I'm not getting on very quickly with this web site and the Catterall History. So this is a ragbag of bits which might be of interest and encourage others to follow up the history of the Catteralls.
In any one wants to pick up any of these points and investigate further, please do so - and subscribe to the catteralls@catterall.net mailing list, and publish it there for anyone else who is interested. I'll incorporate any new information in this web page with full acknowledgements.
(See the introductory page to this web site to find out about the mailing list.)
The Rev. Thomas Dunham Whitaker was vicar of Whalley church, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He was a prolific writer about local history of the northwest of England (History of Whalley, History of Richmondshire, History of Craven etc.) Probably Whalley is his best known book. I have a copy of the 4th. edition (1876) which had been extended and revised.
A History of Whalley (Full title: An History of the Original Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe) Thomas Dunham Whitaker LL.D., FSA London, George Routledge & Son 1st ed. circa 1820, 4th. edit. expanded and revised by John Gough Nichols and Rev. Ponsonby A Lyons, 1876 Whitaker gives an extended family pedigree and traces the inter-relationships of the Catteralls with the Sherburnes of Stonyhurst (Stonyhurst College, donated by the Sherburnes to the Society of Jesus, is close by and is still a prominent Jesuit establishment), the Townleys and the Shelleys. (If you know any science, One of the Towneleys discovered and published Boyle's law before Boyle did!)
Whitakers 'History of Craven' has something about the Catteralls in upper Ribblesdale in Yorkshire. His 'History of Richmondshire' also contains some relevant information.
Edward Baines "History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster", Fisher & Son, London 1836 discusses the Catteralls, and relies heavily on Whitaker (first edit.) I have a first edition. Baines shows the family crest and arms in a drawing. (Arms: Azure, three mascles or, Crest: a silver cat passant guardant) See the web site.
Charles Hardwick's 'History of Preston' is another useful source.
"Pendle Hill in History and Literature" by James McKay, F.R.H.S., London, Henry Davies & Co., 1888 is a hard book to find, but makes good reading about the area (just don't take his history too seriously.)
"William de Lancaster, the first, gave to Bernard Fitz Ruffi two carucates of land in Holcath and Catteral, which Robert Fitz Swane and Beatrice Fitz Robert, and Michael Athelston held in knight's service." (Baines is a little confused here.)The name Athelston is clearly Saxon in origin. King Athelston, the first to unite the whole of England, Scotland and Wales (for a few years) is recorded to have personally bought the whole of Amounderness from the Danes:
" .. in 930, KIng Athelstan (who had taken the kingdom of Northumbria in 926) purchased Amounderness and governed all the kings that were in the island" - Anglo saxon Chronicle.
"The king [Athelstan] granted to the church of St peter in York the whole of the land called by its inhabitants Amunderness, which he bought with no inconsiderable sum of his own money."
However, I have also found a reference in the 16th. century to a document, "in the Saxon language", in which Athelston gave land in Amounderness to members of his family living in the area:
"It was once told me by Mr Elston, who was uncle to my father, and sonne to Ralph Elston, my great-grandfather, that the said Ralph Elston had a deede, or copy of a deede, in the Saxon tongue, wherin it appears That King Athelstan, lying in campe in this County upon occasion of warres, gave the land of Ethelstan unto one to whom himself was Belsyre" Harl. MSS 2042, ca. 1613.
Presumably not 'the whole' went to St. Peters in York. The town of Elston on the Ribble still exists, directly across the Ribble from yet another Catterall still existing in 1847.
(Amounderness - or Agmunderness - is the old name for that bit of Lancashire between the rivers Ribble and Lune, and west of Craven. In the middle of this area are the towns of Catterall and Goosnargh.)
On receiving the knighthood, the Catteralls moved to Catterall, took the name of Catterall, and built Catterall Hall (see Lee's photo on the web site.). They also gave from this property a chapel of St John the Basptist to the Knights Hospitaller: a deed without date in the reign of King John (1199-1216):
"Robert, Son of Bernard in the reign of King John grants to the Hospital of St. John of Jeruselem the manse of St. John the Baptist super Howarth with the chapel of St. John the Baptist with the demesnes".
The ruins of the chapel are near Pilling.
There is a record of "a bridge over Wyre near St Helen is named in the charter of Robert Fitz Bernard, of Catterall, in the reign of King John (1199-1216)
The Church of St. Helen, Churchtown, Garstang, just across this wooden bridge (still exists but rebuilt) from Catterall Hall has the inscription in the Catterall Pew:
"Bona consuetado excuciat quod mala extruxit. Minuis semper dicit quam facias. Justi per eam - Labora sicut bon miles Christi"
The Catteralls retained land in Goosnargh for some time, in 1256, a Richard de Catterall was seized of Goosnargh, in 1322, Alan de Caterale and Loretta, daughter and heiress of Richard de Pontchardon held in Goosnargh 1 messuage and 8 acres.
