Visitation of Lancashire, 1664-5

63 Pages·2009·34.73 MB·English

by  Sir William Dugdale

THE
VISITATION
OF THE
COUNTY PALATINE OF LANCASTER,
MADE IN THE YEAR
BY SIR WILLIAM DUGDALE,
KNIGHT,
NORROY KING OF ARUS.
PRINTED ny CHARLES SIMMS,
IVIANCHESTER.
EDITED BY
THE REV. F. R. RAINES, M.A., F.S.A.,
VICAR OF MILNROW, HON. CANON OF MANCHESTER,
AND RURAL DEAN.
PRINTED FOR THE CHETHANI SOCIETY.
M.DCCC. LXXII.
-, - -- ~-~
INTRODUCTION.
I T was on the 2nd September 1664 that Dugdale, at
that time N orroy King at Arms, left Blythe hall, his
house in Warwickshire, to hold his Visitation in Lan
cashire, of which event due notice had been given in the
several hundreds of the county. He was accompanied
I
1 The following is a copy of the second letter issued by Dugdale to
the High Bailiff of the Hundred of Salford:
PRINTED BY CHARLES SUIM5, To tile Balive 0/ the Hundred of Saljol'd these. Whereas, by virtue
:MANCHESTER.
of his Majesties Commission under y. great Seal of England to mee
directed, you did receive a special! Warrant from mee given at Man
chester under the Seale of my office upon the 26 day of July last, for y.
Authorizinge of yu to warne divers persons residinge within the hundred
of Salford in the County of Lancaster, to make their respective appear
t
ances before me at y. Sign of y' Kings head in Salford upon 9th day
of y. month of September last, as well for the registeringe their descents,
and justifying their titles of Esquires and Gentlemen as their right of
such Coats of Armes and Crests which they usually shew forth and
bear.
And whereas, notwithstandilige such your notice, there are some
amongst them, who have not, as yet, made their appearance accord
ingly, these are therefore by virtue of y' said Commission, further to
charge and command yU, y' yU imediately [conveyor communicate?] to
IV Introduction,. hztroductz'mz. V
mgs or feudal castles, few baronial mansions or noble
by his "fidus Achates," Gregory King. then a youth,
churches; and yet they found many ancient families
afterwards the Rouge Dragon, and famous for his
who were ready, for the most part, to honour the royal
artistic delineations of armorial bearings. Lancashire
commission which had invested these important func
would present to the two heralds, as they rode through
many parts of the county, a desolate surface, pale sun tionaries with a quasi regal authority. Nor did N orroy
shine, and a rude climate. Cold and rain predominated, forget that the county which he visited "had been dig
doubtless, then, as in after times; and civilization seemed nified by wisdom, bravery and virtue;" and if the great
Christian moralist of the next century repudiated the
to be, in . the seventeenth century, almost outside its
boundaries. The two heralds found few monastic build- frigid philosophy which might have conducted him, "in
different and unmoved," over such a county, we may
every such person whose name is exprest in y' Schedule hereunto an
nexed, and to let them know, y' I shall once more require and expect, Bradshawe. Halli1lJell: Mr. Robert Clayton. Hej'wood: Robert Hey
y' they make their appearance before mee at y' Sign of y' Kings head wood Esq. Hlt1ldersfeild: :tvIr. James Halliwell. Heap: :tvIr. Roger
