BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



through an heiress to the Shireburnes of Stonyhurst, 



and was sold by Thomas Weld to the Rev. John 



Hargreaves, who built the house in 1796 and from 



whom it passed to his nephew, 



the above-named John 



Hargreaves, high sheriff of the 



county in 1825.*^ He died 



in 1854, leaving two daughters 



as co-heirs. Eleanor Mary, 



the elder, married the Rev. 



William Thursby ; their son, 



John Hardy Thursby, was 



created a baronet in 1887, 



and at his death in 1 901 was 



succeeded by his son Sir John 



Ormerod Scarlett Thursby, 



the present owner of Bank 



Hall. The younger daughter, 



Charlotte Anne, married General Sir James Yorke 



Scarlett, a Balaclava hero,^' but there was no issue of 



the marriage. 



BANK HOUSE was formerly the property of a 

 branch of the Halstead family,*^ but was in 1732 

 sold to the trustees of the rectory ; the house was for 

 a long time used as the parsonage,^' but has dis- 

 appeared. The site is now occupied by the County 

 Court House. Dancer House, or Danes House, for 

 several centuries the home of the Folds family,^* was 

 taken down in 1886, the site being occupied by a 

 factory. It stood on the north side of the town, 

 and was a small two-story gabled gritstone building 

 F-shaped in plan, probably of 16th-century date,*'" 



Thursby, barrnet. 

 Argent a chcveron bc- 

 tiveen three lions ram- 

 pant sable. 



the shorter arm forming the porch, which went up 

 the full height of the building. The plan in the 

 main followed the old arrangement of house-place or 

 hall with through passage ; the windows were of the 

 usual low square-headed muUioned type and the roofs 

 were covered with stone slates. Fulledge, another 

 yeoman's estate, belonged at one time to the family 

 of Ingham ; over the entrance were the initials and 

 date f(\ 1576.'" The site is now occupied by a 

 council school. 



ROTLE was not styled a manor. It is named 

 with Filly Close in 1324.*^ and again in 1340*' and 

 141 8. In the last-named year the herbage there 

 was demised to John Parker and Richard Briches for 

 ten years at ^^i 2 a year, of which only / 2 6s. %d. was 

 the share of Royle.^" In 1440 John Parker held a 

 close called Royle to the behalf of John Clerke of 

 Burnley, who seems then to have secured a copyhold 

 estate in it, rendering 6a'. an acre for the 40 acres 

 the close was estimated to contain. ^^ The estate has 

 long been freehold. Margaret Clerke, the heiress of 

 Royle, married Richard Townley before 151 8, in 

 which year there was an arbitration between him 

 and John Clerke of Warley.*^ Richard, who said he 

 was forty-four in 1526,^' was about 1537 involved 

 in a dispute with a neighbour, Nicholas Harger, 

 tenant of the Earl of Derby.^* He was succeeded 

 by his son Nicholas, who acquired Greenfield in 

 Colne in 1541.^' Edmund Townley son of Nicholas, 

 aged one year at his father's death in 1 546, died at 

 Royle in 1598, but the inquisition does not record 

 the tenure of this part of his estate. His heir was 



Rome {1579, aged twenty-five), ordained 

 there and sent on the English mission in 

 1582, partly in hope that his native air 

 would restore him, he being in poor 

 health. It was for sheltering him that 

 Richard Blundell of Little Crosby was 

 imprisoned, and Woodroffe was im- 

 prisoned at Chester, Lancaster, Wisbech 

 and Framlingham. In 1603 he was sent 

 into exile for the second time, but re- 

 turned to England. In one list he is 

 noted as 'martyr, 1591,' but this is 

 erroneous. See Douay Diaries, 121, 192, 

 321, 18, 33 ; Foley, Rec. S. J. v, 135, 

 228; Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc), i, no; 

 Crosby Rec. (Chet. Soc), 21. 



^^ Whitaker, op. cit. ii, 175, 221. 



■"3 Diet. Nat. Biog. He led the charge 

 of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava. He 

 died at Bank Hall 6 Dec. 1871, and was 

 buried at Holme. 



^■* In 1602 Thomas Barker had a dis- 

 pute with Richard Woodroffe and Mar- 

 garet Halstead, widow, concerning Bank 

 House, late the estate of Henry Halstead; 

 Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii, 453. 

 There were earlier disputes (1560-3) 

 between Robert Pereson and William 

 Halstead ; ibid, ii, 23 1, 269. 



<= Whitaker, op. cit. ii, 167-9, with 

 Halsted pedigree. The railway to Colne 

 goes through part of its land. 



