LEA of RUFFORD and

George Shaw (1768–1857), a husbandman of parish in south-west married Margaret Lea (1771–1855, also of Halsall) after banns on 17 February 1794.1

The Lea family first appear at in Rufford (then a chapelry of ) in the late seventeenth century. Holmeswood, on the edge of Martin , was immediately adjacent to Scarisbrick and to the parish of . Although in Croston parish, it was sometimes reckoned to belong to .

The name Lea means simply ‘at the lea/meadow’.2

Origins

Thomas Lea of Rufford was a contributor to the ‘free and voluntary present’ of 1661–23 and to the hearth tax of 1663 and 1666 (as Thomas Leye) and 1664.4

On 25 April 1677 Jane Lea of Rufford, widow was buried at Rufford/Croston.5 An inventory of her goods (amounting to £27 4s 8d) was taken by Richard Leigh and John Wignall on 20 January 1678 and administration granted on 3 May 1679 to her son John.6

Edward Lea and Jane

The first of the family traced in a direct line is Margaret Lea’s great-great-grandfather Edward Lea of Holmeswood. Edward Lea[gh], perhaps a son of Thomas was fl. at Holmeswood on 26 March 1683 when his daughter Jane was baptised at Rufford. On 9 February 1700/1 William, son of Edward Lea of Holmeswood, husbandman and his wife Jane was baptised at Rufford.

Edward Lea of Holmeswood, husbandman was buried at Rufford on 12 April 1726. Edward’s administration with inventory (in the sum of £6 11s 6d) was granted in 1726 to his widow, Jane. She was no doubt ‘Jane Lea, Holmeswood, widow’ who was buried at Rufford on 3 January 1740.

William and Margaret Lea

Baptised in 1700/1 at Rufford, William Lea was married to Margaret c. 1717–1728. On 29 September 1728 Edward, son of William Lea (webster of Holmeswood) and his wife Margret, was baptised at what was by now Rufford parish church. James, Thomas, John and William Lea were also baptised at Rufford on 29 November 1730, 13 February 1731/2, 21 April 1734 and 1 December 1735 (sons of William Lea of Holmeswood, weaver and his wife Margret).7

The family then moved to Scarisbrick and Mary (daughter of William and Margaret Lea of Scarisbrick) was baptised at Ormskirk on 7 August 1737. William and Margaret’s son Robert was baptised at Ormskirk on 15 April 1742 and daughters Margery and Elizabeth on 24 June 1744 and 1 September 1745.8

Some scourge hit the family in mid–1746 when two daughters Mary and Elizabeth and an unnamed son all died within four weeks of each other (children of William Lea of Scarisbrick, weaver, buried at Rufford on 10 May, 3 June and 5 June). On 2 November 1746 another son Edward was baptised at Ormskirk. Two months later on 12 January 1747 the Rufford register records the burial of ‘William Lea of Scarisbrick within the parish of Ormskirk, weaver’.

16 months later an illegitimate daughter Mary was born to ‘Margaret Lea of , widow’ and baptised at Rufford on 5 June 1748. Mary (‛daughter of Margaret Lea, Scarisbrick, widow) was buried there on 18 October.

Robert and Ellen Lea

Baptised at Ormskirk in 1742, William and Margaret Lea’s son Robert was married there on 18 February 1765 to Ellen Hesketh [probably the first child of Hugh Hesketh of Scarisbrick and his wife Alice]: both were then ‘of Scarisbrick’.9 Alice, daughter of Robert and Ellin Lea of Scarisbrick was baptised at Ormskirk on 16 March 1766. Children William, Margaret and a second Margaret were baptised on 24 January 1768, 6 May 1770 and 23 June 1771. Thomas, son of Robert Lea, Scarisbrick, was baptised at Ormskirk on 25 March 1773, but Thomas, son of Robert Lea of Ormskirk was buried there on 19 March 1779.

William Lea’s widow Margaret probably moved back to Rufford after the marriage of her son Robert: the Rufford register records the burial on 17 December 1775 of ‘Margaret Lea, widow, Holmeswood’.

