7. ABBEY OF WHALLEY
The abbey of Stanlaw, after wards of Whalley,
was founded by John, constable of Chester (died
1190) on a site of more than Cistercian austerity in the mud-flats, at the confluence of the
Gowy with the Mersey, a spot until then in the
parish of Eastham. The founder's charter, in
which he expresses a wish that the place should
be re-named 'Benedictus Locus,' is dated 1178. (fn. 253)
Several chronicles, however, ascribe the foundation to 1172, which may be the date when
the first steps towards the creation of the new
monastery were taken. (fn. 254) The monks were
doubtless drawn from Combermere Abbey, of
which Whalley was afterwards considered a
filiation. (fn. 255)
Besides the two vills of Great Stanney and
Meurik Aston, (fn. 256) and a house in Chester, the
founder gave them exemption from multure in
his mills and from toll throughout his fief.
Hugh, earl of Chester, confirmed his gifts, and
added freedom from toll on goods purchased in
Chester for their own use. (fn. 257)
Earl Ranulf de Blundeville ratified his father's
grants, freed the monks from all toll, even that
on salt, throughout his lands, and disafforested
the site of the abbey and its grange of Stanney. (fn. 258)
Cheshire tenants of the constable and earl added
further endowments, including the whole vills of
Acton (Acton Grange) (fn. 259) and Wellington. (fn. 260)
But the rising fortunes of its patrons were
already transferring the centre of the abbey's
interests to Lancashire. The constables of Chester
had long held a fief in the south-west of that
county, and Roger, the founder's son, in or before
1205, gave Stanlaw the vill of Little Woolton in
his Widnes fee. (fn. 261) The abbey's rights were,
however, contested, and ultimately with success,
by the knights of St. John. (fn. 262) Roger's inherit
ance of the great honours of Pontefract and
Clitheroe, on the death in 1193 of his kinsman,
Robert de Lacy, whose surname he assumed,
opened a new epoch in the history of Stanlaw.
From Roger himself, who died in 1211, the
house received a grant of the valuable rectory of
Rochdale (fn. 263) and lands in that parish. (fn. 264) The
appropriation of the church was confirmed, subject to the rights of the existing incumbent, by
Pope Honorius III in 1218, (fn. 265) and by Bishop
Cornhill of Lichfield, who in 1222 ordained a
vicarage of 5 marks with 4 oxgangs of land
and a house. (fn. 266) A few years later Bishop
Stavenby instituted the first vicar, and the abbey
entered into full possession of the rectorial
tithes. (fn. 267)
Roger's son John de Lacy, who became earl
of Lincoln in 1232 and died in 1240, was an
even greater benefactor of the house. In or
before 1228 he gave the advowson of one of the
two medieties of the rectory of Blackburn,
which Bishop Stavenby appropriated to the
uses of the abbey, (fn. 268) and some years later he
conferred the second mediety upon the monks,
to whom it was appropriated by Bishop Roger
Longespée in 1259, subject to the ordination
of a vicarage of 20 marks. (fn. 269)
John de Lacy was also the donor of the
advowson of the church of Eccles. A licence for
its appropriation to the abbey was obtained from
Bishop Stavenby in 1234. (fn. 270)
These gifts led to grants of land by various
persons in the three parishes. Another instance
of John de Lacy's generosity, the gift of the vill
of Staining (with Hardhorn and Newton) in
Amounderness, (fn. 271) involved the abbey in frequent litigation over the tithes with Lancaster
Priory, the appropriates of Poulton, in which
parish it lay. In 1234 Stanlaw undertook to
pay 5 marks a year for them. As the area of
cultivation extended the question was re-opened
and the commutation was gradually raised to 18
marks (1298). (fn. 272) Edmund de Lacy gave the
whole township of Cronton near Widnes. (fn. 273)
The preponderance of the Lancashire property of the house among its possessions increased
the growing discontent of the monks with the
desolate and sea-beaten site of their monastery.
A more than usually destructive inundation in
1279 perhaps brought matters to a head, (fn. 274) and
four years later Henry de Lacy, third earl of
Lincoln, consented to the removal of the abbey.
