RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Abbots of Meaux" 



Adam, 1150-60 



Philip, 1160-82 



Thomas, 1 182-97 



Alexander, 1197-1210 



Hugh, 1210-20 



GeofFrey, 1 220-1 



Richard, 1221-35 



Michael Brun, 1235-49 



William, 1249-69 



Richard, 1269-70 



Robert, 1270-80 



Richard de Barton, 1280-6 



Roger de Driffield, 1286-1310 



Adam de Skyrne, 1310-39 



Hugh de Leven, 1339-49 



William de Dringhow, first abbacy, 1349-53 



John de Ryslay, 1353-6 



Robert de Beverley, 1356-67 



William de Dringhow, second abbacy, 

 1367-72 



William de Scarborough, 1372-96 



Thomas Burton, 1396-9 



William Wendover, 1399 



John Ripon, resigned 1413^" 



John Hoton, occurs 1436, died 1445 " 



Philip Dayvill, elected 4 March 1445, died 

 1458 



John Sutton, elected 7 October 1458, re- 

 signed 1463 



William DeryfF, confirmed i September 1463 



Ralph Same, received benediction 17 De- 

 cember 1 47 1 



John Clapham, received benediction 4 Sep- 

 tember 1488 



Richard Stoppes, received benediction 22 Nov- 

 ember 1523, surrendered 1539 



An abbot's seal ^^ has an abbot with his crozier. 

 Legend — 



SIGILLUM ABBATIS DE MELSA 



The early 14th-century seal '' is circular, 2 in. 

 in diameter, having the Virgin enthroned in a 

 niche with trefoiled pointed arch, crocketed and 

 supported on slender shafts ; the Child, with 

 nimbus, on the left knee. In the field on each 

 side a lion, and above them on the right a cres- 

 cent, on the left a sun. Legend — 



+ VIRGO PVDICA PIA NOSTRI MISERERE MARIA 



*' Names extracted from Chron. de Melsa, i-iii, 

 except vifhere otherwise specified in notes. 



'"In 141 3 John Ripon became Abbot of Foun- 

 tains ; Cal. Pat. 1413-16, p. 145. 



'' Names and dates of last seven abbots from 

 Dugdale, Mm. Angl. v, 388. 



'* Poulson, Holdemess, 3 1 4. 



" Ibid, where see note on the discovery of the 

 matrix in 1834 at Meaux. This seal is erroneously- 

 described \n the Cat. of Seals, B.M. (i, 820), under 

 St. Mary's Abbey, Tork, as an * uncertain seal.' 



26. THE ABBEY OF RIEVAULX 



The abbey of Rievaulx, the earliest Cister- 

 cian monastery in the county, was founded in 

 II 3 1 by Walter Espec,^ who gave to certain 

 of the monks sent to England about 1 128 by 

 St. Berriard from Citeaux land near Helmsley, 

 in the valley of the Rye, on the north side of 

 which the monastery was built. From its posi- 

 tion it received the name of Ryevale, or Rievaulx, 



Although the house was meagrely endowed 

 by the founder, it speedily received other dona- 

 tions of land of considerable extent and value, 

 so that within probably half a century from the 

 foundation of the abbey it had acquired possession 

 of no less than 50 carucates of land besides 

 other property ; all are fully described in alpha- 

 betical order by Burton.^ 



It has been suggested that the mission of monks 

 sent to England by St. Bernard from Citeaux 

 was largely directed to Yorkshire, through the 

 influence of Archbishop Thurstan.' Not only 

 did Rievaulx send out a detachment of monks 

 to people the abbey of Warden in Bedford- 

 shire, founded by Walter Espec in 1135, 

 almost before the settlement at Rievaulx itself 

 can have been fairly established, but in the year 

 following another colony went to inhabit the 

 abbey of Melrose, founded by David I in 1136 ; 

 and in 1 1 42 yet a third body of monks left 

 Rievaulx for the abbey of Revesby in Lincoln- 

 shire, founded by William de Roumare, Earl of 

 Lincoln, and in 11 46 or 1148 another draft of 

 monks went to Rufford. 



All this points to the fact that the number 

 of monks who first came to Rievaulx must 

 have largely exceeded the number usually sent 

 to form a new convent, and it implies that 

 Rievaulx was regarded as the source from which 

 other Cistercian monasteries might be peopled. 

 This may explain Walter de Gant's gift of 

 Stainton as the site of an abbey to be founded 

 [ad ahbath'iam construendam ibi) by Rievaulx,* 

 as well as the gift by Olaf, king of Man, of land 

 in that island, for the foundation of an abbey at 

 Rushen. The strain on their numbers in 

 founding the abbeys already mentioned perhaps 

 exhausted the power of the monks of Rievaulx 

 to undertake the work proposed to them by 

 King Olaf, and his gift was afterwards transferred 

 to Furness, the abbey of Rushen being colonized 

 from that house.' 



As to Stainton, the same reason may have 

 prevented the monks of Rievaulx from estab- 

 lishing a monastery there, and so led them to 

 exchange Walter de Gant's land with Henry II 

 for other land nearer Rievaulx than Stainton, 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 274. 



' Burton, Mon. Ebor. 358. 



' Chartul. of Rievaulx (Surt. Soc), Introd. p. xxxvii, 



* Ibid. 261. 



' Ibid. Introd. p. liv. 



149 



