WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



AUGHTON 



of age.' By his will, made a few weeks before his 

 death, Henry Starkie desired to be buried at Aughton 

 church, ' in that place where his ancestors had been 

 buried ' ; to John, his son and 

 heir, he gave two long boards 

 and forms in the hall as also 

 a screen there, with the wish 

 that these might remain as heir- 

 looms in the house.' He died at 

 Aughton on 6 March, 1593-4, 

 and was succeeded in the manor 

 of Aughton by his son John, 

 then 39 years of age. The 

 manor was said to be held of 

 the queen by the fortieth part 

 of a knight's fee ; it and the 

 lands were worth j^20 clear.' 



John Starkie was almost im- 

 mediately involved in disputes with his neighbour 

 Lawrence Ireland of Lydiate.* Shortly before the 

 death of John Starkie in 1626, his windmill and 

 various lands, including the Furlongs and Broad 

 Carr,° were the subject of family disputes. His 

 son Henry, to whom he had refused to make any 

 allowance for many years, put in a claim to them. 

 The rector of Aughton expressed his belief that the 

 ' unnaturalness ' of the father to plaintiff and the 

 persuasions of the stepmother and others would 

 greatly endanger Henry's overthrow and be the ruin 

 of that house.' Possibly this anticipation was justified, 

 as the family seems to have declined in importance. 

 For instance their manor was ignored in 1657, when 



Starkie of Augh- 

 ton. Argent, a stork 

 table memhered gules, a 

 mullet for difference. 



it was awarded that Uplitherland was a particular 

 district and a distinct manor, Bartholomew Hesketh 

 being sole lord ; and that Aughton was another 

 distinct manor, Caryl Lord Molyneux, Lawrence 

 Ireland, and Bartholomew Hesketh being the three 

 lords of it ; boundaries were then fixed by the 

 referees.' In 164.0 the lands of Richard Tatlock 

 were said to be held of Lord Molyneux, Edward 

 Ireland, Bartholomew Hesketh, and Edward Starkie 

 ' as of their manor of Aughton.' ' 



Henry Starkie, the son, died in 1639. His will 

 mentions his wife, Edward his son and heir, and 

 other children.' Edward Starkie was one of the 

 ' commanders and officers ' in 

 the siege of Lathom House, 

 thus taking part with the Par- 

 liament.'" He recorded a pedi- 

 gree at the visitation of 1664, 

 describing himself as forty-six 

 years of age." 



His younger son John seems 

 to have succeeded to the manor 

 shortly after the father's death, 

 for early in 1682 he and Mary 

 his wife by fine transferred to 

 Roger Bostock the ' manor of 

 Aughton,' various lands and a grain mill." He died 

 about a year later, administration of his goods being 

 granted to his widow Mary on 12 May, 1683." 

 This appears to have been the end of his family's 

 connexion with the place. In 1687 an agreement 

 was signed by Lord Molyneux, Sir Charles Anderton, 



Bostock. Sable, a 

 fesse humettie argent. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Depos. 11 Eliz. «. 3 ; 

 and Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. Ixiv, 

 S. I. 



"^ Piccope, Wills, iii, 51. Mr. Ireland 

 of Lydiate owed him for chief rent \s. 6d. 

 On a map of about this date the hall and 

 the land round it are coloured as ' Mr. 

 Starkie's,' but upon the building is in- 

 scribed *Mr. Ireland's.* 



' Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvii, n. 70. 



There was a dispute about this time 

 among the members of the Edgeacre 

 family. In 1553 John Starkie of Augh- 

 ton, aged about 46, and Henry Starkie 

 his son and heir apparent, aged 19, gave 

 evidence in the claim made by James 

 Edgeacre against his step-mother Janet for 

 'evidences' which she first promised to 

 bring to Aughton church, and then as- 

 serted she had burnt. Henry Edgeacre 

 of Coleshill, Berks, as brother and heir 

 of James, laid claim to lands in Aughton 

 (Longley, &c.), of which Henry Starkie 

 (aged about 34 in 1569) was chief lord, 

 and of which Robert son of James was 

 in possession. There was a dipute as to 

 Robert's legitimacy. See Duchy of Lane. 

 Depos. Edw. VI, Ix, E. i ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. xlviii, E. 3, and 

 Ixxxvi, E. I ; also Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdle. 21, m. 8 ; and bdle. 32, m. 29. 

