A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



as ' Papists ' registered estates here. 1 Parts of the 

 estate were sold, but the hall descended to the Fleet- 

 wood family. 1 On Miss Fleetwood's death, in 1877, 

 it passed to a cousin, James Beaumont, by whom it 

 was sold to the Marchioness 

 Stapleton-Bretherton, and has 

 since descended with the manor- 

 house.' 



Rainhill Hall is now used as a 

 farm-house, and is only reached 

 by a field road. The main 

 building is |_-shaped, with 

 north and west wings, but it 

 is clear that it was originally 

 built round a court. The south 

 wing has entirely disappeared, j^*"* *Yrgent, 

 but the south end of the east /, ars / ( . , canton 

 wing remains in a dismantled of the second a lion passant 

 state, separated from the rest warrantor. 

 of the house and used as a 



lumber-room. The west wing is entirely modernized, 

 but the north wing has a front of c. 1600 with mul- 

 lioned windows, and at its east end an upper room 

 with an open timber roof of f. i 350, a good specimen 

 with quadrant wind braces, and valuable on account 

 of the rarity of domestic work of this date. The 

 room was formerly used as a chapel, and is lighted by 

 mullioned windows on the east and south, of early 



seventeenth-century date. The south-east block is 

 also c. 1600, and has a projecting rectangular bay at 

 its south-east angle, with a stone chimney-stack 

 immediately to the north. It has been of two stories 

 with an attic, and, though now neglected and ruinous, 

 was evidently a good specimen of its class in its best 

 days, with large mullioned windows, and no doubt the 

 usual accessories of ornamental glazing and panelling. 



The farmyard lies to the north-east of the house, 

 and has on its north side a range of wooden farm- 

 buildings, on low stone walls at least as old as the 

 sixteenth century. They are a fine example of the 

 primitive method of construction known as ' building 

 on crucks,' the crucks in this case being set about 

 1 5 ft. apart from centre to centre, a little less than 

 the normal width of a bay. 



Two other Molyneux families had estates here in 

 the fourteenth century. Alan de Molyneux, son of 

 Roger, had a son Roger described as 'of Rainhill ' ;* 

 and at RITHEROPE settled Robert de Molyneux, 

 possibly another son of Roger. 6 He was followed 

 by a son Roger, 6 and a grandson Richard of the same 

 place. 7 Molyneuxes of Rainhill are mentioned from 

 time to time down to the sixteenth century, but it is not 

 possible to give a detailed account of them. 8 Ritherope 

 also is now owned by Mr. Stapleton-Bretherton. 



Another family having lands in Rainhill bore 

 the local name ; 9 others were the Lees 10 and 



1 Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cat/,. Non- 

 jurors, 121. John Lancaster's estate was 

 worth 87 6s. 4 </. a year, and he wa, 

 described as son of John and grandson of 

 Thomas Lancaster. Thomas Lancaster, 

 on of John and Catherine, born 1690, 

 who studied at the English College in 

 Rome and was sent to England as a 

 priest, was probably a brother ; Foley, 



*. s. y. vi, 462. 



Thomas Lancaster of Rainhill had an 

 annuity of 10 out of Percival's house; 

 and his son Francis had an estate of 

 5 171. 6d. ; Engl. Cat/,. Non-jurors, 119, 



Joseph Beaumont of the Tump in Mon- 

 mouthshire. Their son and heir, James 

 Beaumont, sold the hall in iSSi to 

 Lady Stapleton-Bretherton. Information 

 given by Mr. F. Stapleton-Bretherton 

 and Mr. Woods. 



Roger son of Alan de Molyneux com- 



apothecary, dated 21 Feb. 1744-5, wa ' 

 enrolled in the Common Pleas, Mich. 

 1748, R. 21, m. 57 rf. 



In Piccope's MS. Pedigrees, ii, 38, the 

 pedigree is continued thus : John Lancas- 

 ter, born in 1661, was living in 1690. He 

 had a son and heir John, who registered 

 his estate as above, and daughters Anne 

 and Mary. John Lancaster, whose wife's 

 name was Elizabeth, had a son John, 

 baptized in 1723, and a daughter Mary. 

 From family deeds Mr. Edward W. Woods 

 of Warrington has been able to construct 

 a more complete descent. John Lancaster 

 the younger, who was living in 1758, 

 married Elizabeth Houghton, and had 

 several children, including John, his heir, 

 who died unmarried in 1784; Thomas, 

 heir of his brother, whose son James died 

 without issue in 1807; and Margaret, 

 who married John Lancaster. 



a On the death of James Lancaster 

 Rainhill Hall descended to his sister Jane, 

 who died in 1824, and to her children by 

 Robert Fleetwood, her husband. Joseph 

 Fleetwood, the eldest son, died unmarried 

 in 1857 ; James, his brother and heir, a 

 priest, died in 1862; and their sister 

 Elizabeth, born in 1793, died unmarried 

 in 1877. 