We have seen that Robert and Ellen Lea’s daughter Margaret married George Shaw at Halsall in 1794.

Robert Lea seems to have predeceased his wife, for the 1798 Scarisbrick census has Ellen Lea as a head of household.10 ‘Ellen Lea, Scarisbrick, aged 76’ was buried at Ormskirk on 6 July 1815. Yet the only relevant burials at Ormskirk were those for Robert Lea of on 5 May 1797 and Robert Lee of Ormskirk on 19 August 1801. (see below).

[Another Robert Lea fl. at Scarisbrick in 1763 was married to Margaret by 1754 (almost certainly the Robert of ‛Ormskirk’ to Margaret Hulme of Aughton on 15 December 1748). Children John, Alice and Mary were baptised at Ormskirk on 11 August 1751, 9 October 1754 and 20 September 1761, son and daughters of Robert and Margaret of Scarisbrick. John was buried on 5 June 1756. James, son of Robert Lea was baptised at Aughton on 11 September 1764. In 1763 Robert received (as a husbandman of Scarisbrick) a lease by the lives of Peter Guy (19), William Mason, junior (15)11 and his daughter Alice Lea (eight). On 1 September 1762 there had been a lease of 30 named acres in Bickerstaffe by the lives of Robert Guy, Peter his son and William Mason, junior of Aughton.12 There was a further lease in 1768 to Robert Lea of Bickerstaffe.13 Clearly this Robert was related to the Guy family of Aughton and was party to Knowsley estate leases in 1763 (when ‘of Scarisbrick’) and 1768 (‘of Bickerstaffe’). Robert Lea was poor at Aughton 1769–1780. Robert Lea was paying 14s 2½d and 17s 6d in land tax at Bickerstaffe in 1794].14

Ormskirk burials include those of Margaret, wife of Robert Lea of Bickerstaffe (20 April 1792); Robert Lea of Bickerstaffe (5 May 1797); Robert Lee of Ormskirk (19 August 1801); Margaret Lea, widow of Aughton (6 September 1801).

The Scarisbrick land tax returns of 1795 have ‘Adam Lea’s heirs’ and those of 1810 ‘late Adam Lea’s’. 15 Adam Lea was schoolmaster at Scarisbrick in 1733.16 Adam Lea was buried at Ormskirk on 3 February 1764.

©T.M. Steel (revised 6 August 2010) 1 See also T.M. Steel, ‛Shaw of ’: http://tsgf.pbworks.com (2010, online) 2 C.W. Bardsley, A Dictionary of English & Welsh Surnames (London, 1901), p. 473 3 The National Archives [hereafter T.N.A.], E 179/250/5 (schedule of contributors) 4 T.N.A., E 179/250/8, 9 & 11 5 For christenings, marriages & burials [hereafter cmbs] Rufford: R. Bromley (ed.), ‘The Register of Rufford Parish Church, 1632–1812’, Lancs Parish Register Soc., 115 (1976) 6 For S. Lancs wills, invs & admons (Chester consistory) to 1858: Lancs Record Office [hereafter L.R.O.], WCW/[name]/[place]/[year] 7 For later occurences of Lea family at Holmeswood & Rufford (including plan of Holmeswood: L.R.O., DDHe (Hesketh of Rufford) 8 For cmbs Ormskirk from 1715: T.M. Steel (ed.), ‘The Registers of the Parish of Ormskirk, 1715–1770’, Lancashire Parish Register Soc. [hereafter L.P.R.S.] (170), 2009; & (for 1771 onwards) Lancashire online parish clerks: www.lan-opc.org.uk 9 Both were single & both marked; wits were Jn Barton & Humphrey Darwin 10 L.R.O., DDSc/26/46 11 Mason probably d. Feb. 1832 12 L.R.O., DDK/L/216 13 L.R.O., DDK/L/244 14 L.R.O., QDL/1794/WD/10 15 L.R.O., QDL/year/WD/73 16 So described when s. bur. 18 Apr.