Page:The Ancestor Number 1.djvu/232

 i8o THE ANCESTOR son of Maurice and David son of Adam held, with common of pasture, etc., to hold of the grantor and his heirs ; the witnesses being Richard de Sonbach, Richard de Wibbenbury (then sheriff), Roberto Grossovenatore^ Randle clerk of Ruston, Randle de Horton, Roger de Kegworth, Adam parson of Limme and Hugh de Bostoc. ' This purchase,* our author na'ively re- marks, ' has been often mistaken for the first settlement of the Grosvenors in Allostock/ We will venture at all events to assume that it represents the ' manor of Hulme ' held of John de Holford long afterwards by Sir Robert Grosvenor at the time of his death, and valued at lo marks per annum, Ormerod (following Sir Peter Leycester) dates the above deed 1234.^ Gralam de Lostock occurs elsewhere in 1241.^ There need therefore be no difficulty, so far as dates go, in supposing the grantee to be a son of Randle Grosvenor of Budworth, of whom we can only say that he died before 1232, and younger brother of Robert Grosvenor, the witness. Put- ting aside all preconceptions based upon the received tradition, this would seem to be the natural conclusion. In 1247 Richard has a release from Richard de Chornoc of two bovates of land in Hulme ; and in 1269 (the dates are still Sir Peter Leycester's) makes an agreement with the prior of Norton concerning the service of the chapel at Nether Peover. Not long afterwards he died, and was succeeded by a son Robert (styled in several deeds Robert son of Richard le Grosvenor),^ about the time that the abbey of Vale Royal was founded and endowed with the capital manor of Weaverham. Robert it was who acquired the estate in Allostock, described later as the manor of Lostock or Allostock, and thus became a tenant of the abbey. Three deeds are quoted : one from Richard son of Richard de Lostok, a second from John son of Alan de Lostock granting all his lands in Allostocke, and a third from Adam de Merton granting all his lands in Allostock in exchange for other lands; Margery wife of Robert Grosvenor being named in the last. These three deeds are not dated, but one of them is reported to have been enrolled in 1284. Robert appears in Ormerod^s list as sheriff of Chester, 12-16 ^ See also his list of sheriffs. The official list, recently printed, gives none for Cheshire at so early a date. ^ Excerpta e Rot. Fin. 2 Mr. Helsby finds in a copy of the Cheshire Domesday a grant to him from Richard le Vernun and Mabel his wife, of all their land in Bexton, and dates the deed 1270—4.