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 A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE French wars; was at the sea fight off Sluys in 1340, captain of twenty men- at-arms and twenty archers at the siege of Nantes in 1342, and was at Crecy in 1346. He died in 1347, his will, with codicil directing his burial to be in Swineshead Abbey, was proved at Lincoln, in June, 1347.* By inquest taken at Manchester after his death it was found that he held jointly with Joan his wife, who survived him,' of Henry, earl of Lancaster, by knight's service, the manors of Manchester and Cuerdley by the gift and feoffment of Thomas Grelley, brother of the said Joan, made to the said John la Warr and Joan Grelley and their heirs. Roger la Warr, son of John, son of the said John la Warr, was his heir, then aged eighteen years.' In 1 3 3 1 John la Warr, the son, was paying a rent of j^ioo a year to his father for a lease of the manors of Manchester, Cuerdley, Barton, Heaton Norris, and the chase of Horwich.* Roger la Warr, eldest son and heir of Sir John la Warr (by Margaret, daughter of Robert Holland), who died during his father's lifetime, was knighted in 1360, and summoned to Parliament in 1362 and 1363.° Thomas, fifth Lord la Warr, brother and heir of John, fourth Lord la Warr, was a priest, and rector of Manchester from 1373 to 1426. By his instru- mentality the church of Manchester was made collegiate in 1421. He died unmarried in 1426, when he was succeeded by Reginald West, sixth Lord la Warr, being second but only surviving son and heir of Thomas, Lord West, by Joan, only daughter of Roger, third Lord la Warr, by his second wife, Eleanor Mowbray, the said Joan being sister of the half blood to John la Warr and Thomas la Warr, fourth and fifth lords." He succeeded his elder brother Thomas, Lord West, in the family estates in 141 5, and his maternal uncle in the manors of Manchester, Wickwar, and other entailed estates of the la Warr family in 1426, being summoned to Parliament the year following by writ directed to Reginald la Warr, chivaler, as Lord la Warr.'' The fifth in descent from Reginald, sixth Lord la Warr, was Thomas, second Baron la Warr, who succeeded to his father's peerage in 1575. In 1579 he alienated the lordship of Manchester to John Lacye, citizen and clothworker of London, in consideration of ^(^3,000, subject to the right of redemption, which was not exercised within the stipulated time.* In 1596 Lacye sold the lordship to Nicholas Mosley, esquire, citizen and alderman of London, and to Rowland Mosley, his son and heir apparent, for the sum of ^3,500.' The eleventh in descent from Nicholas Mosley, viz. Sir Oswald Mosley, bart. of RoUeston Hall, co. Stafford, sold the lordship in 1845 f° the mayor and corporation of Manchester for the sum of ;C2oo,ooo.^° 1 Cokayne, Comp. Peerage, iii. 45. * She died in 1353. Inq. p.m. 27 Edw. III. (i) 59. 3 Inq. p.m. 21 Edw. III. pt. i. No. 56. records an imaginary alienation of the manor of Manchester by John la Warr to the abbey of Dore, co. Hereford. Following him, John Harland, in his historical collections relating to Manchester, fell into the same error {Mamecestre, ii. 268—71). The true facts are these : As the result of an inquest ad quod damnum, made in 1327, licence was given to John la Warr to alienate to the abbey of Dore one acre of land in Albrighton, co. Stafford, together with the advowson of the church there. {Abbrev. R. Orig. (Rec. Cora.), ii. 11). The Calendar of Inquests ad quod damnum (Rec. Com.), 20 Edw. II. No. 42, not only recites the locality of the intended alienation to Abbey Dore, but also the usual particulars of estates remaining to John la Warr after making this gift, amongst which was the manor of Manchester, worth ;^200 a year. The anthers referred to, basing their remarks upon the bare details given in the calendar, supposed that the alienation comprised all the places named in the calendar, and thus fell into an error which an examination of the original document would have prevented. ' Cokayne, Comp. Peerage, iii. 46. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. ^ Harland, M<j«^<r«/r^, 523. » Ibid. l" Ibid. 530. 334
 * Campbell, Chart, ii. 20. Dr. Hibbert-Ware, historian of the Foundations in Manchester, erroneously