on-
wards ; Assize R. 426, m. 2 d. 3 d. 5 ;
Final Cane, ii, 85, 123 — this last being a
settlement of the manor made in 1 747.
About the same time he was relieved
from service on assizes, Sec. ; Assize R.
1435, m. i6</.
At the Widnes court in 1349, Alan de
Eccleston having died seised of the manors
of Eccleston and Rainhill, held by knight's
service of Clemency, daughter of Alan le
Norreys of Daresbury, John de Eccleston
as cousin and heir came into court and
did fealty to the lord, Clemency being
half a knight's fee, and 35. a year at
Martinmas for all services ; he paid 501.
for his relief; Dods. MSS. xxxii, fol. 12*.
The relationship of John and Alan ii
established by Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 6,
m. I d.
John de Eccleston occurs from I35o
by her, the amount of damage being 31. ;
67d. -)id. 93</.
9 Richard, Alice, and Cecily arc men-
tioned. The latter died in or before 1285,
when her brother Richard unsuccessfully
laid claim to 10 acres she had held in
Eccleston, and into which Robert de
1271, m. ii d. Alice received from her
father land called Coldfield ; in this
Amery claimed dower, but was satisfied
by Robert's allowing her an equal amount
of his own land ; Assize R. 408, m. 16.
Alice seems to have had a daughter Joan,
who was dispossessed of her mother's lands
by Alan de Eccleston and others about
1324 ; Assize R. 426, m. z</.
10 Assize R. 1271, m. II d. where it is
stated that Robert entered after the death
of his grandfather Robert. He is fre-
quently called son of Alan ; e.g. Assize R.
408, m. 52</. In 1305 he arranged for
the succession to the manor, granting it
to his son Alan, with remainder to
a younger son Henry ; Final Cone, i,
ods.
MSS. cxlii, fol. 200 ; Def. Keeper's Kef.
xxxii, App. 334, 352.
An extent and rental of his estates
made in 1373 are preserved at Scarisbrick.
The former gives a number of field names,
as Standeley, Fetherbyley, Maiot Hey,
Dearbought, 'a certain hey called the
Park, which contains six acres,' Black-
and two water-mills, which, with the tur-
bary, brought in £12 a year. John de
Eccleston also held lands in Newton,
called Perpount Field and the Held. His
demesne lands and rents in Eccleston and
Newton were worth £68 6s. -$d. a year :
and he had also in Makerfield, as dower
of his wife, £40 1 31. 4</.
« In 1381-2, Robert son of John dc
Eccleston rendered to W.lliam Daniell of
Daresbury a formal recognition of the
latter's right to his wardship and marriage
on his father's death ; Dods. MSS. cxlii,
fol. 242*. It does not appear that Robert
succeeded, but a Robert de Eccleston was
a juror in 1385 ; Lanes, hq. p.m. (Chet.
Soc.), i, 1 8. He had also letters of pro-
tection in this year on his going into
Portugal ; Visit, of 1533 (Chet. Soc.),
363
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
John, was in possession in 1483, and died on 1 1 June,
1522."
From this time it is possible to give a more com-
plete account of the descent.* Ralph's grandson John
succeeded, being followed by his son Thomas,3 whose
son Henry greatly increased the family estates, though
some of his acquisitions were afterwards sold.4
Edward, his son, succeeded,5 and in 1618 Henry
Eccleston was described as ' son and heir apparent,'
and soon afterwards inherited the manors of Eccleston
and Burtonhead.6 He died in April, 1628, leaving
two young sons, Edward 7 and Thomas ; the former
died within four years, leaving a son Henry, who
died in 1631, when the estates went to the above-
named Thomas, then nineteen years of age.8
Thomas Eccleston ' took an active part in defence
of the king's cause at the outbreak of the Civil War,
and suffered imprisonment. He was slain at War-
rington in 1646.'° His estates were sequestered by
the Parliament, but his two sons Henry and Thomas,
then aged nine and three years respectively, were in
some way secured alike from loss of faith and property."
221 (quoting Rymer's FoeJ. ed. 1740, III,
ii, 176.
manor in 1483, according to the Duchy
Feodary; Duchy of Lane. Misc. cxxx.
messuages, &c., four windmills, two
water-mills, 1,000 acres of land, &c., in
among the witnesses to a Glest charter
in 1388 ; Towneley MS. GG. n. 2098.
In 1395 he obtained a licence for his
oratory in the parish of Prescot ; Lich.
Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 132*. In April, 1405,
nominated by Sir Richard Bold ; Dods.
MSS. cxlii, fol. 208, n. 105-6. One of his
rentals, made about i 520, but dated I449,
is preserved at Scarisbrick ; the demesne
lands produced £75 41. 6d.
Rainford, Liverpool, Ditton, Childwall,
and Lathom ; free rents ; also certain
services of ploughing, shearing, delving
and leading of turves and filling and lead-
ing of dung ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m.
and William Daniel!, junior, granted to
Sir Thomas Gerard wardship of the lands
and heir of Henry de Eccleston, until the
heir should come of age ; 40 marks was
paid for this grant ; Dods. MSS. cxlii,
fol. 242.
This heir was probably the John de
Eccleston who is mentioned in the reigns
(Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 46) gives
many particulars of interest. His father,
John Eccleston, in 1466 made provision
for Ralph's marriage with Agnes, daughter
of William Leyland, by granting them
messuages and lands in Eccleston and
Newton. His manors were Eccleston
and Rainhill, extending to 6 plough-lands,
many particulars of his acquisitions. In
1590 he was described as 'of fair living,'
and in ' some degree of conformity ' to
the queen's ecclesiastical laws, though ' in
general note of evil affection in religion ' ;
he was afterwards a justice of the peace.
His wife Margery was a known recusant
and indicted thereof, and so was Mary,
in 1416, is said to have held part of Rain-
hill from the heir of Henry de Eccleston,
and land in Eccleston from John de
Eccleston ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i,
123. John was a juror at the Widnes
Lowton and Newton held of Thomas
Langton by a rent of 351.; lands in Ken-
yon held of Thurstan Holland, and in
Culcheth of Lord FitzWalter. His son
Henry having died before him, his heir
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 244, 247 (quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4) ; Kenyan
MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 583.
' He was thirty-five years old at his
father's death. He was one of the ' obsti-
nate ' persons who could not be found by
charters in 1441 and 1453 ; Dods. MSS.
cxlii, fol. 240, 204, 246 John de Eccles-
ton married Agnes, one of the daughters
and coheirs of Matthew de Kenyon (who
died in 1419), and by her had lands in
Kenyon, Culcheth, &c. Agnes his widow
His will is given in full. It provided
for the marriage of his grandson and
heir John with Katherine, daughter of
Sir Henry Halsall. He desired to be
buried in Prescot church before St. Mary's
he was specially assessed £20 as a recu-
sant ' for her Majesty's service in Ireland ' ;
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 261-2 (quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxiii, and vol. cclxvi,
n. 80). In 1599 he was reported by the
bishop of Chester to the queen's ministers
with remainder to his brother John ;
Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxxviii, 538 ;
Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
ii, 99.
A rental of the second John, lord of
Eccleston, compiled about 1476, is pre-
served at Scarisbrick. It comprises both
Eccleston and Held. It shows that the
whole expenses of the burial were not to
exceed £6 1 35. 4</. To the parish priest
of Prescot was to be paid lid. a year, to
pray every Sunday for the souls of John
Eccleston and Agnes his wife, John Eccles-
ton and Ellen his wife, Henry Eccleston
and Ellen his wife— these being apparently
his grandparents, parents, and son and
shire ; Foley, Rec. S. J. i, 641 (quoting S.P.
Dom. Eliz. cclxxiv, ». 25). His possessions
were leased by the crown to Charles Grim-
ston ; Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 344. Rentals of
1609 and 1612 are preserved at Scaris-
brick.
• Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 94, m.
king, for sake and ward, 45. 4</. ; to
Thomas Daniell, for rent of Eccleston,
51. id. ; to the abbot of Cockersand, for
the Cockersand butts, 1 2</. ; to the king,
for the fines of the Halmotesof Eccleston,
2J.; to the baron of Newton, for land in
the Held, — . It also gives the services
of the free tenants : for every tenement
upon which a cart and plough can be
kept, one day's work at ploughing the
lord's land ; two days with a cart, viz. one
day carting the manure from the dung-
heap and one day carting fuel from the
turf-ground ; two days' reaping in autumn
and one cutting turf. These were the
double or greater averages. For a smaller
tenement, one day's work at digging turf,
two days' reaping, one day filling the carts
with manure ; these were the simple or
minor 'averages.' Attendance at court
and halmote was required. The rights
of pasture and turbary were not prescrip-
tive, but by agreement between tenant
and lord. The 2s. paid to the king was
for the liberty of appointing their own
officers and being excused from attendance
at the Farnworth court ; Beamont, Haltan
Rec. 20.
1 Ralph de Eccleston was lord of the
Eccleston. Ralph's son Henry was living
in I<;o6 ; Towneley MS. CC. n. 836.
2 It is taken in the first place from the
pedigrees recorded in 1567 and 1664 —
yisit. (Chet. Soc.), 1567, p. 97, and 1664,
p. 101 ; and from other sources as given
below.
8 Besides Thomas there was a younger
son Henry, who with his wife Grace
settled certain lands in Parr and Lathom
upon their son Thomas, with remainder to
Henry's brother Thomas, and a further re-
mainder to the heirs male of his grand-
father Henry ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 14, m. 145. A Thomas Eccleston
holding lands in Parr and Lathom died in
1632-3, leaving as his heir a grandson
Henry (son of Henry), then aged twenty-
one ; Towneley MS. C. 8, 13 (Chet. Lib.),
399-
A settlement of certain property was
made in August, 1556, by Thomas Eccles-
ton and Margery his wife ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 17, m. 114. Thomas
died before 1565, when Henry Eccleston
and Margery his wife were in possession ;
ibid. bdle. 27, m. 156.
4 He died in 1598, holding the manor
of Eccleston of Richard Bold, with 100
proved in 1623.
^ Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvi, n. 21.
In this Henry is stated to have died on
10 April, 1628, the heir being his son
Edward, aged eighteen years. Henry
Eccleston and his wife appeared regularly
in the recusant rolls ; Gillow, Bibliog.
Dia.ofEngl. Cat/,, ii, 154.
Edward Eccleston's will was proved at
Chester in 1631.
8 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvii, n. 45.
Mary Ward, widow of Edward, father of
the Henry of 1 63 1, was living at Eccleston,
as was Anne Hickman, widow of Henry
the great-grandfather.
9 Thomas Eccleston and Jane his wife
were in possession in 1637, when a settle-
ment of the estates was made ; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 132, n. 37.
m Gillow, as above; Visit, of 1664
(Chet. Soc.), 101.
" Cal. Com. far Camp., i, 506 ; 'In
the cases of Eccleston and Ireland it
was pretended to us that the children
were under the tuition of Col. Ireland,
which appears by what you write to be a
deceit. We have written to Col. Ireland
to take the children into his custody and
see them placed with godly persons, to be
364
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
de-Ik sable.
cbiefajleur
Henry Eccleston, on coming of age, married
Eleanor, daughter of Robert Blundell of Ince Blundell.
Their son and heir Thomas, educated at St. Omer's
and at Rome, when only a few
years of age succeeded to the
estates, and remaining loyal to
James II took service in Ire-
land in 1688, receiving a cap-
tain's commission. Afterwards
in a duel he killed his antago-
nist, which so affected him
that he relinquished a secular
career, became a Jesuit, and so
ministered, chiefly in England,
for about forty years, dying
at the end of 1743. He
was the last of his family,
and reserving £300 a year
from the estates for the use of the Society of Jesus
he entailed them on his second cousin, John Gor-
such of Scarisbrick, with remainder to Basil Thomas
Scarisbrick, a cousin by his mother. Hitchmough,
a priest who turned informer, told the Govern-
ment of the arrangement as to the £300, and the
estates were confiscated as being devoted to 'super-
stitious uses.' ' John Gorsuch was, however, able to
obtain possession, and assumed the name of Eccleston ;
at his death without issue in 1742 the estates passed to
Basil Thomas Scarisbrick, who also took Eccleston as a
surname.' On the death of his brother Joseph with-
out issue he became heir to the Scarisbrick estate, but
resided at Eccleston till his death in May, 1789.
His son, Thomas Eccleston Scarisbrick, succeeded
almost simultaneously to the combined estates of
Scarisbrick and Eccleston, but resided at the former,
offering the latter for sale in I795-3 It was, how-
PRESCOT
ever, his son Thomas who disposed of it in 1812 to
Samuel Taylor of Moston.4 From the latter the
lordship of the manor descended to his son Samuel
Taylor of Windermere, who died in 1881, being
succeeded by his grandson (son of his son Samuel),
Mr. Samuel Taylor, of Birkdault in Haverthwaite.6
The heir in 1892 sold the
manor and estate to Sir Gil-
bert Greenall, of Walton near
Warrington, whose son and
heir, Sir Gilbert Greenall, bart.,
is the present lord of the
manor. No manor courts have
been held for about sixty
years.8
In 1835 a lease of mining
rights in Thatto Heath for
twenty-one years was granted TON ur 0
by the crown to Samuel Taylor.7 buly, plain
Robert de Beauchamp granted three bugle-t
10 acres of his demesne in °f'>>'j>"t.
SCHOLES to the canons of
Cockersand. In 1268 the tenants under the abbey
were Peter de Burnhull and Roger de Molyneux.8
Scholes was towards the end of the thirteenth cen-
tury held, with Eccleston, by Robert de Eccleston,
who granted it to Richard de Molyneux, son of the
above-named Roger, and Beatrice his wife.9 Their
eldest son Thomas had a daughter and heir Agnes,
who married Henry de Atherton, and she and her
husband afterwards claimed Scholes and other
properties ; 10 during life, however, it was held by
Sir John de Molyneux, a younger son of Richard
and Beatrice.11 Afterwards it was held by Ralph de
Standish, whose descendants retained it until the
seventeenth century.12 In 1630 Oliver Lyme was
may have the rents of their estates to
provide for their expenses.' Also iii,
2038.
Notes, ii, 242-50. The advertisement of
sale describes the property as * the manor
or lordship or reputed manor or lordship
starting point. Forty shillings a year was
to be paid for all service,.
Richard de Molyneux made a complaint
of disseisin in ,30,; Assize R. , 32,, m. 8.
became a Jesuit in 1668, and was sent
&c., mines of coal, beds of valuable potter's
m. 5. It is here called the 'manor' of
Gillow as above; Foley, Rec. S.J. vii, 220.
1 Gillow, op. cit. 155 ; Foley, loc. cit.
Fr. Eccleston was the author of a treatise
on The Way to Happiness, published in
1726. A settlement of the estates,
described as the manor and park of Eccles-
ton, lands in Burtonhead, &c., was made
early in 1686, the deforciants being
Thomas Eccleston, esq, and Thomas
Eccleston, gentleman, the latter, no
head, &c. in 1777 ; Com. Pleas Recov. R.
Trin. 17 Geo. Ill, m. 60,70, 129 d.
" Baines, Lana. (ed. 1836), iii, 709.
5 Burke, Landed Gentry ; Taylor of
Birkdault.
6 Ex inform. Mr. Samuel Taylor.
1 Duchy of Lane. Returns (blue book),
.858, p. 6.
8 Cockersand Cbartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
599. Roger de Beauchamp was lord of
original grant. About 1 344 the 401. rent
had fallen into arrears; and Alan de
Eccleston distrained, and a rescue was
made by Sir John de Molyneux and his
men, the damages being assessed by the
jury at £6 ; Assize R. 1435, m. 36^.
" The manor of Scholes in the vill of
Eccleston was included by Sir John in a
grant of his lands made in 1349 ; Blun-
dell of Crosby evidences, K. 258 (original
Feet of F. bdle. 218, m. 35. Ten years
later a further arrangement was made ;
ibid. bdle. 237, m. 31.
As * Thomas Eccleston, of Eccleston-
juxta-Knowsley, esquire,' he registered
hit estate in 1717 as of the value of
£^i 51. io</. ; it was subject to annui-
of £100 to his mother Eleonora, to
whom the hall was let for £60, and of £4
to his sister Anne. His mother's annuity
was also registered ; Engl. Cath. Non-jurors,
117. His petition on the forfeiture
brought about by Hitchmough's dis-
closures is printed, with illustrative mat-
ter, in Payne's Rec. of Engl. Cath. 149-
151.
land about 1200-30; his heirs were his
sisters Alice and Amabel, living in 1240 ;
Reg. ofWethcrhal (Cumb. and Westmld.
Arch. Soc.), 256,281. His connexion
with this part of Lancashire is illustrated
by a grant of land in StafTol, possibly
made by him, to Alan le Norreys of
Sutton ; Final Cone, i, 1 06.
' Dods. MSS. xxxii, fol. 7. The bounds
are fully described. Beginning at the
corner of Richard's field in Bold they ex-
tended to a butt by the land of Richard
de Wolfcroftshead, followed a ditch to the
boundary of Rainhill, went along this
boundary to the Chestergate — not the
same road to Chester as that mentioned
" The reason of Standish's succession
°Ini36o'j'o'hn'de Lancaster of Rainhill, as
heir of a daughter of Richard de Molyneux,
claimed a messuage, five oxgangs of land,
&c. in Eccleston [i.e. Scholes] , from Ralph
de Standish ; but the case was deferred be-
cause Ralph was then serving the king in
Aquitaine in the retinue of the Black
Prince, and had the usual protection ; De
Bane. R. 422, m. 371 <A Ralph de
Standish was holding Scholes in 1373,
paying the 401. rent ; and Henry Standish
about 1520, according to the rentals, but
the last name is erased. The Cockersand
rentals show that Ralph Standish was
1749 recites the settlement made by
Thomas Eccleston in 1725; Piccope
MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 356 (from R. of
23 Geo. II at Preston).
leading from Sutton to Prescot church,
the limit coincided with the Chestergate
as far as the corner of the field of Scholes,
and followed the edge of this field to the
365
1451 and 1461, and Henry Standish in
1501 ; Cockersand Chartul. iv, 1248-9.
The inquisition taken after the death
of George Standish gives many particular!
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the possessor.1 About the end of the century it was
owned by John Hurst ' and occupied by the Har-
ringtons of Huyton, Charles Harrington dying here
in 1720 ;s later it descended to a family named
Cobham, and in 1785 belonged to the heirs of John
Williamson.4 It was purchased about 1850 by
Bartholomew Bretherton from the trustees of the
marriage settlement of General Isaac Gascoyne ; and
is now owned by Mr. F. A. Stapleton-Bretherton of
Rainhill.'
From GLEST one or more families took a surname,
but though some deeds have been preserved by
Towneley it is not possible to compile a continuous
history from them and such other notices of the place
Adam de Glest in 1276 brought a suit against
Robert de Eccleston, which was terminated by the
plaintiffs death.6 The succession was probably :
Richard — Robert — William, who was the principal
member of the family about 1370-80, appearing in
the Eccleston rent roll of 1373, as a charterer paying
a rent of 1 8^.' From this the succession seems to be :
Richard — Henry — William to Thomas, about the
beginning of the sixteenth century.8 A James
Glest appears in the Eccleston rent roll of this time.
Humphrey and Ellis Glest follow.9 This last was
succeeded by his son James ; after which there
seem to have been others of the name down to the
early part of the eighteenth century.10
Other local surnames occur, as Stonyhurst " and
of the family history and holdings. The
above Henry Standish had a son and heir
have been set up by Richard, lord Moly-
neux, the Jesuit.
"A
John, who in 1523 settled lands in
Upholland and Orrell upon Elizabeth,
« N. Blundell's Diary, 138, 1 6 1.
« Land Tax Ret. at Preston.
the s
thoug
daughter of James Manley, on her mar-
4 Ex inform. Mr. Stapleton - Brether-
riage with his son and heir George. The
ton.
of Al;
latter in 1547 enfeoffed Richard Bower
« Assize R. 405, m. I.
descei
of the Scholes and other lands. George's
7 Richard son of Adam de Glest had a
whon
son and heir William, described as of
grant from Robert de Eccleston at the
Robei
Conington in Huntingdonshire, gentleman,
beginning of 1303 ; Towneley MS. GG.
n. 20:
was long before his father's death hanged
(Add. MS. 32107), n. 2082. In 1318
In
at Tur Langton in Leicestershire for
Richard dc Glest granted his son Robert
Hum
whicl
thirteen, was the heir of his grandfather,
Robert de Prescot broug'ht a complaint
had j
who died 29 June, 1552. His will, dated
in 1 346 against Robert and William de
Glest
the day of his death, left the Scholes to
Glest, Richard le Bower and others, con
Agne:
his son John for life. The tenure was by
knight's service, viz. by two parts of a
cerning digging in his turbary ; De
Bane. R. 347, m. i e,d. Thirty years later
allege
fee in five parts divided, and a rent
John son of William son of Roger de
S.
of 405. ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. ix,
Glest quitclaimed all rights in certain
(plain
n. 3.
tenements acquired by William son of
m. 9
William Standish appears to have sold
Robert from William son of Richard son
9 \
or mortgaged part of his lands in 1561-8 ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdles. 23, m. 126,
of Roger dc Glest; GG. n. 2122, 2098.
In 1381 it appears from the poll tax
of Ki
132 ; 24, m. 229 ; 30, m. 87. To the
rolls that William and John Glest paid
son I
last of these his wife Margery was a party.
in Eccleston. Besides William de Glest
a son
He died in 1602, seised of the capital
the Eccleston rent-roll of 1373 mentions
thouc
messuage called Scholes, with the lands
'the heirs of John Glest.'
hciri
appertaining to it and other property in
The deeds in Towneley in the main
Inq.
Eccleston. John, the eldest son, suc-
do not fit in well with the above
ceeded, being nearly forty years of age ;
outline. They start with a certain Wil-
ter at
Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
liam de Rainford who had sons Richard
ford;
Ches.), i, 46. A change had taken place
and Roger ; ibid. B. 2086, 2084, 2121.
35?-
id. rent, Henry Eccleston having parted
1311 agreed with Robert de Fauroke-
tweei
with the old 40*. rent and the homage
shagh (Forshaw) that his daughter Emma
t'on"
heir is probably the 'John Standish, gent.
another Adam, son of Hugh, living about
the same time ; ibid. n. 2107, and Assize
claim
10 a.
of Eccleston,' buried at Prescot 22 Mar.
R. 420, m. 9.) William de Glest, son of
11 .
1612. A William Standish was a free-
Roger the clerk of Prescot occurs in 1328,
for dt
holder in the township in 1628; Norris
and William son of Reginald de Glest
Stonj
D. (B.M.).
earlier ; GG. n. 2108, 2088. Adam son
Henr
1 Oliver Lyme, who died in 1631, held
of Roger de Glest in 1317 resigned to
m. 5
the hall of Scholes of Thomas Eccleston ;
Thomas de Shaldford all his claim in lands
Rich!
his son and heir was William, aged twenty-
granted to Thomas by Roger ; among the
Henr
three years, and his son William is men-
witnesses were Roger, clerk of Prescot,
sister
tioned in Oliver's will ; Duchy of Lane.
and Richard his brother ; GG. n. 384.
de G
Inq. p.m. xxvii, n. 50.
« John Hurst had two daughters and
In Dec. 1313, William de Glest
gave to Agnes, daughter of Thomas
tenen
failed
coheirs — Anne, who married James Bret-
Moody, and her issue, houses and lands in
eldest
targh of the Holt and died in 1762, and
Eccleston, naming the Wheatcroft and
held
Catherine Cobham, a widow in 1750 ;
Denecroft, and barnstead ; also the garden
terfr
see the account of Little Woolton. The
which Robert, son of John de Rainford
Assiz
latter or her heirs would be the vendors.
held of the grantor ; with housebote, hey-
W
Over a bedroom fireplace in the house
bote, and other easements. There was a
in cla
1 i68l 1
remainder to her brother Thomas. Bold
Robe
are the initials I H B. probably refer-
D. at Warr. F. 72.
outla'
1 A 1
Among the various pleas are some
161,
ring to the Hursts. A curious knocker
which may assist in tracing the history of
de Si
and a mediaeval lock may be seen in the
the place. In 1292 William son of
years
house, and there is a very good staircase.
Beatrice de Glest, and Beatrice and Emma
i%7d
Th
teenth-century shrine, in the form of a
Richard de Wolfcroftshead of common
stone pillar carrying a rectangular niche
of pasture in Eccleston ; Assize R. 408,
Henr
for a figure, but now empty ; it is said to
n. 69.
from
About 1410 a settlement of his lands
ade by Richard de Glest, apparently
in of William son of Robert ; for
i his eldest son was Thomas, who
married Agnes, daughter of Richard, son
de Parr, the estate appears to have
ed to a younger son Henry, to
the feoffees of William son of
Robert gave up his lands in 1424 ; GG.
. 2081, 2114, 2089, 2090.
1525 Thomas Glest claimed from
phrey Glest ten acres in Eccleston,
which Henry son of Walter dc Ridgate
Robert son of Richard de
marriage with his daughter
following was the pedigree
lleged— Richard de Glest— s. Robert, who
ied Agnes— s. William — s. Richard
Henry— s. William— s. Thomas
(plaintiff) ; Pal. of Lane. Plea. R. 141,
gd.
Humphrey Glest of Glest in 1528
ried Agnes, daughter of Ellis Gorsuch
Lnowsley, and it was probably their
Ellis Glest who died in I 592, leaving
land heir Jamesaged 40 years in 1601;
igh in a deed of 1578 his son and
was named John ; Duchy of Lane.
p. m. xviii, n. 19, 38 ; GG. n. 2095,
I, &c. James Glest married a daugh-
and coheir of James Cropper of Rain-
ford ; Dueatut Lane. (Rec. Com), iii,
In 1607 and later disputes occurred be-
tween Edward Eccleston and James Glest
ices due to the lord of Eccles-
; the latter seems to have justified his
claim ; Pal. of Lane. Plea. R. 299, m.
d. ; 304, m. 17.
" Amery de Eccleston brought suits
dower against William and Roger de
Stonyhurst in 1292; William's brother
try is also mentioned ; Assize R. 408,
55</. 53, loid. Twelve years later
lard Fox complained that John son of
iry de Stonyhurst and Agnes his
:r, Roger the clerk of Glest and Roger
de Glest had disseised him of his free
Eccleston ; but his suit
failed as he had not included Thomas, the
of the last named Roger, who
held jointly with his father under a char-
John, son of Henry de Wolfall ;
.419, m. 6d.
m de Stonyhurst was defendant
laims made about the same time by
Robert de Eccleston, who failed and was
tlawed ; De Bane. R. 153, m. 104 ; and
61, m. 365 d. Henry son of William
:onyhurst occurs in 1345 and later
; De Bane. R. 344, m. 4O</. ; 457, m.
The principal property seems to have
bout 1344 into the hands of
Henry de Ditton, perhaps by purchase
Cecily de Bury; Final Cone, ii,
366
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Knapton.1 The Prescot family is often mentioned.'
A list of freeholders in 1600 contains the name of
Edward Eccleston, Robert Prescot, Richard Rigby,
Ralph Ashton, James Glest ; and in Scholes, Wil-
liam Standish, William Banks, Hugh and William
Langshaw.3
Under the Commonwealth three estates were seques-
tered, chiefly for recusancy.4 In 1 666 sixteen houses
had three hearths and more.4 The following ' Papists'
estates' were registered in 1717, in addition to those
of the Eccleston family : John Standish, William Wil-
cock, John Taylor, James Williamson, George Wilcock,
Robert Mabbon of Wooton Wawen, and William
In 1785 the principal contributors to the land tax
were Basil Thomas Eccleston, owning nearly a fourth
of the township, and the heirs of John Williamson for
Scholes.
A school was founded here in 1597.
For the members of the Establishment, Christ
Church, Eccleston, was consecrated in 1838 ; it is in
the gift of the lord of the manor. St. Thomas's,
PRESCOT
St. Helens, was consecrated in 1839 ;7 and St. Mark's,
opened in 1885, had a district assigned to it in 1887.
These churches are in the gift of trustees.
There is a Wesleyan chapel in the rural part of
Eccleston,8 and another at Thatto Heath. At the
latter place there are a Free Gospel meeting-house and
a Salvation Army citadel.
The adherents of the Roman Church 9 were able
to worship at Eccleston Hall until about 1790,
when the Scarisbricks returned to their family seat.
After this, Mrs. Eccleston of Cowley Hill built a church
at Lowe House, St. Helens.10 A second mission was
established at Scholes, where Fr. John Bresby alias
Brown, S.J., was stationed in 1716." Nicholas Sewall,
formerly of Eccleston Hall, built a church close by,
which from the colonnade at the entrance has been
named Portico. This was opened in 1 790, but re-
placed by the present church of Our Lady, Help of
Christians, in 1857. The mission is still served by
Jesuit fathers." In 1895 a school-chapel, St. Augus-
tine's, was opened at Thatto Heath ;13 it is in charge
of a secular priest.
I2i. Henry de Ditton in 1347 sued
Alan de Eccleston and Alice his wife
regarding waste ; De Bane. R. 358, m.
64^. Henry occurs in later suits, and in
1373 his heirs were holding Stonyhurst
for a rent of 21. ; Eccleston rental
(Scarisbrick Hall). A suit in which
Henry de Ditton was defendant was in
1358 brought by Adam de Bury and
Cecily his wife concerning houses and
land in Eccleston which Cecily should
have received as heir of her nephew John
son of William del Hurst, who had died
without issue ; Assize R. 438, m. 15.
1 William de Knapton in 1292, in reply
to a demand by Amery de Eccleston,
asserted that his charter, given by her
husband, had been burnt in a fire at
Knapton which had consumed his houses
and all his goods ; Assize R. 408, m. 16,
102; also m. <)id. <)<)d. John son of
William de Knapton in 1324-5 claimed
certain lands as his by descent, but with-
drew ; Assize R. 426, m. 2 d. 5. Richard
son of William occurs about the same
time; De Bane. R. 258, m. 163.
3 In 1339 Robert de Prescot secured a
sixth part of the ' manor ' of Glest from
Mariota, wife of William del Hull of
Bickerstaffe ; Final Cone, ii, no ; see also
pp. 104-5. Robert and his wife Isabel
in 1346 called upon Sir Edmund de
Nevill to warrant to them certain houses
claimed by Richard de Stockley ; De Bane.
R. 348, m. 235</. ; 349, m. 243. In
1350 Robert charged Adam de Glest and
Robert his son with the abduction of
William son and heir of Richard son of
Roger de Glest ; De Bane. R. 363, m.
79d.
In the following year Edmund de
Prescot (son of Robert) sued Adam son of
Roger de Glest and Robert his brother for
depasturing and treading down his corn
at Glest; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. I,
m. iij; seeR.4, m. 14; 5, m. 7. The
same Edmund was party to a fine concern-
ing lands in Eccleston in 1355 (Final
Cone, ii, 147), and appears in the Eccles-
ton rental of 1373 as holding 'divers
lands ' for a total rent of 21. 2j</. He
was ordered to be imprisoned for debt in
1374, but could not be found; among
other tenements he had a hall, kitchen,
and oxhouse at Eccleston ; De Bane. R.
454, m. 141 d.
The rental of the time of Hen. VIII
•hows Edward Prescot tenant of a mes-
suage, rent 6d. ; that of 1609 has Henry
Prescot, paying 6J. also.
8 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
238, &c. The name of Edward Eccles-
ton has pp. against it.
The earl of Derby was a freeholder also.
From the Eccleston rental of the time of
Edw. IV (about 1480) it appears that
Thomas Lord Stanley's interest was
derived from purchases of land which had
been held by James dc Prescot, at a rent
of 2s. oj</. (cf. Edmund de Prescot's rent
above quoted) ; by Agnes de Stonyhurst
at 6J. ; and by Eustace the Mercer. Fur-
ther purchases brought up the rental pay-
able by Thomas earl of Derby about i 520
to 33. j\d. and by William earl of Derby
in 1609 to 45. Part of their holding was
in Glest, as is shown by the inquisitions
thought that his estate must have been
sequestered by mistake ; ibid, iii, 238.
• Lay Subs. 250-9 ; the hall had fifteen
hearths, and was the largest house in the
parish, except Bold. Thomas Alcock's
house had nine ; James Glest' s, George
Cockerham's, and George Lyon's, five
each.
« Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 117-19, 155.
John Taylor is described as ' gentleman ' ;
he had brothers, Thomas and Edmund,
and a mother, Anne ; 118.
? It had a chapel of ease called St. Paul's,
built in 1881.
8 Dr. Adam Clarke wrote part of his
Commentary at Millbrook.
8 The conduct of the Eccleston tamily
has been told in the text. In 1626
twenty-four other names appear on the
of Henry Coney of Ditton (1598) and
John Parr of Glest, who had bought Coney's
lands ; Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), ii, 182.
Besides those already named the rental
of 1609 gives the following paying chief
rents: Robert Torbock, id.; Thomas
and George Lyon, 21. ; William Webster
31.; John Parr, 1 8</. ; and Thomis
Glover, 6d. The Parrs occur early;
Assize R. 1435, m. 3 1 d. Henry de
Woodfall held land by charter in 1373,
according to the Eccleston rental, paying
6d. ; but the family seem to have sold
their lands in the time of Elizabeth ; Pal.
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 24, m. 236 (a
sale to Thomas Torbock) ; 35, m. 74.
Edward Halsall, who died in 1594, had
built a residence here, which he desired to
be preserved in good order, with its heir-
looms ; Piccope, Wills (Chet. Soc.), ii,
2 1 6. Henry Lyon and Ellen his wife had
a messuage and land in Eccleston which
descended to their son and heir Robert,
and then as follows: — s. George — s. Henry
— s. William Lyon, claimant in 1570;
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 227, m. 1 1.
4 Ellen Hankinson, widow, had had
two-thirds of her estate sequestered for re-
cusancy only ; Royalist Comp. P. iii, 1 50.
Possibly she belonged to Eccleston .n the
Fylde. Henry Harwood of Eccleston, who
tioned for the restoration of his deceased
father's lands, sequestered for both the
offences mentioned ; ibid, iii, 173. Ralph
Holland, of Eccleston, who had taken the
oath of abjuration and was 'a constant
frequenter' of the ' congregation of Ellen's,'
367
recusant roll for this township, headed
by ' Edward Standish, gent.' ; Lay Subs.
138/318.
1" The mission was served at the hall by
Jesuit fathers, of whom John Swinbourn is
named in 1701, as receiving a stipend of
£36 from Thomas Eccleston, and George
Palmer in 1750, receiving £21, and
having a congregation of forty or fifty.
Foley, Ric. S.J. v, 321, 397-9. An
interesting memorandum is printed here
to the effect that a silver chalice used at
Eccleston Hall was a gift to the family, to
be kept there ' until that happy time that
catholic religion is restored and mass said
in Prescot church,' when it was to be
given to this church.
11 Gillow, Bibliog. Diet, of Engl. Catb. iii,
42 (quoting P.R.O. Forfeited Estates,
46 P).
In 1728 the house was rented by
Fr. William (afterwards viscount) Moly-
neux, S.J. ; it was his only mission, and
he resided here till his death in 1759. In
1750, a year of jubilee, he had 300 atten-
dants.
The first work known to have been
printed at Prescot was a Sermon for the
General Fast of 1779, 'preached to the
congregation at Scholes ' by T. W. ; Local
Gleanings Lanes, and Cbes. ii, 229. The
author was Thomas Weldon (or Hunter),
who died at Scholes in 1786 ; Foley, op.
cit. vii, 826.
u Foley, l.s.e. In 1796 the Benedictines
of Dieulouard took refuge here, but soon
removed ; finally they settled at Ample-
forth ; Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiii,
167. 18 Liverpool Catb. Ann. 1901.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
RAINHILL
Reynhull, 1256; Raynhull, 1285.
This township has an area of 1,639$ acres.1 It
occupies the southern slope of the hill from which
apparently it has taken a name ; roughly speaking
the ridge of the hill forms the boundary against
Eccleston on the north. The portion next to Sutton
is called Ritherope. The open country is occupied
by pastures and arable fields where crops of barley,
wheat, potatoes and turnips are cultivated. Plan-
tations dotted about give the landscape a park-like
appearance.
The principal road, from Prescot to Warrington,
passes through the township south-eastwardly ; at the
north-western boundary is the Holt ; farther on,
where the road crosses the London and North-
Western Company's line from Liverpool to Man-
chester, is the station, where in recent times a
considerable village has grown up. Formerly there
was only a house or two, and the place was called
the Cross, or Kendrick's Cross. Then the modern
hall is passed on the left, and the original village
reached, now reduced to a few houses ; close by are
the Stoops. At this point, near which is the old
' manor house,' a more southerly road from Prescot
joins it, having passed the old ' hall ' at a point known
as Blundell's Hill, more than 250 feet above sea level.
The view from this point is very fine, embracing an
extensive panorama of the immediate country, right
away over the River Mersey to the hills and plains
of Cheshire, to which, farther still, the undulating line
of the Welsh mountains forms an imposing back-
ground. On the north this township is bounded by
a colliery district, and consequently the country
becomes less pleasing in character. The greater part
of the township lies upon the pebble beds of the
Bunter series (new red sandstone), but small areas
of the lower mottled sandstone of the same series
occur on the western side of Cronton Lane and half a
mile to the north-west of Rainhill Stoops.
The population in 1901 numbered 2,208.
There is a parish council of eight members.
A quarry is worked. The place has long been
celebrated for the manufacture of files ; other tools
and parts of watches are also made, and there is a
brass foundry.
Kendrick's Cross, in the village, is a small stone
pillar fixed in an ancient pedestal ; Blundell's Hill
Cross also stands on an ancient pedestal.1
From what has been recorded ot
MANORS Sutton and Eccleston it will be known
that RAINHILL, assessed at two plough-
lands, was held by the lord of Eccleston of the lord
of Sutton, the latter holding of the Constable of
Chester as of his barony of Widnes.3 The Eccleston
family, however, early created a subordinate manor of
Rainhill, of which the first undertenant appears to
have been Roger de Rainhill, father of Simon and
Waldeve, who were enfeoffed by John de Lacy, con-
stable of Chester, between 1220 and 1232, of four
oxgangs of land in Rainhill, which had been their
father's, to hold by knight's service, where ten plough-
lands made the service of a knight, and by rendering
the farm which belonged to Richard de Eccleston.4
Simon seems to have had issue by Emma his wife*
two daughters, to whom before 1 246 the manor had
descended, viz., Amice who married Alan de Windle,
and Agnes who married Roger de Molyneux, a
younger son of Adam de Molyneux of Sefton.'
The manor was divided between them, each family
having one plough-land. The Windle half, like the
other possessions of the family, descended through the
Burnhulls, to the Gerards of Brynn, who held it until
the sixteenth century.7 In 1565 it was sold to the
immediately superior lord, Henry Eccleston,8 but it
appears to have soon changed hands again, for in 1629
the heirs of Hugh Lee or Ley were lords of the
manor.9 John Chorley, son of Alexander Chorley of
Furnival's Inn, married Elizabeth Ley, a daughter
and coheir of Hugh Ley of Liverpool, and in August,
1630,3 settlement was made of the manor ofRain-
1 1,658, including 5 acres inland water,
according to the census of 1901.
206-7. Tne crosses are due to Bar-
tholomew Bretherton.
» Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 41, 148.
quired lands in Rainhill ; see, for example,
Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 334, 352.
* Ana. D. P.R.O.v, A. 11171.
5 Chartul.ofCockersand(Chst. Soc.), 599.
6 In 1246 Alan de Windle and Amice
his wife, and Roger de Molyneux and
Agnes his wife, called upon Richard de
Eccleston to acquit them of the service
for two plough-lands in Rainhill— to wit,
the whole town of Rainhill— held by
them of Richard by knight's service ; the
king, as guardian of the heir of John de
nes ; final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Chcs.), i, 125. For this Molyneux family
Speke.
In 1276 John de Northale of Sutto
recovered from Peter de Windle and Alic
his wife, Roger de Molyneux and Agne
Peter Gerard, nothing is said of any
manor here, though he had held of John
Eccleston ' certain messuages, with all the
lands and tenements, rents, and services '
belonging to them ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet.
Soc.), i, 123; Towneley MS. DD. n.
1465. The manor of Rainhill was
of wood, &c., of which they had
Rainhill ; the damages
21.5 Assize R. 405,
'Sir Peter de Burnhull (Brindle)
granted to Ralph Banastre land in the
settlement of the Gerard estates made in
1511; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 1,
m. 246.
It is noticeable that as late as 1598
land in Rainhill was said to be held of the
'heirs of Peter Burnell ' ; see the inq.
p.m. of Henry Coney of Ditton.
and this gift was confirmed by his son
Alan in 1315 ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 228.
Nicholas Banastre called on the Burnhull
heirs to warrant him in 1330 ; De Bane.
three weeks to three weeks suit, which
they asserted that Richard, as mesne lord,
should perform. The defence put for-
they held did not require him to do this ;
Assize R. 404, m. ii. Ten years later
Alan de Windle (his wife being dead) and
Roger and Agnes de Molyneux came to
an agreement with Robert de Eccleston,
Richard's son, by which he acquitted
them of the service required by Edmund
i85</. (on which occasion the charter c
Peter de Burnhull was produced), &<
In 1524 this land was held by Joh]
Mosley of Rainhill ; Dods. loc. cit.
In 1354 half their moiety of the mano
was granted by William Gerard and Joa:
his wife to Peter Gerard and Katherin
his wife ; Final Cone, ii, 142. In 1416 i
was found that Sir T. Gerard had held
heirs of Henry de Eccleston by knight'
126; the manor of Rainhill, twenty
messuages, a windmill, and various lands
there, were claimed by Henry Eccleston
from Sir Thomas Gerard and Elizabeth
his wife, and others.
9 See the Inq. p.m. of Thomas Lancaster
below. The residence was called the
Manor House. The Ley family occur also
in connexion with Maghull. In 1525
Christopher, son and heir of Hugh Ley,
was called upon to pay £20 to Ralph
Ley, brother of Hugh; Pal. of Lane.
Plea R. 140, m. 16. The will of Hugh
Ley of Rainhill, dated in June and proved
judge ,
at the
urt ofWid-
the
after the death of Si.
ire to be buried in Pr
r where his father wa
ations his son John, and
scot church,
buried. It
his children.
368
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
hill and various lands there, John Chorley and
Elizabeth his wife being in possession.1 This family,
who became attached to the Society of Friends, con-
tinued to hold the Rainhill
estate for several generations, ~
the last being John Chorley of
the Red Hazels in Huyton,
who died in 1 8 1 o, leaving two
daughters Mary and Sarah,
married respectively to John
Ford and John Walker.' The
father had been one of the
great West Indian merchants of
Liverpool, but failed in 1808,
when his estates were sold.
Dr. James Gerard of Liverpool,
who afterwards lived at Sand-
hills, Kirkdale, purchased Rain- fory counterchanged'
hill manor-house, and in 1824
sold it to Bartholomew Bretherton of Rainhill, a
famous stage-coach proprietor, whose principal esta-
PRESCOT
blishment was situated in the village.3 It descended
to his daughter and heiress, the Marchioness Stapleton-
Bretherton, and on her death in December 1883,
passed to the present owner, Mr. Frederick Annesley
Stapleton-Bretherton/
The second moiety descended from Roger and
Agnes de Molyneux to their son Richard ; ' on the
death of the latter's son Sir John 6 without surviving
issue, it became the right of John de Lancaster, son of
that John de Lancaster who married Margery, one
of the daughters of Richard de Molyneux.7 But
little is known of the Lancaster family,8 though they
held the manor for four centuries and their pedigrees
were recorded at the visitations.9 In 1628 Thomas
Lancaster, as a convicted recusant, paid double to
the subsidy ;10 but though his son John was a Royalist,
and as such suffered the confiscation of his property
by the Parliament, he does not seem to have been
charged with the equally serious offence of recusancy."
Subsequently the estate was recovered. In 1717
John Lancaster and two other members of the family
John, Hugh, Richard, and Margaret;
another son Thomas ; his daughters
Margaret Wood (with children, Nicholas
and Alice) and Alice Orme, wife of
Edward Orme ; and his sister Elizabeth.
Earlier in the same year a settlement of
the lands of Hugh and John Ley had
been made ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 54, m. 101.
1 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 1 7, n. 2.
Alexander Chorley of Rainhill, and
Elizabeth his wife, were in 1678 indicted
as recusants ; Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS.
Com.), 109. Over the main entrance
to the manor-house, now a farm, is the
inscription ' A. 1662, C.' ; probably for
Alexander Chorley, who was in pos-
session as early as 1651, as appears by
very in the Common Pleas, Mich.
of John de Molyneux and carried to Ches-
ter, where she was detained for eighteen
months, in hope of securing her inherit-
ance ; ibid. Rex. m. 22.
-' John de Lancaster the father is de-
scribed as 'of Rainhill' as early as 1313.
daughter of Richard de Molyneux in or
before 1314 ; Find Cone, ii, 19. He had
a moiety of the manor at once con-
ferred upon him, and in 1318 demanded
a partition, the other lords being Alan de
Windle (or Burnhull) and John son of
Richard de Molyneux. All then held
jointly 1,000 acres of pasture, part of the
le Styward, his great-grandfather ; De
Bane. R. 230, m. 172 d. ; 235, m.
the short time of this transitory life, and
fearing the eternal damnation of his soul,'
he repudiated the ' feigned and false title '
which had been set up ; Ogle R.
He died in 1535, and the subsequent
inquest shows that he had held the moiety
of the manor of John Eccleston by fealty
and a rent of iBJ. ; a messuage in Rain-
hill of the king, by a rent of 8</. paid to
the bailiff of West Derby ; also lands in
Euxton and in Appleton ; his son and
heir Richard Lancaster, married to Alice
daughter of Bartholomew Hesketh in
1530, was seventeen years of age in
1538; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii,
». 1 1. Licence of entry, without proof of
age, was granted to Richard son and heir
of Richard Lancaster, 20 Nov. 1543;
App. 555.
'2 This account is taken from Foster's
Lanes, fed. (Chorley of Chorley), and other
= Bai'nes, Lane,. Directory (l 824), ii, 706.
4 Ex inform. Mr. F. A. Stapleton-
Bretherton and others.
5 In 1301 Richard son of Roger de
Molyneux made complaint against Henry
de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, and others ;
A claim for a third part by Roger son
of Alan de Molyneux in 1334 shows that
at that time John de Molyneux and
Richard his son, John de Lancaster and
John his son held moieties of the Moly-
neux part of the manor by gift of Richard
de Molyneux (brother of the Alan named
above). Robert de Bebington and Beatrice
his wife, Henry de Atherton and Agnes
his wife, Nicholas Banastre, Philip de
» Printed by the Chet Soc. ; Vuit. of
1567, p. 1 1 8, where the pedigree starts
from John de Lancaster, apparently the
one living in 1430 ; Vhit. of 1613, p. 18 ;
Vmt. of 1664, p. 172. This last ends
with Thomas Lancaster, aged twenty-
seven, and his infant sons John and
William.
10 Norris D. (B.M.). At the inquisition
after his death, 10 May, 1629, it was
land from Richard de Molyneux, his
brother Henry, and Thomas and John
his sons ; it appeared that this land had
been improved from the waste by Peter
de Burnhull and Richard de Molyneux as
Philip his son also had lands. Agnes
widow of Alan de Burnhull had married
Sir Geoffrey de Warburton ; Coram Rege
R. 297, m. 107. John son of John de
Lancaster frequently appears as plaintiff
or defendant from 1 346 onwards ; e.g.
hill of the heirs of Hugh Lee. His
widow Margery was living, and the heir
was his son John, aged eighteen on 17
March preceding ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
p.m. xxv, -1.43.
Nathaniel Lancaster, a strong Puritan,
424, m. 2.
8 Sir John de Molyneux retained the
manor to the end of his life ; he was
8 Early in 1396 John son of Richard de
Lancaster was engaged to marry Margery
sister of John de Bold ; Joan, the mother
of Richard, was still living ; Dods. MSS.
a half-brother of Thomas ; Ormerod,
Ches. (ed. Helsby), iii, 898. Thomas
Lancaster, their grandfather, was in 1590
one of those in 'some degree of con-
ton, Henry and Agnes de Atherton laid
claim to the inheritance ; Assize R. 1435,
m. 47 d. In 1344 a claim was success-
fully made by Henry son of Henry de
Atherton, and Agnes his wife to certain
lands, when it appeared that Richard de
Molyneux had given a fourth part of the
manor to his brother Henry for life, and
had afterwards bestowed the reversion on
his own son John ; and that John had
granted part of the disputed lands to
included two parts of Holbrookfield in the
township of Widnes. John de Lancaster
was a juror at the Widnes court about
1430, and Thomas in 1476 ; Dods. MSS.
cxlii, fol. 240. The latter was excused
from serving on assizes in 1498, being
seventy years of age ; Townelev MS. CC.
«.653.
Richard Lancaster, son and heir of
Thomas, in 1526 joined with Thomas
Gerard, lord of the other portion of Rain-
religion, but ' in general evil note ' and
a non-conmmunicant ; Gibson, Lydiate
Hall, 245 (quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz.
« Royalist Composition Paper, (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), iv, 53. It appears that
Rainhill Hall and other lands of John Lan-
caster had been sold in 1653 to John
Sumner, the purchaser of Allerton. The
estate was ' much encumbered.' See also
Index of Royalists (Index Soc.), 43.
the clerk of Liverpool and Nichola his
wife ; Coram Rege R. 297, m. 17. Agnes
wife of Henry de Atherton had in 1322,
whilst a minor, been seized by emissaries
3
called the Copped Holt, which they
acknowledged to be within Whiston, not
in Rainhill. Richard was then fifty years
of age, and ' calling to his remembrance
369
recusant in 1641; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New
Ser.), xiv, 241.
For another sequestration for religion,
see Royalist Com. P. iv, 72.
47
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
as ' Papists ' registered estates here.1 Parts of the
estate were sold, but the hall descended to the Fleet-
wood family.1 On Miss Fleetwood's death, in 1877,
it passed to a cousin, James Beaumont, by whom it
was sold to the Marchioness
Stapleton-Bretherton, and has
since descended with the manor-
house.'
Rainhill Hall is now used as a
farm-house, and is only reached
by a field road. The main
building is |_-shaped, with
north and west wings, but it
is clear that it was originally
built round a court. The south
wing has entirely disappeared, j^*"* *Yrgent, ™
but the south end of the east /,ars £„/„ (. „, „ canton
wing remains in a dismantled of the second a lion passant
state, separated from the rest warrantor.
of the house and used as a
lumber-room. The west wing is entirely modernized,
but the north wing has a front of c. 1600 with mul-
lioned windows, and at its east end an upper room
with an open timber roof of f. i 350, a good specimen
with quadrant wind braces, and valuable on account
of the rarity of domestic work of this date. The
room was formerly used as a chapel, and is lighted by
mullioned windows on the east and south, of early
seventeenth-century date. The south-east block is
also c. 1600, and has a projecting rectangular bay at
its south-east angle, with a stone chimney-stack
immediately to the north. It has been of two stories
with an attic, and, though now neglected and ruinous,
was evidently a good specimen of its class in its best
days, with large mullioned windows, and no doubt the
usual accessories of ornamental glazing and panelling.
The farmyard lies to the north-east of the house,
and has on its north side a range of wooden farm-
buildings, on low stone walls at least as old as the
sixteenth century. They are a fine example of the
primitive method of construction known as ' building
on crucks,' the crucks in this case being set about
1 5 ft. apart from centre to centre, a little less than
the normal width of a bay.
Two other Molyneux families had estates here in
the fourteenth century. Alan de Molyneux, son of
Roger, had a son Roger described as 'of Rainhill ' ;*
and at RITHEROPE settled Robert de Molyneux,
possibly another son of Roger.6 He was followed
by a son Roger,6 and a grandson Richard of the same
place.7 Molyneuxes of Rainhill are mentioned from
time to time down to the sixteenth century, but it is not
possible to give a detailed account of them.8 Ritherope
also is now owned by Mr. Stapleton-Bretherton.
Another family having lands in Rainhill bore
the local name ; 9 others were the Lees 10 and
1 Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cat/,. Non-
jurors, 121. John Lancaster's estate was
worth £87 6s. 4</. a year, and he wa,
described as son of John and grandson of
Thomas Lancaster. Thomas Lancaster,
•on of John and Catherine, born 1690,
who studied at the English College in
Rome and was sent to England as a
priest, was probably a brother ; Foley,
*«. s. y. vi, 462.
Thomas Lancaster of Rainhill had an
annuity of £10 out of Percival's house;
and his son Francis had an estate of
£5 171. 6d. ; Engl. Cat/,. Non-jurors, 119,
Joseph Beaumont of the Tump in Mon-
mouthshire. Their son and heir, James
Beaumont, sold the hall in iSSi to
Lady Stapleton-Bretherton. Information
given by Mr. F. Stapleton-Bretherton
and Mr. Woods.
Roger son of Alan de Molyneux com-
apothecary, dated 21 Feb. 1744-5, wa'
enrolled in the Common Pleas, Mich.
1748, R. 21, m. 57 rf.
In Piccope's MS. Pedigrees, ii, 38, the
pedigree is continued thus : John Lancas-
ter, born in 1661, was living in 1690. He
had a son and heir John, who registered
his estate as above, and daughters Anne
and Mary. John Lancaster, whose wife's
name was Elizabeth, had a son John,
baptized in 1723, and a daughter Mary.
From family deeds Mr. Edward W. Woods
of Warrington has been able to construct
a more complete descent. John Lancaster
the younger, who was living in 1758,
married Elizabeth Houghton, and had
several children, including John, his heir,
who died unmarried in 1784; Thomas,
heir of his brother, whose son James died
without issue in 1807; and Margaret,
who married John Lancaster.
a On the death of James Lancaster
Rainhill Hall descended to his sister Jane,
who died in 1824, and to her children by
Robert Fleetwood, her husband. Joseph
Fleetwood, the eldest son, died unmarried
in 1857 ; James, his brother and heir, a
priest, died in 1862; and their sister
Elizabeth, born in 1793, died unmarried
in 1877.
8 The Margaret and John Lancaster
named in a preceding note had a
daughter Frances, who married James
Tatlock of Scholes, and their daughter
Frances, who died in 1871, married
plai
and
a third part of the moiety of 200 acres
and other lands, and on inquiry Richard
was found guilty ; Co Plac. (Chan.),
next year made by Roger and his wife
Godith, but it appeared that Sir John held
the land in dispute by feoffment of Roger ;
Assize R. 1435, m. 38 d. In 1355 there
were cross-suits between John de Lan-
caster and Roger de Molyneux and
Thomas his son as to certain lands and
the third part of a mill, which continued
for some years ; Duchy of Lane. Assize
R. 4, m. 3 ; R. 5, m. 4, &c.
In 1371 Thomas and Richard de Moly-
neux of Rainhill were jurors ; Plac. of
Lane. Chan, file, bdle. 1621.
* This Robert may be the ' Robert de
witnesses to local charters. A Robert,
•on of Roger de Molyneux, was defen-
dant in a Penketh suit in 1301 ; Assize
R. 1321, m. lorf. A certain Alan de
Sutton had lands in Rainhill before 1284 ;
he left a son Roger and a daughter Ly-
mota under age, and had granted some of
his land to this daughter. She, while
still a minor, granted 4 acres to Robert
de Molyneux, which were afterwards re-
covered by her brother Roger ; Assize R.
1268, m. 12; 408, m. 1 8. In 1318-19
Robert had a grant of land from the waste
between the field of Ritherope and the
Chestergate from John de Molyneux and
John de Lancaster ; Blundell of Crosby
Evidences, K. 232.
« He seems to be the Roger son of
Robert de Molyneux of Rainhill, by whose
agency the settlement of Little Crosby
and other manors was arranged in 1314 ;
Final Cone, ii, 19.
37°
As Roger son of Robert de Molyneux
of Ritherope, he granted to Henry, son
of Roger Garnet, and Alice, grantor's
daughter, all the land which his father
had had from Sir John de Molyneux of
Sefton and John de Lancaster at a rent
of %d. ; Roger de Molyneux of Rainhill
was a witness to this charter. Robert son
of Roger at the same time confirmed this
grant ; Blundell of Crosby Evidences, K..
7 In 1356 Richard son of Roger de
Molyneux of Ritherope was defendant in
a suit brought by Richard Hitchcockson ;
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 5, m. i d.
s In the time of Henry VII Roger
Molyneux was seised of certain lands in
Rainhill, which descended to hi« son
Richard, his grandson Roger, and his
great-grandson Thomas Molyneux, who
occurs in a plea of 1557-8 ; Pal. of Lane.
Plea R. 203, m. 6. A few years later
Thomas Molyneux sold his lands to
Edward Halsall and others ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdles. 21, m. 68 ^ 22, m. 55,
61. This was the Molyneux of Hawkley
family ; it does not appear from which of
the two Rainhill families it was derived.
9 Simon de Rainhill and John son of
Robert de Rainhill were among the de-
fendants in the suit of John de Northale
mentioned above ; Assize R. 405 (1276),
m. I. In 1292, Margaret daughter of
Matthew the Tailor summoned Simon de
Rainhill to warrant her in the possession
of a tenement, but was non-suited ; Assize
R. 408, m. 32</. A dispute as to a mes-
suage and some land took place in 1345
between Ralph son of Alan de Rainhill
and Robert son of Robert de Rainhill ; De
Bane. R. 344, m. 259^. Alan also
appears to have been a son of the elder
Robert ; Assize R. 1444, m. 8 d.
10 A settlement by fine was made by
William de Lee of Rainhill upon his son
Henry in 1301 ; the property was 2 mes-
suages and 14 acres ; Final Cone, i, 192.
Roger son of William de Lee in 1320-1
granted to William his son his right in
the Longshot with Lee field and 5 half-
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Garnets. ' In 1600 the only resident freeholders
seem to have been Thomas Lancaster and Simon
Garnet.8 Thomas Parker, Ralph Glover and Ellis
his son, and Peter Glover of Sutton, registered estates
here in 1717 as 'Papists.'3 In 1785 the trustees
of John Lancaster, — Chorley, and Edward Faulkner
were the largest land-holders.*
In connexion with the Established Church St. Anne's
was built in 1837 ; the patronage is held by Mr. James
Brierley.
A Wesleyan Methodist church was built in 1858.
Congregationalist preaching at the Holt began in
1828, but it was not till 1857 that a mission room
was erected; in 1891 a stone church was built by
Miss Ruth Evans as a family memorial.5
St. Bartholomew's Church was built in 1 840 by
Bartholomew Bretherton for the Roman Catholics of
the district.6 There is also a convent of the Sisters of
St. Paul.'
WINDLE
Windhull, 1 20 1, and common ; Wyndhill, 1320 ;
Wyndhyll, Wyndill, Wyndell, Wyndle, xvi century.
This township, stretching from east to west for over
four miles, has a total area of 3,150 acres.8 The
portion of it in the south-eastern corner was called
Hardshaw, 269 acres, and here, around St. Helen's
chapel, the modern town of this name has sprung up,
the borough including, since 1893, besides Hardshaw
proper, a portion of Windle amounting to 720 acres.
North of the town is Windleshaw, and to the west are
Cowley Hill and Denton's Green. On the south a
brook divides it from Eccleston, and is joined by the
Rainford Brook, which runs across Windle. The
highest point to the west of the latter brook, 185 ft.,
is at the northern boundary of St. Helens ; but to
the east over 260 ft. is attained at Moss Bank.
For the most part the country is rather bare and
undulating. Windle Hill from the north looks fairly
steep, but from the south its height is completely
dwarfed. As a rule the hills of South Lancashire
have their steepest incline to the west, but Windle
Hill is an exception. The land is principally divided
into cultivated fields, where potatoes and corn are
chiefly produced. On the east the township possesses
more timber trees than westward, and there are more
pastures. The eastern boundary line runs through
Carr Mill Dam, a large sheet of water, with strictly
PRESCOT
preserved plantations surrounding it. In the extreme
north-west there is a narrow band of mossland, where
the surface soil consists of clay and peat. The town-
ship lies mainly upon the lower (gannister beds)
and middle coal measures, but at Windle Moss and
Blindfoot in the north-western corner, there inter-
venes the belt of lower mottled sandstone of the
bunter series which, superimposed upon the coal
measures, extends from Rainford village to the Chase
in Knowsley Park.
The principal road is that from St. Helens to
Ormskirk. From St. Helens, where there is a station,
the London and North-Western Company's lines
branch out in four directions — to Ormskirk, with
stations at Gerard's Bridge and Moss Bank ; to
Wigan, with one at Carr Mill ; to Liverpool, and to
Widnes. The Liverpool. St. Helens, and South
Lancashire Railway has its terminus here.
The population of the reduced area was 841 in
1901.
There are collieries and chemical works, but tan-
ning, formerly an important trade, has disappeared.
John William Draper, chemist, and author of
scientific and historical works, was born at St. Helens
in 181 1. He was president of New York University
from 1850 to 1873, and died 'n 1882.'
The Local Government Act of 1858 was adopted
in 1864, but disapproved.10 The existing township is
governed by a parish council.
The manor of WINDLE was among
MANORS those granted to Pain de Vilers, the first
baron of Warrington, and continued to
form part of this fee until the dispersal of the estate
about 1585. The customary rating was two plough-
lands, and in 1346 it was held of the earl of Lancaster
by the service of the third part of a knight's fee, £2
rent, and the usual suit to county and wapentake
courts.11
Pain de Vilers, the original grantee, gave one
plough-land, in marriage with his daughter Emma, to
Vivian Gernet ; their inheritance seems to have been
divided between daughters and granddaughters before
i 212, when Alan son of Alan was holding this half of
Windle of Robert de Vilers." Robert de Vilers per-
haps resigned his rights, for in 1 242 his lordship was
in the hands of the earl of Ferrers.13 About 1260
Robert de Ferrers granted his right in Windle to
William le Boteler of Warrington, thus abolishing the
mesne lordship formerly held by Vilers.1* Robert de
selions in Rainhill ; also the reversion of
the dower of Emma, widow of the gran-
tor's brother William ; Blundell of Crosby
Evidences, K. 70, K. 250. William son
of Roger de Lee in 1362 granted to his
»on John a messuage and all his land in
Rainhill, except 2 acres which Richard
Sherlock held of the grantor in a place
called the Lee ; Kuerdcn, fol. MS. 249.
Richard, son and heir of Henry de Lee,
in 1426-7 sold to Henry Blundell of
Little Crosby and Ditton all his lands in
Rainhill ; ibid. 213, 249.
1 The origin of the Garnet interest
may have been the Molyneux of Ritherope
charter already quoted. William Garnet
and James his son made a settlement of
their lands in 1550; Pal. of Lane. Feet
of F. bdle. 14, m. 279. For a dispute
between James Garnet and Richard Gar-
net and others in 1552, touching lands in
Rainhill and Bold, see Ducatus Lane, i,
253. Simon Garnet also occurs similarly
in 1569 and 1593 ; on the latter occasion
John and James Garnet alias Lyon were
joined with him ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
F. bdles. 31, m. 82; 55, m. 112.
» Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
238, 240. In 1628 the landowners pay-
ing to the subsidy were Thomas Lancas-
ter, the heirs of Hugh Lee, John Barnes
for Garnet's lands, and Henry Sutton;
Norris D. (B.M.).
8 Eng. Cath. Nan-jurors, 121, 122,
118.
4 Land Tax Ret. at Preston.
5 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iv, 168.
' Twelve entries appear on the recusant
roll of 1626; Lay Subs. 131/318.
7 Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1901 ; End.
Char, (Prescot) Rep. 1902, p. 69. One of
the first priests at St. Bartholomew's was
James Austin Mason, previously a Wes-
leyan minister ; for his works see Gillow,
Bibliog. Diet, iv, 512.
8 The reduced area comprised 2,130
371
acres, including 34 of inland water, ac-
cording to the census of 1901.
» See Diet. Nat. Biog. He wrote an
account of the Intellectual Development of
Europe.
1° Land. Gax. 1 6 Dec. 1864.
" Survey of 1 346 (Chet. Soc.), p. 3 8. See
also Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i i, 1 96 ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R.
6, m. 3</. ; Towneley MS. DD. «. 1510,
an inquisition of 1441. It appears from
the inquisition after the death of Sir
Thomas Gerard in 1622 that Sir Peter
Legh had acquired the superior lordship
formerly held by the Botelers ; Lanes. Inj.
p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 300.
» Lanes. Inq. and Extent, (Rec. Lanes, and
Ches.), 8. Compare the account of Hal-
sail. The other half of Windle may be
represented by Hardshaw, held by the
Hospitallers.
" Ibid. 147.
" Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 2i2i, n. 178.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Vilers appears to have left an heir of the same name,
who some years later attempted to recover the lost
rights, claiming suit from Peter de Burnhull and
Alice his wife between 1274 and 1278.'
Alan de Windle, the father of the Alan who was
tenant in 1212, died before Easter 1200.* Shortly
afterwards his widow Edusa claimed from the son her
power in lands in Skelmersdale, Syfrethley in Dalton,
Pemberton, and Windle.3 The younger Alan, some-
times called ' Le Styward,' 4 perhaps survived until
about 1 240, when he was succeeded by a son of the
same name.6
Alan de Windle III, later called Sir Alan,6 was acting
as juror at various inquests from 1242 onwards.7 In
1252 William de Ferrers, earl of Derby, was par-
doned for a false claim against him,8 and next year
Alan de Windle and Thurstan de Holand joined in
resisting an encroachment by the earl.9 Alan died
between 1256 and 1 2 74, and was succeeded by the
above-named Peter de Burnhull and his wife Alice,
the daughter and heir of Alan.10 The new lord died
before 1292," leaving two sons, both under age;
Peter, the elder, died without issue before 1298, and
Alan his brother succeeded." He was living in 1 3 1 8,1J
but did not enjoy the manor long, for his son Peter
was in possession in 1324," but died soon afterwards,
when his sisters Joan and Agnes inherited his manors.
The former married William Gerard, of Kingsley, in
Cheshire, and the latter David de Egerton.15 Ulti-
mately the whole inheritance was held by the
Gerards, so that it may be presumed there was no
issue by the other marriage. The manor has
descended regularly to the present Lord Gerard of
Brynn 16 in Ashton.
A dispute occurred in the early part of the reign
of Henry VIII, the Gerards wishing to escape the
dependence on Warrington. Sir Thomas Boteler,
however, succeeded in enforcing a claim for an annual
castle-guard rent of lid., and a relief of los." In
September, 1516, at the general sessions, Sir Thomas
Gerard did homage for the manor, as for the tenth
part of a knight's fee, in the great hall of the castle ot
Lancaster, ' where the justices of our Lord the King
were wont to dine and sup when they came to hold
session there,' and the names of the witnesses were
carefully recorded.18
Among the suits of the time of Edward III relating
to Windle was one between the families of Hindley
and Urmston.19 A family of longer standing was
that of Colley, or Cowley as the name was spelt in
later times. They appear from the end of the thir-
teenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth.*"
1 Assize R. 13+1, m. zi d. ; De Bane.
as Peter de Windle ; Coram Rege R. 1 2,
in the list of Boteler properties in Pal. of
defendants held of him by knight's service
and the service of keeping 100 pigs for
him in the wood of Lodbergh ; ibid. R.
41, m. 7d.
Tarrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 132, 141 ;
the younger Alan, as Alan de Pemberton,
in 1201 proffered 10 marks for his relief
after his father's death, and for having
right as to 401. against Nicholas le
Boteler, who had been under-sheriff in
use j the Parrs were accused of breaking
into Alan de Windle's house at Windle
and stealing his valuables in 1323;
Coram Rege R. 254, m. 46, 47^.
11 Plac. de Qua Warr. (Rec. Com.),
377-
" De Bane. R. 124, m. cj d. ; Assize R.
419, m. 9 ; 420, m. 6 d ; 424, m. 2 ;
see the accounts of Rainhill, Ashton-in-
Makerfield, and Brindle. In 1305 there
18 Mac. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
34, 35-
" Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2, m. viij,
and De Bane. R. 421, m. 108.
20 William de Caleye claimed two mes-
suages and various lands in Windle from
Peter de Windle and Alice his wife in
1275 i Coram Rege R. 12, m. 87. Alan
and Thomas de Colley were defendants in
1307 ; Assize R. 431, m. 3 d. John son
therefore have died in 1 197.
» Final Cone. \, 37 ; dower was
assigned in Skelmersdale and Pembar-
« De Bane. R. 230, m. I7zd.; 235,
m. 1 24 d. See also a note under Rainhill,
where the Alan of 1318 names his great-
grandfather, Alan le Styward.
Thomas de Beetham, turning on the
boundaries between Windle and Kirkby;
Alan mentions Alan his grandfather as
possessed of the land he claimed ; it
descended to Peter, claimant's brother,
and then to himself ; Assize R. 420,
18 See the account of Rainhill.
and Emma, the sister of Cecily, claimed
three acres in Windle from Alan son of
Alan de Colley in 1325-6 ; De Bane. R.
258, m. 387; R. 261, m. 206.
In 1552 a settlement was made of
Roger Colley's lands in Windle, Sutton
and Melling ; Robert was his son and
heir, and Richard another son ; Pal. of
the thirteenth century, are given in the
Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 608,
609. By one he gave Herthtelling in
Windle, in exchange for two oxgangs
Feud. Aid:, iii, 89.
15 De Bane. R. 284, m. 15.
1« In 1354 a settlement of the manors
of Windle and Rainhill was made by fine
further settlement was made by these
sons in 1571, when the property included
12 messuages and 2 horse mills ; Robert
Colley seems to have died childless, and
who afterwards gave it to Cockersand ; it
wife and their son Peter and Katherine
with remainders to Francis Colley, and
others; ibid. bdle. 33, m. 191. The
and its wood are mentioned. By the
second he confirmed Ralph's gift— the
only half the Burnhull manors; Katherine,
the widow of Peter de Burnhull, was also
to have been mortgaging or selling his
lands about this time ; Moore D. n. 763,
land had been marked out by crosses.
6 Adam de Pemberton, younger son of
Alan senior, was living in 1246; final
Cone. \, 98.
« Wholly Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 550,
had married Hugh de Venables by the
beginning of 1331 ; De Bane. R. 284,
m. 119.
In 1383, Agnes and Katherine being
m. 73, &c.
In 1596 Francis Colley or Cowley sold
some land here to Thomas Foxe ; ibid,
bdle. 59, m. 251. The purchaser died
seven years later, holding lands in Windle
499.
1 Lanes. In<j. and Extents, 146, 1 86, 203.
Alan married Amice, who brought her
husband half the manor of Rainhill ; she
died between 1246 and 1256 ; Assize R.
404, m. Ii ; Final Cone. \, 125.
8 Fine R. 49 (36 Hen. Ill), m. 22.
»Cur. Reg. R. 150, m. 3; I5i,m.4</.;
152, m. 9; see the account of West
Derby.
" See a former note. Peter de Burn-
hull seems to have been known also
Peter, and Maud his wife ; Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 2, m. 29.
Sir Thomas Gerard, who died in 1416,
held Windle by knight's service and the
rent of 20^. a year ; Lanes. lnq. p.m.
(Chet. Soc.), i, 123. The Duchy Feodary
of 1483 states that Sir Thomas Gerard
then held Windle of Thomas Boteler.
For a settlement in 1703 see Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 251, m. 61.
V Kuerden MSS. iv, W. 38. From Sir
Thomas Gerard lod. for Windlr appears
Henry Travers ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 3-6. The
estate of Roger Colley was in 1560 the
subject of a fine, the deforciants being
Robert Worsley and Roger Charnock ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 22, m. 78.
Thomas and John Cowley, apparently
brothers, John being the son of Robert
Cowley of Prescot, entered the English
College at Rome in 1624 and 1629;
Foley, Rec. S.J. vi, 305, 320. Another
John Cowley entered in 1662; ibid, vi,
404.
372
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The families of Harflynch ' and Eccles * also appear
in the sixteenth century ; and others of the neigh-
bourhood, like the Byroms, Parrs, and Woodfalls,
were also owners of land.
The Gerards appear to have made a park, and
this portion, W1NDLESHAW, is sometimes described
as a manor.3
Manor courts are still held for Windle.4
Adam Martindale, a puritan divine, born near
Mossbank in 1623, has recorded some interesting
details as to the neighbourhood.5
In the time of the Commonwealth the estate of
William Mainwaring in Windleshaw was sequestrated
for his delinquency and recusancy, and two thirds of
the estate of Janet Ball, widow, were under seques-
tration for recusancy.6
PRESCOT
In 1717 the following ' Papists ' registered estates
here : Henry Tyrer, Thomas Unsworth, Alice Lead-
better, and John son of Thomas Fletcher.' The
land tax returns for 1785 show that the township
was then divided into Moss End, Moss Bank End,
and Hardshaw. The principal contributor to the
tax was Mr. Bailey, paying about an eighth.
The early history of HARDSHAW is quite un-
known. It was the property of the Hospitallers and
ranked as a separate manor.8 It seems to have been
held of them by the Orrells,9 and from about
1330 until the seventeenth century by the Travers
family.10 It was afterwards acquired by Edward
and Richard Egerton, holders about 1633, under
the earl of Derby." Towards the end of . the
eighteenth century it was held by John Penketh
1 In 1527 Richard Harflynch settled
waring stated that his father, Oliver, had
Norris D. (B.M.). James Travers was
of F. bdle. u, m. 159. Richard Urms-
ton, one of the feoffees, afterwards (in
1545-6) claimed the Harflynch property
as reversioner after the death of Roger
Harflynch; but Jane the widow of
Richard Harflynch and her daughter Jane,
than once.' Edward, the youngest, born
in 1604, who afterwards worked in Lan-
cashire, on admission stated that * his
parents were excellent Catholics, of good
family, but had suffered much and were
in reduced circumstances from the perse-
(New Ser.), xvi, 133.
Henry Travers of Hardshaw was 'a
recusant and thereof indicted ' in 1590;
Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 246 (quoting S. P.
Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4). He ' could not
be found ' by the sheriff in 1593, and was
right ; Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), ii, 206.
Jane married Thomas Eccles alias Cliff,
shortly afterwards ; ibid, ii, 180. Har-
flynch may be a misreading of Harffynch j
Harefinch or Haresfinch is in Windle, on
the borders of Parr.
a Thomas Eccles and Jane his wife
brothers and four sisters as then (1622)
living' ; Foley, Rec. S. J. vi, 254, 282,
298. The widow of Oliver Mainwaring
appears on the recusant roll of 1641 ;
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 241.
William Mainwaring's estate was in-
cluded in the third confiscation Act of 1 6 5 2,
for the queen's service in Ireland in 1598 ;
Gibson, op. cit. 261, 262 (quoting S.P.
Dom. Eliz. ccxxxiii, and cclxvi, n. 80).
See also Col. Com. for Comf. v, 3236.
The Matthew Travers who was guar-
dian of Peter Wetherby of Halsnead was
of this family. As one of the 'most
and 1575; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
Windle ; Index of Royalists (Index Soc.),
religion he was among the six summoned
again in 1580 when Thomas their son
and heir took part ; ibid. bdle. 42, m. 109.
In 1628 Thomas Eccles seems to have
been the chief resident owner who paid
to the subsidy ; Norris D. (B.M.).
Adam Eccles alia! Cliff, in 1717, as a
' Entf. Catb. Non-jurors, 98, 119, I 21.
127. John Fletcher's son William en-
tered at Douay in 1743.
Mary daughter of Richard Fletcher of
cured in 1768 by the hand of Fr. Arrow-
bishop of Chester, and others, when in
formity in Lancashire. He acknowledged
that he had not been to church ' according
to the laws,' nor received the communion
of Thomas, Ellen, and Anne Cliff, his
children ; Eng. Cat/:. Non-jurors, 98.
8 Sir John Port and Margery his wife,
widow of Sir Thomas Gerard, had various
claims and possessions in Windle Manor
and Windleshaw Park; Ducatus Lane.
(Rec. Com.), i, 195, 190; also iii, 302.
The earl of Derby in 1547 claimed tithes
the family see J. Gillow, Bibliog. Diet, of
Enfl. Catb. ii, 298.
8 The Hospitallers had lands in Windle
as early as 1292; Plac. de Quo Warr.
(Rec. Com.), 375.
9 John son of Adam de Orrell of Hard-
shaw occurs in 1318; Add. MS. 32106,
.. .185.
He also acknowledged receiving into his
house 'one Ashbrough and one Smith
and others as he toke of the ould religion,'
but excused himself on the ground that
Smith was a kinsman and Ashbrough (or
Ashbrook) came with him; Gibson,
Lydiate Hall, 207 (quoting S.P. Dom.
Eliz. xxxvi, n. 2). He continued his
ship and Windleshaw Park ; ibid, i, 223.
the account of Ridgate in Whiston.
was constantly reported as a ' recusant ';
a manor, in a dispute between Sir Thomas
Gerard and the earl of Derby on one side,
and Thomas Eccleston as lord of Eccleston
on the other, regarding common of pas-
ture on Blakehill Moss; ibid, ii, 106 ;
i, 236 ; see also Royalist Comf. P. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 57, 170.
Cayley in Haydock, in 1339 granted to
Henry Travers of ' Haureteschagh ' various
lands in Haydock ; Raines MSS. (Chet.
Lib.), xxxviii, 45. John Travers, jun.,
of Windle, was pardoned in 1422 for the
death of John Barbon at Windle in Dec.
1419; it was shown that he killed him
£400 for fines; ibid. 226, 228, 238
(quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxc, n. 43).
others 'gentleman.'
u Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 124,
m. 3 5. The fine was between Richard
Egerton, plaintiff, and Edward Egerton,
were held in November, at which peace
officers were chosen ; Baines, Lanes.
Directory, 1825, ii, 548. Under these St.
Helens was then governed.
William Travers of Hardshaw was witness
to a Parr deed of 1439 ; and John Travers
of Hardshaw occurs in a plea of 1493-4.
According to the Hospitallers' Rental,
Henry Holland, deforciants. Besides the
manor of Hardshaw there were houses
and lands in Windle and Hardshaw.
chapel at St. Helens, and the schools
there and at Rainford are noticed.
the district in Roger Lowe's diary, pub-
lished in Local Gleanings Lanes, and Ches.
i; e.g. on 15 May, 1664, he and his
friends went, ' two and two together,' to
Cowley Hill to hear the Nonconformist
« Royalist Comf. P. iv, 1 1 7 ; i, 1 1 8.
Of the former family probably were
three brothers who entered the English Col-
lege at Rome under the alias of Lathom,
early in the seventeenth century — George,
Christopher, and Edward. George Main-
of Hardshaw of them, paying a rent of
12^.; Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84. In
1528 Richard Bold was holding land here
of Henry Travers, which his son Richard
held in 1558 of Robert Travers ; Duchy
of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 25 ; xi, n. 63,
Thomas Fo« in 1603 held his land in
Hardshaw of Henry Travers ; Lane. Inq.
p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lane, and Ches.), i, 3-6 ;
but in 1623 William Naylor held his
landi of the earl of Derby, as of the
Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem ; ibid, iii,
344. In 1628 'the occupiers of the Iand»
of James Travers ' paid to the subsidy ;
373
and Richard Parr ; Exch. Defos. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 25.
