E. K. W "^J^r^rrnuSE. 
 
HALE HALL : 
 
 WITH 
 
 NOTES ON THE FAMILY OF IRELAND 
 BLACKBURNE. 
 
HALE HALL: 
 
 WITH 
 
 NOTES ON THE FAMILY 
 
 OF 
 
 IRELAND BLACKBURNE. 
 
 LIVERPOOL : 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
 1881. 
 
LIVERPOOL: 
 
 ADAM HOLDEN, 48, CHUKCH STREHT. 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO THOSE OF THE 
 
 Descendants of a Time-Honoured Race 
 
 WHO WILL DERIVE FROM THE PAST, PROMISE 
 FOR THE PRESENT, AND HOPE FOR 
 THE FUTURE. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/halehallwithnoteOOunse 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Village of Hale i 
 
 Hale Hall 3 
 
 Possessors of Hale ... ... 5 
 
 The Old Hutt... ... 7 
 
 The Irelands of Hutt ... ... ... 10 
 
 Genealogy of the Ireland Family . . 12 
 
 Collateral Families ... ... ... ... 22 
 
 Record of the Blackburnes ... .... 32 
 
 Description of the Principal Pictures 
 
 AT Hale Hall ... ... 34 
 
 Account of the Sabal Blackbumia (Hale 
 
 Palm Tree) ... ... 43 
 
 Hale Church 45 
 
 The Village School ... ... 50 
 
 The Childe of Hale 51 
 
 Ireland Manuscripts and other Curiosities 53 
 
 Hale Manor ... ... 71 
 
 The Shields in the Panelled Room ... 91 
 
 The Blackburne Pedigree 96 
 
 Blackburnes of Sandholme ... 97 
 
 Parish of Blackburne ... ... ... 99 
 
 Descent of the Blackburnes of Blackburn 103 
 
 Notes on the Pedigree of Blackburne 113 
 
THE VILLAGE OF HALE. 
 
 FORTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 The Village of Hale, in the vicinity of which is 
 situated the Hall, the subject of our notes, is one of 
 the very few now left to us which, having escaped 
 the intrusive hand of the modern builder, retain 
 their primitive pastoral beauty and neatness. Being 
 at a distance from any public road, and destitute of 
 any manufactory, it is sequestered and peaceful. The 
 cottages are healthy, thatched, and whitewashed, 
 and the venerable mansion, formerly the parsonage- 
 house, though at present nothing more than a farm- 
 house, adorns the village green. The churchyard 
 is kept with much neatness, and is a charming 
 retreat from the noise and bustle of the world. It is 
 remote from the village, and joins the park of Colonel 
 Ireland Blackburne. The venerable hall of Hale, the 
 broad expanse of the Mersey, and the romantic hills 
 above Frodsham, in Cheshire, are objects seen to 
 advantage from it. 
 
 The village is situated ten miles south- vroot of 
 Liverpool, in an angle of the river Mersey, which 
 is three and a half miles wide at the beach off Hale 
 Point, where it takes a north-easterly course between 
 
2 
 
 the now busy towns of Runcorn and Widnes, up 
 through Warrington, thus partially isolating Hale, 
 which, before the days of railways and the Runcorn 
 viaduct, was eight miles from the nearest high road 
 from Liverpool to London, via Warrington. 
 
3 
 
 HALE HALL. 
 
 Hale Hall, the seat of Colonel John Ireland 
 Blackburne, M.P. for the South- Western division of 
 the county of Lancaster, is delightfully placed in a 
 park at a short distance from the village. 
 
 It is almost surrounded by fine timber, but its 
 south front commands an extensive view of the 
 river Mersey and the hills of Cheshire. 
 
 The date of its erection is unknown, but its occu- 
 pation by the Ireland family is distinctly traceable 
 as far back as 1190. 
 
 The old north front was altered to its present form 
 by Sir Gilbert Ireland, M.P. for Liverpool, who com- 
 pleted it, as it now is, in 1674; previous to this date 
 it presented a gable-ended front, which was effaced 
 by the introduction of the peculiar screen, with 
 arches connecting the abutments (probably to give 
 greater height). He also built the tower as it now 
 stands, with the view of making it the centre of the 
 north front, inscribing on it his own name and that 
 of Margaret, his wife, but it was never completed, 
 and he died in 1675. 
 
4 
 
 The south front was built from the designs of 
 Nash, in 1806, by John Blackburne, who represented 
 Lancashire in the House of Commons for forty-six 
 years, in the days when the county had but two 
 representatives. 
 
5 
 
 POSSESSORS OF HALE. 
 
 The following list of the possessors of Hale, in a 
 direct line, from 1199 to the present day, is partly 
 copied from a parchment Roll, still in the possession 
 of the family and treasured amongst its manuscripts, 
 written in black letter, " shewing the descent and 
 many particulars of the Manor of Hale, from the 
 time of the grant of that Manor (then in possession 
 of Gilbert de Walton) by charter from King John, 
 signed at Rouen, 1203, to Richard de Myda or Media, 
 clerk, son of Gilbert de Walton, and through the 
 subsequent owners, Columbers and Holland, to Ire- 
 land, in 1308." The substance of the contents of 
 this interesting document will be found in Baines' 
 History of Lancashire. 
 
 1. Gilbert de Walton, lord of Hale and Hale- 
 wood. 
 
 2. Henry Walton. 
 
 3. Richard de Myda Walton, son of Gilbert, as 
 above. 
 
 In 1 22 1, Henry the Third took Hale into his 
 own hands, but restored it to Richard de 
 Myda, in 1222, and, in 1227, made a grant 
 of it to him and his heirs. 
 
6 
 
 4- Cecilie de Walton, daughter and heir of 
 Richard de Mida = Alan de Columbers.* 
 
 5. Cicely Columbers=Sir Robert Holland. 
 
 6. Avena Holland = Adam Ireland, 1308. 
 
 7. John'es de Hibernia, vide page 12, 1350. 
 
 8. David de Ireland. 
 
 9. Sir John de Ireland, 1401. 
 
 10. William Irelande. 
 
 11. John Irelande. 
 
 12. Wyllyam Irelande, 1498. 
 
 13. Sir John Irelande. 
 
 14. Thomas Irelande, 1589. 
 
 15. George Ireland. 
 
 16. John Ireland, 1603. 
 
 17. Gilbert Ireland, brother of John, 1626. 
 
 18. John Ireland, 1633. 
 
 19. Sir Gilbert Ireland, M.P., died 1675. 
 
 20. Eleanor Ireland = Edw. Aspinwall. 
 
 21. Mary Aspinwall, 1738 = Isaac Green, of Child- 
 wall, died 1749. 
 
 22. Ireland Green, 1798 = Thomas Blackburne, of 
 Orford. 
 
 23. John Blackburne, 1833. 
 
 24. John Ireland Blackburne, 1874. 
 
 25. John Ireland Blackburne, Col. 
 
 M.P. for S.W. Lancashire since 1875. 
 
 * Hence the Ireland crest, Dove and OHve Branch 
 (Colovibe). Alan de Columbers was Dns. of Hale and 
 Halewood, in right of his wife, Cecihe. 
 
Old Hutt.— Window of Banqueting Hall, 1804 
 
 From a Sketch by Sir Foxier Cunliffe. 
 
7 
 
 THE OLD HUTT. 
 
 The old baronial mansion called the Hutt, or 
 Haut, was formerly the residence of the Irelands, 
 and was originally surrounded by a moat, which is 
 even now only partially filled up. 
 
 The Hutt was at one time a building of consider- 
 able importance, as its remains sufficiently attest. 
 
 The massive stack of kitchen chimneys, the large 
 stone transom window-frame, the ancient chimney- 
 piece, and the upper range of windows, all indicate 
 its former consequence. The great hall was one 
 hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, and its remains 
 were distinctly visible in the early part of the present 
 century. 
 
 The Gate-House is of more modern date ; and it 
 is probable that as the Old Hall of Hutt was crumb- 
 ling away, the original gatehouse was converted 
 into a residence for members of the Ireland family. 
 WiUiam Ireland, of Hale and Hutt, built it as it now 
 is (about 141 1), his arms and those of Ellyn, his 
 wife (daughter of Sir John Handford), being carved 
 on two stone shields, side by side, over the principal 
 window. 
 
 The arms of the Irelands of Hutt have also their 
 
8 
 
 place on one side of the same front, probably removed 
 from the centre of the original gatehouse when the 
 alterations were made.* 
 
 The name of John Irelande, 1608, carved in a 
 curious stone mantelpiece, in an upper room, and 
 over a stable door in the courtyard, warrants us in 
 supposing that he resided here for some time. 
 
 Traces of the Drawbridge (used when the moat 
 entirely enclosed the hall and gatehouse) still remain 
 in the massive stone chain-ports in the wall for 
 working it (now glazed to give light). "The build- 
 ing lies low, and being a secluded spot, in a flat 
 country, surrounded by wood, removed from any 
 public road, it was suited to the hostile times in which 
 it was built, subjected as this part of the country was 
 to the invasions of the Scots." f 
 
 The entrance from the bye-road into a large court- 
 yard, surrounded by stables, was in a straight line with 
 the drawbridge and the then open archway through 
 the gatehouse (now a room) up to the front entrance 
 of the hall, some 40 yards further on. 
 
 The Courtyard, a square surrounded on three 
 sides by stables, ending in a chapel at the moat, 
 testifies, by its size, to the convenience that it would 
 afford for the mustering or concealing of troopers. 
 
 Since those days the premises have been converted 
 into a farm-house ; many outbuildings are removed, 
 
 * The arms of Ireland of Hutt merged in a younger branch, 
 that of the Irelands of Bewsey. 
 
 t Gregson's Fraoments of Lancashire. 
 
and entrances made, and the additions to the gate- 
 house betoken more the utiHtarian than the aesthetic 
 spirit of the day in which the changes were made. 
 
 The Old Hutt is two miles by a pleasant walk 
 across country from Hale. 
 
 The estates of Hale and Hutt became one property 
 by the marriage of Adam de Ireland, of Hutt, with 
 Avena, daughter and heir of Sir Robert Holland, of 
 Hale, 1308. Vide p. 12. 
 
lO 
 
 THE IRELANDS OF HUTT. 
 
 The original papers of the Pedigree of the Irelands 
 were drawn up by Richd. St. George Norroy and 
 his son, Sir Henry, Blue Mantle of the Visitation of 
 Lancashire, 1613, "with the signatures of the very 
 gentlemen themselves then living," of whom honorable 
 mention is made in old documents in the British 
 Museum, No. 1437, and Harleian MSS., 2062, 2129, 
 15429, 61459. 
 
 Sir Robert Irelande, of Hutt, Knt., " in the raigne 
 of King John, in great favoure & countenance wyth 
 him, as appeareth diuerse wayes." 
 
 " King John, during his brother's lifetime, appears 
 to have had great intercourse with this part of the 
 county. It was said that Rodger (Joh'es de Irelande) 
 built the Castle of Liverpool: others say King John. 
 He was in great favour with him, as was Sir Robert, 
 who had much land in Liverpool. King John, in 
 the lifetime of his brother, Richard I., owned Corn- 
 wall, Lancashire, Nottingham and Derby." 
 
 Adam Ireland of Hutt, afterwards of Hale and 
 Halewood, in right of his wife, Avena de Holland, 
 of Hale, 1308. He built the "New He" in Hale 
 Church, and the old glass windows (of which none ' 
 remain) were put in by him. 
 
II 
 
 William Ireland married Ellen Handford, relict 
 of Sir John Stanley, and heir of Sir John Handford, 
 whose arms were in the houses of both Hale and 
 Hutt, cut in stone, and are still to be seen in the 
 gatehouse of the latter place. He was mainly 
 instrumental in bringing to light the " Three Metri- 
 cal Romances," known as the Ireland MSS., proba- 
 bly assisted by the then Chaplain of Hale Chapel, 
 Kendale, who, if he were not the author himself, 
 may have been his descendant. Vide p. 53. 
 
 John Ireland was Lieutenant of the Isle of Man 
 in 1611. 
 
12 
 
 GENEALOGY OF THE IRELAND 
 FAMILY. 
 
 The following genealogy of the Irelands is ex- 
 tracted from the pedigrees compiled between 151 8 
 and 1616, commencing at the time of the Norman 
 Conquest, 1066, and continued to the present time. 
 
 I. Johannes de Hibernia came over with William 
 the Conqueror, settled at the Hutt, and was buried 
 in Hale Church, 1088, as appeared engraven on the 
 window of the old chapel, of which he built the 
 chancel, 1081. 
 
 2. Sir — Irelande. 
 
 3. — Irelande. 
 
 4. — Irelande. Three Irelandes in succession 
 of whom little is known. 
 
 5. John'es Irelande — Regnante Richard I., 1190 — 
 father of Robert (is elsewhere called Rodger). 
 
 6. Sir Robert Ireland = Beatrix, d. of William 
 of Hutt, 1215. Daresbury , de Daresbury. 
 
 7. John'es Ireland of = Matilda, d. and heir of 
 Hutt. John Hesketh, of RufFord. 
 
 8. Adam Ireland of=Avena, d. and co-heir of 
 Hutt, 1316 (and after- Sir Robert Holland, of 
 wards of Hale and Hale- Hale, and Cicely Colum- 
 wood). bers, his wife, 1308. 
 
/ 
 
 13 
 
 9- John'esdeHibernia, = Agatha, d. of Stephen 
 1350, of Hutt, Hale, and Merton, Lord of Beb- 
 Lord of Bebbington and bington and Worrall, 
 Worrall, in right of his 1347. 
 wife. 
 
 10. David de Ireland, of = Margery, d. of Sir Wil- 
 Hutt, Hale, and half liam Stanley, of Hooton 
 Bebbington. and Stourton, Cheshire. 
 
 11. Sir John de Ire- = Margery, d. of Halsall, 
 lande (2), buried in Hale Lord of Halsall. 
 Church, 1401. 
 
 12. William Irelande. =Ellyn, d. and heir of Sir 
 
 John Handford, and re- 
 lict of Sir John Stanley. 
 
 13. John Irelande, =Margerye, d. of Sir Wil- 
 buried in Hale Church liam Atherton, of Ather- 
 1462. ton. 
 
 14. Wyllyam Irelande, = Ellyne, d. of Sir Wyllyam 
 1498. Molleneux, of Sephton.f ) 
 
 15. Sir John Irelande, = Margerye, d. of Sir John 
 m. soon after the Battle Stanley, brother of 
 of Bosworth Field, d. Thomas, Lord Stanley, 
 1 526. first Earl of Derby, who 
 
 placed Henry VII. on his 
 throne, for which services 
 he was created Earl, 1485. 
 16. Thomas Irelande, (*)=Margaret, d. of Sir 
 d. 1589. Richard Boulde, lord 
 I of Boulde. 
 
 I 
 
George Ireland (^) b.^ 
 1580, of Hutt, Hale, 
 Crowton, and half 
 Bebbington. George 
 Ireland left 4 sons, 
 John, Gilbert, George, 
 Thomas. 
 
 I 
 
 8. John Irelande, n d. 
 1617. High Sheriff 
 of Lane. 1605. 
 
 = ist. EHzabeth, d. of Rafe 
 Birkenhead, lord of 
 Crowton and Kings- 
 ley. 
 
 2nd. EHzabeth, d. of — 
 Colwick of Colwick, 
 and widow of Peter 
 Leycester, of Tabley, 
 s.p. 
 
 =Katheryne, d. of Peter 
 Leycester, of Tabley, 
 and aforesaid Eliza- 
 beth Colwick. 
 
 I 
 
 9. Gilbert Ireland, (^) ^Barbara, d. of George 
 
 (inherited 1617) 2nd 
 son of George Ire- 
 land, Sheriff of Lane, 
 in 1623 ; d. 1626. 
 
 Legh, of High Legh. 
 
 o. John Ireland, d. i633^Elizabeth, d. of Thos. 
 
 Hayes, a rich London 
 merchant and alder- 
 man. 
 
 =Margaret, d. and heir 
 of Thos. Ireland, of 
 
 I. Sir Gilbert Ireland,(«) 
 b. 1624; d.1675. s.p. 
 
15 
 
 Hence the descent 
 through his sister 
 Eleanor, who mar- 
 ried E. Aspinwall, of 
 Aspinwall. 
 
 Bewsey, Warrington, 
 Pouhon and Hoom 
 (Hulme). She sur- 
 vived Sir Gilbert two 
 months, and left Bew- 
 sey to Richard, son of 
 Richard Atherton of 
 Atherton, and Elea- 
 nor, his wife, sister to 
 Thos.Ireland, of Bew- 
 sey. Hence the Ather- 
 tons who merged into 
 the (Powys) Lilford 
 family, by the mar- 
 riage in 1797 of Anne 
 Maria, d. and heir of 
 Robt. Vernon Ather- 
 ton, of Atherton, with 
 Thos. Powys, Lord 
 Lilford. 
 
 22. Eleanor Ireland,heir-=Edward Aspinwall, of 
 ess and eldest survi- Aspinwall, near Orms- 
 
 ving sister of 
 Gilbert Ireland. 
 
 Sir 
 
 kirk. 
 
 23. Gilbert Aspinwall, =Jane Bushell, d. of W. 
 
 d. 1717. 
 
 Bushell. 
 
i6 
 
 Edward Aspin-— Mary Gard 
 
 wall, d. 1719. 
 
 ner, of 
 London. 
 
 Mary,=Bramall, 
 d. s.p. 
 
 Ireland Aspinwall, 
 d. unm. 1733. 
 
 Mary,:r=Isaac Green, of 
 d.1738 I Childwall, d. 
 I 1749. 
 
 24. Thomas = 
 Blackburne, 
 d. 1768, of 
 Orford Hall 
 and Newton 
 
 Ireland Mary Green=B amber 
 
 Green (^) of Child- Gascoyne, 
 
 of Hale, wall, d. 36 years 
 
 m. 1752, d. 1799. M. P. for 
 
 d. 1795. Buried at Liverpool. 
 
 Buried Hale, 
 at Hale. 
 
 25. John Blackburne=Anne,d.of d CT^ 
 
 b. 1754. 46 years 
 M.P. for Lanca- 
 shire, d. 1833. 
 
 "T o 
 
 - G CO ^ 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 Saml. 
 Rodbard, 
 Ever- 
 creech, 
 Somerset. -^1 j 4 
 d. 1823. ^ 
 
 S c 
 
 O 
 
 T3 
 
 V 00 
 
 pq 00 
 
 i ^ 
 
 < 
 
26. John Ireland Black-= 
 burne ^ represented 
 Newton, and after- 
 wards Warrington, 
 till 1847. b. 1783, 
 d. 1874. 
 
 :Anne, d. of William Bam- 
 ford, of Bamford, d. 
 1861. 
 
