Townships: Lowton

A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1911.

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'Townships: Lowton', in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4, ed. William Farrer, J Brownbill( London, 1911), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol4/pp150-154 [accessed 25 November 2024].

'Townships: Lowton', in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4. Edited by William Farrer, J Brownbill( London, 1911), British History Online, accessed November 25, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol4/pp150-154.

"Townships: Lowton". A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4. Ed. William Farrer, J Brownbill(London, 1911), , British History Online. Web. 25 November 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol4/pp150-154.

In this section

LOWTON

Laitton (? Lauton), 1201; Lauton, 1202.

Lowton is situated in flat uninteresting country, covered for the most part with bricks and mortar, for the very scattered town of Lowton spreads itself in every direction, leaving spaces only for pastures between the streets or groups of dwellings. Lowton is a residential suburban retreat, easily reached by electric car from the industrial town of Leigh. Such a description is enough to indicate that what natural features once existed have long ago been superseded. In the extreme south a little patch of unreclaimed ground, known as Highfield Moss, represents the last relic of undisturbed nature. The Pebble Beds of the New Red Sandstone (Bunter Series) cover the entire township. The area is 1,830 (fn. 1) acres. The population in 1901 was 2,964.

The principal road is that from Newton to Leigh; entering at the south-west corner, and keeping near to the eastern boundary, it passes through the hamlets known as the town of Lowton, Lane Head, Lowton St. Mary's, and Lowton Common. Another road to Leigh branches off from it, keeping near the western boundary, and passing through Lowton village, Byrom, and Mossley. A cross road, lined with dwellings, passes through Lowton village and Lane Head. The London and North-Western Company's Liverpool and Manchester line crosses the southern end of the township, where it is joined by a loop line connecting with the same company's main line to the north; there is a station called Lowton. The Great Central Company's line from Manchester to Wigan passes through the northern half of the township, and at Lowton Common is joined by the line from St. Helens (Liverpool, St. Helens, and South Lancashire Railway); a station at this point is called Lowton St. Mary's.

Cotton-spinning and fustian-making were formerly carried on here. (fn. 2) Some silk-weaving is done as a cottage industry. Glue is made.

On 27 November 1642 Lord Derby's levies were routed on Lowton Common by the people of the district. (fn. 3)

A stone cross formerly stood at Four Lane Ends, near the present parish church. (fn. 4)

There is a parish council.

MANOR

Before the Conquest LOWTON, which then no doubt included Kenyon, was one of the berewicks of the royal manor of Newton; and in later times it formed one of the members of the fee or barony of Makerfield. (fn. 5) In 1212 William de Lawton held a manor assessed at 6½ plough-lands, and comprising not only two-thirds of Lowton and the whole of Kenyon, but half of Golborne and the small manor of Arbury. (fn. 6) His father Adam, who was living in 1200, (fn. 7) had made a number of infeudations, (fn. 8) and William himself granted Kenyon to a younger son. (fn. 9) Robert de Lawton succeeded him about 1260. (fn. 10) From this time, however, though the local surname frequently appears, (fn. 11) it does not seem that anyone claimed the lordship of the manor except the barons of Makerfield. (fn. 12) It is probable, therefore, that direct heirs failed, the manor reverting to the chief lord. It has since descended in the same way as Newton. (fn. 13)

The manor of BYROM in the northern portion of Lowton may reasonably be identified as the whole or chief part of the plough-land held in 1212 by Richard de Winwick of Thomas de Golborne. (fn. 14)

About 1270 Robert Banastre, lord of Newton, granted the Golborne lands to Thurstan de Holland. (fn. 15) The descent is not clear, but Byrom came by inheri tance to Alice, who married Henry son of Henry son of Richard de Glazebrook, whereupon he obtained the surname of Byrom. (fn. 16) The family improved its position by later marriages, and about 1420 Henry de Byrom married Lucy a daughter and co-heir of Henry son of John de Parr. (fn. 17) His grandson Henry married Constance daughter and co-heir of Gilbert Abram, and one of the heirs of the Boydells of Grappenhall; by this considerable lands in Cheshire were acquired, together with the advowson of Grappenhall. (fn. 18)

The family continued to prosper. Henry Byrom, living in 1553, (fn. 19) married successively daughters of Ralph Langton and Sir Richard Bold, and his eldest son Thomas (fn. 20) married a daughter of Sir Thomas Langton, but dying without issue the manor of Byrom passed to his younger brother John, who about 1559 married Margaret widow of Thomas Parr. (fn. 21) He acquired much of the Parr inheritance, and Parr Hall became the chief seat of the Byroms.

