A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



In 1662 a settlement of the manors of Rixton and 

 Glazebrook, and lands in Warrington, Poulton, Fearn- 

 head, and Mosscroft was made by Richard Mascy of 

 Rixton and Hamlet, his son and heir apparent, in con- 

 sideration of the marriage which had taken place 

 between the latter and Margaret, a daughter of Sir 

 Edward Moore, bart., deceased. 1 



Richard Mascy's chequered career closed in 1667.' 

 By his first wife, Mary Plowden, he had two sons, 

 Hamlet and Francis, and two daughters who became 

 nuns." Hamlet died before his father, leaving an 

 only daughter Mary, who married George Meynell, 

 of Aldborough ; and their grand-daughters nearly a 

 century later inherited the Rixton estates. Francis, 

 the younger son, on succeeding lived quietly at 

 Rixton, but died in 1675, leaving a widow and two 

 young children, Richard and Anne, afterwards a nun. 4 

 The estates were by this time much encumbered 

 the confiscation by the Parliament and family charges 

 being perhaps accountable, in addition to religious 

 disabilities and the long mi- 

 nority of Richard Mascy does 

 not seem to have helped matters. 

 About 1711 the mortgagee, 

 Nicholas Starkie, entered into 

 possession, and the nominal 

 owner was receiving a small 

 pension to keep him from 

 starving. 4 He had married Jane, 

 daughter of William Fitzherbert 

 of Norbury, in 1697 ; she died 

 seven years later, having borne 

 him a son Francis, who in 1724 

 succeeded to the encumbered 



estates. He remained unmarried and seems to have 

 endeavoured to pay off his father's debts. He cut off 

 the entail in 1729, and by his will in 1741 bequeathed 

 the manors of Rixton and Glazebrook and other 

 estates to his kinsman George Meynell of Aldborough, 

 son of Mary Mascy. 6 



Francis Mascy died in 1 748, and the last-mentioned 



WITHAM OF CLIFFE. 

 Or, a bend gules between 

 three eagles sable. 



TON. Argent, a bend 

 between six storm finches 

 table. 



George Meynell and his son and heir, George, having 

 already died, the latter George's three sisters became 

 coheirs under the will. They were Elizabeth, wife 

 of Dr. Thomas Witham of ClifFe, Yorkshire ; Anna 

 Clementina, wife of Simon Scrope of Danby ; and 

 Frances Olive, wife of Stephen Walter Tempest of 

 Broughton in Craven. The 

 second of these took the Mey- 

 nell manors to her husband ; 

 the other sisters divided the 

 Mascy estates. Half the manors 

 of Rixton and Glazebrook, with 

 the old hall and the Mascy 

 chapel in Warrington church, 

 went to Elizabeth Witham, and 

 were sold to Thomas Patten of 

 Warrington in or about 1785. 

 The other half of the manors, 

 with the Little Hall in Rixton, 

 the free fisheries in the Mersey 

 and Glazebrook, and Hollins 

 Green ferry went to Frances Olive Tempest, and 

 most of this remained in the Tempest family until 

 1865, when it was sold in accordance with the will 

 of Sir Charles Robert Tempest. 7 



The manor was held by John Wilson-Patten, Lord 

 Winmarleigh ; the present holder, for her life, being 

 his son's widow, the dowager marchioness of Head- 

 fort. No courts are held, nor are any manorial rights 

 exercised. 8 



Little can be said of the manor of GLAZEBROOK. 

 It is not mentioned in 1212. One moiety of it 

 was acquired by the Rixton family in the thir- 

 teenth century, but it is not clear whether this wa; 

 by a grant from the lord of Warrington to Alar 

 de Rixton, who afterwards granted it to a familj 

 or families using the local surname, or whether it wa 

 by purchase or repurchase from members of the 

 Glazebrook family, whose interest was very much 

 divided. 9 In 1300, however, it is clear that one 

 moiety had been attached to the manor of Rixton, whib 



1658, when he pledged his effects for the 

 payment of certain debts; Mascy D. R. 197; 

 a list of these effects is given, including 

 bedsteads and other furniture, a dozen and 

 a half silver spoons, horses, cows, and other 

 farm stock, valued in all at about 350. 



