SALFORD HUNDRED 



BOLTON-LE-MOORS 



daughter of William de Lever, Ralph was divorced 

 in I43Z, 39 and he then married Margaret, sister 

 of William Ambrose, 40 by whom he had a son 

 and heir Robert. Ralph Pilkington died in 1476, 

 holding messuages and lands in Rivington of the 

 king as of his duchy. 41 Robert the son and heir was 

 born about 1450. Another inquisition was taken 

 in 1507." 



One of Robert's first acts was to build a hall and 

 cross-chamber at Rivington. 43 He lost the Derby- 

 shire estates, the Ainsworths establishing their right 

 after some violent proceedings. 44 Robert married 

 Joan daughter of Thomas Tyldesley, 45 and died in 

 September 1508, holding lands of the king ; the ser- 

 vice is not stated in the inquisition. 46 Richard, his 



son and heir, then twenty-four years of age, is said to 

 have built or rebuilt the chapel at Rivington, and was 

 the father of several sons, who distinguished them- 

 selves as zealous Protestants in the second half of the 

 century ; one of them, James, was Bishop of Durham 

 from 1560 to 1575, and founded the grammar school 

 at Rivington in I566. 47 



An inclosure of the waste made in 1536 gives an 

 indication of the holdings of the three lords of the 

 manor; for, out of 20 acres, Richard Pilkington had I 3, 

 James Shaw 3, and George Lathom 4/ 8 Richard 

 Pilkington married Alice daughter of Lawrence 

 Asshaw, 49 and at his death in 1551 was found to 

 hold a messuage and chapel at Rivington by a rent of 

 izd. and suit of court ; M George, his son and heir, 



89 Towneley MS. GG, no. 1709 ; no 

 reason is mentioned, but in the preceding 

 year the king ordered the arrest of Geoffrey 

 de Livesey and a number of his family 

 and neighbours on the charge of abducting 

 Margery wife of Ralph de Pilkington ; 

 Riv. D. no. 23 (Irvine, Rivington, 1 8). 



William de Lever was in 1437 party to 

 an agreement with Alexander Pilkington 

 and Ralph his son respecting the claims of 

 Robert Unton ; GG, no. 1689. 



40 In 1447 Alexander Pilkington settled 

 certain lands for her life upon Margaret, 

 sister of William Ambrose and wife of 

 Ralph Pilkington; ibid. no. 1738. The 

 remainders were to Robert and Richard, 

 sons of Ralph. 



41 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 104 ; 

 the socage rent of 6j. 3^. is named. He 

 also held the chapel croft and parcel of a 

 tenement called Catholes of the Knights 

 Hospitallers by izd. a year. A deed of 

 1478 names Ralph as living in 1475 ; 

 he had sons Robert (the heir) and Wil- 

 liam ; Towneley MS. DD, no. 2157. 



Dame Margaret's dower was agreed 

 upon in 1476; GG, no. 1862, 1906. 

 The widow was living in 1479 ; no. 

 1924. 



42 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, no. 

 33 ; this estate is described as twenty 

 messuages, 60 acres of land, 5 acres of 

 meadow, 2 acres of wood, and 10 acres of 

 moss, of the clear annual value of 20 

 marks. 



* Towneley MS. GG, no. 1701, 1737. 



In 1478 his grandfather Alexander's 

 feoffee released to Robert son of Ralph 

 Pilkington all his right in Rivington and 

 Mellor ; no. 1670. A short time after- 

 wards Robert himself made a feoffment 

 of all his lands in Rivington; no. 1757. 

 An award also was made in a dispute 

 between him and William son of Wil- 

 liam Anderton ; no. 1801, 1744, 1906. 

 Oliver Hilton and his son Roland released 

 lands in Rivington and a rent of 9*. to 

 him in 1480; no. 1861. In 1483 he 

 was summoned by the Archdeacon of 

 Chester to answer certain complaints ; no. 

 2043. Edmund Lathom of Ridding Chapel 

 was in 1486 bound to an arbitration as 

 to his dispute with Robert Pilkington ; 

 no. 1965. Two years later a similar 

 arbitration was agreed to respecting land 

 in Kilchurch in Rivington claimed by 

 John Shaw; no. 1951. William Orrell 

 in 1508 delivered to Robert two boxes of 

 evidences ; no. 2042. 

 ' 44 His narrative of the long struggle 

 from 1478 to 1501 is printed in the 

 Hist. MSS. Commission's Various Collec- 

 tions, ii, 28-56. In the earlier year 

 named ' Sir John Savage came into Lan- 

 cashire and took Robert Pilkington pri- 



soner in the night, and carried him to 

 Macclesfield in Cheshire, where he was 

 grievously fettered and was threatened to 

 be put to death unless he would yield his 

 right to Mellor.' In spite of this open- 

 ing the narrative is chiefly one of the 

 law's delays. 



45 Towneley MS. GG, no. 1864 ; the 

 marriage was to take place by August, 

 1476. 



