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ESTABLISHED ^HIIS ,:fa I Hi M.DCCC.XLIII.

FOR THB PUBLICATION OE
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY REMAINS
CONNECTED WITH THE PALATINE COUNTIES OF
LANCASTER AND CHESTER.
Council for the year 1875-76.
IBvemznt.
JAMES CROSSLEY, Esq., E.S.A.
Wite^xtSitsmt.
The Rev. F. R. RAINES, M.A., F.S.A., Hon. Canon of Manchester, Vicar of
Milnrow, and Rural Dean.
Council.
WILLIAM BEAMONT, Esq.
The Very Rev. BENJAMIN MORGAN COWIE, B.D., F.S.A., Dean of Manchester.
The Worshipful RICHARD COPLEY CHRISTIE, M.A., Chancellor of the Diocese
The Rev. THOMAS CORSER,' M.A., F.S.A., Rector of Stand.
LIEUT.-COLONEL FISHWICK, F.S.A.
THOMAS JONES, Esq., B.A., F.S.A.
WILLIAM LANGTON, Esq.
COLONEL EGERTON LEIGH, M.P.
The Rev. JOHN HOWARD MARSDEN, B.D., F.R.G.S., late Disney Professor.
The Rev. JAMES RAINE, M.A., Canon of York, Fellow of Durham University.
treasurer.
ARTHUR H. HEYWOOD, Esq.
ilnnorars iSecretarD.
R. _HENRY WOOD, Esq., F.S.A, F.R.G.S.,
Mem. Corr. Soe. Antiq. de Normandie.

RULES OF THE CHETHAM SOCIETY.
1. That the Society shall be limited to three hundred and fifty members.
2. That the Society shall consist of members being subscribers of one pound annually, such subscrip
tion to be paid in advance, on or before the day of general meeting in each year. The first general meeting
to be held on the 23rd day of March, 1843, and the general meeting in each year afterwards on the 1st day
of March, unless it should fall on a Sunday, when some other day is to be named by the Council.
3. That the affairs of the Society be conducted by a Council, consisting of a permanent President and
Vice-President, and twelve other members, including a Treasurer and Secretary, all of whom shall be
elected, the first two at the general meeting next after a vacancy shall occur, and the twelve other
members at the general meeting annually.
4. That the accounts of the receipts and expenditure of the Society be audited annually, by three
auditors, to be elected at the general meeting; and that any member who shall be one year in arrear of
his subscription, shall no longer be considered as belonging to the Society.
5. That every member not in arrear of his annual subscription, be entitled to a copy of each of the
works published by the Society.
6. That twenty copies of each work shall be allowed to the editor of the same, in addition to the
one to which he may be entitledfas a member.
Applications and communications to be addressed to the President, Cavendish Place, All
Saints, Manchester, or to the Honorary Secretary Penrhos House, Rugby.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE CHETHAM SOCIETY.

V0I, First year ( 1 843-4).
I. Travels in Holland, the United Provinces, England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1634-1635. By Sir
William Brereton, Bart. Edited by Edward Hawkins, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.L.S. pp. viii, 206.
II. Tracts relating to Military Proceedings in Lancashire during the Great Civil War. Edited and
Illustrated from Contemporary Documents by Georoe Ormerod, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S.,
author of "The History of Cheshire." pp. xxxii, 372.
III. Chester's Triumph in Honor of her Prince, as it was performed upon St. George's Day 1610, in
the foresaid Citie. Reprinted from the original edition of 1610, with an Introduction and Notes.
Edited by the Rev. Thomas Corser, M.A. pp. xviii, 36.
Second year (1844-5).
IV. The Life of Adam Martindale, written by himself, and now first printed from the original manu
script in the British Museum. Edited by the Rev. Richard Parkinson, B.D., Canon of Manchester.
pp. xvi, 246.
V. Lancashire Memorials of the Rebellion, 1715. By Samuel Hibbert-Ware, M.D., F.R.S.E., &c.
pp. x, 56, and xxviii, 292.
VI. Potts's Discovery of Witches in the county of Lancaster. Reprinted from the original edition of
1613 ; with an Introduction and Notes by James Crossley, Esq. pp. lxxx, 184, 52.
Third year (1845-6).
VII. Iter Lancastrense, a Poem written a.d. 1636, by the Rev. Richard James. Edited by the Rev.
Thomas Corser, M.A. pp. cxii, 86. Folding Pedigree.
VIII. Notitia Cestriensis, or Historical Notices of the Diocese of Chester, by Bishop Gastrell. Cheshire.
Edited by the Rev. F. R. Raines, M.A., F.S.A. Vol. I. pp. xvi, 396. Plate.
IX. The Norris Papers. Edited by Thomas Heywood, Esq., F.S.A. pp. xxxiv, 190.
Fourth year (1846-7).
X. The Coucher Book or Chartulary of WhaUey Abbey. Edited by W. A. Hulton, Esq. Vol. I.
pp. xl,338. Plate.
XI. The Coucher Book or Chartulary of WhaUey 'Abbey. Vol. II. pp. 339-636.
XII. The Moore Rental. Edited by Thomas Heywood, Esq., F.S.A. pp. lxx, 158.

Fifth year (1847-8).

XIII. The Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington. Edited by Jas. Crossley, Esq. Vol.1.
pp. viii, 398.
XrV. The Journal of Nicholas Assheton. Edited by the Rev. F.R.Raines M.A., F.S.A. pp.xxx, 164.
XV. The Holy Lyfe and History of Saynt Werburge, very frutefull for all Christen People to rede.
Edited by Edward Hawkins, Esq. pp. xxviii, 10, 242.
Sixth year (1848-9).
XVI. The Coucher Book or Chartulary of WhaUey Abbey. Vol. III. pp. xli-liv, 637-936.
XVII. Warrington in 1465. Edited by William Beamont, Esq. pp. lxxviii, 152.
XVIII. The Diary of the Rev. Henry Newcome, from September 30, 1661, to September 29, 1663.
Edited by Thomas Heywood, Esq., F.S.A. pp. xl, 242.

Publications of the Chetham Society. 3
V0L. Seventh year ( 1 849-5 °) •
XIX. Notitia Cestriensis. Vol. II. Part I. Lancashire, Part I. pp. iv, 160, xxviii.
XX. The Coucher Book or Chartulary of WhaUey Abbey. Vol. IV. (Conclusion), pp. lv-lxiii, 937-
XXI. Notitia Cestriensis. Vol. II. Part II. Lancashire, Part II. pp. lxxvii, 161-352. Plate.
, Eighth year (i 850-1).
XXII. Notitia Cestriensis. Vol. II. Part III. Lancashire, Part III. (Conclusion), pp. 353-621.
XXIII. A Golden Mirrour ; conteininge certaine pithie and figurative visions prognosticating good
fortune to England, &c. By Richard Robinson of Alton. Reprinted from the only known copy of
the original edition of 1589 in the British Museum, with an Introduction and Notes by the Rev.
Thomas Corser, M.A., F.S.A. pp. xxii, 10, 96.
XXIV. Chetham Miscellanies. Vol. I. Edited by William Langton, Esq. : containing
Papers connected with the affairs of Milton and his Family. Edited by J. F. Marsh, Esq. pp 46.
Plate. Epistolary Reliques of Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquaries, 1653-73. Communicated by George
Ormerod, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., and F.G.S. pp. 16.
Calendars of the Names of Families which entered their several Pedigrees in the successive
Heraldic Visitations of the County Palatine of Lancaster. Communicated by George Ormerod,
D.C.L., F. R .S., F.S.A., and F.G.S. pp. 26.
A Fragment, illustrative of Sir Wm. Dugdale's Visitation of Lancashire. From MSS. in the
possession of the Rev. F. R. Raines, M.A., F.S.A. pp. 8.
Autobiographical Tracts of Dr. John Dee, Warden of the CoUege of Manchester. Edited by
James Crossley, Esq. pp. iv, 84.
Visitation temp. Hen. VIII. The Abbaye of Whawley (for insertion in WhaUey Coucher Boole).
Ninth year (i 851-2).
XXV. Cardinal Allen's Defence of Sir William Stanley's Surrender of Deventer. Edited by Thomas
Heywood, Esq., F.S.A. pp. c, 38.
XXVI. The Autobiography of Henry Newcome, M.A. Edited by Rd. Parkinson, D.D ., F.S.A. Vol.1.
pp. xxv, 184.
XXVII. The Autobiography of Henry Newcome, M.A. Vol. II. (Conclusion), pp. 185-390
Tenth year (1852-3).
XXVIII. The Jacobite Trials at Manchester in 1694. Edited by William Beamont, Esq. pp.xc, 132.
XXIX. The Stanley Papers, Part I. The Earls of Derby and the Verse Writers and Poets of the six
teenth and seventeenth centuries. By Thomas Heywood, Esq., F.S.A. pp. 64.
XXX. Documents relating to the Priory of Penwortham, and other Possessions in Lancashire of the
Abbey of Evesham. Edited by W. A Hulton, Esq. pp. lxxviii, 136.
Eleventh year (185 3-4).
XXXI. The Stanley Papers, Part II. The Derby Houaehold Books, comprising an account of the
Household Regulations and Expenses of Edward and Henry, third and fourth Earls of Derby ;
together with a Diary, containing the names of the guests who visited the latter Earl at his houses
in Lancashire : by William Farrington, Esq., the Comptroller. Edited by the Rev. F. R. Raines,
M.A., F.S.A. pp. xcviii, 247. Five Plates.
XXXII. The Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom. Edited by Richard Parkinson,
D.D., F.S.A. Vol. I. Part I. pp. x, 320. Portrait.
XXXIII. Lancashire and Cheshire Wills and Inventories from the Ecclesiastical Court, Chester.
The First Portion. Edited by the Rev. G. J. Piccope, M.A. pp. vi, 196.

4 Publications of the Chetham Society.
vol. Twelfth year (1854-5).
XXXIV. The Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom. Vol. I. Part II. pp. 321-639.
XXXV. The House and Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe Hall. Edited by John
Harland, Esq., F.S.A. Part I. pp. 232. Frontispiece.
XXXVI. The Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington. Vol. II. Part I. pp. 248.
Thirteenth year (1855-6).
XXXVII. Chetham Miscellanies. Vol. II. Edited by William Langton, Esq. : containing
The Rights and Jurisdiction of the County Palatine of Chester, the Earls Palatine, the Chamber
lain, and other Officers. Edited by Joseph Brooks Yates, F.A.S., G.S., and P.S. pp. 37.
The Scottish Field. (A Poem on the Battle of Flodden.) Edited by John Robson, Esq. pp. xv, 28.
Examynatyons towcheynge Cokeye More, Temp. Hen. VIII. in a dispute between the Lords of the
Manors of Middleton and Radclyffe. Communicated by the Rev. F. R. Raines, M. A., F.S.A. pp. 30.
A History of the Ancient Chapel of Denton, in Manchester Parish. By the Rev. John Booker,
M.A., F.S.A. pp. viii, 148. Three Plates.
A Letter-from John Bradshawe of Gray's Inn to Sir Peter Legh of Lyme. Edited by William
Langton, Esq. pp. 8.
Facsimile ofa Deed of Richard Russel to Church of Evesham (for insertion in vol. xxx).
XXXVIII. Bibliographical Notices of the Church Libraries of Turton and Gorton bequeathed hy
Humphrey Chetham, Edited by Gilbert J. French, Esq. pp. 199. Illustrated Title.
XXXIX. The Farington Papers. Edited by Miss ffarington. pp. xvi, 179. Five plates of Signatures.
Fourteenth year (1856-7).
XL. The Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom. Vol. II. Part I. pp. 326 and two
Indexes.
XLI. The House and Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe Hall. Part II. pp. 233-472.
Portrait.
XLII. A History of the Ancient Chapels of Didsbury and Chorlton, in Manchester Parish, including
Sketches ofthe Townships of Didsbury, Withington, Burnage, Heaton Norris, Reddish, Levenshulme,
and Chorlton-cum-Hardy: together with Notices ofthe more Ancient Local Families, and Particulars
relating to the Descent of their Estates. By the Rev. John Booker, M.A., F.S.A. pp. viii, 337.

Fifteenth year (1857-8).
XLIII. The House and Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe Hall. Part III. vv x
473-776. er '
XLIV. The Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom. Vol. II. Part II. pp. 327-654.
. Byrom Pedigrees, pp. 41 and three folding sheets; Index, pp. v.
XLV. Miscellanies: being a selection from the Poems and Correspondence of the Rev.- Thos. Wilson,
B.D., of Clitheroe. With Memoirs of his Life. By the Rev. Canon Raines, M. \., F.S.A. pp. xc,
230. Two Plates.
Sixteenth year (185 8-9).
XLVI. The House and Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe Hall. Part IV. (Con
clusion), pp. 777-1171.
X™VI1', A I!i^OTy of the Anclent Chapel of Birch, in Manchester Parish, including a Sketch of the
lownsnip of Rusholme : together with Notices of the more Ancient Local Families, and Particulars
relating to the Descent of their Estates. By the Rev. John Booker, M.A., F.S.A. pp. viii, 255
Four Plates. "
XLVIII. A Catalogue of the Collection of Tracts for and against Popery (published in or about the reign
of James II.) in the Manchester Library founded by Humphrey Chetham ; in which is incorporated,
with large Additions and Bibliographical Notes, the whole of Peck's List of the Tracts in that
Controversy, with his References. Edited by Thomas Jones, Esq. B.A. Part I. pp. xii, 256.

Publications of the Chetham Society. 5
V0L- Seventeenth year (185 9-60).
XLIX. The Lancashire Lieutenancy under the Tudors and Stuarts. The Civil and Military Govern
ment ofthe County, as illustrated by a series of Royal and other Letters; Orders of the Privy Council,
the Lord Lieutenant, and other Authorities, &c, &c. Chiefly derived from the Shuttleworth MSS.
at Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire. Edited by John Harland, Esq., F.S.A. Part I. pp. cxx, 96.

L. The Lancashire Lieutenancy under the Tudors and Stuarts. Part II. (Conclusion), pp. 97-333.
LI. Lancashire and Cheshire Wills and Inventories from the Ecclesiastical Court, Chester. The Second
Portion, pp. vi, 283.
Eighteenth year ( 1 8 6 o- 1 ) .
LII. Collectanea Anglo-Poetica : or, A Bibliographical and Descriptive Catalogue of a portion of a Col
lection of Early English Poetry, with occasional Extracts and Remarks Biographical and Critical.
By the Rev. Thomas Corser, M. A., F.S.A., Rural Dean; Rector of Stand, Lancashire; and Vicar
of Norton, Northamptonshire. Part I. pp. xi, 208.
LIII. Mamecestre: being Chapters from the early recorded History of the Barony, the Lordship or
Manor, the Vill Borough or Town, of Manchester. Edited by John Harland, Esq., F.S.A. Vol. I.
pp. 207. Frontispiece.
LIV. Lancashire and Cheshire Wills and Inventories from the Ecclesiastical Court, Chester. The Third
Portion. (Conclusion), pp. v, 272.
Nineteen th year ( 1 8 6 1 -2) .
LV. Collectanea Anglo-Poetica. Part II. pp. vi, 209-456.
LVI. Mamecestre. Vol.11, pp. 209-431.
LVII. Chetham Miscellanies. Vol. III. Edited by William Langton, Esq. : containing
On the South Lancashire Dialect, with Biographical Notices of John Collier, the author of Tim
Bobbin. By Thos. Heywood, Esq. pp. 84
Rentale de Cokersand : being the Bursar's Rent Roll of the Abbey of Cokersand, in the County
Palatine of Lancaster, for the year 1501. Printed from the Original. Edited by the Rev. F. R.
Raines, M.A., F.S.A. pp. xviii, 46.
The Names of all the Gentlemen of the best callinge w,hin the countye of Lancastre, whereof choyse
ys to be made of a c'ten number to lend vnto her Ma1?" moneye vpon privie seals in Janvarye 1588.
From a manuscript in the possession of the Rev. F. R. Raines, M.A., F.S.A. pp. 9.
Some Instruction given by William Booth Esquire to his stewards John Carington and William
Rowcrofte, upon the purchase of Warrington by Sir George Booth Baronet and William Booth his
son, a.d. mdcxviii. Communicated by William Beamont, Esq. pp. 8.
Letter from Sir John Seton, Manchester y° 25 M'ch, 1643. Edited by Thomas Heywood, Esq.,
F.S.A. pp. 15.
The Names of eight hundred inhabitants of Manchester who took the oath of allegiance to Charles
II. in April, 1679. Communicated by John Harland, F.S.A. pp. 8.
The Pole Booke of Manchester, May ye 22d 1690. Edited by William Langton, Esq. pp. 43.
Map and folding Table.
Twentieth year (1862-3).
LVIII. Mamecestre. Vol. III. (Conclusion.) pp. xl, 433-627.
LIX. A History of the Chantries within the County Palatine of Lancaster : being the Reports of the
Royal Commissioners of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Queen Mary. Edited by the Rev. F. R.
Raines, M.A., F.S.A. Vol. I. pp. xxxix, 168.
LX. A History of the Chantries within the County Palatine of Lancaster, &c. Vol.11. (Conclusion).
pp. 169-323.

6 Publications of the Chetham Society.
V0L> Twe7ity-first year ( 1 8 6 3-4).
General Index to the Remains Historical and Literary published by the Chetham Society, voIs.I-XXX.
pp. viii, 168.
LXI. I. Abbott's Journal. II. An Account of the Tryalls &c. in Manchester in 1694. Edited by the
Rt. Rev. Alexander Goss, D.D. pp. xix, 32; xxi, 42; 5.
LXII. Discourse of the Warr in Lancashire. Edited by William Beamont, Esq. pp. xxxiv, 164
Two Plates.
Twenty-second year (1864-5).
LXIII. A Volume of Court Leet Records of the Manor of Manchester in the Sixteenth Century.
Compiled and edited by John Harland, F.S.A. pp. xix, 208. Frontispiece.
LXIV. A Catalogue of the Collection of Tracts for and against Popery. Part II. To which are added
an Index to the Tracts in both editions of Gibson's Preservative, and a reprint of Dodd's Certamen,
Utriusque Ecclesia.. Edited by Thomas Jones, Esq. B.A. pp. x, 269, 17.
LXV. Continuation of the Court Leet Records of the Manor of Manchester, a.d. 1586-1602. By John
Harland, Esq. pp. viii, 128.

Twenty-third year (1865-6).

LXVI. The Stanley Papers. Part III. Private Devotions and Miscellanies of James seventh earl of
Derby, K.G., with a Prefatory Memoir and Appendix of Documents. Edited by the Rev. Canon
Raines, M.A., F.S.A. Vol. 1. pp. i-ccviii. Four Plates.
LXVII. The Stanley Papers. Part III. Vol. 2. pp. ccix-cccxcv. Four Plates.
LXVIII. Collectanea relating to Manchester and its Neighbourhood, at various periods. Compiled,
arranged and edited by John Harland, F.S.A. Vol. I. pp. viii, 258.
Twenty-fourth year (1866-7).
LXIX. The Admission Register of the Manchester School, with some Notices of the more distinguished
Scholars. Edited by the Rev. Jeremiah Finch Smith, M.A., Rector of Aldridge, Staffordshire,
and Rural Dean. Vol. I., from a.d. 1730 to a.d. 1775. pp. viii, 253.
LXX. The Stanley Papers. Part III. Vol.3. (Conclusion.) pp. 112 and 65. Frontispiece.
LXXI. Collectanea Anglo-Poetica. Part III. pp. x, 282.
Twenty-fifth year (1867-8).
LXXII. Collectanea relating to Manchester and its Neighbourhood. Vol. II. pp. viii, 252.
LXXIII. The Admission Register of the Manchester School, with some Notices of the more dis
tinguished Scholars. Vol. II., from a.d. 1776 to a.d. 1807. pp. v, 302.
LXXIV. Three Lancashire Documents of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, namely : I. The
Great De Lacy Inquisition, Feb. 16, 1311. II. Survey of 1320-1346. III. Custom Roll and Rental
of the Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne, 1421. Edited by John Harland, Esq., F.S.A. pp. xiii, 140.

Twenty-sixth year (1868-9).

LXXV. Lancashire Funeral Certificates. Edited by Thomas William King, Esq., F.S.A., York
Herald. With additions by the Rev. F. R. Raines, M.A., F.S.A., Vice-President of the Chetham
Society, pp. viii, 102.
LXX VI. Observations and Instructions divine and mora .11. In Verse. By Robert Heywood of Hey
wood, Lancashire. Edited by James Crossley, Esq., F.S.A. pp. xxiv, 108.
LXXVII. Collectanea Anglo-Poetica. Part IV. pp. vi, 260.

Publications of the Chetham Society. 7
V0L> Twenty-seventh year (1869-70).
LXXVIII. Tracts written in the Controversy respecting the Legitimacy of Amicia, daughter of
Hugh Cyveliok, earl of Chester, a.d. 1673-1679. By sir Peter Leycester, bart., and sir Thomas
Mainwaring, bart. Reprinted from the Collection at Peover. Edited, with an Introduction, by
William Beamont, Esq. Parti, pp. xcv, 94. Portrait of sir Peter Leycester.
LXXIX. Tracts Written in the Controversy respecting the Legitimacy of Amicia. Part II. pp. 95-322;
Portrait of sir Thomas Mainwaring.
LXXX. Tracts written in the Controversy respecting the Legitimacy of Amicia. Part III. {Conclusion.)
pp. 323-550. With frontispiece of Stall at Peover.

Twenty-eighth year (i 870-1).

LXXXI. The Visitation of the County Palatine of Lancaster, made in the year 1567, by William
Flower, Esq., Norroy king of arms. Edited by the Rev. F. R. Raines, M.A., F.S.A., Vicar of
Milnrow, and Hon. Canon of Manchester, pp. xvi, 141.
LXXXII. The Visitation of the County Palatine of Lancaster, made in the year 1613, by Richard St.
George, Esq., Norroy king of arms. Edited by the Rev. F. R. Raines, M. A., F.S.A., Vicar of Miln
row, Hon. Canon of Manchester, and Rural Dean. pp. xx, 142.
LXXXIII. Chetham Miscellanies, Vol. IV., containing:
Some Account of General Robert Venables, of Antrobus and Wincham, Cheshire ; with an engrav
ing from his Portrait at Wincham, together with the Autobiographical Memoranda or Diary of his
Widow, Elizabeth Venables. From the original MS. in the possession of Lee P. Townshend, Esq.
pp. iv, 28. Pedigree!. Portrait of General Robert Venables.
A Forme of Confession grounded vpon the Ancient Catholique and Apostoliqne Faith. Made and
composed by the honorable ladie The Lady Bridget Egerton. a.d. 1636. From the original MS. in
the possession of Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P. pp. vi, 23. Pedigrees 2.
Plate. A Kalender conteyning the Names of all such Gent, and others as upon her Maty's Pryvye Seales
have paid there Money to the handes of Sir Hugh Cholmondley Knyghte Collectr of Her Hyghnes
Loane with'" the Countie of Chester, together w,h the severall Somes and Daies of Receipt, a.d. 1597.
From the original MS. in the possession of R. H. Wood, Esq., F.S.A. pp. iv, 4.
History of Warrington Friary. Edited by William Beamont, Esq. pp. vii, 76. Index 4.
Four Plates, being Effigies and Arms, Tombstones, and Fragments.

Twenty -ninth year (187 1-2).

LXXXI V. The Visitation of the County Palatine of Lancaster, made in the year 1664-5, by Sir Wil
liam Dugdale, Knight, Norroy king of arms. Edited by the Rev. F. R. Raines, M.A., F.S.A., Vicar
of Milnrow, Hon. Canon of Manchester, and Rural Dean. Part I. pp. xiv, 104.
LXXXV. The Visitation of the County Palatine of Lancaster, made in the year 1664-5, by Sir Wil
liam Dugdale, Knight. Part II. pp. 105-224.
LXXXVI. Annals of the Lords of Warrington for the first five centuries after the conquest. With
historical notices of the place and neighbourhood. Edited by William Beamont, Esq. Part I.
pp. xxvi, 262. Three Plates.

Thirtieth year (1872-3).

LXXXVII. Annals of the Lords of Warrington for the first five centuries after the conquest. Part II.
(Conclusion.) pp. 263-523. Index 11. Three Plates.
LXXXVIII. The Visitation of the County Palatine of Lancaster, made in the year 1664-5, by Sir Wil
liam Dugdale, Knight. Part III. (Conclusion.) pp. 225-344. Index 17.
LXXXIX. The Dr. Farmer Chetham MS., being a commonplace-book in the Chetham Library, temp.
Elizabeth, James I. and Charles I., consisting of verse and prose, mostly hitherto unpublished.
Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart. Part I. pp. xvi, 120.
Frontispiece in Photo-lithography.

8 Publications of the. Chetham Society.
T0L. Thirty-first year (i 87 3-4).
XC. The Dr. Farmer Chetham MS., being a commonplace-book in the Chetham Library, temp.
EUzabeth, James I. and Charles I. Part II. (Conclusion.) pp. 121-225.
XCI. Collectanea Anglo-Poetica. Part V. pp. xi, 250.
XCII. The History of tbe parish of Kirkham, in the county of Lancaster. By Henry Fishwick
F.R.H.S. pp. vii, 208 ; Appendix 3 ; Index 18. Frontispiece.

Thirty-second year (1874-5).

XCIII. The Admission Register of the Manchester School, with some Notices of the more distinguished
Scholars, from a.d. 1807 to a.d. 1830. Vol. III. Part I. pp. vi, 176. Three Plates.
XCIV. The Admission Register of the Manchester School, with some Notices of the more distinguished
Scholars, from a.d. 1807 to a.d. 1830. Vol. III. Part II. pp. 177-348. Index 19. Two Plates.
XCV. Abstracts of Inquisitions post Mortem, made by Christopher Towneley and Roger Dodsworth.
Extracted from Manuscripts at Towneley. Edited by William Langton. pp. viii, 160 ; Index 16.

Thirty-third year (1875-6).

XCVI. Chetham Miscellanies, Vol. V. Edited by the Rev. Canon Raines, M.A., F.S.A., Vice-
President of the Society, containing :
A Description of tho State, Civil and Ecclesiastical, ofthe County of Lancaster, about the year 1590,
by some of the Clergy of the Diocese of Chester. From the original MS. in the Bodleian, pp. xv, 48 .
A Visitation of the Diocese of Chester, by John, Archbishop of York, held in the Chapter House of
the Collegiate and Parish Church of Manchester, 1590, with the Archbishop's Correspondence with
the Clergy. From the MS. in the Bodleian, pp. 22. Plate.
Letters on the Claims of the College of Arms in Lancashire, in the time of James the First ; by
Leonard Smethley and Randle Holme, Deputy Heralds, pp. xx, 38.
The Easter Rolls of WhaUey in the years 1552 and 1553. From the originals at Stonyhurst.
pp. v, 18.
XCVII. Contributions towards a History of the Ancient Parish of Prestbury, in Cheshire. By Frank
Renaud, M.D. pp. viii, 238 ; Index 6. Fourteen Plates.
XCVIII. The Visitation of Lancashire and a Part of Cheshire, made in the Twenty-fourth year ofthe
reign of King Henry the Eighth, a.d. 1533, by special commission of Thomas Benalt, Clarencieux.
Edited by William LangtcSj, Esq. pp. xviii, 104.

Charles Simms and Co., Printers, Manchester.

©
REMAINS
HISTORICAL & LITERARY
CONNECTED WITH THE PALATINE COUNTIES OF
LANCASTER AND CHESTER.
PUBLISHED BY
THE CHETHAM SOCIETY.

VOL. XCVIII.

PRINTED FOR THE CHETHAM SOCIETY.
M.DCCC.LXXVI.

COUNCIL for 1875-76.
JAMES CROSSLEY, Esq., F.S.A., President.
REV. F. R. RAINES, M.A., F.S.A., Hon. Canon of Manchester,
Vice-President.
WILLIAM BEAMONT, Esq.
THE VERY REV. BENJAMIN MORGAN COWIE, B.D., F.S.A,
Dean of Manchester.
THE WORSHIPFUL RICHARD COPLEY CHRISTIE, M.A.,
Chancellor of the Diocese of Manchester,
REV. THOMAS CORSER, M.A, F.S.A.
LIEUT.-COLONEL FISHWICK, F.S.A.
THOMAS JONES, Esq., B.A., F.S.A.
WILLIAM LANGTON, Esq.
COLONEL EGERTON LEIGH, M.P.
REV. JOHN HOWARD MARSDEN, B.D., F.R.G.S.,
Late Disney Professor.
REV. JAMES RAINE, M.A., Canon of York.
ARTHUR H. HEYWOOD, Esq., Treasurer.
R. HENRY WOOD, Esq., F.S.A., Hon. Secretary.

