SALFORD HUNDRED 



FLIXTON 



Urmston is governed by an Urban District Council 

 formed in 1894 ; there are twelve members. 4 



The cemetery was formed in 1892. The Man- 

 chester Jews have three separate cemeteries for the 

 Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, the New syna- 

 gogue, and the Polish Jews. 



The field- names* include Hillam, Barrowfield, Blake- 

 well Meadow, Twinose, Treeley, Rant, and Woefield. 6 

 The manor of URMSTON was origi- 

 M4NORS nally part of the Marsey fee, and held of 

 the lord as one plough-land by a family using 

 the local surname. It was held by the eighth part of a 

 knight's fee, rents of 8/. and zt. being paid for castle 

 ward and sake fee. 7 The earliest known holder of it 

 is Richard de Urmston, who in 1193-4 gave 40*. for 

 having the king's good will after the rebellion of John 

 Count of Mortain. 8 Adam de Urmston held it in 

 I2I2. 9 After this there is a period of uncertainty. The 

 superior lordship was acquired by the.Trafford family, 10 



who continued to hold it, at least nominally, down to 

 the 1 6th century, though their mesne tenancy is often 

 ignored. 11 The Urmston family and the lordship also 

 appear to have been divided," one branch settling in 

 Westleigh. 13 In 1305 Adam de Urmston conferred 

 all his lands in Urmston, together with the lordship 

 of the whole town, upon Gilbert de Ashton. 14 The 

 latter had several daughters, and Urmston became the 

 portion of Hawise wife of Henry son of John de 

 TrafFord. Her heir was again a daughter, Aline, who- 

 married Ralph son of John de Hyde of Hyde in. 

 Cheshire. 15 In this family and its descendants the 

 manor continued till the 1 8th century. 



From a suit of 1 3 1 7, in which Isabel widow of 

 Adam de Urmston claimed dower, it appears that the 

 land was then divided thus : Gilbert de Ashton held 

 3 oxgangs ; Richard, son of Adam de Urmston, 3 ; 

 and William son of William the Serjeant, I ; leaving 

 an oxgang not accounted for. 16 The manor, however, 



4 Loc. Govt. Bd. Order. 



6 A list is given in R. Lawson, Flixton, 



122. 



6 The following occur in a deed of 

 1300: Woodfalls, WhiterirFos, Welcome 

 Ridding, Merulache, Stilley, Omerland, 

 Simond Ridding, Hillum Carr, Merebutts. 



7 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 71. 



8 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 77. 



9 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, loc. cit. 



10 Jordan de Worsley granted to Geof- 

 frey son of Henry de Trafford all the lands 

 which he had had by the gift of Adam de 

 Urmston, and the reversion of the dower 

 of Adam's widow, Isabel ; De TrafFord 

 D. no. 292. In 1305 Jordan had, as 

 creditor for 10, claimed the minor of 

 Urmston against Adam de Urmston, Isabel 

 his wife, Gilbert de Ashton, his children, 

 and others, except four messuages, 4 

 oxgangs and 60 acres of land, and the 

 moiety of a mill ; Assize R. 420, m. i, 7. 



11 Sir Edmund TrafFord in 1445-6 held 

 3 oxgangs of land in Urmston and the 

 heir of GeofFrey de Urmston 5 oxgangs, 

 for the eighth part of a knight's fee, ren- 

 dering us. 6d. yearly. The said Edmund 

 stated that he was mesne between the 

 king, &c., and was in ward ; hence there 

 was no relief; Duchy of Lane. Knights' 

 Fees, 2/20. 



Sir Edmund TrafFord, who died in 

 1563, held Urmston of the queen by the 

 eighth part of a knight's fee and 8*. 4</.; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m., zi, n. 



Robert Worsley of the Booths in the 

 time of Henry VIII held lands in Urms- 

 ton of Edmund TrafFord, but the service 

 due was not known ; ibid, vii, 5. 



Sir Robert Lovell in 1600 held lands 

 in Urmston, probably purchases from 

 members of the TrafFord family ; ibid, 

 xviii, 32 ; see also Ducatus Lane. (Rec. 

 Com.), iii, 421, 46$, and the accounts of 

 Chorlton and Didsbury. 



Richard Scott in 1547 claimed a mes- 

 suage, &c., against Sir Edmund TrafFord 

 and James Hampson ; ibid, i, 229. 



11 Richard de Urmston is named in 

 1265, 1278, 1284, and again in 1288 ; 

 perhaps there were two of the name ; 

 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 232, 273 ; 

 Assize R. 1238, m. 34 d.; 1265, m. 5 d. 



Nigel son of Roger son of Adam de 

 Urmston in 1288 demanded the manor 

 against Adam son of Richard de Urms- 

 ton, claiming as heir ; De Banco R. 73, 

 m. 49, 87 d. Thus Richard must have 

 died in that year. 



