implies that some religious building existed there, very likely about the year 900, when that nation colonised the district, but that a sacred edifice of some description had been constructed long before may be deduced from the fact that Christianity had been pretty generally embraced by the Anglo-Saxons dwelling in this locality about the middle of the seventh century.
From the commencement of the Norman dominion the history of Kirkham rises out of the mist which has obscured its earlier ages, and we are enabled from the disclosures of ancient documents, to follow out its career in a more satisfactory manner. The church and tithes of Kirkham were presented amongst other possessions, as a portion of the Hundred of Amounderness, by William the Conqueror to the baron Roger de Poictou, and were conferred by that nobleman about the year 1100, on the priory of St. Mary's, Lancaster,[1]—a monastic institution founded by him from the Abbey of Sees in Normandy. This priory retained possession of the church for only a few years, when it reverted to its former owner, and was bestowed by him on the convent of Shrewsbury, as shown by the charter of William, archbishop of York, as follows:—
"The monks of Salop in the day of my ancestors were often making complaints
that their church was unjustly robbed of the church of Kirckaham, because it had
been legally bestowed upon it by Roger, count of Poictou, and confirmed by
Thomas, archbishop, by authority of grants under seal. At length they have come
before us to state their complaints; and we, thus constrained and by the command
of lord Henry, legate of the apostolical see, committed their cause to be laid before
the synod of York."
The archbishop Thomas here mentioned died either in 1100 or
1113, whilst William, the writer of the charter, died in 1154.
The York tribunal decided, after seeing the writings touching
the confirmation of the grant of the church of Kirkham to the
Shrewsbury convent, which the monks of Salop had sealed with
the seal of Thomas, the archbishop, that "the aforesaid church
should be restored to the church of Peter of Salop."
In 1195 "a great controversy arose between Theobald Walter, on the one part, and the abbot of Shrewsbury, on the other, concerning the right of patronage of the church, which was thus settled: a certain fine was levied in the king's court that the abbot and his
- ↑ Regist. S. Mariæ Lanc. MS.
