A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



this manor in 1323,' when he enfeoffed his son 

 Richard and Amine his wife, daughter of Thomas de 

 Hale, of lands in Poulton and Warrington.' At the 

 same time an agreement was made between Richard 

 de Bruche and his father-in- 

 law that the latter should have 

 these lands for five years and 

 in return would honestly main- 

 tain Richard and Amine in 

 victuals, clothes, and other 

 necessaries in a manner befit- 

 ting a gentleman and gentle- 

 woman of their estate, and the 

 first year of the five would 

 maintain Richard at school at BR 

 ' Oxenford ' with all necessaries, Ar l"\ " cbm "> n f- 



, i r . nveen three pierced mullets 



and the four ensuing years at sMti 

 the court of our lord the king 



at the Common Bench, if it should be in Eng- 

 land, with all needful charges, and paying him also 

 the sum of 43/. 4^. yearly. 1 The issue of this 

 marriage was at least two sons, Thurstan, who with 

 his mother Anina or Amina, was occupying lands 

 in Poulton in 1361,' and Gilbert, the eldest son 

 and heir, who married Katherine, one of the sisters 

 and coheirs of William de Moston, lord of Poulton . 6 

 In 1387 he was in Ireland on the king's service 

 in the company of Robert, duke of Ireland, 8 and 

 he was still living in 1397-8.' He was the father 

 of William Bruche, upon whom tenements in Poul- 

 ton and Glazebrook were settled by fine in 1 417." 

 In 1432 William Bruche was adjudged to give 

 Nicholas Risley a hogshead of wine or 2 marks as 

 the result of an award made between them and their 

 respective sons, concerning divers trespasses committed 

 between them. 9 He died in 1436.' 



Richard his son and heir married Margaret, daughter 

 of Peter Legh of Bradley and Lyme. In 1457 he 

 settled part of his estate upon Dulcia, daughter of 

 Hamlet Mascy of Rixton, upon her marriage to his 

 son and heir apparent, Hugh Bruche. 11 In 1465, 

 Richard Bruche held of Peter Legh of Bradley one 

 half of the manor of Bruche by knight's service and 

 I ^d. yearly, which manor was situated on the south 

 side of a certain heath called the Bruche Heath, and 

 extended to the lane leading from Warrington to 

 Woolston and as far as the water of Mersey, and in 

 width from the Bruche Brook on the west to Woolston 



Brook on the east." Richard Bruche was living in 

 1476 and was the father of Henry Bruche, who is 

 thought to have fallen at Bosworth Field, 13 and of 

 Hugh, his eldest son and successor, who did homage 

 to Sir Thomas Butler for his lands in Orford and 

 Sankey on 1 3 January, 1 490." Hugh died before 

 1 504, and was succeeded by Hamlet, his son and heir, 

 who did homage at Bewsey on 1 1 April, 1507, for 

 his lands in Bruche, Orford, Warrington, and both 

 Sankeys, 15 but died on 7 April, 1508, Richard his son 

 being six years of age. 16 The wardship of the heir was 

 in dispute between Sir Thomas Boteler and Hamlet 

 Bruche's feoffees, but the matter was compromised. 17 



Richard Bruche did suit at a court held at Warring- 

 ton in 1 523. l8 He married Anne, daughter of Thomas 

 Hawarden of Woolston, and heads the pedigree of 

 Bruche entered in William Flower's visitation of the 

 county in 1567." He died at Warrington 20 August. 

 I56o,*and his wife 21 August, 1568. Thomas hi; 

 son was twice married, first to Margaret, daughter o: 

 Peter Legh of Bradley, by whom he had two sons, 

 Hamlet and Roger, and secondly, to Sibyl, daughter o:" 

 Sir George Holford, widow of John Warburton o ' 

 Arley, by whom he had one son, Richard." 



Among the names of various enclosures forming the 

 demesne of Bruche the following occur at this time : 

 Thickholt, Thinholt, Stockey Croft, Lockers meadow, 

 Warthe meadow, and Harper Sparth. By the wate- 

 of Mersey was a messuage called The Twyeste or Twist ; 

 near Bruche were the Great Haighand The Offenham 

 or Ofnam ; in Warrington land called Rypshagh an<l 

 Rysshefeld." 



The three last-named generations of this famil/ 

 were spendthrifts, each in its turn in a greater de- 

 gree than the last. In 1584 Hamlet Bruche having 

 issue only one daughter, Dorothy, sold the hall ani 

 demesne to his brother Roger, reserving a life estate 

 in the western half of the mansion with some old farm 

 buildings." From this time Roger Bruche appears u 

 have indulged in the dissolute but fashionable habi s 

 of dicing, gaming, and cockfighting. Early in 1590 

 Peter Legh of Bradley, his kinsman and master, di^- 

 charged his debts, then amounting to 200, and with 

 another friend became his trustee with a view to pr> 

 serving his inheritance ' for the maintenance of Us 

 issue and posterity,' a consummation which his kin;- 

 man Legh ' did greatly desire.' r * In furtherance .jf 

 this object Legh persuaded his thriftless kinsman to 



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