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Durham E-Theses The revenues and nancial administration of the bishopric of Durham 1457-79 Grainger, Peter N. How to cite: Grainger, Peter N. (1975) The revenues and nancial administration of the bishopric of Durham 1457-79, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10445/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 THE REVENUES AND FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE BISHOPRIC OF DURHAM 1457-79 PETER N. GRAINGER MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM . .FEBRUARY 197 5 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. ABSTRACT For the period 1457-79 so many financial documents have survived that it is possible to examine the financial administration of the bishopric in more detail than G.T. Lapsle.y or R.L. Storey have done. Attention is drawn to the political 'background of the period, and in particular, to the careers of the bishops for the time under study: Laurence Booth being remarkable for his change of allegiance from Queen Margaret to E^dward IV; while William Dudley owed his advancement to support of the Yorkists. The thesis is organised around the surviving account rolls. Within the Palatinate the various financial officials were dependent on the receiver-general in Durham Castle. The study opens with an examination of the account rolls of the ministers responsible for the land: the coroners, the collectors and the bailiffs. Attention is then turned to the accounts of the master forester, then to those of the coal and lead mines. Next comes the accounts of the sheriffs and escheators, then those of the clerls of the works, and the instaurers. While the officials of the Yorkshire estates - of Allerton, Howden and Crayke - were not subordinate to the receiver-general, at times they did make payments to him, and therefore they are included before the major section on the receiver-general. The holders of the various/ various offices are discussed within the appropriate sections. The study is concluded with an examination of the financial position of the bishopric at this time; the financial effects of the incoming bishops; of the confiscation of the temporalities by Edward IV; the changing trends in the financial state of the bishopric; and the effects of the political disturbances. Finally, an attempt is made to calculate the disposeable income of the bishop and to compare it to the incomes of other leading men in the kingdom. CONTENTS Abbreviations i I. Introduction 1 II. The Coroners 18 III. The Collectors ^0 IV. The Bailiffs 59 V. The Sheriffs and Escheators 69 VI. The Master Foresters 77 VII. The Coal, Lead and Iron Mines 82 VIII. The Clerks of the Works 95 IX. The Instaurers 101 X. Allerton 115 XI. Howden 128 XII. Crayke 138 XIII. The Receiver-General 141 XIV. Conclusion - The Financial Position 209 Notes 235 Bibliography 261 -i- ABBREVIATIONS 6«I«H.R. Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research C • C • R • Calendar of Close Rolls CP.R. Calendar of Patent Rolls D.K.R. Deputy Keeper's Reports D.N.B. Dictionary of National Biography Dobson R'.B. Dobson Durham Priory 1^-00-50 E• H. R• English Historical Review Foss E. Foss Judges of England Hunter Blair C. Hunter Blair 'The Sheriffs of County Durham'. Jacob E.F. Jacob The Fifteenth Century Langley R.L. Storey Thomas Langley and the Bishopric of Durham. 1406-37 Lapsley G.T. Lapsley The County Palatine of Durham Neilson N.Neilson 'Customary Rents'. Ross & Pugh CD. Ross & T.B. Pugh 'Materials for the Studies of Baronial Incomes'. Rymer T. Rymer & R. Sanderson Foedera. Conventiones. etc. Sommerville R. Sommerville History of the Duchy of Lancaster Surtees R. Surtees History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham. V.C.H. Victoria Historyof the County of Durham Wedgewood J.C. Wedgewood History of Parliament -1- CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION I Justification for the study It may be thought necessary to provide a justification for a study of the financial organisation of the bishopric of Durham 1457-1479» in view of G.T. Lapsley's major work on "The County Palatine of Durham", and R.L. Storey's more detailed study of "Thomas Langley and the Bishopric of Durham 1406-1437"» However, Lapsley's work is sub-titled "A Study in Constitutional History", and while his remarks on the financial organisation are illuminating, the scope of his work does not enable him to consider in detail the financial administration. Storey's limits are set by the episcopate of Thomas Langley, but unfortunately, although examples of most of the financial documents have survived for this period, sufficient have not survived to constitute a run of documents, nor even to establish a series of norm's. The period 1457-1479 was chosen for this study because of the high rate of survival of documents for the period. For the 22 years of the study, 15 of the receiver-general's main (1) accounts have survived, and 14 of his arrears accounts. These documents are vital for any estimate of the financial position-of' the bishopric, and also to understand the nature of the relationship of the various subordinate ministers' accounts/ -2- accounts to the receiver-general's. Of these subordinate accounts a good proportion of those of the coroners, collectors and bailiffs have survived, and examples of those of other officials within the county of Durham. Examples of the accounts from the Yorkshire estates - Howdenshire, Allertonshire and Crayke - have survived, which is particulary fortunate since the officials in these estates were not responsible to the receiver-general in Durham Castle. Officials in the Northumber• land estates (excluding Bedlington) were similarly independent of the Durham exchequer, but these accounts form the one serious gap among those that have survived: no example for this period is known to be extant. In all, 1?8 documents have survived, as can be seen on the table overleaf. The period 1^57-1^79 comprises largely the time of Laurence Booth's episcopate - since he was Bishop of Durham from 1457 to 1^76. Also included were the first three years of William Dudley's episcopate, 1*176-1*179 • Tne closing date of the period of study was chosen mainly since it marked the last year in which a large number of the financial documents survive. The rest of Dudley's episcopate is a lean period for the financial historians. A minor reason for chosing the closing date was that it gave an opportunity to examine the impact on the finances of a change of bishop, and the effect on the system of a new bishop. Lastly, in justification of the nature and period of this study, it was thought that a study of the finances of the bishopric of Durham during the political disturbances of these times could be valuable. 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