William Radcliffe

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ⁷⁴⁵
William de Radeclive inherited his father's holdings some time before 1190. In addition to the main manor of the family, by this time the Radcliffs had extendted their territorial possession, and attained a position of influence, sufficient enough for William to seek alliance with one of the most powerful barional families of the north. By his marriage to Cecilia de Montbegon, Lady of Kirkland, he further enhanced his status, and achieved prior rank amongst the leading nobles of Lancashire.

William de Radcliff was appointed High Sheriff of Lancashire, an office instituted nearly a century previously, at the separation of secular and spiritual jurisdictions. About this time he commenced the rebuilding of the manor-house. He also built a church to serve the spiritual needs of his manor, and in 1202, he secured from Roger de Middleton an acknowledgement of his right in the advowson of Radeclive Church. His wife, the Lady Cecil, died about the time he finished church, and he found a chantry within the church in her memory.

At the Great Survey made in 1212, Sir William Radcliff was one of the "twelve trusty knights of the shire" appointed to review the manorial values of Lancashire for reassessment. He was found therein to hold, in addition to Radcliffe, twelve oxgangs in Edgeworth and two oxgangs in Little Lever, which presumably, had come to him from his second wife, a lady named Eugenia. She was possibly the daughter of Alexander, son of Uvieth, to whom Albert Grelley the younger, about 1180, granted to oxgangs in Little Lever. She may have been a widow , or a ward of the King, for she is recorded as rendering 40d. to the King from lands in Salford Hundred, which she held in her own right. In the following year Eugenia sued her hudand's son, Adam, for her dower in a third part of Radeclive, Edgeworth and Little Lever, including lands in Entwistle and Quarlton, assessed as one ploughland for the annual service of 10s. The boundaries of these lands were subject to continuous litigation. Jordan de Quickandlow dispossessed Eugenia, and held the estate until 1246, when Eugenia recovered it on Jordan's failure to appear to anser the suit.

William had three sons, Adam, the heir; Geoffry, who married a daughter of Adam de Bury, from whom he had a grant of lands in Bury, as well as a holding in Radliff under the will of his father; and Hugh, the youngest, to whom his father gave the manor of Hartshead. Hugh increased his position by his marriage to Margery, daughter of Richard de Pennington, by whom he had two sons, Richard and William, who shared between them the manors of Hartshead and Pennington.

~The book of the Radclyffes, page 5-7

William married Cecilia de Montbegon Lady of Kirkland, daughter of Adam de Montbegon and Matilda Fitz Swain.