so nephew to the late rector. He thus became possessed of the rector's writings upon the strength of which he re-entered upon the tithes of Billinge, and retained them until his death, which took place shortly afterwards.
Thomas Stanley, bishop of Sodor and Man (Sodoren Episcopus), was admitted and instituted to the rectory of Wigan, vacant by the death of the last incumbent (Richard Gerrard), on 9th August. 1558, having been presented thereto on 6th August by John ffletewood, Esq., and Peter ffarington, Esq., patrons for this turn by the deed of the true patron (Sir Thomas Langton, knight), dated on 10th May of the same year.[1] He had been consecrated bishop of Sodor and Man in 1510, but was deprived in 1545 for refusing to comply with the Act of 33 Hen. VII., which disconnected the see from the Province of Canterbury and attached it to that of York.[2] On 4th March, 1512-13 he was instituted to the parish church of Badsworth (St. Mary's) in the county of York, vacant by the death of Mr. James Harington, on the presentation of Sir Edward Stanley, knight, one of the King's household ; which benefice he resigned at the close of the year 1549.[3]
In May, 1528, he was collated to the prebend of Thorngate, in the Diocese of Lincoln.[4] He was restored to his bishoprick by Queen Mary in 1556.[5]
At the time of his admission to the rectory of Wigan he was bishop of Sodor and Man and rector of Winwick and North Meols, in the county of Lancaster, as also of Barwick All Saints in Elmet, in the county of York, having been admitted to Winwick on l0th April, 1552, and to North Meols on 23rd December, 1557;[6] for the holding of all which with his bishoprick it is said that he obtained the Pope's Bull.[7]
- ↑ Chester Diocesan Register.
- ↑ Beamont's History of Winwick, p. 30.
- ↑ York Diocesan Registry.
- ↑ Le Neve's Fasti; Wood's Athenæ vol. iii. p. 807.
- ↑ Le Neve's Fasti
- ↑ Baines' Lancashire, vol. iii. p. 622, and vol. iv. p. 277.
- ↑ Raines' MSS., vol. xxii. p. 30; Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, p. 689. There is no record, in the York Diocesan Registry, of his institution to Barwick in Elmet, though the institution of his predecessor is recorded in 1519, and that of his successor on the death of the last incumbent on 18 March, 1668-9.
