WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



John Sadler of Liverpool, the inventor of a process 

 of transferring patterns to earthenware, viras buried 

 here.' 



The flail was till recently used in threshing." 



The township is governed by a parish council. 



The churchyard cross has disappeared, but there are 

 pedestals of others. The pinfold stood in Brickwall 

 Lane ; the stocks were renewed in 1725 and 1791 ; 

 the ducking-stool is mentioned in 1728.^ 



About 1760 Sefton became the head quarters of a 

 social club calling itself the Ancient and Loyal Cor- 

 poration of Sefton. The members were in the main 

 merchants and tradesmen of Liverpool, who assembled 

 at the Punch Bowl Inn at Sefton every Sunday and 

 regulated their proceedings after the customs of the 

 borough corporation, the chairman being called the 

 mayor and elected in October for a year, other officers 

 being called bailiffs, recorder, town clerk, &c., while 

 there were aldermen, common council men, and free 

 burgesses. For a number of the members mock offices 

 were provided, as: An African Committee Man, Gover- 

 nor of the Tantum Quarry on the Gold Coast, Prince 

 of Anamaboe or Palaver Settler, Poet Laureate, Butter 

 Weigher, and Contractor for Gunpowder. A lady 

 patroness was also duly elected. They had their regalia, 

 long preserved at the Punch Bowl Inn, consisting of 

 two large maces and two small ones, a sword, wands, 

 cocked hats, and gowns, and at one time a silver oar ; 

 the earliest mace bears the inscription, ' The gift of 

 F. Cust, Esq., 1764.' They are now in the Liverpool 

 Museum.* 



SEFTON 



At the death of Edward the Con- 

 MANOR fessor five thegns held SEFTON, which 

 was assessed at one hide, and was 

 worth 1 6s. beyond the customary rent.' It appears to 

 have been granted about 1 100 by Roger of Poitou to 

 the ancestor of Richard de Molyneux (living in 1212), 

 and was the chief place of a fee consisting of ten and 

 a half ploughlands held by this family by the service of 

 half a knight.* The family of Molyneux, the head 

 of which may perhaps be considered to have been 

 one of the ' barones comitatus,' have continued to hold 

 the manor without interruption to the present day, 

 and from it are derived the titles 

 of Earl of Sefton and Baron Sef- 

 ton borne by the head of the 

 family. 



The ancestor mentioned was 

 probably Robert de Molyneux, 

 to whom about 1 1 2 5 Stephen, 

 count of Boulogne and Mortain, 

 granted land in Down Lither- 

 land.' In the latter half of the 

 century Richard de Molyneux,' 

 sometimes called Richard son of 

 Robert, held the estates ; from 

 him the descent of the manor 

 is clearly established.' 



His son and successor was Adam, who held the 

 manors for about thirty-five years, and appears to have 

 been one of the most prominent men in the district 

 in his time.'" He is sometimes described as a knight." 



Molyneux, Earl of 

 Sefton. Azure, a cross 

 tnoline or. 



'See Trans. Hist. Soc. vii, 184-8; 

 Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Engl. Catholics, v, 

 463. 



^ Car5e and Gordon, Sefton, 52. 



^ Ibid. 120—3, quoting the churchwar- 

 dens' accounts. On the remains of the 

 crosses see H. Taylor in Trans. Lanes, and 

 Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 184-5. 



* Trans. Hist. Soc. xxjciii, 223 ; xxxiv, 

 25 ; and CarSe and Gordon, Sefton, 132- 

 486. The members assembled at Sefton 

 in the morning, went in procession to the 

 church, styled by them * the cathedral,* 

 where they had a special pew at the west 

 end with three rows of seats for the bur- 

 gesses and a separate square box for the 

 mayor. Then they had an early dinner 

 in a room called the Mansion House, part 

 of the old Church Inn, attended the after- 

 noon service, and spent the rest of the 

 time in amusing themselves, or as they 

 expressed it, * spending the afternoon with 

 the usual festivity and closing the day 

 with the utmost harmony.' Politics were 

 usually excluded, but on one occasion (in 

 1784) a halter was voted to Charles James 

 Fox, and the freedom of the corporation 

 to William Pitt. The heroes of the time 

 were toasted and much loyalty was exhi- 

 bited, as, for instance, on the king's re- 

 storation to health in 1789. In the same 

 year resolutions were passed * to show the 

 corporation's indignant sense of the ridicu- 

 lous motion for abolishing the slave trade 

 proposed by Fanatic Wilberforce.* The 

 meetings continued till about 1810, but 

 in the later years were in the winter 

 held at the Coffee House, Bootle— Sefton 

 being probably difficult of access at that 

 season. 



