A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



BJLDERSTOX and O-balde.ton were 

 MJNOR anciently held as one manor of" the 

 honor of Clitheroe in thegnage by the 

 yearly service of 6s. and one sore sparrow hawk or 

 IS." Hugh, living about the middle of the 1 2th 

 century, was the father of Ailsi, who gave Sunderland 

 Holme to the monks of Sawley about the end of the 

 reign of Henry II.' He gave Balderston early in the 

 reign of John to his second son William, who was 

 afterwards styled ' de Balderston,' to hold of Ailsi and 

 his heirs by the render of a pair of spurs, is. for 

 forinsec service and a sore hawk at the Feast of St. 

 Giles,' which ser\'ices were afterwards commuted to 

 4/. jJ. per annum. Thus the descent of the mesne 

 lordship follows that of the manor of Osbaldeston. 

 In 1224 William de Balderston leased land here, 

 which had been held by Alan son of Uld, to his 

 brother John son of Ailsi for a term of six ye.irs from 

 Martinmas next after the overthrow of Bedford Castle.' 

 In 1 246 he was one of the jurors from Blackburn 

 Hundred summoned to a special county court.'" 

 Richard son of William succeeded his father shortly 

 before 1256 when he obtained an .icknowledgement 

 from his mesne lord, Thomas de Osbaldeston, touching 

 the services by which he held his free tenement here, 

 that is 2 oxgangs of land, of Thomas, who agreed to 

 acijuit him of all services due to Edmund de Lacy, the 

 chief lord.'' 



From his uncle John son of Ailsi Richard acquired 

 land here called Crapot, from Hugh son of John de 

 Balderston in 1256 land called Knoutescroft and from 

 Robert son of Adam de Sunderland lands in Sunder- 

 land." In 1 271 he made an agreement with the 

 Abbot of Sawley about inclosures of the wastes belong- 

 ing to Sunderland, that each should retain the in- 

 closures hitherto made, that Richard should inclose 

 10 acres of Birlegh and remove his tenants and houses 

 from Lebbelay and La Moncfal." By his wife Agnes 

 he had issue William and Simon, locally called de 

 Birley, besides other children. His son and successor 

 \\'illiam in 1277 resigned to Sawley all right of 

 pasturage in the monks' woods and inclosed pastur j 

 in Sunderland, and gave them the right to erect a 



water-mill, to take hawb nesting in tlieir several 

 woods and the honey found there.''' In 1292, on 

 the strength of the agreement as to services due for 

 Balderston made in 1256, he sued Adam de Osbaldes- 

 ton, his mesne lord, to acquit him of the service de- 

 manded by Henry de Lacy Earl of Lincoln, viz. 

 puture for his Serjeant with a horse when on duty in 

 the wapentake to summon, attach and distrain, and for 

 finding a ' wytni.s?cman ' to testify to such acts. 

 William was non-suited upon the finding of a jury that 

 the earl and his bailiffs took puture from and admitted 

 to the office of witnessman none but those resident 

 in the wapentake." William de Balderston died 

 about the year 1312, Rich.ird his son being his 

 executor." 



Simon de Balderston brother of William was a man 

 of some note. In 1303-4 he 

 was seneschal of Blackburn- 

 shire, in 1305 receiver of the 

 county, " and afterwards par- 

 son of Heversham, co. West- 

 morland. After the rebellion 

 of Earl Thomas of Lancaster 

 he held various posts in con- 

 nexion with the administration 

 of the earl's forfeited estates, 

 and appointed his nephew 

 Richard de Balderston his 

 attorney to collect the farms 

 of this hundred." He had 

 grants of land from the Crown 



Yorkshire and acquired several estates in that county, 

 notably the m.inor of Rogerthorpe, near Bads- 

 worth." 



Richard de Balderston, who succeeded William his 

 father about 1312, was appointed one of the keepers 

 of the peace in this hundred in 1323, and the year 

 following, as holding lands to the yearly value of £1 5, 

 was summoned to attend the Great Council at West- 

 minster.^ In 1327 he was a commissioner of array 

 in this hundred in connexion with the Scottish cam- 

 paign.-' In I 333 Thomas son of Adam de Osbaldeston 

 covenanted with him that he should hold the manor 



Baldkrbton of Bal- 

 deraton. ^'Irge/tt a lion 

 rampant gulls. 



in various places in 



^ Land. Inij. and Extents (Rcc. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Chcs.), i, 2x7. 



