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Print, uncoloured engraving, Kertmele, or Cartmele
Priory, Lower Allithwaite, Lancashire, by Samuel Hooper,
engraved by Godfrey, published by Samuel Hooper, Ludgate
Hill, London, 1775.
Included in The Antiquities of England and Wales, by Francis
Grose,.
There is descriptive text below the print and on the
reverse:-
KERTMELE, OR CARTMELE, PRIORY, LANCASHIRE.
THIS was a priory of regular canons, of the order of St.
Augustine, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and founded A.D.
1188. by William Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke; who by his
charter directed that it should for ever remain an
independant priory; that it should never be raised to the
dignity of an abbey; and that upon the death of the prior,
the canons should present to him, or his successor, two of
their convent, one of whom he was to nominate to the office
of prior. Having settled these and some other particulars,
he concludes in the following manner: "This house I have
founded for the increase of our holy religion, giving and
granting to it every kind of liberty the heart can conceive,
or the mouth utter; and whosoever in any way infringe upon
these their immunities, or injure the said monastery, may he
incur the curse of God, of the blessed Virgin and all the
saints, as well as my particular malediction."
BY two different charters these canons were endowed by the
above-named founder with all his lands of Kertmele, together
with the church and its dependencies; likewise the church of
Balisar, with the chapel of Balunadan and its appendages;
also the town of Kiros in Ireland, with the advowson of its
church, and all appurtenances.
ADA de Winterthwaiter, Thomas de Kelilstal, and Elias, son
of Goditha de Stavely, were benefactors to this house. The
charters of the founder were confirmed by Edward 3d. but
probably had been called in question in the reign of Henry
3d; for by the rolls of the 7th of that king, cited in
Madox's History of the Exchequer, it appears, that the prior
of Cartmele paid a fine of one Palfrey to have his charter
and liberties amended.
IN the 26th of Henry 8th, this priory was rated at 91l. 16s.
3d. per ann. Dugdale, 124l. 2s. 1d. Speed, 212l. 11s. 10d.
second valuation. Here at the dissolution were reckoned ten
religious and thirty-eight servants. The bells, lead, and
goods were estimated at 274l. 13s. 9½d. The debts
owing by the house amounted to 59l. 12s. 8d. Anno 1553, here
remained in charge 2l. in fees. The site of the monastery
was granted 38th Hen. 8th. to Thomas Holcroft. The church is
now converted to parochial uses; the patron thereof Sir
James Lowther.
MR. PENNANT, in his Tour through Scotland, gives the
following account of the present state of the remains of
this convent:
"THREE miles from the shore is Cartmel, a small town, with
most irregular streets, lying in a vale, surrounded by high
hills. The gateway of the monastery of regular canons of St.
Austin, founded in 1188, by William Mareschal, Earl of
Pembroke, is still standing. But this had long been holy
ground, having, about the year 677, been given to St.
Cuthbert, by Elfrid, king of Northumberland, with all its
inhabitants still British. The church is large, and in the
form of a cross; the length is 157 feet: the transept 110:
the height 57. The steeple is most singular, the tower being
a square within a square; the upper part being set
dragonally within the lower. The inside of the church is
handsome and spacious: the centre supported by four large
and fine clustered pillars: the west part more modern than
the rest, and the pillars octagonal. The choir beautiful,
surrounded with stalls, whose tops and pillars are finely
carved with foliage, and with the instruments of the passion
above.
"ON one side is the tomb-stone of William de Walton, with a
cross on it. He was either fist or second prior of this
place. The inscription is only, Hic jacet Frater Wilelmus
de Walton, Prior de Cartmel.
"ON the other is a magnificent tomb of a Harrington and his
lady, both lie recumbent beneath a fine carved and open work
arch, decorated with variety of superstitious figures; and
on the surbase are grotesque forms of chaunting monks. He
lies with his legs across, a sign that he obtained that
privilege by the merits of his pilgrimage. He is said to
have been one of the Harringtons of Wrasholm Tower; his lady
a Huddleston of Millam castle. It is probable that his is
the effigies of Sir John de Harrington, who, in 1305, was
summoned by Edward 1st, with numbers of other gallant
gentlemen, to meet him at Carlisle, and attend him on his
expedition into Scotland; and was then knighted, along with
Prince Edward, with bathing, and other sacred ceremonies.
"THE monument erected by Christopher Rawlinson, of
Cark-Hall, in Cartmel, deserves mention, being in memory of
his grand-father, father and mother; the last a Monk,
desended from Thomas Monk of Devonshire, by Frances
Plantagenet, daughter and co-heir of Arthur viscount Lisle,
son of Edward 4th; and this Christopher dying without issue,
was the last male by the mother side of that great line.
"IN a side chapel is the burial place of the Lowthers, among
other monuments is a neat, but small one of the late Sir
William."
This view was drawn anno 1772.
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