A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



a release of lands in Pemberton." This Richard ac- 

 quired lands about the same time from Henry the 

 Miller of Skelmersdale, whose daughter Alice after- 

 wards released her right in the same.*" Richard's son 

 Adam was the most distinguished member of the 

 family until the Commonwealth period. He fought 

 in the French wars under Edward III and was 

 knighted, receiving also a grant of lands in Essex and 

 Hertfordshire.^' He was succeeded by his son John, 

 who married Margery, daughter of Henry de Orrell,'* 

 and had a son Roger. This Roger about 1385 

 married Maud,*' daughter of Henry de Ince, leaving a 

 son Robert, whose son John de Ashhurst about 1437 

 married a daughter of Roger de Dalton.'" From this 

 date there is an absence of documentary evidence until 

 the middle of the 1 6th century,'' about which time, as 

 already stated, William Ashhurst acquired, probably 

 from the Bradshaghs of Aughton, a quarter of the 

 manor, and afterwards acquired the remainder from 

 William Orrell. 



This William Ashhurst was in 1590 reported to be 

 ' soundly affected in religion ' ; " and the family con- 

 tinued Protestant, adopting Puritan and Presbyterian 

 tenets. William Ashhurst died in 161 8," and was 

 succeeded by his son Henry, who married Cassandra 

 Bradshaw," and had several children, including Henry, 

 the draper and alderman of London, a wealthy man 

 and a consistent Puritan." The eldest son William 



was a member of the Long Parliament, and also of 

 Cromwell's Parliament of 1 654.'^ He died in January 

 1656-7, and was succeeded by his eldest son and heir 

 Thomas, who recorded a pedigree in 1 664. John 

 Ashhurst, the brother of Wil- 

 liam and Henry, took an active 

 part in the Civil War on the 

 Parliamentary side, having a 

 commission as captain and 

 major. He engaged in the 

 second siege of Lathom, and 

 was present at the surrender 

 in December 1645 ; he was 

 subsequently governor of Liver- 

 pool." 



Thomas Ashhurst, aged 

 twenty-five in 1664,'° was suc- 

 ceeded in 1700 by his son 



Thomas Henry, who made a settlement of the manor 

 of Dalton in 1706,'' and about thirty years later 

 succeeded also to the manor of Waterstock in Oxford- 

 shire, which had been bought by the above-named 

 Alderman Henry Ashhurst. In 175 1 the manors of 

 Dalton, Upholland, and Skelmersdale, with various 

 lands, were sold to Sir Thomas Bootle by Henry Ash- 

 hurst, son of Thomas Henry,*" and apparently an elder 

 brother of Sir William Henry Ashhurst, the judge. 



Families named Arrowsmith,*' Prescott,** and Hoi- 



AsHRUKST, Gules a 

 cross betvjeenfour fieurS' 

 de-lis argent. 



25 Had. MS. 21 12. 



26 Ibid. ; Visit, of 1613. Richard and 

 Adam de Ashhurst contributed to the 

 subsidy of 1322, the former paying 51. 

 out of a total of i6j. 5 Exch, hay Subs. 

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



" Staff. Hist. Coll. (W. Salt Soc), xviii, 

 38, 85, &c. Pardons were granted at his 

 request in 1347 ; ibid. 277. His retinue 

 consisted of four esquires and two archers; 

 ibid. 200. 



In 1336, already a knight, he received 

 a grant of land in Dalton from John the 

 Harper of Dalton ; Visit, of 1613. Three 

 years after he had a protection from the 

 king, dated at Brussels, as being in the 

 royal service in parts across the seas ; 

 Harl. MS. 21 12. There are also refer- 

 ences to him in the Cal. Pat. 



In 1 341 he acquired land in Dalton 

 from Richard son of Adam de Huyton 

 and Alice his wife ; Final Cone, ii, 114 ; 

 see also De Banco R. 328, m. 155 d. He 

 was still living in 1 366, when he granted his 

 lands to his son John ; Harl. MS. 21 12. 



28 Visit, of 1613 ; Harl. MS. 2112. 



29 Visit, of 16 1 3. 



s» Ibid. A John Ashhurst of Dalton 

 in 148 1 granted to William BoUand, 

 Abbot of Cockersand, a rent of 1 zd. and 

 6s. SJ. at death as an obit ; Towncley 

 MS. DD, no. 1553. 



8^ About 1540 William Ashhurst was 

 tenant of the Hospitallers' land in Dalton, 

 at a rent of I2d. ; Kuerden MSS. \f, fol. 

 84. The rent suggests an alternative 

 origin for the * fourth part of the manor * 

 subsequently claimed for this family. In 

 1559 a settlement was made of lands in 

 Dalton by William Ashhurst and Cecily 

 his wife, who according to the pedigree of 

 1 6 1 3 were the parents of the William Ash- 

 hurst of 1590 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdle. 21, m. 143. 



