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General History Pages |
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A brief history of the hall from it's first mention in 1177 to the present date ... |
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Legend has evolved that Ordsall Hall was the location for Guy Fawkes and Robert Catesby to plot the overthrow of King James in what was to become the famous Gunpowder Plot ... |
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History of the Radclyffes of Ordsall |
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up to 1354 |
Site owned by various families including de Ferrers, Earls of Derby, David & Richard de Hulton, Sir John Blount and various members of the Radclyffe and Legh families ... |
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1354 to 1362 |
Fought for the King in France and awarded one of the most noble family mottos in the land: 'Caen, Crecy, Calais.' Responsible for the introduction of Flemish Weavers and as such commenced England's long association with the textile industry ... |
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1362 to 1380 |
Became one of the largest landowners in Lancashire and Cheshire. Drowned in Rossendale Water on official duties ... |
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1380 to 1421 |
When Henry the Fifth succeeded his father, Sir John de Radclyffe was appointed to the personal service of the King, and was given a captaincy in the French war. Though now an elderly man Sir John bore himself with distinction at Agincourt ... |
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1421 to 1442 |
An addict to the extravagant fashions of the day, he was summoned by his brother, Alured, for an offence against the sumptuary laws, which sought to restrain undue expenditure on elaborate and fantastic apparel ... |
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1442 to 1475 |
In 1455 the Wars of the Roses began with the first Battle of St. Albans, and the Radclyffes were prominent in their support of the Lancastrian cause ... |
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1475 to 1496 |
Gained fame in the wars, and was knighted the year before his succession. He was a devout man esteemed for the nobility of his character, and his generous benefactions made him beloved by the people ... |
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1496 to 1548 |
Served the office of High Sheriff of Lancashire on four occasions, in 1523-4, 1528-9, 1538-9 and 1547-8 ... |
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1548 to 1568 |
Though still presumably Catholics the Radclyffes of Ordsall held their Queen and the realm entitled to their first loyalty ... |
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1568 to 1591 |
As head of the greatest and certainly the most influential landed families of the county, John Radclyffe was called upon to assume a role of natural leadership, in which courage and foresight, wisdom and understanding, must be united with unflinching faith and the loyalty of a true patriot ... |
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1591 to 1599 |
On 22nd March 1599 he made his will, and the following day rode forth to Chester, there to join Essex, who sailed from the Dee at the head of the greatest expedition Elizabeth had ever sent abroad ... |
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Twin sister of Sir Alexander, Margaret was the favourite Maid of Honour to Elizabeth the First. She was seen at Court in a dress said to have cost one hundred and eighty pounds. Following the death of her brother she died of a broken heart ... |
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1599 to 1627 |
The tragedy of the passing of two young people so popular as his sister and brother had touched a ringing chord of sympathy in a wide circle of hearts, and John was made welcome not only for the fame of his name but also on account of his attractive personality, his proved valour in arms, and his private virtues ... |
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1627 to 1654 |
Alexander carried the purple robe at the coronation of King Charles the First in 1625, on which occasion he was made a Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, a notable distinction for one so young ... |
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1654 to 1662 |
John Radclyffe, the only surviving son and heir, succeeded to his meagre inheritance in his sixteenth year. He died without issue on 7th January 1695. The representation of the Radclyffe family main line thereupon devolved to his cousin, Alexander Radclyffe of Foxdenton ... |
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The manor of Ordsall lies within a great sweep of the River Irwell, and forms the southern portion of the township of Salford, of which Royal Manor it was anciently a member or hamlet. The original form of the name, Woerdesael, indicates its strategic importance adjacent to the Roman ford, which gave approach to the Saxon town from the great military highway through Cheshire. In the side of the hill rising from the river and hard by the ford, formerly existed a natural chamber hollowed out of the soft sandstone rock, and known as the Great Ordsall Cave. This is reputed to have been used during the Roman occupation as a temple for Mithras worship, and was subsequently converted by the Saxons into a den or place of devotion for their supreme deity, Woden. When Christian influences penetrated the district, this rocky cell was adapted from pagan to Christian use, and was used as an oratory by a hermitage of monks, who acted as guides across the ford and the perilous surrounding marshes beyond the river. These holy men built for their residence a hall of timber, close to the site of the present Ordsall Hall, and connected with the cave by a subterranean passage, still in existence. In the reign of Stephen (1135-1154) the monks removed their domicile to the new hermitage, which de Gernons had founded in the northern extremity of Salford manor at Kersal
After the conquest, Ordsall with Salford was held in demesne by Roger de Poictou, then by William Peverel, and eventually by the Earls of Chester. On the death of the fifth Earl in 1232, Ordsall was included in that portion of his estates which passed to his sister, Agnes, wife of William de Ferrers, sixth Earl of Derby. The son of Agnes, in or about 1251, conveyed to David de Hulton all his possessions in Flixton, together with the manor of Ordsall, by homage and service of two marks of silver four times a year by the sixth part of a knight's fee. David's son married Margaret, daughter of Robert de Radclyffe of the Tower, and on the death of his father in 1285 Richard de Hulton succeeded to the Ordsall lands as part of the patrimony. Richard de Hulton died in 1312, and was succeeded by a son of the same name, who died about 1331, leaving another Richard, his son, as heir. This third Richard married Maud, daughter of Adam de Norley, but the union was an unhappy one and was dissolved, Maud subsequently becoming the wife of Robert de Legh, son of John de Legh of the Booths, in Cheshire. Richard de Hulton thereupon partitioned his estates. To his uncle, Adam de Hulton, and his heirs, he gave all his lands in Westhaughton, with his manor of Hulton, and lands in Rumworth formerly held for life by Richard del Meadow; to William, son of Robert de Radclyffe, he gave Halliwell, with the manor of Blackburn; to John de Radclyffe he released all his claim in the manor of Ordsall and his moiety of Flixton. It would appear that a William de Hulton had a life interest in Ordsall; he was presumably an uncle to Richard, who had the reversion after William's death
The occupation of Ordsall at this time is veiled in a mist of confusion, and study of it's records only adds to the complexities. It was a period of grave civil and military distraction, owing to the demands of the Scottish Wars, the increasing population which the old system of feudal tenure was unable to sustain on the land, and the fact that men who had taken part in military campaigns were not disposed to settle to a more ordered and less eventful life. The tyranny of the feudal oppression burned at the resentful heart of an independent nation. Starving husbandmen saw land withheld from their ploughs by the pleasures of the chase, and they flocked to the woodlands in armed bands, roving and raiding the royal forests, and ready to offer their services to any overlord who would promise them reward from attacks on his neighbour's property. Tenure of estate was preserved more readily by the strong right hand than by claim of law, and every landowner gathered around him a force of dependants, who were granted allotments of land in requital for military aid. To these new freeholders was given the name of yeomen, signifying that they were the keepers or guards of the manor against the depredations of external enemies. To distinguish them from men of gentle blood, in place of steel armour they wore a buff coat of hide. With such a supporting force, many a manorial lord, often in combination with other proprietors, would sally forth on slender pretext, to make foray on lands he coveted, trusting later to compel legal recognition of his title at the Wapentake Court
The feud between the King and the barons during the reign of Edward the Second (1307-1327) intensified these distractions, and tore families apart with internal dissensions. The Hultons and the Radclyffes were to be found on indiscriminately on the rival sides, seeking to augment their possessions at the expense of opposing kinsmen. Richard de Hulton was a bold champion of the Holland faction in these disputes, and gathered around him a redoubtable force of landless men, to whom he made promise of rewards he seems subsequently to been unable to fulfil, judging by the claims which were later preferred against his estate. In 1334 he was convicted, with others, of having broken into the King's park at Ightenhill, near Padiham, but his offence was pardoned later. Although he held the Radclyffes in great favour, his father had regarded the otherwise, and in 1322 had sought the protection of the King's justice against various Radclyffes who had broken into and entered illegally his manors of Ordsall, Hulton, and Flixton. The younger Richard would appear to have been an outcast from his own family. That may be the explanation of the manner in which he partitioned his estates. He died in 1335, whereupon the manor of Ordsall was seized by Robert de Legh, the husband of Richard's divorced wife, who enlisted the aid of kinsman, Thomas de Strangeways, and of Robert, son of Roger de Radclyffe. Robert de Radclyffe was cousin to John, the rightful heir, who was prevented from entering on his inheritance through his absence in the King's service overseas, and taking advantage of this Robert established himself as lord of Ordsall. He was a man of some importance in the county and succeeded in obtaining the shrievalty of Salfordshire in 1337. His occupation of Ordsall was somewhat insecure at its inception and in 1338 he sought legal confirmation of his possession by claiming annuities out of Ordsall and Flixton against Robert de Legh and Maud, his wife, and other claimants to the estate of Richard de Hulton. Thereafter he appears to have been formally recognised in possession
On the death of his cousin and namesake, the son of Richard the Seneschal, Sir Robert de Radclyffe of Ordsall married the widow. This lady, Margaret de Shoresworth, is a somewhat remarkable personage in local records. She was the daughter and heiress of Robert de Shoresworth, an ancient manor immediately contiguous to the western bounds of the Ordsall estates. From her paternal ancestors she also inherited considerable lands in Denton. She had a son by Sir William de Holland, but whether she was married to this knight or not remains a mystery. From her relationship with him, however, she acquired the manor of Hope, within the township of Pendleton, and adjacent to her own ancestral lands. Subsequently, she was married to Henry de Workedsley of the Booths, as his second wife, and became known as Lady Margery of the Booths. Henry died about 1305, and she was espoused by Robert, son of Richard de Radclyffe, whose first wife had been Mary de Bury. She bore him two sons, William, who inherited from Richard de Hulton the manor of Blackburn with Halliwell, and became the progenitor of the Radclyffes of Smithills, and John, who became Rector of Bury and from whose natural son descended the Radclyffes of Chadderton. Margaret outlived all her, and was living in 1363, when her will was made. She seems to have lived a troubled life, judging from the amount of litigation regarding her lands which appears in the various records and deeds. The date of her marriage to Sir Robert de Radclyffe is not recorded, but he appears to have been previously married, and to have had a son, John, who was one of the collectors of the tax on fleeces in 1342. He was accused, with Sir Robert, as a defaulter, but of his subsequent history nothing is known, although he must have predeceased his father
Who was Sir Robert of Ordsall? His identity presents us with a baffling problem. Foster makes him to be the illegitimate son of Richard the Seneschal, though on what evidence is not stated. It is more probable that Robert was the son of Roger de Radclyffe, the younger brother of the Seneschal, to whom Adam de Bradshaw in 1312 gave certain lands at Bradshaw and Harwood, with remainder to Robert, son of Roger and his heirs, and then to Adam de Hulton. On the death of Sir Robert without an heir, these lands were seized by Adam de Hulton, Roger, his son, and John de Radclyffe, Rector of Bury, and subsequently formed part of the Smithills inheritance. Sir Robert seems to have been a prominent member of the Holland faction and a firm adherent to the Earl of Lancaster. In 1339 he was appointed Sheriff of Lancashire, and was one of the assessors appointed to collect the tax of the ninths within the county. This was in connection with the supplies voted for the wars in France and Scotland, when in 1340 the King was granted the ninth lamb, the ninth fleece, and the ninth sheaf for the space of two years. In the following year Robert de Radclyffe failed to obey the King's orders to deliver the monies he had collected to William de Montague, Earl of Salisbury, and at Dunstable on February 1342 an order was issued:
'Upon pain of forfeiture of life to attach John de Harrington, the younger, Edmund de Neville, Robert de Radclyffe and John de Radclyffe, collectors of wool in the county, and to have them before the King and his Council at London on Monday after Mid-Lent Sunday next to answer for their contempt'
Harrington responded, but Neville and the Radclyffes remained defaulters, and a further summons was issued against them on 13th March 'upon pain of forfeiture for their disobedience and contempt.' Their goods and chattels were to be seized into the King's hands until the collected dues were deposited into the Exchequer and a satisfactory account of the same rendered to the King. What happened in the subsequent two tears is not recorded, but Sir Robert was removed from his shrievalty in favour of Sir John Blount, and on the 14th February 1344 he died suddenly at Ordsall, whether from violence or natural causes is unknown. He was shown to owe the King 'One hundred and forty nine pounds, fourteen shillings and eightpence, halfpenny' for debts and for licence concerning the manor of Astley. He had acquired this latter estate shortly before his death, from Ellen, widow of Hugh de Tyldesley, in consideration of a fine of 100 marks. At Ordsall, on the day of his death, he had 10 oxen worth 100s., which were seized by Thomas de Strangeways, 2 oxen worth 20s., taken by William, son of Robert de Radclyffe, and 2 horses worth 20s., which were claimed by Richard, son of William de Radclyffe. This latter Richard and Isabelle his wife were named heirs of Sir Robert in the settlement of Astley. The claim to Ordsall was taken by Sir John Blount, and in the Duchy Court Rolls of 1351 it is recorded:
'John Blounte of Hazelwood, Robert Legh, and Thomas Strangeways came on their recognizance, at the suit of John Ratclif touching a tenement and lands in Salford. John Blounte answered that the premises were of the manor of Ordesale and that Henry, late earl of Lancaster, father of Henry the Duke, was seised of the lands and granted the same by charter to the said John Blounte, as of the manor of Ordesale'
The recognitors found that a certain William de Hulton had held Ordsall for life with reversion to Richard de Hulton, who granted the estate to John de Radclyffe, to whom all claims were released, but Robert de Radclyffe, Robert de Legh and Thomas de Strangeways had ousted John de Radclyffe and taken possession on behalf of Robert. The suit went on until 1354, when judgement was in favour of John de Radclyffe, the claimant. The following year a further claim was lodged by Robert de Legh and Maud, his wife, but it was shown that Robert and Maud in 1339 had released to Robert, son of Roger de Radclyffe, all their rights in the manors of Ordsall and Flixton. Their claim against John de Radclyffe and Joan, his wife, was consequently barred. A settlement was eventually come to, whereby Robert and Maud surrendered all their claims in return for an annuity of 'thirtythree shillings and fourpence' during Maud's lifetime.
