Sir John Towneley, of Towneley Hall, KG

The history of the De Towneley Family of Towneley Hall in Lancashire.

Jane Towneley married William Dalton 1513-1543. Her father was Sir John Towneley of Towneley Hall in Lancashire.

Sources: History of Whalley, History of Burnley, Visitations, Pedigree, British Archives, and Manuscripts of Christopher Towneley.

According to Whitaker, the earliest known ancestor of the Towneleys of Burnley, Lancashire, England, was a Saxon named Spartlingus, the first Dean of Whalley upon record, who was living in 896 during the reign of King Alfred of England (d.899). As dean, he managed property of the church at the monastery of Whalley, collected the tithes and other revenues, and nominated the priests who served the church. All the early church records of Christian countries were in Latin which explains the spelling of the names of the deans. The coming of the Normans invaders in 1066 made little change in the operation of the church, but they did choose the Dean and set aside large areas of forest for the king and his friends to hunt deer and wild boar. The church collected the profits from large tracts of land as the parish of Whalley covered almost a third of Lancashire, but it was the Norman Lord living at the castle at Clitheroe who held all of Lancashire. Following the conquest, William I granted Clitheroe to Roger of Poitou, but later it passed into the hands of the de Lacy family. Whitaker claimed that after the death of Spartlingus, the position of Dean passed from father to son down to Henricus 2nd, but since he based this solely on the writings of Abbot Lyndelay, it has not been accepted by the College of Arms. When Henricus 2nd died without heirs, his authority passed to his brother.

The Dean of Whalley was the local custodian of the church in this remote part of the country and was an important member of the community. He was allowed to marry and pass on his authority to his heirs, which helps us establish continuity. Within a few years the post was abolished but the last Dean passed the lands described in this charter to members of his family. Only later copies of the first Tunleia charter exist but there are 13th century public records that confirm the services rendered by those who settled the land at Townley. In 1242, Henry Gedleng is recorded as holding these lands by knight service. The name “Gedleng” does not appear in any other records and this Henry is probably the same Henry de Tunlay [ or Henry de Lacy], who along with his brother Richard and son William was witness to a charter when Adam Abbot of Kirkstall (1249 – 1259) granted land in Cliviger to Walter, the Chaplain of Tunlay. Surnames were still not in general use at this time and it is not uncommon to find the same person using a different name in relation to different land. This charter of Walter the Chaplain is now the Lancashire Record Office.

Generation 1.

Galfridus of Whalley.

By the 13th century, the Honor of Clitheroe had been divided up into five manors. About this time, Galfridus married Alice de Lacy, daughter of the Norman Lord Roger de Lacy of Clitheroe and Pontefract, the Constable of Chester Lord de Lacy gave part of the vill of Burnley, in the Manor of Ightenhill of the Honour of Clitheroe, to Dean Galfridus, namely "two oxgangs of land in Tunleia (the field belonging to the town) with their appurtenances and permission to build his home there when he pleased and the right to pasture cattle on Burnley Commons." (V.C.H., VI, p. 457) The word "oxgang" and the right of common pasture shows there were villeins living in a hamlet which formed part of the vill of Burnley, so Galfridus had the right to demand services from tenants. Like the colonists in Pennsylvania and New England, these tenants scraped a living from vegetables in their gardens, crops grown in a town field, and cattle kept on common land. When they built their wood huts at the end of their lots in a group with the land they leased fanning out around them, the huts created a hamlet. Close by in the vill of Burnley were several other hamlets, named Westgate, Coal Clough, Fulledge, Burnley Wood and Healey.

