A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



This Ralph Multon was probably the founder.' 

 Ralph Lenham confirmed Multon's gift to the 

 abbot, to be held of him in perpetuity for the 

 annual payment of 6 marks of silver for the 

 sixth part of one knight's fee for all services ; 

 for this concession Ralph Multon gave 15 

 marks.' About 1200 Gilbert Lee conveyed 

 to the abbey the manor of Kilvington, for the 

 support of nine canons in addition to those 

 already there (probably three). We find, in 

 consequence, that in 1478 the abbey was said to 

 have been founded in 1200 by Gilbert de Leya.* 

 This gift led to a serious dispute in 1248, when 

 Philip son of Gilbert claimed that the nine 

 canons should be of his presentation, and pro- 

 duced a charter to that effect from Abbot 

 Nicholas, complaining that owing to the re- 

 fusal of his nominees he had suffered damage to 

 the extent of 40 marks. The jury found that 

 the charter of Nicholas had not been signed 

 with the common seal, but nevertheless in 125 I 

 Philip's claims were recognized and a com- 

 promise arrived at, and the abbot paid £^ for 

 all arrears and damages incurred by the loss of 

 service due from the knight's fee. Robert Stic- 

 hill, Bishop of Durham (1260-74), confirmed 

 Gilbert's grant of Kilvington, reserving to the 

 church of Thornton-le-Street in fee farm the 

 sum of 5 marks a year. In 1272 John of Bri- 

 tanny. Earl of Richmond, founded a chantry 

 for six chaplains, to be supplied from Egglestone, 

 to celebrate divine service daily in the chapel of 

 Richmond Castle. For its maintenance he gave 

 property in Moulton worth £2$ yearly. 



Egglestone Abbey remained very poor, and 

 taxes in arrear were remitted from time to time, 

 ;^27 8i. ^Id. in 1 31 8, £ib 2s. yd. in 1328, 

 and ;^3 13J. 4i^. in 1333. Various archbishops 

 tried to assist the abbey by authorizing the 

 appropriation of churches. In 1330 Archbishop 

 Melton, for the yearly payment of 2s., allowed 

 the abbey and convent to appropriate the church 

 of Startforth, given them early in the 13th 

 century by Helen of Hastings. In i 340 Maud, 

 widow of Brian Fitz Alan, granted the advowson 

 of Rokeby Church and lands there, and this was 

 also appropriated in 1342 by the leave of Arch- 

 bishop Zouch. In 1348, to compensate for 

 damage done by the royal army before the 

 battle of Neville's Cross, Sir Thomas Rokeby 

 gave the church of Great Ouseburn, and the 

 same archbishop authorized its appropriation for 

 15^. a year. Sir Thomas Fencotes gave the 

 abbey the advowson of Bentham Church with 



'A descendant, Thomas Multon, ob. 1 3 14, was 

 patron of the abbey. His daughter and heiress, 

 Margaret, married Lord Dacre. A Lord Dacre was 

 patron in 14.78 and at the Dissolution. 



' rorij. Arch. Joum. ut sup. quoting Feet of F. 

 Yorks. file i, no. 17. 



' Gasquet, Coll. Anglo-Premonstratensiana (Roy. Hist. 

 See), no. 397. 



£\o a year in 1357, but notwithstanding these 

 additions to their income the abbey was removed 

 from the Clerical Subsidy Roll in 1380. 

 Thomas Greenwood, canon of York, left 

 261. 8^. to the ' poor ' monastery to pray for his 

 soul in 1421. In 1535 all the temporalities 

 and spiritualities of Egglestone amounted to 

 ^65 \2s. bd. The total expenses of the abbey, 

 including ^3 bi. 8d., to each of the chaplains at 

 Startforth, Ellerton, Romaldkirk, and Richmond, 

 amounted to ;^28 18/. ^d., leaving a net income 

 of/368.. 3<^. 



Of the internal history of the abbey we have 

 a few particulars. About 1285 a report reached 

 the Abbot of Pr^montr6 that the Abbot of 

 Egglestone had been guilty of incontinence.' 

 Commissioners were at once sent to inquire 

 into the matter and found that the whole 

 scandal had been concocted by three canons. 

 Of these the chief offender was already doing 

 penance at Welbeck for other misdeeds, and was 

 now sentenced to be banished to 'some far- 

 distant church of the order' ; the second canon 

 was sent to Torre Abbey, in Devon ; and the 

 third was to do penance at Egglestone.* Some 

 twenty years later there was again dissension in 

 the house. William de C. seems to have re- 

 signed the abbacy, possibly under pressure, 

 about 1309, and to have been treated by his 

 successor and the canons with harshness, his 

 good name defamed, and himself expelled from 

 the abbey. The Abbot of Prdmontr^ therefore 

 ordered the Abbots of Dale and St. Agatha's to 

 go to Egglestone and persuade the brethren to 

 receive their late abbot back as a member of 

 their house ; failing this they were to place him 

 in Welbeck Abbey at the expense of Eggle- 

 stone.' The Abbot of St. Agatha's apparently 

 thought that there was something to be said on 

 the other side ; ' and in any case the convent of 

 Egglestone refused either to receive William 

 de C. or to pay for him. The Abbot of 

 Welbeck likewise refused to take him in 

 without pay,' and two or three years passed 

 before the unfortunate man found a home in 

 the abbey of Torre. ^^ 



Bishop Redman visited Egglestone in 1478, 

 when he found little to complain of except that 

 some of the canons were lax in rising for matins 

 and that silence was not properly observed. 

 There were at this time fourteen canons 

 besides the abbot, and one of these, Thomas 

 Burton, was allowed in 148 1 to go to either 

 Oxford or Cambridge for study. It was 

 probably this student who was found next year 

 to have appropriated and pawned three books." 



' Gasquet, op. cit. 389. ' Ibid. 390. 



' Ibid. 391. « Ibid. 392. 



' Ibid. 393-4. '» Ibid. 396. 



" Ibid. 401. The offender is called ff^i/ftam 

 Burton, but no such name appears in the list of 

 canons. 



250 