On the plea that none of their existing lands
afforded a suitable site, they persuaded him to
grant them the advowson of Whalley with a
view to the appropriation to their use of the
whole of the tithes of this extensive parish (of
which they already held a fourth part as parcel of their rectory of Blackburn) and to
the reconstruction of the monastery on its
glebe, which comprised the whole township of
Whalley.
A licence in mortmain was obtained from the
king on 24 December, 1283, (fn. 275) and on the first
day of the new year Lacy formally bestowed the
advowson and authorized the translation on
condition that the ashes of his ancestors and
others buried at Stanlaw should be removed to
the new abbey and that it should be called
Locus Benedictus de Whalley. (fn. 276) The bishop
of Lichfield's consent to the transference was
not granted until two years afterwards; (fn. 277) the
papal approval was still longer delayed. A draft
petition to the pope recites that the land on
which the house stood was being worn away by
every tide and must in a few years become totally
uninhabitable and that each year at spring tides
the church and monastery buildings were flooded
to a depth of three to five feet. (fn. 278) This assertion contained obvious exaggeration, the rock on
which the principal buildings stood being 12 ft.
above the level of ordinary tides, (fn. 279) and it
was afterwards softened into a statement that the
offices, which lay below the rock, were inundated
to a depth of 3 ft. (fn. 280) Other considerations laid
before the pope were that the greater part of
their possessions were situated near Whalley,
that the new site, lying in the midst of a barren
and poverty-stricken country, would afford great
scope for hospitality and almsgiving, and that
it was proposed to increase the number of
monks by twenty, whose duties would include
prayers for his soul. Three or four monks
were to be kept at Stanlaw so long as it remained
habitable. (fn. 280a)
On this understanding Nicholas IV granted
a licence on 23 July, 1289, for the translation
of the abbey and the appropriation of Whalley
church on the death or resignation of its aged
rector, Peter of Chester, who had held the
benefice for 54 years. A vicarage, however,
was to be endowed out of its revenues. (fn. 280b)
The rector could not apparently be induced
to resign and did not die until 20 January
1294-5. (fn. 281) Even then fourteen months elapsed
before the monks were transferred to Whalley.
Certain formalities must be gone through and
preliminary arrangements made; some difficulties
were raised.
Between February and August the Earl of
Lincoln, the bishop of Lichfield, and the king
confirmed the appropriation and translation. (fn. 282)
But the bishop, the archdeacon of Chester, and
the chapters of Coventry and Lichfield had to
be compensated for the loss entailed by the
disappearance of secular rectors. (fn. 283) The patron
exacted from the monks a renunciation of the
rights of hunting in his forests hitherto enjoyed
by the parsons of Whalley and of all claims upon
the castle chapel at Clitheroe, (fn. 284) and his officers
took possession of some lands which belonged
to the benefice. (fn. 285) As early as March William,
lord of Altham, entered a claim to the advowson
of its church, which Stanlaw held to be one of
the chapels of Whalley, and obtained a writ for
an assize of darrein presentment. (fn. 286) Meanwhile
the bishop and archdeacon sequestered its tithes
and offerings and excommunicated the monks
when-they tried to take possession. The abbot
appealed to the archbishop, whose official ordered
the ecclesiastical authorities in question to suspend their action and appear before his court in
October. (fn. 287)
Some even questioned the validity of the
appropriation of Whalley itself. (fn. 288) The claims
of Pontefract Priory could not, however, be
regarded very seriously, and on the monks of
Stanlaw presenting John of Whalley for institution as vicar, Bishop Roger on 6 December
ordered an inquiry into the value of the benefice
with a view to fixing the vicar's portion; (fn. 289) but
Roger's death ten days later caused further delay.
