The History of the Church and Manor of Wigan/Master Richard

by George Thomas Orlando Bridgeman

Maunsell was succeeded at Wigan by Master Richard, who, as Rector of Wigan, joined Sir Robert Banastre, the patron, in settling on the Cathedral church of Lichfield an annual pension from the revenues of the benefice. From a copy of the original document, made in 1625 by Anthony Nichols notary public and preserved in the Diocesan Registry at Chester,^[1] it appears that Sir Robert Banastre, Knight, with the assent of Roger de Meyland, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and with the consent of Richard, then Rector of Wigan, gave to God and the church of St. Mary and St. Chad of Lichfield thirty marks of silver annually to be paid from the fruits of the church of Wigan, by the hands of the Rector for the time being, of which fifteen were to be paid within the quinzaine of St. Michael and fifteen within the quinzaine of Easter, to the following uses, namely: ten marks for six boys to be elected by the bishop to minister in the said church; ten marks towards the sustentation of the fabric, so long as the same bishop should live, and after his decease five marks to be expended annually on the anniversary of his death, in bread for the poor, to be given by the hands of those whom the bishop shall depute, and the other five marks to be distributed on the anniversary of the death of the said bishop, among the Vicars solemnly serving in the said church, by the hands of the Sacristan; the residue to be given to the Sacristan of the same place for his own use. Each Rector of the church of Wigan, immediately after his institution, should come to the church of Lichfield, and there, before the Dean and Chapter, should swear to pay the thirty marks annually according to the prescribed form; and if at any time he should cease from paying the said sum of money, it should be lawful for the said bishop to compel him to pay it by suspension, excommunication, and interdict. The original donation was attested and dated at Lichfield, vi. Id. July (July 10), 1265.

In 2 Edw. I. (1273-4) there was an assize taken between the Abbot of Cokersand and the parson of Wigan, concerning certain tenements in Halghton in Shaldefordshire,^[2] (i.e., the hundred of Salford). It is probable that Master Richard held the Rectory till 1277, in which year the benefice seems to have been vacant; for by a judgement delivered in 11. Edw. I. (1283) it appeared that, in 1277, the right to the advowson of the church had been disputed, but the Judges of both Benches then decided that Robert de Banastre, holding of the King, was the true patron.^[3]

1. Bishop Bridgeman's Register, folio 484, see also Gastrell's Notitia Cestriensis, vol. ii. pp. 244, 245, who quotes from Lichf. Dioc. Reg. Lib. v. fol. 85 b. This pension has continued to the present day, though the amount has varied at different times. In the Valor Ecclesiasticus, temp. Hen. VIII. it is put at £20. In the Notitia Cestriensis of Bishop Gastrell, who was consecrated in 1714, it is described as a pension of 30 marks per annum. A sum of £16 is now (1887) paid annually by the Rector of Wigan to the Sacristan of Lichfield Cathedral, who informed the writer, in 1878, that the pension is now disposed of as follows, namely: to St. Paul's Cathedral, £4 3s. 4d.; to the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield, £2 14s. 8d.; to bread (St. Thomas' Dole) to all householders of the close, Lichfield (being Vicars choral and a few others), £1; to the Sacrist, £2 12s. 8d.; Total £16.
2. Tanner Notitia, Cokersand, p. 232.
3. Notitia Cestriensis, vol. ii, p. 243; Baines' Hist. of Lancashire, vol. iii, p. 531, who quotes from Placita term. Pasch. 9 Edw. I. Rot. 5. Min. Rec. In the Abbreviatio Placitorum, p. 201, it is stated that judgment for Robert de Banastre was delivered on the morrow of St. John the Baptist (June 25), 2 Edw. I. (though it is recorded among the pleas of the 9th year of that reign, viz. 9 Edw. I. Rot. 5): and to this record a foot-note is appended to the effect that in Michaelmas Term, 23 Edw. III. (Coram Rege Roll, 21), this judgment was reversed by reason of errors, and the King was adjudged to have his action against Robert de Langeton, cousin and heir of the said Robert Banastre, which the King's grandfather had against the aforesaid Robert Banastre. From which it appears that it was King Edward I. who had claimed the advowson against Banastre in 1277. It will be seen hereafter that the King eventually restored the patronage to the Langtons.