# The History of the Church and Manor of Wigan/Richard Gerrard

​Mr. Richard Gerrard, clerk, was presented to the parish church of Wigan, vacant by the death of Mr. Richard Smyth, the last incumbent, on 27th February, 1554, by Edward, Earl of Derby, Henry Lord Straunge, and others by virtue of the concession of Sir Thomas Langton, knight, the true patron. He was admitted and instituted to the same by George [Cotes] Lord Bishop of Chester, on 2nd March of the same year. Richard ​Gerrard was a younger son of William Gerrard, of Ince, in the parish of Wigan, gent., and younger brother of Thomas Gerrard of the same place, and of James Gerrard of Astley, from whom the Lords Gerrard of Bromley in Staffordshire descended.
On 22nd October, 1522, a grant was made out presenting Ric Gerard, clk., to the church of Gropnall (Grappenhall) Cov. and Lich. Dioc, vice Simon Byron, clk., deceased, in the King's gift by the minority of Henry, son and heir of John Byron. He rebuilt or restored the church of Grappenhall in Cheshire in 1539, and his arms, azure, a lion rampant ermine, crowned or, may still be seen in some very old glass in one of the windows of the old rectory house there." James Gerrard of Astley (the second son of William Gerrard of Ince), in his will, printed by the Chetham Society, makes his "brother Ric. Gerrrard, pson of gropēhall" one of his executors.
In 33 Hen. VIII., 1542, Richard Gerrard was admitted parson of Bangor Monachorum, by reason that William Knight was made bishop of Bath and Wells, by presentation of the King, patron jure prerogativæ, Gerrard's composition for tenths and ​first-fruits is dated 27th May, 33 Hen. VIII. In 1547 he was still rector of Grappenhall and parson of Bangor. He probably resigned Grappenhall on his acceptance of the richer benefice of Wigan, for he had been succeeded in the former by Peter Shaw, in 1556.
At Wigan Richard Gerrard inherited the lawsuit commenced by his predecessor concerning the tithes of Billinge. In 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, 1555, as parson of the parish church of Wigan, he lodges his bill of complaint in the Duchy Court, in which he recites the bill of the late Richard Smyth with the answers made to it; and a commission, dated 28th June, 1 and 2 Philip and Mary (1555), was issued to Alexander Barlowe, Thomas Eccleston, and John Wrightington, Esquires, directing them to examine William Gerrard, John Winstanley and others touching the matter in variance between Richard Gerrard, clerk, parson of Wigan, plaintiff, and the said William Gerrard and others defendants. In January of the following year a decree was pronounced in favour of Sir Richard Gerrard, the parson, ordering that he should henceforth enjoy the said tithe corn and grain without let or interruption.
Sir Richard Gerrard died in 1558, and was succeeded in the rectory by Thomas Stanley.
From subsequent suits in the Duchy court it appears that William Gerrard, the defendant in the above-mentioned suit, became his administrator, being presumably one of his nearest of kin. I suppose this William Gerrard of Ashton in Makerfield to have been the second son of James Gerrard of Astley, and ​so nephew to the late rector. He thus became possessed of the rector's writings upon the strength of which he re-entered upon the tithes of Billinge, and retained them until his death, which took place shortly afterwards.
* ↑ Chester Diocesan Register.
* ↑ See Visitation of Lancashire by Willliam Flower, Chetham Tract xxxi p. 101.
* ↑ Del. Westm. 22 October, 12 Hen. VIII., Cal. p. 381 (as quoted by Rev. M. H. Lee, vicar of Hanmer, in the Palatine Note Book vol. ii. p. 212).
* ↑ These were the arms of the original Gerrards of Ince. The same arms were in one of the painted glass windows in Wigan church in 1590 (Armorial Bearings in the churches of Prescot, Wigan, and Liverpool, by J. Paul Rylands (1881), p. 4.; from Harl. MS. 2,129). The old Gerrards of Ince afterwards fell into pecuniary difficulties, and their lands were sold by Thomas Gerrard, in the time of Charles II., to Col. Richard Gerrard, second son of Sir Thomas and brother of Sir William Gerrard of Bryn, knights; which Col. Richard Gerrard was cup-bearer to Queen Henrietta Maria, and died at Ince in 1686. His arms, as given in a book plate in possession of his representative Humphrey Walmesley of Westwood, Esq., are quarterly, 1st and 4th a saltire, 2nd and 3rd a lion rampant, being those of Gerrard of Bryn.
* ↑ Armorial Bearings in the churches of Prescot, Wigan, and Liverpool (as before) p. 7.
* ↑ New Series, vol. iii. p. 6. The will is unfortunately much defaced, and the date is wanting.
* ↑ Emral MSS. (quoted by Rev. M. H. Lee, Palatine Note Book, vol. ii p. 212).
* ↑ Palatine Note Book vol. ii. p. 212.
* ↑ Helsby's Ormerod's Cheshire vol. i. p. 600
* ↑ Ibid.
* ↑ Alexander Barlowe, Esq., was one of the members of parliament for Wigan at that time. There is a pedigree of the Barlowe family given in the Palatine Note Book vol iv. p. 230.
* ↑ Duchy of Lancaster pleadings, 1 and 2 Phil, and Mary, vol x. G. No. 1.
* ↑ Duchy of Lancaster Decrees and Orders, Hilary, i Elix., vol. xii. fo. 91, in which this Decree is cited.