Lord de Lacy's also gave Galfridus the right to hunt deer and wild boar "beyond his domains." He had the power to make this grant for he was responsible for the forests reserved for only the king and his supporters. Since Galfridus was dean of Whalley, he lived in the ancestral home at Whalley, but it is believed that he built a hunting lodge on Castle Hill, near the junction of Todmorden Road and the Bacup Road. Dr. Whitaker wrote in 1800 that there were obscure remains of trenches on the east side of the hill. (Whitaker II, p. 186) The hunting grounds de Lacy provided for Galfidus adjoining Hapton extended from the head of Thursden on the east to Bradley Brook [Hapton] on the west, and from Saxifield Dyke on the north to Crombrok [Redwater Clough, Cliviger] on the south. Dean Galfidus and his wife Alice had three children: Geoffrey (Galfidus 2nd), Henry Gedling, and Robert of the church at Alvetham and later at Rochdale. When Dean Galfridus died, his namesake Geoffrey inherited his father's position as dean and the settlement from his mother's father. In 1224, Geoffrey left his estate including Tunleia, Snodesworth and Coldcoats (Caldecotes), part way between Whalley and Clitheroe, to his son Roger, the next dean. But since Roger was not allowed to marry, he gave these lands to his brother Richard about 1236. Roger died without issue in 1249. The names in italics in the remainder of the history have been recorded by the Royal College of Arms.

Generation 2.

Richard de la Leigh

Generation 3.

John de la Leigh inherited Townley Estate in 1295. He did not change his name to Towneley.

John de la Leigh, aft. 1349 of the White House, Cliviger, husband of Cecelia Towneley.

The earliest known document mentioning Burnley is a charter of 1122, by which Hugh de la Val granted the church of St. Peter to the monks of Pontefract Priory. The town began as a small farming community that grew up around the church in a clearing in the woodland that covered much of the district in the Middle Ages. After the death of Alice de la Ley, her son Thomas de la Leigh, the brother of John, founded a chantry in Burnley Church in memory of his mother. Since her husband Gilbert de la Ley and her son John de la Leigh had also given gifts to the church, they were granted a corrody (corody) in 1295 by the Abbot of Whalley, providing them with housing, food, and clothing. In 1302 Gilbert de la Ley was named in a charter of Henry de Lacy as the son of Michael de la Leye, who was given land in the township of Extwistle by the abbot at Newbo, a monastery in Lincolnshire. That same year, Gilbert was made a grantee of Hapton by Thomas de Altaripa. Gilbert was lord of the manor at Hapton, tenant of 140 acres in Cliviger, tenant of a cow farm at Whitebough [Barley], and holder of part of Extwistle. In 1304 he lost Hapton, which was granted to Edmund Talbot by Henry de Lacy, and in 1321 he settled Cliviger on his grandchildren. His daughter Margeria, the wife of William de Middlemore, also held land in Cliviger, called Holme, in her own right. In 1328, John Talbot, the son and heir of Edmund Talbot, again granted Hapton to Gilbert de la Ley, so he gave his holding at Extwistle to his son John de la Leigh. Since John had received Worsthorne and one third of Towneley from his mother-in-law, land at Worsthorne, Towneley, Extwistle, and Cliviger were united in one family.

John de la Leigh lived at "The Old House," also called the White House, an ancient farmstead at the foot of Castle Hill in Cliviger. Cecelia died before 1323, and her one-third of Towneley was inherited by her husband. Since Gilbert de la Ley gave Hapton to his grandson Gilbert de la Leigh as a marriage settlement in 1336, John de la Leigh gave his wife's third and his own third of Towneley to his second son, Richard, who then assumed the surname de Towneley. After the death of John del Hargreaves, the husband of Cecelia's other sister, the third share of Towneley passed to his son William. In 1338, William del Hargreaves "granted to Richard de Towneley, son of John de la Leigh, the land and tenements which he [William] had from his father in Towneley and the reversion of those of his mother and of Alice [Alicia], the widow of Robert Hopkinson." In law, a reversion is the return of an estate to the grantor. Richard accepted the two for one trade because William's third included the manor of Towneley. William was probably well paid for his two shares of Towneley by Gilbert de la Leigh who wanted additional land near his Hapton property. In 1340 (14Edw.III), John de la Leigh received a new grant of corody from the Abbot and Convent of Whalley and moved back to the monastery. "He died in his father's lifetime."

