That could not with him grapple;
And at one Sup
He eat them up,
As one should eat an Apple.
The sixth in direct descent from the first Baron of Kinderton was Sir William Venables, who, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Dutton of Dutton, had two sons, Sir Hugh, who inherited the barony, and Sir William, to whom his father gave the lordship of Bradwall, near Sandbach. This William was twice married, his second wife being Agnes, daughter and heir of Richard de Legh, of the West Hall, near Knutsford, and the widow of Richard de Lymme. By her he had John Venables, who, as previously stated, assumed his mother’s maiden name of Legh. He became the owner by purchase of Norbury Booths, and married some time previous to 1315 Ellen de Corona, who inherited the Adlington estates under the settlement of her grand-nephew, Thomas de Corona. Four sons were born of this marriage, three of whom became the founders of distinct houses: John, ancestor of the Leghs of Booths; Robert, to whom, at the death of his mother in 1352, the manor of Adlington reverted under the Corona settlement, and who thus became progenitor of the Leghs of Adlington, Lyme, Ridge, Stoneleigh, Stockwell, &c.; William, founder of the line of Isall in Cumberland, and from whom descended Sir William Legh, Bart., Lord Chief Justice of England; and Peter de Legh, who in right of his wife Ellen, daughter and heir of Philip de Bechton, acquired the Bechton estates, which were in turn conveyed by his two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth, to their respective husbands, Thomas Fitton, of Gawsworth, and John de Davenport, of Henbury.
Robert de Legh, who succeeded to the manor of Adlington on the death of his mother in 1352, had a commission as a justice in eyre for Macclesfield, and was also appointed a steward of the manor and forest of Macclesfield. He was twice married, his first wife being Sibilla, the daughter of Henry de Honford, of Honford (Handforth), by whom he had, in addition to two daughters, Robert, who succeeded as heir to the Adlington estates, and Hugh, who predeceased him. His second wife was Maud, the daughter and heir of Adam de Norley of Northleigh, of the manor of that name, near Wigan, Knight. This lady, who is said to have been his second cousin, and very young at the time of her marriage, bore him two sons in his old age, Peter or Piers, and John. Peter, who was born about the year 1361, married in 1388, Margaret, the daughter and heiress of that famous Cheshire hero, Sir Thomas d’Anyers, who distinguished himself at the battle of Crescy[30] by taking prisoner the Count de Tankerville, chamberlain to the King of France, and rescuing the standard of the Black Prince when it was in danger of being captured, in acknowledgment of which services his daughter afterwards received a Royal grant of the manor of Lyme Handley, and, with her husband, became progenitor of the Leghs of Lyme and the Leghs of Ridge. John de Legh, the younger son by the second marriage, was keeper of Macclesfield Park prior to 1395, and was sometimes designated John de Macclesfield. He was living in 1399, and had issue.
Robert de Legh died at Macclesfield, about the year 1370. Before his death his wife Maud, who survived, conveyed to him all her estates in trust for their son, Piers Legh, who, at the time of his father’s death, was a child of nine years. Six years after the death of Sir Robert the name of his widow was unpleasantly associated with a charge of fraud, as appears by the Chamberlain’s accounts at Chester, she being indicted with one Thomas le Par, who possibly may have been more active in the matter than herself, with fabricating, in the name of Adam de Kingsley, the trustee, a false settlement of the Broome estates within Lymm in fraud of the heir and in favour of her youngest son, John, and his heirs male; and with having, through such false charter, unjustly retained possession of the land for six years after her husband’s death. The issue of the indictment is not recorded; but it is clear that if she had succeeded her act would have given to her son John a considerable estate, to the disadvantage of his elder brother.
Robert de Legh, who inherited the manor of Adlington on the death of his father, circa 1370, was, in 1358, in the retinue of Edward the Black Prince in the war in Gascony; and there is an entry in the Palatinate Rolls at Chester that he, with William de Bostock and Hugh, son of Thomas le Smyth, of Mottram, entered into a recognisance indemnifying the chamberlain for any moneys that might be due to two of the Cheshire archers who were serving under him while with the prince. In 1360–61, as appears by the Recognisance Rolls, he had granted to him the custody of the lands in Cheshire lately belonging to Henry de Honford, then deceased, with the wardship and marriage of his daughter and heiress, Katherine. In 1382, Joan, Princess of Wales, the widow of the Black Prince, and the once “Fair Maid of Kent,” gave to him and William del Dounes a lease for twelve years of her part of the town of Bollington, with the water-mill there, on a payment of eight marks yearly. He appears to have succeeded his father in the office of bailiff of the manor of Macclesfield, and to have held it until 1382, when his half-brothers, Peter and John, were appointed in his stead. He died on the 9th November, 1382, leaving by his wife Matilda, daughter of Sir John Arderne, of Aldford, Knight, a son, Robert, born at Roter-le-Hay, and baptised at Audlem on the 2nd March, 1361–2, and then aged 20; and two daughters—Margery, who became the wife of Thomas de Davenport, of Henbury, and Katherine, who married Reginald Downes.
