Contents of the fikst volume

In one, the round seal engraved in this work, Fig. 10 of the Plate, the coats of the Earldoms of Lincoln and Salis-

bury are impaled together, representing her claim as heiress to both those dignities an early and very remarkable

example of impalement. Dr. Whitaker has mentioned (Third Edit. p. 181 note) that the impression from which this

was engraved was found " wrapped up in a note written by Bishop Tanner." It has also been engraved in the History

of Lacock Abbey by Bowles and Nichols, 1835, p. 148.
In an oval seal used by her 55 Hen. III. the only device is a shield of Chester (three garbs) suspended to a three-

headed tree. Legend, SIGILLVM A . . . DE LASCI. (Harleian Charter, 52 H. 43.)

BOOK III. CHAP. II] LORDS OF THE HONOR OF CLITHEROE. 251
either pleasant or edifying to rake into the dust of libraries for ancient scandal, I could

relate more to the same purpose than has ever yet appeared ; suffice it, however, to say

that after having married two other hushands, Eubulo 1'Estrange and Hugh de Prenes, she

died A.D. 1348, [at her castle of Bolingbroke, co. Lincoln,] and was interred in the

[neighbouring] abbey of Barlings, next her second husband. With her expired the name of

Lacy, which, even if she had left issue, would scarcely have been continued at the expense

of Plantagenet.
But to return : in the year 1294, Henry de Lacy, despairing of male issue, surrendered

all his lands to the King, who regranted them to the said Earl for the term of his life,

and after his decease, to Thomas Earl of Lancaster, and Alice his wife, and the heirs

of their bodies ; failing of which they were to remain over to Edmund the King's brother

(a remarkable proof of the Earl's attachment to the royal family,) and to his heirs for ever. 1

By this act the Honor of Clitheroe became united to the Earldom of Lancaster. Thus

much is generally known : but the following particulars, which ascertain some important

steps about this time in the descent of the Honor of Clitheroe, have been retrieved from

an original decree of Edward III. relating to the advowson of St. Michael in the Castle. 2

On the attainder of Thomas Earl of Lancaster, the Honor of Clitheroe and hundred of

Blackburn were instantly seized into the King's hands, and remained in the Crown till

the beginning of Edward III.'s reign, when, with the exception of Ightenhill Park,

they were granted for a term of life to
QUEEN ISABELLA, of whom we have several transactions in this capacity upon record. 3

In another oval seal (4 Edw. II.) she is represented at full length, standing on an architectural bracket, attired in

a flat headdress and flowing robes, her right hand held open by her side, and her left raised to her breast. On either

side, suspended on trees, are two shields, one of the three garbs of Chester, and the other pretty clearly only a plain

chief, and, if so, not easily explained. The legend SIGILLV' ALESYE DE LASCY. (In the collection at the British Museum,

from that of George Baker, F.S.A. the historian of Northamptonshire.)

A third oval seal, resembling the last in design, appeared as a tail-piece in the former editions of this work ; but in

this she holds up a shield in either hand; one is that of the lion of Lincoln, and the other quarterly, the bend

which would have completed the arms of Lacy being omitted, perhaps by error of the draughtsman. Legend : SIGILLV'
ALESIE . DE . LASCI.
1 [Dr. Whitaker here wrote evidently under a little mental confusion. Edmund the King's brother was not a

different party, but the actual Earl of Lancaster ; whilst his son Thomas the espoused husband of the heiress was not

as yet Earl, but merely heir apparent to that dignity. The provision of remainder to the father would be in order

that the heiress might be transferred to another son, had Thomas died, before the consummation of the marriage.

