THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 

 OF LANCASHIRE 



INTRODUCTION 



No religious house arose in the poor and remote districts which in the 

 twelfth century became the county of Lancaster, until nearly thirty years after 

 the Norman Conquest. Eleven monasteries were established before 1 200, 

 but more than half of these were cells of houses outside the county. The 

 alien priory of Lancaster was founded about 1094 and followed the Benedic- 

 tine rule, which as yet was the only one introduced into England. Cells of 

 the great Benedictine abbeys of Evesham and Durham were established at 

 Penwortham and Lytham in the reigns of Stephen and Richard I respectively. 

 The only independent house of the order in the county, the priory of Uphol- 

 land, was founded as late as 1319. 



The Cluniac adaptation of the Benedictine rule was represented by the 

 small cell of Lenton Priory at Kersal, which dated from Stephen's reign. Of 

 the three Cistercian houses Furness was the earliest, having been founded at 

 Tulketh near Preston in 1 124, and removed to Furness in 1 127 ; Wyresdale 

 existed for a few years only in the reign of Richard I ; the monks of Stanlaw 

 Abbey in Cheshire were transferred to Whalley in 1296. There were four 

 houses of Austin Canons ; the priory of Conishead was founded (at first as a 

 hospital) before 1 181, the priories of Burscough and Cartmel about 1 190, and 

 Cockerham Priory, a cell of Leicester Abbey, about i 207. Two other houses 

 of regular canons followed the Premonstratensian or Norbertine rule ; 

 Cockersand Abbey was founded as a hospital before 1 1 84, and the priory of 

 Hornby, a cell of Croxton Abbey, before 1212. The total number of houses 

 was thus fourteen. The Cistercian abbey of Merevale kept one or two monks 

 at Altcar, but this did not rank as a cell.' No preceptory of the Templars or 

 the Hospitallers existed in the county. Both, however, held lands there, and to 

 the latter belonged the hospital of Stidd or Longridge, founded in the twelfth 

 century, and dependent on their preceptory at Newlands in Yorkshire. 

 Besides this there was a hospital for lepers at Preston, dating from the twelfth 

 century, and at Lancaster one for lepers and destitute poor founded about 

 1 190 ; small almshouses were established there and at Lathom in 1485 and 

 1500.- 



In the thirteenth century the Dominican Friars settled at Lancaster, the 

 Friars Minor at Preston, and the Austin Friars at Warrington. A college of 

 secular priests was founded in the chapel of Upholland in 13 10, but dissolved 

 nine years later ; the church of Manchester became collegiate in 1421. 



' See under Altcar. The abbey and nunnery of Chester, Birkenhead Priory, and Dieulacres Abbey had 

 also lands in the county. Xostell Priory held the advowson of Winwick for a time. 



' Lana. Chantries, zzi. horA Monteagle, who died in 1523, made provision for a small hospital at 

 Hornby, but this was never carried out. 



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