SALFORD HUNDRED 



MANCHESTER 



By one of the lords of Manchester Gorton seems 

 to have been granted or leased to the Booths, for in 

 1433 Sir Robert Booth and Douce his wife enfeoffed 

 Sir John Byron and William Booth, clerk, of his lands 

 in the hamlets of Gorton, &c., described in a fine as 

 twenty-four messuages, 500 acres of land, 40 acres of 

 meadow, and 500 acres of pasture, also 2/. 6d. rent, 

 in Manchester.'^ In 1473 John Byron held the vill 

 of Gorton with the appurtenances, paying a rent of 

 £^0 lis. to the lord of Manchester." It descended 

 like Clayton till 161 2-1 3, when the manor of Gorton 

 with messuages, lands, water-mill, and horse-mill in 

 Gorton, &c., appears to have been sold by Sir John 

 Byron and the trustees to the tenants.*' Thirty-three 

 of the purchasers were in 1 6 14 summoned to pay 

 their shares of the rent of jf 30 I \s. due to the lord 

 of Manchester ; "' it was agreed to levy it at the rate 

 of ^d. for each Lancashire acre, the estates called 

 Grindlow Marsh and Midway being exempt." 



The township having thus been parted among a 

 large number of proprietors it becomes impossible to 

 give their history in detail." Among the new owners 

 were some bearing the local name." One of the 

 family, Samuel Gorton, went to America in the 17th 

 century and founded a religious sect there, which died 

 out about 1770.'' 



Among the earliest landowners recorded was Adam 

 the Ward of Sharpies." An estate called the Forty 

 Acres was long held by one of the Bamford families.'* 

 Catsknoll was at one time owned by the Levers of 

 Alkrington.'* The Taylors of Gorton were bene- 

 factors." 



At GREENLOIV, or Grindlow, Marsh or Cross 

 appears to have been the land called Withacre or 

 Whitacre, granted by Albert Grelley to the abbey of 

 Swineshead in alms about 1160.'° In the i6th cen- 

 tury it was held by the Strangeways family," and 

 remained an integral part of their estate.'" There 



was by Thomas La Warre given to the 

 college he founded at Manchester ; it 

 appears to have been the site of a tithe 

 bam; Higson, Gorton Recorder, \i, 218, 

 219 ; Hibbert-Ware, Maneh, Foundations, 

 i, 38. 



2« Byron Chartul. (Towneley MS.), no. 

 34/281, 28/284. 



2' Mamecestre, iii, 484. Lands in Gor- 

 ton were among those held in 1489 by 

 Sir John Byron by knight's service and a 

 yearly rent ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. 

 iii, 48. 



The rent of ^30 in. appears in the 

 inquisition after the death of Sir Nicholas 

 Mosley as due to him from lands in Gor- 

 ton and Greenlow or Grindlow Marsh, 

 lately held by Sir John Byron ; Lanes, 

 Inq, p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 4. 



ss Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 81, 

 no. 57.. 



Various documents from the town's 

 chest are printed in Higson's Gorton 

 Recorder, In 1581 there was a surrender 

 by forty-nine tenants, whose names are 

 given ; op. cit. 213. In 1608 there was 

 another surrender by twenty-seven 

 tenants for lives ; ibid. 56, followed by 

 the agreement for the fine above cited, 

 in which the plaintiffs were James Chet- 

 ham, Oswald Mosley, and Edward Black- 

 lock, perhaps acting for the numerous 

 purchasers. 



" Ibid. 213, 57, 58. Rowland Mosley 

 of the Hough, as lord of Manchester, was 

 the plaintiff. The tenants again refused 

 to pay in 1650, 1657, 1666, and 1675, 

 but judgement was given in favour of the 

 lord. »» Ibid. 134. 



"^ In the grant of a cottage on Green- 

 low Marsh in 1708 for the use of the 

 poor the following signed as * the free- 

 holders, charterers, and proprietors of the 

 waste lands in Gorton ' : Samuel Worth- 

 ington, Gerard Jackson, Ralph Shelmer- 

 dine, Robert Andrew, James Taylor, John 

 Corfe, John Graver, and Richard Taylor. 



Edward Siddall purchased 17 acres in 

 Gorton from John Byron in 1571 ; Pal, 

 of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 33, m. 163. 

 The land was at Longsight ; Higson, op. 

 cit. 54, 58. 



Nicholas Peake, who died in March 

 1 625-6, held a messuage, &c. in Gorton. 

 He left a widow Isabel, and his heir was 

 his brother John, forty years of age ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxv, 42, 



Roger Unsworth, who died in 1638, 

 held land in Gorton of Nicholas Mosley 

 as of his manor of Manchester ; Roger 



his son and heir was thirty-nine years of 

 age ; Towneley MS. C. 8, 13 (Chet. Lib.), 

 1288. 



No landowners are mentioned in the 

 Subsidy Roll of 1541, nor in that of 1622, 

 although by the latter year Gorton had 

 become a separate township ; M.hc, (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 139, 150. 

 Thomas Pyecroft of Gorton was a free- 

 holder in 1600 ; ibid, i, 249. 



