This is what the Pontefract Catulary Editor has to say in the Full text of "The chartulary of St. John of Pontefract, from the original document in the possession of Godfrey Wentworth, of Woolley Park:
...Peter de Brus, the heir of the great Skelton lordship, in
anticipation of the possession which was in due course to fall to
him, was alienating his wife's ancestral domains, and the property
had become divided into four. No. 1 was still in hand; No. 2 was
now being given to the monks of Pontefract; No. 3 was in the
hands of a tenant, Richard son of Sigereda; while the mill was being
hampered with a rentcharge in favour of the canons of Healaugh.
It may be interesting to know also that portions of the hedges
which separated this land from the adjacent properties are still in
existence; and that their line can be easily traced. The boundaries
by which it was abutted, that is by which the narrow ends were
bounded, were the road and the river.
Tongs Visitation states that the wife of this Peter de Brus
was a sister of Roger de Lascy, who gave her these lands in dowry.
But he adduces no evidences; and the general inaccuracy of that
Visitation with regard to twelfth and thirteenth century ancestries
does not prepossess the enquirer in favour of any such statement,
FASCICULUS VI. — THE LEDSHAM CHARTERS. 263
unless well supported. On the other hand the careful genealogy in
the Whalley Chartulary, page 2, gives to John the constable, Roger's
father, one daughter only, Alice.
The line of the family of Ralph Grammaticus is not- clear, but
there are evidences that for some generations lands at or near
Knottingley continued to be held as a knight's fee by one of the
name, or by one who held through him. In 1166 the holder was a
Richard Grammaticus : in the time of Testa de Nevill he was a
William, probably the same whom we have seen testing successively
No. 9 in 1 190, No. 97, No. 98, No. 99 and No. 19 before the close
of the century, and, with Richard his son, No. 175 in the time of
Robert Wallis, then sheriff of Yorkshire, about 1206.
The portion of the Knottingley demesne, which came to Peter de
Brus by his marriage with this heiress of a member of the Gram-
maticus family, may be traced even at this present day with no
particular difficulty. It included the site of St. Botolph's chapel, and
all to its south and west, between the highway and the river; to the
north of the road, to the south of the river. The portion which they
retained for their own occupation was the most westerly, that next
towards the east being the plot now given to the monks, and that
further away and next to that occupied by the chapel being the toft
of Richard, son of Sigereda, another heiress or widow. That the
chapel of St. Botolph was built upon a corner of the demesne of the
squire, was what one would expect in the last decades of the twelfth
century; the gift for ecclesiastical purposes of a similar section was a
constant practice, so constant in that century, and with hardly an
exception, that the very existence of the chapel might be taken as an
indication, even if the only one, of the position occupied by the lord's
demesne; it may be safely assumed that this chapel is a very little
earlier than the date of this charter. It was of course subsequent to
the formation of parishes in 1180, and as I judge previous to 1196,
the date of No. 229. Much of the old building remains, especially
the north wall, cased however with plaster; and the old west window
remained till lately, blocked up, and converted into a seat in the
modern gallery.
Another circumstance concurs to show the site to be the seat of a
branch of the Grammaticus family. Besides the King's Mills, there
are still on this small demesne two quasi-manorial residences, the
Manor House, occupied by Mr. Dickenson; and the ancient dwelling
of the seventeenth century Ingrams, now the Swan Inn. There were
thus on this small plot two distinct possessions, each claiming to be
264 THE CHARTULARY OF ST. JOHN.
the manor, and therefore the representative of the Grammaticus
family, who held the ancient demesne lands as a knight's fee in so
quiet a fashion that none of the extant charters of the time give
more than a token of their presence, while from those to which
there is access, no complete twelfth century pedigree of the family
can be evolved. Except William in No. 175 and No. 177, only
Richard appears after Ralph, but that name crops up with such
frequency and is spread over so long an interval that it is probable
there were two Richards, father and son, or uncle and nephew;
though I have met with no evidence to determine even that point. 1
What was the exact relation of Joan, the wife of Peter, to the
Grammaticus lords, is thus doubtful, but with the coming of the
Brus there was an outpouring of liberality, not only towards the
Pontefract monks, but in at least one similar direction.
In the Healaugh Chartulary (Vespasian A 4, quoted by Dods-
worth) vol.116, fo. 87) is registered another charter of this Peter
de Brus and Joan his wife, granting to that priory ten marks of
silver from the mill of Knottingley, which the grantor rehearses that
he had "in marriage with Joan his wife."
