BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



with 8/. of rent here which his uncle Roger de 

 Pleasington had held." In 1323-4 John de Winckley 

 gave the manor to his eldest son Adam upon his 

 marriage to Matilda daughter of Gilbert de Scaris- 

 brick, but afterwards, having apparently setded his 

 Aighton estate upon Adam, enfeofted his j-ounger 

 son John in 1332 of the manor and demesne of 

 Pleasington." 



John de Winckley contributed one-third of the 

 amount levied to the subsidy of 1 332 from this town- 

 ship." After his death Alice his widow married Adam 

 de Livesey, and in 1347 they were sued for one-third 

 of the manor and John son of John de Winckley for 

 two-thirds by Adam son of John de Winckley and 

 Matilda his wife, who doubtless based their claim upon 

 the feoffment of 1323-4." The succeeding link in 

 the descent has not been ascertained, but Agnes 

 daughter or granddaughter and heir of John de 

 Winckley married John base son of Robert Ainsworth 

 of Ainsworth in the parish of Middleton by Mabot 

 de Crompton his concubine, and brought him the 

 manor of Pleasington as her dowry." In 1398 John 

 Ainsworth conveyed the manor to trustees for settle- 

 ment upon himself and wife Agnes for their lives with 

 remainder to their eldest son Elias or Ellis Ains- 

 worth. '* The last-named succeeded his father after 

 1 41 8, and in 1442 joined with Lawrence his son in 

 a grant of turbary to Thomas Seed for use in the kiln 

 of the mill of Pleasington, and survived until about 

 1460, when he gave puture to the sheriff in respect 

 of his hall of Pleasington." In July 1468 Thomas 

 Lord Stanley released to Lawrence Ainsworth his 

 right in the manors of Pleasington and Ainsworth 

 which his grandfather John Stanley, kt., had from 



a 



w 



V^jy 



Ainsworth of 

 Pleasington. Az^ure 



three spades argent nvith- 

 in a border or. 



BLACKBURN 



Ellis father of Lawrence Ainsworth." Lawrence 

 married firstly a daughter of John Talbot of Sales- 

 bury, kt., by whom he had 

 issue Henry and John ; and 

 secondly Margaret relict of 

 Roger Wych of Preston. 

 Henry his son was the father 

 of Lawrence, who was in 

 possession of Pleasington in 

 151 5." Lawrence Ainsworth 

 married Dorothy daughter of 

 Thomas Grimshaw of Clay- 

 ton-le-Moors,™ and dying in 

 1573 was succeeded by his 

 eldest son Thomas, whose 

 grandson Thomas died in 

 161 3, leaving issue by his 



wife Dorothy, daughter of John Halsted of Rowley 

 in Worsthorne, a son John, aged four years.'' John 

 Ainsworth married Claudia daughter of the Rev. 

 William Leigh, B.D., rector of Standish (15 86-1 639), 

 and was living in 1664 when Thomas his eldest son, 

 then aged thirty-five years, entered his pedigree at 

 Dugdale's visitation.*^ 



Edward Ainsworth, great-grandson of Thomas, 

 having no surviving male issue, sold the manor in 

 1777, two years before his death, to Richard Butler 

 of Preston, descended from the family of Butler of 

 Rawcliffe." Richard Butler married for his second 

 wife Charlotte daughter of John Bowdon of Beighton- 

 fields, CO. Derby, and died in 1779, leaving issue 

 by her a son Francis and two daughters, Mary 

 and Anne. Mr. Francis Butler built the new hall 

 of Pleasington in 1805-7 ^''^^ ^^^ Roman Catholic 



MS. DD, no. 2181-4. He was living 

 in 1277 ; De Banco R. 1 8, m. 63 d. 



^^ Assize R. 1321, m. 13 ; 418, m. 

 I id. Eiias de Pleasington in 1284 re- 

 leased to his brother Roger son of Henry 

 de Pleasington his right in half the town 

 of Pleasington and of the mill, saving 

 3 oxgangs of land, the ridding called the 

 * Hege ' on the west side of Pleseley, 

 another on the north side of Ridley, 

 another called * Roberd ruding ' and the 

 garden of Furbirkar ; Towneley MS. DD, 

 no. 2185. 



'2 Ainsworth D. Towneley MS. DD, 

 no. 2180 ; Winckley D. Kuerden MSS. 

 (Coll. of Arms), ii, 214^, 264. The ser- 

 vice was a rose yearly. Two centuries 

 later the manor was said to be held of the 

 heirs of John de Winckley by this service. 



In Trinity term 1334 Adam de Winck- 

 ley demanded the manor, as son and heir 

 of John, from his younger brother, but 

 afterwards withdrew ; Coram Reg. R. 

