A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



202. THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF 

 MIDDLEHAM 



The collegiate foundation at Middleham was 

 one of the abortive schemes of Richard III 

 while Duke of Gloucester. Letters Patent were 

 granted by Edward IV in 1478,^° empowering 

 the duke to found at Middleham a collegiate 

 body to consist of a dean, six chaplains, four 

 clerks, six choristers, and another ' clerk sacris- 

 tane ' for parochial ministrations. The scheme 

 was approved by Archbishop Lawrence Booth," 

 and the parish church made collegiate, and 

 exempted from the jurisdiction of the Arch- 

 deacon of Richmond. Statutes were compiled 

 for the governance of the collegiate church, and 

 the dean and six chaplains were appointed by the 

 founder, but the college was not endowed, and 

 collapsed with the fall of its founder, before it 

 had been fairly set on foot. 



The appointment of the first dean and chap- 

 lains was made by the founder, and it may be of 

 interest in passing to call attention to the 

 arrangement in the statutes '^ that in mass and 

 quire offices, the uses of the cathedral church of 

 Salisbury were to be followed and not those of 

 York. The duke's appointment to the decanal 

 and other stalls was as follows '' : — 



I the said Due statute, make, and ordcyne by th 

 auctoritie forsaid, [the licence of Edward IV] that 

 hereafter no maner persons by me or myne heirez, 

 have or shal have graunt to be deane of my said 

 Collage y'unto admitted afFore he be prest, . . . and 

 the deane to be admitted by the said sex prests, the 

 eldest of yeme to geve hyme his othe at high altare 

 to be true deane and master y', and observe and kep 

 all ordinannces and statutez and laudable custumcs, 

 and ye right and libertees y'of defend at his power, 

 and y'after to say De profundi: affore ye high altare, 

 w' this collect Deus cut proprium — following the antetem 

 Fundatoris mei, etc., and y'opon bring hyme to his 

 stall and put hyme in possession of the same ; and the 

 said prests by ye deane to be admitted after the forme 

 and othe among oy's hereafter folowing. 



Also, yat the saide Sir William Beverley, dean, and 

 his successours, have ye principall place and stall of 

 the right side of the high quere of my said Collage, 

 which stall I wil be called oure Lady stall ; and Sir 

 Laurence Squier forsaide, the first prest y' shalbe 

 admitted thereto occupie the principall place and stall 

 on the left side of the said quere, and yat stall to be 

 called Saint George stall ; and the said Sir William 

 Symson, secund prest, in the next stall to the deane on 

 ye said right side, and y' stall to be named Seynt 

 Kateryn stall ; and the forsaide Sir Richard Cutler, 

 therd prest, the secund stall on the saide left side, 

 that stall to be called Saint Ninian stall ; and Sir 

 William Buntyng to for rehersid, the fourt prest, the 

 thirde stall on the ye (sic) said right side, the same 



" Pat. 17 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 16. 

 " Athill, The Co/legate Church ofMiddkham (Camd. 

 Soc), Appendix (B), 63, &c. 



" Printed Arch. Joum. xiv, 161, &c. 

 " Ibid. 



to be called Seint Cuthbert stall ; and Sir Hugh 

 Leverhede above writen, ye fift prest, the third stall 

 on the said left side, the saide stall to be called Seint 

 Antony stall ; and Sir John Bell above writyn, the 

 sext prest, the fourt stall on the saide right side, and 

 yat to be called Seint Barbara stall ; and two of the 

 saide clerks on the saide right side, and ye oy' Iwo 

 clerks and the clerk sacristane beneth ycme on the 

 left side, at the assignacion of ye said dean ; and the 

 sex queresters yere places accordingly as ye saide deane 

 shal assigne yeme. 



(Successors to occupy and ' be always admytte 

 by the deane to ye stall of hym beyng voide.') 



Although no further appointments were made 

 to the chaplaincies, the church continued nomin- 

 ally collegiate, with its dean and the ' minister 

 for divine service' or 'clerk sacristan' till 

 about 1830, when the dean. Dr. P. S. Wood, 

 made appointments to the six chaplaincies, or 

 ' canonries ' as they were termed, and instituted 

 a 'cathedral service' in the church." The last 

 of these ' canons ' (one of whom had been the 

 Rev. Charles Kingsley) died in 1897. On the 

 death of Dean Wood in 1856 the decanal office 

 and the peculiar were both suppressed, and the 

 incumbent has since been rector only." The 

 deans had, however, exercised a peculiar juris- 

 diction independent in many respects of the 

 archbishop until 1856. Marriage licences were 

 granted, wills proved, &c., and the deans were 

 admitted to a stall in the quire and vote in 

 chapter by one of the neighbouring clergy by 

 authority of a royal mandate.*" 



203. ST. CLEMENT'S COLLEGIATE 

 CHAPEL, PONTEFRACT 



This church of St. Clement was a free chapel 

 royal, exempt from all episcopal and archidiaconal 

 jurisdiction. It was situated within the castle 

 of Pontefract and was founded by Ilbert^ de 

 Lacy. The college was founded for a dean and 

 three prebendaries,^ and was well endowed by the 

 founder. The purpose of the foundation of the 

 college was ' to * the intent that God should 

 be served in the said Castle, to have mass and 

 other divine services . . . and to minister all 

 sacraments and sacramentalls to all within the 

 Park of Pountfrett, (and) the Bedhouse called 

 S. Nicholas' Hospital Bulhouse.' * 



The Pope Nicholas' Taxation ' in 1291 says 

 that ' the Castle Chapel was divided into four 



" The Antiq. xixiii, 162. 

 " Ibid. 



" Athill, The Collepate Church ofUiddleham {passim). 

 ' The Chantry Certificate misnames him Hubert 

 iXorks. Chant. S«rr. [Snrt. Soc], 323). 

 ' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 1474. 

 ' Yorks. Chant. Surv. (Sun. Soc.), 323. 

 * An evident clerical error for Bedehouse. 

 ' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 298/J. 



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