WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



PRESCOT 



Travers, described as of ' Hardshaw.' ' After this 

 Ridgate seems to have passed away to the Bolds and 

 Ogles, together with Whiston.' 



About 1285 Henry de Torbock and Ellen his wife 

 granted their land in Ridgate to Burscough Priory.' 

 From the charters it would appear that Ridgate was 

 partly within Tarbock, but later inquisitions state that 

 the Torbocks' land in Ridgate was held of the lord of 

 Whiston.* 



At the halmote of the manor held in 1523a record 

 was made of the bounds, and in 1526 Sir Richard 

 Bold, lord of the manor, was reported to have wrong- 

 fully enclosed part of the Copped Holt.' 



HJLSNEAD^ is first mentioned in 12^6, when 

 William, son of William Assolfi, and William, Adam, 

 and John, his sons, with others, were convicted of 

 having dispossessed Siward de Derwent and Cecily 

 his wife of an acre belonging to the fourth part of 

 Halsnead.' 



Three generations of a family bearing the local 

 name appear next — Adam, Ralph, and Thomas. 

 Adam de Halsnead granted his ' whole vill of Hal- 

 snead' to his son Ralph, and Ralph granted it to 

 Richard son of Alan le Norreys.' In 1 278 and 1 284 

 Richard le Norreys appeared as plaintiff against 

 Richard Travers and Henry Travers of Whiston, as 

 already stated." The next step is not clear, but 

 Halsnead passed from Richard's son Alan to Robert le 

 Norreys of Burtonhead, and his son John was in pos- 

 session from 1324 onwards.'" Dying about 1346 

 John was followed by his son Nicholas, who occurs 

 from time to time down to the end of the reign of 

 Edward III ; " he may be the Nicholas le Norreys of 

 Burtonhead whose son succeeded to that manor, but 

 though the Burtonhead family afterwards acquired 

 part of Halsnead, the Wetherbys were the heirs in 

 1422." The two families of Wetherby "and Pember- 

 ton " remained in possession down to the beginning 



^ Duchy of Lane. Inq. p. m. xvi, n. 35. 

 Henry Travers was aged seventeen. A 

 settlement had been made in August, 

 1589 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 51, 

 m. 81. 



^ There was a recovery of the manor 

 of Ridgate in 1599 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea 

 R. 284, m. I. James Pemberton and 

 Henry Travers were called to warrant. 



* This gift was confirmed by Henry de 

 Laey, with the proviso that one leper 

 within the lordship of Widnes should be 

 maintained by the canons, that mass 

 should be said there at Easter, and that the 

 names of himself and his wife should be 

 inserted in their martyrology and in the 

 canon ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 460 ; Bur- 

 scough Reg. fol. 561/, 



In the Escheator's Accounts, 1362-64. 

 (Exeh. L.T.R. R. 5, m. 7), is the follow- 

 ing entry : ' One plough-land in Tarbock 

 which a progenitor of the king's gave to 

 uphold a chapel for the celebration of 

 divine service in the chapel of Ridgate in 

 the said vill of Tarbock for the souls of 

 the kings of England ; withdrawn many 

 years. 30J. yearly value. Delivered 8 July, 

 1364, to Sir William Carles the custody 

 of the said plough-land to answer thereof 

 to the king if it be considered that the 

 issue belonged to the king' ; Orig. 38 

 Edw. III. See the account of Tarbock. 



* The inquisition taken in 1505 states 

 that Sir Henry Torbock's messuage and 

 land in Ridgate next Prescot had been 

 held of Henry Travers in socage by fealty 

 and the yearly rent of i zd. ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Inq. p. m. iii, w, 71. 



* On the Ogle R. Halsmeadows was 

 on the north or Prescot side of the boun- 

 dary, and Coekshoot on the south or 

 Whiston side ; Chaps Clough, Church 

 Lees, and Shea Brook are also named. 

 Copped Holt was on the border of Eccles- 

 ton. 



' Halsnade, 1246. 



' Assize R. 404, m, 3 </. 7 ; two ver- 

 sions of the same charge ; in one the wife 

 is called Juliana. 



8 These grants are upon the Ogle R. 

 The bounds are thus given in the earlier 

 deed : Beginning on the east at the Wig- 

 galache, which was the boundary between 

 Halsnead and Rainhill, and following the 

 syke to Longleigh Brook in the south ; 

 along this to the Spital House in the 

 west, and following into the Deep Clough 

 as far as the Casselache in the north ; 

 thence by the Heeseptese Gate to the 

 cross upon the waste, and so to the start- 

 mg point. The second grant mentions 



Frieny Hill as one of the boundaries on 

 the west. Both expressly mention its 

 dependence upon the 'heirs of Whiston.' 



Ralph de Halsnead was plaintiff in 

 1283 ; De Banc. R. 49, m, zzd, 



Thomas son of Ralph de Halsnead ap- 

 pears in 1304 ; Coram Rege R. 178, m. 

 zod. In 1317 and later Emma, widow 

 of John de Halsnead, claimed dower in 

 Whiston from Henry son of John de 

 Molyneux, and Thomas son of Ralph de 

 Halsnead ; De Banc. R. 220, m. 10 ; 

 221, m. 9 ; &c. 



