ALIEN HOUSE
23. THE PRIORY OF LANCASTER
The priory of Lancaster was founded by Roger
of Poitou, in the reign of William Rufus, as a
cell of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Martin at
Sées in Normandy. Sées formed part of the
inheritance of his mother, the notorious Countess
Mabel, and its abbey, refounded in 1060 by his
father, received liberal endowments in England
from the house of Montgomery.
The chartulary of Sées recites three charters
of Roger granting Lancaster church and other
portions of his English possessions to the abbey;
two of these are ascribed to 1094, the third is
undated; (fn. 1) All three differ in some important
respects. That without a date was the definitive
charter of foundation, for it alone appears in the
register of the priory. (fn. 2) The others may have
been granted by Roger while in Normandy in
1094, (fn. 3) but the names of its witnesses show that
this was drawn up in the north of England,
probably at Lancaster. It cannot be much later
in date.
The wide range of Roger's endowments
bespeaks the poverty of his northern lands. Included among them were part of the township
of Lancaster, the two adjoining manors (mansiones)
of Aldcliffe and Newton, (fn. 4) the vill of Poultonle-Fylde, and the tithes of the parishes of Preston
and Bolton-le-Sands and of nineteen townships,
all with one exception within the bounds of the
later county of Lancaster and comprising practically the whole of Count Roger's demesne lands
in that district. A tenth of his hunting, pannage,
and fishing was added, together with every third
cast of the seine belonging to the church of
Lancaster.
The church itself was granted; also the
churches of Bolton-le-Sands, Heysham, Melling,
Poulton, Preston, Kirkham, Croston, Childwall,
and a moiety of Eccleston, and three in the
Midlands, Cotgrave, Cropwell (both in Notting
hamshire), and 'Wikelay.' (fn. 5) In the case of
Bolton, Heysham, Preston, and Poulton considerable areas of church land were conveyed
with the advowsons.
Most of these churches were gradually alienated
before the fourteenth century. Those in the
Midlands were soon lost, either by amicable
arrangement or by crown resumption on Count
Roger's forfeiture in 1102. It has been suggested that with them Henry I resumed Preston,
Childwall, and perhaps Poulton. (fn. 6) This, however, seems open to doubt. The circumstances
under which another of its advowsons was lost to
the priory in the reign of Stephen are fortunately
known. Among Roger's gifts were Kirkham
church and the tithes of Walton-on-the-Hill.
But in a charter issued in 1093 or shortly afterwards his sheriff Godfrey, with his consent,
conveyed the churches of Walton and Kirkham
to the abbey of St. Peter at Shrewsbury, the
chief English foundation of the count's father,
Roger of Montgomery. (fn. 7) The only probable
explanation of the double grant is that between
the date of this charter and that of Count Roger's
definitive foundation of the priory he had taken
into his own hands again some estates held of
him by Godfrey when the Shrewsbury charter
was drawn up. Nevertheless the latter was confirmed by Archbishop Thomas of York and
by Henry I. (fn. 8) Litigation between the two houses
inevitably followed and the dispute being submitted to the arbitration of Bernard, bishop of
St. Davids, the Lancashire monks had to resign
Kirkham church and the Walton tithes to the
abbot of Shrewsbury, who in return gave them
a plough-land at Bispham and the tithe of the
adjoining township of Layton with Warbreck. (fn. 9)
A charter issued by David king of Scots as lord
of the honour of Lancaster, which protects
Shrewsbury's rights in the church of Kirkham,
is extant and probably followed the composition
arranged by Bernard. (fn. 10) It seems not unlikely
that these events took place in 1141 during the
short-lived triumph of the Empress Maud, of
whom Bishop Bernard was an ardent partisan. (fn. 11)
Fear lest the decision might be invalidated on
