WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



of fine old oaks, many of them of vast growth ; they 

 covered 40 acres of land.' 



Charles Leigh, in his Natural History, states that 

 ' the most remarkable thing of the wild duck is their 

 way of feeding them at Bold in Lancashire .... 

 They oftentimes adventure to come into the moat 

 near the hall, which a person accustomed to feed them 

 perceiving, he beats with a stone on a hollow vessel. 

 The ducks answer the sound, and come quite round 

 him upon a hill adjoining the water. He scatters 

 corn amongst them, which they take with as much 

 quietness and familiarity as tame ones. When fed 

 they take their flight to the rivers, meres, and salt 

 marshes.' ' 



The earliest record of BOLD is found 

 MANORS in the survey of 1212.' It appears that 

 the manor was assessed as four plough- 

 lands and held in thegnage by the rent of 21 j. 41^. 

 yearly by Adam son of Richard ; and that Adam's 

 great-grandfather Tuger the Elder {senex) had 

 formerly held it. Two minor manors had been 

 created, or perhaps preserved from more ancient 

 times, viz., La Quick and another unnamed, each of 

 half a plough-land. 



It was Tuger the Elder who granted La Quick out 

 of his demesne ; * he was probably a contemporary of 

 King Stephen. The name of his son does not occur, 

 but Richard de Bold paid half a mark to the scutage 

 of 1 20 1.' He died in or before 121 1, and Adam, 

 his son and heir, proffered 1 00/. for livery of the four 

 plough-lands in Bold.^ The issues while the manor 

 was in the king's hands amounted to jsj Richard's 



PRESCOT 



widow, Waltania, who was of the king's gift, married 

 Waldern de Reynham.^ 



Of Adam de Bold nothing more seems to be known. 

 He died in or before 1222, his brother Matthew 

 succeeding. The latter was called upon to show by 

 what warrant he held two plough-lands in BolJ, and 

 in May, 1223, fined 3 marks for his relief, and had 

 livery of three plough-lands." Three charters of 

 Matthew's have been preserved ; " he was living in 

 1242, when he was a juror on the inquiry of the 

 Gascon scutage." 



The next in possession was William de Bold." 

 His parentage is not stated. He received a grant of 

 the manor of Bold from William de Ferrers, earl of 

 Derby, who died in 1254; the boundaries were fully 

 defined, and the services were to be the payment of 

 I OS. a year and doing suit at the wapentake court of 

 West Derby." A change took place in his time in 

 the tenure, for about 1260 Robert de Ferrers en- 

 feoffed Sir William le Boteler of Warrington of the 

 manor with the service of William de Bold and his 

 heirs, rendering 10/. a year for it." From this time 

 the manor of Bold became part of the Warrington 

 fee ; the old thegnage rent of zis. \d. was paid by 

 the holder of the manor to the lord of Warrington, 

 who paid \os. to the earl or duke of Lancaster." 

 Some of William de Bold's charters have been 

 preserved." 



Robert son of William de Bold succeeded his father 

 in or before 1278, and held the manor over forty 

 years. He is first mentioned in a complaint of 

 William son of John de Quick concerning the latter's 



^ Baiaes, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 716. 

 ' Op. cit. (1702), bk. i, 163-4. 



8 Lanes. Inq. a id Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.}, x8. 



* Ibid. loc. cit. 



* Fairer, Lana.Pi/>ffi2. 153, He granted 

 an acre in alms to die hospitalof St. John 

 outside the Northgate at Chester, and a 

 ridding to the priory of Norton. Of the 

 former grant nothing more is known ; 

 the latter was represented by a rent of is. 

 issuing from lands in Bold, &c., at the 

 dissolution ; Inq. and Extents, loc. cit. ; 

 Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 686. 



''The heir of Bold owes looj. for 

 relief ; Lanes. Pipe R. 242. 



' Ibid. 241, 245. 



^ Inq. and Extents, 128. Her land 

 was worth J mark. 



9 Fine R. Exeerpts, i, 89, 103. There 

 is no indication as to why possession of 

 half the manor was withheld for a time, 

 nor as to the apparent defect of one 

 plough-land in 1223. In 1226 the thegn- 

 age rent of Bold was 211. ^A. as before ; 

 Inq. and Extents, 136. 



" In Dods. MSS. cxlii,fol. 193 to 220A, 

 about 200 Bold charters are transcribed, 

 copied in 1635. Some of the originals 

 are now in the Museum at Warrington. 