The will of Mary Egerton, spinster, of
Hardshaw, a benefactor of the poor,
dated 30 Jan. 1693-4, was proved at
Chester in 1695. In it she mentions
her 'aunt Mary, now wife of Thomas
Ince of Ince ' ; her cousin Edward
Cheffers, Elizabeth his sister, and Wini-
fred and Anne his daughters ; her uncle
John Goulden, her cousin Thomas
Goulden and his sister Dorothy, and her
cousin Mary Goulden of Barton, spinster ;
and her cousin Richard Cotham. She
bequeathed Hardshaw to Mr.. Mary
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Cotham,1 from whom it has descended to Mr. Alfred London and North Western system, and the latter
Angelo Walmesley-Cotham.* Certain manorial rights was extended through the town to Ormskirk in 1849
are still connected with it. Old Hardshaw Hall and 1858.'° A new railway, known as the Liverpool,
was pulled down about 1840; the new hall is used St. Helens, and South Lancashire, was begun in 1888 ;
by the Providence Hospital. Another house, called the eastern portion is worked by the Great Central
the Manor House, was pulled down about 1870. No Company, having been opened in 1895." There is
courts are now held. also communication with neighbouring places by the
A grant of land in Hardshaw was made by electric tramways.
Bartholomew Ford to Sir Richard Bold in 1483 ; 3 Other conveniences for the growing town were
supplied from time to time.
the inquisitions show that his descendants held
a century later. A family named Roughley resided
here in the seventeenth century ; one of them was
founder of the school.4
ST. HELENS being situated at a
BOROUGH point at which various roads inter-
sected, as from Widnes or Warrington
to Lathom and Ormskirk, and from Prescot to Wigan
and Newton, it is probable that there has for centuries
been something of a village here, clustered round the
chapel.4 The King's Head Inn, formerly on the site
of the post office, was built in l629-6 A school was
founded about the same time, and before the end of
the century a monthly meeting of the Society of Friends
was established, followed by an Independent chapel
in 1710.'
The progress of coal-mining in the neighbourhood,
which led to the formation of the Sankey Canal in
1755, also promoted the growth of St. Helens, as the
most convenient centre of trade and residence. By
1800 it had become a small town, comparable with
Ormskirk.8 A Saturday market was established ' by
custom,' and two annual fairs, on Easter Monday and
Tuesday and the first Friday and Saturday after
8 September.9
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in
1830, passed about a mile and a half south of the
town, and two years later the St. Helens and Runcorn
Gap line was constructed. Both are now parts of the
A gas company was in-
corporated by Act of Parliament in 1832 ; a water
company was also established, and in 1 844 water pipes
were laid in the town ; these works have been taken over
by the public authorities. Market sheds were opened
in 1843, and a market hall in 1850; a covered
market was built in 1889.
The government was popularized in 1845 by the
creation of an urban sanitary
authority, with a board of
Improvement Commissioners.1*
A county court was granted
about the same time. A town-
hall, built by an association of
'proprietors' in 1839, being
burnt down in 1871, the pre-
sent public town hall was built
and opened in 1876. A charter
of incorporation was granted in
1868;" the town became a
parliamentary borough in 1 885,
and a county borough in 1889.
A borough police fore was TaltifandHe'secon'd
griffin
Cotham, subject to a rent charge of £20
in trust ' for the Popish secular clergy for
ever.' In 1716 Thomas Goulden was
(Rec. Com.), iii, 439, 459. In 1614
Thomas Roughley of Sutton left £100 for
the school ; Robert, his brother and heir,
pool ai
Bolton.
10 In
an estate in Fearnhead, the annual value
Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
amalgar
of all being £128. See Payne, Rec.
280. Janet the wife of Robert was a re-
was pur
of Engl. Catb. 123 ; Engl. Cath. Non-
cusant in 1641 ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New
Westen
jurors, 119. It will be noticed that a
Ser.), xiv, 241.
11 Tr
Thomas Goulden took part in the above
• It may be noticed that the three
the mo<
fine. The Thomas Goulden of 1 7 1 6 was
ancient chapels of the parish are situated
Brockbi
son of John; ibid. 155.
on the road from Lathom and Ormskirk
13 Irr
iBaines, Lane,, (ed. 1836), iii, 710.
to Widnes—Rainford, St. Helens, and
is Tt
Mary, wife of Thomas Goulden, by her
Farnworth ; the name, Chester Lane, still
6,558 a
will of 1757, left Hardshaw Hall to her
applied to a part of this road, is of ancient
present
nephew, William Penketh Cotham, of
origin.
was dix
Bannister Hey in Clyton ; Piccope MSS.
6 Adam Martindale (Chet. Soc.), 17 ;
Parr, E
iii, 288, quoting R. 3 1 of Geo. II at
he specially mentions its situation on ' the
and Ecc
Preston.
great road ' between Warrington and
three c
The will of William Cotham of Hard-
Ormskirk.
was di<
shaw Hall was proved in 1 797. Lawrence
7 The hearth-tax list of 1666 shows
Hardsh
Cotham seems to have succeeded; he
twenty-seven houses of three hearths and
North :
married Winifred, daughter of Thomas
more in the township of Windle ; Lay
South ]
West of St. Helens, and had a son
Subs. 250-9. They would be mostly at
William Penketh Cotham (under age
St. Helens. The numbers of such houses
The w;
1828); Charity Rep. He married, July,
were in Prescot thirty-two, and in Widnes
were a
1 840, at Macclesfield, Anna, daughter of
twenty-six.
works
William Taylor. See Gillow, op. cit. iii,
8 Lady Kenyon, writing in 1797, says :
St. Hel
42.
' St. Helens was a poor little place when I
solidate
a He is a son of Thomas Walmesley (a
passed through it thirty years ago ; and
civil pa
younger son of Charles Walmesley of
now is a very neat, pretty country town ;
borougj
Westwood, Ince) by his wife Anna Maria,
the roads all as good broad pavements as
bounds
daughter of William Cotham of Spring-
field, Eccleston, and heiress of Lawrence
can be'; Kenyon MSS. 548.
• Baines, Lanes. Direct. 1825 ; p. ii,
Ecclest,
,898 a
Cotham.
547-51. Letter bags came in from Liver-
includei
» Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 208, n. 105.
pool, Prescot, and Wigan once a day, with
has aft
4 In 1601 Thomas Gerard complained
that Robert Roughley was withholding
corresponding despatches. Four coaches
beside the mail seem to have been run-
to the c
14 7>:
suit to Windle manor; Ducatu, Lane.
ning through the town, between Liver-
Census
374
established
comprises Hardshaw, the ori- greant gules.
ginal seat of the town, parts of
Windle and Eccleston, and the whole ot Parr and
Sutton — in all 7,284 acres." The population in
1901 was 84,410.
and Wigan, and Liverpool and
1845 the St. Helens and Runcorn
Iway and the Sankey Canal were
lated, and the united concern
purchased by the London and North-
Company in 1864.
These particulars, as well as most of
ry, are derived from Jame»
Brockbank's Hist, of St. Helens, 1896.
" - provement Act, 18 & 19 Vic.c. 74.
e original area of the borough wa*
ores, being the same as that of the
present parliamentary borough. The town
into six wards — Hardshaw,
East Sutton, West Sutton, Windle,
nd Eccleston ; each with an alderman and
uncillors. In 1889 the borough
ded into nine wards— Central,
dshaw, Parr, East and West Sutto
and South Windle, and North and
Eccleston — the membership of the
1 being thus increased to thirty-six.
The water undertaking and the market:
Iready public property. The gas
were purchased in 1878. The
Helens Corporation Act, 1893,
vil parish the va
1 parishes, or parts, within the county
• , at the same time extending the
to include parts of Windle and
further 6 acres of Eccleston 'was
included. Mr. W. H. Andrew, town clerk,
tion on these points
7,285, including 104 of inland water :
Rep. of 1901.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
A public library ' and technical school, built and
presented to the town by Sir David Gamble, bart.,
in 1896, are carried on by the corporation; the
baths also belong to it. The St. Helens Hospital,
established in 1873, and the Providence Hospital,
opened in 1884 by Cardinal Manning, have been
enlarged ; there are also isolation hospitals at Peasley
Cross and Haydock for infectious diseases. There are
several parks, the principal being Victoria on the
north, opened in 1887, and Taylor on the south-
west, opened in 1893.' The cemetery is at Windle-
shaw.
The aspect of the town is uninviting. The
factories rear a forest of tall chimneys, shafts, kilns,
and other weird erections on every hand, and the
fumes of acids and the smoke of furnaces render the
atmosphere almost unbearable to a stranger. The
soil is mostly clay, which in the north-westerly part
of the district produces crops of wheat, oats, and
clover.
The nature and progress of the trade and manufac-
tures have been noticed briefly in the accounts of the
component townships. The collieries led the way ;
the glass-making, for long the principal trade, began
in 1773, and copper-smelting about the same time.
The Pilkington works are the largest glass manufactory
in the world.3 The great chemical works began in
1829. An iron foundry was established as early as
1 798. The breweries can be traced back still further,
a malt-kiln at Denton's Green in Windle having
existed early in the eighteenth century. There are
several potteries. The pill factory is of recent origin.
There are two weekly newspapers.
The enclosure award with map is preserved at the
county council offices, Preston.
The earliest mention of St. Helen's
CHURCH chapel by this name occurs in the inven-
tory of church goods made in 1552.*
It appears after the Reformation to have remained in
PRESCOT
use for service, with a 'reading minister.'5 In 1613
Katherine Domville, ' patroness of the chapel of St.
Helen,' with James her son and heir, delivered the
building to certain trustees with power to nominate
the minister, appoint seats and forms, &c.6 The
improvement effected was shown in 1622, when
John Burtonwood was ' lecturer ' there.7 The Par-
liamentary Commissioners in 1650 recommended
that it should have a separate parish attached to it.
Mr. Richard Mawdesley was ' minister and teacher '
there.8
After the Restoration no attempt, as far as is known,
was made by the vicar of Prescot to recover the chapel,
which accordingly remained in the hands of the
Presbyterians for another thirty years.9 The first
move was made in 1687, when Bishop Cartwright
records that ' Mr. Venables and his brother brought
Mr. Byrom of Prescot to me, who desired to have a
curate in St. Helen's Chapel, into which the
Presbyterians are now intruded, which I promised
him — Mr. Dalton.' 10 Nothing seems to have been
accomplished ; perhaps the political disturbances of
the time interfered, but John Byrom persevered, and
in April, 1692, its registration as a Presbyterian
meeting place was prevented." James Naylor, the
existing incumbent, retained his position till his death
in 1710.
Benefactions were from time to time made for the
benefit of the curate,11 and in 17153 grant was made
from Queen Anne's Bounty.
The chapel was re-built in 1816 as St. Mary's.
The incumbent is nominated by trustees.13 A school
at Denton's Green is used for services.
The following have been curates and vicars :
1710 Theophilus Kelsall, B.A.14 (Pembroke Col-
lege, Cambridge)
1722 Edward Kilmer
1758 Peter Berry
1786 William Finch
"The library was first opened in 1872
in the town hall. There are branches at
65 In the visitation report of the same
year (Chester Dioc. Reg.) the chapel is
consecrated chapel of ease, 'which
anciently was and now of right ought to
"The latter was presented by Mr.
Samuel Taylor. Others are Thatto
Heath Park, opened 1889 ; Sutton Park,
1903 ; Queen's and Parr recreation
grounds, acquired by public subscription,
opened in 1901 and 1900 ; and Gaskell
Park, a small space presented by Dr.
Gaskell in 1900.
secrated. There was no surplice. In
the preceding year Mr. Burtonwood was
presented for administering the com-
munion to those that sat. Edward Moxon
was curate in 1628; Raines MSS. xxii,
70. Mr. Burrowes was curate in 16^8.
s Common-wealth Ch. Sur-v. (Rec. "Soc.
of England ' for the ease of the inhabi-
tants of Hardshaw-within-Windle especi-
ally. The magistrates, by twenty-six to
one, refused the registration ; ibid. 246.
This action was confirmed by the judges ;
ibid. 269. An inquiry had been made in
the previous Sept. ; it was then shown
1 787 ; Mancb. Guardian N. and Q., n. 849.
<Chct. Soc. cxiii, p. 8 1. A doubtful
reference (c. 1500) is Kucrden MSS ii,
2406.
Thomas Parr of Parr in 1558 bequeathed
10J. 'to a stock towards finding a priest
election of the inhabitants within the
chapelry ' ; he had £40 out of the
sequestrations and £4 125. ±d., the
maintenance of a minister there. He
was a painful man, serving his cure
site, and that the legally ordained services
had been used therein, the sacraments
administered, the dead buried, &c. as in
the case of a chapel of ease. Thomas
Roughley and others, trustees of the
small endowment fund mentioned, had
to the maintenance of God's divine
service there for ever, if the stock go
forward and that the priest do service as
is aforesaid ' ; Piccopc's Will, (Chet. Soc.),
iii, 120.
'Gibson, Lydiau Hall, 248 (quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4). In 1592
John Rutter was reader there ; he was
without banns; Tram. Hist. Soc. (New
Ser.), x, 190. William Fairhurst was
'reader' in 1609; Raines MSS. (Chet.
Lib.), xxii, 298.
'Canon Raines in Gastrell's Notitia
(Chet. Soc.), 206. Various anomalies
are pointed out in the note.
7 Miu. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
fast day recently ordained by Parliament.
His name is appended to the ' Harmonious
Consent' of 1648.
'Baptisms are entered in the Prescot
registers as having been performed by Mr.
Greg (1677) and Mr. Withington (1684),
' nonconformist preachers ' at St. Helen's
Chapel.
i» Cartwright' s Diary (Camd. Soc.), 77.
In 1689 James Naylor of St. Helen's
Chapel ' in Makersfield ' was a ' Presby-
terian parson '; Kenyan MSS. 232. Hi»
will was proved in 1711, at Chester.
"A motion having been made by
Thomas Patten, counsellor at law, for its
registration, counsel for Mr. Byrom and
others showed that the building was a
375
minister ; ibid. 262. In the legal pro-
ceedings the endowment of the school was
consumed ; Gastrell, Notitia Cestr. (Chet.
Soc.), ii, 208.
"Before 1716 the income from en-
dowment was £7 135. 6d. ; in the year
named Capt. Clayton of Liverpool gave
£.00, the people : £80, and the Bounty
,£200 ; with this money certain tithes
in the parish of Leigh were purchased.
In 1736 a further augmentation was
made. Gastrell, Notitia, ii, 207, and
note.
18 Ibid, ii, 206 note. For the endow-
ments see St. Helens Char. Ref. 1905,
P' " Afterwards vicar of Childwall.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
1815 Thomas Pigot, M.A.1
l8j6 James Furnival
1841 William Pollock
1846 Edward Carr, LL.D. (Trin. Coll., Dublin)
1886 John Rashdall Eyre, M.A. (Clare College,
Cambridge)
1891 John Wakefield Willink, M.A. (Pembroke
College, Cambridge)
1904 Cyril Charles Bowman Bardsley, M.A.
(New College, Oxford) '
A school was built in the chapel-yard in 1670 by
John Lyon of Windle.3
The chantry at Jesus Chapel — the exact position of
which is unknown — was in 1535 in the hands of
Richard Byland ; the income was only 40*. a year.4
It was said to have been founded by Sir John Bold ;
and in 1548 the royal commissioners recorded that
there was no incumbent but at the pleasure of Lady
Bold, widow of Sir Richard. Apparently it was not
her pleasure at that time to pay a priest, and none
was there.5
The Presbyterian Church of England began services
in 1863 ; the church was built in 1868.
The Wesleyan Methodists and the Primitive
Methodists each have two churches, and there is also
a Methodist Free Church.
On the appointment of a curate in 1710 the con-
gregation at St. Helens divided ; part conformed, but
the rest established an Independent meeting place, the
origin of the present Congregational church. The
worshippers in 1710-30 numbered about seven
hundred, over fifty having the county vote.6 A new
chapel was opened in 1826, Dr. Raffles preaching.
It has been enlarged.7 There is another Congregational
chapel in Knowsley Road.8
The Baptists have three places of worship in St.
Helens : Central, built in 1849 ; Park Road in 1869 ;
and Jubilee in 1888.
The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have a chapel.
The Quakers, as already stated, have long had a
meeting place ; it was registered in 1689.'
The Christian Brethren also have one.
The Roman Church retaining numerous ad-
herents in the district,10 its worship was no doubt
celebrated as opportunity offered, but no record seems
to exist until 1693, when Mary Egerton of Hardshaw
Hall bequeathed £4 to Mr. Gerard Barton, so long
as he helped the people in and about Hardshaw.'1 Soon
afterwards Blackbrook House in Parr became available.
When the Scarisbricks ceased to reside at Eccleston
Hall the chapel there was closed, but Winifred,
widow of John Gorsuch Eccleston,1* a former owner,
in compensation built Lowe House church (St. Mary's)
on the border of Hardshaw and Windle, near her own
residence on Cowley Hill, and it was opened in 1793.'*
It has, except for a brief interval, been in charge of
the Jesuit fathers, who also serve Holy Cross Church,
built in 1862. The church of the Sacred Heart,
built in 1878, is in the hands of the secular clergy.
The ruined chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury at
Windleshaw, popularly known as 'Windleshaw Abbey,'
stands about a mile from St. Helens. The chantry
was founded by Sir Thomas Gerard with an endow-
ment of £4 \6s. out of his lands at Windle, the
priest to celebrate for the souls of the founder's an-
cestors for ever.14 Richard Frodsham 15 was incumbent
in 1548, celebrating according to his trust; there
was no plate.16 There was some dispute between the
Gerards and the crown as to the liability to pay
the £4 after the abolition of the chantry.17 The
unused building gradually decayed, and the ground
around the ruined chapel was in course of time used
as a burial place by the adherents of the ancient
faith.18 In 1824 adjoining land was purchased by
Sir William Gerard, whose son in 1835 added a
plot of land to the burial ground, and in 1 86 1
the St. Helens Burial Board acquired adjacent ground
for a public cemetery.19
1 Afterwards rector of Blymhill.
"Previously vicar of St. Anne's, Not-
tingham. The list of incumbents is due
to Mr. R. W. H. Thomas, of St. Helens,
4 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 220.
* Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), 78.
The chapel was three miles from the
parish church, and may have been at St.
Helens or in Bold. There was only one
'Sir John Bold, knight,' who died in
districts of the organization— Hardshaw
East and West including a large part of
South Lancashire and Cheshire. For an
account of lands and charities (with an
income of £4,400) connected with it, see
Quaker Char. Ref. 1905, pp. 42-69.
10 The recusant roll of 1626 shows
twenty-two entries for Windle ; Lay Subs.
131/318.
11 This priest's real name was William
Barton; he was a Lancashire man, educated
at the English College in Rome and sent on
" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 220 ;
Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), 79. There
is nothing to show which Sir Thomas
Gerard was the founder.
V Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), i, 254 ; ii,
265; iii, 138. The first of these may
be seen in Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 129.
18 The earliest known interment is that
of Thomas Parkinson in 1751 ; he was
a missionary priest serving Blackbrook
and St. Helens.
foundation made by him could have been
lived at Mossborough in Rainford. By his
sessed of the adjoining land, and asserted1
1548. This lady's husband had a half-
brother John ; if he were the founder, the
circumstance might be explained, but he
was not a knight.
6 Oliver Heywood's Diaries, iv, 3 1 2, 3 1 8.
-' Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iv, 128,
where a list of ministers is given. There
is a branch at Gerard's Bridge, begun in
1872; ibid. 141. For the endowments
(£470 a year) see St. Helens Char. Ref.
I9°5» P- 53-
8 Nightingale, iv, 142 ; the work began
in 1885, and a mission chapel was built
in 1889.
» Kenyan AfSS. 231. The meeting
Liver fool Cath. Am. 1901. This chapel
was perhaps in Hardshaw Hall. See
Foley's^. S.J.vi.4,2.
« Her maiden name was Lowe.
18 Joseph Gillow in Trans. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), xiii, 163 ; Foley, op. cit. v,
349. 397! vii, 44, 35! and Liverfool
Cath. Arm. Fr. Joseph Beaumont, S. J.,
settled at Cowley Hill about 1750, and
dying in 1773 was buried at Windleshaw.
Joseph Barrow was there from 1777 till
his death in 1813. There was a con-
firmation of 79 persons in 1784, the
communicants being 101.
ing a right of way from the road to the
burial ground. In 1778 they sold their
land to William Hill, a Presbyterian of
liberal mind, who took a great interest in
the ruin, and is said to have expressed a
desire to be buried there. He conceded the
right of way, and relinquished any claim he
might have had upon the burial ground.
19 This account is from one compiled by
the Rev. A. Powell in Tram. Hist. Soc.
(New Ser.), iii, 11-34, where there is a
photograph of the ruin. There is a view
of it as it stood about 1830, with a de-
scription of its condition in 1 78o,by T. Bar-
1763 ; it was used for the monthly meet-
ings, a weekly meeting for worship begin-
ningin:835. A graveyard adjoins it. The
manor of Windle, and the advowson of
the chapel of Windle ; Pal. of Lane. Plea
R. 121, m. id.
fed. 1836), iii, 712. Dr. Thomas Pens-
wick, who died in 1836, was buried here ;
he was consecrated as coadjutor in the
hands of Friends until about 1850.
Hardthaw gives its name to two great
stated to have been chaplain for twenty
years ; Duchy of Lane. Rentals 5/15.
376
Apostolic in 1831. The Gerard family
have a burial place in the additional part..
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
There is a well, known as St. Thomas's, about
three hundred yards from the ruin.1 The water was
said to be good for sore eyes. An ancient cross
on three steps stands beside the chantry ; on it is
the date 1627.
Adjacent is the church of St. Thomas of Canter-
bury, built on land given in 1892 by Lord Gerard,
a descendant of the founder of the old chantry.*
PARR
Par, 1 246 ; Parr and Parre, xvth century.
Parr is a township unpleasing to the eye, where
the natural amenities have been replaced by every-
thing unlovely that man could devise. Scarcely a
green tree is to be seen, whilst collieries, chemical
and iron works, huge banks and heaps of refuse, take
the place of woods and fields and green meadows.
Clouds of smoke and the fumes of chemical works
hang continually over the district. On the south-east
some waste mossland still remains, but altogether be-
reft of the vegetation which so often lends beauty
to these undisturbed tracts.
The township has an area of 1,633 acres and is
divided by the Sankey Brook into two nearly equal
portions. It is bounded on the east by the Black
Brook, while the moss on the south originally formed
a physical division for Sutton, Parr, and Burtonwood.
The ground rises gradually north and south of the
bisecting brook, attaining nearly one hundred and
fifty feet at the northern boundary. With the ex-
ception of a small area of lower mottled sandstone
of the bunter series (new red sandstone) at Parr
Moss, the coal measures are in evidence through-
out the township.
The principal road is that from St. Helens north-
eastwardly through Blackbrook to Ashton in Maker-
field, the hamlet of Pocket Nook being situated next
to St. Helens.3 From this point another road takes a
winding course to Earlestown in the east ; passing
PRESCOT
Parr Stocks, Broad Oak, and Havannah. To the
south is Ashton's Green.
A branch of the London and North Western Com-
pany's system, from St. Helens to Wigan, has a station
on the northern boundary, Carr Mill ; and the
Great Central's St. Helens and South Lancashire
line passes east and west through the township.
There are also a number of railways for the service
of the collieries, as Parr is a colliery district, the
whole township being undermined. The St. Helens
Canal crosses, alongside the Sankey Brook.
A local board was formed in 1865,* but dissolved in
1 869 on the absorption of the township into St. Helens.
The manor formed part of the Master
MJNOR Forester's fee, being held with Whiston
by the Gernets, and then by the Dacres,
of whom it was held by Travers of Whiston.5 Under
the latter an inferior or mesne manor was formed,
held by the Lathoms 6 and Stanleys in succession.'
In the thirteenth century there appear to have
been one or more families here bearing the local
name, but the manor was held
in moieties before 1290, Alan
de Halsall of Parr being then
lord of one moiety and Henry
de Parr of the other.8 Alan
was the son of Richard de
Halsall by Denise, afterwards
the wife of Hugh de Worth-
ington,9 and it will be con-
venient to distinguish the two
parts as the Halsall and Parr
moieties.
I. The Halsall moiety was
held by Alan until 1301,'°
about which time probably he died. His son
Richard succeeded, and occurs down to 1335 ; he
was known as Richard de Parr.11 His son Alan de
Parr was in possession in 1345, but died in or before
1367," when his son Robert followed him, and held
PARR. -Argent,
dure engrailed sable.
lor-
walls were built up in 1798, the date
being inscribed at the head, with the ini-
tials H' for William and Elizabeth Hill.
A story is told of its origin to the effect
that a priest saying mass in the ruin was
of the service of Robert son of Alan de
Parr, who held of him tenements in Parr
in socage by rendering yearly 31. gJ. ' ;
all which Thomas de Lathom had held
of John de Travers of Whiston by \d.
yearly for all service ; Duchy of Lane.
Lanes, and Ches.), 284. Adam de Halsall,
whose son Richard was a plaintiff in
1305, may have been a brother of Alan ;
Assize R. 420, m. 8.
11 Assize R. 420, m. 5 d.; R. 424, m. 2.
Richard de Parr and Adam his brother,
off, the water gushing out where the head
fell ; A. Powell, loc. cit. 20, 2 1 . See also
H. Taylor in Lanes, and Cbes. Antiq. Soc.
the yearly rent amounted to ics. It is
shown in the text that Sir John and
Robert de Parr held between them half
the manor, for which they would pay 51.;
jurors in 13345 Duchy of Lane. Forest
Proceedings, i/ 1 7, m. 7. Adam de Halsall
of Parr and Robert his son are mentioned
as holding land in Haydock in 1332;
1893. Every Friday mass is said for Sir
Thomas Gerard and his descendants, for
Richard Frodsham, the last chantry priest
of the old chapel, and others ; Liverpool
Cat/,. Ann. 1901.
s It h said that Pocket Nook derives
its name from the immense quantity of
material put in here in making the canal,
on account of the quicksand in Rainford
Brook, known as ' Meddling Meg ' ;
Brockbank, St. Helen,, 21.
4 Land. Ga%. 9 June, 1865.
* Lana. Ina. and Extent: (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 43; see also the
account of Whiston.
6 The inquisition, taken in 1385, con-
other half of the manor, but it does not
appear why he held it by knight's service
and Robert son of Alan the remainder in
socage.
7 Parr is not, however, named in the
Derby inquisitions.
« Assize R. 1294, m. 8.
9 See the account of Halsall. In
1252-3 Geoffrey de Parr complained of
an assault by Gilbert dc Halsall (father of
Richard) and others ; Cur. Reg. R. 148,
m. c,d.
"Assize R. 1321, m. 8 </. In 1295
Alan gave his son Richard two oxgangs
in Parr ; one of the witnesses was Gilbert
de Halsall ; Kuerden MSS. vi, fol. 86,
ii, 82. Richard de Halsall contributed to
the subsidy of 1327 in Parr; Lay Subs.
,30/5. Hi, wife', name is given a,
Cecily in Assize R. 1435, m. 47.
1" Alan son of Richard de Halsall was
plaintiff in 1334 against Alice widow of
Robert de Parr ; William son of John de
Parr was one of his pledges; Coram
Rege R. 297, m. n. He may be the
Alan de Parr accused of killing the Mill-
ward in 1 343 ; he and his brother Richard
roll of that year (430).
In 1356 Alice daughter of John de
Bolton complained that Alan son of
Richard de Parr had deprived her of 201.
rent, which she had had by his grant in
seised of 'the homage and service of
Sir John de Parr, of Robert son of Henry
de Parr, and of William de Parr, who held
their tenements in Parr by knight's ser-
Alan de Halsall of an oxgang in Parr
formerly held by Geoffrey's father Richard ;
Henry de Parr was a witness ; ibid. n. 252.
A» 'Alan de Parr' he was a juror in
1 345 ; she was, however, non-suited ;
Duchy of Lane Assize R. 5, m. ,4 ,
R. 6, m. I. He was probably in posses-
sion a year earlier, for in 1344 he granted
his 'elder brother' Richard land newly
377
48
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
this part of the manor for forty years and more.1
The succession is somewhat uncertain ; the next to
be mentioned is a John de Parr,' whose widow Ellen,
daughter and coheir of Henry son of John de Parr,
one of the lords of the other moiety of the manor,
had dower in 1421." Then came one or perhaps
two Henrys in succession ;' the later of them, if
there were two, resumed Halsall as a surname and
was known as Henry Halsall alias Parr.5 His son
John followed ; 6 and then Bryan Parr, son and heir
of John — the surname Halsall having been dropped
again — was in possession in 1497.'
Bryan Parr died early in 1528, the heir being
his son Thomas, twelve years of age.8 Thomas
died in 1559, leaving a son and heir William, nine-
teen years of age, and nine younger children.9 This
William Parr it was who, it is said, disposed of the
manor to John Byrom of Byrom in Makerfield.10 It
remained in the latter family for a century and a half,
and they seem to have made the hall their principal
residence.11 It was sold, with the other Byrom
estates, in the time of George I, and became very
much subdivided." The manorial rights have been
lost.
approved in Parr ; Kuerden MSS., vi, fol.
84, «. 1 74. The phrase quoted may indicate
that he had two brothers, both younger
than himself. His widow Agnes in 1 367
claimed as dower a third of the moiety of
the manor of Parr held by Robert son of
Alan and Cecily his wife ; De Bane. R.
428, m. 162.
1 He
sail was said to hold Parr of John Travers,
and he of Lord Dacre, and he of the
honour of Lancaster. The mesne lordship
of the Stanleys is omitted. In November,
1483, on the engagement of his son Bryan
to marry Elizabeth daughter of Robert
Shakerley of Lathom, he enfeoffed Henry
Shakerley and Thurstan Ainsworth of
have a trental of masses celebrated, leav-
ing los. for this purpose. His widow Mar-
garet married John Byrom. There were
disputes between Richard and Thomas
Parr and the Arrowsmith family in 1547
and 1 549 ; Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), i,
1400 ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 17,
25, 159. He had a brother Richard,
whose daughter Agnes married Thomas
de Glest in 1410, Robert son of Alan de
Parr being witness to the marriage settle-
ment ; Towneley MSS. GG. n. 2089. In
1371 an extent of the possessions of
Robert son of Alan de Parr was made
before the sheriff. He had two-thirds of
6J. a year after all outgoings ; the fourth
part of a water-mill, worth 4*., various
lands, including the Parheye, worth 361.,
&c. ; Pal. of Lane. Chan, file, bdle. 1621.
From the Lathom inquisition cited
above it appears that Robert in 1370 held
only three-fourths of the Halsall moiety.
2 John's father is not named. In
EMen, widow™" John "de Par^ the' lands
which Adam Taylor lately held of the
gift of Robert de Parr ; Kuerden, loc. cit.
«. 169. Soon afterwards she quitclaimed
her right to dower ; ibid. n. 2 1 8. It would
appear that she lived on until 1484 ; ibid.
n. 208.
» It was probably as the result of this
increased from three-eighths to over half,
or perhaps three-fourths ; it will be seen
later that the chief-rent is variously stated.
4 It is not expressly stated that Henry
Lane. Plea R. 79, and R. 84, m. i. In
1494 Robert Shakerley of Lathom was
plaintiff in a suit against John Parr,
Henry Lathom of Mossborough, and John
Travers of Hardshaw, and there was a
cross-suit ; ibid. R. 78, m. 5, 5 d. About
tween John and Emma Parr, his father's
widow; Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 219. She
appears to have married a John Moly-
neux, and was living in 1496 ; ibid. n. 202.
In 1485, as 'John Parr, son and heir
of Henry Parr, otherwise called Henry
Halsall of Parr,' he joined with John
Travers of Hardshaw in a bond of £20 to
John-Parr, who held part of the other moiety
of the manor, and Robert his son to abide
the award of James Stanley, archdeacon
of Chester, concerning a number of dis-
putes between them ; Ct. of Wards and
Liveries, box I3A. n. 1038. The cor-
responding bond by the other John Parr
is among the Crosse D. (Trans. Hist. Soc.,
(New Ser.), vi, n. 7 1 ). He enfeoffed Wil-
liam Shakerley and others in 1495-6 of all
his lands in Lancashire, except 6 marks of
rent held by Elizabeth his wife, &c. ;
Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 202, 190. He died
in or before 1503, when hts widow Eliza-
beth obtained her dower from Bryan Parr ;
Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 95, m. 2 a.
1 In this year Bryan Parr and Elizabeth
„ ..
ter of Thomas Eccleston of Eccleston •
V'uit. of 1567 (Chet. Soc.), 98. She in
1565 cited her husband in the Ecclesias-
tical Court for adultery and for leaving
her without necessaries ; Raines MSS.
(Chet. Lib.), xxii, 206. Settlements ap-
pear to have been made by William Parr
in 1562, perhaps on his marriage, and in
1565 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 24,
m. 102; 27, m. 18. He had already
begun to dispose of his estates to John
Byrom; ibid. bdle. 26, m. 181.
There does not seem to be any record
of the sale of the manor itself, which is
named in the inquisition after the death
of John Byrom as held of the earl of
Derby by the tenth part of a knight's
fee and a rent of 51. 7J</. ; Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, n. 37. In this in-
quisition a settlement made by \V illiam
Parr is recited, the final remainder of the
manor being to John Byrom. Kuerden
has preserved several documents relating
to these sales; loc. cit. n. 192-3, 180,
204, 226-8 ; and a bond in £2,000 given
in 1 597 by Henry Parr to Henry Byrom,
sons of William and John respectively,
may point to the conclusion of the trans-
fer ; ibid, n, 246. John Byrom had
married Margaret, the widow of '1 homas
Parr, by 1560, in which year he had a
dispute with William Parr concerning
Hurst House in Parr ; Ducatui Lane.
Ellen, but he acted for her in the claim
against the Byroms in 1438 ; Early Chan.
Proc. bdle. 9, n. 28. He occurs a year
Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 176. He was wit-
ness, taking first place after the knights,
to a grant by Robert son of Nicholas de
Parr in 1439 ; Ct. of Wards and Liveries,
box 1 3 A, n. FD47, m. i.
s In 1467 Henry Halsall of Parr en-
feoffed James Stanley, clerk, and others
of his estates in Parr, Sutton, and Windle ;
and the following year, as Henry Halsall,
lord of Parr, he granted lands to his son
Thomas ; Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 248, 237.
1474 ; Ct. of Wards and Liveries, box
I3A. n. 47, m. 2. Richard Halsall was
the first witness in a deed of two years
earlier ; ibid. m. 5.
A branch of the Parr family appears at
Backford in Cheshire during the fifteenth
century ; see Appendices to Dtp. Keeper's
Rep. xxxvii and xxxix. Another branch
was seated at Kempnough in Worsley ;
Visit. 0/1567 (Chet. Soc.), 120.
8 In the Duchy Feodary of 1483
(Duchy of Lane. Misc. cxxx) John Hal-
other John Parr) brought cross-suits as to
novel disseisin ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 83,
m. 7, 8. In 1505 he gave a bond to the
other John Parr and Robert his son to
abide an arbitration concerning the eighth
part of the water-mill of Parr, and various
other matters in dispute ; Ct. of Wards
and Liveries, box 1 3A. n. FD48. Bryan
and John Parr were counted among the
gentry of the hundred in 1513.
8 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 51.
He is stated to have held the manor of
Parr of the earl of Derby by the tenth
part of a knight's fee and a rent of 71. 3 \d.
i.e. he held nearly three-fourths of the
seen above, held an eighth, so that the
remaining eighth was left for the other
Parr family. The wardship of the heir
was granted to Henry bishop of St. Asaph
and Thomas Radcliffe of Chadderton ;
Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App. 558.
9 Inq. p. m. xi, n. 1 9. The rent was then
stated as 7.. 7 J</. and the manor was held
' as of the manor of Knowsley.' Thomas's
will is printed in full in Piccope's Wills
(Chet. Soc.), iii, 1 1 8. He desired to be
buried in the church of Prescot, and to
disputes between the two families and
their lessees; ibid, iii, 5, 33, 38,63,99.
Hurst House appears to have been in
the possession of William Atherton and
Katherine his wife in 1599 ; ibid, iii, 394.
A marriage licence for Peter Byrom,
gentleman, and Katherine Parr was
granted at Chester on 8 July, 1575 ; Pen-
nant's Account Book (Ches. Dice. Reg.).
" An account of the family will be found
under Byrom in Lowton. Parr was the
only manor they claimed ; Lanes. It.q. p.m.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 271. It
was at this time (161 1) held of the earl of
Derby, by the tenth part of a knight's fee
and by 71. rent, as in 1528. Settlements
of the manor were made by fine in 1604
and 1631, Henry Byrom and Mary his
wife being in possession in the former
year, and Henry Byrom, their grandson,
in the latter ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 66, m. 9 ; 120, n. 5.
la A settlement of the Byrom estates,
including the manor of Parr, was made in
1707, Samuel Byrom, the ' Beau,' being
in possession ; Pal. of Lane. Feet, of F.
bdle. 258, m. 33. By March, 1727, all
apparently had been disposed of, and one-
378
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
A fourth part of the Halsall moiety appears to have
been early formed into a separate estate or mesne
manor, but the evidence regarding it is defective. An
Adam de Parr had a share of
the lordship in 1313,' but t
somewhat earlier a Simon de
Parr held or claimed two ox-
gangs of land in the manor.*
He was followed by a son Alan
and a grandson Richard ; the
latter, who died about 1350,
left a young son also named
Richard, whose wardship was
claimed by Katherine de La-
thom.3
Argent, a chevron be-
fween three hedgehop
The next in possession was,
perhaps, the William de Parr !aUe-
who held an eighth part of the
vill about 1370.' He appears to be the Sir
William who in right of his wife became lord
of Kendal.5 From him descended Sir Thomas
Parr of Kendal, who died in November, 1517,
seised of various lands in Parr and Sutton, and a
toft in Wigan, one parcel being held of Thomas,
earl of Derby, by knight's service and the yearly
rent of \*>d., being thus identified with the quarter
of a moiety held by the above-named William
PRESCOT
in 1370; another part was held of the Prior of
St. John of Jerusalem by the rent of izd. ; and
a third, of Bryan Parr, by the rent of ijd? One of
his daughters, Katherine, was the last consort of
H enry VIII. His son and heir, William, aged five at
his father's death, became marquis of Northampton,
and after a chequered career died without acknow-
ledged issue in 1570, his various manors falling to the
crown.7
II. The Parr moiety was in 1291 held by Henry
de Parr.8 One Henry, son of Lawrence de Parr, in
1246 recovered from Roger son of Hugh half an
oxgang of land there.9 Henry's widow, Alice, in
I 301 hrought a suit against the lords of Parr, Henry
son of Henry, and Alan.10
This Henry son of Henry de Parr, who may have
succeeded much earlier than 1301, lived till 1332."
He seems, however, practically to have resigned the
manor to his sons Robert and Richard. The former
was of some prominence in the district, but his
descendants had only a quarter of this moiety, held
of Richard and his descendants, who were lords of
the moiety." In 1326-7 Richard de Parr married
Ellen daughter of Adam de Tyldesley, by whom he
had five sons."
Richard was succeeded in or before 1351 by his
son John, sometimes described as a knight,14 who in
fifth part of the manor was then held by
Richard Houghton and Eleanor his wife ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 297, m. 126.
A year later the deforciants of three parts
of the manor ' in five parts divided ' were
George Tyrer and Jemima his wife, Ban-
astre Parker and Anne his wife, and Thomas
9 Assize R. 404, m. io</. This was,
perhaps, an earlier Henry.
1° Assize R. 1321, m. grf.
11 Henry son of Henry de Parr ap-
peared in a Sutton case as early as 1284 ;
Assize R. 1265, m. 21 d. Henry dc Parr
commenced an action against John son
and Adam his brother— with William
Wolrich and others, had unjustly disseised
him of 55. of rent ; Assize R. 420, m. 2.
Robert died before his father, for in
1325 Henry son of Robert de Parr began
a suit of novel disseisin against Henry de
Parr and Richard his son, which appears
m. 184. The lour wives were daughters
and coheirs of William Clayton of Ful-
wood, who died in 171 5, Sarah Clayton, un-
married, being sister ; Gregson, Fragment,
(ed. Harland), 167. In 1745, in which
year William Clayton's widow died, the
manor was again the subject of a settle-
ment by fine, the deforciants now being
Thomas Tyrer, William Williamson and
Elizabeth his wife, William Blundell and
1305 the latter was joined in the defence
by Alice his wife, whose sister Christiana
is also mentioned ; De Bane. R. 162, m.
n J. ; Assize R. 420, m. 8. In 1328
John de Wrightington gave lands in Parr
to Richard, son of Henry de Parr ; Kuerden
MSS. vi, fol. 86, n. 254. It appears that
Alice was the daughter of Henry, son of
Roger de Parr; ibid. n. 238. In 1316-17
Henry de Parr gave to Richard his son
R. 426, m. I a. Henry claimed the
moiety of the manor, and the jury agreed
that Henry the elder had disseised the
plaintiff, the damages being taxed at 401.;
Assize R. 1404, m. i8</. These suits
appear to have been merely steps in a
series of family settlements.
Robert son of Henry de Parr, and John
his brother have an unfavourable mention
in the Coram Rege R. of 1323 (n. 254).
George Dickens, clerk, and Anne his wife,
son of Henry de Parr being a witness ;
John de Bickerton at Leyland church
Margaret his wife, and Sarah Clayton ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 332, m. 182.
It appears that the manor had been pur-
chased by William Clayton and divided
equally among his daughters.
1 See a preceding note.
later; Kuerden MSS. vi, fol. 84, n. 184,
222. About 1317 Robert son of Henry
de Parr surrendered his lands to his father,
and in 1331, Richard the other son did
likewise, Henry son of Robert granting to
house ; he pretended to be dumb at the
trial ; m. 46. The latter was accused
of the death of two men, and seems to
have been hanged; m. 48. See also
m. 49</. 60. Henry de Parr is said to
claiming from Richard de Parr and others
1 1 messuages and 2 oxgangs ; and was at
the same time defendant in suits brought
11 Richard son of Henry de Parr, and
Adam de Parr contributed to the subsidy
ibid. m. 60. See also m. 51, $id, for
his part in the overthrow of Adam
Banastreini3I5.
18 Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 239. In 1337 a
Gilbert son of Alan de Parr ; Assize R.
420, m. 5 d. 8.
3 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. I, m. z,
I d. ; R. 2, m. I d., iiij d. This claim
Lay Subs. ij°. The peculiar relations
between the brothers Richard and Robert
are shown in a plea of 1317, in which
Robert son of Henry de Parr, ' in mercy
remainders being to Richard's sons John,
John, Henry, William, and Robert ; ibid.
n. 198, 199, 210. There appears to have
been another son, Simon ; Kuerden, loc.
Lathoms.
•> See Inq. p.m. of Thomas de Lathom,
cited above. On the division of the waste
answer for seizing and detaining Richard',
cattle in the early part of 1316 in a cer-
tain place called Kayhull. In defence he
DeBanc. R. 348, m. 235^.
14 See the Lathom inquisition quoted
above. As John son of Richard de Parr,
part is not recognized at all.
of the manor of Parr by fealty and the
Henry son of Robert de Parr concerning
ice Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xl, App. 524;
Rep. xxxvi, App. 374 ; Pal. of Lane. Chan.
Misc. bdle. i, file 2, n. 66. See also
Topographer, iii, 352-60.
6 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, ».
in arrears for five years he seized the
cattle. Richard said that Kayhull was
outside Robert's fee ; De Bane. R. 220,
Earlier than this, in 1313, Robert son
of Henry de Parr had complained that
he gave up to Henry, on condition that
the latter recognized his title to parcels
called Fallhey, Be re ward sleigh, Bentihalgh,
and Blackacre. He also confirmed the
agreement his father Richard had made
with Henry as to the waste ; the latter
8 Assize R. 1294, m. 8.
manor — Richard son of Alan de Halsall,
payment was to be made on account of
379
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
turn, about 1390, was followed by his son Henry.1
This last left two daughters his coheirs ; one of
them, Ellen, married John de Parr, heir to the
Halsall moiety of the manor, and afterwards Richard
de Holt ; the other, Lucy, married Henry de Byrom,
whose descendants, as already narrated, ultimately
acquired the greater part of the manor by purchase.2
Something has already been said of Robert de Parr,
son of Henry, who claimed this moiety as his right,*
whose descendants, however, are found to have held
but a quarter of it. His son Henry4 and grandson
Robert * have also been mentioned. The last-named
had a son Nicholas, who married Agnes daughter of
Robert, son of Alan de Parr, of the Halsall family ; 6
Nicholas died in or before 1415, but his son Robert
lived on until about 1482,' and was succeeded by a
son John, who also must have been a very aged man
when he died in 1512 or 15 13.* The generations
now follow rapidly ; Robert the son of John was living
in 1520,' but he and his son Robert were both dead
approvement already made on Henry's
lands by Sankey and Nottbrook, towards
Morkels Moss; Ct. of Wards and Liveries,
box 134, n. FD5.
A further agreement was made in 1377
between Sir John de Parr and Henry his
son and Robert, son of the above-named
Henry de Parr. Robert was to retain
possession of the lands of Alan de Bradley,
Marion his wife, and Robert their son.
The approvements of the wastes were to
be divided thus : half to Robert son of
Parr, as to lands here ; Kuerden, loc. cit.
n. 196, 197. She was still living in
1348 ; see below. She was suing for
dower in 1331; De Bane. R. 286,
m. 17 ; R. 290, m. 60 d. \ R. 292, m. 66.
Richard, a younger son of Robert, has
named Margery ; Assize R. 1435, m. 34.
< With this Henry begins a series of
fifty-one charters (originals or copies)
preserved among the records of the Ct.
of Wards and Liveries, their existence here
with his lands, rents, and services, &c.,
and all his part of the mills ; also mes-
suages in Ormskirk and Lathom ; Ct. of
Wards and Liveries, box ijA. n. FDI4-
Another feoffment was made in 1438 ;
ibid. n. 47, m. 5, and n. FD3I. In the next
year he mortgaged certain of his lands to
Henry Byrom and John Byrom his son ;
the names given are White Carr in Pye-
field, Riding, Dewbriddies, Sekynhullacre,
and Mosshouse ; ibid. n. 7047, m. i. In
1462 there was an arbitration between
parts to Sir John, and one part to Robert
son of Henry ; ibid. n. 47, m. 2.
In 1376 John de Parr, senior, was
executor of the will of his younger brother,
John de Parr, junior ; De Bane. R. 461,
m. 325. In 1386-7 he appointed
the inheritance in the reign of Hen. VIII.
The earliest are grants in Aug. 1331, by
Richard son of Henry de Parr to Henry
son of Robert of various lands and
reversions, and a share of the mill ;
Ct. of Wards and Liveries, box I3A,
followed by a sale in 1463 ; ibid. n. 47,
m. 3, 5. The arbitration records among
other points that Robert had given Thur-
stan stone for a kiln ; Robert was to
be during his life ' free to dry his proper
corns and malt' in Thurstan's kiln, as
seisin from John Perpoint, chaplain;
Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 183.
In 1337 Richard son of Robert de
Parr gave to Richard Parr his uncle and
Avice his wife land in Aspcroft which he
had received from his brother Henry. In
1370 Alan Ascroft and Mabel his wife
surrendered their land to John de Parr ;
Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 224, 223, 231.
1 Henry has been mentioned in the
Richard de Parr released to Henry ' all
his right in the fourth part of the moiety
of the manor of Parr,' with certain small
exceptions in the Overfield, Sonyhel,
Micklecroft, and a croft by the hall, &c.;
ibid. n. FDI9* In 1335 there followed
the grant of land between the wood of
Parr and a field called Gilleridings ; ibid.
n. FD47, m. I. In 1348 this Henry de
Parr granted his son Robert all his lands
turning an equal amount of stone. Robert
granted Elizabeth his wife land in Parr
(Plat Lache and White Carr) and Lathom
for her life in 1472, and made a general
feoffment in 1479 > ""'d- "• 47> m- 5 an<t
'« John Parr, ' son and heir of Robert
Parr,' first occurs in 1466, when he wa»
already the father of three sons— John,
Robert, and Reynold— on whom he settled
ment had been made, by the agency of
John de Barrow of Parr, the remainders
being to Henry son of John son of Richard
de Parr, and Elias, Nicholas, and Ralph,
the reversion of lands held by his mother
Alice. The remainders were to the
daughters Alice, Agnes, and Joan. Ibid.
5 Robert son of Henry was in possession
immovable, alive or dead; ibid. a. FD6.
John, at that time his ' son and heir,' is
not mentioned later ; and in 1482 the
father, as heir of Robert Parr, 'lately de-
n. 200, 201. Henry came into possession
before 1395-6, two deeds of his of this
year being preserved by Kuerden (loc. cit.
n. 194, 225), and in 1421 he made a
settlement of his estate ; ibid. n. 213.
Thomas dc Lathom, cited above. In
1375 he made a grant to his son Nicholas
of lands in the Holyend and the Middle-
field, apparently on the occasion of the mar-
riage of Nicholas with Agnes daughter of
heir,' and released to him his patrimony in
Ormskirk, including an acre by the mill
of Greetby ; ibid. n. 47, m. 5. In the
following year he leased Ashen Carr to
Thurstan Parr, and gave his part of the
m. 10, concerning 8 messuages in Parr,
Warrington, Sutton, and Whiston ; the
remainder was to Lucy wife of Henry de
daughter of John Whitehead of Lathom.
John de Rainford, Richard de Parr of
Shaw, and William de Holland of Cay-
bearing upon disputes between the father
and son, and two, already quoted, upon
Parr, are given by Kuerden (loc. cit. n. 218,
217, 242) ; by the two latter she made
gifts to her sister Lucy, the other coheir,
then wife of Henry de Byrom.
Ellen and her second husband, Richard
de Holt, in 1438 addressed a complaint
to the bishop of Bath, as lord chancellor,
as to the bad faith of the Byroms. When
her father Henry was about eighty
years of age he was influenced by Henry
de Byrom to divide the manor, giving
half to the latter as the share of his wife
Lucy, the understanding being that Ellen
was to have the other half on her father's
death. Such a division was made, and
after the father's death, about 1427, Ellen
m. 2. The agreement of 1377 between
the several lords of the manor, in which
Robert's claim to a quarter of this moiety
was recognized, has been given above.
6 Little seems to be known of Nicholas
beyond his first marriage with Agnes de
Parr (or Halsall) above recorded, and his
second union with Katherine daughter of
John Benctson, the heiress of Lydiate.
The latter, being out of her mind, in
1408 at Prescot granted all her patrimony
to Ralph de Parr, probably a son of
Nicholas by his former wife ; Lanes. Inj.
p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 102. Katherine
lived till 1437 ; Dtp. Keeper', Rep. xxxiii,
App. 22, 38. Thurstan son of Ralph de
manor. In March, 1512, he leased the
Heighfield, Tode Hill, &c., to Ralph Moly-
neux, priest, and Bryan Molyneux ; in
October, 1 5 1 3, his widow Constance made
an agreement with his son Robert as to an
arbitration about her dower ; ibid. n. rog,
FD4i, FD29, FD35. The arbitration is
9 An agreement between John Parr and
Robert his son and heir in 1484 mentions
the latter's wife; and in 1485 and 1488
there were fresh grants by the father to
his son ; ibid. n. 47, m. 3 ; 44, i, 4 ; n. FD49-
In 1493 Robert Parr made a feoffment of
his land in the Sekeneld and Riding ; and
a further one in 1507 ; ibid. n. 47, m. 4.
the Byroms were putting forth a claim
for half of her portion, alleging that the
portion they had was an absolute gift, to
that Lucy and her heirs had a title to
half the rest. See Early Chan. Proc.
bdle. 9, n. 28.
» His widow Alice in 1337 came to an
agreement with Richard son of Henry
mcnts, about 1485 ; and Ralph his son
also occurs. John de Parr received from
the feoffee in 1429-30 lands which had
belonged to Nicholas de Parr ; Kuerden
MSS.vi, fol. 84, «. 185.
7 Robert son of Nicholas de Parr made
a feoffment in 1427 to Richard Haydock,
father is described as John Parr of Broad-
oak, and Robert's wife is named as Joan.
Early in 1511 another agreement was
made with the father; ibid. n. rn$.
Another deed mentions Robert Parr in
1513, and his son Robert is described as
'heir apparent of Robert Parr, senior,' in
380
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
in 1527,' and the latter's son and heir John died in
May, 1 5 30." The heir was a daughter Grace, about
eighteen months old at her father's death ; she was
made the king's ward, but the estate was claimed by
her uncle Bryan as heir male.* The result does not
appear, but Grace afterwards married Henry Eccleston,
a younger son of the local family.4 Although this
branch of the Parrs appears to have been entitled to a
fourth part of their moiety, no claim to a manor was
made in the sixteenth century. The estate was known
as Broad Oak.
Other Parr families occur. Richard de Parr of the
Shaw is named in 1375 ;' Adam son of John de Parr
in 1301 ;6 John de Parr in 1321,' and a later Adam
in 1347."
The Hospitallers held land9 now called Leafog or
L4FFOG,™ which they granted to a member of one
PRESCOT
of the Parr families, Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal and
William his son holding it in the sixteenth century."
On the latter's death in 1570 it was granted by
Queen Elizabeth to John Dudley," from whom
Thomas Norris of Orford acquired it, and by his
daughter it passed to Thomas Tyldesley." A resident
family took surname from this place.14
The Hindleys of Aspull were concerned in various
suits as to lands in Parr in the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries.15
The Orrells of BL4CKBROOK are said to be
derived from those of Pemberton, Humphrey Orrell
removing to this place about the end of the seven-
teenth century.16 Humphrey Orrell of Parr, yeoman
and tanner, registered a freehold estate there and at
Windle in 1717." He was succeeded by his son and
grandson, both named James ; the latter's son, Charles,
1 Robert Parr in 1523 leased to Richard
Halsall of Parr, tailor, a close called the
Middle Riding ; the father was probably
dead at this time ; ibid. n. ro8. From the
inquisition after the death of Robert's son
8 Adam de Parr in 1 342 brought a claim
for novel disseisin against Richard son of
Henry de Parr, Alan son of Richard de
Parr, lords of the manor, and Alice widow
of Robert de Parr ; Assize R. 1435, m. 47.
release of claim in Platt in Withington in
1314; Birch Chapel (Chet. Soc.), 192.
Henry de Laghok and Alice his wife were
with companions in 1343 accused of having
in May the previous year invaded certain
Parr granted, as dower, certain lands to
his mother Grace, who was still living in
a Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 3.
From this it appears that Robert Parr, the
grandfather, in 1513 made a settlement
on the marriage of this John and Kathe-
rine his wife ; the latter was living in
1531. The premises in Parr were held of
the earl of Derby by knight's service, but
by what part or what rent wai unknown ;
the clear value was £7. The premises in
Lathom were held in the same manner,
married the claimant, though she must
have been an elderly woman ; De Bane. R.
348, m. 235 d. From this case it appears
that Adam's title was derived from Henry
de Parr.
'The land was granted before 1193
bv William son of Dolfin ; Birch Chafe!
(Chet. Soc.), 189; Ormerod, Chet. (ed.
Helsby), i, 67;. It is mentioned in the
Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 375.
I" Laghoke, 1291; Lathok, 1292;
Laghok, 1347.
11 So in the Inq. p.m. o Sir Thomas
with swords, bows and arrows.' The com-
plainants were Robert son of Adam de
Parr, Alice widow of Roger de Laghok,
and John, Roger's son ; Assize R. 430,
m. 3, 3 d. In 1 367 John son of Roger de
Laghoke was plaintiff in a suit a;ainst
Henry de Laghoke and Alice his wife ;
Assize R. 1435, m. 39,/.
" In 1466 Robert Hindley was plaintiff
against John Parr, son of Robert ; Charles
Parr, Thomas Parr, Henry Parr ; Robert
Parr, son of Nicholas; William Parr;
Robert Parr, son of John— all described
» Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, .96.
4 This appears by a fine of 1552 ; Pal.
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 14, m. 145.
The remainders were to Thomas son of
Parr paid \id. for a messuage called Lag-
hoke, according to the rental in Kuerden,
v, fol. 84.
w Pat. 1 7 Eliz. pt. v ; to John Dudley and
others, a capital messuage, &c. called Lag-
that Alice Hindley, plaintiff's wife, had
been seized and detained, together with
some of his goods. Pal. of Lane. Plea R.
30, m. 9, 10. Robert de Parr, the father
of Nicholas, had married, no doubt as his
Henry's brother. The latter, the head of
the estate of William marquis of North-
to have been a Hindley ; at least, lands
were given by Gilbert de Hindley to
Ct. of Wards and Liveries, box I3A,
Rolls, and Anne his wife, a messuage and
had three sons— Matthew and Gilbert,
From a schedule of deeds in the Piccope
MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xiv, 97, it appears that
the estates of this branch of the Eccleston
family in Broadoak (Parr), Lathom, and
Sutton descended to a Henry Eccleston,
whose son Edward in 1671 married
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 47, m. 23.
13 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, ». 51.
There were numerous suits with neighbour-
ing landowners ; Ducatu, Lane, iii, 275,
&c. Shortly afterwards, in 1600, Thurstan
eldest son of John Parr claimed possession
daughter Alice, the wife of Robert Hind-
ley, the plaintiff in this case ; also three
daughters— Sibyl, Maud, and Cecily ;
ibid. R. 40, m. 21. Eight years later
Robert Hindley and Alice his wife and
John Parr were plaintiffs against Thurstan
ters -Margery, who married Thomas
Lyon, and Esther, whose son Edward
Barton was living in 1721.
s See a preceding note. He may be the
Richard son of Richard de Parr of the
Shaw of 1390; Townley's MS. GG,
n. 2436, 2878 (feoffments of his lands in
Parr and Widnes). Alice widow of Richard
de Parr of the Shaw, and his daughter
Margaret, widow of William de Ireland,
were parties to deeds made in 1411 ; ibid.
424. These were probably occupiers only.
In 1617-8 Sir Thomas Tyldesley and
Thomas Tyldesley his son and heir held a
manor in Parr ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 91, n. 38.
14 Wigan de Laghok had land here in
1246, claimed by Richard de Flixton as
his by descent ; the claim was not prose-
cuted ; Assize R. 404, m. 8. Roger de
Laghoke was plaintiff against the lords of
the manor in 1291 ; they had, he said,
first two appeared against Thurstan Parr
and Ralph his son ; Roger Parr, son of
Edward ; Alice Parr, and others, as to a
seizure of their goods ; ibid. R. 43, m. 3 ;
R. 44, m. 6. The following year Thurs-
tan Parr accused Hugh Hindley of Hind-
ley, Robert Hindley and Alice, and others,
of damaging his corn and grass ; ibid. R.
44, m. 6 d. Also R. 45, m. 5, and R.
47, m. 1 6. See further in the account
of Aspull ; also Ducatus Lane, i, 163, &c.
Hugh Hindley was in 1531 found to have
year Ellen daughter of Richard de Pem-
berton quitclaimed to Alice all her right
in a messuage called the Hollinhead in
Parr; ibid, n, 2376.
« He was defendant to a claim made by
Robert son of Henry de Parr ; Assize R.
1 Kuerden MSS, vi, fol. 86, n. 212;
Richard son of Patrick the Smith and
Agnes his wife granted to John de Parr
an acre in Sutton in 1320-1. He was
perhaps the John son of Henry de Parr
of 1318; DC Bane. R. 274, m. 59</.
bote and heybote, in 40 acres of wood, as
well as mast for his pigs ; they had also
raised a hedge across the direct way to the
wood of Laghok, so that now he had to
go nearly two leagues round, and the road
to the pasture was also closed by it. The
jurors ordered the hedge to be pulled down,
but agreed that Roger had sufficient mast
outside the 40 acres of wood recently en-
closed. Assize R. 1294, m. 8. Hugh de
Laghoke was non-suited in a claim against
Roger in 1292 ; Assize R. 408, m. ?4</.
William ton of Hugh de Laghok gave a
38!
held two messuages and lands of the earl
of Derby, but the services were unknown ;
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 22.
" An account of this recusant family is
given in Gillow's Bibliog. Diet, of Engl.
Catb. v, 219, where many particulars may
be seen ; ' family manuscripts' are referred
to as authorities.
V Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non-
juror!, 127. The following small ' Papists' '
estates were also registered : John Platt,
collier ; Roger Barton of Liverpool ; and
William Berry ; ibid. 97, 120, 122.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
died unmarried in 1843 ; his two brothers, James
and Philip, were priests ; and his sisters all died un-
married at Blackbrook. The whole of their property
was given to various ecclesiastical purposes, Black-
brook House becoming a convent of the Sisters of
Mercy.
Some neighbouring landholders had estates in Parr.1
The only freeholder recorded in 1600 was Edward
Travis ;' the subsidy list of 1628 does not name any.
Under the Parliament the properties sequestrated
were those of Bryan Howard and Emma Mather,
both for recusancy.3 The hearth tax list of 1666
includes twelve houses here having three hearths and
more.4 The land tax return for 1785 shows that
the assigns of Sarah Clayton paid £18 for Parr Hall
estate, and John Orrell £5 for Blackbrook out of a
total of £50.
The Established Church has two places of worship
in Parr ; St. Peter's, built in 1 844, and Holy
Trinity,* Parr Mount, in 1863. The vicar of
St. Helens presents to them.
There is a Free Gospel chapel at Blackbrook.
The Roman Catholic church of Blessed Mary Im-
maculate, Blackbrook, was consecrated in 1845. The
mission is supposed to have been founded at the
end of the seventeenth century, when Bryan Orrell,
alias John Martin, an alumnus of Douay, 1686, came
to serve at Blackbrook House, where, as stated above,
his elder brother had settled. In 1754 a room to
serve as a chapel was built, James Orrell, the owner,
granting a 500 years' lease at a rent of is.6 St. Vin-
cent's, Derbyshire Hill, was opened in 1905.
RAINFORD
Raineford, 1190; Rcineford, 1202; Rayneford,
1256; Raynesford, 1262; Reynford, Rayneford,
and Raynsford, 1292.
This is a large township, having an area of 5,872^
acres,7 embracing open country, flat on the north and
west and undulating on the south-east. The highest
ground, rising to 300 ft. above sea level, is near the
village of Crank, a bare exposed spot. In the northern
portion of the district there are coal mines ; the
remainder is agricultural, the principal crops raised
being potatoes, oats, wheat, and clover. The soil is
clayey. The Sankey or Rainford Brook flows through
the whole length of the township from north-west to
south-east, on its way towards the Mersey. The
geological formation consists mainly of the coal
measures, but from Rainford village to the chase in
Knowsley Park there is a belt three-quarters of a
mile in width of the lower mottled sandstone of the
bunter series (new red sandstone), and the pebble
beds of the same series are just touched at Kirkby
Moss. Formerly the land can have been of com-
paratively little value, the large area of moss being
shown by such names as Reeds Moss, Rainford Moss,
and Mossborough ; occasional patches of unreclaimed
mossland are still met with. About 1720 the
northern half was called Chapel end, and the southern,
Haysarm end. The village of Rainford is in the
former, and the hamlet of Crank in the latter. Rain-
ford Hall (Col. Pilkington, J.P.) is a large modern
house on an old site, east of the village.
The principal road is that from St. Helens to
Ormskirk ; it runs alongside the brook, which it
crosses before reaching the village. Here it is joined
by another road coming from Prescot in the south-
west. The London and North-Western Company's
line from St. Helens to Ormskirk also runs parallel
to the brook, with stations at Crank, Rookery, and
Rainford. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's
line from Liverpool to Manchester crosses the
northern end of the township, and where it passes
under the other railway is a station called Rainford
Junction.
The population in 1901 numbered 3,359.
A local board was formed in 1872 ;8 and in 1894
became an urban district council of fifteen members.
Rainford has several collieries. It has long been
known for the manufacture of tobacco pipes, but this
industry is now decaying ; firebricks and crucibles
were also made here.
The early history of R4INFORD is
M4NOR obscure. In 1324 it was held by Robert
de Lathom in socage, without any service ; '
it descended from the Lathoms to their heirs the
Stanleys,10 and the earl of Derby is the lord of the
manor. No manor court is now held, but eighty
years ago one used to be held on the first Tuesday
after Easter.11 The land was early divided among
a large number of free tenants, one or more of
whom took the local surname," others being known
i e.g., the Worsleys of Pemberton and
Asshaws of Flixton ; Duchy of Lane.
Inq. p.m. xv, ». 29 ; xvi, n. 1 1 . Edmund
Taylor of Burton Wood died in 1624,
The recusant roll of 1628 gives thirty
names in Parr.
-i 5,877, including eleven of inland
water; Census Rep. of 1901.
There are numerous court rolls at Knows-
" Randle and Ralph de Rainford were
among the witnesses to a charter granted
Derby ; and his son Ralph died in 1641,
leaving a »on and heir Edmund, seven
years of age ; Land. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 418; Duchy of
Lane. Inq. p.m. xxix, n. n. William
» Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 33.
An inquisition taken in 1370 after the
death of Thomas de Lathom states that
he held Rainford of the duke of Lancaster
in socage ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. ii,
the time of Richard I ; Farrer, Lanes. Pipe
R- 353-
Ralph de Rainford appears in 1202 in
a fine by which he acquired a part of
three oxgangs of land in Rainford, between
Laffog demesne ; Bryan, his son and heir,
was twenty-four years old ; ibid, xxx, n. 28.
* Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 241.
» Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), iii, 305 ; iv, 126.
4 Lay Subs. 2^0-9. The largest house
was Mrs. Chamberlain's, with eleven
hearths; then follow Widow Callan, 6,
Mr. Eccleston, 5, and Ralph Platt, 4. See
also Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvi, 135.
•ZW. C«. 15 Sept. 1863.
• Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1901, where the
succession of the priests is given. Also
Gillow, op. cit.
Rainford, and Anglezarke together as one
knight's fee held of the barony of Man-
chester, a rent of 31. being rendered ; but
apart from this nothing is known as to
any dependence of Rainford on Manches-
ter ; Mamecestre (Chet. Soc.), 338, and
Add. MS. 32104, fol. 425*, for the Inqs.
p.m. of the second and fifth earls.
lu Almost all the inquisitions respecting
land held in Rainford state that it was
held of the Stanleys or of the earls of
Derby ; see for example Lanes. Inq. p.m.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 168 ; ii,
128,215.
11 Baines, Lanes. Directory, 1824, ii, 706.
38*
bounds being: From Blackstone clough
to Brokkar lee, and thence to Birchley (in
Billinge), and downwards to Sankey
Brook. The annual service was to be
2J.; and Ralph and his men were to
have common of pasture as well in wood
as in plain ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 15. A grant by
John de Westlegh among the Norris.
deeds (B.M.), a. 934, shows the same
place-names. It was made to Thomas,
son of Saylsel (? Cecily) de Dalton ; and
in addition land in Roudicroft was granted,
the bounds beginning at the pit at the
spring-head and following the «yke to
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
as Haysarm,1 Parr,' and Forshaw,3 but no con-
nected history of these families can be given.
The descent of HAYSARM, now owned by Lord
Derby, is to some extent cleared by pleadings of
1539-40. Alan Haysarm, seised of the hall and
estate, granted it to his son John, with remainder
to Alan's sister Alice, wife of Thomas More. As
John died childless the hall and lands were claimed
by John Marsh, son and heir of Henry, son and
heir of Janet, wife of John Marsh and daughter and
heir of Alice. The plaintiff further alleged that the
said Alice was formerly in the custody of one Margaret
Haysarm, who in conjunction with her husband
Jenkin Parr caused her to marry Thomas More,
PRESCOT
Parr's servant, and that by More's consent a Robert
Parr obtained possession. Edward Parr, the actual
holder, in defence stated that the said Robert, his
grandfather (died 1492), was in lawful possession, and
w.is followed by a son and heir William (died c. 1536),
to whom Edward (born 1489) had succeeded as son
and heir.4
The number of the free tenants in 1246 is indi-
cated by the complaint by Richard Whitehaud and
Alice his wife, and Henry de Lascelles and Agnes his
wife, against Alan de Windle, Hugh the Serjeant, and
twenty others, including Cecily de Rainford, as to
10 acres, of which the plaintiffs alleged they had
disseised them, and which hereupon were restored to
Russilache, and thence to Sankey ; along
this to Launclough.
In 1208 Siward de Derwent and Juliana
occurs in 1332 as defendant in a plea by
Adam de Vesey and Margery his wife,
widow of William de Crookhurst, con
lands to Alan de Ditton and Richard her
son in 1426-7 ; Kuerden MSS. iii, R i, n.
417. She was Alan's sister; Blundell
snead in Whiston, acquired from William
de Rainford part of his three oxgangs
of land, between the place called Bic-
swahe and Holcroft Ford, tenable by the
free service of 6J. ; Final Cone, i, 29.
William, son of Hugh, and Emma his
wife agreed with Adam, son of Hugh, and
of land, etc. in Rainford ; De Bane. R.
292, m. 482 d. An exchange of lands
was made in 1354 by John son of
William de Rainford, and John son of
Alan son of Dandi ; Kuerden MSS.Jii,
R. i, 477.
The bishop of Lichfieldf in 1391
John son and heir of Richard Parr held
lands here in 1503 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea
R. 96, m. 3.
8 Forshaw is a contraction of Four-
oaks Shaw; the ancient spellings are
numerous-Fouracshagh, &c.
In 1292 Robert, Roger, Alan, and
of land in Rainford in 1256 ; ibid, i,
In 1288 Adam de Rainford claimed
common of pasture for certain land of
which he alleged Robert de Lathom had
disseised him; Assize R. 1277, m. 32*.
There were at that time two Adams, one
being son of John and the other son of
the celebration of divine service by a
priest m his oratory in his manor house
at Rainford ; Lich. Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 127.
Henry brother of John de Rainford held
the manor in 1443 ; his brother's widow
Margery held part in dower ; Knowsley
D. bdle. 301, n. i, 2. In 1451 the heir
of John de Rainford paid ±d. to Cocker-
claims made by Richard at the Cliff;
Assize R. 408, m. 65. Of these Robert
and Adam called Adam son of John de
Rainford to warrant them; Roger said
his tenement was the right of Amery
his wife ; and Alan held by the law of
England, of the inheritance of Adam his
former Adam was great-grandson and
heir of John de Westleigh, who had been
enfeoffed of land in Rainford by a certain
Hawise, grandmother of Richard son of
Henry at the Cliff, claimant in 1292.
Adam son of John de Rainford in 1292
granted to John son of John de Rainford
land in the Lund ; Blundell of Crosby
evidences, K. 277.
Adam son of John the rector of West-
leigh held land in Rainford, of which he
granted a portion to Cockersand Abbey ;
ship ; and in 1501 the earl of Derby paid
it ; Cockersand Cbartul. iv, 1242-7.
The above-named Adam son of Bene-
dict had a son Alan, defendant in several
suits in 1323 and later years; he may
have been father of the John son of Alan
de Rainford who purchased land in 1356
from Richard son of Gilbert de Eccleston
and his wife ; Assize R. 425, m. I d, 3 ;
426, m. 6. In this case Robert son of
John de Rainford was said to have enfeoffed
the defendants. Alan de Rainford occurs
Robert son of Alan de Forshaw ; William
son of Hugh de Rainford gave him land
called Shalinghead ; Adam son of John
de Rainford, an acre in his waste ; and
Alan son of Richard de Barrow, a part
of the Lund next to Raueden ; in 1291
the above Adam de Rainford leased Ram-
dencrook to him for twelve years ; Blun-
dell of Crosby evidences ; K. 69, 74, &c.
A settlement of certain land was made
by Adam de Forshaw in 1315 ; it was to
go to his son Robert, or in default of
His charter mentions Luthccrofts Head,
Bicshaw, Holcroft, and Aldcroft in the
description of the boundaries. Alan,
another son of John de Westleigh, gave
4 acres on Shishaw Bank to Cockersand ;
Alan de Rainford was reported as one of
the invaders of several of Sir Robert
Holand's manors in the time of Edward III ;
R. ofParl. ii, 380.
Many other instances of the local name
Alan, Mariota, and Alice. Roger son of
Adam put in his claim; Final Cone.
ii, 21. It appears from a later plea that
Roger was Adam's son by his first wife
Alice, and Robert by his second, Margery.
de Westleigh was the subject of a quit-
claim by Richard de Wolfmoor and
Cecily his wife in 1272; ibid, ii, 615.
Kuerden fol. MS. p. 98, n. 343 ; iii, R i,
T 2.
1 Adam de Haysarm granted to Henry
Adam de Haysarm, who gave it in free
marriage to Alan de Forshaw and Alice
his wife ; their son and heir was the
confirmed to Agnes de Crookhurst in
Billinge half an oxgang of land in Rain-
ford ; Final Cone, i, 141. The above-
named Ralph de Rainford had in 1202
land in Wolfmoor (in Lathom) ; ibid.
' In 1290 Ralph de Bickerstath sued for
the recovery of certain land of which he
asserted Adam de Rainford, William de
Rainford, and William his son and a num-
ber of others had disseised him ; but on
inquiry it was found that the land was in
Rainford and not in Bickerstaffe; Assize R.
1288, m. 12. William de Rainford was
one of the defendants to the suit of
Richard at the Cliff already mentioned ;
he called the abbot of Cockersand to war-
rant. He was also defendant in a claim
by Adam de Rainford, but the latter was
non-suited ; Assize R. 408, m. 5 8. Maud,
widow of William de Rainford, was
plaintiff in 1323-4; De Bane. R. 248,
William son of William de Rainford
ford held of Alan de Westleigh, Adam
his brother, and Benedict de Rainford.
This was, perhaps, about 1260; later,
Henry son of Adam de Haysarm trans-
ferred the grant to his brother Richard,
who, in addition to the 22t/. rent, was to
give a barbed arrow every year ; Kuerden
MSS. iii, R 2. Richard de Haysarm,
sen. was defendant in 1323-4 ; De Bane.
R. 248, m. 69 d.
Land was settled on Henry son of
Richard de Haysarm in 1325-6, with
remainders to his sisters Amabel, Mary,
Alice, and Agnes. Henry de Haysarm
and his wife Ellen are mentioned in 1 336 ;
and a daughter Margery in 1340 ; Kuer-
den, iii, R 2.
8 In 1358 William de Parr of Rainford
and Katherine his wife were defendants
in a claim made by William son of
Richard de Fazakerley respecting a mes-
suage and land in Rainford ; Assize R.
438, m. j</. Alice widow of John de
Parr of Rainford gave a release of her
383
of Adam was still under age in 1323 ;
Coram Rege R. 254, m. $7 d.
Margery widow of Adam de Forshaw
put in a claim against Robert in 1325-6 ;
De Bane. R. 260, m. 3. Robert was a
minor at his father's death ; Assize R.
425, m. id. Four sons of Roger de
Forshaw — Alan, William, Roger, and
Randle— were charged with assaulting
Thomas Baudrick at Rainford in 1 348 ;
De Bane. R. 356, m. 511 d. The name
does not occur frequently after this.
4 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Hen. VIII,
xii, M3 ; Depos. xxxv, Pi.
Edward Parr made a settlement of his
lands here by fine in April, 1555. One
of the same name was freeholder in 1 600
and 1628 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet, of F. bdle.
15, m. 37 ; Mac. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 242 ; Norris D. (B.M.) From a
deed of 1658 it appears that Edmund
Parr had sold lands in Rainford to Thomas
Bowyer, who agreed to give him the
refusal in the case of re-sale ; Croxteth D.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
them.1 References to other early suits bearing wit-
ness to the same subdivision will be found in the
notes.1
Sir Robert de Lathom, who died in 1 3 24, is said
to have given Rainford to his brother Thomas, who
settled at MOSSSOROUGH.3
Richard son of Thomas de Lathom, perhaps acting
as trustee, made a grant to Henry de Haysarm in
1325-6, and a further one ten years later ; while, as
Richard de Lathom, lord of Rainford, he leased four
acres to the same Henry de Haysarm and Margery his
daughter in 1 340.* In the actions for dower brought
by Maud widow of William de Rainford, in 1323-4,
Richard the son and Joan the widow of Thomas de
Lathom were principal defendants.5
Richard appears to have held the manor for about
fifty years. He was twice married ; by his first
wife, Margaret, he had a son and heir Thomas, against
whom his widow Hawise recovered dower in 1377.'
The next to occur is John Lathom, of whom Sir
Thomas Gerard held his land in Rainford in 14167
Some change in the tenure seems to have occurred
at this time. The lands of Sir Peter Gerard, who
died in 1447, were found to be held of Sir Thomas
Stanley ;8 and in the much later inquisitions of the
Lathoms of Mossborough no ' manor of Rainford ' is
claimed, but Mossborough is said to be held of the
earls of Derby by the old 4/. rent or more.9
In 1444 Sir Thomas Stanley brought a suit against
John Lathom of Rainford for cutting down trees and
doing other damage.10
For the next century little is known concerning
the family." The inquisition after the death of John
Lathom of Mossborough, taken in 1558, shows that
he held lands also in Prescot, Wigan, Billinge, and
Ashton in Makerfield." His son and heir Henry was
only seven years old at the time. He appears to
have been brought up strictly in the Roman Catholic
faith, and suffered much for it in Elizabeth's reign.
'On 22 March, 1583, the Council was advised that
Henry Lathom of Mossborough had lately fled out
of the county of Lancaster, and was supposed to be
hiding in the house of Lady Egerton at Ridley in
Cheshire. Shortly afterwards Mossborough Hall was
visited by the queen's officers and ransacked. Not
content with carrying off everything of a sacred
character, they declared all the goods, movable and
immovable, confiscated to the royal exchequer, and
put seals on all the doors, chests, &c. Mrs. Lathom,
who was in the house at the time, was treated in a
most barbarous manner by the miscreants, who tore
open her dress even to her under-garments, under
pretence of examining her person for medals, rosaries,
or other pious objects. At length Mr. Lathom was
apprehended and imprisoned at Lancaster, where he
was lying in 1590. In November, 1592, he was
sent up to London, and brought before Archbishop
Whitgift, who committed him to the Fleet. There
he lay for some years, but ultimately appears to have
obtained his release and to have returned to Moss-
borough."3 He died on 1 1 April, 1620; his heir
being his son Henry, forty-three years of age."
1 Assize R. 404, m. 4. The plaintiff
also made charges of assault ; ibid. m. 19.
If each of these free tenants had an aver-
age holding of half an oxgang of land, the
portion of Rainford held by them would
amount to a plough-land and a half. That
some of the holdings were much larger
than this is shown by references already
given, and by a claim put forward by
Andrew Scales in 1275, by which he
demanded an oxgang and a half of land
from Adam de Westleigh, the same from
William de Crookhurst and Emma his
wife, and half an oxgang from Richard de
Barrow ; De Bane. R. 1 1, m. 75. Two
years later William de Lycester (or le
Teynturer) and Margaret his wife claimed
dower in a messuage and half an oxgang
latter period the Lyon family appear as
purchasers; ibid. bdle. 35, m. 133; 50,
century the Lyon family had lands here ;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 3 5, m. 1 3 3 ;
50, m. 191 ; 55, m. 99; Exch. Dtfos.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 35.
8 There does not seem to be any evi-
dence of this grant extant, nor yet of the
parentage of Thomas. Ormerod, in his
account in the Parentalia, 67, refers
only to the ' Lancashire pedigrees.'