Thomas Earl of Lancaster is said to have been of full age at the death of his father in 1296, but he could scarcely have

then been quite twenty, as his father's marriage was in 1276. Alice de Lacy was not unsuited to him in respect

of years, for it appears that she was born on Christmas Day 1281. The inquisitions on her father's death vary, as such

documents usually do, in regard to her age, but that for the county of Denbigh in which she was very probably born,

is more precise and reliable: " fuit etatis xxix annorum die Natali Domini ultimo preterito." (Inq. dated at Dyne-

bagh, on Sunday before the feast of St. Peter in Cathedra, 21 Feb. 4 Edw. II. 1311.) At her espousals she was in her

9th year. (Cotton. MSS. Cleop. C. in. f. 336.) This would thus be in 1290.]
2 Pen. auct.
3 No. 2 in the Plate is the seal of this Queen, appended to her charters as lady of the Honor of Clitheroe. [It is
2K2

252 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK III. CHAP. IL

Previously however to her death the attainder of Thomas Earl of Lancaster had been

reversed, on the plea that he had not been tried by his peers ; so that immediately upon

that event Henry Duke of Lancaster succeeded to this Honor and Hundred, by virtue of

the above-mentioned entail upon Edmund the King's brother and his heirs.

Of HENRY DUKE OF LANCASTER, as lord of the Honor of Clitheroe, the recorded

transactions are the following : he founded an hermitage for [a female] recluse in the

churchyard of Whalley ; l granted the bailiwick of Blackburnshire to the abbey and convent

of Whalley, together with the Townleys, Delaleighs, and Alvethams ; and the manor of

Downham to John de Dyneley. 2 This was the last alienation of a manor by the lord

paramount within this Honor, as Great Merlay was the first. He died March 24th, 1360,

leaving by his wife Isabel, daughter of Henry Lord Beaumont, two daughters and coheirs :

Maud married to William Count of Hainault, and Blanch to John of Ghent, fourth son

of King Edward the Third, Earl of Richmond, and afterwards in her right Duke of

Lancaster.

JOHN OP GHENT, Duke of Lancaster, received by this marriage, as the purparty of

Blanch his wife, besides the fees of Pontefract and Lancaster, properly so called, the

hundred of Blackburn or Honor of Clitheroe, with its appurtenances, thus described :

" The wapontake of Clyclerhow, with the demesne lands there, the royal bailiwick of

Blackburnshire, the manors of Tottington and B-achdale, the lordship of Bowland, the

vaccary of Bouland and Blackburnshire, the forest of Blackburnshire, and park of Ighten-

hill, with the appurtenances in Blackburnshire." A few inquisitions and other acts of

little importance are all the evidences which remain of his having exercised these exten-

sive rights. 3 He died February 3, 1398, leaving a son,
HENRY OF BOLINGBROKE, Duke of Lancaster, then in banishment, who returning the

year following deposed his unfortunate master Richard the Second ; after which the

Honor of Clitheroe, as a member of the Duchy of Lancaster, merged in the Crown. 4 But

Henry the Fourth, conscious of the weakness of his title to the latter, and foreseeing that

upon a restoration of the right heirs the Duchy, which was his own undisputed inherit-

ance, would now, of course, as an accessory, follow the fortunes of its principal, " quia

magis dignum trahit ad se minus dignum," with the consent of Parliament, anno regni

l mo , made a charter entitled " carta regis Henrici 4 li de separatione Ducat. Lane. aCoron&;"

copied from the drawing in Harl. MS. 2064, f. 322, and was attached to a charter dated at Stratford le Bow, 26 June,

C Edw. III. On the counter-seal is a shield quarterly of 1. England; 2. France; 3. Navarre; 4. Champagne.]

1 [See before, in p. 97.]
2 No. 1 in the Plate is the great seal of this Duke, appended to the grant of the manor of Downham, of which

the original in green wax is in the possession of William Assheton, esq.

3 I have an impression of the seal of John of Ghent, but in too mutilated a state to be engraved. It has, as

usual, an equestrian figure on one side, and on the other quarterly France and England, with the label of three points.

[Such a seal of John of Ghent is described in Sandford's Genealogical History, second edit. p. 249, but I am not

aware that it has been engraved. It ia his privy seal as King of Castile and Leon which is engraved in Sandford

(both editions) and copied in Nichols's History of Leicestershire. J. G. N.]
4 Fleetwood's Antiquity and History of the Duchy of Lancaster, MS. p. 36.

SigiOa. Dominorwn Veli'nu/i

BOOK III. CHAP. II.]

LORDS OF THE HONOR OF CLITHEROE.

