of St. Werburgh's had desired him to grant them a commission to make their church uniform, which he had granted to them, now on his return he found that they had removed the pulpit to the middle pillar, and had so placed the seat wherein he (the bishop) and the mayor of Chester used to sit that now he was no longer to sit directly before the pulpit, as he and his predecessors were wont to do, but the mayor now sat in the midst of that seat, and he (the bishop) was shouldered to the end thereof; also they had taken away from his ushers and servants those seats where they usually sat, before the bishop's seat, without leaving them any place in that church; and for the quire men, they were, by this removal of the pulpit, placed so far off that they could not hear the sermons; and for the dean and chapter, they were so disrespected that they had a most unfitting seat assigned to them (and were improperly seated on a side of the women's seats), so that they were offended thereat, and petitioned the bishop to remove the pulpit, and to call in his former commission; moreover the said parishioners had bestowed the best and largest seats on their own wives and friends, but left none for the wives of the dean and prebendaries, nor the wives of the singing men; and, notwithstanding the bishop's commands to the parish, these disorders had not been redressed, but Nicholas Ince, the mayor of Chester, being a parishioner, grew so insolent as to claim sovereign authority in that church (which is in truth a part of the cathedral church); whereupon the bishop ordered the dean and chapter to remove their sermons into the quire of the cathedral, which they did upon Sunday, the 14th of January, 1626-7, and have ever since continued to preach there. But the mayor refuseth to come and has persuaded most of the aldermen to absent themselves likewise, pretending that it is an impairing of the state of their city, because here the mayor cannot sit in the highest place.[1]
- ↑ Wigan Leger, fol. 119. Nicholas Ince, the mayor of Chester here spoken of, was the son of a shoemaker, and had been first a chorister (or choir boy) and afterwards a singing man in that church. He was at this time a maltster.
