Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 1.djvu/50

 Walton was Chancellor of the church of Lichfield from 1276 to 1292, when he was made Precentor of that Cathedral. He resided partly at Lichfield, and from the following presentment of the Lichfield jury in the Plea Rolls of 21 Edw. I. (1293) he was evidently regarded by the beggars of that day as a liberal dispenser of alms. The jury reported that a certain mendicant, Thomas de Sestreshire (Cheshire), together with a multitude of other paupers, came to the house of Master Adam de Walton within the close of Lichfield to receive alms, and the door of the said Adam's house being opened Thomas hastened to enter with the other paupers, and owing to the great pressure John le Wryere, the porter (claviger) of the said Master Adam, struck him with a stick on the head in order to keep him back, and the said Thomas fell, and, being trodden under foot by the multitude of other paupers, he was suffocated. The jury, together with the jury of the Hundred of Offlowe, being asked if the said John had struck Thomas feloniously, said that he had not, and that the blow was not the cause of his death, for he had been suffocated by the pressure of the crowd.

Adam de Walton died in August, 1303. 

, the next parson, was instituted to the Church of Wigan on Sunday, the morrow of St. Matthew the Apostle (Sept. 22), 1303, in the Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral, on the presentation of Sir John de Langton. The said Sir John, who was a clerk, and afterwards became Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Chichester, presented in right of his custody of the lands and heiress of Robert Banastre, which Robert died before 1293. Alice Banastre, then in her minority, was the daughter of James Banastre (who died in his father's life time), and grand daughter and heiress of the said Robert 