WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



Yorkshire.' A few years after the dissolution of 



that house it was sold by the crown to Richard 



Brooke,' said to have been a Hospitaller, who after 



the suppression renounced his 



vows, married, conformed to 



the new religious system, and 



founded the house of Brooke 



of Norton Priory.' Cuerdley 



manor, with practically all the 



land in the township, has 



descended regularly to the 



present head of the family. 



Sir Richard Marcus Brooke, 



baronet.* Manor courts were 



still regularly held about 1830.° 



Apart from occasional dis- 

 putes between members of the 

 Grelley family,* or between 



the lords of the manor and their tenants,' the history 

 of the township has been obscure and uneventful. 



Among the freeholders whose names occur at 

 different times are Holand and Ireland,* Bury,' and 

 Smith.'" To this last family belonged William 

 Smith, bishop of Lincoln, 1495 to 15 15, the founder 



Brooke of Norton 

 Priory. Or^ a cross en- 

 grailed per tale gules and 

 sable. 



PRESCOT 



of Farnworth Grammar School, and co-fjunder of 

 Brasenose College, Oxford." 



The hearth-tax list of 1662 shows that John' 

 Houghton and John Rutter were the principal 

 residents." 



DITTON 



Ditton, 1 193. 



On the south, Ditton Brook and the low-lying 

 marshy ground along it must once have formed a 

 definite physical boundary for the township. In the 

 east-central portion is Ditton village, with Ditchfield 

 to the west and Hough Green to the north. The 

 eastern and northern boundaries are formed in great 

 measure by two small brooks, Moss Brook dividing 

 Ditton from Widnes, and what was formerly called 

 Halliwell Brook from Crouton. 



The country is flat and' divided into pastures and 

 arable fields where wheat and oats are generally grown 

 on a clay soil. There are but few trees and scanty 

 hedges, for the locality is too close to the manufac- 

 turing town of Widnes to escape the inevitable effects 

 of smoke and chemical fumes. Around Hough Green 

 the lower mottled sandstone of the bunter series 



^ At the dissolution the abbey received 

 a rent of ^^32 %s. 4^. from Cuerdley ; 

 Man. Y, 577. It is probable that the 

 gift to the abbey was made by Thomas la 

 Waire, the rent the abbot received being 

 much the same as that of 14.Z0. 



Suits between the abbot and tenants 

 occurred in 15 16 and 1517 concerning 

 the customs of the manor ; the new 

 owner had to meet similar complaints in 

 1554.; Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), ii, 16, 

 18, 192. One of them, an inquiry into 

 a complaint by the tenants in 1 5 1 7 that 

 the abbot had taken away the court rolls, 

 has been printed in Duchy Pleadings (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 72; it shows that 

 the manor had been given to Jervaulx 

 before 14S0, and gives some account of 

 the holding of courts. A lease of 1485 by 

 the abbot to Henry Watt is given in the 

 Arch. Journ. xvii, 163. 



» Pat. 7 Edw. VI, pt. xi ; 24 Feb. 

 1552-3 ; the price named is ^1,343 

 I OS. \ad. 



* Ormerod, Ches. i, 680. The in- 

 quisition taken after Richard Brooke's 

 death, 1569, states that Cuerdley was 

 held as the twentieth part of a knight's 

 fee ; the heir was his son Thomas, aged 

 nineteen ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii, 

 ». 21. The patent of Edward VI de- 

 scribed the tenure as socage. 



* Ormerod, op. cit. i, 680—4, where an 

 account of the family, with pedigree, may 

 be seen. Various settlements by fine have 

 been made from time to time ; e.g. Pal. of 

 Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 45, m. 82, in 1583, 

 the deforciants being Thomas Brooke and 

 Elizabeth his wife ; and bdle. 282, m. 66, 

 in 1718, when the deforciants were Sir 

 Thomas Brooke, hart., Grace his wife, 

 and Richard Brooke. 



' Edward Eyes' report in Tram. Hist. 

 Soc. xxii, 216. No rights of fishery were 

 exercised. The boundaries were occa- 

 sionally perambulated. The marsh, of 

 about 260 acres, was divided into 500 

 cowgates. 



* A suit or series of suits began in 1275 

 between Robert Grelley, lord of Manches- 

 ter, and Peter Grelley, the latter being 

 accused of wasting and selling portions of 

 the plaintiffs inheritance. Robert had 

 just come of age. Cuerdley is called a 

 'hamlet' of Manchester; De Banc. R. 



