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Heskeths of Rufford the Gerards of Bryn and New Hall -the Hultons of Hulton-and the Towneleys of Towneley; whilst Hoghton Tower, Standish and Duxbury, Ince and Crosby, have been abandoned for fairer seats. It is somewhat remarkable that the families of Dicconson, Eccleston, and Wrightington are all represented through females by Mr. Scarisbrick of Scarisbrick, whilst heiresses of others mentioned by the Diarist have at various periods merged the name and transmitted the estates of their own family to other houses. It need scarcely be added that in some instances improvidence, misfortune, and sales have alienated wide lands and suppressed old families.

In Cheshire, the Grosvenors of Eaton, the Stanleys of Alderley, the Brookes of Norton, the Leghs of Lyme, and the Tattons of Withenshaw, still flourish in more than their pristine greatness, nor is there any prospect of its diminution, whilst the Savages, Viscounts Savage and Earls Rivers, are represented by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, and the Booths of Dunham by the Earl of Stamford and Warrington.

The two families whom the record principally concerns are fortunately still dwelling upon their ancestral estates and enjoying all the honours of their ancestors—the one exercising at Knowsley a wise and liberal hospitality which far distances that which obtained the approbation of England and England's Maiden Queen, but no longer, through the chances of war, the owner of Lathom and New Park in Lancashire, or of Bidston and Stanley House in Cheshire; and the other still in possession of Worden and of those broad acres which were regarded with no less complacency

by their Norman owner Roger de Busli than by his descendant William ffarington.

WILLIAM FFARINGTON of Worden was the only child of Sir Henry ffarington of ffarington in this county Knight by his second wife Dorathy, daughter of Humphrey Okeover1 of Okeover, and of his wife Isabel, daughter of John Aston of Tixall, both in the county of Stafford, Esquires. He was born in January 1537, and when only a few days old was included, with his youngest brother of the half-blood, in a lease from the Abbot and Convent of Evesham in the county of Worcester, of Longton Barns in Penwortham, dated 14th January, 29th Henry VIII., his ancestors having been lessees of lands in Lancashire belonging to that Abbey from the time of Edward II.3

Sir Henry ffarington was a zealous promoter of the views of Henry VIII. and affected to be a favourer of the Reformation, being selected as one of the Crown Commissioners for the suppression of the Monasteries,* not less

1 The Okeovers were a family of equestrian rank descended from Orme de Acovere, to whom Nigel Abbot of Burton in his 20th year (1113) gave Acovere, the early descents of the family being proved by the Oakover Chartulary. Several members of the family were Knights of the Shire and Sheriffs of the County. The family is now represented by Charles Houghton Okeover Esq. and during his minority the Hall was the residence of his stepfather Robert Plumer Ward Esq. M.P. who has given a description of it in De Vere. 3 Ibid. 4 Wright's Letters, Camd. Soc.

2 Worden Evid.

on account of his holding estates from the King and having the honour of being Chief Steward of the royal manors of Leyland1 and Penwortham, than from his being a lessee and supposed friend of the Abbot and Convent of Evesham.2 Appointed by the King to manage the spoils which had been ruthlessly grasped by the State, and, according to Fuller, none were losers employed in that service, he seems to have been, like the generality of the courtiers, sufficiently mindful of his own interests, having cautiously enlarged his estate and influence out of the wreck

1 This royal manor of Leyland, a moiety of which was given in 1230, 14th Henry III. in marriage with Avicia daughter of Robert Bussell to John de ffarington, and the other moiety being afterwards obtained from the Crown, was purchased for 600l. in 1617 by William ffarington of Worden Esq. from his kinswoman Dame Dorothy, wife of Sir Edward Huddleston Knt. The Court Rolls commence in 1618, and a Court is held yearly in October for the manor. (Worden Evid.) Baines erroneously states that no Court is

now held. (Vol. iii. p. 445.)