On 3 Feb., 1658-9, Gilbert Ireland 

 for 401. sold to three trustees his right in 

 the Rixton estates ; ibid. R. 199. 



1 Ibid. R. 200-1. In consideration of 

 2,000, the marriage portion of Margaret 

 Moore, a settlement was made to secure 

 it to her younger children or daughters, the 

 manors of Rixton and Glazebrook, and 

 lands in Warrington, Poulton, Fearnhead, 

 and Mosscroft being entailed that they 

 might 'remain as long as it pleases 

 Almighty God to keep in the name, blood, 

 and kindred of the Mascys.' See also Pal. 

 of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 169, m. 102. 



a He was buried 21 Dec. 1667 at 

 Warrington church. 



8 He recorded a pedigree in 1665; 

 T>ugdale Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 194. Francis 

 the younger son is omitted, he being no 

 doubt the Francis Mascy of Lancashire 

 who in that year entered the Jesuit 

 novitiate, but left soon afterwards ; Foley, 

 op. cit. vii, 492. The apparent desertion 

 is explained by the death of his elder 

 brother without male issue. 



Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.). iii, 139- 

 J40. 



6 Ibid, iii, 140-6, quoting family papers. 

 There was a recovery of the manors of 

 Rixton and Glazebrook, &c., in 1697, 

 Richard Mascy being called to vouch ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 465, m. 7. In 

 1717 as a ' Papist 1 he registered his estate 

 in the manors, the value being given at 

 315 lit. 3 ,/.; Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 



'Trans. Hist. So<r.(New Ser.), iii, 146-8. 

 A recovery of the manors was suffered in 

 1730, Francis Mascy being called to 

 vouch; Pal. of Lane. Docquet R. 530, 

 m. 3. 



^ Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iii, 

 149-50. In 1749 a settlement was made 

 of the manors of Rixton and Glazebrook, 

 with lands there, a dovehouse, water corn- 

 mill, free fishery, &c. ; by Thomas 

 Witham, M.D., and Elizabeth his wife ; 

 Anne Meynell, spinster; and Stephen 

 Walter Tempest and Frances Olive his 

 wife ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 340, 

 m. 219. A further arrangement as to a 

 moiety of the manors was made in 1772, 

 the deforciants being Sir Henry Lawson 

 and the three sisters and their husbands, 

 Anne dementia being now the wife of 

 Simon Scrope ; ibid. bdle. 388, m. 139. 



8 Information of the marchioness 

 through Messrs. John White & Co., her 

 agents. 



It has been pointed out in the account 



of Rixton that while the Alan de Rixton cf 

 1 21 2 held one-tenth of a knight's fee his 

 namesake thirty years later held the fift i 

 part ; from which it might be inferre 1 

 that he had had the whole of Glazebroo^ 

 granted to him ; Inq. and Extents, 9, 14; . 

 On the other hand the rent was increase i 



the family holding a moiety of Glaz'ebroorC 

 paid half a mark. 



The moiety purchased or repurchased \ ].' 

 the Rixton family appears to have been he 1 

 at one time by a Geoffrey de Glazebroo! , 

 but it had become much subdivide . 

 Geoffrey de Glazebrook was living ii 

 1246, when he failed in a suit of nov 1 

 disseisin against Gilbert de Culchet:, 

 Richard son of Basil, and William son . f 

 this Richard ; Assize R. 404, m. I d. It 

 is possible he was the Geoffrey de Glaz - 

 brook who with his wife Edith had lands 

 in Billsborough in 1227; Final Cm:. 

 i, 47. If so. there may have bee:i 

 two Geoffr s in A Hen- / 



de Glazebrook appears later in the Fyke 

 district ; Ina. and Extents, 277, 280. 



In 1 3 28 and later years Henry son ,f 

 Henry, son of Richard, son of Geoffr. v 

 de Glazebrook, claimed a messuage a. 1 

 three oxgangs of which Geoffrey h;: 1 

 been seised in the time of Henry III, 

 which had come into the 

 Richard son of Richard de 



, 



possession >( 

 Moston, ad 



338 





