IVl. L..
Gc
929.2
P9665P
1373732
^ ^ GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01420 3894
THE PULLEYNS OF YORKSHIRE
Hi,,,,, Uanr' y' ii.,„^il>Jims.U,Uwu,-'- .'"■»w«*n,
-ir^ 1^
spifbtoNri ^ ;
'''if' -
^^ / '!'i^»l4^\ .«,,»»„,//. (h,.-"° /A "• -
11*^7 '' Irrillftiwillti'
... ^^-_. ,- - ,,i.. - 1-7',, -J.- 1
t^ Gijiiiiltmr |.,^^ '■'7"'''« '|^"(
^^l^-^r-J"' ^ ^
V,;,-».lli-miilsl nll.i" ( , ,v,,..„.,V^
>l-,t..,.k,M >^,.,(;;„,,j„.'y^ tlv'^ ~
' irrnijiiwiiiii- ^ ^^ "^^ ,-.-iH*-T**jrjf- --''i -■ "^-t..;;— — - — . ^- y
\i'';aliiij'l..ll
\iui,u„>, -.,/,,,,,, /,.,T\";"" Ni"i."vsS It '■■'•'■'"'■■v., ;r'. -'■'''■'■'■■> v.'i",.''v-.j..^'»u5!»i-'r*^?^^ .!.«.(,.«. -«•'"'■' ""A <. ^^^^c"' ""'■'VF'
.„„/(vto,w K, ■'/■ ■( i:,„ I s..,,i, ,.(,„»«,- . ,,.• "■'"«'" ../',„/-(, j,^.,„,„,„ J,- . >•' .«'",, ,i>cif-rv-; J'''"- •■ -/ )/ , . " ™ix*v"\ .1 f./w.,J -.yAiv
•5 '-If ^ /V" ;=>lXu.ii„«;., K
'^Cls]ilurtIS Itirliiil.d/ Y„/„..!.ff' J.i,„).T^(>. )
i'.V.,U.-.(i»,.il, Yl ^ , ' -^ .lhll_
KEIGHLCYr
T v>, ■ -/- ^ .ra-Aii'""""
'.1%'
■: Gtiiselej'
'■-■^,.,1 •'"■'■«'" ■''";->
.'■nVirpAnli ".y.-mjTlVijn-T^-' „
■'lliMjiiliiniL ^f-^'-
-!Ul,'nJL- / ■ /'Vi./A/'"/'
A.lr.\ '•""./:•:,
'7L"7 /, 17ZiiJ•.^^^^ ,
MAP TO ILLUSTRATE
TEE IPTOLIEYFS ©FTOKJES:
BY CATHARINE PULLEIN
, simctYi''' ^v i^'i'tJ'- o"V^' -Vij- a ''!*='■'" ,?^,,"M',- '■';.'"•■'■" jff"«.ii'""V •*»
inn.
", _ -jMfT' 1 > '■"
r2*i^^
■2^'v' \ .,iv>f.i.:y'j-"'/"
> .^
■c;.v;.
j..L'ii'..*rtL,l^'>r« A < ::.hD-
MAP TO ILLUSTRA
BY CATHARINE Fjip!:^!
. . . . Si' ale 4 Miles to lui Inv •
Copyngit
JolmBart-Kiilcoiievr A Co .EAin"
THE ^
PULLEYNS OF YORKSHIRE
BY
CATHARINE PULLEIN
"The treasures of antiquity laid up In old historic rolls I opened."
— Beaitmont.
WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS
LEEDS : J. WHITEHEAD & SON, PRINTERS, ALFRED STREET, BOAR LANE.
1915.
^
V
w
1373732
PREFACE
In looking back through the sixteen years that have been occupied with the making of this book, I realise how little, after all, I have been able to add to the history of the past. How many problems I have had to abandon, unsolved ! The greatest successes have been gained mostly by disproving what was already accepted ; a thankless achievement, indeed. With regard to the failures, I have this consolation, that I know of no source of possible information that has been left unexamined. I have brought my work to an end because of this fact. And I am urged to its conclusion, also, by the knowledge that the passing years are ever lessening the number of those who have encouraged my endeavours by unfailing interest in their object. I desire here to recall with gratitude the names of Mr. Henry H. Spink of York ; of the Rev. Robert Elmhirst, Vicar of Brearton ; of the brothers Samuel and Charles Pullan, once of Bothams ; of the Rev. Charles S. Slingsby of Scriven ; of Mr. Robert Pullan of Holme Hall ; of Mr. John Dickinson of Otley ; of the Rev. Robert Collyer of New York ; and Mr.
li Speight of Bingley. To all these I owe a very special debt, and I cannot now
« discharge it, for they are removed hence !
V, But there are others remaining to whom my heartfelt thanks can be
"** offered, who have aided me with unstinted kindness ; and I hope it is not invidious to name the Rev. Thos. Parkinson, recently Vicar of Northallerton ; Dr. Francis Collins, now of Lyme Regis ; the Rev. Leighton Pullan of Oxford ; Mr. Henry Pulleine of Drax Hall, and Mr. Henry Bramley of Harrogate. I could easily add to these names as memory brings before me many in York- shire whom I must always think of as friends, although in some cases we have never met in the flesh. But spirits can meet, just as hands can cross the sea — and we have met in a very real sense. To one and all, then, again I offer my most appreciative thanks.
^ CATHARINE PULLEIN.
«
Rotherfield, 1915.
CONTEN TS
Chapter I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.
XXXIII.
XXXIV.
XXXV.
XXXVI.
XXXVII.
XXXVIII.
XXXIX.
The Origin of the Name . Early Instances ....
The Name in Yorkshire, 1162 ct seq. CUfton and Little Timble, 1349-1385 Timble and Ripley, 1 386-1439 . The Pulleyns of Scotton Hall, 1444-1488
1489-1539
1539-1541 I 542-1 561 1562-1581 1581-1596 1597-1605 1605-1628 The Chantry and Manor of Scotton, 1066-1708 The Pulleyns of Killinghall, 1473-1530
1533-1580
1582-1612
The Pulleyns of Padside, 1349-1484 .
1485-1602 . 1602-1625 . The Pulleyns of North Pasture House, 1555-1 i The Pulleyns of Bramley Head, 1459-1613,
1610-1779. 1783-1915. The Pulleyns of Bramley and Hawksworth, 1428-1870 The Pullans of Bradford and Leeds, etc., 1646-1870
1796-1876
1863-1915 1803-1915 The Pulleyns of Thackray, 1420-1607 The Pulleyns of Blubberhouse, 1525-1582 .
1 583-1637 . The Pulleyns of Ripley, 1583-1636 . The Pulleyns of Ripley, Middleham, and Ireland, 1615-1697 Ripley, Leeds, and Ireland, 1616-1677 Ripley, Belclare, and Dromore, 1668-1790 The Pullans of Bothams, 1 563-1 738 . . • •
1677-1915 .... The Pullens of Arkcndale and Knaresborough, 1664-1795
Page I
8 II 21 32 39 52 63 72 80 90
105 118
132 142
154 163
175 187
196 207 219 228
235 243 258 264 270
277 282 296 305 317 325 332 341 354 363 17^
vm
Chapter XL.
XLI.
XLII.
XLIII.
XLIV.
XLV.
XLVI.
XLVII.
XLVIII.
XLIX.
L.
LI.
LIL
LIIL
LIV.
LV.
LVL
LVIL
LVIIL
LIX.
LX.
LXL
LXIL
LXIIL
LXIV.
CONTENTS.
The Pulleins of Hill. West End, 1515-1557.
1557-1625.
1625-1715. The Pulleins of Holme, 1605-1677
1680-1752 The Pullans of Thornthwaite, 1752-1915 The Pulleins of Birstwith, 1650-1711
The Pulleins of Spofforth, 171 8-1 797
1718-1915 1830-1915
The Pullans of Holme Hall, Darley, 1722-1781 .
1781-1915 . 1745-1813 . The Pulleyns of Norwood, 1550-1622
1623-1716 The Pulleins of Norwood, 1 667-1 771 The Pulleines of Timble, 1601-1679
1679-1814 . . .
The Pullejms of Burley Hall, 161 8-1639
1648-1718-9 . . .
1722-1813 The Pulleyns of Dunkeswick .... The Pulleines of East Keswick, Methley, and Drax The Pulleines of Carleton and Crakehall The Armorial Bearings of the Pulleyns On the titles "Esquire," "Gentleman," "Yeoman, man," and "Labourer" ....
Husband
Page 386
394 402
413 420 429
443 458 466
479
488
496 501 513 523 532 540 548 558 5^7 575 584 598 610 621
637
TABULAR PEDIGREES.
PuUeyn of Scotton {part of) .
Alliances of PuUeyn, Rouclif, Beckwith, and Malebys
Ferrers, Burdett, and Pulleyn
Snawsell of Bilton, 1584
Strangeways of Strangeways
Pulleyn and Fawkes alliance
Pulle3m and Mauleverer
Supposed descent of Guy Fawkes
Connections of Thomas Percy
Cholmley of Brandsby .
Pulleyn of Timble and Scotton
Bainbridge of Scotton .
Plumpton and Pulleyn intermarriages
Alliances of Pulleyn of Killinghall
Vavasour and Pulle^Ti relations .
Pulleyn of Killinghall .
Suggested connection of Padside and Scotton Pulleyns
Family of Henry Pulleync of York
Bankes of Whixley
Pulleyn of Padside
Pulleyn of North Pasture House .
Pulleyn of Lanehead house, Bramley
Myers of West End
Pulleyn of Garthcrook and Lemynghouse, Bramley
Pulleyn of Bray and Hawksworth
Pullan of Bradford, Leeds, etc.
Pulleyn of Thackray, Great Timble
Pulleyn of Blubberhouse
Pullein of Ripley and Ireland
Pullan of Bothams
Pullen of Arkendale and Knaresborough
Pullein of Hillhouse, West End
Pullein of Holme
Pullein of Beamsley
Pullein of Thornthwaite
Pullan of Thornthwaite — Holebottom
Pullan of Thornthwaite — Burley .
Jeffrey and Smith intermarriages .
Pullein of Ribston
Pullein of Spofforth Haggs and Follifoot
Pullein of Birstwith and Spofforth
Pullan of Holme Hall, Darley
Pullen of Walshforth .
Pulleyn of Norwood
PuUeine of Timble
Origin of descent of Pulleyn of Burley
Fairfax .....
Hamond of Scarthingwell
Fairfax and Pulleyni of Burley
Pulleyn of Burley Hall
Pulleyne of Dunkeswick
PuUeine of East Keswick
Musgrave and Pulleyn
PuUeine of Methley and Drax
Burke' s " 'PnWei-ae of Killinghall".
Busfield of Leeds
Carr of Cocken Hall
PuUeine of Carleton and Crakehall
Page
22
23
44 66
74 78 81
95 103 III 128-129 130 145 151 160
173 179
183 197 201 217 222
235
240-241
254-255 278-279
• 294
• 315 350-351
• 374 382-383
. 411
• 427
• 431
• 435
• 439 - 441
• 454
• 465
476-477 . 486 . 500
• 531
• 538
• 556 . 562
• 57^
• 577
• 579
• 582
• 596 . 603
604 606-607 610 612 . 618 619
APPENDICES.
|
Pags |
||||||
|
I. |
Extracts from the Court Rolls of the Honour of Knaresborough |
. 641 |
||||
|
II. |
Duchy of Lancaster Ministers' Accounts |
. |
• 694 |
|||
|
, Extracts from Hawksworth |
Court Rolls |
. 696 |
||||
|
Otley Court Rolls . |
. |
. |
. 697 |
|||
|
Ill |
Rental of Otley Manor .. Inquisition Book , Ecclesiastical Commissioners |
• |
• |
. 698 . 698 |
||
|
, Otley Court Rolls |
. 699 |
|||||
|
IV. |
Ducatus Lancastric-p, Calendar to Pleadings |
700 |
||||
|
V. |
Yorkshire Lay Subsidy and |
Hearth Tax Rolls . |
702 |
|||
|
VI. |
Church Registers : — |
Page |
||||
|
I. Fewston |
706 |
23- |
Methley |
• 746 |
||
|
2. Pateley Bridge |
712 |
24. |
Rothwell . |
• 747 |
||
|
3. Ripley . |
716 |
25- |
Adel . |
. 748 |
||
|
4. Hampsthwaite |
716 |
26. |
Calverley . |
• 748 |
||
|
5. Thomthwaite. |
722 |
27. |
Otley |
• 748 |
||
|
6. Farnham |
723 |
28. |
Bolton Abbey |
• 752 |
||
|
7. Knaresborough |
724 |
29. |
Addinghara |
. 752 |
||
|
8. Bilton . |
727 |
30- |
Skipton |
• 752 |
||
|
9. Pannal . |
727 |
31- |
Gargrave . |
• 753 |
||
|
10. Kirkby Overblow |
728 |
32. |
Kirklington |
• 753 |
||
|
II. Spofforth |
729 |
33- |
Linton-in-Craven |
• 753 |
||
|
12. Wetherby |
732 |
34- |
Rylstone . |
• 753 |
||
|
13. Kirk Deighton |
732 |
35- |
Spennithorne |
. 753 |
||
|
14. Hunsingore . |
733 |
36- |
Ripon |
• 753 |
||
|
15. Allerton Maulcverei |
[• 735 |
37- |
St. Martin-cum-Gregor |
y, York 754 |
||
|
16. Cowthorpe |
736 |
38. |
St. Michael-le-Belfry, York . 754 |
|||
|
17. CoUingham |
736 |
39- |
St. Martin, Coney Stree |
t, York 754 |
||
|
18. Harewood |
736 |
40. |
H. Trin., Goodramgate |
York 756 |
||
|
19. Leeds . |
740 |
41. |
Askham Richard |
. 756 |
||
|
20. Wath-upon-Dearne |
• 744 |
42. |
Howden . |
• 756 |
||
|
2 I . Kippax |
745 |
43- |
Brantingham |
• 757 |
||
|
22. Ledsham |
74b |
44. |
Burton Fleming |
• 757 |
||
|
Thirty-live Regis |
ters in v |
vhich |
the name is not founc |
|||
|
VII. |
Extracts of York Marriage |
Licences |
. |
. 758 |
||
|
VIII. |
Members of the Universities |
of Oxfoi |
rd, Cambridge, and Dublin |
760 |
||
|
IX. |
Wills and Administrations ( |
York, K |
naresborough, London, etc.) |
762 |
||
|
X. |
Wills not embodied in this |
book |
. |
. |
• 771 |
|
|
XI. |
Yorkshire Feet of Fines, 14 |
86-1688 |
. |
. |
. 774 |
|
|
XII. |
Recusants' Rolls |
• |
• |
• 778 |
||
|
XIII. |
Memoranda from various B |
.oils |
. |
. |
. 780 |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Edith his wife
Map of Forest of Knaresborough and District
Pulaynbrigge, Pinchinthorpe .
Knaresborough Court Rolls .
Arms of Weston of Weston .
Arms of Radcliffe of Throsanby .
Arms of Pulleyn of Scotton, Blubberhouse, and Timbic
Scotton Hall, Knaresborough, front view
back view interior of right oaks at back
Keep of Knaresborough Castle
Grave of George Pulleyn, 1541, Selby Abbey
Crest from Newhall, Little Timble.
Farnham ChurcVi ....
Walter Pulleyn's signature, 1566-7
Scotton Hall from the Percys' house
Signatures of Dionysius Bainbridge and
Percy House ....
The Newhall estate
Remains of Newhall Estate, 19 10
Site of Newhall, Little Timble
The Gunpowder Plot Conspirators
Signature of Frances Pulleyn of Scotton
Signature of John Pulleyn of Scotton
Signature of William Pulleyn of Scotton
Facsimile of Torre's description of the arms in Church ......
Map of Scotton Manor, 1830.
Signature of John Pulleyn of Killinghall from Muster Roll
Padside Hall, south-east view
south aspect
gateway ....
inglenook Fields around Padside Hall . .
The Bramley Head estates . Benjamin and Elizabeth Pullan of Leeds Richard Pullan of Leeds and Staveley . Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Pullan . Mrs. Richard Pullan and her son Samuel Charles, son of Samuel Popplewell Pullan
the west wi
?) Cosway
Mr. Marsden C. Pullein
Miss M. E. Walker
Mr. Hutchinson
Mr. M. Mitchell
C. Pullein
C. Pullein
C. Pullein
Frontispiece Sir A. Pease page 13 C. Pullein 20
36 36 37 39 41 42 45 30 70 76 82 89 90
94
97
106
107 109 114 118 120 120 dow of Knaresborough
127
134
of 1539 . . .155
Mr. Marsdefi 196 198 200 203 C. Pullein 204
220
; and John Russell. R. A. 259 John Russell. R. A. 261 262 264 . 266
xu
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Anna Maria (Leighton) Pullan, 1873 The Thackray estate Riplej' Church
Seal of Bishop Tobias I'ullein Tablet of Bishop Tobias Pullein Seal of Archbishop Samuel Pullein The Bothams estate Site of Hillhouse from distance The Hillhouse estate Near view of site of Hillhouse Waterhouse Field, Hill Hampsthwaite Church, across the Nidd The Font, Hampsthwaite
Hampsthwaite Churchyard before the enlargement in 1903 Estates of the PuUeins at Birstwith Tablet in Hampsthwaite Church .
Railed-in Portion of Old Church at Spofforth, traditional burial place of the PuUeins of Spofforth ,
Signature of Nathaniel Pullein
Sarah and Samuel Pullein, 1830
Mark Pullein 's estate ....
Tablet in Spofforth Church .
Holme Hall, Darley
Entrance to Holme Hall
Robert and Sarah Jane Pullan
Signature of Richard Pullein
The Pulleyn estates in Norwood .
Anthony Pulleyn's estate. Great Timble
Rev. Josiah Pullen ...... Messrs.
Warburton's sketch of Burley Hall in 1718-9
Hammond Arms in Burley Hall
Old Leeds, showing Alderman Rooke's House in Boar Lane
Arms — Pullaine (from Kilnwick Hall)
Pulleyn of Scotton [Harleian MSS.
( ., )■
[Heralds' College, A.D. 1551)
Pulleyn of Killinghall ( ,, A.D. 1530)
crest (Ashmole MSS.)
John Pullen of Killinghall [Harleian MSS.) .
John Pulleyn of Yorkshire (
Samuel Pulleyn of Yorkshire (
Pullen [Stowe MS. 670)
Pulleyn (Edmondson) .
Pulleine [Additional Harleian MSS.
page 268
|
c |
'. Pullein |
288 |
|
|
, , |
317 |
||
|
., |
330 |
||
|
. |
330 |
||
|
t f |
33« |
||
|
> > |
356 |
||
|
Mr. Watson |
386 |
||
|
C. Pullein |
390 |
||
|
Mr. Watson |
391 |
||
|
, , |
392 |
||
|
C. Pullein |
413 |
||
|
, , |
414 |
||
|
> i |
446 |
||
|
"1 |
453 |
||
|
» > |
456 |
||
|
, , |
458 |
||
|
. |
461 |
||
|
. |
471 |
||
|
C. Pitllein |
473 |
||
|
, , |
482 |
||
|
. |
488 |
||
|
Mr. T. Fisher |
489 |
||
|
. |
498 |
||
|
503 |
|||
|
C. Pullein |
516 |
||
|
, , |
541 |
||
|
Hills & Saunders |
565 |
||
|
Donald A. |
lacbeth |
573 576 |
|
|
616 |
|||
|
624 |
|||
|
626 |
|||
|
627 |
|||
|
628 |
|||
|
629 630 |
|||
|
631 631 632 634 |
|||
|
635 |
|||
|
636 |
THE PULLEYNS OF YORKSHIRE.
CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
Modern owners of the ancient name that gives its title to this history, whether they spell it as written here, or spell it Pullein, Pulleine, Pullen, Pullin, or Pullan, will feel that not the least interesting of these pages are those preliminary ones which deal with the origin of their name.
The writer would declare at once that she has no desire to dogmatise on the subject. It is, perhaps, scarcely possible to do so. At the most, one can but propound a theory ; and if, to establish it, it becomes necessary to demolish other theories already raised — why, so much the worse for them ! The survival of the fittest, as a fa,ct of physiology, meets with approbation from all lovers of justice ; and the writer ventures to hope that the theory which she wishes to substitute for those already put forward may be adjudged the best, and adopted by those students who may give it consideration.
As we all know, surnames may be divided into classes. Some indicate a man's place of abode, some his parentage. Others declare his nationality ; the nature of his trade and employment ; or the peculiarities of his person. The most ancient class contains, no doubt, those that are founded on the parent's Christian name, John-son, Dickon-son, Will-son, Marget-son, and the like. But the confusion arising from the repetition of such titles would soon necessitate some form more distinctive, descriptive of the individual. Thus we get such surnames as Scott, Franks, Norman ; Yorke, Leycester, Kent ; Whitehead, Armstrong, Lightfoot ; Taylor, Baker, and Reeve. But there was even in early days a mode of distinguish- ing a man from his neighbour by bestowing on him a nickname ; and it is to this class that the surname PuUeyn has been allotted by an authority so great that the writer almost shrinks from dissenting from his opinion. Canon Bardsley took the view that the name Pullen is synonymous with Chicken, and has its place among the class of poultry and bird nicknames — Drake, Nightingale, Jay, etc. He admitted to the writer that this view depends on whether the word " pullen " for " chicken " were used in the singular as well as plural. He stated :
" In a note to Pullayly (see Prompioriiim Parvulornm, p. 416) Mr. Way quotes the use of pullen for poultry, by Tusser ; also pullayne, by Palsgrave. He adds : * Gerarde observes that in Cheshire they sow buckwheat for their cattell, pullen, and such like.' "
The writer herself has noted the use of the word in this sense. First in Lord Berners' translation of Froissart's Chronicles, printed completely on Jan. 28, 1523-4. Here in the first volume, chapter cccciii, Lord Berners wrote :
" All the villages thereabouts brought thither fruits, butter, milk, cheese, pullen» and other things." A
2 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
Then in the inventory attached to the will, enrolled at Knaresborough, of a certain Peter Knaresbrughe of Clint, dated July 4, 1563, there is the entry :
" V hennes with other pnlleyn."
And again, in the first English translation of Pliny's Natural History, made by Dr. Philemon Holland in 1601 :
" They of the Island Deles began the cramming of Hens and Pullein first." (Book X, chap. 1.)
And again :
" So as the pullen and other foule kept about the said ferme shall be secure from their claws or tallons." (Book xxiii, chap, i, p. 150.)
And in the index :
" Pullain ; how they may be kept from the weazill, p. 399."
The passage referred to is in Book xxx, chapter v. •
" The ashes of the said weazill given to chickens or young pigeons among the past that is made for to feed them, secureth them from the weazill."
So Butler, in Hudibras, wrote :
" When geese and pollen are seduc'd."
In each instance it will be observed that the word is used in the plural sense ; the writer has never met with it as a singular noun. Yet the pronoun in the soli- tary example of the surname brought forward by the distinguished theorist is the singular " le," not the plural " lez." Canon Bardsley notified the writer that in the Rotuli Hundredorum, the Hundred Rolls of Edward I's time, the name (in Shropshire) of " Nicholas le Pullen " is seen. That means, he would say, " Nicholas the Chicks."
