Chap. 6.] OLD HALLS, &c. 141 



Mrs. Brcadley also told me that her aunt, who was a servant of the 

 last of the Cottams, used to tell her how Mi'S. Cottam, the wife of the 

 last of the Cottams, died through being choked with a goose-hone. 



About 1800, Knoll Hall estate passed into the hands of Mr. W. 

 Boardman, of Farington, gentleman ; from whom it descended to 

 the Bashalls, of Southport, who are the present owners. For some 

 seventy years an old family of yeomen, named Hesmondhalgh, were the 

 occupiers of the farm ; Mr. W. Bradley being, as I have said, the 

 tenant at the present time. 



Eev. Fe. Thomas Cottam, S.J. 



"Father Thomas Cottam, S.J., martyr, was the son of Lawrence 

 Cottam, of Dilworth and Tamaker, gent., and his wife Ann, daughter 

 of Mr. Brewer, or Brewerth, of Brindle, co. Lancaster, who, after her 

 husband's death, married William Ambrose, of Ambrose Hall, in 

 Woodplumpton, gent. 



This ancient family had been seated at Dilworth for many genera- 

 tions, and returned a pedigree at St. George's Visitation of Lancashire 

 in 1613. The martyr's brother, John Cottam, succeeded to the 

 estates, and resided at Tarnaker. Both he and his wife Catherine, 

 daughter of Mr. Dove, of Birtwood, in Essex, frequently appear in the 

 Eecusant Rolls with their only child, Priscilla. The latter married 

 Thomas Walton, of Walton-le-Dale, co. Lancaster, gent., and was the 

 mother of James Walton, who was ordained priest at the English 

 College, Rome, in 1633, and used the alias of Thomas Cottam. 



Tiiough other members of the family appear in the Eecusant Rolls, 

 Fr. Cottam's parents were Protestants, and, being people of substance, 

 could weU afford to give their son a liberal education. Having made 

 his rudimental studies, he was entered at Brasenose College, Oxford, 

 where he passed B.A., March 23, 1568. 



After the completion of his studies he was appointed to the master- 

 ship of a noted free gi-ammar-school in London. Here he formed an 

 intimate friendship with Thomas Pounde, Esq., of Belmont, and was 

 soon converted by that noble confessor of the faith, who suffered an 

 imprisonment of about thirty years' duration, and was admitted to the 

 Society of Jesus in prison, but was then at liberty. 



