AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



More than a century before the Conquest part of Amounderness 

 was given by Athelstan to St. Peter's Church, York, 5 but it does not seem to 

 have been retained. The district was then more extensive than at present. 6 

 In 1066 it was held by Earl Tostig, the younger brother of King Harold, 

 slain at Stamford Bridge while taking part in the King of Norway's invasion. 

 Preston was the head of the whole district, which was in 1086 surveyed as 

 part of Yorkshire. 7 It is not called a hundred or wapentake in Domesday 

 Book, the name Amounderness being descriptive, like Lonsdale or Furness. 



Since the Conquest the lordship has descended in the same way as the 

 honour of Lancaster, except for a few years at the end of the 1 2th and 

 beginning of the I3th century. John while Count of Mortain, between 

 1 190 and 1 193, gave to Theobald Walter the whole of Amounderness, with 

 the vill of Preston, the forest, all demesne lands, services of knights and 

 free tenants, &c., with all pleas of wapentake and forest, excepting only the 

 pleas pertaining to the Crown. For this Theobald was to render the service 

 of three knights' fees. 8 The grant was confirmed or renewed by Richard I 

 in i I94, 8a and, though forfeited on John's accession in 1 199, was restored in 

 1 202, perhaps for life only. 9 Very soon afterwards Amounderness was again 

 in the possession of the Crown. 10 



Suit to the three weeks' wapentake court was a usual condition of tenure 

 of lands. 11 The profits of the pleas were estimated at 2os. in i29y. 12 The 

 Court Rolls of 1324-5, which have been printed, 13 show that the courts were 

 usually held at Preston, but sometimes at Ashton, Garstang Church, Poulton 

 and ' Yolrungegreve.' There are later rolls at the Record Office. 14 



The bailiwick of the hundred was granted to the ancestor of the 

 Singleton family, 15 and descended regularly to Banastre 16 and Balderston 17 and 



4 The charters (dated 930) are printed in Dugdale, Man. vi, 1176; Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 405. 

 See also V.C.H. Lanes, i, 271 ; Lanes, and Ches. Antlq. Soc. xviii, 1 10 1 1. Bispham or Biscopham in the Fylde 

 has been thought a token of the gift, which was ' of no small extent.' 



6 The bounds in the charters referred to are thus given : From the sea by the Cocker up to its source, 

 thence to the source (?) called Duleshope, and thence by the Hodder and Kibble to the sea. Duleshope may 

 be Wyresdale. The boundaries also in 1066 were similar, it appearing from Domesday Book that 

 Amounderness then included all Ribchester, Chippingdale and Aighton (afterwards in Blackburnshire) and 

 part of Cockerham (afterwards in Lonsdale). 7 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 2884. 



8 Cotton MSS. Titus B. xi, fol. 252. The witnesses included Stephen Ridell, 'my Chancellor,' and 

 William de Wendeuall. The reference is due to Mr. J. H. Round. 



8a Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 434. 



'Ibid. 2H-I2. In 1199 King John granted to the burgesses of Preston the whole toll of the 

 wapentake ; Cal. Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 26. 



10 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 115, 120, 192. Theobald Walter died in 1205, and in the Pipe Rolls 

 of 1205-6 and later the sheriff accounted for 29 IO/. \d. of the farm of Amounderness, 4 of perquisites 

 of the same wapentake and other profits of Theobald's estates ; Farrer, op. cit. 206, 2 1 7, &c. 



11 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 211, 213. lf Ibid. 290. 



13 In Lanes. Ct. R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 1 14-23. 



14 Duchy of Lane. Ct. R. bdle. 79, no. 1032. 



15 Little Singleton, which gave a surname to the family, was held by the serjeanty of the wapentake ; 

 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 52, 160. The date of the grant is unknown ; see Farrer, op. cit. 34. 



William son of Swain, ' then seneschal of Amounderness,' occurs in an early Lytham charter, now at 

 Durham ; I a, 2 ae, 4 ae, Ebor. no. 37. 



16 See the accounts of Broughton in Preston and Balderston. 



The serjeanty of Amounderness, formerly William Banastre's, was in 1324-5 in the hands of William de 

 Tatham and William Lawrence on account of the minority of the heir ; Memo. R. (L.T.R.), 88, m. 6 d. Agnes 

 widow of Sir Thomas Banastre had a third part as dower in 1392 ; B.M. Add. Chart. 2051 1, 20522. 



lr Richard Balderston died in 1456 holding Little Singleton by the office of providing bailiffs for 

 Amounderness and Blackburnshire; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 63. There was a dispute as to the 

 matter in 1462 ; ibid, ii, 71. See B.M. Add. Chart. 20511. 



6 9 



