A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



was finally closed in 1390 when the ' coat ' 

 was awarded to Scrope by the king in person 

 in his palace of Westminster. 1 



Amid the sorrows and confusion attending 

 the fall of the religious houses, John Robin- 

 son, the last prior of Lanercost, managed to 

 keep his name unsullied from the asper- 

 sions of the royal visitors which blackened 

 the characters of so many of his contemporaries 

 and to steer a clear course through the politi- 

 cal troubles which followed the dissolution. 

 In 1534 Prior John was deputed with other 

 gentlemen of the county to make an inven- 

 tory of the ' moveables ' of Sir Christopher 

 Dacre when he was in disgrace.* As ' Leon- 

 ardecoste ' was one of the northern houses 

 suspected of complicity in the insurrection of 

 1537 it is to be feared that hard fate awaited 

 some of the canons. The king writing to 

 the Duke of Norfolk in that year said 



Forasmoche as all thise troubles have ensued by 

 the solicitation and traitorous conspiracyes of the 

 monkes and chanons of those parties, we desire and 

 pray you, at your repaire to Salleye, Hexam, 

 Newminster, Leonerdecoste, Saincte Agathe, and 

 all suche other places as have made any maner of 

 resistence, or in any wise conspired, or kept their 

 houses with any force, sithens th' appointement at 

 Dancastre, you shall, without pitie or circumstance, 

 now that our baner is displayed, cause all the 

 monkes and chanons, that be in anywise faultie, to 

 be tyed uppe, without further delaye or ceremony, 

 to the terrible exemple of others, wherin we 

 thinke you shall doo unto us highe service. 8 



There was no charge made against the prior 

 in this wrathful missive. When the priory 

 of Lanercost was brought to an end, John 

 Robinson its last head was awarded in 1539 

 a retiring allowance of 8 a year.* 



Some difficulty was experienced by the 

 authorities in the gift of the possessions of the 

 dissolved priory. At first they were demised 

 or leased to Sir William Penison, a court 



1 The depositions of William, prior of Laner- 

 cost, were considered of sufficient interest to 

 entitle them to special mention by the able writer 

 who reviewed Sir Harris Nicholas' edition of ' The 

 Controversy between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir 

 Robert Grosvenor in the Court of Chivalry, A.D. 

 MCCCLXXXV-MCCCXC, folio, London, 1832,' 

 in the S^uar. Rev. (April, 1836), Ivi. 24-5. 



8 L. and P. Hen. nil. vii. 646. The only 

 charge made in the Black Book against the inmates 

 of Lanercost was one of personal uncleanness 

 against Edward Ulwalde and Thomas Rideley, 

 two of the canons. The girdle of St. Mary 

 Magdalene was stated to be amongst the relics 

 of the house. 



3 Ibid. xii. (i.) 479 ; Prior 1 ) ofHexham (Surtees 

 Soc.), App. No. ci. 



4 L. and P. Hen. VIII. xiv. (i.) 596. 



favourite, a proceeding which was hotly re- 

 sented by the Dacres, who considered that 

 their family claims were pre-eminent. 6 A 

 lively correspondence ensued. Sir William 

 complained that 



my lorde Dacre, contrarie to my will and pleasure 

 or ony promise to him therof made, dothe usurpe 

 the ferme of Lanercoste demaynes and benefice 

 therto appropriat, taking all thinges as his owne, 

 puttyng out and in tennantes and prestes, so that 

 by his maintenances the hole convent do confeder 

 and flok to gither there in their chanons cotes very 

 unsemely. 



Lord William Dacre, replying to the charges 

 made against him 



by the relacion of maister Penison being the Kinges 

 maiesties fermour of Lanercoste, 



assured Cromwell that he had not exceeded 

 the commands of the king's commissioners 



and as unto the flocking of any chanons ther or 

 empeching to be made to his deputies by me or 

 any oder for me in the receipte of the revenues 

 or any oder prouffettes ther, I did never nor no one 

 for me medled therwithal." 



The priory was subsequently granted to 

 Thomas Dacre of Lanercost, the king's ser- 

 vant, by letters patent dated 22 November 

 1542. It was a grant in tail male of the 

 house and site of the dissolved priory of 

 Lanercost with the water mill there, the 

 ' tannehowse,' gardens, closes, messuages and 

 all the demesne lands of the said late priory, 

 all which lie in Lanercost parish and belonged 

 to the said priory ; except the church and 

 churchyard of Lanercost and the mansion 

 called the Utter Yate House there for the 

 dwelling of the curate or vicar, to be held 

 of the king by the service of one twentieth 

 of a knight's fee rendering for the same 9$. 

 yearly. 7 



PRIORS OF LANERCOST 



i HIUHD wr j.j/M>r. i\ 



Symon, circa 11814 8 

 John, 1 220* 



1 60 



Ibid. xiii. (i.) 588 ; xiv. (i.) 604. 



e Ibid. xiii. (i.) 304, 522. 



* Pat. 34 Hen. VIII. iii. m. 23 ; L. and P. 

 Hen. 7III. xvii. 1154 (76). 



8 Reg. of Lanercost, viii. 9, 14, 17, 18. Symon 

 was probably the first prior, for it was to him 

 that Bishop Christian of Whithern confirmed the 

 churches given by Robert de Vaux at the founda- 

 tion of the house. 



Reg. of Holmcultram, MS. ff. 14-6. The 

 award of Bishop Hugh of Carlisle between John, 

 prior of Lanercost, and the monks of Holmcultram 

 is dated in 1230 by a clerical error in the copy of 

 the register with the dean and chapter of Carlisle. 

 The correct date of 1220 is given in the Harleian 

 copy (3891). 



