A Penberton - Middleton Connection before 1720

While extracting records from the Lancashire Parishes (go here, click on the Middleton Parish, on the resulting search screen enter Pemberton and notice a pull down menu with St Leonard pre-selected) , I see this entry:

Burial: 21 Oct 1720 St Leonard, Middleton, Lancashire, England
Mrs Penberton from Middleton Hall

As shown here, St Leonard would be the name of the church in Middleton Parish, between Manchester and Rochdale, Lancashire.

I did a little checking and it looks like there was a well known Middleton Hall there once owned by the Assheton's. The Hall takes its name from the city rather than a prior owner. The salient fact in all this, is that "Mrs. Penberton from Middleton Hall", places her firmly in the Parish of St Leonard's church.

Here is the web page for the church . It is a very unusual one, I have never before seen a church in England with a wooden cap to its always stone tower. The list of Rectors on that page begins with a Middleton (13th Century) and shows a number of Assheton's between the sailing of Columbus to the birth of the parents of our George and Sarah.

Thursday, February 11 - What a wonderful example of my "genealogical handicap"!! It never once crossed my mind last evening, that this could be our Sarah Pemberton, a widow (Mrs Penberton) gone home to finish her days. Truly I am Jack the Knerd, social connections are virtually invisible to me.

In regard to the spelling "Penberton", there are only 2 other Penberton spellings in the 3,123,753 entries of the Lancashire Parish Records project, viz.

Baptisms: 15 Jul 1838 St John, Preston, Lancashire, England
Mary Penberton - Child of Thomas Penberton & Esther

So this is not a family spelling - just a clerical one.