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The parish of Cartmell

Pages 254-265

A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 8. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1914.

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CARTMEL

Lower Allithwaite; Upper Allithwaite; Lower Holker; Upper Holker; Broughton; Staveley; Cartmel Fell

The parish of Cartmel (fn. 1) is well defined physically, its southern end lying between the wide estuaries of the Kent and Leven, and its northern end between the Winster on the east and the Leven and Windermere on the west. The latter portion consists of the mountainous ridge known as Cartmel Fell, attaining a height of 1,050 ft. at Gummers How; at the southern end it falls away, and then rises again as Hampsfell, 727 ft. at its highest point. To the west of this ridge is the wide and level valley in which the town of Cartmel lies, watered by a little stream called the Eea or Ay, and opening out into a plain southward towards the sea. West of the valley are the minor elevations of Holker, extending from Newby Bridge to Cark, and attaining in one place a height of 670 ft. above sea level. The hill country is well wooded, and the scenery is almost everywhere pleasing and often beautiful. Grange, on the south-east side, has within the last half-century attained a high reputation as a health resort. The area of the parish is 28,747½ acres, and in 1901 there was a population of 6,270, and in 1911 of 6,644.

CARTMEL.

The history of Cartmel has few striking incidents. The earliest record of the place by name occurs in 677, when the Northumbrian king Egfrid, having just conquered the district, granted to St. Cuthbert the whole of the lands called Cartmel with all the Britons therein. (fn. 2) What result the gift had is unknown, but it probably led to the foundation of a church there or the rebuilding of an old one, for at the Norman Conquest the southern part of Cartmel was known as Kirkby. In 1066 this Kirkby, as 6 ploughlands, was held by Duuan, while the remainder of the parish—Walton on the north-west and Newton on the north-east, each six plough-lands—was part of the great Hougun lordship of Earl Tostig. (fn. 3)

After the Conquest Cartmel remained in the king's hands (fn. 4) till about 1186, when Henry II granted it to William Marshal Earl of Pembroke, (fn. 5) who about 1189 gave the whole territory of Cartmel—Kirkby, Walton and Newton —to canons regular to maintain divine worship in the church. The ancient assessment had been reduced to nine plough-lands. (fn. 6) Till the Reformation the history of the parish is that of the priory, which has been told elsewhere in the present work. (fn. 7) The parish suffered severely in the Scottish raids of 1316 and 1322.

The priory was suppressed in 1536, but at the Northern Rebellion later in the year the commons restored the canons to their house, (fn. 8) and in consequence several of the canons and ten laymen of the district were next year executed, after the revolt had been suppressed. (fn. 9) The lordship of Cartmel was then annexed to the duchy of Lancaster, and the site of the priory and its lands were in course of time granted out. The rectory was by Philip and Mary appropriated to the new bishopric of Chester. (fn. 10)

After the lesson taught by Henry VIII no opposition seems to have been made to the Reformation, but one or two of the local families are known to have been hostile, and the poor provision for divine worship by the new service in a fragment of the roofless church cannot have been inspiring. There is some dubious evidence of the secret maintenance of the proscribed Roman Catholic worship in Cartmel, (fn. 11) but for lack of teaching the religion of the general body of the people had a tendency to degenerate into superstition. The Puritan minister John Shaw thus relates his experience of a visit:—

I went to Cartmel about the latter end of April 1644 and about the beginning of May following my wife came to me to Cartmel, where I found a very large spacious church, scarce any seats in it; a people very ignorant, yet willing to learn, so as I had frequently some thousands of hearers. I seeing my work great, a large field and looking something white towards harvest, and knowing my stay must be but short, and finding also four chapels in the parish, I preached and catechised often—seven or eight times in one week; I preached and catechised in season and out of season at every one of the chapels, and usually the churches were so throng by 9 o'clock in the morning that I had much ado to get to the pulpit. I also preached at other churches round about in the week day. One day an old man, about 60, sensible enough in other things and living in the parish of Cartmel but in the chapelry of Cartmel Fell, coming to me about some business . . . I told him that the way to salvation was by Jesus Christ God-man, who as He was man shed His blood for us on the cross, &c. Oh sir, said he, I think I heard of that man you speak of, once in a play at Kendal called Corpus Christi play, where there was a man on a tree and blood ran down, &c. And after, he professed that though he was a good Churchman—that is, he constantly went to Common Prayer at their chapel—yet he could not remember that ever he heard of salvation by Jesus Christ, but in that play. . . . I then judged that Common Prayer would not serve. (fn. 12)

Soon afterwards the people had experience of a preacher of a different kind, for George Fox writes in his journal of 1653: 'Priest Bennet of Cartmel sent a challenge to dispute with me. Hereupon I came to his steeple house on a First-day and found him preaching. When he had done I spoke to him and his people, but the priest would not stand the trial but went his way. After he was gone I had much discourse with the people.' (fn. 13) He was assaulted, but persisted, and from that time there have been Quakers in Cartmel, with a meeting-house on the Fell. A census taken by the curate in 1679 showed that of the 1,389 inhabitants there were '1,329 Protestants, 29 Papists, and 31 Dissenters.' (fn. 14)

On the secular side the suppression of the priory led to the subdivision of the land among a number of yeoman families, with a few of higher rank. (fn. 15) In 1609 an Act was passed for the encouragement of the people of Cumberland, Westmorland, Cartmel, Hawkshead and Broughton-in-Furness to make cogware, Kendals, Cartmcls, and coarse 'cottons,' freedom from the official sealing being allowed. (fn. 16) The district seems to have been well affected to the royal cause at the outset of the Civil War, and a number of Cartmel men were brought into the king's forces in 1643. (fn. 17) The estates of Thomas Preston of Holker and others were sequestered by the Parliament.

There were visitations of plague in 1597, 1623 and 1670. (fn. 18)

The Restoration and Revolution did not greatly affect Cartmel, but while there is no record of the 1715 Jacobite invasion, except that Thomas Walton of Winder, a 'Papist,' joined it and so forfeited his estate, (fn. 19) an amusing account has been preserved of the terror caused in the district by that of 1745. (fn. 20) Soon afterwards the encroachments on the commons became a burning question, (fn. 21) but it was not till 1796 that an Inclosure Act (fn. 22) was passed; the awards took several years to make, and the whole business was not completed till 1810. Under the Act some 8,000 acres of common land were dealt with, a number of excellent roads were made, with the necessary bridges, deep drains were cut through the mosses and low-lying lands, and a long line of embankment was constructed to protect the marsh lands of Wyke, Bank Moor and Winder Moor from encroachment by the sea. (fn. 23) A result not anticipated was the banishment of the ague. A further embankment was made at West Plain in 1808, but this was destroyed by an incursion of the Leven in 1828. (fn. 24)

Agriculture remains the chief industry of the parish, with some fishing, chiefly for cockles and mussels, in Morecambe Bay. Stockdale, writing in 1872, says:—

Wheels with naffs (naves), spokes and felloes, turning round on the axle-tree . . . first began to be made at Cark and Flookburgh about the end of last [18th] century. . . . I have heard my father and other old persons say that it was in their early days quite common to cut suitable pieces of wood for ploughs out of the woods and hedges in the morning, and to iron [them], and plough with them before night. . . . As the furrows in ley ground made with so imperfect an instrument as a plough of this kind could with no certainty be turned over men with pitchforks, hacks and spades followed, and completed what the plough had left undone. Very little grain except oats, rye, and barley was ever sown in Cartmel parish. Fields likely for grain crops were ploughed year after year until they were wholly exhausted, when others were selected and treated in the same way; the exhausted lands being left to grow what they might until they in time came round again and were ready to be subjected to the like process. No grass seeds were ever sown on any ploughed land. . . . The common turnip was the only plant grown as green crop. . . . The poor of Cartmel parish ate no kind of bread but oatcake; neither was any beef killed except at Martinmas, when all the cattle which had become fat on the grass lands in summer were slaughtered and the carcases sold by the butchers or the owners to those who wanted them; some taking a whole beast or more, and some less, according to their wants, the meat being stowed away in large pickling tubs
from which it was taken as required. (fn. 25) Salt was made at the saltcotes on the coast of the bay. (fn. 26)

The following is the present application of the agricultural land in the parish: arable land, 4,151½ acres; permanent grass, 16,896½; woods and plantations, 5,488½. (fn. 27) The following are the details:—

Arable land ac. Permanent grass ac. Woods and plantations ac.
Lower Allithwaite 901½ 2,091 68
Upper Allithwaite 491 2,423 133
Lower Holker 948 1,533
Upper Holker 641 2,985 1,677½
Grange-over-Sands 105 438½ 305
Broughton East 381 1,524½ 116
Staveley 290 2,827 1,747
Cartmel Fell 394 3,074½ 1,442

In general the soil is loamy overlying gravel, with some sandy land in the south and west. Wheat, barley and oats are grown.

