BEDFORD
Beneford, (fn. 1) 1200–21; Bedeford, 1200, 1296.
The ford of Beda, probably through Pennington
Brook where it is now spanned by Breaston Bridge,
gave name to this place. The township is traversed
by four considerable streams coming from the north,
west, and east and uniting a little to the south of
Bedford Hall to form the water of Glazebrook, which
on its southward course forms for some little distance
the south-western boundary of the township. From
this stream to Chat Moss on the east, the elevation of
the land is barely 50 ft. above mean sea-level, but rises
gently until over 125 ft. is reached on the northern
boundary near Atherton Grange. The trees surrounding Atherton Hall afford to the eye welcome
relief from the unpicturesque surroundings and unbending lines of factories and cottages. The main
road from Manchester to Leigh and the Bridgewater
Canal traverse the township from east to west.
There is also a branch road leading southward to
Warrington. The London and North-Western Railway from Manchester to Liverpool traverses the
southern angle of the township, and the Tyldesley
and Leigh branch of the same company's railway has
a station called Leigh and Bedford, serving these contiguous places. (fn. 2) The township has an area of 2,826
acres, and lies partly upon the new red sandstone,
and to the north-east partly upon the coal measures.
The permian rocks are mostly absent owing to a fault
which extends from south-east to north-west. There
is a great deposit of alluvium in the lower ground
traversed by the Glazebrook and its tributaries. The
soil is largely composed of clay; the land consists mainly
of meadow and pasture, and some vegetables are grown.
The township was formed into a district chapelry
in 1843 (fn. 3) out of the civil parish of Leigh. The Local
Government Act, 1858, was adopted in 1863, (fn. 4) but
by 38 and 39 Victoria, cap. ccxi, the district was
dissolved and merged in that of Leigh. In 1901 the
population of the township, including Lately Common,
numbered 11,163, chiefly employed in the Bedford
collieries, agricultural implement works, brick-fields,
an iron foundry, brewery and maltings, cotton, silk
and corn mills.
MANOR
Dependent before the Conquest upon
the chief manor of Warrington hundred,
BEDFORD was afterwards included in
the barony of Warrington, upon the creation of that
fee. It was not held by knight's service, but by a
yearly rent of 10s., which suggests a continuity of the
pre-Conquest drengage tenure, and possibly to uninterrupted ownership by Englishmen after the Conquest.
The place is first mentioned in 1200, when Simon de
Bedford proffered 10 marks and a hunting horse that
he might be 'inlawed' and restored to the benefit of
the law in any proceedings taken against him for the
death of G. de Spondon. (fn. 5) Contemporary with Simon
was William de Bedford, his brother and under-tenant
of the manor in the time of Richard I, John, and
Henry III, who had issue a son Henry and two
daughters, Hawise and Avice. (fn. 6) Henry had issue an
only daughter Agnes, who died without issue, when
the manor was divided between Henry's two sisters. (fn. 7)
Hawise married a Sale and had issue Adam de
Sale; (fn. 8) Avice married one William, and was sued in
1231 by Hawise the relict of Henry de Bedford, for
dower in a third part of one plough-land in Bedford. (fn. 9)
Agnes, daughter of William and Avice, married a
Waverton, and was mother of John de Waverton. (fn. 10) In
1292 Henry de Kighley and Ellen his wife were in
possession of one-half of the manor, Adam de Sale or
his son William of one-quarter, and John de Waverton
of the other quarter. (fn. 11) At some previous date Jordan
de Hulton had been enfeoffed for life of one-half of
the manor by Adam de Sale, who was also possessed
of another fourth part, which he appears to have given
before 1292 to his son William and Margaret his
wife. (fn. 12) It therefore appears that Henry de Kighley
acquired one-half of the manor from Adam de Sale. (fn. 13)