« Kuerden MSS. iii, R. 2. Richard de
Lathom is first in the contributors in this
township to the subsidy of 1332 ; Exch.
Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
b De Bane. R. 248, m. 69^. From
his wife were complainants in 1503 as to
trespass in Billinge ; ibid, file 6, ». 33.
In the pedigree she is called ' daughter
and co-heir of — Eyves de Billinge.'
12 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. x, n. i.
The Rainford estate is described as a
capital messuage called Mossborough,
with II houses, 3 cottages, 100 acres of
land, 40 acres of meadow, and 140 acres
of pasture, held of Edward earl of Derby
by knight's service and a rent of 4*. ; the
value being estimated at £13 18..
18 Gillow, Bib! og. Diet, of Engl. Cath.
iv, 146, quoting Bridgewater's Coneerfario'
Eeel. Cath. (ed. 1594), fol. 223, 415 j
Crosby Rec. (Chet. Soc. new ser.), 22,
23 ; Gibson, Lydia.e hall, 234, 246, 261,
262. In 1599 Bishop Vaughan reported
2 Besides those cited above one may be
mentioned which came before the judges
frequently for several years. In 1313
Margery daughter of Richard de Lough-
field, and her sister Christiana, then wife
of William de Woodfall, claimed from
Robert son of John de Rainford and
others certain lands of which they said
their uncle Roger, son of Amice de Rain-
ford, had been disseised. De Bane. R.
199, m. 75 d. ; 206, m. 202, &c., to R.
223, m. 87^., when the claim appears to
have been decided in their favour. The
same plaintiffs appeared in I 3 24 against
Robert de Forshaw and Alan son of Adam
de Rainford; Assize R. 4-5, m. i d. ;
426, m. 6. In 1321 William de Wood-
fall and Christiana his wife sold some of
their land to Richard son of Robert de
Holland ; Final Cone, ii, 44.
Ralph de Bispham of Billinge had lands
here in 1453, and Thomas Bispham and
others appear in the time of Elizabeth ;
Blundell of Crosby evidences, K. 58;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 20, m.
112; 35, m. 19; 45, m. 78. In the
suages and lands, and from Joan a third
of 6 messuages, &c.
« De Bane. R. 458, m. 51 ; 463,01.
67. Thomas de Lathom of Lathom, who
died in 1370, was found to have been
seised of the service of Richard de
Lathom, who held of him the manor of
Rainford in socage by a rent of 4*. ;
under Richard he himself held a plot of
land called the Hurstfield, by a rent of
zid. ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. ii, n. 7.
1 Lanes. In?, f.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 124.
8 Towneley's MS. DD. n. 1465.
» Possibly there was some breach in the
succession. The old pedigree states that
John Lathom, son of the last-named
John, was killed by Alan Rainford in
1437-8 ; Viat. of 1613 (Chet. Soc.), 106
— the only recorded pedigree.
of Lane. Plea R. 6, m. 6 ; 7,
15* ; 9, m. 1 1 b.
ithom of Mossborough, gentle-
tied to answer the king
on some charge in 1467, and five years
afterwards was said to have been outlawed ;
Pal. of Lane. Chanc. Misc. bdle. I, file 10,
n. 24, 23. Henry Lathom and Elizabeth
n. zb ; 8, m. u
11 John Lathon
bourers of seminary priests, and desired
that he and others might be ' bridled from
above and brought in with a strong
hand'; Foley, Rec. SJ. i, 641 (quot-
ing S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxiv, n. 25).
14 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 205. The rent is this time
given as 51. 4^. Of the 586 acres stated
to be included in the Rainford portion, it
is noticeable that 380 are described as
moor, moss, heath, and briar. Besides
the heir he had six other sons, all of
whom became Benedictine monks, some
returning to England to serve on the
mission. In consequence of the practice
of taking a fresh name on entering the
order it is not always possible to be cer-
tain of the identity of the persons. John,
Thomas, William, and George were men-
tioned in a settlement made in 1597, and
there were two others, Vincent and
Gabriel; all of them had died, un-
married, before 1652; Royalist Camp. P.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iv, 66.
Thomas became a monk at Compostella
before 1585 and died at Douay in 1624 ;.
William, after education at Douay, joined
384
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Henry Lathom the younger followed in his father's
steps as regards religion, suffering accordingly.1 He
married Frances daughter of Richard Molyneux of
Cunscough ; by her he had three sons and several
daughters. The eldest son, Thomas, took up arms in
the royal cause in the Civil War, and was slain at
Newark;' the second, Henry, became a monk at
Paris;5 and the third, William, came into possession
of Mossborough. After his death it passed, by his
daughter Frances' marriage with Robert Molyneux
of Melling, to this family.* Their sons Robert and
William in succession followed.5 The last-named
married Anne, daughter of John Harrington of Huy-
ton ; and, secondly, Gertrude Frances, daughter of
James Gorsuch of Scarisbrick, and on his dying in 1 745,
Mossborough passed to Frances his daughter by the
second marriage. She married Sir Edward Blount
of Sodington in 1 752.° Mossborough was sold by
the trustees to the earl of Derby in 1786;' his
descendant, the present earl, now owns it.
James Collier of Rainford compounded for his
estate in 1649,* and Richard Hilton, as a 'Papist,'
registered an estate here and at Westhoughton in
>7i7-9
Excluding Mossborough Hall, there were in 1666
only fifteen houses having three hearths and more.10
The improvement of Rainford Moss was begun
about 1780 by John Chorley of Prescot."
In 1785 Mr. Samuel Booth, excise officer, con-
PRESCOT
tributed £<), the earl of Derby £3 I $!. 6J., and
Edward Falkner £1 i8s. yd. towards the sum of
£43 3/. id. in which the township was assessed to
land tax.
Of the origin of the chapel and its
CHURCH ancient dedication no record has been
found. In 1541 Lawrence Robe(y) was
the curate in charge.18 Its fate at the Reformation is
unknown. In 1 590 it was distinguished by having
' a preacher ' as curate,13 but in 1592 the curate, having
given no monitions, was excommunicated, as were
the principal man in the township, Henry Lathom,
and his wife Margaret.14 By 1610 it had sunk to
the usual level of chapels of ease, being served by
' a reading minister,' who was ' no preacher.' I6
Mr. Cheeseman was curate in l622.16 The Parliamen-
tary Committee, with their usual care for religion, in
1645 ordered that ^35 should be paid out of the
tithes of Prescot, sequestered from the carl of Derby,
towards the maintenance of a minister at Rainford.17
In 1650 Mr. Timothy Smith, 'an orthodox, godly,
preaching minister,' was in charge, with a stipend of
£\Q out of the sequestrations ; in addition there was
a capital stock of £60 or more given by various bene-
factors for the minister, when there might be one, or
for the poor of the township. On the chapel-yard
was erected a small building called the chapel chamber,
in which the minister had lived in former times, and
which had also been used as a schoolroom. In 1650
the Benedictines of Dieulwart, taking the
name of Switbert ; he died as chaplain of
Mossborough in Dec. 1640 ; George was
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvi, 134.
Mary Breres was there four years later ;
Lay Subs. 250-9. The house had twelve
married till 1732; Piccope MSS. iii,
250, from the 5th R. of Geo. II at Pres-
ton. The will of William Molyneux
1646 ; Gabriel was the first monk to be
professed at St. Edmund's, Paris, in 1622,
and died in 1635 ; Vincent, professed the
same year as Gabriel, at Douay, died
in 1640. These particulars are from
Prescot.
The sequestration of two-thirds of the
estates continued, but on William's death
Roger Bradshaw of Haigh, guardian of
the daughter and heir, Frances Lathom,
his capital messuage of Mossborough
Hall ; his daughter Frances was his heir,
and a cousin, Robert Billinge, son and
heir of John Billinge, was also named ;
ibid. 274, from i8th R. of Geo. II, at
Sec. (New Ser.), xiii, 128, 130, 136, 145.
See also Wills (Chet. Soc. New Ser.), i,
1 ' Mr. Lathom and his five brothers,
all priests, were at the meeting at Holy-
Parliamentary Committee for a removal of
the sequestration, on the ground that she
6 G. E. C. Complete Baronetage, ii, 203.
Lady Blount died in 1787.
7 Knowsley D.
8 Royalist Composition P. ii, 73 ; he
seems to have taken arms for the king
The guardianship had been entrusted to
Roger Bradshaw as the nearest capable
534 Quoting S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cli,
n. I3). His lands, among those of other
recusants, were leased by the king in
1623 to Anthony Croston ; Pat. 21 Jas. I
(27 July). In 1628, as convicted, he
paid double to the subsidy; Norris D.
(B.M.). He made a settlement of his
property in 1632, and died about Christ-
mas, 1648, having been 'impotent in his
limbs ' for ten years previously, and having
two-thirds of his property sequestered for
recusancy ; Royalist Camp. P. iv, 65,
66. In 1641 Frances wife of Henry
Lathom, also Thomas, Anne, Margaret,
roll; Tram. Hist. sic. (New Ser.), xiv,
240.
a Gillow, Bibliag. Diet, ut sup.
« Gillow in Trans. Hist. Soc. ut sup.
Camp. P. iv, 64-7. She was married in
1664; Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 202. Frances
9 Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 1 06.
lu Lay Subs. 250-9.
her son and heir Robert are mentioned
in a lease of 1688-9; Piccope MSS.
(Chet. Lib.), iii, 242, from a Roll of
Geo. II at Preston.
5 From the Halsall registers it appears
that Robert Molyneux was born early in
1668, and William in Sept. 1669. The
former married Anne daughter of Sir James
Poole of Poole in Wirral, and in 1717
registered his estate in Rainford, valued at
,£•310 41. ijrf. a year, the remainder being
to his wife Anne and his brother William;
Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, 115. His mother
Frances is mentioned. He was living in
1725 ; Piccope MSS. iii, 230, from I2th
R. of Geo. I, at Preston. His will was
in the Agricultural Sur-v. of Lanes, pub-
lished in 1795, p. 99.
" Clergy List of 1541-2 (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 15.
« Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 248 (quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4).
» Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x, 193.
I* Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 1 2.
One Harper was 'reader' in 1609 ; Rames
MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 298.
16 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
65. A Mr. Pyke was there in 1638 ;
Prescot Church Papers.
< Before 1634 there were no seats in the
chapel, except those belonging to the an-
cestors of Henry Lathom of Mossborough,
St. Edmund's, Paris, taking the name of
Augustine ; he died in 1677. From the
account of Mossock of Bickerstaffe it
appears that he laboured in Lancashire.
4 William Lathom married Mary
daughter of Sir Cuthbert Clifton; her
second husband was Lawrence Breres of
Walton ; Dugdale, Viut. (Chet. Soc.),
59, 86. He held the estate but a
short time, dying in March, 1652. In
1662 Lawrence Breres and Mrs. Frances
Lathom were living at Mossborough ;
3
the same time was in possession of the
house at Melling, registering an estate
of /8o there; Engl. Cath. Non-jurors,
122. He received Aigburth Hall from
his brother-in-law John Harrington and
afterwards sold it; see the account
of Garston. The inscription in Melling
church, placed there by his daugh-
ter Lady Blount, records that he died
on II March, 1744, aged seventy-five,
and his widow Frances on 18 October,
1750, aged fifty-five; they were not
385
was built ; but in this year there was a
distribution of seats, made by commis-
sioners appointed by the bishop ; upon
which distribution, over against the name
of every person who had a seat assigned
to him [were recorded] the sum he was
to pay the minister for his wages, and
another sum for his "fifteen" or assess-
ment towards the repair of the chapel ' ;
Gastrell, Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 213.
17 Plundered Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, II.
49
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Ralph Smith was in occupation during the town's
pleasure.1 Two years later, however, Mr. James
Smith was minister at Rainford, with an allowance of
£50 a year.'
The chapel remained in the hands of the Presby-
terians,* apparently with the approval of the township,
until about 1700, when it was recovered for the Estab-
lished Church, a body of trustees being appointed,
with the right of nominating the curate, the vicar of
Prescot approving.* The township was formed into
a district chapelry in i869,5 and the present church
of All Saints was built near the old one in 1878.
The registers date from 1718.
The later incumbents, nominated by the vicar of
Prescot, have been 6 : —
1702 Ralph Sherdley
1722 Robert Peploe ~
1739
'745
Edward Jones, B.A.
Richard Hunt
1778
Matthew Robinson
1807
William Ellam
1846
Charles Bullen
1853
Henry Walker
1855
Samuel Cavan
1873
Gilbert Coventry Master
1879
John Barnacle, M.A. (St.
John's College,
Cambridge)
1888
1892
John Wright Williams
John Bridger8
The old congregation of the chapel, on being
evicted, continued their worship elsewhere. Reynald
Tetlaw seems to have been minister for about forty
years ; his congregation numbered 665, of whom
sixty-three had county votes.9 A chapel was built in
1702 or 1703, and was succeeded in 1867 by the
present Congregational church.10
The Primitive Methodists have two chapels, built
in 1857 and 1883.
So long as the Lathoms held Mossborough the
Roman Catholic faith and worship were maintained in
the district,11 and there seems to have been a resident
priest down to the time when the estate was sold."
At Crank also in the seventeenth century the old
form of worship was conducted, Anne Singleton in
1676 bequeathing £40 for the priest there, who was
to ' celebrate every year six masses for the good of
her soul and the souls of the family of Mossborough
and Crank and the rest of the souls in Purgatory ' ;
this was kept up until the beginning of the eighteenth
century." For about a century there was no Roman
Catholic chapel in Rainford itself; but in 1873
land was purchased, and a school-chapel built ; the
church of Corpus Christ! was opened in 1875."
WIDNES
Wydenesse, Wedenes, 1300 ; Wydnes, 1347.
Apelton, Il8o ; Appelton, 1198 ; Apulton, 1332.
Widnes appears at first to have been the name of
the district, the township name being Appleton.
This hamlet lies close to the centre, with Farnworth,
the site of the chapel, on the extreme north, Upton to
the north-west, and Denton to the east. Simm's
Cross and Lugdale have recently become hamlets or
suburbs of Widnes town. The marshy district by
the Mersey was interrupted by a projecting piece of
higher land, whence a crossing could be had to Run-
corn on the Cheshire side. On this ground the
town of Widnes has sprung up.
The flat and open country close to the town itself
is absolutely devoid of anything beautiful ; a district
more lacking in attractive natural features it would be
difficult to conceive. A great cloud of smoke hangs
continually over the town, and choking fumes assail
the nose, from various works. In the face of such
an atmosphere it is not to be wondered at that trees
and other green things refuse to grow. Even the
riverside is unpicturesque and rendered unpleasant by
the unsavoury mud which the tide leaves stranded
upon rocks and stones. The more remote and coun-
trified parts of the township consist of open fields,
with the minimum share of trees. Crops, such as
oats, potatoes, and turnips, thrive in a clayey soil.
The township lies upon the three sandstone and
pebble beds constituting the bunter series of the
new red sandstone or trias. The lower mottled
sandstone occurs at Upton in the west, the upper
mottled sandstone at Denton in the south-east. In
the low-lying ground towards the river the strata are
obscured by alluvial deposits.
1 Commonwealth Cb. Surv. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 79. Timothy Smith
signed the ' Harmonious Consent ' of 1648.
» Plundered Mini. Accts. i, 117, 248.
The allowance now was from the tithes
of Culcheth, sequestered from Mr. Cul-
cheth, recusant ; the endowment of the
chapel itself did not exceed £5 a year. In
1649 and '65° James Smith had been
minister of Atherton ; Common-wealth
Cb. Surv. 57; Plundered Mint. Accts.
Among the ' Presbyterian parsons and
their meeting-places' in 1689 was James
Bradshaw, of Rainford chapel; Kenyan
MSS. 231.
4 Gastrell, loc. cit. ; the curate's salary
was then £19 7i., made up of £5 interest
on the 'old stock,' £i 7'- on ^27 col-
lected by letters of request from Bishop
Stratford (probably when the chapel was
^AiL^^^w^
Marsh's benefaction, see End. Char. Rep.
(Prescot), 1902, p. 93.
10 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iv,
170-8; he mentions a local tradition
that the nonconformists once worshipped
in a cave in a field.
11 The recusant roll of 1628 gives nine-
teen names at Rainford; Lay Subs. I3i/
318. Richard Hitchmough in 1716 re-
ported that he had used a silver chalice
and paten when officiating as priest at the
admitted to Longridge ; ibid, ii, 202.
« Baptisms by Mr. Bradshaw, preacher
.at Rainford chapel, nonconformist, are re-
.corded in 1677 in the Prescot registers.
It is related that he retained the chapel
•without conformity by the connivance of
friends on the bishop's staff and the neigh-
bouring clergy ; one of the latter would
read the statutory services once or twice a
year in the chapel, and then the wardens,
being merely asked whether the service
was read, were able to answer in the
affirmative ; Bridgeman, ffigan Church
(Chet. Soc.), iv, 759. Nightingale gives
a reference to the Nonconformists' Mem.
1(1802), 11, 364.
Parr. The vicar of Prescot very quickly
recovered his right of nomination ; Cbes.
S^/(3rdser.), i, 65.
' Lond. Gaz. 22 June, 1869.
6 This list has been supplied by the
present vicar, from one in the church, and
supplemented from other sources.
1 Administration granted at Chester,
1727. A Robert Peploe, born about 1660,
graduated at Oxford in 1682 ; Foster,
Alumni Oxo,!.
8 Formerly served in Guiana and the
Sandwich Islands.
9 Oliver Heywood, Diaries, iv, 320.
His will is printed in full in Willt (Chet.
Soc., New Ser.), i, 180-97. For John
386
Sen), xiii, 145. In 1717 Bishop Gastrell
recorded 120 families, with 8 'Papist,'
71 Presbyterian, and 5 Quaker families;
there was a meeting place for the noncon-
formists. In 1767 there were seventy-one
' Papists ' here. Gastrell, l.s.c. ; Return
in Ches. Dioc. Reg.
la It is stated that « when Father George
Fisher went to Appleton (about 1840)
there was in the congregation an aged
woman who had been baptized at Moss-
borough ' ; Liverpool Catb. Ann.
18 Ibid. ; Granke or Crank was sold by
the executors of Richard Pennington of
Muncaster to Mr. Pilkington of Rainford
Hall. " Ibid.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The area of the township is 3,039^ acres.1 It is
divided by a brook from Ditton on the west. The
roads are numerous. Probably the most ancient is
that from Rainhill through Farnworth, and south and
south-west to the crossing-place into Cheshire. It is
joined, to the north of Farnworth, by another ancient
road, the name of which, Chester Lane, shows its
use. From the meeting-point there is a more direct
road to Widnes, also roads to Cronton on the west,
Upton and Ditton on the south-west, and Penketh
on the east. From Widnes a road leads west to Hale
and Garston.
The London and North Western Company's
railway from Liverpool to Manchester passes through
the town, where there is a station. To the west
there is a junction with the same company's main
line from London to Liverpool, which here crosses
the Mersey by a great bridge built in 1868, at one
side of which is accommodation for foot passengers.*
The St. Helens line branches off from Widnes station;
there is another station at Appleton, and a third at
the northern boundary, called Farnworth and Bold.
The Cheshire Lines Committee's Liverpool and Man-
chester section crosses near the centre and has a station
called Farnworth, to the south of this village ; there
is also a branch line to Widnes town, with stations
there and near the eastern boundary, called Widnes
(Central) and Tanhouse Lane. The St. Helens
Canal has its terminus in the docks at the eastern
side of the town. Runcorn Gap was the old name
of the part of the Mersey between Widnes and
Sixty years ago there were but a few scattered
PRESCOT
dwellings by the side of the Mersey, but the estab-
lishment of chemical works there about 1850 speedily
brought an increase of population, and the busy
industrial town — the centre of the alkali trade — has
grown up among and around the works. There are
also soap, oil, and paint factories, iron foundries, and
copper-smelting works. There are toolmaking and
some minor industries at Farnworth.
Plumpton's Cross, Simm's Cross, and Whitfield's
Cross show where the crosses have stood.'
This district gave its name to the
BdRONr Lancashire portion of the fee of Hal ton,
known as the lordship or barony of
WIDNES. In 1086 William son of Nigel, lord of
Halton, held a hide and a half in West Derby
hundred, and two hides and four plough-lands in
Warrington hundred.4 This was shortly afterwards
largely increased,5 and at his death in 1211, Roger,
constable of Chester, held the lordship by the service
of four knights' fees.6 In 1242 the earl of Lincoln,
a minor, held half a fee in demesne in Appleton and
Cronton, which had been assigned in dower to his
mother the countess.7 Early in 1 3 1 1 , on the death
of Henry de Lacy, the whole fee passed to Thomas
earl of Lancaster,8 and has since been held by the
successsive earls and dukes of Lancaster and the
crown.9
From patents of the seventeenth century the manor
appears to have been assigned as part of the dowers of
the queens.10 In 1699 it was leased to Richard, Earl
Rivers, and in 1728 to George, earl of Cholmonde-
ley ; " from the latter the right has descended to the
present marquis of Cholmondeley as lessee."
1 3,110 acres, including 36 of inland
for works excused, and for a service called
istnos. n. 61), gives the following account
water. There are about 85 acres of
the 'brede,' 101. 8rf. The profits of the
of Widnes :—
tidal water, and 223 of foreshore ; Census
three-weeks court amounted to 6s. 8</.
There were in the vill of Widnes—
of 1901.
Richard de Donington held 24 acres,
here accounted separate — 105 acres in
a A transporter bridge for goods and
paying is. 8</.j and Richard de Denton
demesne farmed out at 705. a water-mill
all kinds of traffic has recently been
and Roger son of Ralph held 2 acres and
and a windmill, worth 531. 4</. Richard
8 Trans. Lanes, and Ches. Antij. Sac.
were 8 oxgangs of land paying 161.,
7s. Certain customary tenants held 24.
* y.C.H. Lanes, i, 280, 303.
261. So1.
rendering 441.
6 Thus Cuerdley and Staining were
The accounts of Henry de Lacy
In the vill of Appleton there were
granted before 1117,35 maybe seen in
which have been published by the Chet.
1 6 customary tenants, holding 32 mes-
the accounts of those townships.
Soc. (vol. cxii) are of various years,
suages, 1 5 oxgangs of land and a third,
12 plough-lands and 2 of 10 ; thus: —
give many details of interest. Besides
I or ij ; Maghull, J ; Astley, I ; Stain-
sakefee produced £i 16*. i</.; rape silver,
acres, &c, and paying £4 21.
ing, 3. ii. Knowsley, 4 ; Huyton, 3 ;
6s. So1.; 'cheminage' of i <; men, 11. T,d.,
In the vill of Upton were 19 customary
Roby, 2; Tarbock, 3. iii. Much and
and of Randle de Widnes, 6s. %d.\ tallage
tenants, holding in bondage 29 messuages
Little Woolton, 5 ; Kirkby, 2 ; Little
of the bondmen, due every 3 years,
and a cottage, 8 oxgangs of land, ii&
Crosby, 3. iv. Sutton, 4 ; Eccleston, 4 ;
£13 6s. M. Oxgalt was another tax
acres, &c., and paying £4 71. o|</.
Rainhill, 2. See Inq. and Extents (Rec.
payable every third year. Thistletake
All the tenants paid pannage, worth
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 40-3. Cuerdley,
one year produced 1 21.
6s. %d. a year; and tallage every third
having gone to the barons of Manchester,
Among the casual receipts were a
year, worth /6 131. 4</. The profits of
soon drops out of the reckoning ; but an
mediety of the goods of Richard de Den-
the Halmote were worth 205., and of the
account of the rents paid to the bailiff of
ton, serf of the earl, who had died, and
free court called the court of Widnes,
the wapentake about 1470, preserved
the fine of his son Richard for his father's
131. 4</.; the dues of the Serjeants of the-
among the Norris Deeds (B.M.), shows a
land ; a fine of Philip de la Leigh, who
peace were worth 401.
total of 335. 6d.
had married the daughter of another serf,
In 1300 the fee was reckoned as three -
1 Inq. and Extents, 148 ; about the
Roger de Widnes, on entering her father's
knights' fees and the 8th and 4oth parts-.
same time Appleton, with the appur-
lands ; the merchets of Amabel daughter
of a fee; ibid. 63. In 1346 it seems.
tenances, was valued at £3 71. n</.;
of William de Upton, Margery daughter
to have been 3j fees, and the loth and
ibid. 157. Henry de Lacy, in 1302,
of Richard de Denton, and others,
20th parts of a fee ; Extent of I 346 (Chet.
paid 401. for a knight's fee in 'Appleton
amounting to i8j. There were also fines
Soc.), 38, 40. See also Dods. MSS.
with its members,' towards the aid for
of freemen on entering land.
cxxxi, fol. 33, where the service due
marrying the king's eldest daughter ; ibid.
The men of Runcorn paid zs. for
from the lord of the fee is stated as 301. for
3J2-
having peat ; pannage amounting to 91.
ward of the castle of Lancaster and sake-
*y.C.H. Lanes, i, 312.
clear. The forester of Widnes paid £i a
fee, and doing suit to county and wapen-
9 In the De Lacy Inquest (Chet. Soc.),
year, and the Serjeant of the free court £3.
take.
23, is an account of the rents received in
Henry le Waleys paid 71. for a rood of
w Pat. 5 Chas. I, pt. xv ; 24 Chas. II..
1311. The manor-house was worth zs.
land and a horse-mill, 'where before was
" Duchy of Lane. Misc. Books, xxvi (2),,
a year ; 96 acres in the demesne held by
a hand-mill.'
91.
tenants at will, brought in 641.; 16 ox-
An extent of the Castle of Halton
la Beamont, Halton Rec. 49 ; Baines^
gangs of land in bondage paid 85.; and
taken in July,, 328 (In,, p.m. 2 Edw. Ill,
Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 722.
387
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Appleton was held in bondage as three plough-
lands in the time of Edward II.1 In 1351 Henry,
newly created duke of Lancaster, granted that each of
his tenants should in future hold severally and freely
the tenements hitherto held in bondage or at will.*
The history of the township is undistinguished until
the modern establishment of chemical works. The
courts appear to have been usually, or often, held at
Farnworth.*
Upton* and Denton gave surnames to local fami-
lies, the name Denton appearing down to recent
times.6 The Wright family was also of importance,
and their residence was known as Widnes Hall.6
Matthew Gregson states: 'There are [1817-24.]
four estates in the townships of Appleton, Widnes, and
Upton, which have long been known by the names of
Upper House, Lower House, Carter's House, and
Peel House .... The Upper House belongs to
Mr. Cowley, who resides upon it ; the Lower is the
property of John Leigh, esq., and Carter's House
that of Mr. Taylor, both of Liverpool.' 7 A family
named Hawarden were resident in the seventeenth
1 This appears from the accounts of
judge of Astley fined 21. for his suit of
Comf. iv, 3169 ; Index of Royalists (Index
the Halton feodary in Ormerod's Ches.
appeired with the king's writ authorizing
Soc.), 41.
M. Gregson states : ' Denton's house
(ed. Helsby), i, 708. Originally Appleton
at half a fee, or 6 plough-lands, and on
him to appoint an attorney, ' whereupon
he put in his place Roger de Denton by his
letters patent.'
and lands are now (1817) the property of
the editor [himself], and have been of
his maternal ancestors ever since 1669 ;
division Appleton as 3 or 4, with Cronton
'At the Widnes court in 1512 Robert
the last Denton, whose children sold it,
as 3 or 2.
Woodfall was charged with walking at
died in 1661 ' ; Fragments, 179.
In 1 181-2 Agnes Bonetable owed 3
night through the King's street in Farn-
Families named Donington and Leigh
marks for a recognition of her right in
worth, in front of the houses of the
have been mentioned in the fourteenth
half a knight's fee in Appleton ; ' she had
King's tenants, and with force and arms
century. In 1323, by fine, Richard de
nothing' ; Farrer, Land. Fife R. 47, 52.
— namely, a staff and dagger — calling out
Donington and Emma his wife transferred
In 1198 Richard de Venables and Agnes
"Whoever wishes to fight me, let him
to Robert son of Richard, and Margery
his wife owed 2 marks for a brief ' de
come out," whereby the King's subjects
his wife, a messuage and lands in Apple-
morte antecessoris ' concerning the same ;
were disturbed and put in fear ; where-
ton ; Final Cone, ii, 50. About five years
ibid. 1 06.
upon he was fined by the court ' ; Bea-
later Maud, widow of Robert de Don-
a Duchy of Lane. Misc. Vols. vol. cxxx,
mont, Halton Rec. 27.
ington, claimed land held by Thomas,
fol. 8 ; also Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.},
The punishments inflicted at Widnes
son of Robert de Denton ; De Bane. R.
ii, 197. They were to pay the same
included the pillory, cucking-stool, brank,
264, m. 115. Roger de Donington died
rents as hitherto — usually is. per acre —
tumbrel, stocks, and whipping-post ; ibid.
in 1449-50, holding lands here ; his
do suit at the court of Widnes, pay heriot
36. For the right to imprison Widnes
heriot was an ox, valued at 6s. \d. ; the
and relief, and u. an acre at an aliena-
men in Halton Castle see Ducatus Lane.
heir was his son Richard, who may be
tion. A bailiff was to be elected by them
ii, 132-5.
the Richard Donington, rector of Soli-
to collect the lord's due, and see that the
4 Richard de Upton occurs about 1240 ;
hull, who in 1454 purchased lands in
decisions of the court were carried out.
Bold D. (Warr.), F. 178. Richard, the
Denton ; Duchy of Lane. Ct. R. bdlc. 5,
Turbary was to be allowed each tenant
clerk of Upton, and William, the ser-
n. 67, 69.
according to his holding, and 41. a year
jeant of Upton, about 1270; ibid. F. 350.
Lands here were in 1332 in dispute
was to be paid for this right. As an eic-
William son of Richard, the clerk of
between Richard son of Philip de la
5 acres i rood in Appleton, came to the
Annota, daughter of William del Marsh
Philip de la Leigh; Assize R. 1411, m.
court at Widnes in October, 1382, and
of Ditton ; Kuerden, fol. MS. 260, n.
12. Eight years later the same Richard
paid his relief, 51. 3^., according to cus-
tom ; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 278.
578.
son of Philip granted a messuage and
lands to his son William, on his marriage
farms were small, only 8 or 10 acres
which his grandfather Hugh Tyrel had
Ditchfield ; Dods. MSS. Iviii, fol. 163*.
apiece ; the tenure of the land was copy-
formerly given them in alms, and which
6 By a deed of 1437-8 Agnes, widow of
a year's rent being paid on transfer;
from the abbot for life. About the same
Emmota de Denton, granted to Gilbert,
Fragments, 178, 18 1.
time Henry son of Thomas de Denton
son of Sir Henry Bold, all her hereditary
8 There are over a hundred court rolls
quitclaimed all right in this land ; Whalley
lands, &c., within Widnes ; Dods. MSS.
at the Record Office, extending from i 347
Coucher (Chet. Soc.), iii, 821-2.
Iviii, fol. 163. Robert Wright in 1457
to the beginning of the last century,
The Bold deeds at Warrington preserve
bought lands in Widnes, Denton, and
though with many years lacking ; P.R.O.
further particulars. About 1270 Simon,
Appleton, from William Wright and
report upon them was drawn up by
Mr. Beamont in 1876 and printed at
Richard, son of Robert de Widnes— no
doubt the Richard de Denton above-men-
to Robert Bold ; Duchy of Lane. Ct. R.
bdle. 5, n. 69. In 1666 Robert and John
Warrington.
tioned—at a rent of 12^. and half a mark
Wright had 5 hearths to be taxed at
The earliest of these rolls shows that
for relief; F. 350. Richard de Denton
Appleton, and Margaret Wright 5 at
courts were held every four weeks, on
afterwards gave it to Robert his son and his
Farnworth.
Friday. Besides fines for various small
wife Maud, who regranted it to the father
The house has over the porch
offences, such as brewing ale, 'once,'
in 1306; F. 349, 348, 347. The acre
1670
assaults and trespasses, the rolls show
was by this time known as the Abbot's
something of the government of the
Acre. See also Ducatus Lane, i, 263. The
for Thomas, Martha, and Henry Wright.
manor and fee. On 21 Dec. 1347,
same collection contains a number of the
In 1895 the owner and occupier was a
' Roger de Denton appeared and took of
deeds regarding lands in Farnworth.
Mr. Cowley, said to be descended from
the lord the serjeanty of the fee of
The Dentons have been named in pre-
the Wrights ; Information from Mr. R. D.
Widnes this year, paying for the same
ceding notes. Richard son of John de
Radcliffe.
£4 ' in July and September, and finding
Cronton and Isabel his wife, and others,
^ Fragments, 181. A view of Peel
pledges 'for the farm and for faithful
were plaintiffs in a suit against John, son
House in 1819 is given ; ibid. 171. The
service.1 At the same time Thomas de
of Randle de Denton, in 1337 ; Assize
Upper House appears to be that also called
Wales and Richard de Denton appeared
R. 1424, m. 1 1 d. John Denton and
Widnes Hall or Widnes House. Lower
and took 'the little serjeanty of the
Elizabeth his wife were recusants in 1641 ;
House formerly belonged to the Hawar-
homage of Widnes this year, paying for
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Scr.), xiv, 241.
dens ; see Gillow.
the same £4,' and offering pledges as
This was probably the reason of the
The Carters were a recusant family,
before.
sequestration of the property in 1643-4,
Richard Banastre, an ' old priest,' being
At other courts Sir Ralph de Beetham
when the Parliament obtained power,
sheltered in their house ' by the Runcorn
fined to the lord 21. for his suit of Kirkby
though in 1651 the authorities were un-
boat' in 1586 ; Lydiate Hall, 229. They
for the year ; and William Gerard, senior,
certain as to the cause ; Royalist Comf. P.
appear in the roll of 1641, and suffered
put in his place Henry the Serjeant to
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 120.
accordingly under the Commonwealth,
perform suit for him at the court of
John Denton's land was afterwards de-
Richard Carter's estate being absolutely
Widnes for his moiety of Kirkby. The
clared forfeited and sold ; Cal. Cam. for
confiscated ; Cal. Com. for Comf. v, 3202.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
century ; ' they are supposed to have acquired the
estate by marriage with an heiress of the Appleton
family.1
A free passage over the Mersey was allowed very
early, two acres being granted as the fee of the
ferryman.3
In the time of Mary and Elizabeth there were various
disputes between Roger Charnock, the royal farmer, and
the tenants of Widnes regarding marsh lands called
the Warth and Flocks, and Appleton mill.'
The estate of Henry Wood of Widnes was sold
by order of the Parliamentary authorities in 1652.*
In 1666 there were in Widnes twenty-six dwell-
ings with three hearths and more paying to the tax ;
the principal residents were Hawarden, Ditchfield,
Appleton, Plumpton, and Wright.6 John Chaddock
of Burtonwood, as a ' Papist,' in 1717 registered his
cottage at Upton.'
An interesting report on the state of the river bank
about 1828 wa
the duchy.*
made by Edward Eyes on behalf of
It would appear that in the middle
BOROUGH ages a borough and market had been
established at Farnworth ; for there
are incidental notices, such as the eight ' burgages,'
&c., in Denton held by Randle Bold at his death in
1447, and the 2oJ. for stallage collected in 1426
from tailors, mercers, and others, trading at Farnworth
on Sundays.9 Coming to the present day, the Local
Government Act of 1858 was adopted by WIDNES
PRESCOT
in 1865,'° and further powers as to water, gas, &c.,
were afterwards secured by various Acts. A borough,
with mayor and council of 24 members, was created
in 1892." The gas and water works were acquired
under an Improvement Act in 1867;" the water
pumping stations are at Stockswell and Netherley,
and the reservoirs at Pex Hill. St. John's Market
was opened in 1875. The Libraries Act was adopted
in 1885, and the present technical schools and free
library were opened in 1896. The Appleton House
estate was acquired and opened as the Victoria Park
and Recreation Ground in 1900, the Victoria
Promenade at West Bank being opened at the same
time. The cemetery was opened in 1898. There
are hospitals for accidents, opened in 1878, and in-
fectious diseases, 1887. The population numbered
28,580 in 1901.
Farnworth church, now called that of
CHURCH St. Luke, but anciently dedicated in
honour of St. Wilfrid, consists of chan-
cel 33ft. by 22ft. with north vestry and south
chapel, nave 60 ft. by 25 ft. with aisles, south
transept, north and south porches, and west tower
I oft. square inside, and has grown to its present
form from an aisleless nave and chancel church of
which part of the west wall alone remains. It belonged,
as far as can now be ascertained, to c . 1 1 80- 1 200, and
its nave was of about the same dimensions as that
now standing. There are no evidences of alteration
till the fourteenth century, though such may of course
Richard Smith, of the Peel House in
Farnworth, was in 1582 reported to resort
Preston ; Piccope MSS. iii, 372, from
32nd and 33rd rolls of Geo. II. Caryll
a boat and employ two men for it, con-
veying freely all wishing to cross either
priest being his uncle ; Lydiate Hall, 221
(quoting Dom. Eliz. cliii, ». 62), 226.
About 1592 there was a dispute between
John Ogle, of Roby and Whiston, and
Alexander Standish, of Duxbury, respect-
ing the Peel House in Appleton ; Duchy
of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. ccxiii, 228.
Thomas Hawarden, deceased ; Croxteth
D. CC. iv.
'Towards the close of the last [xviii]
century the family merged into that of
Fazakerley, and ultimately into that of
the Gillibrands ; ' Gillow, Bibliog. Diet, of
Engl. Cath. iii, 168, where will be found a
Inq. p.m. 4 Edw. II, n. 51).
At the beginning of 1366 the Black
Prince, as earl of Chester, forbade any
passage of the Mersey to be made except
at the places which had always been used
for crossing ; those who chose new ways
were to be arrested and imprisoned in
chief landowners. See the account of
Walton church.
1 They used a variant of the Eaton
coat, one of those quartered by the Ha-
wardens of Woolston. It should be noted,
however, that a William de Hawarden
of the family, Edward Hawarden, D.D.,
who died in 1735 (see also Diet. Nat.
Biog.) ; and incidental notices of many
others, including Thomas, eldest son of
Caryll Hawarden, the subject of a
' miraculous cure ' by the hand of the
4 Ducatus Lane, i, 293 ; ii, 122, 219 ;
iii, 139, &c.
5 Index of Royalists, 41.
John Lawton and his wife had land,
in Widnes, which were sequestered for
their recusancy ; their heir, John Croft,
Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 17.
Pedigrees were recorded in 1613 and
1664; see the printed Visit. (Chet. Soc.)
Foley, Rec. S.J. ii, 61 (from the account
printed in 1737). In 1811 their estates
were sold; Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836),
took the oath of abjuration, petitioned the
Parliamentary authorities for restoration ;
Royalist Comp. P. iv, 73.
John Hawarden was a freeholder in Apple-
ton in 1600; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 242. The Hawardens,
with many others in Widnes, adhered to
the ancient faith, and in the recusant roll
of 1641 John Hawarden, gent., and three
other member, of the family occur;
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 241. He
does not appear to have taken arms for
the king in the Civil War, two-thirds of
his estate being sequestered ' for recusancy
only' in 1654, when he petitioned to be
allowed to compound ; Royalist Comp. P.
*The will of Edward Hawarden, of
Ditton, dated in Nov. 1648, and proved
2 See the pedigree of 1613. Disputes
in 1578 as to messuages and lands in
Widnes between John Appleton and John
Hawarden are recorded in Ducatus Lane.
iii, 63, 492.
The Linacres of Widnes, with whom
the Hawardens intermarried, were also
recusants, and John Linacre's lands were
sold by the Parliamentary authorities in
1654 ; Cal. Com. for Comp. v, 3182.
8 The passage over the Mersey between
Widne. and Runcorn had with various
lands been granted to the Hospitallers by
John, constable of Chester ; and in 1190
Garner de Nablous, prior, granted the
same to Richard de la More. The latter
" Eng. Cath. Non-jurors, 123.
<> Trans. Hist. Soc. xxii, 217. The
ferry was owned by Lord Cholmondeley as
lessee from the crown, but William Hurst
of West Bank claimed the right of free
passage by the ferry and a toll on goods
passing over his land. The marsh land
between the canal and the river wa.
divided into sixty-nine cowgates.
» Duchy of Lane. Ct. R. bdle. 5, n. 66 ;
4, n. 57. John Jackson Alanson of Ap-
pleton, in 1395, granted to Robert Jackson
of Ditton half an acre in Farnworth, half
a rood being near the Standelues, and the
rest 'near the burgage of Nicholas Pecket
in Farnworth ' ; Bold D. (Warr.), G. 54.
property, after the death of his wife Ellen,
to Edward Hawarden, youngest .on of
the testator's nephew John. In 1717
Mary Hawarden, widow, as a 'Papist,'
registered an estate of £37 in Halebank
for herself and her son John ; Cath. Non-
jurors, 120. The will of Caryll Hawar-
den, dated 20 Oct. 1757, i. enrolled at
purpose, and the gift was in the nature of
an alms, for ' all who should ask to cross
" for the love of God," were to have the
passage' ; Birch Chapel (Chet. Soc), 190.
In 1311 it was found that Richard
son of Henry del Shaw had held of the
earl of Lincoln two acres in Appleton for
maintaining the passage ; he wa. to have
11 The date of incorporation is 26 May,
1892. The area of the borough is the
same as that of the township. There are
six wards, each with an alderman and
three councillors, viz. Farnworth, Simm's
Cross, Halton, Victoria, Waterloo, and
West Bank.
" 30 & 31 Vic. cap. ,26.
389
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
have taken place. In this century a tower was added
at the west end of the nave, and the north and south
walls of the nave were moved about six feet north-
wards, thus throwing the tower out of centre. The
story of this alteration has been obscured by the re-
building of the north side of the church, but from
accounts previous to this rebuilding, which took place
about 1855, it appears that the north arcade of the
nave was of earlier detail than the still existing south
arcade. The tower as it stands at present has no
work which seems to point to a date before 1 340, but
as there remains on its east face the weathering of a
roof which belonged to the old nave before its axis
was moved northwards, it is evident that this part of
it at least must be older than either of the arcades.
In the north-west angle of the nave is a two-light
window of mid-fourteenth-century date, which is set
in the northward extension of the west wall, outside
the lines of the old nave, and may be coeval with
the alterations. This points to a date of c. 1350 for
the original north arcade. The nave roof, destroyed
c. 1855, seems to have been a good specimen of four-
teenth-century work, little if at all later than 1350,
and unless we are to suppose that it was transferred
from the old nave to the new (as indeed it might
have been, the widths of the two being approximately
the same), it gives another reason for assuming that
there was very little difference in date between the
two arcades, and that the whole rebuilding may be
set down to the middle of the century.1 The chan-
cel must of necessity have been rebuilt about the same
time — unless some previous alterations to it had
changed its axis and suggested a like alteration in the
nave 2 — and the existing work probably follows the
seems older than the end of the fifteenth century.
The aisles are probably on the same lines as those
which must have been built with the fourteenth-
century arcades ; the north aisle is completely modern
but the south retains one window which may be
original. The eastward extension of this aisle, partly
overlapping the chancel, seems to be of the same date
as the late work in the chancel.
The south transept is the last development in the
plan, having been built by Bishop Smith of Lincoln,
c. 1500, to accommodate the inhabitants of Cuerdley.
The chancel arch may have been inserted at the same
time to give abutment to the western arch of the south
chapel.
The chancel has an east window of five lights with
tracery, and a south window of three lights, the stone-
work being for the most part modern. In the north
wall is a three-light window, cinquefoiled, with quatre-
foiled tracery in the head, of late fifteenth-century
type. The chancel arch is of two chamfered orders
with half-octagonal responds, and of later date than
the walls of the chancel ; its probable origin has been
noted above. The roof of the chancel is flat, divided
into square panels with heavy moulded beams having
bosses at the intersections and diagonal ribs across
the panels ; a fine piece of late fifteenth-century
work.
The vestry on the north is modern. The south
chapel has an east window of three lights, like that on
the north of the chancel, and two three-light windows
on the south, with uncusped tracery. There is a
small four-centred doorway in its east wall, and
another near the west end of the south wall. Its root
is modern, and the chapel is now used as an organ-
chamber.
The south transept has a four-light east window,
containing a few squares of old glass, with the let-
ters SG, and a five-light south window with modern
uncusped tracery. The west window is of some-
what earlier type, square-headed with three trefoiled
lights, but is probably not older than the wall in
which it is set. Beneath it is a blocked doorway,
and in the south-west angle of the transept is a
vice. The roof is old, cleaned and repaired at a
late restoration, 1894-5, up to which time the base
of a screen with linen pattern panels remained in
this transept. It was then removed, and the panels
re-used in the altar table now in the chancel.
The nave is of five bays ; the north arcade is
modern (c. 1855), the two eastern bays, which form
the south enclosure of the Bold chapel, being more
elaborately treated than the others, in late thirteenth-
century style, while the south arcade, though much
patched and repaired, belongs to the fourteenth
century, and is of plain detail.3 The nave roof is
of deal, and replaces a fine fourteenth-century root
with principal and intermediate collar beam trusses,
the former having arched braces under the collars.
It was destroyed in 1855, under the mistaken im-
pression that it was thrusting out the north arcade.
The north aisle was rebuilt in 1855 and no ancient
features were preserved ; it formerly had a good
panelled roof and moulded cornice with paterae.
The Bold chapel was enclosed on south and west with
oak screens, and had a flat panelled oak roof with
diagonal ribs on the panels, after the fashion of that
still existing in the chancel.
The south aisle has been more fortunate, and
retains a fifteenth-century south doorway, fitted with
an old door, a square-headed window west of the
doorway, with three trefoiled lights and perhaps
coeval with the aisle, and a second window east of the
doorway of two trefoiled lights under a square head,
of the beginning of the sixteenth century. The roof
also is old, with an embattled cornice, and was re-
paired in 1 894-5. .
The tower arch is plain, and was formerly built up ;
it is now filled with a seventeenth-century screen with
turned oak balusters in the upper part. The west
window is of three cinquefoiled lights with quatre-
foil tracery, and the belfry windows are square-headed
of two lights. There is a vice in the south-west
angle. The lower courses of the old west wall of
the nave, before the building of the tower, remain
under the floor, and part can still be seen, with a
plain chamfered plinth. Until 1894 the church was
filled with galleries and pews of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, many of which had the names
of their owners and the dates cut on them, and
some of these inscriptions have been preserved and set
up as panelling against the walls. A good many
pieces of fifteenth and sixteenth-century bench ends,
&c., were found when these pews were removed, but
1 Difference in details between two
nearly or quite contemporary nave ar-
a The development is of a somewhat
uncommon type, and one rather more
a factor always to be taken into account
in questions of mediaeval church enlarge-
ments—than any of the more usual
processes. Bad foundations might ac-
39°
count for it, but there it no evidence for
such.
8 The galleries formerly here were re-
sponsible for much damage to the capitals
and arches.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
were unfortunately in too damaged a condition to be
re-used.
The font, which originally stood in the south
aisle,1 and was afterwards set at the west end of the
north aisle, is now at the west end of the nave. It
is octagonal, with a roll at the base of the bowl, but
otherwise perfectly plain, and may be of the fifteenth
century.
In the Bold chapel are the marble figures of
Richard Bold, 1635, and his wife, and an armed
effigy of very poor workmanship, holding a book,
which from its details appears to date from the be-
ginning of the seventeenth century.' Near it at
the west end of the chapel is a white marble
monument to Mary Bold, Princess Sapieha, 1824.
There are six bells, all of 1718, by Richard
Saunders.
The registers begin in 1538.
About the end of the thirteenth century an attempt
seems to have been made to sever the dependency of
Farnworth on Prescot. In 1291 Richard de Buddes-
wall, archdeacon of Chester, holding his visitation at
Prescot, caused a number of those who customarily
heard divine service and received the sacraments in
the chapel to appear before him and assert publicly
that Farnworth was not an independent parish, but
that the people within the chapelry were bound to
contribute to the repairs of the church of Prescot,
the maintenance of the service there, and other
charges, in the same manner as the rest of the
parishioners.3 Farnworth is called a church in 1323,*
and seems to have enjoyed almost full parochial rights.
Some prosecutions resulting from the church
spoliation of the time of Edward VI are recorded at
Farnworth,5 as well as an affray in the church itself.6
PRESCOT
Few of the names of the pre-Reformation clergy
have been preserved. Baldwin Bold was there at the
beginning of the sixteenth century,7 and Richard
White was curate in 1542, 1548, and 1 5 54."
A small yearly payment, called the Duchy money,
has long been made to the incumbent by the crown.
Its origin is uncertain.9
A parish was assigned in 1859.'° The vicars are
presented by the vicar of Prescot. The following is
a list :—
1562 Thomas Hill"
1567 John Walbank la
1 5 76 Thomas Roebuck ls
1581 William Cross "
1 5 89 William Sherlock 15
1641 Nathaniel Barnard "
1647 John Walton, M.A.17
1 649(?) William Garner18
oc. 1675-9 Milo Marsden 19
1687 Christopher Marsden '"
— John Foxley"
oc. 1705-9 Radley Ainscough "
oc. 171 8-3 2 Henry Hargreaves **
1733 Charles Bryer"
1733 Edward Pierpoint
I 742 Richard Nightingale fs
1747 Thomas Moss K
1792 William Thompson 27
1832 William Jeff
1 8 8 1 George Bond, M .A. (Lincoln Coll.
Oxford)
1892 John Wright Williams
There was a chantry founded here by Sir John
Bold, an annual rent of £4 being assigned to it from
the lordship of Bold.28 In 1534 the cantarist was
i Provision for its drainage has been
8 Clergy List, 1541-2, (Rec. Soc. Lanes.
'reading minister' in 1610 ; Kenyan MSS.
found here.
and Ches.), 1 5 ; and Visit. Lists at Chester.
(Hist. MSS. Com.), 1 2. He died early in
» For an account of the chapel before
0 Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc.
1641 and was buried at Farnworth. His
(Chet. Soc.), 84 ; also Tram. Hist. Sac.
the amount ,s given at £3 1 zj. ioj</.;
16 Lanes, and Ches. Rec. loc. cit.
(New Ser.), x, 193 ; and for the font, ibid.
in 1650 it was said to be £3 6s. $d. ;
V Plundered Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc.
(New Ser.), xvii, 69. There is a view (from
now £3 '3s- is Paid- Canon Raines
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 67. He had been
the west) in Gregson's Fragments (ed.
states that the payment dates from the
Harland), 214. The monuments are
dissolution of the chantry, being the net
inhabitants with the approval of the
described, and a view of the church (from
proceeds of the chantry revenue, viz. £4
classis ; and had served the cure without
the east) is given in the Gent. Mag. Aug.
less 75. ijrf. as the tenth ; Chantries, 77.
ordination. The Parliamentary Com-
and Sept. 1824 ; and notes of monuments,
glass, &c. taken by Handle Holme early
End. Char. Ref. (Prescot) 1902, p. 78.
and personal ability.'
Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), vi, 259 ; xiv, 211;
also Dods. MSS. cliii, fol. 466. The
respecting the church and dtstrict.
J0 Land. Gaz. 12 July, 1859.
Lanes, and Ches.), 76. In 1650 the
curacy was vacant.
churchyard cross stands on ancient steps ;
11 Visit. List of 1 5 62 (at Chester). In
19 His name occurs in the registers of
Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 211.
1564 he was presented to the bishop
1675 and 1679.
this ordered the election of eight men,
custom' ; Raines, Chantries, 77 (quoting
been vacant.
who were to audit the accounts of the
his Lanes. MSS. xxii). He died in May,
21 Will proved at Chester, 1705.
churchwardens and assess the inhabitants.
1566 ; registers.
M Mentioned in N. Blundell's Diary,
4 ffballey Coucher (Chet. Soc.), iii, 815,
where the path from Cronton to the church
" Lanes, and Ches. Rec. ii, 285 ; a
pension of £, in. iofr/. granted him as
74. He went to Manchester.
ffl Will proved at Chester, 1732. His
of Farnworth is mentioned. A little later
curate of Farnworth, during pleasure.
name occurs on one of the bells cast in
(1336) it is called a chapel; ibid. 817.
13 Licensed as reader ; Pennant's MS.
1718. He was a Cambridge man.
« Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), i, 245 ;
acct. book at Chest. Dioc. Reg.
34 From this time the curates were
ii, 287. The latter case is printed in
14 Lanes, and Ches. Rec. loc. cit. Thomas
always presented by the vicars of Prescot,
Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Hawkinson, curate of Farnworth, is said
though previously the parishioners had
Ches.), iii, 199. It contains a number
to have been buried II Mar. 1583-4.
often nominated. Some of the names
of interesting particulars as to the ' great
15 Ibid. ; the patent granting the pen-
are due to the Rev. F. G. Paterson.
Blessed Sacrament. The few ' ornaments '
register from 1538 to 1598. He was
* Died in 1792; M.I. *! Ibid.
belonging to the church in 1552 are re-
corded in Ch. Goads (Chet. Soc.), 8 1 ; also
probably the curate of Hale also, but
was ' no preacher.' See Ch. Goods, 84 ;
28 In a note referring to the obsequies of
Henry Bold, temp. Hen. VII, the first pay-
Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), 276.
Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x, 183 ; Gib-
ment was to 'John Walton, chaplain,
'DucetusLanc.il, 123.
son, Lydiati Hall, 248, (quoting S.P.
occupying the chantry of Sir John Bold ' ;
t Ch. Goods, 83.
Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, ». 4). He was only a
Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xicxviii, 284.
391
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Richard White, and later Thomas Johnson. There
was no plate.1
There appears to have been a resident curate main-
tained at Farnworth after the Reformation, but he
was only 'a reading minister.' The Parliamentary
Committee in 1645 assigned £50 a year out of the
sequestered tithes of the earl of Newcastle, who
farmed them from King's College, to augment the
stipend of the curate. They estimated that there
were 2,000 communicants within the chapelry.2
The school was founded in 1509 by William
Smith, bishop of Lincoln.3
More recently in connexion with the Establishment
there have been erected three churches in Widnes.
St. Mary's was built in 1856 ;* the patronage has re-
cently been transferred to the bishop of Liverpool.
St. Ambrose, in the gift of trustees, was built in
1883 ; St. Paul's, to which the bishop of Liverpool
collates, in the following year.
A Wesleyan Methodist church was built at Widnes
in 1863, and two others more recently; one at
Farnworth, built in 1849, was replaced by a new one
in 1891 ; there is an iron chapel at Appleton. The
Welsh Wesleyans also have a church. There are two
Primitive Methodist chapels, and one of the United
Free Methodists, called Zion.
The Congregationalists have a church at Simm's
Cross ; 5 and the Welsh Congregationalists have a
place of worship.6 The Welsh Presbyterians, or Calvinis-
tic Methodists, also have one. The Baptist chapel at Ap-
pleton dates from 1890, but a congregation is said to
have been formed in 1872. The Salvation Army has a
barracks. The Unitarians also have a meeting-place.
Roman Catholic worship was maintained during
the period of persecution 7 in one of the houses of the
Hawarden family in Appleton and Widnes, and some
of its members were among the officiating priests.
In 1750 a public chapel was opened in Appleton, re-
placed by the present church of St. Bede in 1 847." In
1865 the church of St. Mary was opened in Widnes,
followed in 1888 by St. Patrick's.
CRONTON
Croynton, 1292 ; Croenton, 1348 ; both common.
Variants are Grewinton (? 1200), and Crouwenton,
1333-
Cronton, measuring 1,153^ acres,9 is situated on
ground undulating in the north, and gradually sloping
to quite a flat surface in the south. The village is
situated about the centre of the township, and is a
favourite resort for cyclists and picnic parties, both
from Liverpool and Widnes, on account of a public
recreation ground on Pexhill. This hill, rising to
only 200 ft. above sea level, is covered with heather
and gorse, and on the top are the Widnes Corpora-
tion reservoirs, formed in 1 868. There are but few
plantations, but the most part of the country is occu-
pied by arable fields, where good crops of turnips,
wheat, oats, and barley are grown in a loamy soil.
There are decidedly fine views of the surrounding
country to be had from Pexhill. The township lies
upon the two lower beds of the bunter series of the
new red sandstone, the lower mottled sandstone in
the western and southern portions, the pebble beds in
the north-eastern. The principal roads cross at the
village, one going north and south to Rainhill and
Ditton, and the other east and west to Farnworth and
Huyton.
In 1901 the population was 583.
Watchmakers' tools are made here.
The remains of a cross — pedestal and part of the
shaft — may be seen near the hall ; the stocks remain,
being in the village. Formerly there was a well close
by dedicated to St. Anne, but known as the Stocks
Well ; it is now filled up. Pexhill Cross was de-
stroyed in 1868.'°
There is a parish council.
CRONTON appears to have been one
MJNOR of the original members of the Widnes
barony, being associated with Appleton
in an assessment of I hide of 6 plough-lands." In
1 2 1 2 it was still part of the demesne of the barony,
and is not mentioned in the survey of that year."
Before 1190, however, part at least must have been
granted out, for one Matthew son of William had given
land there to the Hospitallers, which they in that
year granted, with other lands in the district, to
Richard de la More.13
The township was about 1250" given in alms,
with his body, by Edmund de Lacy to Stanlaw
Abbey, with all his land and rights there, including
the farm of the mill." The mill had been erected on
1 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 220 ;
Raines, Chantries (Chet. Soc.), 76. Thomas
he was ' sent to St. Omer's for his humani-
ties, having studied rudiments at Widnes.
18 Birch Chapel (Chet. Soc.), 189. The
place is called ' Grewinton Halfsnede ' ;
Johnson was buried 20 July, 1548 ; Cb.
His parents and relatives were of the
upper class • his father was not rich being
so that Halsnead, now in Whiston, was
3 Plundered Mins. Accts. i, 67. It ap-
a younger son, and had suffered much for
spreading into both Cronton and Whiston.
pears that £10 had been bequeathed by
the Catholic faith, which his parents
A grant of the lands by Richard de la
Thomas Vaus of Garston the interest to
had embraced ; he had three brothers and
More is printed in Ormerod's Ches.
be given to a ' preaching minister '
two sisters, all Catholics ' ; Foley, Rec.
(ed. Helsby), i, 675. It appears to be the
here.
S.7.vi,42i.
Hospitallers' Shacht or Shaw of the Plac.
a A history of it was published in 1905
Lawrence Hill, falsely accused of the
de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 375,
by the head master, C. R. Lewis, M.A.
murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey and
and the « Crompton Shaw' of their six-
" Chapelry formed in 1859 ; Land. Ga*.
executed 21 February, 1678-9, is supposed
teenth-century rental, held by the heir of
17 May.
to have been a native of Widnes ; Gillow,
Robert Awty for a rent of i id. ; Kuerden
5 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iv, 266 ;
Bibliog. Did. ofEngl. Catb. iii, 307.
MSS. v, fol. 84. Henry Awty in 1469
the chapel was built in 1875, after ten
8 Ibid, iii, 1 68.
demised a moiety of Shaw Field in the
years' work.
9 1,126, including 5 of inland water,
lordship of Widnes to Ellen widow of
« Ibid, iv, 270 ; the chapel was built in
according to the census of 1901. Cronton
Richard Bold, he having received it of
1878.
Heys, a small detached part of the town-
Sir Henry Bold; Bold D. (Hoghton),
7 The recusant roll of 1628 shows
ship, was transferred to Tarbock in 1877
». 14.
eighteen names in this township ; Lay
by L.G.B. order 7401.
14 It was still in demesne in 1242 ; Inq.
Subs. 131/318.
10 Lanes. andCbes. Antiq. Soc. xix, 204-6;
and Extents, 148. Its value was 22j. 8t/. ;
Richard Rivers, vert Burscough, son
where may be read the local story of Pex-
ibid. 157.
of John Burscough and Anne Hitchmough
hill, the name being traced to a Peg Pusey,
is Whallty Coucher (Chet. Soc.), iii, Si I.
his wife, was admitted to the English Col-
whose ghost haunted the place.
The conjunction of Cronton with Apple-
lege, Rome, in 1673. He stated that he
11 See the note on Appleton above.
ton is shown by the mention of the
was born at Widnes in 1657, and baptized
13 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
liberties and easements being 'within the
by Mr. Barlow, a secular priest ; in 1672
Lane., and Ches.), 43.
vill of Cronton and outside it.'
392
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Pexhill by Adam the Carpenter of Upton, by an
earlier grant from the same Edmund.1 Cronton was
named in the inquiry of 1291 among the manors of
Widnes lordship."
The abbot proceeded to make improvements of the
waste, and this in 1284 brought him into conflict
with one of his tenants, Richard de Shaw.3 Forty
years later a further agreement was made with
Richard de Shaw — either the same person or his
heir — by which he resigned his rights in the ease-
ments and wastes of Cronton and also in its lanes and
roads except two.4
But little is known of the internal management ot
the township.5 Towards the middle of the four-
teenth century the abbot was involved in various
boundary disputes with his neighbours in Rainhill,
and after several years appears to have established his
rights in the main.6 An inquisition as to the
PRESCOT
boundaries between Cronton and Upton in Widnes
had been made in 1336.'
After the suppression it was found that the town
had been leased out in 1 537 for a rent of £19 os. iJ."
Cronton was, with other monastic manors, sold to
Thomas Holt of Gristlehurst.9 The manor is mentioned
in a family settlement of I 578, as part of the property
of Francis Holt,10 by whom it was sold in 1587 to
Thomas Brooke." Shortly afterwards it was re-sold
to Thomas Ireland," from whom it passed in 1598
to James Pemberton of Halsnead in Whiston."
About this time a number of freeholders in Cron-
ton held by knight's service, their tenure probably
arising from purchases from the Holt and Pemberton
families.14 In 1628 the following paid to the subsidy
for lands— William Parr, William Wright, Edward
Orme, and Thomas Wyke or Whike ; u and fractions
of the manor were held by others.16 Of these the
1 Wholly Caucher, iii, 8 1 2. With the
Mersappletree, and to Richard's Cross;
from Francis Holt in 1583 ; at his death
permission to erect the mill was given an
hence by the road to the Chester Road
he held them of the crown in chief, by the
assart which William de Cronton, son of
through Sutton as far as the syke running
hundredth part of a knight's fee, and his
covered all dues7 except pannage.
to Sleeper's Green, towards the chapel of
Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
* Plac. Je Quo Warr. 381.
Farnworth ; Wholley Coucher, iii, 815-17.
Ches.), i, 37.
pensation amounted' to' ^ acres situate
extended further to the east than the
1607 found to have been held in the
between the land Richard already held
present township.
same manner ; his heir was his daughter
and the hedge of Cockshootleigh and
8 Whalley Coueher, iv, 1215. The
Margaret Lea, aged thirty-five ; ibid, i,
Sikeman Sty, going down towards Tar-
lessees were Thomas Torbock, John
IO2.
bock ; a rent of i id. was payable.
Winington, James Haworth, George
Thomas Whike, Thomas Linacre, John
4 Ibid. The excepted roads were — one
Cross, and others of the town of Cron-
Parr, Francis and John Windle also held
by the easement (per haysiam) or ' lidyate '
ton. In 1291 the assised rent of Cronton
lands in chief by similar fractions of a
of Cockshootleigh as far as Cronton ; and
had been £5 13;. 4</. ; Pope Nich. Tax.
knight's fee; ibid, i, no; ii, 7, 182,
the other from the house of Richard's
(Rec. Com.), 259. In 15 34, when it was
234, 285. John Parr had two mills in
having a width of 30 ft. After Margery's
Garston, the assised rent of the demesne
William Stock died in 1596 holding
death this road was to be restricted to a
was £ 1 8 41. ; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v.
lands in Cronton of the queen by the
sufficient footpath leading to Farnworth
229.
two-hundredth part of a knight's fee ; his
church through the Roughead. The Shaw
9 Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, I Aug.; and
heir was his sister Elizabeth, who in
family were probably tenants of the
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xi, 0.46. For
1599 was wife of John Cross, and seven-
Hospitallers.
this and Stayning a rent of £5 01. \-i\d.
teen years of age ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
for freedom made by two bondmen ; Assize
with a number of such rents in 1680 ;
held lands here, leaving as heir a son
R. 408, m. 33</. Two charters are pre-
R. I, pt. 2.
William, aged twenty-five; ibid, xxvi,
served among the Norris deeds (B.M.),
10 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 40,
n. 28.
». 932, 933. By the first John de Pex-
I* Norris D. (B.M.). William Parr was
hill granted 2 acres in the Middlesnape,
11 Ibid. bdle. 49, m. 18. Francis Holt
the son and heir of the John Parr just
with housebote and heybote in Cronton,
and Ellen his wife and Thomas Holt, son
mentioned ; he was born in Oct. 1608 ;
to Maud daughter of Richard de Pilot-
and heir apparent, and Constance his wife
Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes and
halgh; and this was, in 1332, with her
were the vendors. The property is de-
Ches.), ii, ,84.
consent granted by her husband Thomas
scribed as the manor of Cronton, with
Thomas Wyke was the son and heir
son of Roger Maggeson de Bradley, to
20 messuages, 2 mills, 500 acres land,
of the Thomas Wyke mentioned in the
John the Clerk, of Cronton.
&c. Thomas Brooke had a year before
last note, who was the son and heir of
Richard the Clerk, of Cronton, had in
purchased part of this from Thomas Holt ;
Edward Wyke, and aged twelve years in
1246 resisted a claim for an oxgang put
ibid. bdle. 48, m. 202.
1588. Edward's lands were held in chief
forward by Richard son of Richard the
12 Ducatus Lane, iii, 377. The Ireland
by the two-hundredth part of a knight's
Ferryman ; Assize R. 404, m. 8 d.
family had held lands here previously and
fee ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiv, n. 38.
Richard the Clerk, of the Hermitage, was
continued to hold some.
A claim was made in 1594 by John
a witness to the two charters of Edmund
is Pal. of Lane. Feet, of F. bdle. 60,
Wyke, minister of Avington in Hamp-
de Lacy.
shire, against Thomas and Elizabeth
• Several suits were with John son
stated to have held his lands in Cronton
Wyke; Ducatus Lane, iii, 319. The
of John de Lancaster of Rainhill concerning
of Thomas Brooke ; Lanes. Inq. p.m.
younger Thomas was fourteen years of
15 acres which the abbot alleged to be
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 18.
age at his father's death in July, 1608 ;
in Cronton, and the defendant in Rain-
" Sales by the Holts are recorded to
Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc.), i, in.
hill ; De Bane. R. 352, m. 537 d. ; 358,
m. 95 d. &c. to Duchy of Lane. Assize R.
Richard Hawarden ; Pal. of Lane. Feet
of F. bdle. 43, m. 118 ; to Thomas Parr
« James Lawton died in July, 1616,
seised of a fourth part of the manor, held,
2, m. v d. The abbot lost this case, but
and others, ibid. bdle. 45, m. 22 ; to
like the rest, in capite by the hun-
immediately made claim for 6 acres,
John Gleast, ibid. bdle. 46, m. 130; to
dredth part of a fee. His son and heir
which he recovered by instalments ;
Robert Burgess and others, ibid. bdle.
was Henry, only two years of age at his
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 3, m. ix ; 4,
46, m. 217. In Sept. 1598, James Pem-
father's death ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (ut sup.),
m. 16 ; Assize R. 438, m. I4</.
berton and Katherine his wife, and
ii, 34-
7 The bounds were declared to begin
James Pemberton, junior, the son and
Among the manors of Richard Bold
at Philip's Cross towards Ditton, and to
heir of the former, sold various lands to
Cronton is enumerated in 1600; but
this to Holywell Brook, ?.nd so to the
Mill Brook ; thence by the middle of the
Thomas and John Parr, James Lawton,
Thomas Parte, William Norman, Edward
quired or how lost ; it is not named in
the inquisition after the death of Sir
wood to Combral by Longley, by Longley
Deane, and Edward Orme ; ibid. bdle. 60,
Thomas Bold in 1613 ; Pal. of Lane.
Brook to Wiglache, following this to the
m. 115.
Feet of F. bdle. 62, m. 112 ; 63, n. 170 ;
Cartgate (way) going to Ridgate, and along
Thomas Parte died in 1605 ; it appears
Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
the Cartgate to the Church Shaw, to the
that he had had a lease of the premises
Ches.), i, 254. It wai, however, in-
3
393
5°
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Wright family ' are said to have possessed the hall ot
Cron ton for generations, until in 1821 they sold it
to Bartholomew Bretherton of Rainhill ;* Mr. Staple-
ton-Bretherton is the present proprietor. No manorial
rights exist in connexion with it.8
John Atherton was the principal contributor to the
land tax in 1785.
At the school chapel of the Holy Family, mass is
said on Sundays and holidays by one of the priests of
the Rainhill mission.4
There is also a Wesleyan Methodist chapel.
CUERDLEY
Kyueredeleye, 1275 ; Keuerdele, Kyuyrdele, 1292 ;
Kyrdeleye, 1295; Keuerdelegh, 1328 — a frequent
spelling.
This township has an area of 1,573^ acres.5 A
considerable portion of it lying by the Mersey is
marshy. It is situated in extremely unpicturesque
flat country between the manufacturing towns of
Widnes and Warrington, and presents little of interest
so far as its natural features are concerned.
The soil is a stiff clay, and the chief produce wheat
and oats, and many acres afford good pasturage. The
geological formation consists of the upper mottled
sandstone of the bunter series of the new red sand-
stone or trias, which is covered by alluvium in
Cuerdley Marsh. The principal road is that from
Widnes to Penketh. The Cheshire Lines Committee's
Liverpool to Manchester railway crosses the northern
angle, where it is joined by a branch line from
Widnes. The St. Helens Canal passes through the
southern part of the township.
Cromwell's Bank is the name given to an ancient
dyke in the marsh. In this marsh the Bold Dragon
is said to have been slain.
Only the name seems to survive of Cuerdley Cross.'
Early in the twelfth century CUERD-
M4NOR LET formed part of the demesne of the
Widnes fee, and before 1117 right of com-
mon in the woods and pasture was granted by William
Fitz Nigel to the priory of Runcorn ; which right con-
tinued to be enjoyed by the canons of this house
after their removal to Norton.7 By the marriage of
William's daughter Maud to Albert Grelley II, the
manor came into the possession of the barons of Man-
chester,8 and is usually stated in the extents of the
barony of Manchester to be held of the honour of
Halton by the eighth part of a knight's fee."
Early in the fifteenth century it seems to have
been granted to the Cistercian abbey of Jervaulx in
eluded in the settlement made in 1608 ;
The next Wright of Cronton appears
flower ; the tenants in bondage rendered
Cronton in 1640 ; ibid. bdle. 137, n. 10.
He was probably a descendant of the
Robert Burgess already mentioned among
the purchasers from the Holts in 1584.
a year later. He had lands in Cronton,
Rainhill, Liverpool, West Derby, and
Wavertree. He had a brother Ralph.
By his wife, Jane Clayton, he had four
The windmill and water-mill were worth
20s., and the pleas of the halmote 41.
The manor, which was of the constable-
wick of Chester, was held of Edmund,
earl of Lancaster, and £z a year was paid
being held by the hundredth part of a fee)
and at subsequent inquisitions it was
found that his son Thomas, aged eleven
years, was heir, but the land had been
given to a younger son Richard ; Duchy
of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiv, n. 59. Robert
Burgess of Hale and Elizabeth his wife
occur in the recusant roll of 1641 ; and
in 1717 Robert Burgess, son of Thomas
and brother of James Burgess, as a
married Elizabeth, and had a daughter
Elizabeth ; Thomas, who married Mary,
and had a son and daughter named Clay-
ton and Jane ; and John, who died before
his father, leaving a daughter Anne by
Martha his wife.
Richard who was living in 1771, died
before 1775, when his son and heir
grandfather's will. These particulars are
wapentake ' ; Inq. and Extents, 247.
In the extent of the manor of Man-
chester in 1322, Cuerdley was recorded
to be held of the earl of Lancaster, as of
the manor of Halton, for one-eighth of a
were 50 acres of land worth 501. Fifteen
messuages had been built upon lands
leased out. The two mills were also in
operation, the tenants of the lord being
Cronton ; Tram. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.),
xiv, 243 ; Engl. Cat/i. Non-jurors, 97.
1 William Wright was the second son of
Richard Wright of Cronton, who died in
June, 1621, seised of a quarter of the
manor, held in chief by the hundredth
part of a knight's fee. The eldest son
Wright, made and proved in 1771 ; both
at Chester. Thomas Wright contributed a
ninth part of the land tax in 1785.
' Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 719.
8 Ex inform. Mr. Stapleton-Brether-
ton. In SherrifFs map, 1823, Richard
Wright is named as owner of the hall.
measure. The arable acreage was 223! ;
Mamccestre (Chet. Soc.), ii, 381, &c.
Some field-names are given— Salt lode,
&c. The fishery in the Mersey, formerly
rented at zi., had become valueless, as the
' kiddles ' could not be rented ; nor could
the bank be rented, as from the depth of
Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 246. He died 31 Jan. 1635-6,
leaving a son and heir John, ten months
old ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxviii,
n. 25. This John was probably father
of the John son of John Wright of
Cronton, whose guardianship was in 1677
granted to Edward Williamson of Tar-
bock, John being then fourteen years of
age ; Act Book of Chest. 1676-84.
A William Wright's will (at Chester)
was made in 1652 and proved in 1654,
in Cronton; Lay Subs. 131/138.
4 1,563, including 17 of inland water ;
there are also 50 acres of tidal water
and 62 of foreshore ; Census Rep. of
1901.
6 Lanes, and Cbes. Antiq. Sac. xix,
1 Cbes. SAcafdrd Ser.), v, 28; Ormerod,
Chts. (ed. He'lsby), i, 691.
8 Ibid, i, 691 ; Tram. Hist. Soc. (New
Ser.), xvii, 33 ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 43, 240.
Cuerdley is mentioned in the inquisition
after the death of John la Warre in 1 347 ;
Inq. p.m. 21 Edw. Ill (ist Nos.), n. 56.
In that after the death of his grandson
• and heir, John la Warre in 1370, the
tenure is stated as before, and a brief ex-
Cuerdley the site of the manor, contain-
ing 2 acres ; also 220 acres of arable
land, worth £1 1 ; 10 acres of meadow,
20s. j 60 acres of pasture, 151.; a wind-
mill, 20j. ; a fishery in the Mersey, 25. ;
ter dying in or before 1665, administration
was granted to Thomas Wyke, husband
of Jane, a daughter of William Wright.
A John Wright of Ditton, yeoman, whose
will was made in 1718, and proved at
Chester a year later, was perhaps of this
family ; he had Marsh Green House in
Ditton, which he left to his brother
Francis's children, John Wright and Mary
Sankey ; the executors were ' Tremuli,
mglict Quakers.'
Grelley, taken in 1282, has the following
description of Cuerdley : <A manor house
with a garden and two plats, worth 6s. So1.
a year; izo acres of arable land of the
demesne, worth £4 a year, and 13 acres
of meadow worth 32*. 6d. a year ; a pas-
ture called the Warthe with the Woodhey,
worth 1 31. 4</. ; pannage and dead wood
were worth the same. A certain free
tenant held 1 2 acres of land, and 2 acres
of wood and meadow for one clove gilli-
and of natives to ^4 31., and the halmote
was worth los. a year'; Inq. p.m. 44
Edw. Ill (ist Nos.), n. 68. In 1398
the tenure is given as before ; the value
of the manor being £zo a year ; Inq.
p.m. 22 Ric. II, n. 53.
From 1420 the feoffees of Thomas la
Warre paid him £36 51. 6Ji yearly from
this manor; Inq. p.m. 5 Hen. VI, n.
54, and Dep. Keeper's R,p. xxxiii, App.
*7-
394
WROUGHT-! RON GATES, CRONTON HALL
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Yorkshire.1 A few years after the dissolution of
that house it was sold by the crown to Richard
Brooke,' said to have been a Hospitaller, who after
the suppression renounced his
vows, married, conformed to
the new religious system, and
founded the house of Brooke
of Norton Priory.* Cuerdley
manor, with practically all the
land in the township, has
descended regularly to the
present head of the family,
Sir Richard Marcus Brooke,
baronet.4 Manor courts were
still regularly held about 1 830.'
Apart from occasional dis- grailcJ per tale gules and
putes between members of the
Grelley family,6 or between
the lords of the manor and their tenants,' the history
of the township has been obscure and uneventful.
Among the freeholders whose names occur at
different times are Holand and Ireland,8 Bury,9 and
Smith.10 To this last family belonged William
Smith, bishop of Lincoln, 1495 to 1515, the founder
PRESCOT
of Farnworth Grammar School, and co-fjunder of
Brasenose College, Oxford.11
The hearth-tax list of 1662 shows that John
Houghton and John Rutter were the principal
residents."
DITTON
Ditton, 1 193.
On the south, Ditton Brook and the low-lying
marshy ground along it must once have formed a
definite physical boundary for the township. In the
east-central portion is Ditton village, with Ditchfield
to the west and Hough Green to the north. The
eastern and northern boundaries are formed in great
measure by two small brooks, Moss Brook dividing
Ditton from Widnes, and what was formerly called
Halliwell Brook from Cronton.
The country is flat and divided into pastures and
arable fields where wheat and oats are generally grown
on a clay soil. There are but few trees and scanty
hedges, for the locality is too close to the manufac-
turing town of Widnes to escape the inevitable effects
of smoke and chemical fumes. Around Hough Green
the lower mottled sandstone of the bunter series
1 At the dissolution the abbey received
a rent of £32 8s. tJ. from Cuerdley;
Mm. v, 577. It is probable that the
gift to the abbey was made by Thomas la
Warre, the rent the abbot received being
much the same as that of 1420.
wards, in 1277, Peter Grelley was plaintiff,
demanding two messuages and three
plough-lands in Cuerdley, or in Cuerdley
Chorlton, which he asserted he held directly
of the crown, and not of the earl of
Booth 14 acres of land and meadow
which had belonged to Robert de Ireland ;
it would appear that the grantor had been
borrowing from Thomas; Dods. MSS.
cxlix, fol. 159*. Robert de Ireland, on
Robert de Holand, and probably re-
1554 ; Ducatm Lane. (Rec. Com.), ii, 16,
1 8, 192. One of them, an inquiry into
a complaint by the tenants in 1517 that
the abbot had taken away the court rolls,
has been printed in Duchy Pleading! (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 72; it shows that
the manor had been given to Jervaulx
before 1480, and gives some account of
the holding of courts. A lease of 1485 by
the abbot to Henry Watt is given in the
Arch. Journ. xvii, 163.
1 Pat. 7 Edw. VI, pt. xi j 24 Feb.
1552-3 ; the price named is £1,343
IOJ. IOC/.
» Ormerod, Ches. i, 680. The in-
quisition taken after Richard Brooke's
death, 1569, states that Cuerdley was
held as the twentieth part of a knight's
the king, it being contrary to Magna
Charta for any one to be deprived of his
court; De Bane. R. 1 8, m. 7 </. ; 31,
'i William son of Roger de Sankey and
Agnes his wife in 1292 complained that
Thomas son of Robert Grelley, a minor,
and others deprived them of the annual
grant of a robe worth 205. and competent
sustenance for Agnes, which were to be
afforded them at Cuerdley— < the vill is
called Kyuyrdele not Kurtheley,' says
the record — in compensation for the moi-
ety of the manor of Barton which Agnes
had released to Robert Grelley in 1281 ;
Assize R. 408, m. 28. Eleven or twelve
years later the claim took the form of 7d.
or 6d. a week payable out of this manor ;
ceived an equivalent grant from the
9 John de Bury contributed to the sub-
sidy in 1332 ; Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 20. The other sur-
names include Linacre, Plumpton, and
Balshaw. Adam de Bury of Cuerdley
and Cecily his wife were parties to a fine
in 1344; Final Cone, ii, 121. Henry
son of Nicholas de Bury was pardoned
for an assault about ten or twelve years
later ; Def. Keeper i Rep. xxxii, App. 336.
