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THIRTY BLOODSTAINED YEARS: 1315--1345

Oldham's Share in the Lancashire Revolts and Assassinations

One of the most valuable contributions made to local history in the last fifty years was the Rev. W. A. Westley's article on the murder of Richard Tetlow of Oldham in 1336 (published first in the Oldham Chronicle and subsequently in the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society).

Richard was the eldest son of Adam de Tetlow, progenitor of the Tetlows of Chamber Hall. On Sunday, May 31, 1336, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Richard was walking with his wife Alice in a "certain lane which goes to the Church of All Saints in Oldum eastwards." Geoffrey, son of William de Chadderton, Lord of the Manor of Chadderton, with eight confederates, was lying in wait for Richard as he passed along the lane leading from Oldham to Chadderton.

Among the eight confederates was Robert de Rossindal, third son of the Lord of Hulme, who owned land in Oldham. Robert, "with a certain bow bent and a certain arrow shot from the same bow," pierced Richard "through the middle of the body" and gave him a mortal wound from which he died almost instantaneously in the arms of his wife Alice.

Immediately the conspirators fled and Alice pursued them with hue and cry from township to township. The nine were summoned to appear at Nottingham. Geoffrey appeared but Robert and the others did not appear and were outlawed.

Mr. Westley alleges no motive for the murder. It is the purpose of this article to suggest that the outrage was not occasioned by a purely private family vendetta, but was one episode in a series of political atrocities which embroiled the county of Lancashire in thirty lawless years of hatred and bloodshed.

Under the year 1315 in the Lancashire Record of Pleas and Depositions it is recorded that Geoffrey Lord of Chadderton appeared against Adam de Oldom on the plea that Adam as a meane tenant should acquit himself of service demanded by Sir Robert de Holland. Here is implied a bitter feud between Oldham and Chadderton which must have lasted from 1315 to 1322 and beyond.

This feud was a repercussion of a violent quarrel between King Edward II and his cousin, the turbulent Thomas Earl of Lancaster. Finding his prospects at Court thwarted by the King's favourites, the ambitious Earl had formed a baronial opposition to the King. His influence was enormously enhanced by his marriage with Alice de Lacy, heiress to the Earldom of Lincoln. By this marriage Thomas acquired sway over a vast body of vassals in Lancashire who were accustomed to rebel against the Crown. Chadderton was one of the estates which thus came under the Earl's dominion.

Even in Lancashire, however, the Earl's authority was not unchallenged. The King had many tenants in the county, and Adam de Oldham, holding his lange in thanage, was one. So it came about that in 1315 Lancashire was standing tensely divided into two hostile camps, and this situation brought Oldham and Chadderton into open conflict.

In 1315 the King's Lancashire partisans, headed by Sir Adam de Banastre and Sir William de Bradshaigh, broke into revolt and so the Earl was confronted by rebellion in his own county. How nearly these events touched the Oldham district cannot be stated with certainty, but at the very outset of the rebellion on November 1, Banastre and his associates displayed the King's banner in Manchester, where the Tetlows and the Traffords had landed interests as well as in Oldham.

In this crisis the Earl found an able auxiliary in Sir Robert de Holland, who suppressed the rebellion, and was rewarded with the gift of several Lancashire manors. Some of these manors, Oldham for example, were not legally in the Earl's gift, and in a few cases the grants were resisted by tenants who had always regarded their estates as fiefs of the King.

Among local landowners who in 1322 were listed as having paid rent to Sir Robert de Holland occur the names of Adam de Tetlow, father of Richard, for land in Burshaw and Crompton, Hugh de Athirton for land in Glothik, and Richard, son of Richard de Oldome, for land in Wyrnith and Oldom. (Lancs. Inquests and Feudal Aids, Record Society, Vol. XLIV).

During the rebellion a party of insurgents while searching for certain Radcliffe brothers had slain Henry de Burg in his Manor House at Bury. The rebel leader, Sir William de Bradshaigh, was accused of having concealed the murderers after the felony was committed. Henry de Bury's wife or paramour was Margery de Radcliffe and thus Bradshaigh incurred the implacable emmity of the powerful Radcliffe family. Largely owing to the hostility of Robert de Holland, Bradshaigh was outlawed until 1322.

In that year the King took alarm at the Lancaster menace and acted with unwonted vigour and promptitude. He raised a powerful army against the Earl, Holland turned traitor, the Earl's army was scattered and he himself was beheaded.

The downfall of the Earl was a disaster for his local adherents. In 1322 Geoffrey de Chadderton, and Henry de Trafford who held land in Chadderton, appear in a list of knights who were distrained to make homage to the King. Two years later the receiver of the forfeited Holland estates rendered account of 2s. 8d. as the issue of two-thirds of a messuage and one ploughland, the land of Roger, son and heir of John de Chadderton, who was a ward.

Shortly afterwards Holland, now bitterly hated by Henry, the Earl's brother, for deserting Earl Thomas in battle, was slain, probably by followers of Earl Henry. Bradshaigh was unjustly suspected of being an accomplice.

