WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



entrusted to the guardianship of James, Lord Strange, 

 his father-in-law.' Lord Molyneux, with his brother 

 Caryll, zealously espoused the king's side on the out- 

 break of the Civil War, taking part in the siege of 

 Manchester in 1642, the capture of Lancaster and 

 Preston, the battle of Newbury in the following year, 

 and that of Ormskirk in August, 1644,' when he and 

 Lord Byron, being forced to forsake their horses, hid 

 themselves in the cornfields." In May 1646, after the 

 surrender of Ludlow, he came in, sent his petition to 

 the Parliament, and took the National Covenant and 

 Negative Oath on 20 August.* His estates were of 

 course under sequestration, and from this time he 

 appears to have lived at the mercy of the Parliament, 

 with but a scanty allowance. He died early in July 

 1654, without issue.' 



His brother Caryll succeeded as third viscount. By 

 James II he was made lord lieutenant of Lancashire 

 and admiral of the high seas, a grant which, on reli- 

 gious grounds, gave great offence and had to be 

 revoked.* At the Revolution he was faithful to the 

 king, seizing Chester Castle on his behalf;' in 1694 he 

 was put on trial for participation in the ' Lancashire 

 Plot."* He died 2 February, 1699-1700, and was 



SEFTON 



buried at Sefton.' He was succeeded by his third son, 

 William, who in 1 7 17, shortly before his death, as a 

 ' Papist ' registered his estate in the manors of Sefton, 

 &c. as worth X^^SS^ ^ year.'" He does not seem to 

 have had any share in the rising of 17 1 5." His 

 eldest son, Richard, succeeded and, leaving only two 

 daughters," was at his death in 1738 followed in turn 

 by his brothers Caryll " and William. The latter, 

 being a priest and a Jesuit, in charge of the mission 

 at Scholes, near Prescot, on succeeding in 1745, re- 

 signed to his younger brother Thomas all his estates, 

 the reason put forward being that he was ' old and 

 had no intention to marry.' '* It is said that on 

 Thomas's death in 1756 Lord Molyneux was ordered 

 to ' cease parish duty and appear in his own rank,* 

 and that he accordingly did so until his death in 

 1759." 



His nephew, Charles William, son of the Thomas 

 Molyneux just named, succeeded as eighth viscount. 

 He was then only ten years of age. He conformed 

 to the established religion on 5 March, 1769,'* 

 probably under the influence of his wife, Isabella, 

 daughter of the earl of Harrington, a step which was 

 rewarded by the grant of an earldom in the peerage 



Brockholes), Tarbock, Northend [in 

 Ince Blundell], and Kirlcby; also various 

 burgages and lands in Liverpool, Charnock 

 Richard, West Derby, Ashton in Maker- 

 field, Preston, Toxteth and Smithdown, 

 Gorehouses in Altcar, Heath Chamock, 

 Whiston, Heapey, acd Cronton ; and a 

 rent of fl 19J. from Hulme Walfield in 

 Cheshire ; with fisheries, views of frank- 

 pledge, free warren, &c. 



He had in 1628-9 procured an Act of 

 Parliament for altering the settlement of 

 the manor of Tarbock ; Croxteth D. 

 Genl. iii, 7. 



There are notices of the first three 

 viscounts in the DicU Nat. Biog. 



1 See Cal. S. P. Dom. 1637-8, p. 224 ; 

 1640, p. 200 ; also R. D. Radcliffc's full 

 account of the second viscount and his 

 child-marriage to Henrietta Maria, 

 daughter of Lord Strange, in Trans. Hist. 

 Soc. (New Ser.), vii-viii, 245. This mar- 

 riage was never completed. Lord Strange 

 apparently objecting. Lord Molyneux, 

 on 28 October, 1652, married Lady 

 Frances Seymour, eldest daughter of Wil- 

 liam, marquis of Hertford, afterwards 

 duke of Somerset ; Croxteth D. Genl. iv, 

 2 ; but Henrietta Maria did not marry 

 until after her affianced husband's death, 

 when she became countess of Strafford ; 

 G. E. C. Complete Peerage, vii, 264. 



There is a notice of the second viscount 

 in Gillow, op. cit. v, 64. 



* R. D. Radcliffe, loc. cit. 255-60. 

 Lord Strange does not seem to have found 

 him of much assistance ; Stanley Papers 

 (Chet. Soc), III, iii, B. 8. 



» CMl War Tracts (Chet. Soc), 204. 

 There is a notice of Lord Molyneux's 

 part in the campaign in the Lanes. War 

 (Chet. Soc), 37-9. 



■• Royalist Comf. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), iv, 149, &c. ; the houses at 

 Croxteth and Sefton had been plundered 

 in the time of the wars, and many evi- 

 dences, as the counterparts of leases, had 

 been taken away or destroyed ; p. 161. It 

 should be noticed that this Lord Moly- 

 ■ neux is not described as a recusant, 

 though his brother Caryll was one. 



