WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



have fallen into obscurity.^ They remained faithful 

 to the Roman Church,* and some of their descendants 

 were priests in Lancashire during the centuries of 

 proscription.' 



Mrs. Hughes of Sherdley about the year 1830 

 claimed manorial rights, and courts had been held ; 

 her claim was not generally acknowledged.* 



Various families are mentioned in the early plead- 

 ings and charters as holding lands in Penketh, as 

 the Quicks * and Wetshaws,® The prior of Norton 

 also possessed certain rights here.' Henry Russell of 



PRESCOT 



Penketh, hanged for felony in 1292, had lands in 

 Wigan.^ 



The freeholders in 1600 were John Ashton and 

 — Penketh ; ^ in 1628 Thomas Ashton, Thomas Ire- 

 land, and Robert Ryve were assessed to the subsidy.*'* 



The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in Pen- 

 keth in 1818. 



The Society of Friends early had a meeting here ; it 

 was duly certified and recorded in 1689.^* A day school 

 was carried on from 1678 to 1878 ;" a boarding- 

 school was founded in 1834 ^^'^ still flourishes.^' 



and heir Richard, living in 161 3. He 

 had a numerous family, the eldest son, 

 Thomas, having been bora about 16 10, 



The only inquisitions appear to be 

 those taken after the death of Alice 

 Penketh in 1541. Her father, John, had 

 held lands in Penketh, Ditton, and other 

 places ; she was an idiot, and her heirs 

 were her sisters, Joan, the wife of George 

 Ward, and Elizabeth, wife of William 

 Reeve ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. viii, 

 «. 6, 7. The Reeves or Ryves continued 

 to hold land here for a century at least ; 

 the inquest after the death of Robert 

 Reeve in 1640 shows that his land was 

 held of Margaret, daughter and heir of 

 Thomas Ireland ; ibid, xxx, n. 37. 



Richard Penketh was in 1553 involved 

 in a dispute with Thomas Butler as to the 

 title to Penketh Hall ; Ducatus Lane. 

 (Rec. Com.), 1, 280. A settlement of his 

 property in Penketh and Sutton, including 

 * pasture for three horses on Penketh 

 Warth,' was made in 1556 ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F, bdle. i6, m. 92. Another 

 settlement, by his son Richard, was made 

 in 1592 ; ibid. bdle. 54, m. 146. 



^ Beamont says : ' Penketh Hall, the 

 ancient seat of the Penkeths, seems to 

 have changed owners much about the 

 same time that Bewsey passed into the 

 hands of strangers ; for in the year 1624 

 we tind Sir Thomas Ireland exchanging 

 with Thomas Ashton the hall and de- 

 mesne of Penketh, late the inheritance of 

 Richard Penketh, but at the same time 

 carefully reserving to himself .... the 

 right to remove all and every the grafts, 

 plants, and young trees of fruit there 

 growing' ; fVarr., in 1465 (Chet. Soc), 

 p. xh 



In 1 682 Peter Bold vn-ote : * Mr. Penketh 

 was with me before I went to Yorkshire, 

 and acquainted me that he had very hard 

 usage ^om some of your officers, and, he 

 believes, without your order. I know the 

 gentleman very well ; he is a near neigh- 

 bour to me and his condition is not un- 

 known to me. He faithfully served his 

 majesty all the first war, and in that 

 service behaved himself very gallantly 

 and with great loyalty. He received 

 many wounds and was so great a sufferer, 



that he was reduced to a very poor con- 

 dition. He now lives an undertenant to 

 a small messuage in Bold, not above 

 5 acres.* Kenyan MSS, (Hist. MSS. Com). 

 145. A Lieutenant Penketh was one of 

 the defenders of Lathom House in the 

 first siege, 1644 ; Cizfii fVar Tracts (Chet. 

 Soc), 173, 177. 