THE

¥*feitatton of &ancas$fr*
AND A PART OF CHESHIRE,
MADE IN THE TWENTY-FOURTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF
KING HENRY THE EIGHTH,
A.D. 1533,
BY SPECIAL COMMISSION OF
THOMAS BENALT,
Clarencieux.

EDITED BY
WILLIAM LANGTON.

Part I.

PRINTED FOR THE CHETHAM SOCIETY.
M.DCCC.LXXVI.

Pkinted bv Charles E. Simms
Manchester.

^y

V" » __iii.ii
•r- Mi H

PBEFACE.

IT ought to be explained that the task of editing this
Visitation was first accepted by the late Mr. Thomas
Doming Hibbert, a gentleman possessed of a great amount
of heraldic and genealogical lore, but who abandoned the
undertaking before' he had completed the engraving of the
whole series of the arms. The publication fell unfortunately
into the hands of the present editor, whose laborious avoca
tions left him but little leisure to pursue the subject with
the attention it required, and therefore caused much delay.
The scale of illustration attempted may have been too am
bitious, and the difficulties of pursuing it have increased by
his infirmity of blindness. With the aid of other eyes he
trusts that errors of the press may have been rendered in
frequent, that the work may be continued, and that the
armorial illustrations may have the advantage of the skilful
pencil of Mr. J. Paul Rylands, F.S.A , who has already
contributed to the notes in this volume.
The editor had hoped to have continued the illustration
of this work by the engraving of seals, which are the most
authentic records of heraldry, but time and sight have failed
him, and he has to regret that some fine examples of the seal
b

iv Preface.
engraving of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth cen
turies, which were the palmy days of " la science heroique,"
have not been engraved He had also hoped to have issued
to the world copies of Lancashire seals in trick from a collec
tion made by Christopher Towneley, which is to be found
in the library of the late Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., at
Cheltenham, where he saw the volume,1 but had not the
opportunity of making tracings.
Imperfection attends all human effort, and an editor's first
duty is to point out the errors into which he may have fallen
while attempting the correction of those of others. The
reader is therefore requested to alter, on page 6 line 3,
Edward the Sixth into Edward the Fourth, and at page 24
line 7, to make First into Third after the name of King
Edward. On the same page (24) it is stated that no date
1 The following description of the volume is from the pen of the late
Baronet. "I have just found Townley's Book of Lancashire Arms and
" I sit down at once to give you an account of it. It is a i2mo or i8mo
"vol., about 7 inches high, thin, in brown cf, with Towneley's Book
" Plate in it, on which is this description, ' Ex libris Bibliothecee Do-
" mesticse Ricardi Towneley de Towneley in Agro Lancastrensi armi-
" geri, Anno setatis 73, Domini 1702.' The sale No. is 553. The arms
" are alphabetical, Ashton-under-Line, De Arcy, Ashton, Bradhull, Ba-
" nastre, Baley, Brockholes, Bernack, Byron, Clogh, Cliderho, Caldi-
" cotes, Dynelay, Darcie, Eerrars, Greenacres, Grymshawe, Gaitford,
" Holden, Heppale, Hoddleston, Houghton, I  , I  ,
" Lascy, Lovell, Lascy again, Lancaster, Constable (Boger) of Chester,
" Leigh, Langton, Middleton, Nowell, Eilsi fil Hergovis or Osbaldeston,
•' Parker, Plumpton, Punchardon, Pilkington, Rixton, Badcliffe, South-
" worth, Sherburn, Towneley, Trevet, Wimbich.
" The above seals are apparently all taken from Deeds, extracts of
" the Deeds being given with them."
(Dated) M.H. (Middle Hill) 22. S. 54.

Preface.

v

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can be assigned to the abandonment
of the bordure vair in the coat of
Langton ; the seal of Ralph, grandson
of Robert, has since been discovered,
where the shield bears three chevrons
without a bordure. Two mistakes
occur in the arms ofthe Holts, at page
47 and page 53 ; in each case the arms
should have been described as a bend
and not as a /esse, the Museum and
Office copies agreeing. At page 5 1 the Standishes of Dux-
bury are said to have entered at all the Visitations, but they
do not appear in the Office copy of the last Visitation of
1664, although given at page 293, vol. lxxxviii.
Difficulties beset the genealogist on every side, and it will
be readily understood how the present editor has been em
barrassed by the loss of sight. One example of the source
of errors will suffice to illustrate the spread of error. In a
deed of Johanna, daughter and heiress of Richard de Rad
cliffe by Sybilla de Cliderou his second wife, she names as
one remainder in a settlement her brother Roger, on the
strength of which that name has been inserted in the pedi
gree of Cliderou drawn up for the new edition of the History
of WhaUey, and is also given at page 149, vol. xcv. of the
Chetham series. Careful examination of the deed in which
this occurs proves it to be one of those bj which Johanna
sought to divert the Cliderou inheritance from the rightful
heirs to her husband's illegitimate issue. If she had had
an own brother she could not have been an heiress, and in
a note at page 37, the editor hinted at the possibility of

vi Preface.
Roger having been born ante matrimonium (a very impro
bable circumstance, however, in this particular case), neg
lecting the alternative which ought to have suggested itself
at once, that this Roger de Radcliffe might have been, and
probably was. a younger son of Sir Richard-de Radcliffe's
first marriage, and therefore Johanna's half-brother.
A similar equivocal expression in the will of George Tal
bot speaking of his sister Ann Southworth, led to the inser
tion, in the pedigree of Talbot of Salebury prepared for the
new edition of Whitaker's History of WhaUey, of the mar
riage of a sister with a Southworth, whereas it is not im
probable that his sister-in-law was designated.
In justification of the belief which the editor expressed
on page 70, that the arms of the Langleys
of Agecroft were derived from Penulbury,
he gives an example of the seal of Roger
de Penulbury attached to a grant of the
manor of Quickleswick to his son Elias,
s.d., which is copied from the Trafford
deeds.
The evidence of the parentage of Editha, lady of Barton
(page 79), who brought that manor in marriage to Gilbert
de Notton, is to be found in Kuerden's MS. in the Chetham
College Library, at page 274, where he treats of the barony
of Manchester.. He records that Albert Grelle, called Senes,
third baron of Manchester in the time of Henry the Second,
had three daughters, one of whom was Editha. In the list
of hamlets or subordinate manors described in a note on
page 79 as held under the lords of Barton, S winton is
omitted. In the time of Robert Grelle, baron of Man

Preface. vii
Chester, we find that the lord of Barton owned the homage
and service of David de Hulton, Roger de Pennylbyry,
Richard de Honneford, Robert de Hulton, Jordan de New-
ham, Richard de Wythington, Roger chaplain of Eccles,
William clerk of Eccles, Galfrid de Barton, Elias de Barton,
Thomas son of Adam de Hulm, Alexander le Mey, Robert
de Birches, John son of Ralph le Fereman (Ferryman),
Adam son of Henry de Irwelham, John de Bromihurst (no
doubt one of his kindred who took his name from his tene
ment), and Adam son of Thomas de Hulm.
The determination of the families of Trafford and Booth
to accomplish the union of their great estates is illustrated
by the following abstract of an agreement for an inter
marriage between tho two families. It affords also an
example of the arbitrary way in which parents arranged
the matrimonial affairs of their children in days of yore.
The document in question bears date the 6th January,
7 Elizabeth (1564) and recites:
" Certeyne articles agreed open betweene Edmund Trafforde of
Trafforde Esq. 1 p' and John Boothe of Barton Esq., 2 p' con-
cernyng a marryage to be had and solemnysed betwene Edmund
Trafforde sonne and heyre app* of sa Edmd Trafforde Esq. and
Marget Boothe daughter and heire of the said John Booth as
followeth. "In primis sd Edma T. Esq. covts with sd John Booth that the
sd Edmd the son shall and will marye and take to wyfe the said
Marget Boothe on this side and before the feaste of Lawe Sundaye
being the xxix daie of Aprile nexte comyng.
"And in lykewise the sd John Boothe covents with sd Edm:
the Father that the said Marget shall and will marye and take to
husband the sd Edmund the son on this side &c.
" In consideration of tbe sd Weddyinge and for estating all the

viii Prejacc.
manors, meSses, lands &c. of sd John Boothe so that they may
descend to theire of the bodies of sd Edmd and Margret lawfully
to be begotten immeda on death of- sd John Boothe. The sd Edmd
the father covens with sd John that he his heires &c. will pay to
Edmd his One thousand Pounds of good &c. on such feast days as
shall be agreed on and appd by the ryght worshyppful Syr Uriah
Brereton, Syr Rob: Worstley, Syr Kauf Leycester Knightes and
Thomas Butler Esquire, theyr lovying aud indifferent ffrendes.
"Proyded always that if itt fortune that no issue be begotten as
afd betweeue sd Edm. and Marget that then all soch somes of
money as before y4 tyme hath beene payd by sd Edmd to sd John
or his ass : shall be payd unto sd Edmd the Father his heires &c.
on such days and feasts as it was afore delivd.
"And yff it happen y* ye sd Marget doe decease before carnall
knowledge bee hadd betwixt ye sd gties then Anne Boothe on
other of the daughrs of the sd John shall marye and take to hus
band sd Edmd the sonne on such feaste and daye as by the said
former indiff' friends shall be named And for want of ye sd Anne
the next daughtr and heire of the sd John shall marrie the sd Edmd
the son and so in default from on daur to another until the maryage
of on of the daughts then heire of the sd John shall be fullie con
formable as afd.
"And in like manner if it happen that the sd Edmund the son
do decease afore carnall knowledge bee hadd betwene them sd Edmd
and Marget or any other of ye sd daurs and heire of sd John that
then the next son and heire of the body of the sd Edmd the father
shall marrie one of the daurs and heire of the sd John Boothe as
afd and so in default from sone to sone then heir of sd Edmunde
untill the sd maryage betwene one of the sones & heir of sd Edmd
and one of the daurs & heires of sd John be fully completed &
carnall knowledge hadd betweene them as afsd. And if it happen
that after the sd first marryage no carnall knowledge be had
betwixt sd pties and no second maryage & carnal knowledge can be
lawfully had then all such somes of money as are pd to sd John
Booth shall be repayd to sd Edmd the father.
" And further that yf it happen y* sd John Booth shd have issue

Preface. ix
male of his bodye lawfullie begotten then the sd first begotten son
& heire & for want thereof the 2d son and heyre 8s soe from one
son to another then being his son & heyr shall marrye & take to
wyfe Elizabeth dauter of Edmd the father and for want thereof one
other of the daurs of sd Edmd the father and soe frome one unto
anor so long as Edmd hath or shall have any dawter living untill a
full & perfect marrying be hadd betweene the son & heire of sd
John Booth & a daughter of sd Edmund Trafford the father.
"And yff ytt happen that the sd first marryage betwene the
sonn or sonnes of sd Edmd the father & the dawters then heires of
sd John Boothe be not solemnized and done with full and complete
carnall knowledge and the marriage betwixt the son & heire of sd
John & a daur of sd Edmd the father that then sd John Boothe
covenants & granteth with sd Edmd the father that he his heires
&c. will give & pay back all such sums as he has receyd of sd
Edmd and so moch and great a some of money of Engld & to
surmount in some or vallew so much more as the lands & innance
of the sd Edmd the father now surmounteth the lands of the sd
John Boothe as shall appear hereafter by persight knowledg and
- survey. And further Bothe covn to levy a fine &c.
" And further if any thyng hath beene forgotten in this Indre
which hereafter may by the pties be thought expedyent & needful
for the corroberation strength makyng sure & furtherance of any
thing herein conteyned they are agreed to abyde the decision of
sd Sir Urian Brereton Sir Robert Woreseley Sr Rauffe Leycester
Knts and Thomas Butler Esq. their trustie & loving frendes ac
cords to the true intent hereof. Dated 6 January A0 r. r. Dom
Elizabethe septimo in the presence of Sir Urian Brereton Sir Rob*
Worseley Syr Rauff Leycestr Knts and Thomas Butler Esq. with
others. 1564."
From the officers of the College of Arms the editor has
invariably received the most polite attention and liberal
assistance. The late Sir Charles G. Young, Garter, &c,
contributed the notice of the Lordship of Man at page 9 of
this volume, and his successor, Sir Albert William Woods,

x Preface.
F.S.A., has compared the various entries of this Visitation
with the Office copy, and in many other respects has
imparted valuable information. In the late Somerset herald
— Mr. William Courthope — the editor had for many
years an instructive correspondent; and with the present
gentleman who holds this office, his venerable friend Mr. J. R.
Planche, he has long enjoyed the honour of a correspon
dence full of interest and instruction.
Without the kind assistance of Mr. William Hardy,
F.S.A., it would have been impossible for the editor to find
a clue to disentangle some knotty points from the labyrinth
of errors in which they are involved. For more than thirty
years he has found him ever accessible and willing to assist.
The difficulties which lie in the way of the discovery of an
error seem to enhance his zest in the search after truth. In
this volume we owe to him the solution of the difficulties in
the Ashton pedigrees, and the correction of Vincent's mis
takes respecting the Harringtons.
These sheets, as they went through the press, have also
had the advantage, of being seen by Mr. William Beamont,
a friend who to great opportunities of collecting information
adds the power of imparting it in a most pleasing vein.
To the Rev. Canon Raines the editor's obligations are
very great. This gentleman, with unrivalled industry, has
accumulated evidences from original charters, deeds, &c,
and his collections have been referred to in various works
issued by the Chetham Society as the Lancashire MSS.
His invariable kindness in imparting the fruits of his labours
requires the most grateful acknowledgment. It is to be
lamented that he has not always cited, in the extensive

Preface. xi
notes which illustrate the works which he has edited, the
authorities for the information given, as errors for which he
is not originally responsible have acquired an undue authority
when repeated by a man of such laborious research, as wit
ness the descent of the Salebury property from Cliderou to
the Talbots, quoted in a note at page 279 of vol. xxi. ofthe
Chetham series, and wrongly inserted at page 297 of vol.
Ixxxviii. It is a great pity that in this last named volume an
attempt should have been made to continue the Visitation
of Sir William Dugdale from sources not original, which has
led to the insertion of much matter quite foreign to the
Visitation, and which cannot fail to be very misleading to the
student of genealogy. The pedigree of Towneley, evidently
copied from Hopkinson, in which the early descents are a
mass of confusion, and one mistake in which was actually
corrected by Dr. Whitaker, is an example of departure from
Sir William Dugdale's record, which only commences with
"John Towneley," who in 1556 married his cousin, Mary
Towneley, heiress of the estates.2 In like manner, in vol.
3\In the pedigree of Towneley of Towneley, which will appear in the
new edition of Whitaker's History of WhaUey, Hopkinson's mistakes
are corrected from the evidences of the family collected by Christopher
Towneley, but the name of George, given as a brother of Geoffrey (the
elder) dean of WhaUey, has not been altered to Gregory, as it should
have been.
The pedigree of Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe, as printed for the same
edition of the History of WhaUey, has undergone comparison with the
records of the College of Arms, and differs in some respects from
that given in the former editions, but especially from the pedigree
ascribed to Dugdale in vol. Ixxxviii. In this case the editor made a
reference to the original MS. of Dugdale, which bore the signature of
one of the family.

xii Preface.
Ixxxviii, a pedigree of Trafford ascending up to Saxon times
has been inserted, whereas in Dugdale's Visitation the
descents are only recorded from Sir Edmund Trafford, who
married, secondly, a daughter of Lord Edward Howard, and
whose other wife was a Miss Leicester.
The difficulty of writing on genealogical subjects with
accuracy, unless original evidences are accessible, is also
well illustrated by our attempt to follow the succession of
the co-heirs of Sir James Harrington of Westleigh in Lanca
shire, and Wolfedge and Brixworth in Northamptonshire.
The note by Canon Raines, in his History of the
Chantries, pp. 125-128, vol. lix. of the Chetham series,
gives a number of descents collected from Vincent's MSS.
in the College of Arms. It is upon these that we shall have
to comment.
The inquisition taken at the death of Sir James Harring
ton, 19th November, 14 Henry VII. (1498), gives the fol
lowing names as his daughters and co-heirs, all of whom
were of age at the time of his death. We take them in the
order of succession in which they appear in that document.
1, Agnes. The settlements quoted in the inquisition post
mortem of Isabella, widow of Sir James Harrington, who
died 20th June, 10 Henry VIII. (15 18), prove that Agnes3
was the wife of Sir Thomas Assheton of Ashton-under-Lyne.
By her he had an only daughter, Alice, already married to
Richard Hoghton, and ofthe age of 22 in 15 19, the date of
the inquisition post mortem of Isabella her grandmother.
The note in the History of the Chantries makes Sir Thomas
3 Our copy of the Visitation of 1567 names Agnes as daughter of
Sir John Harrington of Wesiby.

Preface. xiii
Assheton's wife to be Alice, re-married to Richard Hoghton,
Kt.,4 whereas we have shown that Alice, wife to Hoghton,
was the daughter of Sir Thomas Assheton by Agnes, daugh
ter of Sir James Harrington. The note says of Agnes, "ob.
s. p." Furthermore Sir James, in the copy given of his
will, is represented as calling Sir Thomas Assheton's wife
Alice, no doubt an error of the copyist.
2, Elizabeth, stated by Vincent to have been married to
John Lumley, which is probably correct, as we find that the
last-named co-heir in the inquisition post mortem of Isabella,
the widow of Sir James Harrington, is Henry Lumley of
Ryssheton, in the county of Northampton, aged 22 years,
his mother, as well as her sister Agnes, being evidently dead
at that date.
3, Alice, named as the third daughter in the Visitation of
1533, being married to Ralph Standish of Standish. The
wife of Ralph Standish was miscalled Ellen by Vincent, and
so appears in Hopkinson's pedigree, improperly inserted as
Dugdale's, at page 291 of vol. Ixxxviii. of the Chetham
series. She survived her mother, and is named in the inqui
sition post mortem of 15 19 as being then 48 years of age.
4, Margaret, stated by Vincent to be married firstly to
Christopher Hulton, and secondly to Thomas Pilkington.
The first of these marriages is probably correctly given, for
we find by the Visitation of 1533 that Roger Ashawe had
married Jane, a daughter of Christopher Hulton, which Jane
is named as one of Isabella's heirs, and of the age of 29.
She is misrepresented in the Visitation of 1567 as a daugh-
* Thus a young lady of 22 is here treated as having a second husband,
the first being none other than her own father.

xiv Preface.
ter instead of a grand-daughter of Sir James Harrington,
and confounded in the note with Johanna, wife of Edmund
Assheton of Chadderton, of whom hereafter. The marriage
attributed to Margaret with Sir Thomas Pilkington shows
an utter disregard of dates on the part of Vincent. That
marriage required a license on the score of consanguinity
which was granted in 1442, aud in the same year Sir William
Harrington (father of Sir James and brother of Margaret)
had a similar license to marry Elizabeth6 daughter of Edmund
and sister of Sir Thomas Pilkington. Margaret wife of Sir
Thomas Pilkington was therefore Aunt to Margaret who
married Christopher Hulton.
5, Isabella, the wife of John Tresham, and named as 43
years of age in the inquisition taken at her mother's death.
Here we agree with Vincent except as to the age of the lady
who is stated by him to be 31.
6, Alianora, described in Sir Peter Leycester's History of
the Family of Leycester of Tofte as the ninth daughter,
and married to John Leycester of Tofte, who had by her
lands in Northamptonshire. In the inquisition post mortem
of her mother, Isabella, she is named as 50 years of age;
this does not differ from Vincent.
7, Joan, or Johanna, called Jennett in the Visitation of
1567, married to Edmund Assheton of Chadderton, first
cousin once removed to the husband of her older sister
Agnes, and improperly, as we have seen, introduced into
the Ashawe pedigree. She was dead before 15 19, when
James Assheton her son, aged 24, was found co-heir to his
5 Called in an earlier part of the note Margaret, daughter of Sir John
Pilkington.

Preface. xv
grandmother, Isabella Harrington. In Vincent's account of
the inquisition on Isabella, this James Assheton is improperly
called the son of William Assheton.
8, Anne, or Anna, named in her mother's inquisition as
wife of Sir William Stanley, Kt., and of the age of 41. In
Ormerod's pedigree of the Stanleys of Hooton he makes Sir
William Stanley to have married Anne, eldest daughter of
Sir James Harrington. We have no disagreement with
Vincent in this case.
9, Clemence, appears in the inquisition of 1 5 1 9 as being
35 years of age, and wife of Henry Norres, identified as of
Speke in the Visitation of 1567. Here again we agree
with Vincent.
10, Katherine, named in the same inquisition as wife of
William Mirfyld, and 33 years of age, but called by Vin
cent 52.
It should be mentioned that the inquisition on the death
of Isabella is very difficult to decipher.
One of the executors named by Sir James Harrington, in
addition to his wife Isabella, was " John Radcliffe of Hord-
sall C° Lancr, son and heir of William Radcliffe of Hordsall
aforesaid, and brother of the said Isabel." If this is correctly
copied, and the last and not treated as surplusage, Isabel
would appear to have been the daughter of William Rad
cliffe ; but the original document should be seen before it
could be pronounced that she was not the daughter of
Alexander, and sister of William, as stated in the note.
In the earlier portion of the note by Canon Raines on the
Chantry of Blackrod, he mentions the doubt entertained by
Dr. Ormerod as to whether Mabel, daughter and heiress of

xvi Preface.
Hugh le Norreys, had issue by her husband Sir William de
Bradshagh. This question was set at rest by Mr. William
Courthope, Somerset herald, who discovered two fines under
which her inheritance was settled upon the issue of her
husband's brother Sir John, from whom descended the two
lines of Bradshagh of Haigh and of Westleigh respectively.
See note at page 1 1 1 of vol. xcv, following the inquisition
on William de Bradshagh.
The interest of studies in genealogy arises from their
being a search after truth, and the motive must be an excuse
for us when we unfortunately fall into error. One common
cause of the perpetuation of errors by commentators is the
taking of matter at second hand without verification. Every
repetition is supposed to corroborate the evidence, and
makes it more difficult to correct any error once promul
gated. Inferences also are too readily reported as facts.
The heralds themselves are not always to be depended upon,
the testimony upon which their evidence has been recorded
. in the Visitations being sometimes defective.
A critical investigation must appear very tedious to those
not directly interested in a particular genealogy, but the
tedium is not unfrequently relieved by the discovery of
traits of habits and manners which distinguish the lives of
our forefathers from those of the present generation. The
antiquarian student will undoubtedly have the comfort of
recognising improvements in successive generations, and
should therefore entertain hopes of a similar future progress
in every class of society.
WILLIAM LANGTON.
Manchester, May 1876.

INTRODUCTION.

Reprinted from the first volume of the Chetham Miscellanies,
being a communication from the late George Ormerod, Esq.,
D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S.

Visitation of m.d.xxxiii.
The MS. in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 2076), which
preserves the Record of this Visitation, is entitled "A
" Visitac'on made in Lancashire and in a p'te of Chestershyre
" p' Lancast'r Heraulde in ye xxiiiith yeare of o'r Soveraigne
" Lord Kinge Henry VIIIth. by a Speciall Com'cion of Thorn's
"Benoilt, alias Clarencieux, King ofthe same Province."
The words " same province " must refer to the expression
Clarenciuw only, as it cannot mean "the same province" as
that which contained Lancashire and Cheshire, both of which
were in the Province of Norroy. Noble, seemingly on this
account, refers this Visitation to Tonge, then Norroy;1 but
this argument is not conclusive, as Tonge himself, when
Norroy, visited in the Province of Clarencieux. Dugdale
1 Mitt. Coll. Arms., Appendix, p. xxviii. Thomas Tonge, alias York,
was appointed Norroy, 20th Oct., 14th Henry VIII., 1522, by Patent,
14th Henry VIII., Part I.

xviii Introduction. i
states it to be by Tonge, in his transcript of it prefixed to
his own Lancashire Visitation,2 and Dallaway follows him in
p. 315, but in p. 160, gives it to Benolt. The "Lancaster
Herald " who executed it is believed to have been William
Fellow, afterwards Norroy; and it is so noted in a hand
seeming to be that of Robert Dale, Richmond Herald, in
the margin of this Manuscript.
For some of the very peculiar entries in it, illustrative of
the wild character of Lancashire in 1533, the reader is re
ferred to Dallaway 's work, p. 316.
The Copy of this Visitation in Harl. MS. 2076, "is not
" the original. The original was in the possession of William
"Pierrepoint of Thoresby, County Notts., in 1688, when Sir
" William Dugdale, Norroy, made a transcript thereof, which
" he deposited in the College of Arms, where it now remains.
" The MS. at Thoresby, together with the Library there, fell
"a sacrifice to the dreadful fire which happened about 1745.
" The authenticity and value, therefore, of the copy made by
"Sir William Dugdale, is undeniable."3 It may, however,
be considered that the Harleian MS. is either a coeval
duplicate or the draft ; and it possesses Ordinaries of Lanca
shire and Cheshire Arms not contained in the Office Copy.
In one place it assufhes the style of a report from the
Visitant to his superior.4
» C. 37, Coll. Arm.
3 Extracted, by permission, from a Note by Sir C. G. Young, Garter,
in his interleaved copy of Moule's Bibliotheca Heraldica.
4 This occurs in the mention of the Arms borne by Radclyffe of
Ordshall, viz., 1 and 4 Sandbach, 2 and 3 Radclyffe, after which follows
— " Sir, I suppose these Arms do stande out of order, as he beareth
Radclyffe in the Seconde quarter."

Clitoartr €arl of Berime,
fftg lo: toas at tt)e ©ourt itto ttpte

Arms. First, grand quarter: ist and 4th of STANLEY ;
argent, on a bend azure, three Bucks' Heads cabossed
or : ind, LA THOM ; or, on a chief indented azure
three bezants: %rd, WARREN ; chequy or and
azure.
Second and third: ISLE OF MAN ; gules, three legs
conjoined in the f esse point in armour proper, gar
nished and spurred or.
Fourth, grand quarter: ist and 4th, STRANGE of
Knockyn ; gules, two lions passant argent: ind,

2 Visitation of
WW VILE; argent (a), a fesse and canton gules (jj):
3rd, MOHUN ; or (0), a cross engrailed sable (g).
Escutcheon of pretence ; azure (b), ct lion rampant argent
(ar); MONT ALT}
Crest. This is engraved from Dugdale 's copy of the
Visitation, where no blazon is given.
The crest does not occur in the Harleian MS. 2076; but
over the shield is written labtll T~T~i at* ; and certain
names folbw the entry, 33tOll£tt (no doubt a contrac
tion of Brotherton), iDatoatU, auarrm, ifflotobtap.2
THE name of Stanley, for nearly four centuries conspicuous
in the annals of this country, is derived from the manor of
Stanleigh or Stoneleigh in the county of Stafford, where was seated
a member of the family of Audleigh or Aldithlega, which held, so
far back as the reign of Henry the First, the manor of Reveney iu
the county of Cumberland.
Marriage with the heiress of the Cheshire family of Bamville
brought to one of this name and race the manor of Stourton and
the bailiwick of the Forest of Wirrall in the county of Chester.
The arms borne in the first quarter as the paternal coat of Stanley
and the crest of the senior hne located at Hooton are supposed to
be allusive to the office of Forester.
The copy of this Visitation in the British Museum does not
give any crest ; but that made by Sir William Dugdale, which is
preserved in the College of Arms, has what is commonly called the
Eagle and Child, a cognizance no doubt derived from the Lathom s,
1 Vide Note 12, p. 7.
s These are the arms borne quarterly by the Dukes of Norfolk, of which house this
Earl's first wife was a daughter.

