WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



CHILDWALL 



3 acres in a field called Crosbyhouses, one headland 

 abutting on the king's highway on the west.' Adam 

 son of Richard Dawson of Denton, in 1357 sold to 

 Henry, son of Alan le Norreys of Speke a messuage 

 and 5 acres in Halewood, abutting towards the high- 

 way and towards Ruscar mill.' 



Robert de Dalton had lands here in 1347, and Sir 

 John his son, lord of Bispham, had the same ; a 

 settlement was made in 1367, the remainders being to 

 John and Robert, sons of John, son of Sir Robert. 

 There were a house and garden and 40 acres of land, 

 held of Sir Robert de Holland in socage by 7/. service 

 yearly. In 1443 Robert, younger son of Sir John Dalton, 

 and grandson of another Sir John, sued Katherine, widow 

 of his elder brother Richard, concerning these lands ; 

 his niece Alice was called to warrant her mother. In 

 1472 Robert Dalton of Bispham and Richard his son 

 and heir apparent leased to Robert Lathom of AUerton 



all their lands in Halewood for thirty-nine years at a 

 rent of 40/. ; and Robert Lathom transferred this 

 lease to Thomas Norris of Speke.' 



John de Blackburn of Garston in 1405 held 

 a piece of land called Holland Place, of the hospital 

 of St. John at Chester.' Halewood is called a ' vill ' 

 in a deed of 1349 ; about 1470 the term 'lordship' 

 is used.'" 



Among the ' Papists ' in 171 7 Richard Burscough 

 of Leyburn, and Robert and Thomas Quick registered 

 estates at Halewood." Mrs. Blackburne of the Hutt 

 contributed nearly a third of the land tax in 1787; 

 the remainder was in small sums. 



For the Established worship St. Nicholas' was built 

 as a chapel of ease in 1839; it was made into a rectory 

 in 1868." The patron is the bishop of Liverpool. 



There is a Wesleyan chapel at Halebank, built 

 in 1861. 



HUYTON 



KNOWSLEY 



HUYTON WITH ROBY 



The extreme length of the ancient parish of Huyton 

 from north to south is over seven miles, and its breadth 

 about three and a half. The area is 10,383^ acres.' 

 The highest ground is in Knowsley Park, about 330 ft. 

 above sea level. 



Before the Conquest half was held by Uctred and 

 half by Dot, each holding one hide. After the Con- 

 quest, though Croxteth Park was cut off, the parish 

 was given, perhaps not all at once, to the barons of 

 Halton as part of their fee of Widnes.' By these 

 again the whole, as one knight's fee, was granted to 

 the Lathom family or their predecessors in title. The 

 partition indicated in Domesday Book again reveals it- 

 self, Roby and Knowsley being retained as demesne, 

 while Huyton and Tarbock became parted among 

 junior branches of the Lathom family. 



To the old county lay, the three townships paid 

 equally ; ' to the fifteenth Huyton with Roby paid 

 £1 14/. 6^J., Knowsley j^i os. ()\d., and Tarbock 

 2i i8x. %d? 



The story of the parish is uneventful. The Refor- 

 mation seems to have made no commotion here.' In 



TARBOCK 



CROXTETH PARK (Extra-Parochial) 



the subsidy roll of 1628 only one man — Peter 

 Stockley of Knowsley — paid double as a convicted 

 recusant." 



The Civil War also produced little or no disturbance 

 in Huyton. Lord Derby's property was of course seized, 

 but Knowsley was reserved for his children and 

 countess, and of the sequestrations for religion or poli- 

 tics there are only the cases of Bootle,'* Brookfield,'^ 

 Holme," and Hutchins"in Knowsley, and Harrington 

 in Huyton. The influence of William Bell, vicar of 

 Huyton during the Commonwealth, was sufficient to 

 bring round him a congregation of Nonconformists 

 after the re-establishment of the Anglican system, and 

 he ministered to them for some years. 



The agricultural land in the parish is thus returned : 

 Arable land, 3,481 acres; permanent grass, 1,954 

 acres; woods and plantations, 1,021 acres. The 

 following are the details : 



1 Hale D. 



2 Norris D. (B.M.), 190. 



^ The census return of 1901 gives 10,527 

 acres, including 95 acres of inland water. 



■• Half at least before 1086. 



^ Gregson, Fra^men/'j (ed. Harland), 16; 

 the whole paid £^ 51. when the hundred 

 contributed ^^loo, 



6 Ibid. 18 ; the total is ^4 135. %\d.^ 

 when the hundred paid ^^106. 



'In 1584 George Stockley, yeoman, 

 ' went to church, but kept mass, at home 

 for his wife ' ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 227, 

 (quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz, clxxv, n. 21), 

 An informer sent the following list : * Mr. 

 Woofall, Hugh Parr, gent., Rafe Gorsage, 

 yeoman, and John Molinex*; ibid. In 

 1590 John Ogle of Roby, a 'gentleman of 

 the better sort,' was * a comer to church 

 but no communicant ' ; Gibson, op. cit. 

 226, 246. At the bishop of Chester's visita- 

 tion in 1592, Hamlet Ditchfield, Elizabeth 

 wife of William Ditchfield, Margaret wife 

 of John Ditchfield, Mary Wolfall, widow, 

 and Isabel her maid, Elizabeth wife of 



Michael Tyldcsley of Huyton, and two 

 others were excommunicated as being non- 

 communicants for a year or more. After- 

 wards, however, the two first-named were 

 said to have begun to attend church 

 regularly ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Scr.), 

 X, 186. 



8 Norris D. (B.M,), 195, 214 5 Pal. of 

 Lane. Plea R. 5, m. 13 i; 6, m. 10^; 

 8, m. 25 ; 8, m. 26 ; 9, m. 19 b ,* Inq. 

 p.m. 21 Edw. Ill, No. 63, and 43 Edw. Ill 

 (i),No. 31. 



9 Towneley MS. DD, 1457. 



i» Norris D. (B.M.), 186, &c. 



11 Engl, Cath. Non-jurors, 122, 149. 



^^ The tithe3 of the township were 

 granted in 1867, and the rectory was after- 

 wards declared ; Lond. Gaz. 23 Aug. 1 867 ; 

 24 Jan. 1868. 



" Norris D. (B.M.). The recusant roll 

 of 1 641 gives nine families of recusants 

 and non-communicants in Huyton, and 

 twelve in Knowsley (including James 

 Stockley and his wife); Tarbock is omitted; 

 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 242-3. 



15^ 



" Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 209-10. 



The petition of the widow and children 

 of John Bootle of Knowsley showed that 

 two-thirds of his land, held on lease from 

 the earl of Derby, had been sequestered for 

 * delinquency.' Henry Bootle, as a tenant 

 of the earl's, had to take part in the war 

 and had actually fought at Edge Hill on the 

 king's side ; afterwards, however, he had 

 an opportunity of changing, and served for 

 two years for the Parliament, 



^* Margaret Brookfield being a papist 

 had had two-thirds of her tenement in 

 Knowsley sequestered for her life ; ibid, 

 i, 250. 



^^ Anne Holme had suffered a similar 

 penalty for the same divergence from the 

 laws in force ; after her death the heirs 

 prayed for a removal of the sequestration ; 

 ibid, iii, 251. 



^"^ Benjamin Boult, of Knowsley, pe- 

 titioned for the restoration of the estate 

 of an uncle, William Hutchins, B.D, se- 

 questered for delinquency ; ibid, iii, 307, 



