WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



An early charter by Robert de Lathom granted to 

 Richard son of Richard del Wolfall 5|- oxgangs' of 

 land and half the wood and waste of Huyton with 

 the homage of Adam de Wolfall, William the Pro- 

 phet, Henry de Derby, and others enfeoffed by 

 Richard de Wolfall the elder." 



In 1292 Richard de Wolfall sued Robert de Lathom 

 for release from the services which Henry de Lacy, as 

 lord of Widnes fee, demanded from the plaintiff ; but 

 when the case came for trial Richard was unwilling to 

 make any statement, and therefore there was an ad- 

 journment sine die? He had also complaint to make 

 as to John de Wolfall, whose annual service of zod. 

 and a pair of gloves had not been rendered for three 

 years.* A little later, in 1307, John son of Adam de 

 Wolfall occurs granting to Adam de Waverton and 

 Alice his wife all his lands in Huyton.' 



For a long period, though there are numerous 

 references to the femily, the exact descent of the 

 manor is uncertain.^ 



In 1354 Adam son of Henry de Wolfall released to 

 John de Ashton the messuage which had descended 

 to him, and Thomas de Wolfall of Huyton and Joan 

 his wife released their right in the same.' One 

 Cecily daughter of Ellen, who had been wife of 

 Nicholas de Huyton, gave to Roger de Shuttleworth 



HUYTON 



her lands in Wolfall in 1349;' and shortly afterwards 

 Thomas de Wolfall and Joan his wife, with Richard 

 de Pennington and Cecily his wife (probably the 

 above Cecily), claimed from Adam son of Henry son 

 of Roger de Wolfall certain lands which they alleged 

 had been forfeited because of a felony committed by 

 the grandfather Roger, though they admitted that 

 Roger had continued to hold the lands after the 

 felony." 



In 1383 Robert de Wolfall, who was son of 

 Thomas, enfeoffed two chaplains of all his lands in 

 Huyton, and they appeared in the court of Widnes 

 in April, and made fine with the lord of Halton for 

 1 2a'.'" Robert's son and heir was John de Wolfall," 

 who in the early years of Henry IV's reign made 

 settlements of his lands ; the remainders were to 

 Alice and Margaret, daughters of John ; then to his 

 brother Thomas ; to his brothers Nicholas and 

 Thomas, and others.'* 



In 1511-12 Thomas Wolfall granted lands in 

 Huyton to William Wilbraham, and a little later 

 purchased three crofts from Hamlet Harrington ; his 

 mother Joan in 1 5 1 5-16 released to him her lands in 

 Huyton and Wolfall.'' The succession is not clear." 

 Thomas Wolfall was a freeholder in 1 600 ; " his son 

 Thomas married Mary, daughter of Richard Moly- 



1 Perhaps this should be 5^, i.e. the 

 third of 2 plough-lands. 



2 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 271, n. 14.9. 

 Adam de Wolfall occurs 1332 ; Assize R. 

 428, m. 3. 



The Prophets are mentioned in other 

 charters ; by one Kichard son of Richard 

 de Wolfall and Henry son of Adam de 

 Knowsley granted to William son of 

 William, * called the Prophet,' 3 acres 

 from the waste within Huyton in the 

 field called Gorsehurst, as freely as his an- 

 cestors had held it from the grantors ; for 

 a rent of izd. William the Prophet in 

 1286 quitclaimed Richard and Henry. 

 Among the witnesses to a grant by Richard 

 de Wolfall the younger of about the same 

 time is John 'called the Prophet' ; 

 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 270A, n. 133 ; 

 270, n. 63, 68. 



' Assize R. 4.08, m. 56. 



Grants by Richard have been preserved: 

 (i) to John his son, of lands in Huyton, 

 for the rent of a barbed arrow ; (ii) to Roger 

 his son, of half the land with half the 

 wood between Stockbridge and the boun- 

 dary of West Derby, excepting the lands 

 held from him by John de Wolfall and 

 Amery, who was the wife of Richard de 

 Thingwall, but including Amery's homage; 

 and (iii), a feoffment to Adam son of 

 Henry the vicar of Huyton (1292) ; 

 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 270, &c. n. 7, 66, 



73, 139- 



* Assize R. 408, m. 94, 44, 44 d. 



John, a son of Adam de Wolfall, made 

 two complaints against Robert de Lathom : 

 (i) that he had been disseised of the com- 

 mon of pasture in Knowsley belonging to 

 his holding in Huyton, viz. in 100 acres 

 of land in the open season, and 100 acres 

 of pasture and wood all the year round ; 

 and (ii) that he had been disseised of an 

 acre in Knowsley which Robert asserted 

 had been demised to the plaintiff's father 

 for a term of years only. He lost the first 

 case, but won the second ; Assize R. 408, 

 m. 43 d. For John de Wolfall see also 

 the account of Hale. 



° Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 270, b. 31. 

 In 1 309 Richard de Wolfall and others were 



accused of disseising John son of John de 

 Wolfall of his lands in Huyton ; Assize 

 R. 423, m. I d. 



* John de Wolfall was in 1356 made 

 warden of the park of Simonswood ; 

 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 270, n. 145. A 

 feoffment of John de Wolfall and Margery 

 his wife in 1354 is among the Norris D. 

 (B.M.), 984. 



Henry de Wolfall occurs as granting 

 to Sir Robert de Lathom land In the 

 waste of Huyton, beginning at the house 

 of Robert son of Roger de Thingwall, and 

 following the bounds of Knowsley and 

 West Derby, and thence to the land of 

 William de Huyton ; Ibid, «. 982. 



7 Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 61, 32, 21. 

 One branch of the family seems to have 



settled in the Lydiate district, and families 

 there about this time laid claim to lands in 

 Wolfall. John de Cowdray the younger 

 in 1343 acquired 5 acres in a field called 

 Roolowe (now Rooley) ; Bold D. (War- 

 rington), G. 12. Richard de Aughton 

 leased to John de Pennington the lands 

 which had been John de Cowdray's in 

 Huyton ; in 1377 Robert de Wolfall gave 

 to Richard de Pennington lands in the 

 College field there ; Kuerden, loc. cit. 

 n. 19, 14, 36, 79. Some cross suits had 

 in 1358 preceded this — between John de 

 Wolfall on the one side, and Richard de 

 Aughton and Katherlne his wife, with 

 whom was joined Isabel daughter of Henry 

 de Scarisbrick, on the other. John de 

 Cowdray, deceased, had been uncle of 

 Katherlne and grand-uncle of Isabel (a 

 minor) ; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 7, 

 m. 4, 5, 5 ^. 



8 Kuerden, loc. cit. n, 18. 



8 Assize R. 435, m. ^d. 5 425. 

 w Norris D. (B.M.), 987. See Kuerden, 

 loc. cit. n. 8, II, 24. 



11 John married (about 1396) Emmot 

 daughter of John de Ashton, the latter 

 paying £zo and assigning the lands he 

 had bought from Adam de Wolfall ; ibid. 

 n. yy, also 3, 12, 20, 64. 



12 Ibid. &c. n. 122, 10, 28, 126-9, ^23, 

 29, 34. In some of these abstracts 

 Nicholas and Thomas are called John's 



173 



sons. The dates are from 2 to 7 Hen. 

 IV. 



John Wolfall and Thomas Wolfall 

 the younger occur in a settlement of 

 1417 ; ibid. n. 119. In 1435-6 Thomas 

 son of John Wolfall made a release to 

 John Ashton ; ibid. n. 48. The next 

 who occur are Richard Wolfall (1442-3), 

 John son of Richard Wolfall (1465), and 

 Thomas son and heir of John Wolfall 

 (1479 to 1488) i ibid. K. 25, 40, 35, 124, 

 131, 45*. 



^^ Ibid. «. 120, 121, 17. 



He is probably the Thomas Wolfall of 

 Malpas and Bickley in Cheshire of whose 

 will (1530-1) an abstract is given by 

 Kuerden ; in this he recites a recovery of 

 his lands made in the last-mentioned year 

 — 100 acres of land with meadow, pas- 

 ture and wood, and rents of zs. $^d., a 

 pair of gloves, a broad arrow, nine pepper- 

 corns, and \ lb. of cummin — to the use of 

 himself, Alice his wife, and Thomas his 

 son and heir. In his will he further 

 mentions his daughter Jane. Ibid, n, 50, 

 108,138. 



The will of the son Thomas is preserved 

 at Chester ; it is dated 22 August, 1557, 

 and was proved on 29 Oct. following. 

 :fle mentions his mother Alice, makes his 

 wife Elizabeth and his sons Thomas (his 

 heir) and William executors, and also 

 mentions other sons, John, Edward, and 

 Robert, and daughters Alice (the eldest), 

 Elizabeth (wife of Francis Tyldesley), and 

 Margaret \ PIccope, Wills^ Ii, 289. 



I'l Thomas Wolfall of Wolfall, gentle- 

 man, aged about fifty, was a witness in 

 1556 ; Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), iii, 228. 



In 155 1 Richard Wolfall and his wife 

 Joan occur, as also Isabel Wolfall, widow. 

 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 14, m. 

 266. 



John, a younger son of Wolfall of 

 Wolfall, settled in London ; and his son 

 John, described as a skinner, recorded a 

 pedigree in 1634 ; Visit, of Lond. 1633-5 

 (HarL Soc), p. 362, 



IS Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 

 242. 



