WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



CHILDWALL 



It does not appear that this revelation made any 

 difference ; the manor was in the icing's hands, and in 

 the next reign was restored to Maud de Holand, 

 widow of Sir Robert; and in 1330 the prior tooic 

 action against her in regard to it.' 



In 1324 Roger son of John le Walicer, of Tarboclc, 

 and Avice his wife secured by fine three messuages, 

 80 acres of land, and I 2 acres of meadow, which in 

 default of heirs of Avice were to remain to William de 

 Huyton and his heirs. The story is not clear,' but 

 the disputes are of interest as introducing the Brettarghs 

 of Brettargh Holt. William de Stockleigh, in 13;;, 

 surrendered to Avice de Brettargh — apparently the 

 daughter of Avice, who was the wife of Roger le 

 Walicer — his life interest in a third part of the manor 

 of Huyton, and in 1358 an agreement as to a third 

 part of this manor was made between William de 

 Walton and Avice and William de Brettargh, the 

 latter renouncing their title in favour of Walton.' 



From 1358 onwards several persons bearing the 

 name of William de Brettargh occur as witnesses to 

 charters and in other ways.* In 1398-9 William de 

 Brettargh the elder and William de Brettargh the 

 younger claimed from Alan le Norreys and Alice his 

 wife a messuage and 1 20 acres in Little Woolton, in 

 which the latter acknowledged the claimants' right, 

 receiving 20 marks. The land was to descend to the 

 heirs of William Brettargh the younger.' 



In 1502 William Brettargh was one of the justices 

 of the quorum, and in 15 14 a commissioner of the 

 subsidy .' The earliest Brettargh inquisition is that of 

 William Brettargh, who died in 1527 ; he had a 



cottage, a dovecote, and 100 acres of land in Little 

 Woolton, held of the prior of St. John by fealty and 

 a rent of 18/, the value 

 t'^'"S £i > his son and heir 

 William was eleven years of 

 age.' This son died in 1585, 

 having acquired by his marriage 

 with Anne, a daughter and 

 coheir of John Toxteth, an 

 estate in Aigburth. At his 

 death he held a capital mes- 

 suage called the Holt, a dove- 

 cote, a water-mill, &c., in Much 

 and Little Woolton of the 

 queen (as of the dissolved 

 priory) by a rent of 1 8/ and 

 other land by a rent of id. ; 

 a windmill in Little Woolton held of Sir William 

 Norris of Speke ; also the capital messuage called 

 Aigburth and other lands there and in Garston, by 

 reason of the dissolution of the hospital of St. John 

 outside the Northgate of Chester.* His grandson 

 William, son of William, was the heir, and aged 

 fourteen years.' 



The grandson married Katherine, sister of John 

 Bruen of Stapleford, a famous Puritan.'" There was 

 only one child, Anne, of this marriage." William 

 Brettargh married secondly Anne, daughter of William 

 Hyde of Urmston,'" by whom he had a son Nehemiah, 

 who took part in the defence of Lathom House with 

 the rank of lieutenant. Nehemiah had paid ^^lo in 

 163 I as composition on refusing knighthood." 



Brettargh of Bret- 

 targh Holt. Argent, 

 a fret gules ,' on a chief or 

 a lion passant of the second. 



blown down by the wind ; the expenses 

 were 85. dd. for wages for three weeks 

 before the premises were let to farm. The 

 stock consisted of 3 plough horses, 9 oxen, 

 5 cows, 2 heifers, 4 young oxen (2 sold), 

 2 calves, 2 rams (died of the plague), 194. 

 sheep (one died of plague), 141 ewes, 70 

 hogs, and a goat ; also a wagon, two 

 ploughs, a harrow, &c. ; L.T.R. Enrolled 

 Accts. Misc. n. 14, m. •]•], 



^ De Banc. R. 280, m. 320 f/, ; 284, m. 

 307 </. 



2 See the account of Huyton. 



^ liep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 333; 

 Final Cone, ii, 156. 



* See Norris D. (B.M.). There was 

 also a family named Brettargh at Oscroft in 

 Tarvin ; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 

 307 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, 447 ; 

 Rep. xxix, 96. John Brettargh was vicar of 

 Rhuddlan in 1406 ; ibid. Rep. xxxvi, 57, 



* Final Cone, iii, 51.' 



^ Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. -Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 15 ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New 

 Ser.), iii, 159 ; Kuerden, ii, fol. 207^. 



7 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. viii, n. 36. 

