WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



ORMSKIRK 



years afterwards he sold it to Thomas Bootle of 

 Melling in Halsall, and of the Inner Temple.' 



Thomas Bootle held various public offices, being a 

 baron of the Exchequer of Chester^ and Chancellor 

 to Frederick, Prince of Wales. He represented 



Bootle of Mklung. 

 GuIeSj on a chevron en- 

 grailed herween three 

 combi argent as many 

 crosses patie jitchee of the 

 feld. 



WlLBRAHAM OF RoDE 



Hall. Argent, three 

 bendlets lua'uy azure. 



Liverpool as a Tory in Parliament in 1724 and 

 1727.' He was knighted in 1746.' Dying unmar- 

 ried in 1753 he was buried at Melling.* Lathom 

 and other estates passed to his brother Robert, a 



director of the East India Company, born at MaghuU 

 in 1693 ; who dying in 1758 " was succeeded by his 

 only daughter Mary. She married in May, 1755,' 

 Richard Wilbraham, of Rode Hall in Cheshire, 

 descended of an ancient house, who on his succession 

 assumed the surname of Bootle pursuant to the will 

 of Sir Thomas Bootle.' They had a numerous 

 family, of whom Edward Wilbraham, born in 1771, 

 was the eldest surviving son. He obtained the royal 

 licence in 18 14 to take the additional surname of 

 Wilbraham, thus becoming Edward Wilbraham 

 Bootle Wilbraham." He was member of Parliament 

 for various constituencies from 1795 to 1828, and in 

 the latter year was created Baron Skelmersdale of 

 Skelmersdale. He died in 1853, his eldest son 

 Richard having predeceased him in 1844, and was 

 succeeded by Edward Bootle Wilbraham, Richard's 

 only son, born in 1837. He had several official 

 appointments, was a prominent freemason, and held 

 an honourable position of respect and influence in the 

 county. In 1880 he was created earl of Lathom ; 

 dying in 1898 he was succeeded by his son, Edward 

 George, born 26 October, 1864, the present earl of 

 Lathom and lord of the manor. The house is a fine 

 building in the Renaissance style with a large park 

 five miles round ; it commands a beautiful view. 



confirming the manor of Lathom, Sec, to 

 Richard Waring and others, subject to the 

 trusts to which the same were liable and 

 discharged of a clause in the letters patent 

 of Charles I for rcconveying the reversion 

 in fee to the crown ; 7 Geo. I, c. 29. 



^ Deed at Lathom House, dated 1 3 

 July, 1725 i it recites an agreement of 

 16 Sept, 1724 between the parties for 

 the sale of Lathom Hall and ' the nomi- 

 nation or presentation to the almshouse 

 chapel in the said manor, and also the 

 nomination of poor persons to the 

 almshouse.* The price was ^^21,075. 



No detailed account can be given of 

 the Bootle family. They probably tooic 

 their surname from the township adjoin- 

 ing Liverpool. Henry de Bootle had 

 lands in Melling as early as 1317 ; Harl. 

 MS. 2042, fol. 85-293 ; he was de- 

 fendant in a case brought against him at 

 Lancaster assizes 1324-5 by Nicholas de 

 Bootle touching lands there j Assize R. 

 426, m. 37. Henry de Bootle (1327) 

 had sons, Thomas, John, and Henry, to 

 whom their father gave lands in Melling, 

 which he had himself received from his 

 father; Harl. MS. 2042, fol. 85-293. 

 Possibly the father was also named Henry, 

 for Nicholas de Bootle was son of a 

 Henry de Bootle ; this Nicholas had 

 grants from Robert de Byron early in the 

 fourteenth century ; Croxteth D. U. bdle. ii, 

 «. I, 4. He paid 2J. in Melling to the 

 subsidy of 1332; Excb. Lay Sk^j. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 24. An Adam 

 de Bootle paid i%d. at the same time and 

 place ; ibid. Robert de Bootle, son of 

 Nicholas, in 1364 gave land to Richard 

 de Rainford, and the reversion of the 

 third part held by Cecily, the grantor's 

 mother ; Croxteth D., U. bdle. ii, n. j. 

 Possibly he was the Robert de Bootle 

 ■who paid 41. to the subsidy of 1332; 

 Excb. Lay Subs. loc. cit. 



A Hugh Bootle of Liverpool occurs in 

 the next century ; he had a son and heir 

 Thomas (who predeceased him) and a 

 grandson Hugh ; Crosse D. {Trans. Hist. 

 Soc. New Ser. v-ix), ». 1 39- Hugh, senior, 

 had also brothers Henry and John, and 

 other children, Henry and Alice ; Harl. 

 MS. 2042, fol. 47. He died in 1438 or 



■439) 't'id. and Crosse D, n. 139. He and 

 his son Thomas are mentioned in 143 2-3 ; 

 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 230, n. 23. 



