Litigation arising from the administration of
the abbey and its lands increased throughout the later Middle Ages,
and there were many allegations of trespassing and destruction,
and demands for compensation. In 1333 Walter de Kelstern, a citizen
and merchant of York, claimed that Abbot
John owed him the sum
of £40. In 1342 the abbot demanded £10 compensation
from William of Wintringham and other armed men, who had forcibly
broken down the banks of the Derwent at Rillington, for this had
caused the flooding of his pastures and the loss of profits.(57)
Byland
had also to contend with growing demands from the Church, the State
and the Order. Furthermore, the Black
Death which swept
through Europe and ravaged England from 1348 to1349 had a devastating
affect on numbers, hastening the demise of the lay-brethren. This
loss of manpower altered the economic organisation of the abbey
and led to the leasing out of the abbey lands. Whereas there had
been about 80 monks and 160 lay-brothers c. 1230, by the end of
the fourteenth century (1381) the community comprised of only eleven
choir monks and three lay-brothers at Byland.(58)
Bad tenants
In the later Middle Ages the leasing out of abbey lands generated considerable
litigation. Byland clearly had its share of bad tenants and in 1369
the abbot accused William of Atton of making waste in the houses, woods
and gardens that the community had demised to him for ten years at
Kirkby Malzeard.
[Notes on the Religious and Secular Houses of Yorkshire, I, p. 32, no.
22.]
The fourteenth century
was also witness to a disputed abbacy. In 1361/2 it was alleged
that William of
Helmsley’s appointment
to the abbacy had been implemented by untoward means, namely through
bribery by a powerful magnate. William was indicted for extortion
and his successor, John of Difford, was referred to as the true
abbot.(59)