A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The close of the marling time was formerly marked 

 by a * guising.' 6 



A company of volunteers was raised at Eccles in 



1797- 7 



For local government Barton, Eccles, Winton, and 



Monton obtained a local board in 1854.' * n x ^9 2 

 this area was constituted a municipal borough. The 

 remainder of the ancient township of Barton was at 

 the same time divided into three : Barton Moss, in- 

 cluding Foxhill and Boysnope ; Irlam, including Cadis- 

 head ; and Davyhulme, including all to the south-east 

 of the Manchester Ship Canal. Minor changes of 

 boundaries were made in 1896. Irlam since 1894 

 has had an urban district council of twelve mem- 

 bers ; the other new townships have parish councils. 



The Eccles Town Hall, built in 1881, is on the 

 site of the old cock-pit. 



At Patricroft are a hospital and a home for chil- 

 dren. There also is the workhouse ; the new build- 

 ing was opened in 1 894. Newlands cemetery was 

 formed in 1879. The Salford Corporation has a 

 sanatorium in Eccles New Road. 



The inclosure award for Cadishead Moss, with 

 plan, is at Preston. 



The shaft of a Saxon cross was found near Eccles 

 Church in making the Ship Canal. 9 A later cross was 

 at Barton Old Hall. 10 During the cutting of the Ship 

 Canal a canoe and a hollowed log were discovered. 11 

 A causeway has been traced, probably mediaeval. 



The hearth tax return of 1666 shows that Barton 

 proper had 101 hearths liable ; the principal houses 

 were those of George Legh, with fourteen ; Thomas 

 Sorocold, thirteen, and John Barlow, six. Davy- 

 hulme had seventy-eight, no house having more than 

 four hearths ; Irlam thirty-seven, Mr. Lathom's, with 

 six, being the largest dwelling ; Cadishead, twenty- 

 eight, Thomas Holcroft having eleven ; Eccles and 

 Monton eighty-two, John Valentine's house having 

 eleven, and Thomas Minshull's eight." 



There are a large number of interesting field 

 names, among them the following : Lower Irlam 

 Eaves, Morley Croft, Bosses, Poos, Sparth, Summer 

 ley (in strips) ; Jenny Green Balshaw Fields ; Boy- 



snope Stocky Dole, Parr Round Field, Pipers Field ; 

 Foxhill Wall Congre, Hare Horn Meadow ; New 

 Hall Stick Ings, Patch Ings, Broad Eyes, Street, 

 Bagoletine, How Lane Head; Barton Village Neckars, 

 Scythy Field, Hoasefield, Acker Meadow ; Barton 

 Lane Crossfields ; Barton Bridge Laster, Warth, 

 Boatfield ; Dumplington Wall Congre, Slopes, War- 

 cock Hill ; Bromyhurst Shoe Broad, Orkot, Cockle- 

 ney (Great, Old, Greens) ; Bent Lanes Shoe Broad; 

 Davyhulme Alder Forest ; Croft's Bank Cercicile, 

 White Laches, Knows Corn Hill. 



Dr. John Hewitt, born at Eccles in 1614, became 

 chaplain to Charles I, and was executed in 1658 for 

 taking part in a plot for the restoration of Charles II." 

 Richard Martinscroft, mathematician, 1586-1667, is 

 said to have been a native of Eccles. 14 Barton Booth, 

 a tragedian, is said to have been born at Barton in 

 1 68 1. 14 William Tong, Presbyterian divine, was 

 born at Eccles or Worsley in 1662 ; he ministered 

 in London till his death in I727- 16 John Johnson, 

 Baptist minister, was born at Lostock in 1 706 ; he 

 died in 1791." William Hill, a writer on mnemonics, 

 who died in 1881, was another notability. 18 Joseph 

 Wolstenholme, a mathematician of distinction, fellow 

 of St. John's College, Cambridge, and professor at 

 the Indian Engineering College, Cooper's Hill, was 

 born at Eccles in 1829. He died in 1891." 