Legend has evolved that Ordsall Hall was the
location for Guy Fawkes and Robert Catesby to plot the overthrow of King James
in what was to become the famous Gunpowder Plot. Such has this legend gained
credibility that the street directly adjacent to the hall has been named 'Guy
Fawkes Street'
Here we
explore if this legend could, in fact, have been the true ...
Whether the belief that Guy Fawkes hatched the Gunpowder Plot at Ordsall Hall is based upon fact or not, Harrison Ainsworth's Novel (1861) has cast the halo of romance around the Hall. Passing through the rooms of the Hall, especially through the Star Chamber, it is easy to believe those moving scenes in which the great novelist has shown us the conspirator hiding from the troopers of King James, or brooding over the details of the plot that was to free the Roman Catholics from persecution
Here, too, Guy Fawkes is said to have fallen in love with the daughter of the house, the beautiful Viviana Radclyffe, whose torture for refusing to disclose her knowledge of the conspiracy, and her death in the old Fleet Prison, are so graphically and pathetically described in the novel
Another tradition gives it that when Guy Fawkes was so hardly beset by the troopers at Ordsall Hall he took to the subterranean passages which led from the Hall to the 'Seven Stars' in Withy Grove, Manchester, which was the oldest licenced house in England, dating back as far as the year 1356. Signs of this passage were found at the Hall but the entrance had been blocked up. There were signs also of an underground passage at the Seven Stars but this was believed to have been connected with Trafford Hall
(extract from: Lancashire Stories Volume 2, Frank Hird, 1913)
Sir John Radclyffe, like his father before him, was a Catholic, but a convinced loyalist. He belonged to that section of his co-religionists, comprising many of the old families and the majority of the secular priests, who desired only toleration for the excercise of their faith. They had little or no sympathy with the more fanatical elements, who with the aid of indigent adventurers sought the revengeful overthrow of the whole fabric of the state and its unconditional surrender to the Papacy. Like all revolutionaries, what the members of this second party lacked in numbers, they made up for in the violence of their expressions. Anxious to divest himself of the charge of papistry levelled against him by the discontented Putitans, King James made a proclamation, banishing all Catholic missionaries and reaffirming the penal laws against recusants, who were subjected to heavy fines, mercilessly extorted, and ruinous to men of moderate means. When the Bye Plot or 'treason of the priests' failed in 1603, the more fiery spirits among the Catholics frantically sought means to deliver themselves from this oppression. Injustice and hatred together are relentless masters, which drive their victims to extraordinary devices. One of the sufferers was Robert Catesby, a member of an old Northamptonshire family, and by nature a dabbler in treason. In turn he had been a bitter denouncer of the Papists, and their zealous supporter. In 1596 he was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in an attempt to poison the Queen. He took part in the rebellion of Essex and narrowly escaped that noble's fate. In 1602 he was conspiring with the Jesuits in an attempt to persuade the King of Spain to a new invasion of England. Into his scheming mind now flashed a plan so diabolical that it could have been conceived only in a madman's frenzy, the incredible treason of the Gunpowder Plot, and to its achievement he called a number of intimates, most of whom like himself had heen involved in the Essex rising
In his romantic novel of Guy Fawkes, which many people have accepted as authentic history, Harrison Ainsworth introduces us to one Viviana Radclyffe, the sole representative of her family at Ordsall during the adbence of her father, Sir William Radclyffe, who is away attending a meeting of Catholic gentry at Holt in Cheshire. Viviana is represented as a fair maiden of eighteen, whom Catesby comes in secrecy to woo, and at Ordsall encounters Guy Fawkes, who has come to secure the support of the Radclyffes in the Plot. When the hall is raided by pursuivants, come to arrest the Roman Catholic priest in hiding at the Hall, Viviana, Catesby, Fawkes, and the priest are all rescued by the timely intervention of Humphrey Chetham, who conducts them by a secret passage running beneath the moat to a summer house in the grounds, and thence through Old Trafford to Chat Moss. Humphrey Chetham is portrayed as in love with Viviana, but differences of religious faith make their marriage impossible, and the story closes with Humphrey left solitary, his life 'tinged by the blighting of his early affection ... true to his love, he died unmarried'
John de Radclyffe, the actual founder of the line of Radclyffes of Ordsall, was the youngest son of Richard the Seneschal. His family's attachment to the cause of insurgent barons under the Earl of Lancaster, led John eventually into the service of the Queen's party, where he was rewarded with the favour of Queen Isabella and the warm friendship of the young Prince Edward, to whose personal service he was attached. In this capacity he was accompanied the Queen and the Prince during their sojourn on the Continent, where they sought the protection of Count William of Hainault, to whose daughter, Phillipa, the boy Prince was contracted by marriage. In September 1325 Isabella landed with her son at Orwell in Suffolk, supported by a force of two thousand men, which the Count of Hainault had placed at her disposal. She was joined by the great nobles who hated the Despensers, and Edward the Second fled with his favourites to the Welsh Marches. Here he was captured by his cousin, Henry, Earl of Lancaster, and taken prisoner to Kenilworth. The elder Despenser was executed at Bristol, and the younger at Hereford. Thomas of Lancaster was avenged. The King was deposed and Prince Edward proclaimed in his stead. A few months later in the midnight secrecy of Berkeley Castle the supplanted monarch came to his untimely end
The following spring Sir John Radclyffe was despatched to Hainault,, to conduct the Lady Philippa to England for her marriage to King Edward the Third, and to act as King's Proxy in the preliminaries concerning the marriage. As soon as Edward was firmly established on the throne, having proved his quality by his courage against the Scots in his first expedition of a military nature, the Queen-mother's star began to set. A new confederacy against her influence, and that of Roger Mortimer, her paramour, was organised by Henry, Earl of Lancaster. It proved abortive, Lancaster suffered a heavy fine, and the Earl of Kent was executed on a flimsy charge of treason. The young King was now decided to assert his own authority, and Mortimer was brought to the scaffold on 29th November 1330. Queen Isabella was banished for the remainder of her life to the seclusion of Castle Rising. During the next five years Sir John Radclyffe was engaged with the King against the Scots, and in 1337 was sent to Flanders to open negotiations for a treaty between the English King and the Flemish trading cities, which were anxious to secure the support of the powerful King of England against their oppressor, the King of France. Edward, on his side, was desirous of establishing a commercial alliance with the rich and prosperous burghers of the Low Countries, as a means of improving the economic state of his own impoverished people. For several years John Radclyffe remained in Flanders, rendering valiant service in counsel and in arms to Jacob van Artevelde and his associates in Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres. So much so, that when he was asked to name his reward he immediately requested that a number of the Flemish craftsmen should be permitted to return to England, there to teach their arts of manufacture to his own people. The request was readily granted, and he thereupon conducted these men and their families to England, settling them in Lancashire, of which county he had been appointed a Knight of the Shire in 1340
In 1346 King Edward began his great attempt to establish his claim to the Crown of France, and supported by a great concourse of English archers and men-at-arms, commanded by trusty barons and knights, he landed on the coast of Normandy. On Saturday, the 26th of August, was fought the memorable Battle of Crecy, when the English forces routed the assembled might of France. Five days later Edward began his 12 months' siege of the fortress of Calais, which finally capitulated on 4th August 1347. During this campaign Sir John Radclyffe was in constant attendance on the King, with a personal entourage of two knights, twelve esquires, and fourteen archers, and so nobly did he distinguish himself throughout the engagements, that the King granted him the right to use what has been described as the proudest family motto in all the nobility of England, the superscription 'Caen, Crecy, Calais,' which has been borne by his lineal descendents from that time to the present day
After the surrender of Calais Philip of France agreed to a temporary truce with England, and Sir John Radclyffe now returned to establish his possession of Ordsall manor, against Sir John Blount and the De Leghs, who had assumed the estate after the death of Sir Robert, his cousin. In the intervals of the lengthy litigation that challenged his occupation until 1359, when his rights in Ordsall lands were finally conceded, he busied himself with public duties, particularly in fostering the new industries his proteges from Flanders had introduced into the district. A century before, the town of Salford had been made a free borough, but its commercial development had been slow. Sir John set to work to enrich the chartered liberties of the town with the life blood derived from the new manufactures. He built houses for the Flemings in the town, made the free burghers, awoke a new spirit of commercial enterprise amongst the yeomen of the neighbourhood, and succeeded in gaining the interest of Queen Philippa in his experiment. From a quiet country village the ancient town grew under Sir John's direction into a thriving centre of commercial intercourse, and to him belongs the credit of firmly establishing in Lancashire the textile industry which has been the main strength of English trade throughout the centuries since his day. There still stands in the older part of Salford the half timbered, many gabled inn of the Bulls Head, a portion of which is contemporary with Sir John, at which period it was changed from the private dwelling of a leading family in the town to an inn, where the merchants could be lodged. Fit it's sign was chosen the 'Bulls Head,' the Radclyffe crest, out of compliment to the Ordsall knight who had set the feet of his fellow burghers on the high road towards a greater prosperity.
