of Roland lord of the district who died in 1234. Bernard of Ripley was a Yorkshire squire,1 whose floruit extended from 1200 to 1250, the latter part of his life being spent in Scotland. He was at the court of King Alexander at Forfar in 1246 and at Stirling2 in 1249. The compiler of the Register was in doubt about the geography of the place, but it is almost certain that it was the Kirkandrews on Wigtown Bay, now merged in the parish of Borgue, to the south-west of Kirkcudbright, near to which there is a Netherhall mentioned in the marginal note3 to Bernard's charter in the Register. Other deeds in the collection, some of which are traceable to the influence of the house of Workington, show that the priory had at one time considerable property on the south coast of Scotland.

The Irish charters preserved on the Cotton Roll introduce to the history of Cumberland a famous soldier of fortune, John de Curci, the conqueror of Ulster, whose exploits fill a prominent page in the Anglo-Norman subjugation of Ireland. Gerald, the Welsh archdeacon,6 in a curious picture of his character, describes him as of fair complexion, tall with muscular limbs, powerfully made and of great daring, a brave soldier from his youth: in times of peace he was upright and modest, paying due reverence to the church and exemplary in his devotions and attendance at holy worship. Though he accuses him of parsimony, it cannot be said that such a quality was observable in his dealings with the church. The four monasteries that he founded in Ulster were affiliated to religious houses in the present diocese of Carlisle. The

1 Rot. Litt. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i. 66a: Rot. de Oblat., pp. 332, 363 Abbrev. Placit., p. 97a.

2 Hist. MSS. Com., Rep. vij. (MSS. of Lord Southesk), App. p. 718a Reg. de Dunfermelyn (Bann. Club), p. 144.

8 See the notes in Register, pp. 98, 448.

4 Nos. 60-64, 353.

5 Illustrative Documents, No. II.

6 Giraldus Cambrensis (R.S.), v. 344.

priory of St. Thomas the martyr at Tiberglorie in the suburb of Downpatrick was founded by him and made a cell of St. Mary's, Carlisle, out of respect to the canons there1: Grey Abbey (de Jugo Dei) on Strangford Lough, where his wife was buried, was affiliated to the abbey of Holmcultram2: the abbey of Ines or Inch in the same vicinity was made a dependent of Furness in Lancashire3:

1 The grant of John de Curceio to the canons of Carlisle was recited and confirmed by Edward II. on 2 November 1318 (Pat. R., 12 Edw. II. pt. 1, m. 19: Dugdale, Mon., vi. 1146-7). On the redistribution of the conventual possessions between the priory and the bishopric in 1249, the prioratus Hibernensis was awarded to the canons (V. C. H. Cumberland, ii. 126). In 1319 a safe conduct was granted to Gilbert de Morlund, canon of the priory of Carlisle, going to the cell of St. Thomas the martyr in Dune on the business of the house there, at which date Alan was prior of Carlisle (Cal. of Pat., 1317-21, p. 270). Dr. Reeves says that nothing more is known of its site than what the founder stated in his charter, but it was probably at the north-east end of Downpatrick (Antiq. of Down, p. 231).

2 It is stated in the Chronicle of Man, under date 1204, that John de Cursi had in marriage a daughter of Godred, King of Man, named Affreca, who founded the abbey of St. Mary de Jugo Dei where she was buried. In 1222 Ralf, abbot of the daughter house, succeeded to Holmcultram on the cession of Abbot Adam, and in 1237 Abbot John succeeded on the death of Abbot Gilbert at Canterbury on his way home from attendance at a general chapter of his order (Chron. de Mailros, pp. 140, 148, Bann. Club). About 1840 a leaden seal of Bishop Ralf de Ireton of Carlisle (1280-92) was found among the rubbish in the ruins of this abbey.

3 On 30 May 1180 John de Curci founded the abbey of Ynes in the island of Ynescuscre, for so was it then called, as a daughter house of Furness, and land was given to the monks whereon to erect their buildings (Coucher of Furness, pp. 12-13, Cheetham Soc.). Bishop Malachy of Down confirmed to Abbot Adam and the monks of St. Mary the insulam Uenseri for the purpose of building an abbey there according to the terms of the charter of John de Curci (D. of L. Charters, Box A, No. 310). Dr. Reeves suggests that Jocelyn, the monk of Furness, went over to Inch on the affiliation of that cell to his abbey and there wrote the life of

and the priory which he founded on the island of Neddrum in Strangford Lough in 1178, perhaps the earliest of his foundations in Ireland, he gave to the monks of St. Bees. In this latter foundation he was assisted by his brother1 Jordan de Curci and others. Such a record of benefactions is sufficiently remarkable to imply some predilection in favour of the north-western corner of England. But there is more: he must have had some personal influence in Cumberland. In 1207 Richard son of Truite, a wellknown local notability, was indebted to the Crown in twenty marks for having his land in the bailiwick of the sheriff of Cumberland, of which he had been dispossessed by the King's order because he went into Ireland with John de Curci.2 As Richard is one of the witnesses to John's charter of foundation of Neddrum, the forfeiture could not have taken place at so early a date. It arose probably from the fact that he was associated with John de Curci when he was in rebellion against King John in 1205.

