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Burial within the abbey church was highly desirable – for laity, as well as members of the community. Surviving tombstones and fragments, charters and wills offer a glimpse of the various people who sought burial and were laid to rest in the abbey church at Rievaulx. From the thirteenth century, laymen and women were often buried near the west façade of the church or in side chapels. The decline in number of lay-brothers from the thirteenth century meant that their part of the church (the western half) was rebuilt allowing more room for burials.

Tombstone at Rievaulx
© Cistercians in Yorkshire Project
<click to enlarge>

At least eight graves can be seen in the galilee (narthex) of Rievaulx and include the tomb of Isabella Ros, who was buried here in 1264. Isabella was a member of the Ros family, the patrons of Rievaulx, and is the first known member of her family to have been buried here.(1) The other members of her family seem at this time to have favoured their Augustinian foundation at Kirkham, but were later drawn to Rievaulx. In the late thirteenth century, William Ros was buried before the High Altar; his son Robert (d. 1285) was laid to rest in the southern part of the abbey. A century later, Thomas Ros (d. 1384) was buried before the High Altar; John Ros (d. 1393) and his wife, Maria, were buried to the south of the High Altar.(2)

Lay burial within the abbey church at Rievaulx was not restricted to members of the patronal family. The sixteenth-century will of John of Clervaux reveals that he wished to be buried at the choir door of the abbey church at Rievaulx, ‘before Our Lady’. John instructed that each year, for fifteen years, seven marks should be paid to the community to pray and to a ‘priest of good name and demeanour’ to sing at Our Lady’s Altar in the body of the church for the souls of his parents, himself and all Christian souls.(3) Ralph Scrope’s will, which was made on 6 August 1515, is also revealing. Ralph, who was lord Scrope of Upsall, stated his wish to be buried ‘afore Our Lady of Pity at Rievaulx’. Prior to his death he transferred £22 in gold to the abbot and convent of Rievaulx on the understanding that on the day of his burial each priest of the house should receive six shillings to pray and sing for his soul; the remainder was to go to the abbot to pray and sing for him also.(4)