A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



and in this county Hoole, in Leyland hundred ; to Roger de Stainsby, Ince 

 Blundell (3 carucates) and half of Barton near Halsall (4 oxgangs) ; to 

 Robert de Molyneux the third part of Thornton near Sefton (i carucate) ; 

 to Elwin, the third part of Thornton (i carucate) ; to William Gernet, the 

 vill ofLydiate (6 oxgangs) ; to Vivian Gernet, in marriage with his daughter 

 Emma, the vills of Windle and Halsall (each i carucate) ; to Gerard de Sankey, 

 the carpenter. Little Sankey (i carucate) ; to Adam the Violer, i carucate, 

 which was probably the vill of Penketh.^ About the year 1 156 he was one 

 of the witnesses to William de Roumare's confirmation charter to Reading 

 Abbey ,^ and probably died soon after. Matthew de Vilers, son and heir of 

 Pain, with his brothers William, Alan, and Thomas, gave to the priory of 

 Thurgarton the church of Warrington, in this county, and the church of 

 Tythby, with the chapel of Crophill, co. Notts., all his land of Lound, with 

 the service of Ralph de Sankey — evidently a native of Warrington parish — 

 and I carucate of land in Crophill.* Matthew does not appear to have long 

 survived his father. Shortly before his death — which probably occurred 

 about the year 11 60 — he took the religious habit in the priory of Thur- 

 garton, and with the consent of his heirs, Robert fitz Helgod and his wife 

 Beatrice, Matthew's daughter, confirmed to the canons of that house in free 

 alms the carucate of land in Crophill which he had assigned to them out of 

 his demesne there.* Beatrice, his daughter and heir, had no issue by 

 Robert fitz Helgod,' who died before 11 59, in or before which year she had 

 married Richard ' Pincerna,' ' generally supposed to have been a younger 

 brother, but more probably a cousin, of Robert, the earl of Chester's butler. 



The first upon record of this family, to which belonged the heredi- 

 tary office of butler to the earls of Chester, seems to have been Richard the 

 butler, who held in Cheshire, at the date of the Domesday Survey, Pontone, 

 now Poulton by Pulford, and Caluintone (unidentified).'^ He was one of 

 the witnesses to William de Malbanc's grant to St. Werburgh, upon the 

 foundation of that abbey by Earl Hugh of Chester.* Before 1 1 20 he gave 

 to the same abbey the church of St. Olave, in Chester." Robert the butler, 

 living in the time of Stephen and Henry II., was either his son or grandson, 

 probably the latter. Before 1 153 he founded the abbey of Pulton, afterwards 

 removed to Deulacres, to which he gave half the mill of Pulton, his wife 

 Ivetta and son Robert being witnesses.'" He appears to have held Ingleby, 

 CO. Derby, under the earl of Chester, a manor which afterwards descended to 

 his eldest son, Robert ' Pincerna' of Ingleby." Before 1 155 he had a grant 

 from the crown of 10 solidates of rent in Budiford, co. Warwick, which 

 Robert his son still held in 1177.^^ In that year, as Robert the butler, he 



1 Tata de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 402 ; Lanes, and Ches. Rec. Soc. xlviii. 6. 2 jrch. Joum. xii. 



^ Mm. Angl. vi. 190-2 ; Beamont, Annab ofWarringtm (Chetham Soc), Ixiovi. 18-19. 

 * Reg. of Thurgarton at Southwell ; Amah of Warrington, 18. 



6 He was perhaps a scion of the house of Helgot, barons of Castle Holgate, co. Salop. See Eyton, Antiq. 

 of Shropshire, iv. 56. 



^ The date of Robert fitz Helgod's death and his widow's marriage to Richard Butler is approximately 

 fixed by an entry in the Pipe Roll of 23 Henry II. 1 177, Notts, and Derby, to which reference will he made. 



7 Dom. Bk. i. 265. * Mon. Angl. ii. 386. » Ibid. 387. 



10 Ibid. V. 628 ; Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. edit. Helsby, ii. 862. 



11 Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. ii. 864.-6 ; Beamont, Annals of Warrington, 31. 



1' Pipe R. 2 Hen. II. (Rec. Com.), 45 ; ibid. 23 Hen. II. (Pipe R. Soc), 26. Ralph son of Robert Pincerna 

 held 1 o solidates of rent in Budiford in i Ric. I., ibid. (Rec. Com.), I Ric I. 1 1 7 ; and in 3 John, ibid. 

 3 John, I. 



