A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



to compel the return of two of the canons, Miles 

 Burre, afterwards prior, and William Payne, who 

 had left the monastery without leave and engaged 

 in secular disputes. The archdeacon had been 

 appealed to but took no action.'* James Grigg, 

 the last prior but one, confessed on his death-bed 

 that he had lent ^'jo of the money of the house 

 to certain persons, one of whom appears to have 

 been a poor relation of his own.*' This was 

 still owing when the hand of King Henry fell 

 upon the priory. In February, 1536, an Act of 

 Parliament authorized the dissolution of all reli- 

 gious houses with less than twelve inmates, the 

 clear annual income being under ;^200, and five 

 commissioners were appointed on 24 April to 

 make a new survey of certain Lancashire monas- 

 teries. They spent the first week in June at 

 Cartmel. There were only ten canons, and the 

 net revenue of the house, according to the valua- 

 tion made in the previous year for the tenth, was 

 far below the limit of the Act ; but the com- 

 missioners more than doubled the estimated 

 income and brought it slightly above the mini- 

 mum.*" Strictly speaking this discovery ought 

 to have excluded the house from the operation 

 of the Act, but its wording perhaps left it open to 

 the crown to fall back upon the old valuation. 

 Compared with some of the smaller monasteries 

 Cartmel was not without a claim to con- 

 sideration. Eight of the canons were ' of good 

 conversation.' Those in whose case this testi- 

 monial was withheld are doubtless the two 

 canons unnamed reported by the visitors of the 

 year before as guilty of incontinence, one of 

 them having six children.*' Richard Preston, 

 the prior, aged forty-one, was one, and the other 

 was William Panell, aged sixty-eight, to whom 

 the convent had given licence to live where he 

 pleased and a pension of ,^5 13;. 4^'., which 

 Doctors Legh and Layton had revoked. With 

 these exceptions all were desirous to ' continue 

 in religion ' either here or, if the house was 

 dissolved, in some other monastery, and even 

 Panell was resigned to that fate if he were not 

 allowed a ' capacity ' to go into the world.** 

 The servants of the priory numbered thirty-seven, 

 of whom ten were waiting servants, nineteen 

 household and estate officers, and only eight 

 servants of husbandry.** A stipend of ^^6 13^. ^d. 



*' MS. Corp. Christi Cant. 170, fol. 123. 



"^ Duchy of Lane Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 4, No. 12. 



** Ibid, and ptfo. 5, No. 7. 



^' L. and P. Hen. nil, x, 364. 



*' The eight were James Eskerige, sub-prior (aet. 36), 

 John Ridley, formerly cellarer (aet. 32), Brian Willen, 

 last cellarer (aet. 28), Richard Bakehouse (aet. 41), 

 Augustine Fell (aet. 33), Thomas Brigge (aet. 30), 

 Thomas Person (aet. 25), and John Cowper (aet. 25). 

 All the canons were priests. 



■"' The w.iges of the waiters ranged from 6s. %d. a 

 yeir to 20^., those of the officers from 8/. to £1 6s. Sd., 

 those of the hinds from 8/. to 1 6s. The whole wages 

 bill was £2^ 14/. The officers were brewer, baker, 



a year was paid to the parish priest of Cartmel.** 

 From time immemorial the priory had been 

 bound to provide guides for those crossing the 

 Cartmel Sands on the west of the peninsula and 

 the Kent Sands on the east side. The ' Con- 

 ductor of the King's people over Cartmel Sands ' 

 was paid £6 a year.*' To the ' Cartership of 

 Kent Sands ' were attached a tenement at Kent's 

 Bank called the Carterhouse and certain lands 

 and wages. It had recently been the subject of 

 a dispute between the priory and one Edward 

 Barborne, ' King's serjant in the office of groom 

 porter,' which was settled by arbitration in Feb- 

 ruary, 1536. Barborne was to occupy the 

 office peaceably for life, binding himself to exer- 

 cise it properly.'^ It looks as if he had been 

 forced upon the canons by outside pressure. 

 The tenants of the priory were required by their 

 tenure to assist the prior and canons when 

 necessary in the passage of the sands on pain of 

 forfeiture.^' 



When the valuation for the tenth was made 

 '" ^535 t^^ house claimed exemption on 

 ;^i2 6/. 8^. defrayed annually in alms, ;^I2 to 

 seven poor persons praying daily for the soul of 

 the founder, and the rest distributed on Easter 

 Day among divers boys and others. But for 

 some reason not stated the larger sum was dis- 

 allowed. 



The commissioners of 1536, whose mandate 

 limited them to inquiry, left the canons still 

 ignorant of what their fate was to be, referring 

 it to the pleasure of the king, whom the Act 

 authorized to except any house from its opera- 

 tion."^ Their suspense cannot, however, have 

 been of long duration, for by the autumn the 

 priory had been surrendered and the canons 

 dispersed. Early in October Sir James Layburn 

 reminded Cromwell that he had been promised 

 the farm of a benefice belonging to Cartmel or 

 Conishead.5' But the Pilgrimage of Grace was 



barber, cook, scullion, butler of the fratry, 2 wood- 

 leaders, keeper of the woods, 2 millers, fisher, wright, 

 pulter, fosterman, maltmaker, 2 shepherds, and a 

 hunter. The wright received the highest wages, the 

 butler of the fratry the lowest. 



" Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 4, No. 12. 

 The raJor Eccl. (v, 272) only mentions two lay clerks 

 in Cartmel church, to whom they were bound by 

 charter to pay £% a year. Perhaps a portion of the 

 tithes was set aside for the stipend of the parish priest. 



°' Valor Eccl. v, 272. 



" Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 4, 

 No. 12. The cartership does not appear in the 

 Valor, probably because of the endowment. On 

 the dissolution of the priory the appointment passed 

 into the hands of the Duchy of Lane, and the office 

 was held for many generations by a family who 

 derived from it their name of Carter ; Baines, Hist. 

 of Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 626. 



^ Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 4, No q. 



^ Stat, of the Realm, iii, 575. r t. ;> 



^' L. and P. Hen. Vlll,x\, 608. 

 46 



