WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



when Richard Formby ' was lord of this part of 

 Formby and also curate of the chapel. He died in 

 1832, and was succeeded by his son John Formby 

 of Maghull Hall, 2 whose son 



the Rev. Lonsdale Formby was, . 



like his grandfather, lord of the 

 manor and incumbent of the 

 chapel. Mr. John Formby, his 

 only son, is the present lord of 

 this portion of the manor. 



In 1717 as' papists' John 

 Poole of Great Crosby, Richard 

 Rimmer, and Nicholas Summer 

 registered estates here. 3 



Before the Conquest there 

 were in R4YEN MEOLS three 

 manors held by as many thegns ; 

 the assessment was half a hide, 

 and the value beyond the customary rent the 

 normal 8/.* The whole was afterwards put into 

 the demesne of West Derby, and in 1094 Roger 

 of Poitou gave the tithes of Meols, as of his other 

 demesne manors, to St. Martin of Seez. 5 Sixty years 

 later Henry II gave this vill, with Ainsdale and other 

 more important estates, to his falconer, Warin de 

 Lancaster, to hold by grand serjeanty, and John 

 count of Mortain confirmed the gift to Henry de 

 Lea, son of Warin, between 1189 and Ii94, 6 and 

 again in 1199 after becoming king. 7 In 1207 the 

 tenure of Raven Meols and Ainsdale was changed to 

 socage and a yearly service of zos. ; five-sixths of 

 which was due from this vill. s The subsequent 



WALTON 



descent of the mesne lordship is the same as that of 

 Lea and the other manors of Henry son of Warin.* 



Between 1205 and 1211 Henry de Lea granted 

 licence to William Blundell of Ince to erect a mill on 

 the Raven Meols side of the Alt, with the right to 

 take eels at the sluice ; the mill was given to the 

 monks of Whalley, who in 1329 agreed with Sir 

 Richard de Hoghton and his wife Sibyl to pay a rent 

 of a gilt spur, or 4^., and reserve the eel fishery to 

 the lord of Raven Meols. 10 



The survey of 1212 shows that thirteen of the 

 twenty-four oxgangs had been granted to eight tenants. 

 The details are : Robert son of Osbert (de Ainsdale), 

 two oxgangs by serving the office of reeve ; Alan le 

 Brun, two oxgangs by a rent of 6s., these feoffments 

 were ' of ancient time ' ; Richard son of Henry, two 

 oxgangs for 6s. by grant of Warin de Lancaster ; and 

 the following held by gift of Henry de Lea ; Denise, 

 daughter of Thurstan, two oxgangs by 5/. rent ; 

 William, brother of the grantor, an oxgang by a 

 pound of pepper ; Edwin, two oxgangs by t>s. ; 

 Robert, one oxgang by $s. ; Thomas, son of Sigge, 

 the same." In the inquest after the death of Henry 

 de Lea in 1289, it was stated that he held seven 

 oxgangs in demesne and five in service ; from which 

 it would appear that half the manor had been already 

 lost, probably by incursions of the sea." 



Some of these infeudations can be traced later. 

 The lands of Denise daughter of Thurstan descended 

 to Ellen, her daughter by William de Stanton ; 13 and 

 subsequently to the Banastres of Bank, who held them 

 for many generations." William de Lancaster, baron 



born at Formby, 23 April, 1701, tool 

 the college oath at Douay in 1720' 

 Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Etigl. Cath. ii, 309. 

 Sir Cuthbert Halsall and Richard Form 

 by were the freeholders here in 1628, th 

 aying double as a convicted re 



; a recusant at Formby, and his son Thomas 

 registered his estate as a Catholic nonjuror 

 - in 1717'; Gillow, loc. cit. ; Engl. Cath. 

 e Nonjunrs, 155. This estate was at Altcar. 

 1 As son of John Formby of Walton, 



Richard de Hoghton and Sibyl [de Lea] 

 his wife held the manor of Raven Meols 

 by a service of 161. tf. for all service. 

 without puture, bode, or witness; Dods. 

 MS. cxxxi, fol. 36*. Richard and Sibyl 



