WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



HALSALL 



second husband Richard Bradshaw, had neglected to 

 keep the mansion-house of the manor in good repair.' 

 Soon afterwards the steward of the fee of Halton 

 (Sir John Savage) accused him of wilfully absenting 

 himself from Widnes court and assaulting the bailiffs 

 when they demanded the fines for absence.' Ed- 

 mund complained that Sir Richard Molyneux, John 

 Molyneux, and others had been digging turves upon 

 his moss, carrying away 500 cartloads.' Sir Richard 

 retorted by alleging that Edmund, Henry, and 

 Thomas Hulme and others attacked him in the 

 Lower Meadow, Edmund Hulme having a javelin in 

 his hand and there being a ' privy ambushment ' in 

 the wood adjoining. The dispute was as to which 

 of the two parties should take the hay in the meadow ; 

 the Molyneux party arrived first, but the others 

 carried off the hay.' Edmund sold his rights in 

 Halsall and Ainsdale to the Halsalls in 1 55 5.* 



Richard Hulme (or Holme), his son and successor, 

 had livery of the manor of Maghull and the rest of 

 his father's lands in November, 1575.* He had his 

 share of litigation. He claimed from Thomas Bootle 

 of Melling certain services, including ^Ib. of wax 

 yearly, due from a holding in Maghull ; the reply 

 was that some small works and boons had been done 

 for the plaintiff, but only ' by courtesy.' Richard 

 died 18 February, 1614— 15, seised in fee of the 

 manor of Maghull, held of the king by the hundredth 

 part of a knight's fee ; also of lands in Kirkdale and 

 Maghull. His son and heir Edmund was forty years 

 of age,' but by his father's dispositions did not 

 succeed to the manor. 



Edmund Hulme and Ellen his wife in Maghull 

 were presented to the bishop as recusants or non- 

 communicants in 1634, as also Edward and Alice 

 Hulme. Edmund Hulme and Ellen his wife and 

 Alice Hulme appear also in the recusant roll of 

 1 64 1.' By indenture in 1623 he assigned to Richard 

 his eldest son, and his assigns certain leasehold pro- 

 perty in Maghull, in view of his marriage. Richard 

 married Margery, and died young, leaving a daughter 

 Mary. The widow married Thomas Wilkinson 

 (their names appear in the recusant lists of 1635 and 

 1641), and in 1653 the husband petitioned the par- 



liamentary commissioners for the removal of the 

 sequestration of two-thirds which had been incurred 

 by the recusancy of Edmund Hulme, who had died 

 three years previously."" Mary Hulme was the wife 

 of Thomas Hesketh in 1659. 



Internal troubles in the Hulme family had per- 

 haps been the cause of Richard Hulme's diverting the 

 natural course of succession ; about eighteen months 

 before his death he assigned the manor of Maghull 

 and all other of his lands to trustees for the use of 

 himself for life, and then for William Ley or Lea 

 and his heirs, and failing these for Henry, Richard, 

 James, John, and Bartholomew in succession, the sons 

 of William Hulme by a certain Elizabeth Pimley. 

 Thus his own son Edmund was removed a long way 

 from the succession." This is not mentioned in the 

 inquisition after Richard's death ; but a few months 

 after this event Henry Pimley alias Hulme sold to 

 Sir Richard Molyneux the manor of Maghull. 

 Edmund Hulme and William Ley were also parties 

 to various agreements in connexion with the con- 

 veyance ; " and as late as 1659 Mary Hesketh, 

 daughter of Richard Hulme, joined with her husband 

 in renouncing all claim to the hall of Maghull, then 

 belonging to Caryll, Viscount Molyneux." Edmund 

 Hulme had had a lease of the hall for three lives." 



The Molyneuxes of Sefton had for some time been 

 acquiring lands in the township. In 1544 Sir William 

 Molyneux purchased from Edward and Nicholas 

 Maghull Carr House and 22 acres of land, and one 

 or two other tenements seem also to have been ac- 

 quired." In 1567—8 accordingly the partition of 

 the various lands, with moss and turbary, was made 

 between Edmund Hulme, Sir Richard Molyneux 

 and William his son, and Richard Maghull, as the 

 three lords of the place." 



