THE POOLE FAMILY OF POOLE HALL

IN WIRRAL.

By Margaret Ellen Poole.

Read 16th March, 1899.

THIS

HIS ancient Cheshire family has perhaps one of the longest records in the county, the living members of it dating their ancestry from the early part of the thirteenth century. Ormerod says that the [mesne] manor of Poole was vested in a family, which assumed the local name before the reign of Henry III, the elder branch of which terminated in three sisters and co-heiresses, Gillian, Basilia, and Alice de Pulle, who quitclaimed to WILLIAM "LE HARE" of Pulle all the lands of [called 4 bovates, in] Pulle, for four marks of silver, by deed enrolled in the Cheshire Domesday, dated [Tuesday, not] Thursday before the feast [of St. Simon and Jude] next after the return of the Earl Randle from Jerusalem (which event took place in 1223) and witnessed by Philip de Orreby, justice of Chester, Warin de Vernon, and William de Venables.

Williamle Hare" de Pulle, above-named, was probably the father of ROBERT DE PULLE, who had issue a son, REGINALD DE PULLE, who married

I Helsby's edition, vol. ii, p. 419; the words within brackets being additions by Mr. Helsby to Dr. Ormerod's original edition of the work.

Matilda, daughter and co-heiress of Geoffrey, hereditary Master Cook of the Abbey of St. Werburgh. The next owner of Poole, JAMES DE PULLE, we learn from an early deed, referring to the highway up to the Dane water at Northwich, was Bailiff of that place. In 21 Edw. I. [1293], he had a grant of the manor of Capenhurst from Hugh de Barnston. In 1292 he and Patrick de Hassel were appointed Collectors of a fifteenth.

More than forty years afterwards their kinsmen. and heirs, ROBERT DE PULLE and Ralph de Hassal, were called upon to account for £118 10s. 1ąd., part of the levy; and it was then explained that James and Patrick had been prevented from completing the collection owing to the war of Madoc ap Llewelyn, and that others had collected and paid the same, by command of the King, in wages to the army guarding the marshes. The expression, "kinsmen and heirs," suggests that Robert de Pulle was not the son, as stated by Ormerod, but the grandson of James de Pulle.

Robert must have been the son of REGINALD DE PULLE, who, in an Inquisition post mortem of 1307, is called son and heir of James de Pulle, and then stated to be aged 26 years. This Inquisition states that James held lands in Nether Pulle of Joan, daughter and heir of Hugh de Tydryngton. Alice, the widow of James de Pulle, appealed against Reginald de Pulle for her dower; seven years later Margaret, widow of John de Arden, appealed against the same Reginald and Alice for her dower.

In 1316, Reginald de Pulle and Joan, his wife, ioined in a fine with Robert de Dutton. Among the recognizances preserved in the Public Record Office, we find that ROBERT DE PULLE joined with Adam (a "son of James de Pulle") and others in a recognizance for £22 to the Abbot of Chester. He is last mentioned in 1350, and his widow, Isabel (born Capenhurst), was living in 1368.

In 1377, protection to his property was given, by the King, to JOHN DE PULLE, on his going abroad on the King's service, in the retinue of Sir Wm. Trussell, March 21st, 1380.

In 1380, after he had been knighted, Sir John de Pulle, knight, went to France in the retinue of Sir Hugh Calveley, who was governor of Calais.

On the 10th October, 1397, Sir John de Pulle, and his brother James, were both granted, by the King, an annuity for life of 100s., both being retained in the royal service for life. Perhaps they had been among the few Cheshire men who, Hume says, alone composed the King's guard on the meeting of Parliament, September, 1397, though the nobles brought numerous retainers.

On the 18th September, 1400, Sir John de Pulle was appointed, by Henry, Prince of Wales, Governor of the castle and town of Carnarvon, during pleasure.

From an Indenture, dated the 23rd May, 1402, it appears that Henry de Percy, knight, surnamed Hotspur, lieutenant and justice of North Wales, engaged John de Pulle and William de Stanley, knights, to serve the said Henry sur la meer' . . "each of the said knights to receive 2 shillings a day, each lance 12 pence, and each archer 6 pence; they were to pay their third of the gains of the "war to the said Henry, and to deliver to him any "person ou chieftayn riall' taken by them."

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On the 25th August, 1402, the same knights were commissioned as conservators and guardians of the hundred, to appoint watches, and make ditches, hedges, and other impediments, on the sea coasts of the county of Flint, against the coming of Owen Glendower, then in the marshes of the county of Chester.

Sir John de Pulle and his brother James were pardoned, on the 23rd November, 1403, for having