A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Coal-mining is the characteristic trade of the place, 

 but there are large cotton mills also ; ginghams, &c., 

 are made. Forges, iron and brass foundries, wagon, 

 screw and nail, oil and grease works, and breweries 

 are also in operation. The ancient walk-mills show 

 that cloth was made here from early times. A gold- 

 smith was killed at Wigan in 1 341." The potters' 

 right to dig clay on the wastes was vindicated in 

 1 6 19." ' Digging and delving mines for coals' was 

 common in 1595.^^ Bell-founding is a lost trade ; it 

 was formerly in the hands of the Scott and Ashton 

 families." 



In 1624 Bishop Bridgeman notified his objection to 

 the ' barbarous and beastly game of bear baiting ' at 

 the wakes ; but on the mayor's request he allowed 

 the baiting to take place on the market hill after the 

 market was over and the people had packed up their 

 wares.'* 



An old Wigan nursery rhyme is printed in Har- 

 land and Wilkinson's Legends?^ 



The stocks were formerly near the main entrance 

 to the churchyard from Wallgate. There was a cross 

 in the market place, where proclamations were made, 

 and the base of Mab's Cross, already mentioned, is in 

 Standishgate.'"" 



There was formerly a spa in Scholes."'' 



The curfew bell, anciently rung at eight o'clock, 

 was in 1881 rung at half-past ten.^' 



A body of volunteers, called the Wigan Rifles, was 

 raised in 1804.^' The present volunteer force con- 

 sists of five companies of the 6th battalion of the 

 Manchester Regiment. 



In Domesday Book WIGAN is not 

 MANOR named ; it was only ' the church of the 

 manor ' of Newton,^' and a century later 

 it is the church that brings it forward once more, 

 a resident vicar being appointed.'" The rectors were 

 thus from before the Conquest until recently lords of 

 the manor of Wigan under the lords of Newton, and 

 the rectory was the hall. From the account of them 

 already given it will be seen that a large number were 

 non-resident, and exercised their authority by de- 

 puties. 



Among the rights which gave most trouble to the 

 rectors were those over the mills. Rector Fleetwood 

 in the first year of his incumbency (1571) had insti- 



tuted a suit against Hugh, Gilbert, and James Lang- 

 shaw to recover seisin of two ancient water-mills, 

 described as walk mills.*' The dispute went on 

 for many years." Bishop Bridgeman, thirty years 

 later, complained that William Langshaw was en- 

 deavouring to deprive the rector of his ownership 

 of the mill.*' The mills were situated at Coppull 

 and a little lower down the river by the school ; in 

 1627 they paid a rent oi £\ a year to the rector." 



The corn mills, of which in the year just named 

 there were five, also caused trouble. The principal 

 was that on the Douglas in Millgate, of which Miles 

 Leatherbarrow was the tenant in 161 7." In Rector 

 Fleetwood's time a new water corn-mill was erected 

 by Miles Gerard of Ince upon Lorington or Clarington 

 Brook, the boundary of the manors of Wigan and 

 Ince, and the water-course was diverted to feed it. 

 The rectors complained of the injustice done to them, 

 but Dr. Bridgeman allowed the mill to stand on con- 

 dition that zos. a year should be paid for tithe.*' 



In his first year Dr. Bridgeman received £\6 ly. zd. 

 as manor rents,*' and 10/. each for seven mortuaries.** 

 It is an indication that there was a 

 BOROUGH strong community existing around the 

 church to find one of the absentee 

 rectors, the busy official John Maunsel, procuring 

 from the king a charter creating a borough. This 

 was granted on 26 August 1246 to John Maunsel; 

 the town of Wigan was to be a borough and a free 

 borough for ever ; the burgesses should have a gild 

 merchant, with a hanse and all the liberties and free 

 customs pertaining to such a gild ; and no one but a 

 member of the gild should do any business in the 

 borough except by consent of the burgesses. Further, 

 to the burgesses and their heirs the king conceded 

 that they should have soke, sac, toll, theam, and 

 attachment within the borough, infangenthef, ut- 

 fangenthef ; that they should throughout the country 

 and sea ports be free of toll, lastage, pontage, passage,, 

 and stallage ; that they should do no suit to county 

 or wapentake for tenements within the borough ; 

 also that traders, even foreigners, provided they 

 entered England peaceably and with the king's leave, 

 should be allowed to pass in safety to and from the 

 borough with their merchandise upon paying the 

 usual dues.*' 



8^ Assize R. 430, m. 12 d. 



