Wigan

“ In his time the churchyard of Wigan appears to have been the scene of some battle or civil brawl, in which human blood was shed, for by his letters of 15th March, 1457-8, R [eginald Boulers] , Bishop of Lichfield, issues a commission to Ralph Ducworth, S.T.P., Vicar of Prestecote, and Sir Edward ffarington, Rector of Halsall, to inquire into the facts of the case. ”

“ Fleetwood's papers, or sent by him to the authorities in London.
The town of Wigan at this period was progressing in civilization and its attendant luxuries; and Holinshed, in his Itinerary from Cockermouth to London, enumerates, amongst other places, Kendal, Burton, Lancaster, Preston, Wigan, and Warrington, where the inns were well furnished with "napierie, bedding, and tapisserie. Each commer," says he, "is sure to lie in cleane sheets wherein no man hath been lodged since they came from the landresse. ”

“ During the civil wars, this town, both from its vicinity to Latham House, and from its attachment to Charles the First, took a distinguished part, and obtained the characteristic designation of the "faithful and loyal town of Wigan." After the insurrection of 1715, the oaths of supremacy and allegiance to the reigning family had been, in vain, strongly urged upon the inhabitants of Lancashire, and a large mass of landed estates were, in consequence, put in jeopardy ”

“ I am told that Wigan was one of the first—if not the very first—of the towns of Lancashire to feel the nip of our present distress. I am told, also, that it was the first town in which a Relief Committee was organised. The cotton consumed here is almost entirely of the kind from ordinary to middling American, which is now the scarcest and dearest of any. Preston is almost wholly a spinning town. In Wigan there is a considerable amount of weaving as well as spinning. The counts spun in Wigan are lower than those in Preston; they range from 10's up to 20's. ”

“ The same name is found at Wigan, where the duty of the “gate-waiters or leave-lookers” was to see that all “foreigners” paid their fines for licence to reside and trade in the town. (Sinclair, Wigan, passim.)
It is not easy to define the exact status of the tensers. They were certainly considered as an inferior body of burgesses, and might comprise three classes. Firstly, those not willing or not able to enter one of the gilds; secondly, traders waiting to be admitted burgesses; thirdly ex-burgesses fallen from the higher state through misfortune. ”

“ The first indubitable Parson, or Rector, of Wigan [1] that I meet with is
Ranulf, Treasurer of Salisbury, who, as a non-resident, appears to have nominated a vicar or perpetual curate to serve the church in his place. On 12th June, 1199 (1 John) , a grant was made to Adam, clerk, de Frekelton, of the perpetual vicarage of the church of Wigan, at the request of Ranulf, Treasurer of Salisbury, Parson of Wigan. ”

“ The Highland host, after marching through Preston, to the sounds of the bagpipes, which played "The King shall have his own again," took the road through Wigan, towards Manchester. The Prince was informed that the English troops had broken down the bridge at Warrington; and that circumstance, which decided him to go through Wigan, somewhat encouraged his naturally sanguine temper, as it showed fear on the part of the enemy. During this march, the kind-hearted young man went on foot, except occasionally, when we find notice of his riding a fine horse in the public prints of the day. ”

“ She is fair and sweet, and she has won Wigan’s love. That is what she has done to me.”
“And you love Wigan?”
“I care nothing for Wigan. I hate Brichtiva. I want to be revenged on her.”
“I can do nothing for you,” answered Haldane severely. “Revenge is the business of the black witch, not the Wise Woman who deals in honest simples and harmless charms. Go home and say thy prayers, Maiden, and squeeze the black drop out of thine heart, that thou fall not into the power of the Evil One. Depart!”
This interview quite satisfied Ermine that Haldane was no genuine witch of the black order. ”

“ When his imagination had peopled the house with these singular phantoms, the emotion he felt was so great that it gave his dramatic powers still greater force, and enabled him to produce the wonderful effects that have made his name so famous.
Wigan says, that he once knew a most intelligent and amiable man, who could at will evoke his own image. He often laughed at seeing his second self standing before him, the phantom appearing to laugh as heartily as himself. ”

“ Wigan were at much pains to preserve the fabric of the College while it was in their hands. The building and outhousing fell into decay, and became ruinous; and there is little doubt this interesting relic would have disappeared altogether but for the timely interposition of one of Manchester’s most worthy sons. ”

“ Before I had been two hours in the town, I was put into communication with one of the active members of the Relief Committee, who offered to devote a few hours of the following day to visitation with me, amongst the poor of a district called "Scholes," on the eastern edge of the town. Scholes is the "Little Ireland" of Wigan, the poorest quarter of the town. The colliers and factory operatives chiefly live there. There is a saying in Wigan —that, no man's education is finished until he has been through Scholes. ”

“ Ashurst of Ashurst, among the parishioners of Wigan are described as being "soundly affected in religion." While it is said that all the ladies, widows and gentlewomen whose names are given, among whom are Annie Langton, wife of Thomas Langton, baron of Newton, and Johane Lethwet of Pemberton in Wigan parish, are recusants.
Fleetwood's intolerance of the religious views of others will have doubtless made him many enemies. ”

“ They denied having troubled, vexed or disquieted the said Sir Thomas Langton when sitting in the said court, but they said that Richard Moore, being then Mayor of Wigan, had sat down by Sir Thomas to see that nothing was done to the prejudice of the town of Wigan or the liberties thereof, and John Scott deposed that when Sir Thomas was sitting in court and giving charge to enquire of bloodshed, the said Richard Moore had challenged his authority to do so unless it were drawn or shed within certain limits of time and place. ”

