Hale and Orford. An account of two old Lancashire houses: with memorials to the respective owners to the present time

Front matter

HALE AND ORFORD, AN ACCOUNT OF TWO OLD LANCASHIRE HOUSES. HALE AND ORFORD. AN ACCOUNT OF Œwo ©lb Ifoouses; WITH MEMORIALS TO THE RESPECTIVE OWNERS TO THE PRESENT TIME. Nen de domibus alienis agimus. BY WILLIAM BEAMONT. WARRINGTON : GUARDIAN STEAM PRINTING WORKS 1886. TO COLONEL JOHN IRELAND BLACKBURNE, THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE TWO ANCIENT HOUSES. THE SUBJECT TREATED OF IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES, WITH EVERY FEELING OF RESPECT AND ESTEEM, THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED BY HIS OBEDIENT SERVANT. THE AUTHOR. Orford Hall, October, INDEX A PAGE. Abram, Ralph 160 Aikin, Dr 234 Aikin, Miss 234 Ainsdale, Adam de 8 Ainsworth, Ann 175 Ainsworth, Edward 175 Ainsworth, Elizabeth 175 Ainsworth, Jane 174 Ainsworth, John 174 Ainsworth, Richard 174 Ainsworth, Robert 175 Ainsworth, Thomas 174 Alan Fitz Alan 12 Albert Henry Fitz 5 Aldinghum, Hugh de 12 Alker 58 Alleyn, Ralph 160 Ancram, Earl of, letter of . . . . 88 Ancram, Lord 88 Anderton, M., letter of 122 Antrobus, Robert Crawfurd . . 252 Assheton, Catherine 187 Assheton, Nicholas 50, 51 Assheton, Rev. William .... 187 Ashurst, family of 118 Ashurst^Henry, jun., letters of in, 119 Ashurst, Mr 86 Aspinall, arms of 13° Aspinall, Gilbert 130 Aspinwall, Edward 130, 131 Aspinwall, Ireland 131 Aspinwall, Mary 131 Aspinwall, Mr 58, 100 Aspinwall, Samuel 113 Astley, Lord 75 Atherton 25 Atherton, Elizabeth 25 Atherton, Sir William 25 Athol, Earl of 44 "vughton 58 ■\ynesdale, Robert de 9 Ayscoughe, John 167 B Bamford, Miss Anna 248 Bamford, William 237, 248 PAGE.

Banastre, Adam de 13 Banastre, Lord William 13 Banckes, William 100, 128 Bangor 26, 30 Bank Hall 229 Barbauld, Mrs 234 Barlow, Stephen 160 Barnaby, Drunken, verses of 136 Barnes, John 62 Barratt, Miss 236 Barron, Richard 62 Bebbington 16. 130 Bebbington, arms of 49 Bebinton 36 Berkenhead, Elizabeth 42 Berkenhead, Ralph 42 Bewdin, Richard de 32 Bewsey 43 , 63 Bewsey Hall 57 Bickastath, Thomas 128 Bickersteth, Richard de .... 13 Birch, Colonel John 74, 75, 76, 77,78, 79,81 Birch, Colonel John, letters of 82, 83 Birkenhead, arms of 49 Blackburne, Ann .... 177, 221, 237 Blackburne, Anna 236 Blackburne, Ashton 236 Blackburne Bridge 183 Blackburne, Catherine 183 Blackburn, Colonel Ireland . . 250 Blackburne, Dorothea Anne. . 252 Blackburne, Emily 252 Blackburne, Esther 177 Blackburne, Ireland 248 Blackburne, Isaac 236 Blackburne, Isaac, letter of . . 242 Blackburne, James 236 Blackburne, Jane 177 Blackburne, John 26, 177, 186. 187, 235, 236,237, 240 Blackburne, John Ireland 245 Blackburne, Jonathan 177, 186, 236 Blackburne, Lancelot 185 Blackburne, Margaret 177, 183 Blackburne, Margaret Everilda 252 Blackburne, Martha 183 Blackburne, Mary INDEX PAGE.