II, m. gj J. ; 14, m. 30. Shortly after- 

 wards, in 1277, Peter Grelley was plaintiff, 

 demanding two messuages and three 

 plough-lands in Cuerdley, or in Cuerdley 

 Chorlton, which he asserted beheld directly 

 of the crown, and not of the earl of 

 Lancaster. However, on inquiry, it was 

 found that they were held of the earl, 

 and so the matter was referred back to 

 his court, in accordance with a writ from 

 the king, it being contrary to Magna 

 Charta for any one to be deprived of his 

 court; De Banc. R. 18, m. 7^/. ; 31, 

 m. 55. _ 



7 William son of Roger de Sankey and 

 Agnes his wife in 1292 complained that 

 Thomas son of Robert Grelley, a minor, 

 and others deprived them of the annual 

 grant of a robe worth 20j. and competent 

 sustenance for Agnes, which were to be 

 afforded them at Cuerdley — * the viU is 

 called Kyuyrdele not Kurtheley,' says 

 the record — in compensation for the moi- 

 ety of the manor of Barton which Agnes 

 had released to Robert Grelley in 1281 ; 

 Assize R. 408, m. 28. Eleven or twelve 

 years later the claim took the form of yd. 

 or 6d. a week payable out of this manor ; 

 De Banc. R. 148, m. 41 ; 156, m. 197. 



^ John de Bellew and Joan his wife in 

 1 3 1 8 claimed dower in six messuages and 

 one plough-land in Cuerdley; De Banc. R. 

 225, m. lyod, Joan was probably the 

 daughter of Thomas de Lathom ; Final 

 Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 

 32. She had married before 13 13 Wil- 

 liam de Holand, of Euxton, brother of Sir 

 Robert de Holand, and was left a widow 

 in or before 1 3 1 8. After the death of John 

 de Bellewe, her second husband, in or 

 about 1322 {Cal. Close R. 1318-23, p. 587, 

 606), she married William de Scargill 

 (ibid. 1323-7, p. 65), and shortly after 

 William de Multon (Inq. p.m. 19 Edw. II 

 n. 96), when she claimed dower in 

 Cuerdley, Mellor, and Garstang ; in the 

 first-named place a messuage and 40 acres 

 of land, part of the premises in which she 

 claimed dower, were held by Robert de 

 Ireland ; De Banc. R. 257, m. 252 ; 275, 

 m. 314. 



Roger la Warre brought a suit concern- 

 ing lands here held by Robert son of 

 Adam de Ireland in 1359; Duchy of 

 Lane. Assize R. 7, m. i d. Immediately 



395 



afterwards he granted to Thomas de 

 Booth 14 acres of land and meadow 

 which had belonged to Robert de Ireland ; 

 it would appear that the grantor had been 

 borrowing from Thomas ; Dods. MSS. 

 cxlix, fol. 159A. Robert de Ireland, on 

 being ousted, claimed warranty from Sir 

 Robert de Holand, and probably re- 

 ceived an equivalent grant from the 

 latter's possessions ; Assize R. 441, m. i. 



^ John de Bury contributed to the sub- 

 sidy in 1332 ; Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 20, The other sur- 

 names include Linacre, Plumpton, and 

 Balshaw. Adam de Bury of Cuerdley 

 and Cecily his wife were parties to a fine 

 in 1 344 ; Final Cone, ii, 121. Henry 

 son of Nicholas de Bury was pardoned 

 for an assault about ten or twelve years 

 later ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 336. 



^° Ducatus Lanc.y i, 304 ; ii, 192, 401 ; 

 iii, 28, 384, 406. 



^^ William Smith was born about 1460, 

 probably in Cuerdley, though Peel House, 

 Farnworth, has been called his birth-place. 

 He was educated at Oxford. Under the 

 patronage of Margaret, countess of Rich- 

 mond, mother of Henry VII, he rose to 

 be bishop of Lichfield in 1492, and of 

 Lincoln three years later. He was presi- 

 dent of the Council of Wales in 1493. 

 In 1508 and 1509 he founded Brasenose 

 College, Oxford, a fellowship at Oriel, 

 and a grammar school at Farnworth. 

 He died 2 January, 1 512-13, and was 

 buried in Lincoln Cathedral. 



Captain John Smith of Virginia was 

 another and perhaps more famous member 

 of the family ; Pal. Note-Booky iv, 125. 



Lawrence Smith of Cuerdley, on en- 

 tering the English College at Rome in 

 1627, stated that he was the son of Henry 

 and Joan Smith, * of respectable position'; 

 he had three brothers, two of whom were 

 on the continent for the sake of their 

 education. 'Most of his kindred were 

 Catholics. He had studied at Farnworth 

 and St. Omer's College. He was always 

 a Catholic * ; Foley, Rec. S.J. vi, 315 

 He was ordained priest in 1632 and left 

 for England two years later. The recu- 

 sant roll of 1628 shows Henry and Joan 

 Smith, their son Richard, and fifteen others 

 fined for religion ; Lay Subs. 13 1/3 18. 



12 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvi, 1 34. 