253

and in this charter it is declared that the Duchy of Lancaster " remaneat, deducetur,

gubernetur, &c. sicut remanere, deduci, gubernari deberet, si ad culmen dignitatis regise

assumpti minime fuissemus." Notwithstanding this, all grants of lands, &c. passed under

the great seal of England alone, through the remainder of this reign, and till the third

of Henry V. when it was ordered that no transactions relating to the Duchy should be

deemed valid " sub aliquo alio sigillo praeterquam sub sigillo nostro pro Ducatu praedicto." 1

And thus the matter rested till, the deposition of Henry the Sixth, when Edward the

Fourth, whose respective titles to the Crown and to the Duchy were precisely those of the

House of Lancaster inverted, reasoning on the same principles with Henry IV. passed an

act entitled " actus incorporationis necnon confirmationis inter alia ad Coronam Anglise

in perpetuum de Ducat. Lane." providing, however, that the said dukedom should be and

remain a corporate inheritance, and should be guided and governed by such officers as in

the times of Henry IV. V. VI. v
After all, Henry the Seventh, who, independently of these acts of mere power, had

the only legal title to this great inheritance, as heir in tail after the death of Edward son

of Henry VI. under the deed of settlement upon the heirs male of John Duke of Lancaster

and Blanch his wife, in the first year of his reign repealed the former Act of Edward IV.

and entailed, along with the Crown, the Duchy of Lancaster, with its appurtenances, upon

himself and the heirs of his body lawfully begotten.

These were the fortunes of the Honor of Clitheroe while it continued a member of

the Duchy of Lancaster ; that is, to the Restoration of Charles II. when that prince, in

consideration of the eminent services of General Monck, bestowed it upon him and his

heirs, from which time to the present it has passed in the following channel :

George Monck, Duke of Albemarle,=pAnne Clarges,

1st grantee, ob. 1669, set. 70. ob. 1676.

Christopher, Duke of=Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, dau =RaIph, Duke=

Albemarle, died in and coh. of Henry, Duke of of Montagu,

Jamaica, A.D. 1687 Newcastle, died set. 95, without died Mar. 9,

or 1688, ob. s.p. issue by either husband. 1708-9.

pFirst wife, Lady Elizabeth

Wriothesley.

Isabella.=Edward Hussey, Earl Beaulieu.

John, Duke of Montagu.=pLady Mary Churchill, dan. of John

Duke of Marlborough.
I
Mary.^George Brudenell, Earl of Cardigan,
afterwards Duke of Montagu.

Elizabeth.=r=ITenry, Duke of Buccleuch.

Henry- James, 2nd son, Baron Montagu of Bough ton.

1 Fleetwood's Antiquity and History of the Duchy of Lancaster, MS. p. 36. Qu. whether by Act of Parliament?

but so Fleetwood.

254

HISTORY OF WHALLEY.

[BOOK III. CHAP II.

Christopher Duke of Alhemarle, leaving no issue by his wife, who was daughter and

coheiress of Henry Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, gave her his estates ; of which she died

possessed 28 Aug. 1734', set. 95, having, secondly, married Ralph Duke of Montagu, whose

son and heir by a former wife, John Duke of Montagu, succeeded to his property, leaving

two daughters : Isabella, married first to the Duke of Manchester, and secondly to Edward

Earl Beaulieu ; and Mary, married to George Brudenell Earl of Cardigan, afterwards

Duke of Montagu. Balph Duke of Montagu died March 9th, 1708-9. Elizabeth,

daughter and heiress of George Duke of Montagu, married, in 1767, Henry Duke of

Buccleuch, and had issue a second son, Henry James Baron Montagu of Boughton, on

whom the Honor of Clitheroe was settled, after the decease of the Duchess, his mother.

[On his death in 1845, without male issue, it became the property of his cousin the present

Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry.]

I

/r

'i

r

N

fv
i

CHAPTER THE THIRD.

CASTLE OF CLITHEEOE AND CHAPEL OF ST. MICHAEL IN CAST11O.

