HOUSES OF AUSTIN CANONS
8. THE PRIORY OF CONISHEAD
The Augustinian priory of Conishead was
originally founded as a hospital in the reign of
Henry II and before 1181, the year of the
death of Roger, archbishop of York, who licensed
the appropriation to the brethren of the churches
of Pennington in Furness and of Muncaster
and Whitbeck in Cumberland, (fn. 1) the gift of
Gamel de Pennington. (fn. 2) Gamel, who also gave
the church of Orton in Westmorland and the
vill of Poulton in Lonsdale and whose manor of
Pennington adjoined the estate on which the
hospital was built, was probably its founder; he
is so described in several late mediaeval documents. (fn. 3) That honour has, however, been claimed
for William de Lancaster II, baron of Kendal
(1170-84) and tenant of the manor of Ulverston
under Furness Abbey, who granted to the house
all Conishead, the church of Ulverston, and 40
acres in its fields; a salt-work and rights of
turbary, pasture, pannage, and timber-taking in
his wood of Furness and manor of Ulverston;
and whose descendants held the advowson or
patronage of the priory. (fn. 4) But Mr. Farrer
suggests that as far as Conishead was concerned
he was only confirming as superior lord an original
gift of Gamel de Pennington. (fn. 5)
This suggestion is open to the objection that
he does not mention Gamel and that Conishead
is not enumerated among the latter's gifts in
Edward II's inspeximus. Possibly the true
explanation of these contradictions may be found
in a remark dropped by a visitor to the priory
in 1535. After stating that it was founded by
Gamel de Pennington in 1067 (? 1167) he
adds:— 'It was in strife for some time being
built upon the land of William Lancaster, baron
of Kirkby Kendal and Ulverston.' (fn. 6) If there
was a dispute William de Lancaster may have
ignored Camel's grant and made a new one.
On the death without issue in 1246 or
William de Lancaster III, and the division of his
lands between the sons of his sisters Heloise de
Bruce and Alice de Lindsay, the patronage of
Conishead formed part of the Lindsay moiety
and so passed by marriage into the possession of
the family of Couci (or de Guines). (fn. 7) William
de Couci dying childless in 1343 it may be presumed to have followed the fortunes of this fief,
which was frequently regranted by the crown
and as frequently escheated again. The last
subject who held it before the dissolution of
the monasteries was the illegitimate son of
Henry VIII, Henry, duke of Richmond, but in
1536 it was once more in the hands of the
crown.
William de Lancaster II followed up his charter
by further gifts, and before his death in 1184 the
promotion of the house to the dignity of a priory
seems to have taken place. (fn. 8) His grandson William
de Lancaster III was also a generous donor, and
finally gave the advowson and custody of the
leper hospital of St. Leonard at Kendal on his
death-bed. Other early benefactors were John
son of Punzun, who gave the church of Ponsonby
in Cumberland to the priory while it was still a
hospital; Maldred son of Gamel de Pennington,
Alexander son of Gerold and his wife, Alice de
Romilly, William de Bardsey, John de Copeland,
and Anselm son of Michael (le Fleming) de Furness, from whom they obtained the chapel of
Drigg, near Ravenglass on the Cumberland coast. (fn. 9)
Most of these grants are only known from the
general confirmation of their charters which the
canons secured from Edward II at York in 1318. (fn. 10)
In 1256 Magnus, king of Man and the Isles, had
freed ' his special friends the prior and convent
of Conishead' from all toll throughout his
dominions. (fn. 11)
That so considerable a part of their endowments lay remote from the priory in South Cumberland (Copeland) was not wholly an accident.
The monks of Furness were naturally jealous of
the rise of another religious house so close to their
own and on land of which they were chief lords.