Another antiquarian has put forward the theory (constantly repeated in works on Yorkshire history) that the surname originated in the employment of its first owners, and is taken from the word " pullus,'' a young horse, thus indicating that bearers of the name held the office of keepers of the king's horse. In this instance, we are told, the theory is supported by the statement that at one time the crest borne by one branch of the Pulleyns of Yorkshire is said to have been :
" A horse's head erased and harnessed."
We meet this statement in an editorial note to the Herald's Visitation of the year 1530:
" I do not know any junction of the two lines of Scotton and Crakehall. For the latter see Burke's Commoners. Its old crest was a horse's head erased and harnessed. It appears on an old Elizabethan panel in the possession of Mr. Robert Thompson, Darlington, and above the usual differenced coat, a bend cotised and charged with three escallops, and a chief charged with three martlets. Below are the letters I. PL., the two last characters being a monogram."
If these letters refer to any Pulleyns, we presume they should be read I or J.L.P.; but no such initials of a husband and wife are known in any branch of the family in Elizabethan days, to which, moreover, the Crakehall branch is not trace- able. The arms described were also used in the early eighteenth century by the
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME. 3
Burley Hall branch, which descended from one Miles PuUeyn, a tanner of Fewston parish (who died in 1567), through his son John, also a tanner ; and it seems to the writer that if this Elizabethan panel belonged to the Pulleyns, the crest is just as likely to refer to the tanning of horse skins as to the raising and training of the animals themselves ; and that it certainly does not explain, self-evidently, the origin of the surname.
This, we believe, can be better done. The theory of the writer is that Pulleyn is neither a nickname, nor trade-name, but a race-name. History and Heraldry support this view.
What bearer of the surname will not welcome the theory that it originated with the earliest Crusaders ? That it tells of birth in the Holy Land just as plainly as the name " de Mortimer " tells that its first owner dwelt by the shore of the Dead Sea ? {de Moriuo Man). Though much of the romance and glamour which sur- round the usual conception of the Crusades must perforce vanish when we realise how much political ambition, and how many other very earthly motives animated the leaders ; and how dissolute, nay, criminal in act, were many of their followers, we know that among them were men pure in thought and deed, whose honour was unstained, and whose personal character goes far to invest their less worthy comrades with a revered name.
When Pope Benedict VIII, in the year a.d. 1017, invoked Norman aid against the Greek and Saracen enemies of Rome who had invaded the province of Apulia, he probably gave no thought to the possibility that the ambitious Normans might not lightly relinquish what they had regained for the benefit of another. Robert Guiscard brought from Hauteville but five knights and thirty men-at-arms ; yet, by the year a.d. 1053, the Normans had waxed strong enough to be perilous foes ; and the capture of Pope Leo IX at the battle of Civitella gave Robert Guiscard Apulia for his own dukedom. Further struggles with the Saracens and Greeks gave him also Sicily and Naples ; possessions so wealthy, so valuable, that at his death in a.d. 1085 he was counted among the richest of the European rulers. He left two sons, Boemund of Calabria and his half-brother Roger, who after their father's death became embroiled in contentions about their inheritance. In A.D. 1095 Boemund was besieging the mercantile port of Amalfi, having wrested Tarento from Roger. The year is ever memorable as that in which Peter the Hermit, fired with holy indignation at the insults offered by the Moslems to the pilgrims at Jerusalem, and the desecration of her most sacred spots, which he had visited the year before, was rousing Christendom with the story of her wrongs. Through Italy came Peter, by his burning words awakening men alike from their indifference and their selfish aims. Venice, Genoa, Pisa arose at his cry ; Boemund, at its urgent sound, forsook the siege of Amalfi, gathered a host of Norman-Italians, ten thousand horse and twenty thousand foot, and prepared to join the vast army of deliverers of the Holy Land.
In the summer of the year a.d. 1096 the Crusaders began the march. There were Godfrey, Baldwin, and Eustace of Boulogne, with their cousin Baldwin du Bourg, leading 24,000 Frankish soldiers and 10,000 knights. Robert of Flanders led Flemings and Frisons. Raymond of Toulouse brought 100,000 Gascons, Auvergnats, and Proven9als. Robert of Normandy brought his Norman subjects ; and Edgar Atheling some Saxons, with a few Scotch, Irish, and Welshmen.
4 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
The history of the first Crusade cannot be compressed into a few sentences, nor is its outUne needed for the present purpose. Suffice it now to say that Boe- mund, with his Itahans and Apuhan-born Normans, going by sea, reached By- zantium in the winter of 1097, without suffering the frightful losses that befell the land-travelling Crusaders. They were engaged in the first encounter with the Moslems, which ended in the destruction of many thousands of infidels ; and Boemund, a few months later, by right of prior entry, was made Prince of Antioch, and established a Norman-Apulian province around that city. About a hundred miles in length, and fifty in breadth, it included the range of Lebanon, and the seaports of Latakia and Seleucia. Communication with Apulia and other Italian provinces was thus secured. We are told that the Syrian population to a large extent welcomed the conquerors, among whom they lived in peace, uniting with them against the common foe, the Turk.
The arrival of Edgar Atheling with his Saxons and other northern men brought yet another race into Palestine ; and before the combined overwhelming force of the Crusaders Jerusalem fell on July 15th, 1099.
When Godfrey of Boulogne had by general consent been made ruler of the city — he refused to bear the title of king and to wear a crown where his Lord had been rejected of men — the majority of the deliverers returned home ; the object of their toils was attained. But Boemund remained till the year 11 04, when he revisited his Apulian city of Tarento, where he died.
The comparative peace that followed the establishment of the kingdom of Jerusalem soon made its results seen. Western and Eastern races mingled in daily life ; they married and gave in marriage. Not only the bourgeois Latin soldiery,, but King Baldwin I and his successor, Baldwin II, took Eastern wives. Even noble European ladies allied themselves with natives of the land.
But there were others of the Crusaders who were not willing to wed with an alien race. These, because Italy was the most accessible of the European countries, procured their wives from its southernmost shores, those of Apulia ; and the off- spring of such marriages were known as Pullani, or Poulains. Thus, when the second Crusade took place, a.d. i 147-9, the newcomers found that the Christian army consisted of Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, Normans, Greeks, Englishmen, and Pullani, who, as children of the soil, considered the rest intruders.
Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, who was appointed Bishop of Acre in 121 7, and dwelt in Palestine till 1227, has given us in his History of Jerusalem (a translation^ of which has been published by the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society) an account of the origin of this race. The translator is Mr. Aubrey Stewart, M.A.
" Pullani^ is the name given to those who have been born in the Holy Land after its freedom, either because they are new-comers — as it were pullets, as compared with the Syrians — or because for the most part their mothers according to the flesh were of Apulian nation ; for since our people brought into the Holy Land but few women, as compared with the men in the army of the Western Princes, those who remained in the Holy Land invited over women from the kingdom of Apulia, because it was nearer than any other, and married them."
The translator adds a note, that " the word ' Pullan ' is supposed to be derived from the Arabic Ibn Fiddn, ' son of vSo-and-so.' " But in the face of the statement
^ PP- 57-58.
2 In the original, de Vitry calls the race both Pollani and PMllani.
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME. 5
of the almost contemporary historian-Bishop, this explanation seems far-fetched and improbable. That it was no mere by-word of the Bishop's day, we find proof in the pages of the immortal Sire Jehan de Joinville. When the French Crusaders reached Acre in May, 1250, and de Joinville gave King Louis advice unpalatable to his older counsellors, that is to say, not to abandon the Crusade, they seem to have applied the term to him as a sort of insult. He tells the tale thus :
" ^They call the peasants of the country Poulains, and Messire Pierres d'Avallon .. . . heard say that they called me Poulain because I had advised the King to remain with the Poulains. So Messires Pierres d'Avallon sent me word that I should defend myself against those who called me Poulain."
Sire Jehan was quite undisturbed on hearing the name bestowed on him, and as it suggested to his French ears an obvious pun, he only made the light-hearted reply that he repeats to us :
" I had rather be a poulain (colt) than worn-out horses such as they were."
A pun that has preserved for us, in all soberness, proof that the name given to the children of the Apulian women had become, a hundred years after de Vitr}' wrote of them, part of the common language of their land and day. And not this only ; de Joinville gives us evidence that the name of the Crusaders' descendants had assumed geographical importance. In the account he gives of the movements of the French army in June and July, 1253, he wrote how it lay :
" ^in a place which they call the Poulain Crossing, where there are many beautiful streams with which they water the plants sugar comes from."
This, then, the writer holds to be the race from which the surname of Pullevn sprang. Can we doubt that as the Crusaders returned to their o\vn native countries many would bring with them their Apulian wives and Poulain children } We know how many Arabic words have been imported into our English vocabulary by them, showing how far-reaching was the influence of their sojourn in the East. Can we doubt that this race-name was also so imported into Europe 1 It appears in England immediately after the middle of the twelfth century. The wTiter has absolutely failed to find even one record of it prior to the Crusades. The counties in which it is found in the thirteenth century are so numerous that it seems in- credible that it originated as a nickname, and not in the influx into our country •of these Apulian-descended men.
This view is aided by what we note outside our own land. The name exists in varied forms in other European countries. In Belgium as Polain (Matthieu Lambert Polain, historian). In France,^ as Poullain (Valerand Poullain, leader of the Strasburg religious refugees in Glastonbury, who fled from England on Mary's accession ; and the author, Germain Franfois Poullain de St. Foix). There is
^ " On appelle les paisans don pais poulains dont Messires Pierres d'Avallon, . . . oy dire que on ine appelloit poulain pour ce que j'avoie conseillie au roy sa demeuree avec(]ues les pou- lains. Si demanda Messires Pierres d'Avallon que je me defendisse vers ceus qui m'apeloient poulain et lour deisse que j'amoie miex estre poulain que roncins recreus aussi comme il estoient." Edition p. M. Natalis de Wailly, Paris, 1868 (Soc. de I'histoire de France), p. 154.
^ " En un lieu que on appelle Passe-poulain, la ou il a de mont beles eaues, de quioy I'on arose ce dont li sucres vient." Ibid., p. 202.
* Montaigne, in one of his essays, speaks of a Capitaine Poulin, no doubt a form of this sur- name.
6 THE ORIGIN OF THK NAME.
also an interesting passage in the Chronicles of Froissart, showing that the name existed in France in his day. In the chapter in which he tells of the murderous attack on Sir Oliver de Clisson^ the constable, by his enemy, Sir Peter de Craon, •which took place on June 14, 1392, we find these sentences, as translated by Lord Berners :
" 'Sir Oliver of Clisson, who as then was constable of France, departed from the King's palace last of all other, and had taken his leave of the King, and then went through the Duke of Touraine's chamber, and said to him : ' Sir, will ye tarry here all night, or else go to your lodging of ^Poulain ? ' This Poulain was the Duke's treasurer, and dwelt a little beside the sign of the Lion of Silver. "^
Whether a surname is here indicated — as we might say " this Jones was the duke's treasurer " — or the race-name itself, we have been unable to learn, not having succeeded in tracing this official.
To those learned disputants who would argue that the French Poidain is not a regular formation from the French name for Apulia — " la Pouille," or " Puylle " as Froissart spells it (writing of the hot wines of Puylle and Calabria taken to Africa by the Genoese and Christians), nor the Latin Pullanus from the Italian Apulia — that the French term should result in the name Pouillien, and the Italian in Pulianus, we can but plead that de Vitry was satisfied with the derivation of the race-name with which he was personally familiar. Moreover (we learn through the courtesy of the Rev. Leighton Pullan), the Anglo-French copy of the late thirteenth century poem, " E stair e de la Guerre Sainte,'' has Piiille^ for Apulia, and Polain^ for the Syrian Christian ; the " chretien latin ne en Syrie," as the editor explains.
Therefore the writer holds that the very name interpreted by Canon Bardsley as " Nicholas the Chicks " is simply, literally, " Nicholas the Poulain." Quickly the cumbersome article would be dropped, and the man's neighbours call him " Nicholas Poulain."
Thus much for conclusions drawn from history. Heraldry will help to make them convictions.
There are certain " charges " of mediaeval heraldry which more or less obviously speak a language of their own. Thus, the crescent, the water bouget, and the golden bezant, tell plainly of their Eastern origin. The escallop shell is an acknowledged badge of pilgrimage, in particular in connection with the Holy Land. ^Vhy this shell should have been thus adopted need not trouble us. Now, as in those pious days of devotion, the pilgrim's shell may be picked up on the shore of Palestine — the writer has a relative who has often seen it there — doubtless its habitat long before Linn?eus named it " Pecten Jacobaius," and so, misleadingly, connected it with St. James the Great, the martyred Bishop of Jerusalem, whose relics when translated to Galicia became an object of special pilgrimage, and are now seen at Compostella surrounded with representations of the pilgrim's scallop badge. What more natural, everyday action than to pick up and bring home the shells that lay on the shore when the pilgrim's feet last trod the sacred soil ? It is truly a simple thing that the remembrance, the token of the visit to the Holy Land, should become
^ p. 410, ed. Macmillan, 1904.
- " chez Poullain."
•' The Frencli text adds : " in the Croix-du-Tiroir."
^ Lines 7690 ff. and 269. Gaston, Paris, editor, 1897.
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME. 7
in time its symbol. And if we examine the coats-of-arms borne by the various families of the Pulleyns of Yorkshire, we find this badge of pilgrimage on them all. It is the main idea in the devices. The number varies from eleven to three, as we shall see later ; but the escallop is the leading motif of the PuUeyn armorial bearings. Nor this only. The golden crest confirms the view yet further. It is " the pious pelican " feeding her nestlings with her life-blood ; the acknowledged emblem of the love of the wounded Christ for His children.^ Who can doubt that these sacred and beautiful emblems tell of pilgrimage undertaken in the name of Him who gave His heart's blood freely for His own ? Does not their heraldic adoption by the Pulleyns of Yorkshire bear out the theory of their Poulain origin ?
When this adoption took place has not been learnt. The first mention of an armigerous Pulleyn was found by the writer in 1454." He is called " gentilman " ten years before. The terms armiger and generosus are used rather loosely by the scribes of those times, and we have some evidence that his family used a crest earlier still.
The Rev. John Pulleyn, when Vicar of Kirby Grindalyth (1897), in telling the writer that his crest was " the pelican in her piety," observed that he understood the surname should be pronounced as ending in " ain." In many of the earliest instances noted it is indeed so spelt ; and though too much stress must not be laid on this recommendation (for the same scribe would spell a surname half-a-dozen different ways), it may be taken as an indication of frequent pronunciation, and so assist to bear out a theory.
^ See the hymn " Adore te Devote " of the Roman Church in the service of the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, translated :
" O pious Pelican, Jesus our Lord, Cleanse me, an unclean sinner, with thy blood, One drop of which is sufficient to save The whole world from all its guilt." Dante calls Christ " our Pelican." Paradiso, Canto 25, stanza no.
- Knaresborough Court Roll, 33 Henry VI.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY INSTANCES.
Although this history is entitled " The Pulleyns of Yorkshire/' something may with advantage be written to prove how widely scattered over England the name was before the close of the Crusades, the last of which ended in 1274.
The earliest mention of the surname which the writer has found is that of Robert Pullen (Latinised PuUenus, and Polenius) who lectured on theology in Oxford, A.D. 1 1 33. He is said to be the first recorded lecturer to the infant Uni- versity— or rather the Schools — and to have been an Englishman educated at Paris. There is nothing in this tradition to militate against the suggestion of Apulian origin. A more renowned Churchman than he, William of Tyre, historian of the Crusades, was born in Palestine about 1127, went thence to study in the Paris University for ten years, and returned to his native country, where he became Archbishop of Tyre, and eventually came to Europe to preach the Third Crusade. So may Robert Pullen have been born a Poulain in Palestine, and been sent to Europe foreducation. Bishop Stubbs suggests that he may have been a private teacher under the Canons of St.Frideswide at Oseney,which foundation had been established only six years before Pullen began to lecture in Oxford. His later career is better known. The chronicler, John of Hexham, who flourished about 11 70, asserts that Henry I offered Pullen a Bishopric, which he declined. He went to teach theology and logic in the Paris University ; and there he had among his pupils John, future Bishop of Salisbury, who has left it on record that his teacher was a man " whom his life and learning alike commended." Returning to England, Pullen became Archdeacon of Rochester. In 1143 Pope Innocent II summoned him to Rome. But since Innocent II died on September 24 of that year, it fell to Celestine II, his successor, to create Robert Pullen a Cardinal. Celestine passed away on March 8, 1144 a.d., and it was under a third patron, Pope Eugenius III, that Pullen in 1145 became Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church. He died in 1150.
Other early instances of the name may be found in the Chancery Rolls of King John, the King's Court Rolls, the Charter Rolls or register of Royal grants of lands, honours, etc., the Rotuli Hundredorum of Henry III and Edward I's reigns, etc.
Thus the Chancery Rolls for Dorset and Somerset record the receipt " of i6s. Sd. the scutage " (i.e. a tax levied on those who held lands by knight service, as a substitute for the personal service of the vassal) " of Willielmus Pulein."
And in Lincolnshire the Chancery Rolls record that another
" Willielmus Pullus owes one mark for a writ of summons against Robert Fitz Robert, that he may return to the said Willielmus without delay the toll for weighing goods on his land in the township of St. Botolph, which is the right of the said Willielmus."
Then the King's Court Rolls {Rotuli Curies Regis) mention a Willielmus Pulein as concerned in Norfolk in an action brought by one Matilda de Gernemue^ against Henry de Fleg' ; and in another case in Norfolk a Willielmus Pulein is plaintiff.
^ Yarmouth.
EARLY INSTANCES. 9
The Charter Rolls give us a Walter Pullain in Bedfordshire a.d. 1200, the year after King John secured the throne.
" John, by the grace of God, etc. We grant and conlirm the gifts made by our father King Henry of sixty ' librata terrae '^ which he gave in perpetual alms to God and the monks of Fountains, in the county of York, to wit our manor of Luton in Bedford- shire, for fifty-six pounds, with the land of Walter Pullain, which is worth thirty marks, which Lord Henry our father gave them in exchange for the mill which he gave to the monks of Woburn."
There is also in the same year a grant from King John to the Canons of Grimsby of " half a toft which William Pulain held," county not stated— a toft being a place where a house once stood. King John also greets the Sheriff of Lincoln, and gives commands " with regard to the land of John Pulein, granted to Simon de Cruwbe."
In the same year we find, from a collection of charters illustrating the history of Salisbury, that among the witnesses to a charter between John de Cuoll and the Abbot of St.Augustine's, Bristol, respecting the church at Wapley, is one Reginaldus
Pulayn.
Under the date October 6, 1243, the same history gives the name of Roberto Puleyn, one of the witnesses to a charter " on the fealty due to the church of Bedminster from the hospital of St. John in Bristol in respect of the chantry conceded to it by the Pope."
Next, we turn to the Rotuli Hundredorum, the Rolls of the Hundreds that were visited in' Henry III and Edward I's reigns to ascertain who occupied the King's
lands.
In the year 39 Henry III we find the name mentioned by Canon Bardsley in the county of Shropshire. In a return of the manors of Egmunden and Novo Burgh, sworn to by Stephen de Poffat, Rayn' le Taylur, Nicholas Afe, Henry de Bedford, and other jurors, we find among them Nicholas le Pulleyn.
And in the same year in Wiltshire, John Puleyn is among the jurors of the manor of Deverel Lungpunt.
In Dorset the Roll for 3 Edward I has an entry in the Hundred of St. George :
" Robert Martyn holds the manor of Poleynston of Nicholas son of Martin, and Nicholas holds it of the King as one military fee."
At the end of this Hundred of St. George occurs this interesting entry :
" They say that Lady Alice, who was wife of Sir Richard Puleyn, is married, but they do not know if with the King's licence or not."
In the fourth year of Edward I the Leicester Roll shows that in the Hundred of Gertre John Poleyn held a third part of a carucate of land in Lubenho (? Lubenham).
A John Poleyn was one of the inquisitors appointed for the Hundred of Mannes- heved and half Hundred of Stanbrigg in Bedfordshire (not far from Luton) early in Edward I's reign.
In 7 Edward I the Roll for Oxfordshire shows that a John Pulein held one virgate of land of the fee of Nicholas le Butiller, paying 95. to the Prioress of Little- more Convent for all services.
1 Librata terra-, a piece of land containing 4 oxgangs or 52 acres, worth 20s. yearly.
10 EARLY INSTANCES.
The following has also been met with, but its source is not indicated :
" Staffs., 8 Edward I. Nicholas Polayn of Newport and Alice his wife, sister of Alexander de Meere, grants to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, all his right in the lands, etc., which were of Alexander de Mecre, whose heir the said Alice is in Bradewell."
We now count Newport as in Shropshire, just where its border touches Stafford- shire. Bradewell is no doubt Bradwell, near Tunstall.
In the same reign, and with the additional interest of a full date, the Calendar of the Patent Rolls has this record concerning a man who, though of the same Christian name, is hardly like to have been he of Newport :
" Pardon to Roger Savyn of Sandrigge, in prison in St. Albans of his outlawry for the death of Nicholas Puleyn, as it appears by the inquisition of the sheriff and coroners of Hertfordshire that he was not guilty thereof."
Careful search has been made at the Public Record Office among the Coroners' Rolls and Assize Rolls for details of this case ; but all are missing for the year in question. One need never feel surprised at the loss of ancient records. The wonder rather is that so many have survived the perils that can befall manuscripts through the progress of the centuries. Then, coming quite to the south of England we note in the Lay Subsidy for Sussex, 23 Edward I (1295), two instances of the name in the city of Chichester. One hundred and eleven inhabitants were taxed. Only three paid more than twenty-six shillings ; the highest rate is pa,id by the M.P. for the year, four pounds fourteen shillings and five pence. Next below him, taxed four pounds seven shillings and eightpence, comes " Rogo Poleyn " ; while " Gilbo Polayn " paid four shillings and sixpence halfpenny. The name is still known in the county, where it is invariably spelt Pullen.
Thus we see that within one hundred and seventy-five years from the time when the Poulain race had arisen in Palestine, the name of PuUeyn was known in the English counties of Oxford, Dorset, Sussex, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Bedford- shire, Wiltshire, Shropshire, and Hertfordshire. It was also known during this period in Yorkshire, to which county we must now in earnest turn.
CHAPTER III.
THE NAME IN YORKSHIRE.
It is perhaps significant that the earhest instances of the name Pulleyn found in the county of York itself are all on or near the north-east coast, and within a few miles of the river Tees. We find them recorded in the Charlulary of Guisborough Priory, as copied among the Cottonian MSS. preserved in the British Museum. Most of the early charters are without dates ; we have to rely on internal evidence for an approximation to the time at which they were witnessed by the men among whom we see the Pulleyns" names. The Priory is believed to have been founded between the years 1119 and 11 24 by Robert de Brus II for the Canons Regular or Augustinians.
