A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



followed by his son John so and his grandson James, 

 who came into possession at the beginning of the 

 reign of Henry VI. 31 He had two sons, William and 

 John, whose descendants enjoyed the manor. Wil- 

 liam Hulton 31 had a son John, whose only child 

 Alice married Adam Hulton of Over Hulton. The 

 manor and entailed lands on John's death in 1487 " 

 passed to his brothers and their heirs ; Richard, the 

 eldest, was an idiot ; M Christopher, who married 

 Margaret one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir 

 James Harrington of Wolfage, was one of the feoffees 

 of his brother John ; 33 and James left a son William, 

 who succeeded to Farnworth. 36 His son John died 



before him, leaving an infant son William as heir to 

 his grandfather, who died in 1 556,^ and two daughters, 

 Christian and Katherine. 38 



The estates went to the descendants of John the 

 younger son of James Hulton, named above. John, 

 it is stated, had a son Alan, whose eldest son John 

 Hulton 39 was a clerk, and the right descended to a 

 grandson Alan son of John's brother Alexander. 40 

 The younger Alan had several sons Thomas, John, 

 George, and William ; George is stated to have 

 received the larger share of the inheritance. 41 George 

 Hulton, who was the issue of a second marriage, left 

 sons and daughters ; a they sold the manors of Farn- 



80 The writ of Diem clautit extr, after 

 the death of John de Hulton of Farn- 

 worth was issued on 12 Mar. 1422-3 ; 

 Dtp. Keeper'* Rep. xxxiii, App. 24. The 

 Inquisition, as printed by the Chetham 

 Society (ii, 5), states that he died 28 Dec. 

 I422,leaving a son and heir James, twenty- 

 six years of age. He had held ' certain 

 lands in Barton called Farnworth ' of the 

 lord of Manchester ; also in Rumworth 

 and elsewhere. 



An arbitration in 1417 between John 

 de Hulton, John Valentine, and Richard 

 Valentine on the one part, and Adam de 

 Hulton and Richard his son on the other, 

 respecting lands in Tyldesley, resulted in 

 favour of the former ; Adam de Hulton 

 was to pay 10 marks to John and restore 

 to Richard Valentine a horse and three 

 cows which he had wrongfully seized ; 

 Hulton Fed. 38. 



Ellen daughter of John de Hulton 

 married Roger de Hulton of the Park ; 

 ibid. 12. 



81 A bond by James de Hulton of 

 Farnworth, dated 1427, is printed in 

 Hulton Ped. 39. 



83 In 1445 Randle Hulton of Man- 

 chester and another were acquitted of the 

 charge of shooting Richard Whitehead 

 and giving him a mortal wound ; among 

 the accessories were John Hulton, Wil- 

 liam son of James Hulton, and Edward, 

 William's brother, all of Farnworth ; Pal. 

 of Lane. Plea R. 8, m. 23^ ; 9, m. 29. 



88 Hulton Ped. 41, where is printed the 

 inquisition, not taken till 1496. This 

 states that he held the manor of Farn- 

 worth, and lands there and in Kearsley, 

 Westhoughton, Manchester, Harpurhey, 

 and Lostock of Thomas West, Lord La 

 Warre, and other lands in Breightmet and 

 Bolton. Alice, his daughter and heir, in 

 1489 married Adam de Hulton, she being 

 then fifteen years of age, and he fourteen. 

 Christopher Hulton, brother of John, had 

 taken the profits since his brother's death. 



In 1500 Christopher Hulton made a 

 settlement of Farnworth Hall, &c., in 

 favour of Margaret his wife, with re- 

 mainders to the heirs male, &c. ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Plea R. 89, m. 3 ; see also R. 95, 

 m. 6 d. A feoffment by him in 1503 

 concerning the dower lands of Joan, the 

 widow of John Hulton, is printed in the 

 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xl, App. 543 ; she was 

 the -widow of Adam Lever; see Lever 

 Chartul. no. 194, 195. 



Christopher Hulton seems to have died 

 in i $09, when Richard Radcliffe, as trus- 

 tee, claimed lands in Rumworth and West- 

 houghton for the benefit of Margaret his 

 wife ; other trustees had taken possession 

 of Farnworth Hall 5 Pal. of Lane. Plea 

 R. 1 08, m. 1 8. 



In depositions taken in 1559 (Ander- 

 ton D. no. n) it was stated that Christo- 



pher Anderton had confessed to making 

 untrue depositions in a Chancery suit 

 brought by Adam Hulton of the Park, 

 and so had retained possession of lands in 

 Snydale in Westhoughton, &c. ; repent- 

 ing on his death-bed, he desired his wife to 

 restore the deeds and the lands to the true 

 owner, but she also retained them till her 

 death, in spite of the counsel of ' divers 

 of her ghostly fathers.' She died at 

 Mobberley in 1516, and then desired her 

 sister, Eleanor Leycester, and others to 

 see that restitution was made. 



84 Hulton Ped. 39 ; his wardship was 

 granted to his wife Elizabeth and to 

 Thomas Hulton his cousin, 40 a year 

 being payable to the Crown during his life. 

