Contents of the fikst volume
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| cundus, cess, abbatiam et ob. A.D. 1318, et se-
pultus est apud Mon. de Baxley. 4 Fr. Ricardus de Preston. Fr. Hugo de Heli. Fr. Symon parvus de Smetlay. Fr. Johannes de Heli. Fr. Willielmus de Cestria. Fr. Rob. de Toftes, ob. 1311. Fr. Rog. de Melis : in communi negotio domus itine- rans usque curiam Romanam, sed in vigiliis Symonis et Jude ibidem obiit Fr. Willielmus Workesdelegh. Fr. Ric. de Rodiherde, postea Abbas de Cumbermare,
Fr. Ric. de Aston. Fr. Johannes de Buckclegh, al. Bulhaughe. 3. JOHANNES DE BELFELD, Abbas 3tus, ob. 8 kal. Aug. 1323. Fr. Willielmus de Moston. 1 [1259 Anno, in crastino apostolorum Simonis et Judae, rediit Simon quintus abbas de Stanlaw a consilio Londinensi cum confirmatione d'ni Ep'i Cestrensis et Capituli Coventrensis de eccl'ia de Blackburn." Cotton. MS. Tit. F. m. f. 258.] 2 This catalogue is transcribed from Bib. Cotton. Titus F. in. f. 258. [In a list of the Abbots of Stanlaw and Whalley, Harl. MS. 1830, f. 23, Simon and Petrus the fourth and fifth abbots are transposed.] 3 This ancient foundation, which, after the translation to Whalley, seems to have subsisted as a small cell down to the general dissolution, is now merely a farm-house, the property of Sir Ferdinando Poole, Bart. ; and the demesne belonging to it, a rich grass-farm, appears to be fertilized, rather than injured, by the periodical inundations of sea- water to which it is still exposed. The Abbot of Stanlaw was one of the spiritual Barons who held under the Earls of Chester, and sat in the little parliament of that palatinate, of which there is a pictorial representation in King's Vale Royal. * Boxley, in Kent. BOOK II. CHAP. II.] THE ABBEY. 89
Fr. Willielmus de Segbrokes.
Fr. Adam de Lostokes. Fr. Eob. de Midlyton, Prior. Fr. Eog. de Bromburgh, ob. 9 kal. Sept. 1339. Fr. Kicardus de Mottrom.
Fr. Tho. de Upton. Fr. Eog. de Frodesham. Fr. Job. de "Walton. Fr. Warinus de Ines. Fr. Rob. de Buri, ob. 1311. Fr. Ricardus Sutton. Fr. Hen. Storisworthe. Fr. Hunfredus Niger. Fr. Tho. de Lene. Fr. Rog. Pes Leporis. ! In all thirty-five. Of these, 2 however, five were left at Stanlaw, under the government of their old abbot, Robert de Haworth; viz. Upton, Frodsham, "Walton, Ines, and Buri; Sutton and Stores- worth were appointed to the care of the Grange of Merland ; 3 Niger and Lene were left for the same purpose at Staynings ; Harefoot, or PCS Leporis, at Staneye ; and Worsley was sent to pursue his studies at Oxford, 4 where he afterwards proceeded to the degree of doctor in divinity. Twenty-four, therefore, remain as the original convent of "Whalley, a number too considerable to be well accommodated in a single parsonage. 1 The dates of this obituary are principally from a MS. Cotton. Lib. Titus F. m. f. 258. It is often difficult to trace the parentage of monks; 1st, because they frequently dropped their family name, and assumed a local one; and, 2nd, because they were persons dead in law, and therefore never occur in wills or inquisitions, which might serve to connect them with their father's house. But, in this investigation, one of the best rules is to seek for them, either in the immediate vicinity of the Abbey, if it afforded any family or any place of the same name ; or, 2dly, among the tenants and dependants of the house, though more remote. In order to illustrate this latter rule, if we attend to the catalogue above, we shall observe, among thirty-five names, of which the rest belong principally to Cheshire, five who appear to have been natives of the parish of Rochdale. The Abbey of Stanlaw had, at this time, very large posses- sions in this parish; and appears, from many circumstances, to have been extremely popular among the inhabitants. Again, the higher we ascend towards the origin of local names, the less they are ramified, and the greater is the proba- bility that any person was really born at the place whose name he bears. Laying all these circumstances together, we may, without much hesitation, refer Abbot Ilaworth to the ancient house of Great Ilaworth, near Rochdale, which ended about thirty years ago in Radclyffe Ilaworth, LL.D. Fellow of All Souls College, Oxon. [but see the pedigree of the Haworths hereafter under Great Haworth]; the two Helys to the hamlet of that name; John de Buckclegh to the family of Buckley, which may be traced up to a much higher antiquity; and, lastly, Abbot John de Belfield to the ancient stock of Belfield, in Butterworth, then inhabiting the house so called, and which continued at Cleggswood down to the middle of the last century.
