I am the SON of Ailward. I am Orm Fitz Ailward de Ashton, an only child. Ashton is my placename.
My wife is Emma Gredle, daughter of Albert Gredle. When we married my father-in-law. Albert, gave a “fee of one knight,” in Dalton, Perbold and Wrictinton (Wrightington) in England. It is probable that this land was given to Albert Grelley (Gredle) by King Henry I. At the time of our marriage I was about 25 years old, and Emma 15.
One of my children is Roger de Ashton, also known as Roger de Wrightington and later known as Roger de Burton after acquiring an estate in Burton-in-Kendal from Gilbert Fitz Reinfred.
From Roger, I have a grandson, Orm de Ashton. Orm was born in 1155 and died in 1238 at the age of 83!
From Orm de Ashton I have a great grandson Roger de Ashton Croft.
From Roger de Ashton Croft, I have three great, great grandchildren who are Gilbert de Croft de Southworth (my Plymouth Colony line through the Ship Anne in the mid 1600s), Hugh de Croft (who died at age 92 in 1271) and Roger de Croft. Gilbert de Croft de Southworth received in 1219 the gift of Southworth Manor in the parish of Winwick, Lancashire, England from his Uncle Gilbert in exchange for a pound of pepper annually.
Gilbert de Southworth of Warrington as he was now known, married Alicia d’Ewyas of Samlesbury Hall in England in the mid 1320s. When Alicia and Gilbert married, the Southworth line also acquired the properties of Samlesbury Hall, plus several neighboring estates as Alicia was the sole heiress of her parents, Nicholas d’Ewyas and his wife, Cecily de Samlesbury.
The first Samlesbury Hall was built by the D’Ewyas family and situated on the banks of the river Ribble. This manor was destroyed by Robert the Bruce*, after the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, when the Scots went on to ransack and pillage homes along the banks of the river, from Preston to Clitheroe. Five years after Gilbert married Alicia he built the Great Hall, the oldest part of the existing manor.
*In the 1995 film Braveheart, Robert the Bruce is portrayed by Scottish actor Angus Macfadyen