SALFORD HUNDRED 



is Alexander de Pilkington, who appears about 1200 

 as contributing to the tallage ; 14 he held the manor 

 in I2I2, 14 and was living in I23I. 16 He was followed 

 by Roger de Pilkington, presumably his son. Roger 

 was defendant in I22I, 17 and held the manor in 

 I242. 18 Alexander de Pilkington, who, it is reason- 

 ably conjectured, increased the family possessions by 

 his marriage with Alice, sister and co-heir of Sir 

 Geoffrey de Chetham, lord of Chectham and Cromp- 

 ton, 19 occurs between 1260 and 129033 witness to 

 charters ; 20 he was the tenant of the manor in i 282." 

 His son Roger* 2 succeeded, and obtained from the 

 king a grant of free warren in Pilkington and his other 

 manors in 1 291 ; M a year before he had had a grant of 

 i oo for his services in Gascony. 24 In other ways 



PRESTWICH WITH 

 OLDHAM 



Roger took his part in the public affairs of the time, 

 serving as knight of the shire in 1 3 1 6. 25 He sided 

 with the Earl of Lancaster, 

 and after the battle of Bo- 

 roughbridge was imprisoned 

 and fined, dying shortly af- 

 terwards. 16 



In 1312 he had made a set- 

 tlement of his manors of Pil- 

 kington and Cheetham in 

 favour of his son Roger, with 

 remainder to a younger son 

 William." Roger accordingly 



, , , . - , <m i PILKINGTON. Arpent 



succeeded his father; 28 but a cross fatonce vg ^ ej 

 little is known of him except gules. 



14 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 151. 



In 1 202 Alexander de Pilkington, 

 William his brother, and Alice his sister 

 were concerned in a settlement of lands 

 in Rivington and Worsthorne ; Final Cone. 

 i, 1 8, 22. 



The Pilkington crest, a mower with 

 his scythe, with the motto, ' Now thus, now 

 thus,' similar to that of the Trafford 

 family, has a legend of unknown origin 

 related by Fuller, who had it from William 

 Ryley, Norroy, to the effect that the 

 ancestor of the family, being sought for 

 at the time of the Norman invasion, 

 disguised himself as a mower and so 

 escaped. The crest is found on a seal of 

 1424. 



Accounts of the family have been 

 printed by John Harland, 1875, and by 

 Lieut-Colonel John Pilkington, F.S.A., in 

 Trans. Hist. Soc. 1891, and separately, 

 1894 ; this, with corrections and additions 

 supplied by the author, has been utilized in 

 this place. See also Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 35-8. A num- 

 ber of illustrative documents are printed 

 in Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 

 175-86. 



16 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 55. He 

 also held Rivington ; ibid. 67. 



16 Alexander de Pilkington attested a 

 number of early charters ; e.g. Lanes. 

 Pipe R. 329-30 ; Final Cone, i, 216. He 

 served on a jury in 1225-6 ; ibid, i, 145. 

 The latest occurrence of his name seems 

 to be as witness to a charter in 1231 ; 

 Lord Ellesmere's D. no. 215. 



17 Roger de Pilkington, Geoffrey son of 

 Luke, and others were summoned by 

 Henry de Bolton ; Curia Regis R. 78, 

 m. 4 d. Roger attested an early 13th- 

 century charter to Stanlaw ; Whalley 

 Coucber (Chet. Soc.), i, 49. 



18 Inq. and Extents, i, 1 54. In 1 246 he 

 was concerned in suits about Sholver ; 

 Assize R. 404, m. 2, 7, 9. 



19 See the account of Cheetham, and 

 E. Axon, Chetham Gen. (Chet. Soc. New 

 Sen), 2. 



20 Alexander was probably the son of 

 Roger. In 1277 it was found that Adam 

 de Prestwich, Richard son of David de 

 Hulton, Thomas de Heaton, Roger de 

 Prestwich, and others had thrown down 

 a ditch in Pilkington and Prestwich, 

 whereby the tenants of Alexander de 

 Pilkington had been damaged, through the 

 depasturing of their corn, &c. Alexander 

 said his father and ancestors had always 

 been wont to raise that ditch for the pro- 

 tection of their corn and meadow. In 

 the end Adam de Prestwich and the others 

 were ordered to pay for the repair of that 

 part of the ditch which lay in Pilkington ; 

 Assize R. 1235, m. ii d. For a charter 



attested by him see Final Cone, i, 218 ; 

 there are others among the Ellesmere 

 Deeds, e.g. no. 135 (1267), 216 (1271), 

 and 137 (1276). 



21 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 248. He is 

 also mentioned in 1284; Cal. Close, 

 1279-88, p. 251. 



Alice, widow of Alexander de Pilking- 

 ton, is named in 1302; Assize R. 418, 

 m. 2, 12. 



22 Alexander de Pilkington and Roger 

 his son were witnesses to Lever charters 

 about 1270; Add. MS. 32103, no. 16, 

 20. Richard, another son of Alexander, 

 received the manor of Rivington. 



"Chart. R. 84 (19 Edw. I), m. 10, 

 no. 41 ; a grant to Roger de Pilkington of 

 free warren in his demesne lands of Pil- 

 kington, Whitefield, Unsworth, Cheetham, 

 Crompton, Sholver, and Wolstenholme. 

