Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 1.djvu/138

126 moiety to John Winstanley, now defendant; that Ketchyn afterwards granted all his estate and interest in the said parsonage to Sir Thomas Langton, for which the said Sir Thomas paid 200 marks; that Edmund Burscowe was proctor or bailiff to the said Sir Thomas; that on the 40th day Richard Smyth re-entered the parsonage of Wigan; and that the said defendants did pay the rents due for the tithe [i.e. to Sir Thomas or his agent] 3 weeks or more before the re-entry into the said parsonage of Wigan. Sir Thomas Langton of Walton-in-le-Dale, aged 58 years, gives the same evidence as the last witness, cites the conditions of Kyghley's lease to Ketchyn, with the power of re-entry, and mentions that the said Ketchyn had at the time of the lease agreed with the said Kyghley to discharge him of charges for finding a curate to serve the said parsonage, which would amount to twenty nobles a year or thereabouts; he denies, however, that he made Burscowe his deputy or gave him authority to receive the rents belonging to the said parsonage; and says that he was in London at the time of the re-entry into the parsonage and did not know of the non-payment of rent; that when he was at Newton Park with the said Sir Richard Smyth he offered him the rent due, and the said Smyth refused to take it anywhere but at Wigan; that Burscowe offered the rent to the said Smyth the day after the expiration of the 40 days, and he refused to receive it; and the said Burscowe said he would complain to Lord Derby, upon which Smyth took the rent; that afterwards the said Smyth came to his (Langton's) mansion and promised to make amends for his conduct, which "is yet to do."

This suit concerning the tithes of Billinge was not determined until after the decease of parson Smyth, who died within little more than a year of the commencement of the suit.

John Ketchyn seems to have sub-let the church lands as well as the tithes during the term of his lease, for one Oliver Halghton of Wigan complains, in parson Smyth's time, that he was