BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



Wai.m KSI.EY of Show- 

 ley. Guhi on a chief 

 ermine two huns. 



century. Thomas ' Walmersley,' the first of Showley 

 in Clayton-le-Dale, was assessed in that township to 

 the subsidy of I 5 2 3-4 upon goods. Thomas his son 

 married Margaret daughter of 

 Thomas Livesey of Sidebight, 

 or Sidebeet, in Rishton, by 

 whom he had a large family.^^ 

 He was reported in 1575 as a 

 recusant and obstinate. He 

 died in i 5 84.*^ Thomas 

 Walmesley, his eldest son, was 

 born in 1537, commenced 

 his legal studies at Barn.ird's 

 Inn or Staple Inn, was called 

 to the Bar as of Lincoln's Inn 

 in 1567, bencher in 1574, 

 serjeant-at-law in 1580, 



junior M.P. for the county in 1589 and was consti- 

 tuted a judge of the Common Pleas in the same year. 

 He was thus a conformist in religion. On the 

 accession of James I he was reappointed to the office 

 and was made a knight in the garden at Whitehall in 

 1603 before the king's coronation. He differed from 

 the majority of the judges on the question of the ^Post 

 nati,' that is, whether those born in Scotland after 

 the Union of the two crowns were naturalized in 

 England. In 1 606 before the committees of both 

 Houses he alone of eleven judges present dissented on 

 the main question. When the case was argued in 

 the Exchequer Chamber in 1608 he and another 

 judge (probably Thomas Foster) dissented from the 

 opinion of the majority and caused Lord Ellesmere to 

 say that ' two Thomases doubted.' '^ During the 

 twenty-five years that he continued a judge of the 

 Common Pleas he went all the circuits of England 

 except that of Norfolk and Suffolk. No evidence has 

 been adduced in proof of the allegation that he 

 amassed a great fortune by rapacity in the practice of 

 the law. The charge may have been the invention 

 of those who opposed him in political and religious 

 opinions. The bulk of his fortune and estate appears 

 to have been derived from the successful pursuit of 

 his profession and by fortunate investments in land 

 and mortgages rather than, as it has been frequently 

 alleged, from his marriage to the heiress of the not 

 very considerable Shuttleworth of Hacking in Billing- 

 ton.^' During "his lifetime Sir Thomas purchased, in 

 addition to the Rishton estates in Rishton, Dunken- 

 halgh, Clayton-le-Moors and Church, half the manors 

 of Samlesbury, Lower Darwen and Billington and the 

 Cunliffe estates in Billington, Wilpshire and Dinckley. 



In Yorkshire he acquired in 1595 the manors of 

 Selby, Thorpe, Brayton, Stainer, Friston and Hillam, 

 which he settled upon his son at marriage. ^^ Sir 

 Thomas married Anne daughter and heir of Robert 

 Shuttleworth of Hacking,^^ and dying in 161 2 was 

 buried in his chapel on the south side of the quire 

 in Blackburn Church. The magnificent monument 

 erected to his memory was demolished by the Parlia- 

 mentary soldiery in 1644. 



An only son Thomas, aged thirty-eight at his 

 father's death, succeeded, having been twice married : 

 first to Eleanor daughter of John Danvers of Dauntsey 

 in Wilts., kt., and Elizabeth his wife, daughter and 

 co-heir of George Lord Latimer, by whom he had 

 issue Thomas his heir ; and secondly in 1604 to Mary 

 daughter of Thomas Hoghton of Hoghton, by whom 

 he had Charles of Stainer Hall, near Selby. Thomas 

 Walmesley lived at Cowthorpe, co. York., where his 

 first wife was buried in 1 601, but he died at Dunken- 

 halgh in 1642. Thomas his son received knighthood 

 at Lord Gerard's mansion of Ashton Hall in 16 17 

 during King James' visit to Lancashire. He sat in 

 the Parliament of 1 62 1 for the borough of Clitheroe 

 and in that of 1625 for the county.^" At that time, 

 therefore, he was a conformist, but by 1632 he had 

 become a recusant and then compounded for the 

 sequestered two-thirds of his estates by a fine of 

 j^l3 6s. id. a year.^"^ His wife was Juliana daughter 

 of Richard Molyneux of Sefton, kt. She survived 

 her husband and died at Cowthorpe in 1668. Sir 

 Thomas, who predeceased his father, held at his death 

 in 1636 a considerable part of the family estates in 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire.^^ 