JLlAVING now traced the several grants, descents, and limitations of this Honor, from its

first foundation to the present time, we will return to the Castle of Clithcroe, its scat.
As the Castellatus Rogeri is expressly mentioned in Domesday, and the Castle of

Lancaster was not then in existence, there can be little doubt that Roger of Poictou was

the real founder of the Castle of Clitheroe. The summit of the rock on which it stands

was not sufficiently extensive to admit of a very spacious building, and nothing more

appears to be intended by the founder than to provide a temporary retreat for his depen-

dants from the predatory incursions of the Scots, or a temporary residence for himself when

business called him to this part of his domains. Of the original Castle of Clitheroe

nothing is now left but the keep, a square tower of small dimensions, which, though much

undermined, remains firm as the rock upon which it was erected ; but, from an engraving

256 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK III. CHAP. III.

of the building when entire, taken from a drawing made immediately before it was slighted

by order of Parliament, it appears to have had a gateway- tower on the site of the present

modern gates, with a round Norman arch, and a lofty flanking-wall running along the

brink of the rock, and turning first on the back of the present steward's house, and

secondly behind the present court-house, towards the keep. "Within this bailey is no

appearance in the engraving either of the Chapel of St. Michael, or of any other buildings.

Coeval with the foundation of the castle, and a part of it, was the Chapel of St. Michael

in Castro, 1 erected and amply endowed by the founder, with licence of the Dean of

Whalley, for the purpose of having Divine service performed, and the sacraments admi-

nistered to his household servants, shepherds, and foresters. This is proved by the

important charter of Guy de la Val, the immediate grantee after the attainder of Robert

de Lacy, which conveys to the priory of St. John of Kirkby (Pontefract), amongst other

things " Capellam castri mei de Clyderhow, cum decimationibus omnium terrarum

dominicarum niearum," &c.

This grant was long contested, but the advowson of the Castle chapel appears, under

every change, to have followed the fortunes of the mother church, nor did the founder,

or his immediate successors, ever claim the right of presentation. 2 At length Henry de

Lacy granted the second rnedicty of the church of Whalley to the monks of Stanlaw,

without any reservation of the Castle chapel ; yet, upon the death of Peter de Cestria the

last rector, he seems to have repented in part of his own liberality, and thought proper

to keep forcible possession of the church till the monks compounded for admission by a

constrained surrender of this indisputable right ; the people, we are told, 3 crying out in

indignation at so foul a compromise, Vcc vobis Simoniacis !
Having obtained possession, however, they renewed the claim, and, under two spirited

abbots, Topcliffe and Lindlay, carried on a long and obstinate suit against their successive

patrons. Lindlay in particular presented a petition in full parliament, stating the

wrongful detention of this chapel, with its appurtenances, till at length the cause seems

to have been finally determined in favour of the Abbey, 39 Edw. III. Yet, after all,
1 Our ancestors were extremely attentive to secure to themselves the comforts of religious offices, in situations

where they might occasionally, and for a long time, be shut out, as in case of a siege, from their parish churches.

And the splendour of the religious foundations within their castles kept pace with that of the fortresses to which they

were attached. Thus the greater castle had a college, as St. George at Windsor, St. Clement at Pontefract; the smaller

a chantry, as at Clitherhoe ; and the peel, or fortified manor, an oratory, by license of the ordinary. In the greater

castles are sometimes found specimens of the round churches, as at Ludlow.

* [A more complete view of the various transactions regarding the chapel of Clitheroe will be found in the

appendix of documents now placed at the end of this chapter. The surrender of the chapel to the Earl (No. 1) was

passed in full chapter at Stanlaw at the beginning of 1294. The statement (No. 13) however dates the " usurpation "

of the Earl from 1296 : and the recovery of their " right " by the monks in 1334. There are various documents

regarding this. In 1349, Henry Earl of Lancaster regranted (No. 14) the Castle chapel to Whalley Abbey, and the

King confirmed that grant shortly after (No. 15). In 1363 the Duke and Duchess of Lancaster were again endeavouring

fo reassume the nomination of their own domestic chaplains: but after the contest had been pursued for a short time

the monks were finally triumphant.] s g ee p t 77.

.BOOK III. CHAP. III.]

CHAPEL OF ST. MICHAEL IN CASTRO.

257

though the transaction, was closed in the form of a regular decree of the court, a com-
o o *
promise seems to have taken place ; for, in a compotus of the abbey, 1368, I find the

following entry : In ult. comp. debetur Duci Lane, pro Capella Castri de Clyderhow cccZ.