John Byrom was in 1590 among the 'more usual comers to church,' but not a communicant; (fn. 22) Mary the wife of his son and heir Henry was at the same time a 'recusant and indicted thereof.' (fn. 23)

Byrom of Byrom. Argent a cheveron between three hedgehogs sable.

John Byrom died in 1592 or 1593, holding the manor of Byrom and various lands, windmills, &c., in Lowton, Golborne, and Abram, of Thomas Langton, in socage, by a rent of 4s. 7½d.; he also held the manor of Parr, and lands there and in other townships. (fn. 24) Henry Byrom of Parr, his son and heir, who was then thirty years of age, died in 1613, holding Byrom by a rent of 3s. 7½d. His son John had died in 1611, and the heir was John's eldest son Henry Byrom, born in 1608. (fn. 25) He espoused the royal side in the Civil War, and is said to have been killed at the battle of Edgehill in 1642. (fn. 26) He had seven children, the eventual heir being the fifth son, Samuel, born in 1634. (fn. 27) His son John succeeded him in infancy, and died in 1696, (fn. 28) the heir (his son Samuel) being once again a minor. In 1706, having attained his majority, he came to an agreement with his sisters, mother, and grandmother, and obtained possession of the manors and lands. (fn. 29) He was, however, a spendthrift, and four years later was negotiating the sale of 'the royalty, manor, and demesne of Byrom.' (fn. 30) The purchaser was Joseph Byrom, a wealthy Manchester mercer. (fn. 31) His daughter Elizabeth carried it by marriage to her cousin, the celebrated John Byrom of Kersal, and it descended to their great-granddaughter Eleonora Atherton of Byrom and Kersal, who died in 1870, having bequeathed this and most of her estate to Mr. Edward Fox, her godson. He took the name and arms of Byrom. (fn. 32)

The Hospitallers had land here by the grant of Pain and Adam de Kenyon. (fn. 33)

The Mathers of Lowton are said to have been the parent stock of a celebrated Puritan family. (fn. 34)

In 1600 James Lowe was a freeholder. (fn. 35) The heirs of John Byrom, John Lowe, and the heirs of John Baxter contributed as landowners to the subsidy of 1628. (fn. 36) John Widdows of Lowton compounded for his 'delinquency' in 1649; as he had not 'engaged in the latter war' he had possibly joined the king's forces at the opening of the conflict. (fn. 37) Richard Holcroft, as a recusant, asked leave to compound for the sequestered two-thirds of his estate in 1653. (fn. 38)

An Inclosure Award was made in 1765. (fn. 39)

The Commonwealth surveyors in 1650 recommended that a church should be built in the township, but nothing was done. (fn. 40)

St. Luke's Church was erected for the worship of the Established Church in 1732. By the Winwick Rectory Act of 1845 it became a parish church, the incumbent being rector; the Earl of Derby is patron. (fn. 41) St. Mary's Church was built in 1861; the benefice is a perpetual curacy in the gift of Mrs. Leach. (fn. 42)

A Methodist chapel is said to have been erected in 1788; (fn. 43) there are now Primitive and Independent Methodist chapels.

