WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



the entire township consists of pebble beds of the 

 bunter series of the new red sandstone or trias. The 

 Alt, which crosses the south-west corner, is joined by 

 two brooks — one flowing from Simonswood past 

 Kirkby church, the other westward, between this 

 township and Knowsley. 



Little Britain, so called from an inn, ' The Little 

 Briton,' is a hamlet to the south- 

 east of the village. Ingoe Lane 

 runs north and south in the 

 western part of the township. 



The principal road is that 

 from Liverpool to Ormskirk ; 

 branches from it run east to 

 Knowsley and Simonswood. 

 The Lancashire and Yorkshire 

 Company's Liverpool and Man- 

 chester railway crosses the town- 

 ship, with a station at the village. 



The township is governed 

 by a parish council. 



Parts Brow Cross at Three Lanes Ends has remain- 

 ing a portion of the shaft in a stone pedestal. There 

 was formerly another cross about half a mile east of 

 the church.' 



Peter Augustine Baine^, O.S.B., Bishop of Siga and 

 Vicar Apostolic of the Western district from 1829 to 

 1843, was born at Kirkby in 1787. He was a 

 preacher and author of some note.' 



This was one of the manors held by 



MANOR Uctred the thegn in 1066, and then 

 included Simonswood ; the latter being 

 no doubt the principal portion of the woodland appur- 

 tenant to Uctred's six manors, which measured two 

 leagues square, or approximately 1,440 customary acres. 

 It was rated as two ploughlands.' From the beginning 

 of the twelfth century it formed a portion of the Widnes 

 fee of the Constable of Chester, parcel of his barony of 

 Halton, being held by the fifth part of a knight's fee.* 



Stanley, Earl of 

 Derby. Argent, on a 

 bend a'z.ure three stags' 

 heads cabossed or. 



WALTON 



In 1 1 76 Richard son of Roger of Woodplumpton 

 held it, presumably in right of his wife Margaret, 

 daughter and heir of Thurstan Banastre.*^ On his 

 death it fell to the share of his daughter Margaret, 

 wife of Hugh de Moreton." With her husband's 

 consent she gave the manor, the men dwelling there 

 and all the appurtenances, together with her body, to 

 Stanlaw Abbey, to hold in free alms ; ' but on her dying 

 without issue, the gift became inoperative, her sisters 

 and their heirs claiming it. In 1242 Robert de 

 Stockport, Roger Gernet, and Thomas de Beetham, 

 held it in right respectively of Maud, mother of 

 Robert ; Quenilda, wife of Roger ; and Amuria, wife 

 of Thomas.' Quenilda died 

 childless in 1252, and Kirkby 

 was afterwards held in moieties 

 by Sir Robert de Stockport and 

 Sir Ralph de Beetham." 



The share of the latter, known 

 as Kirkby Beetham, descended 

 like Bootle and part of Formby,'" 

 was forfeited to the crown after 

 the battle of Bosworth, and like 

 them was granted to the earl of 

 Derby at the beginning of Henry 

 VII's reign." 



The share of the former, 

 afterwards generally known as Kirkby Gerard, did 

 not long remain with the Stockports, being granted 

 by Robert de Stockport to Richard de Byron." In 

 1292 Robert de Byron seems to have been in 

 possession." In 1301 Thomas de Beetham, Robert 

 de Byron, and Emma, widow of Robert de Beetham, 

 were suing Alan de Burnhull " and William de Wal- 

 ton,'' for lands which the defendants alleged to be 

 in Windle and Walton respectively. With Robert 

 de Byron's daughter Maud, wife of William Gerard 

 of Kingsley in Cheshire,'^ this moiety of Kirkby came 

 into possession of the latter family and descended 



Byron of Clayton. 

 Argent, three bendlets 

 enhanced gules. 



^ H. Taylor in Lanes, and Ches. Antiq, 

 Soc, xix, 173. 



' Gillow, Bibl, Diet, of Engl, Cath, i, 

 105-10. 



» V.C.H. Lanes, i, 283a. 



* Lanes, Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 42. It is here called 

 the sixth part of a knight's fee, but in 

 other cases the fifth part ; ibid. 149. 



' Farrer, Lanes. Pipe. J?. 3 1 ; Richard 

 paid 5 marks that the justices might in- 

 quire into the truth as to Kirkby, which 

 he held of the Constable of Chester. 

