WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



LEIGH 



jfz 1,000, from whom it passed by sale with the 

 manor of Tyldesley ' and other estates to the grand- 

 father of the present earl of EUesmere, and so became 

 merged in the Bridgewater estates.' 



The NEW HJLL, near Dam House, standing 

 on part of the demesne lands, has long been used as 

 a farm-house. It was formerly the property of the 

 Tyldesleys of Garrett. 



CLEWORTH (Cluworth, 1333) is an estate of 

 about 163 acres, lying on high ground near the centre 

 of the township and held of the lord of the reputed 

 manor of Tyldesley by a yearly quit-rent of one 

 halfpenny.' It was included in the grant ot a great 

 part of the township made in 1301 by Henry 

 lord of Tyldesley to his younger son Adam, of 

 whom it was then held by John de Waverton, 

 who also held a fourth part of the manor of Bed- 

 ford in I 3 1 5 of the inheritance of his grandmother, 

 Avice de Bedford.* By Ameria his wife John de 

 Waverton had sons — John, who died without issue 

 before 1335, and William,' whose wife Agnes held 

 part of this estate in 1335.° Their son Thomas 

 married in 1333 Margaret daughter of John de 

 Chisenhale of Longshagh, when a settlement of this 

 estate and a fourth part of the manor of Bedford was 

 made upon them and their issue.' The next link in 

 the descent is not clear. In 1352 William son of 

 John de Waverton held the Bedford estate * and died 

 before 1365,' when Katherine, his daughter and 

 heir by Ellen his wife, was under age and her mar- 

 riage the subject of dispute between Gilbert Kighley 

 and her guardians.'" But Cleworth appears to have 

 passed to Margery, a supposed daughter and heir of 

 Thomas de Waverton, who married Henry de Tote- 

 hill, by whom she had issue an only daughter, Emotte, 

 upon whose issue the estate was settled in 1408." 

 Emotte married Oliver Parr of Kempnall, in whose 

 family the estate descended to 

 Anne daughter of John Parr, 

 gent., who married first, be- 

 fore 1567, Thurstan Barton of 

 Smithills, esq.," by whom she 

 had no issue, and secondly, in 

 1578, Nicholas Starkie of Cle- 

 worth and Huntroyde, esq., 

 whose descendant Mr. Edmund 

 Arthur le Gendre Starkie, of 

 Huntroyde, is the present owner. 

 The old hall, which was timber- 

 built, with bay windows and 

 gables, was destroyed about the 

 year 1 8 10. It is memorable 

 in the annals of witchcraft on account of the supposed 

 fatality to the children of the first possessor, Nicholas 

 Starkie, by reason of spells cast upon them by the 

 credulous dupes of a reputed wizard named Hartley, 



Starkie or Hunt- 

 royde. Argent, a bend 

 sable befween six storks 

 proper. 



who supposed themselves to be possessed of evil 

 spirits." 



The DJM HOUSE estate was held of the reputed 

 manor of Tyldesley by the yearly quit-rent of 

 12 pence." It was acquired in 1595 from James 

 Anderton of Lostock, esq., by Adam Mort, gent.," 

 who erected, early in the seventeenth century, the 

 existing house, which is of brick, with bay windows 

 and gables. It is a good example of the domestic 

 architecture of the period, but has been largely added 

 to and altered. It was a long time the residence of 

 the Mort and Froggat families, but has recently 

 been sold by its owner, Mr. Henry Augustus Ross 

 Wetherall, to the Leigh Urban Council, and is 

 used as a sanatorium for infectious diseases. It is 

 often incorrectly named Astley Hall, and described 

 as in the township of Astley.'* 



The ^y^A' ATS estate was in 1685 the property of 

 John Astley, gent., who held it of Francis Sherington, 

 esq ., lord of the manor of Tyldesley, under the yearly 

 quit-rent of 6 pence." In 1728 Thomas Johnson of 

 Bolton, gent., purchased it from Astley's devisees. 



Another estate, known since the sixteenth century 

 from a former owner as ' Davenport's,' formed part 

 of the property of the Tyldesleys of Morleys, and 

 descended to the Royalist Major-General Sir 

 Thomas Tyldesley. In 1670 it was conveyed to 

 trustees with many other estates by his son Edward 

 Tyldesley for the liquidation of his debts. In 1672 

 the trustees sold it to Ralph Astley, gent., and by 

 his representatives it was sold 

 to Hugh Lord Willoughby of 

 Parham and others, who sold 

 it in 1752 to Thomas John- 

 son, the elder, gent., father of 

 Thomas Johnson, the younger, 

 who purchased in 1742 another 

 estate here from the repre- 

 sentatives of the Stanleys of 

 Garrett. Thomas Johnson, the 

 elder, outlived his son and died 

 in I 764, when the united pro- 

 perties passed to his grandson 

 Thomas, who died s.p. in 

 1823. Elizabeth, sister of the last-named, married 

 George Ormerod of Bury, esq., father of George 

 Ormerod of Tyldesley and Sedbury Park, the 

 historian of Cheshire, who succeeded his maternal 

 uncle in 1823. He was grandfather of the present 

 owner, the Rev. George Thomas Bailey Ormerod, 

 M.A." The town of Tyldesley, formerly known as 

 Tyldesley Banks, stands almost entirely upon these 

 three estates or farms. The tenure of the land is 

 leasehold for a term of 999 years. 



In 1785 the principal landowners in the joint 

 township were — Chas. Buckworth Shakerley, esq. 



Ormerod, Or, three 

 bars and a lion passant 

 in chief gules. 



' Both the manor of Tyldesley and the 

 reputed manor formerly held by the 

 Tyldesleys of Wardley were acquired by 

 the Clowes family by purchase and are 

 now vested in the earl of EUesmere. 



"^ Ex inform. Mr. Strachan Holme. 



8 Clowes D. Box ii, i. 



"I Ibid. No. 44. 



* In 1309 William de Waverton gave 

 lands in Tyldesley to John son of William 

 de Waverton for life by these bounds, 

 ' from Goderich clogh following the Risshe 

 hadbutt to Holew sike, following Holew 

 sike to Gledhock and thence across to Code- 

 rich clogh' ; Towneley's MS. DD. 939. 



^ Towneley's MS. DD. 938. 

 ^ Ibid. 941 ; Lanes. Feet of F. (Rec. 

 Soc. xlvi), 96. 



8 Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2 (1), m. 7. 



9 De Banc. R. 420, m. 163 d. 

 1" Ibid. 430, m. 215 d. 



" Feet of F. 9 Hen. IV ; Towneley's 

 MS. DD. 954. Margery afterwards 

 married as her second husband Gilbert de 

 Hulton. Ibid. 959. 



1' Chet. Soc. Ixxxi, 120. 



"Ibid, xxi, 183-4. 



" Clowes D. Box ii. No. 44. 



" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 57, m. 

 116. 



443 



In the inquest taken after Mort's death 

 in 1631 his estate here is described as 

 2 messuages, 26 acres of land, also 

 10 acres of land and 16 acres of moor 

 and moss late of the inheritance of James 

 Anderton, esq., and 265. 8^/. of free rent ; 

 also lands late of the inheritance of Leo- 

 nard Asshawe, esq., and a messuage late 

 purchased of William Sotherne j Towne- 

 ley's MS. C. 8, 13 (Chet. Lib.) 866. 



1^ See the account of Dam House under 

 Astley, in which township a great part of 

 the estate lies. 



17 Clowes D. Box ii, 15. 



19 Ormerod, Parenfalia, pt. i, 14-17. 



