BOLD TOWNSHIP & MANOR

Bolde, 1212; Boulde, 1332; the final e is wanting in some cases as early as 1300.

The area, which measures 4,483 acres, (fn. 1) is divided by a brook, now called Whittle Brook, but formerly Holbrook, running across it from the north-west boundary to Great Sankey. Cambal Wood lay in the south-east corner; on the south was Bold Heath, with Crow Heath and Lunt Heath on the borders of Cuerdley and Widnes. In the south-west corner was Cranshaw Hall.

The flat and open country is divided into arable fields and pastures, interspersed with plantations, and dotted with farms. The crops are chiefly corn, potatoes, beans, and cabbages, which thrive in a clayey soil. In the north there are collieries, and the country is even less wooded than in the south. One patch of old mossland also exists in the farthest northern portion of the township. Bold Old Hall and Barrow Old Hall are two picturesque buildings, surrounded each by a moat, situated respectively in the centre and far south east of the township. In the geological formation of the township the permian and bunter series of the new red sandstone are represented; the red sandstone and red marl with limestone of the permian at Travers farm and Bold moss in the extreme north of the township, with a patch of the lower mottled sandstone of the bunter series adjoining. In the south-eastern portion of the township the upper mottled sandstone is represented, and elsewhere the pebble beds.

The principal road is that from Prescot to Warrington, going eastward through the southern half of the township. It is crossed by the roads from St. Helens to Widnes, from which there are branches in the north to Burtonwood, and in the south to Penketh. The London and North-Western Company’s branch line from St. Helens to Widnes passes through the township.

In addition to the collieries there are works where tools are made.

The population was 950 in 1901.

There is a parish council.

The legend of Bold and the Dragon seems to have been based on an ignorant interpretation of the placename. (fn. 2)

Richard Bancroft, bishop of London 1597 to 1604, archbishop of Canterbury 1604 to 1610, was born here and baptized at Farnworth chapel. (fn. 3) Robert Barnes, of Bold, was bishop of Carlisle from 1570 to 1577, and of Durham from 1577 to 1588. (fn. 4)

Tibb’s Cross and Bold Heath Cross were on the Prescot and Warrington road; the latter was taken down about 1870, and the little green on which it stood has been turned into a garden. Close to it was the pinfold. (fn. 5)

South of the hall there was an extraordinary cluster of fine old oaks, many of them of vast growth; they covered 40 acres of land. (fn. 6)

Charles Leigh, in his Natural History, states that ‘the most remarkable thing of the wild duck is their way of feeding them at Bold in Lancashire . … They oftentimes adventure to come into the moat near the hall, which a person accustomed to feed them perceiving, he beats with a stone on a hollow vessel. The ducks answer the sound, and come quite round him upon a hill adjoining the water. He scatters corn amongst them, which they take with as much quietness and familiarity as tame ones. When fed they take their flight to the rivers, meres, and salt marshes.’ (fn. 7)

MANORS

The earliest record of BOLD is found in the survey of 1212. (fn. 8) It appears that the manor was assessed as four ploughlands and held in thegnage by the rent of 21s. 4d. yearly by Adam son of Richard; and that Adam’s great-grandfather Tuger the Elder (senex) had formerly held it. Two minor manors had been created, or perhaps preserved from more ancient times, viz., La Quick and another unnamed, each of half a plough-land.

It was Tuger the Elder who granted La Quick out of his demesne; (fn. 9) he was probably a contemporary of King Stephen. The name of his son does not occur, but Richard de Bold paid half a mark to the scutage of 1201. (fn. 10) He died in or before 1211, and Adam, his son and heir, proffered 100s. for livery of the four plough-lands in Bold. (fn. 11) The issues while the manor was in the king’s hands amounted to 7s. (fn. 12) Richard’s widow, Waltania, who was of the king’s gift, married Waldern de Reynham. (fn. 13)

Of Adam de Bold nothing more seems to be known. He died in or before 1222, his brother Matthew succeeding. The latter was called upon to show by what warrant he held two plough-lands in Bold, and in May, 1223, fined 3 marks for his relief, and had livery of three plough-lands. (fn. 14) Three charters of Matthew’s have been preserved; (fn. 15) he was living in 1242, when he was a juror on the inquiry of the Gascon scutage. (fn. 16)

The next in possession was William de Bold. (fn. 17) His parentage is not stated. He received a grant of the manor of Bold from William de Ferrers, earl of Derby, who died in 1254; the boundaries were fully defined, and the services were to be the payment of 10s. a year and doing suit at the wapentake court of West Derby. (fn. 18) A change took place in his time in the tenure, for about 1260 Robert de Ferrers enfeoffed Sir William le Boteler of Warrington of the manor with the service of William de Bold and his heirs, rendering 10s. a year for it. (fn. 19) From this time the manor of Bold became part of the Warrington fee; the old thegnage rent of 21s. 4d. was paid by the holder of the manor to the lord of Warrington, who paid 10s. to the earl or duke of Lancaster. (fn. 20) Some of William de Bold’s charters have been preserved. (fn. 21)

Robert son of William de Bold succeeded his father in or before 1278, and held the manor over forty years. He is first mentioned in a complaint of William son of John de Quick concerning the latter’s free tenement in Bold. (fn. 22) He himself had a suit against Henry earl of Lincoln a few years later. (fn. 23) In 1297 and subsequently he made certain settlements on his eldest son Richard, (fn. 24) who for a time at least appears to have been in possession of the manor. (fn. 25) A considerable number of Robert’s charters have been preserved, reaching down to 1325, (fn. 26) about which time probably he died. (fn. 27)

His son Richard, who succeeded, held possession for about twenty years. (fn. 28) He married Margery daughter of William de Mobberley of Mobberley, (fn. 29) who survived him and as ‘Lady of Bold’ managed the affairs of her grandson. One of Richard’s first acts was to come to a settlement with William le Boteler of Warrington. The earl of Lancaster, disregarding the Ferrers grant of the manor to the lord of Warrington, had claimed the old thegnage service of 21s. 4d. from the lord of Bold, who was thus required to pay both to Boteler and to the earl. Richard therefore called upon William le Boteler as mesne lord to acquit him, and so obtained redress. (fn. 30) Another matter settled was the claim of Ellen de Torbock, the latter resigning all her right to the lands in dispute. (fn. 31) A little later a boundary dispute with John la Warre, as to land claimed by the latter as part of Cuerdley, was settled in Richard’s favour. (fn. 32) A number of his deeds have been preserved, showing his management of the manor and lands. (fn. 33) He appears to have been successful in agreements with his neighbours and in adding to his possessions. He died in 1346 or 1347. (fn. 34)

