RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



HOUSE OF AUSTIN CANONS 



OF THE Order of the Temple of the Lord at Jerusalem 



59- 



THE PRIORY OF NORTH 

 FERRIBY 



According to Tanner, and others who have 

 followed him, the house of North Ferriby was 

 founded as a preceptory of Knights Templars, 

 and after the suppression of the Templars became 

 an ordinary priory of canons of the order of St. 

 Augustine, and so continued till the suppression 

 of the lesser monasteries.^ Torre's statement ^ is 

 as follows : ' North Ferriby. Priory of St. Marie's. 

 The house or priory of N. Ferriby was founded 

 by William de Vescy. At first for three brethren 

 of the Order of the Temple of St. John Jeru- 

 salem in England, to which number he added 

 five more, which completed eight brethren for 

 the future, when he gave them the church of N. 

 Ferriby to be appropriated to them. The com- 

 mon seal of the priory of North Ferriby was thus, 

 when William, prior, and brethren thereof, 

 granted to Robt. Robelott a certain toft in 

 Austelmerly and an acre in Elveley.' Then 

 follows a rude sketch of a seal, similar to that 

 figured in The Temple Church (Bell's Cathedral 

 Ser.), 62, but with no legend. In reality these 

 canons were in no way connected with the 

 Knights Templars. There were at Jerusalem 

 two 'Temples.' The one, called the Temple 

 of Solomon, was a palace, and from it the 

 Knights Templars derived their name. The 

 other, the Temple of the Lord, was a church 

 served by a community of Austin canons under 

 an abbot ; it was to this abbey that North 

 Ferriby was a cell.' 



Archbishop GiflFard wrote, on 25 September 

 1270,* to the rector of Kirk Ella, and the bailiff 

 of Beverley, that he had heard that the Prior of 

 Ferriby, of the order of the Temple of the Lord, 

 proposed to go to foreign parts by direction of his 

 abbot, and meant to sell the corn and stock or 

 the house, and to take away two-thirds for the 

 cost of his journey, leaving only one-third for the 

 sustenance of the brethren at home. If this were 

 done the property of the house would be wholly 

 insufficient for maintaining the brethren and 

 guests, for which it was specially assigned. The 

 commissioners were ordered to admonish the 

 prior either to abandon the project and look 

 elsewhere for the expenses of his journey, or to 

 take a less sum, as they might appoint, in order 

 that the archbishop might not have to put a stop 



to his journey, or the brothers be driven to beg 

 in a manner not seemly. The commissioners 

 were also to enjoin the brethren to take good 

 care of their business matters and property, and 

 not to consent to the prior's proposal. If the prior 

 or the brethren disregarded the admonition, com- 

 pulsion was to be used by suspension or excom- 

 munication. 



In March 1271-2" Brother Walter de Sancto 

 Eadmundo, claiming to be {qui se dick) Prior of 

 Ferriby, complained that the archbishop's official 

 had issued certain mandates in which it was im- 

 plied that he was an intruder and an ungodly 

 person. The archbishop desired the Dean of 

 York, in his stead, to hear the complaint, and to 

 decide what ought to be done. 



Archbishop Melton sent on 29 September 

 1334° a monition to the Prior and brothers 

 of the house of the Temple of the Lord of 

 Ferriby, of his intention to visit the house on 14 

 May following, but there does not appear to be 

 any record of the visitation itself. Fifteen years 

 later there is evidence of the presence of the 

 Black Death.' The sickness itself is not alluded 

 to, but there can be little doubt that it accounts 

 for the fact that on 24 July 1349 Brother John 

 de Beverley was elected prior, in succession to 

 Walter de Hesill, deceased, and that the very 

 next entry in the register records the election 

 of John de Preston as prior on 3 August follow- 

 ing, in succession to Brother John de Beverley, 

 deceased — an interval of ten days only between 

 the elections. 



On 27 August 1372' Archbishop Thoresby 

 confirmed a provision made by John, the prior, 

 and the convent, for their late prior John de 

 Hedon. First of all he was to sit in fronte chori, 

 in the second stall after the prior, on that side, 

 when he wished to attend, but he was excused 

 from all keeping of quire, and also of chapter, 

 unless summoned for the business of the house, 

 and the good of his soul, according to the disci- 

 pline of the rule. He was to have a general 

 licence for going in and out of the priory and its 

 precincts. He was to have a competent and 

 honest chamber within the priory, cum oratorio, 

 chiminio, et privato, to be kept up at the cost of 

 the house. If he were ill, or became blind, he 

 was to have a canon to minister to him, ' tam in 

 missis quam aliis horis divinis.' He was to have 

 three loaves daily, two of them de meliori pascu 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 589. 



' Torre MSS. pt. ii, 1094. 



' Engl. Hist. Rev. xxvi, 498-501. 



* Archbishop Giffard's Reg. (Surt. Soc), 251. 



3 241 



" Ibid. 66. 



' York Archiepis. Reg. Melton, fol. 291. 



' Ibid. Zouch, fol. 197^. 



° Ibid. Thoresby, fol. 229. 



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