33. THE ABBEY OF THORNTON
The abbey of Thornton was founded in 1139
by William le Gros, earl of Albemarle and lord
of Holderness. The foundation charter states
that by the counsel of his kinsman Waltheof, prior
of Kirkham, of Simon earl of Northampton and
Henry earl of Huntingdon, the founder placed
here twelve canons from Kirkham who were at
first ruled by a prior; and the house was raised
to the dignity of an abbey by bull of Pope
Eugenius III in 1148. (fn. 1)
Before 1284 the Albemarle estates escheated
to the crown; but the canons of Thornton had
already acquired the privilege of administering the
estates of the monastery during voidance, without fees to the patron, except such as were due
to two servants who kept the great gate and the
door of the guest house in his name. This privilege was confirmed by the king, (fn. 2) who also, in
consideration of a fine of £10, promised not to
grant the advowson of the abbey out of his own
hands and those of his successors. (fn. 3) It remained
therefore a royal foundation until the dissolution.
The abbey was well endowed with lands and
churches by the founder and other benefactors;
and in 1291 its temporalities were taxed at
£235. (fn. 4) The original number of canons was
considerably increased, and even at the dissolution
there were still twenty-three.
In 1221 the abbot secured the advowson of
Welton-in-the-Marsh in a suit with Walter de
Hamby, a descendant of the original donor. (fn. 5)
From 1269 to 1292 a good deal of expense was
incurred by the purchase of certain manors and
advowsons. (fn. 6) In 1275 the abbot was accused of
appropriating sixteen acres on the moor of Caistor
for his sheepfolds (fn. 7) ; in 1319 he received a
pardon for his trespass. (fn. 8) During the reign of
Edward II the canons of Thornton had to contribute provisions for the Scottish war at considerable expense, and were also disseised of some
property by Hugh le Despenser, of whose want
of reverence for church property this is not the
only instance. The land was restored by
Edward III, and payment promised for the
provisions. (fn. 9) In 1332 losses from inundation,
cattle plague, and the burden of hospitality led
to the impropriation of the church of Wootton. (fn. 10)
Several pensioners were sent successively by
Edward I and Edward II to spend their last
days at the abbey. (fn. 11) In 1312 the abbot was
summoned for the first time to Parliament, but
he and his successors made great efforts to escape
this duty; in 1341 an exemption was formally
granted, (fn. 12) but in 1348 it was revoked, and
attendance was thenceforward required. (fn. 13) A
petition made by the abbot in 1341, that he
might not have to pay a ninth on his temporalities as well as the annual and triennial tenths,
was granted for all property acquired before
1292. (fn. 14)
Some of the abbots of the fourteenth century
were great builders, and spent on the decoration
and improvement of the monastery rather more
than their revenues justified. William Grasby,
abbot from 1323 to 1347, incurred great expenses
in this way; he also purchased the manor of
Barrow for £200 and the advowson of Welton
for £60, and at his death the house was evidently
somewhat embarrassed; (fn. 15) and the bursar at this
time was extravagant and suspected even of dishonesty. (fn. 16) The next abbot, Robert of Darlington, spent a good deal on the decoration of the
church and monastic buildings generally. (fn. 17)
Little is known of the history of the abbey in
the fifteenth century, except that it shared in
the general decline of learning and discipline. (fn. 18)
Its prosperity, however, was not much diminished.
In 1518 the abbot was able to secure from Pope
Leo X a bull granting him the privilege of
celebrating mass in a mitre with gold plates and
full pontificals. (fn. 19) The abbey was described in
1521 as one of the goodliest houses of the order
in England. (fn. 20) Some slight losses were suffered
by inundation in 1534; (fn. 21) but the revenue was
returned in the same year as nearly £600 clear.
