A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the time of Henry VIII, 56 when on a failure of male 

 issue it passed to a junior branch represented by 

 Robert Radcliffe, Lord FitzWalter, created Earl of 

 Sussex in 1 520." This and other Lancashire estates 

 were sold to provide his daughters' dowries. Sir 

 John Holcroft purchased it, 68 and it descended to a 

 younger son Hamlet, 49 whose son, John Holcroft, sold 

 it in 1605 to Ralph Calveley. 60 It appears afterwards 

 to have reverted to the Holcroft family 61 and to have 

 descended with their principal manor, until the 

 division of their estates, when it was assigned to the 

 Standishes. 



III. HOLCROFT was the share of Joan, the 

 daughter of Gilbert de Culcheth who married 

 Thomas de Hindley." William le Boteler conceded 



to them that they should in future provide puture for 

 one bedell instead of two, when doing the services 

 pertaining to the court and 

 fee of Warrington ; he also 

 acquitted them of ' bode and 

 witness.' 6S From Thomas the 

 manor descended to his son 

 Adam, 64 after whom no satis- 

 factory account can be given 

 till the beginning of the 

 1 6th century, 64 when Sir John 

 Holcroft was lord of it. 66 

 He was elder brother of Sir 

 Thomas Holcroft, who shared 

 largely in the plunder of 



HOLCROFT of Hol- 

 croft. Argent a cross 

 and a bordure both en- 

 grailed sable. 



66 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 94 

 James de Radcliffe, 1409, with a son and 

 heir Richard, who died about 1441 ; ii, 

 121. John Radcliffe, 1485 ; ii, 148, 152. 

 In 1483 a dispute about lands in Culcheth 

 between Sir Christopher Southworth and 

 John son and heir of James Radcliffe was 

 decided in the latter's favour by John 

 Hawarden of Chester ; Towneley MS. 

 HH, no. 2139. Richard Radcliffe, who 

 died in 1502, held the fourth part of the 

 manor of Culcheth of Sir Thomas Boteler 

 by knight's service and a rent of 31. 6d. ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, no. 98. 

 His brother and heir John died about 

 1513, holding the same part of the manor 

 by a rent of 31. \d. ; ibid, ir, no. 7. 



*7 In the will of John Radcliffe, recited 

 in the inquisition above referred to, it is 

 said, ' Provided always that inasmuch as 

 the manor of Culcheth came to my an- 

 cestors by marriage with a gentlewoman, 

 therefore according to the entail thereof 

 I will the said manor shall descend as it 

 ought to have done before the making of 

 this my will.' Lord FitzWalter, how- 

 ever, obtained the manor, and Ralph 

 Eccleston in 1523 was found to have 

 held lands in Culcheth of him ; ibid, v, 

 no. 46. 



48 Sir John Holcroft was in possession 

 by 1 549 ; the rent payable to the lord of 

 Warrington was 3*. (id. ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 77. 



*' By a settlement in 1574 it went to 

 Hamlet, the brother of Sir John Holcroft 

 the younger, who had no sons ; the estate 

 included two water-mills, two dovecotes, 

 and a free fishery in the Glazebrook ; Pal. 

 of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 36, m. 13. For 

 Hamlet Holcroft see also Ducatus (Rec. 

 Com.), iii, 96, 1 8 8. He and his wife 

 were returned as recusants in 1575. 



Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 68, 

 no. 6 ; the sale (or mortgage) included 

 the manor of Peasfurlong and lands, &c., 

 100 acres being ' covered with water,' in 

 all four quarters of the township ; there 

 was added a clause of warranty against 

 Hamlet Holcroft, the father of John. 



Another fine was made in 1622-3, 

 John Calveley being plaintiff, and John 

 Holcroft, junior, son and heir of John 

 Holcroft, deforciant, with a clause of war- 

 ranty against Anne mother of the younger 

 John ; ibid. bdle. 96, no. I. 



The sale was alleged to be fraudulent ; 

 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iii, App. 57. 



In 1634 Edward Calveley was in pos- 

 session of Great and Little Woolden in 

 Barton, Holcroft, Peasfurlong, and Wig- 

 shaw in Culcheth ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 



"3 



61 In Sept. 1642 the deforciants of the 

 manors of Holcroft and Peasfurlong were 

 Sampson Erdwick and Anne Erdwick, 



widow ; and there was a warranty against 

 the heirs of Richard Erdwick, father of 

 the former ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdle. 141, no. 30. Anne Erdwick seems 

 to have been the widow of John Holcroft 

 previously mentioned. 



62 Their share of the inheritance was 

 Holcroft and Mill Houses, with the lands 

 which Orm and Adam his son and Wyon 

 had formerly held ; the woods of South- 

 wood, Westwood, and Ings were to be 

 common to all the coparceners ; Dods. 

 MSS. cxlii, fol. 1146. 



68 Ibid. fol. 115^. An account of the 

 Holcroft family by Mr. J. Paul Rylands, 

 originally printed in the Leigh CAron. t has 

 been utilized ; Local Glean. Lanes, and 

 Ches. ii. 