 27. John Ireland Black-=ist. Mary, d. of Sir Henry 
 burne. Bold Hoghton, Bart., 
 
 of Hoghton Tower, 
 d. 1855. 
 2nd. Emma, Viscountess 
 Hereford, d. 1870. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (^) The sister and co-heiress of Avena Holland con- 
 veyed her estates in Halewood by marriage to Sir 
 John Lovel, from whom they passed into the 
 possession of Francis, Baron Lovel, Holland, 
 Degencourt and Grey, mentioned in Shakespeare's 
 Richard the Third, Act iii, sc. 5, as an adherent 
 of the House of York ; who, in support of the same 
 cause, again appears in arms against Henry the 
 Seventh, and escaping after the unsuccessful battle 
 of Stoke, was drowned in attempting to ford the 
 river Mersey at Ince, in order to pass to his house 
 at the Hutt. Bacon, in his History of King Henry VII, 
 states that he " swam over Trent on horseback, but 
 
i8 
 
 could not recover the farther side, by reason of the 
 steepness of the bank, and so was drowned in the 
 river but as Bacon, from the context, appears to 
 have known nothing of the circumstances of Level's 
 death, it is probable that the former account is the 
 true one, especially as we find, from the Manor 
 Court records, extracts from which are given later 
 on, that it was frequently the duty of the coroner to 
 hold inquests on the bodies of persons who were 
 drowned in attempting to ford the river at this 
 point. Lord Level's estates, after his attainder, 
 were granted by King Henry VII to his father-in- 
 law, the Earl of Derby, whose descendants still 
 enjoy them. The Irelands held the Manors of 
 Hutte, Hale, Halebank and Halewood, in the reign 
 of Elizabeth, from William, Earl of Derby, in free 
 socage, by the annual tender of two roses on 
 Midsummer-day. 
 
 f ) Sir John de Irelande left two sons. Thomas, 
 the second son, was the head of the Irelands of 
 Lydiate, vide p. 26. William, his third son, was head 
 of the Irelands of Nostell, co. of York, where their 
 family was buried. 
 
 (^) Seafton was the old spelling of Sefton. 
 
 (^) Thomas, second son of Thomas Irelande, was 
 the founder of the branch of the Irelands of Bewsey 
 and W^arrington, vide p. 22. 
 
 (^) The Hale dinner bell still rings out its daily 
 summons, though nearly three centuries old. It 
 bears the initials " G I 1593 Rd- " engraven on it. 
 
C) John Ireland died s.p., leaving a deed by which 
 he made over his estates to his brother Gilbert, upon 
 his marriage to Barbara, d. of George Legh, of High 
 Legh, who married Elizabeth, another d. of Peter 
 Leycester, of Tabley, and Elizabeth Colwick. 
 
 (^) The initials of Gilbert and Barbara Ireland are 
 cut in two oak panels in Hale Church — *' G I B I 
 1615." 
 
 H Sir Gilbert Ireland (No. 21), M.P. for Liverpool, 
 was a strong adherent of Oliver Cromwell, by whom 
 he was made Governor of Chester Castle, and was 
 knighted for his services to Government. Sir Gilbert 
 died seized of Hale, Halewood, in part Garston, part 
 of Great Woolton, Penketh, Tarbock, in Lancashire ; 
 and of Bebbington, Crowton, Kingsley, Bradley, 
 Milton, Cuddington, Newton, Leigh, Frodsham, 
 Weaverham, and Stenthorne, in Cheshire. 
 
 Some particulars of Sir Gilbert Ireland, out of the 
 many that were left of his doings, may not be out of 
 place here. He was left a minor with his mother at 
 an early age. He was a man of the greatest hospi- 
 tality, and was Lord- Lieutenant of the County of 
 Lancaster. He was very haughty and stately, fond 
 of elections, and contested the borough of Liverpool 
 more than once, representing that borough from 1656 
 to his death in 1675." 
 
 Sir Gilbert left his estates in commission for 31 
 years, partly to pay the debts in which his unbounded 
 hospitality had greatly involved him; and partly 
 because he was offended that his sister and heir. 
 
20 
 
 Eleanor Aspinwall, widow, had married a Puritan 
 minister (one Crompton). One of the lawyers who 
 drew up the will ventured to say, "even 20 years was 
 too long a time." He said, "No; it is my will, and 
 not yours, that the estates be sequestered for 3oyears." 
 
 The commissioners appointed by him were Henry 
 Legh, of High Legh; Richard, his son; T. Case, 
 of Red Hazels ; T. Wright, of Crompton ; John 
 Cook, of Bewsey; Thos. Wright, of Widnes; with 
 full powers of leasing (without being accountable) 
 and of selling the estates in Cheshire. 
 
 Sir Gilbert had three sisters and one brother. 
 
 Barbara, b. 1621, d. young. 
 
 Eleanor, b. 1622, m. E. Aspinwall, and inherited 
 Hale. 
 
 George, b. 1628, d. young. 
 
 Martha, b. 1632, m. Bramhall. 
 
 (^) Ireland and Mary Green, great nieces of Sir 
 Gilbert Ireland, from whom Ireland, the eldest, 
 inherited Hale in right of her mother, being offered 
 the right of choice. She married, in 1752, Thomas 
 Blackburne, of Orford and Newton, and died at 
 died at Hale, 1795. 
 
 Mary (who died at Hale 1799) inherited Child- 
 wall, in right of her father, and married Bamber 
 Gascoyne, who was the only son of Sir Crisp 
 Gascoyne, Lord Mayor of London in 1753, 
 who held the office of Receiver-General of His 
 Majesty's Customs, was one of the Lords Commis- 
 sioners of the Admiralty, and Verderer of Waltham 
 
Forest, Essex. His two sons successively repre- 
 sented Liverpool in the House of Commons in an 
 unbroken line for fifty-two years. Through the 
 eldest son, Bamber, Childwall passed to the family 
 of Salisbury of Hatfield, by marriage of the 2nd 
 Marquis of Salisbury with Fanny Gascoyne, his 
 only daughter and sole heiress. 
 
22 
 
 COLLATERAL FAMILIES. 
 
 CHRONICLE OF 
 
 IRELANDS OF HALEWOOD, BEWSEY, 
 
 AND WARRINGTON, 
 
 Branching off from Thomas Ireland, of Hutt and Hale, 
 1589. 
 
 I . Thomas Ireland,Gent. = Margery, d. of — Whitby, 
 (called Genevosus), of Ince. 
 second son of 
 Thomas Ireland, of 
 Hale. 1589. 
 
 2. Winiam Ireland, (^) i599 = Elena, d. of — de Carye, 
 
 called John in one | of Lancashire, 
 deed. | 
 
 3. I St Margaret, d. = Robert Ireland = 2nd. Blanche, 
 
 of RichardFox 
 of Broughton. 
 
 4. George Ireland 
 
 d. of WilHam 
 Knowles, of 
 Denbigh. 
 
 = Elizabeth, d. of H. Loney, 
 I of Ditton. 
 
23 
 
 John'es Ireland, 
 left two sons. 
 
 He =t Susanna, d. of Henry 
 Mackwilliam, armiger, 
 and relict of Thomas 
 Pemberton, Lord of 
 Bewsey and Baron of 
 Warrington. 
 
 6.ThomasIreland,(^)Knt. = ist. Margaret Pope, from 
 of Bewsey, Baron of | whom he was divorced. 
 Warrington. 1617. Their son, Robert, mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Banks, 
 of Winstanley. Died 
 before his father. 
 = 2nd. Margaret, d. of Sir 
 Thomas Aston,of Aston 
 and relict of A. Main- 
 waring. 
 
 7. Thomas Ireland,(^) of = Margaret, d. of Thomas 
 
 Baldwys. Buried 
 Warrington, 1639. 
 
 at 
 
 Gray's Inn and Bew- 
 sey, second son of Sir 
 Thomas Ireland, d. 
 1638. 
 
 8. Margaret Ireland, d. = Sir Gilbert Ireland, of 
 and sole heiress of ofHutt,Hale,&c. Died 
 Thomas Ireland, of April 30th, 1675. Vide 
 Bewsey. d. Julyist, p- 14- 
 1675. 
 
24 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (^) William, called elsewhere John, left the Mylne 
 acre to his younger son, Thomas, in 14th Henry 
 VII, 1499, and thence proceeds the family of the 
 Irelands of Halewood, which ended in the Finches 
 of Halewood, who had a burial place in the chancel 
 of Hale Church. 
 
 (2) Before attaining his knighthood, Thomas Ire- 
 land, as appears from several deeds still preserved at 
 Hale Hall, made very extensive purchases of land, 
 &c., at Warrington, and paid for them what would 
 be very large sums at the time. The deeds bearing 
 his name commence in 1598 and continue till 1624. 
 In 1612 he purchased the Manor or Lordship of 
 Warrington, as will be seen from the following 
 abstract : — 
 
 10 Jac. 
 17 Feb. 
 
 By indenture enrolled. 
 
 Edward Hall and John Nutvill, for 
 /"i,ooo, convey to Thomas Ireland all the 
 Manor or Lordship of Warrington and 
 all the estate therein, to hold, to the said 
 Thomas Ireland in fee. 
 
 He became Chamberlaine of Chester, entertained 
 James I. at Bewsey, and by him he was knighted. 
 
25 
 
 The Lordship of Warrington did not long remain 
 in the Ireland family, as they appear to have sold it 
 in 1 63 1 to the Earl of Warrington, from whose 
 heiress, Lady Stamford, John Blackburne, of Orford 
 and Hale, bought it in 1756. 
 
26 
 
 IRELANDS OF LYDIATE, 
 
 Lydiate is ten miles north of Liverpool, in the 
 parish of Halsall. The Lords of Lydiate have been 
 successively Lydiate, Blackburne, Ireland, Anderton, 
 and Blundell. 
 
 I. Thomas Ireland, second son of Sir John de 
 Ireland, of Hutt, Hale, and part Bebbington, 
 and Margaret, his wife, d. of Halsall, Lord of 
 Halsall, was the first of the Irelands of Lydiate, 
 1401. 
 
 Thomas Ireland ,=:Agnes Blakeborne, filia 
 
 second son of Sir 
 John de Ireland, of 
 Hutt, Hale, &c. 
 
 et sola her., Roberti de 
 Blakeborne, of Lydiate 
 
 2. Lawrence Ireland,: 
 Lord of Garston and 
 Lydiate, died 1458. 
 
 ,=Catherine, d. of Henry 
 Blundell, of Little 
 Crosby. 
 
27 
 
 3- John Ireland, 1514. ^Beatrix, d. of William 
 
 Norris, of Speke. 
 
 4. George Ireland, 1523. =Isabella Nowell, of Read. 
 
 5. Lawrence Ireland,=Anne, d. of John Cross, 
 
 died 1566. 
 
 of Chorley. 
 
 i 6. I St. Margaret,= William Ireland=2nd. Eleanor, 
 d. of T. Tor- I d. of Roger 
 
 buk. j Molineux, of 
 
 j Hawksey. 
 
 7. Lawrence Ireland. =Anne or Margaret, d. of 
 
 Edward Scarisbrick, of 
 Scarisbrick. 
 
 Margaret, d. of Sir Ed- 
 ward Norreys,of Speke, 
 Knt. of the Bath. 
 
 8. Edward Ireland. 
 
 Anne Ire-=John Harring- Margaret=Sir Charles 
 land. ton,ofHuy- Anderton, 
 
 ton,s.p. of Lostock 
 
 and of 
 Lydiate by 
 his mar- 
 riage. 
 
 Sir James Anderton, of Lostock, first Bart., left 
 two sons, Sir Charles, second Bart., as above, and 
 
28 
 
 Sir James, third Bart., whose son. Sir Lawrence, 
 died 1724. Sir Francis, fifth and last Bart., who 
 favoured the Pretender, was attainted and his estates 
 sequestered for his Hfe time, or till he had a son. 
 He died 1760, and was buried at Halsall, and the 
 estate passed into the Blundell family through the 
 marriage of Charles Blundell with Margaret, 
 daughter of Hugh Anderton, of Euxton and 
 Lostock, a younger branch of the family. Charles 
 Blundell, of Ince, Lydiate, and Lostock, willed his 
 inheritance to the Weld family. 
 
29 
 
 PEDIGREE OF 
 
 THE AMERICAN IRELANDS, 
 
 Who branched off from Hale, settled in Ireland, 1633, 
 and finally in America. 
 
 1. Gilbert Ireland, High=Barbara, d. of George 
 Sheriff for Lancaster Legh, of High Legh. 
 CO., 1623. Obit 1626. 
 
 Their second son, George, was father to 
 
 2. William Ireland,=Margaret de Courcy, d. 
 settled near Athy. 1 and heiress of Alme- 
 
 ricus, 23rd Lord of 
 Kinsale. 
 
 3. De Courcy Ireland.z=ist. Miss Moore, of Moore 
 
 Castle. 
 2nd. Miss Blanchfield, of 
 CO. Kilkenny, 
 
 4. William Ireland, died: 
 1701. 
 
 Elizabeth, d. of Sir 
 Thomas Franklyn, of 
 Blackrock. 
 
30 
 
 5- De Courcy Ireland.=Jane, d. of W. Popham, 
 
 I of Popham, co. of 
 Limerick. 
 
 6. John Ireland. 
 
 = Anna Maria, d. of H. 
 I Austen, co. of Cork. 
 
 7. Mr. Ireland, High = Jane, d. of John Busteed, 
 
 of Blackrock, co. Cork. 
 
 Sheriff of co. Cork, 
 1749. 
 
 I St. Fair Atkins 
 niece of David 
 Sears, Boston, 
 Mass.,d. 1788. 
 
 John Ireland: 
 entered the 
 BritishNavy 
 and came to 
 America on 
 board the 
 " Glasgow " 
 man-of-war, 
 LordHowe's 
 Squad ron. 
 
 Appointed 
 Commissary 
 
 General to the Navy. d. 1836. 
 
 :2nd. Judith Law- 
 rence, d. of Jona- 
 than Lawrence, 
 of New York, 
 Member of the 
 Provincial Con- 
 gress of 1 744, and 
 son of the framer 
 of the first consti- 
 tution of New 
 York State. 
 
 9. John Ireland, b. 1796= Mary Floyd, d of Colonel 
 
 John Busteed. 
 Horatio. 
 
 William Busteed. 
 Louisa Anna. 
 Richard. 
 
 Nicoll Floyd, and 
 grand-daughter of 
 General Lloyd, who 
 signed the Declaration 
 of Independence, a 
 
31 
 
 Cornelia Ruth. 
 Andrew. 
 
 member of the early 
 Congresses from 1744 
 to 1791. 
 
 10. John Busteed Ireland, • 
 
 died unmarried 1872. 
 
 In Diplomacy. He 
 
 visited Hale 1858. 
 From notes furnished by Col. Ireland, of Scarron Lake, 
 United States, 1858. 
 
32 
 
 RECORD OF THE BLACKBURNES. 
 
 From the time of Queen Elizabeth ; vide Page 97 
 for earlier particulars. 
 
 William Blackburne came out of Yorkshire and 
 settled at Garstang, near the original home of his 
 ancestors, towards the end of the sixteenth century, 
 and, in connection with his brother Richard, bought 
 Newton. William's son 
 
 Richard Blackburne,— Jane, d. of John Aynes- 
 
 of Scorton Hall, near 
 Garstang, of Thistleton, 
 and lastly of Newton. 
 
 worth, of Newton, Lane. 
 
 Thomas Blackburne, ^Margaret, d. of Robert 
 
 of Orford and Newton, 
 d. 1663. 
 
 Jonathan Blackburne,: 
 of Orford, Newton and 
 Eccleston, d. 1725 ; 
 buried at Winwick. 
 
 Norris, of Bolton, younger 
 branch of the Speke fami- 
 ly of Norreys. 
 
 = ist. Anne, d. of Thomas 
 Lever, of Chamber Hall, 
 widow of C. Lockwood, 
 and grandmother of B. B. 
 Wilson. 
 
 2nd. Bridget, d. of Brom- 
 field, of Little Leigh, co. 
 of Chester. 
 
33 
 
 John Blackburne,(^) : 
 Lord of the Manor of 
 Warrington, d. 1786, 
 aetat 93. 
 
 Thomas Blackburne," 
 died before his father, 
 January, 1768. Cont. p. 16. 
 
 Catherine, d. of W. Ashe- 
 ton, rector of Prestwich, 
 sister and co-heir, of Doro- 
 thy, wife to Sir Darcy 
 Lever and aunt to Sir 
 Ashton Lever. 
 
 Ireland, d. of Isaac Greene 
 ofChildwall. She inherited 
 Hale through her mother, 
 who was niece and heir of 
 Sir Gilbert Ireland, mar- 
 ried at Hale, 1752, obit. 
 1795. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 (^) John Blackburne, of Orford and Newton, b. 
 1693, was a man of great cultivation, and encourager 
 of the arts and sciences. He grew the first pine-apple 
 that was cultivated in England, and the pine stove 
 is introduced into the picture of him by Dance, in 
 commemoration of the fact. 
 
34 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PRINCIPAL 
 PICTURES AT HALE HALL. 
 
 On Staircase. 
 
 The Blackburne Family Picture, by Winstanley, 
 1741. Dimensions, 18 ft. by 9 ft. 2 in. 
 John Blackburne, of Orford and Newton, buried 
 
 at Winwick, 1786. 
 Catherine (Assheton), his wife. 
 Thomas Blackburne, afterwards of Hale, b. 1720, 
 
 d. 1768. 
 
 Jonathan (2nd son), b. 1721, d. 1786. 
 
 John (3rd son), b. 1723. 
 
 William (4th son). 
 
 Ann,' collector of Hale Museum. 
 
 Mary, d. young. 
 
 Asheton^ (5th son). 
 
 An Infant (d. young). 
 
 * Ann was an eminent naturalist nnd botanist, and corresponded 
 with Linnaeus in latin ; she collected the stuffed birds now at Hale. 
 John Reinhold Foster, who circumnavigated the world with Capt. 
 Cook, perpetuated her name in the botanical world by naming the 
 Blackburnia Pinita after her, and Pennant has equally distinguished 
 her in the animal kingdom by naming the American warbler, Sylvia 
 Blackburnia, after her. She died at Fairfield 1793. 
 
 2 Asheton Blackburne died in America 1787, and was buried at 
 the Episcopal Chapel of Nouwalk, 6olniles from New York. The 
 church had been lately rebuilt, and was the first that was consecrated 
 by the first bishop sent out from England to America. 
 
35 
 
 THE ASSHETON PICTURE. 
 
 The more ancient family picture of the Ashetons 
 of Chadderton (date 1539) was brought to Hale by 
 Catherine Ashton (in the seventh generation from 
 the subject of the painting, James Ashton) on her 
 marriage with John Blackburne, of Orford and 
 Newton, about 1726. 
 
 The shield of arms in the picture identify it 
 incontestably with the aforesaid James Ashton, and 
 Agnes his wife, daughter of Charles Mainwaring, of 
 Croston, co., of Chester, and their family. He was 
 son of Edmund Ashton, of Chadderton, and Janet, 
 his wife, daughter and co-heir of Sir James Harring- 
 ton, of Westlee, co. of Lancaster, and of Wolfage 
 in Brixworth, co. of Northampton, in right of whom 
 he inherited her estates during his father's lifetime, 
 thereby accounting for the quartering of her arms, 
 and the introduction of the shrine to her memory in 
 the picture, which was painted by Ferdinand Rad- 
 cliffe, 1539. 
 
 The costumes are those of the Tudor period. 
 The subjects of it — 
 
 James Ashton, son of Edm. Ashton, of Chadderton 
 (who married Janet, daughter and co-heir of Sir 
 James Harrington, of Westlee, co. of Lancaster, and 
 of Wolfage, in Brixworth) ; 
 
 His wife, Agnes, and their family, of which latter 
 it is probable, that only the sons, who lived to grow 
 up, and the daughters, who married, were painted. 
 
36 
 
 1. Lewis, died s.p. 
 
 2. Edmund, second son and heir to his father, 
 
 aged 27 when he inherited. Married Anne, 
 daughter of Richard Prestwich. 
 
 3. Peter, married daughter of Robert Price, 
 
 of Walkingham, near Boroughbridge. 
 
