Pilkington of Lancashire

The Pilkington family has its origins in the ancient township of Pilkington in the historic county of Lancashire, England. After about 1405 the family seat was Stand Old Hall which was built to replace Old Hall in Pilkington. The new hall was built on high land overlooking Pilkington's medieval deer park. Stand Old Hall was replaced by Stand Hall to the south in 1515 after the Pilkingtons were dispossessed. Stand Old Hall became a barn. It is possible that Sir Thomas Pilkington had permission to “embattle” his manor house in 1470 building a stone tower. It was a ruin by the 1950s and demolished in the early 1960s.

The Pilkington name is taken from the manor of Pilkington in Prestwich, Lancashire. The Pilkington arms consist of an argent cross patonce voided gules. The Pilkington crest has a mower with his scythe and has a legend that an ancestor of the family, being sought at the time of the Norman Conquest, disguised himself as a mower and escaped. Ye Olde Man & Scythe Inn in Bolton derives its name from the reaper, its sign depicts a man using a scythe. The Horwich Town crest incorporates the arms of the family within its design. The crest was first recorded on a seal from 1424.

Throughout the county there were a number of branches of the family, including those from Rivington Hall, Rivington near Chorley and from Windle Hall near St Helens, founders of the Pilkington glass manufacturers.

The first known is Alexander de Pilkington (born c. 1110 - died 1180), his sons were Alexander de Pilkington (born 1185 - died 1231) and William de Pilkington and daughter Alice who were party to a Final Concord in 1202 regarding land in Rivington, where Alexander had inherited six Oxgang of land on which he paid Tallage, in the same year Alexander, William and Alice recovered from Thomas de Rawinton release of two and half Oxgangs with appurtenances in Rivington and Worsthorne, Alexander retained one and a half Oxgangs in Rivington and granted Thomas de Rawinton one Oxgang in Worsthrone and through legal action known as Assize of mort d'ancestor Henry de Pulkinton released his rights to Alexander of three Oxgangs in Rivington and Worsthorne. At the Great Inquest of 1212, being one of seventeen Knights he held land under Robert de Gresle 5th Baron of Manchester and held his land at Rivington in Thanage of the King. Alexander died between 1231 and 1242.

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