Lancashire, 1533.

whence came the second coat in the first grand quarter. The
legendary story of the origin of this crest, as given in Bishop
Stanley's Historical Poem touching ye House of Stanley, is incon
sistent with the documentary evidence of the descents of the
Lathom family, for an account of which vide Chetham Society,
vol. XI. (vol. ii. of The Coucher Book of WhaUey Abbey), p. 551.
Dr. Ormerod, whose researches have thrown much hght on
the early pedigree of the Lathoms, traces their descent from one
Dunning, a Saxon living at the Conquest or shortly after, and
suggests the great probability of the arms which they used having
their origin in the coat borne by the Butlers of Ireland, whose
ancestor Theobald Walter, was chief lord of Amoundemess. The
wife of Robert Fitz-Henry, lord of Lathom, founder of Burscough
Priory in the reign of King Richard the First, is believed to have
been a daughter of Orme Fitz-Ailward,3 descended from Ormus
Magnus and his wife Aliz, sister of
Herveus Walter, ancestor of the
Butlers. The Earls of Ormonde,
besides an official coat (gules three
covered cups or), still hear or, a chief
indented azure, from which the coat
of Lathom only differs by the addi
tion of three roundels or on the chief.4
This seal (where the chief is de
pressed) is attached by a silken cord
to a deed s.d. of Robert, lord of
Lathom, by which he grants his free-
3 In an ingenious paper on the Stanley crest, in the Jbttrnal of ihe SritisTi
Archaeological Association, Mr. Planche speculates on the possibility of the device
of a swathed infant in the talons of an eagle being allusive to this name of Ailward —
quasi, eagle's ward.
* " Le Sire de Latham port, d'or, a une cheif d'asur endehte, troia rondelles d'or en
le cheif." — Boll of Arms temp. Edward III. Edited by N. H. Nicolas.

Visitation of

dom to Roger fil. Gunnilde una cu seqla sua; witnesses — Wil
liam, prior of Burscough, and others. This deed is amongst the
muniments of the Hesketh family.
The second seal was used by his great
grandson, Sir Thomas de Lathom, the father
of Thomas, the last of his line, and of Isabel,
wife of Sir John Stanley, K.G. It was ap
pended in the ist of Richard the Second to
the marriage contract of his younger son
Edward (who died early, and is not men
tioned in the pedigrees) with Elena, daughter
of Sir John le Bouteillier de Merton, after
wards married to Croft of Dalton. The
indentures relating to this marriage are at
Lyme.
The earliest example that we have discovered of
the device of the Eagle and Child is an impression
of the signet of John de Stanley chevr to a deed
at Lyme, bearing date 20th December 3rd Henry
the Fifth, 1415, of which a wood-cut is given in the
margin. Sir John Stanley, a second son of the house of
Stourton, whose personal qualities had raised him to distinction,
acquired great territorial importance by the inheritance of the
manors of Lathom and Knowsley, and of other properties in the
county of Lancaster, brought to him by his wife Isabella, who
after the death of her niece Elena became the heiress of her
brother. Sir Thomap Lathom.
Sir John Stanley had been lord deputy and one of the lords
justices of Ireland in the reign of Richard the Second, and after
the accession of Henry the Fifth we find him again there as lord
deputy. After the forfeiture of the Percies he obtained a grant.

Lancashire, 1533. 5
of the Isle of Man, in right of which dominion the second and
third quarters were borne in the coat of arms.5
The grandson of Sir John Stanley, K.G., also a knight of the
Garter, was summoned to the House of Peers as Lord Stanley by
King Henry the Sixth. The third coat in the first grand quarter
(Warren) was introduced indirectly by his alliance with Joan,
daughter and coheir of Sir Robert Goushill of Hoveringham in the
county of Nottingham, her mother Elizabeth being the heiress of
the Earls of Arundel, who represented the family de Albini as
well as that of the Earls of Warren. This lady was married four
times ; lastly to Sir Robert Goushill, who had been esquire to the
Duke of Norfolk, her second husband.
Thomas the first Earl of Derby, Sir William Stanley of Holt,
and Sir John, ancestor to the Stanleys of Alderley, were the
issue of Lord Stanley's marriage. Thomas the eldest son, having
married in second nuptials the widowed Countess of Richmond6
mother to Henry the Seventh, besides his advancement in the
peerage, received grants of various forfeited estates, becoming in
this way possessed of the large property in Salford hundred, which
had belonged to the Pilkingtons and to the Chethams, from whom
they had inherited. The Earl's children were all born of his first
marriage with Eleanor, daughter of Richard Nevile Earl of Salis
bury, who was aunt to the consort of Richard the Third.
Edward, the Earl's fifth son, was one of the heroes of Flodden,
and was created Lord Monteagle. George, the older son, married
5 The right to bear these arms was challenged by John Lord Scrope in the reign of
Edward the Eourth, on the ground that his ancestors had been Lords of Man. He
did not however succeed in depriving Stanley of this coat, and was himself ordered to
forbear its use.
6 On the seal of the Lord and Lady of the Honor of Richmond the dexter side of
the shield is divided per fesse with the arms of Man in chief, and Stanley quartering
Lathom in base. The impalement has the arms of Prance and England quarterly
within a bordure.

6 Visitation of
Jane, daughter and heir to John Lord Strange of Knockyn by
Jacquetta his wife, daughter to Richard Widvile Earl Rivers, the
sister to Elizabeth queen of Edward the Sisth, and coheir to her
brother Richard. Through this alliance the fourth grand quarter
was introduced into the coat — to wit : first and fourth, Strange 3
second, Widvile ; third, Mohun. He had summons to parliament
as Lord Strange, and, dying before his father, Thomas his eldest
son succeeded as second Earl of Derby ; Sir James, a younger
brother, being ancestor of the line which now enjoys the earldom.
The second EarF' was succeeded by his son Edward8 as third
Earlj living at the date of this Visitation. He held the family
honours from 1521 to 1574,9 a most eventful period, during which,
with the tact that had distinguished his forefathers in times of civil
7 He is stated in Collins's Peerage to have borne the titles of Viscount Eynton
(for which title we have been unable to find the'authority), Lord Stanley and Strange,
lord of Knockyn, Mohun, Bassett, Burnal and Lacy, lord .of Man and the Isles; The
Earls of Derby at a later date used also in their leases the style of Baron of Weeton, a
feudal title derived from their manor of that name in Amoundemess, which came to
them by the marriage of William the ninth Earl with Elizabeth Butler, daughter of
the Earl of Ossory and sister to the Duke of Ormond.
8 Sir William Dugdale's copy gives erroneously the name of Henry.
9 The following dates are extracted from the account of this Earl in Collins's
¦age :
In 152 1 his father's death gave him the title at the age of eleven years.
In 1532 he was in the train of king Henry the Eighth at his interview with the
French king Erancis the First at Boulogne.
In 1533 he was created a Knight ofthe Bath on the occasion of the coronation
of Ann Boleyn.
In 1536 he resisted the pilgrimage of grace with forces raised in Lancashire
and Cheshire.
In 1542 he raised forces for the army which invaded Scotland under the Duke of
Norfolk.
At the accession of Edward the Sixth, 1547, he was invested with the order of
the Garter.
In the sixth year of Edward VI. he exchanged Derby House (the present College
of Arms) with the king for other property.
Queen Mary on coming to the throne in 1553, constituted him Lord High
Steward, and in 1557 he assisted the expedition against the Scots.

Lancashire, 1533. 7
strife, he maintained his high and influential position; serving
four successive sovereigns with unswerving loyalty, and through
every change of the national religion preserving his adherence to
the Roman Catholic doctrine.10 It was probably owing to this
circumstance that he fell under some suspicion in the reign of
Elizabeth, and lived very much on his estates. He is described
as kind to his dependents, liberal to the poor and to strangers,
and skilled in surgery. He had the reputation of being addicted
to the black art, and was said to keep a conjuror in his house.
Inheriting a royal descent through the Earls of Arundel11 and
the Bohuns from a daughter of Edward the First, while other
splendid alliances had closely connected the family with their
kings, this peer was one of the most powerful subjects of the
realm. He was especially famous for his sumptuous housekeep
ing.12 It was of him that Camden wrote that at his death " the
glory of hospitality seemed to fall asleep."

Queen Elizabeth, on her accession in 1558, named him of her Privy Council.
He died at Lathom House 24 October, 1574, and was buried 4 December
following at Ormskirk.
10 The motto of Edward third Earl of Derby on his Garter plate was " Diev, et ma
Foy," 22 May 1547. Sauns chcmgier appears first on the Garter plate of Henry fourth
Earl of Derby, elected K.G. 23 April 1574. Ferdinando, fifth Earl, used the motto
" Sans changer ma verite," as shewn by his portrait at Werden.
11 The Earls of Arundel could also claim descent from Henry the Third, through
marriage with a daughter of Henry Earl of Lancaster.
12 In Vol. XXXI. of the Chetham Series, No. 2 of The Stanley Papers, The Derby
Household Bootes give an account of the Household Expenses of Edward, the third
Earl, and of Henry the fourth Earl. Portraits in outline of both these Earls are
engraved in the introduction. The arms in the picture of Edward are quarterly of
eight. 1 Stanley, 1 Lathom, 3 Man, 4 Warren, 5 Strange, 6 Widville, 7 Mohun,
8 azure, a lion rampant argent — which was the coat of Montalt, and is so named
by Stephen Martin Leake, Esq., Garter, in his description of the stall plate of Henry
Earl of Derby, in 1574; Garter Plates in the College of Arms, vol. ii. No. 318 ; but
there is no record of the origin of its introduction into the shield of Stanley. The
arms drawn in this Visitation labelled III, with the last named coat borne as an
escutcheon of pretence might consistently with heraldic usage have been the achieve-

8 Visitation of
This Earl was thrice married ; hy his first wife Dorothy, daugh
ter of Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk, he had, beside other
children, Henry his successor, known as the Great Earl of Derby,
whose marriage with Margaret only child of Henry Clifford Earl
of Cumberland by Alianora, daughter and coheir of Charles
Brandon Duke of Suffolk and Mary Dowager Queen of France,
the sister of Henry the Eighth, formed another tie of kindred
with the Royal family. Earl Edward had issue also by his second
wife Margaret, daughter to Ellis Barlow of Barlow in the county
ment of this Earl's father in the life time of the first Earlj but the pedigrees
represent him to have married the daughter of Edward Lord Hastings and Hunger-
ford, which alliance does not account for the charge of a lion rampant. Though
Mr. Courthope, Somerset Herald, had already suggested that the Montalt quarter
might be territorial, it is to the venerable historian of Cheshire, Dr. Ormerod, that
we are indebted for the probable solution of this heraldic difficulty. Referring to
Camden, Dugdale, Leycester, and Pennant, he finds that the family, who took their
title from the Castle of Montalt (Mold in Flintshire), were High Stewards to the
Earls of Chester. Roger de Montalt, who died 44 Henry III., had greatly increased
the importance of the family by his marriage with Cecilia, fourth daughter and
finally coheiress of William de Albini Earl of Arundel, whose wife Matilda was a
Bister and coheiress of Randle Blondeville Earl of Chester; and, originally only
barons of the palatinate, they became lords of parliament. Robert, the last Baron, died
s.p. in 1329, having settled his possessions on Isabella, mother of Edward III., with
succession to John of Eltham, the king's brother. Amongst these was the Manor of
Hawarden, by the tenure of which, and of its Castle, the Barons of Montalt had owed
the service of dapifer, seneschal or steward to the Earls of Chester. This estate and
the office attached to it were afterwards granted by Henry VI. to Thomas Lord
Stanley, in whose descendants, Earls of Derby, the stewardship continued until it
passed about eighty years ago from the Stanleys to the city of Chester ; the estate,
however, was loBt to the family during the Commonwealth, and not recovered at the
Restoration. The conjecture that the arms of Montalt had been adopted as an honorary badge
is not made less probable by the circumstance of their having been used indifferently
as an escutcheon of pretence or as » quartering. In illustration of thb equivocal
practice Dr. Ormerod cites the example of the horn of Delamere, used as an escutcheon
of pretence on the coat of Kingsley, which was borne by Sir John Done over his quar-
terings, and in Norroy Segar's funeral certificates of John Done Esq. (1600), marshalled
as a quarter in the coat of arms.

Lancashire, 1533. 9
of Lancaster; but none by his third wife Mary, daughter to Sir
John Cotton of Combermere Abbey, in the county of Chester.
Seven of the descendants of the third earl successively inhe
rited his title, until in tbe year 1736 the earldom devolved on the
representative of his uncle James, while the baronies of Stanley,
Strange of Knockyn, and Mohun, fell into abeyance between the
three daughters and coheirs of Ferdinando Stanley, the fifth earl ;
and the lordship of Man, which had been purchased from them
by "William the sixth earl, passed to the representatives of James
the seventh earl, through his daughter who married the marquess
of Atholl ; and by that family was sold to the Crown under an act
of parliament.
ISLE OF MAN.
[The Isle of Man had been ruled by a race of Norwegian kings, feudatories of the
kings of England, previously to 1266, when Alexander the Third of Scotland
possessed himself of the island. Afterwards (1 340) it was successfully invaded
by Wilham de Montacute earl of Salisbury, whose father Simon de Montacute held
a grant of the island from a lady who claimed to be next of kin and heiress to
Magnus the last Norwegian king. His son and successor sold his royal rights to
William le Scrope earl of Wiltshire. This earl was beheaded for high treason
in 1399, when the island, being forfeited to the Crown, was granted by Henry
the Fourth to Henry Percy earl of Northumberland. On Percy's rebellion the
king employed Sir John Stanley to reduce the island and castle, and rewarded
him by the grant of this lordship, to be held by homage, and a cast of falcons to
be presented at every coronation. Various printed accounts of the descent of the
Isle of Man and the bishopric of Sodor and Man being erroneous, especially in
reference to their reacquirement by the Crown, we take this opportunity of giving
to the members of the Chetham Society the following recital of facts, with
references to the various statutes, for which we are indebted to the kind courtesy
of Sir Chabies G. Young, Garter king of arms.]
THE Isle of Man, an ancient and independent kingdom, was
granted with sovereign rights to Sir John Stanley, lord
steward and lord lieutenant of Ireland, by King Henry the Fourth

10 Visitation of
in 1406, to hold to him and his heirs, from whom it passed in
lineal succession and descent through the Lords Stanley and Earls
of Derby to Ferdinando fifth Earl of Derby, who died in 1595,
leaving only three daughters and coheirs, when a controversy arose
between the widow of Earl Ferdinando on the one part and Wil
liam the sixth Earl and heir male on the other part, which lasted
several years; but being at length determined by various pay
ments to the widow and the coheirs of Earl Ferdinando, the
future succession to the island was regulated by an act of parlia
ment passed 7th James the First, entitled "An act for assuring
and establishing the Isle of Man."
By that act the island and lordship of Man were settled upon
William the sixth Earl of Derby and his Countess for life ; with
remainder to the Earl's eldest son James Lord Stanley and the
heirs male of his body ; with remainder to the second son Robert
Stanley and the heirs male of his body; with remainder to the
heirs male of Earl William's body; with remainder to the right
heirs of James Lord Stanley.
James Lord Stanley, who became seventh Earl of Derby, for
his adherence to the royal cause was brought to the scaffold in
1 65 1, when his estates were seized by the Commonwealth; and
this rich inheritance was given to Lord Fairfax.
Upon the Restoration, Charles the eighth Earl of Derby was
restored to the possession of the island and its rights, to be held
under the entail created by the statute of 7th King James the
First. He was succeeded by his sons William and James suc
cessively, ninth and tenth Earls, when at length, by the failure of
issue male from William the sixth Earl, the island passed through
the heir general of James Lord Stanley seventh Earl of Derby,
to James second Duke of Atholl, as descended from him and
heir, by virtue of the entail under the statute of 7th James the
First. The only daughter of James second Duke of Atholl

Lancashire, 1533. 11
married her cousin John, who became the third Duke. They in
the 5th George the Third (1765) sold the island with its rights to
the Crown, reserving (inter alia) however the nomination to the
bishopric of Sodor and Man, which by act of parliament of 33rd
Henry the Eighth had been declared to be within the province of
York, although the island was no part of England, and not subject
to its ordinary laws.
By an act 6th George IV. chap. 39 (10th June 1825), the
commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury were empowered to
purchase a certain annuity in respect of the duties of customs
levied in the Isle of Man, and any sovereign rights in the said
island reserved to John Duke of Atholl and the heirs general of
the seventh Earl of Derby under the act of 5th George III.
By this act the rights, titles and revenues under the act 5th
King George III., reserved to the heirs general of the 7th Earl of
Derby, were disposed of and became vested in the Crown; and
thus terminated the interest of the noble House of Stanley and its
heir general Murray in the island and lordship of Man.
The bishopric of Sodor and Man, which by the act 6th and
7th George IV. chap. 71 (1836), had passed to the Crown, was
declared to be united to the see of Carlisle, and their respective
dioceses were defined ; but by a subsequent act, 1 and 2 Victoria,
chap. 30, the said act, so far as concerned the bishopric of Sodor
and Man, was repealed; and the said act was declared not to
esftend to the see of Sodor and Man, so that the bishopric remains
an independent diocese under the patronage and appointment of
the Crown.

12

Visitation of

Wfyom iCangtone Baron oi JJetototu
ntarfeB ©K?a6etf)e, to&o toa» a fcaae Bougfcter to Sr ©8: Stanley
lorO ptountcgle, anti then ijati gssue ©Bh.arti, 3&tc:, Scorn's,
ILtonarJje, ©eorg, ©fimtofer, ©I'nor, JFane, i&arg, JToIjan &
&nne. ©BtoarB, eioest sonne to Scorn's, toas marteU to &mte, one
of the Uougfjtcrs to £? &Ie*ant>r ©stialOeston fentgljt, anO tfjej?
iiaUB no yssue.

Arms quarterly ; First and Fourth, argent (at), ^m;

Lancashire, 1533.

r3

chevronels gules (g) ; Second and Third, argent (at)
a cross patonce sable (Sa).1
Crest.2 On a wreath, or and gules (0t & g le tUV&t) ; «
maidens head couped below the shoulders, proper,
vested gules and wearing a necklace with a pendant
cross; the hair or; head-tire sable (a tttapfcenS IjelJe
W 38utletts).
THERE are some discrepancies between the Visitation of 1533
and that of 1567, but as they are discussed in a note to the
will of Sir Thomas Langton, p. 246 Wills and Inventories, Second

1 The Engraver has copied the armorial bearings,
from the Visitation of 1567. The Museum and Col
lege copies of the Visitation of 1533 both give the
charge of the second and third quarters as a cross
molitie, which is evidently a mistake of the draughts
man ; since this coat is intended for Banastre, and
we know that the cross was patonce in the arms, both
of the B anas tres of Bank and of Sir Thomas Banastre,
one of the founders of the Order of the Garter. Mr.
Beltz in his Memorials of that order describes this
cross as "cercelee;" but the woodcut in the margin
carefully copied from a tracing of the Garter plate in
the thirteenth stall on the Prince's side, in St.George's
Chapel, Windsor, does not justify that blazon.
3 The Crest in the copy of this Visitation in the British Museum
has the garment cut square on the breast. The head-tire termed
BurlcttBi is probably correctly represented in a carving now on a
mantel-piece at Samlesbury Hall, from which the woodcut in the
margin is taken, and where the hair appears to be confined in a net
work caul. In a MS. at the College of Arms, intituled " Grafton's
Lancashire,'' the figure is represented as unattired, though wearing a
collar and head-dress. A MS., bound up with this Visitation, in Cod.
2076 Harl. MSS., said to have been copied from one of the time of
Edward IV., gives the female bust proper, with head-tire or, between
two wings erect argent. Some copies of the Visitation of 1567 represent

the crest

14 Visitation of
Portion, vol.-LI. of the Chetham Series, it is not necessary to
review them in this place. The notes at pp. 246-249, 25 1-2 and 3 of
that volume contain such particulars of the family history as have
been gleaned from the records of the period and the collections of
antiquaries : some 6f them are curious. They shew inter alia how
the Barony of Newton passed after the death of Sir Thomas's
grandson in 1604 from the family of Langton into that of Fleet
wood, through Johanna, who was the eldest daughter of Sir
Thomas, though named in this Visitation the fourth in order.
Sir Thomas Langton had been a ward of Sir Edward Stanley,
Lord Monteagle, who married him to his daughter. According to
Collins and Nicolas she was the issue of his second marriage
with Ann, daughter and coheir of Sir John Harrington of
Hornby, and she is not designated as a "base" daughter in
his will, where he names another of his children by that epithet.
She died in the year of this Visitation; vide her epitaph in St.
Sepulchre's Church, recorded by Stowe {Survey of London, book
iii. cap. xii.) and quoted at p. 247, vol. LI. Chetham Series.
Sir Thomas married secondly Anne,3 daughter of Thomas Talbot,
a younger son of the house of Talbot of Salesbury, by whom he
had issue. He served the office of High Sheriff of Lancashire
in 1556 and 1567, and died in 1569, aged 72, when Thomas,
son and heir of Leonard, late son and heir of Sir Thomas,4 was
found to be next of kin and heir, being of the age of eight
years.both as seen in profile and in full face, which probably led to the mistake in Gregson's
Fragments of engraving this crest as two figures upon one wreath, pp. 285 and xiii.
This error was repeated in Baines's History of Lancashire, vol. iii. p. 642.
3 Vide her Will and Inventory, p. 58, vol. LIV. Chetham Seeies.
4 In a note at p. 75 Lancashire Chantries, Vol. LIX. of the Chetham Seeies, the
first Sir Thomas is by mistake called the last Baron of Newton.

Lancashire, 1533. 15
THE BARONY OF NEWTON,
otherwise called the Fee of Makerfield,5 was before the Conquest
and for some time afterwards a distinct Hundred in that part of
" Cestrescire" lying between the Ribble and the Mersey. Sub
sequently it merged, with the contiguous Hundred of Warrington,
into that of West Derby, and became a portion of the county of
Lancaster. Its extent was five hides, whereof in the time of King
Edward the Confessor one was in demesne. One carucate of land
formed the endowment of the Church ofthe Manor (Wigan), giving
to the Rectors the manorial rights of that town. The Church of
St. Oswald had two carucates, Winwick-with-Hulme, in which
Manors the Rectors of Winwick hold their own Court-leet, not
owing suit and service at the Newton Court. The other land was
held by fifteen drenghes for as many Manors, being berewicks of
this Manor; but when Domesday Survey was taken there only
remained of these six, who were no doubt the Saxon ancestors of
families afterwards holding mesne Manors under the Barony.
We have discovered no evidence in support of the statement (so
often quoted from Kenion's MSS.) that Roger of Poictou, whose
immense possessions embraced this district, had placed there as
one of his barons a Norman bearing the name of Warin Banastre ;
but it is on record — that Robert, son of Robert Banastre, held
this fee in the time of Henry the Second ; — that Henry de Laci,
who flourished in the reigns of Stephen and Henry the Second,
granted to him "Walatun6 cum pertinentiis Melver [Mellor], et
5 The district is supposed to have derived this name from having been the field of
battle between Penda King of Mercia and Oswald King of Northumbria, in which
the latter was slain. The dedication of Winwick Church to St. Oswald tends to
confirm this belief. Moreover a holy well, to which healing properties are attributed,
is said by popular tradition to mark the spot where the sainted monarch fell.
B Walton probably owes its name to the circumstance of there having been a Roman
encampment there, at the confluence of the Derwent with the Ribble. Whitaker
{History of WhaUey, p. 536) considers this charter to have been granted about the

1 6 Visitation of
Heccleshul' [Eccleshill], et Haravuda [Little Harwood], et duas
Derewentas [Over and Lower Darwen],'pro servitio unius militis ;"
— that his father, Robert Banastre, came into England at the
Conquest, and held many lands, amongst the rest Prestatyn, in
that part of North Wales called Englefield f — that the tower
which the Banastres had built there was destroyed when Owen
Gwynedd in 1167 recovered that country from the English; and
— that Robert Banastre at that time brought all his people into
Lancashire. A notice of this family is to be found, in Memorials ofthe Order
of the Garter, by G. F. Beltz, K.H., Lancaster Herald, p. 205 ;
and a more detailed account of them in No. III. Supplement, p.
334 of the Archaologia Cambrensis. The descent of the lordship
of Makerfield in the Banastre family, and from- them to the
Langtons is also given at p. 113 Coucher Book of WhaUey Abbey,
vol. X. of the Chetham Series.
Alice, granddaughter and heir to Robert Banastre, the last Baron
of this name, appears to have been married or contracted to John,
son of Sir John Byron, in whose ward she was 20 Edward L,
being then under age; but it was through his brother Richard
that the line of Byron was continued, and it is to be inferred that
he died in early youth, for Dodsworth (MS. in Bodleian Library,
vol. cxxix. p. 17) records a grant, which must have been made very
shortly after the above date by Edmund, son of Henry king of
England, (the first earl of Lancaster), " Dn° Johi de Langton
year 1 1 30 ; but as Hbert de Lacy, Henry's elder brother, was then alive (having dis
tinguished himself at the battle of the Standard in 1138), we are inclined to ascribe
to it a later date.
7 Prestatyn gives its name to one of the hundreds of the county of Flint. A low
mound in a meadow below the mill marks the site of the Castle built there by Robert
Banastre. By a singular inadvertence Mr. Beltz speaks of Englefield as in Berkshire.
At p. 207, in citing a warrant by which John duke of Lancaster bestowed on Sir
Thomas Banastre, K.G., the office of Forester of the Chases of Penhull (Pendle),
Trawden and Rossyndale, he has also misquoted the two first named places.

Lancashire, 1533. 17
amico n'r° karo" of the marriage of this heiress, or the right to
assign it to whom he would ; for which grant the said John gave
250 marcs sterling, himself taking her to wife. The inheritance
of the Banastres remained in the direct male line, issue of this
marriage, for upwards of three hundred years,8 when the Barony
8 In Baines's History of Lancashire, vol. iii. pp. 636-643, it is stated that the
succession of this manor suffered a temporary interruption in the reign of Edward
IV. ; that the manor of Haydoek was similarly lost to the family of Legh of Lyme
during the wars of the Roses ; and that the ancient lords were afterwards reinstated.
This reinstatement is a purely hypothetical inference on the assumption of their having
suffered displacement, for which the Rolls of Parliament are cited as the authority.
It is true that in these Rolls vol. vi. pp. 2 15b. and 243a. we find the manors of
Haydock and Newton in the county of Lancaster named amongst the forfeited estates
of Henry Holland duke of Exeter, attainted iu the first year of Edward IV. 1461 ;
the first entry reciting letters patent in the seventh year of this reign, by which the
forfeited estates were granted to Anne duchess of Exeter, wife of Henry and sister of
the king, with remainder to the heirs of her body ; the second being an act of resump
tion by the Crown in the first year of Richard III. The manor of Haydock, however,
which was a member of the Barony of Newton, was held in moieties,* one of which
had passed from the family bearing the local name to the Leghs of Lyme, by the
marriage of Johanna, daughter and heir to Sir Gilbert de Haydock, with Sir Peter
Legh knight banneret, one of the heroes of Agincourt. The other moiety was au
ancient inheritance of the family of Holland, and had come to Henry duke of Exeter
about ten years before his attainder, along with other properties held in tail male
upon the death of John Holland,-!- to whom the duke was found by inquisition to
* It appears by a deed .. d. of Gilbert, son of Hugh de Haydock to Matthew his son (who lived
in the reign of Edward the first) that for his moiety of the manor of Haydock homage and services
were due : " Capitali Domino meo Dno. Roberto de Holland et heredibus," as well as " sectam judicis
curie de Neuton."
t Robert de Holland, the second Baron Holland, died in i_7_", when Matilda, daughter to his
eldest son Robert deceased, wife of John lord Lovel K.G., of the age of 17, was found to be heir
to the manors of Holland, Hale and Samlesbury, held of the duke of Lancaster; to the manor of
Orrell, held of Ralph de Langton ; and to one-fourth part of the manor of Dalton, held of the baron of
Manchester ; and John Holland his younger son, heir to the lands held in tail male, viz. : Half the
manor of Haydock, one-fourth part of Over Derwent, five messuages and eight acres of land in
Newton and sixteen acres of land in Lowton, held of Ralph de Langton ; half the manor of Gold-
burn, held of Gilbert de Ince; one-sixth of Harwood, held ofthe baron of Manchester; and the manor
of Brightmede, held of the duke of Lancaster.
John.de Holland died s.p. 29 Henry VI. ; and, by inquisition taken the following year, it appears
that he held the manor of Torrisholme in socage and half that of Brightmede by knight's service of
the king as duke of Lancaster, two bovates in Harwode of Reginald West knight (the baron of Man
chester), half the manor of Hadoc, one bovate of land in Newton and one bovate in Over Derwent of
Henry Langton ; and that the duke of Exeter was twenty-nine years of age when he was served
heir to his cousin. D

1 8 Visitation of
of Newton passed, as stated above, to the Fleetwoods, and was
sold in the seventeenth century by Sir Thomas Fleetwood baronet
to Richard Legh of Lyme Esq., in whose successors it is now
vested. Newton was enfranchised in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,, and
returned two members to parliament until the privilege was taken
away hy the Reform Act.
be next of kin and heir. This moiety and not that held by the Leghs is the manor
of Haydock referred to in the grant to the duchess. Another portion of the duke'q
inheritance from his cousin was a bovate of land in Newton, held of Henry de Lang
ton. This is doubtless the property referred to in the grant, and improperly though
perhaps commonly called his Manor of Newton.* He certainly never held this Barony.
Henry de Langton suoceeded to the inheritance on the death of his father 26th Febru
ary, 9 Henry VI., 1431, being then twelve years of age. He died 13th September,
11 Edward IV., 1471, and Elizabeth his widow in the following year. In the inqui-
sitionst taken after their deaths 10th May 1473, 13 Edward IV., it is stated that
Henry, having been seised of the Manors of Walton-in-le-Dale and of Newton-in-
Makerfeld in his demesne as of fee, had granted them to James Harrington knight,
Walter Wrottesley knight, John Banastre, son of William Banastre of Lostock, and
James Banastre, chaplain; and the feoffees are found to have held the Manor of
Walton by knight service, and the Manor of Newton by fealty, and an annual rent
of two shillings, and to have given to Elizabeth, after her husband's death, the third
part of the said Manors for her life. Richard Langton, Esq., was found to be son
and next heir, and in each inquisition he is stated to be of full age. He was grand
father to Sir Thomas Langton named in this Visitation.
Unfortunately every repetition of an erroneous statement gives not merely a wider
currency to it, but also a semblance of fresh authority for it. The misstatement in
the history of Lancashire has been repeated with some amplification. We therefore
offer no apology for the extent of these details, since it is due to the author whom
we seek to correct, that the fullest evidence should be cited.
• It appears from an abstract made by the Rev. Canon Raines, that on the 7th March 30 Henry VI.
the duke of Exeter leased to Peter Legh " O'ia maner; terr: ten: redd: et servic: cu o'ib} suis p'tinentiis
in villis de Haydoke Newton Harewode Brightmede Overderwyne and Netherderwyne que nuper
descenderunt eidem duci jure hereditar: post mortem Joh'is Holand militis " &c. Here the properties
are identified as a portion of the inheritance just received from John Holand. Various other leases
and releases exist 34 Henry VI. and 35 Henry VI.; and in a lease of the same estates granted in
September 37 Henry VI. (1458) by the " high and myghty prynce Henry the due of Excestre and
Anne his wyeffe," they are described as their "lordshippes and manours of Haydokke, Newton-in-
Makerfeld and Lauton, Bryghtmede, Harwode and Over Derwynde."
t Quoted from Christopher Tov/nley's Abstracts of Inquisitions, which he "had from Mr. Evan
Walls keep' ofthe Rolles at Lane* the _6 January 1659."

