A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The township is governed by a parish council. 



In 1066 SPEKE was one of the manors 



M4NOR held by Uctred ; it was assessed at two 

 plough-lands and its value beyond the 



customary rent was the normal sum of 64^.' When 



the Lancashire forest was formed, Speke became part 



of the fee attached to the chief forestership held by 



the Gernet family and their descendants the Dacres.* 

 The interest of the master foresters in Speke was, 



however, merely that of supe- 

 rior lord after Roger Gernet, 



living in 1170, had granted 



the manor to Richard de 



Molyneux of Sefton in free 



marriage.' No service was 



attached to the grant,' and 



the Molyneux family did not 



long retain Speke in their 



immediate holding. Before 



1 206 half of the manor had 



been granted in free marriage 



with Richard's daughter to 

 William de Haselwell, a grant 

 confirmed by a charter of 



Benedict Gernet as chief lord. 5 



The other half of Speke seems to have been granted 

 by Adam de Molyneux to his younger son Roger, 

 together with Little Crosby and other lands, 6 and 

 descended to Sir John de Molyneux of Little Crosby, 

 who died about 1361. 



Under the nominal lordship of the chief forester 

 there were thus at the end of Henry Ill's reign the 

 mesne tenancy of Molyneux of Sefton, 7 and the 

 subordinate tenancies of Roger de Molyneux and 

 Patrick de Haselwell. William de Molyneux of 

 Sefton granted in free marriage with his daughter 

 Joan to Robert son of Richard Erneys, a citizen and 

 merchant of Chester, all his lands and wood in the 

 vill of Speke with the homages, wards, and reliefs of 

 the heirs of Patrick de Haselwell and Roger de 

 Molyneux, the grantor's brother. 8 This grant was 

 confirmed by Richard son of William de Molyneux 

 about 1 290, or before the death of Robert Erneys. 9 





GEKNET, chief forester 

 of Lancashire. Gules, 



crowned or, -within a 

 bordure engrailed of the 

 last. 



s or Cms-i-rn. 

 Argent, on a mound vert 

 an eagle -with wings en- 

 dorsed sable. 



The origin of the Erneys family seems to be un- 

 known. Robert FitzErneys was settled at Chester 

 early in the thirteenth century. 10 He was sheriff of 

 the city in 1257 and 1259, 

 and his nephew Robert, who 

 married Joan de Molyneux, 

 served in the same office several 

 times, and probably died during 

 his term in 1292-3." 



Richard, the son of Robert 

 and Joan, appears to have been 

 but an infant at his father's 

 death. The earliest deeds in 

 which he took an active part 

 concern the marriage ot his 

 sister Mabel with Thomas de 

 Carleton in 1308; but from 

 1311 onwards many of his 



charters are extant. In 1314 he and his mother 

 made an exchange of lands in Speke with John le 

 Norreys and Nicholaa his wife." In 1332 he granted 

 his manor of Speke to John le Norreys for life, by 

 the service of a rose yearly for the first four years, 

 and afterwards of 40 marks ; and at the end of 1339 

 he granted to Alan le Norreys, son and successor of 

 John, and to his sons Alan and Hugh for life all his 

 lands in Speke, and the rents of the free tenants and 

 tenants at will, by the yearly service of a rose for four 

 years and 40 in silver afterwards. 13 After this he 

 intervened but little in Speke. 



In 1341 he made a small exchange of land with 

 Sir John de Molyneux, and a year afterwards a mar- 

 riage settlement was executed in favour of his son 

 Thomas and Agnes his wife, daughter of Alan le 

 Norreys. 14 



Probably Thomas died without issue, for the next 

 Erneys to be mentioned is Roger son and heir of 

 Richard Erneys, who in 1369 made a feoffment of 

 his lands and tenements, rents and services, mills and 

 fisheries, in the vill of Speke, &c. 15 Richard Erneys, 

 the father, seems to have been still living in 1351, 

 and Roger is first mentioned nine years later in con- 

 junction with Sir John de Molyneux and Sir Henry 



132 



