A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



this part of the manor for forty years and more.' 

 The succession is somewhat uncertain ; the next to 

 be mentioned is a John de Parr,' whose widow Ellen, 

 daughter and coheir of Henry son of John de Parr, 

 one of the lords of the other moiety of the manor, 

 had dower in 142 1.' Then came one or perhaps 

 two Henrys in succession ; * the later of them, if 

 there were two, resumed Halsall as a surname and 

 was known as Henry Halsall aRa! Parr.' His son 

 John followed ; ' and then Bryan Parr, son and heir 

 of John — the surname Halsall having been dropped 

 again — was in possession in 1497-' 



Bryan Parr died early in 1528, the heir being 

 his son Thomas, twelve years of age.' Thomas 

 died in 1559, leaving a son and heir William, nine- 

 teen years of age, and nine younger children.* This 

 William Parr it was who, it is said, disposed of the 

 manor to John Byrom of Byrora in Makerfield." It 

 remained in the latter family for a century and a half, 

 and they seem to have made the hall their principal 

 residence." It was sold, with the other Byrom 

 estates, in the time of George I, and became very 

 much subdivided." The manorial rights have been 

 lost. 



approved in Parr ; Kuerden MSS., vi, fol. 

 84, n. 1 74. The phrase quoted may indicate 

 that he had two brothers, both younger 

 than himself. His widow Agnes in 1367 

 claimed as dower a third of the moiety of 

 the manor of Parr held by Robert son of 

 Alan and Cecily his wife ; De Banc. R. 

 428, m. 162. 



1 He is named in inquisitions down to 

 1400 ; Lanci. Inij. p.m. (Chet. Soc), i, 17, 

 25, 159. He had a brother Richard, 

 whose daughter Agnes married Thomas 

 de Glcst in 1410, Robert son of Alan de 

 Parr being witness to the marriage settle- 

 ment ; Townclcy MSS. GG. n. 2089. In 

 1371 an extent of the possessions of 

 Robert son of Alan de Parr was made 

 before the sheriff. He had two-thirds of 

 a messuage, orchard, and grange, worth 

 6J. a year after all outgoings ; the fourth 

 part of a water-mill, worth 41., various 

 lands, including the Parheye, worth 361., 

 &c. ; P.il. of Lane. Chan, file, bdle. 1621. 

 From the Lathom inquisition cited 

 above it appears that Robert in M~o held 

 only three-fourths of the Halsall moiety. 

 ^ John's father is not named. In 

 1421-2 Thomas Baxter, chaplain, gave 

 EJlcn, widow of John de Parr, the lands 

 which Adam Taylor lately held of the 

 gift of Robert de Parr ; Kuerden, loc. cit- 

 n. 169. Soon afterwards she quitclaimed 

 her right to dower ; ibid. n. 2 1 8. It would 

 appear that she lived on until 1484 ; ibid, 

 n. 208. 



' It was probably as the result of this 

 marriage that this share of the manor was 

 increased from three-eighths to over half, 

 or perhaps three-fourths ; it will be seen 

 later that the chief-rent is variously stated. 



* It is not expressly stated that Henry 

 de Parr was the son of the preceding 

 Ellen, but he acted for her in the claim 

 against the Byroms in 1438 ; Early Chan. 

 Proc. bdle. 9, n. 28. He occurs a year 

 or so earlier in a settlement of the estates \ 

 Kuerden, loc. cit. «. 176. He was wit- 

 ness, taking lirst place after the Icnights, 

 to a grant by Robert son of Nicholas de 

 Parr in 1439 ; Ct. of Wards and Liveries, 

 box 1 3 A, n. FD47, m. I. 



* In 1467 Henry Halsall of Parr en- 

 feoffed James Stanley, clerk, and others 

 of his estates in Parr, Sutton, and Windle ; 

 and the following year, as Henry Halsall, 

 lord of Parr, he granted lands to his son 

 Thomas 5 Kuerden, loc cit. n. 248, 237. 

 Henry was witness to a Parr deed in 

 1474 ; Ct. of Wards and Liveries, box 

 1 3 A. n. 47, m. 2. Richard Halsall was 

 the first witness in a deed of two years 

 earlier ; ibid. m. 5. 



A branch of the Parr family appears at 

 Backford in Cheshire during the fifteenth 

 century ; see Appendices to Dtp. Keeper's 

 Rep. xxxvii and xxxix. Another branch 

 was seated at Kempnough in Worsley ; 

 yUit. of 1567 (Chet. Soc), 120. 



* In the Duchy Feodary of 1483 

 (Duchy of Lane. Misc cixx) John Hal- 



sall was said to hold Parr of John Travers, 

 and he of Lord Dacre, and he of the 

 honour of Lancaster. The mesne lordship 

 of the Stanleys is omitted. In November, 

 1483, on the engagement of his son Bryan 

 to marry Elizabeth daughter of Robert 

 Shakerlcy of Lathom, he enfeoffed Henry 

 Shakerley and Thurstan Ainsworth of 

 certain tenements in Parr ; PaU of 

 Lane. Plea R. 79, and R. 84, m. 2. In 

 1494 Robert Shakerley of Lathom was 

 plaintiff in a suit against John Parr, 

 Henry Lathom of Mossborough, and John 

 Travers of Hardshaw, and there was a 

 cross-suit ; ibid. R. 78, m. 5, 5 d. About 

 the same time there was an award be- 

 tween John and Emma Parr, his father's 

 widow ; Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 219. She 

 appears to have married a John Moly- 

 neux, and was living in 1496 ; ibid. n. 202. 

