umn>il iiaraliaU iEquttg fflnllettton (Sift of IE. 31. iiaralfaU. 21.21. 1. 1894 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 084 250 616 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924084250616 THE YORKSHIRE Hrcb^eologtcal Society. RECORD SERIES. Vol. XXXVH. for the year 1906. YORKSHIRE INQUISITIONS. Vol. IV EDITED BY WILLIAM BROWN, F.S.A. Secretary to the Surtees Society. PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY, 1906. IS^30Y6 INTRODUCTION. THIS present volume brings the series of inquisitions for the county of York down to the end of the reign of Edward I. Besides the inquisitions post mortem and ad quod damnum, now divided into separate series, the inquisitions and proofs of age, which are mentioned in the Abbreviatio placitorum as being on the Curia ^ Regis or Coram Rege Rolls, are also given. To exhaust this latter source one document of a later date, the proof of age of Margaret, daughter and heiress of Thomas de Multon, and wife of RanulpK Dacre, taken in 1316, is also printed. The character of the inquisitions is very similar to that of those in previous volumes. Very few are of any length, and the only important persons whose inq. p. m. are here printed, are Gilbert de Gaunt, two Robert de Tateshales, John de Walton, and Walter de Faucumberge, the con- nection of Edmund de Mortimer and Dionisia de Monte Caniso or Mounchensy with the county being very slight. There are eight proofs of age : Adam de Everingham, Peter de Mauley, Thomas de Verdon, Anketin Salvayn, John Tempest, Emma de Rilleston, Herbert St. Quintin, and Margaret de Multon ; all taken in Yorkshire, except St. Quintin's, which was taken in Dorsetshire. The information in these proofs of age, though for the most part genealogical, is of a very varied character. From one (page 16) we learn that archbishop William Wickwane dedicated the parish church at Sheffield about 1286, and from another (pages 73, 74) that the same archbishop also dedicated the abbey church of St. Mary, York, and the parish church of Gilling-in-Ryedale in 1283, facts which are not mentioned in that prelate's register. The reasons given why the witnesses remembered the date of the heir's birth are very curious. In two cases the witnesses give as a reason that it took place in holiday time, when they were respectively aged over 19 and 9. One witness (page 92) had good cause to remember the event, as just before he had been so severely thrashed at school that he was IV INTRODUCTION. obliged to leave. He seems to have been 20 at the time. One witness (page 74), who had been godfather to the heir, was barely five at the time of his birth, a somewhat early age to undertake such an office. The inq. ad q. d. are of a very miscellaneous character. The majority of them are concerned with grants for religious objects under the Statutes of Mortmain, which continued to be very strictly enforced, so that, unless the sanction of the Crown was obtained, which was generally only granted after an inquisition had been taken reporting in favour of the grant, such grant was invalid. Nearly all such grants were to religious houses for their own uses, but in three cases—Nos. viii., xxxiv., Lxviir. —parish churches at Burton Fleming, Barwick-in-Elmet, and Wath-upon-Dearne were benefited. The solitary grant to the Templars (No. xxxi.), really only an exchange, is in striking contrast with the five (Nos. vi., lix., lxxxi., Lxxxin., cxxviii.) to the rival Order of the Hospitallers, and may be regarded as a token of their unpopularity and coming fall. The sporting rights of the Crown were guarded with as much strictness by Edward I. as by the Conqueror, who was said to love the big game as if he were their father. Four inquisitions (Nos. xv., lxvi., Lxx., xcv.) relate to the great forest of Galtres, which had a special prison in York for the safe custody of trespassers there, kept by one Philip le Lardiner (No. i-xxvi.), who was bound to provide for the King's larder in that forest (No. xcv.), presumably when hunting there. Two other royal forests are mentioned, that of Knaresborough (No. cxxv.), the parkers of which were appointed by the King, and the one between the rivers Dove and Seven, where the abbot of St. Mary's, York, was the King's forester (No. cxix.). The sporting rights of subjects were subjected to strict supervision, and, as in the case of the chaces of John de Mowbray in Burton-in-Lonsdale and Nidderdale, the bounds were carefully set out (No. cxxxv.). The new