The Register: Ireland; Newton Arlosh; Skinburness

Ireland.

267 a. (H. 2).—Richard de Burgh, earl of Ulster and lord of Connaught, to all friends, bailiffs, ministers and lieges in Ireland. He grants leave to the abbot and convent of Holm to land with ships and boats in Ulster for the fishery, and for getting and carrying corn and other necessaries for their house. The monks and lay-brothers are not to be molested, wherever in Ireland they land, pass through, or stay for their purchases, but are to be guided, advised and helped as if they were the earl himself and his men. (This grant is dated by no. 269 before 1175.]

Newton Arlosh.

267 b. (H. 1 and 2; D. art. 9).—John [de Halton], bishop of Carlisle, considering the depredations of the Scots, so that Holmcoltran cannot profitably work its own lands and that population has grown up at Arlosk, agrees to the monks' building a new chapel or church there, to be appropriated to the abbey. They can have a cemetery, and present a secular priest at a salary of £4 a year, with house and curtilage. He must pay half a mark at chapters in Allerdale, and 40d. to the archdeacon at visitations. If the district is depopulated the abbey may remove the chantry elsewhere. At Lynstocke, April 11th, 1304.

Skinburness.

267 c. (H. 2).—King Edward [I], after the fine made with himself Feb. 12th, in his 29th year [1301] before the Treasury and the Exchequer, granted to the abbey that Skynburgh in Holm might be a free burgh with a warden (custos) appointed by the abbey. Also that all merchants, English and foreign, except enemies might bring their wares there by land or sea and do their lawful business. The abbey was to have a weekly market on Thursday, and a yearly fair of 17 days' duration from St. John the Baptist's eve for a fortnight. But the abbot has now reported that the greater part of this burgh and the roads leading to it have been swept away by the sea, and he begs the king to grant the same privileges to Kirkebi Johannis [i.e. Newton Arlosh] in the island of Holm, instead of Skynburgh; which is accorded. Witnesses—A[nthony], bishop of Durham, W[alter de Langton], bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, J[ohn de Halton], bishop of Carlisle. At Westminster, by the king's hand, March 28th in his 33rd year [1305].

267 d. (H. 2).—From the Pipe Roll, 28 Edward I, Cumberland. The abbot's account for 100 marks payable as fine for having free burgh, fair and market at Wavirmuth [i.e. Skinburness], with an allowance for wool seized for the king's use, etc. [1300].

267 e. (H. 2).—Memorandum that in the time of abbot Gervase, in one year when Sir W. de Denton went to the fair, we had 31½ sacks of good wool, worth 543 marks 4s. 4d., entered as £362 4s. 4d.; of middling wool 7 sacks, and of locks (lokes) 8 sacks, worth 165 marks, entered as £110. Total, £472 4s. 4d. ['Locks' means (according to the Oxford Dictionary, with quotations c. 1300) "the lowest class of remnants … the shortest wool, coming from the legs and belly of the sheep." Gervase was abbot 1274–79.]