FLEETWOOD OF ROSSALL HALL.
This family sprang originally from Little Plumpton in the Fylde. Henry Fleetwood being the first of whom there is any reliable record, and of him nothing is known beyond the place of his residence, and the fact that he had a son named Edmund. Edmund Fleetwood married Elizabeth Holland, of Downholme, and was living about the middle and earlier portion of the latter half of the fifteenth century. From that marriage there sprang one son, William Fleetwood, who subsequently espoused Ellyn, the daughter of Robert Standish, and had issue John, Thomas, and Robert Fleetwood. Of these three sons, Thomas, the second, resided at Vach in the county of Buckingham, and at the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII., about 1536, purchased from that monarch the reversion of the lease of Rossall Grange, then held by the Allens from the Abbot and convent of Deulacres, in Staffordshire. Thomas Fleetwood married Barbara, the cousin and heiress of Andrew Frances, of London, and had issue five sons, the second and third of whom were knighted later in life, whilst the eldest, Edmund, came into possession of Rossall Hall and estate in 1583, after the demise of Richard Allen, whose widow and daughters were ejected. Thus Edmund Fleetwood was the first of the name to reside at Rossall, where he died about forty years later. This gentleman married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Cheney, of Chesham Boys, in Buckinghamshire, and had issue several sons and daughters. Paul, the eldest son and heir, who succeeded him, was knighted by either James I. or Charles I., and married Jane, the daughter of Richard Argall from the county of Kent, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. Edmund, the eldest son, had no male issue, and at his death, in 1644, Richard, his brother, succeeded to the property and resided at Rossall Hall. Richard Fleetwood, who was only fifteen years of age when the death of his predecessor occurred, subsequently espoused a lady, named Anne Mayo, from the county of Herts, by whom he had only two children, a son and a daughter, and as the former died in youth, the estate passed to the next male heir on his demise. The heir was found in the person of Francis, of Hackensall Hall, the brother of Richard Fleetwood and the third son of Sir Paul Fleetwood. Francis Fleetwood, of Rossall, married Mary, the daughter of C. Foster, of Preesall, and had issue Richard Fleetwood, who succeeded him, and a daughter. Richard Fleetwood resided at Rossall Hall, and married Margaret, the daughter of Edwin Fleetwood, of Leyland, in 1674. The offspring of that union were two sons, Edward and Paul, and a daughter Margaret. Edward, the heir, was born in 1682, and practised for some time as an attorney in Ireland. On the death of his father, however, he inherited the property, and took up his abode at the ancestral Hall. He espoused Sarah, the daughter of Edward Veale, of Whinney Heys. Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, Blackpool, was on terms of friendship and intimacy with the Fleetwoods of Rossall at that period, and on the fourteenth of April, 1714, the following entry occurs in his diary, referring to Edward Fleetwood, the lord of the manor, and his brother Paul, also Edward Veale, the father of Mrs. Ed. Fleetwood, whom, for some reason unknown, the diarist invariably designated Captain Veale:—“Went to Rosshall. Dinᵈ with the trustys, yᵉ Lord & his lady, Mr. Paull, and Capᵗᵗ Veal. Gave I. Gardiner 1s., and a boy 6d.; soe to ffox Hall.”
Paul Fleetwood, the younger brother of the “Lord” died in 1727 and was buried at Kirkham, where some of his descendants still exist in very humble circumstances.
The offspring of Edward Fleetwood consisted only of one child, a daughter, named Margaret, who was born in 1715, and to whom the estates appear to have descended on the decease of her father. On the sixteenth of February, 1733, she married, at Bispham church, Roger Hesketh, of North Meols and Tulketh. Roger Hesketh and his lady resided at Rossall Hall until their respective demises, which happened, the latter in 1752, and the former in 1791. Fleetwood and Sarah Hesketh were the children of their union. On the decease of his father at the ripe age of 81 years, the son and heir, Fleetwood, had already been dead 22 years, and consequently his son, Bold Fleetwood Hesketh, the eldest offspring of his marriage, in 1759, with Frances, the third daughter of Peter Bold, of Bold Hall, in the county of Lancaster, succeeded his grandfather Roger Hesketh. Bold Fleetwood Hesketh, who was born in 1762, died unmarried in 1819, and was buried at Poulton, his younger brother, Robert Hesketh, inheriting the Hall and estates. Robert Hesketh was in his 55th year when he became possessed of the property, and had already been married 29 years to Maria, the daughter of Henry Rawlinson, of Lancaster, by whom he had a numerous family. His four eldest sons died in youth and unmarried, the oldest having only attained the age of twenty three, so that at his decease in 1824 he was succeeded by his fifth son, Peter Hesketh. This gentleman, who was born in 1801, espoused at Dover, in 1826, Eliza Delamaire, the daughter of Sir Theophilus J. Metcalf, of Fern Hill, Berkshire, by whom he had several children, who died in early youth. As his second wife he married, in 1837, Verginie Marie, the daughter of Senor Pedro Garcia, and had issue one son, Peter Louis Hesketh. In 1831, Peter Hesketh obtained power by royal license to adopt the surname of Fleetwood in addition to his own, and in 1838 he was created a baronet. In 1844, Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood vacated Rossall Hall, and the site is now occupied by a large public educational institution, denominated the Northern Church of England School. Sir P. H. Fleetwood died, at Brighton, in 1866, leaving one son and heir, the Rev. Sir Peter Louis Hesketh Fleetwood, bart., M.A., of Sunbury on Thames, in the county of Middlesex. The Rev. Charles Hesketh, M.A., rector of North Meols, is the younger brother of the late Sir P. H. Fleetwood, and consequently uncle to the present baronet.
