A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



Headon, with the consent of the rector, to have a chapel at his manor-house 

 of Headon for himself and household.^' 



At an earlier date, namely in 1228, the archbishop had confirmed an 

 ordination respecting the services in the chapel of Edwalton, at the delegation 

 of the pope, whereby the rector of Flawforth was to do service four days a 

 week in that chapel, the lord and his men of Edwalton endowing the chapel 

 with two bovates of land, a meadow, and a toft." 



The appropriation of churches to religious houses was more frequently 

 accomplished in the 14th century, but there were several such in Nottingham- 

 shire in the second quarter of the i 3th century, as shown by the confirma- 

 tions in Archbishop Gray's register, where the following are specified : — 

 Rolleston, to Southwell Minster, 1225 ; Hawton, to Thurgarton Priory, 

 1228; Stapleford, to Newstead Priory, 1229; Hucknall Torkard, to Newstead 

 Priory, 1234 ; Barton on Trent, to Worksop Priory, 1234 ; and Basford, to 

 Catesby Priory (Northants), 1246. 



Numerous entries also occur in this register of confirmations of pensions 

 or portions of tithes out of rectories to religious houses, varying in amount 

 from 2J. to 5 marks. The churches of Costock, Cotgrave, Langar, ToUerton, 

 and the three Nottingham churches of St, Mary, St. Nicholas, and St. Peter 

 paid pensions to Lenton Priory ; Burton Joyce, Gedling, and Laxton, to 

 Shelford Priory; Gotham, to Thurgarton Priory; Sutton on Trent, to Work- 

 sop Priory ; Elton and Weston, to Blyth Priory ; and Marnham and Sib- 

 thorpe, to the order of the Templars. 



Traces of the old customs with regard to clerical marriages and the 

 ownership and descent of ecclesiastical property lingered on until Archbishop 

 Gray's time. In 1221 Pope Honorius III wrote to the archbishop directing 

 him to remove married clergy from their benefices, and also all who had suc- 

 ceeded their fathers in their preferments.^^ Unfortunately Gray's register 

 from 1 22 1 to 1225 is missing, so it is impossible to know to what extent 

 the diocesan carried out these orders in their freshness. Between 1225 and 

 1250, however, about ten reformations in such cases were ordered or made 

 by the archbishop, but none of these instances occurred in Nottinghamshire. 



In another way the archbishop also proved himself a reformer, namely, 

 in the endeavour to get rid of portions or medieties in the same benefice. A 

 Nottinghamshire example occurs in the case of Grove, where, when the 

 rectory was vacant in 1226, the archbishop instituted G. de Ordeshal, vicar of 

 the same, to the rectory, thus consolidating the rectory and vicarage. The 

 instances where there was both a rector and a vicar, each supposed to be 

 resident, were not at that time uncommon. Portions and medieties of 

 rectories were also to be met with in all dioceses, but with unusual frequency 

 in the archdiocese of York. It is supposed by some that these subdivisions, 

 sometimes of a comparatively small rectory, originated with divisions of 

 property amongs; heiressess or different proprietors," Nottinghamshire 

 rectories which were thus split up in the 13th century included those of 

 Eakring, Gedling, Treswell, Trowell, and West Retford. 



The use that was frequently made by royalty in the 13th century of 

 monastic superiors in the suppression of secular illegalities is a striking 



" Archbp. Gray Reg. (Surtees Soc), Ivi, 271-2. " Ibid. 18. " Add. MS. 15352, fol. 124. 



'* Raine, Introd. to Gray's Reg. pp. xxx-xixi. 



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