A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



P4RROX HALL is a low two-story H-shaped 

 house with rough-cast and whitewashed walls and 

 grey slated roofs, very much modernized, but still 

 preserving some of its ancient features. The building 

 itself offers no architectural evidence of a date earlier 

 than the first half of the iyth century, but there 

 have been so many alterations at different times that 

 it is quite possible the structure may incorporate parts 

 of an earlier building, though whether of date prior to 

 the 1 6th century it is impossible to say. Any earlier 

 building which may have stood on the same site was 

 probably pulled down wholly or piecemeal at the 

 time the present house was erected or came into 

 being. 



The principal front, which is about 75 ft. in length, 

 is now north, but this is probably a later modification 

 of the original design, the entrance having been most 

 likely on the south side, now the garden front. The 

 east or kitchen wing is over 60 ft. in length, but the 

 west wing is very much shorter with only a slight 

 projection north and south. The original plan 

 appears to have been changed, perhaps more than 

 once, and how far the modern work reproduces old 

 features it is now impossible to say. An arched 

 entrance at the south end of the east wing, if it 

 represents in any way an older feature, suggests the 

 entrance gateway to a courtyard on the south side of 

 the house. 293 



The hall occupies the west end of the main wing 

 and is 22 ft. 6 in. long by 16 ft. in width, with a 

 stone fireplace at the east end. The entrance is in 

 the middle of the north side by a door which appears 

 to be an 18th-century insertion, and the staircase, 

 which occupies a gabled bay in the angle formed by 

 the main and west wings, leads from the north-west 

 corner. The hall and screens may have originally 

 occupied the whole of the middle wing, the eastern 

 end of which is now occupied by the dining-room, 

 but this is uncertain. A modern pointed doorway at 

 the north-east corner, now disused but opening into 



a passage north of the dining-room between the hall 

 and east wing, if it reproduces an original entrance, 

 suggests the north doorway of the screens, but there 

 is no other evidence that this was so. The hall, 

 however, may always have been its present size with 

 a passage-way behind the fireplace as at Speke. The 

 walls are wainscoted their full height with iyth- 

 century oak in diamond-shaped panels and the stair- 

 case has square newels and turned balusters. The 

 floor is flagged diagonally, and the ceiling, which is 

 8 ft. 8 in. high, is of plain plaster crossed by two 

 cased beams running its greater length. With the 

 exception of four mullioned windows in the north 

 front, a large one of six lights in the west wing and 

 the others in the east wing, all the windows are 

 modern sashes or casements, and externally the build- 

 ing has little or no architectural interest. The interior 

 contains some good oak furniture, but more has been 

 taken away, and in one of the bedrooms is a good 

 oak mantel. There appears to have been a restoration 

 in the 1 8th century, most of the internal oak panelled 

 doors being apparently of that date, but except 

 for the hall the interior has been almost wholly 

 modernized. 



It is not clear what became of the Leyburne share, 

 but that of Thomas and Mabel Acclamby or Aglaby 

 descended to their daughter Agnes, 30 whose son 

 Thomas Booth succeeded in 1514, and was followed 

 by his brother John Booth, D.D., Archdeacon of 

 Hereford, 31 after whose death 32 there was much 

 contention as to the inheritance, which had been 

 augmented to a moiety of the manor. 33 William 

 Mordaunt and Agnes his wife, who acquired it, were 

 succeeded by William Twynehoe and Etheldreda his 

 wife. 34 They sold to Edmund Fleetwood of Rossall 

 in I596, 35 and it descended to his son Paul in 1622. 



The other Acclamby share seems to have been 

 divided between two daughters, of whom one, Mabel, 

 carried an eighth part of the manor to her husband, 

 Reginald Preston, who in 1519 was succeeded by 



Elletson and Elizabeth his wife had lands 

 in Hackinsall, Preesall and Stalmine in 

 1759 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 360, 

 m. 46. James Pickering in 1456 gave 

 Parrock hey to Richard Boteler and Mar- 

 garet his wife ; Dods. MSS. liii, fol. 



let. 