political grounds may have dictated the further
reference of the dispute by Shrewsbury Abbey to
Archbishop William Fitzherbert of York, who
in a synod, apparently held in 1143, gave judgement in its favour. (fn. 12) There were other outstanding questions between Sées and Shrewsbury,
and in a general settlement effected four years
later the former, while confirming the resignation
of Kirkham, restored the plough-land at Bispham
and the tithes of Layton and Warbreck, receiving in return the chapel of Bispham and certain
disputed property in Shropshire. (fn. 13) Roger's gifts
to the Norman abbey were confirmed by Pope
Innocent II on 3 May, 1139, (fn. 14) by Ranulf
Gernons, earl of Chester, probably in 1149, (fn. 15) and
by John, count of Mortain when lord of the
honour of Lancaster, between 1189 and 1193. (fn. 16)
During this period also John granted to the priory
the privileges of having all suits touching its
lands tried before himself or his chief justiciar,
and of taking their tithes from his demesne lands
whether they were in his own hands or not. (fn. 17)
Meanwhile the advowson of Preston had
passed away from the priory. In 1196 Theobald Walter claimed the advowsons of Preston
and Poulton, seemingly on the strength of the
grant he had received two years before of the lordship of Amounderness. The matter was settled
in the king's court; Theobald quitclaimed his
rights in the advowson of Poulton with Bispham
chapel, and the abbot and convent of Sées did
the same as regards the advowson of Preston, but
secured an annual pension of 10 marks from that
church. (fn. 18) This was probably as much as they
could have derived from it in any case so long as
it remained unappropriated. A little later the
advowson of Melling church was transferred to
Roger de Montbegon of Hornby, (fn. 19) who resigned
all claim upon its chapel at Gressingham, which
Pope Celestine III had appropriated to the priory. (fn. 20)
Gressingham thenceforward became an isolated
chapelry of Lancaster.
It was perhaps in 1232 that the advowson of
Childwall church passed to the Grelleys, in whose
barony of Manchester the manor had long been
included. Thomas Grelley in that year obtained
an assize of darrein presentment against the prior,
but this may have been a collusive suit. (fn. 21) The
annexation of the priory's church of Bolton-leSands to the archdeaconry of Richmond in 1246
was part of an arrangement advantageous to the
house. (fn. 22) Of the thirteen advowsons granted by
Roger of Poitou five only, Lancaster, Heysham,
Poulton, Croston, and Eccleston, were now retained; but two of these churches, Lancaster
and Poulton, were appropriated to their own uses.
The church of Lancaster had been from the
first so appropriated, and the priory held it integre
or pleno jure, that is, without obligation to have a
perpetual vicar ordained in it with a fixed portion of its revenues, inasmuch as the monks and
their chaplains 'served in the church and parish
day and night and laboured perpetually in the
cure of souls.' (fn. 23) Its chapels at Caton, Gressingham, and Stalmine were held in appropriation by
grant confirmed by Pope Celestine III (1191-8). (fn. 24)
Celestine also confirmed an appropriation of a
moiety of the church of Poulton and of its chapel
at Bispham. (fn. 25) The other moiety was secured in
1246 as part of the compensation awarded to
them for their surrender of the advowson of
Bolton-le-Sands to John le Romeyn (Romanus),
archdeacon of Richmond. (fn. 26) It was not to fall
in, however, until the death or cession of its
rector, Alexander de Stanford, when a vicarage of
20 marks was to be appointed for the whole
church. They bought out Stanford in 1250, (fn. 27)
but for some reason the vicar's portion was not
fixed until 1275. (fn. 28)
In the cases of Heysham, Croston, and Eccleston the monks had to remain content with
the advowson and an annual pension. (fn. 29) Only a
moiety of Eccleston church belonged to them
until in the fifth decade of the thirteenth century
