Habergham Hall and the Lady’s Lament

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  1. Ian Topham says:

    Re: Habergham Hall and the Lady’s Lament
    A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6 (1911)

    HABERGHAM, which gave a surname to the owners. Roger de Lacy, who died in 1211, gave an oxgang of land in Habergham to Matthew de Habergham and his heirs for their homage, a rent of 3s. to be given yearly at St. Giles’s Day. Matthew de Habergham, with the assent of Peter his eldest son, somewhat later gave a moiety of the land he held of John (de Lacy), the constable of Chester, to another son Henry, at a rent of 6d. The tenement thus appears to have been divided into two parts and the descent is not altogether clear. Peter and Henry had sons, and various alienations were made, though Peter de Habergham was recorded as holding the oxgang of land by the old rent of 3s. in 1258. Geoffrey son of Peter de Habergham gave to Adam son of Robert de Holden all the land which he had from Adam son of Matthew through default of homage till the heir should come of age and satisfy Adam. Geoffrey made other grants to Adam his son, Adam de Holden and John de Birtwisle. In 1311 the free tenants were Adam de Holden and Henry de Birtwisle, who held 2 oxgangs of land by rendering 6s. yearly; this is twice the amount granted by the extant charter.

    It is probable that Adam the son of Geoffrey was father of the John de Habergham to whom in 1335 Mabel daughter of William son of Matthew de Habergham surrendered all her lands in the hamlet of Habergham in the vill of Burnley, together with the reversion of her mother Ellen’s dower. There is again a defect in the evidence. Ellis de Habergham, chaplain, who was a son of John, and acting as trustee, in 1363 granted to feoffees various lands in Habergham, with the reversion of the dower of Margaret widow of John de Habergham. Richard de Habergham, whose parentage is not recorded, received possession about 1366. The estate or manor descended to Lawrence Habergham, who died in 1615 holding the ‘Hall of Habergham,’ with lands and coal mine there, part of the adjacent Bradley in Hapton and land in Foulridge; his heir was his son John, aged sixteen. John Habergham in 1631 paid £10 as composition for declining knighthood, and in 1638 gave lands to feoffees on marrying Anne daughter of George Pollard of Mill Hill in Hapton; but though he lived through the Civil War nothing is recorded of him, and his descendants sold the estate piecemeal, George Halsted becoming the owner of the hall in 1689 on the foreclosure of a mortgage. After a time the hall, which was rebuilt in 1754, came by bequest into the possession of the Halsteads or Halsteds of Rowley in Worsthorne. It was sold in the middle of last century to Mr. Holt of Goodshaw Fold, who left it to William Preston of Mearley. He took the name of Holt, and was succeeded by his son Mr. Thomas Preston Holt.