A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the Rev. John Clowes, Samuel Clowes, esq., Thomas 



Johnson, esq., Thomas Froggat, esq., Starkie, 



esq., the Rev. Robert Kenyon, and Alexander Rad- 

 cliffe, esq. These owned four-fifths of the joint 

 township. 1 



The hamlet and mesne manor of SHJKERLET* 

 was given by Hugh son of Henry de Tyldesley in or 

 before the reign of John to Cockersand Abbey by 

 these bounds From the head of the Ley on the east, 

 following Shakerlege broc to over against the Holhak 

 where the cross stands, thence across to the Carr, fol- 

 lowing the Carr to over against the Knottihak, thence 

 across to Blakesik and through the midst of the moss 

 to the first boundary. 3 Thomas, abbot of Cocker- 

 sand c. 1279-86, enfeoffed Robert de Shakerley of 

 this land, but Adam son of Robert released it to the 

 abbey about the year 1 290,* when Henry son of 

 Hugh de Tyldesley augmented his predecessor's gift 

 to the abbey by the addition of lands bounded as 

 follows From the eastern head of Shakerley to Blaksic, 

 following Blakesic to Blakelowe broc, following that 

 brook to an oak tree marked with a cross in Haylege 

 Komb, following Hailege Komb to Holge sike, thence 

 by a cross to Fyfnakes over Blakelowe brook, thence 

 to Goderic brook and so to the first boundary. 5 The 

 same Adam soon after granted Shakerley, Fiveakis 

 Hurst and Ylgridding to Adam son of Henry de 

 Tyldesley in fee for a pair of white gloves yearly, 

 and a rent of 12 pence yearly to the abbey of Cocker- 

 sand, 6 the service which the Shakerley family con- 

 tinued to render to the abbey until the dissolution. 7 

 This grant was probably supplementary to the grant 

 in 1301 of the northern part 

 of the township to Adam from 

 his father Henry, which in- 

 cluded the service of Henry de 

 Shakerley. In 1315 Adam de 

 Tyldesley and Henry de Shak- 

 erley made an agreement that 

 neither of them in the future 

 would make enclosures upon the 

 wastes or woods in their lands 

 in Tyldesley without the con- 

 sent of the other. 8 



The family of Shakerley re- mole tills vert. 

 sided at Shakerley Hall 9 until 



the time of Henry VIII, when they made Hulme 

 in the township of Allostock, county Chester, 



their residence. This property came to Peter Sha- 

 kerley 10 of Shakerley, esq., by his marriage to Eliza- 

 beth, daughter and heiress of John Legh of Booths, 

 county Chester, esq., and granddaughter of Emma, 

 one of the daughters and coheiresses of Robert 

 Grosvenour of Hulme, esq. 11 The family estate of 

 Shakerley, including the greater part of the hamlet, 

 was sold in 1836 by Charles Peter Shakerley of 

 Somerford Park, county Chester, esq. (created a 

 baronet in 1838)," to the late Jacob Fletcher of 

 Peel Hall, esq., whose only daughter and heir brought 

 it in marriage to Viscount Combermere, father of 

 the present owner, Francis Lynch Wellington Staple- 

 ton-Cotton, fourth Viscount Combermere. 



