WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



ORMSKIRK 



James Scarisbrlck, the heir, was seventeen years of 

 age at his father's death, and it was not till the 

 Restoration that he obtained possession.' He married 

 Frances, daughter of Robert Blundell of Ince Blundell, 

 and had numerous children, one being born after his 

 death in April, 1673.* 



His son and heir Edward was ten years ot age at 

 his father's death ; and at eighteen entered the Jesuit 

 novitiate at Watten in Holland, resigning his estates 

 to his brother Robert. Apparently there was a 

 further settlement when he came of age in 1685.' 

 Robert Scarisbrick came of age about 1690 and five 

 years afterwards married Anne daughter of John 

 Messenger of Fountains Abbey. Nine sons and four 

 daughters were born to them. He was a Jacobite in 

 politics ; as early as 1 701 he seems to have been sus- 

 pected by the authorities,* and was perhaps in some 

 way implicated in the rising of 17 15. For this he 

 was attainted, and on his surrender in 17 1 7 was 

 committed to Newgate. Next year he was admitted 

 to bail at Lancaster, and on trial, acquitted, his estates 

 being restored to him.* He died in March, 1737-8, 

 and was buried in the Scarisbrick chapel at Ormskirk.^ 

 His widow died in 1744. Of his children James, the 

 eldest, died before his father ; ' Edward, the second, 

 became a Jesuit priest and renounced his right to the 

 estates, as did Francis and Henry, younger sons.* 



Robert Scarisbrick, the third son of Robert, suc- 

 ceeded, but died unmarried in 1738, leaving his 

 brother William the heir. He married Elizabeth 

 Ogle of Huyton, and had an only child Elizabeth, 

 who married John Lawson of Brough (afterwards a 

 baronet). It is not certain whether or not he took 

 any part in the rising of 174S, but a local tradition 

 has it that 'one of the Stuart adherents was concealed 

 in a fal-mhouse on Martin mere.' He died in July, 

 1767 ; his wife lived till 1797. Joseph, another 

 brother, succeeded, and held the estates for some 

 years, dying between 1772 and 1778. The Jesuit 

 order having been suppressed in 1772 Edward and 

 Francis Scarisbrick seem to have occupied the hall ; 

 the latter, just before his death in 1789, settled the 

 estate on his nephew Thomas Eccleston. 



The remaining son of Robert Scarisbrick was 

 named Basil Thomas ; in the early part of his life he 

 is said to have lived at Cadiz, probably as a merchant ; 

 he occurs as 'of Liverpool' in 1742 and 1743. In 

 1749 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward 

 Dicconson of Wrightington, and had by her a son 

 Thomas, and two daughters. He succeeded to 

 Eccleston in 1742, and soon afterwards took the sur- 



name of Eccleston." It was his son Thomas Eccleston 

 who, after holding Scarisbrick under his uncle Francis 

 for some years, succeeded him in 1789 as lord of the 

 manor, having already succeeded his father at 

 Eccleston.'" During this time he had attempted 

 improvements in the agriculture of the neighbour- 

 hood and begun the drainage of Martin mere." He 

 added to the family estates the manors of Halsall and 

 Downholland, but tried to sell Eccleston in 1795 ; in 

 1807 he succeeded to the Wrightington estate on the 

 death of his uncle Edward Dicconson. He resumed 

 the family name of Scarisbrick instead of Eccleston. 

 In 1784 he married Eleanora, daughter of Thomas 

 Clifton, by whom he had several children. 



He died at Ormskirk in November, .1809, having 

 been taken ill during the celebration of the jubilee of 

 George III. The Scarisbrick and Eccleston estates 

 then went to his eldest son Thomas, who sold 

 Eccleston in 1812, and Wrightington to the younger 

 son Charles. Thomas's only child was a daughter, 

 who died young, so that on his death in 1833 Charles 

 succeeded to the whole. He had taken the name of 

 Dicconson in 1 8 1 o, but now adopted the family name 

 of Scarisbrick. He purchased the Bold moiety of the 

 manor of North Meols in 1843. His great work 

 was the re-building of the hall, 

 the two Pugins being in suc- 

 cession the architects ; he was 

 also a collector of pictures. 