Roger Gernet, lord of half the vill, and his
under-tenant Warin de Walton resigned their
rights in the advowson to Sées and the monks of
Lancaster. (fn. 30)
The dependence of the priory upon the abbey
of Sées may have been closer at first than it was
afterwards. After the loss of Normandy the
crown asserted a control over the appointment
and removal of priors by Sées. In 1209 the
abbot proffered 200 marks and two palfreys to be
allowed on any vacancy to present two of his
monks to the king, for him to choose and admit
one, who was not to be recalled without his consent. (fn. 31) On the death of a prior in 1230 a local
jury of inquest reported that the priors were
appointed and removable by the abbot, subject to
the assent of the king, and that during a vacancy
the priory had always been taken into the hands
of the crown, not of the archbishop of York or
the archdeacon of Richmond. (fn. 32) But if the prior
had no perpetuity the right of the crown to
custody pending a new appointment could hardly
be upheld, and the king ordered the sheriff to
restore the priory to a representative of the
abbot. (fn. 33) A looser conception of its relation to
the Norman house must have before long prevailed, for in 1267 the king restored the temporalities to a prior, (fn. 34) and in 1290 John le Rey
not only received the lands from Edmund, earl
of Lancaster, but was canonically instituted and
installed by the archdeacon of Richmond on the
presentation of the abbot of Sées. (fn. 35) A prior so
instituted could not usually be removed except
upon grounds satisfactory to the diocesan. From
the early years of the thirteenth century at latest
the priory was conventual; (fn. 36) the prior and the
five monks forming a society which could enter
into legal engagements, though at that time
deeds were mostly drawn and law proceedings
conducted in the name of the abbot and convent
of Sées. Their usual style was 'the Prior and
monks of St. Mary of Lancaster,' but 'the Prior
and Convent' occasionally occurs. (fn. 37) No convent seal, however, seems to have existed, the
prior's seal being used. Sometimes the prior
stated that he was acting both in his own name
and as proctor for Sées. (fn. 38)
The income of the endowments was administered by the members of the priory subject to a
fixed annual 'apport' or pension of 50 marks to
the chief house. (fn. 39) This was rather less than half
their revenue as assessed for the tithe. (fn. 40) The prior
and monks were selected from the inmates of the
parent monastery, and two priors of Lancaster
became abbots of Sées. (fn. 41) The history of the
priory is little more than a record of disputes and
litigation, which were not infrequently carried up
to the pope. Some of these arising out of its
advowsons and appropriations have already been
mentioned. Its right to the tithes of demesne
lands in Lancashire under the grants of the
founder and Count John of Mortain had to be
defended against the rectors of Walton and
Sefton at the end of the twelfth century, (fn. 42) and
against those of Preston and St. Michael's-onWyre in the first quarter of the fourteenth
century. (fn. 43)
The priory was often involved in disputes
with other religious houses which had interests
within its sphere. A claim was put forward by
the leper hospital at Lancaster to be exempt
from payment of tithes for their lands in that
parish in virtue of a bull of Pope Celestine III;
but in 1317 the prior obtained a decision that
the papal privilege only covered land newly
brought into cultivation, and established his rights
to the offerings made in the hospital chapel. (fn. 44)
A similar dispute with the abbot and convent of
Furness in regard to the tithes of their grange of
Beaumont near Lancaster had been settled a
quarter of a century earlier. (fn. 45) There was much
litigation, too, with Furness, to whom Stephen
of Blois had transferred his fishery at Lancaster,
as to the precise rights conferred upon the priory
by its founder's grant of the third throw of St.
