RELIGIOUS HOUSES 





John de Farnsfeld, 1394" 

 Thomas Sewally, occurs I40O 68 

 Robert de Welles, 1421 69 

 Robert Warthill, died I45& 70 

 William Cresswell, 1456 71 



John Pomfrat, died 1462" 

 John Lilly, 1462" 

 John Greyne, 1465 

 Roland Bliton, 1516" 

 Thomas Doncaster, last abbot 



HOUSE OF CARTHUSIAN MONKS 



5. THE PRIORY OF BEAUVALE 



There is a fine register or chartulary of the 

 Carthusian Priory of Beauvale compiled by 

 Nicholas Wartre, who was prior of this house in 

 1486, which is in excellent preservation. 1 The 

 foundation charter herein set forth shows that 

 Nicholas de Cauntlow, lord of Ilkeston, Derby- 

 shire, obtained licence of Edward III in 1343 

 to found a monastery of the Carthusian order in 

 his parkofGreasley for a prior and twelve monks, 

 endowing it with 10 librates of land and annual 

 rents thereto pertaining in the townships of 

 Greasley and Selston, together with the park of 

 Greasley and the advowson of the churches of 

 Greasley and Selston. The charter recites that 

 the founder did this for the glory of God and of 

 the Virgin and of All Saints, for the furtherance of 

 divine worship, and for the good estate of the 

 king, of Archbishop Zouch, his most dear lord 

 and cousin, of the Earl of Derby, of himself and 

 his wife Joan, and William his son and heir, and 

 of their souls when they should die, and also for 

 all his progenitors and heirs. He gave the 

 monastery that he had built (called Pulchra 

 Vallis or Beauvale) in his park to God and the 

 Holy Trinity, and to the prior and monks of 

 the Carthusian order and their successors, together 

 with 300 acres of land, 10 messuages, and 12 

 bovates in Greasley, and 13 messuages and 17^ 

 bovates in Selston, with the villeins who held 

 these lands in villeinage, and the advowson of 

 the two churches. He further granted to the 

 monks common of pasture for all manner of 

 cattle throughout his demesnes, together with 

 the rights of quarrying stone for their buildings, 

 and taking marl to marl their lands in all the 

 said places with the exception of his park of 

 Kirkstall. 



This charter was witnessed at Greasley on 

 9 December 1343 by an imposing company which 

 included the Archbishop of York, the Bishops 



67 Harl. MS. fol. 23. M Ibid. 1063, fol. 88. 



69 Ibid. 6972, fol. 24. 



70 Ibid. fol. 30. Ibid. 



71 Ibid. fol. 31. "Ibid. 

 " Ibid. fol. 34. 



" Ibid. fol. 45. 



76 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 171. 



1 Add. MS. 6060, 122 parchment folios. This is 

 the register cited by Dugdale ; it was given to the 

 British Museum by the Rev. T. L. Cursham, vicar of 

 Mansfield, in 1814. 



of Durham, Lincoln, and Lichfield, the Earls of 

 Derby, Northampton, and Huntingdon, Sir John 

 de Grey, Sir William Deincourt and Sir William 

 de Grey of Sandiacre, knights, William son and 

 heir of the founder, and William's son Nicholas. 

 Another charter, to the like effect but in shorter 

 terms, was sealed at the same time and place and 

 witnessed by several knights of the district. 2 



In the year 1347, on 20 October, at Greasley, 

 a further deed was executed, witnessed by the 

 same bishops and earls, to the effect that Nicholas 

 de Cauntlow and his heir gave additional lands 

 and rents to the value of 20 per annum to the 

 monastery in the towns of Selston, Watnall, 

 Kinmark, 3 and Newthorpe. 4 Another early 

 benefaction was the advowson of the church of 

 Farnham, with an acre of land, by Sir William 

 Malbis and others in I344- 6 



Nicholas de Cauntlow the founder died in 

 1355, and there is entered in the chartulary a 

 detailed account of the descent of his Derbyshire 

 lands from the time of the Conquest. 6 



Hugh de Cressy of Selston and Cecilia his 

 wife assigned to the priory in 1360 all their 

 lands and tenements in Kimberley and New- 

 thorpe, on condition of Hugh receiving from 

 the priory ^7 icw. during his life, and Cecilia 

 4 II;. if she survived him. 7 



Sir William de Aldburgh, for the soul of his lord 

 Edward Baliol, King of Scotland, and for the 

 soul of Elizabeth his wife, and for others his 

 near kinsfolk, did in 1362 grant to the priory of 

 Beauvale the hay of Willey in Sherwood. In 

 the succeeding reign (18 Richard II) a chantry 

 was founded in the conventual church for two 

 of the monks to say mass for the souls of William 

 de Aldburgh and Edward Baliol. The founders 

 of this chantry were Isabel wife of Sir William 

 de Ryther, and Elizabeth wife of Sir Brian 

 Stapleton, who were the sisters of William de 

 Aldburgh ; each of them granted 40;. a year 

 out of her- respective moiety of the manors of 

 Kirkby Overblow (Yorkshire) 8 and Kereby.' 



1 Ibid. fol. 17-19- 



* Probably Kimberley, Notts. (? Kynmarl). The 

 Domesday form of the name is Chinemarelie, and the 

 priory possessed tenements there at the Dissolution. 



4 Add. MS. 6060, fol. 19, 20. 6 Ibid. fol. 22, 23. 



' Ibid. fol. 28 ; it is set forth at length in DugJale, 

 Man. vi, 13-14. 



7 Add. MS. 6060, fol. 32. 



8 Ibid. fol. 35-8. 



9 Not identified, as the grant specifies no county. 



105 



