A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



inquesti of the time of Elizabeth ;' in that taken in 

 1 594 after the death of Henry Mossocic his land in 

 Allerton was stated to be held ' of the heirs of Robert 

 son of John Grelley ' ; but in that of his son Thomas, 

 four yean later, ' of Richard Lathom.' 



Robert Lathom of Allerton, who married a daugh- 

 ter of William Norris of Speke, occurs from 1472 

 onwards ; he died at a great age in September, I 5 1 6, 

 and was succeeded by his son William, then over sixty 

 years old.' The Lathoms were both royalists and 

 recusants.' Their estates were seized by the Parlia- 

 ment during the Civil War, and the manor was sold' 

 to John Sumner of Midhurst in Sussex, in March, 

 1654. The price agreed upon was ^^2,700.' It 

 was not, however, till the beginning of 1670 that 

 Charles, son and heir of John Sumner, obtained 

 possession from Thomas Lathom, son and heir of 

 Richard, by further payment ; later in the same year 

 the whole was sold to Richard Percival and Thomas 

 his son for X4>755» °f which sum Charles Sumner 

 received ;^3,300, and Katherine Lathom, widow, 

 and her son Thomas the remainder.* 



Richard Percival, bom in 16 16, was engaged in 

 business in Liverpool.' He and others who refused 

 to make the declaration required by the Test and 

 Corporation Act were removed from their alderman- 

 ships in 1662.' He died in 1700, being succeeded 

 by his son Richard.' The younger Richard had 

 three sons and four daughters. The eldest of the 

 sons, John Percival, failed in business about 1722,'° 

 and the father, apparently overwhelmed by misfor- 

 tune, retired to Manchester, where he died in 1725." 



The Allerton property had been fully settled, but 

 in 1726 Richard Percival of Liverpool, son and heir 

 of John, with the assistance of Thomas Aspinall of 

 Toxteth Park, who had intermarried with this family," 

 cut off the entail in order to aid his mother, who out 

 of her j^ioo a year had given up ^^50 to help to pay 

 her husband's debts. Ten years later he sold the 

 estate for ^'7,700 to the brothers John and James 

 Hardman, the latter being distantly related by 

 marriage ; he then retired upon ;^loo a year to 

 Wavertree Hall, where he was living in 1 760, a 

 recluse, bent upon the discharge of his father's debts." 



John Hardman died in 1755 '* soon after his elec- 

 tion to Parliament, his brother James having pre- 

 deceased him in 1746. The former had no children, 

 but the latter left three sons and a daughter, all of 

 whom died young, and the widow continued to 

 reside at Allerton till her death, 12 February 1795." 



The estate \vas purchased by William Roscoe and 

 James Clegg, the manorial rights being held jointly." 

 The former resided at the hall for some time," but on 

 his failure in 1 8 1 6 his portion was sold to James 

 Willacey of Barton Lodge near Preston, from whose 

 representatives it passed in 1824 to Pattison Ellames 

 for ;^2 8,000. In 1836 the purchaser was living at 

 the Hall and Samuel Joseph Clegg, son of James 

 Clegg, at Green Hill in Allerton.'* After prolonged 

 litigation among the representatives of the families of 

 Willacey and Ellames, the manor or reputed manor, 

 demesne lands, and hall estate were offered for sale in 

 September, 1868, by order of the court of Chancery. 

 A sale was not then effected ; '" but later the Ellames 



' Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. ni, <i. j8 j 

 ivii. n. 87. 



' Ibid. V. B. 7. A fuller history of 

 this family i> given in the account of 

 Parbold. For a claim to the manor in 

 i6oi see Ducanu Lane. (Rec. Com.), 

 Hi, 465. 



' William and Thomas Lathom of 

 Allerton were on the recusant roll in 

 1641 ; Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), 

 xiv, 243. 



* The confiscated estates of Richard, 

 Edward, and William Lathom of Allerton 

 were sold under the Act of 1652 ; InJex 

 of Royalists (Index Soc), 43. 



* Gregson, Fragments (cd. Harland), 

 191, 192. Richard Lathom was lord 

 of the manor at that time ; Ca/. of Com. 

 for Camp, iv, 3 19. 



' Gregson, 1.8.C In Grcgson's time 

 (1817) there still remained on an out- 

 house the initials and date 



L 

 R K 



1659 



proving that the Lathoms 

 resided there till the Restora- 

 tion. Thomas Lathom was 

 joined with Charles Sumner in the fine 

 of 1 67 1 which concluded the series of 

 transactions ^ Pal. of Lane Feet of F. bdle. 

 186, m. 122. 



