RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



94. THE BLACK FRIARS, SCAR- 

 BOROUGH 1 



The Dominicans were established in Scar- 

 borough before 1252, when they levied a fine for 

 a house and messuage held by them in the town, 

 and the community of Scarborough granted that 

 their goods and those of their men should be free 

 of toll in the borough.^ The friars' right to settle 

 here was disputed, probably by the Cistercians, 

 and the Bishop of Worcester as conservator of the 

 privileges of the Friars Preachers in England was 

 called upon to protect them in 1279 and 1280.' 



About the end of 1283 <he friars applied to 

 the king for a licence to pull down the ruinous 

 wall between the new and the old town and use 

 the stone for building their church, and also 

 requested that they might have a spring at 

 ' Gildhuscliff,' as they were in want of water. 

 An inquiry being held, the jurors found it stated 

 in the annals that in the time of King John's 

 troubles this wall had stopped the king's enemies 

 from taking the castle, and also in the time of 

 Henry III the same wall, though old and partly 

 ruinous, and the moat surrounding the new 

 borough had been the means of repulsing the 

 rebels. If the wall were removed, there would 

 be nothing to prevent an enemy from marching 

 straight up to the castle and besieging it ; and 

 besides, a new wall ought to be built out of the 

 materials of the old. The spring had already 

 been granted by the burgesses to the Dean of 

 York that he might make a conduit for the 

 benefit of the Friars Minors and the borough.* 

 The petition was therefore refused, but the friars 

 at the request of the burgesses about a year later 

 obtained a new site or an addition to their old 

 one.* This grant was not made without a 

 protest on the part of the Cistercians, who held 

 the advowson of the parish church and applied 

 the revenues to the expenses of their general 

 chapter. The monks assembled in general 

 chapter at Citeaux, 14 September 1285, com- 

 plained to the king of the entrance of the Friars 

 Preachers and Friars Minors into Scarborough, 

 and asserted that the revenues of the church 

 had through their presence been so diminished 

 that instead of supplying the chapter for three 

 days they sufficed now only for one.^ 



' See ' The Friars Preachers of Scarborough,' by the 

 Rev. C. F. R. Palmer, Reliq. xx, 198-204. 



' Hinderwell, Hist, and Antiq. of Scarborough, 87. 



' Reg. G. Giffard (Wore. Hist. See), 116, 126. 



* Inq. a.q.d. file 7, no. 29 ; Torks. Inq. (Yorks. 

 Arch. Soc), ii, 9. 



' Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 13. It is clear that their 

 possessions extended on either side of the old wall, 

 from Queen Street on the west to Dumple on the east, 

 and perhaps further east still. Dumple is given as the 

 western boundary of land granted by Maud Brus 

 (or Ughtred). Coll. Topog. et Gen. iv, 312 ; can this 

 be a mistake for eastern ? 



' Rymer, Toed. (Rec. Com.), i, 661. 



This priory was one of the thirty-three Domini- 

 can houses to which the executors of Queen 

 Eleanor of Castile gave looj. in alms in 1291.' 

 The queen's kinswoman, Isabel de Beaumont, 

 second wife of John de Vescy, sometime Gover- 

 nor of Scarborough Castle, was one of the greatest 

 benefactors of the friars. She built the nave of 

 the church, the cloister and dormitory at her own 

 cost, and bestowed on them many other benefits.' 



In 1 29 1 Archbishop Roman us when organiz- 

 ing the preaching of the crusade instructed 

 these friars to appoint one of their number to 

 preach at Scarborough and another at Pickering." 

 He interposed in 1293 on behalf of the parish 

 priests to restrict the claims of the friars as to 

 hearing confessions.^" In 1305 William Gains- 

 borough, Bishop of Worcester, ordered the ex- 

 communication of ' certain sons of iniquity who 

 had taken away the candles and funeral ornaments 

 of Henry de Haterborgh, chaplain, who chose 

 to be buried at the house ' of these friars.^* 



In 1312, when Piers Gaveston was besieged in 

 the castle, the Earls of Pembroke and Warren 

 and Henry Percy persuaded him to come out 

 and confer with them in the church of the 

 Friars Preachers ; .' there in the presence of the 

 Body of Christ, with their hands upon the 

 Gospels, they swore that if the Lord Peter would 

 go home with them they would either make 

 peace between him and the magnates or bring 

 him back safe and sound to the castle.' Gaveston 

 agreed to go with them, and was then seized and 

 executed by the Earl of Warwick.^^ 



The site was made up of many small plots 

 granted by various donors — namely, Adam Sage;^^ 

 Patrick, Prior, and the convent of St. Mary, 

 Watton ; William Broun of Scarborough and 

 Margaret his wife, daughter of Richard de 

 Brumpton ; Emma daughter of Henry de 

 Cotom of Scalby ; James de Tunes and 

 Margaret his wife, daughter of Roger Farmatin ; 

 Gomer of Norfolk and Alice his wife ; Maud 

 daughter of Simon Ughtred, and granddaughter 

 of Roger Ughtred ; " and Robert Maurice. 



' Exch. Accts. (P.R.O.), bdle. 352, no. 27. 



' Coll. Topog. et Gen. iv, 132. In 1409 the dedi- 

 cation festival of the church was changed from 12 Sept. 

 to 23 Oct.; Harl. MS. 6969, fol. 84^. 



' Hist. P. and L.from the N. Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 95. 



"> Ibid. 102. 



" Wore. Epis. Reg. W. Gainsborough, fol. 9. 



" Chron. Edw. I ^ II (Rolls Ser.), ii, 42-3. 



" Sir Adam Sage, kt., is sometimes regarded as the 

 original founder ; Coll. Topog. et Gen. iv, 132; 

 Reliq. XX, 198 ; but he did not die till shortly before 

 1 3 16, at which date his daughter and heiress was still 

 a minor; Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 27 d.; 10 Edw. II, 

 pt. i, m. 26 d. 



" This was a barn with its site, gardens, &c., lying 

 between two tenements of the Prior of Watton, and 

 extending to 'Dumpole' lane on the west (?). In 

 1323 Maud Ughtred, now widow of Adam Brus 

 of Pickering, quitclaimed all her right in it. Coll. 

 Topog. et Gen. iv, 312. 



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