LEYLAND HUNDRED 



CHORLEY 



for a third part of Eaveshey. The heir was Roger's 

 brother John, rector of Moulsoe in Buckinghamshire.^ 

 Healey afterwards passed to another brother, James,^ 

 who died in January I 557-8 holding the same estate 

 (Healey now being called a manor) and leaving a son 

 John, thirty-three years of age, to inherit it.' 



John Crosse probably resided for the most part in 

 Liverpool, of which town he was mayor in 1556.'' 

 In 1569 he made a feoffment of Crosse Hall in 

 Chorley, with various lands there and the moiety of 

 a water-mill ; this may have been on the occasion of 

 a second marriage.' He had sold a part of the 

 Healey estate called Hall of the Wood to William 

 Chorley in 1561.^ A pedigree was recorded in 

 1567.' John Crosse died in or before 1583, 

 when his son John was in possession.* This John 

 was in 1590 'one of the more usual comers to the 

 church but not communicants.' ' This attachment to 

 Roman Catholicism, though irresolute, may account 

 for the comparative obscurity of the family for some 

 time. John Crosse, who died in 1612,^" was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Richard and Richard died in 1619, 

 leaving as heir his son John, only nineteen years of 

 age.^^ John Crosse, described as ' of Liverpool,' was 

 a recusant about 1630, but the amount of his com- 

 position on that account is not recorded.'^ He died 

 at Toxteth Park in 1 640 just before the outbreak of 

 the Civil War, and the heir ^vas again a minor, for 

 John's son Richard by Juliana his first wife was sixteen 

 years of age.^' The capital messuage called Crosse 

 Hall with water-mill, &c., in Chorley and Healey had 

 in 1631 been settled to the use of his second wife 

 Frances.^'' 



A rental of the estate made in 1641 shows that 

 Crosse Hall was in the part of Healey formerly 

 belonging to the Hospitallers. In addition to Liver- 

 pool and Chorley there were tenements of various 

 kinds in Mellor and Showley, Goosnargh, Walton, 

 West Derby, Everton and Wavertree, CoppuU, 

 Bretherton, also in Woodchurch and Noctorum in 

 Cheshire.l^ 



Richard Crosse died in 1659, ^'^ son and heir John 

 being only ten years old.'^ He married Anne 

 daughter of Samuel Yate, clerk, and had a son 



Thomas, as appears by the settlement he made in 

 1681.^' John Crosse died in 1688 and another 

 settlement was made in 1698 after the marriage of 

 Thomas Crosse with Mary granddaughter of Thomas 

 Clayton of Adlington.^" Crosse Hall in Liverpool, 

 Crosse Hall in Chorley and various lands were the 

 subject of a recovery in 1726, Richard Crosse and 

 Anne Legh his wife being tenants.'" Their grandson 

 Richard Crosse, who died in 1822, adopted the sur- 

 name of Legh on succeeding to the Adlington estates, 

 which have since descended in the male line, and 

 settled Chorley and other Lancashire properties on 

 his daughter Anna Mary, whose husband Thomas 

 Bright Ikin of Leeds took Crosse as his surname. They 

 were succeeded by their son the late Colonel Thomas 

 Richard Crosse, aiid his trustees have been in posses- 

 sion since his death in 1897. 



Crosse Hall, Liverpool, ceased to be a family 

 residence about the end of the 17th century.^" 

 Crosse Hall, Chorley, stands in a low situation on the 

 left bank of the Yarrow, here a very small stream, 

 about half a mile to the east of Chorley. It is now 

 of little or no architectural interest, what remains of 

 the building being in a more or less dilapidated and 

 patched-up state and let off in tenements. It appears 

 to have been a 17th-century house built round three 

 sides of a quadrangle open to the north, but the east 

 wing has been demolished, and additions and altera- 

 tions having been made from time to time the re- 

 maining portions have almost completely lost their 

 original appearance. The building was of stone, 

 with low muUioned and labelled windows, some of 

 which remain built up, with the hall in the middle 

 or south wing. Two stone buttresses remain on the 

 south side, but there are few other architectural 

 features left, with the exception of the string courses 

 and plinth. The building is now under four separate 

 stone-slated roofs at different levels, and part of the 

 west wing appears to have been refaced and altered 

 in the i8th century. At the north end is a stone 

 with the initials ^''jj and the date 1697. The sur- 

 roundings are now vulgarized and without interest, 

 the Lancaster Canal passing close to the house at a 

 higher level on its south and west sides. Formerly 



' Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, no. 18. 