Lancashire, 1533. 19
THE ANCIENT SEALS
of the Banastres and Langtons, of which many impressions exist
amongst the muniments at Lyme, afford some interesting illustra
tions of the usages of early heraldry ; furnishing examples of the
simple device or badge becoming a regular heraldic charge — of
the amalgamation of two distinct coats into one — and of the
counter-change of tincture, which took place when the issue of an
heiress adopted the armorial bearings of their maternal ancestors.
We have discovered no authority from this source for the intro
duction of the second and third quarters into the coat recorded
for Sir Thomas Langton at this Visitation, and conclude that the
herald, not being aware that the arms of the Banastres, Barons of
Newton, had been adopted by the Langtons, their successors, to
the disuse of their own paternal coat, gave the cross patonce, a
well-known cognizance of other branches of the family, to mark
the Banastre descent.
The learned Camden (Remains, p. 157, edit. 1674) informs us
that the Latin form of the name of Banastre was Balneator,
which has led to the inference that it might be a title of office
connected with the ceremony of the Bath used in cpnferring
knighthood : but the Glossary of Ducange gives " Banaste,"
"Banastre" and "Benate;"9 as words used in various parts of
France, answering to the mediaeval Latin "Banasta," "Banas-
tnm," or provincially " Banasto," and having the meaning of a
basket or creil, such as may be carried on the back or slung in
pairs, as dossers (panniers) across a pack-saddle. Either of
these interpretations might account for the allusive device which
appears on their early seals, and which is found in the arms of
the Banastres of Darwen, blazoned as two dossers joinant in fesse;
and in another ancient coat ofthe name, as water-bougets. — Vide
* These terms are doubtless derived from "Benna," a provincial Latin word found
in the classical dictionaries, with the meaning of a vessel or vehicle of wicker work.

20

Visitation of

Grafton's Lancashire in the College of Arms, and elsewhere.10
Whichever of these derivations of the name be preferred —
whether it designated a drawer of water, or a bearer of burdens, or
were a mere nickname,— no very elevated origin can be inferred
for this family of feudal nobles, whose patriarch appears on the
Roll of Battle Abbey, and one of whose scions ranks amongst the
founders of the Order of the Garter. The woodcut in the margin, rudely
representing either two water-bags
suspended in netting, or a pair of pan
niers of wicker-work, is copied from a
seal of Warin Banastre, appended to
a grant of premises in "Waletona"
made to one Alured. The deed is
without date, but may be assigned to
^ . . .. y j g an early year in the reign of King
John. Warin Banastre had succeeded his
brother Richard, who died without issue, giving to the king (6
John 1204) four hundred marks for having the Makerfield fee.
He died childless before the 23rd April 1205 (6 John), when the
lordship of Makerfield was taken into the king's hand.
In the fifteenth year of King John (14th October 12 13) Thurstan
Banastre fined to the king to have an inquisition whether the ter
ritory of Makerfield with its appurtenances should descend to him
in right of Robert his father and Warin his brother, whose heir
he claimed to be. No distinct impressions of his seals have been
found. He died about the year 1219, when Philip de Orreby,
justice of Chester, obtained the wardship and marriage of Robert
10 What has been called a flesh-pot in the dexter chief point of another coat of
Banastre is probably intended for a basket or a bucket. The French word hougette
signifies _. leathern bag.

Lancashire, 1533.

21

his infant heir. Though no females are named in the printed
pedigree of Orreby, it may reasonably be inferred that the jus
ticiary would not have paid so large a sum as five hundred marks
for the trust, without having in view the settlement of a daughter
on this rich inheritance.
This conjectural filiation of Clementia, Robert Banastre's wife, is
rendered all the more probable by our finding that chevronels gules
were borne in the arms of Orreby, and that Robert Banastre the
last Baron of that name, son of Robert and Clementia, was the
first who can be proved to have used a seal of arms, those arms
being three chevrons. The tincture we learn from the Roll of
Arms of the time of Edward the Second, edited by Sir N. H.
Nicolas, to have been "de goules a iij cheverons de argent" —
counterchanged again to argent three chevrons gules when this
coat was adopted by the Langtons.
As the first of the following three seals was affixed to deeds
without date, we cannot affirm to which of the two Robert Ban
astres, father or son, it may have originally belonged. The two
seals of arms (one of which retains the badge of baskets or water-
bougets) are proved by the dates of the deeds, to which they are
attached, to have been used by the last Robert Banastre, son of
Clementia.

John de Langeton derived his name from his estate in the

ii Visitation of
county of Leicester, where his ancestors were seated before the
reign of Henry the Thirds11 He had married his ward, Alice
Banastre, prior to 1296, as is proved by the inquisition on the
death of Edmund earl of Lancaster, under whom John and Alice
were found to hold a fee in this county. By a charter dated at
Lincoln 14th February, in the 29th year of his reign (1301), King
Edward the First, at the instance of John de Langeton the chan
cellor,12 granted to John de Langeton his brother, markets, fairs
and free warren in his manors of Newton-in-Makerfeld and
Walton-le-Dale. In the 32nd of Edward the First, in the king's
court at York, a month after Easter (April 1304), John son of
Robert de Langeton and Alice his wife querentes, John de Lange-
11 Nichols, in the History of Leicestershire, quotes from the Cotton Library a
charter without date of Robert Earl of Leicester, who died in 1205, to which
Robert de Langeton was a witness. The matriculus of Hugh Bishop of Lincoln, a.d.
1220, under the head of Ecclesia " de Langeton " has the following entry : " Monachi
Sancti Ebrulfi [Evreux in Normandy] percipiunt ibi duas partes decimarum garbarum
de domihioo H. de Braybroc et Roberti de Langeton." These were the manors of
East Langton and West Langton ita the parish of Church Langton.
13 There are other instances of a repetition of the same Christian name amongst
brothers; but as the word "frater" was sometimes applied in classical Latin to the
relationship of own cousins (as "fratello" is in Italian), it may possibly in this case
have the wider signification. John de Langeton the Chancellor was also Bishop of
Chichester. His tomb in that cathedral is in the transept under the large south
window which he built. Lord Campbell, against evidence, assigns this dignitary to
the family of the same name in Lincolnshire. The Cardinal Stephen Langton Arch
bishop of Canterbury is also given to that family ; but the truth is, that there exists
no certain evidence of his parentage. The city of Exeter claims to have been his
birthplace. Weever and Archbishop Parker assign him to the Leicestershire family ;
and the Rev. Charles Parkin, iu An Essay towards a Topographical History of the
County of Norfolk, published in 1775, cites an old pedigree which connects him with
Walter de Langeton Bishop of Lichfield and Treasurer in the reigns of Edward the
First and Second. The last named prelate held Considerable property at Langton
in Leicestershire and elsewhere, which was inhei-ted by Edmund son of Sir Robert
Peverell of Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire by Alice his wife, sister to the Bishop.
In a stained glass window at Lichfield, a drawltcg of which was preserved by Dugdale,
Bishop Walter de Langeton is represented in pontifical-bus kneeling, with a coat of
arms : or, a fesse eheijuy aiSure and gules.

Lancashire, 1533. 23
ton clerk deforciant, a fine was levied of the manors of Walton-in-
le-Dale, Newton and Lauton, and of the advowson of the church
of Wigan with appurtenances, by which the manors and advowson
aforesaid were settled on John and Alice and the heirs of John
begotten of the body of Alice, with remainder to the right heirs of
Alice. John de Langeton survived his wife and died before the
9th of Edward the Third. He was however alive
on the 2nd July 1332, when as " Seigneur de
Makerfeld" he attorneyed his Receiver, Richard
de Neuton, to deliver seisin to Gilbert de Hay
doke of two acres of waste lying in Neuton Wode,
sealing these his letters with his seal ; " A Neu
ton en Makerfeld le jeody pchein apres la fest des
aposteles Seint Pere et Seint Paule l'an du regne
le roy Edward tierce puis la conquest sisme." 13
Their son Robert succeeded, and he, conjointly with his wife
Margareta, levied a fine in the 9th year of Edward the Third
(1335) of the third part of the manor of Langeton with appurte
nances in the county of Leicester, of one messuage and one
carucate of land in Hendon in the county of Middlesex, of one
messuage and 38^ acres with appurtenances in Walton-in-le-Dale
and of the manor of Hyndelegh, and half the manor of Goldburn
13 That these arms may have been derived from those of Marmion is not improbable
as the Langtons appear to have held some of their possessions in the county of
Leicester under that family. Nichols quotes an Inquisition of the year 1292, after
the death of Philip Marmion, when it was found that Thomas de Langton held four
and a half carucates of land in Langton of John de Langton, which John held them,
of Philip de Marmion, as of the honor and castle of Tamworth on the service of one
knight's fee. — Esc. 20 Edw. I. Np. 36. The use of the ancient paternal coat was
restored by Sir William Dugdale, who added a Canton vair in the arms allowed at
his Visitation of Lancashire to the Langtons of Broughton Tower. We can how
ever only look upon this as a curjous accidental coincidence. The Canton as a differ
ence was much affected by Sir William Dugdale, and it is not likely that in this case
its addition to the arms of three chevrons had any other object than to create a dis
tinction from the coat recorded for the Langtons of Lowe.

24

Visitation of

with appurtenances, in the county of Lancaster. Under this fine
the original family property in Leicestershire passed to their
second son Robert, whose descendants appear to have alienated it
in the sixteenth century, but continued for about four hundred
years to be seated at Lowe, their manor-house in Hindley.14
The seals of Robert and Margaret, appended to indentures made
in the fifteenth year of Edward the Fiirsfr shew that the paternal
coat was used as a bordure to the charge of three chevrons derived
from Banastre.

It cannot be stated when the use of the bordure was abandoned,
as no later seal of arms has fallen under our notice, except that of
the last baron, who used a shield bearing only three chevrons.
The seal placed on the margin is appended
to an indenture made 13 Henry IV. (1412)
between Henry de Langton (great grandson
of Robert and Margaret) and Richard de
Chorley. It is uncertain by which of these
persons it was used. A seal of Robert
Banastre tricked in one of the collections of
abstracts of deeds in the British Museum
strongly resembles this impression.
" Robert Langton of Lowe, in a deed 28 Henry VIII. (1537), names his manor of
Kyrk Langton and premises in the townships of Kyrk Langton, Est Langton, West

Lancashire, 1533.

25

The seal of Ralph de Langton, son of Henry,
was found amongst the evidences of the family
of Trafford. It is appended, along with others,
to a deed dated 6th May 1427, which, being
of some interest as an early English document,
as well as from the singularity of its form, we
print at foot.15
The seal with the device of a pelican vulner-
ant was used by Richard Langton Esq. grand
son of the above-named Ralph. It is appended
to an arbitration bond respecting a right of road
in Haidoke, 12th October 17 Edward IV. (1477.)
The golden signet ring, of which it was the im
pression, was turned up on the point of a plough
share some years ago in Brindle, a township
contiguous to Walton-le-Dale. It has a legend
cut inside the ring, " _tl]> font WX" The owner was created a knight
Langton, Thorp Langton and Tyrleton in the county of Leicester; but in 1553 we
find Robert Staveley in possession of the manor of West Langton, and the original
family disappear, leaving little trace of their existence in the county. No one of the
name appears in the list of freeholders in 1630.
16 ffor als myche as hit is a dede of charite in iche map to record a sothe & knowen
be hit to all men y" wee S' John of Assheton Sr Rauf of Longton Sr Rauf of Long
ford Sr Rauf of Radclyf knyghtes and John of Radclyf of Grdesall esquier weren
p'sent att Mamcest' ye Tyusday next after ye fest of ye Invenc'on of ye holy crosse
in ye jere of ye regne of Kyng Henry ye sext af ye conquest fyft And herden Roger
Jonesson a trewe husband a mon of sexty wyntrs and ten of age and moe swere open
a Boke yatt he was p'sent when Geffrey of Bulde enfeoffet Henr. of Trafford ye son of
Henry of Trafford knyght in yc manor of Whicleswych to hym and to hys heires for
eVmore be dede of fefment and yreopon delyv'd hym seisyn and putte out one Rog*
of Entissyle y* yat tyme was tenant at wylie in ye same manor And also ye sayd Sr
John S* Rauf &ee weren p'sent ye sayd daye }ere and place when Thom le Pyp* a
mon of sexty wynt" and ten of age and more swere and on a boke yat he was p'sent
at ye Uvre of seisyn yat af ye feofment was made to ye sayd Henr. yat ye sayd Thom
mony Jeres after yat gederet ye rent of ye sayd manor and payet hit to ye sayde Henry
as to hym yat was lord of ye same maner. In ye witnes of ye quache thynge to yese
p'sents l'res wee have sette our Beals. Writen day Jere and place abuf sayd. E

26

Visitation of

banneret by the lord Stanley on Hutton Field in
the expedition against the Scots in 148 1 . He was
grandfather to Sir Thomas Langton named in
this Visitation, whose seal appears in the margin.
The arms attributed by the historians of
Leicestershire to the family of Langton in that
county are : Azure an eagle displayed with two
heads argent, debruised by a bendlet sable.
They are described by Burton as depicted on
the tomb of Thomas de Langeton in the parish
church of Church Langton.16 This, however,
is proved not to have been the original coat of
the family by the evidence of the seal of John de Langeton on
page 23. It probably had its origin in a matrimonial alliance soon
after the settlement of the Langtons in the county of Lancaster.
We are supported in this view by finding amongst the Church
Notes of Randle Holme (Harl. MSS., Cod. 2129) : "At Wygan,
in the glasse wyndowe of the church," a coat described as argent
three chevrons gules impaled with argent an eagle displayed with
two heads vert beaked and legged or.
Amongst the deeds at Lyme there is one dated 14 Edward III.
(1340) by which William son of Henry de Orel settles property in
Newton on Sir Robert de Langeton1? and Margaret his wife, with

16 The brisure is an ordinary mark of cadency, and a change of tincture between
the charge and the field sometimes occurs with the same object ; it may therefore be
inferred that the occupant of the tomb was a cadet of the line seated at Lowe in
Hindley, and owning the ancient patrimony in Leicestershire, of whose arms his
would appear to have been a variation. The tincture of the shield upon this tomb
may have been vert ; for the colours green and blue are not always distinguishable.
17 A Robert having an eldest son John being found in two consecutive generations
of the same family, and all living at the same time, sometimes renders it difficult to
determine the identity of the parties to a deed. The grantee in this instance might
either be Robert the seoond baron of Newton or his second son Robert. We cannot
say that the wife of each of these may not have been named Margaret.

L ancashire, 1533.

27

remainders to their son John, his brother Richard and to the right
heirs of Richard. The same property was regranted by Robert
and Margaret, for the term of their own lives, to William son
of Henry de Orel ; to revert on his death to them or the survivor
of them " plenarie."
In the 42nd year of Edward III. (1368) John
de Langeton18 grants premises which he had
by the gift of Robert his father and William
de Orel, and which had belonged to William
de Orel, in the territory of Newton. In the
same year this John, describing himself as son
of Robert de Langeton knight of Hyndlegh,
sealed with a shield bearing an eagle displayed
with two heads,19 which device we find to have
been used hy William son of Richard de Orel
in the ist year of Edward the First.
We are consequently led to infer that the
arms in the window of Wigan church recorded
an alliance with a lady of the family of Orel.
The Langtons of Lowe, lords of the manor of
Hindley, continued the use of this coat, some
times quartering it with the other of three chevrons (see Grafton's
Lancashire, where it is attributed to an imaginary family of Lowe),
18 This John de Langeton used several different
seals besides that with his coat of arms. One re
presented a bird of prey, with a smaller one in its
talons ; another appears to be a trophy, with the
carcase or skin of a lion hanging upon it ; a third
is engraved in the margin. In the 19th Richard
II. (1 395) he executed an indenture with his cousin
Raufe de Langeton baron of Newton touching a
division of their title deeds.
19 The impression on this seal is somewhat worn, but the charge of an eagle dis
played is confirmed by a drawing given with the abstract of this deed at p. 77b.
{Harl. MSS., Cod. 2 112.)

Visitation of
and using the same device as a crest. Edward Lang
ton, the last of this line, sealed his will in this man
ner on the ist September 1731.20
The descents of the elder line, in whom the lord
ships of Newton and Walton-le-Dale were vested, are accurately
given in the pedigree at page 642, vol. iii. of Baines's History of
Lancashire; but there are a few points which require correction.
The error in delineating the crest has been already noticed.
Clementia Banastre, who married William de Lee, was not daugh
ter of James Banastre, but his sister. It is on record that Robert
her father gave to her in free marriage the manor of Mollington
Banastre in the county of Chester, which was held by her descend
ants (the Hoghtons) of the Langtons as chief lords of the fee.
Joan, the wife of the first Ralph de Langeton, was a daughter of
William de Radclyffe of the Tower. She survived her husband.
He was a witness for Robert le Grosvenor in the famous cause of
arms between Scrope and Grosvenor, temp. Ric. II.
Their grandson Ralph Langton, who died 9th Henry VI. (1431)
at the age of thirty-five, is represented to have married Joan,
daughter and coheir of William de Balderstone. This lady may
have had a first husband bearing this name, but it could not have
been the baron of Newton,21 as the old genealogical collectors
20 An Irish family of this name, for some generations settled at Kilkenny, and
afterwards resident in Spain, claims descent from the Langtons of Lowe, a younger
brother of which house is stated to have emigrated to Ireland in the reign of Henry
the Seventh. They use arms ; argent three chevrons gules : crest ; a human heart
between wings erect; with the motto "All for religion;'' in Keu of which "Sursum
corda " has recently been adopted by the representative of the family. . A pedigree in
the Herald's Office, Dublin, affects to give an account of their early English ancestry,
but is utterly untrustworthy in this respect ; the tradition, however, is preserved of
the abandonment of the ancient paternal arms ; but they are described as those of a
Yorkshire family, with whom no connection existed, and yet some of whose alliances
and descents are improperly inserted in the pedigree.
21 In a pedigree of the Pilkingtons by Vincent, her first husband is called Thomas
Langley.

Lancashire, 1533. 29
who drew up the pedigree must have perceived, had they paid
attention to dates and other circumstances. She survived a second
husband Sir John de Pilkington, and became a nun. Whitaker
quotes her will dated 2nd January 1497. Dying without issue
her moiety of Balderstone passed to the heirs of her sister Isabel.
Her father, William de Balderstone, was only three years old when
Ralph, who is represented to have married his daughter, died.22
Ralph de Langton's wife was named Alice, and she survived him,
fining for a writ of dower 16th August 9th Henry VI. (1431).
The marriage of the second Henry with a second Agnes de
Davenport is no doubt a mistake of the compiler. His wife's
name was Elizabeth, as appears by the inquisition post mortem
13th Edward IV. (1473), quoted at p. 18, from Christopher Town-
ley's Abstract.
Joan, who married Richard Sherburne, should evidently have
been placed a generation later, the dispensation for her marriage
being dated 1472, and the Sherburne pedigree making her to be
Henry's daughter.
Ralph, son of Sir Richard, had to wife Joan, not Elizabeth,
Southworth. It was not Thomas the last baron of the name, but his grand
father, who was sheriff in 1567. The last baron was a knight of
the Bath at the coronation of James the First, and died in 1604
aged forty-four. He was therefore about twenty-nine years of age
when the fatal encounter with Mr. Hoghton took place at Lea
Hall, on the night of 20-21 Nov. 1589, in the 32nd Elizabeth.
22 The inquisition on the death of Richard de Balderstone, who died 20th Decem
ber 1456, was held 25th September 1457 (36 Henry VI.), when William was found to
be son and heir and of the age of twenty-nine years.

3°

Visitation of

Cf)e mUp of WfysdtV*

Hfyt abbott toas not at bome.1
J^enrp JLacpe2 (corrected to 3fo!m JLacp fil. Etc, fit?
©ttstace) Constable of Chester first founoer of g>etnt
Bennete of g>tanlotoe.
1 The abbot at the time of this Visitation was John Paslew B.D., who was ar
raigned and convicted of high treason, and hanged on the 12th March 1536-7.
2 The correction of the first entry and the interlineations are in a different hand
from that in the text. They do not occur in the copy of this Visitation in the Col
lege of Arms, which has the further entry (vide Coucher Book of WhaUey Alley,
p. 1267, vol. xx. Chetham Seeies): "John of Q-ante second Due of Lancastre sone
in Law and heyer to Henry the furste Due of Lancastre."
The original family of Lacy had no part in the foundation of the abbey of Stanlaw,
afterwards removed to Whalley.
The descents of the barons of Halton, constables of Chester, founders and bene
factors of this abbey, are given at large, pp, 1 to 4 of the Coucher Book, vol. x. of the
Chetham Seeies. John fitz Richard fitz Eustace, 6th baron of Halton, the first
founder, is in this Visitation improperly called Lacy. His mother Albreda only suc
ceeded to the inheritance of her half-brother, Robert son of Henry, the last of the old
line of Lacy, in 1193, three years after her son's death, which took place at Tyre in
1 1 90. In 1 1 95 she settled it by fine on her grandson Roger, who was the first of
the new line bearing that name.
The earldom of Lincoln was given to John de Lacy by his mother-in-law Hawise,

Lancashire, 1533. 31
iRoger Lacpe Constable of Cbester $c seconnbe
founber $c nobes tn tbe satb place.
3fobn Lacpe Carle of ILtncolne Up founber of tbe
satb place.
Cbmounb JLacpe Carle of ILtncolne 4 founber of tbe
same. J^enrp Hacp Carle of ILtncolne b16 founber & trans=
lator of tbe place of St. Rennets to fcObalep.
g>atnt Cboms (Plantagenet interlined) Carle of
Lancaster sonne tn latoe anb bepre to i^enrpe Lacpe
Carle of ILtncolne.
i^enrp <£rpsmounbe (plantagenet interlined) Carle
of Lancaster iSrotber anb betre to g>atnt Cboms.
U>enrp tbe first £>ufce of Lancaster sonne anb bepre
to IDenrp (interlined Cbearle toas) tbe first bufee of
Lancaster of tbe piantagenets.

Arms. Azure (b) three whales hauriant argent (ar) in
each mouth a crosier?
who had it from her brother Ranulf Blundevill earl of Chester, and it was con
firmed to him by king Henry the Third in 1232. Dugdale says that this title was not
used by his Bon Edmund, but he is probably in error, as we find that Edmund is
called earl of Lincoln in a patent of safe conduct to the king and queen of Scotland
5th September 1255.
Henry, the last of this line, was earl of Salisbury jure uxoris as well as earl of
Lincoln. 3 In Moule's Heraldry of Fish the blazon is given as gules three whales hauriant
or, in each mouth a crozier of the last.

32

Visitation of

iEuston,1

Arms  2a lion passant sable (Sa) langued gules (g) ;
a chief argent (ar).
RISHTON or Rushton is a manor in the fee of Clithero.
The Talbots of Bashall possessed manorial rights there
and a mansion called Holt. The family who assumed the local
surname also had an interest in the manor.
It was found by an inquisition on the death of Richard
Rissheton, 15th September 1425 (4 Henry VI.), that Robert de
Praers held the manor of Rissheton juxta Harwode in the time
of Edward the First, and gave it in marriage with his sister
Margery to Gilbert son of Henry de Blakburn. The descents
are there given in lineal succession from father to son through
Henry, Gilbert, Robert, Ralph, to this Richard, who died with
out issue seised of the manor of Ponthalgh in the township of
1 In Dugdale's copy of this Visitation Ruston occurs before the abbey of Whalley;
in neither copy is any name or pedigree entered.
2 No colour is given to the field either in the Office or the Museum copy. In
Grrafton's Lancashire the field is or, and the chief gules ; but in the Visitations of
1 61 3 and 1664 the chief is sable.

