AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



PILLING is not named in Domesday 

 MdNOR Book, being then, it is supposed, a member 

 of Garstang. It was not granted to the 

 Lancaster family, but retained by the Crown with 

 the hundred, so that it was Theobald Walter who 

 about 1194 granted it as 'the hey of Pilling' to the 

 canons of Cockersand. 7 This grant was confirmed 

 or renewed by King John in I2OI, 8 and again by 

 Henry III in 1227.' The canons were called upon 

 to prove their title in izgz, 10 and continued to hold 

 Pilling down to the Dissolution. 11 In 1543 the 

 Crown sold the grange to John Kechyn or Kitchen 

 of Hatfield, 12 who also acquired parts of the Whalley 

 Abbey estates. 



Kitchen settled Pilling or some part of it upon 

 his son John and Grace his wife, but the younger 

 John dying, the widow, in conjunction with her 

 second husband William Hameldon, granted the 

 estate to John Kitchen the father in 1548." Settle- 

 ments were made in 1557" and I 5 6 1 , 16 by the former 

 of which a daughter Anne wife of Robert Dalton had 

 Pilling. She died without issue in 1593, having 

 survived her husband, and the heir was her brother 

 Barnaby Kitchen, aged fifty-eight. 16 He died ten 

 years later, leaving three daughters as co-heirs : Alice 

 wife of Hugh Hesketh of North Meols, Anne wife 



GARSTANG 



of Thomas Ashton of Croston and Elizabeth wife 

 of Nathaniel Banastre of Altham. 17 A partition was 

 made in 1649, and the manor for over a century 

 descended in thirds. 



The Banastre share was in 1678 bought by Edmund 

 Hornby of Poulton, and his descendant, the Rev. 

 Geoffrey Hornby, is stated to have purchased a further 

 share ; this part has descended to Mr. Edmund 

 Geoffrey Stanley Hornby of Dalton, near Carnforth. 18 

 The Heskeths 183 about 1770 seem to have sold their 

 third to the other lords, so that the manor was held 

 in moieties, the Rev. Geoffrey Hornby presenting 

 to the curacy. 19 The Ashton part descended like 

 Croston to the Traffords, I9a and it was afterwards 

 sold. In 1825 the lords of the manor were Edmund 

 Hornby, John Gardner and William Elletson, and in 

 1850 Edmund Hornby, the owner of the hall, John 

 Gardner and Daniel Elletson. 20 The last-named 

 died in 1856, but had about 1840 sold his share to 

 John Gardner of Sion Hill, Garstang, his brother-in- 

 law, whose son the Rev. John Gardner, LL.D., rector 

 of Skelton 185786, succeeded. He bequeathed it 

 to his cousins, the Misses Margaret Jane and Emily 

 Elletson, daughters of Daniel. 21 The advowson of 

 the chapel goes with the lordship. No courts are 

 held. Nothing remains of the old hall. fla 



7 Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 

 375 ; a facsimile of the charter serves as 

 frontispiece. The grant was made for 

 the souls of Henry II, Richard I, John 

 Count of Mortain, Ranulf de Glanvill 

 his beloved, Hubert Archbishop of Can- 

 terbury his brother, Harvey Walter and 

 Maud, his father and mother, &c. It 

 was to be held in free alms, quit of 

 ' deerward ' of the forester and all secular 

 exactions. 



8 Ibid, i, 44. Theobald Walter's grant 

 seems to have been ignored. 



9 Ibid. 45. The bounds of the demesne 

 of Pilling Hey are given ibid. 47-9. 

 An agreement was made with the monks 

 of Leicester as to the land and tithes 

 between Wrampool and Pilling, the land 

 being divided equally ; ibid, ii, 379. For 

 a further agreement see ibid. 390. 



10 Plot, de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 

 379. A later summons de quo ivarranto 

 was issued in 1498 ; Pal. of Lane. Writs 

 Proton. 13 Hen. VII. 



11 There are rentals 1451-1537 in 

 Cockersand Chartul, iii. 



18 Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. iii. A 

 further grant was made to Edward 

 Wymark in 1588 ; Pat. 30 Eliz. pt. 

 vii. 



13 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13, 

 m. 162. From pleadings of 15901 

 (printed by Fishwick, op. cit. 245) it 

 seems that the younger John had a 

 posthumous child which did not survive 

 long, and that he had bequeathed his 

 estate in Pilling to a cousin, William 

 Copwood of Tottcridge, whose heirs were 

 the claimants. Grace was then the wife 

 of John Barker, clerk. 



" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 17, 

 m. 6 ; the estate is described as the 

 manors of Cockersand and Pilling, 100 

 messuages, water-mill, two dovecotes, 

 3,000 acres of moss, &c., with a free 

 fishery in the water of Lune. 



