An offshoot of the Pilkingtons was settled at Rivington in the first half of the fourteenth century, and the old hall was the residence of this branch of the family for many generations. The earlier history of the family is involved in much obscurity, but in the 10th Edward III. (1336-7) Robert, a younger son of Sir Roger de Pilkington and his wife Alice, sister and heiress of Henry de Bury, obtained a grant of the manor of Rivington from Alexander, son of Cicely de Rivington. This Robert Pilkington was in the time of Richard II. a juror in the great Scrope and Grosvenor cause, which occupied the court of the Lord Marshall of England four years in determining the conflicting claims of Sir Richard le Scrope and Sir Robert le Grosvenor to bear for arms on a field azure, a bend or--a golden bar placed diagonally across the shield. Heraldry in those days was the recognised mark of hereditary honour and gentility, and coat armour had an intrinsic value. The suit in which Robert Pilkington, of Rivington, took part has scarcely a parallel in history; deeds, chronicles, monastic records, and muniments that purported to date back to the fabulous days of King Arthur were submitted; and John O'Gaunt, Owen Glendower, Geoffrey Chaucer, and scores of lords, knights, and esquires, the surviving veterans from the wars of Edward III., who had beheld the blazonry borne before the walls of Ascalon, in the Crusades, in northern France, under the standard of the Black Prince, on the plains of Crescy and Poictiers, and many other famous places and fields of fame, were called as witnesses. As the humourist has it-- Would you know more, you must look at "The Roll," Which records the dispute, And the subsequent suit, Commenced in "Thirteen sev'nty-five,"--which took root In Le Grosvenor's assuming the arms Le Scroope swore That none but _his_ ancestors, ever before, In foray, joust, battle, or tournament wore, To wit "_On a Prussian-blue Field, a Bend Or_;" While the Grosvenor averr'd that his ancestor bore The same, and Scroope lied like a--somebody tore Off the simile--so I can tell you no more, Till some A double S shall the fragment restore. Robert Pilkington, by his wife Katharine, daughter of J. de Aynesworth, had a son Alexander, his heir, who, as appears by an inquisition taken 9th Henry V. (1421-2), held seven parts of the manor of Rivington of his cousin, Sir John Pilkington, Knight; he settled his estates 8th Henry VI. (1429-30), and was succeeded in turn by his son, Ralph Pilkington, who died 30th January, 15th Edward IV. (1476). His inquisition was taken at Eccles on Monday before the Purification of the Virgin, 17th Edward IV. (26th January, 1478), when it was found that Robert Pilkington, who was then 28 years of age, was his son and next heir.