A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



HOUSES OF AUSTIN CANONS 



8. THE PRIORY OF CONISHEAD 



The Augustinian priory of Conishead was 

 originally founded as a hospital in the reign of 

 Henry II and before 1181, the year of the 

 death of Roger, archbishop of York, who licensed 

 the appropriation to the brethren of the churches 

 of Pennington in Furness and of Muncaster 

 and Whitbeck in Cumberland,^ the gift of 

 Gamel de Pennington.^ Gamel, who also gave 

 the church of Orton in Westmorland and the 

 vill of Poulton in Lonsdale and whose manor of 

 Pennington adjoined the estate on which the 

 hospital was built, was probably its founder ; he 

 is so described in several late mediaeval docu- 

 ments.' That honour has, however, been claimed 

 for William de Lancaster II, baron of Kendal 

 (i 170-84) and tenant of the manor of Ulverston 

 under Furness Abbey, who granted to the house 

 all Conishead, the church of Ulverston, and 40 

 acres in its fields ; a salt-work and rights of 

 turbary, pasture, pannage, and timber-taking in 

 his wood of Furness and manor of Ulverston ; 

 and whose descendants held the advowson or 

 patronage of the priory.* But Mr. Farrer 

 suggests that as far as Conishead was concerned 

 he was only confirming as superior lord an original 

 gift of Gamel de Pennington.' 



This suggestion is open to the objection that 

 he does not mention Gamel and that Conishead 

 is not enumerated among the latter's gifts in 

 Edward II's inspeximus. Possibly the true 

 explanation of these contradictions maybe found 

 in a remark dropped by a visitor to the priory 

 in 1535. After stating that it was founded by 

 Gamel de Pennington in 1067 (? 11 67) he 

 adds : — ' It was in strife for some time being 

 built upon the land of William Lancaster, baron 

 of Kirkby Kendal and Ulverston.' ° If there 

 was a dispute William de Lancaster may have 

 ignored Gamel's grant and made a new one. 



' Duchy of Lane. Anct. D., L. 291 ; Farrer, Law/. 

 Pipe R. 366. 



' Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. 1, m. 22 (which also con- 

 firms his gift of Orton church and Poulton). A grant 

 of Muncaster and its chapel of St. Aldeburge by his 

 eldest son Benet vpith the consent of Alan his heir 

 (Duch. of Lane. Anct. D., L. 5 79) is regarded by Mr. 

 Farrer (op. cit. 360) as a confirmation of his father's 

 gift, to which, however, it makes no reference. 



' Dodsworth MSS. (Bodl. Lib.), cxxxi, fol. 1-84 ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 5, No. 1 5 ; 

 L. and P. Hen. Fill, ix, 1173. 



* In the absence of an original and of a chartulary 

 of the house this charter is only known in an abbre- 

 viated form from the general inspeximus by Edw. II, 

 of the priory's evidences. (See note 2 above.) Mr. 

 Farrer attempts a reconstruction ; Lanes. Pipe R. 356. 



' Ibid. 357. ' L. and P. Hen. VIIl, ix, 1173. 



On the death without issue in 1246 or 

 William de Lancaster III, and the division of his 

 lands between the sons of his sisters Heloise de 

 Bruce and Alice de Lindsay, the patronage of 

 Conishead formed part of the Lindsay moiety 

 and so passed by marriage into the possession of 

 the family of Couci (or de Guines).' William 

 de Couci dying childless in 1343 it may be pre- 

 sumed to have followed the fortunes of this fief, 

 which was frequently regranted by the crown 

 and as frequently escheated again. The last 

 subject who held it before the dissolution of 

 the monasteries was the illegitimate son of 

 Henry VIII, Henry, duke of Richmond, but in 

 1536 it was once more in the hands of the 

 crown. 



William de Lancaster II followed up his charter 

 by further gifts, and before his death in 1 184 the 

 promotion of the house to the dignity of a priory 

 seems to have taken place.' His grandson William 

 de Lancaster III was also a generous donor, and 

 finally gave the advowson and custody of the 

 leper hospital of St. Leonard at Kendal on his 

 death-bed. Other early benefactors were John 

 son of Punzun, who gave the church of Ponsonby 

 in Cumberland to the priory while it was still a 

 hospital ; Maldred son of Gamel de Pennington, 

 Alexander son of Gerold and his wife, Alice de 

 Romilly, William de Bardsey, John de Copeland, 

 and Anselm son of Michael (le Fleming) de Fur- 

 ness, from whom they obtained the chapel of 

 Drigg, near Ravenglass on the Cumberland coast.' 

 Most of these grants are only known from the 

 general confirmation of their charters which the 



' Cal. of Pat. 1330-4, p. 560 and 1340-3, p. 70. 

 It went with a moiety of Ulverston. It is true that 

 in a division of the Bruce moiety of the barony of 

 Kendal effected in or before 1297 (ibid. 1 292-1 301, 

 p. 304) between William de Ros and his cousin 

 Marmaduke de Twenge, the patronage of Conishead 

 is included in the share of the latter. But this must 

 surely be an error or a baseless claim ; in the later 

 division of 1 301 it does not appear; Lanes. Final 

 Concords (Rec. Soc), i, 213-15. For the descent of 

 the Lancaster estates see Cal. of Pat. 1381-92, p. 417 ; 

 Lanes. Inquests (Rec. Soc), i, 168, 240 ; Ferguson, 

 Hist, of Westmld. 118; Nicolson and Burn, Hist, of 

 ITestmld. and Cumb. \, 40. 



' His grant of Gascow was made ' Deo et ecclesiae 

 B. Mariae de Conyngeshevede etcanonicis ibidem Deo 

 servientibus ' {Lanes. Pipe R. 359), while earlier bene- 

 factions were made to ' the hospital (or house) of St. 

 Mary of C. and the brethren there.' 



' Drigg, now a separate parish church, may have 

 been a chapel in the parish of Ireton ; Nicolson and 

 Burn {Hist, of Westmld. and Cumb. ii, 25) needlessly 

 question its identification with the ' capella de Dreg ' 

 given to Conishead, on the ground that part of the 

 manor of Drigg belonged to Calder Abbey. 

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