WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



SEFTON 



family troubles recommenced. Adhering unflinch- 

 ingly to the ancient faith, he incurred the penalties 

 imposed by the laws, and died in Lancaster Castle, 

 19 March, 159 1-2, having been convicted of har- 

 bouring a seminary priest.' His son and heir William, 

 who was sharing the same imprisonment, was after- 

 wards released, only to be arrested again and imprisoned 

 in London for two years. After his return to Crosby 

 the hall was again searched, but he escaped by flight ; 

 his wife, however, was taken and imprisoned at 

 Chester for some time. The old Lancaster indict- 

 ment was revived, and husband and wife lived in 

 hiding until the accession of James I, when a full 

 pardon was obtained.' Afterwards he incurred a 

 Jieavy fine on account of a rescue from the sheriff and 

 the Harkirk burial ground. He died at Little Crosby, 

 2 July, 1638.' 



His grandson William, son of Nicholas, succeeded. 

 He attained his majority just about the outbreak of 

 the Civil War.* Zealously espousing the king's side, 

 he obtained a captain's commission in Sir Thomas 

 Tyldesley's dragoons in December, 1642, and raised 



a troop of men ; but being wounded at Lancaster in 

 the following March and lamed for life, had to retire 

 from active participation in hostilities.' He was four 

 times imprisoned by the Parliamentarians, and his 

 lands were sequestered for seven years, after which he 

 was able to repurchase them through the intervention 

 of Protestant friends." After this he went abroad, 

 ultimately returning to England in the same ship with 

 Charles IL In the reign of James II he drew up a 

 petition for compensation for various losses sustained 

 by his loyalty and religion, but it was never presented ; 

 in it he described Little Crosby as a ' small lordship 

 or manor, consisting of forty houses or thereabouts,' 

 and for many years remarkable ' that it had not a 

 beggar ; that it had not an alehouse ; that it had not 

 a Protestant in it.' ' The last statement seems justi- 

 fied by the recusant roll of 1641.° In 1689 he was 

 imprisoned at Manchester for some weeks on the 

 order of the lord-lieutenant, and was accused of 

 complicity in the ' plot ' of 1 694.' He died 

 24 May, 1698, and was buried in the Blundell 

 chapel in Sefton church. His son William, who in 



of Morleys mentions ' Anne Blundell, my 

 sister, widow," so that Henry Blundell 

 had died before this ; Piccope, fVills 

 (Chet. Soc), i, 162 ; Richard Blun- 

 dell was in possession early in 1561 ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 23, 

 m. 9+. 



From this time the pedigrees recorded 

 at the Visits, of 1567 and 1664, printed 

 by the Chet. Soc, can be used. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xv, n. lo. 

 His son and heir was then twenty-four 

 years of age. The father * was in gaol 

 for recepting of a seminary' in 1590; 

 Lydiate Hall, 245 (quoting S. P. Dom. 

 Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4). As early as 1568 he 

 had solemnly sworn to ' take the Pope to 

 be the supreme head of the Church ' ; 

 ibid. 211. See Crosby Rec. (Chet. Soc. 

 New Ser.), 21-2 ; also Stanley P. (Chet. 

 Soc), ii, 81, 89, 213 ; Gillow, Bibl. 

 Diet, of Engl. Cath. i, 247. 



* See Gillow, op. cit. i, 248. Crosby 

 Rec. 21-40, contains an account of his 

 sufferings during the persecution, com- 

 piled by William Blundell himself, cover- 

 ing the period 1590 to 1630. He consoled 

 himself by writing ' ballads,' which he set 

 to music ; three of them are given, 

 24-30. 'Two-thirds of his father's lands, 

 sequestered for recusancy, had been 

 granted to 'one Lever'; in 1594, when 

 he was in prison in London, John Gille 

 obtained a grant of the two-thirds ; after- 

 wards a division was made, and a lease 

 granted to William Norris, whose sister 

 married William Blundell ; then Charles 

 Grimston obtained a new grant ; Thomas 

 Beaton and Gervase Travis followed, and, 

 then two of Queen Elizabeth's cooks — 

 ' two of the black guard ' — begged all his 

 lands as a fugitive, for at this time pro- 

 clamation had been made in Liverpool 

 market according to the statute of fugi- 

 tives, it being supposed that he had left 

 the country. By the pardon from 

 James I he recovered his lands, John 

 Gille having been the only one of the 

 grantees who had secured any profit by 

 the sequestrations. Further grants of the 

 sequestered two-thirds were made by 

 James I between 1607 and 1610, but 

 nothing seems to have come of them ; 

 for instance, in i6io Ambrose Astell, 

 pretending a grant from Bowes and 

 Beeston, seized some of William Blun- 



dell's cattle, but they were rescued ; 

 * whereupon he caused a privy sessions 

 and indicted a great many — to the number 

 of seventy persons — intending to make a 

 Star Chamber matter of it — but in the 

 meantime he was proved to exceed his 

 commission and take bribes, and thereby 

 was driven the country'; ibid. 31-3. 

