RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



The highest of these was the high steward, the 

 protector of the abbey and its representative in 

 the lay world. The office never seems to have 

 been really important, although it was the source 

 of some disputes at the time of the Dissolution.''''^ 

 At this time the Earl of Cumberland was steward 

 of the Winterburn lands, which had needed 

 special protection throughout.^"' The rental 

 mentions eighteen bailiffs, of whom the chief 

 was the bailiff of the liberty, who received ;^8 

 per annum. This officer had originally been 

 the judicial deputy of the abbot, together with 

 the coroner,^"^ and probably still performed the 

 duty, but as the time of danger drew near, the 

 abbot seems to have bought off opposition by 

 the increase of offices.^"' Apart from the 

 bailiff's fees we read of grants pro custodia sesslonum 

 and pro custodia curie Birelay ^"^ et Sheryftorne ; also 

 of a general receiver.^' A master mason is also 

 mentioned. 



Thirty monks signed the deed of surrender, 

 and two were in Lancaster gaol. Sussex 

 mentioned thirty-three.^"* Beck calculates, very 

 fairly, that this number implies about one hun- 

 dred servants in place of conversi. The full 

 complement of the abbey in its best days is not 

 known, but perhaps the decrease in 1536 was 

 not very marked. 



The daughter houses of Furness were Calder 

 (i 135) and Swineshead (1134 or 1 148) in Eng- 

 land ; Rushen (1138), in the Isle of Man ; and 

 in Ireland, Fermoy (1170), Holy Cross (11 80), 

 Corcumruadh (1197), and Inislaunaght (1240). 

 This last was subjected to Furness some time 

 after its foundation. A Furness colony in Wyres- 

 dale removed to Wotheney in Limerick f . 1 1 98.^"' 



The Coucher of the abbey was compiled in 

 1412 by the monk John Stell, at the command 



"" See previous notes. Sir Robert de Holland 

 appears in 1 3 Edw. Ill ; and Sir W. Compton and 

 Lord Monteagle preceded the Earl of Derby ; Beck, 

 op. cit. p. cv ; Lanes. Pleadings, i, 69 ; L. and P. 

 Henry nil, xii (2), 1 1 5 1 (2) ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rej>. 

 iii, 247. It is possible that Cromwell's reference to the 

 Earl of Northumberland may only refer to Borrow- 

 dale and Winterburn, as the Derby Corres. (pp. 115, 

 127) would suggest. 



™ Beck, op. cit. 332; Rot. Pari, iii, 657; 

 Coucher B. fol. 116. 



*" The bailiff is called steward in the custom of 

 Low Furness (West, Antiq. of Furness, 153), unless the 

 deputies of the high steward had taken over some of 

 his fiinctions. For the coroner see above. 



^°* Beck, op. cit. 337. On the fly-leaf of the rental 

 is written in a later hand. ' the ofFes of vater bayle 

 and bayle arronnd is oun onest mans levying in yat 

 contre.' 



'°^ For the Burlaw see notes on Coucher, 84, 459. 



*°' Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 9, No. 73; Beck, op. cit. 



338. 



'"^ Beck, op. cit. 350-52. 



'"' Coucher, 11-12 ; Chartulariesof St. Mary's Abbey, 

 Dublin (Rolls Ser.), ii, 1 05-1 10 ; for Wyresdale see 

 below, p. 131. 



of Abbot Dalton. A companion, probably 

 Richard Esk, wrote the verses which relate the 

 story, and drew up the tabula sententialis.^^'^ 

 Perhaps this John is the monk of Furness who 

 occupied one of the fellows' chambers in Univer- 

 sity College, Oxford, in 1400, at a rent of 

 1 35. ^d.^^^ The second part of the Coucher, 

 which deals with the Lonsdale, Yorkshire, and 

 Cumberland lands, has not been printed. ^'^ The 

 first and more important part has always been 

 among the Duchy documents, and has been 

 edited by Mr. Atkinson.''" The Coucher is 

 based upon deeds, very many of which still exist 

 and are calendered in the appendices to the 

 thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth reports of the Deputy 

 Keeper. In the introduction the compiler of 

 the Coucher refers to a libellus vetus et de vetusta 

 littera as his authority for the foundation of the 

 abbey. ^^* The monastic library also included a 

 register and chronicles of tJlster.^'^ Celtic 

 literature, indeed, seems to have been well 

 known there in the early days. Jocelin, the only 

 Furness chronicler whose name has come down 

 to us, wrote lives of St. Patrick and St. Kenti- 

 gern, under the direction of the archbishop of 

 Armagh and the bishop of Glasgow. For the 

 latter his authorities were a life used in the 

 church at Glasgow, and another codiculum, stilo 

 Scottico dictatum. The same monk also wrote the 

 life of St. Waltheof, abbot of Melrose, in which 

 he reveals a sympathetic knowledge of northern 

 monastic history.*" 'Jocelin is a close imitator 



"» Coucher, 23. '" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 47 8 . 



"' Robert Treswell used it in 1597 ; Harl. MSS. 

 V, 294, No. 70. In 1637 it was penes auditorem 

 Bullock ; Dodsworth MSS. 66, fol. 1 24. See also 

 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. i, 

 114; Clarke, Repertorium Bibliographicum, 26^. It 

 is now Add. MS. 33244 in the British Museum, 

 which acquired it from the Hamilton Library. 



"' For the Chetham Society (New Ser.), vols, ix, 

 xi, xiv. Unfortunately the editor has not used any 

 of the original deeds, and is rather arbitrary in the 

 use of notes. This is the more to be regretted since 

 the Couchers, though beautifiil in appearance, are 

 not very carefully compiled. 



"* Coucher, S. '" Ibid. 12. 



"° Pits (De Scriptoribus Anglicis, 884) gives him on 

 the authority of Stow and Fitzherbert. He thinks 

 he was Cambobritanus, and speaks of many books de 

 Britonum episcopis. Tanner (Bibliotheca, ed. 1748, 

 pp. 429-30) gives a good account of Jocelin and the 

 history of his writings ; see also ' Life of St. Kentigern,' 

 (ed. Forbes, in Historians of Scotland, v, 63, 312) ; 

 Hardy, Descript. Cat. i, 34, 63, 207. The ' Life of 

 St. Patrick,' which was printed by Messingham and 

 Colgan, was, according to Zimmer's theory, written 

 in the interests of Armagh [Celtic Church, 104; cf. 

 Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, 1, 132). The prologue 

 would allow us to date the author in 1 1 8 5 (see 

 Tanner), but the dedication of the life of St. Waltheof 

 {Acta Sanctorum, August, i, 246) to William of Scot- 

 land and his son Alexander makes it difficult to 

 identify him with the abbot Jocelin. 



129 



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