Forest of Rossendale. 75 



The land continued in the possession of the Church dominant, 

 until, by the attainder and execution of John Paslew, abbot, and 

 the subsequent dissolution of the monasteries, the possession 

 passed into the hands of King Henry VIII. This king made a 

 grant of the lands to Thomas Holt, of Gristlehurst, Esquire, 

 (afterwards, when in Scotland, knighted by Edward, Earl of 

 Hertford), in capite by knight's service, by the fourth part of a 

 knight's fee. (b) The Grant included all the messuages, lands, 

 tenements, meadows, &:c., lying in and being Whitworth, Tonge 

 End, Roclyff, and Brandwood, within the -parish of Rochdale. 

 The boundaries of the parish of Rochdale in Rossendale are 

 described in an inquisition taken in the year 1 6 lo as follows: — 

 " Asqf nding the river Calder to Beaten Clough Foot ; and 

 from thence to Beaten Clough Head ; and from thence to 

 Shearneyford ; and from thence to a hedge or fence, sometimes 

 on one side of the water, sometimes on the other, to Greave 

 Clough ; and from thence to Baycop ; and from Baycop to Rock- 

 liffe Lumme ; and from thence following the river to Brandwood ; 

 and from thence to Carrgate ; and from Carrgate to Cowap 

 Brook, ascending the same brook to its head ; and from thence to 

 the height of the moss ; and from thence to Archinbutt." 



From Thomas Holt, who died March 8, 156 1, the property 

 passed to Francis, Thomas, Francis, Theophilus, and Thomas 

 Posthumous Holt, respectively, the latter of whom died, according 

 to a MS. Memorandum which Dr. W'hitaker the historian saw, 

 " 25th March 1669, after sown sett, a hower, as they report it." 



iji) " The division by knight's fee is a familiar feature of the feudal system. 

 The knight's fee in England was fixed at the annual value of twenty pounds. 

 Every estate supposed to be of this value, and entered as such in the rolls of 

 the Exchequer, was bound to contribute the service of a soldier, or to pay an 

 escuage to the amount assessed upon knight's fee." — Hall.\m's Middle Ages, 

 vol. i. p. 171, et seq. 



The incidents of tenure by knight's service consisted variously, in addition 

 to military service, of homage, aids to ransom the person of the superior 

 Lord, to marry his eldest daughter, knight his eldest son, relief, &c. — See 

 WlLLl.^.Ms' Real Property, p. III. 