One-sixteenth part of Kighley's half of the manor was
held by Thomas de Shuttleworth, and represents the
ancient messuage known as Shuttleworth House. (fn. 14)
For many generations the manor descended in the
representatives of these four families, but the manor
court, with view of frankpledge, was vested in the
Kighley family, whose estate was usually described in
legal instruments as the manor. (fn. 15)
In 1296 Henry de Kighley gave the manor to
Richard de la Doune for life, (fn. 16) who withheld the chief
rent until 1301, when Alice le Boteler obtained a verdict against him. (fn. 17) The subsequent descent of the
manor follows that of the manor of Inskip in the
parish of St. Michael on Wyre. Henry Kighley, esq.,
the last male representative of the family in the direct
line, died in 1567, leaving issue two daughters, Anne
and Katherine, aged respectively four years and four
months, and fourteen days. (fn. 18) Anne afterwards married
Sir William Cavendish, Baron Cavendish of Hardwick
1605, earl of Devonshire 1618, ancestor of the present
duke of Devonshire; Katherine married Thomas, subsequently of Hovingham, co. York, esq., son and heir
of Robert Worsley of Booths, esq. In 1585, upon
attaining her majority, Anne joined with her husband
in conveying one moiety of the manor to trustees, (fn. 19)
and in 1589 in a release of the manor and the whole
of the Kighley estates in the parish of Leigh to her
sister Katherine and her husband Thomas Worsley, (fn. 20)
who at the same time conveyed to trustees the moiety
of the Kighley estates within the county. (fn. 21) Thomas
and Katherine Worsley afterwards conveyed the manor,
consisting of eighteen messuages and ten cottages with
orchards and gardens, one water-mill, and 640 acres
of land, meadow and pasture, and 2,560 acres of
moss and turbary, to trustees appointed to effect a sale
or conveyance of the manor and other estates to Sir
Richard Shuttleworth and Sir Richard Brereton, knts.,
in discharge of a recognizance of debt due to them by
Thomas Worsley. (fn. 22) By a partition of these lands
the manor fell to the share of Richard Brereton,
who settled some portion of
the estate, including the manor,
upon his sister Anne Brereton,
wife of Sir William Davenport,
who in 1599 conveyed the
manor, thirty messuages, and
670 acres of land, meadow,
pasture and moor, to Jervase
Wyrrall, esq., and he in turn
conveyed it the following year
to Sir Thomas Egerton, knt.,
lord keeper of the Great Seal, (fn. 23)
afterwards Baron Ellesmere
(1603), and Viscount Brackley
(1616), ancestor of the Earl of Ellesmere, the present
lord of the manor. (fn. 24)
Egerton, Earl of Ellesmere. Argent, a lion rampant gules between three pheons sable.
In 1548 the following persons held the manor,
paying in all 9s. 11d.: Henry Kighley, esq., 4s. 6d.;
Lawrence Asshawe, 2s. 3d.; William Serjeant, 16d.;
Richard Shuttleworth, 12d.; William Sale, 6d.; and
George Pemberton, 4d. (fn. 25)
In 1587 the following held lands here of Robert
earl of Leicester, (fn. 26) as of his manor of Warrington: The
heirs of Henry Kighley, esq., Thomas Lathom of
Bedford Hall, James Pemberton, the heirs of Peter
Serjeant, Hugh Shuttleworth of Shuttleworth House,
Gilbert Sale of Hopecarr and Henry Speakman. (fn. 27) In
1598 Sir Thomas Ireland, knt., baron of Warrington,
sold the superior manor, parcel of his barony, with
all the royalties, liberties, and services of the free
tenants, to Richard Brereton, then of Worsley, esq. (fn. 28)
Other portions of the manor were held in 1628 by
Dame Dorothy, widow of Sir Richard Brereton, (fn. 29) and
after her marriage to Sir Peter Legh, knt., she and her
husband in 1630 conveyed the manor, together with
those of Worsley and Hulton, and certain free rents
in Bedford, to John Egerton, (fn. 30) who had been created
earl of Bridgewater in 1617, shortly after his succession
to his father, the first Viscount Ellesmere. It remains
the property of his descendant, the third earl of
Ellesmere.