There is an ancient sandstone quarry at Holker, from which came the stone for Cartmel Church (fn. 28); slate or flagstone was obtained at Burnbarrow in 1678 and at Newton Fell in 1785. (fn. 29) As stated above a fabric called Cartmels is mentioned in 1609 (fn. 30); a fulling mill existed all through the 17th century, (fn. 31) and in 1782 a cotton mill was opened at Cark, but was afterwards a corn mill. (fn. 32) The registers show that there was a paper mill at Cark about 1620. Small vessels were built at Cark in the 18th century, (fn. 33) and an iron boat was used on the Winster by the Wilkinsons, who there established a forge for making flat smoothing irons about 1748. (fn. 34) The men brought into the parish to carve the church stalls, supposed to have been Flemings, are thought to have formed a school of carving in the district, which endured for part of the 17th century. (fn. 35)

The three divisions of the parish found in Domesday Book—Kirkby, Walton and Newton—appear under fresh names in 1332 (fn. 36) and 1624, (fn. 37) viz. Allithwaite, Holker and Broughton. In 1825 these were the three constablewicks of the parish, the first containing the townships of Lower and Upper Allithwaite, the second those of Lower and Upper Holker and the third those of Broughton East, Staveley and Cartmel Fell. One result of the comparative unity of the parish was that allotments of the common lands were made to one township within the boundaries of the others. Thus the map showed some score of small detached parts of Lower Holker, Lower and Upper Allithwaite and Staveley lying within Broughton East. Under recent rearrangements the boundaries have been simplified by the inclusion of the detached portions, (fn. 38) and a new township has been created for Grange. (fn. 39) There are at present, therefore, eight townships in the parish.

The parish has produced scarcely any men of distinction. Christopher Rawlinson, the antiquary, 1677–1733, though son of Curwen Rawlinson of Cark, was born in Essex; he resided at Cark for some time, and made collections for the history of Lancashire and Westmorland. He died in London and was buried at St. Albans. (fn. 40) Edmund Law, 1703–87, was a son of the curate of Staveley, and was born at Buck Crag; he became Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1756, and Bishop of Carlisle in 1769; one of his sons, Edward, was created Lord Ellenborough in 1802. (fn. 41) John Wilkinson, the great ironmaster, is assoicated with the parish by his works at Backbarrow and his seat at Castlehead, near Grange; here he was buried in 1808. (fn. 42) Mrs. Ann Wheeler, the authoress of Westmorland Dialect, was born in 1735 at Cartmel, her parents being Edward and Eleanor Coward; she died at Arnside Tower in 1804. (fn. 43) William Close, 1775–1813, was born at Field Broughton, and became a surgeon at Dalton; he studied the history of Furness, and brought out a new edition of West's Antiquities of Furness in 1805. (fn. 44) James Stockdale of Cark, whose work, the Annals of Cartmel, is frequently cited in the present account, died in 1874, and has a monument in the church. William Senhouse Kirkes, 1823–64, born at Holker, attained eminence as a physician in London; he wrote a Handbook of Physiology. (fn. 45)

More recently the parish has had two residents of distinction in the seventh Duke of Devonshire, who was associated with Holker, his favourite residence, from 1834, when he succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Burlington, until his death in 1891, and showed himself a liberal benefactor of industrial and scientific enterprises (fn. 46); and in Sir John Tomlinson Hibbert, who died at his house near Grange in 1908, after long years spent in the public service, including the chairmanship of the Lancashire County Council from its institution in 1889 till shortly before his death. (fn. 47)

Manor

The manor of CARTMEL was that owned by the canons of the priory; it extended over the whole parish, though some few estates, also called manors, existed within it, being the freehold tenements older than the foundation of the priory. A market on Thursdays existed somewhere within the parish in the time of William Marshal, as appears from pleadings in 1292, (fn. 48) but whether it was maintained or not is unknown. The canons do not appear to have procured any further charter for it or for a fair or free warren. Their connexion with Ireland led to some trade with that country, so that there was a port probably at Flookburgh or Cark. (fn. 49) They had the duty of providing a guide or 'carter,' across the Kent Sands. (fn. 50) After the suppression of the house the manor was held by the Crown for many years. (fn. 51) Parts of the lands were granted out, and in 1610 the manor of Cartmel with all its rights and appurtenances, the site of the priory and various lands, including Frith Hall, was sold to Thomas Emerson and Richard Cowdall, who at once transferred to George Preston of Holker, the price paid being stated as £2,200. (fn. 52) This manor has since descended with Holker. (fn. 53) The old priory gateway was the seat and court-house of the manor; it was sold to the parishioners in 1624 for a schoolhouse. (fn. 54) In 1636 all the lands, rents and services in the graveship of Cartmel and the bailiwicks of Cartmel Fell, Broughton, Walton and Barngarth were granted to William Elphinstone and John Croft, (fn. 55) who, after four years' contention, made a composition with the tenants by which the whole was put into the hands of trustees for the tenants, (fn. 56) among whom it was divided. (fn. 57) Each of the tenants paid his share of the expenses, and was liable for a proportion of the lord's rent, or 'fee-farm rent,' as it was called. Under this arrangement the whole body of landowners was regarded as owning the manor, though the word is not named in the Letters Patent, and in 1716 the Twenty-four appointed trustees 'for taking account and disbursing of the fines and amercements of the courts within the manor of Cartmel,' and further ordered that 'Mr. Knipe shall by himself or his sufficient deputy keep all the courts of this manor of Cartmel till further orders,' undertaking to indemnify him from all costs and damages and allowing him a guinea yearly for keeping the courts. (fn. 58) A Cartmel wapentake court is mentioned in 1681. (fn. 59)

Plan of Cartmel Priory Church.

The sidesmen, the Twenty-four just named, here, as in other North Lancashire parishes, had the control of parish business. Extracts from their books from 1597 onwards are printed in James Stockdale's Annals of Cartmel.

Sir Thomas Lowther in 1730–1 obtained a charter for a market at Cartmel. (fn. 60) The market was only held for a time; though resumed on Tuesdays in 1820, (fn. 61) it has since been discontinued. There are four fairs: Wednesday before Easter, Whit Monday (with races), Monday after 23 October, and 5 November. (fn. 62)

The town of Cartmel, formerly Churchtown, (fn. 63) has no township of its own, but lies partly in Lower Allithwaite and partly in Upper Holker, the church being in the former and in the latter the marketplace. In this irregular open space stands the market cross, (fn. 64) with fish stones and town pump adjoining; to the north is seen the gateway tower of the priory, already mentioned as having been courthouse and then school. Through it a narrow lane leads round to the north side of the church. North from the market-place goes the road to Low Wood, and west a road goes through the race-course and then by Holker to Cark. Eastward from the same point a narrow street leads across the Eea Brook, the division between the townships, towards the church, the dominating feature of the town. From the open space in front a road goes south, which soon divides into the roads leading to Grange and to Cark. There is a building called the Institute, containing a meeting room, reading room and small library. (fn. 65)

That the town had some little trade before the fall of the priory seems evident from the mention of several shops in a rental compiled in 1509. (fn. 66)

Church

The priory (fn. 67) of ST. MARY THE VIRGIN at Cartmel (fn. 68) was founded in 1188 for Augustinian canons. The conventual buildings have all disappeared except the gatehouse, a little to the west of the church, and some vestiges of buildings now incorporated in the structure of later houses. It appears, however, that the original cloister lay in the usual position on the south of the nave, and that in the 13th or 14th century a new cloister was built on the north side of the nave.

The church is cruciform, consisting of a quire with north and south aisles and a north-east vestry, a central tower, north and south transepts, and nave with north and south aisles. There is also a porch in the angle of the nave and south transept walls.

The church was originally much the same in plan. The quire, north quire aisle, central tower and transepts, the north wall of the nave and the south doorway of the nave next the transept are all of the original work of the end of the 12th century, and afford a good example of the transition. About 1340 the south quire aisle was rebuilt, being increased in width and lengthened to line with the east wall of the quire. In the 15th century the nave was wholly rebuilt, with the exceptions mentioned, and a chamber added at the east of the north quire aisle to line with the east wall of the quire. All the existing windows, with the exception of one 13thcentury lancet in the west wall of the south transept and the 14th-century windows of the south quire aisle, were inserted in the 15th century, when the upper stage of the central tower was built. This peculiar feature is square in plan, but is set diagonally; the effect is striking but unpleasant.

In 1618 a general restoration was undertaken by Mr. Preston of Holker Hall, and the chancel, which had been roofless for more than a century, was roofed, and the upper part of the stalls and the quire screen were erected by the same benefactor. At the same time or a little later the south porch was built.

