Top DP397/21/17: a 1655 document
This particular document was written on Saturday 24 March 1654 (1655 in the modern calendar) and on the outside of the folded document, in an early hand but not the same as the document itself, appears 'Chirograph of fine by Rich: Standish Esq: and Eliz: his wife of all his Estates'. It was the judgement in a court case at the March Assizes in Lancaster and contained the following illuminating details, which I transcribed in 1999 as follows (sic apart from numbers not written out in full and the addition of a few commas):
Betweene Edward May and Alexander Standish gent plaintifes and Richard Standish esq and Elizabeth his wife deforciants of the manors of Duxbury, Heapey, Whittle-le-Woods, Heath Charnock and Anglezarke with the apppurtenances and 120 messuages, 4 mills, 120 gardens, 50 orchards, 1000 acres of land, 200 acres of meadow, 400 acres of pasture, 50 acres of woods, 600 acres of moss, 200 acres of marsh, 400 acres of furze and heath . . . Whereupon a covenant . . . between them . . . that is to say that the said Richard and Elizabeth have acknowledged the said manors and tenements . . . to be the right of the said Edward and Alexander. . . six hundred pounds. (L.R.O. DP397/21/17) (The full text follows later.)
Here, it seemed, was the proof in a single document that Myles (via his son Alexander) not only inherited Duxbury Hall by right of descent, but that this was upheld in court (although granted to his son and heir Alexander via a lawyer); and although Richard continued to own it and the dependent lands, he had to pay a hefty 'fine' in compensation. (Six hundred pounds initially seemed paltry in comparison to the actual value, and the full text reveals a strange anomaly. Both will be dealt with later.) In turn this indicated that Myles and Alexander were able to prove their descent to the satisfaction of all, and the only possible descent that would allow a claim on Duxbury Hall was as the last remaining great-grandson of Sir Christopher (this was shown on a family tree in my articles). It was logical that son Alexander should make the claim, as it must have taken some time to collect the papers in New and Old England, and organise a lawyer from the other side of the Atlantic to appear in Lancaster. By this time (early 1655) Myles was already 78 and so would not have expected to live long enough to benefit (he died the following year); his son and heir, however, presumably would (and did – Alexander lived until 1702).