A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



An inspeximus and confirmation charter of Richard de Rawclyf, rector of Clowne, William 



1 316 recites, inter alia, a grant of Henry III in de Burgh, rector of Babworth, and Peter Cook, 



1268 to the priory to take two cart-loads daily chaplain, towards finding a chaplain to celebrate 



of heather in Sherwood Forest, not to exceed daily in the priory for their good estate and for 



the annual value of 60s., in consideration of the their souls after death. ^ 



loss sustained in their wood of Grove, which This priory was subjected in 1536 to a visit 

 Edward the king's eldest son had caused to be from the notorious commissioners, Legh and 

 felled in the time of trouble in the realm to Layton. They affected to have discovered four 

 make engines and other necessaries to invade the canons guilty of unnatural sin ; one desired re- 

 Isle of Axholme, then resisting the king. ^^ The lease from his vows. The annual income was 

 cart-loads were only to be taken in two places, declared to be ;^240 and the debts 200 marks.^* 

 namely in Rumwood and ' Cuthesland.' At Sir John Hercy, writing to Cromwell on 31 

 the same time the appropriation of the church of October 1538, remarked that 'the prior and con- 

 Sutton on Trent, originally granted in 1302, vent of Worksop are so covetous, they sell flocks 

 was confirmed.^' of sheep, kye, corn, woods, etc' '" And who 



In 1 3 16 licence was granted for the appropria- can blame them? They clearly foresaw their 



tion of the church of Car Colston.^ overthrow. On 15 November of the same year 



Edward I had granted the Prior and Convent came the surrender of the priory with sixteen 



of Worksop 60 acres in the east part of his wood signatures. We give the names of those who 



of Rumwood at a rental of I Oi., and to inclose and signed, adding the amount of pensions they ob- 



bring it into cultivation if they thought fit. But tained on 25 March 1539 '^^ ^^' ^^^ ^°"'' accused 



'" 1335 they complained to Edward III that by Legh and Layton obtained their pensions, 

 after they had inclosed it Ralph de Nevill and 



his fellow justices of the forest took the whole Thomas Stokkes, prior .... /50 



site into the king's hands on a presentment by JJ^f'"'""" Nutte sub-prior . . . £6 



the forest ministers, alleging that they had in- J,^°;^^ fn'hamr" ••••^56/. U. 



closed more than the 60 acres, and demanding a gIokc Ck>v\£s^^ /6 " " 



further rental of 25. 2^. for an additional 13 acres. 'Richard Astley . ' '. ' fS 



The king, willing to show the canons a special Laurence Starkebone . . . ." ^5 6s. iJ. 



favour, in return for the manifold charges they 'Alexander Boothe „ „ „ 



had frequently incurred when he visited their 'Thomas Bedall „ „ t, 



priory, granted them the whole space they had 'George Barnsley „ „ n 



inclosed free of all rent for ever.^° Edmund Robinson „ „ 



In 1338 there was an inspeximus and confir- James Windebank £^ 



mation of the charter to the priory executed by Robert Armstead 



Thomas de Furnival III, the great man of that L°'"? "Y'"u ', ^°'- 



. r -1 1 , , L-hristopher Haslam 



great family, who was summoned as a baron to William White 



Parliament from 1294 till his death in 1332. ' 



Almost the only addition that this baron made tu c . u 



• ..1 ^ r u- > . '■"^ tour canons to whose names an asterisk 



to the grants of his ancestors was that he gave • c j .u r u . , , "."'•''", 



■ „ ^u u , . ^ IS prefixed are those so foully branded n the 



permission to the convent to have free ingress r mb t i""^" luc 



and egress to his park to look after the forty t xt u . ti ttttt , . 



cattle of the priory feeding there between Easter .^" ^^^ J '^^\ a""'^ ^"\ ^*'?T'^ "^' 



and Michaelinas.^' ^V f ^^^°^ ^"''i'I"4 parcels of demesne 



Tr, To8. ,h» „.;^.,. „,-^ .k », c lands, &c., to i'rancis, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury, 



In 1304 the prior\' paid the heavy sum of : u r u /• t- 1 ,, v 



£,0 .0 Willi™ !. nJii, t„p., of , e ki„rs 'eVrSLh^;'" "■"" " ^"•''^ ■'■""■ 



manor house ot Clipston in Sherwood Forest. -ru • • .u r> • • i_ ht 



r-. •■ ^ r ,-,, , "."■' 1 here is in the British Museum a cast from 



for its repair, in return for which they obtained j . • • r l ^"'';"'" » "-'^' "°™ 



^u n y . L -^ ■ , ^- a damaged impression of the seal of Henrv orior 



the Crown licence to appropriate the church of f„^„ T„k j. ■ ■ / 1 nc' ry, prior 



Willou<^hby -" P" J°""- " '^ * pointed oval, and bears the 



In the following year 25 marks were paid to C'a Tf^'V?- ' P'=^f f'"' .'if^'^g V^^ ft' 



the king by the priory to secure the alienation ''""J '" •'^"^'^'"■«"' ^"^ folding m the left a 



> ^u r c ^ J <ii.ciid.i.iuu ^(.fQ]\ inscribed ... cia dei The lefrend 



to them of five messuages and a moiety of three • . legena 



more messuages in East Retford, the joint gift of 



„ ™, . , . ■, r - . , HENRICI . PRIORIS . DE . WIR 



Ihis refers to the defence of Aiholme by the 



remnants of Simon de Montfort's party at the close of " Pat. 8 Ric II pt ii m 1; 



the BW War. « L. and P. Hen. Fill, :,', I's^,. 



I I''- 9 Edw. II pt. 11, m. 36. "Ibid, xiii (2), ^^6. ^ 



n V '°Tr5 rrr' ^'" •' "" ^'^ " ^'^- ^"f"'' ^'P- ^». App. ii, 50 ; L. and P 



" P»t- 7 Ric. II, pt. 11, m. 3. « Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. iy, m, 6. 



128 