town of Kingston-upon-Hull still continued to receive marks of the King's fostering care. To enable merchants to go there to sell their goods, an inquisition was ordered to" be taken to ascertain where roads could be made most conveniently for that purpose. These roads are set out in very considerable detail in three inquisitions taken in 1303 (No. xxxv.). In his wish to promote the prosperity of this town, the King seems to have acted unjustly INTRODUCTION. V towards Sir John de Sutton, who complained that the King, by granting a ferry over the river Hull to the burgesses of Hull, had encroached upon his ferry, as the land on the Holderness side belonged to him. For this Sutton never seems to have received any compensation. Other subjects of inquiry were lunacy (No. xviii.), the diversion of roads (Nos. vii., xxvii.), and weirs in the Ouse (Nos. III., cxii.). The findings of the jurors often contain very curious information. In the borough of Hedon (page 31) it appears that non-burgesses as well as burgesses could, ever since the time of Henry II., devise their tenements in that borough, and this whether the non-burgesses were at scot and lot with the burgesses or not. In a previous volume (iii., 93) a similar custom is mentioned at Scarborough, where the tenants could devise their tenements when on their death-bed. At Huntington, near York, the tenant forfeited at his death a third part of his chattels to the lord of the manor (No. vi.). Uncommon kinds of property are occasionally mentioned, as a catch of eels at Brandes- burton (page 33), and a mine of sea-coal and a quarry of millstones at Masham (page 58). There are very few references to the wars in Scotland or Wales. Money was sent by the city of York to the King when fighting in Wales in 1282 (page 73), and in 1316 the Southern Escheator excused himself for not attending before the King as he had to go with the army to that country (page 151). To the Scotch troubles, so near at hand, there are only two references. A mill at Barnard Castle, which had belonged to John Bailliol, was seized by the King (No. cxxvii.), and a man got a small office as a small recompense for six months' imprisonment in Scotland after the defeat at Rosslyn, and the payment of a ransom of 20//. (No. cxxvi.). Pilgrimages are twice noticed, one to the Holy Land (page 121), and the other to St. James of Compostella (p. 14'jn.). The subject of tenure constantly occurs in this volume. It nearly always involved suit of court. In most cases the tenant was bound to attend the Manor court every three weeks. This rule applied equally to the Knights' Court at Skipton Castle (Nos. lxxv., lxxix.). Sometimes the attendance involved long and costly journeys. At the Manor court of Topclifife tenants attended from Nafferton, near Driffield, and other places in the East Riding, and from Preston-in- Craven (pages 70, 116), distances of nearly forty miles; and the lord VI INTRODUCTION. of Wath-upon-Dearne had to go nearly as far to attend his lord's court at Skipton-in-Craven (page 139). Tenants, however, of the archbishop of York at Beverley were only bound to render suit of court twice a year (page 70), though his tenants at Ripon had to come at the usual intervals (No. lvi.). A good example of the suits due from a chief lord is afforded by those made by Robert de Tateshale, lord of Hunmanby, who was bound to attend all the County courts, and the Riding and Wapentake courts once a year (page 34). The Great County Court, however, seems to have taken place only once a year (page 116). The services due from the tenants in bondage are much the same as in former volumes (pages 20, 32, 33, 34, 63). In some cases (pages 69, 96) only a money rent was due. Two unusual services (pages 20, 51) are mentioned, Morlay at Friton, near Malton, and Horngarth at Newham, near Whitby. The former was defined as a custom due at Martinmas, perhaps bringing turfs from the moor. The latter, possibly the predecessor of the Penny Hedge still observed at Whitby, was defined at a later period as a forinsec service, which entitled the lord to wardship and marriage. WILLIAM BROWN. Sowerby, Thirsk, November, 1906. CONTENTS. Page Introduction iii I. Adam, son and heir of Robert de Everingham. Proof of age (1300) i II. Peter de Mauley, junior, nephew and one of the heirs of Gilbert de Gaunt. Proof of age (1300) ..... 5 III. Robert de Berley. Inq. ad q. d. (1301) 8 IV. Master William de Walton for the Abbot and Convent of the Blessed Mary of York.