His son William, who died before him, was married about 1329 to Sibyl, daughter of Sir Richard de Hoghton, (fn. 35) and left a son and heir Richard, who was still under age in 1352. (fn. 36) Margery de Bold was still living in November, 1364; (fn. 37) she was defendant, as guardian, in several suits. (fn. 38) Richard de Bold, who was made a knight between 1368 and 1370, married Ellen daughter of Richard de Molyneux of Sefton. (fn. 39) He died between 1387 and 1391. (fn. 40)

His son and successor John had been contracted in marriage in 1378 to Emma daughter of David de Ireland of Hale. (fn. 41) He was knighted about 1400; he and Thomas Bold were engaged in April, 1403, for the campaign which Henry Prince of Wales was about to prosecute against Owen Glendower. (fn. 42) He was otherwise employed in the public service, being sheriff of Lancashire in 1406. (fn. 43) In November, 1404, he had obtained a grant of free warren in his demesne lands in Bold and Prescot. (fn. 44) He died on 27 June, 1436, being then constable of Conway Castle. (fn. 45)

Richard, his son and heir apparent, had been married in 1404 to Ellen, daughter of Sir Gilbert de Halsall; (fn. 46) she was a widow in 1433, (fn. 47) her husband having predeceased his father. Sir Henry was succeeded by his grandson Henry, who was subsequently made a knight and survived until 1464. (fn. 48) The latter Sir Henry’s widow was named Grace; he left two sons, Richard and Tuger, and several daughters. (fn. 49)

Richard had in 1439 been married to Katherine daughter of Richard Bold of Chester. (fn. 50) But little seems known of him except that he took part in the Scottish expedition of 1482, in which he was made a knight by Lord Stanley; (fn. 51) he died between 1483 and 1487, (fn. 52) leaving his manors to his son, Sir Henry Bold, who was made a knight at the battle of Stoke, 1487. (fn. 53) He had two sons, Richard, who succeeded to Bold, and Tuger, who purchased Eccleston and other manors in Lancashire and Harleton in Buckinghamshire. (fn. 54)

Richard son of Sir Henry married Margaret daughter of Thomas Boteler of Bewsey. (fn. 55) He acquired other lands in Bold, but sold some in Flintshire. (fn. 56) He was made a knight between 1500 and 1506, (fn. 57) was collector of a subsidy in 1503, (fn. 58) and died 16 November, 1528, (fn. 59) leaving a widow, Margaret, (fn. 60) four sons, and five daughters. (fn. 61)

His eldest son, Richard, succeeded. He was thrice married. (fn. 62) By his second wife, whom he married in 1535, he had a son Richard, who succeeded in 1558; (fn. 63) and by his third, another son, William, whose descendants came into possession in 1612.

The son Richard held the manors for more than forty years. He was a justice of the peace, and in 1590 made ‘show of good conformity’ to the ecclesiastical laws, but was ‘not greatly forward in the public actions of religion.’ (fn. 64) A few years earlier, according to information furnished by a servant of his, ‘neighbours used to come to Bold at such time as other men were at church.’ (fn. 65) Richard Bold had no children by his wife, (fn. 66) but made over all his manors to his illegitimate son, Sir Thomas Bold. (fn. 67) The latter died without issue in September, 1612, when Richard Bold, son and heir of the William Bold mentioned above, entered into possession. (fn. 68)

The new lord married Anne, daughter of Sir Peter Legh of Lyme. (fn. 69) He was sheriff in 1630, (fn. 70) and died on 19 February, 1635–6, his heir being his second son, Peter, aged only nine years. (fn. 71) The heir escaped the most dangerous period of the Civil War, and on attaining his majority accepted the existing order, (fn. 72) serving the office of sheriff in 1653–4. (fn. 73) He died before the Restoration, leaving an infant son, also named Peter, to succeed.

The heir was in 1671 entrusted to Adam Martindale to be educated, along with her own son, by Lady Assheton of Middleton, his mother’s sister. (fn. 74) Soon afterwards he was entered at Lincoln’s Inn, and sent to Christ Church, Oxford. (fn. 75) At an early age he was elected one of the knights of the shire, (fn. 76) and in 1690 was sheriff. (fn. 77) He died in 1691, his son Richard being still a minor.

Soon after coming of age Richard Bold was elected knight of the shire, (fn. 78) but he died young on 21 March, 1703–4. (fn. 79) His heir was an infant son Peter, who went up to Oxford in 1722, (fn. 80) and was elected to Parliament soon after coming of age, serving for Wigan in 1727, and for the county from 1736 to 1741 and from 1750 to 1760. (fn. 81) He died in 1762, leaving six daughters. (fn. 82) The eldest, Anna Maria, succeeded to Bold and his other estates, and dying unmarried in 1813, aged eighty-one, (fn. 83) was succeeded by Peter son of Thomas Patten of Bank Hall, Warrington, by Dorothea his wife, younger sister of Anna Maria Bold. Peter, upon succeeding to the family estates in 1814, took the surname of Bold. He served in Parliament for various constituencies, and on his death in 1819, (fn. 84) left four daughters as coheirs. Of these Mary, the eldest, succeeded to Bold. She married at Florence, and afterwards at Farnworth, Prince Sapieha of Poland, but died in 1824 without issue. Bold then passed to her sister Dorothea, who married Henry Hoghton, afterwards baronet; he subsequently assumed the name of Bold in addition to his own surname. (fn. 85) Their son, Henry Bold-Hoghton, sold the Bold estates in 1858 and later, and in 1862 discontinued the use of Bold as part of his surname. The purchaser of Bold Hall, William Whitacre Tipping, (fn. 86) died intestate in March, 1889, the estate passing to the next of kin, Mrs. Wyatt, then of Hawley Parsonage, Hampshire. About ten years later, after various attempts had been made to dispose of the estate, it was purchased by a syndicate, registered under the style of the Bold Hall Estate, Limited; the hall, much dilapidated, was taken down, and a colliery opened.

The mansion was thus described in 1860: ‘The hall stands on a gentle elevation commanding extensive scenery to the south, extending over a fine expanse of park to the distant hills of Cheshire; to the north and east it overlooks the pleasure grounds and the finely timbered north park with its groves of unrivalled oaks. It is a handsome, uniform, and very substantial edifice, adorned with fine stone columns and corresponding decorative dressings, designed and erected about 1732 under the superintendence of the eminent Italian architect Leoni.’ (fn. 87)

QUICK,

QUICK, (fn. 88) now forgotten, was sometimes styled a vill. About the reign of Henry II Tuger the Elder, as lord of Bold, gave half a plough-land to Albert, which was held by Albert’s son Henry in 1212 by an annual service of 4s. 6d. (fn. 89) This estate is identified as being in the Whike, because Henry son of Albert was a benefactor of Cockersand Abbey, (fn. 90) and their lands lay in the ‘Quickfield.’ A charter of about 1270 shows that part of the Whike had been recovered by the lord of Bold. (fn. 91) Another portion was held by the Rixton family. (fn. 92) More than a century later the messuage called the Whike was held of the Bolds by Nicholas Penketh for a rent of £4 6s. 8d. (fn. 93)

