A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



all given by Henry Pudsey ; land at Bradley,^^ 

 Woodsend,'' Brandon,^" Hutton,-'Softley,^-Spirls- 

 wood,^' Lumley,^* Ferimanside,^^ Newton,^^ 

 Amerston," Castle Eden,^* Thorpe Thewles,-' 

 Hollinside,^°Iveston,'' Yupeton,'^ Smallees/' and 

 Little Stainton ; " a fishery in the Tyne at Crook ;'' 

 land and a fishery at Cocken ; '° land and a mill 

 at Coxhoe ; ^' common of pasture at Baxter- 

 wood;'^ahouse inthe North Bailey at Durham; ^' 

 rents in Sunderland, Hartlepool, and other places,'*" 

 and the church of Bishop Middleham granted by 

 Bishop Robert Stichill in 1268.*' 



Most of these endowments were conferred 

 within the first fifty years after Henry Pudsey 

 established the monks at Finchale. As the 

 revenues of the house increased, the monks, no 

 longer content with St. Godric's chapel, resolved 

 in 1241 to build a new church, and the arch- 

 bishop of York granted an indulgence of thirty 

 days to all who should contribute to this 

 work.*^ In the following year the church was 

 begun,^' and it appears to have been completed in 

 or about 1264." In 1266 the monks added a 

 chapel dedicated to the honour of St. Godric, in 

 the south transept.'" 



About the year 1350 the prior of Durham 

 severely reproved the Finchale monks for keeping 

 a pack of hounds,''^ but they did not waste all their 

 time in sport. In 1 38 1, Uthred of Boldon, 

 prior of Finchale, himself the most learned man 

 of his day, brought to his church a foreigner, one 

 William du Stiphel, of Brittany, and employed 

 him in transcribing Jerome's Eusebius and Bede's 

 Ecclesiastical History^' There is also a record of 



" MS. Treas. Dur. C.irt. i% i", T. This gift 

 appears to have been made to the monks at Finchale 

 before Pudsey's foundation, and to have been lost be- 

 fore the dissolution ; Priory of Finchale, pref. p. xv. 



•^ MS. Treas. Dur. 4% 3% 4. 



'" Prioiy of Finchale (Surt. Soc), 79. 



*' Ibid. 10 1. 



" Ibid. 107. 



" MS. Treas. Dur. Cart, ii, 108. 



" Priory of Finchale (Surt. Soc.), 111-16. 



" Ibid. 117. 



"" MS Treas. Dur. 3', 7", Spec. 3% i»% 28. 



" Ibid. 3, 6, Spec. K. I. 



^« Ibid. 3% I", 2. See 3, 8, Spec. 



" Prioty of Finchale (Surt. Soc), 137-47. 



'"Ibid. I 5 1-2. ^' Ibid. 154. 



" Ibid. 155. " Ibid. 157. 



" MS. Treas. Dur. 2% 3", 4. 



" Priory of Finchale (Surt. Soc), 82. See Raine, 

 North Durham, App. No. ex. 



'= Ibid. 86-96. 



" MS. Treas. Dur. 3, 6, Spec. O. i, &c. 



^^ Ibid. 3, 6, Spec. 



^' Ibid. 3% 2", 26. 



*" Priory of Finchale (Surt. Soc), 127-31, &c. 



" Reg.i, fol. 28^. 



'■ MS. Treas. Dur. 3% i^% 32. "Ibid. 3% 1% 38. 



" Ibid. 3% i"% 47. " Ibid. 3% 1% 46. 



'^ B. M. Cott. MS. Faust. A. vi, fol. 8. 



*' B. M. Burney MS. 310, p. 178. 



at least one boy lodged, boarded, and clothedi 

 at Finchale, and sent to Durham Grammar 

 School for six or ten years as his case might 

 require.** Two aged bedesmen were also main- 

 tained.*^ 



There were usually eight monks at Finchale 

 besides the prior, of whom (by an ordinance 

 made by the prior of Durham in 1408) four were 

 constant residents, and the other four visitors 

 from the convent. The natural beauties of the 

 place made it very suitable as a sort of holiday 

 home for the Durham monks. Each set of four 

 were allowed three weeks' furlough, and their 

 time was divided by the following rules : — Two 

 were every day to be present at mattins, mass, 

 vespers, and the other services in the choir, while 

 the other two had liberty to ramble in the fields 

 ' religiously and honestly,' provided that they 

 were present at mass and vespers. All four 

 visitors were to sleep in the dormitory with the 

 four resident monks, but they were allowed a 

 special chamber with a fire and other comforts, 

 to which they might resort when they pleased, 

 and the prior assigned a servant to wait oa 

 them. Each of the visitors was to celebrate 

 high mass at least once a week, and on Sunday 

 all were to be present in the chapter and at the 

 Lad\-mass."' 



There was in the priory a room known as the 

 ' player chamber,' which is supposed to have been 

 appropriated to dramatic representations, such as^ 

 mysteries or miracle plays, and to such amuse- 

 ments as listening to the minstrels and gleemeri' 

 who visited the house.'^ 



In 1453 the prior of Durham again found 

 cause of complaint in the laxity of the brethren 

 at Finchale. They had taken to wearing linen 

 shirts, instead of the linsey-woolsey injoined 

 by their rule. The prior sternly forbade the 

 practice.'^ 



Finchale Abbey was so completely under 

 the control of the prior and convent of Dur- 

 ham that it has practically no independent 

 history. 



In 1535 'fs revenues were valued at 

 ^^122 15^. 31^." At its suppression, nearly all 

 its lands, except the site of the priory and a por- 

 tion reserved for the seventh stall in Durham 

 Cathedral, reverted to lay hands. The site 

 formed part of the endowment of the newr 

 cathedral." 



" A.D. 1387, Reg. ii, fol. 272. 



" Priory of Finchale (Surt. Soc), p. ccccxv. 



'° Reg. ii, parv. fol. U. 



" Priory of Finchale (Surt. Soc), p. ccccxii. 



" Reg. iii, parv. 60. 



'^Falor Feci Hen. VIII; Priory of Finchale (Surt, 

 Soc), p. ccccxvi. Speed says, £1^6 igs. zd., taking 

 the gross sum. Stevens (vol. i, 26) gives the clear 

 value at ;^I20 15/. 3a'. only. Dugdale, Mon. AngL 

 (ed. 1846), iv, 331. 



" Ibid. 



104 