Sir John married Lady Joan de Holland, the widow of Sir Hugh Dutton. Her father was Sir Robert Holland, the particular favourite of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and his foremost lieutenant. When Lancaster became chief minister of the realm in 1314, he caused Sir Robert to be summoned to Parliament as Lord Holland, which title he retained until the execution of Earl Thomas in 1322. Holland took part in the rebellion of the Earl, and forfeited all his lands. This forfeiture was reversed by Edward the Third in 1228, but in the October following, Sir Robert was murdered by certain followers of Henry of Lancaster, who regarded his alleged cowardice as responsible in part for the failure of the plot against Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer. His eldest son, another Sir Robert, distinguished himself in the French war, and was the ancestor of Lord Lovel, one of the favourites of Richard the Third, and of the Hollands, Dukes of Exeter. Another son, William, was the father of Thurstan Holland of Denton, by Margaret de Shoresworth. His youngest son was Sir Thomas Holland, a soldier of great repute, who married Joan, the daughter of Edmund, Earl of Kent, and was summoned to Parliament as Lord Holland in 1353. Seven years later he was created Earl of Kent and died in Normandy on the 28th December in the same year (1360). His widow, the 'Fair Maid if Kent,' then married Edward, the Black Prince, and was the mother of Richard the Second
By her first husband, Sir Hugh Dutton, Joan Holland had a son, Sir Thomas Dutton, who was Seneschal and Receiver of the Castle of Halton in Cheshire, and Sheriff of Cheshire, 1356-59. One of his descendants was Sir Ralph Dutton, the prominent Royalist, and another was created Baron Sherborne of Sherborne in 1784. After the death of Sir John, Lady Joan married a third husband in Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall
When Sir John was securely settled in the occupation of Ordsall, he commenced the rebuilding of the manor house, and the main portion of the existing Ordsall Hall is a tangible link between the present day and the gallant and illustrious begetter of the Ordsall Radclyffes
In 1341 John de Radclyffe acquired from John de Belshaw the latter's interest in the bailiwick of the serjeancy of Rochdale, 'with all its rights to be held of the chief lord of the fee by accustomed service.' The charter is dated at Whalley 18th November 1341, and was witnessed by Richard de Radclyffe, Robert de Radclyffe, John de Clitherowe, and Richard ffyshwycke, Clerk.
Under date of 13th August 1344, John de Radclyffe in named as party to an indenture, with Henry de Haydock and John de Belshaw, as bound by a recognisance of the Statute Merchant to the Earl of Derby in the sum of one hundred pounds, which John de Kynewell, general attorney to the Earl, agreed to commute the payment of fifty two pounds, sixteen shillings and threepence to be paid to him at Michaelmas at the house of John le Fleming in Fridaistrete in London. Presumably this was in connection with the settlement of the Flemish workers in England
At the April Assize held at Preston in 1353, Sir John, as Bailiff of Rochdale, was in dispute with John, the Abbot of Whalley, regarding Puture in Spotland and Castleton. John de Radclyffe claimed for his sub-bailiffs a Puture a day every week of the year, and on two days of the year, a nine o'clock and at supper at the Abbot's table. At the September Assize in the same year, Sir John was called upon to show cause why he had taken two bullocks at Marland in Castleton, belonging to the Abbot, and had detained them until a fine was paid. Sir John's case was that Adam, a former Abbot, held the manor of Marland from Henry de Lacy, Constable of Chester (from whom the Duke inherited), for six shillings per year, but the rent was four years in arrear. The jury eventually found that the Duke was not entitled to rent, and the Abbot did not owe it. The Puture question was not settled until November 1360 when Sir John, as Bailiff, released to the Abbot and Convent his right to Puture in all the will of Castleton and the grange of Whitworth in Spotland for a consideration of twelve shillings per year to himself and his heirs
In 1356 Sir John was in dispute with Richard de Langley and Joan, his wife, regarding certain lands in Salford and Pendleton, and in 1358 he was sued in conjunction with Sir Henry de Trafford, John le Bold of Whittleswick, and Katherine, his wife, respecting an annuity of thirteen shillings and fourpence in Ordsall, which Thomas de Goosnargh alleged had been granted to him by Richard de Hulton
The period of Sir John's settling at Ordsall was the time of the Black Death, and an interesting sidelight is thrown on his character when, at a time lands were going out of cultivation for want of labourers and many men were realising their properties and fleeing with their capital abroad, Sir John chose that time to forsake military distinction and apply himself to the illustrious but no less worthy duty of a landed proprietor, the stay of simple men and a helper of the distressed, ministering to the needs of his neighbours and assisting the prosperity of the commonwealth
Shortly after his settlement at Ordsall Sir John added to his possessions the manor of Moston. For some reason not disclosed Emma, the only daughter of Richard de Moston, granted to Sir John in 1353 her life-interest in the manor of Moston and the rights in the inheritance which her brothers had given to her in 1325. She had previously to her grant to Sir John bestowed these on John de Moston, son of her youngest brother Hugh, and his wife Margaret, daughter of Richard de Tyldesley. After John's death Margaret was married to a second husband in Robert de Bolton. Robert de Moston, Emma's third brother, had a reversion in the lands, and this was claimed by his daughter and heir, Alice, the wife of Hugh de Toft, whose son, Robert de Toft, in 1404, recovered the manor of Moston against Hugh de Moston, son of John and Margaret, and Alice, his wife. After the death of her nephew, John, Emma reclaimed possession of the manor against Robert de Bolton and Margaret, his wife, William, son of Robert de Radclyffe, Alice, daughter of Robert de Radclyffe, and James, son of Henry de Tyldesley, and thereupon regranted it to Sir John de Radclyffe of Ordsall. Emma appears to have died shortly afterwards, and Sir John thereupon confirmed his possession be securing from Hugh de Toft and Alice, his wife, the reversion of a messuage and 40 acres of land
William de Moston, another heir, who held lands in the manor for life after the death of Emma, was present in court and did fealty to Sir John de Radclyffe. The manor of Moston was held by the Radclyffes of Ordsall until 1394, when Sir John of Ordsall, grandson of the original Sir John, gave his lands at Moston, presumably for life, to Henry de Strangeways. After this Sir John's death in 1422, a dispute arose regarding the possession of Moston, and in 1425 a settlement was arrived at whereby his son and heir, another Sir John, was to hold the Moston lands for life, with the remainder to James, the son of Richard de Radclyffe of Radclyffe. The estate remained in the possession of the Tower family until the death of their last heir without issue caused them to pass to the FitzWalter Radclyffes under settlement, and in 1543 Henry, Earl of Sussex, sold Moston Hall to John Reddish. The Ordsall family did, however, retain a portion of the lands in Moston, since Sir William Radclyffe is shown in possession of them at his death in 1568
There was a virulent outbreak of the pestilence in the winter of 1361. It lasted for none months, and in the spring of 1362 Sir John de Radclyffe died, a victim perhaps of the sickness that decimated his tenantry. The postmortem inquisition shows him holding Ordsall by knight's service and a rent of six shillings and eightpence, as well as lands in Flixton and elsewhere, including 40 acres in Salford held by knight's service and twenty shillings rent. The Ordsall estate is therein described as including a hall with 5 chambers, kitchen, chapel, 2 stables, 3 granges, 2 shippons, garner, dovecoat, orchard, a windmill, 80 acres of arable land, and 6 acres of meadow. Eight years before, the manor was described as 'a messuage, 120 acres of land, 12 acres of meadow, and 12 acres of wood.'
