A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



lLa-.t, however, the victory of the convent was 

 ill reality the price paid by William of Cance- 

 field for the murder of a monk by one of his 

 followers.** Hence in an assize two years later, 

 the jury refused to regard the case of Aldingham 

 as conclusive evidence of the general custom of 

 the barony ; and the abbot failed to secure the 

 custody of John of Kirkby.*' But here also 

 the corporate body overcame the single person 

 in the long run/"^ 



In the case of Pennington " and Kirkby ' * there 

 was a further quarrel about services ; like the 

 rest, their lords attended the abbot's court every 

 three weeks and paid annual money service. 

 But just as they wished to be free from the bur- 

 dens of military tenure on the one hand, so on 

 the other they fought against the customary 

 dues which were probably paid in less important 

 parts of Furness. 



All this was but a small part of the disputes 

 to which the abbey was party. Some of these 

 only illustrate the ordinary history of a great 

 fief. We have the usual list of charges against 

 persons who detained cattle and set up or 

 broke down inclosures or failed to render their 

 accounts. There are the usual suits and agree- 

 ments about right of way, the usual endless 

 series of quarrels about lands and houses. These 

 were often complicated by acts of violence. 

 Thus in 1338 the abbot accused Abbot Thomas 

 of Jervaulx, together with some of his brethren 

 and other evildoers, of breaking down his 

 fences at Horton in Ribblesdale, and of carrying 

 away goods to the value of ^^2,000. They had 

 made a night assault with swords and staves, 

 bows and arrows.'' And there are graver episodes 

 in the domestic history of Furness, dark tales of 

 murder and wanton assault. In 1282 brother Wil- 

 liam Pykehod was accused of aiding in the mur- 

 der of Walter Morsel, in Cumberland.'* The 

 Scottish wars provided a good opportunity to 

 settle old scores without the delay of courts. 

 When William of Pennington returned from 

 the wars in 131 5, he found his lands unfilled, 

 because Abbot Cokesham had forcibly impounded 

 the plough-beasts ; his tenants were too im- 

 poverished to pay rent or service.'" Some 



"^ Coucher, 3 13. «' Ibid. 310-14. ™ Ibid. 3 1 5. 



" In 1 318 William of Pennington admitted the 

 right of the abbot to the services of a reaper for 

 each house, and a ploughman for each plough in the 

 manor of Pennington. In 1329 this privilege was 

 surrendered by the abbot ; Coucher, 491-5 ; De 

 Banco R. 273, m. \\\ d. 



^ In 1420 the same was claimed in vain in Kirkby, 

 together with the right of the abbot's bailiff to food 

 and drink in the hospice of Kirkby at the lord's cost ; 

 Duchy, of Lane. Grants in Boxes, box B, No. 143. 



" Coucher B. fol. 127/^-129^; Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, 

 pt. 3,m. 16 a'. '* Pat. 10 Edw. I, m. ^d. 



■' Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 2 d.; 9 Edw. II, pt. i, 

 m. 23 a'. Of course we do not know the other side 

 in these cases. 



years later it was the abbot's turn. Alexander 

 of Kirkby took advantage of the king's absence 

 in 1336 to go and ride around the abbey by day 

 and night plotting to kill the abbot. He and 

 his companions seized provisions coming to the 

 abbey, hunted without licence in the chase of 

 Ireleth and Dalton, and carried off the deer ; 

 men and servants were assaulted, ' so that the 

 abbot dare not go out of the chace of the abbey 

 nor can he find any to serve him.' " But per- 

 haps most exciting is the arrest (1357) of 

 Thomas of Bardsey in Ulverston. One day, 

 when Roger Bell the bailiff went to perform his 

 duties, Thomas seized and beat him. The hue 

 and cry was raised ; and Roger Bell went with 

 a company, including Abbot Alexander, to 

 avenge the insult. Thomas took refuge in the 

 house of his father Adam ; doors and windows 

 were closed and barred. Bailiff, monks, and 

 the rest made a grand assault, the door was 

 forced, and Thomas carried off to gaol in 

 Dalton. So in this case justice and might went 

 together." 



As time went on the local importance of the 

 abbey grew, and its domestic economy became 

 more elaborate. An exhaustive writ of 13 

 Henry VII, if it is not of a formal nature, shows 

 that the abbot had availed himself of his 

 judicial independence to take over the whole 

 process of legal activity." There is but little 

 to say about the more definitely religious side 

 of monastic life. The relations between Furness 

 and the neighbouring religious houses seem to 

 have been as friendly as territorial interests 

 would admit. The foundation of Conishead 

 caused some opposition in early times, but a 

 lasting settlement was arranged.'' In York- 

 shire there were lawsuits with convents who shared 

 the privileges or bordered upon the lands of the 

 Lancashire abbey ; *" and the fishery in the 

 Lune produced considerable friction with the 

 priory of St. Mary at Lancaster.*^ The usual 

 problems of tithes had to be settled,*^ and the 

 position of the churches in the gift of the abbey 

 decided.*' Its internal history is equally scanty. 

 In the church a chaplain who celebrated 

 daily for the souls of the faithful departed 



■«Pat. 10 Edw. Ill, m. 14 a'. 



" Coucher, 159-62. 



" Pal. of Lane. Writs de Quo Warranto, 

 1 3 Hen. VII ; cf. Kuerden MS. 4to vol. fol. 60 

 (Chet. Lib.). 



" See p. 141. 



*° e.g. Jervaulx (Coucher B. fol. 126^); prioress 

 of St. Clement's York; 30 Edw. Ill (fol. iz^b) ; 

 Sara, prioress of Ardington, 1241 (Anct. D., L. 477). 



*' See p. 170. 



** In spite of privilegia, they were sometimes paid 

 by way of compromise ; e.g. for Newby and Clapham : 

 Anct. D., L.S. 133. John of Eshton reserved the 

 tithes due to Gargrave in Craven ; Coucher B. fol. 

 167. 



^ Especially Dalton ; Coucher, 654, 699, &c. 

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