WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



AUGHTON 



tree; and the latter having in 1724 obtained a 

 decree in the Court of Chancery confirming the 

 same, Thomas Hesketh surrendered possession.' 



Of the ancestry of John Plumbe, the purchaser of 

 the manor, nothing has been ascertained. He was an 

 attorney in Liverpool.* He must have been born 

 about 1670, and is stated to have married Sarah Marsh, 

 niece and co-heir of James Vernon of Liverpool.' His 

 eldest son William died before his father, who survived 

 until 1763,* and left a son Thomas, who succeeded 

 his grandfather at Aughton. Thomas Plumbe ' married 

 Elizabeth, eldest daughter and heir of John Tempest 

 ofTong near Bradford, and his son John in 1824 

 assumed the name and arms of Tempest." John 



Plumbe. Ermine^ a 

 bend voir cotised sable ; 

 on a canton argent a rose 

 gules. 



Tempkst of Tong. 

 Argent^ a bend betvjeen 

 six martlets sable. 



Plumbe Tempest dying on 6 April, 1859, was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Thomas Richard, who on his death 

 in 1 88 1 was followed by his nephew Robert Ricketts, 

 son of his sister Henrietta by her husband Sir Corn- 

 wallis Ricketts, baronet. Sir Robert succeeded to the 

 baronetcy in 1885, having in the previous year 

 assumed the name and arms of Tempest in lieu of his 

 own, and died at Torquay on 4 February, 1901. His 

 son and successor. Sir Tristram Tempest Tempest, 

 baronet, of Tong Hall and Aughton, was born lo 

 January, 1865. 



The old hall of Uplitherland (now a farmhouse) 

 was rebuilt in stone about 1686. 



Litherland was used as a surname. In 1246 Edith 



de Litherland complained that Yarwerth de Lither- 

 land had taken her cow ; but he proved that she was 

 his ' native ' and that he seized the cow in lieu of her 

 service. She was poor and had been abetted in the 

 matter by Richard le Waleys and Henry de Standish.' 



AUGHTON proper is supposed to have been granted 

 to Thurstan Banastre about the middle of the twelfth 

 century, and to have been carried by Margery his 

 daughter to Richard son of Roger de Lytham, 

 who died in or about 1201, leaving five daughters 

 his co-heirs. One of these was Quenilda, wife of 

 Roger Gernet the Forester,' and after her death in 

 1252 it was found that she had held one plough-land 

 in Aughton in chief of William de Ferrers, earl of 

 Derby, by knight's service ; but that she received no- 

 thing from it except wardship and relief. Her next 

 heirs were Robert de Stockport and Sir Ralph de 

 Beetham, as representing her sisters." The superior 

 lordship descended to their heirs, and in 1327 two- 

 thirds was held by Robert de Beetham and the other 

 third by Nicholas de Eaton, in right of his wife Joan 

 de Stockport, in socage by homage and fealty.'" The 

 Beetham share, in this as in other cases, came before 

 the sixteenth century into the hands of the earls of 

 Derby. The Stockport share disappears ; perhaps it 

 was united with the other. 



In the meantime, however, the manor had been 

 divided among two or three subordinate holders. It 

 is supposed, from their names, that they were descen- 

 dants of the Welshmen who settled in Lancashire in 

 1 1 7 7, when Robert Banastre was expelled from Rhudd- 

 lan by Owen Gwynedd, and that Aughton being a 

 Banastre manor, lands were granted to them there. 

 Early in the thirteenth century the three mesne lords 

 seem to have been Richard le Waleys (or, the Welsh- 

 man), who had a third of the manor ; Madoc de 

 Aughton and Bleddyn de Aughton. These three 

 were defendants in a suit touching the advowson of the 

 church in 1235." 



