• General Notes

  In 1195, Roger de Lacy, Constable of Chester, inherited the great estates of Clitheroe and Pontefract. Sometime before his death in 1211 he granted land "in Tunleia" that was part of the estate of Clitheroe to the husband of one of his daughters. In the 14th century the land passed by marriage to the de la Leigh family. When they came to live at Towneley they also assumed the name of the place and Towneleys of Towneley were to live there for a further 500 years.
  In 1664 at the herald's visitation to Lancashire, Sir William Dugdale received evidence from Richard Towneley for the Towneleys of Towneley. He also received evidence from a number of other members of the family representing various cadet lines, all descended from John Towneley and his wife Isabel Sherburne or possibly, in the case of the Townleys of Dutton, John's father Richard de Towneley. All of these other families were recorded as using the name Townley.
  
  The de la Leigh family first appeared locally around 1300.  They owned land in Hapton before they acquired the Towneley estates.  Today most of what is known about the earliest members of the family comes from legal papers and inquisitions post mortem.  Many of the early papers are now in the Lancashire County Record Office at Preston, Lancashire County, England.
  
  The first of the de la Leighs to use the Towneley name was Richard who was Sheriff of the county of Lancaster when he died in 1379, but it was his son John de Towneley (1350-1399) who aquired all the old Towneley land and sealed the settlement of his estates with the arms of three mullets and a fesse.

Details of Richard d'la Leigh's family with Helen