RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Robert died 24 September 12 18, and on i 

 February 1 218-19 Henry III granted the 

 custody of the hermitage to Alexander Dorset, 

 clerk, rector of Knaresborough.^ At the end of 

 1227 the king conferred on 'Brother Ives, her- 

 mit of the Holy Cross, Knaresborough,' the 40 

 acres which John had given to Brother Robert.^ 

 The fame of Robert's sanctity spread, and is 

 mentioned in 1238 by Matthew Paris, who notes 

 that ' a medicinal oil is said to have flowed 

 abundantly from his tomb,' which had now be- 

 come a recognized place of pilgrimage,' He 

 appears to have been formally canonized before 

 1252. In May of that year. Innocent IV 

 granted an indulgence to 'those that help in 

 completing the monastery of St. Robert of 

 Knaresborough where that saint's body is 

 buried.'* In August 1255 the king gave three 

 oaks to the friars of the Holy Trinity for the 

 fabric of the church of St. Robert.' The friars 

 of the Holy Trinity and of the Redemption of 

 Captives in the Holy Land' had therefore 

 already settled here under the patronage of 

 Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who became lord of 

 the honour of Knaresborough in 1235.' Before 

 granting the honour to his son Henry in 1257 ^^ 

 Earl Richard issued a charter in favour of the 

 friars, conferring on them the chapel of St. 

 Robert, with the advowson of the church of 

 Hampsthwaite, the land which King John gave 

 to St. Robert, the field called Swinesco with an 

 adjoining wood called Halikeldisike, on the north 

 of the Nidd ' as far as the hanging bridge,' and 

 on the other side of the Nidd the land called 

 Belmond, ' between the forest and the little park 

 of Knaresborough,' and the land called Spitel- 

 croft, with pasture for 20 cows with their calves, 

 300 sheep and 40 pigs, to be held in frankal- 

 moign of the donor and his heirs — certain rights 



' Close, 3 Hen. Ill, m. 1 1 ; Chron. de Laner- 

 cost, 25, 27. 



* Chart. R. 12 Hen. Ill, m. 10. According to 

 the Metrical Life (p. 49 et seq.) Ives gave the land 

 to Coverham Abbey and it remained desolate for 

 some years before the Trinitarians obtained it. 



' Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 521 ; 

 Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 415. Cf. Miracula Simonis 

 de Mmtfort (Camd. See), 92, 109. 



" Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 277. On 24 Nov. 1300 

 the king offered "js. at the tomb of St. Robert in the 

 church of the abbey of Knaresborough,' 7/. at the 

 high altar, and the next day the queen and the 

 Countess of Holland each gave ']s. at the tomb ; Add. 

 MS. 7966 A, fol. 23. 



' Close, 39 Hen. Ill, m. 5. 



° For the rule of this order see the bulls of Inno- 

 cent III, 17 Dec. 1 198, and Clement IV, 7 Dec. 

 1267 ; Bullar. Rom. (ed. Cherubini), i, 71, 135. A 

 hermit, dependent on alms, continued to occupy the 

 chapel of St. Robert ; in 1 340 the hermit was Friar 

 Robert of York ; Pat. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 50. 



' Bict. Nat. Biog. xlviii, 167. 



" Ibid, xxvi, 97. 



of common being reserved for the men of 

 Knaresborough." 



In the great inquest of 1275 this land is de- 

 scribed as 4 carucates of the fee of Richmond, 

 and the jurors stated that ' the friars also held in 

 Thorpe fifteen bovates of land of the fee of 

 Brus by the gift of divers persons, and two 

 tofts which used to belong to the lepers.' '^ 



Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, in 1276 autho- 

 rized the friars to build a mill on the Nidd to 

 grind their own corn ; if they were proved to 

 have ground any corn except their own, they 

 were to be fined a mark for each offence. ^^^ 



The friars held the manor of Roecliffe neat 

 Boroughbridge, but their title to this being dis- 

 puted in 1278 by Robert de Brus and Christi- 

 ana his wife, the friars made over their rights 

 to Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, in exchange for 

 some land in Hampsthwaite, Thorpe by Scotton, 

 and the advowson of the church of Pannal.'' 

 In 1280 Edmund further granted them some 

 land in Pannal with the advowson of the church 

 of Fewston." The house was not treated as 

 a mendicant friary, but taxed like the other en- 

 dowed monasteries.^' The proctors of the house 

 had, however, licence in 1286, 1297, and 1303 

 to beg alms in churches, towns, and markets, 

 for the ransom of captives in the Holy Land, 

 and they probably collected alms at the same 

 time for the rebuilding of their church, and 

 perhaps for the establishment of a house for 

 students of the order at Oxford.'* The Arch- 

 bishop of York in 1300 granted forty days' in- 

 dulgence to those who contributed to the build- 

 ing of the church.^' 



After the death of Edmund of Cornwall in 

 1300 his widow Margaret claimed the tene- 

 ments granted to the friars by her husband as 

 part of her dower,'' and in 1306 they complained 

 that Sir Miles de Stapleton, seneschal of Knares- 

 borough, prevented them and their tenants from 

 digging turves in the forest (a right which they 



" Inspex. in Chart. R. 9 Edw. I, m. 14. Chart. 

 R. 5 Edw. II, printed in Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 

 1566. Swinesco, according to Hargrove, Hist, of 

 Knaresborough, 95, is now Longflat. 



" Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 133. 



"^ Chart. R. 5 Edw. II {inspeximus). 



" Ibid. 9 Edw. I, m. 14 ; Baildon, Mon. Notes 

 (Yorks. Arch. Soc), i, 116. 



" Chart. R. loc. cit. Edmund in 1281 freed the 

 friars' tenants in Pannal and Hampsthwaite from toll 

 in Knaresborough and elsewhere ; Chart. R. 5 Edw. 

 II {inspeximus). The presentation to Fewston was 

 recovered by the king in 1344 ; Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, 

 pt. ii, m. 22 ; pt. i, m. 22. 



" Close, 2 Edw. I ; Pat. 1 2 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 

 26 ; Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 329^. 



'° Pat. 14 Edw. I, m. 21, for the proctors of the 

 house of St. Robert of Knaresborough and Oxford ; 

 Pat. 25 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 4; Pat. 31 Edw. I, m. 14. 



" Harl. MS. 6970, fol. 97. 



" Anct. Pet. (P.R.O.), E. 93 ; E. 511. 



97 38 



