SALFORD HUNDRED 



east. The area is 797. V acres. The population in 

 1901 was returned with Middleton.* 



The principal road is that leading north from Man- 

 chester to Middleton ; the hall is in the triangle to 

 the west of this road. Part of the White Moss occu- 

 pied the south-east corner. There is a colliery. 3 



For local government the township was in 1 894. 

 added to the borough of Middleton.* 



In 1839 a house in the 'Spaw' at Alkrington 

 was said to be haunted. 5 Some extracts from the 

 diary of a local farmer, 1774 to 1778, have been 

 printed. 8 



No house had as many as six hearths in 1666; 

 the total number of taxable hearths in the township 

 was twenty-seven. 7 



The survey of 1212 gives the earliest 

 MANOR account of the manor of ALKRINGTON. 

 At that time it was a member of the 

 Montbegon fee of eight knights, and was held by 

 Adam de Prestwich as 4 oxgangs of land ' of ancient 

 tenure ' by 4*. ; while placed among the manors held by 

 knight's service, it thus appears as a thegnage estate. 8 

 The Montbegon fee was some twenty years later 

 alienated to the Lacys, and thus passed to the Crown ; 

 but the manor of Alkrington continued to descend 

 with Prestwich, 9 the tenure being changed to the 



PRESTWICH WITH 

 OLDHAM 



twenty-fourth part of a knight's fee, with a rent of 

 lo</. The inquisitions, however, do not state the 

 tenure quite uniformly. 10 



On the death of Sir Robert Langley, in 1561, this 

 manor was given to his daughter Katherine, who 

 married Thomas Legh of 

 Lyme, but died in 1591 with- 

 out issue." The Leghs, how- 

 ever, appear to have retained 

 the manor, for it was sold in 

 1627 by Thomas Legh, Alice 

 his wife, and John Legh, to 

 Robert and John Lever." 

 The purchasers were probably 

 younger sons of Robert Lever 

 of Darcy Lever, who died in 

 1620." Robert Lever, his 

 son, was a clothier in Lon- 

 don, and died unmarried about 

 1642 ; John Lever, another son, was ' of Alkrington,' 

 and died in 1645, being buried at Middleton. 14 His 

 eldest son Robert married Anne the daughter and 

 heir of Nicholas Mosley of Collyhurst, and died in 

 1710, a very aged man. 14 His son John died in 

 1718, and was succeeded by his son Sir Darcy Lever, 

 who served as high sheriff in 1736, and was 



LEVER. Argent tvto 

 bendlets sable, the under- 

 meit engrailed. 



8 Pop. Rep. 1901. 



3 For an accident in 1774 see Lanes. 

 and Chet. Antiq. Soc. vii, 68. 



4 Local Govt. Bd. Order 31625; the 

 population was given as $65. 



5 Mancb. Guardian Local N. and Q. 

 DO. 739. 



6 Ibid. no. 1244. 



7 Subs. R. bdle. 250, no. 9, Lanes. 



8 Lanes. Inq. and Extentt (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 61. 



9 It was included in the settlement of 

 the Prestwich estate in 1313; Final Cone. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 16. 



In 1276 and later years Adam son of 

 Thomas de Prestwich had to defend his 

 right to certain land in Alkrington, to 

 which Robert Grelley laid claim ; De 

 Banco R. 15, m. 36 d. ; 18, m. 29 ; 24, 

 m. 20. 



10 In the De Lacy Inq. of 1311 (Chet. 

 Soc.) Adam de Prestwich was returned 

 as holding of the Earl of Lincoln the 

 manor of Alkrington by the service of the 

 fourth part of a knight's fee, and suit to 

 the court; p. 19. From later notices it 

 appears that 'fourth' is an error for 

 4 twenty-fourth.' 



Alice de Prestwich was in 1324 said to 

 hold half a plough-land in Alkrington by 

 the service of i zd. a year ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Rentals and Surv. 379, no. 13. 

 In 1346 the heirs of John de Radcliffe 

 and Alice de Prestwich were said to hold 

 it in socage by a rent of 1 2</. ; Dods. MSS. 

