A HISTORY OF 



self aged and sickly and his children many in number,' 

 he made a release of all his lands to his son Sir 

 William, and dying during the summer of 1606, was 

 buried at Childwall. 1 



His eldest son William, who had resided at Blacon, 

 succeeded him. He was made a Knight of the Bath 

 at the coronation of James I.* The end of his life 

 was embittered by a quarrel with his son 3 and a 

 heavy fine inflicted by the Star Chamber. 4 These 

 troubles seem to have hastened Sir William's end 

 for he died in October, 1630.* 



William his son was described as a recusant 

 in 1624, and died 10 July, 1651. He married 

 Margaret, daughter of Thomas Salisbury, of Llewenny. 6 

 It does not appear that he took any part in the Civil 

 War, 7 but a younger son Thomas, who inherited the 

 estates, had in 1650 fallen under the displeasure of 

 the Parliament as ' adhering to and assisting the forces' 

 of the king. His estates were described as 'the 

 manor and capital messuage of Speke, with the 

 demesnes thereof, three cottages, two windmills, two 

 water-mills and lands of the yearly value of 224 5/. %d., 

 and the like estate in reversion of certain messuages 

 and lands in Speke and Garston, then rented out at 

 69 ifs. 6d.' The fine imposed was .508 ; and 

 there is no mention of any recusancy. 8 



Thomas Norris, aged forty-six in 1664,' held Speke 

 till his death about 1686. He married Catherine, 

 daughter of Sir Henry Garvey, an alderman of 

 London, and had by her a family of seven sons and 

 four daughters. The eldest son Thomas was aged 

 eleven at the visitation ; he was sheriff of Lancashire 

 in 1 696,' and member of Parliament for Liverpool 

 after the Revolution, being a Whig in politics." He 



loughby 



LANCASHIRE 



married in 1695 Magdalen, daughter of Sir Willo; 

 Aston, bart. Their only child Mary succeeded 

 the estates on the death of her uncles " without male 

 issue, and married Lord Sidney 

 Beauclerk, fifth son of the first 

 duke of St. Albans. He was 

 ' a man of bad character . . . 

 notorious for panting after the 

 fortunes of the old and child- 

 less.' The marriage took place 

 in 1736, and the only son was 

 Topham Beauclerk, the friend 

 of Johnson and Reynolds, who 

 married Diana, daughter of 

 the third duke of Marlborough, 

 the divorced wife of Lord 

 Bolingbroke ; by her he had a 

 son Charles George Beauclerk, 13 

 who in 1797 " sold the Speke 

 estates to Richard Watt, a 

 Liverpool merchant. 



The new possessor was born at Shevington in 

 Standish. In his youth he was the driver of the only 

 hired carriage then in Liverpool ; having been taught 

 at a night school he went out to Jamaica, where he 

 amassed a fortune of half a million sterling. 16 Speke 

 became the property of his nephew, Richard Watt of 

 Bishop Burton in Yorkshire, who died in 1 8 1 2, 16 and 

 was succeeded by his son, grandson, and great-grandson, 

 each named Richard. The last of these, who died in 

 1865, was succeeded by his only child Adelaide (born 

 19 May 1857), the present lady of the manor. 17 



Speke Hall stands a little back from the shore of 

 the Mersey, protected by belts of trees on the west 



BEAUCLERK. Quarterly 

 first and fourth France 

 and England quarterly, 

 second Scotland, third Ire- 

 land, over all a sinister 

 baton gules charged with 

 three roses argent. 