Sir John had issue of two sons and three daughters:
Richard de Radclyffe, the son and heir of Sir John, was known as 'Le Puigne' to distinguish him from his cousin Richard of the Tower. In addition to the Ordsall estates he succeeded to his father's offices of Bailiwick of Rochdale and the Stewardship of Blackburn. By his marriage he vastly enhanced his noble status and landed possessions. His wife was Matilda, daughter and heir of Sir John Legh of Booths and Sandbach. In this lady flowed some of the noblest blood in the land. She was descended in the paternal line from Hamon de Legh, Lord of the Mediety of High Legh in the reign of Henry the Second, whose descendants had absorbed by marriage the notable families of Swineshead, Oughtrington, Corona, and Sandbach. By her grandmother, Margaret de Arderne, she was descended from Ralph, Viscount of Bayeux, from the family of Averanches Earls of Chester, and from the noble lines of St. Hillery, Montalt, Orreby, Glanville, and Sackville. The quarterings of this distinguished ancestry were now brought into the Radclyffe shield, and Matilda brought to her husband the manor of Sandbach, a moiety of Mobberley, and other extensive possessions of the Arderne inheritance in the county of Chester
Richard was one of the greatest landowners in the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire, for in addition to the wide domains that his wife brought him, he had acquired other portions of the former lands of his own family. Besides Ordsall, he held the manor of Hope within Pendleton, a messuage and 60 acres of land, held by knight's service and a rent of four pounds and two shillings, and Shoresworth, which with Hope had come to the Radclyffes from Margaret de Shoresworth. On his father's death, Richard petitioned for the restitution of lands in Livesey and Tockholes in Blackburnshire, which had been granted to Roger de Radclyffe by Thomas of Lancaster, and had been seized by the Crown on account of the debts which Robert, son of Roger, had left unpaid at his death
Richard was drowned in Rossendale Water, while exercising his official duties, on the Thursday before the feast of St. Margaret in 1380. He had issue by Matilda of a son and a daughter:
Richard was married twice, his second wife being Sybil, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert de Clitheroe of Salesbury, by whom he had a daughter, Joan, married in 1401 to Sir Henry de Hoghton. After Richard's death Sybil was married again to Sir Richard de Maulverer, to whom she bore a daughter, Isabella, who was married to John de Talbot, and whose descendents had Salesbury for their inheritance. The son of John and Isabella was sir John de Talbot, who married Joan, daughter of Sir John de Radclyffe of Ordsall. Sybil's third husband was Sir Roger de Fulthorpe, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland. In 1388 Sir Roger was convicted at Westminster of 'divers betrayals of trust' and his lands were made forfeit to the King. These included 10 messuages and 100 acres in Flixton, held by knight's service and a rent of seventeen shillings and sixpence, lands called Shagh in Saddleworth Frith of an annual value of ninety shillings, and 6 messuages and 80 acres of meadow with appurtenances, of an annual value of eighty shillings in the township of Quyck in co. York, all held in right of his wife as dower from the inheritance of Richard de Radclyffe. These properties on the death of Sybil reverted to the Lord of Ordsall. Sybil was living in 1406, when the Bishop of Lichfield granted her a licence as Lady of Salesbury for Mass to be celebrated 'submissa voce' within her manor of Salesbury
John de Radclyffe, son and heir of Richard, was born at Ordsall in 1356, and was twenty-four years old when he succeeded to his inheritance. He lived through the reigns of three monarchs, the disorders of misrule of Richard the Second, the no less lively era of Henry the Fourth, and the valiant awakenings Henry the Fifth inspired. John entered military service at an early age, desiring no doubt to emulate the fame of his grandfather, and was associated with his kinsman, Sir Thomas de Holland, Earl of Kent, half-brother to King Richard. In 1385 he was amongst those chosen by the Earl of Kent to accompany him when he went to take up his appointment as Captain of Cherbourg, and the King's protection was granted to Radclyffe for the safeguarding of his estates during his absence abroad. For some reason his plans were changed; he did not go to Normandy, and the protection was withdrawn. In that year Charles the Sixth of France determined to invade England, and assembled a great army in Flanders, with an armada at the port of Sluys to convey them across. The young King's uncles wisely dissuaded him from the enterprise, and the expedition was abandoned. It is probable that the services of John de Radclyffe were more necessary at home at such a time than they would be overseas. The incompetence of King Richard forced the support of the nation to his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, whose appointment as head of the Great Council the King was forced to concede. Gradually the power of the Lancastrian party was rising and the Lord of Ordsall was a devoted adherent of that house. John of Gaunt died in 1399, and Richard thereupon seized his immense estates and kept them, notwithstanding his letters patent to the banished Henry of Lancaster permitting him to take possession of his lawful inheritance. According to the Deputy Keeper's Reports, the Radclyffe title to Ordsall was challenged at this time, from which it might appear that Sir John was with Duke Henry in his exile. Within a short time, however, Henry landed at Ravenspur, Richard was deposed, and Lancaster was proclaimed King as Henry the Sixth. Throughout the fourteen years of his reign the new King found Sir John ever a gallant champion of his cause. He fought at Hateley Field, and was amongst those whom King Henry held in constant favour. When Henry the Fifth succeeded his father, Radclyffe like his cousin at Attleburgh was appointed to the personal service of the King, and was given a captaincy in the French war. Though now an elderly man Sir John bore himself with distinction at Agincourt. He was present at the capture of Caen and the Siege of Rouen, and in 1421 was chosen by the King for election to the Order of the Garter. This honour was actually denied him, however, for he died before the Feast of St. George following
About 1375 he married Margaret, daughter of Sir Henry de Trafford, whose manor house faced the hall of Ordsall across the River Irwell. Sir Henry was a considerable landowner of the county, and a notable knight who had won fame in the campaigns of Edward the Third. Margaret bore him a family of four sons and two daughters, and survived her husband. She is said to have been married again, shortly after Sir John's death, to Robert Orrell, of Turton, though she was then past her sixtieth year. In 1413, the year that Henry the Fourth died, Sir John had a dispute with his sons, and agreed to accept the arbitration therein of Ralph de Radclyffe, son of Sir Ralph of Smithills, apparently with successful result
At the death of Sir John it was found that the Rochdale Bailiwick was worth nothing, as the outgoings exceeded the receipts. In 1430 therefore his heir sold the family interest in the bailiwick and serjeancy of Rochdale to Sir John Byron
Sir John and Lady Margaret had issue as follows:
John de Radclyffe, the eldest son and heir, was born at Ordsall in 1377. At the age of nineteen he married Clemency, daughter of High de Standish of Duxbury, a family of notable antiquity in the county of Lancaster. The mother of Clemency was a Standish of Standish, her uncle, Ralph, was Sheriff of Lancashire in 1392, and a cousin, John, was one of the heroes of Agincourt, On their marriage, his father settled on John de Clemency the manors of Hope and Shoresworth, and the young couple made their home at Hope Hall. John, like his father, was a soldier, and served in the French wars, wherein he was accorded the honour of knighthood, and remained in active service until his death. He was forty four years of age when his father died, opening John's succession to Ordsall, and he remained in possession for twenty-one years. That he was an addict to the extravagant fashions of the day is adduced from the fact that in 1428 he was summoned by his brother, Alured, for an offence against the sumptuary laws, a series of edicts passed in the reigns of Edward the Second and Edward the Third and renewed more forcibly under Richard the Second, which sought to restrain undue expenditure on elaborate and fantastic apparel. Proclamations were issued against 'outrageous and excessive multitude of meats and dishes which the great men of the kingdom still use in their castles, ... and persons of inferior rank imitating their example beyond what their stations required of their circumstances could afford.' The lavish hospitality at the hall of Ordsall no doubt made Sir John's brothers anxious, lest their own patrimonial portion should be dissipated
Sir John died 26th July 1442 in his sixty-fifth year holding Ordsall by the ancient services. His wife, Clemency, had predeceased him, and he had married again. To his widow, Joan, he left for the period of her life his lands in Flixton, Shoresworth, Hope, and Tockholes. She bore him no issue, but by Clemency Standish he had four sons:
Alexander Radclyffe, the eldest son and heir of Sir John, was born at Hope about 1401. The inquisitions on the deaths of his father and uncles show an extraordinary disparity in the recorded age at these periods, but the above date seems to be the most acceptable as the date of his birth. Alexander had received from his father a moiety of Flixton on his marriage to Agnes Harrington, and Shoresworth also seems to have been a portion of the dowry. By his marriage to the daughter of Sir William Harrington of Hornby Castle Alexander further enriched the noble blood of his already illustrious line. Through her mother, Margaret Neville of Hornby, Agnes was descended from King Ethelred, through his daughter, Elgiva, who was married to Uchtred, Earl of Northumberland. Their descendant, Robert Fitz-Maldred, Lord of Raby, married Isabel, daughter of Geoffrey, Lord Neville, from whom descended Sir Robert Neville of Hornby, who married Dorothy, daughter of William de la Pole. Margaret Neville was the daughter of this marriage. On the paternal side, Agnes traced her descent from Alice le Fleming, sister and heir of Michael, Lord of Aldingham, and wife of Richard de Cauncefield. Their daughter, Agnes, married Sir Robert Harrington, and had a son, Robert, who married Margaret, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Banastre, Baron of Newton. Their son, Sir Nicholas Harrington, married Jane, the heir of Sir Thomas English of Wolfege, and Sir William Harrington, father of Agnes, was their eldest son, Lord of Hornby Castle in right of his wife
The Radclyffes of Ordsall had by this time advanced to become one of the most influential houses in the county, and in 1455 Sir Alexander was a knight of the shire. Family feuds were still rampant, especially amongst the younger sons of neighbouring proprietors, where the motive of the quarrel might be trivial, but was sufficient to excite the passions and prejudices of the young hotheads, in whom the ascendancy of military habits and the rough-and-tumble of education of the time encouraged a disposition to satisfy their honour and settle their grievances by taking the law into their own hands. One of these disputes between local Montagues and Capulets came to a head on the Monday after Low Sunday in the year 1444. The Booths of Barton were a powerful landed family, the bounds of whose estates ran partly with the Radclyffe lands. On the day in question John Radclyffe, his brother High, and a party of their friends, including their uncle, Peter Radclyffe, were hunting in the Wheaste, which was part of the royal forest adjacent to their estates. As they approached the manor house of Little Bolton, their way was challenged by William Gawen, the lord of the manor, who had summoned to his support Sir Thomas Booth of Barton, with his sons, Nicholas and Henry, and a strong force of armed retainers. In the fracas that ensued John Radclyffe was slain by one of the Booths, Hugh Radclyffe died at the hands of Lawrence Hyde, of the Barton faction, and the two others of the Radclyffe party, Ralph Oldham and Nicholas Johnson, were also killed. Peter Radclyffe was responsible for the death of Peter Cowapp of Barton. All the delinquents were brought to trial but were acquitted. Subsequently, Sir Alexander again proceeded against the Booths at a later assize, when Henry and Nicholas Booth received sentence of outlawry. In 1455 the Wars of the Roses began with the first Battle of St. Albans, and the Radclyffes were prominent in their support of the Lancastrian cause. At the battle of Wakefield in 1640 Lady Agnes Radclyffe lost her brother, Sir Thomas Harrington of Hornby, and her nephew, Sir John Harrington, who both fell fighting on the King's side. Sir Alexander himself died in 1475, on the 20th July. Lady Agnes survived him fifteen years. They had issue of five sons and three daughters
