Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/171

 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