A local family took surname from it. (fn. 94)

The Hospitallers had a close in Quick Hill held by Richard Bold about 1540 at a rent of 12d. (fn. 95)

The Haydock family had early an interest in Bold, and in particular in CRANSHAW. (fn. 96) The Bolds acquired this estate also, and in the sixteenth century it is found as the dower of Margaret Bold and the portion of younger sons, Francis and Richard. (fn. 97)

BARROW

BARROW is mentioned in 1330, when a messuage in Bold in a place called the Barrow was given to Henry son of Alan de Barrow and Margery his wife; with remainder to Alan’s brother Ellis. (fn. 98) Almost a century later Cecily de Collay, or Cowley, daughter and one of the heirs of Ellis de Barrow, granted all her share of the inheritance to Randle son of Richard son of Henry de Bold, and to his son Richard. (fn. 99) This property also was acquired by the senior branch of the family, and in 1537 formed part of the dower assigned to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard, (fn. 100) on her marriage with Richard Bold.

In the survey of 1212 it is mentioned that ‘Gilbert held anciently four oxgangs of land for 3s. 6d., and now Richard his son holds them’ of Adam de Bold. (fn. 101) This estate has not been identified, but may be HOLBROOK, which was held of the chief lords by a rent of 3s. 6d., as appears from a grant in 1329 by William son of Henry de Holbrook of Bold to Henry his son, on the latter’s marriage with Agnes daughter of Roger de Ritherope. (fn. 102) Very little is known of the family; but their estate passed to the Corans, or Currens, of Bold, (fn. 103) and in 1535 Holbrook House was given by the father to Richard son of Ralph Coran, on his marriage with Margaret daughter of Richard Lancaster of Rainhill. (fn. 104) Twelve years later this Richard Coran appears to have sold his lands to Richard Bold. (fn. 105)

BRINSOPE

BRINSOPE is another estate of which a few particulars have survived. (fn. 106)

Various families and place names occur in the deeds and pleadings, but no consecutive account of them can be given. (fn. 107)

In 1662 Mrs. Joan Owen, mother of the heir, was living in Bold Hall, which had twenty hearths; Henry Greene had Cranshaw and Holbrook. (fn. 108)

Two ‘Papists’ registered estates in Bold in 1717: Nicholas Lurkey of Eccleston, shoemaker; and Mary widow of John Longworth. (fn. 109)

References

1. The census of 1901 gives the area as 4,484 acres, of which 13 are inland water.

2. Pal. Note-book, i, 68.

3. Pal. Note-book; see Dict. Nat. Biog.; White, Elizabethan Bishops, 375. The archbishop, a zealous upholder of Elizabeth’s religious system, was an opponent of the Puritans, and took a leading part in the Hampton Court Conference. For some unfavourable gossip, see Challoner, Missionary Priests, n. 41.

4. He was educated at Oxf.; M.A. 1556; and became a zealous Protestant on the accession of Elizabeth. He ‘alienated very large portions of the possessions of the see to Queen Elizabeth’; ‘his brother John was his chancellor, and exercised his office, without restraint from the bishop, in a most tyrannical manner’; J. L. Low, Durham (Dioc. Hist.), 232; see also White, op. cit. 181.

5. Lancs. and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 210–11.

6. Baines, Lancs. (ed. 1836), iii, 716.

7. Op. cit. (1702), bk. i, 163–4.

8. Lancs. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 18.

9. Ibid. loc. cit.

10. Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 153. He granted an acre in alms to the hospital of St. John outside the Northgate at Chester, and a ridding to the priory of Norton. Of the former grant nothing more is known; the latter was represented by a rent of 1s. issuing from lands in Bold, &c., at the dissolution; Inq. and Extents, loc. cit.; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 686.

11. ‘The heir of Bold owes 100s. for relief’; Lancs. Pipe R. 242.

12. Ibid. 241, 245.

13. Inq. and Extents, 128. Her land was worth ½ mark.

14. Fine R. Excerpts, i, 89, 103. There is no indication as to why possession of half the manor was withheld for a time, nor as to the apparent defect of one plough-land in 1223. In 1226 the thegnage rent of Bold was 21s. 4d. as before; Inq. and Extents, 136.

15. In Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 193 to 220b, about 200 Bold charters are transcribed, copied in 1635. Some of the originals are now in the Museum at Warrington. By one of the charters referred to Sir Matthew de Bold gave to Matthew his son and the daughter of Lady Emma Mainwaring all Langley Holt in Bold, for a rent of 6d. per annum; n. 7. By another he gave to Henry son of Hytel de Bold land between the possessions of his brother Richard and his son Matthew; n. 8. By a third, probably earlier than the others, as Matthew son of Richard de Bold, he granted lands to William of the Well (de Fonte), clerk; n. 9. He was also a witness to one of the Stanlaw charters; Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 581.

16. Inq. and Extents, 146.

17. He was juror in 1265; ibid. 232.

18. Bold D. (Hoghton), n. 84; an unsatisfactory fifteenth-century copy. The bounds are thus defined: Beginning at the Hardsty in Burtonwood and following the straight boundary between Bold and Burtonwood on the east to the boundary of Sankey near Hurlischalles; along a syke and boundary to Pighills Brook; by the latter on the west side to the east of Combal Wood; by the bounds between Bold and Sankey on the south to Penketh; by the boundary of Penketh to the east end of the Crow Heath in Bold, and near Penketh and Cuerdley; by a ditch on the west between Crow Heath and Cuerdley to a lane to Cuerdley, and by the boundary as far as the mere-stone between Bold, Widnes, and Cuerdley. Thence by the highway to five lanes on the west; along the way to Lunts Heath, and, over this, westward to Pexhill as far as Chester Lane, and along the latter to Cross Lane in the north, following the Prescot Road as far as the high cross at the boundary of Bold and Rainhill. By this boundary to Windyates near Sutton on the north, following the lane between Bold and Sutton to the east end of Cudleslane; along the boundary between Bold and Sutton to the east woods in Sutton, and on to the ‘Priest’s Ouller.’ Thence to Bailbirch (and) Morkels Moss near Bold, Sutton, and Parr on the north side; and following the boundary between Bold and Parr on the east towards Winwick to the boundary of Burtonwood; thence to the east end of Ladelers Lane, and along the boundary of Burtonwood to Hardsty.

19. Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 178. The grant was followed by disputes between William de Bold and William le Boteler as to the services due from the former. An agreement in May, 1272, states that William de Bold had recovered certain lands, and that those and all his other lands in Bold were in future to be held in exactly the same manner as they had been of Robert de Ferrers and his predecessors. The tenure described, however, presents a difficulty: ‘His (William’s) ancestors had held all their demesne of Bold from ancient time of the ancestors of Earl Robert by the payment of 10s. at the exchequer of the honour of Halton’; ibid. n. 160. No other reference to this payment of 10s. to the lord of Halton occurs, nor any sign of dependency by Bold upon the honour of Halton, the old service for it having been, as already stated, a rent of 21s. 4d. payable at West Derby.