miles south-west from Rochdale, with a mere or small lake of about seven Lancashire acres, whence it derives its name. There is a tradition in the neighbourhood of Rochdale that Gooselane was a grange ; the only foundation for which seems to have been a resemblance of name to a place also belonging to Stanlaw and Whalley Abbeys, called, in the Coucher Book, [p. 339, Tit. vi. Houses and Rents in Chester, No. I.] Goselone; but the arrangement of that accurate compilation proves the latter place to have been in the vicinity of Chester. It may be worth observing that the morasses about Merland afforded the last retreat in this country to the black game. The mere abounds with trout, perch, and roach; and the village had once a chapel, probably a remnant of the Grange; and is thence denominated, in Speed's maps, A.D. 1610, Chap. Marland. It was overlooked by Speed's predecessor Saxton.
VOL. I. N 90 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK II. CHAP. II. It is a matter of some curiosity to determine the site of the ancient Deanery or parson- age of Whalley ; for we are not to take it for granted that the abbey was erected on the precise spot where the other had stood, as the monks were empowered by the charter of foundation, " Monasterium in terra Ecclesise de Whalley ubicunque sibi viderint expedire de novo construere et edificare." Now there is at the east end of the churchyard a very ancient structure of wood and stone surrounding a small quadrangle, the most ancient form of such buildings, and still denominated the Old Hall. 1 As therefore we have shown the manor and glebe of the deanery to be the same, or rather the one to have been swal- lowed up in the other, and as the Old Hall of every village uniformly designed the manor or principal mansion-house, it will follow that here was the primitive residence of the Dean, and here the temporary dwellings of the Abbot and bis monks. I do not mean to affirm that the individual building now remaining was the house in question, for it scarcely appears, from the style of the timber-work, to be older than Henry VII., but that the real parsonage of "Wlialley stood upon the same site and bore the same name. Moreover, this house, though immediately contiguous to the parish-church, had a domestic oratory ; for I find that on Wednesday the 28th April, 1306, the altar in the chapel which Peter de Cestria had made in the manor of Whalley, was dedicated by Thomas Bishop of Candida Casa (Whitherii or Galloway) ; and that on the festival of St. Philip and James (being Sunday the 1st May) he celebrated mass, in pontificalibus, within the convent of Whalley ; that is, I suppose, in the above chapel ; [that on the feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross (May 3) he celebrated mass in the parish church ; and that on the day of St. John ante Portam Latinam (May 6) a great part of the abbey, with the whole precinct, was dedicated by the same Bishop, attended by the Abbat of Combermere and other official personages of importance. 2 ] The foundation-stone [of the conventual church] was laid on the morrow of St. Barnabas, [June 12, 1308,] by Henry de Lacy, [Earl of Lincoln,] in person. 