Whitaker/Baines got the origins a bit wrong - the family seems to have arisen out of the Athelstan family at Goosnargh, a few miles south of Catterall, and only took the name of Catterall when William de Lancaster I gave land in Catterall and Holcath to Bernard, Lord of Goosnargh, son of Eilsi. Their son Robert married Suani, daughter of (?) Athelstan, also of Goosnargh, and the Knights fee was granted by William of Lancaster jointly to Robert, Suani and Michael Athelstan, brother of Suani. 3 generations later (Robert - Richard, born 1212 = Avota, daughter of Jordan of Mitton - Ralph - Alan = Lora Pontchardon) the family acquired the manor of Little Mitton from the Ponchardons, and Alan took the title Lord of Catterall and Mitton. See below for a bit about Lora.
In vol II of Whitakers History of Whalley, there is a description of the brass:
"Within or adjoining to the North Chapel [ of Whalley Parish Church ] was a brass plate, with the figures of a man (in armour) and woman each kneeling before a desk. Behind the father were nine sons, and behind the mother eleven daughters Beneath was this inscription:-
'Of yr Charyte pray for the Sowllis of Raffe Catterall, Esquier, and Elizabeth hys wyfe, whyche bodies lyeth Before this Pellor, and for all ther Chylder sowlys, whych Raffe descesyd the xxvj day of deceber ye yere of or Lord God Mcccccxv. On whose sowlys Jhu haue mercy amen.'
The plate was in the possession of Robert Sherburne, of Mitton, esq. in 1659, and is now lost."
There is a marginal note in the author's handwriting in Whitaker's own copy of his History of Whalley:-
'Since that time I found it at Catterall Hall, and by favour of Sir John Shelley, Bart. the owner, have replaced it in its original position. TDW'
Whitaker records elsewhere that he was returning from a visit to the Lake District, and stopped at Catterall Hall for tea with Lady Shelley, (who Whitaker said was a direct descendent of the Catteralls of Catterall) who showed him the brass (and presumably persuaded her husband to return it to the church).
"Many years after the 'History of Whalley' was finished, and when the author was engaged on the 'History of Richmondshire,' he chanced to visit Cockersand Abbey, near Lancaster, and in the parlour at Catterall Hall, an old farmhouse near Garstang, belonging to Lady Shelley (the descendant of the Catterall's of Mytton, and formerly Miss Winckley of Wynckley), he discovered a brass plate hung up, which, upon examination, he found to be the identical missing memorial from the chapel in Whalley Church, which had been lost for so many years. He made application to Lady Shelley, to know if she had any objection to its removal to the old situation. She kindly replied 'None in the world;' consequently it was restored. Lady Shelley was a fine specimen of an old lady of the last century; the posessor of ancient estates, highly born, highly educated, adorned by many feminine Christian virtues; she survived her husband many years, and died beloved at the ripe old age of ninety-four years in 1874."
Wynckley is on the banks of the river Hodder at its junction with the Ribble, and just across the river from Little Mitton Hall. There were marriages between the Catteralls and the Winckleys.
There was a general removal of brasses from Parish churches:
"At the dissolution of the monasteries it was not an infrequent thing to find that the brasses were shifted by the friends or descendants of the deceased from the monasteries to the Parish church. There are inscriptions to this effect, cut in brass, to record the removal of tombs from abbeys to churches; but, alas! this was not done here. and Whalley church, though it is the burial place of many a distinguished and gallant family for generations, does not possess (either from the Abbey or in itself) one single memorial of this kind."
Seems very likely that the Catterall brass was originally in the Abbey, and moved to the parish church at the dissolution.
It has been fixed to the eastern respond of circular pillars to the North aisle in the Little Mitton Chancery. It was still there when I last visited (about 1990). I have some photographs (somewhere) of it, and also a brass rubbing. It is about 8 inches high and 24 long.
Robert Nowell Whitaker (another Whitaker) wrote:
"In the church repose the ancient Deans of Whalley, the Delaleghs, the Nowells (Of Read), the Catteralls (of Mitton), the Sherburnes, the Assheton (of Downham), all without a single memorial in chancel or nave. Neither are there any remains of brasses ..."
He seems to have forgotten already about the Catterall brass -
To be fair to Robert Nowell Whitaker, the 'Handbook' was put together from his notes after his death by his daughter Margaret Lucy Whitaker.
