SALFORD HUNDRED 



MIDDLETON 



first part of the i5th century, succeeding a family 

 named Wood, 8b and in the i6th century acquired 

 large portions of the monastic estates, and flourished 80 

 for a brief period. In 1562 the capital messuage 

 called Gristlehurst was found to be held of Richard 

 Ashton of Middleton in socage, and by the rent of 

 ijd. ; part of the land, called Fernhurst, was held 

 of the queen in socage by a rent of 4^., and the rest 

 of the demesne lands, being in Bury, was held of 



William Bamford also in socage, by the rent of 

 The estate was acquired about 1660 by another branch 

 of the family, 10 and after some descents in this line 

 was conveyed in marriage by Elizabeth daughter and 

 heiress of William Holt to Richard Beaumont of 

 Whitley Beaumont, by whom it was, in 1758, sold to 

 Mr. Milne of Flockton Manor House. It was in 

 1849 ^ e property of James Fenton of Bamford 

 Hall. 11 



Robert son of Adam de Bamford all her 

 right in land at Gristlehurst (Gristelyhyrst) 

 in the vill of Bury ; Raines MSS. (Chet. 

 Lib.), xi, 26. William son of John de 

 Barton in 1367 complained that William 

 aon of John del Wood, of Gristlehurst, 

 had caused waste of houses, &c. ; De 

 Banco R. 426, m. 285 d. In 1370 

 William del Wood of Gristlehurst attested 

 an Ashworth charter ; ibid. 265, 261. 



Land in Gristlehurst had belonged to 

 Geoffrey de Hopwood, outlawed for felony 

 in or before 1 370 ; L. T. R. Memo. R. 166, 

 m. 1 1 8. 



8b Gristlehurst ' was obtained before the 

 year 1449 by Ralph Ho'.t, who (according 

 to a curious parchment roll, in my pos- 

 session, of the time of Henry VII) married 

 Ellen, widow of James Bellairs, who died 

 in France, and daughter and co-heiress of 

 John Sumpter of Colchester, by his wife 

 Margery, daughter and co-heiress of Sir 

 Geoffrey Brockholes, kt. It appears 

 that Geoffrey had married Eleanor, the 

 heiress of Sir John Roos, lit., who in- 

 herited large estates in Essex from her 

 mother, Alice, the sole heiress of Sir 

 Robert Asheldam. The property of Sir 

 Geoffrey, which descended to him from 

 his mother Alice, one of the heiresses of 

 Sir Guy de Mancetter, lord of Mancetter, 

 in the county of Warwick, also came to 

 the Holts, which gave them a position 

 and rank not enjoyed by the elder 

 branches of the house ' ; Canon Raines in 

 Notitia Cestr. ii, 100. Nothing is posi- 

 tively known as to the ancestry of Ralph 

 Holt In 1441 Ralph Holt summoned 

 Thomas and John Kay of Bury, Ralph, 

 John, and Peter Lomax of Heap, and 

 others to answer why they had disseised 

 him of his free tenement in Bury and 

 Middleton no doubt Gristlehurst. They 

 replied that William Wood, who formerly 

 he.d it, had enfeoffed Thomas Kay and 

 Richard Lomax ; but Ralph claimed by a 

 charter of William's made before that 

 feoffment ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 3, m. 

 19. The roll above referred to was 

 given to the Chetham Library by Canon 

 Raines. 



James Holt, the son of Ralph, married 

 before 1481 Isabel, one of the daughters 

 and co-heirs of Gilbert Abram of Abram 

 and Grappenhall, and had certain lands 

 with her ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), iii, 139; Duchy Plead, (same 

 Soc.), i, 39-41 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. 

 jcxxvii, App. 683. 



Constance, daughter of James son of 

 Ralph Holt, was in 1477 contracted to 

 marry Oliver Holt of Ashworth ; Raines 

 MSS. xi, 273. 



With James the pedigree recorded in 

 1567 begins; Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 22. A 

 son of his named Gilbert occurs in 1502 ; 

 Raines, op. cit. 113. 



80 James Holt, in the recorded pedi- 

 gree* is stated to have had a son Ralph, 

 father of Sir Thomas Holt of Gristle- 

 hurst, who obtained from Henry VIII 

 large grants of the estates of Whalley and 



Cockersand Abbeys. In 1 542 he obtained 

 the manor of Spotland in Rochdale, with 

 its appurtenances, which had belonged to 

 the former abbey, together with rents 

 from Coleshaw in Chadderton and other 

 lands which had probably belonged to the 

 Hospitallers, for 641 i6j. 8d. ; Pat. 33 

 Hen. VIII, pt. 6. During the following 

 year he obtained Stidd, which had also be- 

 longed to the Hospitallers ; Alt Grange 

 in Ince Blundell, Cronton, and Staining, 

 the property of Whalley ; Cunscough in 

 Melling, Forton, Ellel, and other lands 

 which had belonged to Cockersand, the 

 price being 1,727 15*. ; Pat. 35 Hen. 

 VIII, pt. i. 



Thomas Holt is noticed in the Visit, of 

 1533 (Chet. Soc. 53). He was made a 

 knight by the Earl of Hertford during the 

 expedition into Scotland in 1544 ; Met- 

 calfe, Book of Knights, 76. 