There are court rolls of the manor dating from
1802. Courts were held regularly twice a year from
1821 to 1866, but since have been held on only two
or three occasions. (fn. 31)
BEDFORD HALL
BEDFORD HALL is now a farm-house. In 1291
it was in the possession of Adam de Sale, (fn. 32) who, by
Maud his wife, was father of William. Between 1320
and 1330 William de Sale held the fourth part of the
manor, (fn. 33) and by Margaret (fn. 34) his wife had William, (fn. 35)
who died s.p., and John, living 1350, (fn. 36) father of
another John, who married Ellen, daughter and heir
of John le Jeu of Hindley. (fn. 37) James, their son and
heir, was father of another James of Bedford, gent.,
living in 1445, (fn. 38) father of John, living in 1474. (fn. 39)
Arthur, son and heir of John, died childless in 1480, (fn. 40)
when the estate appears to have passed to his kinsman
Henry, whose son Henry was killed at Flodden Field,
leaving issue Margaret, his daughter and heir, then
four years of age. (fn. 41) By her guardian she was married to
Lawrence Asshawe, of the Hall-on-the-Hill, in Heath
Charnock, who held the fourth part of the manor in
1548. The previous year he had acquired part of
the Athertons' estate here, (fn. 42) which his grandson
Leonard held at his death in 1595. (fn. 43) But he appears
to have alienated the fourth part of the manor and the
Hall of Bedford to Thomas Lathom of Irlam, (fn. 44) who
held it in 1587. (fn. 45) It descended in the family of
Lathom of Hawthorne Hall, county Chester, and
Irlam, in this county, until the end of the seventeenth
century, when it was sold by John Finney of Fulshaw
Hall, county Chester, gent., and Jane his wife, ultimately sole heiress of Thomas Lathom, (fn. 46) to John
Leigh, (fn. 47) afterwards of Hawthorne Hall, who in 1719
settled Bedford Hall with tenements in Bedford and
Westleigh upon himself for life, with remainders to
George, earl of Warrington, and Henry Mainwaring,
then to the Hon. Langham Booth of Thornton,
county Chester, in tail male, then to Hannah Merry-weather, niece of the said John Leigh in tail male,
then to the Hon. Henry Booth of the Middle Temple,
London, in tail male, then to Leigh Page, (fn. 48) son and
heir of Humphrey Page, alderman of Chester, (fn. 49) to
whom the estate ultimately passed in remainder. (fn. 50) By
his descendant, Thomas Leigh Page, the estate was
sold to John Greaves of Highfield in Farnworth (?),
esq., apparently the well-known banker and merchant,
afterwards of Irlam. (fn. 51) Early in the last century
Bedford Hall was the property of Thomas Speakman,
by whose executors it was sold about 1853 to the
father of the Rev. Kenelm H. Smith of Ely, the
present owner.
HOPECARR
HOPECARR was another estate of note. Adam
de Sale, who was living in 1291, had, besides William
of Bedford Hall, another son, Alexander, who by his
wife Amice, living a widow in 1315, had sons, Adam, (fn. 52)
a minor at the date named, and John. (fn. 53) Gilbert,
living in 1350, (fn. 54) son either of Adam or John, was the
father of Matthew, living in 1358, from whom
descended Henry, who died in 1419, leaving issue a
son Henry, aged fourteen years. (fn. 55) His kinsman, Gilbert Sale of Bedford, gent., who obtained a charter of
pardon in 1452, (fn. 56) had issue by Dulcia, his wife, sons
Matthew (fn. 57) and Gilbert. The latter, as Gilbert Sale
of Bedford, gent., had letters patent of pardon from
Edward IV in 1479, (fn. 58) and was probably father of
Matthew Sale of Hopecarr, who did homage for his
lands in Bedford in 1504, and died in 1509, when
William his son was aged seven years. (fn. 59) This William
appears at the head of the pedigree of the family
entered at the Visitation of 1664–5 by Richard Sale,
great-grandson of William. (fn. 60) In 1630 William Sale,
father of Richard, obtained a grant of his patrimony,
which had been forfeited for his recusancy, for a term
of forty-one years. (fn. 61) In 1674 Richard Sale, his then
wife Sylvestra, Gilbert and John his sons, and Anne
his daughter were recusants. (fn. 62) The son Gilbert died
about 1717, his widow then surviving at Hopecarr.
