RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



influence of St. Aidan she prevailed on King 

 Oswald to grant her a place fit for religious 

 uses, by name ' Hereteseia,' which by inter- 

 pretation is called Hartlepool. Here she built 

 a beautiful monastery to which many maidens 

 flocked for the service of religion. Thus the 

 pious Bega was the first to establish a nunnery 

 in Northumbria. 



Several centuries have elapsed since the 

 historian gathered up the traditions of the 

 priory, and wove them into a connected 

 story. We have little to say about the life or 

 miracles of the saint except as they bear on 

 the district with which her name is connected. 

 Leland mentions that ' Bega at first built a 

 humble little monastery in Coupland not far 

 from Carlisle in the extreme limits of England 

 where there are now so many monks of St. 

 Mary's, York, commonly called Sainct 

 Beges,' 1 but the venerable Bede is silent on 

 the saint's residence in Cumberland. The 

 legendary life gives no support to the belief 

 that a nunnery was continued at St. Bees 

 after Bega had taken her departure. If such 

 were the case, all trace of it must have been lost 

 during those dark centuries in northern history 

 which preceded the Norman Conquest. 



There can be little doubt that the influence 

 of Bega was a power in the south-western 

 portion of the county in the early years of the 

 twelfth century. The district had borne her 

 name, and a parish church was entitled in her 

 honour before the Norman lord of that place 

 determined to found a religious house within 

 a few miles of his baronial seat at Egremont. 

 The date of the foundation of the priory by 

 William Meschin, the first Norman owner of 

 Coupland, can only be approximately given. 

 His first charter was, as one might say, 

 only declaratory of his intention to proceed 

 with the undertaking. It was also an invita- 

 tion to his own knights and to the proprietors 

 of neighbouring fiefs to aid him in the work. 

 The new institution was to be founded as a 

 cell or subordinate house of the great abbey of 

 St. Mary near the walls of York, to which 

 his family apparently owed some obligation. 

 In the first instance he made it known that he 

 had given to God, St. Mary and the holy 

 virgin Bega, six carucates of land in Kirkby 

 (Cherchebi), as well as the manor which 

 William the Bowman (hailstorms) had in 

 addition, and moreover that he would confirm 

 similar gifts for the same purpose by any of 

 his knights from their own lands. Most of 

 those who witnessed this deed, Wal- 

 deve, Reiner, Godard, Ketel, William the 

 chaplain, Coremac and Gillebecoc, were 



Collectanea (ed. Hearne, 1774), v. 39. 



afterwards the foremost in forwarding the 

 scheme. When the project had taken prac- 

 tical form, Thurstin, Archbishop of York, in 

 whose diocese the barony of Coupland was 

 included, was called in to advise on the 

 character of the institution about to be esta- 

 blished. It is evident that the great arch- 

 bishop was the moving spirit of the whole 

 scheme. The large landowners of the neigh- 

 bourhood associated themselves with the 

 founder, and contributed their share to its 

 first endowment. Waldeve, lord of Allerdale 

 below Derwent, who had received his barony 

 from Henry I., granted the manor of Stain- 

 burn ; Ketel gave Preston ; Reiner, two 

 oxgangs of land in Rottington with the native 

 who dwelt there. As a supplement to his 

 former gift, William Meschin added the church 

 of Kirkby and its parish, the bounds of which 

 were defined by trustworthy men as from 

 Whitehaven to the river Keekle (Chechel), 

 and as the Keekle falls into the Egre, and as 

 the Egre flows to the sea. He also gave the 

 chapel of Egremont within the said bounds 

 and the tithes of his domain and of all his 

 men, as well as the tithes of his fisheries and 

 the skins of his venison. One of the most 

 interesting grants in the early endowment of the 

 priory was that of Godard, lord of Millom, who 

 gave the churches of Whicham (Witingam) 

 and Bootje (Bothle), with two manses (man- 

 mr<s\ and their whole parishes and tithes. 

 The gift was made by the advice and assent 

 of William the founder, his liege lord, in the 

 presence of Archbishop Thurstin on the day 

 of the dedication of the church of St. Bees for 

 the special purpose of finding lights for divine 

 service. These churches and estates were 

 demised to the Benedictine abbey of St. Mary, 

 York, with the view of founding a monastic 

 establishment in the church of St. Bees con- 

 sisting of a prior and six monks of their 

 obedience. The pious work was done for the 

 health of King Henry and Archbishop 

 Thurstin, for the souls of Queen Maud and 

 William the Atheling, and for the relief (pro 

 remedio) of his ancestors and successors. From 

 these deeds it may be inferred that the founda- 

 tion of the priory could not have taken place 

 before 1120.* 



William Meschin the founder paid a grace- 

 ful tribute to the co-operation of his wife 



2 The good Queen Maud died in 1 1 1 8 and 

 was buried at Westminster (Hoveden, Cbron. [Rolls 

 Ser.] i. 172). Thurstin was not consecrated Arch- 

 bishop of York till 19 October, 1119 (Symeon of 

 Durham, Opera et Coll. [Surtees Soc.], p. no). 

 William the son of Henry I. was lost at sea in 

 the wreck of the White Ship in 1 1 20. 



179 



