RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



HOUSE OF CLUNIAC MONKS 



3. THE PRIORY OF LENTON 



The Cluniac house of Lenton Priory, in the 

 suburbs of Nottingham, was founded by William 

 Peverel in honour of the Holy Trinity, out of 

 love (as the foundation charter expresses it) of 

 divine worship and for the good of the souls of 

 his lord King William, of his wife Queen Ma- 

 tilda, of their son King William and of all their 

 and his ancestors, and also for the health of his 

 present lord King Henry and Queen Matilda and 

 their children William and Matilda, and for the 

 health of his own soul, and those of his wife 

 Matilda and his son William and all their 

 children. He gave the house to God and to the 

 church of Cluni, and to Pontius the abbot there 

 and his successors, but so that it should be free 

 and quit of obligation save the annual payment 

 of a mark of silver as an acknowledgement. 



By this charter Peverel substantially endowed 

 the house with the township of Lenton and its 

 appurtenances, including seven mills ; the town- 

 ships of Radford, Morton, and Keighton,^ with 

 all their appurtenances, and whatsoever he had 

 in Newthorpe and Papplewick both in wood and 

 plain ; also, with the consent of King Henry, 

 the Nottingham churches of St. Mary, St. Peter, 

 and St. Nicholas, and the churches of Radford, 

 Linby, and Langar, and the tithes of his fisheries, 

 all in Nottinghamshire ; Bakewell with all its ap- 

 purtenances, two parts of the tithes of Newbold, 

 Tideswell, Bradwell, Bakewell, Hucklow, Ash- 

 ford, Wormill, and Holme, and two parts of the 

 tithes of his demesne pastures in the Peak, namely 

 in Shalcross, Fernilee, Darnall, Quatford, Buxton, 

 Shirebrook, Stanton, Cow^dale, ' Crochil ' Cal- 

 low, ' Dunningestede,' Chelmorton, and Stern- 

 dale, also the whole tithe of colts and fillies, 

 wherever there was a stud-farm in his 

 Peak demesnes, together with the tithes of his 

 lead and of his venison both in skins and meat, 

 all in Derbyshire;^ Courteenhall with its appur- 

 tenances, two parts of all the tithes of his de- 

 mesnes in Blisworth and Duston, and the 

 churches of Harlestone, Courteenhall, Irchester, 

 and Rushden, all in Northamptonshire ; and the 

 church of Foxton, in Leicestershire, with a vir- 

 gate of land. 



By the same charter he also granted, after a 

 somewhat unusual form, whatsoever his men 

 (homagers or feodaries) bestowed on the priory 

 for the good of their souls : namely two parts of 

 the tithes of the demesnes of Avenel in Haddon, 



' These vills Morton and Keighton have disappeared, 

 but the former was part of the Peverel fee in 1086. 



' The Derbyshire lands from which these gifts were 

 made had been bestowed by Henry I upon William 

 Peverel. 



Meadowplace and Monyash, Derbyshire, and of 

 various other places in the counties of Notting- 

 ham, Derby, Leicester, and Buckingham. 



There is no reason to doubt that the extensive 

 possessions enumerated above represent genuine 

 grants made to the priory by William Peverel 

 and his under-tenants ; but the present charter 

 contains a chronological discrepancy which is 

 quite fatal to its authenticity. The priory is 

 explicitly granted to Pontius, Abbot of Cluni, but 

 the charter is witnessed by Gerard, Archbishop 

 of York. As Gerard died on 21 May 1108, 

 while Abbot Hugh of Cluni, the predecessor of 

 Pontius, died on 29 April 1109, the charter 

 clearly loses all claim to be regarded as a con- 

 temporary record. That some genuine docu- 

 ment or documents underlay the fabrication of 

 the charter is made probable by its occasional 

 agreement, in the names of Peverel sub-tenants> 

 with the evidence of Domesday ; but the only 

 authority for the text of the charter, since the 

 destruction of the Lenton Chartulary in the great 

 Cottonian fire, has been an inspeximus of 1317- 

 Under these circumstances, the charter cannot 

 be cited as evidence for the date of the founda- 

 tion of the priory, but it may be noted that the 

 abbacy of Pontius extended from 1 1 09 to 1125. 

 As the alleged bestowal of the priory upon Abbot 

 Pontius not improbably represents a genuine 

 tradition, the foundation may well have fallen 

 within these years. A charter of Henry I*" con- 

 firming Lenton to Cluni, preserved among the 

 muniments of the latter house, is ostensibly 

 not later than HIS, but its authenticity is- 

 doubtful. 



The inspeximus of 1317^ records the royal 

 confirmation charters of Henry I, of Stephen, 

 of Henry II and of John, as well as the follow- 

 ing additional benefactions : — the church of 

 Wigston, Leicestershire, with the tithes of his 

 demesnes in that lordship and certain lands, by 

 Robert Earl of Leicester and Count of Meulan ; 

 the tithes of the assarts or tilled lands within 

 Peak Forest, by William de Ferrers ; the churches 

 of Ossington, Notts, and Horsley, Derbyshire, 

 and the half church of Cotgrave, Notts, in 1 144,. 

 by Hugh de Buron and Hugh Meschines his son 

 and heir ; the church of Nether Broughton, 

 Leicestershire, with all its appurtenances, includ- 

 ing a chapel to which were attached 15 acres of 

 land, by Richard Bussell ; the Derbyshire manors 

 of Holme and Dunston, by Matthew de Hather- 

 sage ; and a moiety of the church of Atten- 

 borough, the land of Reginald in Chilwell, the 

 church of Barton in Fabis, and two parts of his. 



'" Cal. of Doc. France, no. 1383. 

 ' Dugdale, Mon. v, 1 1 z. 



