A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



and Leigh branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

 runs through the southern part of the township, and 

 the high road from Hindlcy to Atherton with a 

 branch road to Leigh also passes through it. There 

 is a station at Westleigh, originally named Leigh 

 Station, on the Bolton and Kenyon section of the 

 London and North- Western Railway. The Man- 

 chester and Wigan section of the same railway runs 

 through the northern edge of the township. The 

 geological formation consists of the coal measures on 

 the north, underlying the permian rocks which out- 

 crop from Westleigh village to Westleigh Heath and 

 Strange Common. To the south-east of this line the 

 formation consists of the pebble beds of the new red 

 sandstone series. 



A district chapelry was formed out of the parish of 

 Leigh in 1881.' The Local Government Act, 1858, 

 and the Public Works (Manu&cturing Districts) Act, 

 1863, were adopted by the township in 1863.' By 

 the 38 and 39 Victoria, cap. ccxi, the district was 

 dissolved and merged in that of the Leigh Local 

 Board, since controlled by an urban district council 

 under the Local Government Act of 1894, and now 

 incorporated in the borough of Leigh. The popula- 

 tion in I 90 1 was 16,177 persons. 



This before the Conquest was one of the 

 MANOR thirty-four manors dependent upon the 

 chief manor of Warrington. The early 

 dependency of the manor of ff£STLElGH and the 

 Higher H.ill upon the chief manor of Warrington 

 terminated soon after the Conquest, and in the 

 twelfth century Westleigh became a member of a 

 scattered fee, having its /:aj>ue at Bolton le Moors, 

 which was granted about the time of King Stephen 

 to the lord of Marsey and Gamston, in Nottingham- 

 shire.' The rateable area seems to have been two 

 and a half or three carucates of land, the tenure by 

 knight's service, viz. by the fourth and twentieth part 

 of a knight's fee. About the year 1230 Roger son 

 of Ranulf de Marsey sold for 200 marks of silver his 

 whole fee between Ribble and Mersey, including this 

 manor, to Ranulf de Blundevill, earl of Chester 

 and Lincoln.* Subsequently the superior lordship 

 descended with the earl of Chester's other lands be- 

 tween Ribble and Mersey to the Ferrers, earls of 

 Derby, then to the earls of Lancaster, and so became 

 merged in the possessions of the duchy of Lancaster. 



The early history of the manor is obscure and is 

 complicated by the connexion of the church with it 

 and by the fact that a landowner in Lancashire in 

 the first half of the thirteenth century had not in 

 every case received an established surname from his 

 principal or residential estate. The facts appear to 

 be that in the latter part of the twelfth century John 

 de Wesdeigh was hereditary parson of the church of 

 Leigh and presumably lord of the manor. He had 

 sons Adam and Alan, benefactors to the abbey of 



Cockersand in the early part of the thirteenth century, 

 and described as 'of Rainford ' in charters by which 

 they gave lands in that place to the abbey ' ; and 

 probably an eldest son Richard, who seems to have 

 succeeded to the manor and patronage of the church, 

 but owing to the more rigid enforcement of the 

 decrees of the first Lateran Council against the 

 hereditary possession of churches by persons not in 

 orders, was compelled to present a clerk in holy orders 

 to his church of Leigh. This clerk was duly admitted 

 sometime during the reign of John. He was not a 

 kinsman of the patron, for his name, Robert Cucy, 

 or Coucy,° suggests a foreign origin. The loss of 

 the old hereditary office of parson seems to have 

 necessitated a division of lands in the manor, and the 

 clerk appears to have had assigned to him the mansion 

 afterwards known as the Kirk Hall/ standing half a 

 mile distant from the church, with lands representing 

 a fourth part of the manor or vill.' The situation 

 of the house and lands points to its having been the 

 lord's ancient residence. The lord himself seems to 

 have removed to a site more remote from the church, 

 and to have built the manor-house afterwards known 

 as the Higher Hall. In 1 2 1 9 Adam de Westleigh, 

 probably younger brother and heir of Richard, was 

 amerced by the justices at Lancaster.' 



Before 1238 the advowson appears to have been 

 divided, possibly by the death of Richard de West- 

 leigh without heir of his body, or by alienation of 

 half the church to the priory of Wallingwells. In 

 that year five Lancashire knights were commissioned 

 to take an assize of darein presentment at Lancaster 

 between Adam son of John (de Westleigh) and the 

 prioress of Wallingwells, between whom there was 

 contention as to the next presentation to half the 

 church.'" The verdict is not recorded ; but it is not 

 improbable that the plea was that referred to some 

 fifty years later as the result of which Isolda, prioress 

 of Wallingwells, had presented Henry de Ulveston to 

 the church." This seems to gain confirmation from 

 a reference to ' Henry the clerk of Leigh,' who found 

 sureties at the assizes at Lancaster in 1 246." In 

 1 242-3 Adam de Westleigh was one of the jurors 

 returned from the hundred of West Derby on the 

 inquest of the Gascon Scutage." About this time or 

 possibly a little later, a fourth part of the manor, sub- 

 sequently associated with the Old Hall of Westleigh, 

 came into the possession of a younger branch of the 

 Bradshaws of Bradshaw,'* who held under the lords 

 of the remaining half of the manor." 



By Quenilda his wife Adam de Westleigh had issue 

 Roger, who married Emma daughter (and perhaps 

 heir) of Robert de Shoresworth, and had lands here 

 with her in marriage. 



Their issue was an only daughter, Siegrith, who 

 married Richard, younger son of Richard de Urmston, 

 lord of Urmston. '° In 1292 she and her husband 



' LonJ. Gaz. 5297. '' Ibid. 4935. 



* Lanes. Inq. and Exttna (Rec. Soc. 

 xlviii), 29. 



< Duchy of Lane. Great Cowcher, i, n.79. 

 5 Chartul. of Cockcnand (Chet Soc), 

 614-15. 



• De Banc R. 189, m. 50. 



" Now known as the Parsonage Farm. 

 It has been generally occupied by the 

 curate in charge of St. Paul's Church. 



s De Banc R. 263, 95^. 



« PipeR. 3 Hen. Ill, m. iz d. 



1" Auizc R. (Rec Soc ilix), 221. 



" De Banc R. 82, m. 5 J. 



12 Assize R. (Rec Soc), 1 1 9. 



^ Testa de Nevill (Rec Com.), 396, 

 398i. " See the account of Pennington. 



'* This division of the manor is exactly 

 described in a suit brought in 1326 by 

 Richard de Urmston against John, parson 

 of Leigh, claiming five messuages and 

 lands formerly improved from the wastes of 

 the manor. De Banc. R, 263, m. 95 d. 



" De Banc. R. 156, m. 65^. Emma 

 re-married a certain Henry, who died 

 before 1295. Assize R. 1306, m. 17. 

 Roger had also issue a son Nigel, probably 

 illegitimate, who in 129 1-2 attempted 



422 



to prove that Richard de Urmston and 

 Siegrith his wife had disseised him of a 

 moiety of the manor of Westleigh, which 

 his grandmother Quenilda, whose heir he 

 claimed to be, had held in her demesne 

 as of fee ; De Banc. R. 91, m. :i8 ; 105, 

 m. 43 d. ; Assize R. 408, m. 9. In 

 131 1 John son of the said Nigel sued 

 Siegrith in her widowhood for the advow- 

 son of the church (De Banc. R. 189, m. 

 50), and in 1315 put in his claim at the 

 levying of a 6ne of lands given by Sie- 

 grith to her younger son ; Final Cont^ 

 (Rec. Soc. xlvi), ii, 20, 



