28. THE ABBEY OF SAWLEY
Sawley Abbey was founded by William Percy
II, son of Alan Percy the Great (fn. 1) on 6 January
1147-8, (fn. 2) when Abbot Benedict with twelve
monks and ten conversi came from Newminster.
Dr. Whitaker, (fn. 3) however, has printed a charter
from the Towneley MSS. (which is not free
from certain difficulties), according to which
Swain the son of Swain had sold to Robert
Abbot of Newminster 11 carucates in 'Sallaia'
and land and wood beyond Suaneside and
Cliderow, (fn. 4) for the foundation of an abbey of
the Cistercian order.
In the foundation charter (fn. 5) William de Percy
states that he has given to God and the church
of St. Mary, and to Benedict the abbot and the
monks of the abbey of Mount St. Andrew,
which he had built, Sawley and 'Dudelant,' and
' Helwinesthorp ' and all their appurtenances, as
well as a carucate in Rimington, which Norman
the son of Huchtred had given them, and two
bovates in ' Hilleclaia,' given by Robert his
steward, which two latter gifts he confirmed.
Forty years (fn. 6) later a question arose whether the
monks would not have to abandon Sawley, owing
to their inability to obtain the necessary sustenance from the land, the climate being so cloudy
and wet that the crops, when white unto
harvest, rotted on the stalk. The Abbot of
Clairvaux and the abbots visitors of the house had
the matter in consideration, when Maud de
Percy, Countess of Warwick, daughter of the
founder, in order to save the abbey from demolition or removal, granted the monks the church
of St. Mary of Tadcaster with the chapel of
Hazlewood, and an annual pension from the
chapel of Newton, and a carucate of land at
Catton (' in qua secundum carnem nata fui').
William Percy, who according to the Genealogia Perciorum, (fn. 7) printed in the Monasticon, in the
account of Sawley, was the great-grandson of the
founder, granted his manor of Gisburn in Craven
to the abbot and convent, for the maintenance of
six monks, who were to be priests, in the abbey, (fn. 7a)
and in 1313 (fn. 8) his son Henry de Percy, considering their poverty, gave to the abbot and convent the church of St. Andrew of Gargrave.
Its value had been 50 marks, but owing to the
Scottish wars was in 1320 only 30 marks. (fn. 9)
Many other grants were made to the abbey,
and several of the deeds relating to them are
printed in the Monasticon. (fn. 10)
Unlike other houses of the Cistercian order,
the situation of that of Sawley was not secluded,
but was by the highway passing north and south.
In consequence of this the monks had to show
more hospitality to travellers than was perhaps
the lot of other houses, and it was specially
exposed to the raids made by the Scots.
In 1296 (fn. 11) Stanley Abbey was removed to
Whalley, not far from Sawley, and this led to a
complaint that the new position of the abbey at
Whalley was prejudicial to Sawley, and moreover
was in contravention of the customs of the
Cistercian order. The monks of Sawley further
complained (fn. 12) that the monks of Whalley had
obtained a lease of the tithes of the church of
Whalley, which the monks of Sawley had
hitherto farmed for their maintenance; that the
monks of Whalley went round Craven and
bought in the Abbot of Sawley's market all kinds
of grain, and had thus raised the price of grain;
and not only had they to pay a higher price, but
they had to carry the grain over 40 or 60 miles
of very bad road. Butter and cheese, fish,
poultry, salt, iron, &c., since the coming of the
monks to Whalley, were sold dearer to the
monks of Sawley. The timber, with which the
monks of Sawley ought to build and keep up
their buildings, was dearer because the monks of
Whalley were building, and intended to build for
the future, and the sellers of bark (tanae) in those
parts, hoping that the monks of Whalley were
going to have a big tannery, charged more for
bark, in consequence of which the tannery of
Sawley was almost destroyed. It may be noted,
in passing, that the need of purchasing grain
confirms the report of the infertile character of
the land about Sawley at that period.
This complaint was dealt with in a general
chapter of the Cistercian order in 1305, (fn. 13) when
it was decided that if the monks or conversi of
either abbey transgressed against the other, the
delinquents were, without delay, to be sent to
the injured party to be punished in chapter there,
at the judgement of the president. If the monks
of Whalley had any saleable tithes (decimas
venales) which the Abbot and convent of Sawley
considered needful for their use, they should be
as speedily and freely sold to them as to other
persons, but for the price which others would
give. The decision might reasonably be expected
to have given rise to continual disputes between
the two monasteries. There is, however, no
evidence that any further disputes actually arose.
On 19 September 1306, (fn. 14) for some reason
which so far has not been discovered, Archbishop
Greenfield passed sentence of excommunication
on John de Houeden, abbot, John de Eton,
prior, William de Stokesleye, sub-prior, Robert
de Kereby, cellarer, Henry de Bolton, subcellarer, John Tempest, sacrist, Richard de Ebor,
sub-sacrist, John de Semer, frater conversorum,
Richard de Edesford, bursar, William de Osbal[ton . . .?], William de Nodesaye, porter, Robert
de Fontibus (conversus), hostilar, Simon de Lytton
(conversus), master of the Forest, Roger de Hoton,
master of Tadcaster, and Roger de Crathorn,
master of Bereghby.
