A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Brdche. 



chevron bc' 

 vwecn three pierced mulleti 

 table. 



Brdche 

 Argent, 



this manor in 1323,' when he enfeoffed his son 

 Richard and Amine his wife, daughter of Thomas de 

 Hale, of lands in Poulton and Warrington.* At the 

 same time an agreement was made between Richard 

 de Bruche and his father-in- 

 law that the latter should have 

 these lands for five years and 

 in return would honestly main- 

 tain Richard and Amine in 

 victuals, clothes, and other 

 necessaries in a manner befit- 

 ting a gentleman and gentle- 

 woman of their estate, and the 

 first year of the five would 

 maintain Richard at school at 

 ' Oxenford ' with all necessaries, 

 and the four ensuing years at 

 the court of our lord the king 

 at the Common Bench, if it should be in Eng- 

 land, with all needful charges, and paying him also 

 the sum of 43/. ^. yearly.' The issue of this 

 marriage was at least two sons, Thurstan, who with 

 his mother Anina or Amina, was occupying lands 

 in Poulton in 1 361,* and Gilbert, the eldest son 

 and heir, who married Katherine, one of the sisters 

 and coheirs of William de Moston, lord of Poulton.' 

 In 1387 he was in Ireland on the king's service 

 in the company of Robert, duke of Ireland,* and 

 he was still living in 1397-8.' He was the father 

 of William Bruche, upon whom tenements in Poul- 

 ton and Glazebrook were settled by fine in 141 7.' 

 In 1432 William Bruche was adjudged to give 

 Nicholas Risley a hogshead of wine or 2 marks as 

 the result of an award made between them and their 

 respective sons, concerning divers trespasses committed 

 between them.' He died in 1436.'° 



Richard his son and heir married Margaret, daughter 

 of Peter Legh of Bradley and Lyme. In 1457 he 

 settled part of his estate upon Dulcia, daughter of 

 Hamlet Mascy of Rixton, upon her marriage to his 

 son and heir apparent, Hugh Bruche." In 1465, 

 Richard Bruche held of Peter Legh of Bradley one 

 half of the manor of Bruche by knight's service and 

 I ^t^. yearly, which manor was situated on the south 

 side of a certain heath called the Bruche Heath, and 

 extended to the lane leading from Warrington to 

 Woolston and as far as the water of Mersey, and in 

 width from the Bruche Brook on the west to Woolston 



Brook on the east." Richard Bruche was living in 

 1476 and was the father of Henry Bruche, who is 

 thought to have fallen at Bosworth Field," and of 

 Hugh, his eldest son and successor, who did homage 

 to Sir Thomas Butler for his lands in Orford and 

 Sankey on 13 January, 1490." Hugh died before 

 1504, and was succeeded by Hamlet, his son and heir, 

 who did homage at Bewsey on 11 April, 1507, for 

 his lands in Bruche, Orford, Warrington, and both 

 Sankeys," but died on 7 April, 1508, Richard his son 

 being six years of age." The wardship of the heirwai 

 in dispute between Sir Thomas Boteler and Hamlet 

 Bruche's feoffees, but the matter was compromised." 



Richard Bruche did suit at a court held at Warring- 

 ton in I 5 2 3 ." He married Anne, daughter of Thomas 

 Hawarden of Woolston, and heads the pedigree of 

 Bruche entered in William Flower's visitation of the 

 county in 1567." He died at Warrington 20 August, 

 1560,*° and his wife 21 August, 1568. Thomas his 

 son was twice married, first to Margaret, daughter of 

 Peter Legh of Bradley, by whom he had two sons, 

 Hamlet and Roger, and secondly, to Sibyl, daughter of 

 Sir George Holford, widow of John Warburton of 

 Arley, by whom he had one son, Richard." 



Among the names of various enclosures forming the 

 demesne of Bruche the following occur at this time : — 

 Thickholt, Thinholt, Stockey Croft, Lockers meadow, 

 Warthe meadow, and Harper Sparth. By the water 

 of Mersey was a messuage called The Twyeste or Twist; 

 near Bruche were the Great Haigh and The Offenham 

 or Ofnam ; in Warrington land called Rypshagh and 

 Rysshefeld." 



The three last-named generations of this family 

 were spendthrifts, each in its turn in a greater de- 

 gree than the last. In 1584 Hamlet Bruche having 

 issue only one daughter, Dorothy, sold the hall and 

 demesne to his brother Roger, reserving a life estate 

 in the western half of the mansion with some old farm 

 buildings." From this time Roger Bruche appears to 

 have indulged in the dissolute but fashionable habits 

 of dicing, gaming, and cockfighting. Early in 1590 

 Peter Legh of Bradley, his kinsman and master, dis- 

 charged his debts, then amounting to ;^200, and with 

 another friend became his trustee with a view to pre- 

 serving his inheritance ' for the maintenance of his 

 issue and posterity,' a consummation which his kins- 

 man Legh ' did greatly desire.' '* In furtherance of 

 this object Legh persuaded his thriftless kinsman to 



• In 1322 William de Moston gave to 

 Henry del Bruche a plat of waste between 

 the Bruche and Poulton, lying between 

 Le Dedemouncs slak and the boundary of 

 Poulton i Raines MSS. xzzviii, 407, n. 

 2. In an earlier deed the mill pool, the 

 causey (i.e. causeway), and the ditches of 

 Robert de Surreys and Richard de Moston 

 are mentioned as the boundaries of this 

 parcel of ground j ibid. 41 1, n. 2. 



• Ibid. 321, n. i; the deed says : — 'All 

 my lands and tenements in the vill of 

 Warrington, except my lands and tene- 

 ments at Le Bnich and Orford, and one 

 selion in Arpalegh called Haregrevelond, 

 together with lands and tenements of my 

 inheritance in Warrington which Robert 

 de Kenyon and Ameria his wife hold in 

 the name of her dower for their lives.' 



Henry de Bruche was living in 1328 ; 

 Bruche Hall, 11. He had a third son, 

 Robert ) Cat. of Pat. 1 243 -5, p. 5 3 1 ; 

 '345-8, p. 24+- 



• Raines, op. ciu 329, n. 4. 



* Ibid. 409, n. 3. 



Mbid. 413, B. 6 (1393) ; 415, „. 3 

 (1394). In a deed dated 1374 he is de- 

 scribed as Gilbert son of Richard del 

 Bruch ; 415, n. i. 



« Cat. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 278. 



7 Bruchefield in the territory of War- 

 rington being then in his occupation ; 

 Bruche Hall, 1 2. 



8 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 5, m. 26. 

 ' Tram. Hist. Soc. 1 851, p. 104 ; Bruche 



Hall, 13-14. 



1" Writ of Diem cl. extr. 14 May, 1436; 

 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. i, 36. 



^^ Raines MSS, xxxviii, 323, «. i ; 

 p. 421, n. 6. 



" Rental of IVarr. (Chet. Soc. xvii), 69. 



13 Bruche Hall, 19. 



H tVarr. Homage R. (Chet. Soc. Lxxxvii), 

 349- 



" Misc. (Rec Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 21. " Ibid. 25. 



^' Annals of Warr. from Hale D. (Chet. 

 Soc. Ijourvii), 377. " Ibid. 431. 



" Chet. Soc. Ixxxi, 121. On 26 April, 

 1528, Richard Bruche lets for six years for 

 20J. one Fisheyarde — ' in the water of 

 Mercey called Ould Yarde ' (rent payable 

 to Anthony Colwyche or Elizabeth his 

 wife, mother of the said Richard) — to 

 Robert and Henry Dunbabyn, who shall 

 ' have the same repaled and tenantable after 

 the custom and usage of other fysbyardi ia 

 the sayd water of Mercey, provyded always 

 that if it fortune that the See be cast open 

 by any ordynance soe that Schypps and 

 Bootes shall have cause to passe and re- 

 passe, then the Lease to be voyd,' etc 

 Raines MSS. xxxviii, 437 (4). 



•^ Ibid. 



'' Ibid; Visit. 1567, p. 121. 



*" Raines MSS. xxxviii, 333-511 f^- 

 sim. 



^ Ibid. 345, B. 3. In 1 590 Hamlet 

 Bruche was reported as one of the ' more 

 usual comers to church, but no communi- 

 cants ' ; hydiate Hall, 245. 



** Raines, op. cit. 347. 



