CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF ECCLES
By
T. SWINDELLS
THE BOOTHS OF BARTON
Amongst the benefactors to the Parish Church of Eccles in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries the Booths of Barton occupy perhaps the first place. A few
of their benefactions have been mentioned, and in addition to these, it is
certain there were many minor ones of which no record has survived. In addition
to this, the family played a very important part in the social life of the
community, being extensive land holders and occupying the position of lords of
the manor. It is, therefore, necessary that something more than a passing
reference should be made to them. The family was really a branch of the family
of Booth of Boothstown, Worsley, the first Booth of Barton being John del Booth,
who married Loretta, who was daughter and sole heiress of Agnes de Barton. Agnes
de Barton was descended from Edith de Barton, daughter of Albert Grelle, or
Greslet, who was the fourth Baron of Manchester. The first Lord of the Manor of
Mamecestre, or Manchester, was also Albert Greslet, who, as a favourite of Roger
de Poictou, probably occupied a high position at the Courts of William I. and
William II. It is thought that he received the grant of the Barony of Mamecestre
about 1086, and, until the death of Thomas, the eighth Baron, in 1310, the
Barony continued in the hands of the Greslets. Thomas having no male issue, he
left the Barony to his sister Joan, who had married Sir John de Ia Warre, Baron
of Wickwar, County Gloucester. Albert Greslet the Younger, as the fourth Baron
is often called, died in 1182, and was succeeded by his son, Robert. His
daughter Edith married Gilbert, son of William de Notten, of Yorkshire, in 1190.
Included amongst the lands paying knights’ fees in the County of Lancaster in
the opening decade of the thirteenth century were those of Gilbert de Notten,
who held in the right of his wife (Edith de Barton) “fourteen oxgangs of the
Lord the King in Thanage, for which he paid 26s. annually.”
John
del Booth, by marrying Loretta de Notten, became Lord of the Manor of Barton,
the family becoming known as the Booths of Barton. His son Thomas was the
founder of the first chantry in the Eccles Parish Church, and also endowed the
chantry of Salford Bridge. Of his three sons, one, John, married Joan Trafford,
of Trafford; another, Robert, became Sheriff of Cheshire, died in 1460, and is
buried in Wilmslow Churchyard; and his eldest son, Thomas, succeeded to the
Barony. Robert del Booth, the Sheriff of Cheshire, married Dorice, daughter and
co-heir of Sir William Venables, and their son, Sir William Booth, married
Matilda, daughter of John Dutton. Their son George succeeded to the title and
estates, which passed to his son William, who married Margaret, daughter and
heir of Sir Thomas Assheton, of Ashton-under-Lyne, from whom descended the Earls
of Stamford and Warrington, owners of great estates at Ashton-under-Lyne and
Dunham Massey. Dunham Park belongs to the family, and Dunham Hall is one of the
residences of the present Earl. It will thus be seen that, although the direct
male line of the Booths of Barton died out, the name survives in a family
notable in the pages of the annals of our English nobility.
The
direct line of the Booths of Barton may now be traced in brief. The Thomas del
Bothe, elder brother of the Sheriff of Cheshire, succeeded to the Barony of
Barton. He also married a member of the family notable, among other matters, for
having produced the Black Knight, a title of derision applied to Sir Ralph
Assheton, whose name and deeds are celebrated annually at Ashton-under-Lyne on
Easter Monday by the function of the “Riding of the Black Knight.” Their son,
Sir John Booth, was killed at the battle of Flodden Field. He was succeeded as
Lord of the Manor of Barton by his son John, the last heir in direct descent,
who died in 1576. Dying without male issue, his properties and estates were
inherited by his two daughters. One of these married George Legh, of High Legh,
Cheshire, who succeeded thereby to the Barton estate. The fact is noted in the
street list of the borough, and Legh Street, Patricroft, serves to remind that
nearly three and a half centuries ago the right of the Lord of the Manor of
Barton, held for about two centuries by the Booths in succession to the Bartons
of Barton, the male heirs of which family had died out about the middle of the
fourteenth century, passed over to a well-known Cheshire family. Another
daughter of the last of the Booths of Barton married Sir Edward Trafford, taking
with her certain lands which adjoined the Trafford estate; and from the marriage
succeeded the direct line of the Traffords of Trafford.
The
William del Bothe who has been previously mentioned as a benefactor to the
Parish Church, and who, amongst many important appointments, held the high
position of Lord Chancellor of England, was the third son of Sir Thomas del
Bothe; and Laurence del Bothe, who also was a benefactor to the Church and who
also became a Lord Chancellor of England, was half-brother to William del Bothe,
the father having married firstly Joan, daughter of Sir Henry Trafford, and
secondly Maud, daughter of John Savage, of Clifton. There must surely be few
parallels to the half-brothers in the holding of one of the highest positions in
the State.
It may be noted in closing this chapter that Barton Booth, the celebrated actor of a later century, was a member of a branch of the Barton family.