Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 2.djvu/144

he never yet took a penny of his tenants for fine, nor ever put out any tenant which desired his favour, as she herself acknowledged.

Item; she paid for her husband's relief, mortuary, 6s. 8d.; but if she had a chattell of this mill, his inventory is much more; and she hath since come into the Court Baron and acknowledged that she hath no title but as tenant at will to the parson, which the jury then found accordingly.

Yet when the bishop asked possession thereof for a small time, only to assure his church's right, which hath now thrice been denied within these 12 years (viz. by the old widow Letherbarrow, and after her death by her son Miles, and now, since his death, by this young widow), the said Alice obstinately denieth to let him take possession thereof, although he promised her that if she did willingly yield it, he would presently put her again into possession thereof, during his life, and set it down under his hand. But instead of submission she swears she will lose her life ere the parson shall have it, and her father-in-law (stepfather) William Prescot hath basely abused him since then.^[1] Therefore the bishop indicted the said Alice Letherbarrow, widow, and James Darrow, milner, at Ormskirk sessions, 14th July, 1628, for a forcible entry they had made upon the said mill on the 23rd of June before, and for keeping possession thereof from Lawrence Booth, whom the said lord bishop had authorized to take possession thereof for him on that day; which indictment was found by the jury on full hearing, and 13 justices then present ordered restitution of possession in these words: "Ad sessionem pacis tent. apud Ormeskirke in Com. Lanc. die Lune, viz. decimo quarto die Julii a^o R. R. dom. Caroli Angliæ &c. Quarto. Restitutio modo concessa est Joh'i d'no Ep'o

1. This he did by interfering with the bishop's bell-man, James Low, who had been appointed by his steward to cry through the town that all the inhabitants should bring up to him their weights and measures to be viewed and sealed. On this occasion Prescot went up to the bell-man and took the bell from him on the market hill, threatening to knock the bell about his head if he went further, and adding, "Hath my lord no knaves of his own to do this work?"