History & Heritage
in and around Greater Manchester

Alphabetical Listing - continued...:

The Middleton family had many holdings in Lancashire, and Sir George Middleton (died 1673), was the owner of Leighton Hall in the 17th century, at which time he was Sheriff of Lancaster - his arms hang at Lancaster Castle. As a mark of the family status, the Chantry Chapel of St Mary's in St Oswald Parish Church in Warton is dedicated to the Middleton family. They acquired the chapel along with Leighton Hall, by the marriage of Alyson Croft with Geoffrey Middleton in 1438 and the Middleton coat-of-arms is carved on a seat near the lectern.
After the end of the Civil Wars, heavy punitive fines were levied on the Middleton estates, as, in line with many Roman Catholic Lancastrian landowners, Sir George was a staunch royalist supporter. Sadly, while away fighting battles, his tenants stole many of his possessions and along with post-war seizures, confiscations and fines, typical of Cromwellian vengeance, very little of their once extensive and wealthy estates remained intact. Consequently, at Leighton Hall only a small portion of the kitchens survive from the time of the Middleton family tenancy.
It was not surprising then, that Edward Middleton from another branch of the family, emigrated to the United States in the 1600's, and his grandson, Henry Middleton, was elected on 22nd October 1774 as the President of the First Continental Congress, (the precursor of the US Presidency).
There is a plaque dedicated to Sir George Middleton in the church at Warton, where George Washington's family is buried. The district of Middleton In Lancaster is almost certainly named after the family.

We are indebted to Judith Middleton-DeFord for suggesting and supplying much of the information
on the Middleton Family

The Molyneux family were one of the oldest families in the original county of Lancashire. Normans by descent, they were initially to be granted the Manor of Little Crosby, which had been held by one Uctred until 1066. By 1212 it was owned by Richard de Molyneux of Sefton. The family later also owned most of the districts of Speke and Rainhill. Some time around 1250 Little Crosby left the family ownership by marriage through the female line, passing on to the Blundell family.
However, the Molyneux family gradually grew in power, wealth and influence, and in 1446 King Henry IV granted Croxteth Park, an area measuring over 900 acres, to Richard Molyneux.
In 1483 Thomas Molyneux was appointed Constable of Liverpool Castle and Steward of West Derby and Salford, and Master Forester of Simonswood, Toxteth and Croxteth. The Molyneux family were made Earls of Sefton in 1771.
In 1575 they had begun building Croxteth Hall as their new country seat but the last of the buildings was only completed in 1902. Surrounding the hall was farmland as well as extensive lands for hunting and shooting. The Hall is located just two miles from Aintree Racecourse, which the Molyneux family had owned and developed, and until relatively modern times Croxteth Hall was busy with numerous house guests during Grand National week. At other times throughout the year the Park was a venue for pheasant shoots and riding. It was not uncommon for important society figures and even royalty to stay for country house parties at Croxteth, particularly during the Edwardian era.
Excessive gambling debts forced the Seftons to sell off land and since the last Sefton Lord of the Manor died without heirs in 1972, the estate and Hall has been maintained and administered by Liverpool City Council. Nowadays the rooms are open to the public, showing life both above and below stairs. The Hall is also a popular venue for concerts and art exhibitions.

Ancoats Hall in Manchester was the principal seat of the Mosleys (sometimes Moseleys). It was here that the family sheltered the young Pretender on his way to the invasion of Scotland in 1745. The Mosleys were prosperous merchants, and Sir Nicholas Mosley was the first member of the family to be Lord of the Manor of Manchester, and also one-time Lord Mayor of London. He and his brother had set up a business in woolen manufacture at a time when Manchester had a virtual monopoly on that industry. His business expanded to such a degree that Nicholas moved to London to handle that end of the trade and to negotiate many profitable export agreements for his company. He was also appointed as Alderman to several London wards, he was made Lord Mayor of the city in 1599. He was a great success in this role, carrying it out with enthusiasm and dedication, being instrumental in raising soldiers and money to finance the building of warships for the navy of Queen Elizabeth I to defend England against the Spanish Armada. He also arranged to supply troops, ordnance and provisions to Ireland in support of the campaign by Lord Essex. For this he was eventually knighted, aged 72 years, by the Queen. Sir Nicholas also built Hough End Hall in Manchester.

