| 1 |
1,860, including 29 of inland water;
census of 1901. |
| 2 |
a Dict. Nat. Biog. |
| 3 |
Ibid. |
| 4 |
Ibid. |
| 5 |
Roger de Winstanley held the manor
under the lord of Billinge in 1212; Lancs.
Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and
Ches.), i, 76. He was a contributor to
aids, &c. in the time of King John;
Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 205, 230. As
Roger de Winstanley, son of Outi, he
made grants to Cockersand Abbey: (1)
Witlow Hurst, the bounds of which were
the Syke, Green Lache, Thornhurst Brook,
and Kempesbirines; (2) another piece,
the bounds beginning at the road from
Northcroft to Sandyford on Budshaw
Brook; and (3) another, bounded by Eldeley
Brook and Thornhurst Brook to Green
Lache; Cockersand Chart. (Chet. Soc.), ii,
654–8. The lands were granted by
the abbot to William de Burley, by a rent
of 12d., and 10s. as obit; William de
Whitlow held them in 1268, and James
de Winstanley, paying 2s., in 1461; ibid.
655–6. |
| 6 |
Adam de Winstanley was in possession
in 1252; Final Conc. i, 114. By the
agreement he appears to have secured a
practical enfranchisement of his manor.
It was probably Roger his son who made
a grant to Cockersand of certain land
marked out by crosses; this had been exchanged for other land held by Henry de
Billinge, and the exchange and donation
were confirmed by the lord of Newton in
1283; Cockersand Chart. ii, 658–60. Roger de Winstanley was a plaintiff in 1292
against Henry de Huyton; Assize R.
408, m. 44 d.; and in the same year
Henry son of Roger de Winstanley and
Adam son of William de Winstanley were
defendants; ibid. m. 36 d.
In 1305 Roger son of Roger de Winstanley recovered messuages and lands
from Richard son of William the Lewed,
Alice his wife, and Amota daughter of
Alice. Alice, it appeared, was the real
defendant; her title came from a grant
by Robert de Huyton and William de
Winstanley; Assize R. 1306, m. 19. In
1332 Roger de Winstanley contributed to
the subsidy; Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc.
Lancs. and Ches.), 26. Roger son of Roger
de Winstanley and Isolda his father's
widow had disputes in 1352; Assize
R. 435, m. 29. Particulars of various
suits will be found in the account of
Billinge.
Hugh de Winstanley contributed to
the poll tax in 1381; Exch. Lay Subs. bdle.
130, no. 24. In 1388 he had licence for
an oratory for two years; Lich. Epis. Reg.
Scrope, vi, fol. 124. Henry de Winstanley and Malin his wife made a grant of
land in Houghton in Winwick in 1400–1;
Towneley MS. GG, no. 1007.
At the end of 1433 James de Winstanley the elder granted to trustees all his
lands, &c., in Wigan, Winstanley, Pemberton, and Billinge; these in the following year were regranted to him with
remainder to his son James and Agnes his
wife; ibid. no. 2857, 2224. In 1490–1
Gilbert Langton (of Lowe in Hindley), as
trustee enfeoffed Gilbert Langtree, James
Molyneux, rector of Sefton, and Robert
Langton, son of the grantor, of his manor
of Winstanley and all his lands in Winstanley, Wigan, Orrell, and Billinge, then
occupied by Agnes mother of Edmund
Winstanley, and by Randle and Robert
Winstanley. After Edmund's death the
manor and lands were to descend to James
the son and heir of Edmund, with remainder to James's brother Humphrey;
ibid. no. 2537. Edmund Winstanley was
tenant of the Cockersand lands in 1501;
Rentale de Cockersand (Chet. Soc.), 5.
Richard Crosse of Liverpool in 1493
agreed to marry Elizabeth daughter of
Edmund Winstanley; Towneley MS.
GG. no. 2250; Visit. of 1567 (Chet.
Soc.), 107.
Humphrey Winstanley was recorded
among the gentry of the hundred in
1512. A marriage agreement between
him and Evan Haydock in 1505 is in
Towneley MS. GG. no. 1534. For the
child marriage of Humphrey Winstanley
and Alice sister of James Worsley, see
F. J. Furnivall's Child Marriages (Early
Engl. Text Soc.), 2. |
| 7 |
Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 59,
m. 348. The remainder of the holding
included forty messuages, five watermills, two dovecotes, 300 acres of land,
100 acres of meadow, common of pasture
for all cattle, and various houses and
lands.
Edmund Winstanley is mentioned in
the Visit. of 1567, pp. 24, 107. He was
steward of the rector of Wigan in 1575;
Wigan Ch. 145. There is a deed of his
in Towneley MS. GG, no. 2635. |
| 8 |
A pedigree was recorded in 1664
(Dugdale, Visit. [Chet. Soc.], 26), and
there are later pedigrees in Gregson's
Fragments (ed. Harland), 232; Burke,
Commoners, iv, 213; Baines, Lancs. (ed.
Croston), iv, 306.
In 1588 William Bankes purchased a
house and lands in Wigan and Ince from
Miles Gerard and Grace his wife; Pal. of
Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 50, m. 171. Five
years later James Bankes made a purchase in Aspull and Wigan, and in 1597
he and Susan his wife made a sale or
mortgage, Francis Sherington being the
plaintiff in the fine; ibid. bdles. 55, m.
