Adam Mort’s court day, June 12, 1624
The second of Adam's court rolls, which has been preserved, is of this date. It was reported to this court that Edward Tyldesley had died since the last session. Thomas Tyldesley, later the great soldier, was his heir; he was under age and a ward of the lord king. Richard Edge of Alderforest in Worsley had sold three acres of land in Astley to Thomas Gillibrand the younger, Giles Astley and Lambert Partington. These were warned by the court of their duty to do service in future. This Lambert Partington had built a barn on Blackmoor Common and had diverted a watercourse there. In the list of disputes before the court was one concerning a tool called a hatch, which Robert Grundy claimed from Ralph Cowdall; it was worth 3s. 4d. Boundary problems sometimes came before the court. John Cowdall claimed a part of Harper Hadbutts and had set stones there to mark off his intake. A. jury of the court had asked him to produce deeds for this land, but this he had never done. He was ordered to remove the stones before Michaelmas or pay the heavy fine of 6s. 8d.

The goose tithe, 1624
At this same court another boundary query came up for decision. The division or meare between the manors of Astley and Bedford was very obscure and the exact line of partition had been made more difficult to follow by the changes which had taken place. One of the deponents sworn before the court was Thomas Gillibrand of the Peel, who said that thirty years ago he and Sir Gilbert Gerard’s officer had fixed rails to define the extent of the two manors. Tenants from Astley and Bedford came to Adam Hindley's house to set them in position. But the line of division ran through the Hindley home and this was made more complicated by a new building, which had been added on to the old. Gillibrand collected the goose tithes in Astley and Mr. Urmston enjoyed the same profit in Bedford. George Hindley's goose had hatched out and both these parties claimed a gosling. The bird went to Mr. Urmston, because all the room the mother goose could sit on was on the higher end of a bench in the new house, just over the division of Bedford. Elsewhere there had been no room for her. Gillibrand claimed that this was not right, as all the new part was in Astley. Then came one Isabella to the court. She was widow of Adam and had heard her husband say in his lifetime that one crook of his barn was in Bedford, the rest in Astley. Moreover she said her husband once cut down a thorn tree standing outside the hedge of the Yam Croft, five yards from the south side of the house. Old Adam repented and said to her, that he ought not to have fallen that tree, as he thought it was a mark to fix the division between the two townships. And from this 'vaguest of evidence' the jury was left to fixate the dividing line between the disputants of the tithes.

Thomas Woodburn, 1626
By 1626, Thomas who had followed his father John in 1614, was himself dead. He had married Margaret Greg, from whose father Robert he had never received the full dowry payment and at the time of death some £15 was unpaid. The brothers of Thomas were John and Richard, with sisters, Elizabeth and Margery. To these he owed in partly unpaid legacies the great sum of £20 1. Is. 8d. while his entire assets did not cover this deficit. For he had in debts due to himself £55 8s. 8d. and chattels of a total value of £97 2s. 10d. These figures explain why he had not been able to account to his family. Grazing on the moss earth pastures of Woodburns hoary tenement in 1626 were two runt oxen.

Lambert Scott's heirlooms, 1627
Lambert made his will on December 3, 1627, just four days before he died. By his wife Margaret he had raised eight children, of whom a namesake Lambert was one. As heirlooms his father bequeathed to him a great brass pot, two silver spoons and a great ark standing in the loft above. By loft he signified upstairs. But for the carts, the cart gear, the wheels, harrow, treases and things necessary to them he was to pay a reasonable price. Lambert had already advanced his daughter Arm in the world, so he could leave her only ten shillings. Thurstan Scott was the eldest son; he was left five shillings, but it must be remembered he took the land. The rest of his considerable personal estate amounting to over £95 he gave to his five younger children. One of his executors was his brother-in-law, William Sothem.

Robert Leigh, 1629
Leigh was a substantial yeoman; he belonged to the richer class of townsman, almost on a par with the landed families, who in days past wove so much of the varied tapestry of village history. He probably lived at the house later known as Manor House, for he speaks of his good friend and neighbour, Thomas Hilton, and asks him to be overseer of his will and affairs. Leigh had married Elizabeth daughter of Miles Speakman and died in full manhood, as he left very young children. He showed concern for them in the very last moments of his life and requested his daughter Margaret to resign one tenth of her portion and add this to the £20 he gave to his father-in-law for the purpose of bringing them up. Miles and daughter all promised faithfully to perform this family duty. He left altogether £197, which was a great sum for that far-off day and had amassed this by aiming higher than the simple gains of practical husbandry. He sold cheeses in Manchester, he lent out his surplus cash and hired out cows to profit. He leased additional pasture ground from the great Adam Mort and the Woodbums. The price of his wearing clothes was £4 4s. 6d. which is a sign that they were of good quality. In his inventory his valuers include the edgroves, after pasture and edict of his meadowlands, for he died in August, 1629, when the second crop of grass was coming on. Among his debts was one of £9. 7s. owed to Thomas Chamock; the interest was in arrear and the security had to be strengthened by an assurance from the mother of the debtor to repay it. The will perpetuates the name of another daughter Elizabeth and a son John.

Adam Mort, March 25 1631.
This pious puritan of Bolton le Moors, the Geneva of the North, died on this day. By August 18 of the next year the eschaetor's jury had completed the inquiry into his many and far-scattered landed properties. Twenty gentlemen met, one of whom Richard Whitehead was the only local neighbour. They inspected title deeds, settlements, the will; they identified most properties by referring to their previous or present holders; they detailed the tenure, the obligations, the value after all outgoings had been met and the superior lord to whom feudal dues were payable. Adam Mort possessed many farms, cottages, shops and even a fuller's mill in various parts of the county. His properties were situate in Astley, Tyldesley, Bedford, Pennington, Westleigh, Tong, Bolton, Harwood, Hindley, Penketh, Halliwell and outside his native county at Lymm in Cheshire. In addition he enjoyed many rents and one half of the tithes of corn and grain growing in Astley. The manor of Astley was held of the king as of his manor of Widnes and the Duchy of Lancaster. It was assessed at a three-hundredth part of a knight's fee, owed service to the court at Widnes and paid 9d. per year for castle ward at Lancaster. Thomas Mort was next heir, aged 40 years. Adam was a younger son. Richard the second son had died, leaving children, of whom one Adam is named in the inquiry. When the very full details of the whole estate had been written up on large parchment indentures, all signed by the royal eschaetor Hugh Rigby. One set was handed to the next heir and this record still survives among the Mort deeds. There is no note of Adam's burial; probably he was taken either to Bolton or Deane.

Portrait of the great Adam, 1631
Three days after Adam Mort died, all his effects were valued for ecclesiastical probate and his personal property certified at £1,494 3S. 8d. This was a princely sum, unsurpassed locally in that day and time except by that of Henry Traves of Lightoaks in Bedford, who had died in 1626. His personal wealth had soared to £1,668. The greater part of Mort’s wealth was in ready money; English bullion, £806 and foreign coin £12. On loan to various persons was £558. It is traditionally said that the basis of Mort’s wealth came from Bolton fustians, but the inventory mirrors him in the light of a local banker. There was only one book listed among his belongings, the family bible. His clothes, sword, dagger, and riding accoutrements were valued at £6 13s. 4d. a pike, musket and other armour came to £2 and a caliver 3s. 4d. His most valuable item of household was the silver plate (£9) and then the feather beds weighed and marked at 18 stone, value £611s. 5d. The livestock comprised only two cows, sufficient to supply the needs of the family. Adam had poor vision and used two pairs of spectacles to overcome this defect.