Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 2.djvu/146

Rh that he could not by law make any lease of any part of his rectory, by statute 13 Eliz. cap. 10. 7. If there had been a lease parole, yet afterwards he himself renounced and disclaimed all title and interest therein, and betook him only as a tenant at will, and acknowledged that he held it only by the parson's favour. 8. Letherbarrow himself, ever since this pretended lease should be made, was called and appeared at court barons as tenant at will; so paid his rents yearly for these ten years, and so stands in all rentals; and at the last court baron before his death, himself appeared and confessed before the bishop's steward that he was a tenant at will hereto. 9. His widow (now plaintiflf) paid the bishop for her husband's mortuary but 6s. 8d., affirming that all his estate which he left at his death was under £40, whereas if he left such a chattell, of twenty-one years for this mill, it must needs make the inventory to be greater. But then this lease was not hatched.

She pleads also three years' possession; but 1. imprimis, her husband died within these nine months. 2 Item, the statute 21 Eliz. requires that, besides three years' possession, there be a good estate not ended or determined; also a legal and peaceable possession, but her possession is not legal, because without right title, nor peaceable, for Lawrence Booth made an entry on 23rd June, 1628, and he, the bishop, has since often demanded it. 3 Item, herself hath appeared since at his court baron, being called as tenant at will. 4. She petitioned the bishop, soon after her husband's death, to be admitted his tenant at will.

I do not meet with any mention of the award, if any was made. But it would seem that the bishop had afterwards to sue for possession in the Duchy court. It appears by his replication, 12th February, 1629, to Alice Letherbarrow's answer to his bill of complaint that she brought forward the same pleas in proof of her title, adding that her husband had been induced to acknowledge himself tenant at will to the bishop by threats of