Notes: youngest son. His family's attachment to the cause of insurgent barons under the Earl of Lancaster, led John eventually into the service of the Queen's party, where he was rewarded with the favour of Queen Isabella and the warm friendship of the young Prince Edward, to whose personal service he was attached. Accompanied the Queen and the Prince during their sojourn on the Continent, where they sought the protection of Count William of Hainault, to whose daughter, Phillipa, the boy Prince was contracted by marriage. In Sep 1325 Isabella landed with her son at Orwell in Suffolk, supported by a force of two thousand men, which the Count of Hainault had placed at her disposal. Edward II was deposed and Prince Edward proclaimed in his stead. The following spring Sir John Radcliffe was despatched to Hainault, to conduct Phillippa to England for her marriage to Edward III, and to act as King's Proxy in the preliminaries concerning the marriage. As soon as Edward was firmly established on the throne, having proved his quality by his courage against the Scots in his first expedition of a military nature, the Queen-mother's star began to set. Queen Isabella was banished for the remainder of her life to the seclusion of Castle Rising. During the next five years Sir John Radcliffe was engaged with the King against the Scots, and in 1337 was sent to Flanders to open negotiations for a treaty between the King and the Flemish trading cities, which were anxious to secure the support of the powerful Edward III against the King of France. For several years John Radcliffe remained in Flanders, rendering valiant service in counsel and in arms to Jacob van Artevelde and his associates in Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres. So much so, that when he was asked to name his reward he immediately requested that a number of the Flemish craftsmen should be permitted to return to England, there to teach their arts of manufacture to his own people. The request was readily granted, and he thereupon conducted these men and their families to England, settling them in Lancashire, of which county he had been appointed a Knight of the Shire in 1340. In 1341 John Radcliffe acquired from John de Belshaw the latter's interest in the bailiwick of the serjeancy of Rochdale, 'with all its rights to be held of the chief lord of the fee by accustomed service'. The charter is dated at Whalley 18 Nov 1341, and was witnessed by Richard de Radcliffe, Robert de Radcliffe, John de Clitheroe, and Richard Fyshwycke, Clerk. In 1346 Edward began the siege of the fortress of Calais, which finally capitulated on 4 Aug 1347. During this campaign Sir John Radcliffe was in constant attendance on the King, with a personal entourage of two knights, twelve esquires, and fourteen archers, and so nobly did he distinguish himself throughout the engagements, that the King granted him the right to use what has been described as the proudest family motto in all the nobility of England, the superscription 'Caen, Crecy, Calais', which has been borne by his lineal descendents from that time to the present day. After the surrender of Calais Sir John returned to establish his possession of Ordsall manor, against Sir John Blount and the De Leghs, who had assumed the estate after the death of Sir Robert, his cousin. In the intervals of the lengthy litigation that challenged his occupation until 1359, when his rights in Ordsall lands were finally conceded, he busied himself with public duties, particularly in fostering the new industries his proteges from Flanders had introduced into the district.

Sir John married Joan de Holland, the daughter was Sir Robert Holland, the particular favourite of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and his foremost lieutenant. By her first husband, Sir Hugh Dutton, Joan Holland had a son, Sir Thomas Dutton, who was Seneschal and Receiver of the Castle of Halton in Cheshire, and Sheriff of Cheshire, 1356-59. One of his descendants was Sir Ralph Dutton, the prominent Royalist, and another was created Baron Sherborne of Sherborne in 1784. After the death of Sir John, Joan married a third husband in Sir Edmund or Thomas Talbot of Bashall.

The period of Sir John's settling at Ordsall was the time of the Black Death, and an interesting sidelight is thrown on his character when, at a time lands were going out of cultivation for want of labourers and many men were realising their properties and fleeing with their capital abroad, Sir John chose that time to forsake military distinction and apply himself to the illustrious but no less worthy duty of a landed proprietor, the stay of simple men and a helper of the distressed, ministering to the needs of his neighbours and assisting the prosperity of the commonwealt. There was a virulent outbreak of the pestilence in the winter of 1361. It lasted for none months, and in the spring of 1362 Sir John Radcliffe died, a victim perhaps of the sickness that decimated his tenantry. The postmortem inquisition shows him holding Ordsall by knight's service and a rent of six shillings and eightpence, as well as lands in Flixton and elsewhere, including 40 acres in Salford held by knight's service and twenty shillings rent. The Ordsall estate is therein described as including a hall with 5 chambers, kitchen, chapel, 2 stables, 3 granges, 2 shippons, garner, dovecoat, orchard, a windmill, 80 acres of arable land, and 6 acres of meadow. Eight years before, the manor was described as 'a messuage, 120 acres of land, 12 acres of meadow, and 12 acres of wood'.