3 [Taken down in I860, and further noticed hereafter.] 2 [Dr. Whitaker was so far misled by inaccurate and imperfect transcripts of the dates regarding the erection of the Abbey, that we are obliged to make important alterations of his text in this page and the next. They are derived, in the first place, from the following more correct copy of what occurred in 1306, subsequently appended by the Author among the documents at p. 131 of his Third edition: Anno Domini Mccc sexto, Quarto kal. Mali, feria quinta, consecraturn fuit altare in capella quam Petrus de Cestria fecit in Manerio de Whalleye, a domino Thoma Candide Case Episcopo vices Diocesani gerente, in honorem beati Gregorii Pape et aliorum Doctorum. Et kal. Maii, videlicet die sanctorum Philippi et Jacobi qugj dominica habebatur, celebravit idem Episcopus missam in conventu de Whalleye in pontificalibus. Et v non. Maii, videlicet die Inventionis Sanctae Crucis, quae fuit ftria iii, celebravit in pontificalibus in Ecclesia Parochial! Et pridie non. Maii videlicet die Sancti Johannis ante Portam Latinum, quae erat feria vi ta , dedicata fuit magna pars Abbatice cum toto praecinctu ab eodem Episcopo, anno consecrationis ejus xii Pontificatus vero domini dementis v Papae primo, et regni Regis Edwardi filii Regis Henrici xxxiiii, aHatis vero domini Henrici de Lascy Comitis Lincoln, et Patroni nostri . . Domino WilPo de Lee tune abbate de Cumbermare et Domino Gregorio de Norbury abbate de Whalleye, Priore Roberto de Werintone, suppriore Roberto de Toppeclive, cellarario Roberto de Middleton, Edmundo Talebot seneschallo de Blakburn- shire, Roberto fiP Ad. de Preston constabulario. Litera dominicali B. Epact. xv. Indictionis iiii. Ciclo decennovenali xv Pascha erat iii. non. Apr. Omnia ista medio anno a bisexto.] (Addit. MS. 10S74, f 28 b, 24.) 3 [No fuller account of this ceremony has been preserved than the single line quoted in p. 94 note, and it will there be seen that the work did not actually proceed until 1330.] BOOK II. CHAP. II.] THE ABBEY. 91
This fact will determine a question which has perplexed our writers on monastic antiquities ; namely, what parts of religious houses, besides the churches, were actually consecrated ; and it seems to have heen taken for granted, that the chapter-houses and cloisters only were hallowed, as the former were generally honoured with the interment of some great persons, and the latter were the common cemeteries of the house. 1 But it now appears, that the whole close and precinct received a general benediction from the Bishop ; though the other parts of the building, more peculiarly devoted to holy offices, received, no doubt, a more formal and solemn dedication. But the monks, who must have been much incommoded in their new habitation, would naturally be anxious to provide themselves with better lodgings ; and therefore, instead of increasing the number of their religious to sixty, which, according to the second charter of appropriation by Pope Boniface VIII., they were bound to do, we now find them applying all their superfluous income to the erection of a spacious and magni- ficent abbey, of which their own estimate was 3,000. 3 sterling, an enormous sum in those days.
