An Illustrated History of Sutton in St.Helens, Lancashire
Part 2 (of 41) - Sutton's Lords & Masters #1
a) Daresburys and Norreys | b) Bolds | c) Hollandsd) Eltonheads | e) William Roby Pilkington | f) William Blinkhorn I & II
Researched & Written by S.R.Wainwright ©MMX Contact Me Research Sources
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a) The Daresbury and Norreys Families
Of course as one researches history from almost a millennium ago, details are scant and not always reliable. Spelling of names varies and surnames were not properly adopted until after 1200 A.D. further complicating research. But the family names that are regularly mentioned in old documents pertaining to the Sutton district in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are the Daresbury, Norreys and Holland families. By the twelfth century, the Daresbury family of Cheshire were recorded as overlords of Sutton township followed by the Sutton family who held three of the four local ploughlands. Around 1280 their estates were sold to the Holland family, although technically all land belonged to the King (see below for more on the Hollands). The Hollands served as lords of the manor for around 500 years, although the overlordship of Sutton changed hands several times during these five centuries.
b) The Bold Family of Bold
In 1425 Thomas de Bold was at Agincourt. In the levy of 1574, ordered by Queen Elizabeth, the Bold family provided as many horses and horsemen as any family in the county of Lancaster, apart from the Stanleys. When Sir Thomas Bold died in 1612 his estate's inquisition revealed vast wealth with enormous land and property rights in Burtonwood, Great Sankey, Bold, Eccleston, Rainhill, Widnes, Upton, Farnworth, Ditton, North Meoles and Hoole as well as Sutton.
The male Bold line ceased in 1761 with the death of Peter Bold MP who had built a new Bold Hall. His eldest daughter, Annie Maria, inherited the estates until her death in November 1813, aged 81. Then Peter Patten of the Warrington industrialist family and Colonel of the 1st Royal Lancashire Militia, succeeded to the estates as he was married to a sister of Annie.
Upon Patten Bold's death in October 1819, the estates devolved to his eldest daughter, Mary, who on December 21st, 1822 married Polish nobleman Prince Sapicha in Florence. The royal couple took up residence at Bold Hall at the beginning of August, 1823. However, Mary only enjoyed life as a princess for two years, dying in Rome in December 1824. An interesting sidenote is that despite Prince Sapicha's attendants at his wedding being Russian noblemen, his palace in Poland was plundered by the Emperor of Russia in October 1834.
The Bold estates were then devolved onto the late princess's sister “the lady of Henry Bold-Hoghton, of Walton Hall, heir to the Hoghton baronetage and possessions, who by Royal license and permission, then took the name of Bold before Hoghton.“ (Liverpool Mercury 8/5/1893)
In 1859 all Bold property was sold and the historic hall was demolished in 1893.
c) The Holland Family of Upholland
Historically, Sutton Hall was the manor house and main residence of the lord of the manor of Sutton and was occupied by a junior branch of the ambitious Holland family for around 400 years. As well as being lords of the manor in Sutton they played an influential - if somewhat controversial role - in both Lancastrian and English life. Amazingly, two members of the family were executed, one for being a Protestant under a Roman Catholic monarch and the other for being a papist under a Protestant queen!
Roger Holland was burnt at the stake at Smithfields in 1558 after moving to London and abandoning Catholicism. He was unfortunate to have been charged and convicted of heresy during the last few months of Catholic Queen Mary's reign. Then during the reign of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, Thomas Holland, who was born in Sutton Hall in 1600, was found guilty of high treason for administering to London Catholics for eight years. Father Holland was hung and quartered on December 12th, 1642.
The Hollands then had their estates sequestered at the end of the Civil War after fighting on the Royalist side. A similar fate also befell the remarkable Eltonhead family.
d) The Eltonhead Family
The Eltonheads not only developed extensive estates in America but, amazingly, have a family connection with both the English and American civil wars and two US presidents!
So in 1645, the sibling quintet of Jane, Agatha, Martha, Eleanor and Alice emigrated to America and their Uncle William was charged with finding them suitable husbands. This he dutifully did within the states of Virginia and Maryland. However, as the grooms were middle-aged, most of the young sisters were widowed within ten to fifteen years.
William was executed by firing squad after an encounter with the Puritans of Providence. However, Edward Eltonhead had better fortunes, receiving 10,000 acres in Maryland as reward for providing fifty men for the province of New Albion.
Confederate general Robert E. Lee {1807-1870} was a descendant of Alice and the present US president, Barack Obama {1961- }, can also claim his lineage from the Eltonheads. President Obama, who between 1992 and 2004 taught constitutional law and General Lee, who rebelled against the American constitution, are fifth cousins, eight times removed.
