SALFORD HUNDRED 



BOLTON-LE-MOORS 



creased their estate in the township,* 6 and their 

 'manor' is named in the ryth century. 27 By this 

 time, however, the land had become much divided ; 

 no further notice of a manor appears in the records, 

 though the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres is called 

 the lord as heir of the Bradshaghs of Haigh, who in 

 turn inherited from the Hoghtons.* 8 



In the 1 6th century the principal resident family 

 was that of Hyton or Huyton, whose house was 

 called The Hall. They appear to have inherited 

 from a branch of the Norris family,* 9 and their 

 estate was acquired by Edward Norris of Speke in 

 IS82. 30 



ARLEY was another ancient estate, held in 1393 



rents amounted to 32*. with five capons 

 valued at zd. each. 



To Richard Hoghton and Alice his 

 wife were given the tenements of Robert 

 Ormishaw, John Almon, Nicholas Huyton, 

 Henry Hodgkinson, Christopher Ain- 

 scough, Agnes Vaus, John Jackson, John 

 Taylor, Lawrence Jackson, Oliver Browne, 

 Nicholas Almon, Christopher Wood, 

 Nicholas Smith, Roger Caterall, and 

 Elizabeth Rigby. The total rents were 

 ^15 6s. 4</., with sixty-seven capons and 

 four hens, and 1 6d. for ' average ' (from 

 one tenant). The advowson of the 

 chapel was included with this share. 



Richard and Alice had a son and heir 

 Thomas, whose daughter and heir Jane 

 married Roger Bradshagh of Haigh, and 

 carried the inheritance to this family ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiv, no. 26. 

 The jury did not know the tenure of 

 Blackrod. Thomas Hoghton in 1561 

 made a grant of part of his estate in 

 Blackrod to Gabriel Hesketh of Augh- 

 ton ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 23, 

 m. 179 ; see also Ducatus Lane. (Rec. 

 Com.), ii, 227. Gabriel died in 1573, 

 holding the lands of the queen as of her 

 manor of Saltord, in socage by a rent 

 of 21.; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xii, 

 no. 32. 



Sir Richard Hoghton, of Hoghton, in 

 1606 sold to Hugh Adlington a mes- 

 suage, water-mill, Sec., in Blackrod, lately 

 held by Richard Shireburne in right of 

 his wife Anne ; Add. MS. 32106, no. 



753- 



Henry Norris and Clemency his wife 

 received the tenements of James Barker, 

 Hugh Watmough, Nicholas Ainscough, 

 wife of Nicholas Heaton, Lawrence 

 Wood and Margaret Hodgkinson, Ewan 

 Vaus, Elise Haworth and John Vaus, 

 Henry and Hugh Vaus, John and Egyan 

 Holme, Gilbert Taylor, and James Cat- 

 terall. The rents were in all 1 5 141. 8d. 

 in money and thirty-six capons ; or 

 almost exactly the same as the Hoghton 

 share. From other deeds it appears that 

 Clemency Norris in her widowhood re- 

 sided at Park Hall in Blackrod ; thus in 

 1551, describing herself as 'of Park 

 Hall,' she made a lease to John Vause. 

 Her name appears in the subsidy roll of 

 154.1 ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 14.2. Sir William Norris's joy at the 

 recovery of this part of Blackrod through 

 his mother is expressed in his genealogical 

 account of the family preserved among 

 the Aston Hall D. (now in the British 

 Museum), and printed in Topographer and 

 Genealogist, ii, 363-73. Sir William states 

 that he and his cousin Hoghton paid t)s.6d. 

 each, the other is. of socage rent being 

 paid by the Stanleys. 



26 Sir William Norris states that he 

 purchased a part of his cousin Hoghton's 

 land, and the whole of Sir Rowland 

 Stanley's portion ; Topog. and Gen. ii, 

 372. The Huytons' estate was after- 

 wards acquired. 



2 7 Sir William Norris died in 1568 

 holding half the manor of Blackrod and 

 half a twentieth part of it of the queen 

 as of her manor of Salford in socage, by 



a rent of IQS. 6d. for all services ; Duchy 

 of Lane. Inq. xi, no. 22. The manor of 

 Blackrod was included in a settlement 

 made by Sir William Norris in 1613 ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 81, no. 

 49. 



From deeds in the Aston Hall collec- 

 tion it appears that Sir William Norris 

 sold a large part of his estate in 1608 

 and later years ; the occupiers seem to 

 have purchased their holdings. Edward 

 Norris, late of Speke, ' esquire,' who died 

 in 1627, held a messuage and land in 

 Blackrod of the king ; Towneley MS. 

 C, 8, 13 (Chet. Lib.), 914. He was either 

 the younger brother or the eldest son of 

 Sir William, and left a daughter and heir 

 Margaret, twenty years of age. 



28 Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 107 ; 

 this lordship probably represents the 

 Hoghton part of the manor. At the 

 same time the chief landowner was Sir 

 Robert Holt Leigh of Hindley Hall, 

 whose estate is now held by Mr. Roger 

 Leigh. 



29 Hugh le Norreys about 1283 granted 

 to Robert le Norreys, probably a half- 

 brother, the fourth part of the Croft in 

 Blackrod (to be taken near the boundary 

 of Anderton), with acquittance of mul- 

 ture and hopper-free for his corn in the 

 grantor's mills of Croft and Arley. Sir 

 Henry de Lea, then sheriff, was a wit- 

 ness. The charter is endorsed 'For 

 Hyton's lands in Blackrod ; ' Norris D. 

