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BARTON — MANORS.

Under the lords of Manchester the great manor or fee of BARTON was held by a family using the local surname. In its full extent the fee extended over the greater part of the parishes of Eccles and Deane, and as the family held also the manor of Worsley with Hulton of the king in thegnage, the only townships exempt from their lordship were Pendlebury, Pendleton, and Clifton in the east, and Rumworth and Horwich in the north. Originally the Barton fee appears to have been accounted as that of two knights, but, probably by division among co-heirs, a knight's fee and a half only was held in 1212 by Gilbert de Notton in right of his wife, Edith daughter of Matthew son of Leysing de Barton.* Of Edith's father and grandfather nothing is certainly known.† She was one of four daughters and co-heirs, and by her first husband, known as Augustine de Barton‡, she had a son John, who died young, and a daughter Cecily, who married William, a son of Gilbert de Notton by a former wife, and carried to him the manor of Barton, and also in right of her father that of Breightmet. ¹

* [ftnt 21] In 1195 Hugh Putrell owed 5 marks for a writ of right concerning the fourth part of the fee of two knights in Barton and Worsley, the tenants being Edith, Lescelina, and Maud; Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 94. This shows that the Barton fee was originally one of two knights. The explanation suggested for Hugh Putrell's claim is that he had married one of four sisters, whose name is unknown, and that Edith, Lescelina and Maud were the others. A difficulty is that while three parts of the knights' fees were reunited and came to Edith and Gilbert de Notton, the other part did not descend in the same manner. Though Hugh Putrell had possession of the thegnage manors of Worsley and Hulton, and granted them to the ancestor of the Worsley family, they were found in 1212 to be held by Edith and her husband; so that Worsley was retained or regained, while the fourth part of two knights' fees was lost; Lancs. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.) i, 53, 65....

† [ftnt 22] Two sons of Leysing, named Sweyn and Leysing, owed money in 1129 for an agreement between themselves and Stephen, Count of Mortain, as lord of the land between Ribble and Mersey; Lancs. Pipe R. 1. It is suggested that the younger Leysing may have been the grandfather of Edith de Barton, and it may be a confirmation of this that the Barton family were the successors in Cadishead of a certain Sweyn; Lancs. Inq. and Extents, i, 66. Lescelina daughter of Matthew son of Leysing, lord of Barton, made a grant in Swinton; ibid. (quoting Ellesmere D.); and Eda (Edith) daughter of Matthew, already married to Gilbert de Notton, was plaintiff in 1203; Cur. Reg. R. 26. The other sister, Maud, is probably the Maud de Barton who made a grant in Monton; Whalley Couch. (Chet. Soc.) iii, 894.

‡ [ftnt 23] Lancs. Inq. and Extents, i, 137, 301. He was also known as Augustine de Breightmet, which place in 1212 was held by William de Notton; ibid. 71. See Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 422, citing the Mobberley charters.

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In the time of Henry I, Sir Leysing de Barton, Knight, was mentioned as a feudal vassal of lands between the rivers Ribbe and Mersey, under Stephen, Count of Mortagne, grandson of William the Conqueror, who later became King Stephen of England. Sir Leysing de Barton was the father of Matthew de Barton, and grandfather of several granddaughters, one of whom was Editha de Barton, Lady of Barton Manor. She inherited the great estate, and was a woman of note in her day. She married Augustine de Barton, possibly a cousin, by whom she had two children, John de Barton, who died before his mother, and a daughter Cecily.... ²