Contents of the fikst volume

i marc' ; ct de baconibus ii ; et de caseo xxiv petras ; et de butiro i petram et dimidium (this proportion

of butter is extremely small) ; et de riis (raccmis) xlii lb. (42/z.) (the common word raisin is a corruption

of raceme); et de amygdalis Ixlb. (60^'.); et tria millia ceparum ; unam lagenam olei Olivse, et de
" In crastino Sancti Barnabas apostoli, quce fuit feria 4, nobilis vir dominus Henricus de Lacy Comes Lincolnise

posuit primuin lapidem fundamento ecclesia; conventualis de Whalley." (Cotton MS. Vesp. D. xvir. f. 14 b.)

From these dates it appears that the church was not actually commenced before 1330, although Henry de Lacy,

Earl of Lincoln, (who died in 1312) had laid the foundation stone in 1308, when the morrow (June 12) of the feast

of St. Barnabas fell on a Wednesday (feria 4) : and that another half-century elapsed before the first mass was

celebrated in it, in 1380.]

1 The importunity of the monks for contributions to carry on their buildings is thus divertingly represented by

Chaucer :

" Yeve me then of thy gold to make our cloistre,
Quod he ; for many a muskle and many an oystre

Whan other men han ben full wel at ese

Hath ben our food, our cloister for to rese ;

And yet, God wot, unneathe the fundament

Performed is, ne of our pavement

N'is a tile yet within our wones,

By God we owen fourty pound for stones." Sunipner's Tale.
These good men had not met with a Nicholas del Holden or John de Symondstone.
2 It is also recorded that the manor-house of Kuerdale was burned down the year following. [See KUERDALE.}

8 Coucher Book, Tit. 19, No. CXLIV. p. 1061. [See SIMONDSTONE hereafter.]

4 Vide Chapter III.
5 [In the MS. miscopied " in capita Gemini." The/m'a quarta in capite Jejunii is Ash Wednesday.]

BOOK II. CHAP. II.]

THE ABBEY.

cymino, 3li. ; et de Pipere i Ib. (Hi.) ; de Saffr. i quatron. dimid. [et equos duos, duas sellas cum duobus

frenis et capam unam; et de argento in manibus 17ft. 4s. Id.; et item de arrer' de tempore Arnaldi

Wli. Is. 5d. ; et item 2 coria bovina et item 6 petras ferri.]

Abbot Topcliffe made considerable acquisitions to the estates of the abbey, was active

in recovering the chapel of St. "Michael in the castle [of Clitheroe], and seems to have been

in all respects a zealous friend to his convent. I have some reason to believe that he was

a native of Billington, 1 and that he was the first monk admitted after the translation. He

is said to have died 10 kal. March 1350 ; which date, if it be correct, will prove that he

had resigned his charge ; a fact not improbable on account of his age, as he had been pro-

fessed above fifty years.
However this may be, in the year 1342 appears "
V. JOHN LYNDELAY, D.D., 3 of whose birth and parentage I regret my inability to give

any account, as he was a man who, for many reasons, ought not to be forgotten. For to

his care and industry we are indebted for the Coucher Book of "Whalley, 4 which is a com-

plete and accurate chartulary or transcript of evidences belonging to that and the parent-

house of Stanlaw, digested into twenty titles, every title referring to a distinct parish or

township, and to the title page is prefixed the following inscription :

sacra paging

But there is also the strongest internal evidence to prove that he was author of that

singular and valuable tract, de Statu JBlackburnshire, which has preserved so many par-

ticulars of our parochial history from the earliest periods, namely, the origin and constitu-

tion of the deanery, the state of property before the Conquest, the foundation of the

dependent parishes, and a number of circumstances, in attestation of which we have been

enabled to adduce such a body of external testimony. For, as this account is carried down

to one of the first transactions of Lyndelay, it cannot be prior to his time ; and, as it con-

tains not the most obscure reference to any thing of later date, it must, by every rule of

criticism, be held contemporary with the last facts which it records. This memoir displays,

indeed, a measure of curiosity and intelligence little to be expected in that dark age and
1 For there was a William de Topcliffe of Billington, who, in one charter, is called his brother ; or, what is the

same thing, of John de Topcliffe, vicar of Whalley. Townley M88.

