Middleton Church
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Sir Ralph Assheton. (The ‘Black Knight of Ashton’) Vice-Constable of England.
Ashton Hall, Battle of Bosworth, Black Knight, Clayton Hall, Coronation, Edward IV, English Civil War, Etihad Stadium, Flodden, funeral brass, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VI, Isabel Kirby, Jane Saville, Knight Marshal, knights banneret, Lieutenant of the Tower, Lord Byron, Margery Barton, Mary Byron, Middleton, Middleton Archers, Middleton Church, mothers, MPs, Ralph Holinshed, Richard III, Sheriff of Yorkshire, siege of Berwick, Sir Ralph Assheton, trams, Vice-ConstableThere is some confusion about the parentage of Sir Ralph Assheton. At least, various internet sources give him alternative mothers. His father was Sir John Assheton of Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. The family’s main residence was Ashton Hall, although this building was sadly destroyed in the 1890s to make way for a coal yard. The medieval parish…
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Yet another C17 coincidence
Battle of Marston Moor, Battle of Nantwich, Battle of Preston, Battle of Whalley, coincidence, Colonel Ralph Assheton, English Civil War, James Earl of Stanley, Lancashire, Long Parliament, Members of Parliament, memorial brass, Middleton Church, namesakes, Parliamentary army, Richard Neville, Richard of Warwick, self-denying ordinance, Thomas Fairfax, Vice Constable of EnglandThe English Civil War often looked like Round Two of the Wars of the Roses with, geographically, Yorkists morphing into Parliamentarians and Lancastrians becoming Royalists. One parliamentary commander was a Richard Neville and another bore the name of Ralph Assheton, as we shall show, descended from the Vice-Constable of the 1480s: Colonel Assheton, of Middleton,…