Robert de Legh made proof of age on the 3rd March, 1382–3. On the 13th May following he had livery of his father’s lands, and on the 18th June he had also, as heir of his mother, livery of what pertained to her as one of the heirs of Alina, daughter of Robert Daa, whose lands were then in the king’s hands. In 1385, or thereabouts, he married Isabel, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas de Belgrave, Knight, who brought him the manor of Belgrave, with several other estates in Cheshire and Flintshire. With these, and the lands in Hyde, Stockport, Romiley, and Etchells, the inheritance of his mother, the influence and social importance of the family were largely increased, while Robert de Legh himself, by the active part he took in the service of his country, as well as in the administration of the affairs of his own county, attained to considerable distinction, and well sustained the honour and dignity of his house. In July, 1385, shortly after his marriage, he had protection of his lands guaranteed to him on his departure to Scotland in the King’s service, the occasion being the expedition headed by Richard in person, following upon the invasion of John of Gaunt, which, however, terminated without any trial of strength in battle, for while the English army proceeded northwards, took Edinburgh, and marched towards Aberdeen, wasting the country as it advanced, the Scotch, with their French allies, in turn entered Cumberland and Westmorland, burning and plundering as they went on every side. In the succeeding year Robert de Legh had the honour of knighthood conferred upon him, and shortly after (September 26, 1386), on the threatening of a French invasion, he, with Robert de Grosvenor, Knight, Reginald del Dounes, and William de Shore, had protection granted on his departure for the coast, there to stay for the safe custody of those parts and the defence of the realm. In 1389 a contention arose between Sir Robert and his kinsmen Peter, of Lyme, and John, his brother, a renewal probably of a former dispute, touching the manner in which they should discharge their several offices within the hundred of Macclesfield, when Sir Robert with his sureties entered into recognisances to the King for one thousand marks, to keep the peace towards Peter and John Legh, they at the same time entering into counter-recognisances of the same amount to keep the peace towards Sir Robert. He and Peter de Legh, of Lyme, having been entrusted with the custody of John, the son and heir of William Launcelyn, during his minority, an order was made to them in 1392, as appears by the Recognisance Rolls, to deliver possession of all his inheritance to the said John on his making proof of age; at the same time a like order was made with reference to Thomas, son and heir of William Voil, who, while under age, had been in their custody, and in the same year a commission was issued to Sir Robert, jointly with Peter Legh, to arrest all malefactors and disturbers of the peace within the hundred of Macclesfield. On the 12th October, 1393, John de Massey, of Tatton, Sheriff of Cheshire, having been attainted, a commission was issued to Sir Robert Legh and others, directing them to arrest him and Thomas Talbot, Knight, and convey them to the castle of Chester, and two days afterwards another commission was issued appointing Sir Robert de Legh sheriff of the county during pleasure, in the place of Massey. In 1394, when Richard the Second proceeded to Ireland to quell the revolt which had broken out among the native chiefs, taking with him four thousand knights, and thirty thousand archers, including many of the noted Cheshire bowmen, we find Sir Robert Legh, of Adlington, accompanying him, he being in the train of Thomas, Earl of Nottingham; before his departure license was given to William de Shore, William de Prydyn (afterwards rector of Gawsworth), and Henry Marchall, to act as his attorneys during his absence. On the 23rd September, 1396, a commission was issued appointing him one of the King’s justices for the three hundreds of the eyre of Macclesfield; on the 12th February following he was a second time made Sheriff of Cheshire; six months later (August 20th, 1397) he had a grant of an annuity of £40, the King retaining him in his service for life; and as a further mark of his sovereign’s favour he had conferred upon him on the 4th October following the office of Constable of the Castle of Oswaldestre (Oswestry) for life, with £10 yearly and the accustomed fees. In 1398 he was again named one of the justices for the three hundreds of the eyre at Macclesfield, and on the 20th August in the following year, when the banished Bolingbroke, taking advantage of the King’s absence in Ireland, had returned to England, raised the standard of insurrection, and eventually compelled the humbled and wretched Richard to renounce the crown, John de Legh, of Booths, one of the seven gallant Cheshire men who had met the King on his landing in Wales, submitted himself to the usurper, when Sir Robert de Legh of Adlington and Sir John Stanley became sureties in £200 for his good behaviour. Unlike his relative of Lyme, Peter Legh, who remained true to his sovereign to the last, and at Chester sealed his loyalty with his life, as his monumental inscription in Macclesfield old church still testifies, and whose name Daniel thus perpetuates—
Nor thou, magnanimous Legh, must not be left