The east window of the church is of the 15th century, of nine lights in a high pointed head. The third and sixth mullions are thicker than the rest, dividing the window into three main compartments. Under the transom are trefoiled heads, and the elaborate tracery springs from the cinquefoiled heads of the second tier of lights, of which the centre light in each compartment has an ogee head, the remainder being two-centred.

The eastern bay of the chancel originally projected beyond the aisles and had a lancet on either side. These are now blocked. The quire has an arcade of two bays of semicircular arches on the north and south, supported on a central column and responds of clustered shafts with simply foliated capitals and square abaci. The inner faces of the arches have dog-tooth and cheveron ornament, but the faces towards the aisles are plain chamfered. The triforium, running the whole length of the chancel on each side, has an arcade of pointed arches with bell-capitals and square abaci. The arcade is interrupted by plain masonry up to the spring of the arches for two bays over the central column and east respond of the main arcade on either side of the quire. Above this on each side the three 15thcentury clearstory windows, of two traceried lights in a square external head and with a segmental rear-arch blocking the tracery, have between them two pairs of shallow square recesses and one at either end.

To the east of the main arcade on the north is a late 14th-century tomb recess, and to the east of this a 15th-century doorway, now blocked. Immediately to the east again is the recess formed by the blocking of the 13th-century lancet.

The corresponding lancet on the south side is blocked flush, and is cut into by the segmental-headed archway which is cut through the wall to the south quire aisle, and which contains the elaborate 14thcentury Harrington tomb; close to the floor to the east of the tomb is a 13th-century piscina with a pointed head and mutilated drain-bowl. To the west of the tomb and partly destroyed by the cutting of the archway are the remains of the fine 13thcentury sedilia, of which only the western arch and the western two-thirds of the next arch eastward, with one respond and one shaft, survive. The pointed heads of these sedilia are boldly moulded and have a hood mould with carved stops. The shaft is detached and has a rich bell-capital and a water-holding base. The heads are simply trefoiled within the mouldings. The seat is chamfered back underneath.

The 17th-century screen work begins immediately to the west of the sedilia and at a corresponding point on the north. It continues rather more than halfway across the eastern bay of the arcade, and a doorway is left at this point between its western end and the eastern end of the stalls, of which the seats with their arms, misericordes and poppy heads date from the priorate of William de Walton in the late 14th century and bear his initial; they have suffered much from the exposure due to the former roofless condition of the quire. The stalls number twentysix, ten on each side, with three return stalls on each side forming the quire screen with its central doorway. The upper part of the stalls is of 1640, of extremely fine work, with much pierced work in ogee-headed panels disposed in pairs between cylindrical columns and flat pilasters richly carved with vine clusters and foliage. The pillars between the seats support a broken architrave, and a carved frieze with a plain upper edge surmounts one of the finest examples of early 17th-century wood carving in the kingdom.

The chancel arch is pointed and of three plain chamfered orders. It is supported by grouped shafts and a pilaster, with plain capitals and square abaci, which are cut away and corbelled back about 4 ft. from the ground, where the face of the pier is flush with the line of the quire arcade. The arches of the crossing are like it, but have slightly foliated capitals with moulded abaci, and the middle order of the three in each arch is moulded. The shafts and pilasters also are carried down to the ground and have bases. The spring of the chancel arch begins at a point about 5 ft. above that of the crossing arches.

The north quire aisle, commonly known as the 'Piper choir,' consists of two bays of quadripartite vaulting supported at the south centre by the central pillar of the north quire arcade; at the south-east the groining descends to a detached shaft in the angle of the east wall of the aisle and the north wall of the chancel, and on the north-east to a similar shaft in the angle of the north and east walls. At the west end it is supported by the capitals of the arch to the transept, and on the north centre by a corbel between the two 15th-century north windows, which are of three lights with tracery in pointed heads. The east wall separates it from the 15thcentury extension, which consists of two chambers, one above the other. The upper of these, which is used as a vestry, is entered by a plain doorway at the head of a flight of six steps in the middle of the wall, and the lower by a modern shouldered doorway to the south of the steps with an internal stair to a half-basement, which is a store for fuel. The vestry has an original three-light eastern window with tracery in a segmental head.

The south quire aisle, or 'Town choir,' extends to the full length of the chancel and is about 11 ft. wider than the corresponding aisle on the north. The north and west sides are formed by the chancel wall and quire arcade, and by the east wall of the south transept respectively. The east and south walls date from about 1340 and have boldly projecting buttresses, two on the south wall and one placed diagonally at the south-east angle with a pinnacle and crocketed finial, and one reaching only to the sill level at the east end. A string course runs round the walls and buttresses at the sill level. The aisle is lighted by four windows, three in the south wall, each of three trefoiled lights with fine original tracery differing in each window, in equilateral pointed heads. The east window has five trefoiled ogee-headed lights with tracery of a slightly later type in a higher pointed head. There are sedilia to the west of the south-east window, and beneath this window is a piscina.

Both the arches leading from these aisles to the transepts are of the original date of the church and are pointed. That on the north has a cheveron moulding in the outermost order, the middle order is moulded, and the innermost has a double stitch moulding. That on the south has a plain chamfered outer order, a moulded middle order, and dog-tooth ornament on the innermost order. Both are supported on triple clustered shafts with foliate capitals and square abaci. The bases are raised on two plinths, and are of a late transitional type.

The north transept has one 13th-century lancet in the west wall, and two lancets in the north wall, of the same date, were probably blocked when the monastic buildings were added on the north side. There is a large 15th-century four-light window with shafted jambs and modern tracery in the east wall. A door in the north-west angle opens to a vice. Externally the buttresses are broad and flat.

In the south end of the east wall and in the corresponding position on the west side at a level two courses above the top of the arch to the quire aisle are round-headed doorways from the triforium. The clearstory windows, two on the east and two on the west side, are of the 15 th century.

The south transept has similar doorways with pointed heads over the apex of the arch to the quire aisle and opposite, in the west wall. The clearstory is like that of the north transept of the same date. In the south wall are two large pointed windows of the 15 th century, one above the other, the upper of five and the lower of four lights, both having tracery in the heads. A 13th-century window in the east wall was blocked at the enlargement of the south quire aisle in the 14th century, and a blocked doorway is visible to the west of the lower south window, with its sill some 15 ft. from the ground, possibly the night door to the dorter. There is a small square-headed loop in the east wall above the blocked window.

A stairway starts in the middle of the south wall and turns eastward into the thickness of the wall, where a passage leads to a vice in the south-east angle, formerly communicating with some part of the eastern range of the original cloister. Another trace of the position of the original buildings is a shallow external recess at the south end of the west wall of this transept, which may have been a book cupboard.

The arches from the transepts to the nave aisles are similar to those leading to the quire aisles. They are supported on the sides next the nave by five clustered shafts forming part of the western piers of the crossing, and on the sides next the outer walls by similar groups of shafts abutting on the ends of the transept walls. The western piers of the crossing form fine masses of masonry, with groups of five shafts on the north-east and south sides, and extended westward about 2 ft. with a group of three shafts for the eastern respond of the nave arcade. The 15thcentury nave has a short arcade of three wide bays of pointed arches of three plain chamfered orders on octagonal columns and western responds with capitals of the same plan. The clearstory is of the same date as that of the quire and transepts.

The west window is a large one of five cinquefoiled lights with a transom, and with tracery in the pointed head. The north wall of the north aisle is of the original date of the church and has no windows. On its exterior are the corbels of the 14th-century cloister and at its eastern end the original doorway with shafted jambs. The aisle roof was originally supported on corbels, of which two remain at the east end, one in the angle between the north wall and the respond of the arch to the transept and one in the angle formed by the responds of the same arch and of the easternmost bay of the nave. In the west wall is a three-light 15th-century window with tracery.

The south aisle retains of original 12th-century work only the doorway at its eastern end, which is enriched externally with dog-tooth and cheveron moulding, and has three detached shafts on either side. In the corresponding position to that of the corbels in the north aisle are shafts which originally carried the groining of the aisle roof. The present south aisle, westward from the south doorway, is wholly of the 15th century. It is lighted by two four-centred windows of three trefoiled lights with tracery, and at the extreme south-west is a plain pointed doorway. There is a three-light window in the west wall of the same date. Externally between the windows is a boldly projecting buttress, and at the south-west angle is another, set diagonally. On the west wall of the church on either side of the nave window is a very deep buttress.

In the Piper quire are three coffin-shaped 13th-century tomb slabs, a large one under the north-east window and a smaller one near to the north of the steps leading to the vestry, and another. They have floreated crosses accompanied by emblems, a sword in one case, and in the other two a chalice. A fourth slab of similar date and design is placed under the eastern arch of the north quire arcade. The slab of William de Walton lies under the tomb recess on the north side of the chancel, and has an incised cross and the marginal inscription 'Hic jacet frater Wilelmus de Waltona Prior de Kartmel.'