“ Mrs. Bridget Fleetwood, his mother, was afterwards married to Sir Robert Wingfield of Leatheringham, in the county of Suffolk, knight, and was living in 1571 when her son became rector of Wigan. [3] Edward Fleetwood, to whom Edward, Earl of Derby, was godfather, [4] must have been very young when he was made rector of Wigan, for by inquisition taken at Lancaster on 26th March, 13 Eliz. ”

“ Wigan was an admirable actor in a rather narrow groove. He lacked robustness and breadth of style, and could never play a modern gentleman, which part he could not even dress. His method was modelled to some extent upon that of Bouffé, a brilliant French actor of the early part of the century. ”

“ Liverpool, with its miles of docks and its connection with every part of the world, has become the recognised second port in the country. In the north–east corner of West Derby are the extensive coalfields of Wigan.
A considerable portion of the hundred is as yet untainted with the smoke of the manufactory. Many of the parish churches are of great antiquity; amongst them may be named Ormskirk, Leigh, Wigan, Winwick, Warrington, Childwall, Walton–on–the–Hill, Prescot, Sephton and Huyton. Burscough Priory was in the parish of Ormskirk, and Liverpool had its ancient castle. ”

“ On 2nd April, 1357, and again on 30th January, 1358, being then Treasurer of York, John de Winwick was sent to parliament as one of the representatives of the Chapter. [13] In the same year we find him lodging a complaint in the Duchy Court against certain malefactors for resisting his bailiffs in the performance of their duties within his manor of Wigan; and the Duke issued his mandate to the Sheriff to investigate the charges, [14] It would seem that John de Winwick resigned the Rectory of Wigan in July of the following year, for his successor was presented on the 10th July, 1359. ”

“ In studying the materials for the compilation of these parochial annals, I find that the ancient manorial rights and privileges of the rectors have ever been a fruitful source of litigation between them and their people, insomuch that the inhabitants of Wigan from time to time seem to have inherited a traditionary feeling that it was their duty as citizens to resist and curtail these rights to the best of their power, in which indeed they generally succeeded, as will be shewn in the following pages. ”

“ Manchester, Liverpool, Preston, and other large towns were attracting to them men, not only from the175 surrounding districts, but from all civilized countries; whilst the woollen and other goods manufactured in the county had already obtained a world–wide fame. Amongst other industries introduced during this century was bell–founding, which trade was carried on in Wigan with considerable success as early as 1647, and many church bells in the surrounding districts came from this foundry. ”

“ I request you to record the following narrative of the longevity of one family in the town of Wigan, Lancashire, where Old Anne Glave died in The Scholes a few years since at the advanced age of 105. She was a woman well skilled in herbs, and obtained her livelihood by gathering them in their proper seasons. She retained her faculties till the last, and followed her trade of herb-gathering within a short time of her death. Anne was the daughter of Barnard Hartley, who lived 103 years, and lies buried in Wigan churchyard. ”

“ His early married life was passed on his father's estate near Wigan, and he took an active part in local affairs. As churchwarden of All Saints', Wigan, he was largely responsible for the careful restoration of that church. ”

“ In a town like Wigan, for instance, there are over two thousand houses standing which have been condemned for years, and whole sections of the town would be condemned en bloc if there were any hope of other houses being built to replace them. Towns like Leeds and Sheffield have scores of thousands of ‘back to back’ houses which are all of a condemned type but will remain standing for decades. ”

“ In the description of the great manor, or lordship, of Newton, given in Domesday, it is stated that in King Edward's time "the church of this manor had one carucate of land, and St. Oswald of this vill two carucates, exempt from all dues."
"The church of this manor" was unquestionably the parish church of Wigan, while that of St. Oswald will have been that of Winwick. [1] A carucate, or plough land, signifies as much arable land as could be tilled throughout the year by one team of oxen. It is difficult to estimate the acreage of a carucate in any particular locality. ”

“ Beaten from the bridge of Ribble, falling back, a drumless march on Wigan Moor, leaving the ammunition to the enemy, falling farther back on to Wigan town, where they thought to make some stand, but decided not to, with skirmishes of detachments at Redbank where the Scots nearly worsted Colonel Pride at Ribble Bridge, and where Middleton (the weather, always foul, bringing confusion and fatigue) missed his chief, coming too late. And so it went for three days on the wet Yorkshire heaths, till finally it was over; the fate of King, Church, Constitution, and Covenant was decided. ”

“ The temporary troubles now affecting the working people of Lancashire wear a different aspect there on account of such a large proportion of the population being employed in the coal mines. The "way of life" and the characteristics of the people are marked by strong peculiarities. But, apart from these things, Wigan is an interesting place. The towns of Lancashire have undergone so much change during the last fifty years that their old features are mostly either swept away entirely, or are drowned in a great overgrowth of modern buildings. ”

“ As to Holland chapel in the parish of Wigan, the charge against the parish (or chapelry) itself is that there is no curate there, "though by Mr. Fleetwood's means they have never wanted service on the Sabbaoth daie." Against the wardens there it is charged that there are "no books but the Booke of Comon praier, and the Byble wch is ould and torne." There is "a table, but an yll favored one, no comunion cup of silver; no blacke coveringe for the Comunion Table; no cheste, nor Boxe for the Poore. The surples [is] verie olde. One Mr. ”

“ It was deemed essential by those in authority, at this critical period, that the county magistracy should be sound and well affected towards the government; and although the Earl of Derby did not conceive any material change to be necessary, the lord treasurer, on the suggestion of Edward Fleetwood, rector of Wigan, and others, caused a new commission to be issued, in which the names of several fresh magistrates were introduced, and a considerable number of those who were thought to be favourable to the recusants omitted. ”

“ Nothing, as regards landscape and prospects of sylvan solitude, can be more unpromising than the approach thereto through Hindley and Wigan. Two or three miles beyond the latter, where the ground begins to rise, and trees and streams of water make their appearance, it seems possible, after all, that something picturesque may lie concealed ”