A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



before the parliamentary commissioners it appears that 

 Childwall House had been leased to Hugh Houghton, 

 deceased, but the lease had expired.' The succeeding 

 earl of Derby was able to repurchase Childwall among 

 other lands ; ^ and in 1657 he obtained an Act of 

 Parliament to enable him to sell several manors and 

 chief rents at Childwall, Little Woolton, part of 

 Dalton, and all Upholland, Sec, whereby he raised a 

 sum sufficient to free his estates from certain charges.' 



The manors of Knowsley, Much Woolton, Little 

 Woolton, and Childwall, with lands there, and the 

 manor house of Childwall, lately occupied by Isabel 

 Houghton, were in August, 1657, sold or rather 

 mortgaged to Dame Elizabeth Finch and Edward 

 BagnelL* A year later, on 14 October, 1658, the 

 purchasers, in conjunction with the earl and countess 

 of Derby, for £^,yoo transferred to Peter Legay the 

 younger and Isaac Legay, who are described as ' of 

 London, Merchants,' their right in the manors of 

 Much and Little Woolton and Childwall, with the 

 lands and mansion house,' and in the following 

 February Peter Legay released his right in them to 

 Isaac' 



From this Isaac Legay, who died in 1690, aged 

 sixty-five, and was buried at West Stoke in Sussex,' 

 the estates descended to his son Samuel, who appears 

 to have resided at Childwall House, and died at 

 Warrington in 1700, being buried at Childwall on 

 23 July in that year.* The heirs were his two sisters, 

 one of whom, Hannah, was married to Thomas Hollis, 

 and the other, Martha, to Nicholas Solly. These 

 joined in 171 8 in the actual sale to Isaac Greene of 

 Prescot, an attorney practising in Liverpool,' of all 

 three manors and the house known as the hall of 

 Childwall or Childwall House, together with lands in 

 Much and Little Woolton and Childwall.'" 



Isaac Greene " married Mary, surviving daughter 

 and heir of Edward Aspinall of Hale, and thus became 



lord of Hale as well as of the manors of Childwall, 

 Wavertree, Much and Little Woolton, and West Derby. 

 He built a new Childwall Hall, but it was demolished 

 by his grandson, and a castellated building from 

 the designs of John Nash, the popular architect, 

 substituted for it." Of the three daughters of 

 Isaac Greene the eldest did not marr)-, and the 

 inheritance was divided between her sisters, the elder 

 (Ireland) having Hale and the younger (Mary) Child- 

 wall and the other Derby manors. The latter married 

 Bamber, son of Sir Crisp Gascoyne." Her eldest 

 son Bamber Gascoyne, who was member of Parlia- 

 ment for Liverpool (1780-96)" had an only 

 child Mary Frances, who married the second marquis 

 of Salisbury. Her grandson, the present marquis, 

 is now lord of Childwall and the other manors. 

 Mr. Hugh Schintz is the present tenant of Child- 

 wall Hall. 



Land in Childwall was early granted to Stanlaw 

 Abbey." Richard son of Robert de Lathom gave a 

 ' culture ' in Deepdale to Burscough Priory.'" An 

 early charter by Robert de Grenol granted to Robert " 

 son of Simon, son of Orm land in the Dale, and Henry 

 son of Richard of the Dale transferred it to Nicholas 

 son of Sir Robert Blundell of Crosby. Stephen son 

 of Adam de Ditton released land in the Dale, perhaps 

 the same portion, to the above Nicholas Blundell in 

 1298." 



Childwall does not appear frequently on the Plea 

 Rolls, but a dispute between Robert son of Robert del 

 Moss and John the priest's brother continued several 

 years in Edward Ill's reign.'" Later it was found 

 that 2/. of issue of a messuage and 2 J acres in Child- 

 wall remained in the king's hands by reason of an 

 appropriation made by the prior of Upholland from 

 John the priest's brother.'" Childwall Lodge, a very 

 quaint old building, is the residence of Mr. A. Earle, 

 member of an old Liverpool family. 



^ Royaliit Comp. P. (Rec. Soc, Lanes, 

 and Ches.), iii, 267-8. 



5 Cat. S.P. Dom. 1653-4, pp. 368-9. 



■ Seacome, Home of Stanley (ed. 1793), 

 403 ; Commons your, vii, 471, 496, 513. 



< Hatfield D. 656/12. This deed and 

 the next referred to were enrolled in 

 Chancery. See also Pal. of Lane. Feet of 

 F. bdle. 162, m. 122. 



* Hatfield D. 649/31. « Ibid. 649/10. 



' He was lord of this manor j sec Dalla- 

 way, IVest SuiseXj i, 1 1 o. 111. 