Footnotes

  • 1. Including 9 of inland water.
  • 2. Baines, Dir. 1825, ii, 718.
  • 3. Report quoted in Baines's Lancs. (ed. 1836), ii, 17.
  • 4. Lancs. and Ches. Hist. and Gen. Notes, i, 203–5.
  • 5. V.C.H. Lancs. i, 366 n. The total assessment of Lowton seems to have been three plough-lands.
  • 6. Lancs. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 73. The manor was held by knight's service, 'where 9½ plough-lands make the fee of one knight.'
  • 7. Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 133. He was the son of Pain de Lawton; Kuerden, fol. MS. 363, R.
  • 8. Inq. and Extents, loc. cit. They were: 4 oxgangs (in Golborne) to Hugh de Haydock; 2 oxgangs to Robert son of Siward; half a plough-land (in Arbury) to Geoffrey Gernet; 2 oxgangs to Orm de Middleton, and the same to Robert de Kenyon; also Flitcroft to the Knights Hospitallers. The three grants of two oxgangs each may be those subsequently held by Robert de Winwick, Ellen daughter of Aldusa, and William de Sankey.
  • 9. See the account of Kenyon. William gave Witherscroft, lying by Byrom Brook, to Alan de Rixton at farm for 12d.; Inq. and Extents, loc. cit. William de Lawton was still in possession in 1242; ibid. 148. Alice his widow, daughter of Hugh de Winwick, released to Jordan de Kenyon all her dower in Kenyon; Kuerden, loc. cit. Alan de Rixton gave his lands in Byrom to Henry son of Richard de Glazebrook. In 1303 a marriage was agreed upon between Henry son of Henry de Glazebrook and Isabel daughter of Alan de Rixton; Kuerden, fol. MS. 364; see also Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), iv, 159 (W. 14). Alan son of Alan de Rixton claimed common of pasture in Lowton in 1292; Assize R. 408, m. 63 d. The lands descended to the Byrom family; Mascy of Rixton Deeds, R. 63.
  • 10. As 'lord of Lowton' he confirmed William's grant to Jordan de Kenyon; Harl. MS. 2112, fol. 147–83. He was defendant in several actions touching lands in Lowton in 1258 and 1263; Cur. Reg. R. 160, m. 4 d.; 172, m. 17. He may be the Robert son of Richard de Hindley to whom his father gave 'all the vill of Lowton, viz. twelve oxgangs in demesne and four in service,' as the fee of one knight; Towneley MS. OO, no. 1266.
  • 11. William son of William de Lawton claimed from Henry de Penmark common of pasture in Lowton in 1292; Assize R. 408, m. 13. In 1368 and later William son of William son of Felicia de Lawton was engaged in a number of pleas; his grandmother was Agnes daughter of Robert de Mossley; De Banco R. 430, m. 297 d. &c. Among the defendants were Hugh son of William de Lawton, and William son of Adam de Lawton. Mossley in Lowton occurs again in the 16th century; Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), iii, 386, 460. Ellen daughter of Aldusa (whose husband was Gilbert) daughter of William de Lawton granted two oxgangs of land to Jordan de Kenyon; Harl. MS. 2112, fol. 154b/190b. Stephen son of Thomas de Lawton in 1317–18 granted to Hugh son of Hugh de Lawton, who had married his daughter Hawise, all his lands; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxxviii, 511. Gilbert (a minor) son of Robert son of Richard de Lawton was plaintiff in 1352, the defendants being Richard de Lawton (apparently his grandfather), Mary his wife, Jordan de Kenyon, and Amery his wife; Duchy of Lanc. Assize R. 2, m. 8 d.; Assize R. 435, m. 18 d. 23. Cecily widow of Robert de Lawton was concerned in some of these suits; Duchy of Lanc. Assize R. 1, m. 1 d. At Easter 1356 the above-mentioned Gilbert claimed an acre of land from Adam son of Matthew de Kenyon, who replied that he held it jointly with Agnes his wife and Ellen his daughter, by grant of Richard son of Robert de Lawton. Another acre Gilbert demanded from John, a priest, Jordan and Hugh sons of Adam de Kenyon; but it appeared that Jordan was dead. Duchy of Lanc. Assize R. 5, m. 24. The cases occur again, e.g. Assize R. 438, m. 17 d.
  • 12. Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 137, 138; ii, 96, 99; ibid. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 105. The exception is that the Hollands of Denton claimed the manor of Lowton and Kenyon in the time of Elizabeth and later; Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. xiii, no. 20. This may mean only that their Kenyon estate included lands in Lowton. Sir Thomas Fleetwood sold lands and quitrents in Lowton to various persons in 1773; Plac. de Banco (Deeds enrolled), R. 199, m. 87; 201, m. 87 d.; 202.
  • 13. Apart from the manor the Leghs long held lands in Lowton, partly by purchase, but partly by inheritance from the Haydock family. Robert de Winwick, otherwise Robert son of Robert rector of Winwick, granted two oxgangs of land in Lowton to Gilbert de Haydock, who had given Robert 20s. 'in his great need'; Raines MSS. xxxviii, 510. This was no doubt one of the estates of two oxgangs granted by Adam de Lawton. A lease granted by Sir Peter Legh in 1615 required the tenant (or his deputy) 'to serve in the wars of the king's majesty, as used to be done'; W. Farrer's Deeds.
