SALFORD HUNDRED 



ROCHDALE 



HOLT of Stubley. 

 Argent on a bend en- 

 grailed table three Jleurs 

 de lit ofthtfitld. 



Holt, who died in 1494, held five messuages, 60 acres 

 of land, &c., called Little Wardle, of the king as Duke 

 of Lancaster, by knight's ser- 

 vice and the rent of \\d.\ 

 and fifteen messuages, 60 acres 

 of land, &c., in Hundersfield 

 of the king by knight's ser- 

 vice ; also lands, &c., in Spot- 

 land and Butterworth, by 

 knight's service and a rent of 

 5/. 6</. He left a son and 

 heir Robert, thirteen years 

 of age, whose wardship was 

 gra.nted to James Stanley, 

 clerk." Robert Holt added 

 to the estates by the purchase 

 of Castleton, part of the con- 

 fiscated Whalley lands, and died in December 1554 

 h/olding the manors of Hundersfield, Spotland, and 

 Castleton, with eighty messuages, three water-mills, 

 four fulling-mills, and land, &c., in Hundersfield, Spot- 

 land, Bury, Castleton, Butterworth, Middleton, and 

 /Tottington ; the manors of Hundersfield and Spotland, 

 j and other lands there being held of the king and queen 

 by the fortieth part of a knight's fee and the rent of z6s. 

 In 1 5 44 he had made settlements in favour of his nephew 

 Robert Holt the younger and Cecily his wife. 13 The 

 younger Robert succeeded, but died in November 

 1556, his heir being another Robert, son of William 

 Holt of Whitwell, aged fifty years. 13 This third Robert 

 died in 1561 holding the same manors, and leaving a 

 son Charles as heir. 14 



Charles Holt married Mary, one of the sisters and 

 co-heirs of the Robert Holt who died in 1556," and 

 died in 1592, leaving a son and heir John, fifteen 



years of age, already married to Winifred daughter of 

 Richard Assheton of Middleton. 16 The estates and 

 tenures appear to have remained without alteration. 

 John Holt 17 died in 1622, leaving, by a second 

 marriage, a son and heir Robert, twenty years of 

 age, 18 who was in possession when the Survey of 1626 

 was made. 19 About this time Stubley was abandoned 

 for Castleton, which became the chief seat of the 

 family. 80 



STUBLET OLD HALL stands on the south side of 

 the road between Rochdale and Littleborough about 

 three-quarters of a mile from the latter place, and is an 

 interesting two-story house consisting of three wings 

 built roflnd three sides of a court which is open on the 

 east. The principal front of the house faces west, but 

 whether the present disposition of the building is the 

 original one is uncertain, as a good deal of reconstruc- 

 tion and alteration has taken place of which no record 

 seems to have been kept. Stubley Hall is usually said 

 to have been rebuilt by Robert Holt, c. 1529, but 

 what kind of house stood here before that date is quite 

 conjectural, and the assumption that in the year named 

 Holt rebuilt a timber-framed house in stone and brick 

 seems to be based on no sufficient authority. 11 The 

 present building is partly timber-framed filled in with 

 brick, and faced on the west side with stone, but the 

 stone and brickwork appears to be much later than 

 1529, and probably what Holt did was to build a 

 house of timber at that date which assumed its present 

 appearance in the course of the next century. 



The plan of the building follows in some respects 

 the H type, but with the wings projecting very 

 slightly in front and very considerably at the back, 

 giving it more the appearance of a quadrangular build- 

 ing with the fourth side missing. There seems to be 



p.m. xi, no. 15. The remainders were to 

 -John de Holt, younger brother of Robert, 

 to James de Holt, and others, including 

 iithe Holts of Ashworth. 

 I John del Holt of Chesham died in 1 386, 

 'leaving a grandson and heir Robert (son of 

 '.Geoffrey), then sixteen years of age, who 

 nharried Margaret daughter of Richard de 

 (Holland, and was still in possession in 

 1^434-5, when inquiry was ordered ; Dep. 

 IjCeeper' s Rep. xxxiii, App. 34, 35, 36. The 

 Uands were in Kershaw, Little Wardle, 

 /Hundersfield, Spotland, and Butterworth ; 

 i Lanes, and Cbes. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), ii, 330. The Robert grand- 

 son of John may well be the Robert son of 

 Geoffrey of the preceding fine ; but as a 

 Geoffrey son of John appears as early as 

 1330 there were probably two of the name. 

