Pilkington of Lancashire

The Pilkington family has its origins in the ancient township of Pilkington in the historic county of Lancashire, England. After about 1405 the family seat was Stand Old Hall which was built to replace Old Hall in Pilkington. The new hall was built on high land overlooking Pilkington's medieval deer park. Stand Old Hall was replaced by Stand Hall to the south in 1515 after the Pilkingtons were dispossessed. Stand Old Hall became a barn. It is possible that Sir Thomas Pilkington had permission to “embattle” his manor house in 1470 building a stone tower. It was a ruin by the 1950s and demolished in the early 1960s.

The Pilkington name is taken from the manor of Pilkington in Prestwich, Lancashire. The Pilkington arms consist of an argent cross patonce voided gules. The Pilkington crest has a mower with his scythe and has a legend that an ancestor of the family, being sought at the time of the Norman Conquest, disguised himself as a mower and escaped. Ye Olde Man & Scythe Inn in Bolton derives its name from the reaper using a scythe on the family crest. The crest was first recorded on a seal from 1424.

Throughout the county there were a number of branches of the family, including those from Rivington Hall, Rivington near Chorley and from Windle Hall near St Helens, founders of the Pilkington glass manufacturers.

Pilkington of Pilkington

The first known is Alexander de Pilkington, who was recorded in 1200 and held the manor in 1212. In 1212 Pilkingtons held Rivington in Bolton-le-Moors, which became the home of a junior branch of the family.

In 1312 Alexander had settled the manors of Pilkington and Cheetham on his son Roger giving the remainder to a younger son William. Roger married Alice, sister and heir of Henry de Bury and the manor of Bury was acquired by the family. He died about 1347, and was followed by his son, the third Roger in succession. He was made a knight before 1365 and attended John of Gaunt in France in 1359, served as knight of the shire in six Parliaments between 1363 and 1384 and died in 1407. Roger Pilkington and his father, also Roger, were present with Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322. The older Roger was imprisoned and fined, his son secured pardon by undertaking military service abroad. His son Sir Roger Pilkington (1325–1407) served under Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster in 1355, and under John of Gaunt in 1359–60 and 1369.

Roger's son Sir John Pilkington (d. 1421) was granted custody of the manors of Prestwich and Alkrington. He married Margaret (d. 1436), heir of John Verdon of Brixworth, Northamptonshire, soon after the death of her first husband, Hugh Bradshaw of Leigh. Margaret's son from her first marriage, William Bradshaw, died in 1415, leaving a daughter, Elizabeth. In 1430 Margaret settled the manors of her inheritance which included Stagenhoe in Hertfordshire, Clipston, Northamptonshire and Brixworth in Northamptonshire, and Bressingham in Norfolk, on her Pilkington sons, John, Edmund (d. about 1451), and Robert (d. 1457). Roger attended the king in the Scottish expedition of 1400 and was one of the Lancashire knights who fought at Agincourt, he died in 1421. His son Sir John inherited aged twenty-eight years and he too, fought in the French wars. He was knight of the shire in 1416 and 1418, and rewarded for his services by being made escheator in Ireland.

He died without issue in 1451, and the manor descended to Thomas, son of Edmund Pilkington, his nephew. Thomas was the son of Edmund, and enjoyed the favour of Edward IV. The Pilkingtons built a house with a moat at Bury between 1359 and 1400 and were granted a licence to crenellate it in 1469 when it became known as Bury Castle. He was made a knight of the Bath in 1475, and a baronet at the capture of Berwick in 1481. He fought for Richard III at Battle of Bosworth Field and was attainted by the victorious Henry, his manors in Lancashire confiscated and were given to the newlycreated Earl of Derby. Sir Thomas Pilkington was granted Royal pardon in 1508.

The Pilkington Knights fought in the Wars of the Roses and in the 15th century three members of the family were High Sheriffs of Lancashire. Their Pilkington relatives included Sir Charles Pilkington who was appointed High Sheriff of Nottingham and Derby in 1480.

Pilkingtons of Rivington

The early Pilkingtons were step brothers of the Rivingtons and a grant of land was made to them in 1202. In 1212 the Pilkingtons held of King John of England, in thanage, six oxgangs of land at a rent of 10s. Rivington was held by the Pilkingtons of Pilkington until 1290 when Sir Alexander de Pilkington (1225–1291) gave his lands at Rivington to his second son, Richard, as a wedding gift on his marriage to Ellen daughter of William de Anderton, of Rumworth and Anderton. Rivington was afterwards held by the junior branch of the family, who became known as the Pilkingtons of Rivington. In 1324 Roger de Pilkington held seven-eighths of the manor at a rent of 8s. 9d while Richard de Hulton held the other eighth for 1s. 3d. p.a. This partition appears again in 1445. Robert Pilkington is mentioned in lay subsidies of 1327 and 1332.

The most notable of the Pilkingtons of Rivington was James Pilkington, first Protestant Bishop of Durham, born about 1518, the son of Richard Pilkington of Rivington Hall and Alice Asshawe. The family are recorded in the Pilkington painting, in Rivington Church. The Pilkingtons held the Manor of Rivington until the death of Robert Pilkington in 1605 and his share of the manor was sold on 30 March 1611 to relatives Robert Lever and Thomas Breres for £1730 retaining New Hall, along with the other lands for the benefit of Katherine Pilkington and her heirs.

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