MEMOIR OF THE MOLINEUX FAMILY MEMOIR OF THE MOLINEUX FAMILY BY GISBORNE MOLINEUX, F.R.C.I. For Prz1•ate Cz1'cztlatzon onl)'. 1882. ~ ../!!:_.A:, .tZ.- -~- "C _--...-c_ ~ ?.~ ?. -- ,/Z ~~·~ • • . ........ • " There is a history in all men's lives." Henry IV., Part II. " Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time; '' Footprints that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, _!\ forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again." Longftll<rdl. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE THE HOUSE OF SEFTON • I PEDIGREE No. I. CH.A.PTER II. THE H.-UTGHTON OR TEVERSAL BRANCH, WITH THAT OF THORPE 30 PEDIGREE No. 2. CHAPTER III. THE STAFFORDSHIRE AND SUSSEX FAMILIES OF THE TEVERSAL BRANCH 62 PEDIGREE No. 3. CHAPTER IV. THE CASTLE DILLON BRANCH CHAPTER V. THE NAME OF 1IOLYNEUX, ARMS, CRESTS, ETC. 88 APPENDIX • • 103 No. 1. PEDIGREE OF MOLYNEUX, EARLS OF SEFTON. FROM THE CONQUEST TO TEM:P. HENRY VI. William de Monlins, Lord of the Manors of Sephton, Thornton, andi. Kuerdou, at the time of the Conquest. :~ Vivum de Moulins, = Siwarda. son and heir, L;ord of Sephton. \ i Adam de Molines, = Annota, daughter and son and hew,, Lord of I heir of Benedict le Ger- Sephton ancli Speke. net, Lord of Speke. Robert de Molyneux, = Beatrix, daughter and heir of Gil~ert. hkld land of his Hen~ held land of his Siwarda became the Lord of Sephton, son and heir. [ Robert de Villers, Lord of Crosby. brother ~, knightly service. brother in Thornton. wife of Ffitzannot. I ( I Richard de Molyneux, = Edith, daughter of ; Simon. Lord of Sephton and Crosby, son and heir.l,,__..:.,___--=---------i------,-------------------. I Aumary le Botiller. Adam de Molineux., = Lettice, daughter of Robert held of his father five oxgangs of A daughter married Lord of Sephton, son and heir. I de Brinley. land in Thornton by knight's service. to William Halsall. Sir William <-lvI_o_lyn_l,_e-u-x,...:.Kn_t-.,-=-M-· -a-rgar_e..,....'. t-, -d-au_g_h_t-er_o_f___ R--;Jger. of Sefton, son and heir. '! Sir Al, de Thornton. I : I I Sir Richard Molyneux, =\Emma, daughter William. Simon. Knt., of Sefton. · L1-lof_---.-_D_o_n_e_. ---------------.---------------:------. , I I I Sir Wtlliaml Molyneux, K.nt. = Isabel, daughter Thomas= Maud, daughter of Peter. Joane, a nun Banneret, 1;286, of Sefton. I of - Scarisbrick. William Pemberton. at Leicester. ' \ ,--..:.._--------------------. 1 Sir Richard Molyneux, =Agatha, daughter and heir of Joane, married to Robert Knt., of Sefton, ob. 1363. I Sir Roger Kirton, of Larbrick. Emeys, of Espeake. I I I I I I I Sir William = Joane, =Margaret, Richard, Robert. John. Thomas, Roger, A daughter A daughter Molyneux, Knt., daughter and heir daughter and heir of Wynnersley. \ of Kuerdale. of Raynhill. married to married to of Sefton. of Jordan Ellall. of Sir Alan Adeane. Chatterton. Heyton, Knt. I . I I Sir William Moly- = Joane, daughter S1r Thomas, Sir Jlhn, = Richlrd, Robert. Peter. Simon. neux, of Sefton, and heir of Sir of Cuerdale, of Crosby. Parson of Knight Banneret, Robert Holland, Constable of Sefton. ob. 1372. .....__Knt. _________ Chester _ • Sir Richard Molyneux, = Ellen, daughter Agnes, married K.nt., High Sheriff of I of Sir Thomas to David Blun­ Lancashire for life. Urswick, Knt. dell. I Joane, = Sir Richard Molyneux, == Elinor, Adam, Bishop of Robert== Elizabeth, daughter daughter and heir of Knt., of Sefton, daughter of Chichester, 1445, of Sir Baldwin _ Sir Gilbert Haydock, ub. anno 1439. Radclyffe, of ob. anno 1449. L'Estrange, Knt. Knt. RadclyffeI Tower.---,-------- ' - I I I I I I Elizabeth, = Sir Richard Moly­ Sir Thomas J\iiolvneux, Elizabeth, = Catherine, Robert = Agnd, John. Edmund= Agnes, Elizabeth, Cathirine, Joane, Elizabeth, daughter of neux, I<.nt., of Knight Banneret, of daughter of Sir daughter of relict .of William. High Sheriff relict of married to married to Sir married to married to Thomas, Lord Sefton, ance!-tor Haughton, Co. Notts, Robert 1farkham, John Cot­ Willi,m Henry. for Bucks, Sir John Sir Thomas Robert Radcliffe, Robert Preston, Sir William Stanley, of of the Viscounts ancestor of the Mo­ of Cotham, Co. ton, of Cheney. Gilbert. 1475. Cheney. Southworth, of Smitheles. of Gormestown, Troutbeck, Latham. Molyneux and lineuxes of Teversal. Notts, Knt. Ridware. of Sawlesbury. .. Ireland. K.nt. Earls of Sefton. Vi"dePEDIGREENo. 