Читать книгу History of the Fylde of Lancashire онлайн

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During the reign of Edward III., Henry, earl of Lancaster, was created duke of the county with the consent of the prelates and peers assembled in parliament. This nobleman, whose pious and generous actions earned for him the title of the “Good duke of Lancaster,” received a mandate from the king during the war with France, when there were serious apprehensions of an invasion by that nation, to arm all the lancers on his estates, and to set a strict watch over the seacoasts of Lancashire. These precautions, however, proved unnecessary, as the French made no attempt to cross the channel. In his will, bearing the date 1361, (the year of his death), Duke Henry bequeathed the Wappentakes or Hundreds of Amounderness, Lonsdale, and Leyland, with other estates, to his daughter Blanche, who had married John of Gaunt, the earl of Richmond and fourth son of Edward III. John of Gaunt succeeded to the dukedom in right of his wife.

“In the ‘Testa de Nevill’,” a register extending from 1274 to 1327, and containing, amongst other matters, a list of the fees and serjeanties holden of the king and the churches in his gift, it is stated under the latter heading:—“St. Michael upon Wyre; the son of Count Salvata had it by gift of the present king, and he says, that he is elected into a bishoprick, and that the church is vacant, and worth 30 marks[28] per an. Kyrkeham; King John gave two parts of it to Simon Blundel, on account of his custody of the son and heir of Theobald Walter. Worth 80 marks[29] per an.” In another part of these records it is named that Richard de Frekelton held fees in chief in Freckleton, Newton, and Eccleston; Alan de Singilton, in Singleton, Freckleton, Newton, and Elswick; and Adam de Merton, in Marton; also that Fitz Richard held serjeanties in Singleton, by serjeanty of Amounderness.