 4. Richard. 
 
 5. Jane, married Richard Wolrich, of Lincoln. 
 
 6. Anne, married Francis Hargreaves, of Boston. 
 
 7. Elizabeth, married Thomas Barnet, of Cam- 
 
 bridge. 
 
 Besides the representation of a canopied tomb, or 
 shrine, in the upper part of the picture there is also 
 
 Assheton Quarterings in the Picture. 
 
 1 Ashton ; 2 RadclifFe ; 3 Flarrington ; 
 
 4 English ; ^ Urswick ; 6 Verdun. 
 
 painted a coat of arms, consisting of six quarter- 
 ings, Ashton- Radcliffe (omitting Chadderton and 
 Talbot), Harrington, English, Urswick, and Verdun, 
 omitting again Bradshaw, which brings in Verdun. 
 The Harrington quarterings having been brought 
 in by the marriage of James's father, Edmund 
 Ashton, through his wife, Janet, accords with the 
 
37 
 
 omission of the exclusively Ashton quarterings ; and 
 as the picture had been painted during the lifetime 
 of his father, Edmund, who died in 1543, he could 
 only quarter that portion of Sir James Harrington's 
 arms which came to him through his mother. These 
 arms, in juxtaposition with the representation of an 
 Altar Tomb, or Shrine of white marble, under a 
 canopy of the same, and on which lies a recumbent 
 female figure, lead still more clearly to the identifi" 
 cation of the picture. 
 
 The kneeling figure, with his hands upraised in 
 prayer, at the lower end of the monument, is a living 
 priest, accounted for by a clause in the will of Sir 
 James Harrington, 1497, in which he appointed " a 
 priest for ever to pray for the souls of himself and 
 daughters in the Parish Church (of Brixworth), to 
 be provided by Lady Isabella Harrington, his widow, 
 and his other executors." The obligation of finding 
 a priest to pray for the souls of Sir James and his ten 
 daughters devolved on James Ashton, on coming into 
 his mother's property after the death of his grand- 
 mother, Lady Isabella Harrington, and he thus com- 
 memorates it. Janet and her nine sisters, of whom 
 she was the seventh, and only survivor, became co- 
 heirs of their father, by the death of his only son, 
 who, in returning from Trafford with his bride (a 
 daughter of that house), perished in attempting to ford 
 the Mersey, near Northenden, on the day of his mar- 
 riage. " Submersus cum uxor." Lane. MSS. vol. xiii. 
 
 The following account of the Ashton Descent from 
 
38 
 
 1539 ^il^ mere^ed into Blackburne of Orford, through 
 the female line in Catherine Ashton, is extracted from 
 the Blackburne Pedigree, and identifies the arms in 
 the picture. 
 
 Edmund Ashton, (^) of = Janet, d. and co-heir of 
 
 Sir James Harrington, 
 
 - Chadderton, seized 
 of lands in Chad- 
 derton and Shuttle- 
 worth, died 1543. 
 
 James Ashton [tempus Ed- 
 ward VI.) inherited 
 his mother's property 
 at her death and 
 during his father's 
 lifetime, died 1 550. 
 He was 48 when his 
 father died. 
 
 Edmund, second son of 
 James, aged 27 at his 
 father's death. 
 
 of Westlee, Lancashire, 
 and of Wolfage-in-Brix- 
 worth, Northampton- 
 shire. 
 
 Agnes, d. of Ch. Main- 
 waring, of Croston, co. 
 of Chester. 
 
 = Ann,d. of Ralph Prest- 
 wich, of Hulme. 
 
 Richard Ashton (3rd son = Ann, d. of Henry Whita- 
 but eventual heir) ker, of Falkinhurst. 
 
 1 Edmund Ashton had a second son, Richard, and a daughter, 
 Margaret, who married Charles Radcliffe, of Todmorden. Their 
 son, Ferdinand RadcUffe, was esteemed a great painter. 
 
39 
 
 Edmund Ashton 
 
 Dorothy, d. of Robert 
 Dukinfield, of Dukin- 
 field. 
 
 James Ashton, of Chad- = Katherine, d. of John 
 
 derton, Esq. 
 
 234 
 
 Greenhalgh, of Brande- 
 some, CO. of Lancaster. 
 
 5 123 4 
 
 Edmund Ashton, 6 ^3 WilHam, rector i* i* 
 
 *-i <iJ r-c i-H 
 
 of Chadderton, § | ^ 
 obt. 1664. Gent. ^ "^-^ 
 of Bedchamber 
 to D. of York, 
 Lieut, in the .S 
 Guards, d. unm. 
 
 o 
 
 ^ G C 
 
 of Prestwich, -g ^ 'g g 
 
 m.,1685, o -S 
 Martha, d. of ^ 
 
 Stephen Gey, 
 
 vicar of 
 Whalley. d. 
 1781. 
 
 James, Catherine = John Black- 
 died burne, of 
 young. Orford and 
 Newton, 
 from 
 
 Dorothy = Darcy 
 Lever, 
 LL.D. 
 of Ack- 
 rington 
 
 whom descend the Blackburnes, now of Hale Hall. 
 
 Mary Blackburne, 1847. By Buckner. d. of Sir 
 Henry Bold Hoghton, and wife of Colonel Ireland 
 Blackburne, 
 
40 
 
 Colonel Ireland Blackburne, 1874. By Archer. 
 8 ft. by 4 ft. II in. (Presented to him by the 4th 
 Royal Lancashire Militia, of which he was colonel.) 
 
 Thomas Blackburne, obit 1768. 
 
 Isaac Green, of Childwall, credited to Hogarth. 
 4 ft. 10 in. by 4 ft. i in. 
 
 The Four Philosophers, after Rubens. Justus 
 Lipsius, Grotius, Philip Rubens (his secretary) and 
 Peter Paul Rubens himself. Seneca's bust. 
 
 The Triumph of Truth over Sin; or, St. Michael 
 the Archangel. After Guido. 
 
 The Childe of Hale. Full length and size of life. 
 Vide p. 51. 
 
 Bust (in bronze) of Lord Sidmouth, and casts of 
 Duke of Gloucester, and John Blackburne, M.P., 
 1807, on the stairs and anteroom. 
 
 Pictures in the Dining Room. 
 
 Ann Blackburne. Romney. 4 ft. 10 in. by 4 ft. 
 
 d. of S. Rodbard, of Evercreech, Somersetshire. 
 1784. 
 
 John Blackburne, M.P. for Lancashire, of Hale, 
 Orford and Newton. Romney. 4 ft. 10 in. by 4 ft. 
 
 John Blackburne, of Orford and Newton, grand- 
 father of the above, by Dance. 4 ft. by 3 ft. 2 in. 
 
 Thomas Brooke. Gainsborough. 4 ft. 9 in. by 
 3 ft. 10 in. 
 
 Lord Strafford, the night before his execution, 
 and his secretary, a Mainwaring of Poever. After 
 Vandyke. 
 
41 
 
 Pictures in the Library. 
 
 John Blackburne, M.P., 1803, by Allen, 1803 (of 
 which there is a Copy by Mrs. Brooke). 
 
 John Ireland, who d. 1633. 
 
 Elizabeth, his wife, d. of Thos. Heyes. 
 
 Sir Gilbert Ireland, d. 1675. Of l^i"'' there is a 
 replica in his room. 
 
 In the Drawing Room. 
 
 Ireland Blackburne, of Hale, d. 1795. Hudson. 
 4 ft 10 in. by 3 ft. 11 in. 
 
 Mary Gascoyne, of Childwall. She died at Hale, 
 1799. Hudson. 4 ft. 10 in. by 3 ft. 11 in. 
 (Co-heiresses and great nieces of Sir Gilbert Ireland). 
 
 Dorothea Ireland Blackburne. 1875. Archer. 
 6 ft. 4^- in. by 4 ft. 7J in. 
 
 Emily Antrobus. 1875. Archer. 6 ft. 4I in. by 
 4 ft. 7i in. 
 
 (Daughters of Colonel Ireland Blackburne.) 
 Miniatures. 
 
 John Blackburne, of Orford and Newton, d. 1786, 
 and his three sons ; 
 
 Thomas, who married the Ireland heiress and 
 
 died 1768. 
 Jonathan. 
 John.' 
 
 Ann Blackburne and her youngest son, Gilbert. 
 Mrs. Mee, 1800. 
 
 Group of her four elder children. Ireland, after- 
 
 F 
 
42 
 
 wards of Hale ; Mary, married George Legh, of High 
 Legh; Anna, married Edwin Corbett, of Darnhall; 
 Elizabeth, died unmarried. Mrs. Mee, 1790. 
 
 Harriot Blackburne. Mrs. Mee, 1799. 
 
 Anna Bamford, on a patch box. By Cosway. 
 
 Isaac Blackburne (set in pearls), her brother. 
 Cosway. 
 
 Sir Gilbert Ireland, during the Protectorate. 
 
 Ann Blackburne, daughter of Mrs. Bamford of 
 Bamford. Hargreaves, 1824. 
 
 Mary Bamford (her sister), afterwards Lady Pigot. 
 Hargreaves, 1825. 
 
 Charles II, set in brilliants, presented, with a pen- 
 dant of Nell Gwyn (lost), by the D. of Gloucester 
 as a pair of clasps, to Mrs. Blackburne, of Hale, 
 1806, when in command of the northern district 
 during a time of riots in Lancashire. 
 
 Madame de Montespan, in black ebony frame. 
 
 Inferior MiniaUires. 
 
 Matilda, Queen of Denmark, sister to George III, 
 wife of Christian VII. 
 
 Christian VII, King of Denmark. From originals 
 that were destroyed in the Frederichsborg Palace 
 when it was burnt to the ground in 1859. 
 
 The Pretender and the Duke of York. Given to the 
 Mr. Bamford of that day in return for his concealing 
 the Pretender at Bamford for a night on his 
 retreat from Derby, 1745. 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots. 
 
43 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE SABAL 
 BLACKBURNIA. (Hale Palm Tree.) 
 
 This Palm was presented, when a small plant, to 
 John Blackburne by Lord Petre (a connection of 
 his by marriage) in the year 1737, and received its 
 name of Blackburnia in commemoration of him 
 (he was an excellent naturalist, who cultivated 
 many exotic plants in his delightful garden at Orford, 
 in Lancashire) ; and also of his daughter Anne, who 
 was an ardent lover of botany, and a diligent col- 
 lector of birds, insects, and testacea. So inde- 
 fatigable was she in her favourite pursuits, that she 
 studied and acquired a knowledge of Latin, in order 
 to enable her to correspond with Linnaeus. 
 
 The Palm remained at Orford till 181 7, when it 
 was removed to Hale, and the flowering of what 
 was popularly called the "Great Palm" at Hale, 
 in 1818, excited very great interest, and it continued 
 to flower and fruit annually, with the exception of 
 one year, to its death in May, 1859. In 1815 
 the insertion of the lower leaf was only two feet 
 from the ground, and at the last it measured five 
 feet in circumference, and thirty-four in height. It 
 was the only one of its growth and size that has 
 
44 
 
 flowered and fruited in Europe. The flower, in 
 growth and colouring, resembled that of the vine ; 
 the fruit (though from the size of a large seed or 
 stone having a more solid consistency) also resembled 
 the shape, growth, and colouring of bunches of 
 black grapes. It came to Lord Petre unclassed and 
 unnamed, and was supposed to be a Coryphua Umbra- 
 califeva till it flowered, when, being an unknown 
 specimen of palm, it was called as above, Sahal 
 Blachhurnia. Of two seedlings grown in 1824 by Mr. 
 Nickson, the gardener at Hale, one is now in posses- 
 sion of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, and 
 the other at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. 
 
 The earlier details of this highly prized and much 
 admired tree have been extracted from Loudon's 
 Gardener's Magazine^ with occasional notes from Rein- 
 hold Forster. 
 
 The Palm Tree withered and died in 1859, either 
 from age, or from being lowered too deep in the 
 ground. Its trunk is now in the Museum of the 
 Royal Gardens at Kew, where it gives but a dim 
 notion of what its dimensions were in the full spread 
 of its growth and beauty. 
 
45 
 
 HALE CHURCH. 
 
 St. Mary's Church, Hale, was originally a chapelry 
 in the parish of Childwall ; it is now a vicarage, and 
 is of very old standing. 
 
 Johannes de Hibernia, who was buried there in 
 1088, built the chancel, which fact was inscribed on 
 the windows of the Old Chapel, as appears from the 
 following notes. 
 
 In an old fragment of "Noats collected by 
 Thomas Chalenor," we find the following record of 
 John de Irelande (Johannes de Hibernia), vide p. 12, 
 who built the chancel of Hale Church, 1081, and 
 was buried there in 1088. 
 
 " Anno dni 1592. 
 
 Thomas Chalenor's booke, of Chester, Bridge St. 
 Studient of the laws of arms and armory — a book of 
 sundry and divers noats of evidences ; of tymes and 
 wytnesses in Cheshire, Lancashire, and Wales, &c., 
 Leafe 6. 
 
 Lichefeldie qui istam Cantavian 
 pmo dni John de Irlond militi 
 
 rd dni millimo octogecio primo. 
 
 These words I found written in a peece of glasse 
 in Hale Chappell wyndowe, in Countie of Lan- 
 
46 
 
 caster. Some peece of the glasse was broken or 
 ever I cam to the taking down of yt, but as it is now 
 in the glasse I have Imytated yt, Ire by Ire.* yt is 
 now in the keeping of Mr. John Ireland, of the 
 Hutt, 1590. pr. Thomas Chalenor." 
 
 Adam Ireland, of Hale, built a new aisle in 1308, 
 and restored the stained glass windows. Sir John 
 Irelande was buried there in 1401. 
 
 John Irelande was buried there in 1462, to whose 
 memory a monument was raised, on which we find 
 this inscription : — 
 
 " Hie jacet Joh"s Yerlond armiger, qui fuit dns de 
 Hale et dimid villae de Bebinton inferioris qui obijt 
 Sedo die Maij ano dni mcccc sexagesima sedo 
 cujus aie propicietur deus. Amen." 
 On Sir Gilbert Ireland's black marble tomb we find, 
 " Sir Gilbert Ireland, Knt., M.P. 
 
 obiit 1675, 9st3,t 51, 
 Ultimus Domus. Fiat voluntas Dei," 
 which may be translated thus — " The last of his 
 house. God's will be done." 
 
 In 1412 Pope John XXIII, for the conservation of 
 a chauntry that had been built to the church by John 
 Leyot, Dean of Chester, Rector of Bangor, Parson 
 of Malpas and Dinforth, issued an indulgence, or 
 brief, which is still in existence at Hale Hall, 
 and of which there is a translation in Gregson's 
 Fragments of Lancashire. Some lines of the origi- 
 
 Letter by letter. 
 
47 
 
 nal have been intentionally obliterated, relating to 
 the mention of prayers for the dead, probably in the 
 time of the Commonwealth; Sir Gilbert Ireland 
 being a zealous puritan and a personal friend of 
 Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 The body of the church, as it now stands, was 
 built in 1758, having been, according to tradition, a 
 black and white (ruddle and daub) appendage to the 
 old tower, at which time traces of the very early 
 burial places above mentioned seem to have been 
 lost. 
 
 The church was renovated and refitted by Colonel 
 Ireland Blackburne in 1874, when the old entrance 
 was restored, and the west door was reopened through 
 the old tower, which had been turned into a vestry 
 at the rebuilding of the present body of the church, 
 1758. 
 
 In 1 814 a new peal of six bells was given to 
 Hale Church, on one of which, presented by Mr. 
 Watkins, agent to the Hale property, is engraven, 
 " Church and King — John Watkins, Ditton, 1814." 
 
 Hale Chapelry having been in the Parish of Child- 
 wall till within the last ten years (when it became an 
 independent vicarage), seems to have depended 
 often on the services of the curate of the parish 
 church (some seven miles distant), in the absence of 
 a resident chaplain, which accounts for the difficulty 
 in procuring a regular list of the officiating priests 
 after John Leyot. 
 
 The notes from the old Court Book in the Ireland 
 
48 
 
 MSS. which contains the customs of the manor, 
 give some characteristic memoranda about Leyot, 
 who appears to have been a thorn in the side of 
 WiUiam Ireland, who wrote the account of the manor, 
 from which we shall give extracts. 
 
 The following was the inscription on Leyot's 
 tombstone in the Chancel of Hale Church, which 
 was removed when the Chapel was rebuilt in 
 1758 :- 
 
 "Hie jacet mago Johes Leyot, Decretors Baccala- 
 rius Decanus Cestr. Rector Ecclia de Malpas et 
 Bangor qui primo liberam sepulturam a summo 
 Pontifici Urbano Sexto : sumptubus suis ppys in 
 curia Romana impetravit anno dni. tempore Ricdi, 
 et quicunque dixerit devote pro ejus anima pater 
 nosteret ave habitat ccc dies indulgentia ejus anima. 
 Pro sua anima propercet Deus. Amen." * 
 
 It is just probable that the tombstone of this 
 turbulent priest was mislaid without difficulty, if not 
 designedly, by those who were building the present 
 body of the Church ; — Thomas Blackburne and 
 Ireland, his wife. Rev. Francis Ellison, chaplain. 
 
 In some notes on Hale Church in the Harleian 
 
 * Here lies Master John Le3'ot, Bachelor of Decrees, Dean of 
 Chester, Rector of the churches of Malpas and Bangor, who first 
 obtained this free burial place from the Supreme Pontiff Alexander 
 V, at his own cost, at the Court of Rome, a.d. 1400, temp. King 
 Richard II. Whoever will say a pater noster and ask for the good 
 of his soul may have 300 days of indulgence. 
 
 To his soul God be gracious. Amen. 
 
49 
 
 MSS. (folio 58, grants 52-3), we find that a market 
 and fair were granted, 1304, 31 Edward I. The fair 
 is held with the wakes, in August, but both have 
 almost disappeared under the influences of more 
 advanced civilisation or greater excitements. 
 
 G 
 
50 
 
 THE VILLAGE SCHOOL 
 
 was built by Mr. Part, who left money for a founda- 
 tion, called Part's Charity, in 1739. It stands at 
 the end of the village. Over the entrance door, facing 
 up the village, the benefactor put an inscription. 
 
 " M. S. Hoc edificium Guglielmus Part, a longa 
 majorum hujus pagi indigenarum oriundus suo 
 solius impendii extravit consuque donavit anno 
 S. H. 1739." Which may be translated as follows : — 
 "Sacred to Memory, William Part, descended of an 
 old race, long inhabitants of this village, built this 
 edifice at his own sole expense, and endowed it in 
 the year of human redemption, 1739." " 
 
 In 1876 Colonel Ireland Blackburne rebuilt it as it 
 was before, with the addition of a new and larger 
 school house, and raised the funds for a higher class 
 of education than heretofore, improving it into a 
 modern and good school. 
 
 * M. S. is Sacred to Memoiy, S. H. is here used for Salutio 
 Hominum, but I never saw it so used in a lapidary inscription." — 
 W. Beamont. 
 
51 
 
 THE CHILDE OF HALE. 
 