This was at least equivalent to 'a purchase of the advowson, as the whole income was

estimated, in the Inquisition of 1311, at 131. per annum. 1

The several particulars of this endowment may best be learned from the confirmation

of Urban IV., which states them to consist in half a carucate of land in Cliderhow,

together with the tithes of all the demesne lands in Calderbotham, Blackburnshire, and

Bowland, particularly specifying the tithe of venison, 2 at that time, perhaps, the best part

of the endowment, excepting the glebe, even to a chaplain who was no epicure. The

records of this long suit, of which the originals, with their beautiful seals appendant, are

now before me, 3 furnish a complete catalogue of the chaplains of St. Michael, while it was

pending. Of their predecessors we know nothing, save that one was Richard the first of

Townley, who held this chapel by the gift of his brother Roger, about the time of the

second Lateran Council, or 1215.

CAPELLANI.

William de Nunny

Richard Camell
Roger de Lacy .

Richard de Towneley 4

John de Wodehouse .

Henry de Walton

VAC.
per mort.

per mort.
per mort.

per resig.

per resig.

per mort.

PATRONI.

Hen. de Lacy, Com. Line.

f Edwardus II. ratione attinc.

I Tho. Com. Lane.
Idem.
Regiii. Isabella.
Eadem.
Henricus Dux Lane.

1 [Rather more : " Idem Com. Lincoln, habuit ibi advocacionem Capello in Castro, que Capella valet per annum

xiiij li. vj s. viij d." Inq. 2 Edw. II. Duchy of Lane, copy.]
2 Tithe of venison, however, or indeed any other tithe of the forests, was not due of common right, but by

special grant, for this reason, saith Spelman (Glossarium, art. Forests): "Quod episcopis et parochiarum rectoribus

ovium cura, non ferarum demandata erat." But by this rule, in order to claim tithe of wool, the clergy ought to

have charge, not of the flock of Christ, but of the sheep of the field. His next reason is not so childish ; " Exhorruifc

nempe Deus cruentam venationem." This is true ; for every pang that man wantonly, and for his own gratification,

adds to the sufferings of a creature agonising under the prospect of immediate death, is a sin of no common magnitude.

But the text, which the learned Etymologist has adduced to establish the truth, proves rather " exhorruisse Deum

venationem incruentam ; " that, as animals pursued by hunters might be caught in toils, or chased to death without a

wound, they were in the situation of things strangled, and could not lawfully be eaten without a previous effusion of

blood. Lev. xvii. 13. " Every moving thing that liveth is given to man for meat." Gen. ix. 3. And where animals

can only be caught by hunting, and our object is not gratification from the chase, it is undoubtedly lawful. But the

invention of fire-arms has made a great revolution in the morality of field sports. Unexpected and instantaneous death

may now be inflicted, almost to a certainty, upon the poor object of our pursuit; and, therefore, what was lawful to

our forefathers is become criminal in us.

3 On the division of the demesnes of Whalley Abbey they fell into the hands of the Braddylls ; and on the

purchase of their moiety of the manor by the late Sir James Whalley Gardiner, Bart, were transferred among the.

title-deeds to him.
4 There is no account of this man in the pedigree or charters of the family.

VOL. I. 2 L

258 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [Boon III. OHAP. III.

CAPELLANI. VAC. PATRONI.
John de Stafford . . . per resig. . . Edwardus III. jure regis. 1
Richard de Moseley z ; resigns to the
Abbot and Convent A.D. 1334. In consequence of this resignation, they seized the whole

endowment into their own hands, reducing the chaplain from an independent and opulent

beneficed man to a mere stipendiary ; besides which they, together with the Ordinary,

appear 3 to have compelled the Vicar to take upon himself the cure and charge of souls

within the Castle chapelry ; in consequence of which the chapel of St. Michael in Castro

is yet assigned in the King's books to the patronage of the Vicar of Whalley. In this

state, or nearly so, the chapel of St. Michael continued till the 1st Edw. VI. when it fell

with the other chantries, and has since been so totally demolished that its particular

situation Avithin the area of the castle is no longer remembered. Some small benefactions,

however, it appears to have received in this interval, which were very properly allotted by