Richard eldest surviving son of Sir Thomas was a 

 minor at his grandfather's death in 1642. Some 

 Parliamentary forces under Captain Assheton occupied 

 Dunkenhalgh the night before the engagement at 

 Whalley in April 1643. It was again visited by 

 soldiers under Lambert's command in 1659 when 

 the muniment room was rifled of its contents. "- 

 Though Richard Walmesley was under age during 

 the battle time of the Civil War, his estates appear to 

 have been sequestered for religion as soon as he 

 came of age, about 165 I. In that year inquiry was 

 made as to the discovery of the personal estate of 

 Thomas Walmesley, left to his grandchildren, who 

 were ' all educated in Popery.' ^' A report was made 

 that the county committee had seized Richard's 

 estate, but could not tender him the oath of abjura- 

 tion because he was abroad. He had taken the 

 precaution to grant his estates to Lady Lucas, a 



(Chet. Soc. xcv), 60, 109 ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Plea R. 4, m. I. Robert Walmesley of 

 Showley, afterwards of Chipping, was 

 ancestor of the family which settled in 

 London. 



A grant of arms and crest appears to 

 have been made to Thomas Walmesley of 

 Dunkenhalgh in 1560 by Sir Gilbert 

 Dethick, Garter ; Visit, of London (Harl. 

 Soc. xvii), 318. 



** Abram, Blackburn, 64.0. Of Thomas 

 Walmesley's younger sons, Richard was 

 ancestor of the Walmesleys of Showley, 

 Robert of the family which settled at 

 Coldcoats, Visit, of 1665 (Chet. Soc. 

 Uxxviii), 326 ; Edwardof Banister Hall in 

 Walton-le-Dale, ibid. 325. William was 

 of Walmesley Fold in Lower Darwen ; 

 Nicholas a merchant of London, Genealo- 



gist (new ser.), it, 244 ; Henry a clerk, 

 and John a barrister of Gray's Inn. 

 There were two daughters. 



*' Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiv, no. 

 72 ; Dunkenhalgh is not mentioned, for 

 it was the younger Thomas who pur- 

 chased it. 



** Diet. Nat. Biog. lix, 159. 



" See his epitaph in Whitaker, Whalley 

 (ed. 1876), ii, 281. A curious document 

 among the Petre papers contains an ac- 

 count of presents received and expenses 

 incurred when he went the Western 

 circuit with Mr. Justice Fenner five con- 

 secutive years from the autumn of 1596 

 to the spring of 1601 ; Foss, Judges of 

 Engl. (ed. 1870), 698A. 



^ His purchases in Yorkshire com- 

 menced in 1578 ; Yor^s.Fect of F. (Arch. 



421 



Soe.) passim. At his death they included 

 in addition to those named the manors of 

 Cowthorpe, Paythorne, Wilstrop and 

 Tockwith ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. 

 xxi, no. 72 (Ree. Soe. iii, 248). Of his 

 hospitality see Pal. Note Bk. i, 69. 



^^ This lady survived her husband, saw 

 the birth of her great-grandson, and died 

 at an advanced age in 1635. 



«» Shaw, Kts. of Engl, ii, 1 64 ; Pink 

 and Beaven, Pari. Repre. of Lanes. 70, 

 251. 



^"a Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xxiv, 



'78- 



^' Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvni, 



no. 80. 



62 Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc. old 

 ser. ii), 96 ; Whalley, ii, 282. 



6' Cal. Com. for Comp. i, 468. 