in Salford aforesaid, upon Saturday y' xi'h day of March next. And y' Holt, Mr. Will'" Langley. T¥estllOltghton: William Worthington Esq.,
in case they or any of them shall refuse so to doe, I must be enforced to Robert Broome Esq., Mr. Will'" Leigh. R~ersall: Mr. Lever. Level/s
adjorne them to attend y' Lords Commissioners for the office of Earle Imlme: M1'. Gilliam. Little Levu': Captaine Andrewes. Darcy Lever:
Marshall of England, to answer y' disobediance and contempt of his Mr. James Bradshaw, Mr. Lever. Great Lever: S, Orlando Bridgman
said Majesties commission above exprest. K' & B,. l]i[m/cltester: Mr. Beswyke, M1'. Ridge, John Houlden Esq.,
Given under y' Seale of my office at' London this second day of Feb Mr. ffrancis ,Vorthington, Mr. James Lancashire, M1'. Thomas Illing_
ruary in y' seventeenth year of y' raigne of our most Gracious Soveraigne worth. llifostolt: ffranc. Chetham Esq., M1'. Shacldock. lVewcrojt:
Lord Charles y' second by y' grace of God of England, Scotland ffrance Roger Rogers. Ormestoft: Mr. Richard Starkey. Ordsall: J 01111
and Ireland Kinge, Defender of y' faith &c. Birch Esq. Oldham: M1'. Benjamin Wrigley. Pelldleton: Robert
By mee N orroy Booth Esq., Mr. Raph Bradshawe, :Mr. James Holland, Mr. Thomas
King of Arms. Tildesley of Hope hall. Prestwiclt: Mr. James Willson, Thomas Hol
SALFORD HUNDRED.-Aspltll: James Duckenfeild Esq., Mr. Joseph land Esq., Mr. Keniol1. Radcliffe: Edward Radcliffe. Rltlltwortlt:
Rigby, Mr. Richard Greene, Mr. Thomas Mollineux. Ashwortlt: Mr. Mr. John Tildesley. Rocltedale: Mr. Edward Leigh, Mr. James Sco
Richard Holt. Ardwick: Mr. Samuell Birch. Barton: Mr. Thomas feild, J olm Buckley, Mr. J osuah Buckley, Mr. Thomas Buckley.
Holcroft, Mr. Thomas Sorocold. Beljeild: Mr. Alexander Butterworth. Saljord: Richard Pennington Esq., :Mr. Nicholas Hewet. Royto1t:
Birkle: Thomas Holt of Grislehurst Esq., Mr. Richard Smethurst. . :Mr. Thomas Percival!. 'f.'Roddlltall.' Cap' J 01111 Allen. S1Jlethells: S'
. . . ..... Mr. Medowcroft. BirdltalllIOuses: Mr. Siddell. Boulton: Rowland Bel1eirs K'. Tonge: J olm Starkey of Wood in Boulton Pa-
Thomas Lever Esq. Broltgittolt: Mr. Will"' Allen, Mr. Lever of Ker rish, M1'. Jonathan Tonge. TIVorsley: Mr. ffrancis Sherington of
sail, Mr. Kenion parson. Clifton: Mr. Thomas Holland. Chad Booths. Tottiugton: Mr. Booth of Booth, M1'. Thomas N uttal!.
dertolt: Mr. Edm. Asheton Esq., Mr. Rigley. Dellton: Robert Hyde
Esq. Draylesdell: M1'. James·W alworth. .f!amewortlt: Mr. Richard * Or Roddinal1. -The place here intended is Rcdvales, near Bury.
VI btlroduc Non.
bztroduct imz.
Vll
conclude that a similar sentiment influenced Dugdale
the poor crops of oats and the turf moors where the
as he rode through the palatinate which had witnessed
peasantry found their winter's food and fuel. And yet
the greatness of Henry earl of Lancaster, the piety of
there was scenery not entirely to be despised or over
Thomas lord de la Warr, and the martyrdom of James
looked, and his eye might have fallen on
earl of Derby.
"The purling stream, the river's flow,
Having arrived at Bridgenorth he found the assize for The woody valley warm and low,
Shropshire was being held, and he remained there five The windy summit wild and high
Roughly rushing to the sky."
days, not reaching Manchester until the 8th of September.