" ^At this early period religious houses were very few and far between. Whitby, Durham, and York were Guisborough's nearest neighbours, with many a mile of swamp and moor between. The country can only have been slowly recovering from the Conqueror's ravages, and the population must have been sparse and rude."
The Priory became extraordinarily popular with all classes ; many hundreds of charters of grant and confirmation prove this fact, which has been helpful to our search for early members of the Pulleyn family.
Fortunately for our purpose, the charter which has the earliest Pulleyn among its witnesses proves to us what its year-date must have been. Peter Escarbot granted to the Priory land in the Field of Upplium (Upleatham) for a period of twenty-six years, to terminate at the Feast of St. Martin, 1188. The charter was therefore made in the year 1162.
Its witnesses are Suano, chaplain, Gaufrido Bonchevaler, Ricardo de Scelt' iSkelton-in-Clev eland), Rogero de Brotton (Broughton-in-Cleveland) and Thomas his son, Petro de Upplium, Hugone de Hasel (Hessle), Alano de Hasel, Willelmo Bard, Rogero Cat, Willelmo Pulein, and Willelmo de Toskotes (Tocketis, in Guisborough parish).
Whether he is the same William who witnesses a charter made by Ivo de Craw- cestre (Craster) of lands in Redcar it is impossible to say ; but Roger of Brotton, Thomas his son, Roger Cat, Peter of Upplium, and Hugone of Hasel are witnesses with William son of Alan Ptdain, and the probability is that he was the same person.
A John Pulain is among the witnesses to another charter of Ivo de Crawcestre's, of land in Redcar ; and as in this deed also are the names of Roger Cat and Hugone of Hesele, we may assume the period to have been about the same.
Alan Pulein and William his son, Peter of Upplium, and William of Toscotes are among the witnesses to a confirmation of a grant of lands in Annandale made by William de Brus, son of Robert, and Cristiana his wife. This charter was in its turn confirmed by William, King of Scotland, who reigned from 1165 to 12 14, the only clue we get to its approximate date.
The Pipe Roll for 22 Henry II (1175-6), names, under Everwichoer (York- shire), a Willelmus Pulein, who was fined 10 marks for breaches of forest law; but no place is named. ,
^ Surtees Society, vol. lxxx\ i, Guisborough Charlulary.
12 THE NAiME IN YORKSHIRE.
Somewhat later we find a William Pulayn witnessing a charter of Avicia de
Clara, which opens thus :
" Be it known that Michael the l^rior and the Convent of Giseburne have granted to me of their grace to have a chantry in the chapel of Oueton " (Oughton).
Now Michael was Prior from 1218 till 1234. The witnesses are the Vicar of Stranton, Robert de Seton, both close to Hartlepool, William de Barton, Henry de Percy, Stephen de Garton, and William Pulayn. Probably all belonged to Durham. This charter is interesting from its use of a word that speaks of the Crusades. Avicia states that she gives to the Mother Church of Stranton a bezant (unum bisantiimi) or two shillings.
A Robert Pulayn twice witnesses charters among other Langbaurgh men of Prior Michael's time for lands in Gyseburne and in the town of Morsum {Moors- holme, in the parish of Skelton), but there is no hint as to his dwelling-place.
In fact there is only one Pulayn concerning whom any charter gives us this information.
To no less than twenty-three charters do we find the name of Thomas Pulayn as a witness. He appears to have been a tenant farmer under Adam de Lyum (Kirkleatham), who on one occasion grants to God and the Church of St. Mary of Guisborough the homage and service of Thomas Pulayn and his heirs for all lands which the said Thomas held of him in the field of Guisborough at Tokeholme between the way and Holebec.
In another charter Adam de Lyum alludes to a toft in Belmondgate which lies next Thomas Pulayn's toft on the south ; and again, to land lying between Scuggedale and the way which Thomas Pulayn at one time held of him to farm.
Then comes a charter of Adam de Lyum to Thomas himself,
" for his services and for a certain sum of money which he gave in hand to me in my necessity, nine acres of land with appurtenances at Schugedale, which lies between the way of Bernaldeby {Barnaby) and the hill of Schugedale. To have and to hold to the said Thomas and his heirs or assigns of the Prior and Convent of Gyseburne freely, quietly, and peaceably from all service, customary and exacted, for ever."
And at last we get :
" To Thomas Pulayn of Gyseburne for his services and for a certain sum of money which he gave in hand to me in my great necessity, one acre of land in Gyseburne field at Schugedale . . . To have and to hold to the said Thomas and his heirs and his assigns of me and my heirs for ever . . . paying thence to me and my heirs one penny a year only."
As for the time at which Thomas lived, that is made clear. He and Prior Michael were both witnesses to a charter of Walter de Percy ; and Thomas witnessed a charter made by Walter son of Will' Paternoster bearing the date " the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 1234 at the Feast of the Purification of the IBlessed Mary " (Feb. 2).
It is interesting that the places named in connection with him are still known. Tokeholme is the same as Tocketts, about a mile out of the town of Guisborough. Holehec, now Howlbeck, about half a mile distant. Belmundgate, described at the dissolution of the Priory as a parcel of meadow, is now represented by the street Belmangate in the town. Schugedale is now a farm called Scugdale, two miles out •of Guisborough.
THE NAME IN YORKSHIRE.
13-
All belong now to the Chaloners, who have held the property since Oct. 31,. 1550, with the site of the Priory and all its lands.
The Chartulary affords an admirable proof that the Pulayns were people of some importance in the district, for they had given their name to the bridge at Pinchinthorpe, as we see by the following charter :
" Richard, son-in-law of William de Pinchun, and Matilda, wife of Richard, give ... to God and the Blessed Mary and St. Leonard of Loucrosse and his Lepers in that place, one acre of land in the field of Pinchunthorp, viz. in Twentirodes three and a half roods, and at Pulaynbrigge half a rood."
Here, the only clue to the period is the fact that it was not t'\\V about the middle- of the thirteenth century that the hospital for lepers at Hutton Lowcross became, through the grant of Wm. de Bernaldby, an appendage to Guisborough Priory.
Inquiry as to any bridges that might be now at Pinchinthorpe elicited the fact that there was nothing to call a bridge in all the township save a small stone one that crossed a beck that ran from the hills through the moat of Pinchinthorpe Hallj known only as the Moat Beck or Dike. Mr. R. S. Calvert, stationmaster, stated that so recently as 1908 the walls on each side were removed to widen the
^ Introduction to Guisborough Chartulary, p. xxi.
14 THE NAME IN YORKSHIRE.
roadway, which he regretted, since they had formed a pleasant resting-place. Sir Alfred Pease of Pinchinthorpe provided a sketch of the bridge, very suggestive, though it hardly enabled a stranger to the locality to judge of the bridge's age. To him the name of Pulayn is not known among those of former landowners there. At the Conquest Robert Malet owned the township ; afterwards the de Hutton family, then the Priory of Guisborough, the Bulmer family, the Pinchuns, and others.
But the name of Pulaynbrigge tells a tale not to be disregarded.
Yet one more Pulayn name belonging to this neighbourhood is seen ; and that interesting from its extreme rarity in all branches throughout the centuries. Matilda, daughter of Hugo de Eston, gave to the Church of St. Mary of Gyseburne a toft near Eston Mill, for the remission of her sins. The name of the charter's first witness — " Eustachio nepote Prions Gyseburnoe " — unfortunately does not provide a sufficient clue to the date of this deed to which Rogero Pulleyn was the seventh witness. More than one Prior had a grandson, or perhaps we should say relative, named Eustace. There was " Eustachius nepos Priorum Gyseburnre Cuthberti et Radulphi," whose successive years of office were 1 146-81 ; there was also " Eustachio nepote Prioris Willelmi," whose date is even more uncertain, for there were two Priors William, the first dying in 1145, the second, William of Midelsburg, becoming Prior in July, 1280, and resigning his office from bodily weakness on Jan. 19, 1320-1. All we can know certainly is that Matilda de Eston's gift was made before 1300, for it is alluded to in the Rent Roll of about that year which is preserved at Longhull, near Guisborough, the Chaloners' residence. The spelling of Roger's surname suggests a comparatively late date.
The Cottonian MSS. give the name of another early Pulain, presumably of York. There are two charters^ of Hugh de Lelay granting his land at Baildon to the Minster and its canons. They bear no dates, but in both Hugh speaks of the soul of Christiana his mother. The de Lelay pedigree, printed with the charters by Mr. W. Paley Baildon, F.S.A., the author of the article, states that Christiana was living in 1221. Hugh de Lelay says :
" In witness whereof I have offered this present charter, sealed with my seal, upon the altar of St. Peter's, These being witnesses."
Then follow, in both, the names of the Treasurer and Chancellor of York, Peter of the Chapel, Richard the Chaplain, and other clerks, showing that the witnesses must have been connected with the Minster. Among the laymen we find " Elias Pulain." Probably he is the same man whose name we note in Henry Ill's reign in the Monasticon Eboracense :
" Elyas Pulayn of Bridlington gave to the fabric of the church of Siwardeby ol. OS. v]d."
The entry takes us far back into the county's history. Siwardeby, now Sewer- by, took its name from Jarl Siward, one of the most celebrated of the Danes who had possessed themselves of Northumbria in the tenth century, and who have so deeply stamped their impress upon the soil, the people, and their language. Siward's fame has been chronicled both in the poetry of his native land and that of his burial ; and the picture of the old dying warrior causing himself to be clad
^ Printed in Thoresby Society's Miscellanea, vol. xi, pp. 19 and 21.
THE NAME IN YORKSHIRE. I 5
in full battle array, and carried forth, determined not to bear the shame of a straw- death, is one to stir the most apathetic. He was buried in the church of St. Olaf, which he himself had built, hard by " lorvik " ; and more than one Yorkshire village remains to remind us of his name, as Sewerby does now, close by Bridlington.
It does not seem as if a gift of sixpence, even at its ancient value, would go far towards raising the fabric of a church. But those were days when all men gave of their best to the service of God, and it may be that this gift of Elyas Pulayn's was given " out of " his " penury," " all that " he " had " — and so is worthy of being kept in remembrance through these six long centuries.
The record of a sinner is indeed a contrast. We find it in the Rotuli Hundred- oruni of Edward I's reign, the fourth year, when inquisition was made in the Wapentake of Bulmer.
" They say that Bartholomew, the bailiff of Stivelington, concealed the murder of the wife of William Piper, that he knew that Thomas Pulein himself slew her, and he imputed the murder to others who were not guilty of it."
The less said about this Pulleyn the better. .Stivelington probably stands for Stillington.
Among the Yorkshire deeds at Burton Constable there is one dated May 26, 1292, granting
" power of attorney by Alice, late wife of Richard Pulayn, to Thomas de Codintone to receive the arrears of rents from Adam de Lees, Ric : del Ille, Alex : son of Jordan de Lees, Geoffrey de Bosco, and Rob' de Breretusch, her tenants in Thornhill, Yorkshire (who owe ly 8s. iid. for the past seven years), with power of distress.
Puleyneston, Whitmonday, xx Ed : I."
An additional interest is given by the name of the place whence the deed was issued, for we are reminded of that Poleynston in the Hundred of St. George in Dorset held by the Martins in 1276 and 1277, and the allusion to the reported remarriage of Lady Alice, who was wife of Sir Richard Puleyn. The coincidence is a striking one, if no more.
Then we return to the East Riding again, and the places near to or on its coast.
John Puleyn of Staxton in the parish of Willerby was among those men who on May 9, 1293, stated on oath that the King would not be damaged if he allowed Arnold of Buckton to grant land in Burton Fleming to Bridlington Priory.
Another early Pulleyn may have been related to Elyas, for when the tax of a ninth on all personal property was imposed in 1297, William Polayn paid iij^. at Bridlington, and only three of the seventeen householders paid a trifle more than he.
Again, the Lay Subsidy granted to Edward I in 1302 tells that one Jonna Polayn of Gisburne-cum-Tokotis et Loucrosse (probably descended from Thomas), paid xd. for his fifteenth.
Roger Pulayn had a cottage at Hunmanby worth xviijV. a year, and a bovate of land worth viJ5-. in 1302. Agnes Polayn and Roger were tenants of Robt. de Tateshale of Hunmanby on Aug. 24, 1303, who held tofts at the will of the lord of the manor, yet did no services for him. On June 11, 1307, when Joan widow of Robt. de Tateshalle had her dower assigned in Hunmanby, John son of Agnes Polayn was a bondar given to her ; and Simon Pullavn was among those who in June, 1306, made inquisition after the death of the last of the de Tateshales of Hunmanby.
1 6 THE NAME IN YORKSHIRE.
The Subsidy for 1337 gives a Richard Polayn in Strafford Wapentake, at Cokells- feld ; and a Robert Polayn in Tickhill Wapentake, at Brainton-juxta-Wath. There were possibly others of the name taxed than these, but the early subsidies are in a ver^' imperfect state.
The Cora7n Rege Roll for 18 Edward III, Easter, takes us back to the Lang- barugh district :
John de Wheteley of Thornton, by John de Nesse, his attorney, opposes himself against John son of Hugh Polayn and others of a plea whereas they, with Robert, Prior of Gisburn, and brother Hugh Polayn, a lay-brother of the said house, with force and arms, on the said John de Wheteley at Letthum made an assault and beat, wounded, imprisoned, and ill-treated him, and committed other enormities, to the grave damage, etc., and against the King's peace. And they do not come. And the sheriff is com- manded to attach them. And the sheriff returns that the said John son of Hugh Polayn and the others have nothing by which they can be attached. Therefore it is com- manded the sheriff to take them and have their bodies before the King in the octave of Holy Trinity."
Then the Court Rolls of the Honour of Knaresborough take up the tale, and bring us to that central part of the county which has ever since been the special home of the Yorkshire Pulleyns.
At first no places of abode are entered after the names. We get in the earliest existing Roll, that for 1331, Henry Poleyn as plaintiff in an action. In 1336 a Richard Poleyn occurs more than once. In 1342 an Adam Polayn is fined for trespasses against the customs of the Forest of Knaresborough, first in the hamlet " del Holm," next at " Derlay " ; and there are also entries of waste held by him. In 1345 a John Poleyn is surety for the good faith of Henry del Cote, who claims land in Padside ; and in 1346 Richard Polleyn surrenders a rood of land in Menwych (Menwith). In 1347 a John Polleyn is admitted tenant of an acre of land situated in Thornethwaite ; and in 1348 to a house and six acres in Menwych. In the follow- ing year Richard Polleyn surrenders half an acre in Menwych to the use of John Polleyn ; William Polleyn is declared kinsman and next heir of Robert Hoog, and is admitted on this score tenant of a house and six acres in Clint ; and Isabella Polleyn comes into Court to claim her father Thomas's house and sixteen acres in Padside. The entries to be found in these Rolls are, in fact, continuous, and form quite the most important source of information that could be possessed. The writer has personally searched the whole of them, and all the principal surrenders of property by or to the Forest Polayns, Pulleyns, Pulleins, and Pullans will be found in Appendix I.
Very early we find a William Poleyn, possibly the same man who was heir to Robert Hoog at Clint, residing at Hartwith-with-Winslay, where he held a house and lands of the Abbot of Fountains Abbey. For nearly two hundred years from this date the name of PuUeyn runs through the Abbey records. Beautiful in its decay as it must have been magnificent in its prime. Fountains is perhaps the best known of the numerous ruined religious houses which our Yorkshire boasts. None has a more touching story. It owed its origin to the fervent desire of certain breth- ren of the Benedictine house of St.Mary,York, for a life of deeper piety and a severer rule than was possible in the somewhat lax York monastery. We read that the pri(jr, sub-prior, and eleven monks of St. Mary's appealed in 1131 to the Archbishop Thurstan to aid their endeavour to free themselves and embrace the Cistercian
THE NAME IN YORKSHIRE. 1 7
rule. Thurstan chanced to spend his Christmas at his manor of Ripon, and saw the Httle secluded valley through which the Skell runs. All was wild and overgrown with a tangle of trees and brushwood ; but Thurstan noted the gentle progress of the stream, and the shelter afforded by the sloping tree-clad sides of the \-alley. Hither should the righteous malcontents be brought ; and here should they carry out in peace and safety their dream of a higher life. So they came ; their only protection was from a group of seven yew trees ; wmter as it was, amid snow and icy wind, these men of God offered their praises and prayers under the open sky. Their poverty was such that they were reduced to eating the herbage around them. But at length it became noised abroad that a band of holy men was starving in the Skell valley. The Lord of Knaresborough, Eustace Fitzjohn, in pity, sent them a cartload of bread. Little did he or they foresee that the centre of that narrow vale was to be the site of one of the largest and richest religious founda- tions in the north. Yet so it proved. One after another, men of mark and of wealth joined the small brotherhood : year by year the buildings rose up on the sward ; decade after decade, fertile lands were bestowed by those who desired the prayers of the saintly monks ; till at length there was no nobler house, no richer foundation than that by which the little Skell still softly runs. For thirty miles around, from the foot of Pen-y-gent to the boundaries of St. Wilfred of Ripon, the possessions of the Abbey stretched ; and no less than one hundred square miles in Craven, as well as other lands, were owned by the Cistercians of Fountains. The monastery was at the height of its prosperity when William Poleyn held property under it in 1358 at Hartwith-cum-Winslay. Now, for nearly three hundred and seventy years it has stood all but perfect, yet bare and void and waste, a silent witness to the instability of human schemes. Sheltered amidst the green bowery walls of the valley, sheets of blue forget-me-nots touch its very stones ; a,nd behind it, the boles of three ancient yew trees still remain to speak to us of sufferings borne unflinchingly in the cause of purity and truth.
But before the middle of the fourteenth century the spirit which ennobled the founders of this great monastic house had changed. The monks, having become vast landowners, turned their thoughts to their farms and their merchandise. They lost their early fervour, and with it their saintly fame.
The reputation of the parochial clergy also had fallen low. Many of them had been ordained in haste to fill the gaps made in their ranks by the ravages of the Black Death, which devastated England in 1349, destroying, it has been said, half the population. The results of this pestilence were terribly serious. Whole districts lay waste, and the people, in actual bodily want, became disaffected towards the landowners, and ripe for revolt. And as the century drew on, men's minds were stirred by the (to them) strange and subversive teaching of the Yorkshireman, John Wycliffe, for which, in February, 1377, he was charged with heresy.
Abroad, the protracted war with France had culminated in the death of the Black Prince, and the loss of many of our dearly-won possessions. Edward III had hardly seen the fiftieth anniversary of his succession to the English throne than death overtook him (June 21, 1377), and Richard, his grandson, a mere child of eleven, became King.
One of the earliest acts of Richard II's reign was the levying of a national tax on all persons above the age of sixteen years, as a fresh grant towards the costs
l8 THE NAME IN YORKSHIRE.
of the French war. It came as an additional burden on an already tried and over- taxed people. The pressure was felt heavily, for none, except actual mendicants, were exempt. Ill-feeling and general discontent had been intensified arnong the labouring classes by the Statute of Labourers, enacted in 1351, and again in 1368, which limited the wages that they might receive ; and at last insurrection broke out in several parts of Yorkshire.
But to us, looking calmly upon these byegone troubles of our forefathers, the Poll Tax of 1378-9 is as a landmark of great import.
The lists of tax-payers in each Yorkshire town and village are full of instruction and interest.
We gain knowledge not only of their names and places of abode that year, but we learn if they were married or single, which of their children over sixteen years old were resident at home, what was their calling in life, and how many rateable servants they kept.
We find a small number of Pulleyns paid the tax, and also early members of those families into which the best-known branches married. There were no Pulleyns at Scotton, nor Pulleines at Killinghall ; but the name is recorded at " Villa de Tymble," apparently borne by a spinster :
" Isabella Poleyn iiij<* •
John, her servant iiij''
Agnes, her servant iiij'' "
She is the only person out of the seventy-two taxed in the ville who is wealthy enough to keep servants. Going further north-east, we find at Clint :
" Ricardus Polayn et uxor ejus . . . iiij'' "
For in this subsidy a man and his wife were reckoned as one, and the tax served for both. They have no children living at home of an age to be taxed. At Clint we also get a family with which one of the Pulleyns was to marry. Adam Beckwith and his wife pay two shillings for their tax, being of superior estate to their neighbour Richard Polayn. Beckwith is one of the most ancient names of Yorkshire. In the year 1339 Hamond de Beckwith was lord of Clint, Beckwith, and Beckwithshaw. His successor, Adam, in 1364 married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas de Malebys, and was the chief Poll Tax payer in Clint, none of his children being rateable.
Close at hand at Nidd, paying fourpence, are :
" Robertus Pulayn et uxor ejus."
Also, in Thruscross, a few miles towards the west :
" Joh'nes Pullayn et uxor ejus."
Again, in a more south-easterly direction, we get an interesting group at Weton (Wee ton) :
" Stephanus Pulayn et uxor ejus, pardoner . xij<i Robertus, filius ejusdem Stephani . . . inj'^ Johannes, seruiens Stephani Pulayn . . iiij'^ Margareta, seruiens Stephani Pulayn . . iiij'^ "
This vendor of pardons must have found the business profitable, or he would hardly have been able to command the services of a man and a maid. The discovery
THE NAME IN YORKSHIRE. IQ
of the name at this particular village is furthermore interesting because, five hundred years later, the writer's cousin, Rev. John Pullein, M.A., was Vicar of Weeton. At Great Ouseburn we note :
" Willielmus Polayn et uxor ejus. . . . iiij** "
So much for the Wapentake of Clare.
The Wapentake of Osgodcross affords several instances of the name. At Wraynebrok' (Wrangbrook) :
" Johannes Polayne et Matilda uxor ejus . . iiij**
Hugo Polayn iiij*^
Raginaldus Polayne iiij'^ "
there being nothing to show if the two latter were sons, and the possibility therefore being that they were John Polayne"s brothers. At Upton we find :
" Johannes Polajm et Agnes uxor ejus. . . vj'' "
One more entry is found in the wapentake of Barkston, at the " Villata de Drax '■ :
" Henricus Pulan uij'^ "
Thus there are nineteen entries of the name of Pulleyn, spelt variously, found in the Poll Tax of 1378-9, and of these only seven are of married men. The list was made in four hundred and ninety Yorkshire towns and villages, and contains the names of many thousands of persons of all ranks of life.
It will be interesting, in this connection, to quote one who was a native of Knaresborough, and became a noted Churchman, and perhaps the greatest English historian of our day, the Right Rev. William Stubbs, Bishop of Oxford (1889-1901).^ Writing to G. D. Lumb, Esq., Secretary of the Yorkshire Parish Register Society, on March 27, 1892, on the subject of an article by Professor Ransome on the history of Leeds, prepared for the British Association, in which the Professor wrote that in Leeds " thirty-six married couples and fifty -seven single men and women of the villein class pay each a groat," Bishop Stubbs says :
" Mr. Ransome certainly makes a far too large assumption in supposing the four- pence payers to be villeins. Nothing of the kind is implied, unless, indeed, Mr. Ransome understands by villein a much larger class than is commonly so understood. Certainly all these people were not ' nativi ' or serfs of any sort ; but householders and their families, whatever their tenure might be, and whatever their occupation, outside those mentioned in the Act, might be. It is quite possible with a Court Roll or two of the date, to identify the position and personalty of the several payers. I have done so in some cases in the Knaresborough Court Rolls. It would then be clear who were copy- holders, who were ' nativi,' who v/ere freemen holding customary lands, bondhold or other. Of course, if all people who are not freeholders are villeins, Ransome's in- ference would be just. But in towns there were certainly large classes of people, private and working people, who had nothing to do with land, and were neither."
