Before the end of the twelfth century a new religious order was formed,
of which the first house in England was the priory of SS. Julian and
Botulph in Colchester, in 1105 (or 1107). This was the canons regular
of St. Augustine, who subsequently held 175 religious houses in Great
Britain. At Cartmel a priory of this order was founded in 1188 by the
Earl of Pembroke; it was dedicated to St. Mary, and displaced the
ancient parish church, which, if not of Saxon origin, was certainly a
very early foundation. One of the privileges of this house was that
it had the exclusive right to furnish guides to conduct travellers
over the treacherous sands across the estuary of the Kent. To the
fact that this parish church became the priory church we no doubt owe
its preservation, as at the dissolution of the monasteries it did not
share the fate of so many fine examples of early Church architecture,
but still remains a noble monument of the past. At Coniston, in the
extreme north of the county, in 1188 was founded a small hospital for
lepers, and it would thus appear that even to that remote district
leprosy had spread. This hospital was given in charge of some monks
of St. Augustine's Order, who converted it into a priory, at the same
time appropriating to themselves the church of Ulverston, over 40
acres of land, and other possessions. It is, however, only fair to add
that they took charge of the lepers when there were any. Though never
of any considerable size or importance, yet in its early days its
establishment consisted of over a dozen canons and a Prior, and the
usual number of attendants. After its dissolution in 1536 every trace
of it was swept away. Of the Præmonstratensian Order there were two
houses in Lonsdale Hundred--one at Cockersand, and the other at Hornby.
Amongst this order--which was introduced into England in 1120--a
greater strictness of discipline and a less external code of duties
prevailed than amongst the Austin canons.
The history of Cockersand is somewhat obscure, but at an early period
there was here a hermitage, which was afterwards a hospital, presided
over by a Prior, and dependent upon the abbey at Leicester, founded
by William of Lancaster; but in 1190 it became an abbey of the
Præmonstratensian canons. It was one of the lesser houses which were
given to the King in 1536, when it consisted of 22 religious men and 57
laymen, with an annual income of about £200 arising from a rather large
rent-roll and customary boons and services.
The establishment at Hornby was scarcely worthy of the name of a
priory, but was rather a hospital or cell with a Prior and three canons
dependent on the abbey of Croxton, in Leicestershire. It was dedicated
to St. Wilfrid, and had a small endowment of £26 a year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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