FEUDAL BARONAGE THE BARONY OF PENWORTHAM ^ The date of the creation of this barony has not been ascertained, but there is evidence in Domesday of the existence of a fee held in 1086 by a certain Warin which became the nucleus of this barony. A charter of 1 094 in favour of the abbey of Sees appears to prove that Warin Bussel then held Preston in Amounderness,' and a grant of Henry I. made in 1102 in favour of Robert de Lacy tells us that the same Warin had then recently held 5 carucates of land in Chippingdale, Aighton, and Button, also in Amounderness.* In another charter of 1094 the brothers Warin and Albert Bussel are associated with Pain de Vilers and Albert Grelley as witnesses/ To the foundation charter of Furness Abbey, bearing the date 1 1 27, Geoffrey Bussel was a witness with Robert Grelley, baron of Manchester.* Neither grants to religious houses nor feoffments to vassals assist in fixing the date of creation of this barony, if we except a document which records an agreement which Warin Bussel, in conjunction with his wife and children, made with Robert (sic), abbot of Evesham, for the confirmation of certain gifts of churches and lands within this barony which Warin had previously made. The date of this instrument cannot be earlier than 1 1 40, and may be as late as 1147. Where so little evidence is forthcoming for fixing the exact date of the creation of this fee, it is probably safe to attribute it to the reign of Stephen.* Warin Bussel died about 1 150, leaving issue by his wife Maud three sons and six daughters, two of the latter being then unmarried.' Richard, his heir, confirmed to Evesham his father's gifts of the church of Penwortham, the vill of Farrington, and other lands and tithes, and added thereto the gift of the church of Leyland, the chapel of North Meols, and lands in Longton and Penwortham.^" His brothers Albert and Geoffrey were assenting parties to, and his sisters Sibil and Maud witnesses of, the grant of Leyland Church." He attested several charters of William de Blois, count of Boulogne, and of Ranulf, earl of Chester, between 1 1 49 1 Dugdale, Baronage, i. 593 ; Priory of Penwortham, Chetham Soc. (Old Ser.), vol. 30, p. xviii. The barony of Penwortham, so styled in the Inquest of Service taken 1 21 2 {Testa de Nevill, Rec. Com. 403), comprised the following townships in this county : Heaton in Lonsdale, in the hundred of Lonsdale ; Elswick, Claughton (pronounced Clyton), Whittingham, Newsham, Elston, Mythorp, Frees, Warton, Freckleton, and Newton, in Amounderness hundred ; Penwortham, Howick, Hutton, Longton, Farington, Leyland, Euxton (pronounced Exton), Ulneswalton, Bretherton (exclusive of Thorp), RufFord, Clayton-le-Woods, Whittle-le- Woods, Brindle, Hoghton, Withnell, Wheelton, Charnock Richard, Welch Whittle, Heath Charnock, Duxbury, Adlington, Anderton, Standish with Langtree, and Shevington, in Leyland hundred ; North Meols, Birkdale, and Kirkdale, in West Derby hundred ; and Ashton-under-Lyne, in Salford hundred. These vills, rated at 67! carucates of land {Lanes. Inquests, Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. vol. 48, pp. 35-6), were held by the service of three knight's fees. Thorp-Morieux, in Suffolk, and Nether Broughton, in Leicestershire, were also held of this barony by the service of two knights, making a total service of five knights. (Ibid.) 2 In West Derby hundred Warin held | hide (Kirkdale), in Warrington hundred I car., and in Salford hundred 2 car. (Ashton-under-Lyne). » Round, Cal. of Docs. France, 237. * Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 382. 5 Reg. of Lanes. Priory, Chetham Soc. (New Ser.), xxvi. 10. The names of the witnesses are extended in Duchy of Lanes. Great Gaucher, i. 1 29. Professor Tait points out that ' G. Boisel ' in the first reference stands for 'Guarinus Boisel' {Mediaval Manchester, 191s), as in the Chartul. of Sees, fol. 104.
- Goucher of Furness, Chetham Soc. (New Ser.), ix. 123, 186.
Priory of Penwortham, Chetham Soc. (Old Ser.), xxx. 2. 8 Unless it can be shown that the five fees comprising the barony were of ancient feoffment ; cf. Testa de Nevill (Ktc. Com.), 41 0/5. No infeudations, either within the county or without, can be traced loan earlier grantor than Richard Bussel (1153-1160). Cf Lanes. Inq. Rec. Soc. xlviii. 28-9. ' Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 403. 10 Priory of Penwortham, Chetham Soc. (Old Ser.), xxx. 3. " Ibid. 40. 335
