THE COURT ROLLS

HONOR OF

OF THE

CLITHEROE.

THE

COURT ROLLS

OF THE

HONOR OF CLITHEROE

IN THE

COUNTY OF LANCASTER.

VOL. I.

TRANSLATED AND TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ORIGINAL ROLLS

PRESERVED IN THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON,
AND AT CLITHEROE CASTLE,

BY

WILLIAM FARRER,

=

MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF THE RECORD SOCIETY OF
LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE.

MANCHESTER: EMMOTT & CO. LIMITED.

BURNLEY: LUPTON BROS.

1897.

INTRODUCTION.

THE

HE Honor of Clitheroe was that part of the great Lancashire fief of the family of De Lacy which lay around the town and Castle of Clitheroe, originally embracing the Hundred of Blackburn alone, but afterwards including Bowland and the Manors of Slaidburn, Tottington, and Bury. It appears pretty certain from the evidence of Domesday, that the Castle of Clitheroe was first built by Roger of Poictou, the Domesday tenant of the land between the Ribble and the Mersey (including the Hundred of Blackburn), and of a large estate in Craven and North Lancashire. Clitheroe was no doubt selected, in preference to Blackburn, as offering a better site and a more central position for the establishment of the baronial Castle, for the exercise of feudal and administrative control.

At the date of Domesday, A.D. 1086, Roger of Poictou had lost his Lancashire and Yorkshire estates, but William Rufus restored to him the greater portion. Some time during the period 1090-1095, Count Roger granted to Robert de Lacy, Lord of the adjoining Honor of Pontefract, the whole of the Hundred of Blackburn, the Forest of Bowland,* and Manor of Slaidburn. In A.D. 1095, Robert de Lacy forfeited all his estates for aiding the rebellion in favour of Stephen of Aumale, grandson of Duke Robert the Second, against William Rufus. But Henry I., after his accession to the throne in A.D. 1100, restored to him his fiefs of Clitheroe, Bowland, and Pontefract.

However, Robert de Lacy did not long enjoy the possession of his estates, for, joining the rebellion of Robert of Belesme, he was banished in A.D. 1103, his estates taken into the King's hands, and he remained an alien for the remainder of Henry's reign. During the period of Robert de Lacy's banishment, his estates were

An ancient transcript of King Henry I.'s charter of confirmation of Bowland to Robert de Lacy, circa 1100, is preserved in the Public Record Office, from which it appears that Robert de Lacy was to hold Bowland of King Henry, in chief, as he had heretofore held it of Roger of Poictou.