The Coucher Book shows us that half a century after their establishment at Kirkstall the monks had acquired possessions which extended, more or less connectedly, around the town of Leeds on three sides-west, north, and east, but never came within the boundary of the township itself. Even two hundred years later the possessions of the Abbey within Leeds were merely nominal. It was not until the last seventy or eighty years of its existence that it acquired (no doubt by purchase) a moderate estate in the town. It is somewhat singular to reflect that the great Abbey, now perhaps the most valued possession of the citizens of Leeds, was founded and endowed without any assistance from their predecessors, except possibly some small pecuniary help. We may no doubt find the reason for this in Maurice Paynel's celebrated charter to the town, which empowered the burgesses to alienate their holdings to anyone "nisi religioni." This charter was not indeed granted until the Abbey had been established in the neighbourhood for more than half a century; but probably the clause only confirmed formally what had previously been the rule.

The traditional account of the beginning of Kirkstall Abbey is derived from two sources; one the Chronicle of Fountains, which has been printed by the Surtees Society (vol. xlii), the other the "Fundacio Abbathie de Kyrkestall," printed by the Thoresby Society1 from the original among the Laud MSS. in the Bodleian Library. Both agree that the colony of monks which left Fountains on the invitation of Henry de Lacy was first settled by him at Barnoldswick. Both likewise agree, and in terms so close as to suggest that one account was derived from the other, that the decision to remove to Headingley arose from the continual rains at Barnoldswick and the depredations of robbers there. As to the length of the sojourn at Barnoldswick, the Fountains record, which professes to be taken down from the statement of one of the original Barnoldswick monks,

1 Miscellanea, iv, 169.

Serlo, merely says that the brethren continued there some years"; the Kirkstall document says in one place five years, in another 66 more than six years." The latter record also explains that Barnoldswick, which Henry de Lacy had made over to the monks, did not in fact belong to him,-that it was discovered that he held it under Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, by a rent which he had omitted to pay for many years,-that Hugh brought a suit for recovery of the vill, which he gained, and that the Abbat then persuaded him to regrant it to the monks, on condition of their paying, during his lifetime, the rent by which Henry had held it. The Coucher Book appears to confirm two of these points. No. CCLXVIII Henry de Lacy recites that he gave Barnoldswick to the monks of the Cistercian Order for the construction of an abbey. In No. CCLXVI the Earl of Norfolk concedes to "Abbat Alexander of Kirkstall and the monks serving God there" the land of Barnoldswick in pure alms. No condition, however, as to rent is mentioned.

In

It is a somewhat curious point that the Coucher Book does not contain the record of a single donation to the monks whilst they were at Barnoldswick; in all the grants they are described as of Kirkstall. Even the original charter of Barnoldswick itself does not appear; No. CCLXVIII is merely a statement of boundaries. There is no evidence that after the first gift the brethren succeeded in acquiring a single acre of land during the whole of their sojourn at Barnoldswick. It is difficult to account for this fully, considering the subsequent great success of Abbat Alexander in attracting donations, almost from the first day of the arrival at Headingley. The comparative proximity of Embsay Priory on the east and Salley Abbey on the west may, to some extent, have interfered with the success of the colony at Barnoldswick. The "Fundacio Abbathie de Kyrkestall" contains traditions of dissensions between the monks, during their establishment there, and their neighbours, and although it is very improbable that the account given in that record is altogether correct, there may be some foundation of truth in it-enough to indicate that the new settlers did not make themselves popular in the vicinity. At all events, it seems that the stream of benevolence, which afterwards

flowed so freely in favour of the monks, did not commence until their removal to Headingley. With that event the charters practically begin. Probably the project of removal to the new site was strengthened by promises of local support if it should take place.

The charter to which the place of honour is given in the Coucher Book is No. LXVII, a representation of which appears as a frontispiece to the present volume. This charter, as stated in the note on page 50, must have been granted not later than October, 1153. With the exception of the Archbishop of York, all the witnesses were tenants or followers of Henry de Lacy, and the deed was no doubt sealed either at Pontefract or Kirkstall, possibly at the formal installation of the monks in their new abode at the latter place. The monkish copyist evidently regarded this deed with much respect, treating it as the de facto foundation charter; but although its contents and very early date give it great interest, it is, as a matter of fact, little if anything more than a confirmation, as indeed it is rightly headed in the Coucher Book. In fact the grantor, Henry de Lacy,

though he is stated in the "Fundacio"-and probably rightly-to have given the monks great pecuniary assistance towards the building of the monastery and their general wants, was not a large donor of land. Barnoldswick, his original donation, it soon appeared he had no right to give. The cowpasture called Brackenley at Roundhay, though probably very useful to the brethren at first, was of no great extent; and his other grants of real property were unimportant. there is no doubt that he encouraged his feudatories to assist the new foundation. The charter under notice confirms grants which had already been made by three of them, conveying to the monks their earliest acquisitions in Headingley, Bramley, and Chapeltown.

