Top The crucial difference in the two cases
The crucial difference in the two cases is that Gilbert was claiming so relatively little, just Heath Charnock, Knowley and Chorley, all of which had come to the family rather recently. These, therefore, could in no way have been included in “Alexander gent’s” claim deriving from Sir Christopher, and indeed were not included.
The only lands in common in both cases were some in the Standish moiety of Heath Charnock. Edward May must have found himself in a peculiar position, claiming lands for one client that had already been conceded two years earlier as the right of “Alexander gent”. One explanation might lie in the confusing fact that the Standishes had owned lands in Heath Charnock prior to 1577, but not the manor itself, and at that point only did they become demesne lords of their own lands. Another confusing fact is that Colonel Richard’s family owned lands in many of the same places as the family at Duxbury Hall. It must have been rather difficult to disentangle all these and establish which were Richard’s in his own right, which acquired during the take-over in 1647, and which anyone had owned before Thomas bought half of the manor of Heath Charnock in 1577. No wonder it took until 1655 to prepare the first case and another two years for the second! As no wills from Colonel Richard’s family have survived before his own, it is impossible now to check and compare the estates of Families A and B, but it can only be presumed that Edward May performed this task and discovered some anomalies, which may or may not have been sorted out in 1657.
One fact is that the manor of Heath Charnock entered the family long after the death of Sir Christopher in 1495, from whom Myles and Alexander’s claim ultimately derived, but it had belonged since 1577 to Gilbert’s ancestors. Perhaps it was the realisation of this that led to the second case? Perhaps this was already realised soon after the first case, which would presumably have led to a postponement of the payment of the first fine until the second case had been judged? All is speculation, but if the above were to be something like the true story, it would certainly explain a few anomalies from Myles’s end.
Meanwhile it seems that the final story of Myles's inheritance of Duxbury Hall and confirmation of his descendants' family traditions has now emerged. In brief, when he departed on the Mayflower in 1620 he had no expectation of inheriting any substantial estates and it was not until the death of every male in his own family back in Lancashire and all his close kinsmen at Duxbury Hall (apart from the mysterious Gilbert, we now know) that he suddenly became the heir to two completely separate inheritances, by virtue of being the only one left with a legitimate claim (or so he thought). Circumstances dictated that he did not inherit either.