9 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xi, 46. Sir 

 Thomas died 8 March 1561-2, leaving as 

 heir Francis his son, then aged thirty- 

 eight. The inquisition gives a full list of 

 his lands, and also recites his will dated 

 1554. By this he left his 'head house or 

 capital messuage called Gristlehurst, with 

 a mease and two mills in the tenure of 

 Thomas Shay ; also three cottages on the 

 moor side called Tarkelee [Tack lee] 

 . . . and all such lands and tenements 

 in Bury and Middleton which were 

 taken to be of the demesne lands of 

 the said capital messuage, of the yearly 

 value of 10,' to his wife Dorothy 

 for her life, with remainder to Francis 

 Holt his son and heir and heirs male, and 

 in default to Ralph Holt, his younger son, 

 and heirs male, &c. An annuity was 

 granted to Robert Holt his brother. An- 

 other will, made just before his death, is 

 printed in Piccope's Wills (Chet. Soc.), i, 

 131 ; it concerns chiefly his household 

 stock, &c. ; it mentions Thomas the son 

 of F~~ ncis his heir, the fourth best gelding 

 being "* to him. 



Of Francis Holt little is known. His 

 will, dated 1599 (Raines MSS. vi, 252) 

 was proved in 1604. He made a settle- 

 ment of his manors of Spotland, &c., in 

 1578 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 40, 

 m. 137. His son and heir Thomas died 

 in December 1609, leaving as his heir his 

 son Francis, then aged twenty-four. Some 

 of the estates had by this time been sold, 

 but he held the ' manors ' of Gristlehurst, 

 Spotland, Forton, and Stidd, and various 

 lands. His father had in 1588 settled the 

 manor of Gristlehurst and messuages, 

 water-mill, fulling - mills, and lands in 

 Gristlehurst, Bury, Middleton, Bamford, 

 Spotland, and Rochdale to the use of 

 himself (Francis) and Ellen his wife, then 

 for Thomas Holt and Francis his son and 

 heir and heirs male ; in default, to 

 Thomas and to Edward, younger sons of 

 Francis, &c. Constance, the widow, and 

 Francis, Ralph, John, and Edmund, the 

 sons of Thomas, were living at Gristle- 

 hurst in 1610 ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 157-63. The 



175 



manor, &c., of Gristlehurst was held of 

 Sir Richard Assheton of Middleton, in 

 socage ; no rent is named. 



Francis Holt died 28 September 1617, 

 leaving as heir his son James, then nearly 

 seventeen. By a settlement of 1603 the 

 manor of Gristlehurst had been given to 

 the use of Thomas Holt (the father) dur- 

 ing the life of Francis Holt (the grand- 

 father), and then to the use of Katherine 

 Holt, wife of the younger Francis, for life, 

 with remainder to heirs male. Another 

 settlement of 1609 mentions James, 

 William, and Theophilus as sons of the 

 younger Francis. The tenure of Gristle- 

 hurst was stated as before ; ibid, ii, 81-6. 

 For the settlement see also Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 75, no. 37. A pedigree 

 was recorded in 1613 ; Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 

 39- 



James Holt died without issue in 1623, 

 and his brother William having died be- 

 fore him, the heir was the younger brother 

 Theophilus, about fourteen years of age ; 

 Lanes. Inq. (ut sup.), iii, 371-8. No fresh 

 dispositions of the estates appear to have 

 been made by James Holt. 



Theophilus Holt, who thus succeeded 

 his brother, died 21 July 1628. His 

 mother Katherine was still living and in 

 possession of Gristlehurst with various 

 messuages and lands, which were to revert 

 to Theophilus and his heirs male, held of 

 Ralph Assheton and others. Alice, the 

 widow, gave birth to a son three weeks 

 after the father's death ; he was called 

 Thomas Posthumus ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Inq. p.m. xxvi, 25. 



The heir married and had two sons, but 

 they died young, and the father squan- 

 dered his whole estate, dying in great 

 poverty at Tattenhall in Cheshire in 1679. 

 There is a pedigree of the family in the 

 Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), i, 346. There 

 was published ' A Plant of Paradise ; 

 being a sermon preached at St. Martin i.i 

 the Fields at the funeral of John Good- 

 hand Holt, the young son, only child, and 

 hopeful heir of Thomas Holt of Grisle- 

 hurst, co. Lane., Esqr., March 19, 1659, 

 by R. Mossom, minister of St. Peter, 

 Paul's Wharf, London,' with an epistle 

 dedicatory to Thomas and Anne Holt, the 

 mournful parents, &c. ; Pal. Note Bk. i, 

 203. 



Thomas P. Holt recorded a pedigree at 

 the herald's visitation in 1664-5 5 Dug- 

 dale's Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 150. 



10 Alexander Holt, a London goldsmith, 

 was called ' cousin ' of Thomas P. Holt, 

 being, it was said, descended from the 

 Gristlehurst family; Land. Visit. 1633 

 (Harl. Soc.), i, 393 ; Whitaker, PThalley, 

 ii, 23-4 ; Piccope, ut sup. 



11 Raines in Notitia Cestr. ii, 100 ; 

 Burke, Commoners, ii, 323. About 1750 

 the estate comprised 1273. ir. 24p. of 

 pasture land, and 423. ir. 2 op. of old 

 timber. The purchase was made by 

 Joseph Fenton, the father of James. For 

 the family see Burke's Landed Gentry 

 Fenton of Dutton Manor. 



