RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN MONKS 





4. THE ABBEY OF RUFFORD 



Rufford Abbey was founded towards the end of 

 the reign of Stephen by Gilbert de Gaunt, Earl of 

 Lincoln. 1 It was dedicated to the honour of the 

 Blessed Virgin, and colonized from Rievaulx 

 Abbey with Cistercian monks. By the foundation 

 charter, the house was at first endowed with all 

 the founder's lands and appurtenances at Rufford, 

 with thirty acres on the banks of the Trent, and 

 also with lands at ' Cratel,' Barton, and Wil- 

 loughby. A short subsequent charter of Robert 

 de Gaunt, brother of the founder, testifies to the 

 justices, sheriff, and other officials of the king 

 that his brother had given to the abbey the whole 

 of his lordship of Eakring. 8 



Harleian MS. 1063 is a full transcript of the 

 chartulary or register compiled by John, Abbot 

 of Rufford, in the year 1471, from the various 

 charters and muniments of the monastery ; it 

 covers 188 paper folios and is clearly written. 



It begins with charters of confirmation of 

 Stephen, 3 Henry II, and later kings. 



An inspeximus confirmation charter granted 

 to the abbey in 1462 by Edward IV supplies a 

 comprehensive survey of the more important 

 Rufford charters. They were as follows : (i) 

 two charters of Stephen ; (2) a charter of Henry II 

 confirming the original grants of Earl Gilbert ; 

 (3) a charter of the same king exonerating them 

 from toll, passage, and pontage ; (4) a charter of 

 Richard I, exonerating them from toll ; (5) letters 

 patent of John, licensing them to erect a dyke 

 between their wood of Beskhall and the town of 

 Wellow (Welhagh), and to build keepers' lodges ; 

 (6) two confirmatory charters of Henry III ; (7) 

 two charters of Edward I confirming grants of 

 Rotherham ; (8) a demise of 1278 by Abbot Bono 

 and the convent of Clairvaux to Rufford of a 

 moiety of the church of Rotherham, of the gift 

 of John de Lexinton at a rent of ^20 ; (9) the 

 record of a forest inquisition, 1 5 Edward I, where- 

 by it was found that the men of Clipston and 

 Edwinstowe ought to take nothing in the woods 

 of the abbot and convent within Sherwood 

 Forest ; (10) grants by Robert de Waddesley and 

 Edmund de Dacre to Elias, then abbot ; (n) a 

 charter of free warren grants, 13 Edward I ; (12) 

 two letters patent of Edward I granting special 

 wood rights; and (13) letters patent 28 Ed- 

 ward III as to the acquisitions in mortmain. 4 



1 The Chronicle of Louth Park gives 1146 as the 

 exact year, but the Chester Chronicle 1 1 48. See 

 Dugdale, Moit. v, 517-18. 



* These charters are cited in full in Dugdale, Man. v, 

 518. 



* Three confirmation charters of Stephen are cited 

 in Thoroton, Notts, iii, 336. 



4 Pat. i Edw. IV, pt. v, m. 20. 



There are a large number of original grants, 

 charters, bulls, and agreements pertaining to this 

 abbey among both the Harleian and Cotton 

 charters of the British Museum. Most of these 

 are either of minor importance or are also referred 

 to in the patent rolls or chartulary. Among the 

 bulls, however, is one of the English Pope 

 Adrian IV, of the year 1156, confirming all the 

 donations and privileges of Rufford ; ' and 

 another of his successor Alexander III, dated 

 1 1 6 1, whereby it was declared that no tithes 

 were to be paid on lands brought into cultivation 

 by the monks of Rufford with their own hands 

 or at their own expense. 8 



In the year 1159 an agreement was entered 

 into between the Abbot of Rufford and Thomas 

 Paul, Canon of York, in the presence of Roger, 

 Archbishop of York, and Ailred, Abbot of 

 Rievaulx, that the church of Rufford as a mother 

 church should pay no more tithes after the death 

 of the said Thomas. The abbot paid Canon 

 Thomas ten marks for the tithes of the past ten 

 years, and covenanted to pay a mark of silver 

 yearly during his life. 7 



A grant was made by Henry III in 1233 to 

 the Abbot and monks of Rufford, confirmatory 

 of the gift of Ralph son of Nicholas of all his land 

 in ' Werkenefeld,' 8 accompanied by licence to 

 inclose the said land with a dyke and hedge, so 

 that beasts of the chase might have free entry 

 and exit, and to cultivate the said land, build on it, 

 or dispose of it as they will. 9 



In the same year the king licensed the abbot 

 and monks to enlarge the courts of their house 

 by taking in an acre of the king's wood, without 

 any interference from the forest ministers. 10 



In 1251 Henry III granted a charter confirming 

 the abbey in numerous additional benefactions, 

 particularly of lands at Morton near Botham- 

 sall, Eakring, Hockerton, Kirton, Willoughby, 

 Walesby, Besthorpe, Maplebeck, and Kelham, 

 Nottinghamshire, and Abney and Brackenfield 

 (Britterithe), Derbyshire. By the same charter 

 there were also confirmed to the monks the rights 

 in Sherwood Forest granted them by Henry II, 

 and approved by Geoffrey de Langley, forest 

 justice, namely licence to take green or growing 

 wood throughout the forest so far as it was 

 necessary for their own use, and estovers for all 

 their granges both within and without the forest, 

 and to have their own forester to guard their own 



4 Harl. Chart. 1 1 1 A. 2. 

 Ibid, in A. 3. 



7 Harl. MS. 1063,6-7. 



8 The site of this place is unknown, but it lay some- 

 where near Bilsthorpe. 



'Chart. R. 17 Hen. Ill, m. 10. 

 10 Close R. 17 Hen. Ill, m. 1 1. 



IOI 