 Possibly there was some dispute as to the 

 boundaries of Simonswood, which Henry II 

 had taken into the forest. Four years 

 later all Richard's manors were taken into 

 the king's hands because he had married 

 his daughter Maud to Robert de Stock- 

 port. He had to pay ^100 fine for this ; 

 ibid. 42, 46, &c. 



*• The marriage took place in 1205—6 ; 

 ibid. 203. At the survey of 1212 Hugh 

 was found to hold 2 plough-lands of the 

 constable of Chester ; Inq, and Extents, 42, 



^ Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc), iii, 828. 

 ' Inq. and Extents, 149. For the pedi- 

 gree see ibid. 40, 

 'Ibid. 191. 



l" Sir Ralph de Beetham died in 1254, 

 holding 1 plough-land in Kirkby of the 

 earl of Lincoln by knight's service, worth 

 2or. yearly ; the moiety of a mill, worth 

 12J,, and the tallage of the rustics, worth 55. 

 yearly ; ibid. 195, 201. 



After the death of Henry de Lacy in 



1 31 1 it was found that Sir Thomas de 

 Beetham held the vill of Kirkby of him by 

 the sixteenth (? tenth) part of a fee, ren- 

 dering 21^. yearly for sake fee, and doing 

 suit to the three weeks' court at Widnes ; 

 De Lacy Inq, (Chet. Soc), 24. There is 

 no mention of the other moiety. See 

 also Lanes, Inq. p. m. (Chet. Soc), ii, 102. 



^^ See the accounts of Bootle and Form- 

 by. It is supposed that Richard Beetham, 

 living in 1484, forfeited the family estates ; 

 but his niece Agnes, who married Robert 

 Middleton of Leighton, had a son Thomas, 

 ibid. ; and he, alleging that Richard 

 Beetham had only a life interest, appears 

 to have recovered part. His son and heir 

 Gervase died in 1548 seised of the manor 

 of Kirkby ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. ix, 

 n. II. George Middleton, his son, and 

 Margaret his wife, in 1576 conveyed their 

 moiety of the manor to the agents of 

 Henry, earl of Derby, whose title was 

 thus secured ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdle. 38, m. 92. 



^^ This was stated in a claim by Richard 

 de Byron, grandson of the grantee, in 

 1335 ; De Banc. R. 303, m. 205. 



'^ He was non-suited In a plea against 

 Gilbert de Clifton touching a tenement 

 here ; Assize R. 408, m. 57. 



From the record of a plea concerning 

 land in Walton unsuccessfully brought in 

 1313 against John son of Henry de Byron, 

 Henry de Lacy of Rochdale, Richard de 

 Didsbury, and Jordan de Holden, it appears 

 that Robert de Byron had obtained the 



53 



tenement from the plaintiff William del 

 Quick, and had afterwards enfeoffed Henry 

 de Byron, father of John ; Assize R. 424, 

 m. 7. 



In the Feodary of Halton made about 

 1323 it is recorded that Sir Richard de 

 Byron (misprinted Burton, for Buron) held 

 one half of Kirkby for i plough-land, 

 giving for relief loj. while Ralph de 

 Beetham held the other half j Ormerod, 

 Ches, (ed. Helaby), i, 708 ; Add. MS. 

 32107, fol. 305^;. In 1328 also Robert 

 de Byron and Ralph de Beetham similarly 

 held Kirkby under Halton ; Inq. p. m. 

 2 Edw. Ill, 1st Nos. «. 6i. Richard de 

 Byron was the lord of Clayton, succeeding 

 his father, Sir John, between 1316 and 

 13 18, and was probably acting as guardian 

 of the heirs of Robert de Byron, 



^■* Assize R. 4.20, m, 4. j the jury divided 

 the lands in dispute. 



15 Ibid, m, I, 



1^ In a plea in 1323 which Henry de 

 Bootle of Melling brought concerning a 

 mill-dam in Kirkby, the erection of which 

 had caused the adjacent lands to be 

 flooded, the defendants were William 

 Gerard and Maud his wife, Joan widow of 

 Robert de Byron, Ralph de Beetham, 

 William de Tours and Emma his wife, 

 John son of Peter de Aghtynthwayt and 

 Margaret his wife, and William Baude- 

 knave ; Assize R, 425, m, i. The jury 

 ordered the mill-dam to be thrown down, 

 William Baudeknave and Joan de Byron 

 being declared guilty. 



