RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



canons secured from Edward II at York in 1 3 1 8.^" 

 In 1256 Magnus, king of Man and the Isles, had 

 freed ' his special friends the prior and convent 

 of Conishead ' from all toll throughout his 

 dominions." 



That so considerable a part of their endow- 

 ments lay remote from the priory in South Cum- 

 berland (Copeland) was not wholly an accident. 

 The monks of Furness were naturally jealous of 

 the rise of another religious house so close to their 

 own and on land of which they were chief lords. 

 Earl William de Warenne had, indeed, at their 

 instance forbidden the establishment of a second 

 house within the bounds of Furness,^* and the 

 original form of a hospital may possibly have 

 been intended to get round this prohibition. The 

 abbey and the priory were soon involved in a 

 dispute, the former claiming the churches of 

 Ulverston and Pennington as chapels of their 

 appropriate church of Urswick, and the canons 

 asserting their right to Hawkshead chapel, as 

 dependent upon the church of Ulverston,^' and 

 to the fishery at Depestal. An amicable settle- 

 ment was, however, arrived at in 1208 by the 

 mediation of certain magnates and the advice of 

 the abbot of Savigny and other heads of Cister- 

 cian houses. The claims in question were respec- 

 tively abandoned and the opportunity was taken 

 to impose restrictions on the younger house which 

 would avert future quarrels. The number of 

 ■canons was never to exceed thirteen without the 

 permission of Furness Abbey ; no woman must 

 ■dwell in the house, and any future acquisitions of 

 land in Furness must be confined (except by the 

 abbey's consent) to the Ulverston fief, and even 

 here were not to amount in the total to more 

 than a third of its area. Monks and canons 

 agreed to live in relations of brotherly affection, 

 each giving the other advice and help when need 

 arose. This settlement being considered specially 

 favourable to the priory, it was required to pay to 

 Furness an annual pension of 501." Yet the 

 affair did not end here. The rector of Ulverston 

 still asserted the rights of his church over Hawks- 

 head chapel ; the monks of Furness apparently 

 thought they had got the worst of the compro- 

 mise. But the former ultimately admitted their 

 contention on condition of being allowed to 

 hold the chapel from Dalton for the rest of his 

 life," and the archdeacon of Richmond com- 

 pleted the pacification by raising the pension 

 payable by the canons to Furness to £(>^^ 



'» Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 22 ; Dugdale, Moti. 

 Vi, 556. " Ibid. 558. 



" Fumeu Coucher (Chet. Soc), 1 26. 



" Furness contended that it was a chapel of Dalton. 



" Duchy of Lane. Anct. D., L.^oo ; Lanes. Pipe R. 

 362. The Furness Coucher (437) supplies the date. 



'Mbid. 651. 



'° In 1230 according to Notit. Cestr. u, 533 ; no 

 jreference is given. This was certainly the amount paid 

 In 1292 {Pope Nkh. Tax. 308), and down to the 

 Dissolution ; Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 271. 



Henceforth the two houses seem to have lived on 

 good terms. 



It was part of the arrangement of 1 208 that 

 the priory should enjoy the same rights in the 

 churches of Ulverston and Pennington as Furness 

 had in Urswick. Archbishop Roger had, we have 

 seen, already appropriated Pennington to the 

 house, but the archdeacon of Richmond was in- 

 duced to confirm his charter.^' He proceeded to 

 appropriate Ulverston to the use of the canons at 

 the instance of the patron, Gilbert Fitz Reinfred, 

 son-in-law of William de Lancaster 11.^* No 

 vicarage was ever ordained here or indeed in any 

 of the Conishead churches in the diocese of York. 

 With the exception of Ulverston, whose proximity 

 to the priory supplied a ground for appropriating 

 it in spirituals as well as temporalities, none of 

 them was worth more than ;f 10 a year." They 

 were served by stipendiary chaplains.^ At Orton 

 in the diocese of Carlisle, which was more valua- 

 ble. Bishop Hugh (1219-23) in sanctioning an 

 appropriation insisted on the appointment of a 

 vicar, but the living was sometimes held by canons 

 of the house.^^ In 1220 Orton, in spite of the 

 appropriation, was withheld from them by one 

 J. de Rumeli, clerk, but a commission named 

 by Pope Honorius III decided in their favour.^^ 



Early in the fourteenth century the priory's 

 right to Orton church was again assailed. The 

 abbot of Whitby claimed it as a chapel of his appro- 

 priate church of Crosby Ravensworth, and in 

 1309 took forcible possession. Next year both 

 parties agreed to arbitration, which resulted in 

 favour of Conishead.^^ The priory suffered 

 severely during the Scottish invasion of 13 16. 

 The taxable value of Ulverston rectory had to be 

 reduced by five-sixths, and its other churches in 

 the archdeaconry of Richmond entirely relieved 



" This seems the natural point to place Archdeacon 

 Honorius's confirmation of the appropriation ofMun- 

 caster, Whitbeck, and Pennington ; Lanes. Pipe R. ^66. 



" Ibid. 364. 



" In 1292 Ulverston was taxed at ^^29 6s. id. ; 

 Pope Nich. Tax. 308. 



^'' Boniface IX, in 1390, granted an indult that the 

 churches of Ulverston and Muncaster and the chapel 

 of Drigg should be served ' as has been done from time 

 immemorial ' by stipendiary priests removable at their 

 pleasure ; Cal. Pap. Letters, iv, 367. 



" Duchy of Lane. Anct. D., L. 292, 293 ; Nicolson 

 and Burn, op. cit. i, 482, 483. In admitting Simon 

 of Horbling as vicar in 128 1, Bishop Ireton stipulated 

 that the rule which forbad the canons to go into the 

 outer world alone should be observed by associating 

 with him a fellow canon and a secular chaplain and 

 that he should not personally administer the sacraments. 



" Duchy of Lane. Anct. D., L. 563. They claimed 

 to have possessed the appropriation ' aliquamdiu,' so 

 that Bishop Hugh may only have been confirming an 

 earlier assignment. The papal order implies that 

 Orton was not the only possession of which Conishead 

 had at this time been unlawfully deprived. 



" Col. of Pat. 1307-13, pp. 245, 246 ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Anct. D., L. 294. 



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