Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/424

 this grant was subsequently confirmed by John, earl of Moreton. During the reigns of kings John and Henry III., Alan de Singleton held a carucate of land in the township by serjeanty of the wapentake of Amounderness. In 20 Edward I. (1292) Thomas de Singleton, a descendant of Alan, proved to the satisfaction of a jury, when his right to certain offices was called in question, that the manor of Little Singleton had belonged to his family from time immemorial, and that the serjeanty of Amounderness with its privileges and duties, was annexed and appurtenant to that manor. Thomas de Singleton admitted, however, when called upon by the king's attorney to show by what title he held the manors of Singleton, Thornton, and Brughton, the same having been amongst the possessions of Richard I. at his death, that he did not hold the whole of Singleton, as Thomas de Clifton and Caterina his wife had one third of two bovates there; and urged this fact as a plea why he could not be summoned to answer the demand as made on behalf of Edward I. His objection was allowed. In 1297 Edmund, earl of Lancaster received annually £21 from Singleton and 20s. from Singleton Grange. At the opening of the fourteenth century Little Singleton had passed into the hands of the Banastres, for the "hamlet of Singleton Parva" was one of the estates of William Banastre at his death in 17 Edward II. (1323-24). Towards the end of the reign of Edward II. Thomas, the son of the notorious Sir Adam Banastre, held little Singleton and the serjeanty of Amounderness, and by the latter of these had a right to the services of two bailiffs and a boy to levy executions within the wapentake.

The following notice of Singleton in the time of Henry, duke of Lancaster, who died in 1361, occurs amongst the Lansdowne manuscripts:—

"In Syngleton there are 21 messuages and 26 bovates of land held by bondsmen, who pay annually at the feasts of Easter and St. Michael £21 9s. 3d. And there are 11 cottages with so many inclosures, and one croft, and one piece of land in the hands of tenants-at-will, paying annually 21s. 6d. All the aforesaid bondsmen owe talliage, and give marchet and heriot, and on the death of her husband a widow gives one third part of his property to the lord of the manor, but more is claimed in cases where the deceased happen to be widowers. And if any one