A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



to the new church, had only one acre of land on the south side of the 

 village for his support, the worldly possessions of his benefice were not 

 destined to remain long at that figure. As other gifts of real property 

 soon came in, it cannot be said of the landowners of Burgh that 

 they were backward in making suitable provision for the maintenance 

 of religious ministrations in that parish. 1 But we are not dependent 

 on the example of Burgh alone to support the view that the parochial 

 system was not fully established in Cumberland at the period when 

 charter evidence furnishes us with guidance. If we look from the 

 north to the south angle of the county as it now is, we shall find that 

 a church was founded there and a parish formed so late as the 

 pontificate of Henry Murdac, archbishop of York, that is, between 

 1 147 and 1153. Copsi, the first lord of Corney on record, founded 

 a church in his manor and gave it with its appurtenances at the date 

 named to the priory of St. Bees, to which house it was confirmed by 

 Roger, his son, and by other members of his family at a later date. 2 

 It was owing, no doubt, to the wildness and isolation of the place that 

 provision had not been already made, for the parish is situated on the 

 side of a ridge of fells which forms the eastern boundary of that portion 

 of the county and terminates in Black Comb. Of the ancient parish 

 churches, that is, of those founded before the close of the twelfth century, 

 Corney occupies the singular position that it is the only church in Cum- 

 berland whose founder's name is at present known. 



Church extension throughout the county can be more easily under- 

 stood by reference to its progress in the royal forest, which had not been 

 split up into parishes till a late date. This is what might be expected, 

 for in many places the need could not have been pressing : with the 

 exception of the officers of the forest, the population within its bounds 

 must have been very small. Penrith, on the southern limit, had its 

 church at an early period, no doubt of royal foundation, as the King 

 transferred it to the bishop when he created the diocese in 1 133." As 

 all the churches within the forest were in the gift of the Crown in the 

 first instance, we may take it that the King was in no way behind his 

 subjects in making spiritual provision for his tenants in proportion to the 

 property held in his own hand. All the unenclosed land in the forest 

 was extra-parochial. When assarts were made and became inhabited, 

 the tithes accruing from the cultivated land were the right of the Crown. 

 Upon this point a notable case was heard in 1290 in a dispute about the 

 tithes arising in certain enclosed lands called Linthwaite and Curthwaite. 

 The King's attorney claimed them because these places were within the 

 bounds of the forest, where the King alone could enclose lands, build 



Harleian MSS. (Reg. of Holmcultram), 3911, f. a8b, 3891, f. 32b. 



3 Reg. of St. Bees MS. (Harl. MS. 434), ii. 3. In the same Register are preserved the confirmation 

 charters of Roger son of Copsi, Orm son of Roger, Benedict de Pennington, and Christina de Coupland 

 and Waldeve her husband (Ibid. ii. 2). Christina de Coupland was probably the daughter of Copsi 

 (Pipe Roll [Cumberland], 31 Hen. II.). 



3 Close, 3 Hen. III. m. lid ; Pat., 3 Hen. III. m. 5d ; Prynne, Chronological Vindication, ed. 1665, 

 ii. 376. 



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