I. Richard le Waleys settled at Uplitherland, and 

 the descent of his portion of Aughton has been traced 

 in the account of that manor. Though the matter is 

 not quite clear, the Waleys third seems to have 



Richard Norris of Liverpool urging the 

 completion of a sale of land : ' All per- 

 sons was agreed and you and Mr. Greene 

 did take possession. The estate is yours 

 and none of mine .... though writings 

 was not made out ' ; Norris Papers (Chet. 

 Soc), 14.8. 



In 1716 he appears, as a magistrate, 

 'happily' preventing his grandson Edward 

 Molyneux from going over the seas to be 

 educated for the priesthood ; Payne, Rec. 

 oj Engl. Cath. 152. 



In his will, dated 21 July, 171 7, and 

 proved 12 March, 1718-9, Alexander 

 Hesketh described himself as 'of Uplither- 

 land,' and desired to be buried 'in his own 

 chancel ' in Aughton Church. There are 

 bequests to his wife Mary and his son 

 Thomas ; no other children or relatives 

 are mentioned. 



1 Will at Chester, with deposition 

 attached. 



It does not appear what became of the 

 son ; but in 1741 Anne Holme of West 

 Derby, principal creditor of Thomas 

 Hesketh, late of Aughton, gentleman, 

 deceased, gave a bond of j^ioo to exhibit 

 an inventory and truly administer his 

 goods; Administration granted 19 Nov. 

 1741- 



A similar bond was in 1749 given by 



Stanley Hesketh of Liverpool, as son of 

 Thomas Hesketh, late of Ormskirk, gen- 

 tleman, deceased ; administration granted 

 20 March, 1748-9. 



In 1745 Stanley Hesketh was vouchee 

 in a recovery of the manor ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Plea R. 560, 3 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of 

 F. bdle. 332, m. 90. 



A full account of the descent from the 

 Restoration down to Stanley Hesketh may 

 be found in the rolls of the Exch. of Pleas, 

 lo Geo. II, Trin. m. 25-9, There 

 appears to have been an unsuccessful 

 attempt to regain the manor for the 

 Heskeths. 



^ He is several times mentioned in the 

 Diary of N. Blundell of Little Crosby, for 

 whom he held courts. 



' Baines, Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 244. 



■* Gent. Mag. 1761, p. 237 — William 

 Plumbe of Liverpool, died 10 May; 1763, 

 p. 201 — John Plumbe of Liverpool, died 

 about March, aged 92. 



5 He was vouchee in a recovery of the 

 manor in Aug. 1763 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea 

 R. 598, 6. 



* Gregson writes in 1823 : 'Of the 

 family of Plumbe one in our time (in the 

 law) resided in Liverpool and owned the 

 lands on which Plumbe Street is built ' ; 

 Fragments (ed. Harland), 2i8. This street 



295 



has now disappeared, Exchange Station 

 standing on the site. 



7 Assize R. 404, m. 19. For another 

 family named Litherland, see below, in 

 Aughton, 3, 



s V^C.H. Lana. i, 368 ; Farrer, Lanes. 

 Pipe i2. 44. 



^ Lanes, luq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 189-191. 



10 Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 34. Ellen 

 widow of Robert de Stockport early in the 

 reign of Edw. I, brought an action against 

 Adam de Aughton in Newsham and Madoc 

 de Aughton in Aughton ; De Banc. R. 10, 

 ni. 71 d. 



"^^ See the account of the church. 



In the Lichfield registers of the four- 

 teenth century the parish is called Acton 

 Blundell. Robert Blundell, rector, in 

 1246 claimed two oxgangs from Madoc 

 son of Lewel (Llewelyn), and Quenilda 

 widow of Richard le Waleys. He did not 

 prosecute hisclaim(Assize R. 404, m. 3 d.), 

 and it is uncertain whether he based it 

 on inheritance or the right of his church. 

 Blundells appear afterwards in this town- 

 ship, and also in the Formby district. 

 Madoc de Aughton is in this instance 

 called Madoc son of Llewelyn ; it will 

 be seen that his daughter married a 

 Blundell. 