Notes: Fought in an English army that invaded Scotland and was knighted. He founded a chantry in St. Peters, the parish church of Burnley and built the chapel at Towneley in the North wing. He was a Catholic.

Towneley is in the borough of Burnley in the north east corner of Lancashire, where the Pennine hills mark the boundary with Yorkshire. It became the home of a family who used the place as their surname. Over the years, the family began to spread out from the original site in places such as Barnsyde, Stone Edge, Holme, Read, and Ribchester just to name a few. When the Doomsday Book, our earliest public record, was compiled for King William I in 1086, Lancashire itself didn’t exist. The book describes an area between the Rivers Ribble and Mersey flowing west into the Irish Sea as “Inter Ripam et Mersham” and the picture emerges of a sparsely populated land of little value. The Saxons had divided the lands up into Hundreds and these Hundreds were unchanged by the Norman Conquest. The area between the Ribble and Mersey contained four Hundreds and the one of interest to us is the Hundred, Blackburn in the Blackburn Shire. Doomsday records only two churches in the Hundred, Blackburn in the west and Whalley to the east. It records 28 manors scattered amongst moor, marsh, and woodland but does not identify by name. Sometime after 1086 during the reign of King William II, the lands of the Hundred of Blackburnshire were granted to Robert de Lacy. The de Lacy family already controlled large areas of land in Yorkshire [just north] and had built a castle at Pontefract. They established their headquarters for the Hundred at Clitheroe. The main benefit of Blackburnshire for the de Lacy’s was the abundant supply of wild animals. Normans loved hunting and three large areas of the parish of Whalley (Pendle, Rossendale, and Trawden) became private hunting grounds of the de Lacy Family.

Generation 4.

Gilbert de la Leigh-Towneley: Changed his name to Towneley.

Gilbert took his mothers maiden name of Towneley.

The children of Cecelia and John de la Leigh were: the heir Gilbert de la Leigh, Richard de Towneley, and Laurence who was called de la Leigh when he broke the law by hunting in forests belonging to the Chaplin of the King (only to be pardoned for trespass by the king) because he was living at Cliviger, but he was called Towneley in the entail of Cliviger in 1321 because this land then belonged to the Towneleys. Dr. Whitaker called them typical representatives of a 14th century land-owning family. In 1336, Gilbert de la Ley gave Hapton to his grandson, Gilbert de la Leigh, as a settlement when he married Katherine, the daughter of Richard de Balderstone. Gilbert de la Leigh lived at Hapton and conducted his estate as a manor with a demesne farm (Castle Hill) and other farms rented by tenants. When Katherine died, Gilbert married Alice Vernon of Warforth, Cheshire, in 1344. He died during the reign of Richard. (6Rich2) His widow held his estate, including two thirds of Towneley, until she died in 1388. The Inquisition of her estate took place that same year.

Generation 5.

Sir Richard de Towneley

The first of the de la Leighs to use the Towneley name was Richard who was Sheriff of the county of Lancaster when he died in 1379 but it was his son John de Towneley (1350-1399) who acquired all the old Towneley land and sealed the settlement of his estates with the arms of three mullets and a fesse. It is believed that the earliest hunting lodge at Towneley was on Castle Hill and it was probably Richard or John who established the first house on the site of what is now Towneley Hall.

Meanwhile, Richard de Towneley had acquired the manor of Towneley in 1338. His wife Elena was mentioned in 1345 in a deed of Alice, the widow of Ralph de Stirzaker. They had four children: John, Robert, Henry and Alice. Two sons became chaplains, and in 1356 their daughter married Edmund Dacre, son of Sir Thomas Dacre. Richard became a member of Parliament for the shire in 1361; his stay lasted 51 days and his pay was 19/12/00. In 1369, Richard was appointed a Commissioner to enforce certain statutes, including the Statue of Weights and Measures and the Statute of Labor, which fixed wages of manual laborers in Lancaster. He was not a staid politician; he was once accused of riotous behavior at Whalley Abbey. To pay debts, he borrowed money on his third of Towneley from his uncle, Thomas de la Leigh, who then held the right to collect the rents. In 1372 his uncle executed a deed of rents which forgave all debts of the manor of Towneley and other premises held in trust jointly with Robert Holden, the son of Adam Holden, which they had by grant of Elias de Briddetwisle, Rector of Warrington, and Robert de Boulton, chaplain. Robert Holden lost a lot of money, and his descendants still refer to Thomas as a swindler. (It was a descendant of these Holdens who years later arranged the emigration of James Maginnis of Whitehaven.) In 1375, 1376, and 1377, John of Gaunt appointed Richard as Sheriff of Lancaster, and in 1377 he was re-elected as a member of Parliament. Richard was still the Sheriff when he died in 1379. The Inquisition of his estate was held in 1381.

