A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



come down, in the same manner as Worsley, to the 

 Earl of Ellesmere. 59 



In this part of the manor were several subordinate 

 estates or manors. WHARTOX or Warton gave its 

 name to the family owning it, 60 and was afterwards 

 held by the Asshetons of Great Lever and the 

 Morts. 61 It was sold to a colliery company," and is 

 now owned by the Earl of Ellesmere. 63 Wharton Hall 

 is a two-story farm-house of brick and timber and 

 plaster construction, facing south. The plan follows 

 the usual type of a central block with gabled pro- 

 jecting wings east and west. The house is in a moder- 

 ate state of repair, and the half-timber work in the 

 lower part of the east wing, which is coved at the level 

 of the first floor, is original. The north wing is faced 



in brick, the upper part of which is painted to repre- 

 sent half-timber work, and the gable and upper part 

 of the east wing is similarly treated. The west wing 

 has been extended westward and the pitch of the roof 

 altered, but the line of the old gable still remains at 

 each end. The house has been almost entirely re- 

 faced in brick, but the original timber construction 

 shows at both ends of the west wing. With its 

 yellow-washed walls, grey stone slate roofs and red 

 brick chimneys, the house has rather a picturesque if 

 tumble-down appearance, emphasized to some extent 

 on the back by the addition of low modern out- 

 buildings. 



PEEL, or Wicheves, was in the I3th century 

 acquired by a branch of the Hulton family, 64 who 



son of John de Hulton land, called the 

 Meres, which his father Geoffrey had sold 

 to John de Hulton, and of which the 

 latter's son Robert was the tenant. The 

 purchase included all the vendor's rights 

 in Hulton except housebote and heybote 

 in the wood for 'his man* dwelling in 

 Baldman's Head ; Ellesmere D. no. 46. 

 This also was acquired by Henry son of 

 Richard de Worsley in 1293 ; ibid. no. 39. 

 The above-named Robert son of John 

 de Hulton left a widow Maud and daugh- 

 ters Margaret, Ellen, Maud, and Margery; 

 and a part of his land was given to Mar- 

 garet in 1293 on her marriage with 

 Richard ' called the Legate ' of Ince ; in 

 1334 Margaret daughter of Robert de 

 Hulton released to Henry de Worsley all 

 her right in Hulton ; ibid. no. 49, 58. 



Geoffrey de Worsley granted to David 

 son of Henry the Knight lands within 

 bounds starting at David's house and go- 

 ing by the Out Lane (Hot Lane) to the 

 brook coming down from the hall ; then 

 by the brook and clough and ditch to the 

 starting-point ; also land called Cookman 

 Croft ; the rent for all to be 2J.; ibid. no. 

 48. David afterwards gave the land to his 

 eldest son Adam ; no. 42. 



John son of Richard de Bradshaw gave 

 all his lands in Hulton to Geoffrey son of 

 Thomas son of Litkoc de Salford ; and in 

 1 307 Geoffrey sold it to Henry de Wors- 

 ley ; ibid. no. 44, 55. 



Henry de Worsley in 1296 gave the 

 mill of Hulton to his son and heir 

 Richard and Margaret his wife; ibid. no. 51. 

 Alice widow of Henry de Worsley in 

 1 3 54 gave her life interest in the demesne 

 of Wood Hall in Hulton (viz. in Wood Hey 

 and Moor Hey) to Thomas Thirlwind and 

 Alice his wife at a rent of 231.; the grant 

 included pasturage, mast, profits of spar- 

 row-hawks, bees, &c., and wood for build- 

 ing and burning; ibid. no. 59. She had 

 a further rent of 121. from land tenanted 

 by William de Shakerley and Margaret his 

 wife ; ibid. no. 60. 



Hulton Hey, a piece of inclosed 

 pasture, was the subject of grants in 1467 

 and 1484 by William Massey and Sir 

 Geoffrey Massey respectively; ibid. no. 70, 



7 1 - 



The lessees in 1484 had leave to build 

 and marl on the ground 'at their own 

 oversight,' while Sir Geoffrey undertook 

 to maintain the hedges and ditches. The 

 rent was a peppercorn for four years, and 

 then 5 marks a year. See also Ducatus 

 1 Lane. (Rec. Com.), ii, 21. 



In 1556-7 Richard Brereton and Joan 

 his wife and Adam Hulton, as holders of 

 Hulton Moor, were summoned to answer 

 lobert Grundy of Rumworth for a seizure 

 jjj cattle on what he alleged to be Rum- 



worth Moor ; PaL of Lane. Plea R. 201, 

 m. n. 



69 See the account of Worsley. 

 60 Some early deeds of the Wartons (or 

 Wauertons) are given in Towneley' 

 MS. DD, no. 939-44. Gilbert de Warton 

 was witness to an early Worsley charter ; 

 no. 951. William son of John de War- 

 ton about 1310 gave lands to John son of 

 William de Warton. In 1335 William's 

 son and heir Thomas married Margaret, 

 daughter of John de Chisenhale. 