9a The walls here, however, are of 

 brick and plaster of no particular thick- 

 ness and are apparently modern. 



30 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, no. 60. 

 It appears that her first husband was 

 Roger Booth of Old Durham ; she after- 

 wards married Richard Skelton. The 

 fourth part of the manor, with messuages 

 and land in Hackinsall and Preesall, was 

 held of the king by the rent of the fourth 

 part of two crossbows or zs. %d. Thomas 

 Booth her son was twenty-four years 

 old. 



31 Ibid, vi, no. 56. The estate is 

 described as 'the manors' of Hackinsall 

 and Preesall ; it had in 1515 been settled 

 on Alice wife of Thomas Booth and widow 

 of John Lawrence. The service due to 

 the king as duke was two crossbows or 

 zs. Sd. Thomas Booth died 13 Mar. 

 1527-8. His brother John was thirty- 

 three years old. 



38 John Booth was Archdeacon of Here- 

 ford 1523-42; Le Neve, Fasti, i, 481. 

 In 1533 he obtained the king's licence to 

 acquire from John Ashton, John Jackson, 

 Charles Booth and Douce Booth their 



estate in a fourth part of the demesne 

 lands of Hackinsall, and also to acquire 

 both moieties of another fourth part ; 

 L. and P. Hen. VIII, vi, g. 1060 (3). 

 He died in August 1 542, leaving a moiety of 

 the manor of Hackinsall, with messuages, 

 &c., there and in Preesall, Stalmine and 

 Staynall, all held of the king as duke by 

 knight's service and a rent of zs. %d. His 

 next heir was a niece, Anne Booth, 

 daughter of his brother Charles, aged 

 thirteen; but he had in 1540 demised 

 the moiety of the manor to Francis Booth 

 (son and heir of Roger) and his wife 

 Barbara Booth, the last-named being a 

 cousin, at a rent of j a year ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, no. 18 ; ix, no. 42. 

 The latter inquisition, taken in 1549, 

 gives Agnes (daughter of Charles) as the 

 name of the heiress. Anne and Annes 

 were frequently confused. 



It would appear that the Booths had 

 acquired the Leyburne share of the manor, 

 and that they were responsible for the 

 whole service due to the duchy. 



83 Geoffrey Starkie and Barbara his wife, 

 formerly wife of Francis Booth, in 1550 

 complained that William Westby detained 

 the title deeds of the moiety of the manor ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Plead. Edw. VI, xxvii, 

 S. 1 6. They also claimed arrears of rents 

 and profits for saltcotes, with boons, 

 services, &c., against William Mordaunt, 

 Anne his wife and others (ibid, xxxii, 89), 



2 5 8 



and a little later had a further dispute 

 with William Mordaunt and Annes hi 

 wife ; ibid. Eliz. xxxix, M 3. 



From the pleadings it appears that the 

 Starkies held the Booth moiety for the 

 term of a hundred years from 15 39 under 

 the grant of Archdeacon Booth ; also the 

 Butler fourth part under grant of William 

 Butler for thirty years from 1538. Sir 

 Marmaduke TunstaH held one-half the 

 remaining part ani Thomas Bewley the 

 other half ; these portions had also been 

 leased to Geoffrey Starkie, so that he 

 held the whole manor of Hackinsall and 

 Preesall. 



34 William Mordaunt and Anne his 

 wife in 1573 made a settlement of the 

 moiety of the manor of Hackinsall and 

 Preesall, with messuages, dovecote, lands, 

 &c. ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 35, 

 m. 12. They made a further settlement 

 in 1587, the estate being described as the 

 manor of Preesall and a moiety of the 

 manor of Hackinsall, the remainder being 

 to William Twynehoe and Etheldreda his 

 wife and the heirs of Etheldreda ; ibid, 

 bdle. 49, m. 28. 



35 Ibid. bdle. 59, m. 171. Edmund 

 Fleetwood died in 1622 holding a moiety 

 of the manor of Hackinsall and Preesall, 

 with lands, &c., of the king as of his 

 duchy by a rent of zs. ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 315- 

 16. 



