John Holcroft

Sir John Holcroft (died 1560) of Holcroft Hall, Culcheth, was a soldier, politician, and landowner of the Tudor period. He was returned twice as a member of the English parliament for Lancashire. Background The date of John Holcroft's birth is not known, although it is known that he was born by 1498. He was the eldest son of John Holcroft of Holcroft: the remains of Holcroft Hall are close to the Glaze Brook, east of Culcheth, . Holcroft's mother was Margaret Massey, daughter of Hamnett or Hamlet Massey of Rixton, which lies a few miles to the south of Holcroft, on the River Mersey. The Masseys also had lands in the township of Pennington. The Holcrofts were minor landed gentry. The manor of Holcroft had come into being after Gilbert de Culcheth was murdered in 1246, leaving four infant daughters as heirs. As wards of William le Boteler, lord of Warrington, their marriages were sold to Hugh de Hindley, who married them to his own four young sons and divided the estate among them. Holcroft, along with Peasfurlong and Risley, was hived off the original manor of Culcheth. Joan de Culcheth married Thomas de Hindley and took Holcroft. They or their successors seem to have adopted the name Holcroft, although little is known of the estate's history until the early 16th century, when John Holcroft senior was lord. Sir John Holcroft's generation were the first of the family to attain regional and national eminence. His younger brother, Sir Thomas Holcroft, was to become rather wealthier and more prominent than himself, mainly through speculation in former monastic lands, building up a substantial estate around the estates of the former Vale Royal Abbey. Their sister Margaret married James Gerard, a younger son of another minor but rising Lancashire gentry family, and became the mother of Sir Gilbert Gerard, an important Elizabethan lawyer. By 1519, John Holcroft was married to Anne Standish, daughter of Ralph Standish of Standish.