WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WARRINGTON 



supported library. After occupying hired premises 

 in Friar's Green, buildings were erected for it in 

 1855, and enlarged in 1876 by the addition of an 

 art gallery, and again in 1881. The School of Art 

 adjoins ; it was founded in 1853. A technical insti- 

 tute was built in 1902. 



A town hall and bridewell were built under the 

 Act of 1 8 1 3 ; the building was till recently used as a 

 court for the magistrates, &c. The present town hall, 

 formerly Bank Hall, was purchased in 1872 ; it was 

 the seat of the Patten family, and erected in 1750. 

 It is a fine specimen of a large country house of the 

 time, with good plaster wall and ceiling decorations, 

 and a pediment on the front with the Patten arms. 

 The rain-water heads and wrought-iron railings are 

 ■ excellent of their kind. The grounds have been 

 thrown open to the public. Parr Hall, presented to 

 the town by Mr. J. Charlton Parr in 1895, is used 

 for public meetings. 



The markets were held in an open space in the 

 angle formed by Sankey and Horsemarket Streets. 

 There the present market-hall was built in 1856 

 under an Act obtained in 1 854 ; a large covered shed 

 adjacent was erected in 1879 to give further accom- 

 modation. Horsemarket and Buttermarket Streets 

 show by their names how they were formerly used. 



Apart from the Boteler family the chief landowners 

 in Warrington were the Haydocks and their successors 

 the Leghs of Lyme. An account of their holding has 

 been printed in William Beamont, Warrington in 

 1465.* One or more families bore the local name ; * 

 others took a surname from their trades or offices, as 

 the Arrowsmlths ;^ others again had come into the 

 town from the adjacent town- 

 ships, as Rixton and South- 

 worth, and may have been 

 younger branches of the ma- 

 norial families.* Other surveys 

 of the town were made in 

 1587 and 1593, and are now 

 in the possession of Lord Lil- 

 ford ; there is a copy in the 

 museum. 



In more recent times the 

 chief local family was that of 

 Patten, whose residence, as 

 already stated, is now the town 

 hall.'^ The Borrons recorded a pedigree in 1664.^ 



The prior of the Hospitallers ' and the abbot ot 

 Whailey ** had exemptions from toll. William le 

 Boteler early in the thirteenth century granted to 

 Cockersand Abbey a burgage which the priest had 



Patten of Bank 

 Hall. Lozengy ermine 

 and sabUj a canton gules. 



1 Chet. Soc. vol. xvii. 



^ The Warringtons may have been an 

 offshoot of the Botelers. In 1 246 an agree- 

 ment was made respecting an oxgang of 

 land and a water corn-mill in Warrington, 

 held for life by Henry le Boteler of 

 Richard le Boteler, who held of William 

 le Boteler, chief lord of the fee ; Final 

 Cone, i, 100. 



Richard son of Henry son of Ralph in 

 1278 recovered from William le Boteler 

 and others a free tenement, part of which 

 the defendant claimed as guardian of 

 Simon, son of William, son of Ralph, 

 which Ralph was elder brother of the 

 plaintiff. The other part had been granted 

 by the earl of Ferrers while defendant was 

 in ward to him ; Assize R, 1 2 3 8, m. 3 3 i/. ; 

 also R. 1239, m. 39 1^. 



Richard son of Henry de Warrington in 

 1295 claimed the fourth part of an ox- 

 gang of land from Richard the Carpenter 

 and Isabel his wife and others, Isabel 

 being daughter and heir of Elota ; Assize 

 R. 1306, m, 16 ; 419, m. 1 1. From an 

 earlier plea it is known that Elota was 

 Ellen de la Bank ; Assize R. 408, m. 4. 



Ralph son of Henry de Warrington was 

 plaintiff in 1292 (ibid. m. 25); at the 

 same time other plaintiffs were Hugh dc 

 Warrington and John son of Gilbert, son 

 of Walter de Warrington ; ibid. m. 27 d. 



^ Mary widow of William Arrowsmith 

 occurs in 1445 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 8, 

 m, 10, She and Robert Arrowsmith were 

 executors of her husband's will ; ibid. 

 R. 7, m. 4. He had had William le 

 Boteler's magnum hospitsum of which Joan, 

 widow of Hamon the Nailer, was tenant 

 in 1465 ; Beamont, op. cit. p. 72. The 

 heir of Roger Arrowsmith is frequently 

 mentioned in the same work. In 1575 

 Thomas Norris purchased several mes- 

 suages from Robert Arrowsmith ; Pal, of 

 Lane. Feet of F. bdle 37, m, 16, 



* A family named Payn is mentioned 

 about 1300. Roger son of William Payn 

 was nonsuited in 1292 ; Assize R. 408, 

 m. 44. He successfully defended his right 

 to land claimed by Amery widow of 

 Thomas Ruyl of Warrington ; ibid, m. 