In 1284, however, there was another 

 Adam de Urmston, the son of William and 

 Constance ; in reply to a charge of novel 

 disseisin in 'Ormiston,' he said there 

 was no such vill, but the tenements 

 claimed were in 'Urmiston,' and he held 

 them as his father's heir. Thomas de 

 Urmston claimed under a grant from the 

 father ; Assize R. 1268, m. 19. In the 

 same year Richard de Urmston claimed 

 eight messuages in Urmston against Adam 

 and Alexander de Hulme, John son of 

 Wymark, and others. Robert Grelley 

 had held them, and his son and heir 

 Thomas being under age, the escheator 

 had taken possession ; ibid. 1265, 

 m. 22 d. 



18 See the account of Westleigh ; a 

 Richard de Urmston and Siegrith his wife 

 held it and lands in Flixton in 1292 ; 

 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.) ; 

 i, 169, 174; ii, 20, 127. Siegrith, lady 

 of Urmston, also occurs in 1311 ; Lich. 

 Epis. Reg. i, fol. 114/1. 



Adam de Urmston, probably the Adam 

 son of Richard above mentioned, seems 

 to have been the chief man in the town- 

 ship in 1292, when he was involved in 

 several pleas. William son of William 

 de Flixton (probably a Valentine), was 

 nonsuited in a claim against Adam de 

 Urmston and William his brother ; Assize 

 R. 408, m. 44 d. The same plaintiff was 

 also nonsuited in a claim against William 

 son of Thomas de Urmston ; ibid. m. 

 48 d. Henry son and heir of Henry de 

 TrafFord was nonsuited in his demand 

 that Adam de Urmston' s mill-pool should 

 be destroyed, having been formed by 

 Adam's father, Richard, to the injury of 

 the TrafFords' estate ; ibid. m. 56 d. ; De 

 Banco R. 92, m. I2gd. 



14 In 1301 Adam de Urmston made 

 claims, which he did not prosecute, against 

 Robert de Ashton and others, respecting 

 tenements in Urmston; Assize R. 418, 

 m. 12 d. These Ashtons were of the 

 adjacent township of Ashton on Mersey. 

 In the same year Richard son of Adam 

 de Urmston, and Cecily his wife, made 

 a similar claim against Adam and 

 others ; ibid. 419, m. 3 ; 420, m. 7. 

 Richard son of Adam son of Richard de 

 Urmston in 1333 and up to 1342 claimed 

 eighteen messuages, &c., in Urmston, 

 against Henry son of John de TrafFord of 

 Urmston ; De Banco R. 295, m. 28 ; 

 332, m. 100 d. 



14 The story is told fully in a document 

 compiled about 1430, in Harl. MS. 2112, 



51 



fol. 158, printed in Coll. To fog. et Gen. 

 viii, 146. 



Adam de Urmston granted all his lands 

 of Urmston, with the demesne, wards, 

 reliefs, &c., to Gilbert de Ashton, who in 

 return granted the moiety of Ashton on 

 Mersey, and lands in Sale and Altrincham. 

 These being more valuable than Urmston 

 Adam granted a rent of 3 a year from 

 them. After this Adam sold the Ashton 

 lands to John de Leigh and Ellen his 

 wife, who gave them to William Venables 

 and Katherine his wife. [This was in 

 1307-8 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxvii, App. 

 94]. William not paying the rent of ^3, 

 Gilbert de Ashton made a distraint and. 

 proved his right in open court. 



Gilbert married Margaret daughter of 

 Roger de Cheadle, and their daughter 

 Hawise was married in childhood to' 

 Henry son of John de TrafFord of New- 

 croft, the father giving her the manor of 

 Urmston. Afterwards a divorce took, 

 place ; Henry married Joan de Worsley,. 

 and Hawise married John son and heir of 

 the above-mentioned William Venables, by 

 whom she had a daughter and heir Alice 

 (elsewhere Aline). After the death of 

 Hawise John married Joan, sister of the- 

 said Henry de TrafFord, and had a daughter 

 Cecily, wife of Robert de Ashton. 



Meantime John de TrafFord had killed 

 Gilbert de Ashton at Urmston, hiding his 

 body in a * rindle ' and taking the deeds 

 of the manor. Henry de TrafFord also 

 arranged with Richard son of Adam de 

 Urmston that the latter should recover the 

 lands and then grant them to him. Thus- 

 Aline's inheritance was in great danger. 

 Her father also was against her ; he 

 wished her to marry Adam de TrafFord,, 

 his second wife's brother, and shut her up> 

 in the ' city of Brvnuegg,' till she escaped 

 one night and found refuge in Timperley, 

 on which her father, in his anger, burnt 

 the deed securing to her the rent of 3. 

 Next, Hamon Massey of Timperley mar- 

 ried her to Ralph de Hyde, who managed 

 to regain the manor of Urmston against 

 Henry de TrafFord and Richard de Urms- 

 ton ; after which the stolen deeds were 

 given up to him. 



A copy of the grant by Adam de Urms- 

 ton to Gilbert de Ashton follows. 



Some illustrative references will be 

 found in the following notes. 



16 De Banco R. 217, m. 183 d. It is 

 possible that the oxgang not mentioned! 

 was Newcroft, the possession of Henry 

 de TrarFord. Gilbert de Ashton after- 



