BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



and afterwards married Nicholas Ainsworth ; Margaret 

 wife of Hugh Duxbury, and after his death of Hugh 

 Bradshaw ; Agnes wife of John Chorley, and after his 

 death without issue of Edward Charnock ; Eleanor 

 wife of John son of Elias Bradshaw in 1392."^ 

 Katherine widow of John Arderne married Geoffrey 

 Bold of Whittleswick in 1393. Ten years later his 

 manors of Whittleswick and Nether Darwen and 

 lands in Roxton, co. Beds., were seized for his ad- 

 herence to Hotspur's rebellion in the north, but were 

 quickly restored upon payment of a very moderate 

 fine and the loss of his goods. ^' 



Half of the Arderne share seems to have been 

 alienated to Talbot, for in 14.45-6 John Bradshaw, 

 Edward Charnock, Hugh Bradshaw and Joan relict 

 of Nicholas Ainsworth each held a fourth part of 

 one-third of the manor, Edmund Talbot holding the 

 remainder.^' The Charnock pourparty of the manor 

 appears to have been divided and dispersed in the 

 timeof Edward IV, and cannot afterwards be traced.^' 

 Nicholas Ainsworth died without issue, so that eventu- 

 ally his pourparty merged in the others. The other 

 two shares are untraceable ; one was held by William 

 Bradshaw at his death in 1 5 1 1 as the ninth part of 

 the manor.-" Thomas his son died childless four 

 years later, when his brother Lawrence succeeded and 

 was in possession at his death in 1523, leaving as heir 

 a son Nicholas, aged five years. ^^ In 1554 Nicholas 

 Bradshaw, gent., passed a messuage and 240 acres of 

 land here by fine to Ralph Lomax, and the following 

 year passed nine messuages to ten local yeomen, pro- 

 bably dispersing his whole estate here by these aliena- 

 tions.22 



The other Bradshagh estate descended in the mam 

 line of the Bradshaws of Bradshaw to John, who died 

 in 1543 holding an estate of twelve messuages and the 

 third part of a fulling mill, parcel of the manor, by the 

 service of one-sixth of a knight's fee.^^ In 1580 

 and 1582 his great-grandson, the fourth of four 

 successive John Bradshaws, lords of Bradshaw, sold 

 a considerable estate, clearly his entire property here, 

 to various local landowners.^ The principal local 

 families who derived their estates by purchase from 

 the Bradshaws were : Astley of Stakes in Livesey, 



Bradshaw of Brad- 

 shaw. Argent tvjo bend- 

 lets. 



BLACKBURN 



Haworth of ' Th'urcroft,' i.e. Highercroft,^^ a branch 

 of the family of Haworth of Haworth Hall in Rochdale ; 

 Harwood of Lower Darwen, 

 of which line was the Edward 

 Harwood, D.D., already 

 named, and Marsden of 

 Oakenhurst. Mr. Abram gives 

 full accounts of these families 

 in his History of Bkckbun. 

 Before 1 779 Nicholas Marsden 

 and others answered to the 

 bailiff of Salford Hundred for 

 the ancient yearly rent of 

 14/.; in 1779 Henry Mars- 

 den answered for it.^^ 



Highercroft House, for- 

 merly the residence of the 



Haworth family, is a 17th-century stone two-story 

 gabled building with projecting end wings standing 

 near a wooded hollow on the rise of the hill between 

 Blackburn and Darwen. Over the porch are the 

 initials of Peter Haworth and the date 1634, but 

 the building has been modernized internally and all 

 the old windows have been replaced with sashes. 