 See Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, 26. 



85 Hulton Ped. 40. 



86 In 1521 William Hulton, in order 

 to end the disputes with Adam Hulton 

 of the Park respecting the inheritance of 

 Alice daughter and heir of John Hulton, 

 released his lands in Snythill (Snydale) in 

 Westhoughton, Harpurhey, Denton,Open- 

 shaw, and Gorton, with reversion to Wil- 

 liam in the event of the failure of male 

 heirs of Alice. Adam Hulton, on the 

 other hand, allowed that the lands in Bar- 

 ton, Lever, and Bolton should remain to 

 William and to the heirs male of James 

 Hulton his father, according to the will 

 of John Hulton, elder brother of James 

 and father of Alice ; Hulton Ped. 41-3. 



After William Hulton's death Adam 

 Hulton claimed the fulfilment of the 

 agreement Christian, the widow, and 

 Alan, the heir, being defendants ; Duchy 

 of Lane. Plead, xxxviii, H. 21. 



W Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. x. 32 ; he 

 held the manor of Farnworth and lands 

 there and elsewhere in the neighbourhood, 

 of the lord of Manchester, by a rent of 

 561. He also held the manor of Rum- 

 worth and other lands. His grandson and 

 heir was four years of age. 



The agreement for the marriage of 

 John, son and heir of William Hulton of 

 Farnworth, and Alice, daughter of Sir 

 William Radcliffe of Ordsall, was made 

 in December 1 548 ; there was some dis- 

 puting concerning it ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Plead, xxxiii, H. n. 



88 Numerous references to the litigation 

 which ensued will be found in the Duca- 

 tus Lane. 



Christian Hulton, widow of William, 

 aged seventy, stated that he had entrusted 

 to her certain lands in Farnworth, &c., 

 which he had received under the will of 

 John Hulton his uncle fifty years before, 

 to enable her to keep and educate William 

 Hulton the grandson, also Christian and 

 Katherine ; and to find two priests to say 

 mass daily for the souls of William her 

 husband and John his uncle ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Plead, xxxviii, H. 6. Francis 



Tunstall and Alice his wife, the widow of 

 John Hulton the younger, also claimed 

 the custody of her three children against 

 the grandmother, as well as Farnworth 

 Hall and certain parts of the estate from 

 which they had been ejected ; ibid, xl, 

 T. 1 6, 21, 2in. 



89 Vicar of Blackburn 1561 to 1580 ; 

 died 1582 ; Abram, Blackburn, 287. 



40 These details are from the pedigree 

 recorded in 1567 ; Visit. (Chet. Soc.), n. 

 Alan is called 'son and heir* of Alex- 

 ander, and also ' base son ' ; probably he 

 had been born before marriage, the second 

 son, George, being legitimate. 



A claim was put forward by James 

 Hulton of Chorley, as son of Edward, son 

 of John Hulton, the great-grandfather of 

 Alan, citing the feoffment by William de 

 Hulton in the time of Richard II. John 

 Hulton, clerk, and Alan Hulton were the 

 defendants ; Duchy of Lane. Plead, xxxviii, 

 H. 19 ; xlii, H. 10. John Hulton gave 

 his pedigree as son of Alan Hulton, son 

 of John Hulton, son of James Hulton, 

 in reply to James Hulton ; ibid.lix, H. 19. 



Katherine and Christian Hulton, the 

 daughters, in 1564 laid claim to some or 

 all of the Farnworth manors and lands as 

 co-heirs ; but John Hulton, clerk, as heir 

 male, justified his title ; ibid, lix, H. iga ; 

 Ixxxii, H. 2. It was stated that Adam 

 Hulton of the Park had claimed the 

 manors of Farnworth and Rumworth as 

 heir general. 



In 1560 there was a recovery of the 

 manors of Farnworth and Rumworth, fifty 

 messuages, a water-mill, &c., John Hul- 

 ton, clerk, and Alan Hulton being the 

 holders ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 207, 

 m.3. 



Alan Hulton was living in 1581 \Duca- 

 tus Lane, iii, 79. 



41 Hulton Ped. 43, 44 ; also contem- 

 porary pedigree in Lever Chartul. fol. 51. 

 No reason is given for the preference 

 shown to the younger son. 



As early as 1574 Alan Hulton became 

 bound to Christopher Anderton and others 

 not to disinherit his son John, but power 

 was reserved to alter this, provided a ma- 

 jority of those to whom he became bound 

 consented ; and this power he exercised 

 in 1587 when he bestowed all his manors 

 and lands (with a small exception) on his 

 second son George Hulton ; Anderton 

 D. no. 29, 49. 



43 George Hulton complained in 1598 

 that certain persons were intruding on his 

 lands in Farnworth and Kearsley, and 

 digging coal pits there ; Dueatus Lane. 

 iii, 376. He died 19 March 1609-10,3! 

 Farnworth, holding the manor of Farn- 

 worth, with the capital messuage and 

 various lands, &c., there, of Sir Nicholas 

 Mosley as of his manor of Manchester in 

 socage, by the rent of 41. 6d. 5 the manor 



