Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 2.djvu/60

Rh Dr. Bridgeman also succeeded in establishing his right to prohibit the working of any other mills within the manor or borough as being prejudicial to his own, as appears by the following note in the Wigan Leger:

"14th September, 1619. Memorand. Whereas there hath been a sute commenced between Dr. Bridgeman, parson of Wigan, and now lord bishop of Chester, and Hugh Forth, alderman of Wigan, for and about 2 corne mills in the mannor of Wigan which he the said Hugh Forth did occupy the last year, whereof one was a horse mill which he keeps in his house wherein he grinds malt, and another is a water mill which he rents of Thomas Gerrard of Ince, gent, and which was built lately upon Lorington Brook, which brook Miles Gerrard, father of the said Thomas, having diverted out of his right course, did build thereupon the said mill. And now the said Dr. Bridgeman hath sued Hugh Forth for the Tyth corne of both the said mills for the time past, so long as they were in the possession of the said Hugh, as also for that the said mills are both of them erected in the wrong of the said Dr. Bridgeman and of his church of Wigan, for that the parsons of Wigan have for divers hundreds of years had a water corne mill in Milgate in Wigan, whereto the inhabitants doe owe sute and have usually ground all their corne. Now the agreement made by the said Lord bishop of Chester, parson of Wigan, and the said Hugh Forth is; First, the said Hugh Forth doth acknowledge that he hath no right to have or use any mill in Wigan other than the sute corne water mill in Milgate belonging to the parson, and that he will, upon any command or signification of the parson's pleasure, demolish & suppresse his said horse mill, and he confesseth it stands in wrong of the parson, and that formerly it hath not been their use that any should have such mills in Wigan without the parson's leave. And for the time past he doth now submit himself to the Lord bishop and doth offer to pay him what Mr. Dr. Ellis and Mr. Thomas Humfreyes shall