2 This is proved by the following coincidence of circumstances : John del Clogh grants to Adam de Gristhwaite

and John de Topcliffe, in trust for the abbey, 10th part of the manor of Keved, A.D. 1342. And in the Status de

Blackburnshire we are told : " Tempore Joh. Lyndlay abb. 10 ma pars manerii de Eevard adquisita fuit."
3 In the Townley MSS. the name of this abbot is spelt Livesay; which, had it been right, would have left no

doubt with respect to his family : but, in an original charter now before me, the orthography is as I have given it.

* [The Editors reserve what is further to be said both of the Coucher Book and the treatise De Statu to their

Prefatory remarks.]

tc liter futt scriptus tempote fconte memoriae JHaststrt 3fof).

96

HISTOKY OF WHALLEY.

[BOOK II. CHAP. II.

obscure situation. The latinity of it, though far from classical, is not inferior to the style

of the hest historians of its time ; the technical terms of canon law, in particular, are

applied with strict propriety. But as it has heen proved to belong to that period, it proves

itself to belong to the place ; and when these limitations have contracted our inquiries to

so narrow a compass, to whom can this germ l of the History of "Whalley be with any

colour of probability assigned, but to the known compiler of the Coucher Book, the con-

temporary abbot, the accurate and industrious Lyndelay ?

The first act which occurs of this abbot is the acquisition of a tenth part of the manor

of Read, in 1342 ; and the next, that of the manor of Choo, and the second moiety of the

manor of Billington. The latter of these was an object of great importance, both from its

value and its contiguity to the house.

In 1349 he, together with the convent, obtained a license from King Edward III.

ob majorem securitatem suam et donms sues, quod ipsi EccVam et Clausum, AbUice suce muro

de petra ct calce possint firmare et kernellare. This was probably the part of the fabric

completed under abbot Lyndelay ; for thirteen years after, or in 1362, the provincial of the

Cistercian order, at his periodical visitation, releases the abbey and convent of Whalley from

their rated contribution, " quotisque ecclesia conventus sit perfecta et simul dormitorium et

refcctorium, quce stint totaliter construendce. The Church, 3 we see, had been advancing

veiy slowly, if at all, during the last twenty years, and the Refectory and Dormitory were

not yet begun.
In the same year 4 Henry Duke of Lancaster, patron of the house, granted in trust to

the abbot and convent " 2 cottages, 7 acres of land, s 183 of pasture, 200 of wood, called

1 It has a right to that appellation ; for the first idea of this work was conceived many years ago in the library of

St. John's College, Cambridge, after a perusal of the Status de Blackburnshire, in the Monasticon Anglicanum.

2 Townley MSS.
3 In the tower of the church there .appear to have been five bells, of which I met with the following imperfect

memorial, among the papers of my worthy predecessor Mr. Johnson: "Thomas Talbot of Dinkley, A.D. 1515, gave

to the steeple of Whalley one bell, called the morning-bell ; the second was consecrated to St. John the Evangelist ;

the third to St. John Baptist ; the fourth in honour of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin ; the fifth to the Holy

Trinity, and All Saints, and All Souls going out of this world. This bell was given by Wm. Redcliff of Wimbersley,

who gave his body to lie at Whalley, if his dear wife died after him ; but, if she died first, she might choose

where she would lie, but All Sowls' bell towling for her at her departure, which was A.D. 1 505. Eoger Fitton of Mart-

holm, in Harwood, gave the third bell ; and Matilda, his dear wife, gave an acre of land, and other lands in Harwood

and Billiugton, for good of her poor soul and her consort, to be prayed and sung for in the choir. Also Roger Nowell

of Merley gave xix acres of arable land, on condition that every priest of the said house daily, in the canon of the

mass, should make special commemoration of the souls of his family, as well the dead as the living. A.D. 1283."

[" Four of these remain to this day ; three of them are at Downham, and one at Church Kirk, no doubt given by the

Asshetons of Whalley Abbey, who were the patrons of those livings. Around the rim of one of the bells is " S'ta

Margaretta ora pro nobis," on another " S'ta Katherina ora pro nobis," on another the inscription is unintelligible.

(Lecture by the Rev. R. N. Whitaker, Vicar of Whalley, Feb. 2, 1869.)]
4 Coucher Book ; from whence this indenture, in old French, has been transplanted into the Monasticon.
5 Land, in the old law sense, is arable land Terra (says Sir Edward Coke, who always affected quaint

etymologies) a terendo.