The manor of Moston was held by the Radcliffes of Ordsall until 1394, when Sir John of Ordsall, grandson of the original Sir John, gave his lands at Moston, presumably for life, to Henry Strangeways. After this Sir John's death in 1422, a dispute arose regarding the possession of Moston, and in 1425 a settlement was arrived at whereby his son and heir, another Sir John, was to hold the Moston lands for life, with the remainder to James, the son of Richard Radcliffe of Radcliffe. The estate remained in the possession of the Tower family until the death of their last heir without issue caused them to pass to the FitzWalter Radcliffes under settlement, and in 1543 Henry, Earl of Sussex, sold Moston Hall to John Reddish. The Ordsall family did, however, retain a portion of the lands in Moston, since Sir William Radcliffe is shown in possession of them at his death in 1568.

Father: Richard RADCLIFFE

Mother: Margaret BUTLER

Married: Joan HOLLAND (b. BET 1273/1276 - d. ABT 1326) (dau. of Robert Holland and Margaret De Salmesbury) (w. of Sir Hugh Dutton - m.3 Sir Edmund Talbot of Bashall) BEF 1301 / 1322, Holland, Lancashire, England

Children:

1. Richard RADCLIFFE

2. Annabel RADCLIFFE

2. Margaret RADCLIFFE (b. 1327)

3. Joan RADCLIFFE (b. 1330)

4. John RADCLIFFE (Sir)

5. Ellen RADCLIFFE

6. Julia RADCLIFFE

John RADCLIFFE (Sir)

Notes: younger son, served with his father in the wars in France and was knighted after the battle of Crecy. His first wife was Ellen, daughter of Thomas del Bothe of Salford and Barton, who, amongst many other benefactions, founded the Chantry of St Catherine in Eccles Church, where he lies buried. In his deed of Foundation Thomas del Bothe appointed as his executors Richard, son of Sir John de Radcliffe, John de Radcliffe, his brother and Ellen del Bothe, his wife, and Thomas de Wyche, rector of Manchester Church. After the death of Ellen, Sir John married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas D'Anyers, of Bradley-in-Appleton, Cheshire, who distinguished himself at the Battle of Crecy by rescuing the Standard of the Black Prince and taking prisoner the Earl of Tankerville, Chamberlain to the King of France. After the death of Sir Thomas, the wardship of his daughter and heiress was given to Sir John de Radcliffe, who after an ecclesiastical enquiry regarding his rights married her. Through her mother, Isabel be Bagguley, Margaret was heiress of Clemency de Cheadle. The Cheadles were a branch of the Duttons, and Sir John's mother was the widow of Sir Hugh Dutton when she married his father. Sir John died without issue, and Lady Margaret afterwards was married to Sir John Savage, whose descendants succeeded to the Cheadle estates. Six years later she was again a widow and she was married to a third husband in Sir Piers de Legh, younger son of Robert de Legh of Adlington.

Father: John RADCLIFFE of Ordsall (Sir)

3. Joan RADCLIFFE

Joan RADCLIFFE

Father: Richard RADCLIFFE

Alice RADCLIFFE

Alexander RADCLIFFE of Ordsall (Sir Knight)

Notes: became the ancestor of a line of Radcliffes settled in the counties of Buckingham and Middlesex.

1. Isabel TALBOT

8. Elizabeth TALBOT

William RADCLIFFE of Ordsall (Sir)

Buried: Manchester Church, Lancashire, England

Married: Jane TRAFFORD (dau. of Sir Edmund Trafford and Alicia Venables) (m.2 Sir James Byron of Clayton - m.3 Sir John Talbot of Salesbury) ABT 1443

Elizabeth RADCLIFFE

Married: John DOMVILLE of Lymme

Anne RADCLIFFE

Married 1: Thomas TYLDESLEY of Wardley (Sir)

Married 2: Henry FARINGTON of Wednacre (Sir)

Eleanor RADCLIFFE

Father: William RADCLIFFE of Ordsall (Sir)

Mother: Agnes HARRINGTON

Married: Elizabeth RADCLIFFE