Generation 6.

John de Towneley.

John was reported as 31 years of age at the Inquisition of his father's estate in 1381. In 1382 he signed a marriage contract with Isabella, the daughter and heiress of William Rixton. They had two children, a son Richard and a daughter Matilda. John was sent by King Richard II on a special mission to Calais, but forfeited the protection of the king for staying in Kent on his own business from 1385 to 1389. While he was in Kent his aunt died, and at the age of 38, he inherited all her lands. In addition to Hapton, he now held all of Towneley. He sealed the settlement of his estates with "three mullets and a fesse" which was the seal used formerly by the de la Leighs. When Isabella died, he remarried, and in 1397 he became one of the coroners for the County of Lancaster. In 1399 he was "granted 6/13/4d. a year to stay with the King." He died that same year; at the time, his son was only 12 years of age. His widow Elizabeth remarried William Rigmayden, Esq., but she died Mar. 27, 1401 On Apr. 7, 1401, Richard was made the ward of William Rigmayden. However since Elizabeth had died, Richard and his sister Matilda later became the wards of Sir Thomas Fleming, the Baron of Wrath, the grandfather of Matilda's future husband William Fleming, the son and heir of Sir John Fleming, son and heir of Sir Thomas, and administration of the estate was given to Roger of Banastre. A Lancaster Inquest said Roger made a waste of the property.

Generation 7.

Sir Richard Towneley 1387 c. 1454 first builder of Towneley Hall

Notes: Ward of the Duke of Lancaster. Legally inherited estate in 1410. Fought with King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt in October 1415.

In 1410 Richard got legal control of Towneley. That same year, a royal writ was issued ordering Richard and three others to be arrested and taken to Westminister for "trespass on the lands of Thomas Talbot of Hapton and taking away his cattle." (Towneley MSS) But it seems another Towneley was forgiven by a king who needed his services. Richard served in France under Henry V and took with him two footmen and three archers, all five being Towneley men from the estate. In October 1415, they fought at the Battle of Agincourt. Richard's son John was born that same year; he and his wife Alice later had a son Richard. Sir Towneley restored good management to his estate and acquired new lands at Dutton and Clayton. Richard began building the main hall of Towneley in the early 15th century. Later two wings would be added and the property enclosed. He died about 1454, survived by his wife Alice. At the Inquisition of his estate in 1455, the manor at Towneley was worth ten pounds a year, for which Richard had paid a part of a knight's fee and a rent of 12/9d. Hapton and Bradley were worth 11 pounds a year, and Cliviger was worth ten pounds a year. The remaining estates were worth two pounds a year. (Lancs. Inquests II, p. 58-66) His son John was his heir to the Towneley estate, and his son Richard inherited Dutton.

Generation 8.

John de Towneley, Esq. 1415-1472. Built gatehouse chapel in 1454 and the South Wing about 1460.

Notes: During his time he had the South wing built on Towneley Hall. The walls are six feet thick.