 John Middleton, born 1578 in Hale, and buried 
 in 1628, in Hale Churchyard, where his tombstone is 
 still to be seen, was nine feet three inches in height. 
 His measurements are thus given in Plot's History of 
 Staffordshire: — "John Middleton, commonly called 
 the ' Childe of Hale,' in Lancashire ; his hand, from 
 the carpus to the end of the middle finger, Avas 1 7 inches 
 long ; his palm 8^ inches broad, and in height he 
 wanted but six inches of the giant Goliah." His bones 
 were taken up in 1768 by the schoolmaster and parish 
 clerk of the day (Mr. Bushell), and the thigh bone (os 
 femoris) was found to measure from the hip of a 
 man of ordinary size to the ground. In 1617, Gilbert 
 Ireland, the then possessor of Hale, took Middleton 
 up to London, by invitation, to the court of King 
 James the First, who had heard of him on his way 
 through Lancashire from Scotland ; there he wrestled 
 with the King's wrestler, and put out his thumb, by 
 which awkwardness he annoyed the courtiers and was 
 sent back, the King giving him twenty pounds. He 
 returned by Oxford, and Brazenose, being then a 
 Lancashire college, he stayed there some days on 
 the invitation of the students, and had the portrait 
 
52 
 
 taken which is still to be seen in the buttery of that 
 college, and the dimensions of his foot were cut on 
 the stone of the cellar-steps. And to this day the 
 Brazenose Eight-oar is called The Childe of 
 Hale," and appears annually at the Henley Regatta. 
 
 Likenesses of this English giant are also preserved 
 at Hale Hall and at High Legh. The Childe of 
 Hale's walking-stick, 4 feet 7 inches long, is to be 
 seen in the ante-room at the latter place, with his 
 portrait, size of life, on which is inscribed in a cor- 
 ner—" The portrait of John Middleton, Child of 
 Hale, who was borne in the year 1578 a.d., and was 
 buried in Hale, 1628." 
 
 Besides Plot's Staffordshire, there is further men- 
 tion of the Childe of Hale in Baines's History of 
 Lancashire, Gregson's Fragments of Lancashire (from 
 which most of this description is taken) and in the 
 Notes to I Samuel, xvii, 4, in Bagster's edition of 
 the Bible. 
 
53 
 
 IRELAND MANUSCRIPTS AND 
 OTHER CURIOSITIES. 
 
 Of the many valuable and ancient papers pre- 
 served with care in the Hale Library, "the first and 
 chiefest" is the " Ireland Manuscript," transcribed 
 by the Camden Society, 1842, from whose ''Intro- 
 duction to Three Early Metrical Romances," edited 
 by John Robson, we extract the following : — 
 
 The origin of the early English Romances is still 
 a subject of controversy, and likely to remain so. 
 The ancient minstrels as a body were editors and 
 publishers rather than original composers. The office 
 of minstrel was neither that of poet, editor, actor, 
 nor musician, but a compound of all. The internal 
 evidence of some of the Metrical Romances goes far 
 to prove that they were written in the cloister, and 
 given to the minstrel to publish, aut prece aut pretio. 
 
 These three poems probably formed part of the 
 stock of some individual of this by-gone profession, 
 They have been apparently written from recitation, 
 and are remarkable for the complete contrast of their 
 matter, style, and diction ; they are written in the 
 same strong coarse hand, and, from the peculiar 
 dialect, probably by a native of Lancashire. The first 
 thing that strikes us in the poems themselves is the 
 
 HO 
 
54 
 
 extreme rudeness of the language, and the equal art- 
 lessness of the story; these circumstances, especially 
 when connected with the fact of their popularity, 
 which is shown by three copies written in the fifteenth 
 century being yet in existence, are evidences of a 
 very early origin. The external evidence as to the 
 age of the poems is not of much importance. 
 
 There is internal argument for iixing the date of the 
 poems prior to the assumption of the Scottish crown 
 by Edward I, while the choice of a hero from the 
 territory of Robert Bruce himself is certainly against 
 the supposition of a later period. The costume, 
 which is still more decisive, is, so far as can be 
 traced, that of the end of the thirteenth century. 
 
 The first tale occupies fifteen folios, of which one 
 or more appears to be missing, — "The Anturs^ of 
 Arther at the Tarne Wathelan." The incidents in it 
 are common-place, and the localities mentioned 
 point to Cumberland, or Westmoreland, as the 
 native soil of the author. 
 
 The second tale of Sir Amadace " begins abruptly 
 and extends over seventeen and a half folios. The 
 metre is a good specimen of alliteration, combined 
 with rhyme. 
 
 The third story, entitled " Avowynge ^ of King 
 Arther, Sir Gawen, Sir Kaye, and Sir Bawdewyn, 
 of Bretan,"^ goes through twenty-four folios. 
 
 1 Anturs — adventures. 2 Avowynge — oath. 
 2 That the Welsh were also called Bretons, we have the 
 authority of Robert of Brunne. 
 
55 
 
 The first poem may be considered as approaching 
 to tragedy; "Sir Amadace," as a melodrama, and 
 the " Avowynge " will serve not unfitly to represent 
 the genteel comedy of the period to which it belongs. 
 
 The scene of " Antur " and the " Avowynge " is 
 laid in Inglewood Forest. The Liddel Mote referred 
 to in it is an ancient and strong fortification on the 
 Lidd where it runs into the Eske.^ 
 
 The volume contains also a number of documents 
 connected with the Magna Curia of Hale of the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The remainder 
 of the manuscript (twelve folios) contains a mis- 
 cellaneous assortment of memoranda of events 
 happening within the manor, as claims of wreck, 
 waythes and strays, kele toll,^ coroner's inquests 
 (the Lord of Hale is still the coroner), ordinances, 
 and a long list of the purchases and usurpations 
 of Magister Johannes Leyot, of whom hereafter.^ 
 These are of various dates, from 3 to 14 Henry VI. 
 In these entries William Ireland is often personally 
 referred to. Some interesting extracts from these are 
 given in the account of the " Manor of Hale." 
 
 Robert of Brunne speaks of a poet named Kendale, 
 
 1 We give on the following page a few lines from each of the 
 Romances, with a fucsimile of the original, which, by the kind per- 
 mission of the Committee of the Camden Society, we extract from 
 their volume. 
 
 2 The Lord of the Manor of Hale has to this day the right to 
 demand " keel toU" on every vessel aground on his shores. He is 
 entitled to carry away the anchor in case of refusal. 
 
 2 See page 79. 
 
56 
 
 and in the records of the Courts of Hale we find 
 WilHam Kendale, chaplain, who was living there at 
 the commencement of the fifteenth century, at the 
 time that William Ireland, to whom we owe the 
 preservation of the manuscripts, came into posses- 
 sion of Hale, 141 3. As the name Kendale points to a 
 northern origin, and as the nature of the stanza 
 suits well enough with the old chronicler's descrip- 
 tion, is it not possible that the manuscript may have 
 belonged to, or have been written by, the officiating 
 priest of the village of Hale ? — perhaps a descendant 
 of the ancient poet. For the following description 
 of this manuscript we are also indebted to the 
 Camden Society's volume : — 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPT. 
 
 The Ireland MS. is in quarto, written on a coarse 
 parchment, with 21 — 24 lines in a page : there are 
 neither illuminations nor ornamented capitals ; and, 
 although each tale is divided into Fittes, there is no 
 punctuation of any kind, nor is there a title to any of 
 the poems, except at the conclusion of Sir Amadace. 
 
 The first tale begins at the top of a page, occupies 
 fifteen folios, and ends at the bottom of a page ; one 
 folio, if not more, appears to be missing, and the tale 
 of Sir Amadace, which begins abruptly, extends over 
 I folios, ending on the second page of the eighteenth. 
 The third story commences in the same page as the 
 second concludes, goes through 24 folios, and thirteen 
 lines of the next page ; then follows a blank folio, 
 
59 
 
 THE ANTURS OF ARTHER. 
 XL. 
 
 Thenne Syr Gauan the gode was graythet in grene, 
 
 With his griffuns of gold engrelet fulle gay, 
 Trowlt with trulofes, and tranest be-twene ; 
 
 Opon a startand stede he strikes oute of stray. 
 The tother in his turnyng, he talkes tille him in tene, 
 And sayd, " Querto draues thou so dre3ghe, and 
 mace suche deray ? " 
 He sqwapputte him in at the squyre, with a squrd 
 kene, 
 
 That greuut Sir Gauan euer tille his dethe day. 
 
 SIR AMADACE. 
 I. 
 
 Thenne the knyy3t and the stuard fre, 
 Thay casten there houe hit best my3te be 
 
 Bothe be ferre and nere ; 
 The stuard sayd, " Sir, ^e awe wele more, 
 Thenne 36 may of 30ur londus rere. 
 
 In faythe this seuyn 3ere. 
 
 THE AVOWYNGE OF KING ARTHER. 
 I. 
 
 He that made vs on the mulde, 
 And fair fourmet the folde, ^ 
 Atte his wille, as he wold ; 
 
 The see, and the sande ; 
 GifFe hom joy, that wille here. 
 Of du3ti men, and of dere. 
 
 H 
 
6i 
 
 and the rest of the volume (40 folios) consists of 
 records and memoranda of the court of Hale. 
 
 These records have evidently been inserted at 
 various times, and apparently by William Irland, 
 Lord of the Manor of Hale during the reigns of 
 Henry V and VI and at the beginning of Edward IV. 
 A careful examination has satisfied me that the first 
 five folios after the poems, were left blank by the 
 original transcriber of these excerpta, who began his 
 labours with a pentameter, 
 
 " Assit principio Sancta Maria meo. 
 
 " Curia de Hale in principio Rotuli, tenta ibidem 
 die martis proximo post festum Sancti Michaelis, 
 anno regni regis Ricardi secundi tercio decimo, et 
 super dorsum ejusdem Rotuli, pro tak. Roberti 
 Diconson, pro tribus porcis, iijd." 
 
 To this is appended a marginal note in another 
 hand. ** Respice bene de tak Roberti Dicunson, quia 
 aula Johannes Leyot fuit quondam tenementum dicti 
 Roberti." It appears from various entries, that John 
 Leyot, Dean of Chester, Rector of Malpas and Den- 
 forth, and Vicar of Hale, obtained possession of 
 various lands and buildings, and disputed the 
 manorial rights; he died, as is stated in one of 
 the memoranda, 6 Henry VI, before which this note 
 must have been written. The following page begins 
 
 " ROTULO VI^ DE FESTO NaTALIS DoMINI, ANNO Rl- 
 
 CARDi QUARTO DECIMO ; " and contains excerpts from 
 various Rolls, which are specified, but without date. 
 In the eleventh page we have " Nunc incipit quad- 
 
62 
 
 RAGESIME ANNO REGNI REGIS HeNRICI QUARTI SEXTO. 
 
 RoTULO xi^ RoTUL. Pargamene." In page 14 we 
 find " Modo incipit Tractatus parvi quaterni," with 
 dates of the i6th, 17th, and 19th of Richard II, and 
 receipt of rents of the i6th and 17th, and a heryot 
 of the 1 8th year of the same monarch. The extracts 
 from this Parvus Quaternus fill nearly six folios, and 
 are divided into seventy sections ; one only is of a 
 later date, and this, with the concluding sections, is 
 as follows : — 
 
 " LXVII. Adam del Colcotes Ballivus libertatis 
 Manerii de Hale narravit Willielmo Irland, domino 
 dicti Manerii, anno regis Henrici quinti quinto, quod 
 Thomas Layet perquesivit terras et tenementa de 
 etc. quondam terrge Johannis le Hayre ; et similiter 
 perquesivit terras de Cecilia Shipman, et Margeria 
 sorore sua, et ilia ; et terre predicte simul jacent ; et 
 pro tenumentis Cecilie, ut de redditu, solvit domino. 
 Ideo querendum est. 
 
 LXVIII. Thomas Layet, quia pandoxavit semel, 
 ijd. Et quia concelavit le fowundynge pot, iijd. 
 
 Item, idem Thomas Layet valde juxta, viz. duo- 
 decimus pro tol de uno pullo, ijd. stat super idem latus 
 folii et ibi bene loquitur de tol. 
 
 LXVII 1 1. Thomas Layet pro sex porcis appre- 
 ciatis ixs. in eodem loco similiter fit de aliis, ut patet 
 ibidem. 
 
 LXX. Item de tenumentis Johannis de Irland de 
 bovat' quondam Roberti de Chester per totum annum, 
 vjd. oh, quad. 
 
63 
 
 Deoeodem Johanne pro tenument. in Redale, iiijd. 
 
 Deo eodem Johanne pro tenument. in Morecote, viz. 
 quinque quadrantes vd. 
 
 De eodem Johanne pro tenument. Ranulphi 
 Hancokson per Cartam annuatim de proprio con- 
 cessio, xixd. ob. 
 
 De eodem Johanne pro tenument. quandam David 
 patris sui, iiijs. et ista Recordacio stat in ultimo fine 
 parvi quaterni super parvum folium. Jam parvus 
 quaternus fenitur. 
 
 Nunc incipiunt Rotuli Antiqui de papiro scripto, 
 qui sunt quinque de numero. 
 
 LXXP. Curia de Hale tenta ibidem die Lune in 
 septimana de Quasimodo, anno regis Ricardi Secundi 
 xijo." 
 
 Copies of other paper rolls of the reign of Henry 
 IV follow ; the first in his eleventh, the second in his 
 fourth year. The third entry, with a date, is 
 
 " LXXVHP. Johannes le Clerke queritur de 
 Ricardo Brugge de placito,eo quod predictus Ricar- 
 dus debet et injuste detinet servicium factum pro 
 duobus annis de Officio hayward, anno regis Ricardi 
 Secundi xxij° et anno regis Henrici Quarti primo, 
 ad damnum iijs. iiijd. Et defend, negat, et ponit 
 se ad patriam, per quam quer. recuperet vjd. et 
 predictus Ricardus in misericordia. 
 
 Feniti sunt Rotuli, qui sunt quinque de numero. 
 
 Nunc incipit Tractatus parvorum Rotulorum de 
 extractis, undecim de numero." 
 
 These excerpts follow an inverse order, beginning 
 
64 
 
 with the eleventh roll, i Henry IV, and ending with 
 the first, at the 86th chapter. They are followed by 
 the receipt of Rents at the Annunciation term, i 
 Henry V, and at Martinmas 4 Henry IV. 
 
 The next series of documents has every appearance 
 of having been entered about the period of their 
 respective dates. They are full and particular records 
 of the proceedings, fines, presentations, appointment 
 of officers, and list of the Juries of the Courts of 
 Hale as follows : — 
 
 *' Tuesday after the Conception, 14 Henry IV. 
 
 Tuesday after the Annunciation, i Henry V. 
 
 Thursday, St. Wilfrid, i Henry V. 
 
 Monday before St. Andrew, i Henry V. 
 
 Monday after the Annunciation, 2 Henry V. 
 
 Tuesday after St. Wilfrid, 2 Henry V. 
 
 Monday after St. Martin, 2 Henry V. 
 
 Thursday St. Martin, 3 Henry V. 
 
 Wednesday eve of St. Luke, 3 Henry V. 
 
 Tuesday before St. Andrew, 3 Henry V. 
 
 Wednesday before St. Margaret, 4 Henry V. 
 
 Thursday after St. Catharine, 4 Henry V." 
 As a specimen it will be sufficient to give the last 
 of these entries : — 
 
 " Curia de Hale tenta ibidem die Jovis proximo post 
 festum Sancte Katerine virginis anno regni regis 
 Henrici Quinti quarto. 
 
 Inquisitio capta ex officio per sacramentum 
 Willielmi Hogesone, Thome Penultone, Galfridi de 
 Penultone, Henrici de Bruge, Rogeri Robynson, 
 
65 
 
 Willielmi de Torbok, Ricardi Henrysone, Johannis 
 Gierke, Johannis del Crosse, Robert! de Wysewalle, 
 Willielmi de Speke, Robert! Gille, Jurat, dicunt quod 
 Robertus Gille ienvenit (invenit) j swarme, et stat in 
 orto Willielmi Speke. Henricus Poghdene pro con- 
 simili in orto suo. Willielmus de Thornetone pro 
 consimili in orto suo. Item Jurati dicunt quod 
 Thomas Layot obstupasset rectum cursom aque, 
 inter predictum Thomam et Galfridum Penultone. 
 Item dicunt quod Alicia Pogheden obstupasset 
 rectum cursum aque, inter eam et Willielmum de 
 Torbok. Item dicunt quod Ricardus de Rygby obstu- 
 passet rectum cursum aque, versus hostium Willielm, 
 de Torbok. Item dicunt quod Ricardus Rygby 
 dolavit Sappelynges in le Wethyns. Item dicunt 
 quod Thomas Penultone dolavit iij. sappelynges in 
 loco predicto. Item dicunt quod Willielmus de 
 Speeke pro transgressione super le lond jacent. 
 per ortum predict! Willielmi. Item dicunt quod 
 Stephanus Eliot fecit transgressionem super lond 
 predictum. Item dicunt quod uxor Willielmi Han- 
 kynsone fecit transgressionem super le mekyl forlonge 
 halond. Item dicunt quod Ricardus de Rygby fecit 
 transgressionem super le a landes super longehille. 
 Item dicunt quod Thomas Layat tenet a gappe 
 appertum versus le halleyerde. 
 
 Alicia uxor Robert! Pecelle pro fraccione sigillii iijd. 
 
 Le Reve Willielmus de Torbok ad festum Sancti 
 MichaeHs Archangel!, anno regis Henrici quinti 
 quarto. 
 
66 
 
 Constabularius Stephanus Eliot ad terminum pre- 
 dictum juratus. 
 B relamen * ^^^^ Coldecotes, \ jurati ad ter- 
 Willielmus de Thorne- j minum pre- 
 ton, ^ dictum. 
 
 Johannes Thurstansone queritur de Ade de Colde- 
 cotes et de omnibus tenentibus ville de Hale, in 
 placito trangressionis, et dicit quod ipsi distruct. et 
 comederunt cum averiis suis herbagium suum inter 
 territorium de Hale per duos annos ultime elapsos, 
 pro quibus solitus fuit habere ijs. per annum. Ad 
 dampnum iijs. iiijd, Def. negant per inquis. diet. 
 xiiijd. de dampno. 
 
 . rr . . Willielmus de Torbok,) ^ 
 Afteratorest ^. , \ Turati. 
 
 Ricardus Henreson, ) 
 
 Johannes Thurstansone queritur de Ade de Colde- 
 cotes in placito transgressionis, pro uno ferthynge 
 accepto de manu Roberti Coldecotes per xv annos, 
 ad dampnum ixs. Def. negat per Inq. cont'. usque 
 proximam curiam. 
 
 Domina Margeria, que fuit uxor Johannis Irland 
 militis, queritur de heredibus de Johanne Johnson 
 Atkynsone, quare noluit venire et solvere heriot. 
 Def. negat per inquisitionem conf. usque proximam 
 curiam." 
 
 Several other presentations follow, but enough has 
 been given to show that, while the writer made such 
 extracts from the earlier rolls as he thought of impor- 
 
 * In another place " Burelaymen." 
 
 t Elsewhere " Affirmatores," and "Affirmatores Curie." 
 
67 
 
 tance, here he gives, in full detail, the proceedings 
 of each court ; the two last quoted paragraphs, where 
 the charges are referred to the next court, were 
 evidently inserted by a contemporary ; and of course 
 we ascertain the period when the parchment book, 
 instead of recounting the wonderful feats of King 
 Arthur and his knights, became a record of the 
 squabbles of alewives and tolls upon pigs. This 
 portion occupies eleven folios, and was probably 
 begun by William Irland upon his coming into pos- 
 session of the estate, which appears to have been at 
 the commencement of the reign of Henry V in 1413. 
 It is probable that they have been continued to a 
 later period than the 4 Henry V, as there seems a 
 deficiency of one or more quires of parchment in 
 this part of the MS. The whole of this portion is 
 written in a different ink to the rest. 
 