In 1522 it was agreed that William 

 brother and heir-apparent of John Crosse 

 should marry Joan daughter of Henry 

 Banastre ; mention is made of the re- 

 version of lands held by Anne wife of 

 Humphrey Gerard and formerly of John 

 Crosse, also by Elizabeth wife of Richard 

 Crosse, whose son and heir Roger is 

 named ; Towneley MS. GG, no. 2887. 

 Elizabeth was the heiress of Walton, 



* James son of Richard Crosse by 

 another marriage, as brother and heir of 

 John Crosse, in 1533 made an agreement 

 with his sisters Blanche and Margaret 

 and their husbands (Roger Breres and 

 George Garston) as to their inheritance ; 

 ibid. no. 2375. In the same year he, as 

 citizen and goldsmith of London, agreed 

 that John his son and heir should marry 

 Alice daughter of Roger Asshaw ; ibid. 

 no. 2869. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. x, no. 

 20 ; some settlements are recited. He 

 had lands in Liverpool (including * Liver- 

 pool Hall '), West Derby, Much Woolton, 

 Upholland, Golborne, Wigan, Heath 

 Charnock, Coppull and Chorley. The 



Walton inheritance had gone to his half- 

 sisters and their heirs. 



* Picton, Liverpool Munic. Rec. i, 47. 



* Towneley MS. GG, no. 2346 ; his 

 wife Anne is mentioned in It. Among 

 the field names are Greasewood and 

 Burcher ridding. 



^ Chorley Sur-v. 7 ; lands in Walton 

 were given for it. The chief rent of 8j. 

 (part of the 265. 8(/. due for the moiety 

 of Healey) was to be paid by John Crosse 

 and his heirs. 



' Fisit. of 1567 (Chet. Soc.), 107. 



^ Crosse D. no. 2056. 



^ Gibson, Lydiate Hally li^^,, quoting 

 S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, no. 4. 



^^ This date and much of the sub- 

 sequent descent is taken from Foster, 

 Lanes, Pedigrees, 



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

 and Ches.), ii, 135-6. The estates in 

 Chorley were held partly by the Earl of 

 Derby, as successor to the Hospitallers, 

 by i^d, rent, and partly of Richard Shire- 

 burnc and Edward Rigby by z6s, Sd, 

 rent. A later inquisition will be found 

 in Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxv, no, 3, 



'* Tram. Hist, Soc, (new ser,), xxiv, 179. 



141 



See also Royalist Comp. Papers (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Chcs.), ii, 95. 



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

 9. A settlement of 1596 is recited, made 

 by deceased's grandfather John in favour 

 of Richard his son and heir. 



1^ Ibid. 



^^ Crosse D. no. 209, 



^^ Edward Moore of Bank Hall tried 

 to purchase land from the trustees of 

 John Crosse ; W. F. Irvine, Li'verpool in 

 the time of Chas, Ily 151. 



^' Crosse D. no. 213. 



^^ Ibid. no. 215. 



^^ Ibid. no. 219, A deed of the same 

 year in connexion with it was enrolled 

 at Preston ; it mentions Richard Crosse, 

 Anne his wife, Thomas his son and heir, 

 whose wife was named Mary ; Piccope 

 MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 232, quoting R. i & 

 2 of Geo. n. The will of Richard Crosse 

 isdated 18 Nov.1742; Crosse D. no. 223. 

 Anne was daughter of Robert Legh of 

 Adlington ; Earwaker, East Ches. ii, 253. 



2" Blome in 1673 spoke of the Liver- 

 pool house as one * where divers worthy 

 gentlemen of that name [Crosse] have 

 lived for many generations' ; Britannia^ 



