Sir Thomas Langton, High Sheriff of Lancashire

LANGTON, Sir Thomas (1496/97-1569), of Newton and Walton-le-Dale, Lancs.

Family and Education

b. 1496/97, 2nd s. of Ralph Langton of Newton and Walton-le-Dale by Joan, da. of Sir Christopher Southworth of Samlesbury. m. (1) Elizabeth, (?illegit.) da. of Edward Stanley, 1st Lord Monteagle, 8s. 5da.; (2) Anne, (?illegit.) da. of Thomas Talbot of Salesbury, 3s. 1da. suc. bro. 1511. Kntd. 8 June 1533.1

Offices Held

• Commr. subsidy, Lancs. 1523, 1524, 1563, tenths of spiritualities 1535, relief 1550; other commissions 1532-7; j.p. 1531/32-d.; sheriff 1533-4, 1555-6, 1566-7; gov. Blackburn g.s. 1567-d.2

Biography

Langton’s father died in 1503 and his elder brother died eight years later when Thomas was 14. Their mother had obtained the wardship of her sons but granted it on 11 Nov. 1506 to Sir Edward Stanley, later 1st Lord Monteagle, who married his ward to his daughter, sometimes said to have been illegitimate. On 4 Aug. 1558 Langton conveyed his considerable estates to his brother-in-law, the 2nd Lord Monteagle, Bishop Stanley of Sodor and Man, and William Fleetwood, in a settlement of questionable legality designed to exclude the children of his second marriage from the inheritance. Fleetwood was the nephew of John Fleetwood of Penwortham who had married one of Sir Thomas Langton’s daughters: the Fleetwoods were later to inherit the Langton estates.3

Langton held the advowson of Wigan where the rector, acting through a steward or bailiff, was lord of the manor. In 1519 he presented the physician Thomas Linacre and during 1532-3 his own son Richard. Richard Langton died almost immediately, whereupon Langton presented Richard Kighley, from whom the rectory was leased by John Kitchen, who also purchased the right to the next presentation from Langton. This was one of a number of such sales or grants by Langton: thus, his kinsman Bishop Stanley was presented on 10 Aug. 1558 by John Fleetwood and others, and Fleetwood presented again in 1569. As lord of Newton, Langton was the chief lord of Wigan, but he aspired to be the rector’s steward as well. Balked of this office he acted as if he had secured it and interfered in the mayoral election of 1539. In or about 1546 he even appointed the 3rd Earl of Derby his deputy, but when Derby sued him for his fees of £5 6s.8d. a year Langton blandly replied ‘that he was never seised of the said office’. Early in Elizabeth’s reign, when Derby was suing Langton on this score, Bishop Stanley as rector of Wigan and Sir Thomas as deputy to the then steward, William Fleetwood, appeared in the duchy court against William Gerard II and others in a dispute over the title of the parsonage to certain liberties. An ardent litigant, Langton fought one case against Thomas Fleetwood and in at least one other employed William Fleetwood.4

Langton was knighted at the coronation of Anne Boleyn. He led over 100 men in helping the Earl of Derby to suppress the Pilgrimage of Grace. During the 1540s and 50s he was repeatedly called upon to serve in the border fighting against the Scots and twice during the period he had difficulty in raising as many soldiers as were expected of him. His experience in local management and in war well qualified him for election to Mary’s second Parliament when his fellow-knight was his kinsman Sir Thomas Stanley. The Journal does not mention Langton. He may have promoted the enfranchisement of his borough of Newton in 1559, but this is more likely to have been the work of William Fleetwood, then counsel to the duchy of Lancaster and steward of the borough. In a will of 4 Apr. 1569 he recounted a settlement made 11 years previously and, besides naming the manors involved, enumerated his ‘600 messuages, 200 tofts, 12 mills, 20 dove houses, 600 gardens, 600 orchards, 6,000 acres of land, 2,000 [acres] of meadow, 5,000 acres of pasture, 1,000 acres of wood, 6,000 [acres of] heath, 6,000 acres of moor [and] 1,000 acres of marsh’. As executors he named his friends Sir Richard Sherborn, Alexander Rigby of Arley and Edmund Winstanley of Wigan, and his servant John Woodcock, and as supervisors Thomas Carus and John Walshe. He died in the same year, when his grandson and heir was eight years old.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