 The service agrees with that in the an- 

 cient charter to William Suonis quoted 

 above. William's wife Eleanor survived 

 him. She was a daughter of William 

 Lathom of AUerton and so related to the 

 Norris and Harrington families 5 Pal. of 

 Lane. Sessional P. Hen. VIII, bdle. 2. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Inq, p. m. xiv, n. 60. 



^ In 1 591 an action was brought 

 against William Brettargh and Maud his 

 mother by inhabitants of Woolton re- 

 specting various customs and privileges ; 

 Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii, 259. 



^^ In her short married life she lived at 

 Woolton, as her funeral panegyric states, 

 * among inhuman bands of brutish Papists, 

 enduring many temporal grievances from 

 them ; yet her knowledge, patience, mild 

 inclination and constancy for the truth 



was such as that her husband was further 

 builded up in religion by her means, and 

 his face daily more and more hardened 

 against the Devil and all his plaguey 

 agents, the Popish recusants. Church 

 Papists, profane atheists, and carnal Pro- 

 testants, which swarmed together like 

 hornets in those parts.' It was, however, 

 her dread that her husband would re- 

 nounce Protestantism. See Lanes. Funeral 

 Cert. (Chet. Soc), I, 37-40 ; and her life 

 In S. Clark's Marroiv of Eccles. Hist. 



One outrage their neighbours perpe- 

 trated upon their cattle is recorded in the 

 State Papers, the Norris family being 

 implicated. The bishop of Chester and 

 his associates conclude their report thus : 

 * We commend our proceedings herein, 

 as also the poor gentleman so greatly in- 

 jured by these barbarous facts, and in 

 them the common cause of religion and 

 of justice, to your favour, from which 

 only we may expect reformation of these 

 great outrages of late committed by 

 Catholics, not without the deslgnments of 

 pestilential seminaries that lurk amongst 

 them'; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1598-1601, 

 482-5. 



In the declaration of ' Grenloe, a priest,' 

 about 1599, occurs the following ; 'What 

 I lay down cannot be proved, unless we 

 had as free liberty, law and favour as our 

 adversaries have against us, viz. that 

 Mr. William Brettargh or his disciples 

 have said that if her majesty should grant 

 any toleration to the papists, she was 

 not worthy to be queen, and before that 

 should be they would "give bobs " or " bobs 

 should be given" ; which speech of tole- 

 ration was then greatly In use. Also that 

 the earl of Essex was the worthiest to be, 

 and that as the papists look for a change, 

 there would be a change by Michaelmas 

 day, as near as it was, but little to their 

 good ;' Cal. S.P.Dom. 1580-1625, p. 400. 



119 



^^ From her descended Anne Gerard, 

 wife of Edward Norris, M.D. of Speke. 



^2 Earwaker, East Ches. i, 405. 



13 Ci'vll War Tracts (Chet. Soc), 

 169-70; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 213. He and his sons James, 

 John, and Edward are on the Preston 

 Guild Roll of 1 642 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), 147. 



Nehemiah is described as an * honest 

 good fellow' by William Blundell of 

 Little Crosby, but was most of his life a 

 heavy drinker ; going ' merry to bed ' one 

 night he was found dead next morning ; 

 Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxvi, 37. 



His son and heir James, according to 

 the same authority, was ' adorned in the 

 days of the usurpation with the virtues 

 then in fashion ; he was a singular zealot 

 and a very sufficient preacher' ; but after 

 the Restoration the *mask fell off,' and 

 he ruined his health by excessive drink- 

 ing. Riding home after a bout at War- 

 rington he fell from his horse, sustaining 

 injuries from which he died a little later ; 

 ibid. He recorded a pedigree in 1664 ; 

 Dugdale, risit. (Chet. Soc), 57. His will 

 was proved in 1666. The will of his 

 widow, Deborah Chandler, was dated and 

 proved in 1686 ; she desired to be buried 

 in the chancel of Childwall church next 

 the body of her late husband, James 

 Brettargh. There are mentioned her 

 daughters Hitchmough, Hanna, Phoebe 

 Potter ; her grandchildren, Thomas Bret- 

 targh, Edward and Phoebe Richardson, 

 and Deborah, wife of Mordecai Cocker of 

 Cockshead. 



James's son Jonathan, born in 1656, 

 was educated at Huyton school, to which 

 he presented a book ; Local Gleanings 

 Lanes, and Ches. ii, 115. He died at the 

 beginning of 16855 Childwall Registers. 

 His will is at Chester, dated 6 February, 

 1684-5, and proved 23 May, 1685. The 



