23. THE ABBEY OF JERVAULX
The story of the origin and foundation of the
abbey of Jervaulx is told at great length in the
lost Register of Byland Abbey, quoted in the
Monasticon. (fn. 1) The writer records that a certain
knight, Akarius Fitz Bardolph, gave to a monk
of Savigny, Peter de Quinciaco by name, and
other monks of that house who were for some
reason then residing in the neighbourhood, part
of his land at Fors, in Wensleydale, where they
might found an abbey. How these monks
came to be in those parts is not explained,
but it seems not unlikely that they were sojourning, for some reason or other, at the court of
Alan, Earl of Richmond. The lands which
Fitz Bardolph gave them, and other grants,
made or to be made, Alan as his over-lord confirmed.
Alan instructed Peter to inform him when
the first building was to be erected, that he
might be present. All being ready, Peter
sought the earl as he had been told to do, and
the latter, coming to the place where the first
building was to be raised, summoned by name
four or five of the knights who had accompanied
him, and said jocundo vultu quasi in ludendo, 'We
all have great lands and possessions, now therefore let us help with our own hands and build
this house in the name of Our Lord, and let
each of us give land, or revenue, in perpetual
alms for the maintenance of the part which each
shall have raised.' (fn. 2) Some readily assented, but'
others refused, except conditionally. In this
way the first house of wood was built in 1145.
Soon after this Earl Alan, visiting Savigny,
informed the abbot that Brother Peter and the
other monks had begun an abbey in his lordship,
not far from his castle of Richmond, and he
gave the abbey, then it is said rather planned
than in being, to the abbot, who accepted it but
unwillingly, not being favourably disposed to the
scheme.
Peter, the zealous promoter of this new plantatio, wrote to the Abbot of Savigny asking him
to send an abbot and convent to inhabit the new
monastery. The Abbot of Savigny, however,
remembering the dangers, labours and injury
which his monks had sustained who had been
sent to different places in England to construct
abbeys, wrote to Brother Peter that he had acted
most foolishly in beginning the abbey without
the advice of the house of Savigny. (fn. 3)
In 1146 (fn. 4) Abbot Roger of Byland set out to
attend a general chapter at Savigny, and Brother
Peter begged him to take a letter to the abbot
and bring back a reply.
The matter was brought before the chapter
general, at which, besides Abbot Roger, the only
abbots present from England were those of
Quarr and Neath, and the question was discussed
by the fifteen abbots present.
Eventually the Abbot of Savigny, to whom
Jervaulx had been confirmed by Conan, Alan's
heir and successor, decided not to send an abbot
and convent of monks from Savigny. The
chapter general decided, however, that the new
abbey should be subjected to Byland, the nearest
house of the order to it. As Abbot Roger
could not stay longer, he constituted the Abbot
of Quarr his proxy. When the chapter was
over, Serlo, the Abbot of Savigny, delivered to
the Abbot of Quarr the charter of the gift of
Jervaulx to Byland, and enjoined the abbot
to visit all the order in England that year,
and if he found that a convent could be maintained at Fors, then he was to deliver the charter
to the Abbot of Byland and put him in full
possession of Fors. If, however, he found that
Fors could not maintain a convent, then he
was to retain the charter and tell Brother Peter
to take good care of Fors and develop it for the
proper use of the Abbey of Savigny. At the
following Easter the Abbot of Quarr visited Byland, accompanied by a monk of Savigny named
Matthew. When the formal visitation was
over, Brother Peter conducted the Abbots of
Quarr and Byland to Jervaulx, and there the
Abbot of Quarr gave Brother Peter the sealed
letters of the Abbot of Savigny and told him
that the new plantatio had been committed to
Byland.
Brother Peter addressed the Abbot of Quarr,
telling him that he and his two associates to
whom the site had been given in the first instance had toiled there much, and that, blessed
be the Most High, they had 5 ploughs at work,
40 cows with their young, 16 mares with their
foals given by the earl, 5 sows with their young,
300 sheep, and 30 skins in tan, and wax and oil
for two years, and they were confident that
they could find bread, ale, cheese and butter for
the first year, and they believed that an abbot
and convent could begin with what there was in
the place till it should please God to provide
more bountifully for them. He added that if
the Abbot of Byland promised to send an abbot
and convent with perpetual succession, they
would hand over the place with all its substance.
This the Abbot of Byland promised to do.
Upon this the charter of Serlo was read by the
Abbot of Quarr.