The Bishop's contention is sufficiently borne out in the instance of Isabella Polayn of Timble, who paid only the groat, yet was of such condition of life that she employed two servants, and is proved by the Knaresborough Court Rolls to ihave been a copyholder of the Forest of Knaresborough in her own right.
^ Letters of Bishop Stubbs, p. 3S1.
c
<
CHAPTER IV. CLIFTON AND LITTLE TIMBLE.
From the general survey of our subject contained in the last chapter we now turn more particularly to the consideration of the facts revealed by the study of the Court Rolls of the Honour and Liberty of the Forest of Knaresborough.
We cannot peruse many of these stained and faded yet deeply interesting docu- ments without forming the opinion that what may be termed the chief settlement of the Polayns was in the western portion of the Forest proper. Holme, Darley, Menwith, thornethwaite, Clint, Padside, Fewston, Clifton, Farnhill, Timble ; these are the places named in the earliest Rolls with which the name of Polayn is connected. Had the Rolls been complete, Yorkshire genealogists had had much less troublous tasks than they now undertake when engaging in a pedigree hunt within the precincts of the ruined Castle of Knaresborough. It is the Rolls which are missing, rather than the condition of the two hundred and thirty-eight that remain, which cause woe to the searchers. For ever must they execrate the name of John of Lilburne, who in 131 7 seized upon the castle by stealth and treachery, and, as recorded by the burghers at an Inquisition held on May 10, 1365, " did craftily convey and cancel all the records and notes being then in the said castle and lordship." We believe there is no knowledge of how far back such records extended. But even after this fatal date of 1317, there is still a complete absence of Rolls till the fifth year of Edward III, 1331 ; and then the succession is broken by many gaps, for years to follow. But these disjointed entries serve to show that the best-known families of the Polayns, those of Scotton and Killinghall, were not resident in those places in the fourteenth century as they were in the fifteenth and sixteenth. These families are the two whose pedigrees are recorded in the Heralds' Visitations of Yorkshire made in 1530, 1563, and 1584. In the case of Scotton, the pedigree is known for eleven generations previous to the last-named Visitation. In that of Killinghall, the pedigree is of four generations only. Nothing can be gathered from the Visitations as to the original degree of relationship between the two houses ; and a modern compiler of a well-known genealogical work has led the inquirer seriously astray as to the armorial bearings of the Killinghall family, and has fallen into other errors which will be dealt with later. No dates of birth or death are given by the Heralds. It is to other sources we must turn if we would answer the very natural questions, when these families first settled at Scotton and Killing- hall ; what lands they held, and how they acquired them, with many other questions that arise during an inquiry into the history of a family, however unimportant it may be.
In the case of the Pulleyns of Yorkshire, we have the assistance of wills em- bodied in the Rolls, and many more in the York Diocesan Registry, at Somerset House, in the Chester and in the Dublin Registries. They were a will-making race. Their names appear in countless parish registers of the Forest and its imme- diate surroundings, as they are conspicuously absent from those of the North and East Ridings. For they were stayers at home, where they settled they clung.
2 2 CLIFTON AND LITTLE TIMBLE.
The appendices of this vokime will be found to consist of long lists of Pulleyns taken from these and similar sources. But of equal value with any of these are the surrenders of land contained within the area of the Forest enrolled at Knares- borough ; and they have the additional value of beginning at a much earlier date than anv church register or will registry. The writer, during five successive years, visited Knaresborough for the purpose of systematically searching the Court Rolls for the outlines of her own pedigree ; and she discovered not only these, but facts concerning the earliest generations of the Scotton family, prior to their residence at Scotton Hall ; and facts about other bearers of the surname which she believes have not been known hitherto.
It is the Visitation of the Herald Glover (1584) which records eleven genera- tions of " Pulleyn of Scotton," the three first of which are not named by the earliest Herald, Tong (1530). Therein Tong proves himself to have been correct. The Rolls show that it was the fourth generation known to us which made its home at Scotton, two miles from Knaresborough, in the parish of Farnham.
Glover's pedigree begins thus :
PULLEYN OF SCOTTON. Nicholas Pulleyn = Catherine, dau. of Sir Jolin RoiicliC
John Pulleyn = . . . . dau. of . . . . Wode of Svvinsty Hall
John Pulleyn — . . . . dau. of Adam Beckwith of Clint
Ralph Pulleyn
No hint is given by Glover as to the period at which any of these persons lived. The name of Adam Beckwith affords the first clue. As stated in the previous chap- ter, he and his wife paid the Poll Tax at Clint in 1378-9. They had been married in 1364. So we get an approximate idea of the birth year of Adam Beckwith's daughter who married John Pulleyn.
What can be learnt of Nicholas, the first-named in the pedigree ? As he was not mentioned in the Poll Tax, we turn to earlier Yorkshire Lay Subsidies, and seek his name among the tax-payers of 1347, 1327, and 1302. It does not appear. His wife's name and parentage having been stated by Glover, we search the Visita- tions in the hope of finding the marriage entered in the pedigree of the Rouclif family. Disappointment awaits us, the search results in failure through inability to find a Rouclif pedigree of so early a date. Rouclifs and Beckwiths were allied by their marriages to the coheiresses of Sir Thos. Malebys ; but while Adam Beck- with's descent can be traced for eight generations, that of Sir Robert Rouclif,. his brother-in-law, is only known for one. Sir John, whose daughter Nicholas Pulleyn wedded, may have been Sir Robert's grandfather, but we know of no proof of such connection. The only mention of a John de Rouclif that has been met with is in relation with York, where in 1377 an ancient hospital was founded by one of that name in Fossgate, on the site now occupied by the Hall of the Merchants' Company. But the father-in-law of Nicholas Pulleyn is hardly likely to have been living in 1377.
CLIFTON AND LITTLE TIMBLE. 23
ALLIANCES OF PULLEYN, ROUCLIF, BECKWITH, AND MALEBYS. Sir John Rouclif of Kouclif by York
Nicholas Pulleyn = Catharine Rouclif Sir Thos. Malebys Sir Richard Rouclif
! I I
I 1364 I I I
John = . . . . Wood Adam Beck\vith = Eliz. Malebys Constance Malebys=Sir Robt. Rouclif
John = . . . . daughter William Thomas
Not even the invaluable Court Rolls of the Honor of Knaresborough contain the name of Nicholas, though probably those early destroyed ones may have done so. But as the writer went through the remaining Rolls of the first half of the fourteenth centun,-, she came suddenly upon an entry full of suggestiveness as to his immediate descendant, John, stated by the Herald Glover to have married, —
" . . . . daughter of ... . W'ode of Swinsty Hall."
She found, in 1349, a death surrender which joined the name of a del Wode of Fewston with those of a John Pulleyn and Isabella his wife.
Swinsty Hall, enlarged from those early days, perhaps wholly rebuilt, stands yet at Little Timble in the parish of Otley (191 3). A most interesting history and description of it may be read in Mr. William Grainge's History of the Timhles, wherein we learn that the Wodes were living in Little Timble in 137 1, for on July 8 of that year, Walter, son of John del Wode, made homage to the superior lord for lands which he claimed to hold in Timble of the manor of Otley. But if the view of the Rev. Thomas Parkinson, Vicar of North Otterington, be correct, the family was resident in Timble far earlier. In the year 1302 the Archbishop Thos. de Cor- bridge, as shown in his Register, granted to William le Serjaunt of Bloberhouses the wardship and marriage of John, son of Richard, son of Robert de la Sale of Timble, until the legal age of the said John. Mr. Parkinson takes the view that " de la Sale "' is merely the Latinised form of " del Wode.""^
It will be noticed that the Christian name of neither John PuUeyn's wife, nor father-in-law, was known by the Heralds ; yet Roll 23-24 Edward III supplies both. And we may again comment on the extreme value of these ancient docu- ments in drawing up or confirming a pedigree of the Forest of Knaresborough. In this instance they have revealed much that was not only unknown but un- suspected ; and subsequent guesses were soon turned into certainties.
The entry, so full of importance to the eager genealogist, is dated Nov. 18, 23 Edward III, and may be translated in brief thus :
" W'illiam, son of Robert del Wode, who dies, held one messuage and eleven acres of land in ffuston. To this Court come John Pulleyn and Isabella his wife, sister and heir of the said William, and pray to be admitted tenants of the same."
^'' De la Sale, i.e. of the forest or of the wood (Saltiis, a forest or wooded valley)." " A little later, viz. in 1371 .A.D., this " De la Sale ' had been contracted and partly Anglicised into ' del Wode.' " Lays and Leaves of the Forest, p. 193.
2 4 CLIFTON AN'D LITTLE TIMBLE.
Immediately we recall the Isabella Poleyn who paid the Poll Tax at Timble twenty-nine years later. Was she the same as John Pulleyn's wife, " daughter of
Wode of Swinsty Hall " ? Was John not named as a tax-payer because
Isabella was then his widow ? We turn to Roll 2 Richard II, the year of the Poll Tax, to see if it throws light on these questions ; and, at a Court held on Nov. 17, we read :
" Walter, son of John del Wodde, pleads against Isabella who was wife to John Polayne, and Stephen son of him, John, in a plea of trespass."
Particulars are given fully at the Court held on Jan. 19, 1378-9.
The Rolls have therefore supplied the facts that before Nov. 18, 1349, John Pulleyn, son of Nicholas, founder of the Scotton pedigree, had married Isabella, daughter of Robert Wode of Swinsty Hall, Little Timble ; that John died before Nov. 17, 1378, leaving a son Stephen, whom the Heralds do not mention.
We next take up the Rolls that cover the period between those dates, and search for proof of John Pulleyn's residence in Timble, or its hamlet Fewston.
On March 2, 25 Edward III, John Puleyn comes into Court and prays of the lord admission to one messuage and four acres of land in Timble. On Nov. 23, 25 Edward III, John Pulleyn comes into Court and surrenders a messuage and five acres in Timble to the use of Benedict de Stodefeld. On May 22, 26 Edward III, John del Gill surrenders two and a half acres of land in Timble to the use of John Pulleyn. At Michaelmas Fewston Mill is let to him. This, we may explain, was one of the soke mills belonging to the King as lord of the Forest of Knaresborough ; and it was the custom for the foresters to rent them, and so secure the right to the grinding of all the corn of the district. We find each year in the Rolls the names of the men to whom the soke mills at Knaresborough, Hampsthwaite, Thruscross, and Fewston were farmed. No doubt they found the post profitable, though we are inclined to demur to the statement that " 'the ' miller's thumb ' raised the Pullans to lands and wealth." John farmed Fewston Mill also at Michaelmas, 1354. Then at Michaelmas, 1356, Timble Mill is let to John PoUeyn and John de Norton. On Aug. 22, 39 Edward III, John Polayne comes into Court and surren- ders four acres in Fewston to the use of Robert, son of Wm. Dycsone and his heirs. Then comes an entry which refers to another member of the family. On June 2, 40 Edward III, Stephen Polayne holds the water mill at Fewston at a yearly rent of six shillings and four pence. He does so again in the following year ; but in 1370 John Polayne holds " ffosceton " water mill at Michaelmas ; and on Oct. 2 Stephen was elected pmposiiiis, Grave or Reeve of the Forest. It is difficult to determine who Stephen was. The first mention of the name occurs in 1349-50, the year following that which revealed the identity of John Pulleyn's wife, in 24 Edward III, when he was a surety for John, son of Richard del Hall, who claimed tenancy of a house and land in Timble. Then he and John Poleyn were sureties in equal portions for the good faith of one Thos. de Arkyll. This gives the first hint that the two men may have been related. Were they brothers ? Immedi- ately after, on Aug. 10, 25 Edward III, Stephen comes into Court and surrenders a messuage and six acres in Thruscross to the use of Thos. Mason. When the
^ Knarcsbiirf;h and its Rulers, p. 15:, Wm. Wlicater.
CLIFTON AND LITTLE TIMBLE. 25
Court is held on the Wednesday following the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul^ 31 Edward III, Stephen comes and prays to have two acres in Thornthwaite which John Wymarkson formerly held ; and in the following year he surrenders six acres in Hampsthwaite. Then he gets into trouble for breaking a forest law by throwing down a " stubb " in " Haukestonge." Later, we see him exercising his right to graze ten " best," or cattle, in Haverah Park, where John Pulleyn grazes seven " best " and one " stagg." As we have said, Stephen was elected to the office of prcepositus for the year in 1370; and at the Record Office the "Ministers' Accounts of the Forest of Knaresborough for the year 44-45 Edward III ' contain the entry :
" hiJ5. iiij^. received of Stephen Polayn, Reeve of the Forest, by tally levied 13"^ August."
And also under " Arrears to 46 Edward III " :
" From Stephen Pullayn, late Reeve of the Forest, vj5. •v]d."
He seems to have been a married man, for on Jan. 23, 49 Edward III, we read that John, son of Stephen Polayne, was elected to the office of Constable of Thrus- cross. From the fact that in 1375-6 he had a son old enough to fill a public office, we incline to think that the Stephen of the earliest of these entries was certainly not the son of John and Isabella, but John's contemporary. What leads to con- fusion is the fact that owing to the losses among those early Rolls, and the illegibility of the outside membranes, we cannot distinguish this Stephen with his son John, Constable of Thruscross, from Stephen, son of John and Isabella. There is no death surrender of any Stephen existing to show what land he held which could be claimed by his heirs, and so afford the means of identification. It rather com- plicates matters to recall that there was a Stephen Polayn who paid the Poll Tax at Weeton, a pardoner, who had a son Robert taxable. We cannot tell in what year John and Isabella's son Stephen was born. We have seen that they were already married in November, 1349 ; and we shall find that they had three sons Stephen, Johrt, and Thomas, none of whom paid tax in Timble when their mother did so twenty-nine years later. Yet all were living.
Besides the records of John Polayn that are preserved in the Court Rolls, there exist others of the utmost value among the Fairfax MSS. that have recently come into the possession of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, certain properties in Little Timble and Clifton- cum-Norwood that had belonged for generations to the Pulleyns were sold by them to Sir Thomas Fairfax. Some member of the latter's family has made copies of all the deeds connected with the separate properties ; and they go back even beyond the time with which we are dealing. In point of date, lands and tenements at Bland- hill, in Clifton hamlet, came first to John Polavn. We read •}
A note of ye evidences and conveyances, etc., for Blandhill \v">in ye fforrest of Knaresborough and hamlett of Clifton w"iin ye township of Timble.
II I, 1361, 35 Edw. III. John son of Richard de Bland Released to John Pulleyn of the forest of Knaresborough, and his heires, all his right and clame of and in all those lands and tenements wf^ y^. y^id John Pulleyn had of ye gift and grant of the said John Bland, in ye hamlett of Clifton-juxta-Tymble, etc. And warranted them to him Against all men."
^ Fairfax MS. 41.
2 6 CLIFTON AND LITTLE TIMBLE.
Blandhill yet retains the name, though we cannot point definitely to the lands held there by Johns descendants. They must certainly have lain on the northern side of what is known as Broad Dubb lane, for the southern side is moorland. No names of fields have come down to us, or we could probably have identified them from the important Survey of Norwood made in 1839, which belongs to Mr. Henn,' Bramley of Harrogate, who was born at East End Farm, Norwood. He lent the volume to the writer twice, on the generous terms " for six or twelve months, if necessary.''
Eight years later another Fairfax deed records the transaction that gave to the Pulleyns the small riverside estate of Newhall, which the occupancy of a future Fairfax was to render a shrine.
" 1369, 43 Edw. III. Walter ye son of John del Wod Releaseth to John Pulleyn, his heires and assigns, all his right and clame in all y' mess : and three oxgangs of land wcb William de Wath holds And in one Mess, and two oxgangs of land w"i ye appur- tenances lying in Wath sometime Henry Smith's, and also all j)Sonall actions and debts fro' ye beginning of ye World. W-^ warranty ag' himself and his heires for ye said two Mess, and five oxgangs, etc. Given at Ripon, 1369."
The portion of Fairfax MS. 41 from which we quote is headed :
" A brief note of such Deeds and Evidences as doe belong to Newhall in Timble w'l^in ye parish of Otley : and to Gillhouse or Thorp's tenement, and to the Kirke- banckes closes w*iin ye parish of Fuiston, sometime belonging to ye said Newhall."
The little historic estate lay on the south side of the river Washburn, in Little Timble, and was a part of Otley Manor which belonged to the Archbishop of York. It was immediately contiguous to the Swinsty Hall lands owned by the Wodes, and the two occupied the whole of the north part of Little Timble. An earlier deed proves that it was the property containing the two oxgangs (about thirty acres). The ford or wath, which gave the place its title, was close at hand, just where the Washburn took its sharp curve to the south, and divided Little Timble from Clifton-with-Xorwood. Across this ford Mr. Bramley often drove when the Washburn, liable to sudden violent floods, was high enough to enter his conveyance. H was well known as Rowton Wath. The three oxgangs (about forty-five acres) which Wm. de Wath held, would be on the north side of the river, in Fewston parish. It might be the farm Gillhouse or the Kirkbanks. If the latter, we find evidences in the Survey of 1839 of the survival of the name. A note at the close of these copies deeds states that there were Great close or Great Kirkebank, Little Kirkebank, and Kirkeholme, measuring in all 37 acres 3 roods 36 perches. Now the Survey gives the name of a field on the north side, close to Rowton Wath, as Great Holm; above it is Little Holm ; still higher, and adjoining, we find four fields, named Bank, that is West, High, Low, and New Bank closes. They occupy the extreme north-western point of Clifton, and are close to the church, or kirk ; they are veritable kirk banks. A beck, called variously Wydra and Spinkburn beck, divided them from the other property named in the Fairfax MSS., Gillhouse, and ran into the Washburn at the ford, or wath. We get interesting facts, and a confirmatory field name, from the two earlier deeds already alluded to. The first is undated, and is in Latin, which we translate thus :
" Beatrice, daughter of John de Asmonderby, dwelling in Staynburn, to all the faithful in Christ, greeting. Be it known that I, in my virginity and in my lawful power.
CLIFTON AND LITTLE TIMBLE. 27
Have given to Robert son of Robert all my hereditary right in one toft and two bovates of land with appurtenances in the township of Nether Tymble in the parish of Otley, which formerly my father, John de Asmonderby, had, etc. These be witnesses.
Sir W"! de Stopham, k"'., W" son of Henry de Farnley, W" son of W"^ of the same place, W"! Faukes of Newhall.i W"> son of John de Snowden, Richard, chaplain of Beston,^ and many others."
Two ^oz;ates is merely the Latinised form of two oxgangs ; a toft is a place where a house once stood that is decayed and fallen down. And this points to a very early occupation of the site of Newhall. For the names of some of these wit- nesses occur in other deeds that bear date. The Yorkshire County Magazine for April, 1891, p. 111-113, in a list of Stockeld Deeds of the Midelton family, gives the name of Sir Wm. de Stopham as a witness to a deed dated 1278, and to another dated 131 2. To the latter, William, son of Henry de Farneley, was also a witness, no doubt the same man who, as William de Farnely, witnessed Stockeld deeds in 1318 and 1319. Sir Wm. de Stopham was lord of the manor of Weston in 1274-5, and, says Mr. Speight in Upper Wharf edale, p. 163, " by the Nomina Villarum of 1316 the said William de Stopham,^ or his son of the same name, is returned as such." We may thus place this Fairfax " evidence " in the first quarter of the fourteenth century, at the latest.
The second deed is quaintly dated. It was " given at Tymbill on the day of the moon, etc., the 20th year of the true reign of Edward III, of France the 7th, i.e. 1346."
" Robert of Tymbill granteth to John Attebeck and John his son two ridges of land {siliones terre) lying in the field of Tymbill, in the place called Croft berghes, between the land of Richard son of John on the west part and the land of John Miller (molendinor') on the east part, etc."
John Attebeck no doubt took his surname from living by Spinksburn beck ; and at the very spot where it ran into the Washburn, the Croft berghes must have lain. For the first part of the name means " a meadow by a house " ; the last is the Old English beohr, a hill, or perhaps the Scandinavian berg, a mountain ; and the Survey of 1839 shows that, only separated from Great Holm by a little wood, there even then was a meadow named Croft, with a homestead on its right, lying at the base of the mounting ridges that rose to 500 feet, and formed the Kirkbanks. Identification could hardly be more perfect.
There is nothing in the deeds to show how these properties came into possession of Walter Wod.
Two deeds, dated 1375 and 1377, come next in time. The earlier is from John Darrell the vounger of York, glover, to " John Pulleyn of the forest of Knares- borough and his heires,'' granting to him all his lands and tenements in Clifton that sometime were Robert de Bland's, also the habitation formerly in Snawdon side and " ye [blank] formerly John del Bek's." The later deed is a release of the same properties to John Pulleyn. Snowden lies immediately south of Great and Little
^ Newall, close to Otley.
^ In 1299 Fostone-Bestaine was among the possessions of Richard, Earl of Cornwall. See History of Knaresborough, by W. Grainge, p. 462. The Pulleyns held land at Beeston Leas, Fewston.
^ Mr. Paley Baildon shows, p. 465 of Baildon and the Baildons, that Sir Wm. died between July, 1316, and July 29, 1317. His son had predeceased him about 1314, and his grandson William, aged 7, was next heir.
2S CLIFTON AND LITTLE TIMBLE.
Timble, separated from Clifton by the Washburn, into which Timble Gill Beck falls as the river curves to the south-east. ^Now at this bend of the river, on the Clifton side, lie lands that were undoubtedly the possession of descendants of John Pulleyn in the sixteenth century, with three holmes across the river, in Snowden. Is it not probable that these holmes were the lands in " Snawdon side,'''' once held by John of the Beck ?
John Polayn's death, as already shown, took place before Nov. 17, 1378. We have the proof in the complaint lodged that day against Isabella, " who was wife of John Polayne and Stephen son of him John."
Now in the Roll i Richard II, we see at the Court held on Aug. 25, 1377, a series of surrenders by John Polayn, which doubtless concern his death, although the expression " who dies " is not employed as in later Rolls.
" John Polayn surrenders six acres, formerly in the tenure of William de Soys, To the use of John Polayn his son, and upon this comes the said John, and makes iine, etc. etc. Fine, .xW.
The .same John Polayn surrenders four acres, formerly in tenure of Thos. de Soys, To the use of John Polayn his son, and upon this comes the said John, and makes fine, etc. etc. Fine, ijs. vjrf.
The same John Polayn surrenders one place called Hoydhous and one acre of land. To the use and behoof of John his son, etc. etc. Fine, viijrf.