In 1356 John de Warton claimed a 

 messuage and land in Wharton by Eccles 

 against Hugh de Rylands ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Assize R. 5, m. 4. Denis de Warton 

 attested deeds in 1407 ; De Traffbrd D. 

 no. 302, 303 ; and one of the same name, 

 if not the same person, a Hulton yeoman, 

 occurs in 1444 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 

 3, m. 1 6. 



Denis Warton in 1446 granted to 

 feoffees, including his son John, all his 

 lands in Tyldesley and Hulton. He had 

 received them in 1440 from the trustee of 

 his brother John, the heir apparent being 

 Ralph son of Denis. Ralph Warton in 

 1469 granted to Katherine his wife, 

 daughter of John Bradshagh, deceased, 

 various lands in Hulton lying to the north 

 of the highway from Blacklow to Walk- 

 den Moor and between Hollow Syke and 

 Goodrich Brook ; together with the 2s. 

 service of William Warton for the Intake. 

 These notes are from the Yates Evi- 

 dences. 



Robert Langton in 1587 purchased 

 from William Warton five messuages, a 

 windmill, dovecote, lands, &c. ; and four 

 years later Richard Ashton of Mawdsley 

 and Jane his wife were in possession ; Pal. 

 of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 49, m. 44 ; bdle. 

 53, m. 87 



William Warton's difficulties are said 

 to have arisen from his adhesion to the 

 old religion. He is described as ' attainted ' 

 in leases of his possessions by the Crown 

 in 1593 and 1595 ; Pat. 35 Eliz. pt. iv ; 

 37 Eliz. pt. ix. 



61 Ralph Assheton of Great Lever, 

 who died in 1616, held ' the manor, lord- 

 ship, or capital messuage called Warton 

 hall ' of Sir Peter Legh and Dorothy his 

 wife (heiress of Worsley), by fealty and 

 the rent of a pair of gloves, price ^d. 

 each of them ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 289. 



Robert Mort, a strict Nonconformist, 

 owned it in the second half of the I7th 

 century. He was about to leave for 

 America in 1688, when the Revolution 

 occurred and promised a cessation of the 

 persecutions to which he had been sub- 

 jected for religion. Matthew Henry 

 called him ' one of the greatest examples 



30 



of humility, charity, and primitive 

 Christianity that our age has known.' 

 He was followed by his son Nathan, whose 

 son John, born in 1 702, removed to Chow- 

 bent, where he carried on a fustian cutting 

 business ; he was ' an active member of the 

 society of Unitarian Christians at Chow- 

 bent, and was noted for his piety and bene- 

 volence' ; Pal. Note Bk. iii, 251, where is 

 a notice of his funeral sermon. 



Nathan Mort, who died about 1723, 

 was succeeded by his son Adam, who 

 died about 1730, leaving his daughter 

 Mary his heiress. She married Thomas 

 Earle of Liverpool and died in 1785, 

 leaving two daughters to inherit Wharton 

 Hall and the other Mort estates. The 

 elder daughter Maria married her cousin 

 Thomas Earle of Spekelands ; and the 

 younger married Richard Gwillym of 

 Bewsey ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), vi 



7 6 > 39. 44- 



62 It was about 1870 sold by the Earles 

 and Gwillyms to John Gerard Potter and 

 others, who formed the Wharton Hall 

 Collieries Co., Ltd., and worked the 

 mines. 



68 The Bridgewater Trustees purchased 

 it from the Colliery Company in 1881. 

 The information in this and the preceding 

 note is due to Mr. Strachan Holme, 

 Walkden. 



64 Gilbert de Lymme, with the assent of 

 his wife Jocasta, granted to Maurice son 

 of Ithel land in the Wich, with bounds 

 beginning at Fairhurst Brook and going 

 up to the middle of Wichiard, thence by 

 the bounds of Farnworth to Alrenehead, 

 and down Wichshaw to the bounds of 

 Tyldesley ; Hultor. Fed. 48 (from the Yates 

 Evidences). Alice daughter of Gilbert re- 

 leased her right in the same to Richard 

 de Wicheves ; Yates Evidences. 



Henry de Tyldesley granted to Richard 

 son of John de Hulton [of Farnworth] 

 certain lands in Tyldesley, the bounds of 

 which began at Herbertsclough, followed 

 Cartlache to Wich Brook, and by this to 

 Cartlache and Fairhurst Syke, and thence 

 back by the marked oaks to the starting 

 point; Hulton Fed. 33. This land in 

 Tyldesley adjoined Wicheves, the estate 

 which gave a surname to Richard. 



Henry de Worsley in 1299 granted to 

 Richard son of Richard son of John de 

 Hulton all his land in the Wyt [Wich] 

 between Hulton and Worsley as described 

 in the charter from Gilbert de Lymme 

 and Jocasta his wife to Thomas their son ; 

 Ellesmere D. no. 54. 



Thomas de Lymme granted land in 

 Wicheves to John son of Meuric, at a 

 rent of zs. ; Yates Evidences. 



Henry son of Henry de Tyldesley 

 granted a rent of 1 8J. from the hey called 



