Page:VCH Lancaster 1.djvu/442

 A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE and in this county Hoole, in Leyland hundred ; to Roger de Stainsby, Ince Blundell (3 carucates) and half of Barton near Halsall (4 oxgangs) ; to Robert de Molyneux the third part of Thornton near Sefton (i carucate) ; to Elwin, the third part of Thornton (i carucate) ; to William Gernet, the vill ofLydiate (6 oxgangs) ; to Vivian Gernet, in marriage with his daughter Emma, the vills of Windle and Halsall (each i carucate) ; to Gerard de Sankey, the carpenter. Little Sankey (i carucate) ; to Adam the Violer, i carucate, which was probably the vill of Penketh.^ About the year 1 156 he was one of the witnesses to William de Roumare's confirmation charter to Reading Abbey ,^ and probably died soon after. Matthew de Vilers, son and heir of Pain, with his brothers William, Alan, and Thomas, gave to the priory of Thurgarton the church of Warrington, in this county, and the church of Tythby, with the chapel of Crophill, co. Notts., all his land of Lound, with the service of Ralph de Sankey — evidently a native of Warrington parish — and I carucate of land in Crophill.* Matthew does not appear to have long survived his father. Shortly before his death — which probably occurred about the year 11 60 — he took the religious habit in the priory of Thur- garton, and with the consent of his heirs, Robert fitz Helgod and his wife Beatrice, Matthew's daughter, confirmed to the canons of that house in free alms the carucate of land in Crophill which he had assigned to them out of his demesne there.* Beatrice, his daughter and heir, had no issue by Robert fitz Helgod,' who died before 11 59, in or before which year she had married Richard ' Pincerna,' ' generally supposed to have been a younger brother, but more probably a cousin, of Robert, the earl of Chester's butler. The first upon record of this family, to which belonged the heredi- tary office of butler to the earls of Chester, seems to have been Richard the butler, who held in Cheshire, at the date of the Domesday Survey, Pontone, now Poulton by Pulford, and Caluintone (unidentified).'^ He was one of the witnesses to William de Malbanc's grant to St. Werburgh, upon the foundation of that abbey by Earl Hugh of Chester.* Before 1 1 20 he gave to the same abbey the church of St. Olave, in Chester." Robert the butler, living in the time of Stephen and Henry II., was either his son or grandson, probably the latter. Before 1 153 he founded the abbey of Pulton, afterwards removed to Deulacres, to which he gave half the mill of Pulton, his wife Ivetta and son Robert being witnesses.'" He appears to have held Ingleby, CO. Derby, under the earl of Chester, a manor which afterwards descended to his eldest son, Robert ' Pincerna' of Ingleby." Before 1 155 he had a grant from the crown of 10 solidates of rent in Budiford, co. Warwick, which Robert his son still held in 1177.^^ In that year, as Robert the butler, he 1 Tata de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 402 ; Lanes, and Ches. Rec. Soc. xlviii. 6. 2 jrch. Joum. xii. ^ Mm. Angl. vi. 190-2 ; Beamont, Annab ofWarringtm (Chetham Soc), Ixiovi. 18-19. 6 He was perhaps a scion of the house of Helgot, barons of Castle Holgate, co. Salop. See Eyton, Antiq. of Shropshire, iv. 56. ^ The date of Robert fitz Helgod's death and his widow's marriage to Richard Butler is approximately fixed by an entry in the Pipe Roll of 23 Henry II. 1 177, Notts, and Derby, to which reference will he made. 7 Dom. Bk. i. 265. * Mon. Angl. ii. 386. » Ibid. 387. 10 Ibid. V. 628 ; Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. edit. Helsby, ii. 862. 11 Ormerod, Hist, of Ches. ii. 864.-6 ; Beamont, Annals of Warrington, 31. 1' Pipe R. 2 Hen. II. (Rec. Com.), 45 ; ibid. 23 Hen. II. (Pipe R. Soc), 26. Ralph son of Robert Pincerna held 1 o solidates of rent in Budiford in i Ric. I., ibid. (Rec. Com.), I Ric I. 1 1 7 ; and in 3 John, ibid. 3 John, I.
 * Reg. of Thurgarton at Southwell ; Amah of Warrington, 18.