A family named Asmall or Aspinal 

 appear to have held the Green and Green- 

 head in the 1 7th century ; these passed 

 to the Travis family, who also held lands 

 called the Alderstone, Debdale Clough, 

 Chew, Redlache, &c. ; Mr. Earwaker's 

 notes and Higson, op. cit. 83. 



The Hultons of Farnworth and 

 Nuttalls of Blackley held lands in Gorton ; 

 Manch, Ct, Leet Rec, i, 33 ; Lanes, Inq, 

 p,m. (Rec. Soc), ii, 176. 



Some other landowners named in Hig- 

 son's work are Samuel Harmer, 1685 

 (p. 76) ; Kenyon, 1786 (p. 115) ; Woodi- 

 wiss, 1830 (p. 167), and Clowes. 'Wil- 

 liam and Thomas Clowes, merchants of 

 Manchester, became possessed of large 

 estates in Manchester, Cheetham, Gorton, 

 and Droylsden, by marriage with Eliza- 

 beth and Margaret Nield, only daughters 

 and co-heiresses of Miles Nield, merchant 

 and chapman of Manchester,' in 1738 ; 

 ibid. 218 ; (bis) ; see also 85, 203. 



" William and Nicholas Gorton are 

 named in 1614; ibid. 213. William 

 Gorton died in 1618, holding a messuage 

 and land of the king by knight's service ; 

 Francis his son and heir was fifteen years 

 of age ; Lanes, Inq, p,m, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), ii, 175. 



John Gorton, said to have come from 

 the Fylde, purchased the Gorton Hall 

 estate early in the 1 8th century ; Higson, 

 op. cit. 



"» Ibid. 214 ; Diet, Nat. Biog. 



s* He complained in 1369 that certain 

 persons had broken into his close at 

 Gorton and had ill-treated his servant ; 

 Coram Rege R. 434, m. 7. 



BB It is described as ' in Rusholme * in 

 1473 when Bertin Bamford was the 

 holder ; he paid a rent of izd, to the 

 lord of Manchester ; Mameeestre, iii, 482. 

 John Bamford, who died in 1558, held 

 the Forty Acres in Gorton of the executors 

 of Lord La Warre in socage, by 121^, 

 rent ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. zi, 61, 

 38. His daughter and heir, Anne Dukin- 

 field, died in possession in 1619, leaving 

 Thomas Birch as her grandson and next 



277 



heir, a minor ; Lanes, Inq. p.m . (Rec. 

 Soc.)* u, 178. The Birches still held an 

 estate in Gorton in 1726, as appears by 

 the land tax returns. George Birch of 

 Gorton in 1770 made a new road, now 

 called Gorton Lane ; he owned the land 

 through which it passed and the Gorton 

 Brook estate ; Higson, op. cit. 105. The 

 latter estate was sold in lots in 1851 ; 

 ibid. ziz. 



36 Ibid. no. Part of Catsknoll was 

 in 1777 owned by John Hague ; ibid. 

 109. AH or most of the estate came 

 into the hands of John White of Park 

 Hall, Derbyshire, who was in 1850 the 

 largest landowner in the township ; ibid, 

 95) 160. 



^7 James Taylor and James his son are 

 mentioned in a plea of 1676 ; Exch. Def>, 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 53. Samuel 

 Taylor, webster, was bound to Thomas 

 Taylor in 1653 ; and in 1693 Hannah 

 Taylor leased a messuage in Gorton to 

 Richard her son and James her grandson ; 

 Mr. Earwaker's notes. 



Sarah Taylor was a benefactor In 1680; 

 GzitTtW, Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc), ii, 89. 

 See her will in Higson, op, cit. 74. 



^ Lanes. Inq, and Extents, i, 58, 59 ; 

 from the charter there printed it appears 

 that Ralph Grelley had held the land, and 

 that a Richard de More and his heirs 

 were to hold it of the abbey at a rent of 

 \zd. The land was held by the abbey in 

 1320 J Mamecestre, ii, 274. A rent of 

 zs. due to the abbey from Manchester 

 was by Henry VIII granted to Harold 

 RoscU; Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. 3. 



The identification of Withacre with 

 Grindlow Marsh rests on the facts that a 

 Withacre certainly existed close by (see 

 the account of Chorlton-upon-Medlock), 

 that the abbey had land in ' Rusholme * 

 (see next note), and that Grindlow Marsh 

 was free from the rent due to the lord of 

 Manchester. 



^^ Thomas Strangeways of Strangeways 

 (see Cheetham) died in 1590, holding 

 land in Rusholme which had belonged to 

 the dissolved monastery of Swineshead 

 in socage by a rent of a pair of gloves ; 

 Manch, Collectanea (Chet. Soc), ii, 142. 



Thomas Strangeways, described as ' of 

 Gorton,' was an elder of the Manchester 

 Classis in 1646; Baines, Lanes, (ed. 

 1868), i, 226. 



^'^ Higson states that the Reynolds of 

 Strangeways held Greenlow Marsh ; Gor- 

 ton Recorder, 107, 114. Lord Ducie held 

 hnd in 1787 ; Land Tax Ret. 



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