A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



altar, and the six o'clock mass daily at St. Katherine's altar.^"* The 

 commissioners of Henry VIII reported of the chantry of St. Nicholas 

 in Doncaster Church, founded 1323, that there are ' mm howslyng people 

 and above within the sayd paryshe, wherof the sayd incumbent and 

 other vij prystes, now resiaunt in the sayd churche, can skant here the 

 confessions of the sayd parochians from the begynnyng of Lente unto Palme 

 Sonday, and then ministre the blessed Sacrement all the sayd weke, with 

 other requisite besines to be doon in the sayd churche.' Every day matins, 

 mass, and evensong were sung in quire, and there were six masses, at 5, 6, 7, 

 8, 9, and 10 a.m." At some places, as Bedale, Well, and Skipton, a chantry- 

 priest was also schoolmaster of the place,''^ Bishop Alcock of Worcester 

 obtained licence in 1482 to found a chantry in the high church at Hull, 

 whose incumbent was to teach a free grammar-school in Hull, to pay 40J. 

 to a clerk to teach children to sing, and half a mark to each of the 

 ten best scholars." Rotherham's college in his native town was founded to 

 provide masters of grammar, writing, and song for the children of the 

 neighbourhood, and to provide a common dwelling-place for the chantry- 

 priests of the parish church, who hitherto had lodged in laymen's houses, ' to 

 their scandal and the ruin of other folk.'^* The schools of Giggleswick and 

 Sedbergh had their foundation in stipends attached to chantries for the 

 maintenance of teaching-priests." 



Another form which the foundation of chantries took was the provision 

 of chapels-of-ease in large and scattered parishes. Where a river, often in 

 flood, divided the parish, this was very necessary. On the lower waters of 

 the Aire, Whitley Chapel was founded in Kellington parish, Haddlesey in 

 Birkin, and Airmyn, Carlton, Hook, and RawclifFe in Snaith.''' At Pockley, 

 in the parish of Helmsley, a stock of sheep was appropriated by the 

 parishioners to the maintenance of a chaplain." The extremities of the 

 enormous parish of Halifax were served by one or more chaplains at 

 EUand and Heptonstall.''* The large parishes of the dales, Aysgarth, 

 Wensley, and Catterick, also received necessary subdivision." In other 

 cases chapels such as that on Wakefield Bridge, founded 1398, or St. Mary 

 Magdalen's Chapel at Doncaster, founded 141 3, were useful for sick persons 

 in time of plague, who were cut off from their parish church.*" 



It is difficult to obtain absolutely accurate statistics as to the growth of 

 chantry foundations in Yorkshire. In many cases, when the commissioners 

 required a return, the documents relating to the foundation had been lost, or 

 the foundation rested merely on custom. In York Minster at least nine 

 chantry priests, in addition to the clergy of St. Sepulchre's Chapel, served 

 altars in the church during the 13th century. Sixteen received stipends 

 during the 14th century. Nine more are recorded between 141 3 and 1459. 

 In 1 46 1 George Nevill, Bishop of Exeter, afterwards archbishop, and his 

 brother the king-maker, founded St. William's College for the chantry-priests, 



'*" rorks. Chant. Surv. (Surt. Soc.) i, 205 seq. " Ibid, i, 175 seq. 



■' Ibid, ii, 495, 496, 245. 



" Ibid, ii, 340. Alcock became Bishop of EI7, and was founder of Jesus College at Cambridge. 



" Ibid, i, 200, 201 ; will of Abp. Rotherham, in Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 341 seq. 



" Torks. Chant. Surv. (Surt. Soc.), ii, 410, 414. " Ibid. 280, 285, 286, 288. 



■' Ibid, ii, 509. '8 Jbid ^^7^ jgg^ ^j, 



'•Ibid, i, 105, 106, 104, 113. 80 Ibid, ii, 312. 313 ; i, 180. 



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