The inquiry was begun on 20 April, 1296, by
the instructions of Archbishop Winchelsey. (fn. 290)
By that time the monks, no doubt anxious to
secure the advantage of actual possession, had
removed from Stanlaw to their new home. On
4 April, St. Ambrose Day, they made their
entrance into Whalley. (fn. 291) The foundation stone
of the new monastery was laid by their patron
the earl on 12 June. (fn. 292)
The monks who entered into residence in the
parsonage and temporary buildings under the
rule of their abbot, Gregory of Norbury, numbered twenty. Robert Haworth, who had
recently resigned the abbacy after holding it for
twenty-four years, remained with five other
monks at Stanlaw, which continued to be a
cell of Whalley down to the Dissolution. One
monk lived at the grange of Stanney, two each at
those of Staining and Marland, and another was
a student at Oxford. (fn. 293)
The delays which the monks experienced
might have been prolonged had news reached
England earlier of a step taken by Pope Boniface
VIII, who was elected a month before the death
of Peter of Chester. One of his earliest acts was
to quash all provisions and reservations to take
effect on a future vacancy which Nicholas IV
had granted. (fn. 294) Nicholas's bull appropriating
Whalley church to Stanlaw on the death or
demission of the rector could therefore be held
to be annulled. (fn. 295) As soon as this new difficulty
was grasped the good offices of the king and the
Earl of Lincoln were secured, Richard of Rudyard,
one of the monks, was sent to Rome, and after
some negotiation and considerable disbursements
obtained a renewal of the grant from Boniface
on 20 June, 1297. (fn. 296) Meanwhile the king's
court had upheld their contention that Altham
was a chapel of Whalley, not a parish church. (fn. 297)
This involved further expense; altogether the
abbey spent £300 in England and at Rome in
making its title to Whalley and Altham secure. (fn. 298)
Even now they were not at the end of their
troubles. The older Cistercian abbey at Sawley,
six miles to the north-east, complained to the
general chapter of the order that the new house
was nearer to their own than their rules permitted, that its monks consumed the tithe corn
of Whalley parish which the late rector used to
sell to Sawley, and that the increased demand
for corn and other commodities had so raised
prices that their monastery was permanently
poorer to the extent of nearly £30 a year.
Arbitrators appointed by the chapter arranged a
compromise in 1305; each house agreed to promote the other's interests as if they were its own;
monks or conversi of either doing injury to the
other were to be sent there for punishment;
Whalley was to give the monks of Sawley the
preference in the purchase of their corn provided
they were willing to pay the market price. (fn. 299)
Some years before this settlement the abbey
entered on a long dispute, or series of disputes,
with Roger Longespée's successor as bishop of
Coventry and Lichfield, Edward I's well-known
minister Walter de Langton. The details of the
quarrel are obscure, but it perhaps originated in
an attempt of the monks to recoup themselves
for the heavy expenses which their acquisition of
Whalley had entailed. From May, 1301, to
June, 1303, Bishop Langton was suspended from
his office by Pope Boniface, pending the hearing
of serious charges against his character. (fn. 300) About
this time the vicarage of Whalley fell vacant,
and the monks, seizing their opportunity, obtained the pope's permission to appropriate the
vicarage to their own uses. (fn. 301) On 26 May
1302, the abbot of Rewley, in virtue of a papal
commission, put them in possession, but the
bishop or his representatives apparently appealed
to the Court of Arches, which launched sentences of excommunication, suspension, and
interdict against the intruders. Early in December the abbot of Rewley instructed the
abbots of Furness and Vale Royal to pronounce
these sentences null and void. (fn. 302) The order
was carried out, but Langton's reinstatement and
the death of Boniface proved fatal to the abbey's
ambition. Not only did it lose the appropriation,
but Langton obtained judgement against the
abbot and convent for 1,000 marks, which seems
to have included the estimated value of the
revenue of the vicarage, which ought to have
gone to the bishop during the vacancy, and the
bishop's costs. (fn. 303) A letter of Abbot Gregory is
preserved in which he complains bitterly that
though they have paid 100 marks on account
their goods are to be sold to meet the rest of the
debt. (fn. 304) In the absence abroad of their patron
he writes to his son-in-law Earl Thomas of
Lancaster that, owing to the bishop's long illwill they are unable to carry out the provisions
of their founders and benefactors, and begs him
to use his influence with the king to secure them
a grant of some 'convenable cure.' (fn. 305) Langton
was imprisoned by Edward II from 1307 to
1312, but it was not until Abbot Gregory had
been dead nearly three months that he at last
consented (11 April, 1310) to withdraw his
claims against the abbey. (fn. 306)
At one moment in the course of this quarrel
the abbot and convent had seriously contemplated leaving Whalley, but Pope Clement V
ordered them (January, 1306) to remain, or the
church would revert to the presentation of the
Earl of Lincoln. (fn. 307) They were still dissatisfied,
however, with their new home, and ten years
later made another attempt to remove elsewhere.