The Harrington monument, (fn. 69) in the arch cut through the south chancel wall, shows evident signs of having been reset in its present position, and it seems likely that an eastern portion is lost. It is an elaborate canopied altar-tomb of the 14th century, with the figures of a knight and his wife. The former is in armour and has a large shield on his left arm. His feet rest on a lion, and those of the lady on a lap-dog. The figures are flanked on either side by rows of diminutive figures of angels or weepers. Those at the head are seated and the rest are kneeling to the east. All are much mutilated. An elaborately foliated string runs along the overhanging chamfer of the altar slab on both sides, and on the north or chancel side a rich diaper of quatrefoils in lozenges covers the altar, and below it, immediately above the plinth, is a wide hollow with seated figures of chanters. At the four corners of this hollow are the symbols of the Evangelists. The canopy consists of a broad ogee arch on the north and south with a central square panelled shaft supporting two trefoiled inner lights and a quatrefoil in the head. The ogee is richly crocketed and has a large finial spreading into the cornice, which is a wide hollow filled with foliage. In the apices of the ogees are the souls of the deceased, suspended in cloths held by angels kneeling on either side of the finials. On the north side both the jambs of the ogee and the central shaft are heavily enriched with figures under canopies, and with shields of the arms of Harrington, and the lower portions of the central shaft and western jamb are diapered. The lower member of the cornice is also diapered, and has four Harrington shields upon it. On the inner side of the central shaft is a small figure of an angel. The south side was doubtless originally the same, but has suffered much from restoration. Above the cornice on the north side is a canopy containing the coronation of our Lady, with adoring figures on either side. The corresponding canopy contains a majesty, but the flanking figures are fragmentary.

In the 'Town choir,' immediately below the Harrington tomb, is a recumbent figure of a lady of approximately the same date on a low chamfered plinth. The hands are very well rendered, and the workmanship is good though very simple.

There are several other mediaeval monuments, and some more recent, worthy of notice. (fn. 70)

There is an elaborate tomb of Lord Frederick Cavendish at the west end of the north aisle.

There are a few fragments of contemporary glass in the east window of the 'Town choir,' of which the two outer lights are now blocked. The other three and the tracery contain fragments of a fesse, one figure in the centre being in a vesica, but of the inscription only the word 'Rex' remains. In the tracery is the figure of an angel censing.

In the east window of the chancel the upper part of three lights contains three large figures in canopies, of the 15th century, and one of the north quire aisle windows contains two small figures and some fragments of canopy work of the same date.

The only remnant of the monastic buildings now standing is the gatehouse, which is of the 14th century. It stands a short distance to the westward of the church, and opens to north and south with a plain two-centred arch and a vaulted passage. In the north and south walls are ogee-headed pairs of lights, with the separating mullion gone, on the south side, while the window on the north is longer and transomed. On either side of the windows on the south side is a carved mask-corbel. There are several smaller windows. The lower part of the structure has been converted into a shop.

The library in the vestry contains a number of ancient books.

There are four bells, two dated 1661 and the others 1726 and 1729. (fn. 71)

The plate consists of cup and cover-paten of 1668–9, a cup and paten of 1694–5, plate of 1668–9, and two flagons, of 1736 and 1739 respectively.

The registers date from 1559. The first portion to 1661 has been printed. (fn. 72) A noteworthy feature is the number of deaths by drowning.

Inventories of the church goods in 1642 and 1661 have been preserved. (fn. 73)

Advowson

The church was, together with the manor, granted to the canons, (fn. 74) who served it down to the Suppression. So far as the parishioners were concerned it was ordained that there should be an altar of St. Michael at which they were bound to hear mass and receive the sacraments; to minister to them one of the canons or else a hired secular priest, removable at pleasure, might be appointed by the prior and convent. (fn. 75) A report on churches made to the Crown in 1527, after stating that the rectory of Cartmel was worth £40 a year, added: 'There is a chapel upon the north part of the said town of Cartmel which [was] edified in the honour and worship of Mary Magdalene and now is in decay.' (fn. 76) In 1536 there were in the house a prior, sub-prior and eight canons, (fn. 77) with various officers and husbandmen. There were three large bells and four small ones, besides three claimed by the parishioners, who also claimed a share of the lead on the church roof. The plate, chalices and jewels were valued at £27 and the 'ornaments' at £9, in addition to certain copes, &c., belonging to the parish. (fn. 78)

Some twenty years later, in 1557–8, the rectory was appropriated by Philip and Mary to the bishopric of Chester, (fn. 79) and a resident curate, responsible for the parish church and the outlying chapels, was appointed. The Prestons of Holker and their successors, as lessees or farmers of the rectory, acquired the right of nomination, (fn. 80) and thus the patronage has descended to the present owner of Holker, Lord Richard Cavendish. At first the curate's stipend depended on the lessee's good pleasure, but in 1649 Thomas Preston agreed to pay £80 a year. (fn. 81) Further endowments have been secured, and the net yearly value is now said to be £290.

One or two names of the clergy in charge before the priory was founded have been preserved. (fn. 82) The following have been the perpetual curates and vicars (fn. 83) :—

oc. 1506–36 Oliver Levens (fn. 84)
oc. 1548–85 Brian Willan (fn. 85)
1592 Thomas Parker (fn. 86)
bef. 1623 Richard Gregg, B.A. (fn. 87)
1624–9 Richard Tomlinson (fn. 88)
oc. 1632–5 Daniel Bulfell (fn. 89)
oc. 1637–47 John Brook or Brooks (fn. 90)
oc. 1646 John Marigold (fn. 91)
oc. 1648–9 Christopher Hudson (fn. 92)
oc. 1650 Philip Bennet, M.A. (fn. 93)
1665 John Armstrong, B.D. (fn. 94) (St. John's Coll., Camb.)
1698 Thomas Proddy, M.A. (fn. 95) (St. John's Coll., Camb.)
1708 Thomas Brookbank, M.A. (fn. 96) (Queen's Coll., Oxf.)
1732 James Thompson (fn. 97)
c. 1740 Sir William Lowther, bart., M.A. (fn. 98) (Trin. Coll., Camb.)
1768 James Walker (fn. 99)
1781 James Peake (fn. 100)
1803 George Preston, M.A. (fn. 101) (Trin. Coll., Camb.)
1835 Thomas Remington, M.A. (fn. 102) (Trin.Coll., Camb.)
1854 Robert Curteis Hubbersty, M.A. (fn. 103) (Peterhouse, Camb.)
1874 Edward Keatinge Clay, B.A. (fn. 104) (St. John's Coll., Camb.)
1878 William Barber Lightfoot, M.A. (fn. 105) (Trin. Coll., Camb.)
1881 Francis Henry Paley, M.A. (fn. 106) (Christ's Coll., Camb.)
1889 George Rubie, M.A. (fn. 107) (Worcester Coll., Oxf.)
1900 Frederick Halsey, M.A. (fn. 108) (Magdalen Coll., Oxf.)
1907 Richard Busk Paterson Wells, M.A.
1910 Godfrey Scott Smith, M.A. (Magd. Coll., Oxf.)

The service of the parish church and its chapels would normally require the attendance of five priests, and in the visitation list of 1548 seven names are entered. In 1554 there were four names, increased to five in 1562. At this last visitation, however, only two of the clergy appeared, so that it may be assumed that the working staff had been reduced to two. (fn. 109) Brian Willan, acting curate from before 1548, was one of the canons regular at the Suppression, being then twenty-five years of age and reported as of good conversation. At that time he desired to continue in religion at Cartmel or elsewhere, (fn. 110) but in fact he conformed to all the changes of the time. He married, (fn. 111) and remained in charge till 1585, (fn. 112) and probably till 1592. (fn. 113) What happened for this half-century in the maintenance of the church and services is uncertain. By a lease of the rectory (fn. 114) to George Preston of Holker in 1609 the lessee was 'at his own cost to maintain with wages one or more sufficient minister,' (fn. 115) but a report made a year or two later states that the church was 'meanly served only with a reading minister,' and nothing is said about any of the chapels. (fn. 116) From the list given above it appears that there were usually two ministers in the parish early in the 17th century. The apportionment of one of the four king's preachers to the district about 1600 may have improved matters, (fn. 117) but even about 1650, when the Parliamentary authorities had made allowances from the revenue of the suppressed see of Chester, there were only three ministers stationed at the parish church and the chapels of Staveley and Cartmel Fell. (fn. 118) As such allowances would cease at the Restoration, (fn. 119) this standard was probably not maintained, and the names of the curates in charge from 1660 to 1665 are not known. In 1691 the incumbent had curates at the parish church, Staveley, and Cartmel Fell, two being in deacons' orders only. (fn. 120) In 1723 the church was reported to be in good order and well furnished (fn. 121); the roof was undergoing repair. The incumbent was resident, prayers were read twice every Sunday and once every holy day, Wednesday and Friday, and the Lord's Supper was administered about twelve times a year besides Easter and Christmas. (fn. 122) Another chapel was built at Broughton in 1745, and within the last half-century churches have been built at Grange and Allithwaite.

