A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



In 1651 he repulsed an attack on the island by 

 Parliamcntar)- forces, and having learnt that Charles II, 

 who had been crowned in Scotland, was about to 

 invade England, Lord Derby determined to join him, 

 and left the Isle of Man in August with 300 men. 

 He endeavoured to raise as many men as possible in 

 Lancashire, but after the defeat in Wigan Lane, where 

 he was wounded, he fled southwards to join Charles 

 at Worcester, and fought gallantly there on 3 Sep- 

 tember. The royalist cause now appearing hopeless, 

 the earl turned north again, no doubt wishing to 

 reach the Isle of Man, but on the way he and his 

 party surrendered to Captain Edge as prisoners of 

 war. He was taken to Chester and tried on the 

 charge of treason ; his death had already been 

 determined upon, and he was sentenced to die at 

 Bolton on or before 16 October.' The place was 

 chosen as it was supposed the inhabitants cherished 

 a hostile feeling against the earl on account of the 

 slaughter there seven years before. The sentence 

 was duly carried out,' but it was found that the 

 people were sympathetic instead of hostile. The 

 executioner, named Whewell, was a farmer of the 



district.' The carl was buried at Ormskirk. Shortly 

 after this the Isle of Man was captured by the 

 Parliament. 



On the Parliament taking possession of his estates 

 they had first to satisfy the demands of various 

 claimants under wills and settlements. Lady Vcrc 

 Carr claimed ^^i.ooo under the will of her grand- 

 mother the countess of the sixth earl.* The countess 

 of Lincoln, formerly wife of Sir Edward Stanley, 

 brother of the seventh earl, claimed rent-charges 

 from various lands in Lathom, Burscough, and Child- 

 wall, and Upton Hall in Cheshire, for the benefit 

 of herself and her sons Charles and James Stanley, 

 under deeds of 1637, and a large amount for 

 arrears.' The almsmen of Lathom also put in a 

 claim.' 



After the earl's execution his countess desired to 

 compound,' and in 1653 was allowed to do so after 

 the rate of five years' purchase for the estates in fee 

 simple, four years' purchase for estates in tail, three 

 years for estates of one life, &c., the values of the 

 year 1 640 to be taken as the standard ; and personal 

 estate after the rate of one-third." 



1 The official record of the trial is 

 printed in the Stanley P. pt. iii, cccxiniv. 

 * Darbie will be tried at Chester and die 

 at Bolton * was written on 29 Sept. ; the 

 trial began two days later ; ibid. ccv. 



■ The earl was taken from Chester on 

 Tuesday, reaching Leigh in the evening, 

 and next morning taken on to Bolton. 



^ Local Gleaning!, Lanes, and Cbes. i, 1 1 o. 

 The axe was in 1875 said to be preserved 

 at the Stone Inn, Church Gate, Bolton. 

 The chair at which he knelt on the scaffold 

 is at fCnowsley. 



There arc several narratives of the 

 carl's last journey to Bolton and his 

 execution there. One of them deserves 

 particular notice, as it professes to give 

 an account — derived, it would appear, from 

 the Jesuit Father Clifton, who is said to 

 have absolved him — of the secret recon- 

 ciliation of the earl to the Roman Church 

 on the morning before his execution, 

 while riding to Bolton. This narrative 

 has been received with natural suspicion, 

 but in general agrees with the others. In 

 his written speech, prepared of course 

 some time before, the earl said, *" I die a 

 dutiful son of the Church of England, as 

 it was established in my late master's 

 reign and is yet professed in the Isle of 

 Man, which is not a little comfort to 

 me.' This part of the speech was not 

 delivered on the scaffold. The spoken 

 words attributed to him are vague : ' The 

 Lord send us our religion again ; as for 

 that which is practised now it hath no 

 name ; and methinks there is more talk 

 of religion than any good effects thereof.' 



The above account has been extracted 

 mainly from Canon Raines' biography in 

 the Stanley P. (Chet. Soc), pt. iii. There 

 is an independent account of the last 

 scene in Lanes. War (Chet.Soc), 82-3 ; 

 see also Cfuil If'ar Tracts (Chet. Soc), 

 320-3; Foley, Rec. S. J. ii, 9-17; 

 Diet, of Nat. Biog. 



* Royalist Comp. P. ii, 125. 



* Ibid. 14.7-7 1. * IWi. I.13. 



' Various covenants relating to her 

 tnarriagc were considered. The estates 

 brought in in 1625 were the manors of 

 Lathom, Burscough, Childwall ; also 

 Ormskirk, Orton, Bispham, Bury, 

 Heaton, Broughton, and various lands 

 in Lancashire of the yearly value in 

 ilemesnes, quit and improved rents, of 



^^1,94.7 I2J. e^d. \ and in old rents 

 ^313 I IJ. \\d. Various other manors 

 and lands — at Hawarden, Thirsk, Bid- 

 ston, &c. — and the tithes (leased) of 

 Prescot and other parishes were estimated 

 as worth about ,^2,000 a year, out of 

 which, however, a number of annuities 

 were payable ; ibid. 147-71. 



