ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



of the cases in which the true value of the ninth equalled or exceeded the 

 whole valuation of the benefice in 1292 must be either that the assessment 

 was revised as too low or that the real value of a ninth was calculated from 

 the tithe data. For Whalley parish, where careful statistics of the tithes 

 were available, the commissioners returned the ninth as worth as much again 

 as Pope Nicholas's assessment.^" 



Compared with the preceding age the fourteenth century was upon the 

 whole a period of depression in the history of the church in Lancashire. 

 The north of the county lay prostrate under the successive blows of the 

 Scottish invasions and the Black Death, and though the south escaped the 

 earlier of these scourges it was thrown into much disorder by the struggle 

 between Earl Thomas of Lancaster and Edward II. The French wars exer- 

 cised a distracting influence. These were not the only causes, however, of 

 the slackening of the stream of church endowments which is observable. 

 The county was now fairly well provided with parish churches and parochial 

 chapels. To the former a single addition was made late in the century. 

 Brindle, hitherto an outlying part of the parish of Penwortham, was erected 

 into a separate parish between 1341, when it does not appear as such 

 in the Nonarum Inquisitio, and 1369, when it is described as a rectory."* 



Of the eleven chapels which are first mentioned or implied in this 

 century some may have been of older foundation, some perhaps were as yet 

 purely domestic."' Sir Robert de Holland, who owed his advancement to 

 Thomas of Lancaster, endowed a college of priests in his chapel of (Up) 

 Holland in the parish of Wigan in 13 10, but the chapel itself may have 

 been of earlier date.^'" 



Funds were forthcoming for the rebuilding or extension of existing 

 churches,"^ and in one case at least a rectory was augmented,^^' but this did 

 not make very deep drafts upon private munificence. 



The county already contained nineteen religious houses, large and small ; 

 their further multiplication and enrichment was not desirable, and royal 

 policy definitely discouraged such extension by the Statute of Mortmain 

 (1279). One addition only was made to their number during the fourteenth 

 century. Through the influence of his patron Thomas of Lancaster Sir 

 Robert de Holland obtained permission in 13 19 to convert his collegiate 

 church of St. Thomas the Martyr at UphoUand into a priory of Benedictine 



"' See above, p. 23. '" Lich. Epis. Reg. Stretton, fol. 85 ; Lanes. Final Concords (Rec. Soc), ii, 182. 



'" Melling in Halsall parish had a chapel with a cemetery as early as 1322 ; Lich. Epis. Reg. North- 

 burgh, ii, 4^. The chapel of Goosnargh, an outlying portion of the parish of Kirkham, is first mentioned 

 in 1349 ; Engl. Hist. Rev. v, 526. The custody of Singleton chapel in Kirkham parish was granted 

 on 20 Aug. 1358 to John of Eastwitton, hermit, by Henry, duke of Lancaster ; Fishwick, Hist, of Kirkham, 

 44. The chapel of RufFord in Croston parish is first mentioned in 1346 ; 'Not. Cestr. ii, 367. The 

 inhabitants of Chorley in the same parish procured in or before 1362 a licence for the dedication of a 

 chapel to be served by one chaplain ; Lich. Epis. Reg. Stretton, fol. 45. The chapel of St. Nicholas, Liver- 

 pool, in the parish of Walton, is first mentioned in 1361 ; ibid. fol. 44. The chapel of Oldham in 

 Prestwich parish first appears in 1336 (Coram Rege R. 306, m. 261^.) ; that of West Derby in Walton 

 in 1360 (Assize R. 451, m. 3) ; William, clerk of Stretford, in Manchester parish, occurs 1326 ; the chapel 

 certainly existed before 1413 ; Hist, of Stretford Chap. (Chet. Soc. 48). To these perhaps Great Harwood 

 chapel in Blackburn parish ought to be added {Not. Cestr. ii, 208, 285.) 



™ Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 233. 



'*' Warrington church was rebuilt ; Ann. of Warrington (Chet. Soc), 197. 



"' Thirteen laymen in 1344 gave (or sold) plots of lands varying from an acre to 80 ft. square to Henry 

 de Haydock, parson of Eccleston, ' for the easement and utility of him and his successors, rectors there ' ; 

 Cal. Pat. I343-S>P- 3o6. 



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