RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Robert Alanby, 1497, afterwards prior 

 of St. Mary's, York, 1 and St. Bees 



William Thornton, made abbot of York 

 in 1530" 



Richard Wederhall, 1535* 



Ralf Hartley, last prior, 1539 



The only known seal referring to this 

 monastery is that attached to the deed of 

 surrender, 8 which is Prior Ralf Hartley's sig- 

 net. It is shield-shaped and bears his initials 

 united by a knot looped and tasselled. 



HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS 



7. THE NUNNERY OF ARMA- 

 THWAITE 



The nunnery of Armathwaite was situated 

 in a lovely glen near the junction of the river 

 Croglin with the Eden in the southern angle 

 of the parish of Ainstable, a few miles from 

 the vill of Armathwaite on the other side of 

 the river Eden in the forest of Inglewood. 

 At an early period it was known as the nun- 

 nery of Ainstable from the name of the parish. 

 It was said to have been founded by William 

 Rufus on 6 January 1089 for black nuns of 

 the Order of St. Benedict in the honour of 

 Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, 

 but no one at the present time credits the ex- 

 traordinary charter upon which the allegation 

 was made. Freeman stated that the charter 

 was ' spurious on the face of it,' 4 and the 

 editors of the Calendars of Patent Rolls have 

 pronounced it ' a forgery.' 6 The genuine- 

 ness of the document was accepted without 

 question by the older writers, no doubt for 

 the reason that it was confirmed in 1480 

 by Letters Patent of Edward IV. It is 

 very difficult to conceive how a document 

 so full of anachronisms could have imposed 

 on anybody. By this so-called charter 

 William Rufus, King of the English and 

 Duke of the Normans, was supposed to give 

 the nuns the 2 acres of land upon which 

 the house was built, and in addition the 3 

 carucates of land and 10 acres of meadow 

 lying next the nunnery, 216 acres in the 

 forest of Inglewood on the north of a certain 

 water called Tarnwadelyn, common of pas- 

 ture throughout the same forest for themselves 

 and their tenants, sufficient wood for their 



B.M. Add. MS. 24,965, f. 99. 



3 Dugdale, Man. iii. 539. Over the south chancel 

 window of Wetheral church is the inscription : 

 ' Orate pro anima Willelmi Thornton abbatis.' 



3 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v. 10. Over the 

 chancel door of Wetheral church is the inscription : 

 ' Orate pro anima Richardi Wedderhall.' From 

 these inscriptions it would appear that the chancel 

 was rebuilt about the time of the surrender of the 

 priory. 



William Rufus, ii. 506. 



5 Cal. of Pat. 1476-85, p. 208. 



buildings by delivery of his foresters, an an- 

 nual rent of 401. from the king's tenements 

 in Carlisle to be paid by the keeper of the 

 city at the feasts of Pentecost and St. Martin, 

 and freedom from toll throughout the whole 

 of England. Besides it was claimed in this 

 charter that Rufus had granted to the nuns, 

 within their house and their lands adjoining, 

 all the liberties which he had conceded to the 

 monastery of Westminster without molesta- 

 tion of any of the king's sheriffs, escheators, 

 bailiffs or lieges. All these privileges were to 

 be had and enjoyed from the king and his 

 heirs in pure alms of his free will and con- 

 cession 'as hert may it thynk or ygh may it 

 se.' 7 It cannot be said that the nuns were too 

 modest in their desire for special privileges. 



Aug. Off. Deeds of Surrender and B.M. Seals 

 4325. Hutchinson has given an illustration of 

 Prior William de Tanfield's seal (Hut. of Cumb. i. 



348)- 



7 The charter has been printed in full by Dug- 

 dale (Man. iii. 271) from the Inspeximus in Pat. 20 

 Edw. IV. pt. i. m. 4. The confirmation is dated 

 at Westminster, 20 June, 1480, when the nuns 

 paid half a mark in the hanaper. The adroit allu- 

 sion by the nuns to the alleged charters of King 

 Athelstan to St. John of Beverley ' Swa mikel 

 fredom give I ye, Swa hert may think or eghe see ' 

 (Man. ii. 129-30) and to St. Wilfrid of Ripon 

 ' I will at thai alkyn freedom have : and in al 

 thinges be als free as hert may thynke or eygh may 

 se' (Thorpe, Diflom. Angl. 182) need not be 

 pointed out. The phrase in the Armathwaite 

 charter must have been considered of great con- 

 sequence at this period, for it is quoted in Letters 

 Patent of Henry V. as the conspicuous privilege of 

 Beverley and Ripon (Man. vi. 131 2). This allusion 

 alone is enough to condemn the document as a 

 forgery without the more visible evidence that 

 Cumberland did not belong to the King of England 

 in 1089, and that Rufus never used the title of 

 ' Duke of the Normans.' In the paper survey of 

 the nunnery at the time of the dissolution it is 

 stated that the ' yerely rent going out of the lands 

 of o' Sov'ane lord the king in Karlell, to be paid 

 by the hands of the keeper of the towne of Karl- 

 isle, by the yere xlV was ' ex concessione Willelmi 

 Regis Conquestoris ' (Man. iii. 273), a blunder 

 worthy of comparison with the statements of the 

 Rufus charter. 



189 



