SPEK.E : INNER BAY OF GREAT HALL. TRANSACTIONS

SPEKE HALL By Herbert Winstanley

Read I4th March 1918

PEKE HALL 'is justly famous as one of the S best examples of black and white mansions now left to us. It was built by various members of the Norris family and it was their home for several centuries. The Norrises of Speke were a younger branch of the family of one Hugh le Noreis, to whom King John before his accession to the throne gave the manor of Blackrod. They had land in Formby and Speke, and eventually acquired the manor of Speke by the marriage of Sir Henry Norris with Alice, heir of the family of Erneys of Chester, about 1390. From this alliance the descent of the family is established without difficulty. The next three generations at Speke were William Norris, who married the daughter of Sir James Harrington ; his son Thomas, who married Lettice Norris of West Derby ; and Thomas's son, Sir William Norris, who married Katherine, daughter of Sir Henry Bold of Bold. Sir William was succeeded by Henry Norris, who married Clemence, fifth daughter and co-heir of Sir James Harrington of Wolfage, and with his wife he obtained the Blackrod estate formerly held by Hugh le Noreis, the founder of the family. This Henry fought at Flodden in 1513, as mentioned below, and was buried at Childwall. This brings us down to the beginning ,of the ' B 2 Speke Hall sixteenth century, the century during which Speke Hall, as we know it to-day, appears to have been built. Henry was succeeded by his son William, then aged 23, who first married Ellen, daughter of Rowland Bulkeley of Watcroft, Cheshire, and after her decease married Anne, eldest daughter and co-heir of David Myddleton of Chester. He died in 1563 and was also buried at Childwall. He was succeeded by his third son Edward, who married Margaret, daughter of Roger Smallwood of West­ minster, and lived until 1606. Having traced the family history thus far we will examine the Hall as it stands to-day. The plan is roughly rectangular, measuring about 130 by 140 ft. with a courtyard in the centre, some 75 by 50 ft. It is surrounded by a wide moat, now drained, which is complete on the north and west, well marked on the east, but filled in on the south. It is crossed on the north side, in front of the principal entrance, by a stone arched bridge with two cutwater buttresses on either side. The building itself is timber construction on sandstone ashlar foundations. The only dates on the fabric are three, viz. 1598 over the principal entrance, 1605 over the south garden gate, and 1613 over the door of the drawing-room porch. A careful examination shows the building to be of different periods. The oldest portion probably is in the east wing containing the domestic offices, and it is possible that the kitchen window with its round- headed lights formed part of an earlier structure. The writer of the article on Speke Hall, which appeared in Country Life in 1903, states that this wall, and also a small fountain head in the courtyard, belonged to the original Hall begun 150 years before the present Hall was started in 1490, thus fixing the date about 1340; but he gives no authority. The next portion in date is probably the eastern z o ctf a

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50 O z H Speke Hall 3 portion of the north front. This front, eliminating the small modern addition on the extreme east, is roughly 95 ft. long. The gable end on the west side, measuring some 20 ft., projects slightly, and is similar in design to a corresponding gable on the south side of the Hall, but is different from the rest of this north front, especially in the treatment of the window sills, and appears to be rather later in date.

The principal entrance to the Hall is almost in the centre of the older part of the front, and consists of a stone porch with a four-centred late Gothic arch, over which is a bedroom with a six-light window and a gable containing a small window, the whole projecting slightly from the main line of the building. The inscription already referred to is over the arch and reads as follows: "This worke 25 yds. long was wholly built by Edw: N: Esq: ano 1598." 4 Speke Hall There is some difficulty in deciding what is meant by " this worke." Some authorities have thought it is meant to refer to the whole of the older portion of the front ; but I think the character of the front indicates an earlier date, for there is more Gothic feeling shown in this portion of the building than in the work on the other side of the court­ yard, which can be ascribed without much doubt to William Norris, father of the Edward Norris of this inscription, and which is probably in date some fifty years earlier than 1598. The more likely as­ sumption is that the inscription refers to the stone bridge over the moat, which is about the length in­ dicated and which would more fittingly be described as " this worke " than would the main building. The character of the bridge would fit the period better ; and the Renaissance cresting of the two walls con­ necting the bridge with the porch is similar in character to that of the small gate on the south side of the hall, which is inscribed with the initials of Edward Norris and his wife, and the date 1605. The bridge had become so far decayed about ten years ago that it was found necessary to rebuild it, but the rebuilding was done with such care that it is difficult to-day to detect it. To the left of the porch is the only arched window in the building. It lights the room now used as the servants' hall and which is supposed to have been the chapel. I have not been able to find any direct reference to the chapel at Speke Hall, beyond a licence for an oratory there in 1367, though there are two items in the Childwall church­ wardens' accounts which may possibly have some bearing on the point. They are under date 1626 and read as follows : ; '