10 Ducatus Lane., i, 304 ; ii, 192, 401 ;
iii, 28, 384, 406.
11 William Smith was born about 1460,
probably in Cuerdley, though Peel House,
Farnworth, has been called his birth-place.
He was educated at Oxford. Under the
patronage of Margaret, countess of Rich-
mond, mother of Henry VII, he rose to
nineteen ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii,
a. 21. The patent of Edward VI de-
scribed the tenure as socage.
4 Ormerod, op. cit. i, 680-4, where an
account of the family, with pedigree, may
8 John de Bellew and Joan his wife in
1318 claimed dower in six messuages and
one plough-land in Cuerdley; De Bane. R.
225, m. 170 d. Joan was probably the
daughter of Thomas de Lathom ; Final
Lincoln three years later. He was presi-
dent of the Council of Wales in 1493.
In 1508 and 1 509 he founded Brasenose
College, Oxford, a fellowship at Oriel,
and a grammar school at Farnworth.
been made from time to time ; e.g. Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 45, m. 82, in 1583,
the deforciants being Thomas Brooke and
Elizabeth his wife ; and bdle. 282, m. 66,
in 1718, when the deforciants were Sir
Thomas Brooke, bart, Grace his wife,
and Richard Brooke.
5 Edward Eyes' report in Tram. tint.
Soc. xxii, 216. No rights of fishery were
exercised. The boundaries were occa-
sionally perambulated. The marsh, of
about 260 acres, was divided into 500
cowgates.
• A suit or series of suits began in 1275
between Robert Grelley, lord of Manches-
ter, and Peter Grelley, the latter being
32. She had married before 1313 Wil-
liam de Holand, of Euxton, brother of Sir
Robert de Holand, and was left a widow
in or before 1318. After the death of John
de Bellewe, her second husband, in or
about 1322 (Cal.CloicR. 1318-23, p. 587,
606), she married William de Scargill
(ibid. 1323-7, p. 65), and shortly after
William de Multon (Inq. p.m. 19 Edw. II
». 96), when she claimed dower in
Cuerdley, Mellor, and Garstang ; in the
of land, part of the premises in which she
claimed dower, were held by Robert de
Ireland ; De Bane. R. 257, m. 252 ; 275,
"V'4' i w h h, > ,
buried in Lincoln Cathedral.
Captain John Smith of Virginia was
another and perhaps more famous member
of the family ; Pal. Note-Book, iv, 125.
Lawrence Smith of Cuerdley, on en-
tering the English College at Rome in
1627, stated that he was the son of Henry
and Joan Smith, 'of respectable position ';
he had three brothers, two of whom were
on the continent for the sake of their
education. ' Most of his kindred were
Catholics. He had studied at Farnworth
and St. Omer's College. He was always
a Catholic'; Foley, Rec. S.J. vi, 315
He was ordained priest in 1632 and left
for England two years later. The recu-
the plaintiff's inheritance. Robert had
just come of age. Cuerdley is called a
' hamlet ' of Manchester ; De Bane. R.
ing lands here held by Robert son of
Adam de Ireland in 1359; Duchy of
Lane. Assize R. 7, m. i d. Immediately
395
Smith, their son Richard, and fifteen others
fined for religion ; Lay Subs. 131/318.
1" Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvi, 134.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
occurs, elsewhere the pebble beds of this series of the
new red sandstone. By Ditton Brook and on the
Marsh there is a large area covered by alluvial deposits.
The area measures 1,898 acres.1
The road from Tarbock to Appleton passes east-
wardly through the village, where it is joined by
others from Cronton and Hale. The Garston and
Widnes road crosses the southern corner of the town-
ship. The Cheshire Lines Committee's railway from
Liverpool to Manchester crosses the northern part,
with a station (Hough Green) near Ditchfield ; at
this point a line, passing through Ditto.i village,
branches off to WiJnes. The London and North
Western line from Liverpool to Warrington crosses
the southern corner, with a station (Ditton Junction)
just upon the boundary of Halewood.
The population in 1901 numbered 2,605.
There is a parish council.
The first distinct record of DITTON is
MANORS in the Pipe Roll of 1 1 94, when Richard
de Ditton paid 2O/. as his fine for having
the king's good will after participating in the rebellion
of John, count of Mortain.2 The next entries are in
the roll of 1201-2, when Richard, Philip, and Adam
de Ditton paid their levies to a scutage ; 3 and at the
same time Philip de Ditton paid \^d. and Richard son
of Martin 3^., due upon a tallage.4 Two years later
Richard son of Martin paid half a mark, and the same
was contributed jointly by Adam, Philip, and Henry.5
The manor, assessed as a plough-land and held in
thegnage, had therefore been divided early into
several portions, the shares being thus described in
1212: ' Richard son of Martin holds half a plough-
land and pays therefor los. of farm ; Richard son of
Outi holds of him two oxgangs of land by 5/., and
Ralph one oxgang of land by is. 6d. Adam, Robert,
Vincent, and Henry de Ditton hold half a plough-
land for lo.f. of farm.'6 The descent of the senior
moiety can be given only imperfectly ; half of it at
the end of the fourteenth century passed to a branch
of the Tyldesleys by marriage. The part of this
moiety held by Richard son of Outi descended to
the Ditchfields, but nothing is clear as to the fate
of that held by Ralph. The other moiety, after
being much subdivided, became consolidated into two
shares, of which the principal was again divided soon
after 1400 by the marriage of the coheirs with Henry
Blundell of Little Crosby and Richard Dawne, while
the smaller share passed by marriage to the Coney
family, by whom it seems to have been sold to the
Blundells.7 This brief summary may assist in follow-
ing the more detailed account.8
I. The principal moiety appears to have descended
from the Richard son of Martin of 1212 to a son
Robert,9 whose son ' John son of Robert de Ditton '
was in possession for a very long period, probably from
about 1250 to 1310.'° The next step in the succes-
sion is uncertain. Robert the clerk appears to have
1 1,936, of which 10 are inland water;
there are also 4 acres of tidal water ;
for 6d. ; ibid. 287. Some charters of the
A receipt for 31., by William de Hornby,
census of 1901.
a Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 78.
8 Ibid. 153. Richard de Ditton paid
one mark and half a mark ; possibly
John de Ditton son of Robert, Richard
son of Adam, Henry son of Ralph, Randle
son of Richard son of Martin, as 'lords of
Ditton, ' for double rent in the name of
relief, for lands in Ditton ' ; Blundell of
Crosby D. K. 13.
Adam contributed each half a mark. The
next name is William son of Stephen,
paying the same ; and though he is not
of Adam de Ditton ; and in another, of
is given of John son of Robert ds Ditton,
of Lane. Misc. cxxx) it is stated that
' Nicholas Blundell holds Ditton for 201. ' ;
but the words ' and his partners ' must be
of this name had formerly held an acre
here, which about 1270 was granted by
Ralph, Richard de Holand, Richard son
of Robert son of Philip, and Hugh Fish,
in an agreement concerning the division
of the commons, the following were the
Richard, the clerk of Upton, in free mar-
riage with Anota his daughter ; Kuerden
fol. MS. 260, «. 578.
4 Lanes. Pipe R. 1 54. Between Philip
and Richard are the names of Robert
son of Robert, Robert son of Roger, and
Adam son of Robert, I2</. each. Ralph
Stephen son of Adam ; Kuerden fol. MS.
197, R 639, and Blundell of Crosby evi-
dences (Townclcy), K. 87.
In the roll of the foreign rent of Derby-
shire in 1323-4 (Rentals and Surveys,
379, m. 8), it is recorded that 'Thomas
de Ditton holds the sixth part of the town
Blundell and Thomas Dawne ; a quarter
to Hugh Tyldesley and Henry Holt ; a
quarter to Henry Ditchfield and the heirs
of Dandy ; and the other quarter to Alan
Ditton, Robert Moore, and Henry Thomp-
son the Smith; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol.
247*. ». 68-70.
s Ibid. 178-9.
* Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 19. The several shares
John de Ditton holds a moiety and renders
10*. ; John son of John, a twelfth, ren-
dering i8,/. ; Robert son of Richard, a
charters abstracted by Kuerden, about a
hundred in the folio volume in the Chet-
ham Library, from the Blundell deeds,
are not given, but by a comparison of the
Henry each had a third, the other third
being held by Robert and Vincent, who
represent the Philip of the Pipe R. entry
last cited. It appears that Henry was
also a son of Philip, but his right to this
portion may have been derived from his
mother or his wife. The account in the
text of the separate shares shows that
though Henry's descendants had a sixth of
the manor they paid 41. rent, and that the
other partners in the moiety paid 6s. in all.
^ It will be most convenient to give
here the various accounts of the lordship
as recorded from time to time.
twelfth, paying iSJ. ; and Thomas the
Smith, an eighteenth, paying I 2</.'
The Survey of 1346 (Chet. Soc.), 30,
gives a more detailed account : ' Ditton
was held in socage for one plough-land
and paid 201. at the four quarter days ;
after the death of a tenant the rent was
doubled in the name of relief. The
tenants also owed suit to the county and
wapentake and puture of the Serjeants, and
were bound to go with the bailiffs of the
county and wapentake as far as the next
township to witness distraints as often
and when by their course it should hap-
pen, together with their other neighbours.
John de Ditton paid 105. and held a
volume at the College of Arms, from the
Ditchfield deeds ; also a number from
Towneley's transcripts of the Blundell of
Crosby deeds, copied from Kuerden ; and
others among the Norris deeds (B.M.).
9 This step is doubtful, but seems justi-
fied by the succession. It it probable that
the son of Richard son of Outi was also
Robert, so that there would be two con-
temporaries of the same name.
10 In 1 270 he granted to Stephen son of
Adam de Ditton four ' lands,' and Stephen
undertook to do suit to the county and
wapentake without loss to the grantor ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 118 ; Kuerden
fol. MS. 96, n. 594. As John de Ditton he
corded, but 201. for thegnage was paid ;
Inq. and Extents, 136.
In 1298 John de Ditton and his part-
ners held Ditton, rendering 2os. yearly,
and Stephen (de Ditton) did suit; the
•ame (Stephen) also held a ridge of land
for the other moiety Hugh de Ditton paid
31., holding the ninth and the eighteenth
parts of a plough-land ; Thomas son of
Stephen, 41., having the sixth part ; Hugh
Fisher, i&J., holding the twelfth, and
John Henryson, i8</. holding the same.'
396
be dated before 1254 ; Bold D. (Hoghton),
n. 84 ; and to one as late as 1310 ; Nor-
ris D. (B.M.), n. 261. He is described as
John son of Robert as late as 1299, so that
there were not two Johns in succession
father and son; Kuerden fol. p. 260, n. 573.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
followed ; probably he was a younger son of John.1
Then another John son of Robert de Ditton was the
holder for about thirty years, dying in October, I 350.'
His son Robert, as late as 1346, married Cecily
daughter of Alan de Eltonhead, who afterwards
married Henry Walsh,3 and left two daughters as co-
heirs, Alice and Emma.4 The former married Henry
son of Ralph de Tyldesley ; 5 what became of the
latter is not ascertained ; perhaps she married the
Matthew de Tyldesley who witnessed many deeds of
the time.6
Henry and Alice had a son Ralph who inherited
their half of this moiety, and was succeeded by a son
Henry.7 The latter in turn was followed by Hugh
Tyldesley,8 from whom the descent is obscure until
the time of Henry VIII, when Richard Tyldesley
was in possession.9 Various disputes followed his
death,10 and though a Tyldesley was reckoned among
the freeholders of Ditton in 1600," the name dis-
applars, and the inheritance was probably sold. In
17SP Tyldesley Hall changed hands again, the
PRESCOT
vendors being the daughters and heirs of John
Hurst of Scholes, near Prescot. It was soon after-
wards held by Henry Pippard, and has descended
with the Blundell of Crosby estate."
In 1823 Ditton House was owned by John
Watkins, who claimed the lordship of the manor, but
this was not acknowledged.13
II. From the account of 1323 it may be gathered
that the descendant of Henry son of Ralph held a
twelfth of the manor, and the Fish or Fisher family
another twelfth, indicating that a third part of this
moiety, had been divided between coheiresses.14
Another third — i.e. a sixth of the whole manor — •
was held by the heir of the Henry de Ditton of
1 2 1 2 ; 15 while the other third was held in two un-
equal parts — a ninth and an eighteenth — by families
surnamed Ditton and Smith.18
Henry de Ditton son of Ralph was living about
1250. He had a grant of land from Richard son of
Philip de Ditton,17 and himself granted land in
Thelisacre to Richard son of Robert.18 He had two
1 A release by Cecily widow of Roger
5 See the note below. Henry de Tyldes-
together, assembled with force of arms
Tarbock was witnessed in the first place
broke open his chests, and took away hi»
by ' John son of Robert, Robert his son,'
« Matthew de Tyldesley's name usually
evidences, and still retained possession ;
followed by John de Ditchfield ; the date
follows Henry's. In 1367 he made com-
Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
may be placed about 1307. As Robert
plaints against Roger son of Stephen and
Ches.), iii, 36.
the clerk he attested a number of deeds ;
Ellen his wife, and against Roger de Ditch-
John Tyldesley, by his will made some
witnesses ; then it takes the place next
after John de Ditton, and then the first
De Bane. R. 429, m. 12. In 1369 he
made an exchange of land with Henry de
place among the local witnesses, down to
Ditchfield ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 247,
his brother Henry,' also a clerk, and the
1320; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 246, 243,
n. 21.
Tyldesleys of Huyton ; Wills (Chet. Soc.
249; Kuerden fol. MS. p. 136, ». 383.
^ A settlement was made by fine in
New Sen), i, 229. He purchased land
'* He is sometimes described as John son
1389, Henry son of Ralph de Tyldesley
from Michael Willoughby and Katherine
of Robert the clerk, but more commonly
and Alice his wife being plaintiffs. The
his wife in 1550; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
as John son of Robert de Ditton, or John
property was described as seven messuages,
F. bdle. 14, m. 283.
de Ditton only. In 1324-5 he granted
90 acres of land, 5 acres of meadow, &c.,
Francis Tyldesley's right seems to have
to John de Ditchfield lands formerly held
and 41. 3^</. of rent in Ditton. The re-
been acknowledged, and in 1564 John
by Richard de Ditchfield in Ditton ; Kuer-
mainders were to Ralph their son and
Tyldesley, as son and heir of Francis
den MSS. ii, fol. 247, n. 14. About the
Nicholas his brother ; Pal. of Lane. Feet
Tyldesley, deceased, was claimant against
common of pasture here with Johnson of
Tyldesley of Ditton granted to Henry his
right of Elizabeth Tyldesley, as daughter
John del Marsh ; Assize R. 426, m. 8.
H d ttl t f his t t s 'n
son and Joan daughter of Simon de Lang-
tree of Penketh, on their marriage, lands
and heir, the legitimacy of the plaintiff
being disputed. Elizabeth Tyldesley was
1342 by enfeoffing his brother Robert
in the Flats and elsewhere; Blundell of
plaintiff in another suit ; Ducatus Lane.
of all his manor of Ditton, with wards,
Crosby D. K. 14.
(Rec. Com.), ii, 299; iii, 516. An inven-
reliefs, escheats, &c., to be held by a rent
8 Hugh Tyldesley of Ditton was one
tory of the goods of John Tyldesley of
of £40 ; and Robert immediately after-
of a number of Ditton men charged with
Ditton was taken in 1588 ; Wills (Chet.
wards re-granted it, with the homage of
breaking the peace in 1442 ; Pal. of Lane.
Soc. New Sen), i, 229.
all the free tenants, for a period of thirty
Plea R. 4, m. i d. He was an arbitrator
« Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
years ; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 91, 298.
in 1472 ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 207* ; and
239. John Tyldesley was a freeholder in
lords of Tarbock in one case, and John de
MSS. ii, fol. 247*, n. 58. Hugh Tyldes-
ris D. (B.M.). 'Mr. John Tyldesley'
Ditchfield's heir in another, being defen-
ley, described (perhaps by an error in
and his two sons are mentioned in the
dants ; Assize R. 1435, m. -$y d. ; De
copying) as son of Hugh, married, before
will of Henry Tyldesley of Ditton,
Bane. R. 352, m. 109. On 13 Oct. 1350,
1448, Alice daughter of Henry Ditchfield ;
shoemaker, proved at Chester in 1677.
Henry and Roger de Ditton, executors of
ibid.*. 71.
" Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 362,
the will uf John son of Robert de Ditton,
9 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, n. 21.
from R. 24 of Geo. II at Preston.
formally reported to the court that he was
He held the capital messuage called Tyldes-
Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. bdle. r,
dead ; ibid.
ley Hall of the king, at a rent of 51. —
No. 13.
» Kuerden fol. MS. p. 97, n. 641 ; and
half the ancient rent of this moiety — and
18 Sheriff's map of 1823 ; Trans. Hist.
Bold D. (Warn), G. 36. John de Ditton's
lands in Sutton of Tuger Bold. His heir
Soc. xxii, 220.
grant to his son on this occasion com-
was a grandson, Richard son of Hugh
" See note above : John son of John
prised land in Mucklehurst in the New
Tyldesley, aged six years. Richard seems
(son of Henry), a twelfth, paying iSJ.;
Wood, Liverdleigh Hough, Copped Wood
to have died soon afterwards, leaving
Richard Fish, the same.
and Hoke Lane, and Haywards Acre.
Francis as heir — probably a younger
15 Thomas de Ditton, as shown below,
4 In 1364 Ralph le Bruen, citizen of
brother.
was son of Stephen, a grandson of Henry
Chester, claimed from John Mulward of
10 John Tyldesley, clerk, and Thomas
de Ditton.
Thorp by Daventry the custody of Emma,
his brother, two of the sons of Richard,
16 Robert son of Richard de Ditton, a
one of the daughters and coheirs of Robert
de Ditton, which had been granted to him
claiming as feoffees of Tyldesley Hall and
other lands, complained in 1548 that
ninth, paying 2s.; and Thomas (son of
Richard) the Smith, an eighteenth, pay-
by Henry Walsh and Cecily his wife— the
latter no doubt the widow of Robert ; De
Robert Williamson of Ditton and Eliza-
beth his wife, the guardians of the heir,
'"Vjiuerden fol. MS. p. 98, n. 662.
Bane. R. 418, m. 392. Somewhat earlier
Francis Tyldesley, with the countenance
W Ibid. n. 664. His widow Margery
Alice daughter of Robert son of John de
of 'divers great men of the county,' had
granted to her daughter Agnes all the
Ditton, and her sister Emma applied for a
obtained unlawful possession to the dis-
land, called Longfield, which her mother
writ of novel disseisin concerning tene-
seisin of Francis. The latter, on the
Quenilda had given Margery on her
ments in Ditton ; Dep. Keeper's Rep.
other hand, complained that John and
marriage ; ibid. p. 97, n. 638.
xxxii, App. 334.
Thomas Tyldesley and others, ' conspiring
397
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
sons, John and William ; ' the tormer succeeded,
and was followed by his son John, sometimes
described as John son of John son of Henry, and
at other times more shortly as John Henryson.*
He had a son Henry and a daughter Alice.3
Henry in 1 348 married Joan daughter of John son
of Robert, lord of the other moiety of Ditton,4
and succeeded his father about two years later,
dying in or before 1370.* He appears to have
prospered, and added to his patrimony the twelfth
part of the manor held by the Fish family, and
the sixth part held by the descendants of Henry
son of Philip.6 His daughter and heir Margery
married Richard son of Henry de Rixton,7 and
they in turn were succeeded by two daughters.8
Joan married Henry son of Nicholas Blundell ot
Little Crosby, whose descendants have retained pos-
session to the present time ; 9 and Elizabeth married
Richard son of Richard Dawne or Done of Crow-
ton and seems to have had a son Thomas, living
in 1481, but the subsequent history of this portion
is unknown.10
Hugh Fish, contemporary with the Ralph father of
Henry, and probably son of another Hugh," had two
sons, Richard and Robert." The former succeeded,
and was in turn followed by his son Richard," who
died about 1328, being succeeded by a son Hugh,
living in 1 347." Hugh had a son Robert," who
1 William son of Henry de Ditton
made grants to his niece Sibela j each
was an acre in Easthead, between lands of
Sibela and of Roger de Vilers and John
del Marsh ; K-uerden fol. MS. p. 95-6, n.
587 (dated 1316-17), 585. William had a
son Richard, with land near the Oldgate
Lane and in the Crook ; ibid. 98, n. 660.
3 In the same way his contemporary
John son of John son of Dandy, was
called John Dandyson.
Several of John Henryson's charters
have been preserved. They begin about
1310, and he is mentioned down to 1350.
Some of the earliest were agreements
with Richard Fish as to lands in the Rice,
&c. ; Kuerden fol. MS. p. 96, n. 591 ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 230, K. 247. In
1324 he exchanged plots in Northwood
and Netherwood with Richard son of
Henry the Smith of Tarbock ; Norris D.
(B.M.), ,. 265.
John son of Roger of the Mill of Hale, of
nine selions in Nicholsfield and Quitul
and the reve'rsion of that held by Cecily
widow of Roger ; Kuerden fol. MS. p.
98, n. 658, &c. Hugh son of Robert de
Ditton in 1340 granted to John ana
Margery his wife land in the Boukersfield
for thirteen years ; ibid. p. 97, n. 649.
From John son of Roger Coke and
Amery he procured a messuage and lands
near Ditton Halgh, which had belonged
to the mother ; ibid. p. 213, n. 469.
In March, 1348-9, about the time of
1350; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), ii, 121, 128. In 1355
Henry de Ditton gave his land in Hali-
bock in exchange; Norris D. (B.M.),
n. 276. Various disputes and agreements
between Henry and Thomas de Ditton
may be seen in Kuerden fol. MS. p. 98-9 ;
Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 343, &c.
Margery the daughter of Thomas released
to Henry all the lands he had had from
her father, and Thomas's brother Roger
sold his lands to Henry de Ditton (1368)
and Henry de Rixton (1377) ; Kuerden
fol. MS. 96-7.
By a charter of 1369 Robert Fish of
Ditton granted to Henry de Ditton a
messuage and all his lands in Ditchfield ;
ibid. p. 136, n. 382. Henry also acquired
the lands of Robert the Tailor— ibid. p.
397, n. 412 ; p. 98, n. 345 ; Richard de
Astbrook — ibid. p. 38, n. 430 ; and John
appears that Henry had a son of the
: name, who in 1366 and 1368 called
in Great Sankey ; De Bane. R. 422,
m. 373 i 432, m. 139^.
-< Margery in 1375 enfeoffed Henry
Banastre, chaplain, and Richard son of
Henry de Bold, of all her lands in
Ditton, Sankey-cum-Penketh, and Eccles-
ton, with all manor-houses, homages, &c.,
thereto belonging ; Kuerden fol. MS. p.
98, n. 348. Margot widow of Richard de
lands in 1415 ; ibid. 359, R. 422.
I" See preceding notes. Robert son of
Richard Dawne of Crowton occurs in
1422 ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 230, n. 71,
76. For the pedigree of the Dones of
Crowton, see Ormerod, Cbes. (ed. Helsby)
ii, 136.
11 It will be seen that Hugh Fish had
sons Richard (son Richard) and Robert ;
and contemporary with him was Hugh
son of Hugh de Ditton, who had also
sons Richard (son Richard) and Robert,
so that probably the younger Hugh was
Hugh the Fish. Hugh son of Hugh de
Ditton granted to Richard his firat-
begotten and heir all his lands and
liberties in Ditton ; Blundell of Crosby D.
K. 241. Richard son of Hugh de Ditton
gave his brother Robert certain lands in
Holcroft, Boukerfield, and Whittle ; ibid.
K. 248. Richard son of Richard son of
Hugh de Ditton gave land at the head of
his Black Moor to Henry the Smith of
Tarbock ; one head abutted on the high-
way from Ditton to Tarbock ; Norris D.
(B.M.), n. 243.
la Richard son of Hugh the Fish of
Ditton granted land in the North Wood
to Henry son of Robert the Corviser ;
one head abutted on the Out Lane near
the Finder's houses, and the other on
Heywalle (usually Haliwell) Brook, with
housebote, heybote and mastfall for his
pigs, in return for his third best pig when
he should have more than four, and a
rent of a silver penny yearly j ibid. ». 246.
Robert son of Hugh Fish (Feys) quit-
claimed to
age
feoffment of his lands ; Bold D. (Warr.),
F. 184 ; Kuerden fol. MS. p. 98, n. 347.
He seems to have died soon afterwards,
Henry de Ditton taking his place as wit-
ness to charters from 1350 onwards.
John son of Thomas de Ditton in 1342 ;
ibid. p. 99, n. 362.
up at the beginning of 1349. John son
of Robert agreed to pay John son of John
37 marks, and the latter settled on his
ion Henry and Joan his wife various
tenements in Ditton, including the
messuage of John Dandyson, with the
free rent of T,d. paid by Alan le Norreys
of Speke for the Walk Mill, and the
•ervice of William son of John de Ditch-
field of id. rent ; some field names are
given — Crossfield, Sourfield, Corsholm
Acre ; Kuerden fol. MS. p. 96, n. 635.
• In this year Roger son of Stephen de
Ditton gave Joan as widow of Henry a
rent of 2r. for fifteen years ; ibid. p. 97,
». 650. In March, 1367, the bishop of
Lichfield granted Henry de Ditton a
licence for his oratory at Ditton ; Lich.
Epis. Reg. v, fol. 16.
e Henry was a purchaser in 1344 and
of an entry in a seventeenth-century book
of pedigrees « from Mr. Erdswick's notes,'
and is confirmed by the subsequent his-
tory of the properties ; see also the
account of Bold.
» The total inheritance was the twelfth
of John Henryson, the twelfth of Richard
Fish, and the sixth of Thomas de Ditton, in
all a third ; and the rent payable was the sum
of 1 8</., 1 8</., and 41., i.e. 71. This explains
the record in the Blundell inquisitions—
e.g. Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, n. 74 —
that they held their lands of the king by
a rent of 31. 6J., a moiety of the 71.; but
in that taken after the death of Richard
Blundell in 1592, they are said to be held
' of the heirs of John son of John son of
Henry de Ditton, by the rent of a red
rose'; ibid, xv, n. 10. Later still, in
1638, William Blundell was said to have
held a moiety of the manor of the king
by fealty in free and common socage ;
Coney portion and a commutation of the
ancient free rent.
The Blundells' house at Ditton was
called the Bank ; it lay to the east of
Ditchfield. There are numerous references
to it in N. Blundell' s Diary ; e.g. II 6.
and two other small rents ; Kuerden fol.
MS. p. 136, n. 387.
18 Richard the Fish of Ditton in 1 309-10
granted to his son Richard all his lands
in Ditton, the son finding him food and
clothing for the remainder of his life ;
ibid. p. 137, 1.443.
The younger Richard was living in
1325; ibid. p. 260, n. 402. He had
brothers Robert and Roger. He allowed
to his brother Robert all the land newly
approved at the head of Ditchfield ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 263. A grant
by Roger son of Richard Fish in 1310 is
among the Norris D. (B.M.), n. 261 ; and
his widow Cecily released her right in the
same ; ibid. n. 247.
Margery widow of Richard Fish granted
loJ. rent to her son Hugh (Kuerden fol.
MS. p. 137, ». 391); and in 1 3 29 released
to Thomas de Hale her right in certain
of her late husband's lands ; Blundell ot
Crosby D. K. 6 1.
14 A release by Hugh son of Richard
Fish to Richard the Smith of Tarbock :
Norris D. (B.M.), ». 274.
« Probably the Robert son of Hugh,
witness to a charter of 1361 ; Bold D.
(Warr.), G. 26.
398
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
appears to have sold his patrimony to John Henryson
or his son Henry.1
The share of Henry son of Philip ' seems to have
descended intact to his son Adam, who was living in
1246,* and to his grandson Stephen,* who held it for
about fifty years, 1265-1315 being the approximate
dates.5 Stephen was twice married, Maud and
Margery being the names of his wives,6 and several
children are named — Thomas, his heir ; Stephen,
Adam, Roger, Margery, and Agnes.7 Thomas, like
his father, held this share of the manor for about fifty
years, being mentioned as late as 1 3 64." He had
issue, but, as already stated, appears to have sold or
mortgaged the estate to Henry de Ditton about 1350.
PRESCOT
The origin of the share held by Richard the Smith
of Ditton is unknown ; 9 he was succeeded before
1 3 1 8 10 by his son Thomas, who was living in 1 347,
and had a son Henry," but appears to have sold his
eighteenth part of the manor to Hugh son of Robert
de Ditton.1' The Smith family, however, continued
here for some time longer."
The Robert de Ditton who held a ninth ot
the manor in 1323 was son of a Richard son ot
Adam and Wimark.14 It does not appear likely,
however, that this was Richard son of the Adam
living in 1201 and 1212 ; Adam and Richard were
favourite names in the Ditton families.15 Robert
was succeeded in 1324-5 by his son Roger, aged
i Kuerden fol. MS. p. 136, n. 382.
» Philip de Ditton had several sons-
Henry, Ralph (who had a son Roger),
Robert (son Richard), and Richard. By a
charter of about 1250 Robert son of Philip
and Richard son of Adam de Ditton
William de Bold he gave up the lands in
Bold and la Quike which his father had
held ; Bold D. (Warr.), F. 58.
6 A release was made to him by John
son of Henry, Richard son of Robert, and
Richard son of Hugh de Ditton, of the
he gave a selion in Astbrook Field ; ibid,
p. 136, n. 383. To John Henryson he
granted his portion of the field called
Netherwood, in the Holme ; ibid. p. 99,
n. 353, &c. To Richard son of Henry
the Smith of Tarbock he gave a plat of
all their share of Hardcroft, the bounds
being from the pool separating Hardcroft
and Holcroft as far as Astbrook ; with
mastfall for his pigs bred in Ditton and
sixteen others purchased ; Dods. MSS.
cxlii, fol. 229. Stephen son of Adam
son of Henry de Ditton granted land on
through his marriage ; Kuerden fol. MS.
p. 97,0.652. Stephen himself quitclaimed
to Alice his daughter, on her marriage
with Richard de Slynehead, a moiety of
the lands he had had with Maud his wife ;
ibid. n. 654. In 1309-10 he gave his son
Stephen land called Woodwal Hey and
field ; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 238.
11 Thomas the Smith was witness to a
charter made in 1 347 ; Kuerden fol. MS. p.
96, n. 598. He granted to Henry his first-
born son his capital messuage and all his
lands and rights in Ditton, with remain-
der to Randle his younger son ; Kuerden
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 83. Robert
son of Richard Pyntel gave lands to Roger
son of Ralph, son of Philip de Ditton ;
Dods. MSS. Iviii, fol. 163*. Richard son
of Robert son of Philip de Ditton had
lands from Robert son of John de Glest,
and was witness to another charter of the
latter half of the thirteenth century ;
Blundell of Crosby D. K. 235, K. 149.
to Adam, another son, and then to the
children of the grantor by Margery ; ibid.
n. 651.
7 Some of these have been mentioned
8 By an agreement between his father
Stephen and John son of Hugh de Hulme,
Thomas was about 1310 contracted to
marry John's daughter Alice, her father
In 1366 Henry was defendant in a
complaint made by Henry de Ditton as
to the mowing of his grass ; De Bane. R.
425, m. 435 d. In the same year his
daughter Alice was contracted in marriage
to Thomas de Snape ; Kuerden fol. MS.
p. 96, n. 596.
11 See note above, from the Survey of
1 346, from which it appears that Hugh
against John son of Richard de Cuerdley ;
Randle de Ditton and Roger his brother,
and Brun de Cuerdley were also con-
cerned ; Assize R. 404, m. I3</.
amount to the young couple, while Ste-
phen gave them the half of his land in Dit-
a su'it in 1354 it appears 'that Thomas
of the manor which was the Smiths'
13 In the same note Henry Thompson
the Smith appears among the holders of
one, as Adam son of Henry de Ditton,
he granted Hugh the Carpenter all that
third part of his land between the lands
of Richard the Carpenter and John son of
a daughter of the same name ; Duchy of
Lane. Assize R. 3, m. iij </. Thomas
gave land in the Hook in 1335 ; Norris
D. (B.M.), n. 271. In a feoffment of
It should be observed also that Edward
Rawstorne of the Lumb near Bury, in
1634, held messuages, &c., in Ditton of
the king by a rent of I2</. ; Duchy of
Plunter furlong, at a rent of 3,1. ; while
by another he gave Richard son of Adam
described as a capital messuage, with
houses and garden ; the lordship of a
14 Robert son of Richard de Ditton
shaw in marriage with Felicia his daughter,
messuages and lands, approvement's from
as Robert son of Richard son of Adam ;
644 ; 98, n. 344.
* Evidence of descent has been given in
preceding notes ; he is usually styled
* He was thus a contemporary, though
probably younger, of John son of Robert.
To some charters he was witness together
held in dower by Margery, then wife of
Alan Hurel ; Kuerden fol. p. 99, n. 354.
At the latest mention of him in 1364 he
was sueing Henry de Ditton, Robert son
of Hugh de Ditton, and Thomas de
Ditton, for money owing ; De Bane. R.
418, m. 224</.
son of Richard son of Wimark he had a
release of certain lands in 1324 ; Kuerden
fol. (Wh. Qu.) p. 330, n. 606. A Richard,
son of Adam de Ditton, was witness to
many charters of a generation earlier than
those in which the name of Robert son
Richard occurs, being a contemporary of
in a plea in 1292; Assize R. 408, m.
I03 d. The latest date of any of his
charters is 1313-14, and as his daughter
Margery made a grant two years later
than this, without any indication that her
father was still living, the date of his
death is approximately fixed ; Kuerden
fol. MS, p. 98, n. 659; 97, n. 653. With
the consent of Maud his wife he granted
to Hugh the Carpenter of the Marsh a
selion on Crosto (? Crosho), which Robert
son of Thomas de Ditton had held ; and
later he made a grant to Richard, Hugh's
son, in Whittle, one head abutting on the
Peel ; by another he gave Richard son of
William de Ditton all his land in the
Oldgate for a rent of id. payable
' at the fair of Halton ' ; Blundell of
Crosby D. K. 84, K. 2, K. 249. To
the Smith of Ditton by Robert Pyntel ;
Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 247, n. 6.
Richard the Smith of Ditton granted
to Richard called Faucus of Ditton and
Maud his wife a piece of land abutting
on the Mere ditch between Tarbock and
Ditton, and another piece lying towards
Upton, in the Brandearth ; and Maud, as
widow of Richard Faucus, gave land to
Richard son of Henry the Smith of Tar-
bock ; Norris D (B.M.), n. 240, 237.
w In 1317-18 Thomas son of Richard
the Smith quitclaimed to William de
Larbreck, Serjeant of Alan le Norreys,
all his right in lands in Alton Field in
Ditton — one in the Overshot and the
other in the Nethershot— granted by Alan
to William ; Kuerden fol. MS. p. 96, n.
636. To Hugh son of Robert de Astbrook
Stephen son of Adam ; see e.g. Kuerden
fol. MS. p. 98, n. 662. Richard son of
Wimark was also witness ; Blundell of
Crosby D. K. 87, K. 145.
I* Adam son of Randle de Ditton
granted to Alan le Norreys, not later than
1250, all his land in Radcliffe head, viz.
as much as belonged to one and a half
oxgangs of land in Ditton, at a rent of
2</. or two iron spurs ; and Randle de
Ditton about the same time made a grant
to Alan of land in the same place, at a
rent of id.; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 235,
236. From the endorsement of the
latter it appears that this Randle was the
ancestor of the Dandyson family. The
mention of one and a half oxgangs in the
former — about a sixth of the moiety of
Ditton— might lead to the supposition
399
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
nineteen,1 and on his death by another son, Hugh,
who, as stated above, acquired the inheritance of
the Smith family, thus making his share a sixth.'
He had a son Robert,3 who was followed by his
son Alan.* The succession here becomes uncertain.6
An Alan Ditton was living in 1481 ;6 probably it was
his son Robert who was married as early as 1442-3
to Janet, daughter of Richard Tarleton.7 Robert
Ditton had two daughters, Margaret, who married a
Coney, and Emmota, who married Thomas Shaw."
Margaret Coney was succeeded by her son William,9
and grandson Robert.10 This last was succeeded by
Henry Coney, who died in 1569, leaving a son
Henry, under age.11 Henry the younger died in
1598, his brother Robert being his heir;" and
Robert, described as of Knowsley, dying shortly after-
wards, left the inheritance to his brother William,
of Ford in Bedfordshire.13 In some manner not
quite clear the ' hall of Coney ' and the ' quarter '
of the manor held with it, by the agency of John
Ogle of Whiston, passed to William Coney of Ditton,
described as a son of Henry Coney.14 William
Coney held it in 1621," but appears to have sold it
to the Blundells of Crosby, whose holding thus be-
came a quarter of the whole manor,; it is now
described as a moiety, having, as above stated, been
increased by other purchases.
The fate of the remainder is unknown. There
was about 1820 no acknowledged lord of the manor.
The cowgates on the marsh were merged in the
general enclosure. There were ' no courts, no
perambulation, no fishery, no wrecks.' u
Though many of the deeds of DITCHF1ELD
have been preserved by Kuerden,17 a satisfactory descent
cannot be made out. It appears certain that the
estate was the two oxgangs of land which in 1212
were held of Richard de Ditton by Richard son of
Outi. From Richard the succession was probably by
his son Robert 18 and grandson Richard to the latter's
sons Roger and John.19 Roger son of Richard and
Roger de Ditchfield were witnesses to charters of
about the same time, so that it appears at least prob-
able that these were merely different names for the
same person.20
that the grantor was the Adam of the
to Henry de Ditchfield and Alice ; Kuer-
been transferred to William Coney of
Survey of 1212 ; it appears that in later
den fol. MS. p. 99, n. 470.
Ditton, Elizabeth, widow of William
times both the Norrises and the Dandy-
6 See note above. There is nothing to
Coney of Ford afterwards releasing her
sons held of the descendants of Henry,
show the connexion of this Alan with
right herein; Blundell of Crosby D.
ion of Ralph de Ditton. The seal has
the Alan living in 1445.
K. 108, K. 103. In 1600, Anne widow
the legend : + s' ADI DI DVSTES.
1 By an indenture of 1442-3 — Ditton
of Robert Coney claimed from William
Philip son of Adam de Ditton made a
of Ditton granted the marriage of Robert
Coney and others the capital messuage
grant of land in Whittle to John Henry-
son ; Blundell of Crosby D. K. i.
his son to Janet daughter of Richard
Tarleton ; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 105.
called the hall of Coney ; Ducatus Lane.
(Rec. Com.), iii,4i5.
1 Robert son of Richard Wimark of
» Ibid. K. 100, K. 107, K. 113 ; Mar-
" In this year Sir Thomas Ireland was
Ditton died holding of the king by a
garet was dead, but Emma was living in
plaintiff and William Coney and Elizabeth
service of 21. ; Roger his son and heir
1509.
his wife, John Coney and Margaret his
was nineteen years of age ; Fine R. of
» Ibid. K. 1 1 3. He was still living in
wife, deforciants in a fine concerning the
1 8 Edw. II, m. 12; Chan. Inq. p.m.
1528; ibid. K-96.
fourth part of the manor of Ditton, and
18 Edw. II, n. 6.
1° Robert Coney of Prescot, son and
lands there ; Blundell of Crosby D. K.
2 Hugh de Ditton appears from 1332
heir of William, was by his father engaged
101. The names of the wives agree
to 1349 as witness to charters ; Kuerden
in 1521 to marry Jane daughter of Ellen,
with those of the heirs of William Coney
fol. MS. p. 98. He exchanged lands with
widow of Thomas Trafford of Cheshire ;
of Ford. As a number of the Coney deeds
John Henryson ; Blundell of Crosby D.
ibid. K. in, K.I 12, K.i 10. ARobert
were among the Blundell muniments it
K. 94.
Coney of Ditton was living in 1562 ; ibid.
appears certain that this family ultimately
8 Robert son of Hugh de Ditton is
K. 114.
purchased the Coney lands.
named as a landholder in 1355 ; Morris
11 Henry was probably the son of
Some members of the family seem to
D. (B.M.), n. 276 ; and to his daughter
Robert. He demised to William Marsh
have retained an interest in Ditton, as
Alice, on her marriage with Thomas son
certain lands in Ditton in 1554; ibid.
Margery Hawarden married Henry Coney
of Alan de Haysarm, in 1386-7, he
K. 109 ; and made a settlement for the
of Ditton, gentleman, early in the seven-
had received with Emma his wife; Kuerden
K. 102. The inquest after his death
Soc.), 132. A Captain Coney of Ditton
fol. MS. p. 96, n. 590. He enfeoffed Henry
(Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii, n. 24)
is mentioned in connexion with a train-
de Holbrook, chaplain, of all his goods
shows that he held messuages and lands
band levy at the beginning of the Civil
War • Trans Hist Soc iv 31
feoffed in 1389-90; Blundell of Crosby
of West Derby by a rent of zi. and suit
l« Trans. Hist. Soc. xxii, 220 ; from a
D. K. 50, K. 92. He acquired lands in
Appleton in ,382; Morris D. (B.M.),
at the wapentake of West Derby. Henry
Coney, his son and heir, was seventeen
description by Edward Eyes in 1828, with
additions by Joseph Boult.
n. 278. He is mentioned in a bond for
years of age. The rent agrees with that
V Vol. ii (College of Arms), fol. 247.
£40 as late as 1399 ; Blundell of Crosby
paid by Robert son of Richard in 1323,
18 A ' Robert son of Richard ' attested
D. K. 57. In June, 1378, licence for an
as compared with the 31. paid by Hugh,
several charters of the middle of the
oratory at Ditton for two years was
son of Robert in 1 346.
thirteenth century, but as there were
granted to Robert de Ditton ; Lich. Epis.
i2 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvii, n. 75.
probably two of the name — of Ditton and
Reg. v, fol. 28.
Besides the hall of Coney and a quarter
of Ditchfield— this step must be regarded
4 Alan is mentioned in the bond for
of the manor of Ditton, held in socage by
as uncertain. In one charter mention is
£40 referred to in the last note. In
a rent of 2s., Henry Coney held lands in
made of ' the land of Robert son of Rich-
1445, his sister Alice, widow of John de
Rainhill, Knowsley, Huyton, and Glest in
ard ' ; Kuerden fol. MS. p. 98, n. 662.
Parr of Rainford, released to him all her
Eccleston. Robert Coney, his brother
19 ' Richard son of Robert ' attested the
right in the lands assigned to her by
and heir, is said to have been forty-eight
charter cited in the last note. One of
Robert her father ; Blundell of Crosby D.
years of age, which would make him older
this name exchanged land with Henry
K. 104, K. 97. John Ollerton, a Domini-
than Henry.
son of Ralph de Ditton, and made a
can friar of Chester, in 1441-2 gave a re-
18 He died in 1600, his heirs being his
grant to his own son John ; Kuerden
ceipt for 19 marks to Alan de Ditton and
daughters Margaret and Elizabeth, aged
fol. MS. p. 98, n. 656, 664 ; 96, n. 592. He
Daveson de Widnes ; ibid. K. 63. Alan
four and two years ; Duchy of Lane. Inq.
also made a grant to Ralph son of Philip
is also mentioned in 1420, 1425, and
p.m. xviii, n. 24 ; Blundell of Crosby D.
de Ditton ; Kuerden MSS, ii, fol. 247, n. 9.
1431.
K. 1 08.
20 To several charters dating from about
' A marriage contract of 1402-3 be-
"As early as 1589, while Henry
1 300 ' Roger son of Richard ' was wit-
tween a Robert de Ditton and Emma
Coney was still living, William Coney,
ness, his name occurring after those of
daughter of Robert de Molyneux descr.bes
perhaps an illegitimate son, sold to John
John son of Robert, and Stephen son of
the former as son of Alice, then wife of
Ogle the hall of Coney and the quarter of
Adam ; Kuerden MS. fol. p. 99,^. 505, &c.;
Henry de Ditchfield ; he was to have all
the manor ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
Roger de Ditchfield's name occurs in a
the lands descending to him from his
bdle. 51, m. 246 ; but after the death of
like position, ibid. 359, n. 423 ; 96, «.
brother, reasonable dower being allowed
Robert Coney the whole appears to have
594-
400
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Roger de Ditchfield was followed by a John de
Ditchfield, probably his son, witness to numerous
local charters from about 1310 until his death in 1346
or 1347.' His son and heir Thomas succeeded, being
mentioned for about three years.' The record of his
dispute with the superior lord, John de Ditton, gives
the first indication of the portion of the manor held
by this family. John de Ditton was the representa-
tive of the Richard son of Martin of 1 2 1 2, and in 1 347
he complained that Thomas, son and heir of John de
Ditchfield — ' in mercy for many defaults ' — had,
though a minor and in ward, refused a suitable mar-
riage which John as superior lord had offered, namely
Katherine the daughter of John del Hey or Eliza-
beth daughter of Elizabeth de Prescot, and had mar-
ried Margaret daughter of Adam de Singleton, whereby
the plaintiff had suffered a loss of £200. It was
found that Thomas held by knight's service and by a
rent of 5/. a year — the service of Richard son of
Outi in 1212 — paying los. to the scutage of 4cu. ;
the jury fixed the value of the marriage at 40 marks,
and it was decided that John de Ditton should recover
double this sum.3
To Thomas succeeded Henry de Ditchfield, pro-
bably his brother,4 who about 1400 was followed by
his son, another Henry.6 The latter had several
children— William, John, Joan, and Emmota.6 Wil-
liam, the heir, was in 1438 contracted in marriage to
PRESCOT
Katherine daughter of Nicholas Risley •' he was
living in 1482,* and was succeeded by his son Henry,
mentioned in 1493.' After this Henry's death, the
inheritance passed to his nephew Thomas,10 son of
Sir John de Ditchfield," and John Ditchfield his son
followed him." Dying in August, 1545, he was
succeeded by his son Hamlet, then thirty-four years
of age,13 who had a son William and a grandson John,
living in 1613." John's son Edward, born about
1593, had an only daughter and heir Elizabeth,15
who married John Hoghton of Park Hall in Char-
nock Richard, having previously been the wife of
John Lancaster of Rainhill ; the inheritance passed
to her children by the former union, the eldest of
whom, William, was aged five in 1664. The Hogh-
tons afterwards inherited Thurnham and took the
name of Dalton. They seem to have parted with
Ditchfield late in the eighteenth century.16 It was
acquired by Thomas Shaw,17 and now is owned by
his daughter Mrs. James R. Mellor.
The Norrises of Speke had an estate here from
early times connected with the grant of the mill on
Ditton pool made by Henry de Walton.18 Land was
quired in Ditton for the convenience of the mill,19
appears to have been the holding of the
family down to I 566, when Edward Norris purchased
the lands of William Nicholasson.*>
Several other families had lands in Ditton.*1 The
and'
i John de Ditchfield received a grant of
a new approvement from Richard de
Slynehead and Agne. hia wife, while in
1324-5 he had from John de Ditton cer-
tain land which had formerly been Richard
de Ditchfield's; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 247,
n. 7, 14. In 1330 he made a grant of
land in the Townfield to John de Ditton ;
ibid. n. 1 6. In 1346 a John son of
Robert de Ditchfield was one defendant
to a suit by Henry son of John de Ditton,
clerk, concerning the breaking into his
close ; but he may be a different person ;
De Bane. R. 345, m. 95 d.
3 He attested charters in 1347, 1348,
and 1349; Kuerden fol. MS. p. 96, n.
598 ; 97, n. 655 ; 98, ». 347- He granted
land in Steresleigh to his brother William
in 1349 ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 247, n.
which had descended to her in Ditton
and Allerton ; ibid. n. 45. There appears
to have been another daughter, Alice, wife
of Hugh Tyldesley; ibid. n. 71.
' Ibid. ,. 43 i '« also .. 55-62, 64-
67, 71.
8 Ibid. n. 56, 61, 67. In n. 70, how-
ever, dated a year earlier, Henry Ditch-
field is given as in possession. The date
9 Ibid. n. 67, 80. His wife was Ellen
Eston.
10 Ibid. n. 72, dated 1506-7, in which
Henry Ditchfield is described as the uncle
of Thomas. Thomas married Isabel, sister
of James Wetherby of Halsnead ; ibid.
n. 73.
11 Nothing appears to be known of
this Sir John ; his widow Margery, by
1663, a settlement was made of the
manor of Ditton and half the manor
of Charnock Richard ; the deforciants
being Dorothy Ditchfield, widow, and
John Hoghton and Elizabeth his wife;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 171, m.
99-
16 Ditton was included among the
Dalton manors in a fine of 1753 i 1>al- of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 351, m. 191. In
1755 Robert Dalton sold (or mortgaged)
his Ditchfield Hall estate, and sold Marsh
Green to William Woods, skinner ; Pic-
cope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 366, 284,
from Rolls 27 and 29 of Geo. II at
17 By fine in 1777 Thomas Shaw and
Sarah his wife conveyed to Thomas Moore
(no doubt as trustee) the manor of Ditton
son of John de Ditchfield, and there may
have been two Johns in succession.
8 De Bane. R. 352, m. 109.
in 1506 ; ibid. n. 75, 76, 82.
12 Ibid. n. 78, from which it appears
that John, the son and heir, married
chapel, and three pews in St. Thomas's
Church, Liverpool ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
charter in 1356; Kuerden fol. MS. p. 99,
13 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, n.
1823 gives T. Shaw as the owner; by
Henry can scarcely have been other than
a brother. There are grants to and by him
held of Richard Tyldesley, by a rent of
2J. 7%J. ; other lands in Ditton were held
18 Norris D. (B.M.), n. 234.
1" Ibid. ». 235-6 ; also n. 278-9.
' To Henry son of Henry de Ditch-
field, Richard brother of Henry (the
father) granted the lands which he held by
the gift of his brother in 1404 ; ibid. n. 27,
26. Henry the father may have survived
to this year if he were the husband of
Alice de Ditton ; Kuerden fol. MS. p. 99,
n. 470. The younger Henry married Ellen,
daughter of Thomas Travers of Whiston ;
Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 138*, n. 100 ; ii,
of 2«. ; he had lands also in Whiston and
Allerton.
14 See the pedigrees recorded at the
Visitations of 1567 and 1613, published
by the Chetham Society (1567, p. 123;
1613, p. 131).
« Dugdale, Vlut. (Chet. Soc.), 172,
155. John Ditchfield, as a convicted re-
cusant, paid double to the subsidy in 1628;
Norris D. (B.M.). Edward Ditchfield
of F. bdle. 28, m. 139.
The deeds show that these lands had
been acquired at various times in the:
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the-
Smiths of Tarbock, beginning with Henry
the Smith and his son Richard ; Norris D..
(B.M.), n. 237 onwards; over forty deeds.
Some of these have been cited in the notes,
already given. Henry the Smith of Tar-
bock was succeeded by a son Richard, who
was another Henry de Ditchfield, the
natural son of a Roger de Ditchfield ;
ibid. fol. 247, n. 31.
6 The marriage of John son of Henry
and Isabel in 1444 was accompanied by a
grant of land in Sourfield ; the remainders
were to Thomas, Roger, Joan, and
Emma; ibid. fol. 247*, n. 44. Joan
married Richard Smith of Cuerdley and
granted to William Ditchfield the lands
3
questered for recusancy before 1 649 ; then
he was charged with ' delinquency ' also,
and the whole of his property taken from
him ; but one-third seems to have been
restored, and in 1653 he petitioned to be
allowed to contract for the remainder ;
Rnyaliit Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 254. He was described in
1650 as 'an arch-papist' by Colonel
Gilbert Ireland ; ibid, iv, 22. In Sept.
4OI
also P.R.O. Anct. D. Agoii.
"I Some of them held lands in the neigh-
bouring townships, as Adam de Ireland ;.
and in later times, as the inquisitions,
show, the Moores of Bank Hall, the:
Breres, Mossocks, and Bolds.
Thomas de Hale and Mabel his wife-
acquired a holding early in the fourteenth
century. Thomas de Hale died in or
before 1330, in which year Mabel is called
51
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
local evidences contain a number of the field names
as they existed in the fourteenth century, many of
which will be found in the notes.1
The landowners contributing to the subsidy in 1628
were, besides those already mentioned, Alexander
Rigby, Nicholas Croft, and Ellen Denton ; the last-
named paid double as a convicted recusant.' In 1 666
the principal houses in the hearth-tax list were those
of John Hoghton and Thethar Lathom, both ap-
parently non-resident.* Margaret widow of James
Hoghton, described as of Halewood, registered a small
estate here in 1717.' The principal landowners in
1785 were Nicholas Blundell, — Watkins, and John
Shaw.5 About 1820 they were William Blundell,
John Watkins, and — Shaw of Everton.6
The Society of Friends have a charity estate.7
An Enclosure Act was passed in 1 797.
An ecclesiastical parish has been formed here, the
church of St. Michael having been built in 1871, and a
district assigned in 1 875." It is in the gift of trustees.
The Wesleyan Methodists have a chapel, built in
1860 ; and an iron mission chapel.
The first building for Roman Catholic worship ' was
a school erected in 1 860 by the Marchioness Stapleton-
Bretherton, who when the German Jesuits10 were exiled
gave them the Hall, formerly called the Grove, in
1872, and afterwards built the church of St. Michael,
opened in 1878. These Jesuits left Ditton in 1895 ;
for a time the church remained in charge of the
English Jesuits, but has now been given up to the
secular clergy. The estate has been sold to the Ditton
Land Company." The house is used by the Sisters
of Nazareth as a boys' home.
BOLD
Bolde, 1 21 2; Boulde, 1332; the final e is want-
ing in some cases as early as 1300.
The area, which measures 4,483 acres," is divided
by a brook, now called Whittle Brook, but formerly
Holbrook, running across it from the north-west
boundary to Great Sankey. Cambal Wood lay in
the south-east corner ; on the south was Bold Heath,
with Crow Heath and Lunt Heath on the borders of
Cuerdley and Widnes. In the south-west corner was
Cranshaw Hall.
The flat and open country is divided into arable
fields and pastures, interspersed with plantations, and
dotted with farms. The crops are chiefly corn,
potatoes, beans, and cabbages, which thrive in a clayey
soil. In the north there are collieries, and the country
is even less wooded than in the south. One patch ot
old mossland also exists in the farthest northern por-
tion of the township. Bold Old Hall and Barrow
Old Hall are two picturesque buildings, surrounded
each by a moat, situated respectively in the centre
and far south east of the township. In the geological
formation of the township the permian and bunter
series of the new red sandstone are represented ; the
red sandstone and red marl with limestone of the per-
mian at Travers farm and Bold moss in the extreme
north of the township, with a patch of the lower
mottled sandstone of the bunter series adjoining. In
the south-eastern portion of the township the upper
mottled sandstone is represented, and elsewhere the
pebble beds.
The principal road is that from Prescot to War-
rington, going eastward through the southern half of
the township. It is crossed by the roads from
St. Helens to Widnes, from which there are branches
in the north to Burtonwood, and in the south to
Penketh. The London and North-Western Com-
pany's branch line from St. Helens to Widnes passes
through the township.
In addition to the collieries there are works where
tools are made.
The population was 950 in 1901.
There is a parish council.
The legend of Bold and the Dragon seems to have
been based on an ignorant interpretation of the place-
name.13
Richard Bancroft, bishop of London 1597 to 1604,
archbishop of Canterbury 1604 to 1610, was born
here and baptized at Farnworth chapel." Robert
Barnes, of Bold, was bishop of Carlisle from 1570 to
1577, and of Durham from 1577 to 1588. 16
Tibb's Cross and Bold Heath Cross were on the
Prescot and Warrington road ; the latter was taken
down about 1870, and the little green on which it
stood has been turned into a garden. Close to it was
the pinfold.16
South of the hall there was an extraordinary cluster
his widow ; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 266.
They had issue Richard, who took posses-
sion after his mother's death, but died
without issue ; William, outlawed for the
murder of John le Norreys of West Derby
in 1341, but afterwards pardoned and re-
stored ; Robert, killed at Tarbock in 1332
(Coram Rege R. 297, Rex. m. 264) ; Mar-
gery, Avina, and Margaret. John son of
Robert le Norreys married Mabel, execu-
trix of the will of John de Hale, in or
before 1332; De Bane. R. 291, m. x.
William enfeoffed Thomas de Molyneux
of certain lands into which Richard de
Bold had entered as son and heir of the
a Molyneux marriage acquired lands in
Litherland also. Robert de Vilers held
land in Easthead of Stephen son of Adam ;
Dods. MSS. Iviii, fol. 163*. John and
Roger de Vilers are also mentioned ;
Norris D. (B.M.), n. 248 ; Kuerden fol.
MS. p. 96, „. 587.
In 1611 Thomas Wycke had held lands
here of Roger Rigby ; Lanes. Ina. p.m.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, in.
1 For instance, Haliwell and its brook
in the north ; Black Moor and Sourfield
on the Tarbock side ; the Marsh in the
south i the Halgh, Balshaw, Ditchfield,
and Cropped Wood probably in the centre,
10 Father Wernz, now general of the
order, studied at Ditton about 1 880.
" Liverpool Cat/,. Ann. 1901 ; and in-
formation of Mr. Stapleton-Bretherton.
la The census of 1901 gives the area as
4,484 acres, of which 13 are inland water.
" Pal. Note-book, i, 68.
" Pal. Note-book ; see Diet. Nat. Biog. ;
White, Elizabethan Bishops, 375. The
archbishop, a zealous upholder of Eliza-
beth's religious system, was an opponent
of the Puritans, and took a leading part
in the Hampton Court Conference. For
some unfavourable gossip, see Challoner,
Missionary Priests, n. 41.
William de Bold. These particulars are
from the record of the consequent law-
suit in Duchy of Lane. Assize R. i, m. j.
For William's crime see Assize R. 430,
'other families took surnames from
localities in Ditton or its neighbourhood,
as Marsh, Longton, Astbrook, Easthead,
and Slynehead. The descendants of Award
had the Halgh ; those of Dandi (or Randle)
continued for several generations, and by
> Norris D. (B.M.).
8 Lay Subs. 250-9.
4 Engl. Catb. Non-jurors, 122.
6 Land-tax return at Preston.
6 Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland),
7 Quaker Char. Rep. (1905), p. 65.
»Lond. Gaz. 19 Mar. 1875.
cusant roll of 1628.
1556; and became a zealous Protestant
on the accession of Elizabeth. He
* alienated very large portions of the pos-
sessions of the see to Queen Elizabeth ' ;
' his brother John was his chancellor, and
exercised his office, without restraint from
the bishop, in a most tyrannical manner ' ;
J. L. Low, Durham (Dioc. Hist.), 232 ;
see also White, op. cit. 181.
16 Lanes, and Cbes. Anttj. Soc. xix,
402
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
of fine old oaks, many of them of vast growth ; they
covered 40 acres of land.1
Charles Leigh, in his Natural History, states that
' the most remarkable thing of the wild duck is their
way of feeding them at Bold in Lancashire ....
They oftentimes adventure to come into the moat
near the hall, which a person accustomed to feed them
perceiving, he beats with a stone on a hollow vessel.
The ducks answer the sound, and come quite round
him upon a hill adjoining the water. He scatters
corn amongst them, which they take with as much
quietness and familiarity as tame ones. When fed
they take their flight to the rivers, meres, and salt
marshes."
The earliest record of BOLD is found
MANORS in the survey of 1212.' It appears that
the manor was assessed as four plough-
lands and held in thegnage by the rent of 2 is. \d.
yearly by Adam son of Richard ; and that Adam's
great-grandfather Tuger the Elder (teaex) had
formerly held it. Two minor manors had been
created, or perhaps preserved from more ancient
times, viz., La Quick and another unnamed, each of
half a plough-land.
It was Tuger the Elder who granted La Quick out
of his demesne ;4 he was probably a contemporary of
King Stephen. The name of his son does not occur,
but Richard de Bold paid half a mark to the scutage
of 1 20 1. s He died in or before 1211, and Adam,
his son and heir, proffered loo/, for livery of the four
plough-lands in Bold.6 The issues while the manor
was in the king's hands amounted to js.1 Richard's
PRESCOT
widow, Waltania, who was of the king's gift, married
Waldern de Reynham.8
Of Adam de Bold nothing more seems to be known.
He died in or before 1222, his brother Matthew
succeeding. The latter was called upon to show by
what warrant he held two plough-lands in Bol 1, and
in May, 1223, fined 3 marks for his relief, and had
livery of three plough-lands.9 Three charters of
Matthew's have been preserved ; 10 he was living in
1 242, when he was a juror on the inquiry of the
Gascon scutage. "
The next in possession was William de Bold."
His parentage is not stated. He received a grant of
the manor of Bold from William de Ferrers, earl of
Derby, who died in 1254; the boundaries were fully
defined, and the services were to be the payment of
ID/, a year and doing suit at the wapentake court of
West Derby.13 A change took place in his time in
the tenure, for about 1260 Robert de Ferrers en-
feoffed Sir William le Boteler of Warrington of the
manor with the service of William de Bold and his
heirs, rendering \os. a year for it.14 From this time
the manor of Bold became part of the Warrington
fee ; the old thegnage rent of 2 is. ^d. was paid by
the holder of the manor to the lord of Warrington,
who paid los. to the earl or duke of Lancaster.15
Some of William de Bold's charters have been
preserved.16
Robert son of William de Bold succeeded his father
in or before 1278, and held the manor over forty
years. He is first mentioned in a complaint of
William son of John de Quick concerning the latter's
i Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 716.
ment in May, 1272, states that William
» Lanes. Inj. a-.d Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 18.
« Ibid. loc. cit.
5 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 1 5 3. He granted
an acre in alms to the hospital of St. John
outside the Northgate at Chester, and a
ridding to the priory of Norton. Of the
former grant nothing more is known ;
the latter was represented by a rent of u.
issuing from lands in Bold, &c., at the
dissolution ; Inj . and Extents, loc. cit. ;
13 Bold D. (Hoghton), n. 84 ; an un-
satisfactory fifteenth-century copy. The
bounds are thus denned : Beginning at
the Hardsty in Burtonwood and following
the straight boundary between Bold and
Burtonwood on the east to the boundary
of Sankey near Hurlischalles ; along a
syke and boundary to Pighills Brook ; by
the latter on the west side to the east of
Combal Wood ; by the bounds between
that those and all his other lands in Bold
were in future to be held in exactly the
same manner as they had been of Robert
de Ferrers and his predecessors. The
tenure described, however, presents a
difficulty: 'His (William's) ancestors
had held all their demesne of Bold from
ancient time of the ancestors of Earl
Robert by the payment of loj. at the
exchequer of the honour of Halton ' ;
Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 686.
6 'The heir of Bold owes looj. for
relief ; Lanes. Pipe R. 242.
7 Ibid. 241, 245.
8 Ina. and Extents, 128. Her land
was worth * mark.
• F,ne R. Excerpts, i, 89, 103. There
is no indication as to why possession of
half the manor was withheld for a time,
east end of the Crow Heath in Bold, and near
Penketh and Cuerdley ; by a ditch on the
west between Crow Heath and Cuerdley
to a lane to Cuerdley, and by the boundary
as far as the mere-stone between Bold,
Widnes, and Cuerdley. Thence by the
highway to five lanes on the west ; along
the way to Lunts Heath, and, over this,
occurs, nor any sign of dependency by
Bold upon the honour of Halton, the old
service for it having been, as already
stated, a rent of in. $d. payable at West
Derby.
16 Inj. and Extents, 287 ; 'William le
Boteler holds Bold, rendering 101. yearly'
to the earl of Lancaster. See also the Surv.
plough-land in 1223. In 1226 the thegn-
age rent of Bold was in. tf. as before ;
Inj. and Extents, 136.
10 In Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 193 to 220*,
about 200 Bold charters are transcribed,
copied in 1635. Some of the originals
are now in the Museum at Warrington.
By one of the charters referred to Sir
Matthew de Bold gave to Matthew his
son and the daughter of Lady Emma
Mainwaring all Langley Holt in Bold,
for a rent of 6d. per annum ; n. 7. By
another he gave to Henry son of Hytel
de Bold land between the possessions of
his brother Richard and his son Matthew ;
Lane, and along the latter to Cross Lane
in the north, following the Prescot Road
as far as the high cross at the boundary
of Bold and Rainhill. By this boundary
to Windyates near Sutton on the north,
following the lane between Bold and
Sutton to the east end of Cudleslane ;
along the boundary between Bold and
Sutton to the east woods in Sutton, and
on to the ' Priest's Duller.' Thence to
Bailbirch (and) Morkels Moss near Bold,
Sutton, and Parr on the north side ;
and following the boundary between Bold
and Parr on the east towards Winwick
to the boundary of Burtonwood ; thence
Inj. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 1 1 3. A Boteler
rental of 1548 records the 2is. ^d. as
paid by the lord of Bold ; Pal. of
Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 142. On
the sale of the Boteler estates at the
end of the sixteenth century, this right
was acquired by the Gerards of Brynn ;
thus m 1612 Sir Thomas Bold held the
manor of Bold of Sir Thomas Gerard in
free socage by 211. 4^. rent ; Ltmct. Inj.
p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
256.
16 To Henry his son he gave Stodleyhow
in Bold and an oxgang in La Quick ;
Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 3. These were per-
the others, as Matthew son of Richard de
Bold, he granted lands to William of the
Well (de Fonte), clerk ; n. 9. He was
also a witness to one of the Stanlaw
charters; Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.),
ii, 581.
along the boundary of Burtonwood to
Hardsty.
14 Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 1 78. The grant
was followed by disputes between William
de Bold and William le Boteler as to the
services due from the former. An agree-
son of Robert Howe and Henry son of
Richard the Mercer; the latter's estate
was in « the vill of La Quick ' ; ibid. n. 6,
17. Besides the son Henry just men-
tioned, William had another son, Roger ;
ibid. n. 164.
403
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
free tenement in Bold.1 He himself had a suit
against Henry earl of Lincoln a few years later.* In
1297 and subsequently he made certain settlements
on his eldest son Richard,3 who for a time at least
appears to have been in possession of the manor.4 A
considerable number of Robert's charters have been
preserved, reaching down to 1325,* about which
time probably he died.6
His son Richard, who succeeded, held possession
for about twenty years.7 He married Margery
daughter of William de Mobberley of Mobberley,8
who survived him and as ' Lady of Bold ' managed
the affairs of her grandson. One of Richard's first
acts was to come to a settlement with William le
Boteler of Warrington. The earl of Lancaster, dis-
regarding the Ferrers grant of the manor to the lord
of Warrington, had claimed the old thegnage service
of 2 \s. \d. from the lord of Bold, who was thus
required to pay both to Boteler and to the earl.
Richard therefore called upon William le Boteler as
mesne lord to acquit him, and so obtained redress.9
Another matter settled was the claim of Ellen de
Torbock, the latter resigning all her right to the
lands in dispute.10 A little later a boundary dispute
with John la Warre, as to land claimed by the latter
as part of Cuerdley, was settled in Richard's favour."
A number of his deeds have been preserved, showing
his management of the manor and lands.11 He
appears to have been successful in agreements with
his neighbours and in adding to his possessions. He
died in I 346 or 1 347."
His son William, who died before him, was married
about 1329 to Sibyl, daughter of Sir Richard de
Hoghton," and left a son and heir Richard, who was
still under age in 1352." Margery de Bold was still
living in November, I364;16 she was defendant, as
guardian, in several suits.17 Richard de Bold, who
was made a knight between 1368 and 1370, married
Ellen daughter of Richard de Molyneux of Sefton.18
He died between 1387 and 1391."
His son and successor John had been contracted in
marriage in 1378 to Emma daughter of David de
Ireland of Hale.20 He was knighted about 1 400 ; he and
Thomas Bold were engaged in April, 1403, for the
1 Assize R. 1238, m. 33^. ; De Bane.
R. 27, m. %7 d. There were a number
of other defendants, including Alice, widow
of William de Bold, and Simon de Bold
and Richard his son.
o Assize R. 1265, m. 21 ; 408, m. 59.
He had other suits on hand ; e.g. against
Peter son of Peter de Burghull and others,
in which the jury decided that the dis-
puted lands were in Rainhill, not in
Bold were executors of the will of Gilbert
de Haydock in 1322; Scarisbrick D.
(Tran,. Hht. Soc., New Ser. xii), n. 54.
8 Sir Peter Leycester in Ormerod's
Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 416.
9 The case was several times respited,
but at last William le Boteler appeared,
and could not deny Richard de Bold's
statement ; De Bane. R. 292, m. 314^.
10 De Bane. R. 282, m. 77 d. a long
April, next year. Richard's armorial seal
shows two chevrons ; on a quarter a cross
flory.
17 De Bane. R. 353, m. 379^. ; Assize
R. 1444, m. 7 ; claims by Roger de
Molyneux of Rainhill (see Dods. MSS.
loc. cit. n. 94), and by Henry de Bold.
Also Duchy of Lane. Assize R. I, m. iiij ;
2, m. vij, by Nicholas son of John le
William le Boteler ; Assize R. 408, m. 18,
^tid. He successfully resisted a claim by
Henry son of Adam de Ditton to a
of March, 1330, Ellen, as widow of
Henry de Lathom, quitclaimed to Richard
son of Robert de Bold all her claim to
not appear, but probably he was a brother
of Richard, Margery's husband ; for it ii
recorded that Robert de Bold and Henry
Assize R. 408, m. 12.
in the King's Bench, and also all the
de Holand until they agreed to pay him
various lands and a rent of 51. U. in
Bold ; the remainders were to Richard's
manor of Bold ; Dods. MSS. loc. cit.
n. 31.
Robert; Coram Rege R. 254, m. 61.
Lands in Bold were granted to him and
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 183.
Four years later Richard received the
manor of Bold ; ibid, i, 196 ; Dods.
MSS. loc. cit. n. 2.
IJ34-
" Some of them relate to acquisitions
of small plots made in his father's lifetime;
Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 14, &c. No. 24 is
1346, and he was still living in 1375;
Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 84, 72. Richard son
of Henry de Bold is mentioned 1350-80 ;
ibid. n. 148, 75; Cal. Pat. i 348-50, p. 580.
de Bold who was defendant in a suit
brought by Ellen widow of Henry de
Lathom of Tarbock concerning her lands
in Bold ; De Bane. R. 164, m. 54. Henry
de Lathom himself had in 1284 quit-
filio Robert! domini de Bolde '—shows
that the father was still living. He was
accused of a breach of the forest laws in
1334 by enclosing 20 acres in Bold;
Duchy of Lane. Forest Proc. 1-17, m. 3.
had a son Randle and a grandson Richard,
both living in 1429 ; ibid. n. 91, 88.
18 They had been married some time
before 1364, in which year a settlement
was made on William, described as their
the land formerly held by Henry de Tor-
bock in Bold ; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 12.
le Boteler ; Extent of 1 346 (Chet. Soc.),
36. In Nov. 1347, Roger bishop of
brother Robert; ibid. n. 99. A con-
siderable number of deeds relating to a
in La Quick to his son Peter in 1293,
with remainders to his younger sons
Matthew and Nicholas ; Dods. MSS. loc.
cit. n. i; while as late as 1323 Robert lord
of Bold and Agnes his wife made a grant
of lands to Nicholas their son ; ibid.
». 26. An indenture of May, 1325,
recites a deed by which Sir Henry de
Trafford was bound to Robert de Bold to
pay certain sums to Sir Richard de Hogh-
iton ; Richard the son and heir of Robert
is mentioned, but it is not clear that the
father was still living ; ibid. n. 108.
Others of his charters relate to lands he
acquired from others ; ibid. n. 5, 18.
6 In Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 33 (a
feodary compiled about 1324) Robert is
named as tenant of William le Boteler.
At Easter, 1327, the widow received
•dower from the waste improved by her
••on ; the wording of the deed seems to
imply that she had been a widow for
some time ; Dods. MSS. loc. cit, n. 93.
7 Henry de Scarisbrick and Richard de
days to all who being truly penitent and
contrite, and having confessed, should
with pious intention recite the Lord's
Prayer and Hail, Mary, for the souls of
Richard Bold and William his son, whose
bodies rested in the church at Prescot,
and for the souls of all the faithful
departed ; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 101.
" Ibid. n. 109. The date of the mar-
riage contract is April, 1329. All
Richard's lands in Weston and Clifton
(near Runcorn) were to be settled on
William and Sibyl ; and he was to enter
into a bond not to alienate the manor of
Bold. The Cheshire lands referred to
are mentioned in later deeds as part of
the family inheritance. Sibyl afterwards
married Sir Robert de Clitheroe (ibid.
n. 159), by whom she had a daughter
Sibyl who had land in Bold ; Lanes. Inq.
p.m. (Chet. Soc.}, i, 104, 156.
u Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2, m. vij.
16 Dods. MSS. loc. cit. it. 35 5 con-
firmed by her grandson Richard on 15
404
ibid. n. 42, &c. By one (n. 159), dated
25 Jan. 1369^70, Sir Richard de Bold
enfeoffed Sir Thomas de Dutton of lands
in Bold and in Cheshire partly in exchange.
19 Licence for Richard's oratories at
Bold and Cliviger was granted by the
bishop of Lichfield in Nov. 1387; Lich.
Reg. vi, fol. 123*. The latest of his
deeds is dated in the same month ; Dods.
MSS. cxlii, fol. 200, n. 56. In the
following summer certain lands in Bold
were settled on his son William, with
remainders to Henry and Robert, brothers
of William, but it is not clear that the
father was alive; ibid. n. 51. John de
Bold was in possession in April, 1391;
ibid. «. 57.
2° Ibid. n. 50. John is here described as
son, not son and heir. Nothing further
is known of the William, Henry, and
Robert of the last note, but Thomas, a
brother, and Sibyl, a sister (n. 171), are
mentioned. Thomas de Bold quitclaimed
to his brother John, lord of Bold, all his
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
campaign which Henry Prince of Wales was about
to prosecute against Owen Glendower.1 He was
otherwise employed in the public service, being
sheriff of Lancashire in 1406." In November, 1404,
he had obtained a grant of free warren in his de-
mesne lands in Bold and Prescot.3 He died on
27 June, 1436, being then constable of Conway
Castle.4
Richard, his son and heir apparent, had been
married in 1404 to Ellen, daughter of Sir Gilbert de
Halsall ;5 she was a widow in 1433,° her husband
having predeceased his father. Sir Henry was suc-
ceeded by his grandson Henry, who was subsequently
made a knight and survived until 1464.' The latter
Sir Henry's widow was named Grace ; he left two
sons, Richard and Tuger, and several daughters.8
Richard had in 1439 been married to Katherine
PRESCOT
daughter of Richard Bold of Chester.9 But little
seems known of him except that he took part in
the Scottish expedition of 1482, in which he was
made a knight by Lord Stanley ; 10 he died between
1483 and 1487," leaving his manors to his son,
Sir Henry Bold, who was made a knight at the battle
of Stoke, 1487." He had two sons, Richard, who
succeeded to Bold, and Tuger, who purchased Eccleston
and other manors in Lancashire and Harleton in
Buckinghamshire.13
Richard son of Sir Henry married Margaret
daughter of Thomas Boteler of Bewsey." He ac-
quired other lands in Bold, but sold some in Flint-
shire.14 He was made a knight between 1500 and
1506,'" was collector of a subsidy in 1503," and died
16 November, 1528," leaving a widow, Margaret,"
four sons, and five daughters.*0
right in certain lands there in 1393 ; he
1 5 ; (Trans. Hist. Soc. New Ser. xiii). He
was constable of Conway Castle from the
>a Metcalfe, op. cit. 1 6. He had been
married in 1464 to Dulcia or Dowse,
resigning her claim for dower in 1423 ;
ibid. n. 60, 6 1, 1 1 6, 115.
1 Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 200, n. 65.
The engagement was for a year, begin-
ning with their appearance at Chester on
their way to Conway Castle. They were
to bring with them thirty-eight men-at-
arms and 200 archers, all suitably equip-
1436 responsible for the wages of six
archers at 4^. a day. Pat. 14 Hen. VI,
pt. ii, m. 19 ; and Cal. of Pat. 1422-9,
p. 56.
His will, made perhaps in 140$, is
among the Scarisbrick D. (n. 146) ; also
Wills (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 203.
Sir John de Bold's arms are recorded
loc. cit. n. 98), but in 1497 the name of
his widow was Ellen ; ibid. n. 120, 121.
13 He left his estates to his nephew,
after making provision for his wife and
daughter; ibid. 71.132, 134, 135, 138;
also fol. 236. Among the Bold deeds at
Hoghton are two (n. 60, 83) by a Robert
Bold, knight, baron of Ratouthe, con-
2J. a day and his brother i id. ; the men-
at-arms also I2rf. each and the archers
6J. ; two months' pay to be given at
once, and afterwards monthly in ad-
of the goods captured from the Welsh
rebels by the Holds and their men. There
was a Thomas de Bold at Agincourt in
the retinue of Robert de Alderton ; prob-
canton of the last a cross patonce or ;
Trans. Hi,,. Soc. (New Ser.), i, 152.
5 Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 201, n. 62. The
agreement was made between Sir John
de Bold and Henry de Halsall, rector of
Halsall, brother of Ellen ; £200 was to
be paid to Sir John.
6 Ibid. n. 90 ; she was still living in
1469 ; Bold D. (Hoghton), n. 14.
14 Dods. loc. cit. n. 157 ; the covenant
was made about 1483 by Sir Richard Bold
the grandfather, and the union was to
take place within thirteen years.
15 Ibid. n. 122, 126-30. Also n. 131 ;
exchange of lands, &c., in Hope and Hope
Dale for a rent of i6s. issuing from Bold.
"In a deed (n. ,22} dated Sept. 1499,
he is ' esquire ' ; in an agreement with
349, and Norman R. (Dtp. Reefer's Rep.
xliv), 599, 601. For Thomas de Bold
«ee also Cal. of Pat. 1422-9, and Dep.
Keeper', Rep. xxxvii, App. 55 — writ of
Diem. cl. extr. issued I Mar. 1436-7 ; also
Ormerod, Cba. (ed. Helsby), ii, 481.
2 P. R. O. List of Sheriffs, 73. On
21 Sept. 1400, Henry IV granted his
knight, John del Bold, whom he had re-
tained for life, £20 yearly ; commuted
figure of a man and wife kneeling, the
former having the gryphon of Bold
on his breast, with a label of three
points, the latter the arms of Bold and
Halsall quarterly. Underneath was the
inscription : * Orate pro anima Ricardi
Bolde et Elene uxoris sue; quorum
animabus propitietur Deus' ; Dods. MSS.
cliii, fol. 46*.
' Security for the good behaviour of
he is 'knight' ; ibid. n. 124.