Their son William married Jane daughter of Edmund
Tristram of Ince Blundell, yeoman, by whom he had
issue Richard and Gilbert, both of Liverpool, who
sold the estate in 1770 to Randal Gorton of the city
of Chester, merchant. (fn. 63) Hopecarr Farm is now the
sewage farm belonging to the Leigh and Atherton
Joint Sewage Board.
In 1557 the Sales possessed a several fishery in
the water of Breton, (fn. 64) a name which still survives in
Breaston Bridge, spanning Bedford Brook.
The descent of a fourth part of a manor which
John de Waverton held in 1315 by inheritance from
his grandmother, Avice de Bedford, (fn. 65) has not been ascertained. For a few generations it passed with the
estate of Cleworth in Tyldesley. (fn. 66) Possibly it was the
estate held temp. Henry VII, by John Sale, which
passed before 1518 to his daughter Joan, the wife of
Henry Serjeant of Newton in Makerfield. At her
father's death she inherited lands here worth 20
marks a year. (fn. 67) In 1530 John Sale, citizen of London,
draper, brother of Henry Sale of Bedford Hall, conveyed the fourth part of the manor with several
messuages to Alexander Standish. (fn. 68) In 1548 William
Serjeant, probably son of the above Henry, held the
fourth part of the manor, (fn. 69) of which in 1592 Peter
Serjeant, probably his son, who had married a Standish, died seised, Thomas his son being then aged
nine years. (fn. 70) Thomas Serjeant afterwards sold the
estate to Adam Mort of Dam House in Tyldesley,
gent., (fn. 71) in whose line it descended with the other
family estates. (fn. 72)
SHUTTLEWORTH
SHUTTLEWORTH was for several centuries in
the possession of the Shuttleworth family. Thomas
de Shuttleworth held it in
1315 (fn. 73) and was father of William and Robert, living in
1353. (fn. 74)
William had sons—Thomas, living in 1371; and
Roger, (fn. 75) who married Alice
daughter of Adam de Kinkenhale, by whom he had John
and Thomas. (fn. 76) During the
fifteenth century the descent
is not clear, but in 1504 Hugh
Shuttleworth did homage for
his lands here, (fn. 77) and again
in 1523, (fn. 78) and was probably
father of Richard who held
the estate of the lord of Warrington in 1548, by
the yearly quit-rent of 12d. (fn. 79) Before 1587 Richard
was succeeded by another Hugh (fn. 80) (died 1606),
father of Richard, who died in 1620 seised of the
thirty-second part of the manor, 4 messuages, a free
fishery in the waters of Bedford and Glazebrook,
moss on Chat Moss, the liberty of a mill, and to
be hopper-free in all mills in Bedford, all of which
he held of John, earl of Bridgewater, by fealty and
12d. rent. Richard his son was aged thirty years (fn. 81)
in 1620, and died at Dublin about 1647. He was
the father of Richard, who married Frances, one of
the daughters and coheirs of Richard Urmston of
Westleigh, in whose right his eldest son became
owner of a fourth part, and ultimately of the whole
of the manor of Westleigh, and the parsonage of
Leigh known as the Kirk Hall. He died in or about
1650, when his son Richard was eight years of age. (fn. 82)
The latter appears to have taken some part in the
Stuart rebellion of 1715, in consequence of which his
estates were forfeited to the crown and subsequently
dispersed. (fn. 83) He had a brother John, whose children
were Richard, living 1697, a Frances then the wife
of John Sampson, and a sister Margaret, in 1697
the widow of John Billinge of Grave Oak in Bedford,
gent.
Shuttleworth. Argent, three weaver's shuttles sable with threads or.