Blackburne, Mr. 176, 177, 180, 188, 189, 204, 212 Blackburne, Rev. John, D.D. 179 Blackburne, Richard .... 173, 177 Blackburne, Robert 177 Blackburne, Robert Ireland . . 252 Blackburne, Sophia 173 Blackburne, Thomas 63, 131, 132. 173, 175, 177. 186, 235, 236 Blackburne, William .... 173, 236 Blackhurst, Randle 176 Blackleyhurst 173 Blackmore, Alderman 65, 66 Blackrod 152 Blinstone, Henry 183 Blois, William de 2,3 Blundell, Lord William 6, 8 Boardman, Mr 225 Boardman, Mr., his book .... 225 Bold, Margaret 41 Bold, Robert de 143 Bold, Sir Richard 40, 41 Bold, William 160 Boleyn, Anne 163 Bolton, Grammar School at. . 184 Booth, Sir George 65 Booth, Sir John 100 Borron, Arthur 105 Borron, Arthur, letter of .... 104 Boteler, Elizabeth le 149 Boteler, Lord William le ... . 143 Boteler, Sir Thomas 40, 158 Boteler, Sir AVilliam le 153 Boteler, Thomas le 160 Boteler, William le.. 148, 149, 150 Boulton, Henry 58 Bowyer, Thomas 68, 6g Bowyer, Thomas, letter of. . , . 109 Bradley 130 Bradshaw 61 Bradshaw, John 61 Bradshaigh, Roger, letters of 93, gg, 106, 117 Bradshaigh, Sir Roger 86 Bradshaw, William de 13 Bradsheigh, Sir Roger go Brasenose College 53 Brereton, Sir William 75 Breres, Edward 172 Bridges, Sir John 75 Bridgman, Mr 63 Bright, Mrs. Heywood 252 Bromfield, Miss Bridget .... 178 Brooke, Colonel Henry 65 Brooke, Margaret 236 PAGE.

Chapter I. Introductory

" Here it is to be implied how necessary it is to look into antiquity, than which nothing is more valuable, profitable, and pleasant." (Sir Ed-ward Coke.) RICHARD DE MIDA Although no mention of Hale occurs by name in our great national monument, the Domesday Survey, yet even there it must have been pointed at as one of the four manors said to belong to Childwall, of which parish it is and always has been a part and parcel ; a parish which even at that early period had its own priest, who with it had half a carucate of land which he held in frank aimoign. But though Hale thus escaped all mention of its name in the Domesday Survey, it was not long to remain in privacy and obscurity, for in the year 1094, only eight years after the great survey, Roger of Poictou, in granting to the Norman abbey of Seis the church of Lancaster, gave with it also that of Childwall, together with all the tithes of poultry, cheese, butter, calves, lambs, and swine, in Hale, Everton, Walton, Crosby, Meols, and some other places in the § county of Lancaster.

(Baines's "Hist, of Lancashire,' iv. 511.) For the present we may dismiss the statement which has been made that John de Hibernia {Ireland) came into England with the Conqueror, and settled at Hale, and that his descendants have continued there ever since. (Gregson's "Fragments of Lancashire," 212.) Ireland was not then the country from which the Conqueror would be likely to draw followers to swell his host, and this John, if he came at all, must have come to Hale at a later time. We have, moreover, a safer guide in tracing the history of Hale than in placing any reliance on this apocryphal John. In the year n 17, when Hale was in the King's own hands, Litherland was valued at one mark, and another vill, supposed to have been Liverpool, was valued at three marks, Hale was valued at eight marks, which shows what was then the comparative importance of the place.

(" History of Liverpool," by T. Baines, P- 6.) WILLIAM DE BLOIS, Earl of Morton, the son of King Stephen, about the year 1150, while he was lord of the Honour of Lancaster. granted, or, more probably, confirmed a former grant by his father, of the vills of Walton, Wavertree, and Newsham, to Walter de Walton, in return for which Walter was to do him service as his serjeant or chief steward ofthe Hundreds of West Derby and Salford, an office which his descendants have held for many generations, and which it is believed the Earl of Sefton still holds under the same grant, so long-lived are these old inheritances ! (" Hist, of Lancashire," iii. 746, and " Hist, of Liverpool," 70.) This grant or confirmation of William de Blois may have been made earlier than 1165, but it could not have been later, as in that year he died childless, and his possessions fell to the Crown.

WALTER DE WALTON Was succeeded in his office by his son, Gilbert de Walton. This son, having received favours from John Lackland, and, forgetting fora time his allegiance to King Richard, Jistened to John's treasons, and on the King's return to his throne he was fined for it ten marks, equivalent in present money to one hundred pounds, before he could obtain his pardon. (" Hist, of Liverpool," p. 74.) In due time this Gilbert was succeeded by Richard, a clerk, who accompanied King John to Ireland, and was called, in memory of that service, Richard de Mida (that is, Richard of Meath). Liverpool was so convenient a port from which to embark for Ireland, that we do not wonder to find many of the Lancashire landholders readily joining in an invasion of that country, which, besides having in it something of adventure, might bring both honour and profit.

