Nicholas Whithed, of Oldham, yeoman, was living in 1486. Edmund Whitehead, gentleman, was a contributor to the subsidy levied in the reign of James the First, 1621. His descendant, Mr. Robert Whitehead, living in 1688, was ancestor of John Whitehead, gentleman, who's name is mentioned in 1747, and of Edmund Whitehead, resident here in 1761. John Whitehead,gentleman, who died October, 1766, married Mary, sister of John and Abraham Clegg, Esqrs., of Bent. Robert Whitehead, gentleman, of Ardwick, Manchester, the last of the family, who died November 26, 1834, was remarkable for his enthusiastic attachment to angling. The estate had become the property of the Cleggs, of Bent grange, in the last century, and the mansion was rendered an elegant abode by William Clegg, Esq., father of the present possessors. Westwood House, lately the residence of James Mayers Taylor, Esq., hat manufacturer, son-in-law of the eminent Henshaw, is now the abode of the family of the late John Duncuft, Esq., M.P., for the borough, the descendant of an ancient family, long seated at Hathershaw.
Hollinwood Green, now scarcely known by the name, was situated on the Hollins side of Hollinwood, and was the dwelling of the Matthews. Robert Entwistle, Esq., of Foxholes, who was born 1692, and died 1778, used to say : "Mr. Richard Matthew, of Oldham, was a monied man, and of a very respectable family, as my father, (Richard Entwisle, Esq., living 1665), well knew." Richard Matthew, gentleman, was living 1594. Elizabeth, his heiress, married in 1616, Jordan Chadwick, Esq., of Healey Hall, near Rochdale, and in her right he became possessed of lands in Hollinwood and Chadderton, which he let out to lease in 1632. Mr. Jordan Chadwick died 1634, and was father of John Chadwick, Esq., died 1668, whose third son, Jordan Chadwick, gentleman, settled at Oldham, and lived to the age of eighty-eight, dying in 1728. John,
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