WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WIGAN 



Priory was still in existence." The Clergy List of 

 154.1-2 " shows that there were four priests within 

 the parish, apart from rector and cantarist ; one of 

 these was the curate, Ralph Scott ; two were paid by 

 Robert Langtou and Thomas Gerard ; the mainten- 

 ance of the other is not recorded. 



In the Visitation List in 1548 is left a blank for 

 the rector's name ; then follow eight names, one 

 being that of the chantry priest ; but two of the 

 clergy seem to have been absent. In 1 5 54 Master 

 Richard Smith, rector ; the curate, and three others 

 appeared, including the former chantry priest. No 

 improvement took place under the episcopate of 

 Bishop Scott, though he had a personal interest in 

 the parish. In 1562 the Bishop of Sodor and Man 

 did not appear, being 'excused by the Bishop of 

 Chester.' Ralph Scott appeared and exhibited his 

 subscription, so that he was prepared to accept the 

 Elizabethan order, as he had accepted all the previous 

 changes ; two other names also appear in the list, one 

 of an old priest, the other a fresh name. In 1565 

 only three names are shown in the list — Bishop Stan- 

 ley, who ' did not exhibit,' his curate Ralph Scott, and 

 Thomas Baron or Barow, whose name had appeared 

 in each list from 1 54.8, and who perhaps had no minis- 

 terial office.*' Thus it appears that by this time the 

 working clergy had been reduced to one, the curate 

 of the parish church." 



The short incumbency of William Blackleach, of 

 whom nothing is known, was followed by that of a 

 decided Protestant, Edward Fleetwood. He was one 

 of the two ' preachers 'in 1 590 at the parish church ; 

 there were no preachers at the two chapelries, Uphol- 



land and Billinge.'* The Puritan rector and his 

 curate in 1 592 were reported to 'wear no surplice,' 

 nor did they catechise the youth, and were admon- 

 ished accordingly ; it is also stated that ' they want a 

 chancel."' In 1610 there was 'a preacher' at the 

 parish church, but none at either of the chapels."" 



The Commonwealth surveyors of 1650 recom- 

 mended the subdivision of the parish ; Holland 

 Chapel had already been cut oiF by an Act of 1 646, 

 and the committee of Plundered Ministers had made 

 several increments in the stipends of the incumbents 

 of the chapelries out of Bishop Bridgeman's sequestered 

 tithes." After the Restoration both the rector and 

 a large number of the Protestants remained firm in 

 their attachment to the Presbyterian discipline, while 

 the rectory was till 1706 held by the Bishops of 

 Chester, among them the learned Pearson. Here, as 

 in other parishes, the great increase in population 

 during the 19th century has led to the erection of 

 many new churches and the subdivision of the ancient 

 parish, there being now twenty parochial churches in 

 connexion with the Establishment, besides licensed 

 churches and mission rooms.*' 



There was only one endowed chantry ; it was 

 founded in 1338 by Mabel, widow of Sir William de 

 Bradshagh, who endowed it with a messuage in Wigan 

 and tenements at Haigh." In 1548 the chantry 

 priest was celebrating at the altar of our Lady in the 

 church according to his foundation." 



The charities of Wigan " comprise 

 CHARITIES a large number of separate benefac- 

 tions, mostly for the poor in general, 

 but some especially for clothing or apprenticing boys." 



8> Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 220. 

 8^ Printed by the Rec. Soc. of Lanes. 

 and Ches. p. 14. 



^ A Thomas Baron, perhaps the same, 

 had been chantry priest in 1534; Valor 

 Eccl. V, 220. 



^ These details are taken from the 

 Visitation Lists preserved in the Diocesan 

 Registry at Chester. A communion 

 table had replaced the altar by 1561 ; 

 Bridgeman, op. cit. 136. 



8' Gibson, Lydiatc Hall, 248, quoting 

 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, 4. The second 

 preacher at the parish church was paid by 

 the lord of Newton, apparently in con- 

 tinuation of the old custom. 



^ tram. Hkt. Soc. (new ser.), x, 192. 

 Bishop Bridgeman gives a full account of 

 the 'old chancel' as it was ia 1620. 