William Radclyffe, eldest son and heir of Sir Alexander, was born at Ordsall in 1435. He married Jane, youngest daughter of Sir Edmund Trafford by his wife, Alice, daughter and co-heir of Sir William Venables of Bollin, thus uniting for the third time the ancient lines of Radclyffe and Trafford. Sir Edmund Trafford was skilled in scientific arts and claimed to have discovered a method of transmuting base metals into gold, for which a licence was granted to him and to Sir Thomas Assheton by Henry the Sixth in 1446. He received the honour of knighthood for his gallant conduct at Verneuil in 1424
William Radclyffe was forty years of age when he succeeded his father at Ordsall. He had gained fame in the wars, and been knighted the year before his succession. He was a devout man esteemed for the nobility of his character, and his generous benefactions made him beloved by the people. The Radclyffes both at Radclyffe and Ordsall had shown a deep interest in the founding of the College at Manchester Church, and William's grandfather, Sir John, is amongst those recorded as being present at the ceremony of collegiation in 1422. The chapel of St. George in the Collegiate Church was founded by the Radclyffe family, and Sir William also founded a chantry at the Altar of the Blessed Trinity in the same church, placing therein a window of richly coloured glass, depicting the Trial and Crucifixion of Our Lord, and further adorned with symbols of the Trinity. After his death, Sir William's pious reputation made this chapel a place of devotion and pilgrimage of the part of the country people. To the chaplain celebrating at the Trinity Altar Elizabeth Brereton, widow of John Radclyffe, Sir William's son, bequeathed a Mass Book with cover and clasps, a silver cruet with 'J.R.' on the cover, two towels, a vestment of green and white velvet with bull's heads on the orphreys, and three shillings and fourpence to buy a sacring-bell. Two years later, Robert Chetham and Isabel, his wife, enfeoffed Richard Bexwicke, Sen., Richard Bexwicke, Jun., James Radclyffe, and others, of lands in Salford and Worsley including Domville House in Salford to found a chantry at the Altar of St. George in the Collegiate Church. This latter chapel was held with the manor of Ordsall. The lower choir of the church was for centuries the exclusive burial place of the Radclyffes of Ordsall, and in consequence was known as the Radclyffe Chancel. During the restoration of the church in the nineteenth century a number of fragmentary brasses were taken up and placed in the chapter-house, the matrixes being buried beneath the cement setting for the new pavement of gaudy tiles
In the autumn of 1496 James the Fourth of Scotland was persuaded to invade England on behalf of Perkin Warbeck, and the men of the northern counties stirred into resistance. Realising the hopelessness of their cause by the lack of English response to their proclamation the Scots retired, pillaging the county without mercy. Sir William Radclyffe and his sons were amongst those who hastened to the defence of the north, and whether from wounds received in the battle or from the ravages of illness, they died within a month of each other. John Radclyffe was the first to succumb on the 12th April, and his father and brother William died on the same day, 15th May following. They were buried in the choir of Manchester Church, and one of the recovered brasses previously referred to, showing a knight in plate armour with a sword by his side and his lady in hood and mantle with the effigies of six female children at her feet, is indubitably the memorial to Sir William and the Lady Jane, his wife
After his death, his widow was married to Sir James Byron of Clayton, whom also she survived, and was married a third time to Sir John Talbot of Salesbury. The children of Sir William and Lady Jane Radclyffe were:
Alexander Radclyffe, grandson and heir of Sir William, was twenty two years old at the age of his succession. He married Alice, daughter of Sir John Booth of Barton, the same family with which three generations before his family had been in fierce feud. Alexander was eight years the senior of his kinsmen, Robert, Lord FitzWalter, with whom he as on terms of intimate friendship, the two cousins serving their military appreticeship together. At the Battle of the Spurs Alexander conducted himself with distinction and was knighted by Henry the Eighth at Lille. Returning to Lancashire, after peace with France had been arranged, Alexander applied himself to official duties wish so much zeal and ability that he rapidly rose to be one of the great figures in the county. He served the office of High Sheriff on four occasions, in 1523-4, 1528-9, 1538-9 and 1547-8. This was the high tide of the Reformation, and though his family were afterwards persecuted for recusancy it would appear that the sympathies of Sir Alexander with the new order were strong enough to provide proof of his loyalty. He was Serjeant of Salford when Henry the Eighth, deceived by his nephew, James the Fifth of Scotland, at the instigation of the wily Cardinal Beaton, determined to invade the kingdom of the Scots, and Sir Alexander gathered a great muster of his townsmen from the neighbourhood of Salford to take part in the expedition. Alexander died on the 5th February 1548 in his seventy-third year and was buried in the Collegiate Church at Manchester. At his death he was holding, besides his chief manor of Ordsall, lands in Salford, Flixton, Hope, Tockholes, and Livesey, tenements in Shoresworth, Pendleton, and Moston, and three parts of the manor of Newcroft in Urmston. He left four sons and three daughters:
William Radclyffe, eldest son and heir, was born at Ordsall in 1502. He married as his first wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Edmund Trafford, and she bore him three sons and two daughters. He took part in the Scottish expedition of 1544, when the Earl of Hertford invaded Scotland and laid siege to Edinburgh and Leith. For his services in the campaign William was knighted, and a similar honour was conferred upon his brother-in-law, Edmund Trafford. In the Military Muster of 1553 Sir William Radclyffe, Sir Edmund Trafford, and Sir John Atherton were appointed to command the Salford contingent. In 1558 Calais was lost, and in the following Queen Mary died. During her reign many who were persecuted by the tyranny of the Queen's fanaticism had fled to Scotland and found refuge amongst the reformers in that kingdom, where national feeling resented the domination of Catholic France in their affairs, and on the accession of Elizabeth looked hopefully to the Protestant Queen of England to uphold her claims. When Henry the Second of France died from a would received in jousting at a tournament and was succeeded by his son, Francis the Second, the husband of the young Queen of Scots, Elizabeth was forced to action in defence of her own realm. Mary and her consort styled themselves King and Queen of England, and the Duke of Guise sent troops to Scotland to subdue the nationalist reformers, preparatory to asserting his niece's claim to the English throne and rousing the Catholic north of England to her support. The Lords of the Congregation sent secret emissaries to the English Court to beseech Elizabeth's help. The Queen hated Knox and the Calvinists and would not have moved to their support but for the help which France had sent to the Queen-Regent of Scotland and the impertinence of Francis and Mary in assuming the title to England. A fleet of fifteen sail was despatched to the Firth of Forth, and an army of eight thousand men was assembled on the Border. Levies of men and of arms were raised throughout the northern counties, and the Earl of Derby's despatch to Cecil mentions amongst those rendering this aid, 'Sir William Radclyffe, his son and heir, Alexander, who is a handsome gentleman, and Sir John Atherton, joined with them, and furnishing between them 100 men.' Though still presumably Catholics the Radclyffes of Ordsall held their Queen and the realm entitled to their first loyalty. They maintained a close association with their FitzWalter cousins and doubtless were influenced largely by this friendship. By his will, made shortly before his death in 1556, Henry Radclyffe, second Earl of Sussex, settled the FitzWalter estates after the failure of his own heirs on Sir William Radclyffe of Ordsall and the heirs male of his body
In the year 1568 Lancashire was visited by one of the recurrent sicknesses which at intervals swept the country, taking dread toll of rich and poor without discrimination. In September, Alexander Radclyffe, Sir Williams eldest son, fell a victim to the plague, and within three weeks his father also sickened and died, his end hastened by the untimely death of his beloved and most promising son. Sir William died at Ordsall on the 12th of October 1568. He had increased his patrimony extensively. Shoresworth had been merged in the demesne of Ordsall, which with two water-mills, a fulling-mill, etc., was held by the Queen by a sixth part of a knight's fee, a rent now increased to sixtynine shillings and eightpence. He had seventeen burgages in Salford, and 100 acres of land there. The hamlet of Oldfield, lying between Ordsall and the town of Salford, was his, with twenty burgages and 30 acres of land. All was held of the Queen in free burgage and socage, under the borough charter, by a rent of twelve shillings. He had manors and lands in Flixton, Hope, Monton, Newcroft, Moston, Tockholes, Livesey, Oakenrod, Spotland, and Radclyffe
Sir William was thrice married. After the death of Margaret Trafford, who bore him three sons and two daughters, he married Anne, the daughter of Ralph Catterall, the widow of Sir John Towneley of Towneley, High Sheriff of Lancashire from 1531 to his death in 1540. This marriage, of which there was no issue, took place about 1542, and Lady Anne died in 1551. Some time after this Sir William married a third wife in Lady Katherine Bellingham, youngest daughter and co-heiress of Sir Robert Bellingham of Burneside, in the county of Westmorland, the widow of Sir Richard Assheton of Middleton. Sir William was buried in Manchester Church, and on his monumental brass was inscribed
'Sandbach cor retinet, servat Mancestria corpus, Caelestem mentem regna superna tenent.'
His issue was as follows:
John Radclyffe, second son of his father, succeeded to Ordsall on his father's death in 1568. He was born in 1536, and came to his inheritance in his thirty-third year. To the wide domains and fair possessions of his patrimony were now united the extensive lands which his marriage to the Asshawe heiress had brought him. His wife was Anne, the only daughter and heiress of Thomas Asshawe, of Elston. Anne was the great-granddaughter of Isabel Radclyffe and Sir James Harrington of Wolfege, whose youngest daughter and so-heiress, Margaret, was married to Christopher Hulton. They had an only daughter and heiress, who was married to Roger Asshawe on Hall-on-the Hill in Higher Charnock. Thomas Asshawe, son and heir of Jane Hulton and Roger, married Mary, daughter of James Anderton of Euxton, and Anne Asshawe was the only child of this marriage. John Radclyffe now became entitled to bring into the family shield the arms of Harrington, Chancefield, and Fleming, of Bannastre, English, Urswick, and Bradshaw, of Hulton, Aughton, Bowden, and Pilkington, all of which his wife was entitled to bear with her family arms of Asshawe. In addition to extensive estates in the neighbourhood of Chorley and Preston, Anne brought to her husband the Valentine moiety in Flixton, which had passed to the Asshawes from the marriage of John Valentine to Anne's grandmother, Jane.