The origin of the grammar school is unknown. (fn. 123) It began in the church, but was housed in the priory gate-house in 1624. Other schools at Browedge, Cartmel Fell and Staveley existed about 1680. (fn. 124)

Charities

Apart from educational and church purposes, the endowed charities of the parish (fn. 125) have an income of over £300, of which a large part is given in doles of money. Inquiries were made officially in 1820 and 1899, and the report of the latter, including a reprint of the older one, was issued in 1900. The following account is derived from it.

The General Parish Charities are due to a number of ancient bequests amounting to £567, (fn. 126) invested in £959 consols in 1820, to which were added a tenth part of the proceeds of Henry Bigland's bequest to the grammar school (1689) and the interest on £100 left by Anne Preston for apprenticing poor children. (fn. 127) The income now amounts to £40 11s. 3d., distributed as nearly as possible in accordance with the wishes of the benefactors under four heads—for the poor, apprenticing, bread and sundries. (fn. 128) The poor's money is divided among the townships according to a fixed scale, while the apprenticing fund is assigned in rotation to the three ancient divisions of the parish—Allithwaite, Holker and Broughton. Other charities are those of Dr. Daniel Wilson (1768) for the poor, £5 15s. 8d. (fn. 129); Richard Taylor (1729) for apprenticing and the poor, £3 10s. (fn. 130); Isabella and Emma Elleray (1868) for the poor, £14. 17s. 8d.; and the Rev. Thomas Burton Holgate (1870) for coal, £11 17s. 6d. (fn. 131) The Cartmel Institution has an income of £17 17s. 6d.; its foundation was due to Mr. Holgate.

For Lower Allithwaite are the gifts of Joseph Fletcher (1692) for apprenticing and the poor, £8 11s. 7d. (fn. 132); Peter Kellett for the poor, £1 10s. (fn. 133); and Mary W. Lambert (1858) for the poor, £17 4s. (fn. 134) The Poor Close brings in £10, which is applied to the relief of the rates. (fn. 135) Upper Allithwaite has two large funds given in doles to the poor, viz. those of Lawrence Newton (will proved 1676) £16 12s., (fn. 136) and Myles Taylor (1714) £82 14s. (fn. 137)

Lower Holker has £3 7s. 6d. for the poor, given in doles at Christmas, and £1 6s. in bread, from the gifts of James Simpson (1687) and others (fn. 138); also £10 3s. 5d., partly for apprenticing, from the poor's land, part of which has been sold, (fn. 139) and £3 10s. for the poor from John Pollard (1881). (fn. 140) The foundations of Henry Bigland (1691) and others in Upper Holker yield £16 5s. 7d. for the poor and £8 2s. 9d. for apprenticing, while £10 9s. 8d. goes to the poor rate. (fn. 141) The last amount is derived from land called the 'Beggar's Breeches,' because it was purchased with money (185½ guineas in gold) found in the pocket of a travelling beggar. (fn. 142) At Flookburgh was a house called Bond's Almshouses, but no endowment is known. (fn. 143)

In Broughton East the poor's money, £5 7s. a year, is given in kind. (fn. 144) The Bryan Beck estate yields £15 8s. 5d. for the poor of Cartmel Fell, with 7s. 11d. additional for the highways. (fn. 145) The charities of Richard Hutton and others, administered with it, provide £4 13s. 6d. for the poor and 10s. for bread. (fn. 146) In Staveley £6 18s. 11d. is available for doles for the poor, chiefly from an unknown benefactor, (fn. 147) and £5 8s. for general uses, but applied in doles, from the gift of Mary Dixon (1818). (fn. 148)