Earl William de Warenne had, indeed, at their
instance forbidden the establishment of a second
house within the bounds of Furness, (fn. 12) and the
original form of a hospital may possibly have
been intended to get round this prohibition. The
abbey and the priory were soon involved in a
dispute, the former claiming the churches of
Ulverston and Pennington as chapels of their
appropriate church of Urswick, and the canons
asserting their right to Hawkshead chapel, as
dependent upon the church of Ulverston, (fn. 13) and
to the fishery at Depestal. An amicable settlement was, however, arrived at in 1208 by the
mediation of certain magnates and the advice of
the abbot of Savigny and other heads of Cistercian houses. The claims in question were respectively abandoned and the opportunity was taken
to impose restrictions on the younger house which
would avert future quarrels. The number of
canons was never to exceed thirteen without the
permission of Furness Abbey; no woman must
dwell in the house, and any future acquisitions of
land in Furness must be confined (except by the
abbey's consent) to the Ulverston fief, and even
here were not to amount in the total to more
than a third of its area. Monks and canons
agreed to live in relations of brotherly affection,
each giving the other advice and help when need
arose. This settlement being considered specially
favourable to the priory, it was required to pay to
Furness an annual pension of 50s. (fn. 14) Yet the
affair did not end here. The rector of Ulverston
still asserted the rights of his church over Hawkshead chapel; the monks of Furness apparently
thought they had got the worst of the compromise. But the former ultimately admitted their
contention on condition of being allowed to
hold the chapel from Dalton for the rest of his
life, (fn. 15) and the archdeacon of Richmond completed the pacification by raising the pension
payable by the canons to Furness to £6. (fn. 16)
Henceforth the two houses seem to have lived on
good terms.
It was part of the arrangement of 1208 that
the priory should enjoy the same rights in the
churches of Ulverston and Pennington as Furness
had in Urswick. Archbishop Roger had, we have
seen, already appropriated Pennington to the
house, but, the archdeacon of Richmond was induced to confirm his charter. (fn. 17) He proceeded to
appropriate Ulverston to the use of the canons at
the instance of the patron, Gilbert Fitz Reinfred,
son-in-law of William de Lancaster II. (fn. 18) No
vicarage was ever ordained here or indeed in any
of the Conishead churches in the diocese of York.
With the exception of Ulverston, whose proximity
to the priory supplied a ground for appropriating
it in spirituals as well as temporalities, none of
them was worth more than £10 a year. (fn. 19) They
were served by stipendiary chaplains. (fn. 20) At Orton
in the diocese of Carlisle, which was more valuable, Bishop Hugh (1219-23) in sanctioning an
appropriation insisted on the appointment of a
vicar, but the living was sometimes held by canons
of the house. (fn. 21) In 1220 Orton, in spite of the
appropriation, was withheld from them by one
J. de Rumeli, clerk, but a commission named
by Pope Honorius III decided in their favour. (fn. 22)
Early in the fourteenth century the priory's
right to Orton church was again assailed. The
abbot of Whitby claimed if as a chapel of his appropriate church of Crosby Ravensworth, and in
1309 took forcible possession. Next year both
parties agreed to arbitration, which resulted in
favour of Conishead. (fn. 23) The priory suffered
severely during the Scottish invasion of 1316.
The taxable value of Ulverston rectory had to be
reduced by five-sixths, and its other churches in
the archdeaconry of Richmond entirely relieved
of taxation. (fn. 24) In 1341 a royal licence was
granted to the canons to appropriate the church
of Hale in Gopeland, the gift of Adam son of
Richard of Ulverston. (fn. 25)
A century later (1440) they were obliged to
go to law to recover their rights in the hospital
of St. Leonard at Kendal, of which they had
been disseised by Sir Thomas Parr, who inherited
part of the Bruce moiety of the Lancaster estates. (fn. 26)
As early as 1525 the house was threatened with
dissolution. Certain persons brought pressure to
bear on Wolsey to take it into the king's hands,
apparently as one of the small monasteries which
the cardinal was authorized by Pope Clement VII
to suppress in order to endow his college at Oxford.
The Duke of Suffolk intervened on its behalf;
'the house,' he said, 'is of great succour to the
King's subjects and the prior of virtuous disposition.' (fn. 27) For the moment the danger passed.
The next prior, Thomas Lord, was represented
in a much less favourable light in 1533. Dr.