• Author: Alan Davidson
• Notes
• 1. Date of birth estimated from age at brother’s i.p.m., E. Baines, Lancs. ed. Croston, iv. 383. J. B. Watson, ‘Lancs. gentry 1529-58’ (London Univ. M.A. thesis, 1959), 397 seq.; Vis. Lancs. (Chetham Soc. lxxxi), 24; (xcviii), 12-14; LP Hen. VIII, vi.
• 2. Watson, 398, 538; Lansd. 8, f. 79; LP Hen. VIII, v, viii, xii; Somerville, Duchy, i. 291n; CPR, 1553, p. 360; 1566-9, p. 90.
• 3. Chetham Soc. li. 246n, 249-50n; VCH Lancs. vi. 292; CPR, 1558-60, p. 77.
• 4. VCH Lancs. iv. 59, 62-63, 72; Chetham Soc. n.s. xv. 108, 114; Ducatus Lanc. ii. 184, 198; iii. 210, 217, 239, 261-2, 267, 325.
• 5. LP Hen. VIII, vi, xi; HMC Bath, iv. 59, 67, 72; Strype, Eccles. Memorials, iii(2), 92; Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. xxxv. 183 seq.; xl. 89-90; Chetham Soc. li. 246-53; Ducatus Lanc. i. 50.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/la... _______________________
• Elizabeth STANLEY
• Born: ABT 1507
• Father: Edward STANLEY (1° B. Mounteagle)
• Mother: Elizabeth VAUGHAN (B. Grey of Wilton / B. Mounteagle)
• Married: Thomas LANGTON
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/STANLEY2.htm#Elizabeth STANLEY2 _____________________
• Sir Edward Stanley, 1st Lord Monteagle1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
• M, #54963, b. circa 1463, d. 7 April 1523
• Father Sir Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl Derby, 2nd Lord Stanley, Constable of England, Chief Justice of Chester & Flint2,9,5,10,8 b. c 1435, d. 29 Jul 1504
• Mother Eleanor Neville11,2,9,5,10,8 b. c 1438, d. a 6 Apr 1464
• Sir Edward Stanley, 1st Lord Monteagle was born circa 1463 at of Knowsley, Lancashire, England. He married Elizabeth Vaughan, daughter of Sir Thomas Vaughan and Cecily verch Morgan, before 25 November 1501; They had 1 son (Sir Thomas, 2nd Lord Monteagle. His 1st wife was Anne Harington, daughter of Sir John Harrington of Hornby Castle.11,3,4,5,6,7,8 Sir Edward Stanley, 1st Lord Monteagle left a will on 5 April 1523; Requested burial in the Chapel of St. Margaret in Hornby, Lancashire.5,8 He died on 7 April 1523 at Hornby Castle, Hornby, Lancashire, England; By various mistresses he had 2 illegitimate sons (Edward; & Thomas; Bishop of Soder) & 2 illegitimate daughters (Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Langton, Baron Newton; & Mary, wife of (Mr.) Radcliffe).11,5,8 His estate was probated on 24 April 1524.5,8
• Family Elizabeth Vaughan b. c 1452, d. 15 Jan 1515
• Child
  • Sir Thomas Stanley, 2nd Lord Monteagle+12,3,6 b. 25 May 1507, d. 25 Aug 1560
• Citations
• 1.[S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. IX, p. 113-114.
• 2.[S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 680.
• 3.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 300.
• 4.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. IV, p. 93.
• 5.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. IV, p. 348-349.
• 6.[S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. I, p. 509.
• 7.[S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. V, p. 30.
• 8.[S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. V, p. 374-375.
• 9.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. IV, p. 91-92.
• 10.[S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. V, p. 28-29.
• 11.[S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. IX, p. 115.
• 12.[S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. IX, p. 113-115.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1829.htm#... ______________________________
• 'Langton04'
  • This family is still being researched.
• Robert de Langton of Walton, Lincolnshire
  • 1. John de Langton
  • m. Alice Banastre (dau of James de Banastre 'of Newton' by Ellen le Boteler)
    • A. Sir Robert de Langton of Walton (d 1361)
      • i. John de Langton (dvp)
        • a. Ralph de Langton of Walton 'and Newton' (b c1350, d 1406)
        • m. Joan Radclyffe (dau of William Radclyffe)
          • (1) Henry Langton of Walton
          • m. Agnes Davenport (dau of Sir John Davenport of Wheltrough by Margaret Done)
            • (A) Sir Ralph Langton of Walton 'of Newton'
            • Tere is some confusion as to who was Ralph's wife. Alternatives seen have been Joan, dau of Christopher Southworth, an Alice, and Joan, dau of William Baldersone by Margaret Stanley. Provisionally we show the latter but there could be confusion with the allaged wife of his son Sir Henry.
            • m. Joan Balderston (dau of William Balderston of Balderston by Margaret, dau of William Stanley)
              • (i) Sir Henry Langton of Walton (b 1435, d 1490)
              • We have seen Sir Henry's wife identified as Joanna , dau of William Balderstone by Margaret, dau of William Stanley of Hooton, but this looks like confusion with his mother.
                • (a) ?? Langton of Walton possibly Sir Richard father of Hellen
                  • ((1)) (Sir) Thomas Langton of 'Walton &' Newton possibly of this generation
                  • m. Elizabeth Stanley (dau of Edward Stanley of Hornby, 1st Lord Monteagle)
                    • ((A)) Leonard Langton (dvp)
                    • m. Anne Leyburn
                    • ((B))Eleanor Langton possibly fits here (suggested by site visitor)
                    • m. Edward Cholmeley of Copenhall
                  • ((2)) Hellen Langton possibly of this generation
                  • m. Sir John Southworth of Samlesbury (b c1478, d 1517)
                • (b) Johanna Langton
                • m. Richard Sherborne of Stonyhurst
          • (2) Isabel Langton
          • m. Sir Richard Venables of Kinderton (d 23.07.1403)
    • A daughter of an unnamed Langton of Newton & Walton, possibly of this generation, was ...
    • B. Isabel Langton
    • m1. Aymer Burdett
    • m2. Ralph Hyde
• Main source(s): various web sites plus cross-references from elsewhere in the database
• From: Stirnet.com
• http://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/zwrk/langton04.php#lk1 __________________________
• "History of Lancashire" by Baines. Croston Edition. "Langton, Baron of Newton."
• http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org
• "A Genealogical and Heraldic History of The Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland", Vol.4. by John Burke, Esq.
• Foster's Visitation Pedigrees of Cumberland and Westmorland. "Langton, Baron of Newton."
• Pedigrees of Lancashire, by Foster. "Pedigree of the Family of Stanley."
• "The Extinct and Dormant Peerages of the Northern Counties of England" by J.W. Clay. "Stanley, Lords Monteagle."
• https://archive.org/details/pedigreesofcount00fost/page/n213