was descended from a celebrated hero in the Crusades, of both his names, commonly called Elias the Giant, 3 who was born at Worsley, and after many triumphs over the Infidels died and was buried at Rhodes. Of this abbot we know nothing, but that he resigned his charge, and died, according to the MS. 4 A.D. 1318, in the Monastery of Baxley, that is, I suppose, Boxley in Kent. Colleges or abbeys, during the time of their erection, require a man of business at their head rather than a scholar. "Worsley was probably a scholar, as he was certainly a student, and therefore would naturally prefer a private station in another house, to unquiet pre- eminence amidst the noise of axes and hammers in his own. On his resignation, of which the precise time is not known, the convent elected III. JOHN DE BELFIELD, in the beginning of whose government (A.D. 1316, as I pre- sume that Worsley had now resigned) so little progress had yet been made in the building, that we find the monks still unsettled, dissatisfied with their situation, and calling upon their patron for a second translation. The place, which heretofore seemed the great object 1 Vide Fuller's " History of Abbeys." 2 Petition for the appropriation of the church of Preston. Coucher Book. The average rent of lands at that time was four pence per Lancashire acre ; but, as the intrinsic value of a penny in the reign of Edw. II. was nearly three pence, this is, in reality, about a shilling. Multiply, therefore, by thirty (as thirty shillings are about the average* at present), and this sum amounts to 90,000. But at that time lands were cheaper, in the true sense of the word ; that is, the tenant expected a larger profit in his farm, probably by one-half : divide, therefore, by two, and we have 45,OOOZ. No extravagant estimate, if the parts which have perished were equal to those which remain. 3 Lancashire pedigrees, MS. [For the Workesdelegh pedigree, see pages 55, 888 of the Coucher Book, which pre- serves several of their charters under Tit. 2, De Eccles, and Tit. 18, De Maunton et Swynton.] 4 Cotton. MS. Titus F. in. f. 258. * Much more 1815. N 2
92 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK II. CHAP. II.
meremio ad monasterium suum de novo construendum, et alias domos suas faciendas, ac propter defectum focaliae et propter districtionem et insufficientiam loci ad blada et alia cariagia Abbatia3 necessaria ! " So different is the language of hope and of possession ! In consequence, however, of these representations, which surely had no foundation, excepting in that part which related to difficulty of carriage, the monks obtained from Thomas Earl of Lancaster, their patron and the firm friend of their order, a grant of Toxteth and Smethedon, near Liverpool, accompanied with a licence " ut inhabilitatem et insufficientiam loci predicti fugiendo, monasterium suum ab eo loco de Whalley amoveant, et in dicto loco de Tocstath ubicunque sibi viderint expedire ac de novo construant et edificient." Dat. apud Whalley in fest. Jac. A.D. 1316. 1
to have resigned the abbey, and to have been succeeded by Belfield a little before this time, the latter might prefer remaining in the neighbourhood of his friends and of the principal estates of his house ; and indeed a translation to Toxteth would have brought back many of the inconveniences which attended the situation of Stanlaw.
omnium sanctorum. (MS. Cotton. Titus F. in. f. 258.) It was one of the offices appertaining to Suffragans to hallow altars. Walter Langton became Bishop of Liclifield in the very year of the translation of this house, and died in 1322 ; and the most probable account of this dedication seems to be, that, as the work had languished under abbot Worsley, upon his surrender, and upon the resolution having been formed of remaining at Whalley, the fabric was carried on with more spirit. Some of the habitable parts of the house were immediately entered upon. The old manor-house or parsonage of Peter de Cestria was abandoned, and therefore the domestic chapel and altar consecrated, as we have seen, in 1306 ceasing to be convenient for the devotions of the convent, a temporary oratory was erected upon some site immediately adjoining, for we are not to dream of the high altar in the abbey church, of which the foundations had not yet been laid. 3
Billington, dated 12 Edw. II. or 1319, proves that the monks were at length setting about their buildings in earnest. 4
was Gilbert elected Bishop of Annaghdown (Ennachdunensis~), co. Gahvay, in 1306 ;' who has been traced as officiating in Dorsetshire and Staffordshire in 1311 and 1312. See Cotton, Fasti Eccles. Hib, iii. 53.]
from Thomas Earl of Lancaster, subject to the life estate of Huddleston, which he had in the said moiety by grant from Henry de Lacy. The licence of mortmain bears date Nov. 10, 12 Edw. II. BOOK IT. CHAP. II.] THE ABBEY. 93
The year after, 1320, the convent was visited by Adam abbot of Cumbermere, as visitor of the Cistertian Order, when the stock and finances of the house appeared as follows : Recepta de Mero a Visitatione ad Visitationem, ccxcij I. xs. xd. Expensa ab ead. usq. ad eand. I This excess of the expenses above the receipt seems to ccc xx I. xvj s. viij d. J imply that considerable sums were now laying out upon Debita Domus in toto c Ixxviij I. xj s. vij d. I the buildings. Stauri boves Vacca? Tauri in Annor. . II Ann. Stirci Affri utriusque sexus Equi portantes . in Ann. II Ann. Pulli Porci utriusque sexus. Oves.