BOOK II. CHAP. II.]

THE ABBEY.

97

Rommesgreve, in the chase of Blackburn; likewise 2 mess. 126 acres of land, 26 of

meadow, 130 of pasture called Standen, Hulcroft, and Grenelache, lying in the towns of

Penhulton and Cliderhou, with the fold and foldage of Standen, to support a recluse : in a

certain place within the churchyard of the parochial church of Whalley; as also two woman

servants to attend [her], there to pray for the soul of the said Duke, his ancestors and

heirs, and to find them every week 17 loaves of bread, such as is usually made in the con-

vent, each weighing fifty shillings sterling, and seven loaves of an inferior sort and the

same weight ; 2 also eight gallons of their better beer, and three -pence for their food.

Moreover, at the feast of All Saints, yearly, to provide them 10 large stock fishes, one

bushel of oatmeal for pottage, one bushel of rye, two gallons of oil for their lamps, one

[stone] of tallow for candle, 3 [ten] loads 4 of turf (no coal), and one load of faggots ; also to

repair their habitations, and to find a [monk, chaplain of the said abbey, of honest conver-

sation, and a clerk to minister to him at mass daily for ever] in the chapel of the said

recluse, 5 with vestment [chalice, bread, wine, light, and other ornaments necessary for the

said mass]. The successor of the recluse to be nominated by the Duke and his heirs. 6
This endowment was ample, but turned out, as we shall hereafter see, more to the

emolument than either the credit or comfort of the house upon which it was engrafted.

Six years after this time appears another Visitation by the abbot of Rivaulx, as deputy

to the provincial of his order ; the result of which, I fear, will induce a suspicion that

abbot Lyndlay was more of a scholar than either a disciplinarian or economist. Tor

ccH. js. vd.

[Receptse an. Mccclxvj . cxxviijZ. xs.

Expensse in eod. . DclxxxjZ. xvs. vijd.
Recept. an. current, usq. ad diem Visitationis, viz. diem post fest. S. Petri ad Vincula .
Exp. in eod. . ccccxxxviijZ.
In ultimo compute debetur Duel Lane, pro Capella Castri Cliderhow, cccl.
Diversis creditoribus, ccxlvij7. vjs. viijd.
Solvend. de pecunia recepta de Abb. do Cumbermere et aliis malefactoribus, clxiij I. xij s. viij d. (At the
meaning of this article I can offer no conjecture.)

Debita de claro, DCCxvZ. iijs. ivd.

Boves, o.; tauri, ij. ; vaccse, xxx. ; bovunculi et juvenc. II ann., xx.; sturci, xx. Summa clxxij.
1 [Une recluse (Coucher Book, p. 1155), not "two recluses," as was printed in former editions.]
* [Paynes conventuales.] 3 [ Une pier de swr.]

4 \_Dys charrez des tourbes, not " six," as before printed.]

* [ Une moigne chappellayn, &c., en la chapelle de la dite recluse not recluses, as before printed.]
6 This is a good specimen of English ceconomics 450 years ago : but the provisions vary exceedingly, both in

kind and in proportion, from what would be allowed in the foundation of a modern almshouse. Bread and beer seem

to have been intended for the principal support of these recluses. Even oatmeal pottage, the wholesome food of our

Lancashire peasantry, of which we have here the first mention, must have been a rarity, as one bushel per annum

would not have supplied a meal per day. Peat was the principal fuel, with a little wood ; no fossil-coal ; a very small

provision of oil for lamps ; and of tallow, little better than none. Hence I conclude, that the recluses must have been

intended to keep very early hours at night. But, from what follows in their history, it may be feared that some of them

loved darkness rather than light.

VOL. I.

HISTOEY OF WHALLEY.

[BOOK II. CHAP. II.

Verveces, cclxxij. ; ov. matric., clxxvij. ; agni, cvj. ; affri ad grang. pro opere, iv.

Monachi, xxix. De quibus m sseculariter evagantes. Conversus I. 1 (TWnley MSS.)
From the increase of rents, and great decrease of stock, it appears that the monks

had let out a considerable portion of their demesne within the last forty years.

I have met with no other memorials of the house during the life-time of Dr. Lyndelay,

who sat at least thirty-five years, as he was alive in 1377, but probably died soon after.