9 Assize R. 1238, m. 341/. 35 ; 1268, 

 m. i^d. 



^0 In 1346 Alice, as daughter and heir 

 of Alan, son of Richard le Norreys, 

 claimed a messuage and two plough-lands ; 

 her story was that John son of Robert le 

 Norreys had entry only by demise of Robert, 

 who had disseised her father Alan. The 

 defendant called Alan le Norreys of Dares- 

 bury to warrant him. ' Halsnead ' is not 

 named, the estate being described as a 

 messuage and two plough-lands in Whis- 

 ton ; De Banc. R. 346, m. 22 ; 348, m. 

 14 d. The ' plough-land ' of this time does 

 not necessarily correspond with the ancient 

 assessment. 



The rents and services of William 

 Daniell and John de Halsnead are men- 

 tioned in a feoffment by John Travers in 

 1390, on the Ogle R. 



John le Norreys In 1324 brought a 

 suit of novel disseisin against Henry son 

 of John de Molyneux (named in a previous 

 note), but did not proceed with it ; Assize 

 R. 426, m. I d. Later, Alice, widow of 

 Adam del Grange, claimed from John le 

 Norreys of Halsnead an acre of land ; De 

 Banco R, 259, m. 22. 



11 Nicholas le Norreys carried on the 

 suit with Alice, daughter of Alan ; De 

 Banc. R. 350, m. 20. As son and heir 

 of John, Nicholas In 1351 and 1352 

 demanded certain lands from Margery de 

 Bold, Master Henry de Rixton having 

 granted them to his father John and his 

 wife Alice in the time of Edw. II ; the 

 case was deferred, Richard de Bold, the 

 heir, being still a minor ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Assize R. I, m. iiij ; 2, m. vij. The 

 same or a later Nicholas le Norreys of 

 Halsnead was collector of a subsidy in 

 1 3 84 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep, xl, App. p. 



523- 



^^ At the end of June, 1422, William 

 Daniell of Daresbury gave Sir John de 

 Stanley the custody of all the lands in 

 Halsnead, sometime belonging to Nicholas 

 le Norreys of Halsnead, ' which he held in 



chief of the said William Daniell,' ia 

 whose hands they were by reason of the 

 minority of Thomas, son of Thomas de 

 Wetherby, cousin and heir of Nicholas, 

 together with the marriage of Thomas ; 

 Ancient D. P.R.O. A 5631. This is a 

 second illustratioa of the dependence of 

 Halsnead upon Daresbury and Sutton, 



13 \ery little is known of the Wether- 

 bys beyond their attachment to the Roman 

 Catholic faith at the Reformation. Thomas 

 Wetherby paid a free rent of 6^d, to the 

 lord of Whiston in 1480 ; Ogle R. 

 Isabel, daughter of Piers Wetherby of 

 Halsnead, married Thomas Ditchfield of 

 Ditton at the end of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury ; Visit, of 1567 (Chet. Soc), p. 123. 



Peter Wetherby appears on the list of 

 gentry of the hundred made about 1512. 

 The will of Thomas Wetherby, of Hal- 

 snead and St. Gregory's by St, Paul's, 

 London, 1537, is at Somerset House 

 (5 Dyngeley). In 1590 Peter Wetherby, 

 one of the 'gentlemen of the better sort,' 

 was a recusant and indicted thereof ; in 

 1593 the sheriff could not find him ; Gib- 

 son, Lydiate Hall, p. 246, 261 (quoting 

 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4, and ccxxxiii). 

 His will was proved in 1620. The lands 

 of Peter Wetherby, recusant, were in 1623 

 granted to Anthony Croston and others ; 

 Pat. 21 Jas. I, 27 July. George Wether- 

 by, as a convicted recusant, paid double to 

 the subsidy of 1628 ; Norris D. (B.M.). 



^* Some account of the Pembertons 

 will be found under Burtonhead in Sutton. 

 John Pemberton, according to the Ogle R, 

 in 1480 paid a rent of i^d. to Thomas 

 Travers of Whiston ; with the 6^d. from 

 Thomas Wetherby the whole service was 

 Sd. A dispute as to the succession took 

 place in 1472 between John Pemberton 

 and Thomas Halliwell of Wrightington ; 

 from other deeds it appears that one or 

 both were heirs of William de Tunley, 

 whose son William married Emmota, 

 daughter of Simon de Gorsuch, in 1403 ; 

 Norris D. (B.M.), n. 946-9. 



In 1502 James, son and heir of John 

 Pemberton, complained that whereas his 

 father had been seised of the manor of 

 Halsnead and other lands and tenements in 

 Whiston, a certain Geoffrey Molyneux 

 and his companions had taken possession. 

 At the inquiry ordered by the king in his 

 * great marvel and displeasure,* James 

 Wetherby, gentleman, ' dwelling next to 

 the said manor,' gave evidence. In the 

 result James Pemberton recovered posses- 

 sion J Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 14-16. James Pemberton 



