A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the exception of a yearly pension of ten marks.'* Theobald Walter's heir 

 was not allowed to inherit Amounderness, and the advowsons of Preston and 

 Kirkham with that of St. Michaels-on-Wyre, which the monks of Wyres- 

 dale had enjoyed for a moment by his gift, passed to the crown, and 

 Henry III ultimately bestowed the two former upon his younger son 

 Edmund, first earl of Lancaster. 



The rights of heirs could not always be defeated by the grant of a 

 church to a monastery. Robert son of Henry, lord of Lathom, in or about 

 1 190 gave the church of Flixton to his new house of canons at Burscough. 

 But on a vacancy a few years later and after his death his younger brother 

 and (seemingly) a nephew presented, and the question of right was brought 

 before the king's court ; an assize of darrein presentment was held, and a local 

 jury found that Robert's father Henry, son of Siward, had last presented to 

 the church, and that the two descendants whose title was impugned by the 

 canons were his heirs and the true patrons ; whereupon the bishop of Lich- 

 field instituted their candidate to the benefice." 



Religious houses sought to protect themselves against these dangers by 

 procuring charters of confirmation from all who were in any way interested 

 in the benefice whether as superior lords or otherwise, in addition to the 

 consent of the bishop of Lichfield in the case of churches south of the 

 Ribble and of the archdeacon of Richmond in the case of those north of 

 that river, which was required by the canon of the Council of London in 

 1 102, making the licence of the diocesan necessary to the validity of all such 

 transfer of patronage.*' To make assurance doubly sure confirmations were 

 often obtained from the king and the pope, though this was an expensive 

 safeguard. 



Until the last quarter of the twelfth century the monastic grantees of 

 Lancashire churches had with rare exceptions been content with the right of 

 presenting a rector or parson in the same way as the lay patrons had done, 

 receiving from him a fixed pension.*' In several cases, however, religious 

 houses had already been allowed to appropriate the whole property and 

 income of certain benefices to their own uses, subject to making provision 

 for the cure of souls therein. The monastery became the rector, and served 

 the church either by its own members or by paid vicars, curates, or chap- 

 lains. In Lancashire such appropriations were first made when the parish 

 church was intended to be the conventual church of a monastery, as at 

 Lancaster and Penwortham. But about the middle of the twelfth century 

 Cockerhani church seems to have been appropriated to Leicester Abbev 



"kk TTT. ^T""'"'^ ' ^'" '^'''- I' ^- -°^ -til iao7 tht the 



abbey which had hitherto served the church by a stipendiary chaplain 

 undertook to settle some of its canons at Cockerham." With theWdation 

 of new rehgious houses in the latter half of the century appropHadons 



" Lana. Final Concords, i, 2, 6. 



" i""". Pipe ^. 3 53-6 ; below, ' Religious Houses,' p. 140 « wiikin, r ■/• • 



» Evesham received from the church of Leyhnd un^l tt aDDroon.Hn ' "''"' '' ^^S- 



i. .0. 4^. iPriory of Penu^ortham [Chet. Soc.], 44). The churchTa^vX^ "^ '"' '" '"""^^ P<=°^i°" °f 

 2+ marks a year from Winwick (Lich. Epis. Reg Northbureh i Jc F^ 'r "^^ '' ^'°- N°''«» 'ook 

 1291 at III, the priory of Lancaster had licence from Bishop' Hu^hnV N. w i°o"' ^"^^^"^ ^^^ t«ed in 

 of i^ {Hist. ofCh. of Lane. 1 15). ''"''"P ""^^ °^ ^°"='°t (' ' 88-98) to take a pension 



'" Makower, Const. Hist. ofCh. of Engl. 329. 



" Lanes. Final Concords, i, 26. 



12 