Here he was occupied three days, and on the 12th he Having spent two days at the county town, then,
opene~ his court at Blackburn, and in two days more he as now, distinguished by its massive castle, its noble
had dlscharged all his official duties in that populous river, and its fine picturesque scenery, on the I 6th he rode
hqndred. .From Blackburn he rode by Chipping, a wild over twenty-two miles of bad roads, although the great
and uncultlvated district skirted by the forest of Bleas highway from Westmoreland and Scotland, and in the
dale, to the small village of Garstang, where he remained evening rested at Preston. After a somewhat prolonged
the night; and after such a ride over highways and by stay in this interesting old town, we find him on the 2 1st
ways t~e wayworn traveller, having had enough of the at sir Thomas Hesketh's at Rufford, where the fine illu
keen alr of Amounderness, would be glad 'of the wel minated vellum pedigree of this ancient family, which he
comes and greetings, as well as of the" well-filled trencher carefully prepared, still remains. In his Dia1Y he calls
and well-frothed can," of the old village hostelry. On Rufford, in mistake, "Mr. Molyneux's house."3 On the
the following morning he rode eleven miles to Lancaster next day he arrived, not at Liverpool, which was then too
passing through the little villao-e of Cockerham and obscure a place for a herald to visit, but at Ormskirk, where
leaving Cockersand abbey and Ashton hall on th~ left. he seems to have been surrounded by aristocratic families.
He clearly was on the best of terms and greatly sym pathised
He wo.uld .ha~dly fail to denounce the wild but scarcely
with the old royalist families, and has recorded almost every
romantlc dlstnct, called by Mr. Gilpin in the next cen
instance of individual loyalty and public self-sacrifice in
tury, "bleak, un~leasant and rugged,'" and as he passed
the county during the Civil War.4 On the 24th he
along would smlle at the mean-looking farm homesteads,
ber2l anOdb,s ~t1'tv a1t7io712lS, voonl . Sei.z 'pe.r a8l0 p, a8rvtos, 01/8 E0l8Ig. lalld,' "YVestmoreland alld Cum 34 SHeaem pppe.r 's1 0L,i f4e8, , D4i9a,r y6 3a,l ld87 C, or9r3e,s p9o4ll,d e9ll5ce, , 1p0. 1I, I7II, 94, to1,3 618, 2175.4 -, 155,
163, 212, 216, 22I, et passim .
.".. -_T _. _ _ ~ _~_ __ _ - __ . ___ __ . _ -
~-._-.-:......A...~
..... __ . __ . . . . . . . _
~ ~_-_-o.~-
VllI hdroductz'011-. Introduc ti01!l. IX
reached Knowsley, which he had certainly visited more visited Lancashire with a determination to complete the
than once or twice some years before, and he found its Heraldic Visitation, not very auspiciously commenced in
noble owners again occupying their high place in the royal, . the preceding autumn. On the 9th March 1664-5 he left
social and political circle. Having staid there a couple his house and, remaining the night at Stone in Stafford
of days he proceeded thence to sir Peter Leycester's at shire, on the next day arrived in Manchester, and, having
Tabley in Cheshire, where the meeting of the two learned opened his court, continued to receive evidence and to
and accomplished antiquaries must have been mutually record pedigrees until the evening of the following day,
gratifying. His stay here was not protracted, and on the the whole of the gentilitial families of South Lancashire
29th he arrive'd at his own house, having been absent only requiring two days for the purpose. The 13th was
nearly a month;5 but the business of the Visitation, owing occupied in a horseback journey of thirty miles through
to the indifference of the county families, was not com Bolton and Chorley, a rich, flat and woody district, to
pleted. And yet at this time there was probably a larger Preston, as "he had before arranged to sit at Preston"
amount of the true antiquarian spirit in Lancashire than in on the I 4th. The next day seems to have been spent in
an:y other county ii1 England. The great northern anti travellinO" to Lancaster, the features of which appeared to
1:> •
quaries were all intimately pursuing one common object; Gray in the next century "very conspicuous and fine,"6
and although Dodsworth had passed away and Rush and on the I 6th N orroy "sat there." The business
worth was in London, yet Christopher Towneley of Moor only employed him a couple of days, and he could not
hiles near Colne, Dr. K uerden of Preston, Dr. Theophi complete his Lancashire Visitation. He therefore de
Ius Howorth of Howorth near Rochdale, but practising termined to proceed to Westmoreland, and having ridden
as a physician in Manchester, and Dr. Charles Leigh (at twenty-two miles through a romantic and wild region,
that time a young man), were his personal friends and affording views of the bay of Cartmel and the desolate
now welcomed him; whilst John Hopkinson and Dr. Na mountains of Furness, he reached Kendal, where he
thaniel Johnston were in the adjoining county of York, opened his court" at the Fox and Goose," and remained
and both of them his allies, Henry Johnston of Ponte more than a fortnight in the two counties of Westmore
ftact, the doctor's brother and afterwards a Benedictine land and Cumberland. On the 5th of April he returned
monk, being Dugdale's clerk. to Lancaster, Preston and Ormskirk, where probably he
In the spring of the following year Norroy again found that defective evidence had in the interval of the