 Little Crosby Hall 'was once for four- 

 teen days together [beset by pursuivants] 

 upon the report of a wicked priest 

 that fell and became a minister, discover- 

 ing what he knew of Catholics ' ; Chron. 

 of St. Monica's, Lowvain (ed. Hamilton); 



i. 153- 



The grant of John Gille was dated 

 2 March, 1593-4 ; that to Arthur Gibson 

 and Edward Thurleston, 27 July, 1 607 ; 

 ibid. 90, 91. A special commission was 

 issued touching his lands in 1 601 (n. 1 220) ; 

 Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), ii, 344. 



8 Crosby Rec. 35-45. The immediate 

 occasion of the Star Chamb. proceed- 

 ings was the rescue in 1624 described 

 above in the introduction ; the Harkirk 

 burial ground then came under notice. 

 This ground had been in use since 161 1, 

 when, 'having heard that Catholic recu- 

 sants were prohibited to be buried at their 

 parish church,' William Blundell ' caused 

 a little piece of ground to be enclosed 

 within his own demesne land in a place 

 called of old time, as it is now also, the 

 Harkirk.' Harkirk was used occasion- 

 ally for burial down to 1753 ; ibid. 

 69-85. The Star Chamb. imposed a 

 fine of j^2,ooo, afterwards reduced to 

 j^500 ; Ca-ualier's Note Book, p. 18 (quoting 

 Rushworth, Hist. Coll. ii, 21). 



As a convicted recusant he paid double 

 to the subsidy in 1628 ; Norris D. 

 (B.M.). 



Two of the court rolls of Little Crosby 

 of 1628 and 1634, with lists of the free- 

 holders, are printed in Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 (New Set.), vii-viii, 113-22. Officers 

 peculiar to the manors on the coast were 

 the ' surveyors of the sandy copps.' 



The inquisition taken after William 

 Blundell's death — Duchy of Lane. Inq. 

 p. m. xxviii, n. 54 — shows little change 

 in the lands held by him ; it recites the 

 provision made by him in 1631 for the 

 younger children of his son Nicholas 

 Blundell, deceased— Richard, Emily, Mar- 



89 



garet, Anne, Winifred, and Frances. 

 Jane the widow of Nicholas was still 

 living in 1638. Nicholas Blundell seems 

 to have lixed at Ditton, paying double to 

 the subsidy of 1628 as a convicted recu- 

 sant ; Norris D. (B. M.). 



Richard Blundell, after studying at St. 

 Omer's, went to the English College, 

 Rome, where he died 22 July, 1 649, 

 having previously been received into the 

 Society of Jesus ; Foley, Rec. S. J, i, 

 233-46; vii, 67. 



■* According to the Inquisition last 

 quoted he was born on or about 18 July, 

 1620. 



^ A full account of his life will be 

 found in T. E. Gibson's Ca-valier's Note 

 Book, 19-80; a fac-simile of the com- 

 mission signed by Tho. Tyldesley forms 

 the frontispiece. See also Gillow, op. 

 cit. i, 249. His history of the Isle of 

 Man has been printed by the Manx 

 Soc, 



6 Royalist Comp, P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 203-7, contains the petition 

 by Anne Blundell, his wife, and their 

 children ; and the contract for sale to 

 Gilbert Crouch in 1653. In the Cah 

 of Committee for Comp. iv, 2692, arc 

 some further particulars, William Blun- 

 dell was obliged to pay not only for his 

 estates, but also the sums unpaid since 

 1596 by John Gille and other grantees of 

 the sequestered two-thirds ; details are 

 given in Crosby Rec. 89-104, the final 

 settlement being made in 1658. The 

 estate had been sold under the third Act 

 of 1652; Index of Royalists (Index Soc), 

 42. The payment for the estate, in 

 which he had only a life interest, was 

 j^i,34o, and for the arrears ^^1,167 ; 

 Cavalier's Note Book, 29. A settlement 

 of his manors, &c., was made by William 

 Blundell early in 1662 ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle 168, m. 11. In 1666 the 

 hall at Crosby had fifteen hearths liable 

 to the tax ; Lay Subs. 250-9. 



7 Cavalier's Note Book, 52-54. He and 

 his son William had been marked out for 

 banishment in 1680 ; ibid. 166-7. 



8 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 

 236, 



^ For the charge and arrest see Kenyon 

 MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 307, 319, 

 362. His defence in 1694 may be read 

 In Jacobite Trials (Chet. Soc), 100. 



12 



