seventeen years of age in 1664, when a pedigree was 



recorded. 37 The ultimate heir of the Chadderton 



estates was the youngest son, 



William, born about 1649, 



who was rector of Carlton in 



Lindrick and of Prestwich till 



his death in 1731. He sold 



the family inheritance, but left 



a considerable fortune, divided 



between his daughters, Kathe- 



rine, wife of John Blackburne 



of Orford, and Dorothy, wife 



of Sir Darcy Lever of Alk- 



rington.* 8 



Chadderton Hall, with its 

 third part of the manor, was 

 purchased in 1684 by Joshua 

 Horton of Sowerby, Yorkshire, 

 who came to reside here. 39 



HORTON of Chadder- 

 ton, baronet. Gules a 

 lion rampant argent 

 charged on the breast 

 ivith a boar's head coup- 

 ed azure, a bordure en- 

 grailed of the second. 



His son Thomas, sometime Governor of the Isle of 



Man, was succeeded by his 



son William, high sheriff in 



1 7 64,* when he was made a 



baronet. He died ten years 



later, his son Sir Watts Horton 



succeeding. 41 On his death 



in 1811, Chadderton went 



to his brother, the Rev. Sir 



Thomas Horton, 42 and on his 



death without sons to Sir 



Watts's only daughter, Harriet 



Susanna Anne, who married 



Major Charles Rees of Kil- 



maenllwyd, Carmarthenshire, 



and died in 1827, leaving a 



son Horton and two daughters. 



Major Rees or Rhys retained 



Chadderton till his death in 



1852. It was sold to the Lees 



of Clarksfield family in 1865, 



and the trustees of the late 



Colonel Edward Brown Lees 



are the present owners. No 



manor is now claimed. 43 



Chadderton Hall 44 is a brick-built 18th-century 

 house with stone dressings, the principal front facing 

 south with projecting end wings, connected on the 

 ground story by a well-designed classic screen of 

 coupled Tuscan columns carrying entablature and 

 balustrade. The design is one of some merit, and 

 together with the stables and other outbuildings which 

 are built at right angles on either side, forms a good 

 architectural whole. The roofs have flat hips and 

 are covered with green slates, and the window bars 

 and the sashes remain. The interior contains a good 

 staircase with rich renaissance detail. Of the appear- 

 ance of the former old hall nothing is known, but the 

 house was probably rebuilt in its present form about the 

 middle of the 1 8th century by Sir William Horton. 44 * 

 The grounds are now used as pleasure gardens. 



Of the third part of the manor held by the 

 Standishes of Standish little can be said. The 

 family do not seem to have resided here, but the 

 share is duly mentioned in inquisitions 44 and settle- 



CHADDERTON HALL 



banished him,and otherwise persecuted him. 

 His death, by ' such a languishing sickness 

 as made him daily pine away, so as no 

 means or physic could help him,' was 

 regarded as a divine punishment, and it 

 happened the day before or day after 

 Mr. Constantine was to have appeared 

 before him, as justice 5 Local Gleanings 

 Lanes, and Cbes. ii, 17. 



7 Dugdale, Vhit. (Chet. Soc.), 18. 



Edmund Ashton is said to have been 

 killed in a duel 17 March 1664-5 > he 

 was gentleman of the bedchamber to the 

 Duke of York, and lieut.-colonel in the 

 Horse Guards ; Butterworth, Oldham, 157. 

 The story must be false, for Edmund 

 Ashton, having attained his majority, 

 appeared by proxy at Ightenhill manor 

 court on 15 April 1665, to be admitted 

 to lands at Padiham previously held by 

 his grandfather Edmund ; Raines D. 

 (Chet. Lib.), bdle. 8. The age, as re- 

 corded by Dugdale, may therefore be some 

 years too little. 



Edmund Ashton was still living in 1684, 

 when he concurred with the other lords 

 of the manor in granting leave 'to dig, 

 delve, search for and get coals, to sink, 

 tunnel, and make pit shafts,' &c., on the 



North Moor, on the west side of the Mere 

 Ditch; Shaw, Oldham, 188. 



88 See the account of him among the 

 rectors of Prestwich. By his will (1728) 

 he made provision for the payment of 

 ,4,000, the marriage portion of his daugh- 

 ter Dorothy ; and by a codicil (1731) left 

 to her and her son Ashton Lever, and 

 the heirs male, his chapel in Prestwich 

 Church. 



89 These particulars are from the Horton 

 pedigrees in Burke's Commoners, i, 284, 

 with later particulars from Landed Gentry, 

 under De Ferry of Kilmaenllwyd ; G.E.C. 

 Complete Baronetage, v, 128 ; Shaw, Old- 

 ham, 193, &c., and Canon Raines in 

 Notitia Cestr. (1849), "> rl 4" 



William, son of Joshua Horton of 

 Chadderton and Mary his wife, was bap- 

 tized at Oldham 12 October 1686. Other 

 children were also baptized there, showing 

 that the family resided. 



40 P.R.O. List, 74. 



41 He was high sheriff in 1775. There 

 was a recovery of the third part of the 

 manor in 1778, Sir Watts Horton being 

 tenant ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 628, m. 

 7<j. Sir Watts Horton's conciliatory con- 

 duct at a time of bread riots in Oldham is 



118 



described in E. Butterworth's Hist, of 

 Oldham (ed. 1856), 138. 



43 Sir Thomas was the owner in 1817 ; 

 Butterworth, Oldham, 155. He died in 

 1821. 



A large number of letters and papers of 

 the Ashton and Horton families came 

 into the possession of Canon Raines, and 

 are now in the Chetham Library, vols. 

 xxxii-xxxv of his MSS. 



48 Information of Mr. Thomas Hey- 

 wood. 



44 A view of the hall (1794), with a 

 short description, is given in Dr. Aikin's 

 Country Round Manch. 24 1 . 



44a Raines" notes to Gastrell's Notitia 

 (Chet. Soc. xix). 



45 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 126; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, 76 ; 

 after the death of Margery, wife of Ralph 

 Standish and then of Thomas Radcliffe, 

 one of the daughters and heirs of Richard 

 Radcliffe of Chadderton, who died in May 

 1476 seised of the third part of the manor 

 and various lands and messuages held of 

 the king as of his duchy of Lancaster by 

 knight's service, Sir Alexander her son 

 was heir. Sir Alexander died in 1507 

 holding the same third by the same ser- 