5 Dial]l, p. 117. 6 Mathias' T'Vorks oj Tllol//as Gra)', vol. i. p. 463, 4tO, 1814.
b
x hztrod'Ptc tz'01il. hztroduct £01il.
Xl
two visits been amended or rectified. On the 8th he sat shewing how weak a thing Gentry is, than which, if it
at Blackburn, and "Mr. Thomas \iVhall ey, an attorney, wants virtue, brittle glass is the more lasting monu
entered the descent for Mr. Walmisley of Dunkenhalgh ;"7 ment."9 Professional men and the better educated
~h.ence ~e proce.eded to Sefton, and on the next day classes, some of them only a short step above the rank of
Jomed hIs old frIend, sir Peter Leycester, once more at yeomen, seem to have been received by N array without
Tabley. Shortly afterwards he returned home, having difficulty, and their claims were conceded or facilitated
discharged his light official duties and ended, without with tact and discretion. If they did not always secure
undue precipitance, his' Visitation of Lancashire. armorial bearings they were permitted to register their
Dugdale claimed the merit, whilst N orroy, of making brief descents, and that perhaps without any of the
the pedigrees which he recorded at his visitations, more vulgar vanity which is sometimes found to accompany
~ull and exact than any of his predecessors,s and especially th proceeding. And yet it is difficult to see what they
m collaterals; although it is stilI to be regretted that so gained by registration unless arms had been allowed.
much was left unrecorded which is now almost beyond To several cadets of good houses the very helmets,
the reach of genealogists, and that so many inaccuracies crests, and armorial ensigns were almost invested with
have the sanction of his respectable name. the emotions and passions of living beings, and were
There must always be a beginning of new gentry as guarded with jealous care, as they brought back to the
well as an· ending of ancient, and in this Visitation we memory ancient times and memorable events. Many
miss some of the old families who had before appeared at families of a class, gently born and well connected, had
the summons of the heralds, and are introduced to those been reduced in position by the late Civil War. Some
who had not long been territorial owners in the county. keenly felt their connection with the county materially
Several of the old families had passed away, but we may altered, and were ashamed to come forward to claim the
hope that they had not all been like the "Degenerous distinction and honour peculiar to gentlemen. After long
Gentleman" described by Dugdale's contemporary, honest suffering and privation others had become indifferent on
. Fuller, who "within two generations had his name the subject. N orroy treated some of the county families,
quite forgotten that any such ever was in the place, especially those who had been involved in the struggle
except some Herald in his Visitation passed by and against the king, with great superciliousness, and harshly
chanced to spell his broken arms in a church window', rejected their claims. Letters written to him by Lanca-
7 Diary, p. 118. SLife, p. 34. 9 P1'ojalle State, book v. chap. xiv. p. 400, fol., 1648.
Xll f1droductz"on. J ntroduct i014. Xl11
shire gentlemen, now remaining in the College of Arms, antecedents had probably, in some degree, occasioned
prove that he exercised a sway equal, or almost superior, to them. The Puritans were indisposed to recognize either
the authority of the secular sovereign,-and, it may be, a him or his office, so that few pedigrees of these families
little more arbitrary: nor was his power in his provincial were entered by him, and many gentlemen who did not
kingdom merely nominal, as the Asshetons of Middleton, sympathise with that politico-religious party, altogether
10
Marklands of Wiga n and others, found to their prejudice. refused to undergo the required ordeal, as the tribunal
II
The battle-field had not brought heraldic honours into was considered by them expensive, arbitrary and incom
much prominence or favour. Churches had been de petent, N orroy himself being both judge and jury.