84 Final Cone, ii, 1 8. Adam's name 

 occurs in the deeds down to 1347. In 

 1334 he was commanded to join the king 

 in Scotland with horse and arms ; and 

 eight years later he was one of the com- 

 missioners for assessing the ninths ; Rot. 

 Scot. (Rec. Com.), i, 307 ; Inq. Non. (Rec. 

 Com.), 40. 



In 1330 Adam de Holcroft arranged 

 for the succession of his part of the manor 

 of Culcheth, except three messuages and 

 certain lands. It was to descend to his 

 son Hugh and heirs male ; in default 

 successively to John, Thomas, Richard, 

 and Robert, his other sons. William the 

 son of Adam de Holcroft by his second 

 wife Margery put in his claim ; Final 

 Cone, ii, 74. 



In 1331 John son of John de Woolden 

 agreed with Adam son of Thomas de 

 Holcroft concerning the latter's mill and 

 mill pool upon Glazebrook, the embank- 

 ment stretching across the stream ; Dods. 

 MSS. cxlii, fol. 1 1 6. 



The male issue of the eldest son Hugh 

 appears to have failed, but he may have 

 had a daughter, for in 1353 William son 

 of Thomas de Sale alleged he was the heii 

 of Adam son of Thomas de Holcroft, in a 

 claim for lands in Bedford brought by 

 William de Holcroft son of Adam and 

 Margery ; Assize R. 435, m. 30 d. 



John de Holcroft, the second son, is 

 probably the man of that name acquitted 

 of killing John son of Simon de Holland 

 at Culcheth in 1343 ; Assize R. 430, m. 

 32d. ; he was himself killed in 1352; 

 Assize R. 433. Possibly it was on ac- 

 count of his character that Adam de Hol- 

 croft in 1347 settled the estate upon 

 Thomas son of John de Holcroft ; Dods. 

 MSS. cxlii, fol. iif>b. The bounds are 

 thus recorded : Beginning in the centre of 

 Lynbrook where it falls into Glazebrook, 

 up the former brook to the boundary of 

 Kenyon, then by the bounds of Croft, 

 Woolston, and Flixton to Glazebrook, and 

 so back to the starting point ; i.e. all his 



1 6O 



lands within Culcheth, Blacklow ex- 

 cepted. 



65 As there were two families of the same 

 surname in the township of Holcroft 

 and of Hurst it is difficult to trace the 

 descent of either, in the absence of docu- 

 mentary evidence. There is a pedigree 

 in Harl. MS. 1925, fol. 59, showing the 

 double line ; also in Piccope, MS. Pedi- 

 grees (Chet. Lib.), i, 227. 



John de Holcroft occurs at various 

 times from 1373 onwards. He is prob- 

 ably the heir of Thomas son of John de 

 Holcroft from whose guardian (Simon son 

 of Henry de Byrom) Goditha widow of 

 William de Holcroft claimed dower in 

 Aug. 1355 ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 4, 

 m. 1 8 ; 5, m. 24 d. See Culcheth D. 

 no. 78, 79. 



In 1382 his daughter Elizabeth was 

 engaged to marry Thurstan de Culcheth ; 

 ibid. no. 80, 81 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdle. 2, m. 35. He was plaintiff in later 

 fines (from 1386 to 1394) regarding proper- 

 ties in Culcheth and Kenyon ; ibid, bdles. 

 2, m. 4, 5 ; 3, m. 19. In 1394 he was es- 

 cheator } Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 

 49. 



Thomas de Holcroft was serving be- 

 yond the seas in 1417 in the retinue of 

 Thomas, Duke of Exeter ; Towneley MS. 

 CC, no. 510. He occurs as witness in 

 1400 and 1408; Towneley MS. GG, no. 

 2674, 2415 ; and John de Holcroft in 

 various ways about forty years later (Cul- 

 cheth D. no. 107, 108) as arbitrator in a 

 dispute between Thomas Culcheth and 

 Oliver Anderton in 1448 ; also no. 112. 

 He was ' in mercy for defaults' in 1444 ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 6, m. 1 1 ; 7, m. 4. 



In 1492 John Holcroft did homage and 

 service to the lord of Warrington and paid 

 i CM. lod. for relief; Misc. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 14. It was prob- 

 ably his son John who in 1505 did homage 

 and service for lands in Culcheth and 

 Pennington, paid relief, and three years 

 later did fealty in the court leet ; ibid. 

 1 8, 22. Margaret daughter of John Hol- 

 croft senior was in 1525 married to 

 Gilbert Culcheth ; her brother, John 

 Holcroft, afterwards knighted, being the 

 principal agent ; Culcheth D. no. 137-9. 

 In a plea regarding land in 1514 the 

 descent of John Holcroft was thus alleged : 

 John s. Thomas s. John s. Thomas 

 s. John s. John (plaintiff) j Pal. of 

 Lane. Plea R. 118, m. 13. 



A pedigree was recorded in 1567, giving 

 a few steps ; Viut. (Chet. Soc.), 117. 



M In 1536 John Holcroft had fifty-three 

 men for service under the Earl of Derby 

 against the Northern Rising ; L. and P. 

 Hen. VIII, xi, 511. He was sheriff of 

 Cheshire in 1541-2 ; ibid, xvi, 644. He 

 was made a knight at the coronation of 



