tenement lying in Esprick, held by Thomas Dawson at 20s. per annum; another tenement in the same place held by William Hall at 19s.; a windmill in Stainall at 26s. 8d., and several parcels of ground amounting to about an acre at 2s., held by Ralph Hull; one tenement in Stainall with appurtenances held by Ralph Hodgeson at 12s.; an acre of ground lying in a field at Stainall held by William Hull at 2s. 8d.; two roods of land in Stainall held by the wife of Christopher Hull at 12d.; divers plots of ground estimated to comprise four acres in the same township held by William Hull, the elder, at 19s.; one tenement with appurtenances in Great Eccleston held by the wife of William Stiholme at 13s. 4d.; and one tenement in Little Eccleston held by Henry Wilkinson, at 20s. Hence it seems that the gross rentals amounted to £5 15s. 8d., out of which 5s. per annum was paid to the wife of Robert Stannall for her jointure, leaving £5 10s. 8d. the actual yearly revenue of the chantry from its endowment.[1] At the accession of Edward VI., Henry Harrison was the "Priest Incumbent at St. Katherine's Altar, being 54 years old, and he taught a Grammar School according to his foundation." When chantries were suppressed the educational institution here alluded to was probably abandoned for want of funds and a master; in any case it ceased to exist about that time. On the 29th of November, 1606, James I. granted to Henry Butler, of Rawcliffe Hall, "all that Late Chantrie of the ffoundation of John Butler, at the Aulter of the Blessed Katherine within the Parishe Churche of St. Michaell-upon-Wyre, in the Countye of Lancaster, lately dissolved, and all the lands appertaining thereto."
The second chantry in St. Michael's church was founded sometime during the fifteenth century by one of the earlier Kirkbys, of Upper Rawcliffe, and in the reign of Edward VI. its annual income from endowment property was £4 13s. 10d., Thomas Crosse, of the age of 40 years, being the priest who celebrated there and "assisted the Curate." Nothing more precise concerning the origin of this chantry can be ascertained, and even the situation it occupied in the church is unknown. In 1553 Thomas Crosse received a pension of £4 13s. 10d. a year.[2]