 During the I5th century the descent 

 is obscure. James Holt, one of the 

 justices of the peace, complained in 1429 

 that a number of persons had broken his 

 close at Castleton ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 

 2, m. i, 4, 6i>. 



Christopher and Geoffrey del Holt were 

 tenants of Tottington in 1443 ; W. 

 Farrer, Clitberoe Ct. R. 507. James son 

 of Ralph Holt of Bury had a dispute with 

 Richard son of Christopher Holt of Hun- 

 dersfield in 1465 ; Pal. of Lane. Writs 

 Proton, file 6 Edw IV, b. 



According to the pedigree of 1664 the 

 succession was : John i. Geoffrey s. 

 Robert s. Christopher s. Thomas ; 

 Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 151. 



11 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, no. 46. 



12 Ibid, x, no. 48 ; there was a remain- 

 der to Alan Holt, younger brother of 

 Robert Holt the elder. 



Robert Holt's will is printed in Pic- 

 cope's Wills (Chet. Soc.), ii, 14-16. 



In 1533 the herald recorded the arms 

 of the family, but ' Robert Holt of Stubley 

 married an old woman by whom he had 

 no issue, and therefore he would not have 

 her name entered* ; Visit, of 1533 (Chet. 

 Soc.), 47. 



The rent of 261. would include the zos. 

 due for the sixth part of the manor of 

 Rochdale. 



18 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m, x, no. 7. 

 Alan Holt must have died without male 

 issue, as William Holt of Whitwell was 

 next in remainder. Robert Holt made a 

 feoffment of the third part of all his mes- 

 suages, &c., in Stubley, Hundersfield, 

 Naden, Spotland, Chesham, Bury, Middle- 

 ton, Butterworth, and Castleton, for the 

 benefit of his wife Cecily, and to provide 

 for the portions of his daughters Alice 

 (wife of John son of Thomas Greenhalgh), 

 Agnes, Mary, Elizabeth, and Dorothy. 



The will of Robert Holt (1556) is 

 printed in Piccope's Wills, ii, 87-90. 



Whitwell, or Whitwall, is in Walmers- 

 ley, near Bury. 



14 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xi, no. 15. In 

 the pedigree above quoted William, the fa- 

 ther of Robert, is called son of John, younger 

 brother of Christopher. The fine of 1388 

 is referred to in this inquisition. For Robert 

 Holt's will see Piccope's Wills, ii, 171-4. 



15 See the erroneous pedigree recorded 

 in 1567; Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 13. 



16 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, no. 5 5 ; 

 Charles Holt had just before his death 

 settled his estates on his son John, with 

 remainder to his own brother Francis and 

 his uncle Charles. 



223 



John Holt, in conjunction with Henry 

 Tonge and Mary his wife, made a settle- 

 ment of the manors of Naden, Chesham, 

 &c., in 1 60 1 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdle. 63, m. 177. 



J 7 A pedigree was recorded in 1613 

 (Visit. Chet. Soc. 91), when John's wife 

 was Dorothy Bannstre. 



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

 Ches.), iii, 334-8. 



19 Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxi, 89 ; 

 the area is given as 117 acres. Robert 

 Holt also had ' True Love Hustead ' 

 under a charter to Geoffrey Holt, dated 

 1470; a rent of nd, was payable ; ibid. 

 83. Also further lands in Little 

 Wardle ; ibid. 95, 98. A moiety of 

 Little Wardle had belonged to Whalley 

 Abbey, having been granted by Henry 

 son of Peter, son of Orm de Wardle ; a 

 rent of izd, was due to the chief lord of 

 Liversedge ; Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.), 

 i, 156, 157 ; see also iii, 783. A feoffment 

 of messuages, &c., in Little Wardle was 

 made by Charles Holt in 1571 ; PaL of 

 Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 33, m. 10. 



20 Raines in Notitia Cestr. ii, 126. 

 Robert Holt acquired the manor of Mar- 

 land from the Radcliffes of Langley. 



21 'This house appears to have been 

 built in the reign of Henry VIII by Robert 

 Holt Esq. and ... is the first specimen 

 within the compass of our work of a stone 

 or brick house with a centre and two wings 

 only.' Whitaker, Hist, of Whalley (3rd 

 ed. 1818), 453. Later he says : 'The first 

 instance of an entire hall-house of brick 

 and stone is Stubley near Rochdale, un- 

 questionably of that period ' (i.e. Henry 

 VIII). 



