A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



divided their two-thirds of the manor equally, so that 

 the lords became Crosse, Chorley, and Fazakerley. 1 

 Richard Crosse left a son Roger, 

 who died in 1530, holding 

 lands in Walton of the king, as 

 well as other estates.* Roger 

 and his brothers all dying with- 

 out issue, their mother's third 

 of the manor was divided be- 

 tween their sisters Blanche and 

 Margaret. The latter married 

 George Garston of Walton,' 

 and dying childless, the other 

 sister and her heirs had the 

 whole share. 



Blanche Crosse married Roger 

 Breres. 4 Their son is said to 

 have been Lawrence Breres, who in giving evidence 

 at West Derby in 1570 described himself as fifty- 

 four years of age. 5 He died in 1584, holding 

 various lands in Walton and Fazakerley of the queen 

 by a rent of 2O/., i.e. a third of that due from the 

 whole of Walton. Roger, his son and heir, was forty- 

 nine years of age. 6 This son survived his father only 

 about nine years, his heir being his son Lawrence, ten 

 years old. 7 Lawrence Breres also was short-lived, 

 dying in 1612, and leaving a son and heir Roger, aged 

 nine years. 8 



The family adhered in the main to the Roman Catho- 

 lic faith, and Roger Breres, as a convicted recusant, paid 



CROSS* or LIVERPOOL. 

 Quarterly gules and or, 

 in the Jint and fourth 

 quarters a crest potent 

 argent. 



double to the subsidy in 1628 ; s he appears, never- 

 theless, to have escaped the attentions of the Common- 

 wealth authorities, and was still living in 1665, when 

 a pedigree was recorded at the visitation. His eldest 

 son Lawrence was then dead without issue, the heir 

 being a younger son Robert, who had married a 

 daughter of John Molyneux of New Hall in West 

 Derby. 10 Robert Breres was reckoned among the 

 gentry of the parish in 1688," but in his will dated 

 April, 1708, is described as 'of 

 Wigan.' " In this he mentions 

 Roger his son and heir, whose 

 wife's name was Bridget, and 

 who had two children, Law- 

 rence and Catherine. These 

 last, in 1730, mortgaged Wal- 

 ton Old Hall to Thomas Moss 

 of Liverpool, and subsequently 

 to Nicholas Fazakerley, who in 

 1 746 purchased it," no doubt 

 as agent for John Atherton. 14 

 John's grandson, John Joseph 

 Atherton, sold it about 1804 

 to Thomas Leyland, banker, of Liverpool. 15 It 

 descended like the other Leyland properties. 16 The 

 hall has lately been pulled down. 



The Chorleys' third part of the manor descended 

 with the Chorley estate until 1715, when, being for- 

 feited for Richard Chorley's participation in the re- 

 bellion it was sold to Abraham Crompton, 17 whose 



