A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



held.* Norton Priory or Abbey, Birkenhead Priory, 

 and the hospital of St. John at Chester also held 

 lands in the town.* 



The hamlet of ORFORD^ was held of the lords 

 of Warrington by several tenants. Among these 

 were the Haydocks and their successors the Leghs/ 

 and the Norris family. The latter appear to have 

 acquired a holding about 1300,* and remained in 



1 Cockertand ChartuL (Chet. Soc), ii, 

 641. Robert the clerk and Astin the 

 Skinner concurred in the grant, the latter 

 receiving 401. from the canons. 



a pf^arr, in 1465, pp. 40, 74 ; a croft 

 belonging to Norton was called Marbuiys 

 land (p. 104), which may indicate the donor. 

 The three ecclesiaatical bodies named, 

 with the abbot of Whalley, had their 

 lands as early as the time of Edward II, 

 as appears from an old list of the free 

 tenants preserved in the inq. p. m. of 

 Sir Thomas Boteler ; Duchy of Lane, 

 I 



aq. p.m. v, n. 13. 



Before the dissolution Norton received 

 a rent of 4J. ^. from Warrington ; Orme- 

 rod, Cbe:. (ed. Helsby), i, 686. Birken- 

 head had 3(/. rent ; ibid, ii, 462. For a 

 grant of the Norton lands sec Pat. 4, 

 Jas. I, pt. xxiv. 



■ Ovcrforth, 1465. 



■• From Beamont, fVarr. in 1465 (Chet. 

 Soc), 140, it appears that Richard 

 Bruchc held land in Orlord of Sir Peter 

 Legh by a chief rent j his land lay be- 

 tween Orford Lane on the north, and 

 Rushficld Brook on the south ; to the 

 south of this agiin was the Heath. 



The list of tenants at will occupies 

 pp. 116-39. The meadow called Dalcarr, 

 of six acres, lay to the west of the road 

 leading from Longford Bridge to the vil- 

 lage of Hulme ; a meadow called Homur 

 Plock, belonging to William Boteler, lay 

 on its western side. It was worth 1 31. 4^/. 

 a year ; p. 1 16. The Penny Plock was a 

 meadow encircled by the rivulet called 

 Houghton Brook, which bounded it on 

 the west ; Richard Bruche's field called 

 Hankey was the other boundary; 136. 

 A number of field names occur — Irpuls 

 earth, Gorsty acre, Hoole acre. Gale 

 «parth, Emme acre, Payns field, Marbury's 

 land, &c. Besides a money rent each 

 tenant at will was required to give one 

 day's work at filling the dungcart, worth 

 zd. \ one day at haymaking, worth id. ; 

 and two days in autumn, worth 8^/. 



* Some of the Norris D. have been pre- 

 served by Dodsworth (MSS. liii, fol. 15^). 

 In 1261 Jordan, son of Robert de Hulton, 

 granted to Roger de Hopton (Upton) a 

 burgage in Warrington purchased from 

 William le Boteler for 40J. At the end 

 of 1288 Robert 'le Charter' and Alice de 

 Kingsley his wife quitclaimed to John, son 

 of Robert le Norreys, all their right in a 

 burgage and acre of land in Warrington 5 

 and two months later Robert, son of Roger 

 de Upton, granted to the same John le 

 Norreys lands in Warrington and Bold, by 

 a charter dated at Burtonhead. Five years 

 afterwards Roger Michel and Margaret 

 his wife released to John le Norreys their 

 claim on a fourth part of the land which 

 Robert, John's uncle, had held in War- 

 rington. This uncle may be the Robert 

 de Upton of the preceding charter. 



In 1339 William le Boteler of War- 

 rington and Elizabeth his wife granted to 

 Henry, son of John le Xorreys of Halsnead, 

 four acres in Warrington, with remainder 

 to Nicholas (eldest) son of the said John. 

 In August of the same year John le 

 Norreys of Orford granted lands in 

 Orford to Henry Coran, and was per- 



possession till the end of the sixteenth century, when 

 they were succeeded by a branch of the Tyldesley 

 family, by marriage with the heiress of Thomas 

 Norris.' 



Shortly afterwards the Blackbumes of Newton-in- 

 Makerfield acquired an estate here, and Orford was 

 their principal residence until the beginning of last 

 century, when Hale Hall became their seat.' Orford 



W. Beamont's Hah and Orford, Uom which 

 book much of the following is derived. 

 There are several entries relating to the 

 family in Foster's Alumni Oxon. 



The Blackbumes were a trading family, 

 previously of Thistleton and Garstang, 

 who acquired lands in Newton and the 

 neighbourhood late in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. Richard Blackburne of Newton 

 gave £zo a year towards the stipend of a 

 * preaching minister' at the chapel there ; 

 Commonivealth Ch, Surv, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), 47, 



Thomas, son of Richard, acquired the 

 Tyldesley mansion in Orford as stated 

 above. He afterwards succeeded his elder 

 brother in the Newton estate. He was a 

 devout Protestant, but does not seem to 

 have taken any part in the Civil War. 

 His diaiy has been preserved, and is now 

 at Hale Hall. In March, 1653-4 ^ "''' 

 tlement was made by fine of the hall 

 of Orford, with lands in Warrington, Ac, 

 and a free fishery in the Mersey; Thomas 

 Blackburne was plaintiff and Edward 

 Blackburne deforciant ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 153, m, 33. He died in 

 1663, and was buried at Winwick. 



