A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



the cellarer, was not fit for his office, and there 

 were many others much better suited for it. 

 Silence was not duly kept, and the sick not well 

 attended to, nor duly and humanely visited. 

 John de Ottele, a novice, did not willingly do 

 his duty according to rule. The cellarer and 

 sub-cellarer, whenever they could, absented 

 themselves from divine service, and did not take 

 their meals with the convent, but frequently, 

 after the refection of the convent, feasted them- 

 selves in the refectory. The prior appointed 

 custodians of the manors without consulting the 

 convent, and these it was believed rendered no 

 accounts. The accounts of the obedientiaries 

 were not rendered to the convent. It appeared 

 by the prior's own admission and by a writing 

 which he delivered to the archbishop, attested by 

 his seal, that he had excommunicated brothers 

 William Hog and Hugh de Ebor'. 



The monastery owed various creditors the 

 sum of ;^324 Ss. jd., but the debt was not one 

 of usury, as it was not owed to merchants but 

 to neighbours. It had been incurred by the 

 predecessors of the present prior. Nicholas dc 

 Broc, sub-prior, was aged and feeble, and not 

 competent for the spiritual rule of the house, and 

 voluntarily resigned. The convent was directed 

 to elect another fit for the charge, but as the 

 canons were not at first unanimous, the arch- 

 bishop induced them to agree, and Ralph de Eston 

 was elected. The prior then confessed, certain 

 of the convent attesting it, that the statement 

 contained in the writing he had handed to the 

 archbishop, saying that he had excommunicated 

 William Hog and Hugh de Ebor', was untrue. 

 The archbishop reserved the punishment to be 

 inflicted on the prior for the untruthful writing. 

 Brothers William Hog and Hugh de Ebor' were 

 ordered to amend their ways, which had per- 

 turbed the convent, under threat of removal to 

 other houses. Possibly the prior was deposed, for 

 Richard de Bakhampton was prior in January 

 1274-5, when he resigned, and a yearly pension 

 of ;{^20, with the use of certain dwellings at 

 Ryther, was assigned him in recognition of his 

 services." His successor was William Hog, the 

 previous disturber of the peace of the convent, 

 to whose election the royal assent was given on 

 18 March 1274-5.^* He must have come into 

 collision with the archbishop almost immediately, 

 for he was suspended, and on 29 September 

 1275^^ the archbishop issued a notice of an 

 intended visitation for 7 October ^^ following, 



" JrM/>. Giffard's Reg. (Surt. Sec), 264, 305, &c. 



" Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 6 ; Archbp. Giffard's Reg. 

 (Surt. Soc), 304. 



" Ibid. 302. 



" Ibid. It may have been in connexion with these 

 disputes that an inquisition was held at Skipton on 

 28 Feb. 1274-5, when the jurors stated on their oath 

 that from the foundation of the priory the lords of 

 Albemarle in time of vacancy had only one man as 



when a number of articles of inquiry as to the 

 prior were to be propounded, among them being 

 one as to whether he had continued to act as 

 prior after his suspension. The visitation was 

 duly held on the day appointed, and it was then 

 found by the confession of William Hog and 

 that of other of the canons that they had conspired 

 contrary to canon law against the archbishop. 

 The prior admitted that after his suspension he 

 had caused himself to be ministered to 'in mensa 

 cum tuallia ut priori,' and in the prior's chamber 

 as before, also that he had gone to York to 

 secure the liberation of certain canons whom 

 the archbishop had in custody for correction, and 

 that he had invoked the lay authority, both that 

 of the Sheriff of York and of others, and had 

 caused the common seal to be set to a certain 

 proxy for this end, by reason of which the goods 

 of the monastery were squandered. It was 

 further found that, owing to his neglect, certain 

 properties had been lost because fealty had not 

 yet been made to the Countess of Albemarle." 

 Moreover, after notice of the visitation had been 

 given he had commanded the canons in virtue 

 of their obedience to agree with one another in 

 what they said at the visitation. Further, he 

 had turned out of the priory the archbishop's 

 servant who brought the letters thither. All 

 these offences proved, the archbishop then and 

 there pronounced sentence of deposition on the 

 prior. On 19 October all the canons, to the 

 number of thirteen, including the sub-prior, 

 whose names are given, recorded their votes in 

 favour of John de Lund, except the latter, who 

 voted for Thomas de Alna, and on 3 November 

 1275 the king signified to the archbishop his 

 assent to the election thus made.^* 



Five years later Archbishop Wickwane held a 

 visitation of Bolton, on 16 May 1280,*' when he 

 issued a series of injunctions. Carols with locks, 

 and boxes (those of the obedientiaries alone ex- 

 cepted) were forbidden, and the locks of any, 

 wherever suspected, were to be opened by the 

 prior and three approved members of the house. 

 Money payments for clothes and shoes were not 

 to be made, but such were to be delivered to 

 each from the common tailor's shop. 



The entrances to and exits from the cloister 

 and church were to be kept from the incursions 

 of outsiders. If any attempted to go out with- 



warden of the gates of the priory to defend the house 

 from injury, and that the canons without asking leave 

 from their patrons of Albemarle could freely elect a 

 prior, whom they presented to the said patrons, but 

 whereas the priory held of their patrons in chief 

 6\ carucates of land, in the mean time they were 

 seized, though they had no other rights therefrom, 

 and when the prior was installed he paid the accus- 

 tomed relief for the said carucates. Torks. Inf. i, 151. 



" For lands, &c., at Harewood. 



" ^rf%. Giffard's Reg. (Surt. Soc), 312. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Wickwane, fol. 24^, 134. 



196 