2. MEMOIR. CHAPTER I. THE HOUSE OF SEFTON. Temp. William I. to Victoria. · " He was the great progenitor of all." ISAAK WALTON. " The knights are dust, their good swords rust ; · Their souls are with the saints, I trust." " The venerable lore of olden time, Black letter tomes, and ancient chronicles." w,am,~ILLIAM DE MOULINS, Lord, by grant from Roger de Poictiers, of the Manors of Sephton, Thornton, and Keurdon, at the time of the Conquest; and whose name stands 18th in order on the Roll · of Battle Abbey, was the common ancestor of the J\-folyneux Family, of which the Earls of Sefton represent the eldest house, and Molyneux of Thornton the eldest cadet ; Robert of Thornton being the progenitor of the Molyneuxes of Mellinge.1 1 NoTE.-In a List of the Nobility and Gentry in the County Palatine of Lancaster, from the time of Henry VII. to the accession of William III., published in Baines's History of Lancashz"re, appear the names of- Molyneux of Sephton, Molyneux of Thornton, l\'.'.Iolyneux of Rainhill and Hawkeley, Molyneux of Wimberley, Molyneux of Thorpe, Molyneux of Combscough, l\{olyneux of Shipton, ::Molyneux of Larbrick, :\Iolyneux of Kirton, ::Molyneux of Crosby and Woodhouse, 1Iolyneux of New Hall. An heiress of the Harringtons married Molyneux of New Hall, and her grandson, Thomas l\Iolineux Unsworth Seel, _became the owner of the lordship of Huyton, as well as of the estate of Wolfall Hall, which last was afterwards sold by him to B 2 The Molyneuxes of Dorsetshire, according to a visita­ tion made in 1565, are said to have come out of Cheshire. Hugh Molyneux, however, who was possessed of the manor of Cranbourrie Holwel, in the fifteenth century, was the son of Richard Molyneux, of Halsall, Co. Lancaster. He died in 1508, and was buried within the chapel of Our Lady, in Cranbourne Church. Ife was succeeded by his sons Thomas and Henry, and the latter by his son Oliver.1 Playfair, in his Brz"tzsh Famz1y Antiquity £n Ireland, states with reference to William de Moulins,-" In the most ancient written chronicles of the Duchy of Normandy remaining on record, he is placed as a most especial and principa~ man in nearness and credit with the Conqueror, at the time he undertook the Conquest." Vivian, son and heir of William de Moulins, was the trusty friend of Roger de Poictou, Earl of Lancaster, and was placed by him in his castle at Liverpool, to act as his governor and castellanus, in the utmost limits of his earl­ dom. He was succeeded by his son Adam de Molines, Lord of Sefton and Speke, who by his wife Annota, daughter and heir of Benedict le Gernet, Lord of Speke, had three sons, Robert de Molyneux,2 Gilbert, and Henry. the Earl of Derby. The last male heir of the branch seated at Alt Grange and New Hall was Richard Molineux, whose widow died in I 790. 1 NoTE.-Hutch-ins. Vi"ile also Appendix, page 139. 2 N OTE.-Stephen, Earl of Boulogne, afterwards King of England, granted to Robert 1'Iolyneux the manor of Litherland, Lancashire, for 14s. per annum. The Molineux family have ever since retained possession of this lordship. Robert Molyneux, otherwise Robert de l\'Iulas, gave the manor of Kuerdon in marriage with his sister to Siward, the son of Anti, the son of Elsi, and from Siward it descended to his son Henry de Kuerdon. "Within this manor," says Dr. Kuerdon, "standeth an antient fabric cald Kuerdon Hall, belonging to Christoph-er Banastre de Banc, and below it on the west side of London (road) another fayr square fabrick, a brick building adorned about with tall pyne and fir trees, situated pleasantly upon the edge of Kuerdon Green, not long since built in a fayr court, and a spacious orchard and garden on the south side thereof, 3 Robert married Beatrix, daughter and heir of Robert de Villers, Lord of Little Crosby, by whom he had two sons, Richard Molyneux, Lord of Sefton, Little Crosby, and Speke ; and Simon. Richard, by his wife Edith, daughter of Aumary le Boutiller, had two sons, Adam and Robert. Adam de Molyneux married Letitia de Brinley, and was Commissioner for the perambulation of Forests in 1228, and in 1255, being possessed of £ 15 a year in land, was knighted. He held Simons Wood of Edward Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster.1 William, his son and heir, married Margaret, daughter of Sir Alan de Thornton, and held by knight's service 15 lzoratas terrre, equivalent to 3,600 acres. He received knighthood at the hands of Philip de Uluceby, Sheriff of Lancashire, in 1256. He was suc­ ceeded by his son, Sir Richard Molyneux, Knt., whose son and heir, William, was created a Knight Banneret in 1286. He died anno 1289,2 leaving by his wife Isabel, planted by Ri. Kuerdon, Dr. of Physic, being an ancient inheritance descended upon him, and hath continued in his precedent ancestors from K. Stephen's Raigne, then given in marriage to the original of that family, Sywardus, filius Anti, with a daughter of the son of Vivian Molineux, who held that lordship." 1 N OTE.-Gregson' s Fragments of Lancaster. 2 N OTE.-On the tomb of this Sir William ~Iolyneux was the following inscription:- .