aided and perfected by the application of artificial heat. Memorials of this ancient industry are still existing in Coatham. In the survey of the estates of Sir John Bulmer of Wilton, who suffered attainder for his share in the Pilgrimage of Grace, mention is frequently made of salt-hills, or montes salis, as they are indifferently called. It is almost impossible not to associate this name with the extensive mounds, clearly of an artificial character, still observable from the railway on the right-hand side approaching Redcar from the North. These mounds arose from the excavations necessary in making the salt-pans, which have been of very considerable size.

Another noticeable class of gifts was that of nativi, or servi. Both males and females were given (Nos. 696, 813A), as well as men with their wives and children and descendants and all their belongings (No. 1071). In one case (No. 1162) the Convent had a manor, Castle Eden, and all the nativi in it given to them. There is little evidence to show what became of these serfs, but in the few cases where it is possible to follow their history, it is clear that they, or at all events their descendants, in a short period managed to acquire a higher status than that of a nativus. Torbern (Thorbjörn), John de Hasel's man, was certainly nothing more than a nativus when he was given to the Priory with his wife, sons, daughters and toft. The possession of this toft seems to point to his being attached to the place, and that he could not be sold or granted separate. In technical language, he was a villein regardant, and not one in gross. Not many years later Torbern's sons, John and Nicholas,

occupied such a position as to be able to receive a grant of land, to be holden as freehold (Nos. 1078-9). This is not the only instance in these pages of the steady amelioration in the condition of the nativi. Picot de Lascelles gave to the Priory, some time before 1229, a bovate of land at Aylesby in Lincolnshire, with a man called Ralph, son of William, son of Turgis, his descendants, his mother, Gunnild, and all their chattels (No. 229). In No. 1138 Roger, son and heir of Robert de Laceles, quitclaimed to the Canons all right to the bovate of land which Picot had given them with Ralph, son of William, so that they might hold the said Ralph and his belongings as their freeman (ut liberum hominem suum), clearly showing that Ralph had been emancipated after he had come into the possession of the Priory. Whatever may have been the wishes of the Canons, it is clear that they had to obtain leave before they could manumit their servi. In one case (p. 401) the Archiepiscopal sanction was necessary. In his licence for that purpose Archbishop Zouche gives his reason for assenting to the manumission, namely, that it would be for the benefit of the Monastery. The document last referred to shows that the Convent had servi as late as 1347, and tends to prove that emancipation was only a very slow and gradual process. It is very improbable that philanthropic reasons had much to do with the emancipation of servi on monastic estates, although it might be the cause in individual cases. Economic causes, operating very slowly and almost imperceptibly, until accelerated by the convulsions brought about in the labour world by the effects

of the Black Death in the middle and latter part of the fourteenth century, were the true reasons, here as elsewhere, of the conversion of the servus with many services into the freeman subject to a money rent.

The circumstances under which the grants to the Priory were made seldom come to light, but in one very striking case the veil is lifted, and a most discreditable piece of sharp practice on the part of the Canons is made manifest. It occurred in relation to the attempted grant of the advowson of Kirkleatham Church by William de Kilton in the earlier portion of the thirteenth century. The Canons already possessed considerable property at Coatham and Redcar in this parish; so it was not unnatural for them to desire to get possession of the advowson of the parish church. It would seem that they had considerable trouble in persuading Kilton to accede to their wishes. At all events it was not until shortly before his death he made the grant. There are two very unusual circumstances connected with this grant. . First, that Kilton should have assured the advowson to them by three separate grants (Nos. 745-7), all in very similar terms, and apparently equally valid; and secondly, that they should have put themselves to the very considerable expense of getting a confirmation of this solitary gift from King John in 1210 (No. 750), whereas in every other royal confirmation they had waited till they could group a number of gifts together. For some years no steps were taken to test the validity of the grant. This most probably arose from there having been no vacancy in the living, when the question of

the title to the advowson could be tried, or the delay may have arisen in consequence of the minority of William de Kilton's niece and heiress, Maud, wife of Richard de Alta Ripa. Whatever the cause for delay, it was not till 1221 that Maud and her husband brought an action against the Prior, claiming the advowson, and alleging that Kilton's grant ought not to prejudice their right, because when he made it he was on his deathbed and not in full possession of his faculties, "fuit in lecto mortali, et in tali tempore quo non fuit potens sui." The Prior traversed this plea, claiming that the grant was a good one (No. 752A). The matter was not finally settled until the spring of 1229, when the Prior practically admitted the validity of the plea of undue influence, by releasing any right in the presentation to Maud and her second husband, Robert de Thweng, in whose descendants the patronage long remained vested.

The points of contact with the general history of the country are very few and not of very great importance. Master Vaccarius, the earliest teacher of Roman law at Oxford, occurs as a witness to No. 684, apparently executed at York. The Thwengs, who were near neighbours of the Priory at Kilton and Kirkleatham, distinguished themselves in various ways in their country's service during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as appears from their pedigree (p. 100n). A contract to serve as an esquire at arms in the Agincourt campaign shows the very businesslike way in which war was regarded at that time. The expense of fitting out and supporting a man of

this rank must have been heavy. He was entitled to a considerable retinue, two valets, a lad, four horses, and other suitable suitable equipments, autres regardes

semblables (p. 183n).

The course of public events, as far as appears from these pages, had for a long time little direct influence on the fortunes of the Priory. In one case national misfortune was their gain, as on the loss of Normandy, they got a grant of Waupley, which had belonged to William de Saucey, a Norman, who adhered to the King's enemies in France. The long Scotch wars, on the other hand, brought them nothing but loss. Except their Lincolnshire property, which was protected by its remoteness from the Scotch Border, all their property suffered terribly. In 1276, before these wars commenced, their goods temporal and spiritual, not including their Scotch property, were valued at two thousand marcs (No. 219). Sixteen years later they were heavily burdened with debt, and were very proud at being able to pay off £225 18s. 5d. in a year (p. 367). Not unnaturally the Canons were very outspoken at the heavy losses they had sustained from the heartbreaking plundering of the Scotch and freebooters too (per miserabilem Scotorum et etiam schavaldorum depredationem).

In 1328 their estates had been so ravaged by the frequent invasions of the Scotch, that they were quite unable to contribute a tenth voted by the Northern Convocation, according to the old rating. Commissioners, appointed to inquire into the truth of the matter, certified on the evidence

of eye-witnesses (oculata fide), that a sum of £36 was as much as they could fairly be called on to contribute as their share in the tenth, on their temporal property in the diocese of York, which was then taxed afresh in consequence of the losses caused by the Scotch (p. 399).