A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



Ella to Thomas Wake (and not to Haltemprice), 

 and not till 1343 that Archbishop Zouch, on 

 the death of Robert de Spirgurnell, then rector, 

 appropriated the church to Haltemprice, and 

 ordained a vicarage therein, which was to be held 

 by one of the canons of Haltemprice. The 

 appropriation of the churches of Kirk Ella and 

 Wharram Percy to Haltemprice was confirmed 

 on 13 June 1352 by Pope Clement VI. ^^ 



Other gifts were made to the priory, and in 

 1 36 1 '^ John de Meaux gave or confirmed the 

 manor of Willerby and 6 acres of land there, on 

 condition that during his life the canons should 

 pay him the sum oi £12 yearly, and that three 

 canons, while he lived, and six afterwards, should 

 perform matins with the other hours, mass, 

 vespers, and compline, with Dirige and Placebo 

 for his soul and the souls of Maud his wife, 

 Geoffrey de Meaux his father, and the lady 

 Scolastica his mother, Joan, Countess of Kent, and 

 all faithful departed. On 10 September 1325^' 

 Archbishop Melton directed the Archdeacon of the 

 East Riding and his official to go ' ad locum juxta 

 Cotingham situatum,' which certain canons of the 

 monastery of Bourne in the diocese of Lincoln 

 were inhabiting, the report of whose excesses had 

 reached the archbishop's ears, and to inquire as 

 to them, and correct abuses. The expression 

 juxta Cotingham seems to imply that the house 

 was not then in Cottingham, and therefore at 

 Newton, otherwise Haltemprice, but it was not 

 until eighteen months later (5 May 1327 ") that 

 Thomas de Overton, a canon of Bourne, was 

 appointed first Prior of Haltemprice. The rule 

 of the first prior was brief, for on 28 Jan- 

 uary 1328-9" the archbishop directed Denis 

 Avenel, Archdeacon of the East Riding, to 

 inquire into the election of Robert Engaigne as 

 Prior of Haltemprice, vacant by the death of 

 Thomas de Overton. The new prior had been 

 elected by Brothers Walter de Hekyngton and 

 Henry de Northwell, it being reported that there 

 were only these three canons belonging to the 

 priory at the time. The archdeacon replied on 

 28 February*' that he had made the necessary 

 inquir}', and having found that all had been 

 rightly done, he had installed the new prior. 

 Prior Robert de Hickling, who held office for the 

 first time from 1349 till 1357,'° when he was 

 succeeded by Peter de Harpham, on whose 

 resignation in 1362 " he was elected for a second 

 term of office, does not seem to have been a 

 successful ruler of the house, for in 1367-" 

 Archbishop Thoresby ordered an investigation of 

 the state of the house of Haltemprice, which 



^"Cal. Papal Leturs, iii, 468. 



" Burton, Man. Ebor. 317. 



" ^'ork Archiepis. Reg. Melton, fol. 297^. 



"Ibid. fol. 301. 



"Ibid. fol. 311. "Ibid. fol. 311. 



" Ibid. Thoresby, fol. 197^. " Ibid. fol. 207. 



■* Ibid. fol. 217^. 



public report declared was so gravely burdened 

 by debt, and in so parlous a state owing to the 

 indiscreet rule of the prior and the carelessness 

 of the officials, that absolute ruin was threatened. 

 To the prior '' the archbishop wrote that Robert 

 de Burton, one of the canons, was to be associ- 

 ated" with him in the rule of the house till 

 Michaelmas, without whose assistance he was to 

 do nothing pertaining to the temporal business of 

 the house. 



On 10 November 1400'* Boniface IX 

 granted an indulgence of the ' portiuncula ' to 

 penitents who visited and gave alms on the feasts 

 of the Annunciation and St. Michael to the 

 church of the Augustinian priory of 'Hautin- 

 prisse,' with an indult for the prior and six other 

 confessors, secular or religious, deputed by him, 

 to hear confessions, and on 21 May 1402" the 

 same pope granted an indult to the Augustinian 

 Prior and convent of ' Hautenpriis,' who by the 

 institutions and customs of their order were 

 bound to wear sandals (ocreas), that in future 

 they might wear shoes (calciamentis seu sotularihus 

 iassis et communibus). 



On 3 September 141 1 " Pope John XXIII, 

 having learnt that the building and foundation of 

 the Augustinian priory of St. Mary the Virgin 

 and the Holy Cross of ' Hautenpris ' had been 

 begun in times not far remote, and by reason 

 of its founder's death was not completed and 

 its endowment left insufficient, and, further, 

 that the bell-tower of its church had been lately 

 blown down, ruining the church and certain of 

 the priory buildings, and that a fire had destroyed 

 the costly priory gate and a number of the 

 adjoining offices, and that a number of the other 

 buildings were in ruin, so that the monastery 

 was scarcely habitable for the prior and convent, 

 regranted the indulgence of the 'portiuncula' 

 for a period of ten years. This is the only 

 information there is as to these disasters which 

 had befallen the priory at this period. In 1424,^' 

 Richard Worleby having resigned the office of 

 prior, John Thwynge (sub-prior) was elected by 

 the other ten canons.^ 



When Henry VI in 1440 granted a charter to 

 the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, constituting it 

 a county of itself, the whole of the site of the 

 priory was included in the county of the town. 

 This, says Burton,^" led to a dispute, which was 

 referred to Bryan Palmes, serjeant-at-law, and 

 others. The award was that the prior had all 

 such liberties, franchises, and royalties as the 

 lordship of Cottingham ever had, but that while 

 Cottingham carried its felons and murderers to 



"Ibid. fol. 217^. 

 "Cal. Papal Letters, v, 376. 

 "Ibid. 515. "Ibid, vi, 295. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. sed. vac. fol. 349. 

 " In 1 380 there were eight canons besides the prior. 

 Cler. Subs. R. bdle. 63, no. 12. 

 " Burton, Mot. Ebor. 315. 



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