Lancashire, 1533. 23
Church, of 1 messuage, 1 toft, 18 acres of land and 2 acres of
meadow in Rissheton, besides property in Oswaldtwistle and Cli-
thero, to which his brother Roger (aged thirty- three) succeeded.3
Another brother, Henry, marrying an heiress of Clayton-le-Moors,4
founded the line which was seated at Dunkenhalgh, and from which ,
branched the Rishtons of Antley and afterwards those of Sparth.
The Rishtons of Dunkenhalgh entered at the Visitation of
1567 ;5 the Rishtons of Sparth at the Visitation of 1613; the
Rishtons of Antley and the chief line of Ponthalgh in 1664.
Ponthalgh and Dunkenhalgh were contiguous estates. At the
time of this Visitation Roger Rishton, said to be great-grandson
of the heir named in the above cited inquisition, was proprietor of
the first named place. The family was continued through his
second son, William Rishton of Micklehey, the elder brother
Ralph,6 after a series of strange matrimonial adventures, dying
without legitimate issue male.
Henry Rishton, contemporaneously of Dunkenhalgh, was suc-
3 The descents in this inquisition (quoted from Christopher Townley's Abstract)
differ from those recprded in his extract of an entry on the Patent Roll 4 Hen. V.
made prior to the inquisition on the death of Ralph the father of Richard. The Roll
makes Robert to be father to a second Gilbert and he to a second Robert, father to
Ralph, which is no doubt the correct line of descent. It also recites that the manor
of Rishton was in the king's hands by reason of the outlawry of Thomas Talbot of
Davington, in the county of Kent.
4 Cecilia daughter of Henry de Clayton married Adam son of Henry de Grimshaw,
and Margaret, her sister, married Henry de Rishton, in the time of Edward III.
5 This coat is there recorded as having the field or, the chief argent (?), and the
lion sable, with a crescent for difference.
6 Reading, as we frequently do in early records, of marriages made between mere
children, we are apt to consider that they were but contracts of betrothal for the
future union of the parties upon their reaching a suitable age ; and no doubt in most
cases it was so, while many of the divorces recorded were simply dissolutions of such
early engagements, one or both of the contracting parties objecting " pubertate adve-
niente" to the consummation of the marriage. There is reason however to believe
that in many cases children were not merely contracted, but actually wedded and
bedded. Ralph Rishton the heir of Ponthalgh, whose marriage with Helen, daughter of
F

34 Visitation of
ceeded by his son John, who got involved in troubles caused by
his kinsman's irregularities, and cut rather a sorry figure.
Richard Towneley of Royle, took place not long before the date of this Visitation, was
then only nine years of age and his bride barely ten. Their nuptials were publicly so
lemnised in the church of Altham, and the young couple went to reside with the girl's
grandfather, Nicholas Towneley of Greenfield, where they remained for two or three
years ; after his death removing to Royle, the abode of her father, and living together
as man and wife.
In causes before the Consistory Courts, to which Ralph Rishton was in after years
a party, it was essential to ascertain whether this had been a complete marriage ;
evidence was consequently produced to prove the cohabitation of the parties at Green
field, at Royle and at Ponthalgh, and to show that while still a youth and being
trained to arms iu the household of Sir Richard Assheton of Middleton (one of the
heroes of Plodden), Ralph frequently visited his wife at her father's house. During
his absence, while serving as "petty capten" under Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall in
the Scottish wars, Helen became deranged. On his return Ralph seduced from her
home Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Parker of Horrocks,* and sought to obtain a divorce
from his wife. Not being able to accomplish his object in a regular manner, he pro
cured through an official at Bury a pretended divorce and went through a ceremony
of marriage with Elizabeth Parker, with whom he lived eight years and by whom he
had several children. This marriage was however pronounced to be illegal; and
Ralph had to pay four pounds at Blackburn Church for his penance, and was also
bounden in four pounds to abstain from the company of Elizabeth Parker.
We then hear of his having formed an illicit connexion with Ann, daughter of
Sir James Stanley of Cross Hall and half-sister of his commander Sir Thomas Talbot.
Dame Ann Stanley her mother, whose first husband was Sir Edmund Talbot, and
who was now a second time a widow, lived at the mansion of Holt, » property of
the Talbots in Rishton; not far distant was the ehapel of Harwood, and thither she
carried her daughter by night and forced the unfortnnate young woman, who was
then three months gone with child, into a marriage with John Rishton of Dunken
halgh. In spite of the efforts of her unnatural parent, Mistress Ann effectually resisted
cohabitation, and she was eventually released from her difficult position by a divorce.
Ralph having become a free man through the death of his first wife, by whom he
had no issue, was sued by Elizabeth Parker for restitution of conjugal rights ; but she
failed in her suit, not being able to disprove the validity of the marriage of Helen
Towneley, which of course invalidated her own. Ralph then took his paramour Ann
Stanley to wife, and had seven lawful children beside two born ante matrimonium.
His death does not appear to have put a stop to the troubles which his irregular
conduct had caused; for in March 1572-3 we find that Elizabeth Parker sued one of
the tenants for dower unsuccessfully. * Otherwise Harrockford, near Clitheroe.

L ancashire, 1533.

35

3ofm Calfcott of Salefrerrp
fiaO to tits first totfe frame, Bougijter to ?_?etoe Sijetfrorne, $c
tfyes fjatoe gsstte JTofm, .STatw, &nne & JWargmt.1
2T^e saiB jrofjn i>a» to fjts 2"* totfe frnm, »ougt)ter to ittc:
IBamtester of SUtham, & tfjej? Ijatoc no ijmut.
fr berreg gnttle ©squt'r & toortfig to foe tafwn pajrne for.

Arms. Argent (ar) ^m lioncels rampant purpure (p) ;
-m ^ centre point a trefoil slipped (p).2
Crest. A Talbot statant argent (ar).3
1 Dr. Whitaker {History of WhaUey, 3rd edit., p. 432) made the mistake of assign
ing no children to the first marriage.
2 The office copy of this Visitation gives the trefoil as purpure. In the Visitation
of 1567 no colour is indicated, and the trefoil is placed in the centre chief. Its tinc
ture might be vert if we suppose p in this case to stand for proper.
3 The dog is langued gules in the office copy. In the Visitation of 1567 its tincture

36 Visitation of
Salebury or Salisbury, now spelled Salesbury, a township in the
parish of Blackburn, and a manor in the Lacy fee, gave its name
to a race of local proprietors, from whom the estate passed into
the family of Cliderhou, a numerous tribe who derived their name
from the town where the ancient mansion of their chief was situate,
and who possessed considerable estates in the hundred of Black
burn. Part of these passed to the Radclifles of Wimmerley,4 but
Salebury and Clayton-le-Dale, with other property, devolved upon
Sibilla, daughter and heir of Robert de Cliderhou, who married
Richard son of John de Radcliffe of Ordeshall, being his second
wife. They had a son Roger, who appears to have died without issue.5
is sable, and it is charged with the difference of a trefoil on the shoulder : in that
of 1664-5 the distinctions are omitted, and the crest is given as a Talbot passant
sable. N.B. This family quartered in right of their descent from Cliderhou gules a saltbre
engrailed or.
Their motto was "Touts jours Jidble."
* "At the northern extremity of the town is an ancient mansion called the Alleys,
which was the manor-house of the family of Cliderhow, and afterwards, by marriage
with an heiress of that family, of the Radcliffes of Wimberley, at least as early as
1332. It appears to have been _, strong tower-built house, of which some remains
exist at present, and more are remembered ; and the whole, together with a large
enclosure behind, haB been surrounded by a deep moat. The demesne appertaining
to this mansion consisted of sixty-four Lancashire acres, including a small park of
fourteen acres, called SalthiU-hey park, and was sometimes conveyed as the manor of
Cliderhow." (Whitaker's History of WhaUey, 3rd edit., 1818, p. 281.)
On the following page this learned and accomplished author speculates, with an
amusing disregard of dates, upon the alliance which had connected these two families.
He complains that the compilers of the Lancashire pedigrees have left that of Clider
hou " in confusion worse confounded," and he confesses that he abandons the earlier
part of the genealogy in despair. There exists, nevertheless, evidence of the line of
descent amongst the Townley MSS., to which Dr. Whitaker had access, and from
which we have compiled the pedigree in the Appendix.
5 A deed of the date of 2 Henry VI. is cited by Christopher. Townley, by which a
certain messuage, called Smallthwaites in Esington, with land adjacent, in the tenure
of Avilla, widow of Richard Talbot, and another messuage with appurtenances in
Newton-in-Bowland, are settled upon Sir Henry and Joanna de Houghton for their

Lancashire, 1533. 37
Their daughter Joanna married Sir Henry, second son of Sir
Adam de Houghton and brother of Sir Richard de Houghton of
Houghton Tower,6 and inherited the estates of Pendleton in the
parish of Whalley, of Salesbury and Clayton, and other property.
Sibilla left no issue either by her second husband Sir Richard
Mauleverer of Beamsley, or by her third husband Sir Roger de
Pulthorpe, a gentleman of Yorkshire, who was one of the judges
of Common Pleas. The latter died in exile in May 1393 (16
Richard IL). His widow died 21st December 1414 (2 Henry V.),
when Joanna her daughter, wife to Sir Henry de Houghton, be
came lady of Salebury, being then thirty-six years of age.7
lives ; then on Roger de Radcliffe, Joanna's brother, and heirs male ; remainders to
Richard de Houghton, son of Sir Henry, and heirs male ; then to Peter, son of
Richard Talbot, and heirs male ; then to Giles, brother of Peter, and heirs male ; and
afterwards to the right heirs of Joanna.
If this date be given correctly, and if Roger were in life in 1424, how was it that his
sister Joanna was found to be the heir of Sibilla in 1414 ? Was he born ante matri-
monium ?
s The name of Houghton is so spelled in all the deeds of this family abstracted by
Christopher Towneley, from which we quote. Hoghton is now the established mode
of writing the name, and is more consonant with primitive usage.
7 The pedigree of Houghton of Pendleton {History of Whalley, p. 259) requires
some correction.
The third husband of Sibilla de Cliderhou is there named Sir William instead of
Sir Soger de Eulthorp, and he is stated to have been executed as well as attainted for
high treason. His death in exile is stated in our text upon the authority of the
sketch of his life by Mr. Eoss. {The Judges of England, vol. iv. p. 55.) His son Sir
William was the issue of a prior marriage, and not the son of Sibil, as Mr. Foss sup
poses him to be.
Richard de Houghton, the Parker of Leagram, from whom sprang the Houghtons
of Pendleton, was not the legitimate issue of the marriage of Sir Henry with Joanna,
as the pedigree represents him to be. The proof that he was not so is the inquisition
p. m. of Sir Henry held in 1425, when Richard, son of Sir William de Houghton, son
' of Richard the brother of Sir Henry, was found to be his kinsman and next heir.
Richard de Houghton of Leagram Esq. is, however, repeatedly styled in deeds
" filius Henrici militis," though nowhere does it appear who was his mother.
Sir Henry's wife evidently desired his succession to her inheritance, for many settle
ments were made having this for their object, giving remainders not to any Clider
hou, but to Peter Talbot and to Giles his brother. They were the sons of Richard

38 Visitation of
Joanna's marriage proving childless, the manors of Salebury
and Clayton-le-Dale reverted to her mother's family (though not
without contention on the part of Richard the son of Sir Henry de
Houghton), and again were at the disposal of a lady, Isabella,
daughter (and coheir with her sister Joanna) of Richard de Clider
hou and of Agnes his wife. She had intermarried, prior to 1423,8
with John Talbot, son of William Talbot, who (according to
Dodsworth) was a younger son of Edmund Talbot of Bashall in
the county of York.9 Isabella died ist August 1432 (io Henry
Talbot, whom we presume to have been of Slaidburn, a younger son of Sir Edmund
Talbot of Bashall, their mother being Avella or Avellina, daughter to P. de Rigmaden.
(Vide note § on p. 39.)
Sir Henry de Houghton was knight of the shire for the county of Lancaster
1 Henry IV. and 8 Henry V.
8 It appears by the Lichfield registers, L. 9, fo. 142, that John Talbot and Isabella
Clytherow had married in ignorance of the existence of any impediment, and that it
afterwards came to their knowledge that they were related in the fourth degree of
consanguinity, whereupon they had prayed for and in 1423 obtained a dispensation.
Dr. Whitaker is again at fault as to the parentage of Isabella, the heireBs who
brought Salesbury to the Talbots. He represents her to be the daughter of Sir
Richard Mauleverer by Sybyl, daughter and heir to Sir Robert de Cliderhou. The
same statement occurs in the volume of Lancashire Pedigrees in the Leeds Library,
and has been repeated by Baines {History of Lancashire, vol. iii. p. 341), as well as
in the notes at pp. 279 and 295, vol. ii. pt. ii. of the Notitia Cestriensis, vol. xxi. of
the Chetham Seeies. The authorities for the correction of this statement will be
found in the Appendix.
9 The Talbots of Bashall are recognised by the genealogists as a branch of the
highly connected Norman stock,* which has given to the peerage the earldoms of
Shrewsbury and Talbot. Their lands (which afterwards passed by heir female to the
Stuteviles) lay in the county of Lincoln, which circumstance probably led to the
settlement of Robert Talbot at Huddersfield, within the fee of the Earls of Lincoln in
Yorkshire. Edmund de Laci, who died in 1257, gave to Thomas Talbot the land of
" Hudresfeld," which his father Robert and Matilda his mother had held for Hfe.
Christopher Towneley beheved him, for reasons which he cites, to be the first grantee
(from the same earl) of Bashall (originally Beckshalgh, or the hill by the brooks,
vide Whitaker's History of Craven, p. 25) in the parish of Mitton, deanery of Craven.
In the inquisition taken towards the close of the reign of Henry III. of the fees
• They inherited the blood of the Earls of Warenne through the Gournays, and thus were kindred
to the Dukes of Normandy.

L ancashire, 1533. 39
VI.), her son John being then six years of age. Her husband
held by the Earl of Lincoln of the Honor of Lancaster in Blackburnshire, Nicholas
de Ruyshton, Richard de Ruyshton and Thomas Talbot were found to hold one
knight's fee of that Honor (viz. Rishton). Edmund the king's son, afterwards the first
Earl of Lancaster, having been endowed with sundry lands, which had been taken
from Edmund de Laci, who had borne arms against the king, afterwards granted
Bashall to this Thomas Talbot, who dying before the third of Edward I. was suc
ceeded by his son Edmund,* whose name and arms appear on a roll of the time of
Edward II. edited by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, as "Sire Edmon Talebot, de
argent, a iij lioncels de pourpre."
In the 32 year of Edward I. he had a charter of free warren in his demesne lands
of Bascholfe in the county of York, and of Hapton in the county of Lancaster, and
another of the like privilege in the manor of Ruiahton in the county of Lancaster.
He died ante 4 Edward II. and was succeeded by his eldest son John, who was still
under age and in ward of the king 20 of Edward II. John was alive 3 Edward
HI- i1!},0), when he ceded Hapton to Gilbert de la Leigh.f He appears to have been
succeeded by his next brother Thomas,! the second of that name, who probably died
before the 38 Edward III., when we find his son, the second Edmund, in controversy
with Robert son of Gilbert de Ruyshton respecting the right to the manor of Ruysh
ton. Edmund was deceased 46 Edward III. (1373). He appears to have had several
sons — Thomas his successor (under age and in ward to Sir Thomas Banastre), Rich
ard of Slaidburn,§ William and others. It is this William whom Dodsworth identi-
* There were five Thomas Talbots and four Edmund Talbots occurring in alternate generations of
the descent of this family. The property of Bashall passed from father to son (except in two instances
where brothers inherited) for eleven generations, until it went out of the family by heir female in the
seventeenth century.
t Hapton had been the ancient inheritance of Reinerus de Arches and fell to John de Altaripa and
Matilda his wife in the division which took place between them and Elias de Knoll and Amicia his
wife in 1165 (50 Henry III.) Thomas de Altaripa, described as " quondam vir Margarete," is recorded
by an inquisition (held 19 Edward II. ) to have granted the manor of Hapton to Gilbert de la Leigh,
who was seised until Henry de- Lascy Earl of Lincoln, the chief lord of the fee, entered and enfeoffed
Edmund Talbot. After his death there were contentions between his heir and Gilbert, which ended
by John Talbot granting the manor to de la Leigh, and receiving .00 marcs as consideration.
+ In the pedigree of Talbot of Bashall, printed by Dr. Whitaker in the History of Craven, Thomas
Talbot is stated to be son and heir, as if inheriting from his father ; and John is not named in the suc
cession ; whereas Thomas inherited from his brother John, who was the son and heir to Edmund.
§ Christopher Towneley gives the following descent from Richard : — He married Avella or Avellina,
daughter of Peter Rigmaden. He was buried at Stede 10 Richard II., and appears to have left two
sons, Peter and Giles, vide note 7, p. 38. His son Peter, who stands on the roll of pardons 15 Henry
VI., married Anna, daughter of Giles Dutton, and had Giles and Richard. Giles is on the roll of
pardons 39 Henry VI. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Hapton of Armley Hall, and had
Edmund, Nicholas (who was heir to his' brother) , Giles and William. William had Giles (who inherited
Slaidburn) and Edmund, both of whom were alive 16 Henry VII. when their uncle Nicholas made his
will.

40 Visitation of
survived until the 27th year of Henry VI., and was followed in
the possession of the manor of Salebury by seven John Talbots
in succession; in every instance, except one (where a grandson
inherited), the descent being from father to son.
The second lord of Salebury of this line (who is omitted in some
of the pedigrees) was distinguished as " littell John Talbot," and
obtained an unenviable fame through the part which he took in
the betrayal of King Henry VI.10 Two years after he came to the
estate he obtained by the award of Sir Thomas Stanley and Sir
Thomas Harrington a final adjustment of the dispute with the
Houghtons concerning the inheritance of Jane that was the wife of
Sir Henry Houghton Knt., by which the manor of "Penylton" was
adjudged to the latter family. He married Joanna, daughter to
Sir John de Radcliffe Knt. Of them we find in the Bibl. Cotton.
fies with William the father of Jphn, the first of Salebury ; vide Pedigree Harl. MSS.
Cod. 1987, p. 46; a document inaccurate, however, in sundry particulars.
Thomas Talbot, the third of the name, was alive 5 Henry V. (when he had a
pardon of his outlawry), and was succeeded by a third Edmund, who lived through
the reign of Henry VI. but was dead 2 Edward IV.
His son and heir, the fourth Thomas, was under age at the death of his father.
He took part in the betrayal of King Henry VI., in company with his kinsman John
of Salebury and Sir Thomas Harrington, and had an annuity of 40.. granted to him
and his heirs in consequence of this good service to the house of York. Others of
the family are supposed to have been also concerned in this affair, as there were
pensions of 10Z., 20.. and 15.. to Thomas, Edmund and Wilham Talbot.
The eldest son of Sir Thomas Talbot died before him, and without male issue ; the
inheritance consequently passed to a fourth Edmund, who after the death of his first
wife Jane, daughter of Sir Robert Harrington of Hornby (by whom he left no
surviving issue), married secondly Ann, daughter of John Hart, and sister of Sir
Percival'Hart of Lullingstone Castle in the county of Kent, the lady who was mother
to the fifth Thomas Talbot, and who, when widow of her second husband Sir James
Stanley of Cross Hall, played a part in the transactions mentioned at p. 34.
10 In consideration of which "good and faithful service" Edward IV., 29 July, in
the fifth year of his reign, granted him and bis heirs an annuity of twenty marcs,
which was confirmed to his son Sir John and his heirs by Richard III. 26 July anno
regni 2°, 1484.

Lancashire, 1533. 41
Vespasian, D xvii. p. 40, the following record: "In the chapel11
window at Salebury : ' dblfltf p' afalfj Snjr'lS fallint Hfllttgra ft SDHtt'
nioris .jus likiuij^ sitnntm pi ista ftratot flm ferrait. 1" U6V " 12
John their son, who was knighted at Hutton field in Scotland
22 Edward IV. (1482), married Ann, daughter to Sir Ralph Ashton
of Middleton, and died 10 August 15 11, when his son John,
known as " long John Talbot," succeeded at the age of 24. He
married Isabel, daughter to Sir Richard Towneley Knt., and died
about 1515, an inquisition held 7 Henry VIII. showing his son
John (the fifth of the name and the subject of the entry in this
Visitation) to have then been fourteen years of age. This " verrey
gentle esquier" died 30 August 155 1 (Bibl. Cotton. Vespasian
D xvii. p. 49), having had several children by his second wife
(who survived him), amongst whom was "limping" Thomas
Talbot,13 an antiquary of considerable reputation, who was keeper
of the Records in the Tower, and the friend of Camden.
Since the . preceding sheets were printed off, a careful pedigree
of the Cliderous of Salebury has been compiled for the new edition
11 In 1 37 1, a license was granted to Robert de Cliderhou Knt,, and to Isabella
[Sibilla] his wife to have divine service in their oratory at Salebury for two years,
and in 1376 a similar license was granted to Sibilla relict of Sir Robert de Cliderow.
On the 27 December 1406, 8 Henry IV., John, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield,
granted this privilege for three years to the lady Sibilla de Eulford {sic in Towneley
MSS.) lady of Salesbury.
12 The transcriber (who was no other than Thomas Talbot the antiquary), with a
curious disrespect for contemporary evidence, added: "I suppose the wife'B name
should be Isabel and not Joan ; " yet he had found at Ribchester the memorial
window : " % njj'is (Jalilllt tt % wklilt ItlHItS Httl ; " on which he remarks, " she hathe
three doghters kneling by her. The rest of superscription in Latin is broken downe
owte of window." — The inscription at Ribchester was on the earlier generation : that
at Salebury was on the Becond John Talbot and hiB wife.
13 The volume of the Cotton library referred to, contains a sketch of the pedigree of
Talbot made by him in 1,580, showing his relationship to the Tildesleys through the
Leylands of Morleys and the Singletons of Withgill, into which family a daughter of
the third Jyhn Talbot of Salebury had married. In Dugdale's Visitation this Thomas
Talbot is noticed aB Blain by Dewhurst ; but this is a mistake. The pedigree of
Talbot of Salebury prepared for the new edition of Whitaker's Hist . of Whalley, shows
that it was John Talbot, an illegitimate son of the house one generation later, to
whom that accident occurred.

42

Visitation of

of Whitaker's Whalley. This renders it unnecessary to include in
an appendix to this volume the details promised. We therefore
give the descents of Cliderou without crowding the page with dates.
Hugh de Cliderou=Y=Ceeilia, daughter and coheiress

u=j=ueI*

Hugh de Salebury.

Hugh, de Cliderou=j=

Roger de Cliderou.

Ada__=j=Cecilia.

Robert de Cliderou=FSibilla, daughter of Richard
1 de Hodleston.

Robert de Cliderou=T=Sibilla, daughter of
Richard de Hoghton,
andjwidow of William
de Bold.

She married secondly,
Richard Mauleverer, and
thirdly, Sir Roger de
Eulthorp, but left no
issue by either.

Sibill_n=Richard de Radcliffe
of Ordsall, being his
second wife.

Richard de=f=Agnes.
Cliderou.

Isabella, who married
John Talbot.

Johanna=f=Henry de Hoghton.
s.p.

It may not be amiss to mention, before concluding this article,
that Thomas Talbot of Bashall, who is stated in the pedigree in
Whitaker's History of Craven to have married Maria, daughter
and heiress of Nigel de Halton, had to wife, Agnes, daughter and
heiress of Alan de Catterall of Wigglesworth, by Isabella, daughter
and heiress of the said Nigel de Halton.
The property in Clitheroe which was the inheritance of the
Radcliffes of Winmarley, does not appear to have come to them
directly from the Cliderous, but by marriage with a coheiress of
the family of Plesington.
The pedigree of Talbot given in Vol. 88 of the Chetham series,
does not agree with Dugdale's record in the College of Arms : —
a remark which it is to be regretted, is applicable to other pedi
grees in the latter part of that volume.

Lancashire, 1533.

43

& 31crt)n Cotonlep of Cotonlep l&msftt
&a& to |»t» ffrste tot'ef one tolio bias Bonojter to Sr CJjarlea
&j>piUgg»on & one of tfce fiegres of ffiatesforB; tofjerebg &e
Iieawtt) tlje goats. S toote not tofcat Jjrr name is nor £ maOe
no greate (nqtuist'tton, for %t toonlD fiatoe no noate tafcen of
I)gm, sagtng tfjat tfier teas no more CKenttlmen (n &anca»f)(re
iSut mg Hor9 of Eerfcge & ittottntegle.
S »ogf)t ijgm all Dag HgMnge tn tlje toglfl countreg & i)t's
retoarD toast ip, tot) tfje gttgBe fjaUD tf>e most p'te ant) E fjatf
as ebtU a forneg as ebr I fjatm.

Arms. Argent (at) « _/.?....£ and three mullets in chief
sable (SR) ; impaling sable (gfl) three goats salient
argent (a).
We may fairly attribute the inaccuracy of the herald's record to
the discourtesy of his reception. The arms impaled with those of
Towneley, are Gaythforth, which should haver been borne quarterly
with Pilkington.
The wife of Sir John Towneley was Isabella, daughter and
heiress of Sir Charles Pilkington, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter
and heiress of James Gaythforth. Sir Charles had been in great
favour with King Edward IV. as was also his brother Sir John,
who founded the chantry in the parish church of Wakefield, where

44 Visitation of
his arms are recorded as the same as those of the Pilkingtons of
Pilkington in Lancashire, viz. : argent a cross patonce gules
voided of the field, differenced by an annulet in the dexter chief
point.1 John Towneley had been made the ward of Sir Charles Pilking
ton when nine years old at the time of his father's death in 1482,
a contract for his marriage having been made about two years
previously. Sir John Towneley was son of Sir Richard Towneley, who,
shortly before his death, had been knighted by the Lord Stanley on
Hutton field at a great review of the army returning from the
campaign in Scotland 22 August 1482. Sir John's mother was
Johanna, daughter of Richard Southworth of Samlesbury. Sir
John had by his first wife, Isabella, who is stated to have died in
1522, Richard, his heir, who married Elizabeth, daughter and
heiress of Henry Foljambe of Walton, in the county of Derby
Charles, who married Elizabeth Kay of the parish of Rochdale
Helen, wife of Robert Nevile of Liversedge, in the county of York
Grace, wife, first, of Sir Robert Hesketh of Rufford, and secondly,
of Lawrence Habergham ; 2 Johanna married, first, to Thomas
Shirburne, and secondly, to Ralph Shuttleworth of Hacking; Jane,
1 The will of Sir Charles Pilkington is dated at Worksop 3 July 2 Richard III.
(1484), and was proved before Thomas, archbishop of York, on the 24 June A.r. 1485
in tbe fifth year of the archbishop's translation. Brit. Mus., Cott. MS. Tit., B viii.
f. 314. He names besides his wife and daughter, a base son Edward, and Edward,
son Of his late brother Sir John Pilkington. He directs his burial to take place
before the altar of the Blessed Virgin in the parish church of Worksop. Sir Charles
was one of the knights at the coronation of King Richard III. and had been constable
of Nottingham castle.
Edward, son of Sir John Pilkington, died in his minority, when the grants which
Sir John had had from King Edward IV. to whom he had been esquire of the body,
reverted to the crown. Other property, however, fell to his base son Robert, from
whom descend the Pilkingtons of Chevet. We have been unable to trace the link
between this line of Pilkington and the house of Pilkington in Lancashire. They do
not occur in the entails of the Verdon inheritance which came to Sir John de Pilk
ington by his marriage with the heiress of that family shortly after a.d. 1383.
J Dr. Whitaker records the name of a mistress of Sir John Towneley to have
been Jenet Ingham, by whom he appears to have had several children. A very
curious case came before the Ecclesiastical court at York in reference to a reputed

Lancashire, 1533. 45
wife of William Dalton ; Elizabeth, wife of John Cooke of London;
and Margaret, wife of Nicholas Banastre of Alvetham.
At the time of this visitation, Sir John Towneley was married to
a second wife Anne, daughter of Ralph Catterall, by whom he had
no issue. She took in second marriage, William Radcliffe of Hope,
son of Sir Alexander Radcliffe of Ordsall. Sir John founded a
chantry in the parish church of Burnley in 15 Henry VII. (1500).
Iu his will dated 28 April 31 Henry VIII. (1539), he calls himself
of Hapton, a manor held by knight's service, the inheritance of his
paternal ancestors de la Legh.
Richard, the heir of Sir John Towneley, was succeeded by his
son Richard, who married Frances, daughter and heiress of
Christopher Wimbyshe of Nocton, by Mary, daughter of Sir
Nicholas Byron of Clayton, aud sister to Sir John Byron, the last
legitimate representative of that family. Mary, their sole daughter
and heiress, married John (son of her great uncle Charles Towneley),
who suffered much persecution on the score of his religion as is
recorded by his grandson Christopher Towneley, "the indefatigable
transcriber," in the following words : " This John about y° 6 or 7
yeare of her Matie y* now is for professing the Apostolicall
Catholick Romane faith was imprisoned first at Chester Castle
then sent to Marishallsea then to Yorke Castle then to the Bloke-
houses in Hull then to ye Gatehouse in Westmr then to Man
chester then to Broughton in Oxfordshire then twice to Ely in
Cambrigdeshire and soe now of 73 yeares old and is bound to
appeare and keepe wthin 5 miles of Towneley his house who hath
since ye Statute of 23 paid into ye Excheq1 20u ye month and doth
still that there is paid allready above 5000" anno domini 1601 — "
illegitimate daughter of Sir John Towneley named Margaret, who became the second
wife of Lawrence Habergham to whom Grace, one of his legitimate children, had been
previously married. The judgment given was to the effect that Margaret's mother,
Jenet Ingham, being a single woman, it could not be certainly known that she was
sister to Grace, as she might have been begotten of another man than ofthe said Sir
John Towneley. It was therefore held, that Lawrence and Margaret might continue
to dwell together as man and wife ; both by God's laws and the laws ecclesiastical of
the realm ; and judgment was recorded accordingly.