127; 58, m. 220. |
| 9 |
Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lancs.
and Ches.), ii, 97–9. |
| 10 |
Pink and Beaven, Lancs. Parl. Representation, 191. He was then 91 years
of age. William Bankes in 1631 paid
£12 on refusing knighthood; Misc. (Rec.
Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 213. |
| 11 |
Pink and Beaven, op. cit. 281. |
| 12 |
Ibid. 229; he was a Whig. Some
of his letters are printed in Hist. MSS.
Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 128, &c. |
| 13 |
Thomas's son Robert was sheriff in
1742; his grandson William (son of William) in 1784; P.R.O. List of Sheriffs,
74. William Bankes died in 1800, without issue, and the estates passed to his
cousin, the Rev. Thomas Holme of Upholland, whose mother's monument in
Upholland Church states that she died
2 June 1799, aged 93; Wigan Cb. 747.
Thomas Holme was incumbent of Upholland from 1758 to 1767; ibid. 749.
Several of the family have been benefactors to the poor. |
| 14 |
Meyrick son of Thomas Holme
took the surname of Bankes in 1804; he
was sheriff in 1805; P.R.O. List, 74. |
| 15 |
A view of the hall, about 1816, is
given in Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 231. |
| 16 |
An undated fragment of a pedigree
in Piccope's MS. Pedigrees (Chet. Lib.), ii,
fol. 18, gives the succession: James—3s.
Ottiwell—s. James, 'said to be an alms
knight at Windsor.'
A Humphrey Winstanley about 1560
married Jane, a daughter of William
Heaton, and had disputes with the Andertons and Heatons; Ducatus Lanc. (Rec.
Com.), ii, 236; iii, 12, 13. |
| 17 |
Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 90, no.
41; bdle. 91, no. 27; in the former
James Sorocold was plaintiff, and in the
latter Richard Blackburne was joined with
him. James Winstanley and Margaret
his wife were deforciants; the property is
described as the manors of Winstanley
and Billinge, with various lands, &c., in
these townships and in Ashton.
William Blackburne in 1631 paid £10
on refusing knighthood; Misc. (Rec. Soc.
Lancs. and Ches.), i, 213.
The Blackburnes, a Protestant family,
near relations of those of Newton, Orford,
and Hale, long continued in possession.
They had an estate—Crow Lane—in
the parish of Winwick, and a burial place
there, for in the registers are records of
the burials of Thomas Blackburne of
Blackley Hurst, 9 Feb. 1664–5; John,
18 Dec. 1666, see Roger Lowe's Diary;
William son of John (of Billinge), 14
July 1719; William, 21 Dec. 1724;
Anne wife of John, 1 May 1745; and
John, 2 Apr. 1766, aged 89; then Blackburne son of Mr. Gildart of Blackley
Hurst, aged 2, 23 Dec. 1767; John
Gildart of Billinge, 13 Feb. 1771–2; and
Jane Creighton, of Blackley Hurst, aged
86, 20 Jan. 1795. Sophia daughter and
sole heir of John Gildart of Blackley
Hurst married Major Richard Jones, a
son of the fourth Viscount Ranelagh;
Gent. Mag. 1785, ii, 747. She died in
1803 without issue.
The following members of the family
matriculated at Oxford, Brasenose College:
William son of William Blackburne of
Billinge, plebeian, 1626, aged 17 (afterwards vicar of Chartbury); Richard son
of William, 1633, aged 21; Thomas son
of William, of Blackley Hurst, 1639,
aged 18 (B.D. 1661); John son of William, of Billinge, 1640, aged 18 (B.D.
1662); Foster's Alumni.
William son of Thomas Blackburne
occurs in 1673 in the account of Newton
in Makerfield.
William Blackburne, of Blackley Hurst,
John his son and heir apparent, and William the son of John, are all mentioned
in a lease enrolled in 1718; Piccope MSS.
(Chet. Lib.), iii, fol. 200, from 2nd R. of
George I at Preston.
A Roger Rigby of Blackley Hurst,
brother of Edward Rigby of Burgh, was
in 1590 reported as 'evil given in religion';
Lydiate Hall, 250. |
| 18 |
Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.),
i, 239, 242. Edward Winstanley and
Humphrey Atherton had a dispute concerning lands in Winstanley in 1593;
Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), iii, 291, 319. A
settlement of lands in Billinge was made
in 1596, Humphrey Atherton and Alice
his wife, and Edmund, the son and heir,
being deforciants; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of
F. bdle. 59, m. 21.
Edmund Atherton of Winstanley died
in 1613 holding land in Billinge of the
Baron of Newton; Humphrey his son
and heir was four years old; Lancs. Inq.
p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 277.
From deeds in the possession of W.
Farrer it appears that Romeshaw House
was part of the Atherton estate. |
| 19 |
Norris D. (B.M.). |
| 20 |
Schedule in possession of W. Farrer.
A William Blackburne of Blackley Hurst
is also named. |
| 21 |
Local Glean. Lancs. and Ches. i, 234,
where lists referring to this and neighbouring townships are printed. |
| 22 |
Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, 97, 125, 135,
151. Appleton's house was called The
Riddings. |