 The remainder of the manuscript (12 folios) con- 
 tains a miscellaneous assortment of memoranda of 
 events happening within the Manor, as claims of 
 Wreck, Waythes, and Strayes, Kele Toll, Coroners' 
 Inquests (the Lord of Hale is still the Coroner), 
 Ordinances, and a long account of the purchases and 
 usurpations of Magister Johannes Leyot, who has 
 been already named. These are of various dates 
 from 3 to 14 Henry VI. In these entries William 
 Irland is often personally referred to, as in the follow- 
 ing passage : — 
 
 " Item datum est mihi, Willielmo Irland filio Johan- 
 nis Irland militis, quod die Lune proximo ante festum 
 
 I 
 
68 
 
 Invencionis Sancte Crucis, anno Regis Henrici sexti 
 tercio, Johannes Leyot persona Ecclesie de Malepas 
 et Bangore," &c. Some of the documents connected 
 with Leyot go back as far as 9 Richard II. 
 
 One of these, as it names WiUiam Kendale, I shall 
 transcribe. 
 
 " Memorandum quod die Dominica proximo post 
 festum Sancte Marie Magdelane, anno regis Henrici 
 Quinti nono, et Anno Domini M^°CCC°^°XX^°, Johan- 
 nes Leyot Rector de Denforthe et postea Dacanus 
 Cestrie, et modo Rector Ecclesie de Malepas, eodem 
 die monstravit seu protulit in Capella de Hale unam 
 literam attornatoriam Johannis Ducis Befordie (sic), 
 fratris regis Henrici quinti, sub sigillo ejusdem Ducis, 
 et declaravit palam et publice coram omnibus ibidem 
 presentibus, quod idem Dux per literam suam attor- 
 natoriam misit Thomam Alluerwyk, servientem Jo- 
 hannis Leyot, Attornatum ejusdem Ducis, ad recipi- 
 endum seisinam in omnibus terris et tenumentis que 
 idem Dux habuit ex dono et feoffamento Willielmi 
 Kendale Capellani, celebrantem apud Hale presbiter. 
 ejusdem Johannis Leyot, que terre et tenumenta idem 
 Johannes occulte dedit dicto Willielmo ; et si aliquis 
 infra dominium de Hale dederit occulte dedit contra 
 formam et consuetudinem manerii de Hale predicti ; 
 et in declaracione dixerunt quod Willielmus Kendale 
 dedit feoffamentum predicto Duci, sed carta inde 
 Willielmus Irland, tunc temporis dominus Manerii 
 de Hale, dixit quod non videbat, sed dixit quod vidit 
 literam attornatoriam sub sigillo ejusdem Ducis. 
 
69 
 
 Que terre et tenementa idem Johannes Leyot per- 
 quisivit de diversis tenentibus Johannis Irland militis, 
 et Willielmi Irland filii ejusdem Johannis, in Hale, 
 ut patet in Rentale ejusdem ville. Et causa esthec, 
 quia quod Johannes Leyot dedit Wiellielmo Kendale 
 presbitero, et similiter ordinavit quod predictus Wil- 
 lielmus daret predicta tenumenta Duci predicto, quia 
 dictus Johannes Leyot habuit filium morantem cuiii 
 predicto Duci, vocatum Magister Ricardus Leyot, et 
 fuit Cancellarius ejusdem Ducis; et pro magna affec- 
 tione et fide quam habuerunt in Ducem, idem Johan- 
 nes Leyot constituit ordinavit et imaginavit tale 
 feofFamentum et donacionem factam eidem Duci, ad 
 se manutenendum et supportandum erga Willielmum 
 Irland dominum suum, in magnum prejudicium ejus- 
 dem domini sui et in subtractione servicii et herieleti 
 et consuetudinum ex antiquo usitatum." 
 
 The four first folios have been filled up afterwards 
 with similar materials ; the first memorandum bear- 
 ing the latest date in the book 4 Edward IV (1465 ): 
 the last, dated the year before, names William Irland 
 as being still Lord of Hale. At the top of the first 
 page we have what has been intended for a hexameter 
 verse : 
 
 " Ad mea principia tibi dico salve Maria." 
 
 Two quires of parchment at least have been lost 
 from the beginning, and as many from the end of the 
 book: and several folios at the end are so faded as 
 to be hardly intelligible. 
 
 Various marginal notes have been added at different 
 
70 
 
 times ; we find at the top of page 68 " Tomas Yr- 
 lond," probably a Thomas Ireland who was living 
 temp. Henry VIII. At p. i8, "Mary Greene Aug. 
 y° 3? 1736, this book belongs to Hale Hall for ever." 
 Other references seem to have been written about 
 the end of the sixteenth century. 
 
 The binding of the manuscript is of a primitive sort. 
 Two stout oaken backs, each half an inch thick, 
 and guiltless of a plane, are bound together by seven 
 thongs of white leather, which pass twice through 
 each of the boards, fixed by wooden wedges where 
 they commence on one side, and their ends nailed 
 down on the other. Two thongs of the like material 
 kept the book closed when their ends were fixed on 
 brass nails, one of which still projects from the front 
 board. 
 
 There are three copies known of the "Anturs," 
 the Thornton manuscript, in Lincoln Cathedral, the 
 date of which is 1440 ; the Douce manuscript, Bod- 
 leian Library; and the Ireland manuscript, at Hale. 
 
 In addition to this there is an illuminated manu- 
 script book of poems, dated 1320, by Rolle, the 
 Hermit of Hampole. These poems consist of " De 
 Morte Purgatorio," " Dei Judicii," and the " Stimu- 
 lus Conscientia3, or the Pryk of Conscience," Seven 
 Penitential Psalms. The latter was printed in 
 Warton's History of Poetry ; there is also the Roll, 
 showing the descent and many of the particulars 
 of the Manor of Hale, from the time of the grant 
 of the manor by King John, referred to on p. 5. 
 
71 
 
 HALE MANOR. 
 
 The Lordship of the Manor of Hale, which has 
 been for so many years held by the family of the 
 present holders, gives many privileges peculiar to 
 the place. 
 
 The following account of some of them is extracted 
 from Kuerden's MS., quoted in Baines' Lancashire. 
 
 The customs of the manor are enumerated in a 
 claim preferred by Sir John Ireland to have 
 wreck of the sea, waif, stray, royal fish taken within 
 the manor, assize of bread and beer, and a view of 
 frank pledge. A court, called the Magna Cura de 
 Hale, used to be held yearly on Wednesday before 
 the feast of St. Andrew, and a court-leet and court- 
 baron on Michaelmas day, at the " Child of Hale " 
 Inn. On these occasions the constables, a coroner 
 for Hale only, two water-bailiffs, burleymen, ale- 
 tasters, and house and fire-lookers used to be chosen. 
 These courts, however, have not been held for a 
 number of years. The lord of Hale enjoyed (in 
 addition to the feudal privileges of waif, stray, and 
 wreck of the sea) anchorage money of 4d. for every 
 vessel that cast anchor on the Lancashire side of the 
 channel within the Hmits of the manor, or shipped 
 
72 
 
 goods from Hale. The lord has also the tithe fish 
 caught in the river within the limits of the manor, but 
 this is commuted for the whole caught on Friday in 
 every week. The following particular customs are 
 found in the Court Book of Hale : — 
 
 " i6 Richard H (1392-3). Wayft. — It was presented 
 that there were a sheep and lamb at the house of 
 John Atkinson, of the value of i2d. Thomas Leyot, 
 sworn constable. John Colls was at Hale with a 
 ship lying in LadypuU, and have bought and taken 
 24 quarters of barley, paid to Roger Robinson, bailiff 
 of the manor, 4d. Sir John Ireland's Hale Toll, 
 according to the custom of the manor. 1404. Persons 
 presented for fishing on the Domain : all in Hale and 
 Halewood fined for unlawful fishing in the several 
 fisheries of the lord without license. 141 5. — An 
 action brought against Thomas Smith, chaplain, for 
 cutting wood. Persons fined 4d. for a breach of the 
 peace ; common drunkards fined, men, 2s., women, is. 
 each. A person presented for refusing to sell ale to 
 Thomas Leyot and others, 4d. ; for stopping water- 
 course, not repairing their buildings, committing 
 waste on the lands ; a dog biting a sheep, fined lod. ; 
 heriots chargeable on change of tenements, persons- 
 for not working in harvest-time, for scolding, &c. 
 13 Henry VI (1434-5). — Richard de Bewdin, de Liver- 
 pool, and Thomas Flynne de BoteshuU de Hale, with 
 a ship laying in Ladypull, took 20 quarters of corn 
 away, which they had bought and paid for. — To 
 Roger Robinson, bailiff of the liberty, they paid 4d. 
 
73 
 
 14 Henry VI (1435-6). — It happened within the lord- 
 ship of Hale, on Saturday before the feast of St. 
 Luke, after the hour of nine in the evening, that 
 John Pogheden was in a boat or canoe on the sea, 
 and casually fell in over the side of the canoe, and 
 was drowned (to whose soul God be merciful) ; upon 
 which it was presented that divers goods therein 
 named were delivered by Roger Robinson, the bailiff, 
 to Henry Pogheden, the father of John, to keep to 
 the use of the said lord, as wrecks of the sea ; and 
 shortly after a frigate, or royal boat, was cast on 
 shore, and seized as a wreck of the sea. A person 
 was taken up opposite Oglet by William Norris, 
 Henry le Syre, Hugh Robinson, and John Plae, 
 sailing on the sea ; a jury called — John Cunliffe, of 
 the parochial chapel, William Mercer, chaplrdn, 
 Richard Harryson, Robert Gill, John Penultone, 
 Robert Wyswell, William Ireland, lord of Hale." 
 
 KEEL TOLL. 
 
 The following form of Warrant for the annual 
 appointment of Water Bailiff of the Manor of Hale 
 will be interesting : — 
 
 " Forasmuch as there is, and, since out of mind, 
 has been, a Priveledge and Right, belonging to the 
 Lord, or Lords, for the time being, of the Manor of 
 Hale, in the county of Lancaster, to receive here, 
 and take a Duty, for Anchorage, from every ship 
 and vessel, which shall touch and lay an Anchor, to 
 any part of the Manor or lordship of Hale afore- 
 
74 
 
 said. And forasmuch as you, whose name is under- 
 written, are elected, as one of the said Water 
 Bailiffs, to serve the said office for this present year, 
 or untill, from the said office, you shall lawfully be 
 discharged. These are, therefore to require you, 
 duely and diligently, to execute the said office, and 
 from the master of every ship or vessel, which shall 
 touch, or anchor within the Manor of Hale, afore- 
 said, so demand, and receive, the sum of fourpence 
 1 for anchorage, as has been usually accustomed. 
 
 And upon neglect, or refusal of Payment, you are 
 hereby required to make Distress, for the same, 
 according to former Usage and Custom. And to 
 take to your Assistance, the Constable, or other of 
 his Majesty's Officers, within Hale aforesaid, to see 
 the King's Peace preserved, and all the Tenants 
 and other Inhabitants, within the view of the Court 
 Leet, of the said Manor of Hale, are hereby re- 
 quired to be aiding and assisting unto you, in the 
 due execution of your office, as hath been usually 
 practised. Herein, you are not to fail ; at your 
 Peril. Given under my Hand and Seal the twentieth 
 day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 seven hundred and fifty-five. 
 
 Signed, Thomas Blackburne. 
 To John Appleton, 
 
 Water BaiHff of Hale aforesaid." 
 
75 
 
 Extract from the Abstract of the Documents con- 
 nected with the Magna Curia de Hale Manor, 
 by WilHam Ireland de Hale, shewing the manners 
 and customs of that day, from 12th Richd. H 
 to 7th Henry VH. 
 
 1465. TOLL PAID TO STALLAGE. 
 
 4 Ed. IV. John Jackson of the North country, 
 Edward of Little Legh, in the Parish of Preston, 
 and with him, Nicholas Grayson, and one, said to 
 be of Northope, in Wales, passed over Hale ford 
 with horses, cattle and sheep, and was arrested by 
 Henry Penultone baylive, of the said village, for 
 their stallage, for toll ; and thereupon they paid their 
 stallage, to the baylive, in the presence of many 
 tenants of the said village. 
 
 4 Ed. IV. W^AYFE. 
 
 A certain horse was found within the Lordship of 
 Hale, by Thomas Wainwright, and was in his 
 custody three weeks and one day and was proclaimed 
 in Hale Chappell on three Lord's Days, ad altam 
 missam. And for default of some person claim- 
 ing, or making title to him, the said horse was 
 seized by the baylive of the said village into the 
 
 K 
 
76 
 
 hands of the Lord, as was customary ; the Wayfe 
 belonging to the said Lord of the Manor. 
 
 Juries' names and Inquisicos, against the Baylive 
 of West Derby Court, contrary to the Liberty upon 
 an Execution. A protest to the Baylive of the 
 Liberty of Hale, to levy with all expedition, the 
 goods of John Bell, sometime tenant of the said 
 Liberty ; because he fled his country for Felony ; for 
 that he stole three calves, of Roger del Mersh, of 
 Kengodelph, and two calves of John Johnson of 
 Hale, which were appraised, and found by Inquisi- 
 tion to be in the hands of divers persons. The 
 Juries' names were— Roger Robinson, John le 
 Clerk, Robt. de Coldcotes, Robt. de Wyswall, Michael 
 Barin, Richd. Rigbye, John Johnson, Adam de Cold- 
 cotes, Thomas de Penultone, Will. Poghdene, Thos. 
 Leyot, John Groggs, and Henry del Brage, who find 
 that the said John had sold divers cattle to divers 
 persons, and that the Baylive of Derby (West 
 Derby) Court had upon an Execution, seized divers 
 other things, contrary to the Liberty. 
 
 1473. FOR CUTTING OAKS, &c., IN THE 
 WITHEYS AND HALEWOOD. 
 
 It is agreed at the Court held at Hale, by the 
 Lord, and four of the village, that if any of the 
 neighbours aforesaid, cut down any Oaks or Sap- 
 lings, in the Witheys and in the Hale wood, shall 
 
77 
 
 forfeit for every one, 3d., 46. and for every crab-tree 
 I id. Every person in Hale, who have one or more 
 swine, of the age of half a year, shall pay id. for 
 every one, and that every one, that have swine 
 itinerate in the fields of Hale, shall pay id., and if 
 any person will not pay it, to forfeit such swine to 
 the Lord. 
 
 Persons prosecuted for leaving gapps open in 
 their fences, whereby their neighbours suffer damage. 
 
 Divers persons prosecuted for not coming to reap 
 for the Lord, and are fined 8d. 
 
 1455. 33 H. VI. 
 
 It is presented, that divers goods were found by 
 divers servants (therein named) of John Ireland, 
 lord of the Manor of Hale, in a house within the 
 manor aforesaid received by the hands of a certain 
 Robber, and were seized into the hands of the Lord 
 as escheat, by virtue of the Liberty of the said 
 village. 
 
 IT. & VI. That on Febry. next after the Feast of 
 the Conception, that William Norris, Henry le Syre, 
 John Plowme, Hugh Robinson, and John le Norris 
 sailed upon the sea of Mersee, over against Ogelet, 
 and saw a drowned man swimming in the sea, and 
 they took him, and tyed him by a rope, and drew him 
 to the lands of the lord of Hale, that he might have 
 Christian burial place, and sent for the priest, to 
 wit, John CunlifFe of the Parochial Chappell of the 
 
78 
 
 same place, and to Will. Morecote, chaplain, and to 
 Richard Harrison, Robert Gill, John Penultone, the 
 elder, Robert Jankynson, and Robert Wyswall, who 
 would act some time, until they had taken counsel 
 of William Ireland ; who, being advised by him, 
 buryed the body, and it was required by the said 
 William how much he had upon him, of gold and 
 silver, and how it was answered that when they 
 took him upp, he had in his purse 3s. GJd., which 
 William le Norris took from him, other things therein 
 mentioned, whereupon the said William Ireland 
 devised that the silver so taken from the body drowned 
 should be delivered by William Norris to the custody 
 of Roger Robinson, Baylive of the Manor of Hale, to 
 the use of the lord, as Dower of the Sea. Where- 
 upon there came the drowned man's wife and 
 daughter, and knew him by his cloathes, and divers 
 other signs, to be one John Syers of Moles in the 
 county of Chester, drowned b}^ the space of 6 
 months, and they prayed, for the love of God, that 
 there should be delivered to them 3s. 6fd., to dis- 
 pose thereof, for his soul ; and the said William 
 Ireland, considering and seeing that the said body 
 came not to the land of the Lord of Hale by the flux 
 of the sea, but by the coercion of the said William 
 Norris and others, whereupon the said William 
 Ireland commanded the said Roger Robinson to 
 return the said 3s. 6Jd. to the said Will : Norris, 
 and the said wife and daughter of the deceased, and 
 the said cloathes also. 
 
79 
 
 It happened that in the Eve of All Saints, 1423, 
 John the son of Peter Walley of Runcorne, intending 
 to pass the ford of Mersey, lying between Hale and 
 Weston, with two horses laden with ffish, from 
 Formby, and riding upon another horse, and enter- 
 ing the ford within Hale, they two horses with the 
 ffish got safe over, and the said John Walley and 
 his horse were drowned, in the sight of John 
 Chelsham, Robert Rogerson Robinson, and at the 
 return tide the horse was found, as Dower of the 
 Sea, and had upon him a good saddle, and four 
 irons on his feet. 
 
 4 H. V. 1420. 
 
 John Leyot, Rector of Dinforth, afterwards Dean 
 of Chester, then Rector of the Church of Malpas, 
 produced in the Chappell of Hale, a letter of 
 Attorney of John, Duke of Bedford, brother of King 
 Henry V, under the seal of the said Duke, and 
 declared openly and publicly, that the said Duke, 
 b}^ the said letter, sent Thos. Allerwyk, servant of 
 the said John Leyot, to take seizin in all the lands 
 and tenements, which the said Duke had of the gift 
 of feoffment of William Kendale, chaplain officiating 
 at Hale, priest of the said John Leyot : which land 
 and tenements the said John Leyot had privately 
 given to the said Will. Kendale ; and if any one 
 within the lordship of Hale gave it secretly, he did it 
 contrary to the custom of the manor. And in the 
 conversation they said that Will. Kendale had en- 
 
8o 
 
 feofFed the said Duke : butt, said Wm. Ireland, the 
 Lord of the Manor said he did not see the feoffment' 
 but he did see the letter of attorney, of the lands, &c., 
 which John Leyot had purchased of divers tenants 
 of John Ireland, Knt., and of William Ireland, son 
 of said John ; and the cause is this ; that John Leyot 
 gave to Will. Kendale, priest, and also ordered that 
 he should give, the said tenements to the Duke ; 
 because the said John Leyot had a son, inhabiting 
 with the said Duke, called Master Rychard Leyot, 
 who was his chancellor, and for the great affection 
 and faith they had in the said Duke, the said John 
 Leyot appointed and ordayned such donation to the 
 said Duke, to maintain and support against William 
 Ireland, his lord, to the great prejudice of the said 
 lord and substraction of his services, Heriots and 
 customs antiently used. 
 
 1410. — John Leyot, parson of the church of Mal- 
 pas, bought one hall of John Blackburne, sometime 
 lord of Garston, which stood in the pull (pool ?) in 
 Holland's Hey, and built the said hall in Hale, upon 
 the comyn, called the old Bernestres, near the two 
 acres which he had of Robert Dycconson, which one 
 Henry Mallison, ancestor of the said Dycconson, 
 had of the gift of feoffment, of Adam de Ireland, 
 ancestor of William Ireland, and produces his 
 grant, rendering 5d. ann. ; that the said John Leyot 
 purchased 8 acres of land in Hale Bank, near Bar- 
 ker's ffield, called Malyns Hey, of Mathew Pull, and 
 showed the original grant from Richard de Mida. 
 
