RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



was supported by the proceeds of a messuage 

 and six shops in Drogheda.'^ The occasional 

 visit of a Scottish bishop would remind the 

 monks in pleasanter fashion than did the ap- 

 proach of the Scottish kings of their proximity 

 to the northern kingdom.'" A more striking 

 witness to the extra-national character of Furness 

 is the long list of indulgences, granted by fifty- 

 one Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Manx, as well as 

 English bishops, to penitents who should make 

 a pilgrimage to or endow the monastery or any 

 of its churches and chapels.*' 



The charters of the abbey illustrate several 

 interesting elements in the Furness economy. 

 In the Yorkshire moors and dales the monastic 

 granges, Winterburn the most important, were 

 the centre of a busy pastoral life. The great 

 slopes of Whernside and Ingleborough were 

 dotted with sheep belonging to the abbey ; and 

 many a powerful baron of Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire gave them protection on their way 

 from pasture to pasture, or shelter when sick or 

 astray.*' Along the shore of Morecambe Bay 

 vassals of Furness dug turf and dried salt.** In 

 the fish booth at Beaumont Grange the abbot's 

 bailiffs stored the fish dragged from the waters of 

 the Lune. Beaumont Grange was, indeed, a 

 large and important colony. We hear of an 

 abbot's court for the neighbourhood.*' 



The monks shared the fishing with the 

 priory of St. Mary at Lancaster. In St. 

 Mary's pot the Lancaster monks had every third 

 throw, elsewhere every other throw. When 

 the priory passed to the convent of Syon, the 

 latter house made over the whole fishing rights 

 to Furness. A few years before the Dissolution 

 the tenants of Skerton complained that Abbot 

 Alexander had ' edified ' a fish-yard of such 

 great height and strength that the water was 

 stopped and did great damage to the town and 

 highway.'" 



In the Furness peninsula the monastic occu- 

 pation made great changes. At the Dissolution 

 the woods of High Furness fed three smithies, 

 and its streams turned five water-mills." The 

 abbot had his boats for fishing on Coniston Lake 

 and Windermere from very early times.'^ He 



" Pat. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 12. 



'* Anct. D., L.S. 118. 



^ Coucher, 621-3. 



*' Coucher B. passim. ^ Ibid. 



*' Ibid. fol. 88. For forest rights cf. fol. 70-84. 



™ See Anct. D., L. 346, L.S. 128 (agreement of 

 1460 with Abbess Elizabeth of Syon); Lanes. andChes. 

 Rec. (ed. Selby), 268, 368 ; Lanes. Plead, ii, 241. 

 From a petition of George Southworth L. and P. 

 Hen. Fill, xii (l), 1093, it appears that the 'fishing 

 of salmons ' had not been retained by the monks for 

 their own use. 



" Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. R. 376 ; 

 Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. Soc. viii (i), p. 90 ; 

 Jrch. Journ. iv, 88-105. 



'* Lanes. Final Coneords, i, 4-5. 



hunted and hawked on the hills between his 

 manor of Hawkshead and the lands of Ulvers- 

 ton ; at Hawkshead was a grange, half manor- 

 house, half cell, with private chapel for the 

 monks, and gallows for misguided tenants." 

 In Furness High and Low were commons and 

 woods kept for the maintenance of the monks' 

 cattle." In the course of time these had been 

 inclosed, like many other woods and pastures of 

 the abbey, to the great annoyance of the 

 tenantry.'" In Low Furness activities were 

 still more varied ; here too mills and smithies 

 were kept in the hands of the brethren. '° The 

 abbey cattle were pastured on Angerton Moss.'' 

 The Duddon and other streams provided fish. 

 The little borough of Dalton was six times in 

 the year the scene of a busy fair, which 

 brought distant merchants (0 quicken trade and 

 gave dues to the abbey.'* 



Few of the men who gave and took all these 

 benefits have left more than their names. In 1 3 1 4 

 Thomas, bishop of Whithern, granted forty days' 

 indulgence to those who prayed for the soul of 

 brother Elias of Egremont, the cellarer." In 

 1349 John of Collesham desired reconciliation; 

 he had left his order, because he had been 

 refused leave to visit Rome in the jubilee year.^"" 

 Fortunately our knowledge of the tenantry is 

 more definite. The isolation of Furness, to- 

 gether with the supremacy of the abbey, gave 

 that independence of tenure which has been 

 so characteristic of the district. The villeins 

 rose out of their servile condition easily ; ^"^ and 

 early in the sixteenth century the customs of 

 High and Low Furness could be put down 

 definitely in writing.^"^ Apart from the large 

 freeholders who only paid suit and annual 

 services, with no tithes, the tenants were cus- 

 tomary, holding by tenant-right. The only 

 copyholders seem to have been the burgesses of 

 Dalton, who paid a relief of 31. \d. on the bur- 

 gage and provided six men for the defence of 

 the abbey.'"' The customary tenants agreed 

 with Queen Elizabeth to pay a relief equal to 

 two years' rent. This was perhaps traditional, 

 but the usual payment had only been the formal 



^ Coueher, ill; Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. 

 Soe. xi (i), 7-16. 



'^ Rentals and Surv. R. 376. Their annual value 

 was jf39 13/. ^d. 



'* Lanes. Plead, i, 69. Abbot Alexander kept deer 

 where none had been before. 



^ Coueher, 249-61. " Ibid. 326, 331. 



"' By grant of Hen. Ill ; Coucher, 131, 149. 



"Anct. D., L.S. 118. 



™ Cal. Pap. Letters, iii, 355. 



"" Quitclaims of nativi to the abbey in Duchy of 

 Lane. Cart. Misc. m. 53, pp. 70, 68, 94 ; Anct. D., L. 

 456, 457 ; Coucher B. fol. 30^, 68-9. 



"^ West, Jntiq. oj Furness, 149, 599. 



'"'West, op. cit. (23-4. Copyholders and bur- 

 gage tenants in Dalton seem to be regarded as 

 identical. 



121 



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