History of the Fylde of Lancashire

by John Porter

RIGBY OF LAYTON HALL.

The Rigbys, of Layton, were descended from Adam Rigby, of Wigan, who married Alice, the daughter of ⸺ Middleton, of Leighton, and had issue—John, Alexander, and Ellen. John Rigby, of Wigan, married Joanna, the daughter of Gilbert Molyneux, of Hawkley, and became the founder of the family of Rigby of Middleton. Ellen became the wife of Hugh Forth; and Alexander Rigby, of Burgh Hall, in the township of Duxbury, espoused Joanna, the daughter of William Lathbroke, by whom he had three sons and one daughter—Edward, Roger, Alexander, and Anne. Edward Rigby, of Burgh, who purchased the estate of Woodenshaw from William, earl of Derby, in 1595, was the first of the family, as far as can be ascertained, who held property in the Fylde, and from his Inq. post mortem, dated 1629-30, we find that he possessed Laiton, Great Laiton, Little Laiton, Warbrecke, Blackepool, and Marton, besides other estates in Broughton in Furness, Lancaster, Chorley, etc. This gentleman married Dorothy, the daughter of Hugh Anderton, of Euxton, and had issue—Alexander, Hugh, Alice, Jane, and Dorothy. Alexander Rigby, who was born in 1583, succeeded to Layton Hall, and Burgh, on the death of his father, and afterwards married Katherine, the daughter of Sir Edward Brabazon, of Nether Whitacre, in the county of Warwick. In 1641, during the time of Charles I., he was a colonel in the king’s forces, and was, somewhere about that period, removed from the commission of the peace for this county by command of Parliament on account of certain charges made against him of favouring the royal party. In 1646 he compounded for his sequestrated estates by paying £381 3s. 4d. His offspring were Edward, of Burgh, and Layton Hall; Thomas, rector of St. Mary’s, Dublin; William, a merchant; Mary, wife of John Moore, of Bank Hall; Elizabeth, wife of Edward Chisenhall, of Chisenhall; Jane, the wife of the Rev. Paul Lathome, rector of Standish; and Alexander, who died in infancy. Edward, the eldest son, who died before his father, married Mary, the daughter of Edward Hyde, of Norbury, and left issue—Alexander, William, Hamlet, Robert, Richard, Mary, and Dorothy. Alexander Rigby, the heir, who was born in 1634, was also an officer in the royalist army, and erected a monument to Sir Thomas Tyldesley near the spot where he was slain at Wigan-lane, at which battle “the grateful erector” fought as cornet. He was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1677 and 1678, and married Alena, the daughter of George Birch, of Birch Hall, near Manchester. His children were Edward, Alexander, Mary, Alice, Eleanor, and Elizabeth. Of Edward we have no account beyond the fact that he was born in 1658, and consequently must conclude that he died young. Alexander, the second son, succeeded to the estates, and was knighted for some reason, which cannot be discovered. He was High Sheriff of the county in 1691-2. Mary, the eldest daughter, married Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, and was co-heiress with Elizabeth, wife, and subsequently, in 1720, widow of ⸺ Colley, to her brother, Sir Alexander Rigby, of Layton Hall and Burgh, who married Alice, the daughter of Thomas Clifton, of Clifton, Westby, and Lytham, but left no surviving offspring. Sir Alexander Rigby is reputed to have been a gambler, and to have so impoverished his estates, already seriously injured by the attachment of his family to the fortunes of Charles I. and II., that he was compelled to dispose of his possessions in Poulton and Layton for the benefit of his creditors. He also appears to have been imprisoned for debt until released by an act of Parliament, passed in the first year of George I., and his property vested in trustees. His estates in Layton and Poulton were sold for £19,200. After his liberation he resided in Poulton at his house on the south side of the Market-place, where the family arms, bearing the date 1693, may still be seen fixed on the outer wall. The pew of the Rigbys is still in existence in the parish church of that town, and has carved on its door the initials A. R., and the date 1636, separated by a goat’s head, the crest of the family.