John Towneley was first married at the age of three at the door of the Church of St. Michael on the Wyre to Isabella Boteler [Butler], the daughter of Nicholas Boteler of Rawcliffe but she was awarded a divorce in 1442 when she pointed out to the court that she had been betrothed to a neighbor two years before her marriage to John Towneley. Since Towneley marriages were arranged carefully to increase the family fortunes, it would be interesting to know exactly what happened. At the age of 40, John married Isabel Sherburne, the daughter of Richard Shireburn of Stoneyhurst, who brought a valuable estate in Flintshire as her dower. Their marriage settlement was dated Apr. 16, 1445. They had six children: Richard, Lawrence, Nicholas, Henry, Bernard, and Grace. John Towneley added a private chapel in the gatehouse in 1454, which was served by his son Bernard Towneley and Richard Boyes. (The gateway, chapel, and library were removed by Charles Towneley 1658-1712, and the chapel and library were re-sited in the North wing.) John Towneley paid 17 shillings for his relief on May 31, 1456. He built the South wing of Towneley Hall about 1460; its 6 foot thick medieval walls have remained unchanged, but the doors and all but one window have been replaced. Isabella died before 1462, but John lived another ten years. Their son Sir Richard was the heir of Towneley, their second son Lawrence lived at Barnside ten miles northeast of Towneley, Nicholas was at Greenfield six miles north of Towneley, Henry married an heiress in Dutton fourteen miles northwest of Towneley, and Barnard became the parson at Felkirk. Grace married Roger, son of Alexander Nowell of Read. Nicholas of Greenfield was the ancestor of Townleys of Royal, Littleton, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio. Townsleys of Lancaster and York, Pa., and Maryland were not related.

Generation 9.

Sir Richard Towneley, born in 1445, England; married Joanna Southworth, on 21 September 1472, England; died on 8 September 1482, England.

Generation 10.

Sir John Towneley, born 1473, died 1539.

Notes: Fought in an English army that invaded Scotland and was knighted. He founded a chantry in St. Peters, the parish church of Burnley and built the chapel at Towneley in the North wing. He was a Catholic.

Sir John Towneley founded a chantry in St. Peter's, the parish church of Burnley and built the chapel at Towneley which is now incorporated into the North wing.

Sir John's coat of arms (at one time on the outside wall of the chapel) is above the fireplace in the servant's hall at Towneley. The symbol of the three goats is the arms of Gateford, Nottinghamshire. This is the property that Sir John Towneley acquired after his marriage to Isabella, daughter and heiress of Sir Charles Pilkington of Gateford.

The Towneley Family:

Towneley Hall was the home of the Towneley family from the 14th century until 1902. Charles (1737 - 1805) was one of the 18th century’s best known collectors of antique sculpture and gems and his famous portrait by lohan Zoffany takes pride of place in the art gallery, today's visitors to Towneley Hall can still catch a glimpse of how the family lived. Original period rooms include the Elizabethan long gallery and the Regency rooms, see how they compare with life below stairs in the Victorian kitchen and the servants’ dining room.

It is rumoured that the Hall is haunted by a spirit whose visits were limited to once every seven years, when its thirst for vengeance had to be satisfied by the untimely death of one of the Hall residents. Legend says that Sir John Towneley (1473 -1541) was said to have offended and injured the poor of the district by enclosing some of the areas Common Lands, making it part of his estate. As a punishment, his soul is said to wander about the Hall, crying out: "Be warned ! Lay out ! Be warned! Lay out! Around Hore-Law and Hollin-Hey Clough, To her children give back the widows cot For you and yours there’s still enough." This Boggart is the famed Towneley.

The lands were granted by the Honor of Clitheroe, Roger De Lacy, to Geoffrey, his son-in-law, in the year 1200. Over the centuries many alterations have been made to the Hall, so many that the Hall is now totally different to its original layout. The first major alterations in 1628 involved the use of 541/2 tons of lead for the roof, purchased from the local Thievely lead mine, and the last were in the early 20th Century, when the Art Galleries were added. At one time the main entrance was moved. To the left of the ‘new’ main door can be seen a smaller, filled in doorway, the original entrance.

Towneley Hall has been a museum since 1903 but before then it was the home of the Towneley family who lived on the estate from the mid-thirteenth century. The Regency Room wing contains traces of their first house on this site. The lower floor has six foot thick mediaeval walls and one Gothic window dating from around 1460.

