BHO

Townships: Broughton

Pages 278-281

A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 8. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1914.

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BROUGHTON

Broghton, Brochton, 1277; Brogthton, 1292.

As stated above, this township, often called Broughton-in-Cartmel to distinguish it from other Broughtons in the neighbourhood, has recently been divided into two called Broughton East and Grange. It gave a name to one of the bailiwicks. It has an area of 3,425 acres, (fn. 1) and in 1901 had a population of 218, while Grange had 1,993. The township is divided physically by Hampsfell, or Hampsfield Fell, a ridge over 600 ft. high running north and south through the centre. On the western slope of it is Hampsfield Hall. To the west of the fell is the comparatively level vale in which are situated Field Broughton and Wood Broughton to the north and Aynsome to the south. The surface rises again on the western edge. On the south-east of the fell, sloping down to Morecambe Bay, is the modern town of Grange, with Blavvith at its northern end, pleasantly sheltered by the tree-clad hills.

The Furness railway runs along the coast at Grange, where there is a station. From the station the chief roads go north-east to Castlehead and Lindale, and west over the fell towards Cartme], with a branch sloping down to Kent's Bank on the south-west. Up the Broughton Vale a road goes north from Cartmel, passing through Field Broughton and past the new church to Staveley, with a crossroad from Low Wood to Lindide.

A beautiful view may be obtained from the summit of Hampsfell, where the Rev. Thomas Remington, sometime vicar of Cartmel, raised a small tower or hospice for the accommodation of visitors. There is a tumulus close by.

By St. Andrew Moor, at cross-roads named Four Lanc Ends, is a boulder of greenstone, called Egg Pudding-stone. The local story was that it turned round when Cartmel Church clock struck twelve at midnight, and the spot was avoided after dark. (fn. 2)

At Grange, near the Hydropathic establishment, is a convalescent home belonging to the friendly societies of the north-east counties. There is a Working-men's Institute. The well-wooded Holme Island to the east was formerly quite cut off by the tides, but has been connected with the mainland by a breakwater. It was made residential by Alexander Brogden, the engineer of the Furness railway. Mrs. Williams now owns it.

Under the present township arrangements Broughton East is governed by a parish council of five members. Grange has an urban district council of nine members. The council offices were built about 1902. Gas is supplied by a private company, and there is a water supply.

Manor

Almost the whole of Broughton was held as part of the manor of Cartmel by the customary tenants of the canons. (fn. 3) The name Broughton originally covered also the country to the east and north-east. (fn. 4) The rental of 1508–9 (fn. 5) gives a number of details of the several holdings. Thus William Mokeld took a tenement at a rent of 19d. each term, paying 15d. for service and 20d. for ingress, with 1d. and a hen and a half for tithe hay and 9 bushels of oats and 6 pecks of barley for tithe corn. The tithes appear to have been thus paid with the rent in most cases. William Bare, in addition to a moiety of his father's tenement, took Elvi's Place at a rent of 5d. each term, and other sums for service, &, and tithes. William Harrison took it after him. (fn. 6) Aynsome was a separate division, with tenements of the same character. (fn. 7)

The only estate called a manor was that of HAMPSFIELD, originally Hamsfell. (fn. 8) The tenure is older than the foundation of the priory, for Henry II granted to Simon son of Uckeman, his seneschal in Cartmel, the whole moiety of Hampsfield, which Uckeman his father had formerly held; a rent of 1 mark was to be paid by equal portions at the four terms. (fn. 9) The next tenants known had taken a surname from their manor, of which a settlement was made in 1314 by John de Hampsfield, the remainders being to his children John, William, Adam, Alice and Godith. (fn. 10) In 1320 the Prior of Cartmel was claiming suit at Broughton Mill against John son of John de Hampsfield, Norman de Redmayne and Mary his wife and Simon de Hampsfield. (fn. 11) In 1417 inquiry was made as to the bounds between the lordship of Cartmel and the lands of the free tenants of John Philipson and John Travers of Hampsfield. (fn. 12) It thus appears that the manor had descended to heiresses, and shortly afterwards the two parts were purchased by Rowland Thornburgh, or Thornborough, (fn. 13) whose family held the estate for a long period.

Thornburgh. Ermine fretty and a chief gules.

