A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



The 14th-century seal °* is circular, 2lin. 

 in diameter, showing our Lady crowned and 

 seated with the Child, and the legend : — 



SIGILLVM COMMVNE DE KVRKESTAL 



A 13th-century abbot's seal,^' a vesica 2j^in. 

 by if in., shows the abbot standing between two 

 heads of saints with this legend : — 



. . . BATIS DE KIRKESTALL 



The seal '" of Abbot John de Birdsall 

 (1304-11) is a small vesica ij in. by fin. 

 with a design of a naked arm, the hand hold- 

 ing a crozier between two suns and as many 

 moons. 



Abbot William, sealed in 1343 with a vesica'^ 

 if in. by i^in. with a full-length figure of 

 himself holding crozier and book. 



25. ABBEY OF MEAUX 



The abbey ofMeaux or Melsa was founded in 

 1 150 by the Earl of Albemarle, William le Gros, 

 lord of Holderness,* in lieu of a pilgrimage to the 

 Holy Land which he had vowed to undertake. 

 Adam, a monk of Fountains, was invited by the 

 earl to select a site for the proposed abbey and 

 decided upon Meaux in Holderness, a well- 

 wooded and well-watered district to the east of 

 Beverley, in the midst of which was an eminence 

 called St. Mary's Hill. Striking his stafF into the 

 ground he exclaimed, ' Here shall be ordained a 

 people worshipping Christ.' " This site the earl 

 had already begun to empark for his own use, and 

 he tried to substitute some other place, but the 

 monk remained firm.' Temporary buildings 

 were at first erected, and a chapel close by, and 

 then on 28 December 1150 the earl sent to 

 Fountains Abbey for thirteen brethren, including 

 the monk Adam who was to be first abbot. 

 These ' religious ' entered their new home on 

 I January, and the abbey became the last of seven 

 religious houses springing from Fountains, ' all 

 daughters of one mother ' * and all founded before 

 the parent abbey had attained her majority. ° 



In the Chronica two well-arranged tables are 

 given of the lands, &c., acquired during the 

 abbacies of the first eighteen heads of the house. 

 In these lists 129 places are particularized where 

 the properties were situated.* Between 1 160 and 



" Cat. 0/ Seals, B.M. 3364, xlix, 15 ; Ixxiv, 72. 



^ Ibid. 3366, Ixxiv, 73. 



" Ibid. 3367 ; Add. Chart. 16688. 



" Cat. of Seals, B.M. 3368, xlix, 16. 



' Chron. Mon. de Melsa (Rolls Ser.), i, p. xiii. 



' Lawton, Relig. Houses, 58 n. 



' Chron. de Melsa, i, pp. xiv-xvi. 



* Fasti Ebor. 2 1 4. 



' Fountains Abbey was founded in I 132. 



' Chron. de Melsa, i, 50-69. 



1182 a stone church and dormitory were begun ' ; 

 in 1182-97 this church was demolished and a 

 new one begun,' and in the same period a stone 

 refectory, wash-house and kitchen were built,' 

 and a refectory for the lay-brethren begun '" ; in 

 1 1 97-1 2 10 the cloisters were started and another 

 new church, which was finally finished, its high 

 altar being consecrated in 1253"; '" 1220-35 

 the infirmary was taken in hand *' ; in 1249-69 

 the belfry was erected and the great bell 'Bene- 

 dict' hung in it, and a granary also built " ; in 

 1286— 1 3 10 a chamber east of the cemetery was 

 erected, and the abbot's chamber east of the 

 infirmary." The fourteenth abbot (1310-39) 

 and one of the monks, John of Ulram, decorated 

 the high altar with paintings, and a chapel was 

 commenced over the abbey gateway ; William, 

 the eighteenth abbot (1346-69), made numerous 

 alterations and improvements and founded the 

 great ' Jesus ' bell ; and in 1 396-9 three bells 

 were added. ^* 



This development of the monastic buildings 

 was dictated by the exigencies of the brethren 

 from time to time. During the first abbacy 

 strenuous efforts were made to raise the num- 

 ber of monks to forty ; later on it sprang up to 

 fifty; about 1235 another was added by a benefac- 

 tion ad hoc ; another soon followed in the same 

 way ; and in 1249 there were no less than sixty 

 monks. A century later, 1 349, the number had 

 gone down to forty-two, in 1393 there were only 

 twenty-eight," and at the Dissolution there were 

 no more than twenty-five including the abbot." 



But besides the monks there were varying 

 numbers of conversi or lay brethren. By the 

 year 1249 there were no less than ninety of them, 

 in 1349 there were only seven,^' and in the period 

 1372-96 there were none.'° 



The first abbot, Adam, had been one of the 

 little band of monks who in 1132, discontented 

 with the laxity of the Benedictine Abbey of 

 York, had founded Fountains Abbey. Since then 

 he had been active in establishing new foundations 

 at Woburn and Vaudey,^" and he now threw 

 himself enthusiastically into the task of fostering 

 the infant community at Meaux. But his zeal 

 outran his discretion, and liberal as were theendow- 

 ments which he secured for the abbey, they were 

 insufficient to support the forty monks whom he 

 had drawn together. Although he gave up his 

 own tunics to clothe the novices, circumstances 

 were too strong for him, and in 1160 the con- 

 vent had temporarily to be broken up." Morti- 



146 



' Ibid. 178. 



' Ibid. 2 1 7. 



" Ibid. 326. 



"Ibid, ii, 119. 



" Ibid, iii, 240. 



" Poulson, Holderness, 314 



" Chron. de Melsa, iii, p. xxxvii. 



" Ibid. p. xiii. '» Ibid 



" Ibid. 107. 



' Ibid. 234. 

 "Ibid. 217, 326. 

 "Ibid. 433. 

 " Ibid. 238. 



p. xxxvii. 



Ibid. 



i, 76. 