 The Hall is in the same state 

 at this time. The tower is 

 particularly graceful and forms 

 a landmark. At his death in 

 i860 he was supposed to be 

 the wealthiest commoner in 

 Lancashire. 



He never married,'* and his 

 youngest sister Elizabeth, wife 

 of Edward Clifton, succeeded 

 to Wrightington ; while the 

 eldest sister, Ann Lady Hun- 

 loke, had Scarisbrick and Hal- 

 sall, and assumed the name of Scarisbrick. She died 

 in March, 1872, and was succeeded by her daughter, 

 Eliza Margaret, who had in 1835 married Remy 

 Leon de Biaudos, Marquis de Casteja. She took the 

 name of Scarisbrick in 1873. There was no surviving 

 issue," and on the marchioness's death (13 Novem- 

 ber, 1878), her husband (d. 1899) and then his 

 adopted son, Marie Emmanuel Alva de Biaudos 

 Scarisbrick, Count de Casteja, under a deed of settle- 



The Marquis de Cas- 

 teja. GuIeSf thret mullets 

 in bend bepween two bend- 

 lets engrailed argent ,■ in 

 middle chief a cross cross- 

 let or. 



1 In the meantime he had finished his 

 education at St. Omer's, his tutor at 

 Scarisbrick having been the resident priest, 

 his uncle Christopher Bradshaw. 



" For the story of his death, anticipated 

 in a dream, see Cavalier^s Note-book, 261. 

 His widow wished to retire to a convent, 

 but her duty to her children being put 

 before her by William Blundell of Crosby, 

 she remained in the world, dying in 1721. 



8 He became superior of the Derbyshire 

 district and died in 1735. 



■* See his letter in Norris Papers (Chet. 

 Soc), 66. 



= The account of his temporarily for- 

 feited estates (Geo. I, B. 75, 119) gives 

 a list of the tenants and their holdings. 

 Among the lands attached to the hall were 

 the Sutch fields, Scarth, Damstead, Flat- 

 backs, and Clift. Other place names include 

 Biscarr and Ekoe wood. The mill seems 



to have been rented at £^. At the end is 

 the note, ' Acquitted on Tryall." A further 

 account (B. yS, fol. 34—9) estimated the 

 value of the hall, in Mrs. Scarisbrick's 

 possession, at ^^159 j the new hall was let 

 for £to. Nicholas Blundell of Crosby 

 visited him in Newgate, and afterwards at 

 Scarisbrick ; BlundelVs Diary, 144, 148. 

 In 1717 Frances Scarisbrick, widow, and 

 Edward Scarisbrick registered estates here. 

 Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 1 12, 1 08. 



8 The Gent. Mag. of 1738 among the 

 deaths has — 'March 11, Robert Scaris- 

 brick, esq., of j^2,ooo per annum, in 

 Lancashire, a Roman Catholic of very 

 good character.' 



^ He had entered the Jesuit novitiate, 

 but left after eighteen months' trial. 



8 Of the daughters one married, and 

 the others became Franciscan nuns. 



' He is said to have joined the Young 



269 



Pretender in 1745 ; see the story, obvi- 

 ously inaccurate as referring to a ' defeat 

 at Preston,' in Gillow's Bibl. Diet, of Engl. 

 Cath. iii, 39. 



^** He is said to have been 'much 

 influenced by the infidel and anti-Catholic 

 literature of the time ;' Foley's Rec.S. J., 

 vii, 141 1. 



^ The land was laid dry in 1783, and 

 the first crops sown in 1784; and he 

 wrote accounts of the operations for the 

 Society of Arts in 1786 and 1789, receiv- 

 ing their gold medal. He adopted 

 grazing rather than tillage, and found 

 that horses answered best on the natural 

 coarse grass and weeds of the softest 

 parts ; flax also succeeded well. 



12 He had natural children, on whom 

 he settled part of his estates, now in the 

 hands of the Scarisbrick Trustees. 



'' A son died in infancy. 