Mary's seine. In 1314 their servants came to
blows, the matter was brought before the royal
justices, and next year an agreement was arrived
at by which the priory took every third throw in
St. Mary's Pot and every other throw elsewhere. (fn. 46)
The foundation of the Premonstratensian
house at Cockersand just over the southern limit
of the parish of Lancaster, and its acquisition of
lands both in that parish and in Poulton, led to
disputes with the priory over the tithes and
other parochial rights. Papal delegates in 1216
arranged a compromise which gave two-thirds
of such tithes to the monks of Lancaster and
the remaining third to the canons of Cockersand. (fn. 47) Fresh quarrels were ended in 1256 by
an agreement in which Cockersand undertook
not to admit parishioners of the prior to burial
or the sacraments without his consent, which
however, he was not to refuse if leave was asked
and dues paid. Parishioners serving in the
Cockersand granges must not pay their offerings
or tithes to the abbey, but the servants at the
abbey itself were excepted from this prohibition. (fn. 48)
The gift of the lands of Staining, Hardhorn,
and Newton in Poulton parish to the Cheshire
abbey of Stanlaw produced similar complications,
which were finally ended in 1298; the abbey,
just removed to Whaliey, was awarded the
great tithes on payment of eighteen marks a year
to the priory. (fn. 49)
On one occasion at least the monks of the
priory came into conflict with the town in and
around which they held so much property. In
1318 the burgesses of Lancaster pulled down an
inclosure which Prior Nigel had made in Newton, in which hamlet they claimed common of
pasture. (fn. 50) But a jury found that though their
cattle had pastured on the land in question
they had only done so on sufferance on their
way to the forest of Quernmore, where King
John had granted common rights to the burgesses. (fn. 51)
Twelve years later a quarrel broke out
between the priory and Sir Adam Banaster,
who sought to exclude its servants and tithecollectors from his lands in the parish of Poulton.
Prior Courait was forcibly carried off from
Poulton and kept in durance at Thornton; his
servants were beaten, wounded, and imprisoned. (fn. 52)
Early in 1331, however, Sir Adam and the
prior came to an understanding. (fn. 53)
During the French wars the house was taken
into the hands of the crown with the other
alien priories. These little groups of Frenchmen
could not be permitted to send over considerable
sums of money and perhaps information to the
king's enemies. But at Lancaster as elsewhere
the prior was often allowed to farm the priory
from the crown. (fn. 54)
Under Edward III the prior of Lancaster
paid 100 marks (£66 13s. 4d.) a year. (fn. 55) This
was double the amount of the pension
paid by the priory to Sées when the
two countries were at peace. (fn. 56) In February,
1397, Richard II granted the custody of the
house at the same rent to Cockersand Abbey,
which seems to have had considerable difficulty
in getting possession. (fn. 57) Henry IV, however,
having his attention drawn to the disastrous
effects upon this and other alien priories of the
heavy rents exacted and the intrusion of external
farmers, restored them in the first year of his
reign to their priors; merely stipulating that so
long as the war with France continued they
should pay to the crown the pensions they were
wont to render to their chief houses abroad
in time of peace. (fn. 58) The king's financial
embarrassments led in a few years to the reversal
of this considerate policy (fn. 59) and Lancaster Priory
was again farmed out at a rent of £100, being
an increase of fifty per cent, on that paid before
1400. Henry V in granting its custody to
Prior Louvel and Sir Richard Hoghton (21
October, 1413) put on another £10. (fn. 60) Next
year Parliament gave the crown permanent
possession of the alien priories, and Henry
vested the rent from that of Lancaster in
trustees as part of the endowment of the
Bridgettine nunnery of Syon which he founded
at Isleworth in that year. After the death of
Prior Louvel, the farmer, the priory itself was to
become the property of the nuns. (fn. 61) Louvel died
before September, 1428, but Henry Bowet,
archdeacon of Richmond, put in a claim to its
revenues and tithes ratione vacationis. (fn. 62) It had
been decided in the thirteenth century that the
archdeacon had no such right. (fn. 63) Bowet, however, seems to have taken up the position that
the gift of the priory to Syon amounted to a
fresh appropriation of the churches of Lancaster
and Poulton. Archbishop Kemp was appointed
arbitrator and apparently decided in his favour,
for the abbess and convent agreed to indemnify
him and his successors by the heavy annual
payment of £40 6s. 8d. (fn. 63a) In 1430 the archdeacon ordained a perpetual vicarage in the
church of Lancaster, (fn. 64) and in the following year
the trustees appointed by Henry V conveyed
the priory to Sion. (fn. 65) On the accession of
Edward IV it was thought prudent to secure a
regrant. (fn. 66)
The priory buildings had been assigned in
1430 to the use of the vicar of Lancaster, but
the abbess and convent retained an honest
chamber and stable as a lodging for their officers
visiting Lancaster. (fn. 67) In 1462 they leased
the whole priory, with the exception of the
advowsons, for nine years to John Gardiner of
Ellel, at a rent of £156 13s. 4d. (fn. 68) The
advowson of Eccleston had perhaps never been
granted to them, and at any rate was parted with
before 1464 to the Stanleys. (fn. 69) Sir Edward
Stanley in 1488 claimed the advowson of
Heysham as lord of the manor in spite of a legal
decision of 1479, and the verdict of a local jury
was in his favour (fn. 70) but Syon appears in possession
in 1527. (fn. 71) After the dissolution of the abbey in
1540 the bulk of the priory estate was sold by
the crown in 1557 to Robert Dalton of Bispham
for £1,667. (fn. 72)
The priory was dedicated to St. Mary.