17 R. of Par!, vi, 535 i. He was ap-
pointed seneschal of West Derby wapen-
take in 1505 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xl,
App. 544.
18 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 25.
This inquisition gives some particulars of
the dealings with the estates during the
preceding fifty years, and also recites
Sir Richard's will. Ellen, his father's
1401, p. 338.
8 Chart. R. 6 and 7 Hen. IV, n. 10.
In 1411, after ceasing to be sheriff he had
charge of the castle of Conway, the king
granting his protection ; Add. MS. 32108,
n. 1527.
The bishop of Lichfield granted him
licence for his oratories at Bold and else-
where in Lancashire in July, 1395 ; Lich.
Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 133. The chapel at
was a party to his grandson's marriage
covenants in Oct. 1464 (Dods. MSS.
cxlii, n. 98), and served on a North
Wales commission in 1466 ; Cal. of Pat.
1461-7, p. 529. He died before 1479.
8 Probably there was an elder brother
and heir, Boniface, who died young; for in
1433 a dispensation was granted by
Eugenius IV for the marriage of Boniface
£21 ; her son John Bold had various
lands in Bold and Widnes. Sir Richard
provided 300 marks for the marriage por-
tions of his daughters, and desired that
each of his sons should have an annuity of
£4, and should be 'sent to grammar
school,' and afterwards to the university.
The executors were to provide ' for the
furnishing of the stock of Our Lady,' and
a priest to sing in a chapel on the north
deeds on the Ogle R. It may be the Jesus
Epis. Reg. ix, 1 68 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
body was to be buried in this church, near
« On 24 June, 1422, the prior and con-
vent of Austin Friars at Warrington
granted Sir John Bold and Dame Eliza-
beth his wife a chantry at the altar
of St. Augustine in the body of their
church, where mass should be celebrated
for them daily, as also for the souls of
their ancestors and of the Lady Emma,
formerly wife of Sir John ; Dods. MSS.
cxlii, fol. 208, n. 107. This second wife
was living in 1439 (ibid. n. 74), and after-
wards married a Gilbert Scarisbrick ; Pal.
of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 6, m. 47 ; Pal.
of Lane. Plea R- 3, m. 343.
In 1429 Sir John had some dispute
with his son Richard ; Scarisbrick D. n.
Tuger had a grant of lands from his
father in 1465 ; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n.
100 j he is mentioned also in 1450;
ibid. n. 158. The name is spelt in various
ways — Tutger, Tutcher, Tucher, Toger.
9 Ibid. n. 70, 74. Richard is described
as « son and heir ' of Henry Bold.
10 Metcalfe, Knights, 7.
n In June, 1482, before setting out
for Scotland, he enfeoffed James Stanley,
archdeacon of Chester, and others of all his
lands in Lancashire to provide for his son
and heir Henry and Henry's son Richard
until this last should be 20 years of age ;
and in 1487 his widow Katherine received
her dower ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, n. 104, 123.
405
sons in order — Richard, Thomas, John,
and Francis ; also his brother Tuger ; in
default of heirs of the latter the estates
were to go to * the right heirs of the body
of Sir Henry Bold, knight,' his great-
grandfather. Richard Bold, the son and
I" Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 134, &c. She
was still living in 1553.
*> From this time until 1664 the various
Heralds' Visitations printed by the Chet.
Soc. are available ; the pedigrees of the
family may be seen in the Visitation of
1533, p. 147; 1567, pp. i lo-il 5 1613,
p. 15 i and 1664, pp. 41-3.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
His eldest son, Richard, succeeded. He was thrice
married.1 By his second wife, whom he married in
1535, he had a son Richard, who succeeded in 1558 ;*
and by his third, another son, William, whose descen-
dants came into possession in 1612.
The son Richard held the manors for more than
forty years. He was a justice of the peace, and in
I 590 made 'show of good conformity ' to the eccle-
siastical laws, but was ' not greatly forward in the
public actions of religion.' * A few years earlier,
according to information furnished by a servant of
his, ' neighbours used to come to Bold at such time as
other men were at church.' 4 Richard Bold had no
children by his wife,6 but made over all his manors to
his illegitimate son, Sir Thomas Bold.6 The latter
died without issue in September, 1612, when Richard
Bold, son and heir of the William Bold mentioned
above, entered into possession.'
The new lord married Anne, daughter of Sir Peter
Legh of Lyme.8 He was sheriff in 1630,' and died
on 19 February, 1635-6, his heir being his second son,
Peter, aged only nine years.10 The heir escaped the
most dangerous period of the Civil War, and on
attaining his majority accepted the existing order,"
serving the office of sheriff in 1653-4." He died
before the Restoration, leaving an infant son, also
named Peter, to succeed.
The heir was in 1671 entrusted to Adam Martin-
dale to be educated, along with her own son, by Lady
Assheton of Middleton, his mother's sister.18 Soon
afterwards he was entered at Lincoln's Inn, and sent
to Christ Church, Oxford.14 At an early age he was
elected one of the knights of the shire,15 and in 1690
was sheriff.16 He died in 1691, his son Richard
being still a minor.
Soon after coming of age Richard Bold was elected
knight of the shire,17 but he died young on 21 March,
I7O3-4.18 His heir was an infant son Peter, who went
1 The marriage covenants for the earlier
unions are given in Dods. loc. cit. n. 150,
136. He had married his third wife,
Margaret Woodfall, before April, 1553;
estate was taken into the king's hands for
recusancy in 1612; Raines MSS. xxxviii,
327. The recusant roll of 1628 gives
thirty-one names in this township ; Lay
and Exch. Dtp. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 65-6.
" Foster, Alumni Oxon.; matriculated
I Oct. 1674, aged eighteen.
Farnworth Register that he had married
Richard's monument stands in Farn-
the election of knights of the shire of
Barrow Heath,' on 28 Nov. 1551 5 Cb.
Goods, 1552 (Chet. Soc.}, 82. In 1553
he made a feoffment of his manors, &c.,
making provision for his daughters Anne
and Ellen, and his illegitimate children
John, Elizabeth, and Jane ; in default of
male issue, his manors were to go to his
brothers Francis and John, and Lancelot
ton of Arthur Bold, deceased ; Bold D.
(Hoghton), „. 335.
2 The inquisition after his death shows
hands clasped in prayer and holding a
book ; a sword is by his side. The in-
scription has disappeared. Tram. Hist.
Soc. (NewSer.), xiv, 2!4.
« In the Visit, of 1613 (Chet. Soc.), 15,
Sir Thomas is regarded as legitimate, and
his mother's name is given as Margaret
daughter to Henry Battersby. In 1574
certain lands were by Richard Bold, esq.,
settled on Thomas Bold, gentleman, and
Elizabeth his wife ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
30,000 men at Lancaster. Two men
were trodden to death ; one was a Papist,
some say both. Lord Gerard's son was
clearly and without much contradiction
chosen, though none of the best. Mr.
Bold of Bold and Mr. Spencer stood in
competition. The matter could not be
decided ; they came to Preston to poll ;
they polled above a week, viz. till the
Thursday se'nnight. The country came
in all that time. Both sides bore the
Duchy of Lane. Inq, p.m. xi, n. 63, 13.
For a brief note of his will, dated 20 Oct.
1557, see Dods. n. 147. His son Richard
was aged twenty at his father's death.
8 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 244 ; from
Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4. He was a sus-
pected rerson in 1584; ibid. 226.
was probably a child marriage ; the wife
Elizabeth is not named in the pedigrees.
7 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 254. Sir Thomas held the
manors of Bold, Burtonwood, Sutton,
Great Sankey, and North Meols, and
wide lands besides, by his father's gift.
or three thousand pounds apiece. Mad
work there was, yet left at uncertainties.
The writs were out ; Spencer rides to
London, leaves them polling. The earl
of Derby was for Spencer ; the High
Sheriff [Sir Roger Bradshaw] for Bold,
who on the Friday went to Lancaster to
cliii, n. 6z. The deponent went on : ' He
never saw the said priest [Richard Smith]
His widow, Bridget, daughter of Sir
William Norris of Speke, was living at
in a chair to the Castle, durst not come
into the town for they threatened to stone
four with him, and was cunningly con-
veyed in at a back gate into the garden,
and so over the drawbridge into the house;
and hath seen meat go forth of the kit-
chen and forth of the day house into his
chamber ... and these [there] he durst
bdle. 73, n. 41.
<> Funtral Certs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 124. Over the doorway of the
Old Hall at Bold are the initials RB
1 6 1 6 AB. The marriage took place soon
after he came into the inheritance ; Pal.
Diaries, ii, 259. Peter Bold was a Tory ;
Pink and Beavan, Par!. Rep. of Lanes. 78.
16 P.R.O. List, 73.
In 1676 he had married Anne daughter
of Adam Beaumont, eldest son of Sir
Thomas Beaumont of Whitley Beaumont
In 1591 it was reported to the queen's
ministers that he had 'of late reformed his
wife and family' ; ibid. 257 ; from S.P.
Dom. Eliz. ccxl.
* Richard Bold was living in 1601, but
dead before Sept. 1603 ; Cal, S.P. Dom.
1601-3, p. 125 ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 5. He had been
sheriff in 1575 and 1589; P.R.O. List,
9 P.R.O. List, 73. In 1632 he paid a
fine of £30 on refusing knighthood ; Misc.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 222.
10 Lanes. Funeral Certs. (Chet. Soc.), 58 ;
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. 12 Chas. I,
xxvii, n. 58. The inquisition recites the
provision made for his intended wife,
1 8 Dec. 1612; it affords a number of
field names, as — Harwood, Pillough,
Elmete, 338.
V He was a Tory ; Pink and Beavan,
op. cit. 8 1 ; Kenyan MSS. 428— from
Richard Bold to George Kenyon : ' 1702,
April 2. London. — Having served for
the county of Lancaster in the two last
Parliaments, makes me venture a third
time to offer myself.'
He married Elizabeth, daughter and co-
made in 1600 (Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
Wood, and Blackball Ground. The
Yorkshire ; Burke, Commoners, i, 283.
following year ; ibid. bdle. 63, n. 170.
In the latter fine 'Jane his wife' is
mentioned; her father, William Mor-
age as forty-seven ; Gent. Mag. Sept. 1824.
11 He was added to the lieutenancy of
the county in 1648 ; Civil War Tracts
early in 1700; the manors were Bold,
Burtonwood, Sutton, and North Meols ;
Pal. of Lane. Docquet R. 471, m. g d. ;
ibid. bdle. 53, m. 106. Jane afterwards
married John Edwards of Chirk ; she was
in possession of the manor-house and
charged with wasting the park ; her hus-
lation from Henry Bradshaw of Marple,
on his taking the Parliamentary side, may
be seen in Ormerod's Ches. (ed. Helsby),
iii, 845. He married a daughter of Sir
Farnworth church states that he had two
sons and four daughters, of whom only
the younger son survived him.
deer; Duchy of Lane. Plead. Easter,
3 Jas. I, bdle. 122. Two-thirds of the
13 P.R.O. List. 73.
18 Adam Martindalt (Chet. Soc.), 196 ;
passed, vesting the estate in trustees ;
4 and 5 Anne, cap. 26.
406
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
up to Oxford in 1722,* and was elected to Parliament
soon after coming of age, serving for Wigan in 1727,
and for the county from 1736 to 1741 and from
1750 to 1760.' He died in 1762, leaving six
daughters.3 The eldest, Anna Maria, succeeded to
Bold and his other estates, and dying unmarried in
1813, aged eighty-one,4 was succeeded by Peter son
of Thomas Patten of Bank Hall, Warrington, by
Dorothea his wife, younger sister of Anna Maria
Bold. Peter, upon succeeding to the family estates
in 1814, took the surname of Bold. He served in
Parliament for various constituencies, and on his
death in 1 8 1 9,* left four daughters as coheirs. Of
these Mary, the eldest, succeeded to Bold. She
married at Florence, and afterwards at Farnworth,
Prince Sapieha of Poland, but died in 1824 without
issue. Bold then passed to her sister Dorothea, who
married Henry Hoghton, afterwards baronet ; he
subsequently assumed the name of Bold in addition to
his own surname.6 Their son, Henry Bold-Hoghton,
sold the Bold estates in 1858 and later, and in 1862
discontinued the use of Bold as part of his sur-
name. The purchaser of Bold Hall, William Whitacre
Tipping/ died intestate in March, 1889, the estate
passing to the next of kin, Mrs. Wyatt, then of
Hawley Parsonage, Hampshire. About ten years
later, after various attempts had been made to dispose
of the estate, it was purchased by a syndicate, regis-
tered under the style of the Bold Hall Estate, Limited;
the hall, much dilapidated, was taken down, and a
colliery opened.
The mansion was thus described in 1860 : 'The
hall stands on a gentle elevation commanding ex-
tensive scenery to the south, extending over a fine
expanse of park to the distant hills of Cheshire ; to
the north and east it overlooks the pleasure grounds
and the finely timbered north park with its groves of
unrivalled oaks. It is a handsome, uniform, and very
substantial edifice, adorned with fine stone columns
and corresponding decorative dressings, designed and
erected about 1732 under the superintendence of the
eminent Italian architect Leoni.' 8
QUICK? now forgotten, was sometimes styled a
vill. About the reign of Henry II Tuger the Elder,
as lord of Bold, gave half a plough-land to Albert,
which was held by Albert's son Henry in 1212
by an annual service of 4/. 6</.10 This estate is identi-
fied as being in the Whike, because Henry son
of Albert was a benefactor of Cockersand Abbey,"
and their lands lay in the ' Quickfield.' A charter
of about 1 270 shows that part of the Whike had
been recovered by the lord of Bold." Another portion
was held by the Rixton family.13 More than a century
later the messuage called the Whike was held of the
Bolds by Nicholas Penketh for a rent of £4 6s. Sd'."
A local family took surname from it.14
1 Foster, Alumni Oxon.; matriculated
at Brasenose, 2 Feb. 1721-2, aged sixteen.
The age must have been understated.
According to the Leeds parish registers
there was an elder brother Richard, born
13 June, 1700, at the house of Richard
Ashton of Gleadow.
dewed with age, but he also had a fancy
for going down to the Tipping Arms with
a thousand pounds or so in his pockets.'
8 From the sale catalogue. There is 2
view of it in Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1 8 3 6), iii
In the corridor was an I B.
of Bold; Towneley MS. GG. n. 2134.
His first appearance is in 1313-14 against
Henry son of Robert Bellamy, the series
of disputes lasting many years ; Assize
R. 424, m. 10 ; De Bane. R. 278, m. 55.
He had another suit with Gilbert de
Meols with regard to certain lands in
Tory. For a settlement in 1725 see
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 296,
m. 56. 'Elizabeth Bold, widow,' is men-
tioned.
» Monument in Farnworth church.
He died in Great Russell Street, Blooms-
bury ; Gent. Mag. 1762.
9 Lawyke, 1212; La Quyke, 1278
and usually ; Whike, 14.85.
10 Lanes. Inj. and Extent,, 1 8. In thi
place Albert is feminine, in the Cockertaw
Chartul. it is masculine.
11 Cockcrsand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii
612,613. The marginal note is ' Quike
m. 231; Towneley MS. GG. n. 2134.
Richard de Alvandley was at one time
coroner; Cal. Close, 1330-3, p. 74. He
died about 1350, for his daughter Agnes
was plaintiff in the following year ;
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. i, m. 5 ; and
3, m. ijd. She was still living in 1393,
She was the chief contributor in Bold to
the land tax of 1785, paying £56 out of
£65 levied.
the first Henry son of Albert de la Quike
granted land between Caldwell carr and a
'land' called the Hustude, in free alms.
position of her inheritance are preserved
MSS? xxxviii, TsV^ThThrnds appear
Patten Bold 1™ F^n^TrTchurdi!0
« Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 716.
ties in Bold. In 1451 Henry Bold wa
tenant ; ibid, iv, 1244-51.
12 Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 193 seqq. n. 3
son of John de Haydock. See also the
account of Woolton.
13 In June, 1319, John son of Robert
licence in 1825 ; Burke, Peerage, &c.
de Pilothalgh, in selling ' lands ' in Whike
ton all the lands and tenements in Bold
He was a Wigan cotton-spinner, and is
•aid to have paid £120,000 for the hall
and some farms. The following account
of him is from a local newspaper : 'Tip-
ping was unmarried ; he lived in about
four rooms, and generally neglected the
whole place. He was an eccentric
character, rough in manners and in dress,
uneducated, and without taste. Like
Bold-Hoghton before him, who kept five
states that he had purchased them frorr
Thomas son of Adam del Quike, and tha
Henry de Penketh had held them ; n. 177
to William de Bold; ibid. n. 17.
It would appear that other members o
the Mercer family had interests here, fo
Agnes, daughter of Richard de Alvandley
of Bold, enfeoffed certain trustees of he
lands in Bold, the rent of the chief lord
Robert de Upton, to wit, the land called
the Whike ; Dods. loc. cit. n. 25. After-
wards, in 1 3 62, Henry and his son Richard
joined in granting to Richard de Bold
all their lands in Bold, Henry and his
F wife Ellen receiving a grant of the Whike
for their lives ; ibid. n. 37, 38.
14 Ibid. n. 106 ; the date is 1485.
15 William son of John de Quike in
1278; Henry de Quike in 1288 and
pleasures lay in the barbarous sport of
cock-fighting, in card-playing, and in
visits to the Tipping Arms on the War-
rington road. He preserved the hall,
however, in which there were two Van-
dyck full-length portraits of Charles I and
1 212 quoted above. The facts statec
in the subsequent note are not quite in
accordance with the identification o
Agnes's lands with the Whike ; Raine
MSS. xxxviii, 283.
Richard de Alvandley, the father, wa
1291 ; Henry's wife was named Mabel,
and his son Alan; Juliana de Quike
f occurs about the same time, and Nicholas
de Quike and his wife Lettice in 1302 ;
see Assize R. 1238, m. 33 d. ; 420, m. 3,
&c. These suits concern land in Bold ;
family ; two Claudes, and a Holy Family
by Rubens. The stories of Tipping1 s eccen-
tricities are legion. He appeared to hoard
up money in the shape of buckets of
»overeigns which got discoloured and mil-
years, and is often called Richard de Bold
leading to a confusion with .the lord o
the manor ; Alvandley was the name o
a part of his lands ; ibid. He was th
son of Robert son of Robert the Merce
the lords of Bold, and others against
f Robert de la Ford and his family.
f In the charters Henry and Robert de
Quikefield occur ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol.
193*, &c. A close called Quickfield and
407
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
The Hospitallers had a close in Quick Hill held
by Richard Bold about 1540 at a rent of \^d^
The Haydock family had early an interest in
Bold, and in particular in CRANSHAW.' The
Bolds acquired this estate also, and in the sixteenth
century it is found as the dower of Margaret Bold
and the portion of younger sons, Francis and
Richard.'
BARROW is mentioned in 1 330, when a messuage
in Bold in a place called the Barrow was given to
Henry son of Alan de Barrow and Margery his wife ;
with remainder to Alan's brother Ellis.4 Almost a cen-
tury later Cecily de Collay, or Cowley, daughter and
one of the heirs of Ellis de Barrow, granted all her share
of the inheritance to Randle son of Richard son of
Henry de Bold, and to his son Richard.6 This
property also was acquired by the senior branch of
the family, and in 1537 formed part of the dower
assigned to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard,6
on her marriage with Richard Bold.
In the survey of 1 2 1 2 it is mentioned that ' Gilbert
held anciently four oxgangs of land for 3/. 6d., and
now Richard his son holds them ' of Adam de Bold.7
This estate has not been identified, but may be HOL-
BROOK, which was held of the chief lords by a rent
of 3/. 6J., as appears from a grant in I 329 by William
son of Henry de Holbrook of Bold to Henry his son,
on the latter's marriage with Agnes daughter of Roger
de Ritherope.8 Very little is known of the family ;
but their estate passed to the Gorans, or Currens, of
Bold,9 and in 1535 Holbrook House was given by the
father to Richard son of Ralph Goran, on his marriage
with Margaret daughter of Richard Lancaster of Rain-
hill.10 Twelve years later this Richard Goran appears
to have sold his lands to Richard Bold.11
BRINSOPE is another estate ol which a few par-
ticulars have survived."
Various families and place names occur in the deeds
and pleadings, but no consecutive account of them can
be given.13
Bold to John Marsh, blacksmith, in 1632.
In 1651 it was found to have been
sequestered for the recusancy of William
Marsh, recently dead ; but it was restored
next year to Gilbert Croft of Burton-
wood and his wife, in the latter's right, they
being ' good Protestants ' ; Royalht Comf.
P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iv, 119.
1 Kuerdcn MSS. v, fol. 84.
" Crouenschae, L. 1270 ; Croncischagh,
c. 1300 ; Crauneshagh, 1318 ; Cranshawe
and Craunshaw, 1553.
It was acquired by the Haydocks from
William her son are mentioned in n. II 6,
of 1411.
8 Ibid. n. 136; it is called 'a tene-
ment or capital messuage called Barrow
Hall.' For a description of the old house
see Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xii, 185.
7 Inq. and Extents, I 8.
8 Blundell of Crosby D. K. 56. William
son of Henry de Holbrook released to
Robert de Bold in 1297 two portions of
his land in Bold; Bold D. (Warn),
F.220. In 1335 Henry son of Henry de
Holbrook secured land in Bold by fine
from William del Heye and Emma his
Ducatui Lane. loc. cit. Gilbert Coran in
1515-6 granted a messuage and lands (in-
cluding Prior's Croft) to his son Ralph
on his marriage with Ellen daughter of
Thomas Trafford ; ibid.
10 Dods. loc. cit. a. 166-7. Cross Hey
and Breck Hey are named in 1 544 ; ibid.
11 Ibid. n. 142. Richard Coran or Cur-
ran died sometime before March, 1556-7,
when inquisition was made as to his hold-
ing. He was seised of ' the hall of Curran '
and lands attached ; also of another mes-
suage, with lands, in the occupation of
Thomas Curran, &c. ; Bold D. (Warr.),
Alice his daughter ; Legh D. (quoted by
W. Bcamont). By an early charter
Gilbert de Haydock, with the assent of
Alice his wife, gave to Alan son of Ralph
had herself received the lands on her mar-
riage from the senior brother William.
Henry before his death requested Alan his
nephew, the son of William, to take
nor the tenure.
ia Six acres in Brunsop were granted by
Henry son of Albert de la Quike to Henry
son of Award de Upton ; the land adjoined
the vill of Bold; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n, 1 68.
By another charter Gilbert granted to
Richard son of Richard de Crosby half
his land in Cranshaw in Bold, which
Robert de Mara formerly held, for a rent
of 3j. 4</. ; Bold D. (Warr.), G. 44.
This was about 1300 given up to Robert
de Bold ; ibid. F. 187. In this deed the
'priest stile' is mentioned.
The interest of the Haydock family is
testified by fines of 1286 and 1332 and
an inquisition of 1388 ; here the tenure
is described as ' in socage, rendering a
barbed arrow' ; Final Cone, i, 164 ; ii, 82 ;
Lane,. Inj. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 32 ; also
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 6, m. 3 d.
The place being a boundary of the
township the resident family took the
name of Edge, and in 1364 Jordan de
Edge and Ibota his wife granted to Roger
son of Adam Gernet of Bold a part of his
land in Cranshaw, one head abutting upon
the chapel of Farnworth and the other
died, and Alan thereupon took full posses-
sion ; Final Cone, ii, 99 ; Duchy of Lane.
Assize R. 2, m. vij d. ; 6, m. i d.
In 1387 Richard de Bold granted John
de Holbrook and Margery his mother a
parcel of land called Jacacre ; Dods. MSS.
loc. cit. n. 56. This deed mentions the
road leading from Prescot to Warrington.
» This name occurs in the charters and
subsidy rolls. Archbishop Bancroft is said
to have been born at Coran Hall in Bold.
The earliest of the family to occur
seems to be William son of Randle de
Kenian (? Keruan), who quit-claimed to
his lord, Robert son of William de Bold,
all his right in Cumbewalwood in Bold ;
Bold D. (Warr.), F. 258. Richard son of
William de Coran in 1295 similarly re-
signed all his right in Camwall Wood ;
Dods. MSS. loc. cit, n. 20. Richard had
a son and heir Henry ; De Bane. R. 258,
n. 127. Henry del Coran occurs from
about 1300 until 1391 ; no doubt there
the grantor's wood of Bold being included ;
Bold D. (Warr.), F. 149. In 1372 Elias
de Brinsope granted Henry de Rixton
the lands which had belonged to John
de Brinsope, and the reversion of those in
the hands of Cecily widow of Robert de
Brinsop^ lying in Bold in the place called
Brunsop; Bold D. (Warn), F. 275. These
lands were afterwards in the possession
of the Blundells of Little Crosby, and in
i 540 Henry Blundell leased part of his in-
heritance here to George Wyke of Bold ;
ibid. F. 185, 298. For another deed see
Kuerden, iii, B. 13, n. 335.
13 In 1391 Roger son of Adam Gernet
sold his lands to Sir John de Bold ; ' Ger-
net field' is mentioned in 1425 in a quit-
claim by William Bruen and Richard his
son to Randle son of Richard Bold ; Dods.
loc. cit. n. 59, 91. See Pal. of Lane. Feet
ofF. bdle. 14, m. 279; 31, m. 82.
Richard son of Roger de Molyneux early
in the fourteenth century gave to Henry
Bold ; Dods. loc. cit. n. 148.
» Dame Margaret Bold of Cranshaw,
widow of Sir Richard, in 1553 surrendered
her 'manor1 of Cranshaw to her son
Richard ; and the latter by his will made
in the same year, gave among other things
half the household stuff in his manor-
houses of Bold and Cranshaw to his son
Richard ; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 145, 147.
Francis Bold, brother of the testator, is
afterwards described as 'of Cranshaw.'
« Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 32, 29.
William de Barrow was a witness to con-
temporary deeds ; ibid. n. 30, &c.
* Ibid. n. 88. Alice Collay and
year an exchange of lands was made with
him by Sir John de Bold ; Dods. loc. cit.
n. 57.
In 1417 a settlement of the Coran
estates in Bold was made by Henry Coran
and Joan his wife, the remainder being to
Henry's son Richard ; Ducatus Lane. (Rec.
Com.), ii, 168. Another settlement was
made in 1446 on the marriage of Richard's
son Henry with Elizabeth daughter of
Robert Sale ; ibid. 169 ; one of the series
is among the Bold D. (Warr.), F. 244.
Richard Coran and Ellen his wife made
a further arrangement in 1467, the re-
mainder being to Henry son of Richard ;
408
Bold, reserving mastfall. This land was
transferred by Henry to Peter son of
Robert de Bold, and in 1325 Beatrice
widow of Richard de Molyneux released
all her right in the same ; in her claim it
was described as a messuage, 2 oxgangs of
land, &c. ; De Bane. R. 248, m. 265 d. ;
Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 15, 28.
Turnlegh was an estate in Bold with
'homages of divers free tenants,' which
formed part of lands settled on Richard
de Bold and Ellen de Molyneux his wife
sometime before 1364; ibid. n. 99, 42,
Matthew, son of the Matthew who wa»
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
In 1662 Mrs. Joan Owen, mother of the heir, was
living in Bold Hall, which had twenty hearths ; Henry
Greene had Cranshaw and Holbrook.1
Two ' Papists ' registered estates in Bold in 1717:
Nicholas Lurkey of Eccleston, shoemaker ; and Mary
widow of John Longworth.*
Sanki,
I 242, and
GREAT SANKEY
Schonke, I
Sonky,
1202, 12
sually.
Great Sankey is a flat country with open fields,
mostly under cultivation, where crops of potatoes and
wheat are raised on a loamy soil. Sankey Brook forms
the south-eastern boundary. On the north-east a brook
flowing into the Sankey divides it from Burtonwood,
and the Whittle Brook on the south serves for a
partition from Penketh. The area is 1,922,^ acres.3
The surface gradually rises from the low land by
Sankey Brook to the north-west. The upper mot-
tled sandstone of the bunter series of the new red
sandstone is in evidence throughout this township
and Penketh, except where obscured by alluvial
deposits in the immediate vicinity of the River
Mersey. The village is situated on the border of
Penketh. The population numbered 1,034 'n
1901.
The principal road is that from Prescot to War-
rington, which is joined by others from Penketh and
from Burtonwood. The Cheshire Lines Committee's
railway crosses the centre of the township, having a
station (Sankey) at the village, opened in September,
1873. The London and North-Western line from
PRESCOT
Liverpool to Warrington crosses the southern corner,
and has a station (Sankey Bridges) opened about the
year 1852.
The canal which winds along beside the Sankey
Brook has the credit of being the first work of the
kind in modern England, the Sankey Navigation
being formed in 1755.* The canal, which was
afterwards extended to Widnes, has been since 1864
under the control of the London and North-Western
Railway Company.
The occupation of the inhabitants is still largely
agricultural. Wire mills and white-lead works have
been established on the Warrington side.
The township is governed by a parish council ot
five members.
The Warrington Corporation has a sanatorium,
built in 1903.
This township, with Penketh as a
MJNOR hamlet, was included in the demesne of
the lords of Warrington. The manor of
GRE4T S4NKEr is mentioned in several Boteler
settlements and inquisitions,5 and on the sale of their
estates about 1585 became the property of the Bolds
of Bold.6 Sir Thomas Bold in 1610 granted it to
Thomas Tyldesley and Thomas Orme ; the latter
shortly afterwards resigned his interest, so that
Thomas Tyldesley was solely seised in 1613.' Within
fifteen years it had passed to Sir Thomas Ireland of
Bewsey,8 and has since descended, with other estates
of this family, to Atherton, Gwillym, and Powys,
Lord Lilford being the present lord of the manor.9
Manor courts were held yearly until 1888.'°
A branch of the Rixton family settled here ; " and
lord of Bold in the first half of the thirteenth
century, had land called Langley Holt ; he
seems to have married a daughter of Emma
Mainwaring ; and had sons Richard and
referring to this place are among the
Bold deeds at Warrington. By one (E. 5)
Gilbert son of Gilbert the Horse-keeper
(Equarin ?) released to his lord, Sir William
nement,' whereas the original charter
acres granted j Assize R. 1400, m.
Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 7, 10, 163, 162.
William lord of Bold, besides Robert
his heir, had a son Roger, who married
new mill of Sankey. This may, however,
refer to Little Sankey. By another,
Richard son of Adam Baselx quitclaimed
lands here from Richard Bruche and
Anne his wife ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 14, m. 238. Thomas Bruche sold
164, 76, 23. This William, known as
• of the Hall,' being convicted of the kill-
ing of Thomas de Eccleston at Warring-
and land between the lands of Simon
Dandy and Simon the Studherd ; E. 18.
Another, dated 1289, released to Sir
bdle. 25, m. 75.
6 The grant of the manor to Coxe and
Wakefield may have been one of the
254, m. 43; Inq. a.q.d. 18 Edw. II, „. 2.
1 Trans. Hht. Sac. (New Ser.), xvi, 134.
Bold Hall was the largest house in the
whole parish.
» Enrl. Cath. Non-jurors, 118, 123.
« 1,922, including 20 acres of inland
water ; also 2 acres of tidal water ; Cen-
sus Rep. of 1901.
4 Act 28 Geo. II, cap. 8.
'The original intention of the under-
takers was to deepen the Sankey Brook,
but instead of making this the channel
entirely separate from it, except that it
Nicholas de Erbond ; E. 10. In 1313
William le Boteler granted to Thomas de
Barrow and Silicia his wife lands, &c. in
Great Sankey for the term of their lives ;
E. 13.
In 1292 Christiana widow of Gilbert
son of Walter claimed 6 acres in Sankey
from William le Boteler ; Assize R. 408,
m. 1 7. William le Boteler in i 303 granted
to William son of Henry de Hodelsden
land in Great Sankey ; Dods. MSS. cxlii,
fol. 236*. Simon Tripe released to Sir
William his right in Solmehooks, with
the wood upon it ; ibid.
(Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 389.
^ Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 254-6. The manor is stated to
have been held of the king by knight's
service.
8 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvi, n. 58.
The following rents and undertenants
are named therein : 91. kd. from lands
called Candish; us. io</. from land of
John Axon ; $^d. and a pound of pepper
from Peter Slynehead ; 31. oj</. from
Thomas Ashton ; i6j. 8</. from Thomas
Rixton; 6d. from Christopher Phipps ;
igd. from Margaret Ashton, widow ; i Jrf.
place about two miles from Sankey
Bridge. This navigation affords a medium
of transit for various descriptions of mer-
chandise and tillage, including slate, grain,
timber, stone, lime, and manure ; but
the principal article is coal, which is
carried in great abundance to Liverpool,
from the °minesrinWthe 'parish of Prescot^
and particularly from those of St. Helens.
Vessels of 60 tons burthen can navigate
this water, with 16 ft. beam and a draught
of 5 ft. I in.* ; Baines, Lanes. Directory,
.825,ii,468.
6 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 40, 1 96. Some charters
3
about 1260 granted to Robert de Samles-
bury 8 acres in Westey Hales and Arpley,
with common of pasture in Great Sankey
and Penketh. The right descended to
Robert's son and heir Richard, otherwise
called Richard de Bruche, and to Richard's
son Henry de Bruche. The latter, in
1328, complained that the then lord,
William le Boteler, and others, including
the lords of Penketh, had disseised him of
part at least of his right in Great Sankey,
pasture and 84 acres of wood. The de-
fendants urged that * by the writ it is sup-
posed that the said common is one gross
by itself and not pertaining to any free
409
Farrer ; 35. 6d. from John Hatton ; all
except Axon are said to have held by
knight's service.
• See the account of Atherton ; also
Pal. of Lane. Docquet R. 469, m. 5, &c.
1° Information of Mr. John B. Selby,
Leigh.
» In 1346 Richard de Rixton gave to
Henry his son all his lands in Great
Sankey ; Kuerden fol. MS. 359, R. 424.
Sec the account of Ditton.
At the same time, Beatrice de Moly-
neux, widow of Richard, began a series of
actions which lasted some years, against
Sir William le Boteler and Elizabeth his
wife, Robert de Wetshaw, Richard de
52
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
are said to have lived at the Peel.1 A family named
Whethull or Whittle appear during the fourteenth
century, and long remained
here.' The Leghs also held .
lands here, as may be seen
by their inquisitions.3 Others
whose names occur in various
pleadings are Ford,4 Whitfield,5
and Croston.6
The freeholders in 1600
were James Whittle, Randle
Rixton, and Thomas Taylor.7
In 1628 the contributories to
Lord Lil-
lion't pa-w
POWYS,
the subsidy were Thomas Ire- ford. Or,
land, for Whittle House ; Tho- traud i« bend bi
mas Rixton, Peter Slynehead, «"« 'r°"l'» ftchy S"'"-
and Margaret Ashton, widow.8
The Commonwealth surveyors of 1650 reported
that the inhabitants of Great Sankey and Penketh
had recently, at their own charges, built a chapel, and
they recommended that it should have a separate
parish.9 After the Restoration its use, if used at all,
was confined to the Presbyterian worship, but in
1728, Mr. Atherton, the lord of the manor, having
conformed to the Established Church, handed over
the chapel to the bishop of Chester, retaining the
patronage, which has descended to Lord Lilford.10
It was rebuilt in 1765, a collection towards the cost
being made by brief."
PENKETH
Penket, 1242; Penkith, 1293; Penketh, 1290
and usually. Also occur: Penecke, 1285 ; Pentketh
and Pentekech, 1302 ; Penkeheth, c. 1360.
This township, originally formed from Great Sankey,
has an area of 1,003$ acres." It has the typical
features of the districts situated along the Mersey,
Rixton, and Matthew his son, claiming
lands which Richard le Gynour had
granted her husband ; De Bane. R. 346,
m. i65</. &c. Henry de Atherton of
Htndley, in right of his wife Agnes, con-
tinued the suits. So far as the Rixtons
•were concerned Sir William le Bottler
said he was not interested except that he
claimed the reversion after the death of
Matthew, William, and Alan de Rixton,
bastards, who had a life interest ; Duchy
of Lane. Assize R. i, m. iiij ; to R. 5,
m. iSJ. Matthew de Rixton gave all
his lands in Sankey to Sir John le
Boteler in 1373 ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol.
137*. For Randle son and heir of
Matthew Rixton, see Harrington in
1465 (Chet. Soc.), 70.
The Rixtons of Sankey recorded a pedi-
gree in 1567; Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 116;
see also Piccope MS. Peds. (Chet. Lib.),
ii, 15. Richard Rixton, who, according
to this pedigree, was son of Randle and
grandson of Matthew Rixton, did homage
for his lands in Dec., 1511, paying for
his relief 201. as for the fifth part of
a knight's fee ; and his brother Thomas,
who succeeded him early in 1514, paid
the same ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Che..), i. 24, *«.
Thomas Rixton, who married Margery
daughter of Nicholas Butler, an illegiti-
mate offshoot of the Warrington family,
died about i 540. In his will he desired to
be buried in the Rixton chapel in War-
rington church, four torches to be made,
two being for Warrington church and two
for the chapel of Farnworth. He mentions
his wife Margery ; sons Thomas, the eldest,
Stephen, and Edward ; and daughters
Dorothy and Margaret ; Piccope, Witts
(Chet. Soc.), ii, 2 5 5. For a settlement in
1567 see Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
29, m. 147 ; Thomas Rixton was the de-
forciant. A later settlement was made
by Randle Rixton in 1596; ibid. bdle.
59, m. i j i.
1 Warr. in 1465 (Chet. Soc.), 5, note
and p. Ivii.
a This family held land before 1355,
when William le Boteler brought a suit
against Henry de Whittle concerning 16
acres in Great Sankey ; next year Wil-
liam son of Henry was made defendant.
It appeared that Henry's father, another
Henry, had been in possession by virtue
of an agreement with the plaintiff's father;
Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4, m. 25 ; R.
5, m. i6J, 19.
Thomas Whethill of Great Sankey
did homage for his lands in April, 1 507.
He fought at Flodden in 1513, and died
of his wounds at Newcastle soon after-
wards, leaving a widow who survived him
only a year, and an infant son Gilbert,
whose wardship was claimed by Sir
Thomas Butler ; Mite. (Rec. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches.), i, 20, 28. In 1567 William
Whittle of Great Sankey, son and heir
of Thomas Whittle, married Frances,
an illegitimate daughter of Sir William
Norris ; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 936.
8 e.g. Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xv, n. 38.
< Robert de Ford and Felicia his wife
were engaged in suits concerning Great
Sankey in the time of Edw. II ; Assize
R. 423, m. 2 ; R. 424, m. 7. Adam
son of Thomas de Ford was defendant in
1 346, in a suit brought by Henry son of
Alan, son of Henry de Quyke ; De
Bane. R. 347, m. j d. ; R. 349, m.
280 d. Deeds concerning the sale of the
lands of James son and heir of George
Ford, in 1536, are among the Bold deeds
at Warrington ; G. 71-9.
6 Robert de Whitfield, clerk, in 1288
granted the marriage of Henry, his son
and heir, to Margaret daughter of Richard
de Penketh, at the same time granting
lands to the bride's father for a term of
years ; having ejected him, a suit was
brought for restoration, in 1292; Assize
R. 408, m. 29. Elizabeth, widow of
Robert de Whitfield, claimed dower in
houses and lands here from Richard son
of Thomas de Hale in 1 346 ; De Bane.
R. 347, m. 292.
6 This name occurs in a charter pre-
served by Kucrdcn (fol. MS. 137, n. 441),
whereby Nicholas de Foulshurst, chaplain,
demised to Richard de Croston, and Mat-
thew, Henry, and Margaret his children,
land in Great Sankey.
1 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i,
239, 242.
Humphrey Taylor in 1562 and later
purchased lands in Great Sankey and
Penketh from Randle Law and others;
Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 24, m. 176;
25, m. 152 ; 26, m. 132. A settlement
was made by Thomas Taylor in 1594, of
lands here and in Penketh and Rainhill ;
ibid. bdle. 56, m. 25. Edmund Taylor
of Burtonwood, who died early in 1624,
held lands in Great Sankey of the king
in chief ; he left a widow Cecily and a
son and heir Ralph, ten years old ; Lanes.
Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
iii, 418. For Ralph Taylor, who died in
1641, see Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxix,
n. 1 1 ; Edmund, his son and heir, was
seven years old ; Cecily, mother of Ralph
410
and then wife of Richard Roughley, was
living at Sutton.
The Barnes family, though not named,
also held lands here ; Randle Barnes, who
died in 1 6 1 1, had a brother and heir Ralph,
who died two years later, his heir being hi.
son William ; Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 203, 267. Randle
Barnes of Sankey Bridge in 1651 com-
plained that his ' small vessel of the bur-
then of 14 tons,' while on a voyage for
the herring fishery off the coast of Ireland,
had been compelled to shelter in the Isle
of Man, and had been confiscated by the
Parliament on its arrival at Liverpool, the
island being then held by the earl of
Derby, and this 'notwithstanding the
petitioner had always been faithful to
the Parliament and Commonwealth of
England and ready and active for the
transporting of soldiers for Ireland ' ;
Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), i, 142. The hearth tax of 1666
shows that William Barnes had the prin-
cipal house here with nine hearths ; Law-
rence Callen, the next, having only four.
» Norris D. (B.M.). The Slyneheads
were a Ditton family, but appear in
Sankey much earlier than this. Thomai
Slynehead purchased land from Hamlet
Bruche in 1572 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of
F. bdle. 34, m. 53 ; 45, m. 149 ; tee
also Beamont, Lords of Warr. (Chet
Soc.), ii, 477. Of Peter Slynehead, a
pamphleteer of the seventeenth century,
and of the family generally there is i
notice in Local Gleanings Lanes, and Ches.
ii, 63. An assessment of Great Sankey,
of the latter part of that century,
printed in the same volume, 200.
3 Common-wealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 77. The minister ir;
1653 was Hugh Henshaw, who appea
have been removed shortly afterwards to
St. Helens and then to Chelford ; Plund.
Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
i, 136, 142; ii, 312. Bishop Gastrell's
account agrees with this : ' It was r
used but in Oliver's time ' ; the land it
stood on was given by the family of
Bewsey, and the building had by 1720
fallen
Soc.), ii, 215.
10 Canon Raines states (loc. cit.) that
it was consecrated (St. Mary's) in 1769.
11 The monumental inscriptions in th-
chapel are given in Lanes, and Ches. Anth,.
Notes, i, 67.
12 The census of 1901 gives 1,008 a
including 12 of inland water, with 35 acres
of tidal water and 17 of fore-shore.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
being decidedly flat, sparingly timbered, with open
fields. The soil is loamy, with clay lying below the
surface, the crops raised being principally barley, oats
and wheat, with occasional fields of potatoes. The
ground by the riverside lies very low, and consists of
marshy pastures, jutting out into the numerous bends
of the river. The southern portion of the township
is not destitute of trees ; the landscape is pleasantly
varied by fields of corn and roots. The geological
formation here and in Great Sankey is the same.
The eastern boundary is partially formed by Whittle
Brook. In 1901 the population was 1,735.
A road from Farnworth to Warrington runs east-
wardly through the centre of
the township ; along it the , i
village is built. The London
and North- Western Company's
Liverpool and Warrington line
traverses the southern part of
the township, having a station
near the river side, called
Fiddler's Ferry and Penketh ;
it was opened about 1852. On
the river side of this railway
is the Sankey Navigation Canal
between St. Helens and Widnes,
entering the Mersey below
Fiddler's Ferry. The Liverpool and Manchester
section of the Cheshire Lines Committee's railway
crosses the northern corner.
Forty years ago there were about one hundred
acres of waste or common land, called the Greystone
Heath and Doe Green. An award for enclosure was
made in 1868 and confirmed in 1869, ninety acres
kingfisher
PRESCOT
being divided among the freeholders, while six acres
were reserved for a recreation ground, and five acres
for a cemetery for Penketh.
The township has a parish council of seven
members.
The ancient ferry across the Mersey called Fiddler's
Ferry1 was owned in 1830 by Mrs. Hughes of
Sherdley Hall, Sutton ; there was an acknowledge-
ment due to Sir Richard Brooke for permission to
pass over his land.*
PENKETH, originally a hamlet in
M4NOR Great Sankey,3 was part of the demesne
of the lords of Warrington. It is not
clear when the manor was first granted out,4 but in
1 242 Roger de Sankey held the twentieth part of a
knight's fee here under the heirs of Emery le Boteler.5
The descent from Roger is
obscure. About 1280 Gilbert .
de Penketh and Robert de
Penketh were joint lords of the
manor ; 6 later records prove
that the descendants of the
latter held under those of the
former.
Gilbert de Penketh had two
sons, Henry and Richard.7
The inheritance went to seven SH
daughters, or grand-daughters, Argmt,
upon whom in 1325 the SUC- nueen three muscles gules.
cession was settled.8 Margery,
the eldest of these, married Richard son of William
de Ashton,9 and their descendants retained the lord-
ship of the manor down to the seventeenth century.10
John Ashton, who died in 1620, had the distinction
1 Perhaps from Vieleur, the (supposed)
original grantee of the manor.
« Tram. Hist. Soc. xxii, 215.
of wood for housebote and heybote, and
acquittance of pannage for his demesne
pigs.
<> Final Cone, ii, 61. The names of
the heiresses were Margery, then married
to Richard son of William de Ashton ;
in the subsidy collections ; Exch. Lay Subs.
was plaintiff, claiming as heir of his
and Godith. The last-named married
agreement between Sir Richard de Bold
and John son of John de Penketh, made
in 1371, the former granted John all his
rent from ' Penketh, a hamlet of Sankey,'
during the life of Margery daughter of
Richard de Ashton of Penketh ; Dods.
MSS. cxlii, foL 205, a. 86.
« Penketh may be the plough-land
granted to Adam le Vieleur by Pain de
Vilers, about 1160; in 1212 it was
held by knight's service by Robert son of
Robert, Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), 10.
5 Ibid. 147.
6 This appears from the suits brought
by Richard de Samlesbury and his son to
William le Boteler of Warrington. Wil-
liam replied that Penketh being a hamlet
in Sankey and not a vill by itself, he, as
son and heir of Emery, lord of Sankey,
had approved from the wastes of the vill
and hamlet ; further, Gilbert had common
of pasture not solely but together with
one Robert de Penketh ; Assize R. 408,
m. 22.
William de Penketh occurs as a witness
to several early charters ; e.g. Dods. cxlii,
fol. 193*, n. 7, 8 (about 1240). Hugh
son of William de Penketh witnessed a
charter of about 1270 ; Bold D. (Warr.),
F. 350; and as Hugh de Penketh his
name occurs more frequently. His son
de Dutton (son of John) claimed a mes-
suage and land in 1325-6; and who in
1329 was one of the defendants in a plea
by Henry del Bruche ; De Bane. R. 263,
m. 133 ; R. 277, m. 95 <£ It does not
appear who their father was, but Henry
son of Gilbert was living and put in his
claim. The deforciant was Thomas son
of Adam, son of Alan de Abram, who may
have been a trustee ; he claimed a rent of
6s. 5j</. in Penketh and Great Sankey
from Richard son of Gilbert in 1331 • De
Bane. R. 286, m. 348.
» Richard de Ashton of Sankey was one
defendant in suits brought in 1328 by
Thurstan de Holland ; De Bane. R. 273,
Sankey and Penketh. The defendants in
1284 were Henry son of Gilbert de Pen-
keth, Richard his brother, Margaret de
Penketh, and Robert de Penketh ; Assize
R. 1268, m. 12. Four years later they
were Adam del Bruche and Margaret his
wife, Robert de Penketh, Richard son of
Jordan de Kenyon, Henry son of Gilbert
de Penketh, and Richard his brother;
Assize R. 1277, m. 320. Margaret was
the widow of Gilbert ; Adam del Bruche
was son of Dulcia.
Adam and his wife in 1292 brought
suits for dower against Richard son of
Gilbert, and others ; Assize R. 408,
m. 32^.71.
Richard's portion is described as 2 mes-
suages, 40 acres of land, 50 acres of
moor, and reasonable estovers in 20 acres
from Richard and Henry, sons of Gilbert,
in 1301 and 1302; Assize R. 1321, m. qd.;
418, m. ijrf.
7 Henry is usually named first, as if
he were the elder, but by an agreement
made in 1290 Richard was acknowledged
to be lord of the messuage, plough-land,
and 201. rent ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 165. See also Cal.
Close, 1288-96, p. 283. Henry had a son
Richard, whose wife was Agnes, and who
was defendant in pleas in 1292 brought
by Adam del Bruche, and in 1301 by
Richard son of Gilbert ; Assize R. 408,
m. 32</. ; 419, m. 10. The younger
Richard seems to have been living in
1323, as a suit was in that year brought
against Richard de Penketh, senior ; De
Bane. R. 250, m. 17 d.
4"
subsidy in 1332 ; Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 23. Licence
for an oratory was granted by the bishop
of Lichfield to Richard de Ashton of
Penketh in 1361 ; Lich. Reg. v, fol. 4*.
!° Pedigrees were recorded in the Visit, of
i567(Chet. Soc.), p. 112, and 1613, p. 20.
There is a continuation in Piccope's MS.
Pedigrees (Chet, Lib.), ii, 79, bringing it
down to Strange Ashton. The succession
is given as Richard, Thomas, Hamlet,
Thomas, and John. A Thomas de Ashton
was witness to Bold charters of 1429 and
1438 ; Dods. MSS. cxlii. fol. 205, n. 88 ;
fol. 203, n. 70.
A settlement was made in 1457 br
Thomas Ashton and Joan his wife, con-
cerning messuages and land in Penketh ;
the remainders were to their ions Richard
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
of being one of the very few who were ' soundly
affected in religion' in 1590.' He left five daughters,
coheiresses ; but Christiana, who seems to have been
the eldest, married Hamlet Ashton of Glazebrook,
and thus the succession continued in a line bearing
the old name.*
Their son Thomas, who died in 1645,* had a
numerous family. The eldest son, John, was killed
at Bolton in 1643, on the Royalist side ;* Thomas,
who succeeded to the manor, also bore arms for the
same cause, but very quickly surrendered, took the
National Covenant, and compounded for his estates.6
He was succeeded by his son Colonel John Ashton,
who was buried at Ormskirk in 1707* As he does
not appear to have had any connexion with Penketh,
the manor had probably been alienated before his time.
It was subsequently in the possession of the Ather-
tons, and has descended, in the same manner as Great
Sankey, to Lord Lilford.7
The manor held of the Ashtons by the Penketh
family descended from Robert de Penketh, living in
1284," to his son Jordan,9 his grandson Richard,10 and
his great-grandson Roger.11 The Penkeths recorded
pedigrees in 1567 and l6l3,is but afterwards seem to
and Robert for life, and then to their
grandson Thomas son of Hamlet, and his
heirs ; in default to Joan and Agnes,
daughters of Hamlet, with further re-
mainders ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle.
'john Ashton of Penketh did homage
and service to the lord of Warrington in
April, 1507, paying las. for relief; Misc.
which is not called a manor, is said to be
held in socage by fealty and the rent of a
silver penny, showing a commutation of
the old services. From a deed recited in
the inquisition it appears that Thomas
Ashton had been married as early as 1612
to Katherine Brook, of Chester.
For Hamlet, the father of Thomas, see
the account of Glazebrook. His widow
Sankey case m 1308-9 Richard son of
Gilbert de Penketh, Jordan de Penketh,
and Agnes widow of Robert, held part of
the lands in dispute ; Assize R. 432, m. 2.
Jordan's name occurs among the witnesses
to local charters down to 1 346. He and
Robert son of Henry de Wetshaw, in
1339 made an exchange of land, de-
scribed as lying on the Broomhill, on the
Ashton was living in 1533 ;' Ducatui Lane.
(Rec. Com.), i, 142. He was succeeded
by his son Thomas, who married Douce,
of Sir Thomas Aston of Aston in Che-
shire, by whom she had two sons ; Funeral
Certs. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 9.
in the Brandearth in Penketh, Robert
being bound also to pay a grain of pepper
yearly; Kuerden, fol. MS. 315, n. 473.
before 1538 ; Tram. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.},
iii, 106. In August, 1558, a settlement
1645 ; Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), ii, 9.
* Civil fTar Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 47,
de Ashton and William de Penketh.
Jordan de Penketh and Margaret his wife
mainders being to his sons William and
John, his uncle Richard, Christopher
s Royalist Camp. Papers (Rec. Soc.
Lanes, and Ches.), i, 112. He surren-
manor in Sutton in 1323 ; Final Cone.
ii, 51.
John ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 20,
fied in 1339 by Richard son of Jordan ;
ibid. bdle. 25, m. 81. The inquisition
tions in respect of the annuities of younger
of Richard de Penketh, and Amice his
lands in Warrington and Martinscroft by
the fourth part of a knight's fee, suit of
£192 8j. 4</. It is added : 'As for his
personal estate he hath nothing but the
e granted certain lands, which
Robert granted to his son John in July,
three weeks, and a rent of 2 id.; his heir
rine, was still living in 1646. He had
Lane. Assize R. 7, m. I.
age ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii,
William seems to have died soon after
his father, being succeeded by his brother
her, 1634; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.),
ii, II. He was buried at Farnworth
1 8 Feb. 1675-6 ; ibid. 9.
The hearth-tax return of 1666 shows
was claimed by Richard de Ashton, in
right of his wife Margery ; but the jury
decided that Richard de Penketh had held
this moiety of the manor in socage, and
daughter of John Grimsditch ; Pal. of
Lane. Plea R. 229, m. 4 ; see also will of
John Grimsditch in frills (Chet. Soc. New
Ser.), i, 211. John Ashton had various
Mrs. Ashton for 3 ; Lay Subs. 250-9.
The will of his brother William, proved
in 1669, is printed in trills (Chet. Soc.
New Ser.), i, 1 66. The will of Andrew
succeeded without wardship ; Duchy of
Lane. Assize R. 3, m. j d.
William de Penketh and John his son
occur in July, 1359; Duchy of Lane.
onwards ; James Ryve and Henry Rigby
he accused of diverting a watercourse ; Du-
it mentions his son John, who is believed
to be the John Ashton described as ' late
dispute between Alice widow of William
de Penketh and John his son concerning
the freeholders in 1600 ; Misc. (ibid.),
239. He and Richard Penketh sold the
fishery in the Mersey to Francis Bold in
1585, and he purchased land in Great
Sankey in 1597 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 47, m. 167 ; 58, m. 215.
1 Gibson, Lydiale Hall, 245 (quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4). There
the roll of 1628 "in PenkethTnd "eight
in Sankey; Lay Subs. 131/318.
* Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), ii, 303. He died 6 July, .620 ;
his daughters being Christiana, mother of
Thomas Ashton, the heir, who was then
over thirty years of age ; Timothea, wife
of John Crosby, aged forty-six ; Margaret,
wife of Robert Heywood, aged thirty-
seven ; Anne, wife of Andrew Main-
waring, aged thirty-nine ; and Elizabeth,
widow of Peter Harrison, whose son John
was eight years old. Thomas Ashton,
the grandson, was then in possession, the
property including water-mill, windmill,
dovecote, fishery in the Mersey, and com-
mon of pasture in Penketh, Great Sankey,
Warrington, and Martinscroft. Penketh,
in the Jacobite plot in 1690, and was
executed for it ; see the paper, already
quoted, by Dr. John Venn in Trans. Hist.
Soc. (New Ser.), ii, 1-14.
6 Ibid. 10 ; for his will, 7. He had a
son Strange, buried at Ormskirk in 1756,
and three daughters, Anne, Elizabeth, and
Catherine ; ibid. 8, 10.
7 This 'manor' may, however, be the
superior lordship, and may have been ac-
quired, with Bewsey, by Sir Thomas
Ireland. In the inquisition after his death
in 1625 he ii said to have held the
'manor of Penketh' with its appurte-
nances ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvi,
n. 58.
8 See the references given above. In
Assize R. 1268, m. II, there is also a
complaint by Robert de Penketh that
William le Boteler and others had dis-
seised him of his free tenement in Pen-
keth, viz. half of 100 acres of moor, but
he failed to prove his case.
» Robert was still living in 1301, when
he and his son Jordan made a settlement
by fine concerning two oxgangs in Pen-
keth ; Final Cone, i, 193. In a Great
1 3 2 d. The poll tax of 1 3 8 1 shows John
de Penketh among the contributors ; Lay
Subs. 130-24.
Thomas Penketh, an Austin friar, a
zealous upholder of Richard III, is sup-
posed to have been a member of this
family ; for an account of his career see
fTarr. in 1465 (Chet. Soc.), xxxix ; Diet.
Nat. Blag, and Cal. of Pat. 1476-85,
P- 543-
Hamlet de Penketh occurs in 1490 ;
Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 14.
Also in the list of the gentry of the hun-
dred, compiled about 1512.
™ Visit. (Chet. Soc.) of 1567, p. 124,
and of 1613, p. 132. Gillow, in Bibliag.
Diet. ofEngt. Cath. v, 258, mentions that
a pedigree, ' copious, but very incorrect
and unreliable,' was printed at Man-
chester in 1896.
From the Hamlet or Hamon Penketh
of the preceding note the 1567 pedigree
traces the succession through Richard,
Thomas, and Richard, to the Richard
Penketh living at the time. This
Richard had sons Richard and Thomas,
and the latter, who succeeded, had a son
412
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
have fallen into obscurity.' They remained faithful
to the Roman Church,' and some of their descendants
were priests in Lancashire during the centuries of
proscription.3
Mrs. Hughes of Sherdley about the year 1830
claimed manorial rights, and courts had been held ;
her claim was not generally acknowledged.4
Various families are mentioned in the early plead-
ings and charters as holding lands in Penketh, as
the Quicks 5 and Wetshaws.6 The prior of Norton
also possessed certain rights here.7 Henry Russell oi
PRESCOT
had lands in
Penketh, hanged for felony in 1292,
Wigan.6
The freeholders in 1600 were John Ashton and
— Penketh ; 9 in 1628 Thomas Ashton, Thomas Ire-
land, and Robert Ryve were assessed to the subsidy.10
The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in Pen-
keth in 1818.
The Society of Friends early had a meeting here ; it
was duly certified and recorded in 1 689." A day school
was carried on from 1678 to 1878 ; " a boarding-
school was founded in 1834 and still flourishes.13
and heir Richard, living in 1613. He
had a numerous family, the eldest son,
Thomas, having been bora about 1610.
The only inquisitions appear to be
those taken after the death of Alice
Penketh in 1 541. Her father, John, had
held lands in Penketh, Ditton, and other
places ; she was an idiot, and her heirs
were her sisters, Joan, the wife of George
Ward, and Elizabeth, wife of William
Reeve ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. viii,
n. 6, 7. The Reeves or Ryves continued
to hold land here for a century at least ;
the inquest after the death of Robert
Reeve in 1640 shows that his land was
held of Margaret, daughter and heir of
Thomas Ireland ; ibid, xxx, n. 37.
Richard Penketh was in 1553 involved
in a dispute with Thomas Butler as to the
title to Penketh Hall : Ducatus Lane.
that he was reduced to a very poor con-
dition. He now lives an undertenant to
a small messuage in Bold, not above
5 acres.' Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com).
145. A Lieutenant Penketh was one of
the defenders of Lathom House in the
first siege, 1644 ; Civil War Tracts (Chet.
Soc.), 173, 177.
a John Penketh, on entering the English
College in Rome in 1651, gave the fol-
lowing account : ' My name is John Pen-
keth alias Rivers. I am son of Richard
Penketh of Penketh in the county of
Lancaster, esquire, who married the
daughter of Thomas Patrick of Bispham,
brook, Orrell, convicted of recusancy in
1716 ; he was the author of Ri-vtrs'
Manual, frequently reprinted, and died
about 1762. See Gillow, Bikliog. Diet,
of Engl. Cath. v, 257, 258 ; Foley, Rec.
S. J. vi, 450, 455 ; v, 335.
4 Report by Edward Eyes in Tram. Hist.
Soc. xxii, 215. The boundaries had been
walked about twelve years before. Fish-
ing was free.
5 In 1285 and later there were disputes
between William de Quyke, clerk, and
Adam son of Dulcia de Birches, who
married Margery, as to the bounds of their
lands in Penketh; Assize R. 1271, m.
(Re
born and bred up in my father's house,
and am now twenty-one years of age.
My father, before his death, had spent
nearly all his fortune and left very little
brought actions against Henry son of
Gilbert de Penketh ; Assize R. 408, m.
9;&c.
6 The Wetshaws were a Ditton family.
property in Penketh and Sutton, including
* pasture for three horses on Penketh
Feet of F. bdle. 16, m. 92. Another
settlement, by his son Richard, was made
in 1592; ibid. bdle. 54, m. 146.
1 Beamont says : • Penketh Hall, the
are Protestant, but my father, with al
his family, one brother excepted, wer
in England under private tutors and at
private schools. I was always a Catholic,
and left England on 13 August, 1651, to
proceed to Rome, where in the family of
have changed owners much about the
same time that Bewsey passed into the
hands of strangers ; for in the year 1624
we find Sir Thomas Ireland exchanging
with Thomas Ashton the hall and de-
mesne of Penketh, late the inheritance of
Richard Penketh, but at the same time
carefully reserving to himself .... the
right to remove all and every the grafts,
plants, and young trees of fruit there
growing'; Warr. in 1465 (Chet. Soc.),
p. xl.
In i682PeterBoldwrote:'Mr.Penketh
was with me before I went to Yorkshire,
and acquainted me that he had very hard
usage from some of your officers, and, he
believes, without your order. I know the
gentleman very well ; he is a near neigh-
bour to me and his condition is not un-
vanities of the world and its dangers ;
being moved also to this by an ardent
desire of gaining souls, if found worthy of
the priesthood ' ; Foley, Rec. S. J. v,
330. The account which follows states
daughter Aline, who sold her land to Henry
de Ditton in 1349; Kuerden MSS. iii,
P. 4, n. 6 1 3, 6 1 7. The purchaser was soon
involved in disputes with Hugh de Kcl-
sall and others, who broke into his
houses in Penketh; De Bane. R. 362,
m. 137, 26 d. Shortly afterwards, in
1350, he made further purchases from
William de Widnes and Margery his wife ;
Final Cane, ii, 128.
7 In 1366 Richard, the prior of Nor-
ton, complained about a rescue of cattle
here made by a number of people ; De
of Spain's army in Belgium.
> The John Penketh above-named was
ordained priest in 1656, and in 1663
entered the Society of Jesus, going on the
English mission in the following year.
He in 1678, in the excitement of the
Dates plot, was betrayed, tried at Lan-
caster, and condemned to death for his
priesthood. He was reprieved, but kept
in prison for some years, being liberated
on the accession of James II. The
nued his
hi,
majesty all the first war, and in that
service behaved himself very gallantly
and with great loyalty. He received
many wounds and was so great a sufferer,
Foley, op. cit. v, 331 ; vi, 383 ;
Other priests of the same family in-
cluded William Penketh, then of Cross-
8 Inj. and Extents, 275.
• Miu. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.),
£39.
10 Norris D. (B.M.).
I Sankey in 1667 and
1669 and founded a meeting; Journ.
This was held in Great Sankey until in
1681 a meeting-house was built on the
land bought in 1671 for a graveyard ; it
was rebuilt in 1736.
« The schoolhouse was not built till
1692 ; it adjoined the meeting-house.
This was the first school John Bright
attended, 1821.
is This and other details about Penketh
are derived from information supplied by
Mr. J. Spence Hodgson of Didsbury.
413
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
LEIGH
WESTLEIGH
PENNINGTON
BEDFORD
ATHERTON
TYLDESLEY-WITH-SHAKERLEY
ASTLEY
Leech, 1264; Leeche, 1268; Leghthe, 1305;
Leght, 1417 ; Lech, 1451 ; Legh, xvi cent.
Leigh (A.S. leah = pasture, meadow) was the name
of a district embracing 13,793 acres, bounded on the
north, east, and partly on the south by the hundred
of Salford, on the west by the parish of Wigan, and
on the south-west by the parish of Winwick. As its
name denotes it was a district rich in meadow and
pasture land, and the produce of its dairies — the
Leigh cheese — was formerly noted for its excellence.1
The town of Leigh, standing upon the high road
from Bolton-le-Moors to St. Helens, at one time
mainly a pack-horse road, lies mostly in the township
of Pennington, but partly in Westleigh. The name
of the ancient parish may be regarded as first legally
applied to the town of Leigh upon the amalgamation
of the three local boards of Westleigh, Pennington,
and Bedford in 1875, but for centuries it was under-
stood to denote that part of the ancient parish which
comprised the townships of Westleigh and Penning-
ton, sometimes also that of Bedford.
The Wigan and Leigh branch of the Leeds and
Liverpool Canal and the Bridgewater Canal form
their junction at Leigh Bridge in this town.
A market is held on Saturday and two fairs on the
eve of the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist (24 April),
and on the eve of the feast of the Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary (7 December).8 The market-
place lies in the ancient township of Pennington.
Silk-weaving is a considerable industry in the
town.* Nail-making, linen-weaving, and the manu-
facture of fustian were largely conducted here in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,4 and now
the manufacture of cotton goods, and machinery of
various kinds, provides employment for a large
number of workpeople.
The excellent beds of coal underlying the district
have been worked more or less for five centuries, but
the rapid advance of this industry, which set in
towards the end of the eighteenth century, was due to
the linking up of communication with Manchester by
the duke of Bridgewater's canal. The development
of the town is well illustrated by the churchwardens'
and overseers' accounts for the township of Penning-
ton.5 Concurrently with its industrial resources the
district used to be noted for the excellence of its
agricultural productions. In Bedford and Astley
there were formerly a number of kilns employed in
burning the Sutton or terras lime, obtained from the
magnesian limestone rock of the Permian series, pro-
ducing a hydraulic cement. The soil is a rich loam,
somewhat stiff in quality upon the rising ground.
There is also a considerable amount of alluvial land
by Pennington Brook, and moss land in the neigh-
bourhood of Chat Moss, and of the detached Black
Moss and Tyldesley Mosses, which makes excellent
and easily cultivated arable land. The agricultural land
of the parish is now used as follows : Arable, 4,815
acres; permanent grass, 5,201 ; woods and planta-
tions, 27$.
The town of Leigh * is notable as being for some
years the abode of Thomas Highs, a reed-maker, and
John Kay, a clockmaker, who were associated with
Richard Arkwright, barber and hairdresser of Bolton,
the reputed inventor of roller spinning as effected in
the now ancient ' spinning jenny."
At the end of the year l642,8 the inhabitants of
this district distinguished themselves in an action at
Chowbent against the forces of the earl of Derby,
whom the zealous but untrained husbandmen of the
district repulsed and drove beyond Lowton Common.
The local historian of the time describes how 'the
naylers ' (nail-makers) of Chowbent busied themselves
in making bills and battle-axes, instead of nails, in
anticipation of further engagements.9
Richard Higson and Charles Rogers of Leigh
issued tokens in 1666 and 1668.'°
In 1698 a division of the highways within the
township of Pennington was made, establishing the
rods of highway which each owner or occupier should
make."
In 1745 part of the troops of Prince Charles
Edward were quartered at Leigh on the night of
28 November, in their march from Preston to
Manchester. Mr. Lowe, then constable for the
higher side of Pennington, expended £14 5^. for
horses and billeting the rebels, and 27*. for the watch
at the watch-house and in coals for the bonfire."
In 1863 the townships of Pennington, Westleigh,
and Bedford adopted the Local Government Act,
i Leigh cheese is now a thing of the
past. It has not been produced in the
Leigh in the Eighteenth Century, printed at
Leigh, 1882. These accounts were formerly
11 The highway began at Brockhurst't
Lane Wash on the south and passed by
The production sold in Manchester as
' Leigh Toasting Cheese ' derives only its
name from this district.
2 A fair here was prohibited, temp. Eliz.j
8 It is gaining some ground at the
present time, but was seriously injured by
the French Treaty in 1860; see the
Leigh Chron. 18 June, 1860, 27 April,
* A Cloth Hall formerly existed here ;
Hist, and Gen. Notes, iii, 63. The old
building has been modernized and made
into offices.
5 Now in the custody of the Town
Council. Extracts from them have been
edited by Josiah Rose in a volume entitled
Mr. Rose recovered what was left, arranged
them, and bound them together. They
are now carefully preserved. Diligent
inquiry has failed to discover any such
accounts for Westleigh and Bedford.
6 The area is 6,358 acres, including 74
of inland water ; Census Rep. 1901.
7 Rose, Leigh in the Eighteenth Century,
115-20. The wheel of Thomas Highs'
* original jenny* is in the possession of
Alderman T. R. Greenough.
8 End of December. '24 Dec. 1642.
Two soldiers slayne in the battayle
at Leigh.' Bolton Par. Ch. Reg. of
Burials.
« Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 64-5.
10 Lanes, and Cha. Antiq. Soc. v, 80.
414
Platt End, Twi'ss' Land, to the Broad
Causeway, at the Smithy (in the street
now King Street). Here the town of
Leigh began and extended through to
Stockplatt Lane on the north, and for a
few yards into Windmill Lane (now
Bradshawgate) on the east. The principal
owners were Richard Bradshaw, esq. for
Pennington Hall 80 rods, and Bradshaw
Leach 22 rods, Mr. Alexander Ratcliffe
(for the Healds, the Meadows, &c.) 27
rods, and Mr. John Gwillym for Daven-
port's 30 rods, and for Urmston's (in the
Meadows) 20 rods. The total extended
to 477 yds. less than 2 miles ; Rose, op.
cit. 21-2.
M Rose, op. cit. 102-3.
LEIGH
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
1851, but in 1875 the three local board districts
were dissolved and constituted into the Leigh Local
Board District, the three townships forming one large
town, subsequently controlled by an urban district
council under the Local Government Act, 1894. In
that year the three townships with a portion of Ather-
ton were formed into the civil parish of Leigh.1
In 18993 charter of incorporation
BOROUGH was granted to the urban district,
under which the borough is governed
by a mayor, eight aldermen, and twenty-four coun-
cillors. The borough comprises the townships of
Westleigh, Pennington, Bedford, with part of Ather-
ton, and is divided into eight
wards.* The same year the
new borough obtained a grant
of arms.3 In 1903 a borough
bench was erected and a Com-
mission of the Peace issued to
thirty-three local gentlemen.
The town is now connected
by a system of electric tramways
with Bolton, Wigan, Atherton,
Tyldesley, Hindley, and Low-
ton. There are gas works,
and an electric lighting station
erected in 1 899-1900. A tho-
rough system of drainage was
established in 1898 with sewer-
age and disposal works, the
latter being the joint property
of Leigh and Atherton.
The Town Hall in King
Street, a plain red brick build-
ing with stone facings, formerly a police station,
was acquired in 1875. There are public baths in
Silk Street, erected in 1 88 1, a drill hall in Ellesmere
Street belonging to H Company, 1st Volunteer
Battalion, Manchester Regiment, formerly used for
public meetings before the erection of the Assembly
Room in 1878, a public library in Railway Road,
opened in 1894, and a technical school, in connexion
with which a spacious and well-equipped gymnasium
was erected in 1903 in commemoration of the reign
of Queen Victoria, the cost being defrayed by the
late W. E. Marsh. There are also Liberal and
Conservative clubs, a theatre, and a fine range of
buildings erected by the Leigh Friendly Co-operative
Society, which includes two large halls used for
public meetings, lectures, and concerts. An infirmary
is in course of erection, and a new town hall to cost
£60,000 will, it is expected, be opened in 1907.*
The church of St. Mary the Virgin,
CHURCH anciently described as 'the church of
Westleigh in Leigh,' was originally con-
secrated in honour of St. Peter. The nave and most
of the churchyard lay in Westleigh, a small portion of
OF LEIGH.
Quarterly gules and ar-
gent, a cross quarterly
counterchanged berween a
spear head of the last in
the frit quarter, a mullet
sable in the second, a
shuttlejessfwise, the thread
pendant, of the last in the
third, and a sparrotu-
haivk close proper in the
fourth.
LEIGH
the latter and the chancel lay in Pennington. The
old church5 was rebuilt, with the exception of the
west tower, in 1873. It has a chancel of two bays,
continuous with a nave of six bays, with a clearstory
running the full length of the building. There are
north and south aisles to both nave and chancel, the
east bay of the north aisle being used as a vestry, and
the second bay containing the organ, which has an
eighteenth-century wooden case. It was made by
Samuel Green of London in 1777. The former nave
was narrower than the present, as may be seen by the
springers of the western responds which remain in the
east wall of the tower ; the arches were of two cham-
fered orders.6 The roof of the north aisle of the nave
is the old roof reused. The tower opens to the church
with a tall arch of two chamfered orders with half
octagonal responds and moulded capitals. The tower
is of poor detail and late date, said to have been built in
1516, and has a west doorway with an elliptical arch,
and over it a three-light window with uncusped
tracery. In the second stage are plain loops, and the
belfry stage has two two-light windows on each face,
with transoms and uncusped tracery, and is finished
with an embattled parapet.
In the nave is a fine brass hanging chandelier, the
wrought-iron rods which carry it being very well de-
signed.
On a pew west of the second pillar of the north
arcade of the nave is a brass plate, marking the burial
place of Henry Travice of Light Oakes, 1626, who
founded a charity by which 5/. was to be given to
forty poor people yearly on Thursday in Passion Week
near his gravestone. The font is modern, octagonal,
with panelled sides. There are eight bells, all from
the Rudhalls' foundry at Gloucester, the treble and
second of 1761, and the rest of 1740, by Abel Rud-
hall. There is also a small bell, cast at Wigan in
1715.
In 1693 the church possessed four bells said to have
been given by Queen Elizabeth,7 two of which — the
great bell and the third bell — had been cast at Leigh
in 1 663." A fifth bell was added in 1692, and in
1705 the second and fourth were re-cast by Gabriel
Smith of Congleton. The bells were found unsatis-
factory, hence the re-casting in 1 740.
The church plate consists of a tall communion cup
of Elizabethan shape, with an engraved band near the
lip, and no mark but that of the maker, G E, repeated
twice ; a plain cup of 1650 ; a set of plate given by
Mr. Henry Bolton of Leigh, mercer, 1724, compris-
ing two cups, one paten, two flagons, and one alms-
dish, all being of the Britannia standard, and dated
1724, except the paten, which is of 1723 ; and a
plate of 1894, given in the following year.
The registers begin in 1559. From the commence-
ment to March, 1625, they have been printed by the
present vicar.'
1 Loc. Gov. Bd. Provisional Order, Sept.
supplied by Mr. W. D. Pink, editor of
1894.
Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Notes, &c.
» The names of the wards are : St.
6 The nave of the old church was ap-
Paul's, Lilford, St. Joseph's, Etherstone,
parently restored in 1616, as shown by
St. Mary's, St. Thomas, Hopecarr, and
the date carved on one of the principals.
St. Peter's.
Ex inform. Rev. Canon Stanning.
8 Crest. On a wreath of the colours
« See Sir S. Glynne's description of the
the battlements of a tower proper, issuant
old church taken in 1856; Chet. Soc.
therefrom a bear's paw gules, holding a
New Ser. xxvii, 53.
javelin erect, or. Motto :« jEquo pede
propera.'
^ Stanning, Reg. of Leigh, xxv. In
1552, when an inventory of church goods
4 These particulars and many others
was made, there were four bells, a sanctus
relating to the parish are from information
bell and another small bell. Also one
chalice, a suit of vestments with two copes
cope of *olde carnacion,' an old cope of
red velvet, another of blue 'crulcs,' an old
vestment of yellow velvet and another of
' crules,' and two crosses of copper. One
aisle was covered with Jead ; the rest of the
church was presumably slated or thatched ;
Inv. of Cb. Goods (Chet. Soc. cxiii), 66.
8 Roger Lowe, Diary.
8 Inscriptions on 104 burial stones exist-
ing in the churchyard in 1881 are given in
Hist, and Gen. Notes, iii, 37, 56.
415
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Public declarations were made upon oath in the
church in 1430 and 1435 as to the title to lands in
the neighbourhood ; and in 1474 an instance of
' cursing by bell, book, and candle ' occurred.1
The Atherton chapel occupied the eastern end of
the south aisle from a little south door eastward, and
measured 7 yards each way. It was in a ruinous state,
the windows and roof decayed, in the time of John
Bridgeman, bishop of Chester (1619-52), who
threatened to lay it to the body of the church unless
the lord of Atherton repaired it. In 1654 John
Atherton was alleged to have set up a new screen en-
closing some yards of the south aisle additional to that
occupied by the old chapel, and enclosing the place
where the pews and burial places of Roger Bradshaw,
Henry Travis, gents., Mr. Shuttleworth, Mr. Thomas
Sergeant, George Starkey, Gilbert Smith, Ralph
Smith, and others had formerly been. In 1664 the
title to part of the south aisle thus alleged to have
been encroached upon was the subject of proceedings
in the Consistory Court at Chester, brought by Law-
rence Rawstorne, esq., as trustee for Atherton, against
Sir Henry Slater, knt., Richard Bradshaw, esq., and
Frances Bradshaw, otherwise Shuttleworth, widow.8
The chantry chapel of St. Nicholas, called the
Tyldesley chapel, is believed to have been erected
about the end of the fifteenth century. The roof is
all that remains of the building. Sir Thomas Tyldes-
ley the cavalier, who was slain at the skirmish of
Wigan Lane in 1651, lies buried here. A modern
brass has lately been placed to his memory.3
The history of the advowson of
ADVOWSON the church before the end of the
thirteenth century is obscure, but
may be conjectured with some degree of probability.
The priory of Marsey, Nottinghamshire, was founded
before 1192 by Roger son of Ranulf de Marsey,4 who
in addition to his fee between Ribble and Mersey,
to which reference is made below, held three knights'
fees in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire of the honour
of Lancaster.6 During the reign of Henry III the
priory acquired by purchase 1 1 oxgangs of land in
Marsey, in the honour of Lancaster, and in the time
of Edward I half the advowson of the church of
Marsey with four solidates of rent by purchase from
the nuns of Wallingwells.6 It is possible that the
founder gave to Marsey his rights in the church of
Leigh, parcel of his fee in Westleigh, and that the
priory subsequently exchanged these rights with
Wallingwells for lands held by the latter in Marsey.
At the same time a gift of the church to Wallingwells
by Richard de Westleigh in the time of John is not
less probable, for the prioress of that house was
engaged in 1238 in litigation with Adam de West-
leigh touching the presentation to half the church of
Leigh, which Adam was claiming from her.7 The
result of the plea was apparently in favour of the
prioress, but the right of her priory does not appear
to have been thoroughly established, for in 1 290,
Margery, then prioress, was suing Richard de Urmston
and Siegrith his wife for the church and advowson,
alleging in evidence of her right the presentation of
Henry de Ulveston to the church, presumably in
1238, by her predecessor Isolda.8 The suit was ter-
minated two years later by the prioress conveying
to Richard and Siegrith in consideration of £20
the advowson of the church of ' Westlay in Legh,'
respecting which a recognition of grand assize had
been summoned between the parties.9 These pro-
ceedings are fully referred to in the account of
Westleigh, where reference will be found to the
mansion and glebe of the early parsons of Leigh.
A reference to John the parson of Westleigh, in a
grant made in the early part of the thirteenth century,
as the father of the grantor '" carries back the period
of his career to the reign of Richard I, proving that
a church then existed here, and affording a reasonable
supposition that a church had existed here at the
Conquest. There are references to the church in the
time of John,11 again in 1238, and in 1264, when
Roger bishop of Lichfield petitioned the king for aid
against certain persons who had seized the churches
of Leigh, Bury, and Winwick.18 The church was
valued at £$ in Pope Nicholas's taxation completed in
1292."