  • 14. Lancs. Inq. and Extents, i, 74. Nothing more is known of Richard de Winwick.
  • 15. See the account of Golborne and the suits quoted below.
  • 16. An account of the Byrom families by Canon Raines will be found in the Chetham Society's edition of John Byrom's Correspondence (old ser. xliv); and supplementary matter in Lancs. and Ches. Antiq. Notes, ii, 26, 91, 154. The descendants of Thurstan de Holland are not clearly ascertained. He appears to have had three sons by Juliana daughter of John Gillibrand—Thurstan, Adam, and Simon. He is not usually called their father, but made grants to them; Assize R. 408, m. 16d. In a suit of 1292 Simon is called son of Thurstan; ibid. m. 25. In a claim of the same date made by Alan son of Alan de Rixton against Simon son of Thurstan de Holland, Byrom was said to be 'neither town, borough, nor hamlet'; ibid. Simon the youngest son succeeded; in 1303 he claimed land from Henry de Glazebrook, but the jury found that it was really in Newton and not in Lowton or Golborne; Assize R. 420, m. 2 d. Alice the wife of Henry de Byrom was perhaps Simon's granddaughter by an elder son, for a son Simon is afterwards described as 'son and heir,' Alice's parentage not being recorded, though she claimed in her own right. Henry's parentage is shown by the Mascy of Rixton Deeds already quoted; R. 63, W. 14. It appears that Alan de Rixton's grant of lands in Lowton to Henry son of Richard de Glazebrook was absolute, and that the marriage of Henry's son with Isabel de Rixton did not take place, this son Henry, whose wardship was claimed in 1306 by Alan de Rixton, being the Henry de Byrom of 1335. Henry de Byrom first occurs in 1325 as witness to a local charter; Raines MSS. xxxviii, 397. Three years later, by fine, Thurstan son of Simon de Holland settled lands in Byrom, Newton, Lowton, and Golborne upon Henry de Byrom and Alice his wife; Final Conc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), ii, 70. The remainder was to the right heirs of Henry. In 1344–5 Henry de Byrom and Alice his wife recovered certain lands in Lowton from Robert son of Sir Robert de Langton and others; Assize R. 1435, m. 34, 36 d. In the next years Simon son of Simon son and heir of Simon de Holland, who had a grant from Thurstan de Holland, who in turn had received from Robert Banastre, claimed and recovered common of pasture in Lowton against Henry de Byrom and Adam his brother, Alice wife of Henry (claiming in her own right), and John, Simon, and William, sons of Henry. The recognitors found that an agreement had been made between Henry and Simon de Holland, the grandfather, as to an inclosure and division of the wood, but this was not carried out; Assize R. 1435, m. 9 d. At the same time other claims were made against the Byroms respecting land called Medewale in Lowton. Adam son of Adam son of Robert de Medewale claimed by grant of William, lord of Lowton, to one Roger de Pennington, father of Robert de Medewale; and Roger de Flitcroft, as cousin and heir of Roger son of Richard de Wirral, to whom Robert de Lawton had made a grant, claimed another portion of the same land; ibid. m. 16, 17. William son of Adam son and heir of William de Hesketh was another claimant; ibid. m. 19. Simon de Byrom, possibly the younger son of Henry already mentioned, occurs in various ways down to 1400; Raines, Byrom Pedigrees (Chet. Soc.), 5. He was defendant in a suit in 1356; Duchy of Lanc. Assize R. 5, m. 17. In a Subsidy Roll of about 1380 he is described as a 'franklin'; Lay Subs. Lanc. bdle. 130, no. 24. Simon was perhaps the father of Thurstan de Byrom, who before 1398 had married Cecily daughter and co-heir of Richard de Lawton. Alice the other daughter married Thurstan son of Richard de Tyldesley; Harl. MS. 2112, fol. 151/187. In 1391–2 Richard de Tyldesley of Lowton had become bound to Simon de Byrom; Kuerden MSS. vi, fol. 86, no. 236. Cecily does not seem to have had any children, but Alice had several daughters, and Agnes daughter of George Hartleys was her representative in 1547; Harl. MS. 2112, fol. 152b/188b, 159/195. Thomas de Byrom is named in 1411 (Towneley MS. RR. no. 1533) and was witness to charters in 1414 and 1423; Raines, loc. cit. 6.
  • 17. See the account of Parr. The marriage took place in or before 1422; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 5, m. 10. John Byrom, apparently the son of Henry, who received £20 on the marriage, espoused Margaret daughter of William de Lever of Great Lever in 1437; Add. MS. 32103; Lever D. no. 126, 127. Margaret is called the widow of John Byrom in 1473 (Kuerden MSS. vi, fol. 84, no. 207), but John seems to have been living in 1476; Culcheth D. no. 257, 259.
