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Gc M. C 942.7201 R24p ' v.lO 1305033 GENEALOGY COL.L.ECTIOM ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00727 7517 THE RECORD SOCIETY ^wfjlication of 0tigtnal IJoctiments RELATING TO LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE. VOLUME X. For the year 1884. COUNCIL FOR 1883-84. The Worshipful RICHARD COPLEY CHRISTIE, M.A., Chancellor of the Diocese of Manchester, Glen-wood, Virginia Water, Staines, President. The Rev. the Hon. GEORGE THOMAS ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN, M.A., Honorary Canon of Liverpool, The Hall, Wigan, Vice-President. The Worshipful H. FOX BRISTOWE, Q.C., Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster, The Cliffe, Nantwich, Vice-President. JAMES CROSTON, F.S.A., Upton Hall, Prestbziry, Cheshire, Vice-President. LiEUT.-CoL. HENRY FISHWICK, F.S.A., The Heights, Rochdale, Vice-Preside'nt. WILLIAM ALEXANDER ABRAM, 42, Adelaide Terrace, Blackburn. JOHN EGLINGTON BAILEY, F.S.A., Egerton Villa, Stretford, near Manchester. GEORGE E. COKAYNE, M.A., F.S.A., Norroy King of Arms, Herald's College, London, E.C. HENRY HOYLE HOWORTH, F.S.A., Derby House, Eccles, near Manchester. THOMAS HUGHES, F.S.A., The Groves, Chester. The Rev. J. H. STANNING, M.A., The Vicarage, Leigh, Lancashire. JOHN PAUL RYLANDS, F.S.A., 25, Stanley Gardens, Bclsize Park, Hampstead, London, N. IV., Hon. Treasurer. JOHN PARSONS EARWAKER, MA., F.S.A., Pensarn, Abergele, North Wales, mA 108, Portland Street, Manchester, Hon. Secretary. ^ El0t of %\it 2.ancasJ)ire Wills proved within the ^rtftlreaconrp of Jiicijmontr, and now preserved in somerset house, london, From A.D. 1457 to 1680; and of abstracts of ^antasSire 812aills (BELONGING TO THE SAME ARCHDEACONRY), IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, From A.D. 1531 to 1652. EDITED BY LIEUT.-COLONEL HENRY FISHWICK. F.S.A. PRINTED FOR The Record Society. 1884. MANCHESTER : A. IRELAND AND CO., PRINTERS, PALL MALL, 1305033 INTRODUCTION. |HE Archdeaconry of Richmond, as originally constituted, is of great antiquity, and was looked upon as the richest in England ; it was erected by Thomas, Archbishop of York, in the year 1090, and included Allerdale and Cumberland, which were taken out of it by Henry I., in 1 127, to establish the see of Carlisle. The authority of the Archdeacon of Richmond extended over eight deaneries, namely, Borobridge, Catterick, Richmond, Lonsdale, Kendal, Amounderness, Furness, and Copeland. Kenry VIII., in 1 541, abolished the office of Archdeacon of Richmond on the creation of the see of Chester, but a commissary appointed by the Bishop of Chester continued to exercise many of the powers formerly appertaining to the Arch- deacon. Under this commissary the wills for the part of Lancashire north of the Ribble were proved, which district includes the whole of the deaneries of Amounderness, and part of the deaneries of Kendal, Lonsdale, and Furness, i.e., the hundreds of Amounderness and Lonsdale, north and south of the Sands, and a small part of Blackburn hundred. It must be borne in mind that the deaneries and the hundreds are not exactly co-extensive, thus Ribchester and Chipping, though in Blackburn hundred, and Lancaster, although in the hundred of Lonsdale (except a small detached piece), are all in the deanery of Amounderness. The wills, inventories, and bonds from the five western deaneries down to 1748 were on the ist vi Introduction. November in that year transmitted from Lancaster to Richmond* by order of the Bishop, and thus it happens that they are found in London with the records relating to the eastern deaneries, but the wills for the western portion of the archdeaconry, which continued to be proved at Lancaster from 1748 until the Probate Act of 1857 came into operation, have never left that town. In 1861 the whole of the wills then in the Registry at Richmond (in Trinity Chapel) were removed to Doctors Commons, London, and in 1874 they were taken thence to the new Probate Registry at Somerset House. Since they reached London they have been admirably arranged and indexed, and it is from the indexes there compiled that the particulars contained in this work are mainly taken. Every name is given herein which occurs in the calendars for Amounder- ness and Furness deaneries, but as regards Kendal and Lonsdale deaneries, which extend to other counties besides Lancashire, the names relating to that county have had to be selected according to the descriptions of the deceased. Great pains have been taken to make this selection com- plete, but it is just possible that here and there a Lancashire description has been overlooked. The wills at Somerset House down to 1680 are for Amounderness Introduction. Vll below], it brings the total number for that deanery to 6962. A careful study of the above figures leads me to the conclusion that for