HOUSE OF CARTHUSIAN MONKS
5. THE PRIORY OF BEAUVALE
There is a fine register or chartulary of the
Carthusian Priory of Beauvale compiled by
Nicholas Wartre, who was prior of this house in
1486, which is in excellent preservation. (fn. 1) The
foundation charter herein set forth shows that
Nicholas de Cauntlow, lord of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, obtained licence of Edward III in 1343
to found a monastery of the Carthusian order in
his park of Greasley for a prior and twelve monks,
endowing it with 10 librates of land and annual
rents thereto pertaining in the townships of
Greasley and Selston, together with the park of
Greasley and the advowson of the churches of
Greasley and Selston. The charter recites that
the founder did this for the glory of God and of
the Virgin and of All Saints, for the furtherance of
divine worship, and for the good estate of the
king, of Archbishop Zouch, his most dear lord
and cousin, of the Earl of Derby, of himself and
his wife Joan, and William his son and heir, and
of their souls when they should die, and also for
all his progenitors and heirs. He gave the
monastery that he had built (called Pulchra
Vallis or Beauvale) in his park to God and the
Holy Trinity, and to the prior and monks of
the Carthusian order and their successors, together
with 300 acres of land, 10 messuages, and 12
bovates in Greasley, and 13 messuages and 17½
bovates in Selston, with the villeins who held
these lands in villeinage, and the advowson of
the two churches. He further granted to the
monks common of pasture for all manner of
cattle throughout his demesnes, together with
the rights of quarrying stone for their buildings,
and taking marl to marl their lands in all the
said places with the exception of his park of
Kirkstall.
This charter was witnessed at Greasley on
9 December 1343 by an imposing company which
included the Archbishop of York, the Bishops
of Durham, Lincoln, and Lichfield, the Earls of
Derby, Northampton, and Huntingdon, Sir John
de Grey, Sir William Deincourt and Sir William
de Grey of Sandiacre, knights, William son and
heir of the founder, and William's son Nicholas.
Another charter, to the like effect but in shorter
terms, was sealed at the same time and place and
witnessed by several knights of the district. (fn. 2)
In the year 1347, on 20 October, at Greasley,
a further deed was executed, witnessed by the
same bishops and earls, to the effect that Nicholas
de Cauntlow and his heir gave additional lands
and rents to the value of £20 per annum to the
monastery in the towns of Selston, Watnall,
Kinmark, (fn. 3) and Newthorpe. (fn. 4) Another early
benefaction was the advowson of the church of
Farnham, with an acre of land, by Sir William
Malbis and others in 1344. (fn. 5)
Nicholas de Cauntlow the founder died in
1355, and there is entered in the chartulary a
detailed account of the descent of his Derbyshire
lands from the time of the Conquest. (fn. 6)
Hugh de Cressy of Selston and Cecilia his
wife assigned to the priory in 1360 all their
lands and tenements in Kimberley and Newthorpe, on condition of Hugh receiving from
the priory £7 10s. during his life, and Cecilia
£4 11s. if she survived him. (fn. 7)
Sir William de Aldburgh, for the soul of his lord
Edward Baliol, King of Scotland, and for the
soul of Elizabeth his wife, and for others his
near kinsfolk, did in 1362 grant to the priory of
Beauvale the hay of Willey in Sherwood. In
the succeeding reign (18 Richard II) a chantry
was founded in the conventual church for two
of the monks to say mass for the souls of William
de Aldburgh and Edward Baliol. The founders
of this chantry were Isabel wife of Sir William
de Ryther, and Elizabeth wife of Sir Brian
Stapleton, who were the sisters of William de
Aldburgh; each of them granted 40s. a year
out of her respective moiety of the manors of
Kirkby Overblow (Yorkshire) (fn. 8) and 'Kereby.' (fn. 9)
The chartulary sets forth with much detail
copies of title deeds referring to bequests of land
in Selston, Wandesley in Bagthorpe, Brinsley,
Hucknall Torkard, Newthorpe, Cressy Fee,
Watnall Chaworth, Brook, and Willey, all in
Nottinghamshire. (fn. 10)
One of the most important of these grants was
that of the manor of Etwall, Derbyshire. Sir
William de Finchenden, kt., Richard de Ravenser,
Archdeacon of Lincoln, and Nicholas de Chaddesden, Richard de Chesterfield, and Richard de
Tissington, clerks, obtained licence from Edward III to grant this manor to Beauvale Priory
(soon after its foundation), to pray for Sir William
whilst living, and for his soul and that of his
wife Blanche after death. (fn. 11)
Some forty folios are occupied with the setting
out of the various papal privileges enjoyed by the
priory. By far the greater part of these were
common to the whole Carthusian order; but the
bull of Clement VI names and confirms the
special liberties granted to Beauvale on its
foundation. (fn. 12)
The chartulary concludes with the setting
forth in full of the various documents relative to
the appropriation of churches to this monastery. (fn. 13)