The same John Polayn surrenders one messuage and eight acres, formerly in tenure of Thomas de Craven, To the use and behoof of Thomas Polayn, son of the said John, and upon this comes the said Thomas, etc. etc. Fine. ws.
The same John Polayn surrenders one place containing live acres in the parish of Hampsthwaite, formerly in tenure of Isabella Hardy, To the use and behoof of Thomas Polayn, his son, etc. etc.
The same John Polayn surrenders one place and eleven acres formerly in the tenure of Walter de Haxby, To the use and behoof of W™ Wallor (illegible).
The same John Polayn surrenders a toft near the house of W™ de Farnhill, To the use and behoof of John his .servant, etc. etc. Fine, vjrf.
The same John Polayn surrenders one messuage and three and a half acres, formerly in the tenure of W^" Dey,^ in the hamlet of Hampsthwaite, To the use and behoof of Isabella, wife of him John, and upon this comes the said Isabella, etc. etc. Fine, ijs. vjcf.
The same John Polayn surrenders one messuage and five parcels of land estimated to contain one acre in the parish of Panall, To the use and behoof of Isabella, daughter of Galfrid Johnson, etc. etc. Fine, xijrf."
We ask immediately, why was there no property surrendered to the son Stephen ? He was not dead. Was he otherwise provided for ? We begin to see references to a Stephen Polayn who held land at Padside, but with nothing to suggest that he was John's son. Later extracts show that the six acres surrendered to John junior, and the house and eight acres surrendered to Thomas, were situated in Thornethwaite, a hamlet north of Thruscross.
The surrender to the servant John is interesting, for it shows that the same disposition existed in this early Pullein that has marked many of his descendants and kindred. The man was probably the " John her servant '' taxed with his mistress and fellow-domestic at the Poll Tax gathering. He was guiltless of a sur- name then ; but may we not recognise him, on Aug. 2, 1390, in the " John Pulan- man " then named, and the " John Polaynman " of Wednesday before St. Margaret's Day, 17 Richard II ; and his descendant in the delightfully-named " John Polan-
^ See map of the Foley and Jackhill estates. ^ ? an ancestor of the Days of Menwith .
CLIFTON AND LITTLE TIMBLE. 2Q'
manson " of Wednesday in the 6th week in Lent, 7 Henry V ? The name, hke a well-known character in fiction, appears to have " growed " !
In this sanae Roll 1-2 Richard II, and at the Court held on Jan. 20, there is a ver^' imperfect entry, parts of which have faded out altogether, and the remaining words, by their green and iridescent appearance, betray that someone has treated them (as many other membranes have been treated) with sulphate of ammonia, in the hope of making them legible. This much can be deciphered :
" Stephen Polayne thirteen acres of land of old tenure in Thmble
to hold to him and his heirs according to the customs of the forest,
And gives for fine " (in margin, xviijrf.)
Timble, of course, is the place meant ; but still we do not know if this Stephen is the son of John and Isabella, though we feel he must be so.
An inquiry into the complaint which proves Isabella to have been then a widow was held at Knaresborough on Jan. 19, 2-3 Richard II. Twelve jurors declared on oath that the said Walter del Wodde stated in evidence that the said Isabella and Stephen deforced him of a messuage and ten acres with its appurtenances situated in Fewston, called Hopperhous,^ and of another messuage and seven acres in the same place called le Wodhous, and of another messuage and five acres there called Batemanson place and Bestayne ; and that a certain Robert, son of John Grayve', died seised of these lands and tenements which after his death descended to Thomas, son and heir of John Grayve', which Thomas died without heirs, and the lands and tenements then descended to Walter del Wode as kinsman and next heir of Thos. Grayve'. And the jurors said upon oath that Isabella and Stephen Polayn deforced the said Walter of all the lands and tenements, that is, three messu- ages, and twenty-two acres in Fewston and therefore they are at the
mercy of the Court.
The plaintiff evidently made good his case, for at the same Court he made fine for the property, and was admitted tenant according to the customs of the Forest.
What was the relationship between Walter del Wode and Isabella we do not know. His father was John del Wode ; hers, Robert.
She was named at a Court held on Aug. 24, 1379, as executrix of the will of John Polayn. The oft-quoted Poll Tax had now been collected wherein Isabella is shown to have been the only person in the township of Timble who kept servants ; and we perceive that it was simply by a slip of the tax-recorder that she was not described as " vidua.'' In the whole West Riding there was but one Stephen Polayn taxed, and he a " pardoner " at Weeton ; there were three John Polayns taxed, one in Thruscross, who might be resident at Hill, Bramley, Padside, Thorn- thwaite. Holme, or Darley, the seven hamlets included in that constabulary ; a second John at Upton, and a third at Wrangbrook, in Osgoldcross Wapentake. No Thomas Polayn was taxed in any part of the West Riding. It is, of course, possible that though John Pulleyn and Isabella Wode were married by the year 1349, their sons were under taxable age in 1378-9, for in those days marriages were made when the parties were still children. But it is improbable.
At the Court held on Nov. 9, 1379, we find the entr\- for which we have waited, which proves the name of John and Isabella's eldest son, and the position and acreage of his inheritance from his father :
* Hopper Lane yet remains.
30
CLIFTON AND LITTLE TIMBLE.
" John Polayn, who dies, held of the lord nineteen acres of land in Tymble at the day of his death. After whose death comes Stephen, his son and heir, and enters on the ■said land with its appurtenances, and gives for relief nine shillings and sixpence."
Stephen therefore presented himself at Knaresborough just within the statutory- year and a day which was permitted to an, heir before making his reUef to the
property.
On Oct. lo, 1380, Isabella came into Court at Knaresborough, and asked to be admitted tenant of one-sixth part of an acre at Blubberhouse in Timble, and paid ^d. fine on entry. Now this description of the land claimed is extremely interesting. Blubberhouse is not a part of the township of Timble ; but almost in the middle of Blubberhouse Moor there lie two detached portions of that township, surrounded by the freehold lands of Blubberhouse. One of these, named Bothams, is traceable in the possession of a branch of the Pulleyn family from the middle of the sixteenth century (with a brief hiatus in the seventeenth century) to the present time. We can but think that this sixth part of an acre claimed by Isabella Poleyn, " at Blubberhouse," yet " in Timble," may have been the tiny nucleus of the Bot- hams property. There is nothing to indicate on what ground she claimed it — whether it had previously belonged to her father's or her husband's family. It was no temporary tenancy, but hereditary, for it was handed on to her son John in the following year, " anno v " of King Richard II, as we see by the Minister's Accounts for 8-9 Richard II. We find no such surrender in the Court Roll of that year ; it has doubtless faded away from the outside membrane. But the Ministers' Accounts afford sufficient evidence that the one-sixth of an acre was John's in 1381 -2, as they also prove that in 1382-3, 6 Richard II, the property was " demised " to one Isolda Polayn. Who was she ? The Court Roll for that year is lost. Is it possible that she was Adam Beckwith's daughter, now the wife of John Pulleyn ? Or is Isolda^ the same person as Isabella ? We cannot tell ; but the name Isolda is used in connection with this land so long afterwards as 3 and 4 Henry VIII. The Rolls do not help here ; portions of that for 1383 are in so bad a state as to be illegible ; that for 1384 is almost as decayed, and contains no visible mention of the Pulleyns. In this year we find reference to them in the Ministers' Accounts of the district (8-9 Richard II, 465, 7604) just alluded to :
" Timble and hamlets. Relief of ijs. vjd. rendered for five acres of old tenure in the hand of the lord demised to Stephen Polayn and his heirs according to the custom of the Forest. And ]d. of new rent for one-sixth of an acre of land at Bloberhous demised to John Polayn to hold, etc., by roll of court, anno v."
Isabella's name is seen in the year 1385 at a Court held at Hampsthwaite on the Monday before Ascension Day, among those of the foresters who infringed the cruel Forest sporting law, called " Expeditatione Canem." This compelled owners of great dogs to cut out the balls of their forefeet.
" Isabella Polayne po se in gratia domine pro unam cane."
The fine imposed for her merciful offence was three shillings and four pence.
1 Liber Albus, compiled 1419. Book i, fol. 33a, chapters xxxiv and xxxv : " Isolda de Tateshale .... the before-named Isabella." " Isolda " and Isabella were probably different forms of the same name.
CHAPTER V. TIMBLE AND RIPLEY.
Early in the following November, Isabella Pulayn made fine for a messuage and fourteen acres of land in Clifton. No further particulars are given ; and for several years afterwards nothing of interest is seen concerning her family. The Rolls for 1388 and 1389 are missing. In later ones Isabella's name occurs once or twice in pleas of debt or trespass, and Stephen Polain is charged with cutting down a green stubb in Okden — that is the district now known as Okedale, about a mile west of Harrogate. So also is John Polayn of Padside.
On the Wednesday before Michaelmas Day, 1396, Isabella and John and Thomas her sons came into Court and surrendered a messuage and six acres in Thornethwaite to William Morehous, and a messuage and eight acres there to John Skirrow ; and in the following year John and Thomas Polayn and John of Skirrow surrendered a messuage and two acres in Thorescross to John of Tesedale.
This is the last time we see the name of Isabella, the sister of William, and daughter and heiress of Robert del Wode of Swinsty Hall, Little Timble. She evidently possessed what in those days would be thought considerable estates, and it would have been valuable if her death surrenders could have been examined. But the Rolls of 1399, 1400, 1401, 1402, and 1403 have disappeared, and our desire to know if her son Stephen were living at her death, and where, must remain un- gratified. Our interest in this question is aroused afresh by the Roll 8 Henry IV, in which we read that at the Court held on the Wednesday after the Feast of St. Barnabas a Stephen Polain surrendered a messuage and thirteen acres in Timble to the use of John son of John Polain of Padside, who came and was admitted tenant. We cannot doubt that this was the same Stephen who on Jan. 20, 1377-8, made fine for 13 acres old tenure in Timble, and who in 1383 (7-8 Richard II) came into Court and surrendered a messuage and thirteen acres in Padside to the use of John Polain, his son, who was admitted tenant, and whose descendants can clearly be traced in the Court Rolls for eight generations ; in the course of which they twice surrendered land to the descendants of Isabella's son John.
From the year 1406 to 1412-13 the Rolls are lost ; and we should have remained ignorant of the tragic fate of Isabella's youngest son had it not been narrated in the Coram Rege Rolls'^ preserved in the Record Office. The entry runs thus :
" Yorks. John Polayn of Bloberhous opposes himself against Robert Don- byggyng,'- and Alice his wife, John son of Robert Doubyggyng, Margaret who was the wife of Thomas Polayn (several others named), concerning the death of Thomas his brother, and he appeals the aforesaid Robert Doubyggyng and the others as principals in the said death, and the aforesaid Alice and Margaret accessories of the same. And it was commanded the sheriff to attach them, and to have their bodies before the King in the octave of St. John Baptist to answer the aforesaid John Polayne."
' Coram Rege, Mich., 11 Henry IV, m. 37^.
^ A place-name, Dowbigsin, near Kirkby Stephen.
TIMBLE AND RIPLEY. 33
A tragedy emphasised by the fact that the wife of Thomas Polayn is charged by her brother-in-law with being accessory to his murder.
It seems probable that Thomas had a house at Scriven, a village about a mile from Knaresborough, and on the way to Scotton. We think this because of an entry in a De Banco RoU^ for the year 1406, also preserved in the Record Office :
" Yorks. Thomas Pullayn, by his attorney, opposes himself against Raberd del Boure, Robert Mason of the county aforesaid, William de Smerthwayte, Robert Ragyewell of the county aforesaid, clerk, and John Willingham de Ulthwayt of a plea why they, together with Richard Lily and John son of Robert de Dowebyggyng, by force and arms broke into the close and houses of the said Thomas at Scryven, and his goods and chattels there to the value of forty pounds found and took and carried away, and other enormities, etc. And they do not come. And it is commanded the sheriff to take them, etc., that they be here in the octave of St. Hilary."
The recurrence of the name of John son of Robert Dowebygging among the assailants of a Thomas Polayn leads us to think that both these records relate to the youngest son of John and Isabella Polayn. It looks as if the Dowebyggyng family had been at feud for years with Thomas. Possibly his wife was a daughter of Robert and Alice Dowebyggyng. Be that as it may, we get a lurid light on the event in the Patent Roll for 16 Richard II (part 3, m. 4), 1393-4- There we find the following :
" Pardon to John Marschall of Thresk, indicted for harbouring William son of John de Beckwith, John son of John Poleyn, Thomas Poleyn his brother, William Poleyn, etc. , of the Forest of Knaresborough, who were indicted that on Sunday after Michaelmas, in the thirteenth year, they came to Knaresborough Castle, shot at it and killed Edmund son of Robert Doubigging."
The murder of Thomas therefore was not, as we thought, the unjustifiable slaying of an innocent man, but the deliberate carrying out of the red law of an eye for an eye, and the attainment of a purpose nursed through sixteen years.
We have not succeeded in finding anything else concerning John Polayn's impeachment of the murderers and their accessories ; nor is there any mention in the Rolls of any son whom Thomas might have had succeeding to his estate. He is named no more therein.
Nor, for a good many years, can we find anything about his brother John of Blubberhouse. There are numerous entries of the name John Polayn in pleas of various kinds, without any place of abode attached ; and by the year 1424 there were two Johns of Padside, one of Thakwra, another of Killinghall, and another of Ripley. " Dwelling in Riplay "'- is his description in December, 1424 ; " of Ripley" in the following January and March. He is still there in 1426. At the Sheriff's Tome next year, William Pulayn, son of John Pulayn of Ripley, is named ; " gentle- man of Ripley " William is called on Oct. 8, 1429 ; and so the years pass on with more and more entries of the different John Polayns. On the Wednesday after St. Andrew's Day (Nov. 30), 1 1 Henry VI, a John Polayn comes to Knaresborough in order to ask to hold the water mill at " ffuston " for ten years, at an annual rent of forty shillings, and it is let to him. He must be borne in mind, for on Aug. 24, 1429, a John Polayn was granted to farm Killinghall Mill. That he died before
1 De Banco Roll, Mich., 8 Henry IV, m. 298.
2 " Manensr
34 TIMBLE AND RIPLEY.
his tenure of Fewston Mill ended, and that he was the same man who farmed Killinghall Mill we realise before long, for on the Vigil of St. Peter ad Vincula (that would be June 28), 15 Henry VI, we read :
" Elizabeth, formerly wife of John Pulan, comes and prays the tenure of the water mills at Kelinghall and Fuston,"
which were granted to her, she paying yearly for Killinghall Mill 535-. 4J., as the Ministers Accounts for 18 Henry VI prove. Suddenly we discover that John the farmer of mills was he of Ripley and of Bloberhous. On Wednesday after St. Martin in Winter, Nov. 11 in this same year 1437, this sadly defective entry is noticed, in some places actually burnt into holes, and the ink nearly faded away :
" . . . . Polayn of Riplay surrenders into the lands of the lord King .... hands of the grade of the Forest two messuages, four and a half acres and one pennyworth by the year in hamlet of Mntt .... township of Thruscros .... two messuages, nineteen acres by the year in the hamlet of Clyfton, in the township .... ges, twenty acres .... Tymbill, that is to say a messuage called Polan Place, eighteen acres
and one pennyworth by the year in the hamlet of ff And upon
this comes the said Elizabeth and pays of the lord the land and mes
viij'i."
The burnt portions are peculiarly vexatious. We can replace certain blanks with confidence. " Mntt " must be the contraction of Menwith, in the township of Thruscros ; " ff '' must be the initial letter of Fewston ; and as the name of the house, Polan Place, is seen later among the properties held by Walter of Scotton, great-great-great grandson of John of Ripley and the daughter of Adam and Eliza- beth Beckwith, we feel morally certain that the important missing parts once read : " John " Polayn of Ripley ; and, hamlet of " ffewston To the use of Elizabeth wife of the said John Polayn," who therefore came and paid her relief to the said property. But we would naturally have preferred not to have to let such points rest on surmise, and so we turn over the Rolls till at the Court held on the Vigil of SS. Peter and Paul, 19 Henry VI, we see this entry made :
" John Pullan, formerly dwelling' in Ripley, who dies, held two messuages, nine- teen acres, four pennyworths by the year in Timble^ ; seventeen acres two roods in the same place ; one messuage, twenty-seven and a half acres in the same place ; two messu- ages, nine acres in Clint ; four acres, one pennyworth by the year in Kelinghall ; four messuages, seventeen acres in Thorescross ; two messuages, four acres by the year in the same place. And upon this comes Ralph Pullein, son and heir, and prays to be admitted tenant, etc. etc."
It is impossible to trace all these estates in the Rolls, but one we certainly can, the house with twenty-seven and a half acres attached to it in Timble, for it had belonged to the mother of John of Blubberhouse, who inherited it in 1 370-1 :
" Jan. 15, 45 Edw. III. Robert del Wodde, who dies, held one messuage and twenty-seven acres in the hamlet of Ellesworth, Timble. Upon this comes Isabel, daughter and heir of him Robert, and prays to be admitted tenant, etc. etc."
These entries in the Court Rolls showing that John of Ripley was a son of Isabella Wode of Swinsty Hall, that his son and heir was named Ralph, and that he had also a son William, precisely confirm the early portion of the pedigree of PuUeyn of Scotton, as recorded one hundred and forty-four years later by the Herald Glover.
1 " Manens."
2 These Timble lands must have been I'olan Place, the Kirkbanks, Gillliouse, and Blandhill.
TIMBLE AND RIPLEY. . O^Q^*iQ ^^
We get a glimpse of this John^ no doubt, in the inquiry held at Ripley in 1455, to prove that John son of William Ingilby of Ripley had attained the age of twenty- one years. One of the persons summoned, Robert Apilton, remembered the day of the heir's birth in 1433, which was also the day of the Feast of the Translation of St. Thomas, because in walking from the village of Ripley to that of Hamps- thwaite he killed a deer in the wood called Harlow Wood, and carried it to the house of John PuUaine.
Besides two sons John had two daughters — Katharine, named after her great- grandmother, the wife of Nicholas Pulley n, and Elizabeth, called after her mother, and her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth, wife of Adam Beckwith of Clint. Possibly it was John Polayn's marriage with the Beckwiths' daughter which led to his residence in the immediate neighbourhood of Clint Hall ; but we do not forget that his father owned land in Hampsthwaite parish, and there was therefore some prior interest in the place. His lands and houses in Clint and Killinghall probably were partly those bequeathed by his father to his mother, though both Clint and Killinghall were subsequently townships in Ripley parish. The expres- sion " dwelling in Ripley," used first in 1424, and again in 1441, is noteworthy. It surely indicates that John Polayn lived there all the year round, and no longer in Timble. To those who would suggest that the Court Roll entries, " John Polayn of Ripley " and " John Polayn of Killinghall," probably refer to one and the same man, we may point out that these names appear together as jurors at an inquiry held at Knaresborough on Dec. 10, 1426.
John's son Ralph succeeded, then, to nearly ninety-seven acres of land within the boundaries of Knaresborough Forest, sixty-two of which lay in Timble township, where, also, three of his eleven houses stood. Six more houses were in Thruscross, to the north of Timble. It comes as a surprise to those of us who, knowing nothing beyond the Heraldic Visitations, have thought of the family as of Scotton only ; and we owe the unexpected knowledge entirely to the Court Rolls of the Honor of Knaresborough and Fairfax MS., 41.
A little further information about him at the same period of his life is given in the Camden Society's Plumpton Correspondence,^ quoting from the Coucher Book or Cartulary of Sir Edward Plumpton. In an interesting and graphic Forest story we may there read how Ralph and his cousin, Thomas Beckwith of Clint, were among the leaders in a quarrel which arose between the King's tenants of Knaresborough Forest and the Cardinal John Kemp, Archbishop of York. The cause of the quarrel was the refusal of the Foresters to pay the market tolls in Otley and Ripon enforced by the Archbishop's men. The Foresters had right on their side ; for by a royal charter in 1307 they had been freed of " all toll, pontage, murage, etc., throughout the kingdom." On the twenty-second of July, 1439, with the sanction of Sir William Plumpton (who had just succeeded to the offices of Seneschal of Knaresborough Castle and Master Forester of the Forest), seven hundred armed Foresters had entered the little town of Otley on a fair day, forcibly prevented the Archbishop's men from taking tolls, and broken up the fair in great disorder, so that none could buy nor sell. And in August, some of the King's tenants, with Ralph Pulley n and Thomas Beckwith among them, went so far as to " commit divers outrages on the persons and property " of one of the Archbishop's bailiffs
1 pp. Ivii-lxii, Cartu., No. 455 et seq.
36
TIMBLE AND RIPLEY.
at Thornton Wood. No complaints were of any avail since the Master Forester sided with the rest. At length in May, 1441, the Archbishop assumed the aggres- sive, and sent more than three hundred armed men to collect tolls at Ripon fair, and do battle, if need be, with the Forest men. But no Foresters appeared. In order to provoke them to fight, the Archbishop's men resolved to make a circuit back to York through the Forest town of Boroughbridge. Sir William Plumpton, warned of their purpose, collected the Foresters secretly, and laid plans to such effect that their enemies fell into a trap, and were completely surrounded and defeated. Two were killed, sixteen badly wounded, and others taken prisoners, while their horses and the moneys taken in toll were stolen from them. It does not appear that any vengeance was wreaked on the men of the Forest for their violence ; and the quarrel seems to have ended wholly in their favour.
Before we follow further the story of John Polayn's heir, we must speak of his other children.
" William Polayn, gentleman, of Ripley," his younger son, married Anne, daughter of John Nesfeld of Flasbey-in-Craven. This family was a branch of that of Nesfeld of Nesfeld, or Nesfield, in the parish of Ilkley, only some six miles (by crow's flight) from Timble, the home of William's grandparents, John and Isabella Polayn. It is more probable that he made his bride's acquaintance, not at the distant Flasbey, but at Nesfeld. The Heralds troubled themselves no more about him — a mere younger son — after recording his marriage ; and we cannot follow him any more in the Court Rolls. His name, as such, never occurs there after Oct. 8, 1429. We have, nevertheless, our theories about him. In a curious old MS. book of pedigrees that is kept at Holy Trinity Church, Hull, William is set down as the youngest of John Polayn's four children. He may have been the William Pullayne who paid tax for his lands and tenements worth four and sixpence per annum at Pannal and Beckwith before the fifteenth year of Edward IV.
His sister Elizabeth married Henry Weston of Weston, whose arms are sketched in the above-named book thus :
This was a marriage quite in the old neighbourhood ; but we have failed to learn any particulars concerning the Weston family at this period. So also in the case of Katherine Polayn, stated
to have become the wife of
Radcliffe, or Ratcliffe, of " Throsanby,'" or " Thresh- lardby," whose arms are tricked in the Hull MS. without any indication of their tincts.
Every attempt to identify this place has ended in failure. It can scarcely stand for Threshfield-in-Craven, where a noted family named Radcliffe lived, whose heiress married a Norton in Henry VII's reign.
Though this branch of the Polayns of Fewston parish
was henceforth to reside in Scotton for nearly two
OK Thkosanby. hundred years, there remained a family at Bluber-
TIMBLE AND RIPLEY.
