A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



that the terms of his tenure of the manor of Wigan bound him ^° ■[^"'^^J 

 military service to the earls of Lancaster when required— an illustration or 

 the ambiguous position in which such rectory manors might place a enure - 

 man Another beneficed priest with a son was Thomas de Wyk rector ot 

 Manchester, already mentioned.- The son was rector of Ashton-under- 

 Lvne It is perhaps not without significance that the only recorded case 

 of deprivation in this century is that of a rector of Leigh, Henry Rixton, 



As far as Lancashire was concerned the evil of pluralities does not seem 

 to have been more glaring than in the previous century. No pluralist of 

 Mansel's magnitude occurs. As before, the worst cases were connected with 

 Wigan and Preston, and for these the lay authorities were primarily respon- 

 sible. The crown intermittently claimed the advowson of the former against 

 the Langton family, and in 1350 Edward III presented his chaplain John de 

 Winwick, who for a short time held the rectory of Stamford in Lincolnshire 

 concurrently with Wigan, was provided by the pope at the king's request to 

 the treasureship of York, and enjoyed prebends in various cathedrals and 

 collegiate churches."' The patronage of Preston, which had passed from the 

 crown to the earls of Lancaster, was exercised by Earl Henry in 1348 in 

 favour of his treasurer Henry de Walton, who in the next year was provided 

 to the archdeaconry of Richmond (with which was united the rectory of 

 Bolton-le-Sands), and held stalls at Lincoln, York, Salisbury and Wells.''^^ 

 His successor Robert de Burton seems to have been also rector of Ripple in 

 Worcestershire.'^^ The popes sought to restrain at least the accumulation of 

 benefices with cure of souls, and Urban V in 1366 issued a constitution 

 against plurals, in accordance with which John Charnels, an old servant of 

 the crown and principal executor of Henry, duke of Lancaster, then rector of 

 Preston, exhibited to the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield a list of his 

 ecclesiastical benefices and their values.'" But the pope was not always stern, 

 and many dispensations were granted. The union even of cures of souls 

 was not stopped. In 1388 John Fithler was admitted both to the vicarage 

 of Rochdale and the rectory of RadclifFe.''" 



For the early part of the century at all events there is evidence that the 

 bishops of Lichfield kept a watchful eye on the Lancashire part of their great 

 diocese. Walter de Langton and Roger de Northburgh were not very 

 spiritually-minded ecclesiastics ; but Langton, finding that the rectory of 

 Prescot, held in commendam by Alan le Bretoun, treasurer of Lichfield, was 



•" The marriage of the clergy in minor orders was not forbidden. But married men were prohibited 

 from entering the higher orders In 1 31 3 Robert de Wigan, clerk, Agnes his wife, and Joan their daughter 

 are menuoned at Warnngton ; Annals of Warrington (Chet. Soc ) 1 42 



"V^!'5' fP'\^=8- Northburgh, voL i, foL 103. In ,36^ V^Hliam de Slaidbum, vicar of Kiricham, 

 H , / r 1 /Ak°'' q ^' w"",, . °f Am°>inderness, but received the duke of Lancaster's pardon 



H.t. ./^,r^^.m (Chet Soc.) 70. William de Hexham had to resign Eccleston in 137,, but only becaus^ 

 being the son of a pnest he had obtained institution without a dispensation : Cal Pat> Lettlr, iv ./, 



"" Ibid iii, 342, 420-1, 460 ; Hut. ofCh. of Wigan (Chet. Soc), 47. 



'^ Cal Pap. Letters, iii, 277, 290, 478, 542 ; Smith, Rec. of Preston Ch. 34. ™ jkih ,r 



"• He had been keeper of the Great Wardrobe and constable of RnrrlpinT,^^ »■ j 1. ^^5- 



his household at iJjo a yL ; ibid. 36, from Add. MS 6069 S ^It ' "'™''''^ '^^ '="P'="^^ "^ 



•» Vuars of Rochdale (Chet. Soc), 22. For papal collations to Lancashire benefices see Cal Pa.al P„ 1 

 ?cS, 324, 3S4. In 1363 the vicarage of Kirkham was void so long as to lapse to the holv 1 rt / ' 



In .357 the cardinal of Perigueux, papal legate, gave the rectory ff Standish'^'cLf dVstaSh {illi 



32 



