A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



round two spacious courts, and was approached by 

 bridges over a moat. The great entrance was de- 

 scribed about the year 1770 as ' resembling a ship 

 turned upside down,' from which it appears that 

 it had rested on crucks. 78 



In 1840 and later the manor courts continued to 

 be held annually for the appointment of constables 

 for the several townships in the manor and parish. 79 



L4NGLE7~, on the north-west of Middleton, gave 

 its name to a family which occurs from time to time 

 till the 1 5th century. 80 Cardinal Langley and the 

 Langleys of Agecroft, lords of Prestwich and Pendle- 

 bury, are supposed to have belonged to it. At Lang- 



ley the local family was succeeded by a branch of the 

 Radcliffes ; 81 by sale and descent it passed to the 

 Wrigleys 6I and Ferrabees. In 1 846 it was purchased 

 by James Collinge of Oldham. 83 The hall was pulled 

 down in i886. 84 



It appears from the inquisitions that many of the 

 neighbouring families held land in Middleton, but 

 the position of the holdings is not given. 85 ' Hebers,' 

 an estate of 26 acres, &c., then lately inclosed from, 

 the waste, was in 1611 held of the king by knight's 

 service by Edmund Hopwood of Hopwood. 85 * 

 Boarshaw was the home of a yeoman family named 

 Jones ; one of them, Thomas Jones, was Protestant 



78 Rev. F. R. Raines's notes to Nicholas 

 Assbeton's Journal (Chet. Soc. xiv), 70. A 

 sculptured chimney-piece from the hall is 

 now in possession of the Middleton Cor- 

 poration, and some of the panelling is at 

 Turton Tower. 



79 E. Butterworth, loc. cit. 



80 William de Langley (' Longeley ') 

 attested a Hopwood charter in 1302. 

 William son of William de Langley was 

 in 1313 called upon by Roger de Middle- 

 ton to defend his title to certain lands ; 

 De Banco R. 199, m. 124. The same 

 name occurs in the Subsidy Roll of 1332, 

 and as witness to another Hopwood charter 

 in 1347. In 1388-9 Thomas son of 

 William de Langley sold lands in Hop- 

 wood to Geoffrey de Hopwood ; Hopwood 

 D. In 1466 Thomas Langley of Essex 

 sold the estate to James RadclifFe of Lang- 

 ley ; Raines in Notitia Cestr. ii, 99. 



The homage and service of Robert son 

 of Ellis del Holt and heirs for tenements 

 held of Sir Geoffrey de Chetham in land 

 called Langley was transferred to Roger 

 de Middleton about 1270 ; Dods. MSS. 

 cxlii, fol. i29/\ 



81 James RadclifFe of Langley in 1492 

 granted to feoffees his ' manor of Langley,' 

 and all his lands in Middleton and Man- 

 chester, for the use of Owen (Ewan) Rad- 

 clifFe, his bastard son, and heirs male ; in 

 default, for Margaret RadclifFe, his bastard 

 daughter, for life, and then for Richard 

 RadclifFe of RadclifFe and his heirs. In 

 1496 accordingly the feoffees gave the 

 estate to Owen Radcliffe, with remainder 

 to Margaret then wife of William Urms- 

 ton ; Towneley MS. CC. no. 637. 



About 1524 Isabel, Agnes, and Eliza- 

 beth Radcliffe, daughters of Roger Rad- 

 cliffe, the brother of Richard above named, 

 claimed ' Langley's Thing in Middleton ' 

 in virtue of the above feoffment, Owen 

 and Margaret being dead ; Duchy Plead. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 250. 

 Their contention was that Owen had only 

 a life interest, but the above-cited deed 

 shows that that was erroneous. He seems 

 to have left male issue. A settlement of 

 an estate in Middleton, Manchester, &c., 

 was made in 1535 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of 

 F. bdle. u, m. 71. This seems to have 

 been transferred by Owen to Richard 

 Radcliffe in 1547 ; ibid. bdle. 13, m. 227. 

 Vane (Evan or Owen) Radcliffe was buried 

 at Middleton, 15 Mar. 1547-8. Richard 

 Radcliffe of Langley married Elizabeth 

 daughter of James Gerard of Ince ; Visit. 

 of 1567 (Chet. Soc.), 8 1. He died 2 May 

 X 577 holding a capital messuage in 

 Middleton called the hall of Langley, and 

 messuages, &c., in Middleton and Siddal 

 of the lord of Middleton in socage, by a 

 rent of 2od. for all services. He also held 

 messuages and lands in Bolton and Spot- 

 land. In 1564 the estate in Marland, 

 Castleton, and Spotland had been settled 



upon him and his son and heir Owen, 

 who at his father's death was about thirty- 

 six years of age ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. 

 p.m. xii, no. 19. Another settlement was 

 made in 1575 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdle. 37, m. 10. 



Owen Radcliffe made a settlement of 

 his estates in Middleton and elsewhere in 

 1591 ; they comprised fifty messuages, 

 three dovecotes, three water-mills, 2,000 

 acres of land, &c. ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of 

 F. bdle. 53, m. 38. He died 30 Sept. 

 1599, leaving a daughter as heir, Mary, 

 the wife of Gabriel Tedder (Tudor), 

 eighteen years of age ; but his brother 

 Edmund succeeded to the Langley estate ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvii, 14. Owen 

 and Edmund Radcliffe were engaged in 

 various suits between 1586 and 1600; 

 Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii, 176, 245, 

 247, 425. Further details of the family 

 and its property are given in the inquisi- 

 tion after the death of Edmund Radcliffe 

 in 1604, when Henry, his son and heir, 

 over twenty-two years of age, succeeded ; 

 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 20-2. 



