A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



At the dissolution of the abbey the yearly value of 

 this moiety of the manor was found to be £■>, 4/. id., 

 from the rents of free tenants, and of the Chew 

 moiety £33 5/. 3d', from the rents of tenants at will, 

 and £i 4J. from the mill. Where the ' manor 

 place ' had formerly stood was plain ground, called 

 Chew Yard. Billington Common, where the tenants 

 had common jointly with the townships of Great 

 Harwood and Wilpshire, contained about z\ miles in 

 circuit. A wood called Elker, containing 60 acres, 

 was well replenished with oak timber and fair young 

 trees and an underwood of hazel and alder. Another 

 wood, called the Nab, of 40 acres in extent, contained 

 oak timber and fair ash trees. The tenants at will 

 paid a fine at every alienation or entry of such 

 amount as they might agree with the lord to pay, 

 and two courts were held yearly." 



Until 1554 the manor remained in the Crown, 

 but in that year the queen granted it to Sir Thomas 

 Holcroft, kt.," the well-known trafficker in monastic 

 lands, who died possessed of it on 31 July 155S." 

 His son, Thomas Holcroft, esq., sold the manor and 

 estate in 1602 to Thomas Walmsley, esq., justice of 

 the Queen's Bench, knighted in 1603." They have 

 since descended, with Hacking Hall, in the families 

 of Walmsley and Petre of Dunkenhalgh to Mr. 

 George E. \. Henry Petre, the present owner." 



W^CA'/A'G. — Haking, 1258; Ic H.icing, le 

 Hackyng, xiii-xiv cent. 



The mesne manor of Hacking was held of the lord 

 of Clitheroe by a yearly free rent of t^s. 4a'. until 

 the grant of half the manor and vill of Billington to 

 Adam de Huddleston, kt. The amount of the rent 

 is significant, being the exact sura paid before the 

 Conquest as rent of two plough-lands. Richard de 

 Dynkedley was the father of Bernard, living in the 

 first half of the 13th century." Part of Bernard 

 son of Richard's lands of Hacking lay to the south of 

 the River Calder and west of the high road leading 

 to Whalley Bridge.*' The demesne of Hacking lay 

 near to the confluence of the Calder and Ribble, 

 between the rivers and the site of the Roman road. 

 William del Hackyng, son of Bernard, gave to the 

 monks of Stanlaw half an acre of land called Hughloc- 



pighel, on the east side of the Roman road {strata 

 ferrea) to Clitheroe, as a site for a barn, for which his 

 descendants received 6J. yearly from the monks." In 

 1272 he attested a charter of the Earl of Lincoln, 

 who gave him the mill of Billington which he had 

 built on the Ribble," together with the suit. He 

 married before 1278 Christiana widow of Richard 

 lord of Traflwrd, whose dower was of considerable 

 value." He was living in 1288, but was soon after 

 succeeded by his son Bernard, who was party to a suit 

 about a tenement here at Lancaster assizes in 1292." 



Bernard del Hackyng held lands in the adjoining 

 township of Wilpshire" at the death of the Earl of 

 Lincoln in 131 1. By deed dated in 1328 he gave 

 his estates to his son William.*' He had a brother 

 John, of Aighton, in whose heirs general descended a 

 considerable estate in Dinckley, and probably other 

 brothers — Henry and Hugh del Hackyng. His son 

 William was a juror on the inquest ad quod damnum 

 touching the alienation to Whalley of the manor of 

 Chew in 1332," and died before 1347, at which 

 time the estate was held of Whalley by the ' heirs of 

 Hackyng.' " He had issue an only daughter Agnes, 

 who married before 1366 Henry de Shuttleworth, a 

 cadet of the family long settled at Shuttleworth in 

 Hapton." In 1368 a settlement of the demesne 

 lands in Hacking, with the mill and lands in 

 Aighton, was made by the trustee of Henry and 

 Agnes." Being related to his wife within the pro- 

 hibited degrees of consanguinity, he obtained a dis- 

 pensation in I 371 legalizing their marriage." 



Agnes was living a widow in 1408, having had 

 issue by Henry Shuttleworth John her heir, Thom.is, 

 Ughtred the first of the line of Gawthorpe near 

 Burnley and Robert." John had issue by Magot his 

 wife Henry, living in 1422," father of Robert, who 

 survived until after 1477, as did Sibyl his widow until 

 after 1515. They had issue Henry, who was con- 

 tracted in marriage to Elizabeth daughter of Thomas 

 Winckley of Aighton, gent., in or before 1462, by 

 whom he had Robert, who succeeded to the estates 

 between 1490 and 1507. In the latter year he 

 covenanted to marry Henry, his second but eldest 

 surviving son, to Catherine daughter of Ralph 



« yVhallcy Couch. 1191-7. 