46 Visitation of '
The crest of this family is a sparrowhawk proper with jesses and
bells, sitting on a perch or, entwined by a riband gules — motto
Tenez le vray.
The disclaimer of gentility is amusing; for if ancient descent
and hereditary possessions confer such distinction, of no family in
Lancashire can it be more truly said nascuntur generosi.
Paternally they descend from Gilbert (son of Michael) de la
Legh, who had lands in Cliviger in the thirteenth century, and
was a retainer of the great house of Lacy, Earls of Lincoln. His
son John married Cecilia, the heiress of Richard de Towneley,
whose wife was also named Cecilia. This Richard de Towneley
was the son of Geoffrey, the representative of a long line of
hereditary deans of Whalley in the Saxon times, whose mother
was a daughter of Roger de Lacy, constable of Chester, and had
as a grant in free marriage "lands in Tunleia, Coldcotes, and
Snodes worth."
Towneley having become the principal seat of the family,
Richard, son of John de la Legh, assumed the name of Towneley.
The arms are found on a seal of Gilbert de la Legh, son of John,
in 43 Edward III. (1368-9). Dr. Whitaker believed that they came
with the estate by the female ancestry ; but the same arms, with a
slight distinction, were borne by the Dyneleys who also sprung
from Cliviger. (See vol. xcv, p. 122.) I incline, therefore, to
think with Christopher Towneley, that they are the paternal coat
of the de la Leghs.
Dr. Whitaker had adopted a theory on insufficient evidence,
which is contradicted by the family muniments abstracted by
Christopher Towneley, that Gilbert de la Legh was an off- shoot of
the great family of Legh in Cheshire, and attributed to the
Towneleys, a first quarter of arms which were borne by that family,
for which there is no authority. As this question has been dis
cussed in note's to the new edition of the History of Whalley, it is
needless here to recite the argument.

Lancashire, 1533.

47

iaobert $olt of £>tubblep
marieS an oIBe tooman og tofjom fje ijaDO no gssue, & tijer=
fore lie tooIB not fiatoe tytv name entereD.

Arms. Argent (at); on a fesse1 engrailed sable (Sa) -Vfcm?
fleurs-de-lis of the field (at).2
Crest. On a wreath argent (a) and gules (JJ) <z pheon
sable (ga).
Stubley is an estate near Littleborough in the township of
Hundersfield, parish of Rochdale, where the Holts appear to have
been seated for some generations.
Subsequently to the date of this visitation we find from informa
tion communicated by the Rev. Canon Raines, that Robert Holt
married Cecily, daughter of Andrew Barton of SmitheUs.
[Covenants dated 2 June 34 Henry VIII. 1542]. She was
evidently therefore his second wife. He left female issue only.3
One daughter, Mary, was married to her kinsman, Charles Holt,
who recorded his pedigree in 1567. We find the family entered
also in the two subsequent visitations.
1 " Bend " in the Office copy, where no tinctures are given for the wreath.
3 In the engraving the arms are represented as in the later visitations. The ordinary
there described being a bend and not a fesse.
3 Alice married John, son and heir of Thomas Greenhalgh of Brandlesome .
Katherine was wife to Thomas Nuttall of Tottington, and Margaret married John
Mirfield of Tong hall, in the county of York.

48

Visitation of

^r Etc J^oualrton Unigljt
BiB marg &ltce, Dougljter & one of tfie fjegres to Sr. STfioms of
&sf)tton itntgiit & tfieg l)abe gssue :
itatfeertne, toljo ts marteB to Sr. 2Tfioms ©erarB itntg^t.
&\)t saiB Sr. Ktc. ijatlj putt atoag ijts laBg anB totfe, anB
feepetl) a concobgne tn l)is Ijottse, fig toljotn lie &atl) Btbers cl)il=
Bren, anD bg tlje laBg lie ijatfi 3Leg H. all ; toll armes lie heareth
guartereB toitb bis in tlje first gr., lie salis tfiat £&r. ©arter
licenses Ijtm so to Soe, anB lie gabe _Wr. ffiarter an angle noble,
but fte gabe me nothing nor maBe me no gooB eljere,-hut gabe me
prouSe tooorBs.
Arms quarterly. First and fourth, grand quarters battg
of 6 at $z sa & sa & at of 6, or at 3 batts sa,
Sa 3 battS at 51 Second and third, argent (a) a mullet
sable (S3). Ashton.
1 The engraving is as drawn in the copy of this Visitation in the British Museum,
but the correct blazon of the grand quarter in this coat should be : first and fourth,
sable three bars argent, for HoghtO-T; second and third, argent three bars sable, for
Lea, which is confirmed by the Office copy.

Lancashire, 1533. 49
Crest. A bull's head couped argent (at) ; the horns
tipped or (Ot); charged on the neck with three bars
sable (S3).
Dodsworth's pedigree of this family gives five descents, all bear
ing the name of Adam, beginning with Adam de .Hocton in the
time of Henry II. They are followed by Richard de Hoghton,
who, in the time of Edward IL, married Sibilla, daughter to Wil
liam de Lea, and heiress of her brother, Henry de Lea ; and was
the progenitor of a long line of male descendants, owning to the
present day the estate from which they took their name.2
The eminence which forms a picturesque object in the valley of
the Ribble, crowned by their embattled mansion, was famed for its
hospitality to royalty in the person of King James the First, who
conferred a baronetcy on the family.
It is probable that the first Adam de Hoghton named, was a
descendant of Hamo Pincerna [Butler] to whom Warin Bussel,
Baron of Penwortham, in the time of William Rufus, is stated in
Testa de Nevill to have given two carucates of land in Hoghton and
Eccleston in the Hundred of Leyland, in free marriage with his
daughter. The estate of Lea in Amoundernes gave its name to a family of
Norman extraction3 and was in early times described as French
Lea and Lea English, a distinction now forgotten.

2 Adam de Hoghton, the first in descent from Richard, had a wife Philippa, not
named in the pedigrees, but probably the mother of his children. Ellen Venables
was no doubt a second wife. She survived him and was afterwards twice married.
3 William de Lea, the father of Sibilla, had in free marriage with his wife Clementia,
daughter to Robert Bannaster of Walton-le-Dale, Baron of Newton, the manor of
Mollington Banastre in the county of Chester. He appears to be fourth in descent
from Warin de Lancaster, who held a fourth part of a bovate of land in Lea, in the
time of Henry II. from which place hia descendants took their surname.
Warin was a younger brother of William de Lancaster, Baron of Kendal. His
father (also named Wilham) was the first to assume the name of Lancaster, and
H

50 Visitation of
To the alliance with the heiress of this family, the Hoghtons
owe the armorial bearings adopted by them, counterchanging the
tinctures, as will be observed in the first and fourth grand quarters.
The present crest used by the family of Hoghton (a bull passant,
argent, collared, or, horns tipped, sable) was granted by Lawrence
Dalton, Norroy, in the time of Queen Elizabeth.
Sir Richard, named in this visitation, was the seventh in descent
from his namesake who married the heiress of Lea.
His uncourteous reception of the Herald was no doubt the cause
of the blunders in the record.
Alice, the first wife of Sir Richard Hoghton, was daughter and
coheiress to Thomas Ashton of Ashton-under-Lyne, by his second
wife, Agnes, daughter and coheiress of Sir James Harrington of
Wolfage. His second son by her, though twice married, appears to
have left no issue. Thomas, the eldest son, who married Katherine,
daughter to Thomas Gerard of Bryn, had an only daughter, Jane,
who, marrying James, son and heir of Roger Bradshagh of Haigh,
carried into that family the quarterings of Hoghton, Lea, Ashton,
Harrington, English, Urswick, Bradshagh, and Verdon. (Vide note
p. in, vol. xcv. ofthe Chetham series.)
Her issue having ended in heir female, it is manifest that the
quarter of Ashton was improperly allowed by Dugdale to the issue
of the second marriage. He may possibly have been led into this
appears to have married Guendrida, the widow of Roger, Earl of Warwick, and
daughter to William, Earl of Warren and Surrey. He was fourth in descent from
Ivo Taylboys, said to be a Count of Anjou, who married Lucia, sister to Edwin and
Morcar, Earls of Northumbria.
The arms of Lea appear to have been argent, three bars sable. The seal of William
fils William de Lea, a collateral of this family settled in Leyland Hundred, is found
amongst the Trafford Deeds A.D. 1324 bearing three bars.
Amongst the muniments at Lyme I found the seal of ThomaB Curtays de
Bredekyrk (Bradkirk) a.d. 1367 bearing the same coat, with a bend over all, which
leads to the inference that the family of Bradkirk, at one time of some importance in
A.mounderneB, were an offshoot of the family of Lea.

Lancashire, 1533. 51
mistake by following the visitation of 1613 which ignores Sir
Richard's second marriage, and represents his younger son Thomas
as own brother instead of half brother to the eldest son named in
this visitation.
Sir Richard's mistress was Anne, daughter of Roger Brown.
By her he had a daughter Elizabeth, married to Robert Talbot of
Ribchester, an illegitimate offshoot of Talbot of Salebury.
After the death of his first wife, Sir Richard married Alice,
daughter to ... . Morley, and by her had a son Thomas, who
ultimately inherited the estate. He was slain at Lea hall, in
32 Elizabeth, in an affray (sometimes misrepresented as a duel)
with Thomas Langton, Baron of Newton, and their respective
followers. Mr. Langton's estate of Walton-le-Dale appears to
have passed into the hands of Hoghton's heir as a consequence of
this fatal accident. An abridged account of the feud will be given
in a note to the new edition of the History of Whalley, and some
curious particulars are to be found, in Baines' History of Lancashire,
of correspondence between the local authorities and the government.
The family of Hoghton appears in each of the Lancashire
visitations.

5*

Visitation of

Sfames ^tantits|)e t& -©tiptop
marieB ©Ii?abetfie, Bougfjter to JTotm Butler of Hacltffe, #
tlieg §abe gssue 5Fpm & &nne.

Arms. Azure (1)) three standing dishes, two and one,
argent (at).
Crest. A cock sable (S) beaked, wattled, combed, legged,
and spurred or (Ot).

This family, entered iu each of the Lancashire visitations, was
an offshoot from Standish of Standish, in which parish Duxbury is
situated.

Lancashire, 1533.

53

Cfjomas f^mtlt of #restU&urst
marieB Esorotljg, Bougliter to Sr Jfcaffe HoneforB Itnigljt, anB tljeg
j&abe gssue jTraunces, l&affe anS l&ic.

Arms quarterly of five. First, argent (at) on a fesse1
engrailed sable (S) ; three fleurs-de-lis of the field
(at). Second, argent (a) three boars two and one
sable (S), in the mouth of each a piece of gristle.
Third, argent (at) a chevron sable (S3) between three
towers gules (|J). Fourth, ermine on a chief indented
azure (b) ; two lioncels rampant or (Ot). Fifth, vair
argent and azure* (a)(b); a bend gules (g).
The same deviation in the engraving from the blazon of the coat
in the text, has been made in this case as in that of Holt of Stubley,
from a younger son of which line, the family seated at Gristlehurst
in the parish of Bury are said to have sprung.
The fifth quarter in the shield is clearly the coat of the family of
Mancester in the county of Warwick, to one third of whose inheri-

In the Office copy " b end."

In the Office copy "sable.''

54 Visitation of
tance, Ralph Holt and Ellen, his wife, succeeded about the time of
Henry VI. According to Dugdale (History of Warwickshire,
p. 762) this interest in the estate of Mancester had passed by
marriage of one of three sisters and coheiresses of Edmund, son of
Guy, the last ofthe family of Mancester, who had married Leonard
Worthyn, from whom it again passed by heir female to Holt.
Another coheir of Mancester married Geoffrey Brockholes, to
whom succeeded Joane, the wife of Thomas Aspull, and Margaret,
the wife of John Sumpter, as daughters and heirs.
The Lancashire pedigrees which make Holt marry a daughter of
Geoffrey Brockholes are manifestly inaccurate.3
From a parchment roll in the library of Chetham's hospital in
Manchester,4 we find a different version on the authority of Dr.
Theo. Howarth, who makes Ellen, wife of Ralph Holtj to be
daughter to John Sumpter of Colchester, by Margery, his wife,
daughter and coheir of Geoffrey Brockholes. This Geoffrey had
married Ellen, daughter and heiress of Sir John Roos of Radwinter,
and was son of Sir Geoffrey Brockholes, who married Alicia,
daughter and coheir of Guy de Mancester.
Sir John Roos is stated to have married Alice, daughter and
heiress of Sir Robert Asheldam, by Alice, his wife, daughter of
John Clifford. " Non nostrum tantas componere lites."
With such conflicting evidence before us we must abstain from a
comment on the heraldry. We may however, remark, that the
second quarter seems to be intended as a canting coat for Gristle
hurst ; but we have found no evidence of any family bearing that
territorial surname.
3 In the next generation they give the marriage with an heiress of Abraham or
Adburgham. * This roll, which was given to the Chetham library by the Rev. Canon Raines,
contains a history of the manor of Mancester, and gives a curious account of the
litigations of the several claimants.

Lancashire,

1533-

55

£>r goim Beton of Clapton,
toas not at Ijome at tljat p'sent tgme.

Arms quarterly. First and Fourth, argent (at) three
bendlets gules (g), Byron ; Second and Third, argent
(at) on a bend azure (b) three annulets or (Ot) ; in the
sinister chief point a cross cross let fitchy azure (b).
Crest. & mepte mapU batte come & glasse ot; le
fisbep'tepp. otb.1
The family of le Byron (a name spelled in various ways) whose
extensive possessions are mentioned in Dugdale's baronage, appear
to have got their first footing in Lancashire by the marriage of the
heiress of Clayton, an estate in the parish of Manchester, held by
knights' service. Vide Lancashire Inquisitions, vol. xcv. p. 65.
The arms in the second and third quarters are attributed to the
name of Clayton.
The engraver ought to have represented the bendlets in the first
and fourth quarters as enhanced.
1 The crest is not drawn in the copy of the Visitation in the British Museum, and
sketched but not blazoned in the Office copy.

56 Visitation of
John Byron appears by the Visitation of 1567 to have married,
first, Isabell, daughter of Peter Shelton of Lynn, by whom he had
no issue ; and secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of William Consterdin
of Blackley, widow of George Halgh, with whom he had cohabited
before marriage, having by her an illegitimate son, John, who took
the estates by grant, and was required to bear the arms within a
bordure sable.
The legitimate representation of this family is in Towneley of
Towneley, as mentioned at p. 45 of this volume.

Lancashire, 1533.

57

€Hmountre f^optootre of ©optoofce
ijaB to Ins furste togfe anne, Bougliter to JFofw Talbot of Sale*
berg, anB tljeg fiaSB gssue jroijn & &nne. IF Stye sat'B -EsmounBe
iiaB to t)is seconB togfe Rennet, B. to OTflliam ffierarB of Jinnee,
anB tfjeg Ijabe gssue lEltsabetf).
^Tobn, sonne to aSBmounBe, is margeB to ffilisabett), Bougliter
to iatcijolas Jfcanleg of Moulton in €l)wl)ivc.

Arms paly of six, argent (at) and vert (bt).1
The identity of the arms [counterchange of tinctures excepted]
of Hopwood with those of Middleton leads to the inference that
the Hopwoods were connected with the lords of the manor of
Middleton, who bore the name of their estate to which Hopwood
is contiguous. Entries of the family of Hopwood occur in the
Visitations of 1567 and 1664. The present owners of the estate
bearing the addition of this name to their own paternal surname
of Gregg, are not of the blood of the original line.

1 This coat is generally recorded with an escallop shell in chief in the second parti
tion (probably as a mark of cadency), and the escallop shell has been used as a crest.
I

58 Visitation of
From Langley hall in the parish of Middleton (afterwards a seat
of a branch of the Radcliffes) sprang Cardinal Thomas de Langley,
bishop of Durham, whose family bore the same arms with the
difference of a mullet in the second partition, leading to a similar
inference to that which we have drawn from the arms of Hopwood.
The bishop used the device of a mullet on his signet ring. Lord
Campbell, in his Lives of the Chancellors is manifestly wrong in
stating that the cardinal was the son of a Yorkshire yeoman. The
frequent occurrence of his name connected with property and
institutions in Lancashire, his rebuilding the parish church of
Middleton, his endowment of a chantry there and of a grammar
school, together with his coat of arms, all serve to identify him
with this county and this parish.
A copious notice of this prelate occurs at p. 120, vol. lix. of the
Chetham series, entitled A History of the Chantries, fyc, by the
Rev. Canon Raines.

Lancashire, 1533.

59

Etc Retort of JHptileton
BgBe marrge &nne, Bougliter to Sgr ZTljoms StrgftlanB of ILanBgss
Bale in £omm)lanB, & tbeg babe gssue, l&ic, jpranccgs, 3&obt,
2Tbomf, JTobn, JUauffe, HeonarB anB ^arge.
J»: Cbat tbe saiB f«r asbeton at tbe Seottisbe felBe
toofee a jirgsoner toljose name toas Sr f obrt jForman Itnigbt
Sergeant porter to tbe Seottisbe itinge; anB also be toofee
8le*anBer JSauret, Sbergffe of aberBgne, tobgcb ttoo jrgsoners be
BelgbereB to mg HorS of Norfolfte tbat noto gs.
goto to ftnoto boto lie sball bear tbeir armes.

Arms quarterly. First and Fourth, argent (at) on a
mullet sable (Sa) an annulet of the field .(at),
Asheton; Second and Third grand quarter, quarterly;

60 Visitation of
First and Fourth, ermine on a fesse gules (g) three
annulets or (Ot), Barton of Fryton ; Second and
Third, paly of six sable (S)1 and argent (at),
Middleton of Middleton.
Crest. A man with a sieth p'tye p pale argent and sable.
In the office copy a Mower. Cap per pale sable
and argent; his coat, quarterly, sable and argent; hose,
sable and argent ; scythe, blade proper; handle, or.
We learn from Hall's Chronicle of the History of England that
Sir John Forman, sergeant porter to the Scottish king, one of
Richard Asheton's prisoners, was called upon to identify the body
of the slain monarch after the battle of Flodden.
The armour worn by Asheton on the occasion of this battle was
hung up by him in the church of St. Leonard at Middleton, to
which he added the south aisle in the year 1524. He has been
credited on the strength of the inscription on this part of the
edifice with having rebuilt the church,2 but this was done a
century before by Cardinal Langley, bishop of Durham, as appears
by the licence for its consecration quoted by the Rev. Canon
Raines in his History of the Chantries at p. 120 -of vol. lix. of the
Chetham series. There still exist in Middleton church portions
of a stained glass window which represented Richard Assheton and
his lady, with an attendant squire and chaplain, and a number of
retainers whose names are given, attired in blue, each bearing his
bow and quiver of arrows, and who are described as having con
tributed towards the cost of the window. The date is uncertain,
but supposed to have been 151s.3
1 Should be vert and argent.
1 At p. 34 of the Iter Lancastrense, No. 7 of the Chetham series," and at p. 97 of
vol. xix. of the Chetham series, notes to Gastrell's Notitia.
3 This window is depicted in vol.'vii. of the Chetham series, Iter Lancastrense.

Lancashire, 1533. 61
The commander of these Lancashire bowmen, under the Earl
of Surrey, was the second in descent from Sir Ralph Asheton, a
younger son of Sir John Asheton of Ashton-under-Lyne. Sir
Ralph had married Margaret, daughter of John, and next of kin
and heir of Richard Barton of Fryton in Rydale, in the county of
York, and of Middleton, whose arms appear in the first and
fourth quarters of the grand quarter; those of the heiress of
Middleton, who had brought to the Bartons the estate which gave
her family their name, being in the second and third quarters.
Ralph, a younger son of Sir Ralph de Asheton, having married
the heiress of Leaver of Great Leaver, founded a family from
whom were derived, at a later period, the Asshetons of Whalley, of
Downham and of Cuerdale.4
Richard, the eldest son, married Isabella, daughter of Sir John
Talbot of Salebury — marriage articles dated 29 July 20 Edward IV.
(1480) — and died 28 April 22 Henry VII. (1507). At the inquisi
tion p. m. 25 August 24 Henry VII. (1508), Richard, his son and
heir, was found to be 26 years of age. He would therefore be
about 32 years old when he commanded at Flodden in 1513.
No descents of the Ashetons of Middleton are given in continua
tion of this line in the Visitation of 1567. That of 16 13 gives three
generations without explaining the connecting link.
The only other inquisitions^, m. we have found are, on 19 March
3 Edward VI. (1549) on Sir Richard Assheton who died on
n January 2 Edward VI. (1549), and on 18 September 4 Edward
VI. (1550) on his son Richard Assheton, Esq., who had married
Katherine, daughter of Sir Robert Bellingham. She was his
second wife and survived him. He died on 4 August 4 Edward VI.
4 The other branches of Asheton, namely, those of Chadderton and Shepley (estates
acquired by marriage) were severally later offshoots from the main line of Ashton-
under-Lyne which finally ended in heirs female. Asheton of Ashton.in Makerfield, a
descendant of the Ashetons of Chadderton, acquired his property in West Derby
Hundred by his marriage with an heiress of Gerard.

62 Visitation of
(1550) leaving (by his first wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas
Gerard of Bryn) a son and heir, Richard, aged 14, whose articles
for a marriage to be solemnised between him and Elizabeth, daugh
ter of Sir William Davenporte of Bromehall, were dated 12 Feb
ruary 4 Edward VI. (1550), and who is identical with the first
name in the Visitation of 161 3.
In the visitation of 1664, three subsequent descents are given
with an earlier pedigree of the family.8
5 On this pedigree we have to observe that Isabella, wife of Sir Richard Asheton,
was daughter of Sir John Talbot of Salebury, not of Bashall. Their son and
heir is stated to have married Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Eoulshurst of Crewe,
and to have had issue, Richard Asheton named in this visitation, the husband of Anne
nee Strickland. But from the dates given below it is more than probable that there
must be the interpolation here of a generation. If there _b evidence of a marriage of
Anne nee Eoulshurst with a Richard Asheton of Middleton, we conclude that she was
not the mother, but the first wife of the hero of Flodden. He appears also to have
had a third wife, Dame Anne Bellingham, who survived him. Dying in 1549, he
was succeeded by his son Richard, who had married, firstly, Anne Gerard, and
secondly, Katherine Bellingham, whose mother was the third wife of his father. He
was succeeded by another Richard, the first named in the Visitation of 161 3, Mr.
William Hardy, E.S.A., has obligingly communicated to us the following dates which
will bear out the evidence of the Richard Asheton of this visitation having been the
commander at Flodden, and not, as is given out in the ordinarily received pedigrees,
the son of that warrior.
Sir Richard Assheton, son of Sir Ralph Assheton, died 28 April 22 Henry VII.
(1507); inquisition p. m., 25 August 24 Henry VII. (1508).
Richard Assheton, Esq., son and heir, married before 1507 : 26 years of age and
upwards on 25 August 24 Henry VII. (1508); the date of his knighthood is uncertain,
but he was called Sir Richard in the inquisition p. m. ; made a settlement on Dame
Anne Bellingham, 15 October 33 Henry VIII. (1541); made a settlement on his son
Richard and Katherine his wife, 4 November 33 Henry VIII. (1541); granted
annuities to his younger sons, Ralph, Leonard, John, and Thomas, 4 August 34
Henry VIII. (1542); executed a deed on 31 August 2 Edward VI. (1548) recognis
ing a debt to Sir John Sotheworth, husband of his daughter Mary, being part of the
portion due to her, in which he uses the following expression, " Knowinge the
uncerteyntye of deathe and being nowe of greate age and often tymes vexed with the
visitation of Almighty God," &c; will made (mentions annuities only to servants)
4 October 2 Edward VI. (1548); died 11 January 2 Edward VI. (1549); inquisition
p. m., 19 March 3 Edward VI. (1549); Dame Anne him surviving.
Richard Assheton, Esq., son and heir, 38 years of age on 19 March 3 Edward VI.

Lancashire, 1533. 63
The Lord Suffield is representative of the Ashetons of Middleton
by descent from Mary, the eldest of two co-heiresses of Sir Ralph
Asheton, Bart., but the manor and advowson have been sold. From
the younger sister Eleanor, the present Duke of Westminster
descends. (1549); marriage articles of his son, with Elizabeth Davenport, made 12 February
4 Edward VI. (1550); died 4 August 4 Edward VI. (1550); Inquisition p. m.,
18 September 4 Edward VI. (1550); Katherine, his wife, him surviving.
Richard Assheton, son and heir, 14 years and 2 months old on 18 September
4 Edward VI. (1550).
These dates are irreconcilable with the theory of the received pedigree which gives
two Richards who married Anne Foulshurst and Anne Strickland respectively.
Richard Assheton, the husband of Katherine, being 38 years old in 1549, must there
fore have been born about the year 15 11. Now between the year 15 n and 148 1, the
year in which Richard (the son of Sir Richard Assheton and Isabella Talbot, who was
26 years old in 1507) was born, there is only an interval of thirty years. This period
has to be divided between two generations, allowing only 15 years for each generation.
In other words, if Richard, husband of Anne Strickland, were the son of Richard who
married Anne Foulshurst, he might have been at Flodden with his father at 14 years
of age, but as Richard, the son of the old man who died in 1549, was then 38 years
old, if he were the grandson of Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Foulshurst, he could
not have been born later than 15 11, when his father would not have been more than
12 years old.

N.B. — In spelling the name of this family we have followed the herald except when
quoting from documents ; hence the variations in the text.

64

Visitation of

%>yx 2Uejrant>et i&aticlpffe H*np«ji)t
BgBe marrge &lgs, Bougljter of Sr jrobn JSototbe of Barton, $c
tbeg fjabe gssue, SElillm. &le;canBer, JTotm, lEBmounBe, &nne,
ISli?abetbe, anB ffilnor. if 2Uam gs margeB to ifflargeret, Bougbter
to ©BmounB 2FragforB, anB tbrg babe gssue, aie^anBer & ffillin
1f &nne gs margeB to ©BmounB SFragforB, sone of tbe aforesaiB
CCBmttnB, anB tbeg babe gssue, iEBmounS, Itobart, aie.rar.Bcr,
anB ILatorance. "IT lEli?abetf>e gs margeB to JTobn aserton of
aBerton, lEsgr. lElnor ps marpeB to Hie. sone # beger to Sr
JH&illpm Jftolgneur _Rnpgl)t.
Spr, I suppose tbj'se armes Bo stanB out of orBer, in as mpcfje
as fie berps HaBelpffe in tbe seconB quarter.

Arms quarterly. First and fourth, azure (b) a bend
or (Ot) between six garbs of the second (Ot) three and
three, Sandbach ; Second and third, argent (at) two
bends engrailed sable (Sa) over all a label of three points
gules (g), Radcliffe of Ordsal.

The earliest notice that we have found of Ordsall hall being a
possession of the Radcliffes is its tenure by Sir Robert de Rad-

Lancashire, 1533. 65
cliffe, sheriff of Lancashire in 14 Edward III. He was found also
to hold^the manor of Flixton. In a deposition by Sibilla de Ful-
thorp 1 Henry IV. (vide p. 149, vol. xcv. of the Chetham series),
he is stated to have been a bastard and to have died without heir.
She goes on to state that a certain John de Radcliffe had been
seised of half of the manor of Flixton, and died leaving a son
Richard, who was her first husband. Of this Richard we have the
inquisition p. m. 4 Richard II. , in which he is named as of
Ordsall (Urdesale) and an unusually minute description is therein
given of the family mansion. (Vide p. 8 vol. xcv.)
Richard's first wife was Matilda, daughter and heir of John de
Legh of Booths, by Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Richard de
Sandbach. (Vide Ormerod's History of Cheshire, vol. iii. p. 56.)
John de Legh's father (also named John) had married Maud,
daughter and heir of Sir John de Arderne.
The estate of Sandbach continued in the Radcliffe family through
the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Richard de Radcliffe was succeeded by his son John, the issue
of his first marriage. By his second marriage with Sibilla, daughter
of Roger de Cliderow of Salebury, he had a daughter Johanna, who
inherited her mother's estates.
The descents of Radcliffe as given in the Visitation of 1567 are
incorrect. [Of course we are quoting from the printed copy,
vol lxxxi. of the Chetham series.]
No entries of the Radcliffes of Ordsall appear in the two last
Visitations. The extent of the possessions of this family may be gathered
from the inquisitions^., m. in vol. xcv. How they became possessed
of the estates of Shoresworth and Hope we cannot trace. Hope
had been an assart from the waste, by. one of the Byrons, and was
afterwards the seat of Sir Wm. de Holand in the time of Edward II.