William Thornburgh died in 15 21 holding messuages and lands called Hampsfield in the vill of Broughton of James Gregg, Prior of Cartmel, by the yearly rent of 13s. 4d. He was succeeded by a son and heir Rowland, twenty-four years old. (fn. 14) Rowland was dead in 1544, when his son William was engaged in dispute with the tenants of Cartmel as to common of pasture on the waste, part of which William had inclosed as belonging to his manor of Hampsfield. (fn. 15) He acquired some of the monastic estates, (fn. 16) and by his wife Thomasine Bellingham acquired others in Westmorland. (fn. 17) He took part in the invasion of Scotland in 1547, and was knighted by the Duke of Somerset at Roxburgh. (fn. 18) His son William married Awdrey Carus, whose monument stands in Cartmel Church, (fn. 19) and died in 1608 (fn. 20) Their grandson William in 1636 sold Hampsfield to Robert Curwen of Cark and his nephew, and the estate has since descended with Cark Hall. (fn. 21) The Thornburghs, adhering with fair steadiness to the Roman Catholic religion, suffered the legal penalties, (fn. 22) but as they removed into Westmorland, where they had long had an estate, their story ceases to concern this county. (fn. 23)

Hampsfield Hall (fn. 24) is a picturesque two-story gabled house standing at the foot of Hampsfell, below an extensive wood known as the Haening. (fn. 25) The building, which is of stone and rough-cast, was erected shortly before 1636, (fn. 26) and yet retains many of its ancient features, notably a large external chimney, but some of its mullioned windows have given place to sashes and the building has been otherwise modernized. The interior contains some old panelling. On the hill-side, about 60 yds. above the house, are the foundations of an older building, a portion of which in the form of a tower, (fn. 27) measuring 36 ft. by 23 ft., was standing till about the year 1814, when it was pulled down by the tenant in the absence of the owner and the materials used in the erection of new farm buildings. Since 1686, when the widow of Robert Rawlinson died there, Hampsfield Hall has been used as a farm-house. (fn. 28)

Another free tenancy, the origin of which is not known, was that in WOOD BROUGHTON, held by the Waleys and Knipe families. One Robert de Prees in 1277 claimed the manor of Cartmel against the prior, who defended by alleging that he did not hold the manor entirely, for Robert le Waleys held 60 acres, John de Aythehead 11 acres and Thomas Wydemer (or de Wimbergton) 30 acres, and this plea was accepted. (fn. 29) William le Waleys and Godith his wife occur in 1309 (fn. 30) and 1321. (fn. 31) In 1314 Simon de Knipe (fn. 32) settled a messuage, 60 acres of land, &, in Broughton, in addition to lands in Westmorland, upon Henry de Knipe and Beatrice his wife for life. (fn. 33) In 1321 two messuages, 80 acres of land, &, in Broughton and Holker were settled by Simon de Knipe upon Alexander le Waleys with remainders to his brothers Roger, John and Simon, with further remainder to William son of Alexander. (fn. 34) Alexander Waleys died about 1340 holding a tenement in Heysham and five messuages, &, in Cartmel of the prior by a rent of 3s., doing suit to court and mill. (fn. 35) There is then a long period of silence. In 1578 George Thornburgh claimed land in Wood Broughton against Robert Walles (fn. 36); Miles and William Walks occur about the same time. (fn. 37) Isaac Knipe, who had land at Darlington, died in 1618 holding a water mill called Anysham (Aynsome) Mill of the king as of his manor of East Greenwich; his son William, aged eleven, succeeded. (fn. 38) This William recorded a pedigree in 1665, having then a son of his own name and eight daughters. (fn. 39) The male line ended with a William Knipe who died in 1761, having devised the Broughton Hall estate to his four surviving sisters. (fn. 40) This came to the youngest, Susanna wife of Walter Barber, captain of a Liverpool privateer, whose only child Elizabeth married John Gardner. The estate was sold by her son Walter Gardner, who settled at Broughton Bank, and was in 1843 purchased by Gray Rigge of Wood Broughton; his son Henry Fletcher Rigge purchased Broughton Bank in 1866. (fn. 41)

The Fletchers are named in the rental of 1508–9 as customary tenants in Broughton. (fn. 42) The family is found established at Field Broughton later in the century. (fn. 43) By various marriages and by purchase the Hampsfield, Wood Broughton and Cark Hall estates came into the possession of the Rigge family, and have thus descended to Mr. Robert Stockdale Grayrigge of Wood Broughton. (fn. 44)