8 She stated that she held for life the 

 manors of Knowsley, Bury, Pilkington, 

 Halewood, Breightmet, and Sowerby 

 (Great and Little), and various other lands 

 and tithes in Lancashire, the value in 1 640 

 being £'ilz l6s. 8*^., and the old rents 

 ^^64.8 1 3J. 6^d. She had a like estate in 

 the manor of Bidston, and other lands 

 outside the county ; and was seised in fee 

 of the rectory of Ormskirk and its tithes, 

 which in 1640 were worth ^^300. She 

 also desired to compound for the plate and 

 household goods in her possession in the 

 Isle of Man, A more detailed statement 

 places the demesne of Kiiowsley in 164.0 

 at j^220, and the old rents at ;^iIO u. zd.^ 

 ibid. 179-91, 203-30. Her fine was 

 accordingly set at ^6,866 131. pj. and 

 ,^33661. Sd.foT a thousand pounds' worth 

 of household stuff, making in all ^^7,200 ; 

 and having paid half this sum into the 

 treasury and given security for the other 

 half the sequestration was discharged ; 

 ibid. 204.. 



Various claims on her manors had to 

 be considered. Edward Orme, parish 

 clerk of Huyton, had for thirty-nine years 

 received loi. a year from Knowsley, and 

 the vicar had had £1 6s. %d., and he 

 thought these sums should still be paid. 

 Similar demands came from other manors. 

 There were also a rent ' sook ' of i ii. 6d, 

 heretofore collected for the Crown and 

 now for the Commonwealth by the bailiffs 

 of the fee court of Widnes, and a wapen- 

 take rent of ,^2 2j. lod. (?) issuing out of 

 Knowsley 21. 51/., Huyton 2j. 6d., Roby 

 21. 6d., Tarbock 31.41/., and Holland 121., 

 which Thomas Booth, bailiff of the hun- 

 dred, deposed were regularly paid down to 

 1642, when the estate was sequestered ; 

 ibid. 205-7. Edward Stockley of Prescot 

 claimed Holker House in Knowsley by 

 virtue of a lease made to him in 1639 at 

 the ancient rent of 381. zid. and this was 

 allowed; ibid. 157-63. Edward Stockley 

 had been made ranger of the park in 

 1647. 



164 



The earl's children petitioned in 1650 

 for the payment of arrears under an order 

 of 1647 by which they were allowed a 

 certain sum for maintenance and educa- 

 tion ; ibid. 222-26. 



Considerable portions of the estates were 

 sold outright by the Pari. Com. ; ibid. 

 230-43. 



This seems a convenient place for stat- 

 mg some of the changes of tenure in the 

 manors. After the death of Ferdinando, 

 the fifth earl, the manors of Lathom and 

 Aughton and lands in Cross Hall and else- 

 where in the neighbourhood were con- 

 veyed by the feoffees to Queen Elizabeth, 

 who reconveyed them to William, the 

 sixth earl and his heirs male, or in default 

 of this, heirs male of George Stanley, 

 Lord Strange ; Pat. 43 Eliz. pt. xi. 

 Other similar dispositions were made, and 

 confirmed by an Act of 1606 (18 Nov. 

 4 Jas. I ), by which in default of male 

 heirs of the sixth earl, the various manors 

 included in the Act were to go to Edward 

 Stanley of Bickerstaffc and his heirs 

 male. Charles J, however, at the peti- 

 tion of James, Lord Strange, made a 

 grant of the manors of Upholland, Bur- 

 scough, Lathom, and Childwall to him 

 and his heirs and assigns ; Pat. 1 3 Chas. I, 

 pt. xxvii, m. 10, These dispositions were 

 probably nullified by the confiscation under 

 authority of Parliament in 1651 ; Scobell, 

 Collection, pt. ii, 156. Two years later 

 Charles the eighth earl had lands supposed 

 to be worth ^^500 a year settled upon 

 him ; Commons' Journ, vii, 293, 349, 352 : 

 Royalist Comp. P. ii, 231-2. He was 

 allowed also to repurchase such of his 

 father's manors and lands as had not 

 been sold outright, the contract being by 

 Henry Neville and Anthony Samwcll as 

 agents or trustees; ibid. 238 ; Col. S.P. 

 Dom. (1653-4), 368-9. A further en- 

 abling Act was passed in 1657 {Commons 

 Journ. vii, 471, 496, 518), which, accord- 

 ing to Seacome, enabled the earl to ' sell 

 several manors, lands, and chief rents, 

 as Childwall, Little Woolton, part of 

 Dalton, and all Upholland, with the chief 

 rents of many of the manors and town- 

 ships,' whereby he was enabled to pay off 

 the debt to the Commonwealth on the 

 lands repurchased, and to buy off certain 

 family charges ; House of Stanley {ci. 1793), 

 403. 



