When I was first instituted into Wigan, upon the presentation of King James, 21 Jan. 1615[16], I was sedulous in the enquiry of the true worth thereof, and I found by the bookes of my predecessor Dr. Massy, all the profits that he made 'anno 1615' (and he inned them all) amounted towards all charges to £573 16s. 1d. Anno 1616, which was my first year of rents, I kept an exact account, and I made towards all charges £566 12s. 1d. Anno 1637 I set it out, as likewise Anno 1638, to my curate, who being a provident man made yearly out of the whole rectory towards all charges £650, & I think he will still hold it at this rate, I abating him for King, cure, and a pension of £20 to the church of Lichfield, & all other reprises, which commonly amount to about £80 yearly. So as I think the utmost value which it will clear yearly will be about £570. The parish of Wigan is divided into 12 hamlets or townships, whereof Wigan, though but one town, yet in all their payments is reckoned for two of the 12. In this town stands the mother church, but there are two chapels of ease abroad in the parish called Holland & Billinge. The parson is lord of the town, & so has been since the Conquest, & he receives rent of every house in the town & close in the manor to the sum of £46 16s. 10d, per annum, but most pay chief rents, the rest are tenants at will, but the profits, besides their old rents, do not discharge their officers' fees who keep his courts. It was made a borough 29 Hen. III., and the parson got a charter for a court of pleas, & leets, & divers other liberties, 24 Edw. III., which besides two markets weekly & two fairs yearly, the townsmen had usurped, together with the manor, for almost 40 years' space; but at my first entry into the parsonage I received all back again to the church, by the goodness & justice of King James, who referred it to the hearing & determining of four lords, viz. Archbishop Abbot and Bishop Andrews for conscience, and to the two chief justices, the now Earl of Manchester and to the lord [chief justice] Hobart for law. The now Lord Keeper, being then of my counsel, knows the apparent right of the church. And since then, all who hold
lands in that town have appeared at the parson's Court Baron & leet, and have sworn fealty to him, and paid his rent. Though the Mayor now begins to encroach again since I was required to reside at Chester, and he chooses burgesses for the parliament, though by the charter they are termed the parson's burgesses, & hold of him on a yearly rent. The yearly profits of the parsonage arise out of the particulars here stated.