spoiled of their arms and heraldry, and as Fuller quaintly Although it would be unjust to say, with an acute and
observed, were "crest fallen;" glass windows, with rare not ill-informed but perhaps prejudiced writer, that Dug
achievements emblazoned in them, had been ruthlessly dale's pedigrees are characterised by "inaccuracy, negli
broken; and the recollection was vivid enough to recal gence, ignorai1ce and stupidity," and that "as often as he
the painful scenes of destruction which had been wit has opportunity he falls into mistakes;" it must, never
12
nessed, and in some instances perpetrated, by those very theless, be admitted that they are not free from very
men who had now been summoned to appear before the gross and occasionally almost incredible errors, some of
King of Arms. . which, occurring in this Visitation, may hereafter be
There would doubtless be some curious incidents and pointed out. His labour was onerous, and perfection was
scenes witnessed at this Visitation. Dugdale was a con impossible, so that works like Dugdale's must perhaps
sistent royalist and lived in strict communion with the always be classed with those of which Bacon says that
English Church. He had in Lancashire to encounter a they cannot be done "within the hour-glass of one man's
bold and independent race whose strong religious spirit life." 13 I t ought not, at the same time, to be forgotten
had been led astray, and he seems to have forgotten that that the circumstances under which the evidences were
the rigid narrowness of Puritanism had been at least, as adduced and the proofs taken were not favourable for
it has been tersely observed, "popular, fruitful and pow verifying references or for ascertaining minute and exact
erful;" and if he met with provocations to try his for details. The habits of men and the tone of society have
bearance, and rebuffs to exercise his self-control, his own
12 Three Letters on Dllgdale's Baronage, 8vo, 1738; published anony
mously, but written by Charles Hornby, esq., secondary of the Pipe
10 Dugdale'S Diary, p. 126; Life, p. 35.
11 Nichols' Herald a1ld Genealog., Oil the Proifs of Arms required by office.
tile Heralds at their Visifatio1ts, vol. ii. pp. 149-154. 13 Advancement of Leamillg, vol. ii. p. 100.
bztroduction.
XIV
greatly altered since the seventeenth century; but a
public house, in which N orroy always seems to have held
his courts, was not, perhaps, in that dissolute age, the
best place for country squires to meet for the sub
mitting of such genealogical material as the case required;
and the surroundings must have been equally uncongenial
to the heralds, and little adapted for the careful ex
amination and chronicling of important facts.
N or ought it also to be forgotten that the heralds did not
meet always with substantial emolument and generosity
from the leading county families, who hardly came for
ward voluntarily to make their statements, and who
were painfully aware that if they neglected the summons
or failed to satisfy the requirements of the heralds, they
were liable to be publicly degraded. And as to the pre
tentious or presumptuous claimant to armorial bearings
and to the honours they involved, he was loudly and
openly proclaimed by name, and with due formality,
emphasis and acerbity, at the market cross, to be "no
gentleman," and as such the county was expected to
regard and treat him.
These were some of the indignities to which country
gentlemen and aspirants for heraldic distinctions were
subjected; and, much as it is to be regretted, we may
not wonder that Dugdale's was the last Heraldic Visita
tion which was held for the county palatine of Lancaster.
F. R. R.
VISITATION OF LANCASHIRE
BY SIR WILLIAM DUGDALE,
anlington of anltngton.
~\'I1tJi. - Sable, a cheveron between three heraldic antelopes, heads erased, argcnt.
Hugh Adlington=Sibill, dau. of
"You see how hard a matter It IS to sifte out Y' Truth in of Adlington, co. I Adam Howarden
these matters of Genealogye." DUGDALE to Mr. W. VCr1tol(of Lancaster, ob. ,. of Wolston, co.