8i 
 
 1 8 Richard II. 1395. — Master John Leyot en- 
 croached one great ditch, near the highway, to the 
 great prejudice thereof to the lordshipp, and said he 
 had license. 
 
 Mr. John Leyot gave unto his mother, and made 
 unto her an estate of one messuage, and half an oxgang 
 of 4od. per annum. 8 Richard II. — That John Leyot 
 had not paid rent for his hoggs for two years, and 
 that he had 40 hoggs. 
 
 There was a certain discord about a fishery, 
 between Master John Leyot on the one part, and 
 John del Crosse, son of John Johnson Atkynson, on 
 the other ; that whereas the said John Leyot had 
 three acres of land, where he had built a hall, of 
 Robert Dycconson, and says that he had a fishery, 
 called the Hoghe fish-yard, which the said John del 
 Crosse occupied unjustly ; and says that at the same 
 time that the said Dycconson enfeoffed him of the said 
 moss and three acres, he enfeoffed him of the ground 
 where there had been antiently a fishery ; and the 
 said Robert Dycconson putt his hook into the hole 
 of the said fishery, and said, " I give the seizin of 
 one fishery belonging to my demesne," and thereupon 
 the said William Ireland took the said fishery into 
 his hands. 
 
 Whereupon the said John Leyot, for his right to 
 the said fishery, putt himself in " Alto et Basso," viz. : 
 (to arbitration or judgment) of the said William 
 Ireland, lord of the said village, and the same day 
 came before the said William Ireland, and produced 
 
82 
 
 the deed, under the name of Adam de Ireland 
 (ancestor of the said William), whereby he granted 
 to Richard, son of Henry, son of Malyns, 5d. annum, 
 land called the old barne yard, lying between 
 Morecote on the one part, and the lands of John 
 Ireland and Will. Torbock and others on the other 
 part, rent 5d. at Michaelmas. Test. John le Norris, 
 Willm. de Moleyns and others. 
 
 And afterwards the said John Leyot, being sworn 
 as to the seizin of the said fishery, upon the great 
 and new missal, the said William Ireland, consider- 
 ing the premises, ordered that the said John Leyot 
 should have the seisin of the said fishery, and having 
 the right of the lord, the said John Leyot gave to 
 said Crosse, for his labour about building, the said 
 fishery, 15s. And at the same time purchased 
 of Cecily Shipman, a haland in the Morecote, 
 held in socage ; and I, William Ireland, would 
 not admit him to pay a heriot, because he pleaesd 
 not us. Further, let it it be enquired if any remedy 
 can be by Writt or Decree, that the said John 
 Leyot had a halland in Morecote, mortgaged for him 
 for 3d. and 4d. by Stephen Eliot. " In inquiratur es 
 remedium." Also it is given to be understood by me, 
 William Ireland, son of John Ireland, Knt., that John 
 Leyot, parson of Malpas and Bangor, after the death 
 Amille Port, who had 2 orchards or ovds, with a 
 chamber built on the priest's raft chamber, for the 
 term of her life, by the gift of Roger Poghdene, who 
 was then dead ; whereupon the said John Leyot 
 
83 
 
 showed to Will. Ireland twice, under the names of 
 Roger Poghdene, son of the said Richard, that if the 
 said John Leyot, 'ordinavit' a chantry at Hale, that 
 then the said Roger was pleased that these, the 
 said lands, should go to the said chantry ; but if not 
 the said John Leyot should be his attorney, to repay 
 the profits, all which was contrary to the will of the 
 lord, and therefore seized by the baylive. 
 
 6 H. VI. 1428. — It is presented that Master John 
 Leyot, tenant of the lord of Hale, was dead, which 
 said John, died (6 Henry VI), who held of the Lord 
 four messuages, and certain lands, and Tenements^ 
 in the village, and in the fields of Hale ; and that 
 there was a herriot due to the Lord, according to the 
 customs of the Manor. 
 
 I H. VI. 1422. — That the said John Leyot, began 
 to make a declaration, about the two acres, which 
 he had from Dycconson, whereupon his hall stood ; 
 which was finished on one side, but from mention in 
 another declaration on the north side of the land to 
 the further end of the morecote and had encroached 
 on William Ireland. That the said John Leyot 
 bought of Henry Chernock, one water-mill, that the 
 said mill was rebuilt at the house of John Leyot, by 
 Thos. Coley and Mathew Walmesley, carpenters, 
 of the parish of Malpas ; upon the land late of 
 Robert Dicconson, ann. dmi. 1425, to the great 
 prejudice of the lord, retraction of his multures, and 
 to the oppression of the lord's millers. 
 
 7 H. VI. 1428. — A presentment of all the lands, 
 
 L 
 
84 
 
 that belonged to Master John Leyot. It is presented 
 that Master John Leyot, devised to William Kendale, 
 Chaplain, a parcell of an orchard, to be held of 
 the said John, and his heirs under the rent of 5d., 
 which devise was contrary to the form of the statute ; 
 therefore ordered to be seized, into the lord's hands, 
 acc : — That the said John Leyot, in his letter, having 
 promised one man called John le Mason, le Yrishman, 
 formerly one of those who built the Tower of 
 Liverpole of John Stanley Knt. ; and another 
 person, viz : John le Mason, Northerenman, who 
 built the vault of Henry Norres Knt.; and they 
 two John and John Masons, built the tomb of the 
 said John Leyot lying in the middle of the chancel 
 of the Chappell of Hale, viz : Wednesday, 7th Mar. 
 1428. 
 
 16 Ric. n. 1394. — Henry Norris devised Robert 
 de Wyswall, his tenant, to appear for him in the 
 court, in all things that concerned him. That 
 Robert de Wyswall did not do neighbourship as he 
 ought, according as had been usual, and that he will 
 not suffer the cattle of his neighbours to go into his 
 ffields, as was the custom, and he is always ready 
 with his cattle, to ot:cupy the edyshe of his neigh- 
 bours. 
 
 There is a valuable collection of coins in the Hale 
 Library, and of curiosities of various sorts and degrees 
 of antiquity, made by John Blackburne, of Orford 
 and Newton, and also of stuffed birds, British and 
 foreign, made by Anne, daughter of John Blackburne, 
 
85 
 
 who was an eminent botanist and naturalist. She 
 assisted her father in making the collections, and 
 died at Fairfield, 1793, when the museum was moved 
 to Hale Hall. 
 
 There are some curious old charters and manu- 
 scripts dating from Henry III to James H. 
 
 Extracts from a few of those of most interest have 
 been given under the account of Hale Manor, and 
 the following deeds, dating from 1204 to 1424, though 
 quite local in subject, are not devoid of interest : — 
 
 NOTES TAKEN OUT OF THE RECORD 
 IN THE TOWER RELATING TO THE 
 MANOR OF HALE. 
 
 1204. Confirmation of a grant of Hale to Richard 
 de Mida, of a Market and Fair for Hale. 
 
 Grants to Sir Robert de Holland of free warren 
 in Holland, Hale, Orrell, and Marclain, in the 
 County of Lancaster. 
 
 A.D. 1226. 
 
 I, Cecilia de Columbers, the lady of Hale, mistress 
 of myself (in legia potentate mea) and with the full 
 consent and assent both of Henry, my son, and my 
 other heirs do grant to Roger de Wysewalle, for his 
 homage and service, fourteen acres of land in Hale- 
 wood, within these divisions, namely, along Brads- 
 leye, as far as Doddismor, and in breadth from 
 Cressesyche as far as Floxleye, with a house in 
 Hale, lying between two — whereof one is Reginald 
 
86 
 
 Fitz Geoffrey's, on one side, and on the other Henry 
 Fitz Malet's — to hold to the same Roger, and his 
 heirs, with all their appurtenances, and liberty to 
 give or let the same ; to farm to any persons except 
 the men of a religious house {i.e., convent). Paying 
 yearly the rent of three shillings at Michaelmas. 
 And I, Cecilia, grant, wind fallen timber to the said 
 Roger, to build with, and make fences on the land ; 
 and also firewood to burn : and if he or his heirs, or 
 assigns keep swine, then for one of the best of them 
 he is to be allowed free pasturage for it, but if he or 
 they keep ten, he is to give one, in every ten, to me, 
 the said Cecilia ; and to pay me a penny a head for 
 the rest, and if there be not sufficient pasturage in 
 Halewood, he is to take it where it can be found. 
 Witnesses — The Lord Robert de Lathum, Adam de 
 Molineux, the Lord Henry de Torbock, Thurstan 
 de Holland, Robert de Armedsdale, Roger de 
 Hibernia, Alan Norres, Adam de Gayrstan, Geoffrey 
 de Derby, and others. 
 
 A.D. 1321. 
 
 April 18. I, William de Walton, do release and 
 for ever quit claim to Adam de Hibernia, and 
 Robert, his son, and their heirs and assigns, all the 
 right and claim which I have, or, in any manner 
 could have, or claim, in all or any the lands, or 
 tenements, with the appurtenances whole and entire, 
 in the vill. or territory of Hale, — and in all manors, 
 demesnes, wastes, reliefs, escheats, bondages, rents, 
 
87 
 
 and services of the free and other tenants ; so that 
 neither I, nor any heirs, will hereafter claim any- 
 thing therein or thereout. Witnesses — The Lord 
 Robert de Holland, the Lord Robert de Lathum, 
 Mathew de Haydok, Gilbert de Halsall, Richard de 
 Holland, William de Huiton, Thomas de Ston- 
 brigges, and others. 
 
 Dated at Lyverpool, on the eve of Easter Sunday 
 (14 Edw. L) 
 
 COPY OF A CHARTER IN THE ROLLS 
 OFFICE. 
 
 1339 (No. 35), relating to the Manor of Hale. 
 
 1339. Confirming to John, son of Adam de 
 Ireland, the whole town of Hale, for the considera- 
 tion of £^ los., which was granted to Richard de 
 Mida, son of Gilbert de Waleton. "To our beloved 
 John, son of Adam de Ireland, kinsman and heir 
 to the aforesaid Richard — and as the same John 
 and his ancestors have hitherto held the aforesaid 
 town, and have reasonably used and enjoyed the 
 aforesaid liberty," &c. Witnessed — John, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, Primate of all England; Richard, 
 Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield ; Warenne, Earl of 
 Surrey; Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Norwich; 
 Thomas Wake de Lidd, Henry de Ferrers, and 
 others. — 5th day of April, by the fine of one Mark. 
 
 A.D. 1350. 
 
 Sir John de Ireland's plea to a " Qui Warranti,' 
 
88 
 
 on the right of wreckage, of which the same John 
 and his ancestors, whose estate the same John hath, 
 from time whereof the memory of man runneth 
 not to the contrary, were accustomed to have and 
 use, and receive what wrecks of the sea might be 
 cast up, and thrown within the precincts of the said 
 manor, " also the Royal fish taken in the same." 
 
 A.D. 1424. 
 
 2 Henry VI. By an Indenture of this date, 
 William Ireland, of Hale, son of Sir John Ireland, 
 Knt., grants and lets to farm, to John of the Mill, 
 son of Roger of the Hale Bank Mill, for the term of 
 his life, six acres of land called the Portershache, 
 lying beside Ditton Pool, with a reasonable part of 
 the waste thereto adjoining. To hold to him, the 
 said John, for the term of his life— paying yearly the 
 rent of four shillings and fivepence for every service. 
 Power is reserved for the lessor to re-enter, if the 
 rent should not be paid, at the rent day, or within 
 six weeks afterwards. After the death of the lessee 
 the land was to revert to the lessor. Witnesses — John 
 de Stanley, Knt., Richard de MoHneux, Knt., 
 Radulph de Langton, Knt., Henry Blundell, Henry 
 Dickfield, Thomas Ireland, and others. 
 
 Dated on Thursday next after the feast " Sancti 
 Marcii." [If this is meant for St. Mark, the date 
 would be 27th April, 1424.] 
 
( 
 
QUARTERINGS OF THE 
 
 Irelands 
 
 1. Blackburne. 
 
 2. Norreys. 
 
 3. Lever. 
 
 4. Ashton. 
 
 5. Green. 
 
 6. Aspinwall. 
 
 7. Ireland, 
 
 8. Hutt. 
 
 Blackburnes 
 THE Panelled Room. 
 
 OF Hale, in 
 
 9. Hesketh. 
 
 10. Holland. 
 
 11. Columbers. 
 
 12. Walton. 
 
 13. Merton. 
 
 14. Bebbington. 
 
 15. Handford. 
 
 16. Praers. 
 
 17. Birkenhead. 
 
 18. Hughesley 
 
 (Huxley). 
 
 19. Done. 
 
 20. Kingsley. 
 
 21. Stretche. 
 
 22. Blackburne. 
 
91 
 
 THE PANELLED ROOM. 
 
 Of the oak panelled room there is little to be said. 
 It is the oldest part of the house, coeval with the 
 north front before Sir Gilbert Ireland's improve- 
 ment, and the date is doubtful. The following are 
 transcripts of the shields painted on the panels: — 
 
 Arms on the Mantel Piece. 
 
 Shields of Arms round the cornice. 
 
92 
 
 Columbers. 
 
 Walton. 
 
 Holland. 
 
 Ireland and 
 Merton. 
 
M 
 
94 
 
95 
 
 The crests in use are the Ireland crest — 
 Dove and Olive Branch; and the Lever 
 crest — Cock and Trumpet. 
 
g6 
 
 THE BLACKBURNE PEDIGREE. 
 
 An official document, relating to the genealogy 
 of the Blackburne Family, compiled and arranged 
 with care from a record made in the College of 
 Arms and approved by them (recorded in Norfolk 
 X), and in these pages, by Charlotte Blackburne, of 
 Claremont House, Leamington, daughter of Isaac 
 Blackburne, younger brother of John Blackburne, 
 of Hale and Orford, and M.P. for Lancashire ; 
 and in loving memory of whom this book is 
 transcribed from her own manuscript. With an 
 Introduction by Letter from William Courthope 
 (Somerset Herald), Rouge Croix, to the Reverend 
 Jonathan Blackburne. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — After a hearing which has occupied 
 the best part of four days, the pedigree of Black- 
 burne and connection has been approved and 
 settled by the Examiners, and will be reported in 
 Chapter on Thursday. 
 
 " I succeeded in establishing every point of the 
 pedigree, and all the quarterings. The clerical 
 descent of the Blackburnes is established ; also that 
 Robert de Blackburne was the ancestor of the 
 Blackburnes of the Garstang line. — W. Courthope 
 ( Somerset Herald ). 
 
 College of Arms, May ist, 1852." 
 
IRELAND BLACKBURNE'S 
 
 Q 
 
 1. Blackburne. 
 
 2. Lever. 
 
 3. Ashton. 
 
 4. Radcliffe. 
 
 5. Chadderton. 
 
 6. Trafford. 
 
 7. Massey. 
 
 8. Kimberley. 
 
 9. Talbot. 
 
 10. Harrington. 
 
 1 1 . Canicfield. 
 
 12. Fleming. 
 
 A R T E R I 
 
 13. Banister. 
 
 14. English. 
 
 15. Urswick. 
 
 16. Bradshaw. 
 
 17. Verdun. 
 
 18. Green. 
 
 19. Aspinwall. 
 
 20. Ireland. 
 
 21. Hutt (Ireland). 
 
 22. Heskcth. 
 
 23. Holland. 
 
 24. Columbers. 
 
 GS. 
 
 25. Walton. 
 
 26. Merton. 
 
 27. Bebbington. 
 
 28. Handford. 
 
 29. Hughsley. 
 
 30. Praers. 
 
 31. Birkenhead. 
 
 32. Done. 
 33- Kingsley. 
 
 34. Stretche. 
 
 35. Blackburne. 
 
97 
 
 BLACKBURNES OF SANDHOLME. 
 
 The following brief account of the descent of the 
 Blackburnes of Sandholme/'' near Garstang, ances- 
 tors of the Blackburnes of Newton, from Henry the 
 Clerk (Clericus) of Blackburne, who held the whole 
 church of Blackburne about 1160, and who sprang 
 from the Decanal House of Whalley, is extracted 
 from Dr. Whitaker's Genealogy of the Deans of 
 Whalley, and the first line of the Towneleys, 
 commencing 170 years before the Conquest. 
 Spartlenjus. First Dean of Whalley upon record. 
 Lielphus Cutwolfe of whom, in the Monasticon, is a 
 wild and picturesque story that he cut off the 
 tail of a wolf while hunting in the forest of 
 Rossendale. 
 Cudwolfe. 
 Henry Senior. 
 Robert. 
 
 Geoffrey Senior, Son of Robert the Dean. He 
 married a daughter of Roger de Lacy, Baron 
 of Halton and Constable of Chester, by Maude 
 de Clare, his wife, of the Earls of Clare. 
 
 * Sandholme, or Sandham, is in the township of Banastre, 
 in the manor of Nether Wyersdale and parish of Garstang. 
 
98 
 
 In consequence of this marriage, Roger de Lacy 
 granted the villa de Tunley and manor of Coldcoat, 
 with Surdworth, to Geoffrey, son of Robert, Dean 
 of Whalley, who thus became connected with the 
 Lacys, the heroes of crusades and founders of 
 monasteries ; the last of which family in the male 
 ^ine, then Earl of Lincoln, left a daughter and sole 
 heir, Alice de Lacy, who married Thomas Plantaga- 
 net, Earl of Lancaster, and carried along with her 
 an inheritance, even then estimated at ten thousand 
 marks per annum. This great accession of property 
 was the foundation of the wars of York and Lan- 
 caster. 
 
 But to return to the pedigree. Geoffrey had by 
 his wife, the daughter of Roger de Lacy, a son, 
 GeofFry, Junior, the Dean. 
 
 Roger, the last Dean. 
 Richard de Tunley, who settled at 
 Tonneley. 
 
 Peter de Tunley, or Tonneley, the first 
 who is known to have used these arms. 
 Richard de Towneley. 
 
 Cecilia, who married = John del Legh, the son 
 I of Gilbert del Legh. 
 
 Gilbert del Legh, possessed of Towneley (i6 
 Edward III), whence the present family of Townley, 
 alias del Legh, they having taken the name of 
 Townley. 
 
99 
 
 PARISH OF BLACKBURNE. 
 
 The first mention of Blackburne ^ is contained in 
 Domesday Book, where we read that King Edward 
 the Confessor held Blakeburne as chief lord of the 
 feof. ; there were two hides and two carucates of 
 land. The church had two bovates (or oxgangs) of 
 this land. 
 
 At what period antecedent to this survey the 
 church of Blakeburne was founded and endowed it 
 is now impossible to ascertain ; but a chain of evi- 
 dence, reaching nearly from that time, will prove that 
 though a glebe of two oxgangs of land was allotted 
 to it from the beginning, the manor and advowson 
 were early united ; that the benefice was held for 
 several descents by the lords of the town ; and that 
 (after the Conquest) they required, prehminary to 
 institution, commendatory letters from the chief lord 
 of the feof. 
 
 From these evidences also, which are found in the 
 Coucher Book of Whalley (tit. 3), may be collected 
 the following Table of the hereditary rectory and 
 Lords of Blackburn, nearly from the Conquest. 
 
 Gamaliel. 
 
 Gilbert. 
 
 John. 
 
 ^ Blake signifies yellow, and Bume a stream, in Saxon, 
 
lOO 
 
 Richard, Henry, the clerk (clericus), of Black- 
 s,p, burne, held the whole church about 
 
 1 1 60. 
 
 one 
 
 Richard held 
 mediety. 
 Adam. = Henry. 
 