But what service Richard de Mida, the clerk, could render we do not know, unless he attended the King as his chaplain. In the fifth year of King John's reign we find him giving the King ten marks in money and a palfrey worth five marks, more as a fine for a grant which the King made him by a charter* — which is dated at Rouen — of all the entire vill of Hale, to hold with its appurtenances in fee farm to him and his heirs of the King and his heirs at the old yearly fee farm rent of four pounds ten shillings, which Richard de Vernon had formerly paid, and an increased rent of two pounds ten shillings, making together seven pounds a year, in discharge of every service and custom except the King's hunting and his pleas of the Crown, which were reserved. But the grantee was not to be impleaded either for the said land or for any of the other lands which he held of the King in capite by fee farm rent, otherwise than before the King himself or his chief justiciary.

(Madox " Formulare Anglicanum," viii.) The great rent reserved — a little more than ten marks, equivalent to one hundred pounds in present money — shows that the property was of great value even at that early period, but it was then easier to pay a retainer in land than money. Richard, the Churchman, must have basked in the royal favour, for at a time when the King's grants were often impeached he sued out and obtained (on 2nd November, 4 Hen. III., 1220) a writ commanding the Sheriff of Lancashire to give him possession of all the land in Hales, Walton,. and Formby, of which he had formerly had a grant from the King's father. By Hales we are probably to under stand Halewood as well as Hale proper. In the eleventh year of Henry III., Henry de Walton (who, during the building of Liverpool Castle, in the fourth year of King John's reign, had been one of the overseers of the work, and was afterwards the governor of the Castle) was a brother of Richard de Mida ; and when the King, in his eleventh year, confirmed his charters of lands to Richard, he confirmed them to Richard de Mida and Henry de Walton, his brother.

Probably the charter is to be interpreted as meant to confirm a grant of some of the lands to each, and not all to both, and in this manner reddere singula singulis. But besides the grant thus made to Richard de Mida several other royal grants concerning Hale were made at an early period. By one of these, made in 4 Henry, III. (1220) the King confirmed to Richard de la Huse a yearly rent of nine pounds to be issuing and payable out of the lands in Walton which the King's father had granted him, and which same rent the grantee afterwards transferred to Thurstan de Holland. By another of these charters, bearing date 9 July, 11 Henry III. (1227), the King confirmed the charter his father had made to Richard de Mida, expressly calling him the son of Gilbety de Walton. Feeling himself now in full possession of Hale, de Mida set about procuring for his estate the benefit of a water mill of which it stood much in need, and what he wanted he soon acquired by means of the following charter, which we give in extenso in a translation from the Latin original : — " To all to whom this present writing shall come.: Richard fitz Martin, Richard fitz Radulf fitz Martin, Henry fitz Albert, Adam fitz Robert, and Thomas fitz Hugh, send greeting.

Know ye all that we, by our unanimous counsel and assent, have given, granted, and, by this our present charter, have confirmed to Richard de Mida (Meath), Lord of Hales, the site of the mill with half the water in our pool, which is the division between the township of Ditton and the township of Hales, with half the fish which to the said water belongs. To have and to hold of us and our heirs to him and his heirs or to him to whom he shall be willing to grant the same. Rendering for the same three shillings yearly at the feast of Saint Michael, freely and quietly without any other secular custom or demand. And we and our heirs will only grind our corn at that mill after the corn which shall be found in the hopper before our batch arrives. And that the said Richard and his heirs shall and may make and construct any water works in or upon the aforesaid pool as well when the water is in as when it should be in flood, and to do whatever to him or his heirs shall seem to be for their profit or to have in it any other advantages.

And in order that this our grant may remain firm and unshaken, we have confirmed it with our own seal r These being the witnesses Hugh le Norris, Henry de Walton, Richard de Eccleston, Richard de Walton, Jordan the clerk, the Lord William Blundell, Adam de Mulin, Robert de Mulin, Edward de Upton, Hugh de Childwalle, Henry de Hales, Geoffrey de Hales, and (it is added, as usual) many others." Having now seen how completely Richard de Mida had established himself in the possession of Hale, we find with some surprise that upon his death, which was now approaching, the Hale pedigrees given in " Greg son's Fragments " (p. 210), and Baines' "Lancashire," (iii. p. 752), instead of transmitting the inheritance to de Mida's assignee or devisee, make it devolve upon Cecily, whom by mistake they call the daughter and heiress of his brother, Henry de Walton.

