2. THE PRIORY OF LYTHAM
The Benedictine priory of Lytham was founded
between 1189 and 1194, during John count of
Mortain's tenure of the honour of Lancaster, by
his knight, Richard son of Roger, of Woodplumpton in Amounderness; Count John gave
his licence to alienate the vill of Lytham, assessed
at two plough-lands, to any religious he pleased
in free alms, undertaking to remit its thegnage
rent of 8s. 10d. (fn. 64) Richard seems at first to have
contemplated the establishment of an independent house with the help of one of the two great
abbeys which had interests in his neighbourhood,
Shrewsbury, the patrons of Kirkham church,
and Evesham, the owners of a cell at Penwortham. Apparently he applied to each in turn,
for two documents are extant in one of which
Hugh, abbot of Shrewsbury, agrees to send his
monk Robert de Stafford, as head of the new
house, without founding thereon any claim to
subjection, (fn. 65) while in the other Roger Norris,
abbot of Evesham (1191-1213), accedes to a
request that his 'familiaris' William should
'order (ordinare) the place called Lytham given
to religion' and institute there Benedictine
brethren. (fn. 66)
But the idea of an independent house was soon
abandoned in favour of the creation of a cell
dependent on the priory of Durham. A certain
religious connexion already existed between Lytham and Durham. The ancestors of Richard
son of Roger, who built Lytham church, dedicated it to St. Cuthbert, and it is the scene of
several of the twelfth-century miracles ascribed
to the saint by the hagiographer Reginald of
Coldingham. (fn. 67) Richard himself, when apparently
sick unto death and carried into the church to
die, marvellously recovered, and the life of his
infant son was preserved in the same way. On
both occasions he is said to have gone to Durham
to return thanks, and Reginald professes to have
had the story from his own lips. (fn. 68) Doubtless he
embellished it, but gratitude may have been
among the motives which finally determined
Richard to give the whole vill of Lytham with
its church to 'God and St. Mary and St. Cuthbert and the monks of Durham ' for the foundation of a cell whose priors and monks were to be
appointed and removable by the prior and convent
of the mother house.
His charter, granted between 1191 and 1194, (fn. 69)
survives in two versions; the shorter and
evidently the earlier form contains a very imperfect description of the boundaries of the township and no warranty clause. In the fuller
version these defects are remedied. (fn. 70) Charters of
confirmation were obtained from the founder's
two married daughters, Maud and Avice, with
their husbands, Robert de Stockport and William
de Millom, and a similar confirmation was executed jointly by his three unmarried daughters,
Margaret, Quenild, and Amuria. (fn. 71)
Shortly after the accession of John, the founder
added half a plough-land in Carleton to his endowment. (fn. 72) He died before 26 February, 1201,
when the king, at the instance of his son-in-law,
Robert de Stockport, confirmed his charter made
when count of Mortain. (fn. 73) Roger of St. Edmund, archdeacon of Richmond, confirmed
Richard's foundation charter. (fn. 74)
The founder's widow, Margaret Banaster, gave
the church of Appleby in Leicestershire to the
Lytham monks, (fn. 75) but their right to the advowson
was frequently disputed by the Vernon and
Appleby families. In 1265-6, in 1288, and
again in 1325, the king's court decided in their
favour, (fn. 76) yet forty years later a rector presented
by Sir Richard de Vernon was in possession. (fn. 77)
Durham procured from Pope Innocent VI a bull
appropriating the rectory, the net profits being
estimated at £5, to their college at Oxford, and
between 1364 and 1366 tried to buy out the
rival claims; the presentation of the vicar was
reserved for the prior of Lytham. (fn. 78) The scheme
broke down, however, and though the priors of
Lytham presented rectors as late as 1422-5, (fn. 79) a
compromise seems to have been subsequently
arranged by which they resigned the patronage
to the Vernons on payment of an annual pension
of 13s. 4d. from the church. (fn. 80) The right of
Durham Priory to the cell of Lytham itself was
impugned, in 1243, by the abbot and monks of
Evesham, who alleged that they had been in
peaceful possession of the said cell by William of
Lytham, their fellow monk, but that the prior
and convent of Durham and Roger their monk
usurped their just claim. (fn. 81) The claim was probably based upon Richard son of Roger's arrangement with Abbot Roger of Evesham, already
mentioned. Papal delegates induced Evesham,
in 1245, to withdraw it, but Durham agreed to
pay her 30 marks. (fn. 82) This condition remaining
unfulfilled the claim was reasserted in 1272, and
two years afterwards delegates appointed by
Gregory X enforced payment of the money and
enjoined silence upon Evesham. (fn. 83)
Disputed rights of pasture on the borders of
Lytham brought the monks into conflict with
their neighbours, the Butlers of Lytham, (fn. 84) the
Beethams of Bryning and Kellamergh, (fn. 85) and the
Cliftons of Westby. In 1320 Prior Roger of
Tynemouth complained to the earl of Lancaster
that William de Clifton had invaded the priory
with 200 armed men, rescued some impounded
cattle, done damage to the amount of £100 and
put him in fear of his life so that he dare not
stir abroad. (fn. 86)
Prior Roger's relations with his superior at
Durham were also strained. He was charged
with oppressing the tenants and selling the stock
to maintain an excessive household. (fn. 87) But times
were bad; Scottish raids had so reduced the value
of the Lytham temporalities that they were rated
for the tenth at £2 only, instead of £11 6s. 2d.,
the assessment of 1292. (fn. 88) Durham itself was in
difficulties and giving its creditors a lien on the
revenues of its cells, (fn. 89) so that possibly Roger was
not wholly to blame.
