A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



John Gray,'' confirmed 1465, resigned 1479 



William Tykell/' '479 



Thomas Thurne,'' i486 



William Burton,'* confirmed 29 February 



1488 

 John Merpath,'' confirmed 1491 

 John Heslington,"' confirmed 1503 

 Henry Cundal, last abbot 



The 15th-century seal '^ is a vesica, 2 in. by 

 i^ in. It is much damaged. The device 

 appears to be a figure of our Lady, the patron 

 saint. The legend cannot be read. 



A seal '^ of a 13th-century abbot is a vesica, 

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

 holding crozier and book, between on either 

 side a crescent and two stars. The legend is : 



^ 



SIGILLVM ABBATIS DE RVPE 



28. THE ABBEY OF SAWLEY 



Sawley Abbey was founded by William Percy 

 II, son of Alan Percy the Great ' on 6 January 

 II 47-8,* when Abbot Benedict with twelve 

 monks and ten conversi came from Newminster. 



Dr. Whitaker,' however, has printed a charter 

 from the Towneley MSS. (which is not free 

 from certain difficulties), according to which 

 Swain the son of Swain had sold to Robert 

 Abbot of Newminster 1 1 carucates in ' Sallaia ' 

 and land and wood beyond Suaneside and 

 Cliderow,* for the foundation of an abbey of 

 the Cistercian order. 



. In the foundation charter ° William de Percy 

 states that he has given to God and the church 

 of St. Mary, and to Benedict the abbot and the 

 monks of the abbey of Mount St. Andrew, 

 which he had built, Sawley and ' Dudelant,' and 

 ' Helwinesthorp ' and all their appurtenances, as 

 well as a carucate in Rimington, which Norman 

 the son of Huchtred had given them, and two 

 bovates in ' Hilleclaia,' given by Robert his 

 steward, which two latter gifts he confirmed. 



Forty years ° later a question arose whether the 

 monks would not have to abandon Sawley, owing 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Geo. Nevill, fol. 11. 



" Ibid. L. Booth, fol 104. 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 501. 



'* York Archiepis. Reg. Rotherham, i, fol. 232. 



" Ibid. fol. 241. 



^« Ibid. Savage, fol. 96. 



" Cat. of Seals, B.M. 3917, Ixxv, 3. 



" Ibid. 3918, Ixxii, 99. 



' Whkby Chartul. 688, n. 7 ; Dugdale, Mon. Angl. 

 v, 516, no. xxii. 



- Harl. MS. 112 (Chartulary of Sawley), fol. i. 



' Hist, of Craven, 36. 



* Dr. Whitaker's suggestion that Cliderow is probably 

 an error for GrindJeton seems not unlikely. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 512. 



' Ibid. no. V, ' per quadraginta annos et amplius.' 



to their inability to obtain the necessary susten- 

 ance from the land, the climate being so cloudy 

 and wet that the crops, when white unto 

 harvest, rotted on the stalk. The Abbot of 

 Clairvaux and the abbots visitors of the house had 

 the matter in consideration, when Maud de 

 Percy, Countess of Warwick, daughter of the 

 founder, in order to save the abbey from demoli- 

 tion or removal, granted the monks the church 

 of St. Mary of Tadcaster with the chapel of 

 Hazlewood, and an annual pension from the 

 chapel of Newton, and a carucate of land at 

 Catton (' in qua secundum carnem nata fui '). 



William Percy, who according to the Genea- 

 logia Perciorum^ printed in the Monasticon, in the 

 account of Sawley, was the great-grandson of the 

 founder, granted his manor of Gisburn in Craven 

 to the abbot and convent, for the maintenance of 

 six monks, who were to be priests, in the abbey,'* 

 and in 1 31 3 * his son Henry de Percy, consider- 

 ing their poverty, gave to the abbot and con- 

 vent the church of St. Andrew of Gargrave. 

 Its value had been 50 marks, but owing to the 

 Scottish wars was in 1320 only 30 marks.' 

 Many other grants were made to the abbey, 

 and several of the deeds relating to them are 

 printed in the Monasticon}^ 



Unlike other houses of the Cistercian order, 

 the situation of that of Sawley was not secluded, 

 but was by the highway passing north and south. 

 In consequence of this the monks had to show 

 more hospitality to travellers than was perhaps 

 the lot of other houses, and it was specially 

 exposed to the raids made by the Scots. 



In 1296'' Stanley Abbey was removed to 

 Whalley, not far from Sawley, and this led to a 

 complaint that the new position of the abbey at 

 Whalley was prejudicial to Sawley, and moreover 

 was in contravention of the customs of the 

 Cistercian order. The monks of Sawley further 

 complained'^ that the monks of Whalley had 

 obtained a lease of the tithes of the church of 

 Whalley, which the monks of Sawley had 

 hitherto farmed for their maintenance ; that the 

 monks of Whalley went round Craven and 

 bought in the Abbot of Sawley's market all kinds 

 of grain, and had thus raised the price of grain ; 

 and not only had they to pay a higher price, but 

 they had to carry the grain over 40 or 60 miles 

 of very bad road. Butter and cheese, fish, 

 poultry, salt, iron, &c., since the coming of the 

 monks to Whalley, were sold dearer to the 

 monks of Sawley. The timber, with which the 

 monks of Sawley ought to build and keep up 

 their buildings, was dearer because the monks of 

 Whalley were building, and intended to build for 



' Ibid, v, 511 n. 



'^ Percy Chartul. (Burt. Soc), 145. 

 * Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 512, no. iv. 

 ' Harland, Hist. Acct. of Salley Abbey, 8. 

 '" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 5 12-1 ;. 

 " Ibid. 639. "Ibid. 641. 



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