A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



once took sides with the king 21 and was advanced to 

 the rank of colonel, 22 and to knighthood in i643. 23 

 He took part in the leading events of the conflict in 

 the county, assisting in the siege of Manchester, 24 

 the capture of Lancaster, 25 and the storming of 

 Bolton 26 ; he was defeated at Wigan 27 and Orms- 

 kirk, 28 and compelled to surrender Liverpool, 29 and 

 Lichfield afterwards 30 ; still later he joined in the 

 Duke of Hamilton's invasion of Lancashire, 31 and 

 then in the Earl of Derby's attempt to lead rein- 

 forcements to Charles II at Worcester. In this 

 attempt he fell, being killed in the battle at Wigan 

 Lane 25 August i65i 32 ; he was buried in Leigh 

 Church. 32a His grandson Thomas, a strong Jacobite, 

 died early in 171 5, 33 and his son Edward joined 

 the insurrection at the end of that year, but was 

 acquitted on trial ; ' his sword had a silver handle.' 34 

 He seems to have been the last Tyldesley of Myer- 

 scough, and his son James, who served in the Young 

 Pretender's army in 1745, sold Morleys. 35 



MTERSCOUGH LODGE was pulled down in 

 1888. It had long been used as a farm-house, and 



was described in i848 36 as containing an oak stair^ 

 case of spacious dimensions, the ' railing ' of which 

 was ' very beautiful.' In one of the rooms on the 

 ground floor was an elaborately carved oak chimney- 

 piece with eight panels, the four upper ones having 

 the armorial bearings of the Tyldesley and Derby 

 families together with the initials T. T., and those 

 below medallion heads in strong relief. Two of the 

 walls in the same room were panelled in oak, and at 

 the east end of the house on the upper floor was a 

 small semi-hexagonally roofed apartment called ' The 

 King's Room,' 37 where according to tradition James I 

 and Charles II slept during their respective visits here 

 in 1617 and 1651. Over the stable door was a stone 

 with the inscription 'Old Dog Lad I7I4-' 38 The 

 Lodge was in a dilapidated state immediately prior to 

 its demolition, and the old oak had been removed some 

 years before and taken to London. The modern house 

 now called Myerscough Lodge stands about 40 yds. 

 to the east of the site of the original building. 39 



The estates of William and Edward Butler 40 and 

 some others were sequestered under the Common- 



in all the county more zealous and fervent 

 for the king's part than Colonel Tyldesley 

 was, not the Earl of Derby himself, for it 

 was thought he forwarded the earl more 

 than he would have been. He was a 

 noble, generous-minded gentleman. His 

 zeal for the king's cause put him on so 

 that having many well affected to him to 

 follow him, besides many of the free- 

 holders' band whom he allured or com- 

 manded to march with him to Warrington, 

 and when he had them there would not 

 suffer any of them to return home, but 

 compelled and forced them to march 

 with him after the king, then returning 

 from Chester, and so to Kineton field 

 and Edgehill battle, whence most of them 

 never returned again ' ; War in Lanes. \ 9. 

 The Earl of Derby addressed him 

 affectionately as ' Thorn ' ; Stanley Papers, 

 iii, p. clxxiii, &c. 



" Civil War Tracts, 13. 

 21 Ibid. 47 (Sept. 1642). He was after- 

 wards described as major-general to the 

 Earl of Derby ; ibid. 303. 



23 He gained it by commanding the 

 cavalry in a desperate charge over the 

 thirty-six arches of Burton Bridge in 

 July ; ibid. 99. He was accompanying the 

 queen on her way from York to join the 

 king in Warwickshire. 



34 Ibid. 46, 51. From the lodge at 

 Aldport 'Tyldesley with a drake played 

 fiercely against the town at that end 

 called Deansgate, but did no execution 

 worth memory ' ; War in Lanes. 7. 



16 Civil War Tracts, 85. On the sub- 

 sequent capture of Preston ' Master 

 Tyldesley was much busied about Mr. 

 Edmund Werden's house,' i.e. in plunder- 

 ing ; War in Lanes. 30. Then (May 

 1 643) he accompanied the Earl of Derby 

 in his unfortunate excursion to Whalley ; 



33- 



On 23 Oct. the same year 'was seques- 

 tered Mr. Thomas Tyldesley's estate of 

 Myerscough, being the first that was 

 sequestered within Amounderness Hun- 

 dred, and the very life of all that acted 

 against the Parliament within it ' ; ibid. 

 44. It appears that his mother Elizabeth 

 (Westby) was in possession of a large part 

 of the family estates, and that two-thirds 

 were sequestered for her recusancy. She 

 survived her son, dying about 1652, so 

 that Sir Thomas's property was probably 



small. See the petitions, &c., in Cal. 

 Com. for Comp. iv, 2568-9. Sir Thomas's 

 estates were declared forfeit for treason 

 and ordered for sale by an Act passed in 

 July 1651 ; Index of Royalists (Index 

 Soc.), i. 



