RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



wood Forest for whatever was necessary for their 

 own use and for the use of all their granges both 

 within and without the forest, in return for ward- 

 ing the wood.'" 



In 1359 the abbot was charged with having 

 completely laid waste the wood of .Beskhall, 

 cutting down and selling the oaks over 20 acres 

 and 3 roods of land. It was pleaded that the 

 charters of Kings Edward I and Edward II sanc- 

 tioned this action, and the abbot obtained licence 

 to fell and sell to the extent of 40 acres. The 

 total receipts fi-om the wood sale of 40 acres 

 amounted to just over /400, and the expenses to 



An apparent outrage was participated in by 

 two of the monks of this house in 1 3 1 7, as to 

 which we have only the statement of complaint. 

 On 10 December 131 7 a commission was 

 appointed to inquire into the charge made against 

 Andrew le Botiller, Richard de Balderton, John 

 de Rodes, Thomas de Rodes, together with 

 Brother William Sausemer and Brother Thomas 

 de Nonyngton, monks of the house of Rufford, 

 of gathering to them a multitude of men and 

 seizing Thomas de Holme, as he was passing 

 between the abbey of Rufford and the grange of 

 Roewood (Rohagh), robbing him of his goods, 

 and taking him to some unknown place and 

 there detaining him until he should satisfy them 

 with a ransom of ;^200.'^ 



Edward III in 1328 confirmed a grant of 

 Henry, former Abbot of Rufford, whereby Henry 

 de Shirley for life, at a rose rent, obtained their 

 grange of Brackenfield (Brithrichfeld), Derby- 

 shire, with the houses there, and the moiety of 

 the town of Brackenfield belonging to the grange 

 and certain common of pasture.^' 



In 1 33 1 a curious case from this abbey was 

 reserved to the pope. John XXII issued his 

 mandate to the Abbot of Rufford to grant a dis- 

 pensation to Thomas de Nonington, one of his 

 monks, touching the irregularity he had con- 

 tracted by having pointed out to a bailiff a thief, 

 who was taken and executed. The monk had 

 been appointed guardian of a manor and a town 

 belonging to the monastery ; one day, two years 

 before, being hailed 'master,' on entering the 

 town, a bailiff said that a thief, whom he was 

 following, had escaped him, and on the thief's 

 clothes being described the monk identified him.^* 



Licence was granted in mortmain in 1349, 

 at the request of the king's yeoman John Braye, 

 for the abbey of Rufford to charge their lands 

 in the county of Nottingham with 12 marks 

 yearly for two chaplains, to wit 6 marks for one 

 in the parish church of Upton by Southwell, and 

 6 marks to another in the parish church of 



'» Karl. MS. 1063, fol. 4. 



"■ Ibid. fol. 5, 6. 



^' Pat. 1 1 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 13 d; pt. ii, m. 26 d. 



" Pat. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 30. 



" Cal. of Papal Letters, ii, 369. 



Newark, to celebrate divine service daily, as they 

 shall be ordained. ^^ 



In 1 33 1 licence was obtained at the request 

 of Henry de Edwinstowe, king's clerk, for the 

 abbot and convent to appropriate a moiety of 

 the church of Rotherham which was of their 

 advowson.'^ 



Notification was made on the Patent Rolls on 

 5 June 1343, at the request of the Abbot of 

 Rufford, that by a certificate of the treasurer and 

 barons of the Exchequer it is shown that the farm 

 of the mediety of the church of Rotherham, of 

 which he was bound to pay yearly to the alien 

 Abbot of Clairvaux £20, was taken into the 

 king's hands on 16 July 11 Edward III on 

 account of the war with France, and that the 

 abbot has since paid the farm at the Exchequer.^' 

 In November of the same year there is an entry 

 to the effect that although the king had lately 

 presented Richard de Wombewell, king's clerk, 

 to a mediety of the church of Rotherham, be- 

 lieving the same to be void and in his gift, yet 

 because it has been found by inquisition that the 

 Abbot of Rufford long before the statute of mort- 

 main acquired from the Abbot of Clairvaux a 

 mediety of the church at a rent of ;^20, and 

 that the Abbot of Clairvaux previously held it 

 appropriated, the advowson of the same does not 

 belong to the king, and he has seen fit to revoke 

 the presentation.'^ 



Henry Beaumont, king's esquire, obtained a 

 royal grant in August 1438, for the joint dura- 

 tion of his life and of the war with France, of 

 the annuity of ;£20 which the Abbot and Con- 

 vent of Rufford paid to the house of Clairvaux 

 in Burgundy ; previously granted to Richard 

 Crecy, deceased, and then at the king's disposal.'' 

 In the following October Beaumont obtained a 

 renewed grant of this annuity, as the previous 

 one was invalid on account of errors ; this sum 

 of ^^20 a year was a payment made by the Abbot 

 of Rufford to the king for the keeping of a 

 mediety of the church of Rotherham belonging 

 to the alien Abbot of Clairvaux.*" In 1440 

 peace was made between England and France, 

 but the grant of this annuity was renewed 

 jointly to Beaumont and to two clerks his 

 nominees, buildings and divine service to be 

 maintained by the grantor ; in this third grant 

 it is asserted that the grant of 1438 was in- 

 correct, as it did not belong to the Abbot of 

 Clairvaux.*^ 



A grant for life of ;^io a year was made by 

 the Abbot and Convent of Rufford in 1461 to 

 one William Spencer, out of the church of 



" Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 12. 

 '« Pat. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 16. 

 " Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 35. 

 ^ Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 15. 

 '' Pat. 16 Hen. VI, pt. ii, m. 15. 

 *° Ibid. 17 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 25. 

 " Ibid. 18 Hen. VI, pt. ii, m. 8. 



103 



