A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



the altar of St. Katharine came last.' A sixth 

 prebend was created later, on 29 January i 279 — 

 that of Skipwith. Its holder with his priest 

 would occupy the fifth place on either side in 

 quire and processions. 



No provost or warden was appointed, but the pre- 

 bendary of Howden was named the first, and was 

 ' freed from the cure of souls and made a simple 

 and pure prebend only.' This would seem to 

 imply that he was intended to be regarded as the 

 ' head.' For his maintenance there was assigned 

 the tithe of hay, wool, and lambs of the towns 

 of Howden, Knedlington, and Barnhill. The 

 other prebends were all endowed with assign- 

 ments of tithes from the districts from which 

 they took their titles. These arrangements were 

 precise and elaborate, but they evidently did not 

 work perfectly as far as the parish was concerned, 

 and on 2 February 1 3 19 Archbishop Melton 

 ordained a perpetual vicarage of Howden, the 

 incumbent to have the cure of souls which were 

 ' impendent ' on the prebend of Howden. His 

 stipend was to be 10 marks a year.*" 



In addition to the three chantries already 

 mentioned, a fourth was founded at the altar of 

 St. Cuthbert in the year 1405 to be in the 

 patronage, unlike the others, 'of the Chapter of 

 the Church of Howden.' There was also a 

 fifth chantry at the altar of St. Andrew." 



About the middle of the 14th century there 

 appears to have been disturbance with the priory 

 authorities at Durham with reference to the 

 appointments to prebends. The king had made 

 several presentations to various stalls, and the 

 priory disputed the legality of the appointments, 

 prosecuting appeals at Rome.^^ The quarrel in 

 the end was settled by the archbishop, whose 

 judgement was confirmed afterwards by the king.'' 



In 1535 the value of the college is given as 

 £<)(> 8j. lo^d. gross, and net ^^61 2s. io\d}* 



The collegiate church was not touched at the 

 dissolution of the monasteries, but it fell at the 

 suppression of the chantries, and a certificate of 

 the house by John Bellow, the king's surveyor 

 in the East Riding, temp. Edward VI, gives the 

 names and ages of the various prebendaries, vicars, 

 and chantry priests, the value of the prebends 

 and the pensions assigned to their holders, as well 

 as any cures to which they were then appointed.^' 



The 13th-century seal" is a vesica, with a 

 design of St. Peter seated, blessing and holding a 

 book. The legend is : — 



S' COMMVNE CANONIC . . . ECCL'e d' HOVEDENE 



' Torre's MS. fol. 1078. 

 '" York Archiepis. Reg. Melton, fol. 482. 

 " Torre's MS. fol. 1093. 



" Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 35 ; 18 Edw. Ill, 

 pt. ii, m. 48d. 35, 27 ; 19 Edvi'. Ill, pt. i, m. 28. 

 " Ibid. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 24. 

 " Fahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 136-8. 

 "Chant. Cert. 119. 

 " Cat. of Seals, B.M. 3299, Ixxiv, 59. 



199. KIRKBY OVERBLOW 



The church of All Saints, Kirkby Overblow, 

 in 1362 was made collegiate. Henry, Lord 

 Percy, had just died, and his executors. Sir 

 Richard Tempest and William de Newport, 

 rector of Spofforth, on 5 November asked that 

 the church should be converted into a college. 

 Two days later the rector of Kirkby joined in 

 the petition, and, licence having been already 

 obtained from the king. Archbishop Thoresby 

 made an ordination to that effect.' 



The existing rector, Robert de Ede, and his 

 successors were ever afterwards to be called pro- 

 vosts. They were still to exercise the cure of 

 souls in the parish, to have the full government 

 of the church, to administer its finance, and bear 

 all burdens incumbent upon the church. In 

 addition to the provost there were to be four 

 chaplains ; but, whilst the ordination provided 

 that they were to ' celebrate masses and other 

 divine offices for ever ' therein, their sphere of 

 work was principally to be elsewhere. One of 

 them was to be a ' parson ' in the cathedral 

 church of York, where he was to celebrate for 

 the souls of the archbishop and of Henry de 

 Percy, Mary his wife, their progenitors and 

 successors. The three other chaplains were also 

 to have their altars away from Kirkby. The 

 founders of the college were buried in the monas- 

 tery of Alnwick, near the castle. In the castle 

 chapel the three chaplains were to celebrate their 

 masses, &c., perpetually. The patronage was to 

 be in the hands of the two executors, and after- 

 wards was to be exercised by the heirs of one of 

 them,^ William de Newport, the cantarists to be 

 canonically instituted by the Archbishops of 

 York. 



The ordination of Archbishop Thoresby was 

 exceptionally detailed with reference to the ser- 

 vices to be performed, each day of the week 

 having its allotted masses and prayers. On 

 Sundays one of the chaplains was to celebrate the 

 office of the dead, the second the mass of the 

 Holy Trinity, the third for the souls of the two 

 founders. On Mondays one was to say mass 

 for the dead, the second the mass of the Holy 

 Angels, the third the founders' mass. On Tues- 

 days all three were to celebrate for the souls of 

 the founders. On Wednesdays one was to say 

 mass for the dead, the second the mass of St. John 

 the Evangelist, the third the founders' mass. On 

 Thursdays one was to celebrate the office of the 

 dead, the second the mass of Corpus Christi, the 

 third for the founders' souls. On Fridays one 

 was to say mass for the dead, the second the mass 



' Thoresby, in Vicaria Leodiensis, 193, gives the 

 date of the ordination erroneously as 10 Nov. 1364. 

 It was in 1362. 



' See Torre's MS., however, where the patrons are 

 the Percys, Earls of Northumberland (York, pt. ii, 

 fol. 182). 



362 



