Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 2.djvu/126

Rh eyes, but in the service of the great King of Heaven & Earth, to which all places of decency and conveniency should by all means be employed or dedicated in one degree or another."

In speaking afterwards of the parish church of St. Oswald or St. Werburgh, the same writer says, that "in this church, for the most part, is the great assembly both of the major, aldermen, sheriffs, peers, and the whole city, to hear the sermons on the Lord's Day and other festivals, especially in the fore-noon, being indeed the most spacious and fit place for this occasion." From which it may be inferred that the mayor and aldermen had gone back again to their seats in the parish church for the morning sermon, but whether the afternoon sermons in the nave, thus happily begun, were given up again or not at this time does not appear. In the meantime bishop Bridgeman returned from Chester to Wigan, on 16th July, 1627. By the death of his father, Mr. Thomas Bridgeman, of Greenway, in the county of Devon, on the 23rd of July, 1627, which was followed six months later by that of his mother, Mrs. Alice Bridgeman, who died on the 31st of the ensuing January, he came into possession of his paternal estate, which consisted of lands at Greenway, or Spyre Park, near Exeter, and some houses in the city of Exeter, which belonged to his mother. These properties were sold by him in 1631 to pay for the purchase of other lands. The bishop was ever careful to preserve to his church those rights and privileges which he had recovered at the cost of so much trouble and expense. A curious instance of this occurred soon after his return to Wigan. On 26th July, 1627, Robert Barrow, deputy mayor,