130 ANCIENT DOCUMENTS RELATING TO TITHES IN THE PEAK, 
tithed in his lordships of Dunstan, Newbold, Tideswell, Brad- 
well, Bakewell, Hucklow, Ashford, Wormhill, Monyash, and 
Hulme; also two-thirds of the tithes of the pastures pertain- 
ing to his lordships in the Peak, including those at Shal- 
cross, Fernilee, Cowdale, Sterndale, and one or two other 
places of less importance; also the whole tithes of horses 
in the Peak, wherever he had a stable, and the whole tithes 
of hunting and of lead in the same district. But when the vast 
estates of the Peverels were escheated in the reign of Henry 
II., they were bestowed by the king upon his second son, John, 
Earl of Mortaigne. No sooner had Richard ascended the throne, 
than John began to play the part of a conspirator. One of his 
most ready and able tools in the midlands was Hugo de Nonant, 
then Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, a man of large estates and 
influence, but of a thoroughly secular and turbulent disposition. 
When his attachment to the cause of John began to wane, the 
Earl bought his further support by the gift of the churches of 
Bakewell, Hope, and Tideswell, with all their appurtenances, of 
which gift the original charter is still preserved at Lichfield. After 
John came to the throne, he confirmed the gift of the Peak 
churches to the bishopric, when Geoffrey Muschamp occupied 
the see; but his successors, William Cornhill (1215-1224) and 
Alexander Stavenby (1224-1240), transferred these rights to the 
Dean and Chapter of Lichfield. Immediately on the transfer 
being completed, litigation began between the Priory and the 
Chapter, which lasted, with certain intervals of peace, for three 
hundred years, during which period there were five several appeals 
to the Roman Court. As can easily be imagined from the above 
brief statement, the matter at issue between Lenton and Lichfield 
was always—though presenting different phases—of the same 
character, viz., (1) the extent of the lordships of William Peverel, 
(2) whether he had the right of bequeathing tithes of land not 
under cultivation during his lifetime, and (3) how far the charters 
of the Earl of Mortaigne overrode those of William Peverel, whose 
descendants had suffered sequestration. 
Although there were serious disputes in 1248, the first time 