^ John Penketh, on entering the English 

 College in Rome in 1651, gave the fol- 

 lowing account : * My name is John Pen- 

 keth alias Rivers. I am son of Richard 

 Penketh of Penketh in the county of 

 Lancaster, esquire, who married the 

 daughter of Thomas Patrick of Bispham, 

 in the same county, gentleman. I was 

 born and bred up in my father's house, 

 and am now twenty-one years of age. 

 My father, before his death, had spent 

 nearly all his fortune and left very little 

 to my mother. . . . Most of my relations 

 are Protestant, but my father, with all 

 his family, one brother excepted, were 

 always Catholic. I have made my studies 

 in England under private tutors and at 

 private schools. I was always a Catholic, 

 and left England on 13 August, 1651, to 

 proceed to Rome, where in the family of 

 Christ I shall be more sure to avoid the 

 vanities of the world and its dangers ; 

 being moved also to this by an ardent 

 desire of gaining souls, if found worthy of 

 the priesthood' 5 Foley, Rec. S. y, v, 

 330. The account which follows states 

 that he had spent some time in the king 

 of Spain's army in Belgium. 



^ The John Penketh above-named was 

 ordained priest in 1656, and in 1663 

 entered the Society of Jesus, going on the 

 English mission in the following year. 

 He in 1678, in the excitement of the 

 Oates plot, was betrayed, tried at Lan- 

 caster, and condemned to death for his 

 priesthood. He was reprieved, but kept 

 in prison for some years, being liberated 

 on the accession of James II. The 

 Revolution brought fresh troubles, but 

 he continued his ministrations until his 

 death in 1701. See the account in 

 Foley, op. cit. v, 331 ; vi, 383 ; vii, 581, 

 1401. 



Other priests of the same family in- 

 cluded William Penketh, then of Cross- 



brook, Orrell, convicted of recusancy in 

 1716 ; he was the author of Rivers' 

 Manual, frequently reprinted, and died 

 about 1762. See Glllow, Bibliog. Diet, 

 of Engl, Cath, v, 257, 258 j Foley, i2ec, 

 5. J. vi, 450, 455; V, 335. 



^ Report by Edward Eyes in Trans. Hist. 

 Soc. xxii, 215. The boundaries had been 

 walked about twelve years before. Fish- 

 ing was free. 



* In 1285 and later there were disputes 

 between William de Quyke, clerk, and 

 Adam son of Dulcia de Birches, who 

 married Margery, as to the bounds of their 

 lands in Penketh; Assize R. 1271, m. 

 1 2 c/, J 1277, m. 32fl(/., 31 1:/. William also 

 brought actions against Henry son of 

 Gilbert de Penketh ; Assize R. 408, m. 

 9 ; &c. 



^ The Wetshaws were a Ditton family. 

 Robert son of Henry de Wetshaw had a 

 daughter Aline, who sold her land to Henry 

 de Ditton in 1349; Kuerden MSS. Hi, 

 P. 4, «. 613, 617. The purchaser was soon 

 involved in disputes with Hugh de Kel- 

 sall and others, who broke into his 

 houses in Penketh ; De Banc. R. 362, 

 m. 137, 26 d. Shortly afterwards, in 

 1350, he made further purchases from 

 William de Widnes and Margery his wife ; 

 Final Cone. li, 128. 



7 In 1366 Richard, the prior of Nor- 

 ton, complained about a rescue of cattle 

 here made by a number of people ; De 

 Banc. R. 462, m. 148. 



^ Inq. and Extents, 275. 



® Mise, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 



10 Norris D. (B.M.). 



^1 Kenyon MSS, 230. George Fox 

 visited Penketh and Sankey in 1667 and 

 1669 and founded a meeting; Journ, 

 This was held in Great Sankey until in 

 1 681 a meeting-house was built on the 

 land bought in 1671 for a graveyard ; it 

 was rebuilt in 1736. 



13 The schoolhouse was not built till 

 1692 ; it adjoined the meeting-house. 

 This was the first school John Bright 

 attended, 182 1. 



18 This and other details about Penketh 

 are derived from information supplied by 

 Mr. J. Spence Hodgson of Didsbury. 



413 



