A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



loi. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF YORK 



According to the tradition current later in the 

 order some Austin Friars came from Tickhill to 

 York and with the aid of some good people 

 bought seven houses, where they founded their 

 friary. These houses owed rents to the Lord 

 Scrope of Upsall, who allowed them to keep 

 them rent free ; wherefore he was reckoned the 

 founder.^ It is impossible to verify this tradition 

 or to identify the Lord Scrope. It is certain 

 that the Austin Friars were in York in July 

 1272 when Henry III granted them a writ of 

 protection.^ John de Cransewick had licence in 

 1289 to grant these friars a messuage in York 

 worth 32J. a year,' and in 1292 they had six oaks 

 for timber from the king.* Their houses were 

 probably from the first in Lendal or Old Conyng 

 Street.^ 



In 1299 and 1300 alms for thirty-three and 

 thirty-five brethren of this house were given by the 

 king to Friars Gervase of Ludlow and William of 

 Finingham.^ There were thirty friars in 131 1— 12, 

 and twenty-six in 1319-20' ; thirty-six to forty in 

 1334, 1335, and 1337.* The fall in the numbers 

 during the reign of Edward II is perhaps due to the 

 fact that the Austin Friars of York were engaged 

 in founding a friary at Hull,' or to the famine, 

 owing to which Archbishop Greenfield gave 

 them alms.^*" Friar Richard de Wetwang, 

 D.D., was one of those summoned to the 

 Provincial Council at York to take measures 

 against the Templars in 13 1 1." The friars 

 seem to have got into debt, and Ranulph of 

 Newminster proposed in 1333 to release the 

 friars from a debt which they owed to William, 

 parson of the church of St. Mildred (? Wilfred), 

 York, by giving him a rent in Littlegate above 

 Bishophiil in exchange.^^ Robert Clarell gave 

 them a messuage in 1344 ^' ; Thomas Twenge, 

 clerk, in 1347 endowed them with 20s. rent in 

 Rotsea, Yorkshire, towards finding bread and 

 wine for the celebration of divine service." 



' Co//. Topog. et Gen. iv, 75. 



' Pat. 56 Hen. Ill, m. 8. 



' Inq. a.q.d. file 2, no. 4 (the writ is dated I 2 July 

 1287; the jurors reported against the concession) ; 

 Pat. 17 Edw. I, m. 8. 



* Close, 20 Edw. I, m. 3. 



' Cf. Pat. II Edw. II, pt. i, ni.27; Le;and,///».i, 56. 



'Exch. Accts. (P.R.O.), bdle 356, no. 7; Liber 

 Quotid. 28 Edw. I (ed. Topham), 38. 



' B.M. Cott. MS. NeroC. viii, fol. 52 ; Add. MS. 

 17362, fol. 3. 



"Exch. Accts. (P.R.O.), bdle. 387, no. 9; Cott. 

 MS. Nero C. viii, fol. 202, zodb. 



° Pat. 1 1 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 27. 



'° Fasti Ebor. i, 392, 393, 396. 



" Wilkins, ConcUia,\\, 396, 399. 



" Inq. a.q.d. file 229, no. 20. 



" Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22. 



" Pat. 2 1 Edw. Ill, pt. iv, m. 9 (printed in Dr.ike, 

 El>or. App.). 



Their area was increased by grants of five 

 messuages in York from William de Hakthorpe 

 and William de Hedon, clerks, m 1353, and 

 Richard de Thorneton and John Wraweby, 

 Richard Knight, Ralph de Hemylsay, Robert 

 Brechby, and William de Crofts, chaplains, in 

 1370." The provincial chapter was held here 

 in 1 361, towards the expenses of which Arch- 

 bishop Thoresby, on 21 July, contributed 

 5 marks." In 1382 the mayor and citizens 

 granted them a narrow plot by Old Conyng 

 Street near their church, extending from a 

 corner of their old wall to their old gate ; this 

 plot they were empowered * to inclose and build 

 upon, on condition that they repair the pavement 

 there at their own expense and without causing 

 any hindrance to the course of the river.' *' 



The most interesting relic of the Austin 

 Friars remaining is the catalogue of their library," 

 drawn up on 8 September 1372 when William 

 de Staynton was prior, in the presence of Friars 

 John de Ergum or Erghome, John Ketilwell, 

 Richard de Thorpe, and John of Appleby. The 

 manuscripts are arranged under headings — Biblie 

 (including Psalter and Canticles in Greek), 

 Historic Scholastice, Originalia (Augustine, 

 Anselm, Jerome, Gregory, &c.), Historic gentium 

 (Polychronica, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Caesar, 

 Bede, Sallust, &c.), Logicalia et philosophia, &c. 

 Each volume is identified by the words with 

 which its second leaf begins, and letters of the 

 alphabet are added, indicating its place in the 

 library. Of the 646 entries in the catalogue, 

 about half are marked as having belonged to 

 Master John Erghome.'"' These include works 

 on theology and philosophy, indexes, prophecies 

 (Merlin, John of Bridlington, and others), alchemy, 

 astrology, astronomy, with a collection of astro- 

 logical instruments, service books, sermons, works 

 on rhetoric, medicine, arithmetic, music, geo- 

 metry, and perspective. A few only of these 

 volumes can be identified ^^ ; one in the British 

 Museum contains the Archithrenius of John de 



'* Pat. 27 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 3 ; 29 Edw. Ill, 

 m. 9 ; printed in Drake, Ebor. 



" Inq. a.q.d. file 370, no. 14 ; Pat. 44 Edw. Ill, 

 pt. iii, m. 10. From some of these messuages rents 

 were due to the hospital of St. Leonard and the Prior 

 of Kirkham. The friars paid ^^20 for the licence. 



" Fasti Ebor. i, 46 1 . 



" Pat. 15 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 35 (pardon for aquir- 

 ing the plot without licence) ; Audin, Handbook to 

 Tori:, 171. 



"Now in Trin. Coll. Dublin (MS. D. 1, 17) ; 

 described by J. H. Todd in N. and g. i, 83. 



*" Cf. Tanner, Bib/. He may have been the 

 author of the prophecies of John of Bridlington ; 

 cf Wright, Po/itica/ Poems and Songs (Rolls Ser.), i, 123. 

 Another donor of books mentioned is Master John 

 Bukwood. 



" These identifications are due to Dr. M. R. James, 

 who has edited the catalogue in Fascicu/us Jcanni 

 M'i//is C/ar/t dicatus. 



£94 



