A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



Important steps had been taken to supply two centres of religious enter- 

 prise during that period, but little else seems to have been done. The 

 completion of these institutions was the work of later years. When we 

 examine the evidences one conclusion only can be arrived at, that the 

 ecclesiastical reconstruction of the district according to Norman methods 

 must be ascribed to the period 1 120-35 while the King had the govern- 

 ment of the conquered province in his own charge. 



When we inquire for the agents upon whose shoulders fell the 

 burden of church organization two names appear to whom the merit 

 must be attributed. For the founding of monasteries or the creation of 

 a bishopric the King needed the co-operation of wealthy men. While 

 the district was ruled by a great vassal ecclesiastical progress was but 

 slow. Ranulf at an early period of his rule set a good example by 

 starting a religious house at Wetheral, and there is a strong presumption 

 that his feoffee at Burgh-by-Sands had founded a parochial church within 

 that barony. 1 But we have no proof that any serious effort at ecclesi- 

 astical organization had been made till after Ranulfs succession to the 

 earldom of Chester. Then almost immediately two men appear upon the 

 scene whose names must be inscribed on the foundations of the ecclesi- 

 astical edifice raised by Norman liberality in this portion of ancient 

 Cumbria. To Walter the priest as the munificent benefactor of the 

 priory, and to Adelulf, the first bishop of the diocese, must be ascribed 

 the distinction of being the earliest pioneers in the ecclesiastical work 

 of the district. 



Walter the priest, about whose antecedents we know practically 

 nothing, stands out conspicuously as the agent in resuscitating the priory 

 which Henry had founded in the city of Carlisle. There is no early 

 authority, that we are aware of, to connect Walter with the land of 

 Carlisle before the departure of Ranulf Meschin. In the sheriff's in- 

 quisition of 1212* we have the trustworthy information that it was 

 Henry I, and not William Rufus, who enfeoffed Walter with the 

 manors of Linstock and Carleton at the annual cornage rent of 37^. 4^., 

 and that it was by the licence of the same King that he assumed the 

 religious habit in the priory of St. Mary, Carlisle, and endowed his 

 adopted home with his worldly possessions. When we turn to King 

 Henry's confirmation of Walter's benevolence, we get some more light 

 on the extent of his possessions, and the date when his decision was 

 made to become an inmate of the priory, and to bestow his property 

 for the benefit of the institution. King Henry, addressing the Arch- 

 bishop of York and all his barons of Cumberland and Westmorland, in- 

 timated that he had confirmed to God and St. Mary and the canons of 

 Carlisle all the churches and all the land which belonged to Walter the 

 priest, free from the geld of cows and all other customs. 3 It was probably 



1 Harleian MS. (Reg. of Holmcultram), 3911, f. z8b. 



V.C.H. Cumb. i. 422. 



3 Henricus, Rex Angliae, Archiepiscopo Eborfacensi] et omnibus Baronibus et Ministris suis 

 et fidelibus suis de Cumbrelanda et Westmarialanda, salutem. Sciatis me dedisse et concessisse 

 deo et sancts Mariae et Canonicis de Cairlolio omnes ecclesias et totam terrain qux fuit Walteri 



IO 