66

Visitation of

Ctimoun&e Crapforfc of Crapforti
marpeB ©li?abetbe, Bougliter to Spr maffe HongforB Unpglit, $c
tjjep baB pssue, 3SSmounBe, George, 3§arrp, Scorns., 3_tic.,
J&argeret, Sfscelpe, aiice, anB ffiltjabetbe.
ISBmounBe, marpeB to anne, Bougliter to Spr aie^r i&aBcIipffe
as ps aforsaiB.
George ps marieB to lEHpne, Bougliter anB tyytx to JEESilltam
HobarBe of |_?olbpcbe 3-?eron in i^ncolnsljire.
jfttargeret ps marpeB to Wm, sonne anB beper to Sr aierbanBr
SttaBclpffe as ps aforsapB.
©iscelep ps marpeB to JStob. ILanglep of agecroft, $c tfiep fjabe
pssue, ©orotlipe.
Arms quarterly. First, argent (at) a griffin segreant
gules (g) Trafford; Second, argent (at) on a bend
. azure (b) three garbs or (Ot), Fitton of Bollin ;
Third, argent (at) on a bend gules (g) three escarbuncles

Lancashire, 1533. 67
or (Ot), Thornton ; Fourth, or (Ot) a saltire sable
(£>a), Helsby.
Crest on a wreath or (0) and gules (g) a man threshing
proper (p) hat argent (at) hair or (Ot) vested vert (bt)
-fY^.? argent (a) and gules (g).
In the margin is drawn a garb, which is probably
the crest of Fitton.
In the office copy the crest is, Cap, quarterly,
argent and purpure ; coat, per pale argent and pur
pure ; hose, argent and gules ; boots, sable; flail and
garb, or. The garb is lying in front of the man and
not behind him.
This family, settled from the earliest times of which we have any
records on the estate from which they take their name, continue
to reside there unto the present day. It affords a very rare
example of a continuous succession of heirs male — in one instance
only the heir having to be sought in a distant kinsman.
They early threw off a branch which was seated at Chadderton
and assumed that name.
Large accessions of property came to them by marriages with
heiresses of other families. One of these was the estate of the
Booths of Barton.1 At an earlier date half of the Bollin fee in
Cheshire had come to them by the marriage of Sir Edmund
Trafford with Alice, coheiress with her sister Dulcia, wife of Sir
Robert Booth, of their brother Richard Venables. His grand
father (also Richard, a second son ofthe Baron of Kinderton), had
married Joan, heiress of her brother Richard Fitton, and daughter
of Hamon Fitton, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter, and one of the
seven coheiresses of Sir Peter Thornton and his wife Lucy,
daughter and heiress of Sir William Helsby. Hamon Fitton
1 The family does not inherit the blood of Booth, as the descent went through the
issue of a second wife.

68 Visitation of
was the grandson of John Fitton, who had married Cecilia,
daughter and coheiress of Sir Hamon de Massy, Baron of Dunham.
The branch of Fitton, long seated at Gawsworth,2 assumed a
coat, evidently derived from that of Orreby, through the marriage
of an heiress of whioh family, a younger brother of Fitton of
Bollin obtained the estate. The Fitton s or Phytons on their
earliest seals bore a lion rampant as a device. The arms they bore
afterwards were argent, a bend azure, charged with three garbs, orj
arms3 assumed by the Heskeths of Lancashire on acquiring Great
Harwood, by marrying an heiress of an off-shoot of this family,
which had settled there.
The termination of the name of Fitton would naturally lead to
the conjecture of its having a territorial origin ; but in the earliest
occurrences of this name, though spelled in various ways,4 we
never find the prefix " de'' Its derivation remains obscure. They
were grantees of the early earls of Chester.
At a later date Croston came to the Traffords by the marriage
of an heiress of Ashton, a family which is said to have sprung
from Eshton in Craven.
The earliest seal of arms used by Trafford which has come under
our notice is that of Sir Henry de " Trafforthe," appended to a grant
of premises in Ancoats to John, son of Nicholas de Trafford, in 1373.
The shield is charged with three bendlets within a bordure. These
are probably what are called arms of affection : — three bendlets
being borne by the Grelles, Barons of Manchester. In 1426 we
find Sir Edmund de Trafford bearing on his seal a shield charged
with a griffin segreant, the present arms used by the family.
The Traffords entered at all the Visitations.5
2 This family used the motto "Fit onus leve, etjugum suave"
3 Changing the tincture of the lend to sable.
4 Phytun, Phiton, Fyton, Fytton and Fitton.
5 In the Visitation of 1567 (vol. luxi. of the Chetham series) the arms quartered
by Trafford, are Venables, Fitton, Thornton (in which the charge of three escarbuncles
on the bend are omitted) and Helsby. Why not also Massy of Dunham ?

Lancashire, 1533. 69
We have been favoured by the Rev. Canon Raines with the
following extract from his Lancashire MSS. [vol. xxv. p. 141],
which we print as an interesting example of the manner in which
the great feudal nobles retained their followers.
This endentur made the xxvi of May the fyrst 3ere of ye regne
of the Kynge our Souraigne lord edward ye iiiitn Betwen Richard
Neuille erle of Warewyk & captaine of Caleys of ye one ptie and
Sr John Trafford Knyghte of ye oyr ptie hereth wittenesse y* y8
said Sr John Trafford of his fre and mere motion ya beloft and
reteyned to Ward and w* ye seid erle duryng ye term of hys lyffe
to be w* hym and do hym s'uice aud attendance agenst all man1
psones except hys allegence And y* ye seyd Sr John Trafford shal
be redy at ye desir a comandement of ye seid erle to come vnto
hym at all such tymes and in such places as ye said Earl shall call
upon hym or geue hym warnyng sufficiant horsed harnesed arrayed
and accompanyed as ye cas shall Requir and accordyng to y* that ye
sayd erle shall call hym to at y° cost of ye said Erie Resonabl
And ye said Erie for ye same haue graunted unto ye saide Sr John
Trafford to haue by patent under y8 seale of hys Armes an Anuyte
duryng hys lyf of ye some "of xx mrcs slY to be leuyed taken and
receyued of thissues and reuenues of hys lordshyp of Midelh'm by
ye hands of hys Receyuor payd at ye tymes of Mykelmas & pasche
and or thys ye said Erie hath granted unto ye sayd Sr John Trafford
y* in tyme of Ware he shal haue soche Wages Rewards & Profits
as oyr psonnes of hys degre shal haue yeldyng vnto ye seid Erie
hys iiidea and ye iiide of iiides in lyke wise and same as it is
accustomed in ye Werre In witnesse wherof ye yere & daie
abouesayde ye said gties entchangeably to ye psentes haue put to
their seall Sigd Sr John trafford
The Earl of Warwick's Seal with the Bear and ragged staff is
appended. Endorsed
Sr John Trafford 1 E. IV. Erie of Warwick's man.

7o

Visitation of

i&obert 2Unglep of 2lgecrofte
BIB marrge ©icelg, Bo. to ©BmounSe STrapforB aforsaiB, anB tliege
babe gssue, Sorotlje.

Arms. Argent (at) a cockatrice sable (_$a) beak or (Ot).

Not being acquainted with any other estate in Lancashire from
which this race is likely to have sprung, we may fairly assume that
they were a branch from Langley hall in the parish of Middleton.
The arms being different from those of the cardinal, bishop of
Durham (for which see p. 58), presents no difficulty for this belief,
seeing that the vast possessions of the Langleys of Agecroft seem
all to have come to them by female inheritance. The probability
is, that the coat assigned to them in this Visitation was derived
from Penulbury whose inheritance had passed to the family of
Prestwich. We have (at p. 50 vol. xcv.) an inquisition of 17 Richard II. on
the death of Roger de Longley, from which we learn, that his
father, Richard de Longley, had married Johanna, daughter and
heiress of Alicia, whose husband, we learn from another source,
to have been Jordan de Tetlawe. This Alicia [the daughters of
her elder brother, Thomas de Wolverley, having died without issue,

Lancashire, 1533. 71
and her younger brother, Robert, being childless] became the heir
of Alicia de Wolverlay, who had Prestwich by a settlement made
by Adam de Prestwich in the year 7 Edward II. by fine levied
at Westminster.
Roger de Longley was succeeded by his son Robert, aged fifteen
years at the death of his father, and already married to Katherine,
daughter to Sir Wm. de Atherton.
The inheritance to which he succeeded consisted of a carucate
of land in Pendlebury with the mansion of Agecroft, there situate
on the right bank of the Irwell ; and on the left bank he held by
knight's service the manor of Prestwich with the advowson of the
church, besides the estate of Tetlawe in Broughton, forty acres
there and forty in Chetham.
This family entered again in the Visitation of 1567, when Robert
Langley, the last ofthe race, is recorded to have had four daughters:
Dorothy, wife of James Ashton of Chadderton ; 1 Anne, whose hus
band is not named; Margaret, wife of John Redish of Redish;
and Katherine, wife of Thomas Legh, fourth son of Sir Peter
Legh. Dorothy, on the 17 September 3 Elizabeth 1561, had a grant
from her father of a messuage in Prestwich, and the advowson of
the church there. We find James Ashton and Dorothy his wife,
in a deed dated 14 Elizabeth, naming, besides the advowson, other
1 The mention of the Ashtons of Chadderton gives the opportunity of correcting
an erroneous record of the lady through whom they acquired the estate of
Shuttleworth. In the visitation of 1613, Nicolas Towneley, ancestor ofthe Towneley s of Royle, is
stated to have married Letice, daughter and heir of  Shuttleworth, and widow
of  Ashton of Chaderton. This lady was the daughter, and coheir with her
sister Isabella, of William Talbot of Shuttleworth in right of his wife Alice. She is
correctly described in the visitation of 1567, where her marriage with John Asheton
of Chaderton, and her issue by him, are recorded. The visitation of 1613 represents
her to be the mother of Nicholas Towneley's son Richard, but we believe that he was
the issue of Nicholas Towneley's second marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Richard
Catterall. Isabella, coheiress of William Talbot, married Robert Shaberly.

72 Visitation of m
properties in Prestwich, Oldham, Chaderton, Alkrington, and
Crompton, late the inheritance of Robert Langley, Knt., deceased.
She died without issue, as appears by an inquisition taken 6 January
36 Elizabeth, when James Ashton was found to be seized of the
said advowson in fee tail. A descendant of his, William Ashton,
rector of Prestwich, on the 1 August 1709, sold the advowson,
together with a piece of ground called Salters' croft, to the Hon.
Thomas Wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse, in the county of
York. Of Anne, her sister, it is recorded that she married Thomas
Dauntesey of the county of Wilts, and had the property of Age-
croft hall, which has descended to her posterity.
Margaret was the wife of John Redish of Redish, and had by
him a son, Alexander, who by Catherine, his wife, daughter and
heiress to Henry Dethick of Newhall, in the county of Derby, had
two daughters, Grace, married to Sir Robert Darcy, usher of the
privy chamber to Henry, prince of Wales ; aud Sarah, who
married Clement, youngest son of Sir Edward Coke, chief justice
of England. The manors of Pendlebury and Prestwich descended
to their issue. Margaret appears to have married secondly, Richard
Holland of Denton, and had by him five daughters and coheirs.
Catherine, who married Thomas, fourth son of Sir Piers Legh,
appears to have inherited the estate of Alkrington, which passed
through the Levers to the Rasbothams, by whom it was sold.

Lancashire, 1533.

73

margeB ittargerg, Botogbter to Elfins Butler of iSeiose, father
to STboms Butler tbat nob. gs, 9c tbeg babe issbeto, @lsabetbe,
anne, ©gsle, Itatrgn, anB JBorotbe.
I Bjjafte not b)t bgm.

Arms quarterly. First and fourth, argent (a) a chevron,
sable (£>) between three cross croslets of the last (£ia) ;
Second and third, sable (£>a) ct chevron, argent (a)
between three cross croslets of the last, (a).

It may be inferred from the repetition of the same charges in the
second and third quarters of this coat as those in the first and
fourth quarters, that the arms of an heiress had been adopted by
this family, counterchanging the tinctures. An example of this
practice was shewn under Hoghton. We have not, however, any
direct evidence from seals to adduce in this instance. The family
took their name from a township in the parish of Winwick, and

74 Visitation of
owed their importance to their acquisition by marriage of manorial
rights in Samlesbury in the hundred of Blackburn. They entered
at the visitations of 1567 ' and 1664.
Amongst the deeds of the Leghs of Lyme seals of Gilbert de
Sotheworth 1347, and of Matthew de Sotheworth 1394, have been
found, each bearing on the shield, a chevron between three crosses
patonce. In " a roll of arms of the reign of Richard IL," edited by
Thomas Willement, number 316, the coat of Monsr Thomas
Southworth is given as " sable, a chevron between three crosses
patonce, argent." These examples look as if the arms given in the
visitations were a corruption of an earlier practice.
1 In this visitation {vide p. 26, vol. Ixxxi. of the Chetham series) the second and
third quarters are attributed to Devyas, but, if we may trust Kuerden, the seal of
Nicholas d'Evias 17 Edward II., whose daughter and heiress married Gilbert de
Southworth, bore on a Bhield, a bend between 3ix feathers three and three ; sed quere
" feathers," the drawing not being very distinct. Possibly the coat in question may
have been borne by Samlesbury, from a coheiress of which race d'EviaB had the
inheritance.

Lancashire, 1533.

75

3fo!)n iaefcpstye of iRetipsije
BgB marrg Clemens, Botogbter to mobarBe SStorsleg, anB ttieg
babe issbeb), ©tes, UiobarB, aiice anB Sgsle,
©tes gs margeB to aigce, Botogtiter to Baffe presttogcbe.

Arms, argent a lion rampant (g) gules collared (0) or.1
The entry of this family in the Visitation of 1567 names the
marriage of John Redyshe with Margaret, one of the daughters
and a coheiress of Sir Robert Langeley of Agecroft. For her issue
by him, see p. 72.
This lady married secondly, Richard Holland of Denton, and
had by him five daughters, viz., Mary, married to  Eccleston
of Eccleston ; Elizabeth, married to Richard Albrough of Albrough,
in the county of York; Margaret, married William Brereton of
Handford, in the county of Chester ; Jane, married Robert Dukin
field of Dukinfield; and Frances, married to John Preston of
the manor and abbey of Furness.

Argent in the Office copy.

76

Visitation of

iaofcert1 2Docftpnfetti of j&orttoot
margeB ©llgne, Botogbter to Sir OSagllm Brereton of ©fiesslier,
itnggfit. S'ljcg Ijabc issljeto, lEllgne.

Arms, (at) argent a cross aiguise" (£>a) sable voided of the
field.
The Duckenfields were a Cheshire family taking their name
from their estate, now, from the growth of the cotton industry,
the seat of a large population. Their residence at Portwood,
which now gives its name to the low-level railway station at
Stockport, being close upon the confines of the county, brought
them, it may be supposed, into this Lancashire Visitation. A
branch from the parent stock settled in Lancashire is noticed in
Dugdale's Visitation in 1664. An ample pedigree of this family
will be found in Dr. Ormerod's History of Cheshire, vol. iii. p. 397.
1 Baptismal name not given in the Office copy.

Lancashire, 1533.

77

dSeffrep £rf)afterlep of g>t)afeerlep
margeB Isabell, Botogfiter to STboins Fenables of StgnBerton in
©fiessbcr, anB rbeg liabc issbeb), pgers, BobarB, SFboms,
lEIsafietbe anB Sane.

Arms quarterly. First and Fourth, (at) three tufts of
grass, two and one, vert (bt) ; Second and Third,
argent (at) a cross patonce sable (Sa).
Shakerley is a hamlet in the township of Tyldesley which gave
its name to a family said to be an offshoot of the Tyldesleys. The
arms corroborate this tradition. By the marriage of Peter
Shakerley with Elizabeth, daughter and heir of John Legh of
Booths, and of his wife, Emma, coheiress of Robert Grosvenour of
Holme, property in Cheshire devolved upon this family, which
continues seated in that county, and enjoys the dignity of a
baronetcy. Peter's son and heir was Geoffry, who married, first,
a daughter of Lawrence Holland, and secondly, Isabella, daughter
of Thomas Venables. This family is not recorded in the later
Lancashire Visitations. There is a pedigree in Dr. Ormerod's
History of Cheshire, vol. iii. p. 87. The editor has not been able
to trace the origin of the arms quartered by Shakerley.

78

Visitation of

gofm Bot»tt)e of Barton
liaB to bts furste togffe, Sgsle, Botogbter to Sir JTobn astaren of
©bcs^er, anB tbeg baB issbeto, aiice.
&be saiB ,3fobn baB to bis seconBe togffe, ©orothe, Botogfiter
to Sr Gliomas Butler of Betose, fattier to Gliomas Butler tbat
nou) gs, anB tfieg baB issbeto, JTofw anB liorotlje.
ISorotbe gs margeB to JTames Saarebrgge of Saarebrgge,
tobicb JFamcs gs at tins present tgme one1 gere olB, anB Sorotlje
is biii. pere olB.
Joljn Bototfje, sonne anB ij.gre to JTobn aforsaiB, gs noto at
tligs present tgme bt. pere olB, anB bgs fattier is BeBe.

Arms. Argent (at) three boars heads erect and erased, the
two in chief sable (Sa) the one in base vert (fat).2
Crest. A demi St. Catharine ppr. couped at the knees,
habited (at) crowned (Ot), in the. dexter hand a
Catharine wheel, in the sinister a sword, the point
downwards?

1 In the Office copy " X."
" In the Office copy the boars heads are all sable, and this is no doubt the correct
blazon. 3 In the Office copy the crest is an " entire figure," and not " demi " as stated
above.

Lancashire, 1533. 79
We learn from Sir Peter Leicester that the original arms of the
family of Booth were a chevron engrailed, and a canton charged
with a mullet, as seen upon the seal of Thomas del Bothe (43 Ed
ward III.) of which he gives an engraving.1 See also Ormerod's
History of Cheshire, vol. i. p. 401. They record a grant by one
Thomas Barton in 1404 (5 Henry IV.), to John, son of Thomas
Booth, of the right to use the coat, argent, three boars heads
erased and erected, sable. Thomas Barton was a collateral mem
ber of the family from which the great estate of Barton had passed,
hy a female inheritance, to the Booths. The descent of the family
of Barton has been given in a note to the Coucher Book of Whalley,
p. 45, vol. x. of the Chetham series.
It appears that Gilbert, son of William de Nottun of a York
shire family, who sealed with a shield of three pales, had, towards
the close of the twelfth century, married Editha, lady of Barton,
who was a daughter of the baronial house of Gredle or Grelle, and
had been endowed with the great manor of Barton,2 which was a
member of their fee of Manchester. Assuming a surname from
1 We have found a seal amongst the muniments of the Leghs of Lyme of Thomas
del Bothe, a witness to a deed of Robert, son of Richard de Urmeston, dated 1352.
(26 Edward III.) This is a very interesting seal, evidently an
amalgamation of the coats of Barton and Bothe, a chevron
between three boars heads erect and erased, a holy-lamb stand
ing above the shield, which is supported by a figure of St.
Catherine. A Catherine wheel stands in this position on the
seal engraved by Sir Peter Leicester ; and the signet ring of
John del Bothe of Barton (8 Henry V.) seems to have borne a
Catherine wheel. The Booths of Dunham, treating the three
boars heads as the paternal coat of Booth, placed in the second
quarter, a fesse engrailed, to answer for Barton; but this was
evidently a manufactured coat, the boars heads belonging to
Barton.
2 There were not fewer than twenty subordinate tenures appendents to the manor
of Barton, viz., Aspul, Brunsop, Halachton, Hulton, Haliwell, Brightmete, Farnwood,
Northendene, Eccles, Mawinton, Workedele, Westwode, Withington, Newam,
Irwilham, Bromihurst, Hulme, Domplinton, Quickleswicte and Crompton, all of

80 Visitation of
this estate, they abandoned the use of the arms of Nottun, and
adopted the canting coat of three boars heads erased and erected,
quasi Boarton.
The family of Bothe gave a bishop to Lichfield and Coventry in
the person of William Bothe, in 1447, translated to York in 1452 ;
and in the person of Lawrence Bothe, a bishop to the see of Dur
ham, in 1457, also translated to York in 1476. The latter
ecclesiastic became chancellor of England in 1472, but held the
office only for a few years. He is described by Lord Campbell as
a man " who had risen by merit from obscurity," which, consider
ing the importance of his family, is hardly reconcilable with the
truth. He was noted for his learning, had been promoted when
young to the headship of his college, and had also been chancellor
of the university of Cambridge.
The earldom of Warrington was created in 1690 in favour of
Henry Booth, second Baron de la Mer, the representative of a
junior line of this race.
Acquired by the marriage with an heiress, this great manor of
Barton passed from the family of Booth, in like manner, by heir
female, Margaret, the eldest coheir of the last John Booth of Bar
ton, having married Sir Edmund Trafford, whose representative is
now lord of the manor.
' The family entered in the Visitation of 1567.
which are named in a, charter amongst the muniments at Trafford, without date,
being a conveyance, from John, son and heir of Gilbert de Barton, to Robert Grelle
and his heirs, of the whole manor of Barton with the entire fee pertaining to the
same, together with the homages and services of the free tenants and villeins, and all
the interest which the said John had in the lands which his mother Cecilia held in
the name of dower. There has also been preserved another charter conveying the
same manor, fee, and dependencies, from the same John de Barton, who is styled son
and heir of Gilbert de Barton, " quondam militis,'' and Robert de Gredley, " Dom de
Mamcestr.," but no mention is made of the dower of Cecilia de. Barton. The date is
" apud MamceBf die Jovis in festo S'ci. Barnabi Ap'li Anno regni regis Edwardi
quarto." [a.d. 1276.] Lane. MSS., vol. xxv. pp. 185, 201.

Lancashire, 1533. 81

i&obarti 22Hot£Iep of 2Botott)e
baB to bgs furst togffe, _Elnor, Botogbter to Boger pulton of t^t
$ar&e, anB tbep b»B pssne, ItobarB, aBam, ffifplbert, ffiplgs,
Clemens anB otber.
STfje saiS BobarB baBB to tigs seconB togffe, Ittabell, Botogbter
to BicbarB IPocftet of ffiraglgnge in OTestmorlanB, anB ttiep
babe issbeto, iTborus.
BobarB, sonne to BobarB, margeB ait'ce, Botogbter anB one of
t^t bepres to ©amlet Iftasspe of Bigeston, anB tfjep babe pssue,
BobarS, tobgclie gs margeB to aiice, Sotogiiter to STburston of
2Tplleslep. Clemens gs margeB to jrobn of BeBpsbe.

Arms. Argent (at) a chief gules (g).
Crest in the Office copy, a demi Wyvern. No colours
given.
The family of Workedlegh, Workeslegh, or Worsley, was un
doubtedly one of the oldest in Lancashire, traditionally descended
from Elias, surnamed Gigas from his size and prowess, and de
scribed as a crusader and contemporary with the Conqueror.
Henry, the sixth in descent from Elias, gave to his brother Jordan
in 26 Edward I. (1298), the subordinate manor of Wardley, which
passed by Jordan's daughter, Margaret, in marriage to Thurstan
de Tildesley, and continued for many generations the seat of that
M

82 Visitation of
family. A moated mansion still exists. Henry appears to have
been twice married. By his first wife, he was ancestor to the
succeeding lords of Worsley ; and by his second wife, Margaret de
Shoresworth, he had a son, Robert, to whom he gave lands in
Worsley, which formed the estate of Boothes. Robert's descend
ant, Arthur, married Elizabeth, the only daughter of his kinsman
Geoffrey, the last lord of Worsley of that name, but did not suc
ceed to her inheritance. Geoffrey had been first married to Mary,
daughter of Sir Thomas' Pelton. She was divorced and went into
religion. His second wife was a certain Isabella,1 the mother of
the above named Elizabeth. After Sir Geoffrey's death, " Mary
came out, and proved she entred for fear, and that she was divorced
upon a fained ground, and proved Elizabeth to be illegitimate :
and the pope confirms her return into secularity." (Sir Peter
Leycester.) The estate of Worsley. consequently passed to Alice,
married to Sir John Massey of Tatton, as sister and heiress of the
above named Geoffrey, or of his father, who was also named
Geoffrey.

1 This lady is called by Sir Peter Leycester, Isabella Stanley. She has also been
stated to be Isabella de Lathom, the heiress who carried the great estates of the
Lathoms in marriage to Sir John Stanley. This seems questionable, but want
ing the date of her marriage to Sir John Stanley we cannot absolutely contradict the
conjecture. Her marriage to Stanley had certainly taken place before October 1385,
when John, Duke of Lancaster, complained of Sir John Stanley's having improperly
entered into the estates of Sir Thomas de Lathom, deceased, on the plea of an entail,
whereas the infant heiress of Sir Thomas was in the Duke's wardship. (See Bolls of
Parliament, vol. iii. p. 204.) We find that Geoffrey de Workeslegh died 30 March
9 Richard II. (1385), Elizabeth, his sole heir, being of the age of one year. (See
p. 23 vol. xcv. of the Chetham series.)
If the statement be correct that Isabella was the lady who became the heiress of
Lathom, her widowhood must have been of very brief duration. The second quarter
allowed to Worsley in the Visitation of Yorkshire in 1664 was Lathom, which lends
authority to the inference that she was the sister of the last Sir Thomas de Lathom ;
but as her first marrigage was declared void, it seems irregular that her daughter's
descendants should have had the sanction to quarter her arms. The other quarters
allowed to the family in 1664 were Massy, Rixton, Pennington, Horton and Kighley
— the last argent, a fesse sable.

Lancashire, 1533. 83
The Robert Worsley named in this Visitation was a
descendant of Arthur and Elizabeth. The Worsleys entered again
in the Visitation of 1567. After that record, we have no further
notice of this family in the Lancashire Visitations. The last
named Robert in the Visitation of 1567, was succeeded by another
Robert, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard of
Brynne, and they had a son and heir, Thomas, who married
Katherine, daughter and heiress of Henry Kighley of Kighley,
county York, esq., and with this gentleman commences a pedigree
of four generations in the Yorkshire Visitation of 1664. No trace
of the long pedigree2 given at pp. 339 and 340 of the Chetham
Society's volume Ixxxviii., is to be found in Dugdale's Visitation of
Lancashire in the College of Arms. The only Worsleys recorded
in that Visitation are the Worsleys of Withington, commencing
with Nicholas Worsley of Manchester, and shewing the grand
children of his grandson, Ralph Worsley of Piatt, within Withing
ton township, who was aged seventy-two at the Visitation of 1664.
The arms to this family had a mural crown on the chief. Volume
Ixxxviii. of the Chetham series, which professes to be the Visitation ¦
of Lancashire by Sir William Dugdale, cannot be depended upon
after the letter R, many of the subsequent pedigrees being
apparently those of Hopkinson.3
* Elizabeth, daughter of the last Geoffrey Worsley, is improperly placed there as
the daughter of the first wife, Mary Felton (called Fitton in that pedigree) , whereas
she was the issue of the second wife, Isabella.
3 See explanation given by the Editor in the Life of Dugdale prefixed to the third
part of the Visitation.

84

Visitation of

^olcroft

No pedigree is given in the copy of this Visitation in the British
Museum, and there is no entry in the Office copy.

