SALFORD HUNDRED 



Pilkington, as already stated, was granted in 1489 

 to Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby," and has descended 

 with the title in the same manner as Knowsley to the 

 present earl. 56 No courts are held, but ' suit and ser- 

 vice ' at the manor court still exist in name. 



In 1541 there were no freeholders in the township 

 contributing to the subsidy, but in 1622 Thomas 

 Lever and Richard Fogg contributed." Thomas 

 Heape, a leaseholder under the Earl of Derby, com- 

 pounded for his estate in Pilkington in 1649, his 

 * delinquency ' being that he had borne arms against 

 the Parliament. 58 



Though Unsworth gave a surname to a family 

 which occurs in various other places, it does not seem 

 to have had any prominent residents of that name. 

 The estate of Rhodes 59 was held by the families of 

 Foxe and Holland as heirs of Parr. 60 The families of 

 Barlow, 61 Crompton, 61 Molyneux, 63 Seddon, 64 Ser- 



PRESTWICH WITH 

 OLDHAM 



geant, 65 Walworth, 66 and Wroe 67 occur in the 1 6th 

 and I jth centuries. 



The land tax returns of 1786 show the principal 

 proprietors to have been : In Whitefield, the Earl of 

 Derby, the executor of Geoffrey Richardson, Benjamin 

 Blinkhorn, and Richard Walker ; in Outwood, Smith, 

 Mrs. Watson, Tomkinson, James Fields, Egerton 

 Cross ; and in Unsworth, Thomas Butterworth Bay- 

 ley, Thomas Chadwick, and Richard Meadowcroft. 68 



Philips Park, on the border of Prestwich, derives 

 its name from Robert Philips, who bought it about 

 i8oo. 69 



Digging for coals in Pilkington is mentioned in 

 I 599 . re 



Nathan Walworth, a native of Ringley in Out- 

 wood, built the chapel of St. Saviour in 1625," in 

 conjunction with his Puritan friends in the neigh- 

 bourhood. It was consecrated in 1634," and rebuilt 



ss Pat. 4 Hen. VII, 23 Feb.; the grant 

 included the manors of Pilkington, Bury, 

 Cheetham, and Cheetwood, and lands, &c. 

 in these places and in Tottington, Uns- 

 worth, Salford, Shuttleworth, Shuffle- 

 bottom, Middleton, and Hundersfield. 



M The manor of Pilkington was in 1652 

 part of the life estate of Charlotte Countess 

 of Derby ; the old rents in 1640 were 

 116, and the turbary was worth 4; 

 Royalist Camp, Papers (Rec. Soc. Lanes. 

 and Ches.), ii, 184, 185. Various lands in 

 the neighbourhood seem to have been 

 treated as appurtenances of the manor, 

 e.g. a messuage in Salford and messuages 

 in Cheetham ; ibid, ii, 240, 241 ; also Com. 

 Pleas Recov. Rolls, Trin. 1653, m. 21 ; 

 Mich. 1653, m. 39. 



The manor has been included in the 

 Derby settlements ; e.g. PaL of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 199, m. 55 (1677) ; ibid. 

 Aug. Assizes, 1797 (recovery). 



*7 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 



'43, 155- 



58 Royalist Comp. Papert, Hi, 174; he 

 stated that 'he was threatened from his 

 dwelling house into service as a common 

 trooper' under the earl. He was the son 

 of Richard and Jane Heape. Thomas and 

 John Heape contributed to the subsidy in 

 1622. 



59 A family of the local name was for- 

 merly settled there ; Booker quotes a deed 

 by which Richard de Rodes, clerk, in 1280 

 granted all the fruits in his land at the 

 Rhodes to Richard de Budellisholme and 

 Agnes his wife ; Prest-wicb, 214. 



The legend as to the fraud by which 

 Sir John Pilkington acquired the estate is 

 given in Raines, Lanes, (ed. 1870), {,448. 

 Sir John is said to have caused some of 

 his own cattle to be locked up in a shelter 

 on the Rhodes property, and having ' found ' 

 them there, charged the owner with steal- 

 ing them, and thus compelled him to sell 

 his estate. 



60 ' From the old local family it passed 

 in marriage with an heiress into the family 

 of Parr, from whom it was conveyed by 

 two sisters and co-heiresses one portion 

 to William son of William Holland of 

 Clifton in right of his wife Jane Parr, and 

 the remainder to Foxe of Lathom, who 

 had espoused the other sister ' ; Booker, 

 loc. cit. no references being given. 



In 1541 John Foxe contributed to the 

 subsidy. His son William died about 1595, 

 having, besides the Rhodes, an estate in 

 Toxteth. By his will he gave to his son 

 his title and interest in ground 'late parcel 

 of the waste and common in Pilkington 



aforesaid, called Whitefield moor' ; and 

 10 metts of barley to be divided equally 

 among twenty of the poorest people of 

 Pilkington and the neighbourhood ; Pic- 

 cope, ffills (Chet. Soc.), iii, 113-15. The 

 inventories of his goods at Pilkington and 

 Toxteth amounted respectively to ^295 

 and 127. For the will of Jane widow 

 of John Foxe, 1581, see Will* (Chet. Soc. 

 new ser.), i, 210 ; also i, 236. There is 

 a picture of the family life at Rhodes in 

 H alley, Lanes. Puritanism, i, 193-4. 



