Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 2.djvu/258

chapelry of Up Holland, in the parish of Wigan, into a separate parish:

"Whereas a bill hath passed the House of Commons, and is now in the House of Peers (whereunto the King's Royal Assent in these Times of distraction cannot be had), for making the chapel of Holland, in the county of Lancaster, with the precincts thereof into a distinct parish, and to be divided from the rest of the parish of Wigan; and whereas, in the said Bill, it is declared, That the said Parish of Wigan is very spacious and populous, and the profits belonging to the said Rectory of Wigan is very great, and that the inhabitants within the precincts of the chapelry of Holland do live far distant from the said Parish church of Wigan (some of them near six miles), so as they cannot possibly receive the benefit thereof; and although all parochial duties be necessarily exercised at the said chapel of Holland, yet there is no Maintenance at all for a

preaching minister belonging to it; and whereas now the whole profits of the said Rectory of Wigan is taken and seized, by virtue of this ordinance of both Houses of Parliament for the sequestering of Delinquents' Estates; and the committees for sequestration have no power by the said ordinance to distribute or dispose any of the Profits belonging to the said Parish church of Wigan unto any other church or chapel within the said Parish; and the people (by reason of their sad distractions) are utterly unable to maintain a minister at their own charge: Therefore for the providing of fit maintenance for a preaching minister at the said church or chapel of Holland, and for the ease of the Inhabitants of the said chapelry, according to the provisions of the said Bill, The Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament do hereby order

and ordain, That Mr. Rich'd Whittfeild, a godly, learned, and orthodox Divine (now Minister of the said church or chapel of Holland), and the Ministers of the said place successively, shall have hold receive and take all the tithes, lands, rents, duties, and profits whatsoever within the ancient precincts of the said chapelry of Holland; that is to say, the yearly rent of nineteen marks antiently paid for the corn tithes of the several Towns of Holland and Dalton, and all other tithes and profits whatsoever within the said towns and the town of Orrell and such parts of the several Towns of Billing and Winstanly as are within the known or reputed precincts of the said chapelry of Holland, which the Rector of