A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



able to afford this, Sir John Hotham became the pur- 

 chaser shortly afterwards ; M and his trustees about 

 1 66 1 sold it to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 21 son of the 

 bishop, in whose family it has since descended, the 

 Earl of Bradford being the patron. 



Sir Orlando and his son adopted a 'self-denying 

 ordinance,' and formed a body of trustees to exercise 

 the patronage,** and thus it happened that for nearly 

 half a century the Bishops of Chester were presented 

 to the rectory." 



Meanwhile the value had very greatly increased. 

 In the 1 6th century, and perhaps earlier, the system 

 of farming the tithes prevented the rectors receiving 

 the full revenue," and in 1535 the gross value was 



set down as 110 i6s. 8</., from which had to be 

 deducted a pension of 20, anciently paid to the 

 cathedral of Lichfield, and other fees and dues, 25 so 

 that the net value was reported as 80 13^. \d. In 

 the first half of the next century Bishop Bridgeman 

 found that the clear yearly value was 570 on an 

 average. 28 Bishop Gastrell, about 1717, recorded it 

 to be 'above 300 clear, all curates paid.'" In 

 1802 the receipts from tithes amounted to 

 1,306 8/., 28 and afterwards receipts from the coal 

 mining under the glebe were added. The value is 

 now estimated at 1,500." The rector of Wigan 

 pays a considerable sum from his income to the in- 

 cumbents of various churches built in the parish. 



The following is a list of the rectors and lords of the manor of Wigan : 

 Instituted Name Presented by 



oc. 1199 . . Randle* 



23 April 1205 . Robert de Durham S1 .... 



2 Nov. 1226 . Ralph de Leicester 32 .... 



oc. 1 24 1 . . . John Maunsel 83 



Cause of Vacancy 



The King res. of Randle 



20 Bridgeman, op. cit. 483 ; quoting 

 the Wigan ' Leger,' in which Sir John 

 Hotham is in 1641 called 'the new 

 patron.' At Michaelmas 1638 an agree- 

 ment seems to have been arrived at 

 between Charles Hotham and others and 

 the Bishop of London and others as to 

 the advowson ; Com. Pleas, Recov. R. 

 Mich. 14 Chas. I, m. 3. In a fine of 

 Mar. 164.2 relating to the advowson, 

 John Murray, esq., and Marian his wife 

 were deforciants ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of 

 F. bdle. 140, no. 15. 



21 Bridgeman, op. cit. 484. In a fine 

 of 1659 Charles Hotham and Elizabeth 

 his wife were deforciants ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 164, no. 16. See also 

 Com. Pleas, D. Enr. Mich. 1662, m. 

 95 d. 



22 Bridgeman, op. cit. 484 ; ' bearing in 

 mind the corrupt practices of former pa- 

 trons, who had turned the advowson into a 

 means of private gain,' and wishing to 

 avoid such abuses, Sir Orlando associated 

 with himself as trustees the then Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury and others. 



M Ibid. 60 1. In 1713 the Bishop of 

 Chester made inquiries as to the condi- 

 tions of the trust, supposing that some 

 preference was to be given to the Bishops 

 of Chester ; ibid. 613. 



94 See the Kitchin lease described 

 under Rector Kighley. Apart from dis- 

 advantageous leases it was not always 

 easy to secure the tithe ; see Duchy Plead. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 1 1 1 ; 

 and the complaint of Rector Smith in 

 1553, quoted by Canon Bridgeman, op. cit. 

 123-7, I 3 > see *' 80 X 58 '59- The 

 difficulties of the rectors concerning their 

 tithes were quite independent of those 

 they had with the corporation of Wigan 

 as lords of the manor. 



Besides disadvantageous leases and open 

 violence the rectors lost thiough prescrip- 

 tion, by which a modus or composition in 

 lieu of tithes was established. Thus the 

 Earls of Derby had long held the tithes of 

 the townships of Dalton and Upholland at a 

 low rent ; and about 1600 William, the 

 sixth earl, claimed an absolute right to 

 the tithes, paying only 12 131. 4^. a 

 year to the rector. Rector Flcetwood 

 tried to defeat this claim, and Bishop 

 Bridgeman made a still more vigorous 

 effort, but in vain ; and the same modus 

 is still paid by the Earl of Derby's 



assigns in lieu of the tithes ; Bridgeman, 

 op. cit. 161-3, 254-9, 647-50. Pre- 

 scription was likewise established in the 

 case of Ince, 4 being paid by the 

 Gerards and their successors ; ibid. 190, 

 655. 



25 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 220. 