20. Inq. and Extents, 287; ‘William le Boteler holds Bold, rendering 10s. yearly’ to the earl of Lancaster. See also the Surv. of 1346 (Chet. Soc.), 36; also Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 113. A Boteler rental of 1548 records the 21s. 4d. as paid by the lord of Bold; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 142. On the sale of the Boteler estates at the end of the sixteenth century, this right was acquired by the Gerards of Brynn; thus in 1612 Sir Thomas Bold held the manor of Bold of Sir Thomas Gerard in free socage by 21s. 4d. rent; Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 256.

21. To Henry his son he gave Stodleyhow in Bold and an oxgang in La Quick; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 3. These were perhaps the lands he acquired from Adam son of Robert Howe and Henry son of Richard the Mercer; the latter’s estate was in ‘the vill of La Quick’; ibid. n. 6, 17. Besides the son Henry just mentioned, William had another son, Roger; ibid. n. 164.

22. Assize R. 1238, m. 33d.; De Banc. R. 27, m. 87d. There were a number of other defendants, including Alice, widow of William de Bold, and Simon de Bold and Richard his son.

23. Assize R. 1265, m. 21; 408, m. 59. He had other suits on hand; e.g. against Peter son of Peter de Burghull and others, in which the jury decided that the disputed lands were in Rainhill, not in Bold; and against his immediate lord, William le Boteler; Assize R. 408, m. 18, 25d. He successfully resisted a claim by Henry son of Adam de Ditton to a messuage and half-oxgang of land in Bold; Assize R. 408, m. 12.

24. In 1297 the father gave his son various lands and a rent of 5s. 8d. in Bold; the remainders were to Richard’s brothers Peter and Matthew; Final Conc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 183. Four years later Richard received the manor of Bold; ibid. i, 196; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 2.

25. In 1307 it was Richard son of Robert de Bold who was defendant in a suit brought by Ellen widow of Henry de Lathom of Tarbock concerning her lands in Bold; De Banc. R. 164, m. 54. Henry de Lathom himself had in 1284 quitclaimed to Robert de Bold all his right in the land formerly held by Henry de Torbock in Bold; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 12.

26. As Robert lord of Bold he gave lands in La Quick to his son Peter in 1293, with remainders to his younger sons Matthew and Nicholas; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 1; while as late as 1323 Robert lord of Bold and Agnes his wife made a grant of lands to Nicholas their son; ibid. n. 26. An indenture of May, 1325, recites a deed by which Sir Henry de Trafford was bound to Robert de Bold to pay certain sums to Sir Richard de Hoghton; Richard the son and heir of Robert is mentioned, but it is not clear that the father was still living; ibid. n. 108. Others of his charters relate to lands he acquired from others; ibid. n. 5, 18.

27. In Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 33 (a feodary compiled about 1324) Robert is named as tenant of William le Boteler. At Easter, 1327, the widow received dower from the waste improved by her son; the wording of the deed seems to imply that she had been a widow for some time; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 93.

28. Henry de Scarisbrick and Richard de Bold were executors of the will of Gilbert de Haydock in 1322; Scarisbrick D. (Trans. Hist. Soc., New Ser. xii), n. 54.

29. Sir Peter Leycester in Ormerod’s Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 416.

30. The case was several times respited, but at last William le Boteler appeared, and could not deny Richard de Bold’s statement; De Banc. R. 292, m. 314d.

31. De Banc. R. 282, m. 77d. a long report citing the charters. In a charter of March, 1330, Ellen, as widow of Henry de Lathom, quitclaimed to Richard son of Robert de Bold all her claim to the 24 acres for which she had sued him in the King’s Bench, and also all the right she had in the remainder of the manor of Bold; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 31.

32. Ibid. n. 149. The date is June, 1334.

33. Some of them relate to acquisitions of small plots made in his father’s lifetime; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 14, &c. No. 24 is dated 1324, and its wording—’Ricardo filio Roberti domini de Bolde’—shows that the father was still living. He was accused of a breach of the forest laws in 1334 by enclosing 20 acres in Bold; Duchy of Lanc. Forest Proc. 1–17, m. 3.

34. In 1346 he was tenant under William le Boteler; Extent of 1346 (Chet. Soc.), 36. In Nov. 1347, Roger bishop of Lichfield granted an indulgence of forty days to all who being truly penitent and contrite, and having confessed, should with pious intention recite the Lord’s Prayer and Hail, Mary, for the souls of Richard Bold and William his son, whose bodies rested in the church at Prescot, and for the souls of all the faithful departed; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 101.

35. Ibid. n. 109. The date of the marriage contract is April, 1329. All Richard’s lands in Weston and Clifton (near Runcorn) were to be settled on William and Sibyl; and he was to enter into a bond not to alienate the manor of Bold. The Cheshire lands referred to are mentioned in later deeds as part of the family inheritance. Sibyl afterwards married Sir Robert de Clitheroe (ibid. n. 159), by whom she had a daughter Sibyl who had land in Bold; Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 104, 156.

36. Duchy of Lanc. Assize R. 2, m. vij.

37. Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 35; confirmed by her grandson Richard on 15 April, next year. Richard’s armorial seal shows two chevrons; on a quarter a cross flory.

38. De Banc. R. 353, m. 379d.; Assize R. 1444, m. 7; claims by Roger de Molyneux of Rainhill (see Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 94), and by Henry de Bold. Also Duchy of Lanc. Assize R. 1, m. iiij; 2, m. vij, by Nicholas son of John le Norreys. The parentage of Henry de Bold does not appear, but probably he was a brother of Richard, Margery’s husband; for it is recorded that Robert de Bold and Henry his brother were imprisoned by William de Holand until they agreed to pay him 23 marks; Richard de Bold had a brother Robert; Coram Rege R. 254, m. 61. Lands in Bold were granted to him and his sons Richard and William as early as 1346, and he was still living in 1375; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 84, 72. Richard son of Henry de Bold is mentioned 1350–80; ibid. n. 148, 75; Cal. Pat. 1348–50, p. 580. His wife’s name was Margaret, and he had a son Randle and a grandson Richard, both living in 1429; ibid. n. 91, 88.

39. They had been married some time before 1364, in which year a settlement was made on William, described as their son and heir, with remainder to his brother Robert; ibid. n. 99. A considerable number of deeds relating to a settlement in 1370 have been preserved; ibid. n. 42, &c. By one (n. 159), dated 25 Jan. 1369–70, Sir Richard de Bold enfeoffed Sir Thomas de Dutton of lands in Bold and in Cheshire partly in exchange.

