A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Brown 38 — Ravenshaw,' 7 Surreys 38 and Startevant 

 or Sturtcvant, 39 with others denoting landowners in 

 adjacent townships. 40 Some deeds of the Halton 

 family have been preserved by Kuerden. 41 



HESKETH END was long the estate of the Alston 

 family, traceable to the time of Edward I. 42 The 

 house known by this name is a two-story stone 

 building, about I J miles south-west of Chipping, 

 the front facing south, with a projecting gabled 

 wing at the west end. The principal part now 

 remaining appears to have been built at the end 

 of the 1 6th century by the Alstons, but the building 

 was probably originally of greater extent. Some of 

 the inscribed stones in the east part have apparently 

 been inserted in a rather haphazard fashion and 

 suggest the later rebuilding. At the west side is a 

 large projecting stone chimney, but the exterior of 

 the house, which has a stone slated roof repaired with 

 modern blue slates at the back, is chiefly remarkable 

 for the lengthy and unique inscriptions which run 

 across the front and on the inner return of the west 

 wing. These, together with the whole of the front 

 of the house, were for a long time very much ob- 

 scured by repeated coatings of whitewash, but ir. 

 1907 the building was thoroughly restored, the 

 whitewash carefully removed and much of the stone 



work re-chiselled. The main front wall was largely 

 rebuilt, but the smaller inscribed stones after being 

 carefully cleaned were put back in the positions they 

 formerly occupied. The interior is almost wholly 

 modernized, but there is an inscribed stone in the 

 chief bedroom and another in the dairy. It is now 

 a farm-house. 



The west wing, which is 1 7 ft. across, has a 

 mullioned window of seven lights with hood mould 

 over on each floor and a two-light window in the 

 gable, over which is a stone carved with the sacred 

 monogram. The inscription runs across the front 

 wall above the ground-floor window in double lines, 

 and is carved on six separate stones, the wording on 

 each stone being complete in itself, as follows, except 

 perhaps in the last two stones : 



BRVTVS ERECTVS LON CESAR CONQVERT AN 



DINV ANTE CHRIST II08 CLIA ANTE CHRIST 58 



SAXONII CONQVERT ANGLIA DANII CONQVERT A 

 ANNO DON 447 EPISCOPAT IB NGLIA ANNO DOI IOl8 



ANGLIA IN CO 

 M ■ SIVE • SHIRI 



ACER FLODDAN AN 1 5 1 3 

 ANGL RECEP. FIDM AD 1 79 



This is continued on four stones along the return 

 of the west wing facing east as follows, the end of 



Chipping of Robert Shireburne by a rent 

 of (3d., and 4 acres improved from the 

 waste, held of the queen by the hundredth 

 part of a knight's fee ; also lands in 

 Wheatley and Ashley ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Inq. p.m. xv, no. 13. His mother Ellen 

 is named, and his heir was his younger 

 brother Thomas, thirteen years of 

 age. 



36 In 1426 a messuage and lands with 

 common of turbary were settled on John 

 Brown and Alice his wife, with remainders 

 to their children Thomas, Richard, Joan 

 and Agnes, and in default to the right 

 heirs of Christiana de Greenhills, mother 

 of Alice ; Final Cone, iii, 91. This Alice 

 was perhaps the mother of John Formby 

 named in the account of Studley in 

 Thornley. 



Evan Brown died in 1545 holding a 

 messuage in Chipping, and his brother 

 George in 1567 holding of Thomas 

 Hoghton by id. rent ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Inq. p.m. vii, no. 24 ; xi, no. 4. James 

 Brown in 1586 held similarly ; ibid, xiv, 

 no. 42. 



37 Stephen de Ravenshaw contributed 

 to a subsidy in 1332 ; Exch. Lay Subs. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 80. William 

 son of Stephen de Ravenshaw in 1342 

 acquired land and wood in Chipping from 

 William de Ravenshaw the younger and 

 Alice his wife ; Final Cone, ii, 115. 

 William was afterwards outlawed for 

 felony, but in 1360 his lands were released 

 to the superior lord, Sir Adam de Hoghton; 

 Dtp. Keeper s Rep. xxxii, App. 341. 



38 The name either as Surreys or 

 Sothron occurs frequently in the neigh- 

 bourhood. 



Alice widow of Hugh le Surreys re- 

 leased to Roger son of Bimme her dower 

 right in Boothhurst in Chipping, which 

 Hugh had granted to Roger ; Dods. MSS. 

 cxlii, fol. t,6b. The same Roger, it may 

 be added, had a grant of Coppedhurst 

 from Emmota de Meluir ; Add. MS. 

 32106, no. 1495. 