the deanery of Amounderness there are still missing about 10,000 wills of earlier date than 1650. There is a tradition that when the wills were removed from Lancaster to Richmond they were conveyed in open carts, and that in passing through Wensleydale great numbers of the documents were lost or destroyed. This may or may not be true, but the fact remains that many thousands of wills are missing. To trace these lost wills every effort has been made by private investigation and by letters in the local newspapers, but all trace of them appear to be gone. The wills themselves are written on paper (or in some cases on parchment), and are now tied up in bundles of convenient size and are arranged under the various deaneries in alphabetical order. A very few, relatively, are registered in books. Many of them have suffered much from damp and neglect, and in not a few cases only fragments remain. As with the Chester wills, so with these, there is the gap during the Commonwealth. The list of Lancashire and Cheshire wills and administrations proved in London at this period, which is printed in vol. iv. of the Society's publications (pp. 249-300), refers to the whole of Lancashire, and contains many belonging to the district north of the Ribble, and so has a proper application to this volume as well as to the volume in which it appears. Just before this volume went to press it was discovered that one of the volumes of the Towneley collection of MSS.,* lately acquired by the British Museum, consisted of abstracts of 2279f Lancashire wills, almost all of which are for the deanery of Amounderness, ranging in date from 1531 to 1652, and on examination of these abstracts it is clear that they represent a portion of the missing wills. *Add. MSS. 321 15. t Eleven refer to Westmoreland and Cumberland, making the total 2,290. — Vlll Introduction. From a memorandum* on the fly leaf of the volume it appears the original wills, in 1670, were delivered by- Captain Brabent, of Preston, to Christopher Towneley,-|- who made the abstracts, and it is not at all unlikely that the originals never again found their way to Richmond, and that this may account for at least part of the loss attributed to the carriers of Wensleydale. Of Captain Brabent I have not been able to obtain any information, but it has been suggested that he was a relative of Henry. Brsidjn, who was Registrar at Kendal a generation earlier; if that should be so, he would doubtless be connected with the Brabyns of Docker, in the parish of Whittington, who entered a pedigree in " Dugdale's Visitation" of 1664-5. The will of a Henry Brabyn, gent., of Brockholes, was proved at Richmond in 1672. The abstracts preserved are short, but evidently contain all the genealogical details afforded by the will itself These abstracts have been incorporated in the List and are printed in italics, the year given being the year in which the will was made ; in other cases the date is that of " proof" The British Museum series are, as previously stated, almost all for the deanery of Amounderness. There are, however, amongst them a few belonging to Lonsdale, and the following, which refer to deaneries in Westmoreland and Cumberland : Westmoreland and Cumberland Wills. Atkinson, William, of Preston Richard Barnes, John, of Burton, husbandman Benn, Elizabeth, of St. Bees, Cumberland Borwicke, Mabil, of Troutbecke, widow Butcher, Anne, of Everingshead Cowperthwat, Guy, of Kenlinger Jackson, Edwine, of Ambleside Knype, Christopher, of Crossebancke... * The memorandum is " The Breviates of such wills as came to my hands out of the Archdeaconry of Richmond from Capt. Brabent, of Preston, this year 1670." t Christopher Towneley, the son of Richard Towneley, of Towneley, was born in 1603 and died in 1674. He was surnamed the "Transcriber," and left behind a large number of volumes of MSS. Introduction. IX Manwering, Katherin, Kendall (to be buried at) 1569 Robinson, Ellen, of Lowswater, Cumberland 158S Wilson, William, of Kendall 1^64 In addition to the newly compiled Indexes there is an early Calendar* containing, inter alia, lists of wills referring generally to the eastern portion of the archdeaconry, but instances also in a few to the western parts ; these lists, however, mostly refer to wills which have long ago been lost, but all the entries of wills now extant have been incorporated in the present volume. The arduous task of extracting these entries from the mass of other information has been kindly performed by G. H. Rodman, Esq., of the Principal Probate Registry, from whom I have received most valuable assistance during the progress of my work. The following is a List of all the Lancashire Entries, so FAR AS can BE ASCERTAINED, AS IN ONE OF THE Nineteen Volumes of the early Calendar already alluded to, and which will serve to show the pro- portion between the extant and non-extant wills.