 Adam, son of Henry, held 
 the other mediety. 
 = Roger Campersona, who 
 assigned his mediety to 
 John de Lacy. 
 Agnes, = David de Beatrice, = William de 
 I Hulton. s.p. Hulton,his 
 
 brother. 
 
 Richard de Hulton appears to have been son of 
 David and Agnes : he assigned his moiety to John de 
 Lacy in 1230. These facts lead to the belief that 
 the church of Blackburn was founded in Edward 
 the Confessor's time, at least. 
 
 Adam, son of Henry. 
 
 Roger Campersona, 
 who assigned his 
 moiety to John de 
 Lacy, 1230-1240. 
 He had three sons, 
 and died 1255. 
 
 Ralph de Graham Richard 
 Clayton. de de 
 
 Clayton. Blackburn 
 married 
 Amicia de 
 Kuerden. 
 
 * Richard Pecke, Bishop ,of Lichfield, confirms this Henry de 
 Blackburn in the church of Blackburn, in the grant of it to him, as 
 fully as John had received it by Henry de Lacy, the chief lord of 
 the fee, as fully as Gamaliel, or Gilbert, or his other ancestors, had 
 held it. 
 
lOI 
 
 Gilbert Robert le Dispensator, Elias. John. 
 
 de Clayton (22 Edward I.) 
 Alicia, the = John de Kerden 
 
 Utred Roger 
 
 wife of 
 
 T3 
 u 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 < 
 
 Elias. 
 John. 
 Elias. 
 
 (22 Edward I.) 
 
 Roger. Thomas. John. 
 Roy. Roger. = Amicia. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 Adam Elison Thomas^ Mary. Robert de Kerden. 
 de Kerden. 
 
 John de Kerden. 
 
 John Adam.=Mary. John. 
 WiUiam.=:Mary. Ralph. 
 
 Elizabeth, daughter 
 and heir, married 
 Henry de Ker- 
 = den, whence Dr. 
 
 Robert. Jackson Kerden 
 probably about Henry VI, a contemporary, and 
 the deputy of Sir William Dugdale in his visitation, 
 1664. 
 
 The above Dr. Jackson, alias Kerden, descended 
 from the Kerdens of Kerden, not the Blackburnes 
 with whom Mr. Christopher Towneley made the 
 collection of Lancashire pedigrees now in the 
 British Museum, among the Harleian MSS. (igSy 
 and 21 12), from which this information has been 
 obtained. It is highly probable that it is from the 
 male line of this family that the Blackburnes of 
 
I02 
 
 Sandholme, near Garstang, descend, referred to by- 
 Sir William Dugdale in his visitation of Lancashire, 
 1664, as the ancestors of the Blackburne (the Hale) 
 family. In the registers of Garstang, during nearly 
 all the reign of Elizabeth, numerous entries of a 
 family of this name are found, but no place of 
 residence is attached to the name before the year 
 1600, when occurs an entry of the baptism of 
 WilHam, son of Thomas Blackburne, of Sandholme. 
 It is worthy of remark that the copy of the register 
 made for the use of the office in the College of Arms, 
 and that usually shown of the visitation of 1664, omits 
 the name of the place, and gives the arms, Sandholm, 
 incorrectly, undy or wavy instead of nebule. But the 
 original, in Sir WiUiam Dugdale's own hand, has 
 them -pvoperly Nebule^. This mistake has been rectified 
 in the margin of the office copy, by Heard, in 1803, 
 but it appears to have misled Dr. Whitaker, who 
 wrote the history of Whalley before that date. 
 
I03 
 
 DESCENT OF THE BLACKBURNES 
 OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The following is extracted from a traditional 
 account, preserved in a memoir called "The Status 
 de Blagbornshire," a Monkish manuscript of the 
 14th century, translated in Dr. Whitaker's History 
 of Whalley. 
 
 " The story is shortly this : — 
 
 " That in the time of Ethelbert, King of Kent, who 
 began his reign a.d. 596, Augustine the monk was 
 sent to preach the Gospel in England, by Gregory 
 the Great, Bishop of Rome ; that, in the course of his 
 mission, he travelled into Northumbria, and preached 
 at Whalley, in memory of which event certain 
 crosses were erected, which, after more than seven 
 centuries, continued to be called the crosses of 
 Augustine That, at the same time, a parish church 
 was erected, dedicated to All Saints, and denominated 
 Whitechurch-under-the-Leigh ; that the rectors of 
 this church were also lords of the town, and 
 married men who held it not by presentation from 
 any other patron, but as their own patrimonial 
 estate, receiving institution, however, from the 
 
I04 
 
 Bishops of Lichfield, as ordinaries of the place ; 
 that these incumbents wrote themselves and were 
 usually styled, not Rectors, but Deans ; of which the 
 reason is supposed to be that, on account of the 
 remote and almost inaccessible situation of the 
 place, entangled with woods and overrun with wild 
 beasts, the Bishops of Lichfield devolved upon them 
 a large portion of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, reserv- 
 ing only to themselves the decision of certain 
 difficult and important cases ; that this constitution 
 remained for 470 years before the Conquest, after 
 which period, when the Lordship of Blackburnshire 
 fell into the hands of one grantee from the crown, the 
 absolute independence of the benefice was so far 
 intrenched upon that, though the order of hereditary 
 succession was still preserved, upon every avoid- 
 ance commendatory letters to the ordinary were 
 granted to the lords, which they seemed to consider 
 as partaking of the nature of a presentation, and the 
 clerks affected to accept merely as a testimonial of 
 their birth and family. 
 
 "With this change of constitution the Deanery of 
 Whalley subsisted down to the Lateran Council held 
 in the year 1215, which, by finally prohibiting the 
 marriage of ecclesiastics, put an end to this order 
 of hereditary succession, and occasioned resignation 
 of the patronage to the chief lord of the fee, after 
 which the church of Whalley sunk into an 
 ordinary rectory, and this also, after the death of 
 the first incumbent, was further degraded, by two 
 
I05 
 
 successive appropriations, into an impoverished 
 vicarage." 
 
 This singular account is said to be taken from 
 ancient and true chronicles, and Dr. Whitaker 
 endeavours to substantiate many of the statements 
 from existing documents, and makes the following 
 corrections: — First, that this ancient historian 
 probably confounds Augustine with Paulinus, another 
 missionary, mentioned by Bede as having preached 
 in Northumbria, there being no evidence that 
 Augustine did so, and that crosses similar to those 
 now remaining at Whalley were erected in memory 
 of this event at Dewsbury. The era, therefore, of 
 this memorable event, the first preaching of the 
 Gospel at Whalley, may, with a high degree of 
 probability, be fixed between the years 625, when 
 the ministry of Paulinus commenced, and 631, when 
 he was finally driven out of Northumbria by the 
 death of his royal convert, Edwyn. " In one other 
 circumstance," says Dr. Whitaker, " my authority 
 must be received with some abatement, as the 
 church of Whalley could not have been exactly 
 contemporary with Paulinus. On this head the 
 testimony of Bede is decisive ; " and since this 
 church was endowed with the whole of the manor of 
 Whalley, as well as with the tithes of an extensive 
 district. Dr. W. thinks this was a lay foundation by 
 
 * The best text of the " Status de Blackbumshire " will be found, 
 Dr. Whitaker says, in the original edition of the Monasticon of 
 Dugdale. 
 
io6 
 
 the Saxon Lord of Whalley, and this hypothesis will 
 bring down the foundation of the church of Whalley 
 about a century later than the period assigned to 
 it by the author of the Status de Blagbornshire." 
 The place itself is mentioned in the eighth century, 
 in the records of the kingdom of Northumbria. It 
 appears, then, probable that the Saxon Lord of 
 Whalley, being at first the friend and patron of the 
 church of Whalley, afterwards qualified himself, by 
 taking orders, to hold the church, to which he also 
 at the same time gave his patrimonial estate, and 
 had the title of Dean, a title not the same as our 
 present rural dean or dean of a cathedral, but more 
 resembling the plebanus corban, or chorepiscopus 
 of the Irish Church, or country bishop, who had not 
 the power of ordination. 
 
 Dr. Whitaker says, upon the whole, the Dean of 
 Whalley appears then to have been compounded of 
 Patron, Incumbent-in-Ordinary, and Lord of the 
 Manor, an assemblage which may probably have met 
 in later times, and in some places of exempt juris- 
 diction, but which was at that time probably unique 
 in the history of the EngHsh Church. It is a fact 
 little known that fifteen persons held the Arch- 
 bishopric of Armagh itself in hereditary succession. 
 
 A list of these hereditary Deans of Whalley is 
 given by Dr. Whitaker, from evidences in the 
 Chronicles of Whalley. Of these the names of ten 
 persons only are preserved, beginning 175 years 
 before the Conquest, besides an indefinite number of 
 
/ I07 
 
 others, whose names are lost in remote antiquity. 
 They are as follows : — Spartlingus (the first dean on 
 record), Liwlphus Cutwulph, Cudwolphus, Henry 
 (the elder), Robert, Henry (the younger), William, 
 Geoffry (the elder), who married the daughter of 
 Roger de Lacey, Constable of Chester and Lord of 
 Blackburnshire ; Geoffry (the younger) and his 
 descendant, Richard, brother of the last dean, settled 
 upon the Villa de Tunlay, the gift of the Laceys, 
 his kinsmen, and became the founder of the present 
 family of Towneley of Towneley. 
 
 Speaking of Blackburn, Dr. Whitaker (p. 420) 
 says, "There are also many circumstances which 
 lead to the conclusion that the family de Blackburn, 
 lords, patrons, and incumbents of this town and 
 church, were a branch from the deanal house of 
 Whalley; that this parish was served during the 
 existence of the deanery from the original parish of 
 Whalley, and not only endowed with its own tithes, 
 but, on account of its own barrenness, with a fourth 
 part of those of Whalley, also is certain ; that the 
 deans should consent to so large a defalcation from 
 their own benefice, but for the advantage of a son 
 or other near kinsman, is highly improbable. That 
 the church of Rochdale, which arose at a later 
 period (the church of Blackburn existed before the 
 Domesday Survey, being mentioned in that record), 
 was actually founded for the same purpose, may be 
 clearly proved, and in addition to this evidence the 
 armorial bearings of the Blackburne family, viz., 
 
io8 
 
 fess undy between three mullets, which differs but 
 little from those borne by the first line of the 
 Towneleys, immediate descendants of the last dean, 
 seem to evince that both were branches of the same 
 parent stem." The arms of Blackburn, fess undy, as 
 mentioned above, are those of the present Blackburne 
 family, erroneously recorded in 1664 by Sir William 
 
 Towneley of Blackburne of Blackburne or Blackburne of 
 Towneley. Rushton. Rushton of Lydiate (16 
 
 Ponthalgh. Richard II), 
 and Newton, 
 1664. 
 
 Dugdale, where they are fess ivavy or undy, but cor- 
 rected in the margin to nebule, probably by Sir Isaac 
 Heard, 1803. Some remains of the old church of 
 Blackburn were found in taking down the parish 
 church there when the present church was built ; 
 they consisted of parts of Saxon capital and tym- 
 panum, and were in the possession of the Vicar of 
 Blackburn, 1820-30. 
 
 The effects of the decree of Lateran put an end 
 also to the hereditary Lords and Rectors of Black- 
 burn, as it had done to the Deans of Whalley ; and 
 about 1250 the Lacys purchased the property of 
 the Blackburnes, and separated the advowson and 
 
log 
 
 the town, which had been united from the circum- 
 stance of the lords of the town being the rectors of 
 the church, regranting the moiety of the town to the 
 Huttons of Hutton, one of whom had married a 
 co-heir of Blackburne, but granting the other moiety 
 of the town and the advowson to the Abbey of 
 Stanlawe, in Cheshire, afterwards translated to 
 Whalley. 
 
 We find the name of a Blackburn at Wiswall, 
 near Whalley, whose heiress married a Sherborne 
 of Stoneyhurst, the ancestor of Cardinal Weld, of 
 Stoneyhurst. Another appears to have been noted 
 at Rushton, having married the heiress of Rushton 
 and subsequently taking the name. Their arms, a 
 Blackburnes of Rushton, very much resemble those 
 of the Towneleys, more nearly than they do the 
 present arms of Blackburne. 
 
 But to return to the Blackburnes of Blackburn. 
 Part of this family, after the alienation of their 
 hereditary property, seem to have settled and 
 launched out to Walton, Cuerden, and Clayton, all 
 of which are only about eleven miles distant. From 
 the branch of Cuerden descended by marriage the 
 antiquarian, Dr. Cuerden, or Kerden, who, with 
 Christopher Towniey, made the collection of Lanca- 
 shire pedigrees, now in the British Museum, among 
 the Harleian MSS., from which we trace the family 
 for some time, probably as low down as Henry VI. 
 And among these memoranda, John, son of Henry de 
 Blackburn de Walton, seals with what appears to 
 o 
 
no 
 
 be an otter, so far back as i6 Edward II. Sir 
 William Dugdale affords a later trace of the name 
 of Blackburn, apparently of this family, in 1664, 
 in the " Visitations of Lancashire," where the arms 
 are assigned to the family, but no crest. This lat- 
 ter circumstance is, however, supplied, and the otter 
 crest for Blackburne, which was cut in stone over 
 old Orford House, is strong confirmation of the 
 identity of the family with that of John de Black- 
 
 burne de Walton, who uses the same crest for his 
 seal, while the tradition of the descent is supported 
 by Dugdale, who says that the Hale family descend 
 from the Blackburnes of Sandholme, near Garstang, 
 only eleven miles distant from Walton and twenty 
 from Blackburn. 
 
 The commencement of Sir William Dugdale's 
 pedigree is as follows : — William Blackburne, of This- 
 tleton, in the county of Lancaster, descended from 
 the Blackburnes of Sandholme, near Garstang, in 
 the county of Lancaster. The above William 
 Blackburne is the person with whom Gregson com- 
 mences his account, and it appears that he came 
 
Ill 
 
 from Yorkshire into Lancashire in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth. His father, perhaps, or some 
 one of his ancestors, having left Lancashire for 
 Yorkshire, from whence he returned to Garstang. 
 
 There is a trace of this branch of the family given 
 by Gregson to Blackburne, of Lydiate, in Lanca- 
 shire, which is copied from the Harleian MSS. in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 The following is a translation of the Charter of 
 the resignation of the Chapel of Walton, Adam de 
 Blakeburne, as given in the Coucher Book of 
 Whalley. 
 
 " To all the faithful in Christ whom these present 
 shall concern, Adam de Blak. sends health. 
 
 Know ye that I, at the request of John de Lascy, 
 my Lord Constable of Chester, have granted, and 
 by this my present charter have confirmed, to the 
 abbot and monks of the Benedictine House of 
 Stanlawe, the Chapel of Walton, with the land 
 tithes, and obventions belonging to it, for the pay- 
 ment of twenty marks to Richard son of the dean, 
 to be made in his lifetime, until the Lord John de 
 Lascy should provide for the same, Richard, in an 
 equal or better benefice. So that the abbot and 
 monks should pay to me yearly one besant, on the 
 day of St. Leonard, and should bear all the burdens 
 belonging to the mediety of my benefice in the 
 church of Blake. But if the said Richard de Whal- 
 
I 12 
 
 leye^ should be translated to the enjoyment of a better 
 life, or depart this life, the chapel, without any 
 contradiction of the abbot and monks, shall remain 
 free and quiet to me. These witnesses, the Lord 
 John de Lascy, constab. Cestrie, the Lord dno. Henry 
 de Notingham, ' persona ' de Rewell, Richard de 
 Pontchardin, Hug. de Button, Galfro de Burs, dno. 
 R. Capello, and others." 
 
 From the same book, it appears that Adam de 
 Blakeburne, who gave in the above charter, was the 
 son of Richard, the son of Henry, from the charter 
 No. I of John de Lascy, of the mediety of the church 
 of Blackburn, with the chapel of Walton, and thus 
 this Adam is connected with the Hulton pedigree, as 
 his daughter married Richard de Hulton. 
 
 The date of the grant of Lascy may be assigned 
 to the year 1239, for William de Vernon was Judge 
 of Chester in that year, and he was one of the 
 witnesses to the charter.^ 
 
 1 The Richard, son of the dean mentioned above, is therefore 
 plainly Richard de Whalleye. 
 
 2 In the above charter, John de Lascy adds to the confinnation 
 of the mediety of the church of Blakebum and the chapel of 
 Walton, as far as regards a laical donation . . . to be held as 
 free as any alms can be given to the religious, &c. 
 
113 
 
 NOTES ON THE PEDIGREE OF 
 BLACKBURNE. 
 
 From the general pedigree of the family, and from 
 the accounts existing of the life of Adam de Blake- 
 burne, who held the mediety of the church, and who 
 was the son of Richard, the son of Henry de Blake- 
 burne, may be shown the influence of the monastic 
 foundations upon parishes, as well as the right of the 
 Blackburnes in the dependant chapelries. We quote 
 from Dr. Whitaker (p. 229), who, in speaking of the 
 situation of the Parish of Blackburn, says — " At the 
 southern extremity of this tract, and of the original 
 Parish of Whalley, is Walton, with the chapel of 
 Law, the only one on the old foundation under 
 Blackburn, and endowed, like most of the rest, with 
 two oxgangs of land." This "Adam de Blackburn, 
 at the request of John de Lacy, his lord, grants to 
 the Abbot and Convent of Stanlaw the Chapel of 
 Walton," &c., "subject to a payment of twenty 
 marks to ' Richard,' son of the ' dean,' until he shall 
 be promoted to a better benefice." 
 
 Beatrice de Blakburne, the daughter of the above 
 Adam de Blakburne, who married, secondly, a 
 Hulton, introduces the next family, that of the Ponti- 
 
114 
 
 chardins, or de Ponte Cardonis, as they were some- 
 times called, as she had first been married to Richard, 
 son of John de Pontichardin. This Beatrice held 
 lands in Billington, Wiswall, and Blakeburne, and 
 had a daughter, Lora de Pontichardin, who married 
 Alan, son of Richard, and grandson of Alan, Lord of 
 Cateral, near Garstang, to whom Richard de Ponti- 
 chardin gave the manor of Little Mitton, about 
 7th Edward I, or ist Edward IL The Caterals left 
 Little Mitton to the Sherbornes. We shall return 
 to Little Mitton again ; but as it is connected with 
 the peculiar character of the Persona de Blakburne, 
 we shall here refer to the probable mode of the union 
 of the manor and advowson of Blackburne. Since 
 Dr. Whitaker wrote, some remains of the original 
 church of Blackburne were discovered in taking 
 down the pillars of the chancel of the former church, 
 built about the time of Edward IH. They consist 
 of the portions of the two doors and three capitals, 
 with a stone containing an inscription, probably the 
 name of the founder, Wulrelfth, in Anglo-Saxon 
 capitals. The figure on one door is either St. 
 Michael, with a prostrate figure before him, or the 
 Destroying Angel staying his hand over Jerusalem. 
 The other has two figures, a female and male, and 
 apparently the Tree of Life between them ; but they 
 have been mutilated by the stones in the octagonal 
 pillars of the chancel. The lady has what appears 
 to be a shield, with a bend, upon her mantle, and in 
 the visitation of 1563, among the arms of northern 
 
115 
 
 families, is one for Blakburne (A. a bend sable and 
 a saltire, G., on the bend) without pedigree. Now, 
 as no person held more than one manor at the 
 time of the Domesday Survey, it seems highly 
 probable that the son or relation of the Dean of 
 Whalley, for whom the Church of Blakburne ap- 
 pears to have been founded, and which was endowed 
 by the Domesday Survey with two oxgangs of land, 
 might have married the heiress of the founder, who 
 was also lord of the manor and town, and thus the 
 hereditary lords and rectors of Blakeburne arose in 
 one person, which may account for the barbarous 
 havoc of the monks. What renders this more prob- 
 able is that the millennium, as understood by the 
 Church, was the subject of the sculptures upon the 
 doors of the church. We therefore conclude that the 
 lady and gentleman might be the rector and his 
 wife (the symbolical Adam and Eve) ; and on the 
 capitals of the doors ; ist, a goat and a lamb meeting 
 over a cross ; 2nd, two serpents entwined, and a 
 cow with the fleur-de-lys ; 3rd, an anchor and cable, 
 all which relate to the imagery of Isaiah, ch. liv, and 
 the millennium. 
 