Under the lords of Manchester the 

 MANORS great manor or fee of B4RTON was 

 held by a family using the local sur- 

 name. In its full extent the fee extended over the 

 greater part of the parishes of Eccles and Deane, and 

 as the family held also the manor of Worsley with 

 Hulton of the king in thegnage, the only townships 

 exempt from their lordship were Pendlebury, Pendle- 

 ton, and Clifton in the east, and Rumworth and 

 Horwich in the north. 10 Originally the Barton fee 

 appears to have been accounted as that of two knights, 

 but, probably by division among co-heirs, a knight's 

 fee and a half only was held in 1212 by Gilbert de 

 Notion in right of his wife, Edith daughter of Mat- 

 thew son of Leysing de Barton." Of Edith's father 

 and grandfather nothing is certainly known." She 



The Hht. of Eccles and Barton's Guis- 

 ing War, printed about 1778, is noticed 

 in Fishwick's Lanes. Lib. 13. 



7 Local Glean. Lanes, and Ches. i, 251. 



8 Land. Gam. 7 July 1854. The local 

 board was constituted the Burial Board in 

 1877. 



9 Now in the Museum, Manchester 

 University. 



10 Lanes, and Cbes. Antiq. Soc. xi, 1 20. 

 For these and other crosses see also ibid, 

 xxii, 105-8. 



11 r.C.H. Lanes, i, 248-51. 

 19 Subs. R. bdle. 250, no. 9. 



18 An elaborate account of Dr. Hewitt, 

 with portrait and list of works, was given 

 by Mr. J. P. Earwaker in Local Glean. 

 Lanes, and Cbes. i, 267, &c. 



14 Gillow, Bibl. Diet. ofEngl. Cath. iy, 

 494 ; Pal. Note Bk. i, 1 24. Martinscroft 

 is not a local name. 



u He died in 1733. See Diet. Nat. 

 Biog. 



16 Diet. Nat. Biog. 



J 7 Ibid. 



18 Gillow, op. cit. iii, 310. 



19 Diet. Nat. Biog. 



*> The lordt of Manchester retained 

 some portions in their own hands, e.g. 

 Snydale in Westhoughton. 



al In 1195 Hugh Putrell owed 5 marks 

 for a writ of right concerning the fourth 

 part of the fee of two knights in Barton 

 and Worsley, the tenants being Edith, 

 Lescelina, and Maud ; Farrer, Lanes. Pipe 

 R. 94. This shows that the Barton fee 

 was originally one of two knights. The 

 explanation suggested for Hugh Putrell's 

 claim is that he had married one of four 

 sisters, whose name is unknown, and that 

 Edith, Lescelina and Maud were the 

 others. A difficulty is that while three 

 parts of the knights' fees were reunited 

 and came to Edith and Gilbert de Notton, 

 the other part did not descend in the same 

 manner. Though Hugh Putrell had 

 possession of the thegnage manors of 

 Worsley and Hulton, and granted them to 

 the ancestor of the Worsley family, they 

 were found in 1212 to be held by Edith 

 and her husband ; so that Worsley was 

 retained or regained, while the fourth part 

 of two knights' fees was lost ; Lanes. Inq. 

 and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.) 

 ' 53 65. In later inquests, however, 

 Worsley and Hulton were stated to be 

 held of Hugh Merrill or Hugh Newell ; 

 ibid. 301 ; Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 3 7 b. 



The half of a knight's fee thus alienated 

 from Barton does not reappear, and must 



3 6 4 



have been purchased by the lords of Man- 

 chester, unless it escheated to them. The 

 knights' fees of Robert Grelley seem to be 

 given completely in 1212, so that the lost 

 Barton half fee must have been granted 

 out again perhaps to Richard de Lathom 

 or compensated by the new gift to 

 Robert de Byron ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 

 i, 52-6. 



M Two sons of Leysing, named Sweyn 

 and Leysing, owed money in 1129 for 

 an agreement between themselves and 

 Stephen, Count of Mortain, as lord of the 

 land between Ribble and Mersey ; Lanes. 

 Pipe R. i. It is suggested that the 

 younger Leysing may have been the 

 grandfather of Edith de Barton, and it 

 may be a confirmation of this that the 

 Barton family were the successors in 

 Cadishead of a certain Sweyn ; Lanes. Inq. 

 and Extents, i, 66. Lescelina daughter of 

 Matthew son of Leysing, lord of Barton, 

 made a grant in Swinton ; ibid, (quoting 

 Ellesmere D.) ; and Eda (Edith) daugh- 

 ter of Matthew, already married to Gilbert 

 de Notton, was plaintiff in 1203 ; Cur. 

 Reg. R. 26. The other sister, Maud, is 

 probably the Maud de Barton who made a 

 grant in Monton ; Whalley Coueh. (Chet. 

 Soc.) iii, 894. 



