Lawton Hall.

This mansion is a handsome structure of considerable extent.

The grounds are tastefully laid out^ extending to the church at the west front of the housCj and contain an artificial sheet of water.

At the time of Edward the Confessor^ Lawton^ then called “Lautune,” was divided into two unequal portions, both of which were held by Godric, and both became the property of Hugo de Mara, and are mentioned in the Domesday Survey.

Hugo de Mara, a Fitz-Norman, who was the founder of the Barony of Montalt, conferred Lawton on the Abbey of St. Werburgh, Chester.

A moiety of the township was possessed by a family bearing the local name in the time of Henry the Third, and which frequently occurs in grants to the superior lords, the Abbots.

On the dissolution of the monasteries, the manor, together with the patronage of the church, was purchased from the Crown, in 1541, by William Lawton, of Lawton.

In 1552, William Lawton was found to have held the Manor of Lawton, with court-leet and free-warren, and the advowson of the church of Church Lawton, from the King, in capite, by military service.

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Hugh Lawton, of Lawton, married Isabella, daughter of John Madoc, and by her had issue

John Lawton, who married and died in the lifetime of his father, leaving an only surviving son,

Richard Lawton, who succeeded his grandfather, and was himself succeeded by

James Lawton, who left by Eleonora, daughter of Matthew More, a son and heir,

William Lawton. He married Katherine, daughter of Thomas Bellott, Esq., of Moreton, in the same county.

John Lawton, Esq., living in 1580, had a son, by his second wife, daughter of Fulke Dutton, Esq.,

William Lawton, Esq., whose eldest son,

John Lawton, Esq., married Clare, daughter of Ralph Sneyd, Esq., of Keele, in the county of Stafford, and left a son and successor,

William Lawton, Esq., who served the office of High Sheriflf of Cheshire, in 1672, and by Hester, daughter of Sir Edward Longueville, Bart., left at his death, in 1693, a son and heir,

John Lawton, Esq. He married, first, Anne, daughter of George, younger son of Henry, first Earl of Manchester, and sister of Charles, Earl of Halifax, by whom he had no surviving issue. By his second wife, Mary, relict of Sir Edward Longueville, Bart., he left a son and successor,

Robert Lawton, Esq. He was Sheriff of Cheshire in 1754, and by Sarah, daughter of John Offley, Esq., M.P. for the County, he had a son and heir,

John Lawton, Esq., who married Anne, daughter and co-heiress of Charles Crewe, Esq., M.P. for Cheshire, by whom he left at his death, in 1804, four sons, and was succeeded by the eldest,

William Lawton, Esq., who died without issue, when the estates passed to his next brother,

Charles Bourne Lawton, Esq., who married, first, Anne, daughter of Henry Featherstonhaugh, Esq., of Tooting, in Surrey, and secondly, Mariana Percy, daughter of William Belcombe, Esq., M.D., of York. He was succeeded by his nephew,

John Lawton, Esq., of Lawton Hall, J.P., married, 1845, Emily Anne, youngest daughter of Thomas Legh, Esq., of Adlington, and had by her a son,

William John Percy Lawton, Esq., of Lawton Hall, born December 27th., 1849.