The manor (or three-quarters of the manor) of 

 Maghull " remained in the hands of the Molyneux 

 family down to the end of the eighteenth century, 

 when it was sold for ^^7,500 '* to William Harper 

 of Liverpool and Dunham in Cheshire ; his daughter 

 and heir Helen married John Formby of Everton and 

 afterwards of Formby ; and these were in possession 

 at the beginning of 1816.'" In 1858 the hall, with- 



^ Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Edw. VI, 

 xxix, H. 12. 



2 Ibid. Phil, and Mary, xxxiv, S. 3. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Dep. Phil, and Mary, 

 xxix, M. I. Afterwards John Molyneux 

 of Melling complained that having no 

 turf he could keep no fire, and had been 

 obliged to break up his house ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Pleadings, Phil, and Mary, xxxiv, 

 M. 7. 



■• Duchy of Lane. Dep. Phil, and Mary, 

 Ixxii, M. 3. 



s Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 16, 

 m. 134. 



One of Edmund Hulme's acts is not 

 altogether creditable. Generally speaking 

 the family adhered to the Roman Catholic 

 religion, but in 1568 he made charges 

 against Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton 

 and others as to their having received 

 absolution from a priest named Pick, and 

 became an informer against his neigh- 

 bours as to their want of conformity to 

 the new laws. He and his wife had been 

 examined, it appears, and possibly he 

 thought to ward off danger to himself by 

 accusing others. His successor Richard 

 was a recusant in 1610, when a grant of 

 the profits of this offence was made to 



John Hatton, a footman in ordinary ; 

 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 211. 



Another Richard Hulme of Maghull, 

 born in 1 604, entered the English College 

 at Rome in 1625, and was ordained priest 

 and sent on the mission, being buried, it 

 would seem, after two years' service, at 

 the Harkirk in 1634. He was * rather 

 virtuous than talented.' On admission 

 he stated that when he was nine years 

 old he and others, their parents being 

 dead, were placed by their brother * in the 

 house of his Catholic father-in-law. Here 

 they lived as Catholics for six years. 

 Their brother afterwards placed them in 

 a heretical school, where they lost their 

 religion.' His father had become a Ro- 

 man Catholic before his death. * His 

 brothers and sisters were either actually 

 or very nearly Catholics. He was con- 

 verted by a priest who lived near ' ; Foley, 

 Rec. S. J. V, 308. 



s Croxteth D., T. ii, 16. Edmund's will 

 was proved in the same year. 



' Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz., 

 cxlvi, H. I. 



8 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), ii, igi. William Hulme, who 

 died in 161 2, was found to have held 



219 



under Richard ; Lawrence, aged 12, was 

 son and heir ; ibid, i, 235. 



® Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 232. 



'" Royalist Comp. Papers (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 253. 



" Ibid. T. ii, 23 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of 

 F. bdle. 83, m. 49. A later William 

 Hulme is said to have married Anne the 

 daughter of Richard Maghull ; Dugdale, 

 Visit. (Chet. Soc), 192. 



" Croxteth D., T. ii ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 88, m. 18. 



IS Ibid. T. ii, 34. " Ibid. T. ii, 32. 



15 Ibid. T. i, 4-6, 9. 



1' Ibid. T. i, 10 i the Molyneuxes had 

 a quarter. See also T. ii, 14 for a parti- 

 tion of various lands and moss between 

 Edmund Hulme and Edward Molyneux 

 (1556) and Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 51A. 



1' See (e.g.) the Inq. p.m. of Sir Richard 

 Molyneux in 1623 ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 390, where its 

 dependence on Halton is again stated 



IS Chief rents varying from \^d. to ir. 

 were then due from several tenants, and 

 an annual rent of 9^. was payable to the 

 duchy. 



19 Pal. of Lane. Doequet R. Lent, 56 

 Geo. Ill, R. ii. 



