A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



are said to have lived at the Peel.' A family named 



Whethull or Whittle appear during the fourteenth 



centur)-, and long remained 



here.' The Leghs also held 



lands here, as may be 



by their inquisitions.' Others 



whose names occur 



pleadings are Ford,' Whitfield,- 



and Croston.' 



The freeholders 

 were James Wh 

 Rixton, and Thomas 

 In 1628 the contributories to 

 the subsidy were Thomas Ire- 

 land, for Whittle House ; Tho- 

 mas Rixton, Peter Slynehead, 

 and Margaret Ashton, widow.' 



The Commonwealth surveyors of 1650 reported 

 that the inhabitants of Great Sankey and Penketh 



PowYS, Lord Lil- 

 ford. Or, a lion^s pa'w 

 erased in bend hetiveen 

 two crossletijitcky guUi, 



had recently, at their own charges, built a chapel, and 

 they recommended that it should have a separate 

 parish.' After the Restoration its use, if used at all, 

 was confined to the Presbyterian wonhip, but in 

 1728, Mr. Atherton, the lord of the manor, having 

 conformed to the Established Church, handed over 

 the chapel to the bishop of Chester, retaining the 

 patronage, which has descended to Lord Lilford." 

 It was rebuilt in 1765, a collection towards the cost 

 being made by brief." 



PENKETH 



Penket, 1242; Penkith, 1293; Penketh, 1290 

 and usually. Also occur : Penecke, 1285 ; Pentketh 

 and Pentekech, 1302 ; Penkeheth, c. 1360. 



This township, originally formed from Great Sankey, 

 has an area of 1, 003 J acres." It has the typical 

 features of the districts situated along the Mersey, 



Rixton, and Matthew his son, claiming 

 lands which Richard le Gynour had 

 granted her husband ; De Banc. R. 346, 

 m. 1651/. <tc. Henry de Atherton of 

 Hindley, in right of his wife Agnes, con- 

 tinued the suits. So far as the Rixtons 

 were concerned Sir William le Boteler 

 said he was not interested except that he 

 claimed the reversion after the death of 

 Matthew, William, and Alan de Rixton, 

 bastards, who had a life interest ; Duchy 

 of Luic. Assize R. i, m. iiij ; to R. ;, 

 m. i%d. Matthew de Rixton gave all 

 his lands in Sankey to Sir John le 

 Boteler in 1373 j Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 

 l^jh. For Randle son and heir of 

 Matthew Rixton, see fVarrington in 

 1+65 (Chet. Soc), 70. 



The Rixtons of Sankey recorded a pedi- 

 gree in 1567; yisii. (Chet. Soc), 116; 

 see also Piccope MS. Peds. (Chet. Lib.), 

 ii, 1 5. Richard Rixton, who, according 

 to this pedigree, was son of Randle and 

 grandson of Matthew Rixton, did homage 

 for his lands in Dec, 1511, paying for 

 his relief 20j. as for the lifth part of 

 a knight's fee ; and his brother Thomas, 

 who succeeded him early in 1 5 14, paid 

 the same \ Miu. (Rec. Soc Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i. 24, z8. 



Thomas Rixton, who married Margery 

 daughter of Nicholas Butler, an illegiti- 

 mate offshoot of the Warrington family, 

 died about 1^40. In his will he desired to 

 be buried in the Rixton chapel in War- 

 rington church, four torches to be made, 

 two being for Warrington church and two 

 for the chapel of Famworth. He mentions 

 his wife Margery ; sons Thomas, the eldest, 

 Stephen, and Edward j and daughters 

 Dorothy and Margaret ; Piccope, fVilh 

 (Chet. Soc), ii, 255. For a settlement in 

 1567 see PaU of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 

 29, m. 14- j Thomas Rixton was the de- 

 forciant. A later settlement was made 

 by Randle Rixton in 1596; ibid. bdle. 

 59. m. 131. 



1 VVarr. in 1465 (Chet. Soc), 5, note 

 and p. Ivii. 



^ This family held land before 1355, 

 when William le Boteler brought a suit 

 against Henry de Whittle concerning 16 

 acres in Great Sankey ; next year Wil- 

 liam son of Henry was made defendant. 

 It appeared that Henry's father, another 

 Henr\-, had been in possession by virtue 

 of an agreement with the plaintiffs father; 

 Duchy of Lane Assize R. 4, m. 25 ; R. 

 5, m. 16 i, 19. 



Thomas Whethill of Great Sankey 

 did homage for his lands in April, 1507. 



He fought at Flodden in 151 3, and died 

 of his wounds at Newcastle soon after- 

 wards, leaving a widow who survived him 

 only a year, and an infant son Gilbert, 

 whose wardship was claimed by Sir 

 Thomas Butler ; Miic. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 20, 28. In 1567 William 

 Whittle of Great Sankey, son and heir 

 of Thomas Whittle, married Frances, 

 an illegitimate daughter of Sir William 

 Norris ; Norris D. (B.M.), n. 936. 



