A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



claimed to have received from Edmund of Corn- 

 wall), and subjected them to heavy fines.^' In 

 both cases the friars seem to have established 

 their right. ^'' In 131 1 the minister was sum- 

 moned to the provincial council held for the 

 trial of the Templars. ^^ In 1317 the friars had 

 licence to inclose 3 acres of land in Belmond 

 and to build houses there, and to acquire lands 

 and rents to the value of ;^iO a year.^' A 

 serious disaster befel the friary in May 1 31 8, 

 when the house was ' destroyed and wasted ' by 

 the Scots. In February 131 8-19 Edward II 

 issued a writ of protection and safe conduct for 

 three years to Friar John de SpofFord, proctor, 

 going to divers parts of the country to seek 

 alms for the relief and sustenance of his breth- 

 ren,^' and similar writs were issued for the 

 same friar and his messengers in 1332 and 

 1336.^ Further, in 13 19 the friars were 

 allowed to appropriate the church of Pannal,^° 

 which had been destroyed by the Scots,^* and 

 were excused from the payment of ;^I5 arrears 

 of taxes which had been owing since the time 

 of Edward I,^ while their temporalities and 

 benefices were reassessed for future taxation in 

 consideration of their losses, the valuation of 

 the house of St. Robert being reduced from 

 ;^20 14J. 2'^- (in 1291) to £s.^' In the same 

 year they received from Henry son of Richard 

 de Rothewell and his wife 4 tofts and 12 acres 

 in Pannal in exchange for a messuage in York,^' 

 and William Croke of Hampsthwaite acknow- 

 ledged that he owed them ;f20.''' In 1343 

 Robert son of William Tanner of Borough- 

 bridge, chaplain, sued the minister, Friar John, 

 for a debt of ^^lo is. id.^^ 



In 1348 the minister, William de Donyngton, 

 and the friars assigned to William de Nesfield and 



" Par/. R. i, 200, no. 57. 



*° A case recorded in Rastell's Co//, of Entrees (ed. 

 1596), 246, may refer to the friars of Knaresborough, 

 but names are only indicated by initials. 



" Rec. of the Nort/jern Convocation (Surt. See), 32, 

 where dominus should probably be domus. 



^' Pat. I I Edw. II, pt. i, m. 23, 22 ; cf. Inq. a.q.d., 

 file loz, no. 2 I. 



" Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 13, i. 



" Pat. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. i, ra. 7 ; 10 Edw. Ill, pt. 

 ii, m. 8. 



'^ Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 27. 



" Fasti Ebor. i, 40 1 . 



" Namely, £10 js. id. for a subsidy of a moiety 

 of ecclesiastical goods granted to Edw. I by the clergy 

 of the archdeaconry of Richmond (1294 ?), and the 

 rest for papal tenths granted for the king's use. Pat. 

 12 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 26. 



'* Pat. 13 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 39 ; Pope Nicfi. Tax. 

 (Rec. Com.), 329^ ; cf. 299. 



"Pat. 13 Edw. II, m. 43. 



'"Close, 13 Edw. II, m. 13d. 



" Baildon, Mon. Notes (Yorks. Arch. Soc), i, 117. 

 In 1366 the minister brought an action against the 

 same Robert for trespass ; ibid. 



298 



his heirs a rent of £10,^' and in /349-52 they 

 arranged to assign a rent of £b to find wax- 

 lights, bread and wine for the chapel of St. Mary 

 at Scotton,'' where William de Nesfield had 

 endowed a chaplain to celebrate for the good 

 estate of Queen Philippa and the grantor." In 

 return the queen obtained licence for the friars 

 to appropriate the church of Fewston." 



In 1350 the friars were authorized to beg 

 alms for the fabric of their church by the Arch- 

 bishop of York, who granted forty days' indul- 

 gence to contributors.^' They seem to have 

 suffered considerably from the Black Death, 

 their numbers in 1360 being only five, while in 

 1375 they had risen to eleven." At this time 

 they were allowed to appropriate the church of 

 Quixlay or Whixley, valued at 15 marks a 

 year.'' In 1394 they had licence to appropriate 

 the church of Thorner, valued at 24 marks, the 

 advowson of which had been granted them by 

 John of Gaunt.'' It was, however, fifty years 

 before they obtained possession of this church, 

 and then only at a heavy sacrifice. On 24 

 April 1444 the minister of the friars assigned 

 to John Lathum, rector of Thorner, an annual 

 pension of £2^ 6j. 8^.^" 



In 1360 the minister of Knaresborough was 

 made visitor of the newly founded house at 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne.*'^ The convent having 

 admitted the archbishop's rights of jurisdiction, 

 Archbishop Thoresby visited the house by his 

 commissaries in 1366, and, besides enjoining 

 more friendly relations between the minister and 

 the brethren, provided for the election of a prior 

 claustralis, a cellarer, and two bursars ; forbade 

 the granting of corrodies, and ordered ' that in 

 future the cloister and dormitory should be kept 

 free from the invasion of secular persons, and 

 especially of women of doubtful character, both 

 by day and night.' *^ 



At the beginning of the great schism (1378) 

 the minister-general of the order adhered to 

 the anti-pope. The brethren in England, 

 having obtained from Urban VI faculty to elect 

 a provincial prior, chose William de Pudsey, 

 minister of Knaresborough.*' During his pro- 



" Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 37. 



'' Inq. a.q.d. file 296, no. 14. 



»< Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 28 ; 27 Edw. Ill, 

 pt. i, m. 3. 



" Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 29. 



^ Harl. MS. 6969, fol. 49^ ; cf. Wheater, Knares- 

 burgf) and its ru/ers, 270-1. 



*' Ca/. of Papa/ Letters, iv, 205. 



"^ Ibid ; Pat. 34 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 20. 



'' Pat. 17 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 31. The advowson 

 of the house of St. Robert was granted by the king 

 to John of Gaunt in 1372 ; Cott. Chart, xv, I. 



" Test. Ebor. iii, 173 ; Pat. 22 Hen. VI, pt. i, 

 m. 16. 



*' Brand, Hist, of Neaxast/e, i, 643-8. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Thoresby, fol. 290^, 292. 



" Ca/. of Papa/ Letters, v, 273. 