In 1333, Sir William Bradshaigh was mysteriously murdered at Newton-in-Makerfield (or some say Winwick). At a Court held at Wigan in 1334, Daru Mabel, widow of Sir William, appeared and charged 45 men with being concerned in the death of her husband, including John Radcliffe, Rector of Bury, six other Radcliffes and Richard and Jordan Tetlow. I suspect that the murder of Richard Tetlow in 1336 was a reprisal for the murder of Sir William Bradshaigh. It is noteworthy, as suggesting a political vendetta, that between thirty and forty persons were cited as being accessories before and after the fact, in the murder of Tetlow. The accomplices included six members of the Trafford family whose names recur in the outrages and killings of these bloodstained years: Thomas de Trafford, Robert de Trafford, Henry son of Henry de Trafford, Richard de Trafford, Nicholas de Trafford and Adam son of John de Trafford.

The identity of these Traffords is established by an agreement of 1325 whereby Sir Henry de Trafford settled his manors of Trafford and Stretford upon his grandson Henry, with remainders to his sons Richard, Robert, Thomas, Nichols, Geoffrey and Henry. In 1338, the township of Clifton was fined 40s. for the goods of Henry de Trafford, "a fugitive from justice."

Even after the abdication and death of Edward II, Lancashire remained in a turmoil under his son Edward III until the outbreak of war with France. A series of disturbances occurred at Liverpool in 1343-5 between the partisans of Edward III and the partisans of Earl Henry. A number of men from the Manchester district were implicated. They entered the town in arms with banners unfurled as in battle, forced their way into the Court where the King's justices were in session, and there a pitched battle raged wherein several men were slain.

Among the fatalities were Adam de Lever, Geoffrey son of Sir Henry de Trafford, Nicholas brother of Henry de Trafford, and Richard, John and Robert sons of Sir John de Trafford. Among those who were subsequently pardoned at the request of Earl Henry occur the following names of men, who in my submission, all belonged to the Oldham district: Geoffrey, son of Roger de Chadderton; Roger, brother of Hugh de Tetlow; Hugh de Tetlow; Robert, son of Jordan de Tetlow.

Thus five Tetlows (Richard, Roger, Hugh, Jordan and Robert, son of Jordan) were invloved in the crimes of 1333, 1336 and 1345. To establish a link between the crimes of 1333 and 1345, and the crime of 1336, it only remains to identify these five Tetlows with the Tetlow family of Oldham. The following references prove beyond doubt that Richard of Oldham has brothers named Roger, Hugh and Jordan, and that Jordan had a son named Robert:

1340 - Hugh, son of Adam de Tetlow, gave lands in Coppedhurst (Copster) and Payrehalghus (Fairhalgh) to his mother Anabil for life with remainder to his brother Roger. (Raines Mss)

1348 - Robert and Thurstan, sons of Jordan de Tetlow, were mentioned in a lawsuit. (De Banco Rolls)

1351 - A tenement in disputed possession is stated to have been the property of Hugh de Tetlow, and on his death to have descended to Joan de Langley as daughter of Jordan, elder brother of Hugh.

1358 - Richard, son of Richard de Tetlow, laid claim to the Tetlow estate in Crompton and Broughton, alleging that Joan, wife of Richard de Langley, was a bastard. It was, however, decided that Joan was the lawful daughter of Jordan de Tetlow and Alice his wife. The mother of Jordan was named Amabil and she survived him. (Assize Rolls.)

Thirty Bloodstained Years: Another Account

I would like to discuss some of the points which Mr. Hartley Bateson made in his interesting and provocative article on the 1335 murder. First of all, however, I feel that I ought perhaps to correct some historical errors in his account before I go on to discuss the conclusions which he draws from this colourful but undisciplined reign.

The murder of Richard de Tetlowe took place on Sunday, May 7, 1335. This is quite clearly given by the Plea Roll, and further evidence lies in the fact that the case first came up in the royal court in February, 1336. It could therefore, not have happened in May of the latter year.

Furthermore, the murderers who met the unfortunate Richard in the "lane going eastward to the church of All Saints of Oldum, in Oldum, and westward to a certain bridge called Anneisbrigge in the same vill," were led not by Geoffrey de Chaderton, but by Geoffrey de Trafford, whose land was in Chorlton, not Chadderton.

Among the band of assassins were two ... men, William, son of William de Oldum, and a certain Gilbert, son of Cicely and William Baggerre of Crompton. They escaped, despite the hue and cry, and in spite of orders to the sheriff, they were not produced in the royal court at the first hearing in February, 1336. As a result of the local machinery of the law was set in motion. Their names were called at successive sessions of the County Court at Lancaster, they failed to appear, and after the fifth time they were outlawed.

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In November, 1336, when the case came up again at Nottingham, all the defendants appeared except Robert, son of Adam de Rossindale, and the sheriff was ordered to bring a jury of Oldham men to York on the Easter following. Meanwhile the dependants were held in the Marshalsea prison. All of them were released on bail in March, 1337.