 The gross value was made up of the rents 

 of tenants, free and at will, 25 ; rent of 

 two water-mills 66j. 8</.; tithes of corn, 

 hay, wool, &c., 61 31.4^.5 oblations, 

 small tithes, and roll, ,18 ; perquisites 

 and profits of the markets, 66s. 8</. 

 Robert Langton as chief steward had a 

 fee of 4. 



26 Bridgeman, op. cit. 417. A state- 

 ment of his receipts and payments for his 

 first year of occupation ending at Christ- 

 mas 1616 is printed 188-203 > m n y 

 curious details are given. A later account 

 of the profits of the rectory will be found 

 on pp. 307-19. Bishop Bridgeman com- 

 piled his ' Leger,' extant in a copy made 

 by Rector Finch in 1708, recording all 

 the lands and rights belonging to the 

 rector and the endeavours he had made 

 to recover and preserve them. In 1619 

 he compiled a terrier of the demesne 

 lands of the rectory ; op. cit. 244-6. The 

 names of the fields include Parson's 

 Meadow, Diglache or Diglake, the 

 Mesnes, Conygrew, Rycroft, Carreslache, 

 Parsnip Yard, and Cuckstool Croft. 

 Potters used to come for clay to the par- 

 son's wastes, undertaking to make the 

 land level again ; 268. Another terrier 

 was compiled in 1814, and is printed ibid. 

 651-8. 



*7 Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.). ii, 242. 

 The rector was instituted to ' Wigan with 

 the chapel of Holland.' There were two 

 wardens and eighteen assistants, serving 

 jointly for the whole parish ; seven of 

 the assistants were for the town. 



28 Bridgeman, op. cit. 642. ' The tithes 

 were valued by two competent persons and 

 offered to the farmers at their separate 

 valuations, which they all accepted, and 

 paid their respective shares on the first 

 Monday after Christmas, which is the day 

 usually appointed for payment.' The 

 tithes of Wigan itself were gathered in 

 kind. The mode of tithing is thus 

 described : 'The corn in this parish is 

 bound up in sheaves. Eight sheaves set 

 up together make one shock, and every 

 tenth shock is the rector's property, and 



60 



if under the number of ten the rector had 

 none. The practice was so common on 

 small farms to have eight or nine shocks 

 in each field bound up in large sheaves 

 the farmers called it " binding the tithe- 

 man out " to put a stop to this I (Rector 

 G. Bridgeman) now take every tenth 

 sheaf when small quantities of corn are 

 grown. Beans and peas which were hoed 

 in rows or drills were not tithed. . . . 

 The practice in this parish was so com- 

 mon for corn growers to claim waste land 

 corn exempt from tithe that in the year 

 1809 I was advised to make them pay an 

 acknowledgement or to take it in kind ' ; 

 ibid. 645, 646. 



29 Liverpool Diocesan Cal. 



80 Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 436 ; Dtp. 

 Keeper's Rep. xxi, App. 5 ; a charter by 

 which the king appointed Adam de Freck- 

 leton perpetual vicar of the church of 

 Wigan, ' which is of our donation,' at the 

 request of Randle treasurer of Salisbury 

 and rector of Wigan ; the latter was to 

 receive a pension of a mark. 



81 Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 147. A 

 few years later the church of Wistow 

 was given to the same Robert ; ibid. 177. 

 The patronage at this time was in the 

 king's hands through the minority of the 

 heir of Warine Banastre. The new rector 

 was one of the king's clerks, and probably 

 never visited Wigan ; the ' vicarage ' of 

 Adam was expressly reserved in the pre- 

 sentation. 



82 Cal. Pat. 1225-32, p. 88. The 

 cause of vacancy is not stated, but Robert 

 de Durham was living in 1222 ; see Cal. 

 Pat. 1216-25, p. 332. In 1228 Ralph de 

 Leicester was presented to the chapel of 

 Cowesby ; ibid. 195. See also De Banco 

 R. 358, m. 50, where it is stated that he 

 and John Maunsel were nominated by 

 Henry III. A Ralph de Leicester was 

 Treasurer of Lincoln Cathedral in 1248 ; 

 he died in 1253 ; Le Neve, Fast, ii, 88. 



88 John Maunsel was one of the most 

 important of the royal officials ; for a 

 sketch of his career see Bridgeman op. cit. 

 4-30, and Diet. Nat. Biog. He was a 

 great pluralist, adding Wigan to his other 

 benefices before 1241, when he charged 

 Thurstan de Holand with setting fire to 

 a house in Wigan ; Cur. Reg. R. 121, m. 

 26 d. As Robert Banastre is supposed to 

 have come of age about 1239, the presen- 

 tation must have been earlier than this ; 



