A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



to the heirs of the last-named. 18 On a division in 1564 it was assigned to the 

 Earl of Derby. 19 The duties of the office as held by William Banastre were 

 thus described in 1323 : ' Making executions of mandates of the king's courts 

 by writs and summonses and by summons of the king's exchequer by precept 

 of the sheriff ; also of judgements of the county court of Lancaster and the 

 wapentake court of Amounderness ; making summonses, attachments and 

 distraints by precept of the sheriff or keepers of the king's lands, and 

 executions of the sheriffs tourns.' 20 



Complaints were made in 1334 as to the administration of Henry de 

 Bickerstath, who held the office by grant from John Banastre and Nicholas 

 his brother (grantees of Adam Banastre), paying them 20 a year. Henry 

 was alleged to employ too many bailiffs in his circuit of the hundred, thus 

 laying a needless burden on the tenants. It was stated that Alan de Singleton 

 had performed his duties in person at his own charges. His son William 

 did the same, taking nothing from the men of the wapentake except by 

 their courtesy. His son Alan found it necessary to employ a bailiff, for 

 many assarts had been made and men had multiplied. This system had 

 continued, the number of officials gradually increasing. The acting bailiffs 

 recouped the annual rent they paid to the Singletons by charges on the men 

 of the wapentake for puture, &c. 21 



Several outlying members of the barony of Penwortham are found in 

 this hundred. There are a few references to the hundred in the records 22 ; 

 perhaps the most noteworthy is that, on the requisition of ship-money in 

 1640, it 'would neither assess nor pay.' 23 



The three weeks' wapentake court, which survived till recently, had 

 jurisdiction in personal actions where the debt or damages did not amount to 

 4OJ. The chief officer was a steward, appointed by the Crown in right of 

 the duchy. 24 



About 1580 inquiry was made as to the fisheries of the county, par- 

 ticularly as to the destruction of salmon and their fry in the Ribble and 

 Wyre. Sir Richard Shireburne and the other commissioners reported that 

 they had reformed ' unlawful engines and nets, and had viewed all the 

 weirs, calls and gorses standing on the rivers named. They objected to two, 

 viz. one called Bessowe call on the Ribble and another recently erected on 

 the Wyre by William Kirkby of Upper Rawcliffe. 25 



Amounderness gave name to a deanery in the archdeaconry of Richmond 

 in the diocese of York. Adam Dean of Amounderness occurs in the Pipe 



18 Thomas Radcliffe of Winmarleigh died in 1521 holding a fourth part of Little Singleton by the 

 serjeanty of being bailiff of the king's wapentake of Amounderness and Blackburnshire ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Inq. p.m. v, no. 3. Thomas Earl of Derby at the same time held a moiety by the same service ; ibid, v, 

 no. 68. Alexander Osbaldeston was the other tenant, but no service was recorded in his case. 



19 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 216, m. 10 ; Edward Earl of Derby was to be bailiff of Amounderness. 

 Hence his grandson Ferdinando held the manor of Little Singleton in 1 594 by that service ; Add. MS. 32104, 

 fol. 426 (Blackburnshire also is named). The office was held by James Earl of Derby in 1715 ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 276, m. 52. lo Lanes. Inq. and Extents, ii, 160. 



* l Coram Rege R. 297, Rex, m. 21, 27. 



" For example, the appointment of keepers of the peace in 1323 and 1345 ; Cal. Pat. 1321-4, 

 p. 382 ;' 1343-5, p. 510. 



23 Cal. S. P. Dom. 1640, p. 230. 



24 Hardwick, Preston, 499. The steward in 1857 was the Duke of Hamilton, and his deputy was 

 Edmund Robert Harris, the Preston benefactor. 



K Duchy of Lane. Special Com. 308. 



70 