From these repeated acts it may be reasonably inferred that John de Curci, the benefactor of St. Bees, was by descent connected with Cumberland. Though his wife Affreca, daughter of King Godred of Man, is said to have founded Grey Abbey and subjected it to Holmcultram, all the other Irish affiliations can scarcely be ascribed to the same influence. A family connexion with the county would seem to be the right solution. In none of his charters does John de Curci make allusion to his family relationships. His parentage, according to a good au

St. Patrick which he completed in 1183 (Antiquities of Down, p. 233).

1 Hoveden (iv. 25) states that Jordan de Curci, killed by one of his Irish retainers in 1197, was a brother of John de Curci, prince of the kingdom of Ulster.

2 Rot. de Oblat. (Rec. Com.), PP. 376-7: Pipe Rolls of Cumb. (ed. Hinde), p. 126.

thority,1 is a problem as yet unsolved, but he was certainly one of the well-known house of that name in Oxfordshire and Somerset. If that be the case he was a descendant of William Meschin,2 lord of Coupland and founder of St. Bees. On this supposition his dealings with Cumberland are easily understood. In the early part of the twelfth century William Meschin and his brother Ranulf were lords of the whole district now known as the county of Cumberland together with the eastern half of modern Westmorland. The exact place, however, of John de Curci among the descendants of William Meschin has not been clearly ascertained, but it is probable that he was the grandson of Avicia de Romelli, his daughter. In any case there is no doubt of his family descent.

The political history of the Isle of Man receives illustration in this Register at some important epochs. There are charters of Kings Godred, Reginald and Olaves which account for the origin of the property of the priory in the

1 Mr. J. H. Round in the Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xii. 330-3.

2 In the carta of 1166 for Somerset William de Curci states that he holds the barony which his father and grandfather had held and also a portion of the barony of William Meschin ex parte matris sue: again in the carta of Robert de Gant for Yorkshire at the same date, Avicia mother of William de Curci is returned as holding two knight's fees (Liber Rubeus, R. S., pp. 224-5, 433). William de Curci confirmed to the nuns of Arthington in the West Riding of Yorkshire the gift which Avicia de Rumelli his mother made to them (Dugdale, Mon., iv. 520). Avicia would, therefore, appear to be a daughter of William Meschin and Cicely de Rumelli. John de Curci and Jordan de Curci are witnesses of a charter of William de Curci to the monks of St. Andrew of Stoke for the souls of his grandfather William de Curci and his father William (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix. pt. i. App. 353b). It can scarcely be doubted that the conqueror of Ulster belonged to the house of William Meschin. John de Curci died about 1219, for in that year dower out of his Irish estates was granted to Affreca his widow (Rot. Litt. Claus., i. 401b).

8 Nos. 43-5.

island. But it will be seen from the charter of King Godred that a previous grant had been made to the monks of St. Bees, of which no record has been preserved. By virtue of these possessions, small though they were, the prior of St. Bees was a spiritual baron of that kingdom. There were eight of these barons and in process of time they had exercised an exceptional influence in the affairs of the island. When Sir John Stanley undertook to restrain their power, regulations were made to equalize matters between the church and the state. In 1422 it was resolved at a Tynwald Court that the spiritual barons should do fealty to him and prove their titles to their lands in accordance with the legislation which was made a few years before. The Bishop of Man, the abbot of Rushen and the prioress of Douglas came, but "the prior of Whithorne in Galloway, the abbott of Furnace, the abbott of Bangor, the abbott of Saball, and the prior of St. Beade in Copeland were called in and came not: therefore they were deemed by the Deemsters that they should come in their proper persons within forty days, and if they came not, then to loose all their temporalities, to be ceised into the lord's hands in the same Court." No mention is made of the Manx possessions of St. Bees in any of the surveys of the sixteenth century,2 the English Act for the suppression of the monasteries not extending to the Isle of Man. The seizure was made by a mere arbitrary act on behalf of the Crown. Soon after 1540 the properties of the extra-insular houses are found in private hands. The tenure of the barony of St. Bees is still known in the island.8

1 Statutes of the Isle of Man (ed. Gill), i. 20-1, quoted by A. W. Moore (Hist. of the Isle of Man, p. 344).

2 The rents of the abbey of Furness in Man are enumerated among the possessions of that house in the Valor Ecclesiasticus (v. 270) of 1535.

3 A. W. Moore, op. cit. pp. 351, 872.