General Notes

Sir William Brereton of Brereton, ward of Sir Richard Sonbach (Sandbach), who had grant of the wardship of said William from William de Venables, Baron of Kinderton, to marry him or his younger brother, Gilbert Brereton, if William died under age, to one of the legitimate daughters of Richard Sandbach. Such were the precious servitudes of our ancestors; and great must have been the docility and tractability of the adults (and it is a remarkable trait in feudal manners) in submitting their inclinations in the serious article of marriage to the inscrutable wisdom of their seniors. Accordingly we find the heir of Brereton, William, was (nolens volens) married to the daughter of Richard Sandbach. The manor of Sandbach is given in Domesday among the possessions of the Bigot-Bigod family, whose manors subsequently formed the fee of Aldford, of which Sandbach was a dependency. A family was certainly settled here in the reign of King John, who held Sandbach from Aldford fee, and had assumed the local name. Near the manor house of Sandbach is the market place containing the Crosses of Sandbach, which may indisputably be ranked among the finest monuments of antiquity, of the kind, now existing in the kingdom. They are supposed to have been erected shortly after the introduction of Christianity on the places where it was first preached. The present height of the Greater Cross is 16 ft. 8 in.