1626

1. CHESTER (St John) Alderman Thos Bird c John Francis saying he had got Ellin Barnes with child at his chambers in Watergate Street - libel, interrogations, depositions.

2. CHESTER (St John) John Francis c Katherine Spence saying his wife found him in bed with the maid - libel, depositions.

3. CHESTER (St Oswald) Jane Catterall wife of Wm a fishmonger c Wm Catterall and his wife saying she had a child before her marriage and committed adultery - libel (fragile).

4. CHESTER (St Oswald) John Hall & John Sephton of Newton c John Brooke & Robert Ince concerning their title to a seat in church - interrogations, commission to take evidence.

5. CHESTER (St Mary) Churchwardens c Margaret Browne alias Johnson for non payment of fees - responsions, costs (badly damaged).

6. CHESTER (St Michael) Churchwardens c Robert Sproston, feltmaker, for non payment of his layes - quotes precedent of 1584/85 - libel.

7. CHESTER (St Oswald) Ralph Cotton c Ralph Kirfoote concerning the parochial status of Huntington Hall with its deer park and the Lordship of Huntington that it is no part of Bruera and was former property of the Abbots of Chester - libel, interrogations, responsions, depositions.

8. KIRKHAM Petition of Jenet Sowthworth against an allegation of slander made against Wm Carter.

9. GOOSNARGH Thos Rogerson c Jenet Yates on a charge of adultery - libel.

10. CLITHEROE Sentence in a cause between Elizabeth Colthurst and Jenet Baylie.

11. WINDERMERE Churchwardens c Geo Brown, Wm Birkhead of Windermere and Geo Jackson and 7 inhabitants of Troutbeck for non payment of layes to flagg the church, mend the steeple, repair the leads, buy a new bible and books, mend the organ loft, mend the windows and the organs. (Miles Robinson is the organ blower) - libel interrogations, depositions, sentence.

12. WARRINGTON Peter Harrison c Thos Bispham for tithe from new ground. He has spent 100ll - 200ll on ditching, fencing, guttering drainage, feighing, marling, plowing and labor in manuring and tilling -libel, depositions, sentence.

13. WARRINGTON Peter Harrison c John & Thos Fearnehead for tithe from the newly enclosed part of Fearnehead Common then waste - libel, interrogations, depositions.

14. BOLTON LE SANDS Churchwardens of Bolton c chapelwardens of Burton for refusing to repair the churchyard wall at Bolton as is the custom - depositions.

15. CROSTHWAITE Election of Richard Rowth as curate and schoolmaster for Crosthwaite in Heversham parish.

16. CARTMEL Office c Ann Breres alias Tyllesley and Thos Tyllesley for marriage under age; he being 14 years old - interrogations, depositions.

17. EGREMOND Office c Anthony Patrickson for adultery with Ann Benns - responsions.

18. BLACKBURN Churchwardens c Ambrose Peacock & Richard Cunliffe of Great Harwood for refusing to pay assessments to the repair of the church - depositions, sentence, costs.

19. BLACKBURN Churchwardens c John Bradill of Whalley for refusing to pay assessments to repair of church - depositions, sentence, costs.

20. BLACKBURN Cecily Knowles c John Walsh for defamation - interrogations, depositions.

21. PRESBURY Richard Michell c Jacob & Thos Oldfield for defamation - depositions.

22. PRESTBURY Laurence Leicester clerk c Humphrey Newton saying he was fitter to preach in a middin than the pulpit - interrogations.

23. ROCHDALE Isabella Leigh c Maria Ogden for defamation - interrogations.

24. ROCHDALE Richard Molineux c Margaret Stringer for defamation - fragment of libel.

25. ASHTON ON MERSEY Daniel Baker rector c Richard Cartwright for tithe pasture from Green Hayes - fragment only.

26. MANCHESTER Anne Baxter c Wm Boulton saying he was naughty with her - libel, depositions, sentence.

27. ASHTON IN MAKERFIELD Thos & Mary Knowles c Margaret Bispham and others saying that Mary committed adultery with Richard Sephton the miller - libel.

28. OVER PEOVER Office c John Chaice and Anna Wright widow for adultery - fragment only.

29. NEWCHURCH Margery Fleete c Richard Fleete and Richard Darlington for defrauding her of her livelihood and compelling she and her mother to beg their bread - fragment.

