AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



joined to the forest of Lancaster. 3 The name does 

 not occur in Domesday Book 3a , and it is uncertain 

 which of the neighbouring townships then contained 

 it. 4 Unlike Fulwood it does not appear to have 

 been styled a manor at anytime. In 1297 the forest 

 of Myerscough was worth 2Of. a year to the Earl of 

 Lancaster. 5 The Earls of Derby were once keepers 

 of the park, 6 and the Tyldesleys of Wardley and then 

 of Morleys were under-keepers. 7 About 1620 the 

 latter had licence to inclose 90 acres of the Outwood 

 of Myerscough. 8 James I stayed at their house, 

 known as the Lodge, in i6i7, 9 and Charles II in 

 1 65 I. 10 Various grants were made by the Crown. 11 

 A survey is extant made in the Commonwealth time, 12 

 and a plan of the park in I769. 13 There are 16th- 

 century Court Rolls at the Record Office, 14 and an old 

 plan has been preserved. 18 



Leland, writing about 1536, thus refers to it : 

 * Ere I came to Garstang by a mile and a half I left 

 Myerscough, a great park partly enclosed with a 



PART OF 

 LANCASTER 



hedge, partly (all on the moor side) with a pale. On 

 the right it is replenished with red deer. The Earl 

 of Derby hath it in farm of the king.' 15 " 



But few of the inhabitants occur in the records, 16 

 apart from the Tyldesley 

 family, who made it their 

 chief residence, probably for 

 religious reasons. 17 The family 

 have been noticed in the 

 accounts of Morleys in Astley 

 and Wardley in Worsley. 

 Edward Tyldesley, the first 

 of Morleys, was in 1587^ 

 succeeded by his infant grand- 

 son and namesake, who died 

 at Myerscough in 1621, when 

 his son Thomas was about 

 nine years of age. 19 The heir, 



the typical Lancashire Cavalier, 20 was about thirty 

 years of age when the Civil War broke out ; he at 



TYLDCSLEY. Argent 

 three molehills vert. 



8 See the account of the forest, V.C.H. 

 Lanes, ii, 439, 4489 ; Lanes, and Ches. 

 Antiq. Soc. xix, 19. 



Myerscough is not named in the early 

 Pipe Rolls, or in the perambulation of 

 the forest in 1228, but was an ancient 

 forest ' beyond the memory of man,' in 

 1323 ; Lane. Ch. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 449. The 

 forest of Amounderness, as distinct from 

 those of Wyresdale and Lonsdale, occurs 

 in 12468 ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rcc. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches), i, 170. It formed 

 part of the gift to Theobald Walter in 

 1194 (Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 435), but as 

 late as 1 3 37 Myerscough was not reckoned 

 within it ; ibid. 425. About 1322 Thur- 

 stan de Northlegh farmed the herbage of 

 the parks of Myerscough and Fulwood by 

 demise of John Travers, keeper of the 

 tame ; Coram Rege R. 254, m. 54 d. 



3a The township may be the lost vill of 

 Aschebi, one plough-land in 1066. 



* Tithes were claimed in 1591 by the 

 farmer of the rectory of St. Michael's, 

 Myerscough being said to be part of the 

 chapelry of Woodplumpton ; Ducatus 

 Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii, 261. 



& Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 290. 



The extent of i 346 appears to regard 

 both Myerscough and Fulwood as appur- 

 tenances of Quernmore ; Add. MS. 

 32103, fol. 148. The herbage of the 

 park was then worth 8 a year. William 

 de Holland and William his son had a 

 cottage, &c., called Baggerburgh, next the 

 park of Myerscough, paying 71. a year, 

 also id. a day wages of a parker, and 

 keeping up the park palings. Thomas 

 Wambergh had a messuage and lands in 

 Mygelhagh (Midghalgh), at a rent of 

 701. Alice de Shireburne also had land 

 there. Thomas and Robert de Haldeslegh 

 had pannage, &c., in Myerscough and 

 Bradshaw hey. ' Baggerburgh ' is no 

 doubt Badsberry. 



Richard de Radcliffe had a lease of the 

 foreign wood of Myerscough in 1360 at a 

 rent of 1 8 marks ; Dtp. Keeper's Rep. 

 xxxii, App. 343. 



6 Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), i, 294-5. 

 Thomas Bayton was master forester in 

 the time of Elizabeth ; ibid, iii, 331, 366. 



7 Ibid, i, 148, 158, &c.; iii, 36. For a 

 complaint byThurstan Tyldesley in 1531 

 see Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 228. 



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

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 262, 294. 



9 The king stayed there from 12 to 14 

 Aug. and hunted, killing several bucks ; 

 Assheton's Journal (Chet. Soc.), 32-4.. 



10 On 1 3 Aug. on his way to Worcester ; 

 Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 287. 