37
housCj another at Thackray, Great Timble, and another at Padside, which we cannot doubt had one and the same origin, though the absence of the earhest Court Rolls prevents us from tracing them to their common source. Century after century the Fewston Church registers record the names of the descendants of these men, some of whom are doubtless still to be found faithful to the soil their ancestors trod. None of them attained to the distinction of having their pedigrees recorded by the Heralds, as did the Pulleyns of Scotton and Killinghall. The loss is ours, for our knowledge of the significance of the armorial bearings of the different families does not suffice to establish their degrees of relationship.
When we know that Ralph of Scotton in 1459 was an " armiger,'" and bore
" Azure, on a bend between six lozenges (or mascles) or each charged with an es- callop sable, five escallops sable ; "
that the descendants of Henry of Bluberhouse (Vicar of Fewston, 1583-91) bore
" Azure, on a bend between three lozenges, two and one, or, three escallops sable " ;
and that the descendants of Anthony of Timble (1601-79) bore
" Azure, on a bend between three lozenges, two and one, or, each charged with an escallop sable, five escallops sable " ;
we are sure that the men who carried these arms and used the golden crest of " the pelican in her piety," must have sprung from a common stock. The shields, no doubt, mark cadency by varying the number of the charges, while the tincts remain the same. Unfortunately, not even experts can now prove from the number of secondary^ charges borne whether a man were of a senior or junior branch from the main stem. The system, if ever precise, is irrecoverably lost.
The Herald of 1530 tells us that the Scotton shield displayed " the Hole Armes of PuUeyn," which the modern editor notes implies " the whole, entire, or undifferenced coat." This, then, was the original device on which the others were based. Scotton, therefore, we take to be the stem, and all others the branches.
Arms of Pulleyn of Scotton, Blubberhouse, and Timble.
G
X
< z
o
o u
C
o
CHAPTER VI.
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
When we speak of Scotton, we must be understood to refer to that village north of the river Nidd, belonging to the Liberty of the Forest of Knares- borough, which lies about midway between the town of that name, and the village of Farnham. In its earliest history it was a place of importance as the site of a chapel of the old Kuldee worship — some say " from the days of St. Columba " ^ himself — which chapel had by the fourteenth century apparently fallen into a state of disrepair, or possibly been destroyed by invading Scots.
At the time that the Book of Winchester was prepared, which we know as the Domesday Survey, made (so far as Yorkshire is concerned)' in the first seven months of the year 1086, there was a church and a priest to minister in it at Farn- ham, of which parish Scotton was a part. The manor of Scotton had been from King Edward the Confessor's time {i.e. 1066) in the hands of a Saxon named Rame- chil, and is set down thus in Domesday Book :
" Manor. In Scottone, Ramechil [had] two carucates of land for geld. Land to one plough. He has there one plough and one villane. It is worth ten shiUings."
(A carucate was as much as one team of oxen could plough in a season, perhaps about one hundred and twenty acres.) Ramechil was entered among the King's thanes. Gislebert Tison held the soke in Scotton, which belonged to Aldborough, and consisted of four carucates, that is land for two ploughs, Gislebert being set down as having one plough and a half, and his sokeman having another plough.
Whether Ramechil died shortly after Domesday Survey, or whether William merely decided to dispossess him, we cannot say ; but among the ninety-seven places entered that formed " the fief of Rotbert de Bruis which was given to him after the Book of Winchester was written," we find the two carucates of the manor of Scotton. How long it remained in his family we have failed to find. He died, it is believed, before 11 24; his son Robert, the founder of Guisborough Priory, in 1138; then Robert's heir, Adam, in 1162 ; his son Peter in 1222 ; the next Peter in 1241 ; the third Peter de Bruis between Nov. 25, 1271, and Sept. 28, 1272. His Inquisition Post Mortem, held i Edward I, is in print, and we do not find more than fifteen of his ancestor's granted estates were in Peter's possession, or passed to his-four sisters, who were his coheiresses. But among sixteen knights' fees held by Peter, we note he had one at Aluerton (AUerton) and one " elsewhere," of which his tenants were William and John Mauleverer, who afterwards gave their family name to Allerton. Now if we turn to the Hundred Rolls, which embody a very similar survey of the King's lands at the end of Henry Ill's and opening of Edward I's reigns, we observe this statement in the 4th year of King Edward, that is 1279 :
" Wapentake of Clarhou. John Mauleverer holds in Scotton four carucates of land of the fee of Brus, and has withdrawn all pertaining to the King during the last thirty years."
^ Knaresburgh and its Rulers, p. 132. 2 R. H. Skaife.
40 THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
A bad record for honesty, by the way. John Mauleverer therefore had held the manor of Scotton, now reckoned as four carucates, since 1249 at the latest, for we will hope he did not begin his tenure by defrauding the Crown. We judge him to have been the first of the four Johns who were successively the heads of the Mauleverers of Allerton Mauleverer, father of the Crusader John, who attended the marriage of Edward II at Boulogne in 1308, and to whom the King gave licence in 1 314 to erect a chantry in Allerton Church. The manor clearly remained in this family to the next generation, for the earliest document concerning the manor now in possession of the widow of the Rev. Chas. Slingsby, is a minute parchment deed in perfect preservation, a charter from Sir John Mauleverer, senior, granting the lordship of Scotton with all its appurtenances to William de Nesfeld, on Sunday the Vigil of St. Matthew the Apostle, 23 Edward III (1348). William de Nesfeld was then sub-seneschal of Knaresborough Castle. His wife, Ismania, was (accord- ing to the Slingsby genealogical tree at Scriven Park) a daughter of John Warde of Scotton, by Alice, or Amicia, de Scotton, an heiress who held the adjacent manors of Brearton and Thorpe.
We cannot therefore resist the conclusion that Scotton was the " elsewhere " held by John Mauleverer of Peter de Brus. This hitherto unknown charter, which we translate, proves that it was from his family that de Nesfeld held it :
' Let those present and to come know that I, John Mauleverer, knight, senior, have given, granted, and by my present charter confirmed to WiUiam de Nesfeld twenty- four shillings of rent with its appurtenances in Scotton, near Knaresborough, together with all services and customs of my tenants whatsoever, and also all my demesne and lordship, with their appurtenances, in the same town of Scotton without any reserve. To have and to hold the aforesaid rent and services, together with all the demesne and lordship before noted, with all and singular their rights and appurtenances unto the aforesaid William de Nesfeld, his heirs and assigns, wholly, freelj', and quietly of the chief lords of that fee by the services therefrom due, and of right accustomed for ever. And I the said John and my heirs will warrant and defend all the aforesaid rent and services, demesne and lordship abovesaid, with their appurtenances as aforesaid, unto the said William de Nesfeld, his heirs and assigns, against all people for ever. In witness whereof I have set my seal to the present charter in the presence of William de Slyngesby, John de Kirkeby, Adam de Staynlay, John Vavasour of Neuton, Gilbert son of William de Slyngesby, and others. Given at Scotton on Sunday the Vigil of St. Matthew the Apostle, 1 in the year of the reign of King Edward III, after the conquest the twenty- third."
The seal attached, also in perfect preservation, bears a shield that resembles the coat of Chaucombe ; but as it has no indications of metal or tincts on its sur- face, we cannot certainly describe it in the terms of the Chaucombe blazon : "or, a chief azure, over all a bend gules.'" Around the shield runs the inscription : " Ave Marie, gratia plena."
One of Nesfeld's first acts as lord of the manor was to rebuild and endow the
Kuldee Chapel as the Chantry Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was
accomplished on May 13, 1349. Though we cannot now point to the site, there is
some evidence to show that it must have stood in the neighbourhood of the Manor
House. Called indifferently the Manor House, and the Hall, this, still the largest
house in Scotton, was in the future to be the home of eight generations of the Pulleyn
family. If experts be correct in estimating the age of the left wing of the Hall at
six hundred years, this portion may have been the actual Manor House standing
when the chantry was built.
^ Sept. 20, 1348.
o o
V]
<
Z
c
o ■J
CO
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALE. 4 1
At Michaelmas, 1362, William and Ismania de Nesfeld " enfeoffed Richard Ernys, chaplain, and John Warde of Farnham for ever of their manors of Scotton,
Brerton, and Thorp, etc., at a yearly rent of 200 marks the aforesaid
Richard and John have nevertheless demised the above premises to the aforesaid William and Ismania for three years from the present date at a yearly rent of one peppercorn, provided that the aforesaid rent of 200 marcs cease for the said three years. Scotton, Friday before Michaelmas, 36 Edward III."^
Ismania seems to have died before her husband, for another deed exists at the Record Office, dated Sunday after Michaelmas, in which William de Nesfeld and Christiana his wife received seisin at their manors of Scotton, Brereton, Thorp, etc., in 44 Edward III.
The de Nesfelds were no longer in Scotton when the Poll Tax of 1378-9 was raised. William left two daughters, coheiresses, one of whom married Richard Slingsby, son of William Slingsby of Studley, by Joan, daughter and coheiress of Henry de Scriven ; the other William de Gargrave and Hykedon. The Slingsby coat shows the de Nesfeld arms among its quarterings.
A controversy arose between the heiresses' husbands and John, Duke of Gaunt, regarding the manor. The Duke claimed to have bought it from de Nesfeld ; the others claimed it by entail. The controversy is said by Sir Thos. Widdrington to be contained in an indenture dated July 26, 1387 ; and the Duke won his case. Scotton
" became the property and the occasional residence of his son, Thomas Beauford, Duke of Exeter. The Inquisition after the Duke's death, taken 22nd March, 1427, enumerates a free chapel .... Several houses and edifices, wortli nothing beyond reprisals ; one is large, but in want of repairs."^
Possibly this was the Hall to which the remark still applies !
It stands most picturesquely surrounded by its own meadows and pastures at a stone's throw from the Farnham road, and at right-angles with it. A grass- grown track leads from the high road into the enclosed stone-paved courtyard before the house, on which the extensive farm buildings closely abut. As the visitor treads this rough path, he has on the right hand the stone wall of the Quakers' burial ground, where a few low sunken gravestones remain ; on the left his garments brush the meadow grasses, the daisies, clover, and buttercups that spring ever fresh around this ancient home of a good old race of men. Unimportant as this farm-track appears, it has an interest all its own. Its name, Chantry Lane, in- dicates that it once led to the now vanished chapel endowed by Wm. de Nesfeld. A map of Scotton Manor, of no more remote date than 1830, shows that the track was then continued through the courtyard, passed to the right of the horse pond, struck across the fields in a north-westerly direction, traversed a wood on the confines of the manor, and so passed beyond them as if leading to Brearton. Now that wood has been removed, and the track, at the point where it formerly entered it, turns sharply southward, and ends abruptly in a field, as if it had thought of doubling back on itself and returning over Percy beck to the starting point at the Hall courtyard, but lacked resolution to complete its purpose !
1 Record Office.
2 Knaresburgh and its Rulers, p. 133.
42 THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
The evidence that the left wing of the Hull was built earlier than the rest of the house (which is J — | shaped) consists in the fact that in that part the stones are not laid in such fairly straight lines as elsewhere^ but are placed irregularly, and are of all shapes and sizes. Here the outer side wall measures nearly three feet in thickness. The whole house is built of such hard grey stones that time has left scarcely any traces on them of its wearing influence. It looks as if it would stand thus for another six hundred years. The front door is in the projecting right wing, and is of very thick oak. Above it is a small round opening in the wall, by which persons in the upper chamber can with some difficulty look out on the approach to the house. This chamber, now entered only by exterior steps and used as a granary and store place, occupies the whole length of the right wing. Its unceiled roof is supported by immensely massive beams. It is as if the ancient builders had taken large oak trees, squared their sides in the roughest manner possible, and defied time to lessen their huge bulk. The joists have evidently been removed or have fallen. Across the north-west corner is a fireplace sur- rounded by heavy stone moulding ; its flue curves in an unusual manner till it finds vent in a chimney in the middle of the north gable. Eight mullioned windows show round the walls, all but one blocked. High in the south gable, two more small blocked windows are seen. Two doorways on either side the great principal chimney pierce the inner wall, and lead into the central first floor room. There is now no indication that this right wing apartment has been originally more than one room, but there must have been some stairway of approach to the low-roofed loft, once lighted by those little windows in the south gable, unless there never was any ceiling, but only roof-beams between oak floor and stone roof.
The room into which the right wing opens is in a similar state of disrepair. This was probably the room called the " hie," or " over " hall. It has two good- sized mullioned windows, north and south ; and certain signs exist to show that a doorway is blocked up with stones that once led into the left wing. From this room it is possible, by means of a ladder, to climb among the beams that support the left wing roof, above the three bedrooms which occupy the first floor of this older portion of the Hall. Should you succeed in climbing thus among the huge beams, you will discover a door opening into a small chamber in the apex of the south gable. It has no window ; light and air are admitted through apertures which appear, when viewed from below exteriorly, like pigeon holes. What the purpose may have been of this unexpected gable chamber is a speculation interesting to a romantic fancy. Was it a pigeon cote — or was it a secret hiding place for the priests of the family when troublous days dawned over Yorkshire ? Verily, " this deponent sayeth not " !
The fine old house-place, or hall, occupying the ground-floor between the wings, is interesting though to some extent modernised. It is paved with flagstones, worn, and, here and there, broken by the tread of many feet ; the ceiling is wholly of oak. Doubtless there was once a huge open fire-place, but this has been built up, and a range and brick oven are side by side in the space where the old PuUeyns must have sat around their roaring log fires within the ingle-nook.
Out of this hall opens a room with a very fine mullioned window of six lights ; a sittingroom that has the deeply-splayed window which reveals the great thickness of the east wall ; and a bedroom. These three are in the old left wing. A south
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL. 43
bedroom also opens out of the house-place. The ground-floor of the right wing contains a great kitchen, the walls strengthened with upright beams. A dairy and larder open out of this on the north side ; and a south door leads into a room formerly used by a tenant named Thackray as the village forge. Its two large muUioned windows were (1900) guiltless of glass, and gave free access to the farm- yard fowls. One can but feel it a matter for regret that the owners should have allowed so handsome a room to be put to such a use ; and to remain, after the removal of the forge, no more cared for than a poultry shed. We hear it is now restored.
A modern staircase, with very slight ballusters, leads from the house-place to the three bedrooms in the left wing. No signs of age remain visible there except the great thickness of the walls in which the windows are set, and the mullioned three-light window of the north room.
The former uses of all these rooms form an interesting subject for guesswork. The central ground-floor portion would be, of course, " the house " par excellence, the hall, or living room of the family, where meals were taken. The two rooms opening out of it in the left wing would be " parlours," where truckle beds could be placed when needful ; the two smaller, behind the staircase, " chambers "' or bedrooms again. The great kitchen was no doubt always the kitchen, and some of the servants would sleep there and some in the room opening from it, where the forge stood of late years. Upstairs in the left wing more sleeping chambers, with a door opening into the " hie hall," as it was termed in 1582 by a servant of the house — ^an equivalent for a drawing-room ; and so onward into the right wing, the large space of which may have held more than one chamber. This would give eight bedrooms, which would certainly accommodate more people than the same number would now.
The hall possesses no garden. A httle strip of a few yards along the east wall has been enclosed from the hayfield, and here a flower or two may be seen among the beehives. At the back of the house are the remains of the usual stone-walled courtyard, now enclosing a few orchard trees. All else is pasture.
The stable and barn buildings contain roof-beams as striking and probably as ancient as those in the house ; and these have attracted attention from archaeolo- gists. Not far from the farm buildings stands a group of three magnificent oaks, which surely must be coeval with the hall. Tradition says that the house was once surrounded by a park ; and the smooth pastures dotted here and there with fine trees appear to justify the saying.
We have not ascertained the year of Ralph Pulleyn's marriage, nor of his acquisition of the hall ; but at the Sheriff's Torne held at Knaresborough Castle on May 6, in the twenty-second year of Henry VI, the first mention occurs of Ralph " Pullein of Scotton, gentilman." As will be seen in the annexed pedigree, his wife was a triple heiress of long descent. She brought to add to the escallop shells of Ralph, the fesse between three martlets of the Burdets, the mullet of the Ferrers, and the three covered cups of the Howes. " Lands at Wynthorpe, Lincoln," were a more tangible addition to the Pulleyns' possessions. She bore a son, John, and a daughter, Margaret.
There are few entries in the Court Rolls after this which relate to Ralph Pulleyn. In Easter week, 1451, we find ' Ralph Pullan, gentilman," among twelve
PEDIGREE OF BURDETT.
Robert Ferrers = Maud ....
\
1 . I
John Burdett = Alice Vtr\e:Xi, aunt and heiress Thos. Perrers^-.
I of Maud Pagenhani \
I
Stephen Burdett = . . .
Maude, — Sir Edw. Pagenham d. s.p.
John Burdett=Joan, aister of Wm. Prior ! of Cottingham
I John Burdett=-. . . . dau. of Sir Thos. Normanville, kt.
John Burdett = .
i
I
John Burdett =
of Gainsborough and Helingthorpe, heir of Ferrers of Winthorpe Westcott
dau. and h. of Richard Howe of Halthorpe
Ralph Pulleyn = Jennet or Johanne Burdett, dau. and h. of Seotton
o
OS
o
pa
OS
< z
y.
o
c u en
P3
as
H
<
O
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL. 45
Foresters who are sworn before the Court ; and on the Wednesday before St. Martin (Nov. 11), 1452, Ralph Pullan is a complainant against "Thomas PuUan, of the parish of fluston/' in a plea of trespass. This is the only case of his bringing a grievance before the Court, and there are none laid to his charge. His natural character, hereby revealed, is unlike that of Thomas, who must have been a veri- table firebrand in his parish, and must have spent a large portion of his life on horse- back between Fewston and Knaresborough ! Ralph's pursuits seem to have become quite those of a country gentleman of the day, for the next glimpse we get of him is supplying the Abbey of St. Mary of Fountains with thirty-four quarters of malt in 1455, for which he received ten pounds thirteen shillings and four pence.
On the Wednesday after St. Michael, 1456, he appeared at Knaresborough to claim an acre of land in Fewston which William Shepherdson surrendered to him ; and here and there in successive Courts the mention of his name occurs among those of the men of the Forest and Liberty. We get clear proof of his degree as a man of coat-armour on May 7, 38-39 Henry VI, when he is called Ralph " Pollan de Skotton, armiger."
The times were the troublous ones of the war between the Houses of Lancaster and York ; and though no battles were fought in the immediate neighbourhood of the Forest, its inhabitants shared in the general spirit of revolt. More than once the Seneschal, the second William Plumpton to hold the position, had to confront turbulent bodies of Foresters who on one pretext after another came into the town to assert their independence, or otherwise joined in affrays in the disturbed district. We have evidence that the Pulleyns were not one whit behind their neighbours on these occasions. On Sept. 18, the Tuesday before the Feast of St. Matthew, 1459, we find the names Ralph Pollan of Scotton, Richard and John Pollan, among the men who accompanied the Byrnands of Knaresborough to join Richard, Earl of Salisbury, and Robert Percy of Scotton, at Boroughbridge, where they headed an armed gathering.
A week and a day later, on Sept. 26, Wednesday, we note Ralph's name again, as it proves in a most valuable way. On that day John Markynfeld of Markynfeld, esquire, Ralph PuUen of Scotton, and others came armed with lances, swords, bows, arrows, jacks, and salades to Knaresborough, it being market day, and assaulted Godfrid Plumpton, esquire, " in le market stede."
The date has a special interest for us, because we have proof that before Dec. 4, 1459, Ralph was dead ; and since the event recorded on the latter date is one that must have been a matter for consideration, consultation, and arrange- ment, all of which occupy time, we feel that it is a moral certainty that in this fight in Knaresborough market place Ralph was either killed outright or so terribly wounded that he was carried home to the Hall only to die.
The records of Fountains Abbey, under date Dec. 4, 1459, contain an order of William, Archbishop of York, to John, Abbot of St. Mary's, to veil Johanna, relict of Ralph Pulleyn.
Several instances of this curious feature of mediaeval life are seen in the Arch- bishop's registers. The custom prevailed to a considerable extent
" of a woman becoming what was called a vowess after her husband's death. She came before the Archbishop or his suffragan, or some other prelate, or the abbot or prior of some monastery, who were licensed to receive her vow by the primate of the
46
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
Northern Province. It was a solemn vow of chastity, pledging her to remain in the words of Holy Scripture ' a widow indeed ' for the remainder of her life. From more than one of the entries we learn something of the accompanying ceremonial. It took place immediatclv before mass, and the officiating prelate, after the postulant had signed a written promise, gave her his benediction, and invested her with a mantle, a veil, and a ring. But she was not separated from the world, nor regarded in any sense as a member of a religious order ; though in some cases it would seem that, for the sake of leading a stricter life, she took up her abode in or near some religious house. The taking of this vow was a thing of very common occurrence, both in the higher and lower ranks of society. In the case of ladies of rank or high descent, the vow was commonly made before the Archbishop, as in the case of Margaret of Slingsby, whom Archbishop Scrope received at Bishopthorpe, himself celebrating mass in his chapel there, and going through all the formalities. "1
In the case of Johanne Pulleyn, the Archbishop did not receive her vow in person^ and his Commission runs as follows :
" William, etc., to our beloved son in Christ, John, Abbot of the Monastery of the Blessed Mary of Fountains of the Cistercian order, in our diocese, health, grace, and benediction.
Whereas our beloved in Christ, Joan, relict of Ralph Pulleyn, of our said diocese, deceased, desires, as we have been informed, to take the vow of chastity that she may present a more acceptable service to God, by the tenor of these presents we grant you full power and special license to veil the said Joan and to deliver to her the ring and habit, also to receive from the same the said vow of chastity, and to execute and dis- patch all and singular other matters concerning such vow of chastity accustomed in such cases to be observed.
Given under our seal at Coventry the fourth day of the month of December, the year of ovir Lord one thousand four hundred and fifty-nine, the thirteenth year of our consecration and the eighth of our translation."
There is nothing to show whether the widowed Johanne remained at home after this ceremony, or entered a religious house.
It is not till the Court held on Wednesday after the Feast of SS. Michael and All Angels, Oct. 3, 1460, that we find mention in the Rolls of Ralph's death. Briefly translated the entry runs :
" Ralph Pollan, who dies, held two messuages, nineteen acres, and four penny worths of land by the year in Tymbill ; two messuages, seventeen and a half acres in the same ; one messuage, twenty-seven and a half acres in the same ; and two messuages, nine and a half acres in Clint, four acres, one pennyworth by the year in Kelingall, four messuages, sixteen acres in Thorescros, and two messuages, one obulat by the year in Thorescros. After his death comes John Pullan, son and next heir of the said Ralph, and prays the King to admit him tenant of the same, and is admitted, etc."