The archiepiscopal and royal assent of the appropriation of the churches of Greasley and Selston
were obtained at the time of the first foundation
of the house; 2 marks out of the rectory of
Greasley and 1 mark out of the rectory of Selston
were assigned as pensions to successive Archbishops
of York, and 20s. and 10s. respectively to the
Dean and Chapter of York. In the following
year (1344) the resignation of the rectors of both
Greasley and Selston was secured, and they were
at once presented to medieties of the rectory of
the church of East Keal, Lincolnshire. Vicarages
were duly ordained for both parishes. In the
case of Greasley a vicarage house was to be built,
adjoining the church, on an area of 180 ft. by
100 ft.; the vicar was to receive all mortuaries
and oblations, together with all small tithes
valued at £10 a year, and the priory was to find
bread, wine, lights for the high altar, and a parish
chaplain or curate. The Selston vicar was to
have a house on the king's highway, near the
church, having an area of 154 ft. by 140 ft., and
the mortuaries and oblations and the tithes of
wool and lambs and all other small tithes of the
value, according to inquisition, of 6 marks or £4.
The church of Farnham was appropriated in
1355, the archbishop securing a pension of
6s. 8d., and the dean and chapter 3s. 4d. The
vicarage house was to include a hall, two suitable
chambers, a kitchen, a stable, a bakehouse, and
a barn for grain and hay. (fn. 14)
At the beginning of the chartulary are transcripts of ten royal charters, confirming the
various benefactions afterwards recited. On the
last folio, in a cursory hand, is the statement
that this chartulary, compiled through the industry of Nicholas Wartre, recently prior of the
house, extends from the foundation up to the
year 1486; prayers are asked for the good estate
of Nicholas during his life and for his soul after
death. (fn. 15)
There are various deeds at the Public Record
Office relative to this priory; the most interesting are the four here briefly cited:—
1. A licence by John de Grey, lord of Coddington, in 1358, to Robert Bernow and William
Braydeston to grant to the Prior and Convent of
Beauvale the manor of Kimberley with its appurtenances. (fn. 16)
2. A mining lease granted by the priory in
1397 to William Monyash of Costall and others
of a coal mine in 'Kyrkestallavnd.' (fn. 17)
3. Release in 1404 by John Prior of St. Fremond, Normandy, to William Prior of Beauvale
of all rights in the priory of Bonby, Lincoln
diocese. (fn. 18)
4. Confirmation in 1462 by John Day, vicar of
Selston and others, of the grant of a ninety-nine
years' lease to the priory made by the late William
Arnalde (in 1457) of all coal and right of digging
for the same in Selston parish, and of all wood
growing there to make 'punches and proppes,'
paying 13s. 4d. a year so long as they obtain
coal. (fn. 19)
There are numerous records of grants to this
priory on the Patent Rolls of Edward III; but
they need not be cited, as they refer to matters
of which particulars are given in the chartulary.
In 1403 Henry IV granted to this house the
alien priory of Bonby, Lincolnshire, with its
advowsons, lands, rents, and services not exceeding the annual value of 18 marks. The Prior
and Convent of St. Fremond, of which it was a
cell, had granted Bonby (without licence) to the
London house of Carthusians in 1390, but at
that time Bonby was in the hands of Richard II
on account of the war with France, and therefore that grant was void. The possessions of
Bonby included the rectory of the parish church
of that place, pensions of 13s. 4d. each from the
churches of Saxby and St. John's Stamford, and
the advowsons of the churches of Sts. Peter,
John, Paul, and George, Stamford, and Saxby
and Grafton. (fn. 20)
There is a highly interesting document extant
dated 7 February 1422, whereby Dom Richard
de Burton, Prior of Beauvale, covenants with
Brother John de Bedysdale, of the Derby Do
minicans, prior provincial of that order, for an
intercommunion of prayers and devotions between the Carthusians and Dominicans, both in
life and in death. (fn. 21)
Edward IV in 1462 granted to the Prior and
Convent of Beauvale 24 marks yearly from the
customs of the port of Kingston on Hull, in
exchange for a grant of two tuns of the better
red wine of Gascony at this port at All Saints
tide, which had been made by Edward III. But
in 1465 the charge of 24 marks a year on the
Hull customs was exchanged for the like charge
on the fee farm and increment on the town of
Derby at the hands of the men or bailiffs of that
town. (fn. 22)
The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1534 gave the
annual value of this priory as £227 8s., and the
clear value £196 6s. The appropriated churches
at that time were those of Greasley and Selston,
Nottinghamshire; Farnham, Yorkshire; Bonby
and a pension from St. John's Stamford, Lincolnshire. The temporalities were chiefly in
Nottinghamshire, but there was an income of
£12 13s. 4d. from Etwall, Derbyshire, in addition to the £16 from the town of Derby.
