A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the Osbaldestons of Osbaldeston,* until In 1589 the 

 Edge and others were sold by Edward Osbaldeston 

 and John his son to Sir Richard Molyneux,' since 

 which time they have formed part of the Sefton 

 estate of the Molyneux family. 



In the seventeenth century a family named Baron 

 held it of them. Lawrence Baron in 1652 peti- 

 tioned for the restoration to him of a portion of the 

 tenement, two-thirds of his late grandfather's estate 

 having been sequestered for recusancy.' * Mr. Baron 

 of the Edge ' is mentioned several times in Nicholas 

 Blundell's Diary of the early part of the following 

 century/ 



Gorsthill and the family named from it have been 

 mentioned ; like the Edge it became the property of 

 Thomas de Molyneux of Cuerdale.* 



Some of the inhabitants seem to have taken Sefton 

 as a surname ; ^ but this was perhaps more commonly 

 applied after they had left the township.^ 



Besides Lord Molyneux two other * Papists ' regis- 

 tered estates here in 171 7, viz. Robert Shepherd, a 

 leaseholder, and Mar)' Cornwallis of St. Giles in the 

 Fields, London, daughter of Francis Cornwallis, who 

 had an annuity of 100/. purchased from Car}!!, Lord 

 Molyneux.'' 



The parish church has already been described. 



After the Reformation there are no records of the 

 existence of the Roman Catholic worship in the town- 

 ship until the middle of the seventeenth centur} , when 

 a chapel in the old hall was served by Benedictines or 

 Carmelites down to 1792. In this year Dom Vincent 

 Gregson, who had been there for nearly forty years, 

 persuaded the earl of Sefton to grant him land at 

 Netherton for a chapel and presbytery ; the chapel. 



St. Bennett, was opened in the following year, and is 

 still served by a Benedictine father.* 



NETHERTON 



There is no variation in the spelling ; the definite 

 article was formerly prefixed. 



This township was originally a hamlet of Sefton, but 

 appears to have been recognized as a distinct township 

 as early as 1624, when the county lay was fixed.** It 

 lies to the south-east of Sefton, and has an area of 1,126 

 acres.*' The population numbered 589 in 1901. 



It is in the heart of flat, agricultural country. 

 The land is principally arable, producing crops of 

 potatoes, wheat, barley, oats, and rye, in a soil which 

 is a mixture of clay and sand. The country is not 

 interesting, for there is nothing picturesque about the 

 scattered farmsteads, and the trees are only large 

 enough to give a slight protection to the buildings 

 around which they cluster. The greater part of the 

 township lies upon the lower keuper sandstone of the 

 new red sandstone or trias, but on the south-eastern 

 side the waterstones of the keuper series occur near 

 the boundary of Aintree. The strata are obscured by 

 sand and thick boulder clay and by alluvial deposits. 



The principal road is that from Aintree village to 

 Sefton Town. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes 

 through the township, and upon it is the village, about 

 J mile south of Sefton church. The green is enclosed 

 with railings. 



The southern corner is crossed by two lines of rail- 

 way, and contains the Aintree stations of the Lanca- 

 shire and Yorkshire Company and the Cheshire Lines 

 Committee. 



* In Oct. 1461 Geoffrey Osbaldeston 

 (granted to his son John and Elizabeth his 

 wife * a messuage with the meadows, feed- 

 ings, pastures, and appurtenances called 

 the Edge in Sefton," and all his other lands, 

 &c., in Sefton^Walton, Thornton, and Incc, 

 and tenements elsewhere ; Croxteth D. X. 

 iii, 2. 



'Ibid. X, ili, 3, 4 i also Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 51, ra. 39. 



* Royalist Comp. P. t, 145. From the 

 documents here printed it appears that the 

 grandfather's name was Lawrence also ; 

 he had a tease of the Edge in 1620 from 

 Sir Richard Molyneux, for the lives of 

 Lawrence himself, William his eldest son 

 and Alice his wife, who was the daughter 

 of Richard Tatlock. The house was di- 

 vided, one half being assigned to Lawrence 

 and his wife Ellen, and the other to Wil- 

 liam and his wife. 



A detailed description of the house fol- 

 lows, with its upper and lower floors, 

 garrets, and farm buildings 5 and several 

 field names, including the Coningre or 

 Warren and the Hemp-yard. The * Edge 

 Hcst holm at the South side' repeats 

 words in the grant by Richard de Moly- 

 neux in 1315* 



Lawrence Baron the grandfather died 

 in Sept. 1652 ; two-thirds of his estate 

 had been sequestrated for recusancy in 

 1643. The son William's death is not 

 mentioned ; Alice his wife appears to 

 have married again, as she is called Alice 

 Allison. 



