WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WARRINGTON 



Shrewsbury Abbey. 



AaurCy a lion rampant 

 debruised luith a crosier 

 ^within a bordure or. 



Banastre, first lord of Makerfield. In 1246 a later 

 Robert Banastre, by fine and for 2 marks of silver, 

 released two brothers, Hamon and Robert, his natives 

 of Poulton, from all manner of nativity and servitude.' 

 A little before 1285 Robert 

 Banastre enfeoffed Alice, daugh- 

 ter of Gilbert de Haydock, of 

 the whole vill of Poulton, to 

 hold in fee and inheritance, 

 as freely as the grantor or his 

 ancestors had held it, render- 

 ing a pound of cummin at the 

 Nativity of St. Mary.* In 

 1285, at Newton in Maker- 

 field, after the said Alice's 

 marriage to Richard de Mos- 

 ton, the same Robert confirmed 

 this grant to them.' In 1292 

 Richard son of Emma de Woolston recovered seisin 

 of a tew acres of land here against Richard de 

 Moston.* 



Richard de Moston seems to have been son of 

 Richard de Moston of Moston in the parish of Man- 

 chester.' By Alice his wife he had issue William, 

 who in. 1323, describing himself as 'dominus de 

 Morleys,' conveyed all his lands in Poulton and Wools- 

 ton to Robert his brother.* William de Moston, son 

 of this Robert, was living in 1366 when he gave to 

 John de Haydock an acquittance for ^500 due upon 

 a bond.' In 1377 he conveyed the manor to feoffees, 

 by whom it was settled upon his brother Richard, 

 with remainder to four sisters (?) or their issue, repre- 

 sented in 1393 by John son of John de Sutton, 

 Katherine wife of Gilbert de Bruche, Emma wife of 

 John son of Robert de Assheton, and Agnes daughter 

 of Thomas Kynsy, afterwards the wife of Henry 

 Berry.' To these persons Matthew son of Gilbert 

 de Southworth in 1 394 released his right in the 

 manor, which he had acquired by a demise made to 

 him by William de Moston in 1384.' 



From this time the reputed manor ceases to exist, 

 the estates belonging to it descending in the repre- 

 sentatives of the families named. In 1432 John 

 Hawarden and Elizabeth his wife held one of the 

 pourparties.'" Another descended in the family of 

 Bruche, and seems to have been conveyed to Thomas 



Norris in 1 576, with lands in Orford and Warrington, 

 by Hamlet Bruche." A third share, consisting of 

 3 messuages, 120 acres of land, meadow, and pasture, 

 420 acres of wood, moor, and heath in Woolston, 

 Poulton, and Fearnhead, was conveyed by fine in 

 1567 by Sir John Atherton, Margaret his wife, and 

 William Culcheth, base son of Ralph Culcheth, to 

 Thomas Walmesley," and was in the possession ot 

 Robert Walmesley of Coldcotes, who died in l6l2, 

 holding it of Sir Richard Fleetwood, as of his manor 

 of Newton in Makerfield by a yearly rent of 2/." 

 The fourth was probably subdivided into small 

 tenements." 



Long before the manor ot Poulton was granted out 

 of his demesne by Robert Banastre the mesne manor 

 of BRUCHE ^^ appems to have been given to the 

 Botelers of Warrington, as 2 oxgangs of land. In 1 2 1 9 

 the southern half of this estate was conveyed by fine 

 by William le Boteler to Thomas Waleys, possibly a 

 brother of Richard Waleys, lord of Uplitherland.'* 

 The immediate descendants of Thomas Waleys have 

 not been traced. At some subsequent date the same 

 oxgang of land seems to have been granted to the 

 ancestor of Bruche," while the mesne lordship of the 

 other oxgang was conferred upon the family of Hay- 

 dock, of Bradley, the lords of which are subsequently 

 found to have been mesne lords of one moiety of 

 Bruche under the Botelers of Warrington, who in turn 

 held this mesne manor of the lords of Newton in 

 Makerfield. 



Whilst Richard Fitton was seneschal of Makerfield, 

 circa 1280, Robert Banastre gave a parcel of ground 

 lying between the moss and Woolston Brook, on the 

 south side of the Levynges croft, in Woolston, to 

 Robert de Samlesbury, and to his tenants dwelling in 

 La Bruche he gave common of pasture for all cattle 

 within the bounds of Poulton and Woolston for 1 2J. 

 at Midsummer." In 1288 Richard de Samlesbury re- 

 covered, against Richard de la Bruche and Margaret 

 his wife and others, his seisin of common of pasture 

 belonging to his free tenement in Warrington." 



Richard was living in 1305,'° and was probably 

 father of Thomas de Bruche, who with Agnes his wife 

 was a defendant in pleas in 1325 and 1328," and of 

 Henry del Bruche, the elder son, who was receiver of 

 the honour of Halton in 1 3 1 7 " and in possession of 



^ Final Cone, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 100. 



" Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xixviii, 



403- 



^ Ibid. The witnesses were Sir John 

 de Byron and Jqhn Deviaa, lets., Richard 

 de Bradshagh, then seneschal (of Maker- 

 field), and others. A small circular seal 

 of green wax with a heater shield bears 

 three chevronelles and the legend : s' rob'i 



BANASTRE. 



* Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), 73*. 

 Proceedings had been instituted against 

 Richard son of Richard de Moston before 

 the justices of Assize at Lane. ; Assize R. 

 408, m. 5, jzd. 5; and 91. 



' Raines MSS. xxxviii, 413, n, 4. 



' Ibid. 409, n, I. William de Moston 

 had a son William who in 1325 released 

 to Agnes daughter of Adam del Egge 

 his right in land in * Le Ferniheued * 

 which Richard his father had given to 

 Adam del Egge of Woolston; ibid. 413, 

 (I. 5. 



In 1 344 Richard de Moston was plaintiff 

 in a suit concerning the manor ; De Banc. 

 R. 341, m. 249 d. 



I Raines, op. cit. 409, n. 4; there is a cir- 

 cular seal bearing, on a heater shield within 

 a fretwork border, lozengy on a chevron 

 three mullets, and the legend ! bigillvm 

 will'i de moston -)-. See also ibid. 

 413, n. 2. , , . . 



8 Ibid. 413, «. 6. At the begmnmg of 

 the fifteenth century the representative of 

 William de Moston's feoffees and Richard 

 son of Robert de Moston obtained a writ 

 of assize of novel disseisin against the 

 above reversioners for having forcibly 

 entered upon lands in Poulton, Fearnhead, 

 and Rixton ; Towneley MS. CC. (Chet. 

 Lib.), «. 183. 



9 Ibid. 415, n. 3, 4. , .. , 

 1° Lana. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc), 11, 46. 



II Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 38, 

 m. 71 ; the premises consisted of 3 mes- 

 suages, no acres of land, meadow, and 

 pasture, 32 acres of heath and turbary, 

 and 24s. of rent. Roger Bruche, brother 

 of Hamlet, in 1585 conveyed 40 acres of 

 land, meadow, and pasture in Poulton to 

 Sir Peter Legh, but this may have been 

 part of the demesne of Bruche ; ibid. bdle. 

 47. ■"• 89- 



" Ibid. bdle. 29, m. 96. 



^^ Land. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 218-23. 



'^^ Ralph Bury and Anne his wife, by 

 fine in 2552, settled 3 messuages, lands, 

 and rents here upon Robert Knowle and 

 Joan his wife and her issue ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 14, m. 60. 



1* Bruches, 1219; Bruche, 13-19 cen- 

 turies. 



1° Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 42. Richard le Waleys was 

 Thomas's attorney. 



^^ Beamont, Bruche Hall, 11 ; a deed 

 there quoted mentions a grant of moor 

 and pasture in Warrington by William le 

 Boteler to Henry de Bruche shortly before 

 1328. 



18 Raines MSS. xxxviii, 403, n. 2. 

 The deed is sealed with a circular seal 

 bearing a rude water bouget and the 

 legend : s' roberti banastre. 



" Abbrcv. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), i, 58*. 



™ Assize R. 420, m. i. 



21 Ibid. R. 426, m. i d. ; R. 1400, m, 

 233. 



^^ Beamont, Halton and Norton, 3 6. 



42 