Spent in going to Speake to see the Com- munian cupp weighed .... z o rt to SB h Speke Hall ' 5 Pd. to Edmond Holme which was payd] for the sayd cupp . . . . . III. XIII. VI. Spent in going to his house twyce about the sayd cupp 1 ....

Before leaving this front it is interesting to observe that there is a fireplace, now made up, in the roof above the porch, and it would appear that at one time there was a room there. The barge-boards are modern. There is nothing, so far as I have been able to see, to suggest that the south and west sides do not represent one continuous building. The irregular arrangement of the gables on the south side still suggests the Gothic spirit rather than the classic, and in spite of the absence of barge-boards is more picturesque than the north. Another point which cannot escape notice is the extensive use of the quatrefoil ornament, which is entirely lacking on the north. I have already alluded to the similarity of the west gables on the north and south sides of the Hall. The ground-floor windows are each of eight lights and are the only eight-light windows in the building ; the sills are raised above the sand­ stone foundations, unlike the other windows. The windows of the first floor are each of six lights, and the sills are ornamented with a rope moulding which is peculiar to these two bays. The points of similarity are so strong that I do not think it un­ reasonable to conclude that they are both of one period. Some of the hip-knobs on this south side have been preserved and have rather jolly little grotesques. There are two details on this side to which I have already alluded and which are somewhat later in date than the main building. The first is the garden gate, which bears the