In 1318 Richard de Urmston, son of Richard and
Siegrith, sold the advowson with one acre of land
appurtenant thereto in Westleigh to Robert de
Holand, knt., for 50 marks sterling.14 Excepting for a
brief period after the attainder and death of Thomas
earl of Lancaster, in I32Z,15 the advowson descended
in the Holand family and so by marriage to the
Levels.16 In 1365 Robert de Holand, chr., obtained
licence to alienate the advowson in mortmain to the
prior and convent of Upholland, but he did not do
so. It was at this time held of John duke of Lancas-
ter, and Blanche his wife, for a rose at Midsummer
for all service.17 In 1445 the Augustinian canons of
Erdbury in Warwickshire obtained licence to acquire
lands to the value of 100 marks yearly,18 and there-
upon obtained a grant of this advowson from William
Lord Lovel, and the year following had letters patent
for the appropriation of the rectory.19 In 1448, at
Westleigh, the church was duly appropriated to the
prior and convent of Erdbury, of which William Lord
Lovel, Burnel and Holand, knt., and Ralph Botiler, knt.,
lord of Sudeley, were founders. A vicarage of
1 6 marks yearly with a tenement was ordained,10
1 Hist, and Gen. Notes, i, 148-5 1 ; ii,
59-61. See below.
2 Consistory Ct. Rec. ; Lanes. Chant.
(Chet. Soc. Ix), 272.
8 Lanes, and Cbes. Antitj. Soc. vii, 295-9.
For other remains, possibly heraldic, noted
before the destruction of the old church in
1873, see Hist, and Gen. Notes, ii, 65. On
the south-west buttress of the tower are
two shields bearing (i) a hammer, nails,
and pincers j and (2) a horseshoe.
* Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 304.
* V.C.H. Lanes, i, 297.
6 Hund. R. ii, 304.
7 Assize R. (Rec. Soc. xlix), 221.
8De Bane. R. 82, m. 5 d.
9 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc.), i, 169 ; As-
size R. 408, m. id. John de Byron,
Henry de Kighley, Richard de Bradshagh
and Henry de Tyldesley were pledges for
payment of the purchase money.
10 Cockcrsand Chartul. (Chet. Soc., New
Ser., xliii), 614.
11 De Bane. R. 189, m. 50.
i« Def. Keeper's Ref. v, App. ii, 66.
« Tax. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 249.
« Hist, and Gen. Notes, ii, 184. In
1314 there had been a claim to the ad-
vowson by John son of Nigel son of
Roger de Urmston, against Siegrith widow
of Richard de Urmston ; De Bane. R.
207, m. 256^.
« Hilt, and Gen. Notes, iii, IOI.
16 In 1341 the church was valued at
4l6
12 marks, the ninth of sheaves, calves and
lambs of the parish amounting to^i 2 i». —
answered for by Atherton 561. 8J., Bedford
56.. M., Pennington, 23,. 4</, West-
leigh, 241. 4</., Tyldesley, 435. 4</., and
Astley, 361. 8</.; Ina. Nonarum (Rec.
Com.), 40.
" Hist, and Gen. Notes, iii, 31. In 1 3 50
Robert dc Holand, chr. recovered hi.
presentation to this church against Gilbert
de Urmston. Chan. Inq. p.m. 23 Edw. Ill,
1 80.
18 Pat. R. 23 Hen. VI, pt. ii, m. 21.
19 Ibid. 24 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 27, where
it is called the church of Legh.
20 Lich. Epis. Reg. Booth, x, 68^-72 ;
Aug. Off. Misc. Chart. E. b. 37.
CJ
OS
3
r
U
UJ
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
and an allowance of 6s. &d. to the bishop, 3*. \d.
to the archdeacon of Chester, and 6s. %J. to the
poor.1
In 1488 the prior of Erdbury leased the par-
sonage of Leigh — that is, the Kirk Hall, with the
glebe lands, rents, tithes, and profits — to Gilbert
Urmston, esq., John Urmston his son and heir,
Mr. Gilbert Urmston, clerk, William Urmston,
vicar of the church of Leigh, and Roger Urmston,
for a term of forty years, paying yearly to the prior
£zo, to the vicar of Leigh £12, to the parish priest
for his wages 50^., and certain sums for the redemp-
tion of certain plate and a cross of gold which had
been laid in gage.8
Twenty years later William Urmston gave his
estate in this lease to John Urmston, the son and heir
of his brother John Urmston.3 In I 5 I 5, or fourteen
years before its expiration, the lease was renewed for
a further term of years to John Urmston and John
Astley, chaplain.* The gross rental was stated to be
about £43 in 1531.*
At the dissolution the rectory, tithes, glebe land
and advowson of the vicarage were granted to Charles
Brandon, duke of Suffolk,6 who subsequently obtained
licence to alienate,7 and in 1545 sold the rectory and
tithes for .£800 to Robert Trapps, citizen and gold-
smith of London.8 In 1557 Thomas Leyland of
Morleys, esq., and John Urmston of Westleigh, gent.,
presented to the vicarage pro hac vice probably as
purchasers of the next presentation. In 1561 Francis
Trapps, gent., conveyed by fine to Sir Thomas
Gerard, knt., the rectory of Westleigh, that is, the
LEIGH
moated Kirk Hall, the glebe lands, all tithes of grain
and hay, and the advowson of the vicarage, in con-
sideration of an annuity of £40 a year.9 Gerard
appears to have immediately sold one half of the
tithes to Richard Urmston for £420. 10 In 1573
Richard Urmston appears to have established his title
to the rectory and tithes.11 In 1609 Edward, earl of
Hertford, obtained a grant of the advowson," but
notwithstanding a caveat entered by his successor in
1619 against Richard Urmston's presentation,13 the
earl's claim was set aside. In 1636 the then vicar
preferred a petition to the king complaining of the
poverty of the living. A subsequent inquiry held by
the diocesan elicited the fact that the vicar received
but £28 is. \J. yearly, out of which he had to pay
£5 lot., whilst the total value of the propriate
rectory was .£632 per annum.14 In 1645 the rectory
impropriate was sequestered from Richard Urmston,
' Papist,' for his delinquency, £50 being paid out of
the issues to the vicarage of Leigh and £40 for the
maintenance of the minister of the then lately-erected
chapel of Chowbent in Atherton.15 In 1650 the
Parliamentary Commission returned the value of the
vicarage at £16 14*. %<t., the parsonage house and
demesne with leased lands at £97 I is., the tithes of
the parish at £173 5/., and the small tithes at
£4 5/.16 After the Restoration the advowson and
tithes were restored to the heirs general of Richard
Urmston, but in 1715 fell into the hands of the
commissioners for forfeited estates," by whom three-
fourths were granted to Sir More Molyneux, knt., who
in 1750 conveyed the rectory to John Probyn, esq.,18
1 This alms was to be distributed to
the poor of Leigh on the anniversary of
Lord Lovel, who is said to have conferred
the rectory upon the priory. Valor Eccl.
(Rec. Com.), iii, 56.
* Duchy of Lane. Plead, xxviii, U. 2,
zk ; Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. xxxv,
75» Kuerden MSS. (Coll. of Arms), ii,
189*.
< Mins. Accts. Warw. 29-30 Hen.
VIII, n. 117. In or before 1534 John
Atherton of Atherton had a demise from
John Urm.ton, during the term of his
lease, of tithe of corn, pigs and geese,
renovant in Atherton for £8 yearly rent.
Duchy of Lane. Plead. 2 Edw. VI, Iii,
U. I 5 Stanning, Reg. of Leigh, xvi ;
Rec. Soc. i, 57.
5 Duchy of Lane. Plead. 2 Edw. VI,
Iii, U. i.
In 1535 the rectory of Leigh was
valued at £38 los. a year net. The
vicar received £9 as his pension from
Erdbury; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 220.
« 19 Dec. 1538 ; Pat.R. 30 Hen. VIII,
'? Lanes, and Cbes. Rec. (Rec. Soc. viii),
ii, 387.
8 15 Feb. 1544-5 i Close R. 37 Hen.
VIII, ii, n. 37.
"Feet of F. bdle. 23, m. in ; the
rent was afterwards paid to the Bradshaws
of Pcnnington. Rec. Soc. xi, 27 ; Pal.
of Lane. Feet of F. 8 Chas. I.
10 Baines, #«/. of Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii,
11 Mem. R. 15 Eliz. 9 (Jones, Index, ii,
s.t. Leigh).
la 13 April, 1609, Pat. R. 7 Jas. I, xx.
18 Bp. Gastrell, Notilia (Chet. Soc. xxi),
183.
« Star Chamb. Cert. Baines, Hist, of
Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 591. The glebe lands
around the Kirk Hall were valued at
fi79, tenements leased, worth at rack
155, tithe corn of Pennington, West-
leigh, half of Bedford, which had been
sold to Richard Urmston by Sir Thos.
Gerard, worth ,£100, a water corn-mill
and a horse-mill £16, coal pits in the
glebe £20, formerly £40— these are
referred to in a suit in 1534 (Lanes, and
Ches. Antic/. Soc. vii, 36)— small tithes,
Easter roll and surplice fees £30. Also
tithes sold by Mr. Urmston or his pre-
decessors, viz. tithes of Atherton sold to
John Atherton, esq., who pays £ 8 yearly,
but worth £30 ; tithe of three quarters
of Tyldesley sold to Mr. Shevington, who
pays £10 yearly, but worth £30; tithe
of another part of Tyldesley sold to
Mr. Anderton, who pays £2, but worth
£ 10 ; half the tithe of Astley sold to
Mr. Tyldesley of Morleys, who pays
£5 6s. M. but worth £16; the other
If sold to Thomas Mort, gent., under a
reserved rent of £5 6s. 8</., since sold to
Mr. Mort, but worth £14; tithe of
Shakerley for which Mr. Shakerley pays
yearly to Mr. Shevington £z, but worth
£8 ; tithe of the remaining half of Bed-
ford sold to Richard Urmston of K-inknall,
who pays £4 1 51. \d., but worth £24.
Total of reserved rents £37 %s. %d., but
worth at rack £132. Total value of the
rectory £632. The vicar receives from
Mr. Urmston £15 131. 4</.; the vicarage
house and 7 or 8 acres of land are valued
at £10, part of the surplice fees, valued
at £2, the rent of a cottage 8s. Total
£28 is. 4</., out of which he pays to an
assistant £4 and for lays and taxes
£1 loj. There remains clear £23 per
is p'lund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc.), i,
9-10, &c.
16 Commonwealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc.),
55-9. In 1649 the vicar was receiving
a pension of £15 13*.
417
: profits of the
sum of £50 granted by the commissioners
in 1645. Ibid. 80.
17 A fourth part of the tithes had fallen
to the share of Anne Mossock by a deed
of partition of the Urmston estates made
in 1 66 1, viz. the great tithes of West-
leigh, the small tithes of Bedford and the
lower end of Atherton, and the fourth
part of all rents out of Atherton, Bedford,
Tyldesley, and Shakerley, and the fourth
part of the advowson of the church.
This was by her conveyed to Sir Wil-
liam Gerard of Brynn, bart., Thomas
Eccleston of Eccleston, esq., and Thomas
Culcheth of Culcheth, esq., in 1681 for
pious uses ; Forfeited Estate Papers, 37,
37M, J. 8. In 1715 the whole of the
tithes held by the heirs of Richard
Urmston fell into the hands of the com-
missioners for forfeited estates, but under
the advice of Thomas Starkie 'a good
Papist lawyer of Preston,' Mrs. Mary
Culcheth, the widow of Thomas Culcheth,
became informer, being allowed in that
capacity under the penal laws to take one-
fourth of property forfeited to the crown.
Afterwards she obtained a lease from the
crown of the whole tithe at a low rent, the
lease being made by a Mr. Chadwick.
Subsequently the heir-at-law of Richard
Shuttleworth, ' a spendthrift and an apos-
tate,' filed a bill in Chancery against
Mrs. Culcheth and Mr. Chadwick for
recovery of the tithes, suing in forma
pauperis, but after causing great trouble
and expense he failed in his attempt ;
Foley, Rec. S.J. v, 337. Particulars of
the value of the fourth part of the tithes
in 1716 and the share of the payments
thereout to the crown and others will be
found in Lanes, and Ches. Antia. Notes, i,
158-9.
18 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 345,
m. 85.
53
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
who probably conveyed to James Scholes, gent., who
presented to the vicarage in 1767 and 1784. Scholes
sold the advowson in 1785 to Robert Vernon
(Gwillym) Atherton, esq., whose eldest daughter and
coheir married the Hon. Thomas Powys, 2nd Baron
Lilford, great-grandfather of John, Lord Lilford, the
present patron.
On the creation of the diocese of Manchester in
1847 the parish of Leigh was included in it, though
it had belonged to the archdeaconry of Warrington.
The following is a list of the rectors and
Presented
Name
Patron
Vacant by
temp. Richard I .
John, parson of Westleigh ' . .
temp. John . .
Robert Coucy'
. Richard de Westleigh .
__
c. 1 240-70 . .
Henry de Ulveston 3 . . . .
. Isolda,prioressofWallingwells
Nicholas de Wigan 4
1275 . . . .
oc. 1276 . . .
John de Urmston 5
temp. Edw. I . ,
, William de Urmston6 . . . .
.
ff 1 3O4
John de Urmston 7
—1305 • • •
. William Banastre8
oc. 1309 . . .
8 July, 1318 . .
Sir Robert de Holand, knt,
, res. said John
20 Sept. I 326
'. Henry de Rixton, cl.10 . . . .
William de Urmston .
d. J. de Urmston
5 Jan. 1327 .
. John de Blebury, cl
. Edward III
rem. H. de Rixton
20 Dec. 1339
. John de Holand, cl
. Sir Robt. de Holand, knt.
d. J. de Blebury
(d T de Holand
4 Ma7> ' 346 •
Thomas de Tansouere, chaplain .
'5' April, 1346
1 5 Dec. 1349. .
, Peter de Wigan, cl." . . . .
. The bishop by lapse . .
23 May, 1366
, William de Chiselden, pr." . .
. Sir Robert de Holand, knt.
("d. P. de Wigan
t 3 May, 1 366
22 Apr. 1378
. John de Haverbergh " . . . .
exch. benefice
9 Nov. 1382
, William Osgodby, pr." .
. Sir John Lovel, knt. . .
d. John de Haverbergh
30 Aug. 1383
. Thomas de Dalby 15 . . . .
exch. benefice
.'1386 . . .
. William de Chiselden . . . .
1 8 Sept. 1396
, Thomas Hyne, pr.16 .
. John,Lord Lovel and Holand d. W. de Chiselden
31 Mar. 1410
. Ralph Repington "
•
exch. benefice
20 Mar. 1440
14 Aug. 1453
13 Feb. 1455.
12 May, 1456
2 Aug. 1483
James Hall, ch.19 . .
John Bothe, LL.B.™ .
John Deping, ch.81
Thurstan Pcrcivall, ch.*
William Urmston, el.83
VICA
Erdbury Priory
res. J. Hall
res. J. Bothe
res. J. Deping
d. T. Percival
1 CockertandCbartul. (Chet.Soc.), ii, 614.
He was a married man and probably not
in holy orders.
"DeBanc. R. 189, m. 50.
» Ibid. 82, m. 5 d.; Kuerden MSS. (Coll.
of Arms), ii, 219, n. 330; Henry the
clerk of Leigh was indicted before the jus-
tices in eyre at Lancaster in 1246 ; Assist
R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. xlvii), 119.
4 In 1275 he sued five of his parish-
ioners for damages for entering his park
at Westleigh and felling his trees there ;
De Bane. R. n, m. 6 d.
' John, parson of Lek,' in 1276 made
an acknowledgement of a debt due to Hugh
de Kendal ; Cat. Close R. 1272-9, p. 426.
A number of local people made similar
acknowledgements. John de Urmston
occurs as rector in 1277 ; Dep. Keeper's
Rep. xlvi, App. 212.
6 De Bane R. 233, m. 70.
7 Ibid. 148, m. 147 ; he was brother
•of Adam and Richard de Urmston.
» Ibid. 156, m. 30 d.
' He occurs as defendant in 1 309; Assize
R. 423, m. 5 d. \ 424, m. 5. He was
reinstated after resignation in 1318 j Lich.
Epis. Reg. Langton, i, 85*.
10 For these rectors see below. Henry
de Rixton was ordained priest in Sept.
1327 ; Lich. Epis. Reg. i, fol. 152*.
« Ibid. Northburgh, ii, 125*. See also
Assize R. 436, m. i.
12 Lich. Epis. Reg. Stretton, iv, 83.
!» Ibid. 89. He had been rector of
Titchmarsh, co. Northants, which he
exchanged with Chiselden.
» Ibid. 93*. John de Haverbergh died
in a village near London in the autumn of
1382.
« Ibid. 94. W. Osgodby exchanged
benefices with Mr. Thomas de Dalby,
rector of Stretham, co. Camb. Dalby had
been rector of Tydd St. Giles and Bark-
ing. On leaving Leigh he became rector
of Cottenham (1386), and held prebends,
&c. He died in 1400, being then arch-
deacon of Richmond and prebendary of
York ; Ely Dioc. Rememb.
16 Lich. Epis. Reg. Stretton, vi, 6ii.
William de Chiselden— no doubt the rector
1366-78— was collated to the prebend
of Tachbrook in Lichfield Cathedral in
1386 (Le Neve, Fasti (ed. 1854), i, 628 ;
Cal.Pat. R. 1385-9, 286), in succession
to that of Holborn, which he had held
since 1374.
« Ibid. Reg. Burghill, vii, 98*. T. Hyne
exchanged benefices with R. Repynton,
rector of Titchmarsh, co. Northants.
18 The vicarage was ordained 20 Aug.
1448 ; ibid. Bothe, x, 686-72.
19 He was preferred to the rectory 0-
Northenden,which John Booth, cl. resignec
on 14 Aug. 1453; 'Wd- Close, xi, 36. Hal:
is said to have been instituted to Leigh.
20 Mar. 1440 ; Baines, Hist, of Lanes.
(Croston's ed.), iv, 317. See Ormerod.
Cbes. (ed. Helsby), iii, 614.
» Lich. Epis. Reg. xi, 36*. Warden o
the collegiate church of Manchester (q.\\
and archdeacon of Richmond, 1459-65
bishop of Exeter 1465-78. He is confusec
with William Bothe, archbishop of York,
by Stanning, Reg. of Leigh, xv, note.
21 Lich. Epis. Reg. xi, 38.
M Ibid. 40*. Percivall had been rectoi
of Longford, co. Derby. In 1474, durinf
this incumbency, there is a record of the
vicar receiving, by virtue of a letter from
the dean of Warrington to him directed,
in the church of Leigh, before a numbei
of the gentry of the neighbourhood whost
names are duly recorded, the purgation by
oath of one Nicholas del Ryland, that he
had never made any feoffment of lands ir
Westhoughton, as it had been alleged that
he had done. Which proceeding was con
eluded by the vicar solemnly cursing thr
said Nicholas with bell, book, and candle
if he should be guilty in his denial.
Local Gleanings, ii, 293-5.
<B Lich. Epis. Reg. Hales, xii, 116.
4l8
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
LEIGH
Presented
20 Sept. 1 504
Name
. Gilbert Heaton, ch.1 ....
Patron
Erdbury Priory
Vacant by
d. W. Urmston
4 June, 1 5 26
24 Sept. 1557
16 Oct. 1574.
e. 1595 . . .
c . 1 6 1 6
. Richard Clerke'
. Roger Feilden *
Robert Eaton 4
Gervase Lowe 5
James Gregson 6
(Thomas Purefey, escj. )
' (Ralph Purefey, esq. } '
C Thomas Leyland, esq. i
ohn Urmston, esq. J '
. Bishop of Chester . . .
res. G. Heaton
d. R. Clerke
d. R. Feilden
rem. (?) R. Eaton
d. G. Lowe
2 May, 1620 .
c. 1646 . .
30 Mar. 1662
9 Aug. 1685
21 Aug. 1691
15 Apr. 1696
14 Jan. 1734.
28 Dec. 1767
23 Dec. 1784
, James Gatley 7
. Bradley Hayhurst8
. Jonathan Gillibrand9 . . . .
. William Barrett 10
. John Harrison
. George Ward"
. William Farington, B.D. " . .
. John Barlow, M.A. 13 . . . .
James Hartley
Richard Urmston . . .
. Thomas Mossock, &c.
. Anne Mossock, &c.
f Richard Shuttleworth )
• (Anne Mossock . . .} '
. William Rawstorne, &c.
. James Scholes, gent. .
d. J. Gregson
d. J. Gatley
d. last incumbent
26 Apr. 1798
1 1 Feb. 1 800
24 Nov. 1821
Henry William Champneys "
. Daniel Birkett 15
. Joseph Hodgkinson, M.A.16 . .
. T. Powys, i st Lord Lilford
. T. 2nd Lord Lilford . .
res. last incumbent
d. last incumbent
1 Lich. Epis. Reg. Blythe, xiii, 53*.
took his degree of B.A. from Brasenose
the Rev. William Gillibrand, rector of
He is described as Gilbert Eytton in the
Coll., Oxon. in 1577; M.A. in 1587,
Warrington, 1607-20, of the family of
letter of induction dated I Aug. 1504 ;
was chaplain to the earl of Derby,
Gillibrand of Ramsgreave, parish of Black-
Harl. MS. 2112, 149*.
rector of Grappenhall, 1582-1621, and
burn ; Dugdale, Visit, of Lanes. (Chet.
o Lich. Epis. Reg. xiii, 62. The Pure-
also rector of Mobberley, 1595-1621.
Soc. Ixxxviii), 121.
feys were patrons fro hac vice by a grant
It is not clear on what grounds the
10 The patrons were Anne Mossock,
from the prior and convent of Erdbury.
bishop of Chester presented Eaton to
Frances Bradshaw, Alice Eaton, widow,
Heyton had exchanged with Clerke for the
chantry of Thomas Passhe within the royal
scribed in the text.
William Barrett, minister of Leigh, was
chapel of Windsor (ibid.). On 20 July,
' The date of his institution is not
described in 1689 as one of the conform-
1533, at Croston, Clerke read the procla-
known. In 1592 he was curate. In
able clergy who had taken the oath; Kenyan
mation concerning Katherine, the princess
1609 he was described as vicar (Raines
MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App.
dowager.which called forth violent language
MSS. xxii, 298), and c. 1611 as 'no
iv), 229.
from James Harrison, priest there, which
preacher,' Mr. Midgeley, one of the king's
11 Rebuilt the vicarage house ; Hist.
was subsequently reported to the king by
the earl of Derby ; S. P. For. and Dom.
preachers, having been placed here ; Hist.
MSS. Com. Ref. xiv, App. iv, 13. In
and Gen. Notes, i, 57.
12 The patrons were W. Rawstorne,
vi, „. 964 ; Chet. Soc. cxiii, 67-70. In
1597 John Deacon was preacher here.
George Farington, and Thomas Hesketh.
1535 a riot occurred at Leigh owing to
He was joint author of two books upon
The vicar was second son of William Faring-
the attempted arrest in the church of
demoniacal possession, published in 1601;
ton of Shaw Hall and Worden ; Foster,
three persons. The names of over 100
Fishwick, Lanes. Lib. 357-8. About 1606
Lanes. Fed. Educated at Brasenose Coll.,
people who took part in the riot, at the
Mr. Palin was preacher and lecturer here;
Oxon.; B.A. 1726, M.A. and B.D. 1766.
instigation— it was said— of Mr. Atherton
Hist, and Gen. Notes, i, 32, 37.
His epitaph in the church and a note of
of Atherton, are recorded in the pleadings
« In Gregson's time there was a preacher
his descendants are given in Bainei,
in a suit which arose out of this affair ;
here, for in the registers of Bunbury,
Hist, of Lanes, (ed. Croston), iv, 323. In
Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and
Cheshire, is the marriage, 29 Dec. 1618,
1767, the year of his death, he was pre-
Ches. xxxv), 43-8 ; Hist, and Gen. Notes,
of Thomas Yates of Leighe in Lancashire,
sented to the rectory of Warrington,
Hi, 110-12. In 1541-2 the clergy here
minister, to Anne Brooke of Tilston.
holding it in commendam with this vicarage
included Richard Gillibrand, the vicar's
~< In 1636 he preferred a petition to
for the brief period of six months. In
curate, John Astley, stipendiary priest of
the king complaining of the poverty of
1756 he caused two tablets bearing par-
John Atherton, esq., and Simon Bradshaw,
his benefice ; Baines, Hist, of Lanes, (ed.
ticulars of all benefactions to the church,
conducted by Richard Smyth and others ;
Croston), iv, 319. The dates of this and
school, and poor to be placed in the
Mite. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. xxxiii)
the ten following institutions are from the
church. A copy is given in Hist, and Gen.
(i), 114. In 1548 the clergy included
Inst. Books (Exch. Rec.), P.R.O.
Notes, i, 69-73. His portrait, supposed
the vicar, Richard Gillibrand, his curate,
8 Of Emmanuel Coll., Camb. ; gradu-
to be the work of his son Joseph, the
Thomas Castleton, Simon Bradshaw,
ated B.A. 1632. He was named a mem-
landscape painter and biographer of Sir
Robert Atherton, Gilbert Bucksforth (or
ber of the Fourth Classis in 1646 (Chet.
Joshua Reynolds, is at Worden; ibid.
Lachford), and Andrew . . . . whilst John
Soc. New Ser. xx, 8), and ten years later
81.
Astley, stipendiary priest, was then dead
(Visit. Bks. at Chester). In 15 54 Richard
signed the ' Harmonious Consent of the
ministers of Lancaster.' In 1650 the Par-
« See a stricture on the vicar of Leigh,
by the Rev. Thomas Seddon ; ibid. 82.
Michell was the curate, Bradshaw and
liamentary Commissioners described him
An obituary notice of his death, typical
Atherton being priests (ibid).
as ' a man of good lyffe and conversacion,
of the period, appeared in the Manchester
» Previously curate of Croston. In his
and constant in preaching the word,' and
Mercury of 19 Oct. 1784.
will dated 10 Sept. 1574, he directed that
his body should be buried at Leigh, and
gave to the poor 40*., to the repair of
found that he did supply the cure of both
Pennington and Bedford. He resigned
about 1657 and was presented to the liv-
14 Educated at Christ's Coll., Camb.;.
B.A. 1793, M.A. 1796. Of Canterbury
in 1834; Foster, Our Noble and Gentle
Croston church 201., and legacies to several
ing of Taxall, Cheshire, in 1661, where
Families.
members of the Urmston family ; Hist.
he was probably silenced for noncon-
" Curate of Leigh in 1 784. For notes.
and Gen. Notes, i, 89 ; Antiq. Notes, i, 80.
formity. In 1661-3 he was residing in
of his marriage and issue see Baines,.
In 1562 under Vicar Feilden, Simon
Bradshaw had become curate and was
Manchester; Newcome's Diary (Chet. Soc.
Old Ser. xviii), passim. In 1671 he was
Hist, of Lanes, (ed. Croston), iv, 323.
M Son of Richard Hodgkinson, agent of
here in 1565, being then sick (Visit. Bks.
at Chester). He died in 1576 ; Admon.
appointed minister of Macclcsfield, which
cure he resigned in 1682, shortly before
Lord Lilford ; educated at Manch. Gram.
School, where he obtained the Hulmeian
bd. at Chester.
his death. See Earwaker, East Ches. ii,
exhibition to Brasenose Coll. Oxon.; B.A.
4 Robert Eaton was probably eldest
505.
1816, M.A. 1819. Assistant master of
son and heir of Robert Eaton of Over
9 The patrons were Thomas Mossock,
Manch. Gram. School, 1819-21. He
Whitley, Cheshire, born 1545-6 (Orme-
Robert and Mary Heaton, and Frances
died at Leigh 1826. There it a monu-
rod, His,, of Cbes. (ed. Helsby), i, 657) ;
Bradshaw. The new vicar wa» ion of
ment to hit memory.
419
Presented
30 Oct. 1826
29 Dec. 1839
24 Nov. 1874
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Name Patron
. Jonathan Topping T. 3rd Lord Lilford .
. James Irvine, M.A.1 „
. Joseph Heaton Stanning, M.A.8 . . T. 4th Lord Lilford .
Vacant by
d. last incumbent
A dispute as to the patronage occurred after the
death of John de Urmston in 1326. Henry de
Rixton, clerk, was admitted 20 September, 1326,
upon the presentation of William de Urmston,3 against
whom, however, the king recovered his right to pre-
sent, by reason of the lands of Robert de Holand
being in his hands, and Rixton was removed on the
nominal plea of his being a married man.4 The king
then presented John de Blebury, clerk, on 5 January,
1327.* Protracted proceedings ensued consequent
upon Urmston's presentation. Rixton refused to give
up possession, and being cited to appear at Lichfield
on 4 January, 1328, to show cause why he should not
be removed, failed to appear, and Blebury was again
instituted on the day following. Rixton still retained
possession and appealed to the court of the primate,
who ordered the parties to be cited before him, but
afterwards his official withdrew the inhibition issued
against Blebury. Meantime the parishioners had
been holding the church and rectory against Blebury.
At length, on the morrow of Midsummer, 1328, the
prior of Holland, by the direction of his diocesan,
proceeded to Leigh and inducted Blebury, his oppo-
nents having withdrawn their opposition under threat
of excommunication.6 Upon Blebury's death John
de Holand, clerk, was admitted on 20 December,
1339, being presented by Sir Robert de Holand, knt.7
He died in Lent, 1 346, when the same patron pre-
sented Thomas de Tansouere chaplain.8
The Clergy List of 1541-2 shows that in addition
to the vicar there were four priests at Leigh, one of
them being the curate.9 The Visitation List of
1548 records eight names, but one died about that
time and another was absent. The number was
quickly reduced, as in other places, and only four
appeared in 1554 ; in 1562 and later visitations the
vicar and the curate were the only clergy recorded.10
That the changes in outward ceremonial were at
once carried out in Leigh is known by the story of
Geoffrey Hurst, who, associated with Simon Smith,
Henry Brown, and George Eckersley, was one of the
Elizabethan commissioners to ' see the queen's pro-
ceedings take place.' Henry Brown was afterwards
reproached with having pulled down the crosses, rood-
sollar, and images of the saints which stood in the
church. Thomas Leyland of Morleys, an adherent
of the old order, ' did very few times come to the
church, but said he was aged.' When he did appear
he brought ' a little dog which he would play with all
service time, and the same dog had a collar full of
bells, so that the noise of them did molest and trouble
others as well as himself from hearing the service.' "
In 1575 'great misorders' were committed in the
church owing to Thomas Langley, steward of the
lord of Atherton, claiming to nominate a curate,
apparently in right of the former chantry. The
vicar stated that ' on Innocents' Day Langley and his
associates swarmed about him in the chancel like unto
a swarm of bees, he being himself alone in the quire,'
saying that their old curate, one Horrocks, should
serve them in spite of all men ; and that ' such a boy '
as the vicar's nominee was not able to serve them,
and should not serve, though ' he were as well learned
as the Dean of Paul's.'1' In 1590 the vicar, a
' preacher,' was resident in Cheshire, and his curate,
who was ' no preacher,' does not appear to have had
any assistance in a parish supposed to have 2,000
communicants.13 In 1592 it was found that the
church needed repairs ; there were no perambulations.
The vicar refused to wear the surplice, and the youth
were not regularly instructed and catechized ; the
curate imitated his superior, but amendment was
promised.14 About 1611 the incumbent was described
as being no preacher, but Mr. Midgeley, one of the
king's preachers, had been placed there.15
Chapels were built at Astley in 1631, and at Ather-
ton in 1648, both probably under the influence of
the Puritan movement, and their ministers were resi-
dent in 1650. 16 These chapels, after the Restoration,
continued for a long time in the hands of the Non-
conformists, the parish church remaining the only
place for the Established worship until the beginning
of the eighteenth century.17
In 1836 there were in addition to the parish
church sixteen places of worship, which by 1851 had
increased in number to twenty-eight. At the present
time there are altogether fifty-four places of worship
in the ancient parish, including fourteen Church of
1 Educated at Marischal College, Aber-
deen, where he graduated M.A. He was
present at the battle of Waterloo in his
capacity of army chaplain. Was at dif-
ferent times involved in unfortunate
disputes with his parishioners, and after
several years' absence from the parish
through infirmity died in 1874, in his
8 3rd year; Manchester Guardian, 7 Oct.
1874.
> Educated at Clare Coll., Camb. ; B.A.
1859, M.A. 1862. Canon Stanning is
rural dean of Eccles, surrogate and hono-
rary canon of Manchester, and honorary
chaplain of the Leigh Union.
» Lich. Epis. Reg. Northburgh, ii, 101*.
« Ibid. 103. « Ibid.
« The numerous documents connected
with the proceedings are recorded in Duchy
of Lane. Misc. bdle. i, n. 1 8 ; Hist, and Gen.
Notes, ii, iii, passim. In consequence of the
attitude adopted by some of the parishioners
toward* Blebury, the principal free tenants
of Atherton, Astley, Pennington, Tyldes-
ley, and Bedford were obliged to enter into
recognizances for the payment of consider-
able sums of money to Parson Blebury
from 133010 1336. Names and details
will be found in Cal. Close R. 1330-3,
pp. 172, 397, 611 ; 1333-7, PP 361-2,
535.720-
^ Lichfield Epis. Reg. Northburgh, ii,
113*. 8 Ibid. 119.
9 Clergy List (Rcc. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches.), 14. The names have been given
in preceding notes.
10 Visit. Lists at Chester.
11 Foxe, Acts and Monti, (ed. Cattley),
viii, 564. It was further noticed that
Thomas Leyland, ' as he sat in his chapel
at service time,' used 'on a willow bark to
knit knots (for that he could not be suf-
fered to have his beads) and to put the
same upon a string also.'
" Raines, Chant. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 171.
Canon Raines seems to be in error in sup-
420
posing 'Sir Horrocks' to have been the
former Atherton chantry priest ; the name
does not occur in the Visit. Lists down
to 1565. In 1542 Robert Atherton was
Mr. Atherton's chaplain, and was still
there in 1 548. The ' boy ' curate, Henry
Widdenstall, clerk, exhibited his letters
20 August, 1575 ; Pennant's Acct. Book
(at Chester).
13 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 248, quoting
S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4.
» Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x, 187.
" Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.),
13. This arrangement may not have
lasted very long. In 1620 the vicar of
Leigh paid nothing to the subsidy, and
the only Leigh contributors ; Misc. (Rec.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 53, 65.
1« Commonwealth Ch. Surv. 55-9.
V See the accounts of Atherton and
Astley.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
England, four Roman Catholic,1 and thirty-six
Nonconformist.
Wesley preached in the district in the year 1 748
(at Shakerley), 1749, 1751-2, and in 1774 'at a
preaching-house just built at Chowbent, which was
lately a den of lions, but they are all now quiet
as lambs.' He preached here again in 1776 and
1781.* The chapel was probably Harrison Fold
Chapel, built by the Presbyterians, ultimately be-
coming Unitarian, and now made into cottages.*
A Sunday-school was opened in 1784 in a small
house at Green Lane End. The first chapel was
erected in Chapel Street, Bedford, in 1793, being
included in the Bolton circuit until 1805, when the
Leigh Wesleyan circuit was founded. It was rebuilt
in 1873. In Pennington the first Wesleyan chapel
was built in 1815 in King Street, and was known as
Leigh Chapel. A new chapel, also situate in King
Street, but not upon the site of the old building, was
opened in 1871, when the old chapel became the
Sunday-school, which has also been recently rebuilt.
In Westleigh the first chapel was erected in Wigan
Lane in 1850 ; the present chapel in 1878, at the
cost of James Hayes. There are also a mission
chapel at Butts, in Bedford, a Welsh Wesleyan chapel
in Orchard Lane, Pennington, and a chapel at Glaze-
bury, built in 1865.
The Baptists commenced to hold services in Pen-
nington about 1 866. A school chapel was erected
in Church Street about 1876 ; a larger building has
since been opened. They have also a small school
chapel in Smallbrook Lane, Westleigh.
The Independent connexion had its origin in 1805
through the efforts of the Rev. William Roby of
Manchester, who in that year began to hold frequent
services in a cottage in what was known as ' The
Walk';4 the first chapel was opened in 1814. In
1877 a new Congregational chapel was erected.
The Primitive Methodist cause commenced in
1834, with a school chapel in Bradshawgate. A new
chapel was erected in 1869. This was purchased by
the Corporation in 1903 for improvement purposes,
and the present commodious chapel was opened in
Windermere road in 1904.
The Methodist chapel in Cook Street was erected
in 1887 by unattached Methodists, belonging to no
particular denomination, who seceded from the
Primitive Methodists.
The Independent Methodist connexion opened a
preaching station in King Street, Pennington, about
1876, a school chapel in the Avenue in 1878, and a
larger one in 1890. They have also a mission chapel
in Westleigh.
The Methodist Free Church commenced in 1 866
with a school chapel at Plank Lane. The existing
church in Wigan Road, Westleigh, dates from 1882.
There are other chapels at Plank Lane and Hindley
Green.
The Welsh Presbyterians have a small chapel in
Ulleswater Street.
The Unitarian connexion began in 1888 ; a new
chapel in Twist Lane, Westleigh, was opened in
1898.
The Meeting House of the Society of Friends in
LEIGH
Twist Lane was erected in 1872-3, on the site of an
earlier building.5
The Salvation Army has barracks in Brown Street.
There is a Spiritualistic chapel in Market Buildings.
In 1614 James Starkie of Pennington, tailor, be-
queathed 40.1. to the vicar, Mr. Lowe, for a free
grammar school ' which I pray God may be in good
tyme att Leigh,' or in default for hiring a preacher.'
Probably the school was founded shortly after.7
The principal ancient endowments
CHARITIES of the grammar school are a rent-
charge of £5 a year on two closes
called Black Fields in Pennington, given in 1655 by
John Ranicars of Atherton, and a rent-charge of £6 a
year on a moiety of the corn-tithes of Pennington, be-
queathed in 1 68 1 by Richard Bradshaw of Pennington.
James Wright in 1679, Randell Wright in 1686, and
Henry Bolton in 1723 bequeathed small sums, the
interest of which should be paid to the schoolmaster
to teach seven poor children from Pennington free.8
In 1624 Henry Travice bequeathed a rent-charge of
j£lo a year on lands in Croston for distributing 5/.
yearly on Thursday in Passion Week amongst forty
poor people of the parish.9 In 1701 John Sale of
Westleigh, cooper, gave £\oo to provide white bread
for distribution amongst the poor resorting to church
on every Lord's Day. In 1682 Richard Hilton gave
26 acres of land in Bedford to provide for the preach-
ing of a sermon yearly on St. Stephen's Day, the
residue of the yearly rents to be distributed amongst
forty poor persons who should come to hear the said
sermon.10 In 1777 the then vicar and ten other
persons were empowered to erect out of moneys col-
lected by public subscription (and the year following
did so erect) a north gallery in the parish church, and
an organ loft and organ, and to sell or let the pews
to those requiring them, employing the income in
payment of the organist's salary and keeping the
gallery and organ in repair. In 1900 this fund con-
sisted of a capital sum of £994. n In 1823 Rachel
Prescott of Bedford bequeathed £1,200, the interest
of which was to be paid yearly to aged poor of the
parish of the established religion, who had received no
parish relief.1* There are also other charities of more
recent creation.
WESTLEIGH
Westeley, 1237; Westlegh, 1238; Westlay in Legh,
1292.
This township, occupying the north-westerly part of
the parish, contains 1,882^ statute acres, and is much
occupied by cotton factories and iron works, which
have largely displaced agriculture and have destroyed
almost all the former natural beauties of the place.
The surface of the ground rises in undulations from
75 feet above the Ordnance datum on the south to a
height exceeding 150 feet on the north and north-
west. Westleigh Brook traverses the township from
north to south and presently unites with Hey or Pen-
nington Brook, flowing from the west, which appears
to have been at one time the southern boundary of
the township but now flows in a more southerly
course through Lowton and Pennington. The Wigan
1 See under Bedford, Pennington, and
Westleigh. " Wesley, Journal.
» Ex inform. Mr. John Gerrard.
« Pink, Leigh Congregationalism (1880).
* Ex inform. Mr. F. Standing.
« Will at Chester.
^ Pink, Leigh Grammar School (1898).
8 End.Char. (Lanes.), 1901, 86-! ; 1,22.
These produced a gross yearly income of
£37 in 1900.
421
Gross yearly income
11 Ibid. 30. '
« Ibid. 33.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
and Leigh branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal
runs through the southern part of the township, and
the high road from Hindley to Atherton with a
branch road to Leigh also passes through it. There
is a station at Westleigh, originally named Leigh
Station, on the Bolton and Kenyon section of the
London and North-Western Railway. The Man-
chester and Wigan section of the same railway runs
through the northern edge of the township. The
geological formation consists of the coal measures on
the north, underlying the permian rocks which out-
crop from Westleigh village to Westleigh Heath and
Strange Common. To the south-east of this line the
formation consists of the pebble beds of the new red
sandstone series.
A district chapelry was formed out of the parish of
Leigh in 1881.' The Local Government Act, 1858,
and the Public Works (Manufacturing Districts) Act,
1863, were adopted by the township in 1863.' By
the 38 and 39 Victoria, cap. ccxi, the district was
dissolved and merged in that of the Leigh Local
Board, since controlled by an urban district council
under the Local Government Act of 1894, and now
incorporated in the borough of Leigh. The popula-
tion in 1901 was 16,177 persons.
This before the Conquest was one of the
M4NOR thirty-four manors dependent upon the
chief manor of Warrington. The early
dependency of the manor of WESTLEIGH and the
Higher Hall upon the chief manor of Warrington
terminated soon after the Conquest, and in the
twelfth century Westleigh became a member of a
scattered fee, having its caput at Bolton le Moors,
which was granted about the time of King Stephen
to the lord of Marsey and Gamston, in Nottingham-
shire.3 The rateable area seems to have been two
and a half or three carucates of land, the tenure by
knight's service, viz. by the fourth and twentieth part
of a knight's fee. About the year 1230 Roger son
of Ranulf de Marsey sold for 200 marks of silver his
whole fee between Ribble and Mersey, including this
manor, to Ranulf de Blundevill, earl of Chester
and Lincoln.4 Subsequently the superior lordship
descended with the earl of Chester's other lands be-
tween Ribble and Mersey to the Ferrers, earls of
Derby, then to the earls of Lancaster, and so became
merged in the possessions of the duchy of Lancaster.
The early history of the manor is obscure and is
complicated by the connexion of the church with it
and by the fact that a landowner in Lancashire in
the first half of the thirteenth century had not in
every case received an established surname from his
principal or residential estate. The facts appear to
be that in the latter part of the twelfth century John
de Westleigh was hereditary parson of the church of
Cockersand in the early part of the thirteenth century,
and described as 'of Rainford' in charters by which
they gave lands in that place to the abbey 5 ; and
probably an eldest son Richard, who seems to have
succeeded to the manor and patronage of the church,
but owing to the more rigid enforcement of the
decrees of the first Lateran Council against the
hereditary possession of churches by persons not in
orders, was compelled to present a clerk in holy orders
to his church of Leigh. This clerk was duly admitted
sometime during the reign of John. He was not a
kinsman of the patron, for his name, Robert Cucy,
or Coucy,6 suggests a foreign origin. The loss of
the old hereditary office of parson seems to have
necessitated a division of lands in the manor, and the
afterwards known as the Kirk Hall,7 standing half a
mile distant from the church, with lands representing
a fourth part of the manor or vill.8 The situation
of the house and lands points to its having been the
lord's ancient residence. The lord himself seems to
have removed to a site more remote from the church,
and to have built the manor-house afterwards known
as the Higher Hall. In 1219 Adam de Westleigh,
probably younger brother and heir of Richard, was
amerced by the justices at Lancaster.9
Before 1238 the advowson appears to have been
divided, possibly by the death of Richard de West-
leigh without heir of his body, or by alienation of
half the church to the priory of Wallingwells. In
that year five Lancashire knights were commissioned
to take an assize of darein presentment at Lancaster
between Adam son of John (de Westleigh) and the
prioress of Wallingwells, between whom there was
contention as to the next presentation to half the
church.10 The verdict is not recorded ; but it is not
improbable that the plea was that referred to some
fifty years later as the result of which Isolda, prioress
of Wallingwells, had presented Henry de Ulveston to
the church.11 This seems to gain confirmation from
a reference to ' Henry the clerk of Leigh,' who found
sureties at the assizes at Lancaster in 1 246." In
1 242-3 Adam de Westleigh was one of the jurors
returned from the hundred of West Derby on the
inquest of the Gascon Scutage.13 About this time or
possibly a little later, a fourth part of the manor, sub-
sequently associated with the Old Hall of Westleigh,
came into the possession of a younger branch of the
Bradshaws of Bradshaw,14 who held under the lords
of the remaining half of the manor.15
By Quenilda his wife Adam de Westleigh had issue
Roger, who married Emma daughter (and perhaps
heir) of Robert de Shoresworth, and had lands here
with her in marriage.
Their issue was an only daughter, Siegrith, who
Leigh and presumably lord of the manor. He had married Richard, younger son of Richard de Urmston,
sons Adam and Alan, benefactors to the abbey of lord of Urmston.16 In 1292 she and her husband
1 Lend. Gaz. 5297. » Ibid. 4935. « Aaixt R. (Rec. Soc.), 119. to prove that Richard de Urmston and
» Lanes. Ing. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 13 Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 396, Siegrith his wife had disseised him of a
xlviii), 29. 398*. " See the account of Pennmgton. moiety of the manor of Westleigh, which
5 Chartul. of Cockersand (Chet. Soc.),
614-15.
6 De Bane. R. 189, m. 50.
7 Now known as the Parsonage Farm.
It has been generally occupied by the
curate in charge of St. Paul's Church.
8 De Bane. R. 263, 95 d.
»Pipe R. 3 Hen. Ill, m. I2</.
10 Auixt R. (Rec. Soc. xlix), 221.
11 De Bane. R. 82, m. 5 d.
described in a suit brought in 1326 by
Richard de Urmston against John, parson
of Leigh, claiming five messuages and
lands formerly improved from the wastes of
the manor. De Bane. R. 263, m. 95 d.
16 De Bane. R. 156, m. 65 d. Emma
re-married a certain Henry, who died
before 1295. Assize R. 1306, m. 17.
Roger had also issue a son Nigel, probably
claimed to be, had held in her demesne
as of fee ; De Bane. R. 91, m. 118 ; 105,
m. 43 rf. ; Anize R. 408, m. 9. In
1311 John son of the said Nigel sued
Siegrith in her widowhood for the advow-
son of the church (De Bane. R. 189, m.
50), and in 1315 put in his claim at the
levying of a fine of lands given by Sie-
grith to her younger son ; Final Cone.
(Rec. Soc. xlvi), ii, 20.
422
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
purchased the advowson of the church of ' Westlay in
Legh ' from the prioress of Wallingwells.1 Richard died
before 1305, and in 1315 Siegrith gave six messuages,
including the Higher Hall, a mill, 40 acres of land,
2 acres of meadow, 40 acres of wood and ^d. of free
rent to her younger son William,* and the same year
gave to Richard, her elder son, the manor of West-
leigh and the advowson of the church.3 In I 3 I 3 she
was associated with John de Urmston, parson of
Leigh, and Richard de Bradshagh and Margery his
wife in a plea of land brought by Richard de la Lache.*
Richard, her elder son, married Alice, one of the
daughters and coheirs of Richard de Lathom of Par-
bold, and had issue a son Richard,5 who died young,
and Lucy, who married Henry de Trafford of Prest-
wich, son of Robert of the same place.
In 1350 a fourth part of the manor was settled
upon Henry and Lucy and their issue.6 Between
1351 and 1353 they were engaged in litigation with
Lucy's kinsman Gilbert de Urmston,7 son and heir of
William, younger son of Siegrith. In July, 1351,
Gilbert recovered twelve messuages, a mill, 80 acres
of land, 6 of meadow, 50 of wood, and 5/. of free
rent here against Henry and Lucy,8 who subsequently
complained that some of the recognitors of the assize
had delivered to Gilbert much more than the premises
put in view, which they sought to recover against him
and against Roger de Bradshagh of Westleigh, Robert
de Blackburn, and Richard de Sale, free tenants of the
manor.9 Henry de Trafford died before the Feast of
St. Michael, 1 3 5 9,'° his widow surviving him. As they
had no issue their estate probably descended in accord-
ance with the limitations of the settlement made in
1350, but the links in the descent cannot be traced until
1436, when Isabella widow of Thurstan Urmston died
seised of messuages belonging to the Urmston estate
and of 4-f. of rent issuing out of lands and tenements
parcel of the manor, which William Holland of Down-
holland then held." This estate descended to Piers
Holland, who died in 1524 seised of four messuages,
1 60 acres of land, meadow and pasture in this manor
held of John Urmston, esq., by service unknown.
Edmund his son and heir was then aged forty years."
He alienated the estate in 1522" to Sir Henry Hal-
sail, hit., who held at his death on 23 June, 1522, the
LEIGH
mesne manor of Westleigh of John Urmston, esq., in
socage by 4*. yearly free rent.14 Subsequently the
estate descended in the Halsall family, and was dis-
persed by Sir Cuthbert Halsall, knt. About twenty-six
acres of the large measure were sold to James Sorocold
of Highhurst in Knowsley, yeoman,15 and another por-
tion to Adam Mort, who held a tenement here at his
death in 1 63 1.16
After the death of Richard Urmston, brother of
Lucy, the superior manor appears to have reverted to
the heir male of Siegrith de
Urmston in the person of John
son of Gilbert, son of her
younger son William Urmston.17
John Urmston was father or
grandfather of John Urmston
who died seised of the manor
in 1412, Thurstan his brother
being his successor, then aged
twenty-one years.18 Thurstan
died in 1415, when the cus-
tody of John his son was de-
livered to John Butler, esq.,
one of the ushers of the king's
chamber.19 The manor was held of the king as of his
duchy of Lancaster by the fourth and twentieth part
of a knight's fee and suit to the county of Lancaster
and wapentake of West Derby.™ John Urmston was
of age and had livery of the manor in March, 1431."
The year following he made a settlement of his estates.82
There was at that time a coal mine in the manor.83
He died in March, 1436," his son Gilbert being aged
about ten years.25 This Gilbert was the father of
another Gilbert who died in 1499, his eldest son John
being then aged fifty years ;26 William a younger son
was afterwards vicar of Leigh.87 From John Urmston,
who died in or soon after 1 548,26 the manor descended
in the fourth generation to Richard Urmston,89 who
died in 1659, aged sixty-nine years, leaving issue four
daughters.
Mary married Robert Heaton of Westleigh, gent. ;
Frances married, first, Richard Shuttleworth of Bed-
ford, gent., who died in 1650, and secondly, George
Bradshaw of Greenacre, gent. ; Eleanor was never
married ; and Anne, the youngest, married Thomas
URMSTON. Sablt, a
chevron between three
s fear-heads argent.
1 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. xxxix), i, 169.
Sir Thomas Halsall, knt., in 1533-4;
2 Ibid, ii, 20 ; Leigh Chran. Scrap Bk.
ibid. n. 34.
» Baines, Hi,t. of Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii,
I4 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 50.
589, quoting an eighteenth-century sche-
I5 Wills at Chester, 1622.
dule of Westleigh deeds. See also Worsley,
16 Inq- P-m. xxv, n. 33.
Leigh Par. Ch. App. ii.
17 In Easter term, 1356, Henry de Traf-
4 Assize R. 424, m. 5.
ford and Lucy his wife were suing John
5 Ibid. 1435, m. 9.
de Urmston for two messuages, 17 acres
6 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. xlvi), ii, 127.
of land, meadow and wood, and 41. of
7 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. I (iii), m.
rent. John de Urmston was under age,
3 d. ; Assize R. 436, m. 32 d.
and appeared by his custodee. Duchy of
» Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2 (ii), m. 4 d.
Lane. Assize R. 5, m. 2?.
« Ibid. 2 (i), m. 10.
18 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc. xcv), 98.
i» Ibid. 7 (ii), m. i.
19 Dodsworth's MSS. cxlix, 43.
11 Duchy of Lane. Chan. R. Dep. Keeper's
» Ibid, cxxxi, 97*.
Rep. xxxiii, App. 37. Probably he acquired
it through Isabel his wife. Her parentage
is unknown.
"1 Duchy of Lane. Chan. R. Dep. Keeper's
Rep. xxxiii, App. 32. » Ibid. 37.
» Ibid. « Ibid. 36. * Ibid. 37.
12 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, n. 30.
26 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, n. 54.
Richard Liptrot, Richard Mather, and
"7 Duchy of Lane. Plead. Rec. Soc. xxxii,
Christopher Strange were the tenants of
.82-6; xxxv, 75-82.
the land in 1504; Dodsworth's MSS.
28 In April, 1551, custody of the manor
Ixi, 91.
was granted to Thurstan Rawson, gent.,
is By deed enrolled at Lancaster. Dods-
during the minority of Richard Urmston,
worth's MSS. cxxxix, 139* (8). James,
brother of Edmund, joined in the aliena-
kinsman and heir of John Urmston, esq.,
deceased, viz. son and heir of Richard, son
and heir of Edmund released his right to
held the manor of the king by knight's
423
service ; Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. xxiii,
67. The son and heir of Richard Urms-
ton, the minor in 1551, who was buried
at Leigh 6 Jan. 1623-4, was John Urms-
ton, who, describing himself as of the
' Harr Hale (Higher Hall) in Westleigh,'
gent., made his will 18 Jan. 1621-2, de-
siring to be buried 'in the Chancel att
Leighe amongst my ancestors.' He died
1622. Will at Chester.
cusancy and delinquency. In 1650 Mary
Urmston and her four sisters petitioned
for one-fifth of their father's estate, which
was granted. In 1655 the vicar Bradley
Hayhurst and nine parishioners of West-
leigh lodged a petition alleging that,
through the machinations of John, brother
of Richard Urmston— who declared that
he had purchased the rectory and many of
the vicarage lands— and of the daughters of
Richard Urmston — who were married to
papists and malignants — there was no
maintenance for a minister. In 1653 the
manor was discharged from sequestration
upon a purchase from the trustees for
compounding by John Urmston ; Cat. of
Cam. for Camp, iv, 2628-30.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Mossock of Heatonhead in Cunscough.1 A partition
of the estate was made in 1661, when the coheirs
each took a fourth part of the manor-house with cer-
tain tenements, and a fourth part of the tithes of corn
and grain arising out of certain lands in the town-
ship.' In 1 68 1 Anne Mossock, having survived her
husband and having no issue, conveyed her share of
the tithes of the parish to Sir William Gerard of
Brynn, bart., Thomas Eccleston of Eccleston, and
Thomas Culcheth of Culcheth, esqs.3 She died in
1 699 after devising the remainder of her estate to her
nephew and heir-at-law, Richard Shuttleworth of
Westleigh, esq.,4 who ultimately inherited the whole
estate, with the advowson of the vicarage of Leigh
and the ancient rectory or Kirk Hall estate. He was
a recusant and as an adherent of the Pretender took
part in the rebellion of 1715, for which his estates
were forfeited, except the portion which Anne
Mossock succeeded in retaining, as described in the
account of Leigh.
Three of the shares held by Richard Urmston's
devisees were acquired some years after 1715 by one
of the Hiltons of Pennington,6 and were subsequently
sold by Samuel Cheetham Hilton to the predecessor
of John Hodson Kearsley, M.P. for Wigan (1831-2
and 1835-7), whose executors conveyed his estates in
or about 1848 to John Hall of Walmesley, near Bury.
In August, 1900, they were formed into a joint-stock
company, under the title of the Westleigh Estates
Company, the representatives of John Hall, esq., own-
ing one moiety, and Mrs. Bubb of Ullenwood, Chel-
tenham, the only child of the late William Hall of
the ' Seven Springs,' Cheltenham, esq., brother of
John Hall, the other moiety.6
The Higher Hall was rebuilt on a new site by
Mr. Kearsley. After being occupied as a ladies'
school, it became the residence of Mr. James Diggle,
but has recently been demolished owing to subsidence
caused by coal workings.7
The remaining fourth part of the manor was
acquired by the Athertons. In 1762 Robert Gwil-
lym, gent., and Elizabeth his wife suffered a common
recovery of the manor of Pennington, the advowson
of the vicarage of the church of Leigh, and a fourth
part of the manor of Westleigh, in favour of their son
Robert Vernon Atherton Gwillym,8 from whom these
estates have descended to John Powys, fifth baron
Lilford, as described in the account of Atherton.
A court-leet of the manors of Westleigh and Pen-
nington was formerly held yearly on the second
Monday in November, but no court has been held
for many years.9
OLD HJLL.—The origin of the tenure by the
Bradshagh family of a fourth part of the manor oi
Westleigh has not been ascertained. Roger de Brad-
shagh 10 gave lands here to his son John, about the
year 1250, a date suggested by the witnesses' names,
one of whom was Adam de Westleigh." Besides John,
afterwards of Westleigh, Roger had issue, William,
who married Mabel la Norrise, and had with her the
manors of Haigh and Blackrod,12 and Adam, perhaps
ancestor of the Bradshaghs of Aspull.13 John de
Bradshagh had issue two sons, Richard14 and William.
Richard had Westleigh by inheritance from his father
and Blackrod under a settlement made in 1337 by
Mabel de Bradshagh ; William had Haigh under a
similar settlement.15 Richard had issue Roger, who is
named with his wife in the settlement of I337-1*
Hugh their son married Margaret daughter and heir
of John de Verdon of Brixworth, county Northants,
who immediately after her husband's death in
August, 1383," married John son and heir of Roger
de Pilkington.18 In 1385 William son and heir
of Hugh and Margaret, being under age, was com-
mitted to the care of Henry de Bradshagh, who
was to pay £80 within eight years for ward-
ship of the heir's lands in Westleigh and Black-
rod.19 At the death of Sir William Bradshagh, chr.,
in 1415, he and Joan his wife were seised of this
manor, and held it of the king in chief as of his
duchy of Lancaster by knight's service and 6d. per
annum. It was worth £20 beyond reprises. Eliza-
beth wife of Richard Harrington son of James
Harrington, knt., was his daughter and heir, then
aged thirteen years.80 William Harrington, knt.,
their son, had a dispensation in 1442 to marry
Elizabeth daughter of Edmund Pilkington, esq.,
being within the degrees of consanguinity." He
died in 1488, James Harrington, knt., his son and
heir being then forty years of age."
Sir James Harrington made his will in 1493 and
died in 1497, leaving ten daughters his coheirs." In
the partition of his estates made in 1517 the manor
of Westleigh fell to the share of Anne, one of his
daughters and coheirs, wife of Sir Richard Stanley "
of Hooton, county Chester, knt., Alice wife of
1 Piccope's MS. Pedigrees (Chet. Lib.),
" Harl. MS. 2112, 150. Grant by
corded in a pedigree compiled 1440-50 ;
ii, 136. See her will (d. 1697) in Lane:.
Roger de Bradesaye to John his son, for
MS. of Lane. Arms penes W. Farrer.
and Ches. Antiq. Notes, i, 222.
his homage and service, of all the land in
17 Duchy of Lane. Chan. R. ; Dep.
" Baines, Hist, of Lanes, (ed. Croston),
the vill of Westelege which Robert Ford
Keeper's Ref. xxxii, App. i, 356.
iv, 3 1 3. Heaton and Mossock conveyed
formerly and John de Choi beforetime
18 Ibid. Pat. 7 Regality ; Chet. Soc. «v,
half the manor to trustees in 1656 ; Pal.
held of the grantor. John and his men
86.
of Lane. Feet of F. Sept. 1656.
to grind at the mill of Westlege quit of
" Ibid. Pat. R. 10 Regality ; Dep.
s Ibid. * Ibid.
multure by rendering 6d. yearly. Wit-
Keeper's Rep. xl, App. iv, 525 ; Towne-
5 In 1750 Sir More Molyneux, knt., of
nesses, William de Pinninton, Jordan de
ley's MSS. (Chet. Lib.), CC. 267.
Westhoughton, and others conveyed the
Hulton, William de Sonki, and William
20 Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc. xcv.), 1 10.
manor and rectory of Westleigh to John
de Pinninton; Dodsworth MSS. Iviii,
« Ibid. in.
Probyn, esq. ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
164, n. 6.
w Ibid.
bdle. 345, m. 85. This appears to have
12 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. xlvi), 105-7.
» Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, n. 40.
been one of the steps in the devolution of
is Atherton D., Dodsworth MSS. liii,
« Stanley's pourparty included lands in
the manor between the forfeiture of 1715
27-
Pennington, Blackrod, and Hindley, and
and the acquisition by Hilton and Gwillym.
" John of the Cross of Wigan appeared
tenements in Westleigh in the occupation
« Ex inform. Mr. Frederick Bridgford.
against Richard son of John de Bradshagh
of Agnes Harrington, 111.5 Gilbert Tay-
7 Ex inform. Mr. W. D. Pink.
of Westleigh and Roger son of Richard de
lor, 235. lod. and 201. ; Edward Arrow-
8 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. No. 597,m. 5.
Bradshagh with others in a plea of tres-
smyth, 221.; John Atwyn, i^s. *d. ;
» Ex inform. Mr. J. B. Selby.
pass in Easter term, 1316; Coram Rege
John Molder, 291. ; William Bucke,
10 Roger de Bradshagh attested two
R. 223, m. iiii ; 225, m. vii.
331. 8rf. ; Elizabeth Pennington, 401.;
Tyldesley charters to Cockersand Abbey
ls Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. xlvi), IcJ-7.
James Powmfret, 181. ; for average,
about 1272 ; Cockersand Chartul. (Chet.
16 Roger had issue, beside a son Hugh,
2s. tod. ; 4 hens, 6d. ; 2 capons, 4</.
Soc. (New Ser.),xliii), 715-16.
six daughters whose descendants are re-
Norris D. (B.M.).
424
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Richard Hoghton ' and daughter of Sir Thomas
Assheton, lent., by Agnes, another daughter and
coheir, and Isabel, wife of John Tresham, another
daughter and coheir.* In 1560 Rowland Stanley,
lent., grandson of Sir William, sold his estate here to
William Norris of Speke, knt.,3 whose son Edward
joined him in 1565 in a sale to Thomas Charnock of
Charnock, esq.,4 whose son Robert Charnock, esq.,
died in 1 6 1 6 seised of the capital messuage of West-
leigh Old Hall, 4 other messuages, 140 acres of land,
meadow, and pasture, which he held of Richard
Urmston, esq., in free socage by fealty and \d. free
rent.4 In 1627 Thomas Charnock son of Robert
having dissipated his property conveyed his estates to
feoffees,6 who sold 'the manor of Westleigh and
Pennington ' and the appurtenant lands in 1632 to
Richard Blower and Francis Sherington, afterwards
of Booths, esqs., for £1,000.' In 1641 Blower sold
his moiety of the purchased estates to John Sorocold
of Lowton, gent., for £730," and the year following
Sherington and Sorocold made partition of the manor
of Westleigh and Pennington, by which Sherington
took the Old Hall of Westleigh and enclosures con-
taining about 41 acres of land of the large measure.
John Sorocold took the remainder of the premises, in
the description of which the following field names
occur : — The Meare Leach, the Harr Shoots, Great
and Little Terisse Meadows, Little Pingott, and the
Boydells Field. The land lay mostly around West-
leigh Mill. It was agreed that the ' Haymont,
yordinge,' hedges and fences between the respective
moieties should be maintained according to the deed
of partition ; Francis Sherington to begin at ' the
Fenders of Westley Milne and make the hayments
and fences after the Damsyde ' to a certain boundary
mark. The seat and burial-place in Leigh church
was to be shared equally. The yearly chief rent of
\d., due to Richard Urmston of Westleigh, esq., to
be paid two years by Sherington and the third year
by Sorocold.9
In 1688 Francis Sherington of Booths, esq., son of
the last named, sold the Old Hall of Westleigh and
the demesne lands, then in the occupation of Thomas
Crooke, gent., and late of the vendor's father, to
James Parr, citizen and haberdasher of London, John
Parr, and Peter Parr of Westleigh, chapman, for the
sum of £600.'° Ann daughter of Peter Parr, who
died in 1705, married Edward Green of Westleigh,
chapman, and brought Westleigh Old Hall to her
husband. He survived until after 1756 and left an
only daughter Ellen, who married John Ranicar of
Bedford, gent., Westleigh Old Hall and estate being
settled upon them and their issue in 1756. John
LEIGH
Ranicar died in 1781, leaving issue, besides a son
James, who died unmarried in 1786, three daughters,
of whom the second, Mary, inherited Westleigh Old
Hall. She married Richard Nicholas Marsh, esq., to
whom she bequeathed the estate. He died in 1837,
leaving issue by a second marriage Richard Marsh, esq.,
solicitor, of Leigh, who died in 1895. His son
William Edward Marsh, esq., of High Peak, Kenyon,
died in 1904, when he was succeeded by his brother,
Mr. Richard Thomas Marsh of High Peak, the present
owner."
The Hoghtons' pourparty descended from Richard
Hoghton to his eldest son Thomas, who alienated a
small portion of his estate here to Anthony Green,
gent.,11 and died without male issue in 1580," when
he was succeeded by his younger brother, also named
Thomas, who died in 1589 seised of lands here,"
which descended to Richard his son. The subsequent
devolution of his estate has not been ascertained.
The Treshams' pourparty descended to Thomas
Tresham son of William, great-grandson of John
Tresham and Isabel his wife. He sold 1 5 messuages,
260 acres of land, meadow, and pasture in Westleigh
and Hindley, and the mill of Westleigh to John
Byrom of Byrom, esq., in 1570," who died in 1591
seised of the manor of Westleigh, and of several
tenements which he held of Richard Urmston, esq.,
in free socage by the yearly rent of 21 \d™ Henry
his son died seised of the same premises in 1613."
The fifth in descent from Henry and the last male
representative in the direct line was Samuel, better
known as ' Beau Byrom,' who squandered the whole
of his estates in early manhood and died in penury
sometime after I739-18
In 1527, ten years after the partition of the
Harrington estates here, John Urmston set up a
claim to Westley Heath, which had been assigned by
Sir William Harrington, ' to be a sportyng place ' to
his tenants of Westleigh, to be occupied as common
for their cattle, and also to have butts at which to
shoot, and ' to have their dysportes wythyn the same
Heth,' claiming the heath as parcel of his manor of
Westleigh, of which he and his ancestors had been
possessed for upwards of 200 years. The claim was
resisted by Dame Isabel Tresham, widow, and Sir
William Stanley of Hooton, knt., and Dame Anne
his wife. The result of the suit is not recorded, but
the heath remains common land to this day, in accor-
dance with Sir William Harrington's intention.19
The Mather family (le Madur) M occur in records
from the first half of the fourteenth century relating
to places in this parish. In the seventeenth century
they appear to have been yeomen of some substance.
1 Hoghton's pourparty included lands
in Blackrod and a tenement in Westleigh
in the occupation of Nicholas Smyth, 145.,
average i6d. ; 4 hens, 6d. ; z capons, 4</.
8 Tresham's pourparty included lands in
Turton and Hindley, and tenements in
Westleigh in the occupation of Ralph
Urmston, 375. 4^. ; Richard Grene,
131. 4^. ; Matthew Grene, 71. 4</. ; Gil-
bert Fraunce, 405. ; for average, 2s. lod. ;
4 hens, 6d. ; 2 capons, ±d. ; William
Hindley, 431., and average, &c. as before ;
John Smythe, 26s. &d., &c. ; John Lyn-
ley, 20!., &c. ; John Fraunce, 121., &c. ;
Charles Leyland, 26;. %d. ; William
Aynesworth, 2od. ; Hugh Yate, 14^. ;
David Pennington, gj. ; Westley Milne
in the holding of Randle Mather, 261. %d.
(Ibid.).
» Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 22,
4 Ibid. bdle. 27, m. 236.
5 Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. xvi), 37.
8 Feet of F. bdle. 108, m. 14.
^ Clowes D. Box II, 67.
8 Ibid. 71. • Ibid.
10 Ibid. 68. In 1690 Sherington suffered
a recovery of half the manor of Westleigh
and Pennington in favour of Alexander
Radcliffe, esq., John Parr, and Peter Parr ;
65.
i Ex inform. Mr. W. D. Pink.
' Feet of F. bdle. 24, m. 57.
1 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiv, i
1 Ibid, xv, n. 39.
425
I* PaL of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 32,
16 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, a. 37.
17 Inq. f.m. (Rec. Soc.), i, 271 ; ii, 10.
The premises in Westleigh then consisted
of two messuages, the mill, and 30 acres of
land, meadow, and pasture held as above.
w The Byrom Pedigrees (Chet. Soc.
xliv, pt. ii), 12-15 i Lanes, and dies. Antiq.
Notes, ii, 98-9.
" Hist, and Gen. Notes, ii, 365, 368.
40 In 1445 Randle Madur of Westleigh,
yeoman, was attached to answer Henry
Kighley of a plea why he broke into
Henry's closes at Bedford, cut down his
trees, fished in his ponds and took away
fish, trees, and underwood to the value
of £ 10 i Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 8, m. i.
54
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Their property in Westleigh passed to the Sorocolds
of Brockhurst in Pennington.1 In a lease made in
1632 between George Sorocold of Ashton in Maker-
field, yeoman, and Geoffrey Mather of Westleigh,
yeoman, and his sons Geoffrey and James, it was
covenanted that during the continuance of the lease
Geoffrey the father and Geoffrey his son would bear,
carry, and show one ' muskett peece ' with the furni-
ture when George Sorocold or his heirs should be
commanded to show a musket for lands sold by the
two Mathers to James, father of George Sorocold.*
The Sorocolds of Barton and Lowton acquired a
considerable amount of property in the parish during
the first half of the seventeenth century. Thomas,
grandson of the James named above, entered his
pedigree at the Visitation of l664~5.3 One of the
family is mentioned in Roger Lowe's Diary : —
'March, 1672-3, 7. Friday night died Capt. John
Sorrowcold, an old cannibell that hath orethrowne
many families, but he hath now arrived at his owne
place, abundance of gold and silver is found under his
handes.' *
The Hert family were also long established here as
substantial yeomen. In 1448 John, son and heir of
Richard Herte of Westleigh, yeoman, was under age
and in ward of Agnes, his mother, with a messuage
and 1 6 acres of land held of Gilbert Urmston, esq.,
in socage by the free rent of 8/., and another messuage
and 10 acres of land held of Thomas Culcheth in
socage by the free rent of 12^. Agnes Cholle, late of
Atherton, widow, and Ralph Herte, late of West-
leigh, souter, had endeavoured to remove the heir from
his mother's custody.5
In the reign of Edward I mention occurs of Master
Henry de Legh, clerk, whose son Henry held lands
here from 1300 to 1320. He was suing Siegrith,
relict of Richard de Urmston, in the King's Bench in
1305, for the advowson of the church of Leigh.6 He
was father of William de Legh, who married Alice,
daughter and heir of Richard de Olifordhurst, with
whom he had lands in Worsley.7 Their son, Thomas
de Legh, was living in 1370, when his daughter
Alice, at her marriage to Adam, son of Robert de
Buckley, was enfeofted of lands in Worsley and Pen-
nington.8 Part of the estate was held of the abbot of
Cockersand, of whom the heir of Adam Buckley held
a tenement at ' Lech-Kyrkestele ' in 145 I 9 and 146 1.10
Afterwards the Athertons of Atherton acquired it.
The principal landowners here in 1787 were John
Walmesley, John Clayton, James Hilton, the execu-
tors of Mr. Starky, William Orrelt, Mr. Guest,
William Grundy, Mr. Latham, the Rev. Mr. Hartley,
and John Leigh. These owned among them more
than half the township."
The church of St. Peter was originally a mission
school opened in 1862, and placed under a curate in
charge appointed by the vicar of Leigh. A church
was erected in 1 88 i, the entire cost being defrayed
by Mrs. Sarah W. Bubb, daughter of the late William
Hall of Seven Springs, near Cheltenham, late widow
of John Hampson of Ullenwood, near Cheltenham,
and now wife of Henry Bubb of Witcombe Court,
Gloucester. The structure is of brick, terra-cotta,
and Runcorn stone, from the designs of Messrs. Paley
and Austin of Lancaster, and consists of chancel, nave,
north aisle, south porch, and central tower. The
living is a vicarage of the gross yearly value of .£175,
in the gift of the bishop and chancellor of the diocese
and the vicar of Leigh. The church of St. Paul,
Westleigh, consecrated in 1 847, was formerly a chapel
of ease to the parish church of Leigh. It is a building
of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, south
porch, and a tower on the south side containing one
bell. The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value
£157, in the gift of the vicar of Leigh.
There are two Roman Catholic school chapels, viz.,
the Twelve Apostles in Nel Pan Lane, and Our
Lady of the Rosary, in Plank Lane, both opened in
1879."
The CHARITIES are few in number. They are
now administered mainly for the benefit of Leigh
Grammar School.13
PENNINGTON
Pininton, Pynynton, 1246, 1360; Penynton,
1305 ; Pynyngton, 1351, 1442 ; Penyngton, 1443.
There is no village of Pennington ; the whole of
the township is now within the town of Leigh. It
contains an area of 1,482 acres, much of which does
not exceed in elevation 75 ft. above mean sea level,
rising somewhat higher to the north of Pennington
Brook, which traverses the township from west to
east, and reaching an elevation of a little over looft.
on the south-west near Aspull Common. A con-
siderable area of meadow land by the brook is liable
to flood. The highroad from Leigh to Newton-in-
Makerfield runs by Pennington Hall and Aspull
Common. Pennington Station, formerly called
Bradshaw Leach Station, on the Bolton, Leigh and
Kenyon branch of the London and North-Weste
Railway, is near the Lowton end of the township,
and on the highroad. It is the junction of the
Kenyon, Leigh, and Tyldesley branch of the same
railway. The duke of Bridgewater's, now tht
Manchester Ship Canal Co.'s, canal traverses th<
township for a short distance on the south side o
Leigh. The geological formation consists entirely o:
of Wills of the Mather
1573-1650, privately printed by
ands, 33.
deed in the posses-
ofW.Farrer.
Family, 1573-1*
Mr. J. P. Rylar,
3 Ibid. 37, fn
xvn, 253.
« Local Glean, i, 191 A.
5 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. n, m. 23*.
6 De Bane. R. 153, m. 315 ; 156, m.
jo</. ; 159, m. 184. In 1315 Richard,
son of John de Bradshagh, gave to Henry
de Legh certain lands in Westleigh in
exchange for land lying between the
Stubbymedowe and Westleigh Brook ;
Dods. MSS. Iviii, 164, n. 7.
7 Ibid. n. 2.
» Ibid. n. 5.
9 Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), 1 246.
« Ibid.
11 Land-tax returns at Preston.
13 Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1905.
18 In 1709 William France gave the
yearly income of lands here and in Low-
ton, to be laid out in linen or woollen
cloth for the use of the poor of West-
leigh. George Hampson bequeathed £10
in 1666 for the benefit of the poor upon
the anniversary of his burial (n July).
Jane Heywood in 1699, and William Hart
in 1716, each bequeathed £20, the in-
terest to be laid out in linen cloth for
distribution to the poor on Candlemas-
day. Robert Ashurst made a similar be-
426
quest of £5 in 1726. In 1729 trustee
were appointed to administer these cha
ties. Since their foundation they ha
greatly increased in value, owing to thi
coal underlying the lands belonging t<
them. The property consisted in 19000.
27 acres of land yielding £<)o in rent an.:
ground rents, and £2,519 capital stocl
arising from mining rents, producing £61.
per annum. Under a scheme establish*'
in 1900 the greater part of the income o
these charities, exclusive of the minin;
rents, is applied to the maintenance of th
Leigh Grammar School, and of exhi
bitions to be held in that school ; Ena.
Char. Lanes. (1901).
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
the pebble beds of the bunter series of the new red
sandstone, with a considerable area of alluvium in
the low ground by Pennington Brook. The popu-
lation in 1901 numbered 9,977 persons. The
Local Government Act, 1858, was adopted by the
township in 1863.' By the 38 and 39 Victoria,
cap. ccxi, the district was merged in that of Leigh.
Part of the township together with a portion of the
township of Westleigh was formed in 1854 into an
ecclesiastical parish. By a Local Government Order2
in 1894 the civil parish of Pennington was included
in that of Leigh. The principal employments are
those of coal-mining, cotton-spinning and weaving,
and engineering.3 The principal landowners are
Lord Lilford and Mr. C. G. Milnes-Gaskell, of
Wakefield.
Before the Conquest and after, the
M4NOR manor of PENNINGTON was dependent
upon the chief manor of Warrington, and
was held by the yearly rent of I is., thus retaining
some semblance of the earlier drengage tenure
observed in the adjoining township of Bedford. Both
townships were in the possession of the Bedford
family at the commencement ot the thirteenth
century — the dawn of documentary records in this
parish. At an early date the manor, like that of
Bedford, passed to the family of Kighley, as evidenced
by a charter of Sir Henry de Kighley, knt., dated at
Cropwell Butler in the year 1293, granting to Sir
William le Boteler of Warrington, his chief lord, all
his right in the homage, wardships, rent, and other
services of Adam de Pennington, his tenant of the
manor of Pennington.4 The superior manor was
thus merged in the barony of which it was held, and
the descent of the mesne manor remains to be
described.
Between 1 200 and 1221 Simon de Bedford gave
the manor to Margery daughter of Richard de
Pennington, William le Boteler, the chief lord,5
and Richard de Pennington, father of Margery, con-
firming the gift.6 Shortly afterwards Margery gave
to Cockersand Abbey land bounded as follows :—
' From Aldemulneford to the highway coming from
Beneford, following the highway towards Leigh church
to a ditch, descending the ditch to Goldelache and so
to the stream, and by the stream to Aldemulneford.' '
Richard de Pennington, either the father or the son
of Margery, but probably the former, also gave land
by Westleigh church, namely ' from the churchyard
going down beside the church croft to Gildalache and
by a white thorn to the highway leading from
Bedford, thence by that way and by the churchyard
ditch to the first boundary.' 8 Margery married
Hugh son of William de Radcliffe (living 1206), who
had received from his father ' all Hartshead, to wit
LEIGH
2 carucates of land ' in Morley wapentake, co. York."
