The Butlers of Rawcliffe

One of the more prominent families of our area in times past was that of the Butlers of Rawcliffe, that is, Out Rawcliffe (which was have been Middle Rawcliffe Hall in fact. By the middle of the home of the family was what we today call Rawcliffe Hall but would seventeenth century the family had six households within the township including the Hall. Of these we know that Liscoe was one and Quaker's Farm (probably Lower Rawcliffe Hall) was another, but it is within the realms of possibility that there was a subdivision of the accommodation afforded by the larger premises particularly the main Hall. It was a common feature of many of the great houses of North West England and Wales to be a series of separate units without internal communication, but in family occupation in a mixture of generations.

The 1664 Hearth Tax returns do not specify this but some time previously when Henry Butler died at Middle Rawcliffe in 1619 he had recently created a trust which designated what portion of the house and ancillary farm buildings he would occupy for life. The proposed inheritance of all this makes it clear that the family was in occupation of parts already. It was mainly the occupants of 'great houses' during the last century and just before, who linked all the accommodation together. The manors of Middle and Old (Lower) Rawcliffe were held in fee for military service from the Earls of Derby, plus an annual rent of 6s 8d. (34p).

One of the family at the Hall, Henry Butler, who died in 1667 left a will and an interesting inventory of his goods and chattels. He was thrice married and according to his recorded pedigree left thirteen surviving children. His will is also indicative of a social difference with the families of comparable status in the midland and south eastern counties of England, that is, despite their social standing, sons of the household had to be bound in an apprenticeship and serve their time, whether they were in line to inherit the manors or not. Going into trade was not a dirty word.

One of his sons, Christopher, was left £20. as his child's portion, some of which he had already had in binding him apprentice. Christopher must have been a problem child because in the above sum was included what it had cost to maintain him in prison and bail him out!

If, at Henry Butler's death, his son James had not been bound apprentice, then the executors must proceed with it. Son Henry, the eldest living, was given 20s (£1) and son Edward 5s. (25p). To daughter Margaret Jackson 10s (50p) and her sister Dorothy 20s (E1), because the four of them "having previous had their competent maintenance and child portions..."

The residue of his personal goods, his widow having had her third, was to be divided amongst Thwaytes, Marmaduke, Henry, Alexander, James and Anne, with the said Henry first accounting for the £50 each in compensation (which only accounts for eleven siblings).

It is very probable that the floor area of the present Rawcliffe Hall covers much the same ground as it did in 1667 when Henry Butler died at the age of 86 years. It most certainly had more than six rooms on each of its two floors, and those are the total number of apartments appraised in the probate inventory attached to Henry's will. The earliest visible evidence of the Hall indicates a proposed date for the house in the early part of the sixteenth century, purely on stylistic grounds. In 1667 the ground floor rooms that Henry and his wife occupied were the Hall, the parlour (still at this period a principal if not the most important bedroom as well as a sitting room), the kitchen, the buttery, the old milk-house and the storehouse. The hall, the pivot of the medieval household had become surplus to social requirements and even a manorial function, in it are itemised four knops (brewing ancillary vessel). There were more barrels and knops and assorted wooden utensils and barrels kept presumably in the storehouse. Brewing was a most important function in our ancestors' homes, even comparatively poor households usually had some provision for it.

The first floor rooms were known as the green chamber, storehouse chamber, servants' chamber, children's chamber, the Lord's chamber and the maiden's chamber; the latter being serving wenches and in 1610 there had been five living-in women. All these rooms contained beds and bedding to various values with the exception of the Lord's chamber which had the appearance of a lumber room with oddments and loose wood; it could well be that this upper room was what is often referred to as the great-chamber, the room over the hall created in the upper portion of a medieval "open to the roof" hall. It was the precursor of the first floor withdrawing-room, but here at Rawcliffe seems to have lost its function as had the hall.

Henry had farmed on a vast scale compared with most people of the area, and must have had a large acreage in hand. It must be borne in mind that most of the ground in the two manors he held, plus that in other townships, would be leased out for fourscore and nineteen years against three named lives, purchased on a money fine of between ten and twenty years' rent value and then on an annual payment which was minimal. This meant that the landlord only had the reversion of the ground to look forward to.

There was a good stock of horses, some obviously for riding, and there were the ..... mare, a grey mare and her colt, a bay gelding, a little gray nagg, two colts, a great bay gelding, another grey mare, a young bay gelding, a great gray gelding, a young gray mare, an old gray gelding, an old gray mare, a young piebald gelding, an old black mare and a young 'hipte' mare (i.e. with a displaced hip-bone, it would limp). There were also eight oxen and thirteen swine, nearly forty young stock of all ages. The milking herd numbered sixteen and there were two bulls and seven sheep. Despite the fact that cheese was the main reason for having a milking herd, none is listed in the inventory although beef, bacon, meal and malt are. Oats, barley and wheat was plentifully stored, and being spring, there were 29 acres of oats, 3 acres of wheat and 4 acres of beans sown, the two former possibly from the previous autumn.

Henry Butler was a hunting man. Together with his apparel was included the furniture for his horses, hawks and spaniels, in all £10. His whole valuation was £525.73.