 In 1485, as 'John Parr, son and heir 

 of Henry Parr, otherwise called Henry 

 Halsall of Parr," he joined with John 

 Travers of Hardshaw in a bond of ^20 to 

 JohnParr.whoheld part of the other moiety 

 of the manor, and Robert his son to abide 

 the award of James Stanley, archdeacon 

 of Chester, concerning a number of dis- 

 putes between them ; Ct. of Wards and 

 Liveries, box 13A. n. ^03 8. The cor- 

 responding bond by the other John Parr 

 is among the Crosse D. [Tram. Hist. Soc, 

 (New Ser.), vi, n. 71). He enfeoffed Wil- 

 liam Shakerley and others in 1495-6 of all 

 his lands in Lancashire, except 6 marks of 

 rent held by Elizabeth his wife, &c. ; 

 Kuerden, loc. cit. n. 202, 190. He died 

 in or before 1503, when his widow Eliza- 

 beth obtained her dower from Bryan Parr ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 9;, m. 2d. 



' In this year Bryan Parr and Elizabeth 

 his wife and John (either his father or the 

 other John Parr) brought cross-suits as to 

 novel disseisin -, Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 83, 

 m. 7, 8. In 1505 he gave a bond to the 

 other John Parr and Robert his son to 

 abide an arbitration concerning the eighth 

 part of the water-mill of Parr, and various 

 other matters in dispute ; Ct. of Wards 

 and Liveries, box 13 A. «. FD48. Bryan 

 and John Parr were counted among the 

 gentry of the hundred in 1513. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 51. 

 He is stated to have held the manor of 

 Parr of the earl of Derby by the tenth 

 part of a knight's fee and a rent of yj. ^d. 

 i.e. he held nearly three-fourths of the 

 whole manor ; the Parrs of Kendal, as 

 seen above, held an eighth, so that the 

 remaining eighth was left for the other 

 Parr family. The wardship of the heir 

 was granted to Henry bishop of St, Asaph 

 and Thomas Radcliffe of Chadderton ; 

 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App. 558. 



^ Inq. p. m. xi, n. 1 9. The rent was then 

 stated as js. j^d. and the manor was held 

 ' as of the manor of Knowsley.' Thomas's 

 will is printed in full in Piccope's fi^ills 

 (Chet, Soc), iii, 118. He desired to be 

 burled in the church of Prescot, and to 



have a trental of masses celebrated, leav- 

 ing los. for this purpose. Hit widow Mar- 

 garet married John Byrom. There were 

 disputes between Richard and Thomai 

 Parr and the Arrowsmith family In 1547 

 and 1549 i Ducatus Lane. (Rcc. Com.), i, 

 228, 243._ 



l*" William's wife was Katherine, daugh- 

 ter of Thomas Eccleston of Eccleston \ 

 Visit, of 1567 (Chet. Soc), 98. She in 

 1565 cited her husband in the Ecclesias- 

 tical Court for adultery and for leaving 

 her without necessaries ; Raines MSS. 

 (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 206. Settlements ap- 

 pear to have been made by William Pan- 

 in 1562^ perhaps on his marriage, and in 

 1565 5 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 24, 

 m. 102 ; 27, m. 18. He had already 

 begun to dispose of his estates to John 

 Byrom ; ibid. bdle. 26, m. 181. 



There does not seem to be any record 

 of the sale of the manor itself, which is 

 named in the inquisition after the death 

 of John Byrom as held of the carl of 

 Derby by the tenth part of a knight's 

 fee and a rent of 51. y^d, ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, «. 37. In this in- 

 quisition a settlement made by William 

 Parr is recited, the final remainder of the 

 manor being to John Byrom. Kuerden 

 has preserved several documents relating 

 to these sales; loc, cit, n. 192-3, 180, 

 204^ 226-8 ; and a bond in ^2,000 given 

 in 1 597 by Henry Parr to Henry Byrom, 

 sons of William and John respectively, 

 may point to the conclusion of the trans- 

 fer ; ibid. n. 246. John Byrom had 

 married Margaret, the widow of '1 homas 

 Parr, by 1560, in which year he had a 

 dispute with William Parr concerning 

 Hurst House in Parr ; Ducatus Lane, 

 ii, 221. There were numerous other 

 disputes between the two families and 

 their lessees ; ibid, iii, 5, 33, 38, 63, 99. 

 Hurst House appears to have been in 

 the possession of William Atherton and 

 K-atherine his wife in 1599 ; ibid, iii, 394. 



A marriage licence for Peter Byrom, 

 gentleman, and Katherine Parr was 

 granted at Chester on 8 July, 1575 ; Pen- 

 nant's Account Book (Ches. Dioc. Reg.). 



*^ An account of the family will be found 

 under Byrom in Lowton, Parr was the 

 only manor they claimed ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 271. It 

 was at this time (i6ii)held of the earl of 

 Derby, by the tenth part of a knight's fee 

 and by 71. rent, as in 1528. Settlements 

 of the manor were made by fine in 1604 

 and 1631, Henry Byrom and Mary his 

 wife being in possession in the former 

 year, and Henry Byrom, their grandson, 

 in the latter ; PaL of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdle. 66, m. 9 ; 120, n. 5. 



^^ A settlement of the Byrom estates, 

 including the manor of Parr, was made in 

 1707, Samuel Byrom, the * Beau,' being 

 in possession ; PaL of Lane Feet, of F. 

 bdle. 258, m. 33. By March, 1727,11! 

 apparently had been disposed o^ and one- 



