WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



HALSALL 



HALSALL 



HALSALL 

 DOWNHOLLAND 



LYDIATE 

 MELLING 



MAGHULL 



The parish of Halsall is about ten miles in length, 

 and has a total area of 16,698 acres,' of which a con- 

 siderable portion is reclaimed mossland. 



Judging by the situation of the various villages and 

 hamlets it may be asserted that in this part of West 

 Lancashire the 25 ft. level formed the boundary in 

 ancient times of the habitable district. All below it 

 was moss and swamp, which here formed a broad and 

 definite division between Halsall parish on the east 

 and Formby and Ainsdale on the west. 



The parish used to contribute to the county lay as 

 follows : — When the hundred paid ^^loo, it paid a 

 total of £6 t,s. o\d., the townships giving — Halsall, 

 £1 8/. l^d. ; DownhoUand, £1 c,s. <)\d. ; Lydiate, 

 £1 IS. ()\d. ; Maghull, lyj. 2 j<s'. ; Melling, £\ 8/. i W. 

 To the more ancient fifteenth the contributions were : 

 Halsall, £z 4/. \\d. ; DownhoUand,;^! izs. ; Lydiate 

 ^I 8/. %d. ; Maghull, izs. ; and Melling, ^l \y. ^d. 

 or ^7 los. i^i/. when the hundred paid ^106 9/. 6d? 



Before the Conquest the whole of the parish, with 

 the exception of Maghull, was in the privileged dis- 

 trict of three hides. Soon after 1 100 the barony of 

 Warrington included the northern portion of the 

 parish, Halsall, Barton, and Lydiate ; while Maghull 

 was part of the Widnes fee, and DownhoUand and 

 Melling were held in thegnage. 



The history of the parish is uneventful. During 

 the religious changes of the Tudor period, Halsall is 

 said to have been the last parish to adopt the new 

 services. This, of course, cannot be proved ; but the 

 immediate reduction of the staff of clergy, the partial 

 or total closing of the chapels at Maghull and Melling, 

 and the careful dismantling of that at Lydiate, are 

 tokens of the feeling the changes inspired. 



The freeholders in 1 600 were Sir Cuthbert Halsall 

 of Halsall, who was a justice of the peace ; Lawrence 

 Ireland of Lydiate, Lydiate of Lydiate, Richard Moly- 

 neux of Cunscough, Richard Hulme of Maghull, 

 Richard Maghull of Maghull, Robert Pooley of 

 Melling, Robert Bootle of Melling, Gilbert Halsall of 

 Barton, Henry Heskin of DownhoUand.' In the sub- 

 sidy list of 1628, the following landowners were re- 

 corded : — At Halsall, Sir Charles Gerard and Mr. Cole; 

 DownhoUand, Edward Haskayne and John Moore ; 

 Lydiate, Edward Ireland and Thomas Lydiate ; Mag- 

 huU, Richard MaghuU ; MeUing, Robert Molyneux, 

 Robert Bootle, Lawrence Hulme, the heir of William 

 Martin, Anne Stopford, widow, and the heirs of John 

 Seacome.* George Marshall of HalsaU, Edward Ire- 

 land, and Robert Molyneux paid ^^ 10 each in 163 1 

 on refusing knighthood.* 



The recusant and non-communicant roll of 1 64 1 

 names five distinct households in Halsall ; large num- 



bers in DownhoUand and Lydiate ; several at Maghull, 

 and at MeUing." 



During the Civil War there is little to show how 

 the people of the district were divided. The principal 

 manorial lord. Sir Charles Gerard of Halsall, was a 

 Protestant but a strong Royalist ; he probably did not 

 live much in the place. His son and successor was an 

 exile. Ireland of Lydiate was a minor ; Maghull was 

 in the hands of Lord Molyneux, a Royalist ; and 

 Robert Molyneux oi Melling was on the same side. 

 The Gerard manors were of course sequestered by the 

 Parliament, and in 1653 orders were given to settle a 

 portion of them, of the value of j^6oo a year, upon the 

 widow and children of Richard Deane, later a general 

 of the fleet.' RadclifFe Gerard, brother of the late 

 Sir Charles, described as ' of Barton,' petitioned for 

 delay in paying his composition because his annuity had 

 not been paid for twelve years past.* John Wignall, 

 of Halsall, was allowed to compound in 1652.' 



The troubles of the Irelands are narrated under 

 Lydiate ; the estate of Edward Gore there was seques- 

 tered and part sold.'" Confiscations at Maghull and 

 Melling are related in the account of these townships ; 

 in the former place also Richard Mercer, a tailor, had 

 had his estate seized for his ' pretended delinquency,' 

 but it had never been sequestered and he obtained it 

 back." 



The hearth tax of 1 666 shows that very few houses 

 in the parish had three hearths. In DownhoUand the 

 Haskaynes' house had seven hearths and the hall five. 

 In Lydiate the haU had ten ; in MaghuU James 

 Smith's had nine and Richard MaghuU's six ; in Mell- 

 ing Robert Molyneux's house had ten hearths, William 

 Martin's six, Thomas Bootle's five, and John Tatlock's, 

 in Cunscough, eight.'^ 



The connexion of Anderton of Lydiate with the 

 Jacobite rising of 1 7 1 5 seems to be isolated ; the squires 

 and people generally took no share in this or the 

 subsequent rising of 1745. 



The land tax returns of 1 794 show that, except in 

 Lydiate, the land was in the possession of a large num- 

 ber of freeholders. 



The making of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at 

 the end of the eighteenth century did something to 

 open up the district, which has, however, remained 

 almost wholly agricultural. 



The geological formation consists entirely of the 

 new red sandstone, or triassic, series. Taking the 

 various beds in rotation from the lowest upwards, the 

 pebble beds of the bunter series occur to the eastward 

 of the canal in MeUing, and to the south of a line 

 drawn from MaghuU manor-house to the nearest 

 point on the boundary of Simonswood. To the east 



' 16,682 acres, according to the census 

 of 1901 ; this includes 87 acres of inland 

 water. 



^ Gregson, Fragment! (ed. Harland), 



22, 18. 



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

 238-43. 



* Norris D. (B.M.). The only ' con- 



victed ' recusant, charged double, was Ed- 

 ward Ireland. 



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

 213. 



« Trans. Hist. Soc. (NewSer.), xiv, 232. 



' Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), iii, 6-18. 



8 Ibid, iii, 23. His delinquency was 



183 



being in arms against the Parliament ; he 

 had laid them down in 1645 and taken the 

 National Covenant and the Negative Oath. 



9 Cal. Com. for Comp. iv, 2953 ; he had 

 been in arms for the king in the first war. 



10 Royalist Comp. P. iii, 87. 



11 Ibid, iv, 130. 



12 Lay Subs. Lanes. 250-9. 