In 1646-7 Lieut.-Col. Geoffrey Shakerley, as a 

 royalist ' delinquent,' paid a fine of 784 on com- 

 pounding for his estates, and took the National 

 Covenant and Negative Oath. ls 



Geoffrey Hurst of Shakerley, who married a sister 

 of George Marsh of Dean, was imprisoned as a Pro- 

 testant in the Marian persecution, but liberated on 

 the accession of Elizabeth. 14 



In 1729 Joseph Parr charged 

 CHARITIES certain premises in Tyldesley with 

 a yearly sum of 2, to be distri- 

 buted amongst the poor living in Tyldesley and 

 Hurst Quarter. There are also a number of charities 

 which have been created within recent years, mainly 

 for the benefit of St. George's church and schools. 1 * 



The church of St. George, commenced in 1822 

 and completed in 1825, is an edifice of stone in the 

 Early English style from designs by Smirke, and con- 

 sists of chancel, nave, aisles, transept, western porch 

 and western tower with pinnacles and a lofty spire 

 containing a clock and six bells. In 1 886 a new chan- 

 cel was erected, the church re-seated, and the western 

 gallery removed. There are nine memorial windows 

 of stained glass. The registers date from the yeai 

 1825. The living is a vicarage of the net yearly 

 value of 300, with residence at Hindsford, Atherton, 

 and is in the gift of the bishop of Manchester. Tht 

 church of St. John at Mosley Common, erected ir 

 1886, is a chapel-of-ease to St. George's Church. I 

 is built of Yorkshire freestone in the Gothic style, 

 and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, and south 

 porch. 



The first Wesleyan chapel here was opened it 

 1814 ; a new building was erected in 1886. 



1 Land-tax returns at Preston. 



"Shakerlee (1190-1220); Shakerlegh 

 (1332); Shackresley (1350)5 Shakerley 

 (xiv-xv cent.). 



s Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc. (New 

 ser.), xliii), 714. 



' Ibid. 715. 



< Ibid. 714-16. 



Lanes, ani Ckes. Hist. Notes, ii, 

 lib. 



7 Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. 

 bdle. 5, . 3. 



8 Lanes, and Ches. Hist. Notes, ii, 13*. 

 In Helsby's edition of Ormerod's Hist, of 

 Ches. iii, 152, where the descent of this 

 family is given to the present time, Henry 

 Shakerley is shown as son of Adam, but 

 the probability is in favour of his having 

 been a brother or nephew. 



In 1429 Robert Shakerley of Tyl- 

 desley, gent., Geoffrey his son, yeoman, 

 were indicted by Hugh Tyldesley that 

 they with Geoffrey Shakerley of Tyldes- 

 ley, gent., Margaret the relict of Peter 



Shakerley of Tyldesley, and others dug in 

 his soil at Tyldesley and took away sea 

 coal, and that Geoffrey and Robert with 

 others waylaid him at Leigh to kill him 

 and there wounded his servants. Pal. of 

 Lane. Plea R. 2, m. 14. 



10 His will was proved 12 May, 1526. 

 In it he desired burial at Prestwich, and 

 willed that his feoffees should stand seised 

 of his manor of Borough Court and lands 

 in Ditton, East Mailing, and Aylesford, 

 co. Kent, to the use of himself for life, 

 and after of Elizabeth his wife for life, 

 with remainder to his son Geoffrey Sha- 

 kerley, who should also have the reversion 

 of all lands and tenements which 'my 

 lady dame Anne Shakerley ' (his mother) 

 occupied in the name of her dower and 

 jointure in the townships of Tyldesley, 

 Worsley, and (Little) Houghton. Ni- 

 cholas and Lawrence Langley, executors, 

 and William Langley, parson of Prest- 

 wich, supervisor ; P.C. Canterbury Wills, 

 Reg. Porch 17. 



" Ormerod, Chts. (ed. Helsby), iii, I5C 

 Shakerley-cum-Tyldesley with farms an 



statute acres, the mines of coal and stone 

 i 131. 4</. of chief rents, and pews i: 



I June, 1836; Lanes, and Ches. Ant'n . 

 Notes, ii, 91. 



Cal. Com. for Camp, ii, 1446. H- 



14 Foxe, Acts and Monuments (ed. Catt- 

 ley), viii, 562. He was afterwards ,| - 

 pointed one of the commissioners to sec 

 that the changes in worship were mac: 

 according to the Statutes, but died soo i 

 afterwards of grief, as it is suggestes 

 on finding how resolutely the people i f 

 the neighbourhood were opposed to Pr< - 

 testantism. 



15 End. Char. (Lanes.), 1901, i;, 



amounted to 93, of which 78 belongt I 

 to St. George's church and schools. 