Part of a deed granting the Eltonhead family land in America
Back in England in 1676, Richard Eltonhead sold Elton Head Hall to Thomas Roughley of Sherdley for £2700 and died in 1688, leaving an estate worth just £5. The remaining family moved to Liverpool and later emigrated themselves. The street sign in Elton Head Road serves as a permanent reminder of the once powerful Sutton family who fell on hard times but did well across the Atlantic. Incidentally the Eltonheads were also the first to start mining in Sutton when, around 1540, a seam of coal was accidentally discovered during the digging of a clay pit. (See Mineworking in Sutton)
e) William Roby Pilkington
William Roby Pilkington (1827-1903) Lord of the Manor of Sutton
The Pilkington family have, of course, been highly influential in St.Helens for the past two centuries with William Roby Pilkington {1827-1903} making quite a contribution to Sutton life, having purchased the Lordship of Sutton from Sir Henry Bold Houghton in 1860. He was a son of William Pilkington, one of the founders of the glassworks and was called William Roby to distinguish him from his cousin, William Windle Pilkington. He wasn't born in Sutton, however. William Roby Pilkington's place of birth on March 11th, 1827 was at a house in Church Street when it was mainly a residential area for the better off, rather than the retail hub that it is now. Pilkington entered the glassworks when aged 16 and was made a partner in 1853.
William Roby married Elizabeth Watson the daughter of Lee Watson the founder of St.Helens Foundry in 1854 and they chose to make Sutton their home, living at Sutton Grange before moving to Roby Hall in 1874. In a lengthy interview in the St.Helens Lantern newspaper on June 7th 1888 Pilkington said:
I was always partial to Sutton and its people, and was very fond of the Church there. Mrs. Pilkington is a very fair musician, and, between us, we tried to form and maintain a decent choir. 
Many letters from Rev. Vallancey and his successors addressed to William Roby have survived and bear witness to the generous support that he gave to Sutton parish church which included clearing the debt on the new vicarage and creating a Curacy Fund.
He also contributed to Vallancey's National Schools and in 1863 Mrs. Pilkington was invited to lay the corner-stone of their new building. Her husband said:
The Schools were always an object of solicitude to us...and have since done such excellent work. 
The family vault of William Roby Pilkington in Sutton Parish Churchyard at St.Nicholas
f) William Blinkhorn I & II & family
The Blinkhorn family originated from Bolton but they made such an impression on the people of Sutton that a street in Sutton Oak was named after them. They were industrialists but their grand-daughter married into the church and a great-grandson became a famous Arctic explorer and was awarded a knighthood.In the 1851 census, William Blinkhorn (I) (abt.1801-1865) is listed as resident at Leach Hall in Sutton, at the corner of Leach Lane and Gerards Lane, having only recently arrived in the township. He was born c.1801 in Bolton and became an alkali manufacturer and his wife Elizabeth gave him a daughter Maria (b. abt.1830) and son William (II) (abt.1837-1898). They relocated to Sutton so William Snr. could take over as manager of the London and Manchester Plate Glass Company's works which were then in their heyday and a large employer in Sutton. They built or acquired property including Waterdale House and played a considerable role in improving Sutton.
Inscription on the reverse side of Victoria Bridge in Gerards Lane, Sutton
In Gerards Lane, where the Sutton Brook and former Whalley's Dam runs under the road into a reservoir, sometimes called St.Annes, there is a bridge of sandstone called Victoria Bridge. On the reverse side facing the old dam is a faded inscription:
The Blinkhorn memorial in the graveyard at St. Nicholas adjacent to the Hughes family vault.
Blinkhorn Snr. died in 1865 and his son took over managership of the extensive glassworks and was said to be very popular with the workers. He became a J.P. on the County Bench in 1876 and for many years was church warden at Sutton Parish Church.
Blinkhorn suffered a stroke in 1878 and never fully recovered from it, retiring around 1888 at little more than 50 years of age. He endured a second stroke in 1894 and died four year later at his home, Sutton Grange. A road in Sutton Oak was named after the family and Blinkhorn Street, located off Lancots Lane, was listed in the 1891 census, although it no longer exists. There also used to be a Blinkhorn Rooms in Waterdale Crescent which was donated by Wm. Snr. to Sutton Parish Church and used initially for schooling, then as a meeting place for the Women's Fellowship and later a boy's gymnasium charging 3d a week.