46 Ibid. no. 1 68 1, 1986; also Duchy 

 of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, no. 10. Only a 

 messuage and 60 acres of land were re- 

 corded. A certificate of good character 

 was given to Elizabeth daughter of Robert 

 Pilkington in 1 507-8 by the vicar of 

 Bolton ; Towneley MS. GG, no. 203 1^ 



*1 James Pilkington was born about 

 1520 ; educated at Cambridge ; B.A., and 

 fellow of St. John's College, 1539; B.D. 

 1550. With other Protestants he fled to 

 the continent on the accession of Mary, 

 and lived at Zurich, Basle, Geneva, and 

 Frankfort until her death. He then 

 returned to England and was quickly 

 appointed on the committee for revising 

 the Common Prayer Book and on 

 the Commission of Visitors of the 

 University of Cambridge. The master of 

 St. John's College being deprived for his 

 adherence to the Roman religion Pilking- 

 ton was made master and Regius Pro- 

 fessor of Divinity (1559). At the end of 

 1 560 he was made Bishop of Durham; 

 he obtained the restitution of the lands 

 belonging to the see, but had to pay over 

 1,000 a year to the Crown as compen- 

 sation. At the Northern rising in 1569 

 he was in London, and the queen did not 

 allow him to profit by the forfeitures 

 which followed on its suppression, his 

 claim, in right of his Palatinate, being set 

 aside 'for that time.' Nevertheless he 

 was not only able to found Rivington 

 School, but to provide handsomely for his 

 daughters ; he was indeed regarded as 

 very penurious, and left the buildings of 

 the see in ruins. He promoted his four 

 younger brothers. He died at Auckland 

 23 Jan. 1575-6, and was buried there 

 without ceremony, and then in Durham 

 Cathedral on 24 May following. His 

 published works have been reprinted by 

 the Parker Society (1842), with a bio- 

 graphy and list of works ; there are letters 

 also in the same society's Zurich Letters, 

 i, 222, 286 and Parker Carres. 221 ; 

 these show him to have been of the ex- 

 tremer and more ardent class of Pro- 

 testants. In his statutes for Rivington 

 School he ordained that the master should 

 be ' a hater of popery and superstition,' 

 and that the scholars should be taught in 

 Calvin's Catechism and Institutes. There 

 are biographies in Diet. Nat. Biog. , Baker, 



289 



Hist. ofSti John's College (ed. Mayor), i, 

 146-51 (with the epitaph), 248 ; Cooper, 

 Athen. Cantab, i, 344, 563 ; Low, Dur- 

 ham (Dioc. Hist.), 227-31 ; White, 

 Elizabethan Bishops, 163-7. 



Leonard Pilkington, D.D., his brother, 

 adopted the same ecclesiastical principles ; 

 he was fellow of St. John's, Cambridge, 

 in 1545 ; ejected for religion in 1554, and 

 became an exile ; returned to be reinstated 

 in his fellowship and was appointed master 

 on his brother's resignation in 1561. His 

 patronage of the extreme party among the 

 Protestants led to great disorders, and he 

 resigned in 1564. His brother promoted 

 him to benefices and a prebend in his 

 diocese. He died in 1599, and left some 

 books to his college. See notices in Diet. 

 Nat. Biog. ; Baker, op. cit. i, 152-6 ; 

 Athen. Cantab, ii, 268, 550. 



John Pilkington, another brother, was 

 Prebendary and Archdeacon of Durham j 

 Athen. Cantab, ii, 358, 553. 



Lawrence Pilkington, another brother, 

 was also beneficed in the diocese of 

 Durham. 



Francis Pilkington, another brother, 

 had in 1560 a lease of the manor of 

 Millingtcn in Yorkshire granted by St. 

 John's College for twenty years ; Baker, 

 op. cit. i, 385. He was steward for the 

 bishop. 



48 Towneley MS. GG, no. 1989-93 ; 

 it is stated 'that Richard Pilkington of 

 Rivington and his ancestors have been 

 lords of the waste and commons of Riv- 

 ington, and also have herbage or else a 

 yearly rent therefor of all the inhabitants- 

 of the said town, and also have had all 

 manner of mines upon the same.' For 

 later divisions of the waste see Lanes, and 

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

 ii, 274-5. 



49 Towneley MS. GG, no. 1686, 1952;, 

 the marriage was to take place before 

 30 Nov. 1504. 



80 Ibid. no. 1672. The rent shows this 

 to refer to the Hospitallers' lands. The 

 date of death is taken from the Rivington 

 family picture. One of the Towneley 

 deeds, however (GG, no. 1977), is a grant 

 of dower in 1547 by George Pilkington 

 to his mother Alice ; the date is probably 

 erroneous. Richard appears to have added 

 to the family possessions by purchases in 

 Heath Charnock, &c. ; but as in previous 

 cases only a small part of his estate 

 appears in the inquisition. In 1521 he 

 enfeoffed Thurstan Tyldesley and others 

 of his manor of Rivington and lands in 

 Heath Charnock, Walton-le-Dale, and 

 Croston ; GG, no. 1948. About the same 

 time he allowed one Piers Bradley to 

 make a waingate through a parcel of land 

 called Little Rivington in the occupation! 



37 