The name Foxe occurs in the Prestwich 

 registers down to 1746 ; Booker, loc. 

 supra cit. See also Waltuortb Corresp, 

 (Chet. Soc.), 8. 



The statement quoted above, that 

 William Holland of Rhodes was son of 

 William Holland of Clifton, is incorrect; 

 see W. F. Irvine, Hollands of M obberley, 

 37-8. The will of William Holland of 

 Rhodes, 1613, is printed ibid. 123. 

 The Hollands of Rhodes occur in the 

 Prestwich registers down to 1672 ; Booker, 

 op. cit. 176-8. 



61 Robert Barlow contributed to the 

 subsidy in 1541 and Thomas Barlow in 

 1622. 



62 Thomas Crompton contributed to the 

 subsidy in 1541. Of another family was 

 Joshua Crompton of Old Hall in Stand, 

 baptized at Hoi ton in 1650 and buried 

 there in 1728 ; he was succeeded by co- 

 heiresses, whose representatives in 1847 

 were George Ormerod, the historian of 

 Cheshire ; Hornby Roughsedge of Fox- 

 ghyll ; George Tomline of Riby ; and 

 Harriet Maltby of Bath ; Booker, op. cit. 

 233-5 ; also 245. 



63 This family gave its name to a por- 

 tion of the Park in Pilkington. Moly- 

 neux occurs in the Prestwich registers 

 from 1630 to 1745 ; Booker, op. cit. 

 236, 237. 



64 For the Seddons of Prestolee, a yeo- 

 man family, see the Waliuorth Corresp. 

 where a tabular pedigree is given, extend- 

 ing from 1550 to 1870. The family were 

 in the main Puritans, and adhered to the 

 Parliamentary side in the Civil War, 

 though one or two took part with the 

 king ; op. cit. pp. x-xiv. Peter Seddon 

 was in 1646 a member of the Manchester 

 Classis ; his son Peter was a captain in 

 the Parliamentary army ; another son, 

 Robert, a minister, was ejected from 

 Langley in 1662 ; Manch. Classis (Chet. 

 Soc.), i, 7 ; iii, 445. 



65 This family lived at Stand in the 

 1 7th century. Peter Sergeant of Pilking- 

 ton was another member of the Classis ; 



9 1 



ibid, i, 7, 16. Extracts from the Prest- 

 wich registers relating to them are given 

 by Booker, pp. 221-3. 



66 For an account of the family see 

 J. S. Fletcher, Waltvortb Corresp. above 

 quoted, v-ix ; PaL Note Bk. i, i. Ellis 

 Walwork or Walworth was curate of 

 Prestwich in 1563 onwards; Visit. Lists 

 at Chester. Nathan Walworth founded 

 the chapel of Ringley in 1624. 



7 The will of Robert Wroe of Prest- 

 wich was proved in 1566 ; Wilh (Chet. 

 Soc. new ser.), i, 232. James Wroe of 

 Unsworth was an elder of Prestwich in 

 1647 ; Manch. Classis, 16. 



68 Returns at Preston. 



69 W. Nicholls, Presfwicb, 91, 92. It 

 was part of the ancient Park of Pilkington. 

 The Philips family have monuments in 

 the old Presbyterian chapel at Stand. The 

 house was built by Robert Philips in 

 1800; his eldest son Mark, a Liberal, 

 was one of the first members of Parlia- 

 ment for Manchester, 1832 to 1847 ; Pink 

 and Beaven, op. cit. 295-8. Another son, 

 the late Robert Needham Philips, wat 

 member for Bury from 1857 to 1885; 

 ibid. 329. 'Through the generosity 

 of the resident family much of the 

 most beautiful part of the estate has been 

 open for years and is still open to the 

 public every Saturday and Sunday.' For 

 a pedigree of the family see Burke, Landed 

 Gentry Philips of Heath House. 



' Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii, 400, 

 401, 420. 



Robert Massey, mercer, of Warrington, 

 in 1651 desired to purchase thirty-eight 

 score of timber trees and poles on the 

 Earl of Derby's land at Pilkington, some 

 being much decayed and of no use, ' be- 

 cause coals are gotten within a mile or 

 two ' ; Cal. of Com. for Compounding, i, 492. 



7 1 Nathan Walworth mentions it in a 

 letter of 1623, and hopes the building will 

 go forward in the following spring ; Wal- 

 'worth Corresp. 2. The date of erection is 

 given in Commoniuealth Ch. Sur-u. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 15. 



" a The delay in the consecration seems 

 to have been due to the want of an endow- 

 ment for the minister. A description of 

 the consecration is given in a letter of 

 Peter Seddon's ; he saw nothing in the 

 ceremony but what was 'godly, lawful, 

 and expedient, without any superstition ' ; 

 he was aware that ' some calumniators ' 

 objected, but, as he thought, ' because they 

 like not bishops' ; IValwortb Corresp. 



30-3* 



Walworth afterwards endowed it with 