Footnotes

  • 1. Kertmel, Kertemel were the usual mediaeval spellings, 1187 on. Curtmel, 1168; Cartmel, 1176 on; Cermel, 1186; Caertmel, 1190.
  • 2. V.C.H. Lancs. ii, 4.
  • 3. Ibid, i, 289b.
  • 4. To an aid in 1168–9 Cartmel paid 2½ marks, and to another in 1178–9 9 marks; Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 12, 36. In 1186–7 Simon son of Ucceman of Cartmel offered 10 marks for having his father's land and ministry; ibid. 64, 68. Somewhat earlier Ucceman de Cartmel and Simon his son had attested a Furness charter; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 181. After the gift to William Marshal the sheriff claimed an allowance of £33 a year which had formerly been received from Cartmel; Farrer, op. cit. 66, &c.
  • 5. Farrer, op. cit. 66, 69.
  • 6. Testa de Nevill, 835.
  • 7. V.C.H. Lancs, ii, 143. 'Iron mines' are mentioned in the priory's foundation charter.
  • 8. V.C.H. Lancs, ii 147.
  • 9. L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (1), 787, 914; four of the brethren and eight yeomen were executed for withstanding the king's farmer, Mr. Holcroft, and 'striving after a new commotion,' eight weeks after (? the meeting at Doncaster). Nicholas Thornburgh and three yeomen were among those appointed to meet the Duke of Norfolk in conference in 1536; ibid, xi, 464.
  • 10. Pat. 4 & 5 Phil, and Mary, pt. xii.
  • 11. An informer in 1590 gave some curious gossip: 'There is one Robert Ward, who was cook to the Lord Paget who fled for religion. The said Ward is now dwelling in Cartmel and can say as touching Lord Paget, who is very [verily] thought either that he is or hath been kept in that country, and that both he and others of that sect was brought out of Scotland or Ireland when the Spaniards were upon the seas, &c. Richard Call [? Cowell] of Cartmel, schoolmaster, and Sir James Dugdale, dwelling at Warcop, they two have used themselves as clerks at saying of masses, &c. . . . William Beaby [or Beesley] of Lindale in Cartmel and Ellen Fidler, they two falling at variance used speeches how many had been at the hearing of masses in such places and such. . . . There is one Taylor of Lindale in Cartmel who had a boat of his own, and he hath seen papists carried to and fro in the foresaid flyboat'; English Martyrs (Cath. Rec. Soc), i, 181–2, 221. For Lord Paget see G.E.C., Complete Peerage, vi, 183. For a school at Grange about 1595 see Gillow, Bibl. Dict, of Engl. Cath. iii, 466.
  • 12. Mem. of Mr. John Shaw (ed. Boyle), 32, 33. The 'thousands' of hearers may be a copyist's mistake for hundreds.
  • 13. Fox, Journ. (ed. 1852), i, 152.
  • 14. Stockdale, Annals of Cartmel, 114.
  • 15. The only freeholders named in 1585 were Christopher Preston of Holker, William Thornburgh of Hampsfield, William Knipe of Broughton and Cartmel Fell, and Richard Dicconson of Wraysholme Tower; ibid. 33. On Lord Burghley's map c. 1590 the houses of Christopher Preston, Roger Knipe and William Thornburgh are marked. The only three named in 1600 were George Preston of Holker, William Thornburgh of Hampsfield and Hugh Dicconson of Wraysholme; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), i, 229–30. In 1631, however, there were five who compounded for having refused knighthood—viz. George Preston, £15; Robert Curwen, Edward Wainhouse of Birkby, William Thornburgh and Miles Shaw, £10 each; ibid. 220. At the 1664 visitation four families recorded pedigrees: Preston of Holker, Rawlinson of Cark, Knipe of Broughton and Hutton of Thorphinsty.
  • 16. Act 7 Jas. I, cap. 16.
  • 17. Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc), 149, 150. See also the account of Furness below.
  • 18. Stockdale, op. cit. 560.
  • 19. Patten, Hist, of Rebellion, 116; Lancs, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), i, 174. See Chanon Winder below.
  • 20. On hearing that the Young Pretender and his troops had taken Carlisle the heads of the parish ordered all men capable of bearing arms to assemble at the top of Hampsfield Fell on 22 Nov. They assembled, equipped with all sorts of weapons, guns, axes, knives, sticks, &c., but few of them had had any training. One of their number was sent on horseback to Milnthorpe to find if any news of the Jacobite advance could be had. He was absent all day, and the long strain of waiting told so disastrously on the assembly, which had been boastful enough in the morning, that on seeing him galloping back as if for life, without hat or coat, terror took the place of confidence and all fled without waiting to hear his news—which turned out to be that he had seen and heard nothing! This was mockingly known as the Hampsfield Fell Fight; Stockdale, op. cit. 176–9.
  • 21. Ibid. 197, 234.
  • 22. Blue Bk. Incl. Awards, 69.
  • 23. Stockdale, op. cit. 326. The roads included twenty-four public carriageways and seventy-nine minor ones; ibid. 370, where the list is given. The sales of common land, with the names of purchasers, are recorded ibid. 340–4.
  • 24. Ibid. 536.
  • 25. Ibid. 570–2.
  • 26. Ibid. 573.
  • 27. a Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905).
  • 28. Stockdale, op. cit. 399–400.
  • 29. Ibid. 113, 237.
  • 30. Ibid. 41. The fabric was a coarse woollen cloth The word is not in the New Engl. Dict.
  • 31. Ibid. 42.
  • 32. Ibid. 297, 385.
  • 33. Ibid. 387.
  • 34. Ibid. 210–12.
  • 35. Ibid. 414.
  • 36. Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), 95, 101–2.
  • 37. In the county lay, according to which Allithwaite paid £1 19s. 1d., Broughton £3 4s. 6½d., and Holker £3 3s. 6¼d. towards each £100 required from the hundred; Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 23.
  • 38. The small detached parts were in 1884 included in the townships to which they belonged physically by Loc. Govt. Bd. Orders 16388–95.
  • 39. In 1894; Loc. Govt. Bd. Order 31644. The principal part of Grange has been cut off from Broughton, but small portions have been taken from Upper and Lower Allithwaite, as well as the detached parts of other townships.
  • 40. Dict. Nat. Biog.; H. S. Cowper, Hawkshead, 386; Stockdale, op. cit. 457.
  • 41. Dict. Nat. Biog.; Stockdale, op. cit. 193. For the Law family see Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. Soc. ii, 264; Westmld. Note-bk. 27.
  • 42. Dict. Nat. Biog.
  • 43. Note by Mr. Gaythorpe. Her work is frequently referred to in the English Dialect Dict.
  • 44. F. Evans, Furness, 143; Barrow Nat. Field Club, xvii, 166.
  • 45. Dict. Nat. Biog.
  • 46. Ibid.
  • 47. Land was purchased in 1857, and Hampsfield, built in 1878–9, was Sir J. Hibbert's residence till his death. It is now the property of his son, Mr. Percy John Hibbert.
  • 48. The market may have been at Flookburgh. In 1292 the prior claimed a free court, assize of bread and ale in right of the market, wreck of the sea and waif, but the two last-named were adjudged to be the king's and were in 1295 granted to Edmund the king's brother, and so became attached to the honour of Lancaster; Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 377–8; Chart. R. 1257– 1300, p. 461. In 1498 the prior was summoned to answer a similar writ of Quo Warranto; Pal. of Lanc. Plea R. 86, m. 3 d.
  • 49. Licences to buy necessaries in Ireland were granted to the prior and convent in 1240 and later; Cal. Pat. 1232–47, P. 241; 1272–81, p. 396; 1313–17, p. 549. A port of some kind is mentioned in 1297; Cal. Close, 1296–1302, p. 122. It is recorded that coal was landed at Grange in 1598; Stockdale, op. cit. 38.
  • 50. In 1535 William Gate had a fee of £6 a year from the priory for guiding travellers over the sands; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 272. There was an arbitration in 1536 between the prior and Edward Barbour or Barborne respecting the latter's claim to the cartership of Kent Sands; Duchy of Lanc. Rentals and Surv. bdle. 4, no. 12. See also Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. Soc. vii, 1.
  • 51. The site of the priory, with Castlemeadow, Frith Wood, &c., and apparently the manor also, were sold to Thomas Holcroft in 1540; Pat. 32 Hen. VIII, pt. i; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvi, g. 305 (56). Holcroft must have had some earlier grant, for in 1539 he granted a lease of tenements within the priory site (the Long House, &c.), by which the grantees were among other things 'to find and make ready an able man with horse and harness to wait upon the said Thomas at all such times as the said Thomas shall be commanded to serve the king's majesty in his wars'; Anct. D. (P.R.O.), D 1059. In 1545–6 Sir Thomas sold to the king his manor of Cartmel and the house and grange called Frith Hall, receiving instead the manor of Weaverham and Over in Cheshire; Close, 37 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, no. 11, 12. The manor and church were in 1553–4 given to Christopher Morris and others; Pat. 1 Mary. This may have been a mortgage; in 1557 the Crown bought the manor, view of frankpledge, &c., back from Christopher Morris, groom of the Privy Chamber, for 1,000 marks; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 19, m. 102. There are some court rolls of the manor extant, ranging from 1541 to 1567 and 1663–8; Duchy of Lanc. Ct. R. bdle. 79, no. 1074–82. A rental of 1451–2 has been preserved; Lancs, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), i, 29.
  • 52. Stockdale, op. cit. 42–4; a rent of £52 12s. 8d. was due. Also Pat. 7 Jas. I, pt. xii. The grant to Emerson and Cowdall is the only one in which the 'manor' is named; Stockdale, op. cit. 71.
  • 53. In 1667 Thomas Preston and George his son and heir made a settlement of the manor of Cartmel and lands in Cartmel, Ulverston and Lancaster, an iron forge in Cartmel and a free fishery in the Leven; Pal. of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 179, m. 85. Sir Thomas Lowther held the manor of Cartmel in 1723, together with the rectory, &c.; ibid, bdle. 292, m. 80, 54.
  • 54. a Stockdale, op. cit. 53–5. The building was sold by the Twenty-four in 1790.
  • 55. Pat. 12 Chas. I, pt. vii; Cal. S. P. Dom. 1635–6, p. 339. The estates had been held since 1581 under customary tenancy, whereby the tenants claimed to pay a certain fine of three years' ancient rent on death or alienation, besides a rent called Knowings every two years and a half. The whole was to be held of the king's manor of Enfield. For the disputes see Lancs, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), ii, 282–6. From a complaint in 1639 it appears that there was a flaw in the grant, and a valid one was promised; Cal. S. P. Dom. 1638–9, p. 611.
