A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



A confirmation was held in this church by 

 the archbishop in 1275 ; the pressure of the 

 crowd was so great that the lives of some of the 

 boys confirmed were in danger ; as the arch- 

 bishop's servants tried to rescue them they were 

 attacked and beaten by the crowd. ^ 



Some small additions were made to the friars' 



area. They had a royal grant in 1268 of a 



piece of land 18 ft. wide and extending from 



the highway to the city wall, on condition that 



instead of the well there they sank another in 



some fitting place.^' In 1280 Edward I gave 



them licence to inclose this and some more land 



on the same condition. ^^ In 1297-8 Hamo de 



Gruscy gave them three vacant tofts in North 



Street ; as the hospital of St. Leonard received 



a rent of 2s. 2d. from these tofts when they 



were occupied, the friars induced William 



Hawys to grant the hospital a rent of 2s. 6d. in 



Micklegate Street in exchange.^' In 1300 the 



king gave the friars a vacant plot of land 80 ft. 



square, near the Ouse.^ Towards the end of 



the reign of Edward I, the friars attempted to 



obtain a void piece of ground adjoining their 



premises on the east, measuring 1 7 p. in length, 



and II p. in breadth from the highway to the 



city ditch. The return to the writ of inquiry 



being unfavourable, the sheriff, probably 



William de Houk, 'an especial friend of the 



friars,' called a jury of strangers through whom 



he secured a favourable return. Thereupon the 



bailiffs held another inquest on 22 November 



1307, when the jurors declared that the grant 



would be very injurious ; this was the only 



place in the city where an assembly of the people 



for a show of arms could be held ; ^^ a common 



market for strangers and inhabitants had been 



held here from time immemorial ; here was the 



place of battle in pleas of felony, homicide, &c., 



and it was the only spot within the city for 



making and erecting military engines of defence 



in time of war. Further, the city paid a rent 



of ;^ 1 60 a year to the Exchequer, and if the 



king thus granted lands to these friars and other 



religious, the greatest part of the city would fall 



into privileged hands, and what remained would 



not suffice to meet the obligations. The mayor, 



John de Askham, and commonalty, in sending 



up this report, appealed to the chancellor ' to 



maintain the rights of the king and save the 



city from damage,' and prayed him to receive 



their verdict instead of that of the sheriff.^* The 



" Pat. 4 Edw. I, m. 36 d. 



" Chart. R. 52 Hen. Ill, m. I. 



" Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. i. 



" Inq. a.q.d. file 26, no. 19; Pat. 26 Edw. I, m. 

 27 ; Anct. Pet. (P.R.O.), 2195. 



" Pat. 28 Edw. I, m. 16 ; Inq. a.q.d. file 3 I, no. 22. 



'' Cf. R. D.ivies, Extracts from Municipal Rec. of 

 fork, 152. (Show of arms here in 1483.) 



'" Inq. a.q.d. file ro, no. 14 ; rorh. Arch. Joum. 

 vi, 400. 



commonalty seems to have won the day as 

 nothing more is recorded in the affair. 



In 1 31 6 a dispute occurred between these 

 friars and the Abbot of Rievaulx, who had received 

 into his monastery one Nicholas, formerly a 

 Friar Preacher.^^ 



The friars received an alms of I 3s. ^d. from 

 Archbishop GifFard in 1270,^' and lOOs. from 

 Archbishop Wickwane in 1284,^' lOOx. from the 

 executors of Queen Eleanor,'" and twelve oaks 

 for the repair of their church from the king in 

 1291.'^ In this year the archbishop enjoined 

 the friars to send three, or at least two of their 

 brethren to preach the crusade at Skipton in 

 Craven and Leeds.'^ 



Edward I made several grants of fuel,'' 

 sent alms to the fifty friars of the house by 

 Friar William of York in 1299, to the forty- 

 seven friars of the house by Friar Henry de 

 Carleton on 1 1 June 1300, and gave them 

 62X. id. for four days' food on 14 June.*^ In 

 1305 Alesia, Countess of Lancaster, gave them 

 20,000 turves.'' The priors of the York con- 

 vent about this time received several royal 

 grants for the general purposes of the order.'" 



From the alms of Edward II it appears that 

 there were sixty friars here on 13 September 

 1307, fifty-seven on 16 August 1310, forty- 

 eight on 27 January 1311-12, fifty-four on 

 24 October 1318 or 1319, and forty-seven in 

 1 319. The numbers in 1335 varied from fifty 

 to fifty-six ; in May 1337 there appear to have 

 been forty-eight." 



Archbishop William Greenfield on two occa- 

 sions gave them an alms of 401., and desired 

 every priest in the convent to say a mass for the 

 soul of his brother Robert.'* He licensed for 

 service, 18 October 13 14, the chapel which 

 Sir Henry Percy had built in their church ;" 

 and desired the prior, as head of the visitation, to 

 cause the preachers of his order, and especially 

 the Prior of Yarm, to denounce Sir Robert Bruce 

 and the Scots who were devastating the country, 

 and to stir up the people to resist.** In Novem- 

 ber 1 3 13 the archbishop gave the friars 5 marks 

 on account of the famine.*' 



" DrokensforiTs Reg. (Somers. Rec. Soc), 1 1 6. 



^ Fasti Ebor. i, 313. " Ibid. 324. 



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



'' Close, 19 Edw. I, m. 7. 



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



" Close, 27 Edw. I, m. 19 ; 28 Edw. I. m. 17. 



"* Exch. Accts. (P.R.O.), bdle. 356, no. 7 ; forks. 

 Arch. Joum. vi, 402 ; Liber Quotid. 28 Ediv. I (ed. 

 Topham), 38. 



" Torks. Arch. Joum. vi, 403. »» Ibid. 



" Ibid. 403, 404, 405-6 ; MS. Add. 17362, fol. 

 3 ; Exch. Accts. (F.R.O.), bdle. 387, no. 9 ; c£ 

 Cott. MS. Nero C. viii, fol. 51. 



^ F.uli Ebor. i, 392, 393. " Ibid. 384. 



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

 238-9. 



"Fasti Ebor. i, 396. 



284 