30. WALLASEY Robert Kighly c Robert Johnson saying he had kept 20 whores - deposition, sentence, costs.

31. MARBURY Geo Poole c Maria Cole saying that Poole's wife committed adultery with Philip Lloyd between 1605 and 1615 - libel.

32. TARPORLEY Ralph Kirkham c Anna Cookson saying she saw Maria Wood with her clothes up fornicating with Robert Kirkham - libel, interrogations.

33. STOCKPORT Wm Sidebotham & Margery Thorniley c Cecilia Thorniley for saying she saw them commit adultery in the house of Randle Birchouse in Northwich - libel.

34. SEFTON Gregory Turner rector c Richard Mollineux for tithe rabbit, pigeons, sheep, lambs, cows, pigs, poultry - libel.

35. SEFTON Robert Kinsey c Sara Kinsey in a divorce cause arising from Sara's adultery in Wm Wicksteed's alehouse - libel, interrogations.

36. WINWICK Henry Hirst c John Flitcroft saying he had committed adultery with Ellin Taylor on the bank - libel.

37. MACCLESFIELD Susanna Fallowes c Joan Clerke & Jane Hooley saying she was a whore - libel.

38. MACCLESFIELD Anna Hodgkinson c Robert Hatton & Anna Davie calling her thief and whore - libel.

39. MALPAS Richard Bird c Wm Edge of Lawton for calling him a rogue and thief - libel.

40. MALPAS John Shone of Hawarden c Magaret Shone of Malpas his wife for committing adultery with Wm Moyle of Doddleston - libel.

41. BURTONWOOD Petition for divine service to be held in the chapel until the Bishop can consecrate it. The petitioners are aged, impotent, women and children who cannot travel 4 miles to the parish church from Burtonwood, Dallam and Bold, 77 men have signed this.

42. ECCLES Christopher Anderton of Lostock impropriator c Thos Holland of Clifton & Alexander Lightbourne of Swinton to tithes - libel, interrogations, responsions, sentence, costs.

43. ECCLES Chris Anderton c Nicholas Valentine & Thos Diggle for tithe from Highebank, Stonedelf, Croudercroft and Rough Cliveley being wheat - libel.

44. WIGAN Ellen Scott c Isabella Ashley for defamation - libel.

45. WIGAN Rector c Joseph Rigby of Aspull claiming right to seats in Parson's Chancel between the nave and the new chancel and allowing others to sit there being men of mean condition, masons and labourers of Blackburn parish - libel, depositions.

46. WIGAN Office c Jacob Smalshawe and his wife being married without banns or licence - libel.

47. WIGAN Peter Harrison of Wigan impropriator of Warrington tithes c Hugh Taylor of Winwick for tithe oats from Fearnehead - libel.

48. WIGAN Bp. Bridgeman c Richard Leigh for tithe hay - libel.

49. DEAN Office c Jennet wife of Charles Gregory caught in adultery in a dry pit with Wm Milnes, both to perform penances in the churches of Wigan and Leigh.

50. DEAN Peter & Dorothy Leigh c Ralph Mather of Middlehulton for tithe wheat - libel.

51. BUNBURY Richard Brocke c John Swann curate for neglecting the cure keeping a mercer's shop, selling wares, travelling from market to market, administering communion to persons sitting or standing and to non parishioners, allowing congregation to use such gestures as they pleased, refusing communion out of envy, refusing to baptise sick infants, not visiting the sick, not meeting a corpse at lich gate in his surplice, smiling and laughing instead of reading prayers, not burying dead according to BCP - libel, responsions.

52. WIGAN Office c John Naylor and Margaret Chawner for adultery - libel.

53. TARVIN Office c Robert Mawnfield and Alice his wife married without banns or licence - libel.

54. WALTON Neville Key vicar c Jacob White - responsions, sentence.

55. PRESTBURY George Turner and others c Thos Jackson for malicious defamation. The parties had been before the Justices of peace - libel.

56. RAMSBOTHAM Egidus (Giles) Rothwell c Richard Ramsbotham for allowing the chapel door of Holcome to be opened, ringing the bell, allowing Robert Wood, a ballad monger, a wandering fellow to go into the pulpit and preach a profane sermon on the Sabbath. Ramsbotham guilty of swearing great oaths - libel.