 (B.M.), no. 1004. Another deed, dated 

 1277, describes the bounds as begin- 

 ning at Merestock, following the Black- 

 lache, which fell into the Douglas at that 

 point, to the middle of the wood between 

 Blackrod and Croft ; thence to Sidale 

 Clough, where it fell into the Douglas, 

 and so to the starting-point. Common 

 of pasture of Haigh and Blackrod was 

 allowed, together with pannage in the 

 woods of both manors, except the grantor's 

 park of Haigh. A yearly rent of id. was 

 to be paid ; ibid, no. 1005. Another 

 grant in 1283 by Hugh le Norreys to 

 Emma his sister seems to refer to a part 

 of the same land ; the rent was to be a 

 pair of white gloves or id.; ibid. no. 

 1003. Robert le Norreys was, as above 

 stated, a defendant in suits of 1278 

 respecting dower, &c., in Blackrod. 



Robert le Norreys, perhaps the same 

 person, in 1322 made a settlement of his 

 estate in Blackrod and Adlington, with 

 remainders in succession to his sons Hugh, 

 Henry, Robert, John, and Roger ; Final 

 Cone, ii, 48. 



In 1348 William son of Richard de 

 Penketh and Amice his wife claimed the 

 latter's dower in Blackrod against Hugh 

 son of Robert le Norreys, and John his 

 son ; also against Randle Starkie and 

 Margery his wife, and John the son of 

 Randle ; De Banco R. 355, m. 226. 



The Huyton family may have been a 

 purely local one, or a branch of that of 

 Huyton near Prescot, and of Billinge. 

 They appear in Blackrod at the end of 

 the 1 5th century. In 1497 Nicholas 

 Huyton, who was son and heir of Wil- 

 liam Huyton and his wife Isabel or Eliza- 



301 



beth, made a deposition of his estate in 

 Blackrod, Longton, Hutton, Ashton, Gol- 

 borne, Abram, and Lowton, and in 1504 

 and 1511 made wills ; Hugh his son was 

 dead, leaving a widow Agnes ; Thurstan, 

 another son and heir apparent, was of 

 weak mind ; Richard and Thomas, other 

 sons, were living in 151 1 ; and there were 

 daughters Clemency, Margery, Ellen, and 

 Alice ; Towneley MS. CC, no. 667, 715, 

 716 ; Dods. MSS. Ixxxvii, fol. 148* ; 

 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xl, App. 545. In 

 1511 Nicholas seems to have married 

 Margaret sister of Henry Kighley ; or 

 else his son did so. 



Nicholas Huyton died in 1527, his son 

 and heir Thurstan being then over forty 

 years of age. The lands in Blackrod 

 were held of the heir of Sir James Har- 

 rington by the rent of a pair of white 

 gloves or id. yearly ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Inq. p.m. vi, no. 53. 



Though Thurstan was of ' faint wit ' 

 he was married, and in 1 544 his son and 

 heir apparent Nicholas granted a lease of 

 a house in Abram ; William, another son, 

 is named in it ; Norris D. The younger 

 Nicholas was also short-witted ; he had 

 two sons, William and Hugh, and a 

 daughter Katherine, who married Ralph 

 Whitfield, and had a son David. William, 

 the above-named brother of Nicholas, had 

 a son William. 



80 It appears that William, the son and 

 heir apparent of Nicholas, was murdered, 

 and that his brother Hugh was pressed 

 to death at Lancaster Castle on account of 

 the crime. On the morning of his execu- 

 tion Hugh Huyton conveyed all his lands 

 to Sir William Norris in trust for his 

 sister Katherine and her husband, though 

 the widow of William Huyton retained 

 possession for a time. Afterwards Edward 

 Norris of Speke acquired the lands from 

 the Whitfields. These transactions occu- 

 pied many years, from 1568 to 1582, and 

 full particulars are given in the Norris 

 deeds (B.M.) ; see also fines of 1563 

 and 1569, by which settlements of 

 the Whitfields' estate were made, and of 

 1582, by which Edward Norris secured 

 lands in Blackrod, &c. ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 25, m. 32 ; 31, m. 168; 

 44, m. 83 ; see also Ducatus Lane, ii, 

 243; iii, 115; Lanes, and Ches. Rec. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 253. 

 Edward Norris sold a messuage, &c., in 

 Blackrod to Arthur Finch in 1582 ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 44, m. 



136- 



Nicholas Huyton, the father of Wil- 

 liam and Hugh, complained in 1562 that 

 Ralph Whitfield and Katherine his wife, 

 the latter as heir of her brothers, had 

 obtained the deeds and entered into pos- 

 session of Blackrod Hall and the rest of 

 the estate ; they alleged a settlement 

 made in 1548 ; Duchy of Lane. Plead. 

 Iii, H, 5 ; Iv, H, 13. About the same time 

 Katherine widow of William Huyton 

 alleged that Sir William Norris and others 

 had in Oct. 1561 broken into Blackrod 

 Hall, which had been settled on her on 

 her marriage, and obtained possession of 

 certain deeds ; ibid, xlix, H, ii. 