1 Notes on Child-wall, R. Stewart-Brown. 6 Speke Hall initials E. N. and M. N. and the date 1605. They are the initials of Edward Norris and his wife Margaret. The other detail is the small stone porch built out from the drawing-room. This is slightly later in date and bears the initials W. N., E. M., 1613 ; being those of Sir William Norris, son and heir of the Edward Norris just mentioned, and of Eleanor his wife, who was the daughter :( of Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton. \ The west side of the Hall is now different from the rest, the plaster work having been replaced with brick or covered with boarding. The main features are the two large stone chimneys, the bay window of the drawing-room, and the projection containing the staircase. It will be observed there is a break in the roof ridge, the wall of the drawing-room being set back a little. The next thing to be considered is the courtyard, one of the best features of Speke. It is divided into two by the path joining the north and south entrances. On either side of this path there is a magnificent yew tree, and these trees add consider­ ably to the picturesqueness of the court. The north side is slightly shorter than the south, thus throw­ ing the east side at a slight angle. The eastern side i-s the highest and plainest of the four, being without break except for the small fountain head to which reference has already been made. The main uprights are ornamented with a projecting moulding. The cross beams on the ground floor are arranged in herring-bone fashion ; above them is a row of quarried windows extending right across the side; above these are two rows of quatrefoils, and above these again is another row of windows lighting the upper floor. These upper windows are only separated from the cove under the roof by a billet moulding. The opposite side of the court is rather differ- Speke Hall 7 ently treated, in that the line is broken by two shallow square bays, which are each finished in a gable. Further, the ground-floor windows are placed immediately above the sandstone foundations, and instead of being in a continuous row are gathered'in series of six, five, and five lights, the two latter being in the bays. The spaces between the windows are filled in with heavy timber work. The north side of the court, in addition to one flat bay at the western end, is broken by the wide main entrance, over which is a square bay supported on corbels. The ornamentation on this gable is not the quatrefoil which is used everywhere else in the court, but panels corresponding to those over the exterior of this entrance facing the bridge. On either side of the entrance is a narrow pilaster terminating in a Gothic capital. The treatment of the lower windows on this side affords yet another slight variation. They are again in continuous series on each side of the entrance, but are raised above the sandstone foundation on short straight beams. The south side of the court is the most elaborate. It is divided in the centre by a doorway of classical design with half-fluted pilasters and ornamented with urns; but it is quite possible that the pilasters and cornice have been added to the original door, as they appear to be merely applied to the main constructural beams. This side of the court is f I symmetrical in arrangement except that the two four-light windows which are immediately east of the doorway are replaced on the west by diagonal timbering. The main features, however, are the two bays. They are both similar in design. The one at the west lights the great hall. The upper story is square and is surmounted by a gable, one side of which runs into the roof of the west side of the courtyard, while in the lower story the corners are 8 Speke Hall chamfered off, thus forming four large windows each divided by uprights and transom into six lights. It is possible that this bay was not contemplated in the original design, as the billet moulding which runs all round the courtyard under the cove is continued on the inside of the chamber in the upper story of the bay, where one of the uprights also has the pro­ jecting moulding found on the exterior of the main uprights all round the court. The other bay differs only in the insertion of windows in the upper story, which is used as a bedroom. It will be observed that owing to the greater height of the east side of the court the end of the gable comes much below the eaves of the east side. In the interior the main interest centres in the great hall, which is in the western portion of the south side. It is some 41 ft. by 34 without the two bays, which give the plan the form of the letter T. As far as I have been able to discover, there is now no date anywhere in the hall, but the initials W.N. occur several times in the glass, and also in the plaster work above the fireplace, and no doubt refer to William Norris, who held the estates from 1524 to 1568. In volume xiv. of the Archaeologia there is an article on Speke by Henry John Hinchliffe, who wrote about 1800. He says: "Another in­ scription in the great hall shews that the wains- coating was finished by Sir Wm. Norres, knt, in 1564." There is no reason to doubt the authen­ ticity of this date, and it is quite possible that it disappeared in the restorations carried out early in the 19th century, some years after the estates were purchased by Richard Watt. The extent to which the Hall had suffered in the hands of the Beauclerk family, to whom the estates passed after the death of Edward Norris (1726), is sufficiently shown by. a letter from Mr. Watt of Bishop Burton (quoted by GATE TO GARDEN, COURTYARD : S.E. CORNER. X w O JO Speke Hall 9 William Robert Whatton in a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1828), which is as follows : In answer to your enquiries respecting the wainscot at Speke, I am sorry I can give no satisfactory information, having no writings in my possession that throw the least light on the question. Ever since I can remember, it has been said that the wainscot was brought from the palace of Holyrood by Sir Edward Norres, after the battle of Flodden ; but this rests entirely on tradition as far as I know. The large carved panels, in common with the rest of the wainscot in the hall, were much broken and defaced, one half of them being split down the middle and taken out. They were renewed, as well as I can recollect, with some sort of composition when the room was restored, fourteen or fifteen years since, under the directions of the late Mr. Bullock of Liverpool; but very many among them are quite perfect. With respect to the library, there were no books at Speke since it came into my family. The interior of the house was very much destroyed by the people (farmers and others) that the Beauclerk family allowed to live there; all the tapestry and an inlaid oak floor belonging to what is called the stucco parlour being taken to pieces, the one for firewood and the other for horse sheets, as I have always been told. The panels usually known as the Holyrood Panels, to which this letter makes reference, are opposite to the fireplace and are behind where the great table would be placed. They have been the subject of much discussion. The first mention of the tradition appears to be in Seacome's History of the House of Stanley (1767), where it is stated that they and most of the library of the King of Scots' Palace were brought to Speke after the battle of Flodden by Sir Edward Norris, son of Sir Wm. Norris, who was slain at the battle of Musselburgh. This state­ ment seems to have been copied by Enfield in his History of Liverpool and by subsequent writers. It is obviously incorrect, inasmuch as Sir Wm. Norris, who fought, but was not killed, at Musselburgh, was r 10 Speke Hall only fourteen years old when Flodden was fought, so that his son Edward could not have been there ; and it is well known that after Flodden the English forces did not penetrate into Scotland. It would be well, therefore, to describe briefly the part played by the Norris family in the military expeditions to Scotland about this period. The only member of the family who was at Flodden was Henry Norris (d. 1524), who married Clemence Harrington, and whose memorial brass with that of his wife can still be seen in Childwall Church. These two brasses, which were no doubt formerly in the Norris Chapel at Childwall, suffered much neglect until they were rescued and placed in their present position in the south aisle in 1853. They appear to have been finished in enamel, which is now lacking, only the outlines of the arms being left. One brass shows a warrior in plate armour. His head rests upon an " erne," which had been adopted as the crest of the Norris family after their alliance with Erneys of Chester. The arms show the Norris fret in trans­ posed quarters and the erne. The brass of the lady shows on the mantle the arms of Harrington quartering Radcliffe, and as Henry's wife was the daughter of Sir James Harrington by Isabel Radcliffe of Ordsall it seems safjejjo assume that the brass is her memorial. The name of Henry Norris does not figure in any of the contemporary ballads celebrating the praises of local men who fought at Flodden, and we are not able to say that he took more than an ordinary share in the fight. As far as I can discover, the only occasion when both Holy-root} and Edinburgh were sacked by the English was in 1544, during the Earl of Hertford's expedition. We have quite definite evidence that Henry Norris's son, Sir William Norris, was present on that occasion, for he brought back