' Harl. MS. 112, fol. 6l«. Ughtred 

 Fnn of Huck, ancestor of the Singleton 

 family, who died before Michaelmas 

 1185, attested the grant; Farrer, Lanfj. 

 Pif>c R. 56. 



® Dods. MSS. cxlix, jh. The boundary 

 began at the River Ribblc, ascended 

 Sunderland, Wende and Shcrrs Brooks 

 and descended westward by the boun- 

 dary between Balderston and Sam'esbury. 

 William Gemet, who died in 1207 

 [Rot. de Fin. 4.CO. and many local mag- 

 nates were witnesses of the deed. Hugh 

 son of Ailsi, who inherited Osbaldeston, 

 confirmed his father's grant of Balderston 

 before 121 2. The circular seal attached 

 to the deed bore an equestrian figure and 

 the lege::d, * Sigillum Hugonis de Osbal- 

 dastune filii Elsi ' ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, lb. 



^ Ibid. 6b. Cf. Math. Paris Chron. Maj. 

 (Rolls ser.), iii, 249. Somewhat later he 

 gave to his brother Adam de Sunderland 

 land within a boundary which com- 

 menced at Bo5ebume (Bezza Brook), 

 followed the division between Balderston 

 and Samlesbur}- to Blakamor, thence 

 eastward to Depeclohisheued, and so 

 deicrnding tb.it clough to Boseburne 



again, for J yarly service of (td. at 

 St. Giles; Dods. MSS. txlix, i. 



'° Lanes. Aisixe R. (Rec. Soc, xlvii), 61. 



'' Final Com. (Rcc. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Chcs.), i, 123. 



"Dods. MSS. cxlii, 6, i>;. 



" Harl. MSS. 112, fol. 67. 



'< Ibid. ; Dods. MSS. cxlix, 18. 



'^ Lanes. Assize R. 408, m. ^o. 



'« Dods. MSS. cxlix, 17. In Easter 

 term 1313 Joan relict of William de Bal- 

 derston demanded her dower in lands 

 here from Alexander son of Alexander dc 

 Cuerdale, who called to warrant Geoffrey 

 de Cuerdale (w}.o died before the suit 

 was continued) and subsequently John 

 son and heir of Geoffrey, a minor and a 

 ward of Alice relict of Geoffrey. Alice 

 came and warranted, but said that Joan 

 ought not to have dower in the lands in 

 view- because her husband was never 

 seised in fee ; De Banco R. ig8, m. 

 208 d. ; 205, m. 57 d. 



^' De Lacy Cotnp. (Chct. Soc), 64. 



^ Cal. Pat. and Cal. Close, 1322 on- 

 wards ; Dods. MSS. cxlix, 18. 



^^ Cal. Pat. 133c— 4, p. 154; Torks. 

 Arch. hurn. viii, 495 ; xiii, 47. In 

 134- he had licence to endow a chaplain 

 in the church of Emsworth, co. York., 



3H 



with lands and rents in various places, to 

 say mass daily for the good estate of 

 him, Simon, whilst living and for the 

 good of his soul when dead ; Cal. Pat. 

 1345-8, p. 286. He made his will in 

 June 1348, bequeathing his body fnr 

 burial in the quire of St. Mary in the 

 monastery of St. Oswald of Nostcll and 

 j^6o to find a fit canon to celebrate in 

 the said quire for his own soul, the souls 

 of Earl Thomas of Lanca-^tcr, Richard 

 dc Balderston his father and Agnes his 

 mother. Proved 7 July 1348 ; York 

 Epis. Reg. Zouch, fol. 327. He acquired 

 a mediety of the church of Badsworth 

 which had belonged to Robert dc Coniers, 

 to which in i 343 he presented Roger dc 

 Balderston. This mediety and the manor 

 of Rogerthorpe descended in the line of 

 his kinsman of Balderston for many 

 generations ; \i\inX.tT^ Deanery of Doncauer^ 

 ii, 438—9. He was parson of Dcwtbury 

 c. 1345. In 1337 a grant of lands in 

 the new park of Wakefield was confirmed 

 to him and the heirs of his body with 

 remainder to William dc ScarijiU ; 

 Abbrcv. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii, 118. 



» Cal. Pat. 1321-4, p. 382 ; Palgrave, 

 Pari. fVrin, ii (^), 472. 



" Rot. Scot. (Rec. Com.^ i, 2i8<i. 



