SALFORD HUNDRED 



WoRSLiY of Worsley, 

 Argent a chief gules. 



Massky of Tatton. 

 Quarterly gules and ar- 

 gent. 



ECCLES 



Sir John was the son of Hugh Massey of Tatton, 

 who died about 1371, and by his elder brother's 

 death succeeded to the paternal estates.** His mar- 

 riage with Alice de Worsley took place in or before 

 1372.*® He was sheriff of Cheshire in 1389.*^ He 

 sided with Richard II in 1399 and was imprisoned 

 in Chester Castle ; *® four years later he joined in the 

 Hotspur rising and was killed at the battle of Shrews- 

 bury.** Thomas his eldest son incurred forfeiture on 

 the like account,^** but was restored, and dying in 

 1420, was succeeded by his brother Geoffrey." 

 Their mother Alice died eight years later, Geoffrey 

 being then forty years of age." On his death in 1457 

 without lawful issue " the Worsley manors went to 



tort with their appurtenances, as also his 

 lands in Salford and Manchester ; the 

 feoffees were to settle the same upon him 

 and his issue, with remainder to his sister 

 Alice, wife of Sir John Massey of Tatton; 

 ibid. no. 121. Two years later the 

 feoffees regranted the manors to Sir 

 Geoffrey and Mary his wife, daughter of 

 Sir Thomas de Felton ; no. 167, also no. 

 122, and Final Cone, iii, 4. A further 

 feoffment and fine were made in July and 

 Aug. 13S1 ; Ellesmere D. no. 169, and 

 Final Cone, iii, 12. The proceedings for 

 divorce had already begun at Chester. 

 It was stated that in 1374, in the chapel 

 of Sir Thomas de Felton's mansion-house 

 in Candlewick Street in London, his 

 daughter had married Sir Thomas Breton, 

 and that in 1376 in the parish church at 

 Leamington she had married Sir Geoffrey 

 dc Worsley, her former husband not dying 

 till Not. or Dec. 13 So, in Aquitaine. 

 On this account the second marriage was 

 declared null ; EUesmere D. no. 268. 



For the subsequent proceedings see Sir 

 Peter Leycester's account in Ormerod's 

 Ches, (ed. Helsby), i, 441. The above- 

 cited record of 1401 merely states that 

 Geoffrey had married Mary de Felton, by 

 whom he had no issue, and then, during 

 her life, had taken to wife Isabel daugh- 

 ter of Sir Thomas de Lathom, by whom 

 he had a daughter Elizabeth ; EUesmere 

 D. no. 203. In 1401 John de Stanley 

 and (the same) Isabel his wife released to 

 John Massey and Alice his wife all their 

 interest in the manors of Worsley and 

 Hulton ; no. 175, 



In 1376 the sheriff was ordered to 

 arrest Sir Geoffrey to answer for 6,000 

 marks he had acknowledged due to Sir 

 John Massey and others. Not finding 

 him, the sheriff took a full account of his 

 possessions. The manor of Worsley had 

 a house with hall, chamber, chapel, 

 kitchen, &c. ; there were a foreellettum 

 called the Peel, a water-mill, and various 

 lands, messuages, and wood, &c. The 

 free rents amounted to 60s, %d. ; a profit 

 in Worsley, for digging and selling sea- 

 coals, was worth 15^. a year. Among 

 the out-goings were i8j, a year paid to 

 the Duke of Lancaster for the tenements 

 in Worsley, and 5 marks a year from 

 Hulton to *one Anabel, who was the 

 wife of John Comyn ' — no doubt Anabel 

 mother of Sir Geoffrey. The sheriff 

 handed all manors, &c., to the petitioning 

 creditors ; De Banco R. 462, m. 98 d. 



The story of the refeoffment of Sir 

 Geoffrey in his manor of Worsley is told 

 in Dep, Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 540. 

 After that he went abroad, it is stated, and 

 died there fully seised. 



He died on the Thursday before Easter 

 {30 Mar.) 1385, his daughter and heir 



Elizabeth being about a year old. The 

 manor of Worsley was held in socage by 

 a rent of 131. ^d.^ worth 40 marks clear ; 

 the manor of Hulton, three parts of the 

 vill, also in socage, by a rent of 61, 7^., 

 and worth 12 marks ; tenements in Sal- 

 ford in free burgage by a rent of izd, for 

 each burgage, and worth 40J. ; EUesmere 

 D. no. 172 (a copy), and Lanes. Inq. p.m, 

 (Chet. See), i, 23, 46. Elizabeth was 

 regarded as heiress of the Lathoms in 

 1389, and was then five years of age; 

 ibid, i, 35. It appears that a life interest 

 in the manor of Worsley had been secured 

 to her i ibid, i, 1 1 8. She proved her age 

 and had livery of her lands in 1401 ; Dep, 

 Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 2. She was 

 born at Worsley on the Friday after St. 

 Matthew, 1383, and baptized at Eccles 

 by John de Craunton, vicar, her god- 

 parents being Thomas de Worsley and 

 Emma de Hindley ; Towneley MS. DD, 

 no. 1499. The widow, Isabel de Lathom, 

 had married Sir John de Stanley before 

 the end of 1385 ; Pari. R. iii, 204, 205. 