  • 56. Ibid. 1640, p. 193. The tenants are said to have bought out Elphinstone and Croft. Elaborate surveys had been made in 1634–5; Duchy of Lanc. Spec. Com. no. 1185, 1148.
  • 57. An abstract of the Letters Patent is given in Stockdale, op. cit. 64–72, The trustees were William Knipe of Broughton, Rowland Brigg, Thomas Fletcher of Raven Winder, Richard Simpson, George Braithwaite, William Pepper and Thomas Kellett of Fellgate. The grant expressly included 'all rents and services as well of freehold as of customary tenants,' escheats, reliefs, courts leet, views of frankpledge, free chase and free warren, waifs, &c. The Holker manor must therefore be regarded as limited and subordinate to this grant to the tenants in general. The total rent of the graveship of Cartmel, which included tenements in Cark, Holker, Broughton, Aynsome, Templand, Hazelrigg and Ayside, Newton, Grange, Kents Bank, Flookburgh, Walton, Staveley and Cartmel Fell—i.e. in all parts of the parish—was £51 4s. 1d. The rents of the bailiwicks of Cartmel Fell, Broughton and Walton with Barngarth were respectively £17 3s. 7½d., £24. 6s. 3d. and £17 17s. 53/8d.; and the Knowings were £7 17s. 10d., £11 11s. 2¼d. and £6 7s. 1d. Certain exceptions were made in favour of lands previously granted out, including the mills of Staveley, Blackburgh (or Backbarrow), Aynsome and Holker, the fishery on the sea coast, advowsons and ecclesiastical benefices, royal mines and mines of lead and tin. The sale of the Crown rents in 1670 included those above mentioned from Cartmel and those from Thorphinsty and other excepted estates; Pat 22 Chas. II. From a fine of 1715 it appears that these rents were then owned by Allan Lord Bathurst and Catherine his wife; Pal of Lanc. Feet of F. bdle. 276, m. 63, Thomas Dummer plaintiff.
  • 58. Stockdale, op. cit. 168.
  • 59. Ibid. 116.
  • 60. Pat. 4 Geo. II, pt. iii, no. 8.
  • 61. Lonsdale Mag, i, 546.
  • 62. These fairs had been established by 1825; Baines, Lancs. Dir. i, 594. A list published in 1792 gives the market day as Monday and the fair days as Whit Monday and the first Tuesday after October.
  • 63. A messuage in Churchtown was in 1582 in dispute between John Barbon and John Kellet, &c.; Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), iii, 124.
  • 64. For the crosses at Cartmel see Lancs. and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xxi, 24.
  • 65. See the Charities Rep.
  • 66. Under the heading of Barngarth three shops are recorded. Alexander Bell took a cottage at 8d. rent, a meadow at 8d., a shop at 12d. and a stable at 6d. a year. Adam Harrison took a smithy (fabricatum) and a shop at a rent of 2s. 8d.; also 2½ acres in Courtfield for 2½ bushels of corn yearly. The widow of William Leyburn took a house at 5s. rent and a shop at 3s. 4d.; she had also Gestholme at 8s., another house and garden at 22d., 6 acres in Courtfield for 6 bushels of corn, an oxgang of land in Carkfield at 4s. and for services 12½d., a meadow in Godersyke 3s. Thomas Barwick took this tenement on the same terms. Other places named in this section of the rental are Fellclose, Peaseclose, Outerthwaite (tithes), Nunflat (?) and Eskhead; Duchy of Lanc. Rentals and Surv. bdle. 4, no. 9, m. 5.
  • 67. There are descriptions in Whitaker's Whalley, written about 1800, and in Glynne's Lancs. Ch. (Chet. Soc.), dated 1833. Many detailed accounts have been issued more recently, e.g. in Arch. Journ. xxvii, 81. There is an old view of the interior, showing the organ placed on the screen, in Dugdale's Mon. vi (1).
  • 68. The invocation of the pre-existing church was St. Michael, and this distinction between the parish church and the priory continued to be recognized: in 1535 'the parish of St. Michael's or Cartmel' occurs; Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), ii, 73.
  • 69. See Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxii, 147; Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. Soc. v, 109; Barrow Nat. Field Club, iii, 94; xvii, 148.
  • 70. That of Ethelred (Awdrey) Thornburgh (d. 1597) is noteworthy as ending with a prayer for her soul.
  • 71. Inscriptions: 'Dulcedine vocis cantabo Domino nostro W / IS. 1661.' 'In Jucunditate soni sonabo tibi Domine. 1661.' 'Peace and good neighbourhood. E.E. W.E. 1726 1729.' The old Church Book shows payments for casting bells in 1599 and 1630 (Thomas Stafford of Penrith); Stockdale, Annals of Cartmel, 40, 61. On the fate of one of the Priory bells see ibid. 232.
  • 72. Lancs. Par. Reg. Soc. 1907. The first writer began the year with 1 Jan., but the second (1592) began it with 1 Apr. The register was not kept between 1585 and 1592.
  • 73. Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. Soc. vii, 103, &c. Ferguson, Old Ch. Plate in dioc. Carlisle, 199. A useful account of the churches and endowments, with lists of clergy, was published in 1892 under the title of The Rural Deanery of Cartmel. Some particulars have been derived from it.
  • 74. Fairer, Lancs. Pipe R. 341; 'the church of the same land [of Cartmel] with all its chapels.'
  • 75. Cal. Papal Letters, iv, 366; a 'custom' approved.
  • 76. Duchy of Lanc. Rentals and Surv. bdle. 5, no. 15. The lands of the decayed chapel were worth £7 6s. 8d. a year and were held by James Walton the elder.
  • 77. See V.C.H. Lancs. ii, 146. Richard Preston, the prior, obtained the farming of the rectory, which he still held in 1548. James Eskrigge, sub-prior, John Rudeley (Ridley) and perhaps one or two others joined the northern rebellion later in the year 1536 and were probably those executed. Thomas Briggs and Brian Willan were afterwards stationed at Ulverston and Cartmel. 'Jennet Briggs wife of Sir Thomas' was buried at Cartmel 1 Oct 1593.
  • 78. Duchy of Lanc. Rentals and Surv. bdle. 4, no. 12. The relics included part of the holy cross; L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, p. 140.
  • 79. Pat. 4 & 5 Phil, and Mary, pt. xii; Cal. S. P. Dom. 1603–10, p. 497.
  • 80. The lessees usually nominated the curate (see lease quoted below), but the permanent right of presentation may have been conceded to them in return for their grant of a fixed endowment. In 1867 an arrangement was made by which the Duke of Devonshire resigned his patronage of Lindale, &c., to the Bishop of Carlisle, that of Cartmel being assigned to him; Lond. Gaz. 6 Aug. 1867.
  • 81. The payment was forced from him by the Commonwealth authorities with another £40 for Staveley, he being a 'delinquent,' but he continued or renewed it after the Restoration; Cal. Com. for Comp. ii, 1164. The parish was in 1649 said to contain 3,000 communicants, but had 'no means of maintenance for the ministry.' The number of people must have been greatly exaggerated. In 1717 the income was about £100, of which £80 was paid by the lessee and the rest came from Easter dues and surplice fees, which the curate was allowed to have. The minister named the curates to all the chapels, with leave of the bishop as rector; Gastrell, Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc), ii, 497, 499. There were three churchwardens, chosen by the parishioners with consent of the minister, being one for each of the three divisions of the parish—Allithwaite, Walton and Broughton; ibid.
  • 82. Between 1157 and 1163 occurs William the Clerk of Cartmel; Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 311; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 178. After the establishment of the priory we have William the priest of Cartmel, 1200–4; Lanc. Ch. (Chet. Soc), 152.
  • 83. The list is taken largely from that by Mr. Croston in his edition of Baines' Lancs. v, 634–7.
  • 84. He was 'chaplain and parish priest of Cartmel' in 1536, having a life appointment from the prior and a stipend of £6 13s. 4d. Should he become incapable of serving the cure he and his servant should have meat and drink daily from the priory; Duchy of Lanc. Rentals and Surv. bdle. 4, no. 12.
  • 85. He is named as curate in the visitation lists 1548–62.
  • 86. The register states that he entered the curacy in April 1592. He is called schoolmaster in 1593 and was still in office in 1602. His wife was buried 11 Apr. 1628 and he as 'minister at Cartmel' 1 Dec. 1633. 'Sir John Coupland minister,' perhaps of Cartmel, was buried 27 Mar. 1599; Reg. An organ is mentioned in the accounts of 1610; Stockdale, Annals of Cartmel, 41.
  • 87. His burial is recorded in the register, 24 Dec. 1623, as that of 'Sir Richard Gregg, Bachelor of the Arts, Curate and Schoolmaster.'
  • 88. He is named as 'minister' or 'preacher' at Cartmel in 1627 and 1629; Reg.
  • 89. He is called 'preacher of God's word,' 'minister here' and 'preacher'; he was buried 3 Sept. 1635; Reg. A rail was placed round the communion table in 1636; Stockdale, Annals, 63. There was a vacancy, either by death or expulsion, in 1644, Mr. John Shaw officiating in April and May.
  • 90. Named as 'curate of Cartmel,' 'preacher at Cartmel,' or 'minister of God's word' in the registers from 1637–47.
  • 91. His name does not occur in the registers, but he was a member of the Presbyterian Classis in 1646; William Knipe of Cartmel was a lay member. Till the stipend was fixed there was 'no constant minister,' as one report of the time states.
  • 92. He signed the register as 'minister of Cartmel' in August 1648 and a year later complained that he could not obtain payment of his allowance; Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 78.
  • 93. He was acting in 1650, 'a godly, zealous minister, always faithful to the Parliament'; Commonw. Ch. Surv. 142. He was at Ulverston in 1646; Plund. Mins. Accts. i, 15. His occupation of Cartmel was irregular, but in 1655–6 he was duly authorized; ibid, ii, 104, 141, 145. The benefice is here called a vicarage, but the reason for its being void in 1656 is not given. The £80 a year continued to be paid to him in 1659; ibid. 289. He is said to have been ejected in 1662, refusing to comply with the Act of Uniformity, according to Calamy, who, however, gives no further details of his career; it is more likely that the new Bishop of Chester refused to accept him. Philip son of Philip Bennet, clerk, entered St. John's Coll., Camb., in 1663, being described as 'of Ulverston'; Admissions, i, 158. He must have been a conformist. Philip son of Philip Bennet was buried at Ulverston 10 Jan. 1672–3.
