WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



the Monday market to be the rector's, but St. Luke's 

 fair and the Friday market to be the corporation's." 



In October 1620 the mayor of Wigan appeared 

 in the moot-hall where the justices were sitting at 

 quarter-sessions, and, ' putting on his hat before 

 them,' claimed the ordering of the alehouses in Wigan, 

 as belonging to his leet. The justices objected to his 

 manners, and as he refused to find sureties for good 

 behaviour sent him to prison ; but their action was 

 annulled, though the mayor's action for false im- 

 prisonment also failed." 



Bishop Bridgeman in 1622 claimed the pentice 

 chamber in the moot-hall as built upon his waste 

 within living memory, and appears to have succeeded.'^ 

 His next correction of the assumptions of the corpora- 

 tion was provoked by the latter ; they refused liberty 

 to one William Brown to sell his goods, on the ground 

 that he was not a burgess. The bishop pointed out 

 that they had no right to elect burgesses ; the true 

 burgesses were those who paid the lord of the manor 

 I zd. rent for a burgage, and he had made William 

 Brown a burgess by selling to him a burgage house 

 recently bought of Thomas Gerard of Ince. The 

 mayor and burgesses were by this time convinced that 

 it was useless to contend with their lord ; they made 

 no demur, and asked him to appoint his son Orlando 

 as one of their aldermen ; he, however, did not judge 

 it well to do so."' 



From this time, 1624, till after the Restoration 

 there appears to be no record of any dispute between 

 rector and corporation. It can scarcely be doubted 

 that the Commonwealth period would be favourable 

 to the latter, and when in 1662 Sir Orlando Bridge- 

 man was selected as arbitrator in a fresh misunder- 

 standing, he ruled that though the rector was lord of 

 the manor and must keep a court baron, yet in view 

 of the municipal court of pleas it was of little im- 

 portance except for inquiring into the chief rents due 

 to the rector, and preventing encroachments on the 

 waste. Hence the court baron was to be held once 

 in two years only, in the moot-hall ; no pleas were to 

 be held between party and party ; and the mayor and 

 such aldermen as had been mayors should be exempt 

 from attending. The streets and wastes were to be 

 regulated as to encroachments by the rector and 

 mayor. Sir Orlando's father had, by his advice, 

 leased the rector's Ascensiontide fair and weekly 

 market to the corporation ; and the arbitrator recom- 



WIGAN 



mended the continuance of this system as 'a great 

 means to continue peace and goodwill ' between the 

 parties, a lease, renewable, for 2 1 years being granted 

 at a rent of five marks a year. The lease included 

 the yearly fair, weekly market, and court leet, and all 

 tolls, courts, piccage, stallages, profits, commodities, 

 and emoluments belonging to them.™ 



Forty years ago the corporation purchased the 

 manorial rights, an agreement being made 9 July 

 i860 between the rector and patron on the one side, 

 and the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses on the other. 

 The rights transferred were the summer fair, the 

 Monday market, and various tolls ; quit rents and 

 manorial rights in slips of waste lying uninclosed 

 adjoining streets in the borough and in mines under 

 these slips ; rights in Bottling Wood and the wastes ; 

 and the ancient quit rents amounting to _^4.5 3/. 4</. 

 The price paid was ^^2,800. The conveyance was 

 signed by the rector on 2 September 1861.™ 



The charter of 1662, under which the borough was 

 governed down to the Municipal Corporations Act of 

 1835, confirmed to the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses 

 of Wigan all their ancient liberties, and ordained that 

 the corporation should consist of a mayor and eleven 

 other aldermen, a recorder, two bailiffs, and a common 

 clerk. The mayor was to be not only a magistrate 

 for the borough, but also for the county, but this pri- 

 vilege was not maintained.'" A supplementary charter 

 was granted by James II in 1685," providing in par- 

 ticular that eighteen burgesses might be chosen to act 

 as ' assistants,' so that there should be a common 

 council of thirty-two In all. The mayor was to be 

 chosen yearly ' on the Sabbath day next after the 

 feast of St. Michael.' The corporation, like others of 

 the time, was a close or self-electing one, the towns- 

 men being able to make their wishes known only 

 through the jury and court leet. The mayor was 

 coroner ex officio^* 



The election of burgesses was in the jury and court 

 leet. The corporation had the power of admitting 

 non-resident and honorary burgesses to vote at elec- 

 tions without limitation ; in 1802 they made a hun- 

 dred burgesses in order to rid themselves of the Duke 

 of Portland's ' patronage.' ^ 



Under the Act of 1835 Wigan was classed with 

 other boroughs having a commission of the peace ; it 

 was divided into five wards, to each of which were as- 

 signed two aldermen and six councillors.'* In 1888 it 



7* Bridgeman, op. cit, 2Zi, 222. The 

 bishop, accordingly, as rector, held his first 

 court leet and court baron for the manor 

 of Wigan just after Easter 161 9, and at 

 Ascension-tide his first fair. The matter 

 was of great importance as preserving the 

 lord's rights, but the profits of the courts 

 were barely sufficient to pay the fees of 

 the officers ; ibid. 237, 



The following year he discharged one 

 William Brown from his service because 

 though no burgess he had served in the 

 mayor's court, ' as they call it,' upon the 

 jury. He did so because in former times 

 the corporation had claimed the courts as 

 their own on finding that servants of the 

 rector had sued or served in them ; ibid. 

 270, 271. 



'5 Ibid. 265, 266. 



'1^ Ibid. 268, 274. On Christmas-eve 

 in the same year, ' and properly no market 

 day,' he prohibited the Serjeants and 

 bailiffs of the town from receiving toll, 

 'because the wastes and streets are the 



parson's' ; and the jury were instructed 

 to find that the town officers had wronged 

 the lord of the manor by receiving such 

 tolls on the Saturday before the wake day. 

 The jury demurred to the contention that 

 the streets were part of the wastes, but 

 gave way, and the tolls collected that day 

 were given to the rector ; ibid. 274. 



^^ Bridgeman, op. cit. 287. The dispute 

 marks another step in the growth of the 

 rights of the community ; first was the 

 election of mayor ; next, the appointment 

 of aldermen ; and thirdly, the co-option 

 of burgesses. The last was important, 

 because the burgage plots had a tendency 

 to become the possession of a very few 

 persons. 



78 Bridgeman, op. cit. 486-91. See also 

 HUt. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 441, 

 for a declaration in this sense by the cor- 

 poration in 1708. 



In 1743 Dr. Roger Bridgeman refused 

 to renew the lease, and a lawsuit followed 

 which lasted for many years ; ' the result 



73 



appears to have been that the fair and 

 markets remained in the rectors' hands, 

 but the cu'^rts leet were never afterwards 

 held by them' j Bridgeman, op, cit. 632. 



73 Bridgeman, op. cit. 664-71. A list of 

 the quit rents is given. The/ range from 

 ^d. up to ^6 14J. 8(/., this sum being paid 

 by the Canal Company. A considerable 

 number were of the exact u., probably re- 

 presenting ancient burgage rents, 



80 Pat. 14 Chas. II, pt. xviii, m. 5. 

 The charter specially mentions the loyalty 

 of the town to the late king ; it therefore 

 allowed a sword to be borne before the 

 mayor. 



8^ The charters of 1662 and 1685 are 

 in the possession of the corporation. 



3^ Baines, Lanes. Dir, ii, 616. 



^ Ibid, ii, 607. 



8^ The wards were : All Saints, the 

 central portion of the town around the 

 church ; St. George's, a narrow strip along 

 the Douglas ; Scholes 5 Queen Street, in 

 the south ; and Swinley, in the north. 



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