40. Licence for Richard’s oratories at Bold and Cliviger was granted by the bishop of Lichfield in Nov. 1387; Lich. Reg. vi, fol. 123b. The latest of his deeds is dated in the same month; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 200, n. 56. In the following summer certain lands in Bold were settled on his son William, with remainders to Henry and Robert, brothers of William, but it is not clear that the father was alive; ibid. n. 51. John de Bold was in possession in April, 1391; ibid. n. 57.

41. Ibid. n. 50. John is here described as son, not son and heir. Nothing further is known of the William, Henry, and Robert of the last note, but Thomas, a brother, and Sibyl, a sister (n. 171), are mentioned. Thomas de Bold quitclaimed to his brother John, lord of Bold, all his right in certain lands there in 1393; he was living in 1411, but seems to have died soon afterwards, his widow Agnes resigning her claim for dower in 1423; ibid. n. 60, 61, 116, 115.

42. Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 200, n. 65. The engagement was for a year, beginning with their appearance at Chester on their way to Conway Castle. They were to bring with them thirty-eight men-atarms and 200 archers, all suitably equipped for war. Sir John was to receive 2s. a day and his brother 12d.; the menat-arms also 12d. each and the archers 6d.; two months’ pay to be given at once, and afterwards monthly in advance. The prince was to have a third of the goods captured from the Welsh rebels by the Bolds and their men. There was a Thomas de Bold at Agincourt in the retinue of Robert de Alderton; probably the same who was in the retinue of Henry V in 1417; Nicolas, Agincourt, 349, and Norman R. (Dep. Keeper’s Rep. xliv), 599, 601. For Thomas de Bold see also Cal. of Pat. 1422–9, and Dep. Keeper’s Rep. xxxvii, App. 55—writ of Diem. cl. extr. issued 1 Mar. 1436–7; also Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 481.

43. P. R. O. List of Sheriffs, 73. On 21 Sept. 1400, Henry IV granted his knight, John del Bold, whom he had retained for life, £20 yearly; commuted four years later for certain rents and profits in Appleton; Cal. of Pat. 1399– 1401, p. 338.

44. Chart. R. 6 and 7 Hen. IV, n. 10. In 1411, after ceasing to be sheriff he had charge of the castle of Conway, the king granting his protection; Add. MS. 32108, n. 1527. The bishop of Lichfield granted him licence for his oratories at Bold and elsewhere in Lancashire in July, 1395; Lich. Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 133. The chapel at Bold is mentioned in 1526 in one of the deeds on the Ogle R. It may be the Jesus Chapel noticed under St. Helens.

45. On 24 June, 1422, the prior and convent of Austin Friars at Warrington granted Sir John Bold and Dame Elizabeth his wife a chantry at the altar of St. Augustine in the body of their church, where mass should be celebrated for them daily, as also for the souls of their ancestors and of the Lady Emma, formerly wife of Sir John; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 208, n. 107. This second wife was living in 1439 (ibid. n. 74), and afterwards married a Gilbert Scarisbrick; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 6, m. 47; Pal. of Lanc. Plea R. 3, m. 343. In 1429 Sir John had some dispute with his son Richard; Scarisbrick D. n. 155 (Trans. Hist. Soc. New Ser. xiii). He was constable of Conway Castle from the early years of Henry IV, and was in 1436 responsible for the wages of six archers at 4d. a day. Pat. 14 Hen. VI, pt. ii, m. 19; and Cal. of Pat. 1422–9, p. 56. His will, made perhaps in 1408, is among the Scarisbrick D. (n. 146); also Wills (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 203. Sir John de Bold’s arms are recorded as—Argent, two chevronels gules; on a canton of the last a cross patonce or; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), i, 152.

46. Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 201, n. 62. The agreement was made between Sir John de Bold and Henry de Halsall, rector of Halsall, brother of Ellen; £200 was to be paid to Sir John.

47. Ibid. n. 90; she was still living in 1469; Bold D. (Hoghton), n. 14. In the north choir window of Farnworth church there was formerly the figure of a man and wife kneeling, the former having the gryphon of Bold on his breast, with a label of three points, the latter the arms of Bold and Halsall quarterly. Underneath was the inscription: ‘Orate pro anima Ricardi Bolde et Elene uxoris sue; quorum animabus propitietur Deus’; Dods. MSS. cliii, fol. 46b.

48. Security for the good behaviour of Henry de Bold was given in 1439 by Sir William de Torbock and others; Dep. Keeper’s Rep. xxxiii, App. p. 42. He was a party to his grandson’s marriage covenants in Oct. 1464 (Dods. MSS. cxlii, n. 98), and served on a North Wales commission in 1466; Cal. of Pat. 1461–7, p. 529. He died before 1479.

49. Probably there was an elder brother and heir, Boniface, who died young; for in 1433 a dispensation was granted by Eugenius IV for the marriage of Boniface Bold and Margaret Scarisbrick; Lich. Epis. Reg. ix, 168; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 8, m. 98. Tuger had a grant of lands from his father in 1465; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 100; he is mentioned also in 1450; ibid. n. 158. The name is spelt in various ways—Tutger, Tutcher, Tucher, Toger.

50. Ibid. n. 70, 74. Richard is described as ‘son and heir’ of Henry Bold.

51. Metcalfe, Knights, 7.

52. In June, 1482, before setting out for Scotland, he enfeoffed James Stanley, archdeacon of Chester, and others of all his lands in Lancashire to provide for his son and heir Henry and Henry’s son Richard until this last should be 20 years of age; and in 1487 his widow Katherine received her dower; Dods. MSS. cxlii, n. 104, 123.

53. Metcalfe, op. cit. 16. He had been married in 1464 to Dulcia or Dowse, daughter of Sir John Savage (Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 98), but in 1497 the name of his widow was Ellen; ibid. n. 120, 121.

54. He left his estates to his nephew, after making provision for his wife and daughter; ibid. n. 132, 134, 135, 138; also fol. 236. Among the Bold deeds at Hoghton are two (n. 60, 83) by a Robert Bold, knight, baron of Ratouthe, concerning his lands in Ireland.

55. Dods. loc. cit. n. 157; the covenant was made about 1483 by Sir Richard Bold the grandfather, and the union was to take place within thirteen years.

56. Ibid. n. 122, 126–30. Also n. 131; exchange of lands, &c., in Hope and Hope Dale for a rent of 16s. issuing from Bold.

57. In a deed (n. 122) dated Sept. 1499, he is ‘esquire’; in an agreement with King’s Coll. Camb. as to the payment to them of a rent of 20s., in June, 1506, he is ‘knight’; ibid. n. 124.