Also in Whitaker is a large engraving of the hall (Henry VII) - about 10 x 15 inches. I have a good copy of this. It will go on the web site soon. He also has an engraving of the brass. There is a good description of Mitton Hall in the web site. (It is now a hotel!)
The Catteralls of Little Mitton played a prominent part in Whalley Abbey, and I have found refernce in the last accounts of the Abbey to 'de mensa Ric. Catterall' about 1530 who apparently escaped the fate of the Abbott Paslew following the Pilgimage of Grace protesting the suppression of the Abbeys by Henry VIII. That he appeared in the accounts as a separate 'table' item suggests he held some senior post in the Abbey, not just one of the monks. The only other separate 'table' account is that of the Abbott himself. There is also at about the same time a Fr. Rad. Catterall listed as one of the monks. (Ric. = Richard, Rad.=Radulphus=Ralph) - probably two of the sons off the catterall brass.
In the sale of the sequestered lands of Whalley Abbey by Henry VIII to Richard Assheton and John Braddyl is included 'Catterall wypes".
There is a delightful story of Lora de Catterale who perhaps started the aversion of the Catteralls to the tax man:-
'It appears from a consultation to the official of the Archdeacon of Chester, of which a copy is preserved in Add. MS. 10374, f. 90 b., That Lora de Caterale and her sons Ralph and John drove away the Abbot of Whalley and his servants when they came to collect and carry the "garbas decimales de quodam campo vocato Kirkefurlong," in Little Mitton, and that the said Lora refused to pay the tithes of hay from certain meadows called Kolmes et Oxenlache infra fines et limiteseccliesie de Whalley per non modicum tempus.'
Several writs and a pleading belonging to this case, are also copied into the same MS. ff. 104 b. to 106b. It does not however give the result of the suit, which seems to have been carried on in 1338 and 1339. The pleading is undated.
"Lore que fuit uxor Alani de Katerale" (f. 106 b.)
In another document it is claimed that Lora set the dogs on the taxman.
"A dispute having arisen on account of sittings in this church, Sir John Townley, as the principal man of the parish, was sent for to decide it (it seems there were fights for pews 400 years ago); when, in giving his award, he made use of these remarkable words:
"My man Shuttleworth, of Hacking, made this form, and here will I sit when I come, and my cousin Nowell may make one behind me if he please [he did please!] and my sonne Sherburne shall make one on the other side and Mr Catterall another behind him, and for the residue the use shall be, first come first speed, and that will make the proud wives of Whalley rise betime to come to church."
The pew made by Sir Roger Nowell still exists, inscribed
"Factum est per Rogerum Nowell, Armigerum, Anno Domini, MCCCCCXXXIV"
The pew languished in a barn for 120 years before being placed in the church (more seating problems!). This Roger Nowell was brother of the Dean of St, Paul's, London - Alexander Nowell.
These 4 families were very closely related:
John Townely's wife was Anne Catterall (one of the daughters of Ralph and Elizabeth on the Catterall brass)
John Towneley's daughter, Johanna, married first Thomas Sherburne and second Ralph Shuttleworth of Hacking.
Ralph Shuttleworth's father, Henry married Katherine Catterall.
Roger Nowell of Read married first Grace Towneley, second Grace Catterall.
Dorothy Catterall later married Richard Sherburne - and passed the manor of Mitton to the Sherburne family.
There is a record of a stained glass window in Whalley church in 1569: "In a window of the same church: Orate pro animabus Radulphe Caterall armigeri et Elizabeth uxoris sue, ac Johannis Cateral et Catherine uxoris sue."
Alan, son of Alan and Lora married Isabella, daughter and heiress of Nigel de Halton who
" ... quit-claimed to Alan de Catterall and Isabella his wife all right in the Manor of Halton."
This is West Halton on the River Ribble a few miles south of Settle. Their daughetr, also Isabella, married Thomas Talbot, and the manor of Halton passed to the Talbots of Bashall (2 miles north of Mitton.) This branch of the Catteralls moved north a few miles up the Ribble to acquire the Manor of Rathmell, with two Halls, New Hall and Hollin Hall, and then to Giggleswick, where Catteral Hall still exists. There are 3 testamentary burials of Catteralls in Giggleswick church, John, d. 1539 (of Giggleswick), William, d. 1591 (of New Hall), and John, d. 1623 (also of New Hall). A John Catterall appears in a record " ... held 1 tenement in Burnley Wood or Habergham Eaves of the tenure of copyhold late in the tenure of John Catterall." This is land in Burnley, Lancashire.
