Top Myles’s large inheritance based on Duxbury Hall
Myles claimed two inheritances. The large inheritance was the estate of 2850 acres based on Duxbury Hall, with details listed above in the 1655 court case. This was very similar to the list in Alexander Standish's inquisition post mortem in 1623 (given in his biography). The numbers of acres might have been approximate and rounded up or down, but in any case this constituted a rather large estate at the time, and would indeed still be considered so today. It was, however, different in many places from the estates owned by Sir Christopher (in his inquisition post mortem in 1496), from whom Myles's claim ultimately derived, as some lands had been awarded to younger sons and others had come into and left the family through marriage in the meantime. Some, such as the manor of Anglezarke, had been bought (by Alexander Standish of Duxbury, Esquire, in c. 1600 from the 6th Earl of Derby); others had been bequeathed to sons-in-law (the estates around Lancaster going to sons-in-law Banastre and Clayton in Alexander's will of 1622).
It would require an expert in early modern law to discuss whether Myles's son Alexander was entitled to the estates listed in March 1655 at the Assizes in Lancaster or those listed in Sir Christopher's inquistion post mortem in 1496, or those listed in other wills at any time in between. It was discussed above why the judges might have decided on rather a low sum for compensation for the size of the estates mentioned.
The relevant facts remain that “Alexander gent” was awarded (or had to pay?) £600 in March 1655, and almost exactly a year later his father Myles wrote his will, which makes it very clear that the money had not arrived in Massachusetts via Edward May. At the same time Myles made no mention of any expectation of this, nor did he make any mention of Duxbury Hall. He just happened to have named his new settlement Duxbury in c. 1630. All one can conclude from this is that either the news of the “fine” had not yet reached them, or had reached them, followed shortly afterwards by the news that complications had arisen because of the new claim by Gilbert. The latter seems more likely, as Edward May would surely have written immediately after the Assize case, and there must have been enough ships crossing the Atlantic for any letters to arrive in less than a year. With the appearance of someone with a far more recent and legitimate claim, however, Myles and Alexander’s hopes might have been dashed.
Some confirmation that they never received any compensation comes from the extremely modest cottage built by Alexander in Duxbury Massachusetts during the following decades (still there today as the Standish house), which certainly gives no impression of newly acquired wealth. Further confirmation comes from Nathaniel Morton’s summary in 1669 of the “surreptitious” detention of “large estates” at a time when son Alexander was still trying to claim the small inheritance based on Ormskirk. Morton must have heard the whole story blow by blow, but when writing the story later, and from his point of view, the case about the “large estates” seemed to be over.
On the other hand, we are faced with the fact that Gilbert’s claim was puny compared to the award to Alexander, and Colonel Richard’s will makes it very clear that he had large expenses in 1657. How can we explain this? Are we missing documents about yet another case, in which Gilbert followed up his first success by claiming all the estates? Probably not in an Assize case, or Farrer would have reported on this. One possibility is that Richard, having conceded Gilbert’s rights to Heath Charnock, Knowley and Chorley, would have been obliged to concede his rights to all the rest and reached a private settlement, in which £600 or another sum was awarded to Gilbert. Pure speculation, but something like this must have happened recently for Richard to plead poverty in his will.
Meanwhile, the very fact that the Duxbury estates were not named in Myles's or son Alexander’s wills is probably proof enough that they had both given up hope of any success here, as opposed to their descendants still believing in their claim until the 19th century and Alexander’s obvious continuing grievance until 1702 about the smaller estate based on Ormskirk.