7 For an account of the family see 

 Trans. Hist. Soc. i, 61-6. Richard was 

 bailiff of Liverpool in 1 65 1 and mayor 

 in 1658 ; he lived in Water Street, and 

 his house had six hearths rated in 1663. 

 In 1668 he leased from Edward Moore 

 of Bank Hall the * new fabric which is 

 already begun, called the Phcenix Hall, 

 near the bridge in Fenwick Street,' under- 

 taking to complete it according to the 

 design ; Irvine, Lii^erpool in Cbas. IPs 

 Timcy pp. 145, 167. One daughter married 

 a son of Edward Williamson (mayor in 

 1 661) J another, Catherine, married 

 George Leigh of Oughtrington, and had 

 three sons and two daughters, the elder 



of whom married Dr. Samuel Angier, a 

 popular medical practitioner in Liverpool, 

 while the younger, Jane, married James 

 Hardman, brother of John Hardman, 

 member of Parliament for Liverpool in 

 1754. See Ormerod, CA«. (ed. Helsby), 

 i, 588. 



Richard had a younger brother Thomas, 

 who purchased Royton in 1662. 



** Picton^ Li'verfiool Municip. Rec. !, 238. 



^ Trans, Hist. Soc. I. B.C. The other son, 

 Thomas, mentioned in the agreement for 

 the purchase of Allerton, docs not occur 

 subsequently. 



^•'*John Percival of Allerton, gentle- 

 man,' was one of the trustees of the old 

 Presbyterian chapel at Gateacre in I7I5 ; 

 Nightingale, Lanes. I^oncjnf. vi, 195. 

 He married NTargaret Crook j see Local 

 Gleanings Lanes, ami Ckes. ii, 24. 



^1 The father's will omitted to mention 

 the elder sons, John and Richard, who 

 may have been dead, and created a trust 

 for his third son as incapable of managing 

 his own affairs. The personal property 

 was left to two of the daughters and two 

 of John's six children, but the testator 

 was probably insolvent, as the will was 

 not proved. Fuller details may be seen 

 in the paper already referred to. 



^^ His son Samuel Aspinall, solicitor, 

 was at one time partner with William 

 Roscoe i Gregson, l.s.c. 



^ Gregson, op. cit. p. 192 ; Trans. Hist, 

 Soc. l.s.c. 



^^ He was an executor of the will of 

 Joseph Lawton, minister of Gateacre 

 chapel, who died in 1747; Nightingale, 

 op. cit. vi, 199. He was chosen to 

 represent Liverpool as a Whig in April, 

 1754 J his successor was elected in 

 December, I755 i Pink: and Beavan, 

 Parly. Rep. of Lanes. 199. 



^^ The widow's virtues were recorded 

 by William Roscoe. See Gregson as 



130 



above; Fishwick, Rochdale, p. 521, and 

 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), vi, yy. 



^^ Gregson, l.s.c. Roscoe's purchase was 

 made in 1799; see the Life by Henry 

 Roscoe, i, 243. Most of the details given 

 by Gregson have been by Mr. Robert 

 Gladstone, jun. checked from the original 

 deeds, many of which arc in the possession 

 of Mr. N. J. Cochran-Patrick (formerly 

 Kennedy), of Ladyland, Beith, N.B., one 

 of the proprietors of Allerton, by virtue of 

 his descent from James Clegg. 



There has been a great deal of liti- 

 gation owing to the early deaths of James 

 Hardman's children and the want of 

 proper settlements. Claimants occasion- 

 ally come forward still, with many ex- 

 travagant stories. A pedigree of the 

 Hardmans may be seen in Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 XX, I 53, where some account is given of 

 the descent. The estates were divided be- 

 tween two claimants — Richard Pilkington 

 and James Russell, whose shares came 

 to Roscoe and Clegg. 



Richard Pilkington made a feoffment 

 of the manor of Allerton and the other 

 Hardman estates in Allerton, Great 

 Woolton, Garston, Aigburth, Grassendale, 

 Childwall, and Liverpool in 1759 ; Pal. 

 of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 363, m. 4. 

 Five years later James Russell established 

 his right to a moiety; ibid. bdle. 371, 

 m. 4 ; in a later fine (bdle. 384, m. 4) 

 in 1770 Edmund Ogden and Mary his 

 wife were joined as deforciants with 

 James Russell and Anne his wife. 



V There is a description of the hall 

 in the Lanes, volume of Britten's Beau- 

 ties 0/ England and IVales, p. 21;, with 

 a view. The scenery of Roscoe's ' Inscrip- 

 tion,' printed at the end of his translation 

 of the 'Nurse,' appears to have been 

 suggested by his estate here. 



^ Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 759. 



" Ibid. (ed. Croston), v, 65. 