William Blinkhorn (II) had two daughters from his two marriages. Eldest daughter Elizabeth Blanche (? - 1926) married St.Helens Corporation Town Clerk William John Jeeves on January 7th, 1896, while Emily married Rev. Maximilian Frederick Breffit Binney (1860 - 1936), the second vicar of Sutton Parish Church (later the Vicar of Richmond) in a service held in Kendal in 1898. Her husband had been born and bred in Kent and so they moved back down south, settling in Great Bookham, Surrey where Emily seems to have died shortly after giving birth.
William Blinkhorn and his glass company were renowned as generous benefactors for the people of Sutton. He donated the land at the corner of Lancots Lane and Sutton Road that the first Sutton Methodist Church was built on using copper slag. This became the home of the non-denominational Welsh in 1893 and it's now managed by the Sutton Oak Welsh Chapel Preservation Society.
William Blinkhorn donated the land in Lancots Lane that the Methodists used as
a chapel followed by the Welsh community from 1893
Blinkhorn suffered a stroke in 1878 and never fully recovered from it, retiring around 1888 at little more than 50 years of age. He endured a second stroke in 1894 and died four year later at his home, Sutton Grange. A road in Sutton Oak was named after the family and Blinkhorn Street, located off Lancots Lane, was listed in the 1891 census, although it no longer exists. There also used to be a Blinkhorn Rooms in Waterdale Crescent which was donated by Wm. Snr. to Sutton Parish Church and used initially for schooling, then as a meeting place for the Women's Fellowship and later a boy's gymnasium charging 3d a week.
William Blinkhorn (II) had two daughters from his two marriages. Eldest daughter Elizabeth Blanche (? - 1926) married St.Helens Corporation Town Clerk William John Jeeves on January 7th, 1896, while Emily married Rev. Maximilian Frederick Breffit Binney (1860 - 1936), the second vicar of Sutton Parish Church (later the Vicar of Richmond) in a service held in Kendal in 1898. Her husband had been born and bred in Kent and so they moved back down south, settling in Great Bookham, Surrey where Emily seems to have died shortly after giving birth.
The Reverend remarried in 1903 and his son from his first marriage, Frederick George Binney (1900-1972), went to Eton and then Oxford before becoming a renowned explorer and writer. Between 1926-31 he served the Hudson's Bay Company and lived in the Canadian Arctic pioneering the use of the seaplane for Arctic survey work and wrote "The Eskimo Book of Knowledge". George Binney was knighted in 1941 and awarded the DSO in 1944. He was awarded the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1957 for his Arctic explorations.
Sutton Beauty & Heritage's History Pages:
01) Township of Sutton & St.Helens | 02) Lords & Masters03) Michael Hughes of Sherdley | 04) The Sherdley Estate
05) Sutton's Halls & Houses | 06) Dr. Henry Baker Bates
07) Religion in Sutton | 08) Rev. Henry Vallancey
09) Education in Sutton | 10) Mineworking in Sutton
11) Sutton Manor Colliery #1 | 12) Sutton Manor Colliery #2
13) Clock Face Colliery | 14) Bold Colliery
15) Industry in Sutton Township | 16) Sutton Transport
17) Sutton Transport Timeline | 18) Health & Sanitary Conditions
19) Old Sutton Pubs | 20) Sport in Sutton
21) Sutton Boxers & Wrestlers | 22) Rapid Rise of Sutton Harriers
23) Leisure & Entertainment | 24) Sutton Celebrations
25) Sutton Streetnames | 26) Pudding Bag
27) Notorious & Curious Crime | 28) Sutton Tragedy #1
29) Sutton Tragedy #2 | 30) What's Wrong With Sutton?
31) How Sutton Has Changed | 32) Memories of Sutton Part 1
33) Memories of Sutton Part 2 | 34) Memories of Sutton Part 3
35) Memories of Sutton Part 4 | 36) Memories of Sutton Part 5
37) Memories of Sutton Part 6 | 38) Memories of Sutton Part 7
39) Sutton Trivia & True Facts | 40) Clog Clatters in Old Sutton
41) Research Sources, References & Bibliography
Transport; Sport, Leisure & Entertainment; Sutton Streets;
Sutton Manor Colliery #1; #2; #3; #4; Clock Face Colliery;
Bold Colliery; Sutton Industry;
Sutton Beauty & Heritage strives for factual accuracy at all times. Please do also get in touch if you believe that there are any errors, with details of any corrections contained within the site's update history page, which also details the regular updates. Many individuals from all over the world have kindly contributed Sutton information or photographs. If you would like to participate in this project, I would be delighted to hear from you and this website always credits any assistance given. Do also consider contributing any recollections of old Sutton that you might have for the Sutton Memories pages, which are proving very popular. I respond quickly to all emails and if you haven't received a response within 12 hours, please check your junk mail folder or send your message again. Thank you! SRW