Aynsome a century ago was the seat of a Machell family. (fn. 45) Another branch of the Machells had Broughton Grove, where Richard Machell was living in 1826. (fn. 46) This estate was purchased from them by the late Thomas J. Hibbert in 1859 and is now the property of his nephew Mr. Henry Hibbert, who resides there. (fn. 47) Broughton seldom occurs in the older records. (fn. 48) Grange comes into notice only recently. (fn. 49)

In connexion with the Church of England a chapel of ease was built at Field Broughton in 1745 (fn. 50); this was replaced by the present church of St. Peter in 1893–4. The benefice is in the gift of five trustees. A separate parish was created for it in 1875. (fn. 51) The Rev. H. A. Ransome, M.A., is the incumbent. At Grange St. Paul's was built in 1853 and had a parish assigned to it in 1884; the Bishop of Carlisle has the patronage. Services are also held at Grange Fell.

The Wesleyan chapel at Grange was built in 1874–5. The Congregational chapel there dates from 1899.

The small Roman Catholic church of St. Charles was built in 1884, the mission having been founded two years before. (fn. 52)

Footnotes

  • 1. The Census Rep. 1901 gives Broughton East 1,907 acres, including 2 of inland water; Grange, 1540 and 7 respectively. In addition Grange has about 117 acres of tidal water and 534 of foreshore.
  • 2. Stockdale, Annals of Cartmel, 530.
  • 3. The canons acquired or repurchased various small tenements in their manor. Ellis son of Godith de Staveley released to them all his right in his mother's land in Madonscales in the vill of Broughton; cited in the confirmation of 1323, Harl. Chart. 51 H 2. In 1347 the canons obtained the king's licence to acquire land in Broughton held of them by William de Kernetby and William de Staveliy; Cal. Pat. 1345–8, p. 369.
  • 4. Thus in 1293 Helton Tarn on the Winster was said to be 'in Broughton'; De Banco R. 101, m. 67 d. Hartbarrow seems to have been included in it in 1332; Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), 102.
  • 5. Duchy of Lanc. Rentals and Surv. bdle. 4, no. 9.
  • 6. Other tenants' surnames include Marshal, Fell, Stanes, Raper and Holme.
  • 7. The tenants' names include Mitchelson, Barra, Berry and Casson. Langlands and Fell Close are field-names. The name Casson occurs here in 1448; Pal. of Lanc. Plea R. 11, m. 42.
  • 8. Hamesfell, 1314; Hamesfeld, 1320. From a survey of 1536 it appears that part of Hampsfield was common for all the tenants of Cartmel; Duchy of Lanc. Rentals and Surv. bdle. 4, no. 12.
  • 9. Lansdowne MS. 559, fol. 61. After the foundation of the priory the rent of 13s. 4d. would be due to the canons.
  • 10. Final Conc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), ii, 16. The younger John had married Mariota de Hothersall.
  • 11. De Banco R. 236, m. 204 d.
  • 12. Stockdale, op. cit. 17; Lancs, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), i, 29, of 8 Hen. V.
  • 13. In 1420 he purchased various messuages, &, in Broughton and Heysham from John Travers of Cartmel and Joan his wife; Final Conc, iii, 77. Then in 1431 he purchased from Richard Kellet of Cartmel further messuages, &, in Broughton which John Philipson held for life by the law of England, i.e. in right of his late wife; ibid. 96. As the descent is obscure it may be permissible to record here a 17th-century pedigree in the possession of W. Farrer. According to it William Thornburgh (living 1392) married Eleanor Shelford and had sons Rowland, Edward, Leonard and William (living 1419, 1447). This William married Margaret daughter of John Washington and had a son William, married to Eleanor daughter of Sir Richard Musgrave. Their son William married Elizabeth daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Broughton. They had sons Rowland (married Margaret daughter of Sir Geoffrey Middleton), Thomas and Nicholas and four daughters. Rowland had a son Sir William, who by Margaret daughter and heir of Sir Robert Bellingham had a son William, whose wife was Awdrey daughter of Sir Thomas Carus. Some of these marriages and descents are confirmed by the Westmorland visitations (ed. Foster) and