In 1350 (fn. 15) Pope Clement VI, who in 1343
had ordered that the Jubilee at Rome, first
observed in 1300, should be kept every fiftieth
year, issued a grant to a monk of Sawley,
Richard de Fishwyk, to return to his monastery,
which he had left without leave, in order to
visit Rome for the general indulgence of the
Jubilee of that year. In 1381 (fn. 16) the receipts of
the abbey appear to have been £347 14s. 7½d.,
and the expenditure £355 13s. 10½d. At that
time (fn. 17) there were in the abbey besides the
abbot sixteen other monks. At the suppression
there were twenty-one monks and thirty-seven
servants. (fn. 18) In 1412 (fn. 19) the abbot and convent
obtained an indult from Pope John XXIII to
eat flesh meat on lawful days, whenever they
left their monastery for reasonable causes.
The Abbots of Sawley were summoned to
Parliament on nine occasions from 1294 to
1307. (fn. 20) According to the Taxatio of 1291,
the spiritualities of the abbey were the church
of Tadcaster, valued at £36 13s. 4d., and that
of Gargrave, valued at £33 6s. 8d. The temporalities of the abbey were valued at £54 10s. (fn. 21)
There is no full account of the possessions
of Sawley in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, merely a
statement that the clear annual value, in spiritualities and temporalities, reached the sum of
£147 3s. 10d. (fn. 22) A rather earlier return, made
in 1522-3, (fn. 23) gives the clear annual value at
£159 16s. 7d. Sawley Abbey, therefore, came
within purview of the earlier Act, 27 Henry VIII,
cap. 28, which dissolved all the monasteries
whose annual revenue was below £200. In
1536 (fn. 24) Thomas Bolton was abbot, but William
Trafford must have succeeded him in that year,
for he took part as abbot (with his prior) in the
Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536. (fn. 25) There is no
record of his election in the York Registers, and
it was possibly never formally confirmed. On
10 March 1537 (fn. 26) he was hanged at Lancaster
for high treason. Abbot Trafford (fn. 27) belonged to
an old Lancashire family, and was the second
son of Sir John Trafford of Trafford, by Elizabeth daughter of Sir Thomas Assheton of
Ashton-under-Lyne.
Among the Suppression Papers (fn. 28) one records
the 'goodes praysed at Sawlaye and gyven by
the Kinges highnes unto Sir Arthur Darcy
Knight' as follows: ' Belles, lead, vestymentes
and copes, and other necessaries praysed unto'
£109 10s. 11d. 'Item. Corne in the garners,
and in the ffeldes' £62 15s. 4d.; total
£172 6s. 3d. In another paper, much of which
is lost, (fn. 29) the total of the stock and goods reaches
the sum of £300 12s. 7d.
Abbots Of Sawley
Benedict, 1147 (fn. 30)
Geoffrey de Eston, 1186 (fn. 31)
Adam, before 1193 (fn. 32)
Stephen, occurs 1226, (fn. 33) 1230 (fn. 34)
Walter, occurs c. 1236 (fn. 35)
Warin, occurs 1246, (fn. 36) 1255 (fn. 36a)
William (?) (fn. 37)
Hugh, occurs 1265, (fn. 38) 1269 (fn. 39)
Thomas, occurs 1278, (fn. 40) 1280, (fn. 41) 1290, (fn. 42) de
Driffield (fn. 43)
Roger, occurs 1299, (fn. 44) 1302 (fn. 45)
John de Houedon, confirmed 1303, (fn. 46) excommunicated 1306, (fn. 47) absolved 1313 (fn. 48)
John de Heton, confirmed 1321 (fn. 49)
John, occurs 1351, (fn. 50) John de Gisburne, 1354 (fn. 51)
Geoffrey, occurs 1366 (fn. 52)
John, occurs 1372, (fn. 53) 1381, (fn. 54) 1394 (fn. 54a)
William, (fn. 55) 1418
William, occurs 1433, (fn. 56) 1443, (fn. 57) William de
Ingylton, died 1453 (fn. 58)
Thomas Bradley, 1453, (fn. 59) died 1467 (fn. 60)
Robert Wode, 1467 (fn. 61)
William Holden, confirmed 1468 (fn. 62)
Richard, occurs 1480 (fn. 63)
Thomas Burton, confirmed 1502 (fn. 64)
Henry Hammond, occurs 1506 (fn. 65)
Thomas Bolton, confirmed 1527, (fn. 66) occurs
1 January 1536 (fn. 67)
William Trafford, 1537 (fn. 68) last abbot
A 12th-century seal (fn. 69) of the abbot is a small
vesica, 15/8 in. by 1 in., showing his figure at full
length holding crozier and book. The legend—
✠ SIGILLVM ABBATIS DE SALLIA
is carelessly cut, the two last words being
reversed.