* e.g. Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xv, n. 3 8. 



* Robert de Ford and Felicia his wife 

 were engaged in suits concerning Great 

 Sankey in the time of Hdw. II ; Assize 

 R. 423, m. 2 J R. 424, m. 7. Adam 

 son of Thomas de Ford was defendant in 

 1346, in a suit brought by Henry son of 

 Alan, son of Henry de Quyke ; Dc 

 Banc R. 347, m. j </. ; R. 349, m. 

 280 d. Deeds concerning the sale of the 

 lands of James son and heir of George 

 Ford, in 1536, are among the Bold deeds 

 at Warrington ; G. 71-9. 



* Robert de Whitfield, clerk, in 1288 

 granted the marriage of Henry, his son 

 and heir, to Margaret daughter of Richard 

 de Penketh, at the same time granting 

 lands to the bride's father for a term of 

 years ; having ejected him, a suit was 

 brought for restoration, in 1292; Assize 

 R. 408, m. 29. Elizabeth, widow of 

 Robert de Whitlield, claimed dower in 

 houses and lands here from Richard son 

 of Thomas de Hale in 1346; De Banc. 

 R. 347, m. 292. 



^ This name occurs in a charter pre- 

 served by Kuerden (fol. MS. 137, n. 441), 

 whereby Nicholas de Foulshurst, chaplain, 

 demised to Richard de Croston, and Mat- 

 thew, Henry, and Margaret his children, 

 land in Great Sankey. 



' Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 

 239, 242. 



Humphrey Taylor in 1562 and later 

 purchased lands in Great Sankey and 

 Penketh from Randle Law and others ; 

 PaL of Lane Feet of F. bdle. 24, m. 176; 

 25, m. 152 ; 26, m. 132. A settlement 

 was made by Thomas Taylor in 1 5 94, of 

 lands here and in Penketh and Rainhill ; 

 ibid. bdle. 56, m. 25. Edmund Taylor 

 of Burtonwood, who died early in 1624, 

 held lands in Great Sankey of the king 

 in chief ; he left a widow Cecily and a 

 son and heir Ralph, ten years old ; Lanes. 

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

 iii, 418. For Ralph Taylor, who died in 

 1 641, see Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xjcix, 

 n. 1 1 ; Edmund, his son and heir, was 

 seven years old ; Cecily, mother of Ralph 



410 



and then wife of Richard Roughley, was 

 living at Sutton. 



The Barnes family, though not named, 

 also held lands here ; Randle Barnes, who 

 died in 1 6 1 1, had a brother and heir Ralph, 

 who died two years later, his heir being his 

 son William ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc, 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 203, 267. Randle 

 Barnes of Sankey Bridge in 1651 com- 

 plained that his * small vessel of the bur- 

 then of 14 tons,* while on a voyage for 

 the herring fishery off the coast of Ireland, 

 had been compelled to shelter in the Isle 

 of Man, and had been confiscated by the 

 Parliament on its arrival at Liverpool, the 

 island being then held by the earl of 

 Derby, and this 'notwithstanding the 

 petitioner had always been faithful to 

 the Parliament and Commonwealth of 

 England and ready and active for the 

 transporting of soldiers for Ireland ' ; 

 Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 142. The hearth tax of 1666 

 shows that William Barnes had the prin- 

 cipal house here with nine hearths ; Law- 

 rence Callen, the next, having only four. 



8 Norris D. (B.M.). The Slyneheads 

 were a Ditton family, but appear in 

 Sankey much earlier than this. Thomas 

 Slynehead purchased land from Hamlet 

 Bruche in 1572 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of 

 F. bdle. 34, m. 53 i 45, m. 149 ; see 

 also Beamont, Lords of Warr. (Chet 

 Soc), ii, 477. Of Peter Slynehead, a 

 pamphleteer of the seventeenth century, 

 and of the family generally there is a 

 notice in Local Gleanings Lanes, and Ches, 

 ii, 63. An assessment of Great Sankey, 

 of the latter part of that century, is 

 printed in the same volume, 200. 



^ Commonivealth Ch. Surv. (Rec Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 77. The minister in 

 1653 was Hugh Henshaw, who appears to 

 have been removed shortly afterwards to 

 St. Helens and then to Chelford ; PlunJ. 

 Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 136, 142; ii, 31Z. Bishop Gastrell's 

 account agrees with this; 'It was never 

 used but in Oliver's time * ; the land it 

 stood on was given by the family of 

 Bewsey, and the building had by 1720 

 fallen out of repair ; Notitia Cestr. (Chet. 

 Soc), ii, 215. 



'0 Canon Raines states (loc cit.) that 

 it was consecrated (St. Mary's) in 1769. 



" The monumental inscriptions in the 

 chapel are given in Lanes, and Ches. Antiq, 

 Notes, i, 67. 



" The census of 1901 gives 1,008 acres, 

 including 12 of inland water, with 35 acres 

 of tidal water and 1 7 of fore-shore. 



