A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



was again returned as one of the knights of the shire.^ In i 389 he took part 

 in the expedition to Barbary,' in which he appears to have been taken 

 prisoner, but was subsequently ransomed/ In 1395 he and his son William, 

 with Gilbert de Haydock, of Bradley and Haydock, and others were defend- 

 ants in a plea at Lancaster in which William Daas, parson of Winwick, 

 successfully resisted an attempt to set up a right of way through his close 

 called ' Wyndmylnflat,' near Warrington.* In 1397-8 he was again returned 

 as one of the knights of the shire.^ He died early in the year 1400. The 

 inquest after his death has not been preserved, but writs for livery of his estates 

 to William Butler, kt., his son and heir, and for the assignment of dower to his 

 widow Alice are dated on 2 1 March in that year." William Butler was made 

 a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Henry IV. in 1399.^ He married, 

 in the spring of 1403, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Robert Standish, of 

 Standish, kt., relict of John, son of Hugh de Wrottesley, kt.^ In 1406 he 

 was summoned to Parliament as one of the knights of the shire.' In 141 5 

 he undertook to attend the king to Guienne for a year with nine men-at-arms 

 and thirty archers,^" but in the siege of Harfleur was attacked by the pestilence, 

 which proved fatal to so many of the English in that siege, and died on 



26 September, leaving John Butler his son and heir, then aged twelve years." 

 His widow, having re-married without the king's licence, found security for 

 payment of her fine, and had assignment of her dower on 30 January, 1416.'^ 

 John Butler, who was born at Bewsey on 26 February, 1402—3, proved his age 

 on 8 March, 1424," and had livery of his father's lands a week later. ^* His 

 father had married him in 141 1 to Isabel, daughter of William Harrington, 

 of Hornby, kt., and had settled upon them and their issue his lands in the 

 cos. of Wilts, Beds, and Essex.^' In 1426 he was one of the knights of the 

 shire summoned to Parliament,^' and was probably knighted the same year by 

 the king at Leicester." He died in his twenty-eighth year on 1 2 September, 

 1430, leaving his wife Isabel, him surviving, a son and heir, John Butler, 

 aged one year, and three daughters." John Butler, the son, was born on the 

 feast of St. Bartholomew (24 August), 1429.^' In 1437 Isabel, widow of 



' Pari. Ret. i. 232. - Holinshed, Chroii. (ed. Hooker, 1587), iii. 473. 



» Palat. of Ches. Rec. 13-+ Ric. II. Drp. Keeper 1 Rep. 



* Palat. of Lane. Chanc. Misc. bdl. i. fol. i. m. 7. 6 p^rl. Ret. i. 256. 



» Dep. Keeper's 33rd' Rep. App. i. i. 7 Baines, Hist, of Lane, ist ed. ii. 532. 



» Slaf. Hist. Colls. (New Scr.), vi. (2) 191-2. She married in 1416 as her third husband, William de 

 Ferrers, kt., baron of Groby. 

 » Pari. Ret. i. 269. 



10 Rymer, Foedera, ix. 223 ; Beamont, Amah of Warrington, 232-3. The indenture was dated 29 April, 

 3 Hen. V. The wages of himself and his retinue commenced on 8 July and ended on 6 October following, 

 when many of his retinue returned to England sick. Exch. K.R. Army Accts. bdle. 46, No. 35, m. 7. On 



27 June at Winwick he gave an acquittance to the sheriff for ^wi, 15/. for payment made to fifty archers 

 retained in the king's service for a year to come, which he sealed with a hexagonal signet in red wax, having 

 a covered cup, between the initials Xll. 33. Exch. K.R. Army Accts. bdle. 46, No. 35, m. 7. 



11 Chetham Soe. xcv. 114. 12 Dep. Keeper's ^rd Rep. App. No. i, 13 bis. 

 IS Add. MSS. No. 32,104, f. 3171J. John Shrewsbury, abbot of Norton, and Katherine Bruche, were his 



godparents. 



1* Dep. Keepers ^^rd Rep. App. No. i, 25. Inquest taken at Lane, on Wednesday in the first week of 

 Lent, 2 Hen. VI. Palat. of Lane. Chanc. Misc. bdle. i, file i, 20. 



15 Beamont, Annals of Warrington, 230 ; Chanc. Inq. p.m. 9 Hen. VI. No. 1 1. 



l« Pari. Ret. i. 3 1 1 . 17 Metcalfe, Book of Kts. I . 



i« The mquests taken after his death show that he held by the gift of his father half the manor of East 

 Grafton, co. Wilts ; half the manor of Chalkwell ; half a messuage called Hoghtons, and lands in Little Bard- 

 field, eo. Essex. Chanc. Inq. p. m. 9 Hen. VI. No. 11. 



i« Palat. of Lane. Inq. p. m. No;. 27-8. Writ of D.C.E. 4 Nov. Dep. Keeper's ^yd Rep. App. i. 31. 



