How did the community acquire its lands and possessions?

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Henry's Charter in The Coucher Book of Kikrstall abbey
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The abbey acquired its lands and possessions in a number of ways and was reliant on the generosity of its founder, Earl Henry de Lacy, and his network of family, friends and tenants. Although Henry was the greatest land-holder in the Leeds area, he was not the most generous donor of land. Nevertheless, he encouraged his tenants to support the new community. In his foundation charter of 1147, Henry appealed to his men, twenty-five of whom appear as witnesses, to support the foundation at Kirkstall. His words were evidently heeded since a number of the abbey’s benefactions at this time came from Henry’s tenants. Indeed, it was reputedly at Henry’s instigation that his tenant, William de Peitevin, gave the site at Kirkstall to the monks. This core of support from the de Lacy network meant that many of the community’s acquisitions at this time were within the Lacy fee, the head of which was at Pontefract. These included holdings in Darrington, Seacroft, Stapleton and Smeaton, which lay within a few miles of Pontefract Castle. Significantly, the presence of three other religious houses near Pontefract, namely, the Augustinian priory of Nostell, and the Cluniac priories of Pontefract (a Lacy foundation) and Monk Bretton, did not deter those living near Pontefract from making grants to their lord’s more remote foundation at Kirkstall. Thanks to the generosity of the Reineville family, who were leading tenants of the Lacy’s, the monks acquired extensive interests in Bramley and Armley, near Leeds. The most distant of the Lacy lands lay at the Yorkshire / Lancashire border. They included places such as Accrington and Cliviger, where the community established an important grange.

Earl Henry’s son and heir, Roger (d. 1193/4) was a more liberal benefactor than his father and contributed, in particular, to the abbey’s holdings at Snydale; he also gave substantial land in the forest of Bowland, on the River Hodder, an area renowned for the breeding of horses.(5) In the late thirteenth century Kirkstall extended its acquisitions here through the benefactions of John de Lacy.