But

It is somewhat uncertain whether the Coucher Book contains the very earliest grant in Headingley. There are four charters by William Peitevin, the holder of the vill, two by his son Thomas, and one by his daughter and grandson. The total effect of these was to convey to the monks more than five and a half carucates in Headingley, with the wood called Meanwood, and some additional land in the adjoining hamlet of Burley. For these lands the Peitevins reserved

2

annual rents amounting to two pounds and eight shillings. We can trace a portion of this rent, the two marks named in No. LXXV, to the fourteenth century. It is included in the grant of the manor of Headingley by Thomas Peitevin to John de Calverley,' and did not become extinct until the manor was conveyed by John to the Abbey in 1324. Very few original charters relating to the possessions of the Abbey in Headingley have come under the notice of antiquaries. In the reign of Elizabeth the manor and great part of the lands passed into the hands of the Saviles of Howley, from which family they descended to the Brudenells. A search through the muniment rooms of the Cardigan family might probably bring to light some deeds of the highest interest.

On the south side of the river the chief acquisitions in the immediate neighbourhood of Leeds were in Bramley and its adjacent hamlet of Armley. Here the donors were the Reinevilles, an ancient family, members of which were leading tenants of the Lacies; their pedigree has been set forth by Mr. Holmes in the Chartulary of St. John's. The first Reineville grant, confirmed by Henry de Lacy in his charter No. LXVII, does not appear in the Coucher Book, but the successive steps by which the whole of the Reineville interest in Bramley came into the possession of the monks can be traced from the volume, and at the dissolution the vill was one of the most valuable of their estates, the rents of the tenants-at-will being more than £60 a year. The manor of Bramley was granted to Sir Robert Savile in 1584, and, as in the case of Headingley, probably various charters relating to the vill may be in the possession of his representatives, the Cardigan family. There are, however, a considerable number known to us in other hands. The Vicar of Bramley has several of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and others are in the possession of the Micklethwaite family.

The third donor whose grant was confirmed in Henry de Lacy's charter (No. LXVII) was Samson de Allerton, and in this case likewise the grant does not appear in the Coucher Book. Fortunately,

1 Calverley Charters, No. 170.

2 Ibid., No. 214.

however, the deed itself has been preserved to us. It was in the chapel of Chapel Allerton in the middle of the eighteenth century, and appears to have been begged by Thomas Wilson, the Leeds schoolmaster, who gave it to Dr. Rawlinson, and it is now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.' So far as we know at present, it is the oldest document relating to the Abbey remaining in existence. The deed is in good preservation, the writing clear and distinct, and a fine specimen in brown wax of the seal of the grantor, Samson de Allerton, is appended. As explained in the note on page 100, this charter conveys to the Abbey West Allerton, consisting of two carucates of land, and a bovate in "the other Allerton." It is witnessed by Heilsi, a twelfth century incumbent of the church of Leeds, and by Peter his son, and also by the earliest members on record of the local families of Arthington, Scot, Dawtry, and Headingley Peitevin. It is certainly a document of which the interest is only equalled by the antiquity.

When the Coucher Book was commenced, this deed had become inoperative by the provisions of a later charter granted by Samson, though it probably still remained in the Abbey chest. This subsequent charter is also omitted, the brethren having by that time obtained a still later and more sweeping grant by Samson's grandson, Adam, confirming to them the whole vill of Allerton. This charter, the first entered in the volume under the heading of Allerton, is now in the possession of the Leeds Corporation. It is followed in the Coucher Book by a number of charters by local men conveying smaller plots of land, and the Allerton section is completed by another confirmation by the great-grandson of Samson."

A good many original deeds relating to Allerton, of a somewhat later date, still exist. The Leeds Corporation possess a number, formerly the property of the Dixon family, who were owners of Allerton Gledhow during part of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Whitaker has related in the Loidis and Elmete the curious

1 Yorkshire Charters, No. 3.

2 No. CXXXII.

3 No. CL,