WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



Hall of Bedford to Thomas Lathom of Irlam, 1 who 

 held it in 1587.* It descended in the family of 

 Lathom of Hawthorne Hall, county Chester, and 

 Irlam, in this county, until the end of the seventeenth 

 century, when it was sold by John Finney of Fulshaw 

 Hall, county Chester, gent., and Jane his wife, ulti- 

 mately sole heiress of Thomas Lathom, 3 to John 

 Leigh,' afterwards of Hawthorne Hall, who in 1719 

 settled Bedford Hall with tenements in Bedford and 

 Westleigh upon himself for life, with remainders to 

 George, earl of Warrington, and Henry Mainwaring, 

 then to the Hon. Langham Booth of Thornton, 

 county Chester, in tail male, then to Hannah Merry- 

 weather, niece of the said John Leigh in tail male, 

 then to the Hon. Henry Booth of the Middle Temple, 

 London, in tail male, then to Leigh Page,' son and 

 heir of Humphrey Page, alderman of Chester, 6 to 

 whom the estate ultimately passed in remainder. 7 By 

 his descendant, Thomas Leigh Page, the estate was 

 sold to John Greaves of Highfield in Farn worth (?), 

 esq., apparently the well-known banker and merchant, 

 afterwards of Irlam. 8 Early in the last century 

 Bedford Hall was the property of Thomas Speakman, 

 by whose executors it was sold about 1853 to the 

 father of the Rev. Kenelm H. Smith of Ely, the 

 present owner. 



HOPECARR was another estate of note. Adam 

 de Sale, who was living in 1291, had, besides William 

 of Bedford Hall, another son, Alexander, who by his 

 wife Amice, living a widow in 1315, had sons, Adam, 9 

 a minor at the date named, and John. 10 Gilbert, 

 living in 1350," son either of Adam or John, was the 

 father of Matthew, living in 1358, from whom 

 descended Henry, who died in 1419, leaving issue a 

 son Henry, aged fourteen years. 1 * His kinsman, Gil- 

 bert Sale of Bedford, gent., who obtained a charter of 

 pardon in 145 2, 13 had issue by Dulcia, his wife, sons 

 Matthew " and Gilbert. The latter, as Gilbert Sale 

 of Bedford, gent., had letters patent of pardon from 

 Edward IV in 1479," and was probably father of 



LEIGH 



Matthew Sale of Hopecarr, who did homage for his 

 lands in Bedford in 1504, and died in 1509, when 

 William his son was aged seven years. ri This William 

 appears at the head of the pedigree of the family 

 entered at the Visitation of 1664-5 by Richard Sale, 

 great-grandson of William." In 1630 William Sale, 

 father of Richard, obtained a grant of his patrimony, 

 which had been forfeited for his recusancy, for a term 

 of forty-one years. 18 In 1674 Richard Sale, his then 

 wife Sylvestra, Gilbert and John his sons, and Anne 

 his daughter were recusants. 19 The son Gilbert died 

 about 1717, his widow then surviving at Hopecarr. 

 Their son William married Jane daughter of Edmund 

 Tristram of Ince Blundell, yeoman, by whom he had 

 issue Richard and Gilbert, both of Liverpool, who 

 sold the estate in 1770 to Randal Gorton of the city 

 of Chester, merchant. 20 Hopecarr Farm is now the 

 sewage farm belonging to the Leigh and Atherton 

 Joint Sewage Board. 



In 1557 the Sales possessed a several fishery in 

 the water of Breton," a name which still survives in 

 Breaston Bridge, spanning Bedford Brook. 



The descent of a fourth part of a manor which 

 John de Waverton held in 1315 by inheritance from 

 his grandmother, Avice de Bedford, 82 has not been as- 

 certained. For a few generations it passed with the 

 estate of Cleworth in Tyldesley. 23 Possibly it was the 

 estate held temp. Henry VII, by John Sale, which 

 passed before 1 5 1 8 to his daughter Joan, the wife of 

 Henry Serjeant of Newton in Makerfield. At her 

 lather's death she inherited lands here worth 20 

 marks a year." In 1530 John Sale, citizen of London, 

 draper, brother of Henry Sale of Bedford Hall, con- 

 veyed the fourth part of the manor with several 

 messuages to Alexander Standish." In 1 548 William 

 Serjeant, probably son of the above Henry, held the 

 fourth part of the manor,* 6 of which in 1592 Peter 

 Serjeant, probably his son, who had married a Stan- 

 dish, died seised, Thomas his son being then aged 

 nine years." Thomas Serjeant afterwards sold the 



i See the account of Irlam. 



