Editing Samlesbury Hall (section)

==History==
Before being owned by the Southworths, Samlesbury manor belonged to the d'Ewyas family.

Gilbert de Southworth of [[Warrington]] acquired half of the manor by marriage to Alice d'Ewyas and is credited with building the Great Hall around 1325. His great-grandson Thomas built the south-west wing. Southworth descendants held their part of the manor until 1677–78, when it was sold by Edward Southworth to Thomas Bradyll. Bradyll never lived at the hall but stripped much of its interior features to use at his main house of [[Conishead Priory]] at [[Ulverston]]. He then rented the hall out to handloom weavers before it was converted into the Bradyll Arms inn in 1830. The next owner was John Cooper, who bought the building in 1850 and leased it to Mrs Mary Ann Harrison as a [[co-educational]] boarding school. She established a Pestolozzian Institution at the hall, based on the ideas of the 18th-century Swiss educational reformer [[Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi]]. The school was well ahead of its time and in some ways anticipated the better-known [[Montessori education|Montessori system]] by about fifty years.

Joseph Harrison, of Galligreaves Hall, a prominent [[Blackburn]] industrialist, substantially renovated the hall after he bought it in November 1862.<ref>Wm. Alexander Abram, A History of Blackburn;  Blackburn, England:  J. G. and J. Toulmin, 1877, p.  633.</ref>  William Harrison, Joseph's eldest son, lived at the hall until 1879, when he committed suicide.  A fall on the ice in January of that year caused traumatic injuries to William's brain and a leg, resulting in extreme depression.<ref>Blackburn Standard, 24 May 1879, "Suicide of Mr. William Harrison, of Samlesbury Hall"</ref>  His father, Joseph Harrison, died the next year at Galligreaves Hall, 18 February 1880, "after a prolonged illness".<ref>''Manchester Courier'', 19 February 1880, "Death of Mr. Joseph Harrison, of Galligreaves Hall".</ref>  Ownership of the hall then passed to Joseph's youngest son, Henry, who resided in Blackburn.  He was mayor of Blackburn in 1880–81<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cottontown.org/Politics/Mayors/Pages/List-of-Mayors-for-Blackburn-and-Darwen.aspx|title=List of Mayors for Blackburn and Darwen|website=www.cottontown.org|accessdate=Jul 10, 2019}}</ref> and became an Honorary Freeman of the Borough.

Although still owned by the Harrisons, the hall was tenanted for a number of years by Frederick Baynes and his family.<ref>England and Wales Census, 1891 and 1901</ref>  Baynes was also a mayor of Blackburn, serving from 1896 to 1897.<ref name="auto"/>   When Henry Harrison died in 1914, the estate of Samlesbury Hall was entailed to his nephew Mr. M. J. C. Johnston, son of Henry's sister Agnes.<ref>''Manchester Evening News'', 11 June 1914, "A Blackburn Fortune:  Will of the Late Mr. H. Harrison"</ref>

However, the hall had been left empty since 1909 until it was bought in 1924 by a building firm who intended to demolish it and build a housing estate. After money was raised by public subscription, the hall was purchased in 1925 and put in the hands of the Samlesbury Hall Trust, who have managed it since then.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.samlesburyhall.co.uk/1325-onwards.htm |title=Samlesbury Hall |access-date=16 January 2013}}</ref>