V CARVED MANTEL IN DRAWING ROOM.

" HolvRooo " PANELS IN THE GREAT HALL. Speke Hall 11 fifteen folio volumes which are now at the Liver­ pool Athenaeum. It is rather beyond the scope of this paper to say much about these books. They appear to have been sold at the same time as the Speke estates, and eventually the whole of them, with the exception of the Bible, were bought by the Liverpool Athenaeum. The Bible appears to have found its way into a cottage at Childwall, where it was discovered by the Rev. Edward Campbell, and it was afterwards presented to the Athenaeum by the Marquis of Salisbury. The volumes were printed between 1499 and 1533, and although they have all been rebound, portions of the original binding have been preserved in every case. The cover of the Bible bears an impress showing it was at one time the property of Alexander, abbot of Cambuskenneth in Clackmannan- shire ; another volume bears an inscription showing that it belonged to Patrick Painter, whose nephew, David Painter, was commendator of Cambuskenneth about the date of the Earl of Hertford's expedition. In thirteen of the volumes Sir William Norris has written inscriptions, all similarly worded. Here is one from a volume of Bartolus : Memorandum that Edyn Borow was wone the VHIth. daye of Maye in anno XXXVT H VIII et anno domin M°CCCCCXLIIir and that this boke called Bartolus super Prima Codicis was gottyn and brought awaye by me William Norres of the Speike, Knight, from Edynborow the Xlth. daye of Maye in anno supra dicto and now the boke of me the fouresaid Sir William, geven and by me left to remayne att Speike for an ayreloume. In wyttenes thereof (I have) wreityn this with my none honde and subscribed my name per me William Norres, mylit. Another inscription definitely states that the volume " was gottyn in Edynborough." This Sir William was also present at the battle of Musselburgh or Pinkie in 1547, and was accom- 12 Speke Hall panied by his eldest son, also a William, who fought in the Duke of Somerset's own band, and fell in the charge on the Scottish pikemen. Sir William's presence at the battle is established by his capture of the pennon of David Bosewell of Balmuto. The present whereabouts of this pennon is not known, but a drawing of it is preserved among the Norris Papers 1 in the British Museum, and this drawing is fairly accurately reproduced in the Transactions of the Society for 1848-1850, p. 168. In the original there is a note across the drawing, " This Gwyddon was wonne by Sir Wm. Norres in Scotland," and a further addition, " This is a copie verbatum after Sir William Norres's own handwriting." From the foregoing statement it is quite clear that if the panels came from Holyrood at all, they must have been brought by Sir William in 1 544. If this were so, it seems strange that Sir William, who so carefully recorded the taking of the pennon and so carefully inscribed the books, should not have left some record of the panels. Again, I am informed by those capable of judging that the evidence of the panels themselves is against so early ,., a date, as the mitre which is used here was not at that time generally understood. ',' It will be noticed that the work is an apparent insertion, for the columns at each end differ from the rest and may reasonably be supposed to be a local artist's effort to piece out the imported work, the local work being continued round the door. * This imported work has a foreign look and may possibly be Flemish. > The plain panels below the six carved heads are mitred, but are in butted frames. The carved panels have obviously suffered from previous neglect, most of them showing cracks, while the whole series has had to be braced up with an iron plate. Above the carved panels is an inscription reading : 1 Copied in Harl. MS. 1997. "HOLYROOD" PANELS IN THE GREAT HALL. " HOLYROOD " PANELS IN THE GREAT HALL. GREAT HALL : FIGURES ABOVE THE PANELLING.

