Fountains Abbey: History
• Origins
• Sources
• Foundation
• Consolidation
• Trials and Tribulations
• Strength and Stability
• End of Monastic Life

Fountains Abbey: Buildings
• Precinct
• Church
• Cloister
• Sacristy
• Library
• Chapter House
• Parlour
• Dormitory
• Warming House
• Day Room
• Refectory
• Kitchen
• Lay Brothers' Range
• Abbots House
• Infirmary
• Outer Court
• Gatehouse
• Guesthouse

Fountains Abbey: Lands

Fountains Abbey: People

How did the community acquire its lands ?

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The landscape around Fountains
© Cistercians in Yorkshire Project
<click to enlarge>

There were various ways in which the community could acquire land, for example, by purchasing or exchanging lands, or through persuasion. It is not always possible to establish which gifts were freely given and which were the result of coercion or even disguised sales. Most purchases made by the Fountains community were relatively small, for instance, the half mark of silver that the monks paid each year to Robert and Raganilda de Sarz, in return for lands in Morker and Warsill.(26) Fountains’ dealings with the great magnate, Roger de Mowbray, were the exception. Roger and his wife, Alice, had been generous benefactors to Fountains, but in the 1170s were in need of cash to finance Roger’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land, for transport and equipment were costly. Between 1174 and 1176, Roger sold a number of lands and rights to Fountains, amounting to the considerable sum of £450.(27) A grant made in the late twelfth century by William, the son of Eudo, was probably also a means of raising fast cash, for William required sixty marks to pay off his debts to the Jew, Joc, and to claim his inheritance. In return for sixty marks William granted Fountains a fishery and rights to the River Swale, as well as arable and meadow in Kirkby Wiske, which lay to the north of Thirsk and where Fountains already had a grange. William soon found himself in need of money to pay off interest to the Jews, and gave Fountains land in Kirkby Wiske in return for thirty-three marks and, interestingly, on the understanding that he might be received as a monk or lay-brother of the abbey. This latter proviso underlines how spiritual and worldly incentives clearly could co-exist.(28)

Fear of thieves
In the twelfth century, Robert and Raganilda de Sarz granted Fountains a fee farm in the vill of Bishop Thornton, alongwith an area of wooded and cleared land on Gill Moor for the community’s sheep, to protect the abbey’s flocks from thieves. In return, the monks were to pay Robert one mark each year, and his wife three shillings.
[Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, p. 53.]

The Fountains community did not necessarily pay cash for land, and might instead give livestock, clothing or an item, such as a ring. In c. 1180 Robert Warin and his wife, Sigge, gave the community two acres of meadow in Cowton in return for a payment of two shillings to Robert’s heir, Gilbert, and a palfrey worth one mark for Sigge. The community acquired a meadow beside this from a certain Ralph, for the payment of eight shillings and twenty sheep.(29) In the second half of the twelfth century, Roger le Bret gave thirty-six acres of land in Markingfield, which the lay-brothers had cleared, receiving in return £14 13s 4d a horse and a plough-team of eight oxen, that he might retain the rest of his inheritance.

Exchanges
Another way to create compact estates was by exchanging lands. This method was extensively employed by Fountains in Kirkby Wiske, perhaps, it has been suggested, as there was little alternative.(31) These exchanges might prove practical and prudent, working to the advantage of both parties, and made for sound estate management. Such was the case at Kirkby Wiske in the mid-thirteenth century, when Fountains gave Andrew, son of Andrew, a strip of their land that lay next to his in return for a parcel of his land that adjoined theirs. (32)

It was therefore a combination of grants freely given by those either wishing to become benefactors of the abbey or in need of cash, and the monks’ efforts to expand and consolidate their holdings, that resulted in Fountains’ extensive acquisition of interests and its development of compact estates. Whilst the Cistercians earned a reputation for greediness and predatory tactics, these arrangements were often beneficial to both parties, providing the donors with ready cash or spiritual benefits, or helping them to consolidate their own compact estates.