In the reign of Henry III. the estates of Culcheth, Risley, Hol
croft, and Peasfalong, were the property of Gilbert de Culcheth,
military tenant of Sir William le Botiller, baron of Warrington.
Gilbert de Culcheth married the lady Cecilia de Lathom, and
dying in or before the year 1275, left four daughters and coheir
esses, Ellen, Margaret, Joan, and (?) Beatrix.
A charter without date (given by Dodsworth), now in the posses-
•sion of T. E. Withington, Esq., of Culcheth hall, recites that Hugh
de Hindley had from William le Botiller a grant of the marriage
of the heirs of Gilbert de Culcheth ; he married the four coheiresses
to four of his sons.
(1) Robert fitz Hugh de Hindley, married Ellen (who received
the Risley lands as her share of her father's property), and he was
ancestor of the family of Risley of Risley; (2) Richard fitz Hugh
de Hindley, married Margaret (who received the Culcheth lands as
her share), and was ancestor of the families of Culcheth of Cul
cheth, and Culcheth of Abram ; (3) Thomas fitz Hugh de Hindley,
married Joan, or Johanna (who had Holcroft as her share), and

Lancashire, 1533. 85
was ancestor of the families of Holcroft of Holcroft, Holcroft of
Hurst, and Holcroft of Vale Royal ; (4) Adam fitz Hugh de
Hindley, married (?) Beatrix (who had the Peasfalong or Pesfur-
long estate for her share), and is supposed to have been the one
who carried on the Hindley line.
John (or according to Dodsworth, Thomas) Holcroft, the de
scendant of Adam de Holcroft, the son of Thomas and Johanna
above referred to, was living in the beginning of the sixteenth
century. He had married Margaret, daughter and heiress of
Hamo Mascy of Rixton, which family quartered the arms of Horton,
viz., Argent, a squirrel erect gules, holding an apple or.1 His son,
Sir John Holcroft, knt., married Anne, daughter of Ralph Standish
of Standish, and had (besides other issue) Sir John Holcroft, knt.,
his eldest son, who married Dorothy, daughter of Richard Bold
of Bold, and had an only daughter, Alice, who married Edward
Fitton of Gawsworth.
Sir Thomas Holcroft, afterwards of Vale Royal, was the younger
son of John Holcroft and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Hamo
Mascy. Mr. J. Paul Rylands F.S.A. acquaints us that in the year 1340
the seal of Adam de Holcroft exhibits upon a shield a lion rampant;
that in 6 Richard II. the seal of John de Holcroft bears the cross
and bordure engrailed, as borne by succeeding generations ; and
that in 34 Henry IV., the seal of Gilbert Holcroft shews the crest
of the family to have been a raven, holding in the dexter claw a
sword. The family of Holcroft entered again in the Visitation of 1567.
1 To this circumstance we may attribute the arms quartered with Holcroft in the
wood-cut at the head of this article.

86

Visitation of

gjolm berton of Jetton
margeB ©K?abetbe, Botogbter to Sgr aiesanBer BaBelgffe.

Arms, gules (g), three sparrow-hawks, two and one,
argent (at).
The pedigree of Atherton of Atherton goes back to Robert de
Atherton, who was sheriff of Lancashire in the reign of King John.
In the reign of Edward III., Nicholas de Atherton, a cadet of the
family, married Jane, daughter and heiress of Adam de Bickerstaff,
a family of equally ancient date. This line ended in heir female,
to wit, Margaret, who married James Scarisbricke, a younger son
of the house of Scarisbricke, and had issue an only daughter,
Elizabeth, married to Peter Stanley, younger son of Sir William
Stanley of Hooton. Margaret, the only daughter of Peter and
Elizabeth Stanley, married Henry Stanley of Aughton, son of Sir
James Stanley of Cross hall, who was the younger son of the first
Earl of Derby. From this marriage descended the line of Stanley
of Bickerstaff, baronets, in whom the title of Earl of Derby
finally vested.
John Atherton, named in this Visitation, appears to have been
divorced from his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Alexander
Radcliffe, and to have married secondly, Margareta, daughter and

Lancashire, 1533. 87
coheiress of Thomas Catteral of Catteral, by whom he had John,
his successor, and other children. John married twice; by his
first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Byron, he had a son,
John, who continued the line; his second wife was Katherine,
daughter and coheiress of John Lord Conyers of Hornby castle,
by whom he had another son, also John, of Skelton, who was heir
to his mother.
John Atherton, the sixth in descent from the John named in this
Visitation, married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Robert
Cholmondley of Vale Royal, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of
Sir Henry Vernon of Hodnet. Their son, Richard Atherton, the
last of his line,' by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of William
Farington of Shaw hall, had an only daughter Elizabeth, who
married Robert Gwillym of Langstone in the county of Hereford.1
They had two sons, William, who died at Atherton in 1771, and
Robert Vernon, who assumed the name of Atherton, and married
in 1763, Henrietta Maria, daughter and coheiress of Peter Legh
of Lyme. The issue of this marriage (beside other children
who died young) were three daughters : Henrietta Maria, married
to Thomas Powys, second lord Lilford; Elizabeth, married to
George Anthony Legh Keck; and Esther, married to the Rev.
James John Hornby, rector of Winwick.
The family of Atherton entered again in the Visitation of
1664-5. 1 Robert Gwillym married a second time and had a son, Richard, who married in
1788, Jane Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Earle esq., of Liverpool.
Their issue were, the Rev. Richard Gwillym ; Elizabeth, wife of Le Gendre Starkie
of Huntroyd ; Mary, wife of the Rev. Robert Rawsthorne ; and Harriet.

88

Visitation of

&yx OHpllm HepianDe of 4©orlep
BgBe marge anne, Botoghter anB itegtx to ailgne Sbengleton of
SSmggbtfegll in gorftesher, anB tbeg baB gssue, Sbomas, anne,
anB i*taicjct.
Gliomas gs margeB to anne, Botogbter to ffieorge aBerton.
anne gs margeB to 3E?arrg BlonSell of ©rosbge.

Arms argent (at), on a fesse sable (Sa) a Hon passant
between two escallop shells of the second, in chief nine
(three in the MS.) ears of barley gules (g) three, three
and three banded together or (Ot).
In Leland's Itinerary, vol. v. pp. 78, 79 (edition 171 1, Oxford),
we find an interesting account of Morleis, the mansion of the
Leylands, from which we extract the following : —
"Cumming from Manchestre towards Morle, Syr William
Lelande's Howse, I passid by enclosid Grounde, partely pasturable,
partely fruteful of Corne, leving on the lift Hand a Mile and more
of a fair Place of Mr Laagforde's,1 callid Agecroft, and there is a
1 This should be Langley.

Lancashire, 1533. 89
Bridge veri hy and greate off Tymbre on Irwel, and thereby is
Pilketon Park, and therein is a Stone Howse of the Pylketons2
3 There have been so many loose statements made respecting the pedigree of the
ancient Lancashire family of the Pilkingtons of Pilkington, that the early descent,
as proved from the national archives, may not be without interest. The mention of
the mansion of the Pilkingtons, in the extract from Leland's Itinerary, affords an
opportunity of giving some account of the family, which had disappeared from
Lancashire before the date of this Visitation.
The manor of Pilkington was held under the barons of Manchester. It was
forfeited after the battle of Bosworth Field, being conferred on the earl of Derby .
along with the other estates in Lancashire of Sir Thomas Pilkington, viz., Bury,
Cheetham, &c. Ho was not beheaded, as some have Btated, and he retained the
settled estates which had come to the Pilkingtons through the heiress of Verdon. He
fell later on at the battle of Stoke in 1487. This caused another attainder, and an1
attempt further to endow the family of Stanley ; but the estates being in settlement,
it was not successful.
Sir Alexander de Pilkington, who died before 1301, leaving a widow, Alice, was
succeeded by his son, Sir Roger, who, by his marriage with Alice, sister and heiress
of Henry de Bury, had a son, Sir Roger, and Robert of Rivington, and died before
1347. The second Sir Roger died in 1407, and was succeeded by his son, Sir John,
who married Margaret, heiress of Sir John de Verdon, widow of Hugh de Bradshaw.
They had issue, John, Edmund, and Robert. This last had a son John named in the
entails. Edmund left no issue. Sir John, the elder brother, who succeeded to the
estate in 1421, was twice married. By his first wife, Margaret, he had a son, John,
who wasj married to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edmund Trafford, but died s.p. in
145 1. He was succeeded by his nephew, Sir Thomas, who was the son of Edmund,
Bon of the second John, by his second wife, Katherine, sister of John de Ashton,
which Edmund had a younger brother, Arthur, named in the entails. Sir Thomas
married, in 1442, his kinswoman, Margaret (daughter of Sir Richard Harrington), who
was descended from Sir Hugh de Bradshaw, the first husband of Margaret de Vernon.
(Vide p. in, vol. xcv.) Sir Thomas was sheriff of Lancashire at various times
between 1463 and 1482 ; fought on the losing side at Bosworth, and again at Stoke,
where he fell in 1487. His son, Sir Roger, succeeded only to the Verdon estates, those
in Lancashire having been forfeited ; and marrying Alice, daughter of Sir John
Savage, died before 1539 (according to Vincent in 1502), having had issue, five
daughters, viz., Margaret, wife of Thomas Pudsey ; Katherine, wife of Thomas
Arderne ; Alice, wife, of Edward Saltmarsh ; Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Huntley ; •
Margery, wife of Henry Pudsey ; and Joan, wife of J ohn Daniel of Daresbury.
Not only was the Lancashire line of Pilkington attached to the house of York,
but their distant kindred also, whose line must have branched off before the alliance
with the heiress of Verdon, were endowed by Edward IV. with forfeited estates
in Yorkshire.
This line, represented by the Towneleys, is noticed at pp. 43 and 44 of this volume.
N

90 Visitation of
attayntid by King Henry the vii and givin to the Lorde of Darby.
Aud within a ii miles of Morle on the same hand not far of a Place
of Master Worseley of the Bouthe.
" And so within a mile and sumwhat more of Mr Leland's Place
I cam over Heding (Agyding) Brooke that ther seperatith Salford
shire from Darbyshire.3
"Morle (in Darbyshire) Mr Lelande's Place is buildid saving
the Fundation of Stone squarid, that risith within a great Moote
a vi Foote above the water ; al of Tymbre after the commune sorte
of building of Houses of the Gentilmen for most of Lancastreshire.
Ther is as much Pleasur of Orchardes of great Varite of Frute,
and fair made Walkes and Gardines as ther is in any Place of
Lancastreshire. He brenueth al Turfes and Petes for the Com-
modite of Mosses and Mores (near) at hand. . . . And yet by
Morle as in Hegge Rowes and Grovettes is meately good Plenti of
Wood, but good Husbandes keepe hit for a Jewell."
This family entered again in the Visitation of 1567, where we
find that Anne, only daughter and heiress of Thomas Leyland,
married Edward, second son of Thurstan Tildesley of Wardley.
The crest is there given as, " A demi-dove argent, wings endorsed
azure, in the beak three ears of barley or." This crest is also
found in the Office copy ofthe Visitation of 1533.
3 Hundred of West Derby.

Lancashire, 1533.

91

3fol)n flllrmaton of Wit%t 3Ug!)e
marges IEli?abetbe, Botogliter to BfcbarB Starftge of Stretton in
©bessber, anS tjieg |>abe gssue, BicbarS, JTobn, anne, anB
_Katljergne.

Arms sable (£ia), a chevron between three spear heads
argent (at).

This family entered again in the Visitations of 1567 and 1664-5.
Only the last four generations are found in the Office copy of
Dugdale's Visitation. The pedigree given in vol. Ixxxviii connects
the descents of the family as given in the three Visitations in which
they entered.
The History of West Leigh Church, by James E. Worsley, con
tains notices of this family, who are said to have been brought
into this district by the marriage of Sygreda, heiress of the local
family, who married an Urmston of Urmston.

92 Visitation of

$enrp 2&p0l)lep of Jnsfttppe €£quper
margeB Ciscelge, Botogliter to Sgr Scorns Butler of Betose, anB
tbeg babe gssue, i_?atrg, BtcijarB, (ffieorge, fflmgllm, JTobn, anB
DSarget. ©arrg gs margeB to IEli?abetbe, Botogbter to Sr aiexanBer
©sbalston, _ftnggbt.

Arms argent (at), a fesse sable (£>a).
Crest in the Office copy, a Dragons head couped. No
colours given.
This family entered again in the Visitation of 1567.

Lancashire, 1533. 93

3Jo*)ti Butler of i&aclpffe
margeB anne, Botogbter to Sr BicbarB Sbertorne, ftnggtjt, anB
tfieg baS gssue, 3Sli?abetb, Isabell, lElgnor, anB ©race.
Slijabetbe is margeB to SFames StanBgsbe of HJttsberge.
iElianor gs margeB to H>arrg Busbeton of Bonftgnsall.

Arms sable (0a),1 a chevron between three covered cups or (ff).
The surname of Butler (in Latin, Pincerna) being a title of office,
has been held by families entirely unconnected in relationship,
and is found in various parts of the country. It has generally
been assumed, however, that the two lines of Butler in Lancashire
were of the same stock, and many circumstances render it not
improbable that they were so. The grant of Out Rawcliffe, temp.
Henry III., to Sir Richard le Botiller by Theobald Walter, the
chief lord of Amounderness (who held the office of Butler to the
Kings of England in Ireland, and was ancestor to the noble
families of Butler in that island), being made to him under the
description of " his beloved kinsman," might lead to the inference
1 In the Office copy the tincture of the field is "Azure" and in "A Roll of Arms
of the reign of Richard IL," edited by Thomas WiUement, we find the arms of
Monsieur John Boteler, azure, a chevron between three covered cups, or.

94 Visitation of
that the name originated with the grantor's office ; but Sir Richard
is represented by the Lancashire genealogists as a younger son of
Almeric le Botiller, baron of Warrington ; and it has been shewn by
Mr. Beamont in his Annals of the Lords of Warrington, vols, lxxxvi.
and lxxxvii. of the Chetham series, that this family probably derived
their surname or title from their office of Butler to the earls of
Chester. The tenures of the two families interlacing, as appears
by inquisitions, is confirmatory of the view of their being of one
common stock. The early pedigree of the Butlers of Rawcliffe
has been printed in a note to the Coucher Book of Whalley, vol. xi.
of the Chetham series, pp. 422-4.
The Butlers of Kirkland have evidently been an offshoot of the
Butlers of Rawcliffe. They had a grant of a crest from Dalton,
Norroy in 1560, viz., "A Horsse passant argent, pelletted, rayned
aud brydeled sable." The seals of the Butlers of Rawcliffe shew
the crest used by this family to have been simply a covered cup.
The estate of Merton was held under Rawcliffe. Sir Jehan le
Boutellier, lord of this manor in the time of Edward III. and
Richard IL, was one of the witnesses for Grosvenor in the Scrope
and Grosvenor controversy in 1386, being then seventy-two years
of age. His seals, 1362 and 1377, found amongst the deeds of the
Leghs of Lyme, are remarkably handsome ones. The shield sus
pended from its sinister corner bears a chevron charged with three
estoiles of six points between three covered cups ; the helmet
above the shield bears the crest of a man kneeling on one knee
and presenting with the right hand a covered cup, and on each side
are lions sejant gardant as supporters. The heiress of this family
carried these arms to the Crofts of Dalton, who assumed the
Butler crest. They are found on a brass at Winwick, in a
quarter of the coat of Legh of Lyme, with the arms of Croft
(lozengy) in chief.
The Butlers of Rawcliffe, who also entered in the visitation of
1664-5, have disappeared from the squirearchy of Lancashire, their

Lancashire, 1533. 95
estates having been forfeited in consequence of the part they took
in the rebellion of 17 15.
A curious divorce case is on record between John de Towneley
and Isabella his wife, daughter of Nicholas Butler of Rawcliff. It
was a childless marriage, and hence, probably, the desire for a
divorce. Twenty-four years prior to the suit, John de Towneley,
then a minor, had married Isabella at the door of the church of St.
Michael-upon-Wyre, she being also of tender years. The plea for
the dissolution of the marriage was, that before that time, Isabella
had contracted herself, per verba depresenti, in her father's orchard,
with John de Thornton, a neighbour, two witnesses declaring that
they had heard the mutual engagement made to take each other as
husband and wife until death, thereto pledging their faith. This
must have been mere child's play. At the date of the divorce,
evidence was given that John de Thornton was dead four years be
fore that time, and that he was buried in the chantry of the parish
church of Poulton-in-le-Fylde. The contract between Richard
Towneley and Nicholas Butler, for the marriage of John and
Isabella, their children, is dated 22 August 141 8, 6 Henry V.

96

Visitation of

Cijomaa Butler of Beauaea1
fiaBB to tigs furst togffe, ©iscelie, Botogbter to $gers SLeglie of
BraSleg, anB tljeg baB gssue, 2Tb" mas, STobn, target, anB JTane.
STbomas, sonne anB beger to ©bomas, is margeB to ©linor,
Botogbter to JTobn ?§uBelston of Satoston in ©ambrggesber.
JWarget gs margeB to Stomas ?_?olforB, sonne anS tjeger to
Sgr JToljn ISfolforS, ftngflbt, anB tbeg babe gssue, ©ristofer.
arbe sagB 2Tb omas Butler tbclBer, baB to be» scconS togffe,
mi}abtt% Botogbter to Sgr iEStoarS Sutton, Baron of HuBlcg,
anB late tbe tosffe of gTolju |_.uBclston abobe torgten.

Arms quarterly. First and Fourth, azure (b), a bend or (0t),
betweeji six covered cups of the second. Second and
Third, argent (at), a lion rampant gules (g).
The descent of the chief lords of Amoundemess, who bore the
title of office of the king's Butler in Ireland in the reign of
Henry II., has been carefully elaborated by Mr. Hulton in a note
at pp. 414-18 in the Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey, vol. xi. of
the Chetham series, tracing them from Herveus Walter, whose
surname was doubtless a title of office. The presumption of both
1 Spelt "Bewse" in the Office copy.

Lancashire, 1533. 97
the Lancashire families of Butler being offshoots of that stock is
there discussed, and the probability of their relationship to each
other is pointed out from the interlacing of tenures in North Lanca
shire, &c.
Mr. Beamont, in his Annals of the Lords of Warrington, vols.
Ixxxvi. and Ixxxvii. of the Chetham series, has drawn an opposite
conclusion as to the origin of their title of Butler, which he con
tends was derived from office held under the Earls of Chester.
The patriarch of this race, Robert Pincerna, " founded an abby
for monks of the Cistercian order at Pultune, in Com. Cestr., in
anno 1158 (4 Henry II. ), which abby was aftewards translated to
Delacres, in Com. Staff." (Dugdale's Baronage.)
His son, Richard, gave Durandesthorp to Calk abbey, which the
countess of the earl of Chester had founded. He is represented
to have married Beatrice, a coheiress of Matthew de Villers, or
Vilars, whose ancestors were the first Norman barons of Warring
ton, a district which at the date of the Domesday survey ranked as
one of the hundreds of that part of Chestershire lying between the
Ribble and the Mersey.
The barony of Warrington remained in the family of Butler
until the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Two of its early members
were summoned to parliament as barons by tenure, and a third sat
by writ; but after 1328 we do not find any of them sitting as lords
of parliament.
The part which several of them took in war has been recorded
by Mr. Beamont. Amongst their benefactions we should specially
record the foundation of the free grammar school of Warrington,
by the will of Sir Thomas Boteler in 1520. With his son the
record in this Visitation commences. The entry in the Visitation
of 1567 records one more generation, in Edward, who was the last
of his race. He appears to have been a man of singularly weak
character. Coming to his inheritance in 1579, being then twenty-
six years of age, it appears that he had previously, before the death

98 Visitation of
of his father, made an attempt to alienate the property. Being
apparently, at a subsequent date, in the toils of the earl of Ley
cester, a very distant kinsman, he suffered his great estate to fall
at his death, s.p. in 1586, into the hands of that rapacious nobleman.
A survey made for the Earl of Leycester on his acquiring this
inheritance is quoted in the introduction to the ballad entitled
Sir John Butler, at p. 205, vol. iii. of Bishop Percy's Folio
Manuscript, edited by John W. Hales, M.A., and Frederick J.
Furnivall, M.A. (N. Triibner and Co., 1868), and gives a detailed -
account of the " Manner Howse " and the park. Bewsey hall has
been minutely described by Mr. Beamont in his Annals of the
Lords of Warrington. It was surrounded by a moat supplied
from the river Sankey. This was the favourite mode of defence
of the halls of the Lancashire gentry, but in the case of Bewsey
it appears twice to have failed to protect the inhabitants from out
rage. In the first instance, in 1437, Isabella, widow of Sir William
Boteler, was abducted with violence, by one William Pulle, see
Annals of the Lords of Warrington, p. 259, and her petitions for
redress on the Rolls of Parliament, vol. iv. pp. 497-8. Again
tradition relates that at a later date Sir John Boteler was murdered
there in his bed by procurement of the Lord Stanley, and this be
came the subject of the ballad above alluded to, in the introduction
to which the various versions of this story are given. Mr. Beamont
has shewn how little conformable they are to historical data.
The traditional arms of Villers, six lioncelles rampant, three,
two and one, have been assumed by the Corporation of Warring
ton, and are borne on their common seal, but we have met with
no example of their being quartered by the Butlers. At p. 149 of
the Annals of the Lords of Warrington, Mr. Beamont has given
various examples of Boteler seals; 28 Edward I., the seal of
William le Boteler bears on the shield a single cup ; 2 Edward III.,
the shield bears a bend between six covered cups on the seal of
Sir William le Boteler; 7 Edward III., Sir William le Boteler

Lancashire, 1533. 99
seals with a single cup on the shield ; in the same year, Elizabeth,
wife of Sir William Boteler, seals with a coat of a bend between
six covered cups, impaling a lion rampant.
It has not been discovered to what family this lady belonged,
but if she were an heiress, it would accouut for the third and fourth
quarters assigned to the Butlers at the Visitations. The family
acquired property in Wiltshire, Essex, and Bedfordshire; from what
source has not been discovered.
On the seal of William le Boteler, Dhs de Werington, A.n. 1366
and 1370, fine impressions of which were found amongst the Legh
deeds, the arms of Butler only are given, a bend between six
covered cups, three and three. On the seals of William le Boteler
above quoted, upon a knightly helmet, the crest appears as a
covered cup supported by two doves. It is strange that such a
characteristic device should have been neglected and forgotten, and
that this ancient family should have taken an unicorn saliant,
argent, armed and crined, or, tied round the neck with a scarf
of the last, as a grant from Dalton, Norroy. This crest appears
indistinctly on a seal of Edward Butler, A.n. 1581, where, by a
curious arrangement, the six covered cups are divided between the
first and .fourth quarters instead of being repeated, and the bend
is made to cross the whole shield, the lion rampant appearing
correctly in the position of second and third quarters. The
mangling of the Butler coat must have been an engraver's blunder.
In "A Roll of Arms of the reign of Richard IL," edited by
Thomas WiUement, the arms of Monsieur John Boteler occur as
azure, a bend, argent, between six covered cups, or.
In this family, as well as in that of Butler of Rawcliff, we find
a divorce on the plea of a previous marriage, per verba de presenti.
The whole transaction looks like collusion. Not having seen
the depositions in this case, we can only call attention to two
circumstances to justify our suspicions. Clifford, with whom the
marriage promise is said to have been exchanged, was dead at

100 Visitation of
the time of these proceedings, and could not, therefore, contradict
the evidence. Moreover, he had been married to another lady
without any objection apparently having been taken on the score
of a previous engagement. Had any previous contract existed
it must have been formally dissolved before a new one could be
entered into.
As illustrative of the habits and manners of the times in matters
matrimonial, we may mention that when the last Edward Butler
was ten years old, his father had contracted him in marriage with
Jane, or any other of the daughters of Sir Richard Brooke of
Norton; and that at the age of seventeen he accompanied his
father to Norton with the object of fulfilling this engagement. A
great supper had been provided in the hall at three o'clock p.m.
to celebrate this event, but the youth's heart having failed him, he
declined to fulfil the engagement ; whereupon the mother of the
young lady, who had given up her own room for the bridal chamber,
was heard to say, "I pray Edward Butler may lead a good life
before I quit my bed for him again," and the young lady her
self declared that, " as Edward Butler had refused her then, so she
would ever after refuse him."
The breach of this engagement necessitated a divorce, which
accordingly took place some years afterwards at the instance of
the lady.

Lancashire, 1533.

101

£>pr SUejcantier £>sbaItieaton/ Iftnigftf,
baB to b(s furst togffe, anne, Botogbter to Sgr ©bristopber SuB*
toortbe, fenggbt, anB tbeg fjaBB gssue, Sobn, toligcbe marjjeB
JWarget, Botogbter to tbe 3LorB Strange. Zty sagB Sgr
aiejanBer baB to bgs swonB togffe, 3Ellgne, Botogbter to Stomas
STgllgsIeg of OffilarBIeg, anB tiieg IjaBB gssue, BicbarB, 3_?arrg,
Stomas, OSlgllm, Sborston, anne, ©lijabetb, Siscelge, aigce,
Isabell, iSlnor, anB JTane.
anne gs margeB to ©StoarS Hangton, sonne anB fyiget to
Stomas Hangton, Baron of Ngetoton.
iElijabetb gs margeB to 3-?arrg tfcggblegs, sonne anB fystv to
©arrg ftggfileg.

Arms quarterly. First and Fourth, argent (at), a mascle,
sable (Sa), between three ogresses. Second and Third,
argent (at), a lion rampant, purpure (ptltp). Impal
ing, argent (at), three tufts of grass or molehills, two
and one, vert (tit).

Spelt in the Office copy " Osbalston."

102 Visitation of
This family, bearing the name of their estate, ranks amongst the
oldest in Lancashire. They entered at all the visitations, and only
disappeared from the territorial- gentry in the last century, when
the estates were purchased by the Warren family.
The family of Balderston was an early offshoot of this stock, the
name being assumed from the adjacent manor of Balderstone,
inherited by them.2
The Osbaldestons of Sunderland branched off in the middle of
the sixteenth century, and had a canton gules assigned to them in
their arms as a distinction by Dugdale in 1664.
The Visitation of 1613 assigns tra the Osbaldistons thirteen
quarters, the first five of which are recorded in that of 1567, viz.,
Osbaldeston, Molyneux, Keverdale, Derwyne, and Balderston.
3 Although the kinship of these two families is fully recognised, their arms are
different, those of Balderston being, argent, a lion rampant, purpure.

Lancashire, 1533.

3&affe trtantipstye of ^tanti^e
margeB aifce,tbirB Botogliter anB one of tlje begers to Sgr jjTames
3_>argngton, Uttpgijt, anB tbeg tjabe issue, aiexanBer, agnes,
anB anne.
aiezanBer ps marpeB to anne, Botogliter to Spr ffiiapllm
Jttolgneux, tfcnpgtjt, anB tbeg Ijabe gssue, Bafe, JTane, aiice,
agnes, Isabell, ©Inor, anS target.
agnes, Botogbter to Bafe, ps. marpeB to ffbomas asheton of
©roston, anB tbeg babe gssue, BicbarS, Boger, aiice, anne, anB
©me.
anne ps marpeB to JTobn H?oIcrofte, sonne anS fieper to JTobu
3§olcrofte of Holcrofte, anB t&eg babe gssue, JFolm, aieranSer,
Bafe, aiice, ©llgne, ffttglgcent, anS ©lemenee.

104 Visitation of
Arms quarterly. First and Fourth, sable (Sa), three
standing dishes, two and one, argent (at). Second
and third, argent (at), a saltire within a bordure
engrailed, sable (ga). Impaling quarterly. First
and Fourth, sable (Sa), fretty, argent (at), over all a
label of three points, or1 (Ot). Second and Third,
sable (S3), three lions passant in pale, argent (at).
This ancient family entered at the Visitations of 1567 and
1664-5, but the latter entry does not agree with the record in
vol. Ixxxviii of the Chetham series, only six generations appearing
in the Office copy of Dugdale's Visitation. The entry in vol. Ixxxviii
gives three generations earlier than the first name in the Visitation
of 1533, but miscalls the wife of Ralph Standish.2 It is right to
mention that the pedigree of Standish of West Derby in vol. Ixxxviii
agrees with the Office copy of Dugdale's Visitation, but neither
Standish of Duxbury3 nor Standish of Burghe appear there. The
latter pedigree in vol. Ixxxviii is apparently taken from the Visita
tion of 16 13, with the same attestor.
The present family bearing this name, and occupying the ancient
seat, are paternally Stricklands, inheriting the Standish blood
through the Towneleys by heirs female.
The second quarter is supposed to be an ancient coat of Standish
used prior to the adoption of the canting coat in the first quarter,
but we have seen it attributed to the name of Multon, no evidence,
however, being shewn in proof.

1 In the Office copy " sable."
2 Vincent's errors in reference to the family of Sir James Harrington are pointed
out in the preface to this volume.
3 On p. 5 2 of this volume Standish of Duxbury is represented to have entered at
the Visitation of 1664, but this appears to have been a mistake.

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