Thomas Legh, afterwards too well known as the
visitor of the monasteries, accused him in a letter
to Cromwell as having contrived the murder with
circumstances of great barbarity, on 18 July in
that year, of his (Legh's) kinsman, John Bardsey,
a neighbour of the priory. The crime had been
reported to Mr. Justice Fitz Herbert at the ensuing
Lancaster assizes, but no indictment was put in
as the matter was 'colourably borne by divers
gentlemen.' (fn. 28) Legh does not mention the motive
of the assassins, and the charge against the prior
can hardly have been sustained, for no action
seems to have been taken against him. The
only corroboration, if it can be called such, is
contained in a petition to the chancellor of the
duchy from Richard Johnson, who asserted that
the prior had maliciously ejected him from the
office of 'Carter or Guyder of Levyn sands in
Furness,' which his father and grandfather had
held before him, because he arrested Edward
Lancaster, who by the prior's command had
murdered the petitioner's master, John Bardsey. (fn. 29)
Having an income of less than £200 a year,
the priory was dissolved under the Act of February 1536. There were then eight canons
including the prior, an ex-prior with a pension,
and one canon who was 'keeping cure' at Orton
church, but revocable. The two latter desired to
be released from their vows. (fn. 30) If Doctors Legh
and Layton, the visitors of the previous autumn,
are to be believed, five of them were guilty of
incontinence, two in an aggravated form. (fn. 31)
Two persons, one a widow, 'had their living'
of the house. Alms to the amount of nearly £9
a year were given to the poor, the greater part
by the direction of the founder. Nine waiting
servants, fourteen common officers of household,
and sixteen servants of husbandry were employed.
Church and buildings were found in 'good state
and plight.' (fn. 32) The prior was provided for by
the vicarage of Orton, the others were allowed
pensions of £1 17s. 8d. (fn. 33) They were not yet
dispersed or had returned when on 16 October,
1536, they wrote to certain of the northern rebels
asking for their help. (fn. 34)
The priory was dedicated to St. Mary. Its
original endowments as a hospital had since been
largely increased by successive benefactors, chiefly
in Furness, Westmorland, and Copeland.
William de Lancaster III extended their demesne
lands in the parish of Ulverston, and his other
gifts included fishery rights in Thurstan Water
(Coniston Lake) and the rivers Crake and Leven. (fn. 35)
In Furness, lands were given at Bardsey by the
family of that name, (fn. 36) at Torver, by John son of
Roger de Lancaster, (fn. 37) in Copeland, lands at
Whitbeck by the Morthyng family, and others, (fn. 38)
at Hale by Adam son of Richard de Ulverston. (fn. 39)
In Westmorland, besides Kendal hospital and
Baysbrown in Langdale, another gift of William
de Lancaster III, they possessed a moiety of the
vill of Patton, the gift of John son of Richard de
Coupland, (fn. 40) the manor of Haverbrack (in Beetham
parish), given by Margaret de Ros, (fn. 41) niece of
William de Lancaster III, and other lands.
Poulton in Lonsdale was alienated by the priory
in 1235, (fn. 42) but at the Dissolution it had some
valuable property in Lancaster. (fn. 43) These temporalities were valued for the tenth in 1535 at
about £52, seven churches and the chapel of
Drigg at a little over £72, and after all deductions the clear annual income of the house was
estimated to be £97. (fn. 44) The commissioners who
made a re-valuation at the Dissolution raised it
to £161 5s. 9d. (fn. 45) They valued the bells and
lead at £44 18s., and movable goods at over
£288. The debts owed by the house were nearly
£88.
Thomas Burgoyn, one of the commissioners,
sought to purchase the site of the priory and
other lands, (fn. 46) but the negotiations fell through,
and the demesne lands were at first farmed by
Lord Monteagle, and in 1547 granted to Sir
William Paget. (fn. 47)
Priors of Conishead
R. prior, (fn. 48) occurs between 1194 and 1199.
Thomas, (fn. 49) occurs before May, 1206, and in 1208
John, (fn. 50) occurs 1235 and 1258-9
Thomas of Morthyng, (fn. 51) occurs between 1272 and 1292
Robert, (fn. 51a) occurs 1292
William Fleming, (fn. 52) occurs 1309 and 1318
John, (fn. 53) occurs March 1343
Richard of Bolton, (fn. 54) occurs 1373, 1376, and 1401
John Conyers, (fn. 55) occurs c. 1430
John, (fn. 56) occurs 1505 and 1507
George Carnforth, (fn. 57) occurs 1515-16, pensioned 1527
Thomas Lord, (fn. 58) occurs 1535, surrendered 1536