LIGHTOAKS
LIGHTOAKS is mentioned in a plea in 1356 in
which John son of John del Lightokes obtained a
verdict that William de Atherton, to whom Gilbert
de Kighley had demised the manor of Bedford for
a term, had pulled down a mill and rebuilt it upon
land of the said John to his disseisin. (fn. 84) In the seventeenth century this estate was in the possession of
Henry Travers or Travice, who by his will dated
1624 gave £200 in trust, the interest to be bestowed
yearly upon forty poor persons of the parish. (fn. 85) He
died in 1626, his widow Agnes (fn. 86) placing a memorial
brass upon one of the pillars of the parish church to
his memory. The estate appears to have been sold
to Sir Henry Sclater, grandson of Richard Sclater of
Keighley, Yorkshire, who entered his pedigree as of
Lightoaks, at Sir William Dugdale's Visitation of
1664–5. (fn. 87) In 1700 Thomas Sclater, younger son
of Sir Henry and Mary his wife, with Alexander
Radcliffe, gent., conveyed the manor or capital messuage of Lightoaks with 115 acres of land, meadow,
and pasture and 140 acres of moss and heath, and
tithes of grain, hay, and flax in the parish of Leigh to
feoffees, (fn. 88) probably for sale.
Graveoak, now a farmhouse, was in 1656 the
residence, and probably the property of George
Bradshaw, gent., and in 1690 of John Billinge,
gent.
The estate of ECKERSLEY
(fn. 89) is first mentioned in
a deed of partition of lands made in 1371 between
Hugh of the Crosse and Katherine his wife, who took
the capital messuage of Eckersley and half the land
lying on the western side, whilst John de Halghton
and Siegrith his wife took two-thirds of the barn and
the reversion of another third part dependent upon
the death of Joan, wife of Simon de Byrom, with the
other half of the lands in the field and in the hey of
Eckersley. (fn. 90) In 1452 Nicholas Halghton was in possession of the estate. (fn. 91) In 1795 the duke of Bridgewater purchased part of this estate, then known as
Limerick farm, from a Miss Houghton, and his
trustees afterwards purchased another estate here from
Sir Henry Dukinfield. (fn. 92)
In 1678 Francis Bradshaw, esq., and John Leathwaite, gent., both of Bedford, were indicted at
Wigan for recusancy. (fn. 93)
The principal landowners in 1787 were the Rev.
Dr. Baldwin, John and James Green, Thomas Patten,
William Dumbell's executors, Alexander Radcliffe, and
the executors of Atherton Legh Atherton. (fn. 94)
The church of St. Thomas, built in 1840, was a
structure of brick. A new church has been erected
upon the old site and is now (1906) nearing completion. The registers commence in the year 1840.
The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £300 with
residence, in the gift of the vicar of Leigh. Large and
commodious elementary schools have recently been
built at Butts End in connexion with the church.
Those who adhered to the Roman Church at the
Reformation were occasionally able to hear mass at
Hopecarr, the house of the Sale family, the Parsonage,
the seat of the Urmstons, or at Hall House, the
Jesuit fathers of Culcheth and Southworth serving
from the latter part of the seventeenth century. (fn. 95) In
1778, before the first relaxation of the penal laws,
a chapel was built and public worship resumed.
Schools were opened in 1829, and rebuilt in 1871.
The present church of St. Joseph was opened in
1855, a tower being added in 1884. The mission is
still served by the Jesuits. (fn. 96)
CHARITIES
In 1558 Lawrence Asshawe of
Shaw in Flixton gave by his will
5 marks towards 'the paving of any
horse causey [causeway] from the towne of Leighe
unto the Sawter Buttes in Bedford.' (fn. 97) Richard Speakman and Catherine his wife in 1673 and 1679 left
small sums for the benefit of the poor of Bedford
and Tyldesley, of which the interest used to be distributed yearly on Candlemas Day at Speakman
House in Bedford. (fn. 98) In 1679 Matthew Lythgoe
bequeathed £50, and in 1727 Samuel Hilton gave
£100, to the overseers of the poor, the interest in
both cases to be distributed amongst the poor. (fn. 99) In
1872 William Eckersley gave £50 by his will for the
benefit of the poor of Bedford church. (fn. 100)