8 The Margaret and John Lancaster 

 named in a preceding note had a 

 daughter Frances, who married James 

 Tatlock of Scholes, and their daughter 

 Frances, who died in 1871, married 



plai 



and 



a third part of the moiety of 200 acres 



and other lands, and on inquiry Richard 



was found guilty ; Co Plac. (Chan.), 



next year made by Roger and his wife 

 Godith, but it appeared that Sir John held 

 the land in dispute by feoffment of Roger ; 

 Assize R. 1435, m. 38 d. In 1355 there 

 were cross-suits between John de Lan- 

 caster and Roger de Molyneux and 

 Thomas his son as to certain lands and 

 the third part of a mill, which continued 

 for some years ; Duchy of Lane. Assize 

 R. 4, m. 3 ; R. 5, m. 4, &c. 



In 1371 Thomas and Richard de Moly- 

 neux of Rainhill were jurors ; Plac. of 

 Lane. Chan, file, bdle. 1621. 



* This Robert may be the ' Robert de 



witnesses to local charters. A Robert, 

 on of Roger de Molyneux, was defen- 

 dant in a Penketh suit in 1301 ; Assize 

 R. 1321, m. lorf. A certain Alan de 

 Sutton had lands in Rainhill before 1284 ; 

 he left a son Roger and a daughter Ly- 

 mota under age, and had granted some of 

 his land to this daughter. She, while 

 still a minor, granted 4 acres to Robert 

 de Molyneux, which were afterwards re- 

 covered by her brother Roger ; Assize R. 

 1268, m. 12; 408, m. 1 8. In 1318-19 

 Robert had a grant of land from the waste 

 between the field of Ritherope and the 

 Chestergate from John de Molyneux and 

 John de Lancaster ; Blundell of Crosby 

 Evidences, K. 232. 



He seems to be the Roger son of 

 Robert de Molyneux of Rainhill, by whose 

 agency the settlement of Little Crosby 

 and other manors was arranged in 1314 ; 

 Final Cone, ii, 19. 



37 



As Roger son of Robert de Molyneux 

 of Ritherope, he granted to Henry, son 

 of Roger Garnet, and Alice, grantor's 

 daughter, all the land which his father 

 had had from Sir John de Molyneux of 

 Sefton and John de Lancaster at a rent 

 of %d. ; Roger de Molyneux of Rainhill 

 was a witness to this charter. Robert son 

 of Roger at the same time confirmed this 

 grant ; Blundell of Crosby Evidences, K.. 



7 In 1356 Richard son of Roger de 

 Molyneux of Ritherope was defendant in 

 a suit brought by Richard Hitchcockson ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 5, m. i d. 



s In the time of Henry VII Roger 

 Molyneux was seised of certain lands in 

 Rainhill, which descended to hi son 

 Richard, his grandson Roger, and his 

 great-grandson Thomas Molyneux, who 

 occurs in a plea of 1557-8 ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Plea R. 203, m. 6. A few years later 

 Thomas Molyneux sold his lands to 

 Edward Halsall and others ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdles. 21, m. 68 ^ 22, m. 55, 

 61. This was the Molyneux of Hawkley 

 family ; it does not appear from which of 

 the two Rainhill families it was derived. 



9 Simon de Rainhill and John son of 

 Robert de Rainhill were among the de- 

 fendants in the suit of John de Northale 

 mentioned above ; Assize R. 405 (1276), 

 m. I. In 1292, Margaret daughter of 

 Matthew the Tailor summoned Simon de 

 Rainhill to warrant her in the possession 

 of a tenement, but was non-suited ; Assize 

 R. 408, m. 32</. A dispute as to a mes- 

 suage and some land took place in 1345 

 between Ralph son of Alan de Rainhill 

 and Robert son of Robert de Rainhill ; De 

 Bane. R. 344, m. 259^. Alan also 

 appears to have been a son of the elder 

 Robert ; Assize R. 1444, m. 8 d. 



10 A settlement by fine was made by 

 William de Lee of Rainhill upon his son 

 Henry in 1301 ; the property was 2 mes- 

 suages and 14 acres ; Final Cone, i, 192. 



Roger son of William de Lee in 1320-1 

 granted to William his son his right in 

 the Longshot with Lee field and 5 half- 