"Nowell, probably of the family of Capelside (???), was chaplain to Edward VI and procured the endowment of a grammar school at Giggleswick, founded in the seventh year of the Prince's reign"
Giggleswick Grammar School still exists, and is one the prominent Public (i.e.private) Schools of the North of England. the School eventually acquired Catteral Hall in the mid nineteenth century for use as their Junior School. It still has the name Catteral Hall and is used for this purpose today.
"Thomas Talbot, ordained "et mon lieu mys mon tres chere Pierre Aleyn de Catterall, mon Generall Attorney ...." 1378
Stephen Hamerton of Hellifield Peel appointed John Catterall his executor in 1630. This canot be either of the 2 testamentary burials of John Catteralls (died 1539 and 1623) in Giggleswick church. It could be the John who held land in Burnley.
It is possible that the Yorkshire branch of the Catteralls pre-dated the acquirement of Halton. There are some rather confused references:
"township of Catterall upon Keldit which were Alan Fitz Ralph's [i.e. Alan's father] and my mill of Catterall and 1 bovate of land in Hoton upon Ribel"
The mill at Catterall is probably the one on the Wyre near the first Catterall Hall, but could conceivably be a reference to Giggleswick.
Keldit I cannot identify.
Hoton upon Ribel is clearly Horton in Ribbelsdale, 4 miles north of Giggleswick.
Whitaker's History of Craven: Pedigree of the Banks of Bank Newton (7-8 miles south east of Halton-Rathmell-Giggleswick area) starts in 1260: William de Katherton - Allan de Catherton - Robert de Catherton, daughter married Simon Banks of Bank Newton --- John Bank=Elizabeth Clapham - Thomas bank='a daughter of Catherall - son, John born 1587.
In 1315, Alano de Cathurton and Jo de Quallay (Catterall and Whalley) appear as witnesses to a deed.Date matches Alan de Catterall and Little Mitton. The Allan de Cathurtons match up, tha association with Whalley suggests that this is an earlier branch of the Catteralls of Mitton established in Yorkshire. The marriage to 'a daughter of Catherall' in 1587 is too late for the Mitton Catteralls - presumably she was of the Yorkshire branch. A grand(?) child of hers sold the estate to the Towneleys of Royle in 1612.
Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Catterall of Catterall and Little Mitton married first William tempest of Broughton (2 miles from Bank Newton) he was living in 1490. Later she re-married to Nicholas Towneley of Royle (the start of the Towneleys of Royle line). It was their son Nicholas who, as chaplain to henry VIII, built Christ Church College, Oxford.
Alice, daughter of Catterall of Mitton, was the second wife of John Malham of Elslack (1 mile from Broughton)
What a tangled web, but clearly the Catteralls of Mitton and of Yorkshire were continually and closely related.
I have found another Catterall Hall on the south bank of the Ribble, in the manor of Osbaldeston, held by Roger de Ethelstone and Amabilla his wife in 1336, across from Goosnargh in the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map of 1847. Between this Catterall and Goosnargh, on the north bank of the Ribble is the hamlet of Elston - the name derived from Athelstan, via Ethelstone. I have no knowledge of how this relates, but it again ties the Catteralls and the Athelstan/Ethelstone/Elstons together. [Amabilla tried to wriggle out of a court case by claiming that she was Mabella, not Amabilla.]
Two Catteralls are recorded at Cambridge University in the 1600s:
Thomas Catterall entered Christ's College in 1664
Peter Catterall entered Jesus College in 1679
Robert Morley, who also held the manor of Wennington, gave Dinckley in trust to Ric. Sherburne and Rad. Caterall, 3 Aug 1480. Dinckley Hallis about 3 miles south of Mitton on the banks of the Ribble. Wennigton is a few miles north of Giggleswick, and the Morley family succeeded to the Catterall properties in Rathmell and Giggleswick. Morleys also passed Dinckley to the Catteralls (1481)
are recorded at:
Wrightington (near Chorley & Charnock Richard on the M6) - Crooke in Shevington
See the
Catterall page from Durban, South Africa
for more on this.
Threlfall - not identified yet
Bulsnape-in-Goosnargh (there is a Kidsnape east of Goosnargh)
Evesgreen-in-Goosnargh (there is a Dawes Green south of Goosnargh)
Dilworth - on the north slope of Longridge Fell (Dilworth Brow on Hennett's map of Lancashire, see web site.)
