FEUDAL BARONAGE 



THE BARONY OF PENWORTHAM ^ 



The date of the creation of this barony has not been ascertained, but 

 there is evidence in Domesday of the existence of a fee held in 1086 by 

 a certain Warin which became the nucleus of this barony.'' A charter of 

 1 094 in favour of the abbey of Sees appears to prove that Warin Bussel then 

 held Preston in Amounderness,' and a grant of Henry I. made in 1102 in 

 favour of Robert de Lacy tells us that the same Warin had then recently 

 held 5 carucates of land in Chippingdale, Aighton, and Button, also in 

 Amounderness.* In another charter of 1094 the brothers Warin and Albert 

 Bussel are associated with Pain de Vilers and Albert Grelley as witnesses/ 



To the foundation charter of Furness Abbey, bearing the date 1 1 27, 

 Geoffrey Bussel was a witness with Robert Grelley, baron of Manchester.* 

 Neither grants to religious houses nor feoffments to vassals assist in fixing the 

 date of creation of this barony, if we except a document which records an 

 agreement which Warin Bussel, in conjunction with his wife and children, 

 made with Robert (sic), abbot of Evesham, for the confirmation of certain 

 gifts of churches and lands within this barony which Warin had previously 

 made.'' The date of this instrument cannot be earlier than 1 1 40, and may 

 be as late as 1147. Where so little evidence is forthcoming for fixing the 

 exact date of the creation of this fee, it is probably safe to attribute it to the 

 reign of Stephen.* Warin Bussel died about 1 150, leaving issue by his wife 

 Maud three sons and six daughters, two of the latter being then unmarried.' 

 Richard, his heir, confirmed to Evesham his father's gifts of the church of 

 Penwortham, the vill of Farrington, and other lands and tithes, and added 

 thereto the gift of the church of Leyland, the chapel of North Meols, and 

 lands in Longton and Penwortham.^" His brothers Albert and Geoffrey 

 were assenting parties to, and his sisters Sibil and Maud witnesses of, the 

 grant of Leyland Church." He attested several charters of William de 

 Blois, count of Boulogne, and of Ranulf, earl of Chester, between 1 1 49 



1 Dugdale, Baronage, i. 593 ; Priory of Penwortham, Chetham Soc. (Old Ser.), vol. 30, p. xviii. The 

 barony of Penwortham, so styled in the Inquest of Service taken 1 21 2 {Testa de Nevill, Rec. Com. 403), 

 comprised the following townships in this county : Heaton in Lonsdale, in the hundred of Lonsdale ; Elswick, 

 Claughton (pronounced Clyton), Whittingham, Newsham, Elston, Mythorp, Frees, Warton, Freckleton, and 

 Newton, in Amounderness hundred ; Penwortham, Howick, Hutton, Longton, Farington, Leyland, Euxton 

 (pronounced Exton), Ulneswalton, Bretherton (exclusive of Thorp), RufFord, Clayton-le-Woods, Whittle-le- 

 Woods, Brindle, Hoghton, Withnell, Wheelton, Charnock Richard, Welch Whittle, Heath Charnock, Duxbury, 

 Adlington, Anderton, Standish with Langtree, and Shevington, in Leyland hundred ; North Meols, Birkdale, 

 and Kirkdale, in West Derby hundred ; and Ashton-under-Lyne, in Salford hundred. These vills, rated at 

 67! carucates of land {Lanes. Inquests, Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. vol. 48, pp. 35-6), were held by the service 

 of three knight's fees. Thorp-Morieux, in Suffolk, and Nether Broughton, in Leicestershire, were also held of 

 this barony by the service of two knights, making a total service of five knights. (Ibid.) 



2 In West Derby hundred Warin held | hide (Kirkdale), in Warrington hundred I car., and in Salford 

 hundred 2 car. (Ashton-under-Lyne). 



» Round, Cal. of Docs. France, 237. * Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 382. 



5 Reg. of Lanes. Priory, Chetham Soc. (New Ser.), xxvi. 10. The names of the witnesses are extended in 

 Duchy of Lanes. Great Gaucher, i. 1 29. Professor Tait points out that ' G. Boisel ' in the first reference stands 

 for 'Guarinus Boisel' {Mediaval Manchester, 191s), as in the Chartul. of Sees, fol. 104. 



* Goucher of Furness, Chetham Soc. (New Ser.), ix. 123, 186. 



'' Priory of Penwortham, Chetham Soc. (Old Ser.), xxx. 2. 



8 Unless it can be shown that the five fees comprising the barony were of ancient feoffment ; cf. Testa 

 de Nevill (Ktc. Com.), 41 0/5. No infeudations, either within the county or without, can be traced loan 

 earlier grantor than Richard Bussel (1153-1160). Cf Lanes. Inq. Rec. Soc. xlviii. 28-9. 



' Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 403. 

 10 Priory of Penwortham, Chetham Soc. (Old Ser.), xxx. 3. " Ibid. 40. 



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