A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



knight of the shire in 1413-14, and otherwise appear 

 to have held an honourable position in the district. 

 He died about 1421, his heir 

 being his eldest son Henry, 

 who, by marriage with Joan, 

 daughter and co-heir of Henry 

 de Rixton, added a portion of 

 Ditton and other lands to the 

 family inheritance.* On his 

 death, about 1456, he was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Nicholas,* 

 and the latter in turn by his 

 son, another Nicholas, about 

 1476. 



The younger Nicholas, when 

 quite a child, was married to 

 Margery daughter of Henry Scarisbrick ; 4 they lived 

 happily together for sixty years and ' never noder 

 cold find fote noder with oder,' but their latter 

 years were greatly embittered by a long strife with the 

 family of Molyneux of Sefton. 5 In some way Nicho- 



DDDD 



D D D 



DD 



D 



Ho* 



BLUNDKLL or LITTLI 

 CKOSBY. Sable, ten billet,, 

 4, 3, Z, and I argent. 



las Blundell incurred the resentment of Dame Anne 

 Molyneux, who, as guardian of her young sons, ap- 

 pears to have pushed to the uttermost the superior 

 manorial rights of Sefton, and as a result in 1507-8 

 Nicholas Blundell granted to her and her son Edward 

 for the grantor's life, the hall of Crosby, with the build- 

 ings, lands, windmill, and appurtenances, and the 

 moiety of the rents in Crosby, at a rent of 20 marks.' 

 In 1509 there was a settlement as to the homage re- 

 quired of him, 7 and in 1514 the manor was restored 

 to him by Edward Molyneux. 8 The case had, of 

 course, been taken into the courts, but Nicholas, who 

 died about 1520, did not see the end of it, the final 

 decree recognizing the rights of the Blundells being 

 given in 1526." 



A more peaceful time followed. Nicholas's eldest 

 son Henry having predeceased his father, 10 Nicholas 

 was succeeded by his grandson James, who was of age 

 in 1514, and died in May, 1527," leaving as heir his 

 son Henry, then only eleven years of age. Henry 

 was succeeded by his son Richard," in whose time the 



