Durham Cathedral priory as a landowner and a landlord, 1290-1540

Abstract

This essay is based primarily upon three classes of administrative record: the annual account rolls of the eight obedientiaries who between than managed the priory's property: their rentals, which relate in detail what their accounts summarize: and the records of the several courts, particularly the halmote. Other records, although used and consulted, have not been subjected to systematic scrutiny. These documents have determined the period covered by tne essay in that few have survived from the years before 1290, while after 1540 the prior and convent was replaced bylaw dean and chapter. The essential purpose of the essay is to provide a broad and general account of the fortunes of one of the greatest estates of medieval England. Regrettably because of the length of the period covered, it has proved impossible to give full and proper attention to work of individuals; this important task should be facilitated, however, by the existence of a general account. In form the essay is divided into two major sections. The first is concerned with the properties managed jointly by the Bursar and the Terrar, which constituted by far the largest element; the second deals in turn with the smaller blocks of property assigned to seven other obedientiaries. This arrangement, superficially clumsy and repetitious, has been adopted because it reflects most accurately the fact that the priory's property was not in practice an entity, but was divided into eight loosely federated estates. In considering each of these estates, the four principal concerns have been: the developing relationship between landlord and tenant; the changing policy towards the demesne; the fortunes of the ecclesiastical properties; and the fluctuation of income levels. The general conclusion is that, in spite of considerable difficulties arising from local crises and national problems, the priory largely retained control over and maintained the cohesion of its estates, and continued to secure from them a creditable level of income.

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