The origin of this mistake made by the heralds and early pedigree-makers may possibly be traced to their not having seen the documents at Hale to which we shall shortly allude, and also to their having misread the charter of confir mation in the eleventh of Henry III., which wa& made to Richard de Mida and Henry de Walton, his brother, as a gift to them of the whole of Hale jointly, and not, as it was meant to be, an absolute grant of Hale proper to Richard de Mida, and a grant of the Hutte and Halewood to Henry de Walton, of which two portions we find them afterwards the respective owners in possession. Having noticed this mistake, and suggested how it originated, we return now to Richard de Mida, who, having spent some time in Ireland, probably in Meath, where, though he was a non-combatant by profession, he found trouble and anxiety rather than quiet prevail, had returned home to spend his latter years in peace.

But de Mida, though a priest, had a family of children, for whom and their mother he thought it his first duty to provide, and he therefore made the following settlement of his estate by a charter, an ancient copy of which is preserved at Hale. By this charter, which is in the nature of a settlement, he designed to continue the property in a line springing directly from himself. Although undated, this charter must have been made in 1226, that being the year in which Gerard de Etwell, one of the witnesses to it, was Sheriff of Lancashire. By this charter de Mida, calling himself the son of Gilbert de Walton, granted all his estates in Hale to Cecilia de Columbers for life, with remainder to the children he had had by her— namely, to Richard, his eldest son by her, in tail, with remainder to his other sons by her — that is to say, William, Geoffrey, and Adam, successively in tail, with remainderto his daughters Edessa and Cecilia, successively in tail, in like manner.

The names of the attesting witnesses to this charter are so numerous and important that we give them at length as follows : — R., Bishop of Chichester {i.e., Ralph de Neville, afterwards Lord Chancellor of England, who was elected to Chichester in 1223), lord Robert de Lenington, William the clerk of York, William of Saint Alban's, Roger de Leycester the king's clerk ; the Lord William Pincerna, Almeric, his son ; the Lord William Blundell, Adam de Mulin, Lord Geoffrey, the slinger (balistrœ) ; the Lord Gerard de Hethwall (Etwell), the Sheriff of Lancashire ; Adam de Ainsdale, Hugh de Norris, Richard de Eccleston, Alan, his brother ; Roger de Ireland, William de Waleton, and Lord Jordan, the clerk. The fact, first revealed by this charter, that de Mida had a family of children of his own, may perhaps be accounted for by his having had this family before he entered the Church and became a clerk, and the exist ence of the settlement, besides disposing of the descent of Hale (proper) to Henry de Walton's heir, disposes also of Alan de Columbers, mentioned in the pedigree, who is found nowhere else, and must have been either a creation of the heralds, or have sprung (or growed, like Topsy in the story) from the earth as one of the Autocthones.

Chapter II. Cecilia De Columbers

Who, though she is not called so, may have been de Mida's wife, for many priests were married in that age, bore for her arms, according to Gregson, gules, with a bend or, and a dove, in allusion to her name, as a crest. Not long after the making of his family settlement de Mida was called to his rest, upon which Cecilia de Columbers, who brought her arms, gules, a bend or, as one of the quarterings of Hale shield, entered into quiet possession of de Mida's possessions, and shortly after wards, styling herself the lady of the manor of Hale, she proceeded to make grants and deeds of parts of the property as if she were authorised so to do under the settlement. By one of these deeds, which is probably the earliest, describing herself as in full power (ligiapoiestate), with the consent and assent of Henry, her son (this was, perhaps, a mistake for her grandson), and of other her heirs, did give and grant to Roger de Wysewalle four teen acres of land in Hale wood, within certain bounds which are specified, and also one messuage in the vill of Hale, which is also specified, with power to sell or assign the same, except to men of religion, and to hold it at the yearly rent of three shillings ; the said Roger to have windfallen timber to build or make fences on the land ; also to burn from Hale wood, and to have a run there for pannage for his porkers, the lady taking one out of every ten swine.

