Towneley family
Early members of the branch of the family at Towneley Hall served as soldiers, some holding positions such as High Sheriff of Lancashire.
Other branches of the family were based at Hurstwood near Towneley, Royle on the opposite side of Burnley, and later Littleton in Surrey, Dutton close to Ribchester, Barnside near Colne, and Carr Hall and Stonedge near Barrowford.
Sometime between 1195 and 1211, Roger de Lacy made a grant of lands at 'Tunleia', 'Coldcotes' and 'Snodesworth' (Snodworth is south of Langho) to Geoffrey, son of Robert the Dean of Whalley.
[1] The de la Legh family were the largest tenant in Cliviger at the time that it was a possession of Kirkstall Abbey, renting about 40% of the township.
And Gilbert had purchased the manor of Hapton in 1303–04, only to have this blocked by Henry de Lacy, and he was forced to wait until 1328 to acquire it.
In 1351, at the time of the plague known as the Black Death, Richard rented the manor of St Saviour (Stydd) near Ribchester, probably living there for the rest of his life.
The same year, along with his brother Gilbert, the Abbot of Whalley and John de Altham, he held the franchise for providing a bailiff for Blackburnshire.
John's uncle Gilbert died without heir, so in addition to two-thirds of Towneley, plus land in Cliviger, in Worsthone, and in Briercliffe, he inherited Hapton and Birtwistle.
He was knighted on 30 September 1497 by the Earl of Surrey,[12] probably at Ayton when the peace treaty was signed with Scotland after the Perkin Warbeck skirmishes.
Acquired Towneley by his marriage in 1557 to then 16-year-old Mary, his first cousin once removed, he being a grandchild and she a great-grandchild of Sir John.
Killed leading a small Infantry regiment for the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor[18] during the English Civil War.
Implicated with his father in the plot to secure the return to the English throne of King James II in 1690 that resulted in the Battle of the Boyne.
Another brother, George avoided the conflict, instead marrying Mary Hodgson, the heiress of Leighton Hall near Carnforth.
After his death at the age of 27, his widow left Towneley Hall at the time of Jacobite rising and did not return.
In 1814 he sold his father's book collection to fund improvements to the Hall, for which he employed the services of the architect Jeffry Wyattville.
His horse Kettledrum won the 1861 Epsom Derby, He (and possibly others) used the winnings to build St Hubert's catholic church in Dunsop Bridge.
[29] Towneley was commissioned on 16 March 1853 to raise the 5th Royal Lancashire Militia with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant, with his brother John as one of the majors.
[30] He retired from the command on 23 March 1863 (when his brother was promoted to succeed him) and was appointed Honorary Colonel of the regiment.
Charles' eldest daughter Caroline was already dead and her share went to her husband Montagu Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon.
His middle daughter Emily, the wife of Lord Alexander Gordon-Lennox inherited the properties in Worsthorne and Cliviger.
The portion that included Towneley Hall and its park went to his youngest, Alice, the wife of Baron O'Hagan.
In 1865 he was appointed a judge of common pleas, and in 1868 became Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the first Roman Catholic to hold the chancellorship since the reign of James II.
In 1870 he was created Baron O'Hagan, of Tullahogue in the County of Tyrone, and held office until the resignation of the ministry in 1874.
From 1899, he served in South Africa during the Boer War as a lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion of Grenadier Guards, but died abruptly of an unknown illness (thought to have been malaria) just over a week after his 22nd birthday.
Thomas Anthony Edward Towneley Strachey having predeceased him in 1955, he was succeeded in the barony by his grandson Charles.
In the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979, he was returned for Devon as a Conservative, and remained an MEP until his retirement when his constituency was abolished in 1994.
Previously thought lost or in the possession of the Crown having disappeared from the historical record in the late nineteenth century, it transpired that the title had been retained by an extinct family trust.
Lord O'Hagan has been married three times – firstly to Princess Tamara Imeretinsky (1967–84), secondly to Mary Roose-Francis (1985–95), and thirdly to Elizabeth Smith (1995–present).
His late wife Mary was a keen horse rider and instrumental in the development of the Pennine Bridleway, as a result, the part of the route is named after her.
[47] Littleton refers to Astlam (Astleham) Manor[48] (formerly in Middlesex, today in Surrey), now submerged beneath the Queen Mary Reservoir next to the site of Shepperton Studios.
