WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



H. Sab!,, , 

 cross patie and in sinistei 

 chief an escallop argent. 



it was sold ' to John Charnock of Farington.* In 

 1613 it was sold by Robert Charnock to Thomas 

 Bickerstath. The latter by his will gave all his lands 

 to his son Robert his eldest 

 by his first wife excepting the 

 Cock Beck estate, which he 

 gave to John, one of his sons 

 by his second marriage, and it 

 was quickly sold to Henry Pye 

 of Aughton. The Middlewood 

 estate descended from Robert 

 Bickerstath to his nephew, an- 

 other Robert, who also died 

 childless ; it then passed to 

 Thomas, half-brother to the 

 former Robert, and was sold by 

 his great-grandson Robert to 



John Dannett, whose son (the Rev. Henry Dannett 

 of Liverpool) sold it to an ancestor of the present 

 owner, Major Hughes of Sherdley in Sutton.* 



Another Bickerstath family acquired an estate 

 before 1326, when Henry de Bickerstath contributed 

 3*. to the subsidy. He appears to have been son of 

 a Simon de Bickerstath, and his own son was Henry, 

 to whom on his marriage with Margaret, daughter of 

 Richard de Sankey, the father gave lands in Aughton 

 and BickerstafFe. 4 Father and son dying without 

 further issue, Richard de Sankey in 1361 released to 

 John son of Simon de Bickerstath all his lands, mills, 

 &c., wardships and reliefs, with remainder to John 

 Bas of London and Margaret his wife. 4 John's 

 widow Alice de Bickerstath was afterwards placed in 

 possession of certain of her husband's lands, with 

 remainder to Simon son of John de Bickerstath. 6 

 Gilbert occurs in 1408 ; and Joan widow of John 

 held part of the lands in dower in 1479, Nicholas 

 Bickerstath being in possession of the remainder. 

 The estates were in this year settled upon Nicholas, 

 with remainders to his two sons, two brothers, and 



AUGHTON 



the four sons of Gilbert Bickerstath. 7 Hugh, one of 

 his sons, succeeded Nicholas, and in 1498-9 released 

 to Miles Gerard of London, gentleman, twelve 

 messuages, 200 acres of land, 100 acres of meadow, 

 and 200 acres of pasture in Bickerstaffe and Aughton. 8 

 GERARD'S HALL takes its name from this family. 



Nothing is known of the ancestry of Miles Gerard; 

 in his will 9 he describes himself as having been born 

 in Ormskirk. At the inquest in 1522, taken after his 

 death, it was found that he held lands, &c. in Aughton 

 of Alice Griffith and Margery Stanley in socage, by 

 the yearly rent of 6J., and 

 another parcel called the Halt 

 Heyve Wood, of James Brad- 

 shagh, by the service of id. 

 yearly. Peter Gerard, clerk, 

 was his brother and heir, and 

 over fifty years of age. 10 



By the will of Miles Gerard 

 the estate descended to his 

 natural son Lionel," whose son 

 and heir Miles Gerard was in 

 1599 accused of withholding 

 a rent due to the chantry of 

 St. Mary Magdalen in Ormskirk 



church. 12 Henry Mossock of Bickerstaffe made com- 

 plaints against him and his son Thomas in 1584." 

 This Thomas Gerard died in I 595 or 1 599, before his 

 father, leaving a son Miles, about ten years of age." 



Miles Gerard the elder deceased in June, 1602 ; 

 by his will he desired to be buried in the parish 

 church of Aughton ' near his ancestors,' and be- 

 queathed ' all his harness and his cross bow ' to his 

 grandson Miles, and a dagger to Paul, one of his 

 younger sons. 15 Miles Gerard the younger died 

 28 December, l6l6, 16 and was succeeded by his 

 eldest son Thomas, then a minor, not thirteen years 

 of age. Thomas Gerard paid double to the subsidy 

 of 1 62 8 as a convicted recusant." What became of 



