WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



of fine old oaks, many of them of vast growth ; they 

 covered 40 acres of land. 1 



Charles Leigh, in his Natural History, states that 

 ' the most remarkable thing of the wild duck is their 

 way of feeding them at Bold in Lancashire .... 

 They oftentimes adventure to come into the moat 

 near the hall, which a person accustomed to feed them 

 perceiving, he beats with a stone on a hollow vessel. 

 The ducks answer the sound, and come quite round 

 him upon a hill adjoining the water. He scatters 

 corn amongst them, which they take with as much 

 quietness and familiarity as tame ones. When fed 

 they take their flight to the rivers, meres, and salt 

 marshes." 



The earliest record of BOLD is found 

 MANORS in the survey of 1212.' It appears that 

 the manor was assessed as four plough- 

 lands and held in thegnage by the rent of 2 is. \d. 

 yearly by Adam son of Richard ; and that Adam's 

 great-grandfather Tuger the Elder (teaex) had 

 formerly held it. Two minor manors had been 

 created, or perhaps preserved from more ancient 

 times, viz., La Quick and another unnamed, each of 

 half a plough-land. 



It was Tuger the Elder who granted La Quick out 

 of his demesne ; 4 he was probably a contemporary of 

 King Stephen. The name of his son does not occur, 

 but Richard de Bold paid half a mark to the scutage 

 of 1 20 1. s He died in or before 1211, and Adam, 

 his son and heir, proffered loo/, for livery of the four 

 plough-lands in Bold. 6 The issues while the manor 

 was in the king's hands amounted to js. 1 Richard's 



PRESCOT 



widow, Waltania, who was of the king's gift, married 

 Waldern de Reynham. 8 



Of Adam de Bold nothing more seems to be known. 

 He died in or before 1222, his brother Matthew 

 succeeding. The latter was called upon to show by 

 what warrant he held two plough-lands in Bol 1, and 

 in May, 1223, fined 3 marks for his relief, and had 

 livery of three plough-lands. 9 Three charters of 

 Matthew's have been preserved ; 10 he was living in 

 1 242, when he was a juror on the inquiry of the 

 Gascon scutage. " 



The next in possession was William de Bold." 

 His parentage is not stated. He received a grant of 

 the manor of Bold from William de Ferrers, earl of 

 Derby, who died in 1254; the boundaries were fully 

 defined, and the services were to be the payment of 

 ID/, a year and doing suit at the wapentake court of 

 West Derby. 13 A change took place in his time in 

 the tenure, for about 1260 Robert de Ferrers en- 

 feoffed Sir William le Boteler of Warrington of the 

 manor with the service of William de Bold and his 

 heirs, rendering \os. a year for it. 14 From this time 

 the manor of Bold became part of the Warrington 

 fee ; the old thegnage rent of 2 is. ^d. was paid by 

 the holder of the manor to the lord of Warrington, 

 who paid los. to the earl or duke of Lancaster. 15 

 Some of William de Bold's charters have been 

 preserved. 16 



Robert son of William de Bold succeeded his father 

 in or before 1278, and held the manor over forty 

 years. He is first mentioned in a complaint of 

 William son of John de Quick concerning the latter's 



403 