 We return now to Little Mitton, in order to 
 illustrate the origin of parishes, and to show 
 the unity that existed before and after the 
 Conquest, both civil and ecclesiastical. Little 
 Mitton (Dr. Whitaker says, p. 253) was granted by 
 charter of Robert de Lacy, in the 3rd Henry I, to 
 Ralph le Rous, progenitor of the family, who were 
 
ii6 
 
 afterwards denominated from the place. (See Great 
 Merley, p. 290.) Secondly, appears as witness to 
 a charter without date (but probably, from circum- 
 stances, about the time of Richard I), a Sir Ralph 
 de Little Mitton, and by another and nearly con- 
 temporary deed, Roger, son of Henry de Whalley, 
 grants one bovate of land in this place to Adam, 
 son of Stephen de Little Mitton. There occurs 
 also a William, son of Orme de Little Mitton. 
 (Townley MSS.) 
 
 But to return to the family le Rous, who also held 
 Great Mitton. Dr. Whitaker (note, p. 672) adds, 
 with respect to the manor (he is now speaking of 
 Great Mitton), " I find that in the town of Mitton- 
 cum-Wythegill were three carucates which Ralph 
 de Mitton held of the fee of Lacy, who held of the 
 king in capite, by no rent." And, in a note, Dr. 
 Whitaker subjoins — " I had unaccountably over- 
 looked the first grant of the manor from Ilbert de 
 Lacy, in the comprehensive charter which I have 
 already proved to be prior to 1102. 'I, Ilbert de 
 Lacy, give and enfranchise to Radulpho (or Ralph) 
 le Rous and his heirs in perpetuity. Great Mitton, 
 Aighton, etc' I suspect this grantee to have assumed 
 the name of Mitton, and to have been founder of the 
 church of which, after the example of the Deans of 
 Whalley and Rectors of Blakburne, he must have 
 been patron and incumbent ; as it may be proved 
 on chronological grounds that one of the Radulphi 
 or Ralphs, styling themselves Personae de Mitton, 
 
117 
 
 lived at this very time." If this conjecture be well 
 weighed, it will be found to be very little short of 
 moral certainty.^ 
 
 The next trace of this family is at Stonyhurst. 
 Speaking of the Sherbornes of Stonyhurst, from 
 whom Cardinal Weld descended, and explaining how 
 they became possessed of this chantry, which was an 
 enlargement of the original Chapel of St. Nicholas, 
 Dr. Whitaker (p. 469) says : — We have seen that 
 they became possessed of Stonyhurst by marriage 
 with the heiress of Bayley, and the Bayleys and 
 Mittons were radically the same family. The 
 ancient chantry of the Lords of Mitton, therefore, 
 must, in some partition, have followed the Bayley 
 branch. Oto de Bayley and Hugo de Mitton were 
 brothers, and both sons of Jordan le Rous, as the 
 confirming charter of Robert de Lacy calls him (he 
 was the son of Ralph, the brother of Ilbert de 
 Lacy), sometimes called de Bailey, sometimes de 
 Mitton, as Jordan is said to have been son of Ralph, 
 Personae de Mitton. 
 
 '•Of these Ralphs, styling themselves Personam, 
 there were two at least, of whom the oldest must 
 have lived very near the Conquest." 
 
 Of the above family of Sherborne was the person 
 who married the heiress of John de Bayley de 
 
 1 The Mittons becoming extinct, this manor reverted to the 
 lords paramount, and was granted out to the Talbots. The 
 church had been granted to the Abbey of Cockersands by the 
 Mittons. 
 
 P 
 
ii8 
 
 Wiswail. The case of Ralph le Rous, the brother 
 of the chief lord of the fee, is the only other instance 
 of the personae ecclesiae in this parish, except the 
 Deans and Rectors of Blakburne. There occurs 
 also, in Dr. Whitaker (p. 253), a William, son of 
 Orme de Little Mitton, which Orme is called, in 
 Ilbert de Lacy's charter, Orme le Anglais ; and the 
 grant of one bovate of land from Roger, son of 
 Henry de Whalley, to Adam, son of Stephen de 
 Little Mitton, about the time of Richard I, is very 
 important, as it shows a transaction between the 
 Deans of Whalley and the Personae de Mitton, and 
 connects the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods 
 together. It is possible that the above Henry de 
 Whalley may be the Henry, Dean of Whalley, 
 whose name occurs in Dr. Whitaker, which I 
 have marked thus in the transcript following. 
 Robert, his son, does not occur in the pedigree, but 
 Dr. Whitaker, in the margin, gives the names of 
 several other members of this family who were 
 unknown to Abbot Lindlay, of Whalley, who pre- 
 served the list of deans or rectors. " In Burton's 
 ' Mon. Ebor,' " says Dr. Whitaker, I have met with 
 some other persons of the decanal family not men- 
 tioned in the ' Status de Blagbornshire,' or else- 
 where, so far as I know. ist: Simon, son of 
 Gwifrid, formerly Dean of Whalley, grants certain 
 lands in Hedgefield to the monastery of Fountains 
 (p. 106). Again : Josias, son of Robert, formerly 
 Dean of Whalley, quit claims to the same, certain 
 
119 
 
 lands in Ripley (p. 197). Lastly : Henry, son of 
 Geoffrey, Dean of Whalley, grants land to the same 
 in Swinton. He is afterwards called Henry de 
 Whalleye. Henry de Whalley married Eleanor, 
 daughter of Simon de Montalt, by whom he had 
 Geoffrey de Whalley, living in 1261, of whose 
 posterity I know nothing. Query. Is this the 
 Henry son of Geoffrey, Dean of Whalley, who mar- 
 ried the daughter of Roger, Constable of Chester, 
 referred to later under the family of Blackburne of 
 Sandholme ? The Montalts of Hawarden Castle, 
 Flintshire, were seneschals to the Earls of Chester, 
 and perhaps the same family. A Montalt occurs as 
 High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1160, and another in 
 1272." 
 
 FROM DR. WHITAKER'S PEDIGREE. 
 Robertus. 
 
 Henry, 
 Dec. 
 
 Galfriaus, sen. 
 fil. Robt. De- 
 canus. 
 
 :fil. Roger de Lacy 
 Constab. Chester. 
 
I20 
 
 Henricus * fil. Galf. 
 per Cant. Nothing 
 more is known of him. 
 He was unknown to Ab- 
 bot Lindlay. These 
 parties attest a charter. 
 
 Query. Is he the 
 father of Geoffrey, by 
 Eleanor de Montalt, 
 in 1281 ? 
 
 Robert de Whalley, 
 son of Geoffrey, the 
 Dean, and Persona de 
 Rochdale — seals with 
 fleur-de-lys — who was 
 dead before 1192. 
 
 Galf., junr., 
 decanus. 
 
 Robertus 
 Persona 
 de Alve- 
 tham et 
 post e a 
 deRoch- 
 dale. 
 
 Roger, Richard de 
 decanus Tunley. 
 ultimus. = 
 
 1 
 
 Peter de Tun- 
 ley. The first 
 person known 
 to have used 
 the present 
 arms. 
 
 We proceed now to Downham. The parochial 
 chapelry of Downham is of the old foundation 
 under Whalley, under the deanery. " By deed 
 
121 
 
 without date, Roger, Rector of the Church of 
 Whalley, grants , to Jordan, son of Pellpier (PilH- 
 perius the tanner) four acres in campis de Dounum, 
 under Greenhow, to be had in fee and hereditarily, 
 and * to be held of thee, of God, and of All Saints 
 (the ancient dedication of Whalley), and of the 
 Church of Whalley. Witness : Ughtred, the Clerk 
 of Whalley ; Gilbert, Chaplain of Whalley.' By 
 another deed, without date, but about the year 1300, 
 WiUiam de Greenhow quit claims the said four 
 acres in Greenhow." The font of this church 
 (Downham), though angular, is of considerable 
 antiquity, and bears the following shield : — A chev- 
 ron between three fleurs-de-lys, colours effaced. 
 
 But we now arrive at the interesting point which 
 connects the civil and ecclesiastical state of this 
 parish before and after the Conquest, and shows 
 who the Personae de Mitton really were, and that 
 no other family, except a brother of the great lord 
 of the fee, Ilbert de Lacy, besides the Deans of 
 Whalley and Rectors of Blackburne, took the title 
 of Personae, as the mesne lords and incumbents 
 of churches. 
 
 " At the northern extremity of this favoured tract," 
 says Dr. Whitaker, " is the beautiful village of 
 Downham, with the dependent hamlet and mesne 
 manor of Twiston. The various manners in which 
 this word has been anciently written exceeds the or- 
 dinary laxity of old English orthography — Donnom, 
 Donnum, Dounom, Dounum, Downom, and lastly, 
 
122 
 
 Downham. Of the etymology of the word there can 
 be little doubt, dim, a hill, and ham^ a habitation, 
 exactly according with the elevation on which the 
 village stands, or with the green and swelling hill 
 which rises in front of the manor house. This is 
 the only instance in which I have been able to trace 
 the history of property anterior to the Conquest, for 
 by the inestimable charter of Ilbert de Lacy the 
 the said Ilbert confirms to Ralph le Rous, his brother, 
 the sixth part of a knight's fee which Aufray had 
 granted to him in Downom. 
 
 " It has been observed before, upon the authority of 
 Domesday Book, and of the Status de Blagbornshire, 
 that previous to the Norman Conquest every village 
 had its lord, holding only of the Crown in capite, 
 and it may be inferred from this conveyance that 
 after the kingdom was cantoned out by the Con- 
 queror, among his principal followers, the independent 
 Saxon lords were not wholly displaced from their 
 possessions ; but, though reduced to the condition of 
 mesne lords and subjected to the rigors of feudal law, 
 yet they were permitted to hold, or by license to 
 alienate their manors at pleasure. 
 
 " Aufray (like Offrey in the old song, see Dr. Percy's 
 coll., vol. ii, p. 308) is nothing more than a corrup- 
 tion of the venerable name of Alfred, and the 
 discovery is so far of importance, as it stands single 
 in the civil history of the parish, and affords to a 
 curious mind a glimpse into the era of Saxon 
 independence and simplicity." To this I have only 
 
123 
 
 to add that I have before quoted the grant of Roger, 
 rector of the church of Whalley, of lands in this 
 parish to be held of that church, which collects the 
 civil and ecclesiastical condition together. 
 
 To contrast the account given by Dr. Whitaker, 
 and in the Coucher Book of Whalley, with that of 
 the monks of Pontefract, we subjoin the translation 
 of the case of the monks of Pontefract, who claimed 
 the foundation of the Abbey of Whalley, and it 
 exemplifies the distinction which we have made pre- 
 viously from the clause in the charter of John de 
 Lacey^ with respect to laical donation, and it is 
 evidently an attempt to deny the hereditary succes- 
 sion of the deans of Whalley. This latter fact 
 becomes more interesting still from the pedigree of 
 the family of Salmesbury, with whom they inter- 
 married, from which marriage the grant of Clerk 
 Hill,^ near Whalley (the residence of the late 
 Lady Gardiner and the Whalleys), to Uetred, the 
 clerk, son of Gospatrick de Samlesbury, may be 
 traced. The distinction of the grant of lands held 
 under the church of Whalley by the deans, as stated 
 in Dr. Whitaker, and the gift of Lacey, as a lay gift, 
 is very remarkable. 
 
 The claim of the monks of Pontefract is as follows, 
 and it arose from the forfeiture of their lands to 
 Henry I, by the Laceys, who espoused the better 
 
 1 Vide p. 112. 
 
 2 Clerk Hill appears to have been granted to Uetred, the clerk, 
 by Geoffrey, Dean of Whalley. — See Dr. Whitaker's Hist., p. 54. 
 
124 
 
 cause of Robert Curthose, and their grant of Hugh 
 de la Val, in the interim, a grant which was not con- 
 firmed upon the restoration of the Laceys : — A 
 certain ancestor of the Earl of Lincoln, Hugh de la 
 Val by name [which is untrue] , gave the right of the 
 patronage of the church of Whalley to the priory and 
 convent of Pontefract, who (the priory, &c.) presented 
 to it successively A, B, C, all of whom were admitted 
 and instituted by the diocesan ; amongst whom 
 there was a certain Spartlingus,^ who, being dead, 
 there succeeded to him a certain Lielphus, who was 
 surnamed Cutwolph, because he, being on a certain 
 occasion in the forest of Rossendale, looking at his 
 dogs which were running, cut off the tail of a wolf 
 which ran towards him. 
 
 " The said Lielphus being dead, a certain pre- 
 decessor of the said earl, the said priory being vacant 
 and in his custody, presented, by the name of 
 guardian, a certain Geoffrey to it, who married a 
 daughter of Gospatrick de Samlesbury [see Dr. 
 Whitaker] , by whom he had sons and daughters, 
 from whom many noble families in these parts still 
 remain. Geoffrey, being dead, Geoffrey, his son, 
 succeeded, nominally hereditarily [a monkish mode of 
 stating a fact] , who being dead, a certain ancestor 
 of the said earl presented a certam Roger, and after 
 him Peter de Chester, the aforesaid priory and 
 convent not daring to reclaim " [this artfully put 
 
 Vide p. 97. 
 
case confirms the true statement of Abbot Lindley 
 given in Dr. Whitaker] ; we subjoin just so much 
 of it further as will show this by comparison with 
 Dr. Whitaker. 
 
 But during the lifetime of Peter de Chester, the 
 aforesaid earl gave the patronage of the aforesaid 
 church of Whalley to the abbot and convent of 
 Stanlow, an obligatory letter being first received from 
 them [which was a fiction of the monks of Pontefract 
 to foist in their claim, for they could not deny the 
 fact] that as often as it (the church of Whalley) 
 should be vacant, they (the priory of Starilow) 
 should present to it whoever he or his heirs might 
 wish, unless they could appropriate it to their own 
 uses." 
 
 As this had not been done at the time, the 
 object of the monks was to obtain the church of 
 Whalley for the priory of Pontefract under the grant, 
 though unconfirmed of de la Val. Dr. Whitaker 
 remarks, in his work, that the distinction must be 
 kept in mind between an appropriation, which merely 
 gave the right of the advowson, and the impropria- 
 tion, by which the monks applied the benefice 
 to their own uses. Bearing this in mind, we proceed 
 to notice further the case of the monks of Ponte- 
 fract, which we have thus transcribed, with Dr» 
 Whitaker's remarks upon it, which are contained 
 in the appendix to the edition of 1818, but are 
 not found in the previous one ; and in order to 
 illustrate the appropriation, or grant of the advow- 
 
126 
 
 son of Whalley to Stanlow, and the impropriation 
 to their own uses, which required the consent of 
 the Bishop and the Pope ; for it was intended 
 that upon the impropriation taking effect, the con. 
 vent of Stanlow should augment the customary 
 number of monks required from forty to sixty, 
 and that the monastery should be transferred or 
 translated to the territory of the said church of 
 Whalley. 
 
 The following is an extract also from the case : — 
 "Afterwards Nicolaus Papa IV conceded to them its 
 appropriation (the rector, Peter de Chester, ceding 
 or dying), except the suitable portion for the vicarage. 
 Afterwards Pope Boniface revoked the appropria- 
 tion conceded by his forenamed predecessor, of 
 which they have not at this day right in the thing, 
 though in possession." (dequibus non habitatus ipse 
 die jus in relicet et rem.) Upon which Dr. Whitaker 
 remarks (Appendix, p. 515, ed. 1818), " Such is this 
 singular and important case, very artfully but untruly 
 stated by the prior and convent of Pontefract, or 
 their advocates. In the first place, it was their 
 object to prove the ''jus in r^," and therefore for- 
 getting that Hugh de la Val, from whom they 
 derived their title in the benefice, lived in the time 
 of Stephen, they pretend to prove a presentation in 
 the person of Lielphus Cudwolph, who lived before 
 the Conquest. In the next place, that an ancestor 
 of the then Earl of Lincoln presented, during a 
 vacancy, as patron of the convent, and that in con- 
 
127 
 
 sequence, on the next avoidance, the representative 
 of the Lacy family presented in his own right ; but 
 of this there is neither proof nor probability. De la 
 Val's charter appears never to have been confirmed, 
 in consequence of which defect his grant to the 
 priory of Pontefract was invalidated, and the ad- 
 vowson returned, with the other estates of the Lacy 
 family, to their former owners. The later trans- 
 actions which took place between the Earls of 
 Lincoln, Bishop Neuland, and the monks of Stan- 
 low were shamefully simoniacal, and the convent of 
 Pontefract expose them con amove, but the value 
 of the rectory of Whalley was greatly overrated." 
 These transactions, among others, were to obtain a 
 renunciation from the abbey of the rights of the 
 deans to hunt in the forests, &c., and its impropria- 
 tion to the monks of Stanlow in opposition to the 
 claims of those of Pontefract ; and it shows the 
 evils of the monastic system fully; and the im- 
 poverished vicarage is all that now remains to the 
 church of Whalley of the ancient deanery and 
 abbey, so that the evils are perpetuated. The 
 monks mis-state the marriage of Geoffrey the elder, 
 Dean of Whalley, with the daughter of Gospatrick 
 de Samlesbury, and omit that (named by Dr. 
 Whitaker) with the daughter of Roger de Lacy, 
 Constable of Chester, whence, in fact, the Villa 
 de Tunley was obtained. This Geoffrey the elder, 
 who was contemporary with Adam, son of Richard 
 de Blakburne, circa 1192-1211, had a son, Geoffrey 
 
128 
 
 the younger, who married the daughter of Gos- 
 patrick de Samlesbury, and whose son Roger was 
 the last dean. This brings the chronology of the 
 Blackburnes of Wiswall and of the family de Samles- 
 bury together. 
 
 Sir Adam de Blakburne is said, in the Shireburne 
 Pedigree, to have married the daughter of Amabel 
 de Rokeby, and Alan de Samlesbury, who was 
 brother of Uetred, son of Gospatrick de Samles- 
 bury (about 1200), married an Amabel de Blakburne. 
 
 The Blackburnes of Orford, which they held from 
 1637, and whose traditionary descent is given at p. 
 97, settled at Hale, 1787, when the Irelands and 
 their estates merged into the Ireland-Blackburnes 
 of the present day, by marriage, as aforesaid, since 
 which time Orford fell into secondary importance, 
 and ceased to be a family residence. The avenue, 
 of which the straight road from the obelisk up to 
 the hall only exists, perished gradually under the 
 pressure of thriving trade and increasing railways ; 
 and their accompaniments, the noxious vapours, 
 under the garb and progress of civilisation, threaten, 
 in destroying vegetation, to deteriorate landed pro- 
 perty in South- West Lancashire. 
 
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