RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



the future, and the sellers of bark (tanae) in those 

 parts, hoping that the monks of Whalley were 

 going to have a big tannery, charged more for 

 bark, in consequence of which the tannery of 

 Sawley was almost destroyed. It may be noted, 

 in passing, that the need of purchasing grain 

 confirms the report of the infertile character of 

 the land about Sawley at that period. 



This complaint was dealt with in a general 

 chapter of the Cistercian order in 1305,^^ when 

 it was decided that if the monks or conversi of 

 either abbey transgressed against the other, the 

 delinquents were, without delay, to be sent to 

 the injured party to be punished in chapter there, 

 at the judgement of the president. If the monks 

 of Whalley had any saleable tithes (decimas 

 venales) which the Abbot and convent of Sawley 

 considered needful for their use, they should be 

 as speedily and freely sold to them as to other 

 persons, but for the price which others would 

 give. The decision might reasonably be expected 

 to have given rise to continual disputes between 

 the two monasteries. There is, however, no 

 evidence that any further disputes actually arose. 



On 19 September 1306,^^* for some reason 

 which so far has not been discovered. Archbishop 

 Greenfield passed sentence of excommunication 

 on John de Houeden, abbot, John de Eton, 

 prior, William de Stokesleye, sub-prior, Robert 

 de Kereby, cellarer, Henry de Bolton, sub- 

 cellarer, John Tempest, sacrist, Richard de Ebor, 

 sub-sacrist, John de Semer, frater conversorum, 

 Richard de Edesford, bursar, William de Osbal- 

 [ton . . . ?], William de Nodesaye, porter, Robert 

 de Fontibus (conversus), hostilar, Simon de Lytton 

 (conversus), master of the Forest, Roger de Hoton, 

 master of Tadcaster, and Roger de Crathorn, 

 master of Bereghby. 



In 1350^^ Pope Clement VI, who in 1343 

 had ordered that the Jubilee at Rome, first 

 observed in 1300, should be kept every fiftieth 

 year, issued a grant to a monk of Sawley, 

 Richard de Fishwyk, to return to his monastery, 

 which he had left without leave, in order to 

 visit Rome for the general indulgence of the 

 Jubilee of that year. In 1381 ^* the receipts of 

 the abbey appear to have been ^347 14.5. J^d., 

 and the expenditure ;^355 13J. lo^^. At that 

 time^^ there were in the abbey besides the 

 abbot sixteen other monks. At the suppression 

 there were twenty-one monks and thirty-seven 

 servants." In 1412" the abbot and convent 

 obtained an indult from Pope John XXIII to 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 641. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Greenfield, fol. 76^/ see also 

 fol. lib. 



" Cal. of Papal Letters, iii, 382. 



'* Harland, Hist. Acct. of Galley Abbey, 25 ; quoting 

 Whitaker. 



" Subs. R. 63, no. 12. 



" K.R. Aug. Views of Accts. bdle. 1 7. 



" Cal. of Papal Letters, vi, 391. 



eat flesh meat on lawful days, whenever they 

 left their monastery for reasonable causes. 



The Abbots of Sawley were summoned to 

 Parliament on nine occasions from 1294 to 

 1307.^° According to the Taxatio of 1291, 

 the spiritualities of the abbey were the church 

 of Tadcaster, valued at £2>^ ly. 4^., and that 

 of Gargrave, valued at ^^33 6 J. ?)d. The tem- 

 poralities of the abbey were valued at £^^ ioj.^' 



There is no full account of the possessions 

 of Sawley in the [^alor Ecclesiasticus, merely a 

 statement that the clear annual value, in spiritu- 

 alities and temporalities, reached the sum of 

 ;^I47 3J. 10^.^^ A rather earlier return, made 

 in 1522-3,^' gives the clear annual value at 

 ^159 lbs. id. Sawley Abbey, therefore, came 

 within purview of the earlier Act, 2 7 Henry VIII, 

 cap. 28, which dissolved all the monasteries 

 whose annual revenue was below £,100, In 

 1536 ''^ Thomas Bolton was abbot, but William 

 Trafford must have succeeded him in that year, 

 for he took part as abbot (with his prior) in the 

 Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536.^* There is no 

 record of his election in the York Registers, and 

 it was possibly never formally confirmed. On 

 10 March 1537 ^^ ^^ ^^^ hanged at Lancaster 

 for high treason. Abbot Trafford^' belonged to 

 an old Lancashire family, and was the second 

 son of Sir John TrafFord of Trafford, by Eliza- 

 beth daughter of Sir Thomas Assheton of 

 Ashton-under-Lyne. 



Among the Suppression Papers ^* one records 

 the ' goodes praysed at Sawlaye and gyven by 

 the Kinges highnes unto Sir Arthur Darcy 

 Knight ' as follows : ' Belles, lead, vestymentes 

 and copes, and other necessaries praysed unto ' 

 £\o<^ 10 J. \\d. 'Item. Corne in the garners, 

 and in the ffeldes ' £,^7. \^s. 4^.; total 

 £\11 6s. 2,d. In another paper, much of which 

 is lost,^' the total of the stock and goods reaches 

 the sum of ;r300 12s. jd. 



Abbots of Sawley 



Benedict, 1147 '" 

 Geoffrey de Eston, II 86 ^' 

 Adam, before 1193 ^^ 

 Stephen, occurs 1226,^^ 1230 



34 



'" Harland, Hist. Acct. of Galley Abbey, 43. 



" Ibid. 36. 



" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 144. 



" Subs. R. 64, no. 300. 



" Aug. Off. Views of Accts. bdle. 1 7. 



'' Harland, Hist. Acct. ofSalley Abbey, 48. 



'' Ibid. " Ibid. 47. 



*' Suppression P. iii, no. 62. '^ Ibid. 75. 



'° Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 5 II . " Ibid. 



" Harland, Hist. Acct. of Salley Abbey, 42 (temp. 

 Robt de Lacy, who died that year). 



" Archbp. Grey's Reg. (Surt. Soc), 328. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Greenfield, fol. 85 ; as a 

 witness, ' S.' 



157 