57. DEAN Sentence in cause between Peter and Brian Leigh.

58. WILMSLOW Office c Laurence Leicester curate for being drunk in an alehouse of Randall Burgess in Moberley, throwing a black pot at the head of Humphrey Newton, swearing, unable to stand. On 31 Oct went from one alehouse to another in Wilmslow brought by the Constable before Dean of Chester, a JP and bound over. Went to Burgess house where he made the Constable drunk that he fell into a ditch on the way home and you left him at 9:00pm - libel.

59. CONGLETON Elizabeth Fox c Roger Fox saying she committed adultery with three men - libel.

60. STANDISH Henry Reynolds c Thos Nightingale for adultery with Ellena Gerrard - libel.

61. STANDISH Proof of marriage between Thos Nayler of Shevington and Ellen Loge of Standish.

62. SEFTON Thos & Katherine Poole c Anna Poole of Walton for defamation - libel.

63. TIVERTON Margaret Walley c Thos & Grace Wilbraham for defamation - libel.

64. PLEMONDSTALL Jane Ravenscroft c Jacob Averis of Pickton saying she was caught in bed with a shoemaker - libel.

65. MOBBERLEY Thos Mallorie Dean of Chester and rector c Robert Robinson of Stockport for tithe corn and hay - libel, responsions.

66. ALDFORD Anna Fitton impropriator c John Massey of Egerley & John Ashton for tithes - libel, depositions.

67. ALDFORD Churchwardens c Jacob Massie & John Ashton for non payment of assessments - libel.

68. MARBURY Churchwardens c Thos Hildick & Thos Evanson & John Sheen for non payment of modus of 4d yearly on woodlands - libel.

69. CHRISTLETON John Colborne impropriator c John Carter for tithe on 100 bids of gorse, 40 pigs, 7 goslings - libel.

70. CHESTER Responsions by Eugene Birchley that he lent £30 to Wm Allen of London, clothworker, @ 2/- in pound interest who broke the bond and cost £10 to take case to Star Chamber. He lent money to James Doe, Richard Knee and Robert Lyne of Ince at the same rate.

71. LAWTON Richard Shufflebotham c John & Anna Tremlowe calling him whoremaster - libel.

72. PRESCOT Richard Forth c Savage Holland and Frances Kenyon for defamation - libel.

73. GREAT BUDWORTH Richard Kirke clerk c John Grunsditch, Thos Watt and others for witholding stipend - fragment only.

74. TILSTON Office c John Warburton & Robert Moyle bearers of the bier of one reputed dead of the plague or other disease said, "carry her into the church so she may be buried like a christian and not as a dog" - fragment only.

75. WOODCHURCH John Hockenhull of Prenton c Edward Nicholson of Liverpool for defamation - libel.

76. HALSALL Jennet Dodgson c Ann & Henry Barrow calling her Cuthbert Halsall's whore - libel.

77. GARSTANG Thos & Ann Winder c John & Ann Barnes saying Ann Winder enticed her husband to be naughty - libel, responsions.

78. THORNTON John Smyth c John Grice for defamation - confession.

79. KNUTSFORD Elean Wolmer c Hugh Cowper for defamation - libel.

80. WORTHENBURY Alice wife of Thos ap John c Jane Eaton saying that John Williams told her he would take Thos to Bangor, get him drunk, leave him and return to Alice - libel.

81. MIDDLETON Alice Radcliffe c Alice Colling calling her a bastard - depositions.

82. LEIGH Henry Reynold c Henry Walkden for defamation -responsions.

83. BARTHOMLEY Robert Kettle c Ralph Stringer for defamation - libel.

84. WINWICK John Horne clerk c John, Elizabeth & Richard Bretherton for the tithe cattle - libel.

85. WINWICK Peter Harrison c Thos Bispham for tithes - libel.

86. WINWICK Henry Hurst c John Flitcroft for being drunk in church and going out to be sick - declaratory articles.

87. BARROW Arliver Houghton clerk c Henry Lowe for tithes - libel.

88. HANMER Sentence in cause between Roger Ellis and Margaret Dimock.

89. NANTWICH John Burns c Thos Bromfield for defamation - libel.

90. FRODSHAM Office c Thos Dutton for a clandestine marriage with Mary Renny - articles.

91. Margaret Starkie c Robert Eaton for breach of marriage contract - allegations.

92. WYBUNBURY Decree from York in a cause on appeal between Maurice Gwyn vicar and Edward Hopwood clerk.

93. Miscellanea.