AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



PRESTON 



Name 



Patron 



Instituted 



9 Dec. 1359 Robert de Burton 18 Henry Duke of Lane. 



oc. 1369 . . . John de Charneles 181 



13 Oct. 1374 . Ralph de Erghum, D.C.L. 1S> . . . John Duke of Lane. 



? 1 380-99 . John de Yarburgh 183 



1399 . , William de Stevington 184 .... 



VICARS 



? 1400 . . Richard Walton 185 



17 Jan. 1418-19 John White 186 New Coll., Leicester 



26 Apr. 1421 . John York alias Legeard lt7 ... 



6 Mar. 1451-2. Thomas Tunstall m 



9 Sept. 1454 . Robert Cowell 189 



oc. 1482-1501 . Thomas Bolton 19 



c. 1 5 1 6 . . . Robert Singleton 191 Sir A. Osbaldeston 



oc. 1548-62 . . Nicholas Bradshaw, LL.B. 132 . 



22 Oct. 1563 . Roger Chorley 193 Thomas Packet 



15 Sept. 1566 . Leonard Chorley 194 William Chorley . 



12 Sept. 1572 . Nicholas Daniel, B.D. 195 .... John Bold . . . 



15 Sept. 1580 . Thomas Wall 196 ... 



Cause of Vacancy 

 d. H. de Walton 



d. R. Walton 

 res. J. White 

 d. J. York 

 exch. T. Tunstall 



d. T. Bolton 



d. N. Bradshaw 

 d. R. Chorley 

 res. L. Chorley 

 res. N. Daniel 



180 An abstract of the will of Robert 

 de Burton, rector of Preston, dated at 

 Leicester Abbey, 16 Jan. 1360, is given 

 from Gibbon's Early Line, frills, 23, 

 by T. C. Smith, op. cit. 35. No benefice 

 or dignity except Preston is named. 



Another Robert de Burton had several 

 preferments ; Cal. Papal Letters, iii, 

 241, &c. 



181 He was rector in 1369, when he 

 complained that various persons had 

 broken his close at Preston ; De Banco 

 R. 435, m. 368. 



John de Charneles had canonries at 

 York and Lichfield, and dispensations for 

 benefices, &c. ; Cal. Papal Letters, iii, 92 

 (i 342), &c. He died in 1 374 ; Le Neve, 

 Fasti, i, 591. 



18a Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 389. 



Ralph de Erghum (Arkholme) was 

 chancellor of John of Gaunt and became 

 Bishop of Salisbury (1375) and Bath 

 (1388). He had various canonries, &c.; 

 Cal. Papal Letters, iv, 167, 215, &c.; Le 

 Neve, Fasti, ii, 600 ; i, 139, &c. 



188 John de Yarburgh became canon of 

 York in 1385 and exchanged for a canonry 

 at St. Paul's in 1395, resigning the latter 

 in 1400 ; ibid, iii, 20$ ; ii, 380. He, being 

 in his fifty-eighth year and unable from his 

 infirmities to reside at Preston, received 

 a papal dispensation for non-residence 

 there in 1397; Cal. Papal Letters, v, 

 22. He was a clerk of the Duke of 

 Lancaster's in 1378 ; Cal. Pat. 1377-81, 

 p. 262. In 1399 he became one of the 

 prebendaries of the New College at 

 Leicester; ibid. 1399-1401, p. 13. 



An incident of his time may be re- 

 corded here. One John Robinson Atkin- 

 son of Balderston having killed Thomas 

 Banastre at Preston in May 1395, fled to 

 the church for safety. Acknowledging his 

 crime before the king's coroner he was, 

 about a month later, allowed to go on 

 abjuring the realm. He was pardoned in 

 1397; Pal. of Lane. Chan. Misc. 1/3, 

 no. 80. 



184 He resigned in order to allow the 

 dean and canons to take possession ; Cal. 

 Papal Letters, vi, no. The date is not 

 given, but it must have been before 1406 

 and may have been in 1400. 



185 Richard Walton was vicar of Preston 

 in 1400 if a deed preserved by Kuerden is 

 rightly dated ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 250, 

 no. 25. In Harl. MS. 2042 (fol. 168) 

 what seems to be the same deed bears the 

 years 3 Hen. IV and 3 Hen. V. He was 



a burgess of Preston by hereditary right in 

 1415 ; Preston Guild R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), 7. 



In an undated deed (c. 1410) Magota 

 widow of William Walton of Walton-le- 

 Dale granted certain lands to her son 

 Richard Walton, vicar of St. Wilfrid's, 

 Preston ; Kuerden MSS. iv, P 1 18, no. 26. 



186 Raines MSS. xxii, 395. 



187 Ibid, xx, 397. He occurs in local 

 charters and pleadings ; e.g. Add. MS. 

 32107, no. 2292; Pal. of Lane. Plea 

 R. 2, m. I ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, 

 App. 21. 