Thomas of Lancaster, in consideration of the
lack of timber at Whalley to rebuild their monastery and of fuel for their use, together with
the difficulties of transporting corn and other
necessaries in that neighbourhood, gave them
(25 July, 1316) Toxteth and Smithdown, near
Liverpool, part of his forest, with licence to
translate their house thither. (fn. 308) The king confirmed the grant, (fn. 309) but, perhaps owing to
episcopal or papal opposition, no action was
taken upon it.
In 1330 the abbey induced Bishop Northburgh to cut down the vicar of Whalley's
portion, as fixed in 1298, on the ground that
it was excessive. (fn. 310) Northburgh also allowed
them to present three of their own monks in succession to the vicarage. (fn. 311) A general licence
for this practice was obtained from Pope Innocent VI in 1358 on the plea that the residence
of secular clerks within the monastic in closure
led to disturbances. (fn. 312) The vicars continued to
be taken from the monastic body down to the
Dissolution. (fn. 313)
The troubles in which the abbey became involved by its acquisition of Whalley were not even
yet exhausted. Among the direct consequences
of this aggrandizement were disputes with its
mother house of Combermere and with its own
lay patrons.
With Combermere it came into conflict over
its assessment to the Cistercian levy. In
this order the filial tie was strong; (fn. 314) not
only had the mother house the right of visitation, (fn. 315) but the contributions imposed by the
general chapter at Citeaux were partitioned
among the groups (generations), consisting of a
mother house with its daughters, and re-partitioned by the abbot of the former. Abbot
Norbury of Whalley complained that the abbot
of Combermere had raised their share to a figure
out of proportion to the increase in their income.
The possession of Whalley was attended with
so many expenses that it yielded little net profit. (fn. 316)
After appealing to the abbot of Savigny, the
mother house of Combermere, and to the general
chapter, Norbury secured an undertaking from
the father abbot to consult the filial abbots before
fixing their contributions. (fn. 317) The matter was
reopened in 1318, when the abbot of Combermere in apportioning a levy of £212 upon his
'generation,' called upon Whalley to pay as
much as Combermere and its other filiations,
Dieulacres and Hulton, put together. Whalley
appealed, and in 1320 delegates appointed by
the abbot of Savigny reduced its share to
£80. (fn. 318)
The question at issue between the abbey and
its patrons related to the status of the chapel of
St. Michael in the Castle at Clitheroe. The
Earl of Lincoln, having obtained a quitclaim
of it from the monks before they settled at
Whalley, treated it as a free chapel and not
one of the chapels of Whalley church which he
conveyed with that church to Stanlaw. On the
next vacancy of the chaplaincy he gave it to his
clerk William de Nuny, 'not without grave
peril to his soul,' in the opinion of the monks. (fn. 319)
There is nothing to show, however, that they
ventured to put forward their own claim in
Lacy's lifetime or that of his son-in-law Thomas
of Lancaster. After the attainder of the latter
and the forfeiture of his estates, Edward II
appointed two chaplains in succession, (fn. 320) and
when Edward III conferred the honour of
Clitheroe on his mother Queen Isabella she
filled up several vacancies. But in a petition to
the king in 1331 Abbot Topcliffe claimed that
St. Michael's had always been a chapel dependent
upon Whalley until the earl of Lincoln wrongfully abstracted it, and that possessing no rights
of baptism or burial it could not be a free
chapel. (fn. 321) An inquiry was held, and on
18 March 1334, the king conceded the superior
right of the abbey, (fn. 322) which nevertheless had to
pay 300 marks for the recognition. (fn. 323)
In addition to this Richard de Moseley, to
whom Queen Isabella had given the chaplaincy
a fortnight before Edward's letters patent, had to
be bought out by a pension of £40 a year for life. (fn. 324)
The abbey's title was afterwards several
times attacked and the convent put to much
trouble and expense. In 1344 an inquiry was
ordered into allegations that Peter of Chester had
held the chapel in gross, not as a dependency of
Whalley, and that the abbey had quitclaimed its
pretensions to the Earl of Lincoln. (fn. 325) It was
not until May, 1346, that Abbot Lindley induced the king to confirm his recognition of its
rights. (fn. 336) The question was reopened when
Queen Isabella's tenure of Clitheroe determined
and it reverted to Henry, earl and afterwards
duke of Lancaster, nephew of Earl Thomas.
