WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



Before this, however, Edward Torbock the elder 

 died, and administration had been granted in 1608 

 to his widow and son. He appears to have conformed 

 externally to the change in religion made by Elizabeth, 

 for in 1584 he was returned as 'suspected' only, and 

 in 1 590 was among the ' more usual comers to church, 

 but not communicants.' * His son and heir had been 

 made a knight by James I at Whitehall on I Novem- 

 ber, 1606," but he was not able to retrieve the family 

 fortunes and died in the King's Bench, a prisoner, 

 being buried at St. George's, South wark, on 28 May, 

 1617.' 



As stated, the manor of Tarbock, with lands in 

 Cronton and Whiston, and the rectory of Huyton 

 had been sold to Thomas 

 Sutton in 1 6 1 1 , Sir Edward's 

 sons Edward and George join- 

 ing in the sale. Thomas Sutton 

 died in December, 1611, and 

 his heir was his nephew Simon 

 Baxter of London. 4 In July, 

 1614, Sir Richard Molyneux 

 of Sefton entered into posses- 

 sion of Tarbock, having pur- 

 chased it from Simon Baxter 

 for ^10,500.* 



Sir Richard Molyneux died 

 seised of the manor as well as 

 of lands in Tarbock and Huy- 

 ton and the rectory. 6 The manor has descended 

 regularly to the present earl of Sefton. In 1798 

 quit-rents amounting to 6s. were paid by various 

 tenants. The water-mill and the windmill were 

 in operation. 



Other persons or families also took surname from 

 the place, some of them no doubt descendants of 

 younger sons. 7 



The Easthead family also occurs. In I 339 William 



HUYTON 



Easthead was in prison at Lancaster charged with the 

 death of Henry son of Ellis le Keu of Tarbock ; but 

 the jury found that he was unjustly accused by one 

 Robert Utting, whose wages William took, in his 

 capacity as reaper for Ellen de Torbock. 8 John 

 Easthead was a free tenant in 1 600 ; and John East- 

 wood of Tarbock, gent., who died in 1613, held 

 a messuage, etc., of Simon Baxter in socage by 4*. 4^. 

 rent as well as lands in Burscough and Lathom. His 

 son and heir was John Eastwood, then aged thirty. 9 



The Whitefields are a family whose records reach 

 to Edward I's reign. Robert de Whitefield in 1292 

 claimed from Henry de Torbock and Ellen his wife 

 acquittance of the service demanded from him by 

 the superior lord, Henry de Lacy, in respect of a 

 tenement in Tarbock, but was non-suited." By 

 an inquisition made in 1446-7 it was found that 

 William Whitefield had held nineteen acres in 

 Tarbock of Sir Henry de Torbock in socage by a 

 service of $s. He died on 7 September, 1402, and 

 Richard Orme, aged twenty-three years, was his 

 next heir, being son of Alice, the daughter of William 

 Whitefield." 



An assessment of 1 73 1 shows 73 to have been 

 raised ; John Torbock, as collector, occurs down to 

 1757. The principal contributor was, of course, 

 Lord Molyneux, for demesne lands, tithes and mills, 

 and part of the New Pale ; his payments were doubled 

 on account of his being a ' Papist.' Others in the 

 township paying double for the same reason were 

 Robert Waring, James Abram, Caryll Hawarden, and 

 John Abram. 12 The other portion of the New Pale 

 was occupied by James Glover." 



In 1786 a dispute arose as to Penny Lane croft, 

 and the matter was referred to Charles Pole, mayor 

 of Liverpool, for decision ; from the witnesses' state- 

 ments it appears that the croft was divided by a 

 gutter into an eastern and a western part, and that 



