The History of the Church and Manor of Wigan/John Herbert

by George Thomas Orlando Bridgeman

On 8th August, 1543, John Herbert was presented to the parish church of Wigan, vacant by the death of Richard Kyghley, the last incumbent, by Thomas White, citizen and merchant-tailor of the city of London,^[1] having paid his first-fruits two days before into the Office of First-Fruits and Tenths.^[2] He was instituted and admitted by John, bishop of Chester^[3] (probably on that or the following day). On 9th August he appointed John Grene and John . . . . . to act as his proctors to take possession of the rectory of Wigan.^[4]

Shortly afterwards he had a contention with Ralph Bradshagh (or Bradshawe), Esq., then mayor of Wigan, and the burgesses thereof, for possession (inter alia) of the deed of John Maunsell, whereby he granted to the town of Wigan her liberties. This appears from a bill of complaint which was laid in the Duchy Court by William Fourde. mayor of Wigan, Adam Banke, Charles Lee and others, burgesses of Wigan, in 38 Hen. VIII. (1546), wherein they state that in the 35th year of the reign of Henry VIII. there was a contention between Ralph Bradshagh, at that time mayor of Wigan, and the burgesses of the same town, of the one part, and John Herbert, clerk, then and yet parson of Wigan, of the other part, concerning certain tithes and deeds relating to the liberties of the town, by one of which deeds John Maunsell, parson of the said town, granted to the burgesses all the rights and liberties of their said town, as they were by King Henry III. granted unto him (the said Maunsell) and to his successors for ever: Maunsell to receive 12 pence from each burgess yearly: which grant was ratified and confirmed by the bishop and patron of the church of Wigan. Ralph Bradshagh, having the said deed in his possession, refuses to give it up, although repeatedly applied to by the said complainant and others who have been mayors of Wigan before him. Ralph Bradshagh refuses to reply, but demands judgment and the dismissal of the bill.^[5]

It is stated that the town and parish of Wigan contained, in 1548, 2,600 "houselynge people."^[6]

Sir Thomas Langton, knight, still retained the stewardship of the manor of Wigan, under the new rector, and apparently with no better warrant than before. In or about the year 38 Hen. VIII. (1346) he appointed Edward, Earl of Derby, his deputy, but afterwards refused to pay him the fees; and in I Eliz. (1558-9) the Earl of Derby sues him in the Duchy Court for the same. He states that twelve years ago the defendant granted to him the office of the stewardship of Wigan (and Newton) with the profits and advantages to the same belonging, in the same ample manner as William Gerrard, Esq., had had the office before, with a yearly fee of £5 6s. 8d. to be paid half-yearly on Christmas Day and St. John Baptist's day; that he (Lord Derby) appointed Thomas Standish as his deputy for the space of two years; that the said deed (the grant of the office of steward) came into the hands of Sir Thomas Langton, who has withheld the yearly fee for the space of nine years, notwithstanding that both deed and fee have been many times demanded of him. In answer to which Sir Thomas Langton cooly declares that "he made no grant or sufficient deed to the complainant of the office of stewardship" and "that he (Sir Thomas)was never seized of the said office."^[7]

John Herbert appears as rector in 1550,^[8] but the benefice became vacant by his death^[9] early in that year.

In his time the borough of Wigan was again summoned to return two members to serve in the first parliament of King Edward VI. On the first institution of the House of Commons, or at least on the first return of members for boroughs, the four ancient boroughs of Lancashire, namely Lancaster, Preston, Wigan and Liverpool, were required to return two members each, those being the only towns in the county to which writs were addressed for that purpose in 23 Edw. I., 1295.^[10] Wigan again returned two members in 35 Edw. I., 1307; after which no writs were addressed to our town to return members until the year 1 Edw. VI., 1547, when Alexander Barlowe, Esq., and Thomas Carne, Esq., were elected burgesses of parliament; since which time Wigan has always been represented.

1. Chester Diocesan Register.
2. Record Society (Lancashire and Cheshire), vol. viii. p. 408.
3. Presentatio Joh'is Harbert clerici ad rectoriam ecclesiæ parochialis de Wygan Presentatus est Johannes Harbert clericus ad ecclesiam parochialem de Wygan Cestrien, Dioc. per mortem naturalem Ric'i Kuyghley clerici ultimi incumbentis ejusdem vacan. ad presentationem Thomæ White civis et mercatoris scissorum civitatis London, (ratione advocationis et assignationis super hujusmodi factum ut superius patet pro hac unica vice pleno jure spectan.) octavo die mensis Augusti anno domini millesimo quingentesimo quadragesimo tertio ac admissus et institutus est idem Johannes Herbert in candem ecclesiam parochialem de Wygan cum suis juribus et pertinentiis universis per Reverendum in Christo patrem et dominum dominum Johannem permissione Divina Cestrien. Episcopum . . . die mensis . . . anno domini predicto. (Chester Diocesan Register.)
4. Raines' MSS., vol. xxii. being extracts from the Registers of Chester.
5. Duchy of Lancaster Pleadings, vol. xiv. W. No. 4.
6. Lancashire Chantries, Chetham Tract, lix. p. 67 note (e libra B. Duch. Lanc.)
7. Duchy of Lancaster Pleadings, I Eliz. vol. i. D. No. I.
8. Raines' MSS. (extracts from the Register of Chester) vol. xxii. p. 16.
9. Strype's Memorials (printed Oxford, 1822), vol. iv. p. 260.
10. Of the next ensuing parliament of 24 Edw. I. no returns have been found, nor are there full returns extant of that of 28 Edw. I. Members for Wigan do not appear in the somewhat incomplete returns of the parliaments of 29, 30, and 33 Edw. I.; and there are no returns for the county of Lancaster of the parliament held in 34 Edw. I.