A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



and from Robert del Eves lands and a fishery which 

 had belonged to Simon son of John de Garston. 1 



Robert de Blackburn was succeeded by his eldest 

 son John, who even before his father's death seems to 

 have taken an active part in managing the estate.* 

 He was lord of the manor for about fifty years, 

 dying on 8 January, 1 404-5 , s and during this long 

 period seems to have been constantly acquiring fresh 

 portions of land.* At the inquest taken after his death 

 it was found that he had held the manor of Garston 

 of the king as duke of Lancaster, by knight's service, 

 6 oxgangs in Downham, lands in West Derby, Hol- 

 land Place in Halewood, lands in Allerton and in 

 Woolton. His heir was his grandson John, son of 

 Robert, who was then fifteen years old and more. 5 



John, the grandson, 6 died early and without issue, 

 and the inheritance came to his sister Agnes, who 

 married Thomas, younger son of Sir John de Ireland 

 of Hale. Thus the manor passed to the Irelands, who 

 by the same marriage acquired Lydiate, the property 

 of Agnes's mother, which they made their principal 

 residence. 7 Little appears to be known of their con- 

 nexion with Garston. 8 The inquest taken after the 

 death of John Ireland in 1514 states that he held the 

 manor of Garston of the king as duke of Lancaster in 

 socage for a rent of 2os., lands in Allerton of the 

 priory of Burscough by the rent of a grain of pepper 

 if demanded ; in Woolton of the prior of St. John of 

 Jerusalem in England, and in Halewood of the earl 

 of Derby. 9 His grandson Lawrence, in 1543, ex- 

 changed the manor of Garston and lands and water- 

 mill there and in Much Woolton with Sir William 



Norris of Speke, taking the latter's lands in Lydiate 

 and Maghull. 10 



The Norris family had long had a fair holding 

 in the township, the rents in 1450 amounting to 

 j io/." A junior branch seems to have resided 

 there for a time." The manor continued in the 

 Norris family, descending like Speke, until near the 

 end of the eighteenth century. 13 The dismember- 

 ment and sale of the estates began in 1775." In 

 February, 1779, the corporation of Liverpool pur- 

 chased the manorial rights of Garston, with the 

 intention, it was said, of regulating the fisheries in the 

 Mersey, but in April of the following year the manor 

 was sold to Peter Baker, a Liverpool shipbuilder, and 

 his son-in-law John Dawson, captain of the privateer 

 Mentor, which in 1778 had captured the French 

 East Indiaman Carnatic with a rich booty. Certain 

 reservations made by the corporation were afterwards 

 given up. In January, 1791, Baker and Dawson 

 conveyed the manor to the trustees of Richard Kent, 

 a Liverpool merchant, who had died before the com- 

 pletion of the sale. Elizabeth Kent, his daughter, 

 had married (in 1786) Lord Henry Murray, son of 

 the third duke of Atholl ; and they joined with John 

 Blackburne of Liverpool 15 in procuring (at the latter's 

 expense) an Act of Parliament 16 for destroying the 

 entail and enabling the trustees to sell the Garston 

 estate. John Blackburne purchased the manor under 

 this Act, with various lands in Garston, but exclusive 

 of the advowson of Garston chapel, the mill dale and 

 pool, and certain rights ; he also purchased indepen- 

 dently other lands in Garston, and transferred his 



