report of the matter.[1] It is unfortunate that no record of the return has been found in the Diocesan Register, for it would probably have recorded matters of interest connected with the History of Wigan. Oliver Langton was still living in 1462-3, when, as parson of the church of Wigan, he appears, by his attorney, against Robert Merik, late of Bedford, in the county of Lancaster, husbandman, and Matthew Astley, late of the same place, yeoman, in a plea for recovery of a debt of six marks, which he claimed from each of them.[2]
After this I meet with no mention of any rector of Wigan till after the close of that century.
John Langton will probably have been Rector of Wigan at the beginning of the sixteenth century. All that I know of him is that he died rector of Wigan in 1504.
Sir Thomas Langton was admitted, 9th August, 1504, to the parish church of Wigan, vacant by the death of John Langton, the last rector, on the presentation of James Anderton, William Banastre, Thomas Langton, brother of Gilbert Langton of the Lawe, and William Wodcokke, true patrons for that turn by virtue of the feoffment made to them by Ralph Langton, Esq., deceased, of all his lands and tenements together with the advowson of the said church.[3] The author of the History of Langton, informs us that on 6th December of the same year, 20 Hen. VII.,
- ↑ Lichfield Dioc. Reg. Commissio ad inquirendum supra pollucionem cenuterii de Wygan, Dat, sub sigillo nostra in manerio nostra de Beaudesert xv die mensis Martii anno Domini mccclvii et nostre translacionis anna quinto. Entries concerning the pollution of churches and churchyards are not infrequent in the Lichfield Diocesan Register. A commission of inquiry was usually issued with power to interdict the churchyard, if found to be polluted, and to keep it closed until reconciled by an episcopal service. The form may be seen in Maskell's Ritualia, This course of treatment is one among many proofs that the churchyard, by virtue of consecration, was wholly under ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The parishioners' rights were contingent, and subject to suspension by interdict, with no remedy at common law (ex inf. Bishop Hobhouse).
- ↑ Plea Rolls, Lanc., 2 Edw. IV. (Lent term).
- ↑ Lichfield Diocesan Register.