58. R. of Parl. vi, 535b. He was appointed seneschal of West Derby wapentake in 1505; Dep. Keeper’s Rep. xl, App. 544.

59. Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. vi, n. 25. This inquisition gives some particulars of the dealings with the estates during the preceding fifty years, and also recites Sir Richard’s will. Ellen, his father’s widow, was still living in 1527, the wife of James Clarell, having an annuity of £21; her son John Bold had various lands in Bold and Widnes. Sir Richard provided 300 marks for the marriage portions of his daughters, and desired that each of his sons should have an annuity of £4, and should be ‘sent to grammar school,’ and afterwards to the university. The executors were to provide ‘for the furnishing of the stock of Our Lady,’ and a priest to sing in a chapel on the north side of the church of Farnworth. His body was to be buried in this church, near his father and mother. He names his sons in order—Richard, Thomas, John, and Francis; also his brother Tuger; in default of heirs of the latter the estates were to go to ‘the right heirs of the body of Sir Henry Bold, knight,’ his greatgrandfather. Richard Bold, the son and heir, was aged seventeen and more in 1529.

60. Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 134, &c. She was still living in 1553.

61. From this time until 1664 the various Heralds’ Visitations printed by the Chet. Soc. are available; the pedigrees of the family may be seen in the Visitation of 1533, p. 147; 1567, pp. 110–11; 1613, p. 15; and 1664, pp. 41–3.

62. The marriage covenants for the earlier unions are given in Dods. loc. cit. n. 150, 136. He had married his third wife, Margaret Woodfall, before April, 1553; ibid. n. 146. It appears from the Farnworth Register that he had married her ‘at a certain place in Bold called Barrow Heath,’ on 28 Nov. 1551; Ch. Goods, 1552 (Chet. Soc.), 82. In 1553 he made a feoffment of his manors, &c., making provision for his daughters Anne and Ellen, and his illegitimate children John, Elizabeth, and Jane; in default of male issue, his manors were to go to his brothers Francis and John, and Lancelot son of Arthur Bold, deceased; Bold D. (Hoghton), n. 335.

63. The inquisition after his death shows practically no change in the family lands; Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. xi, n. 63, 13. For a brief note of his will, dated 20 Oct. 1557, see Dods. n. 147. His son Richard was aged twenty at his father’s death.

64. Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 244; from Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4. He was a suspected person in 1584; ibid. 226.

65. Ibid. 221; from S.P. Dom. Eliz. cliii, n. 62. The deponent went on: ‘He never saw the said priest [Richard Smith] but one time, and that was as he came over the dam-head at Bold, and three or four with him, and was cunningly conveyed in at a back gate into the garden, and so over the drawbridge into the house; and hath seen meat go forth of the kitchen and forth of the day house into his chamber … and these [there] he durst make good upon book he said his masses.’ In 1591 it was reported to the queen’s ministers that he had ‘of late reformed his wife and family’; ibid. 257; from S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxl.

66. Richard Bold was living in 1601, but dead before Sept. 1603; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1601–3, p. 125; Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 5. He had been sheriff in 1575 and 1589; P.R.O. List, 73. A settlement of his manors was made in 1600 (Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 62, m. 112), and another in the following year; ibid. bdle. 63, n. 170. In the latter fine ‘Jane his wife’ is mentioned; her father, William Mordaunt, occurs in an earlier Bold fine; ibid. bdle. 53, m. 106. Jane afterwards married John Edwards of Chirk; she was in possession of the manor-house and charged with wasting the park; her husband had killed and worried many of the deer; Duchy of Lanc. Plead. Easter, 3 Jas. I, bdle. 222. Two-thirds of the estate was taken into the king’s hands for recusancy in 1612; Raines MSS. xxxviii, 327. The recusant roll of 1628 gives thirty-one names in this township; Lay Subs. 131/318. Richard’s monument stands in Farnworth church: a man in armour, his hands clasped in prayer and holding a book; a sword is by his side. The inscription has disappeared. Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiv, 214.

67. In the Visit. of 1613 (Chet. Soc.), 15, Sir Thomas is regarded as legitimate, and his mother’s name is given as Margaret daughter to Henry Battersby. In 1574 certain lands were by Richard Bold, esq., settled on Thomas Bold, gentleman, and Elizabeth his wife; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 36, m. 19; see also m. 237. This was probably a child marriage; the wife Elizabeth is not named in the pedigrees.

68. Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 254. Sir Thomas held the manors of Bold, Burtonwood, Sutton, Great Sankey, and North Meols, and wide lands besides, by his father’s gift. The remainders stated are very numerous. His widow, Bridget, daughter of Sir William Norris of Speke, was living at North Meols. For the settlement on their marriage see Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 73, n. 41.

69. Funeral Certs. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 124. Over the doorway of the Old Hall at Bold are the initials RB 1616 AB. The marriage took place soon after he came into the inheritance; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 83, n. 37.

70. P.R.O. List, 73. In 1632 he paid a fine of £30 on refusing knighthood; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 222.

71. Lancs. Funeral Certs. (Chet. Soc.), 58; Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. 12 Chas. I, xxvii, n. 58. The inquisition recites the provision made for his intended wife, 18 Dec. 1612; it affords a number of field names, as—Harwood, Pillough, Fleam Meadow, Bandy Field, Comlowe Wood, and Blackhall Ground. The monument in Farnworth church gives his age as forty-seven; Gent. Mag. Sept. 1824.

72. He was added to the lieutenancy of the county in 1648; Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 252. A letter of congratulation from Henry Bradshaw of Marple, on his taking the Parliamentary side, may be seen in Ormerod’s Ches. (ed. Helsby), iii, 845. He married a daughter of Sir R. Assheton, an active Parliamentarian.

73. P.R.O. List. 73.

74. Adam Martindale (Chet. Soc.), 196; and Exch. Dep. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 65–6.

75. Foster, Alumni Oxon.; matriculated 1 Oct. 1674, aged eighteen.

76. ‘On Monday, 24 Feb. 1678–9, was the election of knights of the shire of Lancashire, and it’s thought there was 30,000 men at Lancaster. Two men were trodden to death; one was a Papist, some say both. Lord Gerard’s son was clearly and without much contradiction chosen, though none of the best. Mr. Bold of Bold and Mr. Spencer stood in competition. The matter could not be decided; they came to Preston to poll; they polled above a week, viz. till the Thursday se’nnight. The country came in all that time. Both sides bore the charges of their party; it cost them two or three thousand pounds apiece. Mad work there was, yet left at uncertainties. The writs were out; Spencer rides to London, leaves them polling. The earl of Derby was for Spencer; the High Sheriff [Sir Roger Bradshaw] for Bold, who on the Friday went to Lancaster to proclaim Bold knight for the shire, carried in a chair to the Castle, durst not come into the town for they threatened to stone him, and then the matter to be decided by Committee of Elections’; Oliver Heywood, Diaries, ii, 259. Peter Bold was a Tory; Pink and Beavan, Parl. Rep. of Lancs. 78.

77. P.R.O. List, 73. In 1676 he had married Anne daughter of Adam Beaumont, eldest son of Sir Thomas Beaumont of Whitley Beaumont in Yorkshire; Whitaker, Loidis and Elmete, 338.

