ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



account of their poverty, Aughton doubtless for the same reason. The total 

 annual value given is: spiritualities £i,^/\.j^. 13J, 4^.; temporalities 

 j^420 oj. 6^."^ Under the former head the churches in the archdeaconry 

 of Richmond were taxed at ^^931 6s. %d. ; those in the archdeaconry of 

 Chester at £(>iT, 6s. %d. The temporalities (of religious houses) in these 

 same areas were respectively >C37i i-f- 2</. and £\^ 19J. 4^. 



The churches most poorly endowed were Lytham, assessed at ;^4 ; 

 Flixton, ^4 ly. 4^., and Pennington, ^5 6x, 8^. The richest were Kirk- 

 ham, >Ci86 13J. 4</. (^160) ; Lancaster, ^^80 ; Poulton, £6% 13J. ^d. 

 (^46 I3J-. 4^.) ; Preston, St. Michaels-on-Wyre, Warton and Whalley, each 

 ^66 13J. 4^.; Aldingham and Manchester, each ^(^53 6s. 8^."* Only six 

 benefices in this county of extensive parishes were taxed at less than £,10 2^ 

 year, a third of the whole number varied between that figure and ^20.^*' 

 In the one instance (Garstang) in which we are able to compare the assess- 

 ment of 1292 with that of 1254 the valuation of the rectory is higher by 

 j(^4 1 3 J. \d. and that of the vicarage by jC^-"* 



Benefices were not assessed at their full annual value. Matthew Paris 

 in 1252 estimated that Preston church was worth ^100."' In an inquest 

 held after the death of Robert Grelley in 1282, as to the value of his 

 advowsons, it was found that the church of Manchester and the church of 

 Childwall were each worth £it,t, 6s. Sd. a year, more than double the assess- 

 ment of the former in 1292 and more than three times that of the latter.^" 

 Ashton-under-Lyne, the advowson of which Grelley had also held, was 

 returned as worth >C2o, or double its taxed value ten years later.'" Five 

 years after Pope Nicholas's taxation an inquiry was held as to the true value 

 of the rectory of Whalley with a view to the ordination of a vicarage. Its 

 gross annual income was found to be £2 1 o gs. 8d. ; this was reduced on 

 further inquiry in 1298 to ^^148, but even so it is more than twice the taxed 

 value of 1292."' Liberal deductions seem to have been allowed for fixed 

 charges."' 



The fearful ravages wrought by the Scots in the north of England in 

 the years following Bannockburn put large areas of land out of cultivation, 



"' Po/ie Nich. Tax. 249, 258-9, 307-9. The figure for spiritualities includes certain monastic pensions 

 in churches north of the Ribble which are accounted for separately. The valuation of two or three churches 

 differs slightly from the report of the Injuisit'to Nonarum as to the tax of 1292. That for temporalities 

 may also not be quite accurate, as the details do not in every case exactly agree with the totals, and one or two 

 entries are a little ambiguous. 



"* When two figures are given the first represents the taxed annual value of the whole endowment 

 including vicarage and pensions, the second the residual rectory. According to the Inquisitio Nonarum 

 Manchester was taxed in 1292 at £66 13/. ^d. 



'" The following is a summary of those not named above. Vicarages and pensions are included : — 

 Over £6 and under ^^lo : Claughton, Leigh, and Tatham. 



j^io and upwards : Ashton-under-Lyne, Bury, Chipping, Dalton, Eccleston, Halsall, Halton, 

 Heysham, Huyton, Ormskirk, Prestwich, Standish, Urswick, Warrington, and Whittington. 

 £zo and upwards : Cockerham, Eccles, Penwortham, Ribchester, Rochdale, Sefton. 

 j^3C and upwards : Blackburn, Croston, Tunstall, Ulverston, Wigan. 

 ^^4.0 to £^0 : Cartmel, Childwall, Garstang, Melling, Prescot, Walton. 

 ■" Cockersand Chart. 286-7. 



'" Ckron. Maj. v, 329. A local jury put the same value on it in 1361 although its assessment had by 

 that time been further reduced to ^^23 6s. Sd. 



'^ Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc), i, 250. '" Ibid. 



'*' IVhalky Coucher, 205-6, 213-15. 



'"Aldingham rectory, however, was stated later to have been overtaxed by 20 marks in 1292; 

 Inquisitio Nonarum, 36. 



23 



