This Day in History

[DanaC]

From the wiki page about the Bolton Massacre:

At the end of the Third English Civil War the Earl of Derby travelled north and was captured near Nantwich and given quarter. However, he was tried by court-martial at Chester on 29 September. His quarter was disallowed and he was condemned to death for treason (i.e. for communicating with King Charles II). His appeal for pardon was rejected and he escaped, but was recaptured by Captain Hector Schofield and on 15 October 1651, taken to Bolton where he reputedly spent his last hours at Ye Olde Man & Scythe public house, but more likely in a house on Churchgate [16] before being beheaded near the Market Cross on Churchgate.

Ye Olde Man and Scythe is still there. I've drunk there many times when I lived in Bolton. They have a skull behind the bar which they claim is that of Earle of Derby :p