Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/434

 to reside there; a full account of the descent and intermarriages of the Heskeths of Mains will be found in the chapter on ancient families of the Fylde.

The Hall and estate are now the property of Thomas Fitzherbert Brockholes, of Claughton, esq.

POPULATION OF GREAT AND LITTLE SINGLETON.

1801. 1811.  1821.  1831.  1841.  1851.  1861.  1871. 325    396    501    499    391    293    338    317

The area of the township comprises 2,860 statute acres.

The Testa de Nevill records that Adam de Eccleston and William de Molines, with three others, had part of a knight's fee in Eccleston and Larbrick, about 1300. In 1500 Richard Kerston had 60 acres in Little Eccleston, a portion of which passed on his death in 1546 to John ffrance, who had married one of his daughters. The ffrances retained their possessions until 1817, when they were bequeathed by the last of the line to Thomas Wilson, of Preston, who adopted their surname. Larbrick was held in 1336 by William de Coucy, of Gynes, but in 1358 it belonged to Sir William Molyneux, of Sefton, in whose family it remained until about 1601, at which date William Burgh, of Burgh, near Chorley, died, holding it. Subsequently the manor passed, through the daughter of William Burgh, to Edward Shuttleworth, of Thornton Hall, who had espoused her grand-daughter. The last proprietor here named died in 1673, and the estate was divided, a moiety going to Dr. Charles Leigh, who had married one of his two daughters and co-heiresses, and the second mediety to Richard Longworth, who was the husband of the other. Dr. Leigh mortgaged his share, which eventually was obtained by Richard Harrison, of Bankfield; whilst that of Richard Longworth, passed, about 1700, to the Hornbys, of Poulton, and after-*wards to the Pedders, of Preston, who held it for more than a century. Mr. Whiteside, who purchased it from the Rev. Jno. Pedder, is now owner. Larbrick Hall, for long a seat of the noble house of Molyneux, is at presented represented by a farm-*house. Dr. Leigh mentions an extremely cold well in Larbrick, in which fish were unable to survive beyond a few seconds.