 Ixxxvii, fol. 6o/>. A similar return was 

 made a century later, Margaret wife of 

 Roger (Thomas) Langley then holding it 

 in socage, rendering i zd. a year ; she said 

 she held it by joint feoffment and showed 

 a charter ; Duchy of Lane. Knights' 

 Fees, 2/20. In explanation of this the 

 inquisition taken in 1447 after the death 

 of Robert Langley of Agecroft states that 

 he had held a moiety of the manor of Al- 

 krington of the king as Duke of Lancaster 

 in socage by a rent of zod. t and that he 

 had enfeoffed Thomas his son and Mar- 

 gery his wife of two parts of the said 

 moiety ; Lanes. Rec. Inq. p.m. no. 34, 

 35. After the death of Thomas Langley, 



twenty-five years later, he was said to 

 have held nine messuages and tenements, 

 ' parcel of the manor of Alkrington,' by 

 the twentieth part of a knight's fee, the 

 manor being held by knight's service and 

 a rent of zod. ; Agecroft D. Thus both 

 the tenure and the rent are variously 

 stated at different times ; but the latest 

 by knight's service and zod. was re- 

 peated after the death of Sir Robert Lang- 

 ley in 1561 ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. 

 xi, 1 6. The clear value at this time was 



& 



11 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xv, 12. 

 This recites that Katherine married 

 Thomas Legh (who survived her) at 

 Alkrington on i Aug. 1564. She had 

 twenty-two messuages, &c., in Alkring- 

 ton and Prestwich, held of the queen as 

 of the Duchy of Lancaster by knight's 

 service, those in the former place also 

 rendering 61. and those in the latter s)s. 

 a year. The heirs were her sisters Anne 

 Dauntesey and Margaret Holland, aged 

 fifty-four and fifty-two years. A settle- 

 ment was made in 1571 ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 3 3, m. 1 84. 



In 1581 Thomas Legh and Katherine 

 his wife, setting forth that they were 

 seised in fee tail of the manor of Alkring- 

 ton, &c., complained that Robert Langley 

 of Prestwich was detaining some of the 

 deeds of the estate. Langley replied that 

 the deeds were in the keeping of Alexander 

 Reddish, son of Margery, then wife of 

 Richard Holland, and that Katherine had 

 agreed to this ; Duchy of Lane. Plead. 

 cxxii, L. 4 ; cxvii, L. 4. 



12 Thomas Legh seems to have married 

 a second time, for in the pedigree recorded 

 in 1613 four sons are given him Robert, 

 John, Roger, and Thomas ; Vitit. (Chet. 

 Soc.), 51. Robert Legh of Alkrington 

 appears among the freeholders of 1600 ; 

 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 

 246. He was buried at Middleton 

 19 Aug. i6z3. The vendors in 1627 

 were, perhaps, his brothers ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Feet of F. bdle. m,no. 38. Further 

 particulars of the family are given in the 

 will of Thomas Legh of Alkrington, dated 



83 



22 Oct. 15974 It recites an indenture of 

 25 March 1596-7 between himself and 

 Edmund Trafford of Trafford, that the 

 latter was to pay him 700. Of this sum 

 300 was left to Thomas Legh, 'my 

 reputed son,' while John and Roger Legh, 

 two other reputed sons, had 400 between 

 them. He also names his daughters 

 Creature and Margaret Legh and Elizabeth 

 reputed daughter of his son Robert Legh. 

 Brother James Legh was to have a dapple 

 dunn nagge and son Robert Legh his gold 

 chain. The executrix was his wife 

 Katherine, who was guardian of the chil- 

 dren, with his loving brother-in-law, Sir 

 Ric. Shuttleworth. Probate was dated at 

 Chester 7 Feb. 1597-8; Huntroyde D., 

 v, 20 (by Mr. H. Ince Anderton). 



18 Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 186 ; a 

 full pedigree of the Lever family is con- 

 tained in Piccope's MS. Pedigrees (Chet. 

 Lib.), i, 348, and has been followed here. 

 There is also an account of the family, 

 with extracts from the registers, in Booker, 

 Prestwicbj 204-8. 



14 Ibid. 206. John Lever paid iz los. 

 in 1631 on declining knighthood ; Misc. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 215. 



15 Booker, loc. cit. He was dispensed 

 from attendance at Prestwich Church and 

 allowed to go to Middleton ; Gastrell, 

 Notitia, ii, 109. 



A feoffment made in 1681 shows that 

 Robert Lever held the manor of Alkring- 

 ton, with the hall, the Old Hall of Heaton 

 in Prestwich, Gorton Hall, Collyhurst 

 Hall, and lands in a number of the sur- 

 rounding townships. In 1699 he made a 

 settlement of his estates with remainders 

 to his children Robert, John, Catherine, 

 and Jane. The deeds are among the 

 Raines collection in the Chetham Library. 



A Captain Lever of ' Olerington ' is 

 mentioned in 1689 ; Hist. MSS. Com. 

 Rep. xiv, App. iv, 222. 



Robert and John sons of Robert Lever 

 of Alkrington entered Brasenose College, 

 Oxford, in 1691, aged eighteen and fif- 

 teen respectively ; they were afterwards of 

 Gray's Inn ; Foster, Alumni. Robert died 

 in his father's lifetime, unmarried. 