by a fragment of a Thornburgh of Selside pedigree, compiled about 1550, entered unchanged in three of the Yorkshire visitations (ed. Harl. Soc. and Foster), 1563, 1584 and 1612; also Kuerden MSS. III, K 9b. The Lancashire visitation of 1567 records the Carus marriage and that of 1613 states that Rowland Thornburgh (who would be son of the last William) married Jane daughter of Thomas Dalton (of Thurnham). A Rowland Thornburgh and Agnes his wife occur at Osmotherley in 1483–4. Jane, one of his daughters and heirs, is said to have married Anthony Porter; Yorks. Visit. (Harl. Soc), 255. In the window of Bowness Church, supposed to have come from Cartmel, are 'William Thornborrow and his Wyff' with their arms; those of the wife show her to be a Broughton; Stockdale, op. cit. 226. For the window see Clowes and Hughes, Bowness Ch. Window (1874). From the rental of 1508–9 it appears that George Thornburgh held lands in Broughton of the priory by rents of 10¼d. and 10¼d. and other dues.
  • 14. Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. v, no. 41. He held other lands in Heysham and Flookburgh of Lord Mounteagle by 13d. rent. Rowland Thornburgh, Robert Washington and Thomas Ravenscroft, all of Hampsfield, were among the deer-killers who trespassed on Quernmore Park in 1522 or 1523; Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), i, 115.
  • 15. Duchy of Lanc. Plead. Hen. VIII, xiii, C 10. Other members of the family occur, as Nicholas Thornburgh (dead in 1570), Elizabeth Thornburgh, widow, &c.; Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), ii, 397, 248.
  • 16. Stockdale, op. cit. 32,
  • 17. Ibid. 470; Foster, op. cit. 4.
  • 18. Metcalfe, Book of Knights, 98 5 his arms were Ermine fretty and a chief gules.
  • 19. Awdrey wife of William Thornburgh was in 1584 as a recusant in religion bound to appear when called; English Martyrs (Cath. Rec. Soc), i, 71. In the tame year her husband, for a like reason, was called on to provide a light horseman for the queen's service in Ireland; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 593. As her monument records she was a daughter of Sir Thomas Carus.
  • 20. Cartmel Reg. His son Rowland had a son William, the vendor. In 1608–9 Margaret Middleton claimed from Rowland Thornburgh the fulfilment of an agreement by William Thornburgh to give 20 marks fine and gressom for a messuage called Pow House bought of Richard Kellet; Exch. Dep. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), 14. For another member of the family see Cal. S. P. Dom. 1603–10, p. 653.
  • 21. Stockdale, op. cit. 471–4. In 1601–2 there was a dispute between James and William Taylor concerning the Slack, part of the inheritance of William Thornburgh; Ducatus Lanc, iii, 428, 446.
  • 22. In 1608 the two-thirds of Hampsfield sequestered for recusancy was granted to Thurstan and West; Pat. 6 Jas. I, pt. ii. In 1630 William Thornburgh of Hampsfield compounded for the two-thirds sequestration to which he was liable by an annual fine of £30; Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xxiv, 175.
  • 23. Some of them continued to have estates in the district. Among the recusants who desired to compound for their sequestered estates in 1653 was Thomas Thornburgh of Cartmel; and Rowland Thornburgh of Lindale desired to compound for an estate sequestered for the recusancy of John and Francis Thornburgh; Cal. Com. for Comp. v, 3198. See also Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc.), v, 251, 232. The Cartmel registers and the list of wills proved at Richmond afford further evidence. Jane Thornburgh of Skelsmergh in 1717 as a 'Papist' registered a jointure of £40 by the will of Rowland Thornburgh (1708) and paid her by his daughter Elizabeth (an infant) out of the hamlet of Lindale, &c.; Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, 135. The Cartmel registers record on 6 Dec. 1753 the burial of 'Dorothy Thornburgh of High, Rom. Cath. 103.'
  • 24. There is an illustration in Stockdale's Annals of Cartmel, 470, from a photograph taken in 1868.
  • 25. Ibid.
  • 26. The purchase deed (1636) describes it as 'the new house then lately built.'
