John Buckley , is this he The Will of John Buckley of Lidyate was published on the 21st May 1669. He left to his wife, Sara, ?100 and "all my Linnon yarn, linnon cloth and all debts owing for cloth by her formerly" also one chest, one Trunk, one Quilt and the "cloathes belonging to her body." To his eldest son, Edmund, he bequeathed ?10 "he having formerly had ? a full and sufficient childs portion" and one bedstead. To his daughter Ann "the sum of threescore pounds" and the residue to his four sons, John, William, Thomas and James, equally. John and Sarah Buckley were the ancestors of Edmund Buckley of Grotton Hall and Ardwick, who from the ruins of the family fortune rose up to make a new fortune and become the village?s most famous son. It has not been possible to trace the Buckley?s of Lydgate further back than John and Sara, but the family was probably an offshoot of the Buckley?s of Grotton Head, in which case John was very likely a grandson of Gilbert of Grotton, husbandman, who died in 1603, perhaps the son of Edmund, as Edmund and John alternate as the names of the eldest sons right down to Edmund of Ardwick. The question is, where was the Buckley home and which part of Lydgate was the Buckley Estate? In his will dated 21st June 1718, Edmund Buckley of Lydiate, yeoman, left his second son James "All that Messuage and Tenement situate and being at Lydiate aforesaid where I NOW LIVE which I hould by Lease under James Farror Esquire. And all my Estate farm and Tennant right therein". Also "a Close of field near Lydiate aforesaid called PIKELOW INTACKE which I purchased from John Buckley of Chathertone or Lyme-yate" Also "the tenement of Lydiate. Pikelow Intack was the field in which the Police Station, Fourways and the Filling Station stand and in those days it extended across Oldham Road, which didn?t exist and took in the land on the otherside up to Burnedge Lane. Pikelow was the land between Burnedge Lane and the middle of Oldham Road. This however, was note the site of the homestead. The rest of the family holding is to be found in Old Lydgate. If we leave out Crawshawbent, which belonged to Grotton Head, and the Whitehead estate, which is well documented, I conclude that what is left belonged to the Buckleys and that the Messuage and tenement in which Edmund lived must have been in the triangle between Quickedge Road and Stockport Road, with its base the Laundry boundary. The two houses now called the Millhouses and numbered 64a and B., until 1974 Robert Stotts Mill, and Moston Cottage are all that remain. In the cellar of 64B there is a date stone on an inside wall, with the inscription E.B.E. In 1689 Edmund Buckley, whose Will I have just referred to, may have been the husband of Elizabeth Buckley was buried at Saddleworth on 11th July 1690, and he is the most likely person responsible for the datestone. However, it is unusual to find a datestone in such a place and the probability is that this is not its original site. Either it formed part of an earlier building on the same site or it was taken from another building nearby. The Millhouse is a possibility for the site of the Buckley homestead and so is Moston Cottage. The truth may be discovered when the deeds of the properties purchased by Edmund Buckley of Ardwick about 1844, come to light. This triangle was certainly amongst them. Information which has come to me since I last gave this lecture proves that 64A and B belonged to Edmund Whitehead of Lydgate, who lived at Ford Cottage and in 1887 became the property of John Mayall of Earnshawhead and Timothy Heath and passed from him to his descendents. It therefore was not purchased by Edmund Buckley. Moston Cottage therefore remains the most likely candidate as the homestead of the Buckleys. [1]?
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