9781150684777 / 1150684771

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII. Genealogical Records. HE deforesting of the King's forests in Lancashire was effected during the reign of Henry VII. (1485-1509). The inhabitants already settled about Tottington, Holcombe, Walmersley-cum-Shuttleworth, and away on the moorlands of Cheesden, Birtle, Ashworth, Knowle, Spotland, Rooley, &c, had free scope to clear the land and cultivate it. The population increased and added to their labours on the farms the spinning and weaving of wool. These additional sources of the means of livelihood were in due time the foundations of considerable wealth to the thrifty, and enabled such of the settlers as were so inclined to acquire positions in the localities which mere husbandry would not have sufficed to secure. From 1332, when the first William Cay or Kay is found recorded in the Subsidy Rolls, as the largest contributor in Bury to the year 1485, about five generations would have passed. The great-great-grandchildren of this William would have settled themselves in the clearings and sheep pastures at Wydale in Elton. Gollinroyde, Shepplebotham, Bose Lone, Cobhouse, Dutch Road, Woodroad, Littlewood, Baldingstone, Sheephey, &c, &c, within the period covered by the reign of Henry VII. Cobhouse--Tophouse, appears to have been one if not the earliest homestead of the Kays, and William Kay of Cobbas, tempo 1500, is the one the author inclined to fix upon, as most probably the ancestor of the particular branches in this genealogical chapter. In 1547, Arthur Kay was found by Inquisition to have done some repairs to his house at Cobbas. This Arthur Kay (1547) may have been the father of Robert Kay of Cobbas, a copy of whose Will dated 1612, the year of his death, was procured by the author. Robert Kay of Cobbas, is taken to have been the son o...