36 Civil War Tracts, 197 ; May 1644. 

 In the subsequent plundering ' some of 

 the soldiers of the Fylde country, who 

 had been abroad from home much of a 

 year, brought cloth from them [the Bolton 

 people] to their wives and families which 

 served them many years after ' ; War in 

 Lanes. 52. The same day the Parliamen- 

 tary soldiers, taking prisoners to Lancaster 

 Castle, stayed ' at the Lodge in Myer- 

 scough, Colonel Tyldesley's house ' ; ibid. 

 49. 27 Civil War Tracts, 98 ; Apr. 1643. 



28 Ibid. 206 ; Aug. 1644. 



39 Ibid. 104 ; June 1643. 



80 Ibid. 214; July 1646. Thii sur- 

 render was by the king's general orders to 

 the commanders of castles, &c., still held 

 for him. 



He had been taken prisoner in Sept. 

 1644 near Montgomery ; ibid. 206. 



31 Ibid. 255 ; Aug. 1648. He was left 

 by the main body to attack Lancaster 

 Castle, but upon the duke's defeat he 

 retreated to Appleby, where he surren- 

 dered, on condition of going beyond sea ; 

 ibid. 273-5. He is said to have gone to 

 Ireland and afterwards joined the Earl of 

 Derby in the Isle of Man. 



M Ibid. 298-9 ; War in Lanes. 72, 76. 

 His monument was erected by Alexander 

 Rigby, formerly his cornet, near the 

 spot where he fell ; Stanley Papers, iii, 

 p. cccxxxiii. His portrait is in Raines' 

 Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 610. It was his 

 saying that ' he would follow his business 

 close, to the end that he might the more 

 enjoy his pleasures ' ; Blundell, Cavalier's 

 Note Bk. 121. Three of his daughters 

 became nuns in the Augustinian convent 

 at Paris. 



3!la His son Edward succeeded, being 

 under age ; Cal. Com. for Comp. loc. cit 

 He obtained the place of bow-bearer of 

 Myerscough Chase, and was also made 

 steward and forester of Myerscough, 

 Wyresdale and Quernmore in 1660 ; Cal. 

 S.P. Dom. 1660-1, p. 145. He recorded 

 a pedigree in 1664 ; Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. 

 Soc.), 302. He was living in 1679, when 

 being ' a reputed though not convicted 



140 



popish recusant ' he had licence to travel 

 to Lancaster, returning within ten days ; 

 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, in. 

 He and his son Thomas were among the 

 ' popish recusants ' destined to exile in 

 1680; Cavalier's Note Bk. 166. He seems 

 to have been anxious to avoid a formal 

 conviction in 1682 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. 

 xiv, App. iv, 143. He is supposed to 

 have died soon afterwards. 



33 Thomas Tyldesley was accused of 

 participation in the so-called ' Lancashire 

 Plot' of 1694 ; Jacobite Trials (Chet. 

 Soc.), 1 6, &c. He was buried at Gar- 

 stang as ' Thos. Tinsley, esq., of Lodge," 

 26 Jan. 171415. His Diary, 1712-14, 

 was printed, with notes, by Messrs. Joseph 

 Gillow and Anthony Hewitson in 1873. 

 It contains a pedigree of the family. 



34 R. Patten, Rebellion 0/171$ (ed. 3), 

 116. 



Edmund Tyldesley of the Lodge in 

 1717 as a 'Papist' registered an estate 

 (leasehold) at Myerscough, and in a 

 moiety of the manor of Holcroft, valued 

 at 720 a year ; Estcourt and Payne, 

 Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, 155. 



35 Tyldesley Diary, 14. 



36 Canon Raines' Notes to Nicholai 

 Assheton's Journ. (Chet. Soc. xiv). 



37 Hewitson, Northward, 29. 



88 The stone is now built into one of 

 the outbuildings. The inscription is said 

 to refer to Mr. Tyldesley. 



39 Hewitson, op. cit. 28. 



40 Edward Parkinson of Myerscough 

 died in 1631 holding a messuage and 

 land there of the king as of his manor 

 of Enfield. His daughters Cecily and 

 Isabel had died before him, leaving issue 

 William Butler, aged sixteen, and Anne 

 Shireburne, aged seventeen and more ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvii, no. 57. 

 He gave lands to this grandson (William 

 Butler), who left a daughter Cecily, with 

 remainder to William's brother Edward ; 

 Royalist Comp. Papers, i, 258, 263. William 

 Butler (note 20) was killed in the battle 

 of Newbury fighting for Charles I. 



William son of Edward Butler of 

 Myerscough was a burgess of Preston in 

 1682 ; Preston Guild R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), 182. Myerscough House, 

 the estate of William Butler, was adver- 

 tised for sale in 1700 ; Pal. Note-bk. iii, 

 283. 



