WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



sixteenth century," when they appear to have sold 

 their estates, being succeeded by Livesey of Ravenhead 

 and Watmough of Micklehead.' 



John de Northale in Sutton was plaintiff in 1276 

 with the lords of Rainhill in a suit respecting the 

 boundaries ; ' the family are mentioned from time to 

 time in various pleas ; thus Gilbert son of Henry de 

 Northale occurs in 1292,* Alice, widow of Henry son 

 of Simon de Northale, in 131 7,' and Hugh de 

 Northale in 1305 and 1332.° By this time, how- 

 ever, the main branch appears to have settled at 

 SHERDLET and assumed a new surname from it, 

 for in 1 3 19 John de Sherdley, in a claim to lands in 

 Sutton, traced his descent thus : he was son and heir 

 of Robert, who was son and heir of Henry de 

 Northale/ In 1303 John de Sherdley was reckoned 



PRESCOT 



among the lords or freeholders ot Sutton." The 

 family appear to have held their lands down to the 

 sixteenth century, when they also gave place to 

 others.' 



Captain Michael Hughes, the present owner ot 

 Sherdley Hall, is a great-grandson of Michael Hughes, 

 whose first wife was Mary, daughter and heir of the 

 Rev. William Johnson, a former owner.'" 



Some ancient deeds as to Blackley are preserved at 

 Warrington." 



Among the families who held lands in Sutton were 

 those of Gerard, Parr, Atherton, Sale, and Standish." 



The leasehold estate of Robert Cowley was seques- 

 tered by the Commonwealth authorities." Besides 

 the Hollands the following ' Papists ' registered estates 

 in Sutton in 1717:— Henry Foster; Catherine 



son ; Final Cone, ii, 44, 45. Five 

 years later Alina daughter of Roger de 

 Woodfall complained of the waste made 

 by William and Christiana, viz. by over- 

 throwing and selling a grange, worth ;^io; 

 and cutting down and selling six apple 

 trees, each valued at 6d., to her disherison j 

 De Banc. R. 261, m. yod.\ and see 

 Assize R. 1404, m. 2;. 



In 1 329 Robert de Woodfall, apparently 

 the son of William, complained that 

 Adam de Barrow had trespassed on his 

 land, seized his cattle, and done other 

 injuries ; the defence was that this was a 

 lawful distraint for arrears of a rent- 

 charge given in 1323 by William de 

 Woodfall, who at that time had a mes- 

 suage and plough-land in Sutton j De 

 Banc. R. 278, m. 6 d. 



^ John Woodfall occurs in 1444 ; Pal. 

 of Lane. Plea R. 6, m. 17. 



a Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 18 

 (1558), m. 38 — Richard Nuttall and 

 others •w. William Woodfall ; 24 (1562), 

 m. 27 — George Livesey v. John Woodfall 

 and Anne his wife ; 37 (1575), m. 168 — 

 Lawrence Livesey and others -v. John 

 Woodfall; 58 (1597), m. 373 — Francis 

 Watmough v, John Woodfall and Margery 

 his wife. 



Brian Watmough was a free tenant of 

 John Eltonhead in 1526 ; see Inq. p.m. 

 Richard Watmough, a convicted recusant 

 paying double to the subsidy, held land in 

 1628 ; Norris Papers (B.M.) ; Richard 

 Watmough's estate was sold by the Par- 

 liamentary authorities in 1652 ; Index of 

 Royalists (Index Soc), 44 ; CaL Com. for 

 Comp. iv, 3172. Lawrence Watmough's 

 house in 1666 had five hearths ; Lay 

 Subs. Lanes. 250-9. 



The Liveseys of Ravenhead also adhered 

 to the Roman Catholic religion. Some 

 particulars as to their estate are given in 

 Royalist Comp. P. iv, 103-109. From 

 these it appears that George Livesey, a lieu- 

 tenant in the royal forces, was killed in a 

 skirmish about 1644. Lawrence the son 

 and heir was left a minor, and the estates 

 were sequestered for the father's 'delin- 

 quency ' ; nothing is said of religion. 

 A pedigree was recorded in 1666; Dug- 

 dale's F'isit. 189. 



The estate of Ravenhead afterwards 

 passed to Lawrence's daughter Mary, 

 who married Richard Blackburne of 

 Stockenbridge, and then to her daughter 

 Ellen, wife of William Hathornthwaite, 

 by whose daughter and heir it was con- 

 veyed in marriage to Richard Leckonby of 

 Great Eccleston. The latter's grand- 

 daughter and heiress, Mary, in 1799 

 married T. H. Hele-Phipps, of Leighton 

 House, Wiltshire, by whom the Raven- 

 head estate was sold. These particulars 



are from Gillow, Bibliog. Diet, of Engl. 

 Cath. iv, 284. 



° Assize R. 405, m. i. 



* Assize R. 408, m. 60. 



^ De Banc. R. 223, m. 491/. 59. 



» Thomas son of Hugh de Northale 

 was defendant in a claim to a messuage 

 and lands in Sutton made by Roger son 

 of Adam le Baxter in 1353 ; Assize R. 

 435, m. 23 i Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 3, 

 m. iv<^. 



' De Banc. R. 231, m. 103 d. 



Some Sherdleys occur earlier than this. 

 John son of Henry de Sherdley claimed 

 a messuage and oxgang of land from 

 William de Woodfall in 1277 ; De Banc. 