The Ordsall Hall to which John Radclyffe brought his bride was worthy of such an heiress. It was a manor-house of exceptional beauty, and one of the largest and most important seats in the whole county. Leland remarked in the beauty of its surroundings as he passed by it on his journey through Lancashire in 1516. It was a quadrangular mansion in the half-timbered style of erection developed to perfection in Lancashire and Cheshire. The hall stood in the midst of a pleasant park bounded on the southeast side by the clear wide waters of the River Irwell and commanding a delightful prospect over a wide stretch of country to the distant hills of Derbyshire and the wooded uplands of Cheshire, whilst its northerly viewpoint reached to the bare brown moors of the Lancashire highlands. The house stood within a moated enclosure, the sloping lands of the manor on the north side draining into the Ordsall brook, which kept the moat supplied with constant flow of clear running water. The gardens were laid in the formal style of the period, and beyond were orchards, the shippons, barns, and buildings of the grange. From the end of the tree-shaded, rocky lane, which connected the manor with the town of Salford, a wide drive led through a noble avenue of sycamores to the northwestern side of the hall, where a drawbridge across the moat gave entrance through a corbelled gate-way into the inner courtyard, on the southeast side of which was the Great Hall, one of the finest and largest chambers in the north country. The east and west wings housed the family and the domestics, and fronting the moat on the northern side were the guard chambers where the considerable military retinue of the house was lodged. With Sir John lived his uncles, Alexander and Edmund, and his own large family of young children made the mansion ring with the happy laughter of youth at play
When John Radclyffe came to his inheritance he was confronted with grave anxieties. The Reformation had flooded the nation with many disorders, and in no part of the country were the religious distractions of the time so markedly evident as in Lancashire, stronghold of the old traditions, which were jealously maintained by gentry and common folk alike. As head of the greatest and certainly the most influential landed families of the county, John Radclyffe was called upon to assume a role of natural leadership, in which courage and foresight, wisdom and understanding, must be united with unflinching faith and the loyalty of a true patriot. Opportunity makes its own men, and John Radclyffe rose to his testing time in the true spirit of his fathers. In him was justified Walsingham's assurance to the Queen, that when the time came the Catholic gentlemen of England would not be found wanting. He walked the path of simple duty without fuss or ostentation. Proud in his heritage, he showed by the force of his example that the privilege of rank was the responsibility of service. Through difficult days he demonstrated that a man could be constant without conflict between his faith and his Queen
In the General Muster of 1559, when Salford supplied 294 harnessed and 649 unharnessed men, John had taken part under his brother's command. From 1563 to 1567 he represented the county as member for Wigan, The year after his succession, the Catholics of the north were urged to rise in support of the Queen of Scots by the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland. A company of men-at-arms was raised near Ordsall, and despatched under the captaincy of Richard Radclyffe to the army of the Earl of Sussex, at York, marching forth to uphold their Queen and the realm, even against men of their own faith
In 1571 Sir John Radclyffe was appointed Knight of the Shire, and three years later he was one of the signatories to the Association of Lancashire Gentlemen, formed to defend Queen Elizabeth from the conspiracies in support of Mary Queen of Scots. In the same year Sir John erected at his own expense a west window in the Parish Church at Eccles. In 1574 a General Muster was summoned, in which Salford furnished 132 archers and 603 billmen under the leadership of Sir John Radclyffe and Sir Edmund Trafford, and Sir John provided at his own expense one demi-lance, two light horses, three corselets, three coats of plate, three steel caps, two culivers, two morions, three pikes, three longbows and three sheaves of arrows. In addition he headed the Salford list with a contribution of one hundred pounds towards the defence of the country from the Spanish invasion. Despite these signal proofs of his loyalty he was included in the list of recusants and accused as 'a dangerous temporiser' in matters of religion. He still maintained a private chapel in his hall at Ordsall, and regularly paid the fines imposed on all those who loyally accepted the supreme authority of the Queen in all things spiritual, but desired to be allowed to practice the old forms of worship. After the execution of the Jesuit, Campion, who under torture revealed the names of those who had received him into their houses, there was an extensive round up of the recusants in the Hundred of Salford, and they were imprisoned in large numbers in the New Fleet Prison in Salford. Although some of his friends were amongst these, Sir John was not called upon to endure this indignity
Sir John was responsible for a curious action in 1579. The manor of Manchester was then in possession of Sir William West, ninth Baron La Warre, who had mortgaged the estate to John Lacy, of London. The load not being repaid, Lacy foreclosed. While the sale was impending, Sir John Radclyffe, being steward of the Hundred of Salford, began to amerce its inhabitants of Over Hulton, Lostock, Aspull, Harwood, Pilkington, Heaton, Halliwell, Chorlton, Withington, Heaton Norris, Westhaughton and Ashton-under-Lyne, in the view of frank-pledge held at Salford, on account of their nonappearance. Lord La Warre was thereby unable to pay his rent to the Queen for the manor of Manchester, since his tenants had been compelled to appear at the Salford Leet instead of at his own manorial court. Sir Edmund Trafford in occupation of Chorlton made complaint about the matter in 1578, and Lord La Warre said that the inhabitants of Failsworth, Droylsden, Ashton, Gorton, and Moston had refused to pay amercements for absence from his Manchester Leets at Michaelmas and Easter. (Ducht of Lancashire Pleadings, Eliz. cviii W. i)
Sir John was but fifty-three years of age when he died at Ordsall, on the 19th January 1589. On the 11th February following his remains were interred, as desired in his will, in the Church at Manchester, 'betwixte the quire door and the stepps amoungst mine ancestors.' His monumental brass is still preserved in the chapter-house of the Cathedral. In his will he reveals his concern for the large family of tender years he was leaving behind him, and his sincere religious faith. The document has an unusual opening:
'Jesus esto mihi Jesu. I, John Radclyffe of Ordsall, Knight, of good memory and health, having little children both younger sons and daughters which be unprovided for, and willing God of His great mercy to have compassion on me, and trusting through the Passion and Death of Christ to be one of the elect company of Heaven, with the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Saints ...'
After making various bequests of lands in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and elsewhere, to his children, margaret, Jane, Anne, William, Edmund, Thomas, and John, he proceeds:
'... I would have these children brought up in learning so that after they accomplish 14 years I would have sent to Oxford or Cambridge, there to continue till one of them be able to go to the Inns of Court, if it be his pleasure, or to tarry and reside in the University.'
Hawkins and Drake had begun to stir the minds of all Englishmen with the vision of new lands beyond the far ocean seas, and Sir John, in his ancestral home at Ordsall, was dreaming too, as he lay on his deathbed, of some of the Radclyffe name taking part in extending his nation's heritage and imperial glory in the fabled lands of the uncharted world of the West.
'... and I desire one of mye sons to proceed in the Civil Laws within England, and when he shall be of ability to travel, to gobeyond the seas, and not to continue in this country; for a time to come and see his mother, brothers and friends, and not to tarry over here long'
Alas for all the fair dreams and wise provision of the gallant knight, Fate had her own cruel jest to play, bringing his desires to naught. Before another decade had run its full course, the high hall of Ordsall, decked with the valour of its noble family and the honour of their achievements, shelter of romance and grace, where love and laughter, prayer and praise, merry song and robust gaiety, had rung about its ancient beams, was to echo with the sobbing strain of stricken hearts, when piteous tragedy its deepening shadows over the fair-sprung hopes of an ancient race.
His widow, Anne, remained at Ordsall with her children for some years after her husband's death. The inventory shows the value of live stock and goods at Ordsall then as £1468, for in addition to his public duties Sir John was a keen farmer and a practical agriculturist, and Lady Anne was happiest in the quiet life of her homestead, surrounded by all that her husband had loved. Eventually she retired from Ordsall to her father's house and Charnock, where she died on the 10th of January 1627, at the age of eighty-two
Sir John and Lady Anne had issue of five sons and four daughters:
Alexander Radclyffe, eldest son and heir of Sir John, was born at Ordsall, and baptized at Manchester on the 26th January 1573. He was sixteen years old when his father died. He had already been introduced to the Court under the patronage of his FitzWilliam cousins, and was one of the eager youths, 'bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,' who accepted Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, as their natural leader. Alexander took part in the famous exploit against Cadiz in 1596, and was amongst those knighted by Essex at the end of the great adventure. He and his sister, Margaret, were amongst the most intimate friends of Essex, as they also enjoyed the loving favour of the Queen. In the summer on 1598 the rebel earl of Tyrone inflicted a disastrous defeat on the English forces in Ireland, and Essex persuaded the Queen and the Council to grant him the command in Ireland and the task of subduing Tyrone. Sir Alexander's brother, Captain William Radclyffe, had fallen in the Battle of Blackwater, and the young knight of Ordsall was eager to avenge his brother's death and freely offered his service to his friend, Essex, in the tremendous task he had undertaken. On 22nd March 1599 he made his will, and the following day rode forth to Chester, there to join Essex, who sailed from the Dee at the head of the greatest expedition Elizabeth had ever sent abroad, 16000 foot and 100 horse, levies voluntarily raised throughout the land at the call of national honour and by the magic of the leader's name. Arrived in Ireland Essex paid too much heed to the persuasions of the Irish Council, anxious to secure the preservation of their own estates, and instead of proceeding against Tyrone in Ulster led his army into Munster. Disease attacked his forces with disastrous results, and he was compelled to return to Dublin with nothing noteworthy accomplished in the months of his campaign, but with his army broken and weary from their lenghty sojourn into the misty boglands. Severely wounded, and ravaged with fever, Sir Alexander Radclyffe died on the 5th August 1599.
The affections of Sir Alexander had been claimed and held by his cousin, Marie Radclyffe, daughter of his father's brother, Richard of Newcroft. Marie was the playmate of his childhood, and the confidante of his courtier days. He nominated Marie and Thomas Gillibrand, his servant, as executors of his will, and devised to them for 2000 years all is lands in Ashby and Tavelby in Leicestershire and in Chesterfield, Newbold, Brampton, and Spittlefield in Derbyshire. To his three sisters, Margaret, Jane, and Anne, he gave annuities, and to each of his brothers, Thomas and Edmund, he gave an annuity of thirty six pounds, thirteen shillings and fourpence. The residue of his estates he left to his brother, John, or in case the latter died before him, they were to go to such other as should be heir at common law at his decease. He commended his soul into the hands of Almighty God, and his body to Christian and decent funeral where it should please Almighty God to dispose of the same, and to be answerable and fitting to his state and degree. The will was sealed before the eminent Salford notary, Humphrey Davenport
Margaret Radclyffe was twin to Alexander and, as is not uncommon in such cases, their natural relationship was reinforced by a strong bond of mutual affection. As children they were inseparable companions, and when Alexander came to Court he brought his sister with him. The arrival of the two young people so wondrously alike in their striking physical beauty created something of a mild sensation at the Palace of Whitehall, famous as it was for the excellence of its gallants and the radiance of its ladies. Margaret was immediately claimed by the Queen to adorn the privy chamber as a Maid of Honour. The girl's ready wit and shrewd judgment allied to her exquisite grace commanded her strongly to her royal mistress, an ageing woman nearing her sixtieth year and seeing perhaps in the accomplished and vivacious maid a reincarnation of the splendour of her own lost youth. Margaret was elevated above all other ladies of the Court as the Queen's prime favourite, and all who would sue for Gloriana's favours sought the aid of merry Margaret as their intermediary. Her brother kept her well supplied with money and her dresses were the envy of her friends, as one of the courtiers bears witness:
'Yesterday did Mistress Ratcliffe weare a whyte satten gown, all embrodered, rich cutt upon cloth of silver that cost one hundred and eighty pounds' (Sidney Papers)
Her bosom friend was Anne Russell, granddaughter of the second Earl of Bedford, and later married to Lord Herbert, son of the fourth Earl of Worcester. The two girls joyed in an intimate companionship, laughing and dancing their way through the gay world of intrigue and romance in which their lives were set. They were both fine horsewomen and spent some part of every day riding out for exercise on their own horses, Margaret on 'Bay Compton' and Anne on 'Bay Dormer'
Margaret had many suitors, but of them all she preferred Lord Cobham. Henry Brooke, however, was a nobleman of fickle mind, alternating his favours between Margaret Radclyffe and Frances Howard, the attractive widow of Henry, twelfth Earl of Kildare, and playing off both by a passionate flirtation with Elizabeth Russell, sister of Anne
When Essex and Raleigh quarrelled and the courtiers began to take sides, Margaret was strongly for Essex and used her influence with the Queen on his behalf. His enemies might temporarily triumph, she declared, but sooner or later 'the pack will break.' When Essex was recalled to favour and given command of the expedition against Tyrone, Alexander Radclyffe was one of his gallant company. Margaret bade good-bye to her beloved brother, little realising then the finality of the parting, and hoped to find solace with Cobham. His fickle lordship at that time was preferring Lady Kildare, whom he eventually married. Five months went by, and one day in late August a courier came riding to Court bearing news from Ireland. The English army had suffered a severe defeat and Sir Alexander Radclyffe was amongst the slain. The Queen would not suffer anyone but herself to bear the news to Margaret. The girl's grief was terrible to behold. Nothing would comfort her, and when her sobbing had subsided she lay on her bed in a state of complete exhaustion. The royal physicians whom the Queen summoned to attend her reported that her malady was of the heart, not of the body, and their medicines would be unavailing. When the Court moved to Nonsuch, Margaret returned to Ordsall, bereft of her smile and lively charm, her sad heart breaking with great sorrow, to be alone with her grief in the home of her fathers, where the undimmed happiness of a childhood with her brother had been spent. Here she languished amidst scenes fraught with tender memories. News of her condition was sent regularly to the Queen, whose anxiety for her dearly loved friend insisted on Margaret being brought to Richmond Palace that she might tend her in person. It was a ghost who obeyed the Queen's command, and the courtiers were shocked to see the change which had come upon the former merry maid. Even the ministrations of the Queen and of dear Anne Russell could not rouse Margaret to an interest in life, and on the morning of 10th November 1599 she died. Her tragic passing was the sole topic of conversation for days. In one of Philip Gaudy's Letters he writes:
'There is newes besides of the tragycall death of Mistress Ratcliffe the Mayde of honor, who ever synce the death of Sir Alexander her brother hathe pined in such strange manner, as volunterily she later hathe gone about to starve herself, and by the two days together hathe receivved no sustinence, which meeting with extreame griefe hathe made an end of her Mayden modest days at Richmond uppon Saterdays last, her Majestie being present, who commanded her body to be opened and found it all well and sound, saving certyne strings striped all over her harte'
The Court went into mourning and by the Queen's command Margaret was buried with all the ceremonies of a great lady's obsequies in the Church of St. Margaret at Westminster. A magnificent monument was erected over her grave at the Queen's expense, and Ben Jonson wrote the inscription for it
When, and for what reason, this monument was removed it has been impossible to discover, but no trace of it now remains in the church. The record of Jonson's tribute has, however, been preserved
Marble weep, for thou dost
cover
A dead beauty underneath thee,
Rich as nature could bequeath thee:
Grant, then, no rude hand remove her.
