WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



entrusted to the guardianship of James, Lord Strange, 

 his father-in-law. 1 Lord Molyneux, with his brother 

 Caryll, zealously espoused the king's side on the out- 

 break of the Civil War, taking part in the siege of 

 Manchester in 1642, the capture of Lancaster and 

 Preston, the battle of Newbury in the following year, 

 and that of Ormskirk in August, 1644,' when he and 

 Lord Byron, being forced to forsake their horses, hid 

 themselves in the cornfields. 3 In May 1646, after the 

 surrender of Ludlow, he came in, sent his petition to 

 the Parliament, and took the National Covenant and 

 Negative Oath on 20 August. 4 His estates were of 

 course under sequestration, and from this time he 

 appears to have lived at the mercy of the Parliament, 

 with but a scanty allowance. He died early in July 

 1654, without issue. 5 



His brother Caryll succeeded as third viscount. By 

 James II he was made lord lieutenant of Lancashire 

 and admiral of the high seas, a grant which, on reli- 

 gious grounds, gave great offence and had to be 

 revoked. 6 At the Revolution he was faithful to the 

 king, seizing Chester Castle on his behalf; 7 in 1694 he 

 was put on trial for participation in the ' Lancashire 

 Plot.' 8 He died 2 February, 1699-1700, and was 



SEFTON 



buried at Sefton. 9 He was succeeded by his third son, 

 William, who in 1717, shortly before his death, as a 

 ' Papist ' registered his estate in the manors of Sefton, 

 &c. as worth ,2,352 a year. 10 He does not seem to 

 have had any share in the rising of 1715." His 

 eldest son, Richard, succeeded and, leaving only two 

 daughters," was at his death in 1738 followed in turn 

 by his brothers Caryll " and William. The latter, 

 being a priest and a Jesuit, in charge of the mission 

 at Scholes, near Prescot, on succeeding in 1745, re- 

 signed to his younger brother Thomas all his estates, 

 the reason put forward being that he was ' old and 

 had no intention to marry.' " It is said that on 

 Thomas's death in 1756 Lord Molyneux was ordered 

 to ' cease parish duty and appear in his own rank,' 

 and that he accordingly did so until his death in 

 1759." 



His nephew, Charles William, son of the Thomas 

 Molyneux just named, succeeded as eighth viscount. 

 He was then only ten years of age. He conformed 

 to the established religion on 5 March, 1769," 

 probably under the influence of his wife, Isabella, 

 daughter of the earl of Harrington, a step which was 

 rewarded by the grant of an earldom in the peerage 



7 1 



