last deed."[1] The commissioner who visited the school in 1868 remarked:—"The building is an old house, through whose thatched roof the rain penetrates in winter, dropping all over the desks, and gathering in pools upon the floor; the room is very small, 30-1/2 by 14-1/2 feet and 7-1/2 feet high to the spring of the roof, and the air being so foul that I was obliged to keep the door open while examining the children." The use of the dilapidated structure here alluded to has been discontinued, and the scholars assemble in a room in the Temperance Hall until a fresh school-*house has been erected.
Layton-with-Warbreck is the second of the two townships
comprised in the ancient parish of Biscopham or Bispham.
The Butlers, barons of Warrington, were the earliest lords of
Layton. In 1251, Robert Botiler, or Butler, obtained a charter
for a market and fair to be held in "his manor of Latton." The
estate descended in the same family with some interruptions, until
the reign of Henry VIII., when it was sold by Sir Thomas Butler
to John Brown, of London, who on his part disposed of it, in 1553,
to Thomas Fleetwood. The manor was retained by the Fleetwoods
up to the time of the late Sir. P. Hesketh Fleetwood, of Rossall,
by whom it was conveyed, through purchase, to the Cliftons, of
Lytham. The following abstract from the title deed touching the
transfer of the property from John Brown to Thomas Fleetwood
will not be without interest to the reader:—
"By Letters Patent under the Great Seal of England, bearing date the 19th day
of March, in the first year of the reign of Queen Mary. After reciting that Sir
Thomas Butler, Knight, was seized in fee of the Mannour of Layton, otherwise
Great Layton, with the Appurtenances, in the county of Lancaster, and that his
estate, title, and interest therein by due course of Law, came to King Henry the
Eighth, who entered thereon and was seized in fee thereof, and being so seized
did by his letters patents under the seal of his Duchy at Lancaster, bearing date
the 5th day of April, in the thirty-fourth year of his Reign, (amongst other things)
give, grant, and restore unto the said Sir Thomas Butler, his heirs, and Assigns, the
said Mannour and its Appurtenances, by virtue whereof the said Sir Thomas
Butler entered and was seized in fee thereof, and granted the same to John Brown,
Citizen and Mercer of London, his heirs and assigns, and that Brown entered and
was seized thereof in fee, and granted and sold the same to Thomas Fleetwood,
Esq., his heirs and Assigns, and that the said Thomas Fleetwood entered thereon
and was at that time seized in fee thereof. And further reciting that the said Sir
Thomas Butler held and enjoyed the said Mannour, with its Appurtenances, from
- ↑ Charity Commissioners' Report.
