WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



have fallen into obscurity.' They remained faithful 

 to the Roman Church,' and some of their descendants 

 were priests in Lancashire during the centuries of 

 proscription. 3 



Mrs. Hughes of Sherdley about the year 1830 

 claimed manorial rights, and courts had been held ; 

 her claim was not generally acknowledged. 4 



Various families are mentioned in the early plead- 

 ings and charters as holding lands in Penketh, as 

 the Quicks 5 and Wetshaws. 6 The prior of Norton 

 also possessed certain rights here. 7 Henry Russell oi 



PRESCOT 

 had lands in 



Penketh, hanged for felony in 1292, 

 Wigan. 6 



The freeholders in 1600 were John Ashton and 

 Penketh ; 9 in 1628 Thomas Ashton, Thomas Ire- 

 land, and Robert Ryve were assessed to the subsidy. 10 



The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in Pen- 

 keth in 1818. 



The Society of Friends early had a meeting here ; it 

 was duly certified and recorded in 1 689." A day school 

 was carried on from 1678 to 1878 ; " a boarding- 

 school was founded in 1834 and still flourishes. 13 



and heir Richard, living in 1613. He 

 had a numerous family, the eldest son, 

 Thomas, having been bora about 1610. 



The only inquisitions appear to be 

 those taken after the death of Alice 

 Penketh in 1 541. Her father, John, had 

 held lands in Penketh, Ditton, and other 

 places ; she was an idiot, and her heirs 

 were her sisters, Joan, the wife of George 

 Ward, and Elizabeth, wife of William 

 Reeve ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. viii, 

 n. 6, 7. The Reeves or Ryves continued 

 to hold land here for a century at least ; 

 the inquest after the death of Robert 

 Reeve in 1640 shows that his land was 

 held of Margaret, daughter and heir of 

 Thomas Ireland ; ibid, xxx, n. 37. 



Richard Penketh was in 1553 involved 

 in a dispute with Thomas Butler as to the 

 title to Penketh Hall : Ducatus Lane. 



that he was reduced to a very poor con- 

 dition. He now lives an undertenant to 

 a small messuage in Bold, not above 

 5 acres.' Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com). 

 145. A Lieutenant Penketh was one of 

 the defenders of Lathom House in the 

 first siege, 1644 ; Civil War Tracts (Chet. 

 Soc.), 173, 177. 



a John Penketh, on entering the English 

 College in Rome in 1651, gave the fol- 

 lowing account : ' My name is John Pen- 

 keth alias Rivers. I am son of Richard 

 Penketh of Penketh in the county of 

 Lancaster, esquire, who married the 

 daughter of Thomas Patrick of Bispham, 



brook, Orrell, convicted of recusancy in 

 1716 ; he was the author of Ri-vtrs' 

 Manual, frequently reprinted, and died 

 about 1762. See Gillow, Bikliog. Diet, 

 of Engl. Cath. v, 257, 258 ; Foley, Rec. 

 S. J. vi, 450, 455 ; v, 335. 



4 Report by Edward Eyes in Tram. Hist. 

 Soc. xxii, 215. The boundaries had been 

 walked about twelve years before. Fish- 

 ing was free. 



5 In 1285 and later there were disputes 

 between William de Quyke, clerk, and 

 Adam son of Dulcia de Birches, who 

 married Margery, as to the bounds of their 

 lands in Penketh; Assize R. 1271, m. 



(Re 



born and bred up in my father's house, 

 and am now twenty-one years of age. 

 My father, before his death, had spent 

 nearly all his fortune and left very little 



brought actions against Henry son of 

 Gilbert de Penketh ; Assize R. 408, m. 

 9 ;&c. 



6 The Wetshaws were a Ditton family. 



property in Penketh and Sutton, including 

 * pasture for three horses on Penketh 



Feet of F. bdle. 16, m. 92. Another 

 settlement, by his son Richard, was made 

 in 1592; ibid. bdle. 54, m. 146. 



1 Beamont says : Penketh Hall, the 



are Protestant, but my father, with al 

 his family, one brother excepted, wer 



in England under private tutors and at 

 private schools. I was always a Catholic, 

 and left England on 13 August, 1651, to 

 proceed to Rome, where in the family of 



have changed owners much about the 

 same time that Bewsey passed into the 

 hands of strangers ; for in the year 1624 

 we find Sir Thomas Ireland exchanging 

 with Thomas Ashton the hall and de- 

 mesne of Penketh, late the inheritance of 

 Richard Penketh, but at the same time 

 carefully reserving to himself .... the 

 right to remove all and every the grafts, 

 plants, and young trees of fruit there 

 growing'; Warr. in 1465 (Chet. Soc.), 

 p. xl. 



In i682PeterBoldwrote:'Mr.Penketh 

 was with me before I went to Yorkshire, 

 and acquainted me that he had very hard 

 usage from some of your officers, and, he 

 believes, without your order. I know the 

 gentleman very well ; he is a near neigh- 

 bour to me and his condition is not un- 



vanities of the world and its dangers ; 

 being moved also to this by an ardent 

 desire of gaining souls, if found worthy of 

 the priesthood ' ; Foley, Rec. S. J. v, 

 330. The account which follows states 



daughter Aline, who sold her land to Henry 

 de Ditton in 1349; Kuerden MSS. iii, 

 P. 4, n. 6 1 3, 6 1 7. The purchaser was soon 

 involved in disputes with Hugh de Kcl- 

 sall and others, who broke into his 

 houses in Penketh; De Bane. R. 362, 

 m. 137, 26 d. Shortly afterwards, in 

 1350, he made further purchases from 

 William de Widnes and Margery his wife ; 

 Final Cane, ii, 128. 



7 In 1366 Richard, the prior of Nor- 

 ton, complained about a rescue of cattle 

 here made by a number of people ; De 



of Spain's army in Belgium. 



> The John Penketh above-named was 

 ordained priest in 1656, and in 1663 

 entered the Society of Jesus, going on the 

 English mission in the following year. 

 He in 1678, in the excitement of the 

 Dates plot, was betrayed, tried at Lan- 

 caster, and condemned to death for his 

 priesthood. He was reprieved, but kept 

 in prison for some years, being liberated 

 on the accession of James II. The 



nued his 



hi, 



majesty all the first war, and in that 

 service behaved himself very gallantly 

 and with great loyalty. He received 

 many wounds and was so great a sufferer, 



Foley, op. cit. v, 331 ; vi, 383 ; 



Other priests of the same family in- 

 cluded William Penketh, then of Cross- 



8 Inj. and Extents, 275. 



Miu. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 



39. 



10 Norris D. (B.M.). 



I Sankey in 1667 and 

 1669 and founded a meeting; Journ. 

 This was held in Great Sankey until in 

 1681 a meeting-house was built on the 

 land bought in 1671 for a graveyard ; it 

 was rebuilt in 1736. 



The schoolhouse was not built till 

 1692 ; it adjoined the meeting-house. 

 This was the first school John Bright 

 attended, 1821. 



is This and other details about Penketh 

 are derived from information supplied by 

 Mr. J. Spence Hodgson of Didsbury. 



413 



