A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



year he was required, as a recusant, to provide a 

 horseman equipped for the queen's service or pay [^z\ 

 as an alternative.* His son, another Robert, was a 

 temporizer, sheltering the missionary priests, and yet 

 attending the statutory services in order to escape the 

 heavy penalties by which they were made effective.* 

 His wife was a convicted recusant.' He in 1596-7 

 secured a commutation of the tenure of the manor 

 from knight's service to free socage, paying \d. yearly 

 as acknowledgement and doing fealty to the lord of 

 Warrington.* He died at Preston, 2 2 March, 

 161 5-6, leaving a son and heir, Robert, aged forty 

 years.* 



This Robert, a lawyer of some eminence in 

 London, had been a Protestant,* but returned to the 

 Roman Catholic faith, and like other recusants took 

 the royal side in the Civil War, his sons being in arms 

 at Preston. Consequently his lands were raided and 

 seized by the Parliament, his wife being left without 

 support for herself and children.' At last he was able 

 to obtain a lease of his estate and afterwards to 

 repurchase it.® In his more prosperous days he had 

 greatly added to the family estates, purchasing the 

 manors of Birkdale, Meandale, and Ainsdale, and 

 Renacres in Halsall ; purchases which in the latter 

 half of the seventeenth century gave rise to a long 

 dispute between the Blundell and Gerard families.' 



He died in January, 1656-7, and was succeeded by 



his son Henry, who as a known recusant thought it well 

 to retire to Ireland during the excitement roused by 

 Titus Oatcs ; his tenants took advantage of the diffi- 

 culty by withholding rents and other dues.'** He died 

 in 1687, being followed by his son, another Henry, 

 frequently mentioned in the diary of Nicholas Blun- 

 dell of Little Crosby." His son and heir Robert 

 married Catherine daughter of Sir Rowland Stanley of 

 Hooton ; from which marriage resulted the possession 

 of this manor by the present lord, who is the great- 

 grandson of Thomas Weld of Lulworth, by his wife 

 Mary Stanley, a grandniece of Catherine.'* Like his 

 father, Robert Blundell was threatened with a prose- 

 cution for recusancy, the effect, it would seem, of 

 personal ill-will." He obtained possession of the 

 Lydiate estate in 1 760," and soon afterwards retired 

 to Liverpool, where he died in 1773.'* 



He had given Ince to his son Henry as a residence. 

 This son distinguished himself as a philanthropist and 

 connoisseur.** His life was embittered by a quarrel 

 with his son, largely owing to the latter's refusal to 

 marry. Henry Blundell thereupon endowed his 

 daughters with a liberal portion of his estates.*' The 

 son, Charles Robert, resenting this action, bequeathed 

 the manors of Ince, Lydiate, Birkdale, and Ainsdale, 

 and other estates to a relative by his grandmother, as 

 already stated. He chose as his heir Thomas, the 

 second son of Joseph Weld, who was the son of 



by fine ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdlc. 

 14, m. 324. 



Accounts of various settlements are 

 given in Lydiate Hall^ 107 ; where also 

 may be seen the account of his killing, in 

 his own defence, one Richard Buck of 

 Sefton, for which he obtained the royal 

 pardon ; 108-9. 



Pedigrees are recorded in 1567, 1613, 

 and 1664. J they are printed in the 

 Chetham Society's editions of the Visita- 

 tions— 1567, p. 114; 1613, pp. 76, 77 i 

 and 1664, pp. 38, 39 ; also Mhc. Gen. 

 and Her. i, 66 (1613). 



The change of arms in 16 1 3 should 

 be noticed ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), 

 vi, 263 i Pal, Note Book, i, 57, 109 ; 

 iv, 26. 



^Lydiate Hall 109, 231 (S.P. Dom. 

 Eliz. clxxxiii,n. 61), 227 (ibid, clxjcv, n. 21). 

 He gave shelter to B. Lawrence Johnson, 

 and sent one of his sons to Douay ; 

 Gillow, Bibl. Diet. Engl. Cath. iii, 637. 



* In 1 590 he was classed with those 

 * in some degree of conform i ty , yet in 

 general note of evil affection in religion, 

 non-communicants ' ; Gibson, op. cit., 245 

 (quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4). 



