FEUDAL BARONAGE 



Roche Perion and taken a prisoner to the stronghold of Favuet. The story 

 of his rescue from the camp of Charles of Blois before Hennebon, where 

 he and another English knight were detained captives, is recorded by 

 Froissart. 1 There is some doubt as to the identity of this John the butler, 

 but it seems probable that he was a kinsman of the lord of Warrington, 

 and of the family of Butler of cos. Warwick and Stafford. 3 William the 

 butler was probably in the French war before Calais and at Crecy in 1346, 

 his name appearing in a list of those to whom wages of war were due. 8 

 At a muster of Lancashire men-at-arms and archers made in 1359, William 

 the butler, chivaler, had Robert de Sankey and Richard de Rixton assigned to 

 his aid, because a great part of his lands and tenements were not in his hands.* 

 He died on 17 March, 1380, John Butler, kt., being his son and heir, aged 

 52 years. 6 Sir John Butler, chivaler, had held the office of sheriff of the county 

 for three years from Christmas, I37i. 6 In 1366 he was elected one of 

 the knights of the shire to the Parliament which sat on 4 May in that 

 year, 7 and again in 1372." In 1369 and 1370 he was in the retinue of John, 

 duke of Lancaster, in the expedition to Gascony. 9 In the beginning of 

 1374, being then described as 'chivaler,' he was appointed seneschal of 

 West Derbyshire and Salfordshire, 10 and at the end of the year constable of 

 Liverpool Castle and warden of the parks of Toxteth, Croxteth and Simons- 

 wood, and of the forest and chase of West Derbyshire for life. 11 In July, 

 1372, he was summoned to attend the duke with other knights of the county, 

 each accompanied by twenty good archers, to join the king in the contem- 

 plated expedition to Aquitaine, 12 and from 13 September, 1372, to 9 August, 

 I 373> was * n the retinue of Robert de Assheton, kt. banneret, in the king's 

 service in Ireland. 13 About the year 1364, Butler married Alice, daughter of 

 William de Plumpton, kt., and relict of Richard Sherburn, kt. u In 1376 

 he was returned to the Parliament summoned to meet at Westminster on 

 12 February, 16 again in 1377 to the Parliaments summoned for 27 January 

 and 13 October, 16 which latter sat for sixty-six days, and again to the Parlia- 

 ments of 1378 and 1380." In 1386 he was one of the king's commissioners 

 in the Scrope and Grosvenor trial, being styled ' Baro de Weryngton,' 18 and 

 the same year with other Lancashire knights led ten men-at-arms and thirty 

 archers of his own retinue into Ireland on the king's service. 19 In 1388 he 



1 Chron. (ed. Berners, 1812), i. 109. * Staff. Collections (New Ser.), vi. (2), 40, 52. 



8 Ibid, xviii. (2), 214. * Misc. R. Chanc. bdle. 20, No. 23, m. 2. 



6 Chetham Soc. (Old Ser.), xcv. 7 ; Dep. Keeper's ^th Rep. App. No. 3, 535. Writ of D.C.E. tested 

 18 April ; Dep. Keeper's ^znd Rep. App. No. 4, 353. Sir John Butler had livery 6 August, 1380. Ibid. 



6 Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks., No. xiii. 48^, 55^, 214. 



7 Parl. Rei.\. 177. He and his colleague each received 4*. a day. 8 Ibid. 1 88. 



9 Dugdale, Baronage, 653. French R., 43 Edw. III. Staff. Coll. viii. 112. 



10 Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks., No. xiii. 64! 



11 Ibid. 651$. In 1378 the duke of Lancaster directed the Chancellor to send the great seal of the duchy 

 into the castle of Liverpool to remain in the custody of Mons. John Butiller, constable of the same, during the 

 chancellor's absence from the duchy. Palat. of Lane. Chan. Misc. bdle. i. file 9. m. 4. 



i Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. xiii. 154^. Letter dated 18 July. On 22 November the receiver was 

 ordered to pay him 56 8/. 8</. due for his wages in that expedition. Ibid. f. 1606. 



18 Exch. K.R. Accts. bdle. 32, No. 25, m. 2. Assheton had in his retinue six knights, forty-nine men- 

 at-arms, and ninety-four horse archers. 



u Whitaker, Hist. ofWhalley, 1 10 ; Plumpton Papers, Camden Soc. xxviii. 



is Parl. Ret. i. 193. i Ibid. 196, 198. 



17 Ibid. 200, 204, 206 ; Dep. Keeper's 1,2nd Rep. App. 4, 352-3. 



18 Nicolas, Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, i. 245. 

 i Cal. Pat.R. 1385-9, 163. 



I 345 44 



