A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the whole district nearly a century before.**' This aggrandizement of the 

 already overpowerful earl, the impolicy of which would have been more glaring 

 had he not been childless, was probably the sequel to a violent quarrel between 

 the king and Hubert de Burgh. Coming down to Portsmouth to start on 

 his Poitevin campaign Henry found the preparations incomplete and laid all 

 the blame upon Hubert.'*' We may perhaps conclude that in his anxiety to 

 avert the collapse of the expedition Henry paid the heavy price the earl 

 demanded for his further support. The demesne lands transferred to him 

 comprised inter alia the manors of Salford and West Derby and the borough 

 of Liverpool."^ Soon afterwards he purchased for 200 marks the Lancashire 

 fief of Roger de Marsey (or Mattersey), of Mattersey in Nottinghamshire, 

 which included Bolton, Chorlev, RadclifFe, Urmston, Westleigh, and other 

 manors.'" 



In the division of Ranulf s vast estates among his sisters after his death 

 in October, 1232, his fief between Ribble and Mersey fell to William de 

 Ferrers, earl of Derby, in right of his wife Agnes, the third sister.'"* The 

 three wapentakes were seised into the king's hands in or before i 242 owing 

 to some misdemeanours of Ferrers' bailiffs, but he redeemed them in that 

 year by a fine of ^^100.'" His son William, who succeeded him in 

 1247, obtained in 1251 confirmation of the privilege enjoyed by Ranulf 

 de Blundeville of appointing his own officers for the conservation of 

 the peace in the three wapentakes, to be paid by the inhabitants.'"" He 

 died in 1254, and the custody of his lands during the minority of 

 Robert, his son and heir, was committed to the king's eldest son Edward, 

 who had just been invested with the earldom of Chester, annexed to the 

 crown in 1246 after the death of Ranulf de Blundeville's nephew, John 

 le Scot.'"' 



In the barons' wars Robert de Ferrers was so violently anti-royalist that 

 Simon de Montfort had to sacrifice him to Henry's hostility, and on 23 April, 

 1265, his lands between Ribble and Mersey were taken into the king's 

 hands."* A year later he was captured by the royal forces at Chesterfield, 

 and his estates were granted to the king's younger son Edmund, who had just 

 attained his majority. After the pacification Ferrers pledged himself to pay 

 Edward the enormous sum of >r5o,ooo in redemption of his estates, but 



'^ See above, p. i 86. It is possible, however, that Ranulf Gernons did not recognize the County Court at 

 Lancaster, then in the hands of the king of Scots, while Blundeville's grant left its authority unimpaired. He 

 collected the castle guard money from the fifteen knights' fees in his fief; Pipe R. 14 Hen. III. It will be 

 noted that the Domesday wapentakes of Makerfield and Warrington had by this time been merged in that of 

 West Derby. The wapentake of Makerfield is mentioned as late as 1 1 69 ; Lanes. Pipe R 1 2 



'" Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 191. 



'" He granted a borough charter to Salford in or shortly after 1230 ; Tait, Mediaeval Manchester, 46, 

 1 09. ^ He or one of the Ferrers earls built the castle at Liverpool, which replaced that at West Derby. 



"=' Ormerod, Hist. ofCkes. i, 36-7. This purchase is here and elsewhere (e.g. Diet. Nat Biog v 2701 

 confused with the king's grant of the three wapentakes. It is barely possible that it preceded that grant by a 

 few months, for Sir William de Vernon, justiciar of Chester, who was a witness, was appointed early in 1220 

 but it seems more probable that it came a little later. 



'" G.E.C. Complete Peerage, ii, 225. His earldom of Lincoln passed to his constable John de Lacy as 

 son-in-law of his fourth sister, and still further increased the importance of the lords of Blackburnshire VVidnes 

 and Penwortham ; ibid. v. 90. ' 



'" Baines, Hist. ofLr.ncs. (ed. Croston), i, 47. ise ^t,-^^ g 



''■• G.E.C. Complete Peerage, ii, 225. The accounts of Edward's bailiffs between Ribble and Mersey from 

 .Mich. 1256 to taster 1257, are printed in Lanes. Inquests, \, 205-10. 



r ■ Z^^°n' "^^ "^°- "^- ™- ^ ^- : ^'''- ^"'^ ^'"i- ^^i". 387- For another view of Montfort's action cf 

 Jl ng!. Hist. Rev. X, 3 I . 



194 



