A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



1694 had been imprisoned and tried in his father's 

 place, succeeded and lived for about eight years,* 

 when he was followed by his son 



Nicholas Blundell, the last of the male line.' He 

 does not appear to have taken much interest in the 

 politics of the time, but his house was searched in 

 171 5, and he had to use the hiding place, *a strait 

 place for a fat man ' ; ' and found it convenient to go 

 abroad for a year or two. On his return he regis- 

 tered his estate as a * Papist,' its annual value being 

 £\%z i2s. z^d.^ He died 21 April, 1737, leaving 

 two daughters, the younger of whom, Frances, even- 

 tually sole heiress, married Henry Peppard, a wealthy 

 Liverpool merchant of Irish descent.* Their son 

 Nicholas in 1772 took Blundell as his surname ;® and 

 was in turn followed by his son William,^ his grand- 

 son Nicholas,® and his great-grandson William Josep ;, 

 the present lord of the manor. 



An oxgang of land granted about 1270 by Sir 

 Robert de Crosby to his sister Anabel and her hus- 

 band Ralph de Greenhol' appears to have descended to 



the Anyon family,"* and was eventually sold in 1 501 

 to William Moore of Kirkdale," with whose descen- 

 dants it remained for over two hundred years, being 

 described as the twenty-fourth 

 part of the manor." On the 

 sale of the Moore estates it 

 was purchased by the earl of 

 Derby,'^ but has since been sold 

 to the Blundells of Crosby. 



Other families here were 

 sumamed Moorhouses," Light- 

 foot," Langback," and Liver- 

 pool.*' 



The hospital of St. John at 

 Chester also had a small piece 

 of land here.*^ 



A number of * Papists ' regis- 

 tered estates in 171 7." 



The lord of the manor and most of the people 

 having adhered to the Roman Catholic faith, mass has 

 probably been said here almost continuously in spite 



MOORK OF KiRKDALI, 



Argent, three greyhounds 

 courant in pale table^ 

 collared or. 



> He died 2 August, 1702 ; N. Blundell, 

 Diary, 2. The son records: * As his life was 

 virtuous and edifying so was his death.* 



His eldest brother Nicholas renounced 

 the inheritance on entering the Society of 

 Jesus in 1663 i he was charged by Titus 

 Gates with an intention to burn the city 

 of London, but was released after a brief 

 imprisonment ; Gillow, op. cit. i, 245 ; 

 Foley, Rec. S. J. v, 44, &c. ; vii, 60. 

 Thomas Blundell, a younger brother, was 

 also a Jesuit; Gillow, i, 247 ; Foley, vii, 67. 



^ Sec Gillow, op. cit. i, 246. One 

 brother, Joseph, was a Jesuit ; Foley, op. 

 cit. V, 342 ; vii, 66 ; his will is at Stony- 

 hurst ; Hilt. MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iv, 

 183-4. The other, Richard, died in Mary- 

 land in 1704 i D-.ary, 32. 



Extracts from Nicholas's Diary were 

 published at Liverpool in 1895, giving a 

 multitude of interesting details as to 

 persons and customs. The following 

 topographical notes may be given as 

 specimens: * Mr. Richard Molyneux of 

 the Grange and I set a merestone to be 

 the boundary between his coney warren 

 and mine ; it was set about hallway be- 

 tween a great sandhill and Blanchard's 

 lane end, upon a hill called Tcnpenny 

 hill, and llneablc with the t-Ao mere- 

 stones at each end of Blanchard's lane* 

 (p. 5) J *The jury met in the Town-field 

 about setting out some other ways ; we 

 discoursed about the Doostone that's set 

 in Richard Harrison's butt' (p. 54); *I 

 removed the great stone as has time out 

 of mind stood near the Lower Bark gate 

 and fixed it at the turning of the causey 

 in the west lane* (p. 163). The frcntis- 

 piece is a view of Crosby Hall in 1735. 



8 Diary, 138. 



* Ibid. 145 \ Eng.Cath. Nor.jurors^ 150. 



* He IS first mentioned in the Diary on 

 17 Oct. 1720 (p. 170) ; Foley, Rec. S.J. 

 v, 365, where the name is given as Pip- 

 pard. He is said to have been a grand- 

 son of Thomas Peppard, alderman and 

 merchant of Drogheda, who represented 

 the town in the Irish Parliament from 

 1634 till his death in 1640; Names 0/ 

 Members (Blue Bk. 1878), ii, 614. A 

 Colonel Peppard commanded Walsh's 

 regiment in the Irish Brigade in 1736 ; 

 Foley, op. cit. v, 399. Henry Pippard 

 and Frances his wile made a settlement 

 of the manor in 1735 ; Pal. of Lane, 

 Feet of F. bdle. 313, m. 12. 



The later stages of the Blundell pedi- 

 gree have been taken from Grcgson, Frag- 



ments, 223 ; Burke, Commoners, ii, 529, 

 and Landed Gentry. 



* Cj/. Home O^ce Papers, 1770-2, p. 6:14. 



' He purchased the manor of Great 

 Crosby in 1798. 



