A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



In 1662 a settlement of the manors of Rixton and 

 Glazebrook, and lands in Warrington, Poulton, Feam- 

 head, and Mosscroft was made by Richard Mascy of 

 Rixton and Hamlet, his son and heir apparent, in con- 

 sideration of the marriage which had taken place 

 between the latter and Margaret, a daughter of Sir 

 Edward Moore, bart., deceased.' 



Richard Mascy's chequered career closed in 1667.' 

 By his first wife, Mary Plowden, he had two sons, 

 Hamlet and Francis, and two daughters who became 

 nuns.' Hamlet died before his father, leaving an 

 only daughter Mary, who married George Meynell, 

 of Aldborough ; and their grand-daughters nearly a 

 century later inherited the Rixton estates. Francis, 

 the younger son, on succeeding lived quietly at 

 Rixton, but died in 1675, leaving a widow and two 

 young children, Richard and Anne, afterwards a nun.' 

 The estates were by this time much encumbered — 

 the confiscation by the Parliament and family charges 

 being perhaps accountable, in addition to religious 

 disabilities — and the long mi- 

 nority of Richard Mascy does 

 not seem to have helped matters. 

 About 1 7 1 I the mortgagee, 

 Nicholas Starkie, entered into 

 possession, and the nominal 

 owner was receiving a small 

 pension to keep him from 

 starving.' He had married Jane, 

 daughter of William Fitzherbert 

 of Xorbury, in 1697 ; she died 

 seven years later, having borne 

 him a son Francis, who in 1724 

 succeeded to the encumbered 



estates. He remained unmarried and seems to have 

 endeavoured to pay off his father's debts. He cut off 

 the entail in 1 729, and by his will in 1 74 1 bequeathed 

 the manors of Rixton and Glazebrook and other 

 estates to his kinsman George Meynell of Aldborough, 

 son of Mary Mascy." 



Francis Mascy died in 1 748, and the last-mentioned 



WiTHAM OF CliFFE. 



Or, a bend gulei between 

 three eagles sable. 



TiMPisT or BaouGH- 

 TON. Argent, a htitd 

 betveen six storm Jinchts 

 sable. 



George Meynell and his son and heir, George, having 

 already died, the latter George's three sisten became 

 coheirs under the will. They were — Elizabeth, wife 

 of Dr. Thomas Witham of Cliffe, Yorkshire ; Anna 

 Clementina, wife of Simon Scrope of Danby ; and 

 Frances Olive, wife of Stephen Walter Tempest of 

 Broughton in Craven. The 

 second of these took the Mey- 

 nell manors to her husband ; 

 the other sisters divided the 

 Mascy estates. Half the manors 

 of Rixton and Glazebrook, with 

 the old hall and the Mascy 

 chapel in Warrington church, 

 went to Elizabeth Witham, and 

 were sold to Thomas Patten of 

 Warrington in or about 1785. 

 The other half of the manors, 

 with the Little Hall in Rixton, 

 the free fisheries in the Mersey 

 and Glazebrook, and Hollins 

 Green ferry went to Frances Olive Tempest, and 

 most of this remained in the Tempest family until 

 1S65, when it was sold in accordance with the will 

 of Sir Charles Robert Tempest.' 



The manor was held by John Wilson-Patten, Lord 

 Winmarleigh ; the present holder, for her life, being 

 his son's widow, the dowager marchioness of Head- 

 fort. No courts are held, nor are any manorial rights 

 exercised.' 



Little can be said of the manor of GLAZEBROOK. 

 It is not mentioned in 1 2 1 2. One moiety of it 

 was acquired by the Rixton family in the thir- 

 teenth century, but it is not clear whether this was 

 by a grant from the lord of Warrington to Alan 

 de Rixton, who afterwards granted it to a family 

 or families using the local surname, or whether it was 

 by purchase or repurchase from members of the 

 Glazebrook family, whose interest was very much 

 divided.' In 1300, however, it is clear that one 

 moiety had been attached to the manor of Rixton, while 



1658, when he pledged his effects for the 

 payment of certain debts ; Mascy D. R. 197; 

 a list of these effects is given, including 

 bedsteads and other furniture, a dozen and 

 a half silver spoons, horses, cows, and other 

 farm stock, valued in all at about ^^350. 



