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

by George Thomas Orlando Bridgeman

Richard Langton, the next rector, who succeeded Nicholas Towneley in 1532, was the second son of Sir Thomas Langton, knight,^[1] of Walton in le Dale, the patron of the church. Had he outlived his father he would have become the head of the family and Baron of Newton, for his elder brother Edward Langton died before his father without surviving issue. But Sir Thomas Langton outlived all his sons, and at his death, in 1569, he was succeeded by the son of his younger son Leonard.

Richard Langton, parson of Wigan, died in 1534-5. He was the last of this family who held the rectory of Wigan, of which no less than nine had held it since the advowson first came into the hands of the Langtons, in the reign of King Edward III.^[2]

1. Chetham Tract li. p. 247, (Lancashire and Cheshire Wills and Inventories).
2. Some account of the Langton family, as patrons, will be given in an appendix.