Brother Peter then handed all over to the
Abbot of Byland, and with his two fellow monks
and a conversus made profession to him. Another
conversus refused this profession and returned to
Savigny with the monk Matthew. The Abbot
of Byland then entrusted Brother Peter with the
care of the place, which he often visited, and he
appointed one monk to the office of the hostelry
and a conversus as tanner.
On his way to a general chapter of the Cistercian order in 1147 Abbot Roger of Byland
went to Savigny, and was told that if he wished
to fulfil his engagement with the Abbot of Quarr
and Peter de Quinciaco no obstacle would be
raised. He then promised that shortly after his
return home he would fulfil his engagement.
On the third day of the general chapter at
Citeaux, the Abbot of Citeaux, according to
rule, ordered that the names of the abbeys
founded during the year should be entered in the
Cistercian Table, and at the suggestion of St.
Bernard and of the Abbot of Savigny, the name
of the abbey of Jervaulx was inscribed in the
table of Citeaux. When Abbot Roger returned
home to Byland he ordered the cellarer to convey
the better bell of the parish church of Old
Byland, on a wagon, to the abbey of Jervaulx.
This was speedily done, and after the feast of
the Circumcision (1 January) Abbot Roger went
to Jervaulx and stayed there till the Purification
(2 February), arranging the external and internal affairs of the place. Then, leaving, he
ordered Brother Peter and his two associate
monks to be at Byland on the first Sunday
in Lent. When that Sunday arrived, Abbot
Roger said that he had delayed completing
his promise in order to do it better and more
securely, and now invoking the divine grace
he ordained and constituted in the name of
the several persons of the Holy Trinity
Brother John de Kinstan abbot. Upon this
nomination all rose at once, and lifting John de
Kinstan on their arms, bore him to the high
altar, exclaiming ' Tu es abbas Jorevallis.' John de
Kinstan was one of those who left Calder with
Abbot Gerald and began the Abbey of Byland.
Then Abbot Roger named Brother Peter and
his two associates and nine monks of the convent,
absolving them from their profession to him
that they might make profession to Abbot John,
and on Wednesday, 8 March 1150, (fn. 5) Abbot John
with the twelve monks set out for Jervaulx.
Abbot John was received by Akarius the founder
and many nobles. He appointed Brother Edwald
his prior and Brother Peter cellarer.
Although throughout this account the new
foundation has been generally spoken of as that
of Jervaulx, it must be borne in mind that it
was the earlier house at Fors, some 16 miles
higher up the valley than the subsequent site of
Jervaulx Abbey, that is alluded to. It was
afterwards called Vallis Grangia, and is still
known as Dale Grange. For four years the
new abbot and convent lived there, but in the
fifth year such heavy rains fell in those parts at
Michaelmas that, when the monks ought to have
been harvesting, all their seeds perished.
In consequence of this, Abbot Roger sent
them five measures (skeppas) of grain for sowing,
and they bought more elsewhere. Still they
were in need, and seeing the sterility of the
land, which on account of rain and intemperate
atmosphere would not mature their crops, they
often contemplated returning to their mother
house, but were prevented by fear of the scorn
of the men, who would say ' These monks began
to build, but were not able to finish.' When
Abbot Roger came, according to custom, to
visit them, he found Abbot John and his convent
in dire distress for the reasons mentioned. They
had spent that year more than all the money
they had received for wool and beasts, in buying
corn. Abbot Roger, therefore, to relieve their
necessity, sent them again five measures (skeppas)
of grain, and ten of malt, against the autumn.
Moreover, with the assent of the convent of
Byland, he gave them 10 bovates of land in
Ellington.
Peter, the cellarer, urged against returning to
Byland and went to Earl Alan in Brittany, where
he showed the earl, with tears, their desolation,
so that the latter wrote to Abbot John not to
leave Jervaulx, and that he would assist them
well on his return to Richmond. Alan, however, was a long time in coming to England, and
as Abbot John had nothing with which to maintain his convent for a whole year, he sent five
of his monks to board at Byland and three to
Furness. Nearly two years elapsed before Earl
Alan came to Richmond, when Abbot John
showed him the grave defects from which the
convents were suffering, and asked his help,
because if he did not afford them assistance the
convent would have to leave the sterile district.
Alan replied that he would speak to his steward
and others as to the complaint, and would do
what they advised. He took Peter the cellarer
with him and granted him a large pasturage in
Wensleydale. Conan, his son, as the site appeared to him useless and insufficient for building the abbey, gave to Abbot John his waste
and uncultivated land in East Witton, and in
1156 Abbot John and the convent moved from
Fors to the site in East Witton.