FFRANCE OF LITTLE ECCLESTON HALL.
William, the son of John ffrance, who married the younger daughter of Richard Kerston, of Little Eccleston, was the first of this family to reside at the Hall, and he was living there at the beginning of the seventeenth century. William ffrance had two sons and a daughter—John, born 1647; Henry, born 1649; and Alice, born 1653. John, the eldest son, succeeded to the Hall and estates on the demise of his father, and married Deborah Elston, of Brockholes, by whom he had issue—Robert, who died in 1671; Anne, died 1672; Thomas, died 1672; Deborah, died 1673; John, born 1675; William, died 1680; Henry, died 1676; Mary, died 1701; and Edward, died 1703. John ffrance, senʳ., survived all his sons except John and Edward, and on his death, in 1690, was succeeded by the former and elder of the two brothers. John ffrance, like his father, resided at the Hall, and espoused Joan, daughter of John Cross, of Cross Hall, by whom he had issue—John, born 1699; Anne, died 1702; and Henry, died 1707. John ffrance died in 1762, and his eldest son, John, inherited the estates. This John ffrance married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Thomas Roe, of Out Rawcliffe, and by that union became possessed, later, of Rawcliffe manor and Hall, to which the family of ffrance removed. John ffrance, of Rawcliffe Hall, the son and heir of John and Elizabeth ffrance, of Little Eccleston Hall, and subsequently of Rawcliffe, died childless in 1817, aged 91 years, and bequeathed his property to Thomas Wilson, of Preston, who assumed the name of ffrance.[61]
HESKETH OF MAINS HALL.
This family was descended from the Heskeths, of Rufford, through William Hesketh, of Aughton, the sixth son of Thomas Hesketh, of Rufford. Bartholomew, the son of William Hesketh, of Aughton, succeeded to his father’s estates, and married Mary, the daughter of William Norris, of Speke, by whom he had one son, George, residing at Little Poulton Hall in 1570. George Hesketh married Dorothy, the daughter of William Westby, of Mowbreck, and had issue a son, William, who, on his father’s death, somewhere about 1571, inherited considerable property, comprising possessions in no less than twenty-eight different townships in Lancashire. William Hesketh, who was living in 1613, married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Allen, of Rossall Hall, and sister to Cardinal Allen. The children springing from that union were William and Wilfrid. William, the elder son, is the first of the Heskeths mentioned as inhabiting Mains Hall, and he appears to have been living there in 1613. We have no documents throwing any certain light upon the way in which he gained possession of the seat, but it is most probable that he purchased it. William Hesketh, of Mains Hall, espoused Anne, the daughter of Hugh Anderton of Euxton, and had issue—Thomas, Roger, John, William, Hugh, George, Anne, Alice, and Mary. Thomas, the eldest son, was nine years old in 1613, hence it is extremely likely that he was the first representative of the family born at Mains Hall. Thomas Hesketh was twice married; the first time to Anne, the daughter of Simon Haydock, of Hezantford, and after her decease, to Mary, the daughter of John Westby, of Westby and Mowbreck. The children of his first marriage were William; Thomas, an officer in the royalist army, and slain at Brindle in 1651; Anne, who became the wife of Thomas Nelson, of Fairhurst; and Margaret, afterwards the wife of Major George Westby, of Upper Rawcliffe. William, the elder son, married Perpetua, the daughter of Thomas Westby, of Mowbreck, and had issue—Thomas, born in 1659; William, who died in infancy; John; Anne, married to Richard Leckonby, of Leckonby House, Great Eccleston; Helen; Dorothy, married to Thomas Wilkinson, of Claughton; Perpetua, died in infancy; and six other daughters, all of whom died in youth. Thomas Hesketh, the eldest son, left four sons and three daughters—William; Thomas, who was a priest; John; George; Mary; Perpetua; and Anne. William Hesketh, the eldest of these sons, was living at the same time as Thomas Tyldesley, who died in 1714, and was a frequent visitor at Fox Hall. He married Mary, the daughter of John Brockholes, of Claughton, and heiress to her brother William Brockholes, of Claughton, and had issue—Thomas, Roger, William, Joseph, James, Catherine (an abbess), Margaret, Anne, Mary (a nun), and Aloysia (a nun). Thomas, the eldest son, inherited the property of his deceased uncle, William Brockholes, and assumed the name and arms of Brockholes. He died in 1766. Roger, the second son, also died in 1766. William, the third son, was born in 1717, and in later years entered the “Society of Jesus,” dying in 1741. Joseph succeeded to the Brockholes’ estates on the death of his brother Thomas, and, like him, assumed the name of Brockholes. He married Constantia, the daughter of Bazil Fitzherbert, of Swinnerton, and dying in a few years without issue, was succeeded by his sole remaining brother, James, who also assumed the name and arms of Brockholes, and some years afterwards died unmarried. The Brockholes’ property now passed, under the will of Joseph Hesketh-Brockholes, to William Fitzherbert, the brother of his widow; and that gentleman, after the manner of his predecessors, assumed the name of Brockholes. He espoused Mary, the daughter and co-heiress of James Windsor Heneage, of Cadeby, Lincolnshire, and had issue—Thomas Fitzherbert-Brockholes, of Claughton; Catherine, abbess of the Benedictines at Ghent; Margaret; Ann; Mary, who became a nun; and Frances.