LEYLAND HUNDRED 



STANDISH 



lands in Heath Charnock of Lord Mounteagle by a 

 rent of lod. His son and heir Thomas was twenty- 

 six years of age.' Pedigrees were recorded at the 

 visitations of 1533, 1567 and 

 161 3, so that it is easy to 

 trace the descent.' Thomas 

 Asshaw left a daughter and 

 heir Anne, who married Sir 

 John Radcliffe of Ordsall,' 

 the heir male being Thomas's 

 younger brother Leonard of 

 Shaw Hall in Flixton. From 

 this time Hall of the Hill 

 sinks into obscurity. It appears 

 on the dispersal of the Rad- 

 cliffe estates to have been pur- 

 chased by William Radley,' 

 from whom it descended to 

 Thomas Ainscough, clerk, and 



was acquired about 1 690 by Thomas Willis,' de- 

 scending to Richard Willis of Halsnead and being sold 

 to George Case of Liverpool, the owner in 1836.* 



HALL O' TH' HILL, as its name implies, stands 

 on high ground a little to the east of the road from 

 Adlington to Chorley, and is a three-story stone 

 building with a frontage facing west about 70 ft. in 

 length. The house is said to have been built in 

 1724, and the design shows a care for symmetry and 

 a certain classical taste in the detail of the doorway 

 and in the overhanging bracketed eaves which would 

 seem to support this statement, though the general 

 appearance of the building with its numerous mullioned 

 windows is rather that of the late 17th century.' 

 The chief features of the principal front are the semi- 

 octagonal bay windows at either end, projecting 9 ft. 

 6 in. and carried up the full height of the building. 



Asshaw. Argent on a 

 cheveron betvjeen three 

 martlets vert as many 

 crosses formy Jitchy of the 

 fold. 



terminating in hipped roofs carried back to the main 

 end gabled roof of the house. The bays have 

 mullioned windows all round on each floor, the lower 

 openings being also transomed. The lines of the 

 floors are marked externally by string courses which 

 are carried round the bays, and check to some 

 extent the otherwise vertical appearance of the eleva- 

 tion. The roofs are covered with modern blue slates, 

 and the north end of the principal front appears to 

 have been rebuilt or refaced, there being a difference 

 in the nature and colour of the stone walling. The 

 back is quite plain and without windows,* and is 

 now cemented over. The present house appears to 

 have been an addition to an older building which 

 stood on its east side and which has now disappeared.' 

 The interior is uninteresting, being almost wholly 

 modernized, and the great hall, a room 27 ft. 6 in. 

 long by I 8 ft. 6 in. wide, which occupied the whole 

 of the middle of the building, is now divided by 

 partition walls. There is a wide staircase with good 

 oak balustrade in the north- 

 east corner of the house 

 which has a gable facing east, 

 but otherwise the building 

 contains none of its original 

 fittings. The windows, how- 

 ever, retain their diamond 

 leaded lights, which add con- 

 siderably to the picturesque- 

 ness of the elevation. There 

 is what appears to be part of 

 an avenue of beech trees on 

 the south side, .but the build- 

 ing has been long used as a 



farm-house and its former surroundings have been 

 greatly altered. 



Shaw of Shaw Place. 

 Argent achcveron ermines. 



R. 279, m. 273 d., 299 d. Adam son of 

 Adam dc Asshaw was the owner of land 

 in Heath Charnock successfully claimed 

 in 1 3 34 by Ralph son of Henry Wynant ; 

 Coram Rege R. 297, m. 94. 



William son of Adam de Asshaw re- 

 ceived lands in Rivington in 1334 from 

 Robert de Asshaw, clerk, his uncle ; 

 Towneley MS. GG (Add. MS. 32107), 

 no. 1835, 1903. 



Henry de Asshaw was another son. 

 In 1340 Ralph son of William Gogard 

 claimed two-thirds of messuages, &c., in 

 Heath Charnock as his inheritance against 

 Henry son of Adam de Asshaw ; De 

 Banco R. 323, m. 32 d. To Henry's son 

 John Sir Nicholas de Harrington granted 

 land in Heath Charnock, including lands 

 called Jordansworth, Denebutts, Daw- 

 ridding next the manor del Rigges, and 

 in the marsh next Doweshaw, which 

 descended, as previously stated, to Roger 

 Asshaw in 1441; Plea R. ut sup. 