V PANEL IN GREAT HALL. Speke Hall

Slepe not tell y' hathe consederd how thou hathe

spent y' daye past if thow have well don thank God if

other ways repent ye.

Over the door which gives access to the west wing there is a carved coat of arms which may possibly help to elucidate the question of date.-\ The first grand quarter shows i and 4 a fret, and over all two mullets on a fesse ; the second grand quarter shows a dexter hand proper holding a dagger ; the third shows i and 4 a fret, 2 and 3 a cross patonce ; the fourth shows three wolves' heads erased. Sir William Norris's second wife was a Myddleton, whose arms were On a bend three wolves' heads erased, and their crest was Out of a ducal coronet, a dexter hand proper. I would suggest that the second and fourth grand quarters are derived from the crest and arms of the Myddletons. * Sir William's mother was a Harrington, and the third grand quarter shows the Harrington arms minus the label. The first grand quarter shows the Norris arms, but with the fret in the first and fourth, instead of second and third, and with two mullets on the fesse. It is possible that the two mullets were a mark of cadency for the third son, and in this connection it is interesting to note that this form of the Norris coat is exactly similar to that on the bench end in Childwall Church, which is usually ascribed to Edward Norris, the third son of Sir William. The artists of that period were careless in matters of detail, and it appears to me to be reasonable to assume that this carving was erected by Edward Norris, who made a picturesque com­ bination of his own arms, the arms and crest of his mother's family, and the arms of his grandmother's family. It should be remarked also in this connec- 14 Speke Hall tion that this Edward Norris married Margaret, daughter and heir of Roger Smallwood of West­ minster, and it is not unreasonable to assume that such a connection would infer frequent visits to London, which at that period was in close commercial relations with Flanders, and he would then be afforded ample opportunity for the acquisition of Flemish panels for the further adornment of the great hall at Speke, which, if we accept the date quoted by Hinchliffe, had been completed in 1564, four years before Edward inherited the estates. "f Affixed to the roof timbers over the canopy of this Holyrood panelling are three little painted wooden figures such as are commonly seen attached to Gothic roof beams, and it has been suggested that possibly these figures were brought from Holyrood by Sir William. This seems a likely explanation of the popular tradition, although I notice that Mr. Pidgeon, writing in 1849 (Transactions of the Historic Society), only mentions two such figures. There are in the great hall three other pieces of plain panelling which are framed in similar fashion to that just described, one being over the mantel in the south bay and the other two being on either side of the hall. They have been restored with plaster and have the same curious blue and gold arabesques. ^ The east side of the hall is entirely taken up by the chimney and the door leading to the kitchen, etc. Over the latter would probably be the minstrels' gallery. The space has obviously been panelled up at some date subsequent to the ceiling ornamenta­ tion, for this is continued beyond the panelling into what is now a disused room. The mantel beam appears to be in a single block of wood, some 16 ft. long and nearly 2 ft. deep, and is ornamented with vine-pattern carving. Over the mantel and extending to the ceiling is some curious w CJ < -3 O, W rt

w I H

o Speke Hall 15 embattled plaster work of massive design, on which appear the initials W. N. This plaster work must also be an addition, as the ceiling ornamentation is continued at the back into a small closet from which there is access to the roof. Of the two bays in the hall, that on the north, looking out into the court, is the more picturesque. It is five-sided, four of the sides containing large quarried windows of six lights, the transom being ornamented with a vine trail. The initials W. N. appear in this window, and there are also two heraldic pieces. At the time Gregson visited the Hall the heraldic glass consisting of seven pieces which are now in the small drawing-room to the east of the great hall, was still in the great hall. The glass is not always original ; when pieces happened to fall out the damage appears to have been repaired by inserting a piece of clear glass, here, for want of a better de­ scription, called " Argent." This is mentioned to account for some anomalous blazons below. As far as I have been able to make them out, the coats are as follows:

In the Great Hall 1. Within a golden wreath with four lilies, quarterly: (i) and (4) Sable, three bars Argent (Hoghton); (2) and (3) Argent, a molet Sable (Ashton). 2. Within a golden wreath with four lilies, quarterly, [Gules and] Argent, in the ist quarter a lion passant Or (Massey); (2) Argent, on a bend Azure three garbs Or (Hesketh); (3) Argent, on a bend Gules (?) three escar- buncles Or (Thornton) ; (4) Argent, a molet Sable (Ashton). In Small Drawing-Room 3. Within a purple garter, quarterly : (i) and (4) Argent, a bend engrailed Sable (Radcliffe); (2) and (3) Argent, a fesse between two chevrons Gules (Fitzwalter).

NESTON PUBLIC3Llc1 LIBRARIES i6 Speke Hall 4. Within a golden wreath, quarterly : (i) and (4) Argent, a chevron Sable between three ravens' heads erased of the field and beaked Or (Norreys of Ockwells) ; (2) and (3) Bendy of six Argent and Or, a bordure Gules (Merbrooke). 5. Within a green wreath with four daisies, counter- quartered : ist and 4th, quarterly (i) and (4) Argent, on a bend Azure three stags' heads caboshed Or (Stanley); (2) Or, a chief dancette Argent (? Azure) (Lathum); (3) Chequy Or and Azure (Warren). 2nd and 3rd, Gules, three legs conjoined (Man). 6. Beneath a crown and surrounded by a purple wreath with four red roses (one missing), two medallions of Roman Emperors and lion's mask, quarterly : (i) and (4) Azure, three fleur-de-lys Or (France, modern); (2) and (3) Gules, three lions passant gardant Or (England). 7. Within a green wreath with four white roses, counter- quartered : ist and 4th, Argent, three bars gemelles Sable, over all a lion rampant Or (Maude). 2nd and 3rd, quarterly : (i) and (4) Erminois (Urswick); (2) and (3) Azure, a cross moline Or (Molineux). 8. Within a red wreath with four golden lilies, counter- quartered ist, quarterly: (i) and (4) Argent, a molet Sable (Ashton); (2) and (3) Argent, a fret Or (Norris); over , " a. fesse sable. 2nd, Sable, a fret Or, over all a label of three points Argent (Harrington of Huyton). 3rd, impaled (i) Argent, a double-headed eagle displayed Or (Holden); (2) Sable, three lions passant gardant Argent (English). 4th, quarterly: (i) and (2) missing; (3) Argent, a chess-rook Sable ; (4) Argent, a fret Or (? Norris). Over all a fesse azure. N.B. This coat is at present reversed. 9. Within an Azure garter, quarterly : (i) missing ; (2) Argent, on a bend Azure three garbs Or (Hesketh); (3) Argent, on a bend Gules (?) three escarbuncles Or (Thornton); (4) Or, a saltire Sable (Helsby). N.B. The garter is reversed and upside down, I have been unable to trace the connection of all these bearings with the Norris family, but the follow­ ing notes may be of assistance to those who wish to carry the enquiry further : i. Askton. Sir Thomas Ashton married one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir James Harrington of Woolfage, Northants. Speke Hall \ 7 3. Radcliffe. Clemence, wife of Henry Norris, was another daughter of Sir James Harrington by Isabel Radcliffe of Ordsall. Fitzwalter. John Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter, died 1495, and his widow married Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, who died 1521. 4. Norreys of Ockwells. John Norreys, 2nd son of Sir William Norreys of Speke, married Millicent, daughter and heiress of Ravenscroft of Cotton, and assumed the arms of that family. Sir John Norreys of Ockwells married, first, Alice, daughter and co-heiress of Richard Merbrooke of Yattendon, Berks. 5. Stanley. Sir William Stanley of Hooton and Storeton (set. 38, 3 Henry VIII.) married Ann, eldest daughter of Sir James Harrington. 7. .Molyneux. Sir Richard Molyneux, son of the Sir William who fought at Flodden, married, first, Eleanor, daughter of Sir Alexander Radcliffe. 8. Harrington of Huyton. Anne, daughter of Henry and Clemence Norris (see 3), married Percival Harrington of Huyton. The room next in interest is the great chamber, or stucco parlour as it appears to have been called sometimes. The letter previously quoted shows that this room suffered much neglect in the eight­ eenth century. It is a panelled room with a moulded plaster ceiling. It is lighted by a large eight-light window to the south and a bay on the west, and in both there are stained-glass heraldic panels dating from the seventeenth century onwards. The main interest in the room, however, is in the genealogical carving over the mantel. A drawing of this made at the beginning of the last century shows it in a very dilapidated condition, but since then the fireplace has been rebuilt and the inscrip­ tion, painted on canvas, has been renewed. It reads as follows : i8 Speke Hall