This is an interesting entry, for it shows that Ralph handed on his entire patri- mony almost intact to his heir. If we place the surrenders side by side this will be manifest :
|
2 |
mess. |
John to Ralph, 19 ac. 4 dents. |
1440. Timble. |
2 |
mess. |
Ralph to John, 19 ac. 4 dents. |
1460. Timble. |
|
17 ac. 2 rds. . |
, , |
2 |
mess. |
17^ ac. . |
, , |
||
|
I |
mess. |
27^- ac |
, , |
I |
mess. |
27-I ac. . |
> i |
|
2 |
mess. |
9 ac |
Chnt. |
2 |
mess. |
9| ac. . . . |
Clint. |
|
4 ac. I dent. . |
Killinghall. |
4 ac. I dent. . |
Killinghall. |
||||
|
4 |
mess. |
17 ac |
Thruscross. |
4 |
mess. |
16 ac. . . . |
Thruscross. |
|
2 |
mess. |
4 ac |
> > |
2 |
mess. |
I obulat . |
>. |
1 Diocesan History of York, G. Onnesby, M.A.
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL. 47
One acre appears to be missing from a Thruscross estate, and three and a half from another (if an obulat be correctly estimated at half an acre), but Ralph appears to have two more houses in the township of Timble than his father John held at his death. We have it on the subsequent evidence of the Court Rolls that the lands called Bland contained nine acres, and it seems probable that one of the new messuages had been built there, for when this property came originally to the Pulleyn family in 1361, and was added to in 1375, only " lands, tenements, rents, and ser- vices '" are mentioned, no messuage at all. The same remark applies to the property " on Snawdon side," where we certainly find a house standing subsequently. Ralph's heir claimed free tenancy for the estates Bland and Gillhouse in 1508, and on each estate a messuage is named. We can but regret that each property was not entered separately, as was the house and twenty-seven and a half acres in EUesworth (Clifton) that came in 1 370-1 from his great grandfather, Robert del Wode. This property lay along the river bank, above what we have called the Snawdon side estate. A house called Sothersyke, with seven acres, is named later, which had two acres in Clifton. This may have been part of Ralph's hereditary estates on the north side of the Washburn at Fewston. " John de Sothersyke " in Timble is mentioned so early as 1423. Polayn Place in Fewston had eighteen acres, one pennyworth attached. These ascertained figures, to agree with those in the surrender, need the addition of two and a half acres, three pennyworths. It must be remembered no land in Little Timble is here included, for that township did not belong to the Forest of Knaresborough, but to the Archbishop as of his manor of Otley, and the Rolls are therefore silent as to properties situated there. It was very largely moorland.
W^e have not ascertained when Ralph's daughter Margaret was wedded to Richard Banke of Whixley, near Allerton Mauleverer, and thus brought her family into contact with the ancient house of the Mauleverers, to which the Pulleyns afterwards became allied. But very soon after the heiress of Burdet, Perrers, and Plowe vowed perpetual fidelity to the memory of Ralph, their son John himself entered on the estate of holy matrimony. Among the early archseopiscopal licences we find, dated Jan. 30, 1460-1, an order^ issued to the vicar of Harewood to marry John son of Ralph Pulleine, deceased, to Alice, daughter of Henry Gas- coigne, deceased, at Harewood, after banns had been once published. The Herald Tong (Norroy King-at-Arms), in his Yorkshire Visitation in 1530, omits this marri- age, and confuses John with his own son John, but this licence decisively settles the matter. The Herald Glover, in his 1584 Visitation of Yorkshire, gives the bride's family as " Gascoigne of Micklefield," and has a note to the effect that this line descended from the marriage of Henry Gascoigne with Margaret, daughter of John Bolton, alderman of York. Thoresby- shows that Henry Gascoigne of Micklefield was a grandson of the Chief Justice, being the younger son of his heir, head of the family of Gascoigne of Gawthorpe, who already possessed an interest in Harewood, and were in the sixteenth century its owners. In Harewood Church there had been laid to rest that upright judge, vSir William Gascoigne of Gawthorpe, whose fearless impartiality lives in Shakespeare's pages, and is thus to live for all time. It had been he also who firmly refused to try Archbishop Scrope on a charge
^ Surtees Society's publications, vol. xlv, pp. 187 and 336. - Ducalus Leodiensis, p. 179, 2nd edition.
48 THE rULLEYXS OF SCOTTON HALL.
of high treason in 1405. To all who care for honesty and fearlessness in carrying out his country's laws, the altar-tomb of Judge Gascoigne must have u peculiar sanctity. It bears his effigy and that of his wife, Elizabeth Mowbray of Kirkling- ton. One would fain know if John Pulleyn gained any incentive to virtue and fidelity from his connection with the family of this great Yorkshireman ; or did he lose all memory of her ancestor when he stood by his bride in the church that was ancient even in their day ? History is silent on such points. Neither do we know the reason of the apparent haste for his marriage that is indicated by the omission of two of the usual readings of banns. Whether he was among those who obeyed King Henry's mandate of March 12 to Sir William Plumpton " to summon all the men of the forest or demesne of Knaresborough to set out with them to meet the enemy," we can never know. If he were in that awful fight at Towton on Palm Sunday, March 29, 1461, when the river Cock ran red with the blood that tinted the surrounding snow with ghastly stains, we know not. But we do know that if John Pulleyn fought then for the House of York, he came alive out of that fearful field from which so many of his countrymen never returned. The register of the Guild of Corpus Christi at York proves that he was living in 1473, for in that year it contains the enrolment among its members of
" Johannes Polan et Alicia uxor ejus de Scott on juxta Knaysburth."
Testimony to be prized when the man's name was so common in his family that identification would be impossible without the addition of the wife's name and their abode.
As before remarked, it is customary to give John and Alice Pulleyn two chil- dren, John and Anne, but we think the evidence of the Court Rolls proves that they had also a son Richard.
John paid the tax of one-tenth taken before the year 1475 ^o^' lands in Knares- borough, Killinghall, Pannal, etc.'^ John is definitely mentioned in the Court Rolls of 1477 and 1478 ; and in Feb. 2, 1480-1, we find John Pullayn, junior, of Scotton, surrendered a house and two acres in Beckwith to Thomas Thorp ; and shortly after a house and two acres in le Hycroft, Lowcroft, and Cybgarth in Ellesworth (Clifton) Timble also to Thomas Thorp. There is a special interest attached to this peculiar name, Cybgarth. We believe it affords the first certain clue to the position of the Pulley ns' lands in Clifton, now known as Norwood. For we incline to identify it with the existing Tib garth, immediately north of Sword Point House. Tib garth is one of the fields of the Folly Hall estate, and seven other of the fields were undoubtedly in the possession of the branch of Pulleyn of Norwood in the seventeenth century. The same property has fields known as High Bank and Low Bank, which may possibly be the High and Low Croft of this fifteenth century surrender, though the actual names of High and Low Croft exist at Jack- hill on another farm of the Norwood Pulleyns, which is first named in the Roll for 1 59 1. The Folly Hall estate is the one we suggest came to the ancestor of John of Scotton, from John del Bek in 1375. Next, on Wednesday before St. Thomas of Canterbury, i Richard III, John senior came to the Court at Knaresborough to be admitted free tenant to five acres with their appurtenance situated in Beck- with.
1 Dodsworth MSS., 1, ff. 39-79.
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL. 4Q
A tragic event befell him four years later, but we must turn elsewhere for information. It shows that the spirit of Ralph the father lived again in the son. Lambert Simnel's imposture was the cause of his falling under the King's displeasure. In the Plumpton Correspondence^ the following letter is seen :
" To my right trusty and welbeloved cousin, Sir Robert Plumpton, kt.
Cousin Sir Robart, I commend me unto you ; and wher it is so that diverse gentle- men and other commoners, being within your office^ at this tyme, hath rebelled against the King, as well in ther being at this last felde, as in releving of them that were against the King's highnes, I therfore on the King's behalfe strictly charg you, and on my ne hartely pray you, for your own discharg and myne, that ye incontinently after the sight hereof, take all such persones as be within your office, which this tyme hath offended agaynst the King, and in especial] John Pullen and Richard Knaresborough ; and that ye iceepe them in the castell of Knarsbrough, in suer keepeing, to the tyme be ye know the King's pleasure in that behalfe. And that this be not failed, as ye love me ; and to give credence unto this bearer, and God keep you. Written at Richmound, the .xxiii day of Juyn. Se that ye faile not, as ye love me, within the time, and as ever ye thinke to have me your good lord, and as ever I may trust you.
Your Cousin,
(23 June, 1487.) Hen : Northumberland."
The battle of Stoke, near Newark, in Nottingham, which saw the defeat of Simnel's adherents, had been fought on June 16, and we cannot doubt is referred to as " this last felde." Whether John Pulleyn had actually fought in person for the pretended son of the Duke of Clarence, or only assisted his cause with money, we do not know ; but we are sure there was dismay in Scotton Hall when its master was seized and secured in the grim castle above the Nidd. So much of the building has been destroyed that there is no trace of any prison cells except the dungeon below the keep, which has in its centre the stone column that supports the fine vaulted roof with the twelve ribs that make it unique among such prisons. Here the wall is fifteen feet thick, and no light was admitted save from the door by which the unhappy prisoners entered. If it were here that the two Yorkshire gentlemen were immured, they do indeed deserve our commiseration, despite their political misdeeds. Such wrong-doing entailed also the forfeiture of lands, tene- ments, goods, and chattels, while there hovered over the culprits the dread of a shameful and ghastly death. Much anguish of mind as well as bodily dis-ease must John Pulleyn have suffered in Knaresborough Castle, so near to the home from which he had been forced. But in his case King Henry's wrath abated, and after fourteen months the order for his release and reinstatement was delivered. It has been translated thus :
" Memorandum that the 27*^ day of August the year underwritten, this writ was delivered to the Lord Chancellor of England at Pountifret to be executed.
Henry, by the grace of God King of England and ffrance and lord of Ireland, to the most Reverend father in Christ, John, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Legate of the Apostolic See, Our Chancellor, Greeting. We charge you that you cause to be made our letters patent under our great seal in form following. The King, etc., to all, etc., greeting. Know ye that we of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion have pardoned, remitted and released, and by these pres- ents do pardon, remit, and release to John Pullayn of Scotton, in the county of York, gentilman, otherwise called John Polain, late of Scotton, in the county of York, gentil- man, otherwise called John Pullain, gentilman, or by whatsoever name or additional
^PP- 54-5-
2 Bailiff of the burgh, and Custos of the Castle, of Knaresborough under the Earl of North- umberland.
D
50
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
name he may be known, all and every kind of treason, rebellious insurrections, assemblies, confederacies, gatherings, riots, routs, unlawful conventicles, felonies, trespasses, offences, misprisons, contempts, concealments, and recognisances, or confessions of the same forfeitures, deceptions, ignorances, negligences, extortions requests, and other misdeeds whatsoever by him John before this time however done or perpetrated, where- of he has been indicted, sued, summoned, or adjudged, or shall chance in future Also suit of our peace which to us against him John pertains or ought to pertain by reason of the premises of any of the same. And also outlawry, if any, against him John by such occasions or any of them shall have been promulgated. And also we have par- doned, remitted, and released to aforesaid John all kinds of judgments, executions and pains of death upon him John by the aforesaid occasions or any of them he hath been adjudged or shall be adjudged. Also forfeitures whatsoever of his lands, tene- ments, goods, and chattels to us by forsaid occasions forfeited or lost, and the said lands, tenements, goods, and chattels we give and grant to aforesaid John by these presents. And our firm peace to him thereupon we have granted. So that however he stand to right in our court if any one against him wish to speak in the premises or any of the premises. In witness whereof, etc.
Given under our privy seal at the town of Ripon, 2^^^ August, the 3'''' year of our reign. "^
A similar writ^ addressed by the King to all his bailiffs and lieges was signed by Henry " at Pountfratt " on Aug. 27, and the prisoner was free to exchange his dungeon for the sweet, fresh air and summer's sunshine ; let us hope a wiser, or at any rate a more cautious, man.
^ Privy Seals, 3 Henry VII, August. 2 Patent Roll, 3 Henry VII, part i.
Keep of Knaresborough Castle.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
(Continued.)
As observed on page 47, the marriage of Margaret, daughter of Ralph and Johanne PuUeyn, to Richard Bank of Whixley, near Allerton Mauleverer, brought the Scotton Hall family into contact with the ancient house of Mauleverer of that place.
The founder of this family was William Mauleverer, a Norman, who accompan- ied the Conqueror to England, and was granted the manor of Allerton for his services. His eldest son, Richard, who left no heirs, in the time of Henry I had built Allerton Church, dedicated to St. Martin ; and in 1308 his second son's de- scendant, John de Mauleverer, was one of the knights selected to attend the marriage of King Edward II at Boulogne, having been one of the eminent Yorkshire Crusaders in the preceding reign. It was to this Sir John Mauleverer that the King on May 28, 1 314, gave licence to erect a chantry in the church at Allerton, the value of the chantry being that of one messuage, six bovates of land, and twenty solidates of rent, with the appurtenances, in Hopperton and Whixley. For this, the chaplain or chantry priest was to say mass every day in the church " in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary for ever." In the Poll Tax of 1378-9 we see there a " Johannes Mauleverer, Chivaler, et uxor ejus " taxed twenty shillings, a " Peter Mauleverer, chivaler, et uxor ejus," and a " Margareta Mauleverer, vidua," with their respective servants ; and a fine brass is still in the church which records the names of " Domi- nus Johannes Mauleverer, Miles, et Elianora, consors ejus, filia Dni. Petri de Midel- ton, Militis, qui Johannes obiit xxx die Nov : anno Dni. mccc," etc. There was still a Sir John Mauleverer at Allerton when Margaret Pulleyn was wedded ; and his wife was Alysson, daughter of John Banke of Whixley. Their children were Thomas, Bridget, Ursula, Katherine, Halnath, Robert, and Grace, with whom young John Pulleyn of Scotton became acquainted through his aunt, Margaret. Ulti- mately he became the husband of Grace Mauleverer. He must have been very young, for only forty-one years can possibly have elapsed between his parents' marriage and (according to the Herald) his first grandchild's birth, not later than 1502.
The Court Roll for 5 Henry VII seems to prove that his father's disgrace had really temporarily deprived the family of the occupation of the Hall ; for at the Court held before the Feast of St. John Baptist, which festival is on June 24, mention is made of Ralph Polayn, son and heir-apparent of John Polayn, formerly of Scotton ; this, of course, being John junior, husband of Grace Mauleverer.
But that the father returned to Scotton is clear. In the fourth week in Lent, 9 Henry VII, John Polayn of Scotton surrendered a house and four acres in Darley on an eight years' lease to one William Shepherd ; and at the Court before St. Katherine's Day (Nov. 25), 1494, he surrendered a house and eighteen acres in Erkenden (Arkendale), Lofthouse, to William Byrnand, son of Robert Byrnand — a member of a good Knaresborough family. Again, in the next year, after St. Thomas of Canterbury's Day (Dec. 29), John Polayn of Scotton surrendered an acre called
. THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL. 53
Welclose, in Killinghall, to Robert Sampson. But there is in the Roll for 1496 a mutilated entry, which shows that he was not then resident in Scotton :
" John Pullayn of Knaresborough and Richard Pullayn, son of the aforesaid John Pullayn."
The rest is torn off ; unfortunately, as the sentence might have been valuable. We believe, judging by a later Roll, that there can be no doubt he was the erst- while master of Scotton Hall. It will be noted that the son Richard is not named heir.
The next entry found does not make it clear whether one or two men are in- tended, since the ink has so faded that much is illegible :
"15 Henry VII. John Pulleyn, formerly of Scotton (faded). The same John Pulleyn comes and makes fine for [faded) nineteen acres in Beckwith, Killinghall."
John and Grace Pulleyn had, we believe, three sons and five daughters. We cannot tell the order of their births, for the old Heralds were so firmly convinced of the superiority of man to woman that they usually named all the sons of a family first. This forms one of the trifling difficulties that attend genealogical searches of these early days. Glover gives John and Grace Pulleyn's family thus : Ralph, John (who is not named by other authorities, but who certainly was a child of the marriage), Catherine, Dorothy, Ann, Margaret, and Joan. There is an excellent proof of the existence of the son John in the will of his mother's brother, Robert Mauleverer, made on Aug. 14, 1500. He writes :
" I wyll that my neveey, Rawf Pullan, have a broch of golde. Also to my neveey, John Pullan, an other broche of golde."
In this same year, 1500, as we learn from Fairfax MS., 41, John made a grant to his heir which perhaps marks the time of Ralph's marriage :
" 1500, 16 He VII. Jo : Pulleyn, late of Scotton, Esq., gives and grants to Ralph Pulleyn, his son and heir- apparent, his Manner or Capitall messuage called Wathe, w^Mn ye township of Nether Tymble. To have his said Mannor or Capitall messuage, w"i all lands, tenements, rents, and services, w*'' ye appurtenances, in Nether Timble, to Ralph and his heires in moors, waters, ponds, rocks, plains, brushwood, turbaries, gardens, curtilages, woods, paths, sown corn, homages, wards, reliefs, escheats, and doles, in free, quiet, and peaceable possession. And I, John Pulleyn, and my heirs, warrant the said Mannor or Capitall Messuage to the said Ralph Pulleyn and the lawful heirs of his body against all men. Given 16 He 7."
An extremely interesting detail concerning Newhall is found in the Fairfax MS. in 1506. It suggests at what time the field called Whinny close, or Springs flat, was added to the estate, and why.
" 1506, 22 He 7. An Award made by Robert Tesh, minister of ye house of St. Robert's, near Knaresbro, Jo. Ardyngton, Richard Kighley, Squires, and others, between Jo : Pulleyn, Squire, and Ra : his son, and Walt : Wodde, g', and Rich : his son concern- ing ye bounders of land worn away w^ii the water of Wallesbome,w'^ii shall be ye bounder. And y* Jo : and Ra : Pulleyn shall have a little close of medowe on ye east part of ye water of Walchebume ag* ye field of little Tymble."
The living of Fewston had been in the patronage of the Priory of St. Robert since the thirteenth century, all the rectors and vicars, from 1280 to the Priory's dissolution in 1538, being appointed by its minister and brethren. Robert Tesh, therefore, was Prior at the time of his award. The description of the position of the meadow is somewhat puzzling. " Whinny close across the river " was certainly
54 THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
on its east side, and in the deed of 1346 Croft barghes lay " in the field of Timble." We are of opinion that the meadow granted was this. It adjoined the glebe lands that belonged to the Priory. Had the meadow been on the same side of the river as Newhall, Robert Tesh would have had no power to grant it, but the Archbishop as lord of Otley Manor.
Among the many valuable deeds which the kindness of the Rev. Charles Slingsby enabled the writer to examine is a charter of a Scotton man, named Thomas Wakefield, to his son, Richard Wakefield, of a house and land in Scotton after the death of Thomas and Elizabeth his wife. The father sealed the charter at Scotton on May 20, 23 Henry VII (1507), in the presence of John Pullan and Robert Percy, esquires, " John PuUan, chaplain, then vicar of Farn- ham," and several others. We know of no absolute proof that the second son of John of Scotton became a priest ; but a later mention of a chantry priest of this name at Allerton Mauleverer suggests that he may have done so ; and it is possible that in this witness to Wakefield's charter we have the same man holding the vicarage of his native parish. Both the Heralds of 1530 and 1564 omit the names of all the youngest generation but Ralph the heir.
Owing to the similarity of name, it is difficult to determine when the two elder Johns died ; but it appears clear that the father was actually living when the follow- ing entries were penned in 24 Henry VII :
" Ralph Pullayn, who dies, held a house called Bland and nine acres in Clifton, Comes John Pullayn of Scotton, Esq., son and next heir of the said Ralph, and claims free tenancy and ingress for his heirs. And is admitted, etc."
" Ralph Pullayn, who dies, held in socage a house called Gilhouse in Clifton. Comes John Pullayn of Scotton, Esq., son and next heir, and claims free tenancy in socage, etc."
These properties he transferred immediately to his heir. There is a Fairfax deed to this effect, dated April 10, 1509 :
" Jo : Pulleyn, late of Scotton, in ye County of York, esq., gave ye Mess : called Blands w^^ ye appurt. in ye hamlet of Clifton wt^^in ye township of Timble, unto Ralph Pulleyn, his son and heir-apparent, and ye heires of his bodye. Warrant against all men. Besides a Mess : called Gylhouse, etc."
Another deed, dated October, 151 1, runs :
" Ye 3 part of one Mess : i2i acs. of land in Fuiston hamlet, w^Mn ye township of Tymble, was surrendered to Ralph Pulleyn of Scotton, esq., and his heires, etc., per fine 68 y<^."
We cannot identify this property which lay in Fewston, though the deed is placed in the Newhall section of MS. 41.
The next instance of John's name is in the Court Roll for 5 Henry VIII, when on July 19 John Pulleyn of Scotton, esq., surrendered thirty-five and a half acres in Rossett, Beckwith, and Birstwith to Robert Casse, minister.
Again, on May 30, 7 Henry VIII, John Pulleyn of Scotton surrendered eight acres in Rodon in Clint to a tenant named Hardisty.
At length, on Nov. 26, 8 Henry VIII, we come to three important surrenders of John Pulleyn of Scotton, esq., made by the hands of John Pulleyn of Killing- hall :
" Twenty-three acres in Fewston, Timble, eleven acres in Darley, Thruscross, a messuage and half, five and a half acres in Felliscliffe and Birstwith in Clint, besides
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL. 55
the remainder of one acre, two messuages, and half a messuage and four acres in Rodon and Hampsthwaite, Clint, with access after the death of Robert Mathew. To the use of Ralph Pulleyn, his son and heir, who is admitted, and makes fine eighteen shillings and four pence."
" The same John Pulleyn of Scotton surrenders twelve and a half acres in Padside, Thruscross, To the use of Robert Pulleyn, son of the aforesaid Ralph, and his assigns, and the said Robert comes, etc."
"The same John Pulleyn surrenders twenty-six acres, etc., in Clifton, Timble, and two messuages, a cottage, and six and a half acres in Darley, Thruscross, To the use of Ninian Pulleyn, son of the aforesaid Ralph, and his assigns, and the said Ninian comes, etc."
Plainly these surrenders were made by the husband of Grace Mauleverer to his heir and his younger sons ; and he must then have been head of his family, in possession of the paternal estates. We believe, too, that the view that John senior had died before these surrenders is confirmed by the next :
" Ap : 14, 10 Hen : VIII. John Pulleyn, formerly of Knaresborough, gentleman, who dies, held an acre in Pelwell, Scriven, formerly the land of Robert Smith, and half an acre in the Campus of Feringsby, formerly the land of Rich^" Dowson. After his death comes John Pulleyn of Scotton, senior, Esq., next kinsman and heir of John Pulleyn of Knaresborough, and is admitted, etc."
John Pulleyn's daughters all married. Catherine (how many of this name there were to be among the Pulleyns !) became the second wife of Thomas de la River^ of Brandsby, who was knighted 11 Henry VIII. Her marriage strengthened the Mauleverer alliance, for her uncle. Sir Thomas Mauleverer, had married Elizabeth, daughter of John de la River of Brandsby. Being left a widow in 1529, Catherine married the widower, Seth Snawsell of Bilton, who died in 1538 ; whereupon she wedded Sir Henry Ughtred.