15 Ibid. bdle. 23, m. 167 ; three mes- 

 suages, dovecote, water-mill, lands, &c., 

 in Pilling. John Kitchen is said to have 

 died about that time. In 1579 his 

 daughter, described as Anne Dalton of 



Penwortham, widow, complained that 

 her father's widow, Jane Kitchen of 

 Forton (previously wife of Roger Dalton), 

 had possession of part of her estate in 

 Pilling. Jane answered that it had been 

 settled upon her younger son Roger 

 Dalton ; Fishwick, op. cit. 244, giving 

 the pleadings. 



A survey of the manor was desired in 

 1583 ; Exch. Dep. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), 3. 



16 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, no. 43. 

 Robert Dalton was the son and heir of 

 William Dalton. 



17 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 24. The manors, &c., in 

 Pilling, Garstang and Cockerham were 

 together held of the king in chief by the 

 twentieth part of a knight's fee and 

 3 171. rent. Settlements made between 

 1599 and 1602 are recited in the inquisi- 

 tion. Pilling was divided into three parts 

 and Ulkrigge Meadow into two (for 

 Banastre and Hesketh). Of the co-heirs 

 Alice Hesketh was aged fifty, Anne Ashton 

 twenty-two and Elizabeth Banastre 

 seventeen. 



18 Fishwick, op. cit. 246. In a 

 recovery of the manors of Dalton and 

 Pilling in 1810 the Rev. Geoffrey 

 Hornby and his wife and Edmund Hornby 

 were vouchees ; Pal. of Lane. Lent 

 Assizes, 50 Geo. Ill, R. 6. 



The descent is thus given in Burke's 

 Landed Gentry : Edmund Hornby -s. 

 Geoffrey -s. Edmund -s. (Rev.) Geoffrey, 

 d. 1812 -s. Edmund, d. 1857 -s. Edmund 

 George, d. 1865 s. Edmund Geoffrey 

 Stanley, b. 1839. 



I8a Hugh Hesketh died in 1625 hold- 

 ing in right of Alice his wife a third part 

 of messuages, water corn-mill, &c., in 

 Pilling and Ellel and a moiety of Ulkrigge 

 Meadow in Pilling ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. 

 p.m. xxv, no. 16. See North Meols. The 

 following fines refer to the Hesketh third : 

 1600, Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 62, 

 no. 247 Hugh Hesketh and Alice his 

 wife; 1611, bdle. 79, no. 71 same ; 1664, 

 bdle. 173, m. 71 Thomas Selby and 

 Anne his wife; 1668, bdle. 181, m. 



333 



143 same and Robert Hesketh ; 

 1670, bdle. 184, m. 15 Robert Hes- 

 keth and Ursula his wife ; 1710, bdle. 

 264, m. 72 Roger Hesketh and Mary 

 his wife. 



19 In 1794 the lords were the Rev. 

 Geoffrey Hornby and John Traffbrd ; 

 Preston Guard. Local Sketches, no. 1129. 

 The Hesketh demesne lands were divided, 

 one moiety being held by the late Richard 

 Cardwell Gardner of Fluke Hall, Pilling, 

 and the other by G. T. R. Preston of 

 Ellel Grange ; information of the Rev. 

 James Cardwell Gardner. 



19a Anne Ashton died in 1618 and her 

 husband Richard in 1621, leaving a son 

 Thomas, aged seventeen. Her third part 

 was held by knight's service ; Lanes. Inq. 

 p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 291. 



Thomas Ashton died in 1632 holding 

 the third part of the manors of Pilling 

 and Ellel, with messuages, lands, &c., 

 including sixty salthouses, of the king by 

 the twentieth part of a knight's fee ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxix, no. 6. 

 See the account of Croston for the suc- 

 cession. The following refer to the 

 Ashton third : 1692-3, Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 230, m. 38 John Traffbrd 

 of Croston, Katherine his wife and Anne 

 Traffbrd, widow ; 1771, Pal. of Lane. 

 PleaR. 613,01. 10 (recovery) Humphrey 

 and John Traffbrd ; 1797, Aug. Assizes, 

 R. II (moiety of manor) John and 

 Humphrey Traffbrd. 



30 Raines in Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), 

 ii, 413. 



21 Information of Miss Elletson, 

 Ambleside. 



21 a ' In making excavations near the 

 present hall (which is used as a farm- 

 house) many beautifully carved stones 

 have from time to time been exhumed 

 . . . and about ten years ago (from 

 1879) in the centre of the barn was 

 discovered an oval hole or pit, some 

 i 8 ft. deep and from 6 ft. to 9 ft. wide, 

 covered with rafters having over them 

 about 3 ft. of sand.' Above the door of 

 one of the barns was a stone dated 1675 ; 

 Fishwick, op. cit. 246. 



