WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



LEIGH 



His son Sir John Atherton, 1 who was knighted in Herefordshire. They had issue two sons: Willia 



1544, was high sheriff in 1550, 1554, and 1560, and who died at Ather 



nd Robert Vernon 



spresented the county in the Parliament of 1559.* Atherton, who at the age of twenty-two succeeded to 



He was married in his father's lifetime to Elizabeth, 

 daughter of Sir Alexander Radcliffe, knt.,* from whom 

 he was divorced. He afterwards married Margaret, 

 daughter and coheir of Thomas Catterall of Little 

 Mitton, esq.' He was buried at Leigh 8 July, 



the family estates and assumed the name and arms of 

 Atherton. From 1774 to 1780 he represented the 

 borough of Newton in Parliament. He died 9 July, 

 1783, aged 42 years. In 1763 he married Henrietta 

 Maria, eldest daughter and coheir of Peter Legh of 



1573. By his will dated 1 8 April, 1573, he gave his Lyme, by whom he had, besides other children who 



manors of Atherton, Lancashire, Slingsby, Fryton, died young, a son, Atherton Legh Atherton, who 



and Hovingham, Yorkshire, 5 after his death, to his died in his minority and unmarried in 1789, and three 



eldest son and heir John, whom he had agreed to daughters, Henrietta Maria, married to Thomas 



any to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Byron of Powys, second Baron Lilford ; u Elizabeth, married 



Newstead, knt. 6 



to George Anthony Legh-Keck of Stoughton Grange, 



John the son, was aged sixteen at his father's death, Leicestershire ; and Esther, married to the Rev. James 

 was high sheriff in 1582,' and one of the Parliamentary John Hornby, rector of Winwick, whose only children, 



representatives of the county in 1586, and for Lan- 

 15 88-9." He married secondly, Katherine, 



is, died respectively in 1818 and 1857 without 

 Thomas Littleton Powys, who succeeded his 



daughter and coheiress of John, Lord Conyers, of father as fourth Baron Lilford in 1 86 1, inherited in 

 Hornby Castle, 9 Yorkshire, and was buried at Leigh 1860 the estates of George Anthony Legh-Keck at 



Bank Hall in this county. John, second but eldest 

 surviving son of the fourth baron, succeeded his fathei 



23 May, 1617. By his first wife he had issue John 



his heir, who was buried at Leigh, 23 July, 1628 



and by his second wife another John, of Skelton, who in 1 896 



was heir to his mother. 10 The former was father 



fifth Baron Lilford, and is now lord of 

 he manor. No courts for the manor of Atherton 



of John Atherton, esq., 11 who died in 1 646, having have been held for many years. 1 



married Eleanor, daughter of Sir Thomas Ireland 

 of Bewsey, knt. This lady was eventually heir to 

 her cousin, Dame Margaret, wife of Sir Gilbert Ire- 



ey ; 



Surviving her husband, Dame Margaret devised her 

 Bewsey estate to Sir Richard Atherton, grandson 

 of her cousin Eleanor, and died two months after her 

 husband. 



John Atherton, third but eldest surviving son of 

 John Atherton by his wife Eleanor, was a Presby- 

 terian, a captain in the Parliamentary army, a justice 

 of the peace and high sheriff of the county in 1654, 

 and at his death early in 1656." Hisposthum 



Chanters, now a farm house standing near the 

 brook of that name, formerly a fine stone- built house 

 with mullioned windows, was built in 1678 on the 

 ite of an ol> 



of an older structure. The initials W.A., which 

 appear over the door of the porch above the date 

 1678, are possibly those of William Atherton, 

 younger brother of John Atherton, the Parliamen- 

 tarian who died in 1646. The house is now falling 

 to decay owing to subsidence caused by old coal 

 workings. 



CHOff^SENT. Chollebynt, Shollebent, c. 1 35O. 16 

 In 1385 Thomas Smith, ' nayller ' of Cholle, was 



Richard Atherton took an active part in politics and sued for debt at the sessions at Lancaster." In 1535 



vas knighted by Charle 



actve part 

 II at Wind 



i684- 13 William, George, Richard, and Gilbert Cholle were 



He died two years later. His only son, John, married indicted for taking part in a riot at Leigh church, 

 Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Robert Cholmonde- caused by the unseemly arrest of three persons by the 



under-sheriff in the church immediately after the 

 celebration of high mass. 18 Chowe's tenement, which 

 appears to have been held by the Cholle or Chowe 

 lease from tHe Athertons in the 

 vas sold in 1616-17, together with 

 married Robert Gwillym'of Langston and Walford, the Green Hall and Carrbank tenements, by John 



ley of Vale Royal, and died in 1707 at the age 

 of 29. His son, Richard Atherton, was the last 

 direct male representative of the family. By Eliza- 

 beth his wife, daughter of William Farington of Shaw family 19 under 

 Hall, he had issue an only daughter, Elizabeth, who sixteenth century 



