A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



of taxation.'* In 1 341 a royal licence was 

 granted to the canons to appropriate the church 

 of Hale in Copeland, the gift of Adam son of 

 Richard of Ulverston.-' 



A century later (1440) they were obliged to 

 go to law to recover their rights in the hospital 

 of St. Leonard at Kendal, of which they had 

 been disseised by Sir Thomas Parr, who inherited 

 part of the Bruce moiety of the Lancaster estates.-* 

 As early as 1525 the house was threatened with 

 dissolution. Certain persons brought pressure to 

 bear on Wolsey to take it into the king's hands, 

 apparently as one of the small monasteries which 

 the cardinal was authorized by Pope Clement VII 

 to suppress in order to endow his college at Oxford. 

 The Duke of Suffolk intervened on its behalf; 

 ' the house,' he said, ' is of great succour to the 

 King's subjects and the prior of virtuous disposi- 

 tion.' ^ For the moment the danger passed. 

 The next prior, Thomas Lord, was represented 

 in a much less favourable light in 1533. Dr. 

 Thomas Legh, afterwards too well known as the 

 visitor of the monasteries, accused him in a letter 

 to Cromwell as having contrived the murder with 

 circumstances of great barbarity, on 18 July in 

 that year, of his(Legh's) kinsman, John Bardsey, 

 a neighbour of the priory. The crime had been 

 reported to Mr. Justice Fitz Herbert at the ensuing 

 Lancaster assizes, but no indictment was put in 

 as the matter was 'colourably borne by divers 

 gentlemen.' ^ Legh does not mention the motive 

 of the assassins, and the charge against the prior 

 can hardly have been sustained, for no action 

 seems to have been taken against him. The 

 only corroboration, if it can be called such, is 

 contained in a petition to the chancellor of the 

 duchy from Richard Johnson, who asserted that 

 the prior had maliciously ejected him from the 

 office of ' Carter or Guyder of Levyn sands in 

 Furness,' which his father and grandfather had 

 held before him, because he arrested Edward 

 Lancaster, who by the prior's command had 

 murdered the petitioner's master, John Bardsey." 

 Having an income of less than ;^200 a year, 

 the priory was dissolved under the Act of Feb- 

 ruary 1536. There were then eight canons 

 including the prior, an ex-prior with a pension, 

 and one canon who was ' keeping cure ' at Orton 



'* Pope Nich. Tax. 308. There must have been a 

 considerable recovery by 1390 when the priory was 

 said to be worth 340 marks a year ; Cal. Pap. Letters, 

 iv, 367. 



" Ca/. of Pat. 1304-43. P- 195- The archdeacon 

 of Richmond gave his consent in 1 345 ; Nicolson and 

 Bum, op. cit. ii, 31. In 1292 it was taxed as worth 

 £6 ly. ^d. reduced in 13 18 to £z. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Class x 3, ii, 31. 



" L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (i), 1253. 



" Ibid, vi, 1 1 24. 



" Duchy of Lane Misc. bdle. 158, No. 22. John 

 Hartley held this office of ' Conductor of all the king's 

 people across the sands of the sea called Leven sands ' 

 at the Dissolution. 



church, but revocable. The two latter desired to 

 be released from their vows.'" If Doctors Legh 

 and Layton, the visitors of the previous autumn, 

 are to be believed, five of them were guilty of 

 incontinence, two in an aggravated form.^' 



Two persons, one a widow, * had their living ' 

 of the house. Alms to the amount of nearly ^^9 

 a year were given to the poor, the greater part 

 by the direction of the founder. Nine waitinir 

 servants, fourteen common officers of household, 

 and sixteen servants of husbandry were employed. 

 Church and buildings were found in ' good state 

 and plight.''" The prior was provided for by 

 the vicarage of Orton, the others were allowed 

 pensions of ^i ijs. id.^^ They were not yet 

 dispersed or had returned when on 16 October, 

 1536, they wrote to certain of the northern rebels 

 asking for their help.'* 



The priory was dedicated to St. Mary. Its 

 original endowments as a hospital had since been 

 largely increased by successive benefactors, chiefly 

 in Furness, Westmorland, and Copeland. 

 William de Lancaster III extended their demesne 

 lands in the parish of Ulverston, and his other 

 gifts included fishery rights in Thurstan Water 

 (Coniston Lake) and the rivers Crake and Leven." 

 In Furness, lands were given at Bardsey by the 

 family of that name,'^ at Torver, by John son of 

 Roger de Lancaster,''' in Copeland, lands at 

 Whitbeck by the Morthyng family and others,'^ 

 at Hale by Adam son of Richard de Ulverston.'' 

 In Westmoriand, besides Kendal hospital and 

 Baysbrown in Langdale, another gift of William 

 de Lancaster III, they possessed a moiety of the 

 vill of Patton, the gift of John son of Richard de 

 Coupland,*" the manor of Haverbrack (in Beetham 

 parish), given by Margaret de Ros,*' niece of 

 William de Lancaster III, and other lands. 

 Poulton in Lonsdale was alienated by the priory 

 in 1235,*' but at the Dissolution it had some 

 valuable property in Lancaster." These tempo- 

 ralities were valued for the tenth in 1535 at 



" Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 5, No. 7. 

 In 1390 the number of canons had been nine ; Cal. 

 of Pap. Letters, iv, 367. 



^1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, 364. 



" Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. c,No. 7. 



"Ibid.ptfo. s, Nos. 8, II. ' 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi, 1279. 



" Dugdale, Mon. v, 55 ; Duchy of Lane. Anct. D.. 

 L. 578. 



" Dugdale, Mon. v, 55. 



" Duchy of Lane. Anct. D., L. 565. 



"Ibid. L. 568, 569, 571-4, 584, 586 ; Nicolson 

 and ijurn, op. cit. u, 1 6. 



''Cal. of Pat. 1340-3, p. ,95. 



*»Pat. i2Edw. II, pt. i,m. 22. 



" Ibid. ; Nicobon and Bum, op. cit. i 227 



" Lanes. Final Con. (Rec. Soc), i, 63. ' 



" Duchy of Lane. Rental and Su'rv. ptfo. 5, No 11 

 The pnory had bailiffi at Blawith (par. of Ulverston); 

 Baysbrown, Whitbeck, and Haverbrack, and a fifth for 

 Its Lancashire lands. 



142 