Its original endowment included, besides the
churches and tithes already enumerated, the
manors of Aldcliffe and Newton, (fn. 73) one third
of the vill of Heysham, (fn. 74) and the whole vill
of Poulton-le-Fylde. (fn. 75) The most considerable
later addition was the gift by Thomas of
Capernwray, escheator of the county of Lancaster about the middle of the thirteenth
century, of all his land in Bolton and Gressingham. (fn. 76) Conveyances of numerous small
parcels of land, chiefly in the parishes of Lancaster and Poulton, are recorded in the register
of the priory.
Its temporalities were taxed in 1292 at £4, reduced after the Scottish raid to 30s. (fn. 77) In a document of 1367 its total assessment for the tithe is
given as £80. (fn. 78) This must be taken as net income,
which will agree pretty well with the amount of
rent exacted by the crown during the French
wars, £66 13s. 4d., rising by 1413 to £110. (fn. 79)
The gross income in 1430, just before Syon
obtained possession, amounted to £326 2s. 8d. (fn. 80)
No complete estimate of the expenditure
in money is supplied. On the dissolution of
Syon Abbey 'the late priory of Lancaster' was
valued among its possessions at £216 13s. 8d. (fn. 81)
Priors of Lancaster
John, (fn. 82) occurs c. 1141
Nicholas, (fn. 83) occurs between 1153 and 1192
William, (fn. 84) occurs between 1188 and 1192 and in 1204
John de Alench', (fn. 85) occurs between 1207 and 1227, died 1230 (?)
Geoffrey, (fn. 86) occurs 1241
Garner, (fn. 87) occurs 1250
William de Reio (Reo), (fn. 88) occurs 1253 and 1256
Ralph de Trun, (fn. 89) instituted 1266, occurs 1287
John 'le Ray,' (fn. 90) instituted 1290, occurs 1299
Fulcher, (fn. 91) occurs 1305 and 1309
Nigel, (fn. 92) occurs 1315 and 1323
[William de Bohun, (fn. 93) occurs 1327]
Ralph Courait, (fn. 94) occurs 1329 and 1334
Emery de Argenteles, (fn. 95) occurs 1337-42
John de Coudray (de Condreto), (fn. 96) occurs 1344-5
Peter Martin, (fn. 97) occurs 1352, res. 1366
William Rymbaut, (fn. 98) appointed c. 1366, died June or July, 1369
John Innocent, (fn. 99) admitted 23 September, 1369, occurs down to 1391, died before 6 September, 1396
John des Loges, (fn. 100) died 1399
Giles Louvel, (fn. 101) admitted 15 December, 1399; occurs down to 1414; died between 21 April, 1427, and 1428
The British Museum has a cast of the seal of
a Prior William. (fn. 102) It is pointed oval; the Virgin seated on a throne, with its sides terminating
in animals' heads, with crown; in her left hand
the Child. In the field on each side a wavy
sprig of foliage. In base under an arch, the
prior half-length in prayer; to the left behind
him a cinquefoil rose. The legend is imperfect.
[s] FSUS . . . . LI [P]RIOR' LANCASTR. . . .