  • 94. He was a fellow of St. John's Coll. He was ordained priest 22 Dec. 1660, and about a year later was appointed one of the Cambridge preachers. He was appointed to Cartmel by the bishop at a stipend of £80. He published a volume of Secret and Family Prayers. He was buried in the church in 1698.
  • 95. He was buried in. the church Sept. 1707.
  • 96. He was buried at Cartmel in 1732.
  • 97. He was presented by Sir Thomas Lowther. Administration of his estate was granted in 1740.
  • 98. He was also rector of Swillington and vicar of Wetton 1742, Prebendary of York 1754, not residing at Cartmel. He was created a baronet in 1764 on succeeding to the family estate, and his son was created Earl of Lonsdale in 1807; G.E.C. Complete Baronetage, v, 132.
  • 99. He had been the acting curate under Sir W. Lowther. He died in 1781.
  • 100. He was also incumbent of Edensor.
  • 101. He did not reside at Cartmel, being rector of Lexden near Colchester.
  • 102. Presented by the Earl of Burlington. He was fellow of his college till his death in 1854.
  • 103. Presented by the Earl of Burlington. Vicar of Helpston 1852, rector of Casterton Parva 1874; hon. canon of Carlisle.
  • 104. Presented by the Duke of Devonshire. Vicar of Great Kimble 1878.
  • 105. presented by the Duke of Devonshire. He was brother of Bishop Lightfoot of Durham.
  • 106. presented by the Duke of Devonshire. Vicar of Penn 1856, of Church Preen 1875, rector of Gonalston 1889.
  • 107. Presented by the Duke of Devonshire. Incumbent of Witherslack 1888, rector of Barrowby 1900.
  • 108. Presented by Victor C. W. Cavendish.
  • 109. These details are from the visitation lists in the diocesan registry at Chester.
  • 110. Duchy of Lanc. Rentals and Surv. bdle. 4, no. 12.
  • 111. 'The wife of Brian Willan priest' was buried at Cartmel in 1583; Reg.
  • 112. The register of burials for June 1585 contains the statement, 'Here did Sir Brian Willan, curate of Cartmel, leave off from registering.'
  • 113. The will of Brian Willan of Cartmel was proved at Richmond in 1597. There is nothing in it to show that he had been curate there, but the endorsement reads, 'Sir Brian Willan late of Hutton Roof,' so there can be no doubt of the identification. He names a son Thomas.
  • 114. Richard Master, M.D., physician to Queen Elizabeth and prebendary of York, obtained a lease of the tithes of Cartmel in 1568; Gastrell, op. cit. ii, 498.
  • 115. Commonw. Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 193; a rent of £55 was to be paid to the Bishop of Chester. The gross revenue was estimated at £400 in 1650.
  • 116. Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 7.
  • 117. 'To Mr. Toppin the Preacher' 2s. was given in 1599; Stockdale, op. cit. 40. Mr. Collier, 'lecturer for the king,' occurs in 1622; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 69. The king's preacher at Cartmel is referred to in 1634; Cal. S. P. Dom. 1633–4, p. 467. Hugh Barrow of Wigan was appointed in 1660 vice William Collier, deceased; Pat. 12 Chas. II, pt. iii, no. 93.
  • 118. Commonw. Ch. Surv. 193, where it is stated that there was then 'no constant minister at Cartmel Church.' The allowances made by the Committee of Plundered Ministers were: To Cartmel, £50; Cartmel Fell, £40; Staveley, £40; Lindale, £40; Flookburgh, £40. A further report in 1650 gives another account: On Thomas Preston's compounding he had to allow £80 for the minister of Cartmel and £40 for Cartmel Fell, while the Committee of Plundered Ministers allowed £50 to Staveley, the chapels at Lindale and Flookburgh being without minister or maintenance; ibid. 142. The order of the committee in 1646 directed that £50 should be paid for the maintenance of 'a preaching minister' at the parish church and £40 each to ministers at the chapels of Flookburgh, Lindale, Staveley and Cartmel Fell, all out of the rectory funds sequestered from Thomas Preston; Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 18. At his composition in 1649 Preston 'sold £120 a year' to the committee at Goldsmiths' Hall, and they gave it for the maintenance of two ministers; ibid. 75. At the same time £50 out of the rent reserved to the Bishop of Chester was assigned to the minister of Staveley; ibid. 77. No provision was made for the other chapels. The £5 remaining of the rent due to the bishop was in 1656 assigned to the rector of Warrington; ibid, ii, 132.
  • 119. The people do not seem to have liked the Presbyterian discipline, for on 16 Nov. 1660 it was ordered by the Twenty-four that the pulpit be raised 2 ft., the font be erected in the usual place, the clock be amended, and a Book of Common Prayer of the last edition be obtained; Stockdale, op. cit. 86.
  • 120. Visit. List of 1691. Staveley and Cartmel Fell appear to have been the only chapels served by special curates in 1717; Gastrell, Notitia.
  • 121. There was a font with cover in the ancient place. The communion table was 'decent'; there were flagons, chalices and salver for the sacrament. There were two surplices. The Ten Commandments were set up 'between the church and the chancel.' A new gallery was erected in 1726. In 1725 there were three bells, but one burst soon afterwards.
  • 122. Churchwardens' replies to visitation inquiries.
  • 123. The old church book shows that the school had a stock of £65 in 1598; Stockdale, Annals of Cartmel, 37.
  • 124. Gastrell, op. cit. ii, 500.
  • 125. Bishop Gastrell (loc. cit.) gives particulars of a number of charities existing in 1717. The educational endowments produce £411 14s. 1d. yearly, of which £124 belongs to the grammar school. The ecclesiastical endowments amount to £94 6s. 7d. yearly, including £20 10s. for the organist and singers at the parish church.
  • 126. The gifts included £125 by Jane Kellett, £100 by Sir William Lowther, £52 by Rowland Briggs, and over £100 to the school.
  • 127. This appears to be the Anne Preston, widow, of Chanon Winder, whose will was proved in 1642; she left £200 to the poor of Lancaster and Cartmel; Cal. Com. for Comp. iv, 3098.
  • 128. The 'Twenty-four,' the sidesmen of the parish, have always acted as trustees, but the distribution in the separate townships is carried out by local representatives. The money 'for the poor' is given in doles; that 'for bread,' amounting to £3 11s. 7d., is given after church service at Cartmel on Sundays and Good Fridays.
  • 129. He left £200 to the poor in consideration of the loss sustained by the death of Sir William Lowther; the interest was to be distributed yearly on Good Friday, and this was done at Cartmel Church till 1846. The money is now divided among the townships.
  • 130. This charity is applied to the relief of the poor of Lindale and Hampsfield, and to apprenticing children of those hamlets and of Churchtown and Aynsome. The money is derived from Turpotts Meadow in Lower Allithwaite, and is distributed in small doles.
  • 131. Twelve tons of coal are to be given to sixteen poor widows.
  • 132. It appears that other gifts were added to Fletcher's, the total being £97. This was then combined with £115 belonging to Lower Holker, to purchase land in Flookburgh, called the Poor Paddocks. The income (£18 15s.) is divided between the townships in due proportion.
  • 133. This is part of the General Charities fund.
  • 134. Given in coals and clothes.
  • 135. The origin of it was not known in 1820. One-fourth of the rent is given to the new township of Grange.
  • 136. The income is derived chiefly from lands called Blue Cross and the Poor Close and at Browside. The money is given in sums of 10s. to 30s.
  • 137. The house is now used as a police station; the estate is called Low Farm. A scheme was authorized by the Charity Commissioners in 1866. There are very few poor persons in the township, and only about £20 is given annually in sums of 10s. to 30s.
  • 138. James Simpson's gift (£50) was to provide 6d. a week to six poor people of the town of Flookburgh coming to the chapel to hear prayers. In addition there was a sum of £35 belonging to the poor, invested with the £50 in the purchase of Hancock Fields.
  • 139. A fund of £115, including £5 for apprenticing, was in 1779 expended on the purchase of land near Flookburgh. The income is distributed with Fletcher's, less 6s. 1d. for apprenticing, which is added to the sum received from the General Charities.
  • 140. Of the income £1 10s. is added to the Christmas dole, 5s. is given to the sexton of Field Broughton Church for taking care of the benefactor's grave, and £1 15s. is divided between twelve poor persons of Holker, Cark and Flookburgh.
  • 141. Lowstone Acre, Churchtown, was bought in 1695, and Broadgreaves in 1776, from accumulations of sums left for the poor. The money for the poor, augmented by receipts from the General Charities, &c., is distributed at Christmas time in food or clothing.
  • 142. For this story the report refers to The Public Charities of the Hundred of Lonsdale North of the Sands, published at Ulverston 1852.
  • 143. Stockdale, op. cit. 265; a rent of 4s. is paid out of it to the incumbent. See Gastrell, op. cit. ii, 503.
  • 144. The fund is derived from many ancient benefactions; thus Mrs. Marshall left £20 to the lower end of Broughton, £10 for oatmeal and £10 for Bibles; and John Stones of Aynsome left £20 to provide mutton on Christmas Eve. The capital is now invested in consols, and the interest is spent on gifts of clothing in Broughton and Grange. Edward Myers in 1758 left £30 to found a bread charity, but in 1820 it was supposed that the capital had been lost by bankruptcy about 1790.
  • 145. The estate was bought in 1714 out of the accumulated charitable funds, a large part being for the curate of the chapel. The estate was augmented on the inclosure of the commons in 1809. The money for the poor is divided among six or seven poor persons.
  • 146. Richard Hutton left £40, with which Lowhouse Field was purchased; James Birkett gave a rent-charge of 6s. on an estate at Smithy Hill, and an unknown donor left money represented by a charge of 10s. a year on Gutterland, near Ulverston. Susannah Briggs, among other gifts, left £10 for the poor and £12 for bread every first Sunday of the month. These benefactions are administered by the Bryan Beck trustees.
  • 147. It is distributed in doles varying from 10s. to £2.
  • 148. She had established 'schools of piety and industry' at Staveley, and left £460 for their maintenance. The interest is now used for the National schools.