2 The Abbey of Evesham was suppressed on the 17th November 1539, having been founded in the year 701, and amply endowed by Anglo-Saxon kings and nobles. It had many liberal benefactors after the Conquest, amongst others the family of De Busli, or Bussell, the maternal ancestors of the ffaringtons. The following letter was addressed by the last Abbot, who had sat in Parliament, to Sir Henry ffarington, a few weeks after the dissolution of his Monastery:

"Ryghte Wurschippfull y comend me to yo" wt thanks for your goodnes Y. recyued a lett ffrome yo" in Advēt last win you movyd me instantly to recorde the truythe noe oth? weys as cōcernýg the taking occupacōn just tytulle ry3the of for yo thwythe Barne e Cornez of Whetyll duryng my time. ୧ forth as y knewe same aponne my truytheonestye y never knew nor said yt ther schuld be any oth? tentt but yo" my lady your furst wyffe Willm your Sonne (thus I toke it allweys) for y jugged yo" my frende soe made noe furth? serches of: but a tytull befor my depting M3 thomas said to me yt Mr Robt he had taken lease, but in my time hit nev9 apperyd to

d

by which he was surrounded. Born in 1471, he was no longer a very young man when the designs and objects of the King began to develope themselves, but having held his office of Steward originally from Henry VII.' and being officially connected with the Crown property in various parts of Lancashire he was not exactly the individual to offer any resistance to the ruling powers. On the 21st May 15282 the King at his manor of Richmond confirmed the appointment of Sir Henry, whom he then styles "Squier of our bodye," as Steward of the manors of Penwortham, Leyland, Croston, Osewalton, Eccleston, &c., and commanded him to enjoin all the King's tenants within the said manors to wear no badge, livery, or cognizance, but only the badge of the RED ROSE, and to go forth to the wars with no leader but such as the Steward should enjoin. He was authorized to levy soldiers for the war, to collect the royal rents and reliefs, to punish trespassers, to levy distresses,

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me by any pfy3t wretine nor records. M' thomas send to me a copy of his claime weche discherded varyed ffroime y true forme e drolde [draft?] of ୧ of other Leasse e thus I must record justly e noe oth? weys yo" nev' requyryd of me any leasse y'of in my time nor schuld have hadde any nede noth? of yt nor any other of o' lands for y hadde soo muche love favor ୧ trust in yo" eu: yourselfe wt oth? Suyters during my time att any pleasur wer bound for y hoolle paymet y'ofe soo payed it: Y wold eu'ry one havyng any int'est in the matt' schuld know this my mynd in the p'misses for y ed say noe oth? weys trvly have me comend to my lady yo' wyffe e all yours. At Evessham the yth day of Janvary A° R. R. Hen' octavi xxxii.

To the ry3the Wurschippfull M' S

Your bedeman S' Ric. Hawksbury.

Henry ffarygtō kny3the y del (Worden Evid.)

1 Worden Evid.

2 Ibid.

to indict misdemeanants, to preserve the game, to exact services of the tenants, to maintain the ancient customs, and to defend the respective rights of the lord and his tenants. Armed with these large powers, it was found that the Præpositus of a royal manor ranked higher in authority than the Steward of an ordinary vill or manor, and that his influence was felt by the surrounding gentry sometimes to be inconvenient and at other times oppressive. He was engaged in more than twenty law-suits, chiefly in the Chancery Court of the Duchy of Lancaster, and was probably never entirely free, during a long life, from the harassing and perplexing toils of the law. The violent and unjust proceedings which always distinguish legal empirics were not, it may be hoped, in much favour with him, and yet after an extensive examination of his suits and the depositions of various witnesses, it must be confessed that he seems, like Mr. Pleydel, to have looked upon law as he did upon laudanum, and to have found it sometimes easier to administer it as a quack than to apply it as a physician. All sorts and conditions of men fell under his lynx eye, and not a claim was relinquished nor a demand conceded without some legal authority, form, or precedent. At one time (20th Henry VIII.) he prosecuted Sir Richard Hoghton and others for encroaching on Penwortham Common; at another (21st Henry VIII.) he visited William Wall with his just indignation for cutting down timber and leading away turves from Littlewood and ffarington; nor did Christopher Standish the Bailiff escape unscathed, having ventured to claim certain profits and fees within Penwortham; but end

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