The witnesses to this deed were the Lord Robert de Latham, Adam de Molineux, the Lord Henry de Terbock, Thurstan de Holland, Robert de Aynesdale, Roger de Hibernia, Alan Norris, Adam de Grayeston, and Geoffrey de Derby, clerk. By another of these grants Cecilia granted to Robert Fitz Robert de Karinton for his homage and service three acres and a half of land in Hale wood. To hold to him and his heirs at the rent of seven pence halfpenny, and she granted the tenant windfallen timber to build upon the land and for fencing and firing ; and also to have pannage for his swine. To this deed the witnesses were the Lord Alan de Wyndhul, Adam de Knowsley, Alan le Norris, Thurstan de Holland, David de Gerstan, and Gilbert de Speke. In a third of such grants, in which the same Cecilia calls herself Cecilia de Wulfal, she granted to her grandson Henry, the son of her deceased son Richard and his heirs, for his homage and service, four acres and a half of land and one messuage in the vill of Hale, the boundaries of which are described ; paying therefor the yearly rent of two shillings and three half pence.

To this grant the witnesses were Alan le Norris, John de Gerstan, Robert le Norreys,. John le Norreys, Richard de Lochet, and Richard, the clerk of Hale. Upon the death of Cecilia de Columbers, the date of which has not been ascertained, it would seem that all her children, except Cicely her youngest daughter, had died, leaving no issue, and that the same Cicely, either on coming into possession, or afterwards, had married Robert Holland, the Lord of Hutte and Halewood, which he had inherited from Henry de Walton, the original grantee. Of this marriage there was issue, an only daughter, named Avena de Holland, who married Adam de Ireland. In the times of our Edwards and our Henries our ancestors could not escape having frequent recourse to the courts of law to secure their landed possessions, and on 2nd February, 8 Edward I. (1280) Adam de Ireland (2) prosecuted several suits at Lancaster, probably with a view of securing the possessions which he and his wife had lately acquired.

The cases which came on at Lancaster ended probably in an amicable settlement of his estate by way of a fine. On the nth July, 1285, by a writ, which bore date on the morrow of the anniversary of the Festival of the Seven Brothers, Robert de Holland granted lands and privileges in Hale to his daughter Avena, and her husband Adam de Hibernia, by a charter, the attesting witnesses to which were Alan de Kirkdale, Richard de Holland, Roger de Culcheth, Richard de Waldon, Roger de Lee, Adam de le Bonke, and Thomas the Forester.

Chapter III. Adam De Ireland

The husband of Avena de Holland, had with her, besides her old family estates, those which had been acquired by de Mida and his brother Henry, and thus de Mida's possessions became greatly enlarged, that the name of Mida the provence became Hibernia the kingdom. In Easter term, April 14th, Edward I. (1286), Adam de Hibernia, who in one of the Hale MSS. is incidentally called Adam Austyn de Hibernia, must have had his hands full of suits at law. In one of these papers, in which Oliver Hanesfeld occurs as his attorney, we are told by recital that the King, when he had the manor of Hale in his own hands, had cultivated eight bovates of it, and that he afterwards gave the said manor to Richard de Mida, who, being unwilling to cultivate the land, demised it by charter to his neifs (villeins born) of that manor, paying him a farm rent for the same, where upon, Adam Austyn de Hibernia, son of a daughter of the said Richard, whose heir he was, demanded a writ against the same neifs to recover the said eight bovates.

The same Adam also brought a writ of right close against the false judgment which had been given against him in the court of Richard de Walton of Hale, in a suit between William, son of Hawys, plaintiff, and him the said Adam the defendant, of three roods of land with the appurtenances in Hale. The same Adam, by a like writ, sought to recover in the same court in a suit between Roger Orlebar, plaintiff, and him the said Adam, the tenant of one rood of land with the appurtenances in Hale. It appeared, also, that Richard de Mida, the lord of Hale, had given two acres of land to one Hawys, his neif, who mortgaged the land to Alan le Norreys, who afterwards dying seized of the land, Alan, his son and heir, entered upon the same, and the said Adam Austyn de Hibernia sought to recover it from the said Alan Fitz Alan.

On St. Lawrence's day, 12th August, 17 Edward I. (1289), some further arrangements seem to have been entered into by the Lord Robert de Holland and Adam de Hibernia, in reference to the marriage of the Lord Robert de Holland's daughter with the said Adam de Hibernia, and they mutually entered into a deed of covenant, entered into before Brother Hugh de Aldinghum, prior of the house of preaching friars at Chester, the Lord Thurstan, dean of Warrington, and others, that the said Robert and Adam would mutually observe the covenants between them made. But, to replenish the King's exchequer, in the year 1292, another summons, at the King's suit, awaited Adam de Ireland, who received one of the writs of quo warranto — which then fell everywhere in Lancashire — commanding him to appear at Lancaster, to show cause why his lands in Hale should not be accounted lands held of the King in ancient demesne; a claim which evidently arose out of the mistake made by the forest commissioners, which we have before remarked.

