A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Paldenlegh.'* In the new valuation for the 

 tenth, made in 1535, the income of the cell was 

 stated to be £<) bs. 8tl., the only deduction 

 mentioned being an annual fee of j^i to the 

 steward, Sir John Byron of Clayton, kt." 

 Legh and Layton speak of a debt of twenty 

 marks.*' The crown contrived nearly to double 



the income; the lessee paid ^^ii 6;. 8</., and 

 other rents not included in his lease brought up 

 the total to £lj 14^. lod." 



Prior of Kersal 

 John of Ingleby," occurs March, 1332. 



HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN MONKS 



5. THE ABBEY OF FURNESS 



The abbey of Furness was founded in the 

 year 1127 by Stephen, then count of Boulogne 

 and Mortain and lord of Lancaster.* Three 

 years earlier Stephen had granted to the abbot of 

 Savigny in his county of Mortain the vill of 

 Tulketh in Amounderness ; and it was from this 

 place that the Savigniac monks retired to the 

 deep vale of Bekanesgill.' The new grant com- 

 prised the whole of the forest and demesne of 

 Furness, Walney Island, the manor of Ulverston, 

 the land of Roger Bristwald, the count's fishery 

 in the Lune by Lancaster, and Warin the Little 

 with his land. The land of Michael le Fleming 

 in Furness was excepted, but this limitation to 

 the completeness of the abbot's sway in the 

 peninsula was removed early in the reign of 

 Henry III. From the first the abbey, a bulwark 

 of the honour of Lancaster, was under the special 

 protection of the crown. Its rights and privi- 

 leges were confirmed and enlarged by nearly 

 every king from Henry I to Henry IV.' The 

 earlier royal and papal confirmations illustrate 

 also the rapid increase in the possessions of the 

 house during the twelfth century.* Throughout 

 the thirteenth the abbey slowly rounded off its 

 possessions in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and this 



" Latia. Pipe R. 328-30, 332. The endowments 

 comprised in 1 3 7 1 three messuages, 1 00 acres of land, 

 24 acres of meadow, and 40 acres of wood ; Coram Rege 

 R. 442, m. I d. " Fabr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 147. 



'• L. and. P. Hen. VllI, x, 364. 



" Dugdale, Mon. v, 117. 



"Assize R. 428, m. 2. Accused of wounding 

 Adam Le Reve of Broughton. 



' Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 301 ; Coucher, A. 8, 21. 

 The account prefixed to the coucher papers gives 

 ' nonas Julii ' as the exact date ; the metrical history 

 says July ist. The Ciron. Reg. Manniae gives 1 1 26, 

 and another old manuscript dealing with Man, quoted 

 by Dodsworth, says 1 1 12, making it as old as Savigny 

 itself; Oliver, Monumenta de Insula Manniae, i, 144. 



' S^Tneon of Durham, Opera (Surtees Soc.), i 20 ; 

 Coucher, 2 1 ; cf. Leland, Collectanea (ed. Hearne), ii , 3 5 7. 

 Some early charters refer to the abbey as Bekanesgill. 



' Farrer, op. cit. 308, 317 ; Coucher, 122-30, 199, 

 216. Henry IV's confirmation (216) included 

 privileges ivhich had been allowed to fall into disuse. 

 The abbot took advantage of this /Jf^/ clause in 141 3 

 to recall suits of debt to his court, 220 ; the Patent 

 Rolls also contain frequent letters of protection. 



process, if hindered, was not ended by the statute 

 de Religiosis. The isolation of Furness increased 

 rather than checked a power possessed by (tw 

 religious houses in the north ; and the abbot 

 ruled vast territories with feudal independence 

 and social advantage. 



The historical importance of the abbey springs 

 from this feudal ascendancy. As a religious 

 house it left no great monument of learning or 

 piety, and trained no great man. Its documents 

 are feudal deeds ; its instruction was confined to 

 the children of the demesne ; its internal history 

 must be written on the basis of legal disputes ; 

 on the other hand, its independent lordship over 

 a large self-contained tract gave political import- 

 ance to the abbey for more than two centuries. 

 So far as England was concerned Furness was 

 like an island ; ' the abbot's relations with 

 Scotland were, as will be seen, those of a border 

 baron ; ° for long he took a responsible share in 

 the conflict of north and south, of lay and 

 ecclesiastical influences, which gave significance 

 to the Isle of Man. Ireland was his granary in 

 times of need,' his granges of Beaumont and 



* The protection of Eugenius III {Coucher, 591-5) 

 shows that before 1153 the abbey had gained a foot- 

 ing in Copeland and Man. For papal privilegia see 

 538 sqq. especially the full confirmation by Innocent 

 IV, in 1247 ; 603-7. 



' So called in ^0/. Pari, iii, 6571^. 



• Among the Sackville MSS. is a document dated 

 3 I Hen. VIII, which seems to be an inquiry into the 

 validity of a grant by the abbot that his tenants hold 

 by border service for the maintenance of a fort called 

 Pile la Foudre, upon the borders of Scotland ; Hist. MSS. 

 Com. Rep. vii, 258. For the peel of Fouldrey see 

 p. 118. The 'marchers' of Copeland, Cartmel, and 

 Kendal were summoned to perform military service in 

 Scotland in 1258 ; Cal Scot. Doc. 1 108-1272, p. 409. 



' The Furness continuation of William of Newburgh 

 refers especially to periods of pest and famine, or to 

 ' magna fertilitas frumenti in Hybernia ' ; Chron. of 

 Stephen (Rolls Sen), &c. ii, 560, 562, 570. The 

 licences to trade with Ireland and to bring corn from 

 the abbey lands there extend from the days of John 

 to those of the Tudors. In early times the abbot 

 frequently visited Ireland or obtained official sanction 

 for his attorneys (e.g. Pat. 24 Edw. I, m. 2) ; but 

 later he had longer leaves of absence. Ric. II granted 

 this exemption in time of war together with release 

 from military service, provided that the abbot left one 

 or two monks to pay subsidies like the other religious 

 in Ireland ; Pat. 12 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 15. 



114 