Margery bore to her husband two sons, Richard and
William, who made a partition of their inheritance in
1 246, after their mother's death, by which Richard
became possessed of the manor of Pennington.10
In 1293 Adam, who appears to have been son of
the last-named," gave half the manor to Roger son of
Richard de Bradshagh, in marriage with Joan his
daughter, excepting 4 oxgangs of land within certain
bounds beginning at Kymbil-lache unto Pennington
water, and so between the metes of Bedford and
Pennington to the bounds of Culcheth, and from
thence to the bounds of Kenyon, thence to the
bounds of Lowton, thence to Pennington Moss,
thence to the ' rynyorde ' " of Pininton, and thence
by Thomas Beneson's Croft, Kymbil, the Mulne Hey
and the ' He ' (Hey) to the Wallelache, thence to the
old Kirkegate, thence to the land of Master Henry de
Legth unto the metes of Bedford, and so to Penning-
ton ' He.' a Afterwards he gave to Roger and Joan
these 4 oxgangs, of which Roger de Byckershagh held
2 oxgangs, Henry the tailor and Thomas the reeve
each one oxgang, to hold ' tol-fre and hopre-fre ' in
all his mills in Pennington.14 In 1299 Adam de
Pennington gave lands here to his bastard sons by
Elota Crakebone, who were then under age, namely,
to Adam 6 messuages, 18 acres of land and 10 acres
of wood, to Richard 2 messuages, 60 acres of land
and 60 acres of wood.14 In 1301 Hugh is men-
tioned as elder brother of Richard and Adam." In
1 299 Roger son of Agnes de Westleigh, Henry de
Leigh, William son of Richard de Bradshagh, Richard
son of Richard de Chaydoke, and Robert Crakebane
were free tenants of the manor — the total number
being seventeen in all — and there were then only
1 70 acres of waste in the manor, of which Adam de
Pennington held 30 acres in defence every year
between Michaelmas and Martinmas, and he and his
ancestors had also held in defence from the feast of
the Circumcision until the Ascension 66 acres of
wood on account of the eyries of their falcons. The
remainder was insufficient for the free tenants,17 and
in consequence Roger de Bradshagh and Joan gave to
Henry de Leigh a plat of land called the Aubres Hey
and 3 acres in Richard's field in exchange for common
of pasture in Dullinghurst, Pennington Moss, and
Dullinghurst Carrs.18
Adam de Pennington died about 1309, leaving
issue by his wife Joan, afterwards wife of Richard son
of Alexander de Pilkington,19 an only daughter Joan,
wife of Roger son of Richard de Bradshagh of
Pennington, which Richard was probably a younger
brother of Roger de Bradshagh of Westleigh. Roger
and Richard may perhaps be identified as younger
brothers of Henry de Bradshagh of Bradshaw, son and
1 Lond. Gax. 4650.
'Order No. 31736 of 29 Sept. 1894.
« Census Ref. 1901, pp. 178-9.
* Harl. MS. 2112, 148*. Sealed with
a lion rampant guardant upon a lozenge
and square interlaced. Probably a bor-
rowed seal.
6 Harl. MS. 2112, 145. All the wit-
mation occur in the Great Inquest of
Service of A.D. I2IZ. The occurrence of
Richard son of Robert de Lathom and
Richard le Waleys with Richard his son,
fixes the date of the confirmation before
Dodi
MSS.
27. Willia
de Bedford, brother of Simon, also con-
firmed the feoffment. The service was
i8</. yearly at St. Oswald and forinsec
service; Worsley, Leigh Par. Church,
App. i.
^ Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc. xliii),
713. « Ibid. 714.
» Dodsworth MSS. cxvii, 142 ; Torks.
Feet ofF. (Surtees Soc. xciv), 98.
1° Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc. xxxix),
"In 1315 Henry de Legh claimed
from Richard son of Richard de Penning-
ton, warranty of 4 acres of land here,
which Henry held of Richard, and for
which he had the charter of Adam de
427
Pennington, brother of the said Richard,
whose heir he the said Richard was.
De Bane. R. 208, m. 137^.
" The Rynyorde was the movable
fence which surrounded the open fields
dividing arable land from common. Deri-
vation, hring=A.S., a ring, circuit ; geard
= A.S. an enclosure. Cf. grind-gardr, Old
Norse = a hurdle or lattice fence.
is Harl. MS. 21 12, 1456.
" Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc. xxxix), 1 86.
" Assize R. 1321, m. 8.
17 Ibid. I299)m. 14.
18 Harl. MS. 2H2, 148-8*.
» Towneley MS. GG. 2626.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
heir of Ughtred de Bradshagh, lord of Bradshagh in
1253.' Between 1320 and 1330 the lords of the
manor were Richard son and heir of Roger de
Bradshagh and Joan his mother, relict of Roger.8
From 1330 to 1336 Richard de Bradshagh, Richard
de Pennington, and Adam de Pennington were the
principal landowners.3 In 1338 in an exchange of
lands between the lord of the manor and Richard son
of William de Pennington, these names occur :
Etheriston, the Merlache, Stockheye, the Kattysbutts,
the Tunfilde, Hosforland or Hoffurlong, the Demys-
hevid and Mauributts.4 Richard de Bradshagh also
made a number of exchanges of land with Richard de
Bradshagh of Westleigh and Roger his son, in places
called West Croft, Clay Acres, Prestes Croft, and
Richard's Field.5 By his first wife, Christiana, he
had issue Richard, Roger, and Thomas ; * by his
second wife, Cecily daughter and coheir of Richard
de Lathom of Parbold, a son Thomas, a minor in
!352-5-7
In 1351 Richard de Bradshagh the elder granted
the moiety of the manor after his decease to Alice,
daughter of his son Richard de Bradshagh the
younger.8 Before the end of 1357 Alice had become
the wife of Sir Richard le Mascy 9 of Tatton, lent., who
died without male issue, and was succeeded in the
family estates by his younger brother, John,10 but
having one daughter Elizabeth, this manor descended
to her jure matris. She was twice married, her first
husband— whose name is not recorded — dying before
1403, in which year, describing herself as Elizabeth le
Mascy, daughter of Sir Richard le Mascy, knt., she
gave in her widowhood to feoffees her manor of
Pennington," which the feoffees delivered to her and
her second husband, Richard de Werburton, of
Burghes in Coggeshall, county Chester, in 1414," and
five years later granted four messuages in the vill of
Pennington to William le Mascy, son of Hamon le
Mascy of Rixton and Pernell (Petronilla) his wife,
daughter of Richard de Werburton, and their issue,
failing which to William le Mascy for life, with
remainder to the heirs of Pernell.13
Elizabeth Werburton was still living in 1432,
when she gave to her daughter Pernell a yearly rent
of £10 to be taken from her manor of Pennington,
or elsewhere in the county of Lancaster." By dis-
pensation issued by Pope John XXIII in 1415,
Pernell married her cousin William, eldest son and
heir of Hamon or Hamlet Mascy of Rixton, with
whom she was related in the fourth degree." They
had issue, Hamlet, who died in 1462," by whom the
manor appears to have been mortgaged to Roger
Starkey, who, describing himself as of Pennington, in
1467 granted his manor of Pennington to James
Starkey, clerk, in trust.17 In 1479 Roger Starkey
gave to Hamlet Mascy of Rixton the messuages and
lands here which Cecily Urmston and Margaret
Gnype held for a term of years.18 Hamlet, son of
Hamlet Mascy, succeeded his father in 1462 and died
in 1502." There is no evidence that he had other
issue besides Margaret, the wife of John Holcroft of
Holcroft, and Alice, the wife of Robert Worsley of
Booths, esq., who predeceased his father. John
Starkey, who is believed to have been son and heir
of Roger Starkey named above,*0 was associated with
Holcroft and Worsley in 1506, when they acknow-
ledged that they held their lands in Pennington of
Sir Thomas Butler, knt., by the seventh part of a
knight's fee, for which they did homage the same
year." Notwithstanding this, John Mascy of Rixton,
brother and heir of Hamlet, at his death in 1513,
was described as holding lands here of Sir Thomas
Butler, knt., by the seventh part of a knight's fee
and 3*. lod. yearly rent." It is probable that John
Starkey acquired his estate here through his father,
and not by marriage with a supposed third daughter
of Hamlet Mascy. In a deed of 1554-5 George
Starkey, son and heir of John, and Sir John Holcroft,
son and heir of John Holcroft, esq., are described as
holding their lands here in coparcenary.*3
By this time the reputed manor appears to have
lapsed, and the nominal lords had become mere free-
holders of the barony of Warrington. In 1523
Sir William Stanley of Hooton, knt., George Starkey
snacres were free tenants
(son and heir of John Starkey), gent., Richard Hol-
croft, esq., and Nicholas Ren
here." In 1548 they were Rowland Stanley, esq.,
paying 4_r. \oJ. free rent, George Starkey y. \d.,
Sir John Holcroft, knt., 3*. \d., and Richard Renacres
!(/." In 1546 Sir Robert Worsley, knt., conveyed his
interest and estate to John Holcroft, esq.,*6 and in
1 549 Sir Thomas Butler, knt., possibly as trustee,
1 Harl. MS. 2112, 107.
a Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, 13.
» Cal. Pat.R. i 330-3, pp. 172,397, 61 1 ;
1333-7. PP- 36'. 535, 72°-
« Harl. MS. 2112, 145.
6 Ibid. The seal attached to one of
the charters of Roger son of Richard de
Bradshagh of Westleigh, dated 1350,
bears 2 bendlets.
« Gen. (New Ser.), xvii, 16.
7 Ibid, xvi, 206.
" Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc. xlvi),
130.
» Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 6, pt. 2,
'i» Ormerod, Hist, of Chei. (ed. Helsby),
i, 441.
" Harl. MS. 2112, 145*.
"Ibid. They were married before
12 August, 1413, when a commission
issued to inquire touching the violent
entry of the lands of Richard Werburton
and Elizabeth his wife at Pennington by
certain malefactors. Towneley MS. CC.
(Chet. Lib.), 457.
" Harl. MS. 2112, fol. 145*, 148.
" Ibid. Richard Werburton died in
1428. His will, dated 27 Dec. 1427,
names his wife Elizabeth and brother Wil-
liam. Hist. Soc. of Lanes, and Ches. (New
Ser.), iii, 164.
" Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. (ed. Helsby),
i, 571 n. from Lichfield Epis. Reg.
16 Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iii, 78-89. He
and his wife Joan appointed attorneys in
Pennington and other lands there ; Harl.
MS. 21 12, 148*.
V Ibid. The deed also mentions his
possessions in the town of Pennington,
co. Lane., and in Northwich, Middlewich,
his connexion with the Starkeys of North-
wich ; Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. (ed. Helsby),
ii, 161-2.
18 Harl. MS. 2 n 2, fol. 145*.
19 Hamlet Mascy, upon making a set-
tlement of his estate in the year 1497,
having no male issue, in order to avoid
controversies after his death, by the advice
of his friends searched his evidences and
found that his lands and tenements in
Pennington were given to Richard Wer-
burton and Elizabeth hi. wife for their
lives, with remainder to their daughter
Pernell and her heirs general, ' whose heir
I, the said Hamonde am.' Mascy of
Rixton D. R. 151; Hist. Soc. Lanes, and
Ches. (New Ser.), iii, 95.
20 Roger Starkey died about 1494, when
Alice, his widow, was suing John Starkey
for dower ; Ches. Plea R. 10 Hen. VII,
Def. Keeper's Ref. xxix, App. 93.
» Warr. Homage R. (Rec. Soc. xii,
pt. i), 19.
M Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, 10.
M Dodsworth MSS. liii, 27 ; cxlii.
118.
« Warr. Ct. R. (Chet. Soc., Ixxxvii),
431-2.
85 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 3, m.
142. Stanley's rent appears to have been
made up of I id. for the lands which hac
descended from the Bradshaghs of West-
leigh and the Harringtons, and 31. lod.
for the lands held here in 1 5 1 3 by Joht
Mascy of Rixton.
*> Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 12, m.
284 ; Ches. Plea. R. 38 Hen. VIII ;
Ormerod, Hut. of Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii,
198.
428
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
conveyed to Holcroft twelve messuages, 220 acres of
land, meadow, and pasture here,1 part of which pre-
mises, including the manor, or rather the moiety of
it, passed by the marriage of Alice daughter and heir
of John Holcroft, esq., to Sir Edward Fitton, of
Gawsworth, lent., who passed them by fine in 1591 to
his uncle Francis Fitton,' and the remainder was con-
veyed in 1577 by Hamlet Holcroft, third son of
Sir John Holcroft the elder, knt., to William Shering-
ton, gent., and Gilbert Sherington.* In 1632
Thomas Charnock of Astley sold to Richard Blower
and Francis Sherington for £1,000 the 'manor or
lordship of Westleigh and Pennington.'4 In 1641
Blower sold to John Sorocold of Lowton, gent., for
£730 one moiety of the reputed manor of Westleigh
and Pennington, of which Sorocold and Francis
Sherington of Booths made a division in 1643.*
Francis Sherington's share was purchased in 1685 by
Alexander Radcliffe, esq.,6 whose estate in this town-
ship was rated that year as of the yearly value of £zo.7
Alexander Radcliffe,8 grandson of the last-named, died
in 1718, and soon afterwards Helen Radcliffe, his
mother and devisee, appears to have sold the estate to
Edward Byrom of Manchester, who was assessed to
land tax in 1720 for tenements here called the Heylds,
the Meadows, and the Brickhill
Fields.9 His nephew Edward
Byrom dispersed the estate
about 1770.
The Starkeys' part of the
manor descended from George
Starkey, who was living in
1557,'° to James Starkey, his
son and heir, who in 1576
joined with John, his son and
heir apparent, in a conveyance
of the Pennington estates to
trustees." James the father
died in 1579, and his son in
1597. George, son and heir of John the younger, was
seventeen years of age at his father's death.12 Upon
attaining his majority he alienated his estate to Thomas
Ireland of Bewsey, esq., afterwards knt. After the
death of Sir Thomas Ireland " the estate descended to
STARKEY. Argent, a
irk sable membered gules;
mullet for difference.
LEIGH
his eldest son Thomas, who conveyed it to his brother
George Ireland, at whose death in 1632 it descended
to his daughter and sole heir, Margaret the wife of
Peniston Whalley, esq.14 She and her husband joined
in 1652 in a conveyance to Richard Bradshaw of
Chester and Pennington, esq.,ls fourth son of Roger
Bradshaw, then late of Aspull, esq., of the manor of
Pennington, 40 messuages, a horse-mill and dovecote,
450 acres of land, meadow and pasture, 9/. 6J. free
rent in Pennington, Hindley, and Leigh, with markets
and fairs in Leigh.16
In 1701 John Bradshaw, grandson of Richard,
conveyed the manor to trustees " for the use of his
daughter and heiress Margaret, who married in 1717
George Farington of Worden,18 who with his wife in
1723 conveyed it to trustees,19 by whom Ponnington
Hall, Bradshaw Leach, and other tenements were sold
in 1 726 to James Hilton m of Pennington, mercer, for
£4,550." His son Samuel Hilton, on his marriage
with Miss Mary Clowes of Smedley, daughter of
Samuel Clowes, then of Chaddock in Tyldesley,
rebuilt the hall." In 1808 Samuel Chetham Hilton,
grandson of the last-named Samuel, sold the hall and
estate to Benjamin Gaskell, of Thornes House, near
Wakefield,23 grandfather of the present owner, Mr.
Charles George Milnes-Gaskell, of Thornes House,
Yorkshire, and Wenlock Abbey, Salop. The manor
of Pennington was sold by George Farington's trustees
about 1726 to Richard Atherton of Atherton, and
has descended with the manor of Atherton and
other estates to John Powys, fifth baron Lilford.
No courts have been held for this manor for many
years past.
Apart from the manor the Bradshaghs held a small
estate here by knight's service, which did not descend
with the manor. Sir William Bradshagh of Blackrod
and Westleigh at his death in 1415 held lands here of
the heirs of Sir William Butler, chr., by knight's service
and lid. per annum.24 Sir William Harrington, knt.,
grandson of the last-named held the same estate at
his death in I44O.85 Anne, daughter and coheir
of Sir James Harrington, knt., son of the last-named,
married Sir William Stanley, knt., of Hooton and
Storeton, Chester,26 who was a suitor at the court
1 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13, m.
77. »Ibid. bdle. 53, m. 303.
8 Ibid. bdle. 39, m. 68.
< Clowes D. Box ii, 67, now in Lord
Ellesmere's possession.
'Ibid. 71. "Ibid. 18,19.
7 Rose, Leigh in the Eighteenth Cent. I 5.
8 The Radcliffes of Leigh recorded a
this estate was that which Sir Thomas
had purchased of George Starkey in 1601.
14 See the account of Southworth.
15 Duchy of Lane. Plea. bdle. 396,
Mich. 1 66 1 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F.
bdle. 151, m. 131. George Starkey, son
of George, son of George, son of Roger,
younger brother of George Starkey of
W Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 151,
m. 131. " Ibid. bdle. 246, m. 130.
18 Farington Pap. (Chet. Soc. xxxix), 1 57.
>» Feet of F. bdle. 289, m. 46.
2°John Hilton (d. 1698) was a con-
siderable landowner in 1689, owning a
house in Leigh, Twiss House, Lansdalei
and Blackfields in Pennington, of the
Soc.), 238. The family had a consider-
able estate in this parish, and in 1680
Thomas Ashton, and others in 1661
for these estates, apparently without
Eighteenth Century, 15.
» Baines, Hist, of Lanes, (ed. 1836),
in Radcliffe.
» Rose, Leigh in the Eighteenth Cent. 58.
1° Culcheth D. Hist, and Gen. Notes.
He married Helen, daughter of Oliver
Culcheth of Culcheth.
11 Local Gleanings, 482.
u Leigh Par. Reg.
18 In 1628 Sir Thomas Ireland, knt.
held at his death the manor of Penning-
ton with Leigh, 100 messuages, 50 cot-
tages, a dovecote, a horse-mill, I oo gardens,
100 orchards, 80 acres of land, meadow,
and pasture, 50 acres of moor and furze
in Pennington with Leigh, and 1 t,s. oj</.
rent in the same places and in South-
worth with Croft, also a market and three
fairs at Pennington with Leigh ; Duchy
of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvi, n. 58. Part of
himself thereby; MS. c. 1725 penes
W. Farrer. He was killed in 1685 at
the battle of Sedgemoor in the army of
the duke of Monmouth ; ibid. His
grandson John Starkey of Heywood (son
of John of Pennington in 1689) had a
large family who settled at Prestwich,
Heywood, Redwals, and elsewhere.
Another grandson, James Starkey of Pen-
nington, gent, had property here in 1730
and was the founder of the Free School
at Whitworth. The later descents of
this family will be found in Hist, and Gen.
Notes iii, 422, 434. John Starkey, senior,
held lands here in 1689 of the yearly
value of ^2 131. 4</., and John Starkey
the younger of the value of £4 ; Rose,
op. cit. 15,16.
429
M Ibid. The hall has been greatly added
to and enlarged by the present tenant,
Mr. George Shaw, J.P. late mayor of
Leigh. » Ibid.
*< Inj.f.m. (Chet. Soc. xcv), no.
« Inq. p.m. Towneley's MS. DD. 1510.
2« Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. (ed. Helsby),
ii, 416. At the division of Sir Jamei
Harrington's estates in 1517 Sir William
Stanley and Dame Anne his wife received
messuages in this township in the occu-
pation of James Archbald, James Starkey,
Gilbert Taylor, John Atwyn, Nicholai
Ranacres, Charles Smyth, and Ralph
Gregory, whose rents amounted to
675. 9</., twelve hens I grf, two capons 4^.,
and average 34. 4</. less the chief rent
4.. lod. ; Norrit D. (B.M.).
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
held at Warrington in 1523 for this land.1 Rowland
Stanley, his grandson, held his lands here for ^s. \od.
per annum in 1548,* and sold them in 1560 with
the mesne manor of Westleigh Old Hall to Sir
William Norris, lent.3 In 1565 Norris sold twelve
messuages and zoo acres of land here and in West-
leigh to Thomas Charnock, esq., whose grandson sold
them in 1632 to Sherington and Blower as already
stated.'
The Atherton family acquired lands here at an
early date, but they were sold in 1547 to Lawrence
Asshawe of Shaw Hall,5 and passed with his Bedford
estate.6
The family of Renacres were long in possession or
a small freehold estate which Nicholas Renacres held
in 1514' and 1523,* and Richard in 1 548, by a
yearly free rent of id? In 1565 Richard son and
heir of the last-named, acknowledged that he held
his lands 1 ere of Thomas Butler, esq., by knight's
service.10 Richard Renacres of Pennington, gent.,
Joan his wife and John their son were parties to a
fine of lands heU here in 1586.'' Perhaps from this
family descended John Ranicars of Bedford, gent.,
who acquired the Old Hal of Westleigh in right of
his wife Ellen, daughter and heir of Edward Green.1'
A venerable Elizabethan edifice, formerly known
as the Pyle or PEEL, in Pennington, and now as
Urmstons in the Meadows, or
i'th' Meadows, was formerly
the home of a branch of
the Urmston family. In 1589
Richard Norris of West Derby,
gent., leased a messuage in
Pennington to Richard Urmston
of the Pyle in Pennington,
yeoman, Jane his wife, and
Richard his son.13 This estate,
with another known as Daven-
ports, now Davenport House,
annulet! in pale and as
was purchased by John Gwillym
sometime before 1689, the last-
named from Samuel Byrom.
He died before 1692, when his property was adminis-
tered by his executors, and in 1 700 by the guardians
of his daughter Jane, who married John Greaves of
Manchester.14 Their son Edward Greaves of Culcheth,
Newton Heath, was in possession in I784.15 It is
now the property of Mr. Milnes-Gaskell.16
The family of Pemberton held a considerable
estate here known as ETHERSTON HALL11 at the
beginning of the fifteenth century. In 1415 the
feoffees of Richard Pemberton, of Tunstead in
Pemberton, gave to his relict, Alice, for her life, all his
messuages in Pennington and the reversion of other
messuages which Joan the wife of Richard Pilkington
PEMBERTON. Ar-
gent, a chevron between
three buckets sable, hoofed
held in dower after the death of Adam Pennington,
formerly her husband, the reversion to Hugh son of
Thomas son of the said Richard Pemberton and his
heirs male, with remainders to Thurstan brother of
Hugh.18 Richard Pemberton's
estate consisted of lands called
Ethereston, the Thornes, the
Crembill and Flaxfeld, a mea-
dow called the Haghesmede,
other lands called Farthill, the
Foldes, an acre of meadow
called the Harshokes, a croft
called Shotycroft, a plat called
the Stokemede, all which he
held at the time of his death
early in 1415 of William
Boteler, chr., of Warrington by
knight's service.19 There is <""•
reason to believe that these
lands had formed part of the demesne of Pen-
nington and had descended to the Pembertons by
marriage with a kinswoman of Adam de Penning-
ton.10 George Pemberton held the estate of Sir
Thomas Butler in the latter part of the reign of
Henry VIII,'1 but it did not long descend in his
family, passing to the Leylands of Morleys, of whom
Sir William Leyland, knt., died in 1547, seised of
lands and tenements here, which he held ' of the
heirs of Adam de Pennington.' ** Subsequently it
descended with the estates of the Tyldesleys of
Morleys. Early in the last century it was the
property of Thomas Jones, who rebuilt the hall in
1826, and by his executors was sold to the Trustees
of Clarke and Marshall's Charity in Manchester, who
are the present owners.*3
William Bolton, innkeeper, Anne Eaton, of South-
worth, Robert Greenough, Margaret Hodgkinson, and
John Urmston registered estates as ' Papists ' in
1717."
In 1787 James Hilton owned nearly one-fourth of
the township.14
Christ Church, erected in 1854, is a building of
stone in the perpendicular style, consisting of chancel,
nave, aisles, south porch, and an embattled western
tower containing one bell. The registers date from
the year 1854. The living is a vicarage of the net
yearly value of ^300 with a residence, in the gift of
the Simeon trustees.
The Roman Catholic church of the Sacred Heart,
opened in 1904, is in Windermere Road.
Richard Bradshaw bequeathed £5
CHARITIES by his will in 1681 for the relief of
the poor. James and Randell Wright
in 1679 gave £40 to trustees to be devoted to the
maintenance of the schoolmaster in Leigh Grammar
i Warr. Ct. R. (Chet. Soc. Ixxxvii), 43 1.
" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 3,
m. 142. a Ibid. bdle. 22, m. 20.
< Clowes D. box ii, 67.
'Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13,
m. 297.
6 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, n. n.
^ Warr. Homage R. (Rec. Soc. xii), 41.
8 Chet. Soc. Ixxxvii, 432.
9 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 3,
'>» Warr. Homage R. (Rec. Soc. xii), 39.
11 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 48,
35, m. 209.
at of Westleigh Old
18 Clowes D. box ii, No. 40. Richard
Urmston of Westleigh, esq., and John
Urmston of Kinknall, gent., were attor-
neys to deliver seisin.
" In 1721 John Greaves and Jane his
wife, in her right, obtained a verdict
against John Richardson and James Hil-
ton, who claimed a pew in Leigh church
as appurtenant to messuages formerly the
property of Samuel Byrom, formerly of
Byrom, esq., named ' Seth Radcliffe ' and
' Dunstars ' ; which last the defendants
had purchased from Mrs. Parr, widow,
•who had shortly before purchased the
reversion from Samuel Byrom and Lady
Eliz. Otway with the said pew. The
pew was declared to be the property of
the owners of Davenport Hall. Exch. of
Pleas, 7 Geo. I. mm. 5-51.
15 Rose, op. cit. pass.
" Ex inform. Mr. W. D. Pink.
17 Etheriston 1338.
18Towneley MS. GG. 2626; Add.
MS. 32105, 150*.
19 Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc. xcv), 103.
«> See above.
>l Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13,
** Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. ix, n. 43.
28 Ex inform. Mr. W. D. Pink.
43°
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
School for teaching two poor children from Pennington,
and for buying linen cloth for distribution amongst
the poor of the township. In 1723 Henry Bolton
bequeathed £ 1 1 o to pay the vicar I o/. yearly for a
sermon on St. Bartholomew's Day, and to distribute
£5 yearly amongst twenty necessitous persons of the
township.1
BEDFORD
Beneford,1 1200-21 ; Bedeford, 1200, 1296.
The ford of Beda, probably through Pennington
Brook where it is now spanned by Breaston Bridge,
gave name to this place. The township is traversed
by four considerable streams coming from the north,
west, and east and uniting a little to the south of
Bedford Hall to form the water of Glazebrook, which
on its southward course forms for some little distance
the south-western boundary of the township. From
this stream to Chat Moss on the east, the elevation of
the land is barely 50 ft. above mean sea-level, but rises
gently until over 125 ft. is reached on the northern
boundary near Atherton Grange. The trees sur-
rounding Atherton Hall afford to the eye welcome
relief from the unpicturesque surroundings and un-
bending lines of factories and cottages. The main
road from Manchester to Leigh and the Bridgewater
Canal traverse the township from east to west.
There is also a branch road leading southward to
Warrington. The London and North- Western Rail-
way from Manchester to Liverpool traverses the
southern angle of the township, and the Tyldesley
and Leigh branch of the same company's railway has
a station called Leigh and Bedford, serving these con-
tiguous places.3 The township has an area of 2,826
acres, and lies partly upon the new red sandstone,
and to the north-east partly upon the coal measures.
The permian rocks are mostly absent owing to a fault
which extends from south-east to north-west. There
is a great deposit of alluvium in the lower ground
traversed by the Glazebrook and its tributaries. The
soil is largely composed of clay ; the land consists mainly
of meadow and pasture, and some vegetables are grown.
The township was formed into a district chapelry
in 1843 4 out of the civil parish of Leigh. The Local
Government Act, 1858, was adopted in 1863,* but
by 38 and 39 Victoria, cap. ccxi, the district was
dissolved and merged in that of Leigh. In 1901 the
population of the township, including Lately Common,
LEIGH
numbered 11,163, chiefly employed in the Bedford
collieries, agricultural implement works, brick-fields,
an iron foundry, brewery and makings, cotton, silk
and corn mills.
Dependent before the Conquest upon
M4NOR the chief manor of Warrington hundred,
BEDFORD was afterwards included in
the barony of Warrington, upon the creation of that
fee. It was not held by knight's service, but by a
yearly rent of io/., which suggests a continuity of the
pre-Conquest drengage tenure, and possibly to uninter-
rupted ownership by Englishmen after the Conquest.
The place is first mentioned in 1 200, when Simon de
Bedford proffered io marks and a hunting horse that
he might be ' inlawed ' and restored to the benefit of
the law in any proceedings taken against him for the
death of G. de Spondon.6 Contemporary with Simon
was William de Bedford, his brother and under-tenant
of the manor in the time of Richard I, John, and
Henry III, who had issue a son Henry and two
daughters, Hawise and Avice.7 Henry had issue an
only daughter Agnes, who died without issue, when
the manor was divided between Henry's two sisters.8
Hawise married a Sale and had issue Adam de
Sale ;9 Avice married one William, and was sued in
1231 by Hawise the relict of Henry de Bedford, for
dower in a third part of one plough-land in Bedford.10
Agnes, daughter of William and Avice, married a
Waverton, and was mother of John de Waverton.11 In
1292 Henry de Kighley and Ellen his wife were in
possession of one-half of the manor, Adam de Sale or
his son William of one-quarter, and John de Waverton
of the other quarter.18 At some previous date Jordan
deHulton had been enfeoffed for life of one-half of
the manor by Adam de Sale, who was also possessed
of another fourth part, which he appears to have given
before 1292 to his son William and Margaret his
wife.13 It therefore appears that Henry de Kighley
acquired one-half of the manor from Adam de Sale."
One-sixteenth part of Kighley's half of the manor was
held by Thomas de Shuttleworth, and represents the
ancient messuage known as Shuttleworth House.15
For many generations the manor descended in the
representatives of these four families, but the manor
court, with view of frankpledge, was vested in the
Kighley family, whose estate was usually described in
legal instruments as the manor.16
In 1296 Henry de Kighley gave the manor to
Richard de la Doune for life,17 who withheld the chief
1 End. Char. (Lanes.), 1901, pp. 14-15,
65-8. In 1900 the gross annual income
d' ancestor for 8 oxgangs of land and two-
thirds of i8</. rent in Bedford ; Lanes.
Adam and his heirs should have any profit
arising by wardship, relief, or escheat from
amounted to £48.
Assize R. (Rec. Soc. xlix), 229. The
the fourth part of the manor ; Dods-
a The early form of the name was
same year Roger de Worsley and Agnes
worth MSS. cxlii, 664.
probably Bedan-ford.
his wife were plaintiffs in a similar suit
15 Assize R. 408, m. 36 ; 417, m. 12 ;
3 The name of the station was formerly
with Adam against John de Hulton for
1321, m. II >/. Between 1314 and 1317
Bedford-Leigh, and was changed out of
consideration for public feeling in Leigh.
two-thirds of 8 oxgangs of land in Bed-
ford ; ibid. 233.
there were several suits in the King's
Bench between Thomas de Shuttleworth
The station stands in that portion of
10 Curia Reg. R. 109, m. 15.
and William de la Doune, holding one
Atherton township which was annexed to
11 De Bane. R. 207, m. laid. In
moiety, and William son of Adam de Sale,
Leigh in 1894.
1258 Adam de Sale and Agnes daughter
holding a fourth part, of the manor ; De
4 Land. Gaz. IO Jan. 1843.
of William sued Isolda de Hulton in a
Bane. R. 216, m. 208 ; 216, m. 161.
* Ibid. 6 Nov. 1863.
plea of mart a" ancestor for a fourth part of
i« Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc. xxxix),
6 Rot. de Oblatis (Rec. Com.), 98. His
the manor of Bedford ; Lanes. Assize R.
182; xlvi, 77.
neighbours Henry de Culcheth and Adam
(Rec. Soc. xlix), 227.
V Ibid. In 1 303 William de la Doune
de Rixton, with three others, were con-
cerned in this felony.
12 Assize R. 408, m. II.
« Ibid. m. 8 d.
was summoned to answer Henry de Kigh-
ley and Ellen his wife in a plea of throwing
' De Bane. R. 207, m. 48, 77, 101 d.
14 In 1291 Adam de Sale acknowledged
down the hall of Bedford, with two cham-
8 Ibid.
that Henry de Kighley and his heirs
bers adjoining and a chamber for esquires,
9 Ibid. In 1259 Adam (de Sale) son of
Hawise de Bedford sued Jordan de Hulton,
should take the homage of Richard de
Pennington and Henry de Eckersley and
and for felling 300 oak trees and forty
apple trees. He replied that when the
Henry de Tyldesley and Hawise his wife,
and John de Eckesley in a plea of mart
their heirs for lands and tenements in
Bedford, and Henry acknowledged that
manor was demised to him there was only
an old hall with two chambers annexed,
431
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
rent until 1301, when Alice le Boteler obtained a ver-
dict against him.1 The subsequent descent of the
manor follows that of the manor of Inskip in the
parish of St. Michael on Wyre. Henry Kighley, esq.,
the last male representative of the family in the direct
line, died in 1567, leaving issue two daughters, Anne
and Katherine, aged respectively four years and four
months, and fourteen days.* Anne afterwards married
Sir William Cavendish, Baron Cavendish of Hardwick
1605, earl of Devonshire 1618, ancestor of the present
duke of Devonshire ; Katherine married Thomas, sub-
sequently of Hovingham, co. York, esq., son and heir
of Robert Worsley of Booths, esq. In 1585, upon
attaining her majority, Anne joined with her husband
in conveying one moiety of the manor to trustees,3
and in 1589 in a release of the manor and the whole
of the Kighley estates in the parish of Leigh to her
sister Katherine and her husband Thomas Worsley,4
who at the same time conveyed to trustees the moiety
of the Kighley estates within the county.6 Thomas
and Katherine Worsley afterwards conveyed the manor,
consisting of eighteen messuages and ten cottages with
orchards and gardens, one water-mill, and 640 acres
of land, meadow and pasture, and 2,560 acres of
moss and turbary, to trustees appointed to effect a sale
or conveyance of the manor and other estates to Sir
Richard Shuttleworth and Sir Richard Brereton, knts.,
in discharge of a recognizance of debt due to them by
Thomas Worsley.6 By a partition of these lands
the manor fell to the share of Richard Brereton,
who settled some portion of
the estate, including the manor,
upon his sister Anne Brereton,
wife of Sir William Davenport,
who in 1599 conveyed the
manor, thirty messuages, and
670 acres of land, meadow,
pasture and moor, to Jervase
Wyrrall, esq., and he in turn
conveyed it the following year
to Sir Thomas Egerton, knt.,
lord keeper of the Great Seal,7
afterwards Baron Ellesmere
(1603), and Viscount Brackley
(1616), ancestor of the Earl of Ellesmere, the present
lord of the manor.'
In 1548 the following persons held the manor,
paying in all <)s. lid.: Henry Kighley, esq., 4*. (>d. ;
Earl
Ellesmere. Argent,
lion rampant gules betwt
three pbeons sable.
Lawrence Asshawe, z/. ^d. ; William Serjeant, i6J. •
Richard Shuttleworth, izd. ; William Sale, 6d. ; and
George Pemberton, 4^.'
In 1587 the following held lands here of Robert
earl of Leicester,10 as of his manor of Warrington : The
heirs of Henry Kighley, esq., Thomas Lathom of
Bedford Hall, James Pemberton, the heirs of Peter
Serjeant, Hugh Shuttleworth of Shuttleworth House,
Gilbert Sale of Hopecarr and Henry Speakman.11 In
1598 Sir Thomas Ireland, knt., baron of Warrington,
sold the superior manor, parcel of his barony, with
all the royalties, liberties, and services of the free
tenants, to Richard Brereton, then of Worsley, esq."
Other portions of the manor were held in 1628 by
Dame Dorothy, widow of Sir Richard Brereton,13 and
after her marriage to Sir Peter Legh, knt., she and her
husband in 1630 conveyed the manor, together with
those of Worsley and Hulton, and certain free rents
in Bedford, to John Egerton,14 who had been created
earl of Bridgewater in 1617, shortly after his succession
to his father, the first Viscount Ellesmere. It remains
the property of his descendant, the third earl of
Ellesmere.
There are court rolls of the manor dating from
1802. Courts were held regularly twice a year from
1821 to 1866, but since have been held on only two
or three occasions.15
BEDFORD HALL is now a farm-house. In 1291
it was in the possession of Adam de Sale," who, by
Maud his wife, was father of William. Between 1320
and 1330 William de Sale held the fourth part of the
manor,17 and by Margaret 18 his wife had William,1'
who died s.p., and John, living 1350,*° father of
another John, who married Ellen, daughter and heir
of John le Jeu of Hindley.*1 James, their son and
heir, was father of another James of Bedford, gent.,
living in 1445," father of John, living in 1474.'*
Arthur, son and heir of John, died childless in 1480,"
when the estate appears to have passed to his kinsman
Henry, whose son Henry was killed at Flodden Field,
leaving issue Margaret, his daughter and heir, then
four years of age.25 By her guardian she was married to
Lawrence Asshawe, of the Hall-on-the-Hill, in Heath
Charnock, who held the fourth part of the manor in
1548. The previous year he had acquired part of
the Athertons' estate here/6 which his grandson
Leonard held at his death in 1595." But he appears
to have alienated the fourth part of the manor and the
unroofed and ruinous, which afterwards
fell. Thereupon, with the consent of
Kighley and his wife, he caused to be
built a new hall, with two chambers an-
nexed and a new kitchen. Touching the
oak trees, he denied that he took anything
in Bedford Wood, where there were 500
acres of wood, of which two-thirds be-
longed to Kighley, except housebote and
haybote ; and touching waste of the
garden, he denied that there ever was any
there; De Bane. R. 147, m. 116.
1 Assize R. 1321, mm. 6, n. Alice
le Boteler was daughter and coheir of Sir
William de Carleton, knt. ; Dodsworth
MSS. liii, 85 ; Chet. Soc. xxxix (New Ser.),
1 84. Ellen wife of Henry de Kighley is
said to have been a daughter of Sir Hugh
* Ibid. bdle. 51, m. 20.
* Ibid. m. 13.
6 Lord Ellesmere's MSS., rental of Bed-
ford temp. Chas. I.
8 Ex inform. Mr. Strachan Holme.
» Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13, m.
142. " Cf. V.C.H. Lanes. \, 349.
11 Earl of Ellesmere's MSS., notes from
evid. of Sir Geo. Booth, bart.
« Ibid.
18 Earl of Ellesmere's MSS., rental of
1 M Ibid. Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. (ed.
Helsby), i, 443. The arms of Brereton
and Egerton were formerly (1652) in a
window in Eccles church ; Hist. Soc. Lanes,
and Ches. (New Ser.), xiv, 207-8. The
more probable that she was sister of Alice
de Carleton.
a Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xi, «. 10.
3 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 47,
m. 133.
pews in the parish church of Leigh, and
had two breadths of burial ground in the
churchyard adjoining the steeple, said to
belong to Limerick farm in the township.
Ex inform. Mr. Strachan Holme. This
432
farm may have been the estate originally
known as Eckersley.
15 The court appointed a bailiff, affer-
ers, by-law men, pinfold keeper, and
constables down to 1825, and dealt with
encroachments, repair of roads, bridges,
and fences, nuisances and watercourses. Ex
inform. Mr. Strachan Holme.
16 Dodsworth MSS. cxlii, 66A.
17 Assize R. 417, m. 12; 1321, m. II a.
18 Ibid. 408, m. 8 d.
19 Coram Reg. PI. R. 297, m. 128 i
w Rentals and Surveys, 379, m. i.
21 Pal. of Lane. Writs, file 21 Edw.
IV, A.
22 Ibid. Plea R. 7, m. 2 d.
*> Ibid. 42, m. 8 d.
« Ibid. Writs, file 21 Edw. IV, A.
»» Warr. Homage R. (Rec. Soc.), xii,
pt. 29 ; ibid, xxxii, 76. Henry was elder
brother of John Sale, citizen of London.
Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 297.
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
Hall of Bedford to Thomas Lathom of Irlam,1 who
held it in 1587.* It descended in the family of
Lathom of Hawthorne Hall, county Chester, and
Irlam, in this county, until the end of the seventeenth
century, when it was sold by John Finney of Fulshaw
Hall, county Chester, gent., and Jane his wife, ulti-
mately sole heiress of Thomas Lathom,3 to John
Leigh,' afterwards of Hawthorne Hall, who in 1719
settled Bedford Hall with tenements in Bedford and
Westleigh upon himself for life, with remainders to
George, earl of Warrington, and Henry Mainwaring,
then to the Hon. Langham Booth of Thornton,
county Chester, in tail male, then to Hannah Merry-
weather, niece of the said John Leigh in tail male,
then to the Hon. Henry Booth of the Middle Temple,
London, in tail male, then to Leigh Page,' son and
heir of Humphrey Page, alderman of Chester,6 to
whom the estate ultimately passed in remainder.7 By
his descendant, Thomas Leigh Page, the estate was
sold to John Greaves of Highfield in Farn worth (?),
esq., apparently the well-known banker and merchant,
afterwards of Irlam.8 Early in the last century
Bedford Hall was the property of Thomas Speakman,
by whose executors it was sold about 1853 to the
father of the Rev. Kenelm H. Smith of Ely, the
present owner.
HOPECARR was another estate of note. Adam
de Sale, who was living in 1291, had, besides William
of Bedford Hall, another son, Alexander, who by his
wife Amice, living a widow in 1315, had sons, Adam,9
a minor at the date named, and John.10 Gilbert,
living in 1350," son either of Adam or John, was the
father of Matthew, living in 1358, from whom
descended Henry, who died in 1419, leaving issue a
son Henry, aged fourteen years.1* His kinsman, Gil-
bert Sale of Bedford, gent., who obtained a charter of
pardon in 145 2, 13 had issue by Dulcia, his wife, sons
Matthew " and Gilbert. The latter, as Gilbert Sale
of Bedford, gent., had letters patent of pardon from
Edward IV in 1479," and was probably father of
LEIGH
Matthew Sale of Hopecarr, who did homage for his
lands in Bedford in 1504, and died in 1509, when
William his son was aged seven years. ri This William
appears at the head of the pedigree of the family
entered at the Visitation of 1664-5 by Richard Sale,
great-grandson of William." In 1630 William Sale,
father of Richard, obtained a grant of his patrimony,
which had been forfeited for his recusancy, for a term
of forty-one years.18 In 1674 Richard Sale, his then
wife Sylvestra, Gilbert and John his sons, and Anne
his daughter were recusants.19 The son Gilbert died
about 1717, his widow then surviving at Hopecarr.
Their son William married Jane daughter of Edmund
Tristram of Ince Blundell, yeoman, by whom he had
issue Richard and Gilbert, both of Liverpool, who
sold the estate in 1770 to Randal Gorton of the city
of Chester, merchant.20 Hopecarr Farm is now the
sewage farm belonging to the Leigh and Atherton
Joint Sewage Board.
In 1557 the Sales possessed a several fishery in
the water of Breton," a name which still survives in
Breaston Bridge, spanning Bedford Brook.
The descent of a fourth part of a manor which
John de Waverton held in 1315 by inheritance from
his grandmother, Avice de Bedford,82 has not been as-
certained. For a few generations it passed with the
estate of Cleworth in Tyldesley.23 Possibly it was the
estate held temp. Henry VII, by John Sale, which
passed before 1 5 1 8 to his daughter Joan, the wife of
Henry Serjeant of Newton in Makerfield. At her
lather's death she inherited lands here worth 20
marks a year." In 1530 John Sale, citizen of London,
draper, brother of Henry Sale of Bedford Hall, con-
veyed the fourth part of the manor with several
messuages to Alexander Standish." In 1 548 William
Serjeant, probably son of the above Henry, held the
fourth part of the manor,*6 of which in 1592 Peter
Serjeant, probably his son, who had married a Stan-
dish, died seised, Thomas his son being then aged
nine years." Thomas Serjeant afterwards sold the
i See the account of Irlam.
« Earl of Ellesmere's rentals, ante.
8 For the payment of Thomas Lathom's
debts ; Lanes, and Ches. Antij. Notes, ii,
61-3 ; Earwaker, East Ches. i, 130.
* Not. Cestr. (Chet. Soc. (Old Ser.),
6>He was sheriff of Cheshire in 1733.
« Exch. of Pleas, Plea R. 6 Geo. I,
m. lo-n a. ; Cal. ix. Lanes. 87.
7 Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. (ed. Helsby),
iii, 592, 603.
8 See the account of Irlam.
9 In 1329 Adam, son of Alexander de
Sale, gave to Henry de Leigh and Agnes
his wife land bounded at one end by the
hedges (hayac) of Henry Boydell and
Richard le Turner at the place called
Hopkar; Harl. MS. 2112, fol. 148.
10 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 6, pt. ii,
m. I d. ; De Bane. R. 207, m. 48, 77,
101 J.
11 Rentals and Surveys, 377, m. i.
i» Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc. xcv), 136.
18 Pal. of Lane. Chan. Misc. file i, bdle.
i,m. 59.
" In 1488 the marriage between Mat-
thew son of Gilbert Sale, and Dulcia
daughter of Thomas Bradshaw of Augh-
ton, celebrated when they were aged
nulled by the bishop of Lichfield, Matthew
being then of lawful age ; Lichfield Epis.
Reg. xii, 164*.
3
15 Pal. of Lane. Pat. R. 19 Edw. IV,
Towneley MS. RR. fol. 227*. By in-
quest taken in 1496 it was found that
Gilbert Sale, late of Bedford, gent., had
been outlawed for treason and held at the
promulgation of outlawry four messuages,
loo acres of land and meadow, 40 acres
of pasture, 3 acres of wood, and 10 acres
of moor in Bedford, holden of Sir Thomas
Butler, lent., as of his manor of Warring-
ton, and worth 5 marks, the issues of
which the said Gilbert had received ever
since his outlawry and still received.
Harl. MS. 2 1 1 2, 4 1 A ; Rec. Soc. xxxii, 9.
" Warr. Homage R. (Rec. Soc. xii),
pt. i, p. 25.
17 Fish. (Chet. Soc. Ixxxviii), 252.
18 The estate consisted of the messuage
called Hopecarr, 30 acres of land, meadow
and pasture, in Bedford and Pennington,
a free fishery in the water of Bretton, and
51. free rent in Bedford ; Pat. R. 6 Chas. I,
pt. xii, 15 July. Edmund Sale, S.J., son
of William Sale of Hopecarr, was educated
at St. Omer's and the English College at
Rome, and laboured on the mission in
England from 1639 to about 1646, when
he was arrested on suspicion of being a
priest. He obtained his release, but died
soon afterwards. He published an account
of the Japanese martyrs, and left a book
of ' Second Thoughts ' in manuscript. See
Gillow, Bibliog. Diet, of English Catholics,
v,467 ; Foley,/?«.S.J. vi, 296 ; vii, 680.
Two other members of the family may be
noticed :— Richard Sale, son of Richard
and Philippa Sale, entered the English
College in 1663 ; he said 'he was bora in
Lancashire and baptized by a Catholic
priest about 24 March, 1641. He studied
his humanities at home and at St. Omer's
College. His parents were respectable
Catholics ; he had two brothers and two
sisters and was always a Catholic';
ibid, vi, 406. John Sale, S.J., born
at Hopecarr in 1722, served the Lanca-
shire mission at Bedford and in Furness
for some years, dying in 1791 ; ibid, vii,
680.
19 Piccope MSS. vii, 273 ; Hist, and
Gen. Notes, i, 297.
20 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Notes, i, 57,
64, 72.
« Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 17, m.
12. It is mentioned in 1630. Sec note
above.
ra De Bane. R. 307, m. 48, 77, 101 d.
»> See the account of Tyldesley.
" Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, xxii, N. D.
S.i 6 ; Rec. Soc. xxxii, 76.
» Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. n, m.
1 1 6. John Newport and Agnes his wife
held 3 messuages, 90 acres of land here,
parcel of the premises, in right of Agnes'
dower.
M Ibid. bdle. 13, m. 142.
"7 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. XT, n.
433
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
estate to Adam Mort of Dam House in Tyldesley,
gent.,1 in whose line it descended with the other
family estates.'
SHUTTLEWORTH was for several centuries in
the possession of the Shuttle worth family. Thomas
de Shuttleworth held it in
1315* and was father of Wil-
liam and Robert, living in
I3S3-* William had sons-
Thomas, living in 1371 ; and
Roger,5 who married Alice
daughter of Adam de Kinken-
hale, by whom he had John
and Thomas.6 During the
fifteenth century the descent
is not clear, but in I 504 Hugh SHUTTLEWORTH. Ar-
Shuttleworth did homage for gent, thru -weaver's
his lands here,7 and again shuttles sable •with threads
in 1523,' and was probably °r-
father of Richard who held
the estate of the lord of Warrington in 1548, by
the yearly quit-rent of \i.d? Before 1587 Richard
was succeeded by another Hugh 10 (died 1606),
father of Richard, who died in 1620 seised of the
thirty-second part of the manor, 4 messuages, a free
fishery in the waters of Bedford and Glazebrook,
moss on Chat Moss, the liberty of a mill, and to
be hopper-free in all mills in Bedford, all of which
he held of John, earl of Bridgewater, by fealty and
I2<z". rent. Richard his son was aged thirty years"
in 1620, and died at Dublin about 1647. He was
the father of Richard, who married Frances, one of
the daughters and coheirs of Richard Urmston of
Westleigh, in whose right his eldest son became
owner of a fourth part, and ultimately of the whole
of the manor of Westleigh, and the parsonage of
Leigh known as the Kirk Hall. He died in or about
1650, when his son Richard was eight years of age.12
The latter appears to have taken some part in the
Stuart rebellion of 1715, in consequence of which his
estates were forfeited to the crown and subsequently
dispersed.13 He had a brother John, whose children
were Ricrurd, living 1697, a Frances then the wife
of John Sampson, and a sister Margaret, in 1697
the widow of John Billinge of Grave Oak in Bedford,
gent.
LIGHTO4KS is mentioned in a plea in 1356 in
which John son of John del Lightokes obtained a
verdict that William de Atherton, to whom Gilbert
de Kighley had demised the manor of Bedford for
a term, had pulled down a mill and rebuilt it upon
land of the said John to his disseisin.14 In the seven-
teenth century this estate was in the possession of
Henry Travers or Travice, who by his will dated
1624 gave £zoo in trust, the interest to be bestowed
yearly upon forty poor persons of the parish." He
died in 1626, his widow Agnes16 placing a memorial
brass upon one of the pillars of the parish church to
his memory. The estate appears to have been sold
to Sir Henry Sclater, grandson of Richard Sclater of
Keighley, Yorkshire, who entered his pedigree as of
Lightoaks, at Sir William Dugdale's Visitation of
1664-5. " I" 1700 Thomas Sclater, younger sen
of Sir Henry and Mary his wife, with Alexander
Radcliffe, gent., conveyed the manor or capital mes-
suage of Lightoaks with 1 1 5 acres of land, meadow,
and pasture and 140 acres of moss and heath, and
tithes of grain, hay, and flax in the parish of Leigh to
feoffees,18 probably for sale.
Graveoak, now a farmhouse, was in 1656 the
residence, and probably the property of George
Bradshaw, gent., and in 1690 of John Billinge,
gent.
The estate of ECKERSLET" is first mentioned in
a deed of partition of lands made in 1371 between
Hugh of the Crosse and Katherine his wife, who took
the capital messuage of Eckersley and half the land
lying on the western side, whilst John de Halghton
and Siegrith his wife took two-thirds of the barn and
the reversion of another third part dependent upon
the death of Joan, wife of Simon de Byrom, with the
other half of the lands in the field and in the hey of
Eckersley.*0 In 1452 Nicholas Halghton was in pos-
session of the estate." In 1795 the duke of Bridge-
water purchased part of this estate, then known as
Limerick farm, from a Miss Houghton, and his
trustees afterwards purchased another estate here from
Sir Henry Dukinfield."
In 1678 Francis Bradshaw, esq., and John Lea-
thwaite, gent., both of Bedford, were indicted at
Wigan for recusancy."
The principal landowners in 1787 were the Rev.
Dr. Baldwin, John and James Green, Thomas Patten,
William DumbelPs executors, Alexander Radcliffe, and
the executors of Atherton Legh Atherton.24
The church of St. Thomas, built in 1840, was a
structure of brick. A new church has been erected
upon the old site and is now (1906) nearing com-
pletion. The registers commence in the year 1 840.
The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £300 with
residence, in the gift of the vicar of Leigh. Large and
commodious elementary schools have recently been
built at Butts End in connexion with the church.
Those who adhered to the Roman Church at the
Reformation were occasionally able to hear mass at
Hopecarr, the house of the Sale family, the Parsonage,
1 Towneley MS. C. 8, 1 3 (Chet. Lib.),
p. 866. Adam Mort at his death in
1631 also held here 2 messuages, 40 acres
of land late of the inheritance of Thomas,
Lord Gerard of Bromley, and another
messuage and 1 2 acres of land late of the
inheritance of Leonard Asshawe, esq.;
ibid.
« See the account of Astley.
» De Bane. R. 207, m. 77 ; 217, m.
161.
1 Duchy of Lane. Assize R.
s Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2, pt, i,
'« Hist, and Gen. Notes, i, 85.
^ Warr. Homage R. (Rec. Soc. xii),
pt. i, 13, 17.
8 Out. Soc. Ixxxvii, 432.
the
»» Lord Ellesmere's Rentals.
11 Duchy, of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxii,
26; Rec. Soc. xvi, 1 66.
n John Shuttleworth, younger brother
of the Richard who died c. 1650, entered
his pedigree at Dugdale's Visitation in
1664 j Chet. Soc. Ixxxviii, 270.
18 See the account of Leigh.
" Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 5, m. 14.
« Hist, and Gen. Notes, i, 382.
tithes of the lower side of Bedford for
eight years before 1650. Parl. Surv. ;
Hist, and Gen. Notes, i, 40.
J7 Chet Soc. Ixxxviii, 256.
18 Pal. of Lane. Feet, of F. bdle. 244,
434
heirs of Agnes Travis, widow, deceased,
and others.
19 Ekelia, 1258 ; Ekersleght, 1371.
30 Deed in possession of Mr. Vaudrey
of Manchester, in 1887.
81 Ibid.
™ Ex inform. Mr. Strachan Holme.
88 Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com. xiv,
Rep. App. iv), no. William Sale of
Hopecarr, Thomas Hulme and Margaret
his wife, and Margaret Whittle, also John
and Margaret Billinge of Manchester,
as ' Papists ' registered estates here in
1717, and Alice Sale, mother of Wil-
liam, registered one in Astley ; Engl.
Cath. Non-jurors, 98, 152.
84 Land-tax returns at Preston.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
the seat of the Urmstons, or at Hall House, the
Jesuit fathers of Culcheth and Southworth serving chapelry
from the latter part of the seventeenth century.1 In and por
1778, before the first relaxation of the penal laws,
a chapel was built and public worship resumed.
Schools were opened in 1829, and rebuilt in 1871.
The present church of St. Joseph was opened in
1855, a tower being added in 1884. The mission is
still served by the Jesuits.8
LEIGH
The township was formed into a district
1859 from the civil parish of Leigh,*
were assigned in 1878 to form the
ecclesiastical parish of Howe Bridge,9 and in 1884
the district parish of St. Anne's, Hindsford. In
1894 a portion of the township was transferred to
Leigh.
The Local Government Act, 1858, was adopted
by the township 22 December, 1863,'° which was
In 1558 Lawrence Asshawe of governed by a local board of fifteen members, but
CHARITIES Shaw in Flixton gave by his will under the Act of 1894 is now controlled by an urban
5 marks towards ' the paving of any district council of fifteen members, elected from five
horse causey [causeway] from the towne of Leighe wards — Central, North, East, South, and West. The
unto the Sawter Buttes in Bedford.' 3 Richard Speak- district is supplied with gas from works belonging to
man and Catherine his wife in 1673 and 1679 left the urban council, and with water obtained partly
small sums for the benefit of the poor of Bedford from the Bolton and partly from the Manchester
and Tyldesley, of which the interest used to be dis- corporations.
tributed yearly on Candlemas Day at Speakman The geological formation consists almost entirely
House in Bedford.4 In 1679 Matthew Lythgoe of the coal measures, with a trifling area of the
bequeathed £50, and in 1727 Samuel Hilton gave permi an rocks and new red sandstone in the south-
j£loo, to the overseers of the poor, the interest in western angle of the township. The soil is clayey,
both cases to be distributed amongst the poor.5 In the land mainly pasture and meadow, but some wheat
1872 William Eckersley gave ^50 by his will for the and vegetables are grown.
Silk-weaving was formerly carried on extensively in
the village houses, but owing to foreign competition
has now entirely disappeared. The first cotton-mill
was erected in 1776. The manufacture of bolts
and nails " and the spindles and flyers of spinning
machinery is also carried on here. The population
of the township, including Howe Bridge, in 1901
was 16,211 persons. A cattle fair was formerly held
yearly on the last Thursday in March, but has been
discontinued. A pleasure fair is held on the third
Monday in September.
The cemetery, formed in 1857 and enlarged to
about nine acres in 1888, is under the control of a
burial board of fifteen members. It contains two
mortuary chapels. The Volunteer Hall in Mealhouse
Lane, used for public meetings and concerts, wa
benefit of the poor of Bedford church.6
ATHERTON
12, 1242 ; Atherton, 1259,
md
Aderton,
mon since.
This name, derived from A.S. Adre, a watercourse,
and tun, a farmstead or village, aptly describes the
character of this well-watered township, which is
bounded on the west and south by streams and
traversed by two others. Beginning on the south-
west at the town of Leigh the ground rises in gentle
elevations from under 100 ft. above sea-level to over
250 ft. on the northern side.
The township has an area of 2,426 acres,7 and in
shape somewhat resembles a pear, the demesne of
Atherton Hall occupying the end towards the stalk at erected in 1883 and will seat about 1,000 persons,
the outskirts of Leigh. The town of Atherton, in- The Public Hall in Bolton New Road is used for
eluding Chowbent, the name of that part of the town
which surrounds the parish church, stands on the
high road from Bolton to Leigh with branches west-
ward to Wigan and eastward to Tyldesley. It is the
centre of a district of collieries, cotton-mills, and iron-
works, which cover the surface of the country with
their inartistic buildings and surroundings, and
ratepayers' meetings and the meetings of the urban
council. There is a Public Free Library, containing
about 8,000 volumes ; the building, erected in 1904,
was the gift of Mr. Carnegie ; also two political
clubs, and a village club for the use of the colliers
employed in the Atherton collieries, containing a
small free library of about 300 volumes. Atherton
linked together by the equally unlovely dwellings of Parish Church-house in Tyldesley Road serves as a
the people. There are three railway stations — restaurant and club, and contains also a gym
Atherton Central Station on the Manchester and
Wigan branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Rail-
way, which passes close to the north of the town ;
Atherton Station on the Bolton and Kenyon section
of the London and North Western Railway, half a
mile to the west ; and Howe Bridge, formerly Chow-
bent, Station on the Manchester, Eccles, and Wigan
section of the same line, to the south-west of the
and rooms for arts and crafts work. There are
athletic grounds belonging to the club in Flapper
Fold Lane. A technical school was erected in
1893.
Saxton's map shows that there was a deer park
here in the time of Elizabeth.
Adam Twaite of Chowbent issued a token about
1664."
1 Fr. John Penketh is said to have been
resident in 1679 when he was arrested as
a priest and sentenced to death, but re-
prieved. He remained in gaol until the
240 Easter communicants and 135 were
confirmed ; Foley, Rec. S.J. v, 320-4.
The bishop of Chester's return in 1767
gave 269 'Papists' in Leigh, with ten in
1 The present reduced area is given as
2,265 acres, including 12 of inland water,
in the Census Rep. 1901.
8 Lond. Gaz. 169.
aged 71. Fr. Sebastian Needham suc-
ceeded him in 1699, and was at Leigh in
1701, with a stipend of £zz, of which
£6 was given by the people. Fr. Robert
Petre followed about 1728, and Fr. John
Sale of Hopecarr about 1733. Roger
Leigh was in charge in 1750, having
seventy 'customers' ; in 1784 there were
Tran,. Hist. Soe. (New Ser.), xviii.
3 Liverpool Cat*. Ann. 1901.
» Cketkam Sec. (Old Ser.), xxxiii, 82.
* End. Char. (Lanes.), 1901, pp. 12, 59.
'Ibid. 13, 59-60.
6 Ibid. 64. In 1900 the gross annual
value of five charities amounted to
£58 i".
435
" John Smythe of the town of Ather-
ton, ' nayller,' was one of the three per-
sons whose arrest at the church led to a
riot at Leigh in 1535; Duchy of Lane.
Pleadings, xxii, B. 25 ; Rec. Soc. xxxv,
13 Lana. and Chts. Antii}. Soc. v, 76.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Dependent before the Conquest on
MANOR the chief manor of Warrington, of which
it was one of the thirty-four berewicks or
dependent manors held by drengs, ATHERTON was
included in the Warrington fee upon the creation of
that barony by Henry I, being held by the ancestor of
de Atherton as one plough-land by the service of one
mark yearly, and by knight's service, where ten plough-
lands made the fee of one knight.1 At the taking
of the Inquest of Service in 1212, Henry son of
William de Atherton held the manor of William le
Boteler.' In 1243 he was succeeded by another
William,* supposed to be the son of Henry, who was
living in 1259,* and probably the father of another
William, who was amerced before the justices at
Lancaster in 1292 with his sons Alexander and
Hugh 6 for not appearing to answer a plea,6 and with
another son William attested a charter of Henry, lord
of Tyldesley, about the year 1300.' In 1298 he
was enfeoffed of the manors of Haigh and Blackrod,
apparently owing to some connexion by marriage
with the Bradshagh family.8
William de Atherton, son and heir of William,
married Agnes, before 1 305,' and died before
1315-16, when his son Henry
is named lord of Atherton.10
The latter was summoned in
1324 to attend the Great
Council at Westminster on
Wednesday after Ascension
Day, having been returned as
holding lands of £15 yearly
value." In 1332 he settled
the manor upon himself for life
with remainder to his eldest
and other sons successively in
tail male." In 1342, being
very infirm, he had exemp- °r-
tion from knighthood.13 Sub-
sequently in 1352, having been returned as possess-
ing £40 worth of land, although he averred that he
had but 40 marks' worth, he paid a fine and had
exemption.14
Sir William de Atherton, chr., son of Henry, had
a licence for an oratory in his manors of Atherton
ATHERTON. Gules,
gent •with bells and jesses
and Garswood in Ashton in Makerfield in 1 360."
He and his son were deponents in 1386 in the
Scrope and Grosvenor trial.16 He was twice married
and died in 1389, having been one of the knights of
the shire in the Parliaments held in 1373, 1379, and
1381." By his first wife Joan, sister and coheir of
Ralph de Mobberley, lord of Mobberley, Cheshire,18
he had issue, Sir William Atherton, chr., who
succeeded him, and Sir Nicholas Atherton, knt., lord
of Bickerstaffe in right of his wife Joan, daughter and
heir of Adam de Bickerstath.
Sir William married Agnes, daughter and heir of
Ralph Vernon of Shipbrook, Cheshire, and had livery
of her inheritance in I397-19 He died 29 December,
1414, seised of this and other manors and lands in
the county.80 His successor, Sir William Atherton, knt.,*1
aged thirty years at his father's death, married first
Elizabeth daughter of Sir John Pilkington, knt., by
whom he had issue, and secondly Eleanor, by whom
he had no issue." His son Sir William Atherton, chr.,
married Margaret daughter of Sir John Byron, knt.,
who survived her husband and married before 1443
Sir Robert Harcourt, knt.,*3 and was living in 1 479."
Sir William died in 1440, leaving issue, William,
Nicholas, and John.'4 William, his eldest son, was
under age at the date of his marriage in 1444 to
Isabella daughter of Richard Balderston, esq.,*6 and
died without issue before 1461. In 1479 his feoffees
delivered to his widow certain lands in Ashton in
Makerfield to hold for her life, the reversion of
which belonged to John Atherton, esq., his surviving
brother and heir.*7 The latter was sheriff of
Durham in I46i,*8 married late in life, and died
in I488,29 leaving George his son and heir, then
aged twenty-one years and more. George Atherton
married three times ; first, to Anne daughter, of
Sir Richard Assheton of Middleton, knt., the mother
of his heir, from whom he was divorced in 1506 on
the grounds of consanguinity, being related to her in
the third degree ; *° secondly to Eleanor, from whom
he was also divorced before 1507, she being after-
wards the wife of Bartholomew Hesketh of Augh-
ton, esq.;*1 and thirdly to Anne daughter of Sir
Thomas Butler, of Bewsey, knt.*' He died in
1 Exch. K. R. Knts. Fees, bdle. i, 9,
m. •ta ; Lanes. Inquests (Rec. Soc. xlviii), 9.
> Ibid.
8 Testa de Neiiill (Rec. Com.), 396 ;
Rec. Soc. xlviii, 147.
4 Rot. Orig. 23, m. 2.
sin 17 Edw." II (1323-4) Adam de
Swillington gave 40 marks to the king
for licence to enfeoff Alexander son of
William de Atherton of lands and tene-
ments in Swillington. Abbrev. Rot. Orig.
(Rec. Com.), i, 274. In one of the
windows of Swillington church the arms
of Atherton— gules 3 falcons (sparrow-
hawks) volant argent, an annulet for
difference, were found by Dodsworth ;
Herald and Gen. iv, 229.
5 Plac. de quo War. (Rec. Com.), 607*.
1 Lanes, and dies. Hist. Notes, ii, lib.
He also attested an important charter in
1300 ; Chet. Soc. Ixxxvi, 120.
8 Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc. xxxix),
185 ; xlvi, 1 06.
11 Parl. Writs (Rec. Com.), ii (2), 639.
" Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc. xlvi), 87.
" Cal. Pat. 1340-3, p. 198.
14 K..R. Mem. R. 122, Mich. m. «9</.
15 Lich. Epis. Reg. v, 3*.
16 Nicolas, Scrape and Grosv. R. 288,
292.
!7 Pink and Beavan, Parly. Rep. of
Lanes. 36.
19 Dugdale, Visit, of 1665 (Chet. Soc.),
19 Recog. R. of dies. (Dep. Keeper's Rep.
xxxvi, App. ii), 14.
» Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), xcv, 107.
"In 1429 Sir William Atherton, knt.
sued Nicholas Pennington, of Pennington,
gent., Simon Bradshagh, of Westhoughton,
yeoman, Richard the Arrowsmyth of the
same, yeoman, John Rigby, senior, and
William Rigby of the same, yeomen, John
Prestwich, late of Westleigh, yeoman,
James Worsley, of Bedford, yeoman, and
David Pennington, junior, of Westleigh,
was deprived of his services for a long
time ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 2, m. 8.
The same year he was indicted — together
with his son Ralph — for waylaying and
wounding Robert Anderton at West-
houghton ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 2, m. 5.
** Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 20.
113 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 5, m. 4.
" Harl. MS. 2112, fol. 152.
*• The three sons were under age in
1438; Dodsworth MSS. Iviii, 167*;
Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 38.
26 Harl. MS. 2112, 152.
^ Ibid.
39 P.R.O. Lists and Indices, ix, 42 ; Cal.
Pat. 1467-77, 23-
*» Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, n. 39.
80 Dodsworth MSS. Iviii, 167*.
81 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, n. 39.
»» Dugdale, Visit, of 1665 (Chet. Soc.),
21.
88 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, n. 39.
His will bears the date 23 Nov. 1513.
living at Ashton in Makerfield in 1332
Richard Harrington, late of Westleigh,
to pray devoutly for his soul in Leigh
bdle. 130, 6 ; Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc.
xlvi), 87.
1° Towneley MS. HH. 2916.
houghton, gent., wounded John son of
Robert Rylondes, servant of the said Sir
William, at Westhoughton, whereby he
buried there near the bones of his father
and of Anne late hi. wife. Wills (Rec.
Soc.), xxx, 29.
436
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
LEIGH
His son Sir John Atherton,1 who was knighted in Herefordshire. They had issue two sons: Willia
1544, was high sheriff in 1550, 1554, and 1560, and who died at Ather
nd Robert Vernon
spresented the county in the Parliament of 1559.* Atherton, who at the age of twenty-two succeeded to
He was married in his father's lifetime to Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir Alexander Radcliffe, knt.,* from whom
he was divorced. He afterwards married Margaret,
daughter and coheir of Thomas Catterall of Little
Mitton, esq.' He was buried at Leigh 8 July,
the family estates and assumed the name and arms of
Atherton. From 1774 to 1780 he represented the
borough of Newton in Parliament. He died 9 July,
1783, aged 42 years. In 1763 he married Henrietta
Maria, eldest daughter and coheir of Peter Legh of
1573. By his will dated 1 8 April, 1573, he gave his Lyme, by whom he had, besides other children who
manors of Atherton, Lancashire, Slingsby, Fryton, died young, a son, Atherton Legh Atherton, who
and Hovingham, Yorkshire,5 after his death, to his died in his minority and unmarried in 1789, and three
eldest son and heir John, whom he had agreed to daughters, Henrietta Maria, married to Thomas
any to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Byron of Powys, second Baron Lilford ;u Elizabeth, married
Newstead, knt.6
to George Anthony Legh-Keck of Stoughton Grange,
John the son, was aged sixteen at his father's death, Leicestershire ; and Esther, married to the Rev. James
was high sheriff in 1582,' and one of the Parliamentary John Hornby, rector of Winwick, whose only children,
representatives of the county in 1586, and for Lan-
15 88-9." He married secondly, Katherine,
is, died respectively in 1818 and 1857 without
Thomas Littleton Powys, who succeeded his
daughter and coheiress of John, Lord Conyers, of father as fourth Baron Lilford in 1 86 1, inherited in
Hornby Castle,9 Yorkshire, and was buried at Leigh 1860 the estates of George Anthony Legh-Keck at
Bank Hall in this county. John, second but eldest
surviving son of the fourth baron, succeeded his fathei
23 May, 1617. By his first wife he had issue John
his heir, who was buried at Leigh, 23 July, 1628
and by his second wife another John, of Skelton, who in 1 896
was heir to his mother.10 The former was father
fifth Baron Lilford, and is now lord of
he manor. No courts for the manor of Atherton
of John Atherton, esq.,11 who died in 1 646, having have been held for many years.1
married Eleanor, daughter of Sir Thomas Ireland
of Bewsey, knt. This lady was eventually heir to
her cousin, Dame Margaret, wife of Sir Gilbert Ire-
ey ;
Surviving her husband, Dame Margaret devised her
Bewsey estate to Sir Richard Atherton, grandson
of her cousin Eleanor, and died two months after her
husband.
John Atherton, third but eldest surviving son of
John Atherton by his wife Eleanor, was a Presby-
terian, a captain in the Parliamentary army, a justice
of the peace and high sheriff of the county in 1654,
and at his death early in 1656." Hisposthum
Chanters, now a farm house standing near the
brook of that name, formerly a fine stone- built house
with mullioned windows, was built in 1678 on the
ite of an ol>
of an older structure. The initials W.A., which
appear over the door of the porch above the date
1678, are possibly those of William Atherton,
younger brother of John Atherton, the Parliamen-
tarian who died in 1646. The house is now falling
to decay owing to subsidence caused by old coal
workings.
CHOff^SENT. — Chollebynt, Shollebent, c. 1 35O.16
In 1385 Thomas Smith, ' nayller ' of Cholle, was
Richard Atherton took an active part in politics and sued for debt at the sessions at Lancaster." In 1535
vas knighted by Charle
actve part
II at Wind
i684-13 William, George, Richard, and Gilbert Cholle were
He died two years later. His only son, John, married indicted for taking part in a riot at Leigh church,
Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Robert Cholmonde- caused by the unseemly arrest of three persons by the
under-sheriff in the church immediately after the
celebration of high mass.18 Chowe's tenement, which
appears to have been held by the Cholle or Chowe
lease from tHe Athertons in the
vas sold in 1616-17, together with
married Robert Gwillym'of Langston and Walford, the Green Hall and Carrbank tenements, by John
ley of Vale Royal, and died in 1707 at the age
of 29. His son, Richard Atherton, was the last
direct male representative of the family. By Eliza-
beth his wife, daughter of William Farington of Shaw family 19 under
Hall, he had issue an only daughter, Elizabeth, who sixteenth century
1 He entered his pedigree at Bennalt's
visitation in 1533 ; Chet. Soc. xcviii, 86.
a Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 65.
» Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, n. 39.
Sir John Atherton was engaged in many
suits in the Duchy chamber during his
lifetime. Duchy of Lane. Cal. Pleadings,
(Rec. Com.), passim.
« Foster, Visit, of Torts, 1584-5, p. 70.
6 He purchased the manor of Fryton,
in 1562, from Richard Assheton of
Middleton, esq., and Elizabeth his wife ;
11 In 1632 he compounded for not
taking up the order of knighthood. He
died about 1646, His will bears date in
1642, proved 1662. In it he names all
his children and his mansion house called
the Lodge, in Atherton.
"The Rev. James Livesey, M.A.
minister of Chowbent Chapel 1652-7,
has left an eulogistic biography of his
patron John Atherton; Leigh Chron.
12 Mar. 1892.
13 Sir Richard Atherton is said to have
Dodding of Conishead ; Dugdale, Visit.
(Chet. Soc. Ixxxiv), 99. In his will
(30 Dec. 1686, proved 1690) he ap-
pointed his brother-in-law James Holt
and his friend William Bankes guardians
of his son John.
1* See V. C. H. NortAants, Gen. vol.
255-69.
I* Ex inform. Mr. J. B. Selby.
16 Cal. Pat. Cholle, 1385.
In 1496 Randle Atherton of ' Choi-
bent ' held a tenement in Astley of the
the manor of Slingsby in 1563 from
Henry earl of Huntingdon and Sir
Thomas Gerard, knt. and their wives ;
and the manor of Hovingham in 1570
from Sir Thomas Gerard, knt. and Eliza-
beth his wife ; Feet of F. (Yorks Rec.
Soc.), ii, 261, 279, 384.
« Dodsworth MSS. Iviii, 166.
7 P.R.O. List, 73.
8 Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 67, 114.
» Foster, Visit. ofTorks. 15 84-5, PP- 7°,
72, 206.
10 Visit. (Chet. Soc., xcviii), 86-7.
Charles II and in his political principles
a high Tory. He was parliamentary re-
presentative for Liverpool, 1677-79 and
1685 i mayor of Liverpool, 1684, in
which year he assisted Judge Jeffreys,
chief justice of England, in obtaining from
the corporation of Liverpool the surrender
of their charters ; Leigh Chron. 12 Mar.
1892.
He married first Isabel, daughter of
Robert Holt of Castleton and Stubley,
and secondly Agnes, daughter of Mile.
437
per annum; Harl. MS. 21 12,41. ' Bent '
Lancashire * Goose corn,' upon the ripe
seeds of which grouse feed largely in
i' Dip. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 363.
is Cal. Plead, xxii, B. 25 ; Rec. Soc. xxv,
43-8.
i» In 1616-7 d"« tenement was in the
occupation of George Chowe, whose
father, Arthur Chowe, had previously
held it.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Atherton, esq., under a yearly quit-rent of £5 is. \od.
The two latter tenements were afterwards repurchased
by the Atherton family, but Chowe's tenement re-
mains alienated from their represent.itives' estates,
subject to a quit-rent of £i i$s. \od. Down to
1705 it remained in the possession of the Chowe
family, but in that year it passed by mortgage and
eventually by sale to Mr. Nathan Mort, son of Robert
Mort of Wharton Hall and cousin of Thomas Mort of
Dam House, by whose descendants the estate was
divided and sold.1 An interesting description of this
place, written in the year 1787 by Doming Rasbotham,
esq., is given by Baines in his History of Lancashire.1
Previous to the American War of Independence,
indeed as far back as 1385, the manufacture of nails
was carried on to a considerable extent in this place.
Subsequently a great part of the industry was trans-
ferred to Staffordshire, but did not become entirely ex-
tinct here. After the introduction of machinery into the
cotton trade this place became noted for the manu-
facture of carding and spinning machinery, some of
the earlier improvementst being due to the ingenuity
of the mechanics of Chowbent. Improvements in
the finishing of certain kinds of cotton fabric are said
to have been accidentally discovered by a small local
manufacturer in the early part of the century.*
Alder House, erected by Ralph Astley, gent., in
1697 upon the Alder Fold estate, which, as it
existed in the eighteenth century, included Chowe's
tenement, was sold by the Astleys in 1724 in moieties
to Adam Mort, eldest son of Nathan Mort, esq.,
sometime of Wharton Hall, and to Roger Rigby of
Atherton, whose executors sold this moiety to Adam
Mort in 1730.*
The principal landowners here in 1787 were A. L.
Atherton, holding about one-fifth of the township,
Thomas Wrightington, James Ashworth, and Samuel
Charlson."
The parochial chapel of St. John the
CHURCH Baptist at Chowbent
small
edifice erected in 1645 by John Atherton,
esq., and his tenants, the one erecting the chancel,
the others the body of the chapel.6 Down to 1717
it had never been consecrated, and had always been
used by the Presbyterians, who quitted the place
when the vicar of Leigh came to officiate, leaving him
the Bible and Book of Common Prayer ready for
use.' In 1721 Richard Atherton, upon political
grounds, took it from the dissenters and offered it for
consecration in 1723, giving £200 towards the aug-
mentation of the living. It was consecrated the same
year by the bishop of Sodor and Man.8 A new
chapel was consecrated by the bishop of Chester in
1814. The present church, the third to be erected
upon the site, was consecrated in 1879, and is now
described as the parish church of St. John the Baptist
in Atherton. The plate consists of a flagon, a chalice,
and two patens. The flagon was given by Samuel
Hilton of Bedford, gent., in 1723.
The registers commence in the year 1778. The
living is a vicarage, average tithe-rent charge £44, net
yearly value £215, including 23 acres of glebe with
residence, and is in the gift of Lord Lilford.
The following have been incumbents : —
r. 1648 James Smith9
James Livesey, M.A.10
1657 James Wood"
James Wood12
Edward Sedgwick, B.A."
John Lowe, B.A."
Thomas Foxley, M.A.15
1836 Samuel Johnson, M.A.16
1870 William Nuttall, M.A.17
Jnal church of St. Anne's at Hindsford
was a temporary building of brick, formerly a barn,
but in 1901 a new church, from designs by Messrs.
Austin and Paley, was erected upon a site given by
Lord Lilford. The register of baptisms commences
in 1871. The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value
£150, in the gift of the bishop of Manchester. A
non-sectarian mission church was erected in Laburnum
Street in 1904. The church of St. Michael and All
Angels at Howe Bridge is a building in the Early
English style, erected in 1877, and consisting of
chancel, nave, transepts, north porch, and a central
turret containing one bell. The register commences
in the year 1873. The living is a vicarage, gross
yearly value £198, in the gift of three trustees.
1652
1657
1695
'755
1777
The
1 T. H. Hope, in the Bee, Dec. 1892.
» Op. cit. (ed. 1836), iii, 612-14.
» Baines, Direc. 1825, ii, 47.
4 T. H. Hope, in the Bee, Dec. 1892.
5 Land-tax rets, at Preston.
• In 1665 a legacy in favour of this
chapel was detained by John Okey of
Bolton, because he could not be assured
that it would be employed for the use
intended — ' to preach God's word ' ; Visit.
Rec. at Chester.
' Bp. Gastrell's Notitia, from informa-
tion supplied by the vicar of Leigh in
1717 (Chet. Soc. xxi), 189.
8 Ibid. Church papers at Chester.
9 He was sometime minister of Walmes-
ley. A man of good life and conversation,
he was curate in 1650, having £70 a year
out of the issues of the impropriate rectory
of Leigh by order of the committee of
Plundered Ministers ; Lambeth MSS.
Lanes, and Chei. Rec. Soc. xxviii, 9, 69.
He resigned in 1652; Rec. Soc. xxviii,
119.
