Nicholas Croft of Dalton, Lonsdale Hundred & Leighton

  General Notes:

~Richardson's Plantagenet Ancestry, pg. 188, father of Douce Croft who married Thomas Strickland, Knight, of Sizergh, Kendal, Westmorland, England. Nicholas de Croft was of Dalton and Leighton, born about 1443 since he is recorded as being age twenty-four in 1467. ⁵⁹⁹

~Weis' Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 8th Edition, 41:33, Nicholas Croft is mentioned as father of Douce Croft who married Walter Strickland. ¹⁶⁰

~Abstracts of Inquisitions Post Mortem, p. 141, Nicholas de Croft, son and heir to Sir John de Croft, was age 30 years and upwards in 1420. Nicholas married Elena Boteler, daughter of John Boteler of Merton. ⁸¹⁹

  Information about this person:

• Records and Notes. ⁹¹⁵
"At Lancaster, on Tuesday the feast of St. Lawrence, 19 Regality of John, Duke of Lancaster [10 August 1395].

"Between John, son of Roger de Croft, of Yeland Redman, plantiff, and Nicholas, son of John de Croft, of Dalton, knight, and Ellen, his wife, deforciants of a messuage, 85 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, 20 acres of pasture, 10 acres of wood, and 30 acres of turbary in Yeland Redman.

"Nicholas and Ellen remitted all right to John and his heirs, for which John gave them 100 marks."


"Between John de Cotom, of Kirkham, plaintiff, and Nicholas, son of John de Croft, of Dalton, knight, and Ellen his wife, deforciants of a messuage, a toft, a mill, and an oxgang and six acres of land in Frekelton.

"Nicholas and Ellen acknowledged the said tenements to be the right of John, to have and hold to him and to his heirs forever, for which John gave them 20li."

~The Fincal Concords of the County of Lancaster and Chester, , 1377-1399, p.46

• Background Information. ⁹¹³
The estates that belonged to the Botelers of Marton descended, through Ellena, daughter of John Botleler, by marriage, first to the Crofts of Dalton and then the Leghs of Lyme.

In 1383/4 an agreement was made for the marriage of Ellen daughter of John Boteler of Marton with Nicholas son and heir of John Croft [Raines MSS. xxxviii, 583]. In 1378 been, Ellena had been married to Edward son of Sir Thomas de Lathom the younger, with lands in Layton being settled on them in that year with remainders to John Boteler of Kirkland, Thomas son of John Boteler of Marton and John son of Nicholas Boteler [ibid. 109. See Lancs. Inq. p.m., Chet. Soc, i, 20, 141], and the account of Dalton in Lonsdale. Nicholas Croft was in possession in 1417 [Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 14].

The Botelers of Warrington were usually regarded as the chief lords of Marton. William and Edmund Boteler held half a fee and a tenth part of a fee in Great and Little Marton in 1302. [Lancs. Inq. and Extents, i, 316].

In 1346 William Boteler held two-thirds and Nicholas Boteler one-third of the third part of a knight's fee in Great Marton, paying yearly 5s. for castle ward [Survey of 1346, Chet. Soc, 58]. Sir William Boteler in 1355 answered for the tenth and twentieth parts of a knight's fee formerly held by William de Marton [Feud. Aids, iii, 90]. Sir William Ferrers of Groby was said to hold by knight's service in Marton in right of his wife Elizabeth in 1431 [ibid. 95]. She was the widow of Sir William Boteler.

Both lordships were recognized in 1445/6, when John Boteler (under age) and Nicholas Croft held the third part of a knight's fee in Great Marton in the proportions of two to one. [Duchy of Lanc. Knights' Fees, bdle. 2, no. 20].

Nicholas married Elena Boteler, daughter of John Boteler of Marton and Margaret de Redmayne, in 1388-1389.⁷⁷⁵