WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WIGAN 



socage by a rent of $t. Kb The residence was known as 

 Ince Hall, or the New Hall. They also adhered to the 

 ancient faith, 36 and John Ince's estate was sequestered 



by the Parliamentary autho- 



rities during the Common- 

 wealth, 37 but not confiscated 

 outright. It descended from 

 him to his great-great-grand- 

 daughter Frances Sobieski, 

 daughter of Christopher Ince, 

 and wife of William Anderton 

 of Euxton. She died in 1 8 1 6, 

 when the family ceased to 

 reside here. 38 



The third hall, the resi- 

 dence of the family of Ince, 

 stood on a site a short distance from the junction of 

 Ince Green Lane and Warrington Road, part of which 

 is occupied by a building apparently erected some 

 sixty years since from the materials of the former 

 house. Two date stones, now on a rockery in front 



INCE. Urgent three 

 torteaux between two 

 bendlets gules. 



of the house, are said to belong respectively to the 

 old barn and a stable now pulled down. One bears 

 the date 1578 and the initials G J M, and the other 



the inscription 



w p 



referring to the above-named 



__ 



William Anderton and Frances his wife. There is 



also part of a stone sundial, dated GM - The hall 



1741 



is sa : d to have been built about 1721. 



Property here was acquired by a family named 

 Brown, 39 in which it descended for about a century 

 and a half. 40 Henry Brown, by his will in 1726, left 

 it to his grand-nephew Edward, son of Robert Holt 

 of Wigan ; by two daughters and co-heiresses it be- 

 came the property of General Clegg and Thomas 

 Case of Liverpool. 41 



Miles and Peter Gerard, Thomas Ince, and Ralph 

 Brown were the landowners recorded about I556. 4 * 

 Richard Pennington was a freeholder in 1600." 

 The four halls of Ince were duly noted by Kuerden 



Kb Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii, no. 6. 

 Miles Ince was his son and heir, and of the 

 age of twenty-five years. The rent pay- 

 able seems to prove that this was a moiety 

 of the manor. Mr. H. Ince Anderton 

 gives the descent as : Thomas Ince (15 

 Edw. IV) s. Henry (20 Hen. VII) s. 

 Arthur s. Thomas ; from Harl. MS. 

 1987, fol. 88i. 



The father of Thomas was Arthur Ince, 

 who in 1546 and later had a dispute with 

 Ralph Brown over the marriage between 

 the latter's daughter Ellen and Thomas 

 Ince, son and heir apparent of Arthur ; 

 Duchy Plead, ii, 211. In 1569 Miles 

 Ince, as grandson of Ralph Brown, put in a 

 claim to lands in Ince, Aspull, and Wigan; 

 Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), ii, 378, 360. 



88 Miles Ince was one of the ' comers to 

 church but no communicants' in 1590 ; 

 Lydiate Hall, 246 (quoting S.P. Dom. 

 Eliz. ccxxxv, 4). He was buried at Wigan 

 7 Apr. 1593; Reg.; and was succeeded by 

 John Ince, probably his son, returned as a 

 freeholder in 1600; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes. 

 and Ches.), i, 241. With him begins the 

 pedigree recorded in 1664; Dugdale, 

 Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 163. In 1628 he paid 

 double to the subsidy as a convicted recu- 

 sant ; Norris D. (B.M.) ; and died the 

 following year, being buried at Wigan. 



8 ' In 1643 two-thirds was sequestered 

 for Thomas Ince's religion only, and so 

 remained till his death in Feb. 1653-4; 

 it does not appear that he took arms for 

 the king. John Ince was the only son 

 and heir, thirty-four years of age, and in 

 1654 had a wife and four small children 

 depending on him. He mortgaged his 

 property in order to pay his father's debts 

 and provide for his wife Margaret and 

 his children Thomat, Hugh, &c. ; Royalist 

 Camp. Papers, iv, 1-13. 



88 Dugdale's pedigree is supplemented 

 by that of Piccope (MS. Pedigrees, ii, 

 291), who consulted the Roman Catholic 

 deeds enrolled in the House of Correction, 

 Preston. It appears that Thomas, the 

 eldest son of John, mentioned in the pre- 

 ceding note, had no issue, and the estate 

 descended to Christopher Ince, a younger 

 brother, who in 1717 as a 'papist' regis- 

 tered his estate, being described as ' of 

 Aughton;' Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, 1 12. His 

 four sisters, Dorothy, Anne, Ellen (wife 

 of James Twiss), and Elizabeth also re- 

 gistered ; ibid. 124. 