■■* Whitaker, op. cit. ii, 17;. The 

 descent appears to be : William Folds, 

 living 1522 -s. Richard -s. William, 

 living 1560, d. 1603 -s. Richard, d. 1623 

 -s. William, b. 1585, d. 1650 -2nd ». 

 John, d. 1687 -s. John, b. 1674, d. 1738 

 -s. John, b. 1694, d. 1741 -8. William, 

 b. 1 72 1 -s. John, b. 1745 -s. John -s. 

 John, b. 1808 ; from family papers, regis- 

 ters, &c. Mr. Obadiah Folds is the pre- 

 sent head of the family. William Folds 

 of Dancer House was a freeholder in 



1600 •^Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Chcs.), 

 i, 236. 



In a surrender of the Dancer House 

 estate in 1706 by John Folds, yeoman, 

 the following place-names occur : Moor- 

 fields, Leonard's Fields, Haggsfield, Kiln- 

 croft, Slater Meadow, Tentercroft, Gre- 

 gorycroft, &c. ; also a cottage called the 

 Hebrew Hall. A rent of Ss. t^d. was due 

 to the lord of the manor ; Folds MSS. 

 In 1739 Banister Halsted of Rowley 

 bequeathed his law books to William 

 Folds son of John Folds the younger of 

 Dancer House ; Wills (Chet. Soc. new 

 ser.), iii, 116. 



The surname was a common one in 

 the district. In a charge of assault, &c., 

 at Burnley in 1425-6 the following were 

 concerned : Christopher, Edward and 

 Henry Folds of Burnley, John Folds of 

 Sudhall, Robert Folds and John Folds 

 the elder of Briercliffe ; Towneley MS. 

 RR, no. 1670. 



46a 'p}jg (jafe 1500 is said to have once 

 been visible on the building. It was, 

 however, * covered up' in 1876 ; Whita- 

 ker, Whalley (ed. 4), ii, 175. 



■•' Whitaker, op. cit. ii, 175. The 

 surname occurs in several townships in 

 the neighbourhood. William Ingham of 

 Burnley, yeoman, was defendant in 1442; 

 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 4, m. 18. In 151 2 

 William son of John Ingham of Fulledge 

 was contracted to marry Elizabeth daughter 

 of George Ormerod ; Towneley MS. C 8, 

 13 (Chet. Lib.), I, 25. John Ingham of 

 Fulledge is named in a deed of 153 1 ; 

 ibid. T 135. The will of Robert Ingham 

 of Fulledge, the elder, dated 1622, men- 

 tions several children, his heir being a 

 grandson Robert, one of the executors. 

 This grandson was probably the Robert 

 Ingham of Fulledge who died in 1650, 

 having made his will in 1647 ; it 



445 



appears that he had two sons, John and 

 Richard. 



**8 Richard de Whitacre paid 20J. for 

 the herbage of Filly Close and Royle 

 (Reel) ; hana, Ct. R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), 72. 



^^ The summer agistment of 60 beasts, 

 g heifers, 6 stirk.6 and 4 working horses 

 realized 7 15. ^d. in Filly Close and Royle ; 

 Rentals and Surv. portf. 9, no. 74. 



so Mins. Accts. bdle. y^^ no. 1498. 



s^ Whitaker, op. cit. ii, 177. 'John 

 Clerke, for Royle,' is named in the list 

 of tenants of 1443 ; Farrer, Clitheroe Ct. 

 R. i, 504. 



The tenure may have been altered 

 later. In the x 7th century Mr, Town- 

 ley paid a fee farm rent of 20j. %d. for 

 tenements called Royle and appurtenances 

 in Pendle Forest. 



s^ The authority for the marriage is 

 the pedigree in Visit, of 1613 (Chet. 

 Soc), 99. The bond is copied in Towne- 

 ley MS. C 8, 13, C 103-4; Whitaker, 

 loc. cit. 



Richard was the son of Nicholas Town- 

 ley, who died in or before 1533, Richard 

 himself dying in 1541 ; Farrer, op. cit, 

 i, 308, 354. Margaret his wife was then 

 living, and claimed dower. An abstract 

 of his will is printed in PFilh (Chet, Soc. 

 new ser.), i, 23c. 



s* Duchy ricad. (Rec. Snc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 145. 



S"! It was alleged that Richard Townley 

 of Royle and others had broken the weirs 

 of the water of Whineroke, flowing 

 between Lord Derby's lands within the 

 hamlet of Clifton (Habergham Eaves) and 

 Townley's lands, so that the former lands 

 were flooded ; Pal. of Lane. Writs of 

 Assize, bdle. 18 (29 Hen. VIII) ; Plea 

 R. 162, m. II d, 



^^ See the account of Colne. 



