RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Thomas Cotingham, confirmed 1498" 

 John Thornton, confirmed 1513,*^ occurs 20 



November 1516^' 

 Thomas Burgh, 1521,^^ occurs 16 August 



1529," 10 February 1531-2*^ 

 John Howlme, occurs 3 July 1532*' 



John Bawdewynne, confirmed 1532,^' resigned 



1534^' 

 Thomas Androwe, confirmed 24 September 



1534,'° resigned 7 June 1535 " 

 John Bawdewynne (second time), succeeded 

 7 June 1535'^ 



HOUSES OF THE PREMONSTRATENSIAN ORDER 



60. THE ABBEY OF COVERHAM 



Towards the end of the reign of Henry II, 

 Helewise, daughter and heiress of Ranulph de 

 Glanville, chief justice of England, founded a 

 monastery of Premonstratensian canons at 

 Swainby in the parish of Pickhill,^ with the 

 consent of her son and heir, Waleran, then 

 living. She died in 1 195 and was buried at 

 Swainby, but afterwards her remains were 

 removed to Coverham and buried in the chapter 

 house. The first foundation at Swainby is said 

 to have been in the year 1190, but there is 

 evidently an error in the date in the account of 

 the foundation of the house, printed by Dugdale 

 from a roll in St. Mary's Tower, York,^ for 

 Henry II, who confirmed the gifts made to the 

 canons of Swainby, died in July 1189. There 

 is, however, no reason to doubt the other state- 

 ments in the account. The roll goes on to relate 

 that Ralph the son of Robert, lord of Middle- 

 ham, removed the canons to Coverham,' and 

 granted them the church of Coverham, and 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Rotherham, i, 154. 



" Ibid. Bainbridge, fol. 43^. 



" Conventual Leases, Yorks. (P.R.O.), no. 196. 



" Dugdale, Mm. Angl. vi, 590. 



" Conventual Leases, Yorks. (P.R.O.) no. 193. 



** Ibid. no. 195 (as 'Thomas' only). 



" Ibid. no. 201. 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 590. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Lee, fol. 2 5/5. «■ Ibid. 



'' Ibid. fol. z%b. Dugdale {Mon. Angl. vi, 590) 

 gives 6 June 1532 as the date of John Bawdewynne's 

 confirmation as prior for the first time. If this is cor- 

 rect, he and John Howlme, whose name as prior 

 occurs on 3 July 1532, would seem to have been one 

 and the same person. 



" Ibid. 



'Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 920. 'Ibid. no. i. 



' Coverham is 1 1 miles from Swainby in a direct 

 line, and considerably farther by any possible road. 

 The connexion of the canons of Swainby with 

 Coverham before they were moved there is indicated 

 by the foundation gift of Coverham Church to the 

 canons. The site of the original monastery at 

 Swainby is marked ' Site of Priory ' on the one-inch 

 map of the Ordnance Survey, 1870. In 1840 it was 

 said that 'no traces of the building now remain, 

 except in the unevenness of the ground where it is 

 supposed to have stood.' — White, Hist. Gazetteer and 

 Dir. of the E. y N. Ridings, 569. 



many lands and tenements by fine in the king's 

 court in 14 John (1212-13). The charter of 

 Henry II is set out in full in an inspeximus of 22 

 Edward III * (1338-9), by which it appears that 

 Henry II confirmed the gifts described as those 

 of Waleran (Helewise's son) to the church of 

 St. Mary of ' Sweinesby ' and the canons there. 

 These were the church of Coverham, the land of 

 Swainby, 16 acres in Kettlewell, with pasturage 

 there for 1,000 sheep and 40 beasts, with tithes 

 and lands elsewhere, all of which his mother had 

 given to the canons. 



After the removal to Coverham in 1 21 2, gifts 

 of land in several other places were made to the 

 canons. These are arranged in alphabetical 

 order by Burton.' Besides their temporal 

 possessions, the church of Downholme was given 

 to them about 1300 by the Scropes of Bolton, 

 and the gift was confirmed by Archbishop 

 Corbridge, but no vicarage was ordained.' 

 They also became possessed, but when or by 

 whom it was given is unknown, of a moiety of 

 the church of Kettlewell. It must have been 

 early in their history, for according to Burton ' 

 the canons presented to this moiety in 1229, 

 although in the printed volume of Archbishop 

 Gray's Register * no mention is made of their 

 presentation, and it is said that the patronage was 

 in dispute. The other moiety of the church 

 belonged to the patronage of the Lords Gray of 

 Rotherfield, and on 4 December 1344' this 

 moiety was appropriated by the archbishop's 

 authority to the abbey, and a perpetual vicar- 

 age with cure of souls was ordained in the 

 patronage of the abbot and convent. In 1388, 

 the moieties of the church having become 

 united in the possession of Coverham, Archbishop 

 Alexander Nevill made a new appropriation of 

 Kettlewell to the abbey, reserving annual 

 pensions of 8j. ^d. to the archbishop, and 55. to 

 the Dean and Chapter of York. The vicar was 

 to have the rectorial mansion and j^5 annually 

 from the abbot and convent. 



Sedbergh Church was given to the abbey 

 by Sir Ralph le Scrope, and a perpetual vicarage 

 ordained there in 1332.^'^ The abbey alsO' 



* Dugdale, loc. cit. no. ii. 



'Ibid. 419. 



^Archbishop Gray's Reg. (Surt. Soc), 20 



° Burton, op. cit. 420. '° Ibid. 



'Mo».£^ffr. 418-25. 

 'Ibid. 420. 



243 