188 Raines MSS. xxii, 379. The vicarage 

 fell vacant on 1 8 Feb. 1451-2 by the 

 death of John York alias Legeard, and on 

 inquiry it was found that the Dean and 

 Chapter of New College, Leicester, were 

 patrons. Tunstall is named in a local 

 deed ; Add. MS. 32107, no. 552, 2953. 



189 Raines MSS. xxii, 379. Cowell 

 had been rector of Thurnby, Line, dioc., 

 to which Tunstall went. Robert Cowell 

 was an in burgess at the guild of 1459 ; 

 Preston Guild R. 12. His name occurs in 

 local deeds down to 1473 ; e.g. Kuerden 

 MSS. iii, W 8 (no. 95), K 2. 



io Thomas Bolton, vicar, was one of 

 the witnesses to the will (dated 1482) of 

 Richard Taylor, who desired his body to be 

 buried in St. Wilfrid's Church ; Kuerden 

 fol. MS. fol. 396, T. Thomas 'Berton' 

 was vicar in 1483-4 ; Kuerden MSS. iv, 

 R 14. He is again named as Thomas 

 Bolton in 1486 ; Add. MS. 32107, no. 363. 

 The king, apparently in 1498, leased to 

 Thomas Bolton for thirty years the vicarage 

 of the parish church of Preston ; Duchy 

 of Lane. Misc. Bks. xxi, 56 a/d. There 

 is nothing to show how the vicarage had 

 come into the king's hands. Thomas 

 Bolton was still rector in 1501 ; Dep. 

 Keeper's Rep. xl, App. 542. 



191 By inquiry made in 1527 it was 

 found that the church was appropriated 

 to the college of ' New Work,' Leicester, 

 and that the vicar was Robert Singleton, 

 who had held it for eleven years ; Duchy 

 of Lane. Rentals, bdle. 5, no. 15. 



Sir Alexander Osbaldeston in 1494 ob- 

 tained a grant of the next presentation 

 from the College of Newark, Leicester, 

 and presented Robert son of John Single- 

 ton some time between 1515 and 1522. 

 The grant was disputed, but on trial 

 upheld ; Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), i, 

 195, printed by Smith, op. cit. 15-16. A 

 writ in this case was issued 8 Oct. 1516, 



85 



the church being then vacant ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Writs Proton. 8 Hen. VIII, Lent. 

 Robert Singleton was vicar in 1535 ; 

 Valor, v, 262. One of the name became 

 archpriest of St. Martin's, Dover, in 1535 ; 

 ibid, i, 95. He was a correspondent of 

 Cromwell's ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 612, 

 640. The same or another graduated at 

 Oxford (M.A. 1527) and became rector of 

 Potsgrove, Beds., 1 549 ; Foster, Alumni. 



193 Nicholas Bradshaw was in 1535 one 

 of the canons of the Newark College ; 

 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 171. The 

 inventory of church goods at Preston in 

 1552, signed by him, shows a fair number 

 of vestments, &c., remaining. There was 

 also a ' painted cloth which was about the 

 sepulchre' ; T. C. Smith, op. cit. 252-3. 

 The name is given as James Bradshaw in 

 Chet. Misc. (new ser.), i, 3. He occurs 

 as vicar of Preston in the Chester visita- 

 tion lists of 1 548 and 1562. In the latter 

 it is said he ' appeared and subscribed.' 

 Mortuus is marked against his name. 



198 In the visitation list of 1563 he was 

 curate of Chorley and vicar of Preston. 

 He was buried at Chorley 26 July 1566. 



The names of patrons and dates of 

 institution from this period are taken 

 from papers in the Dioc. Reg. Chester. 



194 Compounded for first-fruits 26 Oct. 

 1566 ; Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 409. 



One of this name was B.A. at Oxford 

 1571, and afterwards (1581) a barrister; 

 Foster, Alumni. He seems to have become 

 Recorder of Liverpool 1602-20 ; Picton, 

 Munic. Rec. i, 112. 



195 Nicholas ap Evan Daniel was vicar 

 of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, 1563-8, be- 

 ing deprived for nonconformity, Canon 

 Raines supposed ; he was also a Fellow of 

 Manchester and was there accused of un- 

 sound doctrine ; Raines, Manch. Fellows 

 (Chet. Soc.), 56-7. He compounded for 

 his first-fruits at Preston 19 Nov. 1572. 

 At Preston he preached twice every 

 Sunday and holiday. He was a married 

 man. 



196 Act Bk. at Chester, 1579-1676, 

 fol. 3^. Compounded for first-fruits 

 30 Nov. 1580. An abstract of his will, 

 dated 18 Aug. 1592, is printed by T. C. 

 Smith, op. cit. 45. He was in 1591 

 described as ' an old grave man of simple 

 persuasion in divinity and one that in his 

 youth hath used sundry callings and now 

 at last settled himself in the ministry ' ; 

 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 60 1. 



