Saturday 21 July 2012

Thurstan Tyldesley MP 1554

The Parliamentary Representation of Lancashire (County and Borough) 1258-1885 published in 1889  [FN1] gives a short biography of Thurstan Tyldesley:
Edward VI.
1547. Nov. 8. THURSTAN TYLDESLEY
Thurstan Tyldesley, of Tyldesley, in the Parish of Leigh, and of Wardley, in Eccles. The Tyldesleys were identified with the manor of that name at a very early date, their first recorded ancestor, Henry de Tyldesley, holding the tenth part of a Knight's fee, apparently of the Botelers Lords of Warrington, in the reign of Henry III. Wardley was acquired three generations later by the marriage of Thurstan de Tyldesley with the daughter and co-heiress of Jordan de Workesley, of Wardley.
Fifth in descent from the last-named Thurstan was Thomas de Tyldesley, Receiver-General of the Isle-of-Man under the first Earl of Derby. He was the father of the member for the County who likewise held the office of Receiver-General in 1532 and died in 1553. Of his two sons the elder, Thomas, continued the family at Wardley Hall, while Edward, the younger, acquiring the estate of Morley's Hall, in Astley, by marriage with the daughter and heiress of Thomas Leyland, Esq., founded the branch of Tyldesley of Morleys and Myerscough. Sir Thomas Tyldesley, Attorney-General for the County, and one of the Council of the North temp., James I, was of the elder branch, being grandson of the last-named Thomas. He died in 1635, leaving an only son, Richard Tyldesley, of Tyldesley and Wardley, at whose death, s. p., in 1632, the Wardley Hall line failed. His sisters and co-heiresses were Elizabeth, wife of Edmund Breres, of Brockhall, and Anne, married to Thomas Southworth, of Samlesbury. At the extinction of the senior line the Manor of Tyldesley passed to the younger branch then represented by the grandson of the before-named Edward, the celebrated Sir Thomas Tyldesley, of Morleys and Myerscough, Major-General in the Royal Army during the Civil War and Governer of Lichfield, who lost his life in the conflict at Wigan Lane in 1651. Descendants of this well-known cavalier officer were living at the close of the last century, though without estate, and it is not unlikely that representatives of this ancient Lancashire family still exist in comparative poverty and obscurity.

Arms of Tyldesley of Tyldesley : Argent, three mole-hills vert.
Thurstan Tyldesley was married twice and the two sons mentioned, Thomas and Edward, were half-brothers.. Thurstan's first wife was Parnell Shakerley and his second wife was Jane Langton, daughter of Ralph Langton, Baron of Newton.


A further biographical note—though with fewer family details—was published by the Chetham Society in 1935. There is also a more detailed sketch on the History of Parliament website

1. The Parliamentary Representation of Lancashire (County and Borough) 1258-1885, W Duncombe Pink and the Reverend Alfred B Beavan, 1889