He was succeeded by
VI. WILLIAM SELBIE, Vicar of "Whalley, of whom nothing is remembered but the

name. His successor was

VII. NICHOLAS DE EBOBACO, or YOBKE, who occurs in 1392 ; and by inq. appears to

have died 5th of Hen. V. or 1417. He was succeeded by

VIII. WILLIAM WHALLEY, 2 undoubtedly a native of this place, in whose time, in

the year 1418, Robert abbot of Furness, who had been appointed by the Pope to be the

Reformator of all monasteries of the Cistercian order, with whom William abbot of Sallay

was joined in commission, held a Visitation of the abbey of Whalley, which is recorded in

the following terms :
Omnibus et singulis personis nostri Cistertiensis ordinis Eobertus abbas monasterii Beate Marise de

Fournisio, Reformator omnium et singulorum monasteriorum predictae ordinis constitutus auctoritate domini

Papas, et etiam Willielmus abbas monasterii Beatse Marias de Sallay ordinis Cisterciensis. Dum partibus

provinciffi Eboracensis pro utilitate ordinis nostraa interessemus advenit persona propria reverendus in Christo

pater abbas monasterii Beatee Marias de Whalley et ex parte Dei et ordinis nostri saapius requisivit de et super

reformatione monasterii sui in spiritualibus et temporalibus tarn in capite quam in membris ; qua requisitions

nobis facta accessimus ad prasfatum monasterium de Whalley, et lecta coram abbate et conventum diffinitione

ordinis generalis cum bulla papali, admissi sumus et eosdem abbatem et conventum tmanimi consensn ad

reformandum ibidem, in spiritualibus et temporalibus tarn in capite quam in membris. Igitur in actu refor-

mationis nostrse noveritis nos ita processisse : Primo, fecimus diligentem et specialem inquisitionem de et

super gradu, dignitate, gubernatione, et etiam fideli administratione domini Willielmi de Whalley abbatis

monasterii prselibati, in qua quidem inquisitionem fecimus, primo et Fratrem Rogerum de Smethedone et

omnes et singulos ejus monasterii monachos tune prsesentes et quemlibet eorum per se et singillatim in verbo

sacerdotis ponendo manus ad pectus pra3stare juramentum quod de infra scriptis articulis pur, nude et

simpliciter dicant veritatem, l mo vid. utrum dominus Willielmus esset ejus monasterii de Whalley verus

Abbas legitime et canonice electus, annon? Item utrum idem dominus Willielmus aliquam notoriam

commisit Symoniam, vel etiam incontinentiam, vel si dictus Willielmus fuerit dilapidator, alienator, aut

dissipator bonorum monasterii de Whalley, vel si idem Willielmus fuerit fur, homicida, gravis sacrilegus,

solempniter perjurus, vel etiam conspirator seu alio aliquo crimine notorie irretitus. Super quibus quidem

articulis dominus R. de Smethedon dicti monasterii Prior, juratus et examinatus in verbo sacerdotis, ponendo

manum super pectus dicit et affirmat quod idem Willielmus est legitime et canonice electus et verus Abbas

nee fur nee homicida, &c. propter quse seu eorum aliquod a gradu, statu, et dignitate abbatiatus

1 The Conversi were lay brethren. [In pradicti Savignii abbatia non solum Monachi sed etiam Laici quos

Converses nuncupant, sub habitu religionis Deo deserviunt. (Acta S. Hamonis monachi Savigneii, apud Ducange,

edit. Henschel.)]
2 In the possession of Mr. Barrett of Manchester is a general pardon granted to William abbot and the convent of

Whalley, dated at Westminster a.r. Hen. VI. 3. Test. Joh. Due. of Bedford, and countersigned Clitherowe.

BOOK II. CHAP. II.]

THE ABBEY.

99

merito debet amoveri, sed heic usque digne et laudabiliter gubernavit et administravit tarn in spiritualibus

ejus electione sponte et voluntarie eidem suas professiones et obedientiam impenderunt.

Qua quidem inquisitione coram nobis sic ut prsemittitur privatim et secreto facta fidelibus et veris

testibus domino K. de Smethedon priore et monachis praedictis prout superius recitatur ; ex eorum unanimi

consensu et voluntate, plenariam et majorem declarationem status, gradus, et dignitatis domini Willielmi

abbatis monasterii de Whalley predicti in domo capitulari ibidem coram toto convento ejusdem loci duximus

publicandum et de facto fecimus public'ari, necnon omnibus et singulis et maxime ejusdem ordinis

professoribus innotescimus per presentes. In quorum omnium fidem et testimonium sigilla nostra una cum

sigillo cpnventuali dicti monasterii de Whalley, toto conventu ad hoc consentiente, duximus apponenda.

