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COCKERSAND

ABBEY.

N the edge of the shore and close to the mouth of the river Lune stand the ruins of Cockersand Abbey. Not many in the neighbouring town of Lancaster are aware of the existence of those ruins, and fewer still think that the little chapter house and the tottering walls, which stand so exposed to every western gale, represent an abbey which ranked third amongst the monastic houses of Lancashire.

The bleak-looking spot now occupied by the ruins seems first to have been devoted to religion in the time of Henry II., by one Hugh Garth, "an heremyt of great perfecc'on."* To him William de Lancaster granted the place of Askelcross and Crok, with the fishery of the river Lune, to maintain a hospital. This grant was followed by one from William, son of Michael de Forness, of land in the adjoining township of Thurnham.

"And by such charitable almes as the said Hugh dyd gather in the countie he founded an Hospitall called Cokersand, with iij Chanons in the said hospitall-a master and ij brethren; and was called the Master of the Hospitall of Cokersand."+

*Harl., 1499. Surtees Soc., vol. xli., p. 91.

+ Harl., 1499.

For a time the little house of Cockersand seems to have been in some way connected with the great establishment of St. Mary, at Leicester. But in the year 1190 came the foundation charter given by Theobald Walter, brother of Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury. The deed declares that the donor gives and confirms "all my Haia of Pylin to God and the blessed Mary and the Abbot and Canons of the Premonstratencian Order there serving God, in clear perpetual alms, for the building there of an Abbey of that Order."

Thus the little hospital blossomed into an abbey, and in 1190 Pope Clement confirmed to the prior of the Hospital of Cockersand that the house should be called the Monastery of St. Mary, of the Premonstratensian Order of Cockersand. Richard I. also confirmed the charters, and John confirmed to the canons of Cockersand the pasturage of "Pilin," the place of "Cokersond," and their other acquisitions. In 1215 John again confirmed to "God and the Blessed Mary of Cokersand, and the abbot and canons of the Premonstratensian Order there, the patronage of the Church of Garstang, which they had by the gift of Gilbert FitzReinfrid." In the same year John confirmed to the abbey lands in Bolton-le-Sands, Newbiggin, and other places in the county of Lancaster. In John's reign the canons declare themselves to be "troubled at the tyme of ther elecc'on of theyre Abbot with the gentilmen of the contrey, theyre neyghbors, and made sute to the King for his mayntenance to have free elecc'on amongst themselves." For this privilege of free election the monastery agreed to pay to the crown the sum of twenty shillings on every election. Grants of land and liberties flowed in upon the little monastery, until in 1292 the abbot claimed to exercise

* Harl., 1499.