A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



use of turf here 

 the oily matter 



for fire 

 coming 



Camden notices the 

 and candle light, and 

 from it.' 



The area of Raven Meols * extends to 658 acres 

 exclusive of foreshore. 



Camden states that there was a small village named 

 Alt Mouth near Formby,^ but it has disappeared, so 

 that it is uncertain whether it 

 was on the Raven Meols side of 

 the river, or in Ince Blundell.' 

 In 1835 there was no dwelling 

 here but a farmhouse ; a rabbit 

 warren adjoined.' 



The hamlet of Ainsdale,* 

 now a township, was formerly 

 estimated to contain 1,459 seres, 

 but according to the census of 

 1 90 1 has 1,617 seres of land 

 and inland water and 620 acres 

 of foreshore. Two of the rail- 

 ways running into Southport 

 have stations here ; the Lanca- 

 shire and Yorkshire Company one at Ainsdale ; and 

 the Southport and Cheshire Extension two— Wood- 

 vale and Seaside. 



Flat sandy fields lie inl.ind, cultivated for the most 

 part, and extensively drained by deep, wide ditches. 

 The principal crops are potatoes and corn, whilst 

 field-peas and cabbages make a variety here and there. 

 Trees are small, and only appear in the vicinity of the 

 village of Ainsdale and around a few scattered farm- 

 houses. 



Eaton or Eaton. 

 Quarterly argent and 

 sable, a cross patonce 

 counterchanged. 



In 1066 there were in FORMBf 



MJXORS proper three manors, held by three 

 thegns, the land being assessed as four 

 plough-lands and said to be worth i o/. beyond the 

 customary rent.' A quarter of Form by, or one 

 plough-land, was after the Conquest granted to or 

 retained by a family of thegns who also held Bootle 

 and Woodplumpton.' Richard, son of Roger, son of 

 Ravenkil, died in 1 200, when his lands were divided 

 between his four daughters. One of these, Quenilda, 

 wife of Jordan de Thomhill, was tenant in 1212.° 



The remainder was probably taken into the 

 demesne of West Derby ; '" but a second of the four 

 ploughlands was granted by Henry I, or perhaps by 

 Stephen, when count of Mortain, as a serjeanty to 

 be held by the service of escorting or conducting the 

 king's treasury from the southern 

 confines of the county as far as 

 Blackbrook ; it was held in 1 2 i 2 

 by Quenilda de Kirkdale as heir 

 of her father Roger. Roger had 

 enfeoffed William son of Nor- 

 man of this plough-land, and 

 William in turn had granted it 

 to Quenilda, wife of Jordan de 

 Thornhill ; " she was thus in 

 possession of half the vill though 

 by different tenures. It de- 

 scended like her other lands 

 to the Stockport and Beetham 

 families ; " the one moiety descending through the 

 Eatons to the Warrens," and the other by confiscation 



Warren of Poynton* 

 Chequy or and azure, 

 on a canton gules a lion 

 rampant argent. 



^Britannia (ed. 1695), 748 : 'In the 

 moist and mossy soil tur\'e8 are digged up 

 which serve the inhabitants for fuel and 

 candle light. Under the said turf there is 

 a certain dead and blackish water, upon 

 which there swimmeth I know not what 

 unctuous matter ; and- in it swim little 

 fishes that are caught by the diggers of 

 turf.' William Blundell of Crosby, writing 

 about 1 680, knew nothing about the fishes, 

 but states that a local chemist had from 

 the turf extracted 'an oil extraordinary 

 sovereign for paralytic distempers' ; Gib- 

 son, Ca-vahrr's Note Book, 298. 



^ Mcle, D. B. ; Ravenesmoles, 1199; 

 Ravensmeles, thirteenth century ; Raven- 

 mealc?, 1580. 



^ Britannia, 748. 



* Tunnicliffe'a map of 1789 shows it ; 

 Trjrj. Hist. 5cf. (New Ser.), xi, 17 v 



* Baine*, Lanes, (ed. 1S36), iv, 54. 



^ Einuluesdel, D. B. ; Annovesdala, 

 1200 J Aynoluesdale, 1237 ^ Ayneldes- 

 dale, 1506; Aynsdale, 1568. 



' f'.C.H. Lar::3. i, 284^. It is possible 

 that the 'three thegns' were identical 

 with the ' three thegns' of Ainsdale and 

 the 'three thegns' of Raven Mco! = . 



8 Farrer, L^ncs. Fife R. +;, 44. A 

 twelfth-centur)- rental in the Pipe R. of 

 10 Hen. Ill has the entry : 'Of Richard 

 son of Roger, of thegnage in Formby and 

 Bootle, 1 35. 4(/.' ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 136. 