 James Edgeacre had when a boy (about 

 1530) married Cecily daughter of Nicho- 

 las Barnes (or Jackson) at Melling Chapel. 

 Afterwards he procured a divorce and 

 married (about 1540) Ellen daughter of 

 William Shurlaeres, after due proclama- 

 tion of the banns on three several feast 

 days in Halsall and Aughton churches. 

 Robert Kirkby, then curate (in 1569 

 rector of Bladon, Oxford), officiated, and 

 Richard Dodson, clerk, was present ; the 

 marriage was duly entered in the Halsall 

 register. 



■• From the pleadings it appears that 



John Litherland had held various lands 

 called Bycall — where West Tower now 

 stands — adjoining John Starkie's land 

 called Highfield ; also land in the Fur- 

 longs, and the Michell Acre in the Water- 

 mill Hey. There had, about 1579, been 

 a claim put in by Henry Starkie, who had 

 defaced the old meres and bounds. This 

 had been remedied, and John Litherland 

 about 1590 sold Bycall to Lawrence Ire- 

 land, who was forcibly ejected by John 

 Starkie, claiming possession * from time 

 immemorial.' Other lands in dispute had 

 been held of his ancestors by * a yearly 

 rent of y. 3^., a day's ploughing, a day's 

 loading of " worthing," and a day's shear- 

 ing.' Lawrence Ireland acknowledged a 

 rent of 25. ^d., professing ignorance of the 

 immediate superior, and denying the other 

 services, which the former tenant grudg- 

 ingly acknowledged as follows : * John 

 Starkie and his father being gentlemen 

 and her near neighbours and able to do 

 her pleasure and displeasure (she being a 

 poor woman and a widow) she had helped 

 them by starts both with ploughing and 

 worthing.' Another tenant admitted a 

 day's shearing once. 



Another point in dispute was a right 

 of way for horse or man, called a bridle- 

 way, from Ireland's manor of Eggergarth 

 to Aughton church, with the right to 

 carry a corpse that way for burial, a 

 yearly rent of \2.d. being paid. John 

 Starkie having alleged that the iid. was 

 due for a close called Watson's Hey, and 

 not for the right of way over his lands, 

 Lawrence Ireland had refused to pay ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. elxiv, 14. 



' This carr was ' well replenished with 

 ash and sapling wood,' according to one 

 deponent. 



8 Duchy of Lane. Depos. 2 Chas. I, n. 

 22. John Starkie's will (dated 6 May, 

 1625, and proved at Chester 8 Dec. 1626) 



297 



mentions a settlement made in 1605 by 

 him and Henry his son ; his other sons 

 were Nathan, James, Thomas, Nathaniel, 

 and Samuel; and his 'younger children,' 

 Sarah (who had married Richard Tyrer 

 against her father's will), Tabitha, Re- 

 becca, Joseph, Susan, Priscilla, Mary, and 

 Ruth. The number of Bible names may 

 indicate that he was a Puritan. The in- 

 ventory includes ' a standish and in printed 

 books* 205., also 'a pair of playing tables,* 



7 Add. MS. 22644; from* Col. Plumbe's 

 evidences.' 



^ Patchett, Tatlocks of Cumcough, 27. 



9 Will at Chest, dated i Dec. 1638 ; 

 proved 6 Mar. 1639-40; inventory, 19 

 July, 1639. 'The "armore," the long 

 board now standing on the east side of 

 the hall, and the evidence chest ' were to 

 be heirlooms. 



10 Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 235-6. 



" Dugdale, Phit. (Chet. Soc), 295. His 

 will, dated in 1670, and proved in Jan. 

 1674-5 ^y ^^s eldest son Aughton, re- 

 cords that as 'Edward Starkie of the hall 

 of Aughton* he had on 24 Sept. 1670, 

 granted to trustees * all the manor and 

 lordship of Aughton and all the capital 

 messuage and mansion house called 

 the hall of Aughton', also the mill called 

 ' Aughton windmilne,' the great common 

 called Aughton moss, and his other lands. 

 He left bequests to his sons Henry and 

 John, his daughters Ellen and Mary, also 

 to others. From the will at Chester 

 proved 22 Jan. 1674-5 ; inventory (^^69) 

 20th of same. 



12 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdl^. 208, 

 m. 121. Roger Bostock of Ormskirk 

 was one of the father's trustees. 



^3 Admon. at Chester. The inventory 

 had been taken on 24 Feb. ; the total 

 was only £6 $s. 



38 