20 d. For Henry son of Robert Ruyl see 

 IVhalley Coucber (Chet. Soc), ii, 418, 

 William son of Payn being a witness to 

 his grant. Agnes daughter of Thomas 

 Payn was among the plaintiffs in a suit of 

 1332, William Payn of Warrington being 

 a defendant ; Assize R. 141 1, m. 12. 



Hawise widow of Richard de Hallum, 

 William de Ripon, and Richard del Ford, 

 demanded certain messuages against Wil- 

 liam, son of William le Boteler in 1356 ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Assize R, 6, m. 51/.; 

 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 337. 

 Four years later Elizabeth daughter of 

 Robert de Medburn complained that Wil- 

 liam de Hallum, and Margaret his wife, 

 William de Ripon, and Richard de Wools- 

 ton had disseised her of certain land in 

 the town ; Assize R. 440, m. i d. In the 

 following year William de Hallum of 

 Warrington complained that John, son of 

 Gilbert de Haydock, had taken his cattle, 

 'against the gage and pledge' ; Assize R. 

 441, m. 3. Hallums Lane and Hallums 

 Well occur in 1465; Beamont, op. cit. 1 10, 

 where it is stated that the well was after- 

 wards known as the Running Pump. 



John Scott recovered a messuage in 

 1356 J Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 5, 

 m. 5. 



^ The surname Patten occurs in War- 

 rington in the Survey of 1465 (p. 92) 

 already quoted. Pedigrees are given in 

 Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 1 84, 

 and Burke, Commoners, iii, 79. In an as- 

 sessment of the town made in 1649 *^* 

 names of Thomas and John Patten ap- 

 pear ; K-uerden MSS. iii, W. 18. A 

 pedigree was recorded by Thomas Patten 

 in 1665 when he was twenty-eight years 

 of age, it is headed by Richard Patten of 

 Wainfieet ; Dugdale, Fisit. (Chet. Soc), 

 229. Mary, daughter of Thomas Patten, 

 in 1698 married Thomas Wilson, the 

 famous bishop of Sodor and Man, and 

 their son, Dr. Thomas Wilson, left his 

 estates to the Pattens, on condition that 

 they should take the surname of Wilson. 



Thomas Patten, brother of Mary, a 

 prosperous merchant, deepened the chan- 

 nel of the Mersey, greatly improving the 

 navigation ; Norris P. (Chet. Soc), 37, 



321 



38. His son, another Thomas, the 

 builder of Bank Hall, acquired the lord- 

 ship of Winmarleigh; and his son Thomas, 

 high sheriff in 1773, married one of the 

 daughters and co-heirs of Peter Bold of 

 Bold. Their son Peter Patten Bold left 

 four daughters as co-heirs, and the Patten 

 estates went to his brother Thomas Patten 

 Wilson, whose son John Wilson Patten 

 was in 1874 elevated to the peerage as 

 Lord Winmarleigh. He died in 1892, 

 and his son and grandson having died 

 before him, the peerage became extinct, 

 and his daughters inherited the estates ; 

 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, viii, 189. 



Another branch of this family settled 

 at Preston, and acquired the manor of 

 Thornley. The heiress married Sir 

 Thomas Stanley of Bickerstaffe, and the 

 estates have descended to the earl of 

 Derby. 



Two deeds relating to William Patten's 

 property in Warrington in 1682-3 '^^V 

 be seen in Local Gleanings Lanes, and 

 Ches. i, 245. In the same work are 

 notices of the families of Woodcock and 

 Hayward ; i, 204 ; ii, 29. One of the 

 latter, the Rev. Thomas Hayward, be- 

 came master of the grammar school in 

 1720. 



6 Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc), 65 ; 

 Aiisc. Gen. et Herald. (New Ser.), Lanes, and 

 Ches. Antiq. Notes, ii, 204 ; Deed enrolled 

 in Com. Pleas, Trin. 1756, R. 43, m. 

 114^. 



7 The agreement that the prior and his 

 successors and the brethren and their 

 tenants should for ever be free of toll 

 in the fairs and markets of Warrington 

 was confirmed by a friendly suit in 1292 j 

 Assize R. 408, m. 17. 



^ William le Boteler early in the thir- 

 teenth century granted full quittance of 

 toll in his vill of Warrington both in buy- 

 ing and selling ; he also gave them a free 

 burgage in the vill, which they could use 

 as a lodging place ; Whalley Coueher, ii, 

 414. A suit of 1272 concerning this ex- 

 emption is in Cur. Reg. R. 208, m. 2 d. 

 At the suppression a rent of %s. was paid 

 for the abbey's messuage in Warrington ; 

 Whalley Coueher, iv, 1247. 



41 