More secure ground is reached in 1548. 

 In this year Robert Bootle of Melling 

 held lands in Thornton by Sefton in right 

 of his wife Elizabeth ; Pal. of Lane. Feet 

 of F. bdle. 14, m. 142. He paid 81. to 

 the subsidy in 1558-9 ; Lay Subs. Lanes, 

 bdle. 131, rt. 272. His son, according to 

 the f^isit. of 1664-5 (Chet. Soc. 45), was 

 Thomas Bootle of Melling, described as 

 'gentleman' in the inquisition taken 

 after his death, by which he was found 

 to have held lands in Melling, MaghuU, 

 ICirkby, and Aughton ; also in Haskayne 

 and DownhoUand. He died at Melling 

 10 Oct. 1597, and was succeeded by his 

 son Robert, then aged thirty and more ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. (42 Eliz.), xvii, 

 n. 57. This inquisition recites a settle- 

 ment of lands upon Robert Bootle and 

 his sons Ferdinand and Edmund. These 

 are not mentioned in the visitation cited 

 above, which makes Robert's son and 

 heir to be Thomas, born about 1602, and 

 still living in 1664, when he recorded 

 this pedigree. 



Robert Bootle was one of the free- 

 holders living in the hundred in 1600 ; 

 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 240. 

 He was buried in Melling 18 Feb. 1632. 

 Ch. Reg. The son Thomas, just men- 

 tioned, had in 1651 a lease from Richard, 

 Lord Molyneux, of Simonswood House 

 and lands ; deed at Lathom. His dwell- 

 ing at Melling had five hearths in 1666. 

 Hearth Tax, bdle. 250, n. 9. He died 

 in 1 68 1, and was buried at Melling. Ch. 

 Reg. Thomas Bootle had several chil- 

 dren ; the eldest son was Thomas, aged 

 thirty in 1664; the others were Edward, 

 afterwards described as 'of Manchester' 

 (deed at Lathom), Matthew, and Robert ; 

 y^isit. loc. cit. Matthew Bootle mentions 

 a brother Abraham living at Warrington ; 

 Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 141, 

 143, 181 ; the same volume has other 

 notices of the family. To Robert his 

 father in 1669 assigned the demesne lands 

 of Simonswood ; deed at Lathom. To 

 the eldest son, Thomas, Chas. II granted 

 the bailiwick of West Derby wapentake 



for life. He survived his father some 

 twelve years, being buried at Melling 

 18 Dec. 1693 ; Ch. Reg. There is an 

 extraordinary allusion to him in a letter 

 by the vicar of Walton (28 Dec. 1693) : 

 * Mr. Bootle has gone into the other 

 world and was, some time before he fell 

 sick, stripped of all relation to Mr. 

 Molyneux's concerns. He was not, in- 

 deed, a good man, but had been good to 

 the interest of Croxteth, without reaping 

 any advantage from its service ; but so 

 the devil uses to reward his drudge'; 

 Kenyan MSS. 279. His son Caryll — 

 named after Caryll, Lord Molyneux — was 

 then an infant, whose mother Jane, in 1699, 

 had a lease of various houses and land in 

 Melling and Kirkby for his benefit ; deed 

 at Lathom. On 10 Aug. 1708, as Caryll 

 Bootle of Liverpool, he sold to John 

 Plumbe the bailiwick of the wapentake, 

 and on 1 8 March, 171 2, William Clay- 

 ton and John Earle of Liverpool trans- 

 ferred Caryll Bootle's lands in Melling to 

 Thomas Bootle of the [nner Temple; 

 deed at Lathom. Caryll seems to have 

 died unmarried. He was buried at 

 Melling in 1710 ; Ch. Reg. The 

 Thomas Bootle who had Caryll's lands was 

 the son of the above-mentioned Robert, 

 and therefore a first cousin of Caryll. 



2 Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Cfies,), i, 68. 



8 Pink and Beavan, Lanes. Pari. Repre- 

 sent. 197-8. 



** See a letter of his and further refer- 

 ences in Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MS. Com.), 



+73> 475» 490-1- 



* For the order of the funeral on 26 Jan. 

 1754, see Pai. Note Book, iii, 30. 



^ There are monuments to Sir Thomas 

 and Robert Bootle in Melling Church. 



7 Married at St. Andrew's, Holborn, 

 31 May, 1755. This and the particulars 

 in the text are derived from the pedigrees 

 at the College of Arms. 



8 He represented Chester in several 

 Parliaments ; Pari. Return, ii, 162, &c. 

 He was a Fellow of the Royal Society. 



3 Cockayne, Complete Peerage ; also 

 Pedigrees in Baines' Lanes, (ed. Croston), 

 v, 262, and Ormerod's Ches. (ed. Helsby), 

 iii^ 55- 