78. He was a Tory; Pink and Beavan, op. cit. 81; Kenyon MSS. 428—from Richard Bold to George Kenyon: ‘1702, April 2. London.—Having served for the county of Lancaster in the two last Parliaments, makes me venture a third time to offer myself.’ He married Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Thomas Horton of Barkisland, Yorkshire; Burke, Commoners, i, 283. A settlement of the estates was made early in 1700; the manors were Bold, Burtonwood, Sutton, and North Meols; Pal. of Lanc. Docquet R. 471, m. 8d.; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 244, m. 4. The inscription on his monument in Farnworth church states that he had two sons and four daughters, of whom only the younger son survived him.

79. Shortly afterwards a private Act was passed, vesting the estate in trustees; 4 and 5 Anne, cap. 26.

80. Foster, Alumni Oxon.; matriculated at Brasenose, 2 Feb. 1721–2, aged sixteen. The age must have been understated. According to the Leeds parish registers there was an elder brother Richard, born 13 June, 1700, at the house of Richard Ashton of Gleadow.

81. Pink and Beavan, op. cit.; he was a Tory. For a settlement in 1725 see Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 296, m. 56. ‘Elizabeth Bold, widow,’ is mentioned.

82. Monument in Farnworth church. He died in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury; Gent. Mag. 1762.

83. Monument in Farnworth church She was the chief contributor in Bold to the land tax of 1785, paying £56 out of £65 levied.

84. Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 184–6. There is a monument to Peter Patten Bold in Farnworth church.

85. Baines, Lancs. (ed. 1836), iii, 716. Bold was prefixed to Hoghton by royal licence in 1825; Burke, Peerage, &c.

86. Baines, Lancs. (ed. Croston), v, 23. He was a Wigan cotton-spinner, and is said to have paid £120,000 for the hall and some farms. The following account of him is from a local newspaper: ‘Tipping was unmarried; he lived in about four rooms, and generally neglected the whole place. He was an eccentric character, rough in manners and in dress, uneducated, and without taste. Like Bold-Hoghton before him, who kept five hundred fighting cocks, Tipping’s chief pleasures lay in the barbarous sport of cock-fighting, in card-playing, and in visits to the Tipping Arms on the Warrington road. He preserved the hall, however, in which there were two Vandyck full-length portraits of Charles I and his queen, a royal gift to one of the Bold family; two Claudes, and a Holy Family by Rubens. The stories of Tipping’s eccentricities are legion. He appeared to hoard up money in the shape of buckets of sovereigns which got discoloured and mildewed with age, but he also had a fancy for going down to the Tipping Arms with a thousand pounds or so in his pockets.’

87. From the sale catalogue. There is a view of it in Baines, Lancs. (ed. 1836), iii. In the corridor was an inscription commemorating Peter and Anne Bold.

88. Lawyke, 1212; La Quyke, 1278, and usually; Whike, 1485.

89. Lancs. Inq. and Extents, 18. In this place Albert is feminine, in the Cockersand Chartul. it is masculine.

90. Cockersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 612, 613. The marginal note is ‘Quike: Bold.’ There are only two charters. By the first Henry son of Albert de la Quike granted land between Caldwell carr and a ‘land’ called the Hustude, in free alms, with common of pasture, and other liberties in Bold. In 1451 Henry Bold was tenant; ibid. iv, 1244–51.

91. Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 193 seqq. n. 3. By another charter William son of Henry de Pilothalgh, in selling ‘lands’ in Whike to Henry son of Richard the Mercer, states that he had purchased them from Thomas son of Adam del Quike, and that Henry de Penketh had held them; n. 177. From Henry the Mercer they soon passed to William de Bold; ibid. n. 17. It would appear that other members of the Mercer family had interests here, for Agnes, daughter of Richard de Alvandley of Bold, enfeoffed certain trustees of her lands in Bold, the rent of the chief lords being 4s.—that named in the survey of 1212 quoted above. The facts stated in the subsequent note are not quite in accordance with the identification of Agnes’s lands with the Whike; Raines MSS. xxxviii, 283. Richard de Alvandley, the father, was a prominent man in the district for many years, and is often called Richard de Bold, leading to a confusion with the lord of the manor; Alvandley was the name of a part of his lands; ibid. He was the son of Robert son of Robert the Mercer of Bold; Towneley MS. GG. n. 2134. His first appearance is in 1313–14 against Henry son of Robert Bellamy, the series of disputes lasting many years; Assize R. 424, m. 10; De Banc. R. 278, m. 55. He had another suit with Gilbert de Meols with regard to certain lands in Sutton; De Banc. R. 348, m. 404; 353, m. 231; Towneley MS. GG. n. 2134. Richard de Alvandley was at one time coroner; Cal. Close, 1330–3, p. 74. He died about 1350, for his daughter Agnes was plaintiff in the following year; Duchy of Lanc. Assize R. 1, m. 5; and 3, m. ijd. She was still living in 1393, and several deeds relating to the disposition of her inheritance are preserved among the Lyme muniments; Raines MSS. xxxviii, 283. The lands appear to have been sold in 1393 to Gilbert son of John de Haydock. See also the account of Woolton.

92. In June, 1319, John son of Robert le Norreys transferred to Henry de Rixton all the lands and tenements in Bold which John had received from his uncle Robert de Upton, to wit, the land called the Whike; Dods. loc. cit. n. 25. Afterwards, in 1362, Henry and his son Richard joined in granting to Richard de Bold all their lands in Bold, Henry and his wife Ellen receiving a grant of the Whike for their lives; ibid. n. 37, 38.

93. Ibid. n. 106; the date is 1485.

94. William son of John de Quike in 1278; Henry de Quike in 1288 and later; John son of William de Quike in 1291; Henry’s wife was named Mabel, and his son Alan; Juliana de Quike occurs about the same time, and Nicholas de Quike and his wife Lettice in 1302; see Assize R. 1238, m. 33d.; 420, m. 3, &c. These suits concern land in Bold; some of them were complaints against the lords of Bold, and others against Robert de la Ford and his family. In the charters Henry and Robert de Quikefield occur; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 193b, &c. A close called Quickfield and another tenement were leased by Richard Bold to John Marsh, blacksmith, in 1632. In 1651 it was found to have been sequestered for the recusancy of William Marsh, recently dead; but it was restored next year to Gilbert Croft of Burtonwood and his wife, in the latter’s right, they being ‘good Protestants’; Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), iv, 119.

95. Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84.