The priors sometimes rebelled against the
complete subjection to the mother house upon
which the founder had insisted. They were
merely the agents of the convent of Durham, (fn. 90)
and had to attend the general chapter there at
Whitsuntide, bringing with them an inventory
of the goods of the cell and a balance sheet for
the year. (fn. 91) Although instituted by the archdeacon of Richmond, (fn. 92) and owing canonical
obedience to him for the appropriated church of
Lytham, discharging its burdens and ministering
to the parishioners either in their own person or
(usually) by one or two secular chaplains, they
were liable to be recalled at any moment. (fn. 93) It
was alleged that the frequent changes in the headship of the priory did it injury; that they were
sometimes arbitrary is shown by the case of
Richard of Hutton. Richard was sub-prior of
Durham when Hugh of Darlington became prior
in 1285, and having offended him was sent to
Lytham as prior, only to be removed as soon as
he began to make his mark there. (fn. 94) Robert of
Kelloe, who became prior of Lytham in 1351,
procured a papal bull some ten years later exempting him from being removed from the office
during his life without good cause shown. But
he was compelled to renounce it and return to
Durham. (fn. 95) About eighty years later Prior William
Partrik procured a similar bull from Eugenius III,
and royal letters patent condoning his action. (fn. 96)
The reservation, however, of power to remove
him for sufficient cause afforded a loophole of
which his superiors took advantage. They accused him of non-attendance at the general
chapter, of omission to pay any contribution
(collecta) to the mother house for two years, and
of having set upon the bearer of their letter of
admonition armed men, who threatened to make
him eat it cum pixide. (fn. 97) On these grounds he
was deposed, the prior and convent formally disclaiming any intention of violating the writings
granted to the said William by the Holy See or
the crown. (fn. 98) The papal privilege was in any
case personal to Partrik and did not, as Canon
Raines asserts, (fn. 99) secure life-tenure to his successors.
With this exception the known history of the
priory during the fifteenth century and down to
the Dissolution was uneventful. It seems to have
felt to some extent the effects of the anarchy of
the reign of Henry VI. In 1425 certain persons
unknown were threatened with excommunication
for having destroyed and detained its property
and withheld the tithes and mortuaries due to the
church of Lytham. (fn. 100) Twenty-three years later the
services of Thomas Harrington, son of Sir James
Harrington, had to be requisitioned to secure the
recovery of a number of Lytham charters from
one Christopher Bayne, into whose custody they
came during a vacancy of the priorship. Bayne
professed to have been offered by certain interested
persons I oo marks and a large pension, and Harrington tried to counteract the temptation by
promising him for life an annual suit (toga) of the
prior's livery, and a pension of half a mark along
with the favour of the priory for himself and a
living for one of his servants; (fn. 101) with what result
is not recorded.
The infection of disorder seems to have found
entrance into the priory itself. About the same
time a local justice of the peace requested the
prior of Durham to recall Dan George his monk,
who had been
ryght mekill mysrewlet and mysgovernet and yet is in
speciall in fightyng and strikyng of seculares and also
in schrowet countenance makyng to Dan Thomas and
to the priest of Lethum in drawyng of his knyves and
lyftyng up of staves likely for to sle or mayne and
hayme. (fn. 102)
The priors did not always refrain from worldly
business. In 1472, Nicholas Bedall of Coventry,
chapman, appointed Prior Cuthbert his attorney,
to recover his debts in Lancashire. (fn. 103) Litigation
arising out of the landed interests of the house
still played a part in its annals. In 1428 the
authority of Rome was invoked in a quarrel over
tithes with the Cistercian abbey of Vale Royal,
which had secured an appropriation of Kirkham
church in the reign of Edward I. (fn. 104)
Fresh disputes with the Cliftons as to the
boundaries of Westby and Lytham were settled
in 1507, (fn. 105) and in 1518 and 1530 the priory
was again at law with the Butlers of Layton over
the old question of pasture rights at the north end
of Lytham. (fn. 106) On 9 May, 1530, the Layton
people pulled down a boundary cross bearing a
picture of St. Cuthbert and, according to the
prior, though some denied this, would have
destroyed the monastery, had not two monks
gone out to meet them with the sacrament.