Henry did indeed resign his claims on the advowson in 1349, (fn. 327) and collated at least one
chaplain. (fn. 328) Several clerks also had obtained
papal provisions of the chaplaincy, (fn. 329) and after
the death of Duke Henry Edward III put
in John Stafford on the plea that the duke had
alienated the advowson to the abbey without
his licence. (fn. 330) On 12 December, 1363, he
restored the advowson to Duke John and his
wife. In 1365 Abbot Lindley was proceeding in the Court of Arches against Stafford, (fn. 331) and three years later Urban V ordered
an investigation of the claim of John de Parre,
who had a papal provision. (fn. 332) The rights of
Whalley seem to have been upheld. (fn. 333) In 1380
they were once more, and as far as we know for
the last time, called in question. The officers,
of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, alleged the
existence of an endowed chantry in the chapel
which Queen Isabella, they said, gave to Whalley
on condition of its maintaining daily service
therein. As service was only held three times a
week and the chapel had become ruinous the
abbey, it was urged," had forfeited its rights. A
local jury, however, decided in its favour. (fn. 334)
The heavy expense to which the convent was
put in defence of its claims may perhaps help to
explain the slow progress of the new monastery
buildings. In 1362 the monks were excused
their contribution to the Cistercian levy until
their church should be finished and the dormitory
and refectory built. (fn. 335) But despite this and some
valuable gifts of land the financial position of the
house continued to be precarious. In 1366 its
expenditure exceeded, its receipts by £150 and
its debt amounted to over £700. Much of this
was incurred in consequence of the unsuccessful
attempt made in October, 1365, by Richard de
Chester, abbot of Combermere, supported by a
party among the monks and 'other malefactors'
to get rid of Abbot Lindley and replace him by
William Banaster. Lindley called in the civil
authorities against his opponents, who for a moment
held the monastery against the sheriff and 'posse
comitatus' with ' watch and ward.' (fn. 336) There
were only twenty-nine monks instead of the sixty
contemplated on the removal to Whalley. (fn. 337) An
attempt to secure the appropriation of another
valuable benefice had not been successful. Henry,
earl of Lancaster, who died in 1345, or his son
and namesake before he was raised to the ducal
dignity, bestowed upon them the advowson of the
rectory of Preston in Amounderness, and the
archbishop of York was petitioned to allow its
appropriation, reserving a vicarage or £20 a year. (fn. 338)
But he did not give this permission and even the
advowson was not retained.
A hermitage for female recluses in the parish
churchyard founded and endowed by Henry,
duke of Lancaster, and supplied with provisions from the abbey kitchen led to some
disorders. In 1437 Henry VI dissolved the
hermitage oh representations from the convent
that several of the anchoresses had returned to
the world and that their maid-servants were often
'misgoverned.' The endowment was applied to
the support of two chaplains to say mass daily
for the souls of Duke Henry and the king and
for the celebration of their obits by thirty
chaplains. (fn. 339)
In the last quarter of the fifteenth century a
fierce quarrel raged between the abbey and
Christopher Parsons, rector of Slaidburn, who
disputed its right to the tithes of the forest of
Bowland and of certain lands in Slaidburn.