Among the outgoings was the payment of
27s. 4d. a year to Sir John Chaworth for the
passage of coal over his lands. (fn. 23)
Maurice Chauncey's beautiful and pathetic
account of the last days of the English Carthusians, who were practically unanimous in rejecting the supremacy of Henry VIII in matters
ecclesiastical, makes special mention of the part
taken by the superior of this Nottinghamshire
house. (fn. 24) Soon after the king's new title of
'Supreme Head' had been formally adopted by
the council, early in 1535, Robert Lawrence, the
Prior of Beauvale, and Augustine Webster, Prior
of Axholme, came to visit and consult with their
brethren at the London Charterhouse. Lawrence
had been a member of the London house, and
had been transferred to Beauvale as its superior
at the time, five years previously, when John
Houghton, Prior of Beauvale, was summoned to
take charge of the mother house of the English
province. The three priors determined to forestall the visitations of the royal commissioners,
and sought a personal interview with Cromwell;
but the Lord Privy Seal, on learning the purport
of their visit, refused to listen to any pleadings,
and at once sent them from his house to the
Tower as rebellious traitors.
A week later, namely on 20 April, the priors
were interrogated before Cromwell, when they
stoutly refused to take the oath of supremacy and
reject the authority of anyone except the king
over the Church of England. (fn. 25) Whilst in
prison the three superiors were again closely
examined; the depositions record their several
opinions in much the same language. The
Prior of Beauvale declared that he could 'not
take our sovereign lord to be supreme head of
the Church, but him that is by God the head of
the Church, that is the bishop of Rome, as
Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine teach.' (fn. 26)
Thereupon a special commission was appointed
to try these three Carthusians, as well as a Brigittine monk of Syon who had been imprisoned on
a like charge. On 26 April they underwent
another examination in the Tower by Cromwell
and other members of the Privy Council. On
28 April they were indicted before a jury on the
charge of openly stating on the 26th that the
king was 'not supreme head in earth of the
Church of England.' Lawrence and his three
companions pleaded not guilty to the novel
charge of verbal treason. The verdict of the
jury was deferred till the following day. (fn. 27)
The jury were unable to agree to condemn
the four accused, notwithstanding the all-embracing nature of the statute, on the ground
that they did not act 'maliciously.' The judges,
however, instructed them that whoever denied
the supremacy, did so 'maliciously,' and that the
use of that word in the Act was 'a void limit
and restraint of the construction of the words
and intention of the offence.' On the jury still
refusing to condemn them, Cromwell used violent threats against them, with the result that at
last they found them guilty and received great
thanks; 'but they were afterwards ashamed to
show their faces, and some of them took great
[harm] from it.' (fn. 28)
The prisoners were condemned to death and
conducted back to the Tower. On 4 May
Prior Lawrence of Beauvale, with his two fellow
priors, as well as the Brigittine father and John
Hale, vicar of Isleworth, were done to death at
Tyburn, in the midst of a vast crowd, among
whom were a great number of lords and courtiers.
The condemned were all drawn to the place of
execution in their respective habits, and everything seems to have been arranged to make their
death an awful example of the king's power over
the religious and ecclesiastics of his realm. To
each of the victims, as he mounted the scaffold,
a pardon was offered if he would accept Henry
as supreme head of the Church, but all rejected
the offer. The details of the execution were
even more ghastly and revolting than was usual
in executions for high treason. The cords used
for the preliminary hanging were especially stout
and heavy, in order to avoid the possibility of
fatal strangling before the subsequent butchery
could be achieved. Whilst life was still in them,
they were ripped up in each other's presence,
their bodies obscenely mutilated, their hearts
'cut out and rubbed into their mouths and faces,'
and all this before the process of quartering was
begun. (fn. 29)
Meanwhile the Carthusians of the mother
house were treated with either blandishments or
terrible threats in order to secure by any possible
means their yielding to acknowledgement of the
supremacy. The more obstinate of them were
placed in prison, either in the Tower or in Newgate, heavily chained upright to posts under circumstances of diabolical cruelty. No wonder
that under such a punishment several of them
died. We need not be surprised that the general
determination of the Carthusians to be true to
their original vows gave way in not a few cases.
