RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



The abbot succeeded in 1276 in maintaining 

 his rights to freedom from passage and pontage 

 dues, and from all manner of hundred and other 

 court contributions, &c., as well as rights of free 

 warren on his Derbyshire estates at Duckmanton, 

 North Wingfield, Newbold, and Cresswell, and 

 the like over all his numerous Nottinghamshire 

 possessions, by the production of early charters.^' 



Grant of free warren was obtained or confirmed 

 by the Abbot and Convent of Welbeck in 1 29 1 

 throughout all their demesne lands in the 

 counties of Nottingham, Derby, and Lincoln.^ 



A considerable and long-sustained controversy 

 was maintained in the reign of Henry III and in 

 the days of Abbot Hugh between the abbey of 

 Welbeck and the burgesses of Retford as to the 

 mills of that town ; eventually in 1297 *^^ mills 

 were taken into the king's hands and granted to 

 the abbey at ;^I0 a year.^^ 



In 1299 ^^^ Archdeacon of Nottingham 

 resigned into the hands of the Archbishop of York 

 the presentation to the church of Elkesley which 

 he had received from the abbot and canons of 

 Welbeck.22 



There are various entries in the chartulary as 

 to the rights of the abbey in Sherwood Forest, 

 and perambulations both of Sherwood and of the 

 Peak Forests in the reign of Edward I are 

 recorded.^' In 1307 the abbey obtained leave 

 from the Crown, on paying a fine of 200 marks, 

 to break and inclose and make a park of 60 acres 

 in Rumwood. The site is described as lying 

 between the park of Thomas de Furnival and 

 the abbot's wood, extending by the highway 

 that led from Worksop to Warsop.^ 



The church of Elkesley was appropriated to the 

 abbey in December 1348. In giving his sanction 

 Archbishop Thoresby provided that ioj. was to 

 be paid annually by Welbeck to the quire deacons 

 of York Minster." 



The church of Flintham was appropriated to 

 the abbey in 1389 : at the date when Archbishop 

 Richard le Scrope sanctioned this appropriation 

 the abbot's chair was vacant, and William Staveley 

 was prior.^^ 



According to the Taxation Roll of Pope 

 Nicholas in 1291, the temporalities of this abbey 

 in the three counties of Nottingham, Derby, 

 and Lincoln yielded an annual income of 

 ^56 135. lod. ; whilst the spiritualities produced 

 a further income of ;^52, namely the church of 

 Whatton ;^30, the church of Cuckney ;^20, and 

 a pension from the church of Rawmarsh in the 

 deanery of Doncaster 4.0s. The total income 

 recorded amounts to ;^io8 13^. lod.'^'' 



" P/ac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 138, 147, 613. 

 ™ Chart. 19 Edw. I, m. ii. 



"Harl. MS. 3640, fol. 23 d-25. ^Hbid. fol. 16. 

 ^'Ibid. fol. 16 d, 17, 20. "'Ibid. fol. 29 d, 30. 



^*Ibid. 6971, fol. no. "Mbid. 102 d. 



" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec Com.), 72, 265, 299,5, 3 1 1, 

 3ii3, 312, 321, 333. 



13' 



A taxation roll entered in the chartulary of 

 only two years' later date shows a considerable 

 increase in income over that just recorded, making 

 the total £1/^0 lis. 2d. The increase chiefly 

 arises from the rectories of Littleborough (Notts.), 

 £7, bs.id. ; of Etwall and Duckmanton, Derby- 

 shire, which are respectively entered as yielding 

 incomes of j^i6 os. 2d. and £^ 6s. Sd, ; and of 

 Whitton and Coates, Lincolnshire, with the 

 respective incomes of j^i8 6s. Sd. and £2-^^ 

 It would therefore appear that these five churches 

 were appropriated to the abbey between 1291 

 and 1293. 



A later hand has added the annual value of 

 later appropriations, namely Flintham ;^30, and 

 Elkesley rectory 38 marks, and the vicarage 

 6 marks.^^ 



The return as to Welbeck in the Fakr Eccle- 

 s'lasticus of 1534 possesses much interest. The 

 oifice of the general visitorship of the Premonstra- 

 tensian Order in England and Wales brought in the 

 annual sum of j^ 1 4. At each general chapter held 

 every four years all the houses of White Canons 

 throughout England paid lO^. to Welbeck as the 

 head house, producing (every fourth year) a further 

 sum of ^14 IOJ. ' whiche draweth yerely to the 

 summeof Ixxijj. vj^.' Cuckney Manor and rents, 

 with rents from Retford mills and divers places 

 in Nottinghamshire, produced ^128 ioj. iid. ; 

 Derbyshire temporalities at Newbold, Duckman- 

 ton, and Etwall, ;^33 5^. id. ; and Lincoln 

 temporalities, ;^io. The Nottinghamshire par- 

 sonages or rectories of Cuckney, Elkesley, Botham- 

 sall, Whatton, Aslockton, Flintham, and Little- 

 borough produced ;^66 191. ']d. ; whilst from 

 the same county there was an annual pension 

 out of Shelford Priory of 20s. and a payment in 

 wax of eight pounds at 6d. a pound. Other 

 appropriated churches were Anstey, Yorks. (with 

 a pension out of Rawmarsh) ; Whitton and 

 Coates, Lincolnshire ; and Etwall and Duckman- 

 ton, Derbyshire. The total annual income from 

 all these sources was entered at ^^ 298 45. id. 

 Outgoings, however, brought down the clear 

 income to ;^249 6s. 2,d. Under this head was 

 included the sum of ^^8 13J. \d. expended in 

 obligatory alms, namely 3^. \d. to the poor of 

 Anstey on Good Friday, and the remainder in 

 ale and bread weekly at the abbey in commemo- 

 ration of Thomas Cuckney the founder.^^' 



Welbeck was a highly important house of 

 the English branch of the order, on account of 

 its numerous offspring, for the abbot was the 

 father abbot of no fewer than seven abbeys, and, 

 somewhat irregularly, stood in a like relationship 

 to one of its grandchildren, the Abbey of Titch- 

 field, Hampshire, founded in 1 23 1 by a colony 

 from the recently-formed house of Halesowen. 

 The abbey of Talley, Carmarthenshire, was 

 founded from the monastery of St. John's, 



^'Harl. MS. 3640, fol. 35. 

 "'" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 



'Ibid. 



70-1. 