By 1500 the Hall formed a square around a central courtyard and the park was probably a formal garden with geometric avenues of trees and gravel walks. The fourth wing, containing a chapel, library and gatehouse, was demolished in 1700 and in the late eighteenth century the park was changed to a fashionable informal landscape garden with winding walks and trees planted in natural looking groups. The Hall's appearance today is largely the work of Jeffry Wyatt who added the porch and the decorative battlements and towers in the early nineteenth century.

For three hundred years the Towneleys were in favour with the Royal family and three of them received knighthoods, but during Elizabeth I's reign their lives changed. Protestantism became the official religion but the Towneleys were Catholic and refused to give up their faith. As a result, John Towneley (1528-1607) was fined and imprisoned for almost 25 years. Even after his release he was forced to stay within five miles of Towneley Hall.

Other members of the family fought for Catholic causes. During the Civil War Charles Towneley fought on the Royalist side and died at the Battle of Marston Moor. In the eighteenth century Sir John Towneley, Chevalier de St. Louis, was a supporter of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie). His brother Francis, appointed Governor of Carlisle by the Prince during the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, was executed when the rebellion failed.

Several Towneleys made their names in science and the arts. Richard Towneley (1629-1707) was the first person to measure rainfall in England for a length of time, but the best known member of the family was Charles (1737-1805), a connoisseur whose collection of antique sculpture and gems was thought to be the best in the country.

In 1877 the last male heir in the family died and the Towneley estate was split between six heiresses. The Hall became the property of Lady O'Hagan. Realising that she could not afford to maintain the building if she kept up her charity work, she sold the Hall in 1902 to Burnley Corporation to be used as a museum and art gallery. The building was handed over almost empty and the first exhibitions the following year were of borrowed items.

The family's motto - Hold to the Truth - is now the motto of Burnley Borough Council.

Children of Sir Towneley and Isabella Pilkington are:

i. Helen Towneley.

ii. Grace Towneley.

iii. Elizabeth Towneley.

iv. Margaret Towneley.

v. Sir Richard Towneley, born 1489; died 1555. He married Grace Foljambe.

vi. Charles Towneley, born 1490 in Grays Inn, Burnley, Lancashire, England;

               died 1539.

vii. Jane Towneley, born Abt. 1515 in of Lancashire, England; died Abt. 1558.

               She married (1) William Dalton; born 1513 in Byspham Manor, Lancashire

               England; died 1543 in Byspham, Lancashire,  England.  

               She married (2) Thomas Shireburne.  She married (3) Ralph Shuttleworth.

Sir John Towneley (1473–1540)

Sir John Towneley (1532): Born 1473, John was the son of Sir Richard Towneley (d.1482) and Jane Southworth. In 1497 he took part in the Scottish wars and was knighted on 30th September by Thomas, Earl of Surrey. His first wife was Isabel Pilkington (died 1522), through whom he acquired lands at Gateford, Nottinghamshire. The couple produced two sons (Richard and Charles), and six daughters. Following his wife’s death, John had a long-term liason with Elizabeth Foljambe, with whom he fathered four children, but in 1531 married Anne Catterall. John appears to have been astute, and added considerably to the Towneley estate during his lifetime; he also either built, or rebuilt, a number of churches and chantires. John died in 1540, and despite the religious upheavals of the time remained true to his Catholic faith to the end.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110713182828/http://www.lancastercast...

Son of Sir Richard and Joanna. Married to Isabel Pilkington in 1480, his father died when John was only nine and he reached adulthood under the guardianship of her father Sir Charles Pilkington. His wife Isabel inherited Gateford in Nottinghamshire in 1485. He was knighted on 30 September 1497 by the Earl of Surrey, probably at Ayton when the peace treaty was signed with Scotland after the Perkin Warbeck skirmishes. He established Hapton Park, in 1514 and enlarged it to cover 1100 Lancashire acres (equivalent to 2,000 acres (810 ha)), which amounted to about half of Hapton township, making it the second largest in Lancashire after Knowsley. Was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1532.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towneley_family