A new prior was required to take the place in
London of the martyred Houghton, who, it will
be remembered, came from Beauvale. It was
another monk of Beauvale, William Trafford,
who was selected by Cromwell to fill the place.
How he came to give way and submit to be thus
cajoled cannot now be explained. The truerhearted of the London Carthusians quietly resented his intrusion. Chauncey (being himself,
as he acknowledges, one of the partial timeservers) says of Trafford's brief period of administration that 'being deprived of a prior exterior to
ourselves, every man's conscience was his prior.'
Trafford's submission is the more remarkable
as he had been singularly bold in proclaiming his
refusal to acknowledge the supremacy when
Sir John Markham and other special commissioners visited Beauvale to 'take the value.'
Trafford, as proctor of the convent, was then in
charge, for the prior was in safe custody in the
Tower, awaiting his trial. Addressing Markham
on this occasion the proctor said, 'I believe
firmly that the Pope of Rome is supreme head
of the Church Catholic.' On the commissioners
asking him if he would abide by his words, he
replied 'Usque ad mortem.' He also went so far
as to commit his words to writing, and Markham
carried the paper away and left the monk to the
special custody of the sheriff of the county. (fn. 30)
The clear annual value of this Carthusian
monastery was just under the £200 which was
the limit for the suppression of the lesser monasteries; but by paying the heavy fine of
£166 13s. 4d. the monks of Beauvale obtained
the doubtful privilege of deferring the evil day
of their dissolution. This bargain was effected
on 2 January 1537-8. (fn. 31) Thomas Woodcock
had been appointed prior by the Crown on
16 December 1537. (fn. 32)
The surrender of this house, and of all its
possessions in the counties of Nottingham, Lincoln, and Derby, took place on 18 July 1539.
It received the signatures of Thomas Woodcock,
prior, and of seven other monks, John Langdale,
William Welles, Alexander Lowthe, Edmund
Garner, Robert Gowton (proctor), Thomas
Leyghton, and Thomas Wallis. The surrender
was delivered to Dr. London, the king's commissioner, in the chapter-house. (fn. 33)
London, writing from Nottingham on 24 July,
certified that he had granted the following pensions to the 'Charterhouse of Bew Vale':—
Thomas Woodcock, prior, £26 13s. 4d.; John
Langford, £6; W. Welles, A. Lowthe, E.
Garnett, and R. Gowton, £5 6s. 8d. each;
Nicholas Dookmer, T. Leyghton, and Thomas
Wallis, £5 each. In addition to these, 40s.
each was assigned to two lay brothers, Richard
Wakefield and Richard Bynde, described as
'converse and aged men.' (fn. 34)
In another letter from London, dated 27 July
and addressed to Cromwell, he tells the Lord
Privy Seal that on visiting Beauvale for the surrender he found the prior in short gown and
velvet cap ready for their coming, and the
proctor of the house in like apparel next day. (fn. 35)
Woodcock was evidently one of those timeserving monks chosen by Cromwell to be prior,
to serve his own ends.
With regard to the eventual fate of the surviving Carthusians of Beauvale, we know of the
survival of one till old age. Nicholas Dugmer
(or Dookmer), a Beauvale monk, who eventually
followed Prior Chauncey across the seas, died on
10 December 1575. (fn. 36)
The manor of Etwall was granted by the
Crown to Sir John Porte in 1540; (fn. 37) but the
site of the priory and the rest of its possessions
in 1541 to Sir William Huse of London. (fn. 38)
There is a sulphur cast of an impression of
the original seal of this priory at the British
Museum. (fn. 39) It represents Our Lord seated in a
canopied niche, with cruciform nimbus, lifting
up the right hand in benediction, and holding
in the left hand an orb surmounted by a long
cross. At the base a monk kneels in prayer
under a round-headed arch. Legend:—
S: COMUNE : DOMUS : BELLE : VALL' :
ORD' : CAR. .
Priors of Beauvale
William, occurs 1404 (fn. 40)
B—, occurs 1412 (fn. 41)
Richard de Burton, occurs 1422, 1426 (fn. 42)
Thomas Metheley, occurs 1468 (fn. 43)
John Swift, occurs 1478 (fn. 44)
Thomas Wydder, occurs 1482 (fn. 45)
Nicholas Wartre, occurs 1486 (fn. 46)
Robert Lawrence, executed 1535 (fn. 47)
Thomas Woodcock, surrendered 1539 (fn. 48)