96. Crouenschae, c. 1270; Croncischagh, c. 1300; Crauneshagh, 1318; Cranshawe and Craunshaw, 1553. It was acquired by the Haydocks from Matthew de Bold in free marriage with Alice his daughter; Legh D. (quoted by W. Beamont). By an early charter Gilbert de Haydock, with the assent of Alice his wife, gave to Alan son of Ralph de Penketh a part of his land in Cranshaw Halgh, with all its appurtenances in the vill of Bold; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 168. By another charter Gilbert granted to Richard son of Richard de Crosby half his land in Cranshaw in Bold, which Robert de Mara formerly held, for a rent of 3s. 4d.; Bold D. (Warr.), G. 44. This was about 1300 given up to Robert de Bold; ibid. F. 187. In this deed the ‘priest stile’ is mentioned. The interest of the Haydock family is testified by fines of 1286 and 1332 and an inquisition of 1388; here the tenure is described as ‘in socage, rendering a barbed arrow’; Final Conc. i, 164; ii, 82; Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 32; also Duchy of Lanc. Assize R. 6, m. 3d. The place being a boundary of the township the resident family took the name of Edge, and in 1364 Jordan de Edge and Ibota his wife granted to Roger son of Adam Gernet of Bold a part of his land in Cranshaw, one head abutting upon the chapel of Farnworth and the other upon land of Richard son of Henry de Bold; Dods. loc. cit. n. 148.

97. Dame Margaret Bold of Cranshaw, widow of Sir Richard, in 1553 surrendered her ‘manor’ of Cranshaw to her son Richard; and the latter by his will made in the same year, gave among other things half the household stuff in his manorhouses of Bold and Cranshaw to his son Richard; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 145, 147. Francis Bold, brother of the testator, is afterwards described as ‘of Cranshaw.’

98. Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 32, 29. William de Barrow was a witness to contemporary deeds; ibid. n. 30, &c.

99. Ibid. n. 88. Alice Collay and William her son are mentioned in n. 116, of 1411.

100. Ibid. n. 136; it is called ‘a tenement or capital messuage called Barrow Hall.’ For a description of the old house see Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xii, 185.

101. Inq. and Extents, 18.

102. Blundell of Crosby D. K. 56. William son of Henry de Holbrook released to Robert de Bold in 1297 two portions of his land in Bold; Bold D. (Warr.), F. 220. In 1335 Henry son of Henry de Holbrook secured land in Bold by fine from William del Heye and Emma his wife. The latter was Henry’s sister, and had herself received the lands on her marriage from the senior brother William. Henry before his death requested Alan his nephew, the son of William, to take charge of his boys and convey the land to them, retaining it for himself if they all died, and Alan thereupon took full possession; Final Conc. ii, 99; Duchy of Lanc. Assize R. 2, m. vijd.; 6, m. 1d. In 1387 Richard de Bold granted John de Holbrook and Margery his mother a parcel of land called Jacacre; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 56. This deed mentions the road leading from Prescot to Warrington.

103. This name occurs in the charters and subsidy rolls. Archbishop Bancroft is said to have been born at Coran Hall in Bold. The earliest of the family to occur seems to be William son of Randle de Kenian (? Keruan), who quit-claimed to his lord, Robert son of William de Bold, all his right in Cumbewalwood in Bold; Bold D. (Warr.), F. 258. Richard son of William de Coran in 1295 similarly resigned all his right in Camwall Wood; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 20. Richard had a son and heir Henry; De Banc. R. 258, n. 127. Henry del Coran occurs from about 1300 until 1391; no doubt there were several of the name. In the latter year an exchange of lands was made with him by Sir John de Bold; Dods. loc. cit. n. 57. In 1417 a settlement of the Coran estates in Bold was made by Henry Coran and Joan his wife, the remainder being to Henry’s son Richard; Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), ii, 168. Another settlement was made in 1446 on the marriage of Richard’s son Henry with Elizabeth daughter of Robert Sale; ibid. 169; one of the series is among the Bold D. (Warr.), F. 244. Richard Coran and Ellen his wife made a further arrangement in 1467, the remainder being to Henry son of Richard; Ducatus Lanc. loc. cit. Gilbert Coran in 1515–6 granted a messuage and lands (including Prior’s Croft) to his son Ralph on his marriage with Ellen daughter of Thomas Trafford; ibid.

104. Dods. loc. cit. n. 166–7. Cross Hey and Breck Hey are named in 1544; ibid.

105. Ibid. n. 142. Richard Coran or Curran died sometime before March, 1556–7, when inquisition was made as to his holding. He was seised of ‘the hall of Curran’ and lands attached; also of another messuage, with lands, in the occupation of Thomas Curran, &c.; Bold D. (Warr.), F. 92. The date of death is not stated, nor the tenure.

106. Six acres in Brunsop were granted by Henry son of Albert de la Quike to Henry son of Award de Upton; the land adjoined the ‘vill’ of la Quike; the rent was to be 18d., the right to send forty pigs into the grantor’s wood of Bold being included; Bold D. (Warr.), F. 149. In 1372 Elias de Brinsope granted Henry de Rixton the lands which had belonged to John de Brinsope, and the reversion of those in the hands of Cecily widow of Robert de Brinsope lying in Bold in the place called Brunsop; Bold D. (Warr.), F. 275. These lands were afterwards in the possession of the Blundells of Little Crosby, and in 1540 Henry Blundell leased part of his inheritance here to George Wyke of Bold; ibid. F. 185, 298. For another deed see Kuerden, iii, B. 13, n. 335.

107. In 1391 Roger son of Adam Gernet sold his lands to Sir John de Bold; ‘Gernet field’ is mentioned in 1425 in a quitclaim by William Bruen and Richard his son to Randle son of Richard Bold; Dods. loc. cit. n. 59, 91. See Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 14, m. 279; 31, m. 82. Richard son of Roger de Molyneux early in the fourteenth century gave to Henry son of William de Bold all his lands in Bold, reserving mastfall. This land was transferred by Henry to Peter son of Robert de Bold, and in 1325 Beatrice widow of Richard de Molyneux released all her right in the same; in her claim it was described as a messuage, 2 oxgangs of land, &c.; De Banc. R. 248, m. 265d.; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 15, 28. Turnlegh was an estate in Bold with ‘homages of divers free tenants,’ which formed part of lands settled on Richard de Bold and Ellen de Molyneux his wife sometime before 1364; ibid. n. 99, 42, 47, 159. Matthew, son of the Matthew who was lord of Bold in the first half of the thirteenth century, had land called Langley Holt; he seems to have married a daughter of Emma Mainwaring; and had sons Richard and Roger, of whom the latter had a son Roger; Dods. MSS. loc. cit. n. 7, 10, 163, 162. William lord of Bold, besides Robert his heir, had a son Roger, who married Ellen and had a son William; ibid. n. 19, 164, 76, 23. This William, known as ‘of the Hall,’ being convicted of the killing of Thomas de Eccleston at Warrington in 1323, was outlawed; Coram Rege R. 254, m. 43; Inq. a.q.d. 18 Edw. II, n. 2.

108. Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvi, 134. Bold Hall was the largest house in the whole parish.

109. Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 118, 123.

‘Townships: Bold’, in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3, ed. William Farrer, J Brownbill( London, 1907), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp402-409 [accessed 28 September 2024].

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