A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Ashton his successor," prominent in the French wars 

 of Henry V, and Seneschal of Bayeux in 141 6." In 

 141 3 Sir John obtained a release of the service due 

 from the manor. After reciting that he held it of 

 Sir Richard de Kirkby by the rent of \d., and that 

 Sir Richard held it of Thomas La Warre, lord of 

 Manchester, by the rent of 22/. and a hawk or 40/., 

 which services Sir John de Ashton had to render on 

 behalf of Sir Richard, the feoffees of Thomas La Warre 

 granted that Sir John, Sir Richard, and their heirs 

 should be free from the said service after the death of 

 Thomas."" This Sir John died in 1428, holding the 

 manor of Ashton of Robert de Ogle (in right of his 

 wife Isabel, granddaughter and heir of Sir Richard 

 Kirkby), and other manors and lands. Thomas, his 

 son and heir, then twenty-five years of age,*' came to 

 be known as ' the Alchemist ' ; *' he left a son John," 

 made a knight in 1460." Sir John died in 1484, 

 holding the manor of Ashton, with the advowson of 

 the church, lands in Manchester, Oldham, and Wardle ; 

 and the manor of Alt. Sir Thomas, his son and heir, 

 was sixty years of age in 1 507, when the inquisition 

 was taken.'" 



In 1 5 1 3 Sir Thomas Ashton made a feoffment of 

 his manors of Ashton and Alt, and his lands and rents 

 there and in Oldham, Hundersfield, and Manchester, 



for the fulfilment of his will ; and died a year later, 

 on 21 July ISI4> leaving as heirs George Booth, son 



Booth, Argent three 

 boars' heads erect and 

 erased sable. 



HoGHTON, Sable three 

 bars argent. 



of his daughter Margaret, who had been the wife of 

 Sir William Booth, and his other daughters Elizabeth 

 Ashton, and Alice wife of Richard Hoghton, all of 

 full age.*' In accordance with Sir Thomas's will the 

 estate was held for the use of the three heirs, a divi- 

 sion being sought in 1537." Elizabeth Ashton died 

 on 31 December 1553, without issue,'' so that after- 

 wards the manor and lands were held equally by the 

 Booths" and Hoghtons." Before the close of the 

 1 6th century, however, the whole had come into 

 the possession of the former family,'* and descended 



" Sir John dc Ashton and John his 

 son occur in 139X-2 ; Dods, MSS. xxxix, 

 fol. I2li. 



The king in 1401 granted to his dear 

 bachelor John de Ashton the wardship of 

 all the lands of Richard de Byron, de- 

 ceased, with annuities to Robert, Piers, 

 and Nicholas de Ashton ; Lanes, Inq, p,m, 

 (Chet. Soc), i, 65. 



Sir John de Ashton was knight of the 

 shire in 141 1 and 141 3 ; Pink and 

 Beaven, op. cit. 47, 49. 



••5 See the notice in the Diet. Nal. Biog,; 

 Sir H. Nicolas, Agincourt, 359 ; Norman 

 R. in Dep. Keeper's Rep. xli, xliv. A 

 letter of his is printed by Ellis, Original 

 Letters (Ser. 2), i, 72. 



*s* Manch. Corp. D. Sec also Lanes. 

 Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), il, 19 ; Dep. 

 Keeper s Rep. xxxiii, App. 28. 



■" Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.) ii, 22 ; 

 the value of the manor is given as ^^40 a 

 year. The service is not stated. Sir John 

 de Ashton had purchased the advowson of 

 the church from Thomas La Warre ; ibid, 

 ii, 18. Sec also Dep, Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, 

 App. 30. 



Sir John's younger son, Roger, was the 

 ancestor of the Ashtons of Middleton, 

 Great Lever, and Downham. 



■*/ He was a partner with Sir Edmund 

 Traffbrd in the licence to transmute 

 metals, granted in 1446 ; see the account 

 of Stretford ; also Diet. Nat. Biog. He 

 was in 1442 exempted from serving on as- 

 sizes, &c. ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xl, App. 537, 



^^ The descent is given thus in a docu- 

 ment which maybe dated about 15 10, 

 relating to the manor of Manchester, of 

 which Sir John Ashton appears to have 

 been a trustee in 141 3 : Sir John — s, 

 Thomas — s. John — s. Thomas ; Pal. of 

 Lane, Sessional P. Hen, VIII, bdle, 4, 



*' At the battle of Northampton ; Met- 

 calfe, Bk. of Knights, 2, 



Sir John Ashton in 1471 complained 

 that Ambrose Baguley of Manchester had 

 trespassed on his turbary at Ashton ; Pal. 

 of Lane. Plea R. 38, m. 2d, He was 

 knight of the shire in 1472 ; Pink and 

 Beaven, op, cit, 57. In the following 



year he was returned as holding the 

 manors of Ashton, Alt, and Moston (or, 

 the other Moston) of the lord of Man- 

 chester, by the rent of id. '^ Mamecestre, 

 iii, 483. *Alt ' may stand for altera. 



'" Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc), ii, 137, 

 138. 



Sir Thomas was made a knight at 

 Ripon in August 1487 ; Metcalfe, op. cit. 



Deeds (dated 1494) relating to his 

 marriagt: with Agnes, one of the daughters 

 and co-heir8 of Sir James Harrington, arc 

 enrolled in Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 79, m. 

 8, ; see also Sir James's will, &c. in Lanes, 

 Inq* p.m. (Chet. Soc.}, ii, 169, 171, 



^^ Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iv, 80, 

 He provided that 7 marks a year should 

 be paid for an honest priest to sing and 

 do divine service in Ashton Church for 

 twenty years for the souls of the testator, 

 his wife, parents, son John, brother 

 Nicholas, &c. ; also ^40 for a new steeple 

 and 20 marks for a table for the high 

 altar. He made provision for his wife 

 Jane, his bastard brethren Orm, Alexan- 

 der, and Seth, and other relatives, and 

 mentions lands in Elston, &c., lately pur- 

 chased of Sir James Harrington, his father- 

 in-law. He had purchased the wardship 

 of Richard son of William Hoghton, who 

 had married his daughter Alice. His 

 lands in Cheshire he left to the heirs male 

 of Edmund Ashton of Chadderton, brother 

 of his father Sir John Ashton. After the 

 trusts for his wife and others had expired, 

 the trustees were to hold all his manors, 

 lands, &c., for the use of Sir Thomas and 

 his right heirs. The estate was described 

 as the manors of Ashton and Alt, with 

 160 messuages, 1,000 acres of land, 200 

 acres of meadow, 1,000 acres of pasture, 

 100 acres of wood, 500 acres of moss, 

 500 acres of moor, and ^^lo rent in Ash- 

 ton, &c. The manor of Ashton was held 

 of Thomas West, Lord La Warre, by the 

 rent of \d. The ages of the heirs were : 

 George Booth, 25 ; Elizabeth Ashton, 42 ; 

 Alice Hoghton, 22. 



There are pedigrees in the P'hitation of 

 1567 (Chet Soc), 8, 20. 



32 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 162, m. 7 d ; 

 164, m. 10 d. 



*8 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. x, 1 8. Her 

 portion thereupon descended to William 

 Booth (son of George son of George son 

 of Margaret) and Thomas Hoghton (son 

 of Alice), aged seventeen and thirty-nine 

 respectively. See Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc, 

 Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 154. 



^* George Booth (great-grandson of Sir 

 Thomas Ashton) died 3 August 1543, 

 leaving a son and heir William, three 

 years of age. The estate is described as 

 twenty-five messuages, &c., in Ashton and 

 Oldham, a third part of two mills in Ash- 

 ton, a third part of the moor, and a third 

 part of the advowson ; it being arranged 

 that George (or his assigns) should present 

 at the next vacancy j Elizabeth Ashton, 

 widow, at the second vacancy ; and Sir 

 Richard Hoghton at the third vacancy ; 

 and so on in perpetuity. The will of 

 George Booth is given ; it names his wife 

 Elizabeth, his daughters Elizabeth and 

 Mary, His uncle Robert Booth had an 

 annuity of ^4 from Ashton, 



*^ Thomas Hoghton died in 1580, 

 holding among other estates a moiety of 

 the manor of Ashton ; he was at Hoghton 

 succeeded in turn by his brother Alexander 

 and his half-brother Thomas the younger; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiv, 26, With 

 the death of Alexander in 1581 the male 

 issue of Alice Ashton ceased, and the 

 Hoghton share of Ashton should have 

 gone to the Booth family ; yet a moiety 

 of the manor of Ashton-under-Lyne and 

 the advowson of the church appear in the 

 inquisition after the death of the younger 

 Thomas in 1589; ibid, xv, 29. This 

 statement may have been mistaken. 



" In 1595 the moiety of the manor is 

 named among the Hoghton estates, and 

 the manor in 1596 among those of George 

 Booth ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 57, 

 m. 178 ; 59, m. 41. George Booth of 

 Dunham, son and heir of Sir William, 

 seated in 1597 that his father had been 

 seised of a moiety of the manor of Ashton, 

 and had made certain estates in it, with 

 reversion to plaintiff; but John Hunt and 



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