Lawrence Asshaw was the subject of a 

 complaint in 1469 ; Cal. Pat. \^6y-yy, 

 pp. 141, 142. He and Joan his wife in 

 1493 complained of trespass by Robert 

 Adlington, Hugh his son and others ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Plea R 76, m. 6. In 

 I ;o4 he, as Lawrence Asshaw the elder, 

 made an agreement with Robert Pilk- 

 ington of Rivington as to a marriage 

 between the latter's son and heir Richard 

 with Lawrence's daughter Alice. Roger 

 son and heir of Lawrence is named in 

 the deed ; Towneley MS. GG, no. 

 1686. 



In 15 1 2 Lawrence Asshaw the elder, 

 Roger his ion and heir-apparent and 



Lawrence the younger, another son, 

 occur in a bond ; Add, MS. 32105, no. 



775- 



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

 II, The lands held of Lord Mounteagle 

 may have been those granted by Sir N. 

 de Harrington. 



Joan widow of Roger and one of the 

 granddaughters and heirs of Sir James 

 Harrington made a settlement in 1552 

 regulating the succession of her three 

 sons, Thomas, Leonard and Anthony ; 

 Add. MS. 32105, fol. 213. 



^ In the Visitations as printed by the 

 Chetham Society the pedigrees will be 

 found: 1533, p. 188; 1567, p. 73; 

 1 61 3, p. 6. On the last pedigree are 

 two charters of 1552 and 1555. 



A complaint by Thomas Asshaw in 

 1552 that his wife's marriage portion 

 had not been paid is printed in Duchy 

 Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 

 116. 



Thomas Asshaw in 1547 purchased 

 some messuages and lands from Lord 

 Mounteagle and others in 1564 from the 

 Eari of Derby ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdles. 13, m. 230 ; 26, m. 152. 



He made a settlement of his estate in 

 1578 ; ibid. bdle. 40, m. 185. 



* The whole of the Asshaw estate 

 seems to be included in the inquisition 

 p.m. of Sir John Radcliffe of Ordsall, 

 who died in 1627, though Hall of the 

 Hill is not mentioned by name j Duchy 

 of Lane. Inq, p.m. xxv, no. 6. 



A settlement of part of the Asshaw 

 estate had been made in 1581 by Sir John 

 Radcliffe and Anne his wife (parents of 



215 



the last-named Sir John) ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 43, m. 114. Further 

 feoffments were made in 1623, probably 

 in connexion with mortgages ; ibid, bdles. 

 102, no. 62 5 104, no. 51. 



A number of disputes as to this pro- 

 perty in the time of Elizabeth are calen- 

 dared in Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii, 

 73, 132, &c. 



* Peter Egerton of Shaw, representa- 

 tive of the Flixton Asshaws, seems to 

 have had some interest in the Charnock 

 estate. Williarn Radley, the owner, 

 petitioned in 1652 for a copy of the 

 charge against him, on account of which 

 his property had been sequestered as a 

 * delinquent,' and Peter Egerton was 

 joined with him. The county committee 

 regarded the information as malicious ; 

 Cal. Com. for Comp. iv, 2945. 



^ Exch. Dep. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), p. 84 ; a petition by Mary Ains- 

 cough widow and administratrix of Thomas 

 Ainscough, clerk, and Radley Ainscough, 

 an infant, their son, against Thomas 

 Willis in 1694. 



Daniel Willis and Anne his wife in 

 1732 made a settlement of their estate 

 in Heath Charnock, Duxbury, &c. ; Pal. 

 of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 310, m. 85. 



^ Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 521. 



^ It has been conjectured locally that 

 the house was constructed with stones 

 taken from the old hall of Duxbury. 



^ Except one to a passage which appears 

 to be a later insertion. 



^ There are no traces above ground. 

 Excavations on the site would probably 

 expose the old foundations. 