CCXl
Ixxxviij In all, 800 head of horned cattle, and only 837 sheep, a very extraordinary disproportion, and especially at a time when so much more ground lay in common than at present.
distinguished in this account from the common breed. No draft-horses are mentioned in this account, whence I conclude that the cartage of materials for the building was hired or given ; or, what is still more probable, performed by oxen. This was pretty plainly an herd of swine, kept in the woods : they were far too numerous for the farm-yard ; and, indeed, though the hog would of course be put up to fatten at that time as at present, he was, in his general habits, more of a wild animal than now, feed- ing, as his snout imports, on roots, mast, &c., and very far from the filthy impounded glutton to which we have degraded him. D CCC xxxvij It further appears, from the account of this visitation, that the house were indebted to Gilbert de la Leigh cl. sterling, which they had been compelled to borrow, for the accommodation of their patron, Thomas Earl of Lancaster. This is the last transaction which occurs during the government of John de Bclfield, who died July 25, 1323, and was succeeded by IV. ROBERT DE TOPCLIITE, who in 130G had witnessed the general consecration of the precinct, being then a young man, and subprior of the house. This abbot is memorable for having begun that spacious and magnificent pile the conventual church on the festival of St. Gregory the pope (Eeb. 13,) 1330, 1 [after the Earl of Lincoln had laid the foundation stone nearly twenty-two years before. This great work
stone on the festival of St. Gregory the abbot, A.D. 1330." Our authority is derived from the following passages of the monastic annals, (confirmed, not contradicted, by the MS. Cotton. Titus F. in. f. 258, cited by Dr. Whitaker) :
conventualem de Whalley, nobili viro Henrico de Lascy, comite Lincoln, ponente primuni lapidem in fundamento diets ecclesiffi anno Domini Mcccvm. Et prima missa celebrata in ea anno Domini MCCCLXXX. fuit, ad quam missam professi fuerunt fratres Johannes de Rutland et Johannes de Dalton." (Marginal note in Harl. 1830, f. 19, 19 b.) M HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK II. CHAP. II. appears to have been slowly but regularly pursued, 1 for, within fifteen years from its foundation, [i.e. in 1345,] John de Kuerdale, who had left lands to the abbey of the annual value of five marks, was interred in the new conventual church. 2 The work, however, was not yet carried beyond the nave. The stones of which the church was constructed appear to have been brought from the quarries of Read and Symondstone, for Nic. del Holden and Job. de Symondstone licence the abbot and convent to dig for stone in Symondstone, 3 pro fabrica tnonasterii sui, A.D. 1336. John del Holt, of Read, granted a similar permission, in vasto de Mead, 7 Edw. III. or 1333. This abbot, in the same year in which he laid the foundation of one church, contrived to despoil and ruin another, for, in 1330, by representing the necessities of his house, and the immoderate endowment of the vicarage of Whalley, he prevailed on Roger bishop of Lichfield to annul the former equitable ordination, and to substitute in its place a wretched appointment, which has starved the church from that time to the present. 4
from a transcript in Earl. MS. 2064 [p. 322, fol. 31 b] : MEM. q d frater Witt de Preston climisit in officio provisoris conventus de Whalley feria quarta in capita Jejunii, 5 afio dni 1341, fratri Thome de Kouthecliffc succedenti eidem in officio supradco, viz. : ccccxxiv de duris Piscibus (that is, stock-fish); et de Salmonibus grossis xxviij ; et de Allec' tria milia ; et unam copulam de fruct' (probably one basket of dried fruits) ; et de carcosiis bovinis 8 pretti Yüklə 4,81 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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