This charge was laid before the lord abbot of Westminster by the abbot of Vale Royal, and the former, after hearing the statement of offences, commanded that Sir William de Clifton and others enumerated therein, should appear before him to answer for their misdeeds; but as neither Sir William nor any of his friends and abettors took the least notice of the summons, it was decided that an endeavour should be made to arrange the quarrel by arbitration. To this the knight seems to have been favourable, and nominated William Laurence, John de Crofton, and Robert Mareys to act as his arbitrators; whilst those of the abbot were William Baldreston, rector of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre; Robert Baldreston, his brother, and a rector also; and Richard de Ewyas, a monk of Deulacres. The decision of the court thus constituted was that Sir William de Clifton should acknowledge his guilt, and ask pardon and absolution for the same from the abbot, unto whose will and grace he should submit himself; in addition the knight was ordered to pay a fine of twenty marks, and make good to the abbot the tithes which he had destroyed or refused to pay. Sir William accepted the verdict, and bound himself to fulfil its conditions by oath; the rest were required to enter into a promise to abstain in future from making any attempt to injure the church of Kirkham, or anything connected with it, and to provide a large wax candle, which was paraded round that church on the feast of palms, and afterwards presented as a peace-offering to St. Michael.[149]
In 1357 Cardinal John Thoresby, archbishop of York, made a new ordination of the vicarage of Kirkham, by which it was decreed that, instead of the secular vicar appointed aforetime, the abbot and convent of Vale Royal should select some one from their own monastery to fill the office whenever a vacancy occurred. By this fresh regulation the abbot and convent of Vale Royal were bound to pay to the vicar forty marks per annum, and he on his part was pledged to keep the parsonage house in proper repair and perform all ecclesiastical duties. Three years afterwards a vicar of Kirkham was charged and convicted of having been guilty of maladministration in his position as dean of Amounderness, but subsequently he received a full pardon from King Edward III.
In the year 1401, during the reign of Henry IV., the right to hold a market and fair was again confirmed to the abbot and convent of Vale Royal; subjoined is a translated copy of the grant, which bore the date of the 2nd of July:—
“The king to all men greeting: We have inspected a charter made by our progenitor, Lord Edward, formerly king of England, in these words:—‘Edward, by the grace of God king of England, lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, justices, sheriffs, provosts, ministers, and to all his bailiffs and subjects, health. Know that we have granted and by this our present charter confirm to our beloved in Christ the Abbot and Convent of Vale Royal, that they and their successors for ever shall have a market in each week on Thursday at their manor at Kirkham in the county of Lancaster, and also in each year a fair at the same town of five days duration, that is on the vigil, on the Day, and on the morrow of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and on the two days succeeding; unless the market and fair be found injurious to neighbouring markets and fairs. Therefore we desire and firmly enjoin, both for ourselves and our heirs, that the aforesaid Abbot and Convent and their successors for ever shall have the aforesaid market and fair at the aforesaid manor with all the liberties and free customs appertaining to similar institutions, unless such market and fair be detrimental to neighbouring interests as aforesaid.
“‘These being witnesses:—The venerable fathers Robert Bath and Wells, John Winchester, and Anthony Durham, bishops; William de Valence, our uncle; Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln; master Henry de Newark, archdeacon of Richmond; master William de Luda, archdeacon of Durham; master William de Cornere, dean of Wymburne; John de St. John; William de Latymer; and others.
“‘Given under our hand at Bourdeaux on the 21st of January, in the 15th year of our reign.’
“Holding the aforesaid charter and all matters contained in it as authentic and acceptable both for ourselves and our heirs, as far as our power extends, we accept, approve, grant, and confirm to our beloved in Christ, the present Abbot and Convent of the aforesaid place and their successors that the aforesaid charter be considered just, also we affirm that the same Abbot and Convent and their predecessors legally had and held the said market and fair before this date.
“In testimony thereof, etc. Witness the king at Westminster on the 2nd of July.”[150]
At the dissolution of monasteries the manor of Kirkham, together with the advowson of the church, was transferred by Henry VIII. from the abbot and convent of Vale Royal to the dean and chapter of Christ Church, Oxford.
In 1560 Queen Elizabeth ratified and confirmed by letters patent all former charters concerning Kirkham by a deed bearing the date of July 2nd; and later, in 1619, the 17th year of the reign of James I., a record of the Duchy Court of Lancaster states that the bailiffs and burgesses of Kirkham presented a petition praying that they might elect into their government some men of account dwelling near the town, and that it might be declared that the bailiffs had lawful power and authority to correct all malefactors and offenders according to the laws and liberties of the town, and to do and perform all other duties appertaining to their office. They prefaced their prayer by asserting that “the town of Kirkham had been used as an ancient market town and that the inhabitants thereof had time out of mind been accounted a Corporation, incorporated by the name of Bailiffs and Burgesses, and that of late owing to some of the bailiffs being but simple and weak men, and the inhabitants but poor and numerous, it had been found impossible to govern in a proper and satisfactory manner the large confluences of people at fair and market seasons,” for which reason they were desirous of gaining an extension of their existing powers as set forth in the plea. The court decreed that “the then Bailiffs of Kirkham and the Burgesses of the same, and their successors, for ever, should and might from thenceforth have and enjoy their ancient usages and liberties by the name of the Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town of Kirkham, and that the Bailiffs should yearly be chosen out of the Burgesses according to the said usages, or as they in their discretion should think meet, for the better government of the said Town and the people thereunto resorting, also that the Bailiffs, Burgesses, and Inhabitants should be guildable, and have in the said Town a prison, etc., as had been heretofore, and that the Dean and Chapter and their successors, farmers, and tenants, should and might from henceforth have all their fairs, markets, liberties, privileges, jurisdictions, Court Leets, Court Barons, Courts of Pleas, and the Fair Court, as heretofore had been.” The foregoing was ordered to be read in the parish church on the ensuing sabbath, and also in the market place.