Though in the county and diocese of York and
completely isolated from the parish of Whalley
these districts formed part of the ancient
demesne of Clitheroe and their tithes were included in the endowment of the Castle chapel
of St. Michael. (fn. 340) The two parties soon came
to blows. On 22 November, 1480, while
engaged in driving away tithe calves from the
disputed lands Christopher Thornbergh, the
bursar of the abbey, was set upon by a mob
instigated by the rector with cries of 'Kill the
monk, slay the monk,' and severely beaten. Parsons made the forest tenants swear on the cross
of a groat to pay no tithes except to him. (fn. 341)
As each party appealed to his own diocesan the
dispute was ultimately referred to Edward IV,
who in May, 1482, decided in favour of the
abbey. (fn. 342) The rector was ordered to pay all
arrears and £200 towards the expenses incurred by the convent. Richard III in 1484,
and Henry VII in 1492, confirmed the finding, (fn. 343) but Parsons was still giving trouble in
1494, (fn. 344) and nine years later a royal order
commanded the men of the forests to pay their
tithes to Whalley. (fn. 345)
Little is known of the state of the abbey on
the eve of the Dissolution. John Paslew, the
last abbot, was afterwards accused of having sold
much- of the plate of the house to defray the
cost of his assumption of the position of a mitred
abbot and of a suit for licence to give 'bennet
and collet' in the abbey. (fn. 346) A comparison of its
accounts for the years 1478 and 1521 shows a
large increase of expenditure in the latter year,
especially in the items of meat and drink, though
this may possibly have been due, in part at least,
to an increase in the number of monks or to
some exceptional hospitality. It is noteworthy
that the income derived from the appropriated
rectories in 1521 exhibits a more than proportionate augmentation. (fn. 347)
Only one of the monks was singled out for
immorality by the visitors of 1535. (fn. 348) Cromwell subsequently relaxed in their favour the
injunctions laid upon them by the visitors.
Some restrictions on their movements were
removed and only three divinity lectures a week
were insisted on. (fn. 349)
In the autumn of the next year Abbot
Paslew became implicated in the Pilgrimage of
Grace. The abbey of Sawley, close by, was the
centre of the movement in Craven and the
adjoining parts of Lancashire. At the end of
Pctober, 1536, Nicholas Tempest, one of the
Yorkshire leaders of the rising, came to
Whalley with 400 men and swore the abbot
and his brethren to the cause of the commons. (fn. 350)
Paslew is alleged to have lent Tempest a horse
and some plate; (fn. 351) Aske, however, said he had
no money from the abbot as he had from other
abbots and priors, but intended to have. (fn. 352) It
may be that Paslew yielded reluctantly to the
disaffection by which he was surrounded. A
grant by the convent of a rent of £6 13s. 4d.
to Cromwell on 1 January, 1537, perhaps marks
an attempt to make their peace with the
government. (fn. 353) But such offences as theirs
were not overlooked. Yet as they were
covered by the pardon granted in October there
must have been subsequent offences. Shortly
after Paslew sent a message to the abbot of
Hailes that he was 'sore stopped and acrased.'
His letter was intercepted and may have
contained something incriminatory. (fn. 354) Doubtless he involved himself in the last phase of the
'Pilgrimage.' (fn. 355) He was tried at Lancaster and
executed there on 10 March. (fn. 356) His fellow
monk William Haydock shared his fate, but was
sent to Whalley for execution. (fn. 357) The Earl of
Sussex, royal commissioner with the Earl of
Derby, wrote next day to Cromwell
the accomplishment of the matter of Whalley was
God's ordinance; else seeing my lord of Derby
is steward of the house and so many gentlemen
the abbot's fee'd men, it would have been hard
to find anything against him in these parts.
It will be a terror to corrupt minds hereafter. (fn. 358)
The possessions of the house were held to be
forfeited by the abbot's attainder, and the king
gave orders that as it had been so infected with
treason all the monks should be transferred to
other monasteries or to secular capacities. He
wrote vaguely of a new establishment of the
abbey 'as shalbe thought meet for the honour
of God, our surety and the benefit of the
county,' (fn. 369) but it remained in the hands of
the crown until 6 June, 1553, when the site
and the manor of Whalley were sold to John
Braddyl (to whose custody they had been
committed after the forfeiture and who had
leased them since 12 April, 1543,) and Richard
Assheton. (fn. 360) A partition was at once arranged
by which Braddyl took most of the land and
Assheton the house.