His eldest son Thomas, of Orford and 

 Newton, recorded a pedigree in 1 664, 

 being then thirty years of age ; Dugdale, 

 risit. (Chet. Soc), 36. He died without 

 issue in 1670, and was succeeded by a 

 brother, Jonathan Blackburne, who was a 

 justice of the peace and bestirred himself 

 in the guidance of local affairs. He 

 appears to have been a Whig in politics, 

 for he was the first shcrifFof Lancashire 

 appointed by George I. He enlarged and 

 transformed the hall at Orford, and died 

 early in 1724. 



John Blackburne, who was the second 

 son of Jonathan, succeeded. He was high 

 sheriff of the county in 1743-4, and 

 built or restored the bridge and roadway 

 at Longford, in order to secure the 

 northern approach to the town from being 

 rendered impassable by floods, as had fre- 

 quently happened. He built a school 

 house at Orford. He himself was a stu- 

 dent of horticulture, making collections 

 of plants, building greenhouses, and laying 

 out his gardens with devotion and succeis. 

 His daughter Anna was a notable botanist. 



The Warrington Academy had probably 

 some share in stimulating these tastes, as 

 Dr. Reinhold Forster was one of its 

 tutors, and named a genus of plants 

 Blackburnia, in memory of the kindness 

 the family had shown him. John Black- 

 burne extended the family possessions, 

 his most noteworthy acquisition being the 

 lordship of the manor of Warrington in 

 1769, He died in 1786, in the ninety- 

 third year of his age, having lived to see 

 his grandson and heir the high sheriff of 

 the county in 1781. There is a notice of 

 him in Aikin, Country round Manch. 307. 



John Blackbume's eldest son Thomai 

 had married Ireland Greene, the heiress 

 of Hale, and had settled in this place, 

 where he died in 1768. His son John 

 had thus, long before succeeding his 

 grandfather at Orford, succeeded his father 

 at Hale, but he resided at Orford until the 

 death of his mother. 



haps the John, son and heir of Henry le 

 Norreys, to whom the steward of the 

 manor of Warrington gave twenty-one 

 deeds touching the inheritance of *the 

 said John de Halsnead.* 



The pleadings in the courts do not give 

 much assistance. Robert le Norreys was 

 a defendant in a claim in 1292 by 

 Richard de Warrington, chaplain, Gilbert 

 son of Gilbert, and others, for reasonable 

 estovers for housebote and haybote in 60 

 acres of wood in Warrington ; Assize R. 

 408, m. 27. At the same time Thomas 

 de Halsnead and John his son were defen- 

 dants in other pleas j ibid. m. 7 d* Robert 

 le Norreys was again a defendant in 1305, 

 the Fords being among the claimants ; 

 De Banco R. 156, m. 15, z% d. Robert 

 le Norreys and Agnes his wife in 1314 

 demanded 24 acres of pasture against 

 William le Boteler; ibid. 205, m. 65^/. 

 Ten years later John le Norreys of 

 Halsnead was plaintiff and defendant in 

 suits concerning lands in Warrington ; 

 Assize R. 425, m. 6 ; 426, m. 2 (Robert, 

 son of William de la Ford, being plaintiff 

 in this case). 



John ie Norreys of Orford died 7 Sep- 

 tember, 141 6, leaving a son and heir of 

 the same name, then twelve years of age ; 

 his lands in Orford were held of John le 

 Boteler by knight's service, and other 

 lands in Church Street in Warrington of 

 Sir Gilbert de Haydock, also by knight's 

 service. The wardship and marriage of 

 the heir were granted to Richard de 

 Burscough ; Lancs^ Inif. p.m. (Chet, 

 Soc), i, 124. The lands of John Norreys 

 are fully described in IVarr. in 1465, 

 pp. 74—8. A chief rent ofSd. was payable. 

 A feoffment of his lands by John Norris 

 of Orford in 1473 is in Kuerden MSS. 

 iii, T. 2, n. 19. 



Thomas Norris did homage for his 

 lands in 1506, and appeared at the lord's 

 court in i 523 among the other free tenants; 

 Lords of PVarr. (Chet. Soc), li, 363, 432. 



• A settlement of his lands was made 

 by Thomas Norris in 1573, the feoffees 

 being Robert and Henry Norris ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 35, m. 9. This 

 Thomas appears to have prospered ; in 

 the following years he made various pur- 

 chases of land from Edward Butler, Robert 

 Arrowsmith, and Hamlet Bruche, and in 

 1585 he purchased lands in Laghok or 

 Laffog in Parr; ibid. bdle. 36, m, 175 ; 

 37, m. 16; 38, m. 71; 47, m. 23. 



Thomas Norris died in 1595 seised 

 of lands in Orford, Warrington, Long- 

 ford, Great and Little Marton, Poulton, 

 Laffog, Parr, Windle, and Windleshaw ; 

 his heir was his daughter Anne, wife of 

 Thomas Tyldesley (of Wardley), aged 

 twenty years ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. 

 xvi, n. 51. Her husband was knighted in 

 1616; Metcalfe, Bk. ofKnighti, 1 67. The 

 inheritance passed to their son Richard, 

 but Orford was sold to Roger Charnock of 

 Gray'3 Inn in 1631 to pay the debts of 

 Sir Thomas, and afterwards became the 

 property of Thomas Blackburne; Norris 

 D. (B. M.). 



' There is a Blackburne pedigree in 

 Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 194. 

 An account of the family is given in 



322 



