Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 1.djvu/139

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History of the Church and Manor of Wigan.
127

lawfully possessed of two closes of arable land lying in an enclosure called "the Ease," in the town of Wigan, together with the tithe of hemp, flax, and hay growing and remaining in the same town, for the term of 26 years not yet expired, by the lease of one John Ketchyn, Esq., to him made by an Indenture dated 6th March, 32 Henry VIII. (1540-1). He was also possessed of one croft of land commonly called "the Checker" and one "frounte" called "the Mayster's croft" leased to him by Robert Hatton,[1] the date of which lease was 6th April, 32 Hen. VIII. (1541); and his complaint is that one Richard Smyth, parson of the church of Wigan, together with William Hyde of Wigan, saddler, Hugh Pemberton, and divers other persons unknown, have at divers times riotously entered the said land and detained the said tithes amounting to the value of £4 and do yet detain them, in the endeavour that the said Oliver, being a very poor man, may relinquish his term and interest therein.[2]

Richard Smyth's tenure of the rectory of Wigan was a short one. If he was the same with the rector of Bury of that name he must have been an old man at the time of his admission to Wigan rectory, for Richard Smyth had already been rector of Bury for more than forty years.[3] It is highly probable that he

  1. Robert Hatton was bailiff of Wigan under Sir Thomas Langton, and the person employed by parson Kyghley to ride up to London and make arrangements for the payment of his first-fruits, for which he became joint-security with Ketchyn; so that it is not improbable that he also received a lease of some of the church lands in consideration of his services. Not only the office of bailiff was coveted in those days, but the stewardship or chief seneschalcy of the parson's manor seems to have been eagerly sought and accepted by the neighbouring gentry as a desirable piece of preferment which was probably held for life. In 1535 the stewardship was held by Robert Langton, the under-stewardship by William Walton, who was also clerk of the parson's court, and the bailiwick by Robert Hatton. In 1551 Sir Thomas Langton, the Lord of Newton and patron of the church was acting as chief steward, one Burscowe was then reputed to be the bailiff, and Thomas Gerrard, of Bryn, Esq., William Gerrard, and Edward, 3rd Earl of Derby, all acted in succession as deputy-stewards to Sir Thomas Langton.
  2. Duchy of Lancaster Pleadings, vol. ix. (No date) No. 6.
  3. Baines (Lancashire vol. i. p. 517) gives 21st October, 1507, as the date of Richard Smyth's institution to the rectory of Bury, where he built a chapel in the north aisle