  • 18. The marriage probably took place in or before 1466, when Henry Byrom, senior, John Byrom, and Thomas Byrom, priest, no doubt as trustees for the younger Henry and his wife, presented to the rectory of Grappenhall; Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 600. Among the deeds at West Hall, High Legh, Cheshire, is one dated 1486, referring to the appointment of arbitrators to decide the disputes between Henry Byrom of Lowton and Constance his daughter, and Thomas Legh of High Legh. In 1487–8 Henry Byrom and Constance his wife and James Holt and Isabel his wife received from the trustees the manor of Handley near Chester, and lands there and in Latchford, Ringey (Hale), Stockport, and Stoke; ibid. ii, 723. For an interesting claim to tolls on the passage across the Mersey see Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 39–41. For other notices see Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App. III. In 1502 Henry Byrom paid 4s. 7½d. annual rent to the lord of Makerfield; Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. iii, no. 101. He died before his wife. John son and heir of Henry Byrom occurs with his four sisters in a grant by the father dated 1506; Raines, loc. cit. 7. He was forty years of age in 1512 when the inquisition after his mother's death was taken; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App. 45. Thomas Byrom, dead in 1526, is supposed to have been the son of John and father of Henry Byrom; Raines, loc. cit.; Piccope, Wills (Chet. Soc.), i, 20; Dep. Keeper's Rep. ut sup.
  • 19. In this year he made a settlement of the manor of Byrom, lands in Lowton, &c.; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 14, m. 7.
  • 20. In a Subsidy Roll of Mary's reign he and Elizabeth Byrom (widow of Henry) were the only landowners contributing in Lowton and Kenyon; Mascy of Rixton D. By his will, dated 1559, Thomas Byrom gave his soul to St. Mary and all the saints, and his body to be buried in the churchyard at Winwick, 'near to the place where my father lieth buried, whose soul God pardon'; he left 5s. to the repair of the church; Raines, loc. cit. 8. Mary his widow was in 1560 a plaintiff against John Byrom and others; Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), ii, 221.
  • 21. Ibid. See also the account of Parr.
  • 22. Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 245; quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, 4.
  • 23. Ibid. 247.
  • 24. Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. xvi, no. 37. The pedigree recorded at the visitation of 1664 begins with him; Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 66. His will is printed in Piccope's Wills, ii, 116. It names his wife Mildred, his son Henry, and grandson John; 6s. 8d. or 5s. each was granted to serving men, maids, &c., and twenty windles of barley were to be distributed among his poor neighbours; the sum total of the inventory was £259 18s. 9d. The will of his brother, Richard Byrom of Middleton, is also given (p. 117).
  • 25. Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 271, 274; ii, 11. Henry Byrom in 1594 acquired a considerable property in Lowton from Thomas Langton and Thomas Fleetwood; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 59, m. 371. His will is among the Mascy of Rixton Deeds; Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), iv, 175. Lands in Lowton were to be sold to pay debts; there were no religious or charitable bequests. The inquisitions show that John Byrom was twice married—to Ellen Lister of Thornton in 1604, and in 1607 to Isabel Nowell of Read, who survived her husband. The heir was clearly the issue of the later marriage.
  • 26. Dugdale, Visit. loc. cit. He was a major in the regiment of foot raised by Lord Molyneux. Immediately after his grandfather's death he had been betrothed to Margaret, the nine-year-old daughter of Sir Thomas Ireland of Bewsey, but the contract was afterwards annulled; Raines, loc. cit. 10.
  • 27. Two of the elder sons were lunatics, and two died young. Samuel had a younger brother Edward, who recorded the family pedigree at the visitation of 1664. The heirs being minors and the family Protestant, the estates were not interfered with by the Commonwealth authorities. Three of the sons—Adam, Samuel, and Edward—were admitted to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1646 and 1650; Venn, Admissions, 221, 231. Samuel Byrom of Byrom was buried at Winwick 26 Jan. 1665–6. Allegations concerning his will, dated 1668, are preserved in the Diocesan Registry at Chester; see Index (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), ii, 20; also Lancs. and Ches. Antiq. Notes, ii, 154. Entries in the Wilmslow registers are printed in Local Glean. Lancs. and Ches. i, 12.
