HOUSE OF CLUNIAC MONKS
4. THE CELL OF KERSAL
In the reign of Stephen Ranulf Gernons, earl
of Chester, when in possession of the district
'between Ribble and Mersey' gave the hamlet
of Kersal in the township of Broughton, parcel
of his demesne manor of Salford, to the Cluniac
priory of Lenton, near Nottingham, in free alms
for the establishment of a place of religion. The
gift, the date of which lies between 1143 and
1153, included rights of fishery in the Irwell
and of pasture on and approvement of the
waste. (fn. 1) Ranulf's tenure of 'between Ribble and
Mersey' was a mere interlude, and between
1174 and 1176 Henry II regranted Kersal to
Lenton Priory without mention of any previous
grant. (fn. 2) In his charter it is described as a
hermitage which the monks of Lenton are to
hold as freely and quietly as Hugh de Buron
their monk held it. (fn. 3) This seems to point to
some interruption in their ownership. King
John confirmed his father's grant on 2 April,
1200. Whether Lenton at first kept more than
a single monk at Kersal is not quite clear. The
papal delegates who, about the date of John's
confirmation, settled a dispute between the
monks of Lenton and Albert de Nevill, rector of
Manchester, in whose parish Kersal lay, ordered
that the 'prior sive alius qui apud Kersale pro
loco custodiendo pro tempore fuerit' should
always promise to observe the rights of the
mother church. It is not, however, until the
fourteenth century that the existence of a prior
of Kersal is definitely attested. From a Cluniac
visitation of that date it appears that there were
then a prior and one monk in the cell. Mass
was celebrated only once a day. (fn. 4) The dispute
with the rector of Manchester referred to above
arose out of the diversion of tithes, offerings, and
mortuaries to the chapel and cemetery of the cell.
By the settlement arrived at the rector conceded
the right of sepulture at Kersal in return for an
annual gift of two candles, each of 1½lb. of wax,
but no parishioner was to be buried or make
offerings there without full compensation to the
church at Manchester; the admission of parishioners to the sacraments by the monks was
forbidden. (fn. 5)
Beyond this, a temporary seizure by the crown,
about 1371, on the plea that the original gift
bound Lenton to keep two monks there, (fn. 6) and
one or two grants of land, the history of the cell
is a blank. It might have come to an end in
the fifteenth century had not Lenton, which as
a filiation of Cluny ranked as an alien priory,
secured letters of denization from Richard II in
1392-3. (fn. 7)
Doctors Legh and Layton in their report
confined themselves to the financial condition of
the cell. (fn. 8) As one of the larger monasteries Lenton
escaped dissolution in 1536, but was already
being bled. The prior wrote to Cromwell
begging time to complete the payment of £100
to him, and adding, 'I have accomplished your
pleasure touching the cell of Kersal in Lancashyre.' (fn. 9) What Cromwell's pleasure was there
is nothing to show.
In April, 1538, Thurstan Tyldesley, hearing
that Lenton was about to come into the king's
possession, asked Cromwell to let him have the
farm of Kersal, which he said was worth twenty
marks a year—a considerably higher estimate
than the king's commissioners had made in
1535-6. (fn. 10) The site and demesne lands of the
cell, however, were leased by the crown on
3 February, 1539, for twenty-one years to John
Wood, 'one of the Oistryngers,' at a rent of
£11 6s. 8d. (fn. 11) On 23 July, 1540, the crown
sold the cell to Baldwin Willoughby, sewer of
the chamber, for £155 6s. 8d. (fn. 12)
Kersal cell was dedicated to St. Leonard. (fn. 13)
Its original endowment was augmented in the
reign of Richard I or John by grants of two
parcels of land in the parish of Ashton-underLyne; Matthew son of Edith gave a portion of
his land in Audenshaw, and Alban of Alt half
Paldenlegh. (fn. 14) In the new valuation for the
tenth, made in 1535, the income of the cell was
stated to be £9 6s. 8d., the only deduction
mentioned being an annual fee of £1 to the
steward, Sir John Byron of Clayton, kt. (fn. 15)
Legh and Layton speak of a debt of twenty
marks. (fn. 16) The crown contrived nearly to double
the income; the lessee paid £11 6s. 8d., and
other rents not included in his lease brought up
the total to £17 14s. 10d. (fn. 17)
Prior of Kersal
John of Ingleby, (fn. 18) occurs March, 1332.