Whether the rectory of Wigan became vacant by the resignation or deprivation of Standish in 1551 I am unable to say.
Richard Smyth, the next rector, paid his first-fruits on 11th February, 5 Edw. VI., 1551.[1] The parsonage, tithes, and other revenues were then in the seizin of those who held as sub-tenants under Kyghley's lease, the parsonage being at this time in the occupation of Sir Thomas Langton as sub-lessee of Ketchyn, and the tithes of Billinge in the hands of William Gerrard and John Winstanley. The rector, however, had a right of re-entry in the event of the covenanted rent being more than 40 days in arrear, and Smyth took advantage of Sir Thomas Langton's default to enter into possession of his mansion on 4th May, 1551. Whether he retained it during the time of his incumbency, or whether, as is probable, he came to terms with Sir Thomas and allowed him to hold it for the remainder of the lease, is not clear. I should, however, suppose him to have been a non-resident rector from the fact that in the following year his curate, Ralph Scott, priest, (and not Smyth himself) in conjunction with the churchwardens, is party to the Indenture with the King's commissioners on behalf of Wigan church for delivery of the church goods.
From a memorandum in the Diocesan Register, recording the presentation of his successor, it appears that within a few months after Smyth's institution, namely on 28th May, 1551, Sir Thomas Langton again sold the next presentation to the Earl of Derby and others.
- ↑ Record Society (Lancashire and Cheshire), vol. viii. p. 408. Perhaps this Richard Smyth may have been the same with the rector of Bury of that name, who would seem from the (before-mentioned) pleadings of Nicholas Towneley the younger, in the Duchy Court, to have had some earlier interest in lands belonging to the parsonage of Wigan (see p. 97). He must not be confounded with his contemporary of the same name who is described in Wood's Athenæ as the greatest pillar of the Roman Catholic cause in his time; which last Richard Smyth was one of the witnesses against Archbishop Cranmer, who had been his great friend in the reign of King Edward VI.
