Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 2.djvu/27

206 the presence of Roger Bradshaw of Haigh, Esq., and Augustin Wildbore (the curate) craved forgiveness of her rash words, and asked him to treat her with kindness. She confessed, in the presence of Roger Bradshaw, Esq., and Augustin Wildbore, minister, that she held the said lands only by his favour, and that her husband first obtained possession of part of the said grounds upon composition with Mr. Babington for £3, and that the other part of the said grounds Babington enjoyed, and after him parson ffleetwood all his life after; and that her husband entered upon this latter part after Mr. Fleetwood's death only by the patron's appointment, when the benefice was in suit betwixt him and Dr. Massy; so, as she acknowledged that she had no right but by his sufferance. Dr. Bridgeman promised to give her £4 yearly out of the profits, provided that she never again laid claim to any part of the said grounds and tofts save that acre which she held of Mr. Gerard. She asked permission to talk it over first with her cousin Barrow; and in the evening she sent her servant Elizabeth Turner to drive out the rector's horses, which were in one of the lees, and Lawrence Prescot's kine, which were in the other lees. When the rector heard of it he sent to her to know if it were done by her consent, to which she replied that she had bidden her maid to do it, and would do it again, whereupon he ordered the horses and kine to be put in again, which they did and locked the gates.

A few days afterwards, namely, on the 19th of October, 1617, Dr. Bridgeman demised one acre of the said Lees, which Mr. Fleetwood had formerly had in his own hand, to Lawrence Prescot, as a yearly tenant at a rent of 10s. per annum and he kept the other acre and the tofts in his own hand. At the same time he demised Cuckstool toft in Wallgate, which Alexander Lathwayt had lately held, to William Brown of Wigan for 10s. yearly.

From a subsequent entry in the Wigan Leger, of which only a fragment remains, it would appear that the widow Lathwayt