10 SeeUrwick, Ches. Nonconf. 365,401.
Son of Robert Livesey of Bury, yeoman,
entered Christ's Coll. Camb. 1645, St.
John's Coll. 1647 (Admits, to St. John's
Coll. i, 82), where he graduated M.A.
He was sometime minister at Turton,
appointed here in 1652, with the same
stipend as his predecessor ; Rec. Soc.
xxviii, 119-20, 123, 130-1, 249. He
was presented to the vicarage of Budworth
in 1657; ibid. 232.
H Son of James Wood, minister of Ash-
ton in Makerrield. He succeeded in 1657,
was silenced in 1662, but afterwards re-
sumed his duties and continued here until
his death in 1695 ; T. H. Hope, in the
Inquirer, 1893. In 1689 he was described
as one of the conformable clergy ; Kenyan
MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com. xiv, Rep. App.
iv), 228.
12 He was the son of the last minister,
whom he succeeded, and is noted for hav-
ing raised a force of men at Atherton in
1715 whom he led to Preston, where
they assisted in the defeat of the Pre-
tender's forces ; Memor. of the Rebel.,
Chet. Soc. Old Ser. v. For this service he
acquired locally the complimentary title
of ' General,' and received the thanks of
the Government with an annuity of ^100
(Kenyan MSS. 464), much of which he is
said to have devoted to the building of
the Presbyterian chapel at Alder Fold,
when the old chapel was taken from the
dissenters in 1721 (T. H. Hope, op. cit.).
He died in 1759, aged eighty-seven.
18 Of Brasenose Coll. Oxf. B.A. 1715,
was instituted curate here about the year
1723 ; appointed schoolmaster of Chow-
bent in 1733 ; Church Papers at Chester.
He continued here until 1755, and died
in 1756.
" Probably of Trinity Coll. Camb., B.A.
1731, curate of Holcombe and Edenneld }
was instituted in 1755 and remained here
until his resignation in 1777. He died
in 1 779 or 1780.
15 Thomas Foxley, of Brasenose Coll.
Oxf., B.A. 1772, M.A. 1780, curate of
Chelford, co. Chester, was instituted in
1777. The curacy was of the gross
annual value of £130 in 1818. In 1800,
1818, and 1836, Mr. Foxley, rector of
Radcliffe, vicar of Badley, county York,
and curate here, appointed assistant
curates. He resigned in 1836, and died
in 1838.
1" Son of the Rev. Samuel Johnson of
Horwich, entered Lincoln Coll. Oxf. in
1 8 16, graduated B.A. 1820, M.A. 1823,
instituted 1836 ; see Gent. Mag. 1866,
ii, 845.
17 Of St. Catharine's Coll. Camb.,
graduated B.A. 1859, M.A. 1868, insti-
tuted 1870, surrogate.
438
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
There are chapels of the Wesleyan, Baptist, Inde-
pendent Methodist, and Primitive Methodist denomi-
nations. The last-named was built in 1884.
The Chowbent Unitarian chapel was the earliest
Nonconformist one in the township, and represents
the oldest religious society therein. The chapel was
erected by the Presbyterian congregation at the time
(1721) when the ancient Chowbent chapel, built in
1645, was transferred to the Episcopal Church. It is
a curious and interesting building, enlarged in 1901,
and contains high-backed dark oak pews, and a three-
decker pulpit in an excellent state of preservation.
The Communion table and plate came from the old
chapel.1
A new Congregational church at Howe Bridge was
opened in 1904.
The Roman Catholic school chapel of St. Richard
was opened in 1890, the mission having formerly been
served from Tyldesley.*
A grammar school existed at Chowbent in 1655,
of which Mr. Richard Jollie was master. Nathaniel
Lommax of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,
1674-5, was partly educated here under Mr. Taylor.3
Edward Sedgwick was appointed master in 1733.
Bequests yielding £26 per annum
CHARITIES in 1900 were made between 1865
and 1899 in favour of Chowbent
Unitarian chapel.4
TYLDESLEY WITH SHAKERLEY
Tildeslei, Tildeslege, 1190-1210 ; Tyldesley,
1242 ; Tildeslegh, Tildesley, 1332.
This township includes Tyldesley, containing 1,970
statute acres, and the hamlet of Shakerley on the north-
west, containing 5 20 acres, and is bounded on the north-
ern and eastern sides by the hundred of Salford.6 The
ground rises gently from an elevation of loo ft. above
the Ordnance datum on the south to 250 ft. on the
north, forming the southernmost spur of the central
and east Lancashire hills. The ' Banks of Tyldesley '
command an extensive prospect over several counties,
extending even to points in the counties of Salop and
Montgomery. The town of Tyldesley is situate on
the main road between Manchester, Hindley, and
Wigan, near the western boundary of the township
and on the northern side of the Eccles, Tyldesley,
and Wigan branch of the London and North
Western Railway, upon which is Tyldesley Station.
The Leigh and Bedford branch of the same line
connects this town with Leigh. A branch of the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway from Pendleton to
Hindley passes through Shakerley, about one mile
to the north of the town. With the exception
of a trifling area of the lower red sandstone of
the permian rocks, near Dam House, the geological
formation consists entirely of the coal measures,
which are more or less covered with boulder clay.
The soil is of clay, upon which a limited amount
of wheat is grown. The land consists mostly of
LEIGH
meadow and pasture which formerly produced the
noted Leigh cheeses. The aspect of the township is
eminently characteristic of an industrial district whose
natural features have been almost entirely swept away
to give place to factories, iron foundries, and collieries.
Except from an industrial point of view this treeless
district presents a most uninteresting landscape to the
traveller.
In 1901 the population of the township was
14,843.° The inhabitants are chiefly employed in
the collieries and in the cotton spinning and weaving
industry. In 1863 the township adopted the Local
Government Act of 1858, but under the recent
Local Government Act, 1894, it is governed by an
urban district council of fifteen members, represent-
ing its five wards — North, East, South, West, and
Shakerley. It is supplied with gas from works be-
longing to the council, who also control the water
supply. A cemetery of 9! acres with three mortuary
chapels was formed in 1878, and is administered by a
burial board of fifteen members. A building in
Elliott Street, known as the Miners' Hall and seating
about 750 persons, was erected by the Tyldesley
miners in 1893. The public baths in Union Street,
erected upon land given by Lady Cotton, were opened
in 1876. The township was formed into a parish
from the civil parish of Leigh on 15 January, 1828.'
The manor of TTLDESLET was one
M4NOR of the thirty-four manors dependent
upon the chief manor of Warrington
before the Conquest, being held by a dreng, whose
successors afterwards held it of the barony of War-
rington. At the date of the inquest of 1212 it was
held of William le Boteler by Hugh son of Henry de
Tyldesley,8 and at the date of the Gascon Scutage of
1242-3 by Henry de Tyldesley
of the heir of Emery le Boteler.9
Henry was living in 1260,'°
was seneschal of Warrington in
1261," and survived at least
until I265-18 It was probably
he who in 1260 enfeoffed
Richard son of John de Hulton
of land called The Fall, on the
boundary of which were places
called Herbert's Clough, Cart
Leach, Wych Brook, and Fair-
hurst Sike.13 Henry son of the
above Henry released the service due from this land,14
and in 1 300 had a charter from William le Boteler,
his chief lord, releasing one of the two beadles whom he
kept by custom to serve in his lord's court and fee of
Warrington and acquitting him from all claim to, or
services for, the wastes and assarts by him improved
or to be improved — except the service of puture of
one beadle, bode and witness due from his oxgangs
of land — and of stallage and pleas of forestalling.15
In 1301 he divided his manor, lands, and services
among his three sons, Hugh, Adam, and Henry.
To the eldest he gave the manor, seven messuages,
i Ex inform. Mr. W. D. Pink. An
account of the chapel and its ministers
will be found in the Seed Sower, i, New
Ser.6,pp. 91-3.
» Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1905.
» Admits, to Gon. and Caius Coll. 1588-
6 Including Boothstown, Makens, and
Parr Bridge ; Genoa Ret.
1 Land. Ga*. 98.
8 Exch. K..R. Knt's. Fees, bdle. i,
No. 9, m. 33.
iTuadtNtviUQutt. Com.), ^<jd;Lancs.
« Lane. Inj. (Rec. Soc. of Lanes, and
Ches. xlviii), 232.
is Yates D. No. 39. The date appears
on the seal tag.
" Ibid. No. 40.
» Harl. MS. 21 12, fol. 213 ; cf. Chet.
1678, p. 280.
* End. Char. Lanes. 1901, pp. 8o-I.
6 2,490 acres, including 1 1 of inland
water; Census Rep. 1901.
Intj. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches., xlviii),
146. 1° Pipe R. 44 Hen. Ill, Lanes.
11 Dodsworth MSS. in Chet. Soc. Ixxxvi,
74-
439
teenth- century translation of this charter
among Captain Clowes' deeds gives ' flor-
tolle ' instead of ' forestall.'
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
one mill, 86 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, 160
acres of wood, and 26 acres of pasture.1 To Adam
he gave the higher part of the township, bordering
upon Worsley, Hulton, and Atherton, and adjoining
on the south (from west to east) to lands held by
Alexander de Haldale, called 'The Spenne,' the lands
of Matthew ' of Hurst,' the King's Hedge of the
Woodfall, the Fruyndes Sike, the Mosseld Yard,
the lands of Richard de Wylkeshalgh, the Brooks,
Holynshurst Sike, the lands of Margaret, relict
of Walter the Fuller, and of Richard son of
Richard son of John de Hulton.* To Henry, the
youngest son, he gave lands called the Hurst, whereby
later he was described as ' of Tyldesley Hurst.'
As a result of the infeudations the manor was vested
in Hugh de Tyldesley and subsequently descended
through the family of Tyldesley of Garrett, who held
it by the yearly service of zod. and suit to the three
weeks' court of Warrington, whilst the higher part of
the township was vested in Adam de Tyldesley,
younger brother of Hugh, afterwards descending as a
reputed or mesne manor through the Tyldesleys of
Wardley, who held it for the loth part of a knight's
fee. In a schedule of the free tenants of the barony
of Warrington between 1320 and 1330, Hugh de
Tyldesley and Adam son of Adam de Tyldesley occur
as tenants of this township.* These three brothers
were noted transgressors during the period of rapine
and violence which preceded the defeat and death of
Thomas, earl of Lancaster. In 1321 Hugh de
Tyldesley and five of his sons were concerned in a
fray at Chaddock Hurst with a number of people
belonging to the hundred of Salford, in which four
of his kinsmen and friends were slain.4 Three months
later he and his sons, accompanied by certain par-
tizans of the Holand faction in the county, burned
the house of Margery de Worsley at Worsley and
slew some of her servants.5 A few years later Hugh's
sons are found in the king's service in Gascony
earning pardon for these misdeeds.6 In 1341 Adam
son of Hugh, slew his elder brother Henry, seized his
inheritance, expelled his brother's wife and natural
son Hugh, afterwards executing a deed of feoffment
of the manor to Roger and Robert de Hulton upon
condition that they should re-enfeoff him, as soon as
he should obtain pardon for the felony.7
This feoffment occasioned much litigation between
the Tyldesleys and Hultons, and between certain
of the Tyldesleys' free tenants and Thomas del
Bothe, whom the Hultons enfeoffed after 1341 for
the term of his life.8 The Hultons maintained that
the deed of 1341 was a grant in fee and repudiated
the conditions verbally made when they were put in
seisin of the manor.9 The dispute was not ter-
minated until an appeal heard before the king in
1413, in which evidence of the original circum-
stances and of subsequent trials and judgements was
adduced on either side.10 In 1 347 Hugh, natural
son of Henry de Tyldesley, made an unsuccessful
attempt to prove the legitimacy of his birth." Two
years before he had been successful in obtaining some
part of his father's estates, for having petitioned the
earl of Lancaster, his uncle's estates had been seized
and a portion granted to him and to his mother
Joan.1*
Adam de Tyldesley died before 1350," and Henry
his son before 1352." Robert, youngest brother of
Adam, succeeded and held the manor for a brief
term. At his death without issue before 1353
Nicholas son of Adam, and Margery widow of
Robert, held the manor. John son of Nicholas pre-
deceased his father, at whose death without male
issue the manor passed under the limitations of a
settlement made by Robert de Tyldesley to Thurstan
son of Hugh, ancestor of Tyldesley of Garrett. In
1390 John son of Thurstan recovered the manor in a
trial at Lancaster " against Roger de Hulton, son of
Roger the feoffee of Adam de Tyldesley in 1341,
who had forcibly intruded into the same,16 and John
Tyldesley, his son and heir, subsequently defeated an
appeal brought in the king's court in 1413 by Roger
Hulton, son of Roger the defendant in the trial of
1390, who sought to obtain a reversal of the judge-
ment obtained in that trial.17 The dispute appears
to have reached a final stage in 1424, when John
Tyldesley and Roger Hulton of Hulton entered into
recognizances of £100 each to abide the award of
Geoffrey Shakerley and Henry Byrom respecting all
differences between them.18 In 1468 John Tyl-
desley, senior, esquire, presumably son of the last-
named, conveyed by fine to a feoffee the manor of
Tyldesley and three messuages, 200 acres of land,
20 acres of meadow, 60 acres of pasture, 24 acres of
wood, and 20 acres of heath in Tyldesley, doubtless
for the purpose of making a settlement of his
estates.19 The later descent of the manor follows that
of the estate of Garrett.
Returning to the reputed manor which Adam son
of Adam de Tyldesley held by descent from his father
circa 1320-30, the said Adam the son in 1335
enfeoffed Robert de Chisenhale, parson of Chidding-
fold, county Surrey, of his estates to hold in trust for
1 Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc., x«ix),
197.
a Clowes D. Box 2, No. i.
8 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 13.
4 Coram Rege R. 254, Rex, m. 50.
5 Ibid. m. 60. In 1318 Hugh de Tyl-
desley had made a recognizance of a debt
of ^10 due to Margaret relict of Henry de
Worsley. Cal. Close R. 1318-23, p. 109.
6 Cal. Close R. 1323-7, p. 415. For a
serious fray at Liverpool on St. Valen-
tine's Day, 1345, during the sessions and
in the presence of the justices in eyre, at
which several lives were lost, the follow-
ing members of this family were pardoned
upon condition of going in the king's ser-
vice to Gascony for one year at their own
charges, or paying a fine of 201. in lieu
thereof, viz. : Thurstan son of Robert,
Hugh .on of Henry, Thurstan son of
Richard, Roger son of Richard, Henry
son of Henry, Henry son of Adam, Hugh
his brother, and John son of Hugh. Also
of Tyldesley Hurst the following : John
son of Henry, Hugh and Adam his bro-
thers, and Richard son of Henry. Cal.
Close R. 1346-9, PP. 4.8-5° > Cal. Pat. R.
>343~5» PP- 53°-2> ibid- '345-8, pp. 122,
244, 476.
'Assize R. 43;, m. ZgAj 1435, m.
j6</. The deed was dated on Friday next
after the Epiphany, 1341, and conveyed
the manor of Tyldesley, the mill with the
suit pertaining to it, and the free services
of Hugh Gregory, Robert de Leyland,
Henry de Byrom, Gilbert de Swenelegh
m Tyldeslegh, and Robert de Wilkes-
halgh in Tyldeslegh and Goukelache in
Astley, and the reversion of lands held by
Robert de Tyldeslegh, the grantor's bro-
440
ther, for term of his life. Coram Rege
R. 609, m. 29.
8 Coram Rege R. 609, m. 29 ; Duchy
of Lane. Assize R. 3 (2), m. 6.
» Assize R. 435, m. 29J.
10 Coram Rege R. 609, m. 29.
11 Lichfield Epis. Reg. iii, in.
la Assize R. 1435, m. 36 d. The pre-
mises included 6 messuages, 2 mills and
310 acres of land, meadow, pasture and)
wood. Hugh seems to have died without
issue about 1350.
i» Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 3, (2),
'"'ibid. R. 2(1), m. id.
15 Def. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. i, 360.
» Coram Rege R. 609, m. 29.
V Ibid. No judgement is recorded.
18 Def. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 25.
» Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 3 3, m. 7.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
himself for life, with successive remainders to his sons,
Nicholas and Ralph, in tail male.1 In 1353 Nicholas
son of Adam, having no surviving male issue, settled
the reversion of these estates upon his kinsman
Thurstan son of Richard de Tyldesley,2 of Wardley,
who soon after 1331 and at a tender age had been
married to Margaret daughter and heir of Jordan de
Worsley, of Wardley, in the adjoining township of
Worsley, by which marriage the estate of Wardley
and other lands passed into the possession of this
branch of the Tyldesley family.3 Thurstan Tyldesley
died circa 1375 seised of the Hurst, which had
descended to him from his grandfather, Henry de
Tyldesley of Hurst ; the Park, which had been given
to the same Henry in 1347 by Robert son of Adam
de Hulton ;4 and the Spen.5 In 1410 Thomas
Tyldesley, Serjeant at law to Henry IV and son and
heir of Thurstan, died possessed of these tenements,
together with the reputed manor called Nicholas's
manor, and having no issue was succeeded by his
brother Hugh, then aged forty.6 Hugh died in
1 434,7 Thurstan being his son and heir.*1 Thomas
Tyldesley,9 believed to be son of John 10 and grandson
of Thurstan, died in 1495 seised of the reputed
manor of Tyldesley,11 and was father of Thurstan,
who held the manor of Sir Thomas Butler, knt.,
in 1506," receiver-general of the Isle of Man in
1532, and M.P. for county Lancaster 1 5 47-5 2. 13
He died 4 July, 1554."
His grandson Thurstan in 1563 mortgaged his
estates in Tyldesley, Astley, Worsley and elsewhere to
Edward Jackman and others for ^l,2OO.ls On his
failure to make repayment within the specified term
of twelve months, the mortgagees foreclosed and in
I 566 joined with Thurstan in a sale of the manors of
Tyldesley and Astley to Robert Worsley of Mossley
and Christopher Anderton of Lostock.16 In 1572 a
partition of the estates was made between Worsley
and Anderton under which the latter took this manor
and 17 messuages, 280 acres of arable land, a water-
mill, 19;. \o\J. of chief rents, and a moiety of
40 acres of moor or moss as his share.17 In 1633
Christopher Anderton of Lostock, grandson of the
last, sold the manor and other lands to Francis
LEIGH
Sherington of London, merchant, and of Booths
Hall in Worsley, esq.,18 whose estates here and
in Worsley were sequestrated in 1645 by order
of Parliament,19 his wife Awdrey receiving an
allowance of one-fifth of the profits.80 In 1677
Sherington entailed the manor on his eldest son,
Bennet, with successive remainders to his younger
sons, Gilbert and Francis. In 1690 the last-named,
who had succeeded his father in 1684, sold the manor
and lands here to Alexander Radcliffe of Leigh, esq.,
John Parr and Peter Parr, his brother, of Westleigh,
gents., Radcliffe taking one half and the Parrs the
other half of the manor and lands,81 which with the
coal mines they continued to hold in common until a
partition was made in 1711. In 1721 Helena
Radcliffe, mother and devisee of Alexander Radcliffe,
grandson of the above Alexander, for the considera-
tion of £2,500 n conveyed one moiety of the manor
to Samuel Clowes of Manchester, merchant, who
purchased a fourth part in 1723 from the trustees
and executors of John Parr the elder in con-
sideration of £i,300,83 and an eighth part of the
manor and other lands in 1727 from the devisees of
John Parr the younger, son of the above Peter Parr,"
in consideration of £685. Lastly, in 1752, his son
Samuel purchased the remaining eighth part from
Peter Green of Westleigh, gent., son and heir of
Edward Green, by his wife Anne, sister and coheir
of the said John Parr the younger, in consideration
of £800." By this transaction the second Samuel
Clowes became possessed of the whole manor. A
settlement made by Samuel (III) his son in 1 774, upon
the marriage of his son Samuel (IV) to Martha
daughter of John Tipping of Manchester, merchant,
describes his estates here as including ' the manor.'
In 1 8 10 Samuel Clowes, then of Sprotboro' Hall,
co. York, son of Samuel IV, sold the manor with
lands here and in Worsley to Robert Haldane Brad-
shaw, of Worsley Hall, for the sum of £4.7,000*
Mr. Bradshaw was the first superintendent of the
Bridgewater estates, and as such a trustee of the will of
the late duke of Bridgewater from the duke's death in
1803 until he resigned his office in 1834. He
acquired a large number of properties adjacent to the
1 Towneley MS. DD. 938. The estate
included the free tenements at that time
held by Henry de Shakerley, Henry de
8 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 3, m. 1 8.
9 Covenants for a marriage between
Thomas son and heir of Hugh Tyldesley
l6 Harl. MS. 2112, 213; Towneley
MS. HH. 3772-4 ; Feet of F. bdle, 28,
m. 257 ; Clowes D. Box ii, 3.
ton, John son of Hugh de Tyldesley,
were made in 1471 ; Lord Ellesmere's
MS. HH. 3775. At this time the free
Richard de Hulton, of Wycheves in
D. Worsley, 263.
tenants of the manor were Geoffrey
Worsley, Hugh son of John, and Agnes
de Cleworth.
10 In 14.68 John Tyldesley the elder
conveyed the manor of Tyldesley to a
Shakerley, esq., paying 1 35. 4</. for Sha-
kerley ; William Tyldesley of Peel, esq.,
» Pal. of Lane. Chan. Misc. bdle. i,
feoffee ; Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc.), iii,
afterwards Thomas Fleetwood, 2j. for
file 8, n. I ; Towneley MS. CC. n. 202.
134.
lands adjoining Hulton; Ralph Hasle-
8 Dods. MSS. liii, 13.
11 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, 96.
hurst, gent., 31. 6</.; Thomas Chaddock,
" Yates D. No. 31.
6 Iny. p.m. (Chet. Soc., xcv), 95. In
1384 Nicholas's manor in Tyldesley was
" Homage R. (Rec. Soc. xii), pt. i, 1 8-20.
In 1518 the following were free tenants
of this manor : Peter Shakerley, pay-
gent., I zd, for Chaddock ; and Roger
Boardman, as tenant of John Parr, gent.,
$J. for Cleworth; Harl. MS. 2112,
settled upon Thomas de Strangways and
Ellen his wife, who was presumably
ing 13.. i,d. for Shakerley and i6s. for
Makens (Machoun) ; Thomas Tyldesley
M»4-«5*.
18 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 122,
either daughter or daughter-in-law of
of Peel, zs. for his lands in Tyldesley ;
No. I ; Clowes D. Box ii.
Nicholas de Tyldesley, and upon their
and two other persons each paying 31. 6d.;
uCal.Com.forComf.ii, 1191.
issue ; failing which the reversion was to
Dodsworth MSS. liii, 12.
» Clowes D. Box ii.
be to the sons of Henry de Kighley, knt.
18 He had a grant from the crown in
•1 Clowes D. Box ii ; Pal. of Lane.
(Lane,. Feet of F. Rec. Soc. iii, 25), ap-
parently a former husband of Ellen,
1540 in consideration of £326 13*. <tf.
of lands in Swinton, Haughton, West-
Feet of F. bdle. 225, m. 65.
»» Clowes D. Box ii.
who became the wife of Nicholas Blundell
lakes, KLydpull, Westwood, and Marland,
23 Conveyed by fine and recovery in
of Little Crosby. The provisions of this
parcel of the possessions of the dissolved
Lent term 8 Ceo. I ; Pal. of Lane.
settlement did not long continue in force,
monastery of Whalley ; Towneley MS.
Plea R. 514, m. 6 ; Feet of F. bdle. 287,
as the later descent proves.
DD. 958 ; Pat. R. 32 Hen. VIII.
m. 34.
6 /n?. p.m. ut sup.
11 Hiswill,dated I547,has been printed;
* Clowes D.
1 Inq. p.m. Towneley MS. abstract, loi;
Chet. Soc. xxxiii, 97.
a5 Ibid.
Dtp. Keeper', Rep. xxxiii, App. i, 35.
« Towneley MS. HH. 3771.
M Ibid.
3
44I
56
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Bridgewater estates, and shortly before his death
agreed to sell them to Lord Francis Egerton, after-
wards first earl of Ellesmere. In 1836 Mr. Brad-
shaw's devisees in pursuance of this agreement
conveyed the manor of Tyldesley, the mesne manor
of Garrett, and the estate of Booths to the first earl of
Ellesmere, grandfather of the present owner.1
CHADDQCKHALL (Chaidok, 1332 ; Cheidocke,
1586), on the eastern side of the township, was for
many centuries the estate of a family of yeomen of
the same name, of whom Henry and Adam con-
tributed to the subsidy granted in 1332.* Thomas
de Chaydok, a free tenant, was living in 13 50." In
1547 Thomas, Piers, and James, sons of Hugh
Chaddock, gent., were summoned to the Duchy
chamber to answer 'Sir Robert Worsley of the Booths,
knt., for breaking into his haybarn, taking a tame red
deer and conveying it to the
house of Sir John Atherton,
knt., at Lostock, where they
killed and ate it.4 Thomas
Chaddock,5 great-grandson of
the above Thomas, entered his
pedigree at the herald's visi-
tation in 1 664-5,° and was
father of Thomas Chaddock
who graduated B.A. of Brase-
nose College, Oxford, in 1692
and was presented by George I
to the vicarage of Eccles in
I 72 1.7 He died in 1723 leav-
ing an only daughter Grace,
who married, first, Miles Barrett, B.A., who died
before 1728 ; secondly, James Markland of Chaddock
Hall, gent., who joined with her in 1731 in a sale
of the estate to Samuel Clowes of Manchester, mer-
chant.8 It passed by purchase with the manor of
DDOCK. Gules, an
escutcheon argent charged
•with a cross of the JieU
of the second.
Tyldesley and the mesne manor of Garrett to Lord
Francis Egerton, grandfather of the present earl, as
already recorded.
THE GARRETT, standing half a mile north-west
of Chaddock Hall, was the mansion house of the
lords of the manor of Tyldesley,9 whose descent has
been traced to John Tyldesley, senior, esq., living
in 1468. He is probably the same person as John
Tyldesley who died in 1497 seised of this manor,
and of moieties of the manors of Barnston and Arrow,
county Chester,10 whose son and heir John was
described in 1505 as of Garrett, when he didhomage
for his lands in Tyldesley.11 He died in 1509"
seised of a capital messuage called 'The Garrette' in
Tyldesley, seven messuages, 276 acres of land, meadow,
pasture, and heath, which he held of Sir Thomas
Butler, knt., as of his manor of Warrington by the
yearly rent of 20 pence and suit of court every three
weeks.13 Richard his son was a minor at his father's
death,14 and was married to Mary, daughter of Richard
Heaton, who had purchased his marriage in 1511."
He was probably the father of Geoffrey, who suc-
ceeded him before I548,16 and was in turn succeeded
by his brother Lambert before 1563,^ who heads the
pedigree entered at the visitation of 1 664-5 18 and died
in 1596. In the fourth generation from Lambert
the family failed in the male line, and by the marriage
of his great-grandaughter Mary to Thomas Stanley of
Eccleston this estate passed to that family.19 Richard
son and heir of Thomas and Frances was aged three
years in 1664, and by his wife Anne was the father
of Thomas Stanley of Garrett,10 who joined with his
trustees in 1732 in a sale of the estate to Thomas
Clowes of Manchester, gent.*1 In 1829 Robert
Haldane Bradshaw, esq., of Worsley Hall, purchased
the estate from the Rev. Thomas Clowes of Darlastor.
Hall, county Stafford, for the consideration o
i Ex inform. Mr. Strachan Holme.
7 Foster, Alumni Oxon. i, 254.
fealty and the yearly rent of 31. 6J. :
Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi n. 11
time of Henry III William son of Re-
ginald de Chadoc gave half the land of
Chadoc in Tyldesley to Elias son of Robert
de Chadoc, which grant Hugh de Tyldes-
» It is stated in a MS. pedigree of
Tyldesley made in 1562, and preserved at
Peel Hall in 1782, that Henry, lord of
Tyldesley in 1300, gave the manor of
16 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 'bdle. 13, m.
142.
!7 Exch. Lay Subs. bdle. 131, No. 211.
18 Where he is incorrectly described a ;
to whom Henry de Tyldesley gave lands
in Tyldesley with remainder to Thomas
residue of his lands in Tyldesley with the
generation between Richard son of th :
son of John de Chadoc. John de Chadoc
services of divers of his freeholders to his
above Lambert, who died in his father'?
was father of Thomas, living in 1352 and
second son Adam, who gave parcel thereof
lifetime, and Lambert who died in 161:,
1 362 ; in 1427-8 lands in this place were
to his brother Henry ; Chet. Lib. Bar-
the son of Richard. The four childrei
settled upon Thomas son of Thomas
ritt's MSS.
of Lambert by Helen Smith were the
Chaddock and his issue. Lands in Tyldes-
10 Ches. Inq. p.m. 12 Hen. VII, n. 4 ;
issue of the first Lambert by his secon
ley were settled in 1521-2 upon Hugh
Def. Keeper's Rep. xxviii, App. 60.
wife, whom he married in 15845 Leig i
son and heir of John Chaddock and Ellen
« Warr. Homage R. (Rec. Soc. xii),
Par. Reg. and Wills at Chest.
daughter of Peter Heywood and relict of
pt. I, 17.
19 Cbet. Soc. Ixxxviii, 301 ; Feet of 1
Thomas Holt. From this Hugh the de-
« Ibid. 25 ; Ches. Inq. p.m. 24
bdle. 126, m. 15 ; bdle. 154, m. 67.
scent has been established. These details
Hen. VII, n. 6.
au Thomas Stanley was attainted <
are from Kuerden's MS., Harl. MSS.
is Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, n. 83.
treason and outlawed in 1716. Tre
7386, fol. 182. Thomas Chaydok attested
The estate was held of the relict of John
estate is described as the Hall of Garratt,
an important charter in 1443 with other
Butler, baron of Warrington in 1441 ;
the demesne lands, one water-cornm i
gentry of the parishes of Leigh and
Towneley's MS. DD. 1476.
and kiln in Garratt, let to Thos. Ka •
Eccles ; Def. Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App.
14 Proof of age, Ches. Inq. p.m. 14
tithes in Tyldesley, also let to Kay, and a
ii, 127.
Hen. VIII, n. 9. He was born at North
mansion house called the New Hall if
s Rentals and Surv. 379, m. I.
Meols, reared in the house of Edward
Tyldesley, let to Widow Heys ; in all of
< Duchy of Lane. Plea, xxiv, W. 3 ;
Wareton and was aged twenty-one years
which, valued at £118 15,. per annul,,
Rec. Sue. xl, 2.
and upwards on the feast of the Annuncia-
Ann Stanley of Culcheth, widow, mother .if
* ' John Cheydocke of Cheydocke, co.
tion (25 Mar.) 1523.
Thomas Stanley, had an estate for lif. ,
Lane, gent,' in his will, dated in 1626,
14 Rec. Soc. xii, pt. I, 27 ; Cbet. Soc.
Chan. Forfeited Est. Pa. No. 58. in
(proved 1627) named his eldest son,
ex, 194. Richard Tyldesley of Garrett
1717 Anne Stanley, of Culcheth, wido-.v,
Thomas, and younger son, John, and be-
did suit at the court held at Warrington
as a ' Papist,' registered a life estate >f
queathed ' 2os. yerelie towards the main-
in .523; ibid. Ixxxvii, 432- Leonard
£i 1 8 1 5.. in the Hall of Garrett ; En .;/.
teynaunce of the Ministerie at Allen
Asshawe, who died seised of the manor
Catb. Non-jurors, 1 1 6.
Brooke Chappie,' until his eldest son
attain twenty-one years. Will at Chester.
of Astley in 37 Eliz. held a messuage and
lands here, possibly ' The Dowere ' men-
" The consideration wa« £4,585 a id
an annuity of £.00 to Anne Stanley ,f
6 When he had respite for proof of his
tioned in the account of Astley, of Lam-
Culcheth, widow of Richard Stanley ; }'.*
arm. ; Cbet. Soc. Ixxxiv, 72.
bert Tyldesley, gent., in socage and by
inform. Mr. Strachan Holme.
442
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
£z 1,000, from whom it passed by sale with the
manor of Tyldesley ' and other estates to the grand-
father of the present earl of Ellesmere, and so became
merged in the Bridgewater estates.'
The NEW HALL, near Dam House, standing
on part of the demesne lands, has long been used as
a farm-house. It was formerly the property of the
Tyldesleys of Garrett.
CLEWORTH (Cluworth, 1333) is an estate of
about 163 acres, lying on high ground near the centre
of the township and held of the lord of the reputed
manor of Tyldesley by a yearly quit-rent of one
halfpenny.3 It was included in the grant ot a great
part of the township made in 1301 by Henry
lord of Tyldesley to his younger son Adam, of
whom it was then held by John de Waverton,
who also held a fourth part of the manor of Bed-
ford in 1315 of the inheritance of his grandmother,
Avice de Bedford.4 By Ameria his wife John de
Waverton had sons — John, who died without issue
before 1335, and William,5 whose wife Agnes held
part of this estate in 1335." Their son Thomas
married in 1333 Margaret daughter of John de
Chisenhale of Longshagh, when a settlement of this
estate and a fourth part of the manor of Bedford was
made upon them and their issue.7 The next link in
the descent is not clear. In I35Z William son of
John de Waverton held the Bedford estate 8 and died
before 1365,° when Katherine, his daughter and
heir by Ellen his wife, was under age and her mar-
riage the subject of dispute between Gilbert Kighley
and her guardians.10 But Cleworth appears to have
passed to Margery, a supposed daughter and heir of
Thomas de Waverton, who married Henry de Tote-
hill, by whom she had issue an only daughter, Emotte,
upon whose issue the estate was settled in 1408."
Emotte married Oliver Parr of Kempnall, in whose
family the estate descended to
Anne daughter of John Parr, .
gent., who married first, be-
fore 1567, Thurstan Barton of
Smithills, esq.,™ by whom she
had no issue, and secondly, in
1578, Nicholas Starkie of Cle-
worth and Huntroyde, esq.,
whose descendant Mr. Edmund
Arthur le Gendre Starkie, of
Huntroyde, is the present owner. s
The old hall, which was timber- ROYDE. Argmtt „ teaj
built, with bay windows and table between six storkt
gables, was destroyed about the proper.
year 1810. It is memorable
in the annals of witchcraft on account of the supposed
fatality to the children of the first possessor, Nicholas
Starkie, by reason of spells cast upon them by the
credulous dupes of a reputed wizard named Hartley,
LEIGH
who supposed themselves to be possessed of evil
spirits.13
The DAM HOUSE estate was held of the reputed
manor of Tyldesley by the yearly quit-rent of
12 pence." It was acquired in 1595 from James
Anderton of Lostock, esq., by Adam Mort, gent.,1*
who erected, early in the seventeenth century, the
existing house, which is of brick, with bay windows
and gables. It is a good example of the domestic
architecture of the period, but has been largely added
to and altered. It was a long time the residence of
the Mort and Froggat families, but has recently
been sold by its owner, Mr. Henry Augustus Ross
Wetherall, to the Leigh Urban Council, and is
used as a sanatorium for infectious diseases. It is
often incorrectly named Astley Hall, and described
as in the township of Astley.16
The BAN KS estate was in 1685 the property of
John Astley, gent., who held it of Francis Sherington,
esq., lord of the manor of Tyldesley, under the yearly
quit-rent of 6 pence." In 1728 Thomas Johnson of
Bolton, gent., purchased it from Astley's devisees.
Another estate, known since the sixteenth century
from a former owner as ' Davenport's,' formed part
of the property of the Tyldesleys of Morleys, and
descended to the Royalist Major-General Sir
Thomas Tyldesley. In 1670 it was conveyed to
trustees with many other estates by his son Edward
Tyldesley for the liquidation of his debts. In 1672
the trustees sold it to Ralph Astley, gent., and by
his representatives it was sold
to Hugh Lord Willoughby of
Parham and others, who sold
it in 1752 to Thomas John-
son, the elder, gent., father of
Thomas Johnson, the younger,
who purchased in 1 742 another
estate here from the repre-
sentatives of the Stanleys of
Garrett. Thomas Johnson, the
elder, outlived his son and died ORMEROD. Or, three
in I 764, when the united pro- ban and a lion passant
perties passed to his grandson '" chief gules.
1823. Elizabeth, sister of the last-named, married
George Ormerod of Bury, esq., father of George
Ormerod of Tyldesley and Sedbury Park, the
historian of Cheshire, who succeeded his maternal
uncle in 1823. He was grandfather of the present
owner, the Rev. George Thomas Bailey Ormerod,
M.A.18 The town of Tyldesley, formerly known as
Tyldesley Banks, stands almost entirely upon these
three estates or farms. The tenure of the land is
leasehold for a term of 999 years.
In 1785 the principal landowners in the joint
township were — Chas. Buckworth Shakerley, esq.
1 Both the manor of Tyldesley and the
reputed manor formerly held by the
Tyldesleys of Wardley were acquired by
the Clowes family by purchase and are
now vested in the earl of Ellesmere.
2 Ex inform. Mr. Strachan Holme.
8 Clowes D. Box ii, I.
< Ibid. No. 44.
'In 1 309 William de Waverton gave
lands in Tyldesley to John son of William
de Waverton for life by these bounds,
' from Goderich clogh following the Risshe
hadbutt to Holew sike, following Holew
•ike to Glcdhock and thence across to Gode-
rich clogh' ; Towneley's MS. DD. 939.
6 Towneley's MS. DD. 938.
7 Ibid. 941 ; Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec.
Soc. xlvi), 96.
8 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2 ( i ), m. 7.
• De Bane. R. 420, m. 163^.
10 Ibid. 430, m. 2i5</.
" Feet of F. 9 Hen. IV ; Towneley's
MS. DD. 954. Margery afterwards
married as her second husband Gilbert de
Hulton. Ibid. 959.
MChct. Soc. Ixxxi, 120.
18 Ibid, xxi, 183-4.
» Clowes D. Box ii, No. 44.
" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 57, m.
ii 6.
443
In the inquest taken after Mort's death
in 1631 his estate here is described as
2 messuages, 26 acres of land, also
10 acres of land and 16 acres of moor
and moss late of the inheritance of James
Anderton, esq., and 261. 8</. of free rent ;
also lands late of the inheritance of Leo-
late
purchased of William Sotherne ; Towne-
ley's MS. C. 8, 13 (Chet. Lib.) 866.
" See the account of Dam House under
Astley, in which township a great part of
the estate lies.
" Clowes D. Box ii, 15.
18 Ormerod, Parentalia, pt. i, 14-17.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the Rev. John Clowes, Samuel Clowes, esq., Thomas
Johnson, esq., Thomas Froggat, esq., Starkie,
esq., the Rev. Robert Kenyon, and Alexander Rad-
cliffe, esq. These owned four-fifths of the joint
township.1
The hamlet and mesne manor of SHJKERLET*
was given by Hugh son of Henry de Tyldesley in or
before the reign of John to Cockersand Abbey by
these bounds— From the head of the Ley on the east,
following Shakerlege broc to over against the Holhak
where the cross stands, thence across to the Carr, fol-
lowing the Carr to over against the Knottihak, thence
across to Blakesik and through the midst of the moss
to the first boundary.3 Thomas, abbot of Cocker-
sand c. 1279-86, enfeoffed Robert de Shakerley of
this land, but Adam son of Robert released it to the
abbey about the year 1 290,* when Henry son of
Hugh de Tyldesley augmented his predecessor's gift
to the abbey by the addition of lands bounded as
follows — From the eastern head of Shakerley to Blaksic,
following Blakesic to Blakelowe broc, following that
brook to an oak tree marked with a cross in Haylege
Komb, following Hailege Komb to Holge sike, thence
by a cross to Fyfnakes over Blakelowe brook, thence
to Goderic brook and so to the first boundary.5 The
same Adam soon after granted Shakerley, Fiveakis
Hurst and Ylgridding to Adam son of Henry de
Tyldesley in fee for a pair of white gloves yearly,
and a rent of 12 pence yearly to the abbey of Cocker-
sand,6 the service which the Shakerley family con-
tinued to render to the abbey until the dissolution.7
This grant was probably supplementary to the grant
in 1301 of the northern part
of the township to Adam from
his father Henry, which in-
cluded the service of Henry de
Shakerley. In 1315 Adam de
Tyldesley and Henry de Shak-
erley made an agreement that
neither of them in the future
would make enclosures upon the
wastes or woods in their lands
in Tyldesley without the con-
sent of the other.8
The family of Shakerley re- mole tills vert.
sided at Shakerley Hall9 until
the time of Henry VIII, when they made Hulme
in the township of Allostock, county Chester,
their residence. This property came to Peter Sha-
kerley 10 of Shakerley, esq., by his marriage to Eliza-
beth, daughter and heiress of John Legh of Booths,
county Chester, esq., and granddaughter of Emma,
one of the daughters and coheiresses of Robert
Grosvenour of Hulme, esq.11 The family estate of
Shakerley, including the greater part of the hamlet,
was sold in 1836 by Charles Peter Shakerley of
Somerford Park, county Chester, esq. (created a
baronet in 1838)," to the late Jacob Fletcher of
Peel Hall, esq., whose only daughter and heir brought
it in marriage to Viscount Combermere, father of
the present owner, Francis Lynch Wellington Staple-
ton-Cotton, fourth Viscount Combermere.
In 1646-7 Lieut.-Col. Geoffrey Shakerley, as a
royalist ' delinquent,' paid a fine of £784 on com-
pounding for his estates, and took the National
Covenant and Negative Oath.ls
Geoffrey Hurst of Shakerley, who married a sister
of George Marsh of Dean, was imprisoned as a Pro-
testant in the Marian persecution, but liberated on
the accession of Elizabeth.14
In 1729 Joseph Parr charged
CHARITIES certain premises in Tyldesley with
a yearly sum of £2, to be distri-
buted amongst the poor living in Tyldesley and
Hurst Quarter. There are also a number of charities
which have been created within recent years, mainly
for the benefit of St. George's church and schools.1*
The church of St. George, commenced in 1822
and completed in 1825, is an edifice of stone in the
Early English style from designs by Smirke, and con-
sists of chancel, nave, aisles, transept, western porch
and western tower with pinnacles and a lofty spire
containing a clock and six bells. In 1 886 a new chan-
cel was erected, the church re-seated, and the western
gallery removed. There are nine memorial windows
of stained glass. The registers date from the yeai
1825. The living is a vicarage of the net yearly
value of £300, with residence at Hindsford, Atherton,
and is in the gift of the bishop of Manchester. Tht
church of St. John at Mosley Common, erected ir
1886, is a chapel-of-ease to St. George's Church. I
is built of Yorkshire freestone in the Gothic style,
and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, and south
porch.
The first Wesleyan chapel here was opened it
1814 ; a new building was erected in 1886.
1 Land-tax returns at Preston.
"Shakerlee (1190-1220); Shakerlegh
(1332); Shackresley (1350)5 Shakerley
(xiv-xv cent.).
s Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc. (New
ser.), xliii), 714.
' Ibid. 715.
<• Ibid. 714-16.
« Lanes, ani Ckes. Hist. Notes, ii,
lib.
7 Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv.
bdle. 5, ». 3.
8 Lanes, and Ches. Hist. Notes, ii, 13*.
In Helsby's edition of Ormerod's Hist, of
Ches. iii, 152, where the descent of this
family is given to the present time, Henry
Shakerley is shown as son of Adam, but
the probability is in favour of his having
been a brother or nephew.
» In 1429 Robert Shakerley of Tyl-
desley, gent., Geoffrey his son, yeoman,
were indicted by Hugh Tyldesley that
they with Geoffrey Shakerley of Tyldes-
ley, gent., Margaret the relict of Peter
Shakerley of Tyldesley, and others dug in
his soil at Tyldesley and took away sea
coal, and that Geoffrey and Robert with
others waylaid him at Leigh to kill him
and there wounded his servants. Pal. of
Lane. Plea R. 2, m. 14.
10 His will was proved 12 May, 1526.
In it he desired burial at Prestwich, and
willed that his feoffees should stand seised
of his manor of Borough Court and lands
in Ditton, East Mailing, and Aylesford,
co. Kent, to the use of himself for life,
and after of Elizabeth his wife for life,
with remainder to his son Geoffrey Sha-
kerley, who should also have the reversion
of all lands and tenements which 'my
lady dame Anne Shakerley ' (his mother)
occupied in the name of her dower and
jointure in the townships of Tyldesley,
Worsley, and (Little) Houghton. Ni-
cholas and Lawrence Langley, executors,
and William Langley, parson of Prest-
wich, supervisor ; P.C. Canterbury Wills,
Reg. Porch 17.
" Ormerod, Chts. (ed. Helsby), iii, I5C
Shakerley-cum-Tyldesley with farms an
statute acres, the mines of coal and stone
£i 131. 4</. of chief rents, and pews i:
I June, 1836; Lanes, and Ches. Ant'n .
Notes, ii, 91.
« Cal. Com. for Camp, ii, 1446. H-
14 Foxe, Acts and Monuments (ed. Catt-
ley), viii, 562. He was afterwards ,| -
pointed one of the commissioners to sec
that the changes in worship were mac:
according to the Statutes, but died soo i
afterwards — of grief, as it is suggestes
on finding how resolutely the people i f
the neighbourhood were opposed to Pr< -
testantism.
15 End. Char. (Lanes.), 1901, i;,
amounted to £93, of which £78 belongt I
to St. George's church and schools.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
LEIGH
The oldest Nonconformist chapel is in Tyldesley Brook, which, uniting in the adjoining township with
Square, generally known as 'Top Chapel.' It was Bedford and Pennington Brooks, acquires the name of
built in 1789 by the countess of Huntingdon's Con-
nexion.
There are also chapels of the Congregational,
Primitive Methodist (built in 1828), Baptist, Welsh
Congregational, Welsh Calvinistic, and Independent
Methodist connexions.
For a century or more after the Reformation the
ancient rites were continued in secret at Morleys as
opportunity afforded.1 It was at this place that the
Ven. Ambrose Barlow was arrested on Easter Sunday
morning, 25 April, 1641, after he had said mass and
preached to his congregation of some hundred per-
sons.' After a long interval mass was again said
in the neighbourhood, but this time at Tyldesley
in 1865 in a hayloft over a stable behind the
'Star and Garter.' A personal appeal to the late
Lord Lilford resulted in the acquisition of a site, on
which the church of the Sacred Heart was built and
opened in 1869. The school chapel of the Holy
Family at Boothstown was opened in 1897.*
ASTLEY
Astleghe, 1200-20; Asteleye, 1292 ; Astlegh,
xiv— xv cent.
This mainly agricultural township of 2,685 acres4
of open country, but thinly timbered, lies on the
northern side of Chat Moss, of which about 1,000
acres are included in it, on ground gently rising
towards the north-east. The village is traversed by
the main road leading from Leigh to Manchester, and
stands three-quarters of a mile to the north of the
Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Leigh, which
traverses the township from east to west. The
hamlet of Astley Green lies scattered along a straight
Brooks, acqu
Glazebrook before its confluence with the River
Mersey.
The commons of Astley, including part of Chat
Moss, were enclosed under an award dated 16 Octo-
ber, 1765.'
The township was formed into a parish 10 January,
1 843,° and is governed by a parish council.
At the Conquest ASTLET was one of
MANOR the thirty-four unnamed manors in the
hundred of Warrington, and was held by a
dreng owing suit and service to the chief manor of
Warrington. Before the date of Domesday it had
been included in the barony of the constable of
Chester within the Lyme, afterwards known as the
lordship of Widnes, then held by William Fitz Nigel,
the earl of Chester's constable. The first recorded
tenant of the manor — who also held the neighbouring
manor of Tyldesley— occurs about the end of the
twelfth century as Hugh son of Henry de Tyldesley.'
In 12 12 he was returned in the Inquest of Service as
tenant of the manor under Roger, constable of
Chester, by the service of the tenth part of one
knight's fee.8 He gave to Cockersand Abbey lands
here called Dicfurlong and Morleghe, the moiety of
Birches, a ridding by the brook, half the wood
between the brook and Blakelache, and the moiety
of the Spenne which lay between Gartemoss and
Blakemore, and in other places.9
Henry de Tyldesley, lord of Tyldesley, was a juror
on the inquest of the Gaston Scutage in I243,10 and
probably survived until after 1265." His successor,
another Henry, was defendant in a plea at Lancaster
in 1292," and father of a third Henry, to whom he
gave the manor of Tyldesley, and of Hugh," to whom
he gave this manor.
On 2 September, 1290, Geoffrey Bussell and
highway with level fields on either hand, consisting of Richard de Derbyshire, in right of their wives,
meadow land and pasture, with occasional fields of
potatoes and oats. This highway leads from the
village of Astley towards Chat Moss, and to the Astley
station on the Manchester and Warrington section of
the London and North Western Railway, which is
distant two miles from the village. The geological
formation consists of the new red sandstone in the
lower or southern half of the township, with permian
rocks and coal measures to the north of the canal.
There are large collieries in the northern part of the
township, and an important cotton mill at Astley
Green. In 1901 the population of the township,
including Astley Green, Blackmoor, Higher Green,
and Lower Green was 2,823. The soil consists of
clay and sand, the subsoil of clay. In days gone by
the green fields afforded a pleasing contrast with
the brown and yellow hues of the adjacent moss.
Astley Wake is held yearly on the first Sunday in
October.
Astley Brook traverses the township from the north-
east, and about the centre meets Black Brook or Moss
established their right before the justices in eyre at
Clitheroe against Hugh son of Henry de Tyldesley,
lord of Astley, to the fourth penny of agistment and
the fourth acre of improvements made in this manor.14
In 1301 the same Hugh recovered seven messuages, a
mill, and 282 acres of land, meadow, pasture, and
wood, in Tyldesley against Henry de Tyldesley,
apparently his brother.15 In i 3 1 1 he held this manor
of the earl of Lincoln by the service of the eighth
(reetiut tenth) part of a knight's fee, a yearly rent of
\^d. for sake fee, and of doing suit to the three
weeks' court of Widnes.16
It is probable that Hugh son of Henry died with-
out issue, and that the manor reverted to his nephew
Hugh, lord of Tyldesley. In 1327 Hugh de
Tyldesley wa; one of the men of this hundred sum-
moned to join the king's forces on the marches of
Scotland,17 and the year following was returned in an
extent of the castle of Halton as holding this manor
for the tenth part of a knight's fee.18 His name
occurs both in Astley and Tyldesley in 1330 and
i Ralph Parkinson, the domestic chap-
lain of Thomas Leyland, ' ministered the
communion to the people and sang mass
to his master' ; Foxe, Acts and Monuments
(ed. Cattley), viii, 564.
» Gillow, Sibliog. Diet. ofEngl. Calk.
8 Liverpool Cath. Ann.
* Including 14 acres of inland water ;
Census Rep. 1901.
6 Pal. of Lane. Rec. at Lane. Caitle,
including a map of Astley Common and
Chat Moss, and a plan of Astley Green,
Blackmoor and Marsland Green in allot-
ments ; Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Chei. vii, 55.
« Land. Gav.
1 Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc. New
Sen xliii), 714.
8 Exch. K.. R. Knts'. Fees, bdle. i, 9,
m. y. ; Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. xlviii, 9
and 43.
445
3 Cockersand Chartul. 710, 712.
10 Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 396.
11 Lanes. Inj. (Rec. Soc. xlviii}, 232.
« Rot. de quo War. (Rec. Com.), 230,
607. 18 Ibid. 607.
" Assize R. 1288, m. 14.
'<* Lana. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc. xxxix),
197. M Inq. p.m. 4 Edw. II, n. 51.
1? Rot. Scot. (Rec. Com.), i, ziia.
l"Inq. p.m. z Edw. Ill, i, 61.
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
1332 with other free tenants who gave bonds to
Mr. John de Blebury, parson of Leigh, for various
debts due to him arising out of opposition to his
appointment.1 Early in 1335 Henry son of Hugh
de Tyldesley made recognizance of a debt of £40 to
Ellen, late the wife of Hugh de Tyldesley, and the
said Ellen of a debt of £20 to the said Henry,' from
which we may infer that Hugh was then recently
dead.
The next link in the descent of the manor is not
clear. It is, however, probable that in his lifetime
Hugh gave the manor to Ellen his wife, and that she
subsequently married Adam son of John de Traffbrd,3
who in consideration of loo marks conveyed it by
fine in 1 344 to Robert de Radcliffe of Ordsall and
his issue, together with the homage and services of
Richard de Atherton, William de Astley and Hugh
his son, Robert son of Elias, and Hugh de Morleys,
free tenants of the manor, with remainder to Richard
de Radcliffe and Isabella his wife and their issue.4
In 1344 Ellen and Cecily, daughters and heirs of
Adam and Ellen de Trafford, confirmed this deed.'
The year following, after the death of Robert de
Radcliffe without issue, Thurstan son of Hugh de
Tyldesley and Adam de Traffbrd, with Ellen his wife,
made an unsuccessful attempt to re-enter into the
manor, contrary to the form of the above fine.6 In
1352 Richard de Radcliffe, brother and heir of
Robert, was taking proceedings against Thomas de
Bothe, who had illegally entered upon a water-mill,
parcel of this manor, under a demise for the term of
his life made by Roger de Hulton, who held an estate
in the manor of Tyldesley and lands in this manor,
under circumstances referred to in the account of the
former manor.7
Subsequently the manor descended in the family of
Radcliffe of Winmarleigh,8 near Garstang, until the
death of William Radcliffe, esq., without issue, in 1561.
Upon a division of his estates this manor descended
to Anne, his sister of the half-blood, wife of Gilbert
Gerard, esq., Attorney-General (1558-81), knighted
at Greenwich I579,9 Master of the Rolls (1581-92).
In 1565 it was conveyed to Gilbert and Anne and
their issue.10
Sir Gilbert died in 1593 and was succeeded by his
son Sir Thomas Gerard, then aged twenty-nine,"
who had been knighted by the earl of Essex in
GERARD, Lord
Gerard. Argent, a ml-
tirtfda.
159'-" On 21 July, 1603, he was created Baron
Gerard of Gerard's Bromley,13 and early in 1606
conveyed the manor to Adam Mort,14 gent., who had
acquired early in 1595 from
James Anderton of Lostock the
estate of Dam House in Tyldes-
ley and about 60 acres of ad-
joining land in Tyldesley and
Astley.15
Thomas Mort of Dam House,
great-grandson of Adam Mort,
conveyed the manor to trustees
in I7i6,16 who sold it to
Thomas Sutton,1' whose wife
Mary, daughter of Robert Bate-
man of Chesterfield, was relict
of Alexander Mort, brother of
Thomas Mort of Dam House. In 1734 Thomas
Sutton, gent., and Mary his wife conveyed the manor
to trustees 18 for the benefit of
Thomas Froggat, then a minor,
grandson of Mary Mort, one of
the daughters of Thomas Mort
of Peel.19
Sarah grand - daughter of
Thomas Froggat by her first
husband John Adam Durie,
capt. 93rd Highlanders, had —
amongst other issue who all
died unmarried — a daughter
Katherine, who married first
Henry Wayet Davenport, who
died in 1845, by whom she
had no issue, and secondly Sir Edward Robert
Wetherall, K.C.S.I., C.B., major-general and aide-
de-camp to her late Majesty Queen Victoria. In
1856 he was living at Dam House*0 Upon his
death in 1869 he was succeeded by his eldest son,
George Nugent Ross, late of the 1 5th Hussars, who
died s.p. in 1893, when he was succeeded by his
brother Henry Augustus Wetherall, formerly of the
2Oth Hussars and Coldstream Guards, the present
lord of the manor, who has recently sold the estate
of Dam House (now called Astley Hall) to a number
of gentlemen, who subsequently sold the house and
grounds to the Leigh Urban Council for the
of a sanatorium for infectious diseases.
MORT OF ASTLIY.
Argent, on a bend gules
three lozenges of the feld.
> Cal. Pat. R. 1330-3, pp. 172, 611.
"Ibid. 1333-7, p. 366.
9 Metcalfe, A Book of Knights, 133.
10 Described as consisting of forty mes-
8 It is possible that Ellen was the
suages, four water-mills, and 2,4.00 acres
daughter of Hugh son of Henry and wife
of land, meadow, pasture, and moss, and
of Adam de Trafford, but the fact that
405. rent in Astley, Bedford, Tyldesley,
Hugh the nephew was returned as lord
Manchester, Chorlton, Cukheth, and
of Astley until his death c. 1333 points
Newton-in-Makerfield ; Pal. of Lane.
rather to the alternative supposition
Feet of F. bdle. 27, m. 84.
adopted above.
11 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, «. 2.
< Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc. xlvi),
" Metcalfe, A Book of Knights, 137.
128.
13 Cokayne, Complete Peerage, iv, 17.
* Ibid.
" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 69,
6 De Bane. R. 344, m. 530.
m. 23.
7 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2, pt. i,
15 Ibid. bdle. 57, m. 116. He is de-
m. 5. In 1362 Richard de Radcliffe suc-
cessfully resisted a demand upon him made
scribed as of Tyldesley, gent., in a list
of freeholders in 1600 ; Misc. (Lanes, and
by the Exchequer to pay Robert de Rad-
Ches. Rec. Soc. xii), 239. The inq. p.m.
cliffe's debts, pleading that Robert had
of Adam Mort, gent., taken in 1631,
no estate in the manor except in fee-tail ;
describes his estates here as consisting of
L.T.R. Mem. R. 127, m. viii.
the manor of Astley, twenty-four mes-
8 Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. i,
suages, 270 acres of land, meadow, and
32. An extent of the manor is given in
the inq. p.m. of Sir Richard Radcliffe, lent.,
pasture, 580 acres of heath and turbary,
6s. of free rent from the lands of Thomas
taken in 1431 ; Ina. p.m. (Chet. Soc. xcix),
Tyldesley, esq., and I %d. from the lands
32-4-
of Thomas Gillibrand of Peel, a messuage
446
and 15 acrei of land in Astley and
Tyldesley, late of the inheritance of
Edward Fleetwood, and a yearly rent of
£5 61. %d. arising from the moiety of the
tithes of Astley, late of the inheritance of
Thomas Tyldesley, esq. ; Towneley's.
MS. C. 8, 1 3 (Chet. Lib.), 866. The Dam
House estate is partly in Astley and partly
in Tyldesley.
" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 275,
'» Son of Thomas Sutton of Wetton,
Staffordshire, by his wife Anne, daughter
of Thomas Mort of Peel, otherwise Little
Hulton, and uncle of Thomas Mort of
Dam House.
18 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 314,
19 Thomas Mort Froggat, esq., in 1787
paid £39 171. \\d. of land tax in respect
of his lands here. The whole township
paid £104 71. lod.
20 Pal. Note Book, iii, 249-51 ; Hist.
Soc. Lanes, and Ches. (New Ser.), vi,
74-6.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
The reputed manor of MORLEYS was originally
a parcel of pasture ground, first mentioned about
1 200-20 as the More-Leghe,1 lying on the north-
western border of Chat Moss and held of the manor
of Astley in socage by fealty and the yearly rent of
1 id.1 Subsequently it gave name to a branch of the
local family of Astley, who held it of the mesne lords.
In 1 303 Alice, relict of Hugh de Morlegh, son of
William de Astley, demanded her dower in a mes-
suage and oxgang of land from her sons Richard and
Henry, who called Hugh son of Hugh de Morlegh
to warrant.3 The last-named heads the list of con-
tributors to the subsidy collected here in 1332.* In
1344 Hugh de Morley held this estate of Adam de
Trafford, who gave the service of the said Hugh to
Robert de Radcliffe in fee tail.5 In 1352 Henry son
of Hugh de Morley was claiming a messuage and
lands here.6 The name does not occur in the Poll
Tax Roll of 1381, about which time the estate
passed to the Leyland family, but the names Robert
and Thurstan de Leyland occur in Tyldesley.7 In
1431 Robert Leyland held a free tenement in the
manor, which was undoubtedly Morleys, of Sir
Richard Radcliffe, lent., for 1 3*. \d. yearly.8 He was
probably father of John Leyland of Kirkby, who mar-
ried first Eleanor, daughter of Richard Molyneux,
knt., and secondly Cecily, who was living a widow
in 1501.' Sir William Leyland, knt., of Morleys,10
succeeded his father in 1501, and the year following
sold his lands in Kirkby to William Molyneux, esq."
He married first, Anne daughter and coheir of Alan
Singleton of Wightgill, Yorkshire," by whom he had
issue, and secondly Alice daughter of Sir Edmund
Trafford, knt.,13 by whom he had no issue. He was
knighted in 1513." He was an active agent in tlie
suppression of the monasteries.15 He was suc-
ceeded by his son Thomas Leyland, who married
Ann, daughter of George Atherton of Atherton, esq.,
by whom he had an only daughter Ann, married in
1550 to Edward, second son of Thurstan Tyldesley
of Wardley, esq.,16 in whose family the manor de-
scended to James Tyldesley of Holcroft,17 who sold it in
1755 to the Leghs ofChorley. Subsequently the old
hall and a moiety of the demesne were purchased by
Josiah Wilkinson, who devised it to his son John
LEIGH
Wilkinson, F.R.S. The other moiety was purchased
by Thomas Lyon of Warrington.18 In 1787 Thomas
Lyon paid £7 o/. SJ. and John Wilkinson £5 I y. 8</.
for land t.ix in Astley, in respect of this estate.
Within recent years the hall and estate have been
sold by Messrs. Wilkinson ani Lyon, the joint
o.vners, to the Tyldesley Urban Council for purposes
connected with sewage disposal.
PEEL HALL represents an estate granted to
Cockersand Abbey between 1190 and 1221 by Hugh
de Tyldesley, whose charter describes the boundary
as beginning at the water called the The Fleet,
following this brook northward to the higher part of
Limput (Loam pit) hurst, as defined by crosses set
up there, thence following the Brunehevese southward
by the crosses set there, to the water called The
Fleet.19 In 1251 Alecock (Alexander) de Astley
held it of the canons of Cockersand for \^d. yearly,*"
and in 1286 John Gilibrond and Margery his wife
demanded against Richard son of Alexander de Astlcy
the third part of a messuage here as the wife's dower.81
In 1 292 John son of John Gilibrond held the
estate under the abbey by the free rent of 2/. yearly.
In 1356 it was entailed upon Roger Gilibrond and
his heirs male, with successive remainders to his
brothers Humphrey, Richard, and Robert, and
kinsmen, Adam, Richard son of John, and Henry son
of Henry Gi.ibrond.88 Robert Gilibrond had letters
of protection in 1383 upon going to Ireland on the
king's service.83 In the time of Edward III Thurstan
Gilibrond and Margaret his wife, daughter of Richard
de Hulton of the Wythens, possessed a considerable
estate in Astley, which descended to their son Hugh,
who had issue, by Catherine Sale his wife, Thurstan
his son and heir. Thurstan Gilibrond, son of the
last-named Thurstan, resisted — apparently with suc-
cess— a claim to the estate made in 1448 by Henry
de Kighley (who alleged that Thurstan was a bastard),
claiming in right of his grandmother Ellen, daughter
and coheir of Nicholas Tyldesley ; her father having
been named fourth in remainder after Thurstan Gili-
brond the eldest in a settlement of the estate made temp.
Edward III.24 Roger Gilibrond in 1451, Nicholas
in 1461, Charles in 1501, and Nicholas in 1536,
successively held the estate under Cockersand Abbey."
1 Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), 710.
s Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc. xcix), 33.
18 MS. Gen. at Knowsley Hall, case
1 Morleys,' the generally accepted form of
9 Croxteth D. P. i, 16.
31.
the name, is merely the genitive case of
Morley.
10 Leland, the antiquary, wrote of this
house : ' Morle in (West) Darbyshire, Mr.
» Metcalfe, A Book of Knights, 55.
« Raines, Lanct. Chantries (Chet. Soc
(Rec. Soc. xvi, 267).
foundation of Stone squarid that risith
Ix), 237, n.
16 Thomas Leyland of Morleys, esq.,
8 De Bane. R. 145, m. 321 ; 148,
within a great Moote a vi Foote above
by his will made in 1562 (proved 1564)
m. 112 d. Hugh first occurs in 1278;
the Water— al of Tymbre, after the com-
gave his body for Christian burial ' within
ibid. 23, m. 10.
mune sorte of building of Houses of the
my owne chapell at Leyghe churche called
<Exch. Lay Sub. bdle. 130, 6 (Rec.
Gentilmen for most of Lancastreshire.
Saynt Nycolas chapell, my feate neare
Soc. xxxi, i o).
Ther is as much Pleasur of Orchardes of
adjoyninge to my altar,' and desired to
* Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. Soc. xlvi), 129.
great Varite of Frute and fair made
have ' a fayre stone layed over me with
In 1 3 34 Ellen, relict of Hugh de Tyldesley,
Walkes and Gardines as ther is in any
scripture sett rounde aboute upon the
William de Astley, Hugh de Morley,
Place of Lancastreshire. He brenith al
sayd stone ' as specified in his will, and
Henry de Birches, and Henry de Valen-
Turfes and Petes for the Commodite of
' an image off brass as ys used upon the
tyne acknowledged a debt of 1 1 marks to
Mosses and Mores at hand. For Chateley
same stone1; Lanes. Wills (Chet. Soc.
Master John de Blebury, vicar of the
Mosse that with breking up of Abundance
(Old Ser.), xxxiii), 163. This tomb has
church of Leigh ; Cal. Close R. 1333-7,
of Water yn hit did much hurt to Landes
long since disappeared.
361.
thereabout and Rivers with wandering
^ See the account of Myerscough.
« Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2, pt. ii,
Mosse and corrupte Water is within lesse
w Baines, Direct. 1825, ii, 47.
m. $d. against Simon son of John de
than a mile of Morle. And yet by Morle
» Cockersand Chartul. 7 1 2.
Morley and Richard brother of Simon,
as in Hegge Rowes and Grovettes is
30 Ibid. 1220.
John de Morley, Margaret daughter of
Alexander de Astley, and Hugh son of
meately good Plenti of Wood, but good
Husbandes Keepe hit for a Jewell' ; Book
"i De Bane. R. 64, m. 41 d.
» Visit, of Lanes. (Chet. Soc. (Old Ser.),
Margaret de Whytyntherys, who called to
v, fol. 83.
Ixxxii), .24.
warrant John de Morleys ; Assize R.
« Croxteth D. P. ii, 1 6.
28 Cal. Pat. R. 1381-7, p. 289.
"Harl. MS. 6159, fol. 53.
24 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 1 1, m. 29.
^ Exc'h. Lay Sub. bdle. 1 30, n. 24, pt. 2.
» Cockersand Chartul. 12.
447
A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
Thomas Gilibrand entered his pedigree at the
Herald's Visitation of 1613,' died the same year and
was father of Thomas who, in 1648 was succeeded
by his second but eldest surviving son, Ralph, the
last representative of the family in the male line. Ralph
entered his pedigree in the visitation of 1665,'
and died in 1666. The estate subsequently passed
to the Kenworthy family, who held it for upwards
of a century. John Kenworthy was the father of
George Kenworthy, who died 25 or 30 years ago, after
whose death the estate was sold to Mr. Thomas
Oliver Cross, the present owner.3
A family bearing the local name held a small estate
here, and are frequently named in thirteenth-century
records.4 John Astley died in 1 390 seised of lands
held by knight's service, when the custody of his son
John, aged twelve years, was delivered to Robert
Worsley. John the son died in 1411, Hugh his son
being a minor. At his death in 1429 Hugh left a
son Thomas, likewise under age.6 Subsequently John
Astley held the estate and enfeoffed Margaret his
wife for life. She died in 1502, when Thomas son
of William, younger son of John and Margaret, was
found to be heir to the estate, being then aged forty
years.6 Thomas died in 1525 seised of a messuage,
80 acres of land, meadow and pasture, and 200 acres
of moor and moss in Astley, which he held of the
king for the eighteenth part of a knight's fee and 3</.
rent. William his son and heir was aged forty years.7
William Astley appears to have been the last of his
line. In 1553 he conveyed his estate to trustees,8
probably for settlement. The later descent has not
been elucidated, but the estate was probably the same
as that next described.
WH1TEHEAD HALL, a large farm-house with
lands adjoining the townships of Worsley and
Tyldesley, was in the possession of Richard Whitehead
of Astley, gent., in 1683, when he settled it upon his
ion Thomas Whitehead. Richard Whitehead of
New Hall in Astley, eldest son of Thomas, barred
the entail in 1728, and by his will, in which he is
described as of Salford, gent., dated in 1769,
devised the estate to William Campey of York city,
gent., with remainder to James Campey of Appleton
Roebuck, brother of William. In 1797 Mary, the
wife of Thomas Laycock, the elder, of Appleton
Roebuck, gent., and Anne Campey, sisters and heirs
of James Campey, conveyed the estate to Peter
Arrowsmith, by whose descendant it was sold in
1 840 to the first Lord Ellesmere, in whose family it
remains.9
Richard son of Henry de Atherton held an estate
herein 1 344 10 and was living in 1361." In 1395-6
his three daughters and coheirs complained that they
had been disseised by Sir William de Atherton, chr.,1*
who held it in 1431 of Sir Richard Radcliffe, knt.,
by the yearly rent of 6/.13 In 1547 Sir John
Atherton, knt., sold the estate with others in Bedford
and Pennington to Lawrence Asshawe of the Hall
on the Hill, gent.14
Hugh Gregory and Robert his son had lands here
in the time of Edward III,15 which William Gregory
held in 1431 of Sir Richard Radcliffe, knt., by the
yearly rent of 1 3/. 4<j'.16 John Gregory, gent.,
conveyed the estate in 1569 to Robert Edge.17
The family of Sale, inheriting from that of Birches,
of whom the first on record was Henry son ot
Henry 'at Birches' in I292,18long held lands here.
Also the family of Valentine, of whom Henry
Valentine before 1334 married Ellen daughter and
heir of John son of Hugh de Hulton, to whom Adam
de Tyldesley had granted an estate in Tyldesley
called ' The Dowere ' in 1308. In 1441 Thurstan
son of Hugh Tyldesley recovered from John Valentine
a yearly free service of ^s. 6d. for lands in Tyldesley
called 'The Dowere.' 19 This estate subsequently
descended in the family of Valentine of Shaw Hall
in Flixton, and no doubt passed with the latter estate
to the heirs general of that family.*0
In 1787 the principal landowners, besides the
owners of Dam House and Morleys, were Samuel
Arrowsmith, William Campey, Thomas Stockton,
and William Newton."
The chapel of St. Stephen at Astley,
CHURCH consecrated in 1631, was founded by
Adam Mort of Dam House in Tyldes-
ley, gent., who by his will dated 19 March, 1630-1,
and proved the same year, endowed the chapel with
a messuage and lands worth £18 a year for the
maintenance of a preaching minister to be appointed
by his son and his successors, or in default by the
nomination of the householders and heads of families
in Astley, the heirs male of Adam Mort's body and
such of his kindred as should have lands in Astley,
with the advice of some godly ministers of the
neighbourhood. On 3 August, 1631, Thomas Mort,
the founder's son and heir, resigned his own and his
heirs' right of appointment to the bishop of Chester.
In consequence of this, and of the neglect to lay
down any order for the appointment of future
ministers, disputes and even riotous proceedings arose
between the inhabitants and the vicar of Leigh, who
claimed the right of appointment by ecclesiastical
law." After litigation in the King's Bench judgement
1 Vitit. (Chet. Soc. Ixxxii), 124. He
died in 1623 ; Inqutst, (Rec. Soc. xvii), 392.
Margaret, his widow (d. 1623), by her
will desired to be buried * in the trenitye
or chappell that doth belong to the manner
howse of Shakerley.' She was sister of
Sir Henry Bunbury and had been first
married to Hugh Shakerley of Shakerley.
• Visit. (Chet. Soc. Ixxxv), 122.
» Ex Inform. Mr. W. D. Pink.
4 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2, pt. i,
m. 55 ibid. m. 4</.; F«f of F. (Rec.
Soc. xlvi), 128; Rentals and Surv. 379,
* Inquests (Chet. Soc. xcv), 43.
6 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, «. 90 ;
Def. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 30.
7 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, n. 78.
8 PaL of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 14,
m. 22. He was defendant in a plea
about tithes in Astley in 1559; Duchy
of Lane. Plead, xlii, L. 8.
• Ex inform. Mr. Strachan Holme.
I" Inquests (Chet. Soc. xcix), 32.
11 Def. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. iv, 343.
" Inquests (Chet. Soc. xcv), 61. See the
account of Chowbent.
" Ibid, xcix, 33. See also Pal. of Lane.
Feet of F. bdle. 6, m. 49, a fine by which
Robert Rigby and Elizabeth his wife in
1439 conveyed 3 messuages and 550
acres of land, pasture and moss here to
Sir William Atherton, knt. In the
time of Henry VII Randle Atherton of
' Cholbent ' held lands here of the king,
as of the manor of Halton, by nrf. yearly
rent; Harl. MS. 2112, foL 41.
» Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 3,
m. 297. See the account of Heath
Charnock.
448
» Duchy of Lane. Assize R. i, pt. ii,
m. 4 ; 2, pt. i, m. 3 d. ; De Bane. R.
458, m. 404.
16 Inquests (Chet. Soc. xcix), 33.
W Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 31,
m. 79. The pedigree and arms of
Gregory of Highhurst were entered at
Flower's Visit, in 1567; Chet. Soc.
Ixxxi, 7.
18 Assize R. 408, m. 21.
« Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 3, m. 18.
80 See ' The Garrett ' in Tyldesley.
21 Land-tax records at Preston.
M Baines, Hist, of Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii,
603, where the riots of 1822 are described.
In 1702 the curate was elected by
Thomas Mort of Dam House, and the
vicars of Leigh and Deanc ; Bp. Gastrell,
Notitia (Chet. Soc. xxi), 187.
WEST DERBY HUNDRED
was given in 1824 in favour of the bishop of
Chester.1 The vicar of Leigh now presents.
The chapel was erected at the cost of Adam Mort,
whose successors maintained the fabric.1 After the
Restoration, owing to the dispute as to the patronage,
it remained for twenty years in the hands of Thomas
Crompton, ejected for his nonconformity. In 1760
the old chapel was replaced by a larger edifice of brick
erected by the landowners, consisting of a nave with
four side and two end lights, measuring 54ft. 6 in. in
length and 36ft. in width, with about 170 sittings
and a small chancel. This building has since been
enlarged in the years 1834, 1842, and 1847, and
now consists of chancel, nave, aisles, western porch,
and an embattled western tower containing one bell.
The registers date from 1760. On 10 January,
1843, the township was formed into a district
chapelry,* and on 1 8 June, 1867, the benefice was
declared a vicarage.4
The following have been incumbents : —
1632 Thomas Crompton, B.A.5
1683 John Battersby 6
1702 Roger Seddon,7 died 1716
1716 James Marsh, died 1728
1732 Thomas Mawdesley,8 died 1769
1769 Robert Barker 9
1822 Thomas Birkett
LEIGH
1838 John Wilkinson Edwards, B.A.,10 died 1840
1840 Alfred Hewlett, D.D.," died 1885
1885 James Alexander Maxwell Johnstone,
M.A.,18 surrogate
A Wesleyan chapel was erected at Astley Green in
1805, the second to be erected within the Leigh
circuit. It has recently been pulled down (1904) and
a new one erected.
There is a Unitarian Christian chapel at Black-
moor, built in 1865. The Unitarians first held
services in 1820 in a cottage, but subsequently they
were discontinued for many years.
Adam Mort founded and endowed a school here
in 1630, by bequests contained in his will."
In addition to the endowment of
CHARITIES the school, Adam Mort in 1630, and
Thomas Mort in 1732, created trusts
for the benefit of the incumbent and clerk of
Astley parochial chapel, of the yearly gross value of
£402 in 1900." Ann Parr, by will in 1707, gave
the income of £100 to be applied for the benefit
of the poor of Astley in binding apprentices, and
of a further sum of £100 for the benefit of the
poor. Several small bequests made for various pur-
poses before 1721 were in that year vested in
trustees. These in 1900 produced a gross yearly
income of £24."
1 Baines, Hist, of Lanes, loc. cit.
« Lambeth MSS. ii, where it is stated
that Mr. Thomas Crompton, a very
honest minister, had £16 a year out
of a tenement called Hope House, and
half another tenement called Hudman's
House in Tyldesley, purchased by the
founder, and for three or four years before
1650 had also ^40 a year, paid by the
1629, aged eighteen 5 B.A. from Exeter
9 Probably of Peterhouse, Camb.; B.A.
1764, M.A. 1767.
10 Fifth son of Thomas Edwards of
Chester ; matric. at Brasenose Coll. Oxf.
1830, aged eighteen ; B.A. 1834.
11 Eldest son of William Hewlett of
St. Mary Magdalen, Oxf. (city), gent., of
Magdalen Hall, Oxf.; B.A. 1831, M.A.
1837, B. and D.D. 1862, died 10 June,
12 Of Pembroke Coll. Camb.; B.A. 1867,
M.A. 1877.
13 End. Char. Lanes. 1901, pp. 5-10,
chapel 10 Oct. 1632, which he held un-
til his death in 1683. He signed the
'Harmonious Consent1 in 1648, being a
zealous Presbyterian; Calamy, ii, 351
and Local Gleanings (Lanes, and Ches.),
856, where there is some account of his
life. See also Lanes, and Ches. Hist, and
Gen. Notes, i, 318. 'Thomas Crompton,
clerk, curate,' did not appear at the
visitation in 1671 ; List at Chest. Dioc.
Reg.
hundred, but in 1650 they had discon-
tinued the payment ; Commonwealth Cb.
Surv. (Rec. Soc.), 58. About 1720 the
charge of £10 given by Thomas Mort,
and £z 1 51. by Anne Mort. In 1722 the
living was augmented by Richard Atherton
and Samuel Hilton, esqs., who each gave
£100 ; and again in 1760 by Mr. Frog-
gat; Gastrell, op. cit. 187.
» Land. Gaz. 85.
4 Ibid. 3487. Present gross value £443
with residence.
s Son of William Crompton of Bedford,
Lanes. ; matric. at Brasenose Coll. Oxf.
1689; Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.
Rep. xiv, App. iv), 228.
He was probably son of Richard Bat-
terabie of Shakerley ; matric. at Brasenose
Coll. Oxf. 1667, aged eighteen ; B.A. 1671.
1 Probably son of Thomas Seddon of
Farnworth ; graduated B.A. at Brasenose
Coll. Oxf. in 1701.
8 Probably son of John Mawdesley of
Liverpool, gent.; graduated B.A. at Brase-
nose Coll. Oxf. in 1730.
".ft"
15 Ibid. 10-11, 80. Of these William
Sanderson, schoolmaster (d. 1708), gave
£40, half the income to be distributed
yearly amongst four poor families receiv-
ing no weekly allowance from the town-
preach a sermon or lecture every Easter
Tuesday in Atherton chapel, or some
other neighbouring place.
449
57
WEST
HIRE
[•OEV OF LANCASHIRE
TOPOGRAPHIC
Y 0 R K S
MAP-SECTION V
Names and Boundaries of Ciuil Parishes (1897) are printed in red
TOPOGRAPHIC
Continual an. .1,, H,,n '
E S
IAP-SECTION VI
.,,_,,
HIRE
ames and Boundaries of Civil Parishes (1897) are printed I
* <\ n s +
2U »-•'
433
.*»
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