4 



Christopher was executor of his bro- 

 ther Thomas's will (dated 1703), and by 

 his own will, dated 12 Dec. 1728, he left 

 Ince Hall to his grandson Christopher ; 

 John, the son, to have 'the profits of part 

 of Brook House,' if he behaved himself to 

 the satisfaction of the trustees. Thomas, 

 a younger brother of John, had lands in 

 Aughton and Billinge, divided between 

 his sons Thomas and James ; Piccope, op. 

 cit. 



Mr. Ince Anderton adds that papers in 

 Chest. Dioc. Reg. show that Christopher 

 Ince died in 1735, leaving two sons, John 

 and Thomas ; and that administration of 

 the goods of John Ince of Ince was 

 granted on 14 Jan. 1739-40. 



Christopher Ince, son of John, accord- 

 ingly succeeded to Ince ; in 1740 he 

 married Mary Catherine Parry of Holy- 

 well ; and their daughter and heir, 

 Frances Sobieski Ince, married in 1769 

 William Anderton of Euxton ; Pic- 

 cope. 



89 In a suit in 1609 respecting a place 

 called Rundiefield in Ince, the following 

 pedigree was adduced : Roger le Brown, 

 to whom the rent of 41. from the land 

 had been granted by William de Ince s. 

 Rowland s. William s. Ralph. Ralph 

 in 1545 granted the rent to William 

 Brown, whose son Roger was defendant 

 in 1609 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 303, m. 

 1 6. 



Roger Brown of Ince, in August 1517, 

 granted to Cecily daughter of Richard 

 Urmston a burgage in Scholes for her 

 life, with remainder to Ralph Brown, 

 junior, son and heir of William Brown ; 

 and at the same time this Ralph Brown, 

 describing himself as next of kin and heir 

 apparent of Roger, granted his burgages, 

 &c., in Scholes to the same Cecily, pro- 

 bably on his marriage with her ; Towne- 

 ley MS. OO, no. 1109, 1108. 



Thomas Anderton of Ince died in 

 August 1529, seised of messuages and 

 lands in Ince held of Thomas Gerard of 

 Ince, by a rent of zs. So 1 . ; and other lands 

 in Thingwall, Walton, Halewood, and 

 Aughton. His heirs were his daughters 

 Margaret, Ellen, and Cecily, said to be 

 ten, nine, and eight years of age in 1534. 

 They were in the wardship of Ralph 

 Brown of Wigan, who accordingly took 

 possession ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, 

 no. 14, 30. 



105 



Ralph Brown next appears in 1535 in 

 a dispute with Thomas Gerard as to lands 

 in Whitreding ; Ducatus Lane, i, 201 ; 

 and then in 1546 regarding the marriage 

 covenant with Arthur Ince, already re- 

 ferred to. William Brown, feoffee of 

 Ralph, and James Brown appear in 1568 

 and 1569 in the disputes with Miles Ince. 

 In 1581 William Brown made complaint 

 as to Charles Bank, Miles Gerard, and 

 Lawrence Wood regarding lands called 

 Foxholes, &c. ; Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), 

 iii, 92, 107. 



William Brown died 13 May I5961eav- 

 ing a son and heir Roger, then about six- 

 teen years of age ; he had held two mes- 

 suages and various lands in Ince of Miles 

 Gerard, by a rent of 41. 6d. and sixteen 

 messuages in Wigan ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Cheg.), i, 157. 



Roger Brown, in 1597, alleged that 

 Miles Gerard was withholding suit ; Du- 

 catut Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii, 350. He 

 died 2 Jan. 1619-20, seised of the paternal 

 lands, and leaving as heir his son William, 

 aged seventeen ; there was a younger 

 son Ralph, as appears by a feoffment made 

 in 1611 ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 202. He had lived 

 ' roguing about London,' in Bishop Bridge- 

 man's opinion ; Bridgeman, Wigan Cb. 

 249. 



40 William Brown died in 1626, for his 

 uncle Ralph, brother of Roger Brown, 

 tendered his relief on succeeding ; he was 

 buried at Wigan ii Mar. 1626-7, anc ' 

 succeeded by his son ; Bridgeman, op. cit. 

 250. The 'heirs of Ralph Brown' are 

 mentioned in the Wigan rental of 1627 ; 

 ibid. 310. 



41 Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 568} 

 Gregson, Fragments, 176. 



48 Mascy of Rixton D. ; a subsidy roll. 



48 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 241. 



In 1546 was a fine between Nicholar 

 Pennington (or Pinnington) of Wigan and 

 John Pennington of Ince, respecting pro- 

 perty in the latter place ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 12, m. 167. In 1559 

 John Pennington was again deforciant { 

 ibid. bdle. 21, m. 134. In 1600 Gilbert 

 Bank sued Robert and Nicholas Penning- 

 ton concerning a cottage and lands called 

 Emme Fields ; Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), 

 iii, 412. 



