The manor of BREIGHTMET formed a moiety of the Marsey fee in the parish of Bolton, (fn. 4) and was in the 12th century held as one plough-land by Augustin de Breightmet. (fn. 5) By his wife Edith de Barton he had as his heir a daughter, Cecily, who married William de Notton, (fn. 6) the tenant in 1212. (fn. 7) Some forty years later it was held by Avina de Samlesbury, and divided among her three daughters; (fn. 8) but as Margery the eldest had no issue, the other two ultimately had each a moiety of the manor. (fn. 9)
Of these Cecily married Sir John D'Ewias, and her moiety descended to the Southworths of Samlesbury, who retained it till the beginning of the 16th century. (fn. 10) In 1510 it was in the possession of the Gerards of Aughton, (fn. 11) then of the Ainsworths, (fn. 12) from whom, in the 17th century, it passed to a branch of the Banastre family. (fn. 13) In 1725 Breightmet Hall and estate were purchased from the Baguley family by John Parker, (fn. 14) high sheriff of the county in 1732, (fn. 15) in whose family it remained for over a century. (fn. 16) No manor seems now to be claimed in respect of this part.
The other daughter, Elizabeth, married Sir Robert de Holland, (fn. 17) and her moiety of the manor descended in the male line of this family (fn. 18) until 1461, when it became forfeit together with the other possessions of Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter. (fn. 19) In 1484 it was granted by Richard III to Thomas, Lord Stanley, and his son Lord Strange, (fn. 20) and this moiety of the manor has descended to the present Earl of Derby. (fn. 21)
Footnotes :
5. Augustin de Breightmet about 1180 gave to his brother Patrick de Mobberley a moiety of Mobberley with reversion of the rest after his own death; Lord Edmund Talbot's MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com. Various Coll. ii, 290).
6. See the account of Barton-on-Irwell; also Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 422.
7. Inq. and Extents, loc. cit.; he paid a rent of 8s. Later, Breightmet was described as the eighth part of a knight's fee.
Thiscomes from Lancaster British History Website
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol5/pp266-268#p9
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