The Norris Family of Speke are thought to have Saxon origins dating well before the Norman Invasion of 1066. There are many variations in the spelling of the Norris family name, including Norrys, Norries, Noris, Norreys, Noreis, Noriss, Norrish, Norie, Norrie, Norse and Norice. The name is probably derived from the Old English/Scandinavian words "nord" (north) and "hus" (house), indicating that the original family probably lived in a house at the north end of the settlement. Historically speaking, the Norris family is first known at Speke, near Liverpool in 1314, when the region still lay within the county of Lancashire.
It was William Norris II who began building the present day Speke Hall over 450 years ago, with funds accrued as the spoils of war. William also began the long family tradition of standing as Member of Parliament for Liverpool.
Isobel Norris was the first wife of Robert Charnock who rebuilt Astley Hall, and promoted the building of the first school in Chorley in 1611.
Like many old Lancashire families, the Norrises were staunch Roman Catholics - until in 1651, that is, when Thomas Norris became the first head of the family to convert to Protestantism. Nevertheless he was regarded as a Royalist during the Civil Wars which resulted in the punitive confiscation of the Norris Estates by Parliament - these were not regained until 1662.
The Norrises held the Speke estates, on and off, until the mid-18th century, by which time it amounted to around 2,400 acres. In or around 1795 the family vacated the house and moved to live in a fashionable district of London, and the house gradually fell into disuse and ruin.
The 20th century saw the virtual obliteration of all traces of the Norris estate, though several restorations to Speke Hall itself were undertaken by later owners and residents during the 19th century. Standing as it does today at the edge of a modern industrial estate, bordering on the runway of Liverpool Airport, it is an unlikely setting for a fine restored Tudor house, now in the (hopefully) safe-keeping of the National Trust.

The Osbaldeston family of Lancashire traces its roots back to 1063 AD, during the reign of Edward the Confessor, but it is believed to be even older. Several alternative forms of the name have appeared over the years, including 'Osbaldtun', 'Osbaldstun', 'Osberston', 'Osbaldton' and 'Osbaston' although American branches have also been shortened to simply 'Deston'. All are derived from old Saxon, which means 'the settlement or homestead possessed by Osbald (or Oswald)'.
The family lands centred around the fertile River Ribble which included Osbaldeston, (the village which still bears the family name), Balderstone, Salesbury, Walton-le-Dale, Clayton-le-Dale, Samlesbury and Billington. The Domesday Survey of 1086 shows Osbaldeston and Balderstone as one of the twenty eight manors held in 1066 by a freeman who was probably the ancestor of Ailsi, son of Hugo de Osbaldeston. The family has a long and distinguished history in the county with extensive land holdings, status and power base in the region. Fopr example, in 1387 Thomas Osbaldeston inherited the manor and estate of Cuerdale, near Walton-le-Dale. Then, prior to the Battle of Agincourt, in the 15th century, Sir John Osbaldeston was knighted by King Henry V, and became the lord of Chadlington Manor in Oxfordshire.
Further, in keeping with many noble families, intermarriage with other county families of rank was common, and extended their fortunes even further, with the Molyneux, Radcliffes, Duttons and Darwyns, among others, married into the family.
Osbaldeston Hall, built by Sir Edward Osbaldeston towards the end of the reign of James I, was the ancient family seat, until the last family resident left it sometime around 1750. Extensive renovation of the Hall had been carried out in 1593 by John Osbaldeston. By the early 20th century, Osbaldeston estates, together with those of the Oxendale family, totalling about 935 acres in all, were in the possession of the Dugdale family, and thereafter sold on further by auction. The Lavery Family owned the Hall from 1942 until it passed into the possession of the Inghams who carried out renovation and modernisation to the buildings.
In 1991 the Hall was purchased by the Walmsleys, so that Osbaldeston Hall is still a significant and recognised beautiful country house in the region. It reputedly has two ghosts, the so-called 'Red Monk' and a 'Blue Lady'. Alongside is Osbaldeston Hall Farm, now used as a local riding school.
There are several branches of the family name including the main families of Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston; Oxendale in Osbaldeston; Sunderland in Balderstone; Walton-le-Dale as well as other branches at Hunmanby and Hutton Buscel, East and North Yorkshire; Chadlington and Burford, Oxfordshire and many minor branches, such those in Blackburn, Preston and Disley in the High Peak District of Derbyshire.

We are indebted to Peter Osbaldeston for providing all the details of his family history, of which this is a very short version.

