9 May, 1710. Margaret the doughter of George Blackborn, A Cassell in this parish, bapt.

Gent., of ye Roft

7 Nov., 1711. of Roft A Cassel, 21 Nov., 1712. Gent......bapt.

Anna Maria doughter of George Blackborne
Gent., was baptized.

......ie, ye doughter of George Blackborn,

12 Sept., 1713. Margarett ye wife of Geo. Blackborne, Gent., buried.

13 Jany., 1714-15 frances ye daughter of Mr. George Blackborne of Trevalin, bur'd.

Mr. George Blackborne married, secondly (at Wrexham, April 13th, 1714), Elizabeth, third and youngest daughter of Thomas Rosindale, Esq., of Wrexham, by his wife Frances, daughter of John Powell, second son of Sir Thomas Powell, of Horsley, the first baronet. Mr. George Blackborne was buried at Gresford, November 4th, 1725, leaving by his second wife two daughters, Lucy and Margaret, who were still unmarried in 1742. His daughter, Anna Maria Blackborne, was

buried October 25th, 1726.

There was also a Mr. Thomas Blackborne, contemporary with Mr. George Blackborne, perhaps brother to him. His wife, Elizabeth, was buried at Gresford, May 14th, 1709, and he married secondly there, September 8th, 1731, "Mrs. Elizabeth Davies," of Wrexham, who had a great deal of property along Tuttle Street, where in a good house by Pont Tuttle, Wrexham, he thenceforth lived. 'Mr. Thomas Blackbourne of Wrexham," was buried at Gresford, 20th February, 1760. His widow survived her husband, died in her house at Pont Tuttle, and was buried in the Dissenters' graveyard, Rhosddu, May 2nd, 1755.

66

I cannot find in church or churchyard any memorial to these Black bornes, if that be the true spelling of the name.

The next occupant of Grofft y Castell whom I find mentioned was a Mr. Richard Wynne. There were

1 Mr. Blackborne had another daughter Elizabeth, by his first wife.

about this time living in Gresford parish a Mr. Richard Wynne (brother of Dr. Wynne, the vicar), and Richard Wynne his son. But I incline to the conclusion that the Wynnes of Grofft y Castell belonged to a family distinct from the Wynnes of Garthewin, perhaps to the Wynnes of Tower, in the parish of Mold. Whether this were so or not, we must note the following extracts from the Gresford registers :

1 Apl. 1724. of Burross,1 bapt.

Margarett ye daughter of Mr. Rd Wynne

13 Jany., 1726-7. Thomas the son of Mr. Richard Wynne of Roft A Cassell, bapt.

26 July, 1728, Mrs. Margaret Wynne of ye Roft, buried.

7 Jany., 1731-2.

roft A Cassel, bapt.

Richard the son of Mr. Richard Wynne,

The second set of extracts refers also, I believe, to the Wynnes of Grofft

16 May, 1723. ford, bapt.

1 May, 1734.

9 June, 1744.

y Castell :

Robert son of Mr. Richard Wynne of Gres

John the son of Mr. Richard Wynne, bapt.
Mr. Thomas Wynne of Chester, buried.

1 Feb., 1756. Mr. Robert Wynne of Chester, buried.

Who the Mrs. Catherine Wynne, of Gresford parish, was, that married at Gresford, 24th August, 1698, Mr. Griffith Williams, of the parish of Mold, I have been unable to determine.

After Mr. Wynne's time, until its destruction, Grofft y Castell, or Roft Hall, was let to farmers.

The large farmstead called in the Ordnance Map "Marford Hall," standing on the main road about halfway down Marford Hill, and at the corner of that main road and of the lane leading to Cox Lane, is a good farm-house built in imitation of the other Marford

1 I think this Margaret must have been a daughter of the other Richard Wynne, the vicar's brother, who lived at the old Vicarage which, although not in Burras, was partly surrounded by that township.

farmsteads and cottages, and very picturesque, both in front and behind. Mr. Chancellor Trevor Parkins tells me that it was rebuilt early in the last century, and that it took the place of Rofft Hall, and had attached to it the Rofft Hall lands. This suggestion is in the highest degree probable. Certainly, the name "Marford Hall" is not old.

Below Rofft Hall, by the side of the road through the Pant wood, and between it and the railway, is the Black Well, once famed for its curative properties. It is now abandoned and uncared-for.

The house called "Roft Castle Cottage" must be carefully distinguished from Rofft Hall. Mr. Chancellor Trevor Parkins tells me that it was built by the Mr. John Boydell who died in 1839, whose widow bequeathed it to her husband's nephew, Mr. John Boydell, junior. Mr. Boydell built the Castle Cottage on land which his brother, Mr. Thomas Boydell, left to Mr. George Boscawen, who, in his turn, left it to his sister-inlaw, Mrs. Noel. And Mrs. Noel gave the site, on which no house previously stood, to Mr. John Boydell, senior.

As to the Whitehouse farm, it may be sufficient to give the following information with which Mr. Chancellor Trevor Parkins has supplied me :-" In 1729, the copyhold tenant was Thomas Pierce. In 1743, John Travers was admitted tenant. The Whitehouse estate, along with the other Travers property, came into the hands of Dr. Twiss, and his son, Sir Travers Twiss, sold it in 1874 to James Sparrow [farmer], for £3,400:" who, in turn, disposed of it the following year to Mr. Frederick Potts for £3,600. In 1877, Mr. Potts sold part of the farm (16 a. 24 p.) for £1,500 to Edward Davies; and in 1878 the house itself and a field (nearly 12 acres) for £1,025 to John Davies, of Southport.

Between Whitehouse farm and Horsley Hall was formerly a house called "Horsley Lodge." This, in the early part of the nineteenth century, was owned by a Mr. John Bardsley, or Captain Bardsley, who died