The abbey was dedicated to St. Mary. The
most important of the new endowments bestowed
upon the house in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries have already been noticed. Few
additions were made after the acquisition of
Whalley. Thomas of Lancaster gave half the
adjoining township of Billington in 1318, (fn. 361) and
the other moiety was granted with the manor of
Le Cho in 1332 by Geoffrey de Scrope. (fn. 362) The
gift of Toxteth by Earl Thomas seems to have
been cancelled when the project of removing the
abbey thither was abandoned. A third of the
manor of Wiswell and a tenth of that of Read,
both in the vicinity of the abbey, were acquired
respectively in 1340 and 1342. (fn. 363) Some smaller
gifts of land were made to the abbey in the
parish of Rochdale. Its temporalities before the
removal to Whalley had been assessed in 1291
for the tenth at just over £75. (fn. 364) In 1535 they
were worth £279 a year, almost exactly the
figure at which they had appeared in the
'compotus' of 1478. (fn. 365)
Its four appropriated churches, Eccles, Rochdale, Blackburn, and Whalley, were rated in the
taxation of 1291 at something less than £150
a year, but their real value was greater. (fn. 366) In
the 'compotus' of 1478 the income derived from
them is stated to be £356, which rises in 1521
to £592. (fn. 367) In 1535 it was £272 7s. 8d. (fn. 368)
The gross income of the abbey's temporalities
and spiritualities in that year amounted therefore
to £551 4s. 6d. After the deduction of certain
fixed charges the abbey's new assessment for the
tenth was £321 9s. 1½d. The fixed charges
included £43 10s. in pensions to the four vicars
of its churches, a contribution of £2 3s. 4d. to
the Cistercian College of St. Bernard at Oxford, (fn. 369)
over £46 in fees to stewards and other officers
headed by the Earl of Derby, chief steward, with
£5 6s. 8d. (fn. 370) The abbey employed five receivers
and eleven bailiffs. Over £116 was allowed for
almsgiving and the support of the poor. By a
provision of John de Lacy the house was bound
to keep twenty-four poor and feeble folk. This
cost nearly £49, the relief of casual poor coming
to the monastery over £62, and the residue came
under the head of alms on special occasions. (fn. 371)
The abbey produced no chronicle. The
'Liber Loci Benedicti de Whalley,' a miscellaneous register extending from 1296 to 1346,
includes two political poems of the early years of
Edward III. (fn. 371a) An account of the early history
of Whalley church is well-known under the
title of Status de Blagbornshire. (fn. 371b)
Abbots of Stanlaw and Whalley (fn. 372)
Ralph, first abbot, died 24 Aug. 1209
Osbern
Charles, (fn. 373) occurs 1226-44
Peter
Simon, (fn. 374) occurs Oct. 1259, died 7 Dec. 1268
Richard of Thornton, (fn. 375) died 7 Dec. 1269
Richard Norbury (fn. 376) (Northbury), died 1 Jan. 1272-3
Robert Haworth, (fn. 377) resigned before 8 June, 1292, died 22 April, 1304
Gregory of Norbury (fn. 378) (Northbury), occurs 1292, died 22 Jan. 1309-10
Eliasof Worsley, (fn. 379) S.T.P., resigned; died 1318
John of Belfield, died 25 July 1323
Robert of Topcliffe, (fn. 380) resigned in or before 1342, died 20 Feb. 1350-1
John Lindley, (fn. 381) D.D., occurs 1342-77
William Selby, (fn. 382) occurs 19 March, 1379-80, and 25 April 1383 (?)
Nicholas of York, (fn. 383) occurs 1392, died 1417 or 1418
William Whalley, (fn. 384) occurs 7 April, 1418, and 5 Aug. 1426, died 1434
John Eccles, (fn. 385) died 1442 or 1443
Nicholas Billington, (fn. 386) occurs c. 1445 and Aug. 1447
Robert Hamond (fn. 387)
William Billington
Ralph Clitheroe (or Slater), (fn. 388) occurs 1464-7
Ralph Holden, (fn. 389) elected 1472, died 1480 or 1481
Christopher Thornbergh, (fn. 390) elected 1481, died 1486 or 1487
William Read, (fn. 391) elected 1487; died 13 July, 1507
John Paslew, (fn. 392) elected 7 August, 1507; executed 10 March, 1537
The common seal of the abbey was round;
in the middle the Virgin seated with the Child
on her left knee, under a Gothic canopy; on
each side of her a shield, that on the dexter bearing 3 garbs with a star over it (Chester), the one
on the sinister a lion rampant (Lacy), over it a
crescent surmounted with a fleur-de-lys; in a
niche beneath, the abbot with pastoral staff. (fn. 393)
Legend:—
S . COVVNE . ABBĪS . ET . COEENTVS
LOCI BRDICTI . DE . WHALLEY