Chapter XVI Old Houses and Old Families Castleton
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CHAPTER XVI . Oft 1 OU6t6 ant bet families, t45fedon. T a very early period there were found scattered over this extensive parish a number of halls and houses which century after century continued to be occupied by the same families . In some cases the occupiers were owners of the fee and held a recognised position amongst the county gentry, whilst in other cases the estates, being held by copyhold, the tenants did not rank quite so high ; but whether the owners of these houses were esquires, gentlemen or yeomen, the history of their tenements and of their families must form an important part of the history of Roch- dale. The plan adopted by the old county historians was to make out an elaborate pedigree of one or two of the great families of the districts, and to totally ignore the rest of the inhabitants . If it is gratifying to the booted earl to see his descent traced through a long line of noble ancestors back to the time of the Conquest, so it is also a source of honest pride to the humbler commoner to know that his forefathers were good men and true, although they may only have held the small estate on which they lived, and where perhaps "far from the madding crowd," and- simply doing the "duty which was nearest to them"-they lived and died, bequeathing to those who followed them their lands and goods and the example of a well-spent life . It is a significant fact that nearly all the leading families of Rochdale in the seventeenth century have either become extinct or have left the neighbourhood, and the wealth and position of the town and parish have been achieved by the industry and enterprise of families whose ancestors at that time were in more or less humble positions . As has already been shown the trade of Rochdale was not begun and carried on by the introduction of foreign labour ; it was the inhabitants themselves who saw that there was OLD . HOUSES AND OLD FAMILIES .-CASTLETON . 305 "A tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ." In this and the following chapters it is proposed to weave together as it were the men and their houses, and thus produce a picture, or it may be only a shadowy outline, of the lives and doings of the old Roch- dalians. The number of families in Rochdale which derived their names from places in the parish was, and is still, very large ; for example, the Belfields, Buckleys, Butterworths, Chadwicks, Cleggs, Garsides, Greaves, Hamers, Haworths, Healeys, Holts, Lightowlers, Marcrofts, Marlands, Newbolds, Ogdens, Ridings, Schofields, Shores, Turnoughs, Wardleworths, Whitworths, Wolstenholmes, and others . It must not, however, be assumed that all (or even a large proportion) of the families having local surnames are descended from common ancestors, or that any of those ancestors were necessarily owners of any part of the lands from which they derived their names. A large tract of land like Butterworth would furnish a name for many families, and that probably up to a comparatively late period. Until the birth of the present century a large percentage of the population were scarcely known by their real patronymics, but were recognised by such names as " John of Robert's," " Dick of the steps," and a hundred other such homely designations, ; and thus many whose fathers perhaps were Smiths or Robinsons became "John of Wardle," " Robert of Healey," and the like . "Tim Bobbin," in his " Tummus an' Meary," was not drawing much upon his imagination when he wrote, " Jack o' Ned's towd meh at Sam's o' Jack o' Yeds Marler has wed Mall o' Nan's o' Sall's o' Peg's ." Another reason for the 'spread of local district names may be traced to the fact that at one time it was a not uncommon custom for foundlings to be called after the township or hamlet in which they were discovered . The old halls and houses in Rochdale are mostly of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries . In the former period the use of timber for the external walls was fast falling into disuse, and the half-timbered houses arose, which again gave place to buildings of brick or stone. Internally the greater houses consisted of a large hall for common use (or in later instances a small hall and a parlour for the family and a kitchen for the domestics), with a wide staircase with carved oak balustrades entering therefrom. The old brazier and reredos had been succeeded by the wide open fireplace and the ingle nook, whilst the walls in many instances were wainscotted and the roofs ornamented with massive oak beams . 