Henry Norris ' one of the X daughters by William Norris Thomas who married and heirs of Sir James her Anne Clemens and Jane Harrington who had Norris

William Nor two wives Ellen daughter of Rowland Buckeleye Esqr ris and after married one of the daughters and heirs of David Middleton alderman of Chester and by

these two nineteen This bringeth us to Edward the and he had children third son and heir of the latter his who after the Death of William

two Brethren married Margaret daughter of Robert Smallwood Esqr

1 The words underlined were missing when the inscription was examined by HinchlirTe about 1802.

The workmanship is very inferior to that of the carving in the great hall, and from the fact that it only shows Edward Norris with two children, while in 1567 he had six, we may presume the date to be about 1560, apparently being erected by Sir William Norris, the proud parent of nineteen children, who is represented in the centre panel with his two wives and offspring. There is an inscription over the door leading from this room to the west corridor, which reads : " The streghtest waye to heaven is God to love and serve above all things." There is not very much of special interest in the other rooms of the Hall to distinguish them from those of similar houses of the period. Lists of the rooms and contents appear among the Norris papers, but it is now impossible to identify them all. I think it is reasonable to suppose that the Hall was at its best about the end of the sixteenth century OF up to the time of the death of Edward Norris in Speke Hall 19 1606. Indeed the estates began to fall upon evil days soon after his death.1 Information about the family from this period onward is obtained from the Norris Papers, most ofv which are now in the possession of the Liverpool Corporation. Some of them have been printed by the Chetham Society. Edward Norris was succeeded by William, who built the small porch previously described. He died in 1626, and was followed by his second son, another William, who was a stout Royalist, and with his two sons fought against the Parliamentary forces, in consequence of which his estates were sequestered.2 His third son Thomas, who succeeded him, once more became possessed of the property. He died about 1686, and was followed by his son Thomas, who was M.P. for Liverpool for many years and was also sheriff for Lancashire. This Thomas's younger brother William was sent by Parliament in 1698 as special ambassador to the Great Mogul. The embassy seems to have been more successful on the personal than on the public side, but William was lost at sea, GO did not live to reap the benefit. His sword of state was presented to the Liverpool Corporation and is now preserved in the William Brown Museum. His brother Edward, who had accompanied him on the expedition, succeeded to the Speke estates, and on his death in 1726 they passed to his niece Mary, who married Sydney Beauclerk, fifth son of the Duke of St. Albans. The 1 Two years before his death Sir William Norris (d. 1626) sold the moiety of the Serjeanty of the Bridge Gate at Chester (Ormerod's Cheshire], thus breaking a family connection with Chester that had extended through several generations ; while the action taken by Francis Bindloss of Southampton in 1649 respecting the wrongful sequestration of lands shows that Sir William had mortgaged his estates in 1630 (Royalist Composition Papers, Record Society, vol. 24). - His will, dated gth July 1651 and proved iyth Oct. 1654, expresses his wish to be buried among his ancestors in his chapel on the south side of Childwall church. Thomas was his son and heir, but William, another son, was sole executor (P.C.C., 138 Allchin). 2O Speke Hall Beauclerks shockingly neglected the fine old Hall, but fortunately for our generation they sold Speke in 1796 to Richard Watt, a Liverpool merchant, and at his hands and those of his successors the Hall received the treatment due to a magnificent archi­ tectural monument and the ancestral home of a great Lancashire family. In conclusion I should like to acknowledge my indebtedness to Miss Watt for permission to photo­ graph the Hall, to Mr. Rylands for the loan of his transcripts from the Aston Hall Charters, to Mr. Stewart-Brown for the loan of his transcripts of the Childwall churchwardens' accounts, to Dr. Nelson for notes on the heraldic glass, and to Mr. Crossley for suggestions on the Holyrood panels.