A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



13. PRIORY OF HORNBY 



This small house of regular canons was estab- 

 lished in the second half of the twelfth century 

 by the Montbegons of Hornby. The canons, it 

 seems probable, were brought from the Pre- 

 monstratensian house at Croxton in Leicester- 

 shire, of which the priory was certainly after- 

 wards, and perhaps from the outset, a dependent 

 ' cell. Croxton Abbey had been founded shortly 

 before 1 159 by William, earl of Warenne and 

 count of Boulogne and Mortain, lord of the 

 honour of Lancaster. Roger de Montbegon III 

 (11 72 P-I226) 'gave to the canons of Hornebi 

 in alms lOO acres of land in Hornebi,' '^ and he 

 doubtless was the founder of the priory, though 

 some have attributed its creation to his fether 

 Adam or his grandfather Roger II."' 



The third Roger de Montbegon also granted 

 to the priory the advowson of Melling church '^ 

 and presumably that of Tunstall. The former 

 had belonged to the Norman abbey of S^es as 

 part of the endowment of its cell at Lancaster, 

 but was transferred to Roger before 1 2 10 in 

 consideration of a yearly pension of 2s. from the 

 church to Lancaster Priory and his renunciation 

 of all claim upon the chapel of Gressingham, 

 hitherto dependent upon Melling."' Roger 

 dying without issue, his lands passed to his kins- 

 man Henry de Monewden, who on 14 September, 

 1227, alienated the Lonsdale estates, including 

 Hornby Castle and the advowsons of the priory 

 and of Melling, to Hubert de Burgh and his 

 wife Margaret. '"■• The prior's failure to chal- 

 lenge the inclusion of the Melling advowson 

 involved him nearly twenty years later (1246) 

 in litigation with Hubert's widow over the right 

 of presentation to the living.'^' Before the pro- 

 ceedings had gone very far Geoffrey, abbot of 

 Croxton, intervened on the ground that the 

 priory was a cell of his abbey and that he could 

 remove the prior at his will, which the prior 

 admitted to be the case. A compromise was 

 ultimately arranged by which the Countess 

 Margaret acknowledged Croxton's right to the 

 advowson, but was allowed to present her clerk 

 pro hac vice. A licence for the appropriation of 

 the church was obtained by the abbey from 

 Edward II on 20 May, 1 3 1 0."° Tunstall church 

 was appropriated and a vicarage ordained before 

 1230."' 



'" Testa de Nevill, ii, 832 (Inquest of 1212). 



'■' Lanes. Inq. (Rec. Soc), i, 82. 



'** Lanes. Final Cone. (Rec. Soc), i, 95. 



'" Hut. of Lane. Ch. (Chet. Soc.\ 20. For the 

 date see />ost, p. 168. 



'" Ca/. of Chart. R. i, 60. On a plea of warranty 

 the charter was reinforced by a final concord on 

 3 Nov. 1229 ; Lanes. Final Cone, i, 56. 



'" Ibid, i, 94. 



"* Cal. of Pat. 1307-13, p. 229. 



^" Hist, of Lane. Ch. 164. 



Henry de Monewden's disposal of the advowson 

 of the priory, and the absence of any mention 

 of its subordination to Croxton before 1235,'** 

 have inspired a suggestion that it was originally 

 independent and that Hubert de Burgh, who 

 received a grant of the manor of Croxton in 

 1224,"' first made it a dependent cell of the 

 Leicestershire abbey. But this is only con- 

 jecture, and if the priory contained no more 

 than three canons, including the prior — its later 

 complement — it is scarcely likely to have been 

 independent. 



From the middle of the thirteenth century, 

 at all events, the dependent status of the priory 

 is sufficiently clear. In 1292 the abbot of 

 Croxton sued for lands in Wrayton ' ut jus 

 hospitalis sui S. Wilfridi de Hornby,'"" and a 

 letter is extant from Abbot Thomas 'ad obe- 

 dientiarios suos de Hornby ' requiring better 

 obedience to the prior appointed by him."* 

 For above sixteen years prior to 1526 the then 

 abbot of Croxton is recorded to have occupied 

 not only the rectory but the vicarage of Tun- 

 stall, and in 1527 the vicars both of Melling and 

 Tunstall were canons of Croxton."^ In the 

 Fa lor Ecclesiastieus of 1535 the possessions of 

 the priory were assessed with those of the abbey. 

 It is true that the prior of Hornby was some- 

 times present at the provincial chapter of the 

 abbots of the order,"' and that the priory was 

 separately surrendered to Legh and Laytorv 

 on 23 February, 1536,'" by the prior William 

 Halliday, whose morals they had called in 

 question,"' and the two canons, John Fletcher 

 and Robert Derby.^'° But this was evidently 

 cancelled and a new prior appointed, for the 

 surrender of Croxton Abbey, made on the 8 Sep- 

 tember, 1538, was signed by John Consyll,, 



"" Lanes. Final Cone, i, 67 : Abbot Ralph quit- 

 claims land in Tatham. In January, 1227, an oxgang 

 of land in Wennington was quitclaimed to the prior 

 of Hornby ; ibid, i, 151. 



^^ Lanes. Inq. i, 103. Richard de Croxton was 

 master of Hornby in or about 1227 ; Coekersand 

 Chartul. (Chet. Soc), 901. 



""Assize R. Lane. 20 Edw. I. rot. 12. Pope 

 Nieh. Tax. (309) of the same year speaks of a 'custos 

 domus de Hornby.' 



"' Colleetanea Anglo-Premonstratensia (Camden Soc),. 

 ii, 148. The editor's date seems too early. They 

 must obey him as they would their claustral prior if 

 they were in the convent. 



'^' Duchy of Lanes. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 5,. 

 No. 15. 



'" e.g. In 1476 and 1479; Colleetanea jinglo- 

 Premonstratensia (Camden Soc), i, 140-8. Hornby 

 was not, however, reckoned as one of their thirty-one 

 English houses (ibid. 224), nor does it seem to 

 have been subject to visitation by the abbot of Pr<- 

 montr^ ; ibid. 193. 



'^ Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii. App. ii, 23. 



'" L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, 364. 



'•^ Cf. Leland, Colleetanea, i, 72 ; L. and P. 

 Hen. Fill, ix, 8 1 6. 



160 