* Ibid. 165. Provision for the widow's 

 jointure was made in Sept. 1654 ; Crox- 

 teth D. Genl. iv, 6. 



6 Kenyan MS,S.{ii:\%U MSS. Com.), 187, 



212 ; among other acts Lord Molyneux 

 appointed some of the gentry to be 

 deputy-lieutenants, who were, like him- 

 self, convicted recusants. The lieu- 

 tenancy was restored to Lord Derby 

 in Sept. 1688; ibid. 198. A private 

 Act was passed after the Restoration 

 (15 Chas. II, c 7) voiding conveyances 

 by Caryll, Lord Molyneux *in the late 

 times.' 



7 Ormcrod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 248. 



^ Kenyan MSS. 293 seq; Jacobite Trials 

 (Chet. Soc), 44, 62. 



' Sefton Reg ; Gillow, op. cit. v, 57. 



The marriage contract of his eldest 

 son Richard with Mary Herbert, eldest 

 daughter of William, Lord Powys, was 

 dated 29 January, 167 1— 2 ; Croxteth D. 

 Genl. V, 5. Richard was buried at Sefton, 

 22 May, 1672. 



1" Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non- 

 jurors, 113, where a copy of the certificate 

 of his marriage to his second wife, Mary 

 Skelton, is given. This took place at 

 Warrington, 22 July, 1716, before a 

 Dominican priest, Thomas Worthington. 

 She died in London in 1765. 



He made a vigorous effort to recover 

 the constableship of Liverpool Castle and 

 its valuable appurtenances, but failed ; 

 Croxteth D. W. 29-37. 



1^ Perhaps his age prevented it, he being 

 then sixty. His son Caryll died in 1745. 

 None of the family seem to have been 

 implicated in the Jacobite risings. 



" Richard had in 17 17 registered an 

 annuity of jf 1,100 and a house at Much 

 Woolton ; Engl, Cath. Non-jurors, 151. 

 His son William died during his father's 

 lifetime, in 1707 ; he is described as 

 'papist' in the Sefton register. The 

 daughters were Mary, who died in 1752, 

 and Dorothy, who was living in 1740. 

 The former married Thomas Clifton of 

 Lytham, and had issue ; afterwards she 

 married William Anderton of Euxton, 

 being buried at Sefton as his widow in 

 1753 ; there is also a statement that she 

 married Nicholas Tempest of Tong Hall 

 {Gent. Mag. 1737), but it appears to be a 

 mistake. Dorothy married John Baptist 

 Caryll (who died in 1788), of West 

 Grinstead ; Gillow, Bihl. Diet, i, 421. 



In 1729 an Act was passed (2 Geo. II, 

 cap. 9) for selling part of the settled estate 



71 



of Richard, Lord Viscount Molyneux, 

 for raising money to discharge his father's 

 incumbrances thereon, and likewise for 

 making provision for his brothers and 

 sisters, and for the payment of his own 

 debts. In accordance with this Eccleston 

 in Leyland and other manors, which had 

 in 1705 been settled on the marriage of 

 Richard with Mary, daughter of Lord 

 Brudenell, were sold to discharge the 

 various liabilities detailed in the Act. Lord 

 Molyneux*3 own debts are set down as 

 j^7,44.o, but this includes a mortgage of 

 j^3,ooo on Woolton. Nine years later 

 an Act was passed for explaining and 

 amending a certain trust and power con- 

 tained in the settlement made on the 

 marriage of Richard, Lord Molyneux ; 

 II Geo. II, cap. 5. 



The will of Richard, Lord Molyneux, 

 dated 28 July, 1738, is enrolled at Preston j 

 twelfth roll of Geo. II. 



^^ His will, dated 19 July, 1744, is en- 

 rolled at Preston ; twenty-first roll of 

 Geo. II. 



" Foley, Rec, S. J. vii, 514-16. Here 

 is corrected the error in the ordinary 

 pedigrees, by which Caryll the fifth vis- 

 count Is made the father of Richard (who 

 has been doubled), William and Thomas 

 Molyneux, whereas he was the younger 

 brother of Richard and the elder brother 

 of the others. The descent is given rightly 

 in G. E. C. Complete Peerage. 



The expression quoted is from the 

 Sefton Abstract of Title, p. 7, in the 

 indentures dated 13 July, 1746, con- 

 cerning the marriage between Thomas 

 Molyneux and Maria, widow of John 

 Errington. 



15 Foley, op. cit. vii, 516. His will, 

 and that of his sister Bridget, who kept 

 house at the Scholes, are at Stony- 

 hurst i Hht. MSS. Com, Rep. x, App. iv, 

 190-1. 



16 The certificate is at Croxteth. He 

 had been educated at St. Omers ; Gillow, 

 op. cit. V, 61. His guardians were his 

 mother, the duke of Beaufort (and after 

 his death the earl of Lichfield), and Wil- 

 liam Prujean of Gray's Inn. His mother 

 survived him, dying 14 August, 1795. 

 In 1759 an Act was passed to enable 

 the guardians to lease ; Abstract if Title^ 



7-8. 



