RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



made an appeal to the king, who declared that 

 Grosvenor was not entitled to the arms at all. 

 Grosvenor then threw the blame upon his coun- 

 sellors, and sought the pardon of Lord Scrope, 

 which was readily granted, including the heavy 

 costs.^" 



This Lord Scrope, who during his life had so 

 greatly benefited the abbey, added to his benefac- 

 tions in the will which he made in 1400,^^ the 

 provisions of which were carried out after his 

 death in 1402.^° He bequeathed, inter alia, a 

 ■cup with a cover, which had been presented to 

 him by the Lord Prince,^' two gilt candlesticks, 

 two gilt cruets, a chalice, a censer, a little gilt 

 bell, and an embroidered alb, amice and stole.^* 

 A second cup was bequeathed to Lord Roger, 

 the heir, and he in 1403 left it to his son Richard, 

 who in 14 1 9 bequeathed it to Marmaduke 

 Lumley to be made into a chalice."' 



In May 1424 a commission was issued to 

 Nicholas, Bishop of Dromore, to dedicate the 

 conventual church of St. Agatha.^* Probably 

 there had been considerable alterations made 

 about the beginning of the 15 th century, and 

 this episcopal act was a kind of re-dedication ; 

 or, as the churchyard is specially mentioned, the 

 matter may have been primarily concerned with 

 that. 



In 1475 there were, besides the abbot, William 

 York, nineteen canons, of whom one was ' canon 

 of Garsdale,' a parish in the West Riding where 

 the abbey had a grange with a chapel,^'' and two 

 others were vicars of Easby and of Manfield.^ 

 Three years later, when Bishop Redman visited 

 the abbey,^* there was practically no change in 

 the constitution of the house except that William 

 Ellerton, who at the earlier date had been cellarer, 

 was now abbot. He was ordered to deal gener- 

 ously with his predecessor, who had resigned : 

 presumably this was William York, but his 

 name does not appear in the list of canons. The 

 state of the abbey was excellent, and a similarly 

 satisfactory report was made at the next visita- 

 tion, in 1482, except that one of the brethren, 

 John Nym, had to be excommunicated for 

 apostasy.^' John Nym evidently repented of 

 his bad ways, as we find him in 1488 acting as 

 *circator,' William Ellerton was still abbot in 



'° LongstafFe, loc. cit. 



" Jssoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. 1853, p. 323. 



" Clarkson, op. cit. 355. 



" Probably Edward the Black Prince {Assoc. Archit. 

 Soc. Rep. 1853, p. 323). 



" Ibid. ; Clarkson, op. cit. 355. 



" Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. 1853, p. 323. 



^° Lawton, Relig. Houses, 96. 



"' At the beginning of the 14th century there 

 were two or more canons in residence at the chapel 

 of St. John the Baptist in Garsdale. Egerton MS. 

 2829, fol. 187. 



" Gasquet, Coll. Anglo - Premonstratensiana (Roy. 

 Hist. Soc), no. 165. 



" Ibid. no. 167-8. " Ibid. no. 169. 



1488 and had under him sixteen priest canons, 

 three deacons, and two novices.'" Bishop Red- 

 man found the general state of the house satis- 

 factory but had to imprison one of the canons 

 for continual disobedience ; another was suspected 

 of incontinence, but cleared himself by the oaths 

 of four compurgators. In 1491 one of the 

 brethren, William Bramptone, had to be sent 

 away from the house for various reasons ; at the 

 same time fault was found with the abbot for 

 the careless way in which the seal was kept, and 

 orders were given for the better instruction of 

 the younger members of the convent.'^ Not long 

 after this visitation Abbot Ellerton died, and on 

 6 March 1492 Bishop Redman, by authority of 

 the father-Abbot of Newhouse, superintended an 

 election at St. Agatha's, when William Clyntes, 

 the sub - cellarer, was unanimously elected.'^ 

 Clyntes, however, died within a year of his 

 appointment,'' and on 6 February 1493 William 

 Lynghard was elected. A visitation in 1494 

 showed a certain laxity in the observance of the 

 rules of the order,'* but neither on this occasion 

 nor in 1497 '^ were any grievous faults dis- 

 covered. At the last recorded visitation, how- 

 ever, in 1500, Canon Thomas Bukler, who 

 was acting as vicar of Manfield, was found to 

 have broken the rule by making a will, disposing 

 of property as his own which of right belonged to 

 the abbey. With this exception the state of the 

 house was satisfactory .'° 



Various grants were made to the canons from 

 time to time for the purpose of enabling them to 

 give relief to the poor. Once a week they were 

 to distribute to five such people as much meat 

 and drink as cost ^^3 15J. lid. per annum. 

 This charity had been founded ' for the soul of 

 John Romaine,' Archdeacon of Richmond.^'' For 

 the same benefactor they provided also i$s. a 

 year to be similarly expended on one poor person 

 'every day,' and the abbey was to give to ten 

 poor people on the anniversary of the archdeacon's 

 death a meal of the value of lod., and to various 

 chaplains the sum of lOs. on that day. Another 

 charity provided for the giving to one pauper 

 every day a loaf of bread called ' PayselofFe,' or 

 ' Loaf of Peace,' together with a flagon of ale and 

 a mess of food, from the feast of All Souls to the 

 feast of Circumcision each year, the sum provided 

 being £ i 6^ 8^. On St. Agatha's Day ^^4 was 

 to be distributed in corn and salted fish to the 

 poor and indigent, and a similar distribution was 

 to be made on Maundy Thursday and the two 

 following days." 



" Ibid. no. 173. 

 "Ibid. loi. 



"Ibid. 179. 



'"Ibid. no. 171. 



" Ibid. 62. 



^Mbid. 177. 



'Mbid. 182. 



^'^ These alms were performed in return for the 

 gift of the manor of Stanghow ; Egerton MS. 

 2827, fol. 259, 



" Clarkson, op. cit. 351. 



247 