22 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, t^6 ; quoting 

 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, 4. 



^8 Manchester Ct. Leet Rec, iii, 19 ; 

 •his will dated 6 February 161 5-16 was 

 proved at Chester 9 April 16 18. He 

 mentions his wife Margaret ; his son 



Henry Ashhurst, and his daughter Anne 

 Elston, and Robert, Elizabeth, Margaret, 

 Henry, Anne, and Mary Elston, children of 

 the latter. Henry Ashhurst was to pay 

 his mother ^^40 a year ; in default of which 

 she was to have all the testator's lands in 

 Bispham and Wrightington for her life.' 



'< Visit, of 161 3, p. 98 ; Local Glean. 

 Lanes, and Ches. ii, 250 ; marriage settle- 

 ment dated June 1606. Baxter says that 

 he ' was a gentleman of great wisdom and 

 piety, and zealous for the true reformed 

 religion in a country where papists much 

 abounded. And when King James, the 

 more to win them, was prevailed with to 

 sign the book for dancing and other such 

 sports on the Lord's days, he being then a 

 justice of the peace, as his ancestors had 

 been, and the papists thus emboldened 

 sent a piper not far from the chapel to 

 draw the people from the public worship, 

 he sent him to the house of correction. 

 And being for this misrepresented to the 

 king and council he was put to justify the 

 legality of what he did at the assizes ; 

 which he so well performed that the judge 

 was forced to acquit him — though he was 

 much contrary to him ; and an occasion 

 being offered to put the oath of allegiance on 

 his prosecutors, their refusal showed them 

 papists, as was before suspected '; ibid. 251, 



Henry Ashhurst was the only Dalton 

 landowner contributing to the subsidy of 

 1628 ; Norris D. (B.M.). He and Cas- 

 sandra his wife were in possession of the 

 manor in 1630 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdle. 115, no. 3. In the following year 

 he paid ^25 as composition on refusing 

 knighthood ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 212. About the same time he 

 was engaged in the trial of Anne Spencer, 

 a known witch ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. 

 xiv, App. iv, 55. 



'^ ' A very holy man,' according to 

 Oliver Hcywood ; Diaries, ii, 142. His 

 career and virtues are recorded by Richard 

 Baxter in the funeral sermon quoted in 

 the last note. See also Wood, Athenae 

 Oxon. (Eccl. Hist. Soc), i, 157-8 ; and 

 Diet, Nat. Biog. 



100 



'6 Local Glean, ii, 272, 27; ; Pink and 

 Beaven, Pari. Ref. of Lanes. 280, 73. 

 He was a member of the fourth Presby- 

 terian Classis in 1646 ; Baines, Lanes. 

 (ed. Croston), i, 308. 



*' Local Glean, ii, 276. Afterwards, as 

 a leading Presbyterian, he joined in the 

 attempt to set Charles II on the throne in 

 1651, and took refuge in the Isle of 

 Man ; Cal. of Com. for Advance ofMoney^ 

 iii, 1464. See Ci-vil War Tracts (Chet. 

 SocO> 77> &c- i Royalist Comp. Papen 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 176-7. 



68 Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc), 9. 



89 Pal. of Lane Feet of F. bdle. 256, 

 m. 3. The estate is described as the 

 manor of Dalton, with messuages, barns, 

 dovecote, lands, wood, common of pasture 

 and turbary, and 201. rent in Dalton, 

 Wrightington, Ormskirk, Lathom, Bisp- 

 ham, Skelmersdale, Shevington, Orrell, 

 and Hutton. 



In 1721 King's Silver was paid by 

 Thomas Ashhurst and Diana his wife for 

 a fine concerning the manors of Dalton, 

 Upholland, and Skelmersdale ; Pal. of 

 Lane Plea R. 512, m. 8. 



"» Pal. of Lane Feet of F. bdle. 347, m. 

 26. This Henry is omitted in the pedi- 

 gree in Foster, but appears in the Alumni 

 Oxonienses as son of Thomas Henry Ash- 

 hurst, having entered Exeter College, Ox- 

 ford, in 1739, aged eighteen ; he was made 

 D.C.L. in 1754, being then of Water- 

 stock, Oxfordshire. Sir William Henry 

 Ashhurst is stated to have been born in 

 1725 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. 



*l William Arrowsmith of Warrington 

 in the rental of 1473, already quoted, 

 paid 6d. ; this was possibly a part of the 

 Burscough quarter, the prior being re- 

 turned as paying 6d. only. Hugh Arrow- 

 smith occurs in 1555 ; PaL of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 15, m. 40. In 1598 

 there was a dispute as to land between 

 William Ashhurst and Robert Arrow- 

 smith ; Dttcatus (Rec. Com.), iii, 393. 



■■2 As will have been seen from the 

 Burscough rental the Prescotts were 

 tenants of the priory at the Dissolution 



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