Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
Henry’s parents were married in about 1246 (unless he was the son of an earlier wife of Adam) and he is probably mentioned as the assignee of Adam in 1258 (Lancashire VCH:3: sub Huyton with Roby).
Date of Death: after 1313.
Place of Death: unknown.
Relationships
Father: Adam de Knowsley.
This relationship is given by the Lancashire VCH (4:sub Billinge) and by Farrer’s note on page 171 of FCL pt. 2. The Lancashire VCH (3:sub Huyton with Roby n. 18) notes that “Henry ‘son of Adam de Knowsley’ is one grantor in a deed preserved by Kuerdon: ii, fol. 270, n. 138.
Mother: Godith.
Godith is attested as Adam’s wife.
Spouse: unknown.
Farrer’s note states that Henry is “erroneously stated by one of the Randle Holmes (Harl. MS., 2,042, fol. 273) to have married ‘Mary, daughter and heir to … Billinge.’”
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
William.
Evidence
Farrer summarizes much of the evidence concerning Henry in footnotes in the VCH (4:sub Billinge):
In 1278 William de Billinge complained that Henry de Huyton had destroyed one of his ditches in Billinge; Assize R. 1238, m. 35.
Six or seven years later Adam de Billinge complained that Henry de Huyton and another had disseised him of his free tenement in Billinge; Assize R. 1268, m. 19 d.
In 1290 it was Henry de Huyton who was plaintiff, regarding two-thirds of certain wood and moor, and iron mineral; Assize R. 1288, m. 12, 13. The defendants were Roger de Winstanley and Henry son of Ralph de Billinge; they made an exchange of lands in 1283, to which Hugh son of Ralph de Billinge was one of the witnesses; Cockersand Chart. ii, 659.
Richard de Crookhurst in 1292 complained that Henry de Huyton, Adam de Billinge, and Roger de Winstanley had deprived him of estovers in 100 acres of wood for housebote and haybote—i.e. for burning, fencing, and building—pannage for his pigs, &c. Henry, in reply, said he was chief lord of two-thirds of the vill, and Roger of one-third; as chief lords they had approved from the waste, and the complainant, who was Henry's tenant, had sufficient estovers outside the approvement. He was non-suited; Assize R. 408, m. 12 d. Adam de Billinge's right in the manor is not here defined; it appears that he was the representative, and no doubt descendant, of the Simon of 1212. He should, therefore, have had a moiety of Henry de Huyton's two-thirds, and from another suit of 1292 it appears that he claimed the moiety of 50 acres of moor and wood from Henry de Huyton, here called de Rycroft, and others; ibid. m. 25.
Nine years later the suit, or a similar one, appears in the rolls, Adam claiming the moiety of 60 acres of wood and waste. Henry de Huyton, the principal defendant—the others were William Bird and Alan son of Eva de Billinge—replied that he was lord of the two-thirds of Billinge and Adam of one-third; and they had agreed that the 60 acres should pertain to Henry, and another portion of the waste, called Catshurst, should belong to Adam. The jury found that Catshurst was only 12 acres, and that Henry had approved 40 acres, a share of which should be given to Adam; Assize R. 1321, m. 5 d.
In the following year Adam de Billinge and Henry de Huyton were chief lords, the complainants being William de Huyton and Robert his brother; Assize R. 418, m. 10 d. A possible solution is that Winstanley, having become detached, paid 3s. 6d. rent to the lord of Newton; that the remaining 6s. 6d. was shared between Henry de Huyton and Adam de Billinge in the ratio of two to one, while they divided the land equally.
Robert and William de Huyton were among the defendants in a suit of 1309 affecting the boundaries of Billinge and Winstanley, Henry de Huyton and Adam de Billinge being also joined; Assize R. 423, m. 2.
Four years later Robert de Huyton recovered from Henry de Huyton the manor of Billinge; Assize R. 424, m. 1 d.
References
Final Concords for Lancashire Part 2, 1307-77, ed. William Farrer (Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire: London, 1903).
A History of the County of Lancaster:Volume 3, ed. William Farrer and J. Brownbill (Victoria County Histories, London, 1907).
A History of the County of Lancaster:Volumes 4 and 5, ed. William Farrer and J. Brownbill (Victoria County Histories, London, 1911).