Page:VCH Lancaster 1.djvu/452

 A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE of the half blood, son of John Butler and Margaret Stanley, was his next heir, then aged lo years.^ Thomas Butler had livery of his inheritance upon attaining his majority on 4 July, 1482.' He married Margaret, daughter of John Delves of Doddington, kt.' At the intended coronation of Edward V. in 1483 he was summoned to receive the order of knighthood,* but did not receive it until the coronation of Elizabeth, queen to king Henry VII. on 25 November, 1485/ In i486 he was placed on the commission of the peace for the county.' In 1498 he was summoned to show his title to markets and fairs at Laton and Warrington, free w^arren in his demesne lands, w^reck of the sea and gallows in Warrington and Laton, a court with view of frankpledge in his manor of Bewsey, waif and stray, and amends of the assize of bread and ale broken, a free fishery in Warrington and Laton, and a ferry over Mersey.^ In reply he cited the charters shown by his ancestor William the butler to the justices at Lancaster in 1292, and declared his descent as kinsman and heir of the said William, namely as son of John, son of John, son of William, son of John, son of William [son of William, son of Henry], son of the said William, lord of Warrington.* In 1505 the king appointed him master forester of the forests and chases of Toxteth, Croxteth, and Simons- wood, and seneschal of Liverpool.' In 1 5 1 3 he was present at the battle of Flodden Field, when several of his free tenants and retainers were slain.^" By his will dated in 1520 he founded a grammar school at Warrington, which he endowed with lands purchased at Chaddock, in Tydesley." He died on 27 April, 1522, and was buried in Warrington Church, where Dodsworth saw his marble epitaph in 1625, and his arms impaling Delves in the east window." His only son and heir, Thomas Butler, was aged 28 at his father's death.'* He was knighted at Greenwich before the coronation of Queen Anne BuUen, on Sunday before Whitsunday, 1533." Soon after coming into possession of his inheritance he incurred great debts, probably by gaming and cock-fighting," to meet which he alienated the manor of Cropwell- Butler, CO. Notts.'* In 1534 he served the office of sheriff of the county," and the same year alienated his manor of Exhall, co. Warwick, to Julius Nethermill, alderman of Coventry." In 1508 he was married to Cecily, daughter of Piers Legh, of Lyme, kt., but this union was dissolved before 1542," in or before which year he had married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Sutton, kt., and relict of John Huddleston of Sawston, co. Cam- 1 Metcalfe, Bi. of Kts. 81-3 ; Inq. p. ni. exemplified 17 May, 1482. Duchy of Lane. Enrollments in Chanc.; Add. MSS. No. 32,108, f. 239. It was during the minority of William Butler that the Legh rental of 1465 was compiled. Cketham Soc. (Old Ser.), xvii. « Add. MSS. No. 32,108, 240. 3 Beamont, Jnnab of Warrington, 337. 7 Palat. of Lane Writs, Lent, 1 3 Hen. VII. ' Dodsworth MSS. cxlix. no. « Dep. Keeper's 40M Rep. App. iv. 544. 1" Beamont, Jnnals of Warrington, 384-6. 11 Ibid. 408, 41 1. 13 Ibid. 414. The epitaph is now in the Warrington Museum. 15 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vol. v, No. 13. The record conuins a list of the free tenants of the barony of Warrington circa 1 326. 1* Metcalfe, Book of Kts. 62. 16 Beamont, Annals of Warrington, 424-5. 1' Thoroton, Hist, of Notts, edit. Throsby, i. 193. 17 P.R.O. Lists and Indexes, vol. ix. 18 Dugdale, Hist, of Warwick, 1 14, 796. 1' Annals of Warrington, 422, 452. 348
 * Ibid. 339-40- ' Metcalfe, Book of Kts. 19.
 * Dtp. Keeper's ^oth Rep. App. iv. 540.