Abbot John Moor signed the acknowledgement of supremacy, with twenty-three canons. (fn. 22)
He was accused after the Lincoln rebellion of
having provided the insurgents with money; (fn. 23)
but he was not brought to trial. His successor,
William Hobson, surrendered the abbey in 1539,
receiving a pension of £40. The canons
received annuities of £5 to £7 each. (fn. 24) The
revenues of the house were employed for a short
time in maintaining a college for secular priests. (fn. 25)
From the thirteenth century onwards this
house was one of the largest and most important
in the county. There is no precise record of
the number of canons in its most prosperous
days, but the order of Bishop Alnwick that one
canon out of twenty should be maintained at
the university looks as if there were more in
his time than at the dissolution. The Chronicle
transcribed by Tanner gave lists of obedientiaries
which imply a very considerable household. (fn. 26) A
school of fourteen boys, who had to serve at
mass, was kept in the almonry, with a master to
instruct them, and a large number of corrodyholders claimed maintenance from the Court of
Augmentation at the surrender of the monastery. (fn. 27)
The house had its vicissitudes, as might be
expected, in point of order and discipline. The
abbot of Thornton was one of those deposed by
Bishop Grosteste in 1235 for causes not specified. (fn. 28)
There were cases of apostacy and other individual
delinquencies from time to time. In 1298 a
canon named Peter de Alazun, having a greater
zeal for learning than for holy obedience, forsook
his monastery and joined the scholars at Oxford
in secular habit. He was excommunicated by
the chancellor throughout the schools, but apparently did not repent and return till 1309. (fn. 29)
Another canon, Peter Franke, was involved in
1346 in a discreditable fracas between the servants of the monastery and those of a knight
of the neighbourhood. The knight's servants
had seized a boatload of victuals on its way to
the abbey, and Peter, being the knight's kinsman,
thought he could induce them by fair words to
give up the booty; but though he urged the
ringleader 'in the sweetest possible way' to
restore the boat, he was answered in such rude
fashion that he lost his temper, snatched up the
nearest weapon, and wounded the man mortally.
The Earl of Lancaster interceded for the canon,
who would naturally for this act have been disabled from exercising any ecclesiastical function;
and the pope allowed him to retain the exercise
of minor orders, and to hold a benefice. (fn. 30)
Cases of this kind show us nothing of the
general condition of the house. (fn. 31) The abbot at
this time was William Grasby, who was at any
rate zealous for the exterior adornment of the
monastery, (fn. 32) and his appointment jointly with
the prior of Kirkham in 1340 by Pope Benedict
XII to convoke a general chapter of the order (fn. 33)
seems to imply that he enjoyed a good reputation
among his brethren. The next abbot, Robert of
Darlington, had been made cellarer previously by
Bishop Gynwell expressly on account of his
'honest and laudable conversation,' (fn. 34) and an order
given during his time that 'no woman, however honest,' should be allowed to live in the
monastery, (fn. 35) does not necessarily imply that any
serious wrongdoing had been discovered. His
successor, Thomas Gresham, was however a
man of very evil life, (fn. 36) and those who followed
for a while, though less unworthy of their office
than he, do not seem to have been capable of
restoring the credit of the house. Bishop
Flemyng's injunctions in 1424 show that the
number of boys educated in the almonry had
diminished, and that the poor and infirm were
not succoured as in days gone by. (fn. 37) When
Walter Moulton succeeded in 1439 he was
evidently quite unable to cope with the laxities
and disorders of the house. At Bishop Alnwick's
visitation of 1440 he complained that the
obedientiaries did not render their accounts.
The canons said that the abbot was thoroughly
incompetent, that manors, granges, &c., were
let without consent of chapter, that the sick
were not provided for, that there were only
two boys in the almonry, and no scholar
at the university. The brethren did not eat
regularly in the refectory, and the sacrist had
lent the sacred vestments to seculars for games
and spectacles. The bishop's injunctions ordered
reform on all these points: after personal examination of the abbot, he appointed him a
coadjutor elected by the convent. (fn. 38)
After this the house seems to have recovered
a higher standard. Bishop Atwater in 1519
had no remarks to make at all. (fn. 39) Nothing is
alleged to the discredit of the abbot and convent
at the end, except sympathy with the popular
movement in 1536; and even if this is true, it
does not prove that there was anything wrong in
the lives of the canons.
The original endowment of the abbey of
Thornton by the founder consisted of the vills of
Thornton, Grasby, Audleby, Burnham, 'Helwell' (Linc.), and Frodingham (Yorks.), with
the churches of Audleby, Ulceby, Frodingham,
Barrow-on-Humber, 'Heccam' and 'Randa.'