* V. C. H. Lanes, i, 284a. It should be 

 observed that in later times Sefton was 

 rated as five plough-lands only. 



^ Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lane, and Ches.), 12. The loj plough- 

 lands seem to have been made up thus ; 



Sefton, 6 ; Thornton, I ; half Down 

 Litherland, ij ; Cuerden, 2. 



7 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 427 ; see also 

 the account of Litherland. 



Robert received a plough-land in Thorn- 

 ton from Pain de Vilers, lord of War- 

 rington ; Inq. and Extents, 7. 



The surname is derived from Mouli- 

 neaux (Molinelli) in the department of 

 the Seine Inf^rieure ; see Rot. Normanniae 

 (Rec. Com.) i, passim. It has shown a 

 great variety of spellings, e.g. Mulineals, 

 1181 ; MolincU, I193 ; Mulinas, 1212 ; 

 de Mulinellis, 1226 ; Mulyneus, 1242 ; 

 Molyneaus, 1249 ; Molyneus, 1256 ; 

 Molyneux, 1337. The more ancient 

 and correct form of the name was ' de ' 

 Molyneux, but by the fourteenth century 

 * le ' Molyneux had become usual. 



^ Perhaps there were two Richards in 

 succession, the earlier appearing in 1164 ; 

 Lanes. Ripe R. 375. 



9 Robert, the father of the Richard of 

 1212, made several grants recorded in the 

 survey, which at the date named were held 

 by his nephews ; and Richard himself had 

 also made some grants ; Inq. and Extents 

 12-14. One of these was to Simon his 

 brother of land called Hagenecroft in 

 Sefton ; the bounds are of interest : In 

 length from the syke of the Yitefelt to 

 the syke nearest Hagenecroft at the road 

 from Sefton to Thornton ; and in breadth 

 from Pepper-field to the next road, which 

 goes from Crosby towards the church. 

 The rent was to be zs. a year. At the 

 end of the witnesses are the names Vivian 

 de Molyneux and Robert his brother, prob- 

 ably sons of the grantor. The charter is 

 at Croxteth, but the seal is missing ; 

 Croxteth D. X, bdle. iv, n. 2. This land 

 appears to have reverted to the lord, for in 

 1249 William de Molyneux gave half or 

 the whole of it to Robert de Molyneux of 

 Thornton ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, no. 



67 



Richard de Molyneux appears in the 

 Pipe Roll of 1 1 81-2 as offering 205. for 

 leave to agree with the men of Singleton ; 

 Land. Pipe R. 46. Shortly afterwards he 

 attested a charter by Albert fiussel ; ibid. 

 Ijy. In 1194 he rendered account of 

 looi. for securing the king's good will 

 after implication in the rebellion of Count 

 John ; ibid. jy. From this time his 

 name occurs frequently as contributing to 

 scutages, &c. ; ibid. 133 et seq. 



He granted land in Larbreck to Cocker- 

 sand Abbey ; and he and his brother 

 Robert were witnesses to a grant to Wil- 

 liam Blundell of Ince ; Cockersand Char- 

 tul (Chat. Soc), i, 185 ; Whalley Coucher 

 (Chet. Soc), ii, 4.98. 



Richard de Molyneux married, it is 

 supposed, a daughter of one of the Gernets, 

 for Roger Gernet, master forester from 

 about 1 140 to 1170, gave him Speke in 

 marriage, and Adam, Roger, and Vivian 

 soon appear among the Molyneux names ; 

 Inq. and Extents, 43. 



A Vivian dc Molyneux was witness to 

 a Furness charter in the last years of 

 the twelfth century ; Cal. Doc. Scotland, 

 i, 41. 



^0 On 24 November, 12 13, Adam de 

 Molyneux made fine with the king for 

 40 marks to have his father Richard's 

 lands ; Lanes. Pipe R. 246. 



Adam paid 6s. sakefee in 1226, and 

 was still holding the Sefton fee in 1242 ; 

 Inq. and Extents, 137, 147. He died be- 

 tween Oct. 1246 and Feb. 1249; Final 

 Cone. (Rec, Soc Lanes, and Ches.), i, 

 104, 109. In 1228 he was one of those 

 commissioned to decide what parts of the 

 forest in Lanes, should be disforested ; 

 Lanes. Pipe R. 420. 



^^ The title * Dominus ' is prefixed in 

 Whalley Coucher, ii, 497 et seq. 



An Edwin de Molyneux occurs about 

 1230 ; ibid, ii, 527. 



