A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



HOUSES OF PREMONSTRATENSIAN CANONS 



12. THE ABBEY OF COCKERS AND 



The Premonstratensian abbey of Cockersand 

 was originally founded as a small hospital of that 

 order of canons. William de Lancaster, second 

 baron of Kendal and lord of Wyresdale, who 

 died in 1184, gave the site ^ and was usually 

 considered the founder, but the foundation seems 

 to have been really due to the efforts of Hugh 

 Garth, a hermit ' of great perfection,' who is 

 said to have collected the alms of the neighbour- 

 hood for the erection of the hospital and to have 

 become its first master.- The canons came from 

 Croxton Abbey, Leicestershire,' which, probably 

 about this time, established a cell at Hornby. 



The site, bleak and exposed, consisted of moss- 

 land forming the seaward portion of the town- 

 ship of Cockerham to the north of the Cocker 

 sands ; the house was at first styled St. Mary of 

 the Marsh on the Cockersand.^ Some richer 

 land in the adjoining township of Thurnham 

 was added by William de Furness, lord of 

 Thurnham from iiSS." 



In 1 190 Pope Clement III took the ' monas- 

 tery hospital ' under his protection, confirmed 

 gifts of land by various donors, some of which 

 were in Cumberland, Westmorland, and South 

 Lancashire, and bestowed upon it the privileges 

 which the popes were accustomed to confer on 

 fully established religious houses ; among them 

 free election of their priors and exemption of 

 their demesne lands from tithe.* 



The hospital benefited by the widespread con- 

 nexions of the Lancaster family, but was presently 

 involved in a serious dispute with the Austin 

 Canons of Leicester Abbey. The Cockerham 

 manor, which included the site of the hospital, 

 had been given with the church to the Leicester 

 canons by William de Lancaster I, but resumed 

 by his son before his grant to Hugh the Hermit.' 

 Between 1 189 and 1 194 the abbey recovered the 

 manor in the court of John, count of Mortain, 

 then lord of the honour of Lancaster, against 

 Heloise widow of William de Lancaster II and 



■ Chartul. of Cockersand {Ch&t. See. New Ser.), 758. 



' WillL-im de Lancaster's grant was made to ' Hugh 

 the Hermit.' His surname and the other details come 

 from a ' visitation ' of the north by the herald Norroy 

 in 1530 ; Harh MS. 1499, Art. 69 ; Cf. L. and P. 

 Hen. nil, \x, 1 1 73, (2) According to the 'visitation ' 

 there were two canons in addition to the master. The 

 head of the hospital was called prior as early as 1 190; 

 Chartul. 2. 



' CoUectanea Anglo-Premonstratemia (Camden Soc), 

 i, 2 24. The abbot of Croxton as ' father abbot ' pre- 

 sided at elections of abbots of Cockersand. 



' 'De .Marisco super Kokersand' ; ibid. 327. 



' Ibid. 757. 6 jbid 2_6. 



' YiiTtt, Lanes. Pipe R. 391, 395 ; see above, p. 152. 



her second husband Hugh de Morvill.' This 

 decision introduced a defect into the hospital's 

 title, and though Leicester Abbey may not have 

 been disposed to press this to the utmost it 

 resisted the ambition of the canons to have the 

 priory promoted to abbatial status, and even con- 

 tested some of the privileges granted by 

 Clement III. Under these circumstances the 

 canons seem to have contemplated removal to 

 another site if they did not actually remove for 

 a time. Theobald Walter, who obtained a grant 

 of Amounderness from John, count of Mortain, 

 about 1 192, issued a charter within the next few 

 years bestowing Pilling Hay in free alms on 'the 

 abbot and canons of the Premonstratensian order 

 there serving God ... for the erection of an 

 abbey of the said order.' ' The canons undoubtedly 

 had an abbot before 1 199, and the style * abbas et 

 conventus de Marisco' without mention of 

 Cockersand, which seems confined to this period 

 of uncertainty, may have been adopted in defer- 

 ence to the Leicester objections.'" It suited a 

 site on the verge of Pilling Moss even better 

 than the original one. 



That no abbey of Cockersand was recognized 

 until Leicester withdrew its opposition seems 

 fairly clear from the terms of the settlement 

 arranged apparently in the sixth year of John 

 (1204-5). Abbot Paul and the convent of 

 Leicester granted to the canons of Cockersand 

 'locum in quo domus hospitalis de Kokersand 

 sita est,' with permission to build an abbey and 

 have an abbot." No tithes to Cockerham 

 church were to be exacted from the site of the 

 house, but this exemption was not to extend to 

 any other land it might acquire within the 

 parish. Cockersand undertook also not to acquire 

 any further land within the manor of Cocker- 

 ham.12 



Subsequent disputes between the two abbeys 

 over boundaries, tithes, pasture and pannage, and 

 the administration of sacraments at Cockersand 

 to parishioners of Cockerham, were the subject 

 of compositions in 1230, 1242-5, 1340, and 

 1364.'' King John showed some favour to the 

 canons. While the dispute with Leicester was 

 still undecided he confirmed them (1201) in 



\}^}h ' C'>^rtuL 375. 



Ibid. 332; Lanes. Pipe R. 339; Harl. Chart. 

 52, 1. I. Roger, who is called ' abbas de Marisco ' in 

 the last mentioned charter, signs as ' abbas de Cocker- 

 sand ' in a document dated 1205-6 and subsequent 

 to the agreement with Leicester described above : 

 Htst. of Lane. Ch. (Chet. Soc), 386 



I3 f/^^/*''- 376. '» Ibid. 377. 



Ibid. 379-390. For Cockersand's litigation 

 with Lancaster priory over the tithes of its lands in 

 the parishes of Poulton and Lancaster, see below, 

 p. 170. 



154 