All the gazers on the skies
Read not in fair heaven's story
Expresser truth or truer glory,
Than they might in her bright eyes.
Rare as wonder was her wit;
And like nectar ever flowing:
Till time, strong by her bestowing,
Conquered have both life and it.
Life whose grief was out of fashion
In these times. Few have so rued
Fate in a brother. To conclude,
For wit, feature, and true passion
Earth, thou hast not such another.
The marble, alas, has vanished, but these lines of the Poet Laureate indicate the tender regard in which the Maid of Sorrows, sweet, gentle-hearted Margaret, flower of the flock, was held by the fashionable world of the Great Queen's Court
John Radclyffe, the heir of his brother Alexander, was the third son of his father, and was baptized at Manchester Church on 24th February 1581. He accompanied his brother in the Irish expedition, and was knighted by Essex in Ireland on 24th September 1599, being thereby freed from wardship, in his nineteenth year. Returning to London he quickly established himself as a favourite in Court circles. The tragedy of the passing of two young people so popular as his sister and brother had touched a ringing chord of sympathy in a wide circle of hearts, and John was made welcome not only for the fame of his name but also on account of his attractive personality, his proved valour in arms, and his private virtues. His cousin, Robert, Earl of Sussex, held him in great regard and affection, the older man finding in the younger a stability of character of which his own generous but irresolute nature could lean with confident security. Despite Sir John's attachment to the Earl of Essex, his loyalty to the Queen and a strict sense of honourable duty did not permit him to join in the incredible folly of Essex's rebellion, though doubtless he grieved that so gallant a nobleman should have cast away his great fame and reputation in a mad moment of passionate despair, too recklessly impulsive to wait with patience for the legitimate achievement of his overbounding ambitions. Essex paid the last penalty on his rashness in the courtyard of the Tower of London, on 25th February 1601. Two years later, in the early hours of the morning, ere yet the grey dawn of late March lighted the windows of her Palace of Richmond, the life of the great Queen herself ebbed gently to its close. In the squabbles, the plottings, the conspiracies that marked the beginning of the reign of James the First, John Radclyffe took no part, his natural dignity and sound common sense holding him aloof from the rivalries and discontents in which so many of his associates became involved. Popular tradition in the neighbourhood of Ordsall, and the imagination of a famous novelist, have so generally ascribed to the Radclyffes a prominent part in the Gunpowder Plot that it would be appropriate, at this point, to discover what fragment of fact, if any, there is in this legend
Sir John Radclyffe, like his father before him, was a Catholic, but a convinced loyalist. He belonged to that section of his co-religionists, comprising many of the old families and the majority of the secular priests, he desired only toleration for the exercise of their faith. They had little or no sympathy with the more fanatical elements, who with the aid of indigent adventurers sought the revengeful overthrow of the whole fabric of the state and its unconditional surrender to the Papacy. Like all revolutionaries, what the members of this second party lacked in numbers, they made up for in the violence of their expressions. Anxious to divest himself of the charge of papistry levelled against him by the discontented Puritans, King James made a proclamation, banishing all Catholic missionaries and reaffirming the penal laws against recusants, who were subjected to heavy fines, mercilessly extorted, and ruinous to men of moderate means. When the Bye Plot or 'treason of the priests' failed in 1603, the more fiery spirits among the Catholics frantically sought means to deliver themselves from this oppression. Injustice and hatred together are relentless masters, which drive their victims to extraordinary devices. One of the sufferers was Robert Catesby, a member of an old Northamptonshire family, and by nature a dabbler in treason. In turn he had been a bitter denouncer of the Papists, and their zealous supporter. In 1596 he was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in an attempt to poison the Queen. He took part in the rebellion of Essex and narrowly escaped that noble's fate. In 1602 he was conspiring with the Jesuits in an attempt to persuade the King of Spain to a new invasion of England. Into his scheming mind now flashed a plan so diabolical that it could have been conceived only in a madman's frenzy, the incredible treason of the Gunpowder Plot, and to its achievement he called a number of intimates, most of whom like himself had been involved in the Essex rising
In his romantic novel of Guy Fawkes, which many people have accepted as authentic history, Harrison Ainsworth introduces us to one Viviana Radclyffe, the sole representative of her family at Ordsall during the absence of her father, Sir William Radclyffe, who is away attending a meeting of Catholic gentry at Holt in Cheshire. Viviana is represented as a fair maiden of eighteen, whom Catesby comes in secrecy to woo, and at Ordsall encounters Guy Fawkes, who has come to secure the support of the Radclyffes in the Plot. When the hall is raided by pursuivants, come to arrest the Roman Catholic priest in hiding at the Hall, Viviana, Catesby, Fawkes, and the priest are all rescued by the timely intervention of Humphrey Chetham, who conducts them by a secret passage running beneath the moat to a summer house in the grounds, and thence through Old Trafford to Chat Moss. Humphrey Chetham is portrayed as in love with Viviana, but differences of religious faith make their marriage impossible, and the story closes with Humphrey left solitary, his life 'tinged by the blighting of his early affection ... true to his love, he died unmarried'
Records fail to reveal that the Radclyffes had even the most remote association with the Gunpowder Treason. Ordsall in 1605 was in possession of Sir John, the last Sir William, his grandfather, having died in 1568. There was never any female of the house named Viviana and only the surviving sister of Sir John was Jane, then thirty years of age, and married to Sir Ralph Constable. It is a fact that Humphrey Chetham was a friend of the family, and in later years advanced them money on a mortgage when their fortunes fell on evil days, though whether he had cherished any romantic attachment to a daughter of the Radclyffes, possibly Anne, who died in 1601, has not been recorded in the story of his life. Picturesque though Ainsworth's story is, and glamorous the atmosphere of romance it spreads about the ancient hall of Ordsall, it must be dismissed as purely the figment of the author's imaginative mind, though indeed the Radclyffes as much as any family had cause for bitterness in the heavy penalties inflicted upon them for their alleged recusancy. But this never tempted Sir John Radclyffe to depart one whit from his loyalty and patriotic service
His choice of wife rested on Mistress Alice Byron, daughter of Sir John Byron of Newstead Priory in Nottingham and lord of the manor of Clayton in Lancashire. The mother of Alice was Anne, the eldest daughter of Sir Richard Molyneaux of Sefton, another family related to the Radclyffes. In 1606 Sir John Radclyffe sold the Asshawe lands in Flixton to Peter Egerton, younger son of Sir Ralph Egerton of Ridley, who had married Elizabeth, daughter of Leonard Asshawe of Shaw Hall in Flixton. The recusancy fines continued to be a heavy drain on the estate, and in 1613 Sir John conveyed to Adam Byrom of Salford, a leading merchant of the town, certain lands in Eccles and Salford for the term of thirteen years and eight months for the consideration of four hundred and four-score pounds. One of the witnesses to this deed is 'Samuel Bordeman, Cl.,' the family tutor of the Radclyffe family, who accompanied Sir Alexander on the visit to Lathom in August 1590. In the Parliament of 1621 Sir John Radclyffe sat as Knight of the Shire, and again in the Parliament called in February of 1624. The following year King James died, and Charles the First began his troubled reign
Sir John was unhappy in his domestic life. He suspected Dame Alice, his wife, of a guilty passion for his friend, Sir Edmund Prestwich of Hulme, a neighbouring manor across the river from Ordsall. In consequence of this quarrel Sir John separated from his wife and betook himself to London, there to seek service in arms overseas. He again represented Lancashire as a Knight of the Shire in the first Parliament of the new reign. When Buckingham, in 1627, aiming to checkmate Richelieu's plan of the Franco-Spanish invasion, set sail with a fleet to the relief of La Rochelle, Sir John Radclyffe was one of his company. During the engagement on the disasterous Isle of Rhe, Sir John was in the thick of the fighting and suffered the loss of both his legs. He died of his wounds on the 29th October 1627. The esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries is reflected in the laudatory ode Ben Johnson composed in his honour:
How like a column, Radclyffe
left alone
For the great mark of virtue, those being gone,
Who did, alike with thee, thy house bear,
Standest thou to show the times what you all were.
Two bravely in the battle fought and died,
Upbraiding rebel's arms and barbarous pride:
And two that would have fall'n great as they
The Belgic fener ravished away.
Thou that art all their valour, all thy spirit,
And thyne own greatness to increase thy merit,
Than thou, I do not know a shiter soul,
Nor could I, had I all nature's roll.
Thou yet remain'st, unhurt in peace and war,
Though not unproved: which shows thy fortunes are
Willing to expiate the fault in thee,
Wherewith against thy blood they offenders be.
Dame Alice outlived her husband thirty years and died in October 1657, by her will leaving all her property to her nephew, John Hutchinson. Sir John and Lady Alice had one son and three daughters:
For a time Gell was a vigorous supporter of the King's Cause, but he subsequently became an active commander on the parliamentary side, capturing many of the fortified houses of the Royalists. In 1649 he was arrainged on a charge of conspiring against Cromwell on behalf of Charles the Second, and was condemned to perpetual imprisonment with the forfeiture of his estates. He was released at the Restoration of Charles the Second and the forfeiture reversed. Sir John died at his house in St. Martin's Lane, London, in 1671, in his eightieth year and was buried at Wirksworth. In the 'Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson,' the parliamentary governor of Nottingham Castle, Gell is described as a man of grave moral reputation, 'so unjust that, without any remorse, he suffered his men to plunder both honest men and cavaliers.'