'' Pat. z Mary, pt. ii. 



^' Duchy of Lane. Inq. 



p.m. 



>3- 



38 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 64, 

 m. 32. The estate was described as con- 

 sisting of ten messuages, &c., a water- 

 mill, 450 acres of land, meadow and 

 pasture, 420 acres of moor, &c., and 60:. 

 of free rent in Billington and Wilpshire 

 and a free fishery in the Ribble j enrolled 

 in De Banco R, Trin. 1602, m. 13. 



3^ For the descent of the families of 

 Walmsley and Petre see the account of 

 Clivton-le-Moors. 



•'1 rrhalhy Couch. 953-6. 



^' Geoffrey de Bi Jington and Avice his 

 wife demised before 1250 to Peter de 

 Chester, rector of Whalley, half the land 

 and wood within boundaries which began 

 at the end of Holewet Lane, where it 

 descends to the land of Bernard son of 

 Richard, thence to the summit of the hill 

 of Belsete-nab, thence to the Stanclif and 

 unto Thurse-clogh, thence to the mid- 

 stream of Calder and by the mid-stream 

 to Bernard's land, following the fee of the 

 s.Tme Bernard back to Holewet Lane ; 

 ibid. 133. 



" Ibid. 132, 951. 



^' De Lacy Comp, (Chet, Soc), 191 ; 

 Harl. MS. 2074, fol. 58*. 



** By agreements made in 1278 with 

 Henry de TrafTord and Geoffrey de Chad- 

 derton his brother, William and Christiana 

 obtained an annuity of 9 marks 2j. 8(/. 

 from the TrafTord estates for Christiana's 

 life ; Final Cone, i, 153-4. 



About this time Geoffrey de Chadderton 

 acquired a messuage and 41 acres of land 

 here from Adam de Billington, in which 

 Cecily relict of Richard demanded dower 

 in 1299 from Robert son of Geoffrey de 

 Chadderton ; ff^halley Couch. 1056-7 ; De 

 BancoR. 129, m. 27. In 1309 Geoffrey was 

 called to warrant his son Robert's right in 

 a messuage, 40 acres land, 24 acres 

 meadow and 18 acres wood, a water-mill 

 and 91. of rent in Billington, in which 

 Alice wife of William de Hopwood 

 claimed dower after the death of Adam 

 de Billington, her former husband ; De 

 Banco R. 178, m. 155 d. 



Robert de Chaderton gave the estate 

 in 1338 to John de Gristhwaitc, vicar of 

 Blackburn [Couch. 1058}, who had licence 

 two years later to alienate in mortmain to 

 the Abbot of Whalley 1 1 1 acres of land 



328 



and 6 acres of meadow In Billington ; 

 Cal, Pat. 1340-3, p. 23. 



^•^ PVhalley Couch, 1046. Bernard and 

 his father attested Adam de BiUington'a 

 grant to Geoffrey de Chaderton j ibid. 

 1057 ; Assize R, 408, m. 54. 



** Inq. p.m. 4 Edw, II, no. 51. 



^' Towncley MS. RR, fol. 286*. 



« Whalley Couch. 995 *» Ibid. 950-1. 



« Whitaker, fVhalhy{tA. 1876), ii, 66. 

 In 1398 John son of Henry Shuttleworth 

 released to John son of John del Hey of 

 Hapten his right in a tenement lying 

 near Shuttleworth in Hapton ; Towneley 

 MS. RR, fol. 287. 



^^ Final Cone, ii, 171 ; Towneley MS. 

 RR, fol. 286*. To Richard de Radcliffc 

 for life, then to Henry and Agnes for 

 their lives, remainder to their sons John 

 and Thomas successively. 



" Ibid. 287. 



*^ Ibid. Ughtred was probably the 

 eldest surviving son in 1408, when hii 

 mother acknowledged receipt from him 

 of 8 marks of the farm of the Hacking 

 due at St. Giles. 



^ Summoned to Westminster 20 May 

 1425 to answer Thomas H«.Ucn in a 

 plea ; Towneley MS. CC no. 318, 888. 