Thomas (son of Hugh) le Surreys in 

 1288 claimed land in Chipping against 

 Roger son of William de Chipping and 



John son of Roger ; De Banco R. 72, 

 m. 40 ; 89, m. 19. Richard le Surreys 

 was defendant in 1292 and plaintiff in 

 1301 ; Assize R. 408, m. 64 d. ; 419, 

 m. 13. 



89 Robert Startevant of Chipping in 

 1304-5 claimed various lands in the 

 township as son of Robert son of Bimme 

 the White, averring that his father had 

 died during a pilgrimage to the Holy 

 Land ; Assize R. 419, m. 4 ; 420, m. 9, 

 10. Among the defendants were Master 

 Richard de Hoghton, Agnes widow of 

 Adam de Hoghton, William and Thomas 

 de Helme, Roger son of Richard son of 

 Margery de Chipping, William son of 

 John son of Bimme de Whittingham, 

 John de Greenhill and Richard son of 

 'John Othegrenehulles.' 



With regard to the surname White it 

 may be added that Robert son of Robert 

 le Blund in 1246 claimed 6 acres in 

 Chipping against John son of William ; 

 ibid. 404, m. 3. 



40 Richard de Catterall in 1244 held 

 lands of the heir of the Earl of Lincoln ; 

 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 160. 



The Bartons of Barton long held a close 

 called Barton Hey of the Hoghtons, with- 

 out any known service ; see, for example, 

 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 8. They occur as early as 1298, in which 

 year John de Barton called upon Master 

 Richard de Hoghton (as mesne lord) to 

 acquit him of service demanded by Henry 

 de Lacy Earl of Lincoln ; De Banco R 122, 

 m. 62 d. 



Lawrence Starkie died in 1532 holding 

 land of the king by knight's service ; 

 Duchy of Lane Inq. p.m. ix, no. 21. 

 Disputes between the heirs occurred in 

 1540 ; Ducatus Lane, i, 165. The Chip- 

 pingdale estate seems to have been sold by 

 one of the co-heirs — Etheldreda wife of 

 Humphrey Newton — to Sir Richard 

 Shireburne in 1565 ; PaL of Lane. Feet 

 of F. bdle. 27, m. 112. 



The tenure of the Chippingdale lands of 

 George Kirkby of Up Rawcliffe is not re- 

 corded ; they appear to have been sold by 

 his brother William to Gabriel Hesketh 



30 



in 1563 ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xi, 

 no. 8 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 25, 

 m. 197. This was perhaps the estate 

 afterwards held by the Heskeths of Poul- 

 ton of Shireburne of Wolfhouse by a 

 rent of 2j. ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 364-6. 



Jane Beesley, widow, in 1585 held the 

 moiety of a messuage called Peacock Hey, 

 Sec, but the tenure is not stated ; Duchy 

 of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, no. 24. Francis 

 Beesley in 1609 held his lands, &c, in 

 Chipping of Richard Hoghton ; Lanes. Inq. 

 p.m. (Rec. Soc), i, 138-9. 



The tenure of Richard Walton's mes- 

 suage (1594) is not recorded j Duchy of 

 Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, no. 42 ; xvii, no. 48. 

 That of Joshua Galland (1638) was of the 

 king by knight's service ; ibid, xxx, no. 17. 



John Bairstowe of Brownhurst had 

 lands in Chipping, 1623-4; Chan. Inq. 

 p.m. ii, Misc. 515-78. 



41 Kuerden MSS. iii, H 3. The earliest 

 deed is a grant by Richard son of John de 

 Knoll to Adam son of William de Halton 

 of a messuage in Chipping in 1332. John 

 Halton appears from 145 1—2 to 1479 and 

 Miles his son and heir (who calls James 

 Helme 'my uncle') in 1466 and 1477, 

 in which latter year John, his son and 

 heir, was espoused to Margaret daughter 

 of Robert Mason. Miles again occurs in 

 1481 and 1497-8 ; and James the brother 

 and heir of John Halton, deceased in 

 1505-6, was bound to Margaret, the 

 widow of John, who had married Nicholas 

 Cotton. 



42 The place may have taken a name 

 from the Heskeths recorded in the last 

 note but one. 



In 1291 Geoffrey son and heir of 

 Benedict de Chipping claimed land against 

 Christiana daughter of William the Wain- 

 wright and John son of William de Alston 

 of Helme ; it was alleged that Robert son 

 of Benedict de Chipping had demised the 

 land to William de Alston ; De Banco R. 87, 

 m. 3 7. There is little record of the family. 

 William and Robert Alston, yeomen, occur 

 in 1447 ; PaL of Lane Plea R. 10, 

 m. 42. 