25 Ormerod, Ches. i, 441. 



^^ Alice daughter of Geoffrey de Wors- 

 ley was wife of Sir John Massey in 1372; 

 Raines MSS. xxxvlii, 238. 



Immediately after the death of Sir 

 Geoffrey de Worsley his trustee, Richard 

 de Worsley, chaplain, granted to Alice 

 the manors of Worsley and Hulton ; 

 EUesmere D. no. 171. Yet about three 

 years later, when in the chapel at Deane, 

 he was induced or compelled, as he after- 

 wards confessed, to enfeoff Robert de 

 Worsley or his representatives of the 

 manors ; Dep. Keeper's Rep, xxxvi, App. 540, 



27 Ibid, App. 329. 



^ Ibid, 332. In 1373 Sir John Massey 

 had had an annuity of 50 marks from 

 Edward the Black Prince, he to serve the 

 prince at all times, and during war with 

 an esquire 5 this was confirmed in 1377 

 by Richard as Prince of Wales ; ibid. 329. 



29 Ibid. 333 i Ormerod, Ches. i, 442, 

 where his and other Massey inquisitions 

 are printed. 



^^ Dep. Keeper^s Rep. xxxvi, App. 334 ; 

 a grant to Alice, the widow, of a third of 

 Sir John's possessions forfeited by the re- 

 bellion of himself and his son. In 1401 

 Sir John Massey of Tatton, Alice his 

 wife, and Thomas, Geoffrey, and Richard 

 their sons, had joined in a grant to 

 Elizabeth wife of Arthur de Worsley, the 

 dispossessed daughter of Sir Geoffrey ; 

 EUesmere D. no. 177, 178. 



81 Dep. Keeper* s Rep, xxxvii, App. 516; 

 Thomas Massey had died on 24 Aug. 

 1420, and Geoffrey his brother and heir 

 was thirty years of age. A statement of 

 the descent, drawn up at this time, will 

 be found in Dep, Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, 

 App, 29. S2 Ibid, xxxvii, 517 



379 



'■ Sir Geoffrey made feoffments of his 

 manors in 1429 and 1441 ; in the latter 

 Margery his wife was a beneficiary ; 

 EUesmere D. no. 185, 186. 



In the White and Black books among 

 Lord Ellesmere's muniments is a copy of 

 an extent of the manor made in 6 or 16 

 Hen, VI. It describes the manor-place 

 with its moat, the chapel, great barn. Sec, 

 the wastes of Walkden Moor and Swin- 

 ton Moor. The value of the lands in the 

 lord's holding was ^38 8j. 6d, The free 

 tenants paid lys. ^d. as follows : The 

 Abbot of Whalley for Swinton, Monton, 

 and half of Houghton, js, iid, ; Robin 

 Langley for Northdene, a pair of iron 

 spurs, and for Droilsdene two iron arrows; 

 Nicholas Halghton for half Hulton 13^. 

 and for OUerfordehurst (now Alderforest 

 in Worsley) 35. ^.d., and for Walwerk 

 izd. ; Oliver Parr, 2*. ; Perkin Worsley 

 for Stanistreet, ^d. ; Thurstan Holland 

 for Wardley, ^d, ; Thomas Tyldesley, 6d.^ 

 William Lever, James Hulton, Richard 

 Prestall, Alison Redford, and Ralph 

 Astley, id, each for Walkden Moor ; 

 Richard Farnworth for Tasker Place and 

 common of pasture on Walkden Moor, 

 id. ; Denis Warton, a pair of gloves. The 

 tenants at will paid ^^30 65. lod, a year, 

 and gave various services ; thus one 

 tenant's 'average' was a plough, harrow, 

 turf delver, turf cart, ' worthing ' cart, a 

 mower, seven days* * shearing,' six hens, 

 with a *takke' of 16^. ; and three tenants 

 paid 6s. ^d. each for the * cole mole.* 



Sir Geoffrey in his will dated 25 Sept. 

 1457 desired to be buried in the 'new 

 chapel * he had made on the south side of 

 the chancel of Eccles Church, and left 

 j^4o for the establishment of the chantry 

 therein ; 20 marks for an ' overlay of 

 marble * above his body, with two images 

 of copper and ' ayregild ' representing 

 himself and his wife, a suitable inscrip- 

 tion, and four escutcheons. Apprehending 

 that his heir William would create trouble 

 he bequeathed to Thomas Lord Stanley 

 ' all the glazen windows, clock bells,' &c. 

 at Worsley and Tatton, with a request 

 that he would see that his said wife 

 * might be at her liberty to demean her- 

 self and not constrained against her will, 

 disseised, spoiled, nor robbed of her lands 

 nor goods, nor in likewise the said John' 

 his son. He protested that he was in 

 debt to no one, though 'informed that 

 certain untrue and false people, because 

 they supposed he was greatly diseased 

 with sickness, slandered and noised in the 

 country' that he owed them debts. 

 Printed in ff^ills (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), 12. 



In addition to the above-named John 

 he had a son Hugh, ancestor of the Masseys 

 of Whittlcswick, 



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