A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



1332 with other free tenants who gave bonds to 

 Mr. John de Blebur)-, parson of Leigh, for various 

 debts due to him arising out of opposition to his 

 appointment.' Early in 1335 Henr>- son of Hugh 

 de Tyldesley made recognizance of a debt of ^\o to 

 Ellen, late the wife of Hugh de Tyldesley, and the 

 said Ellen of a debt of j^20 to the said Henn,-,' from 

 which ue may infer that Hugh was then recently 

 dead. 



The next link in the descent of the manor is not 

 clear. It is, however, probable that in his lifetime 

 Hugh gave the manor to Ellen his wife, and that she 

 subsequently married Adam son of John de TrafFord,' 

 who in consideration of 100 marks conveyed it by 

 fine in 1 344 to Robert de RaddifFe of Ordsall and 

 his issue, together with the homage and services of 

 Richard de Atherton, William de Astley and Hugh 

 his son, Robert son of Elias, and Hugh de Morleys, 

 free tenants of the manor, with remainder to Richard 

 de RadclifFe and Isabella his wife and their issue.* 

 In 13^4 Ellen and Cecily, daughters and heirs of 

 Adam and Ellen de Trafford, confirmed this deed.' 

 The year following, after the death of Robert de 

 RadclifFe without issue, Thurstan son of Hugh de 

 Tyldesley and Adam de Trafford, with Ellen his wife, 

 made an unsuccessful attempt to re-enter into the 

 manor, contrary to the form of the above fine.' In 

 1352 Richard de RadclifFe, brother and heir of 

 Robert, was taking proceedings against Thomas de 

 Bothe, who had illegally entered upon a water-mill, 

 parcel of this manor, under a demise for the term of 

 his life made by Roger de Hulton, who held an estate 

 in the manor of Tyldesley and lands in this manor, 

 under circumstances referred to in the account of the 

 former manor.' 



Subsequently the manor descended in the family of 

 RadclifFe of Winmarleigh,' near Garstang, until the 

 death of William RadclifFe, esq., without issue, in 1 56 1 . 

 Upon a division of his estates this manor descended 

 to Anne, his sister of the half-blood, wife of Gilbert 

 Ger.ird, esq., Attorney-General (1558-81), knighted 

 at Greenwich 1579,' Master of the Rolls (1581-92). 

 In 1565 it was conveyed to Gilbert and Anne and 

 their issue.'" 



Sir Gilbert died in 1593 and was succeeded by his 

 son Sir Thomas Gerard, then aged twenty-nine," 

 who had been knighted by the earl of Essex in 



Gerard, Lord 

 Gerard. Argent, a ial- 

 tire gules. 



In 1734 Thomas 



1 591." On 21 July, 1603, he was created Baron 

 Gerard of Gerard's Bromley," and early in 1606 

 conveyed the manor to Adam Mort," gent., who had 

 acquired early in 1 595 from 

 James Anderton of Lostock the 

 estate of Dam House in Tyldes- 

 ley and about 60 acres of ad- 

 joining land in Tyldesley and 

 Astley." 



Thomas Mort of Dam House, 

 great-grandson of Adam Mort, 

 conveyed the manor to trustees 

 in 1 7 16," who sold it to 

 Thomas Sutton," whose wife 

 Mary, daughter of Robert Bate- 

 man of Chesterfield, was relict 

 of Alexander Mort, brother of 

 Thomas Mort of Dam House. 

 Sutton, gent., and Mary his wife conveyed the manor 

 to trustees '* for the benefit of 

 Thomas Froggat, then a minor, 

 grandson of Mary Mort, one of 

 the daughters of Thomas Mort 

 of Peel." 



