Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 1.djvu/142

130 first-fruits is dated 27th May, 33 Hen. VIII. In 1547 he was still rector of Grappenhall and parson of Bangor. He probably resigned Grappenhall on his acceptance of the richer benefice of Wigan, for he had been succeeded in the former by Peter Shaw, in 1556.

At Wigan Richard Gerrard inherited the lawsuit commenced by his predecessor concerning the tithes of Billinge. In 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, 1555, as parson of the parish church of Wigan, he lodges his bill of complaint in the Duchy Court, in which he recites the bill of the late Richard Smyth with the answers made to it; and a commission, dated 28th June, 1 and 2 Philip and Mary (1555), was issued to Alexander Barlowe, Thomas Eccleston, and John Wrightington, Esquires, directing them to examine William Gerrard, John Winstanley and others touching the matter in variance between Richard Gerrard, clerk, parson of Wigan, plaintiff, and the said William Gerrard and others defendants. In January of the following year a decree was pronounced in favour of Sir Richard Gerrard, the parson, ordering that he should henceforth enjoy the said tithe corn and grain without let or interruption.

Sir Richard Gerrard died in 1558, and was succeeded in the rectory by Thomas Stanley.

From subsequent suits in the Duchy court it appears that William Gerrard, the defendant in the above-mentioned suit, became his administrator, being presumably one of his nearest of kin. I suppose this William Gerrard of Ashton in Makerfield to have been the second son of James Gerrard of Astley, and