39 306 HISTORY OF THE PARISH OF ROCHDALE. CASTLETON HALL. , Although in the twelfth century there was a family which took its name from this township [see p. 66] it only appears to have re- mained here a short time ; in 1332 a Nicholas de Castleton paid a subsidy, but in the Rolls for 1380 and 1523 the name of Castleton is absent. Early in the sixteenth century one of the Holt family was settled here, and, in a deed dated 15 Henry VIII. [1523-4], he is described as Adam Holt "of ye Castleton, gentleman," and by this charter he enfeoffed Richard Holt, Roger Gartsyde, Bertyn Hamer, Geoffrey Butterworth and Sir Thomas Holt, priest, in all his lands, &c., in Castleton and Hundersfield, to his own use for life with remainder to his own sons William, Thomas, Richard and Rauf Holt, the dower of Agnes his wife being reserved. 2 In 1566 Thomas Holt, gentleman, was living at Castleton and at that time or shortly afterwards it be- longed to Charles Holt, whose son, John Holt of Stubley, towards the close of his life resided there, as on the 24th August, 1622, he made his will "at Castleton," where he died five days afterwards, and upon the taking of the Inquisition, 8th January, 1622-3, his widow Dorothy was stated to be "yet alive at Castleton ." The son and heir ' The above sketch is from a drawing by the late Mr. George Shaw, architect . Raines' MSS . -Black Book of Clayton . OLD HOUSES AND OLD FAMILIES .-CASTLETON . 307 of John Holt was Robert Holt, who at the time of his fathers death was twenty years old and fourteen days . (Baptized at Rochdale, i5th August, 1602.) He acquired the Marland estates from the Radcliffes . [See p. 70.] The house was described as the "Capital messuage called "Castle- ton" and there was with it a water mill and many acres of land held of the King in capite by knight's service, viz ., by the tenth part of a knight's fee and a yearly payment of 22s . 4/d., and the value of the whole was £6 los. od. (clear) per annum .T In the survey of 1626 Castleton is described as a "fayre mansion house, beinge builte with free stone, and all offices thereunto, with stables, oxehouse and dovehouse, also gardens, orchards and courts," situate near the high street to Manchester and to Castleton Moor, and it was in the occupation of Robert Holt, who appears to have ultimately left Stubley and lived at Castleton, which at this time was not called Castleton Hall but Castleton or Castleton Moor . a Robert Holt lived in stirring times and took his share in the public events of the day. He was a justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant of the county and in 1639-4o he held the office of high sheriff ; in the latter capacity he made a return to the council as to the collection of ship-money ; this he dates from Castleton, and reports that the high constables had made their several answers to him' "touch- ing the impositions of assessments on the several hundreds," but only one constable of one hundred, and that the least in the county, brought any assessment ; the others alleged that those who should have assisted them refused to do so. 2 There was more than one Robert Holt engaged in the civil war on the side of the King, which renders identification somewhat difficult ; he was however the person to whom Lord Strange, in 1642, proposed to give the charge of the "powder and match" magazines ; he also attended Lord Derby at the banquet in Manchester on the 15th July in the same year, and he was appointed (in the December following) one of the collectors for the Hundred of Salford of the proposed subsidy of £8700 ."3 In consequence of the decided course taken by him he was amongst those who were, by order of Parliament (24th October, 1642), discharged from the 'Duchy Records, Inq. Post Mort ., xxiii ., No. 53 . 2 Cal . State Papers .-Dom. Set. 3 Ci vil War Tracts .-Chet. Soc., ii. 17, 32, 67. 3oS HISTORY OF THE PARISH OF ROCHDALE. commission of the peace. , In 1646 he compounded for his estates and paid a fine of £150.2 After the restoration he held a colonelcy in one of the militia regiments . He was twice married ; first, to Mary the daughter of Sir Robert Bindloss of Borwick in Lancashire, and second, to Catherine daugher of John Bullock of Darby, Derbyshire . [See pedigree.] He died in 1673, and was buried at Rochdale ; his will was dated at Castleton, 6th November, in that year, and the following are the details of interest which it contains : after ex- pressing a wish to be buried in the church at Rochdale he refers to a deed executed by him on 3oth July, 166o, between himself, John Bullock of Darby, and John Bullock his son and heir, and Katherine, the eldest daughter of John Bullock the elder, his (testator's) wife, since deceased.