^ Childwall Reg. Samuel Legay assisted 

 in augmenting the endowment of the 

 vicarage in 1693 j Noritia Cestr. (Chet. 

 Soc), ii, 166 R. 



5 Isaac Greene calls Madame Legay — 

 Katherine, the mother of Hannah and 

 Martha — his aunt ; she died in 1718, aged 

 eighty-five, just before the sale ; Norrii 

 Papers (Chet. Soc), 29; Dallaway, op. cit. 



1» Hatfield D. 665/2 (enrolled in the 

 King's Bench) and 665/9. -^ recovery 

 had been suffered at the assizes in which 

 Jonathan Case, on behalf of Isaac Greene, 

 jfiad been demandant, and John, Lord 

 Ashburnham, and Henrietta Maria, his 

 wife, vouchees ; the latter called James, 

 earl of Derby, to vouch, and he in turn 

 summoned the Hollises and Richard Solly. 

 Thus all possible claimants — whether 

 owners or mortgagees — gave their consent. 

 See also Pal. of Lane Feet of F. bdle. 281, 

 ni. 121. 



^^ His parentage is unknown. It was a 

 saying attributed to him ' that, if he had 

 his days over again, he would have ail 



Lancashire in his hands* ; NorrisP, (Chet. 

 Soc), 29. 



^^ Gregson, Fra^^ift, 190. The house 

 seems to have been known as * The 

 Abbey' for a time, leading to the popular 

 error that there was once an abbey at 

 ChildwaU. 



^ For the Gascoyncs sec the Diet. Nat. 

 Biog. also the Gent. Mag. 1749, P- 3^° 

 (I. Greene) j 1791, p. 1066 (B. Gascoyne, 

 sen.); 1 824, p. I 84(B. Gascoyne, jun.). A 

 deed of July, 1799, between Bamber 

 Gascoyne and Sarah Bridget Frances, his 

 wife, of the first part, John Leigh of the 

 second part, &c., relating to the manors of 

 Great or Much Woolton, Little Woolton, 

 Childwall, Wavertree, and West Derby 

 and lands, &c., there and in Sutton, 

 Everton, and Hardshaw, was enrolled in 

 the Common Pleas, Mich. 40 Geo. Ill, 

 R. 31, m. 138 (/. 



■'■ Pink and Beavan, Parjy. Rep. of 

 Lanes., 201. The *bull beef and cabbage 

 stalks ' of Childwall, an electioneering 

 taunt directed against the Gascoynes, 

 arose from the failure of an entertainment 

 offered by Bamber Gascoyne, senior, to the 

 freemen on the occasion of his son's success 

 in 1780 ; Brooke, Liverpool as it -was, 370. 



" Whalley Gaucher (Chet. Soc), ii, 

 549-58. Robert son of Henry [de 

 Lathom] gave to Richard le Waleys half 

 a plough-land there, together with Doliyn, 

 brother of Edwin, the service being the 

 twelfth part of a knight's fee. John, the 

 son of Richard le Waleys, quitclaimed the 

 same to Stanlaw, his father having so be- 



IIO 



queathed it in his testament, and Sir 

 Robert de Lathom (grandson of the above 

 Robert) confirmed it. Alan son of Adam 

 sold to Roger de Ireland an oxgang which 

 he had received from his lord Roger de 

 Warburton, the rent to be two white 

 gloves, and Roger gave it to Stanlaw in 

 perpetual alms for the same rent, Maud 

 de Childwall resigning all her claim to 

 dower. Adam son of Robert de Ainsdale, 

 ancestor of the Blundells of Crosby, gave 

 to John Cotty, rector of Childwall, a sixth 

 part of Deepdale culture, for a rent of id., 

 and a relief of 8^/. to be paid at John's 

 death. 



" Burscough Reg. fol. 45. The bounds 

 touched the ford at one part, and at 

 another the road from Childwall to Walton. 

 This road crossed the ford. 



^7 Perhaps an error of transcription for 

 Richard. Margery, relict of Simon de la 

 Dale, released all her right in lands in the 

 Dale and Childwall to her son Richard ; 

 and Cecily daughter of Simon also re- 

 leased her right to ' Richard son of Simon, 

 son of Orm ' of Childwall 5 Kuerden 

 fol. MS. p. 96, n, 604-5. 



^' Blundell of Crosby evidences (Towne- 

 ley), IC 199, 242, 234 ; see also the above 

 note from the IVhallcy C'-.ucher. 



•' De Banc. R. 279, m. 190; 292, 

 m.iyd. John, son of Richard de Waver- 

 tree, is named in the remainders to the 

 property of Henry de Wavertree, vicar of 

 Childwall ; Norris D. (B. M.), n. 329. 



^ Escheator's Accts. 17/45, 36 to 48 

 Edw. in. 



