A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



give any authority for the statement, and 

 although possibly the first brethren came from 

 a Grandimontine priory in Normandy, it seems 

 that in 1294 the brothers were Englishmen, 

 and the fact that the head, who bore the 

 designation of ' corrector,' ' was Roger de 

 Cresswell (or of Cresswell) looks as if the 

 brothers had, perhaps, at that time come from 

 the cell at Craswall, in Herefordshire, which, 

 like that of Grosmont, was originally depen- 

 dent on one of the Grandimontine houses in 

 Normandy. In 1394-5 the Abbot of Grand- 

 mont obtained licence from Richard II to sell 

 the advowson and property of the priory of 

 Eskdale (as it was called) to John Hewit alias 

 Serjeant, and thereupon, says Burton,' it seems 

 to have become a prioratus ind'tgena. 



There is a good deal of obscurity attached to 

 the Grandimontine order, founded in 1076 

 by St. Stephen de Muret, and its rules and 

 customs. Their houses in Normandy and 

 Anjou were richly endowed by the English 

 kings. The members of the order wore the 

 black cassock with a large scapular. St. Stephen 

 denied that his religious were monks, canons, or 

 hermits. Mabillon ranks them as Benedictines, 

 others among Augustinians. Hdlyot denies both 

 assertions.' 



The house at Grosmont seems, from the 

 manner in which the members are spoken of, to 

 have continued to belong to the order, and 

 though indigenous would probably be in con- 

 nexion with the abbey of Grandmont, much as 

 the Cistercians were with their head house 

 abroad. After the suppression of the two other 

 alien priories of the order at Adderbury and 

 Craswall, Grosmont would be the only Grandi- 

 montine house in England, and it is a matter for 

 regret that nothing is known as to its subsequent 

 history or internal affairs. 



On 24 February 1387' Pope Urban VI 

 directed the Abbot of Whitby to make inquiry 

 concerning the action of the Prior and convent 

 of 'Gramont* in Eskdale of the order of 

 'Grandemont' in the diocese of York. The 

 pope had heard that they and their predecessors 

 had made alienations of their properties and 

 rights to the grave injury of the house. The 

 abbot was to see that any such alienations thus 

 unlawfully made were revoked. 



In 1527 '" the clear annual value of the 



* In 1229 'the prior and brethren of Grandimont 

 in Eskedale ' are spoken oi{Archbishop Gray's Reg. 29). 

 In 1 301 Archbishop Corbridge addressed a notice of 

 visitation ' magistro sive priori,' the two latter words 

 being an interlineation (York Archiepis. Reg. Cor- 

 bridge, fol. 24^). 



' Men. Ebor. 275. 



' Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome (Monastic 

 Section), 190. 



' B.M. Harl. Chart. 43, A. 47. 



"> Subs. R. bdle. 64, no. 303. 



priory of Grosmont was returned at £,1^. 

 According to the Falor Ecclesiasticus '' the gross 

 value was then only ;^I4 2s. 2d., and the clear 

 annual value ;^I2 2s. id. 



At the time of the suppression the house was 

 described as ' Prioratus sive domus fratrum voca- 

 torum Boni Homines, beate Marie de Grande 

 Monte.' '' Five names are given : Brothers James 

 Egton (aged 68), Lawrence Birde (50), William 

 Semer (36), Edmund Skelton (36), Robert 

 Holland (31). 



There is a note, ' Md. to remember Sir 

 William Knagges, sometyme a fryer in the seid 

 house of Gromont, to help hym to some yerely 

 pension or lyvynge for his cosyn his sake, att 

 Beacham.' Mention is also made of Sir John 

 Banks, late prior eighteen years past." The 

 entire charges upon the monastery are given 

 as alms bestowed for the founders four times a 

 year, viz. on Good Friday, Easter Even, the 

 vigil of Pentecost, and on Christmas Eve, 

 2bs. 8d. a year; also given to the poor on the 

 four principal obits of the founders annually to 

 the value of ly. ^.d.^* 



At the inquiry as to the payment of 

 pensions in 15 S3," the commissioners stated, 

 as to Grosmont, that James Ableson, whose 

 pension was £4., 'did not appear.' Edmund 

 Skelton, pension 66s. 8d., and Robert Holland, 

 with the same pension, appeared. No such 

 name as ' Ableson ' appears in the list of 

 members of the house, and the probable ex- 

 planation is that James Egton, whose name 

 heads the list of brothers in the first list, is the 

 same person as James Ableson named in the 

 second." 



Priors of Grosmont 



Roger, occurs 1287" (prior) 



Roger de Cresswell, occurs 1294 (corrector)" 



William Whitby, occurs 1469^' 



John Banks, circa 1518'" 



James Egton, alias Ableson, occurs 1536'* 



" ralor Eccl. y, 86. 



" Suppression P. ii, 162. " Ibid 171. 



'• These would be those imposed in 1294 by Peter 

 de Mauley III for his father and mother and his wife 

 Nicholaa, with no doubt his own obit, added after 

 his death. 



" Exch. K.R. Accts. bdle. 76, no. 24. 



" Atkinson, Hist, of Cleveland, Ancient and Modem, 

 203 n. From the position of his name and his larger 

 pension, it is not improbable that he was prior at the 

 time of the surrender. 



" Guisborough Chartul. (Surt. Soc.), ii, 154. 

 Atkinson, Cleveland, Ancient and Modem, i, 202 n. 

 Possibly the two Rogers were the same person. 



" Baildon, Mon. Notes, i, 72. He is called prior. 

 Probably when the house became independent and 

 ceased to be a cell the corrector gave place to 

 a prior. 



'" Suppression P. ii, 162. " Ibid. 1 7 1. 



194 



