The manor of Holcroft had come into being after Gilbert de Culcheth was murdered in 1246, leaving four infant daughters as heirs.
[3] As wards of William le Boteler, lord of Warrington, their marriages were sold to Hugh de Hindley, who married them to his own four young sons and divided the estate among them.
[1] When Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, raised troops in 1536, a John Holcroft answered the call, but it is not certain which.
Instead, a campaign of allegations and propaganda brought forth accusations of verbal treason against the prior, Nicholas Heath, eight of the monks and four labourers.
The Holcrofts moved in to receive the property on the king's behalf, presumably profiting greatly themselves: Thomas was notorious for his exploitation of monastic rents.
[4] When the receivership of Lenton expired in 1545, John Holcroft was able, because of his services, to buy the site and lands of Upholland Priory in Lancashire for £345.
annually in 1536,[6] so Holcroft's outlay represented a bargain: money he could recoup, given improved management, in a few years.
[7] This apparently formed part of a deal in which Holcroft acquired Worsley's holdings in the township of Pennington, where he himself already land, thus enlarging and consolidating his estate there.
[2] The colleges and chantries were following the monasteries into oblivion, although the process was slowed by the final illness of Henry VIII, and then accelerated again by fresh legislation after the Edward VI in 1547.
Even after Mary came to the throne, bringing in a brief Counter-Reformation, monasteries and colleges were not restored and the process of disposing of their assets continued.
However, this left William's half-sister Anne as sole heiress to the Damhouse in Tyldesley and the manor of Astley,[8] as well as Winmarleigh.
The ceremonies were abbreviated because of the king's youth, and so Holcroft was not formally invested with the Order of the Bath, as originally planned.
However, it is certain that it was he who was joint commissioner for the musters with George Blagge for the 1547 phase of The Rough Wooing, the campaigns intended by the English to force a marriage between Edward VI of England and Mary, Queen of Scots.
Moreover, both of the brothers were on excellent terms with Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, the most powerful of the local magnates, whom John was to name as mediator in his will.
Holcroft was returned second in order of precedence to Sir Thomas Stanley, Derby's son, who had also represented the county in the previous parliament, elected in March of the same year.
The senior member was Sir Thomas Talbot, who was a relative of the Earls of Shrewsbury, and whose mother had married a Stanley.
[13] However Talbot died on 1 August 1558, leaving Holcroft as the sole representative of the county for the remaining three months of the parliament.
Anne's father, Ralph, was a fairly wealthy member of the landed gentry, with a considerable number of estates and churches across south and central Lancashire.
Anne's mother, Alice Harrington was from a Northamptonshire family of considerably higher social status: Sir James was knighted at the coronation of Henry VII[15][unreliable source] John Holcroft and Anne Standish had a large number of children: at least 7 sons and 6 daughters.