A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



Elias, 



Richard, I322, 2 1334 3 



Nicholas de Bretteby (Birkby), 1367* 



Richard, circa 1432 6 



Robert de Wilughby 8 



John, 1462 r 



John Whalley, 1464 



John Bethom, 1501 



Lawrence Marre, 150313 



John Parke, 1516 



John Clapeham, 1521 



Richard Ponsonby, 1525-36 

 Only one impression of the seal of this 

 house is known. 8 It is a pointed oval,showing 

 an abbot in vestments. The legend is much 

 mutilated : + . . . TIS DE CALDRA. 



HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE MONKS 



5. THE PRIORY OF ST. BEES 



The Benedictine priory of St. Bees occu- 

 pies a favourable position on the western coast 

 at the opening of a valley sheltered by a great 

 berg or hill, which projects into the sea like a 

 vast irregular bastion, and is known as St. 

 Bees Head. It is said that the valley which 

 connects the promontory with the mainland 

 was once traversed by the tide. But there is 

 no warrant for assuming that any appreciable 

 change has taken place in the physical con- 

 figuration of the neighbourhood within the 

 historic period. As the site of the priory 

 marks the level of the valley beneath the 

 south-eastern spur of the headland, the sea 

 must have receded long before its foundation. 



The priory took its name from a previous 

 religious establishment, of which nothing 

 seems to have survived till the twelfth century 

 except the tradition of its former existence. 

 From the legendary life of Bees or Bega, 

 written in all probability by a monk of the 

 priory at a late date, 10 we learn that she was 



1 Dugdale, Man. v. 340. 3 Ibid. 



3 Close, 7 Edw. III. pt. ii. m. 4d. 



4 Dugdale, Man. v. 340 ; Dur. Obit. R. (Surtees 

 Soc.), p. 58. 



6 Testamenta Eboracensia (Surtees Soc.), iii. 327. 

 Quotation from Register of the Archdeacon of 

 Richmond in Harl. MS. 6978, f. 25b. 



' A monumental inscription still preserved 

 among the ruins of the abbey, records the name 

 of this abbot whose place in the list is not known, 

 but entered here as being its probable position. 

 The inscription may be thus read : me IACET 



DOMPNVS ROBERTVS DE WILVGHBY ABBAS DE CALDRA 

 CVIVS ANIME PROPICIETVR DEVS. 



7 For this and the subsequent abbots see Dug- 

 dale, Mm. v. 340 : Torre MS. (York) f. 1408, 

 compiled from the archiepiscopal registers. 



8 Anct. D., L 478. 



9 The source from which the materials for this 

 account of St. Bees has been taken, is, unless when 

 otherwise stated, the chartulary of the priory, 

 Harleian MS. 434. 



10 The story of the life and miracles of St. Bega 

 is written on a small folio of vellum among the 

 Cotton MSS. Faustina B. iv. ff. 12231. It was 

 printed at Carlisle in 1842 by Samuel Jefferson, 



the daughter of an Irish king, who reigned as 

 a Christian monarch in the seventh century. 

 For good reasons she fled from her father's 

 court, and taking ship, landed after a pros- 

 perous voyage ' in a certain province of 

 England called Coupland.' Bega found the 

 place covered with a thick forest, and admirably 

 adapted for a solitary life. Wishing to dedi- 

 cate her life to God, she built for herself a 

 virgin cell in a grove near the seashore, where 

 she remained for many years in strict seclusion 

 and devout contemplation. In the course of 

 time the district began to be frequented by 

 pirates. The good saint however dreaded not 

 death, nor mutilation, nor the loss of temporal 

 goods, of which she was destitute except her 

 bracelet (armilla\ but she feared the loss of her 

 virginity, the most precious treasure with 

 which heaven can endow her sex. By divine 

 command Bega hastened her departure from 

 the place, but she was induced to leave her 

 bracelet behind her, that miracles in ages to 

 come might be performed in that neighbour- 

 hood in testimony of her holy life. 



At this time Oswald was the king of 

 Northumbria, and the holy Aidan was the 

 chief bishop of Lindisfarne. To the bishop, 

 Bega directed her steps and disclosed the secret 

 of her heart. The man of God, struck by 

 her story, admitted her to sacred vows, putting 

 upon her head a veil for a royal diadem and 

 a black garment for a purple robe, for before 

 that date, as Bede testified, the kingdom of 

 Northumbria was without nuns. By the 



with a translation, introduction and notes by G. 

 C. Tomlinson. The author's name is unknown. 

 All historical notice of the saint appears to have 

 been lost from the time of her death, except the 

 incidental allusion to her connection with St. 

 Hilda by the venerable Bede (Historia Eccles. iv. 

 23), but the writer of her life determined to collect 

 all that had survived by tradition. Sir Thomas 

 Hardy ascribed the compilation to the end 

 of the twelfth century (Descriptive Catalogue of 

 Materials, Rolls Ser. i. 224-5). From the internal 

 evidence in the account of the saint's miracles 

 the writer is inclined to put the date at a much 

 later period. 



I 7 8 



