Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 2.djvu/269

448 confirm it, who thereupon wrote his Letters to remain in the Registry perpetually unto Succession, for the reservation of it in Demesne to the B'prick in perpetuity. 7. Because the Rurall Deaneries in his Diocess were leased out for lives or years, so as sometime they came to the possession of unworthy & base men, & some of them to women (for Middlewich Deanery fell by Administration to one .... Kinsey the widow of a serving Man, which got it in like sort, & Dr. King on whom the said Bp: bestowed that Deanery could not after much Sute evict her, till she was taken in Adultery on a Good Friday in the Month June in Chester, & publickly punished for it); as also because the several Deanes kept no constant Office, & brought those places in disesteem, for that the Deanes usually put in meane men, who would give them most yearly Rent, & seldome kept the Records, so as many orphans, when they came to age, knew not how to find or where to claym their dues: therefore Bp: Bridgeman, that he might restore those places to their former Dignity, & that some constant Office might be had, to which all persons might resort for search of their Rights by the Records, & also might enlarge the profits or authority of his two Archdeacons of Richmond & Chester (which being destitute of all Jurisdiction are yet but meer Stipendiaries or Almesmen to the Bpp̃s who oftentimes pay them & perhaps with an ill will); And lastly for the benefit of the Bp̃s themselves in Succeasion, that so they may be disburthened of that 100lib yearly stipend, which they pay by the Charter of Foundation to the sd: Archdeacons: The sd: Bp: when those Deaneries fell into his hands reserved them for the sd: Archdeacons, & enlarging the old Rents which those Deaneries usually payd to the Bp̃s, & ever taking them to such Summes or rather less as the Deanes used to sett them at to their Deputies, & adding more Deaneries thereto, whereby those who exercised those places might besides their Jurisdiction benefit themselves in profit and gain, He hath united all the 8 Rurall Deaneries in Cheshire to the Archdeacon of Chester, upon the yearly Rent of 50lib to the Bp: for the discharge of the said Archdeacon's Stipend, as appears by his Patent thereof registred. And for the other 50lib yearly for the like Stipend of the Archdeacon of Richmond, when the Deanery of Warrington fell to his gift by the death of Mr. Collayne, & the Deaneries of Blackburn & Leland fell