11 In 1605 Rippon Park in Myerscough 

 was granted to Charles Earl of Devon ; 

 Pat. 2 Jas. I, pt. vii. 



Bannerhurst and Colthey, parts of 

 Stanzacre by Myerscough Park, a water- 

 mill, a messuage and lands called Midg- 

 halgh, &c., were gran ted to Edward Bradley 

 and others in 1623 ; Pat. 20 Jas. I, pt. iii. 



Several leases of the herbage in the 

 park are known ; e.g. Cal. S. P. Dom. 

 1638-9, p. 62. 



In 1 809 Myerscough Park was leased 

 to William Heatley for thirty-one years, 

 and he in 1815 transferred to William 

 Fitzherbert-Brockholes ; D. at Claughton. 



12 Lanes, and Ches. Rec. i, 43. 



13 Ibid, i, 25. 



14 Duchy of Lane. Ct. R. bdle. 79, 

 no. 1035-6. 



15 Lanes, and Ches. Recs. i, 24. 



15a Itin. v, 98. The deer were de- 

 stroyed about 1778 ; Assheton's Journal, 

 loc. cit. 



16 Leonard Helme in 1601 held two 

 messuages, &c., in Myerscough, but the 

 tenure is not stated ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. 

 p.m. xviii, no. 20. 



The Richardson family appear at Over 

 Wood and Nether Wood before 1530; 

 Ducatus Lane, ii, 43, 232. Thomas 

 Richardson, son of William, held lands in 

 Woodplumpton, &c., destined for the 

 maintenance of the schoolmaster of Gar- 

 stang ; he had the reversion of a messuage, 

 water corn-mill, <fec., in Myerscough, 

 where he died in 1637. His mother 

 Janet was living. His son William was 

 only a year old ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. 

 p.m. xxviii, no. 76. 



Elizabeth widow of Thomas Richard- 

 son afterwards married Hugh Kighley 

 and then Thomas Jepson ; being a recu- 

 sant two-thirds of her lands were seques- 

 tered in 1645, and a petition for the 

 removal of the sequestration in 1654-5 

 seems to have failed. William Richard- 

 son was then living ; Royalist Comp. 

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

 29. 



Walter de Myerscough occurs in 

 1262-5 5 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 229, 

 234. Families of this name are after- 

 wards found at Lancaster and Penwor- 

 tham ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 



139 



Ches.), ii, 24 ; Lanes. Ct. R. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches), 42, 45. 



17 Morleys is known to have been a 

 Roman Catholic mission station. Myer- 

 scough was secluded and nearly 1 5 miles 

 from Lancaster parish church. Elizabeth 

 Tyldesley (of Morleys) in 1628 com- 

 pounded for her sequestration for recu- 

 sancy by an annual payment of ^15. 



18 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiv, no. 10. 

 He was buried at Leigh. By his wife 

 Anne, the daughter and heir of Thomas 

 Leyland, he had not only Morleys but a 

 number of small estates scattered over the 

 county, e.g. in Preston, Chipping and 

 Lancaster. Myerscough is not named in 

 any of the inquisitions, perhaps because 

 it was held in right of a subordinate office. 

 The heir was Edward Tyldesley son of 

 Thomas son of Edward deceased, aged two 

 years. 



Two inquisitions were taken respecting 

 the estates of Thomas Tyldesley, father of 

 the heir ; ibid, xv, no. 30, 37. It appears 

 that he died at Myerscough on 23 Feb. 

 1585-6. He was buried at Leigh. One 

 of his daughters, Elizabeth, was Abbess of 

 Gravelines in Flanders. 



19 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), ii, 261-9. Elizabeth Tyldesley 

 widow of Thomas (the father) and Eliza- 

 beth Tyldesley widow of Edward were 

 living at Myerscough. Edward's will is 

 in Stanley Papers (Chet. Soc.), iii, 

 p. cccxxxi. 



* There are numerous references to 

 him in Civil War Tracts, Lanes. War and 

 Stanley Papers (all Chet. Soc.) ; a memoir 

 in Diet. Nat. Biog. 



There is no question as to Sir Thomas's 

 religion, but at the beginning of the struggle 

 a leading Parliamentarian told Sir Gilbert 

 Hoghton and Mr. Tyldesley 'he could 

 like them well if they were not so familiar 

 with Papists'; Civil War Tracts, 21. 

 Another of the same side wished the Par- 

 liament to ' send for this Tyldesley, for 

 he is a captain, one of the commission of 

 array, and doth more harm than any man 

 I know ' ; ibid. 23. A more generous op- 

 ponent wrote : 'In Amounderness among 

 the Papists there were several companies 

 raised under the leading of Mr. Thomas 

 Tyldesley of Myerscough as colonel, a 

 man much esteemed in the country ; most 

 were willing to comply with him. All 

 the captains raised by him were Papists,' 

 except one ; they included William Butler 

 of Myerscough. ' There was not a man 