The Parkers of Browsholme are descended from Peter de Alcancotes, who held the Manor of Alkincoats in Colne, Lancashire, in the mid-13th Century when they gained the title of 'park-keepers' (or 'parkers') to John of Gaunt in the Hodder Valley. They kept Radholme Laund in the Forest of Bowland
Browsholme Hall, (pronounced 'Brewsom'), the historic house dating back to an earlier house before 1507, is the ancestral home of the Parker Family, Bowbearers of the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, who have lived there since the present house was built in the early 16th century. Browsholme is located in the Forest of Bowland about 4 miles northwest of Clitheroe in Lancashire, though before 1975 it was in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The original house was built by Edmund Parker who obtained a new lease from the crown in 1507. Thomas Parker, Bowbearer of the Forest of Bowland, purchased the freehold of Browsholme from the Crown in 1603 and proceeded to embellish the house. Through intermarriage, the Parkers joined other powerful families in Cheshire, Lancashire and Westmorland. John Parker (1755-1797) was one of the two MPs for Clitheroe. Thomas Lister Parker (1779-1858), became a patron to the great English landscape painter, William Turner in 1798.
In 1957 Colonel Robert Parker opened Browsholme Hall to the public. The branch of the Parkers now living at Browsholme is most remarkable for having produced distinguished judges in three successive generations. The present day owners, Robert and Amanda Parker still live at Browsholme.
Branches of the Parkers are scattered throughout England, in America and Australia.

The Pilkington Family have their roots were in the Manor of Pilkington, near Whitefield in Bury, and their ancestry goes back to Alexander (sometimes known as Leonard) de Pilkington who fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It was upon his marriage that Whitefield and Underworth (later called Unsworth) became part of the Pilkington Estate. The districts of Stand and Outwood, old parts of Whitefield, remained solely in the hands of the Pilkington family until the fifteenth century when the entire Manor passed to the Derby family - probably forfeited because of the Pilkington family allegiance to the defeated and deposed King Richard III.
Robert Pilkington fought and died at the Battle of Agincourt and Sir Thomas Pilkington fought at the Battle of Bosworth and was killed at the Battle of Stoke in 1487.
In the early 16th century, James Pilkington, the third son of Richard Pilkington of Rivington Hall, became the first Protestant Bishop of Durham and thereafter the family gained lands all over England. His brother Leonard Pilkington founded a Grammar School in the 1500s at Rivington, near Horwich, with the permission of Queen Elizabeth II.
Nearer to the present day William Windle Pilkington, who was born at Windle Hall, St Helens in Lancashire on 26th September 1839, the eldest son of Richard Pilkington, was to become one of the founders of the famous Pilkington Glass works in St Helens. He was married to Ann Evans, who was the daughter of Richard Evans, proprietor of the Haydock Collieries.

The Pollitt family traces its ancestry back to Norman times, through various different spellings of the name, (including Pollit, Paulet and Pawlet). The earliest known existence of the name in England is Henricus filius Ypoliti, in Yorkshire in 1171.
Early records show that in the early 13th century Herriard House in Hampshire had passed by marriage into the Paulet family, and that by 1493 large tracts of land around Basingstoke had come into the possession of John Paulet and his family -
in 1551 he was created Marquess of Winchester.
Basing House, near Basingstoke in Hampshire, was the palace of William Paulet, Marquess of Winchester, a powerful and wealthy Tudor courtier. It was built on the site of a Norman castle and is reckoned to have been the largest private residence in England according to some authorities. Henry VIII and Philip of Spain are said to have dined there. In the early 18th century Harry Paulet (1691-1759) was created 4th Duke of Bolton.
Branches of the family are found scattered around the country, as far apart as Devon, Somerset, Jersey, Staffordshire and Cheshire, with a branch certainly moving to the North West Region, notably around Huddersfield (Yorkshire) and Wigan, and in the 1830s a contingent of the Pollitt (sometimes Pollett) family was living in the Cheadle and Heaton Norris areas of Stockport. Slater's Directory of Salford & Manchester of 1848 shows the company of Pollett & Taylor, (Dressmakers and Patchworkers) existed in Oak Street in Manchester, and a Joseph Pollitt is listed in the Nobility, Gentry, Clergy section of the same publication.
Sarah and James Pollitt ran the 'Black Boy' Public House on Bridge Street in Stockport from 1795 to 1824, on the site of the town's first Sunday School, (which started in an upstairs room above the pub). John Pollitt and family ran 'The Grapes' in Stockport in the 1800's.
More recently, Pollitts owned and ran a large local vegetable concern on the main A6, and George Pollitt was a council member for a time on Stockport Council. He also owned and ran cinemas in Manchester and Stockport, and another section of the family had a sweet factory in Denton, Tameside. Female members of the family have married sons of Robinsons (the local brewery family) and into the Stokeport family.

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