24. ALCANCOTES

Tootle Tree

PETER DE ALCANCOTES (24)

 PETER DE ALCANCOTES  is also known as Alkincoates of Alkincoates.

He is thought to have been born around 1215 in Colne in Lancashire.

I have followed those family trees that make him the earliest known ancestor of the Parker of Browsholme family. Others say he is the son of Richard de Alcancotes and trace his family back to Normandy, and beyond that to Orkney, but the links do not seem reliable.

He held the manor of Alkincoates in Colne in the mid-13^th century.

Colne township lies mostly to the north of Colne Water, which flows west to join Pendle Water, and thence into the River Calder. Alkincoates stands at the western end of the ridge on which Colne is built. In 1241 it was worth 19s 4d.to the chief lord. The overlords were the de Lacy family.

Peter was the father of Adam de Alcancotes, born in Colne in 1255, and possibly up to eight other children.

We do not know the name of his wife.

The hall where they lived was a precursor of the Elizabethan mansion that replaced it (now demolished). Today, all that remains of the hall is Alkincoats farm at the north-side of the large park, close to Red Lane, which is named after the old hall.

In the grounds there was once a 12^th-13^th century religious building, maybe a chapel belonging to the Knights Hospitallers ; they had been given the land by John de Lacy, Peter’s overlord. Peter and his family may well have worshipped in the chapel.

But before that there seems to have been a late Saxon settlement. The fragmented Alkincoats Cross, or Colne Cross, was dug up here. Its carvings are in the Anglo-Norse style, dating it to the 10^th-11^th century. It is thought to have been smashed and buried during the Reformation, so it is likely to have been a feature of the Alcancotes’ worship.

Most of Peter’s life was spent in the reign of Henry III. His supposed birth date is the year when the hated King John signed Magna Carta, giving greater power to the people, particularly the barons, who were unhappy with his autocratic rule. The boy Henry succeeded his father the following year. He reissued Magna Carta in 1225.

Expensive foreign wars made him unpopular. His barons, probably backed by Queen Eleanor, rose against him and forced him to make peace with France in 1259.

In 1263 Simon de Montfort led a rebellion in the Second Barons War, but was defeated at Evesham.

We do not know what part, if any, Peter de Alcancotes may have played in these conflicts.

 

Peter lived to see Edward I take the throne in 1272.

He died around 1290 at Alkincoats Manor.

 

 

[1] https://thejournalofantiquities.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/the-alkincoats-cross-colne-cross2-1×1.jpg