RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Margaret Carre, elected November 151 5,'* 



died 1516'* 

 Margaret Frankelayne, appointed (lapse) 



2 December 1516,'" died 1518 " 

 Isabella Warde appointed (lapse) 8 November 



1518=8 



The 12th-century seal,'' a large vesica 3 in. 

 by 2 in., has a full-length figure of St. Clement 



the patron saint, blessing and holding a book. 

 The legend is : 



SIGILLVM SANCTI CLEMENTIS PAPE DE EBORr. 



A 13th-century seal,^" a vesica 2^ in. by i| in. 

 has a figure of the patron saint. All that remains 

 of the legend is : 



siGiLL . . . bndTino . . , 



HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN MONKS 



21. THE ABBEY OF BYLAND 



In 1134^ twelve monks with their abbot, 

 Gerald, left the abbey of Furness to establish 

 and inhabit a daughter house at Calder, on a site 

 granted by Ralph Meschin. They were settled 

 at Calder for four years building their monastery, 

 when the Scots, under King David, demolished 

 their work and despoiled their property. They 

 returned to the mother house at Furness, but 

 were refused admittance, because Gerald refused 

 to resign his office of abbot or release his monks 

 from their vows of obedience to him. It was 

 urged, on the part of the Abbot and convent of 

 Furness, that it would be inconsistent with 

 monastic order and discipline for two abbots with 

 their separate convents to inhabit the same 

 monastery together. No allowance being made 

 for the unfortunate Abbot and monks of Calder, 

 who were only seeking temporary shelter in the 

 mother house, Gerald and his monks determined 

 to renounce both Furness and Calder, and seek a 

 new and independent site for their monastery 

 elsewhere. 



They had but little with them when they left 

 Furness, only some clothes (vestes) and books in a 

 wagon drawn by eight oxen, and their condition 

 was pitiable in the extreme, but they had heard 

 of Archbishop Thurstan's benevolence to the 

 monks who six years before had left St. Mary's, 

 York, and were settled at Fountains, and they 

 decided to seek his kind offices. As they were 

 approaching Thirsk, on their way to York, they 

 met the steward of Gundreda widow of Nigel de 

 Albini and mother of Roger de Mowbray, a youth 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Wolsey, fol. 1 3 . 



" Ibid. fol. 20^. '' Ibid. 



" Ibid. fol. 4o3. " Ibid. 



'' Cat. ofSea/s, B.M. 4400, Ixxv, 30. 



" Ibid. 4401, Ixxv, 31. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 349, no. viii. ' Incipit 

 Fundatio Domus Bellelandae edita i Philippe Abbat 

 tertio Domus praedictae sicut ipse audierat k predeces- 

 sore suo Abbate Rogero et aliis senioribus hujus 

 Domus.' From the ' Registrum de Bellalanda ' (now 

 lost). See also a paper by Mr. J. R. Walbram, Assoc. 

 Soc. Rep. (1864), 219. 



then in ward to King Stephen, but soon to come 

 into possession of his vast estates. Being struck 

 with the miserable condition of the unfortunate 

 monks, he bade them go to the castle of Thirsk, 

 where his mistress was then residing, in order 

 that they might sup at her table. 



Gundreda watched the approach of the monks 

 from an upper window. Being much edified by 

 their behaviour and conversation, she sheltered 

 them temporarily under her roof, providing for 

 their wants and promising them a place of abode 

 and permanent means of subsistence. As, how- 

 ever, they could not follow her about she sent 

 them to her uncle (or nephew) Robert de Alneto, 

 an ex-monk of Whitby, then living as a hermit 

 at Hood near Thirsk, where she provided for 

 them until her son Roger came of age. While 

 there Abbot Gerald visited Thurstan at York, 

 and sought his help. The archbishop wrote to 

 Roger de Mowbray, who, having entered into 

 possession of his property, granted the monks the 

 tenth of the victuals provided for his household, 

 and a conversus named Lyngulf was deputed to 

 follow Roger de Mowbray's household, and make 

 a daily collection of the victuals which he was to 

 send to Hood. When, however, Roger de Mow- 

 bray was away at a distance, Lyngulf sold the 

 victuals and transmitted what he received for 

 them to the abbot. This was obviously incon- 

 venient, and in 1 140 Roger de Mowbray, instead 

 of a tithe of his victuals, granted the monks a 

 cow pasture at Cambe and lands at Wildon, 

 Scackleton in the parish of Hovingham, as well 

 as the vill of Ergham. 



When the monks had been a little time at 

 Hood and were beginning to acquire property, 

 fear was felt lest the Abbot of Furness should 

 claim a right of paternity over them. Abbot 

 Gerald went therefore to Savigny, and explained 

 why they had left Calder and how they had been 

 rejected by the Abbot and convent of Furness. 

 In a general chapter of the order, held in 1142, 

 a full release was granted from the jurisdiction of 

 the Abbot of Furness. Abbot Gerald returned 

 to England, but died at York on his way home. 

 His body was taken to Hood by his monks, and 

 buried there. Roger, who had been sub-cellarer 



131 