** A biography with portrait appeared 

 in the Liverpool Catb. Ann. 1895. 



■ This charter has been recited in a 

 previous note. Ralph had a son William, 

 whose widow was named Margaret ; they 

 appear to have sold half the oxgang to 

 Nicholas Blundell ; Blundell of Crosby D. 

 K. 283, KL. 238. It was afterwards given 

 to Adam, son of Thomas de Aykesco ; 

 ibid. K. 254. 



"^^ The descent is by inference merely. 

 John Anyon and Joan his wife and 

 John their son in 1367 received from 

 John Blundell a lease of land. It ap- 

 pears that Joan inherited from her 

 mother Aline a rent of 131. 4^. from 

 an oxgang in Little Crosby, mentioned 

 in exchanges between Joan and Henry 

 Blundell in 138^ and 1386. Richard 

 Anyon had a grant of land in the Sand, 

 which seems to have been a hamlet, in 

 1405. The deeds arc at Knowsley, 

 bdle. 1402, n. 15-20, 24. 



*^ Thomas Anyon of Brackley was the 

 vendor ; ibid. n. 25-26. The price was 

 40 marks. About a century later there 

 was an arbitration as to the common be- 

 tween William Moore and William Blun- 

 dell ; ibid. n. 29. 



^^ It so appears in the Moore inquisi- 

 tions ; e.g. Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 14. 



*' The Knowslcy deeds referred to are 

 described as * relating to former posses- 

 sions of the earl of Derby.' 



The Moorcs had other lands in the 

 Moorhouses, Little Crosby, and Ince 

 Blundell, purchased in 1472 by Roger 

 Mercer of Walton from Thomas LJn- 

 acrc, to whom they had descended from 

 Thomas Wilson his grandfather ; Moore 

 D. n. 749 to 751. 



^* Settlements of his estate at the 

 Sand, &C., made between 1361 and 1388 

 by William, son of William Dyken of 

 the Moorhouse?, show that he had a son 

 John, and daughters, Margaret, Ellen, and 

 Clemency j his wife's name was Quenilda ; 

 K-nowsley D. bdle. 1402, n. 14, 21-22. 



There are many deeds relating to the 

 family or families thus named in the 

 Blundell of Crosby D. 



^* In 1332 Henry the Shepherd [Ber- 

 cator) of the Moorhouses gave to Adam 



90 



Lightfoot, in free marriage with his 

 daughter Ellen, lands which he had pro- 

 cured from Nicholas, son of David Blun- 

 dell, in the Moorlands ; Blundell of 

 Crosby D. K. 285, Ten years later 

 Roger son of Adam of Little Crosby 

 granted land to the same Adam Lightfoot ; 

 ibid. K.. 288. 



!*> Nicholas Blundell in 1333 granted 

 to William son of Robert Langback com- 

 mon of pasture for all animals in Little 

 Crosby; ibid. K. 130. William's sons 

 Richard, John, and Thomas, in 1356 re- 

 granted to their father the lands they 

 had received from him; ibid. K. 132. 

 A grant to the son Thomas, made in 

 1355, is at Knowslcy ; bdle. 1402, n. 13. 



1? The Liverpool family several times 

 appear in the Blundell D. as feoffees or 

 owners of land. At Knowsley is a grant, 

 dated 1349, from Richardson of William 

 son of Ralph de Liverpool to John Diccon- 

 Bon of Liverpool, son of Maud del 

 Meles, concerning lands in Little Crosby 

 which descended to Richard after the 

 death of his brother Master Robert de 

 Liverpool, as contained in the charter of 

 Nicholas son of David Blundell made to 

 Master Robert ; Roger de la Moore of 

 Liverpool and Adam son of Richard de 

 Liverpool were among the witnesses ; 

 bdle. 1402, n. II . 



^ Richard son of Hugh the Little re- 

 signed to Adam son of Robert de Ains- 

 dalc his right in an acre in Little Crosby 

 held of the house of St. John of Chester ; 

 Blundell of Crosby D. K.. 306. A certain 

 Roger In 1316-17 gave to William son of 

 William de Formby land held from the 

 same hospital ; ibid, K.. 133. Six years 

 later William son of Bimmc of the 

 Moorhouses granted to Robert his son and 

 heir an acre in Little Crosby, to be 

 held of the chief lord of the fee, zd. a 

 year being payable to the hospital ; Kucr- 

 den, Ii, foL 254, n. 200. This land Robert 

 in 1342 gave to Richard son of John de 

 Langback; Blundell of Crosby D. K. 140. 



^* Margaret Shcppard, Thomas Marrow, 

 Margery Blundell, Richard Ainsworth, 

 William Weedow, John Blundell, William 

 Grey, Thomas Blanchard, Edward How- 

 ard, Walter Thelwall, John Tickle, 

 Thomas Mather, William Harrison, Bryan 

 Lea, Thomas Farrer, Richard Jackson, 

 William Wignall (also at Scarisbrick), 

 James Dary, John Molyneux, and William 

 Marrow ; Engl. Catb. Non-jurors^ i^j-%^ 