Data sunt haec et acta in domo capitulari dicti monasterii de Whalley 7 mo Apr. A.D. 1418.

The insertion of this instrument may be pardoned, as the form of visiting a monastery

has not I think been given by any writer on Monastic Antiquities. (From the History of

Craven, p. 42, 43.)
After an interval nearly of sixty years, we meet with another notice relating to the

progress of the building, for on the eve of Saint Thomas the Apostle, 1425, the convent

took possession of a new Dormitory, with a ceremonial thus described :
Memorandum quod anno Domini 1425 in vigilia Sancti Thome apostoli, intravit Conventus de Whalley

in novum Dormitorium ad noctem immediate post completorium ' in ecclesia ab omnibus decantatum. In-

super dominus Willielmus Abbas et totus Conventus processionaliter stantes cantaverunt Hymnum Te Deurn

Laudamus, etc., et cantando Abbas indutus copa cum pastorali virga adspersit aqua benedicta omnia Lecta

dormitorii, et post finem Hymni dicta Collecta Quesumus Domine ab Abbate et data benediccione exierunt.

(Harl. MS. 1830, f. 24.)

This was a striking ceremony, and serves to show with what judgment, and knowledge

of the human heart, the gloomy uniformity of monastic life was occasionally varied, by

exhibitions calculated to strike the senses and amuse the imagination. It is not impossible

that it might have a better effect that, as the hours of severest trial to those who were

debarred from the great privilege of their nature were to be passed in that apartment, an

awe which, in superstitious minds, would long accompany the remembrance of this outward

sprinkling, might be an inducement, where purer ones were wanting, to keep the heart

sprinkled from an evil conscience. - And, after all the outcry that has been raised against

ceremonies, in days of comparative darkness, a real use might thus result from divers

washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. 3

The Refectory, which, with the kitchens, probably formed the south side of the cloister-

court, now destroyed, seems to have been completed in the interval betwixt the year 1362

and 1425. The Dormitory appears to have been the upper story of the western side of the

same quadrangle, which is yet remaining, and consisting of one apartment, at least 120

feet in length.
1 The Completorium or Compline, in the Romish ritual, is the last part of the evening-service.

2 Hebr. x. 22. * Hebr. ix. 10.

02

100

HISTORY OF WHALLEY.

[BOOK II. CHAP. II.

Abbot Whalley survived the benediction of the Dormitory nine years, and seems to

have devoted his latter days to the erection of the Choir of the church, which, however, he

did not live to see completed, for he died in 1434, ' after an active and useful presidency of

seventeen years.
Next succeeded
IX. JOHN ECCLES, who must have been an aged man at his election, as he was

considerably senior in order of admission to his predecessor. There can be little doubt that

he was a native of the town whose name he bore, and of which his house had the appro-

priation. This abbot had the honour of putting the last hand to the fabric of his abbey, at

least according to the original plan, 2 after a period of 142 years from the first foundation,

for in 1438, [read 1435,] " in vigilia Omnium Sanctorum ad vesperas intravit conventus

de Whalley in nova stalla, tempore Johannis Eccles Abbatis. 3 "
Notwithstanding this information, which I have no reason to think incorrect, 4 the

abbot's stall, which with great part of the rest is still preserved in the parish church, has

the cypher W. W. which undoubtedly means William Whalley. But the chronological

difficulty may be obviated by supposing that the stalls had been begun in the latter end of

abbot Whalley's time, that the abbot's stall had been carved first, and that the choir was

not ready for them, or they for the choir, till four years after, as the monks appear to have

carried on their works with great deliberation. 5
Indeed a question naturally arises out of this account, namely, to what concurrence of

circumstances it was owing that the completion of an edifice of which every part was

wanting either for the accommodation of its inhabitants or for the pomp of worship, had

been deferred so long ; fl but the answer is obvious : the Abbey of Whalley, with great

revenues, was never rich, and, though the monks had not only neglected to increase

their number to GO, as they were bound to do by the Bull of Pope Boniface, but had even