RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



nunnery of Lekeley was far removed from the 

 Scottish frontier, in a secluded position on the 

 south-western seaboard, it was always in a 

 crippled state of finances. On 13 November, 

 1227, Archbishop Walter Gray granted, with 

 the assent of William, archdeacon of Rich- 

 mond, the appropriation of the church of St. 

 Michael of Irton to the prioress and con- 

 vent of Lekeley in consideration of their 

 poverty. 1 At a later date the condition 

 of the institution was even more deplorable. 

 On i April, 1357, Henry, Duke of Lancaster, 

 in the sixth year of his palatinate, learning on 

 undoubted authority that the priory of Seton 

 was so poor (ita exilii) that there was not a 

 sufficiency to support the prioress and nuns, 

 granted the appropriation of the hospital of 

 St. Leonard, Lancaster, which was at that 

 time vacant and of his patronage, with all its 

 lands and possessions, as a help to the 

 sustentation of the house. The duke also 

 gave to the prioress and nuns the advowson of 

 the chantry of one chaplain in the hospital, and 

 enjoined the burgesses of Lancaster to assent 

 to the gift and to bestow the alms and duties 

 on the said hospital which were incumbent on 

 them from time immemorial. 2 The abbey of 

 Holmcultram seems to have been considerate 

 to the poor nuns of Seton. On 18 October, 

 1459, Thomas York, abbot of that house, 

 leased all the lands the abbey possessed between 

 Esk and Duddon, called Lekeley, to Elizabeth 

 Croft, prioress, for twelve years at an annual 

 rent of twenty shillings. 3 



A fragment of what appears to have been 

 the monumental slab of a prioress is built into 

 the wall of a barn at High Hyton not far 

 from the nunnery towards the sea. It has 

 occupied this position from a time beyond 

 memory. One end of the slab has been 

 broken off and lost. The inscription cut on 

 either side of a pastoral crook reads : + me 

 IACET . . . DENTONA AN ... The fragment 

 measures 34 inches in length and 22 inches in 

 width. From the charges made in 1536 by 

 Layton and Legh in their infamous ' book of 

 compertes ' we learn that Joan Copland was 

 the prioress at that date and that Susanna 

 Rybton was an inmate of the house. In the 

 previous year, when the ecclesiastical survey 



1 Reg. ofAbp. Walter Gray (Surtees Soc.), 18. 



* Dugdale printed this deed from an imperfect 

 autograph in the Office of Arms (Mm. iv. 227). 

 Sir Thomas Hardy has supplied the date and wit- 

 nesses from the Rolls of the Chancery of the County 

 Palatine of Lancaster, Class xxv. A. 3*7, No. 19 

 (Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii. App. i. 335). 



3 A copy of the original indenture has been 

 printed by J. Hodgson in Arch. Mllana (old ser.), 

 399- 



was made, Joan Seton is named as the 

 prioress, but she was probably the same person 

 under another surname. 



The total revenue of the nunnery in 1535 

 was returned at 13 171. 4^., and after 

 deducting reprises, ^12 I2J. 4 This sum was 

 made up of the following items : value of the 

 site of the priory, 305. ; rents and farms in 

 ' Whitebyke ' and tenements in ' Furdes ' and 

 ' Bolle,' 141. $d. ; rents in the vill of Lancaster, 

 6 os. $d. ; spiritualities of the church of 

 Irton, 5 I2J. 8^. By the valuation of 

 James Rokebyon 24 June, 1536, the demesne 

 lands in the occupation of the priory were 

 worth .3 6s. 8d., and the gross issues of the 

 rectory of Irton were 13 6s. 8d. The 

 value of the demesne lands when granted to 

 Hugh Ascue of the king's household in 1542 

 was set down at 4 in. $d. In the follow- 

 ing year the rectory of Irton was leased to the 

 same person for twenty-one years. 5 



A tradition about the manner of granting 

 Seton Priory, which survived till late in the 

 seventeenth century, is of curious interest. 

 Edmund Sandford, writing about the year 

 1675, has left us this version of it. 'The 

 religious house was gott,' he said, ' by one Sir 

 Hugo Askew, yeoman of the seller unto 

 Queen Catherin, in Henry the Eights time, 

 and borne in this contry. And when that 

 Queen was deforced from her husband, this 

 yeoman was destitute, and he aplied himself 

 for help to Lo(rd) Chamberlain for some place 

 or other in the king's service. The Lord 

 Steward knew him well because he had helpt 

 him to a cup wine the best, but told him he 

 had no place for him, but a charcole carrier. 

 Well, quoth this Mons in Askew, help me with 

 one foot and let me gett in the other as I can. 

 And upon a great holiday, the king looking 

 out at some sports, Askew got a cortier, a 

 frinde of his, to stand before the king, and 

 then he got on his vellet cassock and his 

 gold chine and baskett of chercols on his 

 back, and marched in the king's sight with it. 

 O, saith the king, now I like yonder fellow 

 well that disdains not to doe his dirty office in 

 his dainty clothes what is he ? Says his 

 frinde that stood by on purpose, It is Mr. 

 Askew that was yeoman o'th celler to the late 

 Queen's Ma tic and now glad of this poore place 

 to keep him in y r Ma" IS service, which he 

 will not forsake for all the world. The kinge 

 says, I had the best wine when he was i'th 



4 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v. 265 ; Man. iv. 

 227-9. 



6 Pat. 33 Hen. VIII. pt. i. m. 41 ; L. and 

 P. Hen. 7111., xiii. (i.), 585, xvii. 220 (56), xviii. 

 (i.), 549. The priory seems to have been granted 

 to Ascue on lease in the first instance. 



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