 Rector Fleetwood had removed the 

 'goodly, fair choir seats' formerly there 

 and allowed 'plain, rude seats' to be 

 placed instead. The communion table 

 stood in the middle of it ; the bishop as 

 rector was placed at the west end, his 

 ' wife, &c.,' at the east end, his servants 

 on the south side ; the ' minister's box ' 

 was on the north side, where also the 

 clerks had a seat. In the old rood-loft 

 the bishop had lately placed an organ ; 

 and he built up a * new chancel,' at the 

 east end of the old one. See Bridgeman, 

 op. cit. 263, 264. This new chancel 

 was several steps higher than the old, and 

 contained the altar, 271. 



*? Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 13. 



^ Commonivealth Ch. Surv, (Rec. Soc. 



Lanes, and Ches.), 59-64 ; Flund, Mins. 



Acctu (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 25, 



41 ; ii, 129. 



A list of the modern curates is given 

 by Canon Bridgeman, op. cit. 723-9. 

 8' An account of the sale of a pew in 



the parish church" in 1796 is given in 

 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq, Notes, i, 128. 



s" Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 213, no. 16-21 ; 

 Cal. Pat. 1334-8, p. 468. The chaplain 

 was to celebrate at the altar of St. Mary 

 in Wigan Church for the souls of Edward 

 II, Sir William de Bradshagh, Mabel his 

 wife, and others. 



Very few names of the chantry priests 

 have been preserved ; Raines, Lanes. Chant. 

 (Chet. Soc.) i, 66 : — 



1338. John de Sutton, presented by 

 Dame Mabel de Bradshagh. 

 Richard Fletcher. 

 1488. William Holden, presented by 

 James Bradshagh, on the 

 death of R. Fletcher, 

 oc. 1521. Geoffrey CoppuU, vicar of 

 Mountnessing and chantry 

 priest of our Blessed Lady 

 at Wigan, aged 56, gave 

 evidence in a plea of 1521- 

 2 ; Duchy Plead, i, 102. 

 oc. 1534. Thomas Baron, 

 1535. Vacant. 



1544. Hugh Cookson. In 154X he 

 was paid byThomas Gerard, 

 and soon afterwards ap- 

 pointed to this chantry. 

 In 1553 he had a pension 

 of 60J. 31/., and was fifty- 

 one years of age. He was 

 not summoned to the 

 visitation of 1562, so that 

 probably he had died be- 

 fore that time. 

 '1 Lanes. Chant, loc. cit. His duty was 

 ' to celebrate for the souls of the founders 

 and to sing mass with note twice a week.' 

 There was no plate, as he used the orna- 

 ments of the church. The total rental was 

 661. lod,, but ij. was paid to the rector as 

 chief rent, perhaps for a burgage in Wigan. 



6S 



"2 There was an inquiry at Wigan in 

 the time of Jas. I concerning ;^ioo 

 given in 1616 by Hugh Bullock the elder, 

 citizen and haberdasher of London, for 

 setting the poor of the borough to work 

 ' in spinning of cotton, wool, hemp, flax, 

 and making of fustians, and other stuffs ;' 

 it was alleged that the fund was misap- 

 plied 5 and an order was made, 3 Mar. 

 1624-5, to rectify it; Hart. MS. 2176, 

 fol. 32i, 34. 



" The particulars hereafter given are 

 taken from the Char. Com. Rsp. xxi 

 (1829), 271-319. An inquiry into the 

 endowed charities of the parish, except 

 the township of Wigan, was made in 

 1899. 



For Wigan township Hugh Bullock of 

 London, as recorded in the previous note, 

 and Henry Mason, rector of St. Andrew 

 Undershaft, London, each gave ;^ioo, the 

 latter adding ^140 later, which in 1632 

 and 1639 were conveyed to the corpora- 

 tion ; and a farm in Rainford, and lands 

 called Bangs in Wigan, and Hall Meadow 

 in Pemberton, were purchased. In 1828 

 these were underlet at rents amounting 

 to £60 a year, of which only part was 

 received by the charity. This was used 

 in binding apprentices. In a feoffment 

 of 1665 lands at Angerton Moss, Brough- 

 ton in Furness, are described as the gift 

 of Oliver Markland, citizen and inn- 

 holder of London ; this land was sold in 

 1706, and with the proceeds, ^25, a rent- 

 charge of zos. a year on premises in 

 Standishgate, Wigan, was purchased ^ but 

 in i8z8 no payment had been received 

 for many years, and it was not known 

 upon what premises the charge was made. 



John Guest, by will in 1653, charged 

 ,^3 151. upon premises in Abram called 

 Bolton House, for cloth to the poor, to be 



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