And by a comparison of this document with others in the same
repository, it is abundantly clear that the donor was Peter de Brus I.,
the lord of Skelton. Except indeed in these two charters (the
Healaugh document and our No. 229), I have met with no clue to
the personality of his wife Joan. The Healaugh deed, moreover,
indicates that she possessed at Knottingley, in her own right or by way
of marriage-gift, probably as a descendant of the Ralph Grammaticus
who owned that manor at the time of the foundation of St. Clement's
Chapel, and who, while he refused to make a grant of his own, was
not unwilling to receive somewhat in exchange, to enable Robert de
Lascy to contribute from it.
But in any case, whatever might have been the descent of the
wife of Peter de Brus, whether she obtained the property by descent
from the Grammaticus lords, as I am inclined to think, or whether
she was, as is sometimes alleged, of the family of the Constable of
Chester, and obtained it as dower by gift of her brother Roger de
Lascy, the new lord of Pontefract, she was at her marriage in clear
possession in her own right. The present charter therefore would
have been one of the early gifts of Peter de Brus I., her husband,
before his full honours had come upon him, and while his father
Adam de Brus was still alive. The date of her marriage may be
(1) See note (3) to No. 155, and note (5) to No. 175.
FASCICULUS VI. THE LEDSHAM CHARTERS. 265
approximately fixed as occurring in or before 1196; and her son,
Peter de Brus II. , was of age at the death of his father in 1222.
The following is the Healaugh charter: —
Cott., Vesp. A 4, 133.
[To all Christ's faithful, Peter de Brus, greeting in the Lord. Know ye that
I have given, granted, and by this my charter confirmed to the canons
there serving God for the health of my soul and of Joan my wife, and of
all my ancestors and successors, ten marks of silver in the mill of Knottingley,
which I received in marriage with the aforesaid Joan my wife ; in pure and
perpetual alms for the support of two canon-priests, there to perform divine service
in their church of Helagh Park in honour of vSt. James. To be received annually
in [from] the same mill at one term, even at the feast of St. Michael. And if
perchance it happen that the said canons cannot fully receive ten marks in the
same mill, I and my heirs will make good in entirety ten marks to the same
canons, from our rents in Thorp and Walton. Warranty for ever. And
for the observance of this I have subjected myself and my heirs to the jurisdiction
of the dean and chapter of York, [power of] appeal being withdrawn. So that if
I or my heirs shall contravene this payment, it shall be lawful for the said dean
and chapter to place our lands under an interdict, and to compel us to the
aforesaid payment by ecclesiastical censure. And moreover that the lord
archbishop and the dean and chapter of York will excommunicate all contravening
this grant. And I, Peter de Brus, [have invoked] upon all my successors who
contravene this grant and my gift, the malediction of God. These being
witnesses, &c]
Omnibus Christi fidelibus Petrus de Brus, salutem in domino. Noveritis me
dedisse, concessisse et hac carta mea confirmasse deo et ecclesie sancti Johannis
evangeliste de parco de Helagh et canonicis ibidem deo servientibus, divine pietatis
intuitu, pro salute anime mee et Johanne uxoris mee, et omnium antecessorum et
meorum successorum, decern marcas argenti in molendino de Knottynglay, quas
recepi in maritagio cum predicta Johanna, uxore mea. In puram et perpetuam
elemosinam ad sustentacionem duorum canonicorum presbitorum ibi divina celebra-
turorum in ecclesia sua de parcho de Helagh, in honcre sancti Jacobi, percipiendas
annuatim in eodem molendino ad unum terminum usque ad festum sancti Michaelis.
Et si forte contingat dictos canonicos non posse plenarie decern marcas in eodem
molendino percipere, ego et heredes mei perficiemus integre decern marcas eisdem
canonicis de redditibus nostris in Torp et Waleton. 1 Et ego et heredes mei
warentizabimus banc donacionem predictis canonicis contra omnes homines
imperpetuum. Et ad hoc observandum subjeci me et heredes meos jurisdictioni
decani et capituli Ebor', appellatione remota. Ita quod si ego vel heredes mei
contra hanc solutionem venerimus, licebit dictis decano et capitulo terras nostras
sub interdicto ponere, et nos ad predictam solucionem censura ecclesiastica
compellere. Et insuper do' 2 archiepiscopus et decanus et capitulum Ebor'
excommunicaverint omnes contra hanc donationem venientes. Et ego Petrus de
Brus omnibus successoribus meis contra hanc donationem venientibus maledictionem
dei et meum donum. Hiis testibus, Alano de Wiltona, Willelmo de 7a?ntona,
Henrico fdio Cunam', :i tunc seneschallo^ Roberto Sturmi, scrviente, et aliis.
https://archive.org/stream/chartularyofstjo01pont/chartularyofstjo0...
