RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



William de Burton, succeeded 1355 " 



John de Richmund,*^ succeeded 1374, died 



1393 

 Peter de Hartlepool/' 1393, died 1394 

 Thomas de Bolton,*" I394> <^isd 14^3 

 John de Skelton," 1413, died 1437**" 

 Hugh EUerton, D.D.,^'' i437j died 1462 

 Thomas Pickering,^^ 1462, died 1475 

 William Colson," 1475,** died 1499*^ 

 John Lovell," 1499, died 1501 

 William Evesham,^* succeeded 150 1 

 John Benested, 1505,'' died 1514'" 

 John Bednell," 15 14, died 1516'^ 

 John Whitby," confirmed 7 July 1516 

 Thomas York,'* confirmed 18 January 15 17 

 John Hexham alias TopclifFe, confirmed 



13 April 1 5 27,'' resigned 1537'^ 

 Henry Davell," elected 1538, surrendered the 



abbey 14 December 1539 



The 1 3th-century circular seal,'* 2 in. in 

 diameter, shows St. Hilda, the patron saint, 

 standing under a canopy and holding crozier and 

 book, between two altars each having a priest 

 before it consecrating the chalice. Above the 

 head of each priest is a dove, having a wafer in 

 his beak, and above the birds are the sun and 

 moon. The legend is : 



SVBVENIAT FAMVL' NOBIL' HILDA SVIS 



The 1 3th-century seal '' ad causas shows 

 St. Peter standing, with the legend : 



SIGILL' SCI PETRI ET SCE HILDE DE WYTEBY AD 

 CAS 



5. THE PRIORY OF MIDDLESBROUGH, 

 CELL OF WHITBY 



Robert de Brus,^ founder of the priory of 

 Guisborough, granted the church of St Hilda of 



" York Archiepis Reg. Thoresby, fol. 73^. 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. \, 407. 



"' Ibid. "■" Ibid. «■ Ibid, 



"" Cal. Pat. 1436-41, p. 18. 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. \, 407. «' Ibid. 



" Prior of Middlesbrough. York Archiepis. Reg. 

 W. Booth, fol. (>\b. 



"Ibid. G. Nevill, fol. 174. 



"' Burton, Mon. Ebor. 80. 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. i, 408. '» Ibid. 



«' Ibid. " L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 4720. 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. i, 408. 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, ii (2), 195 1. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Wolsey, fol. 1 8. 



" Ibid. fol. 33. He was Prior of St. Andrew's, 

 Northampton ; L. and P. Hen. Fill, ii (2), 3833. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Wolsey, fol. 86. 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. i, 408. " Ibid. 



" Cat. of Seals, B M. 4328, D.C., E. 39. 



" Ibid. 4329, Ixxv, 17. 



' Whitby Chartul. 95 (no. 91). 



Middlesbrough, with consent of his wife Agnes 

 and Adam his son, to the abbey of Whitby,, 

 with land in Newham, on condition that there 

 should be monks serving God and St. Hilda in 

 the church of Middlesbrough, who might be 

 sufficiently maintained by the revenues of that 

 church, the surplus being received by the mother 

 church of Whitby. 



Dr. Atkinson argues^ that this grant was in 

 the nature of a confirmation of a previous gift to 

 Whitby, made by Hugh, Earl of Chester, whose 

 lands had passed to Robert de Brus, as in the 

 convention between the abbey of Whitby and 

 the priory of Guisborough, made in the presence 

 of Robert de Brus, Whitby laid its claim to the 

 ecclesiastical dues of Middlesbrough propter donum 

 Hugonis Cestrensis comitis. 



Various local grantors made a number of 

 gifts of land in the neighbourhood either to the 

 church of Middlesbrough alone, or to the church 

 of Middlesbrough and the monks of Whitby 

 jointly.' 



A dispute, already mentioned,* between the 

 Augustinian canons of Guisborough and the 

 Benedictines of Whitby ended in the church of 

 Middlesbrough being made a mother church, 

 independent of Stainton. The gift of Middles- 

 brough Church to Whitby was confirmed by 

 Henry I, and in 11 30 by Archbishop Thurstan.* 

 From some unknown cause the cell became 

 very much impoverished, and at any rate in the 

 middle of the 15 th century, if not much earlier, 

 was only occupied by a prior and an associate 

 monk. In 1452 * Archbishop W. Booth granted 

 leave to Robert Godale, monk of Whitby and 

 prior of the cell of Middlesbrough, that, owing to 

 its poverty, the prior or his monk-associate might 

 serve the parish church and minister to the 

 parishioners in place of a secular chaplain, thus 

 saving the expenses of the latter. This leave the 

 archbishop repeated in 1459' to William Colson, 

 who had then become prior. 



In November 1521 Thomas (York),* Abbot 

 of the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul [sic), 

 of Whitby, informed William Clarkson, Prior of 

 the cell of St. Hilda the virgin of 'Myddilburge 

 juxta Teyse,' and Thomas Braben, monk of the 

 said cell, that he had commissioned William 

 Johnson prior, and John TopclifFe,' bursar of 



' Ibid, introd. chap. p. xlvi. 



' The Middlesbrough charters mostly occur in 

 ibid. pp. 95-116. Nation, Mon. Ebor. 83, 84, has 

 a list of them in alphabetical order. They are again 

 set out with identifications, &c., in Ancient Middles- 

 brough, by R. L. Kirby (Woolston), 1900. 



* Whitby Chartul. 214 (no. 271). 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 631. 



° Torks. Arch. Journ. xviii, 71, quoting York 

 Archiepis. Reg. W. Booth, fol. 147^. 



' York Archiepis. Reg. W. Booth, fol. 64^. 



^ Conventual Leases (P.R.O.), Yorks. no. 994. 



'^/wj John Hexham, Abbot of Whitby 1527-37. 



105 



14 



