A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The Molyneux family, though seated at Sefton since the time of 

 Henry I, held a comparatively humble place among the great tenants of the 

 county until Sir Richard Molyneux distinguished himself in Henry V's French 

 wars and his brother Adam rose to be bishop of Chichester and Keeper of the 

 Privy Seal.'" Sir Richard's son and namesake was a favourite of Henry VI, 

 who bestowed upon him in 1446 the chief official positions in West Derby 

 wapentake, including the constableship of Liverpool Castle."' This accentu- 

 ated the already existing rivalry between his family and the Stanleys, who had 

 only been settled in Lancashire for sixty years."' The fortunes of this great 

 house were founded by Sir John Stanley, a younger son of the Stanleys of 

 Storeton in Wirral.'"" Sir John, who was lord lieutenant of Ireland under 

 Richard II and Henry IV, and received a grant of the Isle of Man from the 

 latter king, acquired Knowsley, Lathom, and other lands in south-west Lan- 

 cashire by his marriage (before 1385) with the heiress of Sir Thomas Lathom. 

 His grandson Thomas also governed Ireland, became lord chamberlain to 

 Henry VI and was created a peer in 1456.'" In North Lancashire the 

 leading position was held by the Harringtons, originally a Cumberland family. 

 They had succeeded the Le Flemings in the barony of Aldingham in the thir- 

 teenth century, and quite recently a younger branch had become possessed of the 

 honour of Hornby, formerly a Montbegon fief, and since held by the Nevills. 

 The only daughter of the last Lord Harrington of Aldingham in the male line 

 married the son of Lord Bonville of Devonshire, an ardent Yorkist, and their 

 son, who became Lord Harrington in 1458, took to wife a sister of the earl of 

 Warwick, the kingmaker.'" In the Civil War, therefore, both the Harring- 

 ton families frankly sided against the crown. Thomas Stanley, who succeeded 

 his father in 1459 as second Baron Stanley, was also a brother-in-law of 

 Warwick, but from the first adopted that trimming policy which ultimately 

 secured him the earldom of Derby. At the battle of Blore Heath in August, 

 1459, he and his younger brother William executed the same manoeuvre 

 which afterwards proved so successful at Bosworth Field. Thomas Stanley 

 kept the 2,000 men he had raised at the queen's call a few miles away from 

 the scene of the battle, while William fought openly on the Yorkist side."'' 

 Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton, who was almost inevitably in the opposite 

 camp, though some of his family were Yorkists, was slain along with other 

 Lancashire men. William Stanley was attainted in the October Parliament 

 of this year, but his elder brother's conduct, though the Commons impeached 

 him as a traitor, was overlooked by the queen. '^* 



In December, 1460, the young Lord Harrington, his father William 

 Bon\ ille, and Sir John Harrington of Hornby, were all slain fighting for the 

 duke of York at \Vakefield.'" A few months later York's son was on the 

 throne, and the wily Lord Stanley chief justice of Chester. Early in 1464 

 the commons of Lancashire and Cheshire rose to the number of 10,000 in 



' " Diet. Nat. Bicg. xxrviii, 131. 



'" Ibid. 134. His father had also held them ; Duchy Reg. No. 17, fol. 75. 



'" In July, 1425, there was great rumour of'routes' between Sir Richard Molyneux and Thomas Stanley 

 the younger at Liverpool. The sheriff received orders to take ike posse comitatus against them ; Towneley MS. 

 CC. p. 219, No. S70. The Stanleys had built the Tower in Water Street, a bowshot from the castle. 



''" Diet. Nat. Biog. liv, 76. "' Ibid. 



'" G.E.C. Co!np:ete Peer.:ge, iv, 169. 



'" Diet. Nat. Biog. liv, 76. »< Rot. Pari, y, 348, 369. 



"' Ramsey, Laneaster and I'ork, ii, 238. 



214 