 R. 21, m. 61. 



John son of John de Sherdley was non- 

 suited in his suit against Gilbert de 

 Northale in 1292 ; Assize R. 408, m, 60. 

 In 1294 he had a suit against the Norreys 

 families ; Assize R. 1299, m. i^d. 



'Assize R. 418, m. 15. In 1328 

 Richard de Holland and William his son 

 acknowledged that they owed John de 

 Sherdley an annual rent of zs. for a selion 

 of land ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 246. 



^ Richard de Sherdley had an interest in 

 Lowfield in 1361 ; Dods. loc. cit. fol. 245^. 

 Thomas son of Ralph de Sherdley received 

 his lands in 141 2 ; Bold D. (Warr.), 

 G. 2. Thomas Sherdley was a plaintiff 

 in 1444 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 6, m. 17. 

 Henry Sherdley was a juror at theWidnes 

 court in 1476 ; Dods. loc cit. fol. 240. In 

 1 5 14 Thomas de Atherton of Bickerstaffe 

 held his lands in Sutton of the heirs of 

 Richard Sherdley ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. 

 p.m. iv, n. 68. 



In 1 543 Richard Bold purchased lands 

 in Sutton from William and Ralph Sherd- 

 ley ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 12, 

 m. 72 ; 24, m, 192. William Sherdley 

 of Ware and John Sherdley of Stoke 

 Nayland released their interest to Richard 

 Bold in 1561; Bold D. (Warr.), G. 46, 

 F. 237. 



sherdley Hall came into the hands of 

 the Byroms of Byrom before 1560; 

 Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), ii, 221 ; and 

 Thomas Roughlcy of Sutton, yeoman, 

 held it of Henry Byrom at his death in 

 161 3. He desired that it should be sold 

 to Richard Roughley for £^40, payable 

 in the south porch of Prescot church ; 

 j^ioo of this money was to be applied to 

 the free school about to be erected at 

 St. Helens. His brother Robert was his 

 next heir. Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 279. 



1" Burke, Landed Gentry. Captain 

 Hughes is not descended from Mary John- 

 son [s.p.), but from a second wife. 



11 Henry son of Malin de Hale granted 

 land in Blackley Carr to Adam, one of the 



361 



sons of the grantor's son John by his wife 

 Agnes, with remainder to William, brother 

 of Adam j the capital lords were Henry de 

 Eltonhead and John de Sherdley, to whom 

 \^d. and 6d. respectively were to be paid 

 for all services ; Bold D. (Warr.), G. 14, 

 G. 9. Henry de Eltonhead, in 1291, 

 gave land in the same place to Roger 

 Banti ; it lay next to the road from Sutton 

 to Parr, one head abutting on Blackley 

 and the other on Peasley ; Richard de 

 Eltonh ad was a witness ; ibid. F. 195. 



^2 Henry son of Henry de Parr occurs 

 as early as 1284 5 Assize R. 1265, m. zid. 

 The Halsalls of Parr are mentioned in a suit 

 of 1 313-14 \ Assize R. 424, m. 7 ; in this 

 suit Adam de Leatherbarrow (Lodirbareve) 

 was also a defendant. Adam son of Adam 

 de Leatherbarrow, in 13 19, granted lands 

 to John de Holbrook in the East Wood, 

 abutting on the boundary of Bold and to- 

 wards Greenlache; Bold D. (Warr.), E. 28. 

 Thomas de Trentham gave lands in Sutton 

 to Henry son of Robert de Parr in 1373 ; 

 ibid. G. 41. 



For the Athertons sipe Duchy Pleadings 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 27-31. In 

 1538 Edward Atherton of Sutton quit- 

 claimed to his son and heir John land 

 called the Little Hey, the inheritance of 

 John's mother Emma, one of the daughters 

 and heirs of Thomas Lawfield ; shortly 

 afterwards John Atherton sold all his land 

 to Dame Margery Bold ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, 

 foL 243. 



Oliver Sale, the son of Robert Sale and 

 Alice his wife, inherited through his 

 mother, as appears by a fine of 1438 ; she 

 had an elder son, Matthew de Hulton ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 8, n. 91-2. 

 Oliver Sale was one of the jurors of the 

 Widnes court in 1476 ; Dods. op. cit., fol. 

 240. In 1505-6 John Sale of Burtonhead 

 made a feoffment of his lands in Sutton 

 and Bedford ; Joan Sale of Burtonhead 

 had, four years before, been married to 

 Henry Serjeant. From Abstracts of Dods. 

 Charters. See further under Bedford. 



In the time of Edw. VI, Edmund Ley 

 of Sutton and his wife, one of the daughters 

 and heirs of Thurstan Standish of Sutton, 

 complained that George Pemberton of 

 Whiston and others had disseised her of 

 certain lands which were her share of her 

 father's property ; her sisters were Jane 

 Ley, Agnes Bennet, Olive Potter, and 

 Elizabeth Standish ; Duchy of Lane, Plead- 

 ings, Edw. VI, xxxii, L. 2. 



The freeholders named in 1600 were ; 

 Thomas Gerard, Henry Mileson or Pear- 

 son, Thomas Fox, John Leigh, Francis 

 Watmough of Micklehead, and William 

 Eltonhead 5 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 238, &c. 



18 Royalist Compi P. ii, 83. 



46 