 By one of the charters referred to Sir 

 Matthew de Bold gave to Matthew his 

 son and the daughter of Lady Emma 

 M'ainwaring all Langley Holt in Bold, 

 for a rent of 6d. per annum ; n. 7. By 

 another he gave to Henry son of Hytel 

 de Bold land between the possessions of 

 his brother Richard and his son Matthew ; 

 n. 8. By a third, probably earlier than 

 the others, as Matthew son of Richard de 

 Bold, he granted lands to William of the 

 Well ((fe Fonte), clerk ; n. 9. He was 

 also a witness to one of the Stanlaw 

 charters ; Whalky Coucher (Chet. Soc), 

 ii, 581. 



^^ Inq. and Extents, 146. 



^^ He was juror in 1265 ; ibid. 232. 



>3 Bold D. (Hoghton), n. 84 ; an un- 

 satisfactory fifteenth-century copy. The 

 bounds are thus defined : Beginning at 

 the Hardsty in Burtonwood and following 

 the straight boundary between Bold and 

 Burtonwood on the east to the boundary 

 of Sankey near Hurlischalles ; along a 

 syke and boundary to Fighills Brook ; by 

 the latter on the west side to the east of 

 Combal Wood ; by the bounds between 

 Bold and Sankey on the south to Pen- 

 keth ; by the boundary of Penketh to the 

 east end of the Crow Heath in Bold, and near 

 Penketh and Cuerdley ; by a ditch on the 

 west between Crow Heath and Cuerdley 

 to a lane to Cuerdley, and by the boundary 

 as far as the mere-stone between Bold, 

 Widnes, and Cuerdley. Thence by the 

 highway to five lanes on the west ; along 

 the way to Lunts Heath, and, over this, 

 westward to Pexhill as far as Chester 

 Lane, and along the latter to Cross Lane 

 in the north, following the Prescot Road 

 as far as the high cross at the boundary 

 of Bold and Rainhill. By this boundary 

 to Windyates near Sutton on the north, 

 following the lane between Bold and 

 Sutton to the east end of Cudleslane ; 

 along the boundary between Bold and 

 Sutton to the east woods in Sutton, and 

 on to the ' Priest's Duller.' Thence to 

 Bailbirch (and) Morkels Moss near Bold, 

 Sutton, and Parr on the north side ; 

 and following the boundary between Bold 

 and Parr on the east towards Winwick 

 to the boundary of Burtonwood ; thence 

 to the east end of Ladders Lane, and 

 along the boundary of Burtonwood to 

 Hardsty, 



" Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 178. The grant 

 was followed by disputes between William 

 de Bold and William le Boteler as to the 

 services due from the former. An agree- 



ment in May, 1272, states that William 

 de Bold had recovered certain lands, and 

 that those and all his other lands in Bold 

 were in future to be held in exactly the 

 same manner as they had been of Robert 

 de Ferrers and his predecessors. The 

 tenure described, however, presents a 

 difficulty : * His (William's) ancestors 

 had held all their demesne of Bold from 

 ancient time of the ancestors of Earl 

 Robert by the payment of ioj. at the 

 exchequer of the honour of Halton ' ; 

 ibid. n. 160. No other reference to this 

 payment of 10s. to the lord of Halton 

 occurs, nor any sign of dependency by 

 Bold upon the honour of Halton, the old 

 service for it having been, as already 

 stated, a rent of 2ii. ^d. payable at West 

 Derby. 



1^ Inq. and Extents^ 287 ; * William le 

 Boteler holds Bold, rendering los. yearly* 

 to the earl of Lancaster. See also the Surv, 

 of 1346 (Chet. Soc), 36 ; also Lanes. 

 Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc), i, 113. A Boteler 

 rental of 1548 records the 2\s. ^d. as 

 paid by the lord of Bold ; Pal. of 

 Lane Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 142. On 

 the sale of the Boteler estates at the 

 end of the sixteenth century, this right 

 was acquired by the Gerards of Brynn ; 

 thus m 16 1 2 Sir Thomas Bold held the 

 manor of Bold of Sir Thomas Gerard in 

 free socage by zis, ^d, rent } Lanes. Inq, 

 p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 

 256. 



16 To Henry his son he gave Stodleyhow 

 in Bold and an oxgang in La Quick ; 

 Dods. MSS. loc cit. n. 3. These were per- 

 haps the lands he acquired from Adam 

 son of Robert Howe and Henry son of 

 Richard the Mercer ; the latter's estate 

 was in * the vill of La Quick ' ; ibid. «. 6, 

 17. Besides the son Henry just men- 

 tioned, William had another son, Roger ; 

 ibid. «. 164. 



