RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



weather, but still legible : ' Orate pro anima 

 Christoferi Slee prioris qui primus hoc opus 

 fieri incepit A.D. 1528.' Christopher, prior 

 of Carlisle, was joined in a commission on 

 22 September 1529, with Sir William Pen- 

 nington, Sir John Ratclyf and Richard Irton 

 to survey the castle of Carlisle, and to deliver 

 the ordnance found in it to Sir Thomas 

 Clifford and the castle to William Lord 

 Dacre. 1 In 1534 ' Christofer prior of the 

 cathedrall churche of Karliol ' was one of the 

 signatories of the inventory taken on 9 May, 

 26 Henry VIII., of the 'moveables ' of Lord 

 Dacre remaining at his house of Naworth by 

 the Earls of Westmorland and Cumberland. 2 

 He was returned in the ecclesiastical valuation 

 f J 535 as P" 01 " f Carlisle and vicar of 

 Castle Sowerby, a church appropriated to the 

 priory. 3 In the discredited report of the 

 royal commissioners on the condition of the 

 religious houses, ascribed to the year 1536, 

 Prior ' Slye ' was charged with incontinency. 4 

 Soon after this date Prior Slee was deposed, 

 but for what reason we have not ascertained. 

 In an undated letter addressed ' to the ryght 

 worshupffull Master cecretorie to y e kynges 

 grace be this letter delyvered,' Robert Cokett 

 thus informed Cromwell of the event : 



Right worshupffull S r . I (thowgh unable) have 

 me recomendyt unto yo r discreitnes, besechynge 

 you of yo r grett goodnes to have me excusyd of 

 my rude and symple letter. Pleasyth it yow to 

 know that y e Prior of Carelell is deposed and put 

 downe, wherapone yf it pleas yow of yowr goodnes 

 to be so good unto one kynsmane of myne called 

 S r Will Florens, chanon of y e foresaid howsse, as 

 make hyme Prior yerof, for of a trewth he is most 

 able reportynge me unto y e kynges grace vicitours, 

 and both he and I shalbe bownd unto yow to pay 

 unto y e kynges grace all suche thynges as it shall 

 pleas yow to require, and yow to have for yowr 

 payn takynge an hundreth markes. Besekynge 

 yow of yowr answere by y berer hereof. Yo r bed- 

 man, Robert Cokett. 6 



Lancelot Salkeld, a canon defamed in the 

 report of the royal visitation, was made prior 

 of the house for the purpose of its surrender. 

 From an entry in Cromwell's accounts * under 

 date 17 February 1538-9, ' prior of Carlyle 

 by Dr. Bellysys, 40 marks,' we may gather 

 that he had not been long appointed, 7 as the 



1 L. and P. Hen. nil. iv. 5952. 



2 Ibid. vii. 676. 



3 Vahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v. 274-88. 



4 L. and P. Hen. PHI. x. 364. 



6 Ibid. vii. 1632. This letter has been calen- 

 dared under the year 1 5 34, but it must be ascribed 

 to a later date, perhaps 1536. 



Ibid. xiv. pt. ii. 782, p. 325. 



7 He must have been appointed before I August 

 1537, for on that date he issued a lease of the tithes 



receipt suggests the amount for which the 

 post was purchased. Sir Thomas Wharton 

 was not a welcome visitor to the priory when 

 he took up his abode there in December 1539, 

 in anticipation of the coming of the commis- 

 sioners for the suppression. He complained to 

 Cromwell that he was ' straitly lodged,' and, 

 while pleading for better accommodation, he 

 urged his preferential claim to what was sold 

 or let for the king's use. 8 The priory was 

 surrendered with all its possessions by Lance- 

 lot Salkeld, prior, and the convent on 9 

 January 1540, and acknowledged the same 

 day before Richard Layton, one of the clerks 

 of Chancery. 9 Pensions were assigned on 

 the day following to those canons who had 

 retired, viz. a pension of 6 i y. ^d. to John 

 Birkebek, and 5 6s. 8d. each to Richard 

 Throp and William Lowther. 10 By letters 

 patent, dated 2 May 1541, the king recon- 

 structed the late monastery of St. Mary, 

 Carlisle, as a cathedral of one dean and four 

 prebendaries to be the see of Robert Aldridge, 

 Bishop of Carlisle, and his successors, the 

 new establishment to consist of Lancelot 

 Salkelde, dean, William Florence, first pre- 

 bendary ; Edward Loshe, second ; Barnaby 

 Kyrkbryd, third ; and Richard Brandeling, 

 fourth. 11 A few days later, on 6 May, by 

 royal charter, the new institution, henceforth 

 to be known as the Dean and Chapter of the 

 Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided 

 Trinity of Carlisle, was endowed with the re- 

 venues of the dissolved priory of St. Mary, 

 and with most of the revenues of the dissolved 

 priory of Wetheral. 12 Lancelot Salkeld, the last 

 prior of the old institution, became the first dean 

 of the new, thus perpetuating the succession. 

 The canons of the priory submitted to the 

 new state of things with a bad grace. The 

 name of the institution had changed but that 

 was all : the old leaven was still there. It 

 took time to reconcile the canons to the 

 liturgical changes in the public service of the 

 cathedral. Master ' Hew ' Sewell, M.A., one 

 of the most notorious of the local clergy of 

 the Tudor period, lodged an information with 

 the civil authorities against their non-com- 

 pliance with recent ecclesiastical legislation. 



of St. Nicholas, Newcastle, as appears by a copy on 

 record in the Dean and Chapter Registers (ii. 37). 



L. and P. Hen. VIII. xiv. pt. ii. 734. 



Close, 31 Hen. VIII. pt. iv. No. 17 ; Rymer, 

 Faedera (old ed.), xiv. 668. 



10 L. and P. Hen. nil. xv. 44. 



Pat. 33 Hen. VIII. pt. ix. m. 28. The 

 charter was enrolled and issued to the new body 

 on 8 May 1541. 



" Ibid. 33 Hen. VIII. pt. 9, m. 11-5; 

 L. and P. Hen. Vlll. xvi. 878. 



149 