  • 27. In Yates and Billing's map of the county in 1786 this ruined tower is shown.
  • 28. Stockdale, op. cit. 475, from which the above description is taken. See also Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. Soc. ii, xv (1876). There were then distinct traces of an ancient road from the hall over the fell to Grange.
  • 29. De Banco R. 18, m. 38; 27, m. 39; 30, m. 29 d.
  • 30. Ibid. 179, m. 185.
  • 31. Ibid. 240, m. 191 d.
  • 32. Gnype. The family appears also at Burblethwaite in Cartmel Fell.
  • 33. Final Conc, ii, 65.
  • 34. Ibid. 43. John son of William Waleys of Cartmel was plaintiff in 1332; Assize R. 1411, m. 13.
  • 35. Add. MS. 321C.7, fol. 157; Thomas Waleys, son and heir, aged twenty-four.
  • 36. Ducatus Lanc, iii, 71.
  • 37. Chan. Proc. (ser. 2), bdle. 190, no. 87.
  • 38. Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), ii, 112. A family dispute in 1621–2 may refer to the Burblethwaite Knipes; Exeh. Dep. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), 19.
  • 39. Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc), 170. The descents are thus shown: William Knipe, d. c. 1600 -s. William, d.v.p. -s. Isaac, d. c. 1617 -s. William, aged fiftyseven -s. William, aged nineteen. Several wills of this family were proved at Richmond-William, 1672; William, 1690; William (styled esq.), 1745; and Robert, 1747.
  • 40. The eldest sister Jane had died before him. She married John Fletcher and left two co-heiresses, Mary and Jane; the former by her first husband Roger Rigge became ancestor of the present owner of Wood Broughton.
  • 41. This account is from Stockdale, op. cit. 476–7.
  • 42. William Fletcher held a tenement, paying 15d. rent to the priory each term, and John Fletcher took a moiety of the same to occupy at the will of the prior.
  • 43. See the long account in Stockdale, op. cit. 491, 495. He gives the descent thus: Richard, married in 1560 -s. John -s. John -s. Henry -s. Thomas -s. William -s. John, named above.
  • 44. The pedigree may be given in outline from Ch., Castles, &c., of North Lancs. (1880), i, 51: Roger Moore married Katherine Rawlinson, one of the co-heirs of Cark -da. Katherine, d. 1761, married Clement Rigge-s. Roger, d. 1746, married Mary daughter and co-heir of John Fletcher -s. Fletcher, d. 1829-s. Gray, d. 1857 -s. Henry Fletcher, high sheriff in 1870, d. 1887 -s. Gray, d. 1885, who in 1875 adopted the surname Grayrigge, instead of Rigge -s. Robert Stockdale Grayrigge, born 1883; Burke, Landed Gentry.
  • 45. In the 17th century it was owned by a family named Marshall, and was in 1745 purchased by John Machell of Hollow Oak in Colton, whose eldest grandson married the heiress of the Pennys of Penny Bridge. Thomas Machell, youngest son of John, received Aynsome, and it descended to the Remingtons; Stockdale, op. cit. 511–16; Lonsdale Mag. ii, 361; Burke, Landed Gentry (Remington). The Marshall family probably derived their surname from some office held under the priory. A pardon was given to Robert son of Adam Wayte of Cartmel, marshal, in 1346; Cal. Pat. 1345–8, p. 490. Some notes on the Marshalls of Cartmel are printed in Lancs, and Ches. Hist, and Gen. Notes, iii, 50.
  • 46. Baines, Lancs. Dir. Richard was a younger son of John Machell of Penny Bridge; Stockdale, op. cit. 514.
  • 47. Information of Mr. P. J. Hibbert.
  • 48. In 1277 the Prior of Cartmel claimed a free fishery in the water of Broughton against Roger de Lancaster; De Banco R. 21, m. 71. William son of Adam de Winsterthwaite in 1292 claimed land in Broughton against the Prior of Cartmel; Assize R. 408, m. 46 d. He resumed his suit in 1299 and Richard son of Adam de Winsterthwaite made a like claim in 1305; De Banco R. 130, m. 286; 154, m. 129. Adam son of Adam de Winsterthwaite was a benefactor of the priory; Chart. R. 17 Edw. II, m. 9, no. 28.
  • 49. In the rental of 1508–9 Grange is joined with Kent's Bank. Yates' map of the county (1786) shows a considerable hamlet there.
  • 50. Miles Burns in 1731 left £450 for a chapel there; End. Char. Rep.
  • 51. Lond. Gaz. 5 Feb. 1875.
  • 52. Kelly, Engl. Cath. Missions, 190.