The writer having related all these incidents
as to the origin of Jervaulx Abbey lapses into
the marvellous, but it is a very pretty story that
he tells. He says that after Abbot John and
his monks had set out from Byland, as they spent
the night in a village, the name of which he
had often heard but had forgotten, Abbot John
had a dream or vision. He seemed to be in
the cloister at Byland, and Abbot Roger had
directed him to set out with a number of monks
for a far-off place, there to receive orders (ad
ordines recipiendos), and as he was passing out he
beheld in the middle of the cloister a most
noble lady, richly clothed, whose beauty excelled
all earthly beauty, and who bore on her left arm
a beautiful boy, whose face was as the brightness
of the moon. The boy plucked a branch from
a tree in the middle of the cloister and then they
vanished from his sight. The abbot and his
companions departed, but when they had gone a
little way they found themselves straitly shut in
within a place surrounded with thorns and brambles and rocks, and there seemed no escape. In
despair the abbot suggested that they should siy
their office. No sooner had they done so than
there appeared the beautiful lady with her boy
whom Abbot John had seen in the cloister. A
colloquy proceeded between the abbot and the
lady; eventually the abbot addressed her: ' Good
lady, I humbly ask thee that thou wilt guide
me and my companions, wandering in this unknown and straitened place, into the way to
that city where the monks with God's help
ought to be established. This I ask for the
love of thy friends at Byland, to which house
we all belong.' The lady replied that
they had been of Byland, but were then of
' Jorevall.' When she named ' Jorevall' he
greatly marvelled, and said, ' Good lady, show us
the way to Jorevall, for thither are we bent,'
Then she looked at her son and said, 'Most
sweet son, for the love thou hast ever to me,
be thou their guide.' And the boy, holding out
the branch he had plucked at Byland, said, with
a bright and joyous countenance, ' I am going
forward, follow me without fear.' At length
they reached an uncultivated and forbidding
spot, where the boy planted the bough, saying,
' Here shall God be adored and invoked after
a short time.' In a moment the bough grew
into a most beautiful tree, full of white birds.
The monks were to rest there, for that was the
place they sought. Having planted the bough
the boy vanished. Abbot John slept no more
that night, but rose early in the morning, and
he and his monks went on by moonlight. At
daybreak they reached a village, and as some of
the inhabitants looked out of their' windows,
they saw a number of persons in white pass by,
and one of them said, ' What a number of white
men are passing ' Abbot John hearing this hid
in the shade by a wall, to learn what else might
be said, and another man asked his companion,
' Do you know who these are? ' and the other
said, 'No.' Then he replied, ' It was told me
yesterday at the hall that an abbot and twelve
monks were migrating from Byland to Jorevall.'
A third man who heard this, came out of his
house, and took observations of the moon and
stars and signs of the heavens, and said, ' These
men are moving at a propitious time, and in a
short period of thirty or forty years they will be
in such a condition as to suffer from no deficiencies.' Abbot John hearing these words, it is
said, hastened to his companions well comforted.
The latter part of the story of the monks passing
through the village has a matter-of-fact look
of truth about it, while the vision or dream is
one of those pretty mediaeval tales which tend
to relieve the monotony of monastic history.
Hervey, son and heir of Akarius, (fn. 6) by charter
consented to the removal from Fors to the new
and better site, on condition that he did not
lose his patronage of the house or cease to be a
partaker in the prayers and good works done in
it. In 1156, (fn. 7) therefore, the construction of the
new abbey at Witton began, and the new
house soon received fresh gifts from different
donors. (fn. 8)
In 1268 (fn. 9) John, Duke of Britanny and Earl of
Richmond, confirmed to the monks their abbey
of Jervaulx, built in honour of the B.Iessed
Mary, and he also confirmed all the gifts which
the monks had of his ancestors, or any other
persons in a number of places which are named,
and by a later charter, dated 1281, (fn. 10) he enlarged
the rights of the monks very considerably in his
forest of Wensleydale.
Little, however, is known for a long period ot
the history of Jervaulx. As a Cistercian house
it was exempt from archiepiscopal visitation,
and like the other houses of the order there are
very few entries in the Registers as to it, and
none which throw light on its internal life.
In 1279 the Cistercian Annals (fn. 11) record the
murder of Philip, Abbot of Jervaulx, by one of
his monks. His successor, Abbot Thomas, was
accused of complicity but was acquitted, the jury
finding that the crime had been committed by
William de Modither, one of the monks, who
had fled and was outlawed. (fn. 12)
The abbey was so impoverished in 1403 (fn. 13)
that Boniface IX granted a dispensation to Abbot
Richard [Gower] that, seeing he could not
decently keep up his estate and burdens, he might
hold for life a benefice in the gift of himself and
the convent, or any other benefice with cure,
even if of lay patronage.
On 7 July 1409 (fn. 14) Pope Alexander V granted
that Abbot Richard, who had been sent by the
clergy of York to the general council then
recently held at Pisa, and his successors, might
wear the mitre, ring, and other pontifical insignia,
and in the monastery and its subject priories and
the churches belongingto it give solemn benediction after mass, vespers and matins, provided that
no bishop or papal legate were present.
The gross annual value of the house, including
temporalities and spiritualities, in 1535 (fn. 15) was
£455 10s. 5d., but the reprises reduced the
clear value to £234 18s. 5d. Among the reprises were the pensions of three chaplains
celebrating at the altar of St. Stephen in the
metropolitical church of York, of the foundation of the lord of Upsall, £20; £10 13s. 4d.
to two chaplains in the chapel of Lazenby, of
the foundation of John Lithgranes. Among the
alms distributed were bread and white and red
herrings, given to poor hermits and boys (pauperibus hermitis et pueris) costing £4 13s. 4d.
yearly; alms on Maundy Thursday to parishioners of Aysgarth 6s. 8d., East Witton 6s. 8d., and
Ainderby Steeple 3s. 4d.
The last abbot, Adam Sedbergh, joined the
Pilgrimage of Grace, and suffered death by hanging at Tyburn in June 1537, (fn. 16) when the-monastic property was forfeited to the king. (fn. 17)
The letter of Richard Bcllycis, written
on 14 November 1538 (fn. 18) to Cromwell, may
well conclude this account of Jervaulx. He
writes:
I have taken down all the lead of Jervaux, and
made it into pecys of half fodders, which lead
amounteth to the number of eighteen score and five
fodders, with thirty and four fodders and a half that
were there before: and the said lead cannot be conveit
[conveyed] nor carried until the next sombre, for the
ways in that countre are so foul and deep, that no
caryage can pass in wyntre. And as concerninge the
raising and taking down of the House, if it be your
lordship's pleasure, I am minded to let it stand to the
next spring of the year, by reason of the days are now
so short, it would be double charges to do it now.
And as concerninge the selling of the bells, I cannot
sell them above fifteen shillings the hundred [weight];
wherein I wolde gladly know your lordship's pleasure,
whether I sholde sell them after that price, or send
them up to London; and if they be sent up surely
the caryage will be costly from that place to the water.
Abbots of Jervaulx (fn. 19)
John de Kinstan 1150, (fn. 20) occurs 1170 (fn. 21) (first
abbot) (fn. 22)
John Brompton, occurs 1193 (fn. 23)
William, occurs 1198, (fn. 24) 1209, (fn. 25) (third
abbot) (fn. 26)
Thomas, occurs 1218 (fn. 26a)
Eustace, occurs 1224 (fn. 27) to 1254 (fn. 28) (fifth
abbot) (fn. 29)
Thomas, occurs 1258 (fn. 30)
Philip, murdered 1279 (fn. 31)
Thomas, occurs 1280 (fn. 32)
Ralph, occurs 1289, (fn. 33) 1300 (fn. 34)
Simon de Miggelle, confirmed 1304 (fn. 35)
John, died (or resigned) 1312 (fn. 36) (eighth
abbot) (fn. 37)
Thomas de Gristhwayte, confirmed 1312 (fn. 38)
occurs 1338 (fn. 38a)
Hugh, occurs 1342 (fn. 39)
John, occurs 1349 (fn. 40)
John de Rokewyk, occurs 1398 (fn. 41)
Richard Gower, elected 1399 (fn. 42)
Peter de Snape, elected 1425 (fn. 43) (seventeenth
abbot) (fn. 44)
John Brompton II, confirmed 1436, (fn. 45) occurs
1464 (fn. 46)
William Jerome, occurs 1469 (fn. 46a)
William Heslington, (fn. 47) elected 1475 (fn. 48)
Robert Thorneton, elected 1510 (fn. 49) (twentysecond abbot) (fn. 50)
Adam Sedbergh, elected 1533 (fn. 51) (last abbot) (fn. 52)
The 14th-century seal (fn. 53) is a vesica, 2½ in. by
1½ in., showing the abbot standing in a canopied
niche holding staff and book. On his right is a
shield of the arms of St. Quintin—three cheverons with a chief vair, and on his left another
shield charged with a saltire. The legend is
broken away.
A second seal, (fn. 54) somewhat similar but more
elaborate in design, has an additional shield of
arms in the base which appears to be barry.