Dorothy Pulleyn married Thomas or Robert Dickinson, a name that, curiously enough, was borne by a recent tenant of Scotton Hall, grandfather of Mr. Wm. Dickinson Thackwray, the occupier when the writer stayed at the Hall in 1900, a name found, too, as " Thomas Jonson Dyconson " (conveying a whole pedigree !) in Scotton in 1378-9.^
Ann Pulleyn was the second wife of Nicholas Fawkes of Farnley. This was a memorable alliance. The family of Fawkes was resident in Farnley in 1320, if not a few years prior to this date ; and the line descended, with an occasional passing to a younger son, to the year 1786, when Francis Fawkes, the last of his race, whose only son predeceased him, willed the estates to a Hawksworth, who thereon assumed the name of Fawkes, and whose descendants still occupy Farnley Hall. Nicholas Fawkes was the eldest of the three sons of John Fawkes of Farnley, Steward of the Forest of Knaresborough in Henry VII's reign ; the second being William, who died in 1501, and the third, Henry, a merchant of York, who died in 1570, supposed by some writers to have been great-grandfather to the best-known Fawkes of all.
Margaret Pulleyn married a Richard Banke of Whixley ; perhaps he who was four times married.
Joan, the youngest, was wedded to one Thomas Knaresburgh. This name is seen in the list of military returns for 1539, i.e. the names of all men fit for service,
1 Marriage settlement dated April 12, 1520 (Yorks. Star Chamber Inven., vol. i, p. gSu)- sPollTaxof 1378-80.
56 THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
as well as of those who assembled on Harrogate Moor when the muster was called that year. Thomas Knaresburgh is among the men belonging to Killinghall, and may perhaps be identified as Thomas/ son and heir of Richard de Knaresburgh, who in 1501 was admitted tenant of his father's lands in Knaresborough and Scriven^ and also as next heir through his mother to land in Killinghall, formerly held by Richard Barker, rector of Bratoft. Thomas married first Johan, daughter of George Tankard, or Tancred, who was dead by i Henry VIII (1509-10).
Ralph Pulleyn, the heir to Scotton, must, like his father, have married very young, for the child placed third in his family by the Heralds was born in 1504. His wife was Katherine, daughter (by Elizabeth Davill, his first wife) of Seth Snaw- sell of Bilton, Ralph's sister Catherine's second husband. The armorial bearings of the Snawsell family are given by the Herald of 1530 as
" I and 4 Argent, between three leopards' heads, a chevron sable, charged with three cross crosslets fitchees (of the field). 2 and 3 Argent, on a bend cotised gules, three fleurs-de-lis of the field."*
A singularly beautiful and harmonious coat.
Their children were Anthony,^ Anne, Walter (whose birth date we know), Mary,* Grace, Elizabeth, Robert, and Ninian. Of Anthony nothing can be learnt beyond the facts that he certainly predeceased his father, Ralph, and " died sans yssue."^ Strype, in his Memorials (i, i, p. 279), mentions an Anthony Pulleon, who was one of the Pope's orators in London in 1534 ; but we can hardly believe that Anthony of Scotton was living in that year, as he is omitted from Ralph's children in the Heraldic Visitation of 1530, and was presumably dead then. There is indeed conclusive evidence afforded by the invaluable Court Rolls. On May 7, 1521, Walter Pulleyn is spoken of as his great-great-grandfather's heir.
Anne, second child and eldest daughter,^ married into the relative family of Wood of Swinsty Hall, Little Timble. The marriage covenant is alluded to in the will of " Richard Wode of Tymyll, gentleman," made on May 12, 1523, in which he speaks of " the agreement between me and Mr. Ralph Pullande concerning the marriage between my son and his daughter." A Thomas Pullan is among the witnesses to the will. He may have been the Thomas of Blubberhouse whose name appears in the Court Rolls of 1509, 1514, 1526, and 1533 as plaintiff in various suits against trespassers on his right to dig lead ore in Monghagill, Craven Keld, Brim- ham, etc., and who was to have at least nine clergymen among his descendants. It is much to be regretted that this marriage agreement is not forthcoming, as it might prove what Christian name was borne by Anne Pulleyn's husband. A Fairfax deed, dated 1541, when he was dead, and the Visitations of 1530 and 1564 name him Walter, and are most probably correct, being contemporary ; that of 1584 calls him Ralph ; in the Harleian MS. in 1420 he appears as Robert, and in No. 6070 is again Walter. The Scotton pedigree, in its marriages, shows a frequent reverting to their original home.
Walter, Ralph's second son, destined to be his heir, was born in 1504. Of the remaining daughters we know little ; Mary apparently died unmarried and
^ Knaresborough Wills, vol. i, p. 94.
* Surtees Society, vol. xli.
2 Heraldic Visitation, 1564. * Ibid. * Ibid.
* Heraldic Visitation, 1530.
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL. 57
young ; Grace became the wife of Robert Skelton of Osgunthorpe, and Elizabeth, of Thomas Lowson of Scarborough. The third son, Robert, we find in later years lived at Cowthorpe ; none of the Visitations name any marriage for him. Of Ninian, the fourth son, we shall hear later ; he was certainly married. The mention of the marriage of Grace Pulleyn to a Skelton of Osgunthorpe, introduces us to her father's connection with a far more celebrated family, that of Wentworth. At a date yet undiscovered, Ralph Pulleyn had been by charter of Sir Thomas Wentworth enfeoffed of certain property held by him in Leeds, Skelton, Knowl- thorpe, and Osgunthorpe, consisting of a messuage, two hundred and sixty acres of moor, meadow and pasture, and twenty acres of wood.
The Rolls do not at this time contain much of interest concerning the family. On May 7, 13 Henry VIII, as said before, young Walter, dignified with the title of esquire, succeeded to what had been in the family since 1361, the property in Clifton called Bland, with its nine and a half acres of land. The last mention of his grandfather is noted on Oct. 9, 14 Henry VIII :
" John Pulleyn of Scotton, senior, Esq., surrenders two messuages, half a building, and four acres, etc., in Rodon, Clint, to the use of Rob' Mathew."
On Oct. 16 of the year 1523, an irruption of the Scots under the Duke of Albany having occurred, Knaresborough furnished a troop of a hundred men to proceed against them under Lord Darcy, Constable and Steward of the lordship. At their head as captain we find the name of " Rauf Polayn " — no doubt of Scotton.
We get good evidence in the next year, 16 Henry VIII, that John was dead, for we see that the property just named, " two and a half messuages and four acres in Rodon and Hampsthwaite," was surrendered by Ralph himself to Richard Warde and his heirs ; also on Nov. 9 he surrendered to Richard Mathew a messuage and seven acres in Clifton, Timble. This was probably the house called Sother- syke. Then on Dec. 17, 19 Henry VIII, Ralph surrendered, in his own person, thirty-two acres and a building, etc., in Clint called Burntyates to Richard Warde, who was probably of the Scotton Warde family, for in the will of " Richard Ward of Burneyattes,"^ made Feb. 22, 1540, 35. 4d. is left " to Farnham Churche to by a processione and other ornamentes to ye saide church necessaries."
The year 1530 must have been as memorable to Yorkshiremen as it is important to genealogists, for the Herald T. Tong, Norroy King-at-Arms, then summoned the Yorkshire gentry to record their pedigrees and arms. Among those who obeyed the summons was Ralph Pulleyn of Scotton, armiger. Recorded in the quaint spelling of the period we have his brief description of his family :
" Raufi Pulleyn, son and heyre of John, maried Kateryn, doughter of Seth Snasell, and he had yssue Anne, maried to Walter Wood / Walter Pulleyn son and heyre, Robert second sone, Ninian iij'*^ sone/ Grace, maried to Robert Skylton, and Elizabeth.
Walter Pulleyn, son and heyre of Ra:uff , maried Margery, doughter of John Selyng- esby, esquyer."
Here is no mention of the first-born son, Anthony, nor daughter Mary, named in subsequent Visitations, and the inference is that both were dead. We see that Anne, Walter, and Grace were married by 1530 ; but Robert, Ninian, and Elizabeth were yet single. In Harletan MS. 1499, fol. 44 (23), which contains the pedigree
1 Knaresborough Wills, vol. i, p. 33.
58 THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
in question, a sketch of the arms of Pulleyn is in the margin, described in the copy printed by the Surtees Society thus —
" Arms quarterly i and iv. Azure, a bend between six lozenges or, the bend charged with five escallops, and each lozenge with one escallop sable."
We find two more surrenders by Ralph shortly afterwards ; one on June 3, 1531, of half a messuage and four and a half acres in Clifton-in-Norwood, Timble, to Thomas Thorpe — which sounds like a division of Bland and its nine acres. The other, on Oct. 2, 1533, was of seven acres and a building in Clifton called Sother- syke, to William Woode, no doubt of Timble.
The times were now rapidly approaching that were to be fraught with trouble, loss, and peril to many of the old Yorkshire families.
Henry VIII, who only a few years before had published a book on the Seven Sacraments against the teaching of Luther, and been rewarded by Pope Leo X with the proud title " Defender of the Faith," and with the gift of a handsome sword^ thus inscribed, was prepared, for the sake of a bright-eyed girl, to cast off not merely his wife, but allegiance to the power that had come to rule the consciences of his people. Step succeeded step. Henry had appealed in 1527 to Pope Clement VII for investigation into the legality of his marriage with his brother's widow, Catharine of Aragon, and two years later had appeared before the legates with her in the court opened to try the validity of the twenty -years '-old marriage. He had not scrupled to show himself in public procession with Anne Boleyn ; nor to take the Great Seal from his Chancellor, Wolsey, whom he suspected of being the secret means of the thwarting of his desires. Then came the elevation of Cran- mer, who had ingratiated himself by the proposal to consult learned men, who would decide the question of the divorce on Scriptural grounds, without consulting the Pope. Advice so adapted to Henry's mind was quickly rewarded with promo- tion to the Archbishopric of Canterbury.
Thomas Cromwell was another who knew how to secure his own advancement by advising the King according to his royal wishes. Cromwell, too, had been employed by Wolsey as his solicitor, when he wrung from Pope Clement VII a bull empowering him to dissolve St. Frideswide's monastery at Oseney, and apply its property to the founding of a college at Oxford (now Christ Church). In September, 1524, the great Cardinal and his tool had succeeded in obtaining another bull to allow him to dissolve other English monasteries, to the value of three thou- sand ducats a year, for the endowment of the College ; and, still later, grants of other monasteries for his Ipswich College. The idea of dissolution was thus per- fectly familiar to Cromwell, who after his master's disgrace was confirmed in his position of steward of the alienated properties.
These two advisers speedily decided Henry in his line of action. His private marriage to Anne on Jan. 25, 1532-3, was followed up by Cranmer's pronounce- ment on May 23, that the first marriage was null and void, and the second valid. This definite defiance of Clement, who was then holding inquiry into the case, was a clear indication of the King's determination to deny the authority of the Pope in England. It had become almost a necessity to do so, for the Pope's excommunica- tion had followed the announcement of Henry's union with Anne. Accordingly,
^ Now in the Oxford University Galleries.
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL. 59
the session of Parliament which began in January, 1533-4, was occupied in framing measures to contravene the papal jurisdiction in England. Two months later, sentence was given at Rome that Henry's marriage with Catharine was valid. This rendered the King a desperate man. The rest of the year was occupied in obtaining declarations of royal supremacy, and renunciation of the papal authority from the general clergy, the Universities, and the monasteries. In November, Parliament passed an Act to confirm Henry's claim, and on January 15, 1534-5, he assumed the imposing title of "on earth supreme head of the Church of England."
The friars and religious orders who owed obedience to the Pope at once became an offence in Henry's eyes, necessary to be removed. Early in 1534 two visitors, Drs. Layton and Legh, had been fully commissioned to examine the different orders of friars concerning their willingness to obey Henry rather than their head, the Pope, whom they were now to consider only as Bishop of Rome.
The monks' refusal to transfer their allegiance, which was probably anticipated by Henry, threw the whole of the Franciscan Observant friars into prison. From twenty-seven houses the occupants passed into dungeons from which only eight friars came out alive some three years later.
The King's visitors turned their attention next to the monasteries. They went armed with
" eighty-six articles of inquiry, and twenty-five injunctions, all of a most galling nature. All monks under twenty-four years were to be dismissed the monastic life ; the heads were forbidden to leave the precincts, or to receive visits there ; while any monk who had any complaint to make of his superior or brethren, was given the right to appeal to Cromwell, the superior being ordered to find the money to facilitate such complaints. "1
When the visitation ended in February, 1536, the accounts given by the visitors were enough to induce Parliament to resolve to seize on the property of the lesser monasteries. An Act of Parliament was passed which gave Henry, as head of the Church, the first fruits and tenths of all ecclesiastical property. The " Returns of the Ecclesiastical Survey of First Fruits and Tenths," which we know as Valor Ecdesiasticus, Henry VIII, show that several Pulleyns acted as bailiffs or stewards for monasteries which held lands at a distance. Under the head of Fountains Abbey we see the following : —
" Feodis domini Darcy, senescalli terrarum per
Radulphus Pulleyn deputatem suum .... Ixxj^ viij'^ Radulpho Pulleyn, senescalli curiae Ixxj^ viij"*"
That is :
" Fee of Lord Darcy, land steward, by Ralph Pulleyn,
his deputy 665. ?>d.
Ralph Pulleyn, steward of the court 66s. 8J."
The probability is that this was Ralph of Scotton ; and it may also have been he who is entered as Ralph Pulleyn, esquire, steward for Bridlington Priory, for all their land within the Forest of Knaresborough. A Thomas Pulleyn acted as bailiff for the same Prior}' at Burton Fleming.
^ Gasquet's Henry VIII and the English Monasteries.
6o THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
The indignation of the Yorkshiremen at the deaUngs of Henry with the monas- teries grew to a head in the year 1536. The so-called " Pilgrimage of Grace " broke out under the leadership of Robert Aske, who on Oct. 15 led thirty thousand men to York, which had only a short time before possessed eight religious houses and sixteen hospitals, now dissolved. The story has often been told how Aske set a proclamation on the Minster door inviting all the dispersed religious to re-enter their despoiled houses ; how " they seemed to spring up, as it were, out of the ground " in their eagerness to do so ; and how " though it were never so late when they returned, the friars sang matins the same night." Henry appeared to wish to conciliate the rebels, and sent Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, to visit the city. We note that a George Pulleyn was one of the five inhabitants who were desired to meet the Duke at Pontefract on Dec. 2. This was probably a York Merchant, whose name is seen on the register of the Guild of Corpus Christi in 1530; and who was admitted to the freedom of the city in the same year. There were many Pulleyns in York, whose names and employments may be noted in these lists, such as Ralph Pulleyn, a goldsmith, made freeman in 1501 ; in 1506, with Alice his wife, admitted to the Corpus Christi Guild; in 1520-1 appointed Chamberlain; in 1526, Sheriff; and in 1535 Lord Mayor of York.^ From another source^ we learn that his skill was employed for the decoration of the High Altar of the Minster. Under the date Nov. 24, 1518, we may read :
" Radulpho Pullan, aurifabro, pro faccione de novo
duorum urceorum pro summo altari, etc. . . . iiij^. ixs."
To turn from Aske's rebellion to the goldsmith's two little vases for the High Altar is not so unwarrantable a digression as it appears, for we find in the statement of Richard Bowier re the late insurrection that the goldsmith took some part in it, but on the side of law and order. Bowier reports :
" The insurgents went to Pontefract, and allured to their company the Archbishop Darcy and others, and the Archbishop's harness at York was sent for, and barrelled. Afterwards Lawson, Rauff Pullayn, now Mayor, and I had that armour for twenty-four men by indenture of the keeper of the palace by the Mayor's commandments for the defence of the city."^
We may take it that Ralph of Scotton was also loyal, for King Henry appointed him his Escheator on Nov. 25, 1536, to receive the properties that might escheat, that is, fall to the State for lack of heirs, or by forfeiture. There exists at the Record Office a Roll of twenty-five membranes, dating from Nov. 25, 27 Henry VHI, to Dec. 2, 28 Henry VHI, headed, " Particulars of the Account of Ralph Pulleyn, Esq., late Escheator of the King in the County of York " ; and there is also a file of eight Inquisitions taken before Ralph as Escheator, details of as many " wind- falls for the Crown."
Aske and his friends desired that a Parliament might be held in York, at which their complaints might be laid before the King. A paper by Cromwell exists to
^ In 1533, he and another alderman were dismissed from office on a charge of wrong practices connected with the Guild of SS. Christopher and George (Star Chamber Proceedings, vol. ii, pp. 13-22).
^ Fabric Rolls of York Minster, Surtees Society, vol. xxxv.
^ Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. xii, p. 306.
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL. 6 1
show that a promise was given them that Parliament should meet there in the sum- mer of 1537. But when that season arrived Aske, Prior Wode of Bridlington, Abbot Sedburgh of Jervaulx, Abbot Trafford of Sawley, and other leaders of the " Pilgrimage of Grace,'' had all been executed with indignity. As for the minor inhabitants of the Yorkshire monasteries, Henry's orders were that
" at such places where they have conspired and kept their houses with force .... ye shall, without pity or circumstance, cause all the monks and canons that be in any wise faulty, to be tied up without further delay or ceremony."
There also fell at this time the Carthusians of the English Charterhouses, who could not be brought to admit Henry's claim to be Supreme Head of the Church in England. On May 4, 1535, five of them had been executed with hideous barbarity at Tyburn. The persecution was relentless, and by June 14, 1537, the London Charterhouse had ceased to exist.
But of the closer approach of danger to them.selves in the not far distant future, the Yorkshire gentry probably recked little.
On March 15, 1537-8, there was a will drawn up (when proved is not stated) of one who was perhaps the brother of Ralph of Scotton. He calls himself " Sir John Pullen, chantry priest within the Church of Alluerton Mawlyveray " ; and
desires to be buried in the church. He gives to Radagund cha , alias
Sharlock, all his goods, and makes the said Radagund executrix, and appoints Master Thomas Maliveray supervisor. The first witness is Richard Banke. It will be remembered that Ralph and John Pulleyn's mother was Grace, daughter of Sir John Mauleverer of AUerton Mauleverer, and that their great-aunt, Margaret, had married a Richard Banke of the same place. It seems a fair inference, since this John Pulleyn can nowhere else be traced, that the chantry priest was he.
If so, his death was quickly followed by that of Ralph, his elder brother. Op March 25, 1539, the master of Scotton Hall heaved his last sigh where he had drawn his first breath. Had he survived but a little longer, he would have seen the dissolu- tion of all the great abbeys for whose noble ruins Yorkshire is now most justly famed. Among the lesser Priories fell the House of St. Robert of the Order o^ the Sacred Trinity, juxta-Knaresburgh, to which the Scotton Chantry belonged. Dec. 4, 1538, was the day of its dissolution. It had, besides Thomas Kent, the Prior, only nine priests qualified to receive pensions ; but there were many outside pensions to local clergy, the vicars of Thorner, Whitkirke, Whixley, Hampsthwaite, and Fewston among them, in amounts varying from five shillings to eight pounds. We note also :
" To the Perpetual Chaplain at Scotton, £6 10."
We can well understand the horror and indignation such events must have caused the Pulleyns, but they were only the beginnings of sorrows. Ralph was spared the worst. For the storm-clouds that had burst over monastic England completed their work of destruction on March 23, 1540.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
[Continued.) We have read hitherto of the estates held in the Forest of Knaresborough by the Pulleyns of Scotton, but now we have the opportunity to learn that Ralph had other lands beyond the bounds of that district. It is not learnt by means of his will. We know that Ralph made a will^ not only because it is named in the Calendar of Richmond Wills at Somerset House, but because we have the fragment- ary evidence of the already-quoted heading of his Roll of Escheator's accounts. This continues :
" by writ of the lord King that now is, Henry VIII, by writ of his great seal patent, dated Nov : 25, the 27"^ year of his reign, to the aforesaid Escheator directed and en- rolled in the Originalia Roll of the same year by Katharine Pulleyn, widow,
executrix of the will of Ralph P executed for the King the term of St. Hilary,
31^' year."
But the will itself is no longer in existence ; and we may say at once we are quite unable to explain the meaning of the entry seen thirty-four years after his death in Register " D," folio 29, of the Richmond wills :
" Administration of the goods, etc., of Ralph Pulleyn, late of Farnam, in the Arch- deaconry of Richmond, was granted to Elizabeth Lawson, alias Pulleyne, wife of Thomas Lawson, and daughter of the said Ralph Pulleyne. Oct : 20, 1573."
A circumstance now inexplicable. But the Inquisition post mortem that was taken after his death still exists at the Record Office, and tells us practically all that we desire to know. The document is dated Oct. 7, 31 Henry VIII. Thirteen gentlemen declare that
" Ralph Pulleyn was seised in his demesne as of fee of twenty acres land and meadow with appurtenance in Snowden, and of one messuage, one cottage, twenty acres land and meadow in Wathe. And that Thomas Wentworth, k*, was seised of one messuage, sixty acres meadow, two hundred acres pasture and moor, and twenty acres wood in Leeds, Skeltoti, KnowUhorp, and Osgothoype in his demesne as of fee. And so seised, by his charter enfeoffed Ralph Pulleyn of the same, to hold to the said Ralph and his heirs for ever, and the said Ralph died seised thereof. The said messuage, etc., in Leeds, etc., are held of the King as of his Honor of Pomfret, parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster, in socage ; worth by the year, clear, £6 13s. ^d. The messuage, etc., in Suawdon are held of Edward, Archbp. of York, as of his manor of Otley, in socage ; worth by the year, clear, i8s. The messuage, etc., in Wathe are held of the said Archbp. as of his manor of Otley in socage, worth by the year, clear, £2. i8s.
They further say that Ralph Pulleyn was seised in his demesne as of fee of one
capital messuage, three cottages, thirty acres land, two hundred acres of pasture
acres of meadow with appurt : in Scotton late Richard Warde's, worth by the year £6. Also one messuage, one cottage, ten acres of land, twelve acres of pasture there late Robert Bayoke's, worth by the year £2 55. Also one messuage, three cottages, six acres of meadow, eight acres of pasture, six acres of land there late John Dodgeson's, worth by the year £1 16s. 8d. Also one yearly rent of 5s. ^d. of tenements there late William Leake's. So seised he enfeoffed Robert Pulleyn, Ninian Pulleyn, gent., and William Tomson of the said messuages, etc., in Scotton to the use of the said Ralph and Katherine his wife, for life, as jointure of the said Katherine (besides the feoffment
64 THE PULLEYNS OF SCOTTON HALL.
of the said Katherine of lands, etc., at U'yuthorpe, Lincoln). And that the said Ralph was seised in his demesne as of fee of five messuages, forty acres of land, twelve acres of meadow, thirty acres of pasture in Ripon and Thorpe, late of Thos. Snawsell, esq : so seised, he enfeoffed the said Robert, Ninian and William thereof, to the use aforesaid (besides the moiety of the manor of Salley, whereof the said Katherine is enfeoffed). And that the said Ralph was seised in his demesne as of fee of the moiety of the