Sarah grand - daughter of 

 Thomas Froggat by her first 

 husband John Adam Durie, 

 capt. 93rd Highlanders, had — 

 amongst other issue who all 

 died unmarried — a daughter 

 Katherine, who married first 

 Henry Wayet Davenport, who 

 died in 1845, by whom she 



had no issue, and secondly Sir Edward Robert 

 Wetherall, K.C.S.I., C.B., major-general and aide- 

 de-camp to her late Majesty Queen Victoria. In 

 1856 he was living at Dam House*" Upon his 

 death in 1869 he was succeeded by his eldest son, 

 George Nugent Ross, late of the 15th Hussars, who 

 died s.p. in 1893, when he was succeeded by his 

 brother Henry Augustus Wetherall, formerly of the 

 20th Hussars and Coldstream Guards, the present 

 lord of the manor, who has recently sold the estate 

 of Dam House (now called Astley Hall) to a number 

 of gentlemen, who subsequently sold the house and 

 grounds to the Leigh Urban Council for the purpose 

 of a sanatorium for infectious diseases. 



Mort of Astlky. 

 Argent, on a bend gules 

 three lozenges of the field. 



' Cal, Pal, R, 1330-3, pp. 172, 611. 



' Ibid. 1333-7, p. 366. 



^ It is possible that Ellen was the 

 daughter of Hugh son of Henry and wife 

 of Adam de Trafford, but the fact that 

 Hugh the nephew was returned as lord 

 of Astley until his death c, 1333 points 

 rather to the alternative supposition 

 adopted above. 



■• Lanes, Feet of F, (Rec. Soc xlvi), 

 128. 



' Ibid. 



^ De Banc R. 344, m. 530. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Assize R. 2, pt. i, 

 m. 5. In 1362 Richard de Radcliffe suc- 

 cessfully resisted a demand upon him made 

 by the Exchequer to pay Robert de Rad- 

 cliffe's debts, pleading that Robert had 

 no estate in the manor except in fee-tail ; 

 L.T.R. Mem. R. 127, m. viii. 



* Dep, Keeper's Rep, iixiii, App. i, 

 32. An extent of the manor is given in 

 the inq. p.m. of Sir Richard Radcliffe, lent., 

 taken in 1431 ; Inj, p.m, (Chet. Soc. xcix), 

 3^ +• 



» Metcalfe, A Book of Knights, 133. 



^^ Described as consisting of forty mes- 

 suages, four water-mills, and 2,400 acres 

 of land, meadow, pasture, and moss, and 

 401. rent in Astley, Bedford, Tyldesley, 

 Manchester, Chorlton, Culcheth, and 

 Newton-in-Makerfield ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 27, m. 84. 



^^ Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, n. 2. 



" Metcalfe, A Book of Knights, 137. 



" Cokayne, Complete Peerage, iv, 1 7. 



" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 69, 

 m. 23. 



" Ibid. bdle. 57, m. 116. He is de- 

 scribed as of Tyldesley, gent., in a list 

 of freeholders in 1600 ; Misc, (Lanes, and 

 Ches. Rec Soc. xii), 239. The inq. p.m. 

 of Adam Mort, gent., taken in 1631, 

 describes his estates here as consisting of 

 the manor of Astley, twenty-four mes- 

 suages, 270 acres of land, meadow, and 

 pasture, 5 So acres of heath and turbary, 

 6s. of free rent from the lands of Thomas 

 Tyldesley, esq., and i%d, from the lands 

 of Thomas Gillibrand of Peel, a messuage 



446 



and 15 acres of land in Astley and 

 Tyldesley, late of the inheritance of 

 Edward Fleetwood, and a yearly rent of 

 £$ 6s, Sd. arising from the moiety of the 

 tithes of Astley, late of the inheritance of 

 Thomas Tyldesley, esq. ; Towneley'* 

 MS. C. 8, 1 3 (Chet. Lib.), 866. The Dam 

 House estate is partly in Astley and partly 

 in Tyldesley. 



" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 275, 

 m. 47. 



'' Son of Thomas Sutton of Wetton, 

 Staffordshire, by his wife Anne, daughter 

 of Thomas Mort of Peel, otherwise Little 

 Hulton, and uncle of Thomas Mort of 

 Dam House. 



18 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 314, 

 m. 61. 



" Thomas Mort Froggat, esq., in 1787 

 paid j^39 171. iid. of land tax in respect 

 of his lands here. The whole township 

 paid ;^io4 7J. lod, 



^ Pal. Note Book, iii, 249-51 ;W;i/. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches. (New Ser.', vi> 

 74-6. 