 In the following year he was called upon 

 to justify his claim of free warren, and 

 produced the charter ; Plat . de Quo War. 

 (Rec. Com.), 369. 



Cal. Pat. 1281-90, p. 352. He 

 had the king's protection in 1296 on 

 going beyond the seas in the retinue of 

 William de Louth, Bishop of Ely ; ibid. 

 1292-1301, p. 177. 



In 1302 he contributed 101. to the aid, 

 as holding the fourth part of a knight's fee 

 in Pilkington ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 

 i, 313. In 1322 it was found that he owed 

 homage, fealty, and suit of court for the 

 fourth part of a fee in Pilkington, and paid 

 sake-fee 41. 8</., castle ward 2s. 8</., and 

 puture ; Mameeestre, ii, 289. 



His seal, showing the cross patonce, is 

 attached to a Crompton deed of 1307; 

 Clowes D. no. 96. 



K Parl. Writs (Rec. Com.), i, 1292 ; in 

 1313 he had a pardon for his part in the 

 rising which led to the death of Piers 

 Gaveston, and another in 1318. See also 

 Rot. Scotiae, and Pink and Beaven, Parl. 

 Repre. of Lanes. 18. 



In 1298,31 Bolton, Henry son of Alex- 

 ander de Pilkington (otherwise del Wood) 

 came with a sword made of iron and steel, 

 worth 2i., and wounded Adam de Pilking- 

 ton in the neck 4 in. from the right ear, 

 with a wound 3 in. deep, 3 in. long, and 

 2 in. wide, of which the said Adam lan- 

 guished for seven days, and died at dawn 

 on the eighth day at Pilkington in the 

 house of his brother Roger ; Assize R. 

 417, m. 2 ; 422, m. i d. ; see further Cal. 

 Pat. 1292-1301, p. 550. 



26 Parl. Writs, loc. cit. ; he was com- 

 mitted prisoner to Tickhill Castle, and 

 afterwards released on agreeing to pay a 

 fine of 200. His widow Margaret mar- 

 ried Adam de Swillington ; Cal. Pat. 



"7 Final Cone, ii, 9 ; he made further 



settlements in 1319 and 1320, when hit 

 wife's name is given as Margery ; ibid, ii, 



33. 35- 



A Roger de Pilkington in 1295 espoused 

 Alice daughter of Sir Ralph de Otteby, and 

 received with her the manor of Otteby in 

 Lincolnshire ; Roger joined in the insur- 

 rection of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and 

 the manor was taken into the king's 

 hands; but in 1324 Alexander, the son 

 and heir of Roger and Alice, both then 

 dead, petitioned for its restoration, and 

 appears to have succeeded. An Alexander 

 de Pilkington of Lincolnshire occurs a little 

 later. See Inq. a.q.d. 1 7 Edw. II, no. 97 ; 

 Anct. Pet. P.R.O. 133/6639; Pat. 18 

 Edw. II (6 Sept. 1324). As there can 

 scarcely have been two Rogers taking part 

 with the Earl of Lancaster and dying 

 before 1324, it follows that Roger must 

 have been married three times, the heir 

 to Pilkington being a son by the first 

 wife. 



His widow, Margery, as stated, almost 

 immediately after his death married Sir 

 Adam de Swillington, who had also taken 

 part with Earl Thomas. On 13 Nov. 

 1322 she had livery of the lands settled 

 upon her in 1319; Cal. Close, 1318-23, 

 pp. 610, 648 ; and in 1327 Adam de Swil- 

 lington was acquitted of the fine of /"zoo 

 incurred by Roger; ibid. 1327-30, 

 p. 21. 



Richard and William, sons of Roger de 

 Pilkington, are mentioned in 1333 ; Cal. 

 Pat. 1330-4, p. 498. William de Pil- 

 kington was in 1344 presented to the 

 rectory of Swillington by Margery, relict 

 of Sir Adam de Swillington ; Col. J. Pilk- 

 ington, quoting Torre MSS. 



28 About 1324 Roger de Pilkington 

 appears as holding seven parts of the manor 

 of Rivington ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents, ii, 

 103. 



In 1324 it was stated that a Roger 

 de Pilkington had had to pay ,100 to 

 Robert de Holland after the death of 

 Adam Banastre ; Coram Rege R. 254, 

 fol. 61. 



Roger de Pilkington in 1325 was sum- 

 moned to serve in Guienne, such service 

 having been a condition of his pardon ; 

 Parl. Writs, i, 1292. He must therefore 

 have taken part with his father in the 

 rebellion. In 1341 he was one of the 

 jury to inquire into the assessment of the 

 ninths ; Inq. Non. (Rec. Com.), 39. In 

 1343 Roger de Pilkington perhaps the 

 son was charged by the jurors of West 

 Derby with having ' brought a great crowd 

 to the terror of the people ' ; Assize R. 

 430, m. 29. 



In the aid 1346-55 Roger held the 

 fourth part of a knight's fee in Pilking- 

 ton ; Feud. Aids, iii, 89. 



12 