Shakerley, 9 July 1651. 3 Aug. 1631. Lancaster.
Dugdale's Con"esp., p. 260.
I I I I .
I Elizabeth, Hugh Adlll1gton=Margaret, clan. to
wife of of Adlington, Peter Orrel! of
John Dant, ob. 3 Aug. 1631. Aspull, co.
citizen of Lancaster.
London.
2 DorothY
3o b. crel.
3 Alice
I I I I . I
I J olmAcllington=. .. widow of 2 Thomas, 3 Peter Adlington=Olivia, dau. of I Ellen, 2 Elizabeth,
ob. v. p. . .. Throppe, ob. cre!. of Acllington, esq., J ohnRaleigh, wife of wife of
alderman of <et. 36, 22 Sept. citizen of George Theobald
Chester. 1664. London. Bird of Rodas of
Broxton, Wolloon.
I I co. Cest.
Alianor, wife of Elizabeth,
Samuel! Robinson, ob. in(
citizen of Chester.
lJfallchester, 22 Sept. 1664. H. Adli1lgtoll.
B
2 Visitation of La11,Cashire by Sir W'illiam Dugdale, 1664-5. Vis'itati011, of La11,cashz're by Sir Wzlliam Dugdale, 1664-5. 3
aUen of 1J3tougbton. of JLo\tlick.
ambto~e
<1lrmiJ. - Ermine, on a chevron between three leopards' faces, gules, a bezant. %lrllliJ. - In the old Visitation.
<!l:rfst. - Out of a coronet, a wolf's head, ermine, maned, or.
Henry Ambrose=. .. dau. and coheir
Roger Allen. =
of Lowick, co. of .. . Washington,
1_ _1 Lancaster, gent. , co. Westmoreland.
Robert Allen.= ob. circa 1568.
1
1
William Allen=
1
ofSheldon,co./ James Ambrose=Margaret, dau. of
Warwick. of Lowick, ob. Henry Kirby of
circa 1580. Gossehaugh in
Furnesse, co.
I Samu1 el Allen 2 Isaac1 Allen=IA nne, dau. of Sarah, 1w ife of Lancaster, esq.
of Sheldon. of Prestwich, Richard Asheton William Orton,
co. Lancaster, of Chaderton, rector of
1 I I 1 1 I
clerke,ob.I659. co. Lancaster, Sheldon. John Ambrose=Dorothy, dau. of 2 Richard. I Margaret. 2 Elizabeth,
I gent. of Lowick, William Fleming 3 Nicholas. wife of George
gent., ob. circa of Rydale, co. Dodshon of
'I- ---------------------- I. 1637. Westmerland, esq. 4 Raphe. Thornthwaite,
I William Allen=Grace, dau. of I Dorothy, WIfe to Anne, 1w I• fe of. co. Lancaster.
of Broughton, Richard Holling- Francis Harpur John Allen of
creot.. 3L8a nacnans.t er, lweyo,r thco .o fE Cboarlv.,e r- oCfh eSsttoecr.k port, co. cRo.e dLdainvcaallsst,e r. I vV .Il.lI am1 Ambrose 2 1D IaInIi ell. 1 Ele1a nor, 2 Ag1 nes, 3 G1r ace, 4 DorI othy, . 5 Hes1t er,
I I March 1664. gent. of Lowick, ret. 7 I wife of Henry wife of wife of wife of Hugh wife of John
3 Plato.
ann. 16 March 1664, Fielding of WillffiLa- J 01111 Ayscough of Dodshon of
I 1 1 1 1 1 ccelebs. 4 Joseph. Staveley, co. tus of Young, a Graymaynes, Thorn-
Isaac Allen, I Anne. 2 Dorothy. 3 Elizabeth. 4 Jane. 5 Grace. Westmerl. Witcham, Scotch- co. Cumbo thwayte, co.
ret. 17 ann. 5 John. co. Cum- man. Lancaster.
31 March brire.
1664.
Lancaster, 16 Marcie 1664. Certified by WilHam Ambrose.
Afallchester, II Mat'clt 1664. William A/1m.