ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



tion of the last incumbent. 1 Marriage was the cause of the deprivation 

 in the other case. The motion was made by Percival Wharton, the 

 former vicar of Bridekirk, against William Graye, the vicar in possession. 

 Both parties appeared before the visitors in the parish church of Kendal 

 on 10 October. Graye stated 'that the sayde Percyvall Wharton was 

 instituted and inducted in the sayd benefice and beynge in possession 

 was depryved for that he was maryed and as to the statutes he doth refer 

 himself to the same.' The benefice was adjudged to Wharton, who 

 enjoyed it till 1563, when he became vicar of Kirkbystephen. 2 The 

 detections or comperta presented against the laity were neither specially 

 characteristic of the time nor of a very serious nature. The church- 

 wardens and parishioners of Morland, Great Salkeld, Shap, and Skelton 

 presented that they had no register book ; the church of Great Salkeld 

 was in decay ; the parishioners of Warcop lacked a Paraphrase, though 

 they had a box for the poor ; the churches of Skelton and Kirkandrews 

 had no curates ; presentations for breaches of morality were made only 

 by the churchwardens of Cliburn and Newbiggin. When we remember 

 that these detections were made in answer to the Articles of Inquiry, the 

 churchwardens having first touched the most holy Gospels of God, it 

 cannot be said that the diocese of Carlisle was in an unsound condition. 

 The notable feature of the visitation was the alacrity with which the 

 main body of the clergy subscribed to the Prayer Book, for though the 

 number of absentees swells to a formidable list, the figures are deceptive, 

 as several of the incumbents were pluralists or non-resident and subscribed 

 in other places. 3 At a later date we shall be able to estimate the value 

 of this conformity to the majority of the clergy and how much of it 

 was due to fear. 



The conformity of Dean Salkeld was a great blow to a distinguished 

 personage who was anxiously expecting to obtain his place. For more 

 than two centuries it has been maintained that the dean of Carlisle was 

 deprived by the visitors of 1559, but we have already shown that no 

 fault was found in him at that time. As the error has been so often 

 repeated * it may be convenient if we state the efforts that were un- 

 successfully made to bring about his ejectment. The following letter 



1 ' Item quod ecclesia de Ormysshed in comitatu Westmorland, Carliolensis Dioceseos, vacat 

 in presenti et vacavit per annum integrum per resignacionem ultimi incumbentis ' (Exch. Cert. Bishops' 

 Inst. Carl., No. i). On 20 July 1565 Richard Towlson was collated to the rectory on the. death of 

 Christopher Parker, the last incumbent (Carl. Epis. Reg., Best, f. 19). 



a Percival Wharton was appointed to the free chapel in the castle of Penrith in 1552 (Memo. R. 

 Recorda, East., 5 Edw. VI. m. 33). He vacated the incumbency in 1554, when he had an exonera- 

 tion of 23 exacted from him for the fruits of the said chapel (ibid. Mich., I and 2 Phil, and Mary, 

 m. 194). 



3 For instance, George Nevell, rector of Bolton in Alderdale, was preconized at Carlisle, and, as he 

 did not appear, was pronounced contumacious, but he must have appeared and subscribed at Penrith as 

 rector of Great Salkeld, for his name does not find a place in the black list for the deanery of Cumberland 

 in which his benefice was situated. 



* It seems that Hugh Todd was the first to start the theory of Dean Salkeld's ejection in 1559 for 

 refusing the supremacy (Notitia Ecclesie, p. 8). To Todd may be traced the error in Le Neve (Fasti, 

 ed. Hardy, iii. 246), and in all the local histories. It is worthy of note that early controversialists like 

 Nicholas Sander, Bridgwater and Dodd did not claim Dean Salkeld as a papist, for his name does not 

 appear on their lists. 



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