A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



of S^es. Their usual style was ' the Prior and 

 monks of St. Mary of Lancaster,' but ' the Prior 

 and Convent ' occasionally occurs. '' No con- 

 vent b.eal, however, seems to have existed, the 

 prior's seal being used. Sometimes the prior 

 stated that he was acting both in his own name 

 and as proctor for Sees.'* 



The mcome of the endowments was adminis- 

 tered by the members of the priory subject to a 

 fixed annual ' apport ' or pension of 50 marks to 

 the chief house.'' This was rather less than half 

 their revenue as assessed for the tithe.'*" The prior 

 and monks were selected from the inmates of the 

 parent monastery, and two priors of Lancaster 

 became abbots of S^es.*^ The history of the 

 priory is little more than a record of disputes and 

 litigation, which were not infrequently carried up 

 to the pope. Some of these arising out of its 

 advowsons and appropriations have already been 

 mentioned. Its right to the tithes of demesne 

 lands in Lancashire under the grants of the 

 founder and Count John of Mortain had to be 

 defended against the rectors of Walton and 

 Sefton at the end of the twelfth century,'*' and 

 against those of Preston and St. Michael's-on- 

 Wyre in the first quarter of the fourteenth 

 century.'*' 



The priory was often involved in disputes 

 with other religious houses which had interests 

 within its sphere. A claim was put forward by 

 the leper hospital at Lancaster to be exempt 

 from payment of tithes for their lands in that 

 parish in virtue of a bull of Pope Celestine III ; 

 but in 1 31 7 the prior obtained a decision that 

 the papal privilege only covered land newly 

 brought into cultivation, and established his rights 

 to the offerings made in the hospital chapel.** 

 A similar dispute with the abbot and convent of 

 Furness in regard to the tithes of their grange of 

 Beaumont near Lancaster had been settled a 

 quarter of a century earlier.*' There was much 

 litigation, too, with Furness, to whom Stephen 

 of Biois had transferred his fishery at Lancaster, 

 as to the precise rights conferred upon the priory 

 by its founder's grant of the third throw of St. 

 Mary's seine. In 13 1 4 their servants came to 

 blows, the matter was brought before the royal 



"Henry, abbot of Sies (l 1 85-1 2 10), so styles 

 them ; DugJale, Mon. Angl. vi, 998. See also Hist, 

 of Lam. Ch. 139. 



^ Hut. of Lane. Ch. 59, 71. The consent of Sees 

 is now and then mentioned ; ibid. 64. For a case 

 where both gave identical charters, see ibid. 309. 



" Dugdale, Men. vi, 998. 



" ^80. See below. 



*' Dujjdale, Mm. loc. cit. ; Assize R. 423, m. 2. 



"Hist, f Lane. Ch. 66, 112. In 1342—4 a later 

 rector of W.ilton contested its right to tithes in the 

 woods of Lancashire ; Add. MS. 32107, No. 823 ; 

 Exch. Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. vol. 33, No. 32. 



" Hist. cfLanc. Ch. 448, 453. 



" Ibid. 305, 487. 



" In 1292 (ibid. 63-4) ; Lanes. Ir.^. 85. 



justices, and next year an agreement was arrived 

 at by which the priory took every third throw in 

 St. Mary's Pot and every other throw else- 

 where.'*" 



The foundation of the Premonstratensian 

 house at Cockersand just over the southern limit 

 of the parish of Lancaster, and its acquisition of 

 lands both in that parish and in Poulton, led to 

 disputes with the priory over the tithes and 

 other parochial rights. Papal delegates in 1 2 1 6 

 arranged a compromise which gave two-thirds 

 of such tithes to the monks of Lancaster and 

 the remaining third to the canons of Cocker- 

 sand.*' Fresh quarrels were ended in 1256 by 

 an agreement in which Cockersand undertook 

 not to admit parishioners of the prior to burial 

 or the sacraments without his consent, which 

 however, he was not to refuse if leave was asked 

 and dues paid. Parishioners serving in the 

 Cockersand granges must not pay their offerings 

 or tithes to the abbey, but the servants at the 

 abbey itself were excepted from this prohibi- 

 tion.** 



The gift of the lands of Staining, Hardhorn, 

 and Newton in Poulton parish to the Cheshire 

 abbey of Stanlaw produced similar complications, 

 which were finally ended in 1298 ; the abbey, 

 just removed to Whalley, was awarded the 

 great tithes on payment of eighteen marks a year 

 to the priory.*' 



On one occasion at least the monks of the 

 priory came into conflict with the town in and 

 around which they held so much property. In 

 1318 the burgesses of Lancaster pulled down an 

 inclosure which Prior Nigel had made in New- 

 ton, iji which hamlet they claimed common of 

 pasture."* But a jury found that though their 

 cattle had pastured on the land in question 

 they had only done so on sufferance on their 

 way to the forest of Quernmore, where King 

 John had granted common rights to the bur- 

 gesses.'^ 



"• CaL of Pat. 1 3 13-17, p. 307; Hist, of Lane. 

 Ch. 489, 493 ; Beck, Annahs Turnesienses, 217, 249, 

 250. In 1352 the abbot's men seized the priory 

 nets and the prior recovered them by force ; Duchy 

 of Lane. Assize R., class xxv, 2, No. 374; 3, Nos. 

 35,36; 4, No. 163. In 1370 the king's escheator 

 took possession of the fishery, then valued at ;^5 a 

 year, on the plea that the priory had first received it 

 in 1 3 1 5 and without royal licence, but this was 

 disproved ; Coram Rege R. 442, m. 4. 



*' Add. MS. 20512; Hist, of Lane. Ch. 49. 

 Litigation over a carucate of land in Heysham ended 

 (12 14) in the priory demising it to the canons for 

 an annual rent of one mark (Charter penes W. H. 

 Dalton, esq. Thumham Hall). 



*' Ibid. 52 ; Add. MS. 1 98 1 8. 



" Hist, of Lane. Ch. 61, 70, 75, 527. This was 

 an increase of eight marks on the ferm fixed about 

 1250. 



*" Charter penes W. H. Dalton, esq. Thumham 

 Hall. 



" Hist, of Lane. Ch. 495. 



70 