Between 1535 and 1540 the prior and convent
of Durham withdrew the monks from Lytham
and let the property of the cell to Thomas Dannet for eighty years at a rent of £48 19s. 6d. (fn. 107)
If this was an attempt to avert confiscation,
it failed, for after the surrender of Durham
Dannet paid his rent to the crown until Queen
Mary on 23 July, 1554, gave the cell to that
devourer of monastic lands, Sir Thomas Hoicroft, kt. (fn. 108)
The priory was dedicated to St. Cuthbert.
Endowed by the founder with two plough-lands
in Lytham and half a plough-land in Carieton it
had received from other local families, mainly in
the thirteenth century, numerous small parcels of
land in the adjoining townships. (fn. 109) Prominent
among these benefactors were the Butlers of
Warton. Its rent-roll in 1535 was £35 5s. 7d.,
and the site of the cell with its demesne land,
estimated to be worth £8 13s. a year, brought
up its temporalities to a total of £43 8s. 7d.
The tithes (fn. 110) and offerings of Lytham church
yielded £9 13s. 11d. a year, and that of Appleby
paid a pension of 13s. 4d. After deducting the
fees of the priory bailiffs and of its steward, the
earl of Derby, who received £2 annually, a sum
of £48 19s. 6d. remained available for the upkeep of the cell and any contribution to the
mother house which this might allow. (fn. 111) The
priory, however, had a debt of £40. (fn. 112) Two
centuries earlier the gross income had been rather
higher. In 1344 it reached £66 8s. 11½d. (fn. 113)
The expenditure was £61 8s. 4d. Among its
items were £1 6s. 9d. for the journey of the
prior and perhaps one or more of the monks to
the general chapter at Durham, £3 13s. 6d. on
Lytham church (including the stipend of the
chaplain), £4 10s. to three monks pro rebus ordinatis, (fn. 114) £10 on the kitchen, £3 9s. 3d. on robes
at Christmas for the steward and servants,
£3 8s. 4d. on wages, and £6 13s. 10d. in contributions towards the support of monks at Oxford
and other gifts. The small balance was reduced
by arrears to 14s. 3½d.
Priors (or Wardens) of Lytham
William, (fn. 115) occurs after 1205 and before 1226
[John, (fn. 116) occurs before 1233]
[Helias, (fn. 117) occurs after 1205 and before 1240]
Roger, (fn. 118) occurs after 1217 and before 1249
Thomas, (fn. 119) occurs 1250
Clement, (fn. 120) occurs before 1258
Stephen of Durham, (fn. 121) occurs January, 1259, and February, 1272
Richard of Hutton, (fn. 122) occurs between 1285 and 1288
Ambrose of Bamborough, (fn. 123) occurs 1288
Henry of Faceby (Faysceby), (fn. 124) occurs 1291 (fn. 124a)
Robert of Ditchburn, (fn. 125) occurs 1307
Hugh Woodburn, (fn. 126) occurs 1310-11
Roger of Stanhope (fn. 127)
Roger of Tynemouth, (fn. 128) occurs 1316-25
John of Barn by, (fn. 129) occurs 20 March, 1332, left 133
Aymer of Lumley, (fn. 130) occurs 1333
Hugh of Woodburn, (fn. 131) occurs 1338-42
Robert of Camboe, (fn. 132) admitted 31 October, 1342, occurs until 1349, when he died, probably of the plague
Robert of Kelloe, (fn. 133) inducted 9 July, 1351, occurs until 1361
John of Normanby, (fn. 134) inducted 3 July, 1362, left 1373
Richard of Birtley, (fn. 135) instituted 29 October, 1373, left 1379
William of Aslackby, (fn. 136) occurs 1379-85
Thomas of Corbridge, (fn. 137) occurs 1388-1402
Richard of Heswell, (fn. 138) appointed 1412, occurs until 1431
William Partrik or Patrik, (fn. 139) admitted 20 June, 1431, removed 11 January, 1444-5
Henry Heley, (fn. 140) appointed 17 April, 1445, instituted 21 March, 1445-6.
John Barley, (fn. 140) admitted 12 September, 1446, occurs 1456
William Dalton, (fn. 140) 1456-8
John Middleham, (fn. 140) admitted 13 July, 1458, last occurs 1459
Thomas Hexham, (fn. 140) admitted 16 May, last occurs 1465
William Cuthbert, (fn. 140) occurs 1465-72
Robert Knowt, (fn. 140) occurs 1474-9
William Burdon, (fn. 140) occurs 1479-84
William Cuthbert, occurs 1486-91
Richard Tanfield, (fn. 140) occurs 1491-1510
Robert Stroder, (fn. 141) occurs 1514-16
Edmund Moore, (fn. 142) occurs 1525-30
Ralph Blaxton, (fn. 143) occurs 1533-5
An oval seal attached to a deed of Prior John
of Normanby dated 1366 (Lytham Chart. 3a,
4ae, Ebor. 30) has at the top the Virgin and
Christ seated; beneath, a female figure (? St.
Catherine) crowned holding a crozier (?); at the
base a half figure praying. Legend effaced.