Edmund Spenser (Elizabethan author of 'The Fairie Queen' was of a family from the Burnley area (Worsthorne) and wrote much in that place. His schooling was funded by one of the Nowells of Read. Dean Nowell (of St. Pauls, London), left money to Edmund Spenser, 'a poor scholar at Merchant Taylor's school' Edmund Spenser occurs in the account book of Robert Nowell in 1568-9 - receiving money at Merchant Taylors and at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. Lettuce Nowell married Laurence Spenser. Catteralls intermarried with the Nowells several times. Cardinal Wolsey himself signed a dispensation for the marriage of Charles Towneley and Elizabeth Nowell, Dec 20, 1525. My maternal grandmother was a Spenser from this line.
One of a group of four Cistercian abbeys in the north of England - Fountains, Kirkstall, Furness and Whalley.
Originally located at Stanlaw on the banks of the Mersey. Following a gift from Earl Henry de Lacy the site was moved to Whalley, and was endowed with grants of Manors in Rochdale, Blackburn and Whalley. In 1294, the monks moved to Whalley, and on 4 April 1296, Gregory de Northbury formally took possesion ofit (the site). In 1306 many of the new buildings (but not the church) were consecrated. The foundations of the Conventual church were started in 1330, and for the Abbott's house and private chapel a little further up river in 1360. Stone masons were brought from France, wood-carvers from Italy, and stained glass workers from the continent. Some of the stained glass was removed at the dissolution to The Holme, a large house a few miles away in Cliveger Gorge south of Burnley - a house later owned by T D Whitaker's grandson. There is no existing drawing of the Abbey at it's height before the dissolution. An old oak staircase from the Abbey was moved to a nearby cottage, and I believe still exists. The bells were removed and re-located (3 at Downham ( they had been donated by the Asshetons), 1 at Church Kirk which was later returned to Whalley church.) The Abbey records (the 'Coucher Book') still exist and would be worthy of study, but they are primarily concerned with the administration of the property owned by the Abbey.
The Catteralls and the religious house came to Whalley about the same time.
The Dissolution, Whalley Abbey, Abbot John Paslew and the Pilgrimage of Grace
Henry VIII was short of money, and the church was rich. In 1535 an Act was passed suppressing 380 religious houses, by which a revenue of
Paslew returned to Whalley and apparently attempted to bribe Cromwell by passing some revenues from the Abbey to him - unsuccessful. See McKay's "Pendle Hill in History and Literature ".
In 1538, an Act was passed requiring the keeping of parish registers, and those of Whalley are still existent and complete (except for a short break during the great rebellion (really Cromwell this time!). Unfortunately the start of these registers coincides very closely with the sale of Little Mitton hall, and they do not cover the 'great' period of the Catteralls in Whalley. The registers would probably be worth study for subsequent Catterall history, but I haven't attempted this.
Robert Neil from Colne. You can get a lot of background to the area from his novels "Mist over Pendle" and "Song of Sunrise" - historical novels about the area: the Lancahire witches and the early industrial revolution respectively.
We disagree on the roles of the Protestant Roger Nowell and Alice Nutter. The historical problem is 'how did Alice Nutter, a wealthy and Catholic land-owner get included in the the group of Lancashire witches, and shared their fate in the execution at Lancaster Castle. It is unlikely that Alice Nutters servants would associate with the group of so-called witches - the social gap was too great. Mist over Pendle explains this by making her a real-life murderer, but the only way to get her punished is to frame her as the leader of the witches coven (The Lancashite witches, Demdike etc.) The prime evidence against the witches at the (real-life) trial was the be-witching to death of one John Law, a pedlar (clearly a stroke victim) by Alizon Device. I found a record that John Law had a few years earlier been arraigned on a charge of being an (illegal) itinerant Catholic priest traveling around the area administering the sacrament to the families which adhered to the old religion (which was very much against the law). Since Alice Nutter was a Catholic, and her land went to the Nowells of Read after her execution at Lancaster Castle, it's not too hard to make up a case against Roger Nowell - and the Catteralls! - remember Anne Catterall married Nowell of Read!
Neil works up the situation of the itinerant Catholic priest and land ownership issues his next novel "Moon in Scorpio" - co-incidentally located near Wrightington and Crooke, another Catterall stronghold.
Harrison Ainsworth also wrote a novel about the "The Lancashire Witches" in the mid nineteenth century (but still in print). This is a much more melodramatic account, in which Alice Nutter really is a witch (but one who repents at the end and beats the Devil!) who can fly on her broomstick. The character of Nicholas Assheton of Downham however is close to the character revealed by his diaries (Chetham Society). Ainsworth lays the blame for the withchery at on Henry VIII and the dissolution of the Abbeys. (Jacqui didn't make it to the end of this book!)