It required in that age some courage in a subject to appear against the King, when the exchequer was at ■■3 low ebb, but Adam de Hibernia was equal to the occasion, and he succeeded in resisting the claim, although the judge was Sir Hugh de Cressingham, whose fate afterwards was sad, for going into Scotland in the reign of Edward 1 1., he fell into the hands ofthe Scots, who put him to death, and made a drum head of his skin. On the 16th July, 25 Edward I. (1297), one third of Hale having fallen into the King's hands, he, by a beautiful charter of this date, which, with its seal still perfect, is preserved at Hale, granted the same to Richard de Mida's brother, William de Waleton. In 32 Edward I. (1304), Sir Robert de Holland obtained from the King a charter, granting him the right of free warren in Holland (Upholland), Hale, Orrell, and Marland, with the grant of a market and fair at Hale.

(Rex. Carlarum, p. 184.) On 5th June, 33 Edward I. (1305), Robert de Holland, son of Lord Robert de Holland, by a charter, bearing date at Hale, granted to Adam de Hibernia and Avena his wife sixty acres of land in Hale, with a rent of seven pounds, and certain other rights and privileges of this charter. The attesting witnesses were the Lords Robert de Lathom, William Banastre, and Adam Banastre, Knights, and Alan le Norreys, William de Bradshawe, Richard de Wallays, Richard de Bicker steth, Robert de Shirburn, and Henry de Torbok. Adam, who, as we have seen, had increased his estate and consolidated it, had also shewn himself brave in defending it. The poet gives the peasant praise, Who, with dauntless breast, The little tyrant of his fields withstood. But how much more was the courage of Adam de Hibernia, who dared to enter the lists against the King at a period when the law was less settled than it is now ?

His predecessor, de Mida, had incurred the censure of being a bad farmer, but no such reproach fell upon him. The best farming in his days would not have failed to excite a smile on the face of Farmer " New Style." If it be true as tradition has it, that he built an aisle to the church at Hale, and put glass windows in it, the population must have increased under his rule to make such enlargement of the church necessary, and by a charter, which was witnessed by John le Norris, he granted a fishery to one of his tenants in Hale. There was a war with Scotland in 1314, and a little later Thomas of Lancaster levied war against his kinsman the King, but we do not find his name mingling in either conflict. True his life had been full of litigations and strife, but being now in possession both of Hale and Halewood, with the ancient house of Hale situated within the latter, he seems to have passed his latter years peacefully, and to have died in or before the year 1330, and to have been succeeded by his son William.

The release which had been made to Adam de Hibernia, and the grants which his son had since obtained, had made the Irelands' title to the family estates secure, and Adam having remained in undis turbed possession to the end of his life, died and was buried at Hale about the year 13 17. From this time the descent of the estate, which had hitherto been somewhat erratic, now fell into the line of the Ireland name, in which it was destined to continue for many generations of the race and name.

Chapter IV. John

(FITZ ADAM) DE IRELAND (2), Owner of the Hutte, and of all the estates of both his father and his mother, succeeded on the death of his father as Lord of Hale. In olden times there was a laudable custom in that manor when any owner of lands there died leaving a widow, the lord of the manor, without circumlocution or loss of time, assigned to the widow a portion of her deceased husband's lands for her sustenance, and on the 22nd May, 1329, we find John Ireland in the exercise of this right assigning her dower to Mabel the widow of John of the Mill out of the lands of her late husband deceased. There was, or rather there had been another John •de Ireland (3), lord of the Hutte, whose marriage, as history tell us, had been brought about by the means which Miles Standish tried in later times, and failed to succeed in, probably because he did not bribe his deputy suitor, as we shall find that John Ireland of the Hutte did.

The story is, that having made suit for the hand of Martha, the daughter of Sir John Hesketh, he began to despair of success, and, therefore, he appealed to the Abbot of Chester to plead for him with the lady, and upon this leading to his success he settled ten pounds a year upon the Abbot for his life. On the 15th April, n Edward II. , William de Walton released to John de Ireland and his heirs, Hale and all that belonged to it, and to this deed the well-known Robert de Holland was one of the witnesses, and this was one of his last acts in connection with Hale, for in March, 1323, he met his death by violence, having not very long survived Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, whom he had served am biguously. (Earwaker's "East Cheshire," p. 113.) But the John de Ireland who now succeeded to the two estates of both his parents bore for his family arms, gules, six fleur-de-lis, argent, three, two, and one, with the motto "Come jeo fus."