Court rolls of Barton Manor, Lancashire

The material comprises court rolls and suit rolls for the manor of Barton in Lancashire. The court rolls, in the form of folded sheets of paper, follow the standard format of such documents: each has a formal heading, a list of jurors, and a series of presentments for non-appearance at court, misdemeanours such as failure to maintain hedges and ditches, and nominations of township officials, etc. The suit rolls list those who owed suit of court, with notes of their appearance.

The manor of Barton was mentioned in the Domesday book, in the Salford hundred of Lancashire. It was held by the family of that name under the lords of Manchester. It was acquired by marriage by John del Booth or Booths around 1290, and remained in the hands of the Booth family until the late sixteenth century, when it was acquired by Edmund Trafford. It later passed to the Legh family of High Legh, Cheshire. Courts leet and courts baron continued to be held until c 1872. At the time of this manuscript, the lord of the manor was Richard Shuttleworth and later James Shuttleworth.

The collection is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Donated to the John Rylands Library by Rev. T.N. Postlethwaite of Urwick near Ulverston in October 1925.

Description compiled by Henry Sullivan, project archivist, and Elizabeth Gow, with reference to William Farrer and J. Brownbill (eds), The Victoria history of the county of Lancaster, volume 4 (London: Constable, 1911), pp. 363-8.

Catalogued in the Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1928 (English MS 295).

According to a typed letter dated 1925 and enclosed with the item, this manuscript passed to the Reverend T.N. Postlethwaite 'some years ago', along with 'a mass of papers' relating to other estates.