^^ Bridgeman, Wigan Ch, 222. 



™ Ibid. 161 i see also 242. 



The Industrie! of IVigan, by H. T. Fol- 

 kard, R. Betlcy, and C. M. Percy, published 

 in 1889, gives an account of the develop- 

 ment of coal-mining and other trades. 



»■• J. P. Earwaker, Tram. Hist. Soc. 

 (new ser.), vi, 170 ; N. and Q. (Ser. 10), 

 V, 257. The will of John Scott was 

 proved in 1648, and that of Jeffrey Scott 

 in 1665. William Scott occurs 1670- 

 1700; R. Ashton 1703-17, and Luke 

 Ashton 1723-50. 



^* Bridgeman, op. cit, 286, 



"« Op. cit. 182. 



"= Lanes, and Ches, Antij. Soc, xix, 228, 

 232. 



""' Ibid. 234 ; quoting from England 

 Described, 1788. It had been ruined by 

 1824 ; Baines, Lanes. Dir. ii, 612. 



^7 Lanes, and Ches. Hist, and Geneal, 

 Notes, ii, 33. 



^^ Local Glean. Lanes, and Ches. ii, 182, 

 217. The Earl of Balcarres was colonel ; 

 there were eight companies, and 552 men. 



89 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 286. 



'"' Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 436. See also 

 Engl. Hist. Re'v. V, 395. 



■•1 Bridgeman, op cit. 143. In 13 16 

 Edmund de Standish granted to Aymory 

 the Fuller land adjoining a narrow lane 

 leading towards the CoppedhuU mill ; 

 Crosse D. (Trans. Hist. Soc), n. 27. 



<2 Bridgeman, op. cit. 144-6. 



« Ibid. 225. The defendant relied 

 upon the charter of John Maunsel ; he 

 was a burgess of Wigan, and had by 

 descent from his ancestors divers bur- 

 gages in the said borough ; and those 

 ancestors had enjoyed his share in the 

 mills as parcel of their own inheritance, 

 paying the accustomed rent for the same. 

 The rector's right to the mills, as part of 

 his glebe, was affirmed by a decree of June 

 1618 ; ibid. 227, 229. 



•'■' Ibid. 309. 



*' Ibid. 220, 231. Miles seems to have 

 claimed ownership. He died early in 

 1628, and his widow Alice begged that 

 either she or her son Orlando might be 

 admitted as tenant. The bishop told her 

 to take comfort, as he had never dealt 

 unkindly with his tenants ; but as his 



70 



right to this mill had been questioned he 

 had determined to take it into his own 

 hands for a time that there might be no 

 possibility of dispute in future. On re- 

 ceiving thii answer the widow refused to 

 give up possession, and Lord and Lady 

 Strange took up her cause. The bishop 

 promised them that the widow should 

 have the mill after a while ; but as she 

 still remained obstinate, the matter came 

 before the quarter sessions. It was not 

 till the end of March 1630 that she finally 

 submitted, gave up the key, and allowed 

 the bishop to take possession. He re- 

 tained it for three weeks, and then ad- 

 mitted her as tenant ; ibid. 320-8. 



*^ Ibid. 240, 241. Two horse-mills 

 were allowed to stand, rent being paid to 

 the lord ; ibid. 240, 243. 



<7Ibid. 189. ■'SIbid. 192. 



■•9 This charter is known by its recital 

 in that of Edw. II ; see Bridgeman, op. cit. 

 9, 32. The charters are printed in Sin- 

 clair's Hist, of Wigan. See Chart. R. 

 7 Edw. II, m. 4, 3 ; 24 Edw. Ill, 145, 

 m. 2, 4 ; m. 3, 7. The charter of 13 14 

 is still preserved at Wigan. 



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