Alexander Radclyffe, only son and heir of his father, was born at Ordsall on 27th April 1608, and baptized at Manchester Church the 4th of May following. At an early age Alexander was received into the household of his kinsman, the Earl of Sussex, who introduced him to the Court. Under the will of the second Earl the FitzWalter estates were settled on the Radclyffes of Ordsall, and the fifth Earl conceived the idea of uniting the two branches of the family my marrying his own natural daughter, Jane, to his young kinsman. The marriage was celebrated on 7th June 1623 at St. James' Church, Clerkenwell, Alexander Radclyffe being then fifteen years of age, and his bride a year or two his junior. Alexander carried the purple robe at the coronation of King Charles the First in 1625, on which occasion he was made a Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, a notable distinction for one so young. In the Parliament of 1628 Sir Alexander succeeded his father as the representative of Lancashire, and, although actively employed about the Court, he spent much of his time at Ordsall, taking a considerable interest in the affairs of the locality. Owing to recusancy fines and divers other causes, the estate was sadly impoverished. He obtained from Humphrey Chetham, the merchant banker of Manchester, a loan of two thousand pounds, secured on a moiety of the Ordsall demesne. In a memorandum addressed from his residence at Clayton Hall to Sir Cecil Trafford, Chetham says:
'Whereas Sir Alex. Radclyffe lately passed unto mee some part of the Demayne of Ordsall for and in consideration of the some of 2000 Pounds: if therefore he shall think it more for his easement that hee will and doe pay unto mee part of the said some this yeare, for and towards the redemsion of the saide Lande, over and beside the Rent due unto mee by one Demayne or Lease to yourselfe and Mr Prestwiche, I will accept thereof, and I will likewise mitigate or abate of my Rent as much as shall be proportionabe or equall to the Stone you pay and the Tyme you pay it. Provided always and upon Condicione that this my promise shall not frustrate, make voyde, not be any Prejudice unto my Bargen or Contract formerly made in and ipoon the said premises with Sir Alexander, yourself or any other. In witness whereof I have hereunto putt my hand and seal tis 8th June 1634.'
Other parts of the estate, consisting of 14 messuages, 6 cottages, 14 gardens, 8 acres of land, 4 acres of meadow and 80 acres of pasture in Pendleton, Pendlebury, Oldfield, Little Bolton and Salford, held of the King as of his manor of Salford in fee and burgage by fealty and as annual rent of 12 shillings for all services, had been sold by Sir John Radclyffe shortly before his death to Humphrey Booth, the great Benefactor of the Poor of Salford. In interesting sidelight on tSir Alexander Radclyffe's religious inclinations is shown in his contribution towards the furnishing of the Church of the Sacred Trinity in Salford, which Humphrey Booth built at his own expense in 1634-35, The mortgage to the Chethams subsequently the subject of protracted and complicated litigation. Taxes on a portion of the Ordsall lands lying within the parish of Eccles, namely, 'Shoulsworth and Shoulsworth Meadow' (Shoresworth) held of the Radclyffes by Christopher Anderton of Lostock, Esquire, from whom they were seized for his recusancy, were paid by the Chethams for thirty years from 1634 to 1663. In 1646 Humphrey Chetham rebuilt the Great Barn at Ordsall, and the following year he paid half the chief rent due for the manor, Sir Alexander being liable for the other half
The decline in the family fortunes made it difficult to maintain so large a mansion as Ordsall Hall, and the abolition of a military retinue reduced the necessity for the former extensive accommodation. Sir Alexander therefore commenced the rebuilding of the house on a smaller scale. He pulled down the east and west wings and the guardhouse, with the intention of replacing the two former portions on a more modest plan. He managed to complete only the west wing ere the Great Rebellion broke out, and his building plans had of necessity to be abandoned. This is the brick built wing of the existing house, which prior to the restoration of the old place by Earl Egerton of Tatton in 1897 bore a keystone in the gable with the Radclyffe shield, the initials 'A.R.,' and the date 1639. On the outbreak of hostilities between the king and the Parliament, Sir Alexander placed himself unreservedly at the service of Charles, and was appointed one of the Commissioners of Array. After the monumentous meeting on Preston Moor, when the two parties of Cavaliers and Roundheads first originated in Lancashire, Lord Strange and Lord Molyneaux came to Ordsall to hold counsel with the Royalist leaders in the county for the defence of the King's Cause. It was from Ordsall that Lord Strange went forth to demand the Parliamentary supporters in Manchester the surrender of the arms and munitions belonging to the King, that they had illegally seized, from which request developed the Battle of Salford Bridge, the first engagement in the Civil War. Sir Alexander was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Edgehill, and by special resolution of Parliament committed to the Tower. Only his estates in Essex were sequestered, Ordsall doubtless being preserved by the influence of Humphrey Chetham, who had a natural anxiety to protect his own financial interests therein.
In the skirmish at Ribble Bridge in 1648 one of Sir Alexander's sons, a boy of fifteen was wounded and taken prisoner, dying later in London. Broken in health, the Lord of Ordsall was eventually released from the Tower, and went to his house at Attleburgh, which inheritance had come to him on the death of the sixth Earl of Sussex in 1641. Here, his youngest son, Robert, was born in November 1650. Worn out with anxiety and privation, knowing his days were numbered, he returned to the home of his fathers at Ordsall in the spring of 1654, and on the 14th April following his spirit fled to join the King in whose cause his body had been so freely and gladly broken. He was buried with his ancestors in the Church at Manchester in his forty-sixth year. Lady Jane, his widow, survived him more that twenty years and was married to a second husband in a Dr. Lewes. She proved the will of her son, John, in 1669, and is mentioned in the will of the widow of her son, Humphrey, in 1673
Sir Alexander and Lady Jane had a numerous family of six sons and five daughters:
Alexander Radclyffe, only son and heir of his father, was born at Ordsall on 27th April 1608, and baptized at Manchester Church the 4th of May following. At an early age Alexander was received into the household of his kinsman, the Earl of Sussex, who introduced him to the Court. Under the will of the second Earl the FitzWalter estates were settled on the Radclyffes of Ordsall, and the fifth Earl conceived the idea of uniting the two branches of the family my marrying his own natural daughter, Jane, to his young kinsman. The marriage was celebrated on 7th June 1623 at St. James' Church, Clerkenwell, Alexander Radclyffe being then fifteen years of age, and his bride a year or two his junior. Alexander carried the purple robe at the coronation of King Charles the First in 1625, on which occasion he was made a Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, a notable distinction for one so young. In the Parliament of 1628 Sir Alexander succeeded his father as the representative of Lancashire, and, although actively employed about the Court, he spent much of his time at Ordsall, taking a considerable interest in the affairs of the locality. Owing to recusancy fines and divers other causes, the estate was sadly impoverished. He obtained from Humphrey Chetham, the merchant banker of Manchester, a loan of two thousand pounds, secured on a moiety of the Ordsall demesne. In a memorandum addressed from his residence at Clayton Hall to Sir Cecil Trafford, Chetham says:
'Whereas Sir Alex. Radclyffe lately passed unto mee some part of the Demayne of Ordsall for and in consideration of the some of 2000 Pounds: if therefore he shall think it more for his easement that hee will and doe pay unto mee part of the said some this yeare, for and towards the redemsion of the saide Lande, over and beside the Rent due unto mee by one Demayne or Lease to yourselfe and Mr Prestwiche, I will accept thereof, and I will likewise mitigate or abate of my Rent as much as shall be proportionabe or equall to the Stone you pay and the Tyme you pay it. Provided always and upon Condicione that this my promise shall not frustrate, make voyde, not be any Prejudice unto my Bargen or Contract formerly made in and ipoon the said premises with Sir Alexander, yourself or any other. In witness whereof I have hereunto putt my hand and seal tis 8th June 1634.'
Other parts of the estate, consisting of 14 messuages, 6 cottages, 14 gardens, 8 acres of land, 4 acres of meadow and 80 acres of pasture in Pendleton, Pendlebury, Oldfield, Little Bolton and Salford, held of the King as of his manor of Salford in fee and burgage by fealty and as annual rent of 12 shillings for all services, had been sold by Sir John Radclyffe shortly before his death to Humphrey Booth, the great Benefactor of the Poor of Salford. In interesting sidelight on tSir Alexander Radclyffe's religious inclinations is shown in his contribution towards the furnishing of the Church of the Sacred Trinity in Salford, which Humphrey Booth built at his own expense in 1634-35, The mortgage to the Chethams subsequently the subject of protracted and complicated litigation. Taxes on a portion of the Ordsall lands lying within the parish of Eccles, namely, 'Shoulsworth and Shoulsworth Meadow' (Shoresworth) held of the Radclyffes by Christopher Anderton of Lostock, Esquire, from whom they were seized for his recusancy, were paid by the Chethams for thirty years from 1634 to 1663. In 1646 Humphrey Chetham rebuilt the Great Barn at Ordsall, and the following year he paid half the chief rent due for the manor, Sir Alexander being liable for the other half
The decline in the family fortunes made it difficult to maintain so large a mansion as Ordsall Hall, and the abolition of a military retinue reduced the necessity for the former extensive accommodation. Sir Alexander therefore commenced the rebuilding of the house on a smaller scale. He pulled down the east and west wings and the guardhouse, with the intention of replacing the two former portions on a more modest plan. He managed to complete only the west wing ere the Great Rebellion broke out, and his building plans had of necessity to be abandoned. This is the brick built wing of the existing house, which prior to the restoration of the old place by Earl Egerton of Tatton in 1897 bore a keystone in the gable with the Radclyffe shield, the initials 'A.R.,' and the date 1639. On the outbreak of hostilities between the king and the Parliament, Sir Alexander placed himself unreservedly at the service of Charles, and was appointed one of the Commissioners of Array. After the monumentous meeting on Preston Moor, when the two parties of Cavaliers and Roundheads first originated in Lancashire, Lord Strange and Lord Molyneaux came to Ordsall to hold counsel with the Royalist leaders in the county for the defence of the King's Cause. It was from Ordsall that Lord Strange went forth to demand the Parliamentary supporters in Manchester the surrender of the arms and munitions belonging to the King, that they had illegally seized, from which request developed the Battle of Salford Bridge, the first engagement in the Civil War. Sir Alexander was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Edgehill, and by special resolution of Parliament committed to the Tower. Only his estates in Essex were sequestered, Ordsall doubtless being preserved by the influence of Humphrey Chetham, who had a natural anxiety to protect his own financial interests therein.
In the skirmish at Ribble Bridge in 1648 one of Sir Alexander's sons, a boy of fifteen was wounded and taken prisoner, dying later in London. Broken in health, the Lord of Ordsall was eventually released from the Tower, and went to his house at Attleburgh, which inheritance had come to him on the death of the sixth Earl of Sussex in 1641. Here, his youngest son, Robert, was born in November 1650. Worn out with anxiety and privation, knowing his days were numbered, he returned to the home of his fathers at Ordsall in the spring of 1654, and on the 14th April following his spirit fled to join the King in whose cause his body had been so freely and gladly broken. He was buried with his ancestors in the Church at Manchester in his forty-sixth year. Lady Jane, his widow, survived him more that twenty years and was married to a second husband in a Dr. Lewes. She proved the will of her son, John, in 1669, and is mentioned in the will of the widow of her son, Humphrey, in 1673
Sir Alexander and Lady Jane had a numerous family of six sons and five daughters: