A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Turton, Walton Lees in Dalton, &c. ; from himself and 

 his wife Ellen, they were to descend to his ' son and 

 heir ' Richard, or in default of heirs to John's brother 

 William. 1 



Though the succeeding lord of Tarbock is called 

 'son and heir' of John de Torbock, it seems quite 

 clear that he was the son of Ellen's former husband, 

 and as ' Richard son of Ellen de Torbock ' or ' Richard 

 son of Henry de Lathom of 

 Tarbock ' he occurs in the plea 

 rolls of the time.' He seems 

 to have died shortly after his 

 mother, leaving a son and heir 

 Richard, 3 whose brief career 

 was marked by matrimonial 

 entanglements resulting in a 

 forty years' dispute over the 

 heirship. 



First he married Margaret, 

 by whom he had three daughters " , ,, , J* 



Emma, Ellen, and Alice, a , ,h e ,kigh gules ; on a 



who were minors at his death. chief indented azure three 



Later he repudiated her and />/< 

 espoused Maud de Standish 4 



at the door of the church of Ormskirk, having 

 by her a son (perhaps posthumous) named Henry. 

 Both Margaret and Maud survived him and married 

 again, the former to Henry Russell of Chester 5 

 and the latter to Henry son of Bernard. In 1337 

 John de Holland claimed from Emma and her 

 sisters, from their feudal guardians the Lathoms, from 

 Margaret ' late wife of Richard de Torbock chivaler,' 

 and others an annual rent of 3/. \d. from the manor 

 of Tarbock and a robe worth zos. of the suit of his 

 esquires which he alleged had in 1334 been granted 



to him by Richard de Torbock. At the same time 

 John de Button (or Ditton) claimed from them a 

 rent of 40^. and a robe (with a hood) of the value of 

 zos. by the year. 6 In 1341 Maud, then wife of 

 Henry son of Bernard, sought dower against Katherine, 

 formerly wife of Robert de Lathom, and Sir Thomas 

 de Lathom, the guardians of the lands and heir of Sir 

 Richard de Torbock, and against Henry Russell and 

 Margaret his wife. The defence was that Maud was 

 never legally married to Richard, and the question 

 being referred to the bishop of Lichfield for inquiry 

 he reported that there was no lawful marriage. 7 Five 

 or six years later there was a contest between 

 Katherine de Lathom and her son Thomas and 

 Henry Russell of Chester as to the custody of the 

 heirs. 8 



In the summer of 1344 the daughter Alice had 

 ' entered into religion in the order of the [Gilbertine] 

 nuns at Walton ' in the East Riding ; while Emma, 

 the eldest daughter, had married Sir William Carles, 

 probably a Shropshire man, 9 and fresh suits were 

 instituted and a settlement of the property made. 10 



Henry, son of Maud, put forward his claims about 

 1363, when he must have been nearly thirty years of 

 age. In November, 1 364, Urban V sent his mandate 

 to the archbishop of York to take order touching the 

 case of Henry de Torbock, son of Richard de Torbock, 

 knight, who died intestate, and of Maud, now also 

 deceased, who duly married the said Richard ; Henry 

 had been defamed by William Carles, knt., and his 

 wife Emma, who, in order to exclude him from his 

 inheritance, said that he was illegitimate." The 

 prior of Burscough was accordingly delegated to 

 inquire, and at Prescot in July, 1365, declared Henry 

 to be legitimate. 12 At the beginning of 1365 the 





