A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



It was customary for the bishops at their 

 first visitation to demand an inspection of the 

 title deeds of all holders of ecclesiastical pre- 

 ferment or spiritual endowments within the 

 diocese. When these were produced, letters 

 of dimission were issued confirming the 

 holders in possession. Numerous deeds of 

 this nature are on record with respect to the 

 spiritualities of religious houses to which 

 churches within the bishop's jurisdiction were 

 appropriated. From one of these records of 

 dimission we may take a schedule of the 

 spiritual possessions of the priory of Carlisle in 

 1355, in which the ecclesiastical status of 

 each of the churches is declared as they ex- 

 isted at that date : the parish churches of the 

 blessed Mary and St. Cuthbert, Carlisle, with 

 the chapel of Sebergham, the churches of 

 Hayton with its chapels, Cumrew and Cum- 

 whitton (Comquityngton), the churches of 

 Crosscanonby (Crossebye in Allerdale), Cam- 

 erton, Ireby, Bassenthwaite (Beghokirk), 

 Castle Sowerby (Soureby), Rocliffe (Routhe- 

 cliff), Edenhall with the chapel of Lang- 

 wathby, and Addingham with the chapel of 

 Little Salkeld (Salkeld), all of which were held 

 in preprint usus. In the churches of St. Mary 

 and St. Cuthbert, Carlisle, Hayton, Rocliffe, 

 Ireby, Crosscanonby, Camerton and Bassen- 

 thwaite vicars were never instituted, nor were 

 the vicarages ever taxed or ' ordained,' but all 

 of them were served by stipendiary chaplains 

 (per capellanos conducticios). The prior and 

 convent also possessed the following pensions 

 from churches, viz. 26s. 8d. from Lowther, 

 261. from Kirkland, 6s. Sd. from Ousby 

 (Ulnesby), 2s. from Hutton in the Forest 

 (Hoton), 2s. from Castle Carrock, 2s. from 

 Cambok, 6s. Sd. from Bewcastle (Bothecastre), 

 2s. 6d. from Allhallows (Ukmanby), and 6 

 from the abbot and convent of Holmcul- 

 tram. 1 If this schedule be compared with the 

 ecclesiastical surveys of 1535 and I54O, 2 it 

 will be seen that the only addition of conse- 

 quence which was made in the spiritualities of 

 the priory, during the intervening period, was 

 the rectory and patronage of the parish 

 church of St. Andrew, Thursby, which Sir 

 Robert Ogle, lord of Ogle and Thursby, and 

 Isabel his wife gave to the prior and canons 



queror in 1084, which was confirmed by King 

 John in 1204, the priors of Durham obtained all 

 the liberties, customs, dignities and honours of an 

 abbot and had the seat of the abbot in ebon sinistro 

 and all the privileges of the deans of York (Cart. 

 Antiq. B. No. 4 ; Rot. Chart. [Rec. Com.], i. 1 1 8 ; 

 Rymer, fcedera [new ed.], i. [i.], 3). 



1 Carl. Epis. Reg., Welton, f. 19. 



Yahr Red. (Rec. Com.), v. 274 ; Dugdale, 

 Monasticon, vi. 145. 



in 1468, with permission to appropriate the 

 said church and serve it by a canon of their 

 cathedral or any other suitable chaplain, with- 

 out endowment of a vicarage in the church or 

 compulsion to distribute a yearly sum of money 

 to the poor of the parish. 3 The churches be- 

 longing to the priory in the diocese of Durham 

 were not included in Bishop Welton's dimis- 

 sion as they were not within his jurisdiction. 

 The cathedral served as the parish church 

 of St. Mary, Carlisle, from the date of its 

 foundation, as the priory church of Laner- 

 cost had done for that parish. It can scarcely 

 be denied that the churches with which 

 Walter the priest endowed the priory, when 

 he took the religious habit on becoming an 

 inmate thereof, were those of St. Mary and 

 St. Cuthbert, Carlisle, and Stanwix. The 

 rectory of the latter church was equally 

 divided between the bishop and the convent 

 in the great award of the papal legates, but 

 the rectories of the two Carlisle churches 

 were wholly appropriated to the canons. The 

 church of St. Cuthbert may be numbered 

 among the earliest ecclesiastical institutions in 

 the diocese of Carlisle, of which authentic 

 record has come down to us. A house near 

 it was given to the priory by Waldeve son of 

 Gospatric, one of its first benefactors. We 

 have found no trace of a church of St. Mary 

 apart from the cathedral and no vicarial juris- 

 diction over the parish of that name, except 

 what was exercised by the prior as the im- 

 propriator of the revenues. An attempt was 

 made in 1342 to raise it from its position as 

 a chapelry to the dignity of a vicarage, and 

 the provincial court of York was moved by 

 the parishioners for that purpose. In the ap- 

 peal to the metropolitan it was stated that the 

 church of the Blessed Mary from its founda- 

 tion had been and was at that time a parish 

 church with an independent cure (per se 

 curata), having people separate from the 

 parishioners of other churches and a wide and 

 extensive parish with limits and bounds of its 

 own, insomuch that its own parish church 

 had abounded in times past and did then 

 abound with powers, issues, fruits and revenues 

 sufficient to maintain a perpetual vicar of its 

 own and to support all ecclesiastical claims 

 upon it. Furthermore the parishioners com- 

 plained that the sacrist of the priory, to whom 

 the issues of the parish were committed, had 

 neglected the cure of souls and that insufficient 

 ministrations were supplied to the people. 

 Notwithstanding the espousal of the cause of 

 the appellants by the provincial court, the 

 Bishop of Carlisle gave judgment in favour of 



3 Pat. 8 Edw. IV. pt. i. m. 23. 



136 