  • 28. John Byrom was born 24 June 1659, as appears by an entry in the Rostherne registers. He was admitted to Gray's Inn, 1676, and about 1683 married Elizabeth daughter of Sir John Otway; she afterwards married Robert Hedges and — Hamilton; Raines, loc. cit. 10. At the beginning of 1694 he was chosen at a bye-election to represent Wigan in Parliament; Pink and Beaven, Parl. Repre. of Lancs. 230; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 282, 283. He was buried at Winwick 3 Mar. 1695–6, the register describing him as 'of Parr.' The monumental inscription describes him as 'a hearty champion of the Church of England, vigorously resisting the sacrilegious usurpations of the schismatics at his own charges'; as for instance in his recovery of St. Helen's Chapel for the Established Church; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 246.
  • 29. Raines, loc. cit. 12. Early in 1707 in a fine concerning the manors of Byrom and Parr, and various houses, mills, and lands in Lowton, Parr, Westleigh, Abram, Hindley, Sutton, Windle, and Golborne, the deforciants were Samuel Byrom, John Robinson, Lady Elizabeth Otway, widow, Robert Hedges and Elizabeth his wife, and Elizabeth Byrom, spinster (Samuel's sister); Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 258, m. 33.
  • 30. He was known as 'the Beau.' An account of his pamphlet, written in the Fleet Prison in 1729, will be found in Canon Raines's book, 13, 14. He states in it that 'he had a competent estate in Lancashire, but by being ill-introduced to the world, and soon falling into the hands of sharpers and gamesters (the very bane and ruin of many young gentlemen when they first come from the University), his estate was diminished, and, what was more valuable, his reputation was lost.' He was still living in destitution in London in 1739.
  • 31. An account of this family is given in Canon Raines's work already cited. See further under Kersal.
  • 32. Baines, Lancs. (ed. Croston), iv, 372.
  • 33. Pain de Lawton gave Flitcroft to the Hospital and Adam his son regranted or confirmed it. Afterwards the Hospitallers granted part to Jordan de Kenyon; the land appears to have been in two places, one in Lowton and the other in Kenyon; Kuerden, fol. MS. 363, R. About 1540 the lands were held by the heirs of William Flitcroft, at a rent of 11d. (? 12d.), and by Richard Holland at 12d.; Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84. Sir William Leyland of Morleys was found in 1547 to have held lands in Lowton and Kenyon of the king as of the late priory of St. John by a rent of 12d.; Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. ix, no. 43. The Earl of Derby afterwards acquired this land; Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), ii, 268.
  • 34. Five members of it have notices in Dict. Nat. Biog. See Local Glean. Lancs. and Ches. ii, 217. Richard and Samuel Mather are said to have been born at Lowton. Simon Mather was constable of Lowton in 1507; Beamont, Lords of Warrington (Chet. Soc.), ii, 375.
  • 35. Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 242. In 1631 James Lowe paid £10 as a composition on refusing knighthood; ibid. i, 213. Hamlet Lowe acquired a messuage and lands in Lowton and Newton from Hugh Thornton in 1555; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 16, m. 110. They seem to have been transferred to James Lowe by Hamlet and his wife Maud in 1564; ibid. bdle. 28, m. 230. Another freeholder was James Sorocold, who at his death in 1622 held lands in Lowton and Kenyon recently purchased of John Ashton and Nicholas Lythgoe; Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), ii, 406. Richard Lythgoe and Sir Piers Legh had in 1564 and 1565 purchased the Eccleston lands in the townships named; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdles. 26, m. 171; 27, m. 133. Thomas Arrowsmith, rector of Enborne, in 1597 claimed certain lands in Lowton against Geoffrey Hope, Alice widow of Henry Arrowsmith, and others; Ducatus (Rec. Com.), iii, 361; also 267.
  • 36. Norris D. (B.M.).
  • 37. Cal. of Com. for Compounding, iii, 2076. John Thomason alias Widdows in 1601 claimed land under a lease to his father, Thomas Johnson; Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), iii, 476.
  • 38. Cal. of Com. for Compounding, iv, 3176.
  • 39. Lancs. and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 56; for a map of the same time see ibid. i, 55. The Act was passed in 1762. There is a copy of the award (without plan) at Preston.
  • 40. Commonwealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 49.
  • 41. Raines in Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 262.
  • 42. A district was assigned in 1862; Lond. Gaz. 7 Jan. 1862.
  • 43. Baines, Lancs. (ed. 1836), iii, 635.
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