A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



There was a chantry in the chapel of the 

 friary founded (so the Chantry Commissioners 

 reported in 1547) by the ancestors of Sir Thomas 

 Lawrence of Ashton near Lancaster. Robert 

 Makerell, the last priest of the chantry, continued 

 to celebrate masses ' at his pleasure ' in other 

 places after the dissolution of the friary.* 



15. THE HOUSE OF FRANCISCAN 

 FRIARS, PRESTON 



Edmund, earl of Lancaster, younger son of 

 Henry III, has from the fourteenth century been 

 considered the founder of the house of Grey 

 Friars at Preston.' Leland, however, remarks 

 that, though he was ' the Original and great 

 Builder of this house,' the site was given by a 

 member of the local family of Preston, an Irish 

 representative of which became Lord Gorman- 

 ston in 1390.^" This is supported by evidence 

 that the Prestons at a somewhat later date held 

 the land adjoining the friary.'^ From an entry 

 in the Close Rolls, hitherto overlooked, it would 

 appear that the Franciscans had settled at Preston 

 before Earl Edmund's connexion with the 

 county began. On 25 October, 1260, 

 Henry III granted to the Friars Minor of 

 Preston five oaks in Sydwood, Lancaster, for 

 building." Presumably the site had already 

 been obtained from one of the Prestons. Sub- 

 sequent gifts by Edmund, who received the 

 honour of Lancaster in 1267, towards the 

 erection of the house doubtless earned for him 

 the credit of being its founder. In September, 

 1291, the archbishop of York gave instructions 

 that one of the friars should preach the Crusade 

 at Preston itself, and a second at some other 

 populous place in the neighbourhood." Pope 

 John XXII in 1330 on the petition of Henry, 

 earl of Lancaster, forbad the authorities of 

 the order to remove the house from the Wor- 

 cester ' Custodia ' of the English Franciscan 

 province, in which Henry's father had had it 

 included.'* 



The subsequent history of the house is a 

 scanty record of small bequests for masses '' until 



' Lanes. Chant. (Chet. Soc), 225. The clear 

 annual value of the chantry in 1535 was £^ 18/.; 

 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 263. 



' Cal. Pap. Letters, ii, 345. 



'" Leland, Itin. iv, 22 ; G. E. C. Complete Peerage, 

 iv, 55. Viscount Gormanston is the present represen- 

 tative of this family. 



" Fishwick, Kist. of the Par. of Preston, 198. 



" Close, 44 Hen. Ill, pt. I, m. I ; information 

 from Mr. A. G. Little. 



" Let. from Northern Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 96. 



" Bullarium Franciscanum, v, No. 882 ; Cal. Pap. 

 Letters, ii, 345. 



" Fishwick, loc. cit.; T. C. Smith, Rec. of the Par. 

 Ch. of Preston, 244. 



the time of the last warden, Thomas Todgill, whose 

 dispute with the lessee of the hospital of St. Mary 

 Magdalene over the ' Widowfield ' is narrated 

 elsewhere." He was accused in the court of the 

 Duchy of having made away with goods placed 

 in his care during the nonage of one Elizabeth a 

 Powell ; but he denied the charge and the 

 verdict has been lost." The house was prob- 

 ably surrendered in 1539,'' and the crown sold 

 it with the friaries of Lancaster and Warrington 

 to Thomas Holcroft, esquire of the body to the 

 king, on 18 June, 1540, for £,\2(i ioj." 



Wardens of the Friary 



James,^ occurs 1480 

 Philip,'^ occurs 1509-10 

 Thomas Todgill,^^ occurs 1528, surrendered 

 1539? 



16. THE HOUSE OF AUSTIN 

 FRIARS, WARRINGTON 



The date of the settlement of the hermit 

 friars of the order of St. Augustine at Warrington 

 is not known, but it was before 1308. In 1329 

 some of the brethren were ordained by Bishop 

 Langton." An old hospital is said to have been 

 taken over by the friars. William le Boteler 

 gave them a meadow in 1332.''* In the latter 

 part of the century several of the brethren were 

 appointed penitentiaries or had licence to hear 

 confessions in one or more deaneries of South 

 Lancashire ; in one case throughout the arch- 

 deaconry of Chester.^' A large number of 

 Warrington friars took holy orders.^^ 



'* See post, p. 164. 



" Fishwick, op. cit. 199. 



"On 23 Feb. 1539, Richard, bishop of Dover, 

 informs Cromwell that he is about to proceed to the 

 north to suppress some twenty friaries which are still 

 standing there ; L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (1), 348, 



413,494- 



"Ibid. XV, 831 (43)- 



" Whitaker, Hist, of Richmondsh'tre, ii, 428. 



"Karl. MS. 2 112, fol. 115^,- Smith, op. cit. 

 244. 



" Smith, 239. In 1544 Todgill, then about fifty 

 years old, was chaplain of Gray's Inn, London. 

 Eight years later (16 July, 1552) he became rector of 

 Holy Trinity, Chester, on the presentation of the 

 Earl of Derby. He died before I Feb. 1565 ; 

 Onnerod, Hist, of Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 331. 



" Lich. Epis. Reg. Langton, fol. 157, 163^. 

 Beamont {Ann. of the Lords of Warrington (Chet. Soc), 

 73) conjectures that they were introduced about 1259 

 by William le Boteler, seventh baron of Warrington. 



'* Beamont, op. cit. 168, 189. 



" Lich. Epis. Reg. Stretton, fol. 15, 20, 23, 26^; 

 ibid. Scrope, fol. 127^, 129. 



^ Lich. Epis. Reg. 



162 



