Page:VCH Lancaster 1.djvu/478

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A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE

the collection of the aid granted in 1346 he was returned as holding of Henry, earl of Lancaster, one knight's fee in Walton-in-le-Dale, and one knight's fee in Newton in Makerfield, Lowton, Kenyon, Arbury, and the moiety of Golborne.[1] He died in 1361, his eldest son John having predeceased him, leaving issue Ralph, who was found heir to his grandfather in January, 1362, being then aged twenty-one years and upwards.[2] During his grandfather's lifetime the manors of Newton and Walton had been settled upon his father, whilst the third part of the manor of Langton, co. Leicester, the manor of Hindley, and half the manor of Golborne were settled upon Robert, younger brother of John de Langton.[3] Ralph de Langton, kt., was a witness in the Scrope and Grosvenor case in 1386. In 1391 he settled lands upon his son and heir, Henry, in marriage with Agnes, daughter of John de Davenport,[4] and five years later, in conjunction with his wife Joan, daughter of William de Radcliffe of the Tower, settled lands on his three younger sons, Nicholas, Thomas, and Geoffrey.[5] He died 7 April, 1406, leaving Henry his son aged 40 years.[6] Henry Langton paid £8 for relief of his lands in January, 1407,[7] and died in 1419, Ralph his son and heir being then aged twenty-three years.[8] Ralph Langton, chr., married Alice, whose parentage is unknown, and died in 1431, leaving issue an only son, Henry, then aged twelve years,[9] in ward of Thomas Longley, bishop of Durham, and others, who were returned the same year as holding half the manor of Newton; Alice, relict of Ralph Langton, chr., and Agnes, relict of Henry Langton, each holding a fourth part of the manor in dower.[10] Henry Langton, esq., died in 1471, and two years later his son Richard was found to be of full age.[11] Richard Langton, kt., was made a knight banneret by Lord Stanley at Hutton Field in 1482, on the return of the army from Scotland.[12] He married Isabel, daughter of Thomas Gerard of Bryn, kt., and died in 1500, leaving issue Ralph, aged twenty-six years, who had been married to Joan, daughter of Christopher Southworth of Samlesbury, during his father's lifetime. Thomas Langton, styled baron of Newton, great grandson of Ralph, was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of James I. In 1589 he was concerned in a fatal affray at Lea Hall, when eighty of his tenants and servants engaged with thirty tenants and servants of the owner of that place, Richard Hoghton of Hoghton Tower, esq., in an attempt to recover cattle seized by Mr. Hoghton, and as a result of other mutual provocations. Mr. Hoghton was unfortunately slain, and although no jury could be empanelled to try the indictment preferred against Sir Thomas and his accomplices for murder, the latter was in the end constrained to alienate his manor of Walton-in-le-Dale to the murdered man's representatives for the sake of peace; in whose descendant it remains vested at this day.[13] Sir Thomas died without issue in 1604, when his inheritance by virtue of a settlement made in 1594, passed to his cousin Richard Fleetwood, afterwards created a bart., of Colwick, co. Stafford,

  1. Feudal Aids, iii. 85, 91. This aid was collected in 1355.
  2. Inq. p.m. 36 Edw. III. pt. 1, No. 116.
  3. Chetham Soc. (Old Ser.), xcviii. 23-4; Lancs. Fines, Rec. Soc. xlvi. 194. From the younger Robert descended the family of Langton of the Lowe in Hindley.
  4. Add. MSS. No. 32,106, ch. 620.
  5. Ibid. ch. 571.
  6. Inq. p.m. Towneley MS. D.D. No. 1,501 penes W. Farrer. The inquest is fully abstracted in Dep. Keeper's 33rd Rep. App. p. 6.
  7. Add MSS. ch. 32,106, ch. 840.
  8. Inq p. m. Chetham Soc. xcv. 137.
  9. Ibid. xcix. 31.
  10. Feudal Aids, iii. 194.
  11. Inq. p. m. Chetham Soc. xcix. 93.
  12. Metcalfe, Book of Kts. 7.
  13. Whitaker, Hist, of Whalley, ed. 1876, ii. 334.

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