 297, m. 64. 



A younger line of the Pleasington 

 family continued to hold lands here until 

 1330. Robert son of Henry and Diana 

 was the father of John de Pleasington 

 and Joan second wife of William de 

 Holand of Clifton, kt. In 1292 John 

 recovered lands here and in Tockholes 

 from Robert, presumably his father ; 

 Assize R. 408, m. 56 d. He held half 

 Tockholes at the Earl of Lincoln's death 

 in 13 II, and was the father of Robert 

 and John. The former succeeded to his 

 father's lands in Pleasington in or before 

 1315, when he granted Woodcock Holme 

 in Pleasington to William de Holand, kt., 

 and Joan his wife ; Towneley MS. HH, 

 no. 34,60. Iq 1328 he enfeoffed Henry 



de Gartside of his estate and the rever- 

 sion of land held in dower by Mabel his 

 mother; Add. MS. 32305, fol. 133. 

 His younger brother John does not occur 

 after 1323 ; ibid. 129/*. 



'^ Exch, Lay Subs, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), 77. 



" De Banco R. 352, m. 400 d. Two 

 years later Livesey and his wife pleaded 

 that they held in right of Alice's dower 

 of the endowment of her former husband 

 and by assignment of his son John, to 

 whom the reversion belonged after Alice's 

 death ; ibid. 358, m. 22 d. 



'* i6th-cent. MS. pedigree of Ains- 

 worth pertes W. Farrer. 



In 1350 John de Winckley delivered 

 lands to Alice formerly the wife of Roger 

 de Pleasington. In 1395-6 the said 

 Alice, then relict of Roger de Whalley, 

 gave the same lands to John de Ains- 

 worth ; Towneley MS. DD, no. 

 2190-2. 



1* Final Cane. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), iii, 55 ; Towneley MS. DD, no. 

 2207. There were other remainders 

 successively to Ralph, John and Nicholas, 

 brothers of Ellis, and to Robert and 

 William sons of Adam Cunliffe. Nicholas 

 Ainsworth, gent., was servant to John 

 Kemp, Archbishop of York, in 1427 ; 

 ibid. CC, no. 872. 



In 1398 John CoppuU, William Howell, 

 Thomas Livesay, Richard Whalley, 

 William Redissh, Joan his wife and 

 Alice sister of Joan were free tenants of 

 the manor, paying 31. quit-rent. 



John Ainsworth made a settlement of 

 his Middleton estates in 1409 ; ibid. 

 DD, no. 2210. 



1' Ibid. no. 2208 ; MS. at Huntroyde. 



267 



Lawrence Ainsworth was admitted a free 

 foreign burgess at Preston guild in 1459; 

 Preston Guild R, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches. ix), 13. 



18 Towneley MS. DD, no. 2217. 



19 Duchy Plead. (Rec, Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 58 ; V'nit. of 1567 (Chet. Soc. 

 Ixxxi). 



'^'^ Lawrence Ainsworth, gent., was one 

 of the collectors of the subsidy granted 

 in 1523, to which he was assessed in 

 lands j^5 ; Subs. R. Lanes, bdle. 130, 

 no. 82. In 1543, as Lawrence Ains- 

 worth, sen., he was assessed on lands 

 ^\\ ; ibid. bdle. 130, no. 125, m. j.. 

 He entered his pedigree at Flower's visita- 

 tion in 1567 ; Chet, Soc. Publ. Ixxxi, 29. 

 Possibly his son Thomas was living in 

 Colne in 1545-7 j Fai'''cr, CUtheroe Ct.R. 

 i, 367. Thomas Ainsworth, gent., and 

 Margaret his wife passed the manor to 

 trustees in 1578 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of 

 F. bdle. 40, m. 109. 



The same year he acquired four mes- 

 suages here from John Southworth, kt., 

 and in 1579 two messuages from Thomas 

 Holden ; ibid, bdles, 40, m. 164; 41, 

 m. 53. 



21 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxi, 60 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. ii, 246). 

 A pedigree of the family was entered at 

 St George's visitation in 1613 by *01iver 

 Whauley for my Mr. John Ainesworth ' ; 

 Visit. (Chet. Soc. Ixxxii), 83. 



22 Fisit. (Chet. Soc. Ixxxiv), 22. Clau- 

 dia wife of John Ainsworth died in 1631. 

 He married in 1632 Jane daughter of 

 Leonard Asshawe, gent. 



28 Ahrs^mj Blackburn, 619. The demesne 

 and tenements comprised 738 acres, with 

 two pews in Blackburn Church. 