 Otherwise the exterior has suffered little alteration. ^^ 



The third part of the manor, which Robert de 

 Shireburne and his wife Alice de Blackburn held, 

 probably descended to the heirs general of Richard 

 Shireburne, kt., who died about I 391. Early in the 

 15 th century this part and a moiety of the Arderne 

 part passed to Thomas Talbot of Bashall, kt., who 

 enfeoffed his son Edmund thereof at his marriage to 

 Anne, of unknown family, before 1446.^** In that 

 year 11/. la". was required from Edmund in respect of 

 the ninth part of a knight's fee which he held here, 

 the heirs of John Arderne holding the eighteenth part 

 of a fee, representing the remaining third part of the 

 manor. Edmund Talbot, kt., died in 1462 and 

 Thomas Talbot, kt., his son, the betrayer of Henry VI, 

 died 16 February 1500 seised of the manors of 

 Rishton and Nether Darwen, Edmund his eldest sur- 

 viving son being then aged thirty years. ^' Edmund 

 Talbot, esq., died seised of these manors in 1520 and 

 was buried at Westminster. Thomas his son, who 



In the inquest taken in 1424 John 

 Arderne was said to have held at his death 

 sixteen messuages, a mill, 1,420 acres 

 land, &c., in Nether Darwen of John 

 Duke of Lancaster by knight's service and 

 25. yearly rent j also fourteen messuages 

 there and 682 acres land, &c., parcel of 

 the manor, of Thomas la Warre, clerk, 

 Baron of Manchester, in socage by the 

 yearly rent of 131. 41/. This latter estate 

 may have represented Ewood. 



'' Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 25. 



•' Cal. Pat. 1401-5, pp. 255, 258 ; 

 1405-8, pp. 47, 179. Many Lancashire 

 and Cheshire people were engaged in the 

 conflicts of this year on either side. 

 William Jenkynson alias the ' Taylleour's 

 son of Derwent * was pardoned for re- 

 bellion in 1402 ; Pal. of Lane. Chan. 

 Misc. bdle. i, file 12, no. 19. 



" Duchy of Lane. Knights' Fees, bdle. 

 2, no. 20, p. 9. Edward Charnock also 

 held the estates in Roxton, Chawston, 

 Colesden and Barford which he passed to 

 trustees in 145 1-2; Kuerden fol. MS. 

 (Chet. Lib.), 75, no. 462. Nicholas and 

 Joan Ainsworth made a settlement of a 

 fourth part of a third of the manor and 

 two mills in Netlier Darvfen in 1423 j 



Ftnal Cone, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 iii, 89. 



1^ John Charnock son of Edward and 

 Agnes had issue two sons who died young 

 and daughters, Margaret the wife of 

 Thomas Bouke of Chorley and Cicely 

 the wife of Peter Chisnall of Charnock 

 Richard in 1469. Agnes Charnock in 

 her widowhood enfeoffed William her 

 younger son of the third part of the third 

 part of the manor. In 1475 this estate 

 was in the hands of trustees ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Plea R. 36, m. 12 d.; 43, m. 15. 



^o Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, 9. 



'1 Ibid, iv, 31. 



" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdles. 1 5, 

 m. 87 ; 16, m. lOI. The purchasers 

 were James Cunliffe, James and Miles 

 Fysshe, Richard Harwood, Edmund, Peter 

 (jun.) and Ralph Haworth, Christopher 

 and Richard Marsden and Lawrence 

 Yate. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, 33. 

 His grandson John Bradshaw had a suit 

 in the Duchy Court in 1562 with Henry 

 Talbot and Ralph Lomax concerning 

 tenements and right of common in Nether 

 Darwen ; Cal. Plead. (Rec. Com.), ii (2), 

 259. 



277 



^^ In 1580 he sold twenty messuages 

 and the fourth part of eighteen other 

 messuages to Henry Cunliffe, James 

 Fysshe, Edmund Harwood, Giles, Law- 

 rence and Richard Haworth, Henry and 

 Richard Marsden, and William Yate ; in 

 1582 he sold four messuages to James 

 Asmoll (Aspinall) and Peter Waddington ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdles. 42, m. 46 ; 

 44, m. 113. 



^^ In 1757 Richard Haworth left his 

 estate to his kinsman Henry Baron 

 of Knuzden Hall. In 1766 it was sold 

 to Jonathan Haworth of Manchester, 

 merchant, from whom it passed by pur- 

 chase to Mr. Christopher Hindle, who 

 died in 1 81 8. It was the property of 

 Major John William Hindle in 1875 ; 

 Abram, Blackburn, pp. 470-3, 482-3 ; 

 Bolton Hist. Gleanings, i, 283 et seq. 



^* Duchy of Lane. Misc. 14-25 m. 



^ There is an illustration in Abram's 

 Blackburn, 473. 



2' Duchy of Lane. Knights' Fees, 

 bdle. 2, no. 20, p. 9. He attorned to 

 Henry VI in 1443 as free tenant of the 

 honor of Clitheroe ; Farrer, Clitheroe Ct. 

 R. i, 499. 



*^ Duchy of Lane Inq. p.m. in, 69. 



