A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



Then Abbot Roger named Brother Peter and 

 his two associates and nine monks of the convent, 

 absolving them from their profession to him 

 that they might make profession to Abbot John, 

 and on Wednesday, 8 March 1 150,' Abbot John 

 with the twelve monks set out for Jervaulx. 

 Abbot John was received by Akarius the founder 

 and many nobles. He appointed Brother Edwald 

 his prior and Brother Peter cellarer. 



Although throughout this account the new 

 foundation has been generally spoken of as that 

 of Jervaulx, it must be borne in mind that it 

 was the earlier house at Fors, some 16 miles 

 higher up the valley than the subsequent site of 

 Jervaulx Abbey, that is alluded to. It was 

 afterwards called VaUls Grangla, and is still 

 known as Dale Grange. For four years the 

 new abbot and convent lived there, but in the 

 fifth year such heavy rains fell in those parts at 

 Michaelmas that, when the monks ought to have 

 been harvesting, all their seeds perished. 



In consequence of this. Abbot Roger sent 

 them five measures [skeppas) of grain for sowing, 

 and they bought more elsewhere. Still they 

 were in need, and seeing the sterility of the 

 land, which on account of rain and intemperate 

 atmosphere would not mature their crops, they 

 often contemplated returning to their mother 

 house, but were prevented by fear of the scorn 

 of the men, who would say ' These monks began 

 to build, but were not able to finish.' When 

 Abbot Roger came, according to custom, to 

 visit them, he found Abbot John and his convent 

 in dire distress for the reasons mentioned. They 

 had spent that year more than all the money 

 they had received for wool and beasts, in buying 

 corn. Abbot Roger, therefore, to relieve their 

 necessity, sent them again five measures {skeppas) 

 of grain, and ten of malt, against the autumn. 

 Moreover, with the assent of the convent of 

 Byland, he gave them 10 bovates of land in 

 Ellington. 



Peter, the cellarer, urged against returning to 

 Byland and went to Earl Alan in Brittany, where 

 he showed the earl, with tears, their desolation, 

 so that the latter wrote to Abbot John not to 

 leave Jervaulx, and that he would assist them 

 well on his return to Richmond. Alan, how- 

 ever, was a long time in coming to England, and 

 as Abbot John had nothing with which to main- 

 tain his convent for a whole year, he sent five 

 of his monks to board at Byland and three to 

 Furness. Nearly two years elapsed before Earl 

 Alan came to Richmond, when Abbot John 

 showed him the grave defects from which the 

 convents were suffering, and asked his help, 

 because if he did not aiFord them assistance the 

 convent would have to leave the sterile district. 



' This and the previous nomination and election of 

 John de Kinstan as abbot give the year 1 150 as that 

 of the formal inauguration of the new abbey, and the 

 commencement of the abbacy of John de Kinstan. 



Alan replied that he would speak to his steward 

 and others as to the complaint, and would do 

 what they advised. He took Peter the cellarer 

 with him and granted him a large pasturage in 

 Wensleydale. Conan, his son, as the site ap- 

 peared to him useless and insufficient for build- 

 ing the abbey, gave to Abbot John his waste 

 and uncultivated land in East Witton, and in 

 1 1 56 Abbot John and the convent moved from 

 Fors to the site in East Witton. 



The writer having related all these incidents 

 as to the origin of Jervaulx Abbey lapses into 

 the marvellous, but it is a very pretty story that 

 he tells. He says that after Abbot John and 

 his monks had set out from Byland, as they spent 

 the night in a village, the name of which he 

 had often heard but had forgotten. Abbot John 

 had a dream or vision. He seemed to be in 

 the cloister at Byland, and Abbot Roger had 

 directed him to set out with a number of monks 

 for a far-off place, there to receive orders [ad 

 ordines recipiendos\ and as he was passing out he 

 beheld in the middle of the cloister a most 

 noble lady, richly clothed, whose beauty excelled 

 all earthly beauty, and who bore on her left arm 

 a beautiful boy, whose face was as- the brightness 

 of the moon. The boy plucked a branch from 

 a tree in the middle of the cloister and then they 

 vanished from his sight. The abbot and his 

 companions departed, but when they had gone a 

 little way they found themselves straitly shut in 

 within a place surrounded with thorns and bram- 

 bles and rocks, and there seemed no escape. In 

 despair the abbot suggested that they should s ly 

 their office. No sooner had they done so than 

 there appeared the beautiful lady with her boy 

 whom Abbot John had seen in the cloister. A 

 colloquy proceeded between the abbot and the 

 lady ; eventually the abbot addressed her : ' Good 

 lady, I humbly ask thee that thou wilt guide 

 me and my companions, wandering in this un- 

 known and straitened place, into the way to 

 that city where the monks with God's help 

 ought to be established. This I ask for the 

 love of thy friends at Byland, to which house 

 we all belong.' The lady replied that 

 they had been of Byland, but were then of 

 ' Jorevall,' When she named ' Jorevall ' he 

 greatly marvelled, and said, ' Good lady, show us 

 the way to Jorevall, for thither are we bent.' 

 Then she looked at her son and said, ' Most 

 sweet son, for the love thou hast ever to me, 

 be thou their guide.' And the boy, holding out 

 the branch he had plucked at Byland, said, with 

 a bright and joyous countenance, ' I am going 

 forward, follow me without fear.' At length 

 they reached an uncultivated and forbidding 

 spot, where the boy planted the bough, saying, 

 'Here shall God be adored and invoked after 

 a short time.' In a moment the bough grew 

 into a most beautiful tree, full of white birds. 

 The monks were to rest there, for that was the 

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