Henry Radcliffe died 15 Dec. 1630, 

 holding the manor of Marland in Rochdale 

 and Langley and other lands in Middleton ; 

 the latter were held of Ralph Assheton, 

 lord of Middleton, in socage by a rent of 

 2s. yearly. Richard, the son and heir, was 

 twenty-seven years of age, and Henry's 

 wife Elizabeth survived him ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvii, 25. The widow 

 and son joined in the sale of Marland in 

 1630; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxiv, 

 312. 



It appears from the Middleton registers 

 that Elizabeth Radcliffe, the widow, was 

 buried 9 Feb. 1632-3, and that Richard 

 Radcliffe had a number of children ; but 

 the Langley estate was sold in 1631 by 

 Gabriel Tudor and Mary his wife to Henry 

 Wrigley of Manchester ; Raines, loc. cit. 

 The date given may be erroneous, for in 

 Mr. Earwaker's notice of Henry Wrigley 

 in the Mancb. Ct. Leet Rec. iv, 1 86, it is 

 stated that he purchased Chamber Hall in 

 Oldham in 1646 and Langley Hall subse- 

 quently. 



The Radcliffes of Royton are said to 

 be descendants of the Radcliffes of Lang- 

 ley ; there is an unsatisfactory pedigree in 

 the Raines MSS. xiii, 230. 



82 Several Henry Wrigleys in succession 

 appear to have lived at Langley at the end 

 of the I7th and beginning of the i8th 

 centuries. Henry son of Henry Wrigley 

 of Langley entered Brasenose College, 

 Oxford, in 1675, aged nineteen, and was 

 afterwards of Gray's Inn ; Foster, Alumni. 

 Henry Wrigley of Langley was buried at 

 Middleton, 21 Mar. 1709-10. 



Henry Wrigley son of Henry Wrigley, 

 deceased, entered St. John's College, Cam- 

 bridge, in 1715 ; M.A. 1722 ; B.D. 1729. 



168 



He was fellow (and tutor) 1722-45, being 

 presented by the college to the rectory of 

 Cockfield in Suffolk in 1743. He died in 

 1766 ; Scott, Admission! St. John's C. ii,. 

 2 1 8, Ixxxviii. 



88 On the Rev. Henry Wrigley's death 

 Langley became the estate of his sister 

 Mary, by whose will (dated 1779) it 

 passed to her nephew Henry Ferrabee, son 

 of her sister Elizabeth and Michael Ferra- 

 bee, rector of Rolleston. They had been 

 married in 1740 ; she was living in 1751, 

 but died before her brother. Henry 

 Ferrabee had several sons ; one of them, 

 Michael, was in possession in 1804, but 

 died before 1807, leaving an infant son 

 who died unmarried in 1823. The estate 

 then became divisible among a number of 

 co-heirs. For the deeds see Raines MSS. 

 (Chet. Lib.), xxiii, 505-9. It was sold in 

 1846 for 30,000 to James Collinge, of 

 Oldham ; Raines in Notitia, ut supra. 

 The owner in 1886 was Robert Ascroft, 

 sometime M.P. for Oldham ; he died in 

 1899. 



84 Oldham Notes and Gleanings, iii, 214. 

 A plaster shield with the arms of a branch 

 of the Radcliffe family was preserved 

 and presented to the Technical School, 

 Middleton ; Dean, Historical Middleton^ 



37- 



85 Thomas de Chetham, who died in 

 1 3 83, held land in Middleton 'of the heir* 

 of Geoffrey de Chadderton ' in socage by a 

 rent of \d. yearly ; Towneley MS. DD, 

 no. 1463. In 1615 the land was held of 

 Richard Assheton of Middleton in socage ; 

 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), ii, 17. 



Robert Langley of Agecroft held land in 

 Middleton, as part of his Oldham estate, of 

 the king (Henry VIII) ; and Robert Hey- 

 wood of Bury held of Langley, by a rent 

 of 6d. ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, 7 ; 

 vii, 29. In Elizabeth's reign, Adam 

 Crompton of Farnworth held of the lord 

 of Manchester, and Richard Smethurst 

 held of the lord of Bury, while Christopher 

 Tonge of Tonge held of Richard Assheton 

 of Middleton ; ibid, xvi, 1 8 ; xvii, 74 ; 

 xviii, 14. 



Francis Pulteney, by his will of 1546, 

 left his Lancashire lands in Royton, 

 Butterworth, and Middleton to Michael 

 Pulteney, his son and heir ; Ct. of Wards 

 and Liveries, Box 146 H, no. i. 



Richard Bury died at Middleton in 

 1614, holding lands there of Sir Richard 

 Assheton, deceased, in socage, by i$\d. 

 rent. His heir was his grandson Richard 

 Bury, son of Thomas, and then twenty- 

 five years of age ; ibid, ii, 249. See also 

 the account of Birtle. 



For a dispute as to a fulling-mill in 

 Middleton in 1601 see Ducatus Lane. 

 (Rec. Com.), iii, 437. 



85a Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 206. 



