Langton Lineage
by Joel Langton
In Lancashire there are several Langton groups, all believed to be descended from the same Leicestershire origin.
The four main groups of Lancashire Langtons are:
Newton-le-Willows and Walton-le-Dale
Lowe, Hindley
Kirkham
Broughton Tower
In addition, the Kirkham Langtons branch out into four distinct junior branches, those of:
Ontario, Canada
Liverpool
Manchester
Barrow House, Derwentwater, Cumberland
In addition there was at least one other earlier branch from the Langtons of Newton/Walton. These were the Langtons of Herton (or Heeton), Cumberland, who we know only a little about at present.
You can see these locations in Lancashire on the map below. You may need to move the focus of the map to Lancashire, England. Once you have found the markers for Lancashire, click on an icon to see the Langton history associated with it.
View Langtons and where they lived in a larger map
It seems certain that the Newton Langtons originally came from Leicestershire, when John de Langton married Alice, the daughter and heiress of James Banastre. John de Langton is atttributed as the son of Robert Langton of West Langton, Leicestershire.
John Langton's son Robert then inherited the Newton-le-Willows and Walton-le-Dale estates, though some parts seem to still be owned by other Banastre relatives. Whether through purchase or legal dispute, the Langtons seem to get their hands on most of it. This Robert has a brother John (who also went by the name Ivo) and they have a dispute over the Hindley land in the 1300's, which seems to have caused a lot of bad blood, but it seems Robert got control of the land.
The Lowe, Hindley land is passed by Robert to his youngest son of the same name - that is Robert - who is the start of the Langtons of Lowe, Hindley branch, the estate descending through the male line until 1733 with Edward Langton the last in the line, dying without issue (careless...)
On the more well known side of the family, the Newton-le-willows and Walton-le-Dale estates passed down all the way through the male line to Thomas Langton who dies in 1604 without issue and having sold the place having got in various bits of trouble (again, careless...)
The two families maintain close ties thoughout, as the Newton lot are given rights to elect members of parliment which they do, at one point sending Robert Langton from Lowe, their distant/yet close relation.
We know there were more Langtons around Lowe, Hindley, with a family certainly being present in Ince, just down the road.
The earliest we know of the Kirkham Langtons is Cornelius Langton who in 1712 producing an inventory of Kirkham. Though we know the Kirkham Langtons descended from those of Newton/Walton
His Father, John married an Anne Singleton, daughter of John Singleton and was from Preston. Cornelius' son William, is later MP for Preston. The Langtons in Kirkham become very influencial, marrying mainly into the Birleys, and Hornbys, and establishing a company called "Langton, Birley and Co." This seems to come to an end in 1826 when some sort of financial crisis hits and the company is wound up. Following this, in 1837 Thomas Langton and his wife and daughter Anne, join his son John, in Ontario, Canada.
A few cousins may remain in Kirkham, but no Langtons of any significance.
The Kirkham Langtons sold up and move off to different locations:
Ontario, Canada
Liverpool
Manchester
Barrow House, Derwentwater, Cumberland
Finally the Broughton Tower Langtons.
Roger Langton, son of Edward/Edmund Langton of Newton/Walton, bought Broughton Tower in 1615 from Thomas Singleton. Note the same name, Singleton, as in the marriage within the Kirkham Langtons. It was Rogers son John who married a Singleton, but it was William, Roger's eldest son who inherited Broughton Tower, causing a fall out bettween the two brothers, it seems likely that John expected to enherit his Father in laws estate, but instead he sold it to his Father, by which route it passed to John's brother William.
The estate is then passed down a couple of generations to his great granson, another Roger, who died without issue in 1678. He passes it to his cousin William who also dies without issue and who then passes it to his sister Jane Raystorne (nee: Langton) and hence it passed out of the Langton name at this point.
If you are reading this and have more information or leads which may be useful to us then please get in touch via the Contact page.