RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



as the parish church for an area of 11,000 

 acres. Though the instrument of ordination 

 cannot be traced, there is evidence enough to 

 show that the institution was founded by 

 Thomas, Lord Dacre, who died in 1525. The 

 value of the benefice before the church was 

 made collegiate was taxed at ^48 is. $d. in 

 1291,* and at 5 in 131 8, 2 owing to the 

 devastation of the Scottish wars. In i486, 3 

 on the death of Lord Dacre, the advowson 

 was declared to be appurtenant to the manor 

 and to belong to Thomas, his son and heir, 

 at that time eighteen years of age. 



In the ecclesiastical survey of 1535 the 

 college is called ' the rectory and college of 

 Kyrkowswald and Dacre,' and the superior is 

 styled ' the master or provost of the collegiate 

 church of St. Oswald of Kyrkoswald and 

 Dacre.' The college was endowed with the 

 advowsons and fruits of the associated churches 

 of Kirkoswald and Dacre, both of which 

 were in the patronage of the Dacre family. 

 The foundation consisted of a master or pro- 

 vost and five chaplains, together with two 

 perpetual vicars for the pastoral oversight of 

 the parishes. 4 The total value was assessed 

 at 78 i6s. 6d. y out of which several pay- 

 ments were due in rents, stipends and pen- 

 sions. The perpetual vicars of Kirkoswald 

 and Dacre received individually a stipend of 

 j8 a year, and each of the five chaplains 

 ,6 13*. 4^, After all outgoings were 

 deducted, there remained ^27 17$. for the 

 stipend of the master, 4 of which was 

 in dispute between the college and the Bishop 

 of Carlisle. The names of the collegiate 

 staff were John Hering, LL.D., master or 

 provost ; Thomas Moyses, perpetual vicar ot 

 the church of Kirkoswald ; Thomas Langrig, 

 perpetual vicar of Dacre, and John Scailes, 

 Roland Dawson, John Blencarne, Peter 

 Levyns, and William Lowthyan, perpetual 

 chaplains of the college. 6 The patronage of 

 the college in head and members belonged to 

 Lord Dacre. 



The advisers of Edward VI. were a little 

 too precipitate in their attempt to dissolve this 

 college under the authority of the Act of 37 

 Henry VIII. cap. 4. On 19 April 1547 

 they despatched letters to Rowland Threlkeld 

 (Thirkeld), the provost, intimating the altera- 



1 Pope 'Nub. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 320. 



Ibid. 333. 



Cal. Inq.p.m. Hen. VII. \. 157. 



4 The editors of Dugdale's Monasticon, vi. 1450, 

 were misled by Tanner (Notitia,p. 78) and Nicol- 

 son and Burn (Hist, of Cumb. ii. 426) in supposing 

 that Kirkoswald was a college of twelve secular 

 priests founded by Robert Threlkeld. 



6 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v. 290-1. 



tion of the college to another use and promis- 

 ing pensions of reasonable sort to the members. 

 On the following day, when the commissioners 

 arrived at Kirkoswald and took possession, it 

 seems that the provost refused to surrender 

 the house and offered resistance. There are 

 no signatures to the deed of surrender, 6 and 

 as the impression of the seal is broken and 

 very much obliterated, it is impossible to 

 say whether the official seal of the college, 

 if one existed, was used for that purpose. 

 Later on, 8 June, it was intimated that the 

 privy council had once resolved to have 

 punished the disobedience to the king's com- 

 missioners and make an example for the 

 terror of others, but as the members of the 

 college were now grown more manageable 

 and were bent on compliance, and seemed 

 sorry for their former stubbornness, it was 

 thought fit to continue them on the premises 

 till further orders should be taken for their 

 pensions and for the disposal of the college. 

 For the present only an inventory of the 

 goods should be taken. 7 In this way a virtue 

 was made of a necessity and the commis- 

 sioners retired with as much dignity as they 

 could under the circumstances. 



Under the Act of i Edward VI. cap. 14 

 the privy council was on surer ground. The 

 surveyors of chantries and colleges, appointed 

 on 14 February 1547-8 by the powers given 

 under the above Act, stated that the parish of 

 ' Kirkeswolde ' contained 500 'howseling 

 people,' and that the ' colledge in the parishe 

 churche there ' was ' off the foundacon of 

 Thomas late lorde Dacres, 8 father of the 

 lorde Dacres that nowe is.' The lands and 

 tenements belonging to the college were 

 valued at 89 IQJ. <)d., and ' Rowlande 

 Threlkelde, clerke, provoste there, of th'age 

 of 68 yeres, hathe yerely for his salarye, over 

 and besides 52 in other places, 20* 



Some of the particulars of the dissolution 

 of the college are not devoid of interest. It 

 transpired that 'one thowsand howseling 

 people,' no doubt including the inhabitants of 

 the parish of Dacre, were dependent on the 

 college, and that there were ' too vycars in- 

 dewyd in the sayd colledge, viz. John Scoles, 

 vycar ther, and Rowlande Dawson, serving 

 in the churche of Dacre appropriate to the 



6 Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii. App. ii. 25. 



7 Collier, Eccl. Hist. v. 231, ed. Lathbury ; 

 Acts ofP.C. 1547-50, p. 504. 



8 In 1536, when Drs. Layton and Legh com- 

 piled their celebrated Black Book or Compendium 

 Compertorum, they reported that ' Dominus Dakres ' 

 was founder of the college and that its revenues 

 were worth 71 (L. and P. Hen. VIII. x. 364). 



9 Chant. Cert. (Cumberland), No. 1 1. 



II 



209 



2 7 



