A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



rent until 1301, when Alice le Boteler obtained a ver- 

 dict against him. 1 The subsequent descent of the 

 manor follows that of the manor of Inskip in the 

 parish of St. Michael on Wyre. Henry Kighley, esq., 

 the last male representative of the family in the direct 

 line, died in 1567, leaving issue two daughters, Anne 

 and Katherine, aged respectively four years and four 

 months, and fourteen days.* Anne afterwards married 

 Sir William Cavendish, Baron Cavendish of Hardwick 

 1605, earl of Devonshire 1618, ancestor of the present 

 duke of Devonshire ; Katherine married Thomas, sub- 

 sequently of Hovingham, co. York, esq., son and heir 

 of Robert Worsley of Booths, esq. In 1585, upon 

 attaining her majority, Anne joined with her husband 

 in conveying one moiety of the manor to trustees, 3 

 and in 1589 in a release of the manor and the whole 

 of the Kighley estates in the parish of Leigh to her 

 sister Katherine and her husband Thomas Worsley, 4 

 who at the same time conveyed to trustees the moiety 

 of the Kighley estates within the county. 6 Thomas 

 and Katherine Worsley afterwards conveyed the manor, 

 consisting of eighteen messuages and ten cottages with 

 orchards and gardens, one water-mill, and 640 acres 

 of land, meadow and pasture, and 2,560 acres of 

 moss and turbary, to trustees appointed to effect a sale 

 or conveyance of the manor and other estates to Sir 

 Richard Shuttleworth and Sir Richard Brereton, knts., 

 in discharge of a recognizance of debt due to them by 

 Thomas Worsley. 6 By a partition of these lands 

 the manor fell to the share of Richard Brereton, 

 who settled some portion of 

 the estate, including the manor, 

 upon his sister Anne Brereton, 

 wife of Sir William Davenport, 

 who in 1599 conveyed the 

 manor, thirty messuages, and 

 670 acres of land, meadow, 

 pasture and moor, to Jervase 

 Wyrrall, esq., and he in turn 

 conveyed it the following year 

 to Sir Thomas Egerton, knt., 

 lord keeper of the Great Seal, 7 

 afterwards Baron Ellesmere 

 (1603), and Viscount Brackley 



(1616), ancestor of the Earl of Ellesmere, the present 

 lord of the manor.' 



In 1548 the following persons held the manor, 

 paying in all <)s. lid.: Henry Kighley, esq., 4*. (>d. ; 



Earl 



Ellesmere. Argent, 

 lion rampant gules betwt 

 three pbeons sable. 



Lawrence Asshawe, z/. ^d. ; William Serjeant, i6J. 

 Richard Shuttleworth, izd. ; William Sale, 6d. ; and 

 George Pemberton, 4^.' 



In 1587 the following held lands here of Robert 

 earl of Leicester, 10 as of his manor of Warrington : The 

 heirs of Henry Kighley, esq., Thomas Lathom of 

 Bedford Hall, James Pemberton, the heirs of Peter 

 Serjeant, Hugh Shuttleworth of Shuttleworth House, 

 Gilbert Sale of Hopecarr and Henry Speakman. 11 In 

 1598 Sir Thomas Ireland, knt., baron of Warrington, 

 sold the superior manor, parcel of his barony, with 

 all the royalties, liberties, and services of the free 

 tenants, to Richard Brereton, then of Worsley, esq." 



Other portions of the manor were held in 1628 by 

 Dame Dorothy, widow of Sir Richard Brereton, 13 and 

 after her marriage to Sir Peter Legh, knt., she and her 

 husband in 1630 conveyed the manor, together with 

 those of Worsley and Hulton, and certain free rents 

 in Bedford, to John Egerton, 14 who had been created 

 earl of Bridgewater in 1617, shortly after his succession 

 to his father, the first Viscount Ellesmere. It remains 

 the property of his descendant, the third earl of 

 Ellesmere. 



There are court rolls of the manor dating from 

 1802. Courts were held regularly twice a year from 

 1821 to 1866, but since have been held on only two 

 or three occasions. 15 



BEDFORD HALL is now a farm-house. In 1291 

 it was in the possession of Adam de Sale," who, by 

 Maud his wife, was father of William. Between 1320 

 and 1330 William de Sale held the fourth part of the 

 manor, 17 and by Margaret 18 his wife had William, 1 ' 

 who died s.p., and John, living 1350,* father of 

 another John, who married Ellen, daughter and heir 

 of John le Jeu of Hindley.* 1 James, their son and 

 heir, was father of another James of Bedford, gent., 

 living in 1445," father of John, living in 1474.'* 

 Arthur, son and heir of John, died childless in 1480," 

 when the estate appears to have passed to his kinsman 

 Henry, whose son Henry was killed at Flodden Field, 

 leaving issue Margaret, his daughter and heir, then 

 four years of age. 25 By her guardian she was married to 

 Lawrence Asshawe, of the Hall-on-the-Hill, in Heath 

 Charnock, who held the fourth part of the manor in 

 1548. The previous year he had acquired part of 

 the Athertons' estate here/ 6 which his grandson 

 Leonard held at his death in 1595." But he appears 

 to have alienated the fourth part of the manor and the 



unroofed and ruinous, which afterwards 

 fell. Thereupon, with the consent of 

 Kighley and his wife, he caused to be 

 built a new hall, with two chambers an- 

 nexed and a new kitchen. Touching the 

 oak trees, he denied that he took anything 

 in Bedford Wood, where there were 500 

 acres of wood, of which two-thirds be- 

 longed to Kighley, except housebote and 

 haybote ; and touching waste of the 

 garden, he denied that there ever was any 

 there; De Bane. R. 147, m. 116. 



1 Assize R. 1321, mm. 6, n. Alice 

 le Boteler was daughter and coheir of Sir 

 William de Carleton, knt. ; Dodsworth 

 MSS. liii, 85 ; Chet. Soc. xxxix (New Ser.), 

 1 84. Ellen wife of Henry de Kighley is 

 said to have been a daughter of Sir Hugh 



* Ibid. bdle. 51, m. 20. 



* Ibid. m. 13. 



6 Lord Ellesmere's MSS., rental of Bed- 

 ford temp. Chas. I. 



8 Ex inform. Mr. Strachan Holme. 



Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 

 142. " Cf. V.C.H. Lanes. \, 349. 



11 Earl of Ellesmere's MSS., notes from 

 evid. of Sir Geo. Booth, bart. 



Ibid. 



18 Earl of Ellesmere's MSS., rental of 



1 M Ibid. Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. (ed. 

 Helsby), i, 443. The arms of Brereton 

 and Egerton were formerly (1652) in a 

 window in Eccles church ; Hist. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches. (New Ser.), xiv, 207-8. The 



more probable that she was sister of Alice 

 de Carleton. 



a Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xi, . 10. 



3 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 47, 

 m. 133. 



pews in the parish church of Leigh, and 

 had two breadths of burial ground in the 

 churchyard adjoining the steeple, said to 

 belong to Limerick farm in the township. 

 Ex inform. Mr. Strachan Holme. This 



432 



farm may have been the estate originally 

 known as Eckersley. 



15 The court appointed a bailiff, affer- 

 ers, by-law men, pinfold keeper, and 

 constables down to 1825, and dealt with 

 encroachments, repair of roads, bridges, 

 and fences, nuisances and watercourses. Ex 

 inform. Mr. Strachan Holme. 



16 Dodsworth MSS. cxlii, 66A. 



17 Assize R. 417, m. 12; 1321, m. II a. 



18 Ibid. 408, m. 8 d. 



19 Coram Reg. PI. R. 297, m. 128 i 

 w Rentals and Surveys, 379, m. i. 



21 Pal. of Lane. Writs, file 21 Edw. 

 IV, A. 



22 Ibid. Plea R. 7, m. 2 d. 

 *> Ibid. 42, m. 8 d. 



Ibid. Writs, file 21 Edw. IV, A. 



Warr. Homage R. (Rec. Soc.), xii, 

 pt. 29 ; ibid, xxxii, 76. Henry was elder 

 brother of John Sale, citizen of London. 



Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 297. 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi 



