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Towneley Surname Ancestry Results

Our indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'towneley'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 40 records (displaying 1 to 10): 

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Lancashire and Cheshire tenants, patrons and friends of Whalley abbey (1178-1350)
About to leave for the Holy Land in 1178, John, constable of Chester, founded an abbey at Stanlawe (Stanlow) in Cheshire, endowing it with the townships of Staneye (Stanney) and Aston. Inundated by the sea at Stanlow, the monastery was removed to Whalley in Lancashire in 1294, and this foundation of Cistercians (grey monks) became one of the wealthiest in northern England. It received grants of lands in Ince, Garston, Childewall, Aykebergh, Little Woolton and Warrington in southwest Lancashire; Eccles, Barton, Maunton, Swynton, Pendleton, Worsley, Hulton, Westhalghton, Rumworth, Pendlebury, Cadishead and Denton in the south; Spotland, Chadwick, Castleton, Marland, Todmorden, Rochdale, Whitworth, Heley, Falenge, Chaderton, Wardle, Howarth and Saddleworth in the east; Wytton, Derwent, Plesyngton, Balderston, Salebury, Read, Downham, Clithero, Ribchester, Withnall, Wheelton and Stanworth in Blackburn hundred; and Warton, Carleton, Steyninges, Elswick and Preston in Amounderness hundred; as well as further property in Cheshire, in Chester, Nantwich, Northwich, Aston, Backford, Walton and Wynlaton. A careful copy of all these grants was compiled in the 14th century in what is called the Coucher Book or C(h)artulary of Whalley Abbey. The evidence had been carefully sorted and collated in twenty chapters or titles, each containing a transcript of the grants and evidences relating to a separate parish or township. The people that appear in these deeds are the donors, the witnesses, and occasionally tenants or occupiers of adjoining plots of land. The Coucher Book was edited for the Chetham Society by W. A. Hulton, and published in four volumes, starting in 1847.

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Lancashire and Cheshire tenants, patrons and friends of Whalley abbey
 (1178-1350)
Close Rolls (1447-1454)
The close rolls of the 26th to 32nd years of the reign of king Henry VI record the main artery of government administration in England, the orders sent out day by day to individual officers, especially sheriffs of shires: they are an exceptionally rich source for so early a period. There is also some material relating to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the English possessions in France.

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Close Rolls
 (1447-1454)
Yorkshire Testators and Legatees (1484-1508)
Wills and testaments from the diocese of York (Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Hexhamshire, Lancashire north of the Ribble, and southwest Westmorland) registered at York. Richmond and Southwell archdeaconries had their own lower probate jurisdictions, so the wills registered at York are predominantly from the East and West Ridings and the eastern part of the North Riding of Yorkshire. In theory, wills dealt with real property and testaments with personal property, but the distinction hardly applies in practice: most of these wills are in Latin, but some are in English. Being before the Reformation, they commonly start with benefactions to churches, chantries, chapels, &c., and with provisions for the burning of candles ('lights') and saying of masses. This publication in 1869 by the Surtees Society as Testamenta Eboracensia iv is an edition by James Raine of selected wills from the period. Some additional material is included from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and the York Dean and Chapter archives.

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Yorkshire Testators and Legatees
 (1484-1508)
Lancashire Feet of Fines (1377-1509)
Pedes Finium - law suits, or pretended suits, putting on record the ownership of land in Lancashire. These abstracts were prepared by William Farrer for the Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society and published in 1905, under the title 'Final Concords of the County of Lancaster, from the Original Chirographs, or Feet of Fines, preserved amongst the Palatinate of Lancaster Records in the Public Record Office'. They cover the period from John duke of Lancaster to the end of the reign of king Henry VII. In addition, there are abstracts of fines paid for various Lancashire writs from 1377 to 1509, and a fine of 1195 that had been discovered during the preparation of the volume.

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Lancashire Feet of Fines
 (1377-1509)
Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Priests Secular (1509)
The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i. e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 3 March 1509, by Thomas bishop of Panados (Pavados), suffragan of bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Lichfield cathedral.

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Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Priests Secular
 (1509)
Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Subdeacons Secular (1512)
The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i.e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 6 March 1512, by Thomas bishop of Panados (Pavados) suffragan of bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Lichfield cathedral.

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Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Subdeacons Secular (1512)
Tenants, founders and incumbents of Yorkshire chantries (1546-1548)
Chantries were established to perform services for the souls of their founders and other faithful dead, including annual obits and anniversaries at which alms were usually distributed. The chantries could be at an existing altar in a parish church, a new altar in a side chapel of an existing church, in a new chapel in the churchyard or some miles from an existing church: few were founded before 1300, and most date from 1450 to 1500. Hospitals were places provided by similar foundations to receive the poor and weak; there were also religious guilds, brotherhoods and fraternities, and colleges (like large chantries at which three or more secular priests lived in common). An Act of Parliament of 1545 gave king Henry VIII the power to dissolve such chantries, chapels, &c., the proceeds to be devoted to the expenses of the wars in France and Scotland. Commissioners were appointed 14 February 1546 to survey the chantries and seize their property, and from 1546 to 1548 the commissioners produced these certificates giving brief details of the establishment and nature of each foundation, with an inventory of valuables and rental of lands. The individuals named in the certificates are thus the founder, the present incumbent, and the tenants whose rents provided the chantry's income. All the surviving certificates were edited by William Page for the Surtees Society, and published from 1892.

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Tenants, founders and incumbents of Yorkshire chantries
 (1546-1548)
Tenants, founders and incumbents of Lancashire chantries (1546-1554)
Chantries were established to perform services for the souls of their founders and other faithful dead, including annual obits and anniversaries at which alms were usually distributed. The chantries could be at an existing altar in a parish church, a new altar in a side chapel of an existing church, in a new chapel in the churchyard or some miles from an existing church: few were founded before 1300, and most date from 1450 to 1500. Hospitals were places provided by similar foundations to receive the poor and weak; there were also religious guilds, brotherhoods and fraternities, and colleges (like large chantries at which three or more secular priests lived in common). An Act of Parliament of 1545 gave king Henry VIII the power to dissolve such chantries, chapels, &c., the proceeds to be devoted to the expenses of the wars in France and Scotland. Commissioners were appointed 14 February 1546 to survey the chantries and seize their property, and from 1546 to 1548 the commissioners produced these certificates giving brief details of the establishment and nature of each foundation, with an inventory of valuables and rental of lands. The individuals named in the certificates are thus the founder, the present incumbent, and the tenants whose rents provided the chantry's income. All the surviving certificates for Lancashire were edited by the Reverend F. R. Raines for the Chetham Society, and published from 1862.

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Tenants, founders and incumbents of Lancashire chantries
 (1546-1554)
Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies (1571-1575)
The Privy Council of queen Elizabeth was responsible for internal security in England and Wales, and dealt with all manner of special and urgent matters

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Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies
 (1571-1575)
Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies (1575-1577)
The Privy Council of queen Elizabeth was responsible for internal security in England and Wales, and dealt with all manner of special and urgent matters

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Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies
 (1575-1577)
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