On 3 Feb., 1658-9, Gilbert Ireland 

 for +0J, sold to three trustees his right in 

 the Rixton estates ; ibid. R. 199. 



* Ibid. R. 200—1. In consideration of 

 ,f 2,000, the marriage portion of Margaret 

 Moore, a settlement was made to secure 

 it to her younger children or daughters, the 

 manors of Rixton and Glazebrook, and 

 lands in Warrington, Poulton, Feamhead, 

 and Mosscroft being entailed that they 

 might 'remain as long as it pleases 

 Almighty God to keep in the name, blood, 

 and kindred of the Mascys." See also Pal. 

 of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 169, m. 102. 



* He was buried 21 Dec. 1667 at 

 Warrington church. 



' He recorded a pedigree in 1665 ; 

 Dugdale Visit. (Chet. Soc), 194. Francis 

 the younger son is omitted, he being no 

 doubt the Francis Mascy of Lancashire 

 ■who in that year entered the Jesuit 

 novitiate, but left soon afterwards ; Foley, 

 op. cit. vii, 492. The apparent desertion 

 is explained by the death of his elder 

 hrother without male issue. 



* Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), iii, 139- 

 J 40. 



^ Ibid, iii, 140-6, quoting family papers. 

 There was a recovery of the manors of 

 Rixton and Glazebrook, &c., in 1697, 

 Richard Mascy being called to vouch ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 465, m. 7. In 

 1 7 1 7 as a * Papist ' he registered his estate 

 in the manors, the value being given at 

 ^315 III. 3</. ; Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 

 122. 



^ Trans. Hist. So£-.(New Ser.), iii, 146-8. 

 A recovery of the manors was suffered in 

 1730, Francis Mascy being called to 

 vouch; Pal. of Lane. Docquet R. 530, 



7 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), iii, 

 149—50. In 1749 a settlement was made 

 of the manors of Rixton and Glazebrpok, 

 with lands there, a dovehouse, water corn- 

 mill, free fishery, &c. ; by Thomas 

 Witham, M.D., and Elizabeth his wife ; 

 Anne Meynell, spinster ; and Stephen 

 Walter Tempest and Frances Olive his 

 wife ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 340, 

 m. 219. A further arrangement as to a 

 moiety of the manors was made in 1772, 

 the deforciants being Sir Henry Lawson 

 and the three sisters and their husbands, 

 Anne Clementia being now the wife of 

 Simon Scrope ; ibid. bdle. 388, m. 139. 



^ Information of the marchioness 

 through Messrs. John White & Co., her 

 agents. 



^ It has been pointed out in the account 



of Rixton that while the Alan de Rixton of 

 1212 held one-tenth of a knight's fee his 

 namesake thirty years later held the fifth 

 part ; from which it might be inferred 

 that he had had the whole of Glazebrook 

 granted to him ; In^. anti Extents, 9, 147. 

 On the other hand the rent was increased 

 from a mark to a mark and a half, while 

 the family holding a moiety of Glazebrook 

 paid half a mark. 



The moiety purchased or repurchased by 

 the Rixton family appears to have been held 

 at one time by a Geoffrey de Glazebrook, 

 but it had become much subdivided. 

 Geoffrey de Glazebrook was living in 

 1246, when he failed in a suit of novel 

 disseisin against Gilbert de Culcheth, 

 Richard son of Basil, and William son of 

 this Richard ; Assize R. 404, m. i J. It 

 is possible he was the Geoffrey de GlaM- 

 brook who with his wife Edith had lands 

 in Billsborough in 1227; Final Cmc. 

 i, 47. If so, there may have been 

 two Geoffreys in succession. A Henry 

 de Glazebrook appears later in the Fylde 

 district ; Inj. and Extents, 277, 280. 



In 1328 and later years Henry son of 

 Henry, son of Richard, son of Geoffrey 

 de Glazebrook, claimed a messuage and 

 three oxgangi of which Geoffrey had 

 been seised in the time of Henry III, and 

 which had come into the possession of 

 Richard son of Richard de Moston, and 



