successors should receive from the church of Kirkham a pension of twelve marks a year, and Theobald himself should for ever remain the true Patron of the said church."[1]
After the death of Theobald Walter, king John, who had the guardianship of that nobleman's heir, gave two parts of the church to Simon Blund,[2] and later, in 1213, he bestowed the church upon W. Gray, chancellor, for life.[3] Edward I. conferred the advowson of the church of Kirkham upon the abbey of Vale Royal, a monastic house founded by him in Cheshire; but the grant was not made without strenuous opposition on the part of Sir Theobald Walter or le Botiler,[4] a descendant of the Theobald specified above, who maintained that the king had no legal right to the advowson, which belonged to him as heir-at-law and descendant of Theobald Walter, the first. A council assembled to investigate the rival claims, and Edward, having asserted that his father, Henry III., had granted the advowson to his clerk by right of his crown, and not through any temporary power he had as guardian of Theobald Walter's heir, a statement which Le Botiler's attorney either could not or would not gainsay, the advowson was adjudged to him, and Sir Theobald lay under mercy.[5] This dispute probably occurred in the 8th year of Edward's sovereignty, 1280, for we find from the Rot. Chart. that at that date the advowson was granted by the monarch to the abbey of Vale Royal.
In 1286 Sir Otto de Grandison, who was ambassador at the apostolic see, obtained a bull from the pope, Honorius IV., by which the advowson of Kirkham was conferred upon the abbey of Vale Royal for ever,[6] and on the 27th of January in the ensuing year, Edward I. confirmed his former grant.[7]
In the fifty-fourth year of the reign of Henry III., 1269, power was granted by royal charter to the manorial lord of Kirkham to
- ↑ Harl. MSS., No. 2064, f. 27.
- ↑ Testa de Nevill, fol. 371.
- ↑ Rot. Chart. 15 John. m. 3, n. 15.
- ↑ Theobald Walter, the 2nd, adopted the surname of Botiler, or Butler, on being appointed chief Butler of Ireland; this titular surname was retained by his descendants.
- ↑ This account occurs in the Register of Vale Royal, and is endorsed—"Of the church of Kyrkham, how the king had conferred it upon this monasterie," etc.
- ↑ Monast. Anglic. vol. II. p. 925. Ellis' edit. Harl. MSS. No. 2064. f. 27.
- ↑ Rot. Chart., 15 Edw. I., No. 8, m. 3.