Earl of Ellesmere's rentals, ante. 



8 For the payment of Thomas Lathom's 

 debts ; Lanes, and Ches. Antij. Notes, ii, 

 61-3 ; Earwaker, East Ches. i, 130. 



* Not. Cestr. (Chet. Soc. (Old Ser.), 



6> He was sheriff of Cheshire in 1733. 

 Exch. of Pleas, Plea R. 6 Geo. I, 

 m. lo-n a. ; Cal. ix. Lanes. 87. 



7 Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. (ed. Helsby), 

 iii, 592, 603. 



8 See the account of Irlam. 



9 In 1329 Adam, son of Alexander de 

 Sale, gave to Henry de Leigh and Agnes 

 his wife land bounded at one end by the 

 hedges (hayac) of Henry Boydell and 

 Richard le Turner at the place called 

 Hopkar; Harl. MS. 2112, fol. 148. 



10 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 6, pt. ii, 

 m. I d. ; De Bane. R. 207, m. 48, 77, 

 101 J. 



11 Rentals and Surveys, 377, m. i. 

 i Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc. xcv), 136. 



18 Pal. of Lane. Chan. Misc. file i, bdle. 

 i,m. 59. 



" In 1488 the marriage between Mat- 

 thew son of Gilbert Sale, and Dulcia 

 daughter of Thomas Bradshaw of Augh- 

 ton, celebrated when they were aged 



nulled by the bishop of Lichfield, Matthew 

 being then of lawful age ; Lichfield Epis. 

 Reg. xii, 164*. 



3 



15 Pal. of Lane. Pat. R. 19 Edw. IV, 

 Towneley MS. RR. fol. 227*. By in- 

 quest taken in 1496 it was found that 

 Gilbert Sale, late of Bedford, gent., had 

 been outlawed for treason and held at the 

 promulgation of outlawry four messuages, 

 loo acres of land and meadow, 40 acres 

 of pasture, 3 acres of wood, and 10 acres 

 of moor in Bedford, holden of Sir Thomas 

 Butler, lent., as of his manor of Warring- 

 ton, and worth 5 marks, the issues of 

 which the said Gilbert had received ever 

 since his outlawry and still received. 

 Harl. MS. 2 1 1 2, 4 1 A ; Rec. Soc. xxxii, 9. 



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

 pt. i, p. 25. 



17 Fish. (Chet. Soc. Ixxxviii), 252. 



18 The estate consisted of the messuage 

 called Hopecarr, 30 acres of land, meadow 

 and pasture, in Bedford and Pennington, 

 a free fishery in the water of Bretton, and 

 51. free rent in Bedford ; Pat. R. 6 Chas. I, 

 pt. xii, 15 July. Edmund Sale, S.J., son 

 of William Sale of Hopecarr, was educated 

 at St. Omer's and the English College at 

 Rome, and laboured on the mission in 

 England from 1639 to about 1646, when 

 he was arrested on suspicion of being a 

 priest. He obtained his release, but died 

 soon afterwards. He published an account 

 of the Japanese martyrs, and left a book 

 of ' Second Thoughts ' in manuscript. See 

 Gillow, Bibliog. Diet, of English Catholics, 

 v,46 7 ; Foley,/?.S.J. vi, 296 ; vii, 680. 



Two other members of the family may be 

 noticed : Richard Sale, son of Richard 

 and Philippa Sale, entered the English 

 College in 1663 ; he said 'he was bora in 

 Lancashire and baptized by a Catholic 

 priest about 24 March, 1641. He studied 

 his humanities at home and at St. Omer's 

 College. His parents were respectable 

 Catholics ; he had two brothers and two 

 sisters and was always a Catholic'; 

 ibid, vi, 406. John Sale, S.J., born 

 at Hopecarr in 1722, served the Lanca- 

 shire mission at Bedford and in Furness 

 for some years, dying in 1791 ; ibid, vii, 

 680. 



19 Piccope MSS. vii, 273 ; Hist, and 

 Gen. Notes, i, 297. 



20 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Notes, i, 57, 

 64, 72. 



Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 17, m. 

 12. It is mentioned in 1630. Sec note 

 above. 



ra De Bane. R. 307, m. 48, 77, 101 d. 



> See the account of Tyldesley. 



" Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, xxii, N. D. 

 S.i 6 ; Rec. Soc. xxxii, 76. 



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

 1 1 6. John Newport and Agnes his wife 

 held 3 messuages, 90 acres of land here, 

 parcel of the premises, in right of Agnes' 

 dower. 



M Ibid. bdle. 13, m. 142. 



"7 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. XT, n. 



433 



