WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



ORMSKIRK 



head, land seems to have settled in Cheshire. His 

 eldest son was Richard,' who was succeeded in 1589 

 by his son John, described as ' of Picton,' near Chester. 

 A dispute occurred between John Hurleton, as lord of 

 the manor, and John Shaw of ' the hall of Shaw,' the 

 latter asserting that he and his ancestors had from 

 time immemorial had a right of way through the 

 pasture called Long Furlong, from their house to 

 Ormsklrk.' From this time onward the story of 

 the Hurletons belongs to Cheshire rather than to 

 Lancashire.' It is not known when they sold 

 Harleton to the Scarisbricks.* 



Harleton Hall stands on rising ground near a small 

 stream, and a quarter of a mile north of the road to 

 Ormskirk. It is a house of the H type, originally 

 of the fifteenth century, much altered about the 

 beginning of the seventeenth, the central hall and 

 parts of the east wing being of the first date, and the 



been re-built in brick in modern times, though prob- 

 ably on the old plan. 



The hall is entered by a door at the north-east 

 corner, opening into a passage which once formed the 

 screens, and probably still contains some of the 

 original wooden construction concealed in the par- 

 tition which forms part of the east end of the hall. 

 The passage, once open at both ends, now has a 

 north doorway only, its south end leading to a stair- 

 case which fills up the space between the hall chimney 

 and the east wing. Externally the north wall of the 

 hall is much in its original condition, and is a 

 picturesque piece of timber construction of upright 

 posts set in a massive wooden sill, which rests on a 

 dwarf wall of wrought stone twelve inches thick. At 

 somewhat over half height the uprights are mortised 

 into a moulded headpiece which has had a row of 

 carved paterae or some such ornament along it, of 



Harleton Hall : North Side of Hall 



west wing, with the bay window and chimney of the which only the traces of attachment remain. Above 

 hall, and the south end of the east wing, of the are a shorter row of uprights, reaching to the wall- 

 second. A considerable part of the east wing has plate. The spaces between the timbers are filled in 



1 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 12, 

 m. 109. Thomas Hurleton was then 

 dead. One of the family was John 

 Hurleton, archdeacon of Richmond, 

 ejected (probably as married) about 1554 

 and restored in 1559; Gee's Eliz. Clergy } 

 ff^ilk (Chet. Soc. New Ser.), i, 47. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. clvii, 

 H. 2. For another dispute of the same 

 year see cliv, H. 8. 



3 Ches. Visit, of 1580 (Harl. Soc), 

 130, where Richard Hurleton is said to 

 have been 'living 1566' ; also Ormerod, 

 Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 815, where there 

 is a pedigree. They altered their name 

 to Hurleston. Numerous references to 

 the Hurlestons will be found in the 

 appendices to the Dep. Keeper^ s Rep, xxxvii, 

 xxxix ; on p. 191 of the latter is an 

 abstract of the deed of settlement on the 

 marriage of John son of Richard Hurleton 



of Picton (in 1589) with Jane daughter 

 of George Massey of Puddington, the 

 manor of Harleton in Lancashire being 

 among the lands included. Richard 

 Hurleton died in the same year, and 

 his son John in 1603, leaving an infant 

 son. 



'* John Hurleston, Mary his wife, and 

 Charles the son and heir apparent, were 

 in possession in 1684; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 213, m. 69. In 1706, 

 John Hurleston, son of Charles, was 

 summoned to vouch concerning the 

 manor ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 482, 

 m. 3. In 1716 a chief rent of 25. 2j(/. 

 was payable by Charles Hurleston, younger 

 brother of the last-mentioned John, to 

 the lord of Scarisbrick ; Forfeited Es- 

 tates, Geo. I,B. 76, fol. 36. After the 

 death of Charles Hurleston in 1727 the 

 estates were divided among his three 



271 



nieces, daughters of John, viz. : Anne, 

 who married, (2) John Needham, lord 

 Kilmorey 5 Mary, who married John 

 Leche of Carden, near Malpas ; and 

 Elizabeth, who married Traffbrd Barnston. 

 See Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 320, 

 m. 113, and bdle. 324, m. 164. John 

 Leche and Mary his wife were concerned 

 in a third part of the manor of Harleton 

 in 1739 ; Pal. of Lane. Docquet R. 548, 

 m. 8. The Scarisbricks must have pur- 

 chased it shortly after this, for it was 

 included in the portion of Elizabeth, 

 daughter of William Scarisbrick, who 

 married John Lawson ; and in 1772 the 

 latter transferred to Joseph Scarisbrick 

 and others * a messuage in Harleton late 

 the estate of Charles Hurleton the elder, 

 late of Newton, Cheshire* ; Piccope 

 MSS. iii, 394, from R. $ of Geo. II at 

 Preston. 



