A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



Cyprian, occurs I20i, 1203'* 



Adam, occurs 1 214," 1219'* 



William, occurs 1235,^' resigned 1256'' 



John, occurs 1256,'' 1270^** 



William de Anecaster, c. 1278"' 



Robert, occurs 1278,^' 1280-4^ 



Ranulph de Richmundia,-^ c. 1285 



Geoffrey, occurs 1288^* 



William Baudewjn, alias de Scarburg,^' occurs 



1290," 1296^* 

 William, occurs 1305^' 

 Thomas de Pokelyngton, occurs 1322 '" 

 William, occurs 1336'^ 

 John de Wintrington, 1337,'^ 1340'' 

 John, occurs 1343 '^ 

 John de Wintringham, occurs 1350" 

 Robert de Skakelthorp, occurs 1360,'* 1365 ^" 

 William de Bentham, occurs 1368, 1379 '^ 

 William de Beverlaco, occurs 1380-I '' 

 Geoffrey de Wymeswold, occurs 1405 '"'(as 



Geoffrey, occurs 1425**) 

 John Wardale, occurs 1433,''' H35*' 

 Richard Heworth, occurs 1459," 1487^' 

 Roger, occurs i 5 i 7 *^ 

 Richard Felton, occurs 1524-5^' 

 William Todde, occurs 1526 to 1537''* 

 John Crashawe ■" 



" Chartul. fol. 206, 214. 



" Korh. Fines, John (Surt. See), 174. 



" Line. Rec. Final Concords, 133. 



" Feet of F. file 30, no. 40. 



" Chartul. fol. 2. " Ibid. fol. 65. 



"Add. Chart. 35580. 



" Assize R. I loi, m. 84. " Chartul. fol. 243. 



" Baildon, Mon. Notes, i, 119. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Romanus, fol. 125^, &c. ; 

 he had resigned and become a Cistercian monk of 

 Fountains that he might lead a sterner life. 



" Baildon, Mot. A'oto, i, 119. He was the im- 

 mediate successor of Ranulph ; Chartul. fol. 138. 



" Chartul. fol. i 14. " Ibid. fol. 138. 



" Ibid. fol. 49. " Assize R. 1107, m. 27 d. 



"^ Chartul. fol. 140. " Ibid. fol. 126. 



" Ibid. fol. 133. "Ibid. fol. 140. 



" Baildon, loc. cit. 



" Test. Ebor. i, 63. As John de Wintrington had 

 ceased to be prior before 1342 (Chartul. fol. 140), it 

 was probably a coincidence that two priors with such 

 very similar names followed one another. John, 

 whose name occurs in I 343, was probably John de 

 Wintringham, who seems to have been Prior of 

 Sempringham in 1360 (ibid. fol. 290). 



" Chartul. fol. 290. 



" Ibid. fol. 150. « Baildon, loc. cit. 



" Subs. R. (P.R.O.), bdle. 63, no. 10. 



'» Pat. 6 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 10. 



" Baildon, loc. cit. 



" Baildon's MS. Notes. " Baildon, loc. cit. 



"Ibid. *^ Test. Ebor. iv, 21. 



" Conventual Leases, Yorks. (P.R.O.), no. 4. 52. 

 " Ibid. 



"As 'William' only; ibid.no. 450, 451,456, 

 458, 459, 460, 461 ; L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii, 

 1023 (William Todde, 1537). 

 " Graham, op. cit. 195. 



65. THE PRIORY OF WATTON 



The double house of St. Mary of ^\''atton, 

 near Beverley, was founded in 1 1 50 by Eustace 

 Fitz John as a penance for having fought on the 

 Scottish side in the battle of the Standard. He 

 built a house for the nuns and canons of Sem- 

 pringham, and endowed it with the township of 

 Watton ; his gift was confirmed by his wife 

 Agnes, daughter of William, Constable of 

 Chester, whose marriage portion it was, and 

 also by William Fossard, the superior lord, who 

 remitted the service of two knights, for the 

 support of thirteen canons who should always 

 serve the nuns and provide for them in divine 

 and earthly things.' A few years later Fossard 

 gave the nuns 3 carucates in ' Howald ' for the 

 remission of his sins, instead of going on a 

 pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Alexander of Santon 

 gave 1,600 acres in Santon, and Richard of 

 Santon confirmed the gift ; Robert Constable of 

 Flamborough granted lands in Hilderthorpe to 

 the nuns and brothers, clerk and lay, and the 

 right of collecting masts for their own ship. 

 King John confirmed the grant of Henry II of 

 lands in Langdale and ' Butresdalebeck.' ^ 



Walter Gray granted the nuns an annual 

 payment of 5 marks out of the church of Santon 

 for a pittance, and made them patrons of the 

 whole church of which they had heretofore held 

 only a moiety.' 



Royal protection was accorded to Watton in 

 more than one instance; in 1272 Henry III 

 had to interfere on behalf of the prior against 

 Agnes de Vescy, who came to the priory with 

 a great number of women and dogs, and other 

 things, and disturbed the devotions of the sisters 

 and nuns ; and in 13 14 Edward II granted the 

 prior a year's immunity from the purveyors for 

 his Scottish wars, because 'certain persons^ 

 feigning that they are purveyors of victuals . . . 

 frequently come to the priory and granges and 

 there take, in the king's name, animals, carts, 

 corn, and other victuals.' In 1305, Margery,, 

 the daughter of Robert Bruce, dwelt at Watton 

 by the king's order, and the Sheriff of York 

 paid her -^d. a day, and I mark a year for her 

 robe. 



Archbishop Melton blessed fifty-three nuns 

 at Watton in 1326,^ and lent the priory money 

 because it was in debt. In spite of these gifts 

 the poverty of Watton was notorious, the 

 revenues were not sufficient for the expenses of 

 the inmates, and in 1444 Henry VI exempted 

 the priory from all aids, subsidies, talLiL'es, 

 tenths, and fifteenths.' During the next century 



' Add. Chart. 20561 (c. 11 54-5). 



' Dugdale, op. cit. vi, 956. 



' Graham, op. cit. 109. 



' Ibid. 103. In 1378-9 there were ihrct 

 prioresses and sixty-one nuns ; Subs. R. (P.R.O.), 

 bdle. 63, no. II. » Ibid. 89. 



254 