Other benefactors added the vill of Humbleton
and half that of Warham, with divers other
parcels of land, and the -churches of Thornton,
(Linc.), Humbleton, Garton, Welton, and
half that of Wyner (Yorks.), and 'Ulstikeby.' (fn. 40)
The patronage of the churches of Carlton,
Kelstern, Worlaby, and Wootton was acquired
later, with the manors of Halton, Barrow, and
Mersland. (fn. 41)
The temporalities of the abbey were taxed in
1291 at £235 0s. 9d. (fn. 42) In 1303 the abbot held
a knight's fee in Wootton and Goxhill, another
in Barrow, one and a half in Killingholm, a
half in Owmby and in Wootton and Little
Limber, one quarter in Worlaby, and smaller
fractions in Barton, Croxton, Killingholm, Searby,
Welton, and Great Sturton. (fn. 43) In 1346 his lands
were almost the same, except that he had two
fees in Barrow (fn. 44) ; in 1428 he had a small fraction of a fee in Hamby as well. (fn. 45) In 1431 he
held the manors of Barrow and Ulceby, acquired
since 20 Edw. I. In 1534 the clear revenue of
the abbey amounted to £591 0s. 2¾d., and in the
Ministers' Account of the year 1542-3 includes
the churches of Thornton, Barrow, Ulceby,
Worlaby, Wootton, Carlton, Kelstern, and
Grasby in Lincolnshire, Elstronwick, Danthorpe,
Garton, and Hinton in Yorkshire, and the
manors of Thornton, Wootton, Barrow, Carltonle-Moorland, Halton, Killingholme, Gothill,
Ulceby, Owersby, and Stainton-le-Hole in Lincolnshire, and Garton, Ottringham, Frodingham,
Humbleton, Faxfleet, and Wyncetts in Skeffling
(Yorks.). (fn. 46) There was a small cell of this abbey
at Thwayte, in Welton in the Marsh, of which
a single canon had charge, during the fifteenth
century. (fn. 47)
Abbots of Thornton (fn. 48)
Richard, first prior in 1139, abbot in 1148,
died 1152
Philip, elected 1152
Thomas, elected 1175
John Benton, elected 1184
Jordan de Villa, elected 1203
Richard de Villa, elected 1223
Geoffrey of Holme, elected 1233
Robert, elected 1245, died 1257
William Lincoln, elected 1257
William Huttoft, elected 1273, resigned 1290
Thomas of Glanford Bridge, elected 1290,
died 1323
William Grasby, (fn. 49) elected 1323, resigned 1348
Robert Darlington, elected 1348, died 1364
Thomas Gresham, (fn. 50) elected 1364
William Moulton, elected 1394, died 1418
Geoffrey Burton, elected 1418, died 1422
John Hoton, elected 1422, died 1439
Walter Moulton, elected 1439, died 1443
William Medley, elected 1443, died 1473
John Beverley, elected 1473, died 1492
John Louth, elected 1492, died 1517
Thomas Butterwick, elected 1517, died 1526
John More, elected 1526, occurs till 1534
William Hobson, (fn. 51) last abbot
The thirteenth-century seal (fn. 52) has a pointed
oval obverse representing the Virgin, with crown,
seated on a throne, in the right hand a lily
sceptre, topped with a bird, in the left hand a
book. The Child on her lap. [Her feet on
a footboard.]
. . . SBE . . . TO . . .
The reverse is a smaller oval counter seal
impression of an antique oval intaglio gem
representing a helmeted figure seated on a
bench; to the left on the ground a shield.
SE[C]RETVM.
The thirteenth-century seal of Abbot William
Lincoln (fn. 53) has a pointed oval obverse showing the
Virgin half length with a crown under a trefoiled
arch with churchlike canopy, the Child on the
left knee. In base under a pointed and trefoiled
arch with pinnacled gables, the abbot half length
with pastoral staff to the right.
S' WILL'I: ABGIS: DE: THORNTON
The reverse is a smaller pointed oval counter
seal showing the Virgin seated with the Child;
in base, under a trefoiled arch, the abbot kneeling
in prayer to the right.
AVE: MATER: CVM: FILIO.