In the following year Thomas Blundell 

 released to Robert, son and heir of Robert 

 Blundell of Ince, his cottage, hempyard, 

 and land for a term of 100 years for a 

 rent of lU. Sd. ; this is accompanied by 

 a paper reciting that the grant was meant 

 for the father, although the son's name 

 was used ; and should the queen seize 

 two-thirds of the rent Thomas Blundell 

 would indemnify Robert — an evasion of 

 the statute of 1587, by which two-thirds 

 of a recusant's property was sequestrated ; 

 p. no. In 1592 George Dingley, a priest 

 who had become a government informer, 

 stated that Robert Blundell of Ince * kept 

 sundry years a recusant schoolmaster, that 

 is a seminary priest named Gardiner* ; and 

 had * lodged in his house and relieved since 

 the last statute of 27 (Eliz.)' not only 

 James Gardiner but the informant him- 

 self; he adds the significant hint : 'This 

 Blundell is of good wealth and competent 



living and lands;' ibid. p. 11 1 (quoting 

 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxv). Many of those 

 who conformed outwardly under the Eliza- 

 bethan persecution refused in the somewhat 

 milder Stuart times, but this does not 

 seem to have been the case with Robert 

 Blundell, for in his will he directed that 

 he should be buried at Sefton * in the 

 usual place where my ancestors have been 

 buried, that is to say, under or near the 

 form where I usually do sit, standing in 

 the north aisle of the said church' ; ibid. 

 113. 



Robert Blundell was plaintiff or de- 

 fendant in numerous suits in the latter 

 part of Elizabeth's reign ; Ducatus Lane. 

 (Rec. Com.), iii, 184, &c. 



^ Ibid. 247 (quoting S.P. Dom, Eliz. 

 ccxxxv, n. 4). 



Mbid. III. 



^ Lanes. In<^. p.f:. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), ii, 2~. This shows the change of 

 tenure, as stated in the text. Besides the 

 manor of Ince and lands in Liverpool and 

 Little Crosbyhehad badlands in Broughton, 

 in Amounderncss and Preston ; also, per- 

 haps as trustee for his daughter, the manor 

 called The Hall of Garrett in Tyldesley. 



*This is stated by John Blundell, who 

 for about a year studied at the English 

 College in Rome, after being educated at 

 home and at St. Omer's : *X was baptized 

 by a Protestant minister in April 1637 

 . . . my parents and relations . . . have 

 suffered great losses on account of their 

 professing the Catholic faith. They were 

 formerly Protestants, but since their con- 

 version have been constant in the faith. 

 I have brothers and sisters, and was always 

 a Catholic ; ' Foley, Rec, S.J. i, 246 ; 

 vi, 397- 



' Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 118 ; Cinjil 

 War Tracts (Chet. Soc), 75 ; Royalist 

 Camp, P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 199-200. 



His house at Preston seems to have 

 been utilized as a prison by the Parlia- 

 mentarians in 1644; Lanes. War (Chet. 

 Soc), 49. 



^Royalist Comp. P. i, 201 ; Cal. Com. 



82 



af Comfi. iv, 3047. The manor and 

 lands were repurchased through William 

 West, the lawyer of Robert Blundell ; 

 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 119-20. The sale 

 took place under the Act of 1652 for the 

 benefit of the navy ; Index of Royalitn 

 (Index Soc), 30. 



"See Lydiate Hall, 114-16; also the 

 accounts of Halsall and Birkdale. 



" Ibid. p. 125. 



Henry Blundell in 1666 paid the tax 

 for sixteen hearths ; Lay Subs. Lanca. 

 250/9. He and John Leathwaite of Ince 

 Blundell were indicted as recusants in 

 1678 ; Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.). 

 1 10. 



" Ljd. Hall, 127. N. Blundell records : 

 16 May, 1708 — 'Mr. Plumbc sent an 

 express to give me notice concerning an 

 information made against Mr. Blundell of 

 Ince, by Parson Ellison [of Formbyj. I 

 went to Ince to acquaint Mr. Blundell 

 therewith;' and on 26 July : 'I went to 

 Ormskirk sessions, where Mr. Molyneux 

 of Bold, Mr. Trafford, Mr. Harrington, 

 I, &c, compounded to prevent conviction. 

 We appeared in court before Sir Thomas 

 Stanley, Dr. Norris, and Mr. Case, all 

 justices of the peace. We Catholics that 

 got off our convictions dined all together 

 at Richard Wood's . . . and [later] 

 drank punch with Sir Thomas Stanley ;' 

 Diary, 60-3. Henry Blundell died 4 June, 

 1711; ibid. 92. 



" Ormerod, C/iei. (ed. Helsby), ii, 416 ; 

 Foster, Lanes. Pedigrees. 



" Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 130. 



" Ibid. 131 ; tee also the account of 

 Lydiate. 



"Ibid. 133. For a recovery of the 

 manors of Ince Blundell, Formby, Ains- 

 dale, and Birkdale by Henry Blundell, the 

 son, see Com. Pleas Recov. R. Trin. 33 

 & 34 Geo. II, m. 45. 



" See Diet. Nat. Biog. He died 28 Aug. 

 1810. An engraving of his monument 

 in Sefton church is given in Gregton, 

 Fragments {ed. Harland), 222. 



" Gibson, op. cit. 134. The Anderton 

 and Heaton estates were those alienated. 