® The service was a rent of 41. id. ; 

 ibid. 23. 



^'^ Formby occurs in 1 176, along with 

 other portions of the demesne of the 

 honour, as contributing 36J. %d. to the aid; 

 Lanes. P:j:e R. 35. The assized rent of 

 2Sj. was in 1202 increased hy 6s. i:d. ^ 

 ibid. 164, Inq. and Extents, 137. 



" Irj. and Extents, 27, 131. Blackbrook 

 has not been identified. There is a stream 

 of the name in Astley. Jordan paid a rent 



of 2j. to Quenilda de Kirkdale, and this 

 was granted by her to Cockersand Abbey 

 for the welfare of the soul of King Henry ; 

 Cockersand Cbartul. (Chet. Soc), ii, 564. 



" Jordan de Thomhill died without 

 issue, and his widow Quenilda was by 

 Randle, earl of Chester, married about 

 1222 to Roger Gemet, chief forester. 

 She died in 1252 seised of two plough-lands 

 held in chief of William, Earl Ferrers, by 

 the yearly service of 8j. 4^. ; Robert de 

 Stockport and Ralph de Beetham were 

 her heirs ; Inq. and Extents, 116, 191. 



She had enfeoffed William de Samles- 

 bury of her moiety of the manor, and his 

 daughter Margery was tenant in 1252 ; 

 ibid. 191. She afterwards married Robert 

 de Hampton, but Formby appears to have 

 been given to her younger sister Cecily, 

 wife of John d'Evyas, and about 1280 

 Richard d'Evyas, probably their son, was 

 lord of a moiety of Formby ; Norris D. 

 (B.M.), B. 418. Subsequently Sir Robert 

 de Shirebume and his descendants held 

 some part of this fee ; Kuerden, ii, fol. 

 260. 



In 1259 Sir Robert de Stockport and 

 Robert de Beetham were suing Robert de 

 Hampton and Margery his wife for sixteen 

 oxgangs in Formby; Cur. Reg. R. 162, 

 m. it^d, 



^ The Stockport moiety descended to 

 Sir Richard, son of the above-mentioned 

 Sir Robert, who died in 1292, leaving issue 

 two daughters. The elder, Joan, but two 

 and a half years of age at her father's 

 death, married Sir Nicholas de Eaton and 

 afterwards Sir John Ardem ; and in 1 340 

 Sir John Ardem released her lands in 

 Formby and Woodplumpton to Robert 

 son of Nicholas de Eaton ; Watson, 

 Mcrncirs if the Earls of IVarren, ii, 234. 



In the extent of 1324 Ralph de Beet- 

 ham was returned as holding 8 oxgangs in 

 Formby for zs. ^d. yearly, and Nicholas de 



46 



Eaton and Margaret his wife [for Joan], 

 a similar tenement for the same service ; 

 Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 36. In 1346 Ralph 

 de Beetham and John de Davenport were 

 returned similarly ; the latter's right was 

 as father-in-law and guardian of Richard 

 de Eaton, son of Robert and grandson of 

 Nicholas, who was married to his daughter 

 Isabel ; Survey of 1346 (Chet. Soc), 32. 



Sometime between this date and 1378, 

 the tenure was changed from thegnage or 

 socage to knight's service, viz., the sixth 

 part of a fee ; Aid of 2 Ric II ; Dods. 

 MSS. cxxxi, fol. 175 i. 



In 1369 Isabel de Stockport or de 

 Eaton, heir to her brother Richard, son of 

 the Richard last named, died without issue; 

 whereupon her next heir was found to be 

 Sir John Warren, son of Sir Edward War- 

 ren, the second husband of Cecily de 

 Eaton, sister of the above Robert de 

 Eaton ; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), iii, 

 794, where the subsequent descents may 

 be seen. 



John Warren died in 1480 seised of 6 

 messuages, 40 acres of land. Sec, in Form- 

 by, which he had in 1445 demised to 

 Isabel, daughter of Robert Legh of Adling- 

 ton ; she still held them in 1 506. They 

 were held of the king by the twentieth 

 part of a knight's fee, and were worth 20j. 

 per annum clear ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. 

 p. m. iii, n. 86. 



His grandson. Sir John Warren, was 

 the heir in i 506, being then aged thirty- 

 six years. He died in 15 18 seised of » 

 fourth part of the vill, 30 messuages, <tc., 

 held by the fifth part of a knight's fee ; 

 Lawrence Warren, aged thirty-three years, 

 was his son and heir ; ibid, iv, n. 89. 



Sir Edward Warren, son and heir of 

 Lawrence, died in 1558 seised of the same ; 

 the rent of zs. ^d. payable to the crown ii 

 mentioned in the inquisition ; ibid, xi, 

 n. 86. 