From the Crosby Rec* (Chet, Soc.) it 

 appears that the above-named Ellen Baron, 

 wife of the grandfather, * together with 

 divers other Catholics . . , were 

 committed to prison in the Castle of 

 Chester' in 1598 ; p. 23. The only re- 

 cusant in 1628 who paid double to the 



subsidy was Peter Hurdes ; Norris D. 

 (B.M.) ; but in 1641 is a long list of re- 

 cusants in the township, headed by Law- 

 rence Baron, senior ; Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 (Mew Ser,), xiv, 236. As no mention of 

 the younger Lawrence's religion is made 

 in 16^3 it is probable that he had become 

 a Protestant. The sequestration was re- 

 moved and arrears allowed ; CaL Com. for 

 Camp, iv, 3060. In 1666 Lawrence Baron 

 and Alice his mother paid for six hearths ; 

 Lay Subs. Lanes. 250-9. 



The elder Lawrence had another son, 

 John, who became a Jesuit. His account 

 of himself, given on entering the English 

 College at Rome in 1625, is of much In- 

 terest : *I was born in Lancashire and 

 am in my twenty-second year. My 

 parents are Lawrence Baron and Ellen his 

 wife, of the middle class of life. I have 

 an only brother and one sister, who, with 

 my parents, are Catholics. I made my 

 humanity studies under a Jesuit father in 

 the house of a certain nobleman, and was 

 nc%'cr more than forty miles from my 

 father's house before I took my journey 

 hither' 5 Foley, Ru. SJ. i, 660. The 

 word 'nobleman' does not imply a title ; 

 the school referred to was perhaps that 

 at Scarisbrick, where a priest was sta- 

 tioned before 1620. John Baron, known 

 as Burton, was ordained, and in 1632 

 sent on the English mission to *a country 

 place among poor Catholics' — possibly 

 Sefton. After a short time he was re- 

 called to the Continent and died at Watten 

 in 1638 ; Foley, op. cit. vi, 307 ; vil, 

 33- 



There was at Over Darwen a family 

 named Baron, tenants of the Osbaldes- 

 tons ; Abram, Blackburn^ 501. 



^ Diary, 135, 147, 161 : * Lawrence 

 Baron of Sefton, gentleman,' was one 



74 



of the jurors inquiring into the Altcar 

 riot of 1682 ; Kenyon MSS. 137. 



* The earliest mention of the place is 

 in an undated deed by which Roger, son 

 of Adam son of Beatrice of Sefton, granted 

 to Adam his father half his land on the 

 Gorst hill ; Croxteth D. X. iv, i. 



In 1375 Adam Hodgson and Emma 

 his wife sold the latter's life interest in a 

 messuage and twelve acres in the Gorst 

 hill to Thomas de Molyneux and Lettice, 

 widow of Richard de Molyneux ; it was 

 the inheritance of Thomas del Gorsthill, 

 Emma's former husband ; ibid. X. i, 17. 

 Ten years later Alan del Gorsthill sold 

 all his lands in that place, together with 

 the reversion of those held by Adam 

 Hodgson and Emmota his wife, to Tho- 

 mas de Molyneux of Cuerdale ; ibid, i, 1 8. 



* Richard de Molyneux in 1343 leased 

 land in Sefton to Henry of Sefton and 

 Alice his wife ; ibid. Ec. 17. 



7 There were Scftons at Liverpool from 

 an early time ; see Lanes, Ct. R. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Chcs.), 80. In 1354-7 

 Richard de Sefton of Liverpool acted as 

 the feoffee of Richard de Holland in a 

 settlement of the latter's estate in Sefton ; 

 the remainders were to John, Joan, and 

 Agnes, children of Richard de Holland ; 

 Croxteth D. X. iv, 8, 9. 



8 Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, io8, 98. The 

 will of Mary Cornwallis, dated 1727, was 

 proved in 1730; Payne, Rec. of Engl. 

 Cath. 2^. 



* These details arc from a paper in 

 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Scr.),xiii, 146, 1 47. 

 It is there stated that 200 persons were 

 in 1774 confirmed by Bishop Wilson at 

 Sefton. 



^^ Gregson, Fragments, 16, 

 ^* 1,124 in census of 1901 ; this in- 

 cludes 14 acres of inland water. 



