A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



West Derby, but part at least seems to have been 

 granted by Count Roger of Poitou to the ancestor 

 of Molyneux of Sefton, being soon exchanged for a 

 moiety of Litherland. 1 The whole vill was then 

 afforested, and until 1604 continued to form part of 

 the forest of West Derby, being described as a ' Hay ' 

 in the earlier records, and as a 

 park from the time of Edward I. _ 

 A separate keeper or parker was 

 appointed for it.' The boun- 

 daries, somewhat within the 

 present ones, are described in 

 the perambulation of 1228.* 



In 1257 the yearly issues 

 of Toxteth amounted to 

 ^7 1 4/. 6-^., arising from per- 

 quisites, agistment, and wood 

 sold. 4 At the death of Edmund, 

 earl of Lancaster, in 1296, 

 the issues of Toxteth, Croxteth, 

 and Simonswood amounted to 



8 3;. \od. per annum. 5 His son and successor, 

 Thomas, in 1316, while a guest of the monks of 

 Whalley, then but recently translated from Stanlaw 

 in Cheshire, gave them Toxteth and Smithdown ; 

 they being dissatisfied with Whalley owing to the 

 lack of timber there for building. 6 However, they 

 decided to stay at Whalley, and the grant of Toxteth 

 was revoked, Sir Robert de Holand being put in 

 possession of this and other manors in the hundred, 



STANLEY OF LATHOM. 

 Argent, on a bend azure 

 three stags' heads cabossed 



which he held till the earl's attainder in 1 322.' 

 Five years later Toxteth, with the other parks, was 

 granted to Henry, brother of Thomas of Lancaster, 

 on being allowed to succeed to the earldom and 

 estates. 8 



By this time the profits of the park from the sale of 

 fuel, &c., had become more important than the 

 preservation of deer for the chase, and various leases 

 and grants were made. 9 The custody of the park, 

 after various changes, 10 was in 1447 granted in fee to 

 Sir Thomas Stanley, controller of the household, at a 

 rent of us. l\d. yearly, with a lease also of the 

 turbary. 11 This office descended 



in the Stanley family until I 596, r _^_^_.^ B ^ 

 when William, earl of Derby, 

 sold the park with all his lands 

 and tenements there and in 

 Smithdown to Edmund Smolte 

 and Edward Aspinwall, 1 ' who 

 subsequently made a number of 

 grants to kinsmen and others. 

 Eight years later the earl agreed 

 to sell the same to Sir Richard 

 Molyneux of Sefton, 13 and after 

 various intermediate arrange- 

 ments " the transfer was com- 

 pleted in 1 605," from which time the estate hai 

 descended in the Molyneux family to the present earl 

 of Sefton. The disparking occurred about I 592." 

 No courts have been held from about 1770, and 



MOLYNEUX, Earl of 

 Sefton. Azure, a cross 

 moline or. 



