A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



James Walton for 20 years at a rent of 

 Ij 6j. Zd., the lessee undertaking to repair the 

 chapel and to find a priest to say mass once a 

 week for the king's preservation. 



Walton afterwards claimed to have transferred 

 this obligation to the Franciscan convent at 

 Preston, with a lease of a parcel of land called 

 ' Widowficld ' at a yearly rent of 9 shillings. 

 The friars, however, asserted that the land was 

 their own and the g shillings a quitrent, though 

 their warden ultimately admitted that ' for peace 

 and quietness he signed a bill that Walton made 

 and wrote.' In January, 1528, two of the 

 friars and others forcibly entered upon the 

 field. Walton laid a complaint before the 

 Chancellor of the Duchy, but in May, 1545, 

 the land was again seized by his opponents, who 

 pulled down the mansion house attached to the 

 chapel and carried off the ornaments of the 

 chapel itself.' 



The Chantry Commissioners of 1546 in their 

 certificate refer to Barlow's lease to Walton, and 

 add that ' the said chapel is defaced and open at 

 both ends.' Its plate, including a chalice, 

 weighed eight ounces ; there was one vestment 

 and one bell. The chapel lands, which lay 

 almost entirely in the fields of Preston, com- 

 prised 58 acres with a clear annual rental of 

 j^5 I2i. 8^.^" In 1548 the chapel was dissolved, 

 and with its lands, now estimated at 47^ acres 

 only, leased on 2 June to Richard Wrightington 

 for twenty-one years at a yearly rent of 

 j^5 i6i. %d. Shortly afterwards Edward VI 

 granted (18 April, 1549) the whole of the ' Maud- 

 lands ' property to John Dodyngton and William 

 Warde of London, gentlemen. They sold it in 

 January, 1550, to Thomas Fleetwood of Hes- 

 keth, from whom it was purchased some ten 

 years later (2 December, 1560) for ^^300 by 

 Thomas Fleetwood of Penwortham.'^ 



Wardens of St. Mary Magdalen's 

 Hospital 



William," occurs area 1245 

 John of Coleham," occurs 1270 



" Smith, Rec. of Preston Parish Church, 238-42. 



'"Ibid. In the papal ' Taxatio ' of 1292 the 

 temporalities of the hospital, after allowing for neces- 

 sary expenses, were assessed at 1 3/. 4a'. In 1355 

 the wardenship was worth j^5 a year ; Cal. Pap. Letters, 

 iii, 543. In 1 361 it had apparently risen to £,^o, 

 from which it fell to /lo in 1366 ; Piccope MSS. 

 viii, 189 ; BM. Add. MS. 6069, fol. in, quoted 

 in Smith, op. cit. 238. The increase in 1361 was 

 probably due to the increase in offerings consequent 

 on the papal privilege of 1355. 



" Lanes. Chantries, 208-9. 



" Willelmus capellanus rector noster ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Great Coucher, i, fol. 86, No. I. 



" Ibid, i, fol. 85, No. 31 ; cf. Anct. D., L. 2087, 

 2092. 



Adam de Preston," occurs 13 13, died 1322 

 John Coupland," appointed by the crown 



30 May, 1322 

 John son of Richard de Rivers," occurs 



Henry de Dale," occurs 1345 and 1347 

 Pascal de Bononia '' (Bologna), occurs 1355 

 Walter Campden,'' occurs 1366, died 1370 

 Ralph de Erghum (Arkholme),'" occurs 1373 

 Thomas Horston,^^ occurs 1399 

 Thomas Prowett,^'^ before 1480 

 James Standish,^^ appointed 18 August, i486 

 Thomas Barlow,^ appointed 6 February, 

 1522, surrendered 1548. 



The matrix of the common seal of the hos- 

 pital is preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum, 

 Cambridge. It is oval pointed. In the centre, 

 within a niche, is a female figure, doubtless St. 

 Mary Magdalen, standing with a flower-pot in 

 her left hand, and what has been conjectured to 

 be an ornamental ointment box in the right ; 

 beneath her feet is represented 2. fleur-de-lis. The 

 legend runs — 



SIGILLV : COMMVNE : FRATRVM : PRESTONE.^'' 



" Great Coucher, i, fol. 85, Nos. 29, 30. Styled 

 ' custos capelle beate M.M.' Son of Hugh de Pres- 

 ton. Inq. p.m. 21 June, 1322. 



" Piccope MSS. vi, 23^. Chaplain to Edw. II, 

 who appointed him, the advowson being in his hands 

 by the forfeiture of Thomas, earl of Lancaster. A 

 grant of the wardenship to John de Evesham, king's 

 clerk, was cancelled in 1326, as it appeared that 

 Coupland was still alive; Cal. Pat. 1324-7, p. 



337- 



'* Cal. Pap. Letters, ii, 343. Provided by the pope 

 to a canonry of Salisbury notwithstanding his warden- 

 ship. 



" Ibid, iii, 148, 242. Dale, who was a bachelor 

 of civil law and of medicine, held with the wardenship 

 six canonries and (for a time) the rectory of Higham 

 Ferrers. 



" Ibid, iii, 562 ; Cal. Pap. Pet. i, 274. Physician 

 to Henry, duke of Lancaster, prebendary of St. Paul's, 

 London ; Newcourt, Repertorium, \, 217. He also held 

 the church of 'Patenhulle' (Patshull). 



" B.M. Add. MS. 6069, III; also rector of 

 Wigan, canon of York, and warden of St. Nicholas' 

 Hospital, Pontefract. 



" Duchy of Lane. Misc.Bks. xlii, fol. 194 : ' Ralph 

 de Erghum's chapel.' He was chancellor of John of 

 Gaunt. 



" Granted charge of the free chapel for life by 

 John, duke of Lancaster ; confirmed by Hen. IV on 

 10 Dec. 1399 ; Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. xv, fol. 

 6'&d. 



'^ See a complaint by his executor in Pal. of Lane. 

 Writs Proton., file 19 Edw. YVa. 



" Materials for Hist, of Hen. FlI (Rolls Ser.), i, 541. 

 Presented (?) by Henry VII. 



" Smith, Hist, of Preston Parish Church, 238 ; 

 Lanes. Chantries (Chet. Soc), 208. He received a 

 pension of j^5 and was still living in 1558. 



" Figured in Fishwick, op. cit. 197. 



164 



