69 



A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE ^^^ 



u A Uf^cn in the na.n'-''' 

 In the first age of the office their appojtment l^^^J^^^^.^ny no-Jnatf ^ 

 bishops, but from the thirteenth century^hey ^^j^^^^^„„,,es of Chester and 

 the bishop and the archdeacon jomdy^ l^'^ ^y the archdeacon only/' 

 Richmond they are said to ^av-^^^^f/J.^t^ry the office, contrary to the 

 There is some evidence that m ^^^ ^^^ ^.^^ ,„ j^.^^.^^ -g known of the decanal 

 usual practice elsewhere was ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ 



divisions at ^^'^^^^''^J^^^y^ei ^ 



^"'^ rfe^N'ormarCo^quest ushered in a period of monastic revival through- 

 England and a corresponding outburst of lay liberality to rehgious 

 houses. Land, tithes, and church advowsons were showered upon them by 

 the Norman barons. The most munificent of these donors in the district 

 with which we are concerned was Count Roger of Poitou, the first lord of 

 the honour of Lancaster. Included in his lavish grants to the great Norman 

 abbey of St. Martin at Sees, for the endowment of a dependent priory at 

 Lancaster, were, in addition to the church of St. Mary there, the advowsons 

 of no fewer than nine churches and a portion of the tithes of nearly all his 

 wide demesne land in this region. Roger's successor in the honour, Stephen 

 of Blois, and a number of the great tenants here made similar but less sweep- 

 ing grants ; by the close of the twelfth century nearly half of the churches 

 in the new county of Lancaster ha[d been transferred from lay to monastic 

 patrons. Most of these grants of churches were made to religious houses 

 outside the county ,°^ who, however, generally received their advowsons as 

 endowments of daughter houses within it. Only eleven advowsons were 

 granted to independent Lancashire monasteries, and three of these were no 

 longer in their possession when the fourteenth century opened.*' 



Such grants occasionally led to litigation between different religious 

 houses, who put forward rival claims to the same church. The rights of 

 the lay patrons who bestowed churches were not always well defined, and a 

 further complication was introduced by the ambiguous relation of certain 



*' Dansey, op. cit. ii, 369. ^ Ibid, i, 149. " See below, App. II. 



*^ To S6es (for Lancaster Priory) : Bolton-le-Sands, Childwall, Croston, a moiety of Eccleston, Heys- 

 ham, Kirkham, Lancaster, Melling, Poulton-le-Fylde, and Preston, all c. 1094 {Lanci. Pipe R. 289-90), Kirk- 

 ham was lost in 1 143 (but Bispham Chapel obtained 1147), Preston in 1 196, Melling alienated 1185-1210, 

 and Childwall in 1232. To Nostell : Winwick by Roger of Poitou. To Shrewsbury : Kirkham (lost 1196) 

 and Walton-on-the-Hill by Godfrey, sheriff of Count Roger, c. 1093-4. To Pontefract : Whalley (with the 

 castle chapel of Clitheroe and the chapels of Clitheroe, Colne, and Burnley) by Hugh de la Val between 1 1 2 1 

 and 1 135 (Chart, of St. John of Pontefract). Withdrawn in 1 135 by Ilbert de Lacy on his recovery of the 

 honours of Pontefract and Clitheroe. To Evesham (for Penwortham Priory) : Penwortham by Warin 

 Bussel between 1 140 and 1149 {Lanes. Pipe R. 320-3), Leyland and North Meols by Richard Bussel 

 between 1153 and 1 1 60 (ibid. 323-5), To Leicester: Cockerham (with EUel Chapel) by William de 

 Lancaster I between 11 53 and 1 1 56 (ibid. 392). To Mattersey : Bolton-le-Moors by Roger de Marsey 

 (Mattersey) under Henry II {Lanes. Pipe R. 408 ; Lanes. Final Coneords, i, 75). To Durham (for Lytham 

 Priory): Lytham by Richard son of Roger between 11 89 and 1194 (ibid. 346). To Stanlaw : Rochdale 

 by Roger de Lacy between 11 94 and 121 1 {Coucher of Whalley, 135-8). The institutions in the Lich- 

 field episcopal registers, which begin in the fourteenth century, show that Lancaster Priory presented to its 

 livings, while the presentations to Penwortham, &c., were made by Evesham. 



" To Furness : Dalton and Urswick, doubtless conveyed with Furness by Count Stephen of M t- ' ' 

 grant of 1 127 {Lanes. Pipe R. 301) and Kirkby Ireleth, acquired c. 1160-80 and held till 12 9, (V 

 Coueher, 318). The advowson of Ulverston may also have belonged for a time to Furneso "-r /-. • 1 1 



3 1 8). The advowson of Ulverston may also have belonged for a time to Furness T n • 1, j 



(ibid. 350). To Wyresdale : St. Michaels-on-Wyre by Theobald Walter between i ^"""^ ^^°^^ "9° 

 336). This grant lapsed on the death of Theobald. To Cockersand : Claughton bv G^J